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Decking the Hollisters ISBN # 1-4199-0875-8 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Decking the Hollisters Copyright© 2006 Anna J. Evans Edited by Heather Osborn. Cover art by Syneca. Electronic book Publication: December 2006 This book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 443103502. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.
Content Advisory: S – ENSUOUS E – ROTIC X - TREME Ellora’s Cave Publishing offers three levels of Romantica™ reading entertainment: S (S-ensuous), E (Erotic), and X (X-treme). The following material contains graphic sexual content meant for mature readers. This story has been rated E–rotic. S-ensuous love scenes are explicit and leave nothing to the imagination. E-rotic love scenes are explicit, leave nothing to the imagination, and are high in volume per the overall word count. E-rated titles might contain material that some readers find objectionable—in other words, almost anything goes, sexually. E-rated titles are the most graphic titles we carry in terms of both sexual language and descriptiveness in these works of literature. X-treme titles differ from E-rated titles only in plot premise and storyline execution. Stories designated with the letter X tend to contain difficult or controversial subject matter not for the faint of heart.
DECKING THE HOLLISTERS
Anna J. Evans
Anna J. Evans
Chapter One Christmas Eve snow fell lazily, quietly, through the night sky, softening the effects of time on the quaint mountain town. The railroad might no longer call Remembrance, PA a main stop on its route, but there were families here, generations of Irish and Italian and Polish immigrants who would never call anyplace else home. This was where they’d grown up, where their parents and grandparents and even great-grandparents had grown up, and no matter how hard times got, this was where they would stay. Remembrance was what they knew, what they lived for and what at least one family, this very night, might die for. “Choices, it all comes down to choices.” Darby’s words were muffled by the giant scarf wrapped three times around her head. It was fucking cold outside. Cold enough for her breath to crystallize in the fibers of her scarf, and for her trigger finger to get decidedly numb. Good thing she’d brought her Bowie knife and several shorter, sharper blades—just in case. “It’s wickedly cold up here,” her sister, Carey, said. Her teeth chattered lightly and her full lips were practically blue. “I told you to wear more clothes.” “Hmph. Have I mentioned what a stupid idea this is?” “Several times,” Darby whispered, crouching down behind the trunk of the large tree that hid them, triple-checking the accessibility of her weapons. She was normally careful in her preparations, but tonight she’d been downright obsessive. There wasn’t room for error, not when the stakes were so high. “They’re probably getting ready to leave the house. They go to midnight mass on Christmas Eve, don’t they?” Carey asked. “How the fuck should I know?” 4
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“Well, you were married into the goddamn clan. You know more than I do,” Carey hissed, rubbing her mitten-covered hands together with a vehemence that told Darby just how much this night was affecting her. Of the two of them, Carey was always the cooler. She came, she saw, she double-checked the identity of the hit, and she got her target—every time. There were no mistakes, no emotions to cloud the issue. Carey was a killing machine, a fact that made even their father, a man who made it clear what a bummer it was having two daughters and no sons, insanely proud. He’d promoted Carey to head of Interstellar Control when he retired two years ago. He felt the family business, alien bounty hunting, required that kind of killer instinct. Carey might be five years younger than Darby, but she was better suited to leadership, wouldn’t let her mind be clouded by ‘feminine weakness’. Unlike Darby, who had been a disappointment to dear old Dad since the day she walked down the aisle three years ago. And that was before he knew the truth about her former husband. But Pop had always been disappointed with her choices. Why should her choice of husbands be any different? Darby was always too soft, too gentle, the daughter who let her heart get in the way of her killing instincts and botched nearly as many hits as she made. Tonight, however, she was as cold as the snow that fell around them, while Carey betrayed her anxiety with her every movement. The fact that her notoriously chill sis was feeling the pressure might have made Darby nervous on any other job, but not this one. This time, it was personal. The Hollisters had destroyed what was left of her soft heart nine months ago. Now, if they made the wrong call tonight, they would pay for that destruction with their lives. “Choices,” Darby muttered.
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“If you say that one more time, I’m going to scream,” Carey said, even as she reached over and adjusted the strap on Darby’s ankle sheath, shifting it just that quarter of an inch to the left that would help her draw her blade in less than a second. “You won’t scream, you’re too good at your job to give away our location.” “If I was that good at my job, neither of us would be here tonight. We don’t have a warrant. This isn’t legal, and—” “We never would have gotten that warrant. It’s going to be another five years, minimum, before they decide who has jurisdiction on these people, let alone start issuing warrants. In the meantime, monsters like them are going to keep getting away with murder,” Darby said, her own voice rising above a whisper against her will. Quickly she pressed her lips together and fought to take smooth, deep breaths. She couldn’t lose it now, not when she was so close to success, so close to getting him back. Or her back, the baby could be a girl. She hadn’t been allowed to carry the child long enough to find out for sure. “It’s not murder, sweetie, the baby is still alive if the reports are true.” “Not ‘the’ baby, my baby.” “Darby. I know you’re hurting and I would be liar if I said I know how it feels to be in your shoes, but—” “But what?” Darby asked, daring her sister with her eyes to say the words, to call off the mission as she’d been hinting she would all week. If Carey dared to pull rank on her, to forbid her from doing whatever it took to reclaim her son or daughter, their relationship was never going to be the same. It didn’t matter that Darby hadn’t yet met Hayden, the name she and Gareth had decided on for either a girl or a boy. She already loved him or her more than any person in the world…even if he or she wasn’t fully human. She would do anything, anything, to make sure her baby spent Christmas with her, even if she had to kill to make it happen.
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“I just don’t want to see you hurt, not when there might still be some chance of doing this the easy way.” “There is no easy way, Carey. These people don’t deal in logic or reason. I’ve tried, you know I’ve tried.” “I know, hon, but you’re so angry. I’ve never seen you like this, Darby. You’re so hard, so…not yourself. Are you sure you don’t want to give this some time, let your temper cool a bit? Maybe wait for a nice spring day when we won’t have to worry about getting frostbite while we’re kicking half-alien ass?” “I can’t wait any longer to meet my child, Carey. Besides, the bridges are always flooded out around here in the spring and I’m in the mood to kick some ass right now.” “All right,” Carey sighed, pulling off her mittens, revealing skintight black gloves underneath. She began checking the positions of her own weapons, suddenly all business. Darby felt relief course through her body. For a second she’d been worried, but she should have known better. Neither she nor Carey had ever bought into the “turn the other cheek” philosophy, despite their upbringing in their mom’s strict Christian home. Both preferred the “someone slapped me and now I’m going to kick their ass” way of thinking that they’d absorbed on the weekends they spent with their dad, learning how to fight like one of the boys. It was a way of doing business much more likely to result in the bad guys ending up dead, and the good guys getting away with their lives. Though her sister was a stickler for the rules, Darby had prayed she would see that force was the only way to deal with her former in-laws, though this mission was, admittedly, a little politically tricky. Half-alien, half-human crossbreeds had only recently dared reveal themselves to the modern world. Once they saw that their purely alien counterparts were being treated fairly by the government, however, many felt brave enough to come forward. Even now, laws that would help preserve their culture while protecting the rights of human citizens were being hotly debated in the Senate.
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Their culture. The word sliced through Darby’s mind with enough ferocity to make her flinch. The Talamhrian culture didn’t deserve protection. It was an abomination, a culture that allowed the Ri or Banrion of a family to take a baby from its mother if she dared to disagree with the King or Queen of the clan, and to raise that baby as they saw fit until the mother saw the error of her ways. The only error Darby had made, however, was that she’d been stupid enough to marry Gareth in the first place. No matter how much she’d loved him, or how he’d sworn that she would always be his first consideration, above alien-human politics or the complex dynamics of his own family group, she should have known better. Leopards didn’t change their spots, and neither did half-Talamhrians. He’d proven that when he’d let his mother steal their baby and give it to another woman to “gestate” until Darby learned to listen to reason. Reason, of course, meant that she would quit her job as an agent at Interstellar Control and immediately relocate to bum-fuck Pennsylvania. Even better if she and Gareth decided to move into one of the houses down the street from her mother-in-law, the Banrion of his clan. Taking a less dangerous job, Darby might have agreed with, but there was nothing safe about living so close to Gretchen Hollister. The woman gave new meaning to the phrase “mother-in-law from hell”. Darby knew she would have lost her mind long before she learned to obey Gretchen’s every word. “Are you sure you’re good to secure all the outbuildings?” Carey asked, stretching out one of her mittens until it became a ski mask that fit neatly over her face, concealing her short blonde hair. The other mitten-mask she handed to Darby. “I’m good if you’re good with the main house. That’s where they’re likely to be and their hearing is insanely sensitive at close range.” Darby discarded her bulky scarf and pulled the mask over her mass of auburn curls, glad that she’d had them cut to shoulder length so that she was able to stuff the few stray ringlets up under the mask.
