Torment (Primal Progeny Book 1) (25 page)

Slumping back against the ground she panted for a moment, her chest heaving up and down as she silently begged the waves of pain to subside. After a minute or two she managed to gather herself enough to fumble with the waistband of her underwear, a highly impractical lace thong. Deciding she didn’t need the extra discomfort she grabbed the material and tore it over her hip, repeating the process on the other side.

Lying naked and wounded she closed her eyes and allowed herself a moment of self-pity, tears welling in her eyes as she tried desperately to ignore the agony she was in. The moment quickly passed though, as her inner wolf pressed her to make the change. It insisted quietly but firmly at the forefront of her mind.
‘You need to get back; WE need to get back to the pack. There’s no time to waste.’

Knowing that it was right she took a handful of deep breaths and then carefully levelled her breathing. With her chest rising and falling steadily she called the beast that lived within her forth and allowed it to take her over. Firstly it took control of her mind, to prevent her backing out of her promise to allow it freedom, then next came her broken and battered body.  For Eve the change began a little differently to Hunter’s transformation, as each shape-shifter had their own patterns to the change. First her mane of dreadlocks began to fall out of her head. One by one they dropped to the ground and curled up like dying snakes, shrinking and soon becoming nothing but twists of what looked like animal fur. Then her piercings began to force their way upwards and out of her milky pale skin. They fell to the floor with tiny metallic tings and rolled off into the tangled grass beneath her. Then the real change began. Suddenly her back arched upward, her belly thrusting into the air bulbous and squirming beneath the skin. Her internal organs were shifting and changing. Her broken leg could not support this position and so she tumbled sideways, hitting her hip painfully onto the floor and drawing forth a sharp yelp from her lips. But it was too late to stop the change then, she had to go through with it. Curling into a ball she tried to hug her knees but drew back with a shout of pain as her leg protested at the contact. Rolling back onto her naked back she tried her best to endure the contractions of her muscles, and the breaking and re-forming of her bones without screaming. Her skin pulsed and bubbled and the breaking of her bones echoed through the trees as she transformed. Blood trickled from her mouth and nose and soon was slowly seeping from every orifice. She was so weak from her injuries that the beast within her was trying to accelerate the transformation to help her chances of survival. The result was a far more painful experience than she had ever had to endure before. Her bones splintered rather than simply breaking and her muscles and sinews snapped violently before threading their way back together beneath her skin. Her chest bulged and burst open, sending small fragments of breast bone flying from the wound as her ribs cracked and repositioned to allow her lupine barrel chest to form. Her hips broke so violently that the bones forced their way out through the skin, and all over her body cuts and tears popped open. As strands of muscle fibre felt their way back across the gaps and wound together like grotesque little fingers, her face finally began to change. Her jaw broke and her quiet noises of pain became guttural gurgles. Her skull split in multiple places at once, and the planes of bone shifted beneath her scalp like errant tectonic plates. Her eye sockets broke and shifted outwards, her nose and jaw shifting forward and her ears moving up the sides of her head all at once. Squirming and moaning she forced herself onto her side and just in time to allow her tail to sprout from the base of her spine. Then finally fur began to grow. It did not begin in any particular place but instead sprung up all over in a fine downy coat, which thickened as the seconds passed. It soon covered the wounds caused by the change, which were still knitting themselves back together.

It had felt like it had taken forever, but she had made it to the other side of the transformation. She was a wolf.

Lying on her thickly furred side she panted heavily, her eyes tightly closed and her tail managing one weak thump against the ground behind her. As she laid there her ears twitched, she could hear the undergrowth disturbances as Tobias began his own transformation. She was grateful that he had waited for her own to be complete. It gave her time to rest and recover before she had to test out her leg in lupine form.

Tobias took half the time that she had to make the change into his wolven form. Within what seemed like mere moments he was padding out of the trees towards her, his tongue lolling and steam rising from his shaggy blonde coat.

