First Species

by Tamara Rose Blodgett

  My eyes round, and I don't release Murphy from my stare. Though vampire thrall is a threat, it isn't to me. He easily reads the question I hold in my face. “Yes, Paige. You were lucky. You had me and my lovely sire, Narah, as personal escorts to our fantastic establishment here.” Murphy's eyes grow tight. “If Camille Becker were not with Kiel at this very moment, she would most certainly be in hospital, for her wounds are most severe.”

  I survey the men, thinking about my choices.

  Big dick or not, hunky to look at or not, there's something about coming up without options that feels shitty.

  That's how I feel now.

  Mutables are a threat, but I can see them coming.

  I bet you this other girl couldn't. That's one thing they don't know about me.

  In a way, I can defend myself.

  Chapter 17

  Casek

  H e's never been more thankful for his half-Lycan status than right at this moment.

  Scents guide him.

  Every bit of Casek hurts, the skirmish inside the prison wasn't something he was planning on or up to. His strength is not at its best. Bad food will do that to a shifter along with the lack of even a glimmer of hope.

  Then there's the small matter of the female First—Seiger's certain pursuit of her.

  Nevertheless, Casek runs full-out, finding it impossible not to jostle the female. He must run. Casek can be tired later.

  Jael does not have a peaceful slumber, and Casek senses the moment she awakens.

  Slowing, he takes stock of his surroundings.

  Bad cover but no scents of danger.

  Her liquid-green eyes look up at him, the flame of her hair bright in the gathering gloom of day's release to night.

  “Casek,” she says, and turning her carefully in his arms, he sets her on her feet, willing himself to his human form.

  He's well aware of how ugly he is and just vain enough not to want this young female as audience.

  Turning away from her apprehensive eyes, Casek surveys the swaths of green between structures in what he thinks might be the heart of the city.

  A city he's seen but a handful of the rare times in which he was used to hunt for the colony.

  “We are safe for the moment but must keep moving. Now that you're awake, we can travel faster.” He regrets his curt words the instant they leave his lips. But that cannot be helped. This female will have a horrible life, and Casek won't entertain what will happen to him.

  Thank earth, they don't have another Lycan or he might, even now, be at the mercy of Seiger.

  That male is without any.

  Casek needs food. Real food. He constantly runs the edge of starvation. This is by design—Seiger's. A First Species is a formidable shifter. A well-nourished one is nearly unstoppable.

  “Your wrist,” Jael whispers, not touching him.

  Casek glances at the partly mangled wrist.

  He'd needed to wrench it to escape the shackles. Since he was weakened, the hyenas sent to watch over Jael had broken it further.

  “It's nothing,” he mutters, but the thing throbs, and he knows it will come to a medical intervention or he will not be able to use his hand.

  “I can set it,” she offers, and Casek gives her a sharp look.

  “We are too visible. Let's move into the treeline.” What a joke that is. These narrow human greenbelts between structures hardly afford cover. But it's better than standing out in the middle of the sidewalk, bedraggled and filthy. Though in his human form, his disheveled appearance will garner notice.

  Casek pivots in the opposite direction, beginning to walk toward the center of a tight copse of trees. They stand in a huddled group of dense spruce needles and deeply furrowed bark.

  Once there, he turns, thankful Jael has enough trust in him not to question the move.

  The instant she is beside him, he asks, “How is it you can perform emergency medicine?”

  Nervously wringing her hands, she admits, “There was a female, Lucy—and she'd been a doctor before she was taken.”

  “A healer?”

  Jael nods, and he notices dried blood soaks her shirt where it appears glued to her back.

  Casek tries to be patient, placing his uninjured hand at his hip, but his need to feed, fix the injury, and sheer excitement over being free of the colony play tricks with his mind, saturating his brain with feral thoughts.

  “She taught me some basic things. From there, Seiger used me to fix Mutables who were damaged in battle.”

  “We heal.”

