“Let’s get your shirt off, too,” he growled, his voice low and intense. She raised her arms above her head so that he could pull her t-shirt off. Then he reached behind her back and unclasped her bra, sliding it off and tossing it aside. His hands reached for her breasts, massaging them firmly. He took her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers, twisting and teasing them until she was shrieking out in delight. She could feel herself growing wet between her legs, her body begging for him. She lost all sense of time as he dipped his head down so that it was even with her breasts, then began using his tongue and teeth to pleasure her nipples. A growing sense of urgency seemed to fill him. With another roar, he pulled her pants down, tugging them off of her, but catching them on her shoe as he tried to get them off. He growled again, pulling off her shoes and then her pants after them. He grabbed her underwear next, making quick work of tugging it down and off her legs.
“You’re damn beautiful,” he said, stepping back for a moment to admire her naked body. Juno trembled, unable to speak. She was overcome with the desire and ecstasy of the moment. Wyatt narrowed his eyes as he pushed his own sweatpants and boxers down, and Juno let out a whimper when she saw his erection spring free. He was huge, and solid as a rock. He was clearly ready for her.
“Are you sure you want this?” he asked softly. “I don’t want you to regret anything.”
Juno wanted to make a joke about the fact that there wasn’t much to regret when the world was ending, but her voice caught in her throat. All she could manage was a whimper. She was too overcome with passion to do anything except nod her head yes. Yes, she wanted him to know she wouldn’t regret this. This moment felt like everything she had waited for her whole life. With a final growl, Wyatt pushed her up against the wall again, then slammed into her. True to his blunt dragon fashion, there was no preamble and no announcement. There was no slow sliding-in of his dick to announce that he was on his way in. He just took her hard and fast, and she let out a moan as he filled her. She had never felt anything like this. The intensity took her breath away. He was huge, filling her completely and hitting every sensitive, hungry nerve ending. He thrust in and out of her, the motion building a hot pressure within her. Somewhere to her left, a glass beaker crashed off the table and shattered onto the floor. But Juno hardly noticed. All she could think about was how overcome her body was with heat and pressure. It built and built until she could hold it in no more. With a long loud scream, she let it go. Her release came over her in intense waves, and she screamed as her muscles spasmed and clenched around Wyatt.
But didn’t slow down. He thrust harder and growled louder, until moments later he let out his own long moan before stiffening and shooting into her a hot passionate stream of himself. Juno panted, unable to say or do anything except breathe in and out, in and out. When she finally started to regain control, she looked up at Wyatt and smiled. He smiled back at her, then leaned down and kissed her nose.
“You’re amazing, you know that?” he said. Juno blushed, but still didn’t say anything. Wyatt looked at her, his eyes full of admiration.
“How did I get so lucky?” he asked. “That the girl who’s gonna save the world is interested in me?”
Juno smiled and shrugged as Wyatt kissed her nose again.
“ I’m just doing my part to be a good citizen,” she said.”
“Well , then,” Wyatt said, laughing and pulling her away from the wall. “You better get back to it.”
He gave her a push toward the lab table where she had been working, and slapped her ass. Juno giggled.
“All right, all right. Let me put my lab coat on and I’ll get back to saving the world. But you have to stop distracting me, Mister.”
Wyatt laughed and winked at her.
“No promises,” he said. He bent down to gather up her clothes into a big ball, then tossed them in her direction. He hit her squarely in the face, and Juno couldn’t help but laugh.
“We all need a good distraction now and then, right?” she asked. Wyatt winked at her, and she laughed again. Saving the world just became a whole lot more fun.
