Prymal Lust (11 page)

“I don’t get this.” She pelted the statement at him.

“Every Wylfen is fed a chemical cocktail designed to tame the mate claim need from puberty until they’re mate allianced.”

She simply stared at him, mouth agape. Shook her head. “I’ve been drugged?”

“All Wylfens are. Think back. When you got your first period, your mother took you to the doctor. A Wylfen doctor.”

“Any mother would do that. Take her daughter to the doctor at the onset of puberty. And I am Wylfen. So of course, Mom took me to a Wylfen doctor.” She squared her shoulders and dared him to contradict her statement.

Axe hated having to bust her Wylfen safety-net. “That’s when you started taking the vitamins. If you didn’t take the vitamins voluntarily, they would have placed an implant in you.”

“An implant? How do you know about this? How does Jaz?” She barked the questions, her tone both defensive and aggressive.

“Eva. When she started her first year as a medical student, she ran her blood through a lab analysis. Discovered chemical discrepancies between her blood and those of her human classmates.” Axe clenched his jaw when Tania’s complexion went wan.

She swayed and grabbed the handrail.

He flexed his fingers and kept his feet planted though his wolf howled in protest. Protect her, soothe her, the raw primeval need to shield his mate surged through him.

“Eva.” Tania fisted a hand over her lips. “Eva was exiled months ago. Some say she’s dead.”

Her whole life had been a lie.

Tania struggled to contain her rage.

“Jaz?” She appealed to her twin. Inherent in that one word question was a fervent plea that he refute everything Axe had just told her.

“It’s the truth, Tania. Eva didn’t believe it at first. She ran the test results three times.” Jaz grasped her hand and idly rubbed her fingertips.

“You’ve spoken to Eva? After her exile?” Eva had been the closest thing she’d had to a BFF. She’d been the only female Wylfen who’d understood Tania’s internal torment. The only person she’d ever told about not wanting to be mated. The acute sense of betrayal roiling her belly mushroomed.

“Yes.” Jaz refused to let go her hand when she tried to wrench out of his hold.

Tania studied the three men. “Go ahead. Tell me everything.”

“Eva’s the first Wylfen female to attend college. Like you, she didn’t want to be mate allianced.” Jaz squeezed her fingers before releasing his grasp.

“Tell me something I
don’t
know.” Tania crossed her arms and seethed at her brother.

“Eva identified the chemicals that were unique to her blood. She recreated the chemical mix and tested the cocktail on her lab rats. Determined that it changed behavior. Basically made the rats extremely docile, but also almost asexual.” Jaz’s serious mien and his grave expression had Tania’s stomach sinking through her feet.

A brisk breeze whisked across the grass. Tania shivered and hugged her arms.

Axe glanced at her. “Let’s take this inside. Jaz, grab our steaks for me. I’ll heat them up in the micro.”

He ushered Tania through the open back door.

Five minutes later, all four of them sat at the rectangular table in the center of the kitchen.

Though the steak in her plate gave off a delish aroma, Tania’s appetite had vanished. She cut a small cube while keeping her gaze fixed on her twin.

“Eva’s curiosity was spiked. She drew samples from her siblings and friends and tested those too. Long story short, she discovered that Wylfen females and males have high levels of unusual chemicals in their blood, but only after they begin to show signs of puberty.”

The tequila Tania’d drunk curdled her stomach. “She asked to test mine. At first, I said no, but then I gave in.”

“Eva tested my blood too,” Jaz declared, the sympathy in his eyes, the exact hue of her father’s, only served to deepen the looming shadow of impending doom that had her seeing black spots.

Jaz covered her hand with his. “It’s going to be okay, sis.”

“Is it?” She didn’t believe anything would ever be okay again.

Lycus cleared his throat. “Eva somehow managed to make the connection to the vitamins. Stopped taking hers and monitored her reactions. A few months later, she met my brother, and recognized him instantly as her mate.”

“I don’t understand. What has the vitamins to do with Eva recognizing her mate?” Tania’s brain ached trying to process all the new information the alphas flung at her.

“The vitamins contain a mega dose of the drug, Genlarium. When Eva’s blood tested negative for any trace of Genlarium, she began to have recurring dreams of being mate claimed. Her sexual desire soared—those are her words by the way. Eva believes that once the Genlarium was no longer in her system, her true wolf instincts surfaced.” Jaz replied.

