Authors: Lora Leigh
And he felt the need for sleep himself. Just a nap. Just something to restore his sense of balance. Because somehow, somewhere, Ria had shaken his life up as nothing else ever had.
The animal watched from eyes that were wary of detection. It forced the sleeping man’s eyes open, looked around and saw only the darkness of the room where they slept.
It looked down and saw the woman. Into its ragged, pain-ravaged soul it felt the first sliver of peace arise. That little bit of light that gave it hope.
The woman had made the man’s control weak, made him less diligent, less suspicious when the animal came to awareness.
The man’s emotions were finally breaking free, and with that, the animal could feel freedom just at the edges of its mind.
How tired it was. How it hurt, locked so deep within the man’s mind that its captivity was like hell filled with its own roars.
Sweet Ria. The man thought of her as Sweet Ria. The animal saw more. So much more. As the man slept, it stretched out slowly and touched her hair. Emotion clenched its weary mind, gave it strength. She gave the man and the animal strength.
Her hair was soft, so soft. The animal let itself experience the feel of it through the man’s hand. The man slept deeply wrapped around her, but still the animal moved cautiously, so cautiously. It couldn’t allow this woman to escape it. The man believed she would try to leave. He was preparing himself for it. The animal refused to allow it.
The mark the man had made on her shoulder was just below the man’s mouth. Slowly, edging closer, the animal let its power seep into the man. Just a little bit. Just enough.
Seconds later, the animal rumbled its soft purr as the man licked at that wound. The taste of primal hunger filled the man’s mouth, the animal’s being. Its tongue felt thick, aching. He lapped at the woman’s shoulder, probed at the tiny wounds that sharp canines had made and spilled itself inside her body.
Not enough, just a bit. The taste of her was true warmth. The ice encasing the animal weakened, and as it licked at the soft flesh of her shoulder, it was as though that warmth sparked its strength.
Strength. It could be free now. It could struggle free of the bonds holding it, but if it did, if it moved too quickly, the man would fight.
The animal stepped back, aching, but stronger. It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t strong enough for the battle the man might wage. And the man was ever diligent. Even now he was struggling past sleep, aware that something was different. That something moved inside him.
The animal hid in the cold darkness, the warmth of the
woman so close. Its eyes closed. It forced itself to sleep. Because the woman was so close. And still, the animal was so weak… And danger was approaching.
Mercury came awake quickly. For a moment, he felt something he hadn’t felt inside himself for so many years that at first, he simply didn’t recognize it. That surge of feral adrenaline, rage tearing a hole through his mind as his claws flexed, but gentle, very gently because the soft flesh beneath them belonged to Ria.
And he didn’t dare move. Not yet.
The shadows were slipping past the door. There was no scent. Not the scent of human or the scent of Breed. There was the scent of clothing, of danger.
A silent snarl tugged at his lips; rage pumped through his system. He didn’t stop to think about feral displacement or the animal instincts suddenly rising to the fore.
He could smell the weapons they carried; that was enough for him. He could taste the danger surrounding the shadows stealing through the night.
He tracked them, his night vision no longer clouded as it usually was, but still it wasn’t perfect. Not quite as clear as it had been before the feral displacement. He couldn’t make out their faces, but he could track their bodies, watch them move.
They paused as they entered the room. The taller, broader form motioned the other to the side of the bed and indicated he would round it.
Not likely. If they separated, taking them down would be harder. Just another second.
He waited, muscles bunching, and then with a snarl of rage he was out of the bed.
He didn’t question the adrenaline rushing through him; the burst of power or the surge of strength that burned through his body.
They were there, in Ria’s room, too close to her. Too close to his woman. Too close to endangering her. And that was intolerable.
He slammed the first against the wall as Ria screamed. Beneath a well-placed powerful kick to his kidneys the second went down and rolled in pain.
The enemy should have been dead. Only a last-second thought saved him from it as the first shadow flew at Mercury.
It had to be a Breed. Nothing else could be so fucking strong.
