“Your excuses are weak, Storm,” Grant said. “It’s not a bad idea. It’s a fabulous idea. We’re perfect together, and you know it. Yeah, we both have fiery personalities. So what? We’ll burn twice as hot together.”
“We’re in the middle a war,” Storm said, trying to look stern. “We have bigger things to worry about then…then…mating. Or love.”
Grant smiled and leaned back for a moment. “On the contrary, Storm. What better time to love than in the middle of a war? Times like this are a good reminder that tomorrow isn’t guaranteed to any of us. We have to live while we can. We have to love while we can. And, I’ll tell you one thing, I wouldn’t be surprised if destiny had little bit of a hand in that strange storm that stranded us out here together.”
Storm snorted and rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on, Grant. There’s not some magical destiny fairy whipping up random storms just to get us alone together.”
“I’m not so sure,” Grant said, his expression once again growing intense. Storm felt herself catching her breath at the desire etched into his face.
“Grant… come on. Don’t be ridiculous,” she said. He didn’t reply. Instead, he just looked at her, his eyes a blazing, burning yellow. The only sound in the hover was the rain beating against the windshield, and Storm’s breathing as she rapidly inhaled and exhaled, trying to calm her racing heart.
Slowly, deliberately, Grant leaned in toward her again. Just as a huge crack of thunder sounded across the dark gray sky, his lips met hers. This time, she didn’t resist. She let him reach his hands up to the back of her head, tugging at her hair until it fell loose from the tight, sensible bun she had pulled it into.
The heat in Storm’s body felt overwhelming. She was filled with a passion unlike anything she had ever experienced before.
“Grant,” she said, unsure of what else to say to him. All she said was his name, but that one word held so much meaning and emotion when she spoke it. He intensified his kiss, his hands running through her hair and his body leaning over to press against hers. A flash of lightning briefly lit up his face, followed moments later by another huge crack of thunder.
Storm could feel herself tumbling over the edge. She had wanted this for so long, but had put so much energy into resisting it. There was such sweet relief in finally giving in, and she was suddenly overcome by a sense of urgency.
She reached her hands down for the hem of his t-shirt, then pulled it up and over his head, throwing it back into the backseat. Grant grunted in approval, and reached to do the same to Storm’s shirt. He unbuckled his safety belt, then reached over and unbuckled Storm’s belt, giving them both a little more freedom of movement.
The thermometer on the dashboard indicated that the temperatures outside were falling rapidly as the storm continued to roll through, but inside the hover the heat was causing the windows to fog up. Storm let her eyes travel down to Grant’s bare chest, admiring his sculpted muscles and broad shoulders. He let out a low growl, sending a thrill through Storm’s body. Then he reached behind her and unclasped her bra, pulling it off of her body to leave her alert nipples exposed to the air. After another low growl, Grant pulled Storm into his lap.
As her legs straddled his hips, she got her first taste of what was to come. Even through their jeans, she could feel his erection, rock-solid and huge. She moaned at the realization of what she was about to experience, and then gasped as he suddenly closed his teeth over one of her nipples.
Grant was a gentleman, but he was still all alpha. And his dominant, alpha tendencies showed in the rough, commanding way he handled Storm’s breasts. His teeth came down hard on her left nipple, while he used his thumb and forefinger to twist her right nipple. The pain was intense and yet somehow left her begging for more. She screamed out his name, and he responded by biting and twisting harder, and thrusting his groin against hers.
Storm could feel a fresh flow of liquid desire oozing from between her legs. She was quickly losing her mind, forgetting where she was or what was going on outside. All she could think about right now was getting Grant’s erection out of his pants and into her. She reached down for the button on his jeans, fumbling with it as he moved his teeth from her nipples to her neck and bit down hard, leaving his mark.
