by L. L. Raand
Jody covered Becca’s hand with hers. “You won’t feel it beat until I feed again, and sometimes, not even then. Does that bother you?”
Becca kissed her. “No. I have you. That’s what I need.”
“I hunger for you.”
“The Weres who hosted for you were not enough?” Becca said, the gleam of satisfaction in her eyes. “What else do you need?”
“You. I need you.” Jody pulled Becca on top of her and pushed her hair back, exposing her neck. She licked the smooth skin over the pulse in Becca’s throat. “I would drink you before I sleep.”
Becca shifted and straddled Jody’s thigh. She was wet, hot. “Would you?”
“You already fed me once. I shouldn’t.”
Becca smiled, rubbing herself against Jody’s abdomen. She wasn’t yet used to the crimson shards that had appeared in Jody’s eyes when she had risen, but she loved the flames that leapt in them now, knowing she had put that need there. She loved knowing no matter how many others had fed her lover, she was the one Jody still needed. She slipped her fingers behind Jody’s head and pulled Jody forward until Jody’s mouth was against her neck. “Drink me. You’re mine.”
“Yes.” Jody groaned and slid into Becca, flooding Becca’s body with her hormones, filling herself with Becca’s lifeblood.
Becca arched and cried out, her orgasm a burning tide streaming through her. Beneath her, Jody climaxed in deep, continuous waves until she licked the punctures closed in Becca’s throat, shut her eyes, and fell away, lying still as death. Becca gathered her close, aching to see her so defenseless. She didn’t care how many guards stood outside the door. Jody was hers to protect, and no one would threaten her while she lived.
She hadn’t slept the night before, waiting for Jody to return from the night raid with the Alpha, and she wasn’t planning on leaving Jody’s side until she had risen again. Jody would need her bonded blood until her transition was complete, no matter how many others hosted for her. She drifted until a faint click jerked her awake. She sat up, putting herself between Jody and the door as the knob turned.
A blonde Becca didn’t recognize—a soldier by the looks of her black leather pants, calf-high boots, black T-shirt, and the automatic weapon holstered beneath her left arm—entered and closed the door. Her gaze swept the room, lingered for a moment on Jody, then settled on Becca.
“The Liege rests comfortably?” Her voice was low and resonant, like the smooth register of a fine stringed instrument.
Becca drew the sheet over Jody’s bare chest. “She’s fine. Who are you?”
“I am Zahn Logan, head of security for Clan Chasseur de Nuit.”
Becca mentally thumbed through her little-used French. “Night hunters. Jody’s Clan?”
“Yes.”
“The sun is up. How is it you’re awake?”
“I am human.”
Becca frowned. “I thought Rafaela was in charge of Jody’s guard.”
“She is head of the Vampire guard, and they answer to me.”
“How is it that I’ve never met you before?”
“The Liege did not wish protection. Now that she is Risen and officially Heir, she has no choice.” Zahn nodded and reached for the door. “I’ll be outside, should you need anything. When the Liege rises, she will need to feed.”
“I know,” Becca said sharply.
“She left instructions that you were not to be the first to host tonight.”
“Oh? And who will be first?”
Zahn smiled. “I will.”
Chapter Two
As the sun crested the mountains, Drake kept pace with Sylvan, racing beneath the forest canopy on a narrow trail through underbrush where only deer and fox had previously passed. Her mate never took the same path twice. Routine invited ambush.
The scattered shafts of summer sunlight highlighted the silver in Sylvan’s coat and reflected in golden shards from her wolf-turned eyes. Drake’s shoulder brushed Sylvan’s with every stride and her heart pounded with exertion and unfettered joy. Sylvan was healthy again, and she was certain Drake carried their offspring inside her. Drake was afraid to hope. She wasn’t supposed to be able to bear young. She wasn’t born Were, but turned, mutated, transformed. Others called her mutia, but she couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t been Were. She couldn’t remember a time when Sylvan had not filled her heart and mind, when she hadn’t been Pack. In another life, she had grown up alone, never having known her parents, left to defend herself in a system in which the outsider was more often than not abandoned and lost. She had survived, but she had never expected to be anything other than alone. Now her life was filled with the scent and the sound and the heartbeats of hundreds of other Weres, Sylvan’s Pack. Her Pack now. If Sylvan was right, she carried the promise of the Pack’s future in the young who would continue Sylvan’s line. If Sylvan was right.
