“A problem concerning my loyalty to those who give me theirs,” he stated softly. “You’ve proven yourself more than once, and I’ve expressed several times that loyalty goes both ways here. I’m not a man you have to lie to, unless you’re out to deceive me.”
“I’ll spread the word, boss.” Graeme nodded, staring back at Reever as though uncertain where he was going with the chastisement. “I’ll assure each of them, of my own personal belief that you mean every word you’re saying too.”
Yeah, right. This man and Jonas Wyatt were rumored to be thick as fucking thieves. And Wyatt was overturning every fucking stone in New Mexico searching for the Bengal he had that APB on. That would be one stupid fucker if he trusted Lobo with his identity.
Lobo’s lips quirked in amusement. “You do that, Graeme,” he murmured. “You do that.” Then he turned back to the security glass and stared at the prisoner as he crossed his arms over his chest and stroked his jaw thoughtfully. “Have you called the medic?”
“Yep. He’ll be here soon.” Graeme leaned against the wall, his lips curling in amusement as he glanced at the prisoner himself. “I think he’s going to need rehydration soon though. The bastard keeps pissing himself.”
Lobo grunted at that. “Coward.”
“Now, boss, maybe he just doesn’t have very strong kidneys, ya know? What do they call that? Inconsistency or some shit?”
“Incontinence,” Lobo snorted.
“Or something.” He shrugged. “I’ll have the medic strap an IV to his ass and rehydrate him so we can help him relieve himself again.”
“We’re keeping him?” Lobo asked, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Graeme’s intent.
“Why not,” Graeme drawled. “The boy has friends. Long-association-type friends. Those kinds of friends come looking for you when you’re missing.”
“Loyalty,” Lobo murmured then, still staring at the prisoner.
“Stupidity,” Graeme retorted. “But, I can work with that kind of stupidity if given a chance.”
Lobo nodded. “Very well, see what you can do with it. You have three days to draw his friends out, then I want him stitched up, patched up and ready to fly out to Haven to appear before the Wolf Breed Tribunal for sentencing. He struck against a Wolf Breed and conspired to kidnap one to turn her over to research. That’s a capital offense and only the Tribunal can sentence him for it.”
“Only if he survives the transfer.” Graeme smiled coldly. “Stupid bastards like that try to escape, get killed and save the Tribunal hours of needless debate and months of protests by humans.”
Lobo chuckled at that. “Yeah, but hell, they like their little amusements as well.” The look he gave Graeme was one he assumed brooked no refusal.
Graeme let him keep thinking that. For the moment.
“Gotcha, save him for Tribunal amusement. Check.” He tipped his fingers to his forehead in a careless salute.
“And you let me know if that Bengal with the APB out on him needs a friend,” Lobo reminded him as he turned to leave. “I make a hell of a friend, Graeme. A bad enemy to make, but a hell of a friend.”
With one last glance over his shoulder, Lobo left the room and closed the door behind him.
Whew.
Now that was what a Breed could consider a damned good close call.
Especially a Breed with an APB out on his ass and a Bureau director determined to reel him in like a fish on a hook.
Graeme had never considered himself reelable. Or hookable.
He grinned at the image before taking his seat and releasing the electronic lock to the door the medic used to access the cells.
“Be careful of that one, Doc,” he spoke into the mic as the medic made his way across the cement floor. “He likes to water his cot a bit.”
“You terrorizing the prisoners again, Graeme?” the Breed chuckled.
It wasn’t their first prisoner, or the first one Graeme had caused to piss himself.
“It’s getting too damned easy to do it, Doc,” he answered. “We need to find prisoners made of sterner stuff. Why don’t you put out a memo to all those weak-assed soldiers the Council keeps sending. We need someone tougher to play with.”
“Right. Memo. Send sterner stuff,” the medic laughed as Graeme opened the cell and watched the medic and two Wolf Breed guards enter the barred enclosure.
“Yeah,” Graeme murmured. “Send sterner stuff. At least give me a fucking challenge.”
He snorted at that.
That wasn’t possible. It wasn’t possible because the best they’d had to offer at any given time had already had their playdates with him. He was alive, they were dead. Every last one of them.
Screams echoed in his head, agony sliced through his veins. A scream of rage built in his throat as the memories surged through his head and tempted the beast he’d managed to chain.
His claws flexed and his body tensed to jump from the chair as the insane rage that had festered in him for so many years threatened to slip free once again.
