“This is embarrassing,” Violet said, “but even though we’d barely spoken to each other before, I was so sad when you left and joined the SEALs. Even after all that time, I still fantasized about running into you again, about seeing your face...”
Asher’s roars quieted down, and he began to shake.
“There was something about you, and I knew it wasn’t just a stupid crush. My friends all told me to let it go, to move on. I didn’t want to though, even though I didn’t know where you were or if you were even still alive. You disappeared off the face of the earth, but that still didn’t stop me. I knew it would all be worth it if I could just see your face again.”
He hung his head as he shook, and a low growl filled the station.
“And it was worth it when I saw you again. Everyone was wrong, and I’d been right to wait. But now you’ve disappeared again, and I’m worried that you really are gone. Please, Asher, if you’re still there, let me see you again.”
Asher exploded into a bone-rattling growl, but then he began to shrink. He shrank down to normal bear size, and finally he transformed into a human.
He looked up at her, and she saw his face again. His red eyes faded slowly to brown, and though his jaw trembled, he managed a smile. “Hey,” he said.
He looked awful, full of bleeding holes and matted in blood. But he was still breathing, and if he could smile, Violet knew he’d be okay.
“Hey,” she said, laughing in relief.
Andrei lunged for Asher and tore the tooth out of his forearm. Alex took a shot, but Andrei rolled with the tooth down into the train tracks.
“Shit!” Haller yelled.
Alex limped toward the train tracks, but before he reached the edge, wings so wide they filled the station burst out from the tracks. Fire shot up, and even from twenty feet away Violet could feel the heat burning her face. She covered her face, and Asher wrapped his arms around her to shield her with his body. She peaked around him and saw the helmeted men unloading their machine guns into the rising dragon.
“Alex, can you shift?” Asher shouted.
Alex shifted, but his wing was cut and bleeding. Alex was an emerald green while Andrei was blood red.
Andrei leapt and flapped his wings. He smashed into the ceiling, and it shattered open. Concrete and dirt and dust exploded and then fell and covered the train tracks in rubble. The rocks and chunks of debris landed on Andrei, and the falling ceiling coated him in dust. The flurry of bullets seemed to simply bounce off his thick scales. The hole he’d made reached to the surface, and sunlight poured in and onto him.
Andrei slammed into the ground atop the pile of rubble, roared, and then leapt again. This time he simply disappeared into the sky. Alex leapt after him, flapped his wings twice, and fell to the ground. He shifted back and shouted, “Fuck! My wing is torn. I can’t fly!”
He held a hand to his ear and said, “SAM truck, fire!”
Violet heard a loud sound, like a firework, and she saw a streak of smoke flash across the opening in the ceiling. Moments later she heard an explosion.
Alex held his hand to his ear, waiting.
“Shit!” he said. “Missiles hit, but he’s not down.”
Asher held Violet, but he was so drained and hurt that she worried he’d collapse. “Lay down, Asher.”
“That sounds good,” he said.
Suddenly the helmeted men raised their guns and pointed them at Andrei’s men.
Andrei’s men did the same.
Alex, Demian, and Haller were in the middle.
“We could fight now,” Alex said, “and we’d all lose.”
Jax said, “We’re mercenaries. If we die, we don’t get paid.”
“The police—or more likely Metin—will be here soon. Let’s both just get out while we can,” Alex said.
“Fine by me,” Jax said. “And, Violet...sorry. I got a lot of money for betraying you, and I can do a lot of fun things with it.”
Jax grinned and then ran off with his team.
CHAPTER 23
ASHER
He woke up in a bed, and Violet was at his side. Was he dreaming?
“Violet?” he said.
She opened her eyes. “Asher, how do you feel?”
He kissed her, and her eyes closed again. Energy flowed back into him as they kissed, and when he let her go, she smiled.
“I’m fine now,” he said.
“Your bear?” she asked.
Why are you talking instead of doing the sex? his bear said.
