Loving Lucius (Werescape) (18 page)

Her eyes popped open to bore a desperate gaze through mine. "Nobody can make it go away. It's part of me. Inseparable. And if anyone learns, I'll have nowhere to go."

Impossible. Nothing can be so horrible with a sweet little bundle of soft curves. I slid a palm to her damp cheek and tried to rub her fear away. But Wolf focused on her mesmerizing lips.

Play, he whined.

For a kiss. One that would make her forget, calm down. Maybe cure her of this madness so we could speak without her panicking. I leaned toward the softest things on the planet.

She had a sixth sense about her. Some warning system that told her to turn her face away from my palm.

"Don't," she sobbed. "We can't."

How can a man stand this? I slid my cheek across the damp flesh of hers and tried to find her lips. Tried to make her forget and lose herself in the kiss again.

She countered my moves. Avoiding my lips right when they'd reach the corner of her mouth. To find hers slipping away. Up. Down. Left. Right. With all the Gods-damned sobbing that ripped a man's heart open.

She clamped a palm over my mouth and locked a stern gaze on me.

From below. The submissive position. The last place I wanted her to feel trapped.

"Stop." Her word stuttered.

"No. Not until you tell me." That angle worked before and I know she could hear every one of my smothered words.

"I can't." Her body jerked from her attempted snuffing of her crying.

She's so feminine with the long braid dangling down her chest to her lap and the sweet curves of her breasts. She must stop this. "Why?" I begged rubbing my forehead against hers. "This is insane. You have to be able to trust someone. You'll never survive in this world without someone else."

"Doesn't matter," she gasped. "Violet will be safe."

A chill gripped me, shaking my soul.

Still, she protects the little one. "I understand. I do, Elise. But there comes a time and a place for everyone to confide in somebody. Look what your secret is doing to you. You're terrified. Afraid of me! And I'm just like you. I'd do whatever it takes to protect others important to me." I caught her quaking cheek in my palm again and tried to rub some of her distress away. "You touched me. We kissed. I even told you Wolf wants you. It's done for me. You. I want you. But until you believe what you felt when we touched, I'm just as alone as you are."

She blinked slowly.

Contemplatively. Her body sucking down deep breaths in an attempt to calm itself.

"Your secret, Elise, make it mine. I promise I'll be right here after you tell me. Right here. Touching you."

She blinked again.

Magically. Like the action squashed her fear.

"I can't even tell my sisters," she managed, her silver eyes begging for understanding.

I nodded. "Just our secret."

"I'm--" her words died in a gasp for breath.

"Sh. No tears." I rubbed her cheek with my thumb.

She gulped and begged me with those pleading eyes again. "Sherry and Violet too--" She slid her gaze to my chest.

"No looking away," I curled my fingers under her chin and lifted those haunted eyes back up into view. "Take it slowly."

She blinked so fast her eyelids looked like butterfly wings.

Yes. Go ahead and think. I nodded for encouragement.

"Langston--," she licked her lips. "He's not our father."

Oh? "Now, how is that so awful? I don't know anyone who wants to be a warlord's child." I tried to sound humorous.

She didn't laugh. Her face squinted with budding tears. "We never met our father."

"Sh." I petted the curve of her lower back with my other hand.

She quieted.

"I think you're almost finished." I smiled just to keep her talking.

She nodded, gulping down another breath, and straightened her shoulders.

Gods, she was so pathetic. But beautiful. I planted a kiss on her forehead.

Just to try to give her some confidence.

She nodded again. "I'm," her voice began to squeak, "half alien." She slammed her face in her palms and sobbed, trembles racking her body again.

And Shifters aren't? Where did she get these ideas? "Elise," I petted a palm from the top of her head down her silken hair to the path the plait of her braid made along the center of her back. Down to the bottom of her hard ribcage.

She sat there, holding her face, sobbing silently.

That's why she said she wanted to be normal. Rather, Normal. She wanted to live without fear of discovery. Live where she could touch and be touched. Well, she landed in the perfect place. "Elise, don't you know I'm half alien?"

She stilled, quieting, and sniffed.

"Look at me."

She dropped her hands to cup each other between our chests and stared at them.

I'd bite her right here and now if I thought she wouldn't hate me for not asking permission to mark her as mine. And we thought Mouthy Red was emotional. I'd just have to touch her until she loosened up. Even if it took forever. Well, we needed to be done with this discussion. "That's why you said you wanted to be Normal. Isn't it?"

She nodded.

"Well the rest of us here at this outpost don't like Normals. Unless we mate one. So, you'd better be thankful you're loaded with alien DNA."

Her timid gaze slowly crept up to meet mine.

Realization blossomed on her reddened face.

I used a thumb to brush the remaining cool dampness from her cheeks. "No more worries." I wagged my head.

She sniffed again. "Please, don't tell anyone," she barely whispered. "I can't stand for anyone to know. Violet, she's my responsibility."

Easy to do. But Augustus's innate curiosity that had him trained in biochemistry by the age of eighteen would be the death of me. He'd be furious if I didn't inform him. He'd want to run blood work and sample her genetic code. "I should tell my sire," I gently suggested.