“Mine,” he said, breathing out the word with a husky intensity that sent fresh shudders of passion down Storm’s spine. Then he reached for the button on her jeans, unbuttoning and unzipping, twisting and maneuvering until he somehow managed in the tight space to get her pants and underwear off. His job was made a little easier by the fact that somewhere in the course of their flight, Storm had kicked her shoes off to be more comfortable.
It was Storm’s turn to growl. Now, the only thing between her and Grant’s glorious erection was his pesky jeans and underwear. He was still sitting as she straddled him, so the task ahead of her wasn’t easy. But Grant gladly shifted around to help her out as she reached down to push his pants and briefs down past his knees, leaving his long, thick dick standing proudly between his legs. Storm moaned, and didn’t resist as Grant used his strong hands to lift her ass a few inches off his legs, then repositioned her right in front of his erection.
A moment later, with a loud roar, he thrust into her. Storm’s eyes flew open with disbelief as their bodies connected. He was so big, so strong. The pressure that had been growing in her core intensified, and a hot, tingling sensation started spreading through her body. It only took a few moments for her to completely lose control and lose herself to the moment. She threw her head back and screamed out Grant’s name, letting the waves of her orgasm start to flow over her.
The intensity was almost too much to bear. She had never experienced such strong, unadulterated passion before. Spasm after spasm rocked her body, and a burning heat spread through her. Then, moments later, Grant roared again as well, and stiffened as he found his own release, shooting a hot stream of himself into her as he came. His bare skin was burning against hers, but the heat was the best kind of pain Storm had ever experienced.
She looked into his eyes as they both slowly came down from the high they had just been on, and she could see that he clearly felt the same deep sensation of loyalty and trust that she did. They had bonded. They were mates for life. It had all happened so quickly, and yet it felt so right. Storm knew deep within her that they had been building up to this moment for years, and she smiled happily as Grant tilted his head up and kissed her nose gently.
Then, just as suddenly as the rain outside had started, it stopped. The clouds melted away, and brilliant sunshine came streaming through the windshield of the hover, lighting up the raindrops that still clung to the pine trees surrounding them.
Storm smiled as the warm sunshine hit her back, and she reached down to squeeze Grant’s hand.
“Come on, Sexy,” she said. “Let’s get dressed and then go save your clan members.”
Chapter Twelve
Chicago was burning.
From a distance of fifty miles outside the city, you could still see the smoky haze in the distance. Because Grant and Storm had no way of contacting anyone from their stripped down hovercar, they couldn’t get any news. But it was clear from the smoke rising in the distance that things weren’t good.
Grant glanced over at Storm, who was staring out the front windshield with a grim look on her face. Even with a worried expression etched across her face, she looked beautiful.
“Hey,” he said, reaching over to give her thigh a reassuring pat. “It’s okay. We’re safe. We’re going to grab my clan members and get back to Michigan. No one will be able to find us there. Drew knows how to keep our location secret.”
Storm looked over at him and smiled sorrowfully. “I know,” she said. “It’s just really sad to see all the smoke coming from the city. It makes it all feel so real. I loved Chicago. I loved being a part of that city. I can’t believe this is actually happening.”
Grant said nothing, just gave Storm another reassuring pat. She was right. It wa
s hard to believe that all of this was happening. Chicago had seemed like such a wonderful land of friends and opportunity when Grant arrived there for law school. Now, it was spiraling into a place of paranoia and chaos. Grant wondered how his colleagues at the law firm were handling everything. No doubt, they were shocked by the sudden turn of events. He wondered if they suspected that he had escaped the city, or if they thought he had just been unlucky enough to be caught in the riots.
Grant glanced down at the navigation system on the hover. They were minutes away from the spot where they were supposed to pick up his clan members. He only hoped that the three bears he was picking up were still at the pickup location. Thanks to the crazy weather, Grant and Storm were several hours late.
