“Jace is taking the kids back.” He walked until he was about twenty feet away, tree branches shading his features, his expression unreadable. “We dumped your car into a ravine.”
Even better. “I could use a long walk. I ate a whole turtle cheesecake last night, and that’s like twelve billion extra calories to burn.” She wasn’t kidding, either. She stopped for some ribeye and somehow the cheesecake ended up in her cart. She was in the middle of slicing herself a piece when she chucked the knife, grabbed a fork, and ate straight from the box. No one said vampire-shifter hybrids couldn’t stress eat.
Rhys narrowed his eyes on her, like he knew she wasn’t kidding. “E said you might need help feeding.”
That was dangerous territory. “Thanks for the offer, but I’d prefer not to get killed smelling like you.”
He stalked toward her. “If you didn’t overindulge,” his eyes flicked down her body and back up to her face, “and spent a day in the woods getting back to the compound, would you still smell too intimately like me? Or just like we’d been fighting.”
“You mean like, if a hybrid drinks from a shifter in the middle of the woods, did it really happen?”
He moved closer until he was peering down at her. “What happens in the woods, stays in the woods.”
Holy. Shit. “Did you just make a joke? Why, Rhys,” she cooed, “I didn’t know you had it in you.” Her intended tease backfired because her desire was getting uncontrollable around the mouthwatering male. “All jokes aside, I don’t know if I can stop drinking from you without stripping you naked and climbing on.” His nostrils flared as he inhaled sharply. “And that would be bad for me.”
“Would it?” he spoke quietly. “You would have enough time before getting back.”
X’s brow creased because he didn’t understand, and she didn’t want to spell it out. But… “I don’t want to feel like I’m giving you sex for blood.” I want us to be more than a transaction.
Undaunted, he countered, “I thought there was no us. And we aren’t a transaction.” Damn, he heard that? “You need blood, and I want you only to have mine. If anything else happens, it’s you and me and nothing more. I won’t mark you until you’re ready.”
Hell, that’d be a death sentence. It’d be like a bat signal over her head that she belonged to the commander and she’d let him claim her. As for being ready, she refused to entertain the option that she might have a future with this male. It’d cloud what she might need to do to end Madame G.
Holding his wrist up until it caught her attention, like a diamond would for a rich man’s trophy wife, he encouraged her. “No sex, but you need to feed. You don’t know what you might have to face when you get back.”
It was his concern for her well-being that did it. She and E had a close relationship, and they watched out for each other, but Rhys’ regard for her well-being was for her alone, not for her endgame.
Licking her lips because she couldn’t help herself, she muttered, “Fine.” Then she pulled his wrist to her mouth and sunk her fangs in.
The groan Rhys let out couldn’t be helped. Full red lips wrapped around his wrist, and he was standing close to his mate. They’d only ever been this close while fighting, never just standing together, soaking in the other’s presence.
He was soaking in more than that. Her scent, her voluptuous body that went on for days, and her gentle tugs on his wrist. Rhys was sure his arousal permeated at least a hundred-yard radius through the woods; his shaft was thick and throbbing, damn near making him dizzy. These days he only grew hard after protecting her dreams, surrounding her dream form, and holding her ethereal body close. He’d wake up tenting his bed like he’d done when he was thirteen, and that was a long time ago. Then he’d adeptly take care of business in the shower.
How many years had he been doing that? He only remembered his last act of intercourse because of the awful, slimy feeling that had settled deep in his gut because none of the women that night had been her. He’d gone on a revenge binge after smelling her intoxicating scent on that arrogant vampire. After that, he couldn’t get it up around another female because the interest just wasn’t there. Even when he knew X had given her body to another, and it devastated him, he focused on his job and figuring out what his mate was up to.
To be this turned on, in the physical dimension, next to his stunning mate was…exhilarating and erotic and…Another grunt escaped as she tugged on his wrist. Painful. Yep. Exquisite pain thrummed along an invisible cord from where her lips were pressed to where his pulse thrummed in his cock.
