Always (Dragon Wars, #3) (4 page)

“His bloodline?” He hated this conversation, every single second of it.

“The gene splicing. You were all from specific human families. The Knox family—who still bear our last name—came directly from us.” She pulled at a strand of her blonde hair. “See the resemblance?”

Yeah, he really did. Both of his brothers had mated Knox women. The family and their seven daughters had lived right next door to where he’d grown up.

“You want to talk about not using resources? With all of your stuff, we’d have the dragons eliminated.”

She shook her head. “The tech is all broken. We have a single sound cannon left, the machine we used to save you. It takes forty-five minutes to reboot and only works half the time anyway. I’m sorry. I would help you if I could. You can’t know how much I’ve wished such a thing were possible.”

“Well, I guess you wouldn’t want to see your pet experiment die out. What would you do for television amusement?”

When she winced, a tiny bubble of shame for his snide remark hit him in the gut. The sensation passed fast. He was pissed. Enough with all the bullshit.

***

T
aty knew she should cut their conversation off soon. Indulging in her fantasy to speak to Robert was getting out control. She’d made him mad. The narrowing of his gaze and slight edge to his tone told her all she needed to know. Robert Owens rarely got angry, yet when he did give in to a rage—and he wasn’t quite there yet—he’d be a sight to behold.

“I know you have no reason to believe me, but you are not a science project to me. You’re my passion. I mean, all the wolves are. Yes.”
Find control, Taty
. “I’m still here because I care. What little help I could provide, I have. All of us who are still here feel deeply for your situation. And we don’t see you as pets or whatever. The food which sometimes you happen to find—we’re the ones who provide it. I’ve personally pulled you from death twice. Anything I could do, I have.”

“I have questions. I want them answered.”

She could see why men followed him. Personally, she would fall on her knees or do cartwheels if he demanded it. Robert was...primal.

“What’s your name?”

She’d drugged him. He wouldn’t remember it, which panged her. If she got nothing out of their conversation, hearing him speak her name would give her the fix she seemed to need when it came to him. “Tatyana Knox. Dr. Tatyana Knox. Taty. The shortened version’s what everyone calls me.”

“Taty is for a little girl. You’re a grown woman with a...” He cleared his throat, then added, “Medical degree. Tatyana is your name, and I’ll use it.”

“It bothers you, doesn’t it? The medical degree. I’m a woman, and it’s weird to you.” The wolves had not yet really given in to women’s equality. It had started before the war and, even though the women had kept things going with the males at war, the men hadn’t really adjusted their attitudes yet.

He held up his hands. “I like smart females, always have.”

Taty couldn’t control herself from rolling her eyes. “That’s so completely condescending and patronizing.”

“We’re getting off track.”

“What?” His eyes were so much deeper than she imagined.

“I have questions. I’m not going to discuss my feelings on women and their career choices. How much do you watch us? Is there anything you don’t view? If I had asked at the wrong time, could I have gotten a view of my brother making love to his mate?”

“You make it sound so voyeuristic.”

“Isn’t it? Respond. Now.” He took a step in her direction. If he meant to be menacing, he succeeded. She shivered and then realized in utter horror he’d also turned her on. If she touched herself right then, she’d be wet. What the hell was the matter with her?

“There are filters and sensors. I’ve never gotten to see you in the bathroom. If our cameras sense nudity, they won’t turn on. And we can never watch any of you for too long. I implemented the privacy factor my first year in control. It seemed a violation.”

“It was. The whole thing is.”

She shook her head. “You won’t remember I told you about them. I can promise you.”

“Oh, yes, sweetheart, I will.” His eyes gleamed the glow of the alpha werewolf. If things had not fallen apart, she’d always thought he would be Alpha of his pack. As it was, he still had the absolute belief in himself she saw amongst the strongest personality types of his kind. “Are there any places it’s harder for you to see us?”

“I don’t understand why you’d care.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Because I do. Tell me, Tatyana.”

“It’s harder in very remote places. We have cameras near the caves or you’d be practically off radar there. The dragons, when they find the devices, destroy them. So the closer you are to the dragons lairs, the less we can view you.”

