His lips pinched together tightly against the feel of his teeth growing sharp with the need to bite and claim her, He may not be ready to claim her as a mate, but he’d be damned if she thought to deny him the right to see to her safety.
Not allowing a moment for him to change his mind, Robert’s hand reached out. Cupping the back of her neck firmly, he jerked Gabriella forward until she was smashed against him. Gasping, her eyes widened with surprise and her hands shoved at his chest in instinct. Staring down at her, Robert couldn’t help but smirk at startled look that he’d inspired in her. Good, she should be worried, because after this, there would be no going back for either of them.
“Noble?” He scoffed as he echoed her previous words. “My intentions toward you are anything but noble.” Growling softly, he face lowered closer to hers. Seeing his intention, Gabriella’s eyes narrowed with bewilderment while she shoved furiously against his chest with her puny strength. Not about to be swayed, he swooped down to capture her slightly parted lips in a searing possessive kiss.
The touch of her soft and yielding mouth was all it took for him to nearly unleash his need to claim her. Moving his dominating mouth against hers, it didn’t take long for the small hands that pushed against his chest to suddenly begin clutching at him. He wanted—no, needed to feel more of her. His hands slid downward, cupping and molding her firm buttocks that hid beneath her tent of a gown. His bold touch caused Gabriella to arch up against him, fitting her body firmly against his. Her arms rose to loop around his neck, pulling him closer to her lips. At the subtle brush of her hips, the need to feel her soft flesh against his became unstoppable. He needed to feel more of her.
Spinning them around towards the door, Robert shoved Gabriella against the flat surface of the wall. Sliding the folds of her gown up to her tan thighs, Robert hoisted Gabriella’s small form higher against his body until her small legs wrapped around his waist. She moaned softly against his sinful lips while his warm hands slid along the soft skin of her coiled legs to her trembling thighs. Grinding his pulsing need against the apex of her covered center, he smiled with triumph as a low moan was ripped from between her occupied lips.
Abruptly breaking the kiss, Robert groaned as his need for her became almost painful. Taking in her desire glazed eyes and gasping, reddened lips, Robert and his bear hummed with pride. It would seem that Dr. Vega wasn’t as in different to him as she wanted him to think.
Without meaning to, his gaze slowly trailed down her flawless slope of her neck. During the excitement her free hair and been pushed aside, uncovering the most tempting piece of skin she possessed—the place where his mating mark would go. His mouth watered at the thought of sinking his teeth into her soft flesh and leaving his mark on her.
“Robert? Your eyes are glowing.” Gabriella gasped out more with wonder than fear.
Shaken from his lust haze, Robert shook his head. What was he doing? He had to get away before he did something he’d regret. His bear snarled in rage as he slammed the door against his primal instincts. He had to get away and soon. For he knew if he remained in this room with the tempting smell of his mate, there would be no stopping him.
Carefully unwrapping her legs from his waist, he set Gabriella down in front of him. Panting, his hands curled into tight fists at his sides, preventing him from reaching for her again. “Don’t push me again,” He warned, his voice emerging with a vibrating growl. “Or next time you’ll have to live with the consequences.”
Not waiting to see her reaction, he fled from the room. Rushing down the stairs of the main house like dogs were biting at his heels, Robert didn’t stop until he was outside. Breathing in shaky gulps of night air, he attempted to calm his racing heart. Uncaring about his clothing, Robert opened the restrains on his beast. A vengeful snarl rose from his chest as he took on his second form.
Falling onto four massive legs, Robert clawed at the ground in anger. Uncaring of several shifters on night patrol, he charged toward the tree line beyond the last cabin. He needed to get away from Gabriella. Tonight he would hunt and attempt to find the usual comfort in solitude. Hopefully the fever that raged in his blood, calling for his mate would cool by morning. If not; there would be no stopping him from claiming what was his.
