Holt grinned at him. “No. It doesn’t suck. Well, sometimes there’s sucking.”
“And licking. And biting.” Chance smiled, probably reminiscing about last year, and the year before that, and…
“It’s just that we’ve been coming for five years. I thought we would have found the one by now.” Holt stifled a sigh. He loved sex, and the endless sea of willing, eager female flesh had been exciting at first, but now he wanted more. He’d talked to plenty of Twin Alphas who’d found their Forever Mates at the festival. He’d seen how it changed them in some subtle way, watched the new glow of happiness and contentment spread throughout their bodies.
He wanted that for himself and his brother. He wanted to feel that sense of completion, that sense of ultimate belonging.
“Look, Mr. Romantic, it’s not like we can force it. We need to make sure she’s the right one. Forever is a very long time. It’ll happen, and in the meantime, just enjoy yourself.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Holt sighed and settled in to his seat.
It was a two hour drive to the festival. They’d headed out early in the day to beat the crowds, but it looked as if hundreds of other human females and Alpha pairs had the same idea that they had. Fortunately, the line of cars and trucks and vans was moving pretty quickly, and within minutes, the guards at the festival gate had waved them through.
They drove down the road to the massive parking lot, which was already about a quarter full. They waved at some of the shifters who were climbing out of their trucks and cars, and Clayton flashed big, flirtatious smiles at the sea of lovely female humanity who were milling about.
“Let’s get checked in and get this party started,” Clayton said. Holt nodded. This was the tedious part; they had to stand in a long line at the check-in, where a row of Mages sat, waiting to ensure that all unclaimed females and all unmated Alphas were at the festival as required. Hundreds of other Alpha pairs were already there, from all across the West Coast. The same thing was happening in the Northwest, Southwest, Central Region, East Coast…all across the country, Alphas were headed off to the annual Claiming Festival where they’d get their freak on and hopefully meet their Forever Mates.
After they’d given the Mage their names, and they’d each slapped their hands down on a sheet of paper that glowed to confirm their identity, they finally headed off towards their assigned cabin, number 237.
They passed booths and booths of merchandise, and picnic areas, and outdoor bars, and snack shacks, and crowds of eager women and Alphas already mixing and mingling. The smell of sizzling burgers, cotton candy, and roasting ears of corn tickled Holt’s nostrils. Good thing he’d bought fat wads of cash with him.
Bands were setting up on stages. Buskers walked through the crowd, hawking their wares. Magic talismans for the ladies! Stamina talisman for the Alphas! Love charms, beauty charms, necklaces, hair ornaments, bouquets of flowers…it was a veritable shopping market out here. The air was thick with the scent of pheromones. Clayton through back his head and let out a long, lusty howl, and a dozen other Alphas joined him, and women simpered and giggled and batted their eyelashes.
Their log cabin looked pretty much the same as every cabin they’d had assigned to them. It was a one bedroom, with a small kitchen and it was pretty much set up for mating. There was a king-sized bed in the bedroom, and even the couch was big and roomy with soft, inviting cushions. The end table by the couch, and the night stand in the bedroom, would be stocked with lubricants and sex toys.
As soon as they got to the cabin, Clayton tossed his bag onto the couch, checked his reflection in the mirror, and grinned at himself in approval.
“Do you want to hang out on the West side, or the East side?” Clayton asked.
Tradition called for all Alpha pairs to separate, and mingle on opposite sides of the Festival grounds. If either brother met a woman they thought might be their Forever Mate, they’d bring her to the central pavilion area, find their twin and introduce her to see if the Bonding process should begin.
Holt shrugged. “It’s all the same.”
“Brother, we’re about to dive into a sea of beautiful, eager, female flesh. You’d think you’d be a little more excited.”
“We could walk around together,” Holt suggested. “Might speed up the process. That way if we find the right one--”
“I am sincerely hoping we don’t find the right one until the last day of the festival. Or next year, for that matter. What’s wrong with sampling all the wares first?”
“Ass,” Holt snorted. “Once we find her, we won’t want anyone else’s wares, no matter how tasty they might be.”
“Exactly. That’s why I don’t need to rush it. I’m perfectly happy with the way things are.” Clayton headed for the door. “West side it is, then. Try to force yourself to have fun, Captain Buzzkill.” The door banged shut behind him.
Holt shook his head, watching through the window as his brother strode off towards the festival grounds. He hoped that he could make himself get in the mood. He’d been in an odd state since he’d woken up that morning. He’d felt itchy and restless and impatient, as if he was anticipating something that was going to happen.
His mother had always told him that he’d been the more sensitive one. He had a sixth sense, knowing when things were going to occur before they did. On many occasions, he’d been able to steer pack members out of danger because of it – or catch the Red River pack attempting to cross over onto their land.
With a sigh, he tossed his backpack on his bed and walked out to face the day. He really should be more excited, he told himself.
Hell with it. Maybe a couple of ice cold beers would help. Or something a little harder.Whisky, straight up. Now that he could get excited about.
As he headed east, a sexy blonde walked up to him, matching his stride. She wore tight jeans, high heeled boots, and a fringed leather halter top. He didn’t slow down, and she had to walk fast to keep up with him.
