Chapter Ten

Levi stared at the woman in his arms, trying not to let panic swamp him. He shouldn’t have said that earlier, during the first of many times they’d come together tonight. Not any of it.

In the heat of the moment the wish had seemed so…vital. And she’d been right there with him, screaming her yes for all the world to hear. But the sadness after…

Gods, he hated himself for that.

He’d kept them busy since, trying to hold the world at bay by building a bubble of pleasure around them. But it couldn’t last, and as soon as the harsh light of day intruded, he had a feeling she’d regret all of it.

In a brush of a touch, he traced the bite mark he’d left on her bicep. Thanks to her healing, the bruising was almost gone. He should feel guilty that he’d bruised her at all. Only she’d done the same to him.

Satisfaction welled inside his chest, like a spring bubbling up from the ground.

She’d bit him a lot, the urge to mark her claim maybe even as primal as his own. Lyndi might not have understood what they were doing, but he sure as hell did. He’d never, in all his hundreds of years, experienced even the twinge of an urge to mark another woman in the same way. Or to will a baby into existence through their union. If anything, in the past he’d been extra careful to keep his mind from such thoughts. But given this was Lyndi, he’d let himself yearn, just for a heartbeat, for a miracle. To be able to give her something he knew she never let herself hope for. To create a life with her and keep them both forever.

Almost a violent need to make her his own. In every way.

But, despite how she’d claimed him in the grip of making love, he still knew she wasn’t ready. Not for what he had in mind. If he even hinted at wanting to mate, he’d lose her. Lyndi talked a good game, put on a tough show, but underneath all that bravado, she was terrified.

He was, too, dammit.

“You’re staring again,” she mumbled, eyes still closed.

Levi grinned. Instead of answering, he traced a teasing touch over the slopes of her breast, across her stomach and into damp curls to find her silkily ready for him. Her lips curled into a sweet smile.

In a swift move he rolled, taking her with him, positioning her so that he lay on his back and she straddled him, his cock pinned between his stomach and her damp heat.

“I like staring at you,” he said, letting his gaze roam over her flushed features. “I don’t plan to stop.”

Her eyes, still sleepy, went wide and then she smiled, dimples in full evidence, the beauty of it reaching inside him, bursting into warmth in the region of his heart, then spreading outward in a hurry as she slid down his shaft, impaling herself on him. Leaning forward, she laced their fingers together, pinning his hands to the mattress on either side of his head and using her grip as leverage as she slowly, torturously, undulated her hips.

Staring into his eyes with a small smirk—after last night, she knew better than to look away or close her eyes—she set the pace.

And he enjoyed every fucking second of the slow build, already on the brink of coming, holding it at bay through sheer will until the muscles inside her fluttered around him, her eyes flaring with red fire and, with a long moan, she came. Levi let go, tipping over into the abyss of sensation with her, filling her with himself and wishing like hell he could take root inside her—for her as much as for him—but loving her even more, though that could never happen.

She might not realize it yet, or be ready to acknowledge it, but Lyndi would always be his.

With a sigh that sounded so content his insides clenched in response, she leaned forward to kiss him soft and slow, humming a little, the sound anchoring inside him, as though she’d tied her heart to his.

Wishful thinking on his part.

With a reluctant grumble, she drew back, expression turning rueful. “We should get back. They’ll wonder where the groceries are.”

No, they wouldn’t. In the middle of the night, between bouts of mind-blowing, soul-rending sex, he’d called in a favor and made Hall go get them this morning.

Hall hadn’t said anything then, beyond grumbling about favors needing a time limit, but Levi had no doubt the green dragon was storing up something for later. No way could he not comment. Probably when they returned, which just gave him another reason to want to linger here.

But Lyndi wasn’t wrong about needing to get back. With a gusty sigh, clutching her to him so he didn’t break the physical connection, still buried deep within her, he levered them both out of bed. Lyndi laughed as she wrapped her arms and legs around him to hold on tight, the sound doing something to his soul that was this side of pain.

Gods above. He’d dreamed of this. Had almost lost hope of this after so long.

Don’t lose her, his dragon said.

Yeah. No shit.

He walked them right into the bathroom where he turned the shower on extra hot, the way all dragon shifters liked it, and stepped inside. Only the friction from walking combined with the heat of the water, and already he was swelling inside her.

Lyndi gasped then giggled. “Again?”

Levi pinned her to the wall and pumped his hips, stomach clenching as he captured the raw sound of her moan with his lips. Then he grinned and pumped harder. “Again.”

