“Call your pet off, Drake.” Her mouth went dry when she looked up at his face.
Deep, cool blue eyes stared down at her without any emotion.
Full lips didn’t thin out, smile or grin in the normal smart-ass manner that she was getting very used to with these guys. Not even an eyebrow went up. No, Kane was as cold as a blizzard, and that alone had her taking another step back. Distance between her and this guy was a wise move. Her gut screamed to stay as far away from cave boy as she could get and stay that way. Because if Kane decided to do something or wanted something, nothing was going to stand in his way. It was just a vibe she felt.
“He isn’t my pet, Jada.” Drake sighed behind her. He came up close and silent. “He’s my son, remember.”
“Okay!” She raised her hands up and moved to the side of the room away from them both. But the way Kane followed her with his eyes gave her the chills. “I should have told you.”
“You think?” the sarcasm came off Drake in waves.
“What do you want, an apology?” she smarted off, casting Kane a quick glance before facing Drake. “I’m sorry. Now can I go?”
“How long?” Kane spoke and boy did his voice affect her in ways she didn’t like. He had a vibration in his tone that traveled all the way down her spine to gather between her legs.
“So he can talk,” she said as she turned to Kane and looked him up and down boldly. “Didn’t think he knew how.”
“How long, Jada!” Drake raised his voice and she turned her attention back to him.
“How long what?” she yelled.
“Did you know?” Kane said.
She turned to him and pointed her finger back and forth quickly.
“About you two?” Drake nodded. “A while.”
“Months, years?” Drake sighed. “I want to know how long you have held onto this information.”
“Why, so you can do some funky ass punishment?” She turned back to Drake and one eyebrow of his went up. She rolled her eyes and sighed, “I’ve know only a few weeks before you found out, okay.”
“You fucked up, girl.” Drake ran a hand in his hair and she glanced at Kane. He was still blocking her way out. Drake chuckled, “Oh, lose that thought. This time I’m going to have you watched all the time.”
She frowned. “What?”
“You’re in the woods now with a bunch of animals.” Drake smiled at her and slid his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “We all have very good tracking senses and Kane is even better. His sense of smell is a hell of a lot better than the rest of us. So is his eye sight and hearing.” She turned and faced Kane. He was still just standing there staring at her with those cold ass eyes of his. “Say hello to your personal escort, baby.”
Jada shook her head, “No fucking way! I am not going to have King Kong here on my ass twenty-four-seven.”
“He’s also fast,” Drake added, acting as if she hadn’t said anything. “You run, he’ll catch you and bring you right back here. If he does, then I’m going to lock you in the house. Let you get a taste of what being locked up is like.”
Drake turned and walked towards the doorway, but stopped when she spoke. “You can’t do this, Drake. You can’t keep me here. It’s fucking kidnapping!”
“Would you rather be dead?” He faced her again. “Because it’s either here or in the ground, Jada. Which would you prefer?”
“I was doing just fine on my own.”
“Oh yeah, I know.” He chuckled without humor. “That gun to your head should have been enough to tell you that you were anything but fine. But what has me curious the most is why.”
She sighed, leaned on one foot, and glared at him. “Why what?”
“I want to know why those men were there.” He turned his whole body towards her and those damn cold eyes of his stared her down.
She could tell right then where Kane had inherited them. “What were they after? What do you have?”
“Maybe they wanted to know where those two were,” she indicated with a nod in Kane’s direction. “Ever thought about that?”
“Bullshit!” both hands went to his hips. He stared her down and after some tense seconds, she lowered her eyes. “What the hell did you take?” he demanded. “Because I’m betting that’s what this is all about. You have something that belongs to them and Stan wants it back.”
“Nothing.”
“You’re lying to me.” He pointed his finger at her. “I can smell it.”
“What I have or know is on a need to know basis, and right now you definitely don’t need to know.”
“There it is,” he whispered, stepping closer.
“What?” she took a step back and bumped right up against the desk that was in the room.
“That attitude. The very thing that is going to get you into soooo much trouble.” His voice turned into a low purr. “You want to keep secrets? Fine.” Drake shrugged. “You keep your secrets. But just keep in mind that I will find out what it is they were after, one way, or another.” He turned his back on her and went back to the door. “The bathroom next to you is free. Carrick and I have our own, and Sasha has the other room with its own bathroom. Kane sometimes sleeps in the room next to yours and sometimes in his own place, so keep that in mind when you start thinking about running again. Don’t trash this room.”
“Drake!” she yelled, and when she went towards the door, Kane moved to the side, blocking her. “Shit,” she mumbled.
“You should have told him,” Kane said. “He’s doing this to keep you alive. Stan doesn’t mess around. If he wants you dead, then you’re dead.”
“Why don’t you take your big badass self advice back down stairs where you belong?” Jada snapped at him. She was pissed off about this whole situation and didn’t like being babysat by Kane, either. “Before my foot ends up so far up your ass you will taste the leather for weeks and Drake will have to dig out what’s left.” She knew she was being rude, but now she didn’t care. She wasn’t going to tell him or anyone else for that matter what she took or why they were after her.
