HIVE Mother - Chapter 3
#3 of HIVE Mother Series
Doggy smells filled the air--and she caught sight of her husband at last--warming his hands over a barrel of burning trash. Her three oldest boys circled and greeted the newcomer that had joined their mother, sniffing each other's butts, hackles raised at first.
A dead police officer lay next to her mate--a tall, white wolf-man with a black metal left arm and shoulder plate, and a black lens that covered his eye on the same side. Lupa strode over to him, stepping on the dead man with her metal foot, and embraced her partner's hairy, naked chest. They snogged together, licking at each other's muzzles, and he lifted her up and gave her a piggyback, her tail hanging down over his shoulders.
"I made a new baby for us, tonight, Richter." she whispered, squeezing her hips against his neck. "Say hello to your daddy, Charlie!" she cooed, as the new wolf lowered his ears and rubbed his flank against his surrogate father's leg.
"You've been makin' a lot lately, Lupa. What about the ones inside you still?" he grunted happily.
"Well, it's what moms do, honey. I'll keep makin' them too, so long as you help me to." she chuckled, playing with one of his ears.
"We can't get too comfy yet, babe--not in the city. I've heard the humans talking about declaring martial law, after another pack mauled about a dozen kids at an elementary school. You know how they get about children."
"Idiots." Lupa muttered. "Of course they're going to be protective of their young, what do our kind expect? Humans aren't 'entirely' detached from their nurturing instincts--not yet, at least." She muttered, blatantly ignoring the morality of the matter. "I like the city, Richter. Are we going to move?" she complained, a tone of sadness in her voice.
"Heading for the hills sounds like the best plan, baby-doll." Richter grunted. "Maybe we can find some woods or an abandoned farmstead in Ohio we can capitalize on. Michigan's all up in arms about us--we're right smack in the center of it all."
"Whatever you say, baby." she sighed. She didn't really want to give up her home of shredded bedding, newspapers, and the familiar scents of their spoor here in this town that had been her home since she'd turned--but her mate was a smart one, and knew better than her. That was a nice thing about being a wolf--you didn't worry about the conceit of being better than your significant other--always a point of contention for human girls. As far as she was concerned, pumping out more of her kind was an excellent way to go, and following the wiles of her better half left her time to enjoy her progeny and all they did. It was just better not to need to compete with someone who excelled at a different purpose from hers.
She let him set her down, curling her arms around his neck as he stooped, and went sniffing at his fur. He'd been rolling in another wolf's scat, marking their territory and rubbing out the smell of an interloper. She smiled and pinched the tip of her nose--a throwback to her human origins. Her sense of smell was too good now to call it a bad scent, but it was funny because the humor remained relative. Her mate was a shaggy dog that had rolled in something smelly--what a mess they'd become since transforming!
"I'm having fun," she whispered. "Just a few more months, and we'll have little ones of our own to look after. A real family, Richter." she said excitedly, rubbing her belly and pinching one of her lower breasts.
"We still probably need to grab a few more good humans, Lupa." her mate muttered gruffly. "I've heard rumors of them calling out SWAT, and they're better equipped for our kind than the police. You used to have a little experience with them, right?"
There was a bit of a rhythmic hum, as one of her processors engaged. She put a finger to her temple, trying to recall the memories from before her alteration. "I think I was a dispatcher early on, and then patrolled for awhile, but I do remember that they had riot cops called out, occasionally. Not sure what SWAT's got that we didn't, but we can probably expect some armor and tear gas, maybe snipers." she said, thoughtfully.
"The armor we can handle. Not sure about the gas or the snipers, though. Think maybe you could break into the precinct and find a good bigwig or two we could make into an assett?"
"Yeah, there's a police lieutenant that has connections with SWAT, I remember that. A miss Lieutenant Michels, if I recall."
"You convert her, and don't regress her too bad with the Beta-brain, or whatever you wanna call it--maybe she can give us some insight, or help us keep tabs on where they're gonna deploy SWAT at."
She chewed on a nail, tasting a bit of blood from the cop she'd eaten. "It's a thought, but I doubt we can just plant her in the department as a mole--I mean, she'll be one of us once I get to her."
"Yeah," he insisted, "But you leave her with enough brains, maybe she'll fill us in on their future plans--heck, she might even be able to get us some guns." he said, thoughtfully.
She slapped his head. "You know I don't like fighting like humans do, Rick."
She relented after a minute of thought, however, and rolled her eyes. "I guess it's necessary, isn't it. I'll see what I can do, baby." she cooed, kissing him on the side of his muzzle with her circuitry-adorned tongue, and then turning around, swishing her wire-braided tail in his face.
"Take care of your family, Charlie," Lupa whispered, petting the newest addition once more, and leaving him to his brothers and dad. He simply whimpered, the yellow lights of his eyes narrowing as he grunted and curled up on a dirty rug to sleep.