Satisfying Extortion (7 page)

Instead, they believed their father had abandoned them.

“My children…”

“This isn’t about your children,” Marcus told her. “This is about a man pleasuring the woman he only wants as his mate.”

Her breasts were tender then. Her legs were weak. Her need was over the top and yet she couldn’t do anything more than utter a very weak, “No. Not now. I can’t.”

“You can do whatever you want, Suzette. We’re both consenting adults here.”

Her hand was on his cock then and he mashed his size against her palm. A whimper escaped her lips. He was right of course. She could. She desperately wanted him and they were consenting adults, but if she let him “mate” with her, what then? How would her life change?

There were too many questions, too much to consider. And not enough time.

“But I belong to them, too.” She whimpered as his mouth trailed up and down the length of her neck.

And maybe she could’ve turned him away, perhaps she could’ve denied him, or maybe she would’ve fucked him like crazy right there against the break room wall. Instead, before she had the opportunity to make her own decisions, Blaez’s voice ricocheted with an alarming caution. “He’s here!”

“Damn it to hell.” Marcus immediately shielded her body. His head snapped back and his eyes bulged with pure male fury.

Suzette was frightened. The wolf had shown her a glimpse of his face. A piercing noise louder than any funnel of wind careened in the room, rocking the building with a staggering airstream and leaving them on wobbling limbs as they tried to take cover and avoid the whirlwind of unfathomable debris.

* * * *

“Get her out of here!” Marcus screamed above the whistling racket as Blaez and Kurt sprinted down the hall.

Suzette shuddered against Marcus, willing him to protect her, praying he wouldn’t let her go. Surely he wouldn’t abandon her now in her time of need. “What’s happening?”

“Hang on, pretty lady.” Marcus tried to offer her a reassuring smile, but she wasn’t buying into heroics at the moment. Another grueling minute passed and the ear-piercing whistles filled the room. Mass confusion wrapped around them like a cocoon of madness, drawing them into the core of bewildering and quite dangerous paranormal activity.

“Hang on!” Marcus stumbled toward the others. Unsteady on his feet, he kept her at his side until he approached Blaez and Kurt.

There wasn’t any solace found in the steps of his chosen direction. He was marching straight into the heart of danger, into the very pulse of what would soon become the next extortionist’s killing grounds.

“Blaez! Take Suzette!” Kurt’s voice echoed over the noise.

A moment later, Marcus thrust her into Blaez’s arms as chairs and furniture tilted over, slamming against the floor. The turbulent conditions became disruptive and dangerous as office equipment swirled around their heads. A copier rammed against the front door but never successfully crashed against it with enough power to trigger an opening.

Seconds passed and the demolition continued. Blaez pushed through the rubble, yelling at Kurt and the others as he stomped over the wreckage, the ruins remaining after one hell of a supernatural tantrum.

The howling creature entered the room and magical pastel colors flashed before her eyes. The transparent beast glided over them as if he were unaware of the papers strewn across the room, the shards of glass and bits of metal. A howling racket commenced and they were propelled into motion by hurricane-like winds.

“Fuck no!” Kurt’s voice was agonized as he seemingly reached out to them with an extension of himself.

There were too many illusions, too many confusing entities surrounding them. Simple objects like pencils and staplers were seemingly forty times their normal size. Another beast—a werewolf maybe—curled its body around the interior walls in an effort to push its weight against the translucent creature undulating around them.

Blaez sheltered her body with his and held her head against his chest. Like a workhorse, he plowed forward, shoving his way through the main part of the station and using his shoulders to shrug away unhinged doors and cubical divider walls leading to what had become a very narrow hallway.

“Randon! Blaine! Break out some windows!”

“Not possible!” Bart yelled. “Somebody save her…my children’s…mother!”

Suzette’s heart slammed against her chest wall. Her throat constricted. She felt sick, dizzy. Was she losing consciousness? Her airway seemed blocked and she gasped for her next breath. Her children’s parents were doomed for death.

Blaez came to an abrupt halt. “Oh my God.”

“What’s happening?” Suzette held fast to his shirt. At this point, he was her only hope and the truth of the matter was as frightening as the beast they were trying to evade.

As long as Blaez held her in his arms, he was her only protector. She couldn’t fight what she couldn’t understand let alone see, but Blaez might be able to keep her safe.

“He’s like a ghost!” She felt a strangling sensation around her neck. “I can’t…breathe! I…can’t…breathe!”

“Damn it! Keep your head down!’ Blaez seemingly struggled to shake free of a confining grip, one she soon realized was not at all imagined. Large bolts of light blue rods wrapped around Blaez’s arms and throat before he successfully ripped them away.

A wave of flames shot before her face and Suzette soon realized the supernatural happenings were a combination of illusions and reality.

This extortionist was calculated. He enjoyed taunting them. He’d drag this out for as long as possible.

“We won’t make it!” She stifled a cry, unable to come to terms with leaving her children behind. She would meet her demise. “Oh God! Why didn’t I take my kids and run?” She was a bad mother. That’s why. She’d sent her children away to protect them but she should’ve gone with them. She should’ve remained steadfast in her need to keep her young safe, not her desire to face off with an overpowering enemy!

“Keep your voice down,” Blaez said, his deep baritone pitch soothing her.

“We’re going to die.”

“No, baby,” he whispered, his fingers locking in her hair as he held her head against his chest. “Our pack, our brotherhood…we’re survivors. And our women are strong. We will make it out of here!”

She wrapped her trembling arms around his waist and held on for dear life, for her right to live that life. She forced herself to believe in him, desperate to trust in him as her safe haven and maybe even her only way out.