At the last second, he managed one last rational thought.
His lifeline.
Gentle eyes. The scent of moonlight and shy laughter.
“Who are you?” she whispered, her head tilting to the side as the colors of the desert shaded her head and brushed across her shoulders in the silken strands. “If you’re here to kill me, why not just do it and get it over with.”
Oh, he was there to kill her.
The animal could taste her blood, salivated for it as the insanity the man lived within relished the moment.
“What makes you think I’m here to kill you? Can’t I enjoy the night as well? Besides, I was here first. You’re the one that found me, not the other way around.”
He felt her surprise. Hell, it was no less than his own. He imagined the animal snarled at him in complete shock, questioning the seemingly rational tone of voice he used.
“Did I find you?” She smiled. Right there, staring into the shadows where he hid, the faintest little smile as her arms relaxed just a bit where they were crossed over her breasts.
“What do you call it?” he asked her as he leaned against the rough stone of the cliff at his side. “I was standing here minding my own business when you sneaked up on me. I call that finding me.”
What the hell was happening to him?
He could smell her, he knew her for who she was rather than who others thought her to be. Her scent was just as sweet as it had ever been, unmarred by the filth of male possession or the acrid stink of lies and deceptions.
There was just the smell of the woman, the moonlight, regret, a hint of fear, and perhaps, hell, there was the faintest scent of weariness and desire.
She shook her head, her confusion scenting the air between them. “I didn’t even know you were here. I used to come out here all the time just to enjoy the night.”
“So why did you stop? Better yet, why return the minute I decided to enjoy the view here? Maybe I should be scared of you.” How the hell was he so calm? How had he managed to remember what it was like to tease her so gently and watch that shy pleasure as it began to warm her gaze?
“Yeah, I’m really scary.” She rolled her eyes at the thought, her expression betraying her belief that nothing could be further from the truth.
“You could be some kind of assassin. One of those seductresses the Genetics Council sends out to lure innocent male Breeds back to the labs,” he pointed out.
She tipped her head to the side and watched his shadow in interest now.
“No.” She shook her head. “Not a seductress.”
He had her complete attention. It was focused entirely on him and the subtle scent of feminine attraction mixed with something deeper, something stronger that he knew he should recognize but couldn’t.
“Hmm, assassin then?” He let her see a grin, a teasing curve of his lips as he shifted just enough to allow the moonlight to reveal it while keeping the rest of his face hidden. “Are you here to kill m
e? I’m just a helpless Breed slipping away for a few hours before I have to save the world again.”
That was what Rule Breaker had muttered that morning as he strode through the predawn light to join the team heading into the desert for patrol: Out to save the fucking world again. Give me a break.
“I’m definitely no assassin,” she promised him, that shy little smile teasing him again. “I’m just a secretary that enjoys the night. A chance meeting in the dark, never to be repeated.”
“Never?” The thought of that had forced the animal to step back another pace and allow one more inch of sanity to curl about its neck in restraint. “Don’t tell me that, you may break my heart.”
“I’m no heartbreaker either,” she sighed, stepping back. “I better go.”
“Promise you’ll come back.” Go? She was leaving him alone? Again?
The animal strained against the bonds that were far too weak to hold it if it became insistent.
She paused. “I shouldn’t come back.”
But she wanted to. He could feel it. Taste it on the air around them.
“I’ll be here tomorrow,” he promised. “Just for a few minutes. I promise. Just to talk a minute. I won’t keep you long.”
He should be pouncing on her. He should be tasting her terror and her blood as she stared into his eyes and realized she was about to pay for her crimes. Pay for the hell she’d sent him to.
She looked out at the darkened landscape for long moments before giving a resigned little sigh.
“What the hell,” she finally breathed out wearily. “It beats the nightmares.”
She turned and moved away from him, a slight shadow amid the darkness, blending with it for a moment before stepping into the moonlight once again and returning to the safety of the house and the protection of the Breeds she’d slipped away from.
It beat the nightmares.
She had no idea, he realized. Just as the other hadn’t known the past that endangered her, neither did this one.
The only thing left of the person she had been was that slight scent of shy, hungry need. Not a sexual need, at least, not then, all those years ago. But a need for warmth, for caring.
Everything else had changed, and he suddenly wanted to know why.
Why was the girl she had been so overshadowed that even her scent had been altered in ways?
