by Неизвестный
Boone nodded and started to climb from the truck.
"Boone?"
Boone glanced over his shoulder.
"Make sure they know not to come out of the rec room until we give the all clear." He frowned. "I don't want to hurt anyone."
"Yeah, good idea."
Cort gathered the woman up in his arms and held her closer to his body as Boone raced into the house. The woman's head flopped against his shoulder. Cort glanced down at her, his heart pounding in his chest at the sheer beauty he held in his arms.
She looked so fragile, her bone structure delicate and fine. Cort knew differently. Not only had she taken him on, but she had taken Boone on at the same damn time. Despite her dainty features, there was nothing delicate about this woman.
Cort groaned. It had only been a few days since this small woman in his arms rocked his world. It wasn't so long ago that he could forget a single moment of it. The mechanics of the act had been pretty much normal.
The emotions Cort felt while loving on the woman, the sensations that overwhelmed his body, those had been entirely different. The woman had simply brushed her hand against his skin, and Cort had gone off like a rocket.
Holding her in his arms felt right. Cort couldn't explain it. He wouldn't even know where to start. He just knew the feeling of holding this unconscious woman in his arms, a woman he didn't even know the name of, felt right.
Cort reached over and brushed the hair back from her face, once again stunned by her beauty. He'd been all over the world and seen a lot of beautiful women in his time, but none as beautiful as this woman.
The truck door opened. Cort jerked, turned, and bared his teeth, the growl that came from his mouth sounding foreign to his ears. He recognized Boone a second before he started to snap at whoever stood there.
"Dude!" Boone said, holding his hand up in a nonthreatening gesture. "Chill, man."
"Sorry."
Boone nodded. Cort knew the man understood. He had to be feeling the same way Cort did, possessive, protective, and downright horny. It seemed to be etched in every tight line in Boone's face.
"Things taken care of inside?" Cort asked as he handed the woman over and climbed out of the truck.
"To a point," Boone replied. "Dane refused to go into the rec room, but I never really expected him to, you know? He's waiting for us inside, and I don't think he's happy."
"Is he ever?"
Cort shut the truck door and followed Boone into the house. The moment he stepped inside, a multitude of scents overwhelmed him, scents he had never smelled before. They were normal smells, food cooking in the kitchen, the other men who lived in the house, Dane. They just seemed stronger, more intense.
"What in the bloody hell is going on around here?" Dane snapped the moment the door shut behind them.
Cort turned and glared, holding a finger up to his mouth. "Shhh." He pointed to the woman Boone carried in his arms, then followed the man down the hallway, leaving Dane standing there with his mouth hanging open.
Cort could hear him follow them down the hallway. He stood in the doorway to his and Boone's room, blocking Dane from walking in. Boone carefully laid the woman down on the bed, then pulled the covers up over her.
He seemed to hesitate as he stared down at her. Cort knew how Boone felt. He was loath to leave her, too. It just seemed wrong. Cort learned early on to trust his gut, and his gut told him that leaving was the stupidest thing he could do.
He really had no choice, though. Dane stood in the hallway waiting on him and Boone. Cort could feel the man's anger burning into his back. They might as well get this over with. The sooner all was said and done, the sooner they could return to the woman.
"Come on, Boone," Cort said quietly. "Let's go talk with Dane, and then we can come back to her."
Boone nodded, pulling his gaze away from the woman slowly. Boone's eyes looked desperate for a moment as he looked at Cort, then changed to their normal easygoing pale green. As Boone pushed past him, Cort patted him on the shoulder.
He cast one more look at the woman, then closed the door and walked down the hallway to where Boone and Dane stood waiting in the living room. Boone stood by the window looking out the clear glass into the dark night. Dane stood by the kitchen island drinking a cup of coffee and staring at Boone. He turned when Cort walked into the room, including him in his fierce glare.
