Then there was brash, broken Benji, wait, Bennett. She still thought of as him Benjamin, but he had changed his name after a horrible betrayal before the turn of the previous century. Bennett discovered his destined mate had been living almost on top of them. Sarah was in hiding, and he protected her and figured out a way to fake her death, buying the Guardians time to find out why Sigma wanted her dead.
A hybrid, Irina mused. She wasn’t surprised Sarah carried human, shifter, and vampire genetics. They’d been on this planet too long to not procreate together. Many shifters had forgotten the days when shifters never found human mates. Now, even though human-shifter offspring maintained dominate shifter traits, they were not nearly as strong as the Ancients.
Irina’s father was an Ancient who took a human mate, but both of her parents were slaughtered in the Extinction hundreds of years ago when their race was almost wiped out. After that, human mates were much more common. It was that or die out, and she imagined it was the same for the vampires. Vampires and shifters could only war so long before they either killed each other or copulated with each other.
Irina was close to the little waterfall Dane liked to hang out in. Downwind, he shouldn’t sense her, still she approached cautiously. A part of her wondered if she would ever run here, find her mate swimming, and dive in to wrap her body around him. They hadn’t had sex in…Oh well, who’s counting?
Dane trained the Guardians and lately he’d been busy with the new addition, Parrish, a Guardian boy Mercury rescued. Irina worked all day in her office, and he only came home to sleep. In the cabin they shared, like estranged roommates, he slept in the spare room and she in the main bedroom. He’d fill her in on pertinent news and she’d offer no further conversation.
Irina dreaded the next evening. Bennett and Sarah were getting officially mated by Commander Fitzsimmons. She had gutted her way through making an appearance at Jace’s and Mercury’s matings. Now, there was to be a third mating in a little over a year. She should be ecstatic. The shifters she loved were finding happiness, but that meant she had to pretend her life wasn’t in shambles.
Creeping noiselessly over an incline, Irina peered through the growth to see if it was all clear for an afternoon swim, though deep down she sensed Dane beat her to the location.
What she saw made her pulse hammer and her irritation flare with it. That male should not make her feel like this after all these years. Seeing the sunlight glint off water droplets as Dane strode out of the water made her memories of the passion they once shared all too clear.
He reached up to run a hand through his hair. Water drops glittered as they flew from his dark hair that held just a hint of gray, giving him a distinguished appeal. His body, Sweet Mother, his body made her feel like a young, passionate female all over again. The daily training kept his muscles ripped and hard. To a human, he might look like an exceptionally fit fortyish-year-old man, while she might be considered a youthful mid-thirties. The reality was that they were both hundreds of years old.
Now that his senses weren’t dulled by the water, he might hear her stalking away. It was excuse enough to wait it out until he left, hopefully in the other direction. Irina really wanted to swim. At least that’s what she told herself to keep her belly planted on the ground, spying on her mate.
Irina waited for him to change into his wolf and trot off, but instead, he sat on a large boulder on the shoreline of the little pool the falls made. Stretching out in the sun, his magnificent body on display, Irina couldn’t take her eyes off him.
She should leave, she really should.
With mounting interest, she watched as a certain body part of Dane’s she was once intimately acquainted with lengthened. Her eyes wide, Dane languidly stroked himself.
She should leave, she really should.
The strokes gained in force and momentum. Irina’s mind went back to the times she would do that for him before settling herself down on top of his length. She would ride him, watching his face like she was doing now, see him grit his teeth at the pleasure, his breaths coming quicker until the final push took them both with in a simultaneous explosion.
A grunt and a curse could be heard as Dane came into his hand. Desire drained out of Irina’s body as she watched him rinse off in the water. He seemed less relaxed and more irritated than before. Did he wish to lie with someone else? He was a virile Guardian and it was always said there was none more true than a mated Guardian. But they had their drives and needs. Where had he been getting his met? And why did he quit coming to her?