“He’s back to normal,” Asher said, feeling a tsunami of relief wash over him.
But then it was gone just as fast.
“Andrei,” he said. “Did Alex—”
“No,” Violet said. “They hit him with some missiles, and it seems to have wounded him at least, but he got away. Alex is worried that Metin will find him first.”
“Maybe I can talk Metin out of it. I’ve felt the tooth take me over. There’s no controlling that. You were the only thing strong enough to pull me back out, and Andrei’s mate was taken from him...so nothing will pull him back.”
“Andrei had a mate?”
“Yes,” Asher said, “and Metin killed her.”
CHAPTER 24
VIOLET
Violet’s eyes widened. “He...just killed her? Just like that?”
“No,” Asher said. “It’s never so cut and dry with Metin. Andrei’s mate was a soldier in SHIFT, and we were doing an extraction, some high-priority informant. Andrei’s mate, Sandra, was supposed to make contact, discreetly, and then Andrei would do the pickup at night, get them both out of there under cover of darkness. It just so happened that the priority target—a terrorist leader we’d been searching out for over four years, a guy we thought we’d never see in daylight or above ground again—showed himself right under Sandra’s nose. She made the right call and sacked the original mission to try to take him out. They caught her though—the guy had over a dozen guards—and Metin made the cold and calculated decision he always does. He ordered a drone strike, just unloaded hellfire on everything within two klicks. He took out Sandra, the informant, and his prized target. Got a medal for it even.”
“Jesus,” Violet said. “Is that what made Andrei leave?”
“Yeah,” Asher said. “And you can see now why Metin didn’t let him leave. Would you trust the powerful dragon whose mate you killed to not come after you? It’s why I left too. I saw what we were doing, killing one monster and making a new one in the process. What was the point?”
Violet stroked his arm, which was almost fully healed. Asher had slept for over twelve hours, and Violet had barely left his side.
“We can’t just abandon this now,” Violet said. “Can we?”
“No,” Asher said. “I owe it to Andrei to put him down. If you hadn’t brought me back, I’d have wanted him to do the same for me.”
She kissed him long and deep, and his hands ran up her legs and side, his warmth spreading into her.
She felt his hard muscles against her, and her breasts pressed into him. She reached down and cupped his balls. Then she ran her hand up his hardening shaft.
“Maybe you need to rest longer?” she said, teasing him.
“If my dick is hard,” Asher said, “it means I’m healed enough to do it.”
“Is that a shifter thing?” she asked, beginning to stroke him up and down.
“No,” he said. “It’s a guy thing.”
He put his hand on her stomach, and slowly he ran his hand lower and lower. She squeezed his hard cock and gasped as his hand fell between her legs. Asher got on top of her and then kissed down her body until his dick moved out of reach. She started to protest, but then he kissed her nipples as his finger found her clit. She moaned instead.
He went lower and lower, kissing her all over as he went, until finally he kissed between her legs. She spread her legs wide and moved her hips up to meet him. The warm wetness started, sweet and subtle, but soon it began to envelop her enti
re existence. She found her hand on the back of his head, urging him on. She squeezed her own breast with her free hand as the shockwaves of pleasure ran across her body.
Asher’s own hands ran up her waist and breasts as his tongue ran all along her clit and outer lips. He began a light sucking as his tongue flicked gently, and Violet’s body lost control. She arched her back and rose her hips up in the air, and Asher had to hold her tightly and move with her to keep on target. He was a sniper both in and out of bed; he knew exactly where to aim to make her go wild.
He squeezed and teased her nipples with both hands as the pressure built up within her. His tongue and lips were all over her, and she never wanted them to leave, but as she got wetter and wetter, she knew that it couldn’t last forever. She smiled through her moans, thinking about it. She would come and get soaking wet, and then he’d be hard and ready to put it inside her. She could come as many times as Asher wanted her to, which was fortunately always more than once.
