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SHE FELT THE SWEETEST breath curl near the side of her neck where he spoke into her ear. “Wake up, mate. I don’t have all day to wait while you collect your beauty sleep.”
The voice was low—not only in volume, as it was whispered into her ear, but in pitch. It rumbled sexily, making her innards curl in her half-sleep state. For a second she imagined waking up in her pretend world where her modest, Tudor-style home was surrounded by a white picket fence. Children played in the front yard, the dog yapping at the giggling boy and girl child.
Then, the meaning of the words hit her. Mate? Who would call her mate? Did she hear correctly?
She struggled to open her eyes, but her eyelids were so heavy. A soft moan escaped, sounding distinctly feminine. She couldn’t even cringe at the thought of her assassin-self sounding so girly. Finally the blurred world focused. She was staring straight ahead at the ceiling—the same way she had been for countless other awakenings. But this time was different.
The room was chilled, but not outright cold. She remembered they practically froze her the last session. And while she was sluggish, she wasn’t downright drugged. She glanced down at her arms. The tubes feeding her drugs had been removed.
“Rise and shine, precious.” The voice drawled near her ear.
She groaned softly, struggling to sit up, and whoever was behind her helped her up with a hand in the middle of her back.
She was dressed. Someone had pulled her intravenous feeding tubes and dressed her naked body. Tight-fitting, black pants and a black, short-sleeved top with a V-neck. Ankle boots—flat, no heel.
Everything fit perfectly. Who would have dressed her? Who would have known her size?
“Okay, break time’s over, pretty lady. Time to go. Keep your dainty little self close to me, and I’ll lead the way.”
Still standing behind her, the man pushed her from the table. Her legs wobbled, but he held her tight though he was hidden from her view.
“Who—who are you?” Her tongue was thick, her speech slurred.
“I told you. Your mate.”
Her mate? That was a Xeno Sapien term. She turned to look over her shoulder—and froze.
She’d never seen this Xeno Sapien in her life. It definitely wasn’t Zealish, and technically, on paper, he would be the one who was her mate. Though the guy behind her was large, he wasn’t freakishly huge. His skin was mottled colors, but not the nearly-black Zee’s had been. This man looked more like an actual man. No elongated jaw, no extra teeth. His black hair was neatly pulled back into a ponytail.
But his eyes. The same molten gold, though without a glow.
“Not pretty enough for you? You can go back to sleep,” he offered, his voice churlish.
“Zee?”
Something sparked in his eyes as if pleased with her recognition, the briefest glow that lit and then extinguished.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m your Plan B, baby. The extraction team.”
Jesus. How long had she been out? Robyn had sent a hard rescue as promised? And Zee, who she’d left unconscious, was heading it?
“You’re...Zee?” she asked stupidly.
“Of course. Imagine my surprise to wake up—much like you just did—to find I had been mated.”
She winced. That was probably not the wisest move. She couldn’t imagine being woken from her slumber and told something so personal had been done to her. “I’m sorry. We can undo it...”
“Bit off more than you could chew, baby?”
What the hell did that mean?
She shook her head, wondering if she was half imagining all of this.
“Come on. We’ve wasted enough time.”
He grabbed her by the wrist, half dragging her behind him. When he opened the outer door, the next room showed a bloody torso propped against the wall.
No head.
Geez.
She gasped, realizing from the size of the belly it was the doctor with Crested Ute, the one who’d told her either she or Everly would die.
Looks like he was wrong.
“Don’t look,” Zee said, misunderstanding her gasp. What, did he think she was some withering flower? Apparently, no one told him her background.
Dithering fool. She thought she liked him better when he couldn’t speak. When he was sweet and growly and trying his hardest to care for her. Gain a brain, and that went out the window.
Outside of the laboratory, the hall led to another dead body. His chest cavity was torn open, his organs ripped from his body, the red seeping blood drenching a mockery of the pristine white lab coat.
“Shield your eyes,” Zee growled.
She fought against the inappropriate laughter that threatened to bark from her mouth. Shield her eyes? He really did think she was some Victorian princess.
But then, she sobered. He was comparing her to Everly. Everly, her sweet, sweet twin who couldn’t harden despite spending seven years in prison.
Everly.
The one he fought for and lost.
The one he loved.
Angela was second best, and she knew it. Not that she blamed her sister. Everly couldn’t help but be sweet. Angela didn’t blame anyone except for fate, perhaps. Fate always gave Everly the light and Angela the darkness. But for some reason, this one time, it mattered.
Two more bodies littered the ground in the next room before they heard the unmistakable sound of doors opening.
“What the fuck?” Someone yelled.
