Adrian [Whitedell Pride: 8]

by Catherine Lievens

  Isaiah hadn’t been able to find Troy in the part of the database he had hacked in, so they were walking in the dark. Adrian realized he could have solved a lot of problems if he’d saved the database he had had access to instead of destroying it. The pride had only a partial one, so they couldn’t find everyone on it, and it made things difficult. He couldn’t do anything to change what he’d done, though, so it was pointless to keep thinking about it.

  “Come on, sit down. I’d like to talk about whatever is inside you, if you’re okay with it.”

  Troy hesitated, but he sat, pulling his knees to his chest and hugging them. It was a somehow strange position, because the man was big and it made him seem so vulnerable, but it was something Adrian could understand. He’d been scared to death after he had injected himself with the serum, and he had known what he would become.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “I know you said you don’t know what it is, and that that’s the reason why you won’t try to shift.”

  “Yeah. I don’t even know I can shift, though, but even if I could I’m not sure I should. What if I’m some water animal? Or what if it’s something so bad that it tries to kill or hurt someone?”

  “I don’t think you’re a shifter, Troy. Your DNA doesn’t show animal or even shifter DNA, so I think we can rule that out, and the fact that you could hurt someone...shifters are always in control, even if it slips a bit due to their animal. Besides, I don’t think any species has bad written in their DNA, so even if it’s something that’s usually cruel and without conscience, I think it would be safe. You’re the one in control.”

  Troy seemed to think about it but Adrian didn’t push when he shook his head.

  “Okay, let’s try something else. When you concentrate on your...animal, what do you see?”

  Troy closed his eyes before answering, “I see black. It’s not a bad black, it’s just black. And I see wings.”

  “Wings?”

  “Yeah. They look like they’re made with some kind of metal, I guess, something shiny but soft.”

  Okay, wings and black. What paranormal creature had those two things? “Anything else?”

  “Claws and talons, and I don’t know if it has to do with the thing inside me or simply with what I went through, but ever since they did this to me I’ve had mood swings. I guess I know how pregnant women feel, only I won’t have a bundle of joy to demonstrate it at the end.” At least Troy was smiling, which was more than Adrian had hoped for.

  “How bad are they?”

  “Not too bad. I just go from normal to happy to depressed pretty fast, and sometimes it’s hard to keep up.”

  Adrian wrote everything down, but he still wasn’t seeing anything. “Okay. If you can’t tell me anything more I’ll try and see what I can find with this.” He was going to ask Jayden to help him. He knew the weasel shifter passed a great amount of time studying the books he could find in the library, so maybe he could find something.

  Troy nodded and headed out and Adrian closed his eyes, leaning his head back on his chair. He was doing everything he could, and it still wasn’t enough. Damn! He was also trying to help Jared with Adan’s treatment, but he wasn’t that kind of doctor, so there was only so much he could do in that case. The bobcat shifter had come out of the lab catatonic, and he and Jared had talked about trying electroconvulsive therapy since nothing else was working. Adrian knew people were usually horrified when it was mentioned, but from what he had gathered from his research, it wasn’t actually so bad. The therapy had evolved in time and it seemed it was useful when trying to defeat catatonic states. Besides, it was done under general anesthesia. Jared would have to find another doctor, though, because this was so not Adrian’s field.

  “You’re still busy, angel?”

  Adrian opened his eyes to look at his mate. Well, his half mate, since Joshua still hadn’t claimed him. Adrian knew Joshua was waiting for his permission, but he’d been so busy in the past three weeks that he’d barely had the time to think about it. Now that he had settled in, though...

  Joshua had been perfect since Adrian had started living in the mansion. They slept in the same bed every night, and while they had done some things, they had yet to fully make love, and it was Adrian’s fault. He usually dropped dead as soon as his head touched his pillow, but now that he had established a rhythm, it was going to change. He was horny as hell, and it was time to put an end to it. “No, I’m done. I still have to talk to Jayden, but it can wait until tomorrow.”

