Forever Is Not Enough [Council Enforcers 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (15 page)

Tessa looked startled at first, but she recovered quickly. “Okay, but can you explain to me why?”

“I think I may have just found a way to cure Ben. I need your blood to test my theory. I don’t want to say any more than that right now because I don’t want to jinx it.” Jacqueline expected Tessa to demand more answers, but the woman simply rolled up her sleeve and stuck her arm out.

Working on the theory that her blood had cured Ben’s because of the changes due to mating him, Jacqueline grabbed a fresh slide and combined a drop of Ben’s blood to Tessa’s. Instead of her blood surrounding his, the reaction was the complete opposite. His blood completely contaminated hers.

For the first time in three weeks, Jacqueline felt hope. She was closer than she had ever been to making sure her mate stayed with her. Wanting to try one last test, she contaminated Mitch’s blood with Ben’s. Once Ben’s blood cells took over the sample, she added a drop of Tessa’s blood to Mitch’s sample. She literally felt like her heart stopped beating as she held her breath and waited for the results.

When Tessa’s blood cells started destroying the contaminated cells in Mitch’s sample, Jacqueline let out a scream and began jumping up and down. She grabbed Tessa and pulled her into a hug. “We did it!” She felt tears streaming down her face but didn’t bother to wipe them.

“I take it you got good results?” Tessa’s excitement showed on her face.

“Yes!” Jacqueline practically screamed. “It’s the mated blood. My blood cured Ben, and yours cured Mitch’s when I contaminated it. It’s not a complete cure since those infected would have to have mates, but it’s a start.”

Jacqueline knew she had a lot more work to do, but at the moment, she was too happy to care. There was no way she could just give Ben a complete blood transfusion because their blood types didn’t match. She needed to come up with a serum using her blood to create it. Knowing she wasn’t going to get any sleep until she had the antidote completed, Jacqueline set about gathering all the supplies she needed.

“Tell me what I can do to help.”

Jacqueline felt bad. With her mind on her task, she had already forgotten Tessa was in the room. “I’m going to need coffee and lots of it,” she told her. As Tessa nodded and headed for the stairs, Jacqueline smiled at the woman she considered her first real friend before turning her attention to her work.

* * * *

Wake up! She’s doing it again!

Ben cracked his eyelids open and froze. The sight of his mate standing over him holding a huge syringe and grinning was not what he expected to see first thing in the morning. “Do you remember that little talk we were supposed to have about this needle fetish of yours? I think now would be a good time to have that.”

From the scents in the room, he realized they weren’t alone. It seemed everyone was in his room, and they were all grinning like idiots.

Maybe they want to play,
his wolf told him, sounding eager.

Games that involve huge needles aren’t my idea of fun, pup. You can count me out.

“What’s going on?” Ben swallowed and resisted the urge to scoot away from his mate as she sat down on the bed next to him.

“Tessa and I have been working all night, and we finally did it.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Tessa said from Mitch’s arms. “Your mate is the genius. All I did was keep the coffee hot and hand her things when she asked.”

Ben sat up and leaned against the headboard. “Okay. Does someone want to put me out of my misery and explain to me what
it
is?” He eyed the needle warily as Jacqi held it up. Ben recalled the last time Jacqi had held a needle. She’d been slamming it down into his chest. He wanted to protest now, but he was momentarily distracted by his little mate’s beauty as her face lit up and her smile got even bigger. It was as though she were glowing. Ben decided that he would do whatever he could to always keep that look on her face.

“Do you remember when I bit you?”

Ben felt himself getting hard at the thought of her tiny teeth sinking in his shoulder as he had marked her. He pulled a pillow onto his lap, ignoring the snickers coming from the guys. “Yeah, I remember.”

Jacqueline continued. “I couldn’t sleep last night, so I went down to the lab. I got curious and wanted to see if there was a difference in my blood now that I was mated to you. When I looked, I realized that I had contaminated myself without even knowing it when I bit you.”