The beat crashed through his head; it pounded as his vision clouded. Forcing himself to concentrate, he anchored his other hand behind his back, otherwise, he might start unbuckling her shoulder harness and tactical belt. Hell, just the belt would do, then he could unsnap her leathers and roll them down…
Sweet Mother, that wasn’t helping. If he didn’t need her to be as strong as possible before returning to Sigma, this would’ve been a bad idea. Really bad. Instead, he had to think about how he was going to uncross his eyes and not waddle back to the colony sporting a raging hard-on, huffing like a bull in attack mode. He’d wait there after she left and let his body calm down before heading back to meet Jace.
Her strawberry tongue licked over the puncture marks; he almost dropped to his knees with lust. Her tongue had been on him. Her tongue. Licked him. It was better than any shower daydream he’d had, and it fired up all his protective shifter male instincts until they were demanding he take her and mark her and find a way inside her powerful, delectable body.
“Damn,” she breathed. “Your blood is amazing. Just…” She drifted off inspecting him. “Rhys, are you all right?”
He nodded, all but busting his teeth clenching his jaw. He finally worked enough words to say, “Go. Before—Go.”
Those shocking green eyes of hers narrowed on him, gauging his distress. It almost pushed him over the edge when she chewed her bottom lip with one white fang.
Mercy.
When she started unhooking his pants, he stopped her by putting his hands over hers until she stilled. “Don’t. You don’t need to. I said I wouldn’t.” Maybe just touching her warm skin would be enough to see him through the haze of lust.
Tilting her head to consider him, she batted his hands away. “Rhys, how have you lasted this long without going feral?”
Because I found you. Did he say that out loud? He couldn’t tell, his mind was clouded in potent desire.
“But we only met in the last decade. You’re what? A few hundred years old?”
“Duty,” he bit out. “Go.”
Her fingers continued to deftly unzip his pants and he lost all breath when her hand wrapped around his length and pulled it out. The cool air shocked his skin, causing his balls to throb.
“I want to do this for you, Rhys. Something I can do for you.”
You can survive this crazy plan you have and come home to be with me. She could do that for him.
Sinking to her knees, Rhys looked down, feeling like he had tunnel vision. The beauty down in front of him, with her mouth hovering just inches from his manhood, was all he could see. Sigma could march an army right behind X and he wouldn’t notice.
With deliberate slowness, she leaned forward and planted a kiss at the top of his shaft. He hissed like her lips burned him. In all his many, many years, nothing felt as good as that kiss had. Until she slid her lips over him, the heat and moisture of her mouth encompassing his length.
Growling at the magnificent sensation, he forced himself to stay standing while she worked him from tip to hilt, swirling her tongue down and around, up and over. Nearly whimpering as she let him go, his erection bobbed in front of her. She bared her fangs and raked one along a protruding vein. He almost finished right then and there.
Grinning wickedly, she took him back into her mouth and continued her sweet, sensual ministrations. Tunneling his hands through her hair, he moved his hips to the rhythm of her tongue
. Rhys loved how the shorn sides of her scalp contrasted with the lush fullness of the top. He stroked her hair, reveling in being able to have his hands on her, treasuring the feel of her instead of pointing a gun at her or slicing her lithe body with a cold blade, but giving her the tenderness and care she deserved.
“Alex, I…I’m going to come.” The nickname he’d come to use for her slipped out, and he hoped she didn’t mind. It fit her; she was no longer young and sweet Alexandria, and to him she was much more than Agent X.
To prove the moniker pleased her, she hummed over his pulsing shaft, reached into his pants to cup his balls, and he lost it. Going rigid, throwing his head back, he roared into the sky, pumping his load into her over and over and over. He couldn’t stop, his voice wore down until he was hoarse, and his strength drained from him after years and years of being a virile male shifter deprived of his mate.
When he was completely spent, she released him from her warm mouth. He sank to his knees, swaying like he was going to collapse.
Surprising him yet again, she tucked him back into his pants and reached up to stroke his cheek. Before he could return the gesture, she was up and gone.
