Okay guys here is the next book I hope you enjoy. And btw I will hold polls after this series is complete to see what book series I should do next, I got a lot of really good suggestions and I want to see which one you guys want me to do first. Enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing about this story... the writing is all L.L. Raand's and the Characters are from various televsion shows (South of Nowhere, The O.C., Orange is the New Black, Lost Girl, The Fosters, and The L Word) Credit goes completely to all listed above.

Just before sunrise, Alex pulled Bo beneath her and pressed her mouth to Bo's neck. "I hunger."

Bo arched her back and gave her throat to her Packmate, in submission and invitation. "Feed."

Through the haze of her bloodlust, Alex's heart constricted. Bo, the Pack imperator, the leader of the Alpha's elite centuri guard, had never submitted to anyone except the Alpha, but she offered herself willingly now for Alex's need. Daylight was coming, and Alex's newly turned Vampire physiology drove her to consume the blood that would keep her alive during her somnolence until the circadian cycle edged into night and the deadly ultraviolet rays of the sun were neutralized. Before her body became quiescent, she had to replenish the essential ferrin compounds that her system lacked. Without blood, she would die. When she tried to resist the urge, a terrible chasm of pain opened inside her, stripping her reason, driving her mad. Alex groaned and her vision hazed to red.

"Feed," Bo murmured, threading her fingers through Alex's hair, forcing Alex's open mouth harder against the bounding pulse in her neck. "Please, I need you."

Need, desire, all-consuming hunger rolled through Alex's mind and scorched along her nerve pathways, thrumming beneath skin so tight she feared she might tear apart. She was Vampire, but she was also Were. Claws erupted from her fingertips, canines—thinner and sharper after her change—shot from their sheaths. Her lips drew back in a snarl. Brown pelt feathered the trench between her abdominals, and her clitoris lengthened. She pulled Bo to her, scoring shallow gouges in Bo's chest that ran crimson in the dusky glow of almost-dawn. Alex licked the scarlet flow and Bo writhed, her swollen sex hot and hard against Alex's thigh. Alex rubbed her stone-tipped breasts over Bo's and sank into Bo's throat, injecting a flood of erotostimulants into Bo's system with her bite. Bo growled and her face morphed, her canines erupting, her jaw elongating. Alex pulled at Bo's throat and Bo released a torrent of thick, hot victus, roaring in an agony of pleasure.

Alex's hips pumped in time to the contractions in her throat, her continuous climax driven by the surge of blood into her tissues. She knew nothing but the blood. She drank, but the dark hollows within her never filled. Her clitoris pulsed, her sex glands emptied over and over, but she craved more. More, and never enough.

A faint whimper penetrated her lust-clouded consciousness. Bo. Bo strained in her arms, vulnerable and defenseless. Bo. Alex wrenched her mouth away, panting, her canines still throbbing, her abdomen so tight she could barely breathe. Bo shuddered in midshift, her eyes wolf-hazel, her red-gray pelt shimmering beneath her sex-sheened skin. Alex fell away and Bo threaded her fingers through Alex's hair and kissed her, licking the blood from her mouth.

"More," Bo growled, dragging Alex's head down to her neck. "Take more."

"I can't," Alex gasped.

"Yes." Bo slid her hand down Alex's belly, gripped her sex, and squeezed. "Drink me."

"No," a cool voice said from across the room.

Alex stiffened and flung herself to the far side of the bed. Away from Bo. Away from temptation. Away from the blood that called her like a lover. She wrapped her arms around her middle and buried her face between her knees. "Get away."

Heed her, little Wolf.The command slid through Bo's mind like a knife.

Bo whipped her head around, snarling as she came up on all fours, inching closer to a full shift. Her jaws ached, her heart thundered. Her pelvis throbbed with the pressure of sex hormones swelling her glands. She was ready to fight or fuck. She focused on the Vampire in the shadows. Foster, lethal as a blade where she leaned against the wall in dark pants and a white shirt open between small breasts, her eyes fiery red, her skin silvery pale in the glow of a morning she would never see again. Bo growled a challenge. "I can feed her all she needs."

Stef Foster pushed away from the wall and swung the shutters closed over the windows, blocking the daylight. Muted amber lights came on just inside the door. She regarded Bo with a chilly, dismissive expression. "You might be able to. You're centuri. If you were human, she would drain you. Even other Weres cannot give what you give and survive. She has taken enough."

