by Amelia Jade
Things were so…intimate, with Kiefer. So relaxed and yet focused at the same time. She’d never felt quite so…open. Her hips moved faster, and he began to grind in time with her. That motion sent an extra bit of him inside of her and she gasped each time, feeling herself stretching to the breaking point.
He was so good.
One of his huge paws pressed on her stomach, slowly sliding up the soft creamy skin and across her sternum. He bypassed her breasts and it settled high up on her chest, his fingers slightly bent as if he wished to grab her and hold her.
But even as she focused on that, his other hand slid between her legs, and his thumb flicked out and over her clit as she rode him.
Her eyes went wide as she was stimulated in two different ways. It didn’t take long of riding him and his finger on her sensitive nub before Peyton came again. She felt herself convulse all over his cock, gripping it and tightening around it. Kiefer groaned in delight even as she bit down on her lip, trying not to let her cries penetrate the walls and into the hallway outside.
“That was unbelievable,” she gasped once words were once again available to her. Her body still shook slightly. She’d lost her rhythm, but Kiefer hadn’t. His hips continued to thrust away into her, lifting her slightly up and off the bed each time, such was his innate strength.
“I agree,” he said tightly, and she realized he was fighting to maintain control.
His eyes were fixated on her body at the moment, and without thinking she ran her hands up her legs, over her hips and dragged her fingertips along her sides before she grabbed her own breasts, playing with them in full view of his hungry eyes.
“Peyton,” he groaned, and she knew he was close. The visual must be doing him in.
That made her feel even sexier, and she ran her hands up through her hair and let it cascade down over her shoulders, in what she hoped was a sexy move.
The sudden swelling inside of her told her it worked.
“Can I?”
She shook her head. “No, not there.”
Rolling off of him onto her back, she pulled him between her legs, moaning loudly as he re-entered her.
“Here,” she stated, dragging one fingertip up her stomach and over her breasts. “That’s where I want it.”
Kiefer nodded, his face tightening as he once again neared the orgasm she’d denied him by rolling off just in time. His cock swelled once more, and she nodded.
“Come on, cum for me,” she all but begged.
That was all it took. Kiefer’s face bunched up and he groaned loudly. Pulling himself from her he wrapped a hand around his cock and stroked it rapidly.
Peyton barely had a second to look down before the first thick rope burst out, reaching up to her collarbone as it shot across her. She gasped at the sudden warmth, and then there was another, and another.
Kiefer covered her completely, and to her surprise she found she loved it. It turned her on, and she reached down and gently rubbed her own clit. Seconds later, while Kiefer was still shuddering through the last of his own orgasm she had yet another climax, based almost entirely on the feel of his hot seed drenching her body.
Lights exploded in her eyes and she felt them roll back up into her head, even as her back arched, presenting her covered body for him to see. She felt rivulets of it drip across her nipples and down her breasts, and that just drove her more insane.
Air refused to enter her lungs and she struggled to breathe for several long seconds, her body’s normal functions on hold as she was blasted with wave after wave of blissful pleasure.
“Oh,” she managed to say as her lungs began to work once again.
Kiefer was just looking down at her, his eyes more aroused than she’d seen him yet.
“What?” she asked with a happy grin.
“That was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” he replied.
“It felt pretty good too,” she said with a gentle laugh.
Something pressed between her legs.
“Already?” she asked in disbelief.
“I told you, that was fucking hot,” Kiefer growled, his voice so deep and primal that she couldn’t help but shiver at it.
Then he was inside of her once again, and she couldn’t do much else besides try and keep quiet.
It was going to be an interesting afternoon.
As her cries filled the room once more, Peyton forgot all about her earlier encounter, caught up completely in Kiefer and their lovemaking.
Chapter Seventeen
Kiefer
Much, much later that day, he pulled his shirt over his head and left her room.
Peyton was sleeping soundly in the bed, her naked body now firmly under the covers after he’d tucked her in. They had lain together several times over the course of a few hours, and they were both exhausted.
Unfortunately for him, only she was going to get to sleep and recover. He had to go report to Captain Korver, who he had a feeling was less than impressed with him. Or with the fact that he’d brought Peyton into Cloud Lake, and then let her go out all alone. It was apparent that Gabriel knew her condition.
Did everyone know but me?
It certainly seemed that way, but then again, Gabriel was a captain, and one of the best the Green Bearets had. As the current commander of the Cloud Lake detachment, it was probably in his best interest that he knew about the human without a memory rescued from Fenris.
The door to the office was open, and he didn’t even knock before Gabriel waved him in.
“Good timing,” the captain said. “We’re holding a meeting shortly. Big news.”
“Oh?”
Captain Korver waved him off. “I’ll go over it then, I don’t want to explain it all twice. Sorry for the tease.”
Kiefer shrugged, used to the need-to-know mentality of the Green Bearets, like all military organizations. It was nothing new to him, and he didn’t take any of it personally.
“So, let’s talk about the girl.”
“Her name is Peyton, sir,” he replied instinctively.
“Right, Peyton. Care to tell me what’s going on?”