Tania’s intestines cramped. Jesus. Exactly what had happened to her over the last few months. “Was that why you bullied the parents into letting me move out? So you could ditch my vitamins?”

“Yes,” Jaz answered.

“The reason I was in the hotel gym was because I was supposed to collect a paper cup you’d used, and we were going to analyze it to see what your Genlarium levels were like,” Axe explained. “I gave Lycus the water bottle you’d drank in my suite to test.”

“And?” Everything began to make sense. So why did she feel so betrayed and soiled?

“There are only slight traces of Genlarium in your blood,” Lycus declared. He glanced at Axe. “Results came in a couple of hours ago.”

A sense of impending catastrophe forced the question out of her mouth. “Eva recognized your brother as her mate because she was no longer drugged.”

“Precisely. And it didn’t matter one whit to her that he’s a Rogue wolf. Like me, Dax, is the product of three generations of mixed breed mating. My maternal grandfather was half panther. My paternal grandfather was half wolf. The rest of me’s mostly human. Or so I preach.”

Tania knew she was catching late night flies, but couldn’t snap her teeth together. She had to stiffen to prevent an automatic flinch away from the man sitting next to her. She dropped her knife and fork. Stared at Lycus.

He was a Rogue wolf.

A
Rogue
wolf.

In person.

He was handsome as sin.

Rogue wolves were supposed to have horribly distorted features. They had none of the Wylfen beauty or perfection.

“In animal form, we’re admittedly odd looking. I have wolf ears, but a cat snout. Make no mistake though, I am a Rogue wolf.” Lycus’s tone held a jeering note.

Tania bit the tip of her tongue. She had to stop blurting her thoughts. She’d called the Rogue wolf ugly aloud. The worst insult a Wylfen could deliver to any living thing.

“You know what Wylfen parents tell their kids about the Ferals and the Rogues.” Axe forked a mouthful of dressing laden salad from his plate into his mouth.

“They’re animals. Beasts. Unable to control their wolf. They eat their own cubs. Their mates die during mate claim.” She shuttered her eyes.

“I’m Feral,” Axe stated.

“I’m Rogue,” Lycus declared.

“We’ve all learned to control our shifting. We recognize our mates. We mate claim.” Lycus crossed his arms and flashed her a wink.

She shot him a furious glare. “Really? You’ll actually say that out loud. Women die from mate claiming.”

“Eva didn’t,” Lycus retorted.

“What Lycus is not saying is that the claiming isn’t done by the alphas. It’s done by the females,” Axe explained all the while glowering at Lycus.

Tania linked her fingers together not sure she could resist the prodigious impulse to plant a facer on Axe’s jaw. She snorted. Glowered at him. “I don’t believe a word of it.”

Axe shrugged. “Your prerogative. Finish your steak.”

Her appetite had vanished. She shook her head. “I’m not hungry.”

“Have you had anything to eat today?” Axe demanded.

“I had to force her to eat an apple earlier. She ordered chicken noodle soup for lunch, but had only a few mouthfuls. Axe is right, sis. You need to get something solid in your stomach.”

“I’m. Not. Hungry.” She clenched her teeth. Folded her arms.

“Not budging. You won’t win this battle. I promise.” He tickled her lips with the moist cube. “Eat.”

Tania wanted to brain him.

He out-stared her.

“Eat, Tania. You’ve had several shocks in the last day and a half. You need to keep your strength up.” Axe brushed her mouth insistently with the steak.

Exasperated by the stubborn set of his lips, she accepted the meat, and chewed.

Females doing the mate claiming—the notion was ludicrous. Then it hit her. Eva was alive.
Alive
. Elation danced through her.

“I want to talk to Eva.” Tania didn’t know who to believe. The bottom had dropped out of her world. None of the rules she’d lived by applied. She was hurling around in a terrifying limbo. But, Eva, would never, ever lie to her.

Jaz grimaced. “She just had a miscarriage. Dax’s not letting anyone near her.”

A miscarriage? How awful.
Poor Eva. It must be devastating to lose a baby. “I’m so sorry to hear that. Is she okay, health wise?

“Eva’s holding her own.” Axe waved another forked chunk of meat under her nose.

She snatched the fork. “I can feed myself, thank you. What about all those rumors that Eva had died in mate claim?”

