Bethany

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TWO MONTHS LATER

Exhausted, Bethany climbed down from the train to a part of the world she never would have thought she would see. The Pacific Ocean in the distance looked wilder than its Atlantic counterpart. The rumors exaggerated the “little islands” popping up from the sea, and if whole universities or buildings were still intact, Bethany couldn’t see it from where she stood. What she could see was more desperation. People were swimming and drowning. Ramshackle boats sank under the treacherous waves. Sailboats dotted the horizon.

As they unloaded the train, the excitement at finally being at their destination dimmed. It had taken longer to get to the shoreline with the caravans than the entire trip from Colorado to the Reno station. It had been a grueling trip, long and boring with stabs of terror to keep them all on edge.

When Bethany wasn’t running the electricity on the train, she had been looking out the windows. Miners dug for precious stones and buried treasure. If she was a normal and had a pickax, there was where the money would be—and the danger.

During one perilous chug, they’d had to stop the train and clear the line of rockslide debris. Lucas told her there had been lots of human remains there too. One portion of tracks had sunk into the earth. While the engineers built a temporary bridge, Bethany had looked deep into the crevice where bubbling magma would cause instant death. The Shifters flew over the crevice. Bethany and Vera took the trucks south until they found a way to cross. The train slid sideways and almost was lost, but they had built barriers. It had been harrowing, but they managed to cross the chasm. Lewis shifted into a dragon and lifted the train, car by car, until it was back on the tracks, and things returned to normal until the next blockage.

The nomads stopped following after the chasm, but Bethany couldn’t relax. In Colorado, she had spent most of the time recovering from being immersed in the truck for days on end. It took her a week to remember how to walk. Lucas had been treating her with kid gloves since then. She missed their lovemaking, but she wasn’t strong enough for a wild time. Things still felt fragile inside her. Bethany didn’t like how he was keeping things from her, not sharing what he was thinking to spare her the worry. She worried anyway. His thoughtfulness touched her, though. She wasn’t just a battery to him. For the first time in her life, a man wanted to cherish her for something other than the Tech she could provide.

“I don’t want you to control the vehicles again,” Lucas said as they trekked toward the coastline. If he had his way, she’d be cuddled up in the back of the leather caravan trying not to listen to Jesse and Lem sixty-nine each other.

“I handled it all right,” she said. What Bethany didn’t tell him was it felt wonderful to not have a body that ached and demanded things of her. Hunger, voiding, sleeping, it had been overwhelming when she was forced back into her body. She missed being inside the machine, but it frightened her that one day she wouldn’t want to come back out.

“Let me know when the walking is too much for you.”

Bethany wanted to walk. Using her legs reminded her she was still human.

The lights of Reno weren’t far in the distance, and she was looking forward to experiencing this boomtown fully aware of her surroundings.

Lisa and Karen were in love with the town around the Gran Juc station. They were talking about going back there and setting up permanent residence. It was sweet. Bethany wondered what she was going to do if Daniel wasn’t at the prison. She had looked for him everywhere on all their stops. If he wasn’t at the prison, Bethany just hoped he was somewhere protected and content with his life.

“What happens after we find your pack and rescue them?” Bethany asked.

“It depends on how the rescue goes. If we destroy the people experimenting on us, maybe we’ll make a home in Nevada. Colorado seemed nice too. There’s a whole country to explore.”

“Do you want to live like nomads? Or do you want to settle down?”

Lucas looked off into the distance. “It isn’t really safe for Shifters to settle down in one area unless they have the protection of a tribe.”

“Sometimes not even when they are a part of a tribe.” Daniel was proof of that. They said he went feral and mauled those people. What if those people had already been mauled? She couldn’t believe he was guilty. And yet he’d left her all alone.

“What are you thinking about?”

“My brother,” she said.

Reaching out, Lucas took her hand. “We’ll find all our people.”

“You sound so sure.”

“We’ve come this far,” he said.

They camped for the night, circling the wagons and caravans. The sound of sex and debauchery had Bethany flip-flopping in her bed. Lucas was on night watch, and she was feeling horny and out of sorts. Her tent was cozy but lonely. She curled up in her blanket and tried to relax. Her mind longed to jump into the nearest electronic device and play in the virtual wonderland that was out there.

