CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

M other fucking fuck.

Of all the people on the planet, Ari had to meet Sage.

Who worked at goddamn BioZen?

As a fucking scientist.

Sage hadn’t given him the name of the company, but it had only taken one call to his tech team, and they’d confirmed it. Ari felt like a fucking fool for not connecting the dots, but when she’d mentioned the secret project team she could be joining if she got the promotion, a lightbulb had gone off. Well, that, and when she mentioned vampires.

And wanting to be bitten.

Fucking hell, he’d nearly sunk into her neck and her pussy in one swoop.

It hadn’t taken much for his team to do a background check and find out who she was. Their access into BioZen’s systems was limited, but they had found her HR file: Sage Roberts, laboratory assistant.

So, she hadn’t lied to him about anything.

Ari was pretty sure Sage was about to step into enemy territory. The promotion was for a department called Project Callan, which was so locked down and impenetrable even his team couldn’t smash the walls. It didn’t take a mathematician to put these two equations together and get Mother fucking fuck.

Ari had promised to call Sage, but it was now Monday, and he still had no idea what to do about this.

Her file indicated she was the top contender for one of the three positions, so Ari was confident she would be notified in the coming days she had the job.

Sage would be thrilled.

He knew enough about her now to know she would be celebrating the new job and give her roommate notice. How would she feel about what she learned they were doing in this project team?

Sage had expressed excitement about vampires, but Ari knew the difference between a female who had a vampire fetish—she wasn’t the first he’d met—and a scientist with a curious mind for discovery.

No matter which way he looked at it, in a few days, Sage would be working in the department doing experiments on vampires.

Fury simmered in his veins.

He shouldn’t care. She was just a female he’d been fucking. Nothing more.

Yeah, right.

He was already far too emotionally involved with the human than he should be. And fucking hell, he’d nearly bitten her. It was no big deal—it wasn’t like doing so would change her or make her his mate. It didn’t work like that. But getting the taste of her on his lips was dangerous because Ari knew he’d want more.

Everything about Sage made him want her more.

Fuck!

Now he was about to find out who she really was. Fictional vampires might excite her, but when she faced running experiments on a living one, how would she feel?

It was killing him to know the answer.

The reason he hadn’t acted yet was because he knew his relationship posed an opportunity he was struggling to accept. Sage was now an asset. An opportunity to get inside BioZen and destroy this entire operation. They could use her to further their information and gain access to BioZen’s systems at the very least.

Ari ran his hand through his hair as he paced the floor in his living room.

There was no question here. He had to do this. If any of his vampires had this information and didn’t share it with him, he’d bust their fucking ass. Still, it meant putting Sage in potential danger and even though he was yet to learn where she sat ethically with this project, he would never let anyone harm her.

Ari knew his feelings toward her were unusual, but he refused to read into it. He’d been down that track before. Yet, when Sage had shown her feelings of Oliver at that restaurant, he’d literally lost control, smashing the wine glass.

Ari was an ancient vampire. He didn’t lose control.

He was control.

Now, instead of possessing the sexy little female, he had to be patient and let things unfold this week. Once they knew her position on the BioZen experiments, Ari would decide what to do with her.

Because if Sage chose to take part in them, she then became his enemy. If she was, she and all of them would die.

Fuck.

Ari thrust his hand through his hair and growled loudly. He’d already punched two holes in his walls, so was trying to keep from needing more repair work.

Yeah, he knew he was ignoring the signs.

Ari had given up hope of ever having a mate, and while he was trying to keep his head straight, his response to Sage was powerful even he had to admit there was a possibility.

There would be no way he could kill his mate.

Could he simply take her now and turn her? Sure. Would he? No.

Sage was an asset first and foremost, until he knew for sure she was his mate. That would take for his eyes to show the vampire black ring around his iris.

Plus, he wanted to see what Sage chose. It was the only way he would ever know the truth. He’d long ago stopped trusting blind instinct when it came to deciphering another’s set of morals.

Words meant nothing.

Actions told you everything.

