Braving Darkness: The Complete Series (Paranormal Scifi Romance)

by Scarlett Grove

  The pack took turns loading supplies into the elevator. Cassie’s stock of guns and ammunition was the last load. Just as she and Clark finished packing the elevator with gear, headlights broke through the blackness of the desert.

  She gripped the sword at her hip instinctively, but it was only Neil who hopped out of the familiar vehicle.

  “Where’s Rafe?” he asked, approaching Cassie with a distasteful look on his face. She knew he didn’t approve of their mating. A lump sank in her stomach every time she was reminded.

  “He’s down the shaft. This is the last load. Did you get the fuel?”

  “Yes. We did.” His words were short and biting.

  Cassie and Clark took the elevator down through the darkness. They had no light to guild their way, only the slow crank of the axle that suddenly came to a stop when they reached the bottom.

  In the distance, down a curved hallway, Cassie could make out a faint light through an arched door. They carted wheeled gun safes and boxes of ammunition down the narrow tunnel, toward the light. Laughter echoed through the chamber as they grew near.

  When she peered through the door, she could see the group in a low-ceilinged dining room that was open to a small kitchen space. She blinked under the fluorescent lights, already feeling claustrophobic.

  “Neil brought the fuel,” said Cassie as she carted a gun safe into the dining room. “Are we really staying here? Now that the Anu aren’t following us, we could go back…”

  “No. It isn’t safe. They know about our last location, and I doubt they would leave us alone,” Rafe said, turning to address her.

  She shrugged and deposited the guns in a corner. Several of the hunters got up to help unpack the rest of the weapons, and Rafe went to the top to meet Neil.

  Cassie helped Meredith and Steven cook a simple meal of pasta and home canned sauce. By the time the food was prepared, Rafe was back down in the bunker and disappeared into a back room with Neil.

  She helped serve the group and took her plate to sit with Selina and Clark at a table with Meredith. The food and water was very welcomed after such a long day in the heat. Rafe came back into the dining room and sat with Neil and a few other hunters while they discussed something quietly in the corner. After everyone was done eating, Rafe stood to make an announcement to the group.

  “We’ve found that the water filtration system is still working well. The solar panels and battery packs are going strong, obviously, or we wouldn’t have any light,” he said to a few laughs. “But we are low on food. Losing our friends on the road was a tragedy. We will have to scavenge and hunt the land. The hydroponic cultivation system cannot produce any sooner than three months from now. We brought our seeds, but we will have to wait. This is an inhospitable climate, which is a major reason I chose it. No one will come here. We will hunt at night. Every night. We cannot get lazy about it. Others will gather the native plants at dawn and dusk in human form. Cassie, you will be on gathering duty. All right everyone, now that we’re fed, I want you all to get a good night’s rest. Tomorrow night we start hunting, but we’ve had a long journey, so please relax and recuperate. We have two bottles of grain whiskey to share tonight, so help yourselves and remember to share.”

  Rafe put the whiskey on the table in front of him to the sound of laughter and approval from the pack. People lined up with their cups to get their share of the libation, but Cassie stayed back in her chair.

  “You don’t want to partake?” Rafe asked, leaning over her chair and speaking into her ear behind her.

  “Not right now.”

  “Come.”

  He put out his hand, and she took it. He led her down another hallway past an open bunkroom with rows of beds, past the restrooms and the greenhouse, to a private bedroom where he shut the door.

  No sooner had the door closed than his mouth was on her neck, his nostrils sucking in the scent of her body. She tingled with anticipation. Rafe took her hand and led her to a table where another bottle of whiskey sat with two shot glasses.

  He poured two shots and smiled at her as she sat in the folding chair across from him.

  “It’s good to be alpha,” he said, handing her a glass.

  She smiled and picked it up. He clinked his glass into the brim of hers and winked. She took a sip, and a warm, stinging flood ran down her throat and into her stomach, both alarming and relaxing her body at once. She sighed and leaned back.

