she whispered those words to him.
He closed his eyes, wanting to block the site of it from his mind, from the beast that howled out in misery.
“No,” he whispered, shaking his head. They were already bound, forever tied together in their need for each other, in the danger that stalked them. This burden he could not face.
She felt his fingers on her lips. They trembled. He opened his eyes and saw the tear that fell from one eye. It eased over her cheek, bleak and lonely as it made a track through the dust and grime on her face from their run through the mountain.
“Yes.” Her voice shook as she fought more tears.
He wanted to scream out at the injustice of it. At the laugh fate was having on him. In one hand lay all his dreams. In the other lay his death.
He pulled her to him, crushing her against his chest as he fought his own tears, the cries of the beast suffering within him.
“I just wanted you to know, Callan, even before the mating, I loved you. When you were just a picture, a story, a man I couldn’t stop dreaming about.” Her words pierced his heart. “I don’t want us to die without you knowing that I love you. That I loved you even before you touched me.” Callan shuddered. His arms tightened around her, his face burying in her neck. His lips pressed to the small wound there where his teeth kept going during the height of their passion.
“When I first saw you, you were standing in that greasy parking lot of the station, wearing those damned jeans and that shirt that flashed your stomach,” he said hoarsely. “My cock damned near came out of my jeans, and my heart bled. Because I was looking at the woman I would have taken for my own, if my life were my own.”
His life wasn’t his own, but she was. Nature had taken the choice from him. And it would kill him if he failed to protect her. Callan knew the chances of protecting her were growing slimmer by the day. The Council knew about her now. They knew about the mating.
He pulled back, unable to bear their touch any longer, unable to bear the uncertain future staring him in the face. Damn their souls to hell, Merinus was better off dead then risking her life this way. She didn’t have a chance. Eventually, they would get her. Just as they always captured him. Eventually. He turned from her, heading for the bedroom door.
“Bathe,” he whispered, his voice tight, the ache in his soul nearly strangling him. “I’ll have something to eat soon.”
He heard her sigh behind him. A lost, aching sigh that speared through him, hurting him more than he was already hurting. She was so innocent. Too damned innocent for the horrors awaiting them. How could he assure her safety? What could he do to keep the degradation and pain he knew she would suffer from her future?
Go in as she asked? That question haunted him. He could bear the humiliation, the tabloid stories and the judgments against him. He could risk the chance he would be branded sub-human for her safety. If it brought her safety. If her brother had been the one to betray her, then it wouldn’t. But, if his other suspicions held true, then it wasn’t her brother at all.
Weariness pulled at him, hopelessness beat a discordant note in his brain. It had been there in the cave with those soldiers. An elusive scent nearly hidden by the stink of men of evil. He hadn’t noticed it at first, and only later, after Merinus fell asleep in the jeep had it come to him. There had been the smell of another, a man who wasn’t with the soldiers, a man Callan knew well. His chest tightened with that knowledge, despite his need to deny it.
That sheltered cave was not used for a reason. It was barely known, even to the residents of that area of the mountains. And none knew of the linking caverns, for Callan had closed them off years before. He stripped quickly, adjusting the water and stepping beneath the spray. He wanted to wash away the memories of horror and pain, but it wasn’t possible. He wanted to wash away the evil of his conception, the stench of the crime against humanity that they had used him to commit, but once again, he could not.
All he could do was wash away the grime of yet another desperate flight to safety, and pray to God he was wrong about his betrayer. Enough blood stained his hands and his soul, he didn’t want to compound his past sins with the sin of killing one of the few people he loved.
“Callan.” He jerked in surprise as a silhouette appeared outside the glass door.
Shapely, small and fragile, Merinus stood outside the steamy chamber, her voice hesitant, beckoning. He opened the door, sliding it across the tracks until he could see her. She was radiantly naked, hope and need glistening in her eyes.
“Merinus,” he sighed, shaking his head.
“I need someone to wash my back.” She held up her washcloth, her expression hopeful, her body aroused.
Would he ever be able to deny the scent of her need? Callan knew he couldn’t. He never would. It was as intoxicating to him as his taste was to her. He stood beneath the water, feeling it caress his skin with its heat, and knowing it was nothing compared to the heat to be found within her body.
