by Lora Leigh
“They will.” He knew them all well. They would stand beside him, no matter what.
He pulled Merinus into his arms once again, holding onto her, praying for a miracle he didn’t really expect. Peace would be too much to ask for. So he prayed only for her safety with everything in his heart and soul. He prayed just for that.
* * * * *
Kane disconnected the phone then checked the indicator light carefully. It was still green. He breathed a long, tired sigh, then looked up at the others in the room. Sherra he found immediately. She was sitting in a far corner, lounging in one of the comfortable chairs that the suite afforded. His brothers were watching him expectantly, his father’s face, lined with worry and pain, was confident though. “We set up a news conference. Caleb,” he addressed the second oldest brother. “Get on your line and pull in reporters from D.C. and New York. We want top names down here. I don’t want a shoddy affair.” He turned to Sherra then threw the phone he carried at her. She caught it gracefully, her lithe body never tensing or jerking in surprise. As though she had been expecting it all along. “Call your brothers and Doctor Martin. Get the others here where we’re all together. Callan wants the search for Dayan dropped. He also wants each of you to decide if you’re willing to reveal yourselves, or if you prefer to stay hidden.”
“Do we notify our Council contact?” Gray, the youngest brother, and the one that resembled Merinus the most, asked.
“No, let it come from their moles in the newspapers and stations.” Kane shrugged. “We’ll have enough fish to fry here. My unit is ready to move to provide security and protection to Callan and his family.
Now let’s get things moving.”
The twelve-man group of ex-special forces followed Kane to each job he took, personal or business related. They were at present bunked in each room surrounding the two Kane and his family had taken.
“How much trouble do you expect?” John Tyler, Patriarch of the Tyler clan questioned him sternly.
Kane breathed out roughly.
“I expect at least one attempt on them during the news conference,” he admitted. “I want Merinus in armor and all angles accessible to them covered. I’ll have my men take care of that. It could go easy, but I never expect easy.”
“The Council will want them dead if possible. If not, they’ll try damage control instead.” Sherra came to her feet as they turned to face her. “They won’t expect the proof Kane has on them, so we may all be safer than we think.”
That was what Kane was praying for. When the shit hit the fan it would smear more than one government figure in several countries, as well as a handful of billionaires. Damage control wouldn’t be easy to provide by then.
“Okay, let’s get everything ready,” John said tensely. “I want this taken care of and I want my daughter home. Get moving.”
And of course they did. No one ignored John Tyler, or disobeyed him. They got moving. Everyone but Sherra. She had made her call, did her part, and Kane watched her as she moved restlessly around the room. She had been like this all day. Almost nervous, unwilling to stay in one place for long. Not that he expected her tension was the same as his own. Every muscle in his body was tight with arousal, and had been since she had stepped from the shadows the other night.
He couldn’t forget the touch of her. The taste of her silken skin, those damned throaty growls she made while he pounded into her body. She liked her sex rough, her teeth to nip, hands to grip. She was no shrinking violet or weak-kneed virgin, even when she had been a virgin. She had been a temptress, a seductress, her body conforming to him, urging him on in heated demand. He wanted to fuck her again so badly he could barely stand it. Feel that hot pussy stretching around him, her cream soaking his cock and balls. Damn her. He hadn’t been this horny since his time at the labs.
And that was why she hated him now. She never understood why he was there. And she wouldn’t listen when he tried to tell her why he hadn’t come back for her as he swore he would. Hard to rescue someone when you were half buried in a pit, fertilizing it with your blood. Bastards had known what he was up to somehow and nearly killed him for his efforts. The only thing that saved him was the fact that, at the time, they had no idea who he was. And by the time he healed, he had been forgotten. Only the scientists and lab soldiers had seen his face, and Kane was careful to stay out of any limelight, any public appearances. He had been working on this for ten years and he would, by God, see every bastard behind it destroyed. Just as they had destroyed.
He looked at Sherra again, pain striking his chest, guilt eating him alive. What had they done to her?
