Chapter Six

Almost as if a doorway into another dimension had opened, Connor and Kiran disappeared, in roughly two blinks becoming … bears?

Dana barely had time to register the change. As if her brain had slipped a cog and was stuck in one frame of the picture, she was still staring open mouthed, fixated on one point in space, when she realized the bear had bounded straight at her. In the time it took the man to let out a scream and jerk his automatic weapon up, the huge bear was right on top of them.

Him.

It swatted the man with a paw bigger than her head and the man’s head went in one direction and his body in another.

Shocked, Dana whipped her head around to follow the motion and watched blankly as the head bounced across the parking garage floor and the body crumpled and fell backwards.

Unfortunately, her captor’s fingers tightened on her arm before the shock of death could envelope him and he jerked her down with him. Before she could even try to get to her feet, the bear enveloped her, lifted her away from the downed man and then set her on her feet and shoved her down on the pavement.

Dana might have been able to cling to the illusion that there was a separation between the brothers and the bears except that Kiran shifted into a form that was part man and part beast, grasped the automatic weapon he was still carrying slung over his shoulder and began to shoot at the men that were still standing.

In a matter of moments, it seemed—though they weighed heavily and moved like frozen gel—the bears were all that remained standing.

Kiran—looking like Kiran—leaned down, grasped her arm and hauled her to her feet. “Are ye hurt, lass?” he demanded, his voice sharp—with concern, she supposed—and still growly.

Like the bear.

She gaped at him, struggling to get her mind in gear, to inventory herself.

He pulled away and looked her over quickly and then hauled her with him as he began to move quickly toward the truck they’d driven to the company.

Connor, looking like Connor, leaned down and picked up the tote she’d dropped when the man grabbed her, searched the floor around it for anything that might have fallen out, and met them about halfway. “Is she hurt?”

Kiran shook his head.

“Good. I’m thinkin’ we need ta find another ride. They’ve made this one.”

Dana managed to get her vocal chords in her command. “The CC TV,” she said a little faintly, hardly recognizing her own voice.

Connor and Kiran both whipped glances around the ceiling of the structure and then headed into a ‘dead zone’.

When they’d found a vehicle that met their criteria—whatever that was—they broke into it and hotwired it. Then Connor tossed her tote into the back seat and she was instructed to lie down in the floor as she had when they’d arrived.

Connor shifted into other ‘clothing’ than the uniform he’d ‘worn’ for the meeting and pulled the billed cap he was ‘wearing’ down low over his face, signaling Kiran silently to get into the back with Dana. Without a word, Kiran climbed in and settled himself over her.

Dana discovered she was holding her breath.

She let it out slowly and met Kiran’s gaze as Connor casually pulled out of the spot and left in a leisurely fashion.

“Do nae look at me like tha, luv. I’m tha same I was before.”

Dana blinked at him.

That was inarguable.

But then she hadn’t known what he was before.

She still didn’t.

His eyes, though …. When she met his candid gaze, she saw … Kiran. Memories flooded back of the night he’d sprawled on top of her, much like he was now, to protect her—of Kiran leaving for food, clothing, carrying her for hours on end because she was hurt.

And when he leaned closer to match his lips to hers, she barely hesitated before she tilted her head upwards in offering.

He let out a pent up breath. His expression hardened with desire, and that touched off a tidal wave of want inside of her even before he molded his lips to hers and she inhaled his taste and scent. Once she’d drank in elixir de Kiran, she was so high on him she entirely forgot where they were or why they were piled one on top of the other.

“De ye mind?” Connor growled from the front seat just about the time Dana began to think in terms of shucking enough clothes to feel more skin. “Yer steamin’ up tha fuckin’ windows.”

Kiran jerked away from her and Dana uttered a startled, embarrassed giggle that sounded more like something out of a teenager than a mature woman, and that embarrassed her worse.

Kiran looked down at her and grinned. “I suppose it’s safe enough ta get up now.”

It was easier said than done, unfortunately.

Kiran was damned near as big as Connor if not as big and he had trouble finding purchase to climb up without stepping all over Dana and crushing something.

Unhappily, by the time he’d managed to get back onto the seat and reached to help her up, reality had set in in a very big way.

Not that she’d forgotten the gunfight they’d been dragged into at any time since or even actually been diverted from the thoughts more than a handful of seconds, but Kiran had certainly given her something way more pleasant to focus on than dodging bullets.

Or marauding bears.

And yet it was easier, Dana discovered, to look at them as she always had than it was to accept what she thought she’d seen happen.

“Did ye get anythin’ useful?” Connor asked when he’d managed to negotiate the heavy traffic of the streets and was nearing the fringes of the city.

