Tempest of Vengeance (5 page)

Theo stalked over to me, and gave me a smile
that was more arrogance than anything else, as if waiting for me to
accuse him. I didn’t say a thing, unwilling to give him any
satisfaction. The result was surprise and also annoyance. He’d
planned to get a rise out of me and I wasn’t giving him any
reaction.

Even if I wasn’t going to scream at him, I
wasn’t going to stay silent. My name was Sar, after all. “You
didn’t have to sleep with Jenny to not be with me anymore. You
could have just told me to leave, and not come back, and I would
have not been here when you got back tonight.”

My calm words hung between us for a split
second, then Theo’s eyes went yellow. “I wanted you to know how it
feels,” he growled. “For you to be the one who is jealous.”

“I’m not,” I said casually, surprised myself
that I was speaking the truth.
What had happened?

I stared at Theo, as if seeing him for the
first time. My love of the last three and a half years, the man I’d
moved Heaven and Earth for, and always put first. The man I’d
driven cross-country to find, whose daughter I’d raised, whose
child I’d had, whose life I’d sold myself in return for twice over.
The man I’d left Danial for, hurt Devlin for, and rejected Lash
for, over and over. Sure, he was handsome. Sure, he had a great
body. Sure, he’d saved my life, but who hadn’t, of my lovers? Why
had I thought he was so special? He was a good enough guy, but that
was if you weren’t the one married to him. When had he ever put me
first? Maybe long ago, when we first met, and he first loved me.
Why had I chased him so long, tried so hard to be everything he
wanted, instead of being myself? I’d almost died, trying to be what
he wanted!

“You are so not worth it,” I whispered
cuttingly.

“I could say the same for you,” Theo growled
back.

“You don’t have to,” I retorted, curling my
lip. “I’ll be leaving now.”

“You aren’t going anywhere,” he growled.
“You’re my wife, and you go where I tell you. I’ll say if you are
leaving, or staying.”

I looked at him, ready to laugh at how
ridiculous he sounded, and saw he was serious.

“You aren’t going to go to Devlin again,
ever,” Theo growled. “You’re staying here, with me. And you’re
going to sleep beside me every night—”

“Jenny’s not going to go for that,” I
sneered, my tone raw sarcasm.

“Sometimes she’ll join us,” Theo said with a
grin that was part eager, part malicious.

I looked at him in shock. Theo had never
wanted more than me, had refused when I’d told him to take another
lover...
until Titus began to break the bond
. Now, I was
betting it was finally broken.

“Why not, Sweetheart? I was in bed with you
and Danial before, even if nothing happened. Two women sounds good
to me, one on either side of me.”

“Getting visions of your own pride now, Theo?
Must be a lion thing—”

“It
is
a ‘lion thing’,” Theo growled
provocatively. “Male lions like more than one female lion to mate
with usually, Sar. Nineva has three women. Two have already born
him children, and the third will give birth in February—”

“That’s nice,” I said sarcastically, rolling
my eyes and getting up. “Count me out.”

Theo growled, his eyes still yellow.

“Don’t worry,” I continued, turning to leave.
“There might be no werecougars besides Jenny in the Northeast, but
I’m sure you can find someone else to turn if you ask enough women.
Then you’ll have your very own ménage a trois, or quatre, if you
prefer four!”

“I already have someone else to turn right
here,” Theo purred, his throaty sound of pleasure sending chills
down my spine. “You.”

I slowly turned to face him. “I don’t want to
be werecougar.”

“I don’t care if you want to be or not,” Theo
said easily. “I want you to be, and you are my mate. You’ll do it,
because it’s what I want!”

“Keep telling yourself that and it still
won’t happen,” I said, and went into Danial’s room.

Theo followed me, locking the door behind us.
I turned to face him, my eyes spitting sparks. “You think if you
lock me in here with you I’m going to listen to your shit?”

“Look, I’m sorry,” Theo said in a more
placating tone, leaning against the door. “I probably shouldn’t
have said it like that. It is true though, what I said about
Nineva. Most lions have more than one mate, but I don’t feel that
way. I just wanted you to know how it felt to be the one told that
you were going to have to put up with other lovers.”

