Product Warnings

This book contains hot, explicit sex and violence explained with contemporary, graphic language.

Planet Athena in the Epimetheus Quadrant of the A-QET73 System…

Brad pried the bay doors open, his heart feeling as if it were lodged in his throat as thoughts of something happening to Aeron filled him. He should have never agreed to leave her side. The idea of sending pact members to opposite corners of the galaxy to avoid capture hadn’t sat well with him but he’d listened, to a point, respecting the others’ wishes. Instead of completely leaving the planet, Brad declined a promotion and stayed on as a captain to assure he would be in the vicinity of Aeron’s lab. He’d not told her his decision yet and had little doubt word would have reached her even if he wasn’t showing up to face her.

It wasn’t until he intercepted a transmission leaking Aeron’s whereabouts that Brad knew he should have trusted his gut and never left her side. He’d wanted to take her with him and confess all he felt about her. Only one thing had prevented him from doing just that—Conell, her on-again, off-again boyfriend.

None of it mattered now. Aeron’s safety was his only concern.

“Aeron,” he called, rushing down the corridor towards her lab. The sound of his voice echoed off the walls and was the only response he received. Adrenaline coursed through his veins as Brad continued full force into Aeron’s lab.

“Aeron!”

A quick look around the area showed no sign of her. Brad grabbed the end of a work station and fought for air not wanting to come. “Aeron, honey!”

“Ouch. Brad, is that you?” Her soft voice never sounded so sweet. She peeked up from behind a tall table, rubbing her head gingerly. “What are you doing here? I thought we agreed to—”

He was on her in an instant, dragging her petite frame against his body and holding her close. She smelled of mint and Brad knew Aeron had been playing with her hydroponics garden again.

“Brad?”

“You’re safe? Not hurt? Unharmed? All right?” He visually scanned her, searching for any indication she was injured but finding none.

A tiny laugh came from her and tugged at his heartstrings. “I’m fine but aren’t you Captain Redundant. Could you think of any more ways to ask if I’m okay? Want to tell me why you’re here?” She pressed her cheek to his chest and he felt the tension in her ebb away. “Not that I’m complaining or anything.”

“I need to get you somewhere safe, Aeron,” he said, not wanting to let go. Holding her felt right. “_They_ know where you are.”

She tensed. “How?”

He’d wondered the same thing when he’d intercepted the transmission leaking her location. Brad would have assumed a pact member turned on Aeron if he didn’t already know better. Each member was loyal to the cause—protecting humans from an all-out Vanos invasion. Aeron had also been one of the few pact members who remained on the planet Athena. She’d been adamant about not leaving her work behind and Brad had been equally as stern on her going. In the end, Conell stepped in, trumping Brad’s decision. “I don’t know, honey.”

Aeron leaned back and lifted her sandy blonde brows to form a question on her face. “Brad, you’re acting strange. You just called me honey.”

“Is Conell here?” He didn’t have time to worry about slips of the tongue. He needed to get her somewhere safe.

She shook her head. “No. He left, like almost everyone else did.”

Anger coursed through Brad’s body. As much as he hated knowing Conell held Aeron’s heart, he hated the knowledge the man had left her alone more. The pact agreement didn’t mean a thing. Not when it came to Aeron’s safety. Brad would move the heavens to assure she was well. “Come on, we need to get you back to your father’s ship. Is it still docked in the south bay?”

“Yes but it’s not been serviced in the last six months.” She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. “I couldn’t do it, Brad. Not after they killed him. Being around the ship reminded me of my father too much. It’s not ready to fly. Not yet.” Aeron’s bottom lip trembled as fear crept into her voice. “Brad?”

“Shhh, it’s fine, Aeron. Every time you and the others got going on a new theory, I got the hell out of here and hung out on your father’s ship. I’ve kept up on it. In fact, I think it’s one of the best vessels out there.” Unable to stand the sight of her frightened, Brad leaned his head down and pressed his lips to hers. He waited, stuck in the moment, sure she’d push him away. She didn’t. Instead, Aeron parted her lips for him, allowing Brad to ease his tongue in. The kiss was intoxicating, stealing Brad’s ability to do anything other than lose himself in the taste of her sweet lips.

The second Aeron went to her tiptoes and slid her hands into the back of his hair, Brad pulled her towards the ground, too many years worth of wanting but never having built up behind him to stop. It felt so good to finally have her with him. He wouldn’t think about tomorrow, about how she’d no doubt push him away. No. He’d concentrate on the here and now.

Something whizzed past his head and his military training kicked in. Brad shielded her body with his as shots from a Vanos weapon flew by. He knew the ammunition they packed was often filled with a substance that ate human flesh. Having Vanos blood in him would retard the destruction, to a point, if he was hit. If Aeron was hit, she wouldn’t heal.

