by Tia Wylder
I came to bring her food and untied her so she could eat. Every time she saw me she would ask questions. Mostly she would ask what I planned to do with her. I always answered the same: I don’t know.
I had no qualm with her so I didn’t see any reason to kill her. Even so, I had no guarantee if I let her go that she wouldn’t simply find another way to slow down or impede my business. So, she sat in my dungeon while I worked in my lab. Even through the thick walls, I could hear her screaming and yelling. After two weeks, she gave up and remained silent, which I was grateful for.
It was the day before Brakha would come for his Instinct; I was feeling the pressure of making a decision on what to do with her. I wouldn’t admit it to her, but I had grown fond of her presence. I didn’t know it would feel so nice to have a woman living in my halls again. Perhaps, even after a hundred years, my heart was still capable of feeling something.
I brought a tray of food and opened the gate. Aveline regarded me with her dark brown eyes as I set the tray down.
“I have a question for you,” she said.
“I still haven’t decided.”
“No, it’s not that.”
I stood up and looked at her. “Then what is it?”
“A guy like you could have any woman he wanted. Why do you live alone, in the middle of nowhere?”
“I do not seek the pleasures of the flesh. Besides, the only woman I ever loved has been gone for over a hundred years. In my time I’ve made too many enemies and been hurt too many times. This was for the best. I could still make Instinct and save our people without interference,” I said.
“Is that what you think?” Aveline asked, “That you’re helping shifters?”
“Yes, that is why I created it. To protect us from humans who would eradicate our people.”
“We are stronger than them! We can cut them down!”
She spoke with a passion and a fire that was undeniably alluring. I stepped closer to her.
“What would you have me do? This is my life, this is my business!” I said.
“You and I both know that you don’t care about the money, and there’s a part of you that wants something more than this pointless existence!” She said.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I saw the way you looked at me when we first met Sergei. There’s a part of you that knows I’m right. Why do you resist? Together we could free our people. Shifters would no longer live in fear!”
I thought back to the night we first met. The image of her naked body in my mind filled me with desire. I took another step closer to her.
“You want me to join you?” I asked.
“I want you to look into your heart and do what you know is right,”
I reached out and pressed my hand against her face. She tilted her cheek toward me. Her thick lips pressed against my skin. A rush of pleasure ran down my body like a wave. It had been so terribly long since I felt the kiss of a woman.
“Why don’t you let me give you a taste of what you’re missing? Go ahead, get undressed,” she said.
I took off my clothes and stood before her naked and bare. “Come closer, but don’t untie me just yet,” she whispered.
I stood over her and ran my hands through her silky black hair. She leaned forward and pressed her lips against me. Her tongue emerged and traced the length before she kissed the tip.
“I want to taste you,” she said.
I reached down and lifted myself into her open mouth. She eagerly took all of me in. I slid back out and let loose a long sigh. The pleasure was incredible.
“Keep going.”
I leaned forward again and pushed myself into her mouth. Her tongue swirled and slid across me. I threw my head back and felt her lips cling to me. I slowly started thrusting my hips back and forth, relishing in every moment her lips slid across my skin and her tongue danced along my length.
The pleasure was becoming too much, I was going to cum. I reached around behind her head and held her still as I started thrusting into her mouth faster.
I felt it coming, but I was too enthralled in the moment to notice that she had undone her ropes. Before I could react she was out of the chair. She pushed me down onto my back and leaped on top of me. She took the knife from the tray of food I brought her and pressed it to my neck.
“What is this? What are you doing?” I asked.
“Now you make your choice, Sergei. Either you accept what you know is right in your heart, or you refuse my offer and you die here and now. Make your choice!”
I knew she wasn’t bluffing, I could see that plainly in her eyes. She was right, but it took staring into the eyes of certain death for me to see it. Instinct wasn’t the solution; it was part of the problem.
“I accept your terms, on one condition,” I said.
“Name it.”
“You must come with me to my private quarters so we can finish this conversation in a more comfortable setting.”
Aveline threw the knife away and leaned down onto me. She pressed her lips into mine and then pulled away.
“Lead the way,” she said.
Chapter Six
I followed Sergei up to the second floor of his castle and into his bedroom. I admired his body with each step he took. His shifting muscles and thick arms worked like a well-oiled machine. I needed him to free our people, but I was almost becoming fond of him. There was a quiet kindness to him that I found endearing.
We stepped into his lavish bedroom with a massive bed. It was covered in crimson sheets that shimmered like silk. I stepped inside and Sergei closed the door behind me. I felt his lips graze my neck as he softly kissed a path from my neck down to my shoulder. He unbuttoned my shirt and peeled it off me. His hands effortlessly undid the clasp of my bra and he pulled down my panties with a swift motion. I was naked within seconds.