Callan had rescued her not long after the attempt made on Kane’s life. He had taken her out, saved her, but something else had marked her. It was there in her expression, the careful shift away from him when he got too close, the secrets that swirled in the shadows of those dark green eyes. She no longer trusted him and he couldn’t really blame her. She had waited for him, believed in him, and he had failed. It didn’t matter why.
“Sherra, what did your people say?” He moved closer to her, trying to control his anger as she backed away.
“They’ll be here in a matter of hours. Taber and Tanner were already on their way to Dawn. Dayan slipped away from them.”
He saw her fists clench. She had been enraged when they learned Taber had barely made it to the other girl in time to save her from the man’s brutal rape.
“Will they stand with him?” Kane questioned her, knowing that the group would make more of an impact than one man.
“We have always stood behind Callan. Just as he has always protected us.” She shot him a feral look.
Another cut at him. Before she was finished he would be lying in figurative shreds at her feet.
“That’s all I needed to know.” He nodded, rather than trying to spar with her in front of the others. He turned to Caleb. “Caleb, we have a possible group, not just one. Let’s keep the information sketchy but impossible to resist.”
Caleb nodded as he made another call.
The Tyler men moved about the room performing their various assignments. Sherra watched it all with a half snarl on her lips.
“Chill out, baby, we’ll take care of everything,” he told her softly.
Her eyes darkened, her expression tightened with fury.
“I am not your baby,” she sneered. “So stop with the cutesy shit, Kane. I know you and I know what you are, so stop trying to suck up to me.”
Kane felt his control begin to erode. Eight surprised expressions turned to them, watching the byplay carefully. His eyes narrowed on her, his fists clenching at the urge to jerk her into the next room and give her something to fight about.
“Baby, when I start sucking it won’t be an attempt,” he bit out in disgust, turning away from her. “Fuck it, I’ll deal with you later when I have time.”
“No, you will not deal with me period.” She brushed past him, heading for the door.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” He grabbed her arm as she headed for the exit, swinging her around to face him.
Fury outlined her body as she looked down at the hand gripping her arm, then looked up at him as though the touch sickened her.
“Take your hands off me.” Her voice vibrated with anger, but he was damned if he didn’t see need flaring in her eyes as well.
He jerked her across the room, pushing her roughly back into the chair. When she went to push her way back to her feet, he slammed his hands on the arms of the seat, forcing her back.
“You are not going anywhere,” he bit out furiously, watching her face flush now. “You can sit your ass here or you can run and hide in the bedroom, but you will not leave this suite. Do you fucking understand me?”
“Kane.” His father’s sharp voice protested behind him. For the first time in his life, Kane ignored his father.
“Do you hear me, Sherra?” he bit out again, never breaking their stare.
Her lips thinned, their
little pout almost tempting him to possess them with a strength of a desire nearly tearing him apart.
“Fine,” she literally growled at him, her eyes shooting sparks of fury as she drew back as far as possible from him. “But your sister is right, you’re an asshole.”
Kane’s eyes widened in surprise, then he frowned in irritation.
“Does she fucking telling everyone I’m an asshole?” He heard his voice rise in incredulity, then turned to look at his family for an answer.
They were staring at him with a mixture of surprise and disbelief.
“Maybe she likes warning the world of the potential,” Sherra sneered. “It’s not like it’s easy to miss.” He swung around to her again.
“Kane.” The order in his father’s voice was impossible to deny. “Leave that girl alone, she said she wouldn’t go anywhere. Get the hell out of here and make sure you’re ready so we can all get some rest before morning. Which is only a few more hours away.”
John faced him, a scowl on his face as he watched his oldest son with no small amount of confusion.
“Sherra, you leave this room and I swear I’ll hunt you down,” he told her fiercely, staring into her eyes as they widened in shock. “And I promise you, you won’t like it much when I find you.” She snarled silently, revealing the longer than normal canines at the side of her mouth.
“Be a good kitty, baby.” He smiled mockingly. He turned and left the room before she had a chance to retaliate, but her furious curse followed him into the hall.
