Unleashing the Storm (38 page)

She
had tears tracking her cheeks. He kissed them away as he shifted so he could
tongue her nipples, and her ankles locked around his lower back. She was
everything he never thought he could have, and right now, at moments like this,
she was all his.

Her
skin was hot now; her cheeks held a pink flush and her heart beat strongly
against his chest. He was on his knees and elbows, rutting against her, because
she needed him to be deeper, told him that in no uncertain terms by the jut of
her hips, by the way she was kissing him.

The
sex continued hard and fast, both of them coming within seconds of each other.
Creed’s orgasm was like a hot burst of white light behind his closed eyelids,
like he’d been blown apart and put back together within a second’s time.

And
then Annika—his tough chick—was crying in his arms. Sobbing as if her heart
would break.

“I…hurt…Ender’s…girlfriend,”
she managed. “He’s going to kill me.”

“Ender
will calm down. Kira’s all right,” he told her. “She doesn’t blame you. No one
does.”

“I’ve
worked so hard to control it,” she ground out. “I didn’t mean to hurt her.”

“I
know, honey, I know. Sometimes our gifts don’t always cooperate the way we want
them to.”

“At
least yours doesn’t make you hurt people accidentally. Doesn’t stop you from
actually having sex.”

“Kat
does stop me. And you’ve never hurt me during sex,” he reminded her.

“You’re
the only one.”

“I
like being the only one.”

“I
don’t have a choice,” she said, her words cutting into him sharper and more
effectively than any razor ever could.

“Who
knows? Maybe there are more of us out there for you to fuck. Maybe you can take
out an ad for willing participants if you’re not happy with your current
situation.”

She
didn’t answer him. The past months of beating his head against what felt akin
to a brick wall came bearing down on him and he rolled off the bed. His feet
hit the floor with a solid thump and he sat staring at the wall.

He
waited for Annika to storm out, and she surprised him by not doing that. Instead,
she reached up and began to massage his shoulders, her hands strong and sure—an
apology. As close to one as she’d ever given him.

“I
need to know if this is going to work between us, Ani.”

“Can’t
we just keep things the way they are?”

No,
not after what Oz told him earlier. His mentor and friend had gripped his arm
and foretold a future Creed had never believed could actually happen.

“There’s
a way for things to be different for me.”

“I
don’t understand.” She’d stopped the massage, and when he turned, she was
sitting back on her heels, still naked—beautifully, enticingly naked—and he
almost scrapped the conversation in favor of making love to her again.

“It’s
about Kat,” he said quietly. “The other day…my tattoos…when they were moving…”

“Something
is
wrong.”

“Yeah,
it is.”

“Have
you been to the doctors? I’m sure Dev can find you a specialist if the doctors
at ACRO can’t help you…”

Creed
shook his head. “It’s not something any doctor can help me with. It’s something
I’ve got to make a decision about before the decision’s taken away from me.”

“Tell
me. Let me help. I can find some way to help you.”

God,
how he wanted to believe that. The concern in her blue eyes was almost too much
for him to take—she’d been through so much shit, and now he was going to ask
more of her. Probably more than she was willing to give.

“I’ve
got a certain window of time…it won’t be easy, but it’s possible that I can
live a normal life.”

“You
mean, without Kat?”

“Right.
I wouldn’t be tied to her anymore.”

“Then
what’s to think about?”

“My
powers. All of them—they’d be gone.”

She
pushed away from him, half-stunned. “So you’d get your life back, get to be
with anyone you wanted to…”

“No!”
he shouted. “It wouldn’t be with just anyone, dammit. It would be with you.
That’s the way this deal works. It’s you or it’s nobody. It’s keeping my powers
and having women once or twice, or it’s staying with you.”

“I
don’t understand.”

“That’s
my choice. My one and only choice, Ani. If it’s not something you want, then
I’m going to let the opportunity slip by.”

“But
if it’s not me, then you could be with anybody at all.”

“I’ve
said it before, I don’t want just anybody. I’m not willing to give up
everything for just anybody.” He ran his hands through his hair, a wave of
despair washing over him. Torn between his present and his past, he was
breaking in two, literally.

He
pushed up from the bed, ignoring Annika’s hands trying to pull him back down.
He yanked his pants on and grabbed his T-shirt. He almost couldn’t look at her,
but he forced himself to.

“I’m
asking too much, I know.”

“Creed—”

“It’s
all right. I get it. I finally get it,” he said. “Some people were just meant
to be alone. We’re two of those people. It was stupid for me to think
otherwise.”

He
left the room and her house without another word. Kat met him on the outside
steps and put her arm around him as he walked home in the rain.

“What
the hell are you talking about? I followed her here. She was talking to Annika
and that other trainer. She was fine.” Ender slammed his fists on the desk in
front of Dev.

“There
was a problem,” Dev said. “She attacked Annika.”

“Bullshit.
Annika’s the one with no restraint.”

“Annika
said something about
you
that hit your animal whisperer the wrong way,”
Dev said, because Ender’s temper didn’t scare him the way it did almost every
other person on the compound.

“This
happened hours ago—why the hell didn’t you call me sooner?” Ender asked.

“We
wanted to make sure Kira was all right before we called.”

“Dev,
you’d better start telling me exactly what’s going on.” Ender’s agitation rose
to untenable levels, and Dev hoped the man was ready for what he was about to
hear.

“Kira’s
in the infirmary—she’s going to be fine. But her body’s changed in a way we
never anticipated.”

Ender
got it. Immediately. He sank onto the couch, muttering to himself, “I saw the
changes but didn’t put it all together.”