With her tongue hanging limply from the side of her muzzle Eve lifted her head and stared at him, her nostrils working on the scents of the woodlands. He drew closer and sniffed delicately at her hind leg, which had been so badly broken in human form. His tail wagged enthusiastically behind him, it was healed.

Eve watched his reaction and her own tail began to thump limply against the ground. Despite the victory she was greatly weakened. She shakily hauled herself to her paws as Tobias gave her the once over with his nose, sniffing at her here and there and licking up the remnants of the blood that trickled from her nostrils. Curling her lip at him to indicate she wanted space Eve took one trembling step forward. Despite the miraculous healing of her leg there was a reasonable amount of residual pain and she yelped when her pads pressed to the floor. Quickly lifting her leg she looked at Tobias who wagged his tail encouragingly and poked at her side with his nose. This drew a more forceful snarl from her, but she carefully tried again and hobbled forward a couple of paces. The pain was bearable, and she turned to face her fellow beta and yipped at him excitedly. Then with a sudden burst of speed she shot off into the trees, not looking back to see if he was following. She could hear him trailing behind her clearly enough, only slightly slower than herself as he hung back to keep an eye on her injury.

They moved as fast as racing dogs as they ran through the woods, speeding to their destination as fast as their legs would carry them. Trying not to think of whether Eve’s limb would be even more ruined when she eventually made the change back into human form. Entirely focussed on getting back to their alpha and delivering the unfortunate news about his daughter.

Chapter 26

Audra followed the scent trail of the creature who was causing so much terror amongst the pack for hours. She followed her nose through countless fields and patches of woodland, her nostrils flaring delicately against the ground. The scent grew stronger and stronger with every paw step, and the closer she drew to him the more intoxicating his scent became. He was strong and fearless and had such a strong alpha scent that it sent her lupine self giddy with desire. Somewhere in the back of her mind her human self wrestled with this. It tried to draw her attention to how wrong these feelings were. To how stupid and dangerous it was to succumb to his lupine dominance. But her wolf would not listen. She was so full of lust, that at one point she could not prevent herself form dropping to the ground and rolling in a patch where his scent was particularly strong. Somewhere in the recesses of her mind the suppressed human part of her nature gagged at this, but she could not fight the desire she felt.

After this moment of weakness she realised dimly that she would reek of him were she to actually physically encounter him. She wondered what his reaction to this would be. Would he find it amusing and rip out her throat, or maybe by some strange freak occurrence of mutual attraction he might take her as his own. A shudder ran all over her lithe lupine body, the thought made half of her burn with intense longing and the other side of her want to vomit. Though which side would win out in the event that they did meet?

After a while she began to detect a faint odour of something sinister on the horizon. The familiar metallic, deep and rich scent of blood. It was fresh, well… much fresher than the blood at the site of Lucy’s murder had been. It stopped her in her tracks for a moment. Throwing back her head she took in great long snorts of air, analysing the new information she had stumbled upon. The scent was undeniably entirely human, which was a good sign. Even though she did not get on with her pack mates the idea of a were killing another for nothing more than their own amusement sat badly with Audra. Despite knowing that Varulv was entirely capable of that kind of act, she found it hard to compute that she might stumble across such an occurrence. She would never have admitted quite how sheltered she was aloud, but it was a fact of her life that her father had fiercely protected her from as much as he could manage. This had skewed her ability to process certain things in life.

When she had all the information she could glean from the blood scent she slowly began to pad onwards once again. The odour became stronger and stronger the further she travelled, and she began to clearly smell the perfume of Varulv’s desire when he had been undertaking whatever grisly task she was yet to find. The smell of his arousal repulsed her logical mind but drove her lupine self to even more burning heights of lust. He was so completely and utterly an Alpha, and that was what her wolf wanted. Perhaps even what it needed. She was well on her way to being blinded by his authority. Whining quietly to herself she took in lungful after lungful of pheromone-laden air and soon broke into an excitable trot. She came to a thorny hedge that barred her vision completely and scrabbled angrily at its roots. She knew it was the standard barrier used by local farmers to edge their fields. On the far side would be the scene she could smell so clearly. After a moment of trotting up and down the length of the barrier in an attempt to find a gap to pass through, she finally gave up and forced her way through.