Light flared in the room, momentarily blinding Mercury’s sight but not his senses.
His arm snaked out, throwing the Breed back, slamming into the dresser with enough force that wood cracked as he felt the second coming for his head.
His arm flashed out, his hand wrapping around a throat, the other knocking the weapon from the other’s hand. Slamming into the wall, his sight still fuzzy, adjusting from dark to light, Mercury snarled in the intruder’s face.
“You want to let him go, mate,” a hard voice informed him as the barrel of a gun pressed into his neck.
Mercury froze.
“Mercury.” The sound of Ria’s voice inflamed him.
Instinct had his hand flashing up, jerking the gun to the side as it discharged and his elbow slammed back at the same moment the voice penetrated his mind.
“Dane!” Ria screamed the name as Mercury’s vision cleared, his eyes locking on the pale blue gaze, the bulging eyes of Ryan DeSalvo, the bodyguard who traveled with Dane Vanderale.
Mercury loosened his grip only enough to keep from killing the other man before turning, his eyes falling to Dane himself as Ria bent over him, her gaze locked on Mercury in horror.
He loosened DeSalvo slowly, watching as the other man sort of slid down the wall, choking on the oxygen pouring back into his system.
Dane was also breathing.
Mercury snarled again as Ria lifted Dane’s head to her lap. He couldn’t stop himself. Naked, enraged, he gripped her arm, dragging her to the side of the bed as she fought him.
Her fists struck his chest, tears fell from her eyes.
“Do you want him to live?” he snarled into her face, the feral adrenaline still surging through his body as he gripped her shoulders and shook her just enough to force her to stare up at him. “Touch him, and he dies.” He didn’t recognize his own voice. “Do you understand me?”
“You’re crazy!” she screamed. “He wasn’t here to hurt me.”
“And I knew this how?” He meant only to yell, but it came out as a primal roar. “How did I know? No scent, Ria. No warning.” He shook her again. “How did I know?”
“I have to help him.” She was crying. Crying for another man and she had never shed tears for him.
He lowered his face until they were nose to nose.
“Touch him, and he dies.”
If she could have paled further, she did. Her face was stark white as he released her, growling. He was growling like a rabid animal. Releasing her slowly, his finger pointing at her as he stepped back for his clothes, warning her.
A movement from behind him had him turning and snarling furiously again. Half roar, half enraged growl. Ryan DeSalvo halted, his hand within touching distance of the weapon he had carried.
Behind Mercury, Ria’s sobs were wrenching, tearing him apart.
He kicked the gun beneath the bed, spared a glance for the still living Vanderale and jerked his pants from the floor.
As the zipper locked he jumped across the bed, ignoring Ria’s scream, and pressed her to the wall as the door slammed open and Breeds raced in.
Lawe and Rule, Jonas and Callan. They came to a jerking stop, staring in horrified shock at the tableau that met their eyes. Then swung to Mercury as he growled back at them warningly.
“Easy, Merc.” Jonas was breathing harshly as he jerked the silken robe Ria had worn earlier from the floor and tossed it to him. “Take care of your woman. We have this.”
Merc caught the robe, feeling his blood pounding in fury at the thought of anyone seeing Ria naked. Seeing her bend over Dane, naked, her long silken hair flowing around her, he had wanted to kill Dane. Rip his throat out. Had Dane been conscious, Mercury wondered if he wouldn’t have done just that.
He turned back to her, helping her into the robe as the tears continued to fall from her eyes.
“Keep crying for that bastard and I’m going to lose my mind,” he bit out, that hard, violent rasp of his voice causing her to flinch.
“You’ve already lost your mind.” She slapped his shoulder, hard. She could have punched him in the face and he knew it. The fact that she pulled back was a testament to her fear.
He tied her robe around her waist gently.
“Get dressed.” He was fighting the surge of adrenaline now. “Get enough clothes on that I don’t go crazy. Do it now.”
Ria stared up at him, swallowing tightly as the blue burned in his eyes now, mixing so deeply with the hammered gold that it was hard to tell the true color of his eyes. They glowed in the savage features of his face. Feral rage tightened every plane and angle and warned her that he hadn’t yet gotten control of the fury raging through him.
