Black Market Bear (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Genesis Valley Book 2) (15 page)

***

With food in her stomach and dry clothes on, Arianna descended the stairs to the central room. They were in an old motel run by Flint, or one of his companies that had turned it into an elaborate bed and breakfast. Neither of them were sure what. Ajax had told her it felt vaguely familiar to him, but when she’d asked why, he would only smile.

“Arianna, it is good to see you looking much better,” Flint said as they entered the room.

“I feel better,” she admitted. “Thank you for taking me in,” she told him, shaking his hand firmly.

“It was the least I could do,” he told her. “Besides, maybe you can help him decide how to fix his problem.” He jerked his chin in the direction of Ajax.

She heard the shifter growl softly, and wondered just what was going on that she had missed.

“Problem?” she asked, turning to face Ajax.

“Flint is refusing to help us anymore,” he explained.

“I operate from the shadows,” Flint replied in a hard voice. “I don’t do open combat, and I certainly cannot harbor all these people myself. You are asking too much of me. I don’t have the funds to maintain this large of an operation.”

Arianna looked back and forth.

“There must be a way we can make this work. Ajax, do you have funds that Flint could draw on?”

Ajax hesitated. “Yes, I suppose I could talk to some people.” His eyes narrowed as he focused them on Flint. “But if we helped you, then you’d have to get these men out of town. I will help however I can, but you are the only one with the expertise, unless you think we can simply hide them in a truck and drive away.”

Flint looked back and forth at the two of them for a moment.

“Even if I had the funds, I still don’t like operating so overtly. It puts me at risk.”

Ajax rolled his eyes. “Flint, you are out of the shadows now. They know you exist, and they aren’t going to stop. You can run, and I wouldn’t entirely blame you. This is big-boy shit. Scary stuff. But if you’re in, you’re in.”

Arianna looked between them. “Flint, can you house everyone for another day or two?”

He nodded. “Even a few days if need be, especially if I have more funds to keep hiding my tracks. But getting these men out of the city is going to be tricky. We can’t use rail or planes, probably not boats either. All of those are too heavily watched. That leaves by road. Despite the size of the city, that’s not as easy as it sounds,” he explained.

“Why not?” Arianna asked. She had grown up in King City, but she had rarely actually left it.

Ajax looked at her and then back at Flint, also curious as to the reasoning.

“The city is three quarters surrounded by water. Yes, there are major highway arteries that cross the water, but if you count them, there are only a few chokepoints they would have to post teams at to catch us. I doubt we lost them coming here, but with the police station next door, they’re going to be loath to try anything. Still, when we try to leave, they’ll be able to follow us.”

She blinked in surprise. The news about the police station was news to her.

“So can you do anything to help or not?” Ajax asked.

“Give me a day,” Flint said, sighing in defeat. “I’ll come up with something. Is that okay?”

Ajax looked at her. It took Arianna a moment to realize he was waiting on her approval.

“Yes, yeah, that will work,” she said. There didn’t seem to be much of a choice, all things considered. “Whoever these guys are, they’re going after shifters. We need to get them out of town. It’s the right thing to do,” she said firmly.

What she didn’t mention was why Flint had such a vested interest in shifters. He wasn’t one himself, but before they came along, he had been using his limited resources—which she didn’t think were as limited as he made out, just traceable by those with the right contacts, which made things tough to use them freely—to help those shifters who were targeted get out of town. There had to be a reason for his devotion to them, but she didn’t know what it was, and she was beginning to suspect they might never.

“The real question I have,” Ajax said aloud, looking at all the shifters that had been rescued. “Is why you guys? What do you all have in common that made them want to target you?”

A strong voice rang out. “We all were vocal in the community about the treatment of shifters, and how many of us are still at risk from unsavory parts of society, including the government.” Benji stepped into the room at last. He paused with a start as he saw Arianna.

“Ari?” he asked, amazed.

“Hi Benji,” she said, turning to allow herself to be embraced in a hug. “It’s good to see you.”

