by Odessa Lynne
Rick dragged a claw slowly across Cam’s cheek. “I’m learning,” he said, his voice deep, his tone thoughtful, and his eyes boring right through Cam.
Cam shivered. A trickle of blood teased the back of his neck, causing a sudden prickle. He didn’t try to raise his hand but he couldn’t stop the way his shoulder twitched.
Rick thrust his face in close to Cam’s throat.
The sudden move made Cam jerk and he staggered backward.
Rick yanked him forward and almost off his feet. His knees buckled and his weight tried to pull him down. He grabbed the front of Rick’s t-shirt.
Rick’s hold tightened and Cam’s breath hitched with a short, sharp gasp. The solid bridge of Rick’s nose forced Cam’s chin up and then teeth clamped down with dizzying force on the column of his throat.
His blood pounded in his veins and a flush heated every inch of his skin.
He should have been worried about any number of things: survival, bleeding out, Ava and the boys and how they’d make it without him. Instead, all he could think about was the fact that his dick was making a damn fool out of him.
Rick slipped his hand between them and rubbed the palm of his hand over the growing length of Cam’s cock. Every muscle in Cam’s body seemed to tremble with the desire to push against that hand, and although he stopped himself just before he gave in, he couldn’t stop his soft moan.
The pressure at Cam’s throat eased and then disappeared.
“Your submission is all the sweeter because you can’t help yourself.”
Cam got his feet under him again and raised a trembling hand to wipe sweat off his upper lip. “Go to hell.”
The claws at his neck retracted but Rick’s stare didn’t give Cam the freedom he wanted. He felt caged in a way he hadn’t felt even when he’d been trapped in that cellar with Rick. He couldn’t back away, couldn’t put even a few feet between them even though he wanted to, even though Rick’s hold was loose enough that he could.
He couldn’t move because Rick might follow.
“We’re going to fuck now,” Rick said. “Before my heat cycle returns and your scent steals my control.”
“The hell we are.” His control almost slipped. He fixed his gaze on Rick’s mouth. It took effort not to look in the direction of the cameras.
“I might kill your mate when we meet.” Rick spoke harshly, without compromise.
The words chilled Cam to his bones. “If you think you’re getting near my family talking like that—”
“My instincts are telling me not to let you go. Traesikeille would understand.”
“I wouldn’t,” Cam said, his voice so tight it shook. “I would never forgive you.” He clenched his fist. “And then I’d kill you and don’t think I—”
Rick pressed his finger tight to Cam’s lips, shushing him.
A bright hot rage flooded through him. That fucking—
He bit Rick’s finger.
Two seconds later he was flat on his back on the leaf-covered earth.
Chapter 13
“Shit,” Cam groaned out. He didn’t have enough air left in his lungs for anything else.
Rick growled, his lips pulled back from his teeth. He didn’t lunge for Cam, but his claws had extended and a rumble rose from his chest.
Cam tried to roll over.
Rick pressed his booted foot against Cam’s sternum.
Cam stopped moving.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You coulda fooled me.” Cam tasted the dark tang of blood on his lips and tongue. He reached up and fingered the corner of his mouth where Rick’s claw had cut him. He flicked his gaze toward Rick’s finger.
Blood dripped from the flesh between Rick’s two smallest knuckles. Cam had gotten in a good bite, that was apparent. His stomach turned at the sight of the torn flesh. The dark claw on that finger had extended fully and was at least an inch longer than any of the rest.
“You’re being reckless,” Rick said. “Now isn’t the time to test my control.”
“You’re being a dick and I’ll do whatever the hell—”
The pressure of Rick’s foot on his chest cut off Cam’s ability to keep talking. A fierce ache started up under the spot where he’d been knifed. He hissed his breath through clenched teeth and dug his fingers into the dirt beside him.
The afternoon sunlight dappled the ground around Rick and cut across his face through the branches of the trees. Rick released some of the pressure on Cam’s chest, but he didn’t raise his foot.
Cam coughed a few times before sucking in a painful breath.
