Changeling Winds: Episode Two (The Bachelor Battles Book 2) (18 page)

“Let’s ride.”

My second in command, Lena, got the others moving and I trailed them like I always did when I was brewing death and destruction. I’d been furious when Jason was listed as a prize for the Games, but until he was of age, I couldn’t legally take him. I’d made the choice to steal him back if he was chosen, hoping the way I’d terrified him would keep him from trying to be picked by any female. It had worked for almost a year.

My crew got our mounts moving faster, and mine kept up without any direction from me. We had lived this way for most of our lives and it had become routine. Some of my girls were getting a bit restless, tired of always being on the move, but most of them wouldn’t survive any other lifestyle. I’d handpicked each of them, made sure my crew the strongest one ever formed at the complex, but inside, I loathed them for the very skills I took advantage of. Each female riding with me was a threat to my place with the Network.

Lena glanced back at me with a speculating expression I didn’t care for and I met her stare with a flash of pink that had her swiftly turning around. I ran my crew with no mercy or compassion. Those things were as foreign to me as the honor of those Pruetts I wanted to see rotting under my boots. I was a product of those who pulled my strings.

Ahead of us, Angelica’s large group took the main path, the one that would take them to my first surprise. My Changeling sight narrowed in on Jason’s happy face as he took the Mopar up to speed. Miss Hard-ass thought she was getting a trained, submissive mate who would be obedient. That was the image the Network protected, but it wasn’t even close to the truth. The Bachelors, Jason included, were sly, manipulative creatures that had to be handled firmly or they sank their greedy claws in and wouldn’t let go. It was a lesson I’d taken into my cold heart and stuck to with the harem I’d amassed over the years. Those I took relief from saw no gentleness, no soft kisses like Angelica was now pressing to Jason’s cheek! My rage flared brighter, hotter.

Ahead of me, my crew took the opposite path that the Pruett Runners had and I nudged my mount a bit faster. If there was gunfire, we would cut over the hills and join in. If there was silence, we would hang back and parallel them until they hit the Borderlands and my next surprise. I waited eagerly, unable to stop wanting him, needing him.

I thought about how Jason was able to twist me up inside, something none of the others had ever been able to do… and I thought about his father. My work for the Network in those early days had placed me on the Network Rider weekly. The service of the train males was included in my contract, but it hadn’t taken me long to grow bored of their used, meek demeanor. Much like the Pruetts I hated, I needed courage, a fire to be conquered.

Once a year the train males were replaced. The old were put on buyers sheets and a new batch came in. Only slightly used, they were the males who hadn’t been chosen during a Game but still had too much value to be sold outright. The Network took a year of service from these lightly damaged men and I’d been sure to be there for the switch. I wasn’t important enough to access to the renter’s halls yet and the need was keeping me angry, violent most of the time. The Network usually approved of that, but not when it interfered with their orders. When I’d seen William, with that ebony hair and those glowing gray eyes, I was lost.

I’d used his blissful services for the full year, planning to buy him when his time was up. Thanks to my bloody conversation with the conductor when she refused to take UDs, William was kept on the day shift and didn’t become as used as the others. He had full access to my credits for food and supplies and we’d spent long, intense hours in my personal care, the one the Network was providing without being aware. (Lena had been great at forgeries even then. Now, she was a pro at seeing to what I demanded - another threat to my control.)

Our year together was hot, erotic pleasure that I dreamt of whenever I wasn’t with William, and I’d been sure he was growing to care for me the same way. Back then I’d had hopes of finding a mate to bring this rage home to. That had ended a week before the yearly switch, when William vanished from the train.

I’d searched it for
hours,
sure William was scared of the coming switch and hiding. When I got to the service car, I discovered the truth. The train males told me he’d had a regular renter during the day, a Kentucky homesteader who took the train to New Network City once a week to report for probation meetings. William had been seeing her the entire time and never told me. She and I were his only renters. I’d begun to realize how smart he was before that, but to have fooled me for an entire year! The Network’s image of male submission was a complete lie.

I’d learned the renter’s name and tried to track them down, but she’d taken my male and went to ground as soon as her probation was up. There was silence… for ten years. In that time, I collected a harem of male to vent my rage on, but I never lost that need for William. The bachelors I chose paid for his betrayal - were still paying. I had several left from those first few years, copies of William that I didn’t use much now. They were beyond broken, but occasionally the bitterness grew too high and I would pay them a visit - like after this run if I didn’t get Jason back.

I’d seen his image on the yearly contract offering runs and knew, without a doubt,
who
his father was. Too many nights spent tossing and turning, dreaming of our year, had been burnt into my brain for me to ever mistake his features. I’d taken that run with fury in my heart and butterflies in my stomach. William!

He stayed in the barn as I negotiated with his owner, using the form questions to find out she’d bought him in a private sale and legally owned him. I even had her show me the paperwork. After ten years, I had good control and I left their cozy little house with peaceful words despite her refusal of the contract for her 9 year old son. I was happy in my new life, as much as I could be, and I wanted the head Defender slot. If I stole a male, though it was legal, the Network would be embarrassed and deny me the position I’d already killed so many to get. I was determined to hold on, and maybe to come back later, when I had the full power of that title behind me.

Then William stepped out of the barn.

His owner had come out with me, their two girls enjoying the cool shade of the porch rocker. All of the females froze when he smiled.

I moved toward him in a daze, drawn by the welcome on his face and the heat in my gut. I’d missed him more than I’d ever thought possible.

He opened his arms to me… I embraced him with tears. He was happy to see me! I hadn’t expected that. Maybe she’d convinced him to leave the train? Maybe she’d forced him.

