by Marie Harte
And then he’d accused her of holding him captive. She’d bolted like her ass was on fire. He could still smell the bitter humiliation wafting from her when she’d vanished. His beast chided him for being less than sensitive. So what that she’d captured him? She’d rewarded him with that sweet pussy. She’d given him more joy than he’d had since… Well, since Gray. But that asshole was nowhere to be found. Probably out in the woods, cursing his name because Bas had disappeared, giving him more work to do.
Gray didn’t need him; Ali did. Unlike the sanctimonious prick who’d scorned Bas’s affections, he had no intention of rejecting Ali. When she’d petted him after sex, that awkward yet tender care had touched him deeply. Too bad he didn’t know what the hell to do now. She’d left him tied up and naked on the bed, the room once again bathed in silence.
Then a thought occurred to him—to use his telekinesis to search for a way to escape. For the first time that he could remember, he’d been in charge of his power with Ali. He hadn’t hurt her while making love. And when he’d mentally stroked her clit, he’d felt the pleasure all the way to his bones.
He needed to help her, to ease the hurt he’d unintentionally caused. Bas closed his eyes and felt with his mind. The woman hadn’t left a key anywhere that he’d seen, and she had two cupboards and a bookcase down here. Neither was locked. He opened his eyes and concentrated on his night vision, calling on his Circ senses for clarity. Once the room lit up, he flexed his mental muscles to open the cupboards and search through the bookcase.
No keys, no weapons of any kind, and no way to disengage the manacles. He’d have to break them. He changed, pushing against the stretching cuffs. Fuck. She had to be using some kind of Circ-proof bonds. But what had she connected them to? He grinned when he felt the metallic feet of the bed with his mind. After a silent count of three, he yanked the metal feet clean off. The bed slammed to the ground with a loud bang, but his manacles dangled free.
That no one came to investigate the noise reinforced the notion he’d been placed in a soundproofed room. The woman was smart, he’d give her that. But she hadn’t counted on a telekinetic Circ.
He rubbed his wrists and ankles, wishing he could take off the restraints. They trailed over the stone floor, announcing his presence to anyone within hearing distance. After failing to find anything he might use to clothe himself, Bas followed the same direction in which Ali had left. He walked down a short corridor and up a set of steps. After he pushed up on the trapdoor above him, he walked out into a cozy little log cabin.
Rustic yet homey, the place had braided rugs over wooden floors, a comfortable-looking couch, a bed in one corner, and across the room, a nice kitchen. To his surprise, a wood stove, sink, and functional bathroom appeared in working order. So much for a small footprint. Someone had to know this place existed when the utility bills came due. And then he spotted the wiring leading to solar panels above. Hence, her electricity, hot water, and lights.
He didn’t see a hint of Ali anywhere.
Annoyed, he looked through the house and found his trousers at least. He put them on. Then he found an overlarge jacket in the lone closet in the home. It smelled musty, as if it hadn’t been used in some time, and Bas’s beast approved. No male to contend with for the female. The jacket belonged to an old suitor or someone gone from her life.
A grunt of satisfaction he shouldn’t have felt emerged, and he licked his fangs. He needed to bite his female, something she hadn’t let happen last night. Instead, she’d kept him under her thumb, tied up. He liked the kink, being at her mercy. Bas always took charge during sex. Except when he’d been with Gray. And now apparently, Ali.
A stupid grin covered his face, and though he tried to stifle it as he went in search of the maddening woman outside, he couldn’t help being so happy about his time with her. She should have looked heinous. Instead her danger only added to her appeal. Not quite a mutant, but no normal Circ, she put him in mind of a panther about to strike. One who’d licked, sucked, and fucked her mate to rapturous exhaustion.
His hard-on returned, though he should have been too tired to want her again. His beast prodded him to seek Gray. To commence with the rest of the bonding they’d need to fully prepare their female to—
“Shit.” Bas had been trying to deny the truth since he’d been with Gray. Lust he could handle. But this love he felt, he didn’t like. Gray was an arrogant asshole at the best of times. Sure, he had a soft side, but he rarely used it with Bas. And still Bas wanted the male—his love, his affection, his trust.
Wanting Gray was bad enough. But connecting with a woman on the verge of not just going rogue but turning mutant? Did he have a secret death wish after all? Maybe those dickheads in the PWP labs had messed with his mind more than he’d thought. His fear of rejection, of not being enough, haunted him. So to make up for it, perhaps he sought to punish himself by choosing to love unavailable partners?
Bas scowled, wishing he could turn off the psychobabble inside his head. But his beast found the ideas interesting. Sebastian Decker, one of the few Circs with an intelligent animal who liked fucking with him as much as Bas liked fucking with other people. Laid-back yet firm, Bas called the shots by controlling his temper and easing others around him. All except for Gray and one sexy, blonde-haired vixen with the nicest breasts he’d ever seen. Held. Tasted.