“You can continue to argue while we fuck if that’s what you’d like,” Rick said, eyes glinting in the light, “but we’ll both suffer less if you submit gracefully.”
Cam almost choked on that. “Suffer less? Thanks, buddy. Didn’t realize I was such a piss poor fuck.” He tried to move again.
Rick applied more pressure.
“Ah shit . . . Would you stop? I’ve learned my damn lesson.”
Rick looked on with very little sympathy. “You’re not only being reckless, you’re being foolish. Your lack of control is going to cost me mine over my instincts and then, yes, we’ll both suffer. You in the moment, and me once my senses return. I won’t allow you to push me until my instincts take over. You might have a mate, but at the moment, you’re my mate. It’s my duty to care for you. Your safety matters to me. If that means protecting you from yourself, so be it.”
Cam took hold of Rick’s boot even though he knew there was no way he was moving Rick if Rick didn’t want to be moved. “That so?”
“That’s so,” Rick said, sounding as unyielding as that boulder Cam had narrowly missed when he’d let that waterfall wash him over the cliff.
Cam knew what it took to move rocks that big.
Leverage.
“You’ve probably been holding off your next heat cycle with nothing but willpower, huh?” Cam started pulling the bottom hem of his shirt up, eyes steady on Rick’s face. He could see the perspiration above Rick’s eyebrows, glimmering under the bright afternoon sunlight speckled across his face. He flattened his hand on his bared stomach and pushed his fingers under the edge of his waistband. He’d lost his erection the moment his back hit the dirt, but he could see right away that Rick’s gaze had been snagged by the trail of hair that disappeared beneath the fabric and led to his cock.
Forget the damn cameras. He had a mission to finish.
“I should’ve realized how bad you need this.” Cam started pushing his pants down, exposing a streak of dark, curling pubic hair. “Let’s fuck then.”
Rick’s eyes darkened. Maybe it was a trick of the light, but something changed in his expression. The lust faded, his control reasserted itself.
Afraid to lose what advantage he had, Cam quickly changed tactics. He let the waistband of his pants snap back into place and brought his hands up and ran them through his hair with a rough sigh. “I got mad, ran my mouth.” He glanced again at Rick’s finger and grimaced. “I lost control, I admit it. I shouldn’t have done it. I damn well won’t do it again.”
Rick’s hard-eyed gaze didn’t waver. “I question your sincerity.”
Cam clenched his fingers in his hair. “You know I couldn’t fight you off even if I wanted to. You want it, take it. I’m not fighting.”
Rick’s gaze scoured him from head to foot before returning to catch Cam’s own gaze. “I think you enjoy your deceptions.”
Cam mashed his lips together, then forced his arms to relax. “I haven’t lied to you. Now come on buddy. Time’s running out before you meet the wife and kids. You want to fuck again before we meet up with ’em, let’s make the most of the time we’ve got.”
Rick’s foot pressed warningly against Cam’s chest. “You continue to lie to me. It’s time you stopped.”
He couldn’t take a full breath with Rick’s weight on his chest. He wheezed and knocked his hand against the boot over Rick’s ankle. “Enough.”
“Will you answer my questions truthfully?” Rick’s voice had a graveled, harsh edge to it that grated across Cam’s nerves.
Cam hesitated a second too long.
A low growl rose from Rick’s chest and his claws started to grow. “Submit!”
Cam flinched. He dropped his arms to his sides again and breathed harshly through his nose, staring at Rick’s wicked claws. Rick seemed poised on the verge of losing his control. Maybe that had been part of Cam’s plan five minutes ago, but now that he was facing those claws, he had to wonder what the hell he was thinking.
Would he be fast enough?
Did it matter?
He stretched his back under the weight of Rick’s boot, his gaze flickering past Rick, and realized—
Time for that leverage.
“Forget it,” he said, meeting Rick’s gaze head on. “I don’t want to fuck you again anyway. I’ll wait until I get back to my wife and let her strap one on and fuck—”
That did it.
