“No,” Travis growled.
“Let me phrase this a different way. You aren’t leaving me here while you two go gallivanting around town looking for a small army of heavily-armed Lycans bent on killing you.” I sat up between them and crossed my arms. “So either you take me with you or you don’t go at all.”
“You’re not a trained soldier, Charlie. Just let us do a little recon, and we’ll be back before everyone has eaten their breakfast.”
I snorted; Travis’ words were a pile of dog shit, and he knew it. “Look who’s lying now. Just try and leave without me, pal.” I glared down at him, and he frowned.
“We won’t leave you.” He finally caved, but it was short-lived. “But when Brogan and the others arrive, you stay. No questions or complaints.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but Garrett’s mouth caressed my bare shoulder, and I moaned something unintelligible instead.
“Promise, Charlotte,” he whispered.
“I promise,” I said, rolling my head to the side, giving him more access to my shoulder and neck.
“We could also just stay up here and continue to play hide-the-cock.” I smiled, lying down between them and spreading my legs as far open as their closeness would allow.
“Cheater,” Garrett said first, moving his hand to my slick folds and burying two fingers inside. “So wet. It would be a shame, brother, not to make sure our new mate wasn’t completely satisfied before we leave her alone for several hours.”
A smile spread across my face, and I moaned as Garrett’s touch fanned the flame of desire already burning brightly inside me.
His next few moves flipped me to my stomach. Then he pulled my ass into the air until I was up on all fours. I gasped as his cock thrust hard, seating himself inside me with one movement.
Travis had other ideas in mind and nudged the tip of his cock against my lips.
I opened and sucked him inside, rolling my tongue around the head and then beneath, lubricating the shaft.
His hands slid into my hair and took a firm grip. “Open more, Charlie,” he murmured.
I relaxed my jaw and allowed myself to give them complete control. Soon they had synced their rhythm, pulling in and out against each other. When Garrett filled my pussy, Travis pulled out of my mouth and then vice versa. Slow and steady, until my body was shaking, arms and legs threatening to collapse once again.
Garrett stiffened behind me and thrust deep. His warm cum filled me, and I cried out around Travis’ cock as my body joined in his ecstasy. Travis reached his climax only moments later, and I swallowed his seed as it shot down the back of my throat.
Once they stepped away, I dropped flat on the mattress and closed my eyes. There was nothing I wanted more than to sleep another few hours. Garrett left the bed and returned shortly with a warm washrag and cleaned my face and then between my legs.
“You rest, Charlotte.”
“I’m going with you,” I murmured, snuggling into one of the soft pillows near the headboard.
“To the shower?” he asked, sarcasm coloring his voice.
“You can do that by yourself.” I opened one eye and spied Travis sitting in the recliner across the room. He’d found boxers to put on and winked when he caught my gaze.
“Sleep, love.”
I nodded my head and closed my eyes again, shocked they were giving me what I wanted. Maybe they had changed their minds and were going to stay in my room with me all day.
They’re gone!
I sat up abruptly, and the covers slid down my still-naked body. The fucking bastards had lied. Tricked me with amazing sex, showered, and snuck out.
In ten seconds flat, I’d found clothes and yanked them on, but when I tried the doorknob, it didn’t turn. I shook it harder and then kicked at the base of the door.
Taking a deep breath, I scented Crawley in the hallway. His heartbeat was sporadic, and his breathing shallow. “Let me out, Crawley.”
“I can’t.”
“I’ll take down this door!” I slammed my palm against it. “Open it!”
“They ordered me not to let you leave. They said to tell you they would be back before the sun set.”
“I am your alpha! Open this door.”
“I can’t. They said you would argue and insist on going after them, but that you were pregnant.”
Pregnant. The word hit my belly like a rock. I wasn’t. Was I? I would know. My finger flew to my mouth, and I nicked the tip with a canine. The metallic taste of blood filtered into my mouth, but my hormone levels were normal. There was no pregnancy. Fucking liars!