Sylvan bumped her shoulder and nipped at her muzzle. You doubt me, Prima?
I can’t feel them.
You will. Sylvan circled her, growling and snapping at her nose, diverting her from her worries. Run with me, mate.
Sylvan streaked away, expecting Drake to give chase. Drake followed slowly until Sylvan disappeared into the brush, and once Sylvan was out of sight, cut into the forest, abandoning Sylvan’s trail. Drake would give Sylvan her throat as easily as she’d given her heart, but she would never let Sylvan dominate her. Sylvan was the most dominant Were in the Northern Hemisphere. Drake trusted Sylvan’s love and the power of their mate bond, but Sylvan needed more than her love and devotion to complete her. She needed challenge. Sylvan needed an equal to rule by her side and, even more importantly, to shield her, to protect her, to comfort her. Sylvan would never accept that comfort from anyone less than an equal.
Drake burst out of the trees into a clearing on top of a ridge that overlooked the Compound across the valley. Smoke curled from the stone chimneys of the log buildings surrounding the central complex. She could just make out the sentries standing post at the top of the stockade fence. Much closer in the forest, she sensed the centuri forming a protective circle around her and Sylvan, and others in the far mountains, guarding their perimeter. Even deeper, hundreds of miles away, lone scouts roamed the wilderness, protecting their borders. In these thousands of acres of Adirondack forest the Weres lived free, and she and Sylvan would die to protect their freedom.
Twenty yards below her, a silver streak glinted through the green leaves. Sylvan. Drake bounded down the mountainside, angling along the edge of the ravine, and burst out onto the lower trail just as Sylvan emerged from the brush. She launched herself at Sylvan, taking her to the pine-needle-covered forest floor with her jaws buried in Sylvan’s ruff. Sylvan growled and snapped, thrashing to throw her off, struggling to mount her. Drake closed her jaws on Sylvan’s leg, catching her paw, biting down hard enough to make Sylvan snarl. Drake backed off with Sylvan’s leg between her teeth, careful not to injure, and lowered her shoulders, shaking Sylvan with a deep rumble. They were nearly the same size in skin, but in pelt, Sylvan was larger, heavier, stronger. She was Alpha.
Sylvan broke free and lunged, teeth slashing the air. Drake skirted away, abandoning her hold. Sylvan’s canines grazed her flank, and she twisted in a tight S-turn and came at Sylvan from behind. When she jumped, Sylvan cut low underneath her, clamped down on her throat, and dragged her to ground. Drake’s nose dug into the rich loam, and she sneezed a cloud of dirt and leaves in Sylvan’s face. Eyes gleaming in victory, Sylvan rolled her easily and straddled her midsection with all four limbs. Sylvan closed her jaws around Drake’s muzzle until Drake whined in surrender. When Sylvan released her, Drake licked her face and nipped at her neck.
Sylvan shimmered above her, the power and speed of her shift pulling Drake back to skin with her. In an instant, they were breast to breast, skin to skin, heart to heart.
Drake kissed her. “Have a good run?”
Sylvan supported herself on her elbows and grazed Drake’s jaw with her
teeth. “I felt you coming, you know. I let you catch me.”
“Liar.” Drake laughed.
“You think you can hide from me, Prima?” Sylvan’s blond hair glowed in the sunlight, blue eyes deeper than any ocean. She nuzzled Drake’s neck and kissed her. “I feel you always. Everywhere.”
Drake ran her hands down Sylvan’s back, tracing the heavy muscles along her spine and the strong arch of her ass. She opened her legs and drew Sylvan between hers. “I feel you in my body. In my heart. Always.”
Sylvan’s eyes glittered gold and the bones in her face grew heavy. Her wolf surged and she pressed herself more tightly between Drake’s legs.
“You’re sure, about the young?” Drake whispered.
“Very sure.” Sylvan’s voice had dropped, grown gravelly. She had perfect control of her shift and could transform partially, unlike any other Were in the Pack except for Drake. Now she let her wolf surface to claim her mate.
