Scorpio Sons 1: Colton (13 page)

"What I need to know is if you're part of the Résistance."

Her mother gasped and covered her mouth, turning to stare at her husband uncertainly. That was another answer.

"Who told you?" Now her father's voice had hardened. His usually gentle gaze was harsh, as if she was some alien being who'd taken over his daughter's body.

"Colt, Connor, do you want to come in here?" she said, not raising her voice at all. Immediately, the identical twins, the clones, entered the house from back and front and came into the dining room.

"The night I was attacked on campus, Colt saved me." She indicated Colt who was standing stiffly by the door, his gaze stony. "I never told anyone that he wasn't quite … human. How he took down those guys, the way his eyes turned feline. But I didn't know until a couple of days ago what I was. That I was bred to be a mate to one of the cloned warriors."

"Cloned warriors? What are you talking about, Honey." Her mom looked genuinely surprised by this piece of information.

"So you didn't know that part. What were you told about me? And just so you know, Colt and Connor aren't really my bodyguards. They're just like me, genetically modified with panther DNA."

Two sets of eyes turned to stare at the Sons, mouths ajar.

"You are Résistance, aren't you?" Connor asked, his accent very pronounced.

"Y…Yes. We were asked to take part in a project that was very hush-hush. There was no birth mother, Ally. Your mother was impregnated with your embryo and gave birth to you. But you looked too different from us to pass as our child so we said you were adopted."

"And you knew you were getting a baby that wasn't human? How could you have something like that growing inside you?" Alyssa said, barely containing her disgust.

"You're better than human, Ally. And you're meant for great things. Not this singing lark, but something else they wouldn't tell us about. But we wanted to do our part. And your mother couldn't conceive, so it was a win-win situation as far as we were concerned. And we've never regretted that decision for a moment. You're the best daughter a father could ever ask for." His voice grew croaky and he cleared his throat of banked emotion.

"So you never knew what my purpose was?" She couldn't let her father's words influence her. These people had lied to her, her whole life. She wasn't sure she could forgive them for that.

"No. They never told us."

"Do you still have contact with your cell?" Colt demanded, his eyes taking on the gleam of cat. She felt her own stirring.

"Yes. We're asked to do certain things at different times. Insignificant things like defending a certain client, depositing money in a certain account. We never know why, nor do we want to. All we care about is doing our part to bring down the creatures that control our planet."

"The Guild." Alyssa spat the word, hating the taste of it on her tongue.

"Yes. The Guild. How have you found all this out, Ally? Who are these men?" Her father was still staring at Connor and Colt as if waiting for them to sprout horns, or turn cat.

"My grand purpose was to be a brood-mare for Colt," Alyssa said, no longer trying to disguise her disgust.  "I was created so that a bunch of test-tube baby boys could continue their new species. I'm meant to bear the next generation of warriors who will fight the Guild."

"Fuck, Alyssa, you know we don't want that. That was some bastard scientist's plan, not ours," Colt exclaimed, his eyes turning fully cat. Her own followed suit and she watched as her parents reacted to what she truly was.

"It doesn't matter what you and the Sons want; that was what I was bred for. That's my grand place in the scheme of things. How disappointed are you now, Dad? Maybe my singing lark is looking better with every passing minute. I know it is to me."

"Ally, your women's lib beliefs are stopping you from seeing the truth," her father said in the painfully patient tone he only used on her when she was being childish. "Okay, so being the mother of a new generation of fighters doesn't sound like something special, but anything we can do to help eradicate those bastards is worth doing. I don't know anything about these warriors you say you were bred for, but if they have any chance of bringing down the Guild, then you have to do your part to help them."

Alyssa stood up very slowly. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her father was willing to offer her up as a baby-making machine to help further their cause. He didn't consider her wants in this matter, only what he saw as her duty. Damn, what did she expect of a man who allowed his wife to be impregnated with some monstrous science experiment?

