Forbidden Call (New Breed Novels, Book 1)

by Martha Bourke

  “Okay, I am not forfeiting. Dammit, that’s the last time I partner with that SOB.”

  “I’ll step in,” Ana said. “You’re almost done anyway.”

  Pax shrugged his shoulders. “Fine by me.”

  “Hey, Richard,” X called, as the brother came in with his mate.

  “Hey, guys. Listen, I’ve got a conflict. Adriana needs to see Dr. Sussman for her appointment, but I need to view some property with Reyn and Dimitri. I’d let one of the staff take her, but…”

  X nodded. “Yeah, no problem, I’ll take her. What time?”

  Adriana sat on one of the bar stools. “Not till three. Damn. Now this was a good idea.”

  “I gotcha,” Soaring Eagle smiled and helped her slide off.

  “Thanks.” She smiled back at him. “I think I’ve reached the point when chairs become the enemy.”

  Richard gave his mate a kiss on his way out. “See you in a bit, Adri.”

  “Bye, my male. Don’t let Dimitri buy up the whole city.”

  “Whoa! Diesel leaves the 8 ball frozen to the rail! Nice,” Pax said, fist bumping the brother.

  SE handed his cue to his mate. “Looks like it’s your shot, ihkweea.”

  “If she makes this shot, I’ll fix Dimitri’s wall,” Diesel said with a grin. “And if she doesn’t, you take my next duty.”

  SE started to answer that Diesel was out of his ever-loving mind if he thought he was going to miss a night with Ana, but she jumped in.

  “You’re on, Diesel.”

  “Okay by you, SE?” Pax asked.

  He picked up his beer and leaned against the wall. “You heard the female.” He watched his mate line up the shot and sink the fucker without breaking a sweat.

  “Booyah!” X yelled.

  “Holy shit!” Pax was laughing so hard he had to grab the edge of the bar.

  Even Adriana started giggling.

  Ana grinned. “It’s all about the spin, boys.”

  SE kissed his mate. “Excuse us, my brothers. I have a female to thank. Oh, and Dies, don’t come up to fix that wall for a couple hours.”

  Diesel rolled his eyes. “I think I just threw up a little.”

  Pax laughed again. “You have any trouble matching that custom paint, don’t come to me.”

  Diesel grinned and held up his hand. “Well played, Ana.”

  “Thanks,” she said, giving it a firm slap.

  Jesus Christ. Just when SE thought his mate couldn’t get any hotter. After watching her kick Diesel’s ass, he could have taken her right on the pool table. She hopped on his back at the foot of the stairs and he piggy-backed her up to their room. The memory of carrying her down the stairs of her old apartment added to the thought of all the memories they had yet to make brought a wide smile to his face. When he dumped her on the bed, she giggled.

  “How fast do you think I can get you out of those pants?” he asked.

  “Not fast enough.”

  He unbuttoned her jeans and yanked them off, as she peeled off her sweater.

  “Whoa,” he said, as he looked at her new lacy bra and panties. “You look so amazing in that. Okay, I am not even going to ask if Geoffrey bought them.”

  “He didn’t. You like?”

  SE showed his approval by bending down and taking her into his mouth through the black silky panties. He’d never thought of her as a satin and lace kind of female, but, man, he was so glad he was wrong.

  “No Impala today?”

  X barked a laugh as Adriana gave a disappointed huff. “The Impala is a little loud. Dig?”

  Adriana didn’t care. She loved X’s vintage ’65 Chevy. It was in peak condition, cherry red with a white stripe trunk to hood. And it was loud. It was great. She and Richard had their Volvo and a new Audi SUV hybrid, courtesy of Dimitri. He made sure everyone picked out nice rides as a gifts at initiation. Adriana loved vintage cars, but they had to be practical these days.

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” she said. “Thanks for taking me. So, what do you think of Ana?”

  X smiled. “Not mincing words today, are you, mama?”

  Adriana watched Brookline pass by as X drove up Beacon Street. “I guess not.”

  “Look, I do trust her for the most part. She’s SE’s mate and she’s done a fuckload to help us out. Shit, we wouldn’t even have him if it wasn’t for her.”