Drake readied to Sylvan’s call, opening for her, lifting to her, accepting the firm length of Sylvan’s clitoris into the cleft below her own. Heat swept into the depths of her belly, different than the agonizing fire of breeding heat—smoother, fuller, a steady burn calling her wolf to join. She seated Sylvan with her inner muscles and felt Sylvan tense. Her mate was close to release already—always so potent, so primed to claim her.
“I’m here,” Drake murmured. “I want you over me, in me.”
Sylvan thrust between her legs, her hot mouth covering the shadow of the mate bite on Drake’s shoulder that never disappeared, only faded until her blood called for her mate. When Sylvan slid her canines into her muscle, Drake thrust hers into Sylvan’s chest. Heat turned to flame, flame to fire.
“Now,” Drake cried, her pelvis jerking in time with Sylvan’s release, her essence pulsing over Sylvan’s pelt-streaked belly and thighs, joining them, uniting them, marking their bond. Sylvan’s ass tightened and she pushed deeper inside, swelling until they locked. Drake’s claws emerged and she held Sylvan to her, raking her back, the pleasure-pain forcing Sylvan to empty with a roar.
“I love you,” Drake gasped as Sylvan shuddered inside her, claiming her.
“Mine,” Sylvan groaned, collapsing in Drake’s arms, her hips still pumping as her orgasm trailed away. “You are my heart.”
“Yes.” Drake smoothed the damp hair at the back of Sylvan’s neck. These were the moments she held most precious, when Sylvan’s need for her comfort and protection was greatest. No one else would ever see Sylvan this way. To everyone else she was unapproachable, unassailable, unbreakable.
Drake kissed Sylvan’s temple, a bright surge of pleasure followed by an incredible sense of peace rising from deep within her. Her loins stirred, not from need or desire, but from joy. She tightened her hold on Sylvan. “I feel them.”
Sylvan’s breath caught. “How many?”
Drake laughed. “Two.”
“Can you tell what?”
“Not yet.” Drake nipped at Sylvan’s shoulder. “Do you care?”
“No,” Sylvan said. “Every pup is precious, and male or female, I will teach them to lead.”
“I know you will, but there’ll be no need for a new Alpha for many years to come.”
Sylvan nestled her cheek against Drake’s shoulder. “We have unfinished business.”
“I know,” Drake said, tracing the scars on Sylvan’s chest and abdomen where the assassin’s bullets had torn into her. Whoever had attempted to kill her was still at large. They had yet to discover who was behind the abuse of the young wolves they had liberated only hours before from an experimental laboratory. Their enemies were everywhere, and Sylvan was still a target. “We need to speak with Katya and Gray. Hopefully they will have some clue as to who abducted them and why.”
“I’m afraid there may be others still imprisoned,” Sylvan said darkly. “Who knows how many other young they may have taken from other Packs or even from our own. Our adolescents often leave the Compound to roam for a year or two before they’re ready to settle down and mate. Some leave to integrate into human society. We have young females in colleges, police academies, the military. Dozens if not hundreds beyond our immediate protection.”
“Wouldn’t you know if they were missing?” Drake stroked Sylvan’s back, aching to ease some of Sylvan’s burden. Sylvan bore a heavy mantle of responsibility safeguarding the well-being of an entire society, but Sylvan did not see her obligation as a burden. Her duty was the destiny she was born to, and Drake would never try to turn her from that path. But she would not let Sylvan’s duty destroy her either.
“Their families would alert us,” Sylvan said. “I can feel all of the Pack, always, but more as a collective consciousness—not individuals, unless I focus and try to reach out to them. Without knowing who might be in danger, I might not know until it’s too late. And if their captors are capable of shielding them from us as they did Katya and Gray, then I would never know.”
Sylvan’s skin shimmered and her pelt slid like quicksilver over her sleek muscles, her anger and frustration pushing her wolf to the surface.
“We know now what to look for,” Drake said calmly. “We’ve already sent out alerts to all the females outside the Compound. Everyone will be on guard.”
“And what of the young from other Packs who might still be in chains?”
