r doctors, they will jerk every weapon you have out of your hands until I am branded as no more than a monster. And then, there will be no place where I can hide.”
“That won’t happen,” Merinus assured him.
Merinus knew her father, uncle and brothers had been very careful. They wouldn’t take a chance with his life.
Mockery washed over his face.
“Will it not?” he asked her. “Jacob thought he could aid us and refuse their offers. He returned home to the brutal deaths of his wife and children. A lesson. How many of your scientists would risk that?” Shock sped through Merinus’ body. She knew the Council killed indiscriminately, she had the proof of it. But hearing Callan voice it, so coldly furious, made it somehow more real.
“I promise you, my family has made a way for you,” she whispered. “Look at us, Callan. Look at me. I can’t be away from you for more than an hour without my body going into some kind of crazy withdrawal. I can’t live this way.”
“It will only be temporary,” he promised her. “Doc will fix it.”
“How do you know?” she bit out. “What if it can’t be fixed, Callan? What if we can never be free of each other? What if we don’t want to be?”
“I didn’t want to be born an animal, or an experiment. Wants don’t count.” His voice held a ring of finality.
“And if Doc doesn’t fix it?” His attitude only spurred her anger further. “What about me, Callan? Will you just run away and leave me to deal with it as best I can?” He grimaced, turning away from her. She watched his muscular back heave with a harsh breath, his head lower.
“If I must,” he told her softly, refusing to look at her now. “I will if I have to make the choice of revealing my secrets, or being with you, Merinus. My family must come first.”
“I know about your family,” she told him, unreasonably furious at the stand he was taking. “What’s to keep me from telling?”
He turned to look at her and the blood chilled in her veins. His eyes were cold, stone hard and as emotionless as his expression. Gasping, she backed away from him, fighting an instinctive fear that rose inside her.
“Callan.” Sherra’s voice stopped him from answering.
The tall blonde stood in the kitchen doorway, a syringe in one hand as she faced them.
“What do you need, Sherra?” he asked her sharply. “I have no time for more of your tests.” Merinus watched Sherra’s eyes narrow.
“Good, because I would more likely try to kill you rather than test you,” she said sweetly. “I’ve brought Merinus’ contraception injection. Perhaps you need to go outside and get your control back while she takes it.”
Callan gave her a hard look.
“You don’t intimidate me, brother,” she informed him, moving into the room in determination. “And you shouldn’t try to intimidate Merinus. This is hard enough on her.”
“I do not try to intimidate, Sherra,” he reminded her darkly.
“No, you usually succeed,” she admitted. “But now is the wrong time to practice that tough attitude. Go stalk something non-human for a change, while I explain to Merinus why you were forced to kill to save the young girl those soldiers found a few hours after we rescued her, rather than letting her think you did it in cold blood.”
Callan’s eyes narrowed, while Merinus’ widened.
“What?” she whispered in disbelief.
“Yes.” Sherra nodded, stopping beside her and indicating Merinus should lift her arm for the injection.
“When he went back to track them, disable them, then send them home in shame, they were in the process of attempting to brutalize a young girl they had kidnapped earlier. When he interrupted them, they elected to fight rather than surrender, and when Callan would have still shown mercy, one of them attempted to kill the girl anyway.”
Merinus took a deep, hard breath as she looked at Callan.
“They are still dead.” He sneered. “And they would have died for touching you alone.”
* * * * *
Callan watched Merinus blink at his statement. He hadn’t meant to reveal that, but the words had come out anyway. He had no intentions of leaving those bastards alive, as he would have normally done. He had been in a killing rage after rescuing Merinus from their hands, intent on destruction. The soldiers had just made it easier for his conscience to bear the weight. They had touched what was his. He recognized the emotion, the origin of the fury now. They had laid their hands on his woman, put their scent on her. They had crossed a line Callan had never known existed. One that assured their deaths.
It worried him, this attachment he had for her, the violent emotions that swirled in his brain and in his body. He wanted to deny them, not just to her, but to himself. How could he walk away from her if he couldn’t go more than a few hours without touching her?
He watched, fighting to keep his face expressionless as Sherra gave Merinus the injection. He knew Doc wasn’t giving her a normal contraceptive. The injection wasn’t as powerful as the Depo-Provera shots given in a gynecologist’s office. They lasted only days and didn’t affect the system as severely.
“I hate these shots, Sherra.” He could still hear the throb of anger in Merinus’ voice.
“I know,” Sherra soothed her as she pulled the needle free. “We have all the samples we should need for a while. Until there’s a change.”
“There better be a change soon,” Merinus said firmly. “I’m getting sick of this. There are things I need to do.”
