“Britony.”
Brit cast a startled glance around. That familiar voice felt as though it was a low rumble against her neck. Goose bumps flooded the already sensitive flesh in reaction. She was, of course, alone in the small room, but the heavy feeling as though someone stood next to her didn’t abate. Could that be another symptom?
“Calm yourself. Dr. Rupple didn’t experiment on you.”
Vin? Another ripple of awareness slithered down her neck and shoulders, drawing her nipples into tight peaks. With a gasp, she pressed her hands over them to ease the sharp tingling. How could he be communicating with her, let alone having this strong an influence on her body? Tag had never been able to so much as speak telepathically with her if she wished to keep him out.
“I’m a much stronger telepath than my brother.”
Heat coursed down the right side of her neck as though he breathed the words against her skin. Brit nearly moaned as the flood of sensation continued down to pool in her belly.
“And we’re much, much stronger together.”
His voice was hypnotic as it filled her mind, overwhelming her—a dark, endless rumble against her nerve endings. She struggled to push her thoughts to the surface of the languorous ebb that was her sense of him. If this wasn’t a response to something Dr. Rupple did to her, then how could they be having such a powerful impact on her? She’d been cool and rational and capable of compartmentalizing every aspect of herself until those two happened to her. Even as the question rose in her consciousness, she was afraid she knew the answer.
“Always thinking, Doc.”
A chuckle reverberated through her, sending every synapse firing through her body. She recognized that voice
and
her reaction to it. Tag.
And Vin. It couldn’t be possible. Drachon were possessive, their overprotective instincts toward their mates legendary. Admittedly, she knew very little about the species, but she’d never even heard so much as a whisper about threesomes.
“Not a threesome, a triad. Rare.”
Vin’s mental whisper felt hot against her ear, and she shivered. She jerked as the brush of fingers touched her hip and the heavy heat of a big hand settled low on her stomach.
“Special.”
She arched her hips and had to reach for the sink again to balance herself. The sensation didn’t leave with the movement, and she pressed her own hand over her stomach in defense. She could feel the muscles of her stomach clench beneath her palm, but the heat of that ghostly hand didn’t abate.
How was this possible? This couldn’t be happening. Not to her. Not now.
“To us, Doc. And it’s definitely happening.”
The wet brush of lips slid over her cheek and down her neck. She closed her eyes and tightened her grip on the sink. The frantic drum of her heart thudded in her ears, and she bit back a moan as it felt like those lips parted over her neck and nipped the sensitive valley that connected her neck to her shoulder.
“You’ve been exposed to our combined pheromones. Your body is already reacting.”
The heat of the hand against her belly slid lower until it spanned across her pelvis, teasing the rise of her mound.
“Changing.”
She was throbbing, her head, her breasts…between her legs. She could feel her blood surging recklessly through her body, carrying the hormones that were no doubt changing her even as she stood here, and her only weapon, her mind, was worthless against it. If they were right, then there was nothing she could do, no way to stop it.
“Ready or not, Doc.”
She was going into heat.
Chapter Twelve
“Still fighting it, I see.”
Tag grunted at Raife as the other Drachon strolled into the tech room. The man went straight to his mate, who was working with a single-minded efficiency that Tag wished he could affect. As it was he had given up even the pretense of working hours ago. He followed Doc’s every move on the video feed from the lab like a mutt would watch a stick being waved about. He wasn’t too proud to admit it. Tag wanted that damn stick, and he was going to lunge for it the first chance he got. He was just waiting for that chance.
And Doc did not make it easy.
“She in full heat?” Raife asked, coming to stand next to him in front of the wall of screens that displayed all the security feeds from the building.
“Yup.” Tag had seen her briefly this morning, and she was in high heat, her scent so strong he’d gone instantly hard and his eyes had flickered to heat vision. He and Vin couldn’t be in the same room with her, their combined pheromones more than they could withstand. Hell, just hers were almost too much to take. That near miss in the cafeteria last night excluded any other Drachon from working in the lab with her, which meant there was only Vin. Tag had no idea how the hell his brother could stand to be so close to her and not bend her over a lab table. Tag would have christened every surface in that damn lab by now.
