Chapter 6 Jeremy Stanton vs. Ryan Hicks Feral attraction in the midst of hatred... The white wolf!

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According to the boys, they had to wait a while for the strange species to show up. Although Ryan doubted Timmy had anything interesting to show him, he wasn't really bothered because he knew he could use the opportunity to look around himself. After all, for a zoologist, the most fascinating place to be was in the forest. He should however have listened to the boys and stayed close to them. They'd specifically advised Ryan to stay close to them because according to them, they'd come prepared with tasers with which to daze wild animals should they encounter any. Ryan had thought at the time that, that was a really smart thing to do. So why the fuck had he wandered off, he asked himself for the umpteenth time. If only he'd stayed with the boys, he wouldn't have been caught, seeing as none of the boys had been caught except him.

Now he was in pain in some dark cage God knew where and didn't know what to do. He'd tried to explain to the men who had caught him that he'd only been researching, but they wouldn't listen. Ryan had been sure he'd been caught because he was trespassing on restricted property, till that man had bitten him. Who the fuck were those people? Probably a cult of sorts. He'd heard stories about secret cults with weird practices but hadn't thought barbaric acts such as biting people could actually be accepted by normal human beings. Were they cannibals? Oh, God! If only someone could...

"Oh fuck!" Ryan screamed as he thrashed about in pain. This time his insides felt as if it was rearranging itself.

Whatever was happening to him was too painful for words. Ryan threw up. He'd been in that cage for almost eight hours and nobody had bothered checking up on him even though he was obviously not well. Ryan didn't know how to accurately describe what he was going through but he just knew he was going to die. His skin was burning as if he'd been dumped into blazing fire. Surely even hell wouldn't be that painful. He ripped his already ruined shirt from his body forcefully and unbuckled his belt. But before he could pull out the belt, a gut-wrenching scream tore out of him as he hurled himself at the wall that was made of solid stone. Ryan slammed onto the floor and watched in shock and horror as his fingers began to elongate into claws. Christ, what was happening to him?

"Help me, somebody." He tried to scream but the words that came out didn't even sound human.

He watched as fur sprouted all over his arms, abs, stomach...he was burning up all over. What the fuck was happening to him? He felt a burning sensation in his toes and looked down just in time to see his toes forcefully push through his boots, ruining them.

"Holy Moses." He gasped, pulling off his ruined boots and socks.

Ryan yanked off his jeans but before he could get to his boxers, he fell to the floor as the greatest pain ever, rocked through him. He closed his eyes and allowed a scream to burst forth. But this time his scream sounded like an animal in pain, which rather shocked and confused Ryan. Not even having the strength to move, he just lay quietly on the floor, willing the pain to fade away but it didn't. It came hard and fast, slamming into him, taking him into a sea of excruciating agony. He curled into a ball, his insides convulsing in painful waves. It felt as though something was moving within him...taking over his very being. It was terrifying as hell.

Ryan was in so much pain his vision dimmed as sweat poured out from his pores. His gums tingled agonizingly. It felt as though he suddenly had more teeth. He curled into himself even more, trying to escape the pain but it kept slamming into him again and again. For the first time in his life, Ryan wished for death. He tried to scream, but what came out was a howl. He was in too much pain to wonder where that came from. Ryan didn't know how long the pain lasted. It could have been hours, days, weeks... All Ryan knew was that death had never sounded more appealing.

Suddenly, a sense of calm came over Ryan. He no longer felt any pain at all. He felt...strong, fresh, and energized. He opened his eyes and immediately thought a light had been turned on where he'd been locked but soon realized it wasn't so at all. He could just suddenly see better in the darkness. Hell, he couldn't even see that well in his glasses, Ryan thought, surprised. He quickly turned around with the intention of grabbing his jeans to pull on before someone came in to see him naked. And that was when Ryan realized that he didn't have hands but rather, paws. He slowly turned his head to look at himself and realized that not only did he have a tail, but his whole body was covered in fur and he was standing on all fours...

He was a wolf!

***

Jeremy heard his mate's howl and sprinted towards the dungeon. In just a pair of jeans, the muscles in his naked upper body rippled beneath his beautiful caramel coloured skin, which was covered in a fine sheen of sweat as he ran. He'd come back earlier than the pack just so he could see the hunter in his wolf form. Much as he still had the urge to kill the bloody hunter, he had an even greater urge to see the hunter's wolf. And Jeremy couldn't fight that urge. The other reason he wanted to see the hunter's wolf before it shifted back into human form was to compel the fool not to dare attack anyone. Until he learnt to control his wolf, the hunter would try to kill anything that moved.

Jeremy clearly remembered his own first shift. He'd ripped out the wooden door to the room he was being held in and escaped into the night. By the time he was found, he'd slaughtered about forty horses he'd found in a barn. It was the thirst...the hunger...the urge to kill that every wolf had. That deadly urge was blindingly strong in every newly shifted wolf. As alpha, Jeremy had the ability to compel members of his pack if it was to protect them. And compelling the hunter was for his own good because Jeremy knew that he wouldn't hesitate to kill the hunter...mate or not...if he so much as put a scratch on any member of his pack. Killing his mate would cause his own painful death but in his current state, Jeremy didn't care at all.

At the entrance of his mansion, Jeremy grabbed a t-shirt from the large box filled with different sizes of t-shirts before entering. He knew Philip was not far behind but he didn't care. At the top of the stairs, Jeremy inhaled deeply and shivered with arousal. That scent! So delicious and so damn arousing. Fuck! As he descended the stairs into the dungeon, he adjusted himself and then pulled on the t-shirt. He turned on a switch and flooded the whole place with blinding light. Then he went to stand in front of the cage which held his mate and stared at the beautiful pure white wolf. He was simply spectacular, Jeremy thought willing his erection to go down. He hated the hunter, yet he desired him with an intensity that shook him to the very core. His body obviously had a mind of its own. It was that call of a mate. There was nothing stronger than that.