It was not the thorns snagging her coat that stopped her progression through the bushes. Nor was it the spine coated twigs digging into her pads. It was the sight of what lay before her in the next field.

On the sharp stubble of the cut crop lay a scene the likes of which she had never seen before. Lying metres away from her and tucked against the underside of the hedgerow was a mass of red and pink and white. Audra did not want to move closer but she knew she had to, and so her paws carried her painfully slowly towards the mess that had once been human.  She dropped her nose to the floor and sniffed as she went, but she smelled only things that she already knew. There had been a great amount of fear and violence here, and the smell of death clung to everything.

Coming to a halt just paces away from the victim she had found, Audra looked upon the corpse with nervous lupine eyes. It was clear from the severed breasts hanging from the branches of the bushes that the victim had been female, but beyond that there was little evidence that the mess of flesh and blood had ever been anything but a carcass. There were shreds of clothing here and there around the body, and the smell of semen was so strong that it made her cough. He had thoroughly enjoyed what he had done, and that terrified her. She could not help the whimper which escaped her as she studied the poor woman who had fallen victim to the man she had only moments before been fantasizing about.

The woman’s skin was so badly cut in so many places that at first glance it looked as though she had been flayed. Varulv had not bothered with his signature stitching with this one; he had clearly been in a frenzy with the attack and too mad with bloodlust to stick to his usual routine. Her limbs had been torn away from her trunk and thrown aside. One leg rested haphazardly beneath her breasts, and the other arms and leg were spread about at random.  Her face, which was buried partially into the ground, was found on closer inspection to be entirely gone. In its place grinned a gore-covered skull with a tuft of thick white-blonde fur sticking out of its mouth from between blood stained teeth.

Something strange happened then. Audra’s human mind shut off completely. It had been wavering and straining to keep its hold for miles and all of a sudden it was lost to her. Then entirely lupine, Audra became overcome with the smell of blood and meat and looked down to see what suddenly looked like nothing more or less than a good meal going for free. Licking her muzzle she bent her head and nuzzled her nose into the soft pink flesh where the woman’s breasts had once been and prodded around until she found what she wanted most. Biting into a rib bone she yanked at it hard, snarling as the corpse beneath her lurched and bucked. With a sickening crack it soon gave up a rib, and she withdrew with the bloodied mess of rib bone and muscle hanging from her mouth. Dropping it to the ground she reached back into the cavity she had widened and sank her teeth into the soft tissue of a lung, greedily gulping it down before turning her attention back to the rib she had managed to shake free. Licking the blood from her nose she lowered her head and picked up her prize, turning and trotting away from the murder scene with it grasped firmly in her jaws. Her tail wagged behind her as she went and she only stopped once she found herself a patch of dense trees in a stretch of greenbelt. There she settled down onto her belly and ate her fill, crunching the bone with relish.

Soon though her human mind began to fight its way through the fog and she suddenly realised what she was doing. Lurching to her feet she retched and vomited, her sides heaving and her eyes wild. How could she have let herself go like that?  Her mind raced as her human consciousness returned. Her thoughts moved so quickly they left her feeling dizzy and disoriented. How could she have done that? How could she have let her wolf take control so completely? She could so clearly taste the rich meatiness of the human flesh which just moments ago she had been racing to gulp down. The taste of blood clung to her tongue and its metallic tang filled her nostrils. She gagged again, vomiting up more chunks of undigested pink mess.