  She gives a sad bark of laughter, and Casek is disturbed he causes the reaction. “Yeah, you heal. But if a shifter heals wrong, it's a problem.”

  “What happened to Lucy?”

  Her green eyes, gone jade by lengthening shadows, flick to his. “What do you think?”

  Yes. She'd been bred out, of course.

  There were a handful of orphans, mostly male, in the Mutable colony. Of course, just because a female was bred out didn't mean she would birth the precious female. Further, there was no guarantee that if she did, that female would possess sufficient blood quantum to breed with the handful of chimera within the colony. Usually, she would but not always.

  Jael shoves the rat's nest of her hair back from her grimy face. “So I'll do it.”

  Casek has no choice.

  The repair will not be swift. Without food, his body will consume his muscle mass to aid in the healing.

  He can ill-afford that, his body too lean by far.

  The choices are all bad, and he accepts the best of the lot. “Thank you.” He holds out his thick wrist to the girl and again remembers that it was not her fault that Seiger used her as the delivery vehicle for his spoiled meals. That her presence was a means to an end. A further torture of his already loathsome position within the colony. Seiger would know how difficult it would be to have a female of his kind in proximity. The suffering of want and not having. A true sadist was the Alpha of the Mutables.

  Casek is truly the dog among them.

  But no more.

  Jael touches his flesh, and his eyes widen as hers flash to his. Fear is there and a healthy dose of hope.

  Hope that he will not kill her, which would be impossible for him. But her fear is warranted, for she's been raised in the colony.

  Heat flares between them. She’s not yet a grown female. Casek shuts his eyes against the sensation. “Continue.”

  Jael's gentle touch is fire along his flesh. “It has already begun to heal.”

  His chin lowers in resignation. “I know.”

  Before he can say more, her other hand joins the first. One hand finds his middle palm, and the other runs to mid-length at his forearm.

  Pressure of cool fingertips. Then a snap sounds, and Casek cranks his neck back, wordlessly howling into the moonless sky as his knees plant in the soft earth, landing in the fragrant needles a carpet beneath his weight.

  Thank earth for the lack of a ripe moon. The pain could have brought his wolf—it might still—new moon or not.

  Casek trembles under her fingers. Raising his chin, he opens his eyes to survey the small female.

  Tears glisten in her eyes, the green of them swimming like evergreen ink. “I'm so sorry, Casek—the last thing I want to do is hurt you.”

  “Do not be.” His voice is rough to his own ears.

  Lifting his arm so the weak moonlight illuminates the break, he lets his eyes move down the wreck of flesh and bone.

  A purple slash of healing is a rope above where a bone had been protruding so much against the skin it had almost broken through.

  Dropping the arm to his side without flexing his hand, he states, “You have the strength of our females.”

  Her eyes shift from his and she says in a low voice, “I'm not anyone's female.”

  Casek's eyes move away from hers as well and he takes a deep, restorative inhale.

  “I am aware. Yet.” He stands, towering over her. “But if Seiger locates us, I w
ill die, and you will live as his mate.”

  “No.”

  Voice fierce, the timbre of her denial rings in his ears. “I won't belabor this point, Jael.”

  Grasping her shoulders, he shakes her once, hard, his injured wrist shrieking in protest. “He will find you. I need food so I can defend you.”

  She shakes her head, and his hands drop, the wrist a pulsing mass of agony.

  “Why, Casek? Just find your own way. I'll get to that place where special police protect females.”

  “My way?” He gives a derisive grunt, feeling his brows pop high. As if he would leave a First female. Every instinctive part of his being is screaming for him to stay near her. “There is no way, female. I am First, but I am also Lycan. There is no home for me.”

  Leaning forward, she finds his eyes though he would hide them from her. “It's better to be alone and safe and have freedom of choice than to be imprisoned, eating rotting meat and being used like a slave.”

  He twists his lips in a sneer. “In Seiger's defense, he couldn't very well let me live freely within the colony.”

