As a fast tune began blaring from the band, Stygian shot the singer a hard glare before leading Liza from the dance floor. The fact that he wasn’t pleased with the music was more than apparent.
The fact that he wanted her was even more apparent.
Malachi had warned her that a Breed, once certain that the woman he wanted was as drawn to him, could only be turned away if he knew the object of his lust, his affection, or whatever they called it, if her objections were stronger than her need.
Breeds didn’t force the sexual aspects, they didn’t stalk, nor did they harass. They charmed, cajoled and teased. They built the hunger and the need until their potential lovers fell willingly into their arms.
He’d been a fount of information after he and Isabelle had become lovers.
Or mates.
A tremble of trepidation skated across her nerve endings as he led her back to the table where her friends waited.
The plans she and the team were discussing before his arrival would have to wait. Stygian was on the prowl and he’d found his prey. He wouldn’t be walking away anytime soon.
The problems inherent in such a decision on his part had her stomach tightening with dread. The team had already lost Isabelle due to her relationship with Malachi and her vow to never reveal what she had been a part of to anyone, especially a lover or husband outside the network.
The fact that Malachi was outside the network and not approved to be privy to that information had hurt them all. It was a decision no one on the team could make though, and permission had yet to be offered.
As they reached the table, Liza made her next decision quickly without taking the time to consider the repercussions of it.
“I’m going home,” she told them, feeling Stygian stiffen beside her.
Cullen, Steven, Reever and Klah all turned accusing stares on Stygian.
“Yeah, I think I’ll head back too.” Chelsea rose to her feet and pulled her purse from the floor. “Are you riding with me?” She looked up at Stygian with a grin. “Or with him?”
“You.” Jerking her light blazer from the back of her chair, she thanked God Chelsea had made her own quick decision.
“Then I guess I’m heading back too, because I came with them.” Claire joined them, moving from her chair and collecting her purse and light jacket. She too was dressed in the clothes she’d worn to work that morning: a light cotton blouse and slim, sedate skirt.
God was smiling on Liza.
“We’ll follow you home.” Steven nodded and the four men rose as well.
Beside her, she swore Stygian chuckled.
She was certain of it as his head lowered. “Very, very good,” he murmured at her ear. “You surprised me.”
It sounded as though he was rarely surprised.
“Good night, Mr. Black,” she said.
“Good night, Ms. Johnson.” Nodding, he stepped back and seconds later disappeared into the press of bodies as he made his way to the exit.
“This isn’t good,” Klah stated softly.
Liza glanced at the dark Navajo, seeing the nearly black eyes and the anger burning within.
Klah was their logistics and planning guru. There were times when his instincts were so strong that the other members of the team swore he was psychic.
“But perhaps not bad.” She shrugged. “He can’t know anything either way. He’s just—” She trailed off, shaking her head.
“Just horny?” Chelsea suggested teasingly. “Honey, that Breed is damned interested and damned certain you’re just as hot for him.”
“She’s not,” Klah snapped as he and the other men surrounded them as they began moving for the exit themselves.
“Reever, take first watch on the girls’ house,” Cullen ordered, ignoring Klah’s exclamation. “Steven, you have second, and Klah will take third. I have duty the next three days, but I can pull members of the other teams in the area to cover them until this situation is resolved.”
“That could be why someone seems to be stalking us,” Liza suggested as they left the club. “Someone could be using the Breeds’ presence here to draw out as many members as possible and get information on the network rather than anything else.”
“That’s always possible,” Cullen agreed. “But I’d rather ensure your, Claire’s and Chelsea’s safety.”
“Don’t pull from the network,” Liza suggested. “We have enough friends who are members of the military or law enforcement who could fill in. I’d rather not risk the identities of the teams involved in relocation. We’re the only team not involved in that phase.”
And team members rarely had the identities of other team members. It was a safeguard, a precaution in case one was caught. Or in case a member became greedy and decided to sell information to the Genetics Council.
It had happened only once in all the decades of the Navajo Underground Network. But if it had happened once, it could happen again.
“We’ll see what we can do,” Cullen answered without giving an indication of whether he agreed or not.
It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her opinion, she told herself. She, Claire and Chelsea were junior members of the group, and in ways, still in training.
As they reached the car, Liza gave in to curiosity and glanced around the parking lot. She couldn’t see Stygian, but she was certain he was there. He wasn’t a man—a Breed—who would give up easily.
“All these hot and handsome Breeds are going to make me start wishing one would go nuts on me now.” Chelsea was laughing despite the declaration as she pulled her small sedan out onto the highway and headed back to Window Rock.
The night closed around them, and as Liza opened the passenger-side window, she couldn’t help but wish the wind was whipping around her as she rode behind Stygian on that motorcycle he had claimed to be riding.
And no doubt he had. He was big enough, strong enough, bold enough to risk life and limb on a hot desert night and a highway that could hold any number of surprises.
“Thank God it’s Friday.” Claire sighed wearily. “This hasn’t been a week I’d want to repeat.”
The planning and implementation of several assignments designed to draw in at least one of the shadows watching them had been an exercise in futility.
Until the morning Liza had taken her run, they had been certain they wouldn’t have to deal with the Bureau of Breed Affairs’s enforcers. Liza, along with the others, had been certain that capturing one of the forces tracking her would be a piece of cake.
Only they had watched that prized cake squashed into nothingness as Liza became immersed in a sensual battle with one of the most powerful Breeds. And he didn’t appear to be the sort to give up easily.
Or to do anything easily.
He would take her as he lived, she thought. Confidently, powerfully. He would hold her with those strong, broad hands, kiss her into senseless submission with lips that mesmerized her, and invade not just her body, but her heart as well.
“Did you hear me, Liza?” Chelsea complained as Liza fought to bring herself back from that place where Stygian’s arms enfolded her and his kiss heated her.
After all, she had been pretty cold lately, she thought wearily.
“No, I’m sorry, Chelsea, I was thinking of something else,” she answered her friend as she pushed back the images of her and Stygian together.
“Or someone else,” Chelsea smirked from the seat beside her. “That Breed, no doubt.”
“He’s arrogant,” Liza accused.
“He’s fucking hot.” Chelsea laughed.
“He’s too dominant,” Liza tried again.
“Yeah well, he could tie me to the bed and spank my ass any day he wants,” Chelsea proclaimed. “Damn, Liza, I know you’re not going to turn down that chance to have the most incredible sexual adventure of a lifetime. You know, Wolf Breeds’ cocks are supposed to be twice as thick as any human man’s. And you know what we’ve heard they do.”