“Christ,” Jeremy muttered, dropping his chin on top of Jillian’s head, his arms wrapped around her waist as they stood together with her back to his front.
Sayre, who was staying close to the woman’s side in case she was needed, said, “The man who was chasing you. Who was he?”
“My cousin,” she whispered thickly, turning her head to look at Sayre. “And a bastard.”
“Will they come looking for him?” Carla asked, no doubt wondering what kind of fallout they might be facing from the kill that she’d made. Everyone in the room knew that it’d been justified, considering the Lycan had been ready to kill whoever got in his way—but Eli knew Carla would blame herself if anyone ended up hurt because of what she’d done.
Answering Carla’s question, Rachel said, “I...I don’t think so. He worked for Roy, monitoring the pack’s stock of drugs, along with a few other Lycans. That’s how I know where they’re stored.” Her shoulders shook as she explained, “When he drinks, he talks. Or...I mean, he did. But he’s not so important that they would waste time trying to find him. Not with everything else they have going on.”
“These stocks you mentioned,” Mason said, drawing her attention back to him. “What can you tell us about them?”
“They’re running low on the drugs they use on the girls—the human ones. But they have a large supply of the stuff that the soldiers take, because Roy bought so much when it was first created.”
Recalling how Carla had mentioned the Fed who was working to destroy the labs where the gang-rape drugs were being produced, Eli assumed that was why they were running low. But the fact that they still had a strong supply of the “super soldier” drugs was troubling.
“And what about the drug that Sebastian took?” Eric asked.
She looked confused. “Which one is that?”
Eli had heard about the drug that Sebastian Claymore had taken the day he’d kidnapped Elise and Carla. It had enabled the Lycan to shift more of his body during the daytime than was normal, as well as increased his size and strength. At the time, Sebastian had claimed to be working on an additional drug that would allow him to completely day-shift, and either drug could prove catastrophic for the Silvercrest if they were produced in mass quantities.
With his arm around Elise’s shoulders, Wyatt answered the woman’s question. “It’s a drug that allowed him to shift more completely during the day. Not a complete shift, but enough that it was noticeable.”
She shook her head. “I don’t even know about that one.”
“That’s good,” Brody rumbled. “Hopefully his personal supply was limited.”
“Rachel,” Eli murmured, drawing her attention to where he stood. “Could you draw a map that leads to the exact location where the drugs are stored?”
Nodding, she said, “Yes. I just need a pen and paper.”
“I’ll get it,” Sayre murmured, heading out of the room, and Eli looked over at his men, who were standing together against the far wall, where they’d been quietly listening. Their expressions were hard with outrage, and each one jerked their chin in assent to his silent question. He nodded, then looked round at the Runners. “We’re heading out.”
Carla’s slender fingers bit into his arm. “Now?” she asked, staring up at him with wide eyes as he turned his head to look at her. “Where the hell are you going?”
“If we’re going to make full use of the intel, then we’ve got to move quickly, before they shift the drugs to a new location.”
Her slender brows knitted together. “Then we’ll make a plan.”
“There’s no time,” he argued. “It might take them a while to realize that Rachel and her cousin are missing, but once they do, we’ve lost our window of opportunity. We’ve got to go now, before they can move their stock.”
Determination hardened her gaze. “Then I’m going with you.”
Over my dead body, he thought, hating that he had to pull his arm from her grip, now that she was finally touching him. But it’d be a cold day in hell before he ever let her set foot anywhere near that godforsaken town again. She’d been lucky to make it out alive the first time, and there wasn’t going to be a second one.
Wondering just how angry he was about to make her, he said, “That’s not gonna happen, Reyes. The guys and I are going in alone.”
“The hell you are,” Eric muttered, while the other Runners seconded him.
Looking around the room, Eli frowned. “This isn’t personal. It’s basic logic. The guys and I are trained for this kind of op, and we’re used to pulling them off alone. Mixing things up at this point is only going to make it more dangerous.”
His brother’s scowl deepened. “That doesn’t mean we’re going to let you and your men fight our battles for us, Eli. That’s not how this works.”
“We’re not trying to fight anyone’s battles,” he growled, hating that they were having this argument in front of a roomful of people. “I understand what you’re saying, but the reason the guys and I are here is so that the Runners don’t have to do everything on their own anymore. So don’t be a stubborn jackass about this. Just stand down and let us get this done before it’s too late.”
Eric cursed under his breath, his metallic gray eyes molten with frustration. But he didn’t shove another argument back in Eli’s face. Instead, he exhaled a rough breath, and muttered, “Don’t think I’ll let you pull this shit again. This is your one pass. You get in, you get out, and then you get the hell back here.”
Eli nodded at his brother, then cut his gaze back to Carla. She stared up at him with a dazed look on her pale face, as if she was still trying to figure out how this had happened. Fighting the urge to reach out and yank her into his arms, he turned away from her and told Rachel he’d be back for the map, then followed his guys out of the cabin.
* * *
Carla stared at the front door, after Eli and his men had left, and blinked like someone coming out of a long, deep sleep. She felt like she’d been hit over the head, her thoughts disordered, her pulse roaring in her ears like an engine that’d been revved too high.
