The Breed: Nora's Choice (2 page)

            She refused
to give up. She needed to stop this now before she got in too deep, before she
let herself get carried away by the bond, only to be traumatized by PTSD
attacks every night.

            “Just let
me inside and we’ll talk about this,” his voice was pure sex as he slid his
hands onto her rounded hips and pulled her close.

            She couldn’t
deny that her body was reacting to him; the moment his hands were on her she
softened.

            Every basic
instinct in her screamed to let him give her the pleasure and comfort she
desperately craved. Being alone for as long as she had made the thought of
finally having her mate damn near irresistible.

            In the
darkest corners of her mind however, she also felt what she feared most. The
only time she had been intimate with him she suffered a PTSD attack immediately
after, forcing her to relive her horrifying past.

            Nora had
been with other men after the assault and it had never triggered an attack.
Something about him, or
them
, brought it out, and as far as she could
see there wasn’t any way to stop it.

            If she let
him continue to touch her now she would have to go through hell later.

            Loneliness
she could handle, she had been dealing with it for decades. Hallucinations and
panic attacks however, were not something she wanted regularly in her life. A
long time ago they had been a daily occurrence, fighting to stop them had
almost killed her and she’d be damned if she gave up all that sacrifice now.

            No matter
how much she wanted the love and loyalty of the bond, she couldn’t deal with
the consequences.

            Quinn
leaned in close, much closer than she should have allowed, whispering against
her ear, “I want to come inside.”

            A shiver
ran up her spine as he pressed his finger tips into her flesh, blatantly
telling her he wasn’t talking about the apartment anymore.

            His lips
smothered hers, and she moaned out with want and need. Her knees softened and
she kissed him back despite herself. His mouth was so hot and warm over hers
she couldn’t help but be over taken by him.

            In this
moment she hated herself. Of all the pathetic weaknesses to be saddled with,
why did hers have to interrupt her sex life?

            Why
couldn’t she have just been cursed with insecurities like Tessa? Being insecure
wouldn’t have stopped her from getting laid. 

            She pushed
him away, then reached out and placed her fingers on his chest, her index
finger slowly trailing each hard block of muscle as she watched the lust burn
in his eyes.

            When she
hit the waist of his jeans she didn’t even pause, just kept going right over
the rock hard erection he was carrying.

            He shivered
as she teased her way across the denim and over his hard shaft, the zipper
barely holding back his massive length.

            Like
lightning she snatched at his balls, cupping them roughly in her hand.

            “I said
move,” she whispered silkily, and giving the hold enough pressure to show she
meant business.

            His eyes
widened in shocked disbelief.

            “Now,” she
growled, and squeezed hard enough to send him jumping out of the way

~

            “How was
your flight brother?” Casstiel asked, answering the phone.

            “Inconsequential,”
Sebastian placed his suitcase in the corner of what would be his room for the
next few weeks, “Has there been any new improvements?”

            “In the
last five hours?” he asked, and Sebastian was irritated to hear humor in his
voice, “no there has been no change.”

            “Are you
even focused?” he demanded.

            He loved
Tessa and was honestly full of joy that his brother had found his mate, but he
wouldn’t deny that since they had bonded Casstiel’s concentration on the
embassy and the hunters had slipped.

            In the past
Casstiel would have been more consumed with this situation than even he was.
Now however, the hunters were a mere after thought, an annoyance he would have
to deal with until he could get back to what he really cared for.

“As
we speak Ghost is working to break through to the data inside the files we
found. The moment he succeeds we will form a plan,” Cass bit out, not at all
enjoying the accusation.

            “Of course…
keep me updated,” he closed his eyes, scowling deeply.

            With the
war between the Hunters and the Breed intensifying everyone was under enormous
stress, maybe he was just envious that his brother had a beautiful woman to
ease his mind away from it all.

            “How’s
Marcus taking your arrival?” Cass changed the subject.

            “As well as
expected,” he shrugged, honestly not giving a damn what the uptight leader of
the Charleston embassy thought.

            Just then a
light knock broke through his thoughts.

            “Not
again,” he sighed testily.

            “What is
it?”

            “They sent
her to pick me up from the airport, someone around here has a twisted sense of
humor,” to the door he roughly called, “I’m fine, please leave.”

            By ‘her’ he
meant Ayla, a female vampire who was notorious for using her legendary sex
appeal to become one of the greatest spies the Breed had ever known. Cass and
Sebastian had turned her down more than once, uninterested in any information
she had for sale if they had to sleep with her to get it. 

            However it
did little good, the more they refused her the harder she tried.

            “Well
brother, the only way to get rid of her is to sleep with her,” Casstiel laughed
heartily on the other end of the phone.

            Sebastian
wouldn’t put his hands on her to help her up if she’d fallen, let alone take
her to his bed.