And what was that fucking taste—
It hit him then.
Just enough rational thought had filtered through the fury and insanity to drag the animal back long enough for him to make sense of a lifetime of hell.
Her blood had saved his life, but it had turned him into an enraged animal.
When the soldiers had caught him again, that added quality in his blood had spurred them into experiments so horrendous it had broken what little sanity he’d still possessed.
It had been the blood that had transfused him.
The scent of what the Breeds called mating heat, the taste of it in his mouth, the small glands swelling beneath his tongue each time he came near her.
This was why finding her had driven him that last short step into insanity.
She was his mate and he had finally found her.
That didn’t mean she didn’t have to pay for running from him.
It didn’t mean Judd wouldn’t pay for helping her.
It didn’t mean he was sane by any stretch of the imagination.
But with her, he might have a shot at finding his sanity.
At least enough of it to claim what was his.
* * *
He’s stitched up, Graeme,” the medic announced as he left the cell, the guards with him securing the locks as Graeme reached out and secured the electronic safeguards as well.
“Thanks, Doc.” Graeme cleared his throat as he pushed back the memories. “I’ll try to keep him nice and quiet while his scratches heal.”
The medic laughed as he and the guards left the cells and left Graeme to his thoughts.
His fantasies.
NINE
Two weeks later
Devil Black, shame is thy middle name,” Kate laughed in merriment as she stalked into the bedroom, closing the door loudly behind her before locking it securely and facing the Breed that had stolen her heart with merciless intent. Mating heat may have begun it, but his heart had completed it.
“Council didn’t give us middle names, darlin’,” he reminded her as he lounged back on their bed, the hard, corded strength of his naked body displayed to her hungry gaze. “They concentrated their talents on a few more important aspects instead.”
Broad, lean, his hand lowered, long fingers circling the engorged width of his cock.
Ah yes, she had to admit, some enterprising scientist had definitely shown a bit of imagination in programming the DNA of certain aspects of the Wolf Breed’s male form.
Tall, lean and powerful, savagely hewn features emphasized by the unusual amber-striated black eyes and thick lashes.
She couldn’t look at him and not want him.
He was the embodiment of her teenage fantasy, and now he was the lover who never failed to send her flying into ecstasy.
Toeing her sandals slowly from her feet, her fingers flipped the button holding her skirt at her hips. Chiffon and silk slid down her thighs, over her legs to pool carelessly at her feet as she stepped over it.
As a growl rumbled in his chest, Kate moved slowly closer, wearing only white silk bikini panties and the snug black cami covering her breasts.
Braless, she could feel the sensitive, hard tips of her nipples rasping against the fabric, creating a heated ache impossible to ignore for long.
Between her thighs her clit swelled and pulsed in demand, the slick essence of feminine need coating the bare folds of her pussy and dampening her panties as she drew closer to him.
The amber flared in his gaze brighter, hotter as her hand lifted, fingers stroking against the flesh bared between the elastic band of her panties and the hem of the top where it ended just below her navel.
Mating heat was a flame that refused to allow them apart for long, but it was also a key to emotions that a hardened, battle-scarred Breed might never have allowed free. The key to a sensuality that a wary, uncertain Breed female may have fought, at least for a while.
Now, there was no fighting, no hiding, no denying.
Bracing her knee on the mattress, her palms flat against the blankets, Kate lifted herself to the bed, crawling slowly between those long, powerful legs to the male awaiting her.
* * *
Watching her move to him, sensuality washing over her expression, flushing her face, tightening her breasts, her nipples, sending the sweet scent of her need to fill his senses.
Long, silken curls fell around her like twining spirals of flames as her green eyes gleamed with emerald hunger between long, sun-kissed lashes.
Damn, his balls were tight, the engorged length of his cock throbbing with steadily increasing hunger as she bypassed it only to straddle his thighs. The silk of her panties, heated and damp from the arousal building in her, pressed against the iron-hard length as her lips brushed against his.
With each passing second the heat building between them rose, overwhelming their senses as the need to touch, to taste, became imperative.
His fingers speared into the curls at the back of her head, holding her in place as his lips covered hers, his tongue licking against them, parting them until she met his kiss with a fiery heat of her own.
Spicy and sweet, the mating hormone spilling from the tiny glands beneath their tongues sent their pulses racing as the need amplified and surged through their systems.
