Grant lounged on the couch after their lovemaking. The rainforest troll, Drake, still sulked in the corner of the vast leather sofa, and after what Grant had made him do, Ethan couldn’t blame him for his foul mood. Drake had been forced to kill his own father, Bastian, leader of the Council Hunters within the Underground. Forced to murder all for the sake of a cause that wasn’t really his. Ethan could no longer stand this manipulation of himself and his troll lover by the modified human.
Then Grant reached out and touched his knee and Ethan’s heart sagged in his chest. The scientist saw what he saw. A sinister smile spread across the handsome face of the Purity leader.
“They’re here.” Grant’s maniacal smile grew wider. “And it’s just the two. My plan worked. The triad is weakened.” He leaned over and kissed Ethan’s forehead. “Thank you for sharing your vision.”
The werewolf shivered, feeling repulsed by a touch he once craved.
“Boys.” Grant gathered Ethan and Drake close to his sides. “Go out there and get me a pair of trespassing monsters. Their DNA will be a wonderful addition to my personal collection.”
***
Avery sensed their pursuers a second before the werewolf did. He looked at Warren and nodded, almost imperceptibly. The werewolf returned the action.
They were blanketed by darkness and misty rain. The shaggy branches of Sitka spruce glistened as moonlight bounced off their needles. Slight movement between these giant evergreens caught the troll’s attention. He slowly glanced to his right.
Drake’s eyes met his. The hunter had been discovered, and Avery let him know it by extending the gaze. Let the hunt begin then, he thought. He would show no fear. He would hunt the hunter.
He glanced to his werewolf companion again. Warren had seen Drake too, but he showed no sign of fear. Instead he also seemed poised to play the game.
Avery inched closer to him and whispered, “I’ve spent some time on this island, during my Purity stint. There’s an old troll tunnel. If we make it there, we can lose them. Follow me.”
And he sprinted off, moving forward a few yards before he sharply veered right and disappeared into the thick arms of the forest. Warren rushed to keep up.
Wet branches caressed the werewolf as he ran, making his shirt and skin slick with moisture. The rich fragrance of earth mixed with the sweet, clean scent of evergreens. It teased his nostrils and made his heart feel lighter as he fled.
Avery was only a few feet ahead of him. He turned left, running down a slight slope that led into thicker forest. Here, the trees grew so dense it was difficult to see anything.
Warren didn’t see the thin wire until it was too late. He tumbled to the ground, sending up a pile of dead needles and dirt as he landed. He wanted to yell a warning to Avery about the booby trapped woods, but he didn’t want to give away his position anymore than his fall had. Nor did he wish to put his companion in danger of discovery.
So he slowly rose to his feet, assessed the wire that had tripped him, and carefully stepped over it. He was just about to flee when he felt a gun barrel pressed to the back of his head.
“Don’t move,” Drake snarled behind him. “Raise your arms high above your head. Let me check you for weapons.”
Warren did as he was told. Drake freed him of the gun he’d acquired before he and Avery set foot of the island. The rainforest troll’s hands lingered on his body, cupping his balls longer than Warren liked. But Warren breathed deep and tuned the bastard’s sleazy caress out. He had to think of a way out of this, had to act fast—
“Oof,” Drake grunted, then he crumpled at Warren’s side.
Warren whirled around to find a gigantic mountain troll smirking at him. “I heard you fall. Circled around. Saw what was up. Figured you needed some help.”
Warren smiled and let relief flood him. “Thanks for saving my ass.”
The troll shrugged, but he still wore that ambiguous smirk. Was he laughing at Warren’s or simply toying with him? The werewolf couldn’t be sure. “We’re in this together,” the troll said, then he jogged forward before throwing over his shoulder, “Now move your ass, werewolf.”
Not far ahead, Warren spied a dark mound in the forest. The small knoll rose up about six feet, and Avery headed straight for it. He followed his troll guide, but moments before Avery entered, another person burst from the forest and grabbed the troll.
“Wait!” the person said, but that was all they got out before the troll snarled loudly and clocked him a good one on the jaw.
