Burned In Shadows (Shadow Unit) (9 page)

Chapter 9

Three More Weeks after that

T
he sheets were soaked with sweat again. When he reached over on the bedside table the water he usually kept there was gone. Melissa. She must have finished off the rest of his water. He’d forgotten she’d come by for some attention. He’d given it to her, maybe rougher than his usual already rough self. But he couldn’t get
her
eyes out of his head. Liquid honey shot straight to his cock. Good thing he had the strong sense not to be thwarted by her beauty. Women were useless and only suitable for one thing. Relief.

She’d stared at him in recognition and hurt. He didn’t know her, but since that night back at the Shadow Units building, he couldn’t stop dreaming of her. What the hell was wrong with him? He never dreamed, and now he couldn’t stop. In his dreams, he was ca
ressing her and tasting her skin. In his dreams, he couldn’t get enough of her plump, sensuous lips and had tasted longer, deeper than any man should. She reminded him of warm beaches and tropical rain forests. He checked the clock on the wall. Three in the morning. It was time he got up anyway. He didn’t need much sleep. He needed to go down and shake up the weak ass recruits that’d come through the door. His master wasn’t trying to enlist non-believers to the cause, but nowadays that seemed to be what they were getting.

The last recruit that had come through the door three weeks ago had been engaging. She was tough with a smart mouth. Her first day at the facility he’d put her in lock up for twenty four hours with no food or water because she mouthed off to him. Now, she seemed to be getting her bearings and fitting in with the rest of the group. Zea was as hard as they came as far as women were concerned. She was tall and athletically built with short inky black hair and an even shorter temper. It was the eyes that were unsettling, so like his, it made him take a step back every time he saw her. She looked at him with adoration and equal parts resentment. A lot of the recruits worshipped and hated him. Black didn’t care either way. She made him hesitant at times and unsure. She would say things that seemed out of place and awkward, making him feel as if they were familiar to one another. She was a staunch recruit, and they needed her on their side. But if she kept fucking with his heads, he’d have to cut her loose. The Agency and their puppets who called themselves the Shadow Unit were closer and closer to starting a war.

Black dressed in black sweats and a black tee-shirt and headed down the hall to where the recruits slept. He had one more session with the sadistic Dr. Grayson. He’d put off seeing the bastard for as long as he could. Black thought of the things he wanted to do to the doctor, but he’d been warned not to touch him. Fine. He could deal with that, but eventually someone was going to shorten the son of a bitch’s days, permanently.

When he walked down the hall, he was greeted by the bane of his existence. Damn, what was she doing out and about at this hour?

“Zea, what are you doing out of the dorms?”

She looked hurt by his harsh tone but quickly masked her emotions.

“Black.” She replied breathlessly. She was a problem for him. Between his dream seductress and her, he was going to be spending a lot of time in the shower taking himself in hand. Most of the women here at the facility wanted in on his dick. Had she’d been here before Melissa he would have taken her up on that. He just didn’t have time to get into with her or her green eyes that held him.

“I asked you a question.”

“Sorry sir, I was heading to the gym, wanted to get a head start on training today.”

He nodded and watched her continue towards the training area. That had been a lot easier than any of their normal run-ins. She was stronger than most of the recruits, and she was a shifter of some sort. He could smell it on her. She never let her emotions over crowd his nose, and that meant she kept her shit in control. Control was satisfactory, she was going to need a lot of it. This was her third week here, and she’d already made an impression on others. His master liked her, thought she had potential. Maybe she did, but they wouldn’t know until she was tested.

# # #

These encounters with Black were getting more and more difficult. She’d only been here three weeks and still she felt unprepared. She excelled at all the activities. Any tests they put her through she passed with flying colors. So far. Her biggest worry was holding her form. She would not let her guard down.

