“Why?”
Yeah, why? “A gut feeling.”
“A feeling?” The man leveled a look at Reese.
“Yeah.”
“And what else does this gut feeling tell you?”
“That some of those dead contractor men might not be so dead, and they might have a lot of other people involved.”
Harrington huffed. “Your gut feeling have any idea where they’re located?”
“No. My gut feeling doesn’t work that precise.” Reese shrugged. “But if it were me and I wanted to secretly amass an army, I’d make sure it was in the middle of nowhere, I had lots of firepower, and a concrete bunker.”
“Concrete bunker?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s pretty specific.”
“Do they make any other kind of bunker?” Reese tacked on a smile.
Harrington exhaled a sigh. “I guess I should probably go make some phone calls and see how much of your gut feeling is accurate. Wouldn’t surprise me at this point. New World apparently owned the property where Luca lived.”
For some reason that didn’t surprise Reese either. He wasn’t sure there was much left that would surprise him.
Harrington started out the door but stopped. “I’m glad you’re okay, Dr. Dante.”
“Me too.”
“When we get you back to the states, I’ll have you checked over again.”
Reese figured arguing was useless. “Thanks. I appreciate that.”
Harrington stood there like he wanted to say something but never did. He shut the door behind him, and Reese dropped his head back on the pillow.
The machines beeped, and people moved up and down the hall. Reese closed his eyes and inhaled the ménage of scents riding on the eddies of air from the vent above his bed.
Each one so distinctive it had actual flavor.
And people didn’t have those kinds of heightened senses. But before he could think about it too much, he drifted off to sleep.
One month later, somewhere in the North Eastern US.
Rain tapped the roof of the van. Muted light swept between the front seats to do battle with the shadows in the back.
The unseasonal cold snap left temperatures low enough to snow, and Luca’s exhales turned white. He pulled the sleeping bag tighter around his shoulders.
“Do you need me to turn on the engine for a while and run the heat?” Sleep had left Nox’s voice rough. He rolled over, causing a gap in the covers.
Goosebumps raced over Luca’s shoulders. He shivered, and Nox slipped his arms around him and tugged him against his chest. The heat radiating from his skin chased back the cool air.
“Who needs the heater when I have my own personal furnace.” He kissed Nox’s throat. It had been a few days since he’d shaved, and a dark scruff covered his chiseled jaw, prickling Luca’s lips.
He loved the feeling. He loved everything about the man in front of him.
When Luca tried to figure out when he’d realized he did, it all came back to the moment Nox stepped into his life.
A gift from his brother.
With the ichor, Nox had pulled across the fabric of the universe and given to Luca came the knowledge of his brother’s love, his sacrifice, his want for Luca to live.
He just didn’t understand the why yet. Answers that had no questions. At least none Luca knew to ask. If only Koda had told Nox more.
Tears threatened to fall, and Nox tipped up Luca’s chin. “We agreed. No more crying.”
Yeah, they’d shed enough tears for two lifetimes.
Luca pushed Nox over, and he didn’t resist. The man smiled at Luca, a lazy pull of lips that said he knew exactly what Luca was about to do.
And he should. Ever since that day at the bunker, they’d spent every moment they could exploring each other’s bodies, sharing each other’s pleasure, exchanging thoughts. Sometimes when they were awake and more often when they dreamed.
Luca straddled Nox’s waist. His half-hard cock pushed against Luca’s ass. Luca leaned down pinching one of Nox’s nipples between his teeth. The man hissed and reached for Luca.
“Nope, hands behind your head.” Luca waited until Nox obeyed.
He did because he wanted to, not because he had to. Unlike Luca’s brother, Nox wasn’t bound to him by shared ichor.
If only Dekker had realized the death Koda had given to Nox wasn’t independent. It had rejoined what Nox already contained, becoming whole.
Luca placed a kiss in the middle of Nox’s chest, lower at the edge of his ribs, again near his navel, inching down the length of Nox’s body on his knees until the man’s thick cock bumped his chin.
Droplets of precum beaded at the slit. Luca swiped his tongue across the crown, and Nox arched his back. Luca smiled as he licked a hot line to the base and nuzzled the bed of dark curls. The scent of cheap motel soap mixed with the richer flavor of musk; spicy like fall leaves, lush like fertile ground.
Luca returned to the head and wrapped his lips around it.
