Hunter's Prey, A (12 page)

“Yes?” The subdued vice he couldn't stand. His Zoe was full of brightness and confidence.

His
Zoe.

He sat down on the chair next to her and pursed his lips.

“Come here.”

Lifting an eyebrow, she feigned boredom, but he knew better. He could smell her lust as though he was licking it, licking her pussy and tasting her creamy moisture. His mouth filled with saliva as he nodded her over, indicating that she hurry. Biting her lower lip worriedly, the young woman stood and walked over to him, stopping between his legs. He made her move to the side when he closed his thighs, grabbing her waist and turning her around to pull her down to sit on him, her back pressed to his chest. He could feel her heart beat like a caged bird as he pressed his hand against her breast, kneading softly.

“Do you know what you do to me?' he whispered in her ear and she whimpered. He was slapped by a wave of her slick desire, making his cock throb under her, as though trying to escape and get inside her.

“N-no.”

“Zoe, I'm going to make you mine.”

She nodded timidly and he wrapped an arm under her breasts, bringing her entire body flush against him. He could feel her every curve, dying to get inside her again. This time, though, he'd be owning her.

“Okay,” she said, gasping when his digits closed around her throat.

“I don't think you understand.” He nuzzled under her ear, bringing shivers and goosebumps to her skin. “I'm going to take you and make you mine. Shove my cock into your slick pussy and my fangs into your sweet throat. I'm going to make you my mate, Zoe, the only woman in my life, and you're going to take it, because you know how amazing it will be between us. I want it again. I want what we have together.”

Breathing deeply, he exhaled against the side of her throat.

“You have the power to destroy me, woman. But I want to be vulnerable in your hands.”

With that admission he lifted her hips to push his jeans off, pulling her skirt up to her waist and ripping her underwear wit a clean slice, the tearing sound echoing in the room. Over anything else he could hear her heartbeat, the sound of the tiny organ that pumped life through her. He found himself immensely grateful to it, promising to worship it –
her
– for as long as he was allowed.

In a single move he was inside her, stretching her open and reveling in her gasps, her walls squeezing him until he felt he would explode. He rocked them slowly, unhurriedly, keeping his face hidden in her tresses until it was time. Until he couldn't take it anymore. Pushing her hair off her shoulder, Damian pressed his lips against the smooth column of her throat before plunging his fangs inside her skin without warning.

She merely gasped, her body easing in his grasp. He'd felt her surrender completely – to him, to them, to
this.

Licking the wound he'd inflicted, his eyes rolled back into his head as her orgasm milked him of his seed, making him push his hips into hers, keeping her stuck to him.

She was his – they both felt it in their bones.

***

Zoe had the familiar odd sensation she was being followed. She'd learned to live with it, but some days it worried her despite herself. She knew the level of security she'd been assigned permitted no error, and if anything should happen to her, heads would fall. Yet here she was, biting her fingernails to keep from pacing.

The bell ringing had her jumping out of her skin, but after checking she found Gerard Cruise and realized she was safe.

Shoulders slumping, she rolled them before opening the door with a smile.

“Damian sent me,” he said. “You need to come with me.”

He sounded and looked hurried and serious and a thread of panic gripped her. Immediately she looked for her handbag, putting on a pair of comfortable shoes and searching for a fitting coat.

“His security team told me to escort you out to them – we have an emergency.”

Nodding, Zoe didn't think to question him. She didn't think of anything else than how to better protect herself so that Damian wouldn't worry so much.

If only she'd heeded her instinct.

***

Damian could not believe she had run away with Cruise. They were both gone and the feeds from the cameras showed she had left willingly. There had been no forced entry, but then Zoe knew Cruise and trusted him to some extent.

She's running away with him. She's leaving you.

He ignored the outrage that had taken over his mind and tried to concentrate. His brothers had deployed all resources to get his mate back, but it was all up to him now. Not one of them could sense her as vividly as he could, no one felt the icy grip of panic as he did. If anything happened to her it would be a sad day for HUNTER Holdings, and MedFutures Enterprises in particular, but it would be the end of his life for him.

He had to find her.

Calming himself, he relied on his nose to take him through various neighborhoods, zigzagging through abandoned houses and warehouses, finally arriving in a mainly deserted area.

Is he stupid? There's no way I can't find her here.

But he couldn't. He'd lost track of her. It was as if her trail had somehow ended there, her scent dissipating abruptly.

