Therian Promise Read online

“Do you want to earn my trust?”

  It took him a moment to reply and he seemed almost surprised by the answer. “I do.”

  She just stared up at him, letting the tension build. He would never follow her lead. He needed to make the next move.

  “We both seem fond of games,” he said a short time later. “I propose a challenge of sorts.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “I’ll go to your room and stay until you ask me to leave.”

  Smoothing down her lab coat, she kept her face averted. “We already established that I have a hard time resisting you.”

  “Then what do you suggest? What will it take to make you more comfortable with our encounters?”

  Finally! An angle she could use. “I’d like to know more about you. You’re always so secretive.”

  His gaze narrowed on her face as he considered the suggestion. “And what do you offer in return for my personal history?”

  She started to reply then licked her lips instead. It had to be his idea. “What do you want?”

  “Obedience. For every question I answer, you comply with one directive.”

  “I won’t sleep with you. We need to start over, allow this to develop gradually.”

  “My clothes stay on unless you remove them.”

  There was a hell of a lot he could do without removing his clothes, but she had to keep his interest. “And you’ll still leave as soon as I ask you to?”

  “Of course.”

  His triumphant smile only added to the tension gripping her belly. Could she suppress her own desires long enough to interrogate him or would they end up in bed together? The challenge excited her as much as the pleasure he was likely to give her. This was as close to control as he’d allowed her to have and she intended to use it to the fullest.

  “Deal, but no one-word answers or evasions. I’ll obey as long as you’re honest and open.”

  He motioned toward the door, his gaze fixed on her mouth. “Lead the way.”

  It only took a few minutes to reach her quarters, but she used the time to prioritize her questions. This was about gaining information. She could not lose sight of her goal. She locked the door behind them and activated the privacy jammer. “No one can hear you but me.”

  “And no one can see you but me.”

  She wasn’t sure why the distinction was important but she nodded. “Did you approach the backers or did they recruit you?”

  “I thought you wanted to learn about me as a person.”

  “I do. This project is our common ground. I’m trying to understand how you fit in with what the backers are trying to accomplish.”

  “Fair enough.” The apartment was compact and his large body made it feel even smaller. A privacy curtain separated the bedroom from the living area. He strolled around the room, looking at the sparse decorations with bored indifference. “They recruited me.”

  “How long have you worked with them?”

  He shook his head and smiled. “I say nothing more until you’re naked.”

  She had three quick-dissolve tablets in her pocket, but she needed to slip them into something he’d actually drink. Once he ingested the chemical cocktail, he’d be far more accommodating. “You only answered one question. That entitles you to one article of clothing.”

  “This isn’t strip poker, sweetheart. If you want answers, you do as you’re told.”

  If she obeyed without question, she was no longer a challenge. “Top or bottom? You can’t have both.”

  He looked as if he’d argue then he shrugged. “Start with the top.”

  Slipping out of her lab coat, she draped it over the back of a kitchen chair and made sure the pocket with the tablets was easily accessible. “Can I get you something to drink? It’s early, but I think I’ll have a glass of wine.”

  “I thought you wanted coffee.” He sat in the sleek black chair across from the kitchenette.

  “Wine goes better with naked breasts.” She smiled as she unbuttoned her blouse and placed it on top of the lab coat. Come on. Try the wine. I’m not sure I can pull this off if we’re both sober.

  “White or red?” Except for the occasional gleam in his eyes, his expression remained stoic.

  “Which do you prefer? I have both.”

  “Bring the bottles here so I can find out.”

  She wasn’t sure what he had in mind, but she didn’t see a way around it. Retrieving the half-full bottles from her refrigerator, she brought them to him then quickly stepped back.

  “You’re still wearing your bra.”

  “Sorry.” She unfastened the front clasp and took off the undergarment.

  “Come here.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’ll tell you how I met James Milliner if you do.”

  She licked her lips, desperately wanting to cover her breasts. But she wasn’t here to entertain him. She was trying to learn as much as she could about her mysterious companion. “Tell me first then I’ll obey.”

  Osric chuckled and pulled the cork out of one of the wine bottles. “I want to find out if I prefer red or white. Now stop being so contrary.” He set the corked bottle on the floor and reached for her hand. She reluctantly moved between his legs as he scooted to the edge of the chair. Then he raised the open bottle and drizzled red wine over her left breast.

  The cold liquid streamed across her warm skin and Carly shivered. Her nipple hardened as the liquid followed the contour of her flesh. He caught the red droplets with the tip of his tongue then retraced the wet path until her skin was clean.

  Thinking he’d finished with phase one of his “experiment”, she exhaled and started to retreat. He caught her hips as his mouth fastened on to her nipple. She stood perfectly still and he moved his hands, only touching her with his mouth. The long, firm pulls drew heat into her breast and made the tip tingle.

  He released her suddenly and her nipple sprang free, wet and tightly puckered. “Very nice. Now hand me the white.”

  She took the open bottle from him and exchanged it for the other. Trickling white wine over her right breast, he sampled the new offering. He sucked harder, scraping her with his teeth. She tried to ignore the sensations darting from her nipple to her clit, but he knew how hard to nibble and always managed to pull back just as pleasure turned to pain.

