Chapter Four
Cam woke and started to stretch lazily. Then she went still, and blinked. She was pinned to the mattress, a hard warmth behind her, and a massive arm draped over her waist.
It only took a microsecond to remember who was pressed against her, holding her tight.
She squeezed her eyes shut. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.
One rule. Don’t let him into her bed. What the hell had gotten into her? Apart from Hemi’s thick and very energetic cock.
She turned her head and glanced at the clock. God, they’d only slept the last few hours. The rest of the night…well, Hemi wasn’t only a bulldozer out of bed—strong and unstoppable. She put a choke hold on the sexy memories trying to push into her head.
Carefully, she slipped to the side of the bed, but before she could escape, the arm around her tightened.
“Need the bathroom,” she whispered.
The arm loosened.
Cam slid out of the bed and watched as he rolled over, taking up the small portion that she’d had.
He sprawled in abandon, and she had the perfect view of his massive, naked body. He wasn’t beautiful, but the Maori tattoos covering one side of his back were. Her gaze drifted down, over his tightly muscled ass, and the strong tree trunks of thighs.
Her gut clenched. She recalled running her tongue over some of those tattoos, and her nails digging into his ass. She wanted to do it again.
No. No. No. She turned around, and snatched up some panties off a folded pile on a chair. Next, she snatched up some gym clothes off the floor. She gave them a quick sniff. They didn’t smell bad. She yanked on leggings, feeling the fabric rasp over sensitized skin. Next came a sports bra and a shirt.
She desperately needed something to keep her mind off of…her gaze went back to the man in her bed. Things.
She needed to get out of there until he was gone. Then, she’d put this behind her.
Hemi might be part Neanderthal, but he was also a good guy. A guy who’d grown up with brothers and a tight family.
And Cam hadn’t.
She slipped her feet into some running shoes, and then snuck out the door.
The corridors of the Enclave were quiet. Everyone was clearly sleeping off last night’s party.
When she stepped into the gym, she found the place empty, and breathed a sigh of relief. She bypassed the treadmills—she detested them—and headed for an exercise bike. Soon, she’d worked up a good sweat, her legs burning from the exertion.
After a while, she abandoned the bike and headed over to lift some weights.
“I didn’t expect to see you here this morning.”
Cam spun and saw Sienna. “Right back at you.”
“Theron had promised boxing lessons to a couple of the teens.” Sienna’s eyes went soft at the thought of her man working with kids. “I thought I’d climb for a bit.” She nodded toward the climbing wall at the back of the gym, but then her nose wrinkled. “Work off my hangover.”
Cam smiled. “I prefer working my hangover off in a dark room with a Bloody Mary.”
Sienna tilted her head, her brown eyes scanning Cam’s face. “You okay? Usually you avoid the gym, if you can help it. Hell, usually you avoid standing up, if you can help it.”
Cam shrugged, trying to look casual. “Sure, I’m okay. Peachy. Why?” Did she look different? Did she have a brand announcing Hemi had given her six screaming orgasms?
Sienna kept staring at her. “Did you have a good night?”
“Sure. Great party. I was tired and went to bed afterward.” That wasn’t a lie. She’d been in her bed.
Her squad mate looked like she was fighting back a smile. “Pretty nice hickey on the side of your neck.”
“What?” Cam touched her neck and hit a tender spot. Damn, Hemi. “Oh, I…scratched myself when I was getting dressed this morning.”
“It’s surrounded by stubble burn, if I’m not mistaken.”
Shit. Cam blew out a breath. “All right, fine. I slept with Hemi.”
Sienna’s eyes widened. “Really?” The word came out part squeal.
“Well, okay, that’s not entirely true. We didn’t sleep much.”
“Was it good?”
“Sienna!”
“Come on, tell me. On a scale of one to ten.”
Memories hit Cam and her pulse jumped. “Like a hundred and seven.”
“Wowser.” Then Sienna’s eyes turned dreamy. “Theron’s a hundred and seven, as well.”
