“We’ve traced your activity for the past several years but can’t find what you were really doing,” she admitted. “I mean, you’ve managed to amass quite a fortune, and yet you’re not about money. I know that, Paxton. You also have hacked into many of the Realm’s computer systems and databases. Finally, your dossiers on the Seven and their mates and the three Keys are impressive.”
She looked at him squarely, still walking. “I could tell you’d compiled all of that data. Your fingerprints were all over it. We hacked into the files early this morning. You should know that.”
“I do,” he admitted. “I had safeguards in place that alerted me.”
“Why didn’t you wipe the files?”
He shrugged. “Who says I didn’t?”
The Realm computer experts were phenomenal, even better than he was. It had taken him a long time to figure out his strengths: he was a fighter, and he was a killer. He wasn’t a computer guru. Although he was pretty damn good.
She smiled. “I always thought that you would be a scientist, not some vigilante.”
He felt like a traitor. “I know. Me too.”
She turned back to watch the snow starting to fall in front of them, glancing at him sideways from time to time as if she wanted to see his face. “I also saw videos of the battles you undertook with the wolf shifters as well as the panthers down in Africa. You’re probably one of the fastest and most brutal fighters I’ve ever seen. You killed without hesitation or remorse.” She didn’t sound put off by his exploits. In fact, her tone had gone a little breathy.
Was she becoming chilled? He had to get her inside.
“I’d like to say I killed the bad guys,” he admitted. “But yeah, Hope, I didn’t go the way I thought either.”
There had never been a time he really wanted to study science, but he hadn’t had enough faith in himself to be an actual warrior or soldier. It had taken desperation and the prodding of his uncle’s cronies to make him into one. He didn’t like them, and he would probably kill them if he had the chance, but he was who he was because of them.
“Why don’t you take those skills and work for the Realm?” she asked softly.
He snorted. “After all this, you think the Realm will take me as a soldier?”
Her shoulders hunched. “No. But can’t you explain any of this? I mean, come on, Paxton, what is going on? The little that we know of the Defenders is that they want to prevent Ulric’s death. How can you want that?”
“No. They want to prevent the final ritual that is intended to kill Ulric. There’s something off about that ritual, and you know it, Hope. You know the Seven screwed up the laws of physics, and they changed this world. I should be able to teleport, and I can’t. Shifter kids are having psychic visions of things that happened long ago, and it’s screwing them up because they think those things are happening right now. Even the fairies can’t teleport to other worlds anymore.” He tightened his grip on her hand, needing her to understand. The crossword puzzle book felt heavy in his pocket as if in warning. “If we let the Seven actually perform the ritual in order to kill Ulric, we could destroy the entire world. All of the worlds.”
She was silent as they reached the rear of the main Realm headquarters building. “I have to trust that the Seven know what they’re doing.”
Pax shook his head. “That’s just stupid.”
Her eyes widened, and damn if she didn’t punch him in the throat. Hard.
He moved without thinking, drawing her in, curling his fingers around her nape. If this was one of his last moments, he was going to make a memory to take with him to hell. He kissed her, just wanting one heartbeat in heaven. He was risking getting his head blown off by a sniper, but it was worth it. So fucking worth it.
Because she kissed him back. Passion, need, even anger all poured into him from her. She was innocence and sin wrapped together, and her taste sank into his body, into his blood, into his soul so hard and fast he’d never be free. Nothing mattered but pulling her closer against him as thunder roared in his ears.
She gave a soft little moan against his mouth, and he felt it to his core. Right to his aching cock. He skimmed a hand beneath her shirt at her waist, and smooth, soft, silky skin filled his heated palm.
The female was absolutely perfect.
Her breath caught, and she leaned into him. He gave in to temptation and caressed up, covering one breast. For a tiny thing, she had surprisingly full breasts. He swept his thumb beneath her bra, swiping a rock-hard nipple.
Her gasp jolted him back to the present and their location. His body was on fire, and the beast at his core was raging against its chains with the need to take. To finally make her his.
He pulled away first, his hand catching her jaw and forcing her to look him in the eyes. Hers were a violet blue tinged with amethyst. “I don’t know what happens next to me, but you have to promise. You will not mate a Kurjan.” They both couldn’t sacrifice their lives.
She swallowed and stepped back, her eyebrows rising when he allowed her to move away from him. “I’m not promising you anything.”
Chapter Twelve
Hope’s body had never been so alive. Never. Paxton had kissed her before, but not like that. Nobody in the world kissed like that. She was twenty-four years old, had spent some time dating and kissing, but that was unreal.
It was fire and ice, promise and threat. Her nipples were hard as diamonds, and her entire body felt soft and needy. On the edge for Paxton.
She’d loved the boy and now wanted the adult male. More than she would’ve thought possible.
“I’m not going to allow you to sacrifice yourself,” he said, his jaw set so hard it had to hurt as he removed his hand, leaving her breasts aching and needy.
Even so…allow? “I haven’t decided what I’m going to do, but I don’t see any of my choices being a sacrifice.” It was shocking her voice still worked while her mouth tingled so wildly from just one kiss.
His hand descended on her shoulder and curled, showing restrained strength. The same hand that had just been on her breast, making her needy. “You care for Drake.” Pax’s eyes went flat. Hard. Deadly.
Her mouth opened, but no sound came out. Who was this male? She cleared her throat. “You know I do. We’ve all been friends since childhood.” Yet she didn’t know Drake the way she did Paxton. She didn’t want to hurt anybody, but fate always had a plan. Of course, Hope could make her own fate.
“You shouldn’t trust him,” Pax said, his voice a low growl that licked along her nerve endings.
What the heck was going on with her? She had to focus. “Let’s get back to you and what you’ve been doing. Tell me why. Just why?”
“The Seven has to be stopped,” he said.
She wished his betrayal was just about money, but in her stomach, in her gut, in her soul, she knew it wasn’t. His life hadn’t been easy, and who knew what kind of pressures his uncle had put on him.
His activities centered on the Seven and their upcoming ritual. He really believed what he’d said about the Seven messing with the laws of physics, and she wasn’t entirely sure he was wrong. The Seven had changed life on this planet when they’d undertaken the first ritual in order to put Ulric away by creating a prison world across dimensions. “I want to understand,” she breathed. “But I have to know the truth.”