12. Chapter 12

It was a glorious, quiet week. He and Gaelynn talked and laughed into the night about anything and everything. Talking to her was easy. Being with her made his mind race a bit slower.

Being buried in her stopped time altogether.

With every call Zeus made to check in, he spoke more. His boss noticed, but only mentioned it once. They were making progress, working their way up the ranks of The Level.

One of the henchman took the River shaped bait, and broke in minutes. They were now tracking upper management, and should have the name of the big boss soon.

One problem mostly down, two to go.

Matthew Sonjour was easy. The location of his compound wasn’t secret. They needed to check with Normals government contacts to see if anyone would be upset at his sudden disappearance, but he doubted it would be a problem.

No one liked a cult leader.

Garrick was trickier, but Behemoth knew that with the entire team working on it, they’d bring him down.

The only thing hard right then was the waiting. He felt like they existed in a bubble, and at any moment, reality would come crashing in.

He liked his job. He enjoyed helping people, but from the number of times she’d brought up the subject, he could tell Gaelynn wasn’t keen on the crazy hours or him having to be on call all the time.

It was something they’d need to talk about when everything was more settled.

He grinned. He couldn’t help but smile when he thought about the future, sure Gaelynn would be in it.

He was deep sitting on the couch, his feet kicked up on the coffee table, the laptop on his thighs showing the view from four exterior cameras. Gaelynn was curled up next to him, her feet tucked behind his back.

He would never understand the physics of her body temperature. She was like a heater everywhere except her feet. They were usually ice cold, and it took forever to warm them up, even when they were pressed against his skin.

He would never complain, even when she delighted in his hiss of pain every time she slid them against him.

He monitored the camera feeds while she read. They fell into a comfortable routine, spending each morning like this. Her nose buried in her phone, him watching her more than the images on his screen.

A flash of red caught the corner of his eye. He focused on the lower right square—the camera at the rear of the property. The same pine trees he’d seen the previous seven days stood in the same spots. Then it came again. The barest flash of red, like a perimeter alarm had been tripped and then cut.

He lowered his feet to the floor. “Gaelynn, go down to our room and lock yourself in. Don’t open the door for anyone but me.”

She sat straight up, eyes wide, and locked on his face. “What’s happening?”

He patted her calf without looking over. “I’m not sure, but the underground levels are secure and I want you there while I investigate.”

“Okay.” She nodded and gathered her things. He followed as she put her coffee cup in the sink. She turned as she entered the hidden elevator. “Be careful.”

He leaned in and gave her a sweet, lingering kiss. “Always.”

He could see the worry in her eyes, so he smiled for her as the elevator door slid closed. He shut the concealing pantry door with a click. It didn’t take long to pull on socks and boots, grab a rifle, and put a holstered Glock around his waist.

He settled a flannel over his shoulder, obscuring the weapons. He refilled his coffee and moved back to the couch, arranging himself in a casual pose. Another flash of red, this time the upper left square, signaling someone moving through the side of the property.

Now he knew at least two were advancing on the house, because this one didn’t cut the silent alarm. He kept watching, feigning ignorance that anything was happening outside. He picked up the phone and sent a text to Zeus.

At least two tangos approaching. Would appreciate backup if anyone’s around.

The response was almost immediate.

On our way. Have you identified them?

Negative. They’re ghosts on the cameras, but the perimeter sensors picked them up.

Copy. ETA five minutes.

Five minutes. He just needed to hold them off and keep Gaelynn safe for five minutes. If it was goons from The Level or Garrick, it would be more difficult than if Matthew Sonjour had somehow found them.

He needed to know what he was dealing with. He stood and made his way to the kitchen, moving out of view of the windows. As soon as he was out of sight, he set his coffee mug on the counter and slipped into the garage.

Cracking the side door, he swept the tree line for movement. The triggered alarms were on the other side and back of the house, but he needed to be sure there weren’t more of them out there.

After several seconds seeing nothing but squirrels, he eased out the door. Keeping flush against the house, he crept to the corner and took a quick, assessing look into the backyard.

It was long enough to spot the two mercenaries advancing in a perpendicular pattern. They were kitted in tactical gear, rifles up and sweeping.

