Prey (Copper Mesa Eagles Book 2)

by Roxie Noir

  “Cum inside me,” Katrina said. “It’s okay.”

  Zach groaned, and seconds later she could feel him jerk inside her as he dug his fingers into her hip again, his arm around her so tight she could barely breathe.

  After a long time, he relaxed and wrapped both arms around Katrina, kissing her gently on the top of her head, and she turned her neck and kissed him on the mouth while he was still inside her, slowly going soft.

  They both crawled onto the bed and lay there. Katrina was fairly certain that she was never going to be able to move again, but then Zach flopped an arm over her and she nestled into his side contentedly.

  “I don’t know if I can ever get a boner again after that,” he finally said. “I might just be done forever.”

  Katrina lifted her head and looked at him.

  “Forever?” she asked.

  Eyes still closed, he grinned.

  “Maybe not forever,” he admitted.

  Katrina rested her chin on his chest.

  “Good,” she said.

  “Filthy,” Zach said, stroking her back.

  “Me?” Katrina asked, tracing one finger over the hard lines of his abs.

  “Don’t act innocent,” he said. “You’re so respectable on the outside, no one would ever know how dirty you can be.”

  Katrina felt a blush creep up her cheeks, and she just looked at Zach.

  “I’m not, usually,” she admitted.

  He opened his eyes and tilted his head up.

  “You should be,” he said. “That was unbelievable.”

  Katrina turned pinker, her face burning.

  “Thanks,” she said, not knowing what else to say.

  Zach laughed. Then he rolled over onto his side and looked dead into her eyes, taking her hand in his.

  “Katrina,” he said. “I fully intend to find every filthy, dirty, incredibly sexy thing that you can possibly say, and I am going to enjoy every last one of them.”

  She laughed.

  “Starting in thirty minutes,” Zach said.

  Chapter Eleven

  Zach

  Zach woke up to the slow chime of church bells. He was wrapped around Katrina, and she was still fast asleep in his arms, her chest rising and falling.

  The bells kept going, and he pushed his face further into her hair.

  I didn’t see the church when we got in last night, he thought. But then again, I was drugged and distracted.

  Katrina stirred in his arms, stretching and yawning. She finally grabbed her phone off the nightstand and hit a button. The bells stopped.

  “We slept in,” she said, still not getting up.

  “I thought we were on the run,” Zach said. He inhaled deeply, enjoying her half-floral, half-citrus scent.

  “I still wanted to get up early,” she said. “The early bird gets the worm, you know?”

  “I’ve been getting too many worms lately,” Zach said, and Katrina laughed.

  “What does that even mean?” she asked.

  “I’ve been getting up early too much, I guess? I don’t know, it’s early.”

  “It’s already 7:30.”

  Zach grabbed an extra pillow from behind himself and bopped her with it. Katrina squealed, then grabbed it and shoved it back at him, but Zach grabbed it from her easily and tossed it off the bed.

  “Nice try,” he said.

  Katrina made a face and shoved at him with both hands, but Zach didn’t budge.

  “Is that all you’ve got?” he asked lazily.

  He’d already had an erection, and it was just getting harder the more she touched him.

  Katrina scrunched her face together and tried harder, to no avail.

  “Okay, that’s enough,” Zach finally said. He rolled over so he was on top of her, their faces nearly touching. “Are you done trying to shove me off the bed?”

  “I’ll get you when you least expect it,” Katrina said, squirming beneath him, her eyes laughing.

  So we’ll be doing this again, Zach thought. I wouldn’t mind waking up this way all the time.

  He kissed her hard, barely awake but already hungry. This time she yielded to him, her soft mouth opening under his, her hips rising to meet him, and then she had one back on his back and the other was wrapping itself around his cock.

  Zach groaned.

  “Good morning,” Katrina said, her voice low and sultry as her hand stroked his shaft. “Someone’s already awake.”

