For a thunderous few seconds, the quiet screamed at her.
“Your prerogative.”
She shot him a quick peek. He had donned a hotel bathrobe. The thick white terry somehow emphasized his utter maleness. Regret lodged thick and hard in her throat. “It wasn’t—I mean, it’s me. Not you.”
“No explanations necessary.” He waved in the direction of the elevator and quirked a brow when she just stood there staring at him helplessly. Acting like a stupid crush-struck teenager. “Whenever you’re ready.”
She nodded, gripped her shoes and socks so tight her fingertips burned, and darted past him, almost breaking into a sprint when she hurried through the living area. Her hand shook when she inserted the keycard he’d given her into its slot. The elevator opened immediately. Tania glanced back.
He had a shoulder jammed into the bedroom’s doorframe and one ankle crossed over the other. His bathrobe belt loosened as she stared and the white terry parted to reveal his erect penis.
The doors started to close. She jumped into the elevator. The whole ride down to her floor she worried her thumbs and rocked back and forth on her heels. More than once she reached for the penthouse button and snatched her hand back to her side. She yearned to feel his arms around her. To drown in his sexy male-musk odor. With each floor that dinged by, the yearning ratcheted exponentially until Tania couldn’t choke back a hysterical whimper.
When the elevator doors opened, a multi-generational family confronted her. Two grandparents, a young boy and girl, and their parents. As one, six pairs of eyes fixated on the colorful sneakers dangling from her hand. Then they all stared at her bare feet.
Her face flamed. She blurted, “Excuse me.”
It took all her self-control not to gallop when she darted out of the elevator. Just her fricking luck, everyone on the floor seemed to have decided to leave their rooms at the same time. Even worse hers was the last one at the end of the hallway. Tania kept her head down and prayed no one would remember her.
The shakes set in when she finally slammed her door shut. She covered her face with her hands and collapsed sinking into the plush carpet, her back braced on the hard wood.
What had just happened? What had she done?
She took several deep inhales. Called upon the training instilled into her from birth.
Be rational.
Emotion could not be relied upon.
Okay, she had made a mistake. Indulged her lust with a stranger when she should have been restrained and satisfied herself. Wylfen females were taught to avoid wild mood swings. Decorum, Discipline, and Deportment, the three D’s were the foundation of her education.
But, for the last couple of months a primordial kernel nestled somewhere deep in her core had emerged bit by bit, and she hungered to fly free of the restrictions demanded by the Wylfen Senior Council.
It all started when her Uncle Viktor, the alpha of the Prakov pack, ordered her father to enter Tania’s name into the mate alliance registry. Thank her lucky stars Dad hadn’t done so.
Yet.
With a start, Tania realized her reactions were some sort of subconscious revolt. She’d always been rebellious and never wanted the pampered life of a Wylfen female. Independence had always been her goal and, thanks to the support of her brothers, she had a career and lived outside the familial home, both rare events in Wylfen society.
Wylfen laws also prohibited her from forming an emotional relationship with a human male. It had been a law she’d broken the first day of culinary school. No one, not even her twin, knew of her friendship with Nathan, her cooking partner for her entire year at culinary school.
Of course, being as Nathan hadn’t a heterosexual bone in his body, it probably wouldn’t have mattered. But then again, the Wylfen laws also punished homosexuality with castration. So, she had lived two separate lives, a carefree exploratory life at school, and the demure subdued role demanded of her as a female when in Wylfen society.
Blowing out a long sigh, she flexed her fingers, and rolled her head to loosen the corded muscles at her nape. She remembered the feel of his teeth on her flesh and went cross-eyed trying to see if he left marks on the bridge of her shoulder.
Then it hit her like an exploding rocket.
She recalled the dimmed lighting in the gym and his suite, and the thick fog of steam in the bathroom. He had taken her from behind even though she tried to twist to face him. He hadn’t wanted her to see his scarred cheek.
“And what did I do? I hightailed it out of there not seconds after he’d bared himself to me.” She slapped her forehead. “He’ll think I left because of his scars.”
