Circe's Recruits 3: Derrick (7 page)

Derrick didn’t want to hear any more. His beast was clawing at him to find the female.

“I’ll bring her back.”

“In one piece,” he heard Doc shout as he raced down the hallway. Once again, he’d shredded through everything but his pants, which wouldn’t be a problem. He’d rip them off in seconds before fucking the female into submission. Derrick didn’t plan on waiting any longer to satisfy his beast. Or himself.

Evan sighed. “I’m sorry, Caitlyn. I would have warned you not to be alone with her if I’d realized how far she’s progressed.” He felt everyone’s eyes on him.

“You knew she was Circ?” Roane asked as he changed back. His shirt clung to his shoulders in tatters. His pants weren’t much better.

“Sure he did. He did her blood work,” Hale answered. “So why the secrecy, Doc?” Evan had been shocked to learn about Sabrina, especially considering the odd mutations in her blood that hinted at, but didn’t confirm, her status as a Circ. “Honestly, I’m still not one hundred percent sure she is Circ, but watching Derrick interact with her is giving me ideas,” he answered. To his surprise, he saw immediate understanding on Hale’s face.

“Huh?” Roane sat on the exam table, picked Caitlyn up, and set her in his lap. “Explain that one, Doc.”

Hale gave a harsh laugh. “Oh, this is perfect. Doc’s setting up our resident hard-ass with a woman as devious and stubborn as he is. Only problem is, we don’t quite know whose side she’s on.”

“I do.” Doc’s quiet words sobered the others. “I knew her when she worked for the original project. She never handled your team’s blood tests, which is why you never knew her. But she was hardworking. She treated the men in the project like heroes, with respect. I liked what I saw -- an ethical young woman trying to do good. Like so many of us,” he said, aware of his deception now more than ever. Secrets always had a way of coming to the surface.

Roane kissed the top of Caitlyn’s head. “I don’t know, Doc. I still want to break her in half for hurting Caitlyn. Either you’re taking an awful lot for granted, or there’s more shit you aren’t telling us. Wanna share?”

Evan wondered if now wasn’t the time.

“Doc?” Roane’s deep voice urged him to let it out.

“What I have to say has nothing to do with Sabrina.” Better to tell Roane with Caitlyn there to soothe him. Evan could also trust Hale, the most temperate of the men, to listen with an open mind. He hoped.

“Doc,” Hale prodded. “Come on. How bad can it be?”

“Doc, spit it out,” Roane growled. “Tell us.” Evan sighed. Do-or-die time. “My father had two sons. But he only claimed one.”

“O-kay,” Roane said slowly, looking as confused as the others at the change in subject.

“So?”

“So,” Evan paused to take a deep breath. “Elliot Pearl is my half brother.”

* * * * *

Sabrina ran as if her life depended on it. Finally releasing the beast living inside her, she gloried in her speed as she flew so fast, the trees appeared a blur. The rest of her body remained normal, but her senses amped tenfold. Sights and sounds were sharp. Her skin felt extra sensitive, attuned to the changes in wind and pressure around her. She nearly ran over a group of startled deer that scattered at her intrusion.

The night sky became a treat, providing a canvas of heat and color, illuminating the night in soft images that were almost too magical to be real. Caught up in her newfound abilities, she examined a squirrel perched high in a tree. Though naturally camouflaged in its dark environment, Sabrina could see a faint outline of orange around the creature, like a heat signature. Incredible.

She’d never been able to talk with the Circs she’d been forced to study. The few she’d recently been given watch over had been certifiably insane. Cartoonish brutes both larger and stronger than anything she’d encountered, with the scary intelligence to hunt and kill on a whim. Perhaps not so different from regular men, she thought, recalling some of the PPA agents she’d encountered at Pearson Labs.

Slowing down, she trusted her newfound senses to tell her of any pending threats.

Doc’s Circs would be after her, but she needed a small breather. This was the first time since she’d realized she was different that she’d actively called upon her mutation. She couldn’t recall that first instance, before Packard had found her. Only hazy remembrances of pain and stretched tissue all over her body surfaced.

I must have changed, but why can’t I remember it? Sabrina stared down at her hands, hands that had recently been wrapped around Caitlyn’s throat. Now they were small and pale. Her fingernails were ragged, bitten to the quick during bursts of nervous energy.

