Aiden's Charity

Chapter Fourteen

Aiden groaned roughly as he slid his sensitized flesh from the wet clasp of Charity’s tight vagina. The slick, moist sound as he slid from her had his cock twitching with the need to bury inside her once again, though he knew that such an option was, for now, impossible.

He stared down at her, unable to make himself move entirely from her. Her short, dark blonde hair was damp, several strands clinging to the moist features of her face. Perspiration coated her body and ran in shallow rivulets to the sheets below her.

He touched her flushed cheek with the fingers of one hand, his thumb moving to caress the swollen contours of her lips. Asleep, she looked fragile, innocent, exhausted.

Lines of weariness creased her face. The complete submission of her body to the sleep that had overtaken her went deeper than the unconsciousness that had held her after her escape. This was bone-deep, and soul-weary. How long, he wondered, had she been without restful sleep?

He walked into the bathroom and collected a small wash pan, cloth, soap and towel and returned to the bed. He couldn’t let her sleep with the sweat and semen drying on her sensitive skin. She wouldn’t rest well, and suddenly, knowing that she slept well was of primary importance to him.

He sponged her off carefully, ignoring the hard throb of his cock while enjoying the satiny softness of her skin. From head to toe he cleaned her, ignoring her grumbling moans, his lips quirking in a smile as she finally rolled to her stomach to avoid him.

And there temptation reigned. He sponged her shoulders, the graceful line of her back, her slender legs and tempting thighs. He paused before carefully washing the soft contours of her buttocks then drying them slowly. His fingers trembled as he ran the dry towel down the shadowed cleft of her rear. His cock throbbed in hard demand.

He wasn’t satisfied by a long shot. He needed her again, harder, deeper, until his cock could swell and explode inside her once more. Right there. His fingers glanced over the tight little entrance to her anus. He needed her there.

His disgusted curse was a silent expulsion of air as he moved from the bed. He returned the basin to the bathroom, then set about changing the sheets of the bed as smoothly as possible.

She grumbled irritably but continued to sleep as he finally tucked the fitted ends on both sides of the mattress. A clean sheet covered her then, as well as one of the quilts the women from a nearby town had donated.

She lay on her stomach, almost boneless, her breathing even and deep as she slept. The dark blonde strands of her hair fell silky and soft to her shoulders, though still damp from her earlier passion. He remembered how long it had once been, falling nearly to her hips in a fall of silk. Why had she cut it, he wondered. And why did he care?

He grimaced at the thought as he made himself leave the bedroom. She had once again turned his world upside down and he was left to deal with it as she slept.

Sometime between finding her once again, and finally taking her, he had accepted the mating. He had known in those damned Labs that his connection to her was unbreakable. She could make him respond when no one else could. She softened him when he wanted to be cruel; she had given him hope when he had thought it was futile.

Aiden stepped out onto the porch of the cabin, gazing out at the darkness of night, which had fallen over the compound. He could barely glimpse the high walls that ringed the ten-acre compound. Set with motion sensors and guarded by a team of highly trained enforcers and guard dogs, the chances of the area being breached were slim. But they were still enclosed, imprisoned in many ways. There was no place on earth that was truly safe.

The compound now held over two hundred Wolf Breed inhabitants, from the ages of sixteen to early thirties, and more straggled in monthly. There were several small prides of Feline Breeds that had come in, but they were quickly transferred to Callan in Kentucky, where a similar protective area had been set up.

Six years after the breaking story of the Genetics Council and their horrors, and still there was no resolution. The monsters still practiced their evil, and finding and destroying their Labs was becoming harder each year. Aiden often feared that it would never end.

“Aiden.” Dr. Armani stepped from the shadows of the night, joining him on the porch.

“She’s asleep. Let her rest for now,” he bit out, his body tensing at the thought of Charity being awakened by yet another scientist set on more experiments.

A sigh broke the night. Regretful, yet tinged with mockery.

“I never knew how selfish you could be,” she snorted. “I thought you were more the beta type. Where did you hide all these alpha tendencies over the years?”

He crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned against the rough wood of the cabin and stared at her. He was the damned security expert here, what made her think he didn’t know how to fight?

“Even genius doctors can be wrong, it seems,” he said as though in regret. “I’m sure you’ll survive the mistake, though. This time.”

She grunted in disbelief. “I need to see her when she wakes up. You know that. I would have preferred to have seen her before you mated her.”

“We’ve discussed this.” He tensed as he watched her. “She’s not strong enough for more tests.”

“I need samples, Aiden. I don’t need her body to run the preliminary tests. If she conceives, then your opinion won’t matter. Charity knows the score here. When she’s more herself, you won’t be able to stop her from coming to me.”

Aiden bared his teeth at her statement. “You forget, Armani, she is in my cabin, in my care. My mate. She will do as I say.”

Armani smiled. Just like that, her teeth flashing in the dark as she sat down slowly in the wide, rough wood chair he had made weeks before. She crossed her legs casually, adjusted her light jacket and regarded him with a mocking glitter in her gaze.

“How the mighty will fall,” she sighed sarcastically. “The male mind truly amazes me. The male Breed mind astounds me. What makes you think you can stop her, Aiden? Will you tie her to your bed?”

“If I have to.” He wanted to snarl, but he knew exactly how cutting the little woman could be. He had no desire to be on the wrong end of her cutting sarcasm.

She shook her head sadly. “Charity is well aware of the importance of what’s going on here. Trust me, Aiden; you can’t control her just because it’s your wish to do so. She’s stronger than that.”

“I won’t argue with you, Armani,” he growled, careful to keep his voice low.

