by Chloe Cox
And now it was time to tend to his other responsibility.
Kragen readied the second dose, grabbed the key made out of Leonid metal from its hiding place, not caring that it singed his skin, and made his way to the basement door.
It looked like what humans called “overkill,” covered in a blockade of detritus, wrapped in Leonid metal chains and secured with a Leonid metal lock. But that was only if you didn’t know what it contained.
With studied practice, he cleared his usual path to the door, and turned the key in the lock, letting the chains fall. Then he paused, and listened. He always listened.
If there was a surprise on the other side of this door, Kragen would not survive it. That didn’t trouble him. What troubled him was how much of Earth’s population would survive it.
After several moments of silence, he hauled on the door, leaving it open just enough for him to slide through, and waited another moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness.
While he did, he heard the slithering chime of more Leonid chains, moving in the dark.
“Hello, brother,” Kragen said. “Time for your medicine.”
It was just as his eyes were adjusting to the dark that every single intruder alarm went off at once.
Andie was furious.
She didn’t want him to leave. She wanted him to stay, and admit she was right, and then tell her what the hell was going on.
After that…she wasn’t really sure.
But she damn well wanted the ability to choose.
Gramzy said nothing as Andie stomped around the house, wondering when the mark on her breast was going to start to hurt again, or if she’d be sad if it never hurt again. She checked, as she got ready for bed—it was damn near one in the morning by this time—and it looked just like a smooth, round scar. Not like something that was living. Not like something that might glow.
She’d gone to sleep angry, wondering if her waking life had been nothing more than a daydream.
But her real dreams knew the truth.
Andie opened her eyes, and vaguely knew she was dreaming, but in another sense she knew that this was very, very real. Her mark was hot again, as though it was a signal. A beacon.
For him.
Kragen stood in front of her. Shirtless. His wound still bandaged, still hurting him. His massive muscles undulating under that mother of pearl silvery skin with every ragged breath, his molten eyes pulsing with the hunger she felt between her own legs.
Because she was naked. Completely, one hundred percent naked, with her wrists bound together up over her head, attached to a chain that was bolted to the ceiling.
She felt like she was pulled taut, tight, her body screaming for release.
When he finally stepped closer, she nearly moaned.
With a growl, Kragen placed one huge hand on her left breast, his fingers brushing the mark, which glowed for him. Andie hissed as it began to smoke, burning itself further into her skin, and then she gasped as the pain blossomed into pleasure.
Kragen inhaled deeply as his own mark burned bright. He moved his hand suddenly, squeezing her breast with enough pressure to tear a groan from her throat, toying with the nipple, watching her writhe in pain, pleasure, and satisfaction. She couldn’t look away from his eyes, and she knew, in that moment, her body really did belong to him.
It would do whatever he commanded.
With a low rumble, he released her breast and threaded his hand through her hair, his huge palm cupping the back of her head, and he tilted her back until she had no choice but to look into his eyes.
And there she saw the pain. The pain they both felt. Deadened in her, alive in him. She didn’t understand it. But she knew it was there.
Kragen kept hold of her hair with one hand, and with the other he lifted her leg, exposing her wet sex and forcing her to balance on her toes, her eyes pinned by his. He held her that way until she begged for him.
He bent his head and sank his fangs into her neck as he drove fully into her, and Andie woke up in the middle of the most powerful orgasm of her entire life.
Andie collapsed back down onto her bed in a boneless heap, her body still shuddering and twitching, her chest covered in a thin glisten of sweat. She blinked up at the ceiling, gasping for breath, her fingers twisting up in sweaty sheets.
What the hell was that?
It hadn’t felt like a dream. It had felt like him.
Almost fearfully, Andie raised her hand to her chest, her brain coolly noting that her fingers were still shaking, and she felt for the mark above her left breast.
It was hot.
She could smell a vague smell of singed flesh, and it got her out of bed, pulling her tank top down to see for herself.
It looked just the same, except with added glow-in-the-dark properties.
It had been real. Sort of.
So what did that mean?
Andie paced, running her hands through her hair, trying not to freak out. When she stopped and closed her eyes, she could almost feel the bond, still warm inside her, still pulsing, only…dull. Deadened. Like someone had turned the volume down, and now the result was this weird in-between arousal, and a profound feeling of wrongness. Like she wasn’t fully herself. Like some part of herself…
Was gone.
“I hate it,” she said aloud to no one at all.
This was like what it had felt like when she suddenly found she could leave the warehouse, only much more intense. Like a deep, aching absence, where before it had been like a weight lifting.
With a flash, Andie understood what Kragen had done. It was the only thing that made sense. Before, being separated by too much, for too long, had made her sick, made her fall to her knees. Now? It had been hours, who knew how far away Kragen was, and there was just this…painless pit.
He had taken more of that triclosan.
And it had hurt him to take it. How much did he have to take to counteract this much distance? What was he doing to himself?
No wonder she’d seen pain in his eyes.
“The dumb Dom,” she muttered.
Andie had no idea what to do. Every time she closed her eyes, she was aware of that absence. That tug on her heart.
