by Lora Leigh
“Mercury, could you step into the office please?” Jonas’s voice was like a whip slicing through the tension. “Dane, Ms. Rodriquez might be more comfortable in the receiving room across the hall.”
She stared back at Jonas. His silver eyes seemed alive, an entity separate from the rest of him, swirling and clashing with tempestuous anger as he watched her.
Of course, he would be angry. He would believe this could affect her job. That it would affect Sanctuary’s relationship with the Vanderales.
She shook her head. She was the poor little orphan to the family, not really family at all. She had always known that.
She backed away, feeling Dane’s hand on her arm like a live current, painful, unwanted.
“The hell she will.”
Before the words were out of Mercury’s lips he had hold of her, jerking her to his side, his arm curved around her back, pulling her to him.
“Don’t do this to me.” The sound of her voice shocked her. It was barely passable, so thick and rough it was hardly understandable. “Don’t make me see this.”
His eyes were almost pure blue; now the gold flickered in tiny pinpoints rather than the opposite.
“This isn’t what you think.” He glared into the room before pulling her outside it, out of sight of the others, pressing her against the wall as he stared down at her, his eyes raging.
And the pain was raging inside her. She had to get away from him. Before she begged him. Before she pleaded with him, Please don’t leave me alone.
She pressed her hands against his chest. “Take care of this. I’ll wait with Dane.” She shook her head, knowing he wouldn’t be returning to her.
Mating heat was like a drug, an addiction. He wouldn’t be able to leave his mate’s side until it eased. And Ria would be long gone by then. Long gone and far away.
“Like bloody fucking hell.” He snarled the words into her face. “Not happening.”
“Mercury, listen to her,” Dane urged quietly from behind him. “Do you want to hurt her like this, man? I could smell the mating heat on you the moment Alaiya flung herself into your arms. Denying it isn’t going to keep Ria from hurting.”
Her knees turned to rubber.
Oh God. She couldn’t fall. She stared up at Mercury in horror.
“It’s not like that. Ria, listen to me.” His hands gripped her face, his expression twisted in agony. “Baby, you have to listen to me. It’s not like that.”
His head lowered, and she knew what was coming. He was going to kiss her. Let her taste what she couldn’t have. Let her know what belonged to another woman. And he would destroy her with it.
“No!” Her hand jerked up, covered his mouth. “Let me go, Mercury. Let me go.”
“You’re my mate.” He shook her hand away. “Damn you, you will listen to me.”
“Let her fucking go.”
Dane spun him around, away from her, but none of them could have expected what happened next.
A roar tore from Mercury’s chest and Dane went flying. He slid across the waxed floor, ending up in a pile against the wall before he shook his head and came to his feet with a snarl of rage.
“Touch my mate and you die.” Mercury placed himself between her and Dane. “Do you hear me Vanderale? I’ll gut you like I did that fucking bastard in the labs and I’ll shove it down your throat.”
His voice—wasn’t his voice.
Ria backed away from him, shaking her head as Callan, Kane and Jonas rushed from the office, putting themselves between Mercury and Dane as Jonas held his brother back, snarling in anger as Dane fought him.
“Mercury?” Alaiya stepped from the office. Sensuous silk hissed as she moved, like a serpent’s whisper. Her voice was almost childishly soft, confused, but her eyes—Ria stared into Alaiya’s eyes, and she saw the smug satisfaction there. “Mr. Vanderale hasn’t touched me.”
She touched his arm as Mercury’s gaze swung to Ria.
“Don’t you walk away from me.” He shoved a finger in Ria’s direction, fighting for control, obviously fighting against the rage tearing through him with mating heat.
Mating heat. For her. Ria looked at the other woman and felt like screaming in her own rage.
“Looks like the party’s over,” she whispered, staring back at him, aching to the depths of her soul. “Take care of your mate, Mr. Warrant. I’ll take care of myself.”
She felt the ice building, though she knew it wouldn’t last long. It was forming in her veins, covering her flesh, washing through her mind. The shield was as brittle as frost, and just as cold.
Mercury’s lips pulled back from his teeth in a silent, warning snarl as he started for her. And he might have reached her, he might have actually touched her, if Alaiya hadn’t been there. If she hadn’t reached up, her hands sliding over his shoulders, her lips pressing to his before he could push her from him.
And Mercury stilled, silent as death, against her.
Ria couldn’t bear any more. She turned and ran, aware of Dane behind her, calling out her name, catching up with her. He stopped her at the entrance to the foyer, forced her to slow down before wrapping his arm around her and leading her quickly for the door.
