by Marie Harte
Yet he couldn’t look away from the enticing Circs standing so close to him.
“So what now?” Bas asked.
“Yeah. You going to keep me locked up forever?” he sneered.
She ignored him and answered Bas. “I have to clean up. We left tracks.” She walked to a nearby cupboard and opened the drawer. Then she turned and shot Bas in the blink of an eye.
Bas took a confused step forward, then dropped like a stone. Gray yelled, “I’ll fucking kill you for that!”
“Oh, relax. It’s just a tranq.” She showed Gray the gun, pointed to the dart over Bas’s left pectoral, and his heartbeat returned to normal. “I wasn’t born yesterday. Bas is nice, he’s hot, and he’s perfect. Too perfect. Your partner’s about-face is cute, but I’m not buying it. You two want me back in the labs. I get it. Nice approach too. Tell Trenton I’m done playing. Once I dump you—”
“Wait. Trenton. Do you mean Dr. Caleb Trenton?” Gray stilled, his every sense on alert. “He was killed three years ago in Panama.”
She frowned, studying him. “We both know who he is. Don’t act surprised he’s alive.”
“Well, I am, because I’m the one who shot him.” Or I thought I had. “He’s a very bad guy. Almost on the same level as Elliot Pearl, the doctor who first came up with the Circe serum. Trenton served for a few years under Pearl before he left the service. Then he started his own experiments.” Gray looked at her and knew. “He made you, didn’t he?”
“You could say that.” Ali lowered the gun to her side. She paused and sniffed in his direction. “You’re not lying.” She sounded surprised. “You don’t work with him, do you?”
“No. My job, and his,” he said, nodding at Bas, “is to get rid of scum like him.” He scrutinized her from head to toe. She couldn’t have been more than thirty, probably a few years younger. “How long did he have you?” Gray’s voice softened as he imagined what this young woman had been forced to endure. Despite the mutations he could clearly see on her, a wounded innocence remained in her eyes. If he hadn’t seen that, he might have delved into her mind for answers. But he suspected she’d already been used in ways no woman should ever be.
“Since I was six.” Her gaze took on a faraway look. “My father needed work after he left the army, and he’d made friends with Trenton. I think he knew what Trenton did was wrong, but he didn’t care. They used me like a lab rat.”
“Even lab rats get better care than Trenton’s subjects.”
“Yeah.” She cleared her throat and focused on him again. “So fast-forward two decades. I’ve been in and out of those labs over the years. It was mostly innocent at first. Tests and more tests. At first I could go without issue. But when they started a weird breeding experiment two years ago, I became a prisoner instead of a patient.” She stopped for a moment. “After all their hellish tests, the first time didn’t take. I didn’t plan to let them have another go at me.” Her eyes hardened, and his beast felt her fury as if it were his own. “I’m going to kill Caleb Trenton and destroy his lab. And I’m taking out all of his mistakes.”
Including me, he swore she said to herself. His beast roared inside his head in denial. No way in hell he’d let that happen; Gray and his beast agreed completely. “Yeah, well, if you’d let me out of these, I’d help.”
She shook her head. “Sorry. No can do. You talk pretty, but I’m not in the habit of trusting Circs.”
Frustrated yet proud of her sense, he didn’t know what tack to take until he remembered how she’d treated Bas. She might not want to, but she liked his partner. Hell, everyone who met the big bastard liked him. Even Gray.
“So you won’t free me. Could you at least help him out?” He looked over the bed at Bas, crumpled on the ground.
She nodded. “You’re right, you know. He’s dangerous, but he’s no killer. Doesn’t have it in him. That’s why I…” She didn’t finish. Instead, she changed.
Darker, thicker hair. Skin that scaled in odd places where the black was most prominent—her forearms, her hands, parts of her neck—a thickened and taller frame. She reminded him of the wild women where he’d grown up, deep in the Amazon jungle. Strong, sturdy, and lethal. They hadn’t been raised in the soft environs of human society. Instead they’d grown up alongside predators and the rich flora of the jungle. Ali possessed that same edge. A hardness she tempered with the natural purity deep inside her. A little girl forced to become a monster to survive.