For a heartbeat all she could see was the resignation in his eyes when she’d looked back at him before jumping into the elevator. Tania bounded to her feet, checked her T pocket to make sure she still had the keycard, and lit out of her room at hurricane speed, bent on one goal—apologizing for her sorry, selfish impulsive behavior.
It took forever to wind her way back to his suite and when the elevator doors finally opened, she stumbled into the living area to find an army of housekeepers darting around the room. The woman nearest to her, who wielded an industrial strength vacuum, glanced Tania’s way and switched off the machine.
“May I help you, miss?” She pronounced the last word with a strong Spanish accent—meees.
“Ah, I’m here to see the man who’s renting this suite.” Her tongue felt thick and heavy in her mouth.
“He checked out, miss.”
Chapter Four
“How’d it go?” Lycus propped booted feet on the cheap metal desk and cradled his head in his hands.
Axe dumped his duffel on the floor. He slumped into the chair opposite the man who had been a dangerous enemy most of his life.
He dug in his leather satchel and retrieved the water bottle Tania’d half-drained after their frantic mating. He’d collected and bagged it after she’d left. “Don’t think it will test out the way you expected.”
Lycus jerked up straight, black brows forged together above the ridge of a nose that had been broken too many times to count. Once by Axe. He cocked his head and inspected Axe’s face. “Why do you look like a fucking sniper’s got you in his sights?”
“Because, Houston, we have a problem.” Axe chucked the bagged evidence onto the table.
“Fucking don’t tell me she caught you in the act and called the authorities.”
“Would that it was that simple. No. She’s my mate.” Axe didn’t doubt Lycus would cotton onto the fact he had met his mate once he encountered Tania and got a good whiff of their mingled aromas. Rogue wolves, because of their double animal DNA, had the best noses on the planet.
Lycus stuck his nose in the air and sniffed. “Can’t get much below Eva’s frigging scent mask. But, I don’t get anything different. And I should. If you’ve found your mate.”
“Then the scent mask is working precisely the way Eva said it would. Because we fucked.” Axe winced when Lycus sprang to his feet and kicked the wheeled chair.
The metal clanged when it hit the bare brick wall. Hands locked behind his back, Lycus paced a tight circle under the bare light bulb in the ceiling of the basement office. “Shit, shit. Double fucking shit.”
Axe waited for the alpha Rogue to get his wolf under control.
Lycus pivoted and barked, “All you were supposed to do was be in the gym when she was and collect a paper cone she’d drank from.”
“It’s not as if I could predict recognizing her as my mate.” In truth, Axe had resigned himself to a solitary life. He had given up on ever finding his mate. Then he’d caught a glimpse of Tania in the lobby of the hotel while checking in. Got a whiff of her scent when he retrieved her forgotten tablet. Had been so blindsided by lust he’d almost blown his cover.
Lycus punched the file cabinet. “It was supposed to be an in and out. One fucking paper cone. That’s all Eva needs to pinpoint how much of the drug’s left in her system. You had to go and fuck a Wylf
en female. The twin sister of the one Wylfen we persuaded to become a member of our Prymal pack. This can fuck all our plans.”
Sighing, Axe sat forward and propped his chin on one bent arm dug into his knee. “It doesn’t have to—”
“How in the fucking hell can it not?”
Axe held up his forefinger. “One. She is a Wylfen female. Who fucked with a half-breed Feral wolf. Two. If, if the Senior Council gets even a remote hint of that, she’s either dead or exiled. And you know what happens to me.”
Lycus shook his head. “Not following you on this. They’ll hunt you down, stake you out, and sever you limb by limb. That’s why our plans are fucked. We need you for our plans to succeed.”
“The scent mask fucking worked. She didn’t have a clue I wasn’t one hundred percent human. No one need ever know we fucked. Not even Jaz. We have to wear the scent mask tonight. None of the Prakovs will have a clue we’re anything but human."
“Nah. Won’t work. Her pack will be able to tell her odor is different.” Lycus resumed his manic pacing.
“All shifter females’ fragrances vary as their hormones change. You know as well as I do, that their distinctive aroma doesn’t fix until they’re mated and had a cub. They’ll put it down to hormones. She thinks I’m human, remember?” Axe reiterated.
