Lawful Claim Read online

  Commander Fitzsimmons jutted his chin in Ana’s direction. “What’s your last name?”

  “Esposito.” E was proud of her, her voice didn’t shake.

  “Ah,” Kaitlyn nodded. “Agent E. I get it.”

  “How do you spell your first name, Ana?” Why would Mercury be asking that?

  A tense silence filled the next few moments before the commander hit him with a few more questions. Riding the edge of patience, and hating to keep his wife and kid in the open, E gritted his teeth and answered the questions the commander threw out. “Julio Esposito. It happened over ten years ago. Ask Ana if you want the exact date, my memory about the specifics got a little hazy from the smoke inhalation and blood-letting.”

  “She says it all concurs.” E frowned at Mercury before realizing the shifter’s mate, Dani, must be behind the questions, sending them mentally to her mate who then passed the info on.

  He wouldn’t mind seeing Dani again. She used to train with him and X, while seeking vengeance for her family that was slaughtered by feral shifters. Since she was a good kid, she quickly realized her error thinking that joining Sigma was the right path to take in life. And with Sigma’s only retirement plan being death, well, that left her a little stuck. Until Madame G decided to use her as an incubator to grow Mercury’s baby so she could corrupt the little life.

  But the tenacious young lady found a way out, and with a little prodding from X, ran to the Guardians, found Mercury, fell in love with him, and as far as E knew, found a way to remove the madam’s taint from their bouncing bundle of joy.

  He and X had made themselves scarce hunting rogue shifters that were Sigma spies when the baby cleansing news broke, but they had witnessed some of the fallout. Sigma recruits were still patching up damage in the wing that Madame G left behind when she felt the severing of her bond with the baby.

  Ha! Good.

  “Put all your weapons on the ground, then spread ’em, hands against the wall. Ana and Julio, stay where you’re at. Kaitlyn, search Ana and the boy first, and then Agent E.” Commander Fitzsimmons fired off the orders and waited for E’s obedience.

  The staid leader of the West Creek Guardians had garnered some serious respect, and with his order, earned a little more from E, letting Kaitlyn do the pat down. Though Mercury and Bennett were mated shifters, it’d still kill E to stand weaponless while they patted his wife and son down. Somehow, having a female do it, even given she had the mad skills to kill them all, made him feel better and would put his family at ease.

  As much as he despised going weaponless, he had to get Ana and Julio secured. Flipping a few buckles and unsnapping a few buttons, E shrugged out of the set-up that wrapped around his shoulders and waist. He gestured at Ana to take her gear, or rather his old gear, off. Then it was the tedious task of unearthing all the knives and small pistols he had stashed around his six-foot-two frame. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Ana’s horrified expression at the growing pile of metal, including silver, and Julio’s eyes wide as saucers, his mouth forming a “whoa.”

  “There. Done.” He turned to face the lodge and put his hands on the cool logs next to the doorframe.

  “Hold still. Anyone moves before I’m done, Mercury’s putting a cap in your ass.” Kaitlyn’s long legs covered the ground quickly to stand next to them. “Except for you, kid. You’re cute.”

  She shot Julio a quick smile and he returned it shyly. Her tone was light as she frisked his boy, always telling him what to expect. She repeated the process with Ana, who looked as uncomfortable as the day she had met his dad so many years ago. But she had visibly relaxed by the time the amicable redhead was done.

  “You two play the freeze game while I pat down the big guy here.”

  With more brusqueness, and hell of a lot more force, Kaitlyn frisked him. E’s balls still throbbed at her curt efficiency checking all of his nooks and crannies for hidden metal.

  “He’s clean,” she announced, before opening the door to the lodge, adding a “surprisingly” under her breath.

  “Mercury, Kaitlyn, take Ana and Julio to room two.” The commander shuffled in behind E, along with Mercury and Bennett. “Agent E, you’re coming with me and Bennett.”

  E rounded on the commander. “I stay with them.” Mercury and Bennett’s armed hands didn’t raise, didn’t twitch, but both males got very still, a predatory gleam in their eye.