Rick’s clawed fingers bent and his nostrils flared. The glitter of his eyes hardened in a split second and Cam was sure Rick had just given in to the pull of his heat cycle and the instincts that demanded his chosen mate submit to him—or face the consequences.
A fight for dominance that would rile his senses and inflame his sexual appetites—a deadly fight for a human.
For Cam.
Fuck that. Maybe in other circumstances. Not today.
Still, Rick moved so fast Cam hardly had time to suck in a desperate breath to prepare himself as Rick lunged.
One of those clawed hands seized Cam at the throat, claws piercing skin, and Cam grabbed Rick’s wrist with one hand and jabbed the needle Eli had given him into the side of Rick’s muscled bicep with the other.
Rick’s eyes flickered once, bright, hot, and utterly devoid of rational thought.
And then Ava and Marc came charging into the open, a sight that filled Cam with a split second of relief before a frantic worry swooped in and took hold.
Cam had expected the drug to drop Rick where he stood. It hadn’t. Cam sucked in a breath to order Ava not to shoot, but before he had time to yell, Rick dragged him upright by the neck, his claws digging painfully deep into the skin at Cam’s throat.
Ava dropped to one knee, positioning her rifle and sighting in on Rick.
Marc bore down on them, Luis right beside him.
“Dammit, Luis! Get back!” Ava yelled. She didn’t raise her head or take her eyes off her target.
Cam could see Luis coming up quick behind Rick. He grabbed tight to Rick’s forearm with one hand and with the other waved frantically at Ava and the others.
Would he have time to stop them—
He heard Ava speak but couldn’t hear what she said.
Rick swung them around, somehow managing to release Cam and shove him back at the same time.
Cam wasn’t able to catch himself and he tumbled onto his side, landing in a thick patch of briars that jabbed right into his cheek.
He thrust upright on his arms, ignoring the scratch and pull of thorns along the backs of his arms and under the palms of his hands. He lurched to his feet, turning, already yelling.
“Don’t shoot him!”
His warning wasn’t necessary.
Rick had fallen to the ground as the drug Cam had injected into him took effect. Ava hadn’t taken her sights off Rick, but Marc had stopped his forward rush and he had Luis by the arm while Luis looked on wide-eyed. A quick glance around the perimeter showed Cam that Ava had also brought Tom, Cordell, and Olly.
Cam steadied himself and caught Ava’s eye. She nodded to him, waiting for him to tell her what he needed her to do.
He staggered the several steps necessary to get to Rick’s fallen form. His chest was tight and blood dripped down into the collar of his shirt, the trickle creating an itch Cam tried to rub away.
He dropped his hand to his side.
Rick growled low in his throat and tried to roll to the side, but the movement was slow and lethargic. He blinked, his eyelids heavy, his whole body shaking at Cam’s feet. The ragged sounds of his breathing cut through Cam’s stormy thoughts.
“Sorry, buddy,” Cam said softly, almost gently. “You really should’ve seen this coming.”
Cam hunkered down beside Rick, steeling himself before he carefully placed his hand on Rick’s sweat slick arm. Rick jerked, but Cam didn’t remove his hand. He glanced over his shoulder.
“This is won’t last long. Get me the ropes.”
Olly rushed forward, already throwing his pack over his shoulder and digging inside.
He didn’t hesitate to stop at Cam’s side. He handed Cam a thick rope that Cam knew wouldn’t hold Rick indefinitely, but should hold long enough to get him to the bunker and into a cell where he’d be secure and Ava and the boys would be safe from him and his reaction to the human scent. That was all Cam needed.
Rick blinked up at him, eyes dilated wide, and another shudder wracked him. “I . . . am sorry.”
Confusion rushed through Cam like whitewater. If anything, he’d expected anger from Rick. Not . . . this. Rick stared up at him with a look on his face that Cam could almost interpret as sadness. Regret.
“I didn’t want to have to do this,” Cam said, finding himself unable to leave things as they were. “But I couldn’t let you near the boys right now. You’re too dangerous and they’re just not young enough for me to take my chances with you.”