* ~ * ~ *
Absently twirling the remains of wine in her glass, Helen Malca found herself lost in thought as she looked out at the glowing city lights in the distance. Her nails scrapped persistently against the leather arm of her wingback chair with impatience. It had been twenty-four hours sense she’d given her orders to Daren. She yearned for her phone to ring with news that Aria and Dr. Vega had been captured, instead she’d heard nothing.
Swallowing the remains of her wine in one gulp, Malca’s nose curled in anger at the incompetence of her soldiers. It wasn’t as if Dr. Vega was an enhanced soldier like Aria; she was a genetic scientist for God’s sake! A two year old could have found her by now!
“Malca,” A dark voice echoed through the dark room. Jerking her head to the left, she saw a dark silhouette positioned by the ceiling high window. As a streak of lightning flashed across the sky, the momentary light revealed the familiar face of Daren to her.
Scowling, she set her wine glass on the table beside her. “You’re late. I assume you have a good reason for breaking into my home.” She said accusingly.
“I do.”
“Do you have what I asked for?” She inquired in a smooth tone.
With a second of hesitation, Daren shook his head. “No.” With eyes flared and lips pursed, Malca attempted to calm the murderous rage building inside her. “We did track them to a cabin where we believe Aria was meeting Dr. Vega.”
Rising gracefully to her feet, Malca’s sapphire, silk rope swished around her ankles as she moved closer to her lieutenant. “Where you believe they were meeting?” She repeated with displeasure.
“We can’t be sure.” He admitted with a shake of his head.
“And why not?” Malca bit out through clenched teeth.
“Because they blew the cabin up and there was no trace of anyone other than my men.”
“What?”
“The cabin didn’t blow up until after my men had broken down the door and were inside. Whoever was inside escaped with Dr. Vega and the freak helping her.” He further explained.
Amused, Malca found the corners of her lips curling with the news. “This is good news.” She acknowledged. Turning away, Malca grabbed her empty wine glass on the way back to the kitchen. The automatic lights turned on as she reached the bar where the open wine bottle sat. Stepping into the open kitchen area, Daren crossed his arms over his black vest of his combat uniform.
“Excuse me for asking, but what do you mean it’s good news?”
Carefully setting her glass in the sink, Malca turned around with a pleased smile on her face. “Do you really think a sheltered, genetic scientist would have the insight to rig explosives as a last resort?”
Frowning, Daren shook his head slightly. “No…”
“Who else do we know that would do such a thing? Who do we know that would do anything to avoid being captured once more?”
With brows rising with realization, Daren tipped his chin downward. “You believe it’s Arianna?”
“Who else?” Softly laughing, Malca took at step toward her perplexed soldier. “You did well, Lieutenant.”
Baffled at why his boss was praising him for losing several enhanced soldiers and their targets instead of yelling, Daren shook his head. “Hold on one second.” He said, holding his hands up in a time out sign. “You’re pleased by this?”
“Of course,”
“Why?”
“Arianna knows that Dr. Vega has information about my plans. Once she discovers what project Genesis is, Aria will come for us. There will be no need to hunt her down.”
“You said yourself that Dr. Vega would never be able to access that information. Those files are encrypted.”
“Only if you don’t have
the key and I’m sure that they will be able to figure that one out very soon with Raoul helping them.”
Grinning conspiringly, Daren nodded with understanding. “And what if she brings those creatures with her?”
“I’ll leave that part to you. Think of it as your reward. The same applies to Gabriella Vega. Do what you want with them, but Arianna must be captured alive and unbroken. Without her my plans with Senator Edgril and the Secretary of Defense will mean nothing. Send word to our friends in Washington.”
Rubbing his hands together with anticipation, he nodded. “What do you want to tell them?”
“That we are finally ready.”
14
Groaning, Gabriella slammed her hands down on the desk beside her laptop with frustration. No matter what she did the result was the same. For the last week it had been the same story. Every morning she reported to the compound’s security office to work with Raoul on breaking into the encrypted files she’d stolen.
Working with Raoul wasn’t at all as she expected it would be. He was patient and often a sarcastic clout, but he knew his way around computers and such all too well. But after working for a week with no change, Gabriella couldn’t help but worry what would happen if nothing she stole would be of any use.
