by Abby Blake
“Please,” she said on another breathy gasp.
For a moment both men stilled, almost like they were conferring silently, and then suddenly everything happened at once. Thomas let go of her arms, trapping her hands between his stomach and her back, and then lifted her up by the thighs, his strong grip pushing her legs open wide, his hard cock pressed against her buttocks.
Adam forced another finger into her pussy, stretching her wider, finger-fucking her faster, sucking her clit at the same time, his lips and tongue driving her wild, overwhelming her senses, pushing her need higher and higher and higher.
“Come for us,” Thomas growled in her ear.
The room spun wildly, her dreamscape losing cohesion as every nerve ending sang with climax. Jennifer shook hard, her orgasm going on and on and on, filling her senses, rolling over her again and again as completion slithered through her veins and exhaustion finally claimed her.
Adam rose to stand in front of her, pressed a soft kiss to her lips, and then helped her to stand on her unsteady legs. Thomas held her up, helping her to turn in his arms so he could cradle her close. Every inch of her was buzzing, the strange fizzing feeling of being finally where she belonged unable to override the desperate need for sleep.
She startled as the alarm buzzed in her ear, waking her from the warmth she’d felt holding her men in her dream. Angry at the world for interrupting the first happy moment she’d had since Adam and Thomas left town, she picked up the offensive technology and threw it against the wall. The clock smashed into tiny pieces, bits of plastic flying in every direction—a visual expression of the emotions she was feeling right now. Even though she’d known in the dream that she was dreaming, disappointment swelled through her heart. She pulled the pillow over her head, the tears overflowing, spilling onto the sheets as she cried for everything she couldn’t have.
Chapter Two
“We have a security breach. Three hours ago Hannah Long was killed by a pixie assassin. I’ve had reports of two more pixie attacks on houses that were supposedly safe. As of the end of this call I want everyone off the grid. Dump the technology, assume the safe houses are all compromised, and protect your charge. Report in to me—only me—at headquarters every forty-eight hours. Do not—repeat—do not advise your location to anyone. Avoid all contact with other paranormals, PUP squad members, and Deeks Security personnel.”
It had been three weeks since Thomas’s CO, Benjamin, had issued that order. Three long, lonely, and so far uneventful weeks since the simultaneous attacks on three safe houses—including the one where they’d been protecting Kristen.
Thomas and Adam had been suspicious of their mission partners for all of five minutes. It had been very obvious that Angus and Dyson had no intention of harming Kristen almost from the moment they’d plucked her from her car and taken her into protective custody.
It had taken Angus and Dyson a little longer to drop their suspicions of each other and their werewolf teammates, but in the end they’d fallen back on their years working side by side. After fifty years together Thomas, Adam, and Dyson knew each member of their squad very well. They’d relied on each other in life-and-death situations. It seemed inconceivable that one of the ten permanent members of PUP Squad Alpha could be involved in a security leak. So they’d gone on instinct and chosen to trust each other.
Trusting Angus had been a little harder—they’d worked with the Deeks Security employee on and off over the last decade or so—but it had been obvious almost from the start that the ice demon truly cared for Kristen.
They’d taken turns reporting in to Benjamin every second day, but so far nobody had been able to identify the traitor. The worst part was waiting for those forty-eight hours to roll around. PUP Squad Alpha could literally catch the traitor five minutes after Thomas, Adam, Angus, and Dyson reported in, but it would be a whole forty-eight hours later before they knew what was happening. Working blind was something Thomas had never been comfortable with. He liked modern technology. He enjoyed the near-instant relay of information. He hated going back to the limited communication of a world before cell phones.
But it was what they’d been ordered to do, so just like the way he coped with modern transport, he ground his teeth and reminded himself it was a necessary part of his mission.