Outraged that he would do such a thing on the
very day our son had died, my loud voice became a shout. “Theo, you
know without Devlin’s protection, I’m sure to be claimed by some
other vampire, even someone like Michael—”

“Not if you let me change you tonight,” Theo
said, a hot current infecting each word. “If you’re werecougar,
they can’t force you to do anything! Danial will leave you alone,
that is, if he even recovers—”

“Stop it!”

“And Devlin will too, he’ll find some other
woman to bed—”

“Like you obviously have?”

Theo looked as if he badly wanted to say
something cutting but instead let out a breath. “You’ve got to
understand, my turning her, I did it for you, Sar! I know what to
do now! I couldn’t risk trying it with you until I knew it would
work! But I changed Jenny, and she was almost dead! It will work
with you, you’re healthy and you’re mortal now.”

I looked at him with growing fear. He was
serious. He was absolutely serious. I tried to teleport, but he
reached out and pulled me into his arms, hugging me tight. “No, you
don’t,” he growled. “I told you, you’re staying here with me, even
if I have to hold on to you all night. And you can’t teleport from
here anyway. T’s worried about someone getting in the house. He had
Terian put up a barrier for certain rooms, including the bedrooms
and the offices. Go ahead, try it right now!”

I felt a bad feeling of foreboding. I tried
it, and nothing happened.
Fuck!

Theo let me go, and stepped back from me.
“See?”

“Devlin would be furious if you—”

“But he couldn’t undo it,” Theo said
triumphantly. “He’d get used to it. He’d have no other choice!”

I didn’t say anything, too busy thinking how
to get myself out of this situation.

Theo was still trying to convince me. “We can
hunt together, and I can love you with everything I am,” he purred,
that great rumbling sound calming me in spite of the circumstances.
“If you’re werecougar, I won’t have to hold back with you, or worry
about hurting you anymore! It could be so perfect, Sar. Maybe we
can even have another child.”

I felt something cold slither down my spine
and clutch my heart. Theo saw the fresh grief and loss in my eyes.
“We’ll never get Devon back,” he said, swallowing hard. “I accept
that. But I loved sharing that with you, seeing the two of you
together, knowing he was my son, and how much you loved him, that
he was part mine and part yours—”

Even as my vision blurred with tears, I saw a
problem here, a problem Theo should be seeing, unless he’d found
out the truth about me.
I have to know if he knows.
“But I’m
fixed, I can’t have any more children.”

“When you become were, you may heal what
Stephen did to you,” Theo said with excitement. “I checked, and
there have been cases where it’s happened to other women when they
were turned, Sar. Even if you don’t heal your human body, when you
change into lion form you’ll be able to get pregnant. You could
stay in lion form, carry the baby that way—”

I felt a shiver again at his rampant
eagerness as relief flooded me that he hadn’t found out I had
already healed. “No, Theo, I don’t want—”

“—
with us being both were and the same
species, there won’t be any danger of the fetus getting too big,
and you’ll heal fast, too. I’ll take care of you, like I did before
when you were pregnant.”

“Theo, it’s not going to work!
I don’t
want to
—”

“It will,” Theo said staunchly. “We can
finally be happy together. The way we should have been from the
first! When I first changed for you, when you told me how beautiful
I was as a lion, I wanted to ask you then to let me change you.
We’d just gotten together though, and I didn’t have nearly enough
control—”

“Theo, you aren’t
listening
—”

“But I do now, Sar. I won’t hurt you, like I
was afraid I might. Aspen told me what to do, that night we saw her
in Casper. She told me it would only take a moment’s courage, and
it would be done—”

I tried another tactic. “Dev will kill you!
He treasures the taste of my blood above all else, and it’s
beginning to change finally—”

“I don’t give a fuck what he wants!” Theo
roared. “And I’m done sharing you with him!”

Theo squeezed me tighter, and his yellow eyes
bored into mine. “You either let me change you here tonight, or I’m
leaving you, Sarelle. I’m done with having only part of you, and
only being able to share half of myself with you! It’s all or
nothing. And it’s your choice.”

“Theo, please, let me go!”

“What’s it going to be, Sar? Me, or the two
brothers? Well, really now, it’s me or Dev! A good life in the sun,
with a man who loves you, really loves you, or spending the rest of
your life in the darkness with a leech feeding off you every chance
he gets—”

“Stop it!”

