by Anna Hackett
Something in his tone must have got through. She stared at his face then slowly turned back to look at Emerson.
“I can’t remove it, Natalya,” the doctor said. “I’d need a donor heart or a synthetic one and I don’t have either. I’ll do some more tests—”
Natalya went rigid.
Emerson scraped a hand through her hair. “Look, I know it isn’t what you want to hear, but that…heart…is pumping. It’s doing the job of a human heart. You’re healthy. From what I can tell from your scan results, your DNA is clear and there is no trace of the orange transformation fluid that seems to be a necessary part of turning a human into a raptor.”
“Why did I speak raptor, then?”
“I’m not sure. There may be some latent abilities from the raptor organ. Perhaps they have some sort of genetic memory. I will investigate more, but for now, all I can tell you is that I am ninety-nine percent certain you aren’t turning into a raptor.”
A shiver wracked Natalya and Reed held her tighter.
She gave a nod. Then her hands slid down over his, and she pulled his hands away from her. “Reed? Would you do something for me?”
“Anything.”
Her gaze ran over his face, like she was memorizing his features. “I need some time alone.”
***
Reed picked at his dinner. Sounds of the dining room echoed around him—cutlery clinking against plates, happy conversations, laughter.
His squadmates surrounded him, everyone eating as well, but no one was saying a word.
Natalya had a raptor heart inside her. Shit.
“I can’t stand this any longer.” Claudia set her knife and fork down. “You haven’t said a thing, Reed. How the hell is she?”
He pushed his plate away. “She’s shaken, scared.”
“Doc work out why the hell she could speak the raptor language?” Shaw asked.
Reed ground his teeth together. “Why not just ask? Is she a hybrid?”
Shaw lifted his drink and took a sip. “I know she isn’t a hybrid, man. She’s been here weeks. Never seen any sign she was a raptor.”
Reed ran a hand over his face. “She has a raptor heart.”
Shaw frowned. “Come again?”
“Those bastards cut her open, removed her heart and slapped one of their own ugly organs in her.”
A hushed silence fell.
“Fucking hell,” Shaw said.
“That’s—” Claudia just shook her head.
Marcus scowled. “Fucking raptors.”
“The doc says it’s working fine, like a normal heart, but that maybe it also gives her some…raptor-like abilities. They’ll have to do more tests.” He shoved his chair back. It was one of those times he felt like the walls of the base were closing in on him. “And Natalya wanted some time alone.”
“Alone?” Claudia’s brows rose to her hairline. “And you bought that? She needs you. You leaving her alone just reinforces whatever fucked up thoughts are spinning through her head. It tells her that you don’t want to be with her right now.”
Reed blinked. Was that really what Natalya thought? He’d thought he was doing the right thing, honoring her request. Hell. He shot to his feet and left the dining room at a run.
He made it through the tunnels to her quarters in record time. He thumped a fist against her door and waited.
No answer.
But a locked door was no match for him. It took him a few seconds to hack the electronic lock and open the door.
Her quarters were empty. He strode through, the sense of emptiness slapping him in the face. He headed over to her bed, and noticed her narrow closet was open. Some items of clothing were strewn on the floor, and the rest of the cabinet was empty. His jaw tightened. He poked his head into the bathroom. The same thing. Toiletries yanked out of the cupboard littering her sink.
Dammit. She was gone.
Reed charged through the tunnels. He grabbed his communicator.
“Steele,” a gravelly voice answered.
“Marcus, she’s gone. She’s run.”
Marcus used one of his creative curses. “Call Noah, get him to check the security feed. Then call Devlin Gray. I hear he’s a hell of a tracker.”
“Thanks.” Reed ended the call and made another, changing direction at the same time and heading down another tunnel.
“What?” A cranky male voice.
“Noah, Reed here. Natalya’s done a runner. Can you check the security feed, tell me which exit she used?”
“Shit,” Noah muttered. “Yeah. Give me a minute.”
