Raines, Elizabeth - Covert [Wicked Missions 7] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (11 page)

“Nothing,” she lied. “You feeling okay?”

“Yeah. Just a small through-and-through shot. The pulse cauterized the wound as it passed, so it didn’t even bleed all that much.” He moved as if to show her he was okay, but his grimace told her otherwise. “I’ll be fine. Are we going back to the city now? We need to think of a story for why in the hell I was in a restricted area and find a way to explain it away.”

Alayna shook her head. “No fucking way. This is the end of the road for you two.”

“Look,” Will said, leaning to support his weight on his good side, “I panicked, okay? The guard wouldn’t have fired if I hadn’t run. We’ll figure out a good cover story. Might look a little suspicious with a hole in the wall and all, but…We’ll think of something to tell everyone. A burglary, maybe? A family emergency?”

“You’re not going back,” she said, wanting them to simply accept her decision as good husbands should. She knew what was best, and they would stay someplace safe while she went back to repair the damage. She might not be able to end the flow of patrile now, but she could stop the Dracorian threat.

Funny, but the fangs that had appeared at the
comchi
began to grow again as thoughts of ripping Sisson’s throat out danced in her mind. She’d never been one for bloodlust before, but at that moment, that was the only term to describe what she felt.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tanner’s voice was loud enough that she shut the door and ensured at least a little bit of privacy.

“That means,” she said, “that you two are going back to Rozale. The doc can flip you back to yourselves, and you can take a nice vacation. You’ve earned one. I hear Remiza is beautiful. You can lay out on the beach and tan your skin when it’s back to pink.”

“You’ll go with us. Right, Alayna?” Will asked.

She shook her head. She’d remain Fraiquan long enough to slip back into the city and get close enough to kill her prey. Then, if she survived, she’d see if Dr. Frankenstein could change her back to herself. Perhaps she’d work up enough courage to follow Tanner and Will to see if there might still be something between all of them. One day. The first task, she realized, would be the easier of the two she faced.

When they both started to sputter, probably to protest, she held up her hand. As good Fraiquan mates, they immediately ceased talking to listen to her. Their reaction made tears sting her eyes.

They weren’t Fraiquan.

And no matter how much she wanted them to be, they weren’t her mates.

She had to let them go, to set them free. Hell, once they became human again, all the feelings they’d shared—the bond that had come from sharing the
comchi
—might simply…disappear. Somehow, she knew her own feelings would remain, but she couldn’t count on theirs lasting after the transformation. They were, after all, simply men. And experience had taught her that human men thought with their dicks. The sex had been great. Better than great.
Fucking fantastic
. They’d remember
that
. But the love she felt for them?
No
. They might leave that behind with their blue skin and black hair.

Besides, they’d never given her a single word of encouragement or told her their hearts were involved. Her heart, on the other hand, was breaking like crystal smashed against the floor. She should have worked up the courage to tell them how she felt, but she simply couldn’t make herself that vulnerable. Not back when they were undercover and not now.

Alayna swallowed the hurt coursing through her. “Look, you two were great, and you did a really good job. I’ve still got one more job to do, and you need to go back to your lives.” On that chilly pronouncement, she tried to turn to leave. Both men gripped her biceps.

“That’s it?” Will held her tight, his shout so loud, the door probably didn’t help muffle much. Hopefully, the rest of the infirmary was still empty. “We get to go back to our lives? You think that’s fucking
it?
”

Tanner’s fingers were digging into her arm. “What’s wrong with you, Alayna? Why are you being so damned cold?”

Cold?
She felt like her face was on fire as her anger at herself swelled inside her chest. She used that anger to do what had to be done. “Let go of me.” Obviously still in their obedient Fraiquan bent, they complied. She took a step back. “I fucked this mission up something royal.” They started to protest again, but she shook her head. “I’m going back to find out if that fucking Dracorian is trying to start another takeover of the planet, and then I’m going to kill him.”

In her haste to exit, she slammed right into Betinsa Nungio, smacking their foreheads together. “Quite a welcome,” Betinsa said, rubbing her brow.

“What are you doing here?” That’s all she needed, her old teacher here to witness her failure.

“I came yesterday. What happened, Alayna?”

“Why?”

“I’ll explain just as soon as you tell me why you’re running out of here like your hair is on fire.”

“Look, I don’t have time to explain. The guys will fill you in. I gotta go.” She turned to look at the men—
her
men—one last time. Instead of bursting into tears and begging them to love her as her heart wanted her to, she gave them a scowl meant to earn their compliance. “Don’t follow me.” Not even replying to Betinsa’s protest, Alayna left the room, shutting the door behind her.

Tanner watched her go, fighting everything inside him that told him to go after her. She’d told them not to follow, and damn it all if he couldn’t seem to make himself disobey his wife. “Fuck.”

“Yeah,” Will said, splaying his fingers through his hair. “Fuck.”

Betinsa set her hands on her hips and glared at them. “What happened? I only heard Will had been injured and you had all bailed out.”

Tanner frowned at her. “How’d you get here so fast?”

“I arrived yesterday. Something told me you might need some help.”

“Something?”
Will arched a blue eyebrow. “Or
someone
?”

Her smile answered his question. “Luka sent a coded message that you’d encountered a few…glitches.”

“Glitches?” A snorted laugh slipped out before Tanner could stop it. “Yeah. We had a few…
glitches.
”

“I’ve only heard the bare-bones story, so you’ll have to fill me in. There is one thing I would really like to know. Do you truly believe Priam Sisson is Dracorian?” she asked.

