by Seere, Diana
She felt much the same. Quite energized by the contact.
His tongue swept up between her folds, and time dropped away.
* * *
The taste of her was an elixir, a potion, a cure. Intoxicating, it took him to a place elsewhere, allowing them both to escape.
Cutting Tomas’ brand out of his body had been liberating, but making love with Samantha was a kind of freedom no one else could provide.
The press of her fine, soft thigh against his cheek as he drove her to climax made him hold on to her for dear life as she moved with pleasure, pleasure he alone could give. Driven by a sudden surge of energy and focus that made touching her his only mission in life, he reveled in her moans, the way her clit felt against his tongue, how she shoved her long, beautiful fingers into his hair and directed him to the perfect place.
Ah, the power to drive a woman mad.
This was the only power he truly wanted.
Forever.
Her hips shifted away from him, and he felt cool air against his mouth. “Get up here,” she ordered, tearing at his shirt. His suit jacket had fallen away, and the bandage at his hip was an annoying reminder that he needed to be careful. Asher did not want to be careful right now.
He wanted to be carnal.
Samantha’s fingers found his cock and pulled it out from his clothing, the warm eagerness of her grip making him swell even more. He had to be in her.
Now.
Without one bit of self-consciousness, Samantha moved back onto the table, spread her legs wide, and with a smile that could make a lesser man come in his pants without being touched, she guided him in.
He drove himself the rest of the way home until she let out a guttural sound of ecstasy that made him go a half inch deeper, turning that sound into a plea.
“Ah, yes,” he whispered into her ear before biting it. “That’s better.”
“That’s,” she said, gasping between words, “more than better.”
Moving inside her, he took his time with the first few strokes, but she was wet, so wet for him that his own compulsion took over as the lust turned tactile, the glide of her inner thigh against his ribs, the scent of her sweet pussy on his nose and lips, the view of her red hair tumbling down the side of the worn wood table, oh it all blended with the rise of energy and the burst of determination that all would be well, that all would be good, that with this woman he would conquer the world.
For she had conquered him.
And for that, he was grateful.
“I love you,” he said, suddenly serious as he continued to move, slowing his strokes. Her eyes opened and she stared into his, the sensation startling in its intensity. Every moment with Samantha unfolded like a mystery he needed to solve but could not solve alone. Only together could they create the world where each had been trying to live.
His hand found her breast, hers riding up under his shirt, the scratch of fingernails against the long ridge of muscle layered astride his spine sending shivers through him, all of them finding their way to the base of his cock. Eyes on each other, they entered layers of love that peeled back one by one until she cried out, hips arching up and up and up as he drove down and down and down into a place where he lost himself fully.
And that alone was the essence of all he had become with her.
She was his One, he was hers, and in that joining they merged.
As his body loomed over hers, their bare flesh heating one another, the warm, hazy scent of their joining an embrace of its own, he lingered in the pleasure, the tight feel of her pussy walls giving him the right to take and feel. Asher Stanton was a man of strength and severity, of control and restraint, of action and decision, but in Samantha’s arms he was none of that.
He was a man. A shifter. A being who loved her fiercely.
And who craved so much more.
“I love you,” she said as her legs tightened around his hips, her breasts begging to be touched. They smiled at each other, the hard wood against his knees coming into focus, the piece of her hair stuck to her cheek from sweat and lovemaking.
He opened his mouth to speak, overcome by emotion, when the earth moved.
Moved.
“Asher!” Her mouth slid into a grin of joy, of unexpected revelry. “We made aftershocks!” Her laughter halted, though, when the earth moved again, this time rattling the wine bottles, two moving forward and shattering on the stone floor, thankfully on the other side of the room.
Scrambling to his feet, he shielded her body from the bottles, taking it all in, the surreal ping and explosion of fine wine turning the moment into a sour, intoxicating spectacle that made no sense.
The lights flickered, snuffed out before he could think.
A sound like a train running over a thousand boulders filled the air, the blast loud and ominous, shaking the room more.
Both their smartphones began to buzz, then ring, but in the dark he could not see.
Not with human eyes.
“What’s happening?” Samantha asked, clinging to him, her hands freezing in place as she felt his skin turn to fur. “Are you shifting? Why? Asher, please tell me what’s—”
“Follow me,” were his last words as he let the shift come, the sense of the inevitable seeping into his stretching bones, his popped jaw, the tingling hair follicles.
“Asher?”
And just like that, his wolf vision kicked in. A different vision, one detached from his eyes and running through his mind, pummeled him simultaneously.
For cutting Tomas’ brand out of his body had made a difference.
But not enough.
He saw him. Knew him. Felt him.
And knew exactly where Tomas was going next.
Samantha’s hand was on his fur, her grip steady as she stumbled behind him. Scent and vision made him find the door, her human hand acting as one with him as she opened it.
Manny stood there, hand ready to pound on the old oak door, holding a large, glowing emergency light. The hallway contained smaller emergency lights, casting a strange grayish-blue glow over the empty space. One of his men, a large guard she didn’t recognize, stood behind him. In the distance, sirens carried their own kind of danger.
