by Elise Jae
“Are you sure?”
I take her hand and squeeze. “Completely.”
Drawing her back out with me, I hand her over to the women who know her best.
“Kimba, why don’t you make the introductions, since you two have known each other a lot longer than any of us have.”
Hannah settles in, but she’s quiet. Subdued.
I don’t think any of us can blame her.
“How long,” Margot leans forward to place her empty glass on the table in the center. “Do you think we’ll be able to do this? The kid count is steadily rising, and I know you ladies… it isn’t going to stop.”
“That’s precisely why we’ll continue to do this.” A woman whose name is Darby says—she’s one of Margot’s ex employees. “I love my kid, but he’s exhausting. I need this.”
“The kids who’ve deigned to make an appearance were left at home with their….” Laurel hesitates, mouth pressing to a straight line as she thinks. “Left at home in the hands of people who love them and are more than responsible enough to care for them for a few hours without supervision.”
“The queen of side-steps!” Jessica raises her glass once again.
“Are you trying to get drunk?” Chris asks. The youngest of the three sisters, she watches the eldest with a bemused smile.
“Of course not. I am just so happy we get to have nights like this. Gets me away from my ‘mad science.’”
Hannah is the first to laugh at that, and I sit back and listen as they talk about their kids, or their clients. While Jessica explains that the spines on the monsters are like a cat’s whiskers… sort of.
Kimba and Hannah try to show Cindy how to use the pole, but she’s not coordinated, or sober enough to take to it. So they mostly wind up helping her hold on and spin.
“Are you happy?” Margot asks, her gaze fixed on the tableau on stage. But the question is definitely for me.
“It’s not quite what I expected… but yeah.”
“None of us really have any clue what to expect before we get here… but you almost went back.”
“Bonding with Fault was an accident.”
“I know.” Her lips twitch into a scowl. “There’s video of all the rooms. I went to check who he’d been with that night and… I didn’t watch all of it, but I skimmed, trying to figure out who you were, so I heard.”
“You record everyone?”
“It’s part of the terms and conditions. Which you would have known if you’d come in the right way. And they’re almost all deleted nightly. They’re there to protect the women who work here… and one of our clients likes to watch himself back.” She shrugs. “Fault is the one person who’s come through my door that I knew, immediately, deserved someone who’d keep him away from here.”
“I can safely say I plan to keep him occupied.”
With a heavy sigh, Kimba joins us, taking a long drink of water.
“We need to get going.” She adjusts her bra. “I forgot to bring my pump, so I’m starting to feel it.”
She moves away to collect the Ardem sisters, with Margot’s help, and Hannah offers her hand to help me up.
“Thank you.” She squeezes my hand before she lets it go. “I’m glad you found Fault. You’re right. He would have turned me away if I’d shown up like that without you there, but… well, I’m glad.”
“You’ll get everything sorted out. And if you have any problems, sic Kimba or Margot on them. I think those two could probably take over the planet if they actually wanted to.”
I say the rest of my good byes, not particularly pleased when Andrea shies away from me. And join the rest of them back in Kimba’s car.
It rolls back toward the Shadow Zone in a quiet thrum.
“Did you have a good time?” Kimba asks.
“Considering that was my last drink for what is likely to be a very long time…”
“You guys are going to start trying?”
“I mean, if what Cindy says is true, the stopper won’t work on him anymore, and I scored a hundred on the fertility screenings, so… Honestly, it’s probably a miracle I didn’t get pregnant the first time, even with the stopper.”
Laurel laughs from the back seat. “And we all know how hard it is to resist when their lust starts to come at us through the bond.”
We lapse into silence, and it takes a full minute before anyone speaks again.
“You were very kind to Hannah,” Chris says, head resting on her sister’s shoulder. “I’m not sure how I’d feel if the only other woman who’d had sex with my mates wound up in my circle of friends.”
“Oh God!” Jessica says, a little too loudly. “What if she and Hazard wind up bonding. Then she’ll be at every meeting.”
“And that would be fine.” I catch Jessica’s confused grimace before I turn back to the road. “They had an arrangement. Grief-fueled moment of weakness aside, it wasn’t anything more than that on either side.”
Beyond that, I almost felt like I owed her. She’d been one of the very few people to treat him kindly before I arrived and screwed up Drift’s plans.
Even though it would make more sense to drop the others off first, Kimba pulls into my garage first.
“I’m taking these three back to my place. Their bondmates will collect them there.”
“They’re already waiting for us,” Laurel says with a yawn.
“Then you have a good night and I’ll see you at the next meeting.”
I watch them go before I step inside.
Fault is asleep on the couch, one hand on the floor where his arm seems to have fallen off the cushions.
Even changed as he is. Even with all of his new baggage… he was perfect. And he’s perfect for me.
Fate had been very kind. And I’m not altogether certain I deserve it.
“Should I be worried that you’re watching me sleep, rather than coming to join me?”