“Boss!” Jace called, running in his direction. “Boss, is everything okay. Whoa!” Jace drew up short, no doubt assailed by the scent of Rhys’ climax surrounded by X’s aura. “Yeah, so, um…” Jace cleared his throat and turned his back like he was giving the commander a little privacy. “You okay?”
Rhys bobbed his head in a nod, knowing the male wasn’t looking, but would sense the movement. Finally, shaking off the mental fog, he heaved to his feet. “Grab the car and meet me down on the highway. I can’t have them smelling me and her.” And he needed just a few minutes alone, to process what had just happened and with whom.
“Dude, yeah. Okay.” Jace started then stopped like he should check on the boss he just caught making what, in his mind, was a massively bad decision. Then he shook his head like he couldn’t believe what his senses told him and ran off, following orders.
Good. Jace might not understand yet, but Rhys’ mental state was as clear and defined as it could ever be. Any built-up tension from his long bout of abstinence—fuck yeah, gone. Any uncertainties he had—gone. Any concern that X might be lost to him—gone, no matter what she thought. He knew what his duty was now more than ever.
Chapter Eleven
“You’re doing really well, kiddo,” E told Julio, who he was helping scale an embankment.
“Thanks, Dad,” Julio said, trying not to show how much the vigorous trek through the thick trees was making him struggle.
E hadn’t had much time with the boy since he’d rescued him. The few chances they’d gotten, Julio had seemed shy, but it was better than terrified. Their relationship was new, not exactly traditional, and there was still no guarantee that E, or any of them, would survive. At least Julio knew that he had a father who would go down fighting to the death before he let Sigma have him.
“Is that a wolf?” Julio used the same tone with the overlay of cooool whenever new information was revealed.
“Her name’s Irina,” Kaitlyn supplied.
She’d been leading the way for them so E could help Ana and Julio make it over the terrain. Once they were clear of the immediate Sigma threat lurking in the woods, she would have to head back to defend the Guardians’ quarters. The attacks were becoming more brazen, and despite Dani’s upgrades in security, the recruits and Agents were tenacious and would break through the barriers any day now.
E had sensed a female shifter he’d never met was following them, and he wondered how indebted he’d be to the pack when this was all done. “Who’s she?”
Kaitlyn fell back so she was closer to E. “Master Bellamy’s mate. Irina’s a helluva fighter.”
“Why didn’t she stay back to protect the ones left at the lodge?” Those left behind weren’t defenseless by any means, but E hated taking protective resources away from them.
“Well, you trained Dani, and I doubt Dante will let a stranger touch him.”
“Whaddya mean?” E asked.
Kaitlyn shrugged, filling him in minimally. “He has some…abilities. If he’s not happy, things get wild.”
Okaaay. Whatever that means.
“Parrish can fight, he just doesn’t have field experience. Kind of the same with Ronnie, but he has a little more training. Doc is there to help. I’m sure he can fight, but I don’t know how good he’ll be. Cassie took her dad camping out of town to get away until all this is over, and Sarah can shift and fight…and shoot.” Kaitlyn laughed to herself like Sarah’s shooting was an inside joke. E hadn’t seen Bennett’s mate shoot, but he witnessed her nearly brain a vampire by swinging her shotgun like a bat.
E’s nose tickled and his ears became clogged, like when his mother would shove them full of cotton before he went swimming. Agents never got sick. Was it the mating bond overriding Madame G’s bond? He patted his ear with the palm of his hand, needing all of his senses if Sigma turned their pursuit to the woods when they found the Guardians’ lodge lacking in what they sought the most.
“How long was it before Dani knew she was clear of Madame G’s influence?”
Shaking his head, hoping to bring back the sharpness, he could barely make out Kaitlyn’s reply. “It was less than twelve hours. Pretty quickly. Started with a nose bleed.” Kaitlyn glanced over at him. “Oh shit.”
E swiped under his nose, then stared at his finger in confusion. It was covered in blood and a wet sensation developed above his lip.
“And that’s the other reason Irina showed up. In case you become incapacitated, she’s going to help keep the other two safe.”