The doorman was waiting with her cape.
Dane grabbed it. Ria would have kept going. She had to run. She had to escape. She had to get away from the pain. It was splintering inside her so sharp and deep she didn’t think she could survive it.
The first sob tore from her throat as she rushed down the steps, ignoring the echo of a roar behind her.
Dane’s limo was waiting outside. Rye rushed to open the door and slammed it behind them as Dane rushed her into the back. A second later, the car was pulling away from the mansion, slicing a path through the fallen snow as Dane wrapped her cloak around her.
“It’s okay, little mink,” he whispered, drawing her into his arms, rocking her.
He had done that too, when he found her at the apartment, all alone. Called her a little mink and took her in his arms.
“This too shall pass, Ria,” he murmured against her hair.
And her heart kept breaking. Her chest was one live, brutal wound that tore open over and over again. Breathing hurt. Living hurt. She could feel the pain sweeping over her body, like barbed agony, ripping and shredding at her.
“She was supposed to be dead,” she whispered. “She wasn’t supposed to be here.”
She could speak. As bad as it hurt, she was still breathing.
“I know, sweetheart.” His arms tightened around her. “God, Ria, I’ll kill him for doing this to you. I swear to you.”
And he meant it. She knew the ice in his voice, the rage echoing in it. And she stilled.
“I’ll die with him.”
His curse rent the air.
“You’re dying without him.” His voice was hoarse. Dane’s voice was never hoarse. He never really let himself care enough about anything or anyone, except family, to become that angry. And she wasn’t family. She never had been.
She moved away from him, hating the feel of him holding her. Hating the feel of anything against her flesh now.
“We’re going to the airport,” he informed her. “I’m taking you home.”
She shook her head. “I have a job to do.”
There was the job. Her word. She owed. She owed the Vanderales. This one last job.
“Ria.” He leaned forward as she moved into the opposite corner and huddled against the door. “God, sweetheart, I can’t let you do this to yourself.”
“You can’t stop me,” she said tonelessly.
Toneless. There was no emotion in her voice, but it was shredding her insides, over and over again. Like the vultures from hell that forever tore at flesh that grew back. That was the pain ripping her apart.
She stared straight ahead, watching the snow come down, the wipers beating at it.
“Take me to the cabin, Rye.”
“Boss said the heli-jet, darlin’,” Rye told her gently as Dane glar
ed at her.
She didn’t look at him. She watched the snow.
“Take me to the cabin.”
“No.”
She turned and looked at him. “It’s over, Dane.”
He stared back at her, his brown eyes hard, furious.
“Meaning?”
“If you don’t take me back to the cabin, don’t let me finish this job, then I’ll go to the Leo and demand it. It’s my job. I’ll finish it.”
He wiped his hand over his face, his jaw clenching, and she could see him thinking, fighting for an answer.
“We’ll go to Asia.” He suddenly smiled, the curve of his lips gentle, sad. “I heard of black pearls, Ria. Natural black pearls. I’ll buy them for you. As many as we can find, mink.”
She shook her head. No more jewels. No more pearls. Nothing could compensate for what she had lost tonight.
“Please,” she whispered. “I need to go to the cabin.”
“So you can fucking torture yourself? God’s sake, Ria, I know what you’ll do, baby. I’ve been there. You’re going to curl in that bed and pretend it didn’t happen. That he’s coming back, that he’s not mating that bitch cat that showed up tonight.” He gripped her shoulders. Shook them. “I’ll kill him, Ria. Do you hear me?”
“Take me back.” She stared back at him. “Touch him and the Leo learns everything, Dane. All of it. Can you kill me to silence me?”
He stared back at her in shock. “You don’t mean that, Ria.” He shook his head bitterly. “You wouldn’t do that, even in rage.”
“I’ve never asked you for anything.” Her voice broke. “The bribes were your idea. I had fun with it. Hurting Mercury is off bounds.”
Because he was right. She needed to curl up in the bed that still held Mercury’s scent. She needed to burrow beneath the blankets and oh God. Oh God. She needed to pretend.
She wrapped her arms over her stomach.
“Please,” she finally sobbed. “Oh God, Dane, please take me back to our cabin. Please.”
The first tear fell, and she fought it. She fought it valiantly. She buried her head against the door and shuddered, and another sob tore from her.
“Take her to the cabin, Rye.” Dane’s voice was tortured. “Just for tonight. Let her have tonight.”
