by Mikayla Lane
“What are you thinking Grai?” Jax asked, knowing something was up with the man; he wasn’t usually this emotional about a mission.
Grai nodded to the back of the truck and waited until Jax and Reven got in before sitting beside Jax. As the truck lumbered down the trail back to the road, Grai looked up at the both of them.
“I can’t explain it to you. The moment I saw that little one; I thought of Tristan. There is something about her that I can’t shake. I’m assuming that somehow she’s one of our own, but even if she isn’t… I want them found. I want them safe… and loved. As they should have been to begin with.” Grai said, confused over his own intense feelings.
Although he adored children, whether they were human or his own people, didn’t matter, but this one… this situation was bothering him much more than it normally would. And he didn’t know why.
Jax cleared her throat to try and clear her own thoughts on the matter before speaking. “I know what you mean. There is nothing normal about this retrieval. Cal, that’s his name for those of you who give a damn about the poor baby.” Jax said, giving a dark look to Reven before continuing.
“Cal said that there was another creature in the area that he had never seen before. From his description, it sounds like a squirrel, who also saw the girls. I’m going to head back to the barn and try to find the squirrel. He’ll know what direction they went and who with.”
When Reven snorted, Jax turned angry eyes on him. “You got a better idea big boy? Some brilliant way to find the direction they went? You want to waste resources scouring the cities and woods nearby?”
“Because the only thing we know is that eight hours ago those girls disappeared, and they could be anywhere right now. We need to know what direction they went and in what form of transportation, so we know how to allocate our damn resources. So suck it up, you ass, the squirrel is our best bet.” Jax said before storming off towards the transport that was still waiting for them.
“Damn that woman!” Reven muttered at her quickly retreating back. However, he couldn’t help but admire the sexy sway of her hips as her shorter legs took larger steps to get away from him.
Grai turned to Reven with a worried look. “I do not believe in interfering with mates. But, if I were you, I would consider learning to see what she does in the animals. If nothing else to understand her better, even if you aren’t fond of the creatures.”
Reven watched the man walk away before heading to the transport that was waiting for him. He knew Grai was right. He’d said the same damn thing to himself a hundred times or more. The problem was his emotions were so screwed up when he was near her that he would lose it.
The way she petted and comforted the cat was what he wanted from her. Her concern for the animals and the way she fought for them was what he had always thought mates should feel for one another. Instead, she fought against him as strongly as she fought for the animals she adored.
Reven would find himself saying things that he didn’t mean out of jealousy and anger at the animals that got all the love and adoration of the woman he wanted more than life. He knew it was spiteful, but he had a hard time realizing it when his mouth was already in motion.
Reven stepped into the small transport and sat across from Jax; who refused to even glance at him when he entered the ship. Sighing heavily, Reven resigned himself to a cold and silent trip back to the barn. To talk to a damn squirrel.
A small creature that even most humans called a nuisance rodent, he thought. The damn rodent would be cradled in her soft, delicate hands and showered with love and affection, the kind he craved of her.
To top it off, Reven thought angrily, she would probably do like she had done many times before, and she would invite it into her home to share her life with it. He knew all too well of her collection of strays that stayed in and around her home in Dillon.
His encounters with them had never been good. He’d been pecked, bitten, stung, struck and mowed down by more than one of her friends; and that was just trying to knock on her door.
It was much worse if she was angry at him, like she was now he thought with a worried frown. He had to suppress the shudder at the memories of the last time she’d been this angry at him.
He’d gone to town to unwind after their last mission together and hadn’t even been thinking about how they had argued and sniped at one another the whole time. Until the first bird, dive bombed him as he got out of his car.
He bypassed the restaurant where he had intended to get dinner, alone, when the swarm of bees stinging him threatened to go in with him. Before he could get back to his car, a Sibiox ran into him knocking him onto the sidewalk and his ass.
Luckily, that had the added benefit of crushing some of the bees that were swarming him, really making the others angry. He was stung a couple of dozen times before he was able to lock himself in his car.
It took him an hour to make the ten-minute drive back home and another five to make it into the house from the driveway due to the animals confronting and attacking the SUV. He had learned the hard way just how many creatures existed in the surrounding area.
By morning, he’d had to call Amun to deal with the various bee, spider and animal bites and stings he sustained throughout the night that had him swelled up so bad he couldn’t get out of bed. The two of them were no longer assigned missions together after that. And people wondered why he was sick of her animals; Reven thought with a frown.
Jax tried to pretend Reven wasn’t there, but she couldn’t help but steal glances at him while he was occupied in his own thoughts. For a guy old enough to have invented fire, he was gorgeous; she thought with a scowl.
