Chapter 9 #2
“Sure. I’m not ashamed of what happened.” She laughed. “Half the village saw me naked and on my knees. I don’t care who hears me describe it.”
“Wonderful.” Luna went to her desk and retrieved her datasheet, then set the device to record. “So, take me through what happened with as much detail as you’re comfortable sharing. When did the urges start and how did the males find you?”
Shannon paused, staring past Luna for a moment.
Then she began, “I started feeling restless a few hours after you gave me the second injection. I jogged around the village to see if I could burn off some of the excess energy. That’s when I met Ryan and Jacob.
The attraction was instantaneous and intense.
They insisted on escorting me home, but we didn’t do more than kiss.
Dylan showed up next. He just knocked on the door to my cabin.
He’s gorgeous, easily the most physically appealing, but there was something about him that bothered me.
His eyes kept flashing gold. He was really struggling to contain his wolf, and it made me uncomfortable. ”
“Did he pressure you?”
“I don’t know how to answer that,” Shannon sighed and looked away from Luna.
“He never touched me, but he… it’s really hard to explain.
It’s like he bombarded me with urgency. His voice, his gaze, everything about him made me jittery and anxious.
With Ryan and Jacob, the arousal was enjoyable. With Dylan, it made my skin crawl.”
Luna had never experienced the negative reaction, but she understood the enjoyable arousal all too well. She’d felt it with Nate from the beginning, and it had built between her and Alex gradually. “Dylan was the first one you rejected?”
“Yes, but not right then. I didn’t attempt to turn away suitors on my own. I accepted Ryan and Jacob and let them enforce my choices.”
The description made Luna smile. Shannon seemed like the victim last night, but Luna misread the situation. Shannon had been in control the entire time. “What happened next?”
“After Dylan left, the restlessness subsided and I thought the episode was over. I went to bed and slept well, but the next morning the restlessness was even worse.”
“This was yesterday morning?” Luna asked, wanting to ensure that her mental timeline was correct.
“Yes. By noon, I was going out of my mind. Ryan and Jacob sensed my need and showed up at my cabin. Things turned physical and it was obvious that they were my mates, so I claimed them.” She grinned triumphantly. “I love the way that sounds. I claimed them, not the other way around.”
“Did you just know instinctively how to anchor the link?” It was another detail Luna had failed to anticipate. Humans weren’t used to manipulating psychic connections. How had Shannon accomplished it?
“Ryan and Jacob guided me through the process, but I actually triggered the link.”
Support, respect, and cooperation between males and females. Could there be a better foundation for a lasting relationship?
“How did the scene we interrupted come about?” Luna prompted.
“We, me and my two mates, were still really restless so we went for a walk. I’d anchored the link with Jacob and Ryan, so we all figured it was safe to go outside.
Dylan showed up and he was even more aggressive than he’d been the night before.
I told him I’d made my choice, but he wouldn’t listen.
That’s when I looked at Ryan and Jacob and told them to take care of it.
They laid into Dylan, but almost immediately Dylan shifted into a wolf.
Ryan and Jacob started to shift also, but this bastard named Travis showed up.
I’d had run-ins with him before, so he never had a chance with me. ”
“Let me make sure I’ve got this right. Ryan and Jacob are in, but Dylan and Travis are out. Who is your third mate and when did he enter the picture?”
Shannon chuckled and her blush reignited.
“While Ryan and Jacob beat the shit out of Travis, Dylan just crouched there in wolf form snarling at them. Cole walked over as if nothing odd was going on. His scent hit me like an avalanche and I was lost. He took me in his arms and one kiss was all it took. Our connection is unbelievably strong. I was so desperate to have him inside me, I didn’t care who watched.
You saw what happened. I was oblivious to everything but Cole. ”
“I’m so relieved that you’re okay with what happened, but I’m concerned about Dylan and Travis. Have they accepted your decision?”
“They don’t have a choice,” Shannon said firmly then shrugged.
“Genetic compatibility is only part of what makes a strong bond. Thanks to you, I had my pick of compatible males. I wouldn’t mate with Travis if he were the last male on this planet and Dylan doesn’t appeal to me.
If it weren’t for the omega formula, I would have been claimed by all five of them.