Kiefer raised an eyebrow. “I think you know just as much, if not more than I do, sir.”
“What I don’t know,” Gabriel said in deceptively mild tones, “is why she was out and about in Cloud Lake, all alone? Could you explain that to me please, Lieutenant?”
“Sure. I escorted her to her room.”
He hesitated, then decided to leave the ultra-awkward kissing part out for now. It was highly unlikely that their earlier lovemaking had gone unheard by people, and the captain likely was aware of it by now. So no need to embarrass himself any further.
“Then I came down here to file those reports about Langdon, as we were doing when she burst back in here.” Kiefer shrugged. “I didn’t think she would go right back out into the town. We had just come from there. Besides, sir, I thought you had a spy attached to her. What happened to him?”
The words weren’t quite a challenge, but it was pretty close.
“He was on break, because I figured you two would have been out and about for longer,” Captain Korver said stiffly, not rising to the bait.
“Sounds like the best-laid plans went awry, and nobody is to blame,” Kiefer said. “Were none of the guards or people manning the front desk told that she wasn’t to be allowed out unescorted?”
“No,” Gabriel said with a grimace. “I declined to do that, to give her a sense of privacy.”
“Understood,” Kiefer said with a respectful incline of his head. He hadn’t expected that from Gabriel.
“But now I’m going to have to,” he said unhappily. “With what she told us earlier, she can’t be allowed to go anywhere alone, no matter what. Either you’re with her, or one of my men is.”
“Sir, we don’t have anything to fear from Peyton,” he protested.
“Lieutenant Hartmann. Are you seriously trying to tell me that we should blindly trust a woman with no memory, who was appro
ached by someone working for some shady group called the Institute? A group, by the way, who knew her name, and also wanted information to use against Cadia?”
Kiefer ground his teeth together. “Peyton is a good woman, and she shouldn’t be suspected. She doesn’t want anything to do with this. She just wants to recover her memories and live out her life without hurting anyone.”
Captain Korver snorted in disbelief. “I get that you have feelings for the woman, Kiefer. I truly do. But please, detach yourself from that and look at it objectively. She doesn’t remember. If her memories come back, she could remember everything, and then suddenly we could be in big trouble if she is out to get us.”
“How, sir?” Kiefer demanded. “She doesn’t know anything about us. Nothing that isn’t easily noticed. She hasn’t had access to any secret information at all.”
Gabriel just stared at him.
“Does she?” Kiefer asked.
“She’s had contact with Allix and the others,” the captain replied. “She knows all about them now.”
Oh. Well that changes a lot.
Allix Rose and the other mates of many of the Green Bearets were all human women who had been Turned. Their mates had bitten them, and they had become infected with shifter DNA. The process, if it didn’t claim a human’s life, resulted in them manifesting an animal within them, and becoming a shifter.
“Exactly.” Captain Korver looked unhappy. “She might not realize it now, but someone looking for information to use against us would notice that in a heartbeat. They’d turn the population on us in an instant, regardless of what Allix or any of the others said.”
Kiefer didn’t argue. He knew Gabriel was right. The humans wouldn’t realize that those women had been Turned to save their lives. That if their mates hadn’t done what they’d done, the women would be dead. In most cases. He’d heard that Colonel Richter’s mate Mia had requested he turn her, so that they could stay together, but he had not been provided all of the details. Still, the general human population would be up in arms about the “evil shifters claiming their women.”
It was a disaster waiting to happen, and one they had so far managed to cover up. But he was sure it would only be a matter of time.
“Okay,” he acquiesced. “I still maintain she’s not a threat, but I can see how if this group got a hold of her, regardless of how she feels, it would be bad. I will stay with her as often as I can. I’ll turn over the company to my XO, actually, and I’ll stay with Peyton.”
“I approve. Your company is in good shape; they don’t need you breathing down their necks all the time during their deployment here.”
The pair nodded in agreement on the plan.
“Okay, let’s go see the others. Time to show you the other little bit of news.”
Kiefer followed the captain from the room, wondering what in the hell they’d found that he was being so mysterious about. It had to be something decent, or he’d have just told Kiefer all about it.
They moved from his office into the conference room at the end of the hall. There were several shifters already there, though Kiefer recognized few of them. Most of the command team he knew personally were currently back at Base Camp. Besides Captain Korver, the only other man he recognized was Ethan Manning.
He exchanged nods with the other man, and then took a seat. There were several other lieutenants clustered together, and he took a seat with them, muttering quick greetings.
Should get to know these men. If I’m going to be here training for a month, I’ll be seeing a lot more of them.
“Okay, listen up, and listen up good,” the captain said without preamble. “Shit is about to hit the fan.”
Kiefer’s spine straightened. What?
“Long story short, one of our long-range scouting teams stumbled upon what appears to be a hidden camp north of here. We estimate it contains all, or at least the vast majority, of the missing Fenrisian Wards that escaped the cordon several weeks back.”
All around the room there was the sound of people inhaling sharply. They had hoped to find the unaccounted-for enemies, the only surviving group from Fenris who might actually pose a problem to them. But none of them, not even the cagiest among the Green Bearets, had thought to look so close!