Ari ran a hand through his hair again. God, he wanted to know what Sage thought. Would she comfortably lay him out on a table and stick chemicals in him to discover how he worked? Or would she walk away from the job, unable to stomach it?

She’s a fucking scientist, moron, of course she’d do it.

“Sir,” Matteo said in greeting after knocking. Ari turned and the man’s smile faded. “What’s wrong?”

Ari shook his head.

If there was anyone he could talk to, from a personal standpoint, it would be Matteo. The man was seven hundred years old and had worked for him for over two hundred of those years.

Matteo knew everything. Well, most things.

He was more than just an employee who took care of him, from his wardrobe to serving his meals. Back in the last century his title was man servant, or rather vampire servant, but they’d never bothered with titles. Matteo simply assisted Ari with life shit while he was busy catching the bad guys.

Washing his briefs was the last fucking thing he needed to worry about when things were getting ugly. Plus, Matteo seemed to be able to pack a suitcase like a goddamn magician and never forget a thing.

Every time Ari waved him off and did it himself, he’d have to buy a goddamn toothbrush and pair of socks. Fifteen hundred years and he could fight any male on this planet to the death and he couldn’t pack a fucking toothbrush.

“I find myself in a pickle, Matteo,” Ari said, planting his big body in an armchair while the vampire shut the door.

“Do we need the Macallan?” Matteo asked, raising a brow.

Ari smiled and shook his head. “No. I’m not sure it’s going to fix this one.”

Matteo sat on the end of the sofa nearby and crossed his legs. He was a tall vampire, slim compared to the warriors within the mansion, and very discreet. He was an unmated vampire and seemed to be more at peace with it than Ari.

“It’s a female,” Matteo said, surprising Ari.

Ari’s gaze flew to his. “Why do you say that?”

Matteo shrugged, and a small smile hit his lips. “They are always the most complicated, I have observed.”

Ari decided to share his feelings and inner thoughts. It wasn’t something he did often, but he needed to talk.

“Her name is Sage. She could be our enemy, but my body aches for her in ways I’ve never felt before,” he said. “I don’t want to assume anything here, Matteo, but if she is my mate, this is a bad situation.”

Matteo’s brows rose.

“What?” Ari asked, frowning.

“Is this the female you shared with young Oliver recently?”

Ari nodded.

“He had a taste, that was all. I found myself unable to let it proceed.” He glanced down into the fire roaring in front of him.

“That does raise some questions, sir.” Matteo nodded. “You are right to be considering her.”

“It gets even more complicated. I’ve just discovered she works for BioZen.” He rubbed the scruff on his face.

“Oh, dear,” Matteo replied, his English accent from centuries past creeping to the surface.

“Yeah.”

“You will know in time. When will you see her again?” Matteo asked.

“I have no plans. I’m terrified I’ll change her or kidnap the poor girl,” Ari said. “I want to protect her and shake her demanding answers.”

They both sat staring at the fire. Ari wasn’t expecting Matteo to solve his problem. Just his steady presence as he talked was soothing.

“When is the prince arriving?” he asked.

“I’m not sure. Shall I call Travis?” Matteo asked, referring to his team manager.

“No need. I’ll telepath.”

Trav—when are our Moretti guests arriving?

He’d left it with his team to co-ordinate with the royals on their arrival and requirements while in Seattle.

They will be here in about an hour.

Okay, get the team together in the logistics room in ten.

Yes, sir.

He turned his eyes back to Matteo. “Is the mansion prepared, and all employees briefed?”

He had no doubt, but as the director of The Institute, it was his job to ask these questions and make sure everything was as it should be. While he was looking forward to hosting the royal, the work they did for private clients around the world needed to remain highly confidential.

Matteo nodded, then pressed his lips together in a small smile.

“Speak your mind,” Ari said.

“I am happy, sir, that’s all. You have always spoken affectionately of the prince.”

It was true. Brayden and Vincent were his nephews, but Brayden had been a true soldier who had won his heart. As a little prince Brayden chased after him with his wooden sword desperate to train. Ari had taken great pleasure in playing with the young prince, knowing it would serve him when he got a real sword of his own, but also enjoying time with his relative.