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Gareth had always loved her long hair, so cutting off a few feet of it had been satisfying for personal reasons as well as professional ones. Don’t you dare start thinking of him. He’s nothing to you, not anymore. Still, Darby had to close her eyes for a moment to help block the flow of emotion that always threatened to take her breath away whenever she thought of her exhusband. The image of his face, his dark blue eyes and brown hair that fell nearly to his shoulders, haunted her. Memories of how his body fit with hers, how he’d taught her what passion truly was, woke her in the night. No one had ever touched her so deeply, made her love so fiercely—or hate with such passion. Love of her life, father of her child or no, she wouldn’t hesitate to kill him if he tried to keep her from taking their baby away with her tonight. “He’s probably not even here, Darby. No one has seen him for months.” Darby mentally cursed herself for being so transparent. Carey wasn’t known for her empathy. If her sister could read her so easily, Darby knew her emotions were far too close to the surface. “I’m fine, let’s go.” She tried to shrug off the hand Carey placed on her shoulder, but her sister held her firmly in place. “Darby, you can’t let that bastard throw you. The case may not have held up in court, but we both know Gretchen has killed before. Mother of her grandchild or not, I don’t think she would hesitate to take you out. You need to be fully here, and if you can’t do that you need to let me go in alone.” “I’m going, Carey. This is my job, my responsibility, and—” “And you’re my sister and I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you. So promise me you’re in work mode and you’ll stay in work mode, or we can both go home now.” “I’m fine, I swear it,” Darby said, willing her face to show how very ready she was to do the work ahead of them. Carey met her eyes, staring hard until something in Darby satisfied her that the mission could continue as planned.
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“All right. Be careful. I’ll meet up with you in twenty. If I don’t see you at meeting points one or two, I’ll come back here. After that, if I can’t find you, I’m putting in a call for reinforcements.” “That won’t happen, I’ll be there,” Darby said. Reinforcements would mean calling on their coworkers at Interstellar Control, which would mean there would be no chance of keeping this mission secret. She, Carey and anyone who came to their aid could be prosecuted for operating an alien bounty mission without a warrant. Darby had sworn to herself that wouldn’t happen. If it came down to that she would lie, tell the authorities that she’d forged a warrant in order to get the rest of the team to help her. If anyone went down in flames for this it would be her and her alone. “See you soon, sis,” Carey said with what Darby suspected was her signature “let’s go get ‘em” grin. The ski mask concealed the familiar expression, however, a fact that made Darby’s heart sink a little in her chest. Not that she really believed she would fail, that this would be her last mission, but still…she would have loved to see that grin one last time. Stop it. Right now. No weak thinking. This mission will be a success, you won’t allow it to be anything else. Clenching her jaw and tightening her grip around her stun gun, Darby slipped quietly down the mountain, moving in and out of the drifted snow with a grace and ease she’d earned with four-hour days at the gym. She was in peak physical shape, as ready as she would ever be to confront a clan of fifteen half-alien, half-human shapeshifters who could tear open one of the bears that roamed these hills with their bare claws. But they wouldn’t have time to shift tonight. Darby and Carey both knew better. They’d strike hard and fast, before the Banrion or any of her family could assume their nonhuman form. “Oof,” Darby grunted as she slipped on a patch of ice that coated one of the railroad ties marking the beginnings of human civilization. She was on her feet again in seconds,
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however, moving into the shadows of the nearest building, not even feeling the slight bruise on her tailbone. She was close, so fucking close she could smell the Christmas turkey cooking. Or turkeys. With a group as big and hungry as theirs, the Hollisters usually had several birds in their extra large oven. Slowing her pace, Darby carefully picked her way down a set of crumbling steps. Most of these homes hadn’t been updated since the 1940s and neither had the pathways down the mountain. She had to use caution. Wouldn’t do to twist an ankle at this point in the mission. Many of the houses she passed were already dark, all their residents sleeping peacefully. In a few, Christmas trees shone brightly and the sounds of muffled voices floated to her ears as she crept past. Moms and Dads setting out the Christmas presents, no doubt. Darby felt a sharp stab of longing at the thought. Maybe next Christmas that would be her and her dad and Carey, setting out presents for Hayden. The idea warmed her as she checked out the furthest Hollister property and found it deserted, then continued down the mountain. The rest of the Hollister homes were closer to the base of the tiered subdivision that descended sharply to the river. The main house even had its own dock. In fact, the Hollister family boat was where Gareth had proposed. Now it hid the snowmobile that would take her, Carey and Hayden ten miles up the frozen river where two other agents waited with a helicopter to whisk them away to safety. Darby hadn’t missed the irony as she’d popped the lock on the boat shed and deposited the snowmobile there late the night before. The second Hollister building was also empty, as well as the third. She assumed the entire clan was at Gretchen’s for a late Christmas Eve supper and subsequent trip to midnight mass. It was always dangerous to assume things.
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That bit of wisdom popped into her mind a second too late. As she entered the fourth house, she was immediately struck hard from behind. Pain exploded through her skull. Black flowers blossomed in front of her eyes. As she hit the ground, she prayed she wouldn’t lose consciousness or her grip on her gun. Talamhrians had been known to eat their prey alive, as long as they weren’t conscious to complain about it…
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Chapter Two Gareth reached down to flip the slight form over, but he or she was already on the move, rolling across the floor faster than he’d seen anything human move in a long time. But he or she—probably she, since the masked figure couldn’t be more than five foot two or three—was definitely human. He could hear the telltale beating of her heart, so much faster than the rhythm of any of his relatives. Too bad, he wouldn’t have minded tearing the heart out of one or two of those traitors, those people who had insisted they were they only ones who should matter to him even as they systematically destroyed everything that gave his life meaning. “Stop, I don’t want to hurt you,” he said as the human rolled into a crouched position and turned her gun to face him. She and the weapon she held wavered unsteadily and Gareth wondered if she would pass out before or after she ruined his plan by shooting up the inside of the home, drawing his family’s attention to what had been his prison for the past nine months. “Gareth.” The word was filled with more pain than he could have imagined a twosyllable word capable of holding. Those two syllables were all it took for him to realize who was beneath the mask. “Darby, god, Darby, I can’t believe you’re here, I can’t—” His words ended in a strangled gasp as she ripped off her mask and fired her weapon at the center of his chest. Aiming for his heart, if he wasn’t mistaken. The pain was excruciating. His limbs froze and he hit the floor with nothing to break his fall. Gareth struggled to hold onto consciousness, to shift into his Talamhrian form before his wife managed to kill him. Not that he could blame her for the impulse, but it would really suck if Hayden had to grow up without two parents who loved her, not when a little explanation could go so far in righting the wrongs between them. 13
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Or so he had prayed every day while he was held prisoner by his own family, clinging to his love for Darby and their daughter, to his dreams for their future. The women in his life were the only thing that helped him survive days of torture and nights of heartbreaking loneliness. “Don’t you dare, you son of a bitch,” Darby hissed as he began to shift, and then she was firing again. A part of Gareth thought to be grateful that she’d put a silencer on the weapon even as the rest of him concentrated on achieving the swiftest shift of his life. Becoming a blurred mass of arms and legs was the only way he was going to avoid becoming a lump of burned half-alien flesh. His wife had her weaknesses, but being a bum shot sure as hell wasn’t one of them. “Darby, stop it, let me explain,” he said, leaping to the ceiling and digging his five inch claws into the plaster, a feat which allowed him to scuttle, lightning fast, across the ceiling and down the wall behind Darby before she could get a clear shot. “I don’t want your explanations, I want you dead,” she said, her voice barely rising above a whisper, even as he knocked her gun from her hand and wrapped his arms around her from behind, pinning the back of her body against the front of his own. He could tell she wanted to scream, could feel it in every tense inch of muscle he now had locked in his arms, but she wouldn’t. She wasn’t going to give away her location, not until she got what she came for. It didn’t take much thought for Gareth to know exactly what that was. “Listen to me. Hayden is alive, our daughter is alive and well. She’s almost four months old and she’s got the reddest damn hair you ever saw, you’re not going to believe—” “Shut up.” “Please, Darby, honey, you don’t understand—” “Don’t you dare call me honey, don’t you dare.”
