Bastion: O-Men: Liege’s Legion

by Elaine Levine

  Owen and Jax exchanged a long look before Owen nodded.

  “I’ve got it covered, O,” Jax said. “Besides, I’d like to see this fort of theirs.”

  Bastion took Selena’s hand as they made their way upstairs to her room. Her fingers threaded through his. Having him with her felt amazing—like he was the piece of her life that had always been missing. Her parents’ marriage had always been strong—not always peaceful, but they’d pulled through every challenge together.

  Selena had given up hope of finding something similar for herself. Being a soldier, and now a mercenary, with a past—and present—as violent as hers, well, none of that had lent itself to a stable love life.

  When they stepped into her room, Bastion pulled her into his arms as he leaned against the wall. “Are your parents still alive?”

  Of course he’d been listening in. “They are.”

  “Call them.”

  Selena looked up at him, trying to see where he was coming from. His eyes looked sad as he brushed a strand of her hair from her temple. “I could,” she said.

  “You should.”

  “Is there something you’re not telling me?” She looked up at him. “Do you see the future?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Really, that’s a yes-or-no question.”

  “I’ve had a premonition. It’s my first, so I don’t yet know if I’m seeing the future.”

  Selena stepped away, backing up to the opposite wall, her hands tucked behind her. “What did you see?”

  “I saw you injured in a fight.”

  She shook her head. “That might just have been you fearing the Matchmaker’s curse.”

  “True. Losing you would kill me.”

  She stared at him a long moment. “It’s late now. I’ll call them tomorrow.”

  Bastion went into the wider area of her room to strip for bed. She was an exceedingly neat person, so he gathered up his clothes and took them into her closet to the hamper. She was just pulling on knit shorts and a T-shirt.

  Standing behind her, he slipped his arm around her waist. “You don’t need clothes. You’ll be out of them in just a minute.”

  She leaned against him. “I have to brush my teeth.” Left unsaid was the fact that she still didn’t like looking at herself naked.

  He kissed the crown of her head, struck by another knowing that he was going to lose her. If they could have a normal lifetime together, he would have a chance to change her mind about herself.

  But that was not going to be their fate.

  He stepped away from her. They had the time they had. It was all any couple had. He couldn’t waste it being sad. If these were her last days, he’d make them extraordinary for her.

  “Do you mind if I go talk to Guerre and Acier for a few minutes?” he asked. “I want to get their take on the meeting tonight.”

  “Sure. And you probably need to update Liege. He’ll be glad to hear about the Ratcliffs.”

  “No need to update him. He was with us today.” He tapped his head. “In here. He was already patched in. He heard and saw what we did.”

  She wrapped her arms around his waist and lifted her face for a kiss. Bastion met her halfway. It was good he had perfect memory. He’d be able to revisit every single second of their time together. After her, he would live his entire life in the past.

  Was that how Merc felt? Not dying, but not living?

  He kissed Selena’s forehead. “I won’t be long.” He pulled a pair of jeans on, then paused at the door. “What vista do you want tonight?”

  She was brushing her teeth but smiled around the electric toothbrush. “An ocean,” she mumbled.

  Bastion smiled. “Done.”

  He walked down the hall to the room the guys shared. The door opened as he approached it. Guerre was sitting up on one of the extra-long twin beds. Acier was sitting in a side chair, his bare feet on the coffee table.

  “Well, you look like an ice-cold drink of doom,” Acier said.

  Bastion leaned against the dresser. “I had another knowing.”

  Acier’s face sobered. “Shit.”

  Guerre was silently watching him.

  “You have knowings,” Bastion said to Guerre. “Have any of them ever not come true?”

  “No,” Guerre answered.

  Bastion’s eyes watered. This had to be what Merc felt day in and day out. How did he manage to keep breathing?

  “It hasn’t happened yet, Bastion,” Acier said. “Think of it as a warning. We’ll protect her.”

