“She's Paige Masters, Doc's niece. But she's not my mate, my true love, my anything. God, you people are annoying.” Hale muttered under his breath and swallowed more coffee. His eyes felt gritty, his head ached, and he felt sluggish all of a sudden.
“You need some z's,” Roane said.
Hale turned, unnerved to find Roane's piercing gaze centered on him. “I'm fine.”
“You're exhausted. Lemme help you to your room.” The threat was there.
Shit
.
Hale didn't want to answer more questions when he didn't have any answers. Was Paige Masters his mate? No, because if she was, then McKinley had some part in Hale's future as well. Why had Hale spaced earlier and tried to attack his best friend? He had no idea, and he didn't want to know.
“I said I'm not tired. Besides, I want to be here when Paige is done with Doc. She doesn't know any of you.” He glanced around him. “And from looking at you, I can see why she'd be less than thrilled at being surrounded by your ugly mugs. Not you, ladies.”
“Thanks, Hale.” Sabrina rolled her eyes. “Derrick, is he always this oblivious?”
“Afraid so, princess.”
“Hale, you have circles under your eyes. You're still recovering from your injuries the other night. We all know you're Circ. But your body still needs time to finish healing and replenishing itself internally. Go get some rest. Caitlyn, Kelly, and I will make sure none of the guys so much as goes near her without you around.”
Hale considered her. Paige wouldn't feel threatened by the women. Especially not Kelly, who looked about as harmful as a round little kitten. “Okay. If you need me, I'll be in my room.”
“Dreaming about Paige,” Derrick murmured. Zack and Ace snickered, but Roane didn't laugh.
“Come on, playboy. I'll help you to your room.”
He dreaded each step, but to his relief, Roane said nothing. Hale opened the door to his room and lay down, expecting Roane to leave. Instead, his friend walked in, closed the door behind him, and stood next to his bed.
Damn.
“Hale, you're worrying me. Why won't you tell me what's wrong?” Roane sat at the edge of the bed and turned to face Hale. “I'm your friend. I'm not gonna judge you because you had sex with Doc's niece, for God's sake.”
“I know.” Hale felt like shit because he was holding out. Hadn't Roane come to him when he'd had problems with Caitlyn? Didn't Roane always know how to help him, how to solve all their problems? “Roane…”
“Yeah?”
“Look, you can't tell the others. Not even Doc.”
“I won't.” And just like that, he wouldn't.
“I, uh, I've been having dreams about Paige for a while. And they're not normal.
My family had a history with this kind of thing.”
“What kind of thing?”
“Psychic stuff. My dad could predict the weather. My mom knew things before they'd happen. But I thought I was normal. But then a few months ago, I started having dreams, prophetic dreams. I saw Paige with me.”
The silence unnerved him.
“Okay. You're psychic. So what exactly have you been dreaming?” At Hale's surprise, Roane grinned. “Come on, Hale. Like I'm not going to believe in ESP? Hell, we turn into giant monsters when the mood hits. That's not exactly normal.” An odd sense of relief filled him, that Roane accepted him. “Well, here's the problem. In these dreams…” He cleared his throat, not sure how to say it. “In these dreams I'm with Paige. But there's always someone else with us.”
“By your tone, I'm thinking that 'someone' is a guy.”
“I'm not really into men, Roane. I mean, I know we all do things together. But it's different with the squad.”
“Look, you don't have to explain it to me. Technically, Circs are bisexual. We do it with anything Circ. Hale, man, you're my best friend. What, you think I'm going to revoke your membership to 'the club' because you're going to be with some other guy?”
“I think the guy is McKinley,” he said in a rush, before he could change his mind.
Roane's eyes widened, the shock on his face almost comical. “The same motherfucker who nearly killed you and Derrick a few months ago? The same one who threatened Sabrina if she should ever return to Pearson Labs? Elliot Pearl's old bodyguard,
that
McKinley?”
“Yeah, that one,” Hale groaned and threw his arm over his eyes. “Why do you think I haven't said anything? He's the reason I had a hard time with you and Caitlyn the other night. My beast kept telling me to find him…and Paige.”
“Damn.” Roane drummed his fingers on his knee. “Tell me something, Hale.
When you found Paige the other night, was she alone?”
“No,” Hale replied, miserable.