  Joshua’s smile was blinding. Adrian was the only one who got them, and it made it so special it took his breath away every time his mate smiled to him. “I was thinking we could spend the night in, maybe a movie and popcorn?”

  They had made it a habit to go out together on Fridays and Saturdays as much as they could, but really, as long as they were together, it didn’t matter what they did. “Two conditions,” he said, holding his fingers up.

  “Whatever you want, angel.”

  “We watch it in your room, and I choose the movie.” Adrian had discovered that his mate liked cinema d’essai, and while he was all for trying each other’s passions, he wasn’t sure he could go with this one. Every time Joshua chose one of those, he ended up falling asleep on his mate’s shoulder. Not good. He wanted something that would take his mind off his already too dramatic everyday life, which was why he liked action movies with a lot of explosions. He found them oddly relaxing.

  “Okay for both. I’ll see you in—” Joshua looked at his watch—”a half hour?”

  Adrian looked at the clock and winced when he saw it was already eight-thirty PM. He hadn’t known it was that late, and it meant he had spent more than four hours on Troy’s DNA without finding anything new. Shit. “Perfect.” He’d have the time to shower and prepare himself, because he had decided that this was the night. Joshua didn’t know it yet, but tonight he was going to claim Adrian and gain himself a mate.

  * * * *

  Since he had a half hour of time before Adrian came to his room, Joshua decided to stop on his way and talk to Isaiah. They were still trying to locate Gabriel, and the last time they’d talked, Isaiah had managed to narrow the number of labs the man could be in down to four. It was still too much, and they had no certainty that Gabriel would really be in one of those, but Joshua hoped to find the right one once he talked to John Smith.

  He hadn’t gone to those labs yet because he’d decided to interrogate the scientists they still had in the pride’s cells before they were moved to the more permanent jail Dominic and the rest of the council had built. One of Dominic’s friends, André something Frost—the one with the private plane—had given him free use of one of his properties. The council had used it to build a jail and a training facility for the enforcers that were hired to protect the council and to help keep an eye on the paranormals.

  Anyway, Joshua had finally talked with all of them, but other than making his skin crawl, he hadn’t obtained anything from them. Sure, one had said that he had met Gabriel, but he had long since moved to another lab, so it was no use. The lab he’d been in wasn’t even there anymore. All of this left Joshua with not much, and he hoped Isaiah had something more to tell him, because he didn’t know how much John knew.

  John had been the only one not to be moved. He was nearly family by now, since he had been in his cell for nearly a year, and every member of the pride who could fight had been given guard duty, which meant they all knew him. Joshua knew the man wasn’t really dangerous. Well, that wasn’t the exact truth—he was dangerous to a certain point.

  He had been in the army before becoming a mercenary, so he could do a lot of damage when he fought other humans, but he was just that—human. He couldn’t do a lot against shifters. Joshua had come to know him and he knew that while kidnapping Jamie certainly hadn’t been ethical, he hadn’t done it to hurt him, just for the money. Since then, Isaiah had found out that a lot of the money John had earn
ed doing his job was sent to an orphanage John had grown up in, so while not everyone was ready to forgive him, Joshua could see why he had done it. He was all for giving the man a second chance, and he hoped Dominic was going to consider letting him go sometime soon.

  John had learned his lesson, Joshua was sure of that, and he would put in a word for him with Dominic. The man had strangely become Joshua’s friend, and he didn’t have too many of those, so he tried to take care of those he had. And yes, he knew he was having double standards, but John was only a friend, while Adrian was the most important person in Joshua’s life, so it was different.

  He knocked on the door and entered when Isaiah answered.

  “I narrowed it down to three, but that’s the best I can do. Maybe Dominic will let you go to the three.”

  “I don’t know. We can’t raid the three, not immediately anyway.” Joshua didn’t really understand why they were still not attacking the labs and liberating the people in them, but the council ruled, and he had to follow his Alpha’s orders, so if the man said to wait, he waited, even if he wasn’t in agreement with it.

