Before he could stop her, before he had any idea what she intended, she had already acted. She sliced down her palm, blood spilling from the delicate pale skin. “This time is forever,” she said and then grimaced. “Ouch. Ouch. Okay, that hurt more than I thought it would.”
He was already by her side, picking her up and carrying her to the bathroom. “Are you insane, woman?” He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her hand. “What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking this would make you see how certain I am about a blood bond,” she said, her voice cracking with a hint of agony.
He pressed his forehead to hers, ran his hand down her hair. “Cassandra.” He stared into the green eyes that he had so adored. He couldn’t steal her humanity, her life. “We have to go get you stitches.” The cut was deep, too deep to ignore.
“You heal me,” she said. “You, Michael. I meant what I said. Whatever you are, we are together, in life or death.” She sucked in a shaky breath. “Don’t you see? I can’t breathe without you.”
Michael went utterly still, those words reaching inside his soul and speaking to him. Words he himself had thought about her a million times.
He reached down to his leg and removed the knife inside his pocket, held his hand out, and sliced it opened.
Big pearly tears glistened down Cassandra’s cheeks as he unwrapped the towel from her hand.
“And I cannot breathe without you,” he whispered. “But once this is done, there is no turning back. We really do live and die together. And whatever monster I become, you will never escape me.”
“You are not a monster, and you never will be,” she said, grabbing his hand and pressing her palm to his. “If it takes me a lifetime to make you see that, then I will fight for a lifetime.”
She sealed their hands together, blinking up at him through her tears.
He trembled with emotion, with the magnitude of what she had just done, with the trust she had in him that he did not dare have in himself.
One by one, he kissed her tears away and then cradled her cheek with his hand, repeating the vow that he never wanted her to forget. “I love you.”
“I love you, Michael.”
With all his heart and soul, he silently made yet another vow—that he would live up to that love, that he would not let his past, his family, or the darkness within him, destroy them.
Michael kissed her with tenderness, the passion of minutes before shimmering warm and ready, but without any harsh demand—because she was his, his forever, and that was something to savor. He pulled back, stared down at her as black swallowed the green of her eyes, then guided their sealed palms between them and slowly released her hand, showing Cassandra that their wounds had healed.
Cassandra stared down at her hand. Touched her palm. Looked up at him. “Is it done? That easily?”
He closed their hands together again. “It is done,” he promised, pressing his lips to hers and lingering there. Their breath mingled, warm and perfect.
She shivered and moaned, a sound so decadently erotic, he had to have more. He delved deeper, his tongue sliding against hers, a caress that turned to long, sensuous strokes, hungry and wild. Clothing disappeared, barriers gone once and for all. He turned her around, facing the mirror, and framed her soft curves with his body, his long, dark hair falling around his face and hers, the steely length of his erection settling between her thighs. The wet heat of her body drenched him in the promise of pleasure and passion.
She reached up and ran her hand through his hair. “I love how you feel.”
The thick ridge of his cock expanded, throbbed. It would be so easy to slide inside her, to sink into the deep recess of her perfect body and take her. But this was special. This was their first time lifebonded, and he shackled the urgency within him, focused on her pleasure. Filled his hands with her breasts and tugged her plump, swollen nipples—red, rosy buds that he planned to worship over and over before morning light. She moaned and leaned her head against his shoulder, closed her eyes and shivered.
“Look in the mirror,” he ordered. “Let me see how I please you.” He continued to roll the hard little buds, tugging with a sharp bite he’d come to know aroused her.
Her legs wobbled, almost buckled. “I can’t,” she confessed.
He flattened his hand on her stomach and steadied her. “You can,” he willed her. “Look at me, Cassandra.”
She tilted her chin down, her heavy-lidded stare meeting his in the reflection. His fingers plucked at her nipples. He watched her teeth sink into that full lush bottom lip, dipped his head, and pressed his lips to her ear. “I’m going to give you what you said you wanted,” he promised, nipping her lobe and placing her hands on the counter to brace herself. “I’m going to kiss you and lick you from head to toe.” He shoved her hair aside and displayed the lifebond mark. “Starting here.”
He covered the mark with his mouth, flicked his tongue around the design, his hands sliding down her silky, soft back, his lips following the same trail until he caressed her creamy white, heart-shaped butt. He lifted her hips, spread her wide, and then met her stare in the mirror, letting her see the raw hunger and promise of pleasure in his eyes, before he eased to his knees, the sight of her open for him damn near making him shake. His hands caressed her shapely hips as his lips and teeth nipped at one perfect butt cheek. Fingers sliced a path through the wet heat of her intimate flesh as he reached in front of her and thumbed her swollen nub.
“Michael,” she gasped. “I…” She lost the words. He suckled her nub into his mouth. Her hips lifted and then pressed against his mouth, moving with the licks and caresses. He filled her with his fingers, explored her, stroked her, made love to her with his mouth, his hands. She gushed in his mouth, the sweet flavor of her arousal making him lick and suckle with wild determination until she cried out, tightened around his fingers. A second later, spasms milked his fingers, her thighs quaking with her release. Gently, he pleasured her through the release, easing the pressure slowly, until she calmed.