A beaker exploded, raining glass down on them. Brad kept Aeron tucked safely beneath him. When he realized she hadn’t made a sound, his worst fear hit him head on.

She’s dead.

“Aeron?” He leaned back enough to look down at her. Her blue eyes were wide as she clung to him.

She peeked out. “Are they gone?”

“No,” he said, relief breaking in his voice. “Are you hurt?”

Shaking her head, she whimpered before grabbing his neck and coming away with blood. “You’re bleeding!”

“Just a scratch, baby.” He planted a chaste kiss on her forehead and then rolled off her. “Stay put.”

“Brad.” She grabbed his hand. “They’ll kill you.”

He drew his sidearm and winked. “Not if I kill them first. Promise you’ll stay here.”

She nodded and he took one last chance to stare at her. Telling her how he really felt for her was on the tip of his tongue but he held back. He’d get her to safety and then tell her once they were airborne. Brad tugged his hand free of Aeron’s and forced a smile to his face. “We’ll get through this, Aeron.”

***

Aeron watched in horror as Brad bolted upright and began firing off shots. The enemy returned fire—a multitude of bullets, breaking glass and fumes from lab experiments now destroyed filled the room. Each time something popped, Aeron yelped. She rolled to her side and onto broken glass. It bit at her exposed skin but she ignored the pain, too worried about Brad’s welfare to mind.

She peeked around the side of the table and came face to face with a dead Vanos. Shocked, she lurched back, raking her legs through more broken glass. A portable microbiology system crashed to the floor next to her, a piece of its glass front flying wide and lodging into her upper leg, as sparks popped out of the back end of it. The cut, while superficial, resulted in a large quantity of blood. She pulled the shard free of her leg, careful to avoid cutting herself further.

Brad seized hold of her arm and yanked her to her feet. Aeron knew better than to question his judgment when it came to matters such as these. Brad was a soldier and a damn fine one at that. If he wanted to move, she’d follow blindly.

She touched her swollen lips with her free hand, still in awe he’d kissed her. For years she’d wanted him. When it finally happened, their kiss had literally been explosive.

He led her towards the double bay doors and stalled, just a second, as he raked his gaze over her. “Aeron, you’re bleeding.”

“It’s just a—”

Something loud sounded and she watched in what felt like slow motion as Brad’s body lifted off the ground. He fired his weapon towards the doors a nanosecond before he released his hold on it and continued his decent.

It took Aeron’s brain a moment to catch up with what she saw—Brad, lying on his back. An array of wounds littered his once unmarred body. The only part still recognizable was his face. Bile rose and she steeled her nerves for the time being as she glanced towards the door and spotted a dead Vanos there.

“B-brad?” She reached out tentatively, already knowing the worst had come true. “No.”

Instinct kicked in and Aeron shut off her emotions, focusing on Brad instead. She launched into the steps necessary to save him, if it were possible, all the while blocking out the sounds of station police heading her way. Help was coming, but for Brad, help was already too late. As his blood coated her hands, she knew she would do everything in her power to make this right.

Bending down, Aeron pressed her lips to his cheek and released a secret she’d held dear. “I love you”

Brad’s hand jerked and Aeron dismissed it as nerves but silently prayed the action meant some part of him could still hear her.

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“You staying late?” Crosby asked as he held his bag over one shoulder. He was going through a painful separation from his long-time girlfriend and spent as much time as he could lending a hand at the gym.

Quinn glanced at his cousin, not really understanding the whole long-term relationship thing. When he found a woman he liked, he fucked her. That was all there was to it. He didn’t ask for more and he didn’t want more. Crosby was altogether different. He wanted to settle down and have the American Dream. The idea made Quinn shudder. Who in the hell wanted a picket fence and two point two children? Not him. “Yeah.”

“Want me to stick around? I could help you train?” The hopeful look in his cousin’s eyes was enough to make Quinn smile. As the Extreme Fighting Champion, Quinn was considered the shit around the gyms. Crosby got a kick out of the fact he chose to train in a gym in the area, rather than a big fancy one. The guy didn’t have room to talk. He still owned a rundown hotel in the neighborhood and also owned a big swanky one in the city.

“Nah, you go on home. I have it on good authority your mother made a big dinner and is expecting you.” One untimed hit by Quinn and Crosby would be dead. Didn’t matter that the guy also carried the blood of the wolf in him, that he was a wolf breed, and had the ability to shift forms like Quinn. He didn’t have the strength and the years of experience behind him. He wasn’t an alpha like Quinn. Not yet anyway. In a few years, maybe. For the time being, it would be too easy to accidently hurt him and that wasn’t something Quinn wanted to do.

