by Lora Leigh
Her body was sensitized, achy, the flesh tingling wherever she touched. Her cunt was moist, throbbing in longing. The sexual need that burned in her body seemed worse now, as though his touch had somehow stoked the fires already burning within her.
An hour later, the light meal finished, the dishes stacked in the sink, she looked around and admitted the silence of the cabin was starting to get to her. As much as she had prayed for peace over the past years, such silence was so foreign it was almost frightening to her.
From outside the cabin she could hear the sudden sounds of vehicles and voices raised as orders were shouted. It wasn’t imperative, nor seemed alarming. Moving to the couch, she peaked outside the large window behind it to see what was going on.
The view was breathtaking. She ignored the movement going on in what appeared to be a central area of command in favor of the beauty of the mountains surrounding them. She needed to see more, ached to smell the breeze off the mountains. Standing up, she moved carefully to the front door.
The wounds on her feet hadn’t been severe, thankfully, and she hoped within a few days they would be healed enough to allow her to more thoroughly investigate the Breed compound she had heard so much about in the past years.
The scientists she had worked with had been outraged, furious, when the United States had declared the Breeds were fully human. The explosion of outrage over the experiments and the uses the Council had envisioned for the Breeds had swept the world.
When the United States had apportioned the land in Colorado out to the Breeds and aided them in building the large protective compound, the fury within the Council had overflowed to the Labs. Recapturing or killing the Breeds was out of the question now. The focus of the world was frowning so heavily on those suspected and known of being within the Council, that any movement toward recouping their loses had been put on hold. Except for the Coyote Breeds. The Council had finally found the perfect soldier there. They followed orders precisely, their mercilessness nearly equal to their creators.
She stepped out on the porch, breathing in the clean, crisp air of the early fall morning and stared around with a sense of surprise.
A tall stone wall enclosed the acres-large compound. From where Aiden’s cabin sat, slightly higher atop a rise, Charity could see the crystalline lake outside the enclosure, as well as the rolling hills that led to thickly forested mountains around them.
Inside the compound, friendly chaos seemed to reign. The cabins were set some distance apart, providing privacy and a sense of freedom, she thought. There were quite a few trees growing within the compound, a large blue pond, and several long, low buildings and storehouses. It was beginning to resemble a small town.
The central portion of the area was, at the moment, filled with dozens of men and women unloading boxes of equipment from several trucks that had pulled into the compound.
Guards watched from a safe distance, automatic rifles held in readiness as hard eyes watched the commotion. There had to be over a hundred Breeds milling about, as she could see. Which meant there were likely many others sleeping, working, doing whatever it took to keep the place running.
The entrance to the compound was heavily fortified and guarded as well. It would be damned near impossible to get in or out without being seen. And despite the beauty of the compound, it was still that…a heavily protected area.
Charity bit her lip as she eased herself onto the rough wood porch swing to the side of the porch, and continued to watch the work below. They were still imprisoned, just in a different way. The freedom she had always envisioned for the Breeds hadn’t come about as she had thought it would.
As she watched the commotion going on, she realized her appearance on the porch hadn’t gone unnoticed. She was being watched and carefully guarded. One of the men stood within a small stand of trees, the other in a fortified stand atop the compound wall. Both watched her with hard, determined gazes.
The enjoyment she had taken in feeling the breeze wash over her, smelling the clean, natural scent of the lake beyond and watching the men below at work suddenly dimmed. She rose to her feet and made her way carefully back into the house.
They didn’t know, she thought. They couldn’t know how she had helped them in the Labs, how she had helped plan their rescue. Few people did know. She had been a shadowy figure on the edge of the group working to destroy the Council and its mad schemes.
Not that they had succeeded. She pushed her fingers wearily through her hair as she stretched out on the couch and gazed moodily up at the ceiling. They were still creating, still experimenting, playing God and destroying lives.
The sudden opening of the door had her jerking upright, turning to watch as Aiden came into the cabin. He closed the door as he turned to look at her.
“Doing okay?” he asked her carefully.
“I was,” she drawled. “Until a second ago.”
Mocking amusement lit his eyes. “Too bad. I have to sleep sometime.”
He bent over, unlacing his boots before toeing them off with a sigh of relief.
“You didn’t sleep last night?” she asked him curiously, wondering what he had done.
“I was working last night.” He moved to the kitchen.
“Working at what?” She frowned, realizing she had no idea what he did.
“Security.” He shrugged. “I coordinate all the little details that keep the compound secure. We had someone sniffing around the perimeters of the wall last night.”
“Coyotes?” she asked trying to still her fears. The Council would not let her go without trying to recapture her. The tests they had conducted on her were too important.
He shook his head. “I’m not certain. We could never tell for sure.”
Charity watched silently as he pulled a bottle of water from the refrigerator and took a long drink. His head tilted back, revealing the stubborn curve of his chin, the strong line of his neck.
His dark flesh glistened with perspiration, the open collar of the cotton shirt revealed dark, tempting flesh. Her cunt clenched, her breasts aching as her gaze went to the hand wrapped around the bottle.