He turned her around, kissing a path up her body until he fit his erection between her legs, tangled his hands in her hair. “You have no idea how much I love you,” he whispered, sliding inside the wet heat of her core and lifting her at the same moment.
Her arms slipped around his neck, her body wrapping his cock in warm wonderful sensation, her breasts cradled against his chest. “You have a lifetime to show me,” she promised.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Adam sat at a marble dinner table on a balcony overlooking the coliseum. Hordes of soldiers filled bleachers to his left and his right, enthralled by twenty scantily-clad females dancing in the center of the ring—new recruits hoping to be chosen by males for their beds and a chance to become a Lifebond.
“You are pleased?” Ava asked, sipping apricot nectar from a silver-stemmed glass, watching him from beneath half-veiled eyes.
He reached for her hand, pressed it to his lips. “Your ability to influence these women’s thoughts and feelings is nothing shy of amazing.”
She beamed with satisfaction that lasted only moments. “We are up to seventy women again,” she said. “Two of the new recruits are now Lifebonds.” Considering she’d scaled back her fertility testing and had still managed to kill ten of her subjects, this number spoke highly of Tad’s recruiting efforts—if you could call luring women into captivity recruiting.
The crowd roared as the women exited, music blaring through speakers as the real show prepared to begin. The lights dimmed around the bleachers, spotlights glowing around Adam’s wolves as they filed onto the stone center floor. Candles flickered on high walls around the ring and on the tables.
Recently captured human soldiers would soon appear to fight for survival, promised they might earn the serum. Of course, his stock was low. It would take a warrior of great skill to be worthy. Not likely, but it was entertaining to watch his wolves. Adrenaline rushed through him at the excitemen
t, all else but the show forgotten.
That was until the scent of female and fear flared in his sensitive nostrils. His gaze shifted to his right to the stone hallway where Tad entered the balcony, a terrified female in front of him with a gun to her back. Tears streamed down her face.
Irritation grated Adam’s nerves as Tad stopped at the far end of the table. “What is it you want, Tad?”
Ava pushed to her feet and walked to the Asian beauty and took her hands. “You’re okay,” she said, staring into the woman’s eyes and then touching her forehead. The female stopped crying, her expression taking on a distant, calm look. Ava gave her another once-over. “She is a good specimen at least,” she said dryly.
“She also has an interesting family connection,” Tad said, running his hand down her hair. “Tell them who your father is.”
“Tan Chin,” she said softly.
Ava’s eyes went wide. “As in Dr. Chin?”
“That’s right,” Tad said, his attention going to Adam. “She was living with Chin’s ex-wife in China. But I found her.”
Adam arched a brow. “Does Chin know?”
“Not only does he know,” Tad replied, “he assures me he can get us Red Dart, a stock of serum, as well as both Michael and Cassandra, tonight. He even promises aid with the birth of your child.” He leveled his stare on Adam. “I want to be Michael’s replacement.”
Adam studied him. He was distasteful to the eye, unworthy. Yet, he was resourceful at a time when Adam had been forced to avoid battle for fear any injury would affect Ava and his child. He would use Tad for now. When he had Red Dart, he would force both his brother and Michael to join him. He would not need the likes of Tad.
He inclined his head. “I hear you doing lots of talking,” Adam said. “Show me results.”
Near dawn, with Sterling, Damion, Caleb, and about a dozen soldiers, Cassandra and Michael exited Sunrise City. Nerves jumped in Cassandra’s stomach. Instead of sleeping, she’d shared her ideas with Michael to organize the women into a coalition against the female abductions. Talking and making love, of course, had kept her mind off what the day would hold. No matter what the cause, it would be hard to see her father taken into captivity. And then there was the wind-walking.
Cassandra Powell—used-to-be-normal, military girl—was going to wind-walk. Or maybe she wasn’t so normal—not for a long time, it seemed. She did, after all, have a father who’d created a new race and a half-alien lover who had now become her permanent Lifebond. Thankfully, there were no morning-after effects from the final phase, considering all she had to face today. She’d been so close to bonding with Michael that the final step had been a piece of cake. For once in her life, she’d had no sleep and still felt like a million dollars.
The doors to the city slid shut behind them, and Cassandra turned and blinked. The mountain looked untouched, as if that door did not exist.
“Not so sure about this whole wind-walking thing,” Cassandra said. “My first attempt wasn’t such a good one.”
“You’re different now,” Michael assured her.
“You complete him,” Sterling joked, repeating a line from the movie Jerry Maguire and pressing his hand to his chest. He snorted and then added, “It’s addictive. The wind-walking, that is.” He inclined his head at Michael. “Not Michael. Or if he is—I don’t want to hear about it.”
Michael pulled her close. “Ready?”
She inhaled nervously. “I think so.”
He didn’t wait for a more definite answer. Suddenly, the most incredible force of energy lanced her body, and before she could even begin to react, she was standing in the alley across from her condo.
She blinked and smiled. “Oh my God, that was so amazing. Can we do it again?”
Michael laughed and kissed her. “Many, many times,” he promised. “But not now. Now you go inside and change clothes.”
