Page 18 of Capture of Capricorn (The Thirteenth Zodiac #3)

Despite the summons by the boss, Capricorn wanted nothing more than to bury his face back between Zora’s thighs. This past week had been incredibly satisfying, and he had Zora to thank for that. What a minx. What a delight. What a lover.

When she’d made the first move and seduced him, he’d been taken by surprise. He hadn’t even been sure she liked him up until that point. But damn, that woman knew how to pleasure a man.

Her lips on his cock? He’d almost come the moment she’d touched him.

Fucking her, he’d been like a virgin again, ready to pop at the first feel of a pussy around him.

But it wasn’t even just the sex that had him eager to see her all day long.

He looked forward to chuckling at her dark sarcasm, her acerbic humor, her way of stripping bullshit to see at the heart of things, her excitement and passion as she showed him what she’d designed in her smithy, but best of all, how she lit up at the sight of him.

She always greeted him with a smile and a, “Hey, baby, how was your day?” and to be honest, it didn’t matter how frustrated he’d been at the lack of progress in locating Adam or the relic, or how hard he’d been worked in training.

Being with Zora made everything else fade away.

Fucking Aries calling a breakfast meeting, interrupting his morning ritual of making Zora come on his tongue.

“Guess we’ll have to postpone this for later,” she quipped as she hopped out of bed, that sweet ass of hers bare and tempting as she strode to the bathroom.

He almost followed because sharing a shower was something he’d discovered he enjoyed.

But if he did, they’d for sure be late. He made do instead with a washcloth provided by Tower.

When Zora emerged, teeth brushed, face washed, and body dressed, his gaze lingered on her chest area.

Her snug T-shirt hugged the breasts he loved to fondle and touch.

He could so easily imagine them bouncing, the motion hypnotic when she rode him, the dark berries of her nipples a drooling temptation.

“You might want to stop having dirty thoughts,” she murmured as they skipped down the stairs. “You’re tenting.”

“Stop looking so delicious then.”

Her lips quirked. “Yummy enough to eat.”

“Tease,” he hissed, which led to her laughing, the husky sound crazy sexy.

“You are good for my ego,” she stated. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a guy pretend to be so hot for me.”

“I think you should know by now I am not pretending. You are sexy as hell. I want nothing more than to say fuck the meeting so I can press you up against a wall and fuck you.”

She stumbled and almost missed a step. He snared her arm and reeled her against him, leading to her peering at him with parted lips. “You’re serious.”

“Fucking right, I am. You are so my type, Beauty. Curvy. Passionate. Smart. And with a tongue that should come with a warning label.”

She opened her mouth, most likely to refute or utter something sarcastic, but rather than listen, he kissed her.

She immediately softened against him, their embrace still just as passionate as the first time.

It only served to confirm something Capricorn had yet to say aloud.

The fact he might have finally met his match.

“Get a room,” quipped Cancer as he bounded past them, providing the cold shower they both needed.

Zora shook her head. “Dammit, baby. I’m going to need to put a three-foot rule in effect around you.”

“Why, Beauty, did you just call me irresistible?”

“You’re more deadly than chocolate. Now, hands and lips to yourself, or we’ll never make it to this meeting.”

She had a point. He, the usually responsible warrior, almost said to hell with it.

But he was curious about what Aries wanted.

Breakfast meetings involving all the tower warriors and their partners were rare.

So rare he only recalled one, which happened after Leo thought he’d lost his wife and daughter to a monster.

Aries had wanted them to discuss how they could support their fellow warrior during his time of grief.

The cafeteria bustled with noise as they arrived with more people present than he’d have expected. Apart from the usuals, it appeared some warriors currently living outside the tower had shown up.

Pisces sat with his partner, Mike, a werewolf who actually managed to keep his affliction under control.

A good thing, since usually Lycanthropes were exterminated.

As a matter of fact, Pisce’s meet-cute with his partner happened because he’d been dispatched to hunt down the werewolf terrorizing a countryside village in the UK, only to find out Mike wasn’t responsible.

Talking to Cancer was Pisces, who’d been out of the tower on a mission. Virgo was doing his best to charm Sage under Aries’ scowling gaze. As for the Gemini twins, they kept to themselves, preferring their own company.

Only a handful of Zodiacs were missing. Probably still on a mission that didn’t allow for their departure.

As everyone got seated with their plate of food—which changed depending on palate—Aries remained standing and waited until everyone quieted.