She stood and emptied the contents of her stomach for what seemed like hours. Her sides heaved and bulged until they ached. She only stopped when there was nothing left to bring up, and even then the gagging continued for a while. Feeling weak and feeble she staggered away a few paces and slumped to the ground, exhausted and disgusted with herself. The urge to sleep washed over her but she knew that if she did so she would change back and she could not allow herself to do that. Not until she had found Varulv. With heavy lidded eyes she glanced up at the sky, the sunlight was fading and she knew she would have to move fast in case her quarry decided to attempt another murder under the cover of dark.

Trying desperately to ignore the taste in her mouth and the aching of her weary body, Audra hauled herself back to her paws. Glancing around she saw no signs of the trail she had been following. Frustrated by this she lifted her head and sniffed at the air but again smelled nothing. His trail was going cold. Angry and disgusted with herself she dropped her muzzle to the ground and took in deep lungful’s of air as she tried desperately to regain his scent. Walking in circles she snarled to herself in agitation, until finally she found what she was looking for. It was faint but it was definitely him.

Her tail wagged limply once behind her, a single outward display of the fear tinged happiness she felt at locating the beast she tracked. Without delay she followed her nose through the undergrowth, grass blades tickling the insides of her nostrils as she hoovered up every particle of scent. She could not help but notice the feelings of lust were once again beginning to stir in her. His scent was rich with the musky smell of semen and though she was not in heat it did something to her that she simply could not fight. She tried to ignore the warmth growing in her belly but could do nothing to prevent it. So she travelled on into the darkness with it hanging heavily over her head.

Audra followed the trail for hours, feeling weaker and weaker with every step. She deviated from her path to chase a rabbit as darkness really began to settle in over the landscape. Darting left she chased the smaller creature into the trees and snatched it up easily in her jaws. She was rewarded for her efforts with a few mouthfuls of tough old rabbit flesh, but it was just enough to get her by.  She made her way back to the trail and followed the scent without further deviation. It was pitch black by the time she found herself stood at the edge of the greenbelt. She looked upon the edges of the nearest city to the pack-lands. It was lit up like a Christmas tree and full of sounds and smells that seemed to merge together.

The distinct aroma of the beast she had tracked there drifted to her on the chill night breeze. It was very strong in the direction of the city itself. But something was wrong. He smelled incredibly pungent, too strong for the scent to be merely residual.

Suddenly feeling very exposed, Audra felt the fur on her nape bristle. She looked about nervously, her nostrils working furiously to try and determine the age and direction of the scent of Varulv. Her tail sunk between her legs and slowly hugged tighter and tighter to her belly. He was very close by, and his scent was stationary. He was watching her.

Gulping audibly Audra began to back towards the trees she had emerged from as fear gripped her in its icy fingers.

A deep voice rumbled out of the darkness ‘Going somewhere my love?’

Audra stumbled and yelped, backing away faster. She was desperate to turn and flee, but she needed to see him to be able to judge if escape was a viable option or if she would have to stand and fight. When she yelped a throaty chuckle seemed to surround her. The wind was playing tricks on her, though he smelled as though he had not moved, his voice implied otherwise.

Unable to speak in her lupine form she stopped dead and growled into the darkness.

This intensified the laughter that rang in her ears.

‘That’s not very nice now is it…?’

Audra sank back on her hind legs and shivered, his voice seemed closer than ever. She could hear him moving closer and every fibre of her being begged her to run, but she was frozen to the spot. He was moving on only two legs, so she knew he must be in human form and logically she should have known she could outrun him that way. But logic had deserted her and so she stood and trembled as he advanced in the darkness. All of a sudden he emerged from behind a nearby cluster of bushes and she was so stunned by his appearance that she yelped.

He was not in human form. Far from it. The awful nature of what stood before her terrified the young female werewolf more than she had ever imagined she could feel fear. It lurched out of the shadows towards her with a deep, rumbling laugh. Its pointed ears long and furless, glistening in the light of the city behind it.