She curled into the corner of the sofa, tucking her legs up and wrapping her arms around her knees. In the short time he had known her, he had seen Kaya Laurent stubborn and tenacious, fearless and unflagging. Now, he saw a tender vulnerability in the courageous woman that carved a hollow in his chest. He wanted to be the one to protect her from all hurts, physical and otherwise. It astonished him how deeply he wanted to be the only man she turned to for all of her needs . . . and her desires.
Including the most essential, sacred one that existed between a Breed male and his mate.
The one he wanted despite the many questions and niggling suspicions he couldn’t seem to shake when it came to this female.
Aric sat down beside her. “If your injuries need more care, tell me and we can go find Rafe.”
The words tasted like sawdust on his tongue, but it was all he had to offer her. It was a relief when she shook her head in denial.
“It’s not my body that hurts, it’s my heart. I still can’t believe Bal’s gone.”
Aric nodded, but inside he felt a jolt of uncertainty now. The memory of Kaya wearing a massively oversized shirt that could only have belonged to the behemoth of a male sank sharp talons into him. “Did you love him?”
“Yes.” She turned her face toward him when her answer had made Aric’s molars clamp together. “Bal was kind to me from my first day at the command center. I loved him like a brother, Aric. Like a friend. I always will.”
“Of course,” he answered, consoled that he wouldn’t have to spend the rest of his days envying a dead man.
Kaya reached for his hand, twining her fingers through his. “I was so scared when Webb reported that you’d run alone into the gunfire at Scrully’s place.” A strangled breath caught in her throat. “God, Aric. If you had died tonight too--”
“I didn’t.” He pulled her close, into the circle of his arm. Her freshly washed hair was sweet and silky soft against his lips as he kissed the top of her head. “I’m right here, baby.”
She nestled against him, her fingers stroking over his clean T-shirt at the places where his torso had taken multiple enemy rounds, including more than one UV bullet. The wounds were healed now, but the entry points were still raised and tender. “Does it hurt when I touch you?”
“Only in the best way.” He lifted her chin and gazed down into her soft eyes. “Touch me anytime you like. You’re never going to hear me complain.”
He brushed his lips over hers, groaning when the brief kiss shot through him like pure flame. He tore away from her sweet mouth with more restraint than he realized he possessed. But only barely. Everything Breed in him yearned to take Kaya . . . to claim her as his regardless of the separate paths their lives were on.
Maybe she sensed the thinness of his control. God knew it was hard for her to miss the sudden surge of his fangs behind his lip, or the simmering glow of his irises as he stared at her, doing his damnedest to bite back the word that leapt to his tongue every time he looked at her.
Mine.
She drew back from him, retreating a few inches closer to her corner of the sofa. “I’m sorry if I’m to blame for some of your wounds tonight. You told me to stay put, but I couldn’t just sit and wait for the danger to pass.”
“I wish to hell you were better at following instructions,” he said, offering her a wry smile. “But you were a help to me in there, Kaya. You’ve got great warrior instincts and skill.”
She lifted her shoulder in a mild shrug. “I’ve had good training. And it helps to have a good partner.”
“Yes, it does.” Aric held her meaningful gaze. “I don’t think I could hope for anyone better.”
Something flickered in her dark eyes, shadows that seemed to dim the tender regard she held him in before shuttering her gaze to him completely. She got up from the sofa and poured a glass of wine, taking a drink of it as she strode in front of the fireplace.
“Maybe we’re not that good together.” It was an abrupt redirect, steering their conversation away from the awareness he knew she felt as strongly as he did. “We finally identified Mercier’s Opus contact, but in the end it was all for nothing. The Order’s come back less one of our best members and we’re no closer to stopping Opus Nostrum than we were before you and I met.”