His dark-brown hair was lightly peppered with gray at his temples in that sexy way that only men could pull off and his bright blue eyes with green beast swirls were fringed with long, dark lashes most women would kill to have.
The rest of the sexy man looked like a damn mountain. Every inch of his body looked like it was carved out of stone, from his jaw to his calves. He was three hundred and forty pounds of solid muscle that she had drooled over in the training room more than once until she’d learned to avoid him better.
Which was pretty easy to do when he was six-foot nine, and she was only five-feet six. Jax or her friends could spot the damn giant easily while she slipped out of sight, she remembered with a grin at a few of their antics. It served the arrogant bastard right though.
Jax took a deep breath and went through the transport beam to the ground, ignoring the animal hating jerk behind her. She stopped in front of the barn and called through the Shengari’ for everyone to be quiet and still. The moment it was quiet she sent out a call for her friends to help her find the squirrel that had seen the children.
Chapter Two
Reven watched his beautiful mate as she raised her arms above her head and tilted her head back enough for her long, dark hair to spill down her back. Which of course led his eyes to her shapely rear that stretched the fabric of her tact pants enticingly.
He’d seen many different females of various species, including other human women, but none of their bodies had ever affected him as strongly as hers did. She had what David had called an hour-glass figure, but as far as he was concerned a better name would have been ‘perfect’.
Reven stood rooted to the spot, admiring her flawless; coffee colored skin and her large black eyes when a hawk flew out of the trees and dropped something into Jax’s open hands. He couldn’t stop the curiosity that caused him to move close enough to see what it was.
When he could look around her, he could see the poofy, grayish-brown tail twitching in her palms. The animal was sitting up and gesticulating wildly with its front paws while making a rapid chittering sound.
Reven may not be fond of her animals when they were turned on him, but he certainly was amazed by her ability. Although, he would never admit it to her. Hell, she’d only throw it up in his face; he thought sadly.
Reven fought the urge to grab the
creature and squeeze its tiny head like a grape as Jax cooed and cuddled the thing against her breasts. She was driving him crazy; he thought, turning to look anywhere but at the little beast being fawned over by his mate.
“We need to go west! What’s the next city heading west?” Jax asked her team as she headed towards the SUVs that had been rolled out of the transport. Their go bags and gear had already been loaded into the vehicles.
Reven ran to catch up to her before she tried to leave him there. He had no delusions that she wouldn’t if she had the chance. “It’s a city called Maverick. We’re getting the logistics now.”
Reven barely hauled himself into the backseat of the SUV before Jax started pulling out. Although he could have easily gotten into one of the other vehicles, he chose to put himself through the pleasure/pain of being near her. Reven had no doubt that he would regret it, but still held hope that they could repair their non-existent relationship.
“It’s a decent-sized city, only a few hours from here. Not much to see along the way, but if the girls were able to escape, we may be able to catch up to them.” Reven added, watching the information scroll across his comm.
“Toshan said the older girl stole a vehicle when she left. Send the transport ahead of us and make sure they aren’t wrecked along the side of the road.” Jax said, trying to avoid looking at Reven in the rear-view mirror. Damn if even the smell of the jerk didn’t tease her senses, Jax thought in irritation.
“I take it Toshan was the squirrel?” Reven asked, trying to disguise the frustration he felt.
“Yes, Toshan was the wonderful and incredible creature who was brave enough to allow a predatory bird to put him in its talons in order to tell us where the children went.” Jax said with barely concealed anger over Reven’s attitude.
“I agree; it was a brave thing for the creature to do.” Reven said with no sarcasm, admitting the little rat had shown courage.
Jax looked into the rearview mirror, expecting to see some kind of smirk or insincere grin on Reven’s face and was shocked when she saw him looking intently at his comm, his only expression concern.
“What is it?” Jax asked, wondering what information Reven was getting.
“It’s nothing. The transport says there is no crashed or abandoned vehicle on the route to Maverick. I may be wrong, but wouldn’t a vehicle be hard for such a young child to try to navigate?” Reven asked, looking directly into Jax’s eyes as she was caught staring at him in the rear-view mirror.
Jax quickly looked back at the road. “It would depend on the vehicle. Toshan said it was a small red car. If it was automatic instead of manual, it wouldn’t be that difficult to drive if she was tall enough to reach the pedals.”
“Still no missing children reports. Whoever was doing this made damn sure these kids would never be missed.” Decano added, the disgust clear in his voice.
“We’ll find them.” Jax whispered more to herself than anyone else.
The fierce protectiveness in her voice caused Reven to look at her curiously. There was something about this that was getting to his tough mate, and he was determined to figure out what it was.
In all the months that he had known Jax, she had never spoken of her past. The unspoken rule of the hybrids had always been that you didn’t ask where someone else had come from, or their circumstances, unless you wanted to share your own story first.