“I knew you were lying. Ass.” Roane slapped him on the leg, and Hale lifted his arm from his face to see his friend. “Tell me. All of it.” Hale told him about meeting McKinley, about the dreams he'd been having, about the psychic blast McKinley had shot him with at Pearson Labs months ago. He couldn't bring himself to tell Roane how often he thought of the male, but he didn't hide anything else.
As Roane sat there digesting it all, Hale wondered if he'd done the right thing in telling the truth. Circe's Recruits was his family. What if his strange connection to Paige and McKinley put them all in danger? Wouldn't it have been better to learn about McKinley on his own, with no one the wiser, should McKinley be as dangerous as Hale thought he was?
“Well, this is a shit sandwich, any way you look at it,” Roane rumbled. “If Paige is already tied to McKinley, and you're dreaming about doing both of them—”
“No, man. That was just me doing Paige. He was just…there.”
“With his hands on your ass,” Roane snorted. “Get real, Hale. From everything you've described, Paige and McKinley might very well be your mates. What does your beast tell you?”
Damn. Roane would have to ask that.
“You don't have to say anything. I can see it on your face.” Roane took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Figures you'd be the biggest pain in the ass finding your mate. Okay. So we have Paige here. You need to connect with her. Work your magic.
Even I can see you two together. My beast likes her with you. In the meantime, the guys and I will look for McKinley. How hard can he be to find? A seven-foot-tall freak—sorry, human slash Circ—with yellow eyes, claws, and fangs. And he's got a thing for your girlfriend, so he won't be far.”
“Thanks, Roane. You're making this
so
much easier to deal with.” The truth was, Roane had eased Hale's burden just by listening. By accepting Hale for who he was.
Roane grinned. “Hey, it could be worse. You could tell me you're in love with Caitlyn. Then I'd have to skewer you.”
“Ah, about that. I don't think I'm gonna be able to, ah, you know, again.”
“What? Take it up the ass? Let Caitlyn manhandle you?”
“Jerk.”
Roane chuckled. “Look, you know what's between us. It was sexual because we're Circ. It just made us closer.” Roane grabbed Hale's thigh and gripped him tightly.
“We're family, Hale. We're not gonna dump your ass because you have a thing for Pearl's daughter and his bodyguard. If your beast wants him, he can't be all bad. Can he?”
“I hope to hell he's not. Actually, I hope to hell these dreams are just nightmares. I don't have any proof that he, or even Paige, is my mate. Just because the rest of you idiots mated doesn't mean I have to.”
“Didn't you listen to Doc at all?” Roane sighed. “It's hormones, buddy. Your beast wants to procreate.” Roane looked ill. “I wasn't going to say anything yet. But I have a bad feeling Caitlyn's pregnant.”
“No shit!”
“Shut up,” he grumbled. “I'm not sure, but she smells different today. I think last night did it. And if hormones are causing us to spread Circ genes like wildfire, why do you think you'd be immune?”
“I understand basic biology. I'm not Derrick,” Hale said with a grin. He might be stressing, but Roane was going to be a father.
Hot damn.
“Good point.”
“Why do you think I'm so drawn to McKinley? I've never been into guys as a rule.”
“Look at Ace. He wasn't either until Zack. Being Circ changes us deep inside.
Your beast knows what you need better than the man does, Hale. You have to trust what you feel. When you don't, you'll fuck up. And then you can only pray it's not a major fuckup.” Roane stood. “Now, get some rest so you can think straight. Caitlyn will take good care of your—of Paige. And we'll see if we can find the big dude.” Roane's eyes narrowed. “I'd like to talk to him myself. Time for a face-to-face with the man who thinks he can threaten my team.”
“Here we go.” Hale sighed. “Try not to kill him before I have a chance to see what the hell he's all about.”
“Sure thing, playboy.” Roane saluted and left the room.
Hale closed his eyes and went to sleep. He didn't dream, and he didn't worry about tomorrow. It would come soon enough.
Paige stared at Evan Dennis, unable to tear her eyes away. He looked so frail. Her beast felt an immediate need to protect him, while the human part of Paige tried to deny the connection she hadn't expected to feel.
They sat across from each other in his study in two leather chairs facing a coffee table. A box of photographs sat between them. Paige gripped the one of her mother smiling and patting her rounded stomach. The woman had been beautiful, her joy shining through to the camera.
“I do believe Elliot loved your mother, at least at first. I met her when they'd first started dating.”