“I’m not! You can taste my blood. I’m not. Open this door.”
“No, Charlie. Whether you are or you aren’t, you know very well that if I open this door I’d have to restrain you, and I don’t want to do that.”
Fine. I backed away slowly and walked toward the large picture window in my room that faced the front driveway of the lodge. If I couldn’t go out the door, then I’d just have to go out a window.
I shook my head. How dare they make up some story about me being pregnant to get Crawley to keep me locked away? I grabbed a pair of combat boots from against the wall and jammed my feet inside them. Walking to my vanity, I reached beneath the table part in the center and pulled a handgun from the holster taped underneath. After tucking it in the waistband of my jeans, I slowly unlatched the window and raised it in the frame. Eventually he would realize I was gone, but not before it was too late to catch me.
If those Lycan turncoats hadn’t beaten the shit out of Travis and Garrett, I would.
I lowered myself from the roof and leapt to the ground, crouching low to absorb the jarring impact. No one shouted. None of the doors on the lodge opened.
A few minutes later, I was jogging down the road. If I took a vehicle, I’d never be able to scent and follow the two jerks. When I reached the massive bur oak tree an easy quarter mile from the lodge, I ducked under the low-hanging branches and stripped down, folding and tucking my shoes and clothes into the waiting empty wooden boxes nailed along the top of one of the lowest branches. This tree had been used for generations by my pack as a glorified locker room.
I stretched my arms over my head and rolled my neck from side to side. My magick rippled and tickled my skin, prickling as I drew the change forward. A few seconds later, I dropped to all fours.
My wolf came forward, and the hunt was on.
Chapter 28
XERXES
“Give me one.” I rolled my neck and growled at the slow human who held the key to me taking more power from the humans. The ability to hide in plain sight, such an underplayed characteristic of the Kitsune. They didn’t use their ability to their advantage and look what it got them. They were nearly extinct. Well, at least that’s what they claimed.
I chuckled. They could be hiding in plain sight for all I knew. Just because the ones in Tokyo lived in a commune separate from the rest of humanity didn’t mean all of their kind were solitary hermits. Although, after I burned that commune to the ground and took Riza and Sochi, it was quite possible that they were the only two living adult Kitsune in this dimension.
Unfortunately for them, I knew what they looked like and where they would both be living. Not that I really wanted to take on four angry Drakonae and a bitchy Lamassu who thought I stabbed her husband in the back. Still… knowing where the Kitsune would be could be helpful one day in the future, especially since Sochi’s first daughter remained in my possession. With enough patience, I wouldn’t need her mother or her aunt again. In a couple decades, she could safely produce several babies a year. More than enough to provide me with all the infant blood I could possibly need to dose any and every supernatural willing to work for me.
And there were hundreds so far. The last report I’d gotten from Manda said my army numbered about eight hundred strong. She’d recalled the alphas, generals, and chiefs of the clans who led those loyal to me. They would receive the dose first. Then what had been left was dispe
rsed to them to use on the men they deemed worthiest first. The men most loyal to them and to our cause.
The lab coat handed me a syringe filled with a pink liquid. So easy. Just one shot and poof, technology couldn’t tell us from any other human. I took it and jammed it into my upper arm, pushing the liquid slowly into my body. A strange tingling started in my arm and traveled down my side, my legs, then up my other side, into my other arm until I could feel it everywhere. Every cell throbbed with the mix of magick and science inside those little molecules. I closed my eyes for a second, and the hum from the serum faded away.
I was myself again. No tingle. No hum. I’d been informed this was perfectly normal for all subjects.
“Scan me.”
“Sir?”
The lab coat started toward me, but didn’t make eye contact. Almost as if…
It couldn’t be. I walked to the glass door behind me. My heart raced. There was no reflection. I was standing in front of the glass, invisible. A second later, I appeared again. Fully there, no transparency.
