My Feral Lady Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Christmas eve

Christmas eve’s dinner was some kind of sublime. Alex, Lena, and Adam all had a hand in cooking while everyone else finished up the decorating and placing ornaments on the tree that hadn’t been put up already. But before long, the omegas and Adam called everyone else back into the bar to eat together. Any faint hope of fitting everyone at Alex’s small dinner table flew right out the window when Kara and Lena arrived with over a dozen pups in tow. Overcrowded or not, the extra faces just made everything from the dinner all the sweeter. The angles came right down from heaven to bless each bite. Lena once more nabbed a large roast from inventory. It made for a delightful wolf feast. When combined with four full family portions of mashed potatoes, two dozen ears of corn, enough gravy to fill a minor bathtub, a small grain silo’s worth of biscuits, and five full french apple pies. They all indulged in the decadence of their meal until every movement felt incredibly sluggish. Bellies bulged comically, and everyone quickly grew incredibly drowsy. The kids somehow managed to still have the energy to break off into two or three smaller groups to either play in the arcade corner or one of Alex’s board games. The adults, Alex, Lena, Kara, Sam, and Jess all lingered lazily in their chairs. They talked about everything and nothing, the two mated pairs holding each other and clinging together just to stay up as the meal caught up to them. Kara specifically held tight to Lena, giving off delighted growls, nuzzling, and huffing into the omega. Lena just patiently stroked at her alpha’s back and scratched gently at her scalp on occasion. It rose her worry ever so slightly, but it was not like Kara was being aggressive or anything. Nothing like before. Lena figured that the issue was just that Kara had been going feral much longer than Adam and Maxwell had, so it would be understandable if it took a little longer for Kara to revert to her absolute normal. It also helped ease Lena’s loud anxieties to more of a whisper that the alpha was just being so damn cute, giving her all the near food coma love she could ever want and then some. The final sign that it was probably bedtime came when Kara began to nip softly at Lena’s neck and her head slowly began to drift down Lena’s chest. Her nips, however, did not seem to stop. 

“Oof! Hey there love. Bedtime maybe?” Lena pulled Kara’s head back up. The alpha only nuzzled at her mate’s flesh with a soft pleased purr at the idea. 

“What about you love? Feeling like it is time to turn in?” Sam suggested to Alex who had also begun to lean against her, but who had still yet to begin biting in any way. 

“Yeah, I’m getting tired too. The kids seem to be winding down too.” Alex picked up her head to survey the room. A number of the kids seemed to be nearly falling asleep in their positions on the floor around a game of monopoly as close to its end as any game of monopoly could ever really get. The teens and a couple of the preteens seemed to still have some energy to them, playing around in the arcade corner. 

“You four get some sleep, take all the little ones in back and upstairs to tuck them in. I can look after some of the older ones until they are all tuckered out.” Jess offered. 

“You sure you are up to do that?” Lena worried, again pushing Kara’s head back up as the alpha seemed to get a little more grabby and growly. 

“Yeah, I am getting a little more back to myself. I am actually able to keep on my feet again, and if I start to feel woozy again I still have some of that blood you gave me.” Jess assured.

“Aww, that is nice of you. Thanks Jess.” Alex smiled appreciative. 

“No problem.” 

“Hey, that is great. We can get straight to bed.” Sam kissed Alex’s forehead, eager to have more time with the omega in her arms. 

“Ehh.” Alex lingered on the doubtful syllable. “I still need to feed Gayle.”

Lena choked on her drink. “You! You still have her here!” 

Kara growled softly into Lena, protective at the sound of distress in her mate’s voice.

“Yeah. I mean, Eve is still out there, and she did give us good information. So I do owe her the blood I have.” Alex reasoned.

Jess visibly shivered. 

“You have her chained up, right?” Lena’s tone grew more distressed, enough to get Kara to grow and pull at her side. The alpha was nearly asleep after her huge meal and long day of so sudden mothering to the pups. 

“I chained her back up before you guys came back with Cat’s kids yes. But she seems to be… less bloodthirsty? If you’ll forgive the pun?” Alex defended the vampire.

“You go ahead and get your sleep. I will make sure she gets fed and take care of everything.” Jess waived away. “You four look sleepy. I’ve done my share of sleeping on the job, so now you all do yours.” Jess ushered them off with a gentle smile that none of the wolves questioned. “I’ll even keep an eye out for Santa, make sure he leaves all the kids their gifts.” Jess winked. “So you four all get a full night’s sleep without worry.”