He’d gotten better at this but nowhere skilled enough to take all of Nox. Not that it mattered, through their connection, his pleasure was Luca’s and Luca’s was his.
Luca sucked, forcing his throat to open until he couldn’t breathe. Tears burned Luca’s eyes and heat filled his cheeks. He pulled to the tip again, teasing the slit.
Nox’s thigh muscles quivered.
Luca brushed his lips over the head. “What are you thinking about?”
“You.”
“And what else.”
“How much I’m going to enjoy fucking you in a bed, in the shower, on the kitchen table.”
Luca stopped, and Nox’s breath whooshed out.
“You got us a house?” Luca sat up a little.
“Yeah.”
“When?”
“Comes with the job.” The one Nox started today.
“But it’s not safe for us to stay in one place.”
“I want to try. Moving around has been hard on you.”
It had. Luca missed the comfort of a stationary place. Eating homecooked meals. Hell, even cleaning up his own mess. The new van was bigger than the first one they’d had, but it was still a van.
Luca took Nox into his mouth again, this time keeping his cock shallow enough for him to swallow around him. Nox’s heated gaze turned feral. The flush in his cheeks darkened.
“Fuck, Luca….”
He hummed and took Nox deep again. His expression a movie of his unraveling will.
And Luca loved it when Nox lost control. When he skated on the edge of man and monster, the place where his very being relied on Luca’s touch.
A reminder of how much Nox had risked opening himself to the darkness to bring Luca back.
Nox bared his teeth. Blood outlined his lengthening canines.
The moment he snapped rode down through those invisible ties, striking Luca in his core. He cried out, and Nox yanked him up. One roll put Luca under him.
Nox raked his teeth over Luca’s shoulder, across the back of his neck, to the place between his shoulder blades. Sharp points drew stinging lines that disappeared as quick as they formed.
Nox never let Luca hurt, his willingness to surrender resources to spare him the smallest discomfort. Sometimes the guilt of his willingness ate at Luca, other times like now?
Nox seized Luca’s hips. The weight blanketing Luca vanished. A bottle snicked, and trails of lubricant poured down Luca’s ass crack.
“Hey, go easy on that.” The plastic bottle hit the side wall and bounced away. Luca pushed up on his arms, and Nox covered him again, trapping him under his broad chest. Tremors ran down Nox’s limbs, and his cock bumped Luca’s balls. “Calm.” He reached back, petting Nox’s cheek.
The tension in Nox’s body eased, and his uncoordinated movements steadied.
“That’s it.” Luca turned his head and nipped Nox’s jaw. “I’ve got you.”
Nox growled.
“Yes, please. Fuck me.” Strong arms wrapped around Luca, towed him back, and the blunt head of Nox’s cock nudged his hole. There was a moment of resistance, then the ring of muscle gave. Every inch of heated flesh filling Luca until he fought to inhale.
Nox’s balls pressed against Luca’s ass, and Nox groaned. “You are so perfect.” He rocked his hips, forcing a cry out of Luca. “You are my everything.” Nox withdrew farther, then returned hard enough to slap their bodies together.
“Yesss—” Luca writhed in the man’s grasp. “More, please….”
And of course, Nox gave Luca what he wanted.
Body surging, heart racing, the spiral of ecstasy flowed from Nox, consuming Luca. The world brightened until it scattered into stars. No longer just two bodies connected, but two beings who were one.
I love you.
Luca didn’t know if the thought was his or Nox’s or if it belonged to both of them.
Far away where their bodies remained flesh, Nox’s movements stuttered. He tilted his hips, and pleasure went supernova within Luca. He yelled, but Nox caught his mouth drinking away Luca’s voice.
Ensnared by the storm of energy Luca was distantly aware of his cum splattering against his thigh, then the heat of Nox filling him.
For the longest time, there was only them, connected, one.
Luca trickled back into his body. Where touch returned to three dimensions. Where his eyes had limited sight and his voice relied on words.
Sweat traced the creases of his skin, and Nox held him tighter.
Luca rested his head back against Nox’s shoulder. “We should probably get some breakfast.”
Nox rumbled.
“I was thinking French toast, bacon, sausage, eggs, biscuits, and gravy.”
Nox raised his gaze. “That’s a lot of food.”
“Yeah, well, your metabolism is thwarting my dastardly plan.”