“Would you take on the responsibility for every Pack in the Northern Hemisphere?”
Sylvan growled. “If need be. There hasn’t been a Supreme Alpha to unite all the Packs for centuries, since before my mother’s time. But there was a time when one Alpha ruled all the Packs. Perhaps that time has come again.”
“Suggest that,” Drake said, “and you’ll make yourself a target among the Weres as well as the anti-Praetern factions.”
“I must do what needs to be done.”
Drake sighed and threaded her fingers through Sylvan’s hair. “I know. But will you at least agree to wait until we have more information? There’s so much we don’t know about why Gray and Katya and the others were abducted, and if we can discover what their captors wanted from them, we may be able to find out who they are.”
“You ask me to be patient, when our enemies seek to exterminate our entire species?” Sylvan’s blue eyes turned to ice.
Drake had never been afraid of Sylvan. There’d been a time when the sheer lethality of Sylvan’s power overwhelmed her. But not now. She had seen Sylvan moments from death. She had seen her feral. She’d seen her helpless in the throes of orgasm. She did not fear Sylvan’s wolf. She tugged on Sylvan’s hair. “I would have you think before you bite.” She grasped Sylvan’s hand and pressed it to her abdomen. “They will need you, as we all do.”
Sylvan rumbled and her eyes narrowed. “You don’t fight fair.”
“I fight any way I have to to protect what’s mine.” Drake relaxed her grip on Sylvan’s hair. “You will lead us to freedom, but not at the cost of your life.”
Sylvan pushed up, clouds rolling through her eyes. “You trust me?”
“In all things. Except…”
Sylvan snarled and Drake laughed.
“You tend to be a little overprotective. You must promise not to keep secrets from me. I need to be your mate in all things.”
Another unhappy rumble rolled from Sylvan’s chest, but she nodded. “And you must promise that you will guard yourself and our young no matter what happens to me.”
“I promise I will guard our young and you as long as I breathe,” Drake whispered. She slid her hand behind Sylvan’s neck and pulled her down to kiss her. “Promise me the same.”
“I promise.”
“Then let’s go home. You need to talk to Katya and Gray and find out what was done to them. Then I’ll need to consult with Leo and Nadia.” She sighed. “We’re going to have to examine them, Sylvan—probably at the lab. It won’t be easy for them.”
“They are wolf Weres,” Sylvan said archly. “They will stand.”
“They’re
young,” Drake said softly.
“They’re our young, and you are their Prima. They will trust you.”
“And what about the Vampires? They stood with us last night. Are you willing to ally with them now?”
Sylvan sat up, put her back against a tree, and pulled Drake into her arms. She rested her chin on top of Drake’s head. In her lifetime, there hadn’t been a formal Were-Vampire alliance, although she knew such agreements had existed in her mother’s time. Over the years as the Praetern species had integrated into human society, the old alliances had fallen aside as each species maneuvered for power or privilege or protection. The Weres had carved out strongholds in remote, undeveloped terrains, quietly buying up acreage to establish their Pack lands. The Vampires had chosen the underworld, often skirting the edges of the law to establish their power base, rubbing shoulders with organized crime in their casinos and hotels and clubs. Those most able to pass as human, the Sorcerers and the Psi-gifted, were the most loosely organized, and the Fae had retreated to Faerie, emerging only when they needed humans to breed. She wasn’t sure who to trust, even among the Praetern Coalition that she led.
“I trust Gates,” Sylvan finally said. “And her soldiers fought well for us last night.”
Drake said, “We share more than a common enemy with her. We share Lara.”
Sylvan’s lip curled, but she nodded. “When the Vampire wakes, we’ll discuss strategy.” She growled. “It seems we will have to get used to having Vampires in the Compound.”
“And they’ll have to get used to Weres in their lair.”
Sylvan smiled and kissed her. “Good point.”
Drake pressed Sylvan’s hand more firmly to her abdomen. “When will we tell the Pack?”
“They’ll know as soon as they scent you.”
“Great.” Drake sighed. “They know when you need to tangle because you broadcast to all of them. They know when we do tangle, because you’re so damn potent. Now they know when I’m…”
“Pregnant.”