She walked slowly out of the room, heading for the front door. Without thought of a coat for the icy night, she opened the door and headed into the darkness beyond. At that moment, she couldn't stand to be around any of them. Who she was, what she was, had been created for one purpose alone. It didn't matter that she could sing or write beautiful songs; all that mattered was that she fucked another monster and produced more baby monsters who could fight to bring down their enemy.

And that was just shit!

CHAPTER TWELVE

Alyssa ran; the snow-covered ground beneath her feet, such a rarity in Portland, flew past at super-human speed. The very act drove her even wilder. She didn't want to be this creature that could move so fast. She didn't want to be genetically engineered to meet the Sons sexual needs, or have any part in this war that she'd only just found out was being waged. All she wanted was to write songs and sing. Instead, she'd been drawn into a web of danger she had no idea how to escape; or even if she should
try
.

The streetlights in their quiet, suburban neighbourhood barely provided much light, but Alyssa's eyes had no trouble seeing where she was going. And she knew exactly where she wanted to be: the park two blocks away where she and her friends had built forts and played during the long summer vacations of her childhood.

Back then, they'd felt so safe and protected from the world beyond their quiet, little backwater. Back then, the world had seemed benign, for all the news that filtered in about wars and global disasters. That news wasn't real. Playing in the park was real. Going to school was real. Not alien monsters that were secretly sucking the life out of her planet.

By the time she reached the large, tree-covered recreational area she knew someone was following her. Her senses told her the identity of the man quickly closing the gap between them.

Colt.

She sped up. The last person she wanted to deal with right now was the creature she'd been bred for. The man who was too freaked out by their 'not normal' sex that he didn't want to do it again. It wasn't worth the price he had to pay, he'd told her.
She
wasn't worth the price he had to pay.

But the relentless, pounding steps were closing in on her. Just as she prepared to bound into the branches of the tree that had been her safe-haven as a kid, he caught her and knocked her to the ground. It didn't hurt. Colt made sure that he landed under her, shielding her from all but the jolt of hitting the frozen earth. The snow wasn't thick enough to provide a cushion, and she heard him grunt as he met the unforgiving surface.

For a moment, she gasped in his grip, feeling the heat of his hard body pressed against her own; feeling the traitorous emotions, such as longing and desperation, rising to the surface. She didn't want to be around him now. If he didn't want to have sex with her because it wasn't worth the cost, then she didn't want to be around him because
he
wasn't worth the pain of rejection.

Why couldn't he just leave her alone? There was nobody after her. She was perfectly safe here in her childhood hideaway. Why couldn't he give them both the space they needed?

But Colt was running his fingers through her hair, purring softly into it as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do. They could have been lazing on a pool-bed in the Bahamas, instead of on the unusually snowy ground of winter Portland, for all the signs he showed of discomfort.

Angrily, she pushed against his chest, trying to get up and away from him. Being this close was a temptation she didn't need. If she didn't get away from him soon she'd be throwing herself at him, and feeling the sting of his rejection again.

Pushing against Colt was like pushing against the side of a building. He wouldn't budge. If anything, his arms tightened imperceptibly around her, the harder she tried to force some distance between them.

"Let me go, Colt. Why can't you just leave me alone?" she cried, feeling the traitorous tears welling.

Instead of doing as she asked, his hands slid up her back until they fisted in her hair, close to the base of her skull. Inexorably, he drew her head back with her hair until her face aligned with his. Only then did he lean up to claim her mouth. Was he panting from exertion or from something else? No, neither of them had found the race to the park strenuous. These gasping pants were something else.

That was her last lucid thought as his mouth clamped over hers and he began to devour her. Without realising how she did it, her hands settled on his erection crushed between them and felt the hardness of it, the breath-taking potency of it. But the power was all hers in that moment, because as she touched him, he released her mouth to arch his head back and groan.

Alyssa felt her own power. Colt might be bigger and stronger than she was, but she could hold him in the palms of her hands. And he was lost.