Chapter Nine
Twenty-four hours later, Wyatt sat in the outer lab on pins and needles. He was waiting for news from Juno on whether the medicine she’d created had worked. Juno was sitting in what they had dubbed the “sick bay” of Hook Labs with a man Wyatt had brought in to serve as a test subject. The man had been practically comatose by the time Wyatt found him, which made him perfect for Juno’s experiment. He was definitely going to die anyway, and he definitely wasn’t aware that she was injecting him with medicine. Wyatt was nervous about how well this would work, mostly because he knew how much Juno was going to beat herself up if things didn’t go right. It’s funny how quickly you got to know someone when you really cared about them. Wyatt had only known Juno a few days, but he already felt like he had known her forever. It hadn’t taken long for him to pick up on the fact that she was one of those people who blamed herself for everything, and expected nothing less than perfection from herself. Wyatt had started the day sitting with her, trying to comfort her as they waited to see if the man improved. But Juno was so tense that everything he said seemed to make her more upset, and finally she told him to leave.
“Just go,” she’d said. “If you stay I’m just going to end up snapping at you and saying something I’ll regret. It’s not you. It’s just this is a lot of stress for me to handle.”
Wyatt had tried to protest, but she wouldn’t hear of it, so he left. That had been several hours ago, and he still hadn’t heard anything. He wasn’t sure how long medicine like this would usually take to work. Shouldn’t she know something by now?
He sighed and leaned back in his chair. The last few days had been so strange. He’d spent so much time waiting around feeling useless, and yet he knew he had been helpful when he needed to be. After all, he’d let Juno into the lab, and found her a test subject. He’d provided her with a good hideout—much better than the one she had before. And at least he’d given her some food besides meal replacement bars. Still, he wanted to do something more. He wasn’t sure how else he could help, but he hated sitting here feeling idle and helpless.
Wyatt closed his eyes and allowed himself to imagine a world where the war on shifters had ended and the bear flu had been eradicated. Maybe he could buy Juno a little house somewhere, wherever she wanted. They could have a few babies together and enjoy life instead of always looking over their shoulder wondering what catastrophe was going to befall them next. Wyatt smiled at the thought of a little bear dragon. He wondered what it would look like. Probably adorable. For one thing, Juno was so beautiful that any baby of hers was bound to be breathtaking. But besides that, babies that were a mixture of two shifters types were always the cutest. Something about mixing features from different animals just made for a gorgeous little one.
Wyatt let his mind wander further, back to the moment that he had made love to Juno in the middle of the lab. He still couldn’t believe that she let him do that. After she pushed him away when he kissed her, he thought that he wouldn’t have a chance with her. She’d seemed so stubborn and sure. Yet something had changed in her when she got back to the lab. Something about being around all the test tubes, beakers, charts and research notes seemed to make her realize that nothing in life is guaranteed. Whatever it was that had changed her mind, Wyatt was thankful beyond belief. He knew for sure now that she was his lifemate. She hadn’t said anything, but he was pretty sure she knew it too. Their hearts were tied together. They were inseparable. Bonded. Wyatt’s smiled deepened. He hadn’t thought it was possible for a coldhearted dragon like himself to find a lifemate. But something about Juno had warmed him to his very core, and here he was—head over heels for his beautiful, perfect panda shifter.
The door to the room slammed open so quickly that it banged against the wall behind it. Wyatt started, and looked up to see Juno storming in. She looked upset, and Wyatt immediately jumped to his feet.
&n
bsp; “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“He died,” she said flatly. “He died because I messed up the medicine. It’s all my fault.”
“Hey. Hey there,” Wyatt said, his voice filling with concern. “He was going to die, anyway, remember? It’s not your fault. You’re trying.”
“No, it is my fault. I can’t believe I didn’t see it. It’s so obvious now.”
“What’s obvious?” Wyatt asked.
“I used the wrong ratio of shifter antibodies to carrier molecules,” Juno said, then trailed off into a long rant of scientific jargon that Wyatt didn’t understand. But he did understand the fact that Juno’s arms both had several bandages on them.
“Juno did you get more blood from yourself?” he asked, his voice sounding accusatory.
She paused in the middle of her rant and looked at him like he was insane.
“Of course. I needed it for the medicine tweak,” she said.
“Juno, you can’t keep taking so much blood from yourself. We can find you other shifters. Or you can have some of my blood.”
