The Lone Hunt

by L. L. Raand

  “Thank you,” she murmured.

  “For what?” Lara replied just as softly. She’d pulled on pants, but her chest was bare, her small breasts a surprising softness against the chiseled muscles of her chest. Not a scratch marred her golden skin, even though Raina knew she had scored her deeply.

  “You saved my life.”

  Lara’s eyes were amber again, a beautiful golden brown. The fire that had leapt in them when she’d loomed over her, before she’d brought her mouth to her neck, before she’d done whatever it was she’d done that filled her with such pleasure, was absent. The arrogance, though, remained. “I would have killed you if you hadn’t claimed sanctuary.”

  “Would you?” Raina said, taking a chance that she’d been right when she’d sensed the smallest bit of hesitation earlier. She’d been helpless, unable to fight any longer, and Lara had not struck the killing blow. Another wolf—probably any other wolf—would have. “Then I am in your debt.”

  Lara’s eyes narrowed and her canines flashed against her full lower lip. “You may not think I’ve done you any favors before long.”

  “I know. Your Alpha may not be as merciful.” She glanced at Niki, who leaned against the side of the vehicle, no weapon in sight, but claws and canines extended. Fury clouded the air around her. “She wants me dead.”

  “And if you found a wolf in your territory? Would you be any different?”

  Raina huffed. “Who knows what any of us might do now? The cats did not want the Exodus, but we were not consulted. Your Alpha spoke for all the Weres, but he did not ask us what we wanted.”

  “The cats have never been organized enough to have a voice.”

  “That’s what you believe.” Raina sighed. “It’s done now, and we all must live with the changes.”

  A shadow darkened the amber of Lara’s eyes. “Yes. We all must live with change.”

  The pain in Raina’s chest flared, and she slid her hand over the one holding the stretcher. Despair, heavy and bleak, flooded through her. Lara’s anguish struck at her heart and she blurted, “What have they done—”

  Snarling, Lara jerked her hand away. Niki bounded forward and pressed a knife to Raina’s throat.

  “Let me gut her and save everyone the trouble of listening to her lies.”

  Lara shouldered Niki aside, enraged at the threat to Raina, furious at her own weakness. Somehow Raina had glimpsed her shame. “Leave her alone. We don’t kill helpless prisoners.”

  “She’s a cat.”

  “I said leave her.” Lara shoved her face into Niki’s, her teeth bared.

  Niki growled.

  Sophia rose from her seat on the other side of the SUV. “She’s not going anywhere and she’s no threat. We’ll be at the Compound in a minute.” She edged over to Niki and stroked her abdomen. “The Alpha will want a report. Then you’ll do what she orders.”

  Niki looped an arm around Sophia’s shoulders and rubbed her cheek against Sophia’s hair, her gaze still locked with Lara’s. “This isn’t done.”

  “Fine,” Lara snarled.

  Niki eased away and Lara knelt again. “You all right?”

  “Yes.” Raina nodded in the direction of her cubs. “If I am executed, will you get my cubs to safety?”

  Lara laughed. “Why would I do that?”

  “They’re innocent.”

  “Are they?” Lara stared at the two cubs, wrapped up in one another in the corner of the drawer, motionless, eyes the color of their mother’s, wary and watchful. “Is anyone ever innocent?”

  “You can have the pleasure of the kill yourself,” Raina said. “In exchange.”

  “You think you have something to bargain with. You don’t. Your fate is no longer something you can control.”

  The lion who lived in Raina’s soul screamed in protest, ferocious and proud. Raina growled, defiant, a dominant cat who would not be declawed.

  Lara laughed again and traced a finger over the stark curve of Raina’s jaw. “If you fight back, you’ll only bring more harm to yourself.” She tilted her chin toward the drawer a few feet away. “And them.”

  “I’ll kill anyone who touches them.” Raina’s claws broke through her fingertips. Pelt shone over her torso. Even in the dim light of the Rover she was golden, a gorgeous animal.

