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  For a split moment, the kaleidoscope became too painful to look at, and then Lyso stood in the room, a Xolotlan pistol in his grip, a manic, somehow glazed look in his bulging pink eyes. He took a step forward, the pistol’s barrel aimed squarely at Crortek’s head, and that was when Zeric saw her.

  Jaienna Ti. Standing behind the Xolotlan, an Aglaian disruptor in her hands.

  Crortek burst out laughing. “So, the lizard walks.”

  Lyso extended his arm, pushing his pistol closer to Crortek’s head. “He walks and he fucks.” He stepped closer again, and Zeric finally recognized the vacant expression in his eyes. The Xolotlan was not in control. Someone else was in his head… Jaienna.

  Crortek snorted, icy mirth playing over his face. “Fucks?”

  Lyso smiled. “Fucks. You.” He fired the pistol.

  A bolt of iridescent eo-energy burst from the weapon, slicing the air, puncturing the space where Crortek’s head—half a micro-second earlier—had been.

  The Ornithion had twisted into a tight spin before the discharge could strike, the torso of the Boaronian standing behind disintegrating in a black cloud of ash.

  Lyso’s eyes suddenly cleared, an expression of complete and utter confusion crossing his face. “Where—”

  Whatever he was going to say was cut dead, as a bolt of black light-eating energy smashed into his chest and he disappeared; one second a blue-skinned Bliss dealer, the next, a vaporized bad memory.

  “Let’s see you regenerate from that,” Crortek stated, the barrel of his de-atomiser glowing with baleful heat.

  “Shit!”

  Zeric heard Jaienna before he saw her move. She whipped up her arms, Aglaian disruptor locking on Crortek…

  … the very instant Crortek locked his de-atomiser on her. “Even more surprises.” His soulless eyes raked over Jaienna, an empty yet smug grin playing over his lipless mouth. “I was just offering the Terran here a simple choice, but thanks to the incompetent fuck, Psy Lyso, I have an even better choice to give him.”

  The beast snarling for release, rage and disbelief boiling in his blood, Zeric stared hard at Jaienna. Was it really her? Or Crortek’s Illashionist?

  “I can barely fathom you having the ability to comprehend what a choice is, Crortek,” the woman said, and Zeric’s heart leapt into wild flight. It was Jaienna. There was no mimicking that cold, deadly sarcasm. “Let alone offer one to someone far more intelligent than you.”

  Livid fury flared in Crortek’s eyes and his spines rattled. “Brave words, Agent. Especially for someone whose plan just vaporized.”

  Jaienna’s eyes narrowed and her muscles tensed. “My plan?”

  Crortek laughed, the sound so coldly smug Zeric’s gut churned. “I know all about you, Raavelian. You think I don’t have contacts inside Intel-Patrol? After being irritated more than once by you, you didn’t think I’d tap my source?”

  Jaienna’s green eyes flashed icy anger, her jaw as tight at her grip on her disruptor. “Give me the chance, and I’ll do more than ‘irritate’ you, Ornithion.”

  Crortek laughed again. “I know what you can do, Agent. I know all about your ability to slip into the minds of those you bring to climax. Slip in and plant a… suggestion, I think is the term you affectionately use… in their feeble minds. A suggestion they can’t ignore. As seen perfectly by that fat-fuck, weak-spined, Psy Lyso’s attempt to kill me just then.”

  Zeric swung his stare to Jaienna, watching the muscles in her jaw bunch. He’d suspected she had the ability to influence someone while fucking them, he’d confronted her about it on Ry’l, but not how she did it. Now he understood. He pulled in a sharp breath. No wonder she was so good at sex. It was her weapon.

  Has she tried to influence you, Arctos?

  Did it matter? He had his own secrets he hadn’t shared with her.

  “Let me in your mind, Crortek,” Jaienna murmured, an ominous grin pulling at her lips, her cold stare—and de-atomizer—locked firmly on the crime lord, “and I’ll show you how quickly a feeble mind succumbs…”

  He bared his pointed teeth. “A pleasure I must decline, I’m afraid.” He tilted his head, spines closing together and flattening to his back. “For as you can see, I have other plans for your talent right now.”