“Hey,” Adam mumbled in greeting as he headed for the coffeepot. They’d been sharing six-hour shifts between four of them, but since Dyson and Angus had insisted on staying close enough to Kristen to drag her through a slip path if an enemy attacked, it left Adam and Thomas patrolling the outside of their hideouts. It was usually something they both enjoyed, but they’d chosen to stay in a number of different tourist accommodations filled with innocent humans, so wandering around outside in furry form wasn’t an option.
A few moments later Kristen came into the room with Angus close behind her. Thomas almost laughed at the annoyance on Dyson’s face. The only relief to the boredom of this assignment had been the interplay between the two demons and the woman they were protecting. Kristen seemed a genuinely nice person, perhaps bewildered by the attentions of a fire demon and an ice demon, but she seemed to have things under control. Considering she was literally dealing with the demonic version of opposites, she was coping quite well.
“Good morning,” she said with a bright smile. “Give me a few minutes to grab a coffee and I’ll get breakfast started.”
“I’ve already told you, Kristen, that you don’t have to cook. These slobs can take care of themselves.” Dyson’s words were filled with annoyance. Thomas managed to hide his smirk as Dyson crossed his arms over his broad chest as if that somehow ended the conversation. Fortunately, Kristen wasn’t intimidated in the slightest. That worked well for Thomas and Adam because Kristen was one hell of a cook.
She gave Dyson a happy smile. “And I’ve told you,” she said in a far friendlier tone than Dyson had used, “that I enjoy cooking and am happy to do it.”
Angus grinned widely, managing to annoy Dyson even more. He looked like he might argue, but when Kristen held her ground, obviously ready for whatever complaint Dyson had next, he harrumphed and stayed quiet.
“Eggs Benedict it is,” she said with a cheerful voice as if Dyson had somehow made a choice. Thomas salivated at the thought. He’d never been the chauvinistic type, had never expected a woman to cook for him, but with the mating dream he’d experienced with Jennifer last night his mind was beginning to wander in a more domestic direction. Of course, he’d be willing to cook as well, if it was what Jennifer wanted, but since a bright happy future for the three of them was unlikely, he tried not to think about it too much.
He glanced at Adam. They’d been working side by side for fifty years, and he’d never mentioned retirement before last night’s dream. They were closer than most brothers, so Thomas found himself wondering why Adam hadn’t said anything to him. He’d always assumed that Adam enjoyed the job as much as he did.
“We should probably move on today,” Adam said as he took a seat at the table. They’d rented a self-contained apartment in a town not far from Jennifer’s home, which unfortunately explained the mating dream. The closer they got to her in a geographical sense, the more intense and frequent the dreams would become. Maybe it would have been better for all three of them if their work hadn’t brought them back close to her hometown.
But then they might never have learned how sad their mate was without them.
* * * *
Adam could see the disappointment written on Kristen’s face. Only yesterday she’d told him how much she preferred to have a kitchen that was so well appointed. He felt like a bit of an ass for suggesting they move on before it was technically necessary, but he longed to go to Jennifer, and he worried that he might do something stupid like abandon his mission and seek out his mate.
At least if they moved out of range of the mating dreams, he’d have a better chance at focusing. He had every intention of discussing their options as soon as this mission was over,
but for now it seemed safer for all involved if he didn’t have contact—dream or otherwise—with a woman he missed so desperately.
Kristen gave Adam a disappointed smile, but didn’t complain out loud.
“We should be all right here for a few more days,” Angus said with a puzzled frown. “And besides, I don’t think Thomas has quite recovered from the last road trip.”
Thomas raised a disdainful eyebrow, but refused to comment. It was well known among the PUP Squad Alpha members that Thomas hated to travel in modern transport. Anything that went faster than a horse left the werewolf looking a very sickly green color.
“It was just a thought,” Adam said, backing down. Kristen was safer here than on the road. Angus had rigged up a portable ward protection field so they weren’t going to get any attackers entering the rooms by slip, bounce, or vortex travel. It was their job to put Kristen’s safety first, and despite his own intense longing for his mate, he needed to do his job properly. He’d find a way to balance everything. He had to.
