Chasing His Bunny (15 page)

Actually, she was pretty sure that
last one was what she was most upset about.  She'd just saved
him from being shot after all.  Did he have to look at her
like that?  The inside of her chest felt like it was ripping
apart.

"Bethany?" he asked again, this time
his voice kind of hoarse.  

Hardening her heart against any
condemnation, she glared back up at him, doing her best to ignore
the people around them.  "What?" she snapped.

"Are you okay?"

That... was not the question she was
expecting.  "Yes," she said, confused.

And then squeaked in alarm as Mr.
Confusing-and-Delicious (yes, she was still aware of how hot he
was, even when he was breaking her heart) suddenly lunged forward
and she found herself wrapped up in his arms, her legs dangling
over his forearm, while his other arm was securely supporting her
back.  She grabbed at his neck, just to feel more on
balance. 

"Don't you
ever
 do that
again."  He started pressing kisses to her temple and the top
of her head, his hands squeezing her tightly, as if he was afraid
to let her go.

For a moment she thought he meant
shift into her creature, but only for a moment.  Somehow she
knew that wasn't what he was talking about, but that just left her
even more confused.  

"Do what?"

"Do what?  Do
what
?"  He sounded
infuriated, but the emotion coming through her head was fear. 
Bethany was startled to realize that she could read him more
clearly than ever... and she didn't sense any disgust.  No
rejection.  And his fear wasn't of her, but for her.
 "Jump in front of a bullet!  Do not ever do THAT
again!"

His dark eyes were practically bulging
as he glared at her.

"Oh, that."

"Oh?! That?!"  Mr.
Naked-and-Inarticulate snarled, his hands tightening as if he had
just remembered that he was carrying her, and so he couldn't throw
them in the air in exasperation.

"I knew they wouldn't hurt me," she
explained, although she couldn't help but be touched about his
freak out.  

"How could you poss-" His
voice cut off and his arms tightened even more, making her squeak,
as he turned his head back in the direction of Dr.
Montgomery.  Kasim was just coming around the jeep, carrying
the doctor's limp form over his shoulder, just as gloriously naked
as Steele was. He looked like an ebony statue, sunlight soaking
into his dark skin, his hair hanging down his bare back and a very
nice cock swaying gently in front of him as he walked.  Bailey
trailed behind him, a man's bloody jacket wrapped around her,
unashamedly checking out his ass.  Bethany had to admit, she
was finding the show of male flesh absolutely delightful.  She
had a feeling it was probably rude to stare the way she was - no
one else was giving each other a second glance - but she couldn't
help it.  There were just so many penises - penisi? peni? -
and she was getting quite an education on the many
variations.

After all, it wasn't like
she was going to get to touch any of them.  And, if she was
being honest, she didn't really want to.  But checking them
out visually was fun. Holy crap, was that guy pierced?!

"I'm going to kill that
fucker as soon as we get our answers," Steele said, in the darkest
tone she'd ever heard him use.  It sent shivers vibrating up
her spine and completely distracted her from the silver glinting in
another man’s shaft.  She couldn't just let him make a
statement like that and not argue. 

"Get in line," she responded, poking
his chest with her finger.  "I called dibs on tearing that
asshat apart years ago."

The muscle in his cheek jerked as his
jaw clenched.  Bethany gave him a brilliant - and menacing -
smile.  She wasn't kidding.  She wanted answers too, but
then she wanted blood, and she deserved to get it.
 

"So you knew the bullet wouldn't hurt
you?" he asked in a low voice as they trotted closer to where
people were gathering around the two prisoners.  Several of
them looked at Steele, obviously wanting to talk to him, but
apparently no one was willing to approach until he made eye contact
with them, but all his focus was on Bethany.  She
sighed.