“I’ll fuck you,” he groaned.
She smiled sadly, stepping into the cubicle with him, closing the door behind her.
“And I’ll love you,” she whispered.
Her hands went to his chest, smoothing over his skin, her fingertips testing the muscle beneath. Taking the washrag from her, he dropped it carelessly on the small shower shelf beside him. He watched as her eyes closed, the water cascading over her hair, her pale face. She luxuriated in the heat of the water, moving her head to allow it to soak every strand.
“Let me wash you then, beauty,” he told her, his voice soft. Too soft for his own peace of mind. How he wanted her. His body ached with his need, both physical and emotional.
Into his cupped palm he deposited a generous amount of shampoo and began to work it into her hair.
His fingertips caressed her scalp, drawing the wet silk through them, stroking the tender skin of her head.
She moaned in pleasure, her body brushing against his as she leaned into his chest, her tongue washing over his flat male nipple with slow sensuality.
His body tightened, growing hotter by the second. He moved her beneath the spray once again, watching as suds rinsed from her hair, rolled slowly over her shoulders, her full breasts. Caressing her as he wanted to caress her. Kissing her skin with satin softness, hiding the hardness of her rosy nipples for the briefest second. When the last of the suds had washed away, he retrieved the soap from the shelf. He left the washrag. He wanted nothing but the smooth slide of suds between his hands and her flesh.
He worked the soap between his hands as he stared down at her. Her eyes were passion glazed, her body trembling with weariness and passion.
“You’re eating before you go to sleep,” he told her softly, an involuntary smile edging his mouth.
The smile disappeared when he touched her. She gasped, arching against the hands that cupped her breasts, the fingers that gripped her nipples. Slowly, inch-by-inch he covered her body with creamy lather until he was kneeling at her feet, pressing her legs apart, his fingers running over the slick flesh of her smooth pussy.
“I love the way you touch me,” she gasped as his fingers began to stroke her, wash her. Suds rolled down her thighs, mixed with the heady scent of her feminine need.
Callan laid his head against her abdomen, one arm wrapping around her upper thighs as he held her steady, the other parting her legs further. He had to taste her. He could wait no longer. His tongue swiped through the satiny folds, then curled around her swollen clit.
She shuddered in his grasp. Her hands dug into his hair, holding onto him as he teased the little bud with soft strokes, careful to keep the rougher portion of his tongue well away from it. With only the tip he stroked around her clit, feeling her shudder, her stomach contract. He sucked it into his mouth then, applying just enough pressure to have her grinding her hips against him, her needy moans filling the shower stall as he teased her.
“Callan, please.” She bucked against his mouth as he pressed her against the wall, then lifted her thigh to his shoulder.
She screamed out as his tongue speared into her. Deep, hard, spreading the muscles of her vagina as he sought the addicting taste of her desire. The fingers of one hand continued the teasing strokes against her clit as he ignored her demand for instant gratification. He didn’t want to rush this, he wanted to savor the taste and the touch of her.
He licked at her gently then, moaning as her juices coated his tongue and his lips. So ready for him. She wept for him, pleaded with him, her muscles clenching on his invading tongue as she reached for the release she would only ever attain with him.
“Mine,” he groaned against the folds of flesh, licking in swifter, firmer strokes.
“Mine,” she cried out, her hands clenching in his hair, her voice wild with her need to climax. “Always mine.”
And he was. Hers. She was his. He came to his feet, lifting her to him, pushing between her thighs, his cock plunging inside her in one quick stroke that took him to the hilt. Callan gritted his teeth at the fiery pleasure that washed over his body. She was tight, gripping him in a silken fist so damned hot it took his breath.
A wail of pleasure sounded from her lips. She tightened, rocked against him. He pulled back and thrust hard again. She climaxed instantly, her release raining over his erection, destroying his self-control. He held her close in his arms, his hips powering into her then as he fought to get deeper, closer. God help him, she was all that mattered to him now. Being inside her, heart, soul, body. This was all he dreamed of and more than he had ever believed possible.
