“What have you heard?” Maximus slowed his pace, desperate to keep the irritation off his face, half-fueled by embarrassment and half-fueled by resentment over stupid rumors that demonized the hybrids.
“From what I understand, each hybrid is only compatible with one woman, his Vestal.” Selena spoke quietly, almost reverentially. “I didn’t understand everything, but they had some scientists talking about genetic links. They said you can literally smell them.”
Maximus let out a quiet sigh. “That’s all true, for the most part.”
Selena’s eyes widened. “Seriously? I mean I get mating for life and all that, but you don’t even get a choice?”
“No.” Maximus shook his head. “No choice. You mention science, but to many of us, it’s more than that. I’m not going to claim it’s magic, but it’s almost like the Vestal and hybrid are meant to be together, soulmates. That kind of thing.”
“That’s so sweet.” Selena let out a contented sigh. “That means you, what, can’t cheat on your Vestal?”
Maximus shook his head. “Not exactly, but half-way, maybe? We’re still men. It’s not like we don’t find other women attractive, but if the woman isn’t our Vestal, we’re not going to feel anything, but once we bond with our Vestal, we’ll never want any woman but them. Even before then, we feel incomplete without them.”
“Whoa.” Selena’s hazel eyes widened. “It’s weird to think about. I mean I’ve not had a terrible time with men, but not a great time either. A hunky superman who never wants to cheat on you… I think that’s every woman’s dream.”
“It goes both ways.” Maximus shot her a sideways glance, his earlier agitation gone. “It’s easier for the Vestal, I suppose. The hybrid feels that longing from the beginning, but it’s not as bad for her until she encounters the hybrid, particularly after they bond.”
“Bond?” Selena swallowed. “You mean… uh… sleep together?”
Maximus bobbed his head with an easy smile, surprised at the woman’s blush. “Yes. The scents draw them together, but once they’ve bonded, they’ll be together until the end.”
“Your wife is one lucky woman,” Selena declared.
Maximus shook his head. “Not every hybrid out there has found their Vestal. The Luna guys have gotten lucky in a lot of ways.”
“Your soulmate is still out there?” Selena offered him a bright smile. “Then she’ll be a lucky woman.”
“I’m a little different than most hybrids in that regard.”
“He’ll be a lucky guy?” Selena ventured.
Maximus laughed. “No, nothing like that. I’m attracted to women. I’m different. But I might not be able to sense my Vestal like the Luna hybrids.”
“Does that mean you don’t have to sit there and wait for your soulmate?”
“I don’t know to be honest.”
Maximus wasn’t sure why he was telling her all this. She seemed to implicitly trust him, and he felt the same about her.
Selena ran her hand over some dark green moss on a tree, before wrinkling her nose. “That’s moister than I thought it’d be. But it’d be nice for you if you didn’t have to wait around for your soulmate.”
“You think so?” Maximus asked, his doubt clear in his tone.
“I’m not going to pretend everything you said about soulmates and being together forever doesn’t sound nice, but it also sounds like it could be depressing.” Selena craned her neck upward, narrowing her eyes as she peered at the sun obscured by the branches above her. “You said the Luna hybrids got lucky. That makes it sound like you might wait around for years. Us boring old humans, we might want soulmates, but we don’t have to make the perfect the enemy of the good. I feel kind of sorry for you.”
Maximus grunted. The last thing he wanted was her pity, especially since something about the way she was nibbling on her lip in thought distracted him. He’d like to take a turn.
That didn’t make sense. The Corps had tried some forced breeding programs and while the hybrids could certainly perform, they took no pleasure from it. It was like even if their body responded to the woman’s body, their souls rejected them, eliminating anything pleasurable about the activity and any chance of pregnancy. But he couldn’t deny how much he’d wanted Selena the night before and even now.
Taking her to a hotel and making passionate love to her would be as pointless as it was impossible. Arousal wasn’t the same thing as getting past his fundamental hybrid nature.