  “How long do you think we’ll be here?” she asked. “This place sucks.”

  “I’m not sure. We can survive here indefinitely if need be. Everything is different now that you are with us.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you can see into The Program. You can get information from the fourth dimension. You can learn why the Anu are here and how to stop them.”

  “We should just blow them up.”

  “I like your enthusiasm, but it isn’t that simple. We need a strategic plan. We need to fully understand our enemy.”

  “How do we do that?” she asked, looking into her shot glass.

  “First, we will delve more deeply into The Program.”

  Cassie took another gulp of her whiskey, her throat now numb to the sting. It settled in her stomach like a lead weight. Going into The Program was always risky and strange. She still didn’t understand it, and she suspected Rafe didn’t either. Going there with Circe was the safest she’d ever felt, without the terminal or the drugs.

  Circe had powers Cassie did not. She didn’t know if she could learn them, but having the power to go inside The Program, to the higher dimension, would make her more effective in battling the Anu and Pyramid Corp. She would find a way to fight them, and win.

  Cassie drained her glass and slammed it down on the table with too much force. A clanking sound echoed through the room.

  “All done?” asked Rafe with a gleam in his eye.

  “You didn’t have to get me drunk to do me, you know.” She smirked.

  “That wasn’t the reason. You need to relax. Come.”

  He stood and took her hand, leading her to the queen-sized bed against the concrete wall. He sat down on the bed, and Cassie stood between his knees, looking down into his gleaming amber eyes. He brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and grinned up at her. She smiled back, letting a long breath slowly escape her lungs. He was right. She did need to relax.

  “Take off your clothes,” he said, watching her intently.

  An electric current ran up her legs and over her entire body, making her shiver. She gripped the hem of her shirt and brought it up over her head, revealing her plump breasts cupped in a plain white bra. After kicking off her boots, she unlatched her belt and unbuttoned her cargo pants to let them fall over her rounded hips to the ground. She stepped out of her pants and stood in front of Rafe in her underthings, her hair cascading around her shoulders.

  “Go open that door,” he said, smacking her ass and squeezing as she turned to look. She stuck her tongue out at him and continued to the door. On the other side, she found a bathroom with a tub full of bubbly, warm water. She gasped and immediately slipped out of her bra and panties to step into the luxurious water.

  It smelled of lilacs and loosened her tightly clenched muscles as she lay back against the warm, white porcelain. Rafe entered the room and watched her luxuriating under the bubbles. He pulled off his shirt and took out a bottle of sweet-smelling shampoo. His fingers kneaded her scalp and washed away the dust of the road. She sank under the water and rinsed the soap from her hair. When she emerged, bubbles clung to her skin.

  Rafe retrieved a washcloth from a shelf and dipped it into the tub. He ran it over her breasts and down between her legs, washing her. Soon the washcloth dropped away, and his fingers began working through her swollen folds. She still felt sore from last night, but his deft hands drew out her pleasure so quickly, the pain seemed only an afterthought. While one hand played with the firm mound between her legs, the other massaged her breasts and pinched at her nipples.<
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  Cassie thrust her head back, letting her legs fall open and arching her back to take in as much of him as possible. His mouth fell on hers, and his fingers sought her opening, pushing gently inside, to a gush of her desire.

  He pressed his expert fingers inside as their tongues lashed. Her body radiated need. She moaned under his mouth as the climax broke suddenly, throbbing under his fingers.

  He tore off the rest of his clothing and joined her in the bathtub. They sat facing each other, kissing and touching gently until Cassie withdrew and stood before him, bubbles clinging to her hourglass curves. Her body still throbbed with pleasure.

  “You need your hair washed too.”

  She took the bottle and massaged the shampoo into his hair as he grasped her ass and gazed up into her eyes. She rinsed his hair until the soap ran out.

  Cassie sat down in the water facing Rafe, smiling wickedly. She’d never had a man’s member in her hands, and she wanted to touch him the way he had touched her. She reached under the bubbles and found him, firm and solid, waiting for her.