Keeping his hands off her now that his dragon had staked a claim by fire—not a mating, but a claim—and he’d staked his own with marks all over her body, was going to be damn difficult. Leaving her behind even harder.

One day left.

It took monumental effort to shove the panic of that reality down deep. He refused to ruin this moment he had with her, here and now, to focus on a future so darkly murky with doubt.

It took another two hours before they finally arrived back at the mountain. He hated to do it, but they’d left one car at the grocery store, which meant going back to get it. Pulling in behind Lyndi as they finally made it home, he remembered to turn on his phone, which he’d shut off after his call with Hall. Only to have the thing light up, dings going off in rapid succession as a series of texts and voicemails hit all at once.

Hurrying out of the truck, he took one look at Lyndi’s face, pinched with concern, and knew she’d done the same thing.

Only she had her phone up to her ear, listening to messages as she hurried into the training center, through the weight room, around to the left of the lockers, past the bunk beds and into the kitchenette where she slapped a hand on the scanner.

“Dammit. I knew we shouldn’t have—”

He put a finger to her lips, stopping the words before they could hurt him. “Don’t say it.”

The earliest message had only been sent ten minutes ago. There was little they could have done, even here, and no message that the team had gone out was included in those he’d skimmed through in the seconds he’d had.

She stared at him as the panel silently whooshed open. Then she nodded, and he took his hand away. “Let’s go.”

Neither questioned where they were going. They already knew where the full team would be assembled. The war room or the large conference room next door.

Sure enough, sound filtered down the hall from the larger conference room.

Levi pulled up sharply as they turned the corner. “Holy shit.” A packed room…including Aidan and Sera.

Despite the immediate concern that had his dragon prowling in his head, Levi grinned. “Fuck, rookie, it’s good to see your ugly mug.” He wrapped the blue dragon, once one of Lyndi’s orphans, in a hug, slapping his back.

“You can’t call me rookie anymore with these pups on the team.” Aidan hitched a chin at his orphaned brothers who glowered back through cracking smiles.

Levi shrugged and moved to Sera. “You, too, gorgeous.”

She hugged him back, then moved to return Lyndi’s hug.

“Where’s Blake?” Lyndi asked.

Sera’s gaze flickered, the emotion hard to pin down. “In the tunnel with Demyan. He’s gotten too big to fit down human-sized hallways. He…still can’t shift.”

Lyndi nodded her understanding. Sera’s son from her human marriage had shifted in the same instant Sera had after she’d been turned. As though mother and son were linked. But he didn’t seem to be able to reverse it.

And Demyan was here, too? Another orphan who’d never quite joined Lyndi’s group, the white dragon was one of the best message runners, stealthier even than black dragons, Levi had ever seen. And the only one to know where Aidan and Sera were hiding at any given time.

Levi looked over to find Lyndi worrying at her lip with her teeth. Damn his dick, which swelled at the sight. Clearing his throat, he turned back to Aidan. “When did you get here?”

If they’d arrived in daylight, they’d risked a lot. The Alaz team and the Alliance both had reasons to keep a close eye on the Huracáns these days. Which meant they were desperate.

Aidan urged Sera into a seat, though she took his hand. “Demyan got us in late last night, but we waited in the back tunnel until daylight, just to be sure we hadn’t been followed.”

The kid was scary smart when it came to his ability to get in and out of places. He’d had to be, learning the hard way when he’d crossed over from Russia alone. The colonies were easier for orphans than the clans.

Levi eyed the gathered team, getting only grim expressions in return. “What have you talked about already?”

“Nothing,” Aidan answered. “Just a lot of hugs and getting assembled down here.”

“Good. I won’t have to make you repeat it then.”

Aidan shot him a crooked, exhausted grin. “Like you could make me do anything, old timer.”

Levi snorted, then grabbed the closest chair. Except Lyndi made to move around to the other side of the table.

No way was his dragon having that. Him, either.

In a silent move, Levi snagged her by the wrist, then looked pointedly at the chair beside him before raising his eyebrows at her. He earned a sharp glare, and he knew exactly why. Because with that one small action, he’d told the entire team a hell of a lot. If Aidan and Sera being here wasn’t so serious, he would’ve shot his lover an unrepentant grin. Damned if he was going to let her hide them in the dark like a dirty secret, sordid and embarrassing.

Ignoring every other person in the room, he let go of her wrist and waited, more curious than anything, to see what she’d do next.

Eyes narrowed on him, promising retribution that he had an inkling he’d enjoy a lot more than in the past, she sank, stiff-backed, into the chair. But still beside him. Levi couldn’t regret the smug triumph expanding his chest or the satisfied rumble of his dragon.

