Page 61 of The Dire Reaction

“Baby, you’re hurting. Let me at least check your stitches. I don’t want you to open up your wounds.” Memories of his muscles laid open and the pool of blood Elly and I pulled him out of flicker through my thoughts.

I hug him tightly against my chest, his lips nibbling my neck. It terrifies me that I almost lost him. The pain returns. The agony that I suffered resurfaces twisting in my abdomen. His broken body, his screams are on replay in my head.

A shudder grips me. The tears stream down my face as a sob locks in my throat.

His hands frame my cheeks and pull my lips to his.

“Dani, baby, what’s the matter? It’s okay. I’m okay. I’m right here.” He wipes away one of my tears with his thumb.

“Oh, Sam. I really do love you. I don’t ever want to lose you again.”

Chapter thirty

ALEXANDER

Mylegiongrows.Anarmy of my fiendish creatures now obey me. I’ve found others like me, trapped between man and beast. All leaning heavily toward the animal, but smart enough to follow my more complex orders.

They are to avoid the open where the helicopters can hover and pick them off. Be watchful of rooflines where snipers and gun toting fools take lethal aim. They’ve learned to coordinate their actions to open doors or breach windows under my tutelage. In return, they eat. Food is the resource we seek out. Sniveling humans hiding in their hovels. My dogs can bring them to any of the depots I’ve created where they can be contained and utilized. They gather other foods as well, but it’s fodder for the captives. If they’re restrained and fed the grotesque packaged products, they can be fattened and softened.

I am planning a new way of life. An empire I control is erupting around me. With a flick of a finger, a raise of my lip, or a rumbling growl, my every wish is followed.

As it should be.

Now, if I could just get my queen to concede to me as the others do. I no longer seek her screams of pain. My walls now echo with those constantly. Although a delightful background noise, it doesn’t stir my loins as her screams of passion do.

I have anticipated this day. I have been stoking the flames within her, plying her with pleasure, convincing her with my tongue that I desire much more than just exposing her inner beauty. My claws encased safely behind heavy leather gloves, I can touch and caress her without marring her perfect skin.

She doesn’t balk as quickly, but the fear still flares in her eyes when I reach for her. My patience is thick, strong, and as hard as my cock every time I so much as think of her.

I will win her over.

But, it will not be today. Today, I can smell the estrus on her. It’s saturating from her pores, the cloying perfume of her body begging for me.

There is a driving need in me to see her heavy with my child, to create a greater being who will rule this new world. A prodigy I will guide to greatness. A strong brilliant child with my strength and her constitution, it will be unmatched. She is my perfect mate.

Even her fortitude draws me closer. Her resolute hatred of me will fade. The challenge is a lure, the tantalizing carrot that dangles just beyond my grasp. It is disguised in honey blond hair, round blue eyes, and wide full lips that she bites nearly to bleeding before she screams in orgasm.

She is my challenge, my obsession, my every thought. And today I will make her mine.

Though she doesn’t cower, her movements are still hesitant as she walks the hall by my side.

Her scent is smothering. It drives my blood to my loins, coaxing my cock to burst from its sheath. Only through sheer force of will do I keep its moist barbed head from breaching into the air.

The periphery of the chamber is now filled with the milling beasts. Many move with purpose, leaving or returning from retrieval missions.

One of my half-breed commanders watches us approach. He’s enormous, even by the others. He must have been a brute of a man before the change. Although he favors walking on four legs like the mongrel he’s become, I’ve seen him lumbering on two. His short snout wrinkles in our direction. His humanoid eyes widen and focus onher.

There’s enough man left within him that he flashes a toothy grin. He must expect me to cower, and when it fails, his snarling smile broadens into a threatening grimace. His canines bulging past his tight lips do little to threaten me, but his hardening cock waving free as he stands upright shows he is unfettered in his lust.

The growl that emanates from my bowels leaves no doubt as to my claim of her. But, the lack of my scent upon her tantalizing skin argues my ownership.

These new rules of possession are based on bodily fluids and posturing.

Perhaps not so unlike the old world.

The heat of her body grows closer to mine, and I feel a timid hand wrap around my furred arm. She clings closer, perhaps choosing the lesser of two evils. She has seen the chaos of two males fighting over a female. She has also witnessed the ravaging that shreds the unclaimed women. Torn apart without a male to protect them. Used and consumed by the hordes of ravenous maws.

A gelatinous slick of stinking gore clings to the walls and floor, a reminder of bodies long disappeared. I only have two rooms untainted, hers, and my trophy room.

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