Well, that was unequivocal.Luke and I were still laying on the table, neither of us having the strength or desire to get up yet. Luke was still giggling, and when I met Nathaniel’s gaze, he was still smirking.It took more than an hour for us all to come down from that power high. The world could have been ending in the background, and none of us would have cared. It was possible none of us would have noticed.“Right, people. We can’t lay here all night. Things to do, problems to solve, coups to plan.”Luke’s hand teased along my stomach, dancing along the underside of my breasts. “Who says we can’t?”I heard movement, looked up, and suddenly Nathaniel was standing over me. He’d even lost his shirt and jacket.“I have to say I agree with Luke, Effie. Who says we can’t?” Nathaniel’s voice was low, gravely. I sat up, leaning back on my hands, my back arched, breasts pushed forward, my gaze flittering between Nathaniel and Luke. “Well then, what do you two propose?”Their response was
If I’d known just how much of a power boost we’d experience, the noise would have been the least of my concerns.Once we’d all stopped panting, had cleaned up and gotten dressed again, I noticed something was wrong in my office. Very wrong.Every single item of glass had smashed. Furniture had fallen over. There was even a hole in one of the walls with the sculpture that used to be on the coffee table sticking out of it.I turned on my heel, eyes wide. What the hell happened?!“Was there somehow an explosion that we didn’t notice?” Nathaniel whispered. Luke chuckled, but that chuckle was just covering up concern.“Did you two feel it? The power boost?”They looked at each other, as if unsure of what to say. “It came from you, Effie. When you orgasmed and dragged Luke and I under with you,” Nathaniel paused, holding his hands up, in response to my less than impressed expression. “That’s not a complaint, Effie, I promise. But either way… the power exploded out of you. I don’t know how e
I sent Luke and Nathaniel straight down to the gym and shooting range when we hit HQ, before calling the rest of Sierra and Dr Bauer up to meet me. “Okay people. So, sierra one, two, three and alpha six are all staking out the centre of the territory. We’re trying to find out what the hell Edward and Maximillian are up to, and what we can do to fix it. Two members of the team are incapacitated and currently MIA. At the moment, we don’t know if they’ve been killed or are under Maximillian’s control, both are possible. All we know at the moment is Lyla has lost contact with two of her people. I need you all to head out there as backup for Lyla. Dr Bauer, can you please brief these guys on the samples you need?”I called Lyla back on the radio whilst Dr Bauer was briefing the team. “Sierra one, how are we doing?”“No change, alpha one.”“Roger that. Sierra four through six are currently being briefed and will be out of the door in a couple of minutes. Let me know if anything changes.” I
Hours passed and still no updates from Lyla. Whether that was good news or not depended on who you were talking to.I was sceptical; Lyla has always been very good at checking in, and I expected she would have done once reinforcements reached her. We’d heard from the reinforcements once they reached the forest, but that had been nearly two hours ago.Luke and Nathaniel, however, believed it was good. If they were in trouble, we’d know about it already, so they probably just wanted to get the job done and come home.Out loud, Luke may have been agreeing with Nathaniel, but I could feel through the mate bond that he didn’t believe that for a second. My usually stubborn, strong-willed and confident head of security was nervous, and it took a lot for him to be nervous. He’d worked with Lyla for years, so he agreed that normally, she would have checked in by now.I was going to have to try to reach her, that was all there is for it. “Sierra one, how are we doing?”Radio silence. Not even a
On the way to the garage, I rounded up Fives and Chris. Both were nearly ready to go, as they always were, Fives even had a bag in the garage with spare clothes. No birthday suit adventures for Fives.Credit where it’s due, Nathaniel and Luke were actually there ready to go when Fives, Chris and I reached the garage. The four of them nodded their greetings, jumping into the passenger seats whilst I settled in the driver’s side. There was a fight for the front passenger, because apparently both Luke and Nathaniel wanted it.“We don’t have time for this!” The power was crackling in the air again, Fives and Chris both winced against it. “Fives, you’re up front. The rest of you in the back.”I parked up a mile away from the packhouse. “We’re on foot from here. Nathaniel, Luke and Fives, go through the tunnel under the packhouse. Wait for my signal before coming through into the basement. Chris, you’re with me. We’re going in the front door.”“You can’t go in the front door, Effie.”“I ca
Chris and I burst through the door at the same time as Nathaniel, Luke and Fives on the other side of the complex.I had one hand on the gun at the small of my back, the other hovering over the sheath at my thigh. I’d rather not shift unless I had to, I’d left in too much of a hurry to bring spare clothes.“Well, well, well, Ophelia,” Edward’s voice came from around the corner. “It’s good to see you.”“No it’s not, Edward. Now, you can either give me all of my people back, or, I can force your hand. Which is it?”“I’m afraid I can’t allow that, Ophelia,” Maximillian growled as he came around the corner.“Try to stop me.”“I’m not going to try to stop you, but there are a couple individuals that will, ones you might recognise.”Aaron and Scarlett, call signs sierra three and four. Edward and Maximillian had apparently got their filthy hands on the two of them.The two of them stepped out of the shadows, their eyes glassy. They were both covered in blood, their clothes torn. They must h
True to her word, Dr Bauer had got as many hands on deck as she could find by the time we got back, but I’m sure six naked wolves and a vampire carrying another six naked but unconscious wolves between them was a sight to behold.Once our five unconscious friends that needed to stay that way were in beds and handcuffed to stop them escaping, Dr Bauer went around setting up an IV for each of them giving them something to keep them under, whilst also hopefully staving off starvation. Ali was settled in a bed being checked over by three of Dr Bauer’s assistants, looking for any immediately noticeable problems, and setting him up with an IV to combat the wolfsbane in his system.Within no time at all, she had Nathaniel stitched up and Lyla dosed up with an oral antidote for wolfsbane poisoning. Once the two of them were done, Dr Bauer shooed us all out of her lab, with the promise that she’d give me a call when she had any updates on any of our unconscious people.We all trudged back up
Both Nathaniel and Luke’s faces were tense. They were biting their lips, desire in their eyes as they watched my every move. They were both on edge and ready to pounce, like they would have me bent over the desk before I could even open my mouth, regardless of whether people were still in the room.This couldn’t be happening.Fives had started stalking towards me, but he just about stopped himself, leaning on the desk. His knuckles were going white as he tried to force himself to breathe through it. Fives wasn’t mated, and unmated wolves were always going to struggle when someone went into heat, regardless of who it was. It just happened to be especially problematic with higher ranking wolves… and I was now their alpha.Even Chris felt it. His jaw was tight, his vampire bleeding into his eyes as he stared at me. His normally stoic expression was full of lust, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if there was a tent in his trousers too.Having noticed their expressions, Luke and Nathanie