He was pretty sure Rick couldn’t really hear him right then, but he felt better saying the words anyway. Guilt was a powerful emotion. It made people stupid and he wasn’t immune. Better to eliminate what he could so he wouldn’t be tempted later to make a mistake he couldn’t afford.
A foot shuffled in the leaves beside him and tension stiffened his shoulders. He forced himself to relax and glance over.
Olly was staring at him, his green eyes full of questions Cam wasn’t in the mood to answer. One quick look in Ava’s direction, and he saw the same questioning look on her face. He didn’t bother looking at Marc, but he did take in Luis’s shifting stance.
“Help me here,” he said, waving Olly forward. “We’re going to run out of time and these need to be tight. I don’t want any accidents.”
He patted Rick’s arm once more. “When we’re safe, I’ll let you free and we’ll talk about what’s going to happen later. But we won’t hurt you.”
Rick’s dark lashes fluttered closed and hid Rick’s gold eyes from Cam’s view. He wondered if Rick believed him.
Cam exhaled roughly and pushed the rope under Rick’s body. Didn’t matter in the end. His actions would have to prove his words were true.
He tossed the end of the rope to Olly. “Pull it.”
Olly wasn’t as bold as Cam was about touching Rick and manhandling him, but between the two of them they got the rope wrapped around Rick’s torso enough times to trap Rick’s arms behind his body. Cam could feel the passage of time in the droplets of sweat that trailed down his temples but he kept working the ropes around Rick’s shuddering form as if he weren’t working to a clock.
“That one,” he said, pointing at another length of rope. “Get it around his legs. We’ll be carrying him.”
Olly followed his directions without comment even though Cam could see from the expression on his face that Olly wasn’t sure Cam’s idea was a good one.
Olly was a short man, coming to about the same height as Ava, who was average height for a woman, but he had enough lean muscle that Cam had always considered him someone good to have at his back. He trusted Olly as much as he trusted anyone, except Ava. He’d married Ava; that said all that needed to be said about how much he trusted her.
Cam yanked the rope he held tighter around Rick’s torso.
His peripheral vision wasn’t what it normally was so he was surprised when the rustle of leaves came from beside him. He twisted to look over his shoulder.
Luis stood there, watching raptly.
“Stay back,” Cam ordered.
“I’ve never seen one this close before,” Luis said, his voice cracking with awe.
Cam shook his head and used his shoulder to wipe sweat off his temple. “You heard me.”
Luis grinned, the scar in his cheek turning into a deep dimple beside his mouth. “I’m not afraid of you, old man.”
Luis claimed to be older than his brother Miguel, although Miguel disputed that claim regularly. Still, Luis almost always took the lead and Miguel usually followed without complaint. They were identical twins, but they’d stopped looking alike years ago. Luis’s scars and Miguel’s illness had seen to that. Miguel was several inches shorter and at least thirty pounds lighter. Luis didn’t carry any extra weight of his own, his wiry body growing taller faster than he could put on muscle and fat to fill in the hollows.
“You’re bleeding a lot,” Luis said.
“Dammit, Luis—”
“Get over here brat,” Ava called out. She still had her weapon trained on them, her usual caution not letting up just because Cam thought he had things under control.
Luis objected with a loud groan but started easing forward. “This bites a dick.”
“Unh uh,” Cam said, sticking his arm out and catching Luis by the fabric of his pants’ leg. “Back the way you came.”
Luis did as he was told and Cam finished tying the knot that would hold the ropes snug around Rick’s chest. Olly finished at about the same time and then stood, dusting off his hands as he rose over Cam and Rick.
Cam sighed, and waited.
“They’ll hold,” Olly said.
“Maybe,” Cam said. He gave Ava a pointed look. “If you have to shoot him, don’t shoot to kill. I don’t want him hurt any more than necessary to keep him down.”
She returned his pointed look with one of her own.
Yeah.
Ava wasn’t a killer. He knew that. He wasn’t even sure why he’d felt the need to say what he’d said, but . . .
He returned his attention to Rick.
Yeah. He might be losing his objectivity where Rick was concerned. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He really had made a mistake fucking him.