She squeezed her thighs tight around his head as the orgasm began to explode through her, as if tightening around him would somehow bring him closer to her. His tongue moved faster and hit all the right places as the full-blown orgasm erupted, and she heard herself screaming as tears began to fill her eyes. His hands move down to her waist and held her steady. She knew he could barely keep his tongue in position with her wild movements, but he somehow managed to keep it there, which kept her coming hard.
She felt herself dripping wet as she screamed and convulsed both outside and inside. Asher kept going, and she was so wet now that she could hear his tongue’s movements, which made her come even harder. Finally the orgasm peaked. Her eyes were shut and wet with tears, her body arched up impossibly high, and she moved her hips wildly against Asher’s mouth until finally she fell and collapsed from the exertion.
She hit the bed sweaty and cum-soaked and felt aftershocks of the orgasm rock through her as Asher licked her slowly. She had to push him away because it was too much to bear, and he smiled up at her as he rose to his knees. Tired as she was, the sight of his rock-hard cock springing up and down as he adjusted himself made her feel a renewed longing, as well as a second wind.
He lowered his cock onto her lower abdomen, and she locked eyes with him but said nothing.
Still looking at her with his big brown eyes, he slowly slid his cock along her body until it hit the wetness from her orgasm. She shuddered as the head of his cock ran along her sensitive and swollen clit. She was soaking wet, and there was almost no friction. Asher moaned as his dick dipped into the wetness between her lips.
“If you’re too tired from coming so hard,” he said, “I can go make breakfast.”
“It’s seven at night.” She giggled.
“Dinner then. Or breakfast for dinner? Where are we, by the way?”
“Another safe house,” she said. “More secure, so the food sucks.”
“Ah,” he said, rubbing his cock up and down her wetness but not going in.
She realized she needed him inside her. The orgasm had been incredible, but she needed him to come too, deep inside her.
“Since the food is bad,” she said, “we need to work up more of an appetite to eat it.” She looked down at her soaking wet pussy, and his huge dick rubbing against it, and then back up at him.
He nodded and adjusted himself, and suddenly she felt the massive warmth sliding into her. She gasped in shock. How did it feel so damn good every single time?
He pressed her legs back and slid deeper into her. Then he met her eye to eye. She looked into his eyes as she felt him sliding into her, felt them becoming one. When he was nearly as deep in as he could go, she tightened herself around his shaft and watched his eyes roll back in his head.
“God,” he said. “I love when you do that.”
“And I love you,” she said.
The tears were flowing again, but not from the orgasm.
He ran his hand through her hair as a smile filled his face. He leaned down and kissed her tears dry, one by one. He looked back into her eyes and said, “I’ve known for a while now. You’re my mate...and I love you more than anything.”
More tears. She laughed and smiled up at him, and something she’d never felt surged up in her chest and then covered her like a warm blanket on a winter morning. It amplified everything, including his warmth inside her, and he began to move in and out of her. He moved slowly, but deep.
She wrapped her legs around him and started to move against him. She thrust her hips in rhythm with him, and she found herself moving faster, harder. She’d almost lost Asher, but he was back and belonged to her again. She realized she wanted to spend her life with him, and she’d never let go of him.
He sped up to match her, and their combined wetness was loud enough to hear over their moans. Each time he sank into her, she could hear it.
The orgasm came as a rising current, building up slowly but almost never-ending. Each moment that passed—and each thrust from Asher—filled her with increasing and nearly incomprehensible ecstasy. The physical sensation combined with the love she felt for him, and the two forces fed off each other until she clenched up all around him: her legs squeezed, her arms wrapped around him as her fingernails dug into his back, and deep inside she clenched tight against his rock-hard manhood.
He grunted in a final burst of speed, and she felt hot blasts of wetness fill her up inside as the orgasm nearly sent her unconscious. She held tightly to Asher as he filled her with his seed, filled her burst by burst until she felt her body fall slack and Asher too finally slowed his pace.