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“Baby, I love you, please—” “Fuck you, Gareth! Fuck you!” “Shh. You have to stay quiet. We’re gong to get her back, I swear to you, we’re going to get her back. Just give me a chance to explain, I’m begging you.” Darby went stiff in his arms for a second before her whole body began to heave with gut-wrenching sobs that practically tore the heart out of his chest. He was responsible for this, for introducing the person he loved most in the world to a level of grief she never should have known. If he had needed any further convincing that his family had to pay, this sure as hell would have done it. After a moment, Darby’s knees buckled and Gareth guided them both to the floor, shifting back into his human form as he did. Darby had never seemed disturbed by seeing him in his Talamhrian shape, had even joked that he might look pretty sexy without his claws, but he didn’t want to hold her with arms that ended in anything sharp. He wanted human hands, hands that could show her with every tender touch how much he loved her, had ached for her, been tortured by the thought he might never hold her again. “Don’t, please don’t,” she muttered as he pulled her closer, turning her in his arms so that she straddled his lap. “Don’t what?” Gareth asked, cupping her jaw in his hands and bringing his forehead to hers, willing her to let him in, to give him the chance to explain. “Don’t…touch me, I can’t stand it.” “You don’t mean that.” Gareth felt his own throat grow tight, but he forced back the pain her words caused. She thought he’d willingly handed her over to his mother and sisters. She would have every right to hate him if that were true. He just had to make sure she understood what had really happened, how he had fought with everything in him to get to her before it was too late. “I didn’t know, Darby, I thought it was a fucking baby shower. I swear to you on Hayden’s life. I never would have driven you to that house if I’d known, if I’d—” 15
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“I don’t believe you. Let me go.” She started to struggle, but Gareth easily captured her wrists and pinned them behind her back, an action that thrust her breasts into contact with his chest and made him painfully aware of how long he’d ached to have her so close. She sucked in a breath as his cock thickened between them. “You are a sick fuck if you think I’ll have sex with you again. That’s over, forever.” “You’re still my wife, Darby, and—” “Ex-wife. We’re divorced, the papers came through a few months ago.” “You’re lying. I didn’t see any papers, and I sure as hell didn’t sign anything, since I’ve been locked upstairs for nine months,” Gareth said, finding it insanely difficult not to scream out his frustration. He wasn’t mad at Darby, but the fact that she could sit there with that defiant look on her face and so easily talk about the end of their marriage made him want to rip his own eyes out. “You’re the liar. Let me go, I can’t stand the smell of you,” she said, turning her face away from him as she struggled to free her wrists. For some reason, those words stole what was left of Gareth’s self-control. “You can’t stand the smell of me?” He let go of her wrists, but just as quickly recaptured them as she tried to stand. In seconds, she was flat on her back beneath him, arms pinned above her head. He pressed their hips together, forcing her knees further apart with one of his own. “I remember when you said the smell of me made your pussy wet, that you could almost come from kissing my neck while I squeezed your ass in my hands.” “Stop it, I mean it,” she hissed, but Gareth could hear her heart begin to beat a little faster as he nestled his cock into more intimate contact with the heat between her legs. Bringing his mouth to her throat, he kissed his way down the length of her neck, raking his teeth over the soft flesh hard enough to draw a gasp from her lips. Lips that were now parted in an expression that certainly didn’t look like revulsion. “I don’t think you do,” Gareth said, slowing unzipping her coat with his teeth. “Stop.” 16
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Gareth ignored the softly spoken plea, shifting possession of both wrists to one hand so that he could lift up her tight black sweater, easing it and the sports bra she wore up and over her breasts. His breath caught as he took in the full, creamy flesh, topped by pale, peach-colored nipples. She was smaller than the last time they’d made love, but no less perfectly shaped. He ached to get his hands on that heated skin, to press her together so that he could capture both of her nipples in his mouth, suckle her until she writhed beneath him, until he could smell the sweet scent of her arousal pulsing in the air all around him. But by the way she still twisted in his grip, there didn’t seem much chance of her allowing such liberties. Instead, he let his tongue play softly around the outside of her areola, tracing the edge where her skin started to darken until she arched, ever-so slightly, toward his mouth. That small sign of submission was all that it took for him to open his mouth and cover her nipple, to suck her with deep, rhythmic pulls that wrung a low moan from Darby’s throat. “Are you still saying that I disgust you?” Gareth asked as he abandoned her breast for her mouth, brushing softly against the velvet skin of her lips. He wanted to kiss her, to plunder her lips with all the passion that nine months without her had built within him, but he needed her to come to him. He was as desperate for some small sign of her continued love as he was her body. “I didn’t know, Darby. I didn’t know until I got back to my parents’ house and my brothers were waiting for me. They gave me a choice, let Mom teach you a lesson in obedience, or they’d teach me one. They beat me for three hours and left me on the floor of the kitchen half-dead, but I still tried to get to you. I was three blocks down the road, bleeding badly enough to leave a trail, before they found me and brought me back.” “No,” Darby said, shaking her head back and forth, a single tear leaking out of her closed eyes. “Yes. I’m telling you the truth. I’ve been locked upstairs in the containment center since March. At first I thought they had you held somewhere too, but then they told me 17
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that you’d left. That you’d given up Hayden willingly because you didn’t want to be a mother, or a part of this—” “That’s a lie, Gareth! I never would have agreed to that. They held me down, your mom took Hayden with that fucking blue alien light. One minute the baby was inside me, the next she was floating through the air, into your sister’s body.” “I know, baby.” Gareth said, kissing away her tears as he released his hold on her wrists. She didn’t immediately start to tear his hair out, and that gave him all the encouragement he needed to continue. “Darby, I knew they were lying. I knew how thrilled you were when we found out we were pregnant. I didn’t believe them for a second. I was just afraid that you were dead. The only thing that kept me from going crazy was that Mom knew who your father was, that he’d never rest until he found out what happened to you.” “Good god, Gareth,” she said, her eyes wide, tears still leaking down her cheeks though she no longer cried. “Oh my god. I…I don’t know what to say.” “Just say that you believe me.” “I believe you. Oh god, babe, I do, I believe you.” “And that you still love me,” he said, his voice cracking at the end. He was going to cry, break down and sob like a baby unless she said she still loved him, that he still had a chance to reclaim the family his blood relatives had tried to steal from him. “I still love you, Gareth, I never stopped,” she said, her voice thick as she fisted her fingers in his hair and pulled his mouth down to her own. Their tongues met and mated with a violence that told just how much these nine months apart had cost both of them. For Gareth, the taste of her was home, the place he’d been dying to be so badly that sometimes he had broken down and sobbed in his prison, grieving the loss of the only person who had ever made him feel whole. Having her back in his arms, the smell of her rising all around him, was almost more pleasure than his damaged soul could handle. The taste of her intoxicated him, drugging him more thoroughly than any of the sedatives his family had slipped into his 18
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food. He was wild with need for her, unable to keep from tearing at her clothes, freeing her of her sweater and jeans—and a fucking abundance of weapons—as quickly as possible, pulling her black satin panties down her legs even as he tore at the close of his own jeans, freeing his cock. He needed to be inside her, to pump his swollen length into her slick heat, to be surrounded by the woman he loved. He’d never felt more complete than when he and Darby made love, and had never known such emptiness until he was deprived of her sweet body. “God, baby,” he moaned as he saw how wet she already was, how her lips were plump and pink, more than ready for him. It was a carnal invitation that he couldn’t refuse. “Don’t you dare,” she said, pulling at the old green sweatshirt that, along with a shower, had been his Christmas present from his brother Luke the day before. The fucking bastard. “I want to feel you, all of you.” Crushing her mouth with his, Gareth struggled out of his jeans, only tearing his lips away from hers for a second to rip his shirt over his head. And then he was on her, every bare inch of his skin making contact with the perfect, sinfully soft skin of his wife, his love. She was the only woman in the world who could make him feel so hot, so quickly, and he was certain he would die if he didn’t get to fuck her in the next ten seconds. “Yes, fuck, yes,” she breathed into his ear, biting down hard on his lobe as he began to push his cock inside her. It was a tight fit, no matter how ready she was—it always had been unless the foreplay lasted at least half an hour. But she liked it to hurt a bit at first, had told him she loved feeling him force his way in, stuffing his thickness inside her body. Physically, they were about as well matched as an oversized SUV in a compact parking space, but nothing ever felt better to either of them. Gareth loved how tight she was, how her slick sheath gripped him so fiercely it was almost painful, especially when she came. 19
