Chapter 30
Author's note: My Feral Lady is now available on amazon! I did the same as I did with Fur and Fangs! Just a change in character names. It has 39 chapters. You can go pick it up to read those chapters early, but in the meantime, I will be posting one or two chapters a week. The book is really just for those who have enjoyed and want to support what I have been doing here. I have put a lot of energy and love into this story, and getting a couple of extra bucks through publishing the book means a lot, and helps ensure that I can continue writing like this! Link is on my tumblr : hopefulbadgerjunara of course.
Breaking the news?
"Jess? Jess? You still here? You gotta still be here!" Kara called out after she finished a cursory search amongst the ground floor uncovered next to no sign of her. Kara began to grow worried as she confirmed that Jess was nowhere to be found downstairs. "Jess?! Are you here? Are you ok?" Kara checked the safe room once more and then dashed up the stairs when it yielded nothing.
"Hey Kar! Sorry!" Jess popped out from Lena's room.
"Hey there! You scared me." Kara jumped startled. "I… why were you in Lena and I's bedroom?"
"I was just looking for a change of clothes. Mine were all nasty, and Lena is roughly my size." Jess shrugged.
"Lena said she left you some at the door to the bathroom for you." Kara frowned.
"Oops! Well! I must have missed it." Jess played off a little too quick.
"Yeah, must have huh?" Kara nodded quietly, almost as if it was just to herself.
"You were calling my name?" Jess stuck a hand into her pocket and winced.
"You ok?"
"Yup. I'm great. Just a little hungry."
"Lena still keeps her pigs' blood; all just in case you came home. It's in the fridge just like always."
"I…" A little hurt shown in Jess's eyes.
"We were all so scared for you."
Jess said nothing.
"In our own way, we each blamed ourselves. It almost wrecked both Alex and Lena. They missed you, you know?"
"I know." Jess's head sunk.
"Good. So you are gonna drink some of that blood she stored up for you and make sure you are all healthy and safe then right?" Kara glared.
"Yeah, sure thing. I will. I promise."
"Good, then grab it to go. Cause you are enlisted for babysitting."
"Babysitting?" Jess coughed out.
"Yup. Lena wants you and Emma around me when she breaks some big news or something, and after that, then is the real babysitting. Long story short, we are all gonna be looking after Cat's cubs. They don't have their mother, or their father anymore. Not even their eldest brother. So we will all be taking care of them. Sound good?"
"I… you sure the wolf pups will want me around?" Jess fidgeted awkwardly. "I'm a vampire remember? I smell like death and all."
Kara simply rose a single step so she was about eye level with the shorter woman before hugging her. Kara might have also used the embrace as a hidden attempt to give Jess a cursory pat-down, still suspecting something suspicious of her sneaking into her room. Regardless of ulterior motives, the hug was also genuine, just in a different way. "They would love to see you. I'm certain. Plus, I want the next generation to be more accepting of the vampires. Best way to cultivate that is for them to meet a good vampire, one nothing like Eve."
Jess looked away. "I'm not so sure I am ready for all of that. I was just trying to kill Lena this morning."
"That wasn't under your control."
"It doesn't matter."
"It does." Kara insisted.
"Kara, I don't know that I can look at her… not; at least not until I have corrected my mistakes."
"What mistake? Getting captured by Eve?"
Jess's eyes argued and protested left and right, but she did not speak a word.
"Well, that is beyond foolish. Because even Lena has already forgiven you. Hell, so have I."
"Kara-"
"Look, even if you don't wanna tag along over to the pups, I need you to head over to Alex's with me, for Lena."
"Ok." Jess exhaled a sigh of exasperated hopefulness.
"Ready to go then?"
"Yeah, just gotta grab some blood if we are heading out. It's been a long day, and I could use the nourishment."
"Good, good. The whole middle shelf is yours. That is what Lena saved for you, the rest she was giving out as usual."
"Thanks." Jess forced a smile.
The two arrived at Alex's not much longer. Jess had consumed almost all of the blood Lena had stocked up for her over the whole month that she had been gone, and Kara was fairly certain it hadn't done much more than dent the vampire's appetite.
"Hungry?" Kara half teased, half prodded.
"Starving."
"Eve starve you or something?" The wolf stepped out of the car as she noticed Jess sloppily sucking on the spout of the last blood bag Lena had saved for her.
"Or something." Jess glared with fangs protruding past her lower lips, clearly wishing she had something to bite and not just the bag's spout.
"You ok?"
"Just hungry." Jess snarled, tossing the empty sack of blood back into the car.
"You wanna tell me what is actually going on?" Kara grabbed at the bar's front door, standing in Jess's way before opening it.
"Eve is a cunt. Nothing old, nothing new."
"So? What happened?" Kara's eyes pressed for an answer.
"Eve continued to be the evil bitch we all know her to be."
"And?"
"And she interchanged starving me with forcing me to gorge myself, drinking someone, not an animal! A person! Drinking a person dry! She would force me to kill a person and then just break up the haze with starving me."
"I-"
"Can we just get on with whatever Lena wanted us to do? I'm hungry, I'm tired, and I need to sleep."
"I thought vampires didn't ne-"
"We don't, unless we are starving."
"Alex has some blood under the bar. It is kinda promised to someone else, but if you just take a bag or so, it should be ok." Kara offered, opening the door and waiving Jess through.
"No." Jess shuttered. "Nothing human."
Kara's brow furrowed. "You drank it before, and at Freya's. I remember it was more or less just on special occasions, but I think this qualif-"
"Kara just stop it! Drinking what I did while I was at Freya's was a mistake! I'll sleep when we get to Cat's and then I'll eat again whenever we go back to the butchery."