  “There’s nothing you’ll be able to do.” Lara resisted the urge to stroke her. “You are a prisoner. You’re going to have to accept that.”

  “Would you?” Raina panted, struggling to subdue her beast.

  Lara smiled grimly. “I already have.”

  Chapter Seven

  Francesca sensed the commotion outside her boudoir and mentally transmitted her annoyance to Michel.

  Whatever it is, it can wait.

  Michel had been her senechal, her enforcer, for over eight centuries and should know better than anyone not to disturb her during her first feeding of the evening. The older she became, the less she had need of sleep, but more and more of late, when she awakened after even a few hours’ somnolence, she was plagued by an inner hollowness, an ever-expanding void that threatened to consume her. Her hunger grew more ferocious with each passing week, assuaged by neither blood nor sex. No matter how many hosts she brought to her bed, or how much blood she consumed, or how many orgasms she incited in her blood donors or experienced during the depths of her bloodlust, she could not completely erase the foreboding that haunted her. And today she wanted to lose herself in the burning forgetfulness of bloodlust even more than usual. She needed to blunt her anger with pleasure. Today, she fed alone, and not by choice. Michel had been moody, withdrawn, since their visit to Sylvan’s Compound, but she steadfastly denied being troubled. She also denied her new and obvious predilection for feeding from young female Weres. This evening, when summoned, Michel had opted to feed upstairs in the club rather than with Francesca, and she was undoubtedly sating her hunger with yet another Were.

  Francesca kept her incisors buried in the young Were’s neck, ignoring Michel’s rapid approach. She was far from satisfied, and the male sprawled beneath her, buried to the hilt inside her, was far from empty. His brown eyes were glazed with pleasure, his canines extruded, his rock-hard abdomen covered with soft, red-brown pelt. His cock was as rigid as his heavy jaw and nearly as immobile, the thickened core wedging him fast. She drew on his vein and felt him jet again. Her own orgasm flowed languorously, a continuous wave of release that grew stronger as her cells revitalized, drawing nourishment from his blood. She’d barely taken notice of him at the Compound, but when she’d caught his profile on the security camera at the entrance to the club, she’d known he was one of Sylvan’s soldiers and sent for him. She liked the idea of taking something Sylvan would not want her to have. There was no edict against Sylvan’s Weres feeding Vampires—in fact, the number who visited Nocturne for exactly that reason seemed to be increasing—but Sylvan would not approve of one close to her inner circle being so vulnerable.

  He was enjoyable, but he would only be the first of the night. No Were, and certainly no human, male or female, came close to providing the raging rush of power an Alpha’s blood carried. Sylvan had never allowed Francesca to bite her, but she’d allowed Francesca to taste her, and that had been enough. Now Sylvan had a mate and no longer needed anything Francesca could provide, and all other Weres paled in comparison. This male had nowhere near the potency or power of his Alpha, but his stamina was admirable. As she fed, pulling deeper and harder at his throat, he emptied with powerful thrusts and showed no sign of slowing. She didn’t worry about draining him as she might if he were human. He could shift and replenish himself within hours.

  I’m sorry, Regent, Michel telegraphed. I must speak with you. It’s urgent.

  Francesca withdrew from his neck, sealed the punctures, and sat back, still straddling him.

  “Come in.”

  The ornate wood doors to her bedchamber swung open, and Michel slipped inside, pulling the doors shut behind her. The sitting room beyond was already prep
ared for Francesca’s bath and tea. Michel, rapier thin in black trousers, a black silk shirt open between her breasts, and gleaming knee-high black boots, surveyed the tableau on the bed. She was pale, and Francesca suspected she had not fed much. Her Adriatic blue eyes smoldered as she took in the stunned young male, the blood streaking his heaving chest, and the thick cock captured by Francesca’s slowly churning hips.

