The Change: Episode one by Angela White Page A

enough to keep
her warm, and I was able to run my male gaze over her exposed skin.
It kept me from waking her with my moans as the storm grew. I hated
loud noises, always had.
    “ Stop...”
    Thinking she meant me, I put my head down
quickly before realizing she was still asleep.
    Fear of her was something I
couldn’t help. The lust in those black eyes said she liked blood,
spilling it and seeing it, and as the winner, she had complete
control. I’d known slaves who were taken from their owners, but
that was only when the male had connections to those high-up. I had
none. If I made a claim of abuse, it would be ignored, true or not.
The Network wanted Candice out of here, even I felt that. They wouldn’t keep her
around to investigate the claims of a bachelor. She was
dangerous.
    Crack!
    I jumped at the loud flash of lightning,
wondering briefly what it had hit. Not the Games complex, with its
rubber-like roof, but close enough for fire to be a concern. I told
myself those running this awful place were also aware of the
danger, and watching. After the incident last year when half a cell
of bachelors had burned to death, there was now 24-hour weather
monitoring by the Den Mothers. New Network City had lost a hundred
citizens to the blaze, but it was the rare males the public had
spoken up for.
    Crash !
    I jumped again, and then stilled myself, not
wanting her to wake. I was attracted to Candice, this evening
proved that clearly, but I was still trying to figure out why. None
of the others had drawn a spark, let alone an uncontrolled reaction
that had me forgetting my place. They’d all been forced to use
drugs that removed my control. Even my first had plied me with
drinks and artificial help before she was able to make use of her
purchase.
    With Candice, my body was eager. Was it
because she was so much more deadly than the others? Or was it just
the promise in her eyes, the one whispering that mating with her
would be unlike anything I’d ever known? Maybe it was that she was
my owner and not a renter who might be dead after the next battle.
It would be okay to get attached to this one, providing I pleased
her.
    My body tightened at the hot memory of
holding her tattooed skin, showing her a bit of what I knew about
surviving a Changeling. Though the pleasure was sure to be
incredible when she took me, it was the danger that had my heart
thumping. I’d seen older, gentle females turn into blood-hungry
animals in the view cells. It was nothing to make light of, and I
stared at her for a long time, trying to judge.
     
    C
    My eyes snapped open in the darkness,
instantly alert. The shadow by the door froze. Close by, thunder
rumbled.
    “ As you were.”
    Daniel moved quickly to the washroom, but I
didn’t close my eyes yet. Light rain was drumming against the
complex, acid melt-off that slowly burned its way through just
about anything except rubber. Lightning flashed, the vivid blast
glaring off even the black-tinted window.
    Something outside thumped against the
building as the wind gusted, and I watched Daniel scurry back into
the room as if he were being chased. It was the storm that had sent
him to me, not fear of being alone, I realized.
    Crack!
    We both jumped at the next blast, and my
lips curved upward. “Nature’s fury.”
    His shadow nodded, hesitating as thunder
rolled out again. “I know.”
    I wondered if he would have the courage to
rejoin me in the bed, but knew if he didn’t, I would insist. I
couldn’t leave him with only his fear for comfort.
    Daniel moved toward me, and I studied him
without the usual violent need, but then his weight dipped the bed
again and sent a curl of want through my stomach. He settled onto
his side, and the storm, as if responding to my lust,
intensified.
    Crack! Booomm!
    He flinched backward at the brilliant burst,
and I shifted to be ready for the next hit. While I waited, I let
my pink eyes go over his body. Lean and hard, he was made to
survive in this harsh world…