He threw her legs over his shoulders and rammed his cock inside her, rocking her back and forth as he continued his quick thrusts. The room grew dark as his eyes changed. His large gray irises all but disappeared as his pupils grew larger and larger until they were almost nonexistent. Fur sprouted along his arms as his teeth elongated into those of his wolf.
The window blew open and rain blew into the room, water soaking everything as they continued their frenzied mating. Nothing mattered but the release they both reached for and the inevitable rush of pleasure.
Leaning down, Kalen bit her shoulder in an age-old show of dominance. He growled low, driving his cock into her faster and faster until he threw his head back and howled. Beneath him, Ally screamed through another release. Her teeth elongated, a strange wildness coursed through her and she raised her head to Kalen’s shoulder, bit down, and completed their bond.
Tears filled Ally’s eyes as she lay under him panting. Reaching up, she wrapped her arms around Kalen’s neck and pulled him down for a long, kiss. Their lips melded together as they tasted the remnants of their passion.
When Kalen finally pulled away to roll off her, he gathered her in his arms and held her close. “I love you, Ally.” He chuckled after his declaration.
“What’s so funny?” she asked, her eyelids drooping. She was exhausted, but still humming with desire as his body pressed against hers.
“I don’t even know your last name.”
“Webber. My last name is Webber.” After her declaration, Ally closed her eyes and knew no more.
Chapter Twenty
“What do you mean I can’t go?”
Kalen overheard Milly’s heated question as she walked into the kitchen.
The gorgeous, now much younger looking woman scowled at Bastien, her inky eyebrows drawn down over her sky-blue eyes. Hands on her hips, the tiny female looked ready to do battle and win.
“It’s too dangerous and you don’t have control of your abilities yet.”
“Don’t tell me what’s too dangerous and what isn’t.” Milly shook her finger in Bastien’s face. “I don’t even know you. You have no authority over me, or what I do. You aren’t my mate or my alpha. You’re a healer, for goodness’s sake. In fact, my Gerald should be your alpha not this Jake person I keep hearing about. He’s the one who’s pureblood.”
“It doesn’t work that way with us. The fact that your mate is pureblood doesn’t mean a thing, Milly,” Kalen said as they walked into the room. “Jake Blackstone’s family has been the alpha family since the beginning of our existence. It’s much the same as a human monarchy. His family breeds alpha males—males who are so attuned to leadership, they can rule practically from the cradle.”
He moved to the far counter, opened the cabinet, and pulled out two cups before pouring Ally and himself a cup of the strong brew. Turning to his mate, he raised a brow. “Cream and sugar?”
“Please.” She blushed when he winked at her.
Turning to the sink, he tried to add some cool water to their coffee and paused. “What happened to the water? We noticed there wasn’t any water in our room as well.” He glanced at Bastien and Carly who grinned at each other before taking a drink from their cups. “What?”
“Well... there’s something about the connection with a true mate.” Bastien grinned. “The bond brings a certain amount of magic to the union.” He leaned forward, wrapping both hands around his cup. “When Carly and I confirmed our bond, we blew out every light in the house.”
“What does that have to do with the water not being on?”
Bastien shook his head. “Carly and I know that we have a semblance of control over electricity, though we haven’t practiced with it much. We’ve been too busy chasing after that lunatic, Thornton, while the alpha and beta have been out of town.”
Carly cleared her throat. “We do know that we can short out surveillance cameras.” She grinned. “Which, of course, has turned out to be an invaluable asset in infiltrating the crazy doctor’s facilities.”
“Have you located the pureblood?” Ally changed the subject while examining her friend.
Kalen tried to get her attention. Milly might not feel bound to the alpha, but she was and so was Ally by proxy, whether she wanted it to be so or not.
“We think we have, but there is no way to get into the facility to find out.”
“I’ll go.” Milly sat on the edge of her seat, her expression earnest. “Let them capture me. I’ll convince them to let me try to seduce him. Of course, I won’t be able to go through with it willingly if he’s not my mate, but they don’t know that.”