No matter how hard she’d been trying to put him from her mind, avoiding him as she worked herself into exhaustion, her dreams had been plagued by his irresistible presence. Deliciously raw, erotic dreams of the night they’d bonded. Of their hot, sweat-misted skin sliding together as he’d kissed and licked every inch of her he could reach, while rubbing his hard, heavy erection between her thighs, against the slick cushion of her sex. His dark voice whispering things so intimate and wicked, she’d been ready to come before he’d even started to push inside her. He’d been so big, so broad and long, she’d barely been able to take him. But she’d wanted to. She’d wanted to take...and take...until he’d emptied himself into her. Until she’d taken everything he had to give. All the hunger and passion and emotion burning inside him.
Emotion she’d so foolishly hoped was love.
Only, she’d been wrong. He hadn’t loved her, and she’d had to accept that. But that didn’t mean she didn’t care about him. That she wasn’t worried for his safety, especially when she was the one who’d brought him to the Alley.
Unable to just stand there and let him leave her, she hurried from the room, aware of the curious way the others were watching her, and ran after him. From the height of the porch, she looked across the glade, watching as he and Kyle climbed the porch steps of the cabin they were staying in, while the other three mercs went into the other one. She knew they would be collecting their gear, and she started running as fast as she could, determined to reach Eli before he could leave the privacy of his room. The things she needed to say to him were preferably done without an audience.
Without even bothering to knock, she let herself into the cabin and hurried across the living room, down the hallway. She had no idea which room he was using, but she tracked his mouthwatering scent to the second doorway on the left. Opening the door, she quickly stepped into the room and pressed her back against the
door as it closed, then reached back and flipped the lock. He was standing by a dresser that sat against the far wall, the dishtowel that had been wrapped around his battered knuckles earlier nowhere to be seen as he checked the clip on a heavy handgun—but his attention was no longer focused on the weapon. He’d looked up the second she’d opened the door, his narrowed gaze now locked in hard and tight on her own.
Pulling her lower lip through her teeth, she took a deep, shuddering breath and said, “Are you sure about this? About what you’re doing?”
He looked away from her as he tucked the gun into the back of his jeans, then grabbed a thick, complicated watch off the dresser, hooking it around his powerful wrist. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Damn it, it could all be a setup. She could be lying!”
“My gut tells me she isn’t, but either way, we’re good at what we do,” he said in a low voice, still not looking at her as he turned and grabbed a set of keys off the bedside table. “They’re not even going to know we’re there.”
Frustration, and no small amount of fear, made her want to scream as she asked, “How the hell do you know that?”
He turned his head, his dark gaze locking hard on hers again with a sharp, drilling intensity, and she could physically see the satisfaction building within him, burning in those incredible blue and gray eyes. “You’re actually worried about me, aren’t you?”
“No!” she snapped. But it was impossible to hide the way she was shaking...trembling...her damn heart pounding so swiftly it was making her dizzy.
Looking too impossibly gorgeous to be real, he fisted his big hands at his sides and started coming toward her, around the foot of the bed, each step making her breath come just that little bit faster, until she was panting. “If you don’t give a shit about me, Rey, then why do you look so terrified?”
“Don’t be so damn cocky! I brought you here to help us win. Not to go off taking ridiculous chances with your life!”
“And here I was thinking you didn’t care if I lived or died.” He stopped right in front of her, his heavy-lidded eyes burning with molten heat as he lowered his rugged face directly over hers. To her horror, her head went back in an embarrassing sign of submission for a female wolf, seeing as how it left her throat exposed and vulnerable, and it wasn’t the first time that it’d happened with him.
Before he could call her on the telling action, she growled, “Shut up,” and grabbed him behind the neck, yanking his head down as she rose up on her toes, crushing her mouth against his.
With her pulse still roaring in her ears, Carla kissed him like she wanted to crawl inside him. The way he growled deep in his chest and gripped her hips with his big hands, jerking her against his hard, muscular body, only made her more desperate. It took him no more than a heartbeat to claim control of the kiss, his tongue sinking into her mouth like he owned it, stroking and rubbing, tasting every slick part of her he could reach. It was so perfect, so freaking right, that she wanted to push him down to the floor, rip his jeans open, and take him. She needed to take him as deep as he could go, until she was packed full of him—until she owned him completely—which was nothing more than madness, considering she didn’t own him at all. Not his body or his hunger...and sure as hell not his heart, and the pain of that knowledge was enough to make her want to curl into a ball on the floor and cry like a freaking baby.
God, what am I doing? she thought, as a jolting, searing wave of panic stormed through her, constricting her lungs so tightly she almost whimpered. On the verge of a meltdown, she ripped her mouth from his and shoved hard against the same broad shoulders she’d been digging her nails into only seconds before. She only managed to move him back a few inches, but it was enough of a gap for her to wrench her body to the side, out from between him and the door.
She’d made it maybe a foot when he grabbed her arm, hauling her close again, his color high and his lips parted for the harsh, erratic rhythm of his breaths. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I...I need out of here.”
