by Zoe Chant
She thrust against him, rubbing herself over his rock-hard shaft. He lifted his head and reached down, yanking her jeans off. Her panties tore in his hands, leaving him with shreds of thin, damp cloth that smelled like her. She was throbbing, desperate, dripping wet. Her hands shook as they fumbled at his jeans. She couldn’t get the button undone.
“Allow me,” Shane purred.
He slipped his hand between her thighs. She bucked against his fingers, barely noticing that he was sliding his jeans off with one hand while his other moved between her slick folds. All her senses were heightened almost to the point of pain, smell and touch, sight and sound and touch. His briefest caress was brought her to the point of climax, trembling and crying out. Her inner walls pulsed against his fingers as her orgasm rocketed up her spine.
Dazed, Catalina blinked hard, clearing her vision. Her climax had taken the edge off her urgency, but she wasn’t satisfied. She still wanted.
“I don’t know what’s happened to me,” she muttered. “I’ve never felt like this before. Not even with you.”
“You’re a shifter now,” Shane said. She could feel his stuttering breath against her face as he spoke; he wasn’t quite as cool as he sounded. “A new shifter. New senses. It takes some getting used to.”
Her hands clenched around his muscular shoulders. “I don’t want to get used to it.”
“Good.” Shane was naked now, poised above her, his cock a steel rod against her thighs. “Ready for more?”
She might have said yes, or might have simply pulled him toward her. His scent and heat were all around her, making it hard to think. He drove into her, filling her with his hard shaft. She arched into him, wet and more than ready. Every exhaled breath as he pushed into her rumbled through his chest, vibrating against hers in low snarls that became shorter, fiercer, more urgent with every thrust. She didn’t know what sounds she was making, but she saw in the blaze in Shane’s ice-blue eyes that he heard them, and they set him on fire.
He bit down on her shoulder, harder than he had the last time. Now she instinctively knew what that meant. He was marking her as his mate, driven irresistibly by the instinct of the panther within him. Catalina turned her head and nipped him back, marking him in turn.
“Mine,” he growled.
Mine, came an echoing purr within her.
The next thrust sent the bright flash of orgasm through her nerves. Catalina came again and again like a string of firecrackers was going off inside her body, each orgasm bursting on the heels of the next. It was almost too much to bear, but she didn’t want it to end. The last climax exploded up from her clit and rolled through her body, leaving her limp and trembling in Shane’s arms.
He stroked the wet hair from her forehead. “How was that?”
“How do you think?” Her voice, which she had meant to be light and teasing, came out shaky.
He tilted his head and frowned as if giving it genuine consideration, then allowed, “Probably not disappointing.”
Catalina laughed. “Is it always going to be like this? Or am I going to get used to my shifter senses?”
He kissed her. “Sex with you is always going to be amazing. As for the shifter senses, if the thrill does wear off after a while, I’ll just have to try harder to keep it exciting for you.”
Her mind reeled at the idea of Shane making an extra effort to keep it exciting. “I’ll hold you to that.”
They lay together for a while, but as the afterglow wore off, Catalina became filled with a restless energy. She couldn’t relax, but kept squirming and fidgeting. She had to try out her new powers.
She got up and dressed, then began moving about the room, tumbling and leaping, light as a feather and agile as a cat. It was as if she was in zero gravity. Her sense of her own body and its capacity to move in space was true and unerring as a compass needle pointing north. She could tumble through the air as easily as she could walk.
Shane lay still and watched her, his gaze appreciative. She didn’t know which she enjoyed more, her own new agility or the admiration and enjoyment that lit up his cool blue eyes. It made her want to show off for him.
Catalina jumped high rather than across, reaching up to slap her hand against the ceiling. Her hand struck harder than she had intended, opening a small crack. Plaster dust drifted down, sprinkling her upturned face as she landed.
Not just super-agility, she thought. Super-strength.
She saw in Shane’s expression that he had the same thought that she did. But his voice was casual as he asked, “Like your power?”