Lycus halted on a dime. “You’re not going to claim her?”
“No. She’s Wylfen. I’m Feral. They’d never let her live if I did. Better a dead Wylfen female than a living one who’s mated to a half-breed. She won’t willingly claim me. And I don’t want a mate who doesn’t want to be mine.”
“She really doesn’t have a clue you’re Feral?” Lycus’s compressed lips relaxed.
Axe didn’t want to dwell on the repercussions of his mate recognition. Not yet. “She took a good sniff the second she walked into the hotel gym. No. I’d bet my right nut on that one. She thinks I’m human.”
“You know it’s going to get worse. The need to claim her. It’s worse than crack addiction. You’re going to crave her until—”
“Until it drives me to the brink of insanity. Yeah. I know. But if I cut it off now, maybe I can learn to live with it. Fact is, Tania would never accept a cub of mine. You know the Wylfen and their purity bloodlines and contempt for any disfigurement. I’m not just a half-breed, but a scarred mongrel, too.” No way would Axe claim a woman who thought him beneath her.
“Fucking Wylfen egotistical assholes. I’d rather never find my mate than have her be Wylfen.” Lycus glanced at his watch. “We don’t have much time. Eva’s scent mask works. Tania couldn’t tell you’re a wolf.”
“Yeah. Weird thing is that my sense of smell was acutely heightened. I could sniff the slightest change in Tania’s emotions. I know I must have been giving off aromas in waves. Yet she sensed nothing.”
Lycus scrubbed his clean-shaven jaw. “Wylfen females don’t have the scenting abilities of their male counterparts. The real test of the scent mask will be when we’re both surrounded by Wylfen alphas. If the mask works…”
Axe rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “Stop being a fucking Rogue idiot. It works.”
“I’ll know for sure in a few hours. What about Jaz? He’ll get to know your smell in the coming months.” Lycus stalked circles so fast his form blurred.
“So? He’s enrolled in BUD/S. You know what that’s like. He’s not going to look up for the next eighteen months at the least. He won’t be anywhere near his sister.” Axe stretched out his legs and crossed them at the ankle. “Sit for chrissake. You’re driving me nuts with that pacing.”
“Okay. We stick to the plan. Why do I get the feeling that’s not in-the-sun-rising-in-the-west ever going to happen?” Lycus yanked a clump of inky curls. “Give me the details of what happened.”
Axe outlined what had occurred that morning between him and Tania, leaving out their sexual intimacy, but giving Lycus the morning in chronological order in terms of times and locations.
Lycus hipped the desk. “You did it in the shower?”
“It sort of happened. And I am the strategist on the team. Talk about a fucking gift horse.” In truth, Axe hadn’t planned on taking Tania in the shower, but when she offered to join him, he latched onto the opportunity realizing it was the perfect environment to maintain his deception.
Lycus groaned at Axe’s corny pun.
“That suite shower by the way? I’m having it installed in my house.” Axe couldn’t stop grinning when he described the perfumed steam, the jets, and the simulated rainforest waterfall.
“Not before me, you won’t. Wonder if you could install it outdoors?”
Axe shrugged. “Don’t see why not.”
Then it occurred to him every time he even glimpsed the luxurious shower in his home, it would be sheer torture. What he wouldn’t give to soap Tania daily. Maybe even hourly. There was no way he could see the shower again without surrendering to the need to claim.
Lycus clapped Axe on the back. The blow jerked Axe out of a Tania-naked-and-riding-his-cock reverie. “What?”
“You’re remarkably rational for a man who’s not only recognized his mate, but fucked her, and then decided not to claim her. If you can think that clearly and make a non-emotional decision, then maybe all this crap we’ve been fed about the violence associated with mate claim is all Wylfen political bullshit.”
“Believe me, the only thought in my head was marking her. The shower thing happened by accident, but I was clear-headed enough to use it to my advantage.” The possessiveness that had struck him the second his gaze had locked onto Tania’s in the gym mirror had grown exponentially with every second ticking by. As had the desperate need to be close enough to touch and protect his mate. He felt too raw and too convoluted to discuss the slamming impact of his mate recognition further with Lycus.