“The dragons know about the cameras.” He rubbed his eyes and for the first time he looked tired. “Of course they do. Why shouldn’t we be the only ones in the dark?”

“Robert...”

He sliced his hand in the air to silence her, and she stopped speaking. For a minute they stayed as they were, neither of them moving or speaking. Finally, he spoke again. “Your compound seems pretty advanced to me. Explain to me coherently why we can’t use it to fight them.”

“Because all of our equipment is either failing or broken. Almost all of it is useless.” And it broke her heart whenever she thought about how their leaders had let it all go to hell. “We’re leaving in a week. Our funding is gone and our life support and security systems are about to go offline. Soon, we won’t be hidden here. Everyone will wake and see a small compound of buildings, which weren’t there previously. As you and I talk, we’re invisible. You can’t see us or scent our presence. It’s going to be so bizarre for all of you.”

“I suppose you’ll watch our reaction on your televisions.”

“No.” She moved to the table and sat, her legs feeling wobbly. “When I leave, it’s all over. The feed stops here.”

Robert rocked back and forth on his feet. “Are you okay?”

“I’m not, only I really don’t want to talk about it.” Lately, she’d been feeling so weak. No matter how much she slept, exercised or ate she couldn’t make it through the whole day without exhausted moments. Her bloodwork was normal. The doctors she consulted with from outer space, since she was the only medical person left on the planet, all suggested she might be depressed over leaving.

There was no doubt about her feelings being low yet she really didn’t think her sadness was the overwhelmingly significant factor. Something else was going on.

“I...It’s not my intention to make you unwell. Is there someone I should call? I could handle another human in the room or if you aren’t well I’ll deal with someone else.”

“I’ll be fine.” She didn’t want to share him. Even angry, annoyed Robert was better than no Robert, which was about to happen. He’d be a memory she’d always wonder about. She took a deep breath. He really smelled nice. For a man constantly on the run, he always had a clean, soapy scent about him. The aroma was heady and more than a little bit pleasant.

She wished she lived in the kind of world where she could close her eyes and lean on him.

“Tatyana.” He breathed out her name. “We can fix the broken technology. My brother, Auggie, he has a brain for technology like you can’t believe. He hates studying, but give him something to fix and it gets done. Ten minutes with him and someone who can explain things and he’ll take it over.”

“There isn’t enough power. We can barely run the cannon. Trust me, if it were doable, I would have gotten the stuff to you years ago.”

Robert took her hand and she forgot to breathe. When she sucked in a breath, her heart sped so fast she wasn’t sure if she was about to faint.

“Let me try, Tatyana. Let me see if Auggie can fix them. You say you want to help us? Prove it.”

She knew she’d reached the point of no return. In almost no time, she would be half a universe away and he’d never remember who she was.

Taty raised her hand and stroked the side of his face. He didn’t jerk back or tell her to stop, the only indication he felt her at all was the widening of his eyes. “You’re so beautiful. I’ve never touched you except medically. I wanted to tell you.”

“You smell of roses.” He took an audible breath. “And I am losing my mind.”

Without warning his mouth came down on hers. She gasped, yet when he tugged her closer to him she didn’t object—why would she?—and softened against him. He kissed very intently and, for the first time in her life, she knew what it was to be the total focus of the person holding her.

When she pulled back to run her tongue along his lower lip, he moaned softly before tugging her until he could lay her on the table with him looming above her. “You make me want to do things I shouldn’t be thinking about. You’re basically my enemy who claims to be a friend. At best, you’re not a very useful ally. Yet, Doctor, I can’t focus on my job because you smell of roses and you make my cock hard for the first time in a year.”

“I...”

He ravaged her mouth again, and she closed her eyes to go along with the ride. A boom echoed through the room. She jumped, but it didn’t knock her out, as it did Robert. He slumped against her, nearly falling forward while she tried to hold him up, unconscious from the sonic cannon one of her people had thought to fire in the complex. With their sensitive ears, dragons and werewolves were knocked out by the blast while humans weren’t bothered by it at all.

She sighed, savoring his weight for a second. It surprised her it had taken them so long to think of the canon.

