“Callan,” she whispered his name tremulously.

She would laugh, if she weren’t so hot. If the need pulsing through her body wasn’t so intense, so

searing.

She wondered where Callan was. Surely he had some idea what was happening to her? Was this his punishment for her daring to come out here and try to drag him into public awareness?

This wasn’t working. Breathing hard, her fingers stilled on her flesh. She wasn’t going to climax, not the way she was doing it. Dammit, she knew she should have bought that damned book on masturbation. But no, she was convinced she could find some buff, muscled god to take care of the job for her. Here she was, stuck in bum fucked nowhere, so horny she was burning alive, and no muscle god to put out the fire.

“Dammit,” she slapped at her sleeping bag, frustrated tears coming to her eyes. “I’ll kill him when I find him. I’ll let Kane neuter him. I’ll blow his balls off with my gun.”

She groaned, turning over on her side, breathing roughly. She could get through this. She blew out hard, attempting to find some measure of control. She could do this, she thought. She really could make it until tomorrow, then she was stalking into that damned garage and Mr. Callan Lyons, Catboy Extraordinaire, was going to take care of this damned problem, one way or another.

CHAPTER NINE

“Sherra, get up here if you want those blood samples.” Callan’s voice was low, he could feel and hear the growl emanating from his chest. The ‘mating frenzy’ was building in him, but he knew Merinus was being tortured by it. He could hear her breathy moans, smell her heat.

“Dammit, Cal, bring her to the cabin,” Sherra argued fiercely. “A tent is not the most romantic place. And it’s sure as hell not a good place to retrieve samples.”

“If I touch her, I’ll lose control, Sherra,” Callan whispered. Admitting it took all his strength. He couldn’t touch her, couldn’t get close to her. He heard the silence from Sherra’s end, thick, tense.

“Okay, pull back. We’ll come out there and get her. You stay out of range of her, Callan. We need her blood and saliva samples before you touch her again.”

“Then you better get up here fast. If she threatens to neuter me again, all bets are off.”

Callan disconnected the cell phone and moved further away from her camp. He couldn’t bear her moans. And the scent of her was making him crazy. His hands clenched into fists, his body tightened with his need. He could feel the small, minute protrusion beneath the head of his cock flaring. The barb. He knew it was there. He had seen the X-rays of it countless times, but never, in all the years he had been having sex had it flared to life. Now it throbbed. It pulsed with a life of its own; the nearly unbearable swelling of it was a demand in and of itself.

How long he waited, Callan wasn’t sure. Time was measured in the throb of his cock, the beat of his blood through his veins, the lust that seemed to build steadily.

“Hey bro,” Taber bent next to him as Dawn and Sherra moved quickly for the tent. “Tell me what to do.”

Callan shook his head, sighing deeply.

“Find a cure.” He grimaced with a harsh laugh. “Talk about a major complication here, Taber. Until then, you and Tanner scout the area, make sure we don’t have any watchers. I’ll follow Dawn and Sherra as soon as they get Merinus from that tent and headed to the house.”

Taber nodded. He clapped Callan on the shoulder, a gesture of affection they all practiced, then moved quickly away. Callan leaned back against the boulder behind him and breathed a hard sigh. Dammit. Way too complicated.

* * * * *

“Merinus. I’m a friend of Callan’s. Can I come in?” The female voice was soft, incredibly gentle. Merinus jerked into a sitting position, pulling the sleeping bag to her breasts as she stared at the zippered door.

“Where is that dirty bastard?” she cursed angrily, reaching out and pulling the tab down furiously. “I’m going to kill him.”

The two women framed in the opening moved in purposely. The door was re-zipped and they regarded her curiously.

“Merinus, we need to get you dressed and to Callan’s home. Our doctor is waiting there.”

“There’s a cure?” She narrowed her eyes on them.

“Sort of.” The blonde grimaced. “If you’ll get dressed we’ll explain everything on the way out of here.”

“I don’t know if I can walk out of here,” Merinus bit out, anger unfolding in her again. “I don’t know what he did to me, but it’s not pleasant.”

“Callan is in little better shape at this time. Now, my name is Sherra and this is my sister, Dawn. We’ll

help you get dressed. My jeep got pretty close, so you shouldn’t have to walk far.”

As Sherra spoke, Dawn jerked a pair of light sweat shorts from a backpack and a loose, sleeveless top.

“Good, loose clothing should be better.” Sherra took the items and held them out to Merinus. “Do you need help dressing?”

“No.” Merinus clenched the material in her hand. She had removed her clothes for a reason, didn’t they know that?

Heaving an irritated sigh, she clenched her teeth together and dressed herself quickly. Moving wasn’t comfortable. But then again, breathing wasn’t comfortable. It didn’t hurt, exactly. The pleasure was just so intense that it was damned impossible to contain her moan when the light cotton material fell over her breasts, stroking her nipples.

“Oh God, I’m going to kill him,” she mumbled, flushing with embarrassment.

“You have my permission.” Sherra unzipped the door and moved out of the tent. “Can you make it? We brought a friend in case you couldn’t walk.”

Merinus shook her head, embarrassment flaming her body now.

“I can walk. Let’s just hurry up and get there.”