"Now do you want to explain to me what in the bloody hell is going on?" Dane snapped. "I sent you out on a simple stakeout, no contact, and you come back with an unconscious woman, smelling of—" Dane's nose crinkled. "What in the hell is that, anyway? It smells like wet, dead dog."
Cort shot a quick glance at Boone. As their eyes met, Cort felt a shock run through him. Dane could scent the smell of the dead man on them? Cort looked back to Dane.
"You smell wet, dead dog?" he asked carefully.
"Well, I'm not exactly sure what it is, but that's the only thing I can associate it with." Dane frowned. "And what in the hell does that have to do with bringing some woman to our compound? You know visitors aren't welcome here."
"She's not exactly a visitor, Dane."
"Cheap floozy booty call then."
Cort leapt across the living room before he knew what he was doing. He shoved the man against the wall, pressing his arm across Dane's neck. His teeth were bared as he growled. He could feel Boone's heavy breath on his neck and knew the man stood behind him. He could hear his growls as if they were his own.
"Never, ever, say another word against her," Cort snarled.
Dane swallowed hard, his eyes huge. "Bloody hell, you've mated her."
* * * *
Boone blinked and stared over Cort's shoulder at the man pinned to the wall. "We've what?"
"Cort, damn it, put me down," Dane snapped.
Cort lowered his arm and stepped back, pushing into Boone. Boone stepped around Cort. He didn't care that Dane was taller than him, bigger. He wanted to know what in the hell the man was talking about.
"Dane," he growled between his clenched teeth, "you'd better tell us what in the hell you know, and you'd better tell us right this minute."
"You fucked up, pretty boy." Dane's voice was coolly disapproving when he spoke. "You and Cort mated that woman in the other room."
"We slept with her, yeah," Cort said, "but how did you know?"
"You smell different."
Boone arched an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
"You know that wet, dead dog smell? Only certain people can smell it. It's the scent of evil." Dane took a deep breath. He pushed a hand through his hair. "Look, everyone needs to calm down because what I have to tell you will rock the very foundation of everything you've ever been taught."
"I think I'm going to need a drink for this," Cort said.
"It won't do you any good, not anymore," Dane replied. "Unless you drink an entire barrel of rotgut liquor, you can no longer get drunk."
"Well shit," Cort replied. "Where's the fun in that?"
"A lot of things like that are going to change for you."
Boone was really starting to feel like he was riding on a roller coaster and he was on the only one who knew it. The more Dane talked, the more confused Boone became. He wished the man would just speak plainly.
"Dane, just tell us what in the hell is going on because I'm really starting to feel like I'm losing my mind."
"You can smell better than you ever have before," Dane began, an edge to his voice. "You see better at night without night vision goggles than you do with them. The taste of blood is like ambrosia, and the idea of a fight excites you."
Boone's mouth dropped open. His mind reeled with confusion. "You know what's happening to us?"
Dane frowned but nodded. "You must have some sort of recessive gene that I didn't detect."
"Recessive gene?" Cort snorted. "What in the hell are you talking about?"
"You might want to sit down for this."
"I don't want to sit down for this or anything else, Dane.
I want to know why in the hell Boone and I can grow furry." Cort started waving his hands in the air. "We killed a man and licked his blood from our fingers. And we liked it!"
"Fuck!" Dane's eyes closed. He rubbed his hand over his face, then opened his eyes to stare at the floor for a moment before raising them to look at Cort and Boone. "Where?"
"At the stakeout," Boone answered.
He watched Dane pull his cell phone out and dial a number. A moment later he spoke, his tone low and tension-filled. "It's me. We need a cleanup at the research facility." Dane was silent for a moment and then he glanced up at Boone. "Just one body?"
"There might be a couple more," Boone answered. "They were shooting at us. I didn't stop to count."
Dane frowned, then spoke back into the phone. "It's possible that there's more than one body, so keep your eyes open. And keep a watch out for prying eyes. I'll get back to you the moment I know more."