  He sucked in a breath and moaned as she began to stroke him. She gripped his shaft and moved her hand gently up and down over his smooth skin. Rafe made a rumbling noise deep in his throat, and his eyes turned black and focused on her as his breathing accelerated.

  “Enough of this,” he growled. He stood swiftly from the water and scooped her in his arms, stepping out of the bathtub and depositing her wet body under the blankets of the bed.

  Before she knew what was happening, he was on top of her, growling in her ear and hard between her legs. With one sure thrust, he was inside her. A long moan welled up from deep within her and echoed over the concrete walls.

  Her nipples pricked as her swollen breasts pressed against his hard chest. His hips thrust sure and hard into her as he held his hand just over her hairline. He used his other hand to position her body, gripping her ass to allow his manhood to reach deeper.

  The alcohol she’d drunk made her languid and compliant, letting her body relax into his hardness. Sharp little moans peppered her breathing as his powerful body worked her softness. Flesh on flesh moved in a hot, passionate rhythm like stormy waves on the ocean.

  Cassie’s body burst open, and the waves of Rafe’s thrusts turned into the waves of her orgasm. But it did not subside after the initial shock; it continued to overflow, pouring out of her at Rafe’s insistent command.

  He flicked his tongue inside her mouth and squeezed her heavy breasts, keeping her arousal ever present before he accelerated his momentum, thrusting quick and hard into her core. She gasped and moaned at his increased hardness. He pounded into her, and she opened to him until his body erupted and flowed deep inside her.

  He tensed and then relaxed over her. They were both breathless when he rolled off of her and onto his back. As he caught his breath, he pulled her into him. She could smell the scent of his musk and inhaled him deeply, relaxing into his damp chest.

  He kissed the top of her head, and they lay there, sated, in each other’s embrace.

  Marked By The Alpha Wolf PART 2

  Cassie set out before dawn to gather the edible plants abundant in the desert. She preferred to go alone, but several werewolf hunters rode up in the elevator with her, the chains creaking and grinding.

  When she emerged from the darkness, the pale predawn glow illuminated the dusty world. The werewolves shifted quickly and pranced off into the desert. She watched the hunters scamper off with their playful detachment. They had little to worry about, other than the hunt. This was their pack, their family.

  The cool morning air was welcome by comparison to the intense heat of the daytime. She’d dressed in long sleeves to keep out the cold of the desert night. It amazed her how the same place could be both so hot and so cold within just a few hours.

  Standing near the elevator, she checked her guns, which were holstered under her arms, and the long knife she wore strapped to her hip. A bottle of water hung from her other hip, and a bandanna was folded through her belt loop. She was prepared to walk into the desert alone.

  Before coming to live in this hostile environment, before making her home among a pack of werewolves, before the war that destroyed civilization and most of the human race, she had lived in the mountains of Colorado. The desert was a foreign place to her, but she was coming to enjoy her mornings, gathering food in the wild on her own.

  She took a deep breath and set out into the desert. The tracks of the wolves told her she wanted to go in a different direction. The last thing she wanted was to get blamed for spooking one of the hunter’s kills.

  Cassie looked around and chose a direction. The sun rose pale and yellow on the eastern horizon. She could make out the smallest sliver of its glow beyond the mesas. The hunters had gone west, so she would go east toward the sun.

  She began walking, keeping her eyes peeled for the precious fruit that had become a good portion of the pack’s sustenance. Hunting had been scarce, but the saguaro cactus fruit was in full bloom. The wolves liked to hunt. Few of them were even willing to gather, even though the fruit was readily available and easy to harvest.

  She sighed, knowing that her singular effort may very well be what kept the pack fed today. Not that it would matter. She would still be an outsider, still be despised for mating with their alpha and taking the role of alpha female — a role she never wanted or asked for. If only her gathering would endear her to the pack and win them over, things might be different. But no matter how hard she tried, things remained the same.