The hand that was on the floor raises and he holds it out toward me.
“But if I join you, I have no intention of letting you continue to sleep.”
“Even better.”
FAULT
Wren places her small hand in mine, but rather than let me tug her down, she hauls me up.
I let her draw me downstairs to our bedroom, but when we cross that threshold, I take back control.
“I have rules.” I turn her, in a slow sort of dance. “Will you agree to them?”
“I don’t know what they are, how can I agree or disagree?” Her smile is wry and her fingers spread over my chest.
“The rule is just that you follow any and all rules I give you.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “If it’s the only way I’ll get what I want….”
As if testing rules I haven’t laid down yet, her fingers hook in the waistband of my pants, and she watches me, eyes wide, lips curved as she works them down my hips.
“Tell me your rules,” she says, and I can feel her faint laughter. “Before I make some of my own.”
“You’re on top.”
Her smile sharpens. “I like that.”
In the end, she might not, but for now….
As soon as my pants hit the ground, I catch her wrists and turn her, pulling her back against me. “Your hands go where I tell them to.”
This time she pouts, but she presses her face against my chest, looking up. “I can play by those terms.”
“Good. Now get undressed.” When I release her, she stumbles forward—just a bit—and I only wait long enough for her to catch herself.
Stepping out of my pants, I go to the bed, drawing back the cover and setting myself in the center, against the headboard.
She hops on from the foot, a moment after I’ve shoved the pillows aside, and rises to her knees, watching me with a quirked brow. “What now?”
I don’t answer her. I don’t have to. She walks up the bed to me on her knees. When she’ forced to stop, she’s close enough I can reach her—lift her, drag her over me and settle her, one k
nee on either side of my hips.
“Now… we see how it feels.”
But I hold tight to her, taking her lips instead of letting her take me.
It feels divine.
Everything about her feels perfect in that intangible way.
Arm locked around her waist, I pull her against my torso, drinking her in as my fingers find her wetness.
“Fault?” She says my name on a breath, like it’s the question, not whatever she’s about to say. “Don’t get me wrong. I like foreplay… but with you, I never need it.”
To prove her point, she pulls back from me, breaking my hold and sliding back to slick me with herself.
“You’ve kept me waiting long enough.”
It’s a statement I can’t argue with, so I don’t try. I keep a tight grip on her waist as she lowers herself, eyes locked with mine.
“You’ve got to trust us both,” she says, eyes fluttering closed as she takes me.
I chose this position so I could keep hold of her, so I could make sure she didn’t go too far or too fast.
It’s why I stop her half way down. “Careful.”
She licks her lips, eyes still closed, and nods. “I promise.”
Wren feels too good. After those days without her, each thrust drives me further than before.
As always, it’s hard to think straight when the lust and fire mingles across the bond. I want her. That primal part of me wants to turn us, to take her until she screams my name and I’m locked inside of her so nothing can separate us.
Locked….
Eyes flying wide, I lift her fully off of me a bare second before it happens. Painfully hard, the ridges on the underside of my cock flare. If I’d been inside of Wren, there’s no way I would have gotten out.
Looking down at me, swaying a little on her knees, Wren cocks a brow. “Interesting….”
Her fingers drag along me and I twitch so hard, I can't hold back the come that spurts from me.
I have to get her hands off me, so I grab her, twisting her around so she’s on her stomach, facing away and I have unfettered access to her pussy. She squirms as I cover her with my mouth, but I only tighten my grip on her so she can’t get away.
Not that she’s actually trying.
When my tongue finds her clit, she’s done for. She comes so loudly, I swear the windows rattle.
A few moments are all she gives me before, still breathing hard, she turns back to me and pushes me onto my back. I go willingly, still riding the high of both of or orgasms.
“I’m not afraid of this.” She drags her fingers over the ridges.
I watch her, watching my cock, and give voice to my fear. “I am.”
“Okay. Then we’ll take it slow.”
I half expect her to climb onto me again, but she doesn’t. Hand wrapped around my painfully hard cock, she strokes me, thumb running over those ridges. “We can’t avoid it forever.”
She wraps her lips around the tip of me and takes me as far as she can. One hand stroking me. One hand stroking herself.
Everything is sharper, what she feels, what I feel. It borders on a painful need. One that gets me there faster than I expect.
She drinks me all down shivering as the last spurt fills her mouth.
Wren stays there for a minute, lips on me, hands on my hips and breath fluttering over my damp skin.
“You won’t be able to avoid it forever.”
“I know,” reaching down, I drag her and the covers up over us and she snuggles into my side.
Sleep overtakes that ever present desire and she hums, hooking a leg over mine. “Just remember, I still want everything I wanted before.”
Grimacing, I try to hide the concern roiling through me.
“What is it?”
“I don’t think anal’s a possibility anymore.”