She needed to leave. Callan tamped down the instinctive fury he felt at that thought. She wanted to leave here, to put distance between them if he continued to refuse to give in to her demands to return with her, to reveal himself. His teeth clenched. She was so innocent, too damned innocent. There was no way he could be free of the Council as easily as she believed. If it could have been done, then Maria and Doc would have found a way to do so before her death.
“Callan, Doc still needs samples from you,” Sherra informed him, disrupting his thoughts. “Daily. When will you be in the lab?”
Callan shrugged. “Whenever you are ready. Send Dawn up to stay with Merinus.”
“I don’t need a babysitter,” Merinus retorted, her earlier anger still evident in her voice.
“Too bad,” he told her, unconcerned. “I am not comfortable leaving you alone, so I will ensure you are not alone. Your wishes in this don’t matter.”
He ignored Sherra’s look of surprise, Merinus’ narrowed eyes and flash of stubbornness.
“Geez, Callan, I think all this excess testosterone flooding your system is putting you in overload.” Sherra frowned.
“Testosterone overload?” Merinus gave an unladylike grunt. “More like asshole overload if you ask me.” Callan growled low and deep at the defiance in her voice.
“And don’t you go doing that growling thing at me.” She pointed her finger at him commandingly. “I’ve had it with you this morning, Callan. Don’t bother leaving that lair in the basement if you can’t act decent.”
His cock was throbbing. He could smell her arousal already and he could feel his blood pumping hard and demandingly into his cock. He should throw her across the table and fuck her into a screaming orgasm before leaving her. That would teach her to defy him in such a way.
The thought of her, stretched out across the dark wood of the table as he drove inside her was nearly an irresistible vision of lust. She would throw her head back, beg him to ride her harder, deeper. He breathed in deeply.
“Let’s go.” He stalked across the room as he ordered Sherra to follow him. “Another minute in this woman’s company and I will become violent.”
“Or I will,” Merinus muttered, though her voice sounded weaker, more petulant than furious as it had before.
Strange, she had not pouted since he had first set eyes on her, he didn’t expect to hear it coming from her now. Let her pout, when he returned to her, he would show her who the dominant one was between them. He would make
her scream for her release, beg him to throw her into orgasm. And he knew how to do it. The Council had been amazingly thorough in his lessons. Sex could be a weapon as well as a pleasure. A tool to kill, or to cajole, whichever the situation warranted. He would show her that foreplay could be a torture, a lesson in pleasure so incredible it bordered on pain. His cock jerked at the thought.
Damn it, tests first, then he would show his woman who was boss.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
She wasn’t about to wait on him. She was fed up with tests and orders, and the throbbing, heated need that pulsed through her body. All she had to do was get away from him. That was all. The enforced confinement only bred the dependency her body was harboring for him. If she could just get away from him, then she could control it.
Merinus hurriedly dressed in jersey shorts, a light tank top and her running shoes. She tucked some cash in the zippered pocket of the shorts, then slipped from the house. She knew the other three males were patrolling the hills around the cabin for mercenaries, but she hoped they were overlooking the main road in. A vehicle could be heard easily coming in, she knew. That area wouldn’t be a weak point.
Taking a deep breath, she sprinted across the yard and worked her way into the forest that bordered the road. Staying close to the graveled track, she kept just inside the tree line, jogging quickly toward the main road.
It wouldn’t take Callan long to find out she was missing, and tracking her sure as hell wouldn’t be a problem for him. She had to get to camp. Callan may have stolen the cell phone she carried with her, but there was a spare hidden in the jeep. And the jeep was still there. She had heard him discussing it with the others that morning. He wanted them to get the jeep and begin taking her camp down, removing all traces of her from the area.
Despite Sherra’s attempts to ease her fears, Merinus feared Callan’s intentions. He spoke so easily of killing those soldiers. What was to keep him from killing her when their passion had ended? When his body no longer craved her, when his lusts dimmed for her. She would become an inconvenience, one that knew his secrets.
Fear rushed through her veins, giving her the added adrenaline needed to push herself, almost at a run, over the two miles of rough terrain to the main road. There, luck was with her. She had no more begun a hurried jog down the pavement when a car passed, then slowed.
Relief washed over her when she saw the young girls watching her expectantly.
“Hey, ain’t you the journalist that’s been running around town?” the blonde, gum snapping driver asked her with a smile.
The girl waitressed evenings at the small restaurant she ate in, Merinus remembered.
“I need a ride back to camp,” Merinus told her urgently. “Could you drive me there?” She was sweating, her blood thundering through her veins. She needed Callan. She swallowed at the bile rising in her throat as she fought the weakening symptoms.
“Sure. Get in. You look kinda sick, though. Sure you don’t want to go to the doctor?” Merinus pulled the back door open and slid in thankfully.
