Hale

Chapter Twelve

Hale stared through narrowed eyes. Paige licked Robbie like a frozen treat.

Holding the base of his shaft, she licked up and down, sucking on the tip of his cockhead.

Robbie groaned and thrust up, but Paige wouldn't be rushed. Damn, she was so fine. Her ass bobbed in the air each time she went down on their mate. It took all of Hale's control not to round on her and shove himself deep inside her.

At the thought, he considered Robbie's tortured expression. The big bastard had to be ready to explode. His balls were so tight, his shaft slick with Circ oil and a good dose of precum. It wouldn't take much to make him spout like a geyser.

“Come on, Paige. I want to watch him shoot.”

She purred and began growing, her feminine form delightful as it filled out to Circ proportions while still appearing human. Amazingly, her skin felt just as soft. Her eyes changed, but her fingernails turned into talons only when she called on that particular shift.

“Turn around,” Robbie ordered harshly. “I want to eat you.” Paige immediately maneuvered and straddled his face. In seconds she was moaning and grinding over Robbie. Hale rubbed his own cock, changing as he did so.

He ached to climax, but he wanted to show Robbie where Robbie belonged. He had to prove something to the hardheaded Circ, and being forced to accept Hale would be a good first step.

Bucking into Paige's mouth, Robbie was nearly there. She moaned long and loud and shuddered over his face. The suction of her cheeks told Hale she'd found her bliss.

Tired of sitting back and watching, he bent low and sucked on Robbie's balls, rubbing the male's tight thighs with claws that drew thin lines of blood. So fucking sexy.

Robbie groaned and clenched at his restraints. Paige shifted off his face but didn't stop running her mouth over his cock. Hale met her lips as he licked his way up from Robbie's balls. They kissed and sucked their mate's cock together, along the length of his massive shaft.

“Oh, Christ. Yes, oh yes,” Robbie moaned. “You're both so fucking beautiful.” His guttural cry pleased Hale to no end. He pulled back to watch as Robbie jetted into the air. Such a thick cock brought forth streams of white cream that landed all over his belly…and Paige's tongue. Watching her lick and swallow Robbie's seed pushed Hale past his need to go slow.

“Paige, move over.”

She grinned and lay down beside Robbie. She leaned down and began sucking on his nipples.

Robbie tried to catch his breath as his cock continued to spurt in smaller amounts.

“Now watch me, mate, while I show you where you belong,” Hale growled at Robbie.

Robbie swore and thrashed his head. Hale instinctively knew his mate had never been taken before. With Robbie's size, it was a sure bet he did most of the topping—dominant behavior. While Hale recognized Robbie's need, he had to show his mate he was worthy. That no matter what, Hale would take care of him and Paige, just as Robbie and Paige would care for their threesome in their own ways.

Hale levered himself over Robbie and settled between his thighs, delighting in the tension there. “Feel me,” he rasped as he prodded past Robbie's firm ass cheeks toward that tight, rosy anus. He started to push, slowly.

“That fucking hurts.” Robbie's fangs were longer than Hale had ever seen them.

His claws bit into his own palms and tore at the sheets.

“Hurts so good,” Hale breathed, forcing himself to move at a measured pace.

“Robbie. You're so tight. Oh, yes. Push me out to let me in.” Robbie tried to move under Hale, to shift away from the pain. And then the muscle holding Hale back relented, and Hale eased through. As a Circ, Hale was huge.

Not as thick or as long as McKinley, but he probably felt like a monster in Robbie's virgin ass.

Paige leaned up from Robbie's chest and stared, her eyes shining. “That is so incredibly erotic. I want to watch you fuck, to see you slide in and out of him.”

“Hurts,” Robbie hissed. “More. I need more.”

Hale grunted and pulled out, then pushed forward once more. The friction was killing him. Robbie's ass gripped him tight, like a lover's kiss. And just as he'd resolved to try and go slow, he felt Paige behind him, fingering his hole. She grazed his sac, and he slammed hard into Robbie.

“Yes, Paige. Again,” Robbie breathed.

She continued to fondle Hale and Robbie, rubbing their balls and playing with whatever parts of their shafts she could touch. Until Hale couldn't stop. He shoved hard and fast into Robbie and stayed there as he spurted. Paige moved around them, jerking Robbie until he came again. The smell of cum filled the room, and the sight of Robbie's pleasure all over his belly pleased Hale to no end.

He wiped a finger through it and held it to Paige's lips. When she took his finger in her mouth, Robbie swore.

“Shit. You two are wearing me out. I've never felt this good in my life.” Paige smiled down at him, then leaned over to kiss him. “That's what I've been trying to tell you. I love you, Robbie. Forever.”

“Oh, God. Me too, honey. Me too,” he whispered.