“Enough.” Cam cut a hand through the air. “I don’t need images of you and Theron doing it like rabbits in my head while we’re on a mission.”
“So…Hemi, huh?”
“Yes. Shit.” Cam dropped down on a weight bench.
“He’s wanted you a long time. He’ll be good for you. And under all that roughness is a great guy.”
Cam shook her head. “We aren’t together, Sienna.”
Her friend frowned. “Oh?”
“It was a one-night deal. To get it out of our systems.”
Now Sienna snorted. “I’ve heard that before. So, how’s your system?”
Hot and bothered, and it wanted more. “My system is fine.”
“Uh-huh. And Hemi agreed to one night?”
“Well, we didn’t spend a lot of time talking.”
“Uh-huh.”
Cam strongly disliked that smug sound. “Stop that. Look, don’t say anything to anyone, okay?”
The gym door slammed open and Mac walked in. “There you guys are. Roth needs us up in ops.”
Cam stood. If Roth needed them first thing on New Year’s morning, something was up.
Sienna spun around. “Cam slept with Hemi.”
Cam gasped. “What part of ‘don’t tell anyone’ didn’t you understand?”
Mac’s dark eyebrows rose. “About time. Was it good?”
Cam let out a short, frustrated scream, and stomped out of the gym.
***
Hemi opened his eyes and stretched out an arm. The bed was empty and he was alone.
He muttered a curse and rolled onto his back. Of course, he was. Cam had done what Cam did best—run. What else had he expected?
He scrunched a pillow up under his head, and breathed deep. It smelled of her.
It didn’t take much for him to remember all the things they’d done to each other in her bed. All the ways he’d touched her, all that sexy passion, the way she’d called out his name. Hell, she was hot. She’d singed his skin, and as he’d always known it would be, sliding into her had been the best thing he’d done.
He smiled to himself. He’d won the battle. He’d keep up his assault until he won the war.
The comm unit beside the bed chimed and he hit the button without thinking. “Yeah.”
“Need you in ops.” It was Tane’s deep voice.
“How did you know I was here?” Hemi asked.
Silence.
Right. His brother was spooky-good at finding people. Had been, even as a kid. Although, if Tane had seen him kissing Cam last night, it probably hadn’t taken much for him to work out where Hemi was.
Hemi sat up with a flex of his abdomen. “I’ll be there.”
He rolled out of bed and pulled his clothes on. He didn’t have time to head to his room to change. He cast one more glance at Cam’s bed, with its twisted sheets, then headed in the direction of the Command Center.
When he stepped inside, he found the room packed with his squad members, along with Hell Squad and Squad Nine. Something was definitely up.
His gaze zeroed in on Cam. She was wearing workout gear, and was studiously avoiding him. Damn, she looked edible. He let himself take in all the long lines of her, while imagining just what was beneath the fabric.
Need slammed into him and his fingers curled into a fist. It was so much worse now that he knew exactly what being with her was like.
“Someone’s still wearing last night’s clothes,” an amused voice drawled.
Hemi glanced over at Ash. The man was grinning at him, tattooed arms crossed over his chest.
“Got lucky?” Levi was grinning, too, his hair pulled up in a messy knot.
Hemi was feeling too good to let them bait him. He pulled out a chair and sat down. “Yeah.”
“Was it good?” Levi waggled his eyebrows.
“Best night of my life.” He wanted to look at Cam, but he avoided it. If he caused messy gossip, she’d skewer him. He might enjoy it, but he wouldn’t put something private out there until she was ready.
He felt his squad mates looking at him with keen interest. Man, they were the worst gossips sometimes.
“Thank you all for coming.” The authoritative voice of General Adam Holmes cut across the room. The general moved to the front of the crowd, wearing a neatly-pressed uniform. He was backlit by the wall of the screens. “I’m afraid your first day of the New Year will be spent planning a mission.”
“What’s up?” Marcus asked in his gravelly voice.
“The tech team has been working with the medical team to study the new creeper alien that Theron and Sienna identified on the last mission.”
