Bastion
O-Men: Liege’s Legion
Elaine Levine
Contents
Other Books by Elaine Levine
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Other Books by Elaine Levine
About the Author
Bastion
O-Men: Liege’s Legion, Book 2
The Matchmaker’s Curse says if the mutant accepts the match, then his fated mate must die. If he doesn’t accept it, then he must die…
* * *
No one has yet survived the curse.
The threat coming for Selena Irving has been stalking her family for years, ruining her parents’ lives and pushing her onto the warrior’s path. She’s the only female yet to qualify for the elite dark ops unit in the Army called the Red Team, and while that shielded her for a little while, the nightmare’s begun again. Now she’s caught the eye of an alpha male with superpowers—her definition of trouble. Sexy-as-hell Bastion loves easily, laughs often, and cooks like a master chef. He’s also the only man to see through her defenses to the person she used to be…the woman she might have become had her past been different.
* * *
Bastion, changed against his will into a mutant warrior, is on a mission to find those responsible for stealing his life, intent on stopping their plans to unravel humanity. He wasn’t looking for a mate, but he bonds with Selena the first time he sees her, activating a curse neither of them can escape. His only chance to break it is to ruthlessly burrow into her secrets, forcing her to face her hidden scars, helping her heal before the danger headed her way can use her past to take her down—and everyone she loves with her.
Other Books by Elaine Levine
O-Men: Liege’s Legion
Paranormal Suspense
Liege
Bastion
* * *
Red Team Series
Romantic Suspense/Military Suspense
(This series must be read in order.)
1 The Edge of Courage
2 Shattered Valor
3 Honor Unraveled
4 Kit & Ivy: A Red Team Wedding Novella
5 Twisted Mercy
6 Ty & Eden: A Red Team Wedding Novella
7 Assassin’s Promise
8 War Bringer
9 Rocco & Mandy: A Red Team Wedding Novella
10 Razed Glory
11 Deadly Creed
12 Forsaken Duty
13 Max & Hope: A Red Team Wedding Novella
14 Owen & Addy: A Red Team Wedding Novella
Sleeper SEALs
Romantic Suspense/Military Suspense
11 Freedom Code
* * *
Men of Defiance Series
Historical Western Romance
(This series may be read in any order.)
1 Rachel and the Hired Gun
2 Audrey and the Maverick
3 Leah and the Bounty Hunter
4 Logan’s Outlaw
5 Agnes and the Renegade
Dedication
Barry—
I love everything about our life.
Because of you.
1
Wolf Creek Bend, Wyoming
The Red Team Headquarters
Early December
The moon was late rising. Not quite full, it spilled cold light over the quiet mansion Bastion was charged with infiltrating. An orange glow radiated from somewhere around the front of the garage. It was steady, not flickering like a fire, but it was orange, not red like taillights.
That light was a summons, pulling at Bastion. He’d avoided it for weeks, but tonight, he could no longer resist its call. He cautiously made his way around to the garage wing of the house, keeping his energy shield in place, effectively hiding himself from technology and humans alike.
He knew what he was looking at—he’d known all along. It was the specter of the Matchmaker. The fiend had no balls; he never delivered his curses in his corporeal form. No, he brought his terrible messages the coward’s way, through an astral projection, sparing himself the blowback he deserved.
The orange glow wasn’t coming from the Matchmaker’s bright red hair or glowing eyes; it was a light that emanated from his entire body. Bastion rushed the mirage, wanting to touch its energy to get a sense of who was behind the Matchmaker persona.
Of course, he couldn’t get close enough. The thing’s projection moved with Bastion, keeping just out of his reach.
When Bastion gave up, the Matchmaker lifted a hand and pointed at the house. One of the four overhead garage doors opened. Bastion shielded the screeching sound from being heard by anyone inside.
Briefly, the reality of what was happening registered; the experience Bastion had both yearned for and feared was at hand. He froze in place, staring into the black void of the open garage.
If he accepted the Matchmaker’s pairing, shit was going to get real—and fast. He was ready for it, but was the female who’d been selected for him ready?
How could she be?
Legend said if the male mutant accepted the chosen female, she would die. And if he didn’t, he would die.
Maybe that was all bullshit. Neither Liege nor Summer had died…but it had been a close miss for Summer. And their relationship was still new, so it was anyone’s guess as to what was yet to come. Now that Liege’s woman was changed, was she spared from the curse?
Merde, there was so much they didn’t know.