He’d never lost anyone on his watch, and he intended to keep things that way.
* * * *
“Wow, you look like shit.”
“Thanks,” Jennifer said with a wry grin. The receptionist, Andie, smiled widely, grabbed hers and Jennifer’s coffee cups, and headed into the kitchen. “So, did you, like, have a great night out or something?” she asked over her shoulder.
“No, just didn’t get much sleep.”
“Oh, like that, was it?” she asked, poking her head out of the kitchen and wiggling her eyebrows.
“Sadly, no,” Jennifer said with a quiet laugh.
There were days when Andie made Jennifer feel impossibly old, but at least she was a pleasant person to work with. Considering the last dour-faced receptionist they’d had, Andie was a breath of fresh air—a bouncy, enthusiastic, annoyingly cheerful, nineteen-year-old breath of fresh air—but still a definite improvement on the last receptionist.
Jennifer sat at her desk waiting for her computer to boot up and tried not to think of the nightmare she’d had last night. She’d had the recurring dream almost every night since it had actually happened nearly five months ago. Over time it had morphed into different variations. Some nights Skye died. Other nights it was Adam or Thomas. Occasionally it was all three.
She hadn’t been able to talk to anyone about it because officially none of it ever happened. Her sister had merely left town with the man of her dreams and was living a wonderful life. Jennifer couldn’t tell anyone that Skye was now a vampire or that she lived and worked with her two vampire husbands who just happened to be elite members of a Paranormal Undercover Protection squad. And Jennifer certainly couldn’t tell anyone she was pining away for a couple of werewolves who were at least three times her age and liable to outlive her by several hundred years.
Jennifer rubbed her eyes tiredly and tried not to think about last night’s change in her dream. It had almost felt like Adam and Thomas were really there—guiding her, protecting her, caring for her. The irony was that their unexpected inclusion as observers had disturbed her more than her usual gory nightmare.
She should probably have mentioned the nightmares to her sister, but Skye was so happy with her men that Jennifer was loath to disrupt it with her petty concerns. And besides, maybe last night was a turning point. Maybe it was her brain’s idea of a signal that she should move on from the nightmare and get back to living.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Andie asked as she put a steaming cup of coffee in front of Jennifer.
“I’m fine,” she replied, very much hoping it was true.
* * * *
Thomas glanced at the clock and wondered how to casually suggest that he could do a double shift. Jennifer would most likely be asleep by now, and the last thing he wanted was to join her in her dreams. Of course, it was also the first thing he wanted, but he didn’t think it would do his sanity any good. They needed to get this assignment wrapped up first.
“Kristen?” he asked as the woman came into the main space of the holiday apartment, “do you know who the traitor is?”
“The what?” she asked with a stunned expression on her face.
“I’m sorry,” he said quickly when Dyson looked angry enough to fry his ass. “It’s just that the other women the squad is protecting, the ones who share your birthday, all seem to have a skill they describe as ‘knowing’ stuff they have no memory of learning.”
Kristen shook her head, but pursed her lips a moment in thought. “How would they know stuff they haven’t been taught?”
“We’re not sure,” Dyson said, sending a glare in Thomas’s direction that suggested he was very close to being flambéed, “but we suspect it’s something the Oracle passed on before she died. It’s not important now. Thomas shouldn’t have brought it up.”
Kristen gave Thomas a hard stare before turning her attention to Dyson. “Thomas wouldn’t have brought it up if it wasn’t important. Do all of the others have this skill?”
It was obvious that Dyson didn’t want to answer that question, but after a moment of uncharacteristic indecision he finally nodded.
“Do they have any other skills?” Kristen asked, her gaze bouncing between the two men.
“Yes,” Thomas eventually replied. He really hoped Dyson held on to his temper for just a little bit longer. “Kali and Ava are telekinetic. I believe Hannah was, too.”