Sleep came eventually, her body warring with her mind. Bethany dreamed she was being fucked, and damn it felt good. She couldn’t see who it was, but she pictured it was Lucas. Lucas who was treating her like a woman and not a porcelain doll that would crack. The buzzing on her clit felt like a vibrator—one of her secret finds. They were worth more than her pistol in trade. Was she doing herself in her sleep?

With that thought, Bethany woke up, gasping with denied relief. Her vibrator was locked up safe with her pistol. Her pussy still throbbed with the memory of the buzz. Cries of lovemaking sifted to her. She recognized Lem and Jesse at it again.

Turning over, she heard another set of muffled moans. Was it Karen and Lisa? Nah, Bethany was sure that Karen and Lisa were too busy rooking someone out of something. Fucking would come later after the profit had been counted. Not that she could blame either one of them. The information they got on Alcatraz should make their assault easier, provided the man hadn’t been lying nor the procedures changed.

Unable to get back to sleep, she figured she should go over the documents again and at least be useful. She crept out of her tent and silently moved past Jesse and Lem’s tent. The flap was open slightly, and she peeked through, unable to resist the sounds inside. Lem had Jesse on all fours and was banging the shit out of her. Bethany flushed. So that was where the dream came from. She moved along with only a slight pang that she hadn’t taken Maya up on her offer of Lem.

Lisa and Karen’s caravan wagon was locked. Knocking as softly as she could didn’t produce any results. They were probably out and about somewhere. The electric truck called to her. What could be the harm? Easing into the bench seat, she curled up and closed her eyes.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” Vera hummed.

Bethany let go of her mortal body and entered the radio waves where Vera danced to a waltz from 1910.

“Dance with me,” Vera said, swooping her up into a reel that twirled them around the night. Stars were their ballroom, and the aches of her body were long forgotten.

“When are you going to stay with me?” she asked.

“I can’t.” Bethany shook her head. “I have to find my brother. Lucas needs me.”

“What about your needs? You need this.”

Bethany couldn’t argue. This plane of existence felt like home. She almost wished she never met Vera. Then she would have never known what she was missing.

“I’ve been to the island you’re going to.”

Research! Bethany’s soul lit up. She could explain away her time in the Tech realm as research. “Take me there.”

Vera shook her head, radiant. She was dressed in a gown of power, and diamonds of light adorned her hair and wrists. “It’s a dangerous place. The building itself has the standard power grid. You’ll be able to run the lights and the elevator. But it’s guarded by technological nightmares.”

“I don’t understand. Show me?” Bethany sank to bury her face in the gown’s hem. Power pulsed through her like an orgasm.

“I think the monsters are trapped Techs,” Vera said, absently playing with Bethany’s hair.

“How?”

“I didn’t get close enough. I thought they were men in clunky body armor, but it was more like a battle suit inhabited by a ghost, like I was before you rescued me.”

Bethany shuddered. “Those are the guards? How many?”

“At least five. I did a quick pop around and came back here.”

“Thank you,” Bethany said.

Vera pulled her up to her feet to dance to a roaring swing tune from the 1920s. “We are timeless, you and I. I wish you could see that. I can be any lover you desire.” Vera changed her appearance, and it was Lucas.

“That’s not funny,” Bethany said.

The buzzing started between her legs again.

“Oh,” she gasped. “That was you.”

“It can always be me.”

The power wave of sensation rubbed back and forth the length of her slit.

“I can’t,” Bethany said. “It’s cheating on Lucas.”

“Do you think he’s been faithful to you?” Vera turned up the pulse of the vibration so Bethany’s teeth were rattling.

Bethany fought through the waves of pleasure, found herself on her hands and knees instead, spreading wide for the sweet, pulsing caress. “What do you mean?” she gasped.

“Hot-blooded Shifter like that? All those young, pretty girls looking for a way into the caravan. You can’t blame a man for accepting a blowjob or a handjob.”

“No,” Bethany cried. “I don’t believe you. He’s my mate.”

“Yeah,” Vera said pressing down on her with her power. “But are you his?”

The power thrust into her cunt, and Bethany was being fucked by Vera’s energy.

“I swore I’d be faithful,” Bethany cried.

“You are silly, girl. This is your fantasy. It’s not real. No more real than fingering yourself to a porno.”

“But I’m talking to you. You’re going to make me come.”

“No, sweetheart, you’re going to make yourself come. You’re diddling yourself with the energy you pulled. It just excites you a bit to think I’m forcing you, taking that power away from you and fucking you with it.”