Aric rose and moved over to where she stood, her arms crossed in front of her, fingers grasped around her wineglass as if it was the only thing holding her together. “We did suffer losses today. But so did Opus. They’ve got one less member of their inner circle now too. And we’ve got substantial intel collected from Scrully’s estate and computers. We’ve also taken a van full of UV weapons away from Opus’s arsenal.”
Without the time or preparations to detonate the recovered cache of arms and munitions, the crates were currently stowed in the bowels of the command center, a fact that was making more than a few of the Breed warriors a bit twitchy.
“They knew we were coming, Aric. The timing of Scrully’s killing and the Order’s arrival couldn’t have been coincidence, right? Opus’s assassins didn’t just get lucky when they brought a van filled with UV weapons to that estate to kill Scrully. They were waiting for us. They knew we were coming and they knew when.”
He stilled, somewhat taken aback to hear her say the very thing that the Order’s commanders had been discussing ever since they’d returned tonight. Rafe had made no secret of his suspicions over the past few days either, pressing the very likely possibility that the Order had a leak with loyalties to Opus somewhere in their intel chain. Or somewhere closer than that.
Even Aric had to admit he had doubts--too many of them centered on the beautiful woman standing in front of him now.
She spoke so earnestly, so convincingly, she was either innocent or one hell of a cold-hearted liar.
And he had to be some kind of fool for how eagerly he grasped for the former while pretending he could ignore the latter. Staring into Kaya’s soulful eyes made him want to ignore a lot of the things his logical mind was telling him.
That his life and all of the goals he had for his future as a warrior with no chains to hold him down were still the things he wanted most.
That his duty to the Order came before the woman he couldn’t resist.
That he couldn’t possibly be in love with her after only a handful of days.
He stared into her sincere gaze, wishing he had her power to read a mind with his touch. “You’re right about what happened tonight. Opus had to be tipped-off by someone. After what happened with Angus Mackie the other night as well, the Order is all but certain we have a mole somewhere.”
She blanched a bit, then glanced down into her glass. “I hope that’s not true.”
“So do I, Kaya.”
He could smell her anxiety as he took the wine from her hand and set it on the mantel. She was afraid now. He saw it in the heavy drum of her pulse, which ticked in a faster tempo at the base of her throat. Instead of feeling suspicion, even anger, at the sight of that frantic, throbbing vein, what he felt the most was hunger.
A need so primal and sexual it rocked him to his core.
She looked up again, into his eyes. He didn’t have to wonder if they were glowing with the ferocity of his desire; Kaya’s face said it all. He couldn’t pretend he didn’t want her, or that the truth of his feelings toward her didn’t go far deeper than that.
He caressed her cheek, a low curse hissing out of him. “When I realized you were in that house with me tonight, I was so fucking furious at you. I knew the instant you’d been shot by that bastard on the stairs. I heard your scream, Kaya. Then I smelled your blood.” He shook his head, his flawless memory providing a replay that tore at him all over again. “I wanted to kill every last one of those fucks who tried to hurt you. But that’s not all I wanted.”
He let his hand drift along the side of her neck, smoothing his thumb over the artery that beat so strongly below her ear. Kaya sucked in her breath, her gaze widening. When her lips parted on that shocked ga
sp, Aric took her face in his hands and kissed her. It was a fierce claiming, his tongue invading without permission or mercy. Possessive and heated, he ravished her mouth with all the passion and raw hunger that had been riding him ever since he first set eyes on her.
She kissed him back with equal intensity, until a small moan bubbled up from her throat. She broke away from him, panting. “Aric.”
She took a step back, his brave Kaya who had charged headlong into a building filled with enemy gunmen only hours ago, now trembled after his kiss.
“Are you afraid of me?” He waited in dread for her answer.
“No.” She shook her head as if to reaffirm it. “I’m afraid of myself . . . of what I might agree to if I let you stay in this room with me any longer.”
Her confession shouldn’t have given him as much pleasure as it did. Bolstered by it, he moved closer, denying her retreat. He touched her face again, running the backs of his knuckles along her cheek then down the velvety column of her neck.