  “We don’t have long,” Bastion said. “The team has tried hard, but they are not ready for what’s coming.”

  Acier dropped his feet to the ground and leaned forward. “We face the ghouls all the time. This is just another fight. There are three of us here.”

  Guerre looked at Acier. “This isn’t just another fight.”

  “And there aren’t three of us,” Bastion said. “You’ll be with Jax.”

  “Then I’ll stay here.”

  Guerre shook his head. “The Ratcliffs need protection.”

  Bastion heaved a harsh breath, then swiped a hand from his forehead to his chin, trying to push his sorrow down deep into his chest.

  He walked out of the room without another word. Liege was a master of control, but it had never been Bastion’s strength. Somehow, he was going to have to make it his, because everything he did from this point forward mattered.

  He returned to Selena’s room. She was on the bed. Naked. Moonlight from the illusion he’d set on her ceiling washed her in a bluish light. She tore her eyes away from the stars and the tips of the palm trees to smile at him. With the distant sound of crashing waves, he could almost pretend they had forever, not mere hours.

  He forced himself to smile back at her. He striped in the closet, leaving his things on floor. The illusion of moonlight covered Selena in a silvery-blue glow. He kneeled on the foot of the bed, letting himself feast on the sight of her. He picked one of her feet up, kissed the bottom of it, then set it beside him, widening the spread of her legs. He repeated that with her other foot.

  He leaned down and kissed her ankles, one after the other, knowing his beard triggered shivery sensations against her skin. Slowly, he kissed his way up to her knee on one leg, then did the same on her other leg.

  He was on all fours when he got to her thighs. He bent her leg, grazing his teeth against her soft inner skin. He raked his teeth along the same stretch of skin on her other thigh. When he was finished, both thighs were spread open, baring her core.

  He settled himself deep between her legs, his shoulders blocking her legs from closing as he pushed his palms under her ass and brought his face to her secret center. He licked the sweet, sensitive skin from her opening to her clit, making her moan. The sound went right to his cock. He rocked himself against the mattress, wishing he were inside her.

  He focused on her clit, making long strokes over it with his tongue. Her hips bucked. He gripped them, not ready for her to orgasm yet. He swept his tongue back and forth over her sensitive nub. Selena made a mewling sound, and when he gently sucked on her clit, she cried out.

  Sitting up, she curled over him, wrapping her arms around his head, pressing his face even closer. “Bastion…please—”

  He lift his head. “Please what? This?” He penetrated her with his tongue. After a few soft, wet thrusts, he sucked her clit again. “Or that?”

  “All of it. All of you. Now.”

  “Are you sure?” He licked his lips.

  “Quit fucking talking.”

  He grinned as he crawled over her. He lifted her hips and entered her. She hadn’t forbidden this position, and he was glad for that. It was one of the few that let him see her response to what he was doing. Her eyes were locked with his as he made shallow thrusts, hitting her g-spot. Her body responded as he knew it would, with an orgasm that hit fast and hard, ripping through her so that she cried out in shock and pleasure. He kept it going as long as he could bef
ore nearing his own release. He slipped all the way in and almost all the way out, faster and faster, until he was pounding into her. He held himself deep in her when his peak hit, letting her body milk his.

  When it was over, he settled her back on the mattress and withdrew, then moved up to lie next to her. She snuggled into him so easily. He kissed her forehead, loving the feel of her warm body and luscious curves pressed against him.

  “Bastion, do you remember when Liege was here that first day we were training? I cut my hand.”

  “I remember.”

  “Did you hear what Liege said to me when he grabbed my hand?”

  “No. I remember you cutting your hand, but truthfully, I can’t remember seeing him speak to you. He must have blocked it from us.”

  “He said I was Legion.”

  Bastion looked down at her. “Did he?”

  “What did he mean by that?”

  “It means he’s accepted you into the Legion.”

  She pushed herself up to look at him. “Do I have to leave my team?”

