Chapter Twenty-Six

 

Tamian pressed his face to Lucy’s neck, inhaling deeply. He fisted his hand in her hair as she arched into him with an aftershock. As his cock lengthened inside, Tamian used their combined release to ease in and out. He’d given over to the beast, taking Lucy hard and relentlessly. She’d urged him on with her moans and her heels digging into his legs. Her nails scraping at his back. It had been perfect. They were mated, and nothing would ever tear them apart. He would make the spoken vow later, but it was time to show her how he could be gentle and loving.

As he rocked their bodies together, Tamian thought of all the things he wanted to do with Lucy. He needed to taste the sweetness between her legs as her body encouraged her to take him. He wanted to kiss her smooth skin and find the spots that made her shiver the most. Hold her close as their bodies came down from the high. Let her take control and show him what she wanted. Most of all, he never wanted to let go. She was his, and he finally understood what all the fuss was about. Already, she was the most precious thing in the world to him. Even more than Tessa. It wasn’t a contest, but if it were, Lucy would win, hands down.

Lucy’s lips found his, and he made love to her mouth, her body, and her mind. Already she was entrenched so deep in his heart, he thought it would burst right out of his chest. Moving with him, Lucy was so responsive. When he allowed the beast to take over their mating, he felt her own shifter push to the front. Now, it was just them, loving each other without words. When he’d been pushing her higher and higher, it had still been making love.

He considered fucking to be what beings did just to get off. Their sex would always be so much more than that. It was caring, loving, learning, making babies. The thought of Lucy’s belly swollen with their child caused his breath to catch, and he lost his rhythm. Lucy’s mouth on his neck brought him back to the present. There would be time for children later.

Tamian slid his cock from Lucy’s body, kissing her jaw, her shoulder. He couldn’t wait to taste her, so he eased down between her legs, stopping at her breasts to take each one into his mouth, sucking and teasing her nipples until they were hard peaks. Lucy groaned, thrashing her head back and forth against the pillow. He continued exploring her stomach, swirling his tongue into her belly button and trailing open-mouthed kisses farther south until he could set his mouth to her core. He had been wrong; the best sound in the world wasn’t her laughter. No, Lucy’s breathy moans and cries of pleasure were.

His release mixed with hers was a heady experience, and he lapped at her folds, licking up every bit he could find before concentrating on getting her off. As soon as his tongue touched her clit, Lucy grabbed two fistfuls of his hair and pushed against his mouth. He didn’t stop sucking and teasing until she was coming apart again. With her body still spasming, Tamian crawled between her legs and pushed inside. A couple thrusts was all it took for his balls to tighten, ready to take him over the edge of the precipice. He dove headfirst, loving her slowly. With his beast sated, Tamian was able to take his time, stroking Lucy’s pulsing core, urging her to come again while he shot deep, his head thrown back as he groaned through his orgasm.

Those three little words were on his tongue. It was too soon, but he knew his heart. When he looked at her to tell her, she frowned, and he refrained from baring his soul. “What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?” Something about her was different. Her eyes—

“Your eyes,” she whispered, touching the side of them with her fingertips. “They’re blue.”

“And yours are green.”

“What’s going on?”

Tamian eased his softening cock out of her heat, their release following and running down between her thighs. He’d take her to the shower to clean up soon. First, they had a more pressing matter to tend to. He moved up the bed so he was seated with his back to the headboard and pulled her into his lap. He’d been surprised when Lucy pointed out his wings had changed color, but he considered it to be part of coming together with his mate. Now that his eyes had changed to her color, it might have more to do with who his mate was – or rather what she was – than him being special.

“I’ve heard of this happening once before, but nobody could explain it. You told me you like rock music. Do you listen to the band Cyanide Sweetness?”

“Yes, I love their music.”

“Desmond Rothchild, the lead singer, is a half-blood. When he and his female mated, their eyes did the same thing, but as far as I know, Simone is human.”

“How old is she?”

“I’d say mid-twenties. Why?”

“It’s possible she’s part Gryphon and doesn’t know it. When a Gryphon mates with a human and has a child, that child doesn’t always get the Gryphon gene. It happens most often with females. Do you know anything about her parents?”