  Commander Fitzsimmons spoke low, maybe Ana could hear from where she came to a stop to watch E’s reaction, maybe her human ears were too weak. “Think about it, Agent. You can’t walk in here expecting to be treated like an honored guest. We all have scars from fighting you, and your silver switchblade and silver-laced bullets. If what you say is true, and you brought them here because you trust us to protect them, then let us do that.” His voice dropped even lower. “Even if we have to protect them from you.”

  E’s jaw nearly cracked from the pressure of clenched teeth. He wanted to smash the ruddy bastard’s face in, pound him into the concrete. But…the commander was right. The threat to his wife and son was Sigma, and it was because of him.

  Meeting Ana’s unwavering gaze, he gave a sharp nod that she echoed back.

  *****

  A satisfied grunt told X she was close. Sliding back up the male’s rigid length, raking her nails down his muscled-ripped chest, she undulated her hips at the top before sliding back down, letting the male’s girth fill her while she clutched the back of the chair for leverage.

  Agent J thrust his hips up to prompt her into a faster pace. Running her finger under his jaw, she brought his attention off her breasts. His eyes were glazed with heat, desperately urging her to ride him faster, speed him to the finish.

  When she had gotten back to the compound after her partner dropped her off on the side of the road, X knew she had to get down to business and find out what the plans were for Ana and Julio. There was only a small window of opportunity. No news had spread about a kid arriving and E wasn’t back yet. Just sent her a “FUBAR” text. Things had gone the fucked-up route for them before, but the “beyond all relief” part meant E had defected, had chosen his family over the madam’s destruction. Chatter hadn’t started yet about how an Agent went rogue over some civilians. Therefore, everyone, including Madame G, would see X hanging out, getting her freak on with another Agent, and that’d be her, “I don’t know anything” alibi when E’s deception was discovered.

  Agent J nuzzled her neck, licking and nipping. If he struck too soon, she’d rip his head back and ask questions, but it’d be harder to alter his thoughts of what had transpired between them. It was better to inquire pre-bite, convince them there’d been no conversation, and then let the biting happen, to further gloss over that little memory. There’d been some trial and error, but X had finally found a sweet spot for her little hypnosis talent. Sex didn’t always have to be involved, but in this case, she needed information and the vampire would die horribly before giving it to her otherwise.

  X picked the Agent because unlike her usual informant, Demetrius, the vampire didn’t deviate from Sigma’s goals, carrying them out with cool efficiency. Need an innocent shifter tortured until you can no longer recognize him? Call Agent J. New inauspicious female to “train?” Agent J was first in line. If Madame G wanted a kid tortured, he’d do it.

  Aaaand that’s exactly why X was in flagrante with him at the moment. Long ago, she’d culminated a flirtatious relationship with the male, which occasionally went further than just dirty talk. He was a virile, deadly vampire, like catnip for the female Agents and recruits, and just the kind of source X could tap into when needed.

  Leaning in to lick the rim of his ear, X decided now was the time, soon he’d dominate her body.

  Sitting back, she caught his cardinal hued eyes and concentrated hard, feeling him go still inside of her.

  “Tell me, J,” she purred, “what’s your next project?”

  His vacant gaze wavered for a moment, and she worried she’d
gotten him too caught up in lust to focus. “Agent E’s brat. Get him started transitioning now since the boss thinks his daddy was such a success.”

  The disdain in the last statement was resounding. Whereas X could get away with being less malicious and depraved because of her looks and gender, Agent E was viewed with contempt. Not only because he could refuse certain duties, but because he could, and did, get away with it. X and her partner were too valuable to Madame G for just that reason. They weren’t mindless killers. While that irked their mistress, it garnered her respect and she entrusted them with the more delicate missions. It made them targets of distain for other, less-discerning Agents.

  “Oh?” X squeezed her inner muscles around him, and Agent J gazed more intently at her. “And how exactly will she do that?”

