Xavier Read online

  He just leaned in and stuck his tongue out to lick the wrinkled skin. He had to let Xavier’s ass cheeks go because Xavier moved at the first contact Andy’s tongue made with his entrance, as if he was trying to escape. Andy stopped, wanting to be sure this was something Xavier enjoyed, and when Xavier didn’t attempt to move away again, he stilled his mate by sliding one arm around his waist before diving in again.

  He licked around the pink hole, relishing the shudders and mewls he was causing. He licked and sucked until Xavier’s knees buckled, then he stiffened his tongue and pushed it inside his mate. With his free hand he grabbed the lube that was next to his knee while letting Xavier’s waist go, and quickly lathered his fingers before sliding one inside Xavier along with his tongue. He was a bit annoyed that the cherry flavor covered Xavier’s musky taste, but it was okay. He knew Xavier wouldn’t last long if he went on like that, so he gently but swiftly opened his mate, then removed his fingers and moved slightly away.

  Andy grabbed Xavier’s hips and flipped him around, laughing at the indignant noise the man made. He liked this Xavier, the one who was relaxed and who didn’t care about how his stomach or his ass looked. He wanted Xavier to always be like that with him, and he would do anything to obtain that.

  Smiling down at Xavier, Andy grabbed his knees and opened his legs wide, resting them on his thighs. He took his cock in his hand and lubed it before pressing the head against Xavier’s entrance. He looked into Xavier’s eyes, waiting for his mate to give him a sign that he was ready, and when Xavier nodded, he started pushing gently.

  They both groaned when Andy’s cock popped in the tight ring of muscles, and Andy had to stop himself from just ramming into his mate. He took his time instead, moving out before pushing back in, getting deeper with every thrust. Then finally, finally, his hips touched the back of Xavier’s legs and he was fully in.

  Xavier didn’t seem to have any patience left, as he wrapped his legs around Andy’s waist and tried to bring him closer. Andy leaned toward his mate, plastering their bodies together and sliding his hands under Xavier’s shoulders. He held his mate tight as he started thrusting, slowly at first. He wasn’t able to maintain the leisurely rhythm for long, though, not with the way Xavier moved his hips to meet his thrusts.

  The sound of flesh meeting flesh filled the room, accompanied by moans and pants in the most erotic set of sounds that existed. With one last groan, Xavier pushed his cock against Andy’s stomach, hard, and Andy felt the sticky wetness of his cum flooding both their stomachs and chests. He had to stop himself from reaching down and clamping his teeth around the soft skin of Xavier’s shoulder.

  His wolf wasn’t happy, but by then Andy didn’t care anymore, not when Xavier’s channel was tightening around his cock in a vise that milked his orgasm out of him. He continued to move lightly until he was completely spent. By then they were both sweaty and sticky, panting to catch their breaths, and Andy rolled to his side, taking Xavier with him.

  He was pleased when Xavier snuggled in his side as if he had always belonged there. He was starting to fall asleep when Xavier made a strange noise and sprang up. “Shit, we forgot the condom!”

  Andy chuckled and reached for his mate without even opening his eyes. “Don’t worry, babe, you don’t need them with shifters. We don’t carry diseases, remember? And it’s not like I can get you pregnant.”

  Xavier mumbled something as he settled back into Andy’s chest, but Andy was already half asleep, so he didn’t hear what it was.

  Chapter Six

  Xavier woke up snuggled into warm, strong arms. Two days had passed since Andy and he had first made love, and today was the day Andy had to go to Lewistown. They had spent the morning together, making love once again after lunch before napping. Xavier could see from the window that the sun was just beginning to set, and he knew they’d have to get up soon. Andy had to get to Kameron’s house before they all headed toward the lab.

  Xavier was terrified.

  Sure, he knew Andy was more than able to defend himself. Apart from the fact that Kameron wouldn’t allow him to fight if he wasn’t able to, he had seen how Andy had fought with Denver. The only thing that had tilted the scale in Denver’s favor had been the sheer size of the tiger. A wolf couldn’t compete with that.