Not that the prince had known Ari was his uncle.

Brayden had been cheeky but skilled, even as a little ankle kicker—which he used to his advantage. He had fond memories of them wandering fields after training and talking about the old days. As the prince grew, his playful nature remained, and he attracted a lot of females.

Yes, Brayden was a playboy, but he was also strong and dominant. More so than any other vampire Ari had ever trained. Including his father and brother.

Stronger than Ari? No.

His blood was pure Moretti. No one, since Gio had passed, was stronger than Ari Moretti.

Now he was hoping to mend the broken tie with Brayden. Four hundred years was a long time to disappear from his nephew’s life. He’d had good reason, but no living soul could truly understand what he’d suffered. Especially Brayden who Ari knew he’d hurt.

ARI STEPPED INTO THE logistics room, looking around at his senior team of assassins. Most people would crap their pants—even if they believed them to be human—if they knew what these predators were capable of.

Most were heavily tatted up and cut like the deadly warriors they were. Their heights and weights differed, but all of them were fast, powerful and wouldn’t hesitate to take the shot.

He knew that for sure, because he’d trained each and every one of them, and hand-selected them for this team.

Travis, assassin and team manager, was responsible for a lot of organizing, which was akin to herding cats, poor guy. Oliver was his head assassin and second in charge.

The vampire gave him a quick nod, which he returned as he took his seat at the head of the table. He pushed the seat back to prop his ankle on his knee.

The room hushed.

He’d have to speak with Oliver soon. The guy deserved to know why he’d dismissed him. Ari just didn’t have an answer for him.

Yet.

“’Sup boss,” Jason asked.

In total, he had thirty highly trained and deadly assassins. On his senior team, in addition to Oliver and Travis, were the four team leaders: Jason, Alex, Logan and Elijah.

At any point in time, his assassins were out doing jobs around the world, so it was rare they were all here at The Institute at the same time. Still, the mansion was a bustling hive of other staff from housekeeping, tech teams, chefs and kitchen staff, admin vamps, and so on.

He also had engineers, mechanics and weaponry experts keeping their equipment top notch, pilots and air crew all located here and around the world.

Most were vampires, with a few humans for jobs they needed done in daylight. The latter were completely unaware who they worked for.

Ari pushed a few buttons on the panel in front of him and the lights dimmed, and a screen fell from the ceiling.

“Prince Moretti will be here within the hour,” he said, and a bunch of heads nodded. “And as you know, joining him is the commander of the royal army, Craig.”

“Big fucker,” Oliver said.

Ari nodded without turning. Oliver was right, Craig was a big vampire. And powerful from what Ben had told him. He had questions about that, which he’d ask the prince one day.

“I’ve met him,” Alex said, smirking. “He won’t remember me though. Well, he might remember my cock.”

Ari glanced up as the others gaped at Alex. “Explain.”

“I attended one of the prince’s infamous orgies when I was traveling to England a few centuries back,” Alex said, “Don’t ask me how I got an invitation, but I slipped in, and it was... yeah, fucking hot.”

Jason whistled. “Fuck man, you never told us that. I want details.”

“Later,” Ari said, remembering those days well. “Let’s stay on topic.” Then he added, “And please tell me I don’t have to—”

Alex smirked. “I won’t say anything. Unless he does.”

“You know he’s mated now, right?” Logan asked.

“To that gorgeous redhead? Yeah, the entire vampire race knows who Brianna is,” Alex answered.

“Yeah, don’t fucking mention that or you will no longer have a cock,” Ari said, shaking his head.

“He can try.”

Ari dropped his hands. “Listen, I’ve trained you all to be arrogant assholes for a reason. You are the best,” he said. “But there are a few other vampires who are stronger and faster in the world, and you are all about to meet them. So put your cocks back in your panties, boys, and don’t piss them off.”

He held their eyes firmly.

The last thing he needed was his team upsetting Craig or Brayden. They deserved respect.

“Not to mention Brayden is your prince and Craig is the goddamn commander.” It was a role Ari had held for centuries. “So, you will give them the same respect you give me.”

“Got it,” Elijah said.

