Always (Dragon Wars, #3) (9 page)

“I’ve got you.”

She knew he did. He pressed inside slowly—agonizingly so—and she closed her eyes to enjoy the mixture of pain and pleasure her muscles stretching caused. Her body came alive beneath him in a way it never had before. How was it possible she already needed their joining so much?

When he made it balls deep inside of her, he stopped. Their eyes met and she could see concern radiating in his. “You okay?”

“Yes.” She could barely speak. “It’s right.”

“It’s coming home.” He breathed in sharply. “I won’t bite you.”

Was he reminding himself or her? She didn’t care, she trusted him. “I know.”

With a slight nod, he pulled out and then pressed back inside of her fast. She gasped. “Yes, oh God, Robert, more.”

Her muscles clenched against him and he groaned. She would never be able to tune into him the way he did her, she couldn’t read him by smell alone. However, staring at him she was in no doubt of his feelings. He wanted her and the clench of his jaw, the determination of his eyes told her all she needed to know. Robert was a man determined to make their pairing good for her.

She was going to let him. For once, she would give over control to someone else. Robert would do as he said, he would take care of her.

He pressed and she raised her hips to meet his rhythm. Soon, they were lost in it. She moaned his name and he said hers sounding something akin to a prayer and a curse. Tension travelled her spine. The pleasure was unlike anything she knew, this claiming, this total possession his movements made over her body.

“Shit.” Robert moved between them, reaching to press his thumb against her clit as his body continued to slam in and out of her. The extra pressure did her in and she came again in a long wave of pleasure—she’d peak and start to ebb just in time for his thrusting to send her over the edge again.

How long it went on she wasn’t sure except when she finally floated back to reality she did so on wave of bliss. Only she still felt lacking. What was the matter with her?

Above her, still buried deep inside and somehow still hard although he had come hard, Robert’s face looked pained .

She stroked his cheek. “Are you okay?”

He nodded and opened his eyes, although he’d shielded his emotions. She immediately missed the openness they’d shared. Why had he put his guard back? “I’m really happy, Tatyana. You’ll never know how much.”

“You don’t seem happy.”
The opposite, actually
.

“I’m trying not to bite you. Its hard.” He pulled out gently. “In fact, I’m going to take a few minutes. Please don’t read anything into it more than me simply getting my wolf under control.”

“Oh.” She hadn’t thought about the biting at all when she climaxed. Yet since he’d mentioned it, her neck tingled. She wished he could. If only she could be sure she’d make the change and not be the worst werewolf ever.

After he withdrew, he jumped to his feet. With his back to her, he spoke. “I’m going to shift. I think it might be better if I spent the next couple hours as a wolf.” His back muscles were tense. “Do you think you could also do me a favor, sweet love, and give me a little space? I’ll come back to you when I know I’m safe. I didn’t expect...” His voice trailed off, and when it came back, he sounded gruffer than she’d ever heard him. “I didn’t know it would be so hard. I didn’t understand, but I’ve got this.”

“Okay.”

He nodded, his neck muscles straining. “Will it freak you out to watch me shift?”

“No. Not at all. I’ve seen it before.”

Robert turned around to regard her with dark circles under his eyes. “Of course you have. One more favor?”

She pulled her legs forward to cover her breasts, suddenly feeling exposed. “Anything.”

“Unlock the door. I’m not going to be able to do it in wolf form. I don’t want to break it.”

“Sure.” She got to her feet. It was nice to have a destination, something to do besides sit around and feel exposed. The distance between them, from not being able to be bitten, sucked. Everything had been extraordinary then it had plunged to the ground in a brutal dose of reality she’d preferred never to have.

Tatyana picked up her clothes on the way to the door. She could never be his mate. What had she been thinking? Watching him for years didn’t make him hers. Something was confused here. She was leaving in four days, and he was a werewolf. He couldn’t bite her—an absolute must-have for a werewolf. All the mated females were marked.

Why had they done this? How was she going to survive since she knew his sweetness and couldn’t have it?

“Tatyana.” She shoved her shirt and underwear on before she turned around to face him.

“Yes?” She unlocked the door.