“And you!” he exclaimed. “But what are you doing here?”

“She helped us find you,” Ajax said proudly, putting his arm around her.

The gesture seemed innocent, but she recognized it as a subtle challenge by Ajax to show that she was with him, no matter what Benji might think. It was silly, because Benji would recognize that Ajax was a good man. Even as she watched he glanced back and forth, and gave Ajax a discreet nod.

“This story needs more explaining,” he said at last.

“We’ll tell you, if you tell us how you know that’s the reason they’re after you,” Ajax said.

“Deal.”

Ajax made to turn them away and head outside, but she paused, looking back at Flint.

“We’re counting on you,” she told him firmly. “Don’t let us down.”

He swallowed visibly as she went to go reunite with her half-brother.

Ajax

He watched from a short distance away as Arianna and Benji talked quickly and quietly. He could sense that they were both glad to see each other, but as they spoke, he realized that there was no familial closeness to them. They stayed apart, and even the hug they shared had been brief. He wondered if perhaps they weren’t all that close. Still, it explained the few occasions where Arianna had been adamant about helping, about wanting to make sure he was rescued. Family was family, no matter how close you might be to them. Ajax understood that perhaps better than most.

He contented himself with wandering the open room while he waited. It had once been a meeting room of some sort he suspected, but now it had been turned into a place to relax. Couches lined the exterior of the room and chairs littered the center as they surrounded a big wooden table that would comfortably seat fourteen.

After several minutes of that, he noticed Arianna casting repeated looks in his direction. Catching her eye, he nodded when she waved him over. He made his way across the floor back to where the pair were standing.

“So, Ajax,” Benji said as he got close. “Ari here tells me that she’s taken a fondness to you.”

He smiled. “She tells me the same crazy stories. I can’t for the life of me figure out why though,” he said, stoically ignoring the fist that crashed into his midsection as Arianna faked anger.

“Well, we haven’t been the closest of siblings,” he admitted, keeping up with the joke, “but I do recall her being a little strange.”

Arianna pouted silently between the two of them, crossing her arms.

After a few seconds longer Ajax laughed and gathered her into his arms, careful to be gentle near her wounds. They were already healing some more. Nowhere near as fast as he could, but much faster than a human should be capable of. He wanted to frown at that, but forced himself to maintain a neutral expression. Now was not the time to be bringing up the possibilities of what had happened to her. There was a theory flitting around Ajax’s brain, but he wasn’t positive he wished to share it yet. Not until they were out of this mess.

“Everything okay?” he asked more seriously. Arianna’s eyes had been darting back and forth between them and the window.

She hesitated, leaning in to him for support. “Do you think they’re out there?” she asked at last.

“Who?”

“They. Whoever these people are,” she said pointedly. “The Shadow Agency, whatever you want to call them.”

“Probably,” Benji said. “With what they’re after, they won’t rest.”

Ajax felt his eyes narrow. Benji hadn’t revealed before that he knew exactly what was going on. “What is it they’re after?” he asked, trying very hard not to add “And why didn’t you tell us this already?” to his question.

Benji looked back and forth. “Wait, you guys don’t know?”

The pair shook their heads.

“Shit, I thought you guys were aware already.”

“We’re not,” Ajax said, his voice dropping an octave as it began to rumble with frustration.

“So, I don’t know a name for them anymore than you do. But I
do
know what they’re after, and for it, they need us,” he said, pointing back and forth at him and Ajax.

“Benji, spit it out already,” Arianna said. “We’ve heard theories, but we don’t know for certain! So tell us, or I’ll throttle it out of you myself.” Her tone made it clear she was only half-joking.

“Sorry,” he apologized, throwing up his hands to calm them. “They’re experimenting with our blood,” he explained. “They want to devise a serum that will give a normal human,” he pointed at Arianna, “your powers,” he finished, his finger jabbing Ajax’s direction.

“Oh my God,” Arianna said softly as the implications of what he was saying sunk in.