“Chameleon, this is Red 2 come in Chameleon.”
Royce. Zea rolled her eyes. She was tired of the mind talking, but she had a job to do, and she was going to do it.
“This is Chameleon to asshole do you read asshole.”
She was the only one that could communicate with him this way besides Ronin. He was an idiot as far as she was concerned. She felt sorry for the other brother, but at least he could shut his brother out. She still couldn’t and Dravaggio promised with enough time and training, eventually she’d get it. She had to stay in the mindset of Zea which was her form for this assignment. As far as they could tell there were no other mind readers in the facility. If he could turn her, surely there were others.

She rounded the corner and almost collided with Melissa. Her skin went hot and cold at the other woman’s closeness. This bitch was sleeping with Draven.
Mr. Black. Say it, get used to it
. Mr. Black, she disgustedly corrected herself. The bitch pasted herself to his side every opportunity, even in their training sessions. She wasn’t going to let her ruin this for her. Her patience was wearing thin. They still hadn’t gained an audience with ‘the man’ but were told on countless occasions they’d meet him soon. She’d been fortunate enough to gain entry into their training program. Once Dravaggio had pinned down how they were recruiting, he’d immediately staged all participants in the right light to be approached. There was one other operative that was here with her, Adam. He’d joined two weeks after she did, and he was already making an impression on Black. He was all too happy to be a part of the team. He’d been so helpful to her during her recovery, he was the only other person besides Royce who didn’t make her feel there was something wrong with her, not that the others did, but they were wary of her.

“So, not true. Stop with the inner sappy monologue girl and get your ass in gear.”

“Royce shut up! Turn off your damn headphones until I reach out to you. Clear?”

“Z, last time I checked, I was front on this operation.”

“Don’t you have a bird’s feather that needs rustling?”
She shot back. He was getting on her nerves.

Dravaggio wanted information gathered and sent back to the ground team. He wanted Black extracted, whether by his own will or against it. Zea was all for that plan, but she also wanted him to come with her knowing she belonged to him. More and more she was starting to think it wasn’t going to happen, at least, not the way she planned. Faith wasn’t happy she had to wait yet again for both her parents. She’d grown attached to her father over the short amount of time they spent together. Mara assured her it was normal for a cub to get attached to their sire. She was bringing Faith’s father back whole and complete, she couldn’t see it ending any other way.

“You’re up early aren’t you?” Melissa asked sweetly.

“You are to.” The skank liked to think she was in a position of power among the recruits. She wasn’t. She’d only been here a bit longer, and because she was Black’s fuck buddy, she thought it gave her seniority. The team had wondered where she’d gone off to and Dravaggio wanted her brought in on charges. Zea never liked the woman, and under normal circumstances, she may have been able to understand Melissa’s plight. She didn’t ask to be brought into this world, but she was here now and because of something that stirred his wolf, she belonged to him, not Melissa. So the bitch could eat dirt for all she cared. He’d handled their break up badly. She couldn’t bear the fact that he wanted Melissa again.
Black wants Melissa, not Draven. They are not the same person.

“I was just leaving Black’s room.” Melissa purred.

Yeah right, his room was on the other side of the gym, and she’d just run into him moments before running into her.

Her fist tightened. Most of the women here wanted Black. But she wasn’t about to throw herself out there like the rest. She’d have her man, it would take time. Time she genuinely didn’t have, but the seduction she’d planned for Black was simple. His eyes deceived him. Did his heart? Would his wolf? They’d bonded. She was his mate, and Mara explained the man may have changed, but the wolf would hold onto the idea that he was meant for her. It was imprinted into their wolf DNA. The wolf hadn’t rejected her, and she hadn’t rejected him and according to wolf law that was the key.

“What’s your point?”

“I know you want him, just want to be clear that Black belongs to me.”

Zea ignored her remarked and headed for the training facility. She didn’t have time to be bothered with the other woman or her antics. Hitting the gym early would help her blow off some steam. She needed to be ready, today was the final test. All the other training tests had been small and inside the facility. Today the recruits were all going out on assignments handed down from Black himself.

