The Capture

THE CAPTURE

(The Breeding Prophecy 2)

By Alexx Andria

Copyright 2012 by Alexx Andria

Smashwords Edition

*This naughty bit of a story is intended for
mature readers only. If you’re not 18 years or older, find
something else to read.

The following short story of approx. 4,000
words is an original work of fiction.

Cassandra struggled to be free, but the grip
holding her felt like iron bands clamped around her thighs. “Let me
go!” she screamed like a banshee, rising up to claw at his face
with her nails but her efforts were met with steely silence as they
ran through the night.

The cold air burned her face and she began to
shiver.

They entered what looked like a cave and were
immediately enveloped in inky darkness but her captor navigated the
tricky twists and turns as if they were traveling a lighted
path.

They emerged in a large cavern where he
finally set her down with little finesse or grace. She landed on
her rear with a squeak of pain but he paid her little heed as he
was too busy building a small fire to warm the ice-box interior. In
truth, she was too cold to flee even if, by chance she could find
her way out. Her legs felt like frozen stalks of flesh that might
shatter if she tried to run.

Within minutes a blaze filled the cavern with
dancing light and she reluctantly sought the heat when he gestured
impatiently. It was then she looked at the man who had captured her
as she warmed her hands. He was big, much like Jandin and Koris,
but there was something gracefully dangerous about the lines in his
body that suggested sinewy strength and raw masculinity. His blond
hair was cropped short to his skull with military precision,
possibly to soften the fact that he was almost too pretty for a
man. In short, he took her breath away.

She also knew he was different from the
others. As a test, she lifted her nose and surreptitiously sniffed
the air.

“I am not a werewolf,” he said, saving her
the trouble. She gasped and recoiled, not quite sure what to think,
only fairly certain she wasn’t safe with him.

“What are you?” she asked. “You don’t
smell…human.”

His mouth thinned in a parody of a smile.
“That’s because I am not human.” His smile faded. “And neither are
you. Otherwise, two rival werewolf clans wouldn’t be tearing each
other to shreds to breed with you.”

Her cheeks flamed at the crass way he framed
his statement but she lifted her chin and met his stare with open
challenge. “I didn’t ask for any of this. Yesterday my biggest
worry was my mid-term final. Today, I’m some kind of beast with a
magical womb! And for the record, I took a vow of purity!”

“How’d that work out for you?” he asked
sardonically.

She glared. “Great. Up until I went into my
Breeding Time as Jandin called it. So, if you’re not a werewolf,
what are you? And why do you care what happens between two rival
clans?”

“Because there’s a reason there’s not been a
Breeding female in sixty years,” he said.

“Which is?” He met her stare with a hard one
of his own. She shivered at what she read in his eyes. “You killed
them?”

“Some,” he allowed without apology. “Others,
we simply let nature take its course.”

“By capturing them and letting them phase
out,” she guessed with a frown. “From what Jandin said, it sounds
like a horrible death.”

“So I’ve heard,” he said with a shrug.

“You’re a monster,” Cassandra said with
growing horror at what he evidently planned for her. She didn’t
want to be consumed by her own heat to die writhing in pain at his
asshole’s feet. “They’ll find me,” she said, hoping it was true.
“They can smell my scent. There is nowhere that you could hide me
that they wouldn’t sniff me out.”

“Your confidence is amusing. It’s true the
Lycan sense of smell is enhanced, but there is one tried and true
method to cloak your natural scent from their inquisitive
noses.”

“Which is?” she asked fearfully.

Again that damnable smile curved his lips and
she felt a chill at its appearance. “First, you will strip and wash
their foul seed from your body. I can smell it drying upon your
skin as we speak.”

Indeed, the seed from her two wolves had
dried to a thin crust along her skin. But she didn’t want to wash
it away. Her reluctance was rewarded with a sharp slap across her
face. She gasped and stumbled away, holding her cheek with her
palm.

“I do not ask. I am telling you.”

“Fuck you,” she said, blinking back
tears.

“Do not tempt me,” he said, looking away. “I
will give you ten minutes to clean yourself. You will find a
natural spring pool about twenty feet away. It is warm but not
overly so. Wash yourself. I expect to see you scrubbed clean and
ready for me when I return.” He turned to leave, but then added for
good measure, “Do not be so foolish as to try and leave. The cavern
is filled with wrong turns and deadly drop offs. If you would like
any chance of leaving this cavern alive…do as you’re told.”

Cassandra watched with open hatred as he
disappeared, moving far too quickly for a human being, but
differently than her wolves, and she wondered what world she’d
woken up in today.

She walked cautiously away from the fire and
found the bubbling pool just as her captor described. Her body
ached from the pounding given to her by the twin wolf brothers and
the water was a welcome relief. She sank in and submerged herself,
and then found a bar of organic soap waiting for her on a ledge.
After soaping herself and rinsing, she drifted over to a submerged
ledge and settled herself upon it. The water swirled around her
like a hot tub and her protesting muscles began to relax under the
soothing jets of natural jets bubbling from the depths of the
earth. She lost track of time and must’ve fallen asleep for when
she opened her eyes again, her captor was standing there watching
her.

She sank lower in the water to shield her
breasts from his gaze but he laughed at her efforts.

“Come, I have clothes for you to change
into.”

She scowled and motioned for him to turn
around. “I’m not putting on a peep show for your
entertainment.”

