It took only a second to figure out how to operate the little black box, but that was enough to see us almost overrun as the next wave swept into the gap. Ava and Madge clung to my back, pressed close as the machine gun roared on one side and explosions rocked us on the other.

  I couldn’t say how long we huddled there, but soon the smoke thickened and the many detonations rattled our heads until the girl and I were firing at even the slightest movement. Her two duffle bags were filled with bands of ammunition, but even they began to get low before the gnashing and moaning sounds of the mutants quieted to a dull murmur.

  We stayed huddled there, shaken and not daring to speak for a good ten minutes, until a light breeze pulled the smoke clear and we could see nothing moving on the heaped piles of dead. The sound of retching was matched by a second, and I stepped away from the splashing puddle of sick, finding I had to pry my fingers off from where they gripped the little black box.

  “Thank God you came east, instead of north or south,” the young woman said, her voice once against triggering odd sensations within me, and I found myself staring into her yellow eyes, happy to look anywhere besides the horror surrounding us. “I couldn’t have made it there in time, and you’d have never survived the horde.”

  I didn’t say anything, just raised an eyebrow and kept our eyes locked on one another. Her lips, so perfectly sculpted and the palest pink, quirked into a half-grin and she nodded her head to the side, away from where the women were still retching.

  “You changed when the bombs dropped?” she asked me, stepping closer and filling my head with her unique aroma once more.

  “Everything changed when the bombs dropped,” I said, earning me another smile. “And yes… When I inhaled that gas, I began to get strange symptoms.”

  “Hm.” She nodded. “And the women? Why haven’t you bred the busty one?”

  Her frank words were surprising, but the first emotion to fill me was indignation and a touch of anger.

  “Thank you for saving our lives. I don’t know how you knew to do it, but we owe you. I don’t think that gives you the right to—”

  The young woman stood half a foot shorter than me, but she seemed to loom over me as she stepped close and whispered in a tight voice.

  “Listen, boy, I know this all must be hard for you to grasp, but the world’s changed. The Beta-Wilds will sniff out and rape to death any woman without the scent of an Alpha on her, and if she’s in heat… like your pretty lady over there… we’ll have every surviving thing in the Pacific Northwest on us by tomorrow if you don’t take care of this. Or if you won’t, then put her out of her misery, because I’ve seen what they do to women like her, and it ain’t pretty.”

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m Donatella Williams, but people just call me Dee.” I opened my mouth to ask more, but she preempted me. “If you’re going to be of use to me, then I need to know you can do what needs doing. You take care of that”—she pointed to my stepmom who was wiping her sick smeared mouth clean and passing the dirty rag to Madge—“and I’ll tell you why I need your help to break into Alpha Command.”

  “She’s my stepmom,” I said, but Dee only snorted and offered me a wink, her grin returning.

  “If she was your real mom, they wouldn’t be coming after her. A few years living in the same house doesn’t protect her. Look, if you can’t—”

  It was my turn to stop her short. The beast within me could stomach only so much derision before it peaked its head out to warn the woman. Instead of upsetting her as I’d feared, her smile grew full for the first time, and it was like the sun poked through the clouds. Her scent deepened as well, growing far too complex for me to discern what she was feeling or thinking, which felt disconcerting.

  I turned to regard my stepmom and frowned when I saw her wide eyes staring at me and the heavy rise and fall of her chest. Once again, the scent of her filled my head, and I had to push down the urges that clawed at my insides, tempting me to do the deed right here and now.

  “There’s a large farmhouse on the outskirts of town. We’ll pass it on our way to NORAD, that’s as good a place to clean up and take care of any… business that needs doing.”

  Ava and Madge glanced at Dee, a bit surprised at the calm command filling her tone. But I wasn’t. Dee wasn’t fazed by the piled-up corpses as we picked our way back to the vehicles. After five minutes of digging the tires out and pushing a mess of body parts and worse off my bike, we started the engines and followed the confident young woman as she zipped through the wreckage.