The emergency exit light at the end of the hall seemingly held Blaez’s devoted attention. He dodged an onslaught of bricks and sheetrock as the high-pitched clamoring dropped an octave.

It was the calm before the last of a devastating storm. Blaez’s short breaths rang out in her ear as he worked his way through a maze of rubble.

“Listen to me,” he whispered, seemingly struggling to speak. “Kurt and Marcus will stick together and draw out the extortionist but their efforts will likely fail.”

“What?” Why was he telling her this?

“Listen, Suzette,” he stated firmly, taking long strides to the back of the building. “We’ve been analyzing this creature since his first appearances down in Alabama.

“The extortionists appear when they’re threatened. Sometimes they come for their mates when the pack members are mere days away from claiming theirs as well.”

“Are you saying those mates are one in the same?” Didn’t he realize she already knew she belonged to him, to Kurt and Marcus as well?

Blaez held her closer, tighter. “Just as you’re my mate in this world, the extortionist may believe you’re his, too.”

“No.” She refused to believe such a theory.

“Yes.” He forced her to look at him. “Just as we’ll do anything to protect you, the extortionists will do whatever necessary to apprehend you.”

“Don’t let me go,” she whispered, praying he already cared enough to fight for her.

“I’ll never let you go,” he assured her, hoping she already realized he was willing to die for her.

A loud crash resounded around them. Eerie sounds filled the room with the same word. “
Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine
.” It was as if they were listening to a heartbeat in a hollow tunnel.

“Get her out of here, Blaez!” Marcus sounded desperate.

Blaez was just as desperate. Marcus was relying on someone else to do the job he would’ve likely preferred to do himself.

He was entrusting Blaez to save her and while Marcus and Blaez were as close as brothers and had faith in one another’s abilities, it was hard to hand over a loved one to someone else. Harder still, to pass off one’s mate.

“We’ll never make it out of here alive,” she whispered, her tears burning his flesh as they seeped into his shirt.

“You’re not going to die, baby. I’ve got ‘cha. And I won’t let anything happen to you.”

A hazy wall of blue dropped in front of them. It fell from the ceiling like cascading waters with waves tumbling over waves as the mirage came forward, embracing them, smothering them.

Suffocating sensations threatened his breathing capabilities as he covered her face. “Don’t look.”

“
Mine. Mine. Mine
.” A distorted face appeared in the center of the illusion. The nondescript image held nothing but empty characteristics, which told Blaez a lot. The extortionist had been taking specific qualities from his victims. He hadn’t chosen a face or skin tone or descriptive features.

In the past, they’d dealt with extortionists that had murdered for personality traits and physical or mental abilities. They’d been known to kill athletes at the height of their careers. They’d taken those who were smart, considered brilliant and gifted.

The extortionists collected these traits from their victims and then they’d come for their mate, for the human body they wanted as their own. Then they could walk around in the free world as a human rather than float around in their nothingness, attacking the innocent with their wicked ways and their evil intentions.

“I’m scared.” Her body shook against his as he cradled her. He sped through the room, trying to find a way out.

The extortionist had “touched down” like a tornado, capturing them behind closed doors. His pressurized existence prevented them from breaking out a window or opening an exit. They were indeed trapped.

The room spun around and around. Blaez reminded himself to press forward and stand firm. If he lost consciousness, he wouldn’t be able to save Suzette. He wouldn’t know his mate or the power of her love. He wouldn’t taste her kiss or know the gentleness of her good loving.

If the extortionist won here, his end would be as tragic as any other. He would close his eyes and meet his death with devastating knowledge.

He hadn’t been able to save the woman he was destined to love.

Suzette must have lost consciousness. When she came to, she couldn’t see anything in front of her.

She shivered against the arms holding her and then stilled. Disoriented, she took a few deep breaths, afraid to ask questions, too terrified to even breathe his name.

Her heart raced as she frantically searched her mind, trying to remember what had happened. “Blaez?”

“It’s me,” he said, his breath heavy against her ear.

“What happened?”

“It’s the extortionist.”

“You don’t say.”

He chuckled, but there wasn’t real laughter evident in his voice. “He’s still here.”

“Can he get to us?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Where are we?”

“In a closet.”

“Did I pass out?”

“Yes.”

She extended her legs and they hit the wall across from her. It was then when she realized her butt was snuggled up against his groin and his muscular legs were bent. Seated between his parted thighs, Suzette glanced around. She couldn’t see a damn thing.

“How do you know he won’t find us?”

“He knows where we are,” Blaez said. “He just can’t get to us.”

Her hand fell to her side and she felt the wool underneath her fingertips. “What is this?”

“An old army blanket,” he replied. “Leave it there. He can’t get in as long as there isn’t space underneath the door.”

“Wait a minute. He can slip underneath the door?”

“Yes,” Blaez replied, his voice cold and hard.

Had she done something to piss him off? Was he disappointed in her because she’d lost consciousness?

“I don’t remember much of what happened,” she said. “Why did I pass out?”

“Maybe from shock.” His arms tightened around her waist and she could’ve sworn he was scenting her as his nose ran the length of her jaw.

“What about the others?”

“Randon and Pageant made it to another closet. I’m not sure about Blaine, Bart, Kurt, and Marcus.”

“Will they make it?”

“Kurt and Marcus will.” His grip relaxed. “We have to believe they all will.”

“At least you’re honest.”

His face was against hers then and he tilted her chin to his. She longed to see him them, wishing she could watch him as he lowered his head and kissed her for the first time. And the kiss was definitely coming. She sensed him inching closer, hovering over her mouth.