Savage Hunger (Project Nemesis) (14 page)

He found the woman to be an enigma.  Intriguing and frustrating all at the same time.  Maybe it had been raging lust that had driven him to lose his damned mind.  Maybe it was the beast within, always beneath the surface ready to rise if he didn’t keep it in check.

He felt certain if Jasmine knew how easy it was for them to lose control, she wouldn’t be tempting them so much with her sexy, caramel ass and smoky, flirty eyes.

It pissed him off they didn’t have better control over themselves than to melt like butter the first time she offered it to them.  Perhaps being without a woman too long could be to blame, but no matter how he turned it around in his head, the conclusion that they were irresponsible assholes always rose to the surface.

Zach wove the leaves through the sides of their shelter through lianas vines he’d gathered from the surrounding jungle.  He’d reserved the longer lianas for emergency rope and lashing.  Some of it grew as long as three thousand feet, and would undoubtedly be useful if they needed to repel up a tree to get their bearings before they moved onward.

Following the creek would lead them to higher ground, but with that would come outcroppings of slick rock that would need to be scaled somehow.  Their supplies were too limited as it was.

He wondered uneasily, if the beast inside them was taking over.  He was certainly more aggressive and angry than he used to be before the change, but raging testosterone could be the culprit.  He wished they’d received answers to alleviate their fears instead of endless testing and experimentation.

The fact that they didn’t know what the scientists were doing didn’t set well with him.  They could, right now, be creating more soldiers just like them, and they wouldn’t know it.

He and his men had been deemed “out of control” and scheduled for termination.  Something in the properties of pure silver had had the desired effect of wounding them where they couldn’t heal, so in essence, they were not invincible though they were damned hard to kill.

There weren’t going to be a lot of people around carrying pure silver to kill them.  He, Dante, and Lucas just needed to wait out the next moon to see if it had been the circumstance they were in that made them feel out of control, or if the wolf inside was something they could handle without completely losing their minds.

The attack on Jasmine at the beach and their reaction, however overboard it might seem, had put in his mind that they had the possibility of maintaining a human mind even when under the change and at great stress.

Seeing her seemingly lifeless body had sparked a rage so fierce inside him, he’d wanted to taste blood, but they hadn’t turned on her in their rage.  The first change had been nothing like that, though even now, he could only remember bits and pieces of the incident.

“It’s getting dark.  Maybe one of us should go to the river and check on Jasmine,” Lucas said, looking up at the darkening jungle canopy.

“I volunteer,” Dante said with a grin.

“I bet you do.  Why don’t you start a fire?  I’ll go and check the traps I set out in the river and see if we’ll have fish tonight for supper or the last of the pork,” Zach said, heading out.

Dante nodded, going to work stoking the smoldering embers of their previous fire.

The virus seemed to amplify as it was transferred from person to person.  It had taken a few hours to affect his team but only minutes from the time the pickup squad had attempted rescue.

Maybe he was just thinking about his dick.  As much as he’d enjoyed fucking Jasmine, it hadn’t been enough.  Right now, thinking about walking up on her as she enjoyed a bath in the water made his dick harden painfully in his pants.

He rubbed his groin and quickened his pace, hoping to get a little peepshow before the main attraction.

She had a lush, curvy body that made his mouth water.  Her little dark nipples were sweet as the chocolate they reminded him of, and the urge to taste every inch of her sexy body had been with him since he’d first touched her on the boat.

He should have been pissed off that he had to share her with Lucas and Dante, but he wasn’t, and that in itself didn’t seem right to him.  She seemed perfectly willing to entertain all three of them and not short them on her attention.  He appreciated that in a woman.

A grin spread across his face thinking about fucking her with one of the others.  Far from the turnoff he’d thought it’d be, he found it exciting in almost an animalistic way to see her reaction from another man and then from himself.  The taboo nature of it and the erotic imagery were enough to set his blood to boiling in his veins and make his cock burst.

As he neared the stream, his hackles rose with a strange scent carried on the wind.  He sniffed the air, struggling to identify what specific animal it could be.  It wasn’t boar or deer.