Manny looked down at Asher. “Sir? You and Dr. Baird are—”
His voice changed abruptly as he looked over Asher’s shoulder at Samantha, the jarring reaction making Asher turn.
She was nearly naked and hurriedly fixed that, face flaming as she found her clothes. All he sensed was smell, arousal, embarrassment, human emotions he knew were important but not to him.
“Tomas bombed the lab upstairs,” Manny said to him.
“What?” Samantha gasped, fingers frantically buttoning her shirt. “He what?”
“He bombed the LupiNex lab where those two bodies were being stored.”
“But we were just there! Penelope! And Zach!” Samantha’s worry infiltrated Asher’s animal sense, but he could not let it infiltrate him.
Darting to the right, he came across Eva, who was rushing to find him.
“Emergency crews are coming,” she told him, her own shift evident on her face, in her hands, which glimmered between paws and human hands as he watched her. Being so close to a shifted animal was difficult, and the urgency of the situation made it harder. “We have shifter police in place to protect the Novo. Tomas has gone too far, Asher. He bombed an entire wing of the building, on the fourteenth floor. The attention this will give to the building is unprecedented. Take great care. You might want to shift into human—”
With that, he left abruptly.
To find Tomas.
And to kill him.
Chapter 20
First Asher shifted and bounded away. How dare he leave her? But then Eva also shifted, turning into a sleek black cat, and joined him in the elevator. Before Sam could call out or join them, the doors shut and they were gone.
Just like that.
Her desire to be able to shift had never been stronger. All she c
ould do was pick up the old book, forgotten in the wine cellar in the crisis, and hurry after both of them. Instinct drove her. She couldn’t be left behind. She had a role to play, a critical one, but she didn’t know what.
But Manny and the security guard held her back.
“Let me go!” she shouted, trying to break away. She didn’t dare let go of the book, which was heavy and awkward, making it harder to put up a fight. Also the guard was a muscle-bound giant with fingers like steel claws. “He can’t do this alone.”
“He’s in wolf form,” Manny said. “Prepared to fight. Your presence will only get in the way.”
An odd sensation, like water sliding over glass, teased Sam’s skin. Suddenly she could see the microscopic hairs between Manny’s eyebrows, hear the sirens above them that she shouldn’t have been able to hear, smell the sour body odor of the brawny tough guy holding her right arm.
And a sudden, stabbing pain in her left ear nearly felled her to her knees. Her vision sparkled around the edges.
“I can help him,” she gasped, shaking her head. “I need to be there when he faces Tomas. I will be there!” With each word, the pain in her ear lessened a little more, bit by bit until it returned to the mild ache she’d had all week.
Every moment of her life led to this. Whatever her role, whatever her true nature, she had to be there—although she didn’t even know where he’d gone. She could understand the logic of what Manny said, but fate had nothing to do with logic.
“He’ll hurt himself trying to protect you,” Manny said. “I’m sorry, Dr. Baird, but you’ve got to see that.”
The big guy tightened his grip. His expression was cold, unreadable.
She tried to shake free. “Let me go. You’re hurting me.” The pain in her ear spiked.
“Rick, take it easy,” Manny said. “Dr. Baird is on our side.”
“I doubt that,” Rick said.
Sam had a very bad feeling—
Before she could finish the thought, the big security guard reached over and smashed his fist into Manny’s face. Head snapping back, Manny tumbled to the floor, almost pulling her down with him in the process.
“What— No!” Sam hopped free from Manny’s unconscious body but was unable to get away from the guard, whose grip was now squeezing through flesh and muscle to bone. She twisted to one side, gasping at the pain in her arm.
To hell with the pain. Using every atom of her hotheaded nature, she pushed into the pain, lifted her foot, and kicked him in the balls.
Even tough guys had their sensitive side. He doubled over but brought her with him, cursing her between groans.
“Bitch,” he spat.
She tried to kick him again, but he lifted an arm and struck her cheek with the back of his hand. As she gasped for breath, stars in her eyes, her grip on the book loosened. He grabbed it from her and ran.
Manny, on the floor, groaned but didn’t get up. At least he was alive, she thought, staggering out of the wine cellar to chase after the guard. She wasn’t thinking clearly—what could she do against such a huge thug?—but for once she was going to trust her instincts. She could not let that book fall into Tomas’ hands. If there was any chance it was the book in the prophecy, it was worth risking her life to stop him from getting it. Maybe she could slow him down.
In the dim corridor, the elevator door was opening. The guard was going to escape, and nobody would know what he’d done.
She had to distract him. “Hey, Rick! You ugly prick! The Stantons will tear you apart!”
He looked over his shoulder, sneering, and waved the book in the air to taunt her. “Hey, Dr. Baird! You’re a…”
He called her a word that was particularly vile.
Just then a fist attached to a man’s arm shot out of the elevator and smashed into the goon’s face. He wobbled, fell to one knee, and Zach—it was Zach!—rushed out of the elevator and punched him again.
They grappled. The guard tried to tackle him but fell back when Zach took him down with two swift punches.
It was only when Zach was sitting on Rich-the-Prick’s prone, unconscious body, using him as a futon, that Sam noticed Zach’s injuries from the explosion upstairs.
