by Erin Wade
“I’m trying very hard to be the better person here. I’m trying not to seduce you. I’m trying hard to be happy for you. Do you have any idea how damn beautiful you are? I’m fighting to keep my hands off you—it’s a constant battle. Just brushing against you stirs up a need I can’t control. Tell me, Darke, how am I supposed to live with that?”
Darke sighed. “Okay, you can sleep in the bed, but don’t touch me.”
A gleeful smile spread across Raven’s face. “I didn’t say those things just to keep from sleeping on the sofa.”
“Yeah, sure.” Darke laughed. “Now I need a cold shower.”
Raven was sleeping when Darke slipped into bed. She lay on her back with her cell phone on her chest. She wanted to be sure to hear Eden’s call.
##
Darke answered the phone on the first ring. “Hello, darling,” she whispered. When she turned on her side, her back to Raven, she realized Eden was on FaceTime. “God, you look good.”
“I just wanted to remind you what is waiting for you at home.” Eden giggled. “I know it’s late there, but I just got to my room.”
“Call me anytime,” Darke reiterated. “If I’m in a dangerous situation, I’ll turn off my cell.”
“You look tired,” Eden said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look tired.”
“It’s been a rough week.” Darke felt Raven roll over and snuggle up to her back. Damn!
“I love you so much.” Eden lowered her cell phone to give Darke a view of her breasts. “We miss you and … What the hell? You’re sleeping with her!”
Too late, Darke realized that Raven was looking over her shoulder, and the image Eden was seeing was Raven’s face next to hers.
“No! No! It’s not—” Darke stared at the phone as Eden’s face disappeared, and the sexy reflection of Raven’s head next to hers filled the screen. It was clear they were in bed together.
“Raven, what have you done to me?” Darke wailed. “What were you thinking?”
“I … I wasn’t … I just looked over your shoulder to see where the light was coming from. I had no idea you were on FaceTime with Eden. You know I would never intentionally do something like that.”
Darke shook her head. She did know Raven would never be that sneaky. She dialed Eden’s number, and the call went to voicemail. She dialed Lori’s number, and it went to voicemail too.
Darke wanted to scream. She wanted to slam her fist into something. Most of all, she wanted to return to Eden and reassure her of her love.
“Go to sleep, Raven. We have a long day ahead of us.”
“Darke, I’m so sorry. I swear I didn’t mean to cause you a problem.” Raven slipped her arm across Darke’s waist and pulled her tight against her. “I swear.”
Chapter 32
They spent the day loading the sterilization serum into a nondescript panel van and then headed to their meeting with the women.
After the meeting broke up, Jaden gave them access cards to the garage entrance to the hospital. “You can enter through door G4,” she informed them. “Take the elevator to the second floor and go to the door marked Maintenance at the end of the hall. This card will access any lock in the hospital. You won’t have to wait for me to let you in.”
“We’re going to get a burger and kill time until close to midnight,” Darke said. “If everything goes as it should, we’ll see you at your place tomorrow.”
##
Raven pulled the panel van into the shadows and waited for the driver to return to the delivery truck.
Darke ran to the back of the truck and broke out the taillight. She rejoined Raven. “That will make it easy to follow him.”
“Our plan is more efficient than the one Jaden laid out for us,” Raven noted as she removed the lid from a cup of coffee and handed it to Darke.
“Yes, and it’s safer for us. Only the two of us know what we’re doing.”
The chubby driver trotted from the hospital and closed the back doors of the truck. He cursed as he discovered the broken taillight and then climbed into the driver’s seat without bothering to look around.
Raven waited for him to get a block ahead of her before she followed him.
“Where is he going?” Darke asked.
“I’m not sure. If he stays on the main highway it will take us to the old guard base. We closed it down over a year ago.
“Did you ever reach Eden?”
“No,” Darke said, sucking in a deep breath. “Let’s not discuss that right now. We need to pay attention to what we’re doing.”