“I don’t know if your blood will work. You’re a dragon. You’re a weird shifter.”
Wyatt sighed. “Okay, well, I think you’re wrong. But whatever, you’re the scientist. My point is that there are plenty of other shifters in the city. We can find people to donate blood. You don’t have to take it all from yourself, and you need to keep your strength up and think clearly. How much blood did you draw from yourself?
“I don’t know. Enough. It’s fine,” Juno said. “It doesn’t matter. The point is that I screwed up the medicine and killed this guy, and now I think I fixed it but it’s too late. Our patient is dead.” She crossed her arms and looked up at him with an angry, defiant look. Then moments later she burst into tears.
“Hey, hey,” Wyatt said, crossing the room in two giant strides and pulling her into his arms. “It’s okay he was going to die, anyway. You tried. And you said you think you fixed the medicine?”
“Yeah,” sniffed Juno, her voice muffled by his shirt. “But it’s too late for him. I let him down.”
“Maybe it’s too late for him,” Wyatt said gently. “But there are a lot of humans out there who it’s not too late for yet.”
“I guess you’re right. I just feel so defeated, though. I’ve been working so hard on this and I messed it up. And I’m honestly shocked that my clan members haven’t caught up with me by now. I just feel like I fucked everything up.”
Wyatt sighed. He didn’t know Juno’s clan members, but from what she told him of them they weren’t going to be pleased with her little escape stunt. There were nine other members in her clan—eight shifters and one human, and they were all bound to be worried sick about her and furious that she left them with no easy way to get to Chicago. But focusing on that wasn’t going to help the current situation.
“I’ll go get you a new test subject,” Wyatt said “You just stay here and work on getting anything ready that you need to get ready. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Juno sniffed and nodded, slowly regaining her composure. Wyatt could tell she was trying to trying to put up a brave front. She was frustrated with herself. She was tired and overworked, and it probably didn’t help that she’d taken god only knows how much blood from her own veins for this project. But he knew she wasn’t going to back down until she was done.
“Go on,” he said giving her a gentle push back toward the virus lab. Go get the medicine ready. I’ll get you a patient.”
Juno nodded and did as she was told, and Wyatt didn’t waste any time in running out of Hook Labs. He stepped out onto the cold, snowy street, then breathed in deeply. He was sniffing around for the telltale smell of dying that followed the bear flu victims around, and he immediately caught the scent of a nearby girl. She was probably about three blocks away. He started running in that direction, following the scent as it grew stronger and stronger. He finally made it to a rundown apartment building and stormed inside. In the corner of one of the first floor apartments, a girl who looked like she was about in her mid-twenties was slumped in the corner, feverish and moaning. She looked up at Wyatt when he entered the room, but it didn’t seem to really register with her that he was there. Her blonde hair was matted and a complete mess, and her body was a skeleton, like she hadn’t eaten in weeks.
“Come on,” Wyatt said, scooping her up. “Let’s get you out of here.” The girl looked up at him in a daze, and Wyatt started running back towards the lab.
“Let’s see if we can’t save your life,” he said. Then he took off toward the lab at a full speed run.
Chapter Ten
Juno breathed in and out several times in a row, trying to calm her anxious heart. She tried to time her breathing with the rise and fall of the chest of the woman lying on the exam table in sick bay. The girl was young, maybe twenty-five years old. Her eyes had been wide and delirious when Wyatt brought her in earlier, but now she was sleeping, and she looked almost peaceful. It had been several hours since Juno injected her with the new medicine, and so far the girl did not show any signs of improvement. Her condition hadn’t worsened, though, which was a good sign. All Juno could really do now was wait and hope.
Juno leaned back in her chair and rubbed her forehead. She was tired. So tired that she felt the exhaustion in her bones. Wyatt kept trying to get her to rest, but she couldn’t. Not when her patient was lying there on the cusp between life and death. Juno closed her eyes, telling herself she would just rest for a moment. But it didn’t take long for her to fall asleep right in her chair, with her head leaning back against the wall behind her. She slipped into dreams of faraway places. In her dreamland, she was running with Wyatt on a beach. The water was turquoise, and the sand was white. Were they on a honeymoon? Juno’s lips turned up into a smile as the scene faded to a house in a forest. Her house. Wyatt’s house. There was a Christmas tree up, and they were singing Christmas carols while sugary white flakes of snow swirled around outside. It looked so cozy, warm and inviting.