“No. That is not an option.” Bastien shook his head. “You don’t understand, Mrs. Jenkins. There is no guarantee that they would even allow you near him. Not to mention that the were males the doctor created would have no qualms about raping you. All at once if that’s what it took.”
Milly’s eyes grew wide and she swallowed thickly. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“I’m sure you hadn’t.” Bastien smiled softly before he looked at Kalen and the other men in the room. “We’ll need volunteers.” He held up his hand when Milly started to say something. “I need combat experienced volunteers.”
Kalen wanted to laugh at Milly’s expression, but knew she wouldn’t appreciate it. “Milly, we don’t even know if the man we’re after is your mate. What if you risk your life for someone we don’t even know? If you get killed, we lose Gerald, too.”
She heaved a dejected sigh. “I just want to help. I want to know if it’s Gerald or not, as soon as possible.”
“We’ll contact you.” Bastien smiled. “Better yet, if it is Gerald Jenkins, we’ll have him contact you through your link. Then, when we have him under our protection, we’ll find a place to hide you both where the crazy doctor won’t find either of you.”
“If he’s alive, why hasn’t he contacted me already?” The expression on Milly’s face made it obvious that she wanted to believe her mate was alive, but was afraid to hope, lest that hope was dashed.
“It could be something as simple as they’re keeping him drugged, or since you weren’t a were before, your connection wasn’t strong enough, or the distance between you two could be too great.” Bastien pulled his phone from his pocket and pressed a number before setting the phone against his ear.
Bastien stared at the silver case in the center of the table, he smiled. “Hey, Randy. Is your brother there with you? Great. I’ve got some news for you two.” He nodded. “Yes, it would be better if you could meet me. Yes, I’m at a safe house off Federal Road.” He paused then added. “Yes, it’s going to be well worth your while. It might even be a dream come true.” He gave the other man the address. “I’ll see you in about an hour.”
Shoving his phone back in his pocket, he grinned. “I know one of the MacDonald twins will test the serum. They’ve wanted to try the serum ever since they found out about it. After they arrive, we’ll test the dosage on one of them, then split the rest up and send it to the labs for reverse engineering.”
“What about their sister? You know they’ll want her brought over, too.” Kalen asked. Not to mention that Bastien’s best friend, Dimitri, would want it also, since their sister was his mate. Not to mention Jake, their alpha. His mate was human, as well.
“Jake gave me permission to hold out enough for them, too. However, we must give them all the choice.” The expression on his face told everyone present he meant exactly what he said. “I don’t want any coercion, even from their mates.”
An hour later, Kalen watched the MacDonald brothers climb out of their vehicle. It didn’t surprise him that they drove to the house in a large vehicle, the original Hummer more suited for military use. They were retired Rangers, after all.
He witnessed a small scuffle as they made their way to the front porch. He often wondered how much closer he and Galen would have been had they been the twins their mother had wanted. Now, he knew.
“Get off me, you assho
le,” one of them said to the other.
Kalen wasn’t sure who was who since they were identical twins. Not only were they twins, they were also as large as most weres and taller than some others. Around six-foot six inches tall and two-hundred and ninety pounds, he’d bet the two were a force to be reckoned with in battle.
He watched, eyes wide as one pulled a Beretta from behind his back and drew down on his brother. “I’ll shoot you, dammit!”
His brother just laughed and held up his arms as if in surrender. “You’re so damned touchy, Randy. Maybe you need to go to anger management.”
“Fuck you, asshole.” Randy shoved his gun back into his pants, climbed the porch steps and knocked briskly. “Hey, Bastien, we’re here. Open the damned door.”
“Impatient much?” Bastien asked as he opened the door and let the men in.
“Please tell me our prick of a brother-in-law isn’t here.”
“Not yet.”
