Grayson's Gamble

Chapter Nine

Bas had a hard time functioning by the time he returned to the cabin. He’d done his best to mask his tracks, but the dread growing in his breast became impossible to ignore. Something bad had happened to one of his mates, maybe both. He’d already shifted into his beast to make the return trip faster, but he was too late. He’d been calling out to Gray repeatedly in his mind. Gray wouldn’t answer. And no matter how much Bas tried, he couldn’t sense Ali.

Though they hadn’t truly bonded together, he knew she was his. The way Gray was. But he and Gray had forged those emotional and physical ties. Bas and Ali hadn’t. Not yet, because they needed Gray to pull the three of them together.

He tore through the cabin and found it empty. So he headed for the area underground.

Gray lay tied to the bed, unconscious. Two darts were buried in his chest. Of Ali, there was no sign.

Sincerely freaked, he removed the darts from Gray. Then he grabbed water and splashed it in Gray’s face. He tried to waken him, the way Gray had pushed through to him before. He opened himself on every level and poured his heart and soul into Grayson Belle.

After a minute, his partner—his mate—woke.

“Thank God.” Bas kissed him hard on the mouth and dragged the key out of Ali’s hiding spot. After releasing Gray from the restraints, he carried him upstairs and placed him on the couch. He grabbed some leftover rogue clothes from her armoire and tossed them at his lover. “Well? What did you do to Ali?”

He hated to jump to conclusions, but the scent of sex, joy, and confusion, not to mention Ali, lingered over Gray like a perfume.

“Huh? Ali?” Gray called out.

“She’s not here.”

Gray held his head. “That little witch.” His growl turned into a roar as he stood and looked around. “She fucking held me with that scent. Then she tranq’d me. Again!” Gray pulled on the clothes Bas gave him, to include his own boots that sat in the bottom of her armoire. “You filled in the admiral?”

“Through Keiser.” Bas didn’t want to, but he had to acknowledge Gray had been right to send him. “He’s as arrogant as you are. And he’s hiding a lot behind those cold gray eyes. Secrets I don’t even wanna know about. But he’s solid. Gave me this sat phone and a bunch of supplies and a truck I left at the base of the mountain. Now tell me about Ali.”

“I don’t know. We made love, we bonded, and I told her we were mated. She seemed happy about it.” Gray frowned. “I think. Maybe she was a little annoyed.”

Bas groaned. “What did you say to her? Idiot.”

“Hey, I told her the flat-out truth,” Gray snapped. “We’re mated, and we’re going to be together. So she got a little touchy about the future. I told her not to worry. I’d handle it.”

“You handled it, all right.” Bas paced the living room, needing to find her now. “Think about it. The woman has been through hell with men, and Circs in particular. Then we come in here out of the blue to kill her. But instead we fuck her. Two guys she doesn’t know from Adam.”

“Her beast knows,” Gray argued. “Instinct doesn’t lie. You know our intuition is there to protect us, self-serving to ensure the survival of the species. I felt her, Bas. Ali’s beast is mine, as much as it’s yours. So’s the damn woman under all that mutant DNA,” he ended on a growl.

“Well, apparently the ‘damn woman’ doesn’t accept that yet. Asshole,” Bas muttered, knowing it was partially his fault for not warning his mate to go easy on the woman. Gray tended to take charge, and he didn’t have a lot of tolerance for those not following his orders. Bas knew that better than most.

“I’m not a child to be warned how to behave.” Gray glowered.

“Then don’t act like one. You should have used more patience. Admit it.”

“Maybe.” He threw open the door and lifted his nose. “Come on. Let’s find her so we can talk some sense into her.”

Except they didn’t find her. They searched for hours, until Gray and Bas caught wind of a dangerous scent that didn’t belong.

“Impossible. That smells like Bradley Watts. Another guy I supposedly shot and killed a year ago. What the fuck?” Gray snarled and tracked the small clearing, searching, while Bas did the same. “He was here.”

Fear spiked. “So was Ali.”

Gray bent over the ground to pick something up. “Oh shit. This isn’t good.” He handed the letter to Bas.

“Hell. You know she read this. That fucker Watts must have given it to her. The admiral has another leak in security.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah. Now she knows we lied about not coming to kill her.”

“She’ll think we lied about the rest of it too.” Gray looked haunted. “We need to get to Trenton now. When she and I were together, I caught some of her thoughts, the ones buried in the recesses of her mind. She’d always planned on killing him, then herself. And if she’s as pissed off and hurt as I think she is, believing I lied about loving her, she’ll do something stupid.”