And then she thought about what Gramzy said: Do you trust your own heart?
She remembered, first, how she felt looking into Kragen’s eyes, wrapped in his arms. And she remembered that freaking basement.
“Ok, I don’t know if I trust my own heart yet,” she said, “but I want to find out.”
Whatever this burden was, it wasn’t one that Kragen should bear alone. She had a choice too. And they were, for the moment, a team of sorts. He’d already saved her life once, anyway. She wasn’t about to welch on that.
She was raised better.
Andie was packed in less than five minutes, throwing the barest of supplies into a duffel, leaving a note for Gramzy, and texting Kat.
There was only one thing left to do. Follow the tug on her heart.
12
Kragen knelt down, close to the ground, and dipped his fingers in the scrabbly dirt below. He sniffed them. Nothing but the overpowering scent of old factory waste and diesel. That scent cover was part of the reason he’d chosen this warehouse for his hideout.
And now there was an intruder.
Every muscle in his body was primed, his pulse slightly elevated, his senses on high alert, all in preparation for a fight that might never come. There had been no further sign of an intruder, let alone a Leonid patrol. It was possible that the alarm had been falsely triggered, but he had been careful, setting them up. Very careful.
The night was empty and dull. Nothing moved in the dead compound of abandoned industrial buildings. Nothing stirred. The night was clear, the moon was high. He could see everything, and what he could see was nothing.
It set him on edge.
The most primal parts of him were now in charge. Such as it had to be. He was on the edge of the compound now, the forest to his left as he patro
lled the perimeter. He could hear every individual leaf rustle in the lazy night breeze, could hear every snap of a twig, every animal in the underbrush. Sweat gathered on his chest while the half-healed wound on his side beat out a dull rhythm of pain in time with his heart.
And yet he had to bring all his discipline to bear to focus through the fog of the triclosan. Kragen cursed his circumstances. Without the triclosan, he’d be at full strength. He’d be able to cast about, use his Leonid psychic senses to feel any disturbances, as a shark feels vibrations in the water. But he would also be maddened by the hunger, his senses too sharp, his energy needing somewhere to go…
He was still cursing when he felt her.
Andromeda.
It should have been impossible. He had taken the largest dose yet, determined to bury their mating bond until he could find a solution, or it would not endanger her.
But her need was so great it burned through the triclosan fog like fire. He could always sense her, if he tried, but this was different. This was a call.
It tore an answering roar from his throat.
And if he could feel it through the drug, anything else out there would feel it too.
Kragen began to run.
The farther Andie walked—because, dammit, she’d left her car in the parking lot at work—the hotter she felt, and the more she questioned whether this was really her decision. The tug on her heart had become a tidal pull. She wasn’t sure she could stop walking if she tried. And the absence she felt inside, the one that only Kragen could fill, was starting to hurt.
Whatever protection he’d given her from the hunger, it wasn’t lasting long. As soon as she’d made the decision to find him, to do this together, it had started to peel away in layers, first slowly, then faster and faster, like a flower in the wind. Now it was practically gone. Whatever triclosan was, it wasn’t stronger than this mating bond.
She could feel her need rising off of her like steam.
Which made it crazy to be walking at night, alone. It was even crazier to be walking with no real destination in mind, just a direction: closer to him.
But it didn’t matter. She’d made a decision. She’d stood up for herself once, and she wasn’t done. Besides, her body wouldn’t let her stop now.
Andie was telling herself that was all completely reasonable and not at all insane when she felt him.
It was an all-over flush, and then like she could feel him against her, the sensation sweeping over her entire body. Her internal muscles clenched, and a moan escaped her lips as she fell to her knees on the sidewalk. It was like he was inside her, everywhere.
And then just as quickly it was gone, replaced by an insistent throbbing between her legs and the knowledge that he was there.
She looked up. He stood over her, his eyes blazing with fury.
Without a word, he threw her over his shoulder and took off.
“Put me down!”
It took her almost a minute to get her wits about her enough to say that, so they were deep into the woods when Kragen stopped, suddenly, and put her down.
When they broke contact, the world became dull and gray. Andie blinked against it. It was nighttime, after all, but when he was touching her, everything had a glow…
“What have you done, lubcha?” he growled.
Goddammit, she still didn’t know what that meant.
Andie studied him for a moment. Even though it was dark and they were in the woods, his silvery skin shone slightly against the moon, and his eyes gave off their own light. His whole body looked like it was working very hard to contain something, something powerful. It was mesmerizing.
“You’re the one who left,” she said, suddenly conscious of the fact that she was only wearing three items of clothing: tank top, hoodie, sweatpants. “What did you think was going to happen?”
“Not this,” he said. “The triclosan injections were working. And then…”
“You felt it,” Andie said, and sat down on the dewy ground. She was uncomfortably hot now, and the sheer stupidity of thinking she could go to him was just now sinking in. “I don’t know why, Kragen. I don’t know why for any of this.”
“Do you know how dangerous this is, female?”
