Sleepers: Shifters Confidential Romance Collection

by Juniper Hart

  “Is he the—”

  “Danke, Frau Schiller!” Sabine interjected, her voice high and shrill. “Have a gud nacht.”

  “What was she going to ask?” Dex asked as they wandered back across the alleyway toward Sabine’s apartment. He could still feel Frau Schiller watching him with scrutiny.

  “I have no idea,” Sabine replied curtly. “I just know if we let her keep talking, she’ll never stop.”

  Dex blinked, instinctively knowing that Sabine was lying to him, but he didn’t press the issue as they climbed back up to her unit.

  The door opened and Sabine stumbled inside, her body falling gratefully onto the futon. She closed her eyes and Dex stared at her for a long moment, his heart swelling with adoration and concern.

  12

  Sunlight streaming through the windows woke Sabine with a start.

  Abruptly, she looked around, confusion settling inside her as she tried to reconcile where she was and how she’d gotten there.

  Dex!

  She sat up in bed, realizing that he had changed her out of her work clothes and put her into a pair of flannel pajamas before tucking her into the lumpy mattress. Her eyes trailed over the studio apartment to where Dex was sprawled on the futon, his chest rising and falling in even rhythm.

  He changed me. Did he notice my stomach? Is he going to confront me about the baby?

  She swallowed the lump in her throat.

  I should tell him anyway. He would tell me if he was the father, wouldn’t he? No man would volunteer to be the father of another man’s baby, would they?

  She felt like she knew nothing about human relations anymore, like Klaus had stolen her common sense along with her memories.

  Slowly, she padded along the splintered wood floor in bare feet to start a pot of coffee.

  “How did you sleep?”

  She whirled around, the coffee pot in hand.

  “Apparently like the dead,” she replied quietly. “Thank you for moving me to the bed. I don’t even remember falling asleep.”

  “You had a lot going on.”

  Sabine nodded and turned her attention back toward the task at hand. She waited for him to comment on her belly but when he didn’t, she cast him a sidelong look.

  He remained curled on his side, his onyx eyes studying her under hooded lids as she worked. Her heart skipped slightly as she took in his features covertly. He was much more attractive than she had seen him in her mind’s eye with his thick head of dark hair and muscular form.

  I cared about him.

  The thought came unbidden as all the other memories had but this one filled her with wonderment as he caught her gaze.

  And he loves me.

  Emotion welled inside her and unexpected tears sprang into her eyes. Hastily, she turned her head away and busied herself with the coffee.

  “Can you tell me what you’ve gathered over the past five weeks?” Dex asked quietly. “About who you are and how you’ve come to be here?”

  Sabine sighed, wishing they could just enjoy the comfortable silence between them for a moment longer. She knew that she couldn’t avoid the reality forever but for a fleeting minute, things had seemed right, natural.

  “I already told you most of what I recalled yesterday,” she replied. “My name. I didn’t remember Klaus as my attacker. He came to the café where I work and asked me out on a date.”

  “He what?!”

  Dex sat up suddenly and a stab of guilt shot through Sabine.

  “I said no,” she told him quickly, not understanding why she felt the need to explain herself.

  Is this guy my boyfriend? My husband?

  Somehow, she couldn’t reconcile either being true but the way he stared at her and the feeling that she had near him…

  “He didn’t take my refusal well and stormed out of the café. Last night when I was coming home from the doctor, he stopped and apologized. He asked if I needed a ride and I accepted.”

  She caught his look.

  “It was stupid to accept in hindsight,” she sighed. “But—”

  “No, it’s not that,” Dex said quietly, rising to join her in the small kitchenette. “Why were you at the doctor?”

  She balked at the question.

  “It doesn’t matter,” she muttered, turning her head away. “It has nothing to do with Klaus.”

  “It does matter,” Dex said urgently. “Are you ill? Hurt?”

  Sabine suddenly remembered that she needed to go back to the clinic that day and have blood work done.