Kane growled.
“Save it, Tarzan.” She put her hand up to him. “The growling shit doesn’t work with me. You have to keep an eye on me, fine. Do it from a long distance so I don’t have to see your barbarian ass.”
“They’re right about you.” He took a step inside the room, closing the door. “You do have a mouth that is going to get you into a whole lot of trouble,” he finished calmly.
She rolled her eyes and turned her back on him, going to the desk to unpack her cameras. “Please. Like I’ve not heard that one before.”
Jada stiffened when she felt him behind her. She didn’t hear him move, but she sure as hell felt the body heat that came off him.
He sniffed her. His face brushed the back of her head, moving her hair. He didn’t wrap his arms around her, but he did press up against her body, his hands flattened on the desk, boxing her in.
“I’ve picked this scent up before,” he remarked in her ear, his voice low with a rumble to it. “Now that I’ve experienced it, your scent reminds me of the wind after it’s been raining. Not the kind that I would ever forget and I can easily track.”
He grabbed her arm, forcing her to turn around, and he picked her up sitting her down on the desk. Jada gasped when he leaned into her again, forcing her legs apart to stand between them. His blue eyes darkened and she could have sworn his body heat became hotter.
“Tell me something, Princess,” the words rolled off his tongue with a purr, giving her the chills. “Did you like watching me in the lab?”
“Not really,” she sighed with a roll of her eyes. “You didn’t really stand up to my expectations.”
He didn’t smile but she did see a slight curve to his lips for a brief second.
“You know you really need to learn what boundaries are.” She pushed at his chest, and boy it was as hard as it appeared. And what a surprise, he didn’t budge. “I don’t like people in my personal space.”
He cocked his head to the side and those eyes roamed over her body. Just that simple action had her feeling as if he was undressing her. “Is that so?”
“Yeah, that’s so,” she told him matter of factly. “You’re not going to intimidate me Kane.”
“You should learn more about us,” he told her. Jada held her breath when he leaned in, his face next to hers and his hot breath brushed over her ear and neck.
“Challenges are something that we can never walk away from.
Ever!”
* * * *
He pushed away, turned, and left the room, leaving her sitting on the desk. He had to get out and he had to do it right now! Something came over him when he was close to her and he wasn’t sure about it.
Jada was a very small woman compared to him. She stood maybe five-five, but he thought it was more like five-three. She was petite in height, with a frame that was slightly plump and he liked that. She wasn’t fat by a long shot though, yet did fill out her clothes nicely and the fullness of her breasts had his hands itching to cup them. Her hair was soft and dark brown, reaching to the middle of her back and cut to layer around her face.
She had sea green eyes that held fire in them. Fire that he wanted to burn in, and that confused him majorly. With her soft facial features, and full lips, Jada was a knock out. And that damn mouth of hers was nothing but trouble. Sex wasn’t something he ever thought about, but being that close to her. His senses drowning in her scent, he had the strong urge to have her under him with his body locked inside hers.
Drake was on the front porch, talking to Cole when Kane came down the stairs. He turned and headed for the back door, not wanting to talk to them. Instead, he went outside and spotted Sasha. She loved the outside and hated any kind of conflicts or fighting.
They had been free for three years now and she was still in a state of shell shock. She spoke very little, and kept to herself more than what he liked. Kane wanted to see her smiling, hear her laughing, and see life in her blue eyes. So far, all he got was her in his arms and a few smiles. Not enough. Drake wanted her to see someone.
Something called a therapist, but Kane didn’t like that idea. He didn’t want anyone to know about them and he sure as hell didn’t want people to know what happened to them. Luck seemed to finally shift to them when he saw her curled up on Drake’s lap one night.
Kane came into the house late to check on her. He couldn’t seem to pull himself away from the night and when he did go to the house and saw his sister in Drake’s arms he almost lost it. No one but him could touch her, but when he saw her sleeping, saw that Drake was holding her like a child and nothing else he knew then that he could trust the man completely. She had a nightmare. One of many, but Kane wasn’t there to take the demons away. Drake was. After that night, she changed some with Drake and Carrick.
Sasha opened up to them and both treated her like a daughter.
Carrick started fixing her hair in the mornings, Drake gave her hugs, and light kisses on the top of her head. With constant small signs of affection from the two of them, his sister blossomed in a way he never imagined she would.
Drake also gave him affection, but it wasn’t like Sasha’s. Sure Carrick kissed him on the cheek and the first time that happened he was stunned. Any kind of contact that didn’t involve pain was new.
However, Kane did give Drake the benefit of the doubt. When he woke up himself from his first nightmare, involving the lab Drake was there for him. It was the very first time Kane cried, and Drake held him through it all. It was the first step towards healing for each of them.
Last year his grandparents and one set of Uncle and Aunt came to visit for the summer. Sasha surprised him by instantly bonding with Sidney and Jaclyn Draeger, and they surprised him even more by teaching Sasha things that he never would have thought to teach her.
Cooking. They also taught him reading and writing, and Stefan took up the role of working with him to control the raging beast he had inside. With Dedrick’s help, he was able to control his change.