“Make no mistake, we will figure it out. You are mine, with or without the bite.”

Having obviously said what he needed to, he shifted into his wolf form. Although she’d seen him shift many times, she’d never been so close to him while he had. It was a fast shift, much quicker than others she watched, and when he was done his entire body realigned to become a tall, brown-black wolf. His eyes were different, greener than in his human form.

“Go.” She opened the door.

If she were stronger, she’d deny his claim of her. What she should tell him was leave and not come back. Except, the words wouldn’t come. Maybe she was selfish...but she wanted him to be hers, too.

She’d cause them both pain until she left.

Robert ran out the door, his eyes on her until he turned down the hall to go wherever he needed to be to resist the urge to bite her.

Tatyana leaned her head against the wall. “Goodbye, Robert.”

She didn’t know if she said it for now or for the rapidly ticking clock counting down the moments until she would have to say it permanently.

Without thinking too much or focusing on what she did, she finished dressing. In another world, a fair one, she would be wrapped against him with his arms around her. He’d fall asleep next to her while she listened to him breathe. In the morning, he’d wake her with a kiss and, before either of them were truly awake, they’d make love again.

But this wasn’t that world. It had never been, which was why she only let a single tear slip free. Crying over unfixable things had never been her way.

When the dragon alarm sounded she wasn’t even surprised.

What else would go wrong?

R
obbie had barely made it to the main room where Auggie and the others worked on repairing the machines when the dragon alarm went off.

Auggie rushed to Gordon who had been sitting on the floor. Both men were on their feet in seconds and Gordon ran over to a different console and stared at it. Robbie would love to help except his gums ached with the need to go back to his mate and bite her, mark her delicate skin until none could be in any doubt as to who she belonged to. Doing so wasn’t an option, so he had to stay as he was.

“Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.” Gordon ran a hand through his hair as stared at the monitor. “How did they find us?”

“We’re hidden here.” Auggie leaned forward and Robbie decided he had to shift. Control slipping or not he wouldn’t not know what the hell was going on because he had put himself in his wolf form.

He’d have to control himself, he simply had no other choice. Calling his shift back he changed into his human form. From the corner, his brother Dougal called out to him. “Do you suppose it’s necessary for the alarms to continue to sound? Could we silence them a bit?”

“Hell if I know. I’m not running the compound.” He stormed over to Gordon and Auggie. “Are we imminent danger?”

“Yes.” Gordon croaked. “There’s a power drain on the system. I’m not sure how to fix it. Where is Taty?”

“I left her in the game room.” Or whatever it was called. “The place with the pool table.”

Gordon hit some buttons, and Tatyana’s face appeared on the screen. Her image immediately filled him with peace and also pain. The burn in his gums continued to ache. She couldn’t be completely his and the need for her would drive him to desperation before too long. It didn’t matter, dammit, he would gladly walk the path of madness to simply know her.

Tatyana was the greatest gift the universe could ever have bestowed upon him.

She jolted on the screen when she saw him yet otherwise didn’t comment about his presence at all. Dark circles marred her skin and he didn’t have to be a genius to know she’d been crying. He’d done that to her and an overwhelming need to comfort her nearly took him to his knees.

“I’m already on it.”

Gordon sighed. “I would handle the situation only I have no idea how.”

She snorted. Robbie loved when she made her little noises. “Because God forbid you have ever studied a manual. Not to worry. Taty to the rescue.”

“What does she mean?” He pointed at the screen. “Tatyana, what does your handling it entail?” She didn’t answer him and instead the picture went black. “Where did she go? What happened?”

Gordon swallowed. Robbie knew nervousness when he saw it and the room stank from the acrid smell of human fear. The disgusting stench coming from the anxiety must be why Tatyana though wolves hated the smell of humans. It was hard to take. “Why are you scared? Is it the dragons or because you know I won’t approve where your cousin went?”

“She’s going to fix the system which keeps us hidden. It’s draining power. She’ll reset it and then we’ll all be fine.”