  A cold sensation rolled through Zeric, making his skin ripple and the beast growl. He knew what Crortek was thinking. Jezu! He knew exactly what Crortek was thinking, what “other plans” he had in mind for Jaienna. If Jaienna got into his head… if she released the beast and made him come while transformed…

  If? You know she can do it, Arctos. You’ve changed once already while making love to her, and that was without her getting in your head.

  But would she do so now? Surely…

  “You can stick those ‘other plans’ firmly in your tight, plated Ornithion ass, Crortek,” Jaienna snarled. “I want you to release the Boundary Guardian now, without delay, or I’ll blow your ugly fucking head off before you can even think about firing that piss-weak Ornithion toy you call a gun.”

  Crortek’s laugh bounced around the room, echoed by a few nervous titters of those guests who had not fled from the room when Zeric changed, their incredulous, greedy stares locked on the show before them. “Release is exactly what I want you to do, Jaienna. But I should point out, before you get all gung-ho and threaten my head again, who exactly will die if you don’t do what I say.” He paused, his white eyes glinting. “Bhelais is such a beguiling young thing, don’t you think? So much more beautiful since her walking-corpse lover repaired her face, I must admit. Both await my judgment.”

  Jaienna’s eyebrows knitted and for a brief moment Zeric saw the disruptor waver at the end of her extended arm at hearing her sister’s name. His blood turned cold. Crortek knew Jaienna’s weakness. Now he was using it.

  He bunched his fists, leveling a black stare at the crime lord. “You will regret this, Crortek. You have no idea what you are doing.”

  Crortek chuckled. “I think I do, Terran.” He returned his gaze to Jaienna, giving her a wide smile. “So, Intel-Patrol Corp special agent, Jaienna Ti, assigned to Termination… if you want to save your sister, if you want to save the Yrathian, if you want to save the animal before you, you will make said animal transform into the creature he truly is, and you will make him come.” His smile turned vicious. “Now.”

  * * * *

  Jaienna studied the man standing before her. Zeric.

  Strange gold eyes watched her, the eyes of both the man and the beast within. A cold hand reached into her chest and squeezed her heart.

  Zeric.

  The man who’d taken her to sexual heaven and back. The man who’d touched her heart after she believed her heart couldn’t be touched again.

  She took a step forward, eyes holding his, ignoring the two Boaronians standing behind him, one blaster leveled on Zeric, one blaster leveled on her.

  He shook his head. Once. “Jaienna,” he murmured. “Don’t.”

  She took another step, her stomach rolling, and her throat tight. Zeric. The man she loved…

  Zeric stared at her, the pulse in his neck beating like a wild insect, his chest rising and falling in rapid control. He was controlling the beast. She could see it in his face, his body. But was the werewolf trying to escape to destroy, or to fuck?

  Tormented eyes bored into her. “Jaienna…”

  Still leveling her disruptor on Crortek’s head, she lifted her other hand, palm forward, and placed it on his heaving chest, directly over his frantic heart. He sucked in a quick breath at the soft contact, his nostrils flaring, his jaw bunching. Never letting his stare go, she traced her fingertips down the smooth hardness of his pec until they brushed against the puckered nub of his nipple. He pulled another quick breath, his body tensing, his eyelids fluttering closed for a split second. “Oh, Jezu, Jaienna,” he whispered, voice hoarse. “Don’t…”

  Mouth dry, Jaienna traced the circle of Zeric’s nipple, feeling its tiny irregular surface with not o
nly her finger, but her heart and soul. Its tiny lumps and bumps played with her senses, made her pulse leap and her blood warm. Still staring into his eyes, she moved her fingertip over the very peak of the nub, drawing it down in a gentle flick before catching it in a no-so-gentle pinch.

  A ragged sigh burst from his lips and his eyes closed again. Her obvious effect on him made Jaienna’s pussy flutter. She ran her tongue over her bottom lip, drawing a quick, shallow breath as she did so. Zeric’s untamed scent threaded through it, wild and musky and tinged with perspiration. The combination brought memory after memory of their lovemaking crashing over her and her fingers pinched his nipple harder. She’d thought him dead, and that mistake had opened her heart to a conflict she wasn’t prepared to think about. Not yet. What she had to think about now was saving Bhel’s life, saving Jak Thorson’s life, saving Zeric’s life.