Both men nodded. “Alayna sure does,” Will added, “and I trust her judgment. She thinks this mission was a failure because we couldn’t find out what he was doing, other than moving the ingredients to make patrile. I got some interesting information before I got shot, but I haven’t been able to share it with anyone yet.”

“She thinks the mission failed?” Betinsa asked. Both men nodded again. “How ridiculous.” Then she knit her brows. “I suppose she’s still thinking about Earl Bruner.”

“Who?” both men asked. Then they exchanged a hesitant smile. Would they still be this in sync once they became human again?

“Earl was her last partner. She was training him on his first assignment out of the Academy. He rushed into a buy no matter how hard she tried to stop him, and he got himself shot. Alayna has always blamed herself, but no one else does. I.D.E.A. did, however, use her guilt to get her to agree to this assignment.” Betinsa gave them both a hard stare. “Where was she going?”

“She’s heading back to kill the Dracorian,” Will replied.

“Then perhaps we should stop her until we can figure out what we’re really dealing with.” On that pronouncement, Betinsa punched a few commands into her communicator. “She won’t be leaving the compound. Not until we have a chance to talk to her.”

“Damn, she’ll be pissed.” Tanner frowned at Will. “This is about more than that fucking Dracorian.”

He grunted in return.

“You mean it’s more…personal?” Betinsa asked, but her knowing smile said she already knew the answer.

“Yeah, it’s more…
personal
.” He’d sensed Alayna’s fear, and that fear had nothing to do with facing down a Dracorian. She wasn’t running to confront him. She was running away from facing Tanner and Will and what their lives would be like now that the mission as over. “She’s doing more than going after Sisson. She’s leaving us.”

Tanner folded his arms over his chest.
Damn her anyway
. Didn’t she know he was just as worried about what would happen now? But he wasn’t running away. No, he was sticking around to not only finish the job but to see where this connection between the three of them would lead once they all became “themselves” again.

“You know her fears?” Betinsa asked.

“I think so. We got…very close while we were undercover. I think she’s worried that what we shared will change when we become human again. She’s might even be thinking we’d want to end the marriage now. That and she’s being what she thinks a good wife should be—a protector. Now that she knows we’re safe, she’s going back to finish the job.”

“Understandable. Being Fraiquan might have made the bond between all of you stronger than it would have been otherwise, but I think what the three of you share, you shared from the beginning. At least that was what I felt when I was around you.” She shrugged. “I suppose you could all blame it on the
comchi
.”

“It wasn’t just the
comchi
!” Tanner wanted to hit something. Never in his life had a person frustrated him as much as Alayna.
My wife.
How dare she give them all she had to give, ensnare them both so completely, and then simply walk away without even giving him or Will a choice in the matter?

His hurt was rapidly giving way to fury. When Alayna was prevented from leaving, she’d come back to find out what her men had to do with it, and Tanner feared he’d unleash his rage on her. “We had something
more
,” he finally admitted, his anger rapidly deflating like a balloon when he realized where it had spawned. The anger came from the terror of losing her and Will, and that terror made his heart pound a rough beat. “We have something special.”

“We love her,” Will said as he stared at Tanner. “Just like we love each other.” He turned his gaze toward Betinsa. “It doesn’t matter if we’re Fraiquan or human. We still love her.”

“Have you told her that?”

Such a simple question—one that zapped Tanner like a hit from a stun-stick. He couldn’t even find the will to utter an embarrassed
no
. Was that why she was so afraid? Because neither of them had confessed their love to her? They’d obviously assumed she knew, perhaps because of their own stupid fear that their relationship might wither and die when they were restored to humanity. He should have found the courage to tell her—and to tell Will—how he felt about them.

“Fuck.” Will’s curse hung in the air for what seemed like forever as he raked his fingers through his hair again. “She should have said something.
We
should have said something. It was easier to just take it for granted.”

“So you
didn’t
tell her. Yet you wonder why she ran away?”

“We made love to her almost every night!” Tanner figured she should have known. Couldn’t she feel his love in his touch, in the way he kissed her?

“A woman needs more than making love. She could easily believe the physical act doesn’t require deeper feelings where men are concerned.

He thought he heard Betinsa mutter something about men and their stupidity, but he was still in too much of a stupor to respond.

“Then we’ll tell her.” Will tried to get off the examination table, grimacing with each movement.

Putting his hand under Will’s arm, Tanner helped him ease to stand on trembling legs. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Just a little sore.”

“Need a hypo-spray for pain?”

“Nah. What I need is to talk to Alayna.”

“Well, then.” Betinsa grinned at them both as she replied to something on her communicator. “You’re in luck. Because right now, she’s waiting at the exit, screaming both of your names.”

* * * *

Pacing the length of the living area of the small suite she’d been led to, Alayna turned over in her mind exactly what she’d say to Will and Tanner. How dare they tell Betinsa Nungio to order her held at the compound? She didn’t need a damn debriefing. She needed to rip out Priam Sisson’s throat while she watched the life ebb away in his fake blue eyes.

Seeing her men would be agony. It was the hardest thing she’d ever done in her life to walk away from them at the infirmary, knowing they could no longer share the love they’d known while Fraiquan. Now, she had to face giving them up a second time, and she couldn’t have felt worse if someone had ripped her heart right out of her chest and slammed it on the floor at her feet.