“No doctors.” She barely halted the shudder of her body at the thought of someone touching her. “Just take me to the access road to my camp. I’ll be fine from there.” She wondered if her jeep was still there. Another cell phone was hidden there, a spare, just in case, Kane had told her. She had to get to that phone.
“Sure. No problem.” A heavy foot hit the gas and the car shot forward.
Merinus bit her lip, fighting the need to scream out at her to stop, to take her back to Callan. Addictions could be cured, she told herself. Detox. Kane had gone through it a long time ago, and he told her once, any addiction could be cured. All you had to do was fight it. Just fight it.
She could fight it, Merinus assured herself.
Her fists clenched in the pockets of her shorts, her body throbbed and the air became stifling. She tasted blood from her teeth biting into her lips and she was forced to clench her teeth instead. Control, she chanted to herself. Control. Kane said all it took was control.
* * * * *
The roar that erupted from Callan’s throat when they realized Merinus was missing almost shocked him. He knew it shocked the others. Dawn whimpered, Sherra flinched. The three men whose sole job it was to protect the house paled.
“You didn’t even know she was out there?” The primal growl in his voice had the three men taking a step back.
“We were above her, Callan. There was no reason for us to believe she would try to slip away from you,” Taber defended them all.
“And why would you not patrol the road? Do you think no one would think to use it?” he bit out harshly.
“What the hell is it there for?”
“We would have heard—”
“Nothing if they were on foot as Merinus was,” Callan rasped furiously.
The rage pulsing through his body was hot and violent. Damn her to hell, she had run from him. Taken money and the keys to her vehicle and ran, despite the needs raging through her body. And she needed.
He knew, because the hot throb of lust was making him demented.
“We miscalculated,” Taber admitted.
“You fucked up, there’s a difference,” Callan accused him. “She’s headed for camp.” He pushed his fingers through his hair, fighting to think. “She’ll want her vehicle so she can run. Let’s go.” He turned on his heel, unwilling to wait any longer.
“Sherra, you and Tanner head for town, make certain she’s not there. The rest of us will head to camp.
My damned luck she’s fucking called in the Marines by the time I get there.” The Marines or those damned brothers she kept threatening him with. That woman thought her brothers could move the damned world if they wanted to. He bit back an oath of disgust as he jumped into the Bronco and turned the key. Taber and Dayan followed quickly, settling into their seats as Callan tore out of the driveway.
“She’s becoming a liability, Callan,” Dayan charged as they sped onto the main road minutes later. “A danger to us.”
“Shut up, Dayan.” Callan flicked a glance at the other man through the rear view mirror.
He watched fury wash over Dayan’s face, his brown eyes narrowing in offense. Callan was passed caring. Respect came with a price. He and Taber had fucked up, and Callan would be damned before he would accept the responsibility for that himself. They each had a job to do and he had done his part. The other males had failed in theirs and the price could end up being their lives if they didn’t find Merinus.
“She shouldn’t have much of a head start on us,” Callan bit out. “No more than an hour, and she would have taken much of that jogging to the main road.”
“Could be less if she didn’t get a ride right off,” Taber offered.
Callan flicked him a sarcastic glance. Of course, she would have got a ride right off. No one around here left anyone walking.
“If she’s called her family, you’ll have to let her go, Callan,” Dayan bit out. “We’ll all go into hiding again. There’s no other choice.”
Callan refused to answer him. He turned sharply onto another graveled path, a short cut that would take him right to the area Merinus had parked her jeep. The drive was mere minutes compared to the half hour it would take by going around. He prayed he got to Merinus before she got to that damned jeep. If she managed to get out of the county before he caught up with her, then they were both in more trouble than he even wanted to consider.
Callan would not even consider letting Merinus go. He couldn’t. Not yet. Not now. Not while his body was inflamed, his natural instincts to subjugate his mate rioting within his body. He couldn’t believe she had made such a damned foolish move. That the strong, determined woman he was getting to know would run in such a way. That she was brave enough to tempt the beast lying just below the surface.
* * * * *
She was sweating, her breathing laboring in her lungs by the time she reached the small clearing where her jeep was parked. It was still there. She was al
most crying in relief as she stumbled against the vehicle, fighting the zipper to her shorts pocket and struggling to pull her keys out. She nearly dropped them twice before she managed to fit the key into the lock and twist it. She scrambled into the interior, shuddering, her body weak, unsteady as she groped at the glove box to open it. The door finally fell open, revealing the spare cell phone that Kane insisted she keep up.
Flipping it open, she keyed the rapid dial and listened for the call to go through.
“Merinus!” His voice was a desperate yell across the line.
“Kane,” she gasped, lying across the seat now, clutching her stomach. “Oh, God. I’m in trouble, Kane.” She could hear him cursing, raging. There was fear in his voice though, and worry.
“Dammit, Merinus, I told you this was fucking stupid,” he screamed again.
