Carl (Guardians In Love Book 4)

by Brianna West

  ‘Aidan, you need to get Carl somewhere else,’ I heard Laura say through the receiver. ‘We only just got word, but Logan believes that Niko plans to strike again while he’s vulnerable. It was a failure on our part not to anticipate he would, but you need to find a safe house.’

  Aidan broke the cuffs with his magic and removed them from my wrists. He then lifted me from the bed, holding my trembling body gently as he walked with a calm sense of urgency towards the door. His golden magic wrapped around us, enclosing our combined form inside a translucent barrier as he took the corridor towards the front door.

  “How soon?” he demanded as he cradled me into his chest and kicked the door to his apartment open, breaking through it with very little effort.

  ‘Minutes,’ Laura disclosed with a slight note of panic. ‘I’m on my way, but Logan has to secure Conall before he can get there. We’ve sent for more Guardians, but I don’t think there’s time.’

  Aidan took off down the stairs with his unnatural speed, getting us to the car before he stopped altogether and glanced over his shoulder. An explosion of blue lit the area, but I couldn’t see well enough through the pain to figure out from where. Aidan’s gold barrier shuddered with the impact, deflecting the unexpected attack. The abrupt strengthening of his hold caused me to cry out as the pain nearly stole my consciousness.

  “Fuck,” Aidan growled, his gold magic pulsing and slicing out around us. “I’m sorry, Carl. I don’t have any other choice.”

  We were eclipsed inside his gold magic once more. Aidan locked his arms around me the instant we were thrown into the painful vertigo of magical travel, which pummeled my already battered body until I worried I might actually perish from it. Vision tunneling, I fought to stay conscious. A few seconds later, Aidan was landing on the ground with a heavy thud. Without waiting, he ran with his supernaturally fast speed across a concrete road and headed into a nearby forest.

  I’d barely held onto my consciousness through the jostling of my overtaxed body as Aidan soared across the ground, dodging trees and jumping bushes as he went. After he’d taken another short glance over his shoulder, Aidan crossed through a barrier that rippled with our entry. Sighing, he slowed his strides and looked down at me. The pain was still ripping at my insides, but I’d managed to stay conscious.

  “I need to bite you again to help with the pain,” he said softly, his eyes searching mine. “We should be safe here for now, but we’ll need to move in a few hours.”

  Unable to say anything through the burning inside my throat, I could only nod my assertion. I didn’t care anymore how the pain was settled, only that it was. Aidan had gotten the door of the safe house opened somehow and walked carefully to a nearby bed, setting me on top of it with a tenderness I couldn’t fully appreciate through the terrible pain.

  Taking hold of my neck, the other Guardian bent down and sunk his teeth in without another moment’s hesitation. I sucked in a surprised breath as the initial sting startled me before the familiar relief of his bite eased the pain in gradual pulses. I blinked slowly as Aidan drew away, brushing wet hair from my forehead. I finally breathed without effort for the first time since I’d woken up.

  “Thank you,” I rasped, voice barely a whisper in the aftermath of my torture. “It’s…”

  Aidan hushed me, nostrils flaring as he visibly swallowed. “Don’t mention it. Go on, sleep. You must be knackered.” His face distorted slightly, almost as if he was in pain.

  Despite my exhaustion, I was suddenly reaching for him. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” I panted through the effort it took just to ask, but my worry grew when he heaved a breath and dropped his head forward with a short grunt.

  “Where’s the phone?” I asked urgently, trying without success to get up.

  Aidan shook his head, panting as he gently pushed me back down onto the bed. “I’m not hurt.” His voice was strained, only reinforcing my concern. “Really, I’m not.”

  “Bullshit,” I argued, voice pitching angrily. I tried once more to get up and seek out the phone, but my body wouldn’t move the way I wanted it to. “Call Logan. I don’t care if our location is compromised. Call him now.”

  Aidan’s body tensed discernibly as he snarled, glowing yellow eyes lifting to my face before he huffed derisively. “After all that bloody nonsense, you want me to compromise our location. You must be taking the piss if you think I actually would.”