“No, but all we have to do is call Desi and ask.”

“Can I gush over the fact that you know a rock star?” Lucy grinned.

“No. You can wait until you meet him yourself at a concert and fangirl ’til your heart’s content.”

“Seriously?” Lucy looked more like a teenager in that moment than the badass GIA agent she was.

Tamian laughed and pulled her back against his chest. “As soon as we’re no longer on the run from your boss, you’ll meet more Clan than you can shake a stick at. The Stone Society has already claimed you as one of their own. I’m just giving you a heads-up, because the mates will take you in, and you’ll be smothered with love as well as information overload.”

“I’m used to being smothered by my own family. If the rest of the mates are anything like Tessa, I’m looking forward to meeting them all.” Tamian was glad to hear it. He had been happy she and Tessa had hit it off, and he wanted Lucy to know all the love in the world, not only what he would give her. Lucy’s fingers traced designs across Tamian’s chest, and he rubbed his hand down her bare thigh. For a while, their touching wasn’t sexual, only soothing.

It wasn’t long before Lucy’s breathing evened out, and she drifted off to sleep. Instead of waking her so he could clean her up, Tamian let her rest. He held her close, reveling in the fact that they were mated, and now he had what the others did. When he thought back over the last hour and how their lovemaking had far surpassed any expectations he’d had, his cock started getting hard, so he turned his attention to things that would keep his excitement at bay, like what was going on back in the States with her boss. If Julian couldn’t work his magic, Tamian would find Ramey and convince him to tell the truth.

 

 

The mood at the manor was more somber than usual. Rafael convinced Priscilla to cook breakfast, and after everyone had their stomachs full, he directed the males outside so they could talk about what was going on, while the mates did their best to keep Priscilla’s mind off Jonathan. When he returned home the night before, Rafael was still upset after his discussion with Julian. Once he and Kaya settled in for the night, Rafael explained to her why he was hurt. She’d listened intently before easing his mood with both her words and her mouth on his cock. She calmed him in a way no one else could, and as he remained awake after making love with his mate, he understood the others didn’t think less of him.

  He was King, but he was also their brother, and as such, they took on burdens so he wouldn’t have to. It was what family did. Even though he’d instructed Julian to take the day off, he and Katherine arrived along with the others, explaining how missing Priscilla’s cooking would have been a travesty. Rafael couldn’t disagree. Once he brought up the topic of Lachlan, he was glad his cousin was there.

“First off, I want you to know I appreciate you all more than you know. I was going to apologize for not seeing what everyone was going through, how some of you were trying to take some of the burden off my shoulders, but Kaya made me realize it’s what family does. We take on more than we should to keep each other from taking on too much.

“With some of the Greeks making their way into our city, I’m convinced Drago is building an army. We need to find his base of operations as well as figure out how he’s creating Unholy who are more than mindless drones. We need to follow them and figure out where they go during the day. If we need to call in reinforcements, then that’s what we’ll do. Sin has noticed more movement on the West Coast, but Dominic hasn’t seen an Unholy in weeks. Julian hasn’t had a chance to look into where the Greeks landed, because he’s been focused on helping Tamian’s mate.

“As you all know, Lucy is a Gryphon, and I had the opportunity to speak with some of her family. The Hounds of Zeus are a Greek legend, with Zeus creating the Gryphons – his Hounds – to watch over humans. We now know they’re more than a legend. Lucy’s family, the Lazlos, use the Hounds as the name for their motorcycle club, allowing only other Gryphons to be members. To those on the outside, the Hounds are nothing more than a club doing what other motorcycle gangs do. In truth, they are much like our Clan, but instead of focusing on the Unholy, they search for the Ministry.”

“Isn’t that the religious group who took credit for bombing Jonas’s clinic?” Frey asked.

“Yes. They’ve grown into a worldwide cult, and the Hounds search them out, taking down the leaders while trying to get the members help after they’ve disbanded the group. While they are basically mercenaries, I can’t argue with their methods. Innocent humans are taken in and brainwashed. The only religion these bastards adhere to is their own, trying to create a purer race. Think skinheads from a few decades back. Or Hitler. The Hounds do what is necessary to keep a war from breaking out.