They followed the truck for over an hour and pulled off the road when they were in sight of the guard base.
“They must be using the base infirmary to compound the shots,” Raven said, frowning. “Fortunately, this site isn’t very secure. We should be able to get in easily. There isn’t even a guard on the gate. With all that testosterone raging, there isn’t much adherence to protocol.”
They watched the guard base until two in the morning. Cars had departed the base, and the lights were turned off. “It looks deserted,” Darke noted.
“Lycan is so cocky. He can’t imagine that anyone would try to thwart his grand scheme.” Raven started the van, left the lights off, and eased closer to the gate. “Let’s do some reconnaissance, just to be safe.”
They parked the van and slipped through the gate. Raven led the way to the infirmary. Two guards were sitting inside the door, playing cards and drinking whiskey.
“Time to make our rounds,” the guard said as his watch alarm went off. “You better drive. I’m half drunk.” They staggered to a jeep, howling as they fell into it, and drove away.
“Wait here,” Raven said. She dashed into the infirmary and located a bottle of diazepam. She put several in each man’s glass and then topped off their whiskey. She rejoined Darke and told her what she had done.
“I love fighting the bad guys with you,” Darke said as she squeezed Raven’s arm.
The guards returned, drank their whiskey, and soon fell face-forward.
“That was easy,” Darke whispered.
A quick exploration of the infirmary revealed hundreds of doses of testosterone waiting to be delivered the next day.
“You pull the van around back to the loading dock,” Raven instructed. “I’ll have the door open when you get there.”
It took them almost four hours to switch the vials of testosterone for vials of sterilization serum. They loaded the testosterone into their van and drove out the gates as the sun was rising.
They slept during the day and made their exchange every night. Darke continued to call an unresponsive Eden. She texted Eden that it was necessary for her to stay longer than she had expected. She received no reply.
After a week of distributing the sterilization serum, Darke and Raven revisited Craddock’s Ale House. The atmosphere was completely changed. The men were soft-spoken and cordial, true gentlemen.
The women ordered lunch and ale and observed the transformation for over an hour. “This is unbelievable,” Raven whispered. “Another week and we’ll have reversed Lycan’s disaster.”
“You need to reclaim your castle and imprison Lycan before he figures out what’s going on,” Darke pointed out. “You’ve already castrated him, so you have no choice but to imprison him or kill him.”
They walked down the streets and saw no gangs of marauding men. Families were walking together. Fathers were carrying their little ones on their shoulders and holding their mate’s hand.
“I need to return to the cave and get my guards ready to reclaim the castle,” Raven said. “I’m sure you’re anxious to get home to Eden.”
“If she’ll have me,” Darke said.
“If she won’t, you can always share my bed.” Raven wiggled her eyebrows and then turned serious. “If I get a second chance, I’ll never let you go, Darke.”
“You know the problem with us?” Darke said, a grin tugging at her mouth. “We’d always fight about who gets to be on
top.”
“Um, but what a ride the winner would get,” Raven said, flashing a smile.
Darke slapped Raven on the back. “Let’s go get the guards and evict Lycan from your home.”
Chapter 33
Raven’s guards circled the castle while she and Darke led a platoon of soldiers through the front door. They met with little resistance. Lycan’s men had obviously been given the sterilization serum and had no fight in them.
They bowed to Raven and hailed her as she took her place on the throne that she had occupied for over a hundred years.
“Where is Lycan?” Darke asked as she searched the faces of the Lycanian guards.
“He ran away when he realized we weren’t going to fight against Raven,” the captain of the guards explained.
“Get the others from the cave. We need to clean up this pigsty.”
Raven shouted orders, and everyone got busy cleaning and organizing every inch of the castle. It was almost daylight when Raven was satisfied with the job. “Looks like home,” she said.
Darke nodded. “I sent everyone to their respective places. They were exhausted.”
“I’m a little tired too,” Raven said. “You want to take the room next to mine or share my room?”
“Next to your room is fine.”
