Protector: The Elect, Book 1

by Loribelle Hunt

“His white cell count is higher than I’d like, so I want to start him on antibiotics tonight. In the meantime, we’ll be testing his blood sample against diseases that are specific to the Elect. Anything else should have shown up with his other tests.”

  Carter huffed. “Y’all really believe you aren’t human. I’ve landed in the Twilight Zone.”

  Zach moved to a wall cabinet and pulled out supplies for taking blood. “We know it. I need a blood sample from you and your sister.”

  Esme didn’t protest when he took two vials from her, but Carter looked suspicious when Zach approached him.

  “Why do you need my blood? I’m not sick. And I’m human.”

  “Are you sure about that? Your son and your sister are Elect. What makes you think you’re different?”

  Her brother’s jaw clenched, but he submitted to the needle. Two vials later, he left with Zach to give Kaden the first antibiotic injection. She checked the time on her cell phone and trudged up the stairs after them. It was after midnight. No wonder she was tired.

  She stopped outside Brax’s room. He’d pointed it out earlier when he showed Carter where he was staying, but she hesitated entering. She knew he expected her there. She’d made the deal. But she wasn’t sure if she was up for it tonight. Nerves knotted her stomach, and she squeezed her eyes shut. If she found another bed to sleep in, he’d probably come looking for her. Besides, she didn’t want to sleep alone. Gathering her courage, she twisted the doorknob and stepped inside.

  Chapter Three

  There was no mistaking this was Brax’s space. His scent, his psychic energy, enveloped her when she stepped inside and shut the door behind her. Her hand convulsed on the handle. Could she do this? Could she go through with it? She’d made the offer. She’d made the promise. Carter didn’t know the details, but he suspected, and was more furious with her than she’d ever seen him before. She couldn’t make a scene here. She couldn’t fuck it up.

  Brax was sitting on a couch, staring intently at a laptop screen. He looked up and offered her a distracted smile before going back to work. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or annoyed and, deciding on amused, headed through the living area into the bedroom. This suite appeared to be setup like Carter’s. She should find a bathroom. She wanted a fast, hot shower and cool, cotton sheets, and she wanted them before she passed out from exhaustion and overload.

  The shower was quick, and she found a large men’s T-shirt waiting for her on the counter when she exited She smiled at his consideration for her inexperience and wondered how long she’d get to wear it. She rubbed her hair, but it was nowhere near dry. It would be wild and curly in the morning, but she didn’t care.

  A sigh of pleasure and relief escaped her lips when she slid between the sheets and fluffed the pillow. She wanted to sleep for a day and a night, at least, but that wasn’t happening. Just when she got comfortable, the bedroom door opened. There were no lights, but she didn’t need them. She saw the shadow slip into the room. Saw him stop by the side of the bed and strip his clothes off. Butterflies took flight in her belly, a mix of nerves and excitement.

  He got into the bed and spooned up behind her, but he made no move other than embracing her. His cock was hard against her ass. His hands rested under her breasts. But he made no move to take her, to seduce her. His breathing was even and measured, as if he slipped into his bed with an almost naked woman all the time. She didn’t have any sense a woman had been there, but it still pissed her off.

  She felt her body grow tenser. Heat and anger and a vague sense of hurt combined. Didn’t really want her after all, did he? He just wanted her information.

  He moaned, and his teeth nipped her under her ear. “Stop that, baby. You know I want you. You know you’re mine.”

  She was suddenly on the verge of tears and she hadn’t cried in years. She shook her head. She couldn’t handle this. He overloaded her senses. But when she struggled to get up, he wouldn’t let her go. His hands were gentle but insistent. Tender but firm and demanding. One cupped her breast, the other her pelvis, right above her sex. Her body responded with sudden, shocking need.

  “Shh, angel. Everything is going to be fine.”