Professionals.

Not Matthew, then. He sent another text to Zeus.

Mercs with gear. Eyes on two, but there has to be more.

Copy. Hitting the gas. New ETA: two minutes.

He swung back and sprinted into the tree line, making his way deep into the forest before swinging in a wide arc and coming up to flank them. He spotted three more, moving almost as silently through the dense undergrowth.

He updated Zeus.

Five total tangos.

He fell into rhythm with the last man, ducking behind trees when he turned to check their six. They were good, but they weren’t Society good. He closed the gap and twisted the man’s neck before he knew Behemoth was there.

Four.

He caught the man and carried him behind a pine, setting the body against the trunk where it wouldn’t be seen if any of the others cared to look.

They were moving steadily, following standard breaching protocol.

Coming in from the front.

They’re bunched up just beyond the deck.

Copy. Three prong rush in five…

Behemoth finished the silent count in his head, stepping out when he reached one at the same time as Zeus and Ghost came around opposite sides of the house. They fired simultaneously, three of the mercs falling in dead heaps.

The last spun, his weapon at the ready, and before Zeus or Ghost could drop him, Behemoth yelled out, “Alive!”

He needed to find out who sent them, and you couldn’t question a dead man. At least—not easily.

Gaelynn lasted all of five seconds sitting on the bed before nerves sent her pacing the small space between the door and the bathroom. Being two floors underground meant she wouldn’t hear anything happening on the main level. She didn’t have a book, or a laptop, and even if she did, Bull wired the house so the basement levels were basically Faraday cages.

On the next pass, her eyes scanned the space. The only thing she could remotely use as a weapon were the bedside lamps, and they looked too light to do any actual damage. Why hadn’t she asked Behemoth for a weapon?

Why hadn’t she learned to shoot a gun? Because you’ve been deathly afraid of guns since Elliot waved one in your face? Shut up, logic. She didn’t want to hear it right then. When Behemoth came to get her, she would ask him to teach her.

He’d already taught her so much. What was one more thing?

She snorted to herself. Those lesson plans were worlds apart.

Just thinking about him flooded her undies. He could be in danger up there and here she was being a horn dog. She knew he was downplaying whatever he saw that made him send her underground.

How long had it been? An hour? Two? She checked her phone. Twenty minutes? That couldn’t be right. Maybe being underground affected the clock.

She flopped back on the bed and opened her reading app. Her eyes refused to focus and after starting the same sentence four times, she gave up.

What if he was hurt and needed help? She got as far as putting her hand on the doorknob twice, but backed away both times. He told her to stay put until he came to get her. She could make it worse if she went up there.

Besides, he turned into an actual fucking grizzly bear. Surely he’d be fine.

She needed to remember to ask him what sorts of things affected shifters. Was he vulnerable to the same things normal humans and bears were? Her pacing felt like sprints as her heart sped up. If he got shot or otherwise gravely injured while working, could she lose him?

Why did that make it so hard to breathe? She sat on the edge of the bed and put her head between her knees, but the image of him on the ground, covered in blood, seared into the back of her retinas.

A few days ago, she’d been ready to walk away from him, and now the thought of losing him made her feel like the world was crumbling. A tiny voice in the back of her mind whispered that she was already hopelessly in love with him.

That was ridiculous. She might be falling in love with him, lust, absolutely. She tossed her head.

But love him already? Absurd.

It was too fast to be in love. Wasn’t it?

She felt the blood drain from her face as she fell back on the bed. Shit. She was in love with him. There was no “falling” about it. The fall had happened and she was lying at the bottom of lovesick cliff. That’s what that was—the crushing feeling in her chest at the thought she might lose him. The way her entire being lit up at the very thought of him. The way he could ruin her underwear with a single look.

The way he’d ruined her for anyone else.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

She was his mate. He’d already said he loved her many times. He never pressured her to say it back, and she’d felt like it would take a lot longer for her to utter those three words.

Now she felt like if he didn’t walk through the door in the next ten seconds so she could blurt it at him she’d explode.

She was so keyed up when he opened the door, she screamed.

