Loving Lucius (Werescape) (22 page)

The corridor's sharp turns and strengthening scent of hot food finally led to a large room lit partially with larger rectangular lights overhead. Lights like those back in New Pittsburgh. Technology manufactured AEI.

"Here's the communal room," Lucius stepped aside allowing a view of the men, women, and children sitting at tables.

Metal tables with metal chairs. More factory-produced objects.

Sherry and Tacitus spotted me and shot glances between one another.

Like I was an alien surprising them with my appearance.

"It's lunch." Augustus' wide palm nudged me forward from behind. "Let's see what's on the menu."

Pork roast and a soup of dried vegetables and herbs. I could have sucked down three bowls of delicious soup salted to perfection. But Augustus was in a hurry to collect my blood sample. Joy of joys.

We passed into another section of the compound. Solid metal doors lined both sides of the corridor. Fifteen on each side. Each with a number up to thirty.

"These are the suites. Families are housed here. And, of course, more Shifters always show up wanting to take root, building a life around the hope that this facility can give a man dedicated to fight extraterrestrials." Augustus continued through a metal door with a large rectangular window.

A light flicked on with Augustus' presence. Strange symbols were painted on the walls. Circles with shapes inside them. Meaningless to me.

We faced three solid metal doors. One had lab painted on it. Another said shower. The third was labeled basement.

Augustus pointed at the door marked basement. "Our storage, the classrooms, and the library are below us. Lucius can show you around down there later. We're going this way." Within seconds we stood in an enormous room that looked like a sea of waist-high black countertops. The counters were pitted with sinks and topped with all sorts of machines and glassware.

"This way." Augustus strode to the far end of the large space, flicked on a light above where he stood, and opened a drawer.

He had to know everything about this room because under each black countertop were loads of unmarked drawers. I'd be completely lost searching for something here.

The alpha produced a needle.

Nothing new to me. I'd seen many and been pricked by them plenty of times.

With the skill of a person familiar with needles, Augustus washed his hands, cleansed my skin, and drew three vials of my crimson blood without nary a spark of my discomfort. He used a strange stretchy kind of tape, one lacking the tackiness of tape I'd used before, to secure small squares of white gauze over the tiny wound.

"There you go. All finished. I hope you weren't uncomfortable." Augustus winked again.

Just like a father, who swore something wouldn't hurt and had successfully proven he hadn't lied. Augustus was suave. A man anyone would like. A man any woman would mate. "Not at all." And I mated his son who behaved more and more like his sire with every passing moment. Okay, maybe he mated me. But I was the one who ultimately won in the end.

Augustus placed his samples in a container. "You two go look around. Choose one of the suites. And bring Violet down. Now that Elise has mated into our community, Violet should continue her education." He eyed me. "I'm assuming she's as educated as you and Sherry."

"Yes." Violet needed to continue to learn. Any person who could needed to. Or the aliens would have an easier time eradicating what was left of humanity.

"That reminds me," August studied me. "You have been educated more than most of the mates here. I think we could use you best in the school." He slid his blue gaze to Lucius. "What do you think?"

Lucius nodded thoughtfully. "As long as you don't work her to death."

A devilish grin stretched across the clan leader's friendly face. He winked at me yet again.

Why? Winks are starting to make me nervous. Did they note some hidden joke the sire shared with his son? Because that unsettling grin certainly should make me worry.

"Come on. I'll show you around." Lucius slid his fingers down my arm and took my hand, pulling me back to the corridor.

My mate definitely had my best interest at heart. He reaffirmed this conclusion when he closed the door of suite 19 and shoved me against a wall. Frisky couldn't describe Wolf.

"You won't be very useful in the school until after the Mating Fever runs its course," he gasped, all breathy, pulling off my clothing.

Everywhere. His hot flesh was everywhere. All our bare skin made my heart race. I slid my palms up his bare chest while he wriggled my pants down my hips. "What's the Mating Fever?"

"The time between the marking and pregnancy." He winked.

Winks didn't really matter when facing a wall of hot demanding muscle. "You're just like your sire."

His yellow gaze hid the sparks of humor or shadow of anger one could usually detect in eyes.

"Oh?" He shoved down his blue jeans.

Producing the largest jutting erection I think I had ever seen. Even though what I'd seen had only been from pictures or Normals forcing females in Langston's halls, I doubted what he uncovered was the same thing he'd used on me earlier. "You fit that inside me?"

He growled, moving so closely that all I could do was slide my arms around his neck and hang on as he pressed that iron club against my belly.

"I'll prove it fits. Give me a second." He leaned closer.

Down to my lips. Slanting his mouth to mine. Shutting off my ability to gasp for air. Searing me with a velvet kiss. Thrusting his wily tongue inside my mouth.

My knees wobbled.

Liquefying. Giving away. Like all of my insides. A molten wave. Rolling downward. Melting everything in its path.

His arms held me where he wanted me.

At his ravenous mouth.

His tongue withdrew, and he backed away an inch to hover closely, surrounding me in a cloud of fiery breath. "So how am I like Augustus?"