“Not yet, meaning he’s on his way.” Randy rolled his eyes and groaned. “Why’d you have to call him in? All I’ll hear after he gets here is Junior this, and Junior that.” He turned toward Kalen and snarled, “I’ll kick your ass if I hear you call me that even once. Twice will get you killed. Understood?”
Kalen wanted to laugh but thought better of it. He wasn’t a pussy by anyone’s standards, but he liked to pick his fights, and at the moment, the only fight he was interested in was one with the security at a certain hidden and unconstitutional government lab.
“Whatever you say, man.” He held his hands up, palms out. “I don’t have a beef with you.”
“Don’t ever call me Junior and you’ll never have one with me.” Randy turned his attention back to Bastien. “What’s this good news you’ve got?” He looked around the room as though looking for someone specific. “Have you found that sick sonofabitch?”
“No.” Bastien shook his head then waved toward Kalen. “But Kalen has found something almost as good.” Reaching over to the table next to him, Bastien picked up the silver case and opened it. “We have this, and we have syringes along with information that half of a syringe will be enough to change a human into a were.”
“Awesome,” the twins said together as their attention turned to the silver case.
“Tell me you’re going to let us be your guinea pigs.”
“One of you—yes.” Bastien closed the case. “You choose.”
The twins shook their heads. “Uh, uh. It’s both of us, or nothing.” Again, they replied together.
They looked at each other for a minute as though they could communicate without words. Randy then stepped forward. “And don’t even think about trying that shit on our sister before you try it on us, or you’ll see exactly how good your guys will be at killing us.”
Kalen wondered if he had ever had balls as big as these guys had. He shook his head, wondering who would give in first.
“Okay,” Bastien said, rubbing the back of his neck. “But I can’t guarantee it will change you. Hell, I can’t even guarantee it won’t kill you.”
They both shrugged. “Hell, Sinclair, if you count some of the missions we’ve been on, we both should be dead already.”
“Cameron’s right,” Randy agreed as they both began to roll up their sleeves. “If something goes wrong, just tell our family we did it for our sister. They’ll understand. We all know how much she wants to be a true mate to that asshole Dimitri.”
“We had anticipated your reaction.” Bastien reached down, pulled two already pre-measured syringes out from behind the case and handed them to the twins. “Here you go. You two can inject yourselves. Just remember one thing. When you feel yourself start to change, it’s going to hurt like hell. Don’t fight it. Reach for the change and it shouldn’t be as bad as...” He left off there and glanced at his mate.
Carly stepped forward and smiled. “When they first injected me, I fought it and it was the worst thing I could have done. The pain was so agonizing, I begged them to kill me.” She rested a hand on each of their forearms. “Please don’t fight it. I’m not sure I could watch someone else go through what I did.”
The two men looked at each other, then used the alcohol swabs Bastien handed them with the two needles. They each took a deep breath, looking like mirror images of each other, since they even dressed the same. “Here goes, bro,” they said together, then grinned. Reaching out at the same time, they both injected the other’s left arm.
“It wasn’t as bad as those damned jet injectors,” they both said at the same time.
With a shrug, they smiled then turned when someone opened the door. Standing just outside the door was Dimitri, and if Kalen had to guess, the woman with him was his mate, Charity.
Dimitri, a tall, dark-haired Russian with green eyes, looked down at the woman and smiled. “After you, my love.” He shifted his attention to Bastien. “Tell me why we’ve left our son with his grandparents to rush over here, old friend.”
Kalen could tell the man had already noticed the syringes in the twins’ hands.
He put himself between his mate and her brothers and raised a dark brow. “Why are you two idiots holding syringes? If you plan to inject us with something, be prepared for a fight. I will not go down easily.” He backed toward his mate. “Back your way through the door, love.”
“No one plans to inject you with anything, asshole,” Randy said, practically snarling the words. He held up the syringe. “It’s empty. See?”
Cameron followed suit, showing that his syringe was also empty. “We just injected ourselves.”
“With what?”