“Sir!” The lab coat squeaked in surprise.
I whirled, growling. This was a complication that could be useful, but not if I couldn’t control it. “Scan me.” If the Kitsune blood affected me differently than the other subjects, I could only hope that it would at least hide me from the scans.
He held up the piece of black technology with a round lens in the middle. It looked like a portable iris scanner.
I leaned down and let it scan my eye.
“Positive for human, sir.” He flipped the device around so I could see the green flashing screen.
A smile spread across my face. “Good. Now I just need to learn how to control the camouflage aspect of my new ability.”
The man gulped and nodded, backing away slowly.
“How many more doses do you have?”
“Ms. Farrok has scheduled three dozen more for today, and we are sending the remaining doses with them as you requested. They will disperse to their men when they return home.”
“Good. You’ve done well…” I glanced at his coat tag. “Henry. I’ll make sure Manda sends a gift to your family. I’m sure they’ll be proud to hear how you are serving your country so bravely.”
The trembling bug of a man in front of me nodded and continued to back away. I snorted and left the lab. Everything was going as planned for once, everything except the Djinn female, who had been overshadowing every move I made over the last couple of days. Ever since she escaped her death.
Still, she was a clever woman, never staying for more than a few seconds. If it hadn’t been for the mirrors in my office, I wouldn’t have realized she’d returned to the mansion and was following me. But a few sightings of her reflection made me hyperaware. Now I noticed her in hallway shadows, disappearing behind corners, and once in my bedroom. She was being extremely cautious, though not cautious enough. She knew who and what I was, and I her.
After getting a good look at her in the reflection of a mirror in my bedroom, there was no mistaking her identity. Manda’s mother, Asa Jelveh Hamideh-Farrok, was not a woman who would abandon her daughter. Eventually, she would make a mistake, and I would carry out her execution.
It was only a matter of time. And I had plenty.
All the soldiers in the house knew to watch for her. The last thing I needed was her communicating with Manda. I put several newly inoculated Lycans on her detail along with two Djinn as transporters. Her mother wouldn’t be getting anywhere near her daughter, and if any of the Djinn reacted the way the last messenger did, the Lycans were under orders to kill them.
I climbed the stairs to the upper level of the mansion and grimaced as the baby’s crying pierced the usually quiet house. She rarely cried, but ever since Sochi had been stolen away, it was like the little wretch knew. The doctors had cleared her after the latest blood draw. She needed three weeks between them to fully recover, meaning the next one would be her last. After another rest period, she would be too old. Her blood would no longer be viable in the serum.
Turning on the stairs, I changed my mind and returned to the bottom. A messenger blinked into the foyer ahead of me and bowed.
“Sir.”
“What is it?”
“Max reported back that the Mason pack is dividing. Most appear to be following Victor, but the new alphas are not. Charlie, the Mason daughter, and her mates are packing to leave Ada. The pack takes a vote in two days on whether or not she stays.”
Fucking idiots. “I told him I wanted the alpha female. If she isn’t coming, then I want her dead. Is that clear? They can all die if I can’t have her.”
“Yes, sir,” the Djinn answered, bowing again and teleporting from the room.
Manda’s familiar scent drifted to me from across the room. “I’m going to kill your friend. Either her pack will offer her up on a silver platter or my soldiers will murder her in her bed.” I turned to the right and narrowed my gaze. She stood stiff and straight. Her black business suit sagged on her thinning frame, and her cheeks were hollower than they’d been a few weeks ago. “If you don’t eat and take care of yourself, I’ll have to make it someone’s personal mission to make sure you do by any means of coercion necessary. I’m sure either of your bodyguards would find the offer quite attractive,” I said, nodding to the two Lycans standing just behind her.
She swallowed and nodded. “I’ll be sure to take more time to eat, sir.”
