“Wait for what?” he asked, pausing, resting his big hand on her bottom.
She turned to look at him. “Why are you doing this?” she asked, tears falling from her eyes.
She watched his own eyes redden for a moment. “Rachel, I can’t take a chance of something happening to you. I won’t. I know what these men are capable of. I’ve been at the receiving end and I’ve watched my brother slowly wither away. I’m sorry, I won’t budge on this.”
The mention of Collin brought back the pain of those years that Marcus had been gone. The pain of the massacre of his family. She allowed her body to go limp. “Okay,” she managed.
He pulled her closer but kept her over his lap. “Put your hands and feet on the floor,” he said, releasing her wrists.
She glanced at him, aware of the hardness against her belly, and did as he’d said, the sudden throbbing of her pussy replacing that of her bottom. Slowly, he slid her panties down to mid-thigh and pulled her legs apart. His hands then began to circle her cheeks, rubbing her thighs, dipping in between her legs, just touching her sex, her swollen clit.
“You’re wet,” he said just as one finger slid into her pussy.
She could only moan as he scooted her farther forward so her hips were even higher and her head was nearly to the floor. His finger continued to push in and out of her slowly, and she could feel the sticky residue of herself on her thighs. With his other hand he found her clit and began to massage the swollen nub, sliding his fingers, wet with her juices, up toward her bottom hole. She arched her back, opening for him as he pressed into her ass slowly, taking his time, sliding all the way in then out again and again until she was panting with desire.
He added a second finger to the first and rubbed her clit harder.
She made a sound and squeezed her eyes shut, gripping his leg with both hands when she came, lifting her bottom into his hands as he pushed deep into her ass and pinched her clit between his fingers. When she released his leg, he pulled out of her and slid her to her knees between his legs. His towel had fallen open and he gripped his cock with one hand. He brought the other to the back of her head while she watched him stroke himself, his thick cock glistening. She opened her mouth and leaned toward him, but he gripped a handful of hair and held her so she could only extend her tongue out, licking the tip, tasting the few drops there while he stroked. She reached to touch him.
“Put your hands on my thighs and keep them there,” he said, his voice sounding different.
She did, glancing up at him while she still tried to pull forward, to lick him, to take him into her mouth.
“Please,” she begged when he gripped her hair more tightly, standing, lifting her so she was kneeling up.
“Open your mouth and look at me.”
She opened her mouth and met his eyes.
“Open wider.”
She opened as wide as she could and he dipped his cock into her mouth, closing his eyes for a moment and throwing his head back with a sigh as she wrapped her wet lips around it, still trying to take more of him than he would allow.
“Slow down,” he told her.
He allowed her to suck for a few moments longer as his cock swelled. He then abruptly pulled her off, her lips making a smacking sound when he did.
“Turn around, on your hands and knees, ass high,” he said.
She moved fast, spreading her knees wide and arching her back deep as he knelt between them. He gripped her hips and dragged her back, pulling her cheeks apart, resting just one finger on her asshole as he thrust his cock into her pussy. He fucked her hard and fast and when she felt him slow, felt him swell and throb, she reached back for her clit and came as he did, her orgasm frantic as he released inside her with a satisfied, almost wild groan.
Chapter Eighteen
Lance watched the man who had come for Rachel walk out of the hotel. Finding Rachel had been easier than he could have hoped. He was almost drawn to her; both her scent and her mind acting as a guide, a map. He had driven to Tucson, unwilling to take a chance on an airplane in case he shifted mid-flight. But now that he was here, he knew he wasn’t too late.
He looked at the man who had come to his house to rescue her that day. He was tall, rugged, and strong. He could see the cut of his muscular body through his t-shirt even from this distance. This was a shifter, a true shifter. Lance watched almost with envy as the man walked to the driver’s side of the small rental car. He stopped before getting in, however, and scanned the parking lot. Lance shrunk back, using the tinted windows of his car as cover. He watched from his position until the man climbed into his car and drove off.
He then opened the car door and climbed out, heading into the hotel. He had learned their room number last night; a tip of a fifty-dollar bill to the man on duty on the overnight shift had been easily accepted in exchange for the information. He now climbed the stairs up to the fifth floor.
* * *
The knock on the door came just as she was getting ready to go into the shower. Rachel smiled when she saw Marcus’ wallet on the nightstand.
“Did you forget your—” she said as she pulled the door open. She stopped the instant she saw who stood on the other side.
“I didn’t quite forget, more misplaced,” Lance said, one side of his lips curving upward as she tried to push the door closed. It bounced off the toe of his shoe and she scrambled backward. He came inside, calm as can be, and closed the door behind him.
“I’ll scream!” she said.
“No you won’t,” he said, showing her the gun he carried even as she knew he wouldn’t need it to hurt her. “You don’t want to see anyone else get hurt.” His eyes scanned her naked body and she turned and ran into the bathroom, realizing the hopelessness of her situation when she pushed the lock button on the doorknob. She looked around, frantic to find something to defend herself with as he easily pushed the door open, breaking the lock.