Humming again she shakes her head against me. “Probably isn’t safe. It’s okay though. We’ve got a silicone option.”
Of course she’d have an answer, even for that.
“I still want you, Fault. All of the time. I know you’re scared, but it’s a fear we can conquer together.”
Seventeen
WREN
The thought of future kids has pulled some limitations to the front of my mind. The things I won’t be able to do, the things Fault will likely ask me not to do….
At the table the next morning, as I finish my breakfast, I ask a question we need to broach sooner rather than later, if I want to join him.
“Do you think we’d be safe to go back… now that what’s happened has happened?”
He’s quiet for a long moment and I can feel indecision roiling in him.“Yes.”
“You weren’t thinking of leaving me behind. Were you?”
“Of course not. Without you, I’d probably still be on that floor, maybe even dead.”
He brushes a thumb along my cheekbone. It only serves to draw my attention to his and the sharper, more pronounced ridges there, to the bony projections on his forearms and shoulders.
“You’re my savior in more ways than one. My good luck charm too. I don’t plan on going anywhere without you.” He hesitates, brows pinching. “If I can help it.”
He takes my plate. “We should let Drift know.”
“Drift can stay in the dark a while longer about the location. Until we know exactly what we’ve found. I don’t want him rushing in to destroy it. Besides, he’s a new dad. He’s got other things to worry about.”
It takes less than half an hour to change and prep for the trek across the tundra.
Last night’s snowfall has left deep drifts outside, but the bike moves over them as easy as if it was pavement.
I hold tight to him as we make the drive back across the caldera. I want to hold him closer, but I’m afraid I’ll squish him—even if it’s ridiculous.
The snow and rock passes, another uneventful journey, but as we walk down that canyon… it feels like a gauntlet.
At the hatch, I hesitate.
“There’s nothing inside that can hurt us anymore.”
I don’t ask how he’s so certain. I can feel that he is, and that’s enough.
The inside of the lab is identical to how we left it, but walking through that airlock makes me nervous.
Fault passes through it like it doesn’t hold the worst of my memories.
When I follow him, I’m able to breathe just a little bit easier.
Now that I’m not worried about Fault dying on the floor, I’m able to get a better look at the laboratory. It’s oddly rudimentary. Sure the device that scanned Fault and changed him was something so far beyond my understanding I couldn’t even tell you which machine had done it, but everything else looks….
“He made most of this himself.”
“That would be my guess too.” But it’s not a guess for Fault.
He knows.
He lived with this.
“I gather he was a very clean and organized man. I’d bet if we want answers, we’ll find them there.” I point to the computer bank in the far corner.
Fault doesn’t say anything as he switches it on and taps through commands on a keyboard I’d have to hunt and peck on. I might speak their language, but typing is still a struggle.
He pulls his hands away as a program takes over, running on its own. “I don’t….”
The man that fills the screen can only be the Maker. If I look closely enough, I can see the subtle markers that make it clear he’s Fault’s biological father.
“Fault,” He looks down at something off camera, a faint smile on his lips. “If you’re watching this… something has gone wrong.”
“Everything was wrong with him.” Fault says it so low, I don’t think he meant for me to hear it.
FAULT
My sire—the vehicle of years of torture—looks down at me with the softest expression I’ve ever seen on the man’s face and it makes me want to drive my fist through the screen.
“I need your help, son. There is
so much left to do and I don’t know who will do it if you don’t. We have to save our race and while these human women are a stopgap, they are not the answer.”
“I don’t think I like where this is going,” Wren says, a slithering disquiet washes through her.
“Forced evolution was always the key. And now that I’m gone, I need you to finish the work.”
“No way in hell.”
“The woman Trench took, she can help you. She can help you all.”
If I didn’t know him, I’d say he was sincere. “He never wanted to help us.”
“I know you didn’t understand what I was trying to accomplish. Children see things as black and white, but now that you’re older, I know you’ll understand that this has all been for the greater good.”
“Bullshit.” I can feel Wren’s anger building.
Stabbing at the panel, I cut the video. I don’t need to see anything else. And I don’t want to put Wren through that either.
“We’ll let Drift clean this up. And I’m sure Jessica will want to see it, even if she never does anything with it.”
“Drift can torch the place for all I care.” She swallows when I know she’d rather spit. “We shouldn’t have come back. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” I tip her face up and kiss her forehead. “We’ll leave and never think of this place again.”
“Deal.”
Her hand clasped tightly in mine, she leads the way back to the hatch. When we cross through the airlock again, her anxiety flares, but like a spark, it dies quickly.
“The sooner we’re home, the better I’ll feel.” She shivers, despite still being bundled up tight.
“Then let’s get you home.”
The hatch lock feels a little heavier this time as I twist it open, and I push out into the snow hating that I have no idea how cold it actually is anymore.
A flurry of snow sweeps in and Wren lets go of my hand, pulling the hood of her jacket up as I step out and hold the hatch for her.