Too restless to remain sitting, she shoved out of her chair to stand. Rubbing at the tired muscles at the back of her neck, she tried to focus on anything other than the files. Unwillingly she felt her mind wondering back to the night Robert had kissed her in her room. Recalling the strange turn of his behavior Gabriella found herself baffled.
What had he meant when he said that if she pushed him again there would be consequences? There was no way she could ask him, not because she was afraid to but because he wasn’t around to ask. Over the past week she’d seen him lurking around the compound always near her but according to Aria; Robert had taken to sleeping outside. It was as though he'd stayed close should she need him but was avoiding her at the same time.
When Robert had warned her about what could happen if the other shifters found out that she knew the truth, he’d offered his protection. But perhaps it was more than that. She couldn’t talk to Doyle about his brother’s strange behavior, but perhaps Aria would be able to shed some light on her dilemma.
“Let’s take a break.” Raoul said, shoving away from the five mounted computer monitors on the center wall above his desk.
Shaking her head, Gabriella motioned at her computer. “We can’t, this has taken too long already. I need this information.” She said desperate.
Holding his hands out in defense he approached her slowly. “Whoa, calm down. You’re a microscope groupie, Gabby and not a tech expert.” Turning back to his desk, Raoul scooped up a USB drive before striding back across the room to her work area.
“What are you doing?” She asked with suspicion as he inserted the flash drive into her laptop port.
“I’m going to run a mixture of different decrypting programs simultaneously. With some luck it should work.” His fingers flew over the keyboard with speed as he quickly typed in several lines of computer code. His rapid fingers stopped as he tapped the enter key at the end. Once he stepped back, Gabriella could see what she could only describe as a tornado of computer code flying down her blacked out screen.
“Will this work?”
Shrugging his shoulder, Raoul rubbed his thumb against his forehead in thought. “Who knows? All we can do is pray that it works and when I say we—I mean you. Cause if my programs can’t hack it, it’s your head on the block; not mine.”
Crossing her arms, she pursued her lips at him with a huff. “By all means don’t throw me to the wolves all at once.”
Chuckling, Raoul pulled open the door of his office and waited. “It’s not the wolves you have to worry about around here—it’s the bears.” Motioning out the door, he gave Gabriella an expecting look. Taking the hint, Gabriella brushed past him out into the hallway. Closing the door behind them, Raoul took the time to lock the door with a key that he promptly shoved into the front pocket of his jeans.
Knowing it was the typical time they stopped for lunch, Gabriella began to walk toward the main part of the house where she typically ate. She was suddenly jerked to a stop as Raoul’s hand settled on her arm. Tugging her back toward his office, Gabriella was confused as he began leading her in the opposite direction of the dining hall.
“Where are we going?”
“I thought you could use a change of scenery today so we’re skipping lunch and trying something else.”
Twisting her arm from his grip, Gabriella continued to follow him past the empty offices and down long empty corridors. Soon after, Raoul lead her outside though a large another storage room exit door. Spinning in a circle she found that they were in the back of the property.
“Why are we here?” She asked as he continued to lead her away from the house.
“We’re going to do something to loosen you up a bit.” He explained.
Her steps slowed behind him as her suspicion grew. “I’m not going to like this am I?”
* ~ * ~ *
“I don’t see how this will relax me.” Gabriella commented.
A few feet ahead, Raoul was busy lining up cans on top of the fence posts as targets. Sprinting back, he lifted up the handgun that lay on the scratched up bench in front of her. Pulling a full magazine out of his back pocket, Raoul slid it into place before cocking the gun.
“You’ve been cooped up for days doing nothing but staring at the computer. You need to focus on something else besides Malca’s stolen files and Robert.”
Absently nodding in agreement, Gabriella stopped as she realized what Raoul had just said. And Robert? Jerking her head to the right to face him, she blinked at him in confusion. What did he know? Had Robert said something to him?