“I like it a lot,” she replied.
She started toward the main door, intending to try her strength on the bolt, but Shane shook his head.
“Let’s try something more discreet.” He beckoned her into the bathroom, where he indicated the steel towel rack. “Try this.”
Catalina laid her hands on it. As she applied steady pressure, she caught sight of herself in the mirror. She looked the same as she ever had: black hair, brown eyes, brown skin, big breasts, plump arms. But the solid steel rod bent under her hands.
Her palms were sweating with effort. They slipped. Catalina instinctively grabbed harder, and the towel rack tore out of the wall.
Shane was standing right behind her, bracing her before she could fall. He caught her gaze in the mirror, his expression intent and thoughtful. She knew that look: his wheels were turning.
“Dr. Elihu really screwed up when he gave me powers,” she said, grinning. Having a super-power was every bit as exciting as she’d ever dreamed it would be. “This room can’t hold us any longer. If we combine our strength, you and me together could rip the door right out of the wall.”
Shane didn’t smile back. “We could. But escaping isn’t so simple now.”
“Because of the treatment I need?” Catalina recounted her conversation with Dr. Elihu, concluding, “But he’d say anything to make me stay. What I know for sure is that you can survive without the treatment. If you can, there’s a good chance I can too.”
Shane was silent, but his eyes were the blue of a frozen lake, as bleak as they’d been when he’d knelt by her bed and stopped telling her to fight, the moment when he’d whispered that he loved her. Only then had she been truly convinced that all hope was lost and she was going to die.
But she hadn’t.
She cupped his face in her hands. “Hey. It’ll be all right. You saved me, remember? You can save me again. Take me to Dr. Bedford— she kept you alive. It won’t be fun, but I’ll make it. I’m tough.”
“I know you are.” Shane’s muscles moved under her palms as he swallowed. “If you’re sure you want to risk it, I’ll break you out of here.”
“Do it. I don’t want them to make me do what they made you do,” Catalina said. She thought, but didn’t add, And I don’t want you to stay here to protect me.
“You’re right.” He nodded, resolve hardening his features. “They won’t do that to you. They won’t do it to anyone again, if I— if we— can help it.”
“So how do we stop them?”
Catalina wasn’t surprised when he spoke immediately and with confidence. Of course he had a plan. Shane always had a plan.
“I don’t think Dr. Elihu shares his research,” Shane said. “He seems like the type who’d keep it to himself. If we destroy his lab and all the files in it, we should be able to shut down ultimate predator for good. So all we need to do is break out of this room in the middle of the night— if you’re taken to the lab tomorrow, Dr. Elihu will notice that you’ve gotten your powers— get to his lab without getting tranquilized, trash it before anyone can stop us, and run like hell.”
“All we need to do,” Catalina echoed teasingly. “You sure there isn’t anything else?”
She could see that Shane got the joke, but he didn’t smile. “There is. I’ll try to download the data and take it with us before we destroy everything, in case we can recreate the treatment outside of Apex. But I’m not sure if that’ll
be possible. It’s not just that the equipment might only exist in Apex. I’m not a hacker, and it could take hours to break into the system.”
“As opposed to minutes to just break the system?”
He nodded. “I won’t know till we get there. But I’ll try.”
“Don’t try too long. I’d rather risk dying outside than being trapped here forever.”
“So would I.”
He took her in his arms. They made love again, tender and fierce, losing themselves in sensation and touch and ecstasy, whiling away the hours of the night.
***
They didn’t sleep, but lay in each other’s arms, waiting until Catalina’s watch said 3:00 AM.
“My favorite time of day,” she whispered to Shane. “Night. Day.”
“Mine too,” he whispered back. “It’s the best time to hunt.”
They both took hold of the door lock, a massive steel contraption. Shane’s hands looked huge beside hers.
“Three,” said Shane. “Two. One. Pull.”
She threw herself back with all her strength. Shane gave a grunt of effort, his muscles bulging.