Dana shrugged, feeling far less confident about it than she had. Lifting one leg, she removed the drive from her shoe and held it up for him to see it. “I think so. I hope so. I’m not really going to know until I have time to look at it. And I might need a forensic accountant to find anything, to be honest. But I figured I needed to follow the money and I grabbed the accounting for the past five years. If there’s nothing in it … well, I don’t know where else to look.”

Connor nodded and fell silent. Dana retreated into thoughts she would have preferred not to examine because there were far more unpleasant things to think about than pleasant.

And even the ‘pleasant’ was tainted by uncomfortable doubts that the episode in the parking garage had just multiplied exponentially.

Although, oddly enough, her mind seemed far more hung up on the enlightenment in the sense that it was the explanation she’d been looking for to explain why they thought she was attractive, or said it, but had no interest in her than it was on, what should have been, the mind blowing discovery that they were bears.

Who could change into human form—and other—and back again.

In the absence of terror driven adrenaline—or even the stimulation of conversation—she found herself drifting toward sleep when Connor pulled off the main road and headed down a narrow track into the jungle.

They arrived at an airstrip about thirty minutes in.

When Connor had pulled the vehicle up to a small hut at the edge of the airstrip, he swiveled around to look at her. “Time for plan A part 2.”

Dana blinked at him in confusion and sudden anxiety. “What’s part 2?”

“We get ye tha hell out of here.”

Dismay flickered through her, but she kept her composure and merely nodded, telling herself that she’d known they would dump her as soon as they could. She was just lucky that they were conscientious enough to keep her and take care of her until she was out of danger.

Or at least seemed to be.

She’d gotten the evidence she needed to cut the rug out from under Brandon—she was pretty sure. Because, once it was known what his motive was in trying to kill her there would be no point in trying to and a very good reason to back off.

The brothers should be safe because they’d ended up taking out the other group of mercenaries that had been chasing them.

Assuming Connor or Kiran had made the arrangements at some point, she didn’t bother to ask them the full plan.

She was certain she could trust them to transport her someplace that was safe.

And, frankly, she was too miserable about the thought of being dumped to focus on anything else.

She was still trying her best to convince herself that there was no romance … except in her mind.

And now this.

And she wasn’t certain of what this was.

Abruptly, though, she recalled that Connor and Kiran had almost seemed to be hinting at something pretty much the entire time she had been with them.

Hinting, because nothing they had said or done had seemed … accidental, like a slip.

And, confusingly, nothing had seemed particularly purposeful either.

Kiran had almost said ‘our woman’ but had stopped himself and changed it to ‘the woman’.

Connor had said that they were from the Clan Artos—and it meant Bear.

And Connor had told her that he and Kiran were from the same ‘litter’—not twins, but brothers.

They hadn’t lied to her, she realized, about who and what they were any of the time—not by omission and certainly not directly. She couldn’t accuse them of trying to fool her.

They hadn’t come right out and bluntly said—we aren’t human. We just make ourselves look human to pass.

She wouldn’t have believed them if they had.

But as bizarre and mind boggling as the discovery was, she couldn’t find anything even deep down that indicated disbelief or, unfortunately for her, revulsion.

She still felt like she was in the middle of a romance—however unconventional or downright bizarre.

They’d saved her. They’d protected her. Her mind said ‘love—caring’ and nothing she could do could shut it up—no reasoning, no discovery that they weren’t what she’d believed.

Truthfully, it had taken her ex a lot of dedicated bastardy to convince her that he wasn’t what she’d thought he was, so it was really no great surprise to discover she couldn’t convince herself that she was wrong.

But, maybe, this time she wasn’t actually wrong about them? Maybe that was part of the reason she was finding it so hard to dissuade herself? Or the entire reason? And it wasn’t poor judgment at all? Or purely the results of survival mode—like Connor thought or had at least suggested? That sort of ‘heat of the moment’ thing that was more desperation to survive and cling to the one thing, or person, that could make that possible than any other emotion?

* * * *

The plane that arrived just at dusk wasn’t what Dana had expected.

Not that she’d expected an airbus, but she’d thought more in terms of a small private plane.

It was a prop plane, and it wasn’t really big enough to be called ‘huge’, but it certainly wasn’t small and it was a very, very long way from new.

It looked like something from the last world war.

And probably was.

Something that had been military and designed to carry supplies or small groups of troops, she decided once she’d climbed the ladder and peered inside the hanger like area.

Connor met her at the door and pulled her inside.

Confusion flickered through her when he pushed her back against the wall of the plane and she looked up at him questioningly.