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“I love your body. I love you, babe. I’m so fucking sorry,” she gasped as he worked the base of his cock into her, sinking in until his balls were cradled against her ass. “You don’t have to be sorry. I’m sorry. I should have known better from day one,” he whispered against her lips, holding still inside her body as her tongue darted out to flick against his, struggling not to cry or come or both. She felt so amazing, like a dream of heaven after the hell he’d been through. “You’re an optimist. It’s one of the things I’ve always loved about you.” “Loved?” he asked, pulling out a few inches and then slamming back into the depths of her pussy—his pussy—with a groan. “I would say love, but I don’t think—oh fuck, baby, oh god.” Gareth moved his mouth to her other breast and continued his deep suction, not pulling away until he’d marked her pale skin. The line between pain and pleasure had always been blurred when he and Darby were in the bedroom. A little pain during sex was something they both enjoyed, but Gareth swore he’d never let her feel the kind of emotional pain she’d suffered ever again. He would kill, maim, destroy whatever or whomever he had to in order to make sure of it, even if it was his own flesh and blood. “I know what you mean. Having your mother, sisters and brothers steal your child, violate your wife and lock you in a safe house for the better part of a year kind of kills the optimistic part of a man’s personality.” How he could keep talking while driving in and out of Darby’s body, a body that was becoming more wet and welcoming with every thrust, was beyond him. But he had to do something to keep his mind off the insane heaviness in his balls, the biological urge to come so fierce that his vision blurred as he stared down into the most beautiful green eyes in the world. “We’re going to get Hayden back, Gareth. We’re going to get our daughter back,” Darby sobbed against his neck, even as he felt her pussy start to contract around him. “Oh yes, babe, come for me, I’ve been dreaming of it—oh god,” Gareth mumbled into her newly shorn curls, tears threatening to overcome him even as he quickened his
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pace, pounding into her pussy until the sound of skin smacking against skin was the only sound in the room. His family. This woman, their daughter—they were his family. His blood relations could call on their shared blood, shared alien ancestry, even the memories of what he’d thought was a happy boyhood, to try to make him see things their way. But he knew in his heart that Darby and Hayden were his life. His biological family had shown him nothing but months of pain, torture and misery. And now…it was time for payback. “Come, Gareth, come inside me,” Darby demanded, following the words with a swift bite on his biceps, her teeth nearly breaking the skin. Gareth struggled to keep his cry of release as quiet as possible. They were too close to his family’s main house to make too much noise. But it was hard, insanely hard. He was coming with mind-blowing pleasure, his cock pulsing as it emptied into the love of his life. Darby, his wife, the only person he’d want at his back in battle. Her father might have promoted Carey to head of the agency, but Darby was the best operative Gareth had ever met, ever worked with. She knew when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em, when to shoot to kill and when caution was the better part of valor. “You ready to go say hi to the in-laws?” he asked after they’d both come back to their bodies, following the words with a soft kiss on the tip of her nose. “Just let me get dressed, wouldn’t want to meet the family again without being properly outfitted,” she said, reaching out to grab the leather sheath that held her largest knife. “That’s my girl. Do you mind if I set this stun gun to something a little more serious?” “Not at all, darling, not at all.” She smiled at him as they got dressed quickly, efficiently, neither willing to wait any longer to reclaim their child. When they were outfitted, Darby held her mask in her hand, seeming to debate whether or not to add the finishing touch to her assassin uniform. “I love you, Gareth.” 21
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“I love you too, Darby. Don’t put on the mask.” “Why?” “If my mother has to die, I want her to know who she’s dying for.”
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Chapter Three “I don’t like this, Gareth, not at all. It’s going to be hell to get to my knives,” Darby said, shoving her wild curls out of her face. Damn short hair, it got in the way and refused to be secured into a ponytail. Combined with the red and white polka dot dress she now wore, it also made her look like an oversized Orphan Annie. “You look great, honey, a vision in polka dots,” Gareth said, his eyes sparkling as he eased one hand beneath her dress, shoving aside her panties to dip his fingers into her pussy. She was sticky and sore from when they’d made love earlier, but she still had to fight the urge to moan as her nipples hardened and her cleft started to get slicker, hotter. It had been too long, far too long without feeling that primal connection with her husband. “If you’re not going to fuck me again, you better stop it.” “I’ll fuck you again, anytime, anywhere you—” “We don’t have time, stop it,” she hissed, shoving his hand away from her pussy even as she stood on tiptoe to capture his lips. His tongue immediately swept through her mouth, making her whole body ache for him to claim her with the same raw power he had less than half an hour ago. Their coming together had been overwhelming and heartbreakingly beautiful. She’d thought she’d lost him forever. To have the chance to reclaim not only her daughter, but her husband—her family—was the best Christmas present she could have hoped for. Now, if they could only get out of the church with their lives, if Carey got back with the helicopter in time, if— “One step at a time, babe. Let’s get up to the sanctuary and find a place near the baptismal station. Then we’ll worry about how we’re going to all get out of here in one
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piece.” He ended their kiss and hugged her close before double-checking the position of the stun gun Carey had given him before she left. Gareth had always been able to sense the general direction of Darby’s thoughts. Some Talamhrians were actual telepaths, but not Gareth. He just loved her and knew her well enough to read the slightest change in her moods. “Okay, but we’re not sitting down in a pew. We’d draw way too much attention.” “Darby, I think it could work. Hiding in plain sight and all that.” “I’m wearing a dress that’s three sizes too big and you look like a refugee from senior prom, 1978,” Darby said, actually grinning as she took in Gareth’s powder blue tuxedo. It was the only thing they could find in the Remembrance Catholic Church’s charity box that would fit him. Despite his months of captivity, Gareth was still amazingly well-muscled, with broader shoulders than most purely human men. Add the fact that he was pushing six feet, five inches, and they’d had a tough time finding a good “disguise”. But they couldn’t show up to their daughter’s baptism with Darby wearing all-black assassin gear and him his brother’s castoff sweatshirt. “I still can’t believe they’re baptizing her. I’m not Catholic and neither are you,” Darby whispered as they crept up the stairs from the basement. There were two other half-Talamhrian families in Remembrance, and you never knew where someone with ultrasensitive hearing might be lurking. Best to keep nice and quiet until they made their surprise appearance. “They stole Hayden from you and locked me in a cage for nine months—after all that, what’s a little lack of parental consent on a baptism?” “Good point,” Darby said, running a comforting hand down his back. Gareth had been through hell, but he was still making jokes. As long as he had her love, her trust, he’d said he was going to be fine. It was a humbling thing to hear, and Darby swore she would never again prove herself unworthy of this man’s profound love. She should have known that Gareth would never willingly let his mother take 24
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their child away from her. But somewhere in the pain of losing her husband and her daughter and the mad rush of hormones that had followed the abrupt termination of her pregnancy, she’d lost her faith. Never again. She had a second chance at the life she’d dreamed of, and she wouldn’t let anyone, especially herself, screw it up. “Gretchen will probably be the one to bring Hayden up to Father Anthony, but I’m sure at least a few of my sisters will be in the front row with their digital cameras, so we’ll have to watch out for them too.” “You’re sure all the boys went out with your Uncle Sean? Not that the girls are any less frightening, but—” “The fewer we have to deal with the better,” Gareth whispered with a nod. They had fallen back into completing each other’s sentences in less than ten minutes of being together. God, how she’d missed him. “No, I’m sure the brothers won’t be in attendance. Uncle Sean has the ice fishing hut up on the lake near his house and any excuse to skip church is good with the men of the family.” “Missing their niece’s baptism, that’s really putting the clan first.” “Yeah, well, Mom never cared much about the boys getting religion. Maggie’s next in line to take over as Banrion, and she practically lives in the church. She has a new baby, by the way, so she might not be here tonight. She was talking about letting Ellen bring her two older girls.” “Great, so Ellen will have, what? Four kids to take care of? That kind of puts her out of commission. That leaves Amy and Erin, right?” “Right. And Amy’s been the most sympathetic of any of them. She brought me a few cupcakes for my birthday last September.” “What a peach.” Fucking assholes, all of them. She almost wished she’d have an excuse to open fire on a few Hollisters before the night was over.