  Aidan was still panting, his body visibly quivering as he kept me from reaching for the phone in his back pocket. “I’m not hurt, you obstinate twit.”

  Growing angrier by the second, I took hold of his arm and snarled. “Then what the hell is it?! If you’re not hurt, then what?”

  Aidan’s eyes shut tightly as his nostrils flared again. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” he cursed before taking hold of my neck and kissing me so hard the collision of our lips actually caused the metallic taste of blood to seep into my mouth.

  I gasped before his tongue slid past my lips, muffling the sound. Pleasurable warmth flooded my lower half as his tongue danced with mine before he groaned and pulled away, eyes glowing impossibly brighter. The were-bear Guardian breathed in short, shallow pants, the tendons in his neck pulled tight as he fought himself.

  “Your scent…” he started, sucking in another sharp breath, “It’s driving me absolutely mental. I’m barely holding myself back, yeah? So shut it while I figure out a way to control myself.”

  I licked the moisture and blood from my lips, suddenly overwhelmed by the urge to chase his mouth and taste him again. “My scent?” I asked absently, closing my eyes and inhaling deeply.

  Notes of something hung in the air, intoxicating the senses. It was a subtle musk that I hadn’t detected before, and a yearning to smell it deeper blossomed inside of me. Aidan’s groan reached my ears as the bed’s level was frequently disturbed by his anxious movements. I hadn’t let go of him, the feeling of the tense muscle of his forearm straining beneath my hand strangely alluring.

  “Oh, fuck me,” Aidan cursed, standing abruptly from the bed and pacing a small length of the floor next to it. “What is this?!” His fingers weaved angrily through his hair, his eyes crazed as he paced faster. “It’s never bloody been like this. Not ever.”

  Watching him with the need for more growing inside of my belly, I was overcome by an urge to go to him. But my body was still weighted down by exhaustion, so I could only watch him from where I was. Aidan stopped, looking over at me with his body already in partial transformation.

  “Could this be…your heat?” he asked slowly.

  Unsure what he could mean, I quietly regarded him. “My heat?”

  “Yeah,” he said, huffing slightly, “I’ve never seen it with a mixed were-creature, but…” He started to pace again as his jaw clenched and unclenched. “My bite brought on your heat?” he asked himself softly.

  Perplexed by his words, I could only follow his movements with half-lidded eyes as my body came alive with his scent. “No one’s ever mentioned their heat to me,” I divulged honestly, searching my memory for any conversation regarding the ins and outs of our beast nature.

  Unfortunately, I’d spent my entire life smothering out that part of myself, so I’d never been very determined to know more where it didn’t benefit me. I only sought what knowledge could assist with controlling my beast.

  It had been mentioned at one time when we ran with tigers that the heat was brought on every few months by mates and sexually compatible partners, but I’d never really cared to delve into the topic any more than that.

  Since my attractions were abnormal and I never had any intention of acting on them, I assumed I’d never have to worry about such things. Since I managed to control most, if not all of my beast nature, I thought that if I were to ever, for whatever reason, get my heat, it would be no different.

  But thinking was becoming more difficult as the musk in the air strengthened. A pleasurable tingle spread over the surface of my skin as Aidan pressed his for
ehead into the wall opposite of the bed. The muscles in his back were constricted so tightly that it almost looked like he’d turned to stone. His clawed fingers scored the wall as he breathed heavily, his panting reaching my ears and giving me the oddest sensation in my belly. Seeing his conflict, I was unable to sit quietly as my body hummed with need.

  “Aidan,” I called out softly.

  His shoulders jerked, his hands ceasing in their downward swipe over the wall. Panting, Aidan looked over at me with his brow scrunched together and sweat trailing from his forehead, the visible torment evident in the muscles of his face. My chest tightened with the very idea that I was doing this to him. He was so desperate to hold himself back that he was physically hurting because of it.

  I couldn’t be the reason he was in pain. Not after all he’d done for me. He’d been the only reason I was saved from my torture, and the only person who had truly supported and cared for me.

  “Come here,” I instructed softly, gasping.