“Your behavior is quite rude, Rachel,” he chastised, taking her by the arm and dragging her out into the bedroom. “I came a long way for you.”
“Marcus will be back any second. He forgot his wallet!” she yelled, trying to break free while he dragged her along, picking up a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.
He stopped and looked her over from head to toe, making her squirm as she tried to hide herself from his gaze. How she had ever thought he wasn’t as dangerous as the other men baffled her when his eyes came to rest on the small, neat triangle of dark hair between her legs. When he looked up to her face again, his eyes were different, strange.
“You’re hurting me,” she managed, his fingers digging into her flesh.
“You smell like him,” Lance said, a look of utter disgust on his face. “You need to be washed but we don’t have time. Get dressed!” he spat. “If you scream or make any noise at all, I will hurt you and anyone who comes to help you. I swear it. Move. Now!”
She scrambled away, one eye on him as she pulled on the jeans, her heart racing, not doubting for a moment that he meant what he said. Would Marcus realize he’d left his wallet behind in time? What about Elijah?
She pulled on her t-shirt and he took hold of her arm again as she slid her feet into her shoes.
“We’re going to walk quietly out of the hotel and to my car, do you understand?” he asked.
She nodded, tears of fear forming in her eyes.
“If you try to call out for help, I’ll kill everyone around you while you watch. You get exactly one warning and you just had it. Clear?”
“Yes,” she answered with a trembling voice.
He dragged her out of the room and into the hallway. Rather than taking the elevator, he opted for the stairs. She stumbled a few times; he was much faster than she was. He simply lifted her back up when she fell with no regard for her at all, holding her harder as she tried to keep up.
There were two employees at the front desk who all but ignored them, and one family walked in just as they were walki
ng out. Lance bumped one of the kids on his way.
“Ow!” the little boy called out.
“That was rude!” the mother said to Lance’s back.
Rachel turned to look over her shoulder and she saw the woman’s face change as she watched Lance push her into his truck before climbing into the driver’s side and pulling out of the parking lot.
* * *
Marcus rode the elevator to the fifth floor, annoyed to have forgotten his wallet. And he hadn’t figured it out until he’d gotten all the way to the store. He dug for his room key as he made his way down the hall and to their room. He pushed the key card into the door and opened it.
“I forgot my wallet…” he began, but stopped, looking around and inhaling the scent that permeated the room. “Rachel?” he called out, running into the bathroom to find the lock broken, the small room empty. “Shit!”
He stopped and looked out the window. He’d been gone not fifteen minutes. Weston must have been waiting for his chance!
“Marcus?” Elijah pushed the door open and stepped inside, his expression letting Marcus know he had picked up the scent as well. “I smelled him on the stairs,” he said. “Where’s Rachel?”
“She’s gone! He must have taken her, the lock here is broken!”
Marcus pushed past Elijah, cursing himself. He should have made her go with him. He should have forced her to.
Elijah caught Marcus’ arm. “Stop. Wait. Let’s think.”
He shook his head. “No. He’s got her. He’s not going to take a chance on losing her again!”
Elijah nodded and the pair of them ran down the stairs.
“I was so fucking stupid to let her stay behind!” Marcus yelled, pounding his fist into the wall, leaving a dent there as he ran down the last set of stairs.
“We’ll get her back,” Elijah promised.
Marcus ran into the lobby, bumping someone on his way.
“Everyone’s in such a hurry!” a woman called out. “Watch where you’re going, jerk! You okay, Bobby?” she asked the now crying child Marcus had run into.
Marcus stopped and turned. “I’m sorry,” he said.
Elijah stopped too. “What did you mean ‘everyone’s in such a hurry’?” Elijah asked the woman, squatting down to wipe a tear from the boy’s face.
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Marcus said. “I wasn’t paying attention. I hope I didn’t hurt you?” he asked the little boy.
The boy stared up and shook his head no.
“Well at least you apologized. Just watch where you’re going! The last guy shoved him and ran off. Didn’t even bother looking back!”
“Did he have a girl with him?” Elijah asked, putting a hand on Marcus’ shoulder as Marcus clenched his fists.
“Yeah. Poor girl. Looked like she’d been crying. Not a surprise with a jerk like that for a boyfriend.”
“He’s not her boyfriend,” Marcus said through clenched teeth.
“Did you happen to see where they went? What kind of car they had?”
“Yeah, big red pickup truck with tinted windows. Hard to miss if you ask me. They headed down toward the center of town. Idiot was driving way faster than he should have been too.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Elijah said. He patted the boy’s head and the two walked fast out the door.
“Where’s your car?” Elijah asked Marcus.
“There,” he said, gesturing toward the rental.
“Head into town, see if you can find them. I’ll find somewhere to shift,” Elijah began.
Marcus nodded, already thinking the same thing.
“I’ll listen for Rachel. Once I find her, I’ll call you,” Elijah finished.
They both nodded and Marcus drove off while Elijah ran to the back of the parking lot, climbed over the high fence there, and shifted.
* * *
Rachel sat in the car, gripping the sides of her seat, one eye on the gun in his hand.
