by Paige Tyler
Alina glanced at Tanner. He wasn’t physically injured beyond a really nasty bite wound on one of his arms, but the mental wounds he seemed to be suffering from were obviously severe. Right now, he was sitting on the floor by himself, his gaze fixed on the bodies of the men and hybrids he’d torn to pieces after he’d completely lost it. The expression on his face was so empty and lost, it was painful to see.
She couldn’t imagine what he was going through. Sage might have lost control, but she’d never tried to hurt any of the people she knew. The same couldn’t be said of Tanner. According to Landon, Tanner had turned on Carlos Diaz. The only reason Diaz had survived was because he was a shifter. While no one blamed Tanner for what happened, his actions still weighed heavily on him. Alina knew from experience that pain like Tanner was feeling couldn’t be eased with a few words. He was going to have to deal with it on his own—at least until he was ready to let someone help him.
As if he’d been having those same thoughts, Tanner slowly stood up and headed for the front entrance of the gym. He must have felt Alina’s eyes on him, because he stopped and looked at her as if wondering whether she might try to stop him. Part of her wanted to, but she knew deep down that he needed some time to get things straight in his head. After a moment, Tanner turned and walked out.
On the other side of the gym, Landon and Ivy were arguing with Diaz. Alina couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it seemed to be getting heated.
“What’s that all about?” she asked Trevor.
He followed her gaze, then chuckled. “Diaz thinks he was turned into a shifter because he was bitten by a hybrid last year. Landon and Ivy are trying to convince him that isn’t possible and that if he’d give Zarina a sample of his blood, she could confirm that for him. Diaz doesn’t seem thrilled with the idea.”
Alina studied the Special Forces soldier. “Is that possible? Could he have been turned from a hybrid bite?”
“No. He’s a full-blooded coyote shifter through and through. I’ve known since we went on that mission to Tajikistan together months ago.”
Across the gym, it looked like Diaz had finally agreed to do what Landon and Ivy wanted, because he nodded.
Alina looked at Trevor. “You mention that mission to Tajikistan a lot. You ever going to fill me on the details?”
His mouth edged up. “As soon as the situation here is stabilized, why don’t we head back to your place? That way, we can lie around in bed for the next few days and spend a lot of time filling each other in on all the things we haven’t got around to.”
She liked the idea of spending a few days in bed with him. But there was one thing that made her hesitate.
“Are we going to find that other bug Thorn mentioned first?” she asked. “Just in case there’s still someone listening on the other end.”
Trevor chuckled. “We can do that. Or we can give them something really good to listen to.”
“I vote for option one,” Alina said.
He shrugged. “Whatever you say.”
Chapter 20
Alina collapsed forward on Trevor’s chest, trying to catch her breath as the tremors of orgasm continued to ripple through her body. Molly hopped up and put her two front paws on the side of the bed, apparently checking to make sure her mom was okay after all the moaning and groaning. After confirming Alina was fine, the dog dropped back down to the floor and wandered off to the living room.
“I’m never going to get enough of this,” Alina whispered in Trevor’s ear, loving the way his muscular body quivered beneath her as her warm breath tickled him.
He chuckled, his arms coming up to wrap around her and keep her pressed tightly to his chest. “I certainly hope not. If you did, you might stop coming back for more.”
She nipped at his ear. “Never. I’m your partner—you’re stuck with me.”
Trevor weaved his fingers in her hair and gently lifted her head to plant a firm kiss on her lips, slipping his tongue in and making her tingle all over again.
“There’s no one I’d rather be stuck with,” he murmured. “You already know that. Just like you know we’re much more than partners.”
Alina smiled down at him, knowing that was true. She and Trevor had spent a lot of time together in the three weeks since the battle with Thorn at the DCO training complex, and while they’d talked a lot about what their combined future might hold, they hadn’t spent too much time putting a name to what they had going on between them. That was probably on purpose. In her case, she was afraid to jinx the situation by saying the words too soon. She had the feeling it was the same for him. They’d both lived most of their adult lives in a world where secrets were never revealed and the truth could only hurt you.
Maybe it was time for both of them to move beyond that world.
She pushed herself up a little so she could look at him. She was still straddling his waist very comfortably but now giving herself a little more perspective. Trevor certainly didn’t seem to mind the view. He lay there with his hands behind his head, gazing up at her with heat in his eyes. She’d better get on with this before he distracted her with more orgasms.
“You’re right. We are much more than partners,” she said, carefully focusing on his face and not the other parts of his body that were begging for her attention. “Which poses an interesting question. If we’re partners who are more than partners, what does that make us?”
Alina held her breath a little. She knew in general that guys tended to get a little squirrelly when these kinds of conversations came up, but she hoped Trevor would be different.
One second, she was straddling his waist, regarding him warily with a silly knot of worry growing in her belly, and the next, she was on her back with Trevor between her legs. Leaning over, he slowly kissed his way up her neck and along the curve of her jaw, then covered her mouth with his.
“I guess that makes us two very lucky people,” he whispered in that soft, sexy voice of his as he gazed into her eyes “Because not everyone in the world gets a chance to find the person they’re meant to be with, much less have the chance to work with them every day.”