“Can’t say I’m surprised. The doc is cold as ice,” Raife said and then swiveled to look at Katya, who’d obviously telepathically reprimanded him. “What? I’m just stating the obvious.”
Tag only snorted when a couple of days ago, those would have been fighting words. The difference was he
knew
now just how far off the mark they were. The doc wasn’t even close to ice. She was all fire and so damn hot it made his dragon writhe in anticipation. All he could think was she would make a magnificent mate, and he would more than enjoy the coming challenge. His stubborn little doctor was going to go down fighting.
Tag watched her lean over her microscope, his gaze dropping to admire the way the material of her slacks stretched taut over her ass.
Oh, yeah, the doc was going to go down…and down…and down.
“Figure out why your brother suddenly showed up?”
Tag glared at Raife, his licentious thoughts evaporating at the mention of his brother. Whatever motivated Vin had everything to do with their mate. “No.”
“Fuck, Jennings, that’d be at the top of my to-do list, considering.”
Tag grunted again and watched hungrily as Doc moved around her lab. She wasn’t graceful, not in a traditionally feminine way. She was precise, controlled, fierce, and focused. And it was damn sexy on her. The memory of her rose, pale legs straddling his hips, small fists clenched in his shirt as she rode him, blue eyes so intense. A shiver crawled up his thighs to clench around his balls, and he shook himself free from the image before he achieved his hundredth cockstand of the day.
“Whatever Vin’s problem is, I trust him with Brit,” Tag said and realized it was true. The past twenty years of his brother’s life was uncertain, darkened by so many shadows Tag wasn’t even sure he wanted to see past them. Vin’s loyalties were undoubtedly questionable, but his commitment to their mate was not.
Tag caught Raife’s frown from the corner of his eye. “And the doc? Do you trust her?”
And wasn’t that the question of the hour?
Did
he trust the doc?
Tag rubbed the day’s growth on his chin as he considered that. His little doctor was definitely up to something, but he was beginning to suspect whatever that something was had very little to do with helping the Triumvirate. No, this was the most focused and resolute he’d ever seen her. She was so intent on finding something in her work that she was able to resist the heat, which was damn impossible—or should have been. What the hell was she looking for? And why now?
If he thought back, the obsession had actually started when Katya appeared. It had to be linked to her. Tag arrowed a glance back at Katya where she was hunched over her computer terminal. That genetic mojo the doc had been involved with during her time with the Triumvirate had been used on Katya. Raife was worried about his pregnant mate and with good reason. If she died, so did Raife, and Katya was plainly not in the best of health. In fact Katya was very pale—more so today than last night. Dark shadows around her eyes made them appear sunken. She was obviously exhausted.
Tag turned to frown at the screen displaying the doc’s lab. Brit looked just as exhausted. From the moment she’d returned from that damn research center, she’d been working nonstop. It wasn’t uncommon to see her go for days when the fire of some discovery singed her ass, but this time it was different. That inhuman focus she was known for was definitely there, but this time it was sharp with an edge of something else… Desperation? Panic? That air of separation that always made the doc seem so cold was missing this time.
Tag stepped closer to the screen. Doc was flipping through those damn books she’d nearly gotten herself killed over. She fisted her hands on her hips and tilted her head. He couldn’t see her face, but he’d bet those pale eyes were staring blankly off at the ceiling. It was a posture he’d seen her take many times, often for twenty or more minutes without so much as twitching a finger. Once it had added to the peculiarity of the enigmatic doctor, but now he suspected she was going through all the damn files she kept stored in that wicked brain of hers.
Doc shook her head in agitation and began to riffle through the papers on the table with uncoordinated, frantic movements—very un-doclike behavior. Tag tried to gauge his brother’s reaction. Vin rose from where he’d had his eyes glued to a microscope moments ago and stared at the doc. Tag looked at another screen that provided a different angle of the lab, one where he could clearly see the lines of concern etched in his brother’s forehead.