A sharp inhale behind them suggested Ana heard their conversation. Did her hearing get more acute with their mating? Was this the beginning of becoming free of Madame G’s taint?
Ana’s attention had turned toward E and all forward progress had stopped. “What’s happening?”
“So there’s some good news and some bad news,” Kaitlyn started. "The good news is that it looks like the mating ritual is working. Maybe it’s overriding Madame G’s influence?”
“That’s good, really good.”
“Yep. Buuut we don’t know how bad E’ll get.”
Ana speculated out loud about the part Kaitlyn hadn’t mentioned. “Or if he’ll even survive, and what he’ll be like if he does?”
Solemnly nodding, Kaitlyn dug out a cloth and tossed it to E, who almost missed it, because his reflexes were sluggish. Aww fuck. It’d better be from shock and not because he was losing his enhancements.
“It’s okay,” Kaitlyn reassured the group. “We prepared for this. Let’s keep moving.”
*****
Ana’s breath caught as she spied the lush area behind the large outcropping that was to be their home for the night. “It’s stunning.”
“Mom, can I go swimming?” Julio was nearly undressed before his dad stopped him.
“Let me check it out first.”
E moved toward the small pond which was fed by two small waterways creating shallow falls. Ana eyed them covetously. She could really go for a bath, even if it involved rocks for floor mats and leaves for washcloths.
They’d been hiking for three days. E’s nosebleed cleared up rather quickly that first day making them question if the mating was a failure in that sense. Kaitlyn had left them after the first day and a half to get back and defend the lodge. According to E, the she-wolf Irina, was still out there, shadowing their movements, searching for signs of Sigma trailing them.
Ana should be exhausted, but she felt amazing, invigorated. In fact, she and E had an unspoken arrangement to proceed at Julio’s pace since he was only a kid. Since Ana had become E’s mate, her physical skills had improved. Her stamina increased, like she could hike these hills all day for weeks. Her senses were sharper; she knew exactly where singing birds were perched and could even make them out among the throng of leaves. And, um…her libido raged. Following be
hind E, how his shoulders bunched and tensed when he helped their son over rocky terrain, made her mouth water. Catching his scent the previous night as he moved past her to inspect their shelter, had made her wet like she’d never experienced before. And from the sharp turn of his head and stuttered footstep when he had passed her, he’d noticed. She would’ve been mortified, if she hadn’t been so uncomfortable in her own underwear.
Even the memory threatened to dampen her again, and she couldn’t have that; last night was unpleasant enough. Concentrate, Ana. Get Julio washed up and settled, then she could clean herself up and maybe feel human again after three days in the woods.
Am I still human? Alarm stopped her in her tracks.
“What’s wrong?” E asked sharply, turning away from his inspection of the tiny cave they were to spend the night in, having already cleared the little spring area.
“Nothing,” she replied automatically. When he didn’t turn back to his inspection, she cursed his perceptiveness. “We can talk about it later.” She rolled her eyes toward where Julio finished stripping down to his underwear for a dip.
Mollified slightly, E finished searching the cave. “This doesn’t go far into the hillside, but it’ll give us adequate shelter. We can bank Julio on each side so he doesn’t get too cold sleeping.”
Her son hadn’t slept well the last two nights of hiking. Their shelters had been little more than giant boulders and one wide ledge. E and Ana had dozed on either side of Julio, but her mate didn’t need much sleep and kept watch most of the night.
“I’ll get our meal ready while he cleans up.”
Yay…Protein bars. They could have no fires, therefore no hunting, since Ana and Julio couldn’t eat raw meat. Maybe E could, but Ana didn’t ask and didn’t really want to know the answer. Sometimes Irina appeared to show them berries and roots that were edible.
Ruefully, Ana shook her head. It wasn’t everyday a beautiful, and very naked, female appeared out of nowhere. The first time Ana had screeched. E chuckled because he’d heard the shifter. Bastard. Ana’s hearing wasn’t acute enough for the female’s stealth. Then she’d worried about what her son would see, but quickly dismissed the concern. A bare body was the least disturbing thing he’d witnessed in the last couple of weeks.
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