“Hannah was?” Kristen asked, sounding frightened. This time Dyson really did lose his temper. Fortunately he kept his reaction “human” and only punched Thomas in the nose. Strangely, Thomas saw the hit coming but didn’t bother to get out of the way. Dyson almost looked surprised when his knuckles connected with Thomas’s face, but of course that split second gave Thomas a chance to hit back. It felt surprisingly good to be able to work off some of the endless tension they’d all been feeling. If he’d been fighting another shifter, he would have changed into his wolf and really gone at it, but he at least stayed focused enough not to do something like that in front of Kristen.
“Enough already,” Angus said as he broke them apart. “You’re scaring Kristen.” He turned to the woman who looked more concerned than scared. “Sorry, sweetheart, it’s been a long few weeks. Obviously these knuckleheads need a break.” He turned his attention to Thomas. “Or they need to cool down.”
Thomas nodded, slowly raising his hands in a human show of surrender. He’d only been on the receiving end of one of Angus’s ice blasts before. It had not been a pleasant experience.
“We’ve got this,” Dyson said in a clear indication that they were dismissed. Technically Thomas was the senior agent in this group of four, but Adam simply nodded in agreement and indicated for Thomas to follow him out the door.
“You know what will happen once we fall asleep,” Thomas said with a growl in his voice. “Just this morning you were the one suggesting we move on.”
“I know,” Adam said, looking far calmer than he should have. “But I’ve been giving it some thought. I want to know her better. A part of me wants to run to her doorstep and claim her right now, but we can’t. We have a mission to complete. At least by being close enough to have the mating dreams, we can spend some time with her.”
“She won’t know it’s us. She’ll just think she’s dreaming.”
“Probably,” Adam said with a shrug. He stopped at the door to his room. “The way I see it we can either lose sleep trying to avoid Jennifer and put our mission to protect Kristen in jeopardy, or we can spend the time getting to know our mate and still get a good night’s sleep at the same time.” He shook his head, a half smile on his lips. “Whatever you decide, you know where I’ll be.”
* * * *
Jennifer stayed up longer than usual just to prove to herself that she knew that her dreams weren’t real. But when she could no longer keep her eyes open, she reluctantly dragged herself off the sofa and fell into bed. With a bit of luck she’d be so tired that the dreams wouldn’t come at all
.
She curled under the covers, dragging her knees up, rolling herself into a defensive little ball. She literally hadn’t been this frightened of going to sleep since the nightmares had first started. But every inch of her body began to ache, and she tried to relax, tried to unclench all of her muscles, tried to take a deep breath and convince herself that dreams couldn’t hurt her.
Slowly, exhaustion wound through her once more and she fell into a restless doze, tossing and turning several times before finally slipping into deep REM sleep.
They were there almost immediately, their warm hands and reassuring hugs making her wonder why she denied herself this comfort in the first place.
“We were beginning to worry,” Adam said before pressing his lips to hers.
“Sorry,” she whispered, not entirely sure why she was apologizing to a figment of her imagination, but then Thomas snagged her wrist and dragged her into his embrace.
“Did you have a good day?” he asked in between soft kisses.
“Same old, same old,” she said candidly. At least by knowing she was imagining all of this she could be completely honest. A part of her even wondered if it was her mind giving her an outlet for her frustrations. Locked inside the safety of her own imaginary world, she had a chance to sort through stuff that she couldn’t say out loud. Maybe dreaming about the two men who made her feel safe was a healthy way of learning to cope with everything else.
Hell, considering that they were already here, it was worth a try.
“I used to be happy here. My job can be repetitive, but it’s necessary to keep the resort afloat and it keeps me really busy. By the end of the day I used to feel like I’d achieved something. Juggling priorities, paying bills, keeping things flowing—it all used to mean something.”
“But it doesn’t anymore?” Adam asked, touching her face with the back of his knuckles.