“You know I can smell a lie?” Robbie spoke and Auggie grabbed Gordon, slamming him into the computer consol. He should tell his brother to back off, only he refused. The human was keeping vital information about Robbie’s mate from him. If they were in the battlefield he’d have Gordon killed for keeping secrets. “And omitting things counts in my book as falsehood.”

“I...” Gordon’s voice hitched. “I’m sure she’s fine. Only, she’s going on top of the barrier. It’s possible she’ll be visible for a bit while she gets it all sorted out.”

Oh, hell no
. “Where is she headed?”

His mate was not going anywhere she might be seen—or worse, killed. Someone else could get the job done. Auggie let go of Gordon. “I’ll go with you. Whatever has to be done, she can talk me through it.”

“Good call.”

Gordon pulled up a screen on the computer. He pointed at a room and Robbie grabbed him by his collar. “I’m not going to wander around your place looking for her while she gets herself hurt. You are going to show me where she is going immediately.”

What was with human men? Why were they so weak? Females had to do all kinds of things they didn’t used to because of the war. Still, a werewolf male would never choose to let a woman throw herself into danger, not if he could help it.

“Why don’t you know how to fix the system yourself?” He shoved Gordon forward to scurry down the hall with Robbie and Auggie close on his tail.

“Tatyana is smarter than the rest of us.” Gordon’s voice cracked. “Always has been. When the others left, she was the only person who knew how a lot of the systems worked.”

A crackling sound dinged in the hallway over the sounding dragon alarm and a woman’s face appeared on all the view screens.

“Shit.” Gordon’s voice officially croaked.

“Who is that?” Robbie nodded toward the monitor. Whatever she wanted, it had better not get in his way of retrieving Tatyana from her dangerous task.

“Jocey. She’s Taty’s sister and the leader of our people. She’s also the reason we’re leaving in four days.”

Robbie turned his attention back to the screen. Since Gordon had told him of the woman’s relationship to Tatyana, he could of course see the resemblance including the blonde hair, which seemed every member of the Knox family possessed. However, other than their cheekbones being high and pronounced, he saw nothing else of Taty in Jocey’s face. The woman was cold and ice shot out from her blue eyes. She held none of his mate’s warmth.

“Gordon,” she hissed. “I am getting strange signals here from the equipment. What is going on?”

“Power issue. Tatyana’s resolving it.” Gordon looked at the floor when he spoke. What was with Jocey to make her male cousin so afraid of her?

“Who is with you?” she spat at the screen. “Is that a werewolf? The male my sister is obsessed with? What is he doing in the compound? You know the rules, and you are violating them. Are there two of them?” She must have caught sight of Auggie. Robbie rolled his eyes. He’d had enough.

“We’re here because we’re taking your broken technology. We’ll fix it and beat the dragons, which you could have done, except I understand you chose to invest your time and money elsewhere. Also, your sister is mine.”

“What?” She sucked in her breath. “You are not welcome to any of our machines. It will all be sold for scrap metal.”

“Oh really?” He shook his head. Bullies were the same no matter the species. “You’re welcome to try to stop us. Put yourself on a shuttle, come here and make us give it back.”

It spoke volumes about Jocey that she had not asked after her sister once, not when Gordon said Tatyana was fixing things and not when he’d announced his presence in her life. She wasn’t worth a minute more of anyone’s time. “Take yourself off the screen. We have things to do here, and you’re being distracting.”

“How dare you.”

Robbie pushed Gordon forward. “Keep moving. We have things to do. Think of her as background noise, like the stupid alarm you haven’t turned off.”

They ran quickly through the hallways, ignoring the outbursts and orders from the woman on a video screen. Her voice grated on his nerves, but after a while, he couldn’t hear her anymore. If she was who the humans chose to lead them, it was not surprising they had to leave the planet. She’d drive them all into a pit they couldn’t escape out of soon. Narcissists had no business being in charge. He was going to speak to his mate about her and convince Tatyana to stay put.

She’d be safer with the dragons in charge than the woman the humans chose.

They finally reached the top of the compound. The room stunk of mold, it had clearly been a long time since anyone had been inside the small area. Other than a computer screen with Jocey still hollering about whatever, there was a ladder hanging from the ceiling and a burst of cooler air told him it led outside.