  “He’s an early riser,” Zach muttered into her neck.

  Her hips moved again and then her thighs wrapped around his hips, the his whole length pressed against her, and this time Katrina made a small, hungry noise in the back of her throat.

  Zach chuckled.

  “Don’t act like I’m the only one here who’s awake,” he whispered, and leaned on one elbow, tweaking a nipple.

  Then, all in one motion, she moved her hips again and suddenly Zach felt himself slide inside her, the rush of pleasure making him lightheaded even as he tightened his hands around her shoulders, pushing himself into her.

  “Mmmm,” Katrina said. She wrapped her legs around him and squeezed, and for a long moment Zach was stuck motionless, her muscles pulsing slightly around him. Then she let go and Zach thrust again, slow and hard and deep, and heard that noise again.

  “Is that how you like it?” he whispered.

  “It is right now,” she whispered back. Her eyes were half-closed, and she looked like some sort of dirty angel, her blond curls spread out around her as their bodies moved in rhythm.

  “I’m not gonna last long,” he said, watching a pink flush rise into Katrina’s cheeks.

  “You don’t need to,” she said. “I dreamed about you and woke up wet.”

  Zach grinned.

  “I really won’t last if you keep talking dirty,” he said.

  “Just give it to me hard and deep,” Katrina said, and her eyes slid closed.

  Zach didn’t need to be told twice, and moments later, Katrina’s nails dug into his sides and she threw her head back against the pillow, her pulse beating against her pale throat.

  She cried out and Zach could feel her muscles clench around him in a hard, fast rhythm, but he held himself back from the edge by sheer willpower.

  “Zach,” she whispered, and that was all it took. He felt like he exploded, totally lost in Katrina, and he buried his face in her neck as pressed himself into her, grinding their hips together.

  After he finished, he lay on top of her for long moments, both of them breathing in time. Then at last, Zach rolled off and curled himself around Katrina.

  “I meant to get out of bed,” she said after a while.

  “Yeah,” he said. “I did too.”

  * * *

  As he pulled on his pants and shirt, Katrina peeked out between the blinds, surveying the motel’s parking lot.

  “Anything?” Zach asked.

  Frankly, between being drugged and then the incredible time he’d had last night — and that morning — he’d kind of forgotten that they were escaping Katrina’s sinister boss and his minions. But they didn’t seem to have caught up yet, and for all Zach knew, maybe they’d given up already.

  “All right,” he said. “What’s the plan?”

  “No idea,” Katrina admitted. “I have no idea who they’re working with, or what they were even trying to do to you.”

  “Me either,” said Zach. “But it definitely wasn’t legal, so maybe we could just start with the police?”

  Katrina sat at the small, grungy table, leaned her head on one hand, and considered this.

  “That’s not a bad idea,” she said. “If we can get them to search the premises, we could show them the creepy cold storage facilities. I’m sure they’ve erased the security tapes by now, but it might at least be something.”

  Zach nodded. It wasn’t like he had a better idea.

  “Is there some sort of governing body that oversees... science?” he asked.

  It felt like the kind
of thing he ought to know.

  Katrina laughed.

  “Not that oversees science crime,” she said. “That’s all the same people that oversee regular crime. I think we should go to the Salt Lake police. It’s a big city, it isn’t like MutiGen could buy off the whole force. They’ve got resources.”

  She went quiet for a moment, examining the fake wood on the top of the table.

  “I’m really sorry about all this,” she finally said.

  “You already apologized,” Zach said.

  “I knew he was up to something, but I thought he was just going to get your DNA from a strand of hair or something,” she said. Her big blue eyes began to fill with tears, but she wiped them away angrily. “And I know that’s wrong, but he also told me that if I told you what was going on, I’d never work as an engineer again.”

  “Katrina,” he said. He put a hand her shoulder. “You’re not the one who drugged me and put me in the basement.”

  “But if I’d been braver that wouldn’t have happened,” she whispered.