“Having said that, they are willing to help however they can with the Unholy, but they have their own hands full.” Rafael explained how Lucy was coerced into joining the GIA. “She isn’t anywhere nearly as skilled as Julian with a computer. She learned a few hacking skills from a college classmate, but we think there’s more to it than the little bit of illegal searching she did when trying to find her father. Her boss, Deputy Director Phil Ramey, worked with Lucy’s father to create his own kind of super soldier. Lucy will be able to tell us more about that once we clear her name and take out her boss.”

Rafael talked about his and Kaya’s trip to New York and then on to New DC, and what Lucy had been forced to do. For some reason, Tessa had called Rafael instead of Gregor once they had Lucy back safe. He’d wanted to confide in his brother about the conversation with Tessa regarding children, but he decided it was best if they worked it out themselves. Rafael had his own problems to worry about, like helping Julian.

 “When Lucy is in the clear, it’s possible she will go back to helping her family search for the Ministry using her computer skills. Julian has agreed to teach Lucy, but that brings about another issue. Julian needs help past what Nik and Tessa are able to give.”

Rafael paused to take a sip of coffee while the others waited. Usually they would jump in and offer suggestions, but he’d made it clear before they started, he would do the talking. “After a lot of internal debate and talking it over with Julian, I reached out to Hunter this morning to get his opinion on Lachlan. We know what the male is capable of, and while I don’t trust him farther than Priscilla can throw him, I’ve decided to allow him to work with Julian until we can find someone else to help out in the lab. Hunter has agreed to relocate to New Atlanta in the interim to keep an eye on his mate.”

“What kind of assurance will we have that he won’t try to screw us over again?” Jasper asked.

“Before he’s released from the Pen, I’ll make it perfectly clear he has one chance to right the wrongs he did to our family. At the first sign of betrayal, I’ll take his head.” Rafael made that concession perfectly clear to Hunter, and the male could only agree to the terms, knowing it was the right call. “There’s a lot going on in all our lives, but it’s nothing we can’t handle as a Clan and as a family. We thought things would die down once Alistair was out of the picture, but now we have Drago to worry about. I’m looking forward to the day we can sit back and enjoy our mates and the children who are on their way into our lives, but until then, we need to continue working to make their world a safer place. Now, I don’t know about you, but I could go for a game of football. Who’s in?”

 

 

Ramey’s computer expert assured him he had all the feed from the cameras erased and destroyed. Before making his way to the lab, Ramey tried to contact all the workers from the lab who disappeared before he began shooting. Each one had signed a nondisclosure agreement, and they knew the ramifications of talking about what they saw or even where the building was. He’d made sure they were paid handsomely for their loyalty. He’d only found one of the employees, because the others had mysteriously taken extended vacations, according to their families. The one man he’d spoken to had been on his way out the door with several suitcases. When Ramey asked where he thought he was going, the man looked at him with a blank expression and replied, “To Hawaii,” showing Ramey the plane ticket.

Ramey contacted the airline as well as the hotel and canceled the reservations. It would be easier for the man to simply go missing than to miss his flight or not show up at the hotel. After loading the body into the back of the utility van he was driving, Ramey made his way to the lab. The man’s body would join those of the six Ramey had gunned down.

He wasn’t a small man, but dragging all that dead weight down to the lab by himself was taxing. While he caught his breath, Ramey unplugged computers, placing them on the cart used to haul the torsos. He cursed Lucy Ball as he thought of how much money he’d spent setting up the lab with the extensive equipment. If his suspicions were correct, there was the same equipment at Lucy’s home, and Ramey planned to retrieve it. That would help keep start-up costs down when he set up a new laboratory.

Once all the computer hardware as well as the handwritten notes were safely aboveground, Ramey doused the lab in gasoline. He stopped at every floor above the basement and did the same thing. When he was certain no shred of evidence would remain, he flicked open a lighter and tossed it into the middle of the last room, where he’d pushed all the paper and cardboard into a pile. He watched it burn, making sure it was going to catch well enough to spread before rushing outside. After stowing the computer equipment and papers in his trunk, Ramey stood back while twenty years’ worth of work went up in flames.