Stroking desperately inside her, he heard her building moans of renewed need, felt the emergence of the barb and knew ecstasy was only seconds away. He held her tighter, thrust harder, faster. Merinus tightened in his arms once again and as his cock lodged deep, his seed spurted into her, he heard her scream and felt her climax rush over her for the second time. And in her arms, for those few endless seconds, he found peace.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
They stayed buried in the house for two days while Callan paced the floors and checked the hidden email account he had. Everyone had checked in. They were secure but two of the messages had his instincts raring in self-defense. The first from Dayan, swearing Kane and the Tyler men were seen meeting with the soldiers, coordinating a search for Callan that covered every inch of the mountains. The other from Sherra, informing him that she and a relative were desperately searching for them to relay information. He cursed violently when that email came through. He told her to stay put, to put off the meeting with Kane Tyler. Why had she taken this into her own hands? And who was lying? Sherra or Dayan? For the first time since their births Callan began to question the loyalty of the Pride.
“Is everything okay?” Merinus stood between the kitchen and the living room, watching him in concern.
Her hair was tangled around her face, drowsiness still flushed her skin. He had left her sleeping in the bed hours before after another bout of sex that damned near left him drained.
She was dressed in one of his T-shirts. The hem of the blue cotton covered her thighs and hung on her slender shoulders. The intimacy of her wearing his clothing left a gut punch of desire that he couldn’t deny. Possession, raw and hot flared in him. His woman.
“Everything’s fine,” he assured her quietly, unwilling to worry her further.
He saw the concern in her eyes though, and knew he hadn’t fooled her. Their lives were hanging by a thread now, the dangers inherent in the situation terrified him. Merinus had no scope of the evil that inhabited the Council and he prayed she never learned.
“We need to contact Kane, Callan,” she broached the one subject he wasn’t willing to discuss yet.
“He’s going to be worried out of his mind. That’s not a good thing, either.” He could see her absolute belief in her brother reflected in her expression. She thought of her family before she thought of herself. She trusted them when she could trust no one else, especially that damned soldier brother of hers.
“I have to be certain he didn’t betray us first, Merinus.” He shook his head, staring back at Sherra’s email.
He could assume the betrayal came from Kane, or from one of his own. Which was more likely to want to see him and Merinus captured or dead?
“Kane wouldn’t betray me, Callan,” she told him quietly.
There was no anger in her tone, no doubt. She trusted her brother implicitly.
“How can you be so certain, Merinus?” He sighed roughly. “The attack came hours after your call to him.”
“I know because I know Kane.” She shook her head, moving further into the room.
She went to the couch near him, sat down and regarded him solemnly.
“Kane went ape shit when Dad showed him the box your mother had sent to him on her death,” she revealed. “I don’t know why, but I know he was hurt. Hurt and angry, but not at you. He spent months gathering evidence, working to reveal the Council members. He has a list from your shoulder to your elbow and a stack of proof against them that would terrify you.” Callan narrowed his eyes on her.
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” he asked her.
“I tried to tell you, but you never wanted to hear it.” She rolled her eyes at his abrupt question. “I told you we had everything taken care of. Did you think I would lie to you?”
“The hell if I knew what to think then, or now,” he grunted, shutting down the email program and pacing the floor. “I know we’ve been betrayed by someone close to us, and accusing your brother is a hell of a lot easier than the alternative.” Better than believing that one of his own would do it.
He couldn’t get the thought out of his head that one of his own had betrayed him, or the memory of that scent in the caves, lingering on the flesh of the soldier.
“Who is the alternative?” Merinus asked him carefully. “Callan, Kane didn’t know we had mated, or whatever this is. He wasn’t even certain we were having sex. He suspected it, but he didn’t know it was anything deeper.”
“He would have known.” Callan frowned. He knew Kane had at least suspected that his sister was too emotionally involved with her lover to leave. The Council would have suspected the rest based on that.
Merinus sighed. “Maybe he would have, but he wouldn’t have betrayed me or you. He’s put too much into this, taken too many risks himself.”
“Why?” Callan snapped. “Why would he do this, just for a story? He didn’t need anything more than the proof Maria had to run it.”
