Taming Jax (First Wave Book 5) (30 page)

Jax was bristling with anger when she cut off Ritan’s rant. “Shut. Up. The last thing I need is to listen to your shit when I’m confused enough already, damn it!” Jax said to her beast as she turned and saw Reven and the kids in the doorway looking at her like she’d lost her mind.

Jax sighed. “I said that out loud didn’t I? I’m sorry. Ritan and I were having a… chat.” She said by way of an apology and excuse.

Reven just ushered the kids and Wolfen into the living room and started playing a board game from Jax’s entertainment center, with Melina, while the puppy and Bayla played together in the playpen.

Jax sat on the couch and just watched Reven and Melina play and interact. She had to admit; he was really good with kids. Now that she’d noticed it, she could easily remember how well he’d been with Grai’s son Tristan, and the orphans that he’d found.

She ignored Ritan when he yelled at her that she’d just refused to see anything good about the man. Jax wasn’t stupid; she knew that she’d been really biased against Reven the moment he told her they were mates. The thought of being bound to someone she didn’t know and really didn’t want right now, had not appealed to her at all.

The more he pushed the issue, the more she pushed back. Granted, there were times when she took it too far or had been too mean or unforgiving. But, he’d always been so damn arrogant that he seemed to egg her on. And she took the bait, every time; she thought with a sigh.

Jax watched the sexy giant teach Melina the rules of the game and there was no doubt that the gentle and patient smile on his face was genuine. He really did have a completely different personality away from the teams and their missions. It was like he had multiple personalities or something. She wondered if that was even possible with the beast in their brains.

Ritan answered her sarcastically. “No, it’s not possible for a host to have the human mental condition. Although, at times like this, I do wonder about you…”

“Fuck you asshole.” Jax replied automatically and quickly realized her mistake when Reven and Melina jerked their heads up to her. Damn it, she thought, feeling like a fool for having responded to her beast aloud again. She never did that when Reven wasn’t around.

Jax grunted in frustration. “I’m sorry… really. Ritan is… never mind.” She knew there was no way to explain it and have it make sense so there was no point.

Reven looked at her with concern, unsure if she was still feeling unwell from their night of drinking. “Maybe you can take a nap with Bayla? She’s already falling asleep.”

Jax looked to the playpen and saw Bayla’s head nodding as her eyes closed. It was kind of cute and funny to watch since the baby was still trying to sit up, and her whole body would slump and tilt with each nod of her head. The puppy was already passed out beside her.

Jax thought about it and figured Reven had things under control with Melina, and a nap wouldn’t hurt. She stood and leaned into the playpen and gently lifted the baby into her arms. Taking Bayla into her room, Jax put her in her crib and waited until she settled before heading into her own room.

She barely made it in the door before the scent of Reven’s sandalwood soap assailed her. She saw the side of the bed where he’d laid her earlier, and the comforter was still rumpled and messed. Jax couldn’t stop the memory of the feelings and emotions from flashing through her mind.

She moved to the bed and fixed the bed clothes and lit three of her lavender and vanilla candles to try and mask the scent of him that still lingered in the room. She knew that she would never be able to sleep if she didn’t.

Sitting on the opposite side of the bed, Jax pulled off her boots and her tact pants and slid under the covers in just her shirt and underwear. She took a deep breath and grinned when the only thing she could smell was the pungent lavender and vanilla of her candles.

None of it mattered. The moment she tried to relax the memories of him touching her, driving deeply inside of her, made her sit up quickly. The sudden need she felt for him overwhelmed her. She wiped a shaky hand over her face and growled low in frustration.

Unable to shake the images, Jax got back up and pulled her pants and boots back on. She needed to get out. Get some air. Beat some ass. Something, anything to get the damn man out of her head. She needed to think about things and sort through her wild emotions with a clear head and there was no way that was going to happen here.

Heading down the hall with determined strides, she was stopped short by what she saw in the living room. Wolfen snored softly in the playpen while Reven was curled on one side of the board game on the floor and Melina on the other side, both of them sleeping.

It was such a beautiful scene, one that was only missing the baby to be perfect. Jax had no idea why, but she pulled her phone out of the side pocket of her pants and took a couple of pictures.

She moved silently down the hall and took a few more of the sleeping Bayla before she went into the kitchen and wrote a brief message on the chalkboard for Reven.