“You told her you loved her?” Bas couldn’t believe it. Then again, he could. He’d fallen hard for Ali the moment he’d opened his eyes and seen her.

“No. Not in so many words.”

Bas scowled. “In any words? No, of course not. I had to drag the confession out of you myself. Look, asshole, just because you feel it doesn’t mean the rest of us know it. Ali’s vulnerable enough. But even I could see how she responded to some tenderness. Then to have that ripped away, based on a lie? Shit. She won’t hesitate to put herself in harm’s way.”

“Let’s go.” Gray changed and ran faster than Bas could keep pace with.

Bas followed his scent trail and found Gray waiting for him in the truck, ready to go. The moment Bas joined him, they sped away from the Cascades.

Gray nodded at the sat phone. “Call the admiral and tell him to mount an assault on Trenton’s lab now. She has a good start on us, and no telling when we’ll get to him. But we have to nail his ass before she does. She won’t harm herself if she can’t verify his whereabouts.”

“But if we move too fast, we’ll miss rounding up his contacts and sources,” Bas argued for the sake of argument. He readily agreed with Gray’s decision to nail Trenton now.

“Fuck his sources. We need to save Ali. And God help Watts if he so much as breathes wrong around her.” Gray’s violence seeped into the confines of the SUV.

Bas did his best to remain in control, but he worried for Ali. He hadn’t had a chance to tell her how he felt. How much she meant to him, which even he had a hard time believing, considering what little time they’d spent together. But he knew. Love had no timetable. And he wouldn’t lose her now. He couldn’t.

“Hurry up, Gray. Put your foot on it.” Bas called the admiral. The mission was a go. There would be a plane standing by for them in Redmond to take them straight to Whidbey Island. God help Trenton when they got there.

Ali felt a curious sense of detachment as she and Watts tore through the rogues guarding the breeding facility. She’d freed several females while having to put down others who’d turned too aggressive to control themselves. She watched Watts enjoy the decapitations and mutilations as they grew closer to Trenton’s wafting fear.

They’d timed their attack just right, because aboveground, the government’s forces were tearing the security forces a new asshole. But it would be a while before anyone knew to check the subbasement levels that didn’t exist in any blueprint. Trenton had killed the laborers and engineers who’d built the place years ago. Only he and a select few scientists knew of this area’s existence. Well, and Circs like Ali and Watts, who’d been worked over down here.

“Some fun, eh?” Watts cleared a bloody path toward Trenton’s office. He smiled, his sharp teeth little points of delight he no doubt used to his advantage when he felt like biting to make his point.

The rage and frustration she’d thought she’d feel when taking her revenge paled next to the sadness deep within. She couldn’t believe she’d ever bought Gray’s lies. She had thought herself beyond hope for the future. How could she have let herself care, even a little bit, for two holier-than-thou Circs?

“Hey, Ali. Pay attention, would you?” Watts asked with exasperation as he tore a guard in two, ripping his legs apart like a wishbone. He tossed the remains aside, like throwing out the garbage. “Our prey is in here.”

“He’s armed.” She shot two more rogue and mutating Circs in the head as they tried to attack. The frothing mouths gave them away, as did the roaring cries of insanity.

Though the walls and ceiling were soundproof, she wondered if any Circs above might hear the noise. “We should make this quick, in case anyone upstairs can hear this mess.”

“Good point.” Watts seemed in good cheer, now that she was back in the game and on his side. He’d been nothing but solicitous once they’d partnered up. He couldn’t seem to help staring at her, sizing her up like his next meal, but he made no move to scare her. If anything, he gave her more space. “I’ll go in first. I can take a lot of hits. You wait till I’m down, then take him out. Trenton’s not expecting you.”

Since they’d disabled the security cameras before entering, he would have no reason to suspect her presence. She’d made sure to keep to the shadows and retain her scent as well, on the off chance his rogue guards had radioed ahead before Watts disarmed them.

“Go.” She reloaded her pistols and waited with her weapons drawn.

Watts pushed through the steel door as if pushing through paper. Then he went down hard, several Taser darts clinging to his neck while bullets bounced off him. Some Circ ammo failed when used against mutant skin. From what she knew of Watts, nothing had ever put him down permanently.

She didn’t waste his sacrifice. Ali popped the three guards, brutal enforcers she recognized who’d killed without remorse. Trenton cowered in the corner, covered in smatters of blood. He held a pistol and shot wildly, but she dodged his bullets while tucking her pistols back into the holsters under her arms.

