Epilogue
“This is Miranda Alvarez reporting from the White House, where today Nick and Amara Gregory watched the president sign the now infamously named Morphate Land Bill. The bill declares the six so-called Dark Cities as now belonging exclusively to the Morphate packs, or clans as they now prefer to be called, making them Morphate territories. These territories will act much in the way of Native American territories, establishing a subculture within a culture, while at the same time providing a solution to the rampant gang violence that spreads out from these Dark Cities more and more every year. As the president said earlier, ‘I wouldn’t want to be the one to cause trouble behind those walls once the Morphates move in to take possession.’ Morphates will be responsible for policing their own peoples and territories; however, federal jurisdiction will still apply.
They have pretty much already proven that under their current leadership they are far more capable of controlling themselves than the gangs have proven to be.
Of course, opponents to the signing of this bill say this is an act of insanity on the part of the government.
‘A case of letting the lunatics run the asylum,’ said Congresswoman Fiona Huron.
She and others like her believe that within only a few years, the clans will not be satisfied with their territories and will only grow stronger and stronger over time.
‘If they decided to take over the world, who could stop them?’ one aide was heard to say, referring to the apparent immortality of this new species among us.
This begs the question: Can we only trust those whom we have the power to kill?
“Considering all they have suffered, I think this is one concession that is long, long overdue. Barren, walled-in cities polluted with drugs, violence, and worse are our idea of a gift to compensate them for their suffering, and in return they offer to repair and rebuild those cities and their infrastructures, ridding them of the influences this government could not. Some have publicly called the Gregorys and their clans monsters, but this reporter has been with this story since it began to unfold a year ago, and I have seen the Morphates treat us with far more patience and respect than we have ever given them.”
Nick shut off the television and dropped the remote onto the night table.
“They make it sound like we haven’t already been living in the Dark Cities for the past eight months.
We went from four months continued lab analysis, poking and prodding by the damned government, and straight into here.
” Amara pressed her cheek to the glass of the Dark Manhattan high-rise apartment.
The clan was currently spread out over the entire territory, a precautionary tactic to keep them from being lumped all together where they’d make an easy target, should anyone ever figure out how to kill them without using a radical bomb that would destroy human populations as well.
It was also why they had chosen to send each protocol to a different city: Dark Chicago, Dark Phoenix, Dark L.A.
, Dark Manhattan, Dark Houston, and Dark Philadelphia.
“They make it sound as if we had a choice of living among the rest of the world. We’d have been as welcome as a leper colony. ”
“Hey,” Nick said gently as he slid off the bed and came up behind her. He rubbed large, warm hands over her hips, drawing her backside flush against him. “You were the one who came up with this idea.”
“Because I knew it was going to be like this.”
“It won’t always be. And even if it is, we’ll make better places and live in better ways. It’s our choice.”
“I don’t know,” she sighed softly. “We’re still so animalistic, Nick. And some of those other Alphas … I don’t trust them. Ambrose gives me the creeps.”
“Yeah, me too. But he’s in line for now and keeping his clan in line. The Alpha Council is working out pretty well so far. Better than I expected.”
“You and Devona. She was sure it would never work. But I think part of its success is because you and Kincaid act more like brothers than Alphas, and because you had the very smart idea that it had to be male and female Alphas. It provides a certain balance.”
“I’m glad Kin took Philly. Kept close.”
“Mmm. He’s on his third Alpha mate, though. He needs to find a good, strong female to mate with permanently or the constant power plays will cause a lot of trouble.”
“He will,” Nick assured her.
She snorted in disbelief. “More likely one will have to kick ass, become Alpha, and force him to fall stupidly in love with her. Your brother is a very stubborn man. If he wasn’t so nice to me, he’d probably scare the hell out of me. He’s rather intense.”
“Don’t ever say that to him. You’d hurt his feelings if he thought you were afraid of him. He really likes you. Sometimes I think he likes you too much.” Nick frowned against the back of her head. “He stares at you a lot.”
“I think he’s trying to figure out what I see in you,” she teased him, her grin reflected back at him from the window.