Why does he need to know that now? I can't stand up on my own. I sighed and willed those exceptional tanned lips back to work. "You two wink a lot."

"Good answer. I thought you were going to say we were both handsome. Or something even more unwise." He growled, grabbed me around the waist, heaving me up, and rammed his stiff member inside me.

Absolute perfection. Who would have thought sliding along a skewer could feel so divine?

We both groaned. Him with his gaze but two inches from mine. Watching me like he enjoyed my reaction. Who cared when you could simply feel incredible with a club rammed inside your clenching body?

"This is the only fever worth catching," he snarled. "Wrap those legs around me, Elise."

So true. I locked my legs around his waist and closed my eyes to think of nothing but the pulsing pressure deep inside me.

And everything vanished but him and our united bodies. Touching in the most sensitive places. His groin pumping with the beat of my heart, replacing that organ, oxygenating my cells. Or something. Like without him I couldn't live. Didn't want to live. Only wanted to be with him. Skin to skin. Touching. Gasping for more of the life-giving breath he could fill my body with. My inner channel trying to grab his club. His hips thrusting against my sensitive groin. Rocking my body.

The invisible wall of suffocating desperation and raw need, rose and forced its way through me. Only to shrink back and tickle me in the most remote place. I clutched his shoulders. Tried to hold onto that incredible skin. To something that would burst the bubble of need inside me. Pop it. Set me free to breathe again.

A prickling sensation scrubbed at my skin instead.

Made my nipples iron hard. Sent a chill all over my body. I clawed at the deep muscle of his shoulders.

Studded with scratchy long hairs. Wolfen hairs. He's shifting.

Is this a bad thing? Not the way my body wanted more. Needed more. I managed a hold with my fingernails in his stubbled flesh and rubbed my aching nipples against the wiry Wolfen hairs of his chest.

The loudest growl I'd heard from him ripped toward the ceiling. He slammed his face into my collarbone and pounded his steely length inside me even faster.

God. And faster. I couldn't breathe. No longer cared if I did. Only wanted to scream from the pressure and friction his hard presence plugged into and out of my body. Realized I was screaming.

My reality exploded like someone dropped a delicate porcelain tea cup on a concrete floor.

Everything sped away from the point of impact deep within my soul in one instantaneous burst. The only thing holding me together were the two handfuls of claws gripping my hips and the point where he wedged himself inside me as we melded together at our groins.

How could anyone survive without touching?

This Mating Fever infected a person. Kept a person craving for the only thing worth living for...Not water. Not air. Nor food. Touching. The only thing of significance in life.

The rocking of my aching sex slowed into a gentle rolling motion reminiscent of being in a rocking saddle. Because of him. Pushing. So perfectly.

Don't stop. Please. Never.

He groaned a sigh and snuggled his still-human profile into the bend of my neck.

But his hard presence inside me faded away.

No. Not yet. I snaked my fingers through the coarse Wolfen hairs up his neck, to the ones covering his scalp, and grabbed them, holding him so I could rub my cheek against his furred cheek. To keep him there. With me. Touching me.

He moaned.

Snorted. His body even more huge and powerful. Granting me even more security. How did women choose Normals over Shifters? There's no comparison in what the two offered.

"Mine," he snarled with one final heave of groin.

We clung to each other with my back pressed against the wall and legs gripping his narrow waist until I sadly felt nothing of him inside me.

Alone. I'm alone except for his body wrapped around mine.

His Wolfen hairs had almost vanished. Or whatever they do. Leaving me to clutch at his back while he quietly shifted back into human form.

I wanted to merge again. To become one again.

If he hadn't held me, I'd sob.

"Do you like this suite?" he chuckled softly against my cheek out of the blue.

How would I forget this place after what he did to me here? "After our little visit, I think it's more than adequate."

His chuckle sputtered louder. He lifted his head and hovered those bright blue eyes before my gaze. "I hope so." His fingers curled around my buttocks, gaining a better grip, and he backed away from the wall. "We'd better get dressed now." He winked, then slid me down his thighs.

Back on my own two feet. The distance between us teased mercilessly simply from the taunting cool air whirling around my nude body. But I can survive. I'm his. He's mine. And we'd unite again.

Chapter Nine

"We're moving?" Violet stood inside the door, fear gripping her features. "But I don't want to move. I like Augustus and these people. I like it here."

My poor little sister. "We aren't moving away. Lucius will be back shortly. Then, he's taking us to a new place you'll love. A place here in the outpost."

"But you're afraid of Lucius." Her confused voice reflected the truth in how quickly Lucius and I had overcome our issues.

Yet, we had. Quite thoroughly. And now I have a new understanding of how things are in the world. In The Wild. But how do you explain to someone so young that you've mated? "We've made amends."

The door squeaked.

Producing Lucius in his camouflage shirt and pants. "Hello, Violet." He held the edge of the door, studying my little sister with arched eyebrows. "Ready to go?" he asked me enthusiastically.