Ben felt his blood run cold and sat forward. He opened his mouth to say something, but his mate held up her hand.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine. My biting you was a good thing. If I hadn’t done that, then I never would have been able to create this.” Jacqi held up the needle again. “It’s the antidote.”

As Ben listened to his mate explain how she had created the cure, he had to agree with Tessa. His little mate was a genius. He didn’t understand half of what she said, and he didn’t care. He had never doubted she would eventually figure it out, but he winced at the thought it had taken him contaminating her to get it. He was just glad she was okay.

“Thank you.” If it wasn’t for the audience they currently had, Ben would have ripped his little mate’s clothes off and roll her under him to show his gratitude. Instead, he gently took the syringe out of her hand and set it on the nightstand before pulling his mate into his lap and kissing her. “I know those words aren’t nearly enough for what you’ve done for me, but I promise to spend the rest of my life showing you how much I love you.”

“If it wasn’t for me, neither you or your friends would be in this mess. This was the least I could do to try and make up for my father and myself. The antidote still isn’t perfect. It will only work on mated shifters, but it’s a start.”

Ben hated seeing the guilty look on Jacqi’s face and vowed that he wouldn’t stop until he convinced her that she had nothing to feel guilty for. Her father should have never put her in that position in the first place. No child should ever have to fight for a parent’s affection. It should have been freely given.

As he rolled her underneath him and deepened the kiss, Ben was aware of footsteps leaving the room and the bedroom door easing closed. He released her mouth and nuzzled her jaw, trailing kisses down the side of her neck until he got to his mark on her shoulder. Ben blew gently on the now healed bite and felt Jacqi shiver underneath him at the same time he heard her moan. He smiled. Causing that reaction in her could quickly become his new favorite hobby.

The smell of her arousal was quickly filling the room, and it was driving Ben crazy. He felt his body heating up as he ground his erection between her thighs. She had on too many clothes, and he was desperate to feel her bare skin against him. Using his enhanced strength, Ben gripped the collar of Jacqi’s T-shirt and ripped it down the middle. The treatment he gave her jeans wasn’t any better. Ben let his nails shift into claws and shredded them. When his little mate was finally bare, he spread her legs. He saw the fluid glistening on her thighs, proof that she was just as ready as he was.

Lining up his cock, Ben thrust inside her in one swift movement. He didn’t stop until he was buried deep. He resisted the urge to cross his eyes from the tight squeeze her pussy gave his cock. Jacqi had him in a vise grip as the muscles in her channel clamped down on him. He rested his forehead against hers and breathed in her spicy cinnamon scent as he fought to get his control back. It seemed when it came to his mate he was like an untried virgin all over again, ready to blow at the first touch from a girl.

“Damn, little mate.” Ben wanted to whimper when she wrapped her legs around his back, pulling him impossibly deeper. “You’re killing me here. I want to pound into you so hard right now that it’s taking all my strength to stay still.”

“Do it.”

Those two words were like a checkered flag being waved in front of him. Ben hissed through his teeth as he pulled out and plunged back into her. The silky walls of her channel fluttered as Jacqi threw her head back and moaned in pleasure. Ben gritted his teeth as he built up a steady rhythm. He felt the familiar tingle building at the base of his spine that let him know he was close to coming. He needed his mate to go over the edge first, so Ben slid his hand between them and down into her moist heat. He circled her clit several times before pinching the swollen bud between two fingers. At the same time, Ben nipped her mating mark, assaulting her body with pleasure from top to bottom.

Jacqi screamed, and Ben sealed her lips with his to muffle the sound as she came, writhing against him. The muscles in her pussy contracted and released against his cock as if they were massaging him. Ben felt his sac draw up tight moments before he came, spurting hot ropes of cum deep inside her.

Feeling weak and drained, Ben sagged against his little mate as he caught his breath.

How long do I have to wait before I can play with the pups?