  He was still scared to death, though. Anything could go wrong. What if a guard shot Andy? What if one of the shifters in the lab got scared and attacked him? He didn’t want to lose his lover just after finding him.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Xavier jumped a bit at the sound of Andy’s voice. He hadn’t noticed the man was awake. “Nothing.”

  He felt Andy move, then a hand landed on his chin and pushed his face up until their eyes collided. “Don’t bullshit me. I can feel that you’re tense and worried.”

  Xavier sighed. “Fine. I’m just worried about what’s going to happen tonight. I... I don’t want to lose you.”

  Andy smiled and kissed him, their tongues lazy and gentle. “You won’t. It sounds corny, but I have something incredible to come back to now. I won’t let anyone keep me away from you.”

  Xavier snuggled back into Andy’s side and followed the lines of his wolf tattoo with a finger. They were both quiet until Andy asked, “Do you want me to stay here?”

  Xavier froze. It was what he wanted, but... He knew that Andy wanted to go. He wanted to help, and Xavier knew it was the right thing to do. “No. I mean, yes, but I know you have to go. I’m just scared.”

  Andy kissed his head. “I’ll be fine. I’ll have Kameron and Nick with me.”

  They got up not long after that and got dressed, Xavier still blushing every time he caught Andy looking at his body. He still felt a twinge of shame, of feeling too fat, but the way Andy’s eyes lit up when he looked at him was reassuring. He felt loved, even if it was so soon—too soon. He did understand that shifters didn’t have problems with love at first sight, but he was human, and he needed time. He did know that he liked Andy, though. Very much so, in fact.

  Xavier stayed silent in the car, and soon they were at Kameron’s house. The little clearing in front of it was full of cars apart from an empty space in front of the house, and Xavier got a bit nervous. He was about to meet part of Andy’s pack, and he didn’t know how they were going to react. He hoped better than his sister and his father.

  Andy grabbed his hand as he pulled him to the door and entered the Alpha’s house without knocking. As soon as Xavier stepped inside, all eyes turned to him and everyone stopped talking. He could feel himself go red as about fifteen pairs of eyes looked at him, and he locked his gaze on his shoes, not wanting to see whatever it was that all those people were thinking about him.

  “Come on guys, he’s not an animal on display in a zoo! Leave them be!”

  Xavier didn’t recognize the deep voice, but he was grateful to the man anyway.

  “Thanks, Duncan,” Andy said, and Xavier looked up, smiling at the man who had just saved him from further humiliation. He had caramel colored hair cut short and brown eyes, and he smiled back at Xavier.

  The two men bumped fists like teenagers, and Xavier could see Duncan was a friend. He turned to him and held his hand out. “I’m Duncan. I’ll stay with you tonight, while everyone is away.”

  Xavier nodded, but he was perplexed. “Why?”

  “Well, even if you didn’t have a stalker coming after you, it’s the norm, really. We can’t just all disappear and leave the pack land without any kind of protection.”

  “I don’t have a stalker.” Why couldn’t everyone understand that?

  Duncan waved his concern away. “All the same. I have to stay anyway, so we might as well get to know each other, since you’re Andy’s mate.” He grinned. “News travel fast through the pack’s grapevine. We even know how Lea and their father took it, and let me tell you, a lot of people don’t share their views.”

  Andy sighed. “Some do, though.”

  “No one
important anyway, Andy. Don’t let the jerks get to you.”

  Xavier wanted to hear more about it, but everyone suddenly got up as if they’d all received a secret signal or something, and they all walked out of the house. Andy tugged on Xavier’s hand and he followed. Everyone was on the porch or just beside it, and even Kameron was there. He was standing next to the stairs and looked toward the clearing just like everyone else.

  Andy settled behind Xavier, wrapping his arms around Xavier’s waist. “What are we waiting for?” Xavier whispered, and he could have sworn he saw several people look at him and smile.

  “You’ll see. They should be here any second.”

  Xavier turned to look at the clearing, too, but he didn’t see anything until two guys popped out of thin air right in the middle of it. It looked like some sort of signal, because other couples started appearing, and while Xavier could literally feel his jaw hit his sternum, he knew what he was seeing. He recognized a lot of the people appearing, even if he had hardly talked to them. He had spent only one night and morning at the mansion, too little to get to know them.