An image flashed up on the screen of the new alien. It was big, with six legs and an orange belly. Not to mention the ugly sucker mouth it used to eat living things whole. It looked like a mutated spider gone horribly wrong.
“Hell Squad brought back a creeper carcass from the power station mission,” Holmes continued.
That mission had been to rescue Theron and Sienna. The Squad Nine pair had gotten themselves stuck on an alien ship that landed in an alien encampment outside a hydro-electric power station several hours south of the Enclave.
Hemi grinned and caught Tane’s gaze. They’d made a hell of a mess for the aliens to clean up during that rescue.
“It looks like these creatures swallow a living being, and store it in their stomach. That’s where it’s transformed into some sort of Gizzida hybrid. The stomach eventually detaches as a pod.” The general’s brow was furrowed. “Doc Emerson thinks that if the pod is left undisturbed to final maturation, the change to full Gizzida would be complete.”
“So, no more need for genesis tanks,” Roth muttered.
There were frustrated rumbles all around the room. All of them knew about the aliens’ tanks. Filled with alien liquid, humans were forced into them, floating there for months, until they turned into aliens.
But now it appeared these creepers were the new version.
“That’s all we know for now,” Holmes said. “We don’t know how long the transformation takes, or how to neutralize them.”
Shit. Hemi stretched his legs out in front of him. Not good.
Holmes shoved his hands in his pockets. “Noah and Emerson have informed me that they would learn more if we had a live creeper.”
What? Hemi sat up. Noah was head of the tech team, and Emerson the lead doctor who patched them all up. He glanced around and saw that no one looked happy. He traded a look with Tane, and his brother shook his head.
“You want to bring a live alien creature into the Enclave?” Marcus said in a measured tone.
“We held alien prisoners at Blue Mountain Base,” Holmes said.
“Not ones that ate people whole,” Roth countered.
A woman stepped up beside the general. Her red hair was pulled back in a neat braid, and her bearing was straight. “My team is working on containment for the creature.”
Captain Laura Bladon was head of the interrogation team, and ran the prison cells. Back at Blue Mountain Base, before it had been destroyed, she’d held and interrogated a number of raptors.
“Gaz’da has been helping and providing invaluable information,” she said. “We are building cages out on the edge of the Enclave. We’re also ensuring we have security protocols in place, so that if the alien creeper escapes, it can’t reach the main part of the base.”
Gaz’da was a raptor that had been a prisoner at Blue Mountain Base. He’d turned on the Gizzida who’d forcibly changed him and was helping Laura. Hemi wasn’t sure how he felt about a raptor being resident at the Enclave, but Gaz’da stayed in the prison area, worked with Laura and her team, and appeared to be a valuable asset.
“So.” Holmes’ blue gaze ran over them all. “I need a team to head back to the power station encampment, and capture a creeper.”
“How the hell are we supposed to do that?” Roth asked.
“And how the hell do we bring it back here?” Tane added.
“Doc Emerson has concocted some powerful sedatives. She believes they will keep the creeper knocked out for transport.”
“Believes?” Tane asked.
Holmes gave an unhappy nod. “It’s the best we can do.”
Laura clasped her hands behind her back. “We have stunner prods and nets that my team have used and modified. They’ll be helpful for catching the creature.”
“I want volunteers,” the general said. “A mix from Squad Nine, Squad Three and Hell Squad to make up a team. Four in total.” His gaze swung to Roth.
“Cam’s up next for a joint mission,” Roth said.
Cam nodded.
Hemi glanced at Tane. If Cam was going, he was sure as fuck going, too.
Tane stepped forward. “Hemi.”
Cam’s head whipped around, and their eyes met. Yeah, that’s right, baby. Not letting you head into alien territory on your own.
“Can the sedatives be administered by rifle shot?” Marcus asked.
“Yes,” Holmes answered.
“Then you’ll need Shaw.”
Shaw Baird was the best sniper in the base.
“And I want to go to round out the team,” Claudia Frost said.
Holmes nodded. “Very well. Plan your mission. See Laura and Emerson for the equipment you’ll need. And good luck.”