Cato: #13 (Luna Lodge)

by Madison Stevens

  Wendy’s cheeks now burned even more. The heat radiated up into her ears.

  Cato cleared his throat. “Maybe I’ll just meet you at the hall tomorrow morning. And we can go over stuff.”

  She swallowed, not really trusting her own voice at the moment. She nodded.

  Cato stared at her for a moment longer before turning to Jamie and Leah with a quick nod and jogging off.

  “Wow,” Jamie said softly. “That was so hot, I think I got second-hand orgasms.”

  Wendy’s friend’s words shoved her hard back into reality.

  “Way to kill the vibe,” Leah said as she stepped past Jamie into the house.

  Jamie snorted loudly and stepped inside. “Whatever. I wasn’t the one that opened my big mouth.”

  Leah sat down on the couch and folded her arms. “And what exactly was your plan? Stand there waiting until morning?”

  Jamie shrugged and tossed herself onto the couch as well.

  “I was hoping to see a little action,” she said with a grin.

  Wendy rubbed a hand against her brow. She wasn’t exactly certain what had just happened, but there was no way there was going to be action.

  Maybe.

  Well, probably.

  She hoped at least.

  Never in her life had she felt an attraction like that. It was such a strange feeling. And if she was being totally honest, she wasn’t sure what she would have done if Cato had made a move. There was something about him that pulled her in. Maybe there was a lot of things she would have done, and she should have been glad her friends showed up when they did.

  It was silly. She had just met the man not but hours before, and already she wanted to roll around in bed with him. Sure, he was a handsome hybrid, but she’d been around many of the hybrids and never felt that kind of burning longing.

  Wendy turned to the two women on the couch. They both watched her, eager expressions on their faces, clearly waiting for her to dish.

  “It was nothing,” Wendy said, and took a big bite of her sandwich. “He just stopped by to talk about a party we’ve been assigned to work on.”

  Leah raised a brow. “Didn’t look like nothing.”

  Wendy stared down the other woman. She clearly wasn’t letting this go.

  “Wait, party?” Jamie said.

  She gave herself a little mental fist bump that Jamie took the bait. If she could count on anyone to change the subject, it would be Jamie.

  “The colonel wants to boost morale and create bonds,” Wendy said. “Thinks a party is the way to go.”

  Jamie frowned a little. “And you’re setting up this party?”

  Wendy could hear the apprehension in her voice, and it irritated her. “So?”

  Leah was the one to chime in this time. “Well, you aren’t exactly known as the partying sort.” She shrugged. “Not that I’m one to talk.”

  Wendy took another bite and sighed.

  Leah was right. The colonel assigning her to this was a chance, and she had no clue what she was doing.

  “So help me out.” Wendy pulled out a pad of paper and tossed it over to the two. “Write down some ideas that I can use.” She shrugged. “And you can tell me a bit more about the guys you are going out with Friday.”

  Jamie grinned. “I can do that.”

  Chapter Five

  Cato wasn’t sure what he had been thinking the day before. All he’d planned to do was stop by and see what he needed to do for the party. When she’d opened the door looking far less starched than when he’d seen her earlier, something in him felt the call of his inner beast.

  No matter how inconvenient it might be, the cold, hard fact was that she was his Vestal. He knew it wouldn’t do any good to complain to Titus. He wondered if Titus realized already that she was Cato’s Vestal.

  When he saw how she reacted to his presence though, he wasn’t thinking about Titus, or spying, or any crap like that. He just wanted her.

  Cato grunted as he made his way over to the ball room. Of all the stupid times for him to meet his mate, of course it would be now. Right when things were about as uncertain as they could get. And what the hell was his plan if he had gotten her to bed?

  The lower half of him jumped at the idea of sliding into her. He stifled the growl that wanted to come out.

  He was fucked. And not in the way that his lower half wanted to be. No, this was full-on trouble and worst of all, there was no way to avoid any of it. Titus had asked him to work with her and be his ears. Now there he was, facing down his only chance at happiness and not able to act on it without losing any chance of keeping his head clear.

  This was a living hell. And it was only going to get worse. He would almost rather take on a room full of Glycons.

  Cato stopped outside the large door and breathed in deeply. He could already tell she was there waiting for him. Her soft cinnamon scent floated in the air around him, luring him into focusing on her.

  His.

  He could feel it to the very center of his being. She was his.

  Cato let out the air he had been holding in and shook himself. No. He needed to keep control.

  It was not like he could walk up to some soldier and give her a line about how they were destined to be together. He could only imagine how Colonel Hall would react once she heard that.

  He could do this. Just walk in, get whatever he needed to do done, and go home. Sure, he might have to relieve some pressure himself once he got home, but he could fucking do this.

  There wasn’t a choice. He had to do this. For the sake of the hybrids.

  With more force than he intended, Cato tossed opened the door. Inside he was surprised to find that Wendy wasn’t alone.

  “What the hell is she doing here?” he asked, his voice almost a growl.

  The two women sat in some nice armchairs from the corner of the room, which they had pulled over to the middle. Wendy, in uniform, and someone he was shocked to see: Jill Hope. A cameraman stood behind them, his camera over his shoulder.