            “I’m not
leaving until you let me in, I’ll knock all night if I have to,” her impatient
voice rang through the door.

            “Call me
when you have an update,” Sebastian growled angrily, then hung up the phone
feeling murderous.

            Sebastian
was seething as he threw open the door. Normally he tried always to be a
gentleman to ladies, but
this
was no lady.

            “Well
hello,” she purred as she stretched her body sensually against his door frame,
“I missed you already.”

            He could
barely hold back a look of disgust as he stared down at her, not even bothering
with a greeting.

            She was a
beautiful busty blonde with big blue eyes and lips that usually made grown men
weak in the knees. Looking at her however did nothing but make his skin crawl.

            “What do
you want?” he grunted, regretting having to waste a single word on her.

            “Your
cock,” she shrugged, smiling innocently.

            Immediately
he turned to slam the door in her face.

            “But I
understand you’re playing hard to get so I can wait for it,” she hastily shoved
her body in front of the closing door.

            Sebastian
gritted his teeth and restrained himself from smashing her between the wood.

            Using a
considerable amount of force she pushed the door open a little farther and
shimmed her way inside.

            If only she
hadn’t been born a female, then he could just beat the holy hell out of her and
never have to be bothered again.

            “You are
severely testing my patience, state your business and leave,” he growled lowly
at her.

            “State your
business and leave,” she mimicked him, “who even talks like that? It’s why I
think you’re so sexy, you’ve got this whole 19
^th
century classy
smolder thing going on.”

            She
sauntered past him, winding her way around his room. Her hands fluttered over
the desk where his brief case sat, then lightly she cracked the brim of it as
if to peer inside. Quickly he snapped down the lid, this time not caring that
he caught her fingers.

            Without so
much as a whimper of pain she continued on her journey, finally coming to rest
on the couch. Laying down she arched her back, giving her best impersonation of
a pin up model.

            He sat in
the chair directly in front of her and stared impatiently. To other men the
sight of such a woman offering herself up to them would be a godsend, but to
him the idea of a woman with such low respect for herself made him sick.

            “So what
are you doing here?” she slowly began running her fingers over her hips and
thighs.

            “Business.
My OWN business,” he replied firmly, the last thing he needed was for her to
get a whiff of what he was doing. The entire Breed would be informed in less
than twenty four hours.

            “If you
tell me what you want I can help you,” she offered coyly.

            He scoffed
aloud.

            “Even if
you could help me, I know the price you would ask for and it’s far too much to
pay,” he sneered. The idea of sharing a woman that had had hundreds of other
men was beyond unappealing.

            No matter
how disgustingly he looked down at her however, she seemed completely
unbothered.

            “Are you
here to check on us? You want to make sure I’m being a good girl and following
the rules?” she purred.

            “What does
it matter what I’m here for, it doesn’t concern you,” he snapped, tired of her
presence. 

            “No, but
you haven’t told our boss either, and that’s a big no-no. You’re only getting
away with it because your family is so powerful,” she bantered back, for a
moment dropping her game and giving a glimpse of how she really felt. 

            “And how
would you know what I have or haven’t told Marcus?” his voice was deadly calm.
It infuriated him that Marcus would discuss something that he had been
explicitly told was confidential, to her.

            For the
first time throughout their conversation Ayla seemed shaken.

            “He didn’t
tell me. I just know your style, you’re not one to give reasons, you just march
in and do whatever you please,” she had recovered quickly, but there was no
doubt in his mind that he had hit a nerve. 

            “What could
you possibly have to offer me?” he changed the subject to make her feel as
though her error had gone unnoticed, then quickly added, “that I would actually
want.”

            “Well with
my choice of… hobbies,” she winked at him, “you tend to find out all sorts of
dirty secrets about people. I could spy for you, or sell you information for
cheap.”

            “How
cheap?” he asked, sincerely hoping she would give him a monetary amount.

            No matter
how appalling her and her ‘hobbies’ were, she was right. From the defense
department leader down to the teenagers working in the food court, she had
probably flirted, seduced or slept with every man at this embassy and would
know for a fact if there were traitors among them.

            “Just a
little kiss,” she pouted innocently.

            “A kiss?”
he couldn’t stop his lip from curling back in revulsion.

            Her intel
might be the best, but he wasn’t sure he could stomach the price. Just the
thought of where those lips had been was enough to make bile rise up his throat.

            “Just a
little kiss…. Right between my thighs,” she moaned, then spread her legs wide
to flash her black panties.

            In a flash
he grabbed her by her elbow, yanking her to her feet.

            “Get out,”
he snarled slamming the front door in her face.

             Utterly
rejected, but highly amused, Quinn headed to the defense department to see how
things were going with Ghost and the computer hacking.

            Two weeks
ago Quinn and the rest of the team had managed to not only survive an ambush by
the hunters, but also get valuable information off of their computers before
they were completely destroyed.