“So what do we do now?” one of the other lieutenants asked. “Do we saddle up and go hit them, sir?”
There were growls all around the table, sounds of approval that needed no words to convey their meaning to anyone who was listening. Kiefer almost found himself alongside them, though he didn’t actually crave battle. Men would die if they took on a force that powerful, no matter how well orchestrated the attack plan was.
“Whereabouts are they exactly, sir?” he asked, speaking loud enough to be heard over the animalistic noises.
Gabriel walked over to the huge map of Cadia and the surrounding area attached to the far wall. “Right about here,” he said, locating the area on the black-and-white map.
Kiefer frowned.
“We don’t have enough men to take them on by ourselves,” Gabriel began.
“Sir,” Kiefer interrupted.
“Yes, Lieutenant?” Captain Korver said, stressing the rank, letting him know he didn’t appreciate being interrupted.
“I, ah, hate to spoil the party, sir. But we can’t go after them. Not there at least.”
“Why the hell not?” one of the other shifters in the room snapped. “It’s the last remnants of Fenris. We can be rid of them, and then go home and relax.”
“Because they’re on human land,” he said bluntly.
“So?” the other shifter said, laughing. “We’re on human land right now.” Several other shifters nodded in agreement.
“True,” Kiefer said, and he saw Gabriel’s eyes narrow as he glanced back at the map once again. “But I’ve studied the area around Cloud Lake, and not just via this map or the topographical ones that were laminated and distributed. I researched it on a human map.”
“So?” came the response.
“They’re currently camped out on land owned by the government. The federal government,” he repeated, putting emphasis on which section of the human government it was. “Cloud Lake wanted us on their land, because we drove Fenris out. This though, this is a trap.”
“A trap?” Captain Korver said, in a tone that indicated he saw where Kiefer was going, but wished him to continue, as he’d pointed it out first.
“Yes, sir,” Kiefer said with a thankful nod. “Think about it, people,” he said, his eyes swinging over the room. “If we go there and fight them on their own land, kill people taking shelter on their land, the humans will have every excuse needed to come after us. They’ll do to Cadia what they did to Fenris. That’s what they want us to do. They presented us this big, juicy target, and are hoping that our desire to end the war will overrule our common sense. That we won’t even notice what’s going on.”
There was silence in the room as he spoke.
“You figured that all out in that short a period of time?” Gabriel asked as the rest of the room looked at him.
“Uh, yes sir?” Kiefer said, looking around. “Isn’t it obvious?”
He smiled. “Perhaps, Lieutenant, perhaps.” The captain turned his attention to the rest of the room. “Lieutenant Hartmann is right.”
There were groans of disappointment and growls of disgust. Kiefer made sure not to look around. He was well aware that he was the new man in town, and that a sentiment such as the one he’d just put forth would not necessarily be well received. It was understandable, and just because he was aware of it didn’t mean that he liked it.
Kiefer wanted to be out there as well, ending the threat to his homeland just as bad as the others did. Perhaps it was because he’d not spent much time on the front lines in comparison to some of the assembled men, but he just didn’t share the same bloodlust that they did. Kiefer knew he would find a peaceful solution perfectly acceptable. It wasn’t that he was afraid to do battle, but if he could
find a way to end things without further deaths on his hands, then he would do everything he could to find it.
“That being said,” Captain Korver continued, his voice hardening. “I will be trying my best to find a way to end this war. We aren’t going to jeopardize Cadia to do it, but if they present us an opportunity to hit them, trust me, we will.”
Kiefer nodded along, even though his own bloodlust was definitely below that of the others.
“Okay, go let your men know what’s going on. Patrols will be doubled, and I want everyone to be extra vigilant. They’re close by, and there isn’t much stopping them from hitting us at leisure. Eyes open, everyone.”
Gabriel clapped his hands in dismissal, then turned to Kiefer as the others began filing out. “Lieutenant Hartmann, please see to the matter we discussed earlier at your earliest convenience.”
Translation: I need to go find Peyton and stick myself to her side and don’t go anywhere.
Not that that should be too hard. Peyton had seemed rather riled up and unnerved by her earlier encounter. That, combined with their lovemaking, should hopefully leave her docile for the rest of the day. Tomorrow he could approach her and they could discuss their next steps.
For now though, all he needed to do was keep her in the motel. Thankfully he knew that would be easy.
Chapter Eighteen
Kiefer
“YOU WANT TO DO WHAT?” he yelled, his voice bouncing off the walls.
Peyton crossed her arms and glared daggers at him.
“I didn’t stutter,” she said forcefully.
Kiefer barely managed to restrain himself from throwing his fist through the wall. He did, but it was rather uncertain for a moment.
“No, but it sounded like you said you wanted to go back out into Cloud City and try to make contact with this Institute again,” he growled, his voice low and filled with anger.
“That’s exactly what I said,” she replied haughtily.
Kiefer’s fist went through the wall.
Peyton barely jumped as she looked to her left at the fist-sized hole he left as his hand withdrew, chunks of drywall falling to the ground as he knocked them loose.