Tipping his head back, Lycus sniffed, and studied Axe from half-hooded eyes. He checked the steel-gray watch on his wrist. “The scent mask is wearing off. I just got a blast of desperation from you. Your control’s slipping too, and that’ll give you away in a heartbeat tonight. The backs of your hands.”
“Crap.” Axe glared at the hair that had sprouted on his knuckles without any awareness on his part. He went into SEAL breath control mode and willed the shift-tell away.
“That fried me. Your wolf snapped right out. That hasn’t occurred since I’ve known you. What happened?” Lycus demanded.
No fricking way did Axe intend to let the other wolf know that the mere thought of never seeing, touching, or smelling Tania again had shattered his shift-control. “You know the way the mated alphas talk about how impossible it is to be separated from their mates?”
“Yeah. So, what?”
“Remember how we tortured the crap out of them for being pussies?”
“Yeah.”
“Won’t be doing that one again.” Axe suddenly had the need for a stiff, strong scotch.
Lycus checked the time again. “Five hours.”
“What?”
“Scent mask has worn off entirely now. We’ll have to be careful with our timing tonight”
“You can smell I’ve fucked her?”
“Impossible to miss. Sex musk is clinging to you like skunk-spray. You’d better pay a visit to the chemical bath before you change for tonight.”
Axe kept his trap shut. No way would he let Lycus know that he hadn’t been able to bring himself to have a second shower. That having the faint hint of her musk on him had helped him fight the frantic urge to slam down to her room, abduct her, and claim her.
Seeking a topic change, he scanned the room, and noticed a new addition. A wall of seventeen inch displays. Nudging his chin at them, he asked, “We monitoring the Wylfen finally?”
A shit-eating grin spread across Lycus’s face. He reached across the desk for a remote and hit the power button. Thirty different images popped up. Axe frowned. He studied each picture in turn. “I don’t recognize any of these locations.”
Lycus pointed. �
��That’s downtown Boston. Montreal—a side street off St. Catherine’s. Seattle, near the eye—”
Axe crossed his eyes. “For chrisssake. Get to the point. We have to be at the stadium in less than thirty minutes.”
“Nosam clubs. All owned and managed by Triple W Corporation.”
It took a few moments for the ball to drop. “One hundred percent owned by Viktor Prakov.”
“Bingo.”
“How’d you get the connection?” Axe asked.
“Jaz hacked into their files. He copied most of their data. We’ve started analyzing it.”
Axe straightened in the chair. Slapped his knee. “God damnit. Jaz committed. He’s Prymal now for sure, Lycus.”
“Yeah. How it struck me, too. The commitment to BUD/S was big. But this, this seals the deal for me.”
Both wolves had doubts and suspicions about the reasons behind the Wylfen wolf, Jazshuka Prakov, aka Jaz, joining the Prymal pack.
“Fucking weird how everything congealed once Eva recognized your brother as her mate. If it hadn’t been for Jaz helping Dax and Eva get together, I doubt that we’d have had the idea for Prymal. Our initial discussions about uniting only included Rogues and Ferals. Neither of us would’ve ever believed a Wylfen alpha would consider joining us.”
“Agreed. I’m guessing that what Viktor did to Eva was the point of no return for Jaz.”
“What we believe Viktor did. There still isn’t enough evidence to prove Viktor’s responsible for what happened to Eva.” Lycus glanced at the diver’s watch on his wrist. “I’ll get the bottle to the lab while you shower and dress. Take thirty seconds in the chemical bath before you apply the scent mask again. We’re taking no chances tonight.”
“Gotcha.” Axe collected his duffel once Lycus vanished through the door and headed to the lockers. It took considerable effort on his part to eradicate Tania’s distinctive aroma from his flesh. But, he had both the chemical steam bath and a vigorous shower.
Not ten minutes later, wearing his dinner dress blues, Axe adjusted his starched collar, shot his reflection in the bathroom mirror a grimace, and fingered the ugliest and deepest of the scars on his right cheek.
Prymal Lust Page 3