Nox quirked an eyebrow.
“You’re still as hard as a gravel driveway, and I swear sleeping on you leaves bruises.”
Nox chuckled. “Then we should probably double that order.” He eased Luca to the floor, slipping free of his hole.
The sudden loss made Luca gasp.
Nox bowed over him. “Unless, of course, you’d rather stay here.” Sharp teeth nipped Luca’s ear.
Luca’s stomach growled, and he laughed. “I think you just got overruled.”
Nox rolled away and collected their clothes from one of their duffle bags. He passed Luca jeans and a sweatshirt.
“I’m going to love taking a shower whenever I want.” Luca dug his shoes out from under the sleeping bag.
“Me too.” Nox retrieved his hiking boots and put them on.
Luca laughed. “Something tells me getting clean is going to be at the bottom of your priority list.”
“Absolutely.” Nox opened the rear doors.
The rain had eased to a mist accompanied by a layer of fog hugging the ground. They’d parked behind an abandoned gas station behind a strip mall. Across the road, the mom-and-pop cafe they’d eaten dinner at the night before.
Green spaces on three sides blocked the van from view and offered as much privacy as a roadside parking space could.
Luca climbed out with his coat.
Nox shut the van doors and locked them.
“I hate to say it, but I’m not going to miss sleeping in a van.”
“Me either.”
Sleeping in a bed, with a mattress and fluffy pillows. Blankets to roll up in.
Nox nudged Luca with his elbow. “What are you grinning about?”
“Waking up next to you.”
Nox slipped his hand around the back of Luca’s neck and kissed his temple where only the faintest scar marked the bullet exit wound that had killed him.
“I promise you one day you’ll have a home that’s safe, somewhere you can get up every morning and watch the sunrise. Somewhere no one will find us.”
Luca laughed. “You say the sweetest things.” Then he sobered. Yeah, a home would be nice.
“C’mon before they quit serving breakfast.” Nox turned.
A red pickup truck and an old station wagon pulled into the busted-up parking lot of the gas station.
The hairs on the back of Luca’s neck stood up. Beside him, Nox growled.
Four men and two women exited the vehicles. None of them looked over forty. The black man with green eyes walked in their direction.
The man stopped. “We’ve been looking for you.” An accent flavored his words, but Luca couldn’t place it.
Nox pushed Luca behind him.
“We’re not here to hurt anyone.” The black man held up his hands. “My name is Jelani.”
“What do you want?” Heat radiated from Nox’s body; the mist specking his skin steamed.
There was no way the strangers didn’t see it but none of them looked surprised.
“We’ve been looking for you since you destroyed that camp in Canada.” He nodded to the woman with red hair. “Cassie’s our best tracker.”
She stepped forward. Her presence hummed against the air, soothing Luca’s fear. An eerie Déjà Vu settled over him.
In fact, the more he looked at these people, the more Luca was sure he knew them yet there was no way he did.
Nox went quiet.
To Luca, the redhead, said, “What’s your name, Cana.”
Where had Luca heard that word before?
You have no idea how hard he’s going to be to replace. It’s not like Cana grow on trees. The only good thing is if I can’t have him, they can’t either.
Luca glanced at Nox.
He furrowed his brow, and the small group exchanged looks.
Jelani watched Luca for a moment. “You don’t know, do you?”
Luca stepped out from behind Nox. “Know what?”
“That we’ve been waiting for you.” Jelani smiled, and it was warm. “Some of us for over a thousand years.”
A thousand years? That wasn’t possible. But the energy rolling from the man in front of Luca proved otherwise. Luca stepped closer, and one by one the strangers lowered themselves to their right knee and bowed their head.
And here Luca thought life couldn’t get any more interesting.
Dear Reader,
I am hoping this book opens the door to a shifter world I’d like to develop. However, in order for that to happen this first story has to do well. So please, if you can, leave a review; good, indifferent, or bad, and tell your friends.
Because I’d love for you to read what would come next.
Keep reading for a sample chapter.
Sample Chapter:
Sunlight slipped between the budding leaves on the pecan trees and threw glowing swatches on the acres of green lawn. Sheets of Spanish moss swayed from the branches.
Birds sang.
Ten acres of land surrounded Palmer’s Victorian style home giving as much privacy as a place could have this close to the historic district in Savannah, GA.