  “No,” she sighed. “Nothing like that.”

  She wondered if he had sincerely not seen the swell of her belly.

  Am I really not showing that much? Maybe he’s never seen me naked before and thinks that’s the way I’m supposed to look.

  The thought was sobering. If Dex and she hadn’t been intimate, who was the father?

  Is that why Klaus backed off when I told him I was pregnant? Because he thought he was the father?

  “Have you had blood tests done?” Dex asked. An edge had overtaken his voice. Again, she eyed him.

  “I’m going today to do them. Why?”

  Alarm flooded her.

  “Why!?” she insisted when he didn’t answer.

  “You can’t do a blood test, at least not with a hu— Not with a local doctor,” he told her. “I’ll take you to Berlin if you need lab work. There are doctors there we can trust.”

  “We?” she repeated. “I don’t even know if I trust you!”

  A flash of hurt crossed over Dex’s face but he did a good job of hiding it.

  “Fair enough,” he agreed. “But I do need you to trust me on this, Sabby. You can’t hand off your blood to just anyone.”

  She flushed at the pet name.

  Sabby.

  “Are you going to tell me what’s going on? Who I am and why I have a target on my back?” she asked firmly. Dex pressed his lips together and nodded.

  “I will—in pieces,” he agreed. Sabine frowned.

  “In pieces? Why?”

  “Because…because it’s a lot to process, Sabine, and I don’t want you getting overwhelmed.”

  She opened her mouth to argue but the percolating coffee stopped her from speaking her protests.

  He’s trying to protect you, she realized, settling her gaze on his for a long moment. The attraction between them was almost palpable. I do trust him. I think I’ve always trusted him.

  “Sabine, is there anything you want to tell me before we start? This is going to be a difficult conversation but I think you deserve to hear it.”

  He is the father of my baby. I know it in my soul.

  She crossed the short distance between them to place her hands openly across his stubbly face, her eyes searching his.

  Without a word, she pressed her lips to his, his mouth parting into an “O” of surprise by the suddenness of her movement, but he didn’t pull away.

  Electricity surged through them as Sabine pressed her frame against him, relishing the lines of his body against hers.

  I’ve done this before. I’ve been with him.

  Bit by bit, the recollection of him, the manly scent of his pheromones, the heat of his breath, the curve of his buttocks against her open palms, came flooding back. The memories weren’t specific, but they were as sure as the sands of time, her pulse responding to the kiss of her neck as he tipped her backward, following the slope of her windpipe.

  “Oh, Sabby,” Dex breathed. “I’ve missed you so much. I haven’t stopped thinking about you since the day you left.”

  She lost herself in his words, refusing to overanalyze what he said. There would be plenty of time for discussion afterward. She had waited this long for answers. She only wanted to feel connected to the man who had been summoning her for weeks, anchoring her when all seemed lost.

  Lower his face traveled, his fingers unbuttoning the top of her pajamas to explore her rigid nipples, tongue sampling the skin to make her moan.

 
Her back arched against the countertop, pants slipping away until she was naked before him. Her legs draped over his shoulder and a cry of pleasure slipped from her lips when he found her sweetest spot.

  Sabine fell back onto her elbows, her groans growing louder, more frenzied until she was pushed to the point of climax.

  Dex slid up her body, pausing to nibble on the bountiful curves of her frame. At her belly, he stared up at her, understanding suddenly flooding his face.

  “Sabby, are you—”

  She twined her fingers into his hair, drawing him in for a deep, unrelenting kiss. The movement silenced him and in seconds, he had joined her body, rocking himself inside her as they became a tangle of arms, legs, and lips.

  Sabine was floating, higher and faster, her memories resurfacing as she saw the paneled ceiling of a dorm ceiling and heard Dex whisper, “Shh! They’ll hear us!”

  A combination of past and present melded together, the simple joys of a sneaky couple comingled with a pair of newfound mates becoming one.