Nibbling on them again, she tried to decide where to go and knew she didn’t have much time to plot her future.

Pearson Labs would continue to hunt her. And Sabrina had no way of knowing how long she had before she turned insane, like the rest of Pearl’s rogue Circs. She had six months from her first introduction to the serum, but she had no idea when that had been. Hell, for all she knew, she could go ape-shit hours from now.

The responsible thing to do would be to return to Doc and his crew and let them study her. But she couldn’t. She knew what it was like to be imprisoned. She’d seen what Pearl had done to those in his care. For all that Doc looked after his own, she wasn’t one of Circe’s Recruits. She couldn’t go back to living inside a locked room again. She’d rather be dead than be nothing more than a living guinea pig going slowly insane.

In her mind’s eye, she saw the pitiful Circs she’d been forced to monitor. Sad and beaten down, they could do nothing but lash out at anyone who tried to help them. She hadn’t been able to put them down herself. Sabrina was no killer, much as she wished she were. Instead, she’d managed to deliver small amounts of untraceable poison to the Circs, leaving them with the decision to end their lives if they wanted. Without exception, each one had. Pearl still couldn’t explain why his creations died at such a rapid rate.

Sabrina had done her best, but she didn’t have Pearl’s knowledge or experience. She couldn’t develop a cure for the Circe madness. Apparently, Doc couldn’t either. His men were still just as much animal as they were human. She could almost smell it on the others, that wildness, that need to run free and hunt. Tamping down her own beast within was growing harder with each passing day. She was losing herself, and there was nothing Sabrina could do about it. Instead she needed to focus on the end state -- to destroy Elliot Pearl and Project Dawn before they could hurt anyone else. No more needless deaths, no more butchered victims falling prey to Circ chaos.

She could do it. She knew the layout of the labs and most of the passwords to override certain clearances. Even though the PPA would have reset the access codes, Sabrina was certain she could find a way inside. But she needed to know the players. Pearl wasn’t the man she had to stop. His boss was, and she had no idea of who, or how many people, that might be.

Leaves rustled around her, and she realized that in her doom and gloom she’d wasted precious time. She needed to put more distance between herself and Circe’s Recruits. Even as she thought it, her night vision flickered, then died. The wildness within her retreated, and a moment of panic set in. Just when she most needed her inner beast to escape, it vanished.

Wind whipped through the trees like an omen whispering danger. The remaining leaves drifted off the limbs, a thick fall of warning. In seconds, the clouds covering the moon shifted, allowing a beam of moonlight through the trees, illuminating her like a target.

He was on her before she could move. A hulking giant with steel-tough, dark brown skin, muscles on top of muscles, and claws and fangs that could slice her in two. Slitted pupils gleamed with intelligence, and Sabrina recognized a familiar heat gleaming in the light brown depths of his eyes. His hands tightened around her arms as he lifted her off her feet, dangling her before him like a rag doll he planned to discard.

“Packard,” she whispered, not as scared as she should have been. To her dismay, arousal heated her body.

He pulled her close and sniffed, then licked her neck with a long, raspy tongue.

“Sabrina,” he growled in a low voice, like a declaration of ownership. In seconds, he sliced her clothing from her body and stared his fill.

Sabrina remained frozen in shock. Now, when she needed it, her beast wouldn’t respond. She was limp, unable to do more than submit to the aggressive male, waiting. For what, she didn’t know.

Fight. Run. Move, she willed her body. As if under a spell, she found it impossible to resist him. So she did the next best thing and relied on instinct. She broke her stare and looked away, baring her throat as she did so.

With a contented grunt, Packard opened his mouth and closed his sharp teeth over her jugular. But instead of biting, he changed back to his human form in a flash and lowered her feet to the ground. He kept his mouth over her the entire time and sucked hard, giving her one hell of a hickey. Then he shifted his stance and something fell to the ground. Tattered clothing?

He leaned back, six feet four inches of prime, naked male. His cock was stiff and thick as it rubbed against her belly. And Sabrina knew.

He would not be refused.

