Rated M
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.
Niki knelt beside Jenny, stroking Jenny's hair and lifting the long strands away from her throat as Jenny straddled Clive on the wide, silk-covered bed. Jenny rode the cock buried inside her as automatically as she checked her reflection in a mirror for imperfections—reflexively, without even really thinking about it. She was thinking about Niki, though—Niki was all she could think about. "Bite me again—for God's sake, hurry. I want to come."
She grasped the Vampire's hand and pulled her closer, molding Niki's hand to her bare breast. "Again. Bite me again."
Niki cupped Jenny's breast and teased her nipple into a hard, aching point. "Three times already tonight," Niki murmured. "You'll be weak tomorrow if I take more."
"I know what I want," Jenny snarled, gripping Niki's chin. Just the sight of the Vampire's incisors pressing against her lower lip made her want to come. "I want your essence inside me again. So good, so powerful. You want my blood—make me come."
Niki's eyes darkened to a violent magenta, and she was at Jenny's throat before Jenny had even sensed her move. Fire scorched through her, immolating her with more pleasure than she'd imagined possible. She came in a hot flood, drenching Clive, not caring what became of him. She dug her fingers into Niki's shoulders and rubbed her breasts over the Vampire's firm, sculpted chest. Niki's small, perfect breasts were faintly cool, like exquisite glass. She came and came and came, crying out as her control shattered and flew apart.
Jenny heard voices, but her mind was too hazy to make out words. She willed herself back to awareness. She couldn't allow her pleasures to interfere with her objectives. Clive sprawled beside her, his face lax, the evidence of his satisfaction glistening on his washboard stomach. She barely spared him a glance—he'd served his purpose. Niki stood by the French doors overlooking the park, splendidly nude, every inch of her gleaming skin enticing. She held a cell phone in her hand. Jenny's phone.
"Who is it?" Jenny asked, holding out her hand as she crossed barefoot on the thick Persian carpet.
"The Viceregal," Niki said, her pupils vast pools of inky black as her gaze slid over Jenny.
Jenny smiled and stroked a fingertip down her cheek. "Still hungry, darling? You'll have to wait."
Niki hissed and Jenny laughed. She took the phone. "Yes?"
"Teasing her is inadvisable," Madison said mildly.
"You needn't worry. I know how to handle a lover."
"Perhaps—under ordinary circumstances. But these are not ordinary circumstances, are they?"
Jenny heated inside at the razor-sharp memory of the crystal pain lancing her neck and the explosion of sensation in her mouth and her throat, driving into her stomach, lower, exploding outward in an orgasm so devastating she was reduced to helplessness. She'd always used physical pleasure to dull the edge of her mental aggression, the intensity of which sometimes made her feel as if she were in the center of a hurricane. But she'd always been aware, always maintained control, always tempered relief with her need to be in charge. Tonight, all that had changed. Still, she'd handled the powerful exchange without any mishaps. Her only concern now was when she could repeat the activities. "Is there something I can do for you, Viceregal?"
"It's almost sunrise," Madison said. "Niki will be leaving soon. I'm sending another guard to replace her. Clive will remain with you during the day."
"I thought there'd be only Clive by day, except in the case of a threat. Is there some reason you feel I need added protection?"
"I was about to ask you," Madison said, her voice as thick and rich as honey, "if you knew anything about the explosion at the laboratory."
Jenny cursed Isaac silently for having failed to keep her informed of the timetable for his plans. She assumed whatever had happened was his doing, but she couldn't be sure, and now she was placed in an awkward position. This was exactly the reason why she didn't like to become involved with the agendas of others. If she wasn't making the critical decisions, she couldn't control the outcomes or plan for contingencies. "I'm afraid I don't."
"I suspected that was the case," Madison said. "After all, why would you want to destroy your own work?"
"Exactly," Jenny said, realizing that Madison had just provided her with the perfect defense should anyone ever question her. On the surface, she had nothing to gain by destroying the facility. "You obviously know more than I, but if I learn anything, I will of course pass it on to you as soon as possible."
"Of course," Madison said. "By the way, are you happy with the arrangements we've made for your protection?"
Jenny's gaze flitted over the exhausted man on the bed and the smoldering gaze of the Vampire leaning against the wall with her arms crossed beneath her flawless breasts. Niki looked hungry, and Jenny wanted nothing more than to feed her. "Quite satisfactory."
"Be careful, my dear," Madison said softly. "Accidents like the one tonight have a way of recurring."
"I'll remember that, thank you." Jenny wondered if Madison had just delivered a warning or a threat. She also wondered if Isaac wasn't becoming more of a liability than he was worth.
"What do you think?" Shane asked, propped up against the satin-sheathed pillows on Madison's bed. She lifted a glass of champagne and sipped it.
Madison tossed her cell phone onto her dressing table and leaned back against it, her fingers curled over the ornately carved edge, her attention on the beautiful androgynous form of her longtime lover and second in command. "She's lying. She wasn't surprised or upset by the news of the laboratory being destroyed. She and Isaac must be working more closely than I realized. Placing Niki with her was a very good idea. Hopefully, we'll learn something of their plans in enough time to decide if we want to support them or stop them."
"And if Ashley discovers you're playing both sides of the street?"
Laughing, Madison slid the straps of her sheer negligee over the slopes of her shoulders and let the filmy material fall to the floor. Naked, she reclined on the bed and faced Shane. "Ashley is enough of a politician to understand that those in our position must make decisions to benefit those we serve." She kissed Shane lightly. "Or perhaps, in our case, those who serve us."
"Why not just ally with Ashley openly now?"