  I took up the rear, letting Ava and Madge follow the black-clad ass as it led the way back onto the highway and east. In my head, I was mulling over the clues she’d let drop and found myself less sure than I ever had been about what was going on.

  We didn’t have far to go before Dee turned her small bike off the road and onto a wide paved driveway. The road was lined with old weeping willows, and to either side stretched green vineyards out to the river’s edge. Coming over a small rise, I saw a picturesque white farmhouse sitting in the middle of a grass field. There was a long horse barn along one side, but the only vehicle I could see was a small two-wheel trailer that looked like it fit to Dee’s bike.

  The woman parked next to the trailer and swung off her bike, hooking a thumb inside and not waiting for us to park before running up the steps. I climbed off my bike and motioned for the women to bring their guns with them.

  “You don’t trust her?” Madge asked, her whispered words and scent filled with more excitement than fear.

  “It’s not that I don’t trust her, it’s that we have no idea what to expect. There could be anyone hiding in there or at the next stop, if there is one.” I looked into each of their eyes until they nodded to show they understood how serious I was.

  “What she said earlier…” Ava’s eyes were wide as saucers and red spots bloomed in her cheeks. “CT…”

  “I don’t know,” I said, avoiding her gaze and turning to the steps, “but she’s going to answer more of my questions before… Before anything.”

  I couldn’t see the glance the women shared, but it was almost like I could feel it as I took the steps two at a time. The front door had been kicked open, the frame inside shattered, which gave me pause.

  I’d taken a good look at Donatella when she’d walked up the stairs in the full morning light, and though my focus had been on other places, it had been clear she was far too delicate to have broken the frame like this. Pulling out my pistol, I proceeded with more caution, testing the air experimentally but only scenting the young woman’s complex aroma.

  Chapter 22

  “Put the gun away, slim. I ain’t your enemy.”

  Dee poked her head out of a doorway, motioning us through, but I didn’t holster my pistol and kept my head on a swivel as we walked into a beautifully decorated kitchen. Dee walked over to a tea kettle and brought it over to the sink, filling it.

  “Shower’s down the hall. Aunt Gwen keeps her towels under the sink. Help yourself.”

  “We’re not going anywhere until you explain a few things first,” I said, hating that I felt like a boy suddenly, despite standing in front of a woman only a couple years my senior and half a foot shorter.

  “If you’re too shy or nervous to get it on with her, then I will, kid. We don’t have a lot of time. The next wave could be here any minute, and I only got so much ammunition. If you can’t be of use to me, then I’ll find another rube to get me in.”

  “Get you in where? Why should we even trust you?”

  “You can trust me because I’m not telling you pretty little lies about how you’re the chosen one destined to save the world and all.” She spoke calmly as she pulled down a box of tea bags and four cups, calmly lining them up.

  “But”—she gave a short sigh and glanced up, frowning slightly, which made her small nose turn up in the most adorable way—“I suppose I can understand your concerns. Even sympathize. So, ask away, but be fast about it. It’s not that I don’t want to mark her, but I’m… saving myself.”

  “Who caused the apocalypse, what are Beta-Wilds, why the hell does everything feel so wrong and so right at the same time.” The words left me in a rush. Not quite a question, but Dee was nodding as if she understood and took a moment before speaking.

  “It would take too long to tell you everything, but I promise that if you agree to help me in my quest, I will. What you need to know now is that there has been a secret cabal of… special men who have been steering things behind the scenes for almost a century. My grandfather was one of them, the first actually.” Her pale yellow eyes darted over to Madge when the woman made a sound, and I saw the pupils swell and contract with a rapidity that was hypnotic.

  “You look familiar… Are you Madelyn Heatherton, the wife of Daniel?”

  “The widow… you knew Daniel?” She was a little confused to have it be her husband who was recognized, as she’d been about to demure as she did when recognized from her work on screen.

  “Only by reputation,” Dee said. “He was a good man from what my grandfather said. Dealt with the athletics wing through Nike.”

