“About time you reported in. I was getting worried.”“I had to pass a few more tests, and that house is shored up tighter than a straight boy’s ass at a gay bar.”
He snorted. “You have such a lovely way with words.”
“Blame my pack-mate for that one.” Kade still wasn’t aware that Rhoan was my brother—it was a secret we kept from all but a few. I folded my legs and sat cross-legged on the mat. Kade squatted behind me, filling my senses with his warm, musky scent.
“Has Rhoan reported in yet?”
I repeated the question and Kade shook his head. Not that I could actually see it, but right now all my senses were attuned to his every move, so the head shake was something I could “feel.” Which maybe was something I should be scared about, because I wasn’t emphatic, and I shouldn’t be able to “feel” anything.
“It often takes several days for the new security officers to appear.” His fingers skimmed my skin, sending little skitters of pleasure across my skin and stirring barely sated desire.
“Do they lose security personnel that often?” I asked.
“Yes, because part of their job is checking the zoo. Let me tell you, there’s some very angry creatures penned in that area, and they often take it out on the guards.”
No surprise, given the fact that being penned for any amount of time was enough to drive most nonhumans insane. There again, the nonhumans filling these particular pens were bred in a lab then locked in the zoo, so they probably wouldn’t have had much of a grip on sanity to begin with. Not that Starr would care what his creations did as long as they killed on order.
“Did Kade get the floor plans I sent to him?” Jack asked.
Again I repeated the question, then winced as Kade pulled a sliver of wood from my skin.
“Yeah. Not that it’ll do me much good. I have to stay outside—they’d pick me up as an unknown the minute I entered any of the buildings.”
“So the cameras are monitored twenty-four hours a day?”
“Afraid so.” He picked another bit of wood from my skin and flicked it away. It landed in the middle of the water and bobbled its way downstream. “Shift changes are seven in the morning and seven at night. You might have a few minutes’ leeway there, but that’s about it.”
“Has he seen Starr about at all?”
I repeated Jack’s question.
“I get the impression that except for mealtimes, he never moves from his bolt-hole.”
“And there’s been no mention of Libraska from anyone else?”
“None at all.” He kissed my shoulder then sat down, his long, leanly muscled legs stretching out either side of me. “But there’s been a lot of new arrivals in the last few days. Something is happening.”
Jack snorted. “Starr is marshaling his forces for a war against the other cartels.”
I repeated the comment, felt more than saw Kade’s disagreement. Which was yet another worrying indication that the drug Talon had forced onto me was starting to affect my system.
Damn it, I didn’t want any more psychic powers. And I definitely didn’t want an increase in power in those that I did have. I was quite happy as I was, thank you very much.
But like so many other things in my life of late, I didn’t appear to have much choice.
“I’ve studied the files and know most of Starr’s generals by sight,” Kade said. “A lot of the arrivals don’t match what’s in the files.”
I frowned. “Maybe there’s more generals than we know about.”
“Or there’s a whole lot more happening than we realize.”
And wasn’t that a pleasant thought. “Have you seen Dia Jones around?”
“The white psychic? Yeah. Pretty bit of tail, too.”
“You seen her with a kid at all?”
He hesitated. “No. But word is Starr’s holding her kid hostage for her good behavior.”
So she was telling the truth there, too. “In the labs underground, apparently. You know anything about them?”
“Not really. I know they’re on a lower level, but not the same one as Starr’s. I also heard they have completely different access points and codes than Starr’s quarters.”
“Riley, why is this important?” Jack said. “You are not going after the kid. It’ll jeopardize everything.”
I ignored him. I was here, he was sitting in his van, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to stop me now. And short of endangering Rhoan or Kade, I was going to do what I could to rescue that kid. “What about the scientists?”
“Six that I know of.”
“You able to point them out?”
He pulled me back against him. The stallion was up and ready to go again, and I couldn’t help grinning in anticipation.
“Why?” he asked.
“I need to get in there, which means I’ll probably have to fuck one of them to get the information I need.”
