He’d called her captain, addressed her by rank. The bastard was hiding something and her gut told her it wasn’t just the condition of his injury. He lied. As long as she’d known him, he’d never done that. Rage rolled through her. Why start now? Didn’t he trust her with the truth? He claimed they were family out here. Family didn’t do that. So she’d left. She’d left before she did something she’d regret.
Now here he was, like he’d been with Sheba, kissing up and trying to make it all better.
“Why’d you lie to me?” she asked.
“About what?”
“A flesh wound? Jessica told me Sheba shredded your arm. She thought you would bleed to death it was so bad. But what really gave you away is you always call me Melissa. Are you going to tell me what’s going on, or do I report this incident? And don’t tell me you’re anxious to get to the planet.”
Kaleb raised his gaze to hers and she lost her breath. His eyes. They glowed. They’d changed. They were….
“Shit.”
“I think the radiation spliced my DNA with Sheba’s.”
“Your eyes.”
“Yeah, and other things. I think it’s a result of the bite and the gamma cloud. Besides the wolf that bit me, I think I’m a singular case. Our DNA seems to have merged.” He studied her. “Have you felt anything odd? Jessica seemed a bit…. maybe I was kicking off pheromones. Never mind.”
Melissa shook her head. She hadn’t, but he obviously was experiencing some strange side effects. Jessica was fine. She’d examined her fully. “I ran a full diagnostic on Jessica and myself an hour ago. It’s bizarre, but you wouldn’t even know we’d been exposed to the gamma. Are you a danger to the mission, sir?”
“I don’t think I am. If you aren’t feeling this and your diagnostics came back clean, I’m going to assume I’m the only crew member affected. I’ll have to take a look at your blood and Jessica’s under a scope to be sure. We were all exposed to the radiation, but I’m the only one with wolflike symptoms, which leads me to believe it’s a direct result of the bite and genes that spliced. If that’s the case, it shouldn’t be contagious.”
“I’ll keep it quiet for now, but if you determine this is contagious—”
“I know. You do understand if you say anything to command, it’s a death sentence for all of us.”
She nodded. “That’s why I’m hoping you’re a singular case.”
His face looked tense and he was way too silent. If he said he wasn’t a danger, he wasn’t a danger, but he was still hiding something and she was determined to find out what. He’d laid the trap and it was his own damn fault he’d sprung it. He had a few questions to answer before she was letting him off this lift. Starting with the other things.
Kaleb grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Thank you.”
“For what?” Smooth, but it wasn’t getting him out of it.
“For trusting me.”
She reached out and touched his jaw and her stomach fluttered. The man made her crazy and weak in the knees all at once. Staying angry seemed almost impossible. “I’ve trusted you since I boarded this vessel, turned my life over to your command. Unless you give me a reason not to, I always will. That’s what family is about, Colonel. But don’t lie to me again.” She held his gaze, letting him know she meant it. Next time, he’d lose her respect and trust. He’d never get it back.
“I won’t.” He captured her hand and held it to his cheek. He didn’t smell lust, but something else. Melissa meant what she said. He could feel her sincerity, see it in her eyes. Her pulse beat steadily and her gaze never wavered. She was also fertile, cycling along with Jessica, as women who worked and lived together often did. The monster inside took note and his cock swelled. He let go of her hand and stepped back. “What’s the ETA?”
“Oh-four-hundred.”
“That doesn’t give me much time to prep for this meeting.” He grabbed the handrail, white-knuckling it. She glanced down at his hand and back up. Not much evaded Melissa’s observation. What was she thinking? “All of our lives….”
“It’ll be okay. Unless they know you, they won’t notice anything different. If you think you’re not a threat, I’m not concerned and I’ve no intention of saying anything. It’s my life on the line, too.”
Coming from her, it meant a lot. If Melissa thought he could hide his condition, he could. She was a master of observation.
“You’re not afraid you’re risking the planet?”
“Are you?” she asked.
No. He shook his head. Maybe. Shit. Could he be dangerous?