“You stop it! Stop making excuses! Say yes
now, or tell me good-bye. And know that Jenny has already told me
if I want her, she’s mine—”

“Good! Leave me alone! Go to your whore—”

Theo slapped me lightly, the unexpected blow
knocking me off balance. I fell down, but caught myself with my
hands before my head hit the floor. I was in too much shock to do
anything but look up at him, and put a shaking hand to my mouth. My
teeth had cut my lip shallowly and it was bleeding. I lay where I’d
fallen for a moment, feeling déjà vu. Theo had never struck me
before, never. I hadn’t thought he was capable of it. But he’d
changed from the man I’d known and trusted, when the spell had been
broken. And the man he was now was a man I didn’t know. A man I
couldn’t trust.

“Sar, I’m so sorry,” Theo said, starting
toward me.

I suddenly realized I had a clear path to the
door. Theo did too, and grabbed hold of my hand again.

“Get your God-damned hands off me!” I said,
trying to back away on my hands and knees.

“I can’t believe I did that,” Theo said,
tears in his eyes. “Please—”

“Get out! I’m not turning for you, Theo! Not
now, not ever!”

“Is that your final answer? You’re sure?” His
voice was hard now, no longer pleading.

“I’m sure. I’m sorry for you, but—”

“I’m sorry for you!” Theo spat. “You’ve
chosen a monster! You’ll be pimped out to his friends to be fucked
every way possible!”

“Let me go!”

“But maybe you like that? You seem to love
having more than one man in your bed! How many times have you
fucked Lash and him together, Sar? Fifty? A hundred?”

“I haven’t been with Lash at all—”

Theo heard the truth in my voice and switched
tactics, still growling. “You don’t ever call Jenny a whore, not in
front of me! It’s you who is the whore!”

The last bit of my self-restraint abruptly
gave way. “You’re right. She’s not a whore. But you’re a bastard, a
motherfucker, and an asshole!
Now let me go
!”

Theo let me go, and faced me. “Before you go
to your new life in darkness, you might as well have this,” he
said, and he took off his ring and tossed it to me. It rolled to a
stop at my feet.

“It’s just as well you aren’t going to turn,”
Theo continued, running his eyes over me appraisingly. “You might
have been beautiful once, but you’re not anymore, Sar. You have a
hard look in your eyes now that never leaves. And you’ve put on so
much weight, living at Hayden. You’re just too fat and ugly to be a
woman of mine.”

I knew it was a cheap shot. I knew Theo
probably didn’t mean it, that he’d just told me that morning as he
made love to me how beautiful I was, how much he loved me. But part
of me told myself he did, that this was what he’d thought all
along, that Terian’s spell had just hidden it. And for some reason,
it hurt me more than anything else he could have said. Maybe
because in part he was right; I had let myself go a little since
I’d had the twins. Maybe it was because I had always been vain. And
maybe because it was the path of least resistance, believing
him.

But in addition to hurting, his words also
made me very, very angry. So angry I forgot about escaping, and
decided I had a few things to say to him too. He wasn’t getting the
last word.

“I want you to know something, before you
go,” I said, looking up at him with hate. “You owe Lash your life.
You’re walking around breathing because he saved your ass!”

Theo sneered at me. “What bullshit are
you—?”

“That night you challenged Robert, and fought
him, Satar and his men, they were there, planning to shoot you as
you fought him!”

“You’re lying!”

“You never wondered how they suddenly ceased
to exist? Why they just seemed to give up trying to kill you? How
much of an idiot
are
you?” I laughed maliciously. “Lash
killed them. He covered it up, burned the bodies!”

“No!” Theo said looking at me with so much
pain and agony, I thought he might be having a heart attack. “That
can’t be true! You’re lying! He would never—”

“I sent him to protect you,” I hissed. “He
got hurt saving your stupid ass! I went to save him in part because
of it—”

“I never asked you to,” Theo whispered,
belief and horror in his eyes. “Why did you—?”

“I heard you talking to Devon, saying you
wouldn’t come back! I had to do something! You were going to let
yourself be killed over your stupid honor! If you’d have let Terian
go with you, I wouldn’t have needed Lash’s help—”