  “What is it?” Francesca questioned languidly, running her fingers through her hair and arching her back to lift her naked breasts. She cupped them and thumbed her nipples, a reminder to Michel of exactly what she had declined, sighing as another orgasm slowly climbed through her belly and spread outward. She smiled as waves of lust poured off Michel—after all these years, they were so attuned her orgasm would stir Michel no matter how strongly Michel barricaded herself.

  Across the room, Michel’s mouth tightened and her hands closed into fists. Her eyes flared crimson and her incisors glistened, but her finely carved features registered nothing. “Veronica Standish is upstairs. I’ve ordered our soldiers to keep her away from the clientele, but she seems bent on hosting someone.”

  Francesca threw back her head and laughed. “Really? And it only took Luce a few days. Veronica might have wanted you, darling, but she didn’t resist Luce’s charms for long. Is Raymond with them?”

  “No. He reported that Veronica dismissed him just before Luce arrived for her night duties. He’s in the parking lot if we need him.”

  “Good. Tell him to wait.”

  Francesca slid off the male beneath her and stood, ignoring his incoherent groan as his body spasmed at her sudden withdrawal. “And have someone move this to another room until he is recovered enough to leave.”

  “And Veronica?”

  “Dr. Standish is a very clever woman. She pretends to be our confidant, but her work in Nicholas’s secret lab suggests she wants to control, perhaps eradicate, the Weres.” Francesca drew on an ivory silk gown and tied it loosely at the waist. “She is human—and we are Praetern, like the Weres she regards as less than animals. Maybe she’s here to spy for Nicholas.”

  Michel laughed shortly, her burning gaze following Francesca’s every movement. “Not so very clever if she believes she can come into our territory and best us.”

  “Mmm.” Francesca slowly crossed to Michel and kissed her. Michel tensed and Francesca scented her hunger. Tracing a sculpted fingernail down Michel’s cheek, leaving a faint blood trail behind in the shallow cut, she murmured, “You should have joined me earlier, darling, we could have had so much fun. He was really quite tireless.”

  “I had business with some of my soldiers.” Michel pulled Francesca close and kissed her again, the wound on her face already closed. Her hand slid down Francesca’s back and over her ass. “Standish is a high-profile scientist with a national presence. She will be hard to contain.”

  Francesca tasted Michel’s need, but the distance was still there. She rubbed against Michel until Michel’s nipples hardened and her thighs tightened. Satisfied she’d gotten the response she wanted, Francesca stepped away. “Dr. Standish is in the unique position of being able to tell us what’s going on in Nicholas’s laboratories, and Nicholas’s other plans as well. We lose nothing by allowing her to satisfy her curiosity here.” She glanced at the Were, who had not yet emerged from his postorgasmic torpor. “But we need to keep her safe. She thinks she has control, and we should let her continue to think that. Send someone you trust to play with her. Someone who will be careful not to injure her.”

  “Will you speak to her?”

  “If she requests an audience, yes. For now, let her believe she is in charge.”

  “I can send Henry.”

  “Yes, Henry would be a good choice and…Daniela. She can use the experience, and Standish seems to like mixing her playmates.”

  Michel nodded. “As you wish, Regent.” She turned for the door.

  “And, Michel?”

  Michel looked over her shoulder. “Yes?”

  “I don’t like you absent from my bed.”

  “Forgive me.”

  “Of course.” Francesca smiled, her incisors glinting like diamonds against her blood-red lips. “This time.”

  *

  “We’re almost there,” Lara said as the stockade gates in the twelve-foot high fence surrounding the Compound swung open. Raina growled, her pelt flaring and the musky scent of aggression pouring off her pheromone-drenched skin. The sound of Raina’s racing heart pounded in Lara’s head, and her chest tightened. Centuries before the Vampire-Were wars, millennia before this new human threat, the cats and the wolves had fought for supremacy over the territory and game they all needed to survive. Now Raina, an instinctual predator, was trapped and threatened by an age-old enemy, and her primitive drive to fight ruled her reason. “Cage your cat, Raina. The Alpha will not make a hasty judgment, but you cannot fight her. None of us can.”