In one swift about-face, Alyssa found herself on the cold damp ground with Colt above her. She didn't need to see his eyes to know he'd gone cat. She was already there. While he kissed his way down her neck, she worked his belt, trying to get to what was only hinted at beneath his dark slacks. On another groan, Colt reached between them and undid his belt and slacks so she would wrap her cold hands around his heated flesh. He hissed at the first contact. Was it from cold or pleasure? She knew so little about sex.

But the purr vibrating up from deep in his throat gave her the answer she needed. Pleasure. She was giving him pleasure. But it wasn't enough. While one hand held his throbbing cock, the other ran up under his shirt and stroked the hot, smooth skin of his back. The feel of his muscles shifting under her fingers was pure eroticism.

Colt shoved up her sweatshirt so he could get to her breasts. The cold was shocking, the hot wetness of his mouth closing over one nipple was even more so. Arching into him, she moaned, her hand tightening around his hard length, feeling it pulse beneath her palm.

She'd changed into sweats when the camera crew had left, and now Colt was making fast work of the string at the waist of the pants. He shoved the pants down roughly so that as he suckled her aching nipple he could cup her sex in his cool hand. But even the thrust of one long finger inside her couldn't counter the pain of snow against her bare butt for long.

As if sensing the problem, Colt rolled, reversing their positions again, so his greatcoat lay beneath them. But the logistics were too difficult, and in the blink of an eye, Colt had brought them both to their feet and positioned her against the trunk of her favourite tree. Then he was peeling off her sweatpants and lifting her up to meet his waiting cock.

There was no preparing her, no foreplay. In one hard thrust, Colt buried himself deep inside Alyssa's body as he wrapped her legs around his waist and pressed her into the trunk. For the longest time, after he was fully sheathed inside her, he held perfectly still, panting and growling deep in his throat.

The urge to bite him became impossible to ignore. With frantic fingers she tore the button-down shirt back from his neck so she could taste his skin with her tongue. Then, when he least expected it, she buried her lowered canines into his flesh, tasting his blood for the first time.

Colt jerked his head back and cried out. But neither of them did more. She held him in place with her teeth, he held her core impaled on his cock. The trickle of blood escaping the wounds wasn't great, but it tasted like nothing she had ever known before: coppery, tangy, and totally Colt. Ambrosia.

Alyssa could feel his arousal spike, taking her with him. The orgasm that overtook her had her digging even deeper into his neck as the stars exploded against her closed eyes. Colt groaned and grasped her butt harder, burying himself deeper still, as the flood of boiling seed spurted into her.  As another orgasm rose up to claim her, Alyssa released Colt's neck so she could cry her release into the dark night. Through it all, their bodies had remained almost unnaturally still.

When the Bliss had released them both, Colt leaned his head against the trunk of the tree. Alyssa could feel his still hard cock flex inside her. How could this joining, so fast and frenzied, feel every bit as satisfying as the last?

"I know what you mean about the bite now. Fourth of July… just like Fourth of July. But can you close the wound. I'm dripping blood onto my shirt." His words were barely more than a gravelled whisper, but she heard them clearly. Obediently, she used her tongue to seal the pinpricks over so that not even a mark or redness showed what she'd done. How was that possible? Wasn't that what vampires were supposed to be able to do?

Vampires weren't real, she reminded herself.

But then, neither were cat-people, or so she'd always believed.

How could she go her whole life and not know what she was?

Slowly, reluctantly, Colt withdrew from her body and reached for her wet sweatpants lying in the snow. Fumbling, he got one of her shoeless feet into the hole of her underwear and sweats and then the other. Then, with utmost sensuality he pulled the pants up over her freezing, naked legs and butt. When had she lost her sneakers? Her socks were wet and cold.
She
was wet and cold, now that her body was coming down off the high of moments before.