  He could see Dominic, the Whitedell pride’s Alpha, and his Beta. Derick was also there, and he ran straight into Duncan’s arms. Xavier didn’t know how he hadn’t noticed the similarities between them when he had met Duncan. It was obvious those two were related, probably brothers.

  Then there was Joshua, Ward, Bryce and his mate, Denver, Nysys, Sebastian and Oliver, and other people Xavier didn’t recognize. Damn, what was it, a party? “What’s happening?”

  “The Nix are going to help us get to Lewistown. That way we won’t have to drive all the way there and we’ll be able to shimmer the wounded to safety right away.”

  Okay, that made sense. “You won’t—I don’t know—lose bits and pieces along the way, right?”

  Andy burst out laughing. “God, I certainly hope not. I’ve never shimmered, to be honest, but if they all can do it, I think it’s safe.”

  Xavier looked around as people started to talk and mingle. Nysys and Nick were watching each other this time, too, and it made him wonder if there was something there. Kameron and Dominic were talking, as were Derick, Nate and Duncan. Xavier wasn’t sure what his place was in the pack, so he stayed put until a smiling Jared came up to him.

  “Congratulations, Xavier. I heard you found your mate.”

  Xavier smiled. He liked the doctor. “Yes. This is Andy.”

  “Okay, everyone,” Kameron’s voice boomed. “You know who you’re going to shimmer with, so everyone go up to his Nix. Every one of them is going to shimmer three men.” Kameron pointed at each man as he named them, and most of them waved in return. It was... cute, in a childish kind of way. The Nix were all pretty small and thin, with blond hair—except for Nysys, of course, Finn, and another guy who had hair so black it looked blue in the sunset light. They all had exotic names, like Yerad and Cerris. When Kameron pointed at the one named Noem, Andy softly said, “That’s mine.” Everyone else was gathering around his or her Nix, and Xavier knew it was time for Andy to join them. He shivered and sent a silent prayer that his mate—his lover—came out of this unharmed.

  Andy turned Xavier around in his arms and kissed him before leaning their foreheads together. “I’ll be back in a few hours.”

  “I’ll be here.”

  * * * *

  God, Andy hated this.

  It wasn’t the first lab he’d raided, and it probably wouldn’t be the last one, but it was the worst. They had found kids, damn it!

  No one knew yet what exactly had been done to them, but Andy wasn’t sure he wanted to know. The kids—Andy loved kids, and it hurt to see them like that, even more than it had hurt seeing his friends Merle and Simon all bruised and scarred.

  Still, they had all noticed that three of the kids were in better shape than the others, and they were kept in another room. They were also kind of creepy. They weren’t hurt, and they didn’t look scared like the others. They were motionless in their cages, not crying even when Denver had had to kill a guard in front of them. They were clean, well clothed and well fed, but their eyes were... lifeless.

  Andy wasn’t sure what to do with them. He wanted to let them out of the cages, but he could tell they were different, and he wasn’t sure letting them free would be a good thing—he wasn’t the only one to think that.

  Denver had taken one look at the two boys and the girl and had decided to have Andy guard them, even if the raid wasn’t over yet. Andy didn’t particularly like it—he wanted to help, to bring down those responsible for hurting so many people, but instead he had babysitting duty.

  “Hi there. My name is Andy. What’s your name?” He waved at the kids, trying to get them to react, but they stayed right there, sitting on their small beds, watching him. Creepy.

  The smallest boy did react, though, or at least Andy thought so. His eyes flickered a bit as he watched Andy, but he couldn’t be sure it really was a reaction to what he had said.

  The sounds of battle were slowly fading, and Andy was pretty sure it was almost over, so he decided to explore. It wasn’t as if he could help the kids for now, anyway.

  The room in which the three cages were kept was small, but it had a second door leading to a small lab. Andy started to go through the files on the computer. Everything was still turned on and logged in, since the attack had taken the guards and the docs by surprise, which was definitely a good thing, since Andy was as far as anyone could be from a hacker.