Knowing he'd accomplished what he'd set out to, Hale left them alone. He took his time showering yet again, allowing them some privacy. He couldn't imagine the pain Robbie must have gone through for so long. To have Paige so near and not love her with more than his heart? To go through the mating heat with humans?

Unthinkable.

The anger he'd once held toward the giant male no longer existed. He'd be hard-pressed to hide this dopey feeling from his friends, but he knew he'd fallen in love with Robbie. Shit. He couldn't even call him McKinley anymore. It sounded too damned distant. Robbie had eyes that sparkled with gold. A body filled with power, with strength. That cock up Hale's ass had bruised, and it had felt so incredibly right.

And Paige. Her beauty could not be denied, but that tenderness inside of her, that need to love and be loved, captivated him. Hale knew it was too soon to feel this depth of emotion, this love. He tried to chalk up his affections to overbearing pheromones, but his beast wouldn't let him. Emotion overwhelmed him as he felt, for the first time in his life, the love his parents had once shared with one another.

It was beautiful. And it was scary. Because the chaos that was Pearson Labs was spreading. All that Robbie had told them, all the information about the enemy that he and Paige might still share, added up to the fact that Circe's Recruits would soon have to mount an attack on that terrible place. With or without Robbie's other friends, Hale knew they had to move soon. Pearson Labs would fall. The question still remained—who would fall with them?

A week and a half later, they were still coming to grips with one another. Hale, Paige, and Robbie grew closer each day. They spent their nights in the blue room in the basement, sequestered from the others. Though they'd reached an understanding with one another sexually, Robbie refused to get even the slightest bit rough with Paige.

He'd let her do whatever she wanted, and he didn't hold back as much with Hale, but Hale could tell Robbie didn't feel comfortable totally letting go with them yet.

He'd discussed it with Paige, and they'd decided to give Robbie time. It was enough he no longer flinched at any mention of their first time. So the underground lab had become their new temporary home. Paige seemed to love the compound. The women took to her right away, whispering things he was better off not knowing. He didn't trust them, especially when he'd walk into a room and they'd suddenly grow quiet, then laugh among themselves when he left. He ribbed Paige about it but couldn't be happier to see her enjoying her newfound friends.

Robbie didn't have it as easy. He didn't like to be too near Circe's Recruits. He tolerated Derrick, Zack, and Ace. He didn't like Roane and avoided Caitlyn like the plague, which worried Hale. Doc, however, seemed fascinated by these glimpses of Robbie.

Sabrina surprised Hale the most with her calm acceptance. She told funny stories about him and Elliot, which to Hale's surprise, didn't seem to bother Paige. It was as if his mate had completely disassociated herself from the man who'd fathered her. She also spent a lot of time with Doc, consenting to whatever tests he wanted. Robbie refused to agree to anything but helping Doc find a cure for the rogues.

God forbid he find help for himself. The “attacks” he supposedly hadn't had for years were coming more frequently. And he refused to talk about them.

Instead, he asked questions about Circe's Recruits, and what they'd been doing since their break from the first Project Dawn. He also spent a lot of time working out, much to Hale's amusement. He'd kicked the squad's collective asses time and time again, except for Roane, who Doc had advised to keep a distance.

Though the others no longer treated Robbie like the enemy, they didn't warm to him either. They couldn't, because their alpha didn't. Roane continued to challenge Robbie whenever they spent more than two seconds together. Their alpha personalities didn't help, nor did the fact that Hale was divided between them. Until Roane came to terms with Robbie, none of his men would.

Hale didn't like the building tension among them, but he didn't know what to do to stop it. Paige had no ideas, and Hale didn't want to distract Doc with his minor worries—compared to developing a cure to save rogue Circs. He didn't want to ask the guys, afraid Robbie might think he sided with them. Nor did he want to discuss his team with Robbie, afraid of alienating men he considered his brothers.

He was caught in the middle with no seeming way out.

Derrick joined Hale in their makeshift gym. “Yo, playboy. We set for that meeting with the G-man?” The G-man. General Mike Shields, Robbie's friend and boss.

Hale set down the dumbbells he'd been lifting and took a swallow of water.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he nodded. “Roane has already met and discussed a few things with him, but meeting anywhere is a risk. You know the PPA monitors us here.”

“Yeah.” Derrick shoved several plates of iron onto a bar. “You know what gets me the most? That Diego was working for our own government all this time. Hell. He acted like he was tight with Doc, you know? He sat with us, laughed with us. And the whole time, he was scheming.” Derrick slapped another weight on the bar. “If I was Doc, I'd want his balls for breakfast.”

“Bloodthirsty, D. Must be why Sabrina tolerates you. God knows, it's not because of your charm.”

Derrick grinned at him, told him to kiss off, and began bench-pressing over three hundred pounds with ease.