“Hello, handsome,” she purred at him. “Are you ready for a fun week?”
“I’m here, anyway.” He nodded politely, but without invitation. He wasn’t in the mood yet.
She kept pace with him. “I saw your brother. He’s soooo hot. I sure could enjoy getting to know the both of you better.”
Holt glanced at the path that his brother had taken, and pointed at his brother’s retreating back. “Go introduce yourself,” he suggested. “He’s always up for a good time.”
She pouted, fluttering her long lashes at him. “I’d love to get to know the both of you better at the same time.”
He suppressed a snort of ridicule at that. Right.The both of them. So that they could start the bonding process, and become psychically linked, and then she’d be their Forever Mate whether they liked it or not.
Did she think they were both stupid? Or did she think that because she was attractive, he and his brother would fall all over her at the chance to mate with her? It wasn’t as if Alphas had a hard time finding sex partners at the Alpha Claiming Festival. It was more like they had a hard time choosing who to mate with first. And he and his brother would never go for a woman who’d try to manipulate herself into being their Forever Mate.
Although many of the women just came to the Alpha Claiming Festival to have a good time, a lot of them wanted the prestige of being the mate of an Alpha, to say nothing of having twin mates instead of single mates.
However, the process of selecting a Forever Mate was not something to be taken casually – especially given the consequences of selecting the wrong mate. It was not something that an Alpha could walk away from.
That was why twins hung out on opposite sides of the Festival until they found someone that they could see forming that permanent bond with. Nobody wanted to risk accidentally psychically bonding with the wrong woman. He’d heard stories. Booze, bad judgment, waking up to find out that you and your twin were stuck for the rest of your natural life with someone you couldn’t stand…
“Enjoy
the festival,” he said firmly, and turned and walked away without looking back.
Chapter Three
Amelia cursed as she jolted over potholes on the narrow, winding country road.
She was winding her way through the mountains, taking a rural route which would have taken her hundreds of miles out of her way if she was really headed to San Francisco like she’d told her sister. It was the only way out of town these days, with the main road still impassable. The highway department didn’t seem to be in any hurry to repair it.
She’d lied to Karlie, however. She wasn’t headed out of town to meet up with her new department head. She was stashing her car so she could sneak into Clair De Lune for a few days.
She saw Virgil Swanson’s car up ahead and breathed a sigh of relief. She quickly pulled off the side of the road and parked behind him.
Virgil was her savior, the dean of the anthropology department at the University of Upstate New York, the one who’d made her the job offer and handed her the very fat, generous check. She’d been dazzled when he’d approached her; she’d recognized him instantly, one of the biggest names in the anthropology field.
Virgil was pacing by the car, running his fingers through his thinning gray hair. He was a tall, thin man with an anxious demeanor. He dressed like a man from an earlier era; he even wore a bow tie.
“Amelia! So glad you could make it!” he said.
He’d brought his assistant Malcom with him, so that Malcom could drive her car. Malcolm, an assistant professor who looked more like a young crewcut weightlifter than an academic, waved cheerfully as she walked towards them.
“Good to see you both, I appreciate you taking care of my car for me while I’m gone,” she said to Virgil. “I don’t want to tell anyone that I’m crossing over before I go, not even family. They’d have a heart attack.”
“I completely agree,” Virgil nodded. “And you’re sure that you can safely cross back and forth?” The row of four horizontal lines on his forehead puckered with worry, and he wrung his hands. “I feel badly about this. I hope we’re not sending you to do something too risky. It’s just that the value of the research would be so incredible…”
“Like I said, my family’s been doing it for generations. I’ve done it dozens of times. Haven’t died yet. Not even a minor cold.”
She handed him the keys to her car. The arrangement was that Virgil and Malcom would take her car and park it safely out of sight for her. Then Malcom would come back every day in his own vehicle and wait for her at 2 p.m., in case she needed to leave earlier than expected. He’d wait for two hours. She hoped to stay on the other side for three days, but it was best to have a backup plan.
“I wish there was a way to contact you there,” Virgil muttered.
“Cell phones aren’t working at all in Cedar Heights, much less across dimensions,” she pointed out.
“True.”
“I do miss my cell phone. What’s it like out there in the parts of the country that aren’t flattened?” she asked wistfully. “I’d kill for an internet connection.”
“I hear you,” Malcom nodded sympathetically, patting the pocket of his button-down shirt. “My cell phone and internet connection died about half an hour ago, and I’m already going through withdrawal. I can’t imagine six months. Don’t worry, your town will be rebuilt someday, and you’ll be able to rejoin the 21st century.”
“I don’t know,” she said with a heavy sigh. “To rebuild our infrastructure, they’d need to be able to move in heavy equipment, which they can’t do on these little narrow country roads. The gap on the main road is so wide that they’d have to build a bridge over it, and we’re one little tiny town in the middle of nowhere. We’re not a priority.”
“Maybe once you’ve published this paper, people will see how special Cedar Heights is, and you’ll become a priority,” Virgil said encouragingly.
She managed a smile. “Here’s hoping.”
