The Lone Hunt

by L. L. Raand

  Jody’s eyes glittered. “Only the ones foolish enough to be caught alone. Good hunting, Wolf.”

  “I’ll see you at dawn, Vampire.”

  Drake waited until the room cleared and said, “Why Katya? She’s still fragile. If you’re going to Nocturne—”

  “I know,” Sylvan said. “But she’s the only one who might be able to identify the Vampire—or Vampires—who were at the lab.”

  “Jody says it was Michel.”

  “We need something stronger than that to confront Francesca.” Sylvan pulled Drake close. “I know it’s a risk, but this is war. And Katya is a wolf. She’ll stand.”

  “I’m going.” Drake bit her lightly on the neck. “I’m not letting Francesca anywhere near you otherwise.”

  Sylvan sighed. “You know I never—”

  “That doesn’t matter. She looks at you like she wants you to fuck her.” Drake snarled. “I ought to kill her just for that.”

  Laughing, Sylvan kissed her. “Just promise you won’t tonight.”

  “You ask a lot.” Drake nipped her lip. “But all right. Let’s go find some answers.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Niki closed the silver-impregnated bars on the holding cell in the underground detention center. Her eyes were flat and hard as slate. “Don’t get too comfortable. We’re going to be searching for your friends soon.”

  Raina saw no point in reminding the wolf that the cats who had tried to kill her were hardly her friends. The Alpha’s second would not be swayed from her desire to see Raina dead. She paced the perimeter of the ten-by-twelve cell, her cat shredding her insides, furious to be freed. The only thing worse than being caged would be losing her cubs, so for now, she had to accept this prison. Her eyes met Lara’s through the bars, and for an instant she thought she saw sympathy, quickly replaced by cold indifference. She recognized that look now—she’d seen it in the eyes of the Vampire leader lounging in the Alpha’s headquarters. The remote indifference of an immortal, for whom the plight of creatures whose lives spanned only a fragment of their existence held no importance. She might have been wrong in thinking Lara would help her. Lara had no reason to care what became of her or her cubs. Lara’s wolf and her cat were mortal enemies. And the Vampire who stared at her from Lara’s icy eyes saw her only as prey. A thing to be devoured and cast aside.

  Raina’s heart filled with crushing dread. She had to make choices with nothing to guide her except instinct. She had no experience with Vampires—she barely had any with other Weres. The cats kept to themselves except when making clandestine forays into neighboring wolf territory, when game in their own lands began to disappear. The territorial boundaries that had been set centuries before restricted their hunting to land that had become inadequate as their population grew and game became a scarce commodity for a society that still relied on hunting for its main source of food. Unlike the wolves, the cats tended not to share their kills, and a large percentage of the Pride did not have regular income to supplement what they hunted with store-bought staples. Most cats preferred a solitary existence deep in the mountains to integrating into human society, as many of the other Praeterns had done. The cats were self-sufficient, independent frontier people who weren’t interested in being part of the ever-advancing technological society. Those who worked at conventional jobs were usually craftsmen—carpenters, welders, masons, and organic farmers. Raina was a forester, employed by the state to preserve huge tracts of mountain growth that had nearly been deforested a century before by overlumbering and irresponsible farming practices. She was a stranger in a strange land now, and her advocate, her one ally, was even more foreign to her experience. All she knew of Vampires was that they were highly sophisticated parasites, living off the flesh and blood of others.

  “I need to see my cubs,” Raina said.

  Niki shook her head. “You’ll stay here until the Alpha decides otherwise.”

  “She’ll need to feed them before we go on the hunt,” Lara said.

  “Why do you care?” Niki asked, her tone a combination of anger and bewilderment.

  “For reasons you wouldn’t understand.”

  “I’ll tell you what I don’t understand.” Niki pushed into Lara’s space, her deep green eyes shifting darker. “I don’t understand why you care what happens to the leader of our enemies. You know the losses we’ve sustained from ambushes out on the frontier.”

  “Times change, Niki,” Lara murmured. “Enemies become our allies, and our friends are suspect now.”

  Niki shook her head vehemently. “Not for me. I know where my loyalties lie.” Her eyes raked over Lara, fury and aggression pouring from her. “I know my enemies from my friends.”