Crosby groaned, kicking a foot out a little. “She called here lookin’ for me, didn’t she?”

“Maybe,” Quinn said with a slight smirk. “It’s a good thing. Means she cares and worries about you.” He refrained from commenting on how much he’d give to have his mother alive and worrying about him. He motioned to the back of the gym. “Hit the lights for me back there on your way out. I’m gonna stay here, do some reps and then shower.”

“Sure thing, man.” Crosby did as instructed and hurried off.

Quinn ran through two sets of free weights and then moved on to jumping rope. It helped his speed and agility, plus he tended to get lost in thought while doing it. A faint noise cut through the silence of the gym.

“What the hell?” Quinn stopped his training, set the jump rope aside and listened with his ultra-sensitive hearing. Assuming he’d imagined the sound, he moved to the next step in his nightly routine. He stood before the heavy bag, his hands bare and ready to strike. His knuckles were long since scarred over, no longer requiring tape or attention. He struck the bag and at the same moment, the noise returned.

“Arghh.”

His body cramped. Never had he responded to a sound in that way before. It was crippling, seeming to center in his groin. Catching his breath, his entire body strained as he listened for more. He heard it again and this time it was unmistakable.

A woman’s screams.

Not just any woman. One who was able to call upon his primitive side. The wolf that was as much a part of him as the very air he breathed raised its hackles, wanting to be freed. It was a side of himself he wasn’t embarrassed by, but one he didn’t let out often. When he did, bad things happened. In human form, Quinn wasn’t a man to be messed with. In wolf form, he was downright deadly.

He couldn’t deny going towards the woman in need. Her draw was unlike anything he’d ever experienced before and resistance was futile. She needed help and he needed her. It was basic but true.

Quinn had friends who had suffered through something similar—the inability to reject a certain pull or call to a female. In the end, it was because they were a destined pair. Mates. If it held true, that meant his mate really did exist and that she was in dire need of him.

“It’s my fucking imagination.”

He rolled his shoulders, doing his utmost to disregard what seemed painfully obvious. The odds were too high. There was no way he had a mate and that she’d be close enough for him to hear. The woman screaming was probably someone fooling around, having a laugh. The theatre district wasn’t far from the gym and more than once the actors had left the buildings late at night, carrying on so loudly one would think Armageddon was nearing. In the end, there was nothing really wrong with any of them. Didn’t stop Quinn from being fooled into checking on them. Not this time. No. This time he’d ignore their ruckus. He was sick of falling for their crap.

He placed his attention upon the heavy bag, doing all he could to clear his head. The screams came again, taking with them his ability to turn a deaf ear. Something was wrong. The terror in the female’s voice was too real, too full of emotion to be staged.

He snarled, the beast moving to the forefront and challenging him internally. It wanted him to respond to the cries, to save the woman, his mate.

“Stop thinking of mates.” He grunted. “All that leads to is a heap of bullshit.”

As was often the case, the wolf in him tended to see past the bullshit and cut right to the point. When all else failed him, his beast saw the world with a clear head and it said go to her.

Thrusting open the door of the gym, Quinn bolted, running full force in the direction of the disturbance. It was late and this section of the city wasn’t one to frequent after-hours. Various gangs had laid claim to it some ten years prior but that hadn’t prevented Quinn from training at the gym where he had started his career. A creature of habit, Quinn had always been one to follow through with the norm, to stay the course. The old neighborhood was no exception. It didn’t matter how well he’d done for himself or how many vacation homes he owned. The old gym was a part of him.

The woman’s scream echoed off the buildings around him, drowning out the sounds of the city at night. Gone were the sirens and the seemingly endless sound of traffic. Even the dogs that spent their nights barking, keeping up anyone unfortunate enough to reside in the area, were silent. All that remained was her plea for help.

Still caught off-guard by the intensity of his beast’s reaction to the sound, Quinn stumbled before catching himself with one hand. His knuckles scraped the brick of the building nearest him. The flesh ripped and blood pooled.

Sweat beaded on his brow, dripping down his face. His temples throbbed as his pulse sped. Her feelings beset him.

So much fear. So much pain.

The agony felt as if it were his own. Lifting his head, his eyes, now an icy blue because of the wolf within him, he stared out into the night. He was closer to the woman who called to him from blocks away. The one whose very cry had ripped him from his training, hardened his muscles and prepared his beast to strike. The hairs on his body rose as his senses heightened. She needed him.

The city’s current heat wave meant the breeze carried hot air with it. Humidity clung to the air as did her scent, reminding him that he had to find her. The option to refuse the call was no longer presented to him. It was internal and primitive. Something he could never turn down.

The call of my mate.

