Chapter 17 - Malachi

I carried her back to the living room and sat her down on the sofa.

         “Just that, I have an upgrade. It’s a government-tested thing that they wanted to try out on a few people. Eventually, they were supposed to release it into the military to give us the edge.”

         “And what is this upgrade?” I sat on the couch next to Harlow, lifting her legs and letting them rest on my lap.

         “Do you want to see?”

         “Should I take cover or something?”

         Harlow laughed. “No.” She closed her eyes and tilted her head back. When she opened her eyes again her eyes were no longer blue, but white with a small pupil, there was an outer circle that had two dissecting lines going toward the pupil.

         “What is that?” I said, leaning in.

         “I call it PureView vision. It helps me focus like a scope, but also predict the next moves of my opponent. It’s been pretty helpful, I even used it when I was fighting those guys in the gym.”

         “That’s really cool.” I continued to lean forward and stare at her eyes. They were freaky to look at, but no doubt gave her an edge.

         She closed her eyes again and leaned her head back. When she opened her eyes again, her eyes were their normal blue.

         “Remind me never to fight against you. I have a feeling it would be very emasculating.”

         “It is very much so.” She laughed. Her laugh surged something through me, something that I have never felt before with another…it was joy. Pure unadulterated joy. It warmed my heart to hear her laugh, it sounded like a bell. I smiled at her.

         As I eased into the feeling, my back pocket vibrated. Without moving too much, I pulled my phone out and accepted the call from Alec.

         “What is it?” I said, looking at Harlow, whose face dropped. The moment was ruined. I was determined to fill my days with that feeling, to see her smile and hear that laugh.

         "Sorry to disturb, but we have a situation here." I could feel the hesitation in his voice. He wouldn’t have called unless it was an emergency. “I know you are with your mate.” He said in a softer voice.

         “It’s fine. What’s going on?”

         “We caught two more.” Alec cleared his throat. “And we aren’t really sure what to do with them, Joe suggested that we question them. But I didn’t want to start anything without your approval.”

         I let out a breath. “Don’t start anything. I’m on my way.” I didn’t want to leave. I liked the little bubble that Harlow and I were in. It was just us, except for the dark figure in the woods. But I could easily deal with that. I ended the call without waiting for him to respond and looked at Harlow. She sat there staring at me, waiting for me to explain. “I have to get back to the house.”

         “What’s going on?”

         I pulled a hand through my hair. It was getting harder and harder to do my job, when all I did was capture intruders and torture. I felt like I was failing. I looked at Harlow, her eyes filled with concern.

         As if she read my mind, she said, “I already told you that I would deal with the torture stuff. I’m very good at it.”

         I let out another breath. “Okay.” I knew she would fight me the entire time if I didn’t agree.

         “Great.” She moved her legs to the floor and stood up. “I need to grab some things from the armory.”

         “And you should probably put on pants.” I laughed at her, her long shirt barely covering her ass. I didn’t want any of the other wolves in the pack to look at her. She was mine.

         She laughed again, sending the trill of joy to surge through me. “And probably pants.”

         She took a limping step. “What do you think you’re doing?” I stood next to her.

         “Going to put on pants and then go to the armory.”

         “What did I say before?” I stood there and stared at her. Waiting for her to answer.

         She shook her head.

         “I have to carry you everywhere. You already agreed.”

         “When we get to your house, I am not going to be carried around. I can walk. You’re just stubborn.”

         And want her close to me, so I could feel her body against mine, but I didn’t say that. “We are still in your house, so rules still apply. And when we get to mine, I’ll let you walk, unless you ask me to carry you.”

         She crossed her arms over her chest, pulling her shirt up, revealing the tiniest sliver of her folds. My dick pressed against my pants, wanting to be enveloped inside of her again. “Fine.”

         Before I could get too distracted about what she was revealing, I picked her up swiftly and carried her to her room. She went through her bag and pulled out a pair of black jeans, underwear, a bra, and a fresh white shirt.

         “Are you just going to watch me get dressed?” She looked over at where I was standing, leaning against the doorframe.

         I shrugged my shoulders, “Yes…Do you have a problem with that?”

         Her cheeks flushed; she turned her back to me. She didn’t know I was an ass man, and her voluptuous bottom was causing my dick to pressed even harder against the zipper of my pants. She slipped on her underwear, latched on her bra, and moved to the bed to put on her jeans. She took it slowly over her wound, but made it without making a pained face. She threw on her shirt and limped to me. “Shoes are by the door.”

         She tried to walk past me, but I stopped her by pulling her back against my chest. I knew she could feel me, feel how hard I was. She let out a gasp. I growled in her ear, “I told you, I was going to carry you. Are you intentionally being bad?” I nuzzled her neck; she leaned her head against my shoulder. I breathed her in, I gently kissed the place I would one day mark. I could feel her shiver, but she shook her head. “Good,” I growled again.

         I bent down and cradled her in my arms. I could feel her heart racing, the flush that rose to her cheeks when she changed didn’t leave. I walked to where I knew the armory was. She pressed the code that opened the outer door. We made it to the door that led to the armory and did the retinal scan.

         “Welcome, Harlow Dunaway.” The security system called out.

         “What do you need?”

         “Just some stuff.” She looked around. “Set me down.”

         I hesitated; I didn’t want to. I wanted to keep her close and just feel her. But it would take forever to pack her things up, when I was technically in a rush. She went to a locker that was against the far wall next to the glass cell that was once clean, but now had body marks on it from where we fucked against it. She pulled out a black bag.

         She limped over to me, “Here, can you hold this open and follow me?”

         I laughed. “A typical man, holding his woman’s purse.”

         Harlow chuckled. “While other women fill their purses with makeup and a change of shoes, I’m going to stuff this full of deadly things that will get you some answers.”

         She started going around, pulling weapons off the wall. I couldn’t tell you what half of them did, but they looked like torture devices. She had a few handguns in there and clips. She then went to what looked like a refrigerator that hummed. She opened it and started pulling vials and setting them gently in the side pocket of the bag, and then she pulled a pouch of syringes.

         “What’s that?”

         “This is insulin.” She put a vial into the bag. “This one is Sulfazin, this one is Scopolamine.” She held up a vial. “This puts the person in a dreamlike state where they feel free to talk.”

         “Truth serum?”

         “Bingo.” She looked around but didn’t add anything else to her bag. “I think that’s all.”

         “Are you sure you don’t want to grab a grenade launcher or a couple of landmines?”

         She looked over to the opposite wall, where an actual grenade launcher rested. “No, I think we should be good, but it’s here if we need it.” She zipped up the bag that I was holding. “And your sarcasm has been noted.”

         I smiled at her. She walked past me to the door. “What are you doing?”

         “Going to the car.”

         I let my eyes darken. “You’re just looking to be punished, aren’t you, Harlow?” My voice was just a rumble.  I could see her chest rise and fall quicker.

She bit her lip but then answered, “Maybe.” An evil grin spread across her face.

A growl emerged from my chest. “Later.” With that single word, I could smell her arousal. She was killing me.

I slung the bag over my shoulder, careful not to break any of the vials she put in there. I went over to her and scooped her up.

“Anything else you need?”

“I’m good. Let’s go have some fun.”