Abruptly, he realized a panther had passed this way, heading to water.

When the realization connected with his mind, he leapt into action, racing towards the water and Jasmine.

***

Refilling the pot they used to boil water the night before, Jasmine set it down on the bank.

She was a little unnerved at the darkness closing in, but she wanted to wash some of the day’s sweat off while she had the chance.  She stripped her shirt off and knelt in the sand, scooping handfuls of water up to splash her face and chest.  She didn’t think she had time for full immersion with dusk so close though she had enough light for a quick dousing and to get back to camp.

The coolness of the water was a relief to her overheated skin.  She’d heard the jungle reached an average temperature between 80 and 90 degrees, but the humidity made it feel that much worse.

Sweat formed on their skin but never evaporated to allow them to cool off.  The only relief she found from it was in fresh, cool water and a night-time breeze through the shelter they’d made.

She was looking forward to the make-shift beds they’d constructed together and not having to worry as much about bugs crawling all over her or getting too cold from the moist ground leaching all the heat from her bones.

She wouldn’t have thought one could get cold in the wilderness like that, but she certainly did.

The wind picked up, carrying with it the scent of rain.  It hadn’t rained in two days, but with the rising humidity, she expected it probably would tonight.  The effort they’d gone through to provide more protection against rain would undoubtedly come in handy at some point.

Insects chirped from the overgrowth, reaching a cacophony stage of white noise she’d begun to grow accustomed to.  But the sudden quietness of birds made her pause in her splashing.

Raising her head, she scanned the bushes surrounding the stream, slipping her shirt over her head.

The sharp crack of a branch made her jerk her head around, looking for the source.  Studying the bushes, she stared at them a long moment before it dawned on her that something looked out of place.

The moment the squeals reached her ears, she knew she was in trouble.

A pack of wild boar had come to the river and she was completely exposed and in danger.

Jasmine’s heart dropped to her belly then rose to her throat to strangle the breath from her lungs.  She choked, her mind wild with panic.

She was frozen in place, trying desperately to decide what to do.  Should she run?  No, she knew that would make her look like prey.  Scream for help?

Pigs were unpredictable and deadly, and these were huge.  They had to be hundreds of pounds.  And protecting piglets, which only made them that much deadlier.

Had they even seen her?

Could she scare them away by throwing the pot or should she remain still and hope they would simply drink and just go away?

The razorbacks moved, stumbling through the underbrush.  They smelled her almost immediately, reacting with angry squeals.

She knew they were capable of being man-eaters.  Notorious for killing and goring anything that got in their way.

No one was close enough to help her.

If she screamed and someone had been following them, they’d know they were out here in the jungle somewhere.  She could put them all in jeopardy.

She backed away, grabbing the pot as if it could somehow protect her should the creature decide to attack.  She had nothing else for defense.

The razorbacks charged across the river in a surge of speed that took her breath away.

Without mindful thought to her actions, Jasmine screamed.  Her blood-curdling voice echoed through the jungle.  She whirled around to flee, stopping when she saw a huge wolf in her path.

The beast, the size and length of a man, rushed past her, blocking the path of the pack from its progression.

The giant pigs skidded to a halt and screamed challenge.  The wolf growled in response, bowing up and ready to fight.

She whipped her head around, hearing crashing through the jungle behind her, just in time to see Dante and Lucas running toward her, mid-transformation into wolves.  They hit the ground on all fours, fully changed and terrifying.

Zach had reached the beasts first.

She didn’t know.  One of them, maybe Lucas, pushed her backwards and joined the fray of giant razorbacks and wolf.  The lead pig squealed and charged, his tusks grotesque and huge.  He sliced Zach’s side open as easily as a knife.  A huge gash bloomed across his ribs and the wolf howled in pain.

Jasmine clapped a hand over her mouth, trying not to scream like a banshee.

Dante leapt onto the pig’s back, closing his mouth around the neck and giving it a shake.  Every muscle in his body strained to hold the beast still, but it was a monster—almost double his breadth.