  “You think me an enemy now?” Lara smiled thinly. “That’s not what you thought a few days ago when you came to my bed.”

  Niki snarled. “A few days ago you were more wolf than Vampire. I don’t know what you are now.”

  “You weren’t looking for my wolf when you begged me to bite you.” Lara leaned close, sending tendrils of erotic suggestion snaking over Niki’s skin, teasing at her senses.

  Niki’s skin gleamed with sex-sheen, a flair of pelt streaked down her torso. The bones in her face grew heavy and hard. “Like I said—more Vampire than wolf.”

  “But still you want it,” Lara murmured. Sylvan’s words echoed in her mind. Niki wants you to be as you once were. But she could not go back—none of them could. Niki had to see her for who she was now, even if it meant losing her forever.

  Niki’s chest heaved but her voice was steady. “You can make me want, but I will never let you bite me. I don’t need what you have to offer.”

  “Are you sure?” Lara’s hunger flared as a wave of pheromones washed over her. Niki was a dominant Were, potent and powerful in her own right. Lara’s vision turned scarlet. Bloodlust gripped her mind. She battered at Niki’s resolve.

  “I am mated,” Niki gasped. “I’ll kill you before I’ll submit.”

  “You won’t win, little Wolf,” Lara murmured, one hand circling Niki’s throat.

  Niki gripped Lara’s arm, her claws drawing blood.

  “Taste.” Lara offered her forearm. “You remember, don’t you?”

  Raina pressed close to the bars, mindful of the silver that would burn on contact. “Lara, let her go.”

  “She doesn’t want to go,” Lara said gruffly, the ache to feed a hollow pit of pain consuming her. Her sex tensed and filled. She tightened her hold, drew Niki near. “Do you?”

  Niki forced herself to back up, feeling as if her skin would melt from her bones. Lara’s gaze was a fevered caress. “I want your bite—not you. And it’s not my doing, it’s yours. And now I know the difference.” She broke away abruptly and stalked off.

  Lara watched her go, fury and need and agonizing hunger at war with the fading remnants of the love they’d once shared. She could catch her between one second and the next, and if she set her canines in Niki’s throat, Niki would give herself, willingly. In the moment, Niki would give everything—her body, her blood, her soul. But only in the mindless lust of thrall.

  Shuddering, Lara gripped the cell bars with both hands, swallowing the feeding hormones that flooded her mouth, struggling with need like a thousand knives flaying her alive.

  “What is it you need?” Raina whispered, Lara’s pain so tangible she felt it in her bones. She ached for her, not understanding why, but unable to ignore the pressing demand to ease her suffering. She reached through the bars, hissing when light contact against one of the bars scorched her skin.

  “Don’t,” Lara breathed harshly. “You can’t help me. Don’t hurt yourself trying.”

  “You’re in pain. You need to feed again.”

  Lara shook her head violently, fighting the bloodlust that burned her alive. She shouldn’t need more—Zahn had fed her. Jody’s voice. You have the appetites of a newling and the power of a Risen. Lara sagged to her knees, doubling over in agony. Raina was so close. Her unique musky s
cent coated her tongue. She tasted the power in Raina’s blood through every cell. Were blood—so potent, so euphoric. She wanted to reach through the bars and pull her close, wanted to bury herself in her throat, lose herself in the ecstasy of her flesh. “Get away from the bars. Back away from me.”

  “No.” Raina couldn’t bear her pain—she ached, her flesh burning. If she didn’t ease Lara’s agony, she feared she would bleed herself. She pushed her arm farther through the bars, ignoring the burn when her forearm and shoulder brushed cold steel and hot silver. “Drink. Lara, take what you need from me.”

  “No,” Lara said, but even as she spoke she grasped Raina’s arm and pressed her mouth to her wrist. Raina’s pulse beat strong and fast beneath her lips. Lara moaned.

  “Do it,” Raina whispered, aching to feel the bright sliver of pain, wondering if the ecstasy would be anywhere near as intense as she remembered. “Bite.”

  Lara’s canines slid effortlessly through Raina’s skin and into her vein. Hot blood filled her mouth, and she injected the Vampire hormones into Raina’s body.