His lips quirked in a lopsided smirk. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I love you!”

He froze, not even blinking and she groaned. She’d done it again. Blurted out something that should have been executed with more nuance. Apparently subtle was not her default setting.

She heaved in a breath as they stared at each other. Before she exhaled, she was in his arms, his lips crashed onto hers. They tore at each other’s clothes, both of them desperate for each other in a way she hadn’t felt.

There was no long leadup, no gentle coaxing of each other. As soon as they were naked he caged her on the bed, his huge frame moving over her as he pushed inside. He groaned in her ear.

“So wet for me.”

She whimpered and grabbed his ass with both hands, feeling the hard muscles flex beneath her fingers. He didn’t need to be encouraged. He set a punishing pace, slamming into her over and over. Pleasure spun up inside her. He tilted his hips, changing the angle and hitting her just right and she exploded. She gasped his name, too overcome for anything else.

He followed her over the precipice, seating himself to the hilt. She gasped as sharp pain exploded in her shoulder, in that place where her neck curved that he seemed to love so well.

Another orgasm hit her, stronger than the last, as emotions flooded her system. Instinctively, she knew they weren’t her own. His head raised above her and she stared wide eyed as his face went from an elongated shape to the more human form she was familiar with.

“What just happened?” A spike of fear coursed through her, and she shook her head to clear it.

“I bit you. I marked you as mine. I should have asked first. We should have talked about it, but I couldn’t stop.” He shook his head. “I’m not sorry. I love you, and you said…”

He stared at the wall and she watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed.

Fierce determination. That’s what she felt in that moment. “I said I loved you,” she finished for him, as understanding dawned. He’d linked them together. It was his emotions she felt underlying her own.

He nodded and grunted, and she knew his throat was too shut with emotion for words. She knew because she could feel it.

“Fuck. I didn’t stop for a condom.”

“It’s okay. I’m clean, and I’m on the pill.”

He smiled. “Shifters don’t get the same diseases as humans.”

He started to pull out, but she wrapped her ankles around his back and yanked him back in with her heels. She felt his pleasure under hers, bolstering it, taking it to new heights. She shuddered, already on the edge of another orgasm and he’d barely moved.

“Holy shit. Will it always be like this?”

“Like what?”

“Like…” she felt him flex inside her and moaned. “Like a pleasure feedback loop.”

“What do you mean?”

Her eyes flew to his. “Wait, you can’t feel it? Me? You can’t feel what I’m feeling?”

He shook his head. “No. You mean, like sensations?” He thrust again. “You’re sensing how it feels from my end?”

“Sort of. It’s more emotions, I think.”

He actually pouted and it sent her into peals of laughter. “The gods probably knew if they didn’t give some kind of perk, nobody in their right mind would agree to having actual fangs sunk into their flesh.”

“I’m still not sorry.” Those were the words he spoke as he ran a fingertip around the marks left by his fangs. He wet a washcloth and gently dabbed at the punctures, cleaning the wound. They needed to head upstairs soon. He needed the first aid kit, not to mention there was still a merc tied up in the living room.

He’d let the others deal with starting the interrogation. He needed to see Gaelynn with his own eyes. Ensure she was safe.

Her words swept every thought from his brain. The only one that survived was the one that screamed at him to take her, mark her, make her his for all to see.

“We need to head upstairs.” He was reluctant to let go of her, but he needed to bandage those punctures.

As he backed away, something in his chest tugged and snapped and a giddy love poured over him. He grinned and nuzzled in her neck, and arousal hit him like a freight train.

“I guess it took a minute for the mate bond to hit me. I feel what you mean now.”

It was Gaelynn’s turn to pout, but he kissed it away. “It’s a good thing. It means that no matter where you are, I’ll be able to feel what you’re feeling.”

“Not sure how much of a good thing that’ll be when I’m pissed at you. I might want to stay mad longer than I actually am, and you’ll know.”

“I promise to pretend you’re still mad.” He chuckled and swatted her butt. “Now get dressed.”

There wasn’t a proper interrogation room in the safe house, so Zeus and Ghost had their guest tied to a chair in the living room. He tested the restraints with only a spare grunt or two while Behemoth’s teammates held a casual conversation over coffee in the kitchen.