But Juno’s happy scene was shattered suddenly when a loud bang sounded out, followed by several crashes of shattering glass. Juno started and woke so quickly that she fell out of her chair. Looking around with wild eyes, she jumped to her feet and started moving toward the door. That’s when she heard Grant screaming.
“What the hell, Jack! It’s a dragon!”
“How do you know?” Jack yelled.
“Can’t you smell him?” Grant replied. “Shit, shit, shit.”
“Where’s Juno, you filthy beast?” Jack yelled. “I swear to God if you hurt her I’m going to tear your limbs off one by one!”
Juno started running toward the outer lab at full speed.
“Wait!” she screamed. “Wait!”
Her heart was pounding. She’d been found. Grant and Jack had made it to Chicago, and she’d just realized that they had no idea who Wyatt was. In their eyes, he was a menacing dragon who needed to be taken down. And in Wyatt’s eyes, Grant and Jack were two intruders who needed to be prevented from entering the lab. Juno slammed through the door into the outer lab just in time to see Grant lunging toward Wyatt.
“Stop!” she yelled. “Stop it!”
The three men in the room froze and looked toward her. Wyatt had his arms raised, his fists just about to come down on Grant’s head.
“Juno, what the hell were you doing sneaking out like that?” Grant asked.
Juno’s heart was pounding in her chest, and she told herself to remain calm.
“I was doing it for your own good,” she said. “It’s too dangerous out here for you. You have lifemates to think about!”
“These are your clan members?” Wyatt asked, slowly lowering his arms.
“Yes,” Juno said. “This is Grant, my alpha. And Jack, another one of the clan’s shifters. Grant, Jack, this is Wyatt.”
“How did you make friends with a dragon shifter?” Grant asked, his eyes widening. “Dragons don’t play nice with anyone. They�
��re solitary animals.”
“We’re not all that bad,” Wyatt said, sounding defensive.
“Look, guys. I have a lot to tell you, okay?” Juno said. “I know you’re mad, but just calm down for a second and listen.”
“Hell, yeah, we’re mad,” Grant said. “What was the big idea, Juno? You could have crashed the helicopter. You could’ve been killed out here. You put us through a lot of trouble trying to get gasoline to get back out here and rescue you.”
“I don’t need rescuing,” Juno said.
Wyatt snorted in laughter when she said that, and she shot him a menacing glare. He quickly schooled his features, but she could tell he was still chuckling on the inside.
“You had no right to leave like that, Juno!” Jack said. “Drew’s furious. We’re all furious. And we were all worried sick about you.”
Juno felt her stomach tying up in a knot. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? But I wanted to keep you guys from danger. You have lifemates. You have people who care about you. And, honestly, you wouldn’t do much to help out here. Grant, you don’t even know anything about science.
“Oh, come on, Juno,” Jack said. “He might not know about science, but he was supposed to be coming to help protect us. And I know about science. I’m a freaking doctor for crying out loud. How could you just leave me behind?”
“I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do something!” Juno shouted, surprising even herself with the intensity of her voice. “That I’m not just a waste of space!”
The room fell silent, and Wyatt stared at her with wide eyes. “But I thought you just wanted to keep them from danger,” he said.
“I don’t know,” Juno said. “I did. That’s what I told myself, and it’s true. More than anything, I’m just tired of always being the one in the group who doesn’t stand out. Who hasn’t done anything amazing. Everyone else has their special thing, and their lifemates. I just felt like if I could do this by myself without having to put Grant and Jack in danger, that I would finally show people what I’m capable of.”
Danger in a Fur Coat (The Fur Coat Society Book 4) Page 7