  She wasn’t so sure about that. She’d exposed her brother and nephew. Herself. She was afraid if she took Brax into her body she’d never be able to walk away, no matter how he might betray her or her family. Because of her mental abilities, sex wouldn’t just be about physical intimacy. She’d be opening her heart and mind also. Her body didn’t care about those fears, though, and as his thumb started to lightly stroke over her nipple, she wasn’t sure if she did either. She rolled to her back. There was just enough light coming in the windows to see his face, the arousal glittering in his eyes.

  “This is crazy,” she whispered. “How can I be afraid I’m trusting the wrong man and still feel like this?”

  He leaned over her, every line of his long, hard body searing her skin, and kissed her forehead. “The Elect are different, baby, you know that. Trust your intuition, your empathy. You’d know if we were deceiving you.”

  Was that true? She’d been suppressing the ability for years. She bit her lip, almost groaned as his heated gaze followed the movement.

  “And the rest?” The lust. Surging, powerful. She’d never felt anything like it.

  “Hmm,” he hummed, a second before his tongue darted out to trace the small bite mark she’d left on her lip.

  She groaned, her hips jerking against his as her pussy grew wetter, hotter. His hand was still on her lower stomach, and he held her down easily. That just made her want him more.

  “Open for me, baby. Let me kiss you.”

  She couldn’t resist. The draw between them was too strong. It was as exhilarating as it was scary. Her lips parted, and his tongue slipped inside. He kissed her with ease, slow and seductive. She tasted dark, male desire with a hint of the whiskey they’d had earlier. She stroked her tongue over his, trying to consume more of his scent and taste. Her body tingled in pleasure. So much pleasure from a simple kiss. And though she could feel his desire, it didn’t swamp her. His thoughts didn’t invade her mind. She broke away and stared at him in wonder.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked softly. His hand moved to stroke the side of her face. “I can feel how much you enjoy my kiss.”

  She lifted her hands to his biceps, tentative at first, smiling when she realized she could touch him without mental overload. “I’ve never been able to touch anyone like this. Without hearing their thoughts. Feeling emotions.”

  She realized she’d confessed to something he wasn’t prepared for when he froze. “Never?”

  He didn’t sound pleased. He sounded angry and frustrated, but he wouldn’t release her when she tried to squirm away.

  “You’re a virgin?” His voice held disbelief and surprise.

  “Yes.” She rolled her eyes. “I just told you I’d never been able to touch anyone before.”

  He glared at her, and this time he was disapproving. “You should be able to shield better than that.”

  “I didn’t have anyone to teach me how, remember? Which doesn’t explain why it’s not happening with you,” she pointed out. “I can feel your emotions, but it’s like they’re muted. They don’t hurt. Why is that?”

  His mood changed in an instant, and he smiled. “My mind is shielded. We’ll teach you to do the same so I can’t enter your mind unless you let me and my emotions won’t overwhelm you.”

  He leaned down to nibble her bottom lip. Her protest and questions melted away. She’d ask later. Right now she just wanted to experience the pleasure of his kiss again. When his tongue entered her mouth she met him with eagerness, hunger.

  “Easy, Esme,” he muttered. “We aren’t rushing this.”

  Before she could protest he sat up, lifted her, and pulled the T-shirt over her head. The urge to cover herself with her arms vanished as quickly as it came. She could see the appreciation on his face, feel it from his mind. She gasped.


  “You’re sharing intentionally.”

  “Yes. I want you to feel how much you please me,” he whispered.

  He nudged her shoulder until she lay back against the pillows. His thumbs brushed over the hard tips of her nipples before he lay down beside her, leaning over her.

  “So pretty.”

  His head bent, and he licked. First one nipple, then the other, while he held them to his hungry mouth between his thumb and finger. She’d thought she’d go mad if he didn’t stop teasing her with those soft, undemanding strokes.

  “Brax, I need more,” she complained.

  When she masturbated, she used firm, hard touches. She had to know what that felt like with a man. If it was as good or better. Please, be better. Later she’d be amused at her unexpected streak of wantonness, but now she wanted to drown in sensation.

  His teeth grazed the inside swell of her breast before he looked up to meet her gaze. “More? Or harder, baby?” He gave her a wicked grin and reached for her hands, guiding them to her breasts. “Show me.”