“Thanks Jess. That is sweet of you.” Lena smiled and giggled when Kara purred at the relief in her voice.

Kara, Lena, Sam, and Alex all adjourned to their bed or their sleeping bag, bringing the tired children with them. Lena read the kids, and Kara a bedtime story and administered goodnight forehead kisses as they were needed before crawling into the double-wide bag. Kara was already snoring softly and snuggling with both of the pillows. Lena did not care tho. If Kara stole all the pillows then the alpha would simply have to become one as well. Lena just pulled Kara close and rested her head against the alpha’s soft side and allowed herself to drift off to sleep. 

Jess was good and doted on the remaining handful of teens, ushering them to bed before ten. She even cracked some joke to them that Santa wouldn’t come if they were all still awake past midnight. It earned roughly as many laughs as one would expect. But the teens did go to bed like they were told.

After everyone had gone to bed and Jess was sufficiently satisfied that the pups were all slumbering well, the vampire donned a red coat. It had originally been one of Alex’s bar decorations, but Jess thought that it would help if any of the kids woke up while she was shoveling presents under the Christmas tree. Plus, it didn’t hurt that she felt like it was a fun way of getting fully into the holiday spirit. She did, however, draw the line at putting on a fluffy white beard. If a pup woke up, she would just play a doting Ms. Clause filling in for a lazy husband. She was relieved when she didn’t have to explain such things away to a drowsy five-year-old. All the presents from Santa were neatly tucked away under the tree. 

With all other duties done, Jess moved to the blood tank under the bar with shaking hands. She felt more than just a yearning to drink. Her whole body wanted to wastefully fucking bathe in it, to devour every drop sloppily and disregard anything else. Better senses prevailed and she set up the tap and poured a glass for Gayle. Having it so close both made her skin crawl and her fangs protrude violently. She fought the urge with an iron grip threatening to crack the glass. Trembling footsteps escorted her downstairs. Gayle now had the basement all to herself, no feral wolves taking up the cages. In fact, the vampire seemed to have changed her place of residence. The vampire was no longer chained down to the chair in silver, instead, she had been moved to the cage with a laptop, a charger and headphones to entertain herself. 

“They gave you your own cage?” Jess was only mildly shocked.

“Alex felt bad about chaining me back up when Ruby, and then the kids came over.” Gayle shrugged. 

“Well, that’s… nice of her.” 

“That was still sub humane confinement by even American prison standards.” Gayle cut a sharp glance at the other vampire. “Giving me the laptop and headphones was nice.” She allowed. 

“Yes. That, that was kinda nice of her. Also nice of her, she sent me down here to give you food.” 

“Again, more or less; no simply less than is humane, cause she gives me all of one meal a day. Sometimes two.” Gayle stuck her arm out of the cage without taking her eyes off of the laptop screen. Her fingers waived Jess over impatiently. The uncaged vampire momentarily assumed it was just hunger getting the best of the other woman, then she remembered it was Gayle.

“Fine then be ungrateful for it.” Jess passed off the glass in a hurried huff before heading back upstairs. In her frustration, she completely forgot her original goal for offering to take up the task.

“When did you stop?” 

Jess froze in her tracks. Her skin crawled at the other woman’s knowing tone. “Stop what?” 

Gayle made a point of enunciating her sigh in relief at the first sip. Fucking christ, it sounded like a porno audition, and it drew out each and every corner of the craving in Jess with an efficency that made her feel hopeless. The caged vampire placed the glass down outside the cage with an intentional clink just to make sure that Jess knew it. “You know what.” Gale’s tone was that of a seductress. 

“Not, not a clue.” 

“So you are saying you wouldn’t like to stay and share?” Gayle rose the glass just to swirl it around, knowing fully well that Jess’s vampire senses would catch even the faintest hint of blood in the air. “Woops!” Gayle played innocent as she intentionally allowed a little of the blood to splash on the ground. “Guess I spilled some. What a shame?” 

“I try to stay away from the human stuff.” Jess’s voice wavered. 

“Do you now? Cause you clearly aren't any good at it.” 

“I only drink human on special occasions!” Jess yelled, trying to remind herself. 

“Are you that bad when you are lying to yourself too?” 

“I’m not lying!” Jess snapped loud enough that she quickly began to worry the children upstairs might have heard her and woken up. 

“Then why not come share with me? It’s quite the special occasion, isn’t it? It’s Christmas by now after all isn’t it?” Gayle smiled, a lot wicked, a little guilt.