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“Come on, through here,” Gareth said, pulling her into the dark hall that led behind the organ. It was church staff only back here, but the lady who was playing for the midnight mass was already in place and she was notoriously hard of hearing. It was a safe place for them to hide out and afforded a clear view of the front of the church through holes in the gold screen that concealed them. Now, all they had to do was wait. “You’re fidgeting. Do you have to take a piss?” Gareth asked as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back into the warmth of his body. “That’s as funny as it was the first time.” Darby snuggled back against him with a smile. Those had been his first words to her on their first mission together five years ago. She’d hated him—and lusted madly after him—immediately. They’d been partners for a year before they got together, and had continued to work together during the beginning of their romantic relationship. But Darby’s dad had eventually figured out what was happening and assigned them to different teams. He didn’t like agents messing around with other agents, and had been down on her relationship with Gareth from day one. “I thought my dad was going to have a heart attack when I finally told him what had happened, what you and your family were. He couldn’t believe a filthy half-breed had managed to infiltrate his business,” Darby said, wondering what her dad would think of his granddaughter, a filthy quarter-alien. Whatever he thought, she knew she wouldn’t give a damn. He could fire her from Interstellar Control and renounce her as his daughter if he wanted, she would never turn her back on her family again. “Infiltrate,” Gareth snorted. “He would make it sound conniving. I had a little brother killed by Glagors when I was only ten years old. I wanted to do something to help make sure aliens were held accountable for their crimes. I only kept what I was a secret because I knew your father was a bigot.”
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“He is…but he was the only thing that held me together last spring. Without him, I don’t know if I would be here right now.” “You would be, babe. You’re one of the strongest people I know, male or female. Your father may not see that, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.” Gareth whispered into her ear, his hot breath making her skin tingle with awareness even as his words made her throat tight with emotion. His faith in her had always made her better, stronger, a more complete person than she was without him. From the beginning, when they had first fallen for each other, Gareth had made her understand why people got married. When you and your mate transformed each other into something finer than either of you could ever be alone, it was impossible not to commit your lives to each other. “I love you so much. I can’t wait to get you home and show you how much I’ve missed you,” Darby turned her head to whisper the words into her husband’s ear even as she arched her back, rubbing her ass back into the beginnings of his erection. “I want to fuck you until we both can’t stand, until we have to crawl to Hayden’s crib to give her the two a.m. bottle.” “I wanted to try to breast-feed,” Darby said, sadness mingling with her excitement at the idea of finally being able to care for her daughter herself. “It’s supposed to be so good for the baby’s immune system.” “Next baby,” Gareth said, hugging her close, then adding in a careful voice, “but right now I think you might want to look at the front of the church.” Darby knew what she was going to see before she turned, but the first glimpse of her daughter still slammed into her with painful ferocity. Tears immediately sprung to her eyes, and there was no hope of swallowing past the lump in her throat. There she was, her baby. She felt she would have known her even if she weren’t presently being held in her mother-in-law’s arms. Her flaming red hair was the exact same color Darby’s had been as a child, before it darkened to auburn. No telling what color her eyes were from this distance, but her chubby little cheeks were the spitting image of 27
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Gretchen and some of the rounder Hollister sisters. She was beautiful, precious, and Darby felt a sharp, violent twist in her heart as she imagined holding her for the first time in just a few short minutes. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep it together in front of the church,” Darby whispered, the tears in her eyes starting to fall as she swiped a sleeve across her runny nose. She’d cried more tonight than any day in her life, except that dark day when she’d caught the bus out of Remembrance nine months ago, knowing that her sister-in-law Erin was now carrying her baby. “It’s acceptable for a mom to cry at her daughter’s baptism. Besides, everyone’s been praying for Hayden for two months now, they’ll understand you being emotional. Gretchen told the church Hayden had severe RSV disease to explain why she wasn’t getting baptized sooner.” “But it was really her hands, right?” Gareth warned her before they even considered conceiving that most babies with Talamhrian ancestry had hard tips on their fingers for the first few months of life. The claw-like projections eventually fell off, however, and the infant gained a human appearance that most retained until puberty, when hormonal changes allowed them to shift into their alien form. “It was. I could hear her crying in the night when they started to come off. I wanted to hold her so badly, but I couldn’t, they wouldn’t let me unless…” “Unless what?” Darby asked. “You don’t want to know,” Gareth said. “Let’s concentrate on getting Hayden. I think the best thing is for me to go up alone at first. They might be expecting me, but they sure as hell won’t be expecting you. You wait, let them get caught up in trying to keep Hayden from me while not letting the rest of the church in on what they’ve been up to. Then you come around the side of the—” “They wanted you to kill me, didn’t they?”
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“Then you come around the side and take her from whoever’s holding her. Act like she’s got a dirty diaper and head out the back. I’ll cover us by making a big deal of hugging Mom and Father Anthony, and then follow.” “Sounds good. Thanks for not agreeing to take me out,” Darby said, turning in Gareth’s arms and wrapping her arms around his waist, resting her cheek on his warm chest. “I would never hurt you, Darby, not if god himself told me to.” “I didn’t think you believed in god.” “I think I might be changing my mind. You’re here and we’re getting ready to get our daughter—can’t come much closer to an answered prayer than that.” Before Darby could let herself get misty for yet a third time, the organ music faded away and Father Anthony began to address the church. It was time to get her head together. There would be time for emotional outbursts after they escaped with Hayden and made it to the town square where Carey would hopefully already be waiting with the helicopter. Three seemingly endless Christmas hymns and a rereading of the holy family’s journey to Bethlehem later, it was time to make their move. Father Anthony announced the special Christmas christening and Gretchen rose from her place at the front of the church and moved toward the font of holy water. Darby’s heart began to pound in her ears as she watched the simple ceremony move swiftly toward completion. Then, just as Father Anthony announced Hayden Penelope Hollister as the newest member of the Holy Church, Gareth squeezed her hand and walked out to meet his mother and daughter. Gretchen’s lightly lipsticked mouth dropped open in pure shock as she saw her prodigal son walk toward her. It was one of the few emotions Darby had never seen on her mother-in-law’s face. Gretchen was used to being in control, had been since she took over as head of the family at the tender age of sixteen. From her delicately fluffed and hair-sprayed blonde flip to the tips of her perfectly matched deep mauve pumps, 29
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she was the picture of the pulled-together family woman. If you didn’t know her, you might even compare her to a young Mrs. Claus, a cute lady with Irish heritage who dimpled when she smiled. And who could turn into a nearly six-foot Talamhrian with ten-inch claws and a wicked temper. Not to mention her telepathic abilities or that teleporting blue light that could actually manipulate human bodies at the cellular level. “Don’t let her have time to change, please, god, don’t let her,” Darby prayed with everything in her as she watched Gareth hug his mom then bend down to place a kiss on Hayden’s damp forehead. Gretchen smiled tightly, but darted a pointed look toward where Erin, Amy and Ellen sat in the front row. Erin immediately rose to her feet and started to move toward where her mother stood, still clasping the baby tightly in her arms. One look at that bitch, the woman who had so willing agreed to gestate Hayden for her, was all that it took to launch Darby into motion. “I’m here, sorry it took so long. The car skidded into a ditch on the way,” Darby apologized to the congregation at large as she hustled toward the front. Thank god Father Anthony wasn’t as stuffy as the priest they’d had here when Darby and Gareth had first started dating. That guy would have probably had a heart attack at her astounding lack of respect for the formalities of the church. “Honey! Thank god, I was so worried. I was out at the pay phone calling the police,” Gareth said, capturing Erin with an arm around the shoulder that could have looked brotherly if you didn’t see how white his knuckles were as they dug into his sister’s shoulder. “I’m fine, but I left Hayden’s diaper bag in the car. I’ll just take her and go get it. Thanks so much for bringing her in, Gretchen, I wouldn’t have wanted her to miss getting baptized for the world.” Standing within two feet of her mother-in-law was always nerve-racking, but today Darby could practically feel her caged power burning along her skin as she reached out to take Hayden from her arms. She obviously wanted 30
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to shift, to shift and then to kill, but thank god there were people in town who had no idea what the Hollisters really were. She had to keep up her front. “It’s okay, sweetheart, I’ll hold the baby until you get back with the bag. No sense in her going out in the cold,” Gretchen said, holding tightly to Hayden, her blue eyes glistening with menace. “Did I say I left it in the car?” Darby laughed, willing her tone to be light. “I meant the ladies’ lounge, out back. All the excitement of Christmas has just frazzled my mind. Here, let me take her, Gretch, you enjoy the service.” “She’s not wet, there’s no reason for her to go with you.” Damn, this was getting awkward, people were starting to shift uncomfortably in their pews, and Amy and Ellen looked seconds away from leaping from their pew and tackling her where she stood. She had to do something fast, something that would— “I’m leaking,” Darby hissed in a dramatic whisper. “What?” Gretchen looked ready to bare her teeth and snarl. Darby took a deep breath and willed herself to keep up the friendly, slightly oddball daughter-in-law act. “My breasts, they’re leaking. I need to feed the baby.” The word breasts did it. Gretchen was as violently conservative as she was violently everything else. The fact that Darby had talked about her breasts in church was enough to shock her into loosening her grip on Hayden for just a second. A second was all it took. “Thanks,” Darby whispered, trying not to think about how fantastic it felt to clasp her daughter’s warm, wriggling body in her arms. She simply held her tight and darted toward the exit, praying that Gareth would be hot on her heels.