Hale sat and took another drink of water. He'd wondered about Diego as well after Robbie had shared information about him with the squad. It almost made it worse to think of Diego as a good guy. He played for the right team, and he'd still crushed Doc. Why all the subterfuge? Why couldn't he confide in the man he supposedly loved?

His perfidy made Hale twitchy. What if Robbie was doing the same thing? Hale trusted that his mate—it still surprised him to consider Robbie in those terms—meant none of them harm. But what if Robbie had an agenda none of them knew about? So far, General Shields corroborated Robbie's and Paige's accounting of how things were at the labs. They'd been building a solid case against everyone involved in the new Project Dawn for years, and now that they'd found new evidence, courtesy of Dr.

Eckles, a Circ named Hawkins, and Robbie, they were ready to go forward. To take down the labs.

Still, Hale's beast sensed something was not quite right. And his unease had to do with Robbie, not Paige.

“How's your girl doing?” Derrick grunted and set down the bar with a resounding clang. “Sabrina really likes her.”

“That's a first.”

Derrick slugged him in the arm.

He scowled. “What the hell?”

“You starting in on my mate?” D grinned. “Come on, you know 'mean' can be a turn-on.”

“You're just saying that because you can be a real dick.”

“True enough.” Derrick paused a moment, looked around, then motioned for Hale to move closer. He said in a low voice, “Playboy, something's wrong with your man.”

“Beyond the obvious?”

“Shut up and listen, smart-ass. McKinley, Robbie, whatever the fuck you call him.

It's like he's afraid of Caitlyn. I heard Roane and her talking about it with Doc. They think McKinley may know something he's not telling us, something Caitlyn would know from her years spent being treated by Elliot Pearl.” Hale scowled. “Why haven't they said anything to me about it?” At Derrick's stare, he flushed. “Oh, right. Because I'm screwing the suspect.”

“Keep it quiet, playboy. I'm just giving you a heads-up. They didn't say anything to me, Sabrina, or the threesome, either.” The “threesome,” what the rest of them had begun calling Ace, Zack, and Kelly.

“Okay. Thanks.” He went back to his free weights, and after another set, he stopped. “So what do you think of him?”

“Of McKinley?”

Hale nodded.

“He's big. He has eyes that seem to look right through you.” Derrick turned on his bench to look Hale in the face. “He kicked my ass that day at the labs. Annoying but impressive. From what Sabrina says, she really thinks he helped her save Kelly. He could have hurt us bad a few months ago, but he didn't.” He'd also been right about flushing Sabrina's system with Derrick's blood. By mixing their Circ cells, Doc had somehow stabilized Sabrina. She no longer had to worry about turning murderous or into a mutant, thanks to the control drug she'd once unknowingly ingested.

“You could do worse.”

Hale acknowledged Derrick's approval with a smirk. “I have. I did you.”

“Dick.” Derrick stood and shoved Hale off his bench.

Angling for a skirmish that didn't involve choosing sides or harming his mates' psyches, Hale threw himself into the brawl.

They made use of the blue mats in the center of the gym, where they did most of their training. They started in human form, fists and feet flying. Gradually they changed, their claws and quickened reflexes providing a real challenge. Just as Hale was about to defeat Derrick for the first time ever, his friend sank to the mat, his head in his hands.

Derrick groaned and rolled onto his back.

“What the hell?” Hale waited for Derrick to get up and slam into him but grew concerned when he realized this was no ploy. He turned to run for help when he caught sight of glowing eyes in the shadows. “Dammit. Robbie, ease up. We were sparring.” Robbie strode forward. He glanced from Hale to Derrick and back again. “Oh. My bad.” He narrowed his stare at Derrick, who sighed with relief.

“Shit. That hurt.” Derrick glared up at Robbie and said to Hale, “Put a leash on your guard dog, playboy. Because psychic or not, I'm seriously going to kick his ass the next time he tries fucking with my head.”

Derrick refused Robbie's hand and stood on shaky legs. He mumbled under his breath as he left, changing back into his human form as he went.

Hale turned and changed back too. “Well? Want to explain that one, guard dog?” McKinley flushed. “I, ah. I'm sorry. I reacted to a perceived threat.” Hell, his cheeks felt on fire. He hadn't planned on screwing up yet again. For the first time since arriving at the compound, he hadn't offended anyone or caused undue harm yet today.

He'd intended a harmless session with some weights to relieve stress. Paige was spending time with Doc, and the others were playing cards in the main house. He'd needed a break.

Then he'd seen a larger, stronger male attacking his mate. He hadn't thought about it. He'd simply reacted.

“It's okay.” Hale sighed. “You know, as much as it goes against the grain to have one of these estrogen moments, I think we need to talk.” McKinley grinned. Hale had a decent sense of humor. Around his mate, McKinley either found himself laughing or growing uncomfortably hard. “Lay it on me.” He took a seat on a nearby weight bench and waited.