"Bunny in a half-shell,
that's me," she said, resigned.  "Even silver bullets don't
pierce the shell, although they can do a lot of damage if someone
shoots inside the shell.  That's why I put my back to
him.  I'm pretty much invulnerable there, unless someone sets
me on fire or uses explosive rounds.  My brothers are a little
more vulnerable, they aren't as fast as I am and they can't pull
inside their shells."  She glanced over Mr.
Muscles-Aren't-Even-Straining-Yet's shoulder.  "I have no idea
about Bailey, although she does have the shell."

"I see."  The muscle in his jaw
was still clenching.

Bethany frowned.  "Well if you're
going to be pissy then put me down."  She tried to push away
and he snarled at her.  She bopped him on the nose.

Mr. Pissy-and-Pouty glared.
 "Unless you want a public spanking, you better cut that out
right now, little bunny foo-foo."

Now it was her turn to pout.  His
muscles were just like his name - hard as Steele - and there was no
way to get away from him unless she was going to shift into her
animal.  Which, if she did that, she'd be crushing him
again.  Which might be kind of funny but...

Okay, so she kind of liked having his
arms around her and being carried.  Plus, this way no one
could see her naked parts.  Not that anyone was looking. 
They truly didn't care, but Bethany had been raised modestly by
human standards and she'd been without privacy for so long in the
lab that she just couldn't feel comfortable naked.  Peeking
over Steele's shoulder again, she could see that Bailey was
clutching the blood-stained jacket she was wearing tightly around
her, obviously feeling the same way.  Heck, she must be,
otherwise why would she be running around in a dead man's
clothes?

Steele finally started looking around,
meeting the eyes of his people, and barking orders like the sexy
alpha male that he was.  She thought about asking him to put
her down, so that she could help, but somehow she knew that he
wasn't ready to let her go yet.  So she let him keep holding
her.  The fact that she was enjoying it as well was just a
bonus.

******

"So let me get this straight," Steele
said, pinching the bridge of his nose to try and ward off the
impending headache he could already feel growing.  This was
his third interrogation of the day and by far the worst.  The
two mercs hadn't had much information to give up, because they
hadn't been in charge.  He'd handed them off to Raoul who had
promised that he was doing the right thing.  Raoul was going
to fill them in on exactly why their buddies had died and then let
them loose to gossip.

The Company was going to have a bitch
of a time hiring any more mercenaries.  At least, any that had
any kind of honor and a reasonable price.

Now he was talking to Dr. Montgomery,
with Eli watching from his office computer, while Doc and Dr. Phil
dug the trackers out of Bethany and Bailey's arms.  At least
they hadn't needed to be knocked out for it, since they'd both
insisted on sitting in on all the interrogations.  This was,
by far, the worst, and not just because he could feel Bethany's
bloodthirsty desire to rip Dr. Montgomery into tiny bits riding on
top of his.  

The worst part was that the doctor
didn't seem the least bit unhappy about anything.  The asshole
was beaming at Bethany and Bailey like a proud parent, obviously
overjoyed.  Which just made Steele want to rip the man's
throat out.  Unfortunately, he'd been nothing but
cooperative.

"Let me get this straight," Steele
repeated, trying to gather his thoughts.  "You kidnapped five
children, experimented on them, and tortured them, all for the good
of humanity."

The doctor nodded earnestly.  He
wasn't anything like Steele had expected.  He wasn't malicious
or sadistic - although he was pretty sure the sisters would
disagree - he was just so fucking dedicated to his science that he
didn't see what he had done as wrong.  Bethany and Bailey's
lives were successes, as far as he was concerned, because of what
they could turn into.

"For the good of the
shifters," the doctor explained.  His brown eyes were both
bright with excitement and yet somehow dead inside, as if his soul
was missing, and scientific ambition had replaced it.  "Look
at Bailey - we finally got the serum right.  It's
perfect.  She's a small shifter, but she's in perfect health
and she has all the immunities to the diseases that have made
rabbit shifters so scarce, because she's part bear.
 
This
is the
answer we've been searching for!  This is how we're going to
save everyone!"