“Oh my God,” she gasped, rushing over. She cradled his battered face in her hands.
One cheek was bruised purple, the buttons of his shirt were partially missing, and his forehead was cut open and bleeding into his eyes. A beat-up first aid backpack she recognized from the lab hung from his shoulders. She realized with shock that the dark spots on the previously bright-red nylon were blood.
“Like my new look?” he asked. He tried to smile, but the effort made him flinch with pain.
“Thank God you’re all right,” she said, biting her lip. She would never forgive herself if her old friend and assistant died because of her. “You came just in time. Tell me everything.”
He slapped the hulk of unconscious flesh beneath him. “Who is this dude? I didn’t like his language.”
She pulled the book out from under the man’s arm. “Supposed to be a Stanton security guard. But he—” Sam pointed behind her, torn between helping both men. “He attacked Manny. Took the book. Must be working for Tomas. I was trying to chase Asher, who was with Eva, but I don’t know where they went, and first we have to help Manny—”
“I’m all right now,” Manny said from the doorway. He wiped at his smashed, bloody nose but looked pretty spry for a man who’d just been knocked cold. “Bastard caught me by surprise, that’s all.”
“Did you have any idea this Rick guy would—?” Sam began.
“Absolutely not,” Manny said, limping closer. Lip curling, he took handcuffs out of a pocket and, after Zach dismounted, shackled his former employee’s wrists together behind his back. Then he bound his ankles and hog-tied him to the handcuffs. “I’ll offer my resignation to the Stantons immediately. I put the entire family—everyone—in danger by not vetting this scum carefully enough.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, man,” Zach said. “We need you. Hell, the world needs you. LupiNex is blasted out from the inside. Police and Feds and who knows who else is pouring into the building, searching for terrorists. We’ve got to get to the Novo while we still can. With Asher chasing Tomas and Gavin in Montana, we need you to help the others centralize our security. Where are they, anyway? Derry and Edward must be in the Novo, right?”
“God, I hope so,” Sam said. “With Jess and Molly.” There or far, far away from this building.
Manny got to his feet, gingerly rubbing his face, nodding. “They’re there. I’ve been in touch with my people.” He spat on the one at his feet. “The good ones.”
“Right. Glad you can see sense.” Zach slapped him on the back and then took off the first aid backpack he wore. “I’ve got something for you, Dr. Sam.”
She reached out for the bag. “I’m not hurt, but I’ll quickly help clean up your wounds before we—”
Holding the bag in front of his chest, Zach gave her a look and shook his head. “I dumped the first aid. This is something else. I barely got out in time.”
“You dumped the first aid? But—” Sam felt a chill run down her spine. “It’s the Egg.”
Zach nodded.
“You risked your life to get the Egg?” she demanded. “After everything LupiNex and the Stantons and… and I have done to you—you—you marched through an explosion to save the Egg?” She was so upset she could hardly breathe. She had to turn away and close her eyes for a moment. Zach had endured months, almost a year, of physical and emotional agony, the destruction of life as he’d known it, the assault to his freedom and his DNA, and he’d still put the greater good above himself.
“What’s the Egg?” Manny asked, sounding bewildered.
Sam took a deep breath and turned back around. “The building blocks of all the biotech agents we’ve developed over the years.” She took the backpack out of Zach’s arms and hugged it to her chest. “Tomas was probably trying to destroy it. Weaken the Stan
tons forever.”
“I got more than just the Egg,” Zach said. “I shoved the latest compounds in there too. I didn’t have time to grab any ice packs, though. We’ll want to get everything into a fridge or cooler before it all starts to break down.”
She unzipped the pack and looked inside. The oval vacuum-sealed storage case they’d nicknamed Egg was there, but next to it was a collection of vials wrapped in plastic and paper towels. And a few other items. “Why the syringes?” she asked Zach.
“Maybe we should fight fire with fire,” Zach said, his gaze hardening.
“And make shifters?” she asked in horror. “No, we’re not as bad as him. We’re not.”
“You knew what you were doing when you developed it,” Zach said.
“And then I saw what it did to you. No. Never again.”
He brushed off a chunk of debris from his shoulder. “I would’ve died in that blast if I hadn’t been a shifter. Since the serum, very little can hurt me for long.” He tapped the backpack. “We need to keep all our options open. We won’t make anyone do it who doesn’t want to. Fully informed and total consent this time.”
Both Sam and Zach glanced at Manny, who had a hungry gleam in his eye. There were plenty of humans in the Stanton orbit who would willingly become shifters. But she couldn’t approve of the idea, not after what Zach had been through. They weren’t monsters like Tomas, using humans as guinea pigs to test their fun experiments, no matter how willing they seemed. They couldn’t know what it would do to them. She couldn’t know. Each person was too different. The science was too new.
“Can you get us to the Novo, Mr. Hayden?” Manny asked Zach. “I’m unable to access the club by myself.”
Zach hit the elevator button. “The plate will respond to my palm. Even though Eva has shifter police mixed in with the other first responders, we don’t want to go all the way upstairs. We’ll need to go the back route.”
The lift car arrived, and they stepped inside.