After slapping the gun out of his hand, she dragged him to his feet. She’d changed before the attack and stood a few inches taller than the bastard. He’d always seemed so much bigger to her. But not so much now. The blue eyes she’d once found so cold and piercing now pleaded for clemency, and his dark hair was threaded with more gray than she remembered seeing. The pristine white lab coat he took such pride in had smatters of blood and gore on it, as well as a few tears.

“Pathetic.” She punched him in the gut and took pleasure in his wheeze of pain. “A bully who’s not so big without his guards and his weapons, now is he?”

“Please. Don’t kill me. I’ll do anything.”

When he started crying, she felt nothing but disgust. This same scientist had ignored her tears and pleas for mercy while he’d documented a huge monster molesting her. “You’re a piece of shit, you know that? You turned me into this. You made me a killer, you bastard.”

“I did. I know. I’m sorry.”

“For a long time, I just wanted to be left alone. But you wouldn’t let me be, would you?”

“No, no. I knew I was wrong. I wanted to leave you alone. I swear. But he wouldn’t let me.”

She frowned. “I’ve been dealing with your rogues and mutants for nearly a year. Why do you think I kept raiding your warehouse for ammo? Why I sent back your soldiers in pieces?”

“I liked that. Really liked that,” Watts said from behind her. He slowly picked himself off the floor and staggered, woozy from the electric assault. A few bullets had managed to penetrate his skin as well, and she watched as they pushed out of his body and his skin healed.

“Not me,” Trenton whispered, frantic. “Him.” He nodded to Watts.

Watts grinned. “Kill him, Ali. You know you want to.”

She withdrew one of her guns. But something about this was wrong. Trenton was a dick, but he didn’t lie. “What’s he talking about?”

“Nothing. Dr. Caleb Trenton is full of shit. Everything out of his mouth is a lie.” Watts shrugged. “Fine. You won’t kill him, I will.” He advanced until she sighted in on Watts’s head.

“Not another step. You’re good, and you’re fast. But if I shoot you in the right place, and at this range I won’t miss, I’ll put you down hard. Long enough to slice your neck from ear to ear and rip your head clean off.”

He froze. “I don’t know what the fuck you think you’re gonna hear, but go ahead. Let the little prick lie if it makes you feel better. Then I’m going to gut him and strangle him on his intestines.”

Trenton pissed himself. She dropped him in a hurry and wished she could feel worse about scaring the little man so much he lost control of his bladder. “Talk.”

“I followed his orders, to the letter. The breeding experiments, the shots, everything was all at Watts’s say-so. He’s a former colonel in the army. Your father’s and my superior. The lab was his idea—”

Watts lunged before she could stop him and knocked the gun from her hand. He turned to Trenton and broke his neck in an instant. “Happy now?”

She looked from him to Trenton, now a mess of bones and flesh on the ground. “But how could you be my father’s superior?” Despite his mutation, he looked only a few years older than her.

“The serum affects us all differently.” He didn’t deny it.

The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. She took a step behind a nearby upended chair, intent on keeping some distance so she could draw her remaining weapon.

Watts didn’t blink, staring at her with all the hunger he’d been suppressing for hours. “You were perfect. From that little girl Dan Ross first brought into the project sprang a beast with intelligence, beauty, and instinct. I’ve never seen a female better built for breeding.” He shook his head. “But Trenton wouldn’t hear of it. He tried to play power games with me from the first. Had a few secret files that he threatened to release if I ever killed him. So I let him be in charge, but we both knew who held the reins on this place.”

“I thought he injected you, made you what you are.”

He licked his lips and focused on her breasts. “At my order. I took to it like a cat to cream. Too bad the mutant recessive kicked in a few years ago. For a while I could pass as a normal Circ. Then I grew too big and weird to hide. Oh well.” He took a step closer, and she withdrew the pistol from her other holster. She shot past his head in warning. “And that’s what I like about you, Ali. You’re not afraid. You don’t flinch. Even when Trenton went behind my back and tried breeding his own batch of rogues, when he used you, you didn’t break. You killed the fucker on top of you. Good girl.”

For a while it had been silent outside the room. But now she heard movement in the corridor, the faintest sound, but it was there all the same. Rogues or government men, she couldn’t tell. But maybe she could distract Watts long enough to let them do some damage. If not, she’d die trying to kill him herself.