“But you’re different,” Selena continued, a cheerful smile returning. She gave him a thumb’s up. “I hope you don’t have to wait around.”
“So do I.”
His thoughts drifted back to their little session in the hotel room. It shouldn’t have happened, but more importantly, she was the one who stopped, not him. He was more than prepared to sleep with her, and that had implications for his condition. It was a good thing she’d stopped them. Once he got past the foreplay, his hybrid instincts would have probably kicked in, and he would have had to leave anyway.
Or would he?
Maximus took a deep breath and slowly let it out, content to let the conversation drop for now as he grappled with the implications. If he was so attracted to a normal woman and ready to sleep with her, it might be that he no longer had a connection to a Vestal, a difficult prospect to wrap his mind around.
Making perfect the enemy of the good, she had said. It might be easy for humans to talk that way, but he’d lived his whole life meant for someone. Just because he could get some pleasure from sharing a bed with her didn’t mean it was worth it. Sleeping with Selena to scratch an itch that could never be soothed would be cruel to her.
No. Maximus was sure. His Vestal was still out there. He’d fix whatever happened to him and the others, and they would find their mates.
Chapter Fourteen
Selena wondered if Maximus could hear her pounding heart. She’d been trying to focus on their hike and investigation, but now that she knew the truth, it was almost impossible not to stare at him and wonder.
With the retreat of the Luna hybrids from their old lodge, public interaction with hybrids of any type had dropped to almost nonexistent. People liked to claim they’d run into a hybrid on the street or in the woods with obviously faked videos uploaded to the net, but the truth was the hybrids had achieved what they’d originally intended, hiding away from the world. From what Maximus said, he was a different sort of hybrid, too.
She glanced over her shoulder. Maximus didn’t live in Maui and was investigating something related to the hybrids. Selena might not be an expert, but one thing she did appreciate is that they tended to run in packs. How many hybrids might there be on the island?
She shouldn’t be in the woods with a hybrid investigating something potentially dangerous. Every part of her logical brain screamed for her to turn around, despite having talked Maximus into letting her continue along with him.
Some of her motivation was curiosity, but that wasn’t the main reason. For whatever reason, she felt completely safe around Maximus, like he would never, ever let her get hurt. Before, when she believed he might be a mob enforcer, she was nervous but still found herself wandering into the forest with him. Perhaps, on some level, she understood he was a hybrid.
But why would that make a difference? Hybrids weren’t the villains the early media coverage painted them as, but she didn’t know much about the man. Their initial conversations had been filled with lies. She shouldn’t trust a man she barely knew who had knowingly lied to her, even if he had a good reason.
Selena pulled out her phone and stared at the map, glad she was smart enough to download it before they’d traveled deep enough to lose signal. She motioned behind her. “Based on that stream we passed a few minutes ago, we should now be in one of the blank spots.” She surveyed the trees, not finding anything that stood out. More trees, birds, and bugs. Certainly nothing she could use to convince the permit office, if that was still even a good idea.
Max
imus slowly looked around the forest, his brow furrowed in concentration. Selena tried not to stare at his now exposed amber eyes, but they kept drawing her in. She forced herself to look elsewhere. This wasn’t the time to get distracted. Her attraction before had been ridiculous, but now that she knew the truth, she couldn’t help but wonder if all the rumors about the hybrids’ other impressive traits were true.
Stupid. Her job was on the line, and she was horny for a hybrid who had just got done admitting he was waiting around for a soulmate he couldn’t even detect. That wasn’t the kind of man she should let herself get involved with. Not only that, she might be walking toward the base of an evil organization.
Selena frowned, thinking back to Vestals. Given everything Maximus told her, the make-out session earlier must have been nothing more than manipulation. She’d been so stupid. Of course someone like him wouldn’t be interested in her. Maximus was there to investigate a threat to the hybrids. Nothing more. He said so himself.
Maximus sniffed at the air. “Huh.”