  She gave a tentative nod. “But, I mean, she could just be doing those things as part of a cover though. Right?”

  “Have you seen the way those two look at each other?” he asked. “That ain’t no cover, mama.”

  Adriana sighed. “I suppose you’re right.” She knew he was right. It was obvious they adored each other. If that female broke SE’s heart…

  “Look, ultimately, everyone will have to draw their own conclusion, and you all have a past together that I don’t share. I’m sure that makes things less clear cut for you.”

  Just a tad.

  “Oh—turn here, X. I’m sorry.”

  X swung into little lot at the back of the brick building. After he parked the car, he walked around to Adriana’s side, opened her door and helped her out.

  They walked in right on time.

  The receptionist at the front desk looked up and smiled. “Hi, Adriana. Dr. Sussman will be ready for you in a few minutes. How are you feeling?”

  “I’m great. Thanks, Dee.”

  A few minutes later, when the nurse came out to get her, Xavier picked up his iPad. “I’ll be waiting right here, Adriana.”

  An hour later, X was up at the window checking in with his new friend, Dee. “Excuse me, ma’am. How long do these kinds of check-ups usually take?”

  Dee smiled. “She should be out any minute. She’s Dr. Sussman’s last patient today, so they’re probably chatting now. I’ll check on her in a few minutes.”

  “Okay, thank you.”

  Less than a minute later, X heard a scream from out back. Instantly, he was on his feet.

  “Wait!” Dee called, as he blew past.

  He turned in the direction of the scream at the same time as he picked up on the fresh scent of blood. Following it, he pushed open the door to the examining room on the left. No doctor. And no Adriana. A squat little nurse with Christmas trees on her scrubs lay in a pool of blood beside the examination table.

  “Fuck!”

  He raced back down the hall toward the back of the building and hooked a right. He slammed his foot against the double doors of the back entrance, popping them open just in time to see an unmarked, white van pulling out onto Beacon Street.

  Screw the whole phasing discouraged in public shit.

  The war spilled out into daylight as X phased into Tiger on the fly and took off in hot pursuit. The van took a right on Harvard Avenue and he followed, ignoring the screams and yells of onlookers assaulting his ears.

  As he dodged in and out of traffic, he almost got clipped twice as the van ran several red lights. Running in Boston traffic was a high-risk sport any day of the week, and these motherfuckers weren’t about to make it any easier. Finally, he got the break he needed. The van’s driver had no choice but to stop for a B train as it crossed over Commonwealth Avenue.

  X phased back and kicked the door with everything he had. “Adriana!”

  “X!”

  His New Breed hearing picked up her scream through the noise of the passing train. He quickly assessed the situation. The cocksucking van had no windows and use of his gun would be too risky with Adriana inside anyway. He grabbed onto the metal ladder on the back just as the van jetted forward, slamming over the tracks and lurching wildly. It was clear the punk ass ladder wasn’t made to withstand the force of his weight being thrown around at high speed. Seconds before it fell off the van, he climbed to the roof and grabbed the steel ladder racks. His body slid back and forth as the van sped down the street, dodging cars and squealing from lane to lane, but he managed to hold on until the next red light. The back door of the van suddenly opened and a Toltec
shifter leaned out and fired his pistol.

  With nowhere to go but down, X rolled off the top of the van, landing low on the concrete. He pulled his Glock and returned fire, but the light changed, resetting the game. Once again, he phased into his second form and took off after the van. As it turned right onto Cambridge Street, X had a new enemy—the Mass Turnpike. If the van made it to the highway, they would easily outrun him. He put everything he had into his sprint and for the first time in his life, he prayed for traffic.

  A banging on the bedroom door woke SE.

  “SE? What’s going on?” Ana asked sleepily.

  He pulled on his boxers. “I’m not sure.”

  When he opened the door, the male standing in front of him was panting and covered with sweat.

  “X?”

  “It’s Adriana,” he answered, “Toltec has her. Got her and her doctor from the office.”

  “Oh, my God,” Ana said from behind him.