His gaze swept over her face in a questioning scan of his own and then he lowered his head. Dana sucked in a breath of anticipation, tipping her head up to meet him.

He let out the breath he’d been holding and matched his lips to hers, sucked lightly at them for a few thundering heartbeats and then planted his mouth firmly over hers and spread joy and enchantment through her by exploring the sensitive crevice of her mouth thoroughly with his tongue. She lifted her hands and clutched at him to anchor herself, feeling as if the plane was taking off right then, the sensation of floating upwards, bobbing on currents of heated delight. She lost all awareness of anything beyond the feel of his lips on hers, his taste, the pressure of his big body against hers.

It sucked every ounce of starch from her.

She thought if he hadn’t pressed fully against her, bracing her between himself and the wall of the plane, she might have simply melted to the floor.

Her entire being came alive with want.

Her sex began to whimper and beg, the muscles fluttering madly in an effort to grasp something that was inches away—digging into her belly—and yet as elusive as big foot.

She didn’t want the kisses if that was all she could have, she thought a little desperately.

And then, right straight, reversed that conclusion when she felt him ease the pressure of his body and his lips.

She opened her eyes to look up at him with a mixture of reproach and entreaty when he broke the connection and lifted his head. Swallowing with an effort, still captivated by the kiss and more confused, she licked her lips. “Was that …. Was that to make me better?’ she asked a little huskily.

Something flickered in his eyes. He scanned her face his gaze. “Nae,” he said finally, “I’m just tha glad I’ve nae need ta.”

He released her, but then caught her arm and led her to the other side of the plane, unfolded a seat from the wall and pushed her in to it. Then he dropped to a crouch and carefully secured the safety harness. He hesitated when he was done, as if he might say something. Finally, he merely patted her cheek and crossed the plane to the cockpit and stood in the doorway talking to the pilot.

After a moment, he settled in the empty seat beside the pilot and secured his safety harness.

Kiran settled beside her.

Discomfort wafted through Dana as he strapped himself in.

He didn’t look at her until he had finished, but when he did, he said something so completely unexpected it seemed to knock the breath out of her.

“I want ye so bad I can taste it, lass, an’ tha’s a fact. If Connor does nae make up his mind soon I may lose mine.”

Dana was too stunned to say anything for some time, struggling with the chaos prompted by the statement—issued as calmly and matter-of-factly as if he’d said ‘I think it might rain’.

In point of fact, she wasn’t sure she’d heard him right and began to think she might not have.

“I’m … I’m sorry …. What?”

He stared at her a long moment and finally reached for her hand and brought it to his lap.

A jolt went through Dana when he cupped her hand around the ‘log’ attached to his belly.

As crude as it was, though, it had entirely the opposite effect upon her that it should have.

She should have been angry and repulsed.

Instead, she had to fight the urge to explore it more thoroughly.

She felt like she was choking. It took an effort to swallow … because her mouth was so dry it felt like someone had drained the field and planted cotton there.

And her hooha went from warm and languid to desperate and wet.

His gaze flickered to her crotch the moment she felt the flood of dampness.

Then he met her gaze and she saw fire there, turmoil … desperation that matched hers.

Images leapt into her mind of him dragging her from the seat, throwing her down on the floor of the plane and pounding into her with that hard log of flesh.

He cleared his throat, settled her hand in her lap again and patted it almost absently. “Connor’s alpha. He’d kill me an’ tha’s tha only thing savin’ ye at tha moment.”

Dana felt a rash of goose bumps break out all over her. Her heart was racing uncomfortably, but as hyper aware as she was of Kiran beside her, she discovered she was equally hyper aware of Connor only feet away.

And she couldn’t decide how she felt about that.

As worried about his reaction if she made any move at all toward Kiran and she was about Kiran’s reaction to her kissing Connor right in front of him.

Right after she’d kissed him so heatedly and eagerly in the car?

At least that much.

And it only added to her confusion.

Kiran wanted her, but he had to hold back because he was waiting for a signal from Connor?

And Connor couldn’t decide if he wanted her or not?

She couldn’t decide how she felt about that—or, more to the point, what it actually meant.

The implication, she thought, was that it wasn’t just about sex.

Because, if it was, surely neither of them would’ve held back?

Was that logical?

She realized she didn’t really know. She couldn’t imagine a human man holding back because he was trying to decide if it was meaningful or not.

Why would she think that about the guys?

Because, she realized, Connor had very carefully explained that they tried not to become emotionally entangled with their ‘target’. Because it wasn’t ‘real’ and getting involved didn’t turn out well.