Ron wiped the grime from his face as he watched the place burn. The heat was too intensely familiar. It had taken him several, agonizing days to recover from the change. The Rousseau had made sure to graze him slightly instead of the usual blood letting of a quick transformation. The moment Rousseau went away, Stella had abandoned the pack. There was no leader to shut him away with the other changelings. He'd spent those days in the tunnels executing as many bitches as he could. He couldn't help himself. The endless pleasure required to stop the pain wasn't enough. The joy was disturbed by the fact that he was one of them now. He understood what it meant to be hungry and to smell his own inferiority. The higher level dogs had taken the bitches worth keeping with them when they fled. Rousseau had said that he would leave none alive who had seen the injustice done. So, why the hell didn't he finish them, especially Ron, off when he had the chance? His Ellen, that's why.
After he blew up the compound, Rousseau and that ungrateful wife would be dead. If she had shown any affection for him, he wouldn't have had to resort to this. It was simple really. Now that the southern pack was gone, and he'd wiped out any rivals, he could go back and take Lucy by force as his mate. The sister was older, but she was smart.
When he fucked his Lucy, she even enjoyed herself. He hadn't had to "fix" her like Ellen. If Lucy had said yes to his proposal in the first place, things would have been different. It started out as a way to pay her back, really. He thought Lucy would try to stop his seduction of the girl, but she laughed in his face. That's when he decided to do it. Ellen had been like the best sunrise when he took her. So suggestible and blind. The gasps that he knew no one had ever made her produce still tickled his ears as he hooked up the last fuse. He ground his teeth as he then remembered her crouched over him in rage.
"Bitch," he breathed.
The blaze would be high enough to draw the fire departments from the surrounding counties, but it was superficial only. He'd blow the box just under each set of stairs right after they pulled up. No stairs, no exit, no survival. He smiled to himself as he heard the distant wail of the sirens. Time to spook the horses toward the drive....
***
"Yo, Jerry. We got a body here!"
"Wow! They must have put the mattress over her to protect her from the
flames. I told you we should have looked better when we dragged those dogs
from this room. Huh? Wait. Did you see that? Did she move? Get the EMT's up here."
*
I was so tired. It felt like I was breathing through sand.
I heard a pleasant female voice, "She came to in the ambulance and tore up the inside. As you know, that warranted a strapping down at the hospital. She's growled and hissed at anyone that came close enough to check on her. We gave her a sedative and cleaned up the minor scrapes. I don't recommend taking off the restraints until we're sure she doesn't have a brain injury. Her lungs are going to take some time to recover."
I watched the nurse leave the room. The man sat down next to me. He came too close and I growled a warning. He was a light-skinned black man with very high priced taste in clothing.
He laughed, "I forgot. You've never seen me as a man. You remember, you bit my nose?" He passed a manicured finger over the bridge of his nose.
Dominic's brother. I don't think I heard his name, but that didn't matter. He was there alive in front of me. But, I didn't want to see him. I croaked, "Dominic, and...?"
"They were taken to the pound, of all places. It took me a while to convince those morons that my 'dogs' were harmless and usually roamed the house. Can you believe, they advised me to have them fixed? They're at a hotel for safe keeping. You should let them take care of you. We'll be going to the north pack when you're better."
"Everybody lived?"
"Well, no. The two human's didn't survive the fire. It was lucky. What would they have told the authorities?"
The girls were gone. This was just one more thing to add to my messed up life. When he saw the tears in my eyes, he knew they'd meant something to me and rested his fingers over mine.
"I'm sorry. I can not think of a reason why I'm so foolish. You know that they couldn't survive in the same conditions that we are capable of living under. You grew attached to them anyway. It is understandable. They will be missed, but it was more important to save your life."
He placed a hand over my stomach and frowned at me, "How long are you going to wait to choose?"
I tried to get my nails into his hand, but he was too quick.
"The higher rank you are, the more choice you have, but it's not a game of chance. You'll see I'm telling the truth when it happens to you."
He softened his frown and put his hand to my face. "You should be thinking of this now, while you have your head. The less service you get, the harder things will be the next heat."
He pulled the blanket off of my feet and looked at my toes. He pulled away the wrappings and smiled up at me.
"You shouldn't be losing any of those dainty little toes."