Finally, Dane flowed into his dark wolf and ran deep into the trees. Irina waited a few minutes to make sure it was all clear. After her voyeurism, she didn’t feel like a swim anymore, but it was better than running into Dane out in the woods, or even worse, at their cabin.
Dane ran back to the lodge. After his swim, he’d circled the area around the falls and perched where he’d sensed Irina had watched him bathe. She probably thought the falls had masked her scent, but he’d been without her for so long that it didn’t take much to alert him to her presence. Obviously, it was why he got hard and in a move so uncharacteristic of him, stroked himself off in front of her.
Okay, so maybe he hoped she’d drop down and join him; let a starving male sate himself on her luscious body. Nope, she’d just watched him. Was she even moved by his desire?
He spied on her, thinking maybe he’d inspired her to satisfy herself and he could watch. No, again. She walked out of the water, her lithe body shining like a water goddess in the sunlight, and glanced at the large rock he’d reclined on, shifted, and left.
That female had him worked up in knots. The night they’d lost their children, and her ability to bear any more young, he feared he’d lost her, too. When he’d returned from his hunt for revenge and informed her the murderers had perished, he’d been met with a despondent mate who’d merely shrugged. Left with no other ideas of how to improve his mate’s depression, he’d backed away and thrown himself into his duty to allow her room to heal. It had taken years of minimal conversation and very little physical contact, but eventually they’d become nothing but an empty mating bond.
Purpose riding Dane the last bit of distance to the lodge, he vowed that would change. Irina would either open up to him or they were done. For good.
Snatching his robe off a hook inside the doorway, Dane made his way to the locker rooms. Parrish should be ready and waiting for him. They always sparred before supper, mostly to work up a hearty appetite in the kid.
Only seventeen, Parrish had been severely emaciated when Mercury brought him to the lodge. After he’d healed from the torture Sigma doled out, the boy had mentally withdrawn and it showed physically. Now that Dane was drawing him out of his shell during training, he was eating better and packing on muscle.
The kid still didn’t talk, only used sign language. His other senses were fine, and Dane suspected so were his vocal chords. They needed to know not only why he wouldn’t talk, but why Sigma captured him in the first place. He knew way more than he was letting on and the trick would be to get him to open up without mentally shutting down.
It’d probably be easier for Dane than getting his mate to talk to him.
Parrish hopped up as soon as Dane entered. He nodded and they both headed to the gym. It was empty this time of day and Dane worked the young male through the series of moves he’d been taught.
They sparred, no padding, taking the brunt of each other’s hits. Parrish had been timid at first, afraid to hurt Dane. Once he got past that, he became entranced, like each hit he got on Dane was one he dished out to his captors. It kept Dane on his toes, because, damn, the kid was getting stronger.
Giving the signal to stop for the day, they both stood, hands on knees, panting.
“Tomorrow, Parrish, you’re going to spar with Jace.”
Parrish nodded. Dane would have preferred Kaitlyn to spar with Parrish first since she was experienced in teaching martial arts, but he got the feeling tha
t Parrish would freak out having to hit a female. It’d probably change when the female doled out more than Parrish was ready for, and Kaitlyn would show no mercy, but Dane didn’t want any setbacks. He’d get Parrish used to sparring with someone else, then bring Kaitlyn in and work his way up through the more experienced Guardians.
Dane clapped him on the shoulder. “Before we clean up, I want you to answer one question.”
Parrish tensed, sensing Dane was asking for more than a training question.
“Can you talk?” Dane knew they’d asked Parrish this before, but it was shortly after he’d arrived at the lodge, when questions about his past were answered by moaning from the fetal position.
Paling even more than normal, brushing his white-blond hair behind his ear, he finally nodded.
Dane gave a curt nod. “Go eat. Tomorrow we train, and you can help me get ready for Bennett’s mating ritual.”
Relieved there were no follow-up questions, Parrish loped off. Dane planned on one question at a time until he felt Parrish could handle more.