Bastion spun on his heel, intending to continue yet another pass around the estate. He stared at the hill in front of the garage that provided the house privacy from the road, and though he willed himself to move forward, he couldn’t go in that direction.
Bastion looked at the glowing fiend watching his struggle, still pointing toward the open garage door.
The Matchmaker’s red eyes looked victorious. And he was—Bastion’s only way out of this clash of wills was surrender.
Baise-moi. How satisfying could a relationship be if it was forced on both participants? This was unacceptable, but there was nothing for it but to pretend to yield. Bastion headed into the shadowy garage, making a show of giving in.
He’d seen in the time he’d been surveilling the compound that many females lived here. How was he to know which was his?
After only a few steps into the oversized garage, the Matchmaker’s bright glow blinked out. Bastion pivoted, intending to make his getaway, but once again he found he was physically blocked from going in any direction that led away from the house. The garage door slowly lowered—even as the house door unlocked itself and opened inward.
This was fucked up. No way could the Matchmaker force Bastion to do anything. But for now, for show, he
had to make the fiend believe he’d accepted his fate.
Bastion stepped inside. The door closed behind him. Though he’d been prowling around the property for some time, this was the first he’d been in the house. He’d studied the blueprints for the sprawling mansion—it was essentially a big X with an elongated middle section—so he knew basically where the public rooms and bedrooms were located.
He pulled the shadows in around him so no human could observe him. No animal either. The mild electromagnetic frequency he was emitting hid him from recording devices, making him invisible. He wasn’t a man, wasn’t a ghost. He was nothing. He went through the public rooms on the ground floor. The house slept, unaware of the shadow moving within it, the mutant hunting the woman that legend had preordained was his.
Temporarily abandoning his mission to find evidence of this mercenary group’s allegiance—and the scientists they hid—Bastion was now on a different scent, driven to find the woman fated to be his. He made a brief pass through the southern end of the main floor, where some of the bedrooms were. Without entering any of the rooms, he knew she wasn’t there. He briefly considered making a ruckus, summoning all the occupants of the house into the living room so he could walk among them and find her more easily. He didn’t because the anticipation was delicious. Heady. Each step closer to her deepened his hunger. He wanted her as he hadn’t wanted another female—not just in the time since he was changed, but in his entire life.
And this was a female he’d not yet met.
Upstairs, the sprawling mansion contained only bedrooms. Three in each of the suites at either end of the house, eight in the long middle, with a break between both sides for a bridge that crossed over the foyer. The smell of lumber was strong coming from the basement. Likely there were more rooms down there. Why were they expanding the already sprawling mansion?
He’d find out soon, but not now. Tonight was his time to meet his woman—if he chose to accept the curse. He made a brief pass through the second floor’s southern bedroom wing. She wasn’t there. He started down the main hall, holding his palms inches from each door.
She was near. His heart beat faster. His woman, his light, his life. She was here. His hands vibrated as they hovered at her door.
This was a moment like no other. He didn’t want to rush it, but nor could he stand the anticipation. He opened her door with just the power of his mind and stepped inside, closing it behind him.
A short hallway passed between the bathroom on one side and the closet on the other, then opened into a large space. Her room was tidy, decorated in the masculine style of a mountain lodge. It wasn’t to her tastes, he realized, but he also knew she held no attachment to it; it was merely a place to sleep, nothing more.
She was on the bed, sleeping soundly. He stopped, stunned by the white glow coming from her. Liege could see auras, but Bastion had never before seen light of any color surrounding a human.
If he needed any confirmation that the Matchmaker had indeed found his light, Bastion was staring right at it. He forced his focus to go deeper, inside the light, to the woman it covered.
Her face was peaceful. Angelic. Streams of dark brown hair spilled down her shoulders, over her green tank top. She was half in, half out of the covers. One long, supple leg was bent over the blankets that covered the other half of her. He couldn’t quite determine her skin color. White or olive, he supposed. Her lips were lush, rounded. Her lashes were long. Her brows arched artfully over her eyes. He wondered what color they were. Brown? Green?
He reached a finger out to stroke along her bare arm. The next thing he knew, he was on his back on her bed, a knife at his throat, his woman straddling his waist. Her strong thighs gripped his sides as if he were a horse she meant to ride.
Her dark hair curtained her face as she leaned close to snarl, “Who are you and what are you doing in my room?”
He roared with laughter.
God, his woman was full of bravado. The knife nicked his skin.