He breathed out harshly then, running his hands over his short black hair and stomping to the next room.
Dammit. He had no desire to fight with Sherra. He didn’t want her mad. He wanted her hot and horny and begging him. And eventually, he would have it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Callan lay beside Merinus smelling her need, her heat. The scent had changed, and he felt his chest tighten with that knowledge. He lay still, not touching her, staring at the darkened ceiling in misery. The
‘mating frenzy’ was completing its cycle, Merinus was ovulating.
She tossed against the mattress, still sleeping, despite the arousal beginning to rage within her body. She would awaken soon, and when she did, she would need his passion, his seed. The desperate lusts would ease then, according to Dr. Martin and become more normal, but she would carry his child. That was in the email Callan hadn’t shown her. The conclusions of the tests the scientist had been running had come through late last night. The uncertainty over the pregnancy hormone easing the frenzy was now certain.
Despite the earlier indications it wouldn’t, the test samples had finally shown proof that the frenzy was nature’s way of ensuring breeding within the Pride.
His fist clenched at that knowledge. Equal parts hope and rage surged through his body. Like any man, he dreamed of having a child with the woman who had stolen his heart. A child filled with laughter, with happiness. But could a child of his ever have a life that carefree? A child whose DNA was infected by its father, a child they would call a freak of science?
Merinus rolled against him, her silken hand found his abdomen. He grimaced at the rising heat in his own body, the pleasure he found in her touch. He could feel his tongue throbbing again, the glands along his tongue enlarging. A fucking aphrodisiac, to ensure the ‘frenzy’. Nature was having the last laugh on them all. Somehow, she had found something worthy in the Breeds science had created and was determined to keep them around.
He ignored the burning moisture in his eyes, his hand smoothing over her slender arm, loving the feel of her. The warmth of her. He had found acceptance from her, but he knew she would be terrified when he revealed the truth to her. A truth he was praying was a mistake. But his sense of smell didn’t lie. How he knew what the scent was, he was uncertain, but he knew. It was the smell of rebirth, as light and elusive as spring.
Merinus moaned low and deep, her hand moving lower, dangerously close to the erection throbbing between his thighs. He was harder than he could ever remember being. Throbbing, desperate to sink inside her, to bury his cock as deeply inside her as possible before spilling his seed.
“Merinus,” he whispered her name, turning to her, his hand going to her cheek as he awoke her.
Her eyes blinked open, a sensual smile shaping her lips as she moved closer to him.
“Wait,” he whispered, holding her still. “We must talk.”
“Later.” She rubbed her breasts against his chest, her hard nipples burning his flesh.
“No, darling,” he denied her. “We talk first. You have to listen to me.” He saw her frown in the predawn shadows of the room.
“So talk. But hurry.” Her leg caressed his as she moved against him, her breathing becoming deep, laborious.
“Merinus, if I take you, you’ll conceive tonight.” He stared down at her intently, watching her eyes widen.
“What?” she asked him nervously. “You can’t be sure of that.” She shook her head, but he smelled her growing hotter. The spicy scent was an aphrodisiac all its own.
As though the thought of carrying his child wasn’t as abhorrent as it should be.
“I’m certain, Merinus.” He allowed his hand to smooth over her cheek, his thumb to trace her lips. “The need you’re feeling will only grow worse, more painful without my sperm coming inside you. But you must know what will happen when it does. I cannot stop it, Merinus. I cannot protect you from this.” He wanted to howl with his rage, his pain for what he was putting her through.
“You aren’t to blame, Callan.” Her smile trembled, her eyes glistened with tears. “It’s not your fault.” Her lack of anger towards him cracked his soul. How could she be so accepting, so loving to a man who had all but destroyed her life?
“I love you, Merinus. I want you to know this now,” he whispered. “You are my soul and you are my life. I could not survive without you now.”
“I know that.” A tear fell from her eye. “I know Callan, because it’s the same for me.” He laid his forehead against hers, breathing roughly, staring down at her as he fought to come to grips with what this night would bring. A child. He had never thought to know that joy, that fear.