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Chapter Four Gareth burst out of the back door to the church only seconds after Darby, but already he was pulling off his tuxedo jacket and preparing to shift. His mother and sisters would shift as soon as they were out of sight of the church. He had to make sure he, Darby and Hayden were nearly to the helicopter by then. Or they might not make it to the helicopter at all. “Take this,” Gareth said, throwing the coat over to Darby who barely slowed her run as she wrapped the coat around Hayden. The baby miraculously wasn’t crying, despite the fact that she was wearing nothing but a white christening gown in twenty degree temperatures. Not to mention that her mom, a complete stranger to her, was squeezing Hayden to her chest as she ran, hellbent-for-leather, toward the center of town. “Are they following yet?” Darby panted. “Not yet, but they will be. Keep going. I’m going to shift and then catch up,” Gareth said. “You can’t, you won’t fit in the helicopter. It’s one of the small ones.” “Why did you bring the small one?” “I thought it was just going to be me and Carey and Hayden.” “Damn it, Darb, I can’t carry you both in my human shape.” “I don’t need you to carry me, babe. I’ve been training for this moment for five months. I can run. Just run with me,” she said. Gareth felt something in his heart lift at her words. She was already running faster than he’d seen her or any other human run in a long time. She’d obviously worked her
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ass off to be ready to reclaim their daughter. He was so proud of her, so proud of this strong woman he was lucky enough to call his own. They ran on in silence for a few minutes, keeping to the freshly fallen snow to avoid slipping on any patches of ice. The snowstorm had passed and the town was eerily quiet, nothing but the sound of their swift breaths to break the silence as they raced to the town square, the only place near the church with enough room for Carey to land the helicopter. God please, let her have already landed the helicopter. “No! Fuck, no!” Darby moaned as the horribly empty square came into sight. Carey wasn’t there and now he and Darby were going to have to find some way to fend off his mother and sisters until the cavalry arrived. “You take Hayden to the old boarding house. I think the front door should be open and—” “No, I’m not leaving you. I can still shoot with one hand,” Darby said, shifting Hayden into her left arm and drawing her gun from the harness under her dress with her right. “You really want to get into a gunfight while you’re holding the baby?” “No, I don’t, but I don’t want her grandmother to kill her father either. Besides, she seems okay with me,” Darby said, casting an awed look down at her daughter, who was cooing happily to herself. “Erin was saying the other day that she thinks Hayden’s a telepath already. Maybe she can read how much you love her,” Gareth said, wanting nothing more than to pull both his girls into his arms and hold them close. Too bad one of his sisters chose that moment to scream her Talamhrian battle cry across the frozen town. “Shit,” Darby whispered, anxiety tightening her features as she hugged Hayden closer. “We should quit cussing in front of the baby.”
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“Right, I’ll put that on my list, right after surviving to see Christmas morning.” “Good call,” Gareth said, starting to shift. Fuck the helicopter. If he couldn’t shift back to his human shape in time to get on board, then he would stay behind. Darby and Hayden’s safety was the most important thing to him. His own survival was secondary. “Damn you, Gareth,” Darby said, tears in her voice. She could read him as well as any gifted member of his family, a fact that he knew was causing her pain right now. He’d promised to quit causing her grief, but it couldn’t be avoided. Even with two stun guns set to kill, they would be severely outmatched if he were still in his human shape. In their alien form, his mother and sisters would have to be hit several times in order to put them down for good. The chances of getting that many direct hits before they were overwhelmed were slim to none. Besides, a tiny part of him still hoped he could get away from here without killing any blood relatives. Not that they didn’t deserve the ultimate penalty for what they’d done, but Gareth knew being responsible for their destruction would haunt him for the rest of his life. “Gareth, look out!” Darby screamed. Gareth barely had time to stretch to his full eight-foot Talamhrian height before he saw them racing toward the square from the direction of the frozen river. His mother led the way, her hands already raised in a threatening gesture. Amy and Erin followed close behind. None of their alien forms were as large or massive as his own—Erin was the largest and she barely topped six feet—but every single one had claws that outmatched his by at least five inches. They could tear a man open from two feet away, not that it would matter if his mother didn’t choose to fight fair. Her powers of cellular manipulation would allow her to rip Darby’s heart from her chest from twenty paces. Gareth decided not to let mommy dearest get close enough to see if she was in the mood to follow the Talamhrian rules of family battle. Don’t you dare, Gareth. Don’t make things worse for you or the woman. 34
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“That woman is my wife!” Gareth ignored his mother’s telepathic warning and let loose a stream of yellow light in her direction. He didn’t read minds, couldn’t manipulate cells or teleport objects, but he could paralyze any warm-blooded creature at a distance of up to a mile. It wasn’t as showy as some of his brothers’ and sisters’ talents, but it got the job done. Gretchen crumpled to the ground with a thud, her muscles limp and useless. His mom wouldn’t be going anywhere for at least ten to fifteen minutes. Too bad he wouldn’t be able to use his powers again for a few hours or he could just zap Erin and Amy and be done with it. But he had to rebuild vital energy before he could paralyze a second target. Now, he would have to resort to hand-to-hand combat with his sisters, at least until the helicopter arrived. Surely Carey would be here soon. She’d left on the snowmobile nearly an hour before. Come on, Carey, come on. “Leave us alone!” Darby screamed as she took aim and fired at Erin, who was now leading the charge. Erin howled as she took the hit, but a second later she launched herself in the air, soaring over Gareth’s head straight toward Darby and Hayden. Gareth jumped up, reaching for her with his claws, but she was too high. He landed with a grunt and turned, ready to move Darby and Hayden to safety when Amy suddenly slammed into his midsection, tackling him to the ground. “Let Erin take the baby, she won’t hurt Darby if she’ll give her the baby,” Amy said as they rolled over and over in the snow, both struggling to pin the other to the ground without letting the scuffle turn deadly. “That’s my wife, my child, Amy. Good god, what if that were Shane or Zeke?” Gareth growled, praying that Amy might be able to see reason. Her husband, Shane, had been the love of her life since high school, and three-year-old Zeke was what his softest, sweetest sister lived for. “It’s not the same—Shane obeys the family—it’s—” 35
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“Gareth!” Darby screamed his name and he turned to see Erin knock the gun from her hand. Darby managed to land a wicked roundhouse to his sister’s face, despite the fact that she still held Hayden clasped to her chest, but she wouldn’t last much longer. He had a choice to make, and he only had a few seconds to make it. “I’m sorry, Amy,” Gareth said, swiping his claws across the soft flesh of his sister’s stomach. She screamed in pain and blood gushed out to stain the white snow. It probably wouldn’t be a fatal wound, but he couldn’t be sure. He told himself not to think about Amy or her blood on his hands as he launched himself at Erin, wrestling her to the ground only seconds before her raised claws descended on Darby’s head. “Don’t even think about it, Gareth. I’ll kill you. Give Hayden back to me, give her back,” Erin screamed, her voice high and thin and her eyes wide with hysteria. “She’s not yours, Erin. She’s mine and Darby’s. Try to remember—” “I remember what she felt like kicking in my stomach, I remember what it felt like to give birth to her. She’s mine, she’s a Hollister. There was a time you knew what that meant,” Erin screamed, slashing her claws across his shoulder, damaging enough muscle tissue that his right arm hung limp at his side. “Gareth, get off her, let me get a clear shot,” Darby screamed. But something inside him wouldn’t let him do as his wife asked. He understood why Erin felt the way she did about Hayden, and it wasn’t her fault. It was his mother’s fault, his mother who had brainwashed his entire family, who had made his brothers and sisters abandon their hopes, their dreams, their individuality, to serve what she saw as the best interests of the family. “No, Gareth, that’s not true. They are the best interests of the family. We’re not human, we don’t fit into their world. We have to stick together or die, don’t you see that?” Damn the Hollister women and their mind reading.