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Only Coyle made her body react this way and it seemed to be getting worse as time went on. What had started off as mere curiosity on her part now bordered on obsession. He consumed her waking thoughts and seemed to invade her every dream. It had to end soon. She had someone else in her life. Someone who wasn’t unobtainable. Someone who claimed to care for her even though he had a funny way of showing it. Why was she drawn to this moody millionaire who still insisted on running his own small pub on the seaside?

Sure, his devilishly handsome good looks had something to do with it. How could they not? The man’s black tousled hair hung just past his ears and it looked as untamable as the rest of him. The seemingly endless tribal tattoos adorning his body added a whole new layer to Coyle’s mystique. Setting aside his money, he was pure perfection. He also had the ability to not only make her feel safe, which was rare, but to make her laugh as well.

You and every other babe out there.

Women flocked to him. It was sickening. They arrived at the pub in groups of four or more, retreating to the back with Coyle until the wee hours of the morning. Deri refused to be one of his endless streams of women. She was not a Coyle groupie nor would she ever be one.

Okay, maybe not outwardly, but inwardly I’m a classic groupie.

Disgusted by her lack of willpower, Deri steeled herself to his touch, hoping it would make her immune to whatever it was he possessed. It didn’t. It did, however, make her painfully aware of how close she was to being one of his groupies.

I will not throw myself at this man’s feet.

Jerking back from him, Deri shook her head, sending tendrils of red hair scattering about as her clip gave way. Her hair seemed to engulf Coyle’s large hands as it fell to the tips of her breasts, teasing her and driving her closer to the brink of begging him to have her.

The sound of her cell phone ringing caught her attention and saved Deri from making an even bigger fool of herself. Drawing back more, she tipped her head. “Excuse me.”

“Of course,” Coyle bit out, aggravation evident. “Wouldnae want to keep precocious lil’ Chad waiting.”

Rolling her eyes, she pulled her cell phone from her waist. “As if you have any clue who is calling me.” She flipped her phone open. “Hello?”

“Hey, Deri,” Chad said, his voice strained. For a split second, Deri thought she heard a female’s voice in the background, whispering something low near Chad. She dismissed the thought although her mind tripped over it once more.

“Umm, hi.” She turned and tried to walk away from Coyle to avoid his penetrating stare. Plus, putting distance between herself and the headstrong Scot would only help to avoid letting him know he was right about who was on the phone. Though, Deri had little doubt the man needed no such confirmation.

Wonderful. Sexy and psychic.

Coyle moved with her, dwarfing her five-foot, six-inch frame with his close to six and a half feet one. The slightest bit of pressure from his hands was enough to hold her in one spot, not that she wanted to go too far from him anyway. No. Deri wanted to be pinned beneath those hands. Held in place as he used his long fingers to explore every inch of her.

Take me.

A cocky smile graced Coyle’s face. The urge to smack it off was great. She held back. “Tell Chad I said ‘hi.’”

Before she could stop herself, Deri had her middle finger in the air—flipping Coyle off in a very unladylike gesture. Coyle nipped playfully at it. “Promises. Promises, Deri. If it’s rutting yer after you’ve only but to ask. I’ll nae deny you.” He ran a hand over the bulge in his jeans and arched a brow. “I wouldnae suggest being fool enough to tempt me again or you might find yerself spread out before me like an offering. And, lass,” he added in a low voice, “I’ll do more than take you up on it. I’ll consume you.”

Her jaw dropped. Coyle captured her middle finger with his mouth and sucked gently, sending sparks of pleasure through her body. Instantly, her inner thighs tightened. She gasped. He chuckled as he worked his tongue out and over her finger with a skill she could easily imagine him utilizing to bring her pleasure.

“Deri?” Chad asked. “Babycakes, you okay?”

“What woman are you with now?” The question made little sense but it fell from her lips all the same. Still, it was all she had and the feeling that Chad wasn’t alone nagged her. It had been over a year since someone, besides herself, had touched her in a way that was even remotely sexual. To have the one man she desired most doing it was almost too much.

“What woman?” Chad laughed. It sounded forced, with a nervous edge. “Deri, I called to tell you that I’m running late and stuck at the office. There is no other woman. I won’t be able to pick you up from work tonight. Can you catch a ride home with Gigi?”

Coming to her senses, she yanked her finger from Coyle’s mouth and shook her head. “No, I can’t get a ride home with Gigi because she’s off tonight and tomorrow and the next night,” she mentally counted to five before continuing on, “because she’s visiting her sister in Pennsylvania, Chad. Remember? You were with me when I dropped her off at the bus depot.”

It would have been so easy to zap Chad with her power. Too easy. Killing mortals was wrong. She didn’t need anyone to tell her as much. Inflicting a little pain on the other hand—no, I can’t.

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