He groaned and did his best to will away the iron bar in his pants. Instead, he opened his mouth and tried to catch her scent, tasting and smelling it now that he knew what to search for. To his shock, Ali smelled faintly like him. Otherwise, he would have had a hard time tracking her at all. The woman truly could control her scent, as well as her pheromones.
He wondered if he could apologize enough to get her to use them on him again today.
With a grin, he increased his speed. He needed to find her before anyone else did, and that thought wiped the smile from his face and the bulge from between his legs like nothing could. Now worry for the female overtook sense, and he plunged through the woods, seeking his mate.
He found her covered in blood just as another Circ readied to attack her. Bas flew between them, acting on instinct, and charged… Only to find Gray in his arms once more.
Chapter Six
Gray swore and disentangled himself from Bas. To his relief, his partner looked no less the worse for wear for his absence. A welcome sight, considering the female looked like a demon covered in blood, her fangs and claws exposed and no doubt aching to sink into his flesh.
Yet for all that Bas looked fine, his scent was different. More…enticing?
Gray blinked hard, his ability to concentrate overtaken by the sexiest, headiest scent. Lavender and spice, a mixture of honeyed sweetness he wanted over his tongue. Just before he shoved his cock in it.
He took a step toward the mutant and found his progression blocked by Bas. Gray’s beast took note of his mate’s good health, reaffirmed their connection, and approved of Bas’s obvious protection of the female. Baffling, especially since Gray had been trained from the cradle to eliminate danger to those he cared for. Bas, like it or not, was his partner. Gray should have been working to dispel the threat to him, but instead he wanted to protect a mutant?
Not partner. Mate. I’ve all but claimed him. And he’s claimed her. If only the stupid human would take notice. Gray stumbled at the insane thoughts of his beast, not pleased to be considered a “stupid human,” and prayed he’d made a mistake. Though he’d speculated on his closeness to Bas, he hadn’t accepted any mating nonsense. And he sure as hell wouldn’t align himself alongside a woman with red eyes and black skin who rolled around in a fresh kill, no matter how sexy she looked when changed. Her coloring could only mean she teetered on the verge of going mutant, if she wasn’t there already. And a monster as a mate didn’t factor into Gray’s planned future.
Yet as she glared at him, he liked the small yet sharp gleam of her fangs. On closer notice, her dark red pupils were surrounded by brown, not black. A sl
ight ring of white kept her eyes from looking completely alien. And her hair. Such glorious strands of white blonde threaded with honeyed wheat and streaks of brown. Long and thick, her hair framed an intelligent face. But her body. Jesus, she had beautifully rounded breasts, a trim waist, and nice, muscular thighs he could all too easily imagine wrapped around his waist as he plowed into her pussy while Bas fucked her tight ass.
“Yeah, she’s lethal in more ways than one,” Bas murmured.
Apparently the woman heard him. “Shut your mouth, Bas. I didn’t take you for that big an asshole. Now move aside.”
So she knew his partner well enough to call him by his nickname, and she wanted him safely out of the way. Interesting.
“But if I move, you two will kill each other,” Bas protested.
Gray glared at him. “I’m not going to hurt her,” he said at the same time she said, “Hell, yeah. I’m going to gut him. He’s a killer.”
“So am I,” Bas argued.
“No, you’re a mediator with fangs,” Gray corrected him.
“Fuck off.” Bas turned and shoved Gray with a strength that still surprised him. “Keep talking, and I’ll let her have you.”
“Let me?” The woman laughed, a deep chuckle that sent shivers up his spine.
He realized the scent that had held him fast before had retreated enough so that he could think. But it was still there, a tempting fragrance that called him to come closer. He tried to shake it off but couldn’t. And then he remembered where he’d experienced that reaction before. Damn. She’d been controlling him with her pheromones, the way a few females on the Circe’s Recruits team, a Circ team he’d once worked with, were able to do. Had she wanted, she could have killed him easily while he lusted, unable to think beyond sex.
Intrigued at the many facets of this female, he kept his beast in check and let Bas lead.
Bas held up his wrists, and Gray saw the metal that had slapped into him when they’d wrestled. “Honey, I hate to break it to you, but if I’d wanted out of my restraints last night, I’d have gotten out. So yeah, let you.”
Gray eyed the cuffs with disbelief. “You tied him up?” he roared at the woman while his beast mentally applauded her. Strong female.Smart, sexy. Ours.
“Yeah. And you’re both lucky he’s still breathing, so shut the hell up.”
He wasn’t used to hearing anyone talk to him like that. Except for Bas, but the aggravating Circ did it all the time.
Before Gray could snarl back at her, Bas interrupted. “Ali, we both know you’re the lucky one. Just who was riding who last night?” He smirked the same way he had right before he’d kissed Gray that first time.
The remembrance shook him as much as Bas’s words shook her. “You had sex with him?” He turned to Bas. “You fucked her while I was marching all over the mountain looking for your sorry ass?”