He left the blanket off of my exposed feet and sat quietly until a
doctor came in.
"Miss ...Franklin," the doctor finally asked. I nodded. "Are you calm enough for me to examine you, now?"
I nodded again. Now that I knew what the situation was, I allowed him to check my body. The gloves were warm on my legs as he paid extra attention to my singed feet.
"You are a very lucky girl to have been able to survive a fire and a partial building collapse. Do you have relatives that I can call?"
"I am one of her relatives. Her fiancé should be here soon."
The doctor looked Dominic's brother over very carefully, looked at me, and left. Which man would be my "fiancé" when they came to get me?
***
"Good morning, Lucy."
"Please, what have you done with my mate?"
Ah. That strained look on her face was almost perfect. Ron checked her cuffs again and stood in front of her. She looked back at him with contempt, and that wasn't part of the plan.
"Don't you worry about him. He's irrelevant. Let's talk about the coronation. What would you like to wear?"
She turned her face from him, "I will wait for my king."
That reply drew his face into a sneer and he worked to return to the forced tranquility.
"Your king is standing right in front of you. The imposter has been dealt with."
"Francois?"
"You need to come to the fact that you are my bitch, now. You don't see any higher ranking males around here, do you? I've taken care of all of them. The lower rank males are now the highest you've got. I look pretty good now, don't I?"
"No, Ron. You look as bad as you always have. You've just signed your
death warrant."
He raised her face and caressed her breast as he smiled, "What? You think I was lying when I told you the southern pack was destroyed? Le Rousseau is just a bad memory, as well. You think there's someone else who can come to get you?"
"I know that there is someone else who can come to get me. I can feel it. I can hear that he is still alive."
Ron's grasp of her face tightened as he said, "You don't know squat! I'm just learning, but I can hear the same voice that you hear. I hear every thought in your puny little brain. And, I know what you've got planned. No matter how hard you struggle, I'll take it all away from you."
She smiled in his face as he flustered to go through her brain, again. Since her sister had become aware, they had been connected. At this moment, Ellen was hearing and feeling it all. Ellen told her to be quiet and to taunt him at any chance. Lucy was doing well. The man hadn't made an attempt to consummate his reign. She remembered what he was like before he took Ellen. He was very passionate and patient when she had explained that he wouldn't be her first. It had been Mother Beauvais' decision to end the experience. The time had come to make James a man and bring her to prime. She'd never realized how it had affected Ron. He chose Ellen to take out his frustration. She looked into his eyes and knew that he was capable of killing any obstacle in his way. The only reason she still lived was her already proven womb.
***
"I want you to understand that it doesn't matter what you decide. It's only important that you make a decision soon. Your sister grows weakened by Ronald's continued assault. I still don't understand how you lasted so long with him," Sebastian Rousseau softly said as he ran his hands over my shoulders.
I relaxed in his tentative massage and placed my hand on his knee behind me. He knew that I was struggling with the decision and was reaching out in his subtle way to soothe me. After a few false starts, it was explained to me in great detail that I wouldn't reach my full awareness until I had made my choice. The Rousseau had said that he wouldn't be my toy until I chose it. If I didn't want him, why should I want to have sex with him. Bummer. I did want him, sort of. Dominic and James had cemented their relationship, so if I picked either, I would be getting both. Sebastian was my only choice, but he didn't act like it.
I'd been with Dominic several times since the fire, but it wasn't the same. I knew he belonged to someone else, and that put a hold on any connection that I could put into the situation. All I felt was hurt when he pulled away from my sleepy embrace and left for his own bed. With Ryan reunited with his mate, the sex parties disappeared completely and I was left to my own devices.
In my frustration, it occurred to me that I was the only one that knew how that nut job, Ron, worked. Only I could take him out. That's when the dreams started. Lucy would talk to me as we did what we used to do when we were little. She'd cut the deck and I'd say what the card was. She would whisper to me what I needed to know. We would shout the rest. I don't know why we did this, but we used to be told to practice. She told me everything that he had done and was planning. I told her that I would be coming to kill him soon. She laughed and picked up another card.
"What do you see?" She yelled, then whispered, "He plans to mount me tomorrow night. It is timed for my most fertile time. He's been keeping track."