I leaned back to ask and saw his eyes go to his owner and children in a series of panicked, regretful glances. He was pretending, protecting them… My dreams shattered again, this time while I was within reach of them all.

“Please don’t…”

That voice!
I didn’t have to... I could control…
But I’d waited so long!

The snap came fast. It sent me into the Change and I released the fury of the past ten years on his new life. It was a regret now, but at the time, all I’d cared for was their blood. All three females were dead minutes later.

I held William by the throat, dragging him into the barn. Now that I’d killed for him, I would have a service from the betraying bastard who’d caused me to hurt this way.

I threw him into the straw, mentally counting down the two minutes it took for the drugs to work. I’d shot it into him while he was begging me to spare the child still cowering on the bloody porch. Unlike the girls, the boy hadn’t fought back and my rage hadn’t been triggered.

“Please!”

I shredded the skin over his arm, taking it for the first weeks I’d spent alone and bewildered.

William flinched back, a coward to the end, and I jerked my cloak open.

He paled as he understood what I was doing, shaking his head. “No. I won’t!”

I adjusted my clothes and then started on his, tearing them from his beautiful body with hard swipes that drew furrows of blood. I leaned down and licked the ones on his stomach, catching his leg when he tried to kick me.
He still tasted sweet!

My mouth settled over his hardening flesh, helping the drugs work faster and he struggled under me. Bigger now, he succeeded in rolling us over, but not in dislodging my mouth and I held on, knowing the chemicals would have their way. I’d given him twice the normal dosage. When it kicked in, I’d get all I asked for and then some.

He tried to stand up and I punched the back of his knee viciously.

“
Ugg
!”

He collapsed onto his side and I let go of the steel in my mouth long enough to pin his hand down - the one reaching for my knife.

Lust had me now and I showed him no mercy, using my claws on him like I did with my harem at the complex. His hip and leg turned red from the deeper cuts and I growled, shoving him over.

I straddled him, punched his beautiful face when he would have kept fighting. “Take it!”

I drew back to deliver another blow and he cringed, submitting. I hit him anyway, a solid swing that dazed him, and I quickly adjusted my hips for the conquest. A tight hand in his hair forced him to look up at me with blood and teary, hate-filled eyes.

“You were mine!” I raked my claws down the side of his face, making him scream. The sound of it sent me into a frenzy of lust.

I took his mouth as I took his body, absorbing his screams as I shoved down, forced him to impale me. I locked my thighs, groaning against his twisting lips.
So good! My William!

He bucked again, trying to roll and I opened my legs, letting him sink in deep as he took the top position.

William shuddered, the drugs now working against his hatred. I spread my legs further, the way he used to like… and lifted my shirt.

“Damn you!”

His dilated vision went over our pulsing, slick bodies in desperation, fighting with himself now…

I tightened my female body around his length and began to grind.
Around and around, teasing him, no longer needing to hold him physically.
The drugs had a metal grip that was unbreakable.

I felt it in my heart when he surrendered. It was the sweetest sound I’d ever heard.

“Roll over, Rankin. I can’t stand to look at you.”

The pleasure…
I still had no words for it.

Afterwards, staring at the mess I’d made, I chose to leave my plans and run. I would take him with me and I’d have this relief at my beck and call. Then Jason found us and started screaming at the sight of me on his dad’s bloody body. I’d forgotten about the boy, but if we were to get away, there couldn’t be any witnesses. I’d moved toward the cowering child with only that thought in mind.

And William had attacked me. He hadn’t demonstrated the usual grief over the others, but the son, he loved. If I had known, I would have taken them both just to be sure of him doing what I wanted, but there wasn’t time to puzzle it out. There wasn’t anymore wild struggling like during his rape. William fought with me like a woman, using a strength I wasn’t prepared for. Killing him with that brutal throat rip had been defensive instinct. Taking the son to replace the father had been quick-thinking self preservation.

But the emotions I’d carried for his father had begun to overwhelm me as Jason grew. Instead of a cold object to be used, he’d become my guilty obsession, my hidden treasure. As he aged, his features became more defined and I was rewarded for the patience. Every time he looked at me, the old dreams of having a loving mate resurfaced against my will.

I found myself bringing him gifts, taking him out of the complex… bonding with him. We were both fascinated by animals and war relics, and I made him dependant on me through those things and others. There was no doubt Jason hated me, but he also needed me and it was a powerful hold. Of the fifteen years he’d spent in the complex, half of those had been spent untouched and gently cared for. The other half…

I forced my mind from the long, bloody nights of breaking him in. I’d had others before and since, but the memories of Jason’s first sessions were the ones I held dear. Until the Pruetts, I’d been everything to him. And he’d betrayed me, taking the first escape to come along – just like his father had. There would be payment for that.

                                                       
Jason
  

We didn’t travel long before Angelica’s gentle grip on my shoulder slowed us. We were coming to an intersection, a small town, and I slowed even more at the sight of all the females going about their daily lives.

The town was only a few streets by a few streets, but the number of homesteaders was surprising. Almost all the small, cleared lots along the road were hosting cabins or the beginnings of one, and I could hear a cutting crew taking down trees in the distance as we slowed to a crawl. It seemed as if this area was growing where very few others were. I wondered suddenly how much of it my owner’s family was responsible for. Tales of their generosity were abundant, but I thought it could also be that measure of safety it gave to be the hometown of such lethal women.

We turned right onto the wider street at the intersection and I began browsing the businesses. I saw a number of average shops offering day-to-day items, but there were also a few that
I
would have given a lot to be allowed to walk through.
Especially the bookstore.
Did they make them using the trees, like in the old world? So far as I knew, the Network had outlawed books and reading unless it was their approved material. I thought the shelves here would be stocked with that propaganda, but maybe underneath, or in a back room...