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Tears were rolling down Erin’s cheeks as they pushed apart, both on their knees in the snow, panting for breath. Her alien face was so similar to her human, yet so different. The features were almost identical, but stretched over more surface area, still attractive, but more masculine, matching the tall, strong body that was her Talamhrian form. Every inch of her was testimony to how very different they really were. Gareth knew he probably would have felt the same way his siblings felt if he hadn’t spent five years as a Navy SEAL and three more as an operative at Interstellar Control. But he’d been out in the world, he knew that even pure humans had to deal with differences—in culture, in religion, in values—that caused pain and suffering, wars and homicide. Gareth suddenly knew that he didn’t want to let these differences with his family force him to commit murder, not if there was even the ghost of a chance one of them might listen to reason. “I don’t want to kill you, Erin. I care about you, no matter what the past nine months have done to me, no matter that you nearly killed the woman I love most in the world,” Gareth said, the tears that had been threatening all night spilling quietly down his cheeks. “Just let me go. Let me go home with my wife and my child.” “Gareth, please, you’re my brother. I love you so much. We’re your family, we—” “No, Erin. Darby and Hayden are my family. They have always come first for me, and now they’re my only consideration. I didn’t want to have to choose, but you and Mom and everyone else left me no other option when you stole Hayden from Darby last March,” Gareth said, relief warring with the anxiety coursing through him as the sound of the approaching helicopter filled the air. “We didn’t steal her, what we did is legal under our laws,” Erin said, her eyes narrowing in anger. “I’m human and not subject to your laws,” Darby said softly from behind him. “Erin, you have to let us go. I’m sorry that you’re hurting. Believe me, I know what it’s
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like to lose a baby who you love more than anything, but you have to let us go. Or I’m going to kill you.” Gareth saw the gun that Darby had leveled at his sister’s forehead out of the corner of his eye. With a sigh, he turned back to Erin, letting her know with his thoughts that he would let Darby pull the trigger if she gave him no other choice. “I hate you, Gareth, I hate what you’ve done to our family,” Erin hissed, her tears turning to full-fledged sobs as she sat back on her heels in defeat. “I don’t hate you, Erin, I feel sorry for you. Now go take care of Amy, she’s bleeding,” he said, shifting back into his human form, breathing a sigh of relief as his tuxedo pants began to fit less snugly. He was lucky he could still wear the same clothes in both forms, so he didn’t need to worry about stripping down completely before a shift, but clothes certainly fit better in his human shape. “Let’s go home, baby,” Darby said when he finished his transformation, running a soft hand through his hair. Gareth came to his feet and put an arm around Darby, leading her toward where the helicopter was touching down in the center of the square. They were close enough to feel the wind from the blades whipping their hair around their heads when Darby suddenly gasped and fell to her knees, clutching at her stomach. He could barely hear his wife screaming in pain over the noise of the helicopter, but he saw the blood stain her hands as she and Hayden fell sideways into the snow. He turned, gun already drawn, and fired three times, straight into his mother’s forehead. She fell down into the snow, and this time, Gareth knew she wouldn’t be getting up.
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Chapter Five Darby felt the fuzziness of sleep fading away, but a part of her clung to unconsciousness. If she stayed asleep, she could believe the wonderful dream was real, that Gareth and Hayden were really here with her at their father’s upstate New York cabin. She could keep the memory of their first Christmas morning as a family, a day filled with love and forgiveness as her father finally welcomed Gareth into their family. Sure, she’d had to threaten to leave Interstellar Control and his house forever if he didn’t, but the best fantasies contained a bit of realism. This dream was by far the most realistic she’d ever had. She could smell the cinnamon rolls her sister Carey would be making downstairs if this really were December twenty-sixth at the family retreat. The day after Christmas had always been a lazy day for the Blythes, and in her dream, Darby was looking forward to another relaxing day spent playing with her baby and napping in front of the fire with her husband. The fantasy was too delicious to let go of without a fight. Hell, she could almost feel Gareth’s warm body spooned around her own, could almost feel his erection snuggled between the cheeks of her ass, ready to give her their favorite kind of morning wake-up call. “I know you’re awake, I heard your breathing change,” he said, one warm hand sneaking beneath her flannel sleepshirt to caress her breasts. “God, I was having that dream again,” Darby said, her voice thick with sleep as she arched into his hands, her breath catching as he pinched each nipple softly between his fingers. “That dream where this is all a dream?” He gently rolled her to her back and pushed up her shirt, bringing his mouth to where his hands had been a moment before. 39
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“Yes,” Darby sighed, tangling her fingers in his hair, not sure if she was responding to his question or encouraging him to keep doing that thing he was doing with her nipple pinned to the roof of his mouth. “I woke up twice last night in a sweat, thinking I was back in that cage,” Gareth said, then closed his lips around her nipple and sucked—hard—drawing a moan from Darby. “Quiet, don’t wake up the baby.” “Sorry.” She accompanied the words by spreading her legs and urging him on top of her. “It’s okay, she sleeps like a rock. If I didn’t wake her up when you went down on me last night, I’m sure we won’t—” “Not about waking up the baby. I’m sorry…for everything.” Gareth settled between her legs and stripped her shirt over her head, but stopped her when she tried to lift her lips to his. “I told you, I don’t want to hear you apologize any more. I did what I had to do, and I don’t regret it.” “I just wish it could have been me. Having to take down your own mother is something no one should ever have to do,” Darby said, scratching her fingers down his broad back, grateful to see that his shoulder wound was nearly healed. Talamhrians healed incredibly quickly, so quickly that she would probably still have tenderness in her ribs where Gretchen’s psychic attack had hit her when Gareth was back to lifting three times his own body weight at the gym. “You’re right, but then no mother should try to kill her son’s wife. I didn’t have a choice. I’m at peace with it, as much as I’ll ever be.” “But you should still talk to someone, maybe the counselor my—” “I don’t want to take about it anymore, with anyone. Now lift your knees.” “Bossy bastard,” Darby said even as she lifted her knees, letting Gareth spread her legs even wider, baring her already damp sex completely to his gaze.
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“So you’re saying you don’t want me to eat your pussy?” His eyes stayed between her legs as he asked the question, and Darby felt a shiver of sexual awareness work its way down her spine to throb in her clit. The way he devoured her with his eyes, the look of profound anticipation and appreciation on his face, was almost enough to make her come before he’d even touched her. How could any woman resist a man who looked at a pussy like it was a treasure he couldn’t wait to steal? “Well, you do look hungry,” Darby said, twining strands of his hair around her fingers and tugging until he shifted his gaze to her face. “Ravenous,” he said, digging his fingers into the soft flesh of her thighs until she gasped. A little bit of pain never felt so pleasurable as it did with this man, her partner, her friend, her husband—or soon-to-be husband, after their planned New Year’s Eve nuptials. “I can’t wait to be married again.” Darby’s words ended in a moan as Gareth dropped his head between her legs and began feathering soft kisses up the inside of each thigh, getting close enough for her to feel his warm breath on her pussy before retreating. “I can’t believe you really divorced me, you little bitch.” “Ow,” she gasped, the feel of his teeth clamping down on the soft skin of her inner thigh making her clit throb with electricity and her pussy send forth another gush of wet heat. “Take your punishment like a woman, woman,” he chuckled against her skin, gripping her more firmly with his large hands, spreading her impossibly wider before he brought his mouth to the crease where leg became pussy. Then he began to suck at her flesh, pulling on her with deep, urgent tugs until her skin started to burn, to bruise, and she squirmed in his strong hold. “Don’t move or I’ll never lap up all that cream you’re making.” Gareth followed the threat with another nip on her opposite thigh.