  “I’m a patient man, Agent,” Crortek suddenly said beside her, and she started, her grip on her disruptor tightening. “But I’m in no mood for foreplay.”

  Jaienna threw him an icy grin and a malicious sense of satisfaction rippled through the growing heat in her body at how the crime lord flinched. “You want me to do this, Ornithion, you let me do it my way.”

  “Jaienna,” Zeric growled. Anger cut her name. Anger and—her pulse quickened—pleasure.

  “Shhh, Zeric,” she answered, turning back to him. She flattened her palm over his chest, pressing her hand more closely to his body. With slow care, she slid it down, over the curve of his pec, over the lines of his rib cage, across the sculptured muscles of his abdominals. She counted them as she went, the junction of her thighs growing damp. Gods, she remembered how good he felt. Her fingertips passed over the tiny dip of his navel before skimming lower still, brushing the fringe of soft, matted curls above his groin and she felt a quiver go through his body.

  Her own body wanted to react to the tantalizing contact but she controlled it. Just. She needed to keep everything focused. She needed to stay in control for what was to come next—and when it came to Zeric Arctos, staying in control had never been easy.

  Slipping her hand lower still, staring into Zeric’s haunted, passion-heady gaze, she closed her fingers around the growing stiffness of his cock.

  His eyes closed. “Jezu, Jaienna. Why…”

  His thick, heavy length throbbed in her hold, growing with each second, alive and burning with rapacious energy. She felt it all the way through her body, right through to the center of her being. With an ever so slight flex of her fingers, she caressed him, reveling in the way his flesh grew harder, hotter. His chest rose as he dragged in a long breath and released it with a hiss through his teeth. She moved her fingers again, exploring his cock in minute detail; its venous length, its distended head, its impressive girth she knew stretched her to capacity and made her whimper with pleasure.

  Eyes closed, Zeric’s hips rolled forward, a faint sheen of sweat slicking his skin as, however unwillingly, he responded to her attention. She tightened her grip. Relaxed it. Tightened it. Relaxed it. His cock twitched, its stiffening length pushing against her fingers and palm.

  She tightened her grip again, this time pumping her hand up and down in slow action with each pulsing caress.

  A groan rumbled in Zeric’s chest, not quite human, not quite animal.

  Jaienna’s heart quickened at the sound. Zeric was having difficulty keeping the beast under control. Her already damp pussy clenched at the thought and she bit at her bottom lip. Sliding her hand down his shaft, she cupped first one heavy ball and then the other, weighing them and fondling them with slow, languid care. He groaned again, his hips swaying forward, his thighs parting slightly. She slipped her hand farther between his legs, palming his balls as one as her fingertips drew a line to the constricted opening of his anus. She pressed. Gently.

  “Fuck!”

  The hoarse cry burst from Zeric’s lips and he shoved his hips farther forward, his eyes squeezed shut, his teeth ground together.

  She pressed her finger to his ass again, knowing how it made his blood sing with pleasure, cupping his swollen sac as she did so. His hips bucked once more and she felt a shudder ripple through him.

  Gods, he was on the edge. Closer than he should have been.

  What has Crortek been doing to you, Zeric?

  The disquieting thought brought a silent snarl of contempt to her lips and she flicked Crortek a quick look.

  The Ornithion stared at them both, soulless eyes glowing with both maniacal triumph and hunger. Distaste filled Jaienna’s mouth. He was enjoying it. Fucking get off on what he watched.

  The urge to fire her disruptor, to remove his head from his body, to kill the bastard there and then roared through her. Her finger squeezed, her knuckles tightening…

  She dropped her arm. Turned back to Zeric.

  A low chuckle from the crime lord made her flesh crawl but she shoved the reaction aside. Let him watch the show. The real performance was yet to come.

  Letting her weapon clatter to the floor, she placed her now empty left hand on Zeric’s hip and held it, holding him still as she returned her right hand to his now fully engorged cock. She pumped it again, her breath growing short. Gods, she shouldn’t be feeling aroused now. Not with Crortek so eagerly waiting for Zeric to come. She shouldn’t be fighting the desire to sink to her knees and take Zeric completely into her mouth. Not with the memory of Tornada’s confession still burning through her veins. She shouldn’t.

  But she was.

  Highly aroused.