“Then let’s get this mission under way.” Melissa started the lift. “What other things?”
“What?”
“You said there were other things different about you.” She eyed his arm. “What things?”
“My hearing and sense of smell have become very acute. I can sense emotions in ways I never did before. It’s more than reading body language. My wound….”
“Can I see it?”
“Nothing to see. It’s healed over like it happened a year ago.” He unwrapped the bandage and dropped it. “I might as well leave it off. Jessica is going to know anyway.” He leaned back and closed his eyes, trying not to think about the mating material across from him. Mentioning he was horny might not be a good idea. Right now, she trusted him.
“What can you smell?”
Your panties. “Can we talk about something else?” He shifted on his feet, trying to ease the fabric across his growing erection.
Melissa glanced down, this time at his crotch. Her gaze snapped back up and her heart rate spiked. “Why?”
“I don’t think you’d like my answer.” He could smell it the second she’d creamed. Kaleb tried to focus on something else, but all he could picture was her large breasts and the cheeks of her ass hanging out of those shorts as she ran. He tightened his grip on the railing.
“Try me.”
“I can smell if you’re wet—excited. Your panties are soaked and you’re putting off some serious pheromones. I can hear your heart pound and sense a change in your body temperature. Everything is screaming to me you want sex and I’m having a hard time ignoring it.”
“Dear God.” Melissa’s heart rate accelerated more.
“There’s more.” He stared, holding her frozen in the moment, watching her eyes open a sliver wider. “I know you want me,” He growled. Damn, that came out sounding ravenous. Small wonder. He wanted to eat her alive and now she knew it.
Boom, boom, boom. Her heart burst into a drumroll and a flush of heat rose off her skin, wafting the smell of her attraction toward him.
“Oh, shit.” Melissa backed up, bumping into the lift wall. “You can’t possibly sense….”
“You creamed your panties a moment ago when you looked at my cock.”
“You saw me look?” The lift stopped and the door slid open.
“Like you, I don’t miss much.” He stepped closer and leaned in, whispering in her ear. “Whatever you do, don’t run. Walk away slowly.” He sniffed from her ear to her shoulder and balled his fists so tight his knuckles cracked. “I can barely control this urge.” Another growl rumbled in his chest, one that should’ve sent her running.
Instead, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him down the corridor. “I have no intention of running. You have a meeting and you’re not going to get through it unless we fix the situation.”
“Fix?”
Melissa pressed her hand into the gel pad outside her quarters and turned around as the doors slid open behind her. She hooked his belt loops and yanked him through the door. As the panel slid shut, she shoved him against the door, threw herself on him, grabbed his hair, and kissed him.
Kaleb pulled away. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“I have a damn good idea.”
“I might get rough. I don’t….”
“Shut up and kiss me.” Melissa yanked his fly open and grabbed his cock. “Rough is fine.”
; He tore the front of her flight suit open. “Protection?”
“In the drawer next to the bed. The cream.”
“Lots of protection?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Kaleb tugged her suit down her arms, peeled it over her hips. She stepped out of the pile and stood in front of him in her boots, a T-shirt, and panties. He didn’t wait for her to remove anything. He grabbed her panties in the front and ripped them down the middle. Her shirt came next, leaving her in her bra and boots. He picked her up, wrapping her legs around his waist, and walked her to the bed. They sank to the surface together. “I think we’re going to be late to the meeting.” He reached into the drawer and retrieved the tube of cream and smiled.
Melissa threaded her hands into his hair and pulled him into a kiss. He slipped his fingers and the cream inside her, stroking in and out. Melissa whimpered and arched into his fingers.
“You’re as wet as I thought.” He grabbed her hips and flipped her to her belly, rocking her back to her knees. Coming up behind her, he ran his hands up her sides and reached up to cup her breasts. “I can smell the lust.” Kissing up her spine to one shoulder, he pressed his cock against her lips and slid all the way in, stretching her as far as she would go.
