The Caelian Cycle Boxed Set

by Donnielle Tyner

  “Thanks to your interview and the reaction shots we captured of the incident—” McCredie paused and closed his eyes, unable to state the facts of his sister’s horrific demise. “We have garnered much needed political support, but we’re unsure if it is enough.”

  “I hope you’re not asking for another series of media events, because I am all out of patience to sit and look pretty for the camera.”

  “That’s not what we’re asking this time,” Marianne answered as she bit her cuticle, a recent nervous habit.

  “What are you asking of me this time?” I eyed Marianne with suspicion before turning my gaze to McCredie who had lost all his previous cumbersomeness. Instead, his shoulders were pulled back and his proud gaze focused on me. I squirmed in my chair, nervous from the weight of his gaze.

  “We have successfully implanted a mole in GenCorp,” McCredie announced with pride.

  I nodded absentmindedly as my thoughts wandered to Mae. Fear for her safety and pride in her accomplishment shocked my mind into focus as if a bucket of ice cold water was dumped on my head. McCredie’s hawkish gaze narrowed on me as he noted my reaction.

  “That’s good,” I mumbled in hopes to get him to focus on the news instead of me. Somehow I knew that he wouldn’t appreciate Mae’s little diversion to visit me when he counted on her to feed the underground much needed information about my grandfather’s plans.

  “Yes.” His reply drawled as he shared a look with Marianne, who seemed oblivious to my reaction. “We now have a detailed schematic of the GenCorp compound. It’s virtually impossible to get in there, but we think we may have found a way thanks to our mole.” He narrowed his eyes for a moment.

  “McCredie approached other families not aligned with the Koenigs, and they have come up with a plan requiring cooperation from each family, including the Moreaus,” Marianne added.

  That got my attention. “Oh yeah? What does he need from us?”

  Marianne’s smile widened as her eyes welled up with tears. A lone drop escaped, blazing a trail against her flushed skin.

  “What?” I asked as I shifted in my seat again.

  “You said us. It’s the first time you’ve included yourself with the Moreau family.” I smiled softly when her voice cracked with emotion. My inclusion with the Moreaus was subconscious and completely unintentional, but it felt right. I’d grown to love my actual family as much as I did my adopted one.

  “Don’t get yourself all worked up over nothing,” I scolded with a smile. “I know exactly where I belong.”

  She sniffed before drawing the emotion within, donning her business face. “Well, McCredie has asked a few things of us,” she smiled to herself. “First, he wants to transfer his science team to our laboratories.”

  “Understandable since ours are the best in the country.”

  Marianne nodded, her chin tipped up in pride. “The second is…”

  “Me.”

  When she nodded again, it was tinged with sadness. In an uncharacteristic move, McCredie planted his large, calloused, yet meticulously manicured hand on top of Marianne’s.

  “Why?” My question seemed to shock the both of them into straightening in their chairs. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be a part of McCredie’s big plan to overthrow my grandfather. I wanted to be there when it happened. That thought alone had been a steadfast hope in the continually unsteady world I lived in, but I needed to know why they wanted me.

  Marianne seemed to come back to herself sooner than McCredie, probably because she was privy to my life at the estate. She received plenty of updates from the staff and knew that my sessions with Dr. Sokoloff had been successful. McCredie, on the other hand, wore a look of deep contemplation.

  “I was concerned that you would be too eager to join this mission,” he mumbled more to himself than to me. “But to answer your question, our reasons for wanting you there are two fold. First, we want to film you helping to stop your grandfather and you handing over the serum to the government.”

  I felt my nose wrinkle in disgust as I crossed my arms self-consciously and sank down in my chair.

  “Don’t do that,” Marianne scolded. “You’ll get premature wrinkles. Sit up straight.”

  McCredie and I both chuckled at Marianne’s expense, but I listened. If I had learned one thing living at the estate, it was that my great aunt was a force to be reckoned with. No one won but her when she got like this. She kept her steely gaze locked on me as if she were trying to force etiquette into my brain.