Gaelynn’s eyes went wide and darted between the tied up merc and Zeus. “Are you just going to leave him there? What if he manages to get loose?”

“He won’t.” Ghost answered with an evil smile. “Besides, we’ve already told him we’ll drop him wherever he wants as soon as he answers our questions.

“Fuck you!”

“You’re not my type.” Ghost grinned at him and winked.

Behemoth was pretty sure anything with a hole was his type, but he kept his mouth shut.

Gaelynn turned her wide eyes to him. “This is crazy, you know that, right? Normal people don’t keep men tied up in their living rooms.”

The three present Supe Sec members shared a glance and then shrugged in perfect synchrony. It might not be normal in other circles, but for them, it was just another Tuesday. Or was it Thursday? He’d lost track of time.

The front door slammed open, and a breathless River ran into the room. She slowed and took a deep breath when she saw the restrained man in the recliner. “Oh good, I thought y’all might start without me.”

Ghost shivered dramatically. “Never met a female as bloodthirsty as that one.”

“You’re just jealous because I have better knife skills than you do.” She tossed her ponytail over her shoulder.

Ghost nodded. “That’s true. I am definitely jealous of your knife skills. They’re impressive to watch.” He paused and stared at the prisoner. “I can’t wait.”

Gaelynn leaned into his chest and whispered, “This is all for effect, right? Get the guy so scared he’ll talk?”

Behemoth shrugged. “Sometimes that works. Sometimes she gets to show off her admittedly impressive knife skills.”

“Whispering is rude.” River grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and addressed Gaelynn. “And when did you learn ventriloquism? I would have sworn that was Bee talking, but it was too long of a sentence for him.”

Behemoth grunted and Gaelynn grinned.

“That grunt meant that he uses his words more with me. Sorry guys, you still get mostly grunts.”

Behemoth picked up his mate and set her gently on the counter. He pulled out a small first aid kit kept above the sink and opened her soft cardigan until it fell around her elbows. The camisole she wore underneath had tiny straps and he flicked it off her shoulder to expose the entire bite wound.

Ghost and River both shouted, “Holy shit!”

Zeus chuckled like he knew it was only a matter of time. He probably did. He always seemed to know what was happening with one of his team members before they even figured it out.

Fated mates were still a new enough thing that no one on the team had ever met more than one. After Titan mated Virginia, the hope that the fates were taking pity on shifters and allowing them to find the one person who would make them whole was high, but cautious.

With visual proof of Behemoth’s fated mate on the kitchen counter, that hope skyrocketed.

River’s voice was full of awe as she said, “So it’s true, shifters are finding their fated mates.”

Zeus flicked his eyes at Ghost. “More true than you know.”

Behemoth met his eyes, but a quick shake of his head warned him off saying anything. Everyone else knew Ghost had already met his mate, but Ghost wasn’t ready to face it.

Terror can make you deny a lot of things.

He’d come around, in his own time.

River’s face lit up before she produced a knife from thin air. She pointed it at their guest. “Let’s get on with this, then. I’ve got a mate to hunt!”

The merc hissed and doubled his efforts to get out, which only tightened the bindings. Behemoth didn’t know where Ghost learned his knot skills, but when he handled the restraints it was like being in a Chinese finger trap. The more you struggled, the worse it got.

By the look on the merc’s face, he was just figuring that out.

Behemoth didn’t bother watching as Zeus, Ghost and River moved into the living room and stood over the man. River was tapping the flat of the blade against her lips. She hummed. “Where should we start? Fingernails are so cliche. I’m not going near this guy’s feet—sorry, but you don’t look like you practice the best hygiene. Ears bleed so much the cleanup’s a bitch.”

They fell silent for a bit before she and Ghost shared a cartoonish look. You could almost see the light bulb over their heads. Together they declared, “Eyeballs!”

Zeus nodded along. “Eyeballs. You can pop one with minimal mess. Doesn’t affect the ability to get answers like slicing into the tongue.”

River nodded. “Right. Bee, get over here and hold his head still.”