The Sigma Menace Collection

by Marie Johnston

  When he withdrew and climbed off the table, she sat up and did the same, donning her trench coat while he climbed into his pants.

  “Good game,” she said heading to the door.

  “Anytime, love. I enjoy our negotiations.” He walked her to the door. He couldn’t help but be a gentlemen at times. “Tell me, X.”

  She turned to face him.

  “Where do you go in your head when we’re together?”

  A small, sad smile lifted the corners of her mouth and she walked away.

  Commander Rhys Fitzsimmons weaved through the club, techno dance music pounding in his chest. He was out searching for Agents or recruits to torture for information when he smelled her and whenever he smelled her, it meant trouble.

  “Wanna dance?” an eager, not so young, woman asked. He regarded her with the same impassive expression he used on everyone. She gave him what was meant to be coy smile and sashayed away.

  That scent. Anger coiled in his gut. He knew that specific scent of that female. He’d only smelled it a couple of times before. Rhys wove his way through the people until he reached the single bathroom in time to see a tall, dark figure disappear inside.

  Bursting through the door on Demetrius’ coattails, Rhys shoved the powerful vampire against the wall. A woman shrieked and cowered in the corner next to the toilet.

  “Why, Commander, to what do I owe the honor?” Demetrius asked, completely unruffled by being held against the wall by his throat.

  “What the fuck are you up to, Demetrius?”

  “Now, now. I know how your kind tries not to draw attention to themselves. I’m just here, enjoying a good dance. I had the brunt of my aggression squeezed out of me earlier, leaving me free to partake of the more delicate goodies here.”

  Rhys glared at Demetrius, rage boiling over, squeezing the vampire’s throat harder. The woman cowering behind him continued to whimper. Unable to speak and knowing he wouldn’t be killed in public in front of witnesses, Demetrius allowed the commander to release some aggression.

  With a snarl, Rhys released the infuriating creature and turned to go.

  “It’s the games we play to stay alive, Commander.” Demetrius said the words as if he wanted to comfort Rhys, commiserate with him.

  “One day, Demetrius, I will find out exactly what you’re up to and you will pay.”

  “I look forward to it,” Demetrius replied glibly.

  Rhys marched out the door looking for the woman who approached him earlier. He found her drinking alone at the bar, scanning the crowd for more lonely males.

  Her eyes lit up when she saw him heading her way. Putting her drink down and straightening her clothes, she gave him what was meant to be her most winning smile.

  “I want to dance,” he told her.

  Almost shyly, she took his hand and followed him to an empty bathroom next to where Demetrius was successfully taking his female’s mind off the confrontation.

  “I don’t usually do this,” she admitted.

  Riiight. Except he kind of believed her. She smacked of loneliness. He would know.

  He closed them in the dark room and pinned her against the wall, smashing her mouth with his. His lonely woman was taken my surprise, but quickly returned his kiss with enthusiasm. When he did nothing else, just kiss her, she tentatively reached for his fly, fumbling with the buckles.

  Rhys reared back. What was she doing? She’d find nothing there worth her time. He remained limp, whether through anger or the woman he was with, it didn’t matter. He had to stop and think.

  “Sorry, uh—I can’t,” he admitted.

  “It’s all right,” she breathed, rubbing against him. “I can work on you first, if you need it.”

  When she dropped her knees and went back to his crotch, he batted her away.

  “I need to go.” He walked out, leaving the bewildered woman behind.

  Leaving through the back exit, not even the dealers and the smokers loitering in the dimly lit lot attempted to mess with Rhys. The cloud of confusion and anger and menace warning them he was best left alone.

  This thing with that shifter. The last time he turned to other women when he smelled X on that male, it made him feel empty and sick inside. A random fuck would do him no good and it would do the frustrating Agent no good. Whatever she was up to kept her loyal to Sigma and he was determined to find out why. Every fiber of his being screamed at him to help her, and goddammit he would, whether she needed it or not. Making himself vulnerable to getting killed while he got a blow job in some yuppie club wasn’t going to help anybody.

  He dedicated his life to his species. Now he dedicated it to annihilating Madame G and finding out X’s secrets. Once he was appeased, then he would walk away.

  Chapter 9

  Three weeks. Over three fucking weeks. Dani had been stuck in the prison cell for close to a month.

  They had tried to drag her from the woods. But she clawed and fought, screaming for Mercury. Bennett had finally grabbed her like a sack of potatoes while she wailed for the massive wolf to come back. He still hadn’t returned.

  Three weeks. He’d been gone the entire time. She would’ve sensed his return, even if it was just to his cabin. Instead, she felt empty. And alone. And really bored.

  Her new, and probably temporary for only nine months, sixth sense suggested she could leave at any time. Wish the prison cell door would open and voila! There was no point. She was safe in the depths of the lodge and trying to escape would only enforce the Guardians’ suspicions she was guilty.

  She explained everything to them, in full detail, no omissions this time. Even they sensed her honesty and sincerity. Then they locked her up.

  The small room was like an economy apartment. Her dorm room in college had more amenities, but overall it wasn’t a bad place to be imprisoned. It even had little windows that strategically let in the strongest rays of the day. They may have been put there to torture vampire prisoners, but they were really nice for a human prisoner.