Warren glanced at the fallen man as he stepped beyond him. His blond hair was cropped close to his head. Warren could read his energy signature as that of a werewolf.
“Get in!” Avery hissed, waving him toward the tunnel with a swing of massive arm and hand.
Warren sprinted to the troll. They crossed over the lip of the tunnel and into absolute darkness.
“Here,” the troll touched his arm. “Take my hand. I know the way well.”
Warren did as instructed, inhaling the mossy scent of deep earth as they walked on. The tunnel was chilly, and mud oozed beneath their shoes.
A strange sound drifted to them from up ahead. The sound of many people softly sighing. He and the troll stopped to briefly listen. When they did, the ground beneath them broke open and hands emerged. Warren cried out as strong fingers coiled around his ankles.
They brought a strange phosphorescence with them, these creatures who dug themselves out of the tunnel floor. Their greenish glow showed pale people dressed in tatters and bandages. At least a dozen now slid from within the earth and came toward them.
“What the hell are they?” Warren whispered.
The troll clenched his jaw, shook his head. “Some kind of modified human.” He looked to Warren. “You see, Purity has a big secret, werewolf. They aren’t just trying to destroy monsterkind. They want to use our DNA to build a super human race. You’re looking at one of their experiments.” He closed his eyes a moment, seemed to concentrate, and when he opened them he said, “Some kind of vampire / troll / fairy / human hybrid here.”
He and Warren backed away from the glowing crowd that came from deep within the tunnel.
The troll leaned close and whispered, “I’m not sure bullets will harm them. Do you have your gun, though?”
The realization he had forgot to retrieve it from Drake hit Warren in the gut. “No. I forgot to grab it when you knocked Drake out cold.”
“Shit.” The troll drew his own weapon as the softly sighing hybrids shambled closer. “Well, I’m gonna let bullet fly and hope for the best. You put speed under your heels.”
Bullets exploded from the weapon and zipped down the earthen corridor. Warren didn’t turn to see if their pursuers fell. He ran full on like the troll told him. Avery was just behind him, shooting and fleeing. But suddenly the shots stopped, and the troll muttered, “Shit,” before he dropped the weapon and followed that up with, “Just run faster.”
Neck and neck, they sprinted from the tunnel. Cold, spongy hands touched Warren’s exposed arms. He yanked away from their touch. Their sighs grew louder, bringing the stink of ground gone sour with them.
Moonlight spilled into the tunnel mouth just ahead. Warren glanced at his troll companion and whooped laughter. They were almost there! Almost free!
Then the ground in front of them split open and more hands emerged, more hybrids crawled from their slumber under dirt.
“Talk about your unfair crap,” Warren muttered, as a new army of modified humans rose up to meet them.
They were surrounded. Avery gave him a desperate glance and shouted something about trying to bull their way through. But there were just too many of them. It was like trying to fight his way through a sea of clammy flesh. Warren peeled off clutching hands, pried fingers from his face, but in the end he couldn’t keep up with their numbers. He glanced to his left as he fell to his knees. Avery went down with him in a tangle of grasping, glowing arms.
***
Warren
woke up tangled in blankets atop a mattress. He was in a cold, concrete room. The holding cell was large, and his gaze searched the dimly lit corners for signs of Avery.
A sound like fizzling wires drew his attention to the corner located on a diagonal from the mattress. The troll emerged from the shadows there, wearing a self satisfied smirk. “There,” he said. “Managed to take out most of the surveillance cameras in here. Found their bugs as well. They won’t be listening in too well now.”
A voice boomed from high above in a corner to Warren’s left. “You didn’t find all of them.” The maniacal taunt drifted down from a speaker he couldn’t locate. “I’ve got more tricks up my sleeves than that, troll.”
Avery came over to the mattress. He ignored the voice as he sat down. Warren did too, but curiosity over its speaker lingered.
The troll leaned in and whispered, “That voice belongs to Dr. Grant Digby—lead scientist behind Purity. He’s been taunting me while you were out cold. He’s all pleased with himself for breaking the triad up.”