Melissa moaned and rocked back into him. “Damn, you’re hard.”
“Steady.” Kaleb retreated and slammed back in. “So ready. So hot.” Deeper. Her pussy clenched around him as he pumped into her, fucking her slowly, torturing each inch of his hard cock against her slick flesh. He leaned in and nibbled along her neck, drawing his tongue over her soft skin. His canines…elongated. He snapped his jaws closed. What? He stopped moving and held her still against him.
Melissa whimpered and ground into him. “Don’t stop. Harder. Faster.”
Kaleb’s nostrils flared and he inhaled her need. “Oh, hell.” He couldn’t stop. He began to pound into her. Melissa’s whimpers grew to little cries. More. More. More.
“Damn.” She tightened around him like a fist. He could feel her muscles pulse as she came, both lubricating and driving him deeper. Melissa rocked back and screamed. His cock began to swell inside her.
“Christ. What?” She started to pull away, but he grabbed her hips and yanked her back, burying himself to the balls. Swelling larger, filling her deeper.
“Don’t move.”
“What?” She tried to pull away again.
“No.” He bit her shoulder. Melissa froze even as her heart accelerated. He could feel it. Blood trickled into his mouth from where one of his canines had punched through her flesh.
“Let me go, Kaleb. You’re biting me.” He released her shoulder and tried to pull back but his cock was stuck. His balls drew up tight, filling with pressure. The need to drive deeper took over. His hold tightened. “Oh God, I’m going to come.” He exploded inside her. Melissa cried out and rocked into him, fucking him when he was unable to move.
The animal took over. He bit her again, gently holding her shoulder with his teeth, careful not to break the skin this time. He wrapped his arm around her waist, holding her to him. This time she didn’t object, but creamed around him. He inhaled her scent, mixed with his. She belonged to him, whether she knew it or not.
Melissa smelled and tasted like his mate. It was impossible to let go. He didn’t want to let go. Wave after wave of ecstasy washed over him. He licked the bite and nipped again. Melissa quivered under him. He pushed deeper, seating his cock in her core. “I can’t stop.”
“Then don’t.” Melissa whimpered again and pulsed around him, coming with such force she trembled.
The burning started in his fingertips and toes, moving up his arms and legs. His muscles tightened and his breath caught. He ground down on his back teeth. This was new. The swelling in his cock eased and his stomach convulsed.
“You okay?” Melissa stopped writhing under him.
Sharp pains came, as if his flesh pulled away from bone. “Damn.”
“Kaleb? Colonel?”
He rolled off, hitting the floor beside the bed. Fire. God, it burned. From the base of his skull to his tailbone, muscles wrenched and spasmed.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” He snarled and curled into a ball on his side.
Chapter Four
Melissa jumped up and grabbed a pair of shorts, slipping them on. She dropped next to him on her knees, touching his shoulder. “Breathe.”
Pain rolled through his body in a giant fireball. “Get out!” Her scent. The smell of the blood in her veins. The smell of him on her. Her heart pumped like a snare drum in her chest. He could taste it, smell it, hear it. He turned and fixed her with his gaze. “Now—please.” Whatever it was inside him, it wanted more and wanted it violently. He couldn’t trust the beast not to hurt her. God, what was happening to him?
Melissa staggered away, backing for the door. He snapped out of the ball, his body extended, arching like a bow drawn taunt. From deep in his chest a howl built. It boiled through his lungs and came out as a roar, echoing off the metal walls of the cabin. Melissa pushed the com button.
“Jessica.”
“Yes.”
“Get the fuck down to my cabin. Bring a tranq.” She slipped through the door and engaged the security lock. The bolt slid home.
“What dosage?”
“For an elephant. I don’t know. The strongest you’ve got.”
“How the hell did you get an elephant—”
“Just get down here.”
Did they really think a tranq would do it? He could feel the adrenaline flood his body. Muscles swelled and elongated. They’d better put a bullet in his brain. He wanted more and rough wouldn’t begin to cover it. His vision blurred. He tried to speak, but his vocal cords seized. Nothing more than a groan and a whine came from his throat. Shit. Shit. Shit.