Bas put on a sad face that didn’t fool Gray in the least. “I was tied up. She forced me.”
A glance at the woman showed her torn between anger and embarrassment. A rogue turning mutant would feel anger, but shame? She reacted like a normal woman would at having her sex life dissected before a stranger, though her looks were anything but ordinary. That being the case, no way would he even think about putting her down with a bullet. Not when he could see she wasn’t the enemy he’d been told to expect. And not when he had to know how she’d taste, just there at the crook of her neck.
But before he could take another step in her direction, Bas had him by the throat.
“What the fuck?”
“What do you want me to do with him?” Bas asked her, his grip like iron.
Alison Ross looked from Bas to Gray and back. She gave Gray a mean smile, and his beast fell in instant and utter love. Gray sputtered and tried to break free from Bas, but his beast took every ounce of his strength and sat on it, letting Gray struggle like a limp worm on a hook.
“Bring him along. But make it easy on yourself. Remember how I handled you.”
Before Gray could ask what the hell that meant, Bas squeezed his neck with both hands.
Gray blacked out.
When he came to, he found himself flat on a mattress that smelled like Bas, the female, and sex. His wrists and ankles were fastened to the corners of the bed in what looked like the manacles Bas had been wearing. They adapted to his size when he changed and changed back. Gray decided to remain in his human form, knowing Bas wouldn’t seriously hurt him.
He’d let his partner play his games. Maybe Bas thought that by pretending to go along with the woman, he’d earn her trust? Or maybe he’d been fucked so thoroughly last night, he’s caught by his cock. The uncharitable thought made a lot of sense, especially when Bas and the female—freshly scrubbed, her hair still wet—entered the room. She looked like a walking advertisement for rough, satisfying sex.
“Her name is Ali. Not the female,” Bas said offhand.
Stunned, Gray sent with his mind, “You can hear me?”
“Yeah. Unfortunately, I can.” The glare Bas shot him reminded Gray he’d thought some ugly thoughts about mating and Bas in particular not too long ago.
“Oh, come on. You can’t hold that against me. I don’t want to mate anyone. It’s not personal. And you can’t be mad that I’m telepathic, not when you used telekinesis on me. Yeah, I remember all of it.” Especially how damn sexy Bas had been.
He must have let that slip, because Bas’s scowl softened.
“Alison Ross is much more than she seems.” Gray stated the obvious. “Not the male we’d come to kill, then.”
“For God’s sake. Don’t tell her that. I explained we’d been sent to investigate rogue Circs. She’s barely trusting me as it is. Just play along, okay?”
Relieved he’d pegged Bas right in the first place, Gray played the part of angry partner. To Ali, he asked, “Why the hell am I here? Why is my partner, that asshole, helping you?”
“And this is why he has so very few friends,” Bas murmured to Ali. He turned back to Gray. “You can’t hurt her. She’s the one being hunted. Not the hunter. And she’s only killed in self-defense.”
Ali nodded. “But nothing says I can’t kill you two. I’m still not sure how you’re not right there next to him,” she said to Bas.
“Trade secret.”
“Yeah, right.” She huffed, but Gray noticed her body language. She leaned toward Bas, not away from him. A measure of trust existed, clear as day. “So what’s this prick doing here?”
Bas laughed. “You nailed it. He’s an arrogant prick who thinks he’s better than us because he was born Circ.”
Damn. Bas wasn’t supposed to announce to the world just how different Gray was.
“A Circ is a Circ in my book. Long as they’re all dead, we’re doing just fine.”
Bas frowned. “You can’t mean me.”
“Why not? Just because you’re pretending to care doesn’t mean you do. Sex is physical. You come, you’re done.”
“And that’s all it meant to you?”
Bas’s quiet alerted Gray to pay attention. Ali continued, but she didn’t answer Bas’s question.
“My point is that every Circ who’s come up into this mountain has had my capture and/or death in mind.”
“Yeah, I found your last boyfriends.” Gray tugged ineffectually at his wrists again. “Bullets through their brains. Nice shots.”
“Glad you approve.” She walked right up next to him, and Bas joined her.
Despite trying to hold it in, Gray couldn’t contain his arousal. He ached to bite, to suck, to kiss both of them until they moaned his name. Until they accepted his dominance and submitted. Bas had already offered him so much. Would Ali?
“See?” Bold as you please, she ran a hand over the bulge in his pants. “This is what you want when you come here.”
“Christ.” Gray forced himself to lie flat when every instinct demanded he arch into her palm to prolong the contact. “If you don’t want it, tone down the scent, woman.”
Bas cleared his throat and drew her attention. “I’ll say this for him. He’s hell on wheels in the sack. But then he opens his mouth and ruins it.”
She chuckled, and Bas smiled back.
Gray liked their interaction. But he wanted to be a part of it. No, dammit, I don’t, he yelled at his beast. I want out of these restraints and to get back home. Then I want a long vacation away from everyone and everything.