  “Red,” he decided, and scooted back in the chair. “Unless you want to continue the experiment. White might be more suited to your navel or those adorable dimples on your lower back. But I suspect red’s sweetness will balance out the salty-sharp taste of your sex. Shall we find out?”

  Shaking off the sensual haze, she grabbed both bottles and hurried across the apartment. “How did you meet General Milliner? You promised to tell me.” She retrieved two wineglasses from the cupboard and set them on the table near the chair with her lab coat. Blocking his view with her body, she pulled the tablets from her pocket and dropped them into one of the glasses then covered them with wine. Swirling the wine around in the glass, she waited until the tablets dissolved then returned to her guest.

  He accepted the glass but didn’t take a drink. “I told you the backers recruited me, but that’s not exactly true. One of Milliner’s teams captured me eight years ago. I was treated like the others, examined, tested, experimented on.”

  Shocked by the revelation, she couldn’t think of anything to say for a moment then questions bombarded her mind. “Then why in the world would you help them? Why subject others to the same mistreatment you’d endured?” What did they give you that was worth betraying your own people?

  “You’re a scientist,” he snapped. “You understand the cost of medical advancement.”

  She needed to be more careful. The last thing she wanted was to piss him off and have him clam up on her. He fiddled with his glass, but he still hadn’t raised it to his lips. “Were the other two backers involved back then? How long has this project been going on?”

  “I’m not sure exactly. Milliner met Roberto in the eightie
s. Tias joined the club a few years later. The project was in full swing when they captured me.”

  The project had been underway for perhaps forty years and they still didn’t understand what enabled Therians to shift? That wasn’t accurate. The backers had a basic understanding of the biological processes. They just couldn’t recreate the abilities in humans.

  She took a sip of her wine, hoping Osric would do the same. He rested the base of his glass on his thigh and stared off into space. “How did you go from being a test subject to participating willingly in the program?”

  He finally took a long drink of wine then set the glass aside. Damn. Would enough of the drugs reach his system with only one drink? “If you want more, lose the skirt.”

  He’d seen her naked before and she wasn’t ashamed of her body. This could only be humiliating if she allowed it to be. She unzipped her skirt and stepped out of it, draping it across the chair back with her other garments.

  “They learned what they could from me then turned me loose. It wasn’t until a few months later that I realized they’d tagged me.”

  That wasn’t surprising. It was standard procedure to tag test subjects. Of course he wouldn’t have known their procedures back then. “That didn’t really answer the question. How did you end up helping them?”

  “Take off the rest. I want you completely naked.”

  She kicked off her shoes and rolled down one of her stockings. She started to roll down the other then stopped. “You’re not talking.”

  His gaze traveled the length of her half-naked body as a fresh wave of lust formed his expression. “Therians mate for life. Once our bodies sync with our mate’s body, we are incapable of—”

  “Wait.” She tossed her stockings over the chair and paused with her thumbs hooked under the waistband of her panties. “What does that mean? How does your body ‘sync’ with your mates?”

  “We’re shapeshifters, Doctor Ides. Our bodies literally shift, becoming more attractive to and compatible with our mate’s physiology.”

  “And your body retains that change for as long as your mate lives?”

  “Yes. Once the mating bond is formed it’s permanent, but while a female is still searching for her mate, synchronization lasts three months with each potential partner.”

  “Then it’s the female’s responsibility to find her mate?” That didn’t seem quite fair.

  He chuckled and his gaze focused on her exposed breasts. “Females go into heat, which announces to every unbound male that she is physically ready to be claimed. It’s the male’s job to convince her that he is the strongest and most capable of satisfying her every need.”

  “Being physically capable of reproduction doesn’t mean anyone is ready for a lifetime commitment.” Yet having strong, demanding males vying for her attention sounded like a sexual fantasy. Except she’d be expected to spend the rest of her life with whomever satisfied her best. Maybe being human wasn’t so bad after all.

  “You’re human.” He made it sound like a disease, but she’d already decided she was thankful for her humanity. “You’ll never understand the intensity of mating fever.”

  He said no more, so she dragged her panties down to mid-thigh then turned so all he could see was her bare hip. “What does this have to do with your joining the program?”

  “My mate…” He picked up his wineglass and drained it with several deep gulps. “She was weak and selfish and terrified of her destiny.”

  She let her panties slip down her legs then she kicked them aside. The pain in his eyes was even more disconcerting than his usual lechery. “You’re obviously not incapable of being with other women now, so what happened to her?”

  “Willona’s mother, Maggie, had three mates and she could shift into numerous animals. Maggie wasn’t technically a true Therian, but she was damn close.”

  Feeling foolish just standing there naked, she walked to the couch and sat. But he shook his head when she reached for the throw blanket folded over the back. She sat up straight and kept her thighs pressed together. “I’ve heard you use that term before. What do you consider a ‘true’ Therian?”

  “I have reason to believe Therians were once true shapeshifters. I think we changed forms as easily as humans change their clothes.”