  “Is Richard back?” SE asked, already pulling on a T-shirt.

  X nodded. “He just got here. Everyone’s gathering downstairs. He needs you, SE.”

  “X, you’re bleeding,” Ana said. “Come in and let me take care of that.”

  “The bullet just grazed me. I’m fine, Ana.”

  SE threw on his sneakers. “Don’t argue with the female. You won’t win. Thanks for taking care of him, ihkweea.”

  “Of course.”

  He gleamed down to the drawing room and materialized in a war room. The long central table was piled with weapons. Pax and Diesel were getting ready to distribute them. Reyn and Troy were looking at a map projected on the wall from a laptop. Dimitri was trying to get Richard to calm down.

  Soaring Eagle headed straight for Richard and took him by the shoulder. “Yoohi netai. I’m here, brother.”

  Richard and SE started heading for the door at the same time. They hung a left down the hall and went into the study. Richard turned around to face SE, his pupils ringed in bright blue, sweat pouring down his face. A low growl emanated from him as he breathed.

  SE closed his eyes, sending Richard his nagual. Slowly, the brother’s eyes dimmed down as the protective instinct lessened.

  “Better?”

  He nodded and bent over as he tried to slow his breathing.

  SE put his hand on Richard’s back.

  “I can’t lose her, SE. I can’t. I know I won’t survive it. ”

  “Easy, bro. We’ll get her back. You have to focus on that. Anything else is wasted energy right now.”

  “I should have been there. I should have been in that room with her. She’s more important than anything else. What the fuck was I thinking?”

  “Look at me. You have to concentrate on getting her back. Stay focused on the present. That’s the best way you can help her right now.”

  Richard stood up and nodded, but SE still didn’t like the way he looked. He recalled his nagual and hoped to hell Troy would be around to help him keep the brother calm enough to get through whatever came next. When they walked back into the drawing room, the rest of the brothers were deep in discussion.

  Reyn rubbed his eyes. “Look, we have the location of their headquarters, but there’s no way of knowing whether they took her there or someplace else.”

  “We’re losing time here,” Diesel argued. “We gotta move now and at least check it out. The longer we stall the less chance we have of getting to her while she’s alive.”

  “How do you plan on infiltrating their ranks? It’s not like they’re going to mistake a New Breed for one of their shifters or hellions,” Pax said.

  SE looked over at Richard who was slowly becoming the palest white guy he’d ever seen.

  “Wait.”

  He heard his mate’s voice and looked up at the closest doorway. The first thing that hit him was that she was dressed in her leathers. His heart nearly fell through the floor.

  “Wait!” She yelled.

  Troy looked up. “Whoa, should she be down here, man?”

  “Shut your hole,” SE growled.

  “No!” Richard hollered. His eyes were glowing, his hands flexing and unflexing at his sides. “She’s the enemy! She shouldn’t be here. She could still be one of them! Think about it. How do we know she isn’t part of this? She knew what time the appointment was. Maybe she tipped them off!”

  “Troy,” Reyn said calmly.

  “I’m on it.”

  Troy raised his palm slightly toward Richard and the brother slowly started to calm down. Dimitri handed him a stiff drink, led him to a chair, and got him to sit down.

  Reyn turned to Ana. “What is it?”

  “I saw something when I was translating Victrixa’s file. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. I didn’t even write it down. There were references in there to mutant breeding…” One by one the brothers began staring at her. “I don’t think they were after Adriana, at least not directly. I think they’re after the baby.”

  Adriana sat curled up on a dirty mattress shoved in the corner of a room. The air smelled of dirt, mold, and every bodily fluid she could possibly imagine. The smells were assaulting her shifter senses and giving her a headache. She focused on breathing through her mouth as much as possible. The only light came from a small window just below the ceiling. She was almost glad the light was so dim. She wasn’t so sure she wanted to see what else was in the cell with her and Helen…or even exactly what she was sitting on. Or in.

  At least Helen’s here. Oh, God, she felt guilty for even thinking it. But what if something went wrong with the baby?

  The baby.