She smiled up at him. “Meant to be with. I like the sound of that.”
He grinned. “If you like the sound of that, how about this? I love you, Alina Bosch…as my partner, as more than my partner, as the woman I’m going to spend the rest of my life with.”
Something warm and altogether pleasant swirled in her belly and slowly spread throughout her whole body upon hearing him say those three little words. She’d known for a while they were in love with each other, but she was still surprised at how amazing it made her feel to hear him say it out loud.
“I’m kind of new at this, but I’m pretty sure this is the part where you tell me that you love me too, then declare your undying devotion or something like that,” Trevor teased, a twinkle in his eye.
Laughing, she reached up and yanked him down, kissing him long and hard. “Of course I love you. I think I probably loved you from the day I met you. I’ve just been scared to tell you. I didn’t want to pressure you to feel the same way before you were ready. I’m sorry if that meant we wasted time.”
Trevor kissed her again. “We didn’t waste a second. It simply took us a little while to get to where we needed to be. But we’re here now, and that’s all that matters.”
Bending his head, he kissed and nibbled her neck, something that never failed to get her going. At the same time, she felt him rock slowly back and forth between her legs, his very hard cock teasing the opening of her pussy.
“Now, let’s stop talking about how much we love each other,” he growled. “And start showing it instead.”
She sure as hell wasn’t going to complain about that.
* * *
“We’re going to be late for work again,” Alina said as she buttoned her blouse an hour later.
Their
quick display of love for each other had turned into a not-so-quick display, and now they were likely to be a good two hours late getting to the complex, especially since they’d spent the night at her apartment and were going to have to fight DC traffic all the way down to Quantico.
“Don’t worry about it,” Trevor said from the bathroom. “We’ll work a couple of hours late to make up for it. Besides, who the hell is going to notice?”
Alina shrugged, agreeing. The DCO was still in a state of upheaval since that night three weeks ago, and none of that was likely to change anytime soon. Heck, right then, she wasn’t even sure exactly who she and Trevor worked for.
One thing she knew for certain, it wasn’t John.
After Cree had successfully made it out of surgery with the prognosis of a complete recovery, everyone assumed John would come back and take over the director’s position at the DCO. But that hadn’t happened. Alina and Trevor had stopped by to visit Cree at the hospital when John announced he was taking long-term leave. Seeing his wife severely injured and having his daughter kidnapped had changed his perspective on everything. Alina couldn’t say she blamed the man. He’d been forced to hide the existence of his family from the world for nearly a decade. Maybe it was time for him to build his life around them for a while.
But John hadn’t abandoned the organization completely. He’d worked with the DCO Committee—specifically Congressional Representative Rebecca Brannon—to appoint Landon as the deputy director. Landon hadn’t been thrilled and had no desire to sit behind a desk, but he’d done it because John told him the organization needed someone with his solid reputation in place to rebuild trust and get some of the people who’d left during the Dick Coleman era to come back. It was going to take someone with a strong vision and a firm hand to make sure the DCO didn’t go off the rails again.
It looked like putting Landon in charge was a good decision, as the DCO ranks had already started to swell with good people coming in once they realized someone with real field experience similar to John’s was being put into a position of authority.
In addition to handling the day-to-day team management and field operations, Landon and his wife, Ivy, would still be partners and go on missions as needed, while Rebecca Brannon brought in someone else to deal with politics and budgets.
Rumors were already flying around that Brannon was bringing in a complete outsider to be director, some political mover and shaker from Massachusetts named William Hamilton. Alina had never heard of the guy, but apparently he was familiar with shifters already. In a bizarre twist of fate, it turned out Hamilton was the father of a woman Declan used to be engaged to a long time ago. That seemed a little strange—as in soap-opera strange—but both Declan and Kendra seemed to think there was some merit to bringing the guy in. Apparently, they’d seen him operate under pressure during some kind of kidnapping operation, and while they didn’t necessarily trust him, they’d been impressed.
Besides, it wasn’t like anyone could complain about any decision Rebecca Brannon had made up to this point. The congresswoman had somehow gotten Thorn’s goons and the hybrids shipped off to a supermax federal prison—on God knows what charges. Apparently, she’d told them if they played nice and kept quiet, she’d see to it they got out before it was time to sign up for Medicare. Amazingly, they’d all agreed.
Even more impressive, she’d handled the situation with the media and Thorn’s sudden disappearance like she was born to crisis management. She’d arranged for a few stories about Chadwick-Thorn being under investigation for DOD contract fraud to leak to the press the morning after the raid. Two days later, Chadwick-Thorn formally announced Thorn had fled the country along with a whole lot of company money, his head of security, several field agents, and a few of his lead medical researchers. The media had taken over from there, spinning tales of Thorn skimming millions from DOD contracts. There were reports of the former senator hiding out in South America as his company’s stock tumbled. Alina had seen a story on the news last night that said Chadwick-Thorn was going to be broken up and its subsidiaries sold off at a loss. The name was even being changed back to Chadwick Defense.
“You want to stop by and see Evan at the hospital before we go in to work?” Trevor asked as he came out of the bathroom, all wet from the shower and looking good enough to eat.
