Rippled

A Total-E-Bound Publication

www.total-e-bound.com

Rippled

ISBN # 978-1-78184-193-8

©Copyright Erin Lark 2012

Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright December 2012

Edited by Stacey Birkel & Amy Parker

Total-E-Bound Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing.

Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Total-E-Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

Published in 2012 by Total-E-Bound Publishing, Think Tank, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7FL, United Kingdom.

Warning:

This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has a
heat rating
of
Total-e-burning
and a
sexometer
of
2.

This story contains 143 pages, additionally there is also a
free excerpt
at the end of the book containing 8 pages.

RIPPLED

Erin Lark

Ripples aren’t just rings on a pond anymore.

Tied to a friendship that should’ve ended years ago, Brian’s torn between destroying the shifter virus—named Ripples because of the way the skin reacts during a shift—and turning a blind eye to Malcom’s ridiculous experiments. But when Krista—a delicious brunette—takes a violent turn of her own, Brian will do whatever it takes to keep the virus from going public.

Krista can’t remember anything from before she was infected with the virus. Her world revolves around her fear of shifting into a leopard, and Brian’s intense, blue eyes. Hidden in a camp and imprisoned in her own body, the only thing she wants is to live a life free of electric locks, barbed wire fences and armed guards.

But the more she learns about Brian—who is very much a shifter—and the fragments of life she has left behind, the more intrigued she becomes by the life she’s been given. And if that isn’t enough to make her stay, Brian’s charm, his desire to stop the virus and their sharing a bed are.

Can they survive the virus long enough to destroy it? Or will the Ripples devour them from the inside out?

Dedication

Dedicated to both Angie and my amazing editor at Total-E-Bound, who gave me the eyes to see plot holes I couldn't find on my own. I wouldn't have been able to write this without you.

Chapter One

Brian

The first time I saw Krista should’ve been my last. She didn’t belong in a cage like the rest of us. Like some kind of animal. She was too smart. Too beautiful. And when she finally shifted…the fur all along her body wasn’t right. It didn’t fit her. It didn’t suit her at all.

I still remember when the bus rolled into our sad excuse of a community. I wanted to turn her around and send her home. I didn’t. Instead, I stood there, gawking at her—just like everyone else. At her smooth skin. Her perfect body with all its hills and valleys. And that hair! Dark brown with a touch of honey when she walked under the sunlight. So. Fucking. Beautiful.

He’s not going to turn her,
I thought. There was no way Malcom had brought her here to inject her with the virus. There had to be some other reason. Something he hadn’t explained. But those hopes were shot down when he asked me to join him in the lab where new bloods were injected and forced to shift for their very first time.

As we stood behind a wall of glass, I watched a collection of nurses guide Krista into the chair. They strapped her in. Restrained her. Connected her to machines along with copious amounts of sedative. My eyes went wide as I looked from Krista’s questioning expression to Malcom, who stood beside me.

“You can’t be serious,” I said, gesturing at the image in front of us. “You don’t honestly mean to turn her, do you?”

It had to be a prank. He’d done them all the time when we had been in college. Hell, he’d only got me to take the virus because he’d drugged my drink one night. There was no way he’d turn something—someone—so stunning into one of us. Into someone like me.

I licked my lips and watched his face for any outward signs of the impending prank. His stormy grey eyes were focused on a panel of data in front of us, his hands inside his pockets. He rolled his shoulders back. I bit at the inside of my cheek. If this was a prank, he was hiding it extremely well.
He’s had practice,
I assured myself.
Don’t let him get to you.
He’d never let me hear the end of it if I did.

Someone in the other room coughed and looked our way. I checked the monitor that was connected to Krista, but her heart rate and blood pressure were close to normal.

It has to be a prank.

I was sure of it now. If Malcom had brought her into the camp with the intention of turning her, she would’ve reacted like everyone else. Nervous. Scared, even. But she didn’t even flinch when a nurse rubbed her arm with alcohol. Her heart didn’t skip a beat.

“All right.” I laughed nervously. “You got me.” I took a breath and smiled in Malcom’s direction. “You really had me going there for a minute.”

Malcom furrowed his brow. “You think this is a joke?”

I matched his gaze. “Isn’t it?”
He’s just trying to throw you off.
There was no way in hell he’d consider—

One of the nurses pulled a needle from her pocket. Krista’s heart rate increased. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. Malcom didn’t seem to notice. He glanced down at a pad of paper, reading over a set of notes he’d memorised ages ago.