“Did Robert—” Before she could finish; Raoul took aim and fired off three rounds, each bullet striking a can down off a post. Covering her ears against the sound, Gabriella waited until he lowered his weapon.
“Robert didn’t have to say anything.” He said absently as he turned his back to the targets to focus solely on her. “It's obvious he’s protective of you. I don’t know what it is about these bear shifters; they all seem to become growling idiots the second their twitterpated-mate-sense goes off.”
“I don’t know what you think, but I am not Robert’s mate.” She denied.
“Well I don’t believe that, especially after what Robert said.”
“I thought you said he didn’t speak to you.”
Pursing his lips, Raoul shook his head in denial. “I didn’t say that. I said he didn’t have to.” Flashing a knowing look, Raoul turned back around to look at the three remaining targets. Carefully, Raoul rotated the gun in his hand before extending the weapon out to her in offering with the handle facing first. Looking in surprise at the gun for a moment, Gabriella shook her head.
“No, thank you.” She murmured. “I believe this is your idea of a fun time, not mine.”
“We’re here to get you away from whatever has you on edge. Also, if you’re going to remain around Aria, its best you learn to shoot.” When she reluctantly took the gun from him, he smiled warmly at her. “Atta girl,”
When Gabriella held the handgun awkwardly with one hand and upside down, Raoul couldn’t seem to hold in his amusement. Shaking his head, he moved behind her. “Let me help you.” Laying his hands over the top of both of her wrists he carefully showed her hold to hold the gun with both hands and how to aim it properly.
“What exactly did Robert say to you?” She asked glancing over her shoulder at him.
“Tell you what; you shoot one target and I’ll tell you what he said.” Dropping his guiding hands from her arms, Raoul took a step back. Though she suspected it was more for his safety than her comfort. Slowly squeezing the trigger, Gabriella nearly dropped the gun as it fired. To make her feel worse; her aim moved at the last instant causing her to hit a tree two feet to the si
de.
“Well, bad news; if you have to shoot someone you may end up shooting the wrong person.”
Narrowing her eyes at him, she sat the gun down with a heavy thump. “I’m not a gun girl.”
“What do you plan to do once Malca’s soldiers catch up to you again? Hide behind Robert while he gets his furry hide shot to hell and back?” He scoffed.
“I plan to be gone before that happens as per my agreement with Aria.”
“And Robert agreed to that?”
“Robert doesn’t own me. We barely know each other and he can barely stand to be around me as it is. Why should he care?” She said defensively.
“Because you’re his…” Taking in her confused expression, Raoul’s words trailed off as his brows lowered. “He didn’t even tell you, did he?”
“Tell me what?” Throwing her arms up helplessly, Gabriella fought against the urge to claw out her hair. Why was everyone talking in circles around her and refusing to give her a straight answer? “Raoul, tell me what is going on. Robert is acting edgy around me and it’s got me worried.”
Sighing, Raoul looked past her with regret. How did he get pulled into the middle of this? Shaking his head, he gently settled his hands on Gabriella’s shoulders. “About five days ago, I was in my office after hours working on the failed decrypting with the files when Robert burst in on me. He warned me that I was to stay away from you outside of working on the files.”
“Why would he say something like that? He’s acting like we’re involved or something. I think I would remember if we were. We’ve only kissed twice now.” she exclaimed, not fully understanding by Robert would become so possessive out of nowhere. When they had first met; he couldn’t get rid of her fast enough and now it seemed like something had changed.
“Because you’re his—”
“Get your hands off her!” A thundering voice snarled.
Looking past Raoul’s shoulder, Gabriella’s eyes widened as she saw Robert striding towards them. A promise of retribution burned in his eyes as he stormed toward them with clenched fists. He looked like a wild animal that was barely contained in his human skin. As his murderous eyes fixed solely on Raoul, Gabriella felt her stomach sink like a rock. What had she gotten herself into now?
Big, Bold & Bearing (Grizzly Affairs Book 2) Page 17