Tag tried to touch Doc’s mind, but it was moving too quick, her thoughts appearing as nothing more than electric bursts of energy. Yet, the surge of anxiety and panic he felt didn’t need translation. He never could communicate with her when she was like this, but her emotional spill was a new thing, and it worried him. He focused on his brother instead.
“What’s going on?”
Vin’s gaze flicked to the camera before refocusing on Doc.
“I’m not sure exactly. She’s been like this since she was told all the survivors from the research facility had been transferred. She’s very agitated.”
“No fucking kidding, Vin. Why?”
“Hell if I know. She’s been pouring over those lab books since Forestor had them brought down.”
Brit suddenly screamed and threw one of Dr. Rupple’s lab books across the room. It collided with a tray of empty glass tubes on the next counter. She stared at the shattered glass, and confused panic crackled through the gap in her mental defenses.
“I’m coming down,”
Tag said, and he was already halfway to the door when Vin stopped him.
“NO! Stay there.”
Vin’s gaze focused on the camera as though he could see Tag.
“If you come down here, add your pheromones to the mix…it would be volatile. We’re only holding on now because we’re not combining.”
Tag paced in front of the screens, rubbing at the stubble of his sheared hair with one hand. Vin was right. Now that Brit was in high heat, the three of them in one space would be beyond combustible. In her current state, she might fight them too hard. Every Drachon loved a good scuffle during the mating, but he didn’t want Brit to actually get hurt. He and Vin were both big men, and she was so petite despite her strength and ferocity. If they were in the mindless state of a true mating fury and there were two males… No, it was better to hold off. Better to give her more time for the heat to wear her down.
“What the hell…”
Tag cast a distracted glare at Raife, who was frowning at another screen; then Tag looked back at the lab feeds. Vin was circling the lab table slowly, his mouth moving. He was speaking too softly for the mic in the lab to pick up his words, but whatever he was saying obviously didn’t sit well with Brit, because she picked up another lab book and threw it at Vin this time. Again anger leaked from her to coat the already existing flood of panic. She was unraveling and not in the sexy way he’d been fantasizing about for two days.
“What the fuck’s going on down there?”
When Vin didn’t respond, Tag growled and started pacing again. Fuck. He wanted to be in there. He had always been there to protect the stubborn doctor from herself, and now he had to leave the role to his brother. He’d known Vin would be sharing her but hadn’t realized that meant Tag would
actually
have to share her. It was more than just sex… Tag would have to share all of her.
Katya appeared beside them. Her pale blue eyes looked even more ethereal for the dark shadows surrounding them. “I can feel her from here,” Katya said breathlessly, “She’s so angry and…afraid.”
Afraid? Tag turned the word over in his mind as he considered what he was picking up off the doc. Fear, yes. What was she so afraid of? Her lips were moving, and Tag growled in frustration when he couldn’t understand what she was saying.
Dropping down into his chair, Tag pulled the keyboard to him and brought up the controls. He amped up the mic in the lab until he was able to get a clearer audio.
“…not there. She was in the files. The last entry was the day before I arrived. She was there. Oh God, he injected her with that—that…and he tried to kill her—did kill her over and over.” The doc paced away from Vin, pulling her hair back from her face in an agitated gesture. “I’ve got to find her.”
“Oh hell, ah— Tag?” Raife said, but Tag waved him off, his entire being focused on his unraveling almost-mate.
“Who is she talking about?”
Tag sent the thought to his brother.
Vin cast a cautious glance up at the camera.
“Meghann.”
“Tag, you’re going to want to see this.”
Tag waved Raife off again.
“Who the fuck is that?”
Tag ran his fingers over the keys, directing the camera to zoom in on his brother’s face. There was something wrong here. Vin looked almost…haunted, and he was mentally closed down tight.
“Her sister.”
“Hey, man.”
“What?” Tag swiveled in his chair to glare vacantly at Raife, Vin’s words still taking up most of his functioning brain cells. Brit’s sister had been killed with her parents back at the Triumvirate compound the night she’d escaped all those years ago. As far as he knew, she didn’t have any others.