  Little was known about how Agents are actually enhanced. It involved a lot of injections, and while Agents proliferated readily, there wasn’t a high survival rate. Madame G had turned quite a few of her recruits, even ones who were clearly too weak to survive, mostly to study them for what traits made for more viable transitions.

  Agent J tried rocking his hips, but X concentrated harder until he stilled. “She’ll start the injections tailored to his body weight, using the same formula she used for dear daddy.”

  “What’s the formula?”

  Sweat broke out on his brow. “A mixture of vampire and shifter serum that she says some incantation over as she adds her own blood.”

  Interesting. “And what about the kid’s mother?”

  “Collateral.” His body shuddered, wanting to seek its release. X didn’t have much time. “She’ll enhance her but without the blood bond, so she’ll become strong enough to sustain what the madam plans for her. If E interferes with the kid, he risks her and has to live with the guilt of what happens to her.”

  X didn’t even have to ask what would happen to Ana. The insane vampires the madam employed liked new blood and new bodies. And if she wanted Ana to suffer greatly, well, the vampire prisoners Madame G’s torture and experiments made insane needed blood. When they were done, there wasn’t usually much of a body left. Madame G probably wouldn’t even wait for E to interfere, but throw Ana to the fangers anyway because he pissed her off.

  “Where will she keep them?”

  “Both will be in the lower levels, but the kid will be in the east wing, one level further down, kept far from his parents.”

  Figures. That’d make escape and/or rescue extremely challenging.

  Undulating her hips, making him let out a shock of air, X centered herself, letting her will flow through her voice. “I asked you nothing. We didn’t talk. I wanted to get back at E for dumping me on the side of the road.”

  Mindlessly, Agent J nodded. Releasing his stare, she shoved his face into her neck. He struck hard with his fangs, pulling blood as they both rode the wave of pleasure to their finish. It wasn’t passionate, just genetic. Vampire bites finished the job penetration started, so X’s release was physical only. She’d become quite adept at shutting her mind off to what her body was cursed with drawing out.

  The vampire’s head lolled back, spent, drunk off her shifter blood, and disoriented from her subtle, but efficacious hypnosis. X straightened, letting his shaft slide out and fall against his belly. Reaching for her clothes, she dressed with methodical precision and left.

  Chapter Seven

  E was settled into a nice, cozy cell that even had windows. They were high and placed at strategic angles. They’d be hell on a vampire prisoner, but since he was only somewhat vampire, high noon didn’t bother him. Well, not much. A pair of sunglasses would be nice when the sun rose next.

  Not bothering to sit, E faced the barred door and crossed his arms over his chest, which felt absolutely naked without his weapons. His jaw continued to throb, not quite healed from the right hook Bennett had given him before he’d entered the cell.

  “That’s for shooting Sarah,” Bennett had growled.

  And yeah, E had put a bullet in her shoulder. Her shoulder, not her heart. “Please, it only wounded her.” E had shot back, spitting out blood, not mentioning it had helped them fake her death, and got X and E off the hook when they were sent to bring in X’s niece.

  Commander Fitzsimmons dismissed Bennett once E was settled. Then faced him from the other side of the cell door. “Lay it all out. What are you and X up to?”

  The male cut straight to the heart. E drew in a long cleansing breath. “I would love to Commander, but it will do X no good if I sit here and spill her business. My first priority is, and always has been, my family. My second is my partner, and whatever she’s up to is her business.”

  Commander Fitzsimmons leveled a look at E, who gazed back unflinchingly. “Say she had something to hide,” his eyes narrowed, “would you know what it is?”

  Soooo…Shit. Did this mean the Guardian leader knew X’s secret, knew she had a secret but didn’t know what it was, or just suspected the Agent wasn’t an open book to Madame G?

  “She’s closer to me than a sibling.” E chose his words carefully, “So yeah, say she was hiding something, I would know what it is.”

  He felt a negative emotion building from the other male. Rage. If E’s senses were correct, the commander was getting angry, and it didn’t take E long to deduce why.

  “We’re close, Commander, but not close.” Even saying that was endangering his partner. If it got out that E and X weren’t getting busy between the sheets, it’d give Madame G a major reason to rein them in and interrogate their insides out of them.