“Putting on the act a little strong, don’t you think?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

No response.

I bit at my bottom lip and looked back through the window. I didn’t need to watch the monitor to know her heart rate was elevated. Her eyes were dilated. Her fingers dug at the arm rests.

“Malcom, stop,” I said, a little sharper than I intended. “This has gone on long enough. I told you, I give in. You got me. Stop this before someone gets hurt!”

He glared at me when I grabbed his arm. “I invited you here to watch. If you can’t take it, the door’s right behind us.”

I’d seen plenty of outsiders—new blood—come in and shift in the past. And now wouldn’t have been any different if Malcom had only picked a different test subject. Hell, I didn’t even know what he needed them for. The virus had been tested and retested. The results were always the same. The virus worked. But that wasn’t enough for Malcom. It never had been.

Perfection. That’s what he wants.

“You do realise the leopards won’t be the only ones feeding on her, right?”

Malcom set down his notes and locked his hands behind his head. “Meaning you? Come now, Brian, I thought you of all people had some self-control.”

It’s not my control I’m worried about.

I sighed and said nothing else. For as long as I could remember, Malcom had always been the more adventurous of the two of us. When asked to jump, it wasn’t a matter of too high for him, but rather if he’d ever come down. For him, theories were only the beginning, soon followed by diagrams, formulas and live experiments. I’d just never expected the subjects to come in human form.

Looking at him now, it was safe to say how unkind time had been to him. While my hair was slowly going from brown to grey, his had gone completely white. Luckily for me, I could explain my greying hair away with my ability to shift, but his? His was purely from stress, sleepless nights spent milling over new ideas, and a lacklustre diet. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him eat a damned thing since I’d got here. Not an actual meal anyway. Grazing.

That’s all he does. Just like in college. It’s a wonder he hasn’t lost his mind
.

Something caught my eye in the other room, and I watched with horror as Krista’s beautiful body was torn apart by the leopard inside fighting to get out. Her mouth opened. Closed. No sound came out. A silent cry, but a cry all the same. It had been so long since my first shift, I couldn’t remember the pain or how long it had taken, but I knew right from the start that hers wasn’t normal.

She strained against the straps that held her to the chair. One of the nurses reinforced them while another hit a few dials on the monitor nearby, activating the sedative before any normal person could possibly finish their shift. Krista clawed at the arm rests, her nails tearing at the fabric there.

I closed my eyes. Opened them. I couldn’t look away. Whoever Malcom had brought in for this prank was good.

She has to be a professional.

By now, I was teetering between paranoia, fear and disbelief at the images going on outside our window. The nurses tending to Krista retreated from the room, leaving her there to fight the virus on her own.

The sedative should’ve worked by now.

Instead, it only seemed to have made her stronger. Superhuman.

Again, I checked Malcom for any change in his expression, but it was exactly the same as before. He pulled a pen from his breast pocket and jotted something down on his pad of paper, never taking his eyes off Krista.

When I looked back at her, the restraints were gone, torn in two.

He gave her a placebo. No one has ever broken out of the restraints before
.
Not this fast.

And certainly not while they had been sedated. I thought for sure this had all been planned, but when I looked back at him, the wide grin I expected to find wasn’t there. He was just as surprised as I was.

“What’s happening?” I growled, my patience for his jokes completely forgotten when I noticed his slack jaw and wide eyes.

“I…” He shook his head, his eyes drifting from Krista’s writhing body to whatever he’d written down. “I don’t know.”

Krista cried from the other room, her voice garbled behind a leopard’s wail. The weight of the shift threw her down onto her hands and knees, and I swallowed around the lump in my throat.
Fuck.
I shoved my hands into my pockets. Dug my nails into my palms.

Any other time, seeing her in that position would’ve been enough to drive me over the edge. I would’ve wanted it. Expected it. Been ready for it. But not now. Not when she was losing herself to the leopard inside. Her hands clenched, and I winced when her nails scraped at the floor.

Krista arched her back. My jeans got a little tighter.

Damn it, Malcom.

He was well aware of my sexual preferences. Even he had practised being a Dom before.

I gave him a sideways glance, but he stood perfectly still, same as always. The longer it took for Krista to finish her shift, the more agonising it became for me to watch. It had never taken anyone this long, not even when a few of the others were partially sedated. I checked the numbers on the monitor. The nurses had taken the opportunity to sedate her a little more than usual. A simple precaution. If she could just finish her shift, the pain…the ache in every inch of her body—my body—would subside.