Not that Grant was complaining. He still had to pinch himself to believe that Storm had actually agreed to sleep with him. But she had, and they were bonded. Bonded. He hadn’t intended to find a lifemate, ever. It had just kind of happened with Storm. He’d been dreaming of her for so long now, and they had actually turned out to be lifemates. Grant smiled. What a crazy day he’d had.
He hoped things didn’t get too much crazier, honestly. He and Storm had a lot to talk about now. He just wanted to pick up their friends and get back to Michigan. As he approached the designated pick-up spot, he was relieved to see three familiar faces staring up at him.
Calum, Hope, and Mia had been friends of his in childhood, but he hadn’t seen them in years. A wave of guilt and regret washed over Grant. Why had he been so stubborn, and refused to spend time with them ever since he moved to Chicago? He’d really been a bit of a jerk. It wasn’t their fault that the elders back home wanted Grant to come back to Alaska and take on alpha duties. As the hover landed on solid ground, Grant immediately hit the button to open the doors. He jumped out and pulled Calum into a big hug, slapping him on the back.
“Calum, buddy, good to see you. And Hope. And Mia,” Grant said, nodding at the girls, whose faces looked about as grim as Storm’s did right now.
“Thanks for coming to get us,” Calum said, tilting his head in a deferential nod to Grant, the way he would to an alpha.
“Don’t mention it,” Grant said. “I shouldn’t have left without you in the first place. But there will be plenty of time for apologies later. Right now, we need to get going. You guys have any phones or tablets on you?”
All three of them nodded.
“We have to get rid of them,” Grant said. “We don’t want any electronics coming with us and potentially leaving a trail that leads to our hiding spot.”
The three of them reached into their pockets and pulled out their phones and tablets, handing them solemnly to Grant.
“I just bought that tablet last week,” Mia said with a sigh. “It really sucks to lose it.”
Grant nodded sympathetically. “I know. But we don’t have a choice,” he said. Then he threw the devices on the ground and stomped on them until they were completely destroyed.
Then he motioned Storm over. She had been hanging back, likely wanting to give him a moment alone with his former clan members. But now, he motioned her over.
“Storm, these are my clan members. Calum and Hope are the twins, as you can probably tell. And this is Mia.”
Storm reached out to shake each shifter’s hand, then Grant took a deep breath and plunged forward with the words he’d never thought he’d be saying. “Calum, Hope, and Mia—meet Storm. My lifemate.”
All of the faces around him registered surprise, but they recovered quickly.
“Wow, Grant. Congrats. Drew didn’t mention you had a lifemate,” Hope said.
“Yeah, well, it’s a fairly new development,” Grant said. Then, feeling slightly uncomfortable and wanting to change the subject, he glanced back toward Chicago. “We should get going. We don’t want to be stuck here when the chaos gets further out than the city limits. It’s only a matter of time until that happens.”
The shifters all nodded, and they all headed back to the hover. Grant and Storm once again took their seats in the front, and the three newcomers squeezed into the backseat.
“Everyone buckled in?” Grant asked. After a chorus of confirmations, Grant revved up the hover and started heading up into the sky in a northbound direction.
“Hang on, guys. We’ll be back to safety soon.”
“We were starting to get really worried about you all,” Mia said from the backseat. “You were several hours late, and we weren’t sure if you’d somehow gotten caught up in the Chicago riots.
“No, we steered clear of Chicago. But we did run into some unexpected weather delays over Lake Michigan,” Grant said. He glanced over at Storm, and caught a small smile playing at the corner of her lips. He smiled, too, at the sight of it. Looks like he wasn’t the only one who’d enjoyed the weather delay.
“How are things in Chicago?” Storm asked, glancing over her shoulder suddenly, as if she needed to get her mind on something other than the weather delay from earlier.
“Not good,” Calum said. “We were following the news on our phones pretty much right up until you guys showed up. The mayor did his best to stir up panic, and now the news has a video of you guys on repeat. They made a montage of all the cell phone videos people took and edited it to look as dramatic as possible. I still can’t believe you all shifted in the middle of Chicago.”