“I will protect you and our babe as best I can,” he told her roughly. “With my life, Merinus.” Her hand was shaking as it moved to cup his cheek. He could feel her fear now, her uncertainty.
Suddenly the complications were growing with each second. It was no longer just their lives at risk, but the life of an innocent.
“It’s really bad this time.” She breathed in hard as her body shuddered with the heat. “I’m scared, Callan.”
He moved her to her back, looming over her, wishing there was some way to take her fears from her.
“We will make it okay, love,” he swore to her, though he had no idea how. “Somehow, someway, we will keep our child safe.”
He lowered his head, his lips whispering over hers as he fought the need to plunge his tongue deep into her mouth. To possess her in every way, to make her take the hormone that would drive her need higher, make her body burn, make her release tear through her body and drive her quicker to fertility. Dr. Martin had been certain that this was the reason for the hormone. All tests when combined together fused to produce a single result. A child.
Wanting this night to be remembered, not just for the fear of conception, but for the beauty of their pleasure, Callan began to tease her lips. He didn’t want to tempt with the crazed needs of long love play.
He didn’t want her mindless. He wanted to pleasure her, love her. His kissed her gently with only his lips, sipping at hers; staring into her wide eyes as his hands caressed her swollen breasts, her hard nipples.
Then his tongue brushed her lips, slipped inside and allowed the effects of science and nature to begin.
She accepted the invasion, her eyes closing with a groan as the taste of spice filled both their mouths. It would begin now. And he feared where it would end. But he didn’t stop kissin
g her. He couldn’t. He wanted the contact to last, to linger forever in his mind. That when he gave her his child, he loved her, worshipped her.
Within minutes their breathing increased, perspiration coated their bodies, lust rippled through them.
Callan groaned as his hand lowered, testing the rich cream that prepared her for him. She was slick and hot, ready for him. He moved between her spread thighs, lowering himself against her, positioning his erection for the first hard thrust. He knew what she liked, and he would be certain that every stroke was made to gain her ultimate pleasure.
“I love you, Merinus,” he groaned against her lips as he thrust deep and hard inside her.
* * * * *
Merinus felt the shock of his entrance, the sudden stretching of her vagina, the pleasure/pain that drove all other thoughts from her head. Heat seared her body, spasmed her womb. Her muscles clenched on his cock as he whispered his words of love against her lips. She climaxed on the second stroke, but still the heat built. She bucked against him, her hips thrusting her cunt harder against the invading erection that pumped hard and fast inside her. Callan was moaning, his head lowering to her breasts, his rough tongue licking at her nipples as his mouth suckled each in turn. His cock kept a smooth, hard rhythm as he thrust in and out of her. Each stroke stretched her, filled her. Her head tossed, her body shuddered.
Then he was moving faster, harder. His mouth went to her neck, to the little wound that never seemed to heal, his teeth locking on it, his tongue stroking as she began to feel the final phase of his possession. The hardening of the barb that would lock him inside her seconds before his ejaculation. The firm, stiff flesh that would allow no withdrawal and would ensure the conception that nature intended.
She cried out as the firm thumb began to stiffen, raking her flesh erotically as he began to pound inside her mercilessly. She could feel the heat building in her stomach, knotting her muscles. Her vagina clamped down on his cock, milking it, demanding his release as she felt a harder, stronger orgasm building inside her own body. Her nails bit into his back as the deep strokes had her crying out for ease. He was growling low, her cries echoed through the room The barb lengthened then, and on the last hard stroke locked into her sensitive flesh and sent her into an explosion so hard, so deep she screamed out his name as she felt his seed erupt inside her.
His arms trembled beneath her shoulders as he gasped for breath. Merinus lay there, trying to catch her breath and frowned. Heated moisture dripped against her shoulder. Not much, a few fragile drops. She felt tears build in her eyes, her arms tightened about him, and she wished she knew what to say, knew some way to ease the pain inside this strong man.