She slid around him, casting a look toward Dane despite Mercury’s growl of protest. He was alive. Bloody, but Callan and Jonas and the two Breeds surrounded him, as did Ryan. Or Rye, as Dane had a habit of calling him.
Rye was battered, bloodied, his shirt nearly torn from him and his throat bruised. Dane looked worse. Blood matted his tawny hair, smeared across his face, and his lips were bleeding, his nose.
She glanced back at Mercury. He had his back to her, his hands braced against the wall, ignoring all of it as he obviously fought to get hold of himself.
What the hell had happened?
She gathered her clothes together. Jeans and socks, a bulky sweater. Enough clothes that he wouldn’t lose his mind, he had warned her.
She slipped into the bathroom, uncertain what to think, what to feel. Uncertain who or what the animal was that her lover had turned into.
“Fuck.” Dane came around with a slow, slurred curse as Mercury dropped his hands from the wall and turned back to the room.
He stalked across the room, jerked a clean shirt from the dresser that had had its top cracked clean through, and tugged it on over his head.
It was tighter than normal. His jaw clenched. Feral displacement.
He pushed his fingers through his hair and fought it back. The need to kill was like a hunger burning inside him. He turned and focused on Ryan DeSalvo and Dane Vanderale, and his lips tugged into a primal, silent snarl.
“They slipped into the fucking room,” he bit out. “Nothing but shadow and they thought I wouldn’t attack?”
Ryan lifted his gaze from his boss, and Mercury saw the suspicion in his eyes. Just as he saw it in everyone else’s.
“He’s right.” Ryan shook his head and breathed out roughly. “Dane slipped in. He likes to play games with Ria. Hell, he thought it would be funny to scare the hell out of her. We didn’t know she had company until we were already in the room.”
“Li’l witch never has company.” Dane chose that moment to cough out the accusation. “She’s so damned grouchy no one can put up with her long enough to stay in a bed all night beside her.” He cracked his eyes opened and focused on Mercury. “Figures it’s you.”
Callan’s growl was intimidating, furious. “You slipped past her guards, broke into her cabin and thought for one damned minute that you could sneak up on the Breed sleeping with her?” He jerked to his feet, his long tawny hair unrestrained and flowing around his shoulders. “Son of a bitch. Do you know what? Vanderale can shove its fucking money because I’m sick of your games.” He jabbed his finger toward Dane. “Obviously genetics fucked up with you, Dane, because anyone of the first Leo would have better sense.”
“Hybrid,” Ryan snorted. “Just wait, Lyons, you’ll find out what fun raising a hybrid is.”
“He tries to slip up on me again and he’ll find out how a hybrid dies,” Mercury snapped, barely in control, but hanging on to it as Dane sat up slowly.
“Get him out of here.” Jonas rose to his feet, his gaze meeting Mercury’s, his silver eyes flat and hard. “Out to the living room and patch his ass up before I finish it off for him.”
He ran his hands over his short hair, and Mercury’s jaw bunched as they helped the other Breed to his feet.
“Dane.” That growl was still in his voice.
Dane turned his head painfully, wincing at the movement.
“Invade our bedroom again without warning, and I’ll kill you.”
“You’re not killing anyone. If you were, you would have done it tonight.” Ria stepped from the bathroom.
Mercury swung around, and something inside him stilled instantly.
She wasn’t pale or crying. Her eyes glittered with irritation, and a flush of anger mounted her cheeks. She was dressed in jeans and a bulky sweater and there was nothing to threaten whatever primal rage had built inside him at the thought of her nakedness being revealed in front of the others.
But she wasn’t happy with him either. He could hear it in her voice, seeing it in the look she shot him.
“Hell,” Dane muttered. “Rye, did we bring the knapsack?”
Rye grimaced. “It’s in the living room.”
“Don’t worry.” Dane was limping as they helped him from the room. “I have your fucking bribe.”