  A muscle ticked on the inside of the male’s jaw as rage was replaced by regard.

  “You want to know why? How can that be possible when she carries my stank?” E could give the Guardian this, for helping his family. “She’s sexy as hell and maybe things would’ve been different. The madam was still trying to break her mentally, which meant a lot of physical…training.” Their goes the rage spiking again. “I’d just come out of transition to whatever you’d call me now, hormones raging, plowing through whoever they threw at me. Until her.” E shook his head. “She reminded me of everything I lost and got it through my foggy, ravaged brain everything I still had to lose. I can honestly tell you, Commander, that without her, I don’t know how I would’ve survived once some semblance of my right mind came back to me. Without a doubt, I can tell you, I would’ve messed up along the way, and Ana and my son would’ve paid for it.”

  “Where is X now?”

  The poor bastard. E wished he could protect the stolid, honorable male from his next statement. “At the compound, doing her job.” Wait for it… “Trading for information about why there’s an order out for Ana and Julio.”

  Commander Fitzsimmons remained still like a statue, hazel eyes boring into E’s. Finally, he gave a curt nod and made to turn away.

  “It doesn’t mean anything,” E said gruffly, knowing exactly how the male felt. “It’s a business exchange. Doing business like we were taught. If we aren’t debasing ourselves on a constant basis, the boss starts thinking we’ve gone good. She wants us to be mindless, rutting beasts, following her every command.” The commander wasn’t staring into the cell anymore, but was turned away, head partially lowered, glaring at the floor. “At least she’s reached a station where she can have some say in her transactions. It wasn’t always that way.”

  Agent X was good at her job, and she excelled at using her body to gather the information she and E needed. Each time, E had advised against it and told her they’d find another way. But every other way was too risky and might lead Madame G to question their actions, question their commitments to Sigma. It would lead to their restriction, or worse, torture, and, even worse still, retraining. Because E and X were too valuable, too highly skilled, for Madame G to ever give them up.

  When the commander’s gaze flicked back, E was staggered by the emotion visible. Grief. The male was hurting, but accepted the situation. E knew his pain. Every night he stood outside of Ana’
s house, peeking between the curtains, watching that bastard Griffin, caress her, kiss her full lips, pull her lush body into his, E had the same pain reflecting in his eyes. It was the agony of witnessing the one you were meant to be with, your mate, giving herself to another.

  *****

  “You’re…So you are…” Ana drifted off and the tall Guardian sitting across the table from her flashed her a little smile.

  “Do I turn furry and howl? Yes.” The tall, beautiful, copper-haired female replied.

  Ana gave a gusty exhale, peering down to Julio, sitting to her right. He appeared much more thrilled than she was, but Ana’s mind had a hard time accepting the facts. Really, until she saw firsthand someone changing forms or drinking blood with fangs, she couldn’t buy the vampire/werewolf story. Her mind wanted to substitute perfectly absurd, yet more valid, reasons for how Griffin acted, and why her late husband cut off heads and burned bodies. Secret agency and government testing? Sure. She was shot up with a drug and was hallucinating? Absolutely. Her dead husband, who was really kidnapped by vampires, taking her to wolf-shifters to keep safe. Nope. Not possible.

  “I could prove it to you, but we have to undress, and we don’t change back with clothes on, so…” Kaitlyn drifted on, mirth hidden in her words.

  “I’ll pass on the offer, but thank you. So what now?”

  Kaitlyn gestured to the large one-way mirror behind her. “We have someone back there to record you. Why don’t you start at the beginning?”

  Ana was stuck. Where was the beginning? She thought she had a perfectly normal life until three days ago when her son was attacked.

  Seeing her difficulty, Kaitlyn gave her another reassuring smile and Ana was immensely glad they had left her in the room and not one of the other large, imposing males. Especially the one with the unique coloring she heard called Mercury. His name was quite fitting with silver gleaming through his black hair and dark eyes, eyes that were disconcerting in how they seemed to not miss one single detail.