Bethany realized with a start Vera was right.

“I’m just playing into your fantasy. If it were my energy, this would be happening.”

Bethany was flipped on her back. She still felt the pounding in her cunt, but a different energy swirled around her clit. Quick little darts of energy flitted through Bethany, and her nipples tugged downward on the pulse.

“Feel the difference?” Vera said. “When you’re ready to give up on the meat sack, I’ll be here. Until then, feel free to fuck yourself.”

The fantasy gone, and with it the thrill of being helpless and seduced, Bethany still came, but it was a quiet release that eased her back into her mortal body. Still the effort had tired her out, and when she stumbled back to her tent, Bethany fell fast asleep.

They reached Reno the next morning. Lewis and Clark and their entourage rolled into the town like they owned the place—maybe they did. They immediately set out to ready the boat they had docked on the wharf.

It was a sailboat, but nothing like the flimsy crafts on the water. It was mostly cargo space and riggings. Lewis and Clark immediately sent a team of Shifters to secure the boat and get started loading goods. The rest of the caravans were told to settle in and meet down at the wharf for a briefing in two hours.

“There,” Lucas snarled and pointed out in the distance. A steam engine boat chugged to an island with a large building  standing on it.  It was like a castle out of fairy tales.  It was the biggest building she had ever seen.

“That’s the boat that took me to Alcatraz.”

“Check this out.” Lisa handed her brother a spotting scope from an old rifle.

“Those weren’t there before,” he said, passing it along to Bethany.

Bethany squinted and adjusted the dial on the scope until she could see what they were talking about. “The automans,” she whispered. Just like Vera said, there were five of them.

“Machine golems,” Lucas said. “Lisa and I have fought things like them before.”

“We’re outgunned,” Lisa said. “It’s just the three of us. Karen’s no good in a fight. Jesse and Lem can hold their own in a group, but we don’t have the numbers for this.”

“What if we can get Lewis and Clark on board?” Bethany said.

“At what price?” Lisa laughed.

Lucas shook his head. “Out of the question.”

“I don’t know,” Lisa said. “Clark might be willing to lend a hand if Jesse decides to be sweet to him.”

Bethany looked over to where Jesse and Lem were helping Karen set up shop. “No, leave her alone. She’s happy.”

“I didn’t come all this way to fail,” Lucas said.

“Maybe we can convince Lewis and Clark that there is something on that island that they want?” Bethany said.

“That’s our best bet, because without them, we don’t have a boat or the manpower.” Lisa patted her brother’s arm. “I’ll go see what I can find out about that tugboat and the people on it.”

When she left, it was just Bethany and Lucas. Lucas glared out into the ocean.

“It must be hard for you, being so close and yet so far.”

Lucas grunted.

Grabbing his hand, she leaned into him. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out. Maybe Vera and I can take control of those automans.”

“Maybe,” he said, tearing his gaze from the tugboat to look at her. “How are you feeling?”

“Better. I was hoping you could stay with me tonight. I’ve missed you.”

Throwing her arms around his neck, she showed him how much. His kiss was fierce but distracted. Old doubts and insecurities rose up, but she pushed them down. He broke off the kiss first but held her against him.

“From what I remember, the men on the tugboat had guns. So we have to factor in that they’ll be coming to defend the prison. I’d like to take them out first, but I don’t want to give the prison a warning that we’re coming.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“We could ambush them in the open water.”

“How do you plan to do that, swim? I can’t turn into a fish.” Bethany looked up at him. “Besides what if something decides to eat you?”

“I wouldn’t shift into a trout.” He bared his teeth at her. Was it her imagination or were they suddenly sharklike?

“We could also wait until they’re docked up here and steal their boat.”

“That sounds safer,” she said and led him away from the ocean. “Let’s go find a room, and you can show me how much you missed being inside me.”

“We do have a few hours before we need to be anywhere.” Lucas cupped her backside. “I’m tempted.”

“Just tempted?” Bethany rubbed her hand over the muscles in his arm.

He sighed. “I’m afraid I’m not going to be good company. I hate being this close and not acting.”

Vera’s words echoed back to her. Had he been faithful? Bethany wished she didn’t feel like such an outcast.

“Sure,” she said, moving out of his half embrace. “I know you have a lot on your mind.”

“It’s just that we’re so close,” he said. “I’ll make it up to you. I have a lifetime to make it up to you.”