  Her answering smirk pleases him almost as much as her words, for they are true. “Yes, the male population would have suffered.”

  They share a look and burst out laughing at the same moment.

  When their laughter fades, Casek has determined his next course of action. “I will get food for us then clean the filth from my body.” Jael appears about to speak.

  Casek silences her before she can with a finger at her lips for the briefest second.

  She gasps, pulling away.

  He's aware it is his ugliness she reacts to. There is nothing he can do about that. Hell, Casek doesn't even know what he looks like. He's been imprisoned since puberty when that transition revealed his true, dual nature. But he's had years to take in othersʼ reactions and understands he is displeasing to the eye.

  “I know that I am ugly, but it doesn't make me less proficient at getting our immediate needs met.”

  “That's not it,” Jael whispers, her fingers touching her mouth for a moment then falling.

  They tremble slightly, and Casek hates her fear of him but can't blame her.

  “What is it then?”

  Voices reach them, and Casek's gaze shifts between low-hanging branches, spotting a gang of human males.

  Of course, he scented them before his ears confirmed their approach, but humans are easily dismissed.

  The males don't see them, and Casek feels his shoulders ease their tension.

  Turning back to Jael he says, “Come—we will break into a human's house and raid their food stores.”

  “I think it's called a fridge and pantry,” she says softly.

  Casek shrugs a heavy shoulder, eyes scouring the immediacy of their surroundings.

  Closing his eyes, he lets the sense Lycankind are known for find what he needs.

  Soon, under many layers he mentally tosses to the side, the scent of sustenance reaches his flared nostrils.

  His eyes snap open in the direction his nose tells him there is food. Holding out his hand for Jael, surprisingly—she takes it.

  Her skin feels chilled against his hot flesh. Lycans are well-known for their elevated body temperature.

  Casek supposes that he gained trust when he attacked the hyena who would have subdued Jael until Seiger caught up with them.

  Now there would be a headless body as a calling card, signaling Casek had been there.

  Seiger would know it well.

  Tugging Jael behind him, he walks a mere six meters around the back of what looks like a very old human dwelling. Large and imposing, there are many different finishes making up the bulk of its exterior.

  “Beautiful,” Jael breathes, and he realizes in that moment that her exposure to anything outside of the colony rivals his own.

  Zero.

  His gaze drives up the imposing back exterior, running over brick, ornate shingles tucked inside gable ends, and wide bands of wood running in opposing directions. Casek supposes the architecture has a sort of elegance.

  Those thoughts vanish as his belly lets out a roar. Quietly, he steps forward to a door that is not the main one but nearly hidden against the giant house like a slip that shows.

  Casek's good hand circles a tiny knob, and with a wrench, he pulls the solid brass knob from the guts of the door, leaving a yawning jagged hole where it once stood.

  Inserting the two fingers from his uninjured hand, he pulls, taking the lock away from the keeper with a sound like tearing paper.

  Turning, he looks to Jael. Her hands cover her ears, and when it's clear that she understands he's done breaking in, they fall to her sides. “That was easy.”

  Casek nods. Too easy. The humans have no idea of their vulnerability and too much ego to realize how quickly the robbery of their possessions could occur.

  But that doesn't matter.

  Casek walks over the threshold as the pushing open of the door causes it to scrape with an eerie shriek when Jael closes it behind them.

  Picking up the trail of food scent where he left off, he leaps up the two short flights of stairs and walks into a kitchen.

  A single light burns softly above a large porcelain sink, the same age as the structure. Casek turns, facing a large rectangle of metal.

  “There,” he says, pointing at the unit.

  “It's the fridge,” Jael says.

  “This ʻfridgeʼ contains meat,” Casek states.

  Gripping the sides, he jerks it out of its semi-hiding place.

  “Hey!” Jael says, and Casek straightens, glancing her way.

  “You don't have to pull it out, just open it.”