Heading to the kitchen himself to grab some food, Dane thought about what needed to be done for the next night. Mating rituals were more a party for the guests than for the couple. The couple usually left to be by themselves while the guests joined together in revelry.
If Dane helped prepare, then that was less time he had to hang around his cabin being avoided by his mate. What Irina did, typing away in that office, was unknown. Even before computers, she was always typing. Now it was nonstop and she’d become quite the techie.
She’d said she’d come tomorrow night. Probably not just for Bennett, but to keep up appearances that while she was a hermit, there was nothing wrong with their relationship.
What a time to make that claim. They’d get to witness a couple deeply in love start their life together while their bond crumpled under the tragedies of the past.
Chapter 2
I know what you are.
Irina read those words over again. She was cruising through her emails, replying to fans, when this gem popped up, sent from Lycabyter29. Another user name and Irina would’ve ignored it, but the name conjured up shifters and vampires alike. Maybe the sender meant computer byte. Maybe the sender liked the play on words. Maybe. Or maybe “Lycan biter” was literal.
Damn. Sitting back in her chair, staring at the words, her mind whirled. Should she reply? Ignore it? The sender said what, though, not who.
Deciding on the reply option since she replied to all of her fan mail, she sent back a question asking what he had meant. Or she, it could be a woman.
Noting the time, Irina decided to continue working on her newest novel. Opening up the document and finding where she had left off, she groaned. A naughty scene. The past had been revisiting her too much lately and not the bad part. Her mind had been prodding her with memories of how good it had been between her and Dane. Then after watching him yesterday, she had to sit down and write a sex scene.
No way to the end but through. Irina dived into the scene, using those conjured memories to fuel the passion between her characters. At least she could write them a happy ending, if not one for her herself.
Saving her work and backing it up, she faced reality. Time to get dressed for Bennett and Sarah’s mating. For her, that meant just changing into a different sundress. Just as she finished, she heard Dane go into his room to clean up and change, so she checked her email again.
Lycabyter29 sent her a picture of a wolf howling at the moon. Swallowing hard, Irina couldn’t do more than stare at the photo for several minutes. Finally, she hit reply:
And what are you?
“All set?” His deep rumble scrambled her thoughts, making her frantically exit out of her files. None of the Guardians knew what she did with her time. At first, she didn’t think they’d approve of it. Mostly she was afraid Commander Fitzsimmons, or her duty-bound husband, would report her to the council and they’d order her to stop. Then what would she have to do with herself for the rest of her long life?
“Yes, I’m ready.” Turning with a hesitant smile to cover up her fluster, she caught her breath. He wasn’t dressed much differently than usual—black slacks that enhanced his tapered hips and muscular thighs and a nice viridian shirt that brought out his vibrant green eyes, the fabric accentuating his broad shoulders and wide chest.
She flushed under his perusal sweeping her body. This was nonsense. They’d been together so long, his attention shouldn’t affect her. But it did and she felt like it had been an eternity since she’d had any sort of attention from him.
At one time, they didn’t just mind-speak, they shared their sight. Only strong, well developed mating bonds allowed that. They barely spoke words to each other anymore, much less shared a mental connection. How long had it been since they’d been in each other’s mind? Decades?
Walking side by side in silence they reached the mating ceremony shortly before it started. Irina forced herself to be present, she owed it to Bennett. He’d been through so much and she’d been wrapped up in her own misery that she’d been of no use to him. Not that he’d have wanted her help. The rift between Bennett and Dane had been severe after Dane killed Bennett’s human wife when she had betrayed them all.
Her dear wildling Mercury, the lost boy she helped nurture into a strong male, had helped Bennett through the loss of his wife until he found Sarah, a mate to be proud of, and who finally healed his wounds completely.