  Jaw straining, Aidan turned away and pressed his forehead back into the wall. “No.”

  “It’s okay,” I said, voice gentle. “You don’t have to fight it,” I added as my body trembled with the consent of my own words.

  Aidan groaned, clawing at the wall. “Hell no,” he growled. “I’d be no better than that bloody tosser of a team leader.”

  My chest constricted with the anguish in his voice. “Please…Aidan,” I begged, hating how desperate I sounded since the yearning inside of me had tempered my voice, “I need this, too.”

  His entire body shuddered with the final plea, his pale-yellow eyes finding me over his shoulder before he was instantly at my side and taking hold of my face. He was heaving in great gulps of air, eyes searching mine for whatever it was he needed to know. Thumbs brushing along my cheeks, Aidan visibly swallowed.

  “Are you sure?” he asked, gritting his teeth as his nostrils flared with the intensifying musk. “I…can fight it. Don’t…worry about me.” His chest heaved violently as his jaw gritted and cut off the end of his sentence. “You don’t have to do this.”

  Lifting with all the strength that I had left, I pressed my lips into his and silenced him with a soft kiss. His voice fled into my mouth, the deep thunder of his own need resonating between us as he finally stopped fighting himself and kissed me so hotly that I worried I might actually come from just his kiss alone. As he positioned his body over mine, I reached for him and took hold of the taut muscle shaping his back, anchoring myself to his kiss as our tongues collided feverishly.

  It had never felt this good kissing Conall. It was as if Aidan’s scent had intoxicated the senses, adding to the already unbelievable pleasure. I felt drunk and imprisoned inside a pleasant haze, desiring more of it with each swipe of his full lips against mine.

  Aidan cradled my face in his large hands as his hips came down on mine, thrusting into me with so much force that I grunted and nicked my lip on his fangs. Abruptly, Aidan pushed my shoulder to the side, forcing me to my belly and lifting me up by the hips. His weight rested into my backside as his teeth penetrated the skin at the back of my neck.

  I cried out, arching into him. “Aidan!”

  “Fuck,” he growled, thrusting himself into my rear. “This feels…so…bloody good.”

  He ripped through my shirt, exposing my back and trailing his tongue along the curve in my spine. I quivered with the sensation, an electric tingle spreading quickly across my skin. I’d stopped thinking and instead focused on feeling the incredible pleasure his touch gave me. The urge for him rivaled the earlier need for Conall, causing me to discard my modesty and rub my backside into him, moaning throatily when my own desire was satisfied with the movement.

  Aidan grunted, taking hold of my hips and pushing against me in hard rolls. “You feel so fucking amazing, I could come with just this.”

  His husky voice tickled me as he pressed his mouth to my ear, rolling into me again and holding me captive to the sensation with firm hands on my hips. Sliding his rough hands beneath the waistline of my pants, he dragged the material down until it pooled at my knees. His hot breaths tickled the side of my face as he reached around and touched me where I’d already begun to leak.

  Aidan groaned thickly. “Fuck, you’re already so wet.”

  My voice startled out of me, head falling forward as I bucked into his hand. “Oh Lord, Aidan,” I panted, the sensation unbelievably amazing as he stroked me, “I…can’t. Feels so damn good.”

  Already too far gone, I slammed my hips forward and sought the pleasure of his rough hand. I was so desperate for release, especially with his potent musk wafting all around me and effectively clouding my thoughts.

  Rutting against me, Aidan set the pace for hard and fast from the start. I grappled the bed for support as the friction from his hand edged me steadily closer to climax. But something was left wanting. I needed more. I wanted to fully submit to him.

  Unsteadily, I reached back for him and felt Aidan startle and slow. I groaned, unable to get my body to do what I wanted. Aidan’s weight disappeared before I felt his finger probe the one place I’d never thought I wanted him to touch, but surprisingly I did. I wanted him inside of me in the most intimate way one could be inside another person.