“Thanks.” Reed reached the door he wanted but before he could knock, it opened.
Devlin Gray stood there, a brow arched. He was tall and lean, with dark hair and equally dark eyes. He was dressed in dark trousers and a crisp white shirt. The few times Reed had seen him, he’d always thought the guy looked like he’d just walked out of a dinner party or a boardroom.
“Natalya, Dr. Vasin, she’s left. She’s messed up about what happened, scared—” Reed’s voice hitched and he looked up, taking a deep breath. When he focused back on Devlin, sympathy shifted over the man’s sharp features. “She’s alone, out there. I heard from Marcus that you’re a hell of a tracker.”
Devlin gave one short nod, stepped into the tunnel and pulled his door closed behind him. “I’ll help you find her.”
Reed’s communicator beeped. “Noah?”
“The westernmost exit. She took the tunnel to the surface.”
“Got it. Thanks. I owe you.” He slipped his communicator back into his pocket. “Western exit. Come on.”
Together, Reed and Devlin made it to the western exit and out of the tunnel into the night air. Devlin glanced slowly around, like he was soaking in the atmosphere.
Even though a desperate, edgy tension was pounding through Reed, he stepped back and stayed quiet. Santha had mentioned before that Devlin could track a mosquito through a swamp. Reed had to trust the man could find Natalya.
Devlin crouched, pressing his fingers to the soft, grass-covered earth. Then he nodded toward the trees. “She went that way.”
“You can tell?”
Devlin raised a brow, then stood in one smooth move. “She’s wearing size seven shoes, and carrying a small bag. Yeah, I can tell.”
As they moved into the trees, Reed clicked on the heavy-duty flashlight he’d brought with him. He couldn’t let himself think about what she was feeling, what was going through her mind, and just where the hell she thought she was going. He just had to find her first…and bring her home.
They jogged through the trees. Every now and then, Dev would stop and finger a leaf on a tree or touch something only he could see on the ground.
“Where’d you learn to track?” Reed asked.
“In the African Kalahari.”
Reed waited a beat, thinking the man would elaborate.
When Devlin remained silent, Reed rolled his eyes. “Okay, how’d you end up in the Kalahari, learning to track?”
Devlin paused. “I was on a…mission. It went bad. I was double-crossed by a fellow agent and got dumped in the middle of the desert a long way from civilization.” He was silent for a moment. “I was out of water and just about dead when some local Bushmen found me. The San people.”
Reed couldn’t even imagine it.
“They nursed me back to health. I stayed with them for a few months. After what had happened…I guess I wasn’t in a rush to head home. I ended up spending time with their hunters, learned how to track, how to find water, how to survive in the desert.”
“Sounds like a hell of a vacation.” Reed suspected the truth was a lot deeper and darker than Devlin was letting on.
“Yeah. Well, a few months later I figured it was time to head back to reality. I made my way to the Namibian capital, Windhoek. From there, I called…my employer.”
Reed was curious what the man’s exact background was, but he stopped himself from asking. If Devlin wanted to share his se
crets, he would. For now, the man was helping him find Natalya and Reed didn’t want to repay him with questions.
“Dr. Vasin seems like a nice woman. I was sorry to hear what the raptors had done to her,” Devlin said.
Reed’s mouth flattened. “Yeah. She’s been through a lot.”
“And you’re helping her come out the other side?”
“Damn straight. She’s mine now, I’m not letting her deal with this alone.” Or get away from him, either.
Devlin gave him an approving nod. “When someone’s walked in darkness…they need a strong hand to pull them out.” Suddenly, Devlin frowned and crouched to study the ground.
Reed watched, his nerves stretching tight.
After a couple of minutes, Dev stood. “Dammit.”
“What?” Reed asked.
“Lost her.” The lean man walked in a circle. “Shine the light on the ground.”
Reed obeyed. He searched for any sign, any clue to where she’d gone. He was worried as hell. She was upset, alone, out in the bush. But a deeper part of him was also pissed.
She’d left him.