  “Yes,” Raina cried, her back arched, her face transforming as her cat lunged for freedom. “So good.”

  Lara’s cells erupted with power and life. A sea of pleasure filled her as Raina’s orgasm flooded her blood with pheromones, and Lara drank. Her power, Raina’s pleasure fed on themselves, growing, gathering force, transforming them both. The pain became a distant throb. Lara’s belly tensed and she pressed against the bars, reaching through with her free hand to clasp Raina’s neck. Raina’s hips thrust with each pulse of her orgasm, in perfect synchrony with Lara’s mouth on her wrist.

  When the hunger was bearable, Lara pulled away.

  “No,” Raina gasped. “More. Don’t stop.”

  “Enough. You have to hunt tonight.” Lara’s thighs quivered, and her skin dripped with pheromones. She needed Raina under her, needed to spend between her thighs.

  Raina forced her eyes open and read the wild hunger in Lara’s face. She might be Vampire, but her pelt had risen and her call was a Were’s, stronger than any Raina had ever known. “Let me give you the rest.”

  “Not out of pity.”

  “No,” Raina murmured, knowing it was true. “Not pity. Need.”

  “My need,” Lara said.

  “Mine too. Come closer.”

  Lara pressed full body against the silver-impregnated bars. Her flesh did not burn. She forced her hips tightly to the space between two bars. “Please.”

  Raina cupped her sex.

  Lara’s face morphed and she growled.

  Raina shivered with the rush of incredible power as Lara surrendered. She squeezed, felt the hard nodes throb between her fingers, brushed her thumb over Lara’s clitoris and felt the rapid flutter of her orgasm about to break free. Lara was hers to control if she chose. But now, now, she wanted only the pleasure. She stroked her, firm long strokes until Lara threw her head back and, throat convulsing, released over Raina’s hand, coating her arm and thighs. Raina’s sex contracted and she came again.

  “Are you hurt?” Raina asked when she came back to herself. “The bars. They’re silver.”

  Lara gripped the bars in both hands and pushed away, breaking contact between her exquisitely sensitive flesh and Raina’s hand. Her body was unmarked, as if the bars had been nothing but steel. “I’m fine. Let me see your arm.”

  Raina held out her arm. The burns were gone. “When you fed from me, they healed. Is that—”

  “Get some rest,” Lara said roughly. She didn’t know why the silver didn’t hurt her, didn’t know why she could heal Raina with her bite. But she knew Raina was dangerous. Raina had controlled her with nothing but a touch. She’d been helpless, mindless, lost in sex frenzy. Raina was her weakness—a deadly one. “We’ll do battle before morning.”

  “What about you?”

  “I’m fine. I’ll have someone bring the cubs to you.” Lara turned her back and strode toward the hall that led to freedom. Leaving Raina caged tore at her, but she had no choice. She’d given her word to the Alpha, and if Raina broke free, one of the guards would surely kill her.

  “Your need,” Raina called out, “doesn’t frighten me.”

  Lara paused, looked over her shoulder. Her eyes were cold again, her smile scornful. “It should.”

  *

  Niki stood guard outside the detention area. She snarled when Lara stepped through the heavy iron door and closed it, slamming the lock into place.

  “I should kill you for what you did back there,” Niki growled.

  “You’ve wanted to fight me all night. But we have more important duties. Your vengeance will have to wait.”

  “You fed from her,” Niki said, loathing in her tone.

  Lara smiled. “Would you rather it had been you?”

  “Why the cat?” Niki shook her head, her expression confused, pained. “There are wolves who would feed you, who would be proud to feed you. You may not remember, but we do. You are centuri.”

  “Niki,” Lara murmured, leaning back against the rough wood wall, “I was, before. But that wolf is dead. I’m Vampire now.”

  “I know.” Niki raked a hand through her hair. “I know. But I don’t want to lose you.”

  “You know what I’ll become.”

  “Do I?” Niki shook her head. “Maybe none of us knows who we will be.”

  Lara stroked Niki’s cheek, no thrall in her touch. Only memory. “You will ever and always be Sylvan’s right hand. I envy you.”

