by James Cox
“We’ll have to thank that naked guy next time we see him,” she said with a grin.
“He’s real.”
“No doubt.” She sat beside me. “I’m fine by the way. Thanks for asking.” She stared at me pointedly.
Shit. “Sorry. I’m glad you’re okay.” My face was throbbing. “I am the one bleeding though.”
Lily grabbed the medic kit. After using a cleansing rag on my cheek and then the laser pen, she handed me a pile of new clothes with a finger pointing toward the waterfall. I sighed and fumbled out of the ship. It was gone, the marks in the sand looked like it was dragged into the woods. “Kurt.” Of course, he looked gorgeous, shirt off once again as sweat beaded down his chest. It wasn’t that hot but a little over warm. The night had been on the chilly side. I wondered what the weather was like on Earth.
“Well?”
Oh, right. “Let me get a shower and something for the pain. I’ll find a way to link the shock generator to the fences.” I went over the calculations in my head when I paused. “You think you can stand them back up?” I pointed to the two sections on the ground.
“Yup. You sure you’re okay? Did she check you for that concussion?”
I scowled. “I’m fine.” Why the hell didn’t anyone believe me? “It’s not like I could kill that thing on my own and if I managed to do that, I’d be bragging about it over the radios to Mars.”
Kurt grinned. “True.” His expression fell. “The radio’s tied up. Deviant’s been on it since you’ve been back.”
“Why?”
“They’re still looking for the assassin. Everyone’s on edge between that and Mars falling apart around ’em.”
I forgot about that. A few days ago we became aware of a plot against the president of Mars. That’s one of the reasons why we had such a small crew here. President Justice of the Underground MC had first priority. Okay, maybe I felt a bit like an ass complaining about my aches. I still hurt though. “Let me shower and we’ll set up the fence,” I mumbled as I turned around. Once the fence was up we could work on building some secure structures, maybe even branch out to find someplace secure. If we could start transferring people here, to Earth, Mars would be a lot safer for my brothers protecting the president. I paused as I passed the ship. Hey, I didn’t even think about Kurt’s ass back there. I always thought about his body. I grinned, moving past the tall material walls that gave the illusion of privacy. Personally, I would have liked something with more separation. No one wanted to accidentally see me naked. I dropped the clothes on the jutting rock beside the fall. The water was louder here, splashing about as I stared at it without actually seeing. I was working on the plans to electrify the fence and working out how many people could fit in this area alone. Maybe the president could stay here where we knew he’d be safe. Of course, then we’d have to be careful of incoming ships. They could hold people and a bomb, land and blow us all up. Okay, so that was a bad idea. My head was fuzzy from the beating it took and the hunger pains rumbling from my stomach. I stuck my hands under the water and carefully splashed my face.
Rocks tumbled from beside the fall and—
“Shit!” Seeing my savior again, staring down at me was a bit of a shock. Especially considering I had been about to get naked for a shower. I was going to say hi but the first thing that came out of my mouth was, “You have pants on.” That sounded slightly disappointed. I guess I kind of was. Where’d he get them from? They were black and looked to be standard issue for the mission. “You stole pants?” My eyes widened and I glanced at my discarded pile of clothes. “You stole my pants!”
The stranger shifted down the rock, squatting on a jutting edge without saying a single word.
“Welliver?” Kurt suddenly turned the corner and skidded to a stop. Clearly, he saw the half-naked stranger relaxing on the rock face. “Um, well?”
“Kurt, meet the naked guy that saved my life.” Although he wasn’t naked anymore. I pointed to my head. “See. Not crazy!”
“This is Kurt?” This guy’s voice was a deep, raspy rumble.
“Um, yeah. That’s me.” Kurt slowly lowered his hand over the butt of the weapon on his hip.
The stranger frowned, making his scruffy face look dangerous or maybe it was the dreadlocks? “He called your name when he was about to die.” He growled and leaped off the rock. “You did not save him.” He took three steps to stand beside me. “I did. I claim him.”
“Claim me?” I lifted an eyebrow as I stared at him.