Large, strong hands, surprisingly graceful looking for a man.
“Have you eaten?” He lowered the bottle, placing it back in the refrigerator as he glanced at her.
“I ate.” One hunger was satisfied, the other was killing her.
“I have to run into town in a bit,” he told her. “Do a drive-through and see what I can see. Want to go with me?”
The invitation caught her off guard. She looked at him in surprise.
“What do you mean, see what you can see?” she asked him. “I thought you were going to go to sleep.”
“Nap.” He shrugged, watching her more closely now. “It’s getting worse, Charity. Are you ready to stop fighting it yet?”
She shook her head. “What?” Confusion shot through her. She had no idea what his question meant.
“The arousal.” He walked to her slowly, stopping at the edge of the couch, his eyes darkening. “We’d both sleep better if you stopped fighting it.”
The amusement and knowledge in his voice and expression had her eyes narrowing in anger.
“Ah. I see.” She folded her arms across her breasts. “So, everything would work out if I would just go ahead and let you fuck me. Right?”
He stilled then. Finally, after a long moment, he just shook his head as his expression flashed with regret.
He sighed wearily. “Forget it. I don’t want to fight with you, Charity. This situation isn’t sitting any easier with me. But facts are facts. You’re in pain and I’m your best bet, baby, to escape it.”
She’d rather die horny. The self-satisfied, egotistical bastard. What made it worse, was the knowledge that he was right.
“It gets easier.” She shrugged. At least, it always had before. “How long was I unconscious anyway?” She frowned, wondering how much longer she had to wait.
She didn’t like the grin that tilted his
lips.
“Two days.”
She thought quickly. “It should be over in a few more. I’ll be fine.”
He nodded. “Possibly. But what you’re unaware of, sweet thing, was that I had to supply the blood transfusion you needed. That little anomaly in your blood system jumped by more than a hundred percent, according to the doctor. You’re screwed, honey.” Triumph glittered in his eyes, echoed in his voice.
Charity felt her heart jump in her breast. Her eyes widened in shock and fear. “No,” she whispered, the implications of the information slapping her in the face. “No. You’re lying.”
“About what?” He frowned down at her. “I haven’t lied to you about any part of it, Charity.”
“The blood.” She swallowed tightly. “Tell me, Aiden, you didn’t give me blood.”
His white teeth flashed as he smiled slowly. “Yeah, I did. Doc said it was the most amazing thing she ever saw. Your blood cells and those little Breed things I have in my blood were friggin’ like crazy under that microscope. I think mine topped yours, honey. Doc is getting all kinds of ideas on how to help Faith and Hope now.”
Weakness flooded her system. She pressed one hand to her abdomen, above the wound the scientists had made into her womb. She had no doubt in her mind the added component in his blood had dominated her blood cells. It made sense. The small amount contained in his semen had started the process; the addition of his unique blood was more than likely her downfall now.
She shook her head, fighting the tears threatening to flood her eyes.
“I need to talk to the doctor.”
Aiden snorted. “You need to be fucked, sleep, then more sleep and food first. No way I’m letting you around that damned quack until you’re stronger. The two of you are too damned much alike. You’ll be strapped in an exam table first thing and the rest will be history. No.”
“I have to see what you’ve done,” she bit out, moving carefully to her feet, facing him, furious at him and the unknown doctor who had dared to transfuse her without tests first. “And why the hell did they give me your blood? Surely you had a supply of regular blood.”
“We did.” He nodded, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “Plenty of it. But none of it compatible to yours. We even had the right type, but tests showed a rejection of it from the anomaly in your blood. Only I matched, baby. Lucky you, huh?”
Sarcasm was thick, heavy in his voice.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” She shook her head, almost dazed by the knowledge. “My body would have accepted my blood type. It may have protested mildly, but it would have accepted. You don’t know what you’ve done.”
“Oh, but I do,” he informed her softly. “The transfusion merely cemented what we both know is true…”
She shook her head violently, limping away from him as her fingers clenched, fury washing over her.
“The drugs started this…”
“Nope.” His voice was mild, if you discounted the dark savage throb beneath it. “When you went to your knees and swallowed my seed is what started it, Charity. You know it, and I know it. You were my weakness because nature decided that was the way it was. Not the drugs, not the blood.”
She was trembling. Almost absently Charity was amazed at the tremors washing over her body. She stumbled against the fireplace, her breath hitching when he caught her, jerking her against his harder, hotter body.
“Feel it, Charity,” he whispered in her ear. “It was there when I felt your mouth on my cock. It was there when I shot my come down your throat. It was there when you needed blood and I provided. You refused to let me escape, baby, now you can share the life I’ve built instead. Now doesn’t that sound like fun?”
He was furious. Charity heard his anger, dark, deep, pulsing in his voice. He swung her up in his arms, ignoring her protesting cry as he stalked to the bedroom. His muscles were tight, tense and she could feel the need for violence that wrapped around him like an invisible flame.
But he was gentle as he laid her on the bed then sat beside her, staring down at her.
“I needed to save you,” she whispered bleakly. “I had to.”