  “I don’t know what to tell you, then. You still have to talk with John?”

  “Yeah.” Isaiah had never met the man but he knew everything there was to know about him, being the computer genius of the pride. He had taken care of John’s house and had his things packed and stored until he was liberated, and since he was one of the people who controlled the surveillance cameras, he saw a lot of John every day.

  “Maybe he’ll tell you something.”

  Joshua shrugged. He didn’t think John actually knew something, but he was getting desperate. Gabriel was Adrian’s brother, therefore family to Joshua too, and he wanted nothing more than to find him. Well, there was something he wanted more, but he didn’t know when he was finally going to get it, so...He waved goodbye at Isaiah and hurried to his room, stopping in the kitchen long enough to gather snacks and sodas.

  Joshua liked spending time with Adrian, even if their interests were as far from each other’s as they could possibly be. It was actually nice to discover new things, and Joshua secretly liked the movies his mate chose when they had a movie night. He would never admit it, but it was nice not to have to think too much about what he was watching and just enjoy himself. Plus, there were the cuddles. He loved cuddles, at least with Adrian.

  But that was all they had done until now. Okay, so maybe there had been a few episodes of mutual blow and hand jobs, but they hadn’t gone farther than that. Joshua was giving Adrian time, even if his leopard was being a bitch. There was no way he could understand why on earth they were waiting to claim Adrian, especially since he had already claimed Joshua, and to be honest Joshua didn’t understand it either, but if Adrian needed time, then that was what he’d get, no questions asked. He just hoped he was going to make a decision soon, because it was becoming harder to keep the leopard under control, especially when they spent time cuddling or just being together.

  Joshua got to his room and put everything down on the nightstand before getting everything else ready. It didn’t take long before he heard someone knock on the door. Adrian didn’t wait for him to answer, and it showed Joshua how much the man was feeling at home in his rooms. He wondered if it was too soon to ask him to move in with him, but then maybe he should wait until Adrian was ready to mate with him.

  He gestured to his collection of DVDs. “All yours. Surprise me.”

  Adrian snickered. “Oh, I already know what I want to watch, and I asked Soren to lend it to me since you don’t have it.”

  Joshua knew there was nothing between Adrian and Soren, but his leopard yowled and hissed at the name. It considered Soren a big threat to their mating and wanted to forbid Adrian to see him or talk to him again. Yeah, because that would make him decide to mate with Joshua. Pushing the damn kitty back, Joshua settled under the comforter and waited for Adrian to join him. His mate was wearing a pair of sleeping pants and a soft t-shirt, just like him.

  Adrian seemed a little nervous when he joined Joshua after taking off his glasses and leaving them on the nightstand, but then the movie began and Joshua held his arm up, indicating that he wanted Adrian to settle against his chest. They found their position and Joshua watched as the guy on the screen bought a car. Joshua wasn’t really concentrating on the movie anyway, not with the way Adrian had slipped his hand under Joshua’s shirt and was circling one of his nipples with the tip of one finger. He played with the hair Joshua had there, tugging at it lightly and arousing Joshua so much that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep himself in check if Adrian continued like that. Then Adrian slid his hand lower and one finger went to tease the elastic band of his pants, and all bets were off.

  Adrian couldn’t have missed the erection that was tenting Joshua’s pants, but he didn’t touch it. Instead he continued to tease, and Joshua was almost sure he was doing it on purpose, because the man was smiling slightly, and the film was not funny.

  When the same maddening finger touched the head of his cock through his pants, Joshua couldn’t contain the groan that escaped him. “Angel, if you want to watch the movie you have to stop, because otherwise I’m going to devour you, and you won’t know what happens until much, much later.”

  “That’s fine. I’ve already seen it anyway.”

  Oh, the smirk on Adrian’s face when he looked up at Joshua. Yeah, the man was definitely doing it on purpose, the little tease.

