Primal (4 page)

Blowing out a hard breath, he strode to the house and entered as well. Hell, he’d be more than happy to let her have a lick or two, then he’d have his turn.

And he could well imagine the pleasure to be had there. A soft, delicate woman as heated as the hottest fire. Silken flesh. Sharp little nails.

His dick was vicious hard as he moved up the steps. The scent of her reached out to him, drew him. Hell, it was all he could do to keep his senses intact at the scent of her fear and her pain.

Betrayal was a bitter seed, and it was festering inside her. A father who had betrayed so many others surely would have no problem betraying one tender, trusting daughter.

And when he betrayed her, Creed Raines would be there. To deliver the final betrayal.

At that thought, he paused on the final step.

A feeling of reluctance stirred within his chest. Suddenly, fleetingly, the idea of betraying her seemed so very wrong.

Forcibly shaking the thought away, he took that last step, determination steeling him against these other emotions. He’d made a vow. He was a part of something far greater than a twinge of conscience.

Moving to the closed bedroom door, he rapped his knuckles softly against the heavy wood and waited. She was in there. He could smell her tears, her pain. The delicate scent of a woman who had reached a limit.

TWO

Kita swung the door open, expecting to find her father. Instead, she saw Creed Raines standing on the other side.

He’d witnessed her humiliation, witnessed her running. God, she hated that.

“What do you want?” For some unknown reason, she wanted to throw herself against him, to release the tears she was holding inside and feel his arms surround her.

Comfort. She wanted his comfort, and she had never wanted or needed that with the same strength as she did now.

He stepped inside, moving around her as though it was a foregone conclusion that he was welcome.

As though he belonged there.

“Close the door.”

She turned and stared at him in mocking amazement.

“Did someone call and inform you that you were in charge or something?” She gave the door a hard push, though, before turning to face him.

Damn, she was just fucking pretty.

Creed watched her brush back a stray strand of hair, tucking it into the rest of her shoulder-length, dark blonde waves as she glared back at him with soft, doe brown eyes.

Damn, he loved her eyes. He also loved the way she pulled her lower lip between her teeth and pressed down, just a little bit. Just enough pressure to make his body tighten, his dick throb harder.

She hadn’t changed out of the miniscule bikini she had worn by the pool, though it was somewhat obscured by the thin violet wrap she’d put on over it.

She looked good in that dark purple color. Good enough to eat and come back for seconds.

“Would you like to get away for a while?” Where the hell had that offer come from?

She blinked back at him before her gaze narrowed. “Where?”

“Does it matter?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “Let me surprise you.”

There was a part of him standing back in amazement and simply shaking his head in amused resignation. But the part of him inviting her out, that was standing there with his cock throbbing in anticipation, and his blood pounding in unusual excitement sent a sense of life burning through him.

There were times when he had felt like a robot, like a man without a course. But that was before he had stepped into the Engalls’s home and met the princess he was to stay close to, close enough to gain her trust, her father’s trust, so he could turn her over to Jonas Wyatt if needed.

“You’ll surprise me?” He watched those dark, doe brown eyes suddenly gleam with anticipation. “What if I don’t like your surprise?”

Oh, that wasn’t happening. He knew her. He thought perhaps he knew her better than he knew himself.

“You’ll love my surprise.” His voice dropped, became rougher, a growl barely hidden now.

He moved toward her, the scent of her drawing him, the awareness of her feminine moisture gathering between her thighs, the subtle scent of it teasing his senses, intoxicating him.

She wasn’t moving away from him either. She stared up at him, her breasts rising and falling heavily beneath the soft material of the wrap, her nipples pressing hard and tight beneath it.

The top of her head barely came to his shoulder, and as she tilted her head back farther, the fragile line of her throat was revealed. Beneath the cosmetic dental work that had been done to hide his canines, Creed swore he could feel a hollow ache, a need to clench into her flesh, to hold her in place. To dominate her.

His hand lifted, his fingers cupping the fragile curve of her neck, feeling the blood beating hard and heavy beneath the silken flesh.

“Why are you doing this?”

He almost smiled. No one could say Kita was stupid. She was flushed, aroused, and ready to fuck, but she was smart enough to realize he was acting out of character.

“Because, you need to get out.” He stepped back, putting distance between them. “I don’t want you slipping out, Kita. I can’t protect you if I’m not with you.”

Disappointment filled her eyes as she slowly shook her head. “I don’t need your pity, Creed. And I’m not a child to need a treat to obey the rules.”

She turned back to the door, opened it, and stood aside in silent invitation.

“Don’t try to slip away,” he warned her. “Your father is focused on the Breeds right now, but there are a lot scarier things in the world.” And he had been there, seen them.

“What could be scarier than a Breed?” Doubt filled her tone. Like many non-Breeds, she had no true idea of the evil that could be found in the world.

“The pureblood societies who believe your father is holding the research your uncle is rumored to have done on several drugs that they believe could destroy the Breeds,” he told her. “Those societies would take you if they had the chance, Kita. They would take you and use you against your father. If he doesn’t have what they want, they would punish you, Kita, in ways you can never imagine.”

And he knew the horrors of it. He had seen the results of it.

She didn’t speak. As she stared back at him, he saw the flicker in her gaze, and he knew she would do exactly as he suspected she was preparing to do.

Kita was going to run.