“Just shut up,” she tried to yell back, but her voice was weak. “Come get me, Kane. He’ll find me and I can’t drive. You have to come get me. This is big. God, bigger than we knew—” The soft growl at her back had her freezing in terror.
“Merinus?” Kane questioned into the sudden silence.
Merinus whimpered. She felt him behind her, big, hard, aroused. She knew he was aroused, knew he was furious.
“Hurry, Kane—” The phone was jerked out of her hand as she was lifted from the jeep seat.
She heard Kane screaming at her, watched as Callan closed the line, slowly, deliberately.
“That was a mistake,” she snarled in his face, her fist striking out at him, catching him off guard.
He released her long enough for her to scramble away from him then dash through the trees as she ran for the main road. If she could get close enough, maybe someone would hear her screams for help.
Someone would know she was in trouble.
* * * * *
“Leave her,” he ordered Dayan and Taber as they started after her. “Pack this shit up and hide it. Jeep and all. I’ll meet you at the house in a few hours.”
Callan tossed the ringing cell phone into the jeep with a snarl.
“You just going to let her run?” Taber asked him curiously.
“She’s headed away from the road, not to it.” He shrugged, knowing how often greenhorns got lost in the area due to the paths that pretty much looked the same. “Do as I said. I’ll catch her.”
“Uhh, Callan, maybe you should let me go after her,” Taber suggested. “You’re not exactly calm right now.”
“She’s safe. For now,” Callan assured him. “Just do as I said, and I’ll meet you back at the house later.” Callan was furious. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t managed to get to her before she made that damned phone call. The last thing he needed was the Tyler newspaper clan descending on the little town, looking for him. He should have taken care of the camp and her jeep sooner. That was a miscalculation on his part. And he would have never suspected she was carrying two cell phones. All he could seem to consider right now was the fact that she had run from him. Deliberately, had left the house and tried to escape him. She belonged to him, at least until whatever the hell it was that made his cock throb decided to stop. Until then, she was a necessity to him. Just as he knew he was to her.
He could smell her heat beckoning him. Fear and confusion and arousal. It was a heady scent that sent his own pulse pounding, his erection jerking in response. He didn’t run after her, he stalked her. Moving around her, behind her, choreographing his moves as he pushed her towards the area he wanted.
A clearing in the heavy growth of the forest, a secluded, private area sheltered on three sides by cliffs, with only a narrow entrance in or out. He wanted her there, in the privacy of the place he had chosen as his own.
It didn’t take him long before he was following her through the entrance, his steps light, silent. He could hear her breathing heavily, cursing. He smiled, her brothers must have taught her those curses, because no lady could have thought of them on her own.
She was sitting beside the stream, sweat dampened, her head lowered as she muttered weakly about
“damned animals and superior men.”
“Oh, you’ve had it now.” She stared up at him, her eyes dark, glittering wildly with lust and defiance.
“He’ll hunt you down like a dog.”
“Wrong species, darling.” He smiled slow and sure.
She narrowed her eyes on him as he stripped the shirt from his back.
“Asshole,” she muttered, her breathing becoming harsh, heavy as he kicked the leather moccasins from his feet.
“Mine.” He growled.
Her eyes widened as he stripped his pants from his body, his cock springing free, hard, jutting. He watched her nipples harden further beneath her shirt.
“I’m not yours,” she bit out, her protest weak.
“Take your clothes off, Merinus,” he told her softly. “If I attempt it, I’ll tear them from your body. You should have never run from me.”
“Should I just wait around—”
“Take the fucking clothes off before I rip them from you,” he threatened her again, his fists clenched as he fought the urge to do just that.
“I don’t want you.” But she did. He could smell her want, feel it in the heat radiating from her body.
“Now.” He made a move toward her, satisfaction filling every pore in his body as her shirt came off quickly, then her shorts.
She was naked. Gloriously, beautifully naked. She stared up at him, flushed and furious, her breathing harsh in the sudden silence of the glade.
“Kane will come for me,” she warned him darkly. “Him and the rest. He won’t let you keep me like this.”
“He’ll have to find you first,” he told her softly, smiling with his victory as he came toward her. “And I promise you, he won’t find—”
Stars exploded in front of his eyes as her foot connected with his balls. He blinked, fought the onrush of bile rising in his throat, and fought for breath as he fell to the ground.
Fuck. That hurt. He wheezed, fighting for breath, aware of the jerkiness of her movements as she pulled her clothes back on. She was weak, her body trembling, the need pouring through her making her clumsy. Son of a bitch, she was going to want for a while. Then she was off and running again.
Callan pulled himself weakly to his feet, fighting for breath and mentally cursing the little bitch for everything she was worth. Or wasn’t at that moment. Damn her. He was going to tan her hide.