  Mason was dead. The shot to his chest was from E’s special “boom stick,” as she heard him call it once. It blew silver-laced ammo designed to make craters in whatever it hit. And it hit Mason square in the chest, blowing his heart into fragments and out through his back.

  Mourning overtook the lodge and the Guardians. During the funeral when Dani balanced just right on the edge of her bed rails, she climbed high enough to see the rites of death carried out.

  The Guardians had been devastated—sort of. Mason really was an asshole and she’d witnessed enough to know they were at a point where they didn’t know if they could control the male much longer, and what they’d do if they couldn’t. But he was one of them. Maybe at one time he was a decent shifter, and his death reminded them all of their own mortality.

  During her interrogation, she’d told them about some of the things Mason said to her that night. Now she hoped they were investigating the former Guardian, not just her.

  Kaitlyn brought Dani lunch, as she often did. And Dani was grateful. Living as a human most all of her life, unaware of her four-legged half, Kaitlyn ate like a human: carbs, fruit, and veggies. Not just meat and more meat with a chaser of protein and a side of greasy fat like the others. Therefore, when it was her turn to cook, she fed the other Guardians more well-rounded meals than they'd seen in centuries. While the big males might grumble and complain about "shit like quinoa," Dani ate like she'd been starved, whether there was "fucking granola" fare like homemade hummus with whole wheat pita chips or rare beef roast.

  After sliding the tray through the bottom slot in the door, Kaitlyn folded herself gracefully on the floor facing Dani through the bars in the door, her chin on her hands, her elbows propped on her crossed legs.

  Dani sat with her eats—chicken nachos with extra sour cream. She could hear the man-bitching now. Chicken was almost a swear word at the lodge, but the shifters were coming around.

  As if Kaitlyn read her thoughts, she said, “They'll never admit it no
w, but their human taste buds are waking up to flavors other than charred beef and pork.

  Trying not to shovel in chip after loaded chip, she chewed a mouthful and raised an eyebrow at the beautiful redhead across from her.

  "He's still not back," Kaitlyn announced abruptly.

  Dani nodded thoughtfully, expecting as much.

  The beautiful redhead narrowed her eyes slightly on Dani before saying, "Bennett's been down to Pale Moonlight looking for him."

  Dani quit chewing, murderous rage roared up from her belly, pounding in her ears.

  "And?" She bit out the prompt around her mouthful, glaring at the female. She heard books sliding off her nightstand and hitting the floor. One even flew across the room and hit the wall.

  "There's been no sign of him," Kaitlyn smirked. Bitch.

  The rage receded leaving vast relief to fill its void.

  "Damn, girl. You've got it bad for the big brute."

  Rage crept back in. The book on the floor could be heard sliding toward the wall, trying to catch air and take off to hit the door.

  Kaitlyn looked past Dani, watching the books with amusement. "Sensitive much? You know I don't mean it as an insult."

  The books went still.

  "I know," Dani sighed. "I just get so defensive about him. And the baby's even worse."

  "That little nugget packs a punch." Kaitlyn pointed to Dani's still flat belly. "You seriously never had mojo before being prego?"

  "Nope. But I could think of a few times it would've been handy."

  They went silent and Dani cleaned her plate. She didn’t get snacks and her stomach would be rumbling something fierce before dinner. Her portions were big enough, but growing a shifter baby required a lot of fuel. Since there was almost nothing to do but read, Dani made sure to keep as fit as she could in her little prison doing floor exercises, yoga, and in-place cardio. Thank you elective college health course that required attending group fitness classes all semester. They kept her from death by boredom.

  "So…" Dani began. "Why are you nice to me?"

  "Have the others been mean?" Kaitlyn asked sharply.

  "No, no." Dani said quickly. "Not friendly, but I get it. I deserve it. You've been downright considerate and now you're letting me know about Mercury when the others growl back when I ask."

  "It's obvious you care about him and he cares about you. He'll come around. He might be a shifter but he's still a dude. I'm sure finding out about you when he thought he was figuring you out was like a double whammy to him. Those primitive emotions will work themselves out and he'll come back for you."

  Dani had already come to the same conclusion, minus the coming back for her part. As the days ticked by, she feared that once he was back in the wild, in his comfort zone even after all this time, he was there to stay.

  "But what about my history with Sigma, don't you hate me for that?"

  "Did you kill anyone that didn't need killing?"

  "No."

  "Did you hurt anyone that didn't need hurting?"

  "No." Dani could answer confidently. There had been plenty of opportunities, but with great fortune she was placed with Agent X and Agent E to train with and carry out her vendetta. They weren't into senseless violence and preferred to stay under the radar, concentrating only on the prey they were assigned to.

  The first time, after her first kill when they were hunting the remaining two ferals, they came upon a shifter clan in the mountains that Sigma Agents had visited. It was revolting, the things she saw. It was like a scene from any movie that portrayed the mass murder of a tiny village by raiders. Bodies littered the land between huts—males, females, and children. Some still in shifter form, no chance against today's weaponry. Dani didn't care what the species, children were not evil and were off limits. Many of the adults, the way they died protecting their loved ones, didn't strike Dani as feral creatures out to play with and kill any prey that crossed their paths.