  “You came back and got me,” Zach said. “That was brave as hell.”

  Katrina just shook her head.

  “I just wish I’d done the right thing earlier,” she said.

  Zach sat on the table and leaned down to her.

  “If you’d done the right thing earlier, we wouldn’t be here in this crappy motel,” he said. “We’d both be in our own beds, and I wouldn’t see you until tonight. And, honestly, I’m not sure I’d have made it that long.”

  Katrina half-laughed.

  “Don’t start,” she said.

  “Seriously,” he said. “I’m the one who got drugged and kidnapped. I get to decide how sorry you should be.”

  “I don’t think that’s how it works,” she said.

  “Sure it is,” Zach said. “And I’ve had great sex twice in the past twelve house, so I’m not inclined to think you should be very sorry at all.”

  She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.

  “Fine,” she said, and stood. “Are you ready to head back to Salt Lake?”

  “I guess,” Zach said. “You don’t want to stay another night in our grimy love nest?”

  “I want to shower,” Katrina said.

  “That’s fair,” Zach said, and followed her out the door.

  * * *

  They drove north, going back the way they’d come. The two-lane road was straight, the asphalt bleached nearly gray by the sun, the red Utah desert surrounding them.

  It’s amazing how quickly outside of Salt Lake it looks like this, Zach thought. Exactly like Obsidian looks. Like what I’m used to.

  Up ahead, there was a line of orange cones across the road and a crew of workmen with an asphalt road roller. The road itself was hacked into chunks, and the men stood around.

  Katrina stopped.

  “What the hell?” she muttered.

  A workman in a hard hat came over, and she wound down her window.

  “Sorry, Miss,” he said. “Emergency road repair. There’s a detour. You got to go south a couple of miles, then make a left onto Tumbledown Canyon road, and then a left onto Coyote Meadows road, and then a left onto Creosote — that one’s dirt but it’s nice and it ain’t too far — and that’ll take you to highway 435, and that goes right back up to Interstate 70 after a while.”

  Katrina exhaled, her cheeks puffing out.

  “Okay,” she said. “I guess it’s good I got gas. Thanks.”

  The man nodded, and she wound up her window.

  “God dammit,” she muttered, making a three-point turn.

  They headed south, past the motel again. Zach kept an eye out for Tumbledown Canyon road, but before they got to it, there was another line of orange traffic cones. The road beyond these was torn up as well, but there were no workers, just a sign that said DETOUR and pointed to a shoddy dirt road on the right. The road went around the side of a hill and disappeared.

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Katrina said. “Can I just drive around the torn up asphalt and go on my way?”

  Zach frowned. Her car was a small sedan, not exactly made for off-roading.

  “Let me see where this dirt road goes,” he said, and opened the door.

  Katrina also go out of the car and stomped over to the orange cones as if she might demand an explanation. Zach jogged down the dirt road toward the hill.

  He felt like he was flying, every fiber in his being humming with perfect, thrilling happiness. True, apparently his brother’s secret had gotten out, and that was bad, but he’d met Katrina. She’d rescued him, and then they’d had the best night of his life.

  Everything else could go to hell.

  He rounded the hill and stopped, shading his eyes against the sun.

  In the distance, there was a tall column of dust, and Zach squinted, trying to see what was making it.

  After a long time, he could make it out: some sort of big, black vehicle.

  Zach’s stomach lurched, and he took a step backwards. Then two.

  Big black vehicles are never a good thing, he thought. You never hear about those coming to your rescue, or arriving at a children’s hospital full of toys.

  Then, he heard a faraway yelp.

  Katrina’s yelp.

  Zach’s blood froze, and he turned and ran back toward the road, rounding the hill at top speed, and she came into view: still standing by her car, two other black SUVs in front of her, two men standing a few feet away, talking to her.

  At the same time, all three of them saw Zach.

