The hunger was vast, endless, agonizing. She sighed languorously and stroked Becca’s breasts and stomach, enjoying the last sane moments of pleasure before she surrendered to the mindless bloodlust.
“Now.” Becca gripped Jody’s hair and forced Jody’s mouth harder against her neck. “Please.”
Dimly, Jody heard the broken plea, but what registered were Becca’s angry words of the night before. Don’t ever do that to me again.
I decide who I sleep with.
“God damn it.” Jody grabbed Becca’s arm and yanked her through the crowd toward the door, ignoring Becca’s sharp protesting cries.
Once outside, she dragged her across the parking lot to where she’d left her car. When she reached the car, she pushed Becca against the hood and backed away from her. Becca’s expression ricocheted from hurt to perplexity, and finally, to anger.
“What the hell are you doing?” Becca shouted.
“What am I doing?” Jody raked a hand through her hair. “I told you to stay away from this club. Do you know how close you came to hosting Meredith and Philip just now? Is that what you want? Strangers fucking you when you don’t have the power to say no?”
“Who are Meredith—” Becca shivered and wrapped her arms around her midsection, remembering the blond Vampire holding out her hand, beckoning her. She remembered, too, the fantasy of Jody at her neck while she orgasmed in a stranger’s mouth. She sagged against the car. “My God. I don’t understand. One second I was watching, and the next I was…” She looked away, humiliated, praying Jody didn’t know what she’d been fantasizing.
“Meredith used your own thoughts to enthrall you,” Jody said sharply.
“You can do that? See someone’s thoughts…twist them around?” Jody took a deep breath, battling her still-raging hunger. She needed to sate the bloodlust stirred by the feel of Becca in her arms, the taste of her against her lips. She needed to feed. “Some can. Especially if someone is broadcasting strongly enough. Meredith is very powerful.” Becca watched Jody pace in a tight circle. She’d never seen her so agitated. Her eyes flickered with slashes of flame and her perfectly proportioned features projected starkly beneath her pale skin. Becca remembered the insistent thrust of Jody’s crotch against her ass, the press of incisors into her neck. The Vampire had been excited, close to feeding, and Becca had wanted her to. Invited her to. Now Jody was still hungry, still needing.
“I’m sorry,” Becca said. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” Jody grimaced. “I’m old enough to control myself, but some of the others in there—the young pre-ans and newlings aren’t. And old ones like Meredith just enjoy enthralling the unsuspecting. What are you doing here alone?”
“You weren’t giving me anything on the investigation, so I thought I’d follow you.”
“Into Nocturne?”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“Not without an escort,” Jody said. “Give me your word you won’t do it again.”
“Have you found out anything about the girl at the hospital?” Jody hissed in frustration. She needed to get away from Becca before she gave in to the hunger twisting through her like a knife.
“Meet me in the morning and we’ll talk. Now I want your word you won’t come back here without an escort.”
“There are plenty of humans in there without escorts,” Becca pointed out.
“Most of them came to host, and the rest are blood-bonded already.”
“Was does that mean?” Becca asked immediately.
Jody shook her head. “It’s not important. Just don’t come back on your own.”
When Jody turned away, Becca called, “You’re going back inside?”
Jody stopped and looked back, her expression once again as smooth and as unreadable as marble. “I need to finish feeding.” Becca felt her face warm. Jody was going to find someone else to give her what she hadn’t taken from Becca. She should be grateful. Not jealous. “I’ll see you in the morning, then.” But the Vampire was gone.
Sylvan nuzzled Drake’s neck. “Better now?”
“Much,” Drake murmured, realizing she had fallen asleep for the first time in what felt like days. Sylvan held her against her chest, their limbs entwined. She kissed Sylvan’s throat and smiled when Sylvan rumbled deep in her chest. “How long will it last—before I start hurting again?”
“You might not get this bad again.” Sylvan ran her fingers through Drake’s hair. “But you should have a few hours, maybe a day at least before the need starts building.”
“Why did you come to me? How did you know?” Sylvan unconsciously ran her fingertips over the bite on her chest.
“I am Alpha. I feel the needs of the Pack.” Drake pushed to her knees and pulled the remnants of her shirt out of the pine needles and loam that had been their bed. “Do you take care of every Pack member like you did me?”
“Are you asking me if I couple with all my Pack?” Sylvan asked softly.
“I guess I am. I know it’s none of my business.”
“I don’t. Why didn’t you tangle with someone earlier? Your need was strong this morning.”
“Then why did you leave?” Drake was angry even though she wasn’t certain why. “You knew, didn’t you? That I only wanted you? Why? Why is that?”
“You’re mistaken.” Sylvan stood abruptly and started toward the forest. “Your wolf needs time to settle. Once she does, you’ll find someone else—”
Drake grabbed Sylvan’s arm and spun her around. “You don’t know what I’ll wa—”
A red-gray wolf tore from the forest, teeth bared, and launched itself at Drake. The wolf struck Drake in the chest and knocked her onto the ground, snarling and snapping at Drake’s throat as it straddled her torso. Drake gripped the wolf’s neck in both hands and tried to throw it off. She felt her fingertips tear open and sharp pain erupted in her mouth. She growled and inside, a furious raging wolf tried to burst free.
Drake cried out in agony as her skin threatened to split and her bones crack. She couldn’t fight the pain and the wolf both. She lost her hold on the mad wolf and just managed to get her arm between the wolf’s jaws and her neck.
“Enough,” Sylvan roared, ripping the wolf from Drake’s body.
She threw the wolf to the far side of the clearing, where it landed on its side and quickly jumped to its feet, still snarling. Sylvan dropped to her knees by Drake’s side and pressed her hand to the center of Drake’s chest. “You’re safe. You’re safe now. Breathe, Drake. Calm your wolf. I won’t let anything hurt her.”
Drake sucked in great gasps of air, adrenaline pouring through her blood. She settled her mind the way she did in the middle of a crisis in the ER, forcing herself to see clearly, to think past the rush of fear and uncertainty. She took another breath. And another. “I’m all right.”
“You will be in a minute.” Sylvan looked over her shoulder at the wolf pacing restlessly at the edge of the clearing. “Niki. Come here.” When the red-gray wolf hesitated, Sylvan snapped, “Now.” Niki crouched low, her eyes on Sylvan, and slunk close until she was pressed against Sylvan’s side. Sylvan buried her fingers in Niki’s ruff and massaged her neck. “Everything is all right. Drake was not attacking me.” She continued to stroke both Niki and Drake until they calmed. The red-gray wolf shivered and shook and blurred in the moonlight until Niki lay curled around Sylvan’s body, her head on Sylvan’s thigh. Sylvan stroked Niki’s back and looked from Niki to Drake. “All right now?”