  “That’s right.” I watched Madge’s expression as it dawned on her who the girl was. “Your grandfather was Dean Williams?”

  “He was… or is…” The young woman showed her first sign of distress or unease, pressing her lips in a grimace. “That doesn’t matter now. You already know something about Alphas?”

  “A little,” I admitted, “just what Madge has told me.”

  “The basics are all that matter. You see, the Council who made all the decisions had a strict rule of nonintervention in most affairs. Only trying to add value and benefit to the human condition. To make the world a better place. To do no evil.” She shook her head and grimaced again. “But there were some who wanted to take more direct control. Who viewed Normies as nothing more than chattel to be used for whatever purpose they saw fit.

  “Four nights ago, they stopped being discordant voices upon the Council and took matters into their own hands. Calling themselves the Hegemony, they’ve allied with others around the world. Maybe in China, Russia, or Germany, I don’t know. They were able to do in twenty-four hours what my grandfather spent his entire life trying to stop from happening. They’ve released the Enkyos Serum across the whole world. Triggering the Change in everyone.

  “You’ve seen what it does to people. I don’t know how you survived the first night, ma’am. Or why you haven’t changed since, but either a person dies instantly, and that’s what happens to most women and children when they’re hit with Enkyos, or they’re mutated into, well… you all know what they mutate into.”

  “Okay,” I said, my mind sifting through everything, “so what is it you need me for? What’s at NORAD?”

  “That’s where the Alpha Command is. Four nights ago, when they triggered Armageddon, my father, my brothers, and all of my uncles—” A tiny quaver entered her voice but other than that her features were smooth, but in the complex jumble of her emotions, I scented a deep well of sadness. “They were all assassinated and my sisters kidnapped. I need to rescue them.”

  “Why weren’t you taken?” I asked, knowing I was pushing her but doing it anyway.

  “That doesn’t matter.”

  “It all matters,” I said, my voice even harder than hers, earning me a second look of interest and filling my belly with butterflies. “Where were you?”

  “I was in a secret location, where I’ve been for the past twenty-four years.”

  “Wait… you’ve spent your whole life in a secret location?”

  “Not my whole life,” she said, a touch of defensiveness in her voice. “I was brought there when I was three.”

  I chose not to press the point, but some things made sense now. Like her odd accent, not strong but definitely noticeable. It had hints of the British aristocracy in it as well as a southern drawl; combined with her partially Asiatic beauty, it was… intoxicating.

  “You need me to pose as your Alpha so you can get into this Alpha Command,” I said, and her eyes sharpened further, and she nodded for me to go on. “Then find out where they’re keeping your sisters and I presume break them out?”

  “Save my sisters, then find a way to end their tyranny and save the world.”

  “Didn’t you just say I should trust you because you weren’t telling me I was going to save the world?”

  “I’m not,” the gorgeous, yellow-eyed beauty said. “And you won’t be. I will.”

  There was no humor or pride in her eyes, and oddly I found myself believing she just might be capable of it.

  “And in order for us to do that…”

  “Your stepmom needs to be marked by an Alpha, or else those mutants are going to keep coming and coming and coming.”

  “Ha!” The sharp bark of laughter pulled my head around, and I found Madge blushing furiously and covering her mouth. “Sorry, that’s just… come on… cumming and cumming, that’s funny!”

  “Were you in Earnest Goes to the Retirement Home? Yeah, you were! You were the nurse, with the—” Dee held her hands out in front of her chest, indicating big breasts, and only realized what she was doing a moment later. “Oh sorry, that was rude.”

  “No, it’s not!” Madge said, beaming and her grin growing wider as she came around the island in the kitchen. “Honey, if you tell an actress you recognize her from a yeast infection commercial because of her tits, she’ll be over the moon! Well, most will, in their hearts anyway.”

  The woman shot me a pointed look as she engaged the leather-clad blonde. I’ve never met someone who can turn the charm on like Madelyn Heatherton when she wants to. And Dee was dazzled by her bright smile.

  “Follow me,” I said, plucking at my stepmom’s grime-covered shirt.