The door tore out of the wall.
Six guards stood outside. Shane pounced on them before Catalina had done more than stagger backward. He punched one in the jaw and snatched the tranquilizer gun from his belt, then fired at another guard without missing a beat. His gun hand was swinging to level on the third by the time Catalina got it together to move.
She leaped at the nearest guard, and felt a surge of triumph when she hit him. But even while using her agility, she’d forgotten her new strength. She slammed into the guard with a startlingly hard impact. Both of them flew forward and hit the wall.
Catalina staggered to her feet, bruised and shaken. Four guards were down, including one beneath her. Of the remaining two, one was opening his mouth to shout, and the other was firing at Shane. Her instinct was to go for the one trying to hurt her mate, but she recalled Shane’s advice on not jumping in front of him when he was trying to shoot someone.
Her moment of decision felt long to her, but it passed in a fraction of a second. She leaped toward the guard trying to shout. Catalina hurtled easily through the air, tucking herself into a ball for more speed and then uncurling just before she reached her target. This time she’d judged her powers better. Her hand clapped over the guard’s mouth as she landed beside him. He struggled, but his yell was muffled by her hand.
Shane dropped to the floor. The dart fired by the remaining guard passed over his head and smacked into the wall. Shane rolled forward, reached out with his free hand, grabbed the guard by the ankle, and yanked. The guard fell with a thud. Still lying on the floor, Shane fired first at the guard fighting Catalina, then at the one he’d pulled down.
A moment later, all the guards lay unconscious.
“Good call,” remarked Shane. Catalina was gasping from exertion and excitement, but he was as cool as ever. “And good work. How was your first fight?”
It had been primal and thrilling. Her inner predator had taken over, making every movement instinctive. Though she’d felt the danger, she’d felt confident in her abilities, too. Fighting had felt natural, as if it had been what she’d been born to do. But most of all, fighting beside her mate had satisfied some deep need within her. It was as if a piece of her life that she’d never even realized she’d been missing had unexpectedly clicked into place, making her whole at last.
Deep inside her, Catalina’s leopard purred her approval. We are predators. Mates hunt together.
“Wow,” Catalina managed.
Shane bent and gave her the quickest of kisses, a bare brush of his lips against hers. It made her head spin even more.
“That’s my mate,” he said. “Let’s go fight some more.”
He led her down the corridors. More guards were waiting. The next two fights passed in a confused rush of adrenaline. Catalina knocked out one guard, and then another. None managed to sound the alarm. Shane never let anyone so much as touch her, though he took some hard blows protecting her.
The next thing she knew, they stood in another empty corridor. She had lost track of where they were, but Shane hadn’t.
“Next turn goes to the corridor the lab’s on,” he whispered into her ear. “I’ll go first. They won’t see me until it’s too late. Give me a count of ten, then come in.”
Catalina nodded. Shane’s eyes narrowed in concentration. She didn’t see any change in him, but he walked around the corner as casually as if he was strolling to the grocery store.
She gritted her teeth as she counted to ten. She wasn’t afraid that he was in danger; she knew he could handle it. But she was sorry to miss seeing him in action.
At the last count, she stepped around the corner. Three guards lay unconscious on the floor, while a fourth was starting to flee. Catalina leaped forward, firing the tranquilizer gun in mid-air. The dart smacked into the last guard’s back. He took one more step, then fell unconscious.
“Show-off,” Shane said softly.
“You love it,” Catalina whispered back.
He plucked off a fallen guard’s badge and waved it at the lock. The door slid open.
Catalina tensed to leap, but Shane was faster. His tranquilizer pistol instantly leveled on the man who stepped into the lab, the black-haired, dark-eyed shifter who had tracked and captured her.
She waited for the men to attack each other. Instead, they took one look at each other, then froze. The only motion in the room was that of the door as it slid shut behind her kidnapper, leaving the three of them alone together.