  The scent of Zeric in her every breath, the feel of his desire in her hand, his flesh in her hold… Her lips parted and she ran the pad of her thumb over the very tip of his cock, smearing the bead of pre-cum leaking from the tiny slit there over his bulbous cockhead. He bucked, ramming his erection into her fist, the muscles of his thighs corded. She sank the nails of her left hand into his ass cheek, squeezing the tight muscles there in harmony with the pumping action of her right. Zeric groaned again, and this time there was no denying what part of his existence made the sound.

  The werewolf was close to surfacing. Close to escaping.

  With just a little more…

  Her heart hammering, her sex constricting, Jaienna pulled a deep breath.

  And sank to her knees, closing her lips around Zeric’s turgid cock.

  Chapter 6

  His neck hurt where the Boaronian had smashed its massive fist into the curve of shoulder and throat, just above the prohibitor collar. Scrunching up his face, Jak twisted his head, trying to relieve the throbbing pain radiating out from the impact, down into his right arm and chest. Sons of Urik, he’d never been so beat up!

  He tried to move his arms, but the metal cuffs imprisoning him to the freestanding cross refused to give an inch.

  “Are you going to talk to me?”

  The soft words made him open his eyes and he stared across the room at Bhelais, seeing her clearly. The rest of his body may be a screaming mess of agony, but his eyesight had decided—in its cruelly ironic wisdom—to return to him. The one person he did not want to see in perfect focus, in absolute clarity, and he couldn’t avoid doing so.

  She stood against a whipping post, bound by thick leather shackles, her firmly toned legs splayed slightly, her wrists locked together above her head. The position extended her rib cage and lifted her already pert breasts higher, a sight that made Jak’s body react on a purely base level. He growled and turned his gaze away from her.

  It fell on an empty Xolotlan Torture Swing and his gut twisted. Everything in Crortek’s initiation room was designed for two things: pleasure and pain. Depending on what the person in charge of the “punishment” wanted.

  Unable to stop it, his attention slid back to Bhelais, and he bit back a curse.

  He knew who would deliver his and Bhel’s punishment. There was no doubt. When Crortek finished with Zeric, the Ornithion would come directly to the initiation room and begin. Jak clenched his jaw, an image of Bhel screami
ng in pain as the crime-lord “dealt” with her filling his head. There would be nothing pleasurable about what was to happen in this room for either he or the Raavelian.

  “Please, Jak,” Bhel whispered, the words choked with an emotion he didn’t want to believe. “Let me at least explain…”

  “Explain what, Bhelais?” he growled, giving her a flat look. “How you deceived me? Again?”

  She shook her head, the tumbled mess of her golden-blonde hair falling about her face. “It’s not what it looks like, Jak.” She closed her eyes for a second, a grimace of pain crossing her features. Jak’s gaze flittered to the bright red line of blood trickling down her temple from the ugly gash high on her forehead and his chest—seemingly ignorant of the fact she’d trampled all over his heart—squeezed tight.

  “What is it then, Bhel? You let me think my partner was dead, and then I find you fucking him? In a cage? Before a crowd? With Crortek watching on?”

  She tilted her chin, a spark of anger flaring in her violet eyes. “If I’d told you he was alive, what would you have done? Saved him? You couldn’t see, your body was weak, yet you would have taken on Crortek and his grunts blind, unarmed and naked. How long would you have lasted?” That angry spark glinted in her eyes again, but beneath it was a shadow. “I know what it’s like to see someone you love shot, Jak. It hurts. Druentia alone knows how much. I couldn’t see that happen again.”

  Jak’s breath caught. Love? He stared at her, his heart smashing against his chest. Sons of Urik, did she love him?

  “As for why I was fucking your partner? Crortek had reached his end with Zeric. My master is not easily dissuaded from a course of action and unless he extracted Zeric’s werewolf ejaculate today, he was going to kill him. I fucked him to keep him alive.” She leveled Jak a steady look. “For you.”

  “Is this the Bliss talking, Bhel? Or you?”

  Bhelais pulled a soft breath. “Me. I’ve been free of Bliss since we left Ry’l. Someone showed me there was more to living than sexual gratification.”

  Jak stared at her. He released a long breath, curling his fingers into fists. “By Urik’s blood, Bhel… if you’re lying to me…”