Merinus bit her lip thoughtfully.
“I don’t know why,” she finally admitted. “All I know is that he did. And I know he’s been very upset since this came about, almost obsessed with it. He wouldn’t betray you, not just because of the risk to myself, but because of whatever is driving him as well.”
Callan growled low in his throat.
“That is such a sexy sound.” He turned in surprise at the aroused amusement in her voice.
She was watching him, her body relaxed for a change, her head tilted thoughtfully.
“What is?” he asked her carefully.
“That growl in your voice,” she said, watching him with heavy lidded desire. “It makes me shiver, makes my body want to rub over all yours.”
Her heat wasn’t upon her yet. He smelled the air carefully. The scent of warm, willing woman was there, but not the desperate lust he was used to smelling when she wanted him. Callan watched her carefully, seeing nothing in her expression that would indicate that the chemically induced needs were riding her.
There was no smell of it on the air, no desperation or tense muscles showing that would hint at her need.
There was something elusive, though. Like the faintest fragrance of spring. He admitted to being more than a little confused now.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” She pushed her fingers through her hair, attempting to restore it to order. She still looked sexy and tousled though, warm and beckoning.
“You want me.” He was more than a little amazed by that fact.
“Well, duh,” she gave him a look that suggested she was beginning to suspect his intelligence. “Just figure that one out, Sherlock?”
Callan frowned.
“Woman, you are a snide creature.” He allowed the rumble in his chest to echo in his voice.
Her face flushed, but her expression showed her knowledge that he was tempting her.
“I’m a bitch.” She was clearly laughing at him. “Ask Kane, he’ll tell you.” The mention of her brother sobered him. He tucked his hands in the pockets of his jeans and paced to the window that he kept covered with heavy curtains. He didn’t look out, there was no need to. There was enough wildlife in the area that if he were being stalked here, he would know it. The birds would stop singing, the frogs would ease their early evening serenade.
“Do you have a way of contacting him, other than the cell phone?” he asked her.
She sighed, sobering. She was filled with laughter and hope, despite their circumstances. Her innocence amazed and terrified him.
“No, not really.” He glanced back as she shrugged. “Kane secured the phones we were using before I left so the calls couldn’t be hacked or traced. Both units have an indicator on them, in case the impossible happens and someone locks onto the channel. He took every precaution with them.” Merinus’ unit was tucked in his pack. He had felt the vibration of it earlier in the morning when he had dug out the ammunition for his pistol.
“Either your brother or mine has betrayed us,” he told her, watching her face go blank with shock.
“We’re in trouble here, Merinus. The Council knows I’ve mated with you; they will stop at nothing to take you now. They did everything to breed us while we were in captivity, thinking our children would be easier to control than we were. If they take you, then they have me willingly, and they know that.” He watched the fear that washed over her face. She swallowed tightly, her hands gripping the material of the shirt at her waist, her fingers turning white with the tension that invaded her body.
“What do we do?” she asked him.
He breathed out roughly. “I have two choices, neither are secure. We could leave the country and disappear, but that’s not a guarantee they won’t find us. We’ll never be truly safe and neither will our children be safe. Or I could trust your family and do as you came to ask me to do, but still, no guarantee.
Both choices are rife with danger, Merinus. There will be no peace for us, whichever way we go.” Hope filled her expression. She had such belief in her brothers and her father that she thought they could solve any problem. He wondered what it would have been like to be raised in such a secure, protective environment. To have such faith in someone other than yourself.
“Kane knows what he’s doing, so do the others, Callan,” she promised him desperately. “I have seven brothers, each one of them has been working on this for over six months now. Gray is with the FBI, Caleb is a private investigator, Kane has all kinds of contacts in the C.I.A. and across seas. They have boxes of proof, but need you to back it up. You can do this, Callan. We can do it together.” Her expression was beseeching, her eyes wide and so filled with confidence. This time in him. She watched him as though he could solve this problem by his will alone. He wanted to curse her innocence, but found himself desperate to believe in it as well. Surely, it couldn’t be so simple. After years of running, decades of doubt and hopelessness, could it really be so easy? Of course it couldn’t, but what choice did he have left?
