Chapter 9
Lyra
Oh, he was going to be mad.
My beast didn’t care. She wanted to see him with mating cuffs on his wrists and his human handcuffs were as close as I could get.
“What are you doing, woman?” His sleepy rumble made me giggle. I never giggled like a naughty little girl. Not anymore. Nor for years. Seeing him restrained, cuffs locked around the brass headboard, made my beast practically purr. He was mine. I could lick and suck and taste him everywhere.
“Taking advantage of you.” It was the truth.
I loomed over his naked body wearing nothing but the shirt I’d borrowed, buttons completely undone.
I placed my hands on his thighs, his hard cock inches from my lips.
“I’m going to suck on your cock until you beg me to free you.
Then I’m going to straddle your hips and take you for a ride.
I’m going to fuck you until your seed explodes from your body and fills up mine. ”
His gaze narrowed. He tested the strength of the headboard. Pulled hard. It held. His chest heaving, I watched as his cock hardened in front of me. “You are a dangerous woman.”
“I am.” He had no idea. He still thought I was human.
I hovered over him, happy when his gaze dropped to my hanging breasts.
They were full and heavy, the nipples nearly touching the head of his erection.
I licked my lips slowly, my intention clear.
“Do you want me to stop? Let you go?” I would free him, if he asked.
I really hoped he wouldn’t.
“No. Do it.” His grin was eager, a blatant invitation and a challenge all in one.
I wasn’t gentle. I swallowed him down, licked and tasted him as I gripped the base of his hard length in a tight fist.
Raw lust spurred my beast, but desperation pushed me to make this count. I’d gone downstairs while Ethan slept. Received a message from Core Command. Orders. Instructions.
This would probably be the last time Ethan allowed me to touch him at all.
My beast howled a denial inside me and sucked Ethan’s cock until his hips bucked up off the bed.
“You have to stop. I can’t—” He took a deep breathe, a shudder running through his entire body. “If you want to go for a ride, you better do it now.”
The soft, sensuous laugh that left my throat was a sound I didn’t recognize. Being with him changed me in fundamental ways I still didn’t understand.
Mine. Mate. My beast practically purred as we followed our mate’s command and crawled up to position our wet pussy over the tip of his cock.
His gaze focused on the space between our bodies like a laser.
He groaned as I lowered myself onto him.
Took all of him as he stretched us open, made us feel taken. Claimed.
“Fuck.” He rolled his hips under me and I gasped. Reached down to touch the hard muscles of his chest, spread my palms flat so I could get some leverage. The sleeves on the pale blue shirt I’d taken from the closet rode up my arms, exposed my wrists. Bare wrists where mating cuffs should be.
“You’re mine, Ethan Blake.” I shouldn’t have said it out loud. But I did. My beast demanded we tell him the truth. He was claimed. Mated. Mine.
He froze, his gaze on my wrists. “You’re wrists. What the hell? Why did you let me hurt you?” He struggled against his restraints, the motion of his stomach muscles tightening against my clit made me moan. “You’re going to use that healing wand as soon as we’re done.”
Gods help me, he was adorable, handcuffed with his dick inside me, still trying to take care of me.
“It’s nothing….” Nothing important. Bruises from our previous sessions.
I squeezed my inner muscles, clamped down on his cock, made him groan.
I didn’t dare tell him the truth; that my beast needed mating cuffs around her wrists to remain sane, that when I woke up without handcuffs on, she’d nearly gone mad with rage that our mate hadn’t claimed us, had seethed with agony at his rejection.
I told her he didn’t know, didn’t understand.
She didn’t fucking care. Did not understand. She simply hurt.
Shaking, fighting to control her, I did the only thing that would calm her down… touch him. Claim him. Feel his skin on ours. The beast needed to know she had a mate. Needed the reminder that we weren’t alone anymore. If he was near, I could regulate her. Barely.
Claiming Ethan had been a mistake. I knew that now.
Having his seed inside us, his scent on our skin, his taste in our mouth?
It drove her wild. He didn’t just satisfy her, he made her stronger, nearly impossible to control.
She had become a monster inside me, threatening to come out, to take over, reveal herself to the human who hated our kind.
I opened my eyes to see him watching me. Assessing. Analyzing. We were frozen in place, his cock deep inside me, my black and blue wrists on display atop his chest.
“All right. But never again. If you need restraints on your wrists, I’ll fucking restrain you. We’ll use something else. Something that won’t make you bleed.”
My beast rolled in his authority, his command, the protective tone of his voice. She sat down hard, took him deeper. “Yes.” Her voice answered our mate, not mine. His reaction made her wild and I didn’t even try to stop her as she took what she wanted from him.
