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Jack Martin stood in the observation shack on a firing range a few days after joining the Elect. Technically, he was there to advise since he was a firearms expert, but the three women on the range sure as hell didn’t need him. Jane Reynolds and Jamie Wade were both former cops and Olivia Allen was a former Army Intelligence officer. All three were very comfortable and proficient with weapons, which was pretty damned unmistakable to any bystanders. They—Olivia — meant to be intimidating. Most men would have found that a turn off. Their loss. He knew this woman, knew her strengths and weaknesses and accepted them all. She didn’t believe that yet, but he’d convince her. Eventually.
He heard car doors slam behind him but ignored the two men who approached from the parking area. He’d been expecting them to corner him sooner or later. They stepped up on either side of him, but he refused to turn or acknowledge them. An ultimatum was in his near future, and he had no idea how to deal with it other than brushing off the man who delivered it. Hopefully, he still had a little time.
“She isn’t coming around,” Braxton Lee said on his left.
So much for that hope. Brax was in charge of this strange group, and Jack couldn’t help but respect and resent him. He was one hell of a leader, but Jack wasn’t one of them and he was afraid he was on a deadline.
He and Vin Toler had come to central Florida when they’d been hired as private security contractors by the leader of a psychiatric hospital called The Stirling Institute. They’d both recently got out of the army and working as bodyguards for a doctor wasn’t exactly what they’d had in mind for their civilian transition. However, when Dr. Stine had convinced him Olivia Allen was being held prisoner by a mysterious terrorist group and offered his assistance in finding her, Jack hadn’t hesitated. Vin had been his best friend practically since birth, knew how deeply under his skin Olivia was, and had signed up too.
The last six months and change had been completely fucked up, though. They’d realized Stine was off his rocker long before being told Olivia’s captor was Jamie Wade, a drug trafficker and terrorist. Turned out that was a load of shit. Olivia’s people had rescued Jamie, who was Carter’s mate and the mother of his son—a total shock to Jack and Vin who hadn’t been aware of either of them. They’d known Carter for years, had served under him and hadn’t had any idea he was a father.
Turned out Carter had been in the dark about the boy too, until just a few months ago and believed Jamie was dead. Stine, the sick fuck, had imprisoned her, Carter’s mother Merilee, and two teenage boys to run experiments on, trying to recreate their super human traits and abilities. Jack and Vin hadn’t been aware that was going on, but Jack still felt guilty. They had known something was seriously off.
Thankfully, after the rescue Olivia had contacted him. He’d been a little crazed at the time with fear for her, and the Elect had brought him and Vin in reluctantly. Partly to keep an eye on them, despite her and Carter vouching for them, but mostly because Jack was Olivia’s mate, and they took that kind of thing dead serious. His presence was tolerated for her sake. Thank god. He’d take what he could get.
But that was when the crazy really got started. The Elect weren’t human. Olivia wasn’t human. He was still trying to wrap his head around that. Not that he’d been given the chance to process. He wasn’t one of them, but the Elect scientists had gotten excited about his blood tests anyway. For the past few days, when he wasn’t working with security or trying to get Olivia to open up, he was doing more tests for Esme and Zach. Agility, strength, endurance, IQ, mental puzzles, brain scans. As near as he could tell, he was human with a little something extra thrown in. It was annoying as fuck being treated like a lab rat, but it kept him near Olivia, so he didn’t complain.
Besides, he’d discovered that what he’d always considered to be stellar intuition was actually a sixth sense, though Esme and Zach hadn’t determined if it was related to precognition or telepathy yet. He thought it evened the playing field a bit with Olivia, who was a telekinetic, and one of the tests had involved them speaking telepathically to him. He’d even been able to speak back if one of them held the connection open. One day, he wanted Esme or Zach to sit down with him and walk him through the rest of the science they were doing. It shouldn’t have a negative effect on his future with Olivia since Elect females always had children of the same species, but it might give him insights he didn’t have now.
“She’ll come around,” Jack said.
He refused to give up, couldn’t live without her. He didn’t know exactly when he’d come to that realization. Twelve, eleven months ago? He was long past denying it. He’d know her for years, worked with her off and on, and when he’d finally coaxed her into bed—the best night of his life—she’d run as soon as he’d fallen asleep and then dropped off the radar for months.
Brax shook his head. “You’ve made no progress and she’s not happy.”