Breaking twigs crunched behind him, and Ramey turned just in time to see a lion trot out of the woods. “What the hell?” He was nowhere near a zoo, and he didn’t understand how the animal was there. Ramey slowly backed toward his car as the heat from the fire fanned around him. Before he could reach safety, the animal lunged, knocking him backwards. Ramey attempted to shield his face from the sharp teeth, but he was no match for the beast. The large cat tore at his body with his teeth and claws. With one swipe of the lion’s front leg, pain like he’d never felt before ripped through Ramey’s neck.

He wrapped both hands around the wound, trying to stop the blood from leaving his body, but it was futile. Ramey knew he was close to death because his mind was playing tricks on him. The lion huffed in his face before morphing into an eagle with blue wings. Just before Ramey slipped away, the majestic bird took off into the air.

 

 

The day had been as close to perfect as Drago could have asked for. Arden kept Lacy occupied, and he and Audrey spent the whole day together. For a while, he’d forgotten all about the Unholy and planning his takeover. His mate was not only stunning in her two-piece as they walked along the water’s edge, but she was funny. He didn’t understand a lot of the pop culture she referenced, but he tucked away everything she said, vowing to study up on her interests so he could converse with her and not feel like a dolt.

He didn’t push for anything physical with her, against his beast’s wishes. Drago knew from spending time with her she would bolt at the first sign of aggression. He’d managed to get her to open up about her husband. He didn’t want to hear of their intimacy, but the more he knew about Burt Hughes, the better equipped he would be in taking the human down. After hearing of the man’s infidelity, Drago decided death would be too good for the man. Audrey had offered her husband an uncontested divorce, splitting things in half. That wasn’t good enough for Drago. If only Achilles was still around, Drago would call on the hacker and have him ruin Hughes in a different way. Drago thought back to the human kid Kallisto had hired. When he returned to New Atlanta, he would reach out to the human and offer him a job.

Audrey was leaving the next morning to return to Alabama and her life there. Drago needed Audrey by his side and in his bed. Taking her back to New Atlanta was a bad idea. If she found out about him and his plans, he had no doubt he’d lose her. Maybe a long-distance relationship was for the best. He didn’t need the distraction a mate would bring, but there was no way he could walk away from her. He’d never been the type of male to do the honorable thing, but he’d never met his mate. Drago would bide his time, get his revenge on Audrey’s husband on her behalf, and then he would decide how best to handle having her in his life.

He had dropped her off at her room earlier to shower and change for dinner. He met up with Arden to talk about the individual Greeks who’d made the trip to Florida. When it was time to retrieve the females for their last night together, He and Arden headed to the floor above them where Audrey’s room was. As soon as the elevator doors opened, Drago knew something was wrong. They both took off running, and when they reached the females’ room, strange sounds made Drago’s beast burst forth. He kicked open the door but stopped short when he saw one of the Greek males fucking Lacy. Drago rushed the male, slashing his claws across the other Goyle’s neck before pushing him off Lacy.

While Arden checked on the brunette, Drago searched the room for Audrey. When he found her, beaten and bruised with blood running down the corner of her mouth, he turned on the male. He didn’t have to check Audrey for a pulse. He couldn’t feel her life essence. Their tether had been severed. For one small moment in time, he’d considered a life filled with the love of a mate. The children they would have. He should have known better. No, Gargoyles like him weren’t fit for love. Turning on the male who’d taken Audrey’s life, he told him, “Run.”

The male didn’t hesitate to rush from the room. Drago wasn’t giving him a head-start. He just wanted to be alone with Audrey for a moment before he went in search of his blade. It didn’t matter what the male thought Drago’s reason was for letting him go; Drago would find him and take his head. If any other Gargoyles got in his way, he’d kill them as well. He needed an army, but for a brief, flickering moment, he’d had a purpose, other than killing Rafael Stone. Now, that purpose was gone, and he had nothing holding him back.