A prime piece of land that had been a meeting place long before there’d ever been a manmade structure.
Laura Phillips parked beside the Audi sitting in the driveway and got out. Just a few hours of daylight and the air had already taken on a sticky feel.
The humidity alone was all the reason she needed to hate Savannah.
But Palmer’s home had been the quarterly meeting place for all five Clans for the last two hundred years.
Laura headed up the step, the tick of her heels falling flat despite the wide-open space and high ceiling of the front porch.
A rush of cold air welcomed her into the foyer driving back the stale heat. Hardwood floors stretched out over the great room before narrowing under an archway leading to the back. She took the hallway on the left at the end.
The door to the library was closed. She went in.
Palmer stood with his hip propped against his desk covered in copies of emails, a week’s worth of reports and photos; of the Utah Facility, the equipment, personnel, dead subjects, and the remains of Dr. Markus where he’d been discovered buried in the woods a couple miles from his chalet in Montana.
The sweeping bay window took up most of the rear wall and offered an unobstructed view of the sprawling garden showing the first signs of spring in a scattering of reds and yellows blooms.
Laura stopped in front of Palmer’s desk.
A movement shifted in her periphery.
The wolf was barely more than a ghost moving from across the room. It sat to the right of the desk and raised its gaze. At the same moment, Palmer turned. He shared the same cold eyes as his sova, so pale they were closer to white than blue.
His gaze had made more than a few Varu offer their necks.
She held his stare.
“I’m guessing you haven’t found him.”
Laura lifted her chin. “Not yet. But I will.” She was too good at her job to fail.
“You’re not hunting Varu. Don’t forget that or it will get you killed.”
“You talk like this is the first time I’ve gone after Mah.”
Palmer pressed his lips together. “This is the first time you have gone after a Mah who is whole. Not only whole but he walks with a Canna.”
A Mah in power was deadly enough. A Mah aligned with a Canna? It would be a challenge, to say the least.
Palmer returned to staring out his window. Fatigue and worry etched deep lines around his eyes. In the past century, his hair had greyed at the temples. For a Varu with over two thousand years on this earth, he still looked young for his age.
“How did this happen?” Had he meant to say it aloud?
“The world has changed. Humans have changed.” They’d taken science to a new level, and now they’d awakened something they could never understand.
“That may be, but it shouldn’t have. None of this should have.” He scrubbed a hand over his mouth. “We got lazy, Laura.”
“There was no way to know they’d be able to hybridize the pith.” In the past, the soul of Mah could only be transferred by a bite. Now science had rewritten rules older than humans.
The phantom wolf sprawled out in the sunlight and rested its head on its paws. Palmer glanced its way. A small smile tugged at his lips and his gaze softened.
Whatever thoughts they exchanged he didn’t share. But few did. The bond between wolf and Varu was rarely shared even with their own.
Being an Enforcer gave Laura a lot of gifts but tapping into the mental link between the two halves wasn’t one of them.
Palmer dropped his arms to his side and turned around giving Laura his full attention. “What about Dr. Dante?”
“We’re still looking.”
“Do you think he’s alive?”
She wanted to tell him no. He’d been taken from the woods where a large amount of blood matching Luca Suarez had been found. There’d been signs of a struggle but since there was no body, no reason to believe he’d been injured. “I think he was taken with along with the Canna and the Mah.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Palmer placed his hands on his desk and dropped his chin. “If we don’t stop this fast, the Mah will rise into power.”
“I think it’s a little soon to come to that conclusion.”
“The writings disagree with you.”
Laura didn’t put any stock into prophecies no matter what others believed. The events of the past couple of weeks were simply inevitable.
It was always inevitable.
It’s why she existed.
“They’ll go to him, Laura. The Canna will make it impossible for them not to. He can give them back what they sacrificed.”
Relinquishing their wolves had been a high price. Many regretted the decision. Those combined with the ones who’d been forced the Mah would have no problems overthrowing a thousand years’ worth of hard-earned peace.
“Clans have reported deltas, omegas, even a few betas leaving their lower ranks. They’ll seek him out.” He thumbed through a stack of photos. “If the world finds out about us…” Real worry marred the man’s features, and Laura had seen few things worry the old Clansman. He shook his head as if answering a silent question. “Those vials.”
“The VrK.”
“How many of them are hot?”