  Just thinking the name Jill Hope still pissed him off. The reporter had been a pain in their ass since they were exposed to the world. The woman had been kidnapped along with Lena, the Vestal mate of Varius, when Reverend John had hatched a vicious plan against the hybrids.

  The crazy bastard had intended to burn Lena alive on television, and needed Jill Hope and her cameraman there to report on it.

  None of the hybrids blamed Varius for killing the bastard, but the death being televised live hadn’t helped them at all in the public eye. The humans all seemed to focus on John being killed, rather than the fact the monster had intended to murder a woman.

  Sure, Jill Hope had been fighting on the hybrids’ side ever since, but in Cato’s eyes, that didn’t make up for the damage that she had done. Her reporting was half the reason so many people distrusted the hybrids.

  And he didn’t give a shit if she was a Vestal, something they hadn’t realized until the dust settled. Almost no hybrids ever had direct contact with her, and Varius had been around his own Vestal and so focused when he encountered her that he didn’t initially realize it.

  Cato didn’t care. It changed nothing.

  “Jill Hope,” the reporter said, and stepped over to where he was.

  All the while Cato stared down Wendy. Was she the one who’d brought Jill Hope in?

  Jill stuck out her hand, and he ignored it. The woman only smiled a little wider. Her teeth were white, almost unnaturally so. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen teeth so white.

  “Titus wasn’t wrong,” Jill said, and grinned. “Your surly attitude is going to be a great sell. The female viewers will eat that up. Everyone loves a bad boy.”

  She gave him a little wink and then spun on her heels. Her shoulder-length straight blond hair swished as she did so.

  It took him a few seconds to process what she’d said and a few more for the implications to sink in.

  He was confused. Beyond confused. Titus set this up? The bastard didn’
t even bother to warn him.

  “What?”

  “Okay, let’s get to work,” she said. “I need you both in the chairs, and we can begin.”

  This was making even less sense.

  “I don’t understand,” he said.

  He looked over to Wendy who seemed to be having trouble looking him in the eyes. For a moment everything faded as he remembered just how close he had been to taking things a step too far.

  All he had wanted to do was get the fuck through this day as quickly as possible. Now it had all gone to shit, and he wasn’t even sure why. No one could be bothered to give him a two-minute phone call apparently.

  “Now don’t you worry,” Jill said, and pulled him over to the chair. Cato sat because there really was no other choice. “This is a puff piece. Something fun to show how well things are going for you here. How well the military and the hybrids are getting along.”

  “But we aren’t.”

  His gaze followed Wendy as the cameraman led her to the side. She still wasn’t looking at him, and it was only irritating him more having the yappy reporter in his face.

  The cameraman slid a finger between the buttons on Wendy’s shirt and clipped a small microphone there.

  The man was too close to his Vestal. Cato felt the low rumble in the back of his throat.

  “Hey, big boy,” Jill said. He snapped his eyes to hers and narrowed them. “Look, no going all glow-eyed on me. The public won’t respond well to that.”

  Cato huffed loudly. “And why the fuck should I care what the public thinks?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Boy, would have been nice if Titus had told me how thick you are,” she said, and leaned in a little. “I’m doing this as a favor. You all need this. There are people out there that would like to see your people taken out for good. I’m here to help with that.”

  Help. People didn’t just help for nothing in his opinion.

  “And what do you get out of this?” he said, not bothering to hide the disdain in his voice.

  She shrugged as she straightened the black t-shirt he was wearing and clipped a mic onto his pocket.

  “I get an exclusive with the hybrids,” she said. He watched as she continued to not look him in the eye.

  “And?”

  Jill turned her eyes to his, and he could finally see honesty there.

  She shrugged. “And a chance to make amends. I owe Varius.”

  He gave a little nod and turned away. Maybe he had been too quick to judge. He was still annoyed, but she could work off her debt.

  “Okay,” Jill said, and stood. She frowned down at him a little. “Is that the best shirt you have?” She sighed, then shook her head. “You know what, never mind. It’s very… you.”

  He glanced down at her shirt. What the fuck was wrong with his shirt?

  “You look fine,” Wendy whispered as she sat next to him.

  Cato turned and was surprised to see her looking at him for the first time since he’d come in.

  He couldn’t help the small smile that came to his lips. Her cheeks were pink, and he loved the little strands of soft hair that floated around her face like a halo.

  “Um, you just have,” she said, and leaned over and slid her fingers through the front of his hair.

  He breathed in deeply. The rich cinnamon scent filled every part of him and made him ache for more of her touch. If they didn’t have an audience, he wasn’t half sure that he wouldn’t have groaned a little at the need that filled him.

  When Wendy sat back, her face was even more pink than before.

  “You just had a few pieces out of place,” she said.

  Cato swallowed. There was no way today was going quickly for him. No way in hell.

  Chapter Six

  A single bead of sweat trickled down Wendy’s back as she sat under the hot lights they had staged for the interview. The bright lights were almost blinding if she looked into them directly.

  Administrative support was a long way from public relations. This sort of thing was the last job anyone should have had her doing.