  Raina panted, her claws extruded and her eyes narrowed to glimmering slits. “I will willingly serve you if you stand for us now. Anything…”

  Lara wanted to say she already owned her, but she knew that was not true. Raina was her captive, but she was no one’s slave. The cat was afraid, not for herself but for the cubs, and willing to sell her soul for them. Lara remembered a time she had done the same for the one person whose life meant more than her own. Raina’s panic, and her bravery, reawakened Lara’s protective instincts, but she resisted the urge to comfort her. Raina and her cubs were not her responsibility, could not be her responsibility. A Vampire owned what was left of her soul.

  “I can’t.”

  Raina thrashed and the leather bindings creaked, the metal rivets securing them to the stretcher screeching in protest. Niki was beside them instantly, her automatic rifle trained on Raina’s chest. “Break one strap and you will never leave this vehicle.”

  The Rover slowed. Only seconds left. Lara’s heart seized. If Raina didn’t submit, someone would hurt her. “Raina—”

  Sophia pushed between Lara and Niki and pressed her hand between Raina’s breasts, over her heart. “Raina, it’s all right. I’ll look after them, I promise.”

  “Get away from her,” Niki snapped. “She’s dangerous.”

  “Niki,” Sophia said quietly, brushing the damp hair from Raina’s face with her other hand, “she’s helpless. I’m fine. Please, just…” She looked up at Niki, smiling gently. “She’s no threat to me or anyone else. If she is, you’ll take care of it.”

  Jaws rigid, Niki backed away. The Rover stopped, and Niki pushed open the rear door and leapt out into the Compound. Blazing fires lit the group of log and stone buildings that ringed a central courtyard carved out of the forest. Lara smelled Were, and the remnants of game left from the last meal, and home—she smelled home. The reflections of the fires filled the back of the vehicle with tongues of flame. The Alpha and her mate, flanked by the centuri, stalked from headquarters across the open expanse of ground. Lara edged between the stretcher and those outside.

  Sophia said from behind her, “I’ll stay with the cubs until the Alpha gives permission to take them to the nursery.”

  “They’ll need to feed,” Raina said, her voice strained and rough. She’d started to shift and her cat still prowled near her skin.

  “I’ll talk to the Alpha,” Sophia murmured.

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Sophia.” Lara watched Niki reporting to the Alpha, her words inaudible but her body language angry. When she spun around to face the Rover, her face was contorted with fury. “Your mate seems to have other plans.”

  Lara jumped down, blocking the rear compartment as the Alpha and her party strode forward. She had no plan—she only knew she wasn’t going to let them drag Raina out and execute her, the laws be damned.

  “Warlord,” Sylvan said, her eyes wolf-gold, her call so strong Lara struggled to stay standing. “It is customary to seek permission to enter Pack land.”

  “My apologies, Alpha,” Lara gasped, fi
ghting to keep her head up. She wouldn’t look Sylvan in the eye, but she would have to stand her ground if she hoped to keep Raina safe. “I went for a run and meant no disrespect.”

  “Where did you find the cat?”

  “At the northeast border with the Catamount territory.”

  “She was inside our borders?”

  Lara tensed. She had never lied to the Alpha, and even considering it went against everything she had ever been. But she was not what she had been. All the same, she knew there was no way to hide where Raina had birthed her cubs or where they had fought. “Not far inside, but yes, within Pack land.”

  Sylvan glanced past Lara into the Rover, taking in the restrained female, the scent of aggression, and Sophia sitting next to the two cubs, her expression nearly as protective as that of the mother cat. She switched her attention back to Lara. “How is it she survived an encounter with you?”

  Lara grinned. “She’s fast and quick.”

  “And yet you overpowered her?”

  “Yes, probably because she was weakened by the birth.”

  “And your estimate when she regains full strength?”

  “She is an Alpha and powerful.” Lara shrugged. “She’ll be strong, but she’s still a cat.”