"So you think everything you did is
justified."  Steele's voice was flat, because if he didn't
keep perfect control over himself, he was going to start
screaming.

Dr. Montgomery blinked and frowned.
 "Of course it was!  Do you not understand the
significance of what I've done?  What I've
created?"

"Steele."  Eli's voice snapped
out, hard and fast, as if he knew Steele had reached the end of his
rope.  "I understand your frustration, but you can't force a
conscience onto someone completely lacking."

Spinning around, Steele
stared at his mate.  His beautiful mate, with her blonde hair
pulled back in a ponytail, wearing black jeans and a tight blue
shirt that showed off her curves.  Looking just like a normal
woman, despite what the man behind him had put her through. 
She was safe.  That was what mattered.

"I did what I did to save
lives."  The doctor actually sounded
indignant. 

"You did it because you're an
egomaniac," Bethany said coolly, speaking for the first time. 
Steele could feel the hate and rage in her welling up, but she
didn't show a bit of it on her face.  She was almost scarily
good at hiding her emotions.  "You did it because you don't
care about individuals, you think the end justifies the means, no
matter who is hurt along the way.  And that's why you're a
monster."

Turning around, Steele studied the
doctor, who was staring at Bethany with a kind of
bewilderment.  As if he'd been chastised by someone he'd
expected to agree with him.  

"I didn't choose you, you
know," the doctor said, frowning, as if he'd suddenly experienced a
small prick of guilt in the face of Bethany’s verbal onslaught. The
way he was looking at her was even different, like he suddenly saw
her as a person and not just a lab rat.  "The Company brought
you to me."

She just looked down her
nose at him, letting his words hang in the air.  The doctor
hunched in on himself, looking uncomfortable.  Getting up,
Bethany patted the bandage Doc had just put on her arm, where the
tiny tracker chip had been.  Doc glared at Dr. Montgomery, who
looked even unhappier by the second, and then Bethany walked out,
Bailey and the two doctors quickly following.  The silence
stretched, and Steele was happy to let it continue.

Nothing he'd said had gotten through
to the idiot, so he was happy to see the asshat squirm a
bit.

Eli sighed, rubbing his hand over his
face.  "Steele, I'm sending a team to relocate the doctor to
me.  I'll handle further interrogations."

"I can do it," he argued, more for the
sake of argument than anything else. Honestly, he couldn't wait to
get away from the man.  Just being in the same room made him
feel unclean. 

"I think it's better if I do," Eli
said firmly.  "I have some distance from the
situation."

i.e. Eli wouldn't blow a gasket just
because the man was a soulless jerk.  

"Fine," Steele said, nodding to
Jacqueline and Jordan, who had been quietly standing off to the
side.  "Take Dr. Montgomery to a cell until then."

Jacqueline grinned, her honey-badger
eyes wicked.  "With pleasure."

Whatever.  As long as
the man wasn't dead before he got to Eli, Steele really couldn't
bring himself to care about the treatment of this prisoner. 
Besides, Jordan would keep Jacqueline from any actual maiming…
Probably.

Chapter 8

It was no surprise when
Mr. Over-Protective-and-Bossy (-and-Still-Naked) brought Bethany
and Bailey back to his house.  With guards.  Kasim, two
other men, and a female in wolf form walked with them, from
Steele's office to the house the Bunsons had been staying in, where
Bethany and Bailey packed up their meager belongings to bring with
them to Steele’s house.  Bethany didn't even protest.
 

Honestly, seeing Dr. Montgomery today
had shaken her, especially when she realized that he had no regrets
over what he'd done to her and her family.  Sure, The Company
might have supplied the five siblings to him for experiments, but
he was the one who had used them.  Studied them.  Having
him act like that was some sort of achievement... 

That was just evil.  Not
malicious evil, but evil all the same.

It had fucking creeped her out. 
So she was totally okay with moving their stuff to Steele's house;
just being around him made her feel protected.  Every part of
her wanted to be near her mate.