“Aiden, I have never considered you a stupid man. Don’t start playing the role now.” Her voice was cold, lethal in its sarcasm. “Not just Charity’s survival, but the survival of your race depends on her at this point. Don’t let your possessive instincts destroy the good that came of what they did to her. She would only hate you for it.”

“And how do you know this?” he bit out. “You have no idea who or what she is.”

“Ah, and here is where you show your ignorance once again,” she sighed in regret. “Charity was, from the very beginning, a plant within the Council, Aiden. A very well hidden mole whose job it was to keep a careful accounting of everything that went on, day by day. All the tests, all the results. How do you think we’ve gained the information we have so far?”

Aiden’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Who is this ‘we’?” he asked her carefully.

She sighed again. “Do you think I am the only doctor who turned down the Council and suffered for it? There were several of us. You know how hard I’ve worked, Aiden, for your people. There are others who have worked with me.”

“Why didn’t you mention this before?” he asked her coldly. “This information seems rather convenient, Armani. More of a carefully prepared lie than any hidden truth.”

Yet, hadn’t Charity told him that it had been she who had contacted the journalists six years before? She had finally been caught in her deceit against the Council while helping the Winged Breeds. She had been in three of the Labs the Wolf Breed Enforcers had received information on, only to escape with the scientists before they could be caught. She had been in several of the Labs that freed Feline Breeds had sworn she had aided them at, in various ways.

He cursed. A low, vicious sound that grated on his own ears. Armani’s chuckle didn’t help the anger growing inside him.

“The fun part in dealing with judgmental assholes, is watching them fall when the truth finally hits them. Welcome to the real world, Aiden. Let’s see, you’ve hated and reviled your mate for six years, and still you haven’t even questioned how she came to be your mate. Or if she is even truly your mate. Have you even considered thinking past your dick yet?”

The woman had an evil mouth.

“She is my mate.”

“Yet days ago you stood before me and said quite the opposite.” She tilted her head as she watched him knowingly. “What changed your mind?”

“Does it matter?” he snapped out.

“Actually, it does. Let me tell you what I know, that you are unaware of, Aiden.” She held up one hand and began counting down. “Number one; six years ago, to save your worthless hide, a virgin went to her knees and forced your erection when you would have died instead. In doing so, to hide the sudden swelling beneath her hands, she was forced to swallow your semen. The change in her body began days after. I have all the tests she ran on herself carefully documented. You didn’t mark her, so the saliva where the Breed hormone is more prevalent didn’t create the same effects Faith had from Jacob. But your semen created changes in Charity that were not apparent in Faith until after her mating with Jacob, and her ingestion of…”

“Dammit, I don’t need to hear about my sister’s sex life.” He pushed his fingers through his hair, trying to fight the knowledge that they were trembling.

“You are missing the point,” she sighed in exasperation. “The point is, certain changes begin with certain sexual passages. Faith was merely in heat for six years. Uncomfortable, at times painful, but Charity has gone farther than this.

“The hormone in your semen reacted in an entirely different way. I won’t get too technical on you, as I’m certain you wouldn’t understand,” she said, her tone superior, knowing. “But the fact of the matter is, she was the perfect specimen for the Council, because her body already had your DNA infecting her, slowly, too slowly, shaping itself and her ovaries, to prepare her to accept your unique sperm.”

“Get to the fucking point,” he snarled. He was sick of the lesson in biology and her careful sarcasm.

“The point is,” she said with heavy patience. “The scientists found a way to advance the ovarian change. Her eggs must be compatible with your sperm to breed. To this point, neither my colleagues nor myself have figured out a way to do this. Charity’s body holds the answers. To help your sister and your Pack Leader’s mate, we must know those answers, Aiden. Charity knows this, the rest of us know this, now you must accept it.”

“They hurt her,” he said softly, unable to still the rage that climbed inside his body at the thought of it. “She nearly bled to death in my arms, whispering of rest. She sleeps now as though she hasn’t slept in years.”

“She hasn’t, Aiden.” Armani’s voice was now filled with regret, with compassion. “She has worked tirelessly to help others, even though she knew time was running out for her. Her body was making demands she couldn’t answer, and the Council was growing more suspicious of her. Now that she’s free, you won’t be able to control her; you won’t be able to bind her. You have no idea the nature, or the training of the woman you have taken. But I trust it will be amusing watching you learn.”

She stood to her feet then, her dark eyes glittering from the rays of the moon, mockery lining her expression.

“You’re too smug to suit me,” he bit out. “What are you not telling me, Armani?”

She shrugged slowly. “There are some things, Aiden, that you must find out for yourself. I look forward to watching you struggle through it. I expect it to be amusing.”

“You find too much amusement at my expense,” he grunted in disgust.

Her laughter was light, amazingly feminine. “I must find my pleasures, small though they are, where I can. I gave up my fiction fetish for this practice,” she growled irritably. “I should be amused somewhere.”

She moved away then, obviously finished with him.

“Armani,” he called out softly.

She paused, glancing over her shoulder questioningly. “I pity you should a Breed mate with you. You may find we’re a bit more intelligent than you give us credit for.”

“I never imagined you weren’t, Aiden.” Her smile was less than comforting. “I’m just waiting on you to prove it. As for a breeding; ah well, we will see should it happen, perhaps. We shall see.”

She turned back and walked away from the cabin slowly. Her shoulders were stiffly straight, her stride determined, though not hurried. A grin edged his mouth. Damn, he wanted to be there should it occur that she did mate with another Breed. Watching the doctor fall would be more than amusing.