“This is but a dream,” he said. “You have nothing to fear from me. And you won’t remember any of this.” His comment was part compulsion. He wasn’t ready for her to meet him yet. He had to get a better understanding of who she was and what her people were up to before he let himself be known to her.
Her legs eased their grip. She set the knife aside, but still held him down on her mattress. “I don’t know you.”
“Not yet. We’ll meet soon.” He pushed her dark hair back over her shoulder. “You are beautiful.”
“You need a shave.”
“Perhaps I do.” He smiled, then drew her down close so he could taste her mouth. Fuck, her lips were as delicious as he knew they’d be. He caught the upper one in his teeth, releasing her slowly and gently. “Tell me your name.”
“Selena. Selena Irving. Who are you?”
“Bastion.” He kissed the side of her jaw, near her ear. “Say my name.”
“Bastion.”
Shivers prickled his skin. “I like how it sounds when you say it.” He lifted her fists from his shoulders and kissed her knuckles. Her breasts were perfection—heavy globes against his chest. “Tell me everything about you.” He wanted to hear her voice. He wanted to know her story. He wanted to fuck her senseless.
He yearned to let her remember him, but knew that wouldn’t happen because he wasn’t going to let her keep this memory. Maybe one day he would give it back to her—one day long in the future, when she no longer carried knives.
Selena looked suspicious. “Why do you care?”
“Because you fascinate me.” He caught her chin in his teeth and raked them lightly over her skin.
She moaned, but pulled free. “You haven’t earned the right to know me yet.”
“But how can I earn it without getting to know you?” He could simply compel her to reveal her secrets, but he didn’t. He wanted her to bring forward what was most important to her of her own accord.
“That’s not my problem,” she said.
He rolled her over, slipping his legs between hers, still holding her wrists. As soon as she was on her back, he felt the panic that slammed into her. Instantly, he released her and rolled off her to lie on his back. With all of her gusto a moment earlier, Bastion felt broadsided by her reaction. It hurt that his woman held fear so close that, even in her sleep, it was a go-to emotion.
She didn’t mention it, so neither did he.
They both stared up at her flat ceiling. Bastion played an image for her, a star-scape with translucent clouds floating under a bright moon. The trees at the edge of the vision shifted in a slight breeze.
Selena was captivated.
So was Bastion, watching her.
As gifts went, this wasn’t much of one. Merely a vision to bring her peace. He suspected that just as he hadn’t earned the right to hear her story, nor did he have the right to give her a tangible gift.
He sighed. He was going to have to do this on human time.
Slow as fuck.
“If you won’t tell me the story of you, then at least tell me one thing you wish for.”
Selena turned from the shimmering vision and met his eyes. “What are you, a genie?”
“I suppose, owned by the hand that holds me.”
“This is just a dream, right?”
He nodded. “Just a dream.”
Selena stared at the vision he still played for her. “I want a lover. Not just any lover. One strong enough to stand next to me, to let me be me. I’m not good at following.”
“That is a good wish.”
After a moment, Selena turned to him. “What’s your wish?”
“I want the same thing.”
She turned on her side and put her hand on his chest. “Can genies take lovers?”
“I’m not a genie.”
Selena nodded toward the beautiful star-scape he was playing. “You must be. Regular people don’t do these things.”
“I’m not a regular, either.”
“Then what
are you?”
“Your lover.”
Selena smiled and shook her head. “No, my lover doesn’t have so much hair.”
Bastion turned onto his side, putting his hand on her waist, gently urging her toward him until their mouths were just a breath apart. “This one does.”
Selena ran her hands over his chin and into his hair, pulling him closer, closing the distance between their mouths.
An electric pulse coursed through Bastion at the contact. And when their tongues touched, heat slammed into his groin, hardening him. He hungered for her. For a moment, he let himself revel in his desire, something he’d not felt for a very long time, something he had been unable to pretend into existence since he’d been changed, though he’d tried like hell. The feeling was exquisite, as was its source. He could get drunk on the hum she made his body feel, and knew without a doubt the Matchmaker had found him his perfect mate.
Bastion slipped his hand behind Selena’s ear, holding her to him as he took over the kiss, deepening it. The threat that the Matchmaker’s curse might end this fierce, vibrant woman filled him with rage. He tried to roll over her, but she resisted.
That fear again. She didn’t want to be under a man.
Bastion: O-Men: Liege’s Legion Page 1