“Now, on that. Just a reminder, the majority of the work we do at The Institute is for private clients. While we’re collaborating with the royals to flesh out the BioZen criminals, we need to ensure our clients’ information remains classified. Our other objective is to find the...” He hated using the term, but they had no name for the vampire. “First test subject.”

Cue the angry mutters.

Ari pointed to the screen and their heads turned. It was a photo of a plane on a runway.

“Talk to me about this,” he ordered.

“We found Tomassi’s plane,” Oliver said, referring to Xander Tomassi, the BioZen pharmaceutical executive they had tried to capture when he slipped through Ben and Oli’s fingers in Italy.

“Location?”

“Baltimore,” Oliver said. “We’re tracking his movements but keep hitting roadblocks. Dude has the money to stay hidden. It’s making it difficult.”

“He knows we’re onto him,” Alex said.

Yeah, but they weren’t. Fuck it. They needed to get inside the pharmaceutical company and destroy the labs, the data, and any trace of vampire experimentation.

And the assholes involved.

The problem was the company was a huge global operation, and the labs seemed to pop up and disappear all the time. They’d also been unsuccessful for months in finding the first vampire who’d been taken.

And all of them were feeling the pressure and emotions around that.

Knowing one of their kind was being tortured and fuck knows what else didn’t sit right with any of them. Especially when they had the ability to help.

The royal army had destroyed the lab in Italy with the help of some human intervention, which Ari still wasn’t completely clear on. The king, Vincent Moretti, had powerful connections which he and Gio had forged right from the beginning and seemed to be long lasting—even if it was handed from leader to leader or down through a bloodline.

Ari was hoping the king would loop him in more on Operation Daylight. The team forged to evolve vampires into human society, but so far, Vincent had kept a lot of the details to himself. As was his right.

Still, war was Ari’s forte, not politics.

Frustrations aside, he knew they had the technology, resources, and determination to beat these evil fuckers. It was just a matter of time.

Time being the issue.

They didn’t know what BioZen was up to, but it wouldn’t be good. Ari knew now the humans had got a lot of information from the now deceased rebel leader Stefano Russo and that gave them a really good head start.

Meanwhile, life had dropped a cruel gem in his lap.

His little stellina.

Ari knew he had to share this intel with his team. And now. His molars ground and fangs threatened to spring out of his flesh, and he ran his hand over his jaw.

He turned to face the room.

“Oliver and I met a woman recently. Sage Roberts.” Ari glanced at the head assassin who blinked, giving himself away.

He tried not to resent Oliver for enjoying his time with Sage, but he did.

Sex was a big part of a vampire’s life. They fucked freely until they mated. From time-to-time, vampires chose to commit to one sexual partner, but it wasn’t common.

What was common was for the males in this room to share females and have group sex. They had little time between assignments, so if they hit the bars and found one or two they liked, then everyone was invited.

Ari glanced down at the table, imagining Sage sprawled out, her cream flesh ready and willing to be pleasured by all the males in this room. His fists clenched even while his pants tightened.

He wanted to please her, while keeping her to himself.

You know. So nobody died.

“Was she delicious?” Jason asked.

“Very.” Oliver smirked. “Not quite virginal, but inexperienced enough to be tight and—”

“That’s not where I’m going with this.” Ari growled, his pants tightening further. “We’ve discovered that Sage works for BioZen.”

“Jesus, really?” Oliver said, his eyes widening. “Oh, crap, the fucking lab coat.”

Alex whistled. “She wore a lab coat while you fucked her. That’s hot.” Alex shifted in his seat.

God’s sakes.

“Sage was not wearing... look, she works for Tomassi’s company as a lab assistant. The tech team is monitoring her accounts and email. Alex, I want you and two of your team on her tail. For now, we keep an eye on her.”

“What do you think she knows?” Oliver asked.

“She’s up for a promotion. In a top-secret division. I’m sure you can all work that out,” Ari answered.

Oliver cursed.

“So we track her,” Oliver said, nodding. “This is actually perfect. We put a tracker on her and now we can get inside the organization.”

Ari had known this would be the next step. He just didn’t know how he felt about it.