“You knew I only drank it on special occasions already didn't you?” 

“Maybe.” 

“Whatever Gayle. You can be an asshole and spill all the blood you want. I’m not joining you, and I’m not giving you more either.” Jess huffed with renewed self-assuredness and another wave of resolve. 

“You didn’t kill anyone when you first turned did you?” Gayle’s taunting tone turned somewhat shameful. 

Jess had been so self-confident that she would not turn back to Gayle from the moment the vampire cunt had begun to taunt her, but suddenly at that, any resolve melted away. She was just so astounded that Gayle could have known something like that without having been there. “No, no I didn’t. Not at first.” Jess stopped and hung her head low because that was no longer something she could claim she had never done. “Lena saved me from that. At least she did for as long as she could.” 

“How many?” Gayle sounded like she was shooting the shit with old war buddies or something. It enraged Jess. They were not buddies! Not friends! Jess didn’t owe the captive murderer anything. 

“I don’t remember.” The answer left her lips despite the fact that she was still raging against the other woman. 

“How many until you stopped fighting?” 

“It is a blur! I don’t remember.” Jess lashed out again.

“Me too.” Gayle’s hollow voice answered back. “The only way I ever knew how many it took was that I could see their faces when I came to.” 

A shiver not only came over Jess but it simply became her. 

“She didn’t make you kill anyone you knew did she?” 

All of Jess’s body threatened to crumble under the weight of the memories. “She threatened to… said a bunch of times that the only reason she hadn’t already made me do it was because all my friends are dirty wolves.” 

“Yup. That sounds like her. Just be glad she didn’t get to make you do it to them. Leslie was not so lucky.” 

“E-enjoy your drink.” Jess shuttered and strived to step off and turn away again. 

“You still don’t want to join me?” Gayle raised her glass in offering again. 

“No! Thank you.” Jess’s resistance waned as she strived to stick to her guns. 

“You know it gets easier? When you drink. It gets easier.” 

“You know… it doesn't when you drink animal?” 

“You really think I don’t know that! I am sixty years your senior at a minimum!” Gayle raged, picking up her glass and tossing it as best she could from inside the cage. It landed just where she had aimed, shattering on the ground just by Jess’s heels. Shards of glass sprayed and cut into the back of Jess’s legs and ankles.

“Was that worth it!?” Jess turned back to yell at the caged woman. 

Gayle just huffed and pulled her laptop back up. She put her headphones in and returned to brooding over her show. 

Jess just rolled her eyes and stomped out of the basement and back to the bar. Once she had ascended the stairs she was completely on autopilot. Her nose and stomach were guiding her, right to the tap behind the bar. Before she even realized what she was doing, the glass in her hand was half full. By some miracle, she garnered a second wind of restraint when she remembered what her true goal of the first trip down to Gayle had been. It was enough to reinvigorate her to return to the other vampire. If she got to pass off the glass of blood before she caved and drank it, that was only a mild benefit. Certainly, it had no overlap with the fact that hearing Gayle’s haunted voice talk about the things that still vyed to keep her up at night. 

“You’re back. Already?” 

“Brought you another glass.” Jess offered as dispassionate as the soft-hearted woman could manage. 

“Didn’t expect that.” Gayle huffed. “But… thanks. I could use it.” 

Jess moved to the side of the cage and sat down next to Gayle without handing off the glass. She had intended to ask a more directed question, but when she saw the screen and the show playing on it, the surprise just slipped out of her mouth. “Married with children?” 

“Reminds me of my husband, and my kids.” Gayle’s haunted voice replied cold. 

“I…” 

“I’m thirsty. Unless you are gonna drink with me, pass it on.” Gayle gestured to the glass if only to get the topic rolling. 

“I need your help.” 

“Help with what!” Gayle laughed. “I’m a little tied up at the moment.” 

“You are strong. Like you said, you have been a vampire much longer than me.” 

“Yes?” Gayle was suddenly intrigued. 

“How do I kill Eve?” 

“You wanna kill her huh?” 

“Yes. She is a little literally unarmed, and for at least another day or two she won’t be able to order me around. It is a long story, but Cat destroyed her throat, and it will be a long time before she can fully heal, that is even if she ever does heal her throat and voice properly.” 

“And you want me to teach you to win while you still have a chance?” 

“Yes.” 

“You are gonna have to start with drinking that whole glass.” 

End of Chapter 36