Livid, Damian prayed he'd find her safe and well, or else there would be carnage. Cruise was suicidal for kidnapping her – and from right under their nose.

They'd trusted him, and he'd betrayed them. No doubt Newman had put him up to this, and he'd pay, too, but not before Cruise. Cruise would be ripped in pieces, completely annihilated.

Damian heard and smelt two of his brothers somewhere behind him, following his trail, along with many of their security team, but he focused on the building he'd found. Passing the security system after a quick hack courtesy of some gadget Murdoch had thrust into his hand, Damian noticed the only guard and came up behind him stealthily, twisting his neck swiftly, cleanly. He was more of an animal than a man now, not caring who lived or died as long as he got Zoe back. A sliver of guilt formed in his chest at the sight of the dead man, but he pushed it away, deciding he needed to be the hero tonight. He needed to be the emotionless machine. The instinctive hunter, for Zoe's sake. He would deal with the downfall afterwards. Tonight he was channeling his inner Admiral – that man that had long been dead. The one he'd buried deep inside.

The camera feeds were everywhere. There were at least thirty rooms, all of them looking like dungeons of sorts. He felt sick to his stomach at the implications, but pushed any type of fabricated image from his mind, praying not to lose his wits before he got her safe.

Then you can go on a rampage and kill everything in your path.

Gabriel and Dominic had arrived and Dominic was already proving his skills, hacking into the security system and remotely opening the locks to all of the doors in the building. It was their luck that the building was modern, because despite being shifters, there were some types of alloys that resisted their strength.

Letting rage take him, Damian turned into a wolf and took off, knowing instinctively where to find his mate. Gabriel sighed before shifting into a beautiful black panther, turning to look at his brother mirroring him, the two black felines chasing after the livid wolf to be there in case damage control was needed.

For his part, Damian felt more in control of himself in his animal form. He wanted to rip Cruise's neck off and eat his innards, but he would wait to see Zoe safe before doing that.

A mad laughter stopped him cold. He recognized the voice. How could he not, when it gave him nightmares of what it could have possibly done to Zoe's already fragile mental state of late?

“My, my. The cub thinks he can save his kitty cat. Did you bring your brothers, Damian? Do you need two big black cats to help you? Does the big bag dog need protection from two kitties now? I can see them, you know, walking confidently through the corridors, swirling their tails majestically, yet none of you know where you are going, even though you think you do.” He laughed again, surety coating his every word. “You will never find her.
She's mine now.
”

That spurred him. Damian stopped to focus on her scent, on the essence of himself inside her, those molecules he'd left in her that were calling to him, calling his body to hers. He heard her pleas, felt her terror, could taste her fear, yet she was holding on.

He knew where she was.

“You will never find her, cub. Did you think you would?”

Cruise wasn't here. Damian was sure of it. He was watching them from somewhere, though.

Nevertheless, he went in search of her, virtually passing every single door and looking for her relentlessly, each time thinking he felt her, when in fact she was nowhere to be found. When hours had passed and he'd had enough of Gerard's taunts and his own inability to find his mate, he paused and listened. He must have passed her by a hundred times. Every time she had seemed closer, she'd pulled further away, which meant she was in none of these rooms. His brothers had confirmed it, as they were all in their human forms now, looking for her without stopping.

Damian halted right above the place where her scent both ended and began. Her presence was strongest there and he closed his eyes.

Give me a sign, mate. Anything.

He felt a tug at his heart, knowing she was scared and helpless, which drove him to find solutions. Looking at the ground, his lips parted.

That was it. She was underground.

Asking his brothers to help him, they pried the floor off like a sheet from a bed, gaping at the sight that awaited them.

Zoe was strapped to a chair, her skin red from the pressure of the ropes, head hanging limply to the side.

Damian's heart lurched in his chest and he was at her side in an instant. Slashing her restraints with economical motions, he gathered her in his arms, cradling her close. She felt so small in his arms, so vulnerable. This was his mate, the whole reason for his existence. He could think of nothing else except her now, and their future together, if she healed.

She had to heal. They had to get through this together.

Nodding at his brothers in deep appreciation, he squeezed her closer to him, burying his nose in her hair before taking off towards the cars that awaited them.

In the morning, heads would fall.

Chapter 5

Zoe had never felt more secure than in her mate's embrace, grateful for finding him all over again.