“So he knows about the prophecy, too.” Warren sighed, feeling defeated. “And he had a backup plan in case your implant failed, obviously.”
Avery nodded. “Don’t count us out, though, werewolf. Remember, I know the inside of this place pretty well. And Sid is still out there. We’ve got tricks we can pull out our sleeves yet. Just sit tight for now.” He patted Warren’s knee and his touch lingered.
Warren mused on the troll’s confidence. He wished he felt it right about now. “How’d you get involved with Purity anyway, Avery?”
Avery stiffened and he pulled his hand away. “I’ll make the long story short. We don’t have time for the full version.” He shifted on the mattress and seemed to search for words. “Sid and I … we’ve been an off and on thing for over fifty years. This last time we called it off, though, and I went to Purity…” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Sid turned a young man he fell in love with into a vampire. But the thing you have to understand with Sid is, sometimes, he falls in and out of love quicker than he changes underwear. I, well, I told him I thought he was being irresponsible with the guy, turning him without Council Headquarters’ approval, so I told them what he’d done. The new vampire was to report to them, but Sid helped him flee instead. He was killed by a Council Hunter not long after. Without training, which Sid should’ve given him, he went rogue and put us in danger of human exposure.”
Warren listened. He didn’t question how this turned Avery’s allegiance to Purity. He waited as the big troll paused, obviously pained by his story.
Finally, Avery continued, “Disgusted with my lover, I left Sid and wandered above. You see, not all monsters are inside Underground. We choose to ally with Underground or we do not. Monsters who are not members of Underground must take care of themselves, and if they do slaughter humans or other monsters, the hunters will come after them. So, while I was above, wandering, I met Grant Digby.”
“The scientist who imprisoned us here.”
The troll nodded. “Grant is a first rate manipulator. He knows what to say, when to say it, how to say it. He had me believing monsters were shit and humans were the way to go. No more hiding, no more living my life in secret, no more dramas with Sid. I could be an anonymous human. The idea appealed to me, until I found out Grant was really harvesting monsters for their genetic material.”
“Are you telling him secrets down there?” Grant’s sinister voice made them both jump. “Tsk tsk, can’t have that, can we? And I know just how to shut you up, and stop you from dismantling my toys in that cell.”
An insidious hiss filled the room. Warren sniffed and a scent like rotten eggs mixed with chemicals stung his nostrils. He turned to Avery. “What’s that?”
The troll wore a deep frown of concern. “I’m not sure, but I don’t like it.”
The voice burst from the speaker above once more. “It’s a special gas designed to drive the wolf inside you crazy, Warren. Good luck controlling the beast now! I’ll so enjoy watching you tear that troll apart.”
Warren tried not to breathe in the pungent fumes. Panic snared his chest and tightened it in a crushing grip. The wolf inside stirred, awoke. He closed his eyes and tried to tamp it down.
The troll cupped his face in big hands. He stared into Warren’s eyes with his gleaming, yellow ones and said, “Focus, werewolf. There’s got to be a way we can counteract that gas.” His face wrinkled in a deep frown then slowly unfurled in a sexy grin. “And I know just how to do it.”
Warren’s top and bottom jaw began to elongate. Pain sliced through the strained joints as he growled, “You monsters really do believe sex is a cure all.”
The troll laughed. His hand slid down the front of Warren’s shirt and he started undoing buttons. “If it works,” Avery shrugged, “use it.”
“This is risky,” Warren protested as he pulled away. A glance at his arms revealed thick hair sprouting from overworked follicles. “If the sex doesn’t soothe my wolf, I could rip you apart.”
The troll tore Warren’s shirt off his shoulders then stroked his callused palms over the werewolf’s chest. “Trolls are made of tough stuff. Didn’t I tell you? We’re not made. We’re born from deep inside Mother Earth. We incubate for over one hundred years inside her womb. And we have to be strong, for when we come out we must pull ourselves from deep inside the dirt. Claw our way to life. So, young werewolf, I think I can take anything you can give.”