“Calm down, buddy. We’re all friends here.” Kurt smiled but slid his palm over the gun.
My savior growled and before I knew what was happening he threw something that looked like a rock at Kurt, hitting him in the face. Then I let out a high pitch yell as the guy grabbed me around the waist and tossed me over his fucking shoulder. “Are you kidding me?” I shouted. He ran through the cave. Water trickled over my head then he was swinging me to my feet. We were outside the fence. How the hell did he do that? “Hey. Hey!” I shoved at his arms. “You’re not claiming me like I’m some damsel.”
He frowned but didn’t say anything.
“Those are my friends. My family.” Shouts came over the fence. “Come with me. Back to them. We won’t hurt you. Hell, we have food and clothes and…”
He glanced behind us. His dreadlocks swinging around to slap at his jaw. “Not safe.”
“They are. They are safe.”
He grunted.
I think that sound was supposed to be scary but I found it sexy. “Come back there with me and we’ll talk. You want food. We have food.” I tried again. Who doesn’t want food?
Footsteps sounded from afar and he pushed me behind him, pressing me back against the rock wall. Okay, so danger was so far from my mind that I was swelling in my pants. I tugged my shirt lower to hide it. Based on how long it’d take to get here at a full run, it had to be the others stomping loudly through the woods.
“Welliver!” My father shouted.
“I’m here. It’s okay. I’m here. I’m fine.” I was not a fucking damsel. “That’s my father. He’s not going to hurt you. I swear.” At least I was ninety percent sure he wouldn’t. I placed a hand on his arm, damn was that all muscle? Then I slowly walked around to face him.
“Not safe.” He took a few steps away.
“We are.”
“Peacekeepers.” He practically spit the word out.
Fuck it all to Earth! We were dressed like peacekeepers. He didn’t know that they weren’t the bad guys anymore. Corrupt peacekeepers had controlled this prison. No wonder he was fucking hiding. “No. Wait. We’re the good guys. I swear to you.” Did he know what swearing was? I didn’t know what else to say. “Listen, I’m not the guy to convince you to stay. I’m the damn scientist and a genius but … stay.”
He ground his teeth together but held his ground as the others came out of the woods. Instantly he crouched, staring at the weapons facing him.
“Put the guns down.”
My father jerked his gaze to me then back. “Are you kidding me, Well? He just kidnapped you.”
Like that didn’t sound pathetic. I was a damn MC member! “He thought you were peacekeepers and he’s the one who saved my life.” I turned toward my father and Kurt. “I told you I wasn’t crazy. I didn’t have some kind of head injury. There really was a naked guy out there and he really is a badass that killed one of those creatures.”
“He’s wearing pants,” Kurt said.
“Because he stole them from … never mind.” I blew out a breath and turned around. “I’m Welliver. This is my father Deviant and my friend Kurt.”
He growled, face scrunched up and showed his teeth. Then, without warning, he stood and sniffed the air. There was no way to explain it other than lifting his head up and seeing his nose twitch. “Rain.”
“Is that what you call those octopus things?” I glanced toward the woods. “Is it some other creature?”
“I think he means those dark clouds up t
here, Well,” Kurt said dryly.
The sky was dark in that direction. Shit, now I felt like an idiot. “I knew that.” At least they put their guns away.
“Rain. Darkness.” He leaped onto the slanted rock wall and hauled me up by my arm.
“Ow!” I balanced, barely.
“Creatures coming.” He stared around frantically, then wrapped an arm around my waist, tossed me once again over his shoulders and took off into the woods.
As if it wasn’t bad enough being treated like a helpless female but now it was in front of my very mainly father and my crush. Perfect. I pushed against his back as he swerved through trees and low brush. “Put me the fuck down. Damn it!” We were heading west of the camp, now south. I glanced up as best I could considering I was bounced around like a flaccid cock. The tree trunks were getting wider but sparse. I glanced backward. No one was following us. I hoped my father trusted me enough to get through this shit alone. The last thing we needed was a search party trampling through the woods. That was at least an eighty percent chance of someone dying in all sorts of horrifying ways. Still going south, I used my arms on his lower back to leverage up. I wasn’t exactly a small guy but he’d picked me up like I was a Mars rock. They usually crumbled to dust with the slightest pressure. “Will you put me down!”