“My dear foolish child…it doesn’t matter
whether I see your naked body now or later. But suit yourself. I
will indulge your request because it amuses me.” He turned to give
her privacy and she rushed to cover herself. But as she lifted the
clothing he’d brought her, she realized with dismay she may as well
have remained naked. The cloth was a sheer sheath that was
certainly inappropriate for the chilly cavern and definitely
inappropriate given the situation. She looked for her old clothes
but found they were gone. As if sensing her confusion, he said, “I
burned them. The seed of those beasts was all over them. I thought
I might be ill.”

“So you brought me this?” She lifted the thin
sheath. “This is ridiculous. I’ll freeze.”

He turned and she gasped as she struggled to
cover herself. “Do you know nothing of your nature?” he asked. When
she failed to answer, he explained in irritation, “In a few short
hours you will phase again. The heat in your body will ramp up
until you are burning with fever. The sheath is simply a nod to
your modesty, however thin. You will rip it from your body when you
are in full phase.”

She swallowed, remembering the scant details
Jandin and Koris had shared before she’d slipped into her second
phase. She remembered the heat inside her body, liquefying her
bones and she shuddered in fear it at happening again. “You must
take me back to my clan. I’ll die if I phase without them.”

“Without a Breeding female, the two clans
settle into an uneasy truce, which bears well for the humans they
choose to live beside. But a Breeding female creates a lust for
dominance that is impossible to quell under the best of
circumstances; add in a Breeding female of your particular blood
line and it’s doomed to chaos and bloodshed.”

“What do you mean?” Cassandra asked,
intrigued in spite of herself. “I don’t know any of this. I was
adopted. I have no idea who my biological parents were.”

“Your father came from Clan Barrichius; your
mother, Clan Janus. As such you are a direct descendent of the
Lycan line. Your blood is powerful. Your womb is dangerous.”

Her hand drifted to her belly. “How?”

“There is a legend…one that has kept the two
clans warring since the beginning of time. A child would be born of
the two clans union that would bear fruit to rule the world. You,
Cassandra, are that child. And anyone in either clan would do
anything to claim you and all that goes with it.”

She gasped and shook her head. “You’ve got to
be joking. This is ludicrous.”

“Really? Were you not just fucked by two
werewolves? Were you not compelled to fuck when your phasing
began?”

Her cheeks burned at the memory. “Yes,” she
admitted with shame. “I couldn’t help myself.”

“It’s in your nature. Which is why you cannot
bear fruit in that womb of yours.”

“But they will come for me,” she said, not
sure what to think anymore. “They will find me.”

“The minerals in the spring water act as a
natural neutralizer. Their seed has been washed away for the time
being. But your final phasing will create a scent that they can
follow. We will leave before that happens.”

His gaze drifted down her naked body, barely
covered by the sheath in her hands, and she hurriedly pulled it
over her head. She shivered as the fabric whispered over her curves
and danced around her knees. He looked away as if scalded. “I
brought you food. I suggest you eat. Your body’s metabolism is
moving at a much faster rate and you will find yourself nearing
starvation within hours if you don’t eat every two hours.”

Cassandra hesitated to ask him what he’d
brought her to eat seeing as she’d gobbled raw meat a few hours
earlier but she found his choice acceptable and started eating.

“How do you know so much about werewolves if
you’re not one?” she asked around the bite of raw steak. “And you
still haven’t told me your name,” she reminded him.

“I’m surprised your senses have not figured
it out yet,” he said.

Sudden clarity came to her and she swallowed
with difficulty. “You’re a vampire?”

“Yes,” he said. “And my name is Cristophe. It
is my duty to keep watch for the Breeding females of the clans.
Thus far, I’ve been successful in preventing the prophesy.”

“Oh.” The meat stuck in her throat and she
swallowed again. “So…why do you care so much about the politics of
werewolves?”

“Wolves are like squabbling children, always
crying over who has what toy. Vampires have been keeping the
werewolves under control for eons. Possibly since the
beginning.”

She scowled, not liking his condescension.
“Maybe they don’t need to be babysat. Did you ever think of
that?”

“Without control, they become rabid,
quarreling beasts who tear apart everything in their path.”

She thought of Jandin and Koris and how
tender they’d been with her and she immediately rushed to their
defense. “I don’t think that’s true. You have a bias against
werewolves apparently.”

His stare narrowed. “Yes. A werewolf ripped
apart my human family after I’d turned.”

“Oh. I’m sorry,” Cassandra offered, not quite
sure how to offer condolences on something so awful. “But Jandin
and Koris aren’t like that.”

“Don’t mislead yourself. They were consumed
with lust for you because of the power you possess. Why else would
they go out of their way to put their mark on you before they could
get you to safety?”

“I was phasing. There wasn’t time,” she
said.

“Be that as it may, they’d been watching you
for some time. As have I. They lost control because of who you are
and who they are.”

A part of her wondered if this was true. She
nibbled her steak, completely over the fact that she was munching
on raw meat, and focused on the here and now. “Where will you take
me?” she asked.

“I have an underground compound that will
suffice for the time being. I will try to see to your comfort as
much as possible. Should the phase end your life…I will see to it
that your effects are put into order.”

“Not a castle?” she asked derisively. “I
thought all vampires had castles. And what do you mean, my
effects?”

“I have several but there’s nothing close
enough to reach. Besides, going underground is the best way to
muffle your scent from their damned canine sense of smell. And to
answer your question, it wouldn’t do to leave loose ends. The
authorities will assume you died of natural causes.”

She finished her dinner in silence, the
crackling of the fire the only sound between them. She looked up to
find Cristophe staring at her with a heat in his eyes that he
couldn’t immediately squelch when their gazes met. “Are you going
to kill me?” she asked.