Dane flipped his cell phone closed and dropped it back in his pocket before looking up at Cort and Boone. He crossed his arms over his chest as he glared across at them. "I want to know exactly what happened, and you can start with the woman."
"There really isn't much to tell," Boone said. "We met her at a bar, took her to a local hotel and fooled around, and then we left. I never thought we'd see her again."
"Then how'd she end up here tonight?" Dane asked.
"We were sitting in the truck doing that surveillance job you had us on when an SUV pulled up. Three guys climbed out. Two dragged her kicking and screaming from the back of the vehicle."
"You have to understand, Dane," Cort said. "We couldn't just let them take her. It was obvious to us that she wasn't there of her own free will."
Dane chuckled. "Oh, I have no doubt about that."
A flicker of apprehension wormed its way into Boone. He knew he wouldn't like the answer even before he asked the question, but he couldn't stop himself from asking. "Why would they kidnap her?"
"That, my boy, is going to take a little more explanation."
"I'm pretty sure I can fit you into my schedule," Cort snapped.
"Being a jackass isn't going to get me to explain this any faster, Cort," Dane admonished.
"Sorry," Cort replied. He walked over and plopped down on the couch. "I'm just a little freaked out. It's not every day you turn into a monster."
"Other."
"Huh?"
Dane walked over to sit down across from Cort before continuing. "You're not a monster, Cort. You're an Other."
Cort just blinked.
"You know, as in other than human," Dane said.
"Seriously?" Boone said, walking over to sit down next to Cort. "You all have a name for this shit?"
"It's not shit, Boone, and no, that's not what we call it." Dane seemed to take a deep breath, then release it. "Other is what we are."
"We?" Boone whispered.
"My name is Danic Jrogen. I was born in the year 1432 in a small village about a hundred miles south of Copenhagen, Denmark. I am the only son of a man who delivered freight by horse-drawn wagon."
Boone just stared. There wasn't anything else he could do. His mouth wouldn't work, which might have been a good thing. He thought he might be screaming by now.
"My life seemed pretty normal for the first several years, but then I hit puberty. As happened with several men in our village, I began to change. I could grow teeth and claws, fur all over my body, pointed ears, and a tail."
"Holy fuck!" Cort exclaimed.
"Like the others in my village that suffered the same affliction, I was driven from my home, never allowed to return. I've spent the last five hundred and seventy-seven years finding others of my kind, building a network of support and protection for us all."
"Wait," Boone said, "you said that you turned into…whatever when you hit puberty. Cort and I are way past puberty, Dane. Why are we turning now?"
"Yeah, you said something about recessive genes?" Cort added.
"We've found that not everyone turns when they hit puberty, just a few of us."
"Then how do you explain what happened to us earlier tonight?" Cort snapped. "Because I'm damn sure it wasn't a drug hallucination no matter how much I wish differently."
"A small percentage of the population has a recessive gene, a gene that they're born with. Most of those born with this gene will never turn. However, a few of them have something happen that basically activates this gene and forces them into the change."
"And this something is?" Boone questioned.
"I believe your recessive gene was activated when you mated with the woman."
"There you go again with that word," Cort said. "What in the hell do you mean mated?"
"Others have mates, the one person in the world chosen just for us. Most of us aren't lucky enough to find our mate because there are so few of us in the world." Dane chuckled. "And it's not like you can go up to someone and tell them that they are your chosen mate."
"Yeah," Boone said, "I can see where that could be sticky."
"So, you're saying that because we slept with some woman that we can change into this Other thing you keep mentioning?" Cort asked.
Dane shook his head. "It's more complicated than that, Cort."
"Make it uncomplicated then," Cort snapped.
"Look, we can fuck whoever we want, but once we find our mate, we don't want to fuck anyone but them. That mate is the only person for us. When you had sex with that woman, you mated her. And it's for life, boys."
"Fuck!" Cort exclaimed.