Moments later, she was in her car and on her way to the headquarters building. Looking back at her house in the rear-view mirror, Jax made a silent call to some friends to make sure they would be protected while she was gone. It would only be a few hours, but she didn’t want to take a chance with their safety.

Shaking her head, she made sure to add that Reven was not to be a victim this time, but one of the protected. She never thought she’d say that except in battle, Jax thought with a grimace. Tightening her hands on the steering wheel, she punched the gas until she ended up sliding into a parking space.

She was in the hall and halfway to the training room when she was stopped by Grai striding down the hallway towards her.

“I was just going to call you and Reven. We have a location on a nest of the bastards who had the girls. I assumed you would want to be involved. Where’s Reven?” Grai asked, looking behind Jax to see if he was coming.

Jax used the information to clear her mind of all thoughts of Reven and focus on the mission. This was what she needed, she thought with a grin. Looking at Grai, she lied through her teeth and hoped he wouldn’t pick up on it.

“Reven is at home with the kids. We already agreed that I’d get first crack at them, and he gets the next. I’ll let him know we’re heading out.”

Jax was surprised she was able to say that without flinching. She had no intention of telling Reven anything until they came back. She knew damn well he would argue and fight until she was the one stuck at home with the kids while he got to go out and play with the bad guys. Not going to happen, she thought.

Grai looked at her oddly for a moment before nodding his head. “Let’s go; we're meeting in the conference room.”

Jax sighed in relief that Grai didn’t question her and followed him to the room. She ignored the surprised glances thrown her way by the assembled team, knowing most of them expected to see Reven, while she was relegated to babysitting. Fuck that, she thought.

She turned her attention to Grai when he began to speak and tried to focus her mind on the mission. And revenge. She was going to love killing every damn one of the bastards who hurt her kids.

*****

Near Houston

The strange man stood and faced the small band of recruits that he was leaving in this place for bait. Not a single bit of remorse flowed through his veins at the thought of their impending death.

They were nothing more than a means to an end. The end would be getting back that abomination and killing her like he should have done to start with.

Tamping down his irritation, he faced the dozen useful idiots in front of him. The moronic zealots had been too easy to convince of his ‘God-like’ status thanks to the Relians and their brainwashing cult.

He cleared his throat to ensure he had their attention before beginning his planned speech.

“I have been shown a vision, of what needs to be done, in order to rid this world of the blasphemous abomination that mocks our God with its existence! You must hold your ground here when they come so that one of them can be captured. The rest are to be killed however you wish, but one must be kept alive!”

He grinned evilly when they cheered. The fools had no idea they were the lambs for the slaughter. It was his own men who would ensure the capture of one and the slaughter of all others. Since so many human fools fell for the lies of the Relians, he knew he would replace these idiots soon anyway. He’d been successfully doing it for years and would continue for hundreds more.

He nodded to his men, who began pushing the kidnapped and drugged women into the room as a reward for the fools. As he walked out, he couldn’t help but smile at how easily it was to control those humans of the original bloodlines.

The ones that had not been assisted in their evolution were far too easy to pick out of a crowd and manipulate. Hell, there were large swaths of this planet populated by them. Just waiting to be manipulated. By him.

With such a mindless, soulless and unevolved army behind him, he would win this time. This time he would avenge those who thought themselves above him, and he would end them.

He laughed maniacally as the drugged women screamed in fear and pain as the animals' inside began raping and beating them for their own pleasure. Yet another problem taken care of. There wouldn’t be much left of them for the humans to identify and no evidence to lead them to him.

What the animals inside didn’t destroy, the abominations coming would in their stupidity. Before they were added to the body count. He was going to love seeing if any of them recognized their own, before they joined them in death.

Chapter Eighteen

Jax joined the others on the transport craft and sat between Grai and Niklosi. She ran through the mission plan in her mind, trying to keep her thoughts off the image in her mind of Reven sleeping with Melina on the floor.  

It was becoming harder to avoid the thoughts and pictures that flashed through her mind. All leading back to that annoying man. The problem was; he wasn’t quite as annoying anymore and the memories of his arrogance and insensitivity were quickly being replaced in her mind.

Instead, there were memories of him making them breakfast in bed or cuddling a screaming puppy who’d just lost his mother. She couldn’t help but smile at the image of him holding Bayla in his arms like he’d been born to be a father. The way he handled those kids was pretty amazing.