He pushed Warren flat against the mattress. The werewolf could feel the troll’s energy flowing into him, trying to reach out and touch his beast and tame its savage chaos. He accepted this flow, letting it wrap around the buzzing mess his mind had become from inhaling the gas. Locked in this passion / protection embrace, Warren felt his wolf settle just a bit. Long enough to allow the troll to smooth his hands down over the curve of his ribs, the plane of his stomach, and unzip his pants. He slinked them down his legs, dipping his head to kiss the across the werewolf’s clavicle as he did so. Warren’s beast calmed further and he started to relax as the rugged troll poured tenderness into him.
“Trying to still the beast?” Grant’s voice made Warren jump and growl. “Well, I’ll just have to turn up the toxins, won’t I?”
The hissing of gas filtering into the room grew louder. The troll quickly shed his own clothes and planted a hand in the valley between Warren’s pecs. “Keep calm, werewolf. Focus on me, on us, on our bonding. It’s the only way we can save each other.”
His head dipped again and this time he teased Warren’s nipples with skilled flicks of tongue and tiny bites. He sucked the hardened tip into his mouth and played with it until Warren moaned. His beast slipped deeper into this bliss.
The troll’s hands explored the lines of his torso, skimming over his stomach. Fingers brushed over the soft hair surrounding his cock, but the troll didn’t grip his shaft just yet. He straddled Warren instead and their cocks brushed against each other, creating delightful velvety friction.
His lover’s mouth trailed lower. He traced a line with his tongue from between Warren’s nipples to his belly button. There he dipped wet muscle into the tiny hole, making Warren gasp. His inner beast purred as his lover’s mouth moved lower still, peppering his groin and thighs with teasing kisses.
“Come on, werewolf,” the voice from above interrupted. “Crack already! Unleash the beast!”
“Ignore him,” Avery commanded, lifting up so he could cradle Warren’s face with one massive hand. His eyes held Warren’s, steadying his turmoil with calming energy and thoughts. He found the softness, the patience, the troll showed him in this time of need went straight to his heart, and he saw the gruff giant in a different light.
“You could kill me,” Warren muttered as the troll bent down once more and slid a tongue in his ear. “You could choke the life out of me right now and be done with it.”
The troll’s lips tickled his lobe as he replied. “We’re part of the triad, part of the prophecy. We owe i
t to monsterkind to get along. I’m not about to take the easy way out and betray you, betray them.”
Then the troll silenced him with a passionate kiss that doused his beast in desire. Their tongues dueled while they growled into each other’s mouths. His troll lover held his wrists still while he ravaged him. He wrapped his legs around his lover’s waist and urged him closer, so their cocks slipped and slid over each other. Once more the troll began to lick, suck, and nibble his way down his lover’s body. He traced the curve of each pec as he went, explored the slopes of his biceps, the lines of his triceps. Now the beast slumbered in a growing haze of eroticism.
“Fine,” Grant screeched, slicing through the calm. “I’ll watch you fuck. I’ll wait. That wolf will crack yet.” Then he went into a barrage of taunts that made Warren growl and writhe in frustration. Avery struggled to calm him with a tongue slid up his shaft, but this time the mad scientist got to the wolf. Warren scratched at the troll, lacerating his chest with frantic claws. Blood trickled from the shallow wounds. Still in a half formed state, he jumped from the mattress and raced away, in the direction of the voice.
“Leave us alone,” the werewolf gave a guttural cry then he zoned in on the thing he’d sensed in this heightened state. The last camera in the room. He moved back and coiled his powerful haunches then he launched himself at the spying, electronic eye and took it out. He stood under this destruction, bare chest heaving as the wolf tried to break free.
“I can’t watch,” Grant said, sounding angry, thwarted, “but I can still torment you.”
“I’m tuning you out once and for all.” Warren turned back to the troll. Avery stood, naked, powerful, immense. He looked wary, unsure of Warren’s intent as he once more approached. Warren took him in his arms and pulled him back to the mattress. “Help me,” he whispered. “Help me keep the beast under control.”
Shifters & Bad Boys Bundle (Shifters & Bad Boys. Man love, bdsm, and rockstar romance. Book 1) Page 16