“Are you afraid you’ll let me do this?” he asked, continuing his slow caress down the length of her toned arm before moving onto her breasts.
She gave him a weak nod, a sigh shuddering out of her as he kneaded the perfect mounds until her nipples rose as tight as pebbles beneath the thin fabric of her shirt.
He lifted the hem and brought both hands under, freeing the clasp of her bra. When her breasts were uncovered and filling his palms, he bent and suckled each of them, the points of his fangs lightly grazing her tender skin.
“What about this, Kaya?” he murmured, tugging one nipple between his teeth and flicking the tip of it with his tongue. She dropped her head back and moaned in pleasure, going a little boneless in his embrace.
“Or this?” he asked, reaching into her panties to stroke her sex as he brought his mouth back up to hers. “Ah, Christ.”
She was drenched and soft, so fucking hot. He groaned, his blood already on fire and racing through his veins. She moved against his palm, encouraging him to delve deeper into the wet cleft that felt like liquid silk on his fingertips. He penetrated her with one finger, then two, swallowing her jagged cry with his kiss. His heart hammered in his chest and every pulse point, his cock surging with the need to be inside her.
Releasing her on an impatient snarl, he peeled away her clothing so he could feast his gaze and mouth and hands on every strong, beautiful inch of her body.
“I need to touch you too,” she murmured tugging his shirt up and raking her short nails over his bared skin.
They undressed him together. Kaya’s hands traced his glyphs while her mouth dropped tender kisses on the raised, reddened skin of the many healed gunshot wounds that covered him. He wasn’t prepared for the moment she sank down in front of him and took his engorged erection into her hands. Her touch drew a choked moan from him as she worked his length with her fingers and palms, before lowering her mouth over the broad tip of his cock.
“Fuck.” He couldn’t keep his hips from moving in time with the wet strokes of her tongue. Fisting his hands in her dark hair, he pumped and grinded, uttering her name through clenched teeth and fangs.
Too soon, he felt his control unraveling. His need for release was too savage for her mouth. He needed to be inside her. Needed to see if the raw yearning he felt for her now could be slaked with a hard fuck and a blistering release.
“On the bed,” he growled, pulling her off him and lifting her into his arms. He didn’t have time to walk with her there. Desire owned him now.
This female owned him, and there was a part of him that knew no other would satisfy him again.
He placed her on the mattress, then climbed on top of her, spreading her legs wide as he settled his big body between her thighs then drove in deep. She cried out with the first hard thrusts. Aric couldn’t stop, not when she was clutching at his shoulders, her legs wrapped around him, opening herself to him completely and encouraging him to push them both to the limits.
And so he did.
Claiming her mouth in a fierce kiss, he rocked into her without mercy, filling her tight sheath with every hard inch of his cock. Her soft gasps and pleasured cries spurred him on. His arousal was a possessive thing, hungered and wild.
Her delicate muscles gripped him as he bucked in an increasingly savage tempo. He felt the jolting ripples of her body against his shaft. Roared when he felt her go tense beneath him, her orgasm seizing her. He pumped harder, until her scream ripped loose and she shattered with the force of her release.
Aric wasn’t far behind her. He couldn’t slow the thundering onslaught of his climax. It exploded out of him, a knot of pure heat blazing a scalding path through every fiber of his being before erupting in a fevered stream inside the haven of Kaya’s body.
For several moments, he kept thrusting, convulsions racking him as the waves of pleasure and staggering release finally ebbed. But he was still hungry for her. Still in need of the woman who clung to him, her long legs still wrapped around him, holding him inside her.
“What have you done to me, Kaya?”
Braced on his elbows above her, Aric slowed his rhythm to let her catch her breath. Her heart was racing. He could feel the power of it vibrating against him, tempting the other hunger he refused to indulge.