  I turned to McCredie with a wide smile and syrup in my voice, “I’m so sorry to have displayed unbecoming behavior instead of the genteelness expected of a Moreau lady, but your answer displeased me greatly.”

  Marianne smiled in triumph. Is she that oblivious to me mocking her southern grace and charm? McCredie looked aghast.

  “I know you were just kidding with all of that, but please don’t do it again. It was horrifying.” He exaggerated a shudder.

  “So it was you who encouraged my niece to act like a heathen.”

  “Now, Aunt Marianne, I’m a through and through heathen in my own right. McCredie had nothing to do with it,” I answered with a sly smile.

  “Oh, hush your mouth,” Marianne scolded with less enthusiasm than before.

  “Yes ma’am,” I answered before turning to McCredie. “Reason number two?”

  His smile faltered as he cut a quick gaze to Marianne, who went back to biting her cuticle—a most unbecoming behavior.

  “Well?”

  “We want you to be the bait,” McCredie answered in a rush.

  “Excuse me?” I deadpanned. “You want to dangle me in front of my bastard of a grandfather as bait?”

  “I know what you’re thinking.” McCredie sighed. “We don’t see you as some damsel in distress, and I especially don’t see you as weak or incapable. I have seen firsthand how capable you are. Yet, you have to admit that if we invade without you, Miles will not show his face. But…”

  “But if he hears that I’m there, he’ll emerge from his evil lair.”

  He nodded as Marianne drew a little more into herself. “Aunt Marianne, what do you think?”

  “As much as I hate the idea and fear for your safety, I cannot see another way to draw him out.”

  “You guys actually think he’ll leave the compound if I knock on the door?”

  “No,” McCredie answered with a sigh. “You’ll have to go inside the compound, but he will find his way to you—one way or another.”

  “Is there more to this plan than filming me walking through GenCorp with an army?”

  McCredie released a longsuffering sigh. “Of course. We’re waiting on some more intel before we finalize a plan, but your safety, as well as all of our people’s are the top priority.”

  “After we get the serum and stop the madman, you mean.”

  “Yes,” he agreed with reluctance.

  “Well, that sounds super awesome. When will I be leaving? Before or after I have managed to discover the true nature of my Talent? Because I don’t know about you, but I may be more of a liability than an asset if my Talent goes all sucky-drainy.”

  “Jedidiah has reassured me that you will be one with your Talent before we need you to go,” Marianne answered as she shuffled through some paperwork on her desk.

  “Oh?” My mind raced with thoughts of Jedidiah and his freaky ability to just know things.

  “I’m not sure if we can believe him,” McCredie added.

  “Yes, but you haven’t met him. He’s unexplainable.” Marianne answered.

  I tuned them out. If Jedidiah believed I would become one with my Talent, I had no reason not to believe him. Knots twisted in my gut as my Talent bounced with what felt like anticipation—like it knew we were on the precipice of discovery.

  “What do you think, Sadie?” McCredie asked.

  “That I need to get ready. Your spy was quick to get you the first set of intel; it shouldn’t be much longer till you get what
you need.”

  Chapter 31

  It was dark when I emerged from Marianne’s office. Kian’s impressive body was casually leaning against the wall in the shadows. If not for my secondary’s mental map signaling that he was nearby, I probably wouldn’t have seen him.

  “How was your meeting?” He whispered into my hair as I wrapped my arms around his waist, letting myself melt into his warm comfort.

  “Informative.”

  “When are we leaving?” Kian’s warm breath tickled my ear, sending shivers down my spine and igniting a familiar warmth.

  I pulled back for a moment, scanning his face for any obvious signs of guilt for eavesdropping, but found none. “Not sure, but I have a feeling it will be soon.”

  “Well then. Let’s get some rest. Tomorrow we all train with the Moreau family.”

  I pulled back from his chest and groaned. “Which division? I am not ready to face the alpha team again because they still give me and Luca dirty looks for kicking their collective asses when we first showed up.”

  Kian barked in laughter as he released my waist with one hand, leaving the other confidently planted on my lower back. The tips of his fingers dipped into the waist of my jeans as he led me back toward my room.