I turned around to face him. I could lose myself in those ice blue eyes of his. He pulled me to him and we kissed passionately as I backed toward the bed. When we reached the edge, he pushed me onto the soft sheets and leaned over me. I felt his hot breath against my breasts as his tongue gently slid over my nipples. His hand reached up and cupped them, gently massaging as his lips wandered down between my legs.
He pushed my legs apart and buried his head between. His tongue slid out and gently touched the boundary. A shrill shot of pleasure shot across my body as his tongue pressed against the soft flesh near the top. His breathing came in short bursts as he eagerly slid his tongue in circles and lines.
Years of experience had been kind to him. He knew just how to please a woman. I felt the pressure building as a climax approached. He showed no signs of slowing as my back arched, my legs quaked, and my body was wracked with waves of ecstasy. I screamed and clutched his jet black hair.
Before he could fully stand, I pulled him down and climbed on top of him. His hands gripped my waist as I slid him deep inside of me. I could feel his heartbeat keeping time with mine and I slid and grinded myself against him. He reached up and massaged my breasts as I furiously chased another climax.
His hands descended down my back and gripped tightly. He started thrusting to the same rhythm of my movements. I felt him thrusting deeper into me, sending out shocks of pleasure with each one. As I approached my second climax, I begged him to keep going. His gripped me tightly as my body once again exploded with ecstasy. The sounds of my screams prompted him to roar as he came inside me.
I collapsed beside him on the bed.
“I wish we could sleep Sergei, but there’s work to be done. My brother will be here tomorrow.”
“Yes, he shall, he will not find us or his Instinct,” I said.
“What are you planning?” I asked.
“I will set fire to the lab. When the flames reach the Instinct, this entire castle will be destroyed in the explosion. The secrets will die with me, and our people will finally be rid of the drug that keeps them from realizing their true destiny.”
I lay
on his chest and closed my eyes. For the first time in my life, I felt hope for the future.
Chapter Seven
I stood beside Aveline in the lab that had occupied my life for centuries. I never saw a future beyond this. I had assumed I would spend whatever time was left for me on this Earth making a drug that I had convinced myself was the savior of the shifter race. As it turned out, I was wrong. It wasn’t a solution, it was a crutch. For so long we had denied our gifts and chose to live among the humans.
No more, today everything would change. Without my lab, without Instinct, shifters would be forced to embrace their animalistic sides. They would finally stop denying their destiny and instead walk proudly into the future. The scene was set; all I had to do was start the fire. There was a long fuse that led through the lab and into a cloth that sat suspended in a vat of Instinct. There was enough here to destroy any hope of the drug existing again.
“Brakha will be here soon. Light the fuse so we can leave!” Aveline said.
“I spent countless years here. I built this place with my own two hands. This is my home.”
Aveline took my head in her hands and turned me toward her.
“This isn’t your home anymore, Sergei. It’s lost everything that made it one, now it’s just a building. You can do this, I promise.”
I struck the match and lit the end of the fuse. We had just over five minutes before this place would explode. By the time Brakha arrived it would be smoking rubble. I leaned down and lit the fuse. The flame took hold and started following the path to its destiny. Now, it was time to follow my own.
Aveline and I left the castle behind and shifted into our animal forms. We ran full speed into the jungle until we were far from the castle. I spun around and watched my home explode in a ball of fire through the eyes of the dire wolf.
I looked over to Aveline who glistened in the night like a living shadow in her Black Panther form. We locked eyes and I knew I had made the right decision. She turned and ran off into the forest. I took one last look at what used to be my home and then followed her into the night.
The Secret Baby
Chapter One
Jackie
Everybody dreams about that perfect life: white picket fence, loving husband, great kids, and not a care in the world. Maybe there’s a reason why they call it the American Dream, because it’s just that; a dream. The real world doesn’t follow the rules of fairy tales or idyllic opportunity. It throws you into its jaws, chews you up, and then spits you back out without so much as an apology.
There was a moment where I thought I had it all. I was twenty-three and my boyfriend, Axel Blackwell, got a great job working in construction after his twenty-fourth birthday. We finally signed a lease on an apartment, and then I found out I was pregnant. Our daily lives were insane, but they were good. Axel took the news well, but we both agreed that baby would have to stay a secret from our families. He promised me he would stay, we would get married, and we would raise our baby together. We had each other, and that was all I needed.
The day everything changed, I was standing in the kitchen making breakfast before Axel’s shift; bacon and scrambled eggs with cheese. It was simple, but I wasn’t exactly a five-star chef, and Axel always liked it when I made bacon. I felt the baby kick inside of me as I was stirring the eggs.
I reached down and rubbed the mound rising from my stomach.
“I know, you’ll be out soon, I promise,” I whispered.
The bacon popped and sizzled beside me as I heard Axel walk into the kitchen. He sat down at the table and I heard his industrial strength smartphone hit the surface shortly after. He let loose a long sigh.
“Everything alright, babe?” I asked.
“Frankie wants me to work overtime again this week,” he said.
“Well, isn’t that a good thing? We need the money after all.”