When he rolled off her, he fell down onto his back beside her, and they both were panting and gasping for breath. The sheets were soaked with more than just sweat, and when Violet finally had the energy to look over at Asher, they both just laughed from pure joy.
“I think I’m hungry enough that anything would taste good now,” Asher said.
CHAPTER 25
ASHER
Asher put his thumb on the pad and pressed his eye into the retina scanner.
The door opened.
He and Alex had agreed that reaching out to Metin was necessary. Asher’s talk with Andrei before he’d bound to the tooth had made it clear: Metin was the target. Even if they had no real desire to work with Metin, which Asher didn’t, he at least was obligated to tell Metin.
Two men hand searched Asher.
“Really? I went through a metal detector and a body scanner.”
One of the men gave Asher a stiff look.
“And I can turn into a bear.”
Neither of them laughed. “You’re clear to go in, Mr. Pines.”
Mister. The SEALs and SHIFT really were behind him. He could just walk away from all of this if he wanted. Let down Alex, Demian, and Haller. Let down Andrei. Could he live with that? Was it worth getting free and living a normal life if you had to abandon everyone to do it?
Asher opened the door to Metin’s office and stepped inside.
Metin sat straight up at his desk, not rising for Asher.
“Sir,” Asher said.
“You’re a civilian now. At ease.”
Asher sat down.
“Really, Asher, you delivered the tooth right to him. You’re lucky he didn’t torch hundreds of civilians or take down a building on his escape.”
“You’ve never been shy about collateral damage,” Asher said, crossing his arms.
“That’s why you’d never cut it in leadership,” Metin said. “You’re not willing to make sacrifices, and now, because of that weakness, Andrei is free with the tooth.”
Asher stood up and spoke down to Metin through gritted teeth. “You’d rather he had the tooth but was not free. You’d rather he was under your control.”
“We could have focused that power—” Metin began, but Asher cut him off.
“No,” Asher said. “I held that power, and it can’t be controlled.”
“My report said you were able to shift back.”
&n
bsp; “It took everything I had,” Asher said, falling back into his chair. “I doubt I could have done it again. If Violet hadn’t been there, right in front of me, reminding me of what I had, I couldn’t have come back.”
“So,” Metin said, sighing, “Andrei cannot be brought back.”
“No,” Asher said, his voice full of venom.
“I still stand by my decision,” Metin said. “It was a necessary sacrifice. Taking out that target saved thousands of lives at the cost of a few. I’d do it again.”
“Funny,” Asher said, “how your necessary sacrifices never sacrifice anything you care about, no one you love.”
“I’d do it again,” Metin said, “but that doesn’t mean I don’t have sleepless nights.”
Asher shook his head. “Your sleepless nights won’t spare you from Andrei’s wrath. I assume your intelligence is good enough, but I felt obligated to tell you that you’re his next target. His only target.”
Metin nodded. “Yes. I knew. Is that the only reason you came here, to tell me that?”
“No,” Asher said. “We want to use you as bait. Are you ready to make a necessary sacrifice?”
CHAPTER 26
VIOLET
“Wow,” Laurence said. “You got the book?”
Violet dropped the heavy box down onto the table. “Turns out it’s an old dusty scroll.”
SHIFT had agreed to let Laurence and Violet research the scroll. They’d usually hire outside experts for something like this, but technically she and Laurence were outside experts. The scroll was in Old Church Slavonic, which was a language Laurence was quite good with.
“So these powerful-ass dragons gotta hire me to read this scroll?” Laurence asked.
“Yeah,” Violet said. “Apparently they can’t even read it.”
“How long we got?”
“Andrei is in hiding, as is Metin. We’re guessing that as soon as Metin shows himself, Andrei will too. That means that—maybe—we have until Metin chooses to show himself.”
Unbearable Arms (The Grizzly Next Door 4) Page 10