  “I’m pretty sure Luca is training the medics in some basic hand-to-hand. He wants you there to help.”

  “Okay.” I bit my lip, struggling with my intense need to ask him about Luca and hearing Marianne’s voice in my head telling me to stop being a nosy-nelly.

  “Just ask, Sadie,” Kian sighed.

  “What?” I asked with faux innocence as I bumped my hip against his.

  “About Luca.”

  “How did you know I was thinking about that?”

  “We worked it out, in case you wondered.” His lips twisted into a knowing grin. “Our friendship isn’t what it used to be, but there’s no bad blood between us,” he replied, ignoring my question. A wicked idea began to form, and I smiled to myself as I thought of the many ways I could tease Kian.

  “Oh yeah? You sure I was thinking about that when I could be thinking about other things?” My voice dipped and grew breathless as I drew to a stop in front of my door and pressed myself flush with Kian’s hard lines, pushing him against the doorframe of my room.

  “Careful,” he warned with a growl as desire flashed in his eyes. Careful was the furthest thing I wanted to be. Between the senseless loss of another person in my life, the raging chaos between norms and Caelians, and the increasingly intense desire I felt around the man I loved, I wanted to be lost in something beautiful, wild, and perfect. Knowing I could flip his switch with ease, even though my center burned with the same burning need, felt powerful.

  “I know you, Sadie. Your thoughts are not as well hidden as you hope.”

  Kian’s lips twisted into a smirk as he leaned forward, pressing his hard chest against my swollen breasts, adding to the already aching tension trapped between us. A soft moan escaped like a whispered prayer as Kian nuzzled the sensitive dip behind my ear, melting the bones in my legs and encasing me in his strong arms. For once, I welcomed being trapped. All thoughts glazed over as his finger pulled the neck of my shirt over so his lips could caress the curve of my collarbone. A fierce flare of yearning swelled as he kissed and suckled the slender column of my throat, slowly making his way back to my waiting lips. We crashed together, desperate for each other. His kiss promised escape and ultimate fulfillment.

  Low, sultry, incoherent mews escaped my lips as he pulled away to open the door.

  “We don’t want a repeat of last time,” his husky voice tingled my already taut nerves. Kian’s mauve gaze flared with desire as he pursued me. I walked backwards, my stomach fluttering between nerves and boiling heat, until my knees hit the edge of my bed and I sat without thought. My mouth dried as Kian pulled his shirt over his head, exposing his broad, chiseled chest. As he placed a knee on the bed, I scooted back toward the middle, watching as he crawled toward me. His muscles danced as he pursued me like a lion would his prey.

  Kian was handsome. Hypnotic. Powerful. When he finally loomed over me, eyes seeking all my secrets and his sinewy arms holding me captive, I became breathtakingly aware that this wasn’t normal teasing. We were both running headlong into engulfing passion. A frenzied race to satisfaction that I was more than willing to enter.

  Peace heightened the vortex of heady sensations and clarified my thoughts enough to know what I truly wanted. I pushed onto my elbows and traced my nose from his shoulder to the dip in his neck, where I placed a few suckling kisses before moving upward. I took his ear into my mouth. My tongue dipped and swirled as Kian’s steely muscles grew taut, urging me on. Kian’s moan reverberated through my body, and I placed a gentle kiss behind his ear before whispering with a voice not entirely steady, “I’m ready.”

  Light brightened the darkness behind my eyes, pulling me from a deep and satisfying sleep. I moved to stretch out my sore muscles, but an arm tightened around my waist, pulling me closer to Kian’s warm body, which molded intimately against my back. The feel of him next to me without the barrier of clothing brought a flood of memories of our night shared in the void of passion.

  A soft, feathery kiss on my shoulder broke my reverie. “Good morning, beautiful,” Kian’s gruff voice whispered.

  “Good morning, handsome,” I replied as I rolled to face him. “And how was your night?”

  “The greatest night of my life,” he replied with an earnest voice and eyes that reflected his love. “What about you?”