  “I’m sorry I left!” she moaned. Dex’s hard frame tensed against her, a low moan filling her ears as they again found the levels of passion they had both thought lost to them.

  Trembling, Dex fell forward, burying his face deep into her shoulder as his lips locked onto her neck. Beads of sweat slid between them, their togetherness solidified now.

  Slowly, Dex raised his head and stared intently at her with his intense eyes.

  “Do you remember?” he asked, his voice like gravel. “Do you remember being with me?”

  She nodded, sighing shakily.

  “I-I remember being with you,” she confessed. “But I don’t remember where or when. I…I can see us and hear us together but…”

  She faltered and he nodded, a slight disappointment clouding his eyes.

  “It’s fine,” he told her quietly. “I’m sure it will come back.”

  He paused, a strong hand falling over her belly to caress the small curve lovingly.

  “How far along are you?” he asked.

  “Four and a half months, according to the doctor.”

  He tensed slightly.

  “The local doctor?”

  Sabine grimaced and wriggled out of his grasp.

  Again with the local doctor. What’s the problem with a local doctor?

  “That’s all I have access to,” she reminded him. “And he seems to know what he’s doing.”

  Dex exhaled.

  “I’m sure he does,” he agreed, allowing her off the counter to collect the remnants of her pajamas. “But you… you and our baby require a special kind of care.”

  Sabine wasn’t sure if she should be flattered or annoyed.

  “I’ll see about finding an obstetrician,” she promised before pausing. “The baby is yours, then?”

  Dex blinked.

  “I-I believe so,” he replied quietly. “But I can’t be sure. Based on the timing, you and I were together but you also came here four months ago and sometimes conception dates can be tricky.”

  Sabine was aghast at the suggestion.

  “Are you saying I cheated on you?” she demanded. Dex smiled weakly and shook his head.

  “No, not at all,” he promised. “You and I…we weren’t exactly together when you came here.”

  “You keep saying ‘came here’. Came here from the States, you mean?”

  He nodded, turning to find his own jeans, but Sabine suspected it had more to do with the fact that he didn’t want her to see his expression.

  “Yes. From Virginia, in fact.”

  “I-I thought you said we were from San Diego.”

  “You are from San Diego…originally.”

  “Dex, what is going on!” Frustration crept back into her voice, the euphoria she’d gathered from her time in his arms dissipating entirely.

  Dex finished slipping on his pants and moved back toward her to cup her face tenderly as he sensed her mounting tension.

  “Come and sit down,” he sighed. “Let’s finish having that talk.”

  13

  Sabine slowly put together two cups of coffee and joined him on the futon. Dex could feel the uncertainty radiating off her as she perched at his side, staring deep into her coffee mug.

  “What I am about to tell you is completely classified and cannot leave your lips under any circumstances, all right?” he started, unsure of how else to start. Sabine’s eyebrows shot up.

  “Oh…you’re serious,” she mumbled. “Are you serious?”

  He nodded and sighed, taking her free hand in his.

  “I’m afraid so,” he told her. “But just hear me out. You might have a hard time reconciling some of this with what you know—or don’t know, but try to keep an open mind, all right?”

  He saw her swallow deeply before nodding.

  “Okay,” she mewled. “Tell me.”

  “A little more than a year ago, you came to Virginia with twenty-nine others to be trained at a highly secure facility. Your background was in psychology which was why you were selected as a part of this recruitment.”

  She opened her mouth to ask a question but Dex gently put a finger on her lips to stop her.

  “Please, just let me finish and I’ll try my best to answer any other questions you might have.”

  She nodded in agreement, clamping her mouth closed as she did.

  “It was a grueling program and only twelve of the original thirty made it through.” He paused and smiled. “You used to say that I was the only reason you stayed.”

  Her eyes brightened and Dex wondered if she remembered that.

