Chapter 8 #3
She made a helpless gesture then shook her head. “We are so far behind schedule already, I’m not sure it matters. How long do you need?”
“Three days,” he told her.
Avery nodded as she pushed to her feet. “I’ll tell Natalie.”
* * *
Luna barely saw Alex for the next three days.
When he wasn’t in the clubhouse arguing with the pack alphas, he was on the Azrithal with his cousins.
Caden was lucky to be alive, and Alex was determined to repair their relationship.
Caden was more than just a pack alpha, he was family.
Alex didn’t excuse Caden’s rash behavior, but he understood what motivated it.
Everyone was frustrated. Everyone was angry.
Caden just needed to find more productive avenues for his frustration, and he needed to trust the village alpha.
Carlos, the Shadow City doctor, sent Luna a detailed assessment of her progress.
His report was insightful and thought provoking, so she asked him to schedule a video conference at his earliest convenience.
He’d agreed to speak with her the following day, and the conversation had lasted almost three hours.
She hadn’t been sure what to expect, but Carlos seemed disappointingly normal.
She wondered if the mystique surrounding the Shadow City exotics was fueled by rumor and exaggeration.
Emboldened by Carlos’ assessment, Luna administered the first injection to Tianna and Jill.
Shannon received her second injection, and all their scans were well within normal parameters.
Luna was encouraged by the progress, but she was still determined to advance slowly.
She had learned a lot by working with Eugene Babcock, but she had no desire to become him.
The third day dawned dark and stormy, the atmosphere perfectly matching Alex’s mood.
He wanted to accept Natalie’s offer, but he wasn’t willing to move forward without the backing of the pack alphas.
The Rydarian Project was too similar to what they’d endured at Nuevo Biotech.
Alex refused to make anyone a ‘test subject’ unless they volunteered.
Luna couldn’t believe the pack alphas were still resisting Natalie’s offer. They were desperate for females, and the first responder’s kit would be invaluable. Who cared if spybots followed them around? It was a small price to pay for the advantages they would gain.
“Are you allowed to make a counter proposal?” Luna asked as Alex and Nate joined her for dinner.
Nate smiled, but Alex still scowled. “What would you ask for?” Nate asked as they passed around the serving dishes.
“Privacy,” she said simply. She wasn’t sure when it had happened, but sharing meals with these two males felt comforting, even natural. “If they want to surveil the public areas, so be it. But there is no reason for their crickets to crawl around inside the cabins.”
“I already suggested that,” Alex grumped. “The alphas agreed but didn’t feel like it was enough of a compromise.”
“You need to establish a minimum number of females and reserve the right to send troublemakers back to Earth,” Luna continued.
“We debated that yesterday. A guarantee of at least one hundred females was the only thing the alphas could agree on. The second part wasn’t suggested, but it’s a really good idea.” Alex started to emerge from his dark mood. “What else should we ask for?”
“I’m not sure, but you could let the packs decide individually if they want to participate,” Luna said. “Anyone who doesn’t want—”
Someone pounded on the door and a frantic voice shouted, “Come quickly, alpha! They’re going to kill each other!”
Alex bolted across the room and threw open the door.
One of the village guards stood there, red-faced, eyes wild. Luna had seen him before, but she didn’t know his name.
“Hurry,” the guard urged. “They’ve all lost their minds.”
The guard took off across the village, Alex close behind. Nate and Luna followed on their heels.
Angry shouts and the unmistakable sound of fists hitting flesh reached Luna’s ears half a second before the melee came into view.
Within a circle of cheering males, three hybrids brutalized each other.
A wolf growled and snapped at the combatants, but stayed slightly back from the other males.
Shannon knelt in the dirt while a fifth male fucked her.
She was naked, on her hands and knees, head thrown back.
The look of ecstasy on her face assured Luna that she was not being forced, but she was clearly out of control.
They all were. Even the onlookers appeared to be reacting with unusual aggression.
What in God’s name triggered this reaction?
Guilt and dread pelted Luna as she heard her own question. She knew damn well what triggered the reaction. The changes she’d made to the formula must have thrown Shannon into heat. Clearly the males were reacting to her pheromones or some metaphysical signal unique to lupine shifters.