“Good. Then I expect you won’t look like a worn out dishrag the next time I see you. The SECR Director of Defense should not ever look like a starving wretch. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir,” she answered again, with more gusto this time.
“I’m looking forward to you watching me kill your friend. It will be the highlight of my week, for sure. Although the invasion of the Washington Republic will be hard to beat.”
Chapter 29
TRAVIS
“She’s not going to trust us again after this,” Garrett growled.
I shook my head, watching the warehouse where we’d tracked a werewolf to earlier in the day. The soldier had gone in, but it’d been an hour, and nothing. We’d been sitting in Crawley’s truck, as far from the building as possible, but close enough to watch the door.
“Bringing her wasn’t an option. I refuse to put her in more unnecessary danger. It’s bad enough leaving her at the lodge.”
“So putting our entire mate bond, not to mention our balls, in danger was the better option. She’s a fighter, Travis. Don’t you remember how—”
My brother was too quick to forget. “Don’t you remember what she looked like when we pulled her out of Savannah with the others?” I snarled, keeping my voice low, but my anger stirred the beast inside me, and I knew my eyes had lit for a few seconds.
“That’s not fair. She’d been captured, injured, and had just watched her parents die. She didn’t deserve the way we just… snuck out. Like cowards.”
The comment was a jab, and it worked. Leaving her felt wrong from my head to my heart, but every time I thought of Charlie fighting, I remembered seeing her limping down the street in Savannah—bruised, bloody, and broken. The thought of seeing her like that again burned in my gut like fire.
I’d seen death. Torture. Chaos. I’d seen things happen in this world as the United States had fallen apart that should’ve broken me, but it hadn’t. Not only that, I’d found peace in a tattoo parlor surrounded by other supernaturals I was supposed to avoid and/or hate. Then Garrett had shown up, too.
But peace was short-lived, and the next fight was always only a stone’s throw away. Our next fight was coming soon. Whatever was necessary to protect Charlie, that was the mission. Rose told us before we left –protect your mate.
Garrett told me about working with the military of the West Coast Republic, but when they’d realized he was a Lycan, it’d been all he could manage just to get out alive. After that, he wandered from one city to another, never settling in one place for long. It was hard t
o get to Texas if you didn’t know a good way across the border. I’d been lucky. I found my way to Texas early and, like Killían, had been recruited, working special ops for the TR for years. Eventually, I’d just gotten tired of the blood and left. Word of mouth had led me to Sanctuary.
Rose had offered me a place. And I opened the tattoo shop shortly after, a skill I’d learned from my father years ago. Travis and I both had always loved the art our father brought to life on people’s bodies. We were both good artists and had a gift with needle and ink.
Garrett leaned forward in the truck, his eyes glued to the door across the street as if it’d come to life and waved at him.
“What?” I whispered, focusing my vision and hearing.
“There are more arriving,” he answered. “Two… no, three more heartbeats just came in from the other side of the building.”
I could hear them, too. The traffic passing us on the road made it difficult to pick out their voices, but if they were coming and going through the front door, that’s where we should be.
“Let’s circle around to the front and see what they have to offer.”
Garrett nodded.
A few turns later, I stopped the truck across the street from the warehouse in question. I knew it was the same. The green tin roof was unique in its line up, but the sign on the front disturbed me more than it should’ve. Ada Soup Kitchen.
“Fuck me.” Air whooshed from Garrett’s lungs, and I growled in frustration.
“Are we sure the dude we followed was one of them?” I asked.
“Yes,” Garrett nodded again. “I know it was him. I remember his scent distinctly.”
“Fine. Then we go in and have a look around.”
“No.”
It was risky. Too many civilians. If they opened fire, people could get hurt. Garrett and I might heal faster, but getting shot still hurt like a bitch and could kill us if they hit the right spot—our heart. We could regenerate fast, but a bullet in the heart just wasn’t something our bodies could repair before too much blood was lost.
Sanctuary, Texas Complete Series Box Set Page 86