            Ghost had
been working on getting past their data encryptions and restoring the
information while he had gone to have a short reunion with his family. He had gotten
a call last night informing him the job would be done today, and if he wanted
to be there first hand when they busted open the files he had better get back.

            He had
taken the first flight out.

            After
refreshing his spirit with his family, Quinn had two goals in life: win over
Nora, and find his pack, and at this point he wasn’t sure which one would be
more difficult.

            She was his
mate, the one woman that the universe had made for him alone, and he didn’t
care what he had to do to convince her of it. She was just as broken of a
person as he was, maybe more so, and together they might finally be able to
find solace.

As
the elevator doors closed around him, his thoughts turned to his pack. Once he
had escaped the Hunter laboratories on his own he had searched for them
obsessively. Now that he had the Embassy with all its technology and skilled
team members, he finally felt confident that he would find them.

            He closed
his eyes and smiled at the thought of Rod laughing, his shaggy ginger hair
bouncing around his face as he asked what had taken him so long. Balor would
pull him into a bone crunching head lock for being so late. The twin brothers
had run their pack like one big family, taking Quinn in like a wounded pup that
needed the world shown to him with new eyes.

            In the
short time he was with them he had learned more about life and his own desires
than ever before. He had broken away from everything he had ever known, and not
only had he survived, he had found the person he was meant to be.

            Somehow he
would fix the mess they had been in for the last two years, he would find a way
to make things right. If it took his last breath he would make his family
complete and see them all happy once again.

            He strolled
into the defense department with his spirits high. It was only a matter of time
before he had his family, pack, and mate all together with him.

             Everyone
turned to stare as he walked in late, and by the looks on their faces he had to
look as bad as he felt.

            “Alright,
now that we’re all here, what’ve you got for us?” Cass immediately took charge
of the meeting.

            “Alright,
good to see you too, yeah my vacation was awesome, thanks for asking,” he
muttered quietly.

            Others
would find Casstiel’s methods cold, but Quinn actually enjoyed it. After living
his life surrounded by fake people with shadowed intentions, he appreciated
anyone who was simple and straight forward. 

            Ghost moved
out of the way of the monitors so that everyone could cluster around them.

            “There was
only a single data file that hadn’t been completely corrupted by the virus
Ivesley set off, but on it is a list of names, locations, and some sort of
color coding label,” he scrolled through the file explaining.

            “Any idea
what these locations are, or what the list of names is about?” Cass cocked his
head in thought.

            “There is
only this document,” Ghost replied, “but it has to be important to them or they
wouldn’t have tried so hard to erase it along with the rest of the files.”

            “Sounds
like another trap to me,” Kain clapped his hands together.

            “You think
everything is a trap,” Jax rolled his eyes.

            “What’s up
with the names?” Memphis drew everyone’s attention to the top of the list,
“ninety percent of them are females, but hunters never use their females for
anything except labor and childbearing, why would they need a list of them?”

            “They can’t
be Breed, the hunters assign numbers to the Breed members they take,” Quinn
spat out. He would never forget the number 117 and its significance to him.

            “Maybe
they’ve started training their females to fight. It’s something totally
unexpected and would throw us off our game,” Jax suggested.

            “No those
guys are animals, they’d never give their women an ounce of freedom,” Memphis
cut in, “Maybe its women they plan to kidnap?”

            “I wouldn’t
put it past them,” Cass snorted in disgust.

            “Faith
Dunaway….” Memphis absently read off the first name on the list, “who are you
baby girl?”

            “I ran the
names through all our data bases and no one on the list has been reported
missing to us or the human police,” Ghost shook his head, annoyed that this
list had created more questions than answers.

            “This color
coding is another bust,” Kain switched tracks, “red, yellow, orange and white
could stand for anything. The best we can do is guess.”

            “Alright,
alright, let’s focus on the positives,” Cass plowed over everyone, “we have a
list of locations for the first time in this war.”

            “Yeah but
they could be pointless, just abandoned buildings for all we know,” Jax sighed
in frustration.

            “Well
that’s why you do a little thing called work,” Cass shot him a cold look, “go
sit your ass outside of the first location and stake it out, it’s got a red
label on it, so try and figure out what that means. Thanks for volunteering.”

            Jax looked
absolutely murderous, but wisely kept his mouth shut.

            “Don’t
approach the inside without us, we’ll leave to meet you as soon as the sun
sets. Give us an update call every few hours,” Cass dismissed him smoothly.

            “I’ll go
with you man,” Quinn quickly tossed out the offer before Jax stomped off.

            He was
anxious to get out in the field and start actually working; he needed to prove
to everyone at this embassy that he could handle the job. Not to mention that
any one of these locations could be the place they were holding his pack.

            Besides,
after his pleasant little run in with Nora, some space and fresh air could do
him good.