“Because nature commanded,” he bit out. “Whether you like it or not, Charity. Whether I wanted to accept it or not, you are my mate. Your blood proves it, but even more, this does…”
Before she could stop him his hand pushed beneath the loose pants and curved around her sensitive pussy, then his two long fingers plunged inside her soaked cunt as his palm pressed against the swollen clit.
“Aiden,” she screamed out his name as her vagina convulsed, spilling more of her silky juices around his hard fingers.
“God, you’re hot,” he growled, his expression instantly filling with a hard, savage lust.
Her thighs clamped on his hand, her hands wrapping around his broad forearm, though she had little strength, little desire to pull him free. In fact, her body was so helpless, so desperately aroused she could do nothing but arch into the hand, silently begging for a deeper penetration.
He gave it to her. Slowly, his fingers stretched her, his gaze locking with hers as the rest of her vision seemed to darken.
“Aiden,” she panted, terrified of her response to him, fighting herself and the needs washing over her.
“I bet you taste as good as you feel,” he whispered. “And you feel damned good, baby. Too damned good. And you’re too fucking weak for what I need right now.”
He slid back slowly, ignoring her whimper, the arch of her hips.
“Aiden.” She licked her lips, fighting the plea her body was screaming out to her.
He was breathing hard. Almost as hard as she was as he watched her closely, his eyes darkening with whatever thoughts were running through his mind.
“Rest,” he growled. “Fucking rest, Charity, before I take you and hurt you worse than you already are.”
Chapter Nine
Aiden slammed out of the cabin, the need for sleep so overwhelmed by the need to fuck that he had to get away from her. He snorted, if only the need to fuck was what drove him, he thought as he plopped down on the steps and laced his boots on his feet.
He pushed his fingers restlessly through his hair as he tried to make sense of the impulses flowing through his brain. Damn, she was going to make him crazy. Just as crazy as he had been in the Labs after her arrival. Her scent had nearly taken him to his knees the first time she had walked into the room. The subtle, irresistible draw of her body had been almost more than he could bear.
He stared at the ground, sighing roughly. After the night spent roaming the mountains around the compound trying to track whoever or whatever had been outside the wall, he was exhausted. And it wasn’t helping that his temper seemed so blasted iffy either. He was completely unsettled and he didn’t care much for the feeling.
The woman was bewitching him. What the hell was wrong with him? She looked at him with those big hurt eyes, so filled with arousal and a deceptive warmth, and something inside him wanted to melt. It was inconvenient was what it was.
He lifted his head and stared off into the distance, wondering at the changes that were occurring too quickly around him. The changes within himself. He couldn’t seem to make sense of it, and he’d be damned if he would go to Jacob and ask him anything about it. The other man watched him with such amusement now that it made his hackles rise instantly. But overriding it all was his need for Charity. The complete, compelling, unquenched need to fuck her as hard and as fast as he could drive his cock into her.
He gritted his teeth, standing almost painfully to his feet. That fickle flesh throbbed beneath the fly of his jeans with a demand that was damned near impossible to deny. As he started to stalk from the porch steps, the door to the cabin was flung open.
He turned, facing Charity warily as she stood there dressed in nothing but one of his T-shirts. And her nipples were hard. And he could smell her heat. And by God, she was his mate. He had waited six fucking years to touch her, to slake the n
eed that never seemed to leave his body, and he was tired of waiting.
She opened her mouth to speak, then her eyes widened slowly as his narrowed. He stepped back to the rough plank porch, advancing on her as she watched him carefully. Her lips opened as she drew in a rough breath. Her breasts rose and fell quickly against the material of her borrowed shirt and the smell of her heat wrapped around him, tightening his cock, tensing his body with the unadulterated need to fuck.
“Go inside,” he growled. “Leave the door closed. Don’t step outside. Don’t push me, don’t berate me, Charity. I am one inch from pushing you against the damned wall and fucking you until we both collapse in exhaustion. I don’t think you want that right now.”
Her face flushed, her eyes darkening with arousal and fear. More arousal, though, than fear. Damn, she was killing him. A second ticked by, then another as her eyes slowly narrowed on him and anger replaced the fear.
“Aiden,” she drawled mockingly as she leaned against the doorframe. “Is it a burden being such a prick or does it just come easy for you?”
He breathed in carefully, forcibly restraining himself to keep from touching her. From jerking her into his arms and pushing himself inside her tight, hot pussy he knew was waiting for him.
“Actually,” he snarled. “It comes real fucking easy.”
She sighed regretfully as she shook her head slowly. “I was afraid of that. Oh well…”
He moved in on her before she could finish, backing her into the house, then against the wall of the foyer. She stared up at him in surprise, fighting the arousal that sang through her blood as his dominance reflected in the savage features of his face. The Native American cast to his features had always enthralled her, now more so than ever.
“Charity,” his voice was a hard, rumbling growl. “You can only push me so far. You can only deny me so long. Combine the two, and your time will shorten immeasurably. Do you understand me?”
She looked up at him through her lashes, her lips quirking teasingly, mockingly. “Beg me, baby, and we’ll see.” She threw his words back at him.