“We will wait one more day,” he finally sighed, glancing back at the computer, the emails he had received bothering him more than he wanted to admit. Tanner and Taber had done a copy of theirs to each of the others of the Pride. Sherra had not. The email had come singly and carefully coded. She trusted no one now, except Kane Tyler and himself.
“I believe Dayan has betrayed me,” he finally told her softly. “His scent was in the cave and on the soldiers within it. He knew of the mating and has been furious over it. His instability may have driven him over the edge.”
He hid his rage, his pain. If Dayan had betrayed the Pride, then it would fall to Callan to kill him. Dayan would become the hunted, something Callan swore the others would never be again.
“Callan.” Merinus came to her feet, her expression bleak, filled with pain for him.
He shook his head, moving away from her. He didn’t want her tenderness right now, not while he was filled with this rage.
“I took them out and covered their escapes with the deaths of scientists, soldiers and doctors,” he whispered. “The screams of the dying still echo in my ears, the deaths of the babes incubating in their tubes still tear at my conscience.” He dragged his hands through his hair, fighting the years-old horror and regret.
“You did what you had to do, Callan.” She gave him total acceptance, when he didn’t even have that for himself.
“I swore they would never be hunted again,” he whispered, fighting the ragged wound opening up in his soul. “I would not like to hunt my brother, Merinus. To know that the beast overcame him does not give hope for the rest of us.”
“Are you serious?” Incredulous anger colored her tone. He turned to her in surprise.
Her hands were propped on her hips, her brows drawn into a frown as she stared at him as though he had lost his mind.
“In what way?” he asked her carefully. Damn, she could be mercurial.
“The beast overcoming him?” She snorted in a less than ladylike fashion. He could likely blame Kane for that habit. “More likely his human nature coming out. Dammit, Callan, animals do not betray each other.
Check out the Discovery Channel a little more often. You need to research, hon. Only humans sell each other out, only humans kill for no reason. It would say that perhaps Dayan got a little more human coding than the rest of you did.”
She crossed her arms over her breasts, staring him down as though he were a child in need of a lecture.
Where was this woman’s fear? Her respect? Even the scientists had shown him greater fear.
He lifted a brow at her. She didn’t understand what the scientists had created, how they had attempted to train them. He could forgive her the ignorance, he decided.
“Oh, look at that brow arching,” she said mockingly. “Lion-O thinks he knows better.” Callan clenched his teeth.
Merinus threw her hands up in defeat.
“Fine, believe what you want to,” she bit out. “Just like a man, you will anyway. But I’m telling you right now, and you’ll find out I’m right, Callan Lyons, Dayan is a typical psychopath. It’s there in those beady little eyes of his. I never did trust him.”
“There is such a thing as a typical psychopath? Did you see this on the Discovery Channel as well, darling?”
Her eyes widened at the little dig, her head tilting, considering.
“I’m sure it aired and I’m certain I’m right. I have a brother that’s into pop psychology, he would know all about it and I’m sure he would agree with me.”
Figured. Was there anything those brothers of hers didn’t do? And did they ever disagree with the little imp standing across from him? It occurred to him that she might be just a bit spoiled by those brothers of hers.
“So what are you going to do?” There went those hands on those slender hips again.
Her breasts pushed out against the T-shirt, the hard nipples like a beacon to his eyes. How was a man supposed to think when confronted with such a sight?
“I told you, I will decide by tomorrow,” he growled, fighting a lust that had nothing to do with any scent of need coming from her body. For a change, the lava hot scent was barely present. What he detected now though, was much more destructive. A woman irritated, angry, and just plain, pure aroused. His cock throbbed.
“Well, you know what I think. Now I’m going to go take a bath and you can sit here and brood all you want to. Then I’ll fix dinner. I make a great pasta salad.” She swept from the room before he could snarl. Pasta salad? He didn’t think so.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Merinus made her pasta salad to accompany Callan’s steaks and baked potatoes. They ate silently, then cleaned the kitchen together. Pouring her a glass of wine, Callan led her back to the living room.