“I was saving you for myself. Until you reached your peak.” He inhaled and smiled. “Yep. Fertile little thing, aren’t you? I’m going to enjoy plowing you. Mating heats are a bitch, and frankly, men don’t cut it for me.” He didn’t hide his erection.

So she added to his discomfort. “I know what you mean. Try this.” She released her pheromones and saw the immediate effect on Watts. His face grew flushed, his cock looked even larger beneath his pants, and his eyes took on the glazed look so many others had taken before she’d ended them.

She fired as fast as she could while he ducked and roared. She managed to graze his ear but hadn’t counted on his strength or speed. Holy crap, Watts could move.

So she pushed her claws all the way out another inch and charged him, going for his groin or his eyes, whichever she could gouge first. The best spots to hit if she wanted to maim him long enough to kill.

She made contact with his left eye. As her finger shot deep, he broke her wrist and then her arm.

The pain made her cry out, but Watts didn’t try to kill her. He seemed fine hurting her, though.

“You bitch,” he swore while smiling and threw her into the wall. “Damn, I like you.”

Her head hit and rang, giving him time to haul her up and stab a hole in her side. His claws tore through her flesh. The scent of her blood stirred his bloodlust. She saw his eyes darken, swirls of black amid the red. Then he stabbed her again.

She did her best to stab him back, but the blood loss affected her timing. She managed to punch him in the face and break his nose, but it healed. He shook her like a rag doll, and her vision blurred.

“No!”

She recognized Gray’s voice and Bas’s scent at the same time she fell to the ground.

Watts must have dropped her. She blinked through a haze to see Gray and Bas punching, biting, and kicking at Watts until he fell. They almost had him, and then he pushed past them and put himself between them and her.

“Another step and I’ll crush her,” he slurred, obviously weakened. But he was close enough to do just that.

Gray shocked her by stepping away from Watts. Blood poured down his face from a gash in his brow. Bas looked little better beside him.

“Come on, Colonel,” Gray sneered. “Your pathetic attempt to be like me failed. Again. When are you going to learn you’re just a loser? A human wishing he was so much more. Too slow and too weak. You resort to fighting women? Please.”

Bas took a subtle step toward her while Watts concentrated on Gray’s insults. She didn’t understand why they’d cater to Watts at all. With him nearly dead and threatening to kill her, they’d kill two birds with one stone. Let Watts kill her, then kill him.

“Hold on,” Bas mouthed at her, worry clear on his face.

Were they seriously asking her to believe they cared? She coughed and choked, having a hard time breathing. Blood covered her lips, the coppery taste bitter.

“Fuck this,” Bas muttered and leaped between her and danger at the same time Gray threw himself at Watts.

She didn’t see what happened. Bas held himself protectively over her. Then darkness took over.

“Dammit. Don’t die. Not now. Come on, Ali. Wake up, baby.” The voice wouldn’t stop. Constantly badgering her to wake up, when she just wanted to sleep. “Please. I miss you. I’m sorry. I love you. I swear. So does junior. Bas, I mean.”

She knew that voice. “Gray?”

“I wasn’t lying. Yeah, we were sent to kill you. Al Ross, a supposed mutant who was killing humans,” he said in a rush. She swore she felt fingers over her hair. Familiar scents around her. A soothing voice, calming, entering and passing through her. “When we met you, we knew. Bas and I. We love you. Weird as it sounds. I wasn’t lying about being mated. You’re mine—ours—baby. Wake up.”

She didn’t understand, but her beast prodded her to move. Lying so still was a bad thing. She needed to see Gray. If anything, she needed to make him pay for his lies. And what about Bas? Her beast pushed her to anger. Love and hate, same but different. Not right if they aren’t punished, her beast snarled, stirring her enough to rouse herself.

“Oh, thank God.” Bas’s face came into view as she slowly blinked, trying to process her position in contrast to everything else.

The scent of home penetrated. That and Gray and Bas, so near, together. Her beast purred loudly, and Bas’s smile warmed. His eyes looked wet, as if he’d been crying. Stunned, she could only watch as he wiped his cheek and hurriedly dried his eyes.

“I can’t believe you put me through all that.”

She opened her mouth to answer and coughed.

“Hold on.” Bas left her side and returned with a glass of water. “Some quick answers. Trenton is dead. Watts is dead. We took care of the lab. It’s totally gone now. You’re here, recovering in your cabin with me and Gray.” A look passed over his face she didn’t understand. “We thought you’d be more comfortable here. And no, we didn’t tell anyone where your cabin is located, though one of our contact psychics has an idea about the whereabouts of the place. Guy sees the past, so he saw your great-grandfather build the cabin. Nothing I can do about that.”