Their sister stepped around her mate, her blue eyes filled with worry. She was blonde like her brothers, but that was where the resemblance stopped. A great deal shorter and prettier than her siblings, she stood staring up at them, biting her lip, her eyes filled with worry. “What have you done?”
“We’ve injected ourselves with what we hope is the serum that will make us like your husband,” Cameron said as he wiped the perspiration from his face with a trembling hand. “I’m afraid it’s already taking affect.”
“Yeah,” Randy agreed, “and if it works, that means I’ll be on even ground with your asshole of a husband and I can beat the shit out of him the next time he calls me Junior.” He bared his teeth in what he probably thought looked like a grin, but with the obvious pain he was already feeling, it looked more like a grotesque grimace. “Though, I’d rather shoot his dumb, Russian ass.”
“You shouldn’t have used yourself as a test subject, my brothers.” Stepping forward, Dimitri caught Cameron as he keeled over unconscious.
“Bite me, dog boy.” Those were the last words Randy said before he fell over in a dead faint.
“Next time it will be me calling him dog boy.” Dimitri glanced down at Randy and grinned. “I don’t think he’s thought this through.”
Chapter Twenty-one
The two men stayed unconscious longer than anyone expected. Maybe the serum worked differently on everyone. Ally bit her thumb as she watched the twins finally beginning to stir. At least they were still alive. That was something.
Their sister, Charity, had sat between them the entire time. Tears ran down her face as she rocked back and forth. “How could they do this to me, the big jerks?” She slapped them both on the arm, then took each of their hands in one of hers.
Ally shook her head. The woman had alternated between crying over and smacking her brothers for the last two and a half hours. When they woke up, they would no doubt want to know where all of their bruises had come from.
Randy came to, first. At least she was fairly sure it was Randy. “Hi there, little sis.” He smiled up at her.
“Randy!” Releasing Cameron’s hand, Charity leaned down and hugged him before straightening with a scowl. “Don’t you little sis me, you creep!” She smacked him on the arm again.
“Ow!” Reaching over with his free hand, he rubbed his bicep. “How many times have you hit me there? That h
urt like hell.”
“Not enough, you big dummy!” She smacked him again. “How could you two do that? What do you think Mom would have said if you’d both just killed yourselves? How could you be so stupid?”
“We did it for you,” Cameron said as he sat up, rubbing his head. “God, my head hurts.” He looked at Randy. “Does your head ache?”
“No.”
Charity reached over and smacked Randy upside the head. “It does now.”
“Ow, dammit! Stop that!” Randy said, rubbing the side of his head.
Ally wanted to laugh, she really did. This family was a bunch of cut-ups. There was no doubt that they all loved each other, though.
The woman turned to her other brother. “And don’t give me that we-did-it-for-you crap either.” She poked him in the chest. “You two did this for you. Don’t think I haven’t known how much you wanted to be shifters, you jerks.” She glared at them. “I appreciate the fact that you wanted to protect me and go first, but you could have at least waited until I got here.” Tears streamed down her face. “What if the worst had happened?” She smacked them both again. “I wouldn’t have been able to say goodbye. I hate you guys sometimes.” Standing, she ran from the room, her mate hot on her heels.
“Boy, I didn’t think she cared that much,” Randy said as he sat up, rubbing the arm his sister kept abusing. He looked around. “How long do you think it’ll be before we change?”
Cameron stood, rubbing his stomach. “My gut burns like hell. I think I’m going to change any minute.” He spun around. “Do I have a tail yet?”
“No, you idiot.” Randy gave him a dirty look. “Don’t you dare change before I do.”
“I might not have a choice. They said it hurts like hell if you try to hold it back.”
“Pain is just a weakness leaving your body. Deal with it.”
Ally left the room. She couldn’t watch the two retired Rangers go through the pain of conversion. She didn’t think she could take it. Besides, when she rubbed her stomach, she could feel the change coming upon her again as well, and she wanted some privacy when it happened.
Protecting Ally Page 13