  “Um…” I teased. Kian rolled me under him, enclosing my head between his elbows. The corded muscles in his arms bulged from the stress of holding up his weight.

  “You were saying?” Kian growled.

  “Last night exhausted me. I’m having trouble remembering.” I plucked a kiss from his plump lips. “Maybe you should jog my memory.”

  Kian dipped down with a blazing heat in his eyes, igniting my entire body. His hot breath against my ear seemed to be felt everywhere at once.

  “Later,” he whispered before rolling off of me with a laugh and taking his warmth with him.

  I groaned as I tried to sit up with zero help from my boneless limbs.

  “We have exactly 30 minutes to eat and get to the training room before Luca sends Rebecca after you and about 10 minutes before Francis walks in.”

  “Oh crap.” I jumped out of bed, stumbling a little as I rushed toward the bathroom. One quick shower and shared power bar later, Kian and I were rushing toward the training room with mere minutes to spare and Francis none the wiser of our late night antics.

  Angry voices grew as we approached the room. Standing just outside the door, I listened to Lacy and a familiar voice scream at each other. My mental map confirmed my suspicions.

  “Seems like the party started without us,” I stated as I rolled my shoulders and bounced back and forth on my feet. “Let’s get this over with.”

  “Wait,” a soft, deep voice demanded. I turned to see Jedidiah standing on the other end of the hallway. Was he there before? He closed the wide gap between us in two steps. “I will accompany you today.”

  “Okay.” Nerves danced in my stomach, giving rise to nausea.

  Jedidiah’s nostrils flared as he took in a deep breath. “It is a good day for discovery. Is it not?”

  I glanced at Kian who looked as confused as I did. “Yes?” My voice came out high pitched. Jedidiah placed a hand on my shoulder and smiled, his molten eyes swirling. The overwhelming feeling that he saw into my soul rose, tightening my throat with nerves.

  “Why are you here for a simple training session, Jed?” I squeaked.

  “To witness.”

  Witness? Then clarity fell upon me hard and fast like a load of bricks. The last time I had seen Jedidiah he had told me that the next time we met, I would know my Talent.

  The air whooshed out of my lungs as a peculiar mixture of nerves and excitement churned in my middle. Taking in sips of the
cool morning air to slow my racing heart, I adjusted my still damp hair and rolled my shoulders back, adding another inch to my height. Thoughts of Michael, John, and Mrs. LaMotte swirled inside my mind, but instead of crippling grief or uncontainable rage, a focused peace blossomed, causing me to calm and concentrate on the task ahead.

  Come what may, I was more than ready.

  Chapter 32

  We stepped inside to barely controlled chaos. Two groups, one on each side of the room, yelled at each other, with Lacy and Eric, the douchebag medic, in the middle.

  “It’s bullshit and you know it!” Eric screamed at Lacy, spittle flying from his mouth.

  Luca stepped up from behind Lacy and tried push the two apart. Lacy wasn’t having it. She pressed forward, forcing Luca to remove his hand from her shoulder as it began to slip downward.

  “No. It’s necessary, and if you would get over yourself for one minute, you would see that this will help you,” Lacy growled through clenched teeth.

  “What’s happening, guys?” As I announced myself to the room, every pair of eyes locked on to me. A part of me wanted to shrivel from the attention, but instead I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms. I felt the warm strength of Kian behind me, as well as the empty space I’d come to recognize as Jedidiah.

  “Awesome. The princess has arrived. Now we can get this farce of a training session truly started.” Eric crossed his arms too. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to be intimidating or mocking, but the gesture wasn’t appreciated.

  “Lacy?” I turned to my friend as I took a few more steps into the room. The tension made it feel as if I waded through gelatin, and the narrowed eyes from a few of the Moreau family medics made me pause. What the hell did I do to these people?

  “Eric and a few of his colleagues have an issue with accepting training from our people.”

  “We’re the same people,” I replied with as much sincerity as I could. Those who backed Eric’s point of view muttered and their body language grew a little more hostile. A large, reassuring hand rested on my shoulder. I turned to look at Jedidiah who gave me a subtle nod and a crooked smile of encouragement.