“Bas?” She sounded weak. She didn’t like that.

“What?”

“What aren’t you saying?”

He fell silent.

Now that she took a good look at him, he looked leaner, haggard. Worried. “You look like shit.”

He laughed, and his joy made her feel better. “Thanks. First real laugh I’ve had in days.”

She tried to sit up and felt a jolt of pain.

“No, no. Lie still. You’re still recovering from a massive injury.”

“How long was I out? What happened?” Where was Gray? If he loved her so much, where the hell was he? The big liar.

“It’s been a week, and it’s been touch-and-go.” Bas stroked her cheek, his blue eyes impossibly bright. “Ali, I thought you were going to die. I love you. I didn’t say it before because I thought it might freak you out.”

“And you might have to kill me.” She felt better with each breath she took. Hearing the big lug say he loved her didn’t hurt either. But that didn’t mean she trusted him.

“Okay. I know Gray told you the truth. We thought Al Ross was a guy, a mutant or rogue trying to kill, or start an army. When I saw you, I knew I could never harm you. Even before you took horrible, sexual advantage of me, I was in lust and in love.”

“Shut up.” She didn’t want to smile but couldn’t help herself.

“Seriously. My beast knew you right away. You make me feel the way Gray does. Yeah, it’s gonna take time for you to trust us. And that’s okay. But we’re not going anywhere. Not without you.”

Her head started to spin. Bas seemed like he meant what he said. She remembered him putting himself between her and Watts. His worry, his kindness. “All this we talk. So where the heck is Gray?”

Bas frowned.

“Bas, where is he?”

“He’s downstairs in your room under the cabin. He’s been out of it since he used himself to heal you.” He paused. “Without him, you would have died.”

She didn’t understand. “He can heal?”

“No. But it’s different with you and me. Gray’s family comes from a long line of shape-shifters and shamans, apparently. He connected with both of us, and that mental and physical connection allows him to plug in to us, so to speak. He can share his energy to keep us alive, because without us, Gray hurts.” Bas smiled, but she could read his anxiety. “He’s fully healed from the wounds Watts inflicted. Bastard was on death’s door and still nearly tore Gray’s heart out.”

“Oh my God. I need to see him.”

Bas nodded. “Slowly.” He helped her sit up.

She hissed at the pain as he helped her to her feet, his arm around her.

“I know you’re still pissed that we lied. But we didn’t lie about loving you. Gray nearly died to heal you. And he’s not out of the woods yet. After you lost consciousness and he healed you, he’s been asleep. I can hear him sometimes, but he’s growing weaker. Maybe you can talk to him.”

They made their way downstairs, and with each step, Ali willed herself to recover. She still couldn’t absorb the fact Gray had nearly died for her. First killing Watts, then healing her with his psychic crap.

“He really means it,” she whispered.

“Yeah. He does. He’s conceited, bossy, and he’s a know-it-all. But when he commits, it’s all the way.”

They stopped in the room at the foot of the bed. On it, Gray lay still. A blanket was tucked around his waist, but his torso remained bare. No new scar marred his chest that she could see, but his breathing was too slow. His eyes didn’t flicker under his lids. She could barely detect the rise and fall of his chest.

“Okay, you. Wake up.”

Nothing.

She moved closer with Bas’s help and stroked his chest. “All healed up, aren’t you? Don’t think taking on Watts for me relieves you of that problem you have about telling the truth.” She felt tears well, the past connecting with the present. And her sudden future unfolded before her. “You say you love me? Well, prove it. Because if you don’t wake up, that’s just another lie, isn’t it? Wanting a future with me, but you’re too much a coward to face me.”

A stirring in her mind alerted her to Gray’s presence. “I’m resting, dammit. Would you two ease up on the maudlin tears and let a guy recuperate? How the hell will I fuck you both senseless if I’m still in recovery?”

His chest filled and released, and his mouth parted.

Bas hugged her tight. “I knew you’d badger him to wake up. Figures hero won’t answer when I call him.”

“Easy, junior. Soon as I’m up and running, we’re claiming our woman. Don’t think you aren’t going to answer to us for all your shit either. Boy, you need discipline.”

She and Bas looked from Gray to each other. Then she smiled wide, more than excited to do any number of the things Gray suddenly poured into her mind.

“Oh hell.” Bas groaned, but the sparkle in his eyes told her he looked forward to the same thing.