"Ok, ok. Sorry. I'll drop it." Kara forfeited.
"Thank you."
The two were quiet until they got all the way down to the basement. Kara knew that Emma would be down there, that the wolf would still be loyally sitting next to her mate as he huffed and snarled in his sleep.
"Emma?" Kara called out.
The wolf stirred, she must have fallen asleep next to her mate's cage. "Huh?"
Jess took a seat at the end of the stairs, clearly exhausted and drained.
"Hey. Just me and Jess this time." Kara greeted again once Emma had fully awakened.
"Oh, hey. Sorry. I, I must have fallen asleep." Emma rubbed her eyes and stretched out her back before sticking just a few fingers through the grate to scratch lovingly at Maxwell's head. "Morning little buddy." She whispered for him despite knowing it would fall on deaf ears.
"It's like five."
"That early?"
"In the afternoon." Jess cut in cold, head buried against an arm holding to the stairway's railing to keep her up.
"Oh. Guess I didn't sleep for as long as I thought?" Emma groaned, still trying to wake up.
"You mind giving Lena a call and then lending me your phone for a second?" Kara requested.
"Uugh, sure? Wait, what's going on? You two on the rocks already?"
"No, nothing like that; maybe vaguely like that. It's a long story, just she asked me to do this ok?"
"Well, in that case… I guess it's fine then?" Emma shifted to find her phone in her pockets, snaking it out and dialing up Lena.
"Woo, does this mean I can sleep soon?" Jess griped from over in her corner, nearly falling over and only staying up thanks to a loose but weakening grip at the railing.
"Is she alright?" Emma worried as the dial tone rung.
"I hope so." Kara sighed, stressing all of the everything that seemed to be in flux for her as of late.
"Hey Em? Kara there?" Lena greeted with the noise of kids laughing in the background.
"Yup, Jess too."
"You mind passing the phone off to her and giving her some space down in the basement for us to talk?"
"How'd you know we were in the basement?" Emma chuckled.
"Like you would willingly leave Maxwell's side unless one of us makes you." Lena teased.
"Yeah. You got me." Emma chuckled in a disheartened worry.
"Kara and I won't need too long. I just need to tell her something and have people there to help her if the news hits too hard."
"Did something happen? Are you two ok?"
"Please, just pass the phone off?"
"Ok." Emma offered up the phone to a peculiarly calm Kara.
"Thanks Emma." Kara whispered as she took the phone and found her own little corner to sit in as she talked.
"Come on, let's give them some privacy." Emma offered Jess a hand up and assisted her in ascending the stairs.
"Hey love?" Kara sunk to the ground, curling up into a small ball there in her corner.
"Hey babe." Lena sighed, doing the same on her end.
"How are the kids?"
"Oh, they are good. Emelia had the idea to play Pictionary with them. They seem to be having a lot of fun." Lena forced a lighthearted tone.
"That's great. They deserve some fun."
"Yeah, they really do."
"So, you wanna finally tell me what it is?"
"Do I wanna?" Lena grimaced.
"It's ok."
"Nothing is ok."
"Lena, I love you. It'll be alright we can get through this."
"You don't know what it is."
"It will be ok."
"Kara."
"Lena."
"Kara!"
"Lena." Kara's voice stayed calm and tender as Lena's rose in fear.
"I love you."
"I love you too. It's going to be ok."
"It is the same reason why Gayle wanted you to leave while we talked to her the other night."
"I know."
"Yeah. She was afraid of how you would react if she told yo- Wait! What?"
"I know that it is the same thing."
"I! Oh. I… well! I!" Lena stammered. "You! I don't know! Maybe it isn't a thing! You have been doing better lately!"
"It is a thing."
"What?"
"I know Lena."
Lena babbled incoherently into her end of the phone.
"I am going feral too. Just like Adam, just like Maxwell."
"No! No!" Lena broke down.
"Were you planning to tell me something else?"
"No. That was it."
"It will be ok. I'm sure Alex is working on a solution."
"But- I! Why did you-"
"Let you send me all across town?"
"Yeah, a little?"
"Because I needed you to tell me. To confirm what it was you were so scared of telling me. And I wanted you to feel safe and comfortable doing it, so I let you send me across town."
"How long have you known?"
"I figured it out just a little after we got back. When you told Jess that you loved her again. I remembered when I first heard you say that. How I lost all control, and the only thing that could bring me back was you. I knew what it was then. I thought I had evaded it, but… it's not going away." Kara settled into her corner with a bitter resignation seeping in now that Lena had finally told her and she had admitted it aloud.
"No! No! I! It could be going away! You've been doing so much better ever since we got in the car!" Lena barked out her pleas.
"It's not going away." Kara shook her head despite being on the phone.
"No! I! No! Kara! Really! You have been nothing but calm since we got back. So it is getting better."
"Lena!" Kara snarled, anything but calm.
"No." Lena broke out into sobs on the floor.
Kara huffed and growled again, trying to subdue the growing rage at her mate's pain and the intangible enemy causing it. "It will be ok." She forced in spite of the muzzle beginning to grow on her face. She was involuntarily shifting again, losing control over her wolf.
"How is this ok?"
"Alex will find something. We just need to stay calm and wait." Kara forced herself to calm, regulating her breathing and stabilizing herself for Lena. All for Lena.
"I-"
"Alex will find something." Kara cut off the moment she could sense the fear in Lena's voice.
"Ok." Lena willed herself to believe, if only because she couldn't handle doubting her mate and staying in fear.
"I am gonna come back, ok? I will bring Jess with me and I will tell Emma she is welcome to tag along. Is that ok?"
"Yeah. I… that is ok. I need my alpha."
"And I need my omega."
"I love you."
"I love you too."
End of Chapter 30