  The flat desert stretched out before her, and she saw no signs of saguaros. Maybe she had made a mistake and gone in the wrong direction. The landscape to the east of the fallout shelter seemed to be dominated by shrubs and cane cactus. She’d learned a great deal about the native plants in the two weeks they’d been in their new shelter. The hackberry wouldn’t fruit until fall. She was out of luck with these green leafy shrubs.

  She picked her way through the brush, continuing east. She’d walked a long way from the fallout shelter, at least several miles. Her favorite harvesting ground was to the northwest, but she let the hunters have their space. The last thing she needed was their anger.

  Her long pole and bucket were becoming heavy as she hiked farther. She wondered if she should go back. The sun would rise soon, and she didn’t want to get caught outside in the heat. Going back empty handed would be even worse. Unlike the hunters, she had something to prove. She had to prove she was fit to be alpha female. She was obligated to provide, more than anyone else. That was how she felt anyway.

  She pushed herself on, ignoring the ache growing in her shoulders. She’d become hardened and strong since she left the dome, the place where she’d lived for the last five years while the rest of the human race died of radiation poisoning or had been mutated into the things of myth and nightmare. She’d been lucky, as many would claim. She’d remained fully human.

  Cassie sometimes wished she’d been mutated or killed off like everyone else. The dome was anything but safe. She’d believed she was safe for five years until her benefactors, the Pyramid Corporation, instated a “genetic rehabilitation program,” which basically came down to vampire aliens raping unconscious human virgins. If she had not seen the vivid images in her own mind, or seen the creatures and their disk-shaped spacecraft with her own eyes, she never would have believed it was true.

  The only option had been to escape. To run. To get away as fast as she could. She could never allow those monsters to impregnate her with their hybridized young. The thought made her shiver even as the sun’s rays warned the desert air.

  She crested a hillside and scanned the landscape below. The valley was crowded with a multitude of saguaro cacti in full bloom. Her heart leapt with excitement, and her body tingled. She’d enjoyed the outdoors before the war, but the girl she used to be never would have had such a visceral reaction to the sight of sticky desert fruit.

  She trotted down the hill with renewed energy
, her pole bobbing in her hand. She reached the first towering cactus and readied her bucket in her left hand as she hefted the pole with her right. Reaching up with the pole that had a sharp knife attached to the end, she hacked a bursting red fruit from the top of the cactus. It popped free and plummeted toward the earth.

  She was ready with her bucket, quickly reaching out to catch the falling fruit before it hit the ground and exploded in the dirt. She looked into her bucket at the perfect fruit, feeling a sense of satisfaction.

  Cassie continued hacking fruits from the tops of saguaros, walking farther and farther into the valley. Soon her bucket was fully laden and heavy. Once it couldn’t carry any more, she sat down and took a long drink of water from her bottle.

  This was one of the best harvests she’d ever had. The bucket was so full she wasn’t sure if she could carry it back to the fallout shelter on her own. Heat crept over the valley as the sun rose over the mesa behind her, eating up the last of the shadows.

  She stood, squinting. The air would soon grow intolerably hot. Days in this part of southern Arizona often reached 120 degrees. She looked down at her heavy bucket and up at the position of the sun. She’d taken too long and had been overly ambitious. Now she would pay for her mistake.

  Chapter 26

  Cassie grabbed her heavy bucket and pole and began the walk back to the shelter. She knew it was roughly due west. If she just kept the sun at her back, she would find the shelter. Luckily, the pack’s four SUVs were parked near the shelter’s entrance. Otherwise, it would be almost impossible to find. There were no landmarks to designate the shelter that was accessed through a hole in the ground.

  By the time she made it across the valley, her arm already ached from the effort of carrying the bucket. It was at least forty pounds, a ridiculous weight to carry with one hand while walking through rural desert alone. She set down the bucket and pole and sighed at her lack of foresight. Pulling her bandanna from her belt, she wiped her brow before tying it over her head.