  Casek looks at the unit. He does not see an obvious opening. The front has shining metal, but it lays flush against the surface.

  Frowning, he watches Jael step forward, and as if by magic, her small fingers slip into an almost invisible groove.

  The next moment, a flood of light illuminates the space.

  There are boxes upon boxes of food.

  Casek marvels.

  It is all fresh.

  Chapter 18

  Paige

  M urphy walks us to the front door, and I pause before leaving with Drest and Jac, unlikely compatriots in my “transition.”

  “Thanks,” I say.

  He nods. “I understand this is quite much to take in at present. Soon, once your transition is seen through, you'll love what you are.”

  I stare at the ever-changing cerulean blue of Murphy's aura and wonder if he loves being a vampire.

  His eyes tighten at my scrutiny, and I'm betting he's an intuitive dude. “Penny for your thoughts, love?”

  “Don't hold your breath,” I immediately reply.

  “I can, you know.”

  I just bet he can. I pivot, beginning to walk toward the biggest piece of shit car on the planet. Adrienne has left, but another female enforcer, Mollie, is hanging out along with Murphy, their auras blending seamlessly as well.

  Mutables are lurking, they'd told me cryptically.

  My footsteps slow and I point at the POS. “We're taking that.”

  Drest sighs. “It is what we have. Obviously, the vehicle is worn.”

  Worn? It's amazing the thing made it from Rapid.

  Jac snorts. “What—Conrick can't spring the dough for a vehicle that doesn't look like it survived world war three?”

  With a sour look, Drest wrenches the unlocked driver's side door open on hinges that squeal.

  His eyes meet mine. “Go around and get into the other side—back seat. Jac will sit beside you.”

  I frown. “Why don't I just get in here?”

  Drest's neck turns a shade of red I didn't think was possible.

  Okay. Without a word, I walk to the other side of the car.

  Just then, another vehicle shows up, and Jac moves to stand in front of me.

  A beautiful woman, hourglass figure with auburn hair and lightish eyes, exits a vehicle.
>
  Five guys get out of the huge, jet-black SUV.

  I blink.

  Two of the men turn, extracting baby carriers.

  The woman steps forward. “Paige LaRue?”

  Um... okay.

  “Talyn?” Jac says.

  She nods. “I've come to offer emotional support for the females’ transitions.”

  I look at the adorable children and her again before slowly walking toward her.

  “Inside,” barks one of the males whose restless eyeballs ceaselessly travel the parking area.

  “Of course,” Talyn says as though untroubled. But her eyes infinitesimally narrow.

  The two men carry babies inside Final Enforcement.

  I notice Murphy never left his station by the door.

  We meet in the middle. “I'm Talyn.”

  “Okay.”

  “You're confused.”

  I don't know if that's it exactly. What I do know is I'm depressed. For a lot of people, giving up working forever would be great—along with the chance to have children because most women can't anymore. But my life was mine. Now it's not. Poof. Just gone.

  “Not confused. Disappointed. Uncertain. Sad.”

  “That's all normal,” Talyn says.

  Drest and Jac come to flank me. “Your guard is right, Talyn. Let's get Paige inside.”

  “We'll talk in there. I have intel that says the other transition is hurt because of a colony battle?”

  I shrug.

  “Yeah, they got her good—but Kiel is fixing her up.”

  Drest frowns at Jac's summary, but even though the woolly is sort of unfiltered, I appreciate him just blurting stuff out.

  The more I know.

  Talyn turns, walking toward Final Enforcement.

  I follow.

  The males trail behind me, thinking God knows what.

  I'm super-glad they don't know what I'm thinking.

  Well, this is awkward. I was all set up to have a threesome (not that it would have happened for sure with woolly and fanged gorilla), and now I'm getting counseled.

  Then, the other girl is here, and she's nothing like what I would expect.

  First, she's beautiful. Second, she's kind of old to be having kids. But the First Species dude that's with her clearly doesn't think so—and she's sophisticated.