I’d seen pack members fight before, and it was a bloody, horrifying, screaming thing. All that powerful muscle that got me so hot was put to work, claws slicing through flesh, fists driven into sides, bones cracking, bruises purpling. Nan had always held me back, tears streaming down my face as shit was sorted out, waiting until the victor was declared. Then we moved in with the other women and tended to the wounded.
“NO!”
“All this masculine posturing. So delicious.”
My head jerked around to see Hollingsworth standing by the glass, twirling his little clicker on the end of his finger. He’d pressed down on it, obviously, as the two men were frozen in their aggressive stances.
“Must make you feel all warm inside,” he said, eyes flicking to me.
“Let them go.”
“So they can claw themselves ragged in pursuit of your sweet arse? I don’t think so. Those samples were very helpful, Shannon. May I call you Shannon? They showed us the missing link we’d been searching for all this time—you. We’ve put human girls and shifter girls in with our studs and never got what we wanted, until you. Enough humanity to see the wisdom in cooperating, enough animal to get all of these alphas stirred up. They want you.” His eyes slid over Caleb and Jai. “All of them. The samples you’ve taken have viable sperm in them for the first time, even the reluctant Gaden. There’s something about you that gets under their skin, pricks at their instincts, gets them ready to impregnate you.”
“That’s why you took my birth control out. That’s what you think is going to happen.” I shook my head. “Jai and I will seal the deal, that’ll put Caleb out of the running. I pissed off Nero and Kazimir, so I’m pretty sure they don’t even want to talk to me. Gaden… He’s got some kind of history that stops him from touching anyone. So from my count, you’ll have Jai and maybe Zane, and Jai’ll rip his face off if he tries anything.”
“Will he though?”
I hated the proprietorial way he ran his eyes over the two men, lingering on the quiver of their muscles. They still breathed, but that was it, caught like bugs on pins by his sadism.
“Look at this.” I threw my arm wide, hoping for once he’d fucking show the sense God gave a goat. “Is this not patent evidence?”
“I see sexual competition, a need to be the one to plant their very large cocks in you. I see fear, that one will do so before the other and rule them out of the race.” His smile spread across his fucking face, something that should have told me what was up. “But what if it didn’t?” He watched me as he reached inside his jacket, pulling out another control device, this one made from shining stainless steel. He glanced down at it, stroking the buttons with his thumb before looking back at me almost flirtatiously. I could see his breathing was coming in faster, his voice almost girlish when he spoke. “What if all the barriers and instincts and needs were simplified and refined to just this?” A cry rose and died as he pressed his thumb down with a theatrical gesture.
“N—”
My throat closed down, my chest freezing, my hair standing on end as I felt the cascade come down my spine. When my breath did come, it was in short, sharp pants. He hadn’t frozen me, I could move, but I didn’t want to. Every nerve, every hair stood on end, perking up and paying attention to what was around me in ways I hadn’t before.
“You’re a very special girl. I thought I knew what we had, but our research, our discussions with our chapter houses… Let's just say the excitement over having a captive animage was so infectious, even the most close-mouthed members of the institute became open books. You’re so much more than an animage, and they’re rare enough.”
He told me what I was, what I could be, but the words washed over me. I was body, feeling, need, the fire Jai had lit within me a tiny spark compared to this. My nipples pulled so tight, I was forced to grab at them, to try and ease the pain. But it wasn’t my touch I needed. Slick ran freely down my leg, my cunt knowing what was coming. I brushed against Caleb and fit my body to his, feeling my limbs stretch to take his shape, then