Kane was still amazed at times, over how much they didn’t know about this world they were born into. Most of everything he did was on pure instinct only. It was what kept him and his sister alive. One of the most interesting things that he learned about himself was what happened to him during the full moon. He burned from the inside out.
Stefan explained it better than Drake had.
They called it a heat cycle. Raw, burning sexual need raced in his veins. The longer a male shifter went without his mate the stronger his desires would get, usually after he reached the age of twenty.
Sometimes it was younger. Once his animal caught the scent of his mate, and then his heat would be almost ten times stronger than it had been previously. Kane wasn’t sure if he could handle it being worse than it already was, yet each month it felt stronger than it had been the month before. Something was very different, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
Sasha was sitting on a blanket on the ground, staring out at the water. It was early October and the days were cool and cooler at night. It didn’t bother Kane that much, but for Sasha she was miserable. She didn’t like the cold and still couldn’t handle it, but she loved being outdoors.
Kane was twenty-nine, Sasha eighteen, and Drake was thirty-one.
It was weird to have a father around your own age, but they were dealing with it.
He went right up to Sasha, knelt down behind her, and leaned across her back to look over her shoulder. He saw her grin right before she snuggled back, resting against him. Kane touched her hair before wrapping his arms around her, hugging her.
“You’re shivering,” he stated.
“It’s getting colder,” she sighed.
“It will snow before we know it.”
“So what’s she like?”
Kane sighed loudly and dropped down on his back. Sasha giggled and turned over, resting her chin on his chest. For months, they all had been on the hunt to find Miss Jada Leonard, and she heard all the talk about it.
That wasn’t what had his mind drifting. Kane’s mind went back to the night he picked up that scent. After his first talk with Drake and learning what masturbation was about, Kane experienced his first wet dream and boy was it a hot one. It was as if his mind was refreshing his senses with what it picked up in the lab, giving him one hell of an erection that lasted for hours.
Never had he thought about sex as good or being pleasurable. It was an act required of him so his sister would get a blanket and extra food. He never got anything from it, and could count on one finger how many times he’d orgasmed. It just wasn’t something he cared about, but when the dreams came it all changed.
He started waking up in the middle of the night with a very painful erection. For weeks, this went on before he finally had to go talk to Drake about it. They discovered that the drugs that were forced on him repressed his natural sexual desire and that they had to be coming back. Painful erections were something that the young went through, but since he never had the opportunity to experience anything natural his body was making up for it now. And boy if they weren’t painful, too. Thankfully, that pain shit only lasted for a very short time, but the sexual need and release he was starting to feel didn’t go away. Not even with the masturbation.
“Kane?”
Sasha’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts and he groaned, “She has a mouth that won’t quit. And Drake wants me to keep an eye on her. He thinks she’s going to try to run again.”
“What do you think?”
Kane touched her cheek. “She’ll run.”
“Will you catch her then?” She turned her head spilling blonde hair over her shoulder onto his chest, and her blue eyes were wide. He couldn’t express what he felt just being this close to his sister. Maybe love, if it existed.
“Probably.” He touched her face and hair before putting his arms under his head. “She has something that they are willing to kill her for.”
S
asha lowered her chin to his chest. “I think she was in the lab the night you started to act funny.”
“Probably. She’s in danger.” He kept his voice even when he spoke. The last thing he wanted was for his sister to pick something up that might worry her when he talked about Jada. “How are you doing?”
She gave him a quick grin before turning back around and using him as a pillow. “I like it here. The water is so calm and the sky so blue. I never thought the outdoors would be so nice.”
“But if you stay outside all the time, you’re going to get sick.” He sat up, and then got to his feet, taking her with him. “Time to go back inside.”
She nodded and picked her blanket up. “I should go help Carrick with dinner anyway. She’s going to show me how to do chicken tonight.”
Sasha loved to cook and Carrick loved to have her in the kitchen.
It was one of the rare times Kane saw her flushed and very happy.
Dinner was tense and very quiet. Carrick and Sasha put out a big spread of fried chicken. It was good, but Kane couldn’t get into this food as he normally did. No his attention was on trying to keep his body under control and his dick down. Hard to do when his senses were overwhelmed with the scent of Jada sitting across from him.
He wasn’t supposed to be having these thoughts or struggling with the idea of touching her. However, when his thoughts were filled with nothing but her scent it was damn hard. He knew that it was her in the lab. Knew that she was taking pictures of what he’d been forced to do, but did she know that he came because of her. He would bet his life that she had no idea, and he was going to keep that information to himself.
Kane was very thankful when supper was over and he could leave without drawing attention to himself. He went back to his own little place, the small cabin in the woods that he’d requested from Drake. It was his own to do with as he wished. So far, he put a new porch on, with Cole’s help. He kept it very simple, with just a bed, sofa, and small table with two chairs. Later on Cole had him put this bar up across the space between front room and bedroom. There were also leather straps for him to strap his ankles to and work out. Cole told him it helped sometime with the heat. It did and then some. Kane worked out every night before he went to bed, making himself larger than he’d been three years ago.
The New Breed Page 3