“Think of what that would be worth on the black market,” Benji said angrily. “Governments and warlords across the world would pay through their nose for it. It would be the start of a new age of warfare.”

“Have they had any success yet, Benji?” Ajax thought back to the note about the Extremis team they had read.

“So far they haven’t been able to, and they were getting very upset about it. Something about the subjects being too weak. I think the serum was killing them,” he said at last. “But…” he trailed off with a helpless shrug, giving Ajax a knowing look that said he remembered the note too.

Ajax stiffened at the other revelation Benji had just revealed. It
killed
them? “Did they ever say if death was instantaneous?” he asked cautiously, avoiding the strange look Arianna was giving him.

Benji shrugged. “Sorry, no, they didn’t mention it. Why?”

Ajax shook his head, waving off the question. Meanwhile in his head, nightmares were forming at tremendous speed.

“Is everything okay Ajax?” Arianna asked in a small voice, pressing herself closer to his side.

“I don’t know,” he replied, then looked at Benji. “We need to talk in private,” he told him, referring to himself and Arianna.

The other shifter looked back and forth at the two of them, confusion written on his face. “Okay,” he said, and wandered off into the crowd.

“Ajax, what’s going on?” Arianna asked. “You’re scaring me.”

“Let’s go back to your room,” he suggested.

Arianna agreed meekly, letting herself be taken from the room by him. He led her through the door and to the stairs in the lobby, resisting the urge to take them two at a time. Reaching the thick wooden door with the brass
17
on it, he pulled out the keycard and swiped it open.

“Can you tell me what the hell has gotten into you all of a sudden?” she said the moment the door was closed.

He blinked at the sudden transformation from the woman who had followed him from the room, to the one now confronting him in a blaze of anger. It just went to prove his point, he thought sadly.

“I think they injected you with that serum,” he said bluntly, deciding not to hedge his guess. She needed to know, and they needed to begin working on a way to ensure it didn’t kill her.

Arianna looked at him in shock. “No, they just took some blood samples from me. That’s all they did!”

“Do you remember every moment?”

“As soon as I woke up my brain was working. There was no fog,” she said adamantly, but Ajax felt his stomach sinking at her words.

“Once you woke up?” he repeated softly.

Arianna froze. “They knocked me out with a tranq gun,” she explained, her voice suddenly hoarse. She looked at him, eyes filled with fear. “Did they inject me while I was out?” she asked nervously.

“Look at your arm,” he said dully. “Unless you’ve always been able to heal super-fast, I think that’s the most poignant sign we’re going to get. You say you ripped it open earlier. But look, it’s been a few hours now, and already it’s completely scabbed over and even showing signs of fresh skin.”

He watched as she inspected her arm, coming to the same conclusion he already had.

“Am I going to die?” she asked with heartbreaking clarity.

Ajax stepped forward, gathering her into her arms and moving to hold her in his lap while he sat on the bed.

“I don’t know,” he said honestly. It was the truth, and it was what needed to be said, but his inability to tell her that it would be okay, that he would fix it, ate at Ajax. This was his job, dammit! He was supposed to protect her, to protect his mate!

“I wish Benji had been able to give us more information,” she said quietly.

“Me too. Do you feel any different?” he asked, trying to change the subject slightly.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you can heal faster. Can you hear better, smell better, are you stronger or faster?” Ajax knew she was stronger, though by how much was anyone’s guess.

“I think I’m stronger, and maybe a bit faster,” she said. “When I punched one of the guards earlier, I knocked him out. At the time I figured it was because I surprised him, and I was able to put my legs into the blow. But now…” she trailed off thoughtfully.

“I’ve noticed that at as well,” he confirmed, leaning in to kiss her neck. “There have been several times you’ve hit me or even when you pulled me into the tub earlier, where you seemed to be stronger than expected.”

“Mmm,” she said as his lips caressed her exposed skin. “So what you’re saying is that I could take you?”

“Take me where?” he murmured into her ear before nipping at it with his teeth. He was still worried and scared for her safety, but Ari needed him right then, and he would be there for her in any capacity that she wanted. If that was to be a distraction from reality, then he would provide that for her without hesitation.

