“Thanks. Now, can we please stop talking about it?”
“Gladly.” Zack sighed and continued to pace, making Ace dizzy. “To get back to Kelly.
She sat with you while Doc examined me. If that wasn’t bad enough, I also had to endure Caitlyn’s probing hands. And let me tell you, she’s hot as hell when changed, but she’s nobody’s wet dream of a doctor.” Zack winced. “She fucking poked me when I was down.
Evil woman.”
Ace chuckled. “Baby.”
“Whatever. When I went back to check on you again, I scented something the others didn’t.” Zack gave him a strange look.
“What? Spit it out already.”
“Well, when I neared you, I smelled Kelly. Like you were covered in her scent. And I smelled cum,” Zack said bluntly. “Did you jack off or something? I thought you were unconscious, but now I’m wondering.”
“No shit.” His dream surfaced. “I had the best dream. Kelly was touching me, stroking me. I came hard. But you were there too.” Ace glared at him. “You sure you weren’t in there while she was doing that to me?”
“We don’t know that she was doing anything to you. When I entered, Caitlyn was there talking to her. You were laid out flat and passed out. Maybe it was a dream.”
“Or maybe I came in my sleep. Who the hell knows?”
“There was something else. Kelly smelled wild. Like a Circ. She looked completely normal, and no one else seemed to notice. But when I gazed into her eyes, I swear I could feel a Circ looking back at me.”
“Wishful thinking?”
“I don’t know. She bolted, literally ran out the door. I haven’t seen her since.”
“What time is it?”
“Around four.” Zack stretched and groaned, rubbing his side. “Damn. Don’t tell Hale this, but I think I will take it easy. Problem is, I’ve got a kink in my back. I can’t get to it, and it’s bugging the crap out of me.”
“Come here.” Ace owed Zack more than he could ever repay. Zack had saved him from rape at that rogue’s hands.
Zack approached, a question in his eyes. Their silvery shine sparkled in the darkness, like neon lights flaring with heat.
“Lie down.” Ace moved over so Zack could access the bed.
“You okay?” Zack didn’t move. “You never want me anywhere near you.”
Though Zack spoke quietly, with little inflection, Ace knew his distance bothered the man. He also knew that Zack had never spoken of it aloud. If Ace gave him the slightest hint, Zack would be all over him. It had taken Ace a while to figure it out, but Zack wasn’t straight, nor was he gay. The man was bisexual with a capital B. He’d had his fair share of women. The entire squad knew that. But they had no idea Zack liked to fuck men as well.
Not as a beast, but as a man.
Ace had caught him once back when they were in the service together. He’d thought Zack and the guy were pals until they’d kissed. Sincerely freaked, he’d never been quite as close to Zack since. And Zack knew it.
“Do you want that kink eased or not?” Ace snapped.
Zack studied him for a minute before slowly lying down. He propped his head on his forearms while his feet dangled over the sides.
“No, idiot. Lay on the bed long ways. Haven’t you ever had a massage before?”
“Not by you,” Zack snapped back. “Look, we both know you don’t want to touch me.
You’re just feeling weird because I saved your ass.” Zack shook his head and started to rise.
“It’s no biggie, Ace. You’d have done the same for me. You don’t owe me anything.”
Ace’s nerves stretched thin. What Zack said was true, to an extent. He did owe Zack.
Not only for this past rescue, but for so much more. Zack always had his back. He’d never once come on to Ace or made him feel less than a true friend. Though Ace always took out his aggression on Zack, he did it because he knew Zack would take it. When changed and the mating heat hit, they inevitably fucked. Their nature as beasts looked for compatibility.
Only a Circ would do. Despite finding Caitlyn a few months ago, Ace’s beast still looked to Zack for completion, which made him wonder what his relationship with Zack really boiled down to. Instinctively, he thought of Zack as his.
Zack stood, and Ace pulled him back to the bed. Zack landed with an oomph.
“Sorry.” Ace tried to be gentle as he pushed Zack to lie straight, the way he’d suggested.
“What the fuck?” Zack’s voice was muffled by the pillow Ace shoved under his face.
“Just relax and enjoy. I’m not coming on to you, for Christ’s sake. I’m just trying to be nice. Accept it,” he barked, his glare fading when he felt Zack chuckle.
“Ass.” Zack sighed and settled into the bed.
Ace studied the muscles of Zack’s back and shoulders. Shit, the guy was cut, like looking at a mirror image of himself. He saw the knot bothering Zack, the bunched muscle opposite his injury. “You overcompensated.”
“No shit. What was I supposed to do? Leave you there?”
Zack had hurt himself by hoisting Ace over his shoulder, which made Ace even more determined to ease his pain.
He lightly probed the area, trying to release the knot of muscles. Zack groaned.
“Pussy. I haven’t even touched you yet.”
“Feels like it. And stop calling me a pussy. I wasn’t the one who was bitten in the hand and had to be carried out of the forest,” Zack teased.
“Funny.” Ace remembered he had a bottle of lotion in their adjoining bathroom. “Be right back. Don’t move.” He and Zack shared the second floor and the bathroom between them. Hale and Derrick shared the floor above, while Roane commanded the downstairs, which connected to the rest of the house. Doc had spared no expense when outfitting his house to accommodate the team.
Situated on thirty-plus acres of land, the compound belonged to Doc. They had a big-ass house and a barn where they did most of their physical training, or PT, as they called it in the Marines. The latest exercise equipment, free weights, and a full-size pool provided them an outlet for their workouts. Another oversize building housed several cars and trucks, as well as the munitions they often needed to work missions.
All in all, Doc had thought of nearly everything to provide for the team. Ace supposed he felt his own guilt about what had happened to Circe’s Recruits, since he’d been a part of the initial research team that had created them.
Ace picked up the bottle and returned to Zack, thinking about how far the squad had come. Eight years ago, he’d volunteered to be a part of Project Dawn -- a secret program designed to create the world’s first supersoldiers. Along with seventy-seven other Marines, sailors, soldiers, and airmen, he’d received a shot -- a virus, Doc had explained -- with a serum piggybacked on top of it. After several doses of the stuff, he and the others had changed. Enhanced senses, strength, intuition, and the ability to turn into a Hulk-like creature, complete with super strength and agility.
“Not too hard,” Zack mumbled.
“You get what you get.” Ace poured the lotion onto his hands and started out by lightly rubbing Zack’s back.
The first time he’d changed, Ace remembered, he’d fallen in love with his new abilities. He’d formed a tighter friendship with Zack, another volunteer. A dozen of them had become close friends -- Hale, Derrick, and Roane included. For five years they’d performed for the government. Top secret missions that made the world a better place and put the criminals where they belonged: ten feet underground.
And then something changed. Men who’d once been his friends turned into monsters.
Murderers and psychopaths who had the strength and cunning to destroy with ease. Two-thirds of the original Circe’s Recruits turned bad. It took the remaining third to find them and put them down. Apparently, nothing and nobody else could stop them. There was no way to reverse the Circe serum. Ace and the rest of the sane volunteers had worked tirelessly to clean up Elliot Pearl’s mess -- the scientist in charge of Project Dawn -- until only five of them remained. Zack, Roane, Derrick, Hale, and himself.