Devil couldn’t imagine a high greater than this. The pleasure of his mate’s kiss, her touch, the hunger and need rising between them like hungry flames licking at their flesh.
Hooking his fingers into the elastic at her hips, it was incredibly easy to snap the stretchy lace from the silk and remove them entirely.
The feel of her f
lesh, slick and hot against the engorged length of his dick, had every muscle in his body tensing, tightening in a need so primal it was impossible to deny.
Holding her lips to his with his hand behind her head as he wrapped his free arm around her rear to lift her in place, he couldn’t hold back the desperate growl that rumbled from his throat.
He loved to have her ride him. Loved watching her, feeling her take him. But the primal instincts tearing through him now were impossible to deny.
* * *
Dev,” Kate protested the suddenly cessation of his kiss as her eyes widened, surprise flaring through her as he suddenly lifted her from his body.
“What—?”
Before she could do more than gasp the question, he had her on her knees, one big hand pressing her shoulders down as he came behind her.
Catching herself on her elbows and swiping her hair back from her eyes, she was suddenly confronted with her own image in the full-length mirror against the wall. Bent before her mate, his hands gripping her hips, lifting her into place as he removed one hand to grip his fierce erection.
She watched him, watched as his gaze narrowed on the point where their bodies met, and felt the wide crest part the swollen lips of her pussy.
That first pulse of silky pre-seminal fluid shot inside her, the unique hormones contained within it instantly sinking, stroking against her flesh and awakening sensations she wouldn’t have known otherwise.
His head fell back as he pressed the flared head inside the clenched entrance until it was lodged fully inside the milking flesh of her vagina.
The next spurt had a moan falling from her lips as she felt his cock head flex, felt the heat of the release inside her. Because she knew within seconds what would happen.
That rush of sharp, fiery sensation as her pussy clenched tight and hard, an involuntary response to the stimulation of the hormones spilling inside her. The sweeping fire clenching her womb, spasming through it with a pleasure-pain that dragged a broken cry from her lips.
A heartbeat later, as tightly as her flesh was gripped around him, flexing and milking the heavy length deeper still, her pussy wept for more. The silky slide of her juices mixed with the next hot spurt of fluid to increase the spikes of building sensation as he pushed deeper inside her.
It was agonizing pleasure, the sweetest pain she could imagine. With each shallow thrust of his hips, each backward glide of the thick erection, the sensations only mounted. And Kate couldn’t help but watch. Just as he watched the penetration of her body.
“Fuck. So good,” he growled, his chest heaving as a trickle of perspiration eased down his temple.
Lifting his now amber gaze, the burning flames that lit the depths dragged a sharp breath of surprise from her.
“So sweet, Kate,” he growled, his gaze moving to where he was pumping in shallow thrusts, his hips moving rhythmically as he fucked deeper, deeper inside her with each movement until in one final surge, he was buried to the hilt.
A final spurt of fluid shot against her inner walls, the thick head pulsing with the release, caressing the sensitive flesh he filled so fully.
“Dev, please.” The desperate cry wailed from her lips as he held her hips in place, refusing to allow her to thrust back against him, to work him inside her until the sharp bursts of painful pleasure eased.
“Let me feel it,” he groaned. “The feel of your sweet pussy gripping me so tight and hot. Fuck, Kate, it’s like fucking electricity surrounding my cock.”
She whimpered at the pleasure that filled his voice as the little bursts of sensation continued to flare through her pussy.
Pleasure and pain.
And it didn’t end. It wouldn’t end until he began moving. Until the broad length of his cock was shafting hard and deep inside her. Until then, the fluid he’d pumped inside her would keep clenching and tightening her flesh while spikes of pleasure demanded more of her heated juices to spill inside her and ease the ecstatic torture.
“Please, Dev.” Breathless, riding a wave of sensation so powerful it was stealing her breath, Kate pleaded with him to ease the clenching demand building between her thighs.
Her clit was throbbing, pulsing in time to each rippling shudder that worked through her pussy, until in desperation she lowered her hand between her thighs, her fingers finding the nerve-rich center and rubbing it with quickening strokes of her fingers.
“Yeah, play with that pretty clit,” he crooned, coming over her, his knees bracing hers apart, his hips moving just enough to cause the head of his cock to stroke the inner muscles, just enough to send screaming shards of pleasure to race through her nerve endings.
“Let me feel you come like this,” he demanded, his gaze meeting hers in the mirror. “Le