  Public speaking was not her forte. Hell, she had done anything she could in school to get out of speaking in front of groups. Sure, she’d had to do her fair share of briefings in her time in the Army, but those were always planned, mission-specific, and short as she could make them.

  The truth was something about public speaking just made her break out in a cold sweat and filled her stomach with butterflies. Now, they wanted her to not only do that, but to do it in a situation where millions of people would be watching.

  Her stomach lurched. She wondered if she’d end up going viral if she threw up on camera.

  She glanced over at Cato. The hybrid remained cool and collected. It was like he did this sort of thing all the time.

  She knew he didn’t. At least she thought she did. Titus and a few others were the public face of Luna Lodge. From what little she’d managed to gather, Cato seemed to be a guy who didn’t always play well with others, not exactly the kind of guy you’d put in front of a camera.

  For that matter, he didn’t seem like the kind of guy you’d put in charge of party planning, but maybe there was some sort of hybrid-specific angle she just wasn’t getting.

  Maybe he was just so amazing that he could flip a mental switch and go from gruff soldier to smooth PR guy.

  Wendy glanced over again at him and rubbed her fingers together. She could still feel the softness of his hair. How the waves had slipped between her fingers with ease.

  She hated when guys wore too much gel in their hair. It was always stiff and made them look like a plastic doll. Not Cato though. Soft and made her wish to run her fingers through it over and over again.

  She swallowed. This was not good. She couldn’t let herself go down this path. If she let her guard down and got all dreamy eyed over some man, especially a hybrid, there was no telling what it would do to her career. No, she needed to stay focused.

  The cameraman held up five fingers and nodded to Jill. He lowered a finger, then another.

  Wendy’s heart raced. It was really happening.

  3… 2… 1…

  “Jill Hope here, reporting from inside the mysterious Luna Lodge. I’m here to expose the inner workings of the home and sanctuary that houses the controversial hybrids that the world has only recently come to know.”

  Wendy watched the reporter speak into the camera with ease and wondered just what in the world Colonel Hall had been thinking. After all, there was no way this reporter was here doing this without the colonel’s explicit permission. There were so many things that could go wrong, so many ways the tension might get ratcheted up by a gaffe.

  Maybe the colonel hoped it’d ease the unrest down at the fence. Protests had been common, but they’d become a daily occurrence. They weren’t always dignified and calm either.

  For the most part, the soldiers guarding the gates and walls kept any unauthorized civilians on the outside of the walls and fence.

  The fact that it was the protestors trying to break in, rather than the hybrids harassing people in town fueled more than a few uncomfortable thoughts in Wendy’s mind. It was hard to know who the military was even protecting, especially when the hybrids never seemed to be the aggressors.

  She knew the colonel struggled with the mission. The hybrids were in their care, and no one there wanted to see anyone hurt. Colonel Hall might be strict, but she didn’t seem to have anything personally against the hybrids.

  Inclusion was commonly talked about in the military. Regardless of race, religion, or gender, when you joined the service, you became a part of something bigger, after all. Maybe the military could relate to the hybrids in a way that a lot of the civilians couldn’t. Even though they hadn’t chosen to serve, they’d been raised as soldiers.

  Wendy blinked and realized Jill was still talking. She was on live television and would need to keep her focus.

  “This will be a three-part story,” Jill said, “ending with the bi
ggest event ever hosted here: a party to help celebrate the reintegration of the Army at Luna Lodge to aid the hybrids.”

  Wendy’s ears perked up.

  Three part? As in, she would be doing this three different times.

  “I’m joined today by Staff Sergeant Wendy Morris and Cato of the hybrids.”

  Jill turned from the camera to smile at them both. Wendy responded with what she hoped was a smile, but for some reason, the muscles on her face weren’t functioning quite like they should.

  “I hear you two have been put in charge of party planning as representatives of your respective groups. My understanding is that you’re going to come up with a party that can really help the two groups mix in a social setting.”

  Wendy swallowed, her mouth suddenly very dry.

  “That’s right,” Cato said.

  She sighed a little, glad that he had been there to field the question.

  “Sergeant, in what ways do you think this party will be different from most?”

  Wendy thought for a moment. “Well, aside from the people attending, there really shouldn’t be much difference.”

  The corner of Jill’s eye twitched a little, and Wendy knew she was going to have to elaborate.

  “What I mean is that the whole point of the party is to make each side feel comfortable.” She shrugged. “If we make it some big to-do or some super-formal thing, then it wouldn’t really be meeting the goal.”

  Wendy glanced over to Cato who was watching her with interest.

  “It’s supposed to be fun. That’s what a party is all about.”

  “I see.” Jill nodded. “So the focus of this party is going to be more about creating an ambiance where everyone will feel welcome? What an admirable start to such a momentous affair.”

  Once Wendy started to think about it, the idea she’d just mentioned seemed almost impossible. Making these two groups feel comfortable around one another was going to take more than some streamers and food. It was going to take some real planning.

  Shit.

  It wasn’t even like they had a common upbringing to draw on. The hybrids had been genetically engineered and raised in a harsh laboratory environment outside of the United States.