Okay, she needed to stop having those thoughts right now, or they’d never get out of there.
“Sounds good. I’m sure he can use the visit,” she said, trying to look at anything but the bulge under the towel wrapped around his waist. “Besides, it’ll be a good excuse for why we’re late.”
Trevor flashed her a grin. “We can just tell everyone we were having sex. They’d buy that.”
He was incorrigible. Alina ignored him and went into the kitchen to grab some small single-serving bags of chips. Evan liked when they brought him something unhealthy to eat. He’d been cooped up in the hospital recovering from an infection related to the gunshot wound to his shoulder, and he was going stir-crazy.
Fortunately, all the other members of the DCO had recovered much faster. Even Declan and Morgan were up and running around already. Hopefully, Evan would be joining them soon. The analyst didn’t know it yet, but he was in line for a serious promotion. Landon had approved him to head up the intel branch.
The one dark spot in the entire aftermath was Tanner. When he’d walked out of the gym that night, he’d disappeared off the radar completely. The intel branch was turning over every rock looking for him, but so far, they’d found nothing. Alina expected Zarina to lose her mind completely, but instead, the Russian doctor had buried herself in her work.
Trevor had followed her out to the kitchen to grab some coffee when the door opened and Kathy strolled in with a knowing look on her face.
“Hi, guys,” she said cheerfully. “I figured I should come over to get Molly, since it seems like you forgot to drop her off.”
Alina sighed. “Kathy, what did I tell you about locked doors?”
Her friend laughed and shook the key she was holding in her hand. “I don’t know. Bring a key?”
Alina scowled.
“Seriously, Alina. How else am I going to get a look at your partner fresh out of the shower wearing nothing but a towel? Consider it back pay for all those years I babysat Molly for you.”
Trevor chuckled and added sweetener to his coffee, then took his mug and disappeared back into the bedroom. Alina didn’t know what the heck she was hiding. Kathy was well aware of the fact that she and Trevor were sleeping together. He’d been sleeping at her place nearly every night—unless she was sleeping at his.
“Man, that guy of yours has one heck of a body on him.”
“Kathy!” Alina said, not necessarily shocked but definitely embarrassed, because she knew Trevor had heard every word her friend said. “You have a boyfriend!”
“Yes, I do.” Kathy took one of the bags of chips and opened it. “But it’s not like I’m asking Trevor to drive me around in a minivan. I’m just stating the obvious.”
Alina simply shook her head, giving up. Her friend was the very definition of the inappropriate neighbor.
“So I guess Trevor said he loves you, huh?” Kathy asked out of the blue as she nibbled on a chip.
Alina did a double take. “What?”
“You’re glowing,” Kathy explained. “I figured you and Trevor are in love.”
Alina heard a chuckle from the bedroom and had to ignore the curious look Kathy threw that way. “Yes. Trevor said he loved me…and I said I love him in return.”
Kathy smiled broadly. “Finally. So you guys getting married soon?”
Alina gaped at her friend. “Kathy, slow down. We’ve only know each other for a month.”
Kathy nodded thoughtfully as she ate a few more chips. Picking up the bag, she called to Molly. “Come on, girl. Can’t keep Katelyn waiting.” Opening the
door, her friend turned to look at her. “By the way, I’ll take that as a yes, since you didn’t actually say no.”
Alina would have tried to get in a snappy comeback, but the door closed behind her friend before she could come up with anything. Trevor came out of the bedroom with a big grin on his face.
“Marriage, huh?” he said. “That friend of yours might be onto something.”
With that, Trevor walked over to hold open the door for her, leaving Alina to wonder what the heck her best friend had just started.
Epilogue
Rebecca Brannon looked up from her computer as William Hamilton walked into her office. It was early, and her secretary wasn’t in yet, so there was no one to see him. Which was exactly the way Rebecca preferred it. She might be appointing William the director of the DCO, but she still wanted to maintain the pretense that they weren’t close. She wanted to sell it as a management decision, and a chance to take the DCO in a new direction after the debacle that was Thomas Thorn.
William came around her desk and gave her a warm kiss on the cheek that lingered there as he traced his fingers down the arm of her expensive suit jacket. Not that Rebecca necessarily minded. William was a very attractive man, even if he was a few years older than she was. He knew his way around the bedroom even better than he knew his way around the corridors of power in DC. As long as he recognized who was running things, she had no problem with him engaging in a bit of sexual game playing.
“I saw on the news last night that Chadwick-Thorn is going to be broken up and sold for spare parts,” he said as he took a seat in the chair in front of her desk. “Well played, Rebecca. Though I have to say, I thought you would have been satisfied to have the man dead. Destroying his legacy seems a bit excessive, don’t you think?”
Her mouth tightened. “Thorn was an obnoxious pig. I didn’t have the chance to enjoy seeing him get shot in the head, so grant me the small pleasure of destroying the company he spent much of his life building. I’m also arranging to have his absurd mansion over near Embassy Row torn down and turned into a dog park. I find great pleasure in the thought that there will be dogs shitting on the place where the man used to lay his head.”