Axel slammed his fist on the table and I jumped in shock. The spatula I was using to stir the eggs fell to the floor.
I turned around and saw him hunched over the table with his head in his hands. He ran both hands through his thick black hair and leaned back as he let loose another sigh.
“Yeah, course we need the money babe, but what about me? I’m killing myself out there!”
I felt the baby kick again and braced myself against the counter.
“Well, maybe you can get a better job, something less physical?”
Axel looked over to me with his dark brown eyes and shook his head.
“How many times are we going to have this conversation? I never went to college, hell I didn’t even finish high school! What cushy office job is going to hire me? The only thing I’m good for is hard labor.”
I felt a surge of pain in my sides and back. I had false contractions before, but this was different. They were coming faster, more intense. Axel was still talking, but his voice had faded as my mind focused on the tightening pain in my back.
“Axel, I think the baby is coming,” I said.
He stopped mid-sentence and leapt out of his chair. He wrapped his arm around my back and steadied me against the counter.
“Alright, I’ll call out of work. Let’s get you to the hospital,” he said.
He led me through our small apartment and out the door. The sun was just rising above the horizon. The air was thick and humid after rainstorms the night before. Sweat formed across my head as I awkwardly limped to the car. Axel laid me down in the backseat and closed the door before leaping into the driver’s seat.
“Just hang in there baby, both of you.”
I smiled through the pain as he turned on the car and pulled out of the parking space. He always drove a little on the aggressive side, but this time he was pushing speed limits and switching lanes like a madman. Normally I would tell him to cut back on the alpha male crap, but in this situation his bravado came in handy.
We were at the hospital in a matter of minutes. He led me through the emergency room doors and immediately made a scene in front of the people scattered across the waiting room.
“My wife’s going into labor!” he shouted.
I felt the eyes of the onlookers all around me as a security guard and a nurse in a pale blue smock rushed toward us.
“We’ve got it from here,” the nurse said.
“I’m just going to park the car, I’ll be right back,” he whispered to me, and then turned to the nurse, “You take good care of her, that’s my son in there!”
It’s not much of a secret baby if you talk loud enough for the world to hear.
They led me through into the hospital proper and laid me down on a stretcher. The wheels squeaked and squealed as they carried me to the delivery room. I was on a proper bed with monitors and wires surrounding me before I knew it.
It was amazing how far technology had come. I was born in 2001 and now that it was 2025 everything was so different. Hospitals had technology beyond anything I would have imagined. They even offered to genetically alter the baby to remove the chance of defects or even just change his eye color.
Call me old fashioned, but I didn’t want any of that. Even if I did, the government’s idea of health insurance wouldn’t cover it, despite our massive monthly premium. I wanted my son to be the boy he was meant to be, no science involved.
Axel returned, just as he said he would. He was dressed in the same outfit as the doctors with a sterile mask over his face. He patted my shoulder with a gloved hand.
“How’re we doing?” he asked.
I looked over to the monitor beside me. It was somehow able to show us the baby in perfect detail as he sat inside of me.
“We’re doing well. The painkillers are working.”
Despite all of the pain, the stress, and the incredibly exhausting process, I held my baby son that day in my arms. It was the best day of my life.
Chapter Two
Axel
I had a son, I couldn’t believe it. It’s never real until you hold him in your arms and look into his little brow
n eyes. People always say he’s got your nose, or your eyes, but I could see myself in him. It was indescribable. We decided on the name Jacob, after my grandfather. My father may not have been the figure I needed him to be, but my grandfather was always there for me. Even when the cancer beat him down, he still helped me any way he could.
He gave me a piece of advice before the disease took him, he said: The world’s going to get worse and it’s going to try and drag you down with it, boy. No matter what, you don’t let it change you. You stay true to yourself and those you love. Always remember that.
Jaclyn, or as I called her, Jackie, wasn’t one to follow current events. She always said the news was depressing. She was right, but things were brewing, big things. I barely had time to get her back home from the hospital with our newborn son before it all came crashing down.
I sat on the side of the bed, hunched over my smartphone. Jacob had kept us both up for most of the night so Jackie was finally getting some much needed rest. I was reading the news story that would change my life, forever.
Tensions between the U.S. and the countries that we all owed money to had been growing; when it became clear those debts weren’t going to get repaid anytime soon. We had powerful enemies breathing down our necks, and now they finally cracked. After forming an alliance and pooling their resources, the Eastern Organized Front, or the EOF for short, decided it was time to step over the line. Our navy and their own were at each other’s throats somewhere out in the Pacific, but that day, June 17th, 2025, they opened fire on us without warning.
World War III they called it, the war that would end the United States. It was us against them, and it didn’t take a five-star general to see that we were immensely outnumbered.
The sensible thing to do would be to back down, but our president was just as much of a hothead as I was. So we signed the documents and in his infinite wisdom he decided to reinstate a draft.