He turned his head toward the locked hatch. He could still smell her, sense her huddled on the floor next to the door. More pain. His joints locked and popped. His scent mingled in her blood, his seed filled her. Hunger. Lust.
More. More. More.
That door wouldn’t hold him. She was a fool to remain there. From the belly of the ship a wolf howled. The white alpine. Kaleb howled back.
“I don’t know what we’ll see when we open that door. His eyes—they, oh Christ—they glowed.”
“Why was he in your cabin?”
Jessica? He inhaled again. His cock hardened. The beast didn’t seem to care which female. The more the merrier.
“That’s personal.”
“I thought we agreed. If we had him, we’d have him together.”
Both? The need cranked higher.
“Then by all means, have at him, Jessica. I’m not going in there. You didn’t see his eyes.”
“We have to report this.”
“Stop. Think about this for a moment. You say one word and we’re all dead. They won’t let us on the planet. We’ll die here.”
“Then what do you propose we do? We’ve got a meeting with the commander of the sister ship in less than an hour and he’s in no shape to go.”
Like hell he’d be the reason they were quarantined. Kaleb calmed his breathing. He felt his incisors pull back into his gums and his vocal cords release. If he let this continue, they were all dead. His need to protect them overwhelmed his need to mate, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Sheba called to him again, calming him. It's okay, she said. Be human. Protect your pack. The fire began to recede. His breathing steadied and he glanced at the door, swallowing. “It’s all clear. You can come in.” He rolled to his back and yanked his fly closed. “I won’t hurt you.” Screw them senseless—maybe.
“Do you think its okay?” Jessica whispered.
“How should I know? Have that tranq ready.”
“I can hear you. I won’t attack.” Not at the moment. Okay, yeah, so maybe he liked to bite. It was….never mind. He needed to get his thoughts off that. He had a mission to complete. He wouldn’t condemn them to death because of
his circumstances. They were pack. Pack stuck together.
The door opened and Jessica stepped into the room, pointing the tranq gun at him. She didn’t blink once. “Name, rank, and serial number.”
“Jesus, Jess. Don’t point that thing at me.”
“Then answer the question or I’m going to do more than point it.”
“Kaleb Titan, colonel, and I don’t give my serial number to anyone.”
Jessica cocked the gun. “How about your bank-account number? Where you squirreled away the last of the junk food?”
“Fuck you, Lieutenant.”
She turned to Melissa and smiled. “He’s fine.”
“You up for a meeting, sir?” Melissa asked as she came to stand beside Jessica. She wore her bra and jogging shorts. Blood trickled down her shoulder. He eyed it and licked his lips, fighting the urge to howl. Not a good idea. Jessica would pop that tranq in him so fast he wouldn’t get a word of explanation out.
He reached up and rubbed his jaw. “Have I got time to shave?”
Both women looked at each other.
“What?”
“You’re going to need the clippers; you’ve got a beard.” Melissa snatched his shirt off the floor and tossed it to him. “It kind of looks sexy.” She strolled past him and into the privy, returning with a bandage on the bite. “When this meeting is over, we’re going to talk about you biting me.”
He grinned. Liar. She didn’t want to talk. He could smell her excitement. He turned and eyed Jessica. Her, too. Her heart had accelerated the moment Melissa mentioned the bite. Maybe this whole mutation wasn’t such a bad thing. Whatever pheromones he was kicking off made them crazy with lust and he could taste it. Eight months had been a long time to go without.
He let his gaze sweep Melissa from head to toe, taking time to stare at her bra-clad breasts. No, he wasn’t nearly finished with her yet. It would be two more years before they’d take a return flight to Earth. A lot could happen in two years.
Jessica narrowed her eyes when she noticed the way he looked at Melissa. He swung his gaze in her direction and locked on. She lifted the tranq and pointed. Again.
Last Flight of the Ark Page 4