##
Darke sighed as she stepped from the shower. God, it feels good to be clean. Muffled sounds and moans from Raven’s room pulled Darke from thoughts of Eden. Oh great, Raven’s masturbating.
Darke tuned out the sounds, until a loud thud jerked her attention back to Raven. In an instant, Darke was turning the handle on the door between their bedrooms. The door was locked.
“Raven, are you okay?”
All sound ceased and Darke knew something was wrong. She threw her weight against the door. Wood cracked and splintered as she lunged into Raven’s bedroom.
Lycan was straddling Raven, pinning her wrists to her body with his legs. He had a knife poised to cut her throat. Raven appeared unconscious. He looked up at Darke and snarled. “Stay back, bitch.”
“If you’ve hurt her, I’ll cut your heart out with a rusty nail,” Darke threatened, “and I’ll take weeks to do it. I’ll make you suffer beyond your wildest nightmares.”
A shudder ran down Lycan’s body. “After I kill her, I don’t care what happens to me.”
Darke saw his hesitation. “Believe me, you will. You’ll beg for death, but I’ll keep reviving you so I can put you through hell one more time.”
Darke bent down and picked up a long, thick nail that had fallen from the shattered doorframe. She held it up so Lycan could see it. “If you hurt her, my life will be devoted to torturing you.”
As Lycan waited, Darke heard a rustling at her back. Raven’s guards have arrived. She saw movement under Raven’s eyelids. “Put the knife down, Lycan, and we’ll let you live.”
“She’s your bitch, isn’t she?” Lycan screamed. “You two—always together, always so beautiful, always out of my reach.”
“Yes, she is,” Darke hissed, casting an evil grin at Lycan as she moved closer to antagonize him. “Only because you aren’t man enough to take her from me.”
Lycan threw back his head and let go a bloodcurdling howl. “I’ll fight you for her,” he rasped. “If I kill you, she’s mine. I dare you to fight me. Guards, you are my witnesses.”
“Fair enough.” Darke stepped closer. “Remove the knife from her neck.”
“We fight in our true forms,” Lycan demanded.
Darke was close enough to touch him. “This is my true form.” A twisted smile curled her lips. “I thought you knew that.”
“Then this should be easy.” Lycan snorted as he removed the knife from Raven’s throat and got to his feet.
Within seconds he transformed into a ferocious wolf, one of the largest Darke had ever seen. He leaped at her. She sidestepped his lunge, but sharp claws ripped open her side. He whirled and lunged again. Darke ducked and brought her fist down hard on his back, snapping bones. If his howl of pain was any indication, she had seriously injured him, but he was still alive.
Lycan writhed in pain as he tried to pull his feet beneath him. His hind legs refused to cooperate. Darke’s boots appeared in front of him. She leaned down to gaze into his eyes. “You’re paralyzed,” she growled. “Permanently.
“Please get him out of here,” she instructed the guards.
Two men lifted the wolf and carried him out of the room. “Even you should know that you don’t dare the devil,” one of them muttered to Lycan.
As the men took Lycan away, Darke held out her hand to Raven and pulled her to her feet and into her arms. “I … I thought I’d lost you,” she whispered.
Chapter 34
“How could she, Lori?” Eden cried. “How could she do that to me after all we’ve shared together?”
“Are you sure you assessed the situation correctly?” Lori pulled the younger woman into her arms and consoled her. “That doesn’t sound like Darke.”
“There’s no mistaking the fact that they were in bed together,” Eden sobbed. “You know Darke. You know how much she likes … and, oh God, Raven is so gorgeous.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Eden,” Lori whispered as she stroked Eden’s soft, blonde hair. “You’re a goddess.”
Eden’s sobs slowly subsided, and she took a long, deep breath. “Do you really think so?”
“Yes.”
A loud knock on her dorm door made Eden pull out of Lori’s embrace. “Come on, Daye,” her friend yelled through the door. “You’re playing receiver today.”