  It didn’t take long for him to find the three kids’ files. He skimmed through them, finding out they were named Nathan, Luke and Amy, Nathan being five years old while the other two were six. His heart skipped a beat when he read the rest of their files. It just about froze the blood in his veins. Before he could read more, though, he heard a metallic noise coming from the room with the cages.

  He moved fast, running into the room and grabbing the man who was trying to open the door of Amy’s cage by the throat. He slammed him against the wall, lifting him until his feet didn’t touch the floor anymore.

  The man struggled, but he was only human. Andy quickly grabbed his phone, because he could see the guy wasn’t a simple guard or scientist.

  He was about forty years old, his short, finely cut dark hair starting to gray on the temples. His mustache too was flawless and grayish, but he was handsome and definitely very neat looking. His expensive suit and leather shoes, coupled with what looked like gold cufflinks, added to his wealthy looking impression.

  “Yes?”

  “Kam, I need someone here. A guy was trying to get to the kids, and he’s not a guard.”

  Kameron knew exactly where Andy was, and Andy was relieved when he heard that Jonah was already on his way. The guy he was holding might look too goody-two-shoes to fight, but Andy felt that something was off with him, and he didn’t like it.

  Just before he could hang up, the man moved, trying to knee Andy’s balls. Luckily for Andy, he saw the leg moving up and managed to block it in time, the phone clattering on the floor and forgotten as a punch went straight for Andy’s face.

  The guy clocked him in the eye, making Andy howl, and this time he wasn’t able to avoid the knee coming at him. He tilted his hips to the side in a desperate attempt to avoid the brunt of the hit where it would hurt most, and the guy’s knee connected more with his thigh than with his privates, but not completely.

  Andy had to let go. He went down, tears falling from his eyes as he cupped his balls, and the other man hesitated as he finally regained his footing. Andy could see he wanted the kids, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to get out of the lab with them, not with all the shifters moving around the building.

  The guy ran for the door and Andy cursed, reaching for his cell phone. Before he could dial Kameron’s number again, he heard a low growl outside the room he was in, then a snarl. He smiled. Someone had found his guy.

  Still, his eye hurt like a bitch, and his crotch wasn
’t doing any better. Luckily for him, one of the perks of being a shifter was accelerated healing, so it wouldn’t take long for his balls to stop hurting.

  He slowly got up just as steps neared the door. The whole time he’d been struggling with his mystery guy, the kids hadn’t moved, and that raised the creepiness factor to the roof. Not a whimper, a cry, nothing. Andy could see that Nathan, the smallest boy, had his hands clenched tight, though. Maybe the boy wasn’t as cold as Andy had initially thought.

  “Andy? Everything okay?” Kameron asked as he entered the room.

  Andy nodded. “Did you get him?”

  The smile that spread on Kameron’s face was gleeful and answered Andy’s question on its own. “Oh, yeah. You’ll never guess who he is.”

  “Spill the beans, Kam. I have something to show you, and you won’t like it.”

  “It’s Glass.”

  “You mean Glass, from the Glass Research Company? That Glass?”

  “That’s him. We don’t know what he was doing here, but having him means we can finally put a stop to his whole operation.”

  “He wanted the kids.”

  Kameron looked at them, still in the cages. “Why? Why them and not the others?”

  “I’ll show you.” By then the small room was filling up, and Andy felt better leaving the kids. He lifted his chin toward the door that led to the lab.

  Kameron followed him and stood behind him as he sat in front of the computer. “Those three kids, they’re not normal kids.”

  “Show me.” Kameron’s tone was terse, as if he already knew this was bad.

  “So, you know how they tried to change humans into shifters to create super soldiers?”

  “Nothing new here, Andy.”

  “Wait. That wasn’t the only way they were trying to create their super soldier. This one is a smaller project, or at least it looks like it. They... they created those kids, Kam. Artificially. They modified their genes, DNA or whatever it is they did, then they implanted them in utero. When the kids were born they took them away from the mothers and raised them, trained them almost from the beginning.”