He understood her, and it floored him. Because he sensed a kindred spirit. A lot like the one he’d felt in Bas, only she had a stronger backbone. Dominant, not submissive like his mate—partner.
He watched as she managed to take Bas over her shoulder and dumped him half on Gray. She pulled out the dart from Bas’s chest and pocketed it. “Scoot over,” she ordered, used to being in charge.
We’ll have to break her of that. He and his beast agreed while he shifted to make room for Bas.
She didn’t tie him up but turned to leave.
“Wait. Where are you going?”
“I have tracks to cover, mutants to watch out for.”
“No. Stay here. Don’t tempt them. Mutants aren’t—”
“I know exactly what they are,” she snapped and turned back to him. She held out her forearms. “Look at me. I’m the same fucking thing.”
“No, you’re not.” And he meant it.
She opened her mouth to respond but said nothing. Then she frowned. “I, well, it feels like I am.” She continued toward the exit. “Don’t worry. I’ll be back in a few hours. I won’t let you starve.” A pause. “And if you’re really who you say are, I won’t kill you. But you can’t stay here.”
She left before Gray could say more. He heard her on the steps, the sound of a door closing, then silence. So much for getting a bead on where she went or what she did next. Gray pulled and twisted, but the damn restraints didn’t budge.
“Woman is paranoid.” And smart. She could hold a Circ down here indefinitely if she wanted.
He turned to Bas. In sleep, his partner looked no less soft but strangely vulnerable. Bas’s head faced him, and his breath fanned Gray’s face. Unable to stop himself, Gray let loose his telepathy and tried to penetrate the fog around Bas’s thoughts.
“Bas? Answer me. You okay?”
It took some doing, but when Gray’s beast joined forces to push at Bas’s inner awareness, the stubborn man finally answered. “Gray?”
Relief made him light-headed. Though Gray had seen and believed Ali had only used a tranquilizer, who knew what she’d drugged him with. Not all chemicals worked on Circs in the same way.
“I’m right here next to you. Your girl knocked you out with a dart.”
“Smart, isn’t she?” Trust Bas not to be angry but amused by her.
Like Gray, but he refused to admit it aloud. “Yeah, smart enough that she knocked you on your ass and trussed me up like a Thanksgiving turkey. I need you to push the drug out of your system and wake up. Let me free, and I’ll—”
“Fuck it all up, the way you normally do.”
“What?”
“Gray, I love you, man. But you’re an asshole when it comes to people. Undercover, sure, you blend in. But as yourself, that arrogance just hits people the wrong way.”
Gray tried to get past Bas saying I love you. Had he meant it? Did that love extend to the romantic, or had he meant it more as a brotherly, one-warrior-to-another kind of way? And why the hell did it matter so much to Gray to know the answer?
“So what’s your plan?” he managed.
“Stay tied up. See her as she is. I spent one hell of a night with that woman. Yeah, she’s not your typical Circ. Then again, neither are we. You were born this way, Mr. Perfect. And I don’t react to the serum the way most of the rogues and Circs do.” Bas paused. “I’ve never needed another Circ before you. No mating heats, no weird urges. And I don’t want it with anyone other than you…and Ali.”
Gray knew what he meant, because he fe
lt the same. “So you want me to trust this woman you just met. Excuse me, fucked. Because why? She made you come a few times?”
Bas chuckled. “You know, for a while, I was really mad at you. But I felt you freak out when you thought she’d shot me. We’re connected, hero. More than you want, but it’s there all the same. You love me, asshole. Admit it.”
Gray balked, not comfortable about the path his future seemed to be taking. “Why should I admit anything? For all you know, you’re still dreaming.”