“What?” Selena inhaled deeply through her nose. It was the same mix of floral and earthy scents she’d smelled the entire time, but she lacked the enhanced senses of a hybrid.
“I’m not liking our luck here,” Maximus said, frowning. “I can smell something odd, something I couldn’t before. It’s faint here, but it’s definitely out of place compared to everywhere else we’ve been.”
“Odd?” Selena nodded slowly and swallowed. She’d been an idiot to come along, hot hybrid or not. “Like gunpowder or the smell of explosives? Do explosives even have smells?”
“Depends on the explosive.” Maximus crouched, tilting his head to listen. “I’m not sure what I’m smelling. I don’t think it’s explosives. You might be on to something with guns.”
Selena let out a sigh of relief. “Then it really is nothing more than an old Army storage place.”
Maximus stood, tension lining his face. “I haven’t smelled a lot of World War II-era ammo depots, but I have smelled my fair share of modern guns. I’m smelling something a lot more modern.” He shook his head. “I should take you back. Make up something if you have to, but you should tell the director this place isn’t safe.”
“But then we can’t film at the waterfall.”
“That’s the idea.”
“I get it. You’re right.” Selena groaned and rubbed her temples. “I’m so screwed. I’m going to lose my job.”
Maximus raised an eyebrow. “That’s better than losing your life.”
“I know.” Selena waved a hand at him. “It’s just I thought I had this situation under control, but then…” Her stomach churned. “Wait. Are you saying it’s the Horatius Group?”
“The people I’m looking for aren’t with the Group. The Group’s pretty much destroyed, and if I have my way, these other people, the Phoenix Corps, will be too.” Maximus shook his head. “I haven’t smelled anything specific to them. It could be normal criminals guarding something, but I don’t think it’s safe for you anymore. We’re going back. Now that I know there’s something here to look for, my people can come back later and check into it.”
“You’re right.” Selena scrubbed a hand down her face. “I’d like to claim this was all bravery, but I think it was more desperation. My director can’t blame me if this place is actually dangerous.”
Even as the words left her lips, she wasn’t so sure. Bill’s obsession might be inflamed by the idea of shooting his commercial in an area fraught with risk. There were plenty of asshole directors who didn’t care about people getting hurt, some in the past who’d even gotten people killed. She could even see him suggesting no one would be hurt if they traveled in a large group together.
Selena shook her head, surprised by it all. Yes, it’d been a decent hike to get this far, but that didn’t change the fact Maui was constantly being flown over, trod upon, and explored. There was no way some dangerous secret evil group could set up a base there and not be noticed. It strained the imagination.
Then again, so did the hybrids. It wasn’t that many years prior that if someone had said there were superhuman men who had been genetically altered, including mixtures with wolf DNA, she would have laughed in their face and thought of them as a conspiracy kook. Now the whole world accepted the hybrids existed and also that dark forces were involved in their creation. If the Horatius Group and the Phoenix Corps could hide their creation of hybrids for so many years, a hideout on an island didn’t seem so crazy in comparison, especially one that took advantage of existing abandoned facilities.
Selena bobbed her head. “Yeah. Let’s get the hell out of here. It was a nice job while it lasted, but I like breathing far more.”
They turned back toward the stream. A loud rumble sounded from nearby.
Maximus wrinkled his nose and rushed toward her. “Stay behind me and follow my lead.”
He ripped a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket and slipped them on, an odd sight in the dense forest. She was happy his contact fell out earlier, so she could learn the truth, but now she’d wished they’d spent an hour hunting around for it on the forest floor.
A low growl escaped Maximus’s throat, and two men in dark gray uniforms emerged from behind trees, both holding rifles. Another loud rumble followed. There weren’t any markings or identification on their uniforms. They scowled at Maximus and Selena.
“Put your hands up,” one of them demanded.
“Do what he says,” Maximus whispered, and lifted his arms.
Selena complied. “Uh, look, we’re sorry if we’re trespassing on Army land.”