Then
he spoke to Dev. “She said she was on the pill.”

“Apparently,
Derek switched them out to placebos when he arrived at the refuge. The I-Agent Annika
captured in Idaho gave up the intel. We’ve got Remy on it now to see what else
we can extract from the agent.”

“They
wanted her pregnant.”

“Yes,
by Derek specifically. With her abilities and Derek’s strength…”

“Her
child might have a double gift—and with her animal physiology, the strength
could be magnified,” Ender whispered. “What about our child?”

“Let’s
just say, that kid isn’t someone I’d want to mess with either.”

“Does
she know?”

“I
figured you should be the one to tell her,” Dev said, and the familiar
tightening in his head began again. Since he and Oz had gotten the psychics to
help block his mind from Alek yesterday, he’d been experiencing violent
headaches that came out of the blue. A necessary evil while Alek battled the
mind-shield for control of Dev’s brain.

In a
few days, once ACRO’s affairs were in order, Dev would take his leave until he
could fully protect his mind against Itor. Oz was prepared to take charge, and
most of the staff had been notified.

“Dev,
you all right?” Ender was asking. Dev looked straight into the man’s eyes, and
for a second Ender cocked his head and stared at Dev, as if he knew Dev could
see again.

“I’m
fine. It’s just stress. Go now,” Dev said.

“Fuck
you. Something’s up with you. It’s that goddamned Oz, isn’t it?” Ender
continued to stare. “I don’t get it, Dev. Letting Oz take over while you go on
a vacation doesn’t strike me as something you’d do willingly.”

“You
don’t know anything,” Dev said.

“I
know a hell of a lot more than you give me credit for,” Ender countered, but
Dev didn’t have the time or patience for this. He stood, kicking his chair back
behind him.

“Go
now, Tom. Get the hell out of my sight. Go to your animal whisperer and figure
out whether or not you’re ready to play daddy,” he said, felt Ender’s jerk of
surprise.

“Like
I said before, fuck you, Dev,” Ender whispered, his voice raw. He stormed out
with a slam of the main office door, and Dev waited a beat before he slid out
the back.

KIRA’S
PREGNANT
.

The
thought hit Ender on a level so deep that he nearly shook as he raced through
ACRO at top speed to get to the infirmary. A primal tug to protect her and his
baby nearly overwhelmed him, and he didn’t give a shit what was happening with
Dev. He only wanted to get to Kira. Immediately.

He
stormed past both security and the nurses who tried to stop him—and he was
pretty sure the nurses were a hell of a lot tougher to get through, but it
didn’t matter. He pushed past anyone in his way, gently but firmly moving the
last nurse—who actually stood in front of Kira’s door—by picking her up.

He
put her right back in place, and even though his speed was slightly diminished
because no food held his interest, he was still a hell of a lot faster than
anyone around here.

Kira
was sitting up in bed, looking at the door, no doubt having heard the
commotion. When the nurse came in after him, Kira called out, “It’s all right,
Meg. I want to see him. He’s mine.”

Mine.

“He’s
yours?” Meg pointed to him. “Good luck with that, honey.” The nurse exited,
closing the door behind her.

“Hi,
Tommy,” Kira said.

“Hey,”
he said. She didn’t look any worse for wear—in fact, she looked even more
beautiful than usual. Softer, which he’d already mentioned to her days earlier,
and glowing. Now he understood why. He walked over to the bed and grabbed her
hand. “You look good.”

“I’m
glad you came,” she said. “I’m fine. And please, don’t do anything to Annika.
None of this was her fault.”

He
growled again, this time at the mention of Annika’s name. “I’ll take care of
her.”

“Tommy,
don’t you dare. I attacked her first. It was my fault. All I seem to do is
cause trouble. I thought maybe it would be different here…” She trailed off
absently, pulled the covers around her more tightly.

“I
have to ask you something, Kira.”

“They
don’t want me here anymore, right?” she asked, the misery in her tone breaking
his heart.

“No,
they want you here. You’re still safe and this is still the best place for
you.”

“I
don’t know what happened, why I reacted that way—”

“Did
you have sex with anyone else during this cycle?” he asked quickly,
interrupting her before she could go over the entire incident again and again.

She
yanked her hand from his. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Ah,
yes, hormones. Kira’s would probably be much more off the wall than most
pregnant women’s. Which meant he was screwed. Granted, he could’ve couched the
question a little better, but hell, he’d never promised that he was going to
change. Much.

“It’s
a simple question,” he said. “You told me yourself that you’ve always needed a
lot of different men to satisfy you. That you’ve moved from man to man during
your heat before.”

“Yes,
before,” she practically spat. “You know there was only you.”

“I
won’t be mad or anything. I understand. It’s just that I need to know.” Fuck,
he was practically stuttering. “Did you sleep with Derek before I got there?”

“No,”
she said, with a hard shake of her head. She was staring at him, her brow
furrowed in anger.

“You’re
sure?”

“I
think I’d know,” she said, and he thought about the time he’d drugged her.
Derek could’ve easily taken her then, and she wouldn’t have known.

Derek
was out cold. There was no way…

“How
are you feeling now?” he asked finally.

“A
little more tired than usual, but I think that’s probably tied into the heat
cycle ending early.”

“When
did it end exactly?”

“Two
weeks ago.”

“Before
you rearranged my furniture?” he asked gently, got a small smile from her.

“Yes.”

“And
the heat ending early, that’s never happened before?”

She
shook her head. “Never. Something’s wrong, isn’t it? You know something.”