“Ah, got her.” Dev fingered a branch of a medium-sized bush, clearly seeing something Reed couldn’t. “This way.” The man set off again.
They’d traveled a fair distance from base when the surroundings started to look familiar. Reed narrowed his gaze on a fallen tree, with its thick, rotting trunk. Something inside him burst free. “I know where she’s going.”
“You sure?”
Reed nodded. The waterhole was only another hundred meters or so through the trees. They’d just come at it from a different direction than Reed usually used. “Yeah.”
Devlin nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets. “All right, then. Guess I should wish you luck?”
“I’ll take it.”
Devlin inclined his head. “Good hunting.” Then he slipped into the shadows and silently disappeared.
Right. Reed faced in the direction of the pool. Time to get his woman back.
He flicked off his light and stepped out onto the edge of the waterhole.
He didn’t see anything, or hear anything. The surface of the water looked perfectly still in the moonlight. Damn. What if he’d missed her? What if she’d left? It felt like a hand gripped his lungs and squeezed. What if he’d lost her?
Then he heard a splash of water.
He stepped closer, his boots hitting rock.
And saw her.
She rose out of the water like a sensuous nymph in a spring. Her slender back was to him, crossed with tiny black bikini strings, her skin glowing in the moonlight.
One word reverberated through Reed. Mine.
Chapter Eleven
Natalya wasn’t sure what made her turn around. There hadn’t been any sound. Just a whisper of sensation on her skin, like the brush of a cool night breeze.
Then she saw him standing there. A big, dark shadow at the edge of the pool.
His hands were clenched into fists at his side, his body rigid, and she felt the anger pumping off him.
She sank down in the water. She should have just left. She shouldn’t have come here, to their private place, for one last swim. A personal goodbye to the man she would have given her heart to…if she’d had one.
“You were leaving? Just like that?”
His words hit her like bullets. Oh, he was really mad. “It wasn’t an easy decision—”
“And you didn’t have the guts to tell me?
She stirred, the water rippling around her. Her own emotions rose up, everything she’d been through coalescing into a hot ball of hurt. “This is more for your benefit. I’m not human, Reed.”
He made a scoffing sound, stepping forward until his feet were right at the edge of the pool. “You think what they did to you makes you less human?”
“I have a raptor heart!” Her yelled words echoed through the trees, scaring some nocturnal bird from its perch on the branches. “I—” Her voice cracked and she felt tears sliding down her cheeks.
Reed moved and through her blurry vision, she saw him tear his shirt off over his head. She blinked, and even in her turmoil, the sight of dappled moonlight on all those hard muscles made her flush. He shoved his trousers down with one fast push, kicked off his shoes, and then he dived from the edge in a smooth, practiced move, cutting cleanly through the water.
He rose right in front of her, water sliding off him. Then his arms were circling her, the heat of him warming her.
With a choked sob, she grabbed him and held on. The angry, shocked, and ugly emotions in her burst and she started crying. Nothing elegant, or pretty, but hard, broken sobs.
And he held her, rocking her a little, and murmuring nonsense words to her.
She gripped him, her fingers curling into hard muscle. “I wanted to be normal. Like I was before. I was confident, Reed, sure of myself and my position in the world.”
He tucked her head in under his chin, her face pressed to his neck. He was treading water easily, keeping them both afloat. “You can’t be normal. And it has nothing to do with what’s in your chest. I’m not the same person I was before those insurgents locked me in that hole in the ground. They may not have implanted anything in me, but I still carry that experience. I’m not the same person I was before Jo, either. Or before the aliens came and blew the world to hell. None of us are.”
Natalya bit down on her lip and tried to breathe. “It’s not the same. The raptors left something in me, something physical. A piece of them…and I can’t get rid of it.”
“Whether it’s a physical or emotional scar, it doesn’t matter, Natalya. We’ll always carry something with us. It’s what we choose to do to move forward that counts.”
It couldn’t be that simple. She wanted to believe she could move forward, but the scar on her chest and the beat that echoed in her ears wouldn’t let her.
