Always Read online

  “Not amusement exactly, no. As far as watching you, the war is a relatively new thing. It’s only been seventeen years, and we’ve had you guys on screen for hundreds more, which isn’t to say I’m dismissing seventeen years. I’m absolutely not. It’s been going on for more than half my life. However, we’ve had a vested interest in your society for hundreds upon hundreds of years.”

  What the hell? Still, he’d travelled a distance down this crazy path, better to manage a handle of things. “How have you done all your viewing? Some kind of movie room? Everyone gather to have dinner in front of the screen?”

  “There are televisions.” She pointed to the corner of the room. “Like that one. I could put it on if you’d like to watch something.”

  “It’s so simple, is it? You say the word, and we can spy on the wolves?”

  “Television.” She spoke upward toward the device, and it flipped on. “I want Owens. Dougal and Caitlyn. Show them to me.”

  The screen flashed and seconds later he found himself staring at moving pictures of his brother and sister-in-law. They were standing in their kitchen. Caitlyn leaned against the counter and laughed at something his younger brother said. Unprepared to see them first hand, he jerked at the image. A thousand mosquitos may have well have assaulted him all at once.

  He forced himself to stay perfectly still. As much as he was attracted to the blonde enigma in front of him, he didn’t know her and he wouldn’t let her see him sweat. “Thanks. Turn it off. Now.”

  She immediately told the television to turn off, which told him more than anything else. The woman claimed he wasn’t in charge, yet she did as he told her to without arguing. He’d led werewolves for long enough to know who the most dominant presence in the room turned out to be. In the case of the two of them, his force of nature outweighed hers. Not to mention the way her eyes kept darting to his own. She wanted to please him.

  However, all instincts relating to his hostage aside, he had more important questions. “You have pretty impressive technology. We never had the ability to speak to our television and make it do as we wanted.”

  “What you see is nothing. It’s actually very low brow when it comes to what we used to be able to do before the dragon mess. The stuff left is bare bones. When we leave in a week to meet the rest of what is left of the humans, we’ll have much broader capabilities.”

  He pointed at the screen, unable to believe what he saw. His temper rose, although similarly to his earlier reaction to Dougal’s sudden appearance he wouldn’t let her know how thrown he had become. “If you have all of the technology stuff, why are the dragons beating you? Why haven’t you put them down? You did something before, when you came for me. There was a large boom.”

  She sighed loudly, her shoulders drooping. “The dragons are tricky. We were able to draw them back underground for an extended sleep. They grew so strong, so fast after we made them. Before we knew it they had escaped their cages, killed their scientists. It was all so out of control, or so I’ve heard. It was before my time. Anyway, we got them to sleep. We knew it wouldn’t be forever. By then, most of our leaders felt it was better to abandon ship. They were done with your planet, finished with what we could learn here. Politicians come with their own agendas. Always have, always will. The older ones, who were in charge when my father was here, cared about the science. The new ones it’s all about space travel again. Ships. Lasers. Money. Mining. So what if two groups of sentient beings we are responsible for creating are warring, and the one who didn’t start this war is about to be wiped off the planet? What does it have to do with any of them?”

  He tried to process everything she said, however it was the last bit which caught his entire attention. “Come again? The creating beings part.”

  “Hundreds of years ago, humans started experimenting in gene splicing. Things got rapidly out of control. First with the dragons, then later... Well, the wolf combination was thought a huge misstep. Nothing seemed to be working. However, after we had gotten the dragons to sleep, we suddenly noticed the shift. Your people had changed. With very little interference from us, you evolved. It took hundreds of years, but you became what you are today. It’s really been...amazing.”

  She was so invested in what she said. Her hands flailed around as she spoke, her eyes bright. It was everything Robbie could do not to throw something across the room. He didn’t care for being thought of as anybody’s science experiment. Her whole rant was bullshit.

  “What do you mean little interference?”

  “Um.” She rubbed her nose. “When it became clear the dragons were going to rouse, my father and some of the others supporters managed to get dragon speak placed into your population. Your sister-in-law, Caitlyn, she has the capability. They can control the dragons. Yet, you don’t let her do it. Why is that, by the way? I’ve always wanted to ask.”

  “If you wanted to help us with the dragons you shouldn’t have given the power to our women. Anyone who spent any time watching us would know we never place our females on the front line to do something so dangerous.”

  She snorted again. Robbie couldn’t decide if he wanted to kiss or throttle her. Of course, she would never go for it seeing as he was fascinating to her the same way a dissected frog would be.

  “We keep hoping you’ll outgrow your sexism. My father and the others simply chose their own bloodlines. It made sense at the time. Use your resources.”

  “His bloodline?” He hated this conversation, every single second of it.

  “The gene splicing. You were all from specific human families. The Knox family—who still bear our last name—came directly from us.” She pulled at a strand of her blonde hair. “See the resemblance?”

  Yeah, he really did. Both of his brothers had mated Knox women. The family and their seven daughters had lived right next door to where he’d grown up.

  “You want to talk about not using resources? With all of your stuff, we’d have the dragons eliminated.”