The man jumped to his feet and stormed over to the window. Boone could see the tension in the firm set of Cort's shoulders. He felt pretty much the same. He was pissed, confused, and he could still smell the woman even though she slept down the hallway with the door closed.
It was hard for Boone to concentrate on all of the things that Dane told them when all he could only think about was the woman in the other room. Her scent was incredibly, luxuriously, distracting.
"There's more," Dane said.
Of course there is.
Boone turned to look at Dane, waiting. After everything he had heard tonight, he doubted that Dane could say anything else to surprise him. Still, it would be interesting to hear what the man said.
"If you mated the woman and she activated your recessive gene, then she is obviously Other as well. And that creates a whole other set of problems."
"And that means what exactly?" Boone asked. He knew he wasn't going to like the answer just by the sour look on Dane's face.
"She's in mating heat."
Chapter 5
Nix woke suddenly. For one moment she felt nothing. Then the world around her exploded in a combination of white-hot pain and arousal so intense she could feel the very air around her moving across her face.
She ached. She needed. She wanted to taste the intoxicating scent she could smell in the room, in the sheets and blankets surrounding her. She knew the scent came from the two men she mated, but when she opened her eyes, she was alone in the room, a room she didn't recognize.
She sat up and looked around, her only thought to find the origins of the heavy masculine scents assailing her. Nix climbed off the bed and made her way to one of the doors in the room. It led to a luxurious bathroom that would have interested her on any other day, but today, she just needed to find her mates.
Nix walked to the second door and pulled it open, revealing a long hallway. Nix cautiously stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind her. She turned and walked right into a solid wall of blue-covered flesh.
Nix screamed as pain rocked through her body when the man grabbed her shoulders. The mere touch of his hands on her bare flesh burned Nix's flesh as if someone held a branding iron on her arm.
Nix screamed louder, struggling to get free. Her mind clouded with pain. Nothing mattered except getting away from the anguish. She barely registered people yelling, the man holding her shaking her by her arms.
"Fuck!" someone very l
oud shouted. "Don't touch her."
Nix collapsed, two sets of hands catching her before she hit the floor. It took a moment for the information to get through to her pain-ridden brain, but she eventually realized that the hands now holding her didn't hurt. In fact, they soothed.
She turned in to the hands, her body melting against the one holding her. The clean, masculine scent of her mates encircled her, filling her. Nix groaned and clutched at the brown-haired man who lifted her up in his arms.
Everything around her fell away, her entire world centered on that sweet smell. Nix purred. She yanked on the man's shirt, trying to pull herself closer. She'd climb into him if she could figure how.
Strong, masculine hands stroked her hair, the side of her face, the nape of her neck. Nix felt her pussy clench. Her nipples pebbled. She needed. She ached.
"Please," she begged. She glanced up to see dark chocolate eyes staring down at her in astonishment. "I need." Surely he understood. He was a male, an Other. He had to know she needed. They'd mated.
"Christ!" the man growled.
Nix's hands gripped the man's shirt tighter. Her heart pounded. Her body pulsed, every soft touch of his hand sending waves of ecstasy through her. She needed more, more of his touch, more of his smell, more of his naked skin.
"Cort, Boone," someone behind her said, "you need to go deal with her before we can finish our conversation. If she doesn't get some relief, the pain she will experience could send her into a coma."
"Deal with her how, Dane?"
"Hell, Cort, do I need to draw you a damn map?" Dane shouted. Nix saw a hand out of the corner of her eye as Dane pointed toward the bedroom door. "Go fuck her."
Oh yes! Nix was in full support of that idea. It made her ache even more.
"You said not to touch her!" Cort shouted even though he held Nix in his arms.
"Look," Dane said, his voice much quieter, "when she's in heat, only her mates can touch her. Anyone else and it feels like she's being burned. See those marks on her shoulders where Sal grabbed her? His touch can actually harm her."