  “Not necessarily. We have Legionnaires all over the world. He said that to each of us as he accepted us. It’s always a private moment.”

  “But you don’t think I can keep up with you guys.”

  Bastion stroked the side of her face, wondering how to answer that. “You could if you were changed. All that you are as a regular becomes more so as a mutant. You’re strong, resourceful, determined, brave, kind, brilliant. As a mutant, you would put all of us to shame.”

  “Then I want to change. Not to outshine any of you, but to be a better me.”

  Bastion leaned forward and nodded as he kissed her. Maybe it wouldn’t be the ghouls that took her but the modifications instead. His premonition had become blurred by his fear.

  Her lips were soft beneath his, so responsive. He slid his hand into her hair, covering her ear as he deepened the kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck, drawing him closer. He moved his hand down to cup a breast. That full, beautiful mound was bigger than his hand. He dipped his head to taste her peaked flesh. Impossibly, his cock got harder.

  He kissed her collarbone, her throat. Her skin was warm and sweet. Slowly, he moved one leg between hers, then the other, moving his body so that he was lying on her. He slipped his hands under her shoulders as he gazed down into her tawny green eyes, then slowly entered her.

  She opened her legs wider, shifting to accommodate him. He moved in her leisurely, letting them both feel him sliding in, and out, and in.

  At one point, her shadows slipped between them. “Selena, take hold of my beard,” he whispered, knowing that would anchor her here, with him, now.

  She did that, pulling his face down to hers so she could kiss him. Her breathing was irregular. This was the first time they’d made love in this position. It felt divine to him, but was full of terrors for her.

  He rolled them over so that she was on top. Instantly, he felt her body relax.

  “Bastion?”

  “Hm-mm?”

  “Thank you.” She pushed herself into an upright position and took over their movements, riding him in a beautiful rhythm. She arched her back. Her long, dark hair moved around her chest and shoulders.

  He reached down to where their bodies were joined and pressed his thumb against her clit. Her tempo sped up with each rotation until she leaned over him and let go of her control. As soon as he felt her inner muscles clamping and releasing, tightening over him, he wrapped his arms around her, holding her close as he bucked up into her, thrusting hard and fast, prolonging her orgasm as he chased his. It hit him hard, exploding into her body.

  After a long moment, she kissed him and said, “If you were a river, I’d be the boulders that shredded you into white water when you moved over me so that you could know what passion felt like.”

  Bastion smiled. “If you were a desert, I’d be the rain you were so hungry for.”

  “If you were a big evergreen, I’d be a nest of robins to keep you company.”

  Bastion used both hands to smooth her heavy hair from her face. “If you were mine, I’d love you forever.”

  “I am yours.”

  “Then I will love you forever.”

  “Do you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is that what this is? Because it kinda hurts.”

  “That’s what this is.”

  “I love you, Bastion.”

  “I love you, Selena.”

  36

  Selena was on her way to her room after breakfast the next morning, when she saw Hawk standing outside her door. He hadn’t seen her yet. She had the strangest, most visceral reaction that she should turn around and slip away, fast, before he saw her.

  She didn’t. “Hawk. What can I do for you?”

  He looked at her, then quickly looked away. His hands were fisted.

  She frowned. Bastion had warned her to stay away from him, which hadn’t been difficult with him away at school in Colorado. He and Lion didn’t come home every weekend, so it was only a few days a month that he was an issue. “What’s going on?”

  He didn’t meet her eyes. It was as if he was at war with himself, and she was the bystander about to get blown up. “I need to ask you something, and I don’t want the others to know.”

  “Okaaaay. Let’s have it.”

  “How did you know Bastion was visiting you?”

  Not what she’d expected. “You mean when I couldn’t see him or feel him or in any other way know that he was around me?”

  Hawk nodded.