“Slow down,” she called out. “You’re going to get us killed.”
He glanced at her and slowed just a little.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked.
“There’s a lab in town I’ve worked with before. It will be closed today so we’ll have to break in, but I think we can manage that,” he answered, his voice calm again.
“And then what?” she asked, knowing full well what he intended to do.
He didn’t look at her as he pulled to a stop at a red light. “And then I take what I need from you. And if you’re good and do as I say, I’ll even give you some anesthetic so you won’t feel the cut.” His smile was evil.
“You can’t just cut me open!”
“I have no choice. We’re out of time.”
“What happens to me in the end?”
Now he did look her way. “I’m sorry, Rachel,” he began, sounding almost authentic. “I’ll do what I can but you may be called upon to make a great sacrifice,” he said, then laughed, suddenly hysterical.
“Oh my God, you’re crazy. You’re fucking crazy!”
“Hey!” he yelled, the tone of his voice making her jump even before his hand gripped her jaw and turned her face to his. He paused then and she could see the struggle behind his eyes. But it was the evil there that won. “You have no idea what it’s like to have this disease steal everything from you. Everything. Make you an old man in the prime of your life,” he spat, releasing her face with a rough shove.
She touched her jaw, knowing she’d be bruised where his fingers had dug into her. But wondering if that would even matter, if she’d live long enough.
“There has to be another way,” she began, but he ignored her, turning off the main road and onto a quiet side street. “Lance?” she asked softly. “I know you don’t want to do this. You don’t want to hurt me,” she said as he pulled into a deserted parking lot.
His look told her otherwise.
“Marcus will come for me. He’ll kill you.”
Rachel.
It was Elijah. She looked out her window but saw nothing.
Where are you? Tell me where you are.
At a lab. We turned left off Sanchez.
Lance turned to her then and studied her face before answering her question. “I don’t think so,” he said. “I’m sorry, but you understand, don’t you?” he asked, this time touching her face softly with the back of one hand. She shrunk away, his touch revolting.
He’s crazy. You have to hurry. Elijah’s voice was fading, fear distracted her concentration and this communication required too much energy.
“Don’t you?” he asked, this time his voice and his touch harder.
She stared at him and he seemed to grow angrier. He squeezed his eyes shut, his hand closing over her shoulder. He made a noise and squeezed so hard she had to cry out. When he opened his eyes, they were darker, less human.
“Lance?” she asked.
He stared at her as if trying to remember who she was, why she was saying his name. It was another moment before he shook his head and stepped out of the car, pulling her out with him, dragging her from her side to his with one hand on her arm. She noticed how rapidly his left hand shook once they stepped out.
He tugged on her arm when he saw her staring, trying to tuck his hand into his pocket, only succeeding after several tries. He went around to a side entrance and kicked it in. She jumped at the sound, at his incredible strength, as the door broke open. He pulled her through, moving fast, knowing exactly where he was going. They climbed one set of stairs and walked to a room at the end of the hall. He broke that door too and she screamed this time when the glass of the door shattered all around her. She tried to cover her face with her free arm but felt splinters of glass cut into her exposed flesh. When she pulled her arm back and looked at Lance as he dragged her inside, she saw the cuts on his face, one big one over his left eye, heal and close, the skin forming perfectly once more to cover any sign of injury. She knew of the shifter’s
ability to heal quickly, but this seemed amplified, faster than even Elijah or Marcus healed.
Once inside, he switched on the lights. He looked around, his energy frantic, almost panicked, the shaking of his hand seeming to grow worse by the moment.
“Please, Lance,” she begged as he pulled her through to another door at the back, this one unlocked. “Please let me go,” she begged, her resistance futile against his strength. “Please! I’ll give you what you want, just not like this. I promise I’ll give you what you want.”
But he ignored her.
This room was smaller, quite a bit smaller. The walls and floors were tiled and every surface of the space shone stainless steel, immaculately clean, almost surgically so. There was one other door at the opposite end of the room but not a single window.
“Let me go!” she screamed when he lifted her onto the table at the middle of the space.
She heard Elijah then. They were near but she was too afraid to send any sort of message back, her concentration was wholly absorbed by the crazy man who now pushed her down onto the table.
“Rachel!” she heard Marcus call out. He was running, he was in human form. Lance fisted the gun and looked at her accusingly, fuming.
“He has a gun!” she yelled just as the back of Lance’s hand slapped her so hard across the face she fell from the table, her cheek throbbing with pain.
“Rachel!” Marcus burst into the room and Lance shot his gun, missing but giving himself that momentary advantage to pick Rachel up and hold her to him, his one arm wrapped tight around her neck.
Marcus righted himself as a low growl came from the outer room.
“I’ll kill her. I swear, I’ll snap her neck. Back off!”
Marcus looked from one to the next, and Elijah’s golden eyes shone as he stalked into the room in wolf form, his growl becoming fiercer as he stood, taking in the situation, ready to strike.
The sound of cars pulling into the parking lot fast, screeching breaks, doors slamming shut, a lot of doors, made them all stop and turn to the door.
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