Shift change. They’d waited too long. Yet, there weren’t as many of the lab-coats around as there had been. What was going on with the sudden quiet?
Zee shoved her behind him.
The person rounded the corner and raised his laser to shoot. With a growl that reminded her of the old Zee, he attacked causing the laser to go flying through the air. Then, he was fending off the man’s blows easily enough.
From his belt, the Crested Ute employee pulled a penlight, shining the purple beam on her. “Move, and she dies.”
Faster than a rattlesnake, Zee’s arm shot out, knocking the penlight from his hand. He grabbed the man by the upper arm, spinning him around until he was in front of him. One hand was across the man’s forehead, the other on his chin as if he were about to break his neck.
But then he paused.
He looked at Angela, again assuming she’d be as terrorized as Everly might.
“Look away,” he commanded. “I must kill him. This man is evil. A kidnapper. A killer. He doesn’t deserve to live and will send others after us...”
Before he could finish, Angela struck out with her entire body, using her ulna to crush the man’s windpipe, leaving him choking in Zee’s arms as if he’d just hung himself. Zee dropped him to the ground with a thunk where he struggled for breath for long minutes before his body jerked and phased out.
Angela raised cold eyes to him. “Quit fooling around. We don’t have all day. You want another shift to arrive and see us out personally?”
To see the huge Xeno Sapien speechless was well worth it. But she wanted to make it very clear.
She was not Everly, and she never would be.
* * * * *
ZEALISH WAS STUNNED speechless. After Angela’s amazing skill at taking out the guard, his mind worked a mile a minute. Could he really be so lucky as to have a mate who would not be squeamish with his tendencies toward violence?
To watch her skill revved up his libido, left a boundless amount of sexual charge at her display of power. He wanted nothing more than to throw her down on a bed, toss her up against a wall, and pound into her until she was mindless with pleasure.
But he’d promised Everly he’d return her sister unscathed. And from the way he was feeling, there was no way Angela would be able to walk her way into Xenia on her own. Not without stiffness lingering between her thighs.
They slunk into the darkness of night with his eyes turning on to light the way. He had dark lenses to fit over his face should he need to block the glow, courtesy of Pax. But right now, there was no one in sight.
“I forgot how strong that glow was,” Angela whispered. “Sometimes at night, if you woke up, you lit the whole cave.”
“Den,” he corrected.
“Excuse me?”
“Even back then, it was a den. For me and my mate.”
“We weren’t mates,” she argued.
He turned to give her a shit-eating grin, the glow of his eyes angled toward her before turning back to the path. As the area ahead gained a few street lights, he snapped his lenses over the bridge of his nose.
“This way,” he instructed, his tone brooking no argument. And because she didn’t talk back, he knew she was tiring. The drugs were still filtering from her system. He was surprised she’d gone on this long, but that just attested to her strength.
She stumbled slightly, catching herself before his hand shot out to steady her. She gave a faint protest when he stopped to scoop her into his arms.
“Shh,” he said, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Relax. I’ll take care of you.”
And just like that, she was out.
She weighed almost nothing in his arms. He carried her to the safe house they’d procured and slipped in the back way. The second floor was safest where a large window to a bedroom enabled them to jump if there was trouble. However, the stairway was blocked off, and that would trick any intruders into believing the only place to hide out was the main floor and basement. By the time they discovered the stairway, he and Angela would be long gone.
He headed toward the kitchen, which was conveniently set in the center of the house. In the kitchen, they’d built a trapdoor into the ceiling with a temporary set of stairs attached. Once he brought them both up the stairs, he raised the stairs and closed the door. They had access to the entire top floor; however, all rooms were sealed off except for the master suite and a seating area.
He slid her into the bed and then used his wrist device to add a security system to the perimeter of the house. It also unscrambled their radio waves so they could communicate with Xenia, but since they were safely hidden from drones, it was okay. The security would be monitored by a Xeno Sapien in the city, and he’d be warned telepathically if there were any breaches.
Now, all that was left to do was wait out a few days until Angela was healthy enough to walk into the front gates of Xenia on her own accord.
The first thing he did was remove every stitch of clothing between him and his mate. She never stirred; obviously her system was still running amok with drugs. It would be a good time to snatch a few hours of sleep—besides cop a good feel.
Nothing felt as perfect as Angela’s bare skin against his.
But would she ever feel the same way toward him? Would she be able to ignore his looks? He was definitely not one of the prettier Xeno Sapiens like Thane.
But he would die to protect his mate. He would keep her happy. He would give her immeasurable pleasure. She just needed to give him a chance to prove himself.