  “We cared about one another but I was an instructor and you were a Sl—a student. We kept our relationship very low key but even if we hadn’t, our time together was always limited and we knew that going in.”

  “Oh.”

  She dropped her head down.

  She’s already struggling with the easy part. It’s going to get so much worse.

  Dex wondered if he should stop there but he didn’t. He owed it to her, to the woman he had chased across the world, the mother of his unborn child. She needed to know the truth, no matter how hard it was to hear.

  “You were given your placement here in Germany four months ago, but five weeks ago, you went dark. No one knew where you were or what had happened to you. I was tasked with finding you and…”

  He stalled again.

  “And getting you back into your assignment.”

  Sabine scoffed lightly.

  “So that’s why you’re here? Because our boss sent you?”

  “No. As soon as I learned you were offline, I knew I had to find you.”

  Sabine inhaled shakily.

  “It took you five weeks to find me?” she murmured. Dex looked away.

  “No,” he corrected her. “It took me less than three days to find you, but I didn’t learn about your situation until three days ago.”

  Puzzlement crossed her face.

  “I was missing for a month before anyone noticed?” she demanded.

  “It…it’s the nature of your work,” he told her tentatively. She stared at him expectantly, but he couldn’t bring himself to explain unless she asked.

  “Which is?” she pressed, a note of impatience creeping into her voice.

  “You’re a Sleeper, Sabine, for a newly minted agency based out of the States.”

  “A Sleeper?” she whispered, her eyes growing huge. “Like…like a spy? I’m a spy?”

  He could read the overwhelming emotions on her face and he shook his head again.

  “Technically you’re not supposed to spy on anyone,” he corrected. “Your job is simply to live your life, a life that was created specifically for you.”

  “To what end?” she demanded aghast.

  “Some Sleepers are never activated,” he told her reassuringly. “In fact, a good deal of them aren’t. In which case, they continue to live their fairly mundane lives if and when a replacement comes.”

  “What? A
nd if they are activated? Then what?”

  Dex cleared his throat and darted his eyes away.

  “Well, those missions vary depending on the situation.”

  Sabine continued to gape at him with wide, uncomprehending eyes.

  “But… but this doesn’t make any sense! Germany is America’s ally! Why would we need spies here?”

  She really has no idea about the shifters. She hasn’t a clue that she’s a witch, he silently realized.

  He pursed his lips together and half-closed his eyes.

  “There is a group that exists,” he started slowly, choosing his words carefully. “That exists in the highest level of every government, one that is rife with corruption. We call it the Cabal, but it doesn’t really have a name. We have been working diligently to counter this group on every level but with their resources, it’s a daunting task.”

  Sabine sank back against the sofa, her hands falling over her stomach protectively.

  “Obviously I can’t be involved with anything like this,” she breathed. Relief spiked through Dex as he nodded in agreement.

  “I’m having second thoughts about my own involvement,” he assured her. “We’ll get you out of here and back home.”

  Sabine sat forward, shaking her head vehemently.

  “This is my home,” she insisted. “Germany is my home.”

  Worry shadowed Dex’s face.

  “Sabine, it’s not. You were trained to blend in as a German national, but you are an American citizen. At the very least, you’ll need to return to the compound and be deprogrammed.”

  He caught the look of horror on her face.

  “It’s not as horrific as it sounds,” he told her reassuringly. “I have a house in Richmond. We can raise the baby there and in peace—”

  Sabine shook her head with more assuredness.

  “No, Dex,” she insisted. “I don’t care where you think I belong, but this is the only home I’ve…”

  Her voice cracked slightly.

  “This is the only home I’ve ever known.”

  She feels that way now because she still can’t remember but once she realizes that she’s far away from her coven and family, she’ll want to come home.

  “We don’t have to worry about that right now,” he told her softly, squeezing her long fingers. “I’m not leaving Germany until I get my hands on Klaus Bremner anyway and I don’t want you to leave my side. In fact, I never want you away from me again.”