She left him standing there, staring out at Alcatraz through the spotting scope.

Lisa was easy to find. She was trying to ply blowjobs and group sex for a boat rental and not having too much success.

“Not used to hearing the word no?” Bethany said.

Giving her a wry smile, Lisa shook her head. “These guys are treasure mad instead of pussy mad. I liked it better back in Colorado.”

“We should really investigate a little before committing to a boat. We’re probably going to be facing armed guards in addition to those automans. Vera and I might be able to control the automans and take care of the guards. But that still leaves the scientists and their staff. We have no idea how many people.”

“What are you suggesting?” Lisa asked.

“I can go out on the waves, technologically, while you guys go out as sharks or something. We look around, count heads, and then come back and see how many people we need to recruit and their weapons.”

“Sharks, huh?” Lisa said with a smile. “What about you? We don’t have a watercraft for you to Tech into.”

“The tugboat does. Maybe even the automans.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“No,” Bethany lied. She wanted to find her brother. She wanted her mate back from the brooding mess he’d been these past weeks. And if she was honest to herself, she wanted to ride those golden power waves again. “I’ll just need to be in a safe place. Do you think Karen can put me in the back of the wagon and make sure that no one bugs me?”

Lisa nodded. “Yeah, go ask her. I’m going to go talk to my brother. We’ll meet you over there.”

Bethany bumped into Lewis and a fragile-looking woman that after a moment Bethany recognized as the scorpion Shifter that attacked them back in New York.

“Hello, Lady Tech,” Lewis said. “You remember Misha, don’t you?”

Bethany nodded, giving a small smile.

“We’ve gotten married,” he said. “I wasn’t sure of the benefits, but after careful consideration I must recommend it. Where is your furry little friend?”

“Actually,” Bethany said. “I’m glad you asked. We have friends who are being held against their will on Alcatraz.”

“The old prison?” Misha squinted off into the distance. “I heard a bunch of scientists took it up to study the meteorite’s effects on the Earth.”

“No, that’s not true.” Bethany refused to flinch at the glare she shot her. “They’re experimenting on Shifters. My mate’s pack is being held there. We have to get them out.”

Misha frowned. “Experimenting on Shifters.”

Lewis shook his head. “I would have heard about it.”

“It’s true,” Bethany insisted. “Lucas was there. He escaped. And now we’re going to rescue them.”

“Not on my time, you’re not,” Lewis said.

“We can do both. Stop a hate group and salvage what’s on the island,” Bethany suggested.

Misha smiled. “You have a convincing argument, but we need to focus on the college campus. Our mishaps”—she chucked Lewis under the chin—“have delayed us perhaps to the point of financial ruin.”

“People are being tortured,” Bethany pleaded.

“Not one of mine,” Lewis said. “I don’t mean to be unsympathetic. The threat of another hate group like the Purebloods birthing their nonsense into the world is troubling. Perhaps once we’re done with our looting, we can pay our friends at the prison a visit. Until then, my dear, you have batteries to recharge and electricity to run.”

“Don’t be rude,” Misha said. “Surely the lovely Tech would like to join us for dinner and drinks.”

“No, she’s monogamous.”

Misha recoiled as if Bethany was a leper. “There’s a lot of that going around. I hope it’s not catching.” They laughed down the street, leaving Bethany with her fists clenched. So much for that idea. She continued down to where the train’s occupants had set up their camp.

“What’s up, buttercup?” Karen said, folding leather blankets.

Bethany explained the plan to Karen who just shook her head.

“I need to crash in the wagon for about an hour.”

Karen gestured with her chin. “Go ahead. It sounds a little dangerous to me, but maybe with just the three of you, no one will notice you poking around.”

Climbing into the wagon, Bethany secured the doors and rearranged the inventory so she had a comfortable place to rest. She was shaking with eagerness to get back into the light and power, but as she lay down to center herself, Lucas came crashing in.

“What?” she said, hand on her heart.

“No way.”

“It’s the only way.”

“I don’t want you to go into the tugboat.” He sat down beside her and held her hand. “You’re not strong enough.”

“I am,” she said. “I’m much better. All I did when we were in Colorado was recuperate. I’m bored. I’m strong. I want to kick some ass.”

Lucas’s lips twitched. “If you saw yourself after we arrived in Colorado. Half-dead, crying to go back into the Tech waves or whatever they are. You were like an addict. I’m worried if you go back, you won’t come back to me.”