Yet that didn’t keep his amber-soaked gaze from drifting to the pulse point that pounded just beneath his mouth. Her carotid hammered, a beat he heard in his ears and temples. One that echoed in the hard throb of his own veins.
He kissed her once more, lost to the feel of her all over again.
Had he really thought he could screw this woman out of his system? It would take a lifetime of trying, and even then he felt certain he was destined to fail. He still wanted her. He loved her.
Even if she had secrets. Even if there was a part of her he might never be able to reach.
His fangs filled his mouth, gums aching as the sharp points surged in anticipation of their own reward. In the back of his mind, a selfish part of him whispered that all it would take was one small sip of Kaya’s blood and he would know all of her.
The bond would connect him to her deepest emotions, including whatever it was that put those impenetrable shadows in her eyes.
One taste and he would feel her in his veins forever.
Hell, he was halfway there already, even without shackling her to him by blood.
Besides, how crazy would he have to be to activate an eternal link to her when he wasn’t even sure he trusted her?
The reminder chased through his conscience like a black wind. Aric swept it aside, pushing all thoughts of blood and betrayal from his mind in favor of the one thing they did have that he could trust. Pleasure.
On a low growl, he pulled out and flipped Kaya onto her stomach. Then he lifted her onto her knees and thrust back into her sweet, wet heat again.
CHAPTER 24
Kaya’s body felt the delicious reverberations of Aric’s lovemaking all through the solemn ritual the Order observed to celebrate the birth of Nikolai and Renata’s child the next morning.
She sat beside him in the command center’s small candlelit sanctuary, swamped with emotion as she watched the new parents present their son to the audience of their closest friends and comrades. Yet to call the Breed males and their mates anything other than family was to diminish what they all had become to one another over the years. The Order’s members were kin in ways Kaya had not fully appreciated until this moment.
Inside a circle of eight tall white candles at the front of the gathering, Nikolai and Renata stood with Rio and Dylan, all of them garbed in long white tunics. With Mira holding her tiny brother nearby, the two couples had woven eight strips of snowy white silk into a cradle they held suspended between them for the infant who would be cherished and protected by all four of them--parents and chosen godparents--for as long as any of them lived.
“Who brings this child before us today?” Lucan asked, officiating the ritual.
“We do,” Nikolai a
nd Renata answered as one. “He is our son, Dmitri Jack.”
It was the first time the baby’s name had been announced. Kaya couldn’t help smiling at his middle name, no doubt given in tribute for the old man who’d been so kind to her when she needed shelter, but also, as Aric had informed her, kind to Renata and Niko years before her.
Lucan nodded to Mira and she brought the naked baby to Renata, transferring him carefully to his mother’s arms. Renata held Dmitri up for all gathered to see.
“This babe is ours,” she and Niko said, reciting words Mira had once described to Kaya. Hearing them spoken in this setting, in this moment, was more powerful than she could have imagined. “With our love we have brought him into this world. With our blood and lives we sustain him, and keep him safe from harm. He is our joy and our promise, the perfect expression of our eternal bond, and we are honored to present him to you, our kin.”
As one, Kaya included, the assembly answered with the traditional reply: “You honor us well.”
Now, the baby was laid in the center of the white silk cradle, and next came the vow by Dmitri’s godparents. Lucan pivoted to Rio and Dylan. “Who pledges to protect this child with blood and bone and final breath should duty call upon it?”
The couple answered solemnly, “We do.”
And with that promise spoken, Rio sank his fangs into first his wrist, then Dylan’s. Together, the pair held their open wounds over the squirming baby, their blood spilling in droplets onto his bare skin to symbolize their vow to give their lives in order to keep him safe.
Kaya watched through vision blurred with welling tears and a throat thick with happiness for the four friends and the tiny child whose life would be immeasurably blessed by their love and protection. Little Dmitri would want for nothing, Kaya was certain. How she wished she could feel even a fraction of that confidence when it came to her sister and her unborn child.