            “You’re
driving,” Jax grunted over his shoulder as he exited the room.

~

            Nora made
it all of twenty feet into her apartment before everything went to hell.

            The
flashback started the same way it always used to; the feeling of fire creeping
through her veins and the sense that Billy was somehow close to her.

            Instantly
her airway began to tighten as black speckles of light danced in front of her
eyes, ruining her vision.

            She needed
to get to the bathroom, cold showers always helped in the past.

That
and
lots
of tequila.

            Before her
eyes the apartment melted away into the old plantation home she used to live
in. Everywhere around her the past seeped into the present until everything was
lost and she was hurled unwillingly into her old life.

            Somewhere
deep in the distance she heard a woman screaming… the sound, familiar yet
terrifying, and all she could remember was desperately wanting to help her.

            She tried
to follow the sound down a narrow hallway, but instead smashed her hip into an
end table and heard it crash down around her. No matter how strong the
flashback was, she needed to remember that she was still somewhere in her
apartment, she couldn’t let the past over take her.

           
Mine
….
Billy’s voice ricocheted against the walls making her shiver. She knew he
couldn’t really be in the house with her, but that didn’t stop the overwhelming
fear.

            Nora took
another step towards what she hoped would be the kitchen and felt glass bite
into the sole of her foot. She swallowed the pain and kept gingerly moving
forward.

           
You’re
mine whore
, she heard the whisper in her ear as if he were standing right
beside her.

            She growled
and slashed out at the air around her, but hit nothing. She couldn’t hit
something that wasn’t there, and knowing that this was all in her head only
infuriated her more.

            Screaming
in rage she slashed out again, this time hitting the back of her couch. She
gritted her teeth in anger and pushed it over, wishing with everything in her
that what she hit could be Billy.

            If only
Memphis’ pack hadn’t killed him, she could have done it herself, maybe then she
could have the closure she needed to finally get over things. 

            Blood pooled
from under her feet as she took another pitiful step closer to the kitchen. The
smell of it sent her mind back to the night she had been attacked, the night
she had been covered in her own blood.

            Every time
she struggled against him he beat her mercilessly, but she wouldn’t stop
fighting. He wanted her to lay still and pretend that she was enjoying herself
so he could “make love” to her, but she refused.

            If he was
going to rape her he would have to kill her first. Kill her the same way he had
killed everyone else she ever loved.

            She had had
no idea that all her fighting and struggling would be what eventually turned
her into a werewolf.

            Nora had
kicked and bit and clawed at him during their fight, rendering his face a mess
of bloody wounds. That same blood had leaked down her throat every time he
pressed himself down on her and forced her mouth into a kiss.

            If it
hadn’t been for her swallowing so much of his blood she would have died during
the first or second time he had beaten her. Instead immortality had taken a
hold of her, and she was still alive writhing in pain when Memphis’ pack came
to find her fourteen hours later.

            Finally her
hands blindly brushed against a kitchen cabinet. Quickly she made her way to a
tequila bottle then began the long trek to the bathroom.

            With each
step she took Billy’s voice entered her head, taunting her, making her want to
obliterate everything around her.

            More than
she hated the flashbacks, she hated the helpless pitiful feeling she got from
them. She hated feeling weak and pathetic, and not being able to stop it.

            She gritted
her teeth in anger. She wanted to hurt someone; to scream and beat her
frustrations against their skin.

            When her
toes finally hit the cool marble tile of the bathroom she let out a sigh of
relief. The cold shower wouldn’t stop her episode, but it would dull the attack
and numb her slightly.

           
Clean
yourself for me…
he snarled, and the violent memory of when he had forced
her into the bath exploded in her mind.

            Dragging
her by her thick hair he pulled her down the hallways while she screamed and
fought, her nails gauging the wallpaper in her frantic attempts to stop him.

            He smashed
her face against the bathroom mirror to try and knock her unconscious, then
threw her fully clothed into the tub.

            Nora fought
hard against passing out, knowing what he would do to her if she did. He wanted
to break her down, wanted her to give in to him.

            “Never,”
she spat blood in his face as he began ripping the nightgown off her body.

            “You will be
mine!” he screamed at her, his eyes bulging from his face, “lay still for me
and spread your legs! Give me what’s mine and you won’t have to suffer
anymore.”

            She
screamed out in anger and frustration. She wanted to kill him. Hot tears
scorched her face as she dug her nails into his hands, desperate to keep her
clothes on.

            Most women
would have given in, would have lain quietly and pretended to be somewhere else
while he forced his way inside them.

            Not Nora.

            He had
killed her parents and every friend she had ever had. She would fight and fight
until he finally allowed her to join them in death.

            She kicked
out, quickly connecting her heel with his chin.

            “Whore!” he
roared, slapping her hard across the face.

            Her teeth
cracked against each other with the impact, but she refused to cry out.