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.”