Epilogue #3
The third female looked very similar of face to my Adrian, except her hair was a rich, dark brown. Same gold and green eyes. But she was not mine. Her body did not call out to me. Her attention did not freeze me in place as if I were the lock and she the key.
“You are not to open that cell. He is not here for mating fever. He is one of our most dangerous criminals.” The doctor spoke with authority.
I both hoped Adrian would listen to him and dreaded the same.
Perhaps, if I asked nicely, they would allow me to simply look and admire my female for the next few hours. That would have to be enough.
“What did he do?” Adrian asked.
The doctor began to lay out my crimes. Kidnapping. Treason. Murder.
I listened without reaction or remorse. I heard all if this too many times to count.
Adrian gasped when the doctor provided a few too many gory details about the murder scene. She would discover who and what I was. Her attention would be drawn elsewhere…
“That is more than enough, doctor.” The warlord interrupted. Had I been capable of movement, my shoulders would have slumped in relief. As it was, my female looked into my eyes. I could not look away.
“I don’t believe it.”
“My daughter, all the doctor has told you is true. Warlord Kovo has been found guilty by both civilian and Coalition investigation teams. We neither accuse nor punish warlords without incontrovertible evidence. In fact, Kovo is the first warlord in prison for a crime—rather than mating fever—in a very long time.”
“More than thirty years,” the doctor confirmed the warlord’s warning.
“Shit.” Adrian turned her face from me and my entire body reacted. I shook with the need to ram my body into that energy field to get to her. I needed her.
No.
“We need to get to the lab, ladies.” The mother waved her hands in small circles as if she could move her daughters with the slightest of breezes.
Adrian sighed. “You go ahead. I want to stay here for a minute.”
“I’ll stay with you.” The young female in a soft, yellow gown offered her arm to Adrian, who slid her hand through and wrapped the two together.
“No.” The warlord denied them. I wanted to kill him and congratulate him for being the only sane one here.
“Fine.” Adrian didn’t look at me, not once, as they all walked away.
I glanced at the countdown.
00:10:01:33
Fuck. Ten minutes ago I was ready to die, to do what I could to help Helion and the I.C. team accomplish their goal before I succumbed to mating fever. I was close to losing control of the beast. Too close.
Now all I could think about—all my beast could think about—was Adrian, hot and wet, her pussy bare and open and mine.
Filling her up. Running my fingers through her hair.
Tasting her mouth. Her skin. Her core. Putting mating cuffs on her wrists and filling her from behind as my beast was freed.
Telling her over and over again that she was mine.
That I was hers. That I would die to protect her. To keep her. To care for her.
I would do none of those things. I would die in ten hours, one minute, and thirty-three seconds.
Angry, frustrated, alone, I paced my cell, no longer able to remain stoic. Calm.
Time passed. I did not look at the countdown again. Too slow. Agonizingly slow.
I slammed my fists into the wall and roared with rage. With regret. With fucking bad timing.
“So, it was you I heard.” The sweet, feminine voice silenced me instantly.
Turning my head, I found my mate and her sister both staring at me, hands on their hips. Stances, identical. Adrian’s expression? Determined.
The other female had more sense. She had the decency to be nervous, biting her lower lip. “I don’t know about this, sis.”
“They won’t even realize where I am until tomorrow.”
“I know. But you know how much I hate lying to them. What if they check on us when they get home?”
Adrian chuckled. “They won’t. Mom can’t keep her hands off him. They’ll be too busy bumping uglies to worry about where I am.”
Bumping uglies? Ugly what? And why would they bump?
“I’ll worry.”
“That’s why you’re going to be back here in exactly four hours and let me out.”
Stephanie looked at me, inspected me from head to toe. I remained silent. “What about him?”
“I’ll figure it out. After.”
After?
Stephanie’s head dropped backward so that her face looked up at the ceiling. She groaned. “God. And you were making fun of mom for being a horny wench. This is insane. You know that, right?”
“I know. I don’t care. I’m calling in my twin card.”
“Oh, I know. You told me. Why the hell do you think I’m down here again? And low blow by the way. I used my twin card for that stupid calculus test.”
Twin card?
“Not my fault I saved mine for something juicy.” Adrian gathered her sister to her, their heads identical in height as well as form.
In fact, the twins were remarkably similar except for my mate’s beautiful hair.
“Look. I’m going in there. I know what I know.
I can’t explain it, okay? You have to trust me. ”
The brown-haired twin’s voice was muffled in her sister’s neck. “Okay. But if you die, I’m going to be really, really mad at you. Like, forever mad.”
I’m going in there?
Adrian’s words finally registered, and I moved forward to tower over them as much as I could with the energy barrier still between us.
“You will not enter this cell, my lady.” I was furious that she would take such a chance. Still, I could not force a threatening tone from my throat, not while I spoke to her.
And my lady? What evil spirit possessed me to speak those two words?
Fuck. What was happening to me? I should shout.
Rage. Scream. Act like an out-of-control beast ready to rend and tear and kill.
I could do none of those things. My beast, it seemed, had as tight a leash on me as I did on him.
He would not allow me to frighten her. Would not allow me to disrespect her.
Upset her. Injure her in body, mind or spirit.
Gods be damned. What the fuck was I going to do now? I could never offer her my mating cuffs. I could not. I would be executed in a matter of hours.
I could offer her nothing.
With a low rumble, my beast disagreed, shoving erotic images into my already fracturing mind.
Adrian released her sister and turned to face me. This close she was even smaller than she had at first appeared. Yet her eyes blazed with defiance. “Stephanie?”
“You sure? Really, really, really sure?” Her sister moved toward the control panel.
“Do not,” I ordered.
“Twin card. Playing it. Now.” Adrian ignored me.
Stephanie sighed. The energy barrier dropped.
Adrian took three steps forward. Her scent washed over me.
My beast growled. My cock throbbed in pain.
My vision blurred. I ordered my limbs to move, to remove this female from my cell.
The beast took control of every cell, every muscle of my body.
The transformation moved through me. My muscles screamed as they exploded, grew larger.
My bones elongated. My beast shoved me aside as if I were no more than a wisp of fog in his peripheral vision.
The energy barrier reappeared, locking her inside the cell.
With me.
With my beast.