“So, why are you here?” Finn’s question, couched in his low rumble, had Levi sitting forward, elbows on his knees.

Focus, dammit.

He was losing his touch, thanks to the woman at his side.

“Demyan got us out of the house we’d been staying in for a few months now. Just in time, too. We watched them blow it to hell with a grenade launcher.”

Fuck. The room rippled with reaction.

Almost as a code of honor, shifters didn’t often use human weapons. They were living weapons. To debase yourself that way was almost as dishonorable as turning rogue on purpose.

“Who?” Finn demanded.

“I’m not sure,” Aidan said. He exchanged a long look with Sera, residual fear for his mate and their son reflected in the grim set of his jaw, his lips a white slash. “Demyan says he recognized an Alaz dragon. We didn’t actually see them.”

The Alaz again? Hell. What were those bastards up to? Retribution? Orders from the Alliance?

“Why come here, though?” Levi asked.

“Because every other safe house was destroyed as well. With no other place to go, we’re headed to Rune, but getting to him is tricky since we don’t know exactly where he is.”

“Coming here puts us all in danger,” Kanta said slowly. No accusation in his voice, just stating facts in his way.

Aidan speared a hand through his hair. “We’re hoping that this would be the last place they’d think we’d dare to come. We’ve heard rumors, even as isolated as we’ve been.”

“What kind of rumors?” Finn asked slowly.

“Same things you’re hearing, I expect. Enforcers cracking down on even the smallest of the laws, going group by group to inspect. A few shifters disappearing…mates, orphans, rogues of course. They’ve had it out for us since I mated Sera. Worse probably after the thing with Drake and Cami. We’re all on their shit list.”

Levi exchanged a glace with Finn and Drake. The rookie wasn’t wrong. “Makes sense that they’d double down on searching for Aidan. The question is…is this coming from the Alliance or is the Alaz team acting alone?”

Aidan stiffened, ice-blue eyes sparking. “Why would the Alaz team go off on their own that way? Unsanctioned?”

Levi raised his brows at Drake who gave a low growl. “They lost one of their men in a scuffle that involved Cami and her family. Because of Rune’s involvement, the Alliance stuck with blaming him rather than us. Tineen, however, does blame us. He’s got to be pissed. I would be.”

Finn nodded slowly. “I think you’ve got to be right. As far as the Alliance is concerned, we’re to be monitored but are otherwise untouchable. This, all of it, the way it’s piling up, feels more like…”

“Retribution,” Levi spat.

A series of nods circled the room like a wave.

Sera scooted forward in her chair, slipping her hand into her mate’s, the gesture unconsciously done. “So they’re coming after us harder to hurt you, maybe to get you to react, as proof for the Alliance?”

Levi straightened at the same time as the others. Why hadn’t they seen it sooner? This had to be exactly what the Alaz team was doing. Provoking the Huracáns like poking a stick at a rattlesnake. Eventually, the serpent would strike, and they’d get their proof and permission from the Alliance to behead the danger.

“Then this attack on Aidan and Sera wasn’t just tracking them down,” Kanta said. “This was a declaration of war on us and anyone associated with us.”

The room went deadly quiet, shock reverberating through it like someone had taken a hammer to a bell. Holy fuck. If they were right about this, even if these moves against them were sanctioned by the Alliance, shit was about to hit the fan.

Whatever the Alaz’s next move was going to be, it no doubt was coming soon.

And I’m leaving tomorrow. I’m abandoning my team when they need me most.

Lyndi was the first to speak. “Rune is still part of the equation, then. He might not be the safest place to go.”

She wasn’t wrong.

“He’s too far away for them to get to easily,” Drake assured everyone.

Aidan’s brows went up. Being gone as long as they had, he and Sera had missed a lot.

“Only Drake and Cami know where Rune is,” Levi explained.

Drake’s jaw worked before he glanced at his mate. Cami nodded. “Where he is, is probably your safest bet.”

“Where’s that?” Aidan asked.

“I’ll only tell the two of you in private,” he said. He shot a hard stare around the table. “Not that I don’t trust the rest of the team, but if we’re right about this and the Alaz gets ahold of one of us, the fewer people who know, the better. The Alliance, too. He’s still top of their Most Wanted.”

Aidan turned his gaze to Sera, communicating with her in that silent way mates had. “We’ll leave as soon as night falls.”

Levi nodded, seeing no other way.

Drake didn’t do anything, which meant he also agreed.

“We’ll need to keep them isolated in the mountain until they go,” Levi said, thinking of their scents, which other dragons would pick up if they came, even a day later. “Actually…” Levi mused. “The best place for you would be the dungeons.”