“Flag football.” Eden wiped tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’ll be there on time,” she called out.
“Maybe the game will take your mind off Darke,” Lori mumbled.
“Nothing could take my mind off Darke,” Eden said.
##
Eden read the latest text from Darke—one of a hundred that had come in over the last week. “Please call me. I must talk to you.” She deleted the text and tossed her phone on the bed.
It had been ten days since her FaceTime call had given her a look at Darke in bed with Raven. “How could I have been such a fool?” she said out loud. “How could I believe someone like Darke would be faithful to someone like me?”
Jumbled thoughts ran through her mind. She felt as if she would go crazy. Everything in her cried out for Darke Knight. She wondered how it was possible to love and hate someone at the same time. She had given herself to Darke so freely, never thinking that Darke might not be as in love with her. “God, I hate her,” she cried as she threw her tennis shoe across the room.
She wondered how she would ever ease the awful aching pain that had become so much a part of her. Would she ever stop dreaming of Darke? Would she ever awake again without reaching for the woman who had filled her nights with fireworks and her days with sweet kisses?
She retrieved her shoe and slipped it on as Lori opened the door. “I think you’ve secured the position of receiver permanently,” Lori informed her. “After your performance last week, you’re the topic of conversation in the SUB.”
“In the grand scheme of life, flag football isn’t very high on my list of important things,” Eden grumbled.
“Yet you’re getting ready to play,” Lori teased.
##
“Okay ladies,” the captain said, clapping her hands. “We have two minutes left to play, and we need a touchdown. Eden, go as deep as you can, and I’m going to throw a Hail Mary.”
Eden nodded and took her place on the field. When the center snapped the ball, she shot past the defensive line and easily outdistanced them downfield. The quarterback threw the ball high and long. Eden knew she would have to be airborne to catch it. She briefly wondered if the average person knew what it took to go from an all-out run to a jump into the air. She leaped high and caught the ball on the tips of her fingers. She clenched her eyes shut and hugged the football against her chest, preparing fo
r the bone-jarring impact with the ground.
Strong arms wrapped around her as she fell backward, and a soft, warm body slid between her and the hard ground.
“Darke!”
“I’ve got you, baby,” Darke murmured in Eden’s ear as she helped her get her footing. “Now, run.”
Eden managed to maintain her senses and carried the ball into the end zone as her team and the spectators went wild. She dropped the ball and turned to face the woman who ruled her world. Without hesitation she jumped into Darke’s arms and wrapped her legs around the brunette’s waist. “You came back.”
Tears ran down their faces as they clung to each other. Eden covered Darke’s face and lips with kisses.
“We should take this somewhere private,” Darke said, her voice deep and husky. “TV crews are videoing you.”
##
Eden thrilled to the feel of Darke wrapped around her back. She laced her fingers through Darke’s and pulled her hand into her stomach.
“You’re awake.” Darke kissed the soft skin just below Eden’s ear and pulled her closer.
“Uh-huh,” Eden hummed.
They lay in silence, reveling in the feel of each other.
“I never dreamed a woman like you existed.” Darke’s soft voice vibrated against Eden’s ear. “I couldn’t even imagine anyone as gorgeous as you.”
“Flattery? Why, Miss Knight, I do believe you’re trying to seduce me.”
Darke chuckled. “Is it working?”
“Oh, that ship sailed a long time ago,” Eden said with a laugh as she turned in Darke’s arms and kissed her. “All you have to do is touch me.”
They made love, slept, and made love again. Each thanked their God for the other.
Late in the afternoon, Eden’s stomach growled. “I’m hungry.”
“Let’s shower and you can introduce me to the eating establishments around campus,” Darke said as she sat up on the side of the bed.
“Is it safe for us to shower together?” Eden wrinkled her nose as she kneeled behind Darke and kissed her shoulders. She slipped her arms around Darke and cupped her breasts. “I’ve missed you so much, darling.” She kissed the back of Darke’s neck.