“Yeah, well, we didn’t have much of a choice,” Grant said. “We had to save Storm. Not that it matters much. We were already on our way out of the city. And the mayor already had plans to announce the shifter-detecting scanners. Our little stunt the other night might have added a little bit of fuel to the fire. But, in the grand scheme of everything going on right now, it didn’t change things that much.”
“Why is there so much smoke?” Storm asked, looking again toward the hazy sky over Chicago.
“Rioters have gone crazy,” Hope said. “They’re burning everything. As you know, the mayor put the whole city on lockdown. No one in or out. Well, a bunch of Chicagoans started freaking out about being locked into the city with shifters. They’re afraid, and want to run—but they can’t get out. So they’ve started setting everything in sight on fire. The mayor is apparently in hiding, and national guard reinforcements are being shipped in. But if things keep going the way they have been, there’s not going to be much of a city left to protect.”
Storm let out a low whistle. “I can’t believe this. I mean, I’m seeing it with my own eyes. That smoke in the distance is no joke. But still. I can’t believe it.”
“Well, believe it,” Calum said. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
“Are you sure we’re safe where we’re going?” Mia piped in again.
Grant looked back at her and smiled reassuringly. “We’re heading to probably the safest place in the country right now. Drew knows his stuff, so don’t worry. Everything is going to be just fine.”
Mia nodded, and the chatter in the hover died down as Grant turned the hover to head north over Lake Michigan once more. He was relieved that the Lake itself still seemed largely unguarded, but he knew that wasn’t going to last long.
A full-blown war was brewing.
* * *
The trip back to Drew’s cabin was pretty uneventful. And it was a good thing, too. Grant hadn’t had much sleep lately, and he was starting to feel it. For a while, the constant adrenaline high he’d been on had been enough to keep him going. But even that wasn’t helping much anymore. Besides, Grant was starving. He realized as he came to a soft landing in front of the hideout cabin that he’d barely eaten anything today.
Drew came out of the cabin as soon as they landed, and he quickly picked up on Grant’s exhausted state. After brief introductions of the new shifters, Drew told Grant to rest for a few minutes.
“Go get some food and relax, brother,” Drew said. “There’s a big pot of chili on the stove. I’ll take care of destroying the hover.”
Grant didn’t argue, but he did look over his shou
lder before entering the cabin to get one last look at his hover. Grant had been awfully fond of his hover, and it was such a shame to destroy that beautiful piece of machinery. But there was no way they could keep it here, with all its intricate computer systems sending off god only knows what kinds of signals. Drew’s number one rule for hiding out was “no fancy electronics.” There was an old radio in the cabin, and Drew had an older mobile phone that he had modified like crazy so that it was essentially invisible. That was it. And the only power in the cabin came from solar panels on the roof. There was no connection to any outside power source here. Drew didn’t want anyone on “the outside” to know where his secret hideout was located.
Storm must have seen him staring back at the hover, because she walked up to him and placed a gentle hand on his arm.
“It’s okay,” she said. “You’ll get another one someday, when this is all over.”
Grant nodded, and headed into the cabin. The tantalizing smell of chili had been wafting out from the front door, and the aroma grew stronger as he stepped inside. Storm followed him, and they both filled bowls to the brim with chili before sitting down at the small table. Moments later, the sound of a loud explosion reached their ears. It had only taken Drew a few minutes to destroy the hover. He was quick.
“Welcome back, Boss,” Jack said, looking up from the couch, where he was reading a newspaper and Silver was curled up next to him with a book.
“Where did you guys find those?” Grant asked, surprised that they both had reading material made of real paper.
“Silver’s mom gave her the book,” Jack said. “And Drew had the newspaper. It’s old. Decades old, actually. But it’s kind of fun to read news from so long ago, and there’s not much else to do around here. No electronics, so there’s no way to browse the internet. And no TV or electronic books.”
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