Gordon and the others rushed toward her, and her cousin gasped when he saw the scene.

“It’s not how it looks,” she lied. If they’d waited any longer it would be exactly what it appeared and her body shook from wanting it.

“He didn’t bite you, did he?”

“No.” Although she wished she could have let him if he wanted to. What would be hotter than Robert biting her while he pushed his cock deeper and deeper inside of her?

“You know what can happen to you if he did?” Gordon pulled Robert from her and two of her people strapped him on the gurney they dragged in. Taty grabbed the needle in her pocket. What would Robert have said if he’d known she could have knocked him out at any time? She supposed it didn’t matter since she’d had no intention of ever doing so.

“If he’d bitten me, there was seventy percent chance he’d have made me a werewolf, too. Our fathers wrote extensively about the strange phenomenon. The real reason we don’t go near them unless they’re knocked out. They can change us a lot easier than we made them.”

And as much as she wanted Robert, she wasn’t sure she’d survive in werewolf society once he’d finished having his fun with her. She could never be a proper werewolf lady.

With a sigh, she pushed her needle into Robert’s arm making sure to give him twice the normal dose. With the amount of medicine she injected into him, he might not know his name for hours after he woke, let alone remember anything to do with her.

R
obbie jolted upward with a start. His head pounded and the medics rushing around him made the throbbing worse.
Son of a bitch.
The humans knocked him out and sent him back. He supposed he wasn’t meant to remember any of it. Except—he did. Next to him, Auggie sat drinking some water.

He’d always been told they—he and Auggie—looked exactly alike, although the doctors insisted they weren’t identical when they were born. Some people could tell them apart at a glance. His mother, for example, had been excellent at discerning their identities. They’d never been able to fool her as they had their teachers. These days, he thought Auggie’s looks changed to match the distant attitude he held most of the time. His eyes were worn, his face more gaunt than Robbie had ever seen him.

Seventeen years had taught Robbie a lot of things—including when a soldier had reached the end of their endurance. Even before the dragons got them, they were already gone.

But fuck that. He wasn’t losing his brother. Robbie would call in every favor to have his brother sent away to somewhere where he could rest. If such a place still existed. Then again, maybe their human problem would be what Auggie needed to reengage.

“You’re thinking too hard.” His twin took another sip of water. “And I’m somewhat concerned it’s about me. You have a thing you do with your brow, a certain furrow, which tells me you’re fixated on me. Stop. Worry about yourself.”

Robbie straightened until his legs dangled off the bed. He wasn’t going to respond to his brother’s command. They both knew Robbie would fixate on whatever he damn felt like and Auggie could kiss his ass if he thought otherwise. With a flick of his finger, he tapped the end of his nose sure his brother would remember the signal they’d developed when they were children for
shut the fuck up
.

Auggie’s eyebrows sloped downwards and an alertness lacking most of the time reappeared in his brother’s gaze.
Good
. They were on the same page. Presumably, his twin had no idea where they were or how they got there. Robbie would have to play along as if he was in the same situation. Already, he worked to formulate a plan.

Tatyana wouldn’t be getting rid of him so easily, and she’d be bringing her human tech with her.

“How’d we get here?”

Auggie shrugged and took another sip of water before he answered. “Damned if I know. We were in a dragon fight. It all gets kind of vague afterwards.”

“Right.” He stood on fortunately steady legs. “Where are the others? Everyone here?”

“Jack and Trevor are. They woke a little bit ago, and I sent them to procure some food. I haven’t seen the others, doubt they’re here. Although, they did find us the last time we had memory loss, didn’t they?”

Was that a shrewd response or was his brother simply stating a fact? He’d ask him, later, when they weren’t under the cameras. “Tell Trevor to shift. I need him to run an errand for me. Have him locate the others and bring them to the following coordinates.”

Robbie leaned over and tapped a set of numbers on Auggie’s knee. His brother nodded and displayed trust, not even a flicker of reaction to the orders sending their men into the middle of dragon territory. Robbie would always be grateful for his brother’s faith and for the way the rest of his men seemed to follow suit.