"For all the reasons I've resisted doing that so far," Madison said quite seriously. "Ashley's stance of cooperative coexistence with the humans is not popular among our kind nor among many of the other Praeterns. And I'm not at all convinced it's to our advantage. Now that we are visible to the humans, we have almost more prey coming to us than we can handle. Why change the balance of power, particularly when that means giving up some of ours?"
"It's possible after these attacks on her Weres, Ashley may rethink her position on the Coalition and change her mind about working with the humans. After all, they were the ones experimenting on her females."
"Yes," Madison said. "And the more information we can provide her about humans working against us, the better. We just need to keep our association with the humans from becoming known." She tapped Shane's cheek playfully. "And you should stay away from Ashley's Weres unless they come to us at Gray. Poaching on her territory is a challengeable offense."
"Ashley should be the last one to complain about a Were consorting with a Vampire," Shane said.
"Well, darling, what the Alpha does is one thing. What she wants her wolves to do is quite another."
"I haven't trespassed. And I haven't taken anyone against their will."
Madison's eyes narrowed. "You don't want to give this one up, do you?"
"She interests me."
"Really. Who is it?"
Shane lifted a shoulder. "What does it matter? After all these centuries, a momentary interest is nothing."
"Just remember," Madison said, her smile not reaching her eyes, "who you fuck and who you feed from is of no concern to me. Who you confide in—now, that's entirely different."
"You have nothing to be concerned about, then." Shane kissed her, her blood surging with the strength and power of the Were she'd fed from not an hour before. Carmen. Carmen more than interested her, and she had no intention of letting the Viceregal know just how much.
The headlights of the Rover cut through the trees, but before the vehicle emerged, two huge wolves burst from the forest, one black as midnight, the other a slice of gleaming silver as bright as a shard of the moon fallen to earth.
Bo straightened, holding Lauren close. "Alpha! Prima!"
Ashley and Spencer shed pelt so quickly Bo couldn't even see the shift.
Ashley's eyes blazed gold. "What happened?" She cupped Lauren's chin. "Are you hurt?"
Behind them, Tamsin angled the Rover into the clearing, and Chelsea jumped out. Carmen, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, followed.
"Carmen said you were injured," Chelsea said, hurrying to Lauren. "What happened?"
Lauren wrapped her arms around Bo's waist and pressed against her side. "I don't know. I remember running, and sensing danger." She shook her head. "I sensed Carmen in trouble, and then…" She shuddered and Bo growled, pulling her even closer. "A pain, a blinding pain in my head and then—nothing."
Ashley said to Bo, "What did you sense?"
"Only her pain."
Ashley looked over her shoulder at Carmen as Chelsea handed the clothes she'd brought to Lauren. "And you can't remember anything either?"
Carmen looked away. "I don't remember coming out here. I remember—I'm not sure. I don't know what is now and what is from…before."
Spencer slid her arm around Carmen's shoulders. "It's all right. You haven't done anything wrong. Just tell us whatever you can recall."
"I remember need," Carmen whispered, "and pleasure. I needed something, someone. A terrible aching emptiness and then…then heat, and belonging. Pleasure. And then—everything was all right. I remember feeling as if I were running in pelt, strong and free and happy."
Ashley glanced at Bo again. "Does that sound like thrall to you?"
Bo's canines shot down and she growled savagely. "They're both describing thrall. Carmen was probably bitten…and the stimulants blocked out every other sensation and memory. But Lauren—someone forced a thrall on Lauren, against her will, damaging her. If I find out who it is, I'll kill them."
Lauren murmured, "Bo, I'm not hurt." She rubbed Bo's chest and belly to calm her. "I'm all right."
"You're not." Bo covered Lauren's hand with hers. "Someone struck you…psychically. They'll die for that."
"Stop. I'm here. I'm not damaged." Lauren licked Bo's neck, bit her softly. "But I love you for wanting to protect me."
"Carmen?" Ashley said. "Let me see your neck."
Carmen came forward, her eyes lowered. Ashley cupped her chin gently and turned her head from side to side. She frowned. "I don't see any bites."
"A master Vampire probably would make only the barest puncture, and the growth factors in their bite would heal the wounds almost instantaneously," Bo said.
"We had Vampires in the Compound tonight," Ashley said. "Madison, her senechal, her soldiers. If one of them took advantage of our Weres, our treaty is void."
"I'm sorry, Alpha." Carmen spoke quietly, but she straightened to attention. "I don't think anyone took advantage of me. I think I would feel differently if they had."
"Ashley," Spencer said quietly, drawing her aside. "Shane is the one who was with Carmen in the lab. Maybe she was with her tonight too."
Ashley rubbed her thumb along the edge of Spencer's jaw. "You think Carmen's involvement was voluntary?"
"Maybe. Or maybe it was a thrall." Spencer sighed. "The first we need to respect, especially if Carmen sought her out. She did go out running, according to Alice. But if she was bitten against her will, we cannot let that stand."
"Bo will want retribution. If Shane enthralled Lauren, and Bo challenges her, we'll likely have a war."
"Right now, we can't afford to lose our alliance with the Vampires, no matter how shaky it is."
"I know." Ashley watched Bo nuzzle Lauren, rumbling and fretting. "They're newly mated. She's not going to be reasonable."
"We can't be sure it was Shane," Spencer pointed out. "And when is Bo ever reasonable? She'll do what is best for the Pack." Spencer rubbed Ashley's back. "Let's get everyone back to the Compound where they'll be secure. I'll check Lauren over with Chelsea, just to be sure she's all right. You can talk to Bo."
Ashley glanced at Spencer. "How is it you get the easy jobs?"
Spencer kissed her. "Because you're the Alpha."