She clung to him. “You aren’t coming in with me?”
“You bet your life I am,” he promised. “But I don’t want anyone to see me enter.” He slid a cell phone to her hand. “Punch the speed dial ‘1’ button when you get to the door, and let me know it’s clear so no one sees me with you, and I’ll wind-walk.”
“You think it won’t be?” she asked apprehensively.
“I’m sure everything is fine,” he told her. “The Zodius think you’re still inside Sunrise City. They won’t know you’re here until you show yourself at the base. But I’m not taking any chances with your safety.”
He patted her ass. “Now go. Get to that door, and let’s get inside.” His lips brushed hers as he sent her on her way. Cassandra’s stomach clenched, nerves again taking root. The end of this day could not come soon enough.
The path across the street was short, and she was dialing the phone before she even turned into the hallway to her condo. “It’s clear,” she said the instant she scanned the entryway. Michael was there an instant later pulling a tool kit of some sort from his pocket to pick her lock. Apparently, he’d thought of the fact she didn’t have the keys.
He shoved the door open, pulled a gun from under his pant leg, and entered. “Stay here, right inside the door,” he said.
Cassandra did as he said, and her heart raced as he scanned the condo. When he reholstered his weapon and pushed the door shut, locking it behind him, she let out a heavy breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding. “I can’t wait until this is over.”
He pulled her close. “Soon, sweetheart,” he promised. “I have you shielded from Trackers, but I don’t like being in this apartment. Go get ready for work. I’ll follow you to the base, where you will be safe. Do not, under any circumstances, leave that base without calling me first. You go nowhere without me following.”
“You’re not making me feel better,” she said.
He kissed her. “I’ll do that when we get back home to our bed.”
“Our bed?” she asked softly.
“Our bed,” he said, tangling his hands in her hair. “Where I plan to keep you for at least a week when this is over.”
She clung to the intimacy between them, to the sweet way he was trying to make her relax. But there was a knot in her chest that clamped down with every breath. Something felt terribly wrong. She told herself this was to be expected; today she would help throw her father into lifelong prison.
Yet still that knot tightened and twisted in her chest with the awful feeling that everything was going to go horribly, terribly wrong. A feeling she didn’t share with Michael. He was jumpy and on edge as it was. Her father had created this mess, and she had to help make things right. She felt as if the beginning of the end was upon them, and somehow, someway, she had to stop it from happening.
Lucian stood outside the security gates of Zodius City and called to report to Adam. The instant he stepped on the scanner, the wind shifted, and six soldiers surrounded him. Tad stood front and center, holding a snub-nose .38 special locked and loaded at Lucian’s forehead.
“Your service will no longer be needed,” he said, grinning snidely.
“Kiss my ass,” Lucian said. “You kill me, and Adam will not get Red Dart. I’m the one Brock West trusts.”
Tad chuckled. “I have it from a reliable source that West is locked up inside Powell’s lab, a nut job jacked up on some new GTECH serum. He’s useless to us now.”
Lucian’s gut clenched. “That’s impossible. Powell doesn’t have any more serum.”
“His attending doctor, Dr. Chin, says differently. See, I have Chin whispering sweet nothings in my ear. Funny how kidnapping his daughter can make things work that way.” He cocked the gun. “Would you like the bullet between the eyes or in the back of your head?”
In that instant, Lucian believed that as much as he despised Brock West, they had one thing in common. They both would do whatever was necessary to survive. And Tad…well, Tad was still an idiot. He’d left Lucian unchained, able to escape. Lucian faded into the wind.
He’d help Powell before he would die.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Dressed in a black skirt and crème silk blouse, Cassandra sat in her office near lunchtime, a nervous wreck over both her father’s and Brock’s absence. Neither was answering calls, and she had a general feeling of unease—a feeling that turned into outright shock when two military officers appeared at her door.
“You need to come with us, Ms. Powell,” one of them said.
Heart hammering in her chest, Cassandra thanked God she had her phone in her hand, punching Michael’s number and tucking it in her blazer pocket, praying he could hear what was going on. “What’s going on? Is my father okay?”
“Your father is fine,” the same officer said. “You need to come with us now.”
She reached for her purse.
“We’ll take your personal items for you,” one of the soldiers said.
She froze. “Am I under arrest?”
“Yes ma’am, you are,” he confirmed. They advanced on her and confiscated her purse.
Cassandra gently slipped the phone into her trash can and pushed to her feet noisily to hide any sound it might make. “At whose orders?”
“General Powell, ma’am,” the lead officer stated.
She was shaking. She knew she was shaking. “On what charge?”
“Conspiracy against the United States of America.”
He reached for her arm, and Cassandra yanked out of reach. “I walk of my own free will.”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“And stop calling me ma’am!” She drew in a breath and straightened her spine with a regal snap as she composed herself. Her father would not hurt her. She was not in danger. If she went to jail, she’d get an attorney and fight. And she was wired. The Renegades would find her.
She walked down the long corridor and stepped onto an elevator, but the two officers did not get on. Instead they punched a code on the door, and the doors closed, trapping her inside.