Ethan lifted his hips off the bed with perfect timing, matching me thrust for thrust. I leaned over and took his mouth, savored him as I rubbed my clit against his hard stomach muscles.
Our bodies slammed together like two machines, hard and fast. Relentless.
Reckless. Being with him broke every rule. I didn’t care.
My entire body shuddered as I came. He shouted out beneath me, his cock twitching inside me as he filled me, gave me his essence, as my mate should.
I collapsed on top of him, my chest heaving as I fought to keep my beast from roaring his name like a feral animal. She should be appeased. Satisfied.
She was neither.
Mate. Mine. I come out. Claim Ethan.
No! I had no idea if she could do as she claimed and actually transform my body physically, as the Warlords’ beasts did.
What if I changed into a beast and couldn’t change back?
She wasn’t supposed to exist at all, was a side effect of experimental DNA integrations that, as far as I knew, had never been tried on an Atlan female before.
I had no idea what would happen if my beast came out. Had no desire to test it.
“Enough. Take these off. Now.” Ethan rattled the handcuff’s chain against the metal bedframe.
Regret and longing nearly broke my heart as I rolled off him and reached for the key. After today, he would never look at me the same way. Never want me again. Never touch me. Wouldn’t allow me to touch him.
I unlocked the handcuffs. He immediately wrapped me in his arms and rolled me onto my side.
I closed the distance and plastered myself against him, skin on skin. Breathed him in. Sighed in relief when my beast was satisfied.
If only I had a pair of real mating cuffs. Shiny, beautiful metal with our family design etched into the matching bracelets. Ethan would look so good wearing them. So sexy. So mine.
“What now?” He lifted his hand and pressed our palms together. I curled my fingers over and between his, bound us together.
“I heard from my commander. They sent me the location of the Silver Scion’s base. He’s calling in some backup. We’re supposed to go meet with the strike team tomorrow. They want to hit the Scions’ base sometime in the next few days.”
“What kind of backup? Where are they?”
“Here. In Miami.”
“Less than a week to run recon and plan the op? Who is he calling in? A specialized CIA, alien hit squad?”
I sighed and braced myself for his reaction. “No. The CIA can’t handle these guys. He’s calling in a group of Atlan Warlords.”
Ethan went still. “Fuck no. You’re not going. Not to meet with Atlans.”
“I am. You can come with me and deal with it, or you can go home and let us handle taking out the Silver Scion base. I am perfectly capable of doing this without you.” I rolled out of bed and marched downstairs.
I needed my armor. Weapons. A new heart.
The one I had was breaking a bit more with every step I took away from him.
I was going to lose him anyway, once he found out what I really was. Realized I’d been lying to him from the first moment we met. Seduced him. Lied to him about us, about what he was to me. What it meant to be chosen by a beast.
Life with an Atlan was probably his worst nightmare.
He followed me down the stairs. Naked. The hint of newly growing beard making him look more intense. Dangerous.
He reached out and spun me around. Grabbed me with one hand behind my back and one behind my head. Kissed me. Hard. “You’re not fucking going anywhere without me. Especially not around aliens. The Warlords are killers, Lyra. They get mating fever and they turn into monsters.”
“I know.” I rested my forehead against his and let his concern sink into my very cells.
If he knew the truth, he would shove us away.
Right now, I was the monster he feared, the beast with mating fever.
Barely in control. “We need them. The Silver Scions are too dangerous for humans. They have integrated members from every species, turned them all into cyborgs enhanced with Hive tech. You saw what happened in the morgue. Your bullets didn’t touch them.
This is an alien problem. We need the Atlan Warlords to deal with them. ”
“So send them the coordinates and stay here until it’s over. Where you’ll be safe.”
I shook my head, just a bit, never breaking contact with him.
I craved his touch like I needed air to breathe.
“I can’t do that. This is my case. My mission.
I need to be there. I’ve been tracking these assholes for three years.
I know their faces. I need to get my hands on their communications, their data.
Their DNA.” The memories stored in their cells could give me a new lead to follow.
“Try not to worry. I provide cover, that’s all. I won’t be in the fight.”
“You’re a sniper?”
I waited for my NPU to confirm the meaning of the word. “Yes.” I was small—compared to my Atlan brothers—easy to hide, and deadly accurate with an ion rifle.
“I don’t like it.”
“I know. But one of them killed my brother. I need to finish this.”
He sighed, his hands rough on my back where he rubbed through the fabric of the shirt. “Okay. But you’re not going alone.”
I didn’t have the heart to argue. Didn’t matter who he called. As soon as he learned the truth about me, he’d curse me and run in the opposite direction.
“Tomorrow we meet with the Atlans?”
“Yes.” Tomorrow he would hate me. I ran my hands along his shoulders and leaned into his lips. Today he was mine.