“Nope. This is real. You love me. I love you. And we just found the last part of our happy little family, who just happens to be a mutant slash rogue slash Circ. How does that fit your five-year plan, control freak?”
“I’m not a control freak… Okay, so I am.” Gray couldn’t deny that one. “But I have important things to do, Bas. Alicia Sharpe is my grandmother.” There. He’d admitted what only a select few knew. A woman who’d lived for hundreds of years, a woman much less than normal and whom everyone thought of as a political powerhouse, was his grandmother.
“Yeah, I know. She told me.”
“She did?” Gray couldn’t believe it.
“Yeah. And I know she’s a lot more like us than she seems. She screams power. No biggie. I’m good with that.”
“You are?” Gray knew it couldn’t be this easy. “What about my telepathy? It freaks you out.”
“A little.” Bas opened his eyes and stared at Gray. Aloud, he added, “I had a hard time with the PWP. They did things to me. Fucked with my fears, made them sharper, pulled crap out of my mind I’m still dealing with.”
Gray didn’t know.
“No one knows, Gray. Well, maybe your grandmother. But it was never mentioned in any files that I know of. The ones I found, I destroyed. So no, I don’t like psychics.”
“But you are one. Your telekinesis? You held me down with your mind, Bas. I didn’t imagine that.”
Bas grimaced and leaned up on one elbow. “I didn’t mean to. I wanted you, and the power got away from me.” Bas toyed with Gray’s shirt and pushed his hand underneath it. The feel of that large palm over Gray’s belly made him shiver. Bas smiled. “The power got away from me with Ali too. But I didn’t hurt her. And I didn’t hurt you.”
“No, you didn’t.” Gray groaned. “Quit teasing me. It’s been three days since we fucked. I need you again.”
Bas shook his head. “Uh-uh. Made love, not fucked. You know, you’re just like Ali. Both bossy, mean, and sexy as hell. But my beast knows who you are. It knew the minute I set eyes on you. Her too.”
Bas stripped Gray of his clothing using his mind, his hands, and at one point, his claws to work around the restraints. “You still haven’t admitted it, hero.”
“Quit calling me hero, junior.” Gray flashed growing fangs at Bas.
“Then end the attitude.” Bas glared down at him. “I’m a Circ, same as you. I don’t give a shit if you were born this way or trained to become so hard. But the Christ complex you’ve got going isn’t pretty.”
Gray flushed, because Bas had said what his sister and mother had been nagging him about for years. “I can’t help it. My father’s the same way. We’re expected to be the best, stronger, faster. We’re here to do important things, Bas.”
“Well, so am I. You think it’s chance I happened to do so well in the FBI? That I’ve always been better than others? I’m not bragging; it just is. But I’ve worked for it, and so have you. I took to the serum, Gray. Think about that. I’m not rogue. And for all that Ali looks mutant, she’s not. I’ve never heard of any mutant who could reason and feel with more than their cocks. Or in her case, pussy.” Bas gave him a small grin. “We’re different but the same. And I don’t like being made to feel less than you because my dad wasn’t Circ.”
“And mom. Don’t forget her.” Gray couldn’t resist.
Bas scowled and wrapped his hand around Gray’s cock. “Little shit.”
“Not so little,” Gray choked before losing himself to the rhythm of Bas’s hand.
“Say it.” Bas let go to remove his clothes, then he moved over Gray and grabbed his cock again. “Admit what you feel. Don’t be afraid.”
“Not afraid.” His beast growled, but he knew the truth. To give over to that emotion was to submit, to surrender. To trust. He’d seen so much deceit in his lifetime, so much sadness and despair. Death, destruction. Hell, even Jack Keiser’s “wife” had betrayed him. And they’d all liked the woman before they’d learned of her treachery. Even Gray.
“Then let me convince you.” Bas rubbed his wet dick against Gray’s, slick with a Circ’s need, and Gray couldn’t help the cum that spurted, the need too intense to ignore.