  Adriana knew her abduction wasn’t done at random. They’d gone to the one place outside of the compound she frequented and they’d even gone to the trouble of kidnapping her doctor instead of just killing her. They wanted the one female pregnant with a New Breed offspring. That had to be it. She knew that the Order would be looking for her, but she wasn’t sure what kind of time she had. Damn. If only she knew what Toltec was planning.

  Suddenly, she heard the locks on the door snap open.

  “Helen,” she whispered, “wake up. Someone’s coming in.”

  When the door opened, the light of the hallway revealed only a long, dark silhouette. “Well, well, Adriana, it’s certainly been a while.”

  Victrixa. What a surprise.

  Adriana sat up as tall as she could. “What do you want, Trixa?”

  “My guess is you’ve probably already figured that out. You won’t have to wait long for the specifics.”

  I can hardly wait. “Why don’t you tell me now?”

  Victrixa laughed. “And spoil all the fun? So…Richard’s a New Breed—hand-selected by the Goddess Akina herself. You must be so proud. You know, I never would have thought it. He’s just so, well, dull. But then, I guess that’s why I’m not working for your side.”

  Adriana squinted. “Side? You mean Akina’s side, don’t you? What are you up to?”

  “I just stopped in to make sure you’re comfortable. Mattress okay? I’ll have some food sent in later. We want to keep our fetus healthy.”

  The door was slammed and then locked again.

  “Who the hell was that?” Helen asked from behind her.

  Adriana was trembling in anger and fear. “That’s the female who’s going to take my baby.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Ana physically felt the shock of energy that went through the room. She looked around as all the brothers no doubt picked up on it. This was a male’s worst nightmare. She gave them as long as she could to process…

  And then she dropped the bomb.

  “It has to be me. I have to be the one to go in after her. I’m the only one who knows the complex. I can infiltrate deep enough to find out where they’re holding her and get her out.”

  Richard’s head jacked up. “No way. Not gonna happen. There’s no way that female is going anywhere near my Adri.”

  Ana eyed the weapons on the table. “There’s no way a large offe
nsive is going to get her back. This has to be done covertly. I’m telling you, it’s the only way.”

  Reyn looked her, then across the table. “Diesel?”

  “We have maps of the interior of the main complex. We may be able to use them, but—”

  “—Look, we don’t have time for this!” Ana hissed. “I don’t think she’s even been taken to their headquarters.”

  Reyn rubbed his eyes. “Fuck. Okay, how long would you say we have?”

  “I think they’ll inject the fetus sometime within the next twelve to twenty-four hours.”

  A soft moan escaped Richard’s lips.

  “It has to be me,” she repeated, “and I have to go now.”

  “She’s right.”

  Ana looked up at the sound of her mate’s voice. He was pale and his eyes were like gold gems, but his face was set. God, she hated what this was doing to him, but there was no way she was going to let her mother hurt another innocent child. And every second they spent dickering over this shit was costing Adriana time.

  “Look, Richard, I’ll take someone with me if you want. Pax, you’re the only one they won’t recognize. What do you say?”

  “Jesus, Ana. I don’t know. I’ve only made the change successfully once, and I had, like, the entire Order to help. I could totally fuck up the mission. Or hurt you.”

  “What if I can promise you SE will be there to help?”

  Soaring Eagle put his hand on the brother’s shoulder. “I can still send my nagual to you, Pax. You have to try. I don’t…I don’t want her going in there alone. Please.”

  Pax looked at him, then Ana. “Okay. Let’s do it.”

  Reyn turned to Adriana’s mate. “Richard?”

  He nodded without looking up.

  “Let’s hit it,” Reyn said. “Ana, give X and Dimitri the address. We can’t risk gleaming Adriana while she’s pregnant. They’ll meet you in the Navigator. The rest of us will hang back in case you need back-up.”

  Ana turned to her mate and put out her hand. “Ready?”

  “Lead the way.”

  Dr. Helen Sussman slid across the grimy mattress to her patient and took her hand. She turned Adriana’s face toward her. “Adriana, I want you to drink some of my water. You have to stay strong for this baby. Do you understand that? You have to stay strong until the Order comes for us.”