Rage tore through Bo's blood. Need curdled in her stomach. Somewhere nearby she felt the Alpha running, running without her. But the Alpha's call still stirred her, and she had nowhere to turn, nowhere to go. No one to ease her terrible emptiness. She needed to lose herself in the addictive pleasure of Alex's bite. The Vampire watching her had taught her that pleasure the night Bo had first offered her blood to save the Vampire's life. Now she was left with the insatiable desire for the pleasure, and oblivion, only a Vampire's bite could bestow.

"You have fed her for the last time," Stef said.

Bo came out of her crouch with a powerful thrust of her legs and launched herself at Stef's throat. She would not be subjugated to the will of this Vampire or any other. She answered only to the Alpha. She would take her pleasure where she wanted, when she wanted, and no one would dictate to her or any other Were. She struck the thick log wall where Stef had been standing, her claws scraping timber and her jaws snapping closed on empty air. She'd shifted in midflight and her wolf fell heavily, rolling with a growl onto her feet. The Vampire had moved so quickly as to be invisible. Vampires carried no scent detectable even to a Were's heightened senses, forcing Bo to track her by sight. Whirling around, she scanned the room with a quick sweep of her head. Stef stood between Bo and Alex, who had fallen into her daylight somnolence, naked, blood-covered, coated in victus and sex sweat. Bo stalked forward, lips curled back, eyes fixed on her prey.

"You forget, little Wolf," Stef said softly. "I am Risen now. You are no match for me."

Stef's eyes darkened to the color of burning blood and Bo whined, the pressure in her skull from the Vampire's thrall forcing her down on her belly. She would not show her throat, she would die first. The pressure grew and she whined again. The Vampire was suddenly crouched in front of her. Cool fingers threaded through her ruff, lifting her effortlessly until her muzzle was extended and her throat exposed.

"I could take you now, little Wolf," Stef murmured, "if I wanted. There was a time when all wolves came to the call of their Vampire masters. I could call you to me again, but I won't." Stef lowered Bo to the floor. "Understand this. Alex is centuri, and she is Were. But she is also Vampire, and she is mine. She will not feed from you again."

Bo staggered on unsteady legs to the bed and crawled up next to Alex. She rested her muzzle on Alex's breast, shielding her. Guarding her. She had been born to guard and the Alpha had ordered her to protect Alex. This she understood. This she would do, or die.

Stef slipped out of the room, satisfied her newling would be secure until Alex rose again at nightfall and she took her out to hunt. She glided down the wide hall of the Were infirmary toward the room where she had risen only a short time before. Lena was there. Stef's throat tightened. Lena.

A female stepped from the shadows and Stef slowed, misting into visibility. She nodded to the Were medic with the dirty blond hair and haunted mahogany eyes. "Lauren."

Lauren murmured, "It is good to see you, Detective."

"Thank you." Stef didn't bother to correct her. The moment she had risen, she had ceased being a police detective. While she had been a pre-animate—what the humans called a living Vampire—she had appeared on the surface to be more human than Praetern, and even then, her colleagues distrusted her. Most feared her. There would be no place for a Risen Vampire in the human law enforcement hierarchy, especially not one with the level of power bequeathed by her ancient bloodlines. Now she had no choice but to take up the mantle of her Clan and prepare to rule the Dominion that would pass to her when her father stepped aside or the balance of power among the many families shifted and she would be forced to take his place. For now, her responsibility lay in ensuring the survival of her species.

Lauren glanced over her shoulder toward the massive wood doors at the far end of the hall. Doors built for a fortress, not a hospital. A sliver of sunlight glowed beneath them. "I know you must go. Bo—and Alex. Are they all right?"

"Alex is safe. Bo guards her."

"Has Alex fed?" Lauren asked. "We didn't send anyone."

"She has been cared for."

Lauren colored. "Of course. Bo. Thank you."

"Much has changed in a very short time," Stef said, her heightened empathic powers reading sadness verging on despair in the Were's psyche. "Everything will not always be as it is now."

"No one knows that better than I," Lauren said. "I won't keep you. I only wanted to let you know we have dispatched guards to your room and Alex's, although here in the Compound you are safe."

"That's not necessary. My soldiers will see to it." She had already called for her soldiers and her blood servants to come to the Compound. When she woke at sunfall, so soon after rising, she would be voracious, and she could not risk Lena being the only one nearby to host. As to how safe she was in the Were Compound, she trusted Ashley Davies' word that she and her Vampires would be protected, but she was no fool. If Ashley fell, the next Alpha might have a different view. Until her transition was complete, she would not be able to function well during daylight hours. Soon, she would not be so weak. Her powers were emerging quickly. Even now her body resisted the pull of the torpor ignited by the rising sun.