Needless to say, there was a lot about the lives of the hybrids that no one knew of and no one was willing to ask. No matter how much Reven had begged and pleaded with Banatar; he had refused to divulge what had led to Jax being found in an orphanage. However, there was something about these two little girls that was affecting Jax, and he was determined to find out what it was.
Three hours later, they had stopped at every rest area and gas station along the way and had seen no sign of the children. They agreed on a cheap roadside motel just outside of Maverick, and most of the teams waited in the SUVs while Jax and Reven went inside to secure their rooms.
Reven stood behind Jax while she explained to the clerk that they weren’t military, despite the uniforms, but only paintball enthusiasts who were looking to play in the surrounding mountains.
His irritation grew the longer the young man at the desk continued to openly admire his mate’s beautiful figure. The only thing that saved the kid from being punched in the face was the fact that Jax was becoming increasingly irritated with the man as well.
“Yes, I got it. Thanks.” Jax finally said, snatching the keys out of the man’s hand before storming to the door.
Once in the parking lot, Jax began throwing the keys up in the air, allowing her teams to catch them before they grabbed their stuff and headed to their rooms.
“Where is my key?” Reven asked Jax as she held only one key left in her hand. He didn’t dare to hope that she would share a room with him.
“You better catch someone to bunk with.” Jax said with a grin before grabbing her bag and following Bree to the room they would be sharing.
“Be in the parking lot in an hour in your civilian clothes. We’re hitting the city.” Jax said through the Shengari’ to their teams as she headed to her room on the ground floor.
Reven stood in the parking lot for a moment seething with frustration until Crator slapped him on the back. “Come my friend, I do not make a bad roommate.”
Reven grabbed his bag and followed Crator to their room causing Reven to grin broadly when he realized it was the room right next to Jax and Bree. Crator simply nodded towards Jax’s closed door and winked at Reven, who grinned in return.
Forty-five minutes later, Jax was heading out of her room with Bree to meet the rest of the teams in the parking lot. She hadn’t seen or heard from Reven since she’d gone to her room and was surprised that she didn’t see him in the parking lot.
Ignoring Reven’s absence, Jax pulled up a map of the city of Maverick and started assigning two-person teams to different areas to begin a grid search for the girls.
“We’ll meet here, at this twenty-four-hour diner, once your sector has been covered.” Jax paused for questions and when no one spoke up, she continued. “Let’s do it!”
Jax watched everyone loading into the SUVs, still not seeing Reven. When all but her SUV was heading out, she turned and walked smack into a mountain.
“Damn, I’m sorry!” Jax said, slowly looking up at the rock-hard body she had inadvertently walked into. The chiseled abdominals were clearly defined through the tight white T-shirt, and his bulging biceps were barely contained in the tight-fitting leather jacket that he wore over the T-shirt.
The way that irritating man filled out a pair of jeans was criminal, Jax thought as she stifled a sigh at Reven’s impressive legs encased in the black denim. He looked hot and dangerous at the same time, and it drove her crazy.
Reven made his inner lip bleed trying to keep the smile off his face when he saw Jax’s appreciative perusal of his body. He’d thought Crator insane when he loaned him one of his smaller T-shirts, but after seeing that sparkle in Jax’s eyes, he was damn sure going to buy all new shirts.
He walked away from Jax and held the driver’s door of the SUV open for her and almost kicked himself from pulling her out of her perusal. The surprised look on her face was immediately replaced with her normal look of irritation, and her relaxed stance turned into an angry stride towards him.
Reven sighed as Jax slammed the door shut again and looked down into her beautiful, but angry gaze. “I told you an hour for a reason. Kudos to you for actually showing up, but I still need that fifteen minutes.”
Without another word, Jax stormed off towards the woods behind the motel. Reven watched her angry stride and shook his head, figuring she was going off in the woods to commune with her damn creatures.
“You should be happy.” Reven was surprised when he heard Crator’s low voice near his ear.
He looked at Jax’s angry form retreating and snorted. “Yeah, I’m thrilled.” He said sarcastica
lly.
Crator laughed. “I guess you didn’t notice the smell of her desire then? Or feel the appreciation of your form in her energy?”
At Reven’s startled look, Crator continued. “If you plan on ever winning her, maybe you should pay more attention to what she doesn’t say than what she does. Her body doesn’t lie nearly as well as her mouth.”
Reven watched Crator walk to the SUV and get in as Jax came out of the woods. He turned in time to see several dozen birds take flight from the woods she’d just left and knew that she was sending scouts into the city ahead of them.
Thinking of what Crator said, Reven strode to the SUV and pulled the driver’s door back open. As much as he knew he would kick himself for it later, he puffed his muscles out a little and waited for Jax to get to the vehicle.