So, stop feeling guilty, girlfriend. You’re a hero in my book. ”
Pleased by the praise, Luna smiled as she reached over and put the datasheet in standby mode. “Can I scan you before you head out? I have a fancy new scanner that can give us much more detailed information. And I need a new sample of your blood.”
“I’m more than happy to give you anything you need.”
After standing still for a series of scans and offering her arm for the blood sample, Shannon gave Luna a final hug and left the lab.
For a long moment, Luna just stood there and shook her head.
She thought she was an utter failure when she left for work this morning.
Now she felt a lot less useless, but she wasn’t sure what to do.
She had planned to abandon the omega formula and go back to the one Babcock had engineered, but she wasn’t sure that was the right move.
If they could learn from Shannon’s experience and take precautions, maybe the females could still control the bond.
Her first obstacle would be Alex. He had seemed relieved when Shannon went into heat. It was obvious he wanted males to retain control of the mating bond. What did she expect? Alex was alpha to the marrow of his bones. Giving control of something so important to a female felt unnatural to him.
Desperately needing an objective opinion, Luna sent the test results and a copy of Shannon’s interview to Carlos.
It was probably a stretch to consider him objective.
Still, he was as close as she could come.
It was only natural for the females to want some say about the males who claimed them.
Yet it was just as predictable for the hybrid males to fight for control of the process.
There had to be a way to find a middle ground, but she sure as hell wasn’t seeing it.
She was reading back through Shannon’s test results for the third time when Carlos requested a holo-comm. She accepted the connection and smiled as a three-dimensional image of the handsome doctor formed above her datasheet. “Good morning,” she greeted. “Or is it afternoon already?”
“It’s afternoon, but just barely. How is Shannon? The first heat cycle for an omega can be terrifying.”
Luna cringed at the word omega. She hadn’t intended to transform human females into omegas, but that was exactly what she’d done. “Shannon is doing better than I expected. Her heat cycle struck without warning, but she appears to be taking it all in stride.”
“The acquisition phase will only last three days,” he reminded. “She needs to bond with everyone she wants within that timeframe. Once the stabilizer is injected, she won’t be able to form any more links.”
“I’ll tell her, but I think she’s already found the ones she wants to keep.”
“That part of her interview shocked me,” he admitted, but amusement gleamed in his dark eyes. “Lupine males allowed her to reject them? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“Thanks to the omega formula, they didn’t have a choice.”
“It always comes back to biological investment, doesn’t it?” Carlos said thoughtfully.
She hadn’t really thought about it in those terms, but Carlos was right. Because females spent more time and resources producing and raising the young, females of nearly every species chose their mates. “I’m not sure Alex will see it that way.”
“Well, Alex is going to have to deal with it because the omega formula is remarkably stable and I would refuse to change a thing.” He thought about it for a moment then shook his head, “That’s too absolute.
I wouldn’t change the injections, but I would change the protocols.
The female needs to be supervised when she goes into heat, and the males must be controlled as they start reacting to her pheromones. ”
She mulled over his suggestions for a moment then smiled. “There are a couple of tweaks I can make that might make the heat cycle less traumatic, but I think I’ll stick with the omega formula.”
“Good. It’s worth fighting for,” he concluded.
“I really appreciate your support on this. I don’t think I would have attempted it without you.”
He returned her smile, then asked, “Did you get a new scanner? Today’s data is a lot more comprehensive than what you sent me before.”
“The scanner is new, and where I got it is a long but interesting story.”
“Then let’s save it for next time,” he suggested. “I have somewhere I need to be.”
“All right. Talk to you soon.”
The comm disconnected and the display went blank. She still wasn’t sure what to make of Carlos, but she was thankful for his help.
Evelyn had warned Luna that she planned to visit Caden on the Azrithal, so she would be late to work. But it was well into the afternoon and Evelyn had yet to appear. Luna was about to send a runner around to ask about her friend, when Evelyn walked into the lab.
“Sorry I’m late, but I brought you presents,” Evelyn announced with a broad smile.
Tianna and Jill entered and waved at Luna.
“Your next injection isn’t until tomorrow,” Luna reminded. “Are you having symptoms or concerns?”
“We heard about what happened to Shannon,” Jill told her. “Is that going to happen to us?”