  “NO!” Katrina screamed. She waved her arms frantically in front of her, like she was trying to warn him off, but the two men grabbed her arms and pinned them behind her.

  “ZACH! NO!” she screamed, and then one of the men covered her mouth.

  I’ll fucking kill them, Zach thought, pushing himself to run even faster. If they hurt her I’ll kill them and then kill them again just to make sure.

  Even with a hand over her mouth, Katrina was shaking her head, and the guy holding her jerked her head back. Behind him, Zach could hear the crunch of tires over a dirt road.

  Deep inside him, he could feel something start to unspool, a strange, light feeling he’d never felt before. It was primal and wild, fierce, something completely new to him.

  The crunch of tires got louder, and Zach wrung every ounce of speed from his muscles. He was close, almost there—

  The thing inside him demanded that he let go, that he reach down deep.

  It told him to jump, and he did.

  Chapter Twelve

  Katrina

  Katrina screamed through the hand clamped over her mouth, but it didn’t do any good. She knew they wanted him, not her, and she knew she was just bait, even as she thrashed against the guy holding her arms behind her back. Remembering a self-defense class she’d taken once, she stomped down on the guy’s foot, hard, and he muttered curses behind her, tightening his grip just a little.

  Get away, she thought. Get away, get away, I’ll be fine.

  Zach was close now, his face twisted in rage, the big black SUV just behind him. Katrina wanted to shut her eyes, afraid of what might happen, but she couldn’t.

  One second, Zach was running toward them.

  The next, his clothes slumped to the ground and an enormous bird was flying straight at Katrina’s head. The guy behind her let her go and she threw herself on the ground, scraping both her knees as she cowered, her hands over her head.

  What the fuck just happened holy shit what the fuck was that?

  Behind her she heard a piercing cry and then a shout that turned into a scream, and Katrina peeked through her fingers just in time to see the bird rake its talons over a guy’s head, opening a long gash from his cheek up to his scalp. Blood poured out as he waved his arms uselessly against the bird’s enormous wings, the talons opening another set of gashes on the back of his head.

  The second guy tried to run back to the SUVs, but he only made it ten fe
et before the eagle got him, too, opening a wound on the back of his neck that showed bone. The man screamed and fell to the ground, still followed by the eagle.

  The car door opened and the sound of a gunshot blistered the air, and Katrina tucked herself even tighter against the ground. There was another shot, and then another, and a huge rush of wings and the eagle was gone, soaring up into the sky, totally unharmed.

  Katrina stayed on the ground. Her whole body was shaking, and she didn’t even know if she could move.

  What’s happening, she thought. Where’d Zach go and where’d the eagle come from?

  I didn’t even know birds GOT that big. Jesus Christ.

  “Shit, he’s gone,” a man’s voice said.

  Katrina didn’t move from the ground.

  “You said he couldn’t shift,” a different voice said.

  “I didn’t think he could,” the first voice said.

  NOPE, Katrina’s brain thought. There is no way that Zach just turned into an eagle. They are staging some sort of elaborate gas lighting operation, because they want me to think I’m insane.

  I don’t know why, but that’s what’s going on here.

  “That’s gonna make this a whole lot harder,” the first voice said, and Katrina heard another car door open. Footsteps walked over to her, and at last, she looked up.

  It was Pete.

  “You believe me now?” he asked, arms crossed in front of him.

  * * *

  Pete handed a bottle of water and a napkin into the backseat of the SUV. Katrina took them without thanking him, poured the water onto the napkin, and started cleaning her knees where she’d scraped them. It hurt, but she was determined not to let them know.

  “Can you see him?” the drive asked Pete. He was a big hulking guy with a mustache, very short hair, and ears that stuck out a little too far.

  “No,” said Pete, glancing in his side-view mirror. “That doesn’t mean he can’t see us. Birds of prey have very good eyesight.”

  Katrina pulled the napkin away from her knee, the wet paper faintly pink.