Hale raised his arm to run a hand through his hair, distracting him. Damn, the Circ had muscles. Though leaner than McKinley, Hale clearly possessed the strength of a warrior in his normal form. His biceps bulged, his chest heaved as he sighed again, and the sweat beading on his naked chest had McKinley wondering how he'd taste. Too bad he still wore shorts.

“I want to know how you became a Circ.”

“What?” He focused on Hale's tight abs, trailing his gaze farther down, centering on the fabric molding to his thick cock.

“Hey, Robbie, my eyes are up here, bud.” Hale chuckled. “You know, that would sound much better if I was a chick with huge breasts. You know, like Paige.” They both grinned, before Hale grew serious once more. “Tell me how you became a Circ.”

“Why?”

“Because I think it's important. Why shouldn't I know about you? Hell, you can ask me any damn thing you want. I'm an open book.”

“Right.” McKinley snorted. “So what? You want my life story?”

“Something like that.” Hale sat down on the mat across from him, resting back on his hands, his legs stretched out in front of him. Just two guys hanging out at the gym.

Talking.

The extreme normalcy of the moment was surreal.

“Shit. Fine. Nosy bastard,” he muttered. “My dad was an officer in the Army. He was fed the typical vaccines before going overseas.” He scowled. “Except they weren't typical. Pearl fed him the very first batch of EP12, the Circe serum. And the bastard drugged my mother as well. She was full of the crap when she had me.”

“Are you serious?”

“I wish I wasn't.” He exhaled heavily, missing his family. A throbbing started at his temple that he tried to rub away. “I don't know what Pearl expected, but it wasn't me. I was totally normal back then. Had hair like yours, maybe a shade lighter. Green eyes, normal skin and bone structure. We were a happy family, except for Elliot. My mom didn't like him. Said he used to give her the creeps.”

“I can imagine.”

“Yeah. Well, a condition of my dad's service was that he have regular checkups with Elliot. My dad wasn't into standard ops. He did some classified work, so he never questioned his trips to see Dr. Pearl, at least, not at first. But when he started getting faster and stronger, when my mom started developing an ability to see and hear things beyond what was normal, they wondered. And then she…and there was…” Fuck, why couldn't he think?

“What's wrong?”

“I—my head really hurts. I don't know.” It felt as if a migraine consumed him.

“What happened to your parents?” Hale asked softly, pushing.

Forcing himself to think about his dad and mom again, McKinley pushed the pain aside. “We were driving. It was such a nice day, beautiful up in the mountains. I loved it there. We had a summer house just outside of Asheville. On our way to, somewhere.” The burning in his brain flared again. “They crashed and died. I survived. And turned into this.”

“You were how old?”

“Nineteen. Satisfied?”

Hale's eyes narrowed in concern. “What aren't you telling me? What really happened that day, Robbie? Why do you get these attacks when anyone mentions Caitlyn? Why, when I mention your parents, are you getting them again?”

“I don't know.” He tried to stand, wanting to get away from the pain, from the questions. Flashes of Caitlyn's face filled his mind's eye, but in them she was younger, laughing, then crying.

His father drove the car and sang horribly. His mother laughed, chattering with excitement to have her son home from college. Colleen had missed him so much. And wouldn’t his sister be so surprised when they all arrived as a family?

Worry filled him. If they didn’t hurry, they’d be late picking her up and taking him back to school. He had an exam in the morning, but he hadn’t seen her in months. Already sixteen. He couldn’t believe his baby sister…

“Can't think. My head,” he moaned, falling off the bench to the ground. His beast had suppressed his memories for so long. But McKinley the man struggled to know. No.

Can’t risk. Not survive. Can’t attack the enemy, not until we’re stronger.

“No, Robbie. Let it out,” a softer voice than Hale's said. Her voice. “What were your parents' names?”

“No. No more,” he rasped, as flashes of their faces struck him with the force of blows. God, he missed them. Missed playing baseball with his father, their fishing trips, the long talks they'd had. He missed his mother's warm hugs, her pride as she watched him throw for a touchdown at school, and the funny notes she'd scrawl into his notebooks. He missed his sister's hero worship. The way she'd sneak into his room at night and demand a story. How she'd steal his toys and try to replace them without his knowing. He loved her so much, and he didn't like it when she met with the strange doctor at that place that set his teeth on edge.

“Remember how pretty Mom's hair was? How strong Daddy was when he'd lift us in the air?”

He knew that voice. Knew her scent buried under that of a foreign male.

“Let it go, Robbie,” Hale said, placing a hand over his forehead. Like magic, his mate's touch eased his burden. Safety in solidarity. The ache disappeared, but the pictures of his sister didn't.

“Open your eyes, Robbie. I'm right here.”

He looked up at Hale, at Doc and Roane. At her. Caitlyn Chase. Roane's mate.

Robert McKinley Chase's sister.