“Started by the Wylfen to fuel hatred for Rogue and Feral wolves,” Axe replied.

Lycus checked his watch. “It’s eighteen-hundred. Why don’t we wrap this up for tonight? Axe and I have to be on base at the crack of dawn. Jaz, I’ll ride with you back to the hotel so you can checkout and pick up yours and Tania’s luggage. You’ll stay with me for the next couple of days. Tania will remain here.”

“You’re assuming I’ll agree to all of this,” she stated, her tone grouchy.

“Again, sis. Not giving you the option.”

When she opened her mouth to protest, Jaz held up a hand, and shook his head. “I’m now your Wylfen male alpha. If it’s necessary, Axe has my verbal permission to secure you here physically. No, don’t give me
that
snarl. The Senior Council had that notice couriered to our hotel. A hotel room I booked midflight.”

The chilling implications of her twin’s last statement proved the last straw.

Tania bounded out of the chair, realized she had no idea where the bathroom was, and ran for the stainless steel kitchen sink. The tequila and the two cubes of steak erupted from her mouth. The vomit convulsions went on and on even after she had nothing left to throw up.

“Don’t fight it.” Axe caught her around the waist. “I got you.”

He stroked her spine. Long rhythmic open-palm presses. “We upchuck so often during BUD/S that you have to develop a way to handle it and still remain cogent. Try to breathe evenly. That helps. There you go. See, the dry heaves are going.”

Her knees collapsed and he swept her into his warm, soothing embrace. “K. Let’s get you soaking in a hot bath. What you’re experiencing are all shock symptoms. We need to keep you warm and hydrated.”

She revived somewhat when he toweled her dry after a twenty-minute soak in a lavender perfumed bubble bath. Only because the need to have him make love to her banished all the worries swirling around her brain.

“Don’t have much in the way of a bathrobe, but this T and these sweats will keep the chills from starting.” He dropped the towel and snatched clothes she hadn’t noticed from the bathroom counter.

“What if I said I don’t want clothes? That I want us skin-to-skin.” She craned her neck and prayed to see the same desire in his eyes.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

She recognized the glowing amber haloing his dilated pupils.

In answer he grazed his sinful lips over hers. A tickling tingling lingered on hers when he drew back. “Like I could refuse that kind of request from you.”

He scooped her off the floor, plucked a dry bath sheet from a hook on the door, and wound his way to an enormous bed. The thing had to have been handmade. And what a beautiful piece. The headboard dominated one wall. She estimated it at six feet. Maybe more.

He draped the towel on the bedcovers and then gently laid her down in the center of the soft cotton. Only then did she notice the three candles on the dresser. “
You
own candles?”

Tania couldn’t be certain in the flickering light, but she could’ve sworn he blushed.

“Bought them today. Eva has them all over their cabin. Drives Dax nuts. Fire hazard. She says the smell of lavender’s calming. Turn over. Get comfy.”

She wanted to package the gruffness coating his terse words. The big bad alpha was embarrassed about the whole candle thing. Then his order impacted. “Get comfy?”

“Yeah, she also says nothing relaxes her like a massage.” He leaned over to the bedside table, retrieved a small bottle, and poured what had to be massage oil into one palm.

Not in her most vivid imagination had Tania ever expected such a tender gesture especially because of the fact that their first two couplings had ridden a violent edge. She teared up but blinked to ward off a descent into a full-fledged bawling. Her voice shook when she whispered, “You don’t have to. You must be, um, uncomfortable.”

He was stark naked and sprouting what must be a ball-bluing erection.

“Turn over, woman.” Now irritation laced his command.

She obeyed, but couldn’t repress a grin. Nice to know her hard fucking sailor-boy lurked under this new persona of his.

He kneaded his way up her spine. “Pressure okay?”

“Perfect.” The way his thumb rotated around each vertebra had her melting into the mattress.

He had magic hands. When he massaged the knots in her shoulders and neck she had moaned in sheer ecstasy. The long, languid rhythmic strokes up and down her entire back somehow weighted her eyelids.

When he moved to one foot and worked on her arch, if Tania could’ve purred she would have.

Sleep claimed her after that.

Axe collected Tania’s carryon from Jaz at the gate. “What took you so long? It’s been three hours. Where’s Lycus?”