  “I’m not who I was before.” Niki gazed toward the Compound, sensing Sophia in the nursery, absorbing her strength and feeling her uncertainty wane. “Everything is different now.”

  “You love her?”

  “More than that.”

  Lara nodded. “I would tell you I’m sorry about tempting you, but I’m not. I would feed from you now if you’d let me.”

  Niki grinned, a feral grin. “We are hunters. We will always be hunters. A hunter takes her prey when and where she can.”

  “You would not be easy prey.”

  “Not anymore.”

  Lara straightened. “It seems we will have a chance to hunt together soon.”

  The door at the far end of the hall opened, and Jody came through with Zahn, Rafaela, the captain of her Vampire guard, and Jace. Jody’s glacial gaze skimmed over Niki and Lara, one brow rising. “The prisoner needs to tell us where she thinks we will find our quarry so we can plan our attack.”

  Lara said, “She’ll need a few minutes with the cubs before we go.”

  Jody smiled. Still taking care of her, Warlord?

  It won’t pay to have her distracted while we hunt.

  “Of course,” Jody said aloud. “Get them. She can see them after we talk.”

  Niki said, “I’ll have Sophia bring them here.”

  “Do that,” Jody said. “And then we will hunt.”

  Niki said to Jace, “Guard this door. No one approaches the prisoner other than the Alpha, Liege Gates, or,” she glanced at Lara, “the warlord.”

  “Yes, Imperator,” Jace snapped, taking up a post next to the door. Niki loped through the hall, across the Compound, and into the infirmary. She paused outside the hall leading to the nursery. She was still aroused from Lara’s thrall and didn’t want to disrupt everyone within. She extended her call to her mate, and a moment later, Sophia stepped through the doorway from the nursery, a question in her eyes. “Niki?”

  “You need to take the cubs to Raina. We’re leaving soon.”

  “Of course. I’ll just be a minute.” Sophia gripped Niki’s hand. “What’s happened to you?”

  “I’m all right.”

  Sophia smiled wryly. “No, you’re not. Don’t you think I can feel your need?”

  “It’s nothing.”

  “Don’t tell me that.” Sophia snarled softly. “Someone has been tempting my mate. Who was it?”

  Niki was vulnerable to seduction without the mate bite Sophia refused to give h
er, but she wanted no other, would take no other. She wrapped an arm around Sophia’s waist and pulled her close. “No one tempts me but you. Just a Vampire playing games.”

  Sophia sucked in a breath. She knew Niki was blood addicted. “Who? Lara?”

  Niki buried her face in Sophia’s neck and the sex frenzy settled. Her mind righted itself. Stronger now, she murmured, “It doesn’t matter.”

  Sophia cradled Niki’s jaw in both hands and kissed her. “I told you before I’m not threatened by your needs. If she—”

  “No.” Niki’s wolf flared in her eyes. “I don’t need her or any Vampire’s bite. I don’t want it. Just you.”

  Sophia brushed her fingers through Niki’s hair. “Are you all right now?”

  “I will be, after a few more minutes with you.”

  Sophia took her hand and pulled her into the room across the hall and closed the door. She pressed into her, her arms around Niki’s neck. “Then make the most of them.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Sylvan yanked on a pair of leather pants, strapped a sheathed blade to her right thigh with a leather thong, and buckled a studded black leather belt around her waist. She slipped into a sleeveless black silk shirt that left her arms bare. Her wolf rode so close to the surface her bones and muscles were heavy, her body a brutal weapon. Drake watched from across the bedroom, her breasts drawing tight and full as Sylvan’s call engulfed her.

  “Your wolf looks hungry.” Drake crossed to her and stroked Sylvan’s chest.

  “Be careful, Prima,” Sylvan murmured. “I have no patience for teasing.”

  “No?” Drake kissed her. “Good. I like you impatient.”

  Sylvan rumbled and eased away to grab her phone from the dresser and shove it into her front pocket. “Then you’ll be very happy later.”

  “Francesca’s going to have a hard time keeping her hands off you tonight,” Drake observed dryly.

  Sylvan grinned, but her icy blue eyes showed no humor. “I’m not visiting Francesca as a friend or an ally, and I want her to know that.”

  “If she so much as lifts a finger—”