She couldn't believe Gerard had tricked them all, having been stalking her for months, a fact they had only recently discovered. This explained her constant feeling that she was being followed. If she had only listened to her instincts and had given voice to her fears, this fiasco could have been avoided. Cruise had left them a message, something to remember him by, to remind them they would never be safe as long as he was out there.

He was mad. A genius, but mad.

Something else that had shaken her almost more roughly than anything else, though, had been the knowledge of her sister's betrayal. She had confronted Denise halfheartedly, not knowing what to expect. What she'd needed was an apology, yet she had only received blames and judgments. The woman she had spoken to had not been her sister, but a bitter version of the sibling she loved with all her heart. She wanted to help Denise, to heal her, but she feared nothing could be done for her. Their father had succeeded with the youngest Jameson.

But not with Zoe. She had Damian now, her strength in times of weakness.

He'd been her pillar when she'd fallen to her knees with the knowledge of her sister's betrayal, had been her support through the pain. He'd held her and had talked to her, offering her balance and challenging her when she was letting herself drown in her own misery. For the second time the roles were reversed and she realized he would never ever leave her. This was a man who had killed for her – would die for her, if need be. He didn't need to prove himself to her. He already had, twice. Now she knew his devotion knew no bounds and wanted to reward him for it. She wanted to be who he needed again.

It was time to crawl out of her shell.

***

Damian was more tired than he'd felt in a long time. He had spent the whole day working out, exhausting himself so he could deal with the urges that were making him hungry for his mate. He had to give her space, though, and time. Healing required the passage of time.

He had time, in spades, but he feared what he lacked was
restraint
. If he had to sleep next to her lingerie-clad body one more night, he would go crazy with lust. He would take her like a savage animal, sink into her smooth channel with surprising roughness, and pump his seed inside her like he so badly needed to.

Jesus, I already sound like a beast.

When he entered their bedroom he was slapped with a scent so powerful, so dizzying that he felt faint. He tried to ignore it, to fight the pull, but found himself kneeling on the bed, then spooning his mate, inhaling more of that scent that made his cock throb and ache. He was selfish, he knew, but he needed to feel her.

Just you and me, mate.

Cupping one of her breasts in his hand, he was surprised to feel her arch her back against him, rubbing her bottom over his crotch to stimulate him hotly. He groaned in her ea – a pure, animal warning. Rubbing more roughly, he stilled in shock when the sheet fell off her skin, revealing that she was fully naked underneath.

“You're playing with fire, little girl,” he told her, breath tickling her lobe in a way that made her shudder with pleasure, cream coating her cleft in preparation for his entrance. She needed him inside her, but she wanted this seduction to last longer.

“Am I? And how do you intend to punish me?”

Spurred by her words, Damian bumped his groin against her backside, moaning against the skin of her throat.

“Christ, baby, you're so hot.”

“You're hot, too,” she said, nimble fingers finding their way into his pajama pants behind her, wrapping around his hardness and squeezing expertly, making him pant with restraint.

“If you don't want to take this too far, I suggest you unwrap those dainty little fingers from around my cock, because the way I'm feeling right now, you'll be fucked seven ways from Sunday by the time I'm done with you.”

The sexy gruffness of his voice turned her on like nothing else and she turned in his embrace, her bare chest touching his.

“You know what I want?” she asked, eyes shining with mirth. God, how he'd missed them.

“What?” he asked with a wide grin that dissolved in an instant when she straddled him, the lips of her sex gliding over the underside of his dick as she rubbed against him.

“You're teasing me and I'm feeling less and less human,” he muttered, barely making out the words, his vice corroborating his statement. She knew she was drawing his animal part to the surface, but she needed this. She needed him to be a beast when he took her, when he possessed her.

“Am I?” she asked, sliding her hands through his chest hairs as they both panted. Her glides became wider, longer, and on a particular slide his cock entered her pussy just barely, making them both freeze.

“There. I need you in there,” she moaned and his eyes rolled back into his head as she pushed stronger, taking him inside her, feeding him in inch by inch, biting her lower lip from pleasure. “God, you feel so good inside me, Damian. You always feel so hot and hard and long inside me, stretching me wide open.”

He whimpered like a wounded animal, pushing further up inside her, until he touched the hilt, fully buried in her channel.

He looked into her eyes then, full of love, and took her body as thoroughly as he took her soul.

A Hunter's Secrets: The Trillionaire Shifters #2