“So you and Elliot were close?” She couldn't bring herself to call Elliot her father, even in front of Evan.
“No. Sadly, though we shared the same mother, we didn't grow up together.
Thomas Pearl was a cold bastard of a man. He seduced my mother to produce Elliot, then forced her to give up her child. I won't go into the details, but he nearly destroyed her. A few years later, she met my father and found happiness for a brief time, until he died. My mother was a wonderful woman. She encouraged my study in science because I was drawn to it, just like Elliot.
“We met when I entered college in my early teen years. Apparently, a keen intellect runs in the family,” he said with a sigh. “Both of us possess—possessed—high IQs. We became friends, of a sort. But Elliot was such a hard man to know. I felt sorry for him.”
“What about his mother? I know Elliot grew up with a woman he called mother.”
“His stepmother had too many charities to oversee. Appearances meant more to her than her stepson. So Elliot grew up basically unloved and unappreciated. Until he showed his true genius. Genetics became his religion. Eager to prove my worth to the man Elliot loved so much, I too studied hard. It was easy to fall into the excitement of science. Hypotheses, the big 'what-ifs' of the world, drew Elliot and me closer.
“Then he met your mother, and we drifted apart again. We corresponded throughout the years, but we were each involved in our own projects. It took me by surprise when he asked me to work with him on Project Dawn.” Paige understood more now. “So you and he really weren't close. I heard rumors about the original Project Dawn. How you would disagree with him. How you were jealous of his successes.”
Doc laughed. “Jealous? Hell, I gave Elliot most of the credit for work I did. I didn't want the limelight. I just wanted the science. He gloried in all the talk, the back patting and political nonsense needed to acquire funding. I just wanted to work.
“But when I caught wind of some of his methods, what he intended for the project…I couldn't blindly agree. Using human beings as guinea pigs, when he knew there would be adverse side effects, was just
wrong
. Especially because most of those men had no idea of what was really done to them. Hell, I didn't even know until the fallout hit.” Doc shook his head and removed his glasses. He cleaned them with the hem of his shirt. As she stared at his eyes, she saw a glimmer of Elliot there. “But Project Dawn isn't what you asked about. You wanted to know about your mother. My dear, she was beautiful. A genuinely caring woman. She was a reporter, you know. Had quite a nose for news. That was how they met. She did a report on his postgraduate work.
Love at first sight.”
“Was it?”
“I thought so at the time.” Evan put his glasses back on and gave Paige a sad look.
“Elliot was so excited when your mother found out she was pregnant. He didn't want anything to hurt her or the baby, so he took her away to a villa in Europe. She was there to relax, he said. I tried to talk to her several times after she'd left the States, but he stopped allowing her phone calls, claiming reminders of home stressed her too much.”
“
Allowing
her calls?”
“I know. It worried me. Especially when no one could get in touch with her, not even her own mother. Then came the news that she had died, and Elliot seemed so hurt, so lost. He told us you'd died in the womb, Paige.” Evan pursed his lips, his voice roughening with anger. “He lied to us. And I wish to God I could say he had nothing to do with her death, but I'm not sure. Not anymore. He did so many terrible things, but he was so alone. He never let anyone close. But I tried to be there for him. I tried, and I failed.” Doc stared at her, grief stricken. “And now he's gone.”
“Yeah.” She told herself she wasn't going to cry. Elliot Pearl wasn't worth her tears. “I grew up with a foster family on the West Coast. I used to see him a few times a month at first. They never told me why he'd given me into their care.”
“Were they kind?”
“They weren't cruel.” She shrugged. “Things could have been worse. There were no cookies and hugs. No birthday parties or Christmases. But I had friends. I think Elliot wanted me to grow up in what he considered a normal environment, to see if I could blend in with 'humans.'”
“I'm sorry, Paige,” Evan said quietly.
“It's okay.” She hated that she still longed for someone to love her. No one but Robbie had ever shown her so much affection. Her friends were fine, but they never knew the real her. And after elementary school, she'd retreated into herself, not comfortable with people as a whole. “Like I said, I wasn't abused. I received an education, even a degree from Princeton. I never put it to use because my job, according to Elliot, was to assist him in scientific research. Once I finished school, the few tests they used to give me when growing up turned into extensive physical and mental exams. Like being a living pincushion for a mad scientist,” she tried to joke.