His breathing was too heavy to answer.
Suddenly he hunched down and my feet hit the ground. “Now I got to walk all the way back and I hate walking.” And running. And most physical activity. Except for sex of course. I loved that but didn’t get much. Why the hell was my mind all over the place? I was a damn genius and I was thinking dumb thoughts.
“Up. Hurry,” he said as he took big breaths into his open mouth.
“I’m not going anywhere. There was no reason you had to take me.”
He spun me around and actually slapped me on the ass. “Up. Now.”
“I will not!”
He growled at me and gave me another push.
“I refuse to…” Darkness. The word shot through my mind as the light around us began to fade. It was getting dark. The rain. Clouds. Fuck me, the creatures were coming. I spun around and climbed over the tree. It led to a wall, a building. It was a city sprawled out here but I couldn’t see much with a thick fog moving in. Not fog, rain. Shit. Shit. Shit. I grabbed the ruins of an old ladder and started to haul myself up. It seemed to take forever and having him behind me, pushing at my ass didn’t help. I finally came to the top and hauled myself over. I managed a very floppy roll across a flat surface and then he dragged me by my shirt to stand. He ran a hell of a lot faster than me toward the end of this narrow platform. There was a door. I fumbled as the loud roar of one of those creatures rang out. Nothing like the fear of being eaten alive to make my lazy ass move faster.
He pushed me in then followed.
I heard this loud clank, and something covered the door. An old barrier of sorts. I couldn’t really get a good look at it. Bedsides I was seeing stars as I tried to gasp enough to fill in my heaving lungs. I really needed more cardio.
“Now safe.” He leaned against the wall, no longer winded.
Whatever I was going to say died in my thoughts as something big slammed against the barricade. “Shit! How strong is that? What’s it made out of?” If I could get the specs and do the calculations fast enough I might be able to tell how long it would hold.
“Safe,” he said again, straightening.
There was another solid bang and then nothing. Apparently, we really were safe. And we were in a city. I also thought it may be his home. I glanced around, the light dull from windows above our head showing a small room with the square window fogged up. Was that spikes on the outside? Well, shit, he had years to fortify this place, didn’t he? He had to have been here a while and all by himself? I glanced at him. “That’s the second time you saved my life and I don’t even know your name.”
He grunted, stepped away from the wall and walked to a set of stairs that looked like they were about to crumble into dust. “Beast.”
“Yeah, I know there’s a beast outside.”
His rather menacing dark brown eyes focused on me. “I am Beast.”
Oh, his name. “Just Beast or do you have a last name?”
He climbed the stairs two at a time and I had no choice but to follow.
Chapter Five
“So, Beast. What’s your real name?” I asked as we hit a platform. There were blankets here, massive mounds of them piled high to the bottom of a row of windows. Each window was dark from the clouds so I couldn’t make out what the city around us looked like.
Beast paused, turning toward me with a frown. “I don’t remember.” He went quiet as if he was thinking.
How long was he here that he didn’t even remember his name? It had to at least been twenty years. That’s how long the prison’s been abandoned. “I can look at the prison records when I get my handheld back. I’ll find your name.”
He nodded.
Twenty years all by himself. I couldn’t even imagine. No food. No water. No safe place to sleep. I walked toward the opposite wall, admiring him more. Not only did he save my life but he survived my worst nightmare. Okay, one of my nightmares. I had issues. There were marks dug into the cement. Lots of them, taking up two walls top to bottom and half the next wall. Fuck me, that was … a calendar. “I’m surprised you didn’t go crazy.” I blurted. “I just meant, humans weren’t meant to be so solitary and staying alive with those things out there couldn’t have been easy.” I was babbling and I knew I was but that didn’t stop me. There was a nervous hitch going through me and I wasn’t sure exactly why. This place seemed fortified, and the chance of them getting through was minimal. I could probably use some existing tech in the building for defense in case I needed it. Or it could be…
Beast was standing in front of me, staring down with his head tilted. “Why are you here?”
