Raines, Elizabeth - Covert [Wicked Missions 7] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

Wicked Missions 7

ELIZABETH RAINES

Copyright © 2011

Chapter 1

I must be out of my fucking mind
.

Alayna Wilson glanced around the enormous lab. Three stainless steel tables sat in the center surrounded by various machines emitting ominous beeps and whirs. One table each for her and the other two guinea pigs who were willing to dive into science so new her heart kicked into a higher rhythm just thinking about what would be happening in that room.

By the time the procedure was over, her DNA would be altered, the genetic coding inside her “shifted” from that of a human being to a Fraiquan. Her tanned skin would change to a dusky blue. Her short brown hair would darken to black as it went from fine and straight to coarse and wavy. Her amber irises would shift to indigo. The only thing the scientist couldn’t duplicate was a Fraiquan female’s ability to shape-shift. And although this change was only meant to be for the duration of the assignment, there was no guarantee the procedure could be reversed.

In all her years as an agent for the Interplanetary Drug Enforcement Agency, Alayna had been asked to make a lot of sacrifices. She’d left behind her home back on the Australian continent, traveling from Earth to planets she’d never even heard of before she landed on them. She’d abandoned any chance of ever settling down and having a family of her own, not that those were high on her list of priorities. She’d also lost two partners she dearly loved, one who “retired” to marry—two men, no less!—and have kids and one who perished in the line of fire.

Now, I.D.E.A. wanted to take away her humanity, too.

A shudder ripped through her as she watched the nine workers, who were outfitted in full-quarantine gear, mill about the tables, setting shiny instruments out on trays and hanging plastic bags full of fluids that would soon be dripping into her body and the bodies of two men she hadn’t even met yet. She’d been kept in isolation for the last seven days to be sure she was free of germs and viruses. She’d had so many medical scans and tests, if anything was wrong with her, the doctors would surely know by now.

The privacy had been nice. At first. After years of going from one undercover assignment to the next, she’d seldom had the chance to just…relax. As if she even knew the meaning of the word. Only a few hours of isolation, and Alayna had grown stir crazy. Despite having access to holoflicks and any digital books she wanted, she’d begun to feel like the walls were slowly closing in on her. As she now stood staring at the tables, one of which she would soon be strapped to, she wondered if claustrophobia was a better choice.

Patrile
—the reason for this desperate measure. The drug was the most addictive known, and it had begun to come from the Rhotan System with frightening frequency. Lives were being destroyed at epidemic rates, and stopping the manufacture and distribution of patrile had become the main focus of the I.D.E.A.

After decades of civil war, the System was just now getting back on its feet. The planet of Fraiqua had suffered the most, but many now believed patrile was coming from Fraiquan chemical companies trying to assert themselves in the new Rhotan economy. Alayna’s job would be to infiltrate one of the chemical companies to discover if it was supplying the “cookers” who made patrile.

The elaborate quarantine doors swished open—first one set, then the other. In walked two men dressed only in the same kind of sterile hospital gown she now wore that barely covered her ass. Despite the pale blue material covering them from shoulders to lower thighs, she got a good, long look at both of them. Her heart pounded harder.

The first was taller. She’d guess he stood a full two meters. His hair was the color of sand and had been buzzed into a military cut. Not that it would matter after his transformation. Fraiquan men had the same wavy black hair as the women, although theirs usually reached their shoulders rather than tumbling down their backs. His beard stubble would be gone as well since Fraiquan men didn’t grow facial hair.

When his gaze captured hers, Alayna’s breath caught in her throat. The blue of his eyes was the same color as the water over the Great Barrier Reef near her homeland. The intelligence reflected there only made the man more attractive. When he smiled at her, a dimple creased his right cheek.

This one was a charmer.

Her lips fell to a frown. She usually hated charmers because they were so damned phony.

Shifting her gaze to the second man, Alayna had to shake her head in disbelief. Two men that handsome couldn’t possibly be agreeing to be genetically altered. Surely they’d have egos the size of Jupiter and wouldn’t want anyone fucking with their handsome appearances or well-toned bodies. Specimen number two had hair the color of a sunset—a pleasant mixture of red and blond—and wavy enough that it had to frizz in humid weather. Those gentle waves of hair curled around his ears, and damn it all if even those weren’t cute. His eyes were green, but they weren’t meeting hers. No, those emerald orbs were fixed on her breasts. For some odd reason, she wanted to run her fingertips over the cleft in his chin before she slapped his face for his audacity.

“Well, well,” the tall blond said. “You must be our new wife.” His smile made something inside her melt, and she liked the way he stressed the word
wife
. “I’m Will Rowe.”

The second man smiled as well. “I’m Tanner O’Brien.” His voice was a baritone as smooth as velvet. He held out his hand. The calluses spoke of someone who wasn’t afraid of hard work.

“Alayna Wilson.” She shook Tanner’s hand then repeated the action with Will. Both had grips as firm as a vise.

The men stared at her, making her cheeks heat as she dragged her bare toe across the cold tile floor to try to distract herself from the awkward silence. Instead of chattering away as some people did to fill the void, she always used it to size people up.

Tanner was obviously the most impatient since he spoke first. “So what made you volunteer for this assignment?”

“I didn’t,” she replied.

He blinked a couple of times. “I.D.E.A. can’t force you to do something this…this…”

“Dangerous,” Will interjected.

Sure they can
. “Let’s just say I decided it was in my best interests to accept this mission.” These men didn’t need to know her reasoning, and she sure wasn’t going to start discussing her work issues with two guys who were going to have to pretend to be her husbands. Make believe would be bad enough. She wasn’t about to open up her real world to two strangers.