She’d never wanted a mate. Or a family. She’d always assumed that the other women would be her only family, and that she would die protecting them at some point. Now she was an adopted mom with a mate who she hated to admit; she was becoming very attached to.

Even now, she was fighting the urge to reach out to Reven through their new bonds. To make sure he and the kids were all right. Instead, she contacted her friends and sighed in relief when they told her that everyone was still inside the house, sleeping peacefully.

Good timing, she thought as Grai stood and spoke to everyone.

“We’re landing in thirty! Get ready!”

Jax stood with Niklosi and checked her gear and weapons. She cleared her mind of Reven and the kids, of everything but the goal of the mission.

“De-cloaking in five… four… three…” The pilot called out, giving the teams a countdown, so they could disembark in time to take out the guards surrounding the abandoned ranch.

“One! One! One!” The pilot called as everyone dropped from the ship to the ground.

Jax hit the ground running and headed to the back of the dilapidated barn as the other team members killed the guards and took up their positions.

Gunfire erupted all around and at first Jax thought that it was their teams doing the firing until the call came out through the Shengari’ that it was a trap. They were being pinned down by fire from the abandoned cornfield surrounding the ranch as well as from inside the house and barn.

Jax moved quickly into position; her original goal was to enter the barn through the back door, and it was more imperative to do it now and take out those firing on her people from inside.

She had just gotten the door opened a crack and took aim at her first target when she was grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground with such force the air left her lungs in a rush, and her head bounced sharply on the ground.

Before she could get her breath back, something heavy sat on her chest and stomach. She opened her eyes to see what it was, but the way the sun was shining behind him, she couldn’t see his face.

Jax bucked and squirmed trying to unpin her arms, so she could fight back, but the man sitting on her only laughed at her efforts.

The man grabbed her head between both of his hands, and Jax felt like her head was going to explode. Her beast, Ritan screamed in agony in her mind as the stranger’s hands seemed to reach into her skull.

Jax barely registered the man’s spittle hitting her face, and her mind struggled to process what he was saying through the fire coursing through her head.

“Tell me where they took that little bitch! Show it to me freak!” He screamed in her face as Jax tried to fight through the pain in her head. The bombardment of destructive energy was setting her brain on fire.

Her body convulsed as her mind began scrolling through her memories against her will. Jax screamed in fear when the images of Melina, Bayla and Reven began to appear in her mind. She struggled harder, trying to stop the images from being pulled from her mind by the energy coming from the man.

He only laughed harder when Ritan was cut off in mid-scream, and Jax could feel her consciousness slipping away from her. She fought the pain and the fear for her family, struggling one last time to stop the man from taking her memories and the location of her family from her mind.

She fought as hard as she could, the pain like shards of glass penetrating her brain as the man above her growled in anger at her efforts. She wasn’t strong enough to keep fighting, and she knew it.

Jax felt herself slipping away and knew that she wasn’t going to make it. The rapid gunfire around her, told her that the teams wouldn’t get to her in time.

She remembered what Reven had told her earlier. About how things you learned in the past could one day save your life, and she realized what she needed to do. To protect her children and her mate. The people she loved more than life.

She gathered every remnant of energy and strength she could muster and with one last effort, sent it towards the energy of the man holding her. She knew she’d won when the images in her mind began collapsing and disappearing.

Jax pulled on every bit of energy left in her body and soul, and she looked up into the dark face; she couldn’t see and smiled. She mouthed the words, “Fuck you," before her lungs collapsed and the searing heat in her head caused the darkness to take her.

*****

Reven woke from sleep with his heart pounding in fear. In seconds, he was racing down the hallway to Jax’s bedroom and stopped short when he saw the room was empty. Fear overtook him as Bayla began to scream.

He ran to her room and saw her standing in her crib with her arms out in front of her to be held as tears streamed down her face. He picked her up and checked to make sure she was all right before heading into the kitchen.

Melina was in there, crying softly as she looked at the chalkboard in the kitchen and the note Jax had left for them. Reven felt such an overwhelming sense of pain and loss that he bent at the waist and took gulping breaths to calm himself.

“She’s gone. The bad man killed her.” Melina whispered quietly before she broke down in hysterical tears.