  “When and why did Therians lose the ability to shift into anything they wanted to?” She was fascinated by the details, but Osric had likely told the backers his theories already. She needed current information, specifics he’d be reluctant to share.

  “It happened gradually over countless generations. Cats grew suspicious of dogs and dogs saw weakness in the smaller clans. It became the norm to mate within one’s own clan, so the ability to shift into other forms dwindled away.”

  “What made you think Willona would still have this ability?”

  “Her mother was defined late in life and she took on three animal natures. I knew Willona would be even more receptive to a multiple definition if she was defined while her spirit was still fresh and strong.” His gaze dipped to her breasts then sank lower. “Open your legs.”

  Carly swallowed hard. He was moving closer to the present, closer to the inner workings of the Therians. Besides, the drug should be kicking in soon. She inched closer to the edge of the sofa and parted her thighs.

  “Wider.”

  Slowly, she complied and heat crept across her skin. She always felt humiliated after they played these games, but her body responded to his demands more readily than any lover she’d ever known. “You said Willona was weak and afraid. What happened to her?”

  He rubbed his eyes and then his nose. Good. Facial numbness was a common side effect, but this was taking forever. “No one believed me. They all thought Maggie was a fluke, that her abilities were some random trick of nature.” He left his chair and knelt on the floor in front of her. His hands cupped her knees and pushed her legs up and back until her heels rested on the edge of the sofa. “Sam didn’t believe me either, but he agreed to help me try.”

  “Who is Sam?” She was naked and spread before him, her core creaming beneath his watchful eyes.

  His breaths came faster and he kept blinking his eyes. She thought he’d succumb to the drug and then he pushed two fingers into her and smiled. “You missed me.” He pumped slowly, watching his fingers disappear inside her body and reappear coated in cream. “So wet and hot.”

  “Tell me about Sam.” Despite her determination to resist his careless stroking, her body responded. Tension gathered low in her belly and her clit began to twitch.

  “Wolf pack alpha.” His voice sounded slightly slurred, but his hand kept up the steady motion, teasing and arousing her. “Willona refused to name her guide, so I got permission to define her.”

  She tensed, easily reading between the lines. “By force?”

  “She only struggled in the beginning. We didn’t want to hurt her, but definition brings out the animal in Therian males.”

  “You took turns…you and this wolf alpha?” What little desire he’d managed to stir sputtered out. She pushed his hand back and scurried off the couch, but there wasn’t anywhere to hide. The bathroom door didn’t lock and the bedroom was only separated from the main room by a curtain. “Did she survive?”

  He turned and sat down, leaning back against the sofa. “I feel…weird.”

  Finally. She darted into the bathroom and grabbed her robe off the back of the door. By the time she returned, his eyes had glazed over and his mouth hung open. Roberto had given her the drugs and told her they were amazingly effective. If the combination worked as promised, Osric would provide truthful answers to her questions and wake up with jumbled memories of a sexual encounter.

  “Did Willona survive the forced definition?”

  His head came up, but his gaze remained clouded. “Yes. She hated us and refused to shift. I’d never heard of anyone strong enough to suppress their animal nature, but Willona was.”

  “What happened to her? How did she die?”

&n
bsp; “We were looking into ways to force a shift when she realized she was pregnant.”

  “That’s right. She gave birth to twins.” The two young women he’d been so determined to find.

  “Not technically twins.” His voice became a monotone drone, but he answered without hesitation. “Ava is mine. Sam fathered Carissa.”

  “I see.” She hadn’t realized multiple father…litters were possible with Therians. They looked so human. It was easy to forget how truly different they were. “Is Sam still alive?”

  “No. Willona was starting to thaw toward him so I killed him.”

  Holy shit. Had he just admitted to murder without flinching? She’d always sensed a darkness in Osric, but she hadn’t expected this. “And how did Willona react to Sam’s death?”

  “She contacted the Abolitionists and arranged to be ‘rescued’.” He sneered as he went on. “As if she could be rescued from her own nature. I wouldn’t have bothered to track her, but she took the girls with her. That was inexcusable.”

  She was dying to ask him about the Abolitionists. Did he know Nehema? But she didn’t want to lose her train of thought. “Only Ava is your blood kin. Why were you searching for Carissa?”

  “Both girls possess Maggie’s blood so either can be defined with multiple animal natures.”

  “Is that what Milliner was talking about when he said alpha males from all over the State had showed up at the cat sanctuary?” A million details were waiting to be filled in, but she hadn’t learned anything new and she wasn’t sure how long the drugs’ effect would last.

  “Carissa has been defined. I don’t know if the attempt was successful, but Ava is my only hope now.”

  “How did Willona die?”

  “Car accident. I think it was arranged, but I haven’t been able to prove it.”

  He had admitted to murder without batting an eye. Maybe her questions should be more direct. “Is it your intention to betray the backers?”

  “I serve Zophiel. I cannot betray those who do not hold my allegiance.”

  Well, this was interesting. She wondered if the backers would share his rationalization. “Who is Zophiel?”

  “Spy of God. Angel of Devine Justice. Mistress of this unworthy slave.”