Speaking of Mercury, she hadn’t been there for him, either. He came to her once, shortly after he met Dani, distraught with unfamiliar feelings. The conversation was going well until it wasn’t, and she pretty much kicked him out. It was still hard for her to be around Mercury and Dani. Not because seeing them happy with a bouncing bundle of joy bothered her. It was the fear and knowledge of how easily it all could be ripped away that scared her. In truth, she’d rather not get attached and save herself the heartache of what-ifs.
Cheers rose as Bennett and Sarah sealed their bond in blood and Commander Fitzsimmons presented them with their mating gladdus, the ceremonial dagger used to bind the couple. Much like Mercury and Dani, Bennett and Sarah grinned and shook hands greeting everyone before running off to their cabin to hunker down for a long night of passionate lovemaking.
Irina sighed wistfully watching them go and didn’t miss Dane’s scrutiny. Turning away, she started back to the cabin.
“Irina, I’d like you meet Parrish.” Dane called to her.
The last thing she wanted was an awkward meet and greet. Of course she’d heard about the boy, but she’d been mulish. She hadn’t learned sign language and avoided crossing paths with him. It was a crappy move, but it was a matter of time before someone thought foisting the boy on her would be a good idea. After all, she’d taken the wildling, Mercury, under wing and nurtured his human side until he was a capable shifter. However, if she couldn’t communicate with Parrish, then it wouldn’t happen, and she wouldn’t have to emerge from her emotionally protected cocoon.
Forcing a pleasant smile onto her face, she turned and stretched out her hand to shake the teen’s. His grip was hesitant, his gaze downcast, and she felt like shit. This was a damaged young boy, and he made all of her maternal instincts fire up.
Irina couldn’t help herself. She brought her other hand to grab his, encasing it in both of hers.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Parrish,” she said warmly, meaning every word.
He looked up to meet her eyes and opened his mouth to say something, but slammed it closed, gaze dropping to the ground.
“Are you okay?” Concern filled Dane’s voice.
The boy nodded, still not raising his head. Irina was not a short female, but Parrish was still much taller than her and she could see indecision in his downcast eyes.
“Go to the party, Parrish,” Dane ordered, trying to prod the kid to socialize. “Eat a ton of food, have fun, and be ready at our normal time tomorrow.”
Parrish turned to go, t
hen turned back to Irina and made a quick motion with his hands before he darted off.
“What was that?” Irina asked Dane. Note to self, learn sign language.
Dane’s considering gaze followed the young male. “He said, ‘don’t go alone.’”
A week had passed since the mating and Dane worked up to two questions a day. Parrish fielded them well, albeit hesitantly: he quit talking about five years ago, he had no siblings, his mom was alive, his dad dead, and yes he had a special ability. Now it was time to move forward.
“We need to talk.” Dane had waited until after Parrish was done showering before making the announcement. They’d wrapped up early and Dane knew the boy suspected why, by the way he dragged himself to go the showers.
Folding himself down on the bench in the locker room, Dane remembered a day not long ago when he had a long talk with another shifter in this very room. Kaitlyn made the decision that day to join the Guardians. If the locker room intervention worked for her, maybe it would work for Parrish.
“Let’s just start with you telling me what you’re comfortable with telling me.” There was no reason to beat around the bush. Either Parrish would talk or he wouldn’t, and neither one wanted to prolong it further by playing twenty-one questions over the span of several days.
Parrish grabbed the side of the bench and rocked back and forth staring at the ceiling. Dane was afraid he was losing him again, but on closer inspection it seemed as if Parrish was considering where to start. Finally, Parrish released his hands and started talking.
I have premonitions.
Not a surprise. It was a theory Rhys and Dane had been tossing around after a tidbit an Agent tossed their way. It’d been weighing heavily on his mind, that the boy had passed a warning to Irina. But why, and about what? Shifter seers were rumored to have been very fair in coloring and very, very rare. Parrish fit the description, and Sigma must’ve know what he was. Regardless, he was so young and inexperienced, Dane doubted Parrish even knew what his warning was about.
The Sigma Menace Collection Page 50