“Thanks for coming to this impromptu meeting. I thought it best I gather as many of you as possible to discuss the explosion of monster attacks that occurred overnight.”

The statement had the warriors stiffening.

Aries tucked his hands behind his back. “It appears we have multiple confirmed incidences requiring our intervention. What appears to be a soul-stealing mummy in Egypt. A Sasquatch in the Rockies that tore through some campsites overnight. A bunyip in Australia terrorizing a town. And what appears to be a very hungry vampire in Louisiana.”

“You forgot the gargoyle in France,” Aquarius reminded without looking up from his laptop screen.

Leo whistled. “Damn. Did the bad guys get together and decide to fuck up shit all at once?”

“Leo has a point. That’s a lot of activity,” Cancer pointed out. “Especially considering we aren’t close to a full moon, nor have any celestial events recently happened.”

“The timing is certainly odd,” Aries agreed.

“But given how they are scattered, most likely just coincidental. Keep in mind, as well, that we’re much better at detecting monstrous incursions given social media is quick to post about stuff happening locally, as opposed to us waiting until official news sources actually pick up on problems. Given the danger levels of all these occurrences, they need to be handled asap. ”

“Sounds like it’s going to be all hands on deck,” Pisces remarked.

“Just about,” Aries agreed. “We’ll have to divvy up the missions, but at the same time, I don’t want to leave Tower undefended.”

“Why?” asked Pisces. “Surely you don’t think someone will attack Tower.” His statement had them eyeing Sage, who tucked into her breakfast.

At their sudden interest, she waved a fork. “Don’t look at me. I haven’t seen anything in days,” to which Leo added, “Not sure if Olivia has, but last night, she convinced Rebecca and Ruth to teleport her to a city for a day of girly pampering. They left a half-hour ago.”

Aries pursed his lips. “Could be your daughter acting subconsciously to keep them out of harm’s way.”

“What harm?” The Gemini twins asked in unison.

“Even if someone stumbled across Tower’s location, any attempt to breach the walls or even the door is doomed to fail.

Tower is practically impenetrable from outside.

Should someone even attempt, there would be time to call back anyone in the field to defend. ”

For some reason, Capricorn thought of the bracelet Cetus placed on him, which somehow managed to numb his hands and block his ability to starbeam.

“Don’t be so sure Tower is invulnerable.

Cetus knows more about the Zodiacs than they should.

Could be they’ve got some trick up their sleeve when it comes to Tower as well. ”

“We’d still see them coming a mile away,” Cancer commented.

“We didn’t spot the drone that somehow made it past Tower’s perimeter defense,” Aries reminded.

“Most likely because Tower hadn’t accounted for the new technology. You can bet your ass it’s monitoring for them now.” Pisces glanced at Aquarius. “Right, bro?”

“Pisces is correct. Since the drone, Tower has implemented an aerial watch that pings anything non-organic both in the air and on the ground.”

“Meaning we can all deploy rather than pick and choose which monsters get to keep killing because we’re holding back.” Pisces offered a balanced solution, but Aries still frowned.

Sage leaned over and patted his hand. “I’ll be fine. Go. Tower will protect us.”

“I don’t like leaving you this close to the baby coming,” Aries admitted.

“I won’t be alone. Zora will be with me. So stop arguing and get the mission done,” Sage retorted. “The faster you leave, the faster you’ll return.”

Aries sighed. “Yes, dear,” a capitulation that led to chuckles.

Aries eyed the warriors. “We have seven active situations, meaning we’ll split into teams of two with Gemini twins taking the bunyip on their own since they’ve dealt with one before.

Capricorn, you and I will handle the gargoyle since it will likely be the quickest to track down.

Everyone else, pair up and choose from the remainder. ”

The guys quickly found a partner and then headed for the supply level where they’d outfit themselves as well as get a file on their particular mission to study before leaving.

Aries mouthed, “Meet me in the portal room in twenty,” giving Capricorn time to deal with Zora, who took the news of his departure better than expected.

“Is this what it’s like being a hero?” she asked as they headed out of the cafeteria. “Getting randomly tossed at monsters?”

“Being sent on missions is the norm, yes, but as you heard, this many incidents all at once is uncommon.” It also niggled. Aries wasn’t entirely alone in his thinking Tower shouldn’t be left without a warrior to defend.

“You think Cetus is behind it?”