  She gasped at the feel of her nipples against her palms. The embarrassment flushed her skin hot, but lust followed too close on its heels to care. Her fingers gripped her nipples. Squeezed. He groaned and flicked a tongue over one swollen tip.

  “You are a wicked girl, aren’t you, angel?” He licked the other nipple. “How bad do you get, I wonder? Should I spank you for it?”

  She pinched her nipples hard and ground her hips against his. A whimper escaped her lips. She wanted to be spanked, fantasized about it. He lifted his head to watch her as the hand on her belly slid lower, parted the folds hiding her sex. One finger circled her opening then thrust in with aching slowness. It was so different from when she got herself off. His finger was longer, thicker, with light calluses that scraped and teased her sensitive inner tissue.

  “You like that idea, hmm? You’re so wet and hot.” He worked another finger in with the first and growled. “And tight. So damned tight, baby. Do you have any idea how good that is going to feel around my cock?”

  His fingers fucked her slow and steady, a gradually increasing rhythm as his thumb grazed her clit. She grabbed his arms and arched against him, staring into eyes that seemed to rage with lust. And her desire was rising to meet it, to match it. Her body was tight, burning with the need to come. She rolled her hips against his, desperate to feel him thrusting inside her. Desperate for the explosion she felt building between them.

  He pulled his hand away. “Brax,” she complained.

  He lifted his fingers to his lips and took one into his mouth, sucking her juices from it. “I knew you would be sweet. Have you ever tasted yourself?”

  She shook her head. Hell, who knew that would be sexy? He lifted his finger to her parted lips and rubbed it over them, before dipping it inside. She rolled her tongue over it, watching his pleasure as she cleaned it. She bit the pad of his finger when he withdrew, and his eyes flashed.

  “Like teeth do you?”

  “I don’t know what I like. I’m new at this, remember?”

  But she wanted to bite him. Wanted to mark him. His smile was smug and knowing, and she wondered if he’d read her mind or just guessed.

  “You really can’t read my thoughts?”

  He shook his head. “No. I can project thoughts to you, the same as you can with to me….”

  “It’s very intimate, don’t you think?”

  “…and I feel your emotions the way you feel mine. I feel your desires.” He leaned to scrape his teeth over the skin on her neck. “That urge to mark your lover.”

  She shivered and tilted her head to give him a better angle, but he didn’t bite.

  “Not yet,” he whispered.

  He kissed and nibbled his way down her body until his shoulders spread her thighs wide. He used one had to spread her open and blow a warm breath over her pussy. His tongue licked over her, from her opening to her clit. He focused teasing licks and bites on the hard nub, while his fingers moved to her pussy and thrust in and out in a slow, maddening rhythm. Once, twice, again and again. He drove her until the pleasure rode an edge of pain, until she swore she’d die if he didn’t let her come. Until she begged for it.

  “Brax! Please, please. I have to come. I can’t stand it anymore.”

  His fingers twisted to rub against the sensitive spot on her vaginal wall she’d only read about. One hard stroke was all it took to send her reeling, crying out in ecstasy as the best orgasm she’d ever experienced consumed her. Sharp, sweet pleasure spread from her belly to her extremities leaving her shaking and panting for air.

  She was aware of him crawling up her body as her shudders began to subside. His kisses were harder, the little bites harder. When they were shoulder to shoulder he claimed her lips, drinking in her final cries.

  She felt the head of his cock nudging her entrance, but she was too sated to worry, too tense about the coming invasion. He gripped her hip with one hand, easing the head of his cock in, then out, stretching her. Tantalizing, teasing, when she wanted all of him hard and fast. He held her still when she tried to urge him on.

  “Easy, baby. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “Waiting hurts.”

  The first orgasm hadn’t come close to appeasing the desire crawling through her body. It had only heightened it. She needed more, needed to be taken. Devoured. She knew he was aware how bad it was. She felt the same thing from him.

  He withdrew, but the next time he stroked forward he didn’t stop. She expected some discomfort despite being stretched by his finger, but it was nothing compared to the exquisite feeling of being filled.