  “He has a strong personality and a heavy French accent. Whenever he spoke to me, or even just slipped into my mind, he never hid himself from me. He would speak to me mentally, but always in his accent, with his words. Why are you asking this? Has someone been visiting you?” Selena thought of what Liege had told them all, that Brett Flynn liked to possess men who could do his dirty deeds.

  “No. That would be crazy.” Hawk shook his head too vigorously. “I just wondered how this all worked, with the mutants.”

  “Hawk, let’s have a seat.” She went over to one of the cushioned benches tucked into the hallway’s wall and sat down. He reluctantly followed her. Close now, she could see the tension in his face, his red-rimmed eyes, his pale skin.

  Everything was not all right. “Talk to me,” Selena said.

  He lifted his blue eyes and stared right into hers. His demeanor shifted. He squeezed his eyes shut, then grimaced as his eyes slowly opened, almost as if against his own will. He leaned forward and drew a long breath of her. Catching his throat in the crook of her hand, she shoved him away from her. He didn’t fight back, didn’t shake himself free of whatever had him in its grips.

  No, he just started to laugh.

  The sound was sickening, pulling at long-buried memories from a time when she was only a few years younger than he was now.

  Bastion, I need you up here now.

  “You smell so good, just as you did then.” Hawk reached a hand out and almost touched her cheek with his fingers. “Too bad you’ve been marred.”

  Selena touched the faint scar Mouse’s riata left that night last summer when the pride tried to kidnap Casey.

  Hawk flattened his hand against his own cheek, pressing against his skin until it whitened beneath his palm. “Your scar is so much smaller than my own. I have wanted to find you and carve you up as you did me.” Hawk smiled. “And now I have. And I will.”

  More sickening laughter.

  Selena jumped up and backed away from the bench. Bastion was already coming toward them. He must have felt her reaction before she’d even summoned him, given how fast he made it up to her.

  “Selena, go to the den and wait for me there,” Bastion said.

  Her hackles shot up. Okay, for one, she was not about to be dismissed. For two, Hawk was one of theirs, part of the pride. She wasn’t about to leave him to face Bastion alone, despite whatever he’d gotten himself into that made him act like this.

  Th
e expression on Bastion’s face was one she’d never seen, like he was trying to keep a rabid dog calm—whether that dog was her or Hawk, she wasn’t sure.

  He faced her. It is for your own safety, Selena.

  Hawk isn’t a threat to me.

  No, he isn’t, but he’s two people right now. Hawk…and Flynn. I’ve summoned Liege to expel him from Hawk.

  Should we lock him in one of the rooms up here? she asked.

  He could get himself out of any restraint. Left free to roam here…he could do too much harm. He already has. Now Flynn knows everything about this house and its layout. Go tell your team what’s happening.

  You should do that. I don’t fully understand it.

  Bastion shook his head. I’m the only one who can contain Hawk. I have him in a trance and will keep him calm. When Liege gets here, he’ll get rid of Flynn. If Flynn jumps out of him and follows you, I don’t want you to take him to sensitive areas in the house. Go. Keep everyone out of this hallway. And don’t go to the bunker. We don’t know where Hawk has taken Flynn, but if he hasn’t seen the bunker or its secret entrances, all the better.

  How will I know if he follows me? Selena asked.

  Chances are you won’t, unless you’re very sensitive to changes in the energy around you. You’re making progress in that area, but you still need much more training and experience.

  Flynn said he wanted to cut me.

  Bastion nodded. Flynn would say—and want—that. I’ve been afraid of this. Gather the others. I’ll let you know if Flynn leaves Hawk.

  Selena turned down the hallway to go to the main stairs. Activating her comm unit, she said, “Kit, I need to see you in the den. Can you get the guys together?”

  “Affirmative. What’s up?” Kit asked.

  “Big problem. We’ll talk in the den.”

  “Roger that.”

  Lion was coming up the stairs, taking the steps three at a time. On the landing, he almost ran into her. She put a hand on his chest and stopped him when he tried to skirt around her. “Come with me.”