Yes, he did.

He fucking hated it.

Tracking Sage would entail putting a chip just under her skin so they could follow and hear everything in her world.

“Correct. Sage Roberts is now an asset. We need to do what’s necessary to access systems inside BioZen,” Ari said, clenching his jaw.

Jesus.

He had no solid proof she was his mate, and the fact he wanted to teleport into her bedroom and take her in his arms, burying deep inside her, likely meant nothing.

Zip.

Nada.

Nothing.

Ari forced his feelings back and focused on the job. He would arrange to visit Sage one more time, plant the tracker on her and then say goodbye.

“I’ll do it,” Oliver said, and Ari froze.

Like fuck.

Oliver would plant the tracker and his cock while he was at it. Ari wasn’t born yesterday.

Let me say goodbye while I do it. Oliver telepathed. I never got to finish what I started.

Ari wanted to fly across the table and rip Oliver’s head off.

No.

Yet even as he replied, Ari knew it was a sound excuse to see Sage again and it was better he keep away from her. If Ari went, it would only form more of a bond between them—something he needed to stop. He held Oliver’s gaze and nodded.

“Any other intel before we jump into our client work?” Ari asked. “Travis?”

Everyone shook their heads and tapped on their devices, pulling up their usual agenda. For the next hour, they went through their jobs while Alex, Elijah, Oliver, Jason, and Logan gave updates on their teams out in the field.

Business as usual.

If you called being a private security company with vampire assassins normal.

The room emptied at the end and Oliver stayed behind, as Ari had expected.

“Did you see Sage again?” Oliver asked.

Ari didn’t answer to anyone, certainly not Oliver, but he deserved an explanation. Had he seen Sage again? Yes, he had. Every gorgeous inch of her.

“Yes.”

“Fuck. And you’re okay with me planting the tracker on her?”

“No.”

Oliver nodded in acknowledgment. “But you can’t do it.”

Ari shook his head, then stood and walked to the window, watching as the dark sky began to lighten. “No,” he said. “You need to know this is dangerous for you. I can’t tell you how to do this job or not to touch her, but I asked you to leave for a reason on Friday night.”

“Is she your mate?” Oliver asked. It was a fair question, but not one he was going to answer.

He turned. “We are not having this conversation. Plant the tracker and remember she’s an asset.”

“I’m not going to let her get hurt,” Oliver said.

Ari walked a few steps until he was directly in front of the vampire. “She’s not yours to protect.” He growled. “If you touch her, you do so at your own peril, do you understand?”

“Are you forbidding me?”

Ari’s head screamed. If he made that claim, it would change everything. He couldn’t. Sage was an employee of BioZen. She was an asset. Nothing more.

Fuck.

Ari understood Oliver’s need to protect her. All his assassins were dominant alpha males. There was no way they would sit back and let a female get hurt, especially one he’d been sexually active with in the way Sage and Oliver had on Friday.

He’d made Oliver his head assassin because he trusted him. Ari gritted his teeth and snarled at Oliver. “Get the job done.”

Oliver turned to leave.

“Oliver,” Ari said. “You would be wise to keep the details on how you do this to yourself.”

The vampire nodded and walked out of the room.

In a few minutes, the shutters would lower, and the sun would rise, closing them in safely from its deadly rays. Sage would go about her day unaware of the decision he’d just made, which would change her life.

She’d wake and again there would be no phone message from him. Would she care?

At some point this evening, after she finished work, Oliver would bump into Sage, and he would plant the tracker on her. She’d be embarrassed to see him, so it was the perfect plan in many ways.

The tracking device had to be fitted under her skin in order to be undetectable. You didn’t need to get someone naked or fuck them to insert it, but he was quite sure Oliver would. Ari would do the same thing if he was in Oli’s shoes. Sage was a sexy woman he’d been cut short with, and he had no doubt Oliver was eager to sink into her again.

Ari couldn’t stake a claim to Sage.

He could kill Oliver, but that wouldn’t be helpful.

He just needed to keep himself busy.

Brayden and Craig would arrive any moment, so Ari headed to his office to prepare.