  Then he moved and she was sure she’d never survive it. She wrapped her legs around his hips, terrified he’d stop, that the rapture would end. He abandoned the slow and easy torture and thrust in and out. Hard, driving strokes that made her cry out in approval.

  Brax was burning alive. Tasting her orgasm, then taking her tight, little pussy had stolen whatever control, whatever sanity he might have had left. It was then he truly understood and accepted what his interest in her was. He should have realized when he couldn’t access her thoughts, when forcing his way into her mind hadn’t even occurred to him. He’d seen it happen enough.

  She was his mate. And she didn’t have a fucking clue what she’d fallen into. Elect males didn’t mate easy. Well, their women didn’t. The males were possessive, primal, demanding. Modern women, even Elect females, seemed to take issue with that. He couldn’t take her hard enough, fast enough, to tame the demon riding him now. He wanted it to last forever. Her soft, mewling cries for more, her cunt convulsing around him as she came again, were too much to resist, though. His balls tightened and his spine tingled minutes before it exploded through him.

  He muffled his roar against her neck and couldn’t resist the allure of that soft, smooth skin. Her body trembled when he bit her, but she didn’t complain. She arched into him, holding his head to her as he sucked hard enough to mark. To claim. It was a long time before he felt capable of moving. He rolled onto his back, and she curled into his side already asleep while he, wide awake, stared at the ceiling.

  He’d stay with her long enough to ensure she slept soundly, but then he had work to do. He hadn’t finished the background check, and though he admitted it might be kind of sleazy to investigate his mate, it had to be done. There had to be some clue in her past that would lead to her hunters. Or her brother’s. He felt no compunction about investigating Carter.

  She gave a sleepy moan of protest when he eased away from her, but she didn’t wake, just rolled onto her stomach and buried her face in his pillow. He resisted the urge to tap her pert butt when he rose, but the image wouldn’t leave him as he pulled his jeans on and left the room. Damn. He’d get to that soon enough. She hadn’t been able to hide how much the idea of being spanked turned her on. He was more than willing to accommodate her fantasies. Hell, he was eager. He was her mate, after all. Grinning, he hurried down the stairs and was
n’t at all surprised to find Mason waiting in his office.

  “About time,” his security chief grumbled.

  “I was busy.”

  Mason snorted. “Don’t have to be so smug about it.”

  He chuckled at the good-natured objection. “Lodge a complaint with your boss.”

  “I’ll get right on that, boss. Triplicate work for you?”

  “Sure. Put it in the circular file while you’re at it.”

  “You take all the fun out of life.”

  “That’s me. Mr. Killjoy.” He took a seat behind his desk and turned serious, living up to that reputation. “What do you have?”

  “I emailed the full background on Dr. Durand. Gabe’s on the lab computers. He said someone is monitoring her email. He disabled the program, but he hasn’t figured out who it’s forwarding her mail to.

  “I’m still working on the brother, mother, and the boy’s mother.” Mason scratched his chin. “There’s something weird there. Jamie Wade went into the hospital for an endometrial ablation and died during the procedure. It’s supposed to be routine and low risk. The report is pretty slim on details.”

  “What’s bothering you about it?” Brax asked.

  Mason shook his head. “I don’t know. Call it hunch. If Jamie Wade hadn’t died, we wouldn’t know anything about Esme or her brother and nephew.”

  “What about her brother?”

  “Recruit him.”

  The response was so quick and unexpected Brax stared at his old friend and wondered if he’d finally cracked under the pressure. “Come again?”

  “Carter Owens. Thirty-two years old. One year younger than Esme. Fast tracked his way through college—she did too, by the way—graduated at twenty, joined the Army. Got his commission a couple years later, then went Special Forces. Gabe’s trying to get the complete file, but I saw enough. The guy has every medal they hand out and has been deployed to more hot spots than you guessed existed. He’s damned good at what he does.”

  “Yes, he is,” the soldier in question drawled from the doorway. “Do I get to join the party?”