“No!” Andie said, and looked up angrily. He was standing over her like some sort of disciplinarian. With effort, she pushed herself off the ground, and brushed wet leaves off of herself. Only then did she meet his gaze. “That is exactly the point! I don’t know anything, and that is incredibly messed up.”
Kragen crossed his arms.
“You are not making any sense.”
“Don’t do that,” Andie said. “This bond didn’t just happen to you, you know. It’s mine, too. I have a right to be involved. You can’t just shut me out and expect me to be fine with having no idea what’s happening to me. Or what’s at risk. Or what you have in that freaking basement.”
Or why you won’t claim me.
Andie shook her head, the thought intruding on the moment like a big, unwanted neon sign. She was suddenly very conscious of how wet she was. Of how hard her nipples were under her dumb hoodie. Of how much she simply ached.
When she looked at Kragen again, it was through a haze.
“If it’s so dangerous, why did you come for me?”
“Because you called me,” Kragen growled, whirling around with such ferocity and power that she had trouble listening to him. “Because I would have felt your desire from miles away.”
He stood there, silently staring at her, his chest heaving with every breath, his muscles tensed.
Andie had never been so embarrassed in her life.
“You’re just like all the others,” she said.
Kragen’s head whipped around. “What others?”
“What are you trying to hide from me? What could be so bad?”
Kragen took a huge step toward her.
“What others?” he demanded.
Andie looked up at the huge, imposing Leonid who was standing over her, and licked her lips.
“You’re jealous,” she said quietly.
With a hiss, Kragen closed the distance between them and reached to touch her cheek. The contact hit her like an electric shock. She stood frozen in place as he threaded his hand through her hair and slowly, so slowly, tilted her head back.
Just like the dream.
Andie stared up into his limitless eyes and felt herself start to go weak and blurry at the edges, as if she wanted to melt into him completely. Her heart thudded in her chest, reminding her what was real, what was physical.
“I do not take my prerogative, my natural right to claim you,” he said, “because I will have you submit willingly or not at all.”
Andie took a deep breath. Where his hand touched her head it was like…like there was an electrical current emanating from it, like there were tiny little sparks of pleasure fizzing through out her entire body, all of them originating from the place where Kragen touched her.
Is this what he felt all the time? How did he withstand it?
Focus.
“I thought it was because you didn’t want to hurt me,” she said.
Kragen winced slightly, and she saw that she’d hurt him. She didn’t know how. She still didn’t know anything.
It was now or never. She breathed through the desire, the animal imperative, and made her brain work.
“You know why I will never submit willingly?” she asked, her voice so low it barely carried. “Because the mistake I’ve made my whole life is choosing men who only see me as submissive, who don’t have any respect for me as a person, who just want me as some sort of sexual…”
Kragen’s jaw tensed, but Andie kept going.
“Sexual plaything. Anyway, that’s not what I want. And that’s not who I am. I want…”
“Tell me,” Kragen growled. “Tell me what you want.”
If anyone else had asked her this, Andie wouldn’t have known how to answer. But coming from Kragen, it wasn’t a request. It was
an order.
She didn’t have a choice. And that freed her to find the truth.
“I want a partner, outside of the sex stuff,” she said. Andie couldn’t believe she was saying this. She’d never said it out loud, even to herself. “Yeah, you’re right, physically I…my body wants yours. In that way. But I don’t want to be your doormat, except maybe in bed. I would never submit to someone who treats me the way you do.”
Kragen flinched, as though he’d been struck, and then his grip on her hair tightened. His eyes glowed a little brighter.
“You would submit if I demanded it,” he said.
Andie almost laughed. Because she knew, down to her bones, that he was right—and that he would never do that. She’d seen enough of him through their weirdo bond the times when they’d touched. Kragen had a code.
Andie didn’t, at least not in this situation. And she was the granddaughter of one tough SOB of a trial lawyer.
She knew what she had to do.
Kragen stood over her, fuming, while she could see all the things he’d tried to hide from her simmering, just near the surface. That’s what she wanted, she realized now. She wanted to see the real Kragen. She wanted to see all of him. Because then she’d know if she could trust her heart.
Which meant she had to provoke him.
“But you won’t, will you?” she said, meeting his gaze head-on. “Either because you don’t want me, or because you’re scared.”
With a growl, Kragen pushed her backwards, pinning her roughly against a tree, like he knew that was another one of her fantasies. Andie wanted to moan. She wanted to lose herself to this completely. Her eyes fluttered as he brushed her cheek with his thumb, the rest of his hand still lost in her hair. And only tiny part of her retained self-control.
“Look at me,” he commanded.
Andie opened her eyes, but it wasn’t enough. With another growl he cupped her ass with his hands and lifted her up, wrapping her legs around his waist, pinning her back against the tree. She gasped.
She could feel him. Not just the bond. Him.
His massive cock was hard under his leathers, pressing between her legs as he pulled her onto him. Instinctively, she squirmed and let out a low moan just as another growl gathered in his chest. Some part of her, the part that still had a brain, was screaming about how he was way too big and she should just run for the hills, but the rest of her wasn’t listening.