Tanner narrowed his eyes. “Look, Elaina, we’re going to be—”

“It’s not Elaina,” she interrupted. Not that she was surprised he didn’t get her name right. Most people didn’t the first time, almost as if they’d never heard her say it. “It’s pronounced
Ah-lay-na
.”

He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Since she’d seen that reaction far too many times, she couldn’t mistake it for anything other than aggravation. “Fine.
Ah-lay-na
. We’re gonna be spending an awful lot of time together. I hate that we’re getting off on the wrong foot.”

“No wrong foot,” she replied. “I’m just kind of a…private person.”

“Funny,” Will said, “but you’ve already got your guard up and we just met. How about we break the ice this way? I was born in a place called Fort Wayne in the Indiana province. Tanner here is from Vancouver.”

“Old Canada?” While Fort Wayne and Indiana didn’t ring a bell, she sure knew Vancouver.

Will smiled. “Yeah. He says ‘oot’ instead of out, and expect an ‘eh’ or two to slip out. You haven’t said much, but I’m catching an accent. Australian continent, maybe?”

“Aye, mate.” She winked at him. “I’ve tried to drop it, and I’ve drilled out most of the colloquialisms, but when I’m nervous, they creep back in.” She nodded at the tables. “Supposedly, the DNA alteration won’t make the accent go away. That’s why we had all that vocal training.” Drawing on what she’d learned from the linguist, she tried to affect a Fraiquan accent. “So, is this a little more of what you might expect from your future wife?”

Both men grinned, making her smile in return. Before they could exchange any more friendly banter, the doors swished open again.

“Dr. Frankenstein’s in the house,” Tanner whispered to them.

“Well, hello!” The geneticist strode over to them. With a sweeping gesture of his arm, he indicated the stainless steel tables. “Are we ready to begin?

* * * *

Alayna woke to the pounding in her head and the echo of her heartbeat in her ears. Groaning, she opened her eyes to mere slits. Thankfully, the light in the room was dim, but as she let her gaze wander, nothing looked familiar.

Figuring she’d rub the tight muscles of her forehead to try to soothe the budding migraine, she reached up. With a gasp, she stopped both hands in front of her face.

Crikey. I’m really blue!

She looked at her palms and then rotated her hands to give a good appraisal to her fingers. Even her fingernails were a pleasant shade of blue. In her typical nervous gesture, she raked her fingers through her hair to make the spikes stand up better. No spikes remained as she threaded her fingers through long, wavy hair.

They’d done it. They’d really fucking done it!

Dying to see the extent of the changes, she jerked the white sheet from her body and tried to sit up. The instant her head came up off the pillow, the room began to swim and her stomach churned. She quickly lay back down.

“Whoa, darlin’,” a vaguely familiar baritone called. “You’re gonna be dizzy if you get up too fast.”

Alayna glanced up to find Will grinning down at her. At least she thought it was Will. The blue skin on that handsome face made her feel like she’d entered some sort of alternate dimension that reminded her of a childhood book about some lost girl visiting an absurd place called Oz. Everything the girl stumbled across there had been surreal, just as Alayna’s world was surreal now. “Will?”

“So you recognize me. Good. My first look at myself in a mirror and I wasn’t even sure who the hell I was.”

As if she wouldn’t recognize that handsome, cocky grin or his ever so appealing scent.

His scent?

When had she ever noticed a man’s scent before? Right now she sure as hell noticed Will’s, and for some odd reason, that wonderful smell sent heat pooling between her thighs, drawing her to him like an irresistible tug.

Sitting up slowly, she began to purr. “You look great blue.”

His grin grew. “So you do, darlin’.” Leaning in, he reached out to brush her hair over her shoulder. “In fact, you were pretty before. Now…you’re
beautiful
. Blue suits you, Alayna.” When he placed a kiss against her forehead that was so infinitely gentle, she closed her eyes and purred louder.

“Hey! Don’t forget about me!” Tanner’s soft footsteps sounded on the other side of the bed.

Alayna turned to look at him and smiled. “Blue suits you, too.” She placed a hand against his chest and smoothed her palm up to his shoulder and then down his arm. “You smell so good, Tanner. Like man and desire.”

The mattress dipped beside her as he put a knee down and tilted his body closer. “That’s ’cause I desire you, baby.” He crooked a finger under her chin and lifted until their gazes were locked. Her womb did a somersault at the passion she found in his deep blue eyes. “I bet you taste as good as you smell.”

His lips brushed over hers. Once. Twice. Then a growl rose from his chest as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pulled her up to kneel in front of him, and then flattened her breasts against his muscular chest in a fierce embrace. Her nipples tightened in response. He dragged her from the bed until her feet touched the cold tile.

Alayna looped her arms around his neck, letting herself drown in his sweet taste and intoxicating aroma. Fluids rushed from her pussy, and when his tongue slipped past her lips, she gave it a gentle suck. Never had she wanted to make love to a man as desperately as she did at that moment—at least until Will moved behind her, put his hands on her hips, and began nibbling at the tender flesh of her neck. The heat of his erection branded her buttocks.

She’d die if she didn’t mate with both of them.
Now!

She reached one hand around to touch Will’s face as she tore her lips away from Tanner. Glancing back, she met Will as he moved to kiss her. His lips drugged her the same way Tanner’s did, and when she swept her tongue into his mouth, it brushed over his small fangs.