Thankfully, Sherra was right. The jeep was much closer to the tent than Merinus had been able to bring her Blazer. It was still running and the air conditioner was blasting.

“Hang on and we’ll hurry,” Sherra promised her as she bounced out of the parking spot. Oh, now that wasn’t fair. Merinus felt ecstasy shimmer up her spine as they bounced over rocks and ruts. She closed her eyes, holding tight to the steel bar beside her and the edge of the seat. Each jarring of her body only incited the fever raging through her.

“Definitely need to write a story on this. What does he call it anyway?” Merinus asked. “I feel like I’m in damned heat.”

“Close.” Sherra shot her a concerned look. “It’s called a ‘mating frenzy’. We didn’t even know it existed until tonight. We don’t have much research into it. It’s only happened once, before we were born.”

The statement didn’t take long to hit Merinus’ brain.

“We?” She turned to her in shock. “There are more like Callan?”

Sherra nodded, watching the rough track she was driving over carefully. “There are five of us. Three males, Dawn and myself. The evidence towards us was destroyed in the lab. Only the files on Callan remained. Thankfully, the scientists were trying to double-cross their masters and didn’t tell them about their little side experiments with the rest of us.”

There was bitterness and rage in the woman’s voice, not that Merinus blamed her. She could only imagine the horrors two young women would have endured there.

“So, you have your own doctor then?” Merinus panted as they bounced over a succession of ruts. Oh, glory. She closed her eyes. If she didn’t climax soon, she was going to burn alive.

“The only scientist left. He helped us in the labs, then helped us escape. He watches over us, makes sure everything is okay physically. Sometimes mentally.” Sherra shrugged. “He’s a good man. Kinda old now, but a good man.”

“Oh hell, Sherra, please watch those bumps,” Merinus sighed dismally as the woman accelerated over a washboard road. “Oh, God. I’m dying here.”

“I’m sorry, Merinus, we really need to hurry.” The Blazer shot forward. Despite the narrowness of the dirt track, the sheer drop from the side of the cliff, the woman pushed the jeep at an incredible speed, steadily climbing up the nearly impassable road.

“We’re not far now,” Sherra promised her as they hit the top, then curved around and headed down another cliff. “Just a few more minutes.”

A sharp turn again and they were running straight up the middle of the wide creek that ran through two mountains. Several miles up the creek, they turned again to a graveled road that led to a rustic, large log cabin. No damned wonder she couldn’t find the road, she thought. There was no road.

“Just pull into the garage,” Dawn said from the back. “We need to take her downstairs.”

“Doc has a little lab below the cabin, in a cavern we found when we first came here. The dry, cool conditions there are perfect for his work.”

The vehicle bounced into a wide garage off the side, then came to a jarring stop.

“Come on. Callan will be here in a minute, and I want you safely out of sight when he shows up.” Sherra led her to a door that opened to a cool stairwell.

“I thought the point would be to get very close to Callan,” Merinus sighed. “I don’t like this, Sherra.”

“Well, give Callan time and you’ll like it even less,” Sherra chuckled. “He’s bossy and arrogant. We love him, but he’s hell on the nerves.”

“What about the bed?” Merinus followed the dimly lit stairs, close on Sherra’s heels as they curved and led into a large open cavern.

The stone room was brightly lit, with assorted tables, computers, bright lights and complicated machines.

“Where’s Frankenstein?” she sighed, coming to a halt and staring around in amazement.

“I told you, he’s on his way.” Laughter echoed in Sherra’s voice. “Come on, meet Doc and we’ll get those samples we need.”

Samples. Blood samples, saliva, even a swab of her vagina. Merinus lay back on the flat bed, a sheet covering her, her body damp with sweat. Sherra, Dawn and the grandfatherly doctor moved around her constantly. Even her sweat was being tested. It wasn’t comfortable, but compared to the raging lust

zinging through her, it wasn’t bothersome.

“Okay, I’m ready for the antidote now,” Merinus stated when she began to feel the deep, hard contractions of her womb, coinciding with the hard, throbbing pulse that attacked her vagina. “Time to do something here, guys.”

Doctor Martin was bent over a complicated microscope, computers and gadgets whirring as he pressed in several commands to the keyboard, raised his head and checked his readout. He sighed, shaking his head.

“Doc?” Sherra stood at his side, reading the display on the computer screen herself.

“A mating,” the doctor muttered, running his hand through his thinning gray hair as he glanced up at Sherra. “Look at the results of combining his sperm with her vaginal secretions.”

“Okay, it’s now time to explain to Merinus.” She heard the waver in her own voice and admitted to the fear that was becoming impossible to hold at bay.

What did she really know about these people? They could be dangerous. This could be some elaborate show for their own experiments. She felt her body tremble, not just with lust, but with trepidation.

“It’s okay, Merinus,” Dawn assured her, her voice soft, hesitant. “No one’s going to hurt you. I’m certain Doc and Sherra are almost finished.”

Merinus looked up at the other woman, seeing sympathy, shadows of nightmares and pain in her dark, whisky brown eyes.

“I think its time to call in the Amazing Seven,” she whispered, thinking of her brothers. They could fix anything. “My brothers,” she explained to Dawn’s confused look. “They’ll be really pissed over this. I’ve really stepped into it this time.”