Lyndi whipped around to send him a glare. “We are not making them—”

“Trust me,” he mouthed.

She cut herself off mid-word, and he almost had to laugh at her expression. A mix of still irritated and confused and reluctant turning to belief.

She gave the tiniest nod, just for him, and that warm contentment in his chest expanded, easing the grip on his bones. It had taken over two hundred years. One tiny battle won with her. Another step forward.

“We have to stay down here anyway,” Aidan said. “Blake can’t get upstairs.”

“Good. If someone were to drop by, they’d scent you in there primarily. We could say we’d caught you, but you escaped.”

“A plausible lie,” Lyndi murmured.

Levi tipped his chin at her, holding her gaze. See min eneste, I’m for us. Not against us.

She dropped her gaze, hiding her thoughts from him with a sweep of her dark lashes.

“That will work,” Aidan agreed.

“Thank you,” Sera said at the same time, as though the two had already discussed it and responded simultaneously.

Levi blinked. Damn. Not even Delaney and Finn were that in sync yet. Deep and Calla did that often, but they’d been mated for a long time. Perhaps the need to hide and run and move constantly had fast-forwarded the bond the younger couple had formed.

“Is Blake downstairs?” Lyndi asked Sera. “I want to see him.” Without a backward glance, she left the room with all the women, chattering about Sera’s son from her first marriage to a human.

Levi didn’t realize he was staring after her, working through the hole that seemed to sit inside him with her absence, until Hall clapped him on the shoulder. “What was it that scared you away from the grocery store? It was the cucumbers, right? Like green dicks.”

Levi ignored him, heading out of the room and into the war room.

He should’ve known the men would follow. All except Drake and Finn. They already knew what they needed to know.

“Go away,” he said. “I’m on duty. You’re not.”

No one moved an inch.

With a sigh, Levi spun in the chair he’d dropped into to face them, taking in their expressions. None of his brothers in arms looked concerned, though they had every right to be. Instead, they appeared curious.

“We figured talking always helps,” Rivin said.

Behind him, Hall rolled his eyes. “Sharing feelings is not our thing.”

“But he’s gotta have things to get off his chest,” Rivin countered with a hand thrown out in Levi’s direction.

Hall just grinned. “I have no interest in some kind of kumbaya moment. I’m here to screw with a buddy.”

“Then you can keep quiet,” Kanta stepped in, still zen-like and yet his annoyance made itself felt. “Or I’ll get Drake to join in on this conversation.”

“You can’t do that,” Hall pointed out, smug. “Drake will cut Levi’s balls off if he knew the guy was fucking Lyndi.”

“I already said what needed to be said to Drake and Finn,” Levi informed them, leaning back in his seat, ostensibly at ease. “The rest is private between me and Lyndi.”

Hall dropped into a chair across from him, suddenly intent. “We weren’t asking for the dirty details—”

“Speak for yourself,” Rivin and Keighan said in stereo.

Kanta smacked them both across the backs of their heads.

Hall shot them a glare for good measure, then turned back to Levi. “We just want to make sure you know what you’re doing. This has a high fuck-up probability.”

“No shit.”

“What Hall means, in his unique way, is…you’re leaving,” Kanta said.

Also no shit. Levi was just waiting for the new moon and the cover of full darkness to head out.

“Is she going with you?” Kanta asked.

Levi shook his head. “She can’t, and I wouldn’t ask her to. The clans are at war.”

Even the wonder twins didn’t crack a joke at that.

“Then what are you going to do?” Kanta again.

“Ask her to wait.”

Quiet settled over the men. The kind that happened sometimes when they were dealing with a fire, or with any of the thousand serious incidents that had piled up over the years. The kind of quiet that acknowledged that sometimes there were no good answers, just shitty options.

“We’ll keep her safe,” Kanta promised. “We have your back. No matter what. Hers, too.” The others nodded, eyes suddenly glowing with dire determination, the colors bouncing off the walls in greens and whites.

“I know you do.” Only he wouldn’t fucking be here, and that was tearing him apart.

The guys peeled away, heading out of the room and back topside by the sound of the feet in the halls.

“We’re really happy for you,” Hall paused to say. One of the rare occasions he dropped the sarcasm. “You know that, right?”

Levi paused. “Yeah,” he said. “I know.”

Hall nodded, then slid out of the room.

For the first time, maybe ever, fear buried its hooks into Levi’s psyche. Finding his way to mating Lyndi would be akin to traversing a minefield blindfolded. From across the damn ocean, because no way was this happening before he left tomorrow.

Please don’t let this end up with either of us torn up and bloody from the explosion.