“That’s it,” Bas crooned. He let go of Gray and positioned himself lower. With his mind, he angled Gray’s hips, tilting them upward.
“Bas…”
“No. Let me. Let me love you.” Bas didn’t stop. He rested the tip of his cock between Gray’s cheeks and kept his gaze on Gray’s. “Let me in, dammit.”
Gray didn’t want to. He needed to be in control. To protect everyone, most of all himself. But as he caught the sentience behind Bas’s human eyes, as he saw the man and beast who loved and accepted, the wall inside him broke.
Gray opened up his mind and his heart. And Bas entered—mentally, emotionally, physically.
The burn hurt, pain making it hard to breathe.
“Fuck, you’re big.”
“I want you. So much,” Bas said between pants. The effort to go slow must have been difficult. Sweat beaded on his brow, but he didn’t stop his thrust. Bit by bit, he seated himself deeper. Until he couldn’t move anymore. “Oh yeah. So good. You feel like heaven, Gray. God, I love you.”
I love you too. Fuck, but I do.
The brilliant smile Bas gave him only increased the sensation of fullness.
“We’re one, hero. Finally.” Bas pulled out and pushed back in, slower, then faster.
Electricity zinged through Gray as Bas touched a part of him deep inside. His cock felt like iron, so hard, so heavy. His balls ached, the need to release overwhelming.
“Need to come.”
“Yeah. Do it. All over me. Please.” Bas fucked him harder, the painful slide of that large shaft only escalating the pleasure. “Come now, Gray. Come hard.”
Gray had to obey, his body beyond his control. He swelled and came, his seed bursting forth in waves of drugging ecstasy that blotted out everything but Bas. He felt Bas stiffen, the heat of his semen filling Gray’s ass. That connection, that belonging he’d been searching for, brought tears to his eyes.
“That’s it. So good.” Bas ceased rocking and kissed him as he ground into him again. “You know you called me baby before? When you were inside me?” He kissed his way down Gray’s throat. “So can I call you baby, since I just took you?”
Gray chuckled, the man and beast pleased at such a worthy mate. “No fucking way. I let you take me. Had to prove to my softhearted mate we’re solid.”
Bas just looked at him.
“Oh hell. I’ll say it out loud too. I love you, you idiot. Happy now?”
“Ecstatic. And hard again.” Bas withdrew from Gray’s ass and rubbed his cock against Gray’s rising hard-on. “I love being Circ, you know?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“We should probably clean up.” Bas engaged in some good old frottage, but Gray didn’t care about the mess. He just wanted to come over Bas again, to rub his scent all over his mate’s.
“Later. After.”
“Yeah, after.” Bas covered Gray’s mouth again, and Gray let him play. The time would come to remind his mate—mates—just where they belonged. Just as soon as he came a few more times.
Chapter Seven
When Ali returned after verifying the absence of her tracks, she quickly reached for the rug hiding the trapdoor with an eagerness that baffled her. The sex had been fantastic with Bas, no doubt. And she had to admit, watching him choke out his partner, as if
he were on her side, had been thrilling. She’d never had anyone stand up for her before, aside from her grandfather. So to have Bas, a man who’d made her body come alive and emotions rush to the fore, defend her? She’d been in heaven.
But she didn’t trust it. She had a bad feeling her pheromones still controlled him. On the one hand, it meant she had command over the powerful Circ. On the other, it made her question Bas’s trustworthiness, especially if she went away for any length of time. Then too, he might not be on her side. He could be acting, pretending to help her while planning something with his buddy.
Gray.
That sexy, wild Circ who made her nipples hard with a look. Holy hell, but where did they grow men like these? First Bas, with his warmth, good looks, and amazing scent. A dick that never quit, and the wherewithal to please her throughout the night. Then his friend Gray. Mean, a true predator, with a raw edge that appealed to the beast and mutant part of her nature. She wouldn’t worry about hurting Gray, not the way she might inadvertently harm Bas. Gray wouldn’t let her.