Then she gave them a jaunty wave. “Well, I’d love to stand around jawing all day, but I’ve got werewolves to observe.”
She turned and began trudging through the woods.
As she walked, she made a mental checklist of her preparations. She’d brought cans of soup and granola bars with her. She didn’t know what kind of food they’d have over there, and, although she’d tucked a wad of cash into her purse, she doubted that they used the same currency on the other side. She had a camera with her, which should be okay; some of the werewolves who’d wandered over to their world had cameras, so she knew they had them over there. She had her notebook and a few changes of clothing. That was it; she didn’t want to bring in too much stuff with her, in case she accidentally brought something which didn’t exist over there.
Her plan was to walk to the nearest town and observe as much as she could without attracting too much attention–she hoped. She’d also brought binoculars so she could check them out from a distance, if necessary.
She knew what a disadvantage she was at. The only knowledge that she had of their world was what she and her sister had picked up when they’d sneaked over as children, and also what little knowledge humans had time to glean from the werewolves who’d accidentally wandered into their world after the Breach opened.
She did know that their world appeared to have evolved on a parallel track to her own, and their lifestyle over there appeared, superficially at least, to be almost identical to that of humans on her side of the Breach–except that their machines, their cars, televisions, cell phones and airplanes were powered by some kind of magic energy. She knew that werewolves were all male, that that they lived side by side in harmony with humans. Apparently they were able to mate with human females; they must be, or their race would have died out.
She didn’t know much more than that, so she could only pray she didn’t get caught while she was over there.
She reached the spot she was looking for pretty quickly. It was one of many spots that were scattered around, that only she and her sisters could see.
There was a bluish spot in the air, about ten feet across and twenty feet wide, and the air around it rippled like the heat shimmer around a roaring fire.
When she and her sister were younger, they’d wandered through one of those spots and discovered the alternate universe. They’d seen people turn into wolves. They’d looked up at the sky and seen two moons, a big one and a little one. They’d raced back home to tell their family what they’d seen.
Their grandmother and mother had gone pale as ghosts. They’d had the same experience when they were children. Their great-grandmother had too. She’d warned her daughter that if she told anyone about it, they’d think she was a witch.
Amelia and Karlie’s mother had more modern fears. They were afraid that if anyone knew about their family’s ability, they’d be taken away to some government lab and experimented on. Amelia and Karlie had been sworn to secrecy, and they’d always kept that promise, but now, circumstances had changed.
After the earthquake had struck, and the dust settled, the massive Breach was revealed, and it was visible to everybody. Humans and werewolves had casually wandered through, driven through, even bicycled through…not realizing that they’d never be able to return.
Now, there were soldiers stationed along the entire length of the Breach – every part that they could see, anyway.
But the odd spots where the fabric of reality between the two words stretched thin, that only Amelia’s family could see…no soldiers were stationed there.
Of course, most of the spots were clustered on Amelia’s family property, but she couldn’t walk through there–she had to carry on the pretense that she was leaving town. This spot would do just as well.
In the distance, through the blue, Amelia thought she could hear voices. People on the other side. Crud. She’d have to pray that nobody saw her walk through.
She took a deep breath, and walked into the sparkling blue.
She felt that familiar tingling. Everything aroun
d her rippled as if she was underwater, and then it faded. She looked around. The woods looked exactly the same. She was standing next to the exact same blue oak tree that she’d been next to in her own universe. There was the same twin pair of ghost pines that she’d just seen. In the distance were the Sierra Nevada mountains, jagged, white capped and spreading across the horizon.
This fit with the prevailing theory that the two worlds had evolved along mostly identical paths. The same trees, mountains, landmarks, the same physical features…except, of course, for the two moons in the sky overhead.
There they were, as beautiful as ever, pale white against the deep blue sky.
Oh yes. She was through.
She glanced around. She could hear a woman’s voice close by, in the thick underbrush.
Quickly, she pulled out her camera and snapped a picture of the twin moons.
She heard the sound of someone thrashing through the forest, leaves and branches rustling.
She ducked behind a tree, and saw a woman running, with a wolf loping after her. She pointed her camera at them and turned on the video recorder.
Yikes. The wolf jumped on the woman and knocked her down, and stood over her, panting. Was he going to kill this woman? Should she run towards them, yell at them, hopefully scare him off?
Just as she was about to rush forward to help, the wolf morphed into a naked man. A hot naked man. The woman laughed and pulled him to her.
“Slow,” the man teased.
“Only because I wanted you to catch me.” The woman laughed, and the wolf-man began pulling her clothes off.
Amelia quickly switched the video off, shoved the camera in her pocket, and began making her way through the woods, towards a clearing that she could see up ahead.
The resemblance to Cedar Heights had ended. This area had been developed and cleared, where in her own world, it was nothing but forest. Here, she came through the woods into an area where, apparently, some kind of county fair was taking place. There were incredibly handsome men strolling around, and crowds of women who were dressed to the nines. She could hear music blaring from speakers hung on trees on light poles. Off in the distance, she could see tents and booths set up everywhere.
Twin Alphas: Claimed (A BBW Werewolf Romance) Page 2