Bethany sat up. “I’ll come back to you. If you want me to.”

He hugged her so tightly her ribs protested. “You are so fragile, so delicate.”

“Just because I can’t shift into a tiger doesn’t mean I’m not tough.” Her voice was muffled against his shirt.

“I don’t want to lose you. I don’t want you to go where I can’t follow.” He pulled away so he could look into her eyes, and she saw the truth. Of course he didn’t cheat. Of course he had been true to her.

“Then give me a reason to stay,” she said, licking her lips. “Send me off with the feel of your body inside mine.”

His grin was savage. “I can’t be sweet and gentle. Not after so long. We don’t have time to ease into this.”

Bethany tore into his shirt, buttons flying. “I don’t need gentle. I’ve been aching for you for days.”

His mouth was on hers before she finished speaking. Fabric rent as her shirt was also torn off. Their hands fumbled on the buttons of their pants, and they scrambled to get out of them without stopping the passionate kiss. He tasted like freedom and home. Bethany reveled in his touch. How could she think being in the waves topped this?

She closed her hands around his cock while he shredded her panties into scraps. Ripping her bra in two, Lucas groaned. Teeth clacking together, they connected skin on skin. Hands greedy, they stroked each other.

Bethany wanted him to come in her hand and might have been successful if he hadn’t used his superior strength to  pull her arms over her head, as he forced himself down on top of her.

“Lucas,” she cried as he bit the juncture of her neck and shoulder.

“Mine,” he said, ravaging the sweet spot there.

His cock lay heavy against her stomach. “I wish I had two cocks so I could fill both your holes at once.”

“Mmmm,” she agreed.

Plastered above her, he kissed down her chest, taking care to lavish attention on her hardened nipples. At the juncture of her thighs, he knelt and stroked himself. Bethany admired the hard planes of muscles and his thick cock. Mine.

“Fuck me,” she murmured.

“Touch yourself,” he ordered.

She drifted her fingers down and fluttered them over her wetness.

“When this is all over, I’m going to jerk off while you masturbate and then come all over that pretty stomach of yours. Then I’m going stick my cock down your throat while I go down on you.”

Bethany grunted, her fingers moving faster.

“You like that part?” he asked, dipping a wicked finger inside her.

She nodded, words leaving her at the intense look in his eyes.

“We can skip to that part then.”

He moved quickly to her head, guiding it over his cock. Bethany latched on, sucking deep. Lucas’s body covered hers, pushing it deeper down her throat. Rolling so she was on top, he spread her legs wide.

The first flick of his tongue made her squirm. His fingers thrusting inside her had her screeching around his cock. Yes. Oh yes, this was what she missed. So much better than her dreams and even the Tech wave. Her nipples were crushed flat against the hard planes of his stomach. Cupping his balls, she swirled her tongue all over his shaft.

Scurrying down to take more of that flickering tongue and pumping fingers, Bethany sucked him deeper.

“So wet, so juicy. I think my finger is just right now.” He had her clit now and tickled one wet finger thick with her arousal around her anus.

Bethany remembered being ravaged by his cock, and it made her suck him wilder.

Groaning, Lucas dipped one finger in her anus and two in her cunt. “This will have to do, won’t it? Until I can get something else to fuck you with.”

He came down her throat when her cries started to sound more animal than human.

“Bethany,” he cried, ramming his fingers in faster.

“Yes, oh gods, yes,” she said resting her cheek against his thigh.

Even as her orgasm shook through her, he rolled them again. Cool air registered as he got off her. She was on her back again, but he was inside her before she could protest. Wrapping her legs around him, he thundered into her. Fisting her hair, Lucas forced her to look at him.

“You will come back to me.”

“Yes,” she gritted out, pleasure shaking through every nerve ending.

“You will not take risks.”

“I won’t,” she said, meeting his thrusts.

“You are my mate.”

“Yes,” she screamed as pleasure built.

“You are mine,” he snarled and growled as he came again.

Bethany was nearly blind with the power slamming into her. Lucas did not slow down. Did not stop a minute until his hard, driving rhythm cast her into shuddering release. She bit his neck in possession as she came. He chuckled and gave her a few more thrusts.

Panting, they kissed again, bodies entwined. “I love you,” he said.

She would walk through death to come back to him.