“You humble me,” he whispered, his face hidden in her neck, his voice husky. “You amaze me, Merinus.”
“And how do I do this?” she asked him gently, her hands threading through the tawny strands of his hair.
He shook his head. “Your love. Your acceptance.”
His voice strengthened, the hoarseness of his emotion leaving it slowly. He shook his head, took a hard breath and lifted himself from her. She felt him ease his cock from her body and sighed in regret. She would keep him there forever if she could.
He moved away from her, sitting on the side of the bed, gazing into the dim light of the room as morning slowly made its way toward them. She watched him, seeing the strength in his body, the way he straightened his shoulders, ready to face the new battle coming their way as surely as daylight was edging through the sky.
“It won’t be easy.” He stared toward the window and the thick curtains covering it. “I can’t make any promises, other than I’ll always love you. I won’t leave you. I’ll do what I can to protect you.”
“No one could ask more of you, Callan,” she told him, her voice soft. “I don’t expect more of you.”
“You should.” He breathed roughly, dragging his fingers through his hair. “You should have run from me screaming when you first realized you desired me, Merinus.” She laughed softly, remembering the day she had watched him masturbate on his back deck.
“I don’t think that was possible,” she said with a smile. “I was too busy admiring your gorgeous body.” He flashed her a quick, embarrassed look, then frowned at her sternly.
“I’m being serious,” he chided her.
“So am I, Callan.” She smiled. “I’m not weak, nor am I so timid I can’t face whatever life throws at me.
We’re together for a reason. We’ll face whatever life brings us as best we can.” She sat up, curling her legs beneath her as she leaned against his shoulder, staring up at him as he stared back at her. She let her lips caress his muscular shoulder, her hand smoothing over his back.
Callan took a deep breath. “I never expected you.” He shook his head with an edge of amusement.
“You are a dangerous woman, Merinus Tyler.”
“Naw, just a determined woman.” She grinned against his shoulder. “I know a good thing when I see it jacking off.”
He flushed. Shooting her a look of mingled confusion and exasperation, he shook his head as he turned and pulled her into his arms. He held her tight against his body, relishing her warmth, the way she relaxed against him, looked up at him so trustingly.
“We should shower and begin to prepare for what’s ahead of us,” he told her softly, thinking of the news conference to come, the days ahead that would be filled with endless tests, questions and danger. He prayed Merinus’ brother knew what the hell he was doing, because if anything happened to her, then Callan knew his rage would be satisfied with nothing less than blood.
“You never did return the favor as you promised,” he reminded her, his brow arching suggestively.
“When we come together again, you will have to make this up to me.” Merinus flushed then. She felt the heat along her cheeks, but a flame of desire between her thighs. That tingle of lust reminded her, though of the possible conception this night may have wrought. She couldn’t say she was comfortable with the idea of it happening so soon. She would have preferred to wait, to know they were reasonably safe before bringing a child into the lives they would share for the first few years.
“I’ll see what I can do you for ya, sugar,” she drawled, imitating the slow southern drawl she had finally grown accustomed to hearing.
“Well, you just do that, fine thing,” he mocked her, and Merinus had to admit he sounded a hell of a lot more authentic than she did.
They were silent then. Holding each other, watching the light slowly filter into the room as the day eased ahead.
“I don’t want to let go of tonight,” she finally whispered regretfully. “I wish we could just stay like this, forever.”
Callan sighed slowly, his hands smoothing over her shoulders, her back. He kissed her forehead, a soft caress of regret and longing.
“Come on, we’ll shower and get breakfast. Then I need to contact the others. It will be over soon, Merinus. Then perhaps we can make a life for ourselves.”
Merinus swallowed tightly, battling her fears and her regrets. She hadn’t had enough time with him. The time she needed to store her memories in case the worst should happen. She wasn’t a fool; she knew the danger that lay ahead of them. She had known the dangers that faced Callan from the beginning.
He rose from the bed, pulling her up beside him as he kissed the top of her head once again.