  Ava’s eyes went wide, the pale blue almost disappearing as the pupils dilated, and deep spots of red bloomed in her cheeks as she took my hand in both of hers and followed me from the room.

  Neither of us spoke as we walked down the short, sunlit hallway, and even our breaths froze for a long moment as I held open the door. Nothing could draw a sound from the gorgeous woman until she stepped into the bathroom.

  “Oh, my this is so beautiful…” Drawing the door closed behind me, my mind wasn’t in a place to process our surroundings.

  Unable to wait another moment, the beast within tearing at my willpower, I spun the object of my desire in my arms and gazed down into her eyes, filling myself with all of her as I breathed in deep. I saw the words welling up in her, protestations about her age, looks, or the tabooness of our situation, but they faded even as they formed, and a hungry grin stole across my lips as I relaxed my willpower a little more.

  Our twin gasps of pleasure were lost as our lips met again. Only this time there would be no stolen kiss, no hesitation or backtracking. As her soft pink lips played across mine and our tongues slipped along one another’s, my soul leapt, seeking to finally forge the connection that had been tempting me for days now.

  A gorgeous shower paneled in glass and sprouting three different heads at various heights was outfitted with the finest soaps and sponges. While we were covered in two days’ worth of mutant grime everywhere our clothes didn’t cover, and even parts beneath, none of that mattered.

  All that mattered was us finally joining as one. Our kisses grew fiercer and our hands wandered beneath shirts and fumbled at belts. We were giggling like kids when I nearly tripped on my pants. Then her panties and shorts were gone, and I held her against the wall, strong hands easily holding her up.

  Pausing there, savoring the moment, we stared into one another’s eyes, our breaths in sync, and then we were gasping in sharp breaths as she thrust forward, her wetness swallowing almost half my cock in one go. The heat and grip of her were nearly too much, and I swam in bliss for a moment, then taking ahold of myself, I sank fingers into the soft flesh of her ass and thrust in to the hilt, drawing a gasping scream from my mom.

  “Ohh, yes!” Her lips found mine, her cries of pleasure continuing and her fingers trembling as they cupped my cheeks. “Oh Court… oh baby, I love you so much, I… I’m cumming, CT… OH FUCK!”

  Teeth sank into my shoulder, but instead of being painful, they only spurred me on all the harder. Ava’s lips found my neck and broke through my willpower, and it was my turn to grunt and cry out.

  “Ohhhh Goddd damn.” My legs were trembling as the pleasure raced from my toes and fingers, down my spine, and through my cock.

  Ava’s elbows dug into my chest as she arched her back, head pressed against the wall as her pussy walls fluttered around my cock. Then as suddenly as if her strings had been cut, she slumped against me and I set her down slowly. My cock was still hard and throbbing as it slipped from her tightness, and I drew in a deep breath trying to get control of myself as I pushed it aside.

  “Mhmm, where are you going with that thing?” Ava asked, her eyes looking up at me with a lazy seduction I’d never seen in them before as she pushed off the wall and pressed herself against me, biting my bottom lip lightly and sliding her massive, shirt-covered breasts down my chest. “Madge! Get in here. It’s time to shower!”

  “We only had to…”

  My words trailed off as Madelyn swung the door open as if she’d been standing just outside the door.

  “Since the deed is done, as it were,” the gorgeous actress said, reaching up and pulling free her bun, and letting her hair cascade down one shoulder, “Dee said she’s going to scout the area for a couple hours… Give us a chance to rest and relax. Can you think of anything you’d like to do for… relaxation, CT?”

  “I can think of some things,” my stepmom said, shocking me as she pulled Madelyn close and pressed a passionate kiss to the actress’s wide mouth.

  I watched absolutely spellbound as the women kissed. A second later, I saw that the embrace wasn’t for my amusement as their passion increased and Madge gave a low growl of desire. Their scents were a match for one another in desire, and it only increased when both reached out, dragging me with them as they began shedding clothes and stumbling over to the large shower.

 

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