Here it came. Jack’s breath locked in his chest. Brax had not only let Jack live, he’d insisted Jack and Livie share a suite in his mansion. Not that that actually got Jack closer to her. No, she spent her time locked in her room or nowhere near the suite. Jack wasn’t giving up though, and there was no fucking way he would let Brax separate them now. Jack didn’t bother to hide his fury as he turned to the other man, and it was only Brax’s satisfaction gleaming in his eyes that held Jack back.
“She’s unhappy, Jack,” Brax said again. “Fix it.”
Then the Elect leader spun on his heel and left.
Jack focused on the women on the range again. They’d finished for the morning, were clearing their weapons and packing up.
“If you love her,” Carter said in a low tone. “You have to accept what she is. That she can take care of herself.”
He’d wanted Livie for years. He knew her better than anyone alive. He accepted and respected her. Love? That was a word he hadn’t been easy with for a long fucking time and it didn’t change a damned thing. Whatever it was, he wouldn’t let her go. He couldn’t breathe without her, but he wasn’t the one fighting it. He’d been with the Elect long enough to discover that even though he wasn’t one of them, she was his. They belonged together. Mates. He was still getting used to the word, still trying to figure out exactly what it meant.
“I’m not the problem, and I’ve always accepted her abilities. I’m not one of you, remember? Over protectiveness isn’t programmed in my DNA,” he said. Which didn’t mean he wasn’t protective as hell when it came to Olivia, with a big dose of possessive thrown in. He turned to Carter, his former commander.
“She doesn’t trust me. She doesn’t trust this thing between us and she’s put up a wall.”
“Whose fault is that?” Carter murmured, then turned a glare on Jack. “Brax is right. You have to fix this.”
Jack wasn’t just stunned, he was pissed off and lashed out. “How the fuck do I do that, sir? I live with her and she still won’t talk to me.”
Carter gave him a look that was almost pity and put his back up.
“You want her?” Carter asked.
Jack only nodded. He’d already said more than he was comfortable with.
“Then get her to talk to you. Use the charm that got you your bad rep,” Carter said and strode off to meet his mate.
The woman met him with a smile that made Jack envious, but that envy was mixed with a big dose of guilt and gratitude. Jack had been willing to believe Jamie was the enemy until he’d met her and seen her bruises. Olivia’s defense was all he’d really needed to change his mind, though.
He turned to watch his mate. He’d heard that word so much in the last week it was almost normal. He still wasn’t quite sure how it worked. There was supposed to be some kind of mental bond when they both accepted it. He already had, and he was sick and damned tired of waiting for her to catch up.
He caught up with her on the path leading back to the main house. She hadn’t driven over, so neither had he, and hell, a man only had so much restraint, right? He grabbed her elbow, swung her around, and kissed her. She clung to him for a moment, let him claim and plunder her mouth, but then, gasping, she reared back.
“What the hell are you doing?” she protested furiously. Her eyes were bright, though. Her cheeks were flushed and her hands twisted in his shirt, like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to hang on or shove him away.
“Kissing you, darlin’, and if you’re asking, I’m not doing it right,” he teased. She pulled back and he let her go reluctantly. “C’mon, sweetheart, we have to deal with this.”
She snorted, and her disdain, her distrust, cut him to the bone. “No, we don’t.”
She turned reserved and cool in an instant, and it put his back up. Actually, it really fucking pissed him off.
“I’m not going away, Liv. You’re mine.”
“No.”
He understood where that skepticism came from. She’d never seen him serious about a woman. Before Olivia, he’d only known one woman he’d wanted that much, but it hadn’t lasted, and afterward he’d lived his life accordingly. Olivia hadn’t accepted that he was serious about her yet, didn’t understand he found her fascinating. She was sharp as hell, deadly, and sexy. She made his knees weak.
“I get why you’re fighting it,” he said seriously. “You’re afraid.”
“Of you? Hardly,” she scoffed.
He shook his head. “Not of me. Of us.”
She just stared at him, her expression closed off and unreadable.
“Look, Liv. You have this idea that I’m some kind of player.”
She cocked her eyebrows. “Because you are.”
“It’s not like that,” he said, shaking his head. “Yeah, I’ve dated and yeah, I’m not a saint, but I have had real relationships. They just didn’t work out.”
Because his son of a bitch ex-best friend seduced away the only one who had counted before. Olivia didn’t need to know that now, though a part of him realized he’d probably have to tell her at some point, right? When they got to the dark, ugly things that altered the course of my life conversation. It could wait.
“I’m not that guy. The one that screws anything that moves then vanishes. Give me a chance, sweetheart.”