Her calming composure burst into an avalanche of terror. She shoved off my lap, ran across the room until the wall stopped her progress, and paced out a path back and forth along the wall like a caged animal. "I shouldn't have told you," she sobbed. "Shouldn't have betrayed them." She spun to me and halted. "She's only ten." She set off on her march again.

Why? Won't she listen? We're so alike. Why would I betray a woman I can mate? But she doesn't believe that. She needs to. I made my way to her and grabbed her shoulders. "Elise, listen to me. We're the same."

"No you aren't. You aren't truly half alien. I'm the freak. The monster." She threw up her hands and stared at her empty palms. "This healing power, it's different. It's strong." Her teary gaze locked on mine. "They made me what I am for some stupid reason. A reason they didn't have when they made Shifters." She threw her face back into her palms.

The crying had to end. It did nothing but interfere with reason here. I pulled her against my chest, wrapped my arms around her trembling shoulders, and petted her slender back hoping to put an end to her fears. "Listen to me. You're worried about nothing. Nobody will dissect you or put you in a cage. That's what humans did before AEI. Now, it's save every human we can. And you're human."

"Half," she sobbed. "They'll see me as the enemy. And Violet." She snapped her head back, her mask beyond panic. "They can't hurt her. She's only ten."

Silly woman. Marking her would shut her up. If I bit her, she'd have to know my Wolf would never let anyone take her from him. Yes. That's the answer. Whether she approves or not. I leaned down to the stiff curve of her ear. "I told you I'd make it all go away."

Her chest kept quaking.

I rubbed her clavicle. Hard. Enough to pull the strap of her tank out of the way. Here goes. I drew Wolf into my eyes and sank my fangs into her soft skin.

Her body went rigid. "Lucius?" she called with a twinge of fear to her bewildered voice.

She couldn't be afraid for long. Not when I bound myself to her. I withdrew my fangs from her salty flesh and kissed the bite.

Just in case the serious cuts hurt. I pulled back, enough to find her nose turned to my cheek.

Her gray eyes were as round as the full moon. She watched me ease away, staring up at me. "You marked me?"

Good. The tears are gone.

Her confused expression was so moving that I should have thrown her on the bed and made things crystal clear. I petted her cheek with a palm and held the mindless length of her against my body. "I told you I'd slay your demons. Now, nobody can take you away from Wolf. From me."

Her mouth opened and closed again. Wordlessly.

"I know it's a shock. I should have asked you for permission. But you were so upset." I hope she understands what this means for a Shifter. Wolf would want her. Claim her. "You don't have to do anything else. No touching. Nothing. For me, that's torture. Wolf will want to claim his mate though. But I won't even touch you again unless you ask me to."

She closed her mouth, her gaze gliding across my face.

As if she tried to understand. To fathom the consequences of my actions. Or the way her future turned from terrifying to normal.

"Thank you," she managed.

I could have squeezed her to death. "Do you want me to leave?"

"No."

Mine
, Wolf sighed.

But I wasn't about to push anything else or my luck by forcing her to mate. "What do you want, Elise?"

She slid her hands around to my back and pressed into my chest, tightly. "Talk to me," she whispered.

Almost as if she feared I wouldn't. I'll show her. Talking is a good place to start.

****

He'd lost his mind marking me. But he'd marked his life away, tossed it aside on a woman he'd never discussed mating with. Saved me. I couldn't stand the thought of him leaving. Not yet. After what he'd done for me. We can talk. I wanted to talk. Can't stand the idea of being alone after confessing to him…

And the heat of his pliant skin. So comforting. I could fade away into the solitude of him smashed against a wall of his warm flesh.

He turned to the bed, drawing me around in his embrace a few inches. "Sit with me?"

Beds meant mating. Yet, that didn't matter after the marking. I could be touched now. Yes. By him. And he knew all my dark secrets. There isn't anything to be ashamed of. Nothing to make me flinch. Besides, he has to respect me enough to mark me. What insane Wolf would agree to marking just any woman? He'd have to live his life with a mate he couldn't stand if he took a mate he didn't want in his bed. I nodded.

He guided me to the bed and nudged me downward, out of his comforting arms, until I sat alone on the soft bedding. "Coffee?" He hovered, the same male mass resonating of strength I'd wanted to notice me not so long ago.

Coffee meant he'd stay and talk a bit. Help me get a grip on what just happened. Besides, I hadn't gotten to drink the cup I had already prepared. I nodded.

He turned to the mantle where the other two cups sat and busied himself with the pot.

Those powerful arms moving effortlessly. His long legs, barely bowed in those baggy jeans. Pants just loose enough to appear to appreciate his form. And so narrow, that waist. How would it feel to curl up against all that glorious skin?

Why did my thoughts stray to his body? Touching? Maybe I'm just desperate for sex. Frustrated after so many years of abstinence. No. Lucius had attracted me for other reasons. Because of his strength. His protectiveness. Because of my fear since my sire abandoned me.

He snatched the cup I left on the table, going to great lengths to toss the cold coffee out the door.