She shuffled around in his lap. “Let’s start with the bed,” she purred, moving until she was straddling him as he sat on the edge of the bed.

“We’re already in the bed,” he told her innocently. “Did you have something else in mind?”

With a laughing snarl, Ari pushed him downward until his shoulder blades sank into the mattress. “Don’t give me any sass, mister, understand?” she said, perching over him with a look of victory on her face.

“Of course, milady,” he returned, pretending to surrender.

“Better.” Her hands were already fumbling with his belt buckle, wasting no time. She tugged them off swiftly as he arched his back, lifting his rear to make it easier for her.

“You don’t have—” he began to say as she sank to her knees between his legs, wrapping her fingers around the shaft of his achingly hard cock. A vicious glare shut him up, however, and he instead simply reached forward and swept her hair from her face, gathering it up behind her head.

Ajax hissed audibly as her tongue slid up the base of his cock and swirled around the tip with a lavish flare.

“Still want to stop me?” she asked, licking her lips to moisten them while she eyed him seductively.

He shook his head vigorously.

“Good.” Her lips parted, and slowly, her eyes on his the entire time, Ari slid his cock deep into her mouth.

He forced himself to keep his groans quiet. The walls were thin. Everyone was nervous, and they didn’t need to hear what was going on between him and Ari. That was their together time. And for all he knew, it might be their last.

With a mental snarl, Ajax forced that thought from his mind and focused on Ari. She was giving him attention, and he needed to reciprocate.

Actually, reciprocating sounds like a solid idea right now.

After several more minutes of bliss as she worked his cock with her mouth, he pulled her back and gently coaxed Arianna to her feet, where he could pull her close and kiss her. It was his turn now to show
her
how much he cared.

This time there was no fight as he gently picked her up and laid her on her back, their lips never parting. She inhaled sharply as his hands ran up her sides, taking her shirt with them. He slid down her body slightly to leave a line of kisses up the soft skin of her stomach. Pausing when he encountered her bra, Ajax reached around behind her and undid it.

Her breasts now exposed as he lifted bra and shirt from her at once, he cupped one with his hand, and used his tongue to caress the nipple of her other.

Arianna’s arms wrapped around his back, nails digging into his skin with more force than she should have been able to exert. He smiled to himself, hoping the other theory he had come up with would prove to be true. Now wasn’t the time to think about that though.

No, now was the time to help put Arianna at ease. He would need her in good condition for the escape from the city.

Her moans began to escalate in volume as he ground his cock between her legs, exerting pressure on her through her clothing.

“Shhh,” he told her, putting a finger to her lips as they both giggled. For extra measure he grabbed one of her hands from his back and put it over her mouth. “You’re going to need this now,” he said with a wink, before making his way back to her breasts, though this time he didn’t stop, kissing and touching his way across her stomach.

His hands undid her pants with ease, and they slipped off without any problems, leaving both of them completely naked. Ajax’s eyes roamed her body, but he never stopped kissing his way between her legs. Not until his lips encountered the soft, swollen skin he was looking for. As his lips passed lightly over it, Arianna’s reactions intensified and she was forced to clamp both hands over her mouth to keep the noise down.

“Don’t you dare stop,” she gasped at one point as he slipped a finger inside of her, using it together with his tongue.

Doing so produced noises from Arianna that drove him wild with arousal as she reacted to his touch. There was something about hearing and seeing the woman he loved being sexually pleasured that just sent his body into overdrive. There was a fight being waged within him, a fight between his desire to continue pleasing her, and the more basic, primal instinct to stand up, grab her legs, and bury his cock deep between her legs.

We’ll get there.
For now, he ran his free hand up across her stomach, until it rested on her chest. One of her hands slid from her mouth, fingers intertwining with his as she squeezed tightly. Ajax continued to stroke her with his finger and tongue together. He didn’t change his rhythm, not even when her soft cries turned to gasps.