  She shook her head. “The tech is all broken. We have a single sound cannon left, the machine we used to save you. It takes forty-five minutes to reboot and only works half the time anyway. I’m sorry. I would help you if I could. You can’t know how much I’ve wished such a thing were possible.”

  “Well, I guess you wouldn’t want to see your pet experiment die out. What would you do for television amusement?”

  When she winced, a tiny bubble of shame for his snide remark hit him in the gut. The sensation passed fast. He was pissed. Enough with all the bullshit.

  ***

  Taty knew she should cut their conversation off soon. Indulging in her fantasy to speak to Robert was getting out control. She’d made him mad. The narrowing of his gaze and slight edge to his tone told her all she needed to know. Robert Owens rarely got angry, yet when he did give in to a rage—and he wasn’t quite there yet—he’d be a sight to behold.

  “I know you have no reason to believe me, but you are not a science project to me. You’re my passion. I mean, all the wolves are. Yes.” Find control, Taty. “I’m still here because I care. What little help I could provide, I have. All of us who are still here feel deeply for your situation. And we don’t see you as pets or whatever. The food which sometimes you happen to find—we’re the ones who provide it. I’ve personally pulled you from death twice. Anything I could do, I have.”

  “I have questions. I want them answered.”

  She could see why men followed him. Personally, she would fall on her knees or do cartwheels if he demanded it. Robert was...primal.

  “What’s your name?”

  She’d drugged him. He wouldn’t remember it, which panged her. If she got nothing out of their conversation, hearing him speak her name would give her the fix she seemed to need when it came to him. “Tatyana Knox. Dr. Tatyana Knox. Taty. The shortened version’s what everyone calls me.”

  “Taty is for a little girl. You’re a grown woman with a...” He cleared his throat, then added, “Medical degree. Tat
yana is your name, and I’ll use it.”

  “It bothers you, doesn’t it? The medical degree. I’m a woman, and it’s weird to you.” The wolves had not yet really given in to women’s equality. It had started before the war and, even though the women had kept things going with the males at war, the men hadn’t really adjusted their attitudes yet.

  He held up his hands. “I like smart females, always have.”

  Taty couldn’t control herself from rolling her eyes. “That’s so completely condescending and patronizing.”

  “We’re getting off track.”

  “What?” His eyes were so much deeper than she imagined.

  “I have questions. I’m not going to discuss my feelings on women and their career choices. How much do you watch us? Is there anything you don’t view? If I had asked at the wrong time, could I have gotten a view of my brother making love to his mate?”

  “You make it sound so voyeuristic.”

  “Isn’t it? Respond. Now.” He took a step in her direction. If he meant to be menacing, he succeeded. She shivered and then realized in utter horror he’d also turned her on. If she touched herself right then, she’d be wet. What the hell was the matter with her?

  “There are filters and sensors. I’ve never gotten to see you in the bathroom. If our cameras sense nudity, they won’t turn on. And we can never watch any of you for too long. I implemented the privacy factor my first year in control. It seemed a violation.”

  “It was. The whole thing is.”

  She shook her head. “You won’t remember I told you about them. I can promise you.”

  “Oh, yes, sweetheart, I will.” His eyes gleamed the glow of the alpha werewolf. If things had not fallen apart, she’d always thought he would be Alpha of his pack. As it was, he still had the absolute belief in himself she saw amongst the strongest personality types of his kind. “Are there any places it’s harder for you to see us?”

  “I don’t understand why you’d care.”

  His eyebrows shot up. “Because I do. Tell me, Tatyana.”

  “It’s harder in very remote places. We have cameras near the caves or you’d be practically off radar there. The dragons, when they find the devices, destroy them. So the closer you are to the dragons lairs, the less we can view you.”

  “The dragons know about the cameras.” He rubbed his eyes and for the first time he looked tired. “Of course they do. Why shouldn’t we be the only ones in the dark?”

  “Robert...”

  He sliced his hand in the air to silence her, and she stopped speaking. For a minute they stayed as they were, neither of them moving or speaking. Finally, he spoke again. “Your compound seems pretty advanced to me. Explain to me coherently why we can’t use it to fight them.”

  “Because all of our equipment is either failing or broken. Almost all of it is useless.” And it broke her heart whenever she thought about how their leaders had let it all go to hell. “We’re leaving in a week. Our funding is gone and our life support and security systems are about to go offline. Soon, we won’t be hidden here. Everyone will wake and see a small compound of buildings, which weren’t there previously. As you and I talk, we’re invisible. You can’t see us or scent our presence. It’s going to be so bizarre for all of you.”

  “I suppose you’ll watch our reaction on your televisions.”

  “No.” She moved to the table and sat, her legs feeling wobbly. “When I leave, it’s all over. The feed stops here.”

  Robert rocked back and forth on his feet. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m not, only I really don’t want to talk about it.” Lately, she’d been feeling so weak. No matter how much she slept, exercised or ate she couldn’t make it through the whole day without exhausted moments. Her bloodwork was normal. The doctors she consulted with from outer space, since she was the only medical person left on the planet, all suggested she might be depressed over leaving.

  There was no doubt about her feelings being low yet she really didn’t think her sadness was the overwhelmingly significant factor. Something else was going on.