“You were supposed to follow my lead,” Maximus murmured.
“Too late now,” she whispered back.
The guard narrowed his eyes. “You’re going to come with us. We have some questions for you.”
“Who are you?” Maximus asked, his voice unsteady and fearful.
Selena almost rolled her eyes at the obvious faking. He’d been a much better actor when tricking her, but there was no way those men would believe he was afraid of them.
“It doesn’t matter who we are,” the guard said. He gestured with his rifle. “What matters is we’re the ones with the guns, asshole.”
“It can’t be one of them,” the other guard said, nodding at Selena. “A hybrid wouldn’t have brought a woman with them.” His finger moved to the trigger. “Let’s just get this over with so we can clean up. It’ll be better to do it out here anyway. Less blood inside.”
“Get down!” Maximus roared.
Selena dropped before he finished the sentence, her entire body one giant pulse. She covered her head with her hands, praying that her young life wasn’t about to come to a bullet-riddled end. At least if she had to die, a beautiful tropical rainforest wasn’t a bad place for it.
The two guards stumbled back, taken off-guard by Maximus’s sudden yell. The hybrid charged forward with a loud growl, far louder than the wild boar earlier, closing the distance to the guards in a blink. His hand snaked out and grabbed the first guard’s rifle and ripped it up and out of his hands right as the man pulled the trigger.
The loud gunshot echoed. Maximus swung the rifle toward the other guard’s head like a club. It connected with a stomach-churning crunch and dropped the guard. His partner leapt back, going for a sheathed knife on his belt, his eyes wide.
Maximus snapped up the rifle and brought it down on the man’s hand. The guard screamed as the blow bent his fingers well past any normal angles. Selena grimaced at the man’s twisted hand. A powerful kick into the man’s chest sent him flying into a tree. He fell, his head lolling to the side, a trail of blood on the bark marking where it’d been.
Selena stared at the dead men, her heart pounding. While she had been to funerals, mostly of old relatives who had their fair time on Earth, she’d never seen someone killed with her own eyes, let alone so violently. The strangest part of it all was that she was grateful. She staggered to her feet, swaying.
Those
men meant to kill them both. There was no mercy in their eyes, no consideration for the murders they were about to commit. No doubt remained. They must have worked for the Phoenix Corps. Only an evil organization would have such ruthless men like that in the forest. Even criminals would have shown more restraint and caution.
Maximus tossed the rifle on the ground and scooped her up into his arms. She yelped in surprise before screaming as he charged back toward the stream, somehow even faster than he was before, the trees almost a blur, his footsteps marked by heavy thuds against the ground. Birds flew from trees. Animals scurried out of their way into the underbrush.
Selena clung to him tightly, tears in her ears. He’d save her and protect her. She didn’t care if she didn’t know him that well. She knew, somehow, that he would do everything he could.
She whimpered when three large men in rushed toward them, all holding pistols. They were much larger than the guards, but wore leather jackets instead of uniforms. Bikers in the forest? Maximus slowed to a jog, as did the men, whose amber eyes were now visible.
More hybrids. Selena let out a sigh of relief. It was like she thought. They traveled in packs.
Chapter Fifteen
Maximus ran with Selena in his arms and the other three hybrids behind him for several minutes, no one saying anything. They all implicitly understood the need to withdraw from the area before more heavily armed reinforcements arrived. He was confident they could win a fight against far superior numbers, but less confident they could do that and keep the redhead in his arms from being hurt. Certain they had put a decent distance between their group and the guards, Maximus slowed to a jog and then a stop.
“Did you see that?” he asked, looking to CJ, Cornelius, and Tiberius.
CJ nodded. “We were trying to flank them when we saw you take them out. What did they say to get you to do that?”
“They were getting ready to kill us.” Maximus scoffed. “It sounds like they have orders to try and take hybrids alive but kill anyone else.”
Maximus: #1 (Luna Lodge: Alpha Squad) Page 11