  Joshua growled and grabbed Adrian, laying him on his back and hovering above him. He knew he was showing his teeth, but Adrian didn’t look afraid, just a little nervous. “Relax, angel. I won’t bite you until you ask me. I just can’t help them coming out when you’re making me this horny.”

  “What if I wanted you to bite me?”

  Joshua froze, his eyes locked with Adrian’s. Was his mate really saying what he thought he was? Was he really asking Joshua to finally bite him? “Is that what you want?”

  Adrian nodded, the soft light in his eyes reflecting want and need, and maybe...love? “I’m ready, love. I don’t know why it took me so long, but I know you now, and I’m falling in love with you.” Adrian raised his hand and leaned it against Joshua’s heart. “We had a rocky start, but I want the rest of our life together to be as perfect as it can be, and it starts today.” Adrian tilted his head to the side, both submitting and giving Joshua access to his neck. “Claim me.”

  * * * *

  It would have been funny if the occasion wasn’t such a serious one. The way Joshua’s eyes were huge as plates, the way his mouth was slightly opened in shock—Adrian had never seen him so open and vulnerable. Adrian had the instinct to reach out and close Joshua’s mouth, but he decided on kissing it closed instead.

  Things got heated very quickly, and soon he was trying to tear away Joshua’s t-shirt in an attempt to get to his chest. Joshua growled above him, and the sound went straight to Adrian’s cock, reverberating in his balls and along his spine. God, what this man did to him. He had never felt anything like this.

  Joshua wrenched their lips apart and pushed a bit on his hands, just enough to have enough space between them so that they could look at each other. “Do you want me to only claim you, or do you want me to make love to you as well?”

  Adrian was aware that sex wasn’t needed to claim a mate. He’d heard all about it from Jeremy, and while he was touched that Joshua thought of asking him this, he was also very horny and ready to feel his mate inside him. “Make love to me, Joshua.” He hoped his eyes were conveying everything he was feeling, because he wasn’t sure he could trust his voice right now.

  Joshua must have understood it all. He sucked in a breath before capturing Adrian’s lips again, and from there everything was a flurry of hands stroking and kneading, of mouths sucking and kissing, and of tongues licking and teasing. Adrian managed to pull Joshua’s t-shirt off between two kisses, and his mate made good work of his.

  The pants they’d b
een wearing soon joined their t-shirts somewhere on the floor and the first touch of their naked bodies against each other’s sent a jolt of pleasure into Adrian’s whole body. He hissed and tried to get even closer to Joshua, grabbing his shoulders and locking his legs around Joshua’s waist, opening himself to his mate. He let his hands move on Joshua’s back, appreciating the feeling of the hard muscles under soft skin, the way they moved as Joshua set out to pleasure him, as his mouth slid down Adrian’s neck to nibble there, then on his collarbone.

  That had always been an especially sensitive place to Adrian, and the feeling of pointed teeth scraping on the skin made him shudder in delight and clutch harder at his mate’s shoulders. He followed the line of Joshua’s spine, tracing the vertebras one by one until he reached the swell of Joshua’s ass. The rounded mounds called to him, but he wasn’t sure Joshua would appreciate him sliding his finger there. It wasn’t something they had explored yet, but it could wait, especially as Joshua moved down Adrian’s body to reach his nipples.

  He had to let the muscled globes go, but what he got was so good anyway. Joshua latched on one nipple and sucked before scrapping one of his canines on it, and the pleasure the small pain gave him surprised Adrian. He would never have though he would like the bite of pain, but it seemed he did, at least when it was Joshua giving it to him.

  Adrian arched his back, trying to get more of the sinful caress and making Joshua chuckle. “Like that, huh?”

  Adrian nodded and thrashed under his mate when Joshua moved on to the other nipple, his hands stroking down Adrian’s body and touching his stomach, his thighs, and his sides, but never the place where he really wanted to feel his mate’s hands. It made him growl in frustration. The sound surprised him, because he hadn’t known he could do that good a growl before that. Squirrels didn’t growl, after all.