“Riley, I forbid you to do this.”
“Bite me.”
“Me or Jack?” Kade murmured, his teeth grazing my neck and sending shivers of delight skittering across my skin.
“Jack. And I’m not a fool, boss. I won’t jeopardize the mission. I want Starr every bit as badly as you do.”
He grunted. Whether that was agreement or merely the realization he couldn’t actually stop me was anyone’s guess.
“So, the scientists,” I prompted.
“They’re a pretty motley-looking lot,” Kade answered.
“As long as they’re male and therefore have a dick that takes over from the brain when confronted by a naked woman, I don’t give a damn.”
He chuckled, and slid his hands up to cup my breasts. “God, I do so love a werewolf’s lack of inhibitions.”
And I loved his touch. The way his large hands could cover and contain my breasts. The finesse of his clever fingers as they teased and pinched my engorged nipples. I leaned my head against his shoulder, closed my eyes, and simply enjoyed.
And it was in that moment I heard it. The snap of a twig, the gentle rustle of undergrowth. Someone was coming toward us.
I tensed and sat upright.
“What?” Kade asked immediately.
“Shift shape,” I murmured as I scrambled to my feet. “Someone’s approaching. Jack, I’m switching you off.”
“Be caref—” His warning was cut off as I flicked the com-link. Kade shifted into horse form and moved away to graze while I stepped into the icy water and began scooping it up to wash away the evidence of lovemaking. Goose bumps fled across my skin, but the cause wasn’t only the chilly water. The presence of the person approaching burned across my skin, as powerful as the electricity that ran before a summer storm. Unpleasant and yet, at the same time, exhilarating.A man stepped through the trees to my right. He was thickset, broad shouldered, with golden skin and rippling muscles. His hair was a mane of darker gold, thick and lush, and his face was almost feline. His eyes, when he looked up, were tawny. Like a cat’s.
He stopped, his eyes suddenly narrowing. The electricity in the air sharpened abruptly, rolling around me in waves that left me breathless, hot. But there was an undercurrent of brutality in what he was projecting, suggesting this man was into more than just vanilla sex.
“Who are you?” he said, voice harsh, rough. He moved his hand, and I noted the gun at his waist of his jeans.
“Poppy Burns. You?”
“And who is Poppy Burns when she’s home?” he asked.
“I’ve been employed to fight in the arena. I came in today.”
“Indeed?”
His gaze slid down my body, and moisture skated across my skin, tiny beads of perspiration that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with arousal. My nipples hardened almost painfully and the throbbing, low-down ache got stronger, especially when his gaze seemed to linger on my hips and groin. As if, even from that distance, he could see the pooling desire. His gaze completed its erotic journey and rose to meet mine again. The lust so evident in those tawny depths just about melted my insides.
I might be wolf, and I might be so very easily attracted to a good-looking man, but what this particular man was projecting wasn’t natural. It was too overwhelming. Not even a male werewolf using the full strength of his aura could create this sort of reaction in me. Not if I didn’t want it to.
But I had reacted like this several times before—with Talon, who’d been lab-made by Starr’s father. Obviously, given the heated desire boiling around me and his feline features, this man had werelion in him rather than lion-shifter. Shifters—even wolf-shifters—didn’t possess this sort of aura. It only came with those who were forced to shift shape on the rise of the full moon. It was her gift to us, if you will.
Or curse, as many shifters and humans seemed to think.
Only I didn’t actually think he was a part-breed, or even a clone like Talon, nor did I think he was a lab-born crossbreed. I think he was something else entirely—and someone I had been warned about. A human who, while still a fetus, had undergone several procedures that involved cross-planting DNA from shifters and weres to enhance reflexes and senses. According to Misha, the experiments started by Starr’s predecessor had finally been successful, but one of the side effects was an overdeveloped sex drive and an aura to match. And given Starr’s lieutenants were apparently the end result of such experiments, I was betting this man was one of them. There was too much authority in his expression, and in the way he stood, for him to be just another guard.