He surrounded her with heat. As if his change prodded her own, Sabrina’s inner beast finally woke up -- and it was hungry. Her sex ached, her breasts tingled, and her gums suddenly hurt. To her shock, some of her teeth reshaped themselves in her mouth, slicing through her gums in seconds. The taste of copper scared her and apparently alerted Packard to be cautious.

Forcing his fingers between her lips, he lowered her jaw and stared at her mouth. With a satisfied grunt, he ran a finger over her sharp canines, smearing blood over his fingertip.

“Pretty. And all mine.” He growled a warning when she still said nothing, and wrapped a hand around her slim neck, making her wet with need. “You’re mine. Say it.” She had no intention of agreeing. She was no man’s -- or Circ’s -- plaything. No matter how much she wanted to touch Packard, to be near him, she couldn’t give in. Not if she wanted to survive, to escape.

And then her brain completely, unexplainably, dissociated from her body.

“I’m yours,” she whispered, falling under his spell once more.

Derrick couldn’t stop himself. Hearing her admit she belonged to him tore his control to shreds. Bringing her back to Roane, securing her potential threat, making her pay, none of that mattered now. The only thing on Derrick’s mind was tasting that sweet pussy beckoning him closer.

He kissed her hard. Sliding his tongue over the sharp points of her teeth made him groan. Though much smaller than him, Sabrina’s presence shouted danger, and both beast and man welcomed it.

Derrick couldn’t tolerate weakness. He needed strength, someone who could take all of him. Instinct told him he’d found what he sought in Sabrina. His cock hurt with the need to spill inside her. But he had to possess her first, to show the female where she belonged.

Under him.

She groaned into his mouth as he deepened the kiss, stealing her breath into his body.

Derrick ground against her, the feel of her hard nipples like daggers of need against his chest.

Her soft flesh tickled his own, blazing trails of fire across his skin, inflaming his passion.

He barely registered taking her to the ground. “Spread your legs.” She closed her eyes and gave herself to him, but not without a price. Two gashes stung his hips as she clenched him with hands like talons. The beast inside her wanted to play, and damned if Derrick didn’t want the same. This woman wanted him. Her scent called to him, dared him to take what he knew to be his. For two fucking days he’d done his best to ignore her. Nearly climbing the walls, he’d been out of his head with confusion, anger, and lust.

Sparring matches with the others hadn’t helped, nor had he desired sex from anyone but Sabrina.

“Fuck,” he swore and pulled her hands off him. He shimmied down her body and clamped his mouth over her pussy. Sucking hard, he relished her cries of need. She was it.

Perfection. Sugary sweet and finally all his.

She clutched his head, grinding against his mouth. “Oh, please. Derrick.” The first time she’d ever said his given name, and the arousal in her tone pushed him over the edge.

Racing to mount her, he spread her thighs wider and shoved between her slim legs.

Staring into her eyes, he thrust deep, not stopping until he was fully seated inside her. To his satisfaction, she wrapped her legs around his hips and moaned his name.

Not able to finesse her, not this first time, he pounded hard with the urge to mark her.

Possession and desire fueled his rough taking, and her wet heat made it easy to lose control.

Derrick came before he was ready, yet he wasn’t sorry.

As he shuddered into her, he felt her digging her nails into his shoulders, and the pain was like a drug. Ecstasy raced through him, turning the world black while her slick tongue licked at his chest. Firm lips grabbed his nipple before she bit down.

On a hiss, he withdrew, still hard, then plunged inside her again. Thanks to his Circ genes, he could fuck her all night long, in human form or as his beast. And he intended to.

“You’re hugging me tight. You want more, don’t you, princess?” he asked, his voice gravelly with repletion. “Those claws of yours are turning me on. That’s it,” he rasped when she withdrew them and ran the sharp points down his back. Oh, fuck. She really is Circ. He should have been upset about that fact, but he couldn’t wrap his mind around more than taking her. “Tease me. Excite me, and I might let you come. You need to come, don’t you?” He held himself still, enjoying the flush that spread over her face and breasts. She looked angry as she lay helplessly beneath him. When she would have taken a swipe at him, he pinned both of her wrists to the ground above her head.

He transferred her imprisoned wrists to one of his hands and used the other to tug at her nipples.

“Stop playing with me,” Sabrina groaned. She gasped when he pinched hard. “I’m so close, please.”