As if knowing what she was thinking, Colt looked around and found her discarded shoes. Kneeling in the snow he replaced first one sneaker and then the other, before lacing them up. Only then did he reposition himself, tuck in his shirt, zip his slacks and rebuckle his belt.

Once clothes were back where they needed to be, Colt picked her up and buried his head in her neck, using his greatcoat to surround them both. Thank god one of them had been dressed for the outdoors.

Without a word, Alyssa wrapped her legs and arms around him again, holding him close.

"If I say anything right now it'll probably be the wrong thing and you'll hate me again," he mumbled into her hair.

"Probably. But I need to know. That wasn't normal either was it?" she asked, just checking. She was pretty sure that what they'd done was far too intense and shattering to be in the normal range of sexual activity. But it was as different as night was from day compared to the sex they'd had back at the hotel. That seemed tame compared to the raw, hasty connection they'd just shared.

"I've had sex like that most of my adult life. When I say
like that
I mean in a hurry, standing up, with most of our clothes on." He swallowed a few times before continuing. "But that was where the similarity ends. That was… fuck, I haven't got words to describe it. That was in another realm. So… no, not normal."

"And not worth the price," she finished for him. The hurt she felt saying it was nothing compared to the pain of believing it.

"Jeezus, Lyss, stop repeating my unfiltered ravings back at me." His exasperation was apparent. "I was freaked out. I'd never experienced anything like that before. I didn't know how to fit that experience, fit you, into my violent and unpredictable life. It was never meant as a complaint. How could I complain about something so damned incredible?"

"You did a pretty good job of it."

He kissed her then, tenderly. "I know you resent being manufactured for me, but I've never been so grateful for anything in my life. Regis made up for everything he did to me when he made you. I love you. It's probably nothing more than a chemical reaction, but it feels real. When you sang last night…I couldn't breathe. I literally couldn't breathe while I listened to you. Right then, I realised for the first time that I wasn't alone anymore, and it felt… amazing."

"But you've had the Sons…How could you feel alone when you're one of them?"

His lips tickled her neck for a moment before he spoke again. "With them I feel part of a whole, an identical piece of a whole. And there is a sense of belonging that comes with that. But at the same time, I also want to be different, special. Not an interchangeable part. Loving you, knowing how you feel about me… and only me… makes me feel unique, yet still part of something. Part of us. Shit, I'm making no sense, and you have to be freezing."

She shook her head and snuggled in closer when he attempted to put her down. "I think I get it. I'm not sure I'd like staring at a room full of women who look just like me. I'd lose my sense of self, even if I dressed differently and behaved differently from them. But I get what you mean about us. I feel like we're a unit; different, unique parts of one unit that fit perfectly together. And I'm really glad I imprinted on you, or whatever happened. I'm glad it was you, and not any of the others, that I fell for."

Colt kissed her again, this time slowly and deeply, seeming to revel in the luxury of taste and touch. Then he took a step back and helped her get her feet under her again.

"Come on. We can't stay out here all night. Connor will come looking for us soon, and your parents will be suspicious."

She chuckled and let him wrap an arm around her waist as he guided them both back down the street.

Then the seriousness of the situation hit home. "I think I'm past worrying what my parents think. They raised me for the Résistance, without knowing what would become of me. I was just grist for the mill of the greater good. That feels like betrayal of the worst kind to me."

"On some level we've all been betrayed and used. I guess we have to keep the big picture in mind. It wasn't Regis and the Résistance who set up the research project that created the Sons. It was the Guild. Alien beings who have been eating us alive for millennia. For us, the Résistance was our saviour. Otherwise we would have been raised to wreak more havoc on the planet.

"For you and your sisters the situation is a little different. You were not the work of the Guild. You really were created for us. But it seems that they made sure you had a good mother who carried you in her womb, nurtured you with her body, and gave you a loving home. And it seems to me that those people you call your parents do love you, no matter the reason they initially underwent the procedure. I guess you have to decide if their reasons for doing what they did are good enough, and whether being my mate is worth the price."