  But she kept plugging away, hunting her targets. Then they crossed another village. There was no hiding from the awful truth that Dani had made a terrible mistake. She judged the whole species based on less than five minutes with the worst example of living flesh. As the years went by, and gossip flowed, Dani had felt the vice-like grip of Sigma's chains around her. Not just Sigma, either. She'd sworn herself to Madame G like all the other stupid recruits, and like all the others who woke up and smelled the spilled innocent blood, she knew she was good and completely fucked. No one had found a way out of the blood oath other than death, and that wasn't always a certainty.

  "Well, you've been vetted by my bestie and I'm bored." Kaitlyn brought her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, looking like she wasn't going anywhere soon.

  Thank God. Bored was an understatement. Dani desperately wanted the company.

  "You mean when Cassie came by, got in my head, and made me ugly cry?" The tenacious woman's questions just went on and on. Much like today, Dani was bored and wanted the company. Until she found herself sobbing, spilling her guts on everything she ever felt and thought about life. But the devious woman didn't once raise an alarm within Dani or her little bun-in-the-oven; no books went flying, no objects hit the wall, nothing.

  "She's good, right?" Kaitlyn grinned. “She was good at reading people before she hooked up with Jace. But now she can really dive into your brain.”

  Kaitlyn chatted with her for hours, just superficial chitchat about when they were both young and naive human girls with the only goal of dick-teasing boys and scoring fashion deals at the mall.

  When Kaitlyn rose to go, Dani figured she'd better ask what had been on her mind for the last couple of days.

  "I'm going to need OB appointments soon."

  "Is something wrong?"

  "Besides emotional outbursts that make objects go flying? No. Just from all the reading I've done with books we downloaded, it seems like regular doctor visits begin in the first trimester and I'm almost two months along. And with a half-species, I thought we should start figuring out how this is going to go."

  "Hmmm," Kaitlyn mused. "You're totes right. What the hell are the boys going to want to do? I'll mention it." With a wave, Kaitlyn left.

  Fatigue washed over Dani with the female's departure. She had done her workout already this morning, and read before lunch arrived, so nappy time it was.

  When Dani woke up, she could tell it was much later in the day. Being summer, the sun was still out, but early evening had passed. And shit. Her food was cold. The tray had been slid in, surprisingly quiet so not to wake her, even though it was obvious one of the males was on delivery duty tonight based on the meatloaf and bacon combo. And milk. They loved their milk—plain, chocolate, strawberry (gross!), it didn't matter.

  Whaddaya know? Cold bacon and meatloaf hit the spot.

  Now what?

  Dani sat on her bed facing the wall, pondering her day. Maybe with the females at the lodge slowly accepting her, thanks to Cassie's subtle but thorough psychoanalysis, the males would come around. She would love to prep for her baby and wait for baby daddy's return in the cabin. She missed it terribly. She missed the male who used to sleep on the porch even more.

  Daylight faded. This was the time Dani would turn in, needing more sleep than she used to, which was to be expected. Like the sore boobs and emotional roller coaster, tiredness came with the first trimester territory.

  Flutters went through her belly. Dani shifted, letting her mind drift again in the fading daylight. Flutters, like butterflies, but she had nothing to be nervous about. What the hell?

  An awareness settled into her, warming her insides, the heat spreading through her, arousing her.

  Dani stood. She began to pace. What. The. Hell?

  Shadows grew in her room, the sun being her only source of light was setting. She kept eyeballing the door.

  Her normally tender breasts became increasingly sensitive. If her arousal wasn't evident with her nipples poking through her top, it was definitely made known
in the friction created between her legs as she was pacing. If this kept up, tonight would be the night she lost her mind. There was no way she was getting herself off in this cell where they could rewind and watch her at any time on the surveillance tapes.

  The heat grew and so did her awareness. The door.

  Dani walked right up to it.

  "Open."

  The bolt thunked from within, and without a creak it swung open.

  Cautiously, Dani walked out. There would be no creeping, she had nothing to hide. Shoulders squared she strode down the hallway, navigating her way through the lodge, commanding any locked doors to simply open and they did. When she reached the side exit, she hesitated.

  Letting her mind relax, Dani used borrowed senses from her little bundle of joy to determine if any shifters were nearby or along the path in the woods where she was determined to go.

  Receiving the all clear, she walked out the door.

  His beard was scratchy. It'd been over a hundred years since Mercury had one and he didn't miss hair on his face. At least it was finally drying after his pseudo-shower in the little spring-fed waterfall a mile or so away from his cabin. He intended to go back, and like every time before in the last twenty-plus days, he didn't. He got closer tonight than ever, used the excuse he needed to bathe first, and then sat by the water but moving no further.

  There was no need to.

  She was coming to him. As soon as her scent drifted on the breeze to him, he hardened, his shaft coming to attention for all to see as he wore nothing, being nude when he ran off.

  The first several days, he just ran. His feelings a jumbled mess that he couldn't make out until he began to sort through and analyze them like Irina taught him.