“Don’t do it.” Before he realized his intent, he was leaning forward, almost nose to nose with her, the dominance rising inside him and nearly overwhelming him.

Creed was a perfect covert enforcer for a reason. He always kept his cool. He never gave in to his impulses. He kept them bottled, kept them hidden, only releasing the tension during sex. And he had partners for that. Women who didn’t mind the rough foreplay, women who didn’t mind fucking a Breed.

But never had it risen so rampantly, so quickly as it did now.

“Don’t do what, Creed? Don’t have a life?” she whispered bitterly. “Don’t have a desire to live or a desire to be more than Daddy’s little princess? Sorry, but the glitter wore off the princess act when I learned my father and my uncle had spent their adult lives torturing the Breeds.”

“Don’t run.” He wasn’t going to touch the rest of it. Not here and not now. “If you run, Kita, I promise, I’ll find you. I’ll find you and I will ensure that you never fucking run again.”

Her eyes widened incredulously. “Are you threatening me, Creed?”

“Oh baby, I never threaten. I promise. And I promise you, you run from me, and you may end up regretting it.”

It was all according to how she felt about fucking a Breed, he decided.

He could have her. And he would have her.

“I don’t like threats or your heavy-handed promises.” Her nose touched his as she all but went to her toes to glare back at him. “And you are not my keeper, Creed. You’re my father’s hired gun, nothing more and, I’m certain, most days, a hell of a lot worse.”

Anger was driving her words. Anger and pain. Disillusionment was a hell of a journey to make, and she was making it in one of the most painful ways.

“I’m worse than you’ll ever imagine,” he growled back at her. “Your worst fucking nightmare, sweetheart, if you run. Trust me on that. Because you don’t want to push me.”

Because he was figuring something out himself, something he hadn’t thought possible. In the past hour, he had begun to suspect that Kita Claire Engalls, the willful, stubborn little princess to a pharmaceutical empire, was actually his mate.

She eased back, her gaze still locked with his, eyes narrowed, her body almost trembling with anger. Anger and arousal. Hell, the subtle sweet scent of her pussy was making him crazed with the need to have her. To taste her.

“This conversation is finished,” she informed him imperiously as her delicate little nose lifted, nostrils flaring in feminine offense. “You can leave now.”

Oh, could he now? As though he were a dog to be ordered outside for disobeying its mistress? It so didn’t work that way for a feline Breed. At least, not for long.

He knew her. He knew her expressions, her moods, her laughter, and her teasing. Until now, he hadn’t really known her anger, and he couldn’t say he was comfortable with it, but he could handle it.

“Don’t push me, sweetheart,” he warned her softly. “Don’t force me into something we’ll both regret.”

He had no doubt in his mind she wouldn’t hate him for life if he forced her into the mating heat, and he sure as hell couldn’t warn her about it first.

Turning on his heel, he stalked from the bedroom without saying more. The problem was, he was so damned close to tasting her he couldn’t trust himself. He wanted nothing more than to jerk her into his arms and take her lips in a kiss he knew would only fan the flames burning between them.

Hell, he hadn’t expected to find his mate here, of all places.

The Engalls princess? Heir to a pharmaceutical company that had worked with Phillip Brandenmore to create a line of drugs potentially fatal to Breeds?

Brandenmore’s scent blocker had made its way into the hands of pureblood societies and the Council-loyal coyote Breed soldiers still desperate to capture the mates of high-ranking Breeds or, God forbid, one of the hybrid children that had been born.

Especially the hybrids born of the wolves. The hybrid wolf-coyote Cassie Sinclair, as well as the child of Aiden and Charity Chance and the son of Dash and Elizabeth Sinclair. Children were so rare within the wolf Breeds that the Council scientists still operating would take any risk to acquire one.

Added to that was the drug therapy created to control a Breed mind. Horrific, destructive, it had nearly driven Elyianna Morrey insane even as it allowed her traitorous lab techs to steal and manipulate valuable mating heat data in an attempt to sell it, to Phillip Brandenmore and Horace Engalls.

Making his way back downstairs, Creed began moving to protect the delicate woman he suspected was his mate, especially from herself. She was in more danger than she knew.

In past weeks Creed had found signs of someone watching the house, but he could detect no unusual scents. Her father was acting strangely out of character, and there were rumors that the pureblood societies were looking to Kita to force Engalls to turn over information he had on the drugs his brother-in-law had given him to manufacturer. Those sample drugs and the ability to produce them on a large scale had been destroyed in an as-yet unexplained explosion at Engalls’s manufacturing facility.

The Breeds hadn’t done it. The information they had gathered said the pureblood societies hadn’t done it either. That left but a few suspect paramilitary groups, but the Breeds had no sources within those organizations who could help them reliably finger those responsible for the explosion.

One thing was for certain: there were too many people looking to use Kita as leverage against her father. Get the girl, and the research could be theirs.

The Breeds desperately needed that research to go along with information provided just weeks before by the daughter of a Breed scientist. Storme Montague had hidden certain research on mates, primal fever, and a vaccine created in a little known lab in the Andes before the Breed rescues had reach that area. The vaccine mimicked one created in Russia for the coyotes and the men and women who worked with them. The vaccine, originally intended as an anti-body against a feared contagion associated with feral fever, was now revealing itself as a much-needed component in the mating and ability to conceive within the Breed community.