Zach hit the pig hard enough to knock a chunk of its flesh loose.  It flew through the air, hitting the ground at a run, leading the others away in retreat and halting the sudden attack.

The three men obviously struggled with the urge to give chase and kill the pack of boar, but instead, they slowly returned to their human form.  They turned, looking for her where she’d crouched in the brush, watching the fight.

Zach’s eyes had a wild look in them, glazed with passion and fury from the fight.  He surged toward her, catching her up in his arms like she weighed nothing.

For a moment, fear seized her, and then, seeing she was okay, he clamped his mouth down over hers in a searing kiss that made her toes curl.

A whimper escaped her at the savagery of his mouth, but she couldn’t deny the effect he had on her.

She wrapped her body around him, clinging to him with arms and legs, kissing him as hungrily as he kissed her.  Relief warred with desire, making her blood sing and her heart race.

Dante punched Zach in the shoulder.  “Stop fucking around!  Is she okay?”

Zach growled at Dante, still obviously in the heat of battle and struggling to maintain control.

“Where’d all this fucking blood come from?  Are you hurt?” Zach asked when he pushed her from him to examine her for wounds.  He realized the blood was from the fight fairly quickly, when she nodded shakily.

“I’m okay.  It didn’t come close to getting me,” she said, her voice breaking.  “Are you all right?  All of you?  I…I was so sick with worry.”

“Fuck.  You’ve got to clean up.”  Zach looked around him.  “We all do.”

They agreed and went to wash the blood off them.

Jasmine felt shaky with relief, still in shock with what had happened.  The comfort she’d found was destroyed.  She wanted to believe the animals wouldn’t come back after such a defeat.  That they had crawled away to die.

Normally, thoughts like that never entered her brain, but it was hard to be a concerned animal lover when you were on the menu.

“Are we going to be safe?” she asked quietly, dripping with water and watching the men with huge eyes.

They exchanged a look.

“If it doesn’t crawl off and die, I’ll be surprised,” Zach said.  “I felt ribs break when I hit it.  What we have to worry about now is that scream alerting anyone to our position.”

That she didn’t burst into tears and weep all over them gained her more respect in their eyes.  The woman was tough.  She looked delicate as an orchid, but the fact that she’d basically held her cool was enough to raise her that much higher in their minds.  A woman like her was hard to come by.  Especially when most would have been blubbering all over their chests by now and whining and complaining about everything.

In a difficult situation, she seemed to make life more bearable.  She was intrinsic to their comfort and way of life now, whether she realized it or not.

“I was so scared you were going to be hurt or killed.  I can’t believe you healed that wound already.  It…it’s amazing,” she said, looking at them in awe.

“Come on.  It’s almost dark,” Zach said, grabbing her by the arm.  “We’ll have to recon in the morning to decide if we need to move on from this place.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, her feet dragging.  “I’m an idiot.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it.  It could’ve happened at any time,” he said.  “We’re so far out here, the chances of them not finding us are pretty good.  Hell, we don’t even know if they’re on our trail or not or if they’re tracking the other groups instead.”

Chapter Ten

They reached camp quickly and quietly.  The fire smoked and sputtered with the fat cooking off the remainder of the pork.

Eating anything but Jasmine’s sweet mouth was the last thing on his mind, however.

She sat down on one of the bunks, looking lost and fragile.  When Jasmine looked at him with those big brown eyes, it made him melt and forget any lingering doubts or anger he might have had over their situation and what had happened.

Zach closed the distance between them, kneeling down between her legs, and pressed his lips to hers in as gentle a kiss as he could manage when all he wanted was to ravage her and erase those ugly, frightening moments from before.

He wasn’t any good at gently wooing a woman.  He knew how to fuck, but making love was a different matter altogether.

The moment she opened her mouth and returned his kiss, all he could think about was her pussy wrapped tightly around his cock.  And then the drive to taste that sweet little cunt eradicated all thought from his brain.  He broke the kiss and pushed her back on the bunk, completely ignoring the others at his back as if they didn’t exist.