"Then you will be doubly guarded." Lauren smiled. "The Alpha has ordered it."

"Thank you, then," Stef said and left Lauren to join her consort.

Stef stepped into the room where she had risen. Lena had already closed the blinds and shuttered the windows. A lamp beside the bed illuminated Lena's shoulder-length ebony hair and made her coffee skin glint with mahogany highlights. Stef latched the door behind her and strode to the bed, unbuttoning her shirt as she walked, watching Lena watch her undress. Lena's eyes gleamed and Stef saw hunger there. She'd seen hunger countless times in the eyes of her hosts, males and females, human and Praetern, but no one's hunger had ever stirred her the way Lena's did. Lena hungered for her, not the pleasure her bite would bring or the chance for immortality.

"You show me worlds I never dreamed of," Stef murmured. Her throat ached to taste her. Her need filled her until all she knew was Lena.

"I can see myself reflected in your eyes," Lena said. "You make me feel beautiful and desirable."

"You see the truth." Stef stopped at the foot of the bed and unzipped her pants. She stepped free of everything—clothes, preconceptions, old wounds—when she went to Lena. "I don't have much time."

Lena pushed the covers aside. "I know. Come to me."

Stef slid under the covers, lassitude spreading through her. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You're here with me. I couldn't ask for anything else."

Smiling, Stef traced the line of Lena's jugular, flowing hot and fast beneath her skin. "No?"

"You see the truth, as well." Lena caught Stef's hand and kissed her palm. "Alex? Is she all right?"

"Yes. She did well."

"Good." Lena's eyes were worried as she skated her fingertips over Stef's throat and down the center of her chest. "Will you be safe today?"

"Don't worry. My people are already here."

Lena glanced at the door. "I don't hear anything."

"I feel them."

"Are they in your blood, like me?"

Stef pressed her mouth to Lena's throat and let her incisors pierce the skin infinitesimally. "There is no other like you. You are my blood mate. My blood flows in you, and yours in me. We're bound, eternally."

"Eternally," Lena whispered, sadness swirling in her eyes. "But I am human—"

"Lena," Stef whispered. "When I rose this morning, my destiny changed forever, as did yours. I have much to tell you."

"I know. When you wake, there will be time for us to talk." Lena rested her hand beneath Stef's breast, her fingers trembling. "You're growing cooler."

Stef covered Lena's hand with hers. "You won't feel it beat until I feed again, and sometimes, not even then. Does that bother you?"

Lena kissed her. "No. I have you. That's what I need."

"I hunger for you."

"The Weres who hosted for you were not enough?" Lena said, the gleam of satisfaction in her eyes. "What else do you need?"

"You. I need you." Stef pulled Lena on top of her and pushed her hair back, exposing her neck. She licked the smooth skin over the pulse in Lena's throat. "I would drink you before I sleep."

Lena shifted and straddled Stef's thigh. She was wet, hot. "Would you?"

"You already fed me once. I shouldn't."

Lena smiled, rubbing herself against Stef's abdomen. She wasn't yet used to the crimson shards that had appeared in Stef'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 Stef still needed. She slipped her fingers behind Stef's head and pulled Stef forward until Stef's mouth was against her neck. "Drink me. You're mine."

"Yes." Stef groaned and slid into Lena, flooding Lena's body with her hormones, filling herself with Lena's lifeblood.

Lena arched and cried out, her orgasm a burning tide streaming through her. Beneath her, Stef climaxed in deep, continuous waves until she licked the punctures closed in Lena's throat, shut her eyes, and fell away, lying still as death. Lena gathered her close, aching to see her so defenseless. She didn't care how many guards stood outside the door. Stef was hers to protect, and no one would threaten her while she lived.

She hadn't slept the night before, waiting for Stef to return from the night raid with the Alpha, and she wasn't planning on leaving Stef's side until she had risen again. Stef 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 Stef and the door as the knob turned.

A brunette Lena 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 Stef, then settled on Lena.

"The Liege rests comfortably?" Her voice was low and resonant, like the smooth register of a fine stringed instrument.

Lena drew the sheet over Stef's bare chest. "She's fine. Who are you?"

"I am Captain Roberts, head of security for Clan Chasseur de Nuit."

Lena mentally thumbed through her little-used French. "Night hunters. Stef's Clan?"

"Yes."

"The sun is up. How is it you're awake?"

"I am human."

Lena frowned. "I thought Dani was in charge of Stef'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." Roberts 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," Lena said sharply.

"She left instructions that you were not to be the first to host tonight."

"Oh? And who will be first?"

Roberts smiled. "I will."