Ben frowned, trying to figure out what his wolf was talking about. It seemed he had lost a few brain cells when he came but could feel his wolf pouncing around in his head.

Don’t you smell it?

Ben took a deep breath. The smell of Jacqi’s arousal was almost overwhelming and took him a while to filter it out. He also filtered out the fading scents of all his friends until he got down to his mate’s cinnamon scent. He was about to question’s his wolf’s sanity when the scent finally hit him. It was so faint he would have never noticed it if he hadn’t been looking for it. Ben gasped and opened his eyes, only to find Jacqi staring at him and frowning.

“What? What’s wrong?” Jacqi asked.

Ben opened his mouth a few times to answer, but before he could say anything, there was the sound of explosions in the distance and the alarms in the house started blaring.

Jacqueline slapped her hands over her ears when the alarms started going off. With her new sensitive hearing, the harsh sound felt as though it was going to make her eardrums burst as it bounced around in her head. She saw Ben’s lips moving as he told her something, but there was no way she could hear what he was saying over the alarm. Finally, he scrambled out of bed and tossed her clothes to her before getting dressed himself.

Jacqueline stared down at the rags in her lap that had formerly been her clothes and shook her head. She knew they were under attack and that she should have a sense of urgency about her, but for some reason, she was having trouble concentrating with the noise. She felt as though her skull was going to explode and wondered how Ben was able to ignore it.

He was suddenly on the bed and shaking her shoulders. Jacqueline could tell he was shouting at her, but his voice sounded as though it were underwater. Thankfully, the sound was cut off, leaving her ears ringing.

“You have to move, little mate. That alarm signaled a perimeter breach, which means we only have a few minutes to get into position.”

She noticed he was fully dressed and nodded. Jacqueline shook off the last of the effects of the noise and climbed out of bed. “Go. I’ll be fine.” She knew the plan and how important his part in it was. “The noise just got to me for a moment. I’m fine now. I promise.”

Ben stood and stared at her, concerned. “Get to the safe room. I’ll come for you as soon as this is over.” When Jacqueline nodded, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “I love you, little mate.”

“I love you, too.” She watched Ben head to the bedroom door and remembered the whole reason she had woke him up in the first place. “Wait,” she yelled and grabbed the syringe off the nightstand. She ran over to him and lifted the arm of his T-shirt and injected the antidote before he could say anything. “Now, you can go.” Ben just nodded and turned to look at her one last time before he left, closing the door behind him. Ignoring the sudden feeling of loss, she ran to the dresser and pulled out a pair of jeans and a T-shirt.

Jacqueline heard the next round of Ben’s explosives going off just as she was zipping up her jeans, letting her know she only had minutes to get herself in the safe room. She ran down the hall and headed for the stairs, cursing the fact that she had forgotten to ask Ben to show her where the safe room upstairs was hidden. It would have certainly been faster to go to that one where she assumed Tessa and Nico were than the one all the way in the basement.

At the bottom of the stairs, Jacqueline gasped. Through the large picture window Mitch loved sunning himself in front of so much, she saw dozens of her father’s men out in the yard. Some were in their shifted form, and some were human with claws and fangs, but they were all surrounding Mitch and Ken, who had both shifted. Mitch had shifted into his large golden lion, and Ken into a very frightening grizzly bear. They were all standing still as if they were under a spell, waiting to see who made the first move. Jacqueline seemed to be under the same spell as she stood rooted at the bottom of the steps, holding her breath, waiting to see what would happen.

All of a sudden, the rogue shifters started dropping one at a time to the ground, and Jacqueline frowned until she saw blood starting to bloom on each of their foreheads, letting her know her mate and Ryan were carrying out their part of the plan. It didn’t take long for the rogues to realize what was happening. They all moved at once, attacking Mitch and Ken, who seemed to have no problem handling themselves with the large number of rogues. With one last look, Jacqueline turned and headed for the basement.