“Maybe.” Nick pushed aside her hair to rub his lips and nose against her warm neck.
He took in several long breaths, which he exhaled hotly against her skin in rolling sounds of male intrigue.
“God, you smell incredible.” His hands circled her waist, stroking across the low plane of her belly.
His fangs made their appearance and he scraped the wicked tips down the length of her pulse until her nipples were painfiilly hard with the chilling stimulation and making a prominent show under the silk of her blouse.
Amara reached down to close her hands around his at her waist when she knew they were about to move on to new and exciting adventures across her skin.
“You know we can’t,” she said breathlessly as he nudged his awesome erection against her soft bottom cheeks. “Not for two more days.”
He growled and nipped her neck in frustration, crowding her against the cold glass window.
“I don’t want to wait. I smell you everywhere and I can’t get a damn thing done all day because of it.
The president was signing that bill and all I was thinking about was how much I needed you.
God,” he groaned with agonized reflection as he rode his hips into her, “I’m so hard it hurts. ”
“I can feel that,” she said in a hitched gasp as her sensual chemistry began to clamor for what he was offering. “L—let me turn around. You’ll love me on my knees, baby.”
“No!” He barked at her as he pressed her roughly to the glass, his body, and his persistent phallus all at once. “No,” he whispered much more softly against her sensitive skin. “As much as I love your mouth, honey, it simply will not do.”
“But …” Her protest faded away jerkily when his hand dipped below the waistband of her skirt and crept into the warmth and moisture beneath the fabric of her panties.
His large fingertips skated over her in an instant, the slick readiness of her excited body making it so easy.
Of course she wanted him. She always wanted him, and now more than usual.
They’d long since discovered it was designed this way in their new natures.
“Nick, you can’t … we said we wouldn’t. You made me promise not to let you do this.
Oh, God,” she groaned, her head falling back against his shoulder as his touch glided around and around her hypersensitive clit.
“I’ve been suffering for two days,” he rasped, his words scratching fangs into her skin until she creamed a flood of juices over his buried hand.
“You’ve been very attentive with this mouth of yours,” he said, kissing the corner of her mouth.
“You have the tongue of an angel gone so very bad, and your hands are divinity. However,” he stipulated, using his deep hold in her pussy to push her rhythmically back into the steady rock of his hips, “heaven only exists for me when I am buried balls deep inside of your hot body. I want my heaven now. It calls to me with heat, liquid need, and incredible scent. God, you’re drenched in it. ”
“Nick!” she cried as his touch and bodily movements worked her into a blind frenzy of desire. It wasn’t hard to do. She had been walking the edge of need ever since she’d gone into heat two days ago. But …
But they had agreed now was not the time for children And since human methods of birth control for females didn’t seem to work for Morphates, it meant abstaining or the use of condoms. Nick’s extraordinary size made the latter a very uncomfortable choice for him.
Amara’s irresistible body chemistry made the former uncomfortable for them both.
“You have to … wear a condom …” she panted as he drew up her skirt over her backside and reached to shuck off her underpants. His reply was an irritated grunt that sounded too much like a negation to her.
“I’ll pull out,” he said hotly, struggling with a single hand to release his belt and the zipper to his pants.
“You won’t!”
Amara didn’t know how she managed it, but she ripped herself free of him, gasping for breath as she stumbled back into the room away from him.
He turned on her with a very intimidating sound of displeasure and immediately began to stalk her even as he stripped himself of his shirt and then his pants.
Amara swallowed hard when his gorgeous body was in full, glorious display, his arousal absolutely mouthwatering to her starving and ramped-up libido.
“Nick … ,” she half warned and half begged him. “Nick, you won’t. You can’t control it like that. You know that. Don’t put this all on me. It isn’t fair.”
Nick reached for her and she leapt out of his grasp with only threads to spare. She backed up even farther, nervously glancing at the shut door of the bedroom.
“Come here,” he beckoned, his grin absolutely wolfish. “Let’s make a baby, then. Let’s make lots of babies.”