Chapter Thirteen
Shane
Shane felt as if he’d turned a corner and walked straight out of reality. Everything around him fell out of his awareness: the lab, the danger, the mission. He could barely feel the warmth of his mate, though she was standing right beside him.
It can’t be, Shane thought.
But there was that face he knew as well as his own. Justin’s face, with its sharp cheekbones, strong chin, and mouth that used to always be grinning or quivering with poorly-suppressed amusement, waiting for a prank to be sprung. The same body, tall and strong, though he held himself differently now. Justin used to be relaxed and unhurried, even in combat. Now he had an edgy predator’s wariness that made the air around him vibrate with danger.
The hair was wrong. It should be copper as a new penny, and instead it was black. The eyes were wrong. They should be a startlingly bright green, and instead they were dark as mirrors in an empty room. Justin’s skin should be tanned, but it was pale as if it had been a long time since he’d spent time in the sun.
But Shane could never mistake his friend, even if he’d changed much more than that.
He opened his mouth to say, “But you’re dead.”
Before he could speak, the penny dropped and he tried to change it to, “They told me you were dead.”
Both sentences caught in his throat and choked him.
“You never came back for me.” It was Justin’s voice, but with a chill that Shane had never heard before, in all the ten years they’d served together in combat. “‘Never leave a fallen comrade.’ I knew you’d come for me. But you didn’t. I finally had to admit to myself that you weren’t going to.”
Catalina’s baffled tones rose up clear into the silence. “Who are you? I thought you were one of Apex’s guys. Shane’s buddies all died... I thought,” she added doubtfully.
Shane finally managed to speak. He meant to explain everything— he knew what had to have happened— but all that came out was the name that had been stuck on the tip of his tongue ever since the door had opened. “Red?”
“Justin?” Catalina exclaimed.
Justin nodded, but Shane couldn’t read those dark eyes. He’d always known what Justin was thinking. It was like talking to a stranger with the face of a friend.
“Your hair,” Shane said, only realizing the absurdity of the words as they left his lips.
But Justin responded as if it was the most natural question in the world. “I dye it. My natural color is too eye-catching. It makes people notice me. Remember me. The sort of missions Apex sends me on, I should blend into a crowd.”
“And your eyes,” Shane began, then caught himself. “Of course. Contacts.”
Justin shook his head. “They’re real. It was a side effect of ultimate predator.”
“I thought you were dead.” Now that Shane could speak again, the words burst out like a flash flood. “I saw you die! I felt it. You stopped breathing. You didn’t have a pulse. I was giving you CPR, but the doctors wanted to take over. They tried to pull me off you. I wouldn’t let go. A guard hit me across the face, and I still wouldn’t. They had to tranquilize me. When I woke up, they told me you were dead. I...”
Shane shook his head, feeling foolish. “It never occurred to me to doubt it. Everyone else had died. I assumed the process killed everyone.”
Some flicker of expression crossed Justin’s half-familiar face, but Shane couldn’t tell what it was.
“You know Shane,” Catalina put in. “Justin, think about it. You know him. You’ve known him for much longer than I have. Is he the sort of person who would ever leave anybody behind?”
“No,” Justin said, as if automatically. “No. But you didn’t come back. And I knew you had the choice to stay away. Blackburn bit you, but you escaped before they could put you through the ultimate predator process. At least... That’s what they told me.”
Shane was starting to be able to read his expressions. Some echo of the man he used to know stirred, breaking through the chill. A spark of anger rose in those strange eyes.
“Those assholes!” Justin exclaimed. That was more like him. “They lied to both of us. They told you I died so you wouldn’t look for me. And they told me you’d abandoned me so I wouldn’t look for you.”
Shane nodded. A cold fury was rising in him as well, pushing aside the shock. “They must have kept us in different bases so we wouldn’t run into each other accidentally. Then they re-captured me, and my mate here got caught with me. They were probably going to move us to a different base, to keep me away from you, but she and I escaped first. They must have been pretty desperate to send you after me.”