“What the hell, Carla?” Instead of fury, there was something burning in his eyes that looked too much like pain, and she blinked in shock as he growled, “You don’t get to kiss me like you’re fucking my mouth and then just walk away.”
Sucking in a sharp breath, she said, “You walked away from me first. Then again at that damn motel!”
“And I’ve already said I was sorry!” he roared loud enough for them to hear on the other side of the Alley. “You have no idea how much. I just...I needed to get my shit together. And I have. God knows I’m not going to let myself ruin this a second time.”
She shook her head, hating the damn tears she could feel building behind her eyes. “I wish I could believe you, but I can’t.”
“Don’t,” he rasped when she tried to pull her arm from his hold. “Please, Carla. Christ, don’t walk away from me.”
“Eli—”
“Please, just stay here with me for a minute,” he said as he slowly reached for her other arm.
“What do you want from me?” she whispered, closing her eyes as he pressed her against the wall, covering her front with the breathtaking feel of his body. He was hard and hot and so blasted perfect it made her want to cry.
“I just want to make you feel good,” he groaned against her temple, reaching between them and ripping at the button on her jeans, then sliding down the zipper. “I just need to be close to you, Rey, ’cause I’ve missed you so damn much.”
“No,” she gasped the instant his hot fingertips grazed the waistband of her panties.
He instantly stilled. “No?”
“I...I don’t know.” The husky, breathless words had been spoken in a needy voice she didn’t even recognize as her own. “Damn it, I can’t think straight when you’re touching me.”
He pressed his mouth to the corner of her eyebrow, the rush of his breath against her skin striking her as deliciously intimate. “Tell me to stop, baby, and I’ll stop. But if you don’t, I’m going to put my fingers in your sweet little body again and make you come so hard you scream.”
Knowing damn well that she couldn’t resist him, even when there was every chance this was going to be something she regretted, she dug her fingers into his thick hair and pulled his mouth back to hers, kissing him with every ounce of visceral emotion that was raging inside her. With every bit of passion and fury and heartbreak he’d ever made her feel, and he made a hard, thick sound deep in his chest, his tall body shuddering against her. He gripped the back of her neck, holding her in place for his marauding mouth, and the next thing she knew the hand between her legs was inside her panties, the heat of his palm making her moan. Then his fingers separated her, sliding between the slippery folds, before two of them circled the tender opening there and pushed hard inside her. They were big enough to make her breath hitch, her body still unused to a man’s touch after so many years of being alone. Long and wickedly skilled, they filled her perfectly, stretching her open as he started to plunge them in and out of her in a greedy, driving rhythm that made her breathless and achy for more. She was so wet the movement of his fingers was making slick, moist sounds in the quiet stillness of the room, but she was too lost in the way it felt to be embarrassed.
Pressing his forehead against hers, he growled, “You feel so damn perfect, it’s unreal, Rey.”
Then the callused pad of his thumb settled against her swollen clit, rubbing the sensitive bundle of nerves with a firm, steady pressure, and that was it. He might have left her hanging in that motel room the other night—but not this time. With a hoarse cry on her lips, she crashed into a sizzling, searing orgasm, the shattering pulses of pleasure exploding through her like an unstoppable force of nature, filling her with heat. Her head shot back as her thighs trembled, her body completely open and vulnerable to him. To whatever he wanted to give her...take from her.
He lowered his head and nipped at the side of her throat, licking his tongue over her thrashing pulse, his bi
g hand still buried between her legs, and he kept shoving his fingers into her drenched, clutching tissues until she was gripping them so tightly he could barely move them. “God, baby, that was the hottest thing I’ve ever felt,” he said against her shoulder, his soft hair tickling her jaw. “Only thing that could be better is feeling you do that when I’m buried inside you.”
Her lips twitched with a grin that she couldn’t hold back, loving the way he talked to her. The way he wasn’t shy about letting her know how he felt and what he wanted—at least when it came to sex.
Still feeling languid and drowsy with pleasure, she was sad when she felt him carefully work his fingers free, then pull his hand from between her legs. Needing to see his face—to see if he looked even half as shattered as she felt—she managed to crack her eyes open just in time to catch him putting those two glistening fingers in his mouth. They were drenched in her juices, and she thought it was the most erotic thing she’d ever seen, watching him swallow her flavor down his throat, while a thick, purely male sound of appreciation rumbled up from deep in his chest.
“Christ, that’s incredible,” he groaned, licking between his knuckles after he’d pulled his fingers free. “Like warm, salted caramel and cream. Rich and sweet and fucking delicious.” His heavy-lidded gaze burned with hunger, and he placed his damp hand against the side of her face as he said, “I would drown in you right now if I had the time.”
She blinked, too steeped in residual pulses of pleasure to understand what he meant. “Time?” Why doesn’t he have the time?
His cock was a rigid, throbbing, impossibly thick ridge behind the fly of his jeans, and he pressed even harder against her, before giving a rough groan and taking a step back, pulling away from her. “I bloody hate it, Rey, but I’ve got to go. If I don’t, Kyle’s gonna come back here looking for me.”
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