“My guess, fifty percent. But according to Kance, the longer the vials age, the more likely they will go active.” The hybridization seemed to have one similarity to the bite of a Mah, the older the Mah, the more contagious it could be.
“Do we know where they’ve been distributed?”
“Worldwide.” At least the first cases of infection were isolated to the Middle East where New World Genetics had shipped most of the serum.
“Have you been able to find any leads on who put this into motion?”
“No.” At least Dr. Dante’s reaction to the sample of information confirmed his ignorance. “I’m not even sure Dr. Echols or Dr. Markus knew.” It was still unclear why Echols opened those doors. Was he under the influence of a Varu, the vector named Koda, or someone else? “By all appearances, they were simply a means to an end.”
Palmer laughed. “Fitting choice of words.” He sobered. “Is there anyone left alive with the higher-ups at New World?”
“A few. Once we have them in a secure facility, I’ll question them.” If they knew anything, she’d get it out of them. Even if they didn’t think they knew.
“Whoever this is they sure as hell know how to clean up and fast.”
“Which means they have resources.” A lot of resources.
Palmer narrowed his eyes.
“This isn’t some rogue faction,” Laura said. “This goes deep. As in world government deep.” There were few Varu with those kinds of connections. Which automatically discounted small clans like Scath or Hapax.
“The Ferrum are gone. They’ve been gone for centuries.” Doubt accented Palmer’s words.
“We thought the Mah was gone too. But it survived.” Buried in some unmarked tomb in Egypt in a location no one would have ever thought to look for a burial site. Let alone a tomb where there were the remains of multiple Resana. The ancient vectors had disappeared around the same time as the Ferrum clan.
Palmer nodded. “Can we at least save the Canna?”
“I think so.”
“Even if he’s connected to the dark? Because that’s never happened before.” Palmer spread out several photographs showing various sections of the wall in Egypt with The Book of Anubis. “It would be a horrific loss if we can’t.”
“Isiah seems to believe he can.”
“You think he’s strong enough?” Again doubt.
“I hope so, he’s the only Greater Alpha we have.” Unlike normal Varu, Isaiah hadn’t been able to separate from his wolf and occasionally they joined. Eventually, there would be no division between the two, and like all other Greater Alphas before him, he would have to be executed.
A Canna could save him. A Canna could save all of them.
“And the bodies from the lab?”
“The betas were cremated.”
“And the vector?”
How long had it taken Luca’s brother to understand what he carried, if he ever truly understood? “After the medical team is done collecting tissue samples his remains will be destroyed.”
“Tell them to hurry, we don’t need another incident.”
Because even when dead, the Mah never completely left a body. Severing the head would keep them from getting back up but even in the right conditions, they could be brought back.
Two dark Canna would be apocalyptical.
Not because they’d actually bring about the end of the world. But because there were Varu who believed they could.
“I’ve got two teams with trackers searching for any other possible Canna.”
Laura raised her eyebrows. “You think there are more?” They were rare, impossibly rare.
“If there isn’t there will be. The cycle always begins with one. It might take a while, but they will happen.”
The more Canna claimed the more likely Clans would separate in their fight for power. Humans weren’t the only ones who sought to rule. The Varu might even desire it a bit more considering how they’d lived for the past millennia. Moving from state to state, hiding, living in fear of being found out.
Even Laura was tired of existing on the fringes.
“What are you going to do with them if you find them?”
Palmer flicked a quick look up before returning his attention to the photos.
She hadn’t really expected him to answer. There were terrible things even Palmer didn’t like to talk about.
“And the army colonel? How much does he know?” Palmer said.
In other words, did he need to be removed. A kill Laura would not be proud of. Harrington was a good man.
Even if he was human.
“He has no idea.”
“Are you sure?”
“His knowledge is limited to the information Dr. Dante was exposed to.”
“I’d like to question him anyhow.”
Laura kept her expression blank. Since Palmer’s wolf didn’t react, it meant she’d succeeded in hiding her concern. “I’ll make sure to set it up.”
“I need you at your best on this Laura.”
She smiled a little. “I’m always my best.”
“Good. You can go. Just make sure to keep me up-to-date on everything you find.” Palmer still didn’t look up, and Laura had the strangest feeling it was because he feared she’d read him.
The question was, why?
But the answer could wait. Laura had far more pressing matters to attend to.
Such as preventing the extinction of the human race.