Alex and several others rushed forward to break up the fight, so Luna hurried over to the nearest cabin and asked for a blanket. The couple had finished fucking by the time Luna reached Shannon. Luna wrapped the blanket around her friend and helped her to her feet.
“Are you okay?” Luna cringed. “Stupid question. What can I do to help you?”
“More,” Shannon whispered. “I need more.”
“Catch your breath for a moment and try to think. When did this start?” With her arm wrapped around Shannon’s shoulders, Luna led her away from the males. There had to be a way to dampen the signal or tone down the pheromones. She needed to run some tests.
“Wait!” Shannon cried as she realized where they were going. She turned toward the males and let out a plaintive cry. “I need my mates.”
Two of the males broke free and surrounded Shannon. They growled at Luna, lupine energy making their eyes gleam. “Mine,” one of them growled. His fangs were so long he couldn’t close his mouth.
“Please, Luna,” Shannon pleaded. “I need them now!”
“Take her to your cabin,” Alex ordered.
Luna looked back toward the small clearing where the fight had taken place. The village guards were struggling to restrain two of Shannon’s mates and the wolf had no interest in shifting back. “What should we do with them?”
“They have to calm down before I’ll allow them near any female,” Alex insisted.
“Giving them access to Shannon might be the only way to settle them down.” Luna mused. She couldn’t help feeling responsible for the entire fiasco, but she wasn’t sure what to do about any of it. “How do we give them what they need while protecting her from their aggression?”
“It’s unlikely that they’ll hurt her,” Nate insisted. “The other males are obviously a different matter.”
“She’ll have to visit them separately,” Alex decided, a sigh of frustration releasing from his chest. “Those two are part of Aspen pack. I’ll let Drake deal with them until Shannon is ready for more. The wolf is from Timberline pack. I’ve summoned Kai Walden.”
She only knew Kai by reputation, so she didn’t comment.
The pack alphas arrived a short time later and took control of their misbehaving males.
“Show’s over,” Alex called out to the onlookers. “Go home or I’ll put you all to work!”
The crowd gradually broke up and then Alex took Luna by the hand and started walking back to their cabin. Anger radiated off him in palpable waves. She was glad that he hadn’t berated her in public, but there was no doubt in her mind that she was heading toward a long and painful evening.
They reached the cabin in silence and Alex led her into the living room before beginning the unpleasant conversation. He faced Luna and asked, “Do you understand what you just witnessed?”
She nodded, shame and regret making it hard to speak. “Shannon paid the price for my ambition.”
“I agree, but that’s not what I meant. Do you understand the physiological cause for what you just witnessed?”
He knew damn well that she did, but apparently he needed to hear her say it. “Shannon went into heat and it sent her compatible males into a mating frenzy.”
“The bastards at Nuevo called it the omega effect.” Alex paused, giving her a moment to absorb the implications.
“When an omega goes into heat it drives her genetically compatible males insane. Technically, she starts the process, but none of them are in control. The only way the bastards found to avoid the frenzy was to give control of the mating bond to male hybrids. It was never about subjugating the females. It’s simply a biological fact.
Male hybrids are stronger than females. They are able to control the impulses, while females are not. ”
“Why didn’t you warn me,” she snapped, furious that he would allow this to happen.
“I did,” Alex flared angrily. “You were so determined to gain the upper hand that you didn’t believe me.”
“The omega effect? I have never heard that term before,” she objected.
“He told you that there had been significant complications when the bastards at Nuevo tried to make the females less vulnerable,” Nate reminded, his expression nearly as stern as Alex’s. “You knelt there and rolled your eyes at him.”
The scene played back through Luna’s mind. Alex had been spanking her at the time. He suddenly rocked her back onto her knees and made her look at him. Then he’d said, they tried this at Nuevo, and it resulted in horrible side effects. You need to go back to the original formula.
Her response had been, yeah, right. And like Nate said, she rolled her eyes. She’d said something about the males needing to give up control if they wanted babies.
Obviously angered by her flippant attitude, Alex said, have it your way, but you can’t say I didn’t warn you.
The last phrase echoed through Luna’s mind, mocking her, damning her. This was her fault, not his. She had no one to blame but herself. “Could you have stopped this from happening if I hadn’t pissed you off?”