“Job well done.”
Royce sounded disappointed. He’d started a pool on when she and Melissa would go at it.

“What? I wasn’t going to go head to head with her now.”

Men! They always assumed women were too emotional to handle the tough jobs. Well she was emotional, but not so emotional she couldn’t recognize Melissa’s taunting was a sign of her inability to hold on to Black. There was a greater goal, and she’d see it through. Her agenda and Dravaggio’s agenda would melt into one ending. Black would be home and information would be gathered.

# # #

Black heard the conversation between the two women as he walked down the darkened halls. The sound of their voices had halted his progress. Melissa seemed to enjoy getting under Zea’s skin, but Zea was soundly holding her own. Something told him to stop and protect the recruit, a thought that was more abhorrent than anything else. Black was not a protector or coddler, he didn’t want to keep her safe from anything. His wolf had other ideas. On a good day, his wolf never led him astray, but once she’d come to the facility things had started to get complicated. He thought back to how she was brought in and how at first she had been resistant, and unruly. She didn’t want to follow any of his orders or go through any of the training. When he threw her in confinement for twenty-four hours with no food or water, she’d wised up then. He was awake half the night worried for her, why, he didn’t know. Sleep had been non-existent, and his mind kept telling him that she didn’t like dark places that she would hate being in the cell.

They’d found her at one of the fight rings. He’d been there to check out potential new recruits when she’d gone into the cage. He never paid the cage matches close attention. The loser was always recruited to the death squad, and the winner sometimes lived to see the facility. But when the announcer said her name and where she’d came from, not only did his wolf pay attention, but so did the man.

The crowd had gone wild at the sound of her name; apparently it wasn’t her first fight. The only thing she wore was a tank top and board shorts. She refused to fight women. She only wanted to handle the men. He thought for sure she was headed for the death squad. Women were not stronger than men. It didn’t matter if they were human or immortals. Men had better genetics. They were built tougher, stronger and harder than this girl. She would have her ass handed to her on a platter, courtesy of Enri. He was as mean as they came and if Black had someone he could relate to, it would be him.

Enri sat in the dark corner of the cage as she’d been introduced, and he’d watched trapped by her demeanor and style. The slightest tropical breeze floated through the crowd and into his nose, instantly his dick was hard. It was the same scent he’d dreamt about. It had to be his brain conjuring up his dream seductress. The two of them were nothing alike. She was taller, more athletic with short hair, but with the wrong colored eyes, his dream enchantress was lush, warm, and soft in all the right places. She smelled like a tropical island made just for the two of them.

He’d watched as she glided into the cage and waited, Enri looked startled, but seemed to think better of his actions as he prepared to fight her. She was graceful in the ring. Her fighting style tonight was Capoeira. Most people were afraid of Enri and his death wings. She was comfortable and danced in her movements. Enri adjusted his fighting style to hers. The two of them were fluid movement and grace. Then there was contact. Harsh and loud as feet and arms began to connect with body parts. She’d made contact first and then it was a trade off as both were slamming their feet and fists into kidneys, stomachs, and then he’d connected his left foot to the small of her back taking her down.

Black’s protective instincts had roared to life, and he found himself in front of the cage, starring Enri down with eyes he knew were more wolf-like than human. Why did she bring his wolf and his protective streak out? She wasn’t bonded to him, and he clearly wasn’t bonded to her, still wanted to protect her. She appeared defeated at that moment, and he was startled to find he didn’t want to sentence her to Enri’s death squad. He didn’t want to see the flesh rot from her skin and wither into the walking dead. He couldn’t do that to her, and the thought shot pain straight into his chest. He’d opened the cage and Enri stepped back allowing him in. He bent to turn her over when her leg swung out and leveled him. She stood over him, eyes half-mast and wild as she looked down at him with so much rage, he felt the ground shake.