Veiled by Caris Roane Read Free Book Online Page A

with Rachel repeatedly over the decades, but he’d always found a way to end things, usually forcing her to break up with him.
    He had nothing to give, not a damn thing.
    Now that she was home, her scent, like earth and flowers, the smell of grass in springtime, of life and growing things, wafted into his workout room. He wanted her so bad he ached for her, ached to have his cock buried deep between her legs, his body moving over hers, his arms surrounding her, his fangs in her neck, her earthy blood flowing down his throat. And he wanted her tasting him, feeding from him, taking him inside her body, her mouth, her well.
    Rachel. How he loved her.
    The snake swirled faster now, jaws unhinged, sharp fangs dripping with poison.
    He left the weights and hopped onto the rowing machine. He set a heavy pace, one intended to squeeze every ounce of water from his body.
    But the snake moved faster and he knew this would be a bad one.
    The memory rose sharp and clear of his mother’s arms around him, her tears wet on his young six-year-old neck. “You’ll be safer without me here,” she had said. “You have to understand, Duncan. You’ll be safe, but only if I leave.”
    The serpent’s fangs bit deep.
    He stopped rowing and roared the pain of the bite, of watching his mother walk through the front door to never come back, of falling into his father’s rigid discipline as he stood in one place for hours, as his father hit him to make him stronger, cut him, whipped him.
    He rolled off the machine and fell onto the floor, shaking. The poison was in his veins now and wouldn’t come out.
    He had nothing to give Rachel.
    Nothing.
    ~
    Rachel sat up in bed. Duncan’s anguished shouts had awakened her, pounding against her chest and forcing tears to her eyes. He’d been doing this a lot lately, roaring when he spent a couple of hours in his gym. The sound of his suffering had helped her to understand the level of pain he was in.
    She’d tried more than once to encourage him to tell her what was going on, but her presence only seemed to add to his suffering.
    She rubbed her temples and prayed for wisdom, something beyond herself to help the man she loved.
    After a moment, her spirit grew quiet and in its place was a small sense of peace and the soft words floating though her mind, He’ll figure this out. You’ll see.
    She lay back down in bed. Her nausea was better but her current man-hungry state wouldn’t let her fall back to sleep. Her craving for Duncan had returned, stronger than ever. She didn’t know what to do. She’d tried pleasuring herself, but for whatever reason, it didn’t help at all. Instead, her thoughts became fixed on the last time they’d made love in this bed, how Duncan had sucked on her wing-locks and made her come.
    She groaned, put a pillow over her head, and screamed her frustration.
    ~
    For the past two hours, Luken had watched Merl closely, waiting him out. The brother had smoked cig after cig and downed at least three martinis. He stared off into space, his gaze fixed on nothing in particular. He’d been attached to Endelle for weeks, playing her court jester. But the moment the black ops team had come together, he’d abandoned the Supreme High Administrator of Second Earth.
    Since then, however, Merl had turned into a morose, distant warrior, hostile at times. He even seemed despondent, though Luken wasn’t sure exactly why. Merl was supposed to bring the team up to Third Earth battle levels. But so far none of them could properly execute the drills, especially the retrieval of grayle power, a Third specialty.
    Merl badgered the team constantly about how each one of them was holding back. But what about Merl? Though he outdistanced each of them in power, he was completely shut down.
    Luken’s instincts told him he didn’t have a full picture yet of Merl, in particular, what was bugging the shit out of him. And tonight, Luken intended to get some answers. He wasn’t about to leave the Ops