  Slick with some kind of lubricant, Aidan forced the length of his thick digit inside before adding a second. I groaned, legs spreading wider and unintentionally dropping me deeper onto his imbedded fingers.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Aidan groaned huskily, fingers curling and setting off an explosion of sensation, which rapidly spread through my lower belly and upper thighs, “Anymore of that and there’s no way I’ll be able to hold back.”

  I couldn’t catch my breath as incredible sensation flooded my lower body with every thrust of his fingers, knowing that the building pressure was very near to bursting. I could only grapple the bedding and vocalize low in my throat as the pleasurable torture continued. Aidan’s hard length pressed into me, his clothing still covering it as he worked me closer to my climax.

  When he bit my neck again, I couldn’t stop myself. I came so hard that I was seeing spots in my vision. I collapsed to the bed, unable to lift to do much at all as I heard Aidan drag his pants down with a small, excited grunt.

  Peering over my shoulder and attempting to regain my breath, I watched Aidan’s hand wrap around his massive erection and stroke in quick, hard pulls. Mesmerized by the sight, I watched with unabated interest as Aidan shamelessly stroked himself to completion. The erotic sight of the Guardian pleasuring himself over me roused my recently calmed length.

  To think me, a man who very rarely allowed myself the privilege of fantasizing, let alone use of any visual stimulus at all, was brazenly watching Aidan stroke himself, it was uncharacteristically bold. While shameful, it was strangely invigorating to watch the man who’d only just given me pleasure then take care of himself as he looked at my naked body beneath him. I never would’ve thought I’d be capable of such a shameless act. The old Carl would’ve felt agonizing disgrace for such indecent actions, but I felt none of it.

  None at all.

  Spilling himself over my lower back, Aidan pumped his hand in slowing, staggered strokes while his chest tautened with the effort it took to climax. He let out a shuddering sigh before reaching out with his magic and grabbing a nearby towel in order to clean the hot liquid from my backside.

  I was still mesmerized by what I’d witness, wholly changed by it. Flexing, Aidan panted roughly as he fixed his pants and then my clothes. Turning me over, Aidan absently bent down and pressed a gentle kiss to my lips before standing.

  “Fuck me,” he cursed, slamming a fist into the wall. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

  For some reason, I wasn’t the least bit upset about giving into my desires. Actually, I felt somehow freed by letting go of my reservations. But when I saw the upset on Aidan’s face, guilt began to settle into my stomach.

  If I’d had better control of my beast, Aidan wo
uldn’t have been dragged into this situation. No matter how it was spun, the initial problem was that I’d given into Conall and let him bite me. Now, Aidan was forced to do something he clearly hadn’t wanted to do. He had been a friend and companion when no one else had and, because of my carelessness, he was dragged into something he would’ve otherwise never done.

  This was my fault.

  If my body hadn’t been drained of every morsel of strength, I would’ve fled to the bathroom. Instead, I could only close my eyes and listen to the silent, self-deprecating curses from Aidan as he knocked his head into the wall and spiraled into self-blame.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I’d apparently drifted off at some point, because the next thing I heard was someone crashing through the door and Aidan’s deep voice barking at the intruder.

  “Who the bloody hell—”

  “My poor Carl!” Bernie’s voice squealed noisily, overpowering Aidan’s. “Don’t worry, brother, Bernie’s here to rescue you!”

  The commotion drove me to groan as Bernie flung himself onto my unprepared body and practically squeezed the remaining life out of me. “What did those bad boys do? Where does it hurt? Bernie’s here to make it all better.”

  Coughing, I pushed against Bernie, but was unsuccessful in my attempt to dislodge him. “It hurts where an idiot has plowed into me, that’s where, you damn idiot.”

  Bernie pulled away, his familiar scent and power flowing over me. Looking at the version of myself that was all nonsense never made me very happy, but in my current state of pandemonium, I couldn’t help but feel slightly relieved to see him. His power surged through me, reviving my weakened body and healing the intense exhaustion. It let me breathe a sigh of relief when I could finally move without aching.

  Because we were identical twins, our connection was infinitely more complicated than others. Many of our powers complemented each other, but there were a lot of unwanted abilities that stemmed from being so intimately connected to someone.