  “I...It’s not my intention to make you unwell. Is there someone I should call? I could handle another human in the room or if you aren’t well I’ll deal with someone else.”

  “I’ll be fine.” She didn’t want to share him. Even angry, annoyed Robert was better than no Robert, which was about to happen. He’d be a memory she’d always wonder about. She took a deep breath. He really smelled nice. For a man constantly on the run, he always had a clean, soapy scent about him. The aroma was heady and more than a little bit pleasant.

  She wished she lived in the kind of world where she could close her eyes and lean on him.

  “Tatyana.” He breathed out her name. “We can fix the broken technology. My brother, Auggie, he has a brain for technology like you can’t believe. He hates studying, but give him something to fix and it gets done. Ten minutes with him and someone who can explain things and he’ll take it over.”

  “There isn’t enough power. We can barely run the cannon. Trust me, if it were doable, I would have gotten the stuff to you years ago.”

  Robert took her hand and she forgot to breathe. When she sucked in a breath, her heart sped so fast she wasn’t sure if she was about to faint.

  “Let me try, Tatyana. Let me see if Auggie can fix them. You say you want to help us? Prove it.”

  She knew she’d reached the point of no return. In almost no time, she would be half a universe away and he’d never remember who she was.

  Taty raised her hand and stroked the side of his face. He didn’t jerk back or tell her to stop, the only indication he felt her at all was the widening of his eyes. “You’re so beautiful. I’ve never touched you except medically. I wanted to tell you.”

  “You smell of roses.” He took an audible breath. “And I am losing my mind.”

  Without warning his mouth came down on hers. She gasped, yet when he tugged her closer to him she didn’t object—why would she?—and softened against him. He kissed very intently and, for the first time in her life, she knew what it was to be the total focus of the person holding her.

  When she pulled back to run her tongue along his lower lip, he moaned softly before tugging her until he could lay her on the table with him looming above her. “You make me want to do things I shouldn’t be thinking about. You’re basically my enemy who claims to be a friend. At best, you’re not a very useful ally. Yet, Doctor, I can’t focus on my job because you smell of roses and you make my cock hard for the first time in a year.”

  “I...”

  He ravaged her mouth again, and she closed her eyes to go along with the ride. A boom echoed through the room. She jumped, but it didn’t knock her out, as it did Robert. He slumped against her, nearly falling forward while she tried to hold him up, unconscious from the sonic cannon one of her people had thought to fire in the complex. With their sensitive ears, dragons and werewolves were knocked out by the blast while humans weren’t bothered by it at all.

  She sighed, savoring his weight for a second. It surprised her it had taken them so long to think of the canon.

  Gordon and the others rushed toward her, and her cousin gasped when he saw the scene.

  “It’s not how it looks,” she lied. If they’d waited any longer it would be exactly what it appeared and her body shook from wanting it.

  “He didn’t bite you, did he?”

  “No.” Although she wished she could have let him if he wanted to. What would be hotter than Robert biting her while he pushed his cock deeper and deeper inside of her?

  “You know what can happen to you if he did?” Gordon pulled Robert from her and two of her people strapped him on the gurney they dragged in. Taty grabbed the needle in her pocket. What would Robert have said if he’d known she could have knocked him out at any time? She supposed it didn’t matter since she’d had no intention of ever doing so.

  “If he’d bitten me, there was seventy percent chance he’d have made me a we
rewolf, too. Our fathers wrote extensively about the strange phenomenon. The real reason we don’t go near them unless they’re knocked out. They can change us a lot easier than we made them.”

  And as much as she wanted Robert, she wasn’t sure she’d survive in werewolf society once he’d finished having his fun with her. She could never be a proper werewolf lady.

  With a sigh, she pushed her needle into Robert’s arm making sure to give him twice the normal dose. With the amount of medicine she injected into him, he might not know his name for hours after he woke, let alone remember anything to do with her.

  Chapter Three

  Robbie jolted upward with a start. His head pounded and the medics rushing around him made the throbbing worse. Son of a bitch. The humans knocked him out and sent him back. He supposed he wasn’t meant to remember any of it. Except—he did. Next to him, Auggie sat drinking some water.

  He’d always been told they—he and Auggie—looked exactly alike, although the doctors insisted they weren’t identical when they were born. Some people could tell them apart at a glance. His mother, for example, had been excellent at discerning their identities. They’d never been able to fool her as they had their teachers. These days, he thought Auggie’s looks changed to match the distant attitude he held most of the time. His eyes were worn, his face more gaunt than Robbie had ever seen him.

  Seventeen years had taught Robbie a lot of things—including when a soldier had reached the end of their endurance. Even before the dragons got them, they were already gone.

  But fuck that. He wasn’t losing his brother. Robbie would call in every favor to have his brother sent away to somewhere where he could rest. If such a place still existed. Then again, maybe their human problem would be what Auggie needed to reengage.

  “You’re thinking too hard.” His twin took another sip of water. “And I’m somewhat concerned it’s about me. You have a thing you do with your brow, a certain furrow, which tells me you’re fixated on me. Stop. Worry about yourself.”