“Because you carried me here.”
He narrowed his eyes, a dreadlock slid over his face. “On Earth?”
“Oh. I’m a scientist. We all are. Mostly. I’m part of the Outlaw MC too.” I added proudly. “You see Mars is dying. The planet is losing oxygen and giving us very strong storms as well as quakes and we came here to explore. We have to find a safe place to relocate the people of Mars. I’m the smartest person on the planet so they sent me.”
Beast took a deep breath and stared at the ground. “Coming back? Everyone?”
“Yes. You won’t be alone anymore.” I don’t know how he mentally survived this long. Hell, physically too, those creatures were dangerous. “Oh, but you will have to wear pants.”
“Around you?” He asked with a quirk of his lips.
My cheeks were hot I blushed so hard. I sputtered a half laugh, half moan. Kurt had nothing on Beast. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to say. I felt like a horny, awkward loser. “I … it’s … well,”
Beast grunted. “Sleep.” He walked to the pile of blankets under the windows and dropped to them.
“I’m not exactly tired.” I adjusted my shirt to cover my crotch. A soft patter started against the window and I realized it must be rain. I knelt on the blankets beside the lounging Beast and tried to see out the foggy windows. “I’ve never seen rain before. I know it’s just condensed moisture that visibly falls from the sky in separated drops but still…”
Beast sat up beside me and grabbed my arm. “Sleep.”
I pulled away and stilled when he growled. Okay, fine, I’d sleep. I flopped down on the rather cushiony blankets and leaned against the wall.
“Look later.”
“Later it’ll be too late.” I inched my head to the side so I could see the window.
Beast placed his finger on my chin and pushed my head forward. He grabbed my arm then tugged me to stand with him. And I thought it was awkward before. He was close enough now to stick his tongue out and lick me. “Come.”
“Now where are we going?”
Beast dragg
ed me along another set of stairs with a thick door.
Did that lead outside? What about the creatures? I stepped back as he opened it. A burst of cool air drifted through the stairway and I was greeted by the sight of my first rainfall. It was better than the pictures in books at school. The smell was amazing, fresh and woods and clean. I could hardly describe it. A fog lay over most of the city but I was content with what I could see. “Um, what about the octopus?”
“Too heavy to climb this high.” He sat in the door and leaned his back against the frame. One leg rested on the first step and his other was bent at the knee. His bare foot was splashed with water. “Now come. Sleep.” He tugged me down.
He keeps redefining awkward. I lay in the gap between his legs with my back resting against his front. “You do this with all you friends,” I muttered, trying to relax.
“Just you.” He answered softly, his lips against my ear.
Was that … was that a joke? Technically, I was the only man on Earth he’d ever met. I snorted.
Beast slid his arm under mind and pressed my body into his. His other hand brushed along my stubbly jaw and his thumb rubbed over my lower lip. “Long time since I touched.” He spoke softly.
Well yeah, twenty years was a lot of fucking jerking off. Was he going to touch me? What the hell was I doing? I overanalyzed every feeling going through my head and concluded this was a mistake. He was just attracted to me because he saw me first. If it had been Kurt or even Peter in the woods, Beast would have wanted them. “I’m flattered. Really I am. This never happens to me.” And why shouldn’t it? I argued silently with myself. I deserve to feel wanted, don’t I? All the lives I’ve saved with my skills and I got about as much action as the Beast here.
“Quiet.” He spoke directly against my lips.
Protests went right out my head as he pressed our mouths together. His beard was scratchy against my stubble. I opened my lips only to have Beast shove his tongue inside. He swept around my mouth, sucking my bottom lips and pressing me into him. What the hell am I doing! I screamed it inside my head and yet didn’t stop. I wanted this kiss, even if it was a bad idea, even if I regretted it later. Beast increased the pressure, forcing our mouths harder together. He was wild. Well, yeah, it’s been twenty years with nothing but his hand. I’m surprised he didn’t flip me over and just go for it. My lips felt swollen when he pulled back and took a few quick breaths.