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“Who the hell said you were the boss this morning, Mr. Hollister?” Darby fisted both hands in his hair and pulled hard, wrenching his neck back until she could see the shit-eating grin on his face. “Your pussy did.” He smiled. “You’re a bastard,” she gasped as his thumb plunged deep and hard into her dripping cleft, just once. The brief contact intensified the pulsing aching between her legs, and she knew it would only be a matter of time before she was begging for it, willing to do whatever Gareth demanded as long as he’d eat her pussy, fuck her with his mouth, his fingers and eventually—if the baby didn’t wake up first—his cock. “No, I’d be a bastard if I didn’t have every intention of doing this,” he said, opening his mouth and ever so slowly licking up the length of her slit, from the hot pool of her entry all the way to where her clit throbbed above. “Gareth.” Darby shuddered as she said his name, hands moving from his hair to tangle in the sheets around them. “Please, more.” “Well, since you asked so nicely,” he whispered, and then he was fucking her with his mouth, plunging his tongue into her heat, swirling around her clit, even as his fingers pinched the cheeks of her ass. The stinging contact of his fingers on her bottom only served to intensify the pleasure he was bestowing on her sex, and soon Darby could feel her body starting to tighten, her nipples drawing into twin aching points of sensation as she neared release. She arched into his mouth, back bowing off the bed as she ground her pussy into his lips, teeth and tongue. So close, god, she was almost there, almost— “Not so fast, sweetheart. Not yet,” Gareth said, his voice thick with arousal as he abruptly pulled away and flipped her onto her stomach. “What are you—oh, fuck!” Darby cried out as he spread her cheeks and the blunt head of his cock pressed against the tight ring of her ass. They hadn’t done this in so long. She was slick with her own juices, but she wondered if that would be enough to ease the passage of his thickness. 42
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“I’m fucking your ass,” he breathed into her ear. His hand slid around her waist to massage her clit in slow, achingly soft circles as he pushed slowly but firmly inside her. His cock demanded entry, not waiting for her to fully relax as he pushed into her backside. Darby whimpered, but not because of the sting that accompanied his first few strokes. She was seconds away from exploding, from coming so violently that she knew she would scream. Desperate to make this last, to keep from waking Hayden or, god forbid, alerting her sister and father downstairs to what they were doing, she turned her face into the pillow. “Did I say you could come?” he asked, his cock thrusting faster, harder into her body until her flesh rippled from the force of his contact. “No,” she moaned into the pillow, lifting her hips and taking his cock deeper. “Then don’t—don’t you dare come until I tell you to,” he said, shifting the position of his hand so that two thick fingers were suddenly penetrating her pussy as two more slid back and forth over her clit. “Oh god.” Darby buried her face and screamed as she came, her whole body tightening so fiercely that Gareth groaned in response as it became harder to move his cock in and out of her body. “You little disobedient—oh god, Darby, yes.” She reached back and dug her fingernails into the tightly muscled flesh of his ass, squeezing with enough strength that she knew she’d leave little half-moon shapes behind. Gareth began to pulse inside her seconds later, burying his face in her hair as he came. “I love you, god, I love you so much,” he mumbled against her neck, his hot breath astoundingly sweet for morning breath. But then it always was, another Talamhrian trait. Gareth always smelled lightly of mint and pinecones. In the months they’d been apart, the smell of either had made her heart ache. She’d switched to cinnamon gum and refused to visit her dad or sister in their mountain cabins. 43
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“I love you too, babe. I never want us to be apart again,” Darby said, going gratefully into the arms Gareth held out to her after he pulled out of her body and relaxed back onto the pillows. “I don’t either,” he said, holding his breath after he said the words, a telltale sign that he was getting ready to say something he didn’t think she’d want to hear. “But what? Spill it, don’t keep me in suspense.” “No buts. I was just thinking the same thing myself. Yesterday was so wonderful, to be with you and Hayden all day. I was thinking that maybe we should…retire,” he said, meeting her eyes uncertainly as she propped up on one elbow. “Both of us?” “I was talking with Carey yesterday and she’s still looking for another mission coordinator. With the right computer equipment, it’s a job we could do from home. I know, I’m probably starting to sound like my mother.” Gareth winced slightly as he said the word mother, but the expression was gone before Darby could comment on it. Still, she made a mental note to encourage Gareth to talk to someone about what had happened in Remembrance. She didn’t want the man she loved to be haunted by guilt for the rest of his life. “But I would worry about either of us being out in the field. I don’t want Hayden to lose her mother or her father, and I can’t stand the thought of being without you—” “You don’t have to explain, Gareth. I agree completely. You’re thirty-six and I’m nearly thirty-three. We’re not exactly spring chickens.” “You’re hotter than any spring chicken,” he said, running a teasing finger over the tip of her breast. Darby gasped and slapped his hand away. “Stop it, let me finish. I’ve worked as a field-op for almost ten years. I’m okay with leaving the action behind, but are you? I know you, Gareth, you live for the thrill of the hunt and the—”
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“No I don’t, I live for my family,” he said, his eyes more serious than Darby had seen them in days. “I learned that lesson when I was locked up for all those months. I didn’t miss anything the way I missed you and Hayden. You’re my life. Anything else is just gravy.” “Have I told you how much I love you yet today?” Darby asked, tears in her eyes. She’d been on an emotional rollercoaster for days. She shouldn’t be surprised that she was getting all weepy again, but she was. The old Darby Blythe used to be made of tougher stuff, but then, she was quickly realizing that tough was a quality that was way overrated. “It’s okay to cry, babe. I’m sure we both still have a little of that ahead of us,” Gareth said, pulling her on top of him and running his hands softly up and down her back. “Besides, it’s natural for women in your condition to be emotional.” “My condition?” Darby raised her eyes to his, her heart speeding. When they’d first gotten pregnant with Hayden, Gareth had known two days later that they were expecting just from the slight change in the rhythm of her heartbeat as her body began to adjust to the first rush of pregnancy hormones. “Do you mean we’re pregnant again?” “Maybe.” He smiled, the pure joy on his face something Darby knew she wanted to see more often. “You want to meet me in the shower?” “Gareth! Tell me now,” Darby hissed, chasing him into the bathroom where he was already turning on the water. “Let me clean you up first. I don’t believe you had a shower last night, did you?” “Even if I had, fucking my—” “Please, Darby, watch the language.” He laughed and pulled her under the hot spray, soon making her forget that she’d just come less than ten minutes ago. He soaped every inch of her—every inch—until she was trembling and whimpering, aching for him to penetrate her. “In my pussy this time, pervert,” she ordered. 45
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Gareth laughed softly against her neck as he spread her legs and lifted her as if she weighed no more than their daughter. In seconds he had her pinned against the wall of the shower and impaled on his erection. Darby moaned as he slid in to the hilt and her clit connected with his pubic bone. She wiggled into even closer contact and began to roll her hips in slow, sultry circles. Gareth loved it when she ground herself into him until she came, his cock buried deep inside her the entire time. “So are we? Tell me,” she breathed, feathering kisses across his face, licking away the water that beaded on his shoulders. “We are, I’m almost positive,” he groaned, his cock swelling impossibly thicker inside her. Talking about making babies always made him horny. “Two babies in less than two years—we’re going to be busy.” Darby laughed, her voice getting breathy as Gareth captured her soapy breasts in his hands and rolled her slick nipples between his fingertips. “See, we have to retire, we have no choice. This is going to be a two-person job.” He shifted his hips with a moan, nudging her clit with his pubic bone in soft, shallow thrusts. “Hell, maybe a three-person job. We may have to pull your dad out of retirement to help us out.” “I think I can handle one if you can handle one, wimp,” Darby said, smiling at Gareth as her body climbed steadily toward orgasm. “Who says you’re only pregnant with one?” he countered, pinching her nipples hard enough to start the waves crashing over her body. Her womb contracted fiercely, making it difficult to concentrate on something as mundane as the words Gareth was speaking. When their meaning hit, however, Darby couldn’t keep from squealing. “Twins?” She cried the word into the damp skin of his neck, struggling to keep quiet as her orgasm continued to rock through her every cell. The water covered some of the noise, but Hayden had the sensitive hearing of a Talamhrian. “They do run in both of our families.” Gareth gritted out as he began to come in sharp, hot bursts, losing himself inside her body. 46
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“Shit,” Darby said, laughing as she hugged him tighter to her, relishing the feel of his orgasm as much as her own. “You said you were going to stop cussing in front of the baby,” Gareth laughed. “I don’t think she can hear me while we’re in the shower.” “I wouldn’t be so sure,” he said, shutting off the water and cracking the door to the stall. Seconds later, Darby heard Hayden begin to gurgle from her crib, as if in agreement. “Well, I didn’t say I’d stop, I said I’d put it on the list,” Darby grinned, planting a swift kiss on Gareth’s lips before grabbing a towel and going to fetch her daughter, the first of many beloved children, from her crib.
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About the Author Anna J. Evans is a multipublished author who thinks romance is sexier with a sense of humor. She loves reading and writing paranormal romantic adventures and is thrilled to hear from fans. You can visit her website, email her, or join her Yahoo group (
[email protected]) for free reads, the latest publishing news, and monthly member-only give-aways.
Anna welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
Also by Anna J. Evans Enchanted Off the Deep End
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.
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