A hand fisted in her wet hair. Hot gold eyes seared her. “We can’t go back, sweetheart. Only forward. I want you to move forward with me.”
Her stomach clenched. “How can you still want me?”
He muttered a curse and shifted her, urging her to wrap her legs around his hips. She was wearing a black bikini she’d found at the clothing store. Something a little sexy and daring, with ties at the side. At the time, she’d daydreamed of teasing Reed with it.
He moved her and she felt the hard press of his cock against her. She gasped.
“Yeah. I want you. I’ve wanted you a really long time and it’s got nothing to do with whatever pumps the blood around your body.”
She blinked. When he put it like that…
“It’s got to do with the strength I see in you. A quiet core of steel. I’ve seen you fighting to recover, fighting to help by using that crazy smart mind of yours, and I certainly haven’t missed those lovely curves of yours. The way those teasing little skirts hug your hips drives me crazy.”
She blinked again. “Those skirts are…ordinary. Sensible.”
Another male scoffing noise. “Hell no, my brown-eyed girl. They’ve been like a red flag to me. They make me want to shove them up and put my mouth between your legs.”
“Reed.” She moved against him. She felt so empty, so hollow, and she knew he was the only thing that could fill her up.
“I need you on my cock, Natalya.” He moved through the water, carrying them to the edge. “I want to slide inside you and make you mine.”
God. Her blood was pounding through her. “Yes.” She moved her hips again, that hard bulge rubbing against where she was rapidly growing very wet. Need was a strong potent thing.
He fingered the tiny bikini top, sliding a thumb under the strap. “This little thing is designed to drive me crazy, right? I can see the perfect swells of your pretty breasts, but those rosy nipples are hidden from me. Tease.” He yanked the top off and tossed it up on the bank.
Then he lowered his head and sucked.
Oh. She arched up into his mouth, her hands delving into the go
ld-tipped strands of his hair. She pulled him closer. “More. Harder.” She needed him, too.
“Greedy.” He sucked harder, making her cry out. Then he switched to her other breast.
While he was licking and sucking, his other hand slid down. He fingered the ties at the side of her bikini bottoms, but he left them tied up and fingered the edge close to where she was wet and needy. He slid a finger under the side, teasing a little, then he touched her.
“Reed!” She surged against him. The dual sensations of his mouth and fingers were too much. But she needed more, oh, she needed so much more.
“Mmm, so hot and wet for me here.” His finger slid inside her, making her moan.
“I’m so empty, Reed. Please.”
“Oh, yeah.” He slid another finger inside her. “So, tight, baby. You’re going to feel so damn good around my cock.” He pulled out of her, then impatiently tore the bikini bottoms off. “I’m going to fill you up.”
He spun her and pressed her toward the smooth, flat rock at the edge of the pool. Her breasts pressed against the firm surface. The rock still retained a little warmth from the day and the sensation against her nipples was electrifying.
A big hand pushed her knees apart, then his hand was sliding up against her wetness. “Brown-eyed girl, I’m going to fuck you in my bunk later. With all the lights on. I want to see every inch of you. Moonlight is beautiful on your skin, but I want to see these sweet, plump lips.”
God, she hadn’t guessed he’d talk dirty during sex. It was driving her wild. But she wanted to make sure he didn’t think he was the only one on this ride. She was a full participant, not just holding on and letting him drive. She reached back until her fingers brushed his cock. It was hard, thick, rising high.
“I have some things I want to explore, too.” A naughtiness she’d never felt rose up inside of her. She licked her lips and looked back over her shoulder. “I want to taste you, suck you and feel you in my throat.”
“Fuck, Natalya.” His hips surged forward, thrusting his hard length into her hand. “Damn, you’re going to make me spill all over your fingers.” He tugged her hand away and urged her back onto the rock. “Later, baby. Later I’ll slide my hands into that pixie hair of yours and watch you suck my cock. But right now—”