Reven pulled the girl into his arms to try to comfort her as he screamed through the Shengari’ to his mate. The empty silence that followed shattered his soul and left him gasping for air that he couldn’t seem to pull into his lungs.

“No!” Reven said as he squeezed the crying girls tightly.

Reven called out through the Shengari’ to anyone who would answer as he grabbed his keys and carried the children out to the SUV. His heart constricted in pain when he saw that Jax’s car was gone from the driveway.

He had the kids in the car and was heading to Headquarters when the images and answers started coming at him through the Shengari’. The children cried harder as he slammed on the gas and fishtailed into the parking lot.

They’d found her, behind a barn. She wasn’t breathing and blood was coming from her eyes, ears and mouth. Thinking of the time it would take to walk the parking lot, Reven said ‘fuck it’ and drove onto the sidewalk and pulled up in front of the door to the building.

He was met outside by several team members who hadn’t gone on the mission, and they helped him get the kids out of the car. He picked up Melina in his arms and felt her fear and pain and tried to ease the intense sadness the girl was feeling.

“Do not discount her stubbornness. Our Jax will always surprise you.” Reven said, hoping that he was right.

He couldn’t lose her. Not when he’d finally started to get through to her. She wasn’t getting out of this mating that easily. He’d bully her back to them if he had to, Reven thought as he put Bayla on his other hip and carried both of the girls into the building.  

“Where is she?” Reven asked Discorian as he strode beside him.

“She’s in transit. Grai has it set up to port her from the transport to MedLab One.” Disc said, trying to mask the sadness they all felt at the thought of losing Jax. The little fireball was an amazing fighter and an even better friend, and her potential loss was rippling through them all.

Reven ignored the whispering of those in the hallway until he couldn’t take it anymore, and he roared out with rage. “She’s not dead! Shut the fuck up in front of our kids!”

Disc put a hand on Reven’s shoulder. “Reven, they’re whispering about them.” Disc said and nodded to the front windows; they were walking past.

Reven turned stunned eyes to the windows and watched in awe as the animals lined up in rows. From the largest bear, to a family of rabbits, animals were coming out of the woods by the dozens and lining up outside of the building as the transport craft docked.

Melina looked up at Reven with watery eyes. “Bayla says they know that she is hurt. They are coming to lend their energy to help her. If they can… Don’t let anyone hurt them. Please… she wouldn’t want that…” Melina whispered through her tears as Bayla continued to cry softly against Reven’s shoulder.

Reven screamed the order through the Shengari’ that not one animal or insect anywhere near the building was to be harmed, or they would face his wrath. Without a backward glance at the stunned people in the hallway, he continued to MedLab One. The elite, major trauma center of the facility, near the docking bay.

The area outside of the room was packed with team members with various injuries, and med techs were wandering among them trying to triage the worst.

Once they saw him, everyone seemed to part, leaving a clear path between them to the door of the MedLab. Without breaking his stride, Reven slammed into the MedLab door, determined to walk out later with his mate.

He was stopped immediately by Grai, who tried to keep him away from the bed which was hidden from his view by Amun and half a dozen med techs.

“Reven…” Grai began before Reven turned and kicked him into the wall behind him.

That, of course, got everyone’s attention and Decano and Disc tried to calm Reven while Grai regained his feet.

Undaunted, Grai raised his hands in front of him and tried again to reason with Reven. “Man, I know how you feel. But the kids don’t need to see this. Think about that, Reven. They are just children. You need to calm yourself and let Amun and his team work on Jax, while you get the kids out of here.”

Reven looked to his left and right and saw that Grai, Disc and Decano had attempted to block him in and keep him from his mate. That was not acceptable to him. Or Melina and Bayla.

The commotion from outside was equal to, if not greater than the screams going through the Shengari’ and Decano and Disc looked uncertainly at Grai, who growled low in frustration. The situation was getting out of control; Grai thought, as he turned to Reven again.

Reven turned ice-blue eyes to Grai. “Get the hell away from my mate and my children. You have no idea what is best for my family.”

Grai’s heart was breaking for the man, and he prayed Ivint and his mate Sacara would arrive from the Adaria quickly. Until then, he needed some calm, and he tried to reason with him again.

“Reven, listen to me. They let the tiger out. He’s scaring the hell out of our people. You can hear them. We can’t have him scaring or eating the humans. And the other animals are invading the building. Let someone take the kids outside, please.” Grai asked, his hands still raised.