She rocked herself because she couldn’t bear to allow Dane to do it. She shook and bit off the sobs. Her face burned, her throat hurt from the ragged need to scream, and as they took her to the place she had begun to think of as home, Ria shattered inside.
She entered the cabin alone, aware of Rule and Lawe driving in behind them, spreading out around the cabin. They didn’t speak. Dane had stayed in the car when she held a restraining hand out to him.
She entered the cabin and felt it. She could smell him on the air. The scent of their passion that day, the feel of him against her, between her thighs as he pressed her into the wall and called her “mate.” And everything she had thought she could hold back came tumbling from her. Tearing from her. It gouged holes into her spirit, and as the door closed, she had to force herself through the house. To the bedroom.
“Mercury.” She whispered his name, a sobbing, agonizing sound as she dropped the cape on the floor and stumbled to the bed and dragged herself to his pillow.
And she howled. The doors holding back the rage and the pain opened and she screamed in agony. Her hands locked in her hair as she curled against herself and the tears poured from her eyes.
“Mercury!” She screamed his name into the darkness and she sobbed, dying inside, so broken she felt as though she could never put herself together again, as though the world had just dissolved around her.
Heaving sobs tore from her, his name was a prayer on her lips, and she lay there, surrounded by his scent, by his memory, by everything she knew could never be hers. She felt herself die inside.
She pulled his pillow to her, smelled him, and her flesh ached. The pain, physical and emotional, ripped at her, left her twisting against the blankets as the tears poured and the pain raged.
He was supposed to love her.
You’re my mate. Heat be damned. You’re my soul, Ria.
He had kissed her as he said it. As the shower washed over them earlier. As the water slickened their flesh and poured over their passion.
My mate. I love you, Ria. My heart.
She screamed his name, buried her head in his pillow and curled into the agony. He wasn’t her mate.
Dane stood against the car, his head down, snow falling around him, aware of Rule and Lawe approaching slowly as Ria’s screams echoed outside. As the sound of her agony, carried on the silent breeze, filled with grief, echoed through the night.
He lifted his head as they neared, silent, their gazes somber.
“Someone should go in there,” Lawe said softly. “She shouldn’t be alone.”
Dane hunched his shoulders. “She needs to be alone now. She needs to accept it.”
Rule snorted at that. “Mercury’s going to kill you, you son of a bitch. You should have never taken her out of there.”
Dane shook his head. “If dying would make Mercury her mate, then I would take my own life.” He looked back at the cabin. “She deserved what she found with him. And she deserved it to last far longer than it did.”
“Merc isn’t going to let her go,” Lawe told him. “When you hear that Harley prowling this way, you better run, Vanderale. Because hell doesn’t describe what he’s going to bring down on you.”
His name echoed in the air again, the agonized feminine scream of pain causing them all to flinch. But Dane didn’t hear a Harley prowling. He heard a lion’s roar. One of the natural lions that roamed Sanctuary’s boundaries. Drawn by the screams, roaring its own anger.
He shook his head again, opened the door to the limo and stepped inside.
He had listened to those screams once before. When she was a child, barely more than a baby, screaming for a mother who had been taken from her. Screaming at the pain tearing through her.
And even in the limo he couldn’t block her cries. He stared into the night, watched the snow pile up and listened, and he ached. Because this time, he couldn’t spare her. There was no way to ease it.
He reached into the pocket of his evening jacket and drew out the sat phone. He stared at it for long moments before pushing “speed dial.”
“Where the hell are you?” His father’s voice came over the line. Equal parts exasperation and concern filled it.
“Sanctuary. The party, remember?” he answered.
The Leo grunted. “How’s everyone?” His sons. Dane knew who he was talking about.
“Just like you,” he chuckled. “Arrogant as hell and making me crazy.”
“More like you then,” Leo stated.
“How are the girls?” His mother had given birth to twin girls. They had been ill for a while, though Leo had reported the day before that they seemed to be doing better.
“Healthy as they were before they took that cold.” He could hear the relief in Leo’s voice. “Get home. You can babysit.”
Dane grimaced. “Try the nanny, she’s better at it.”
Silence filled the line.
“What have you done, Dane?” Leo finally asked.
Dane stared out at the snow and heard Ria’s cries as they echoed through the night.
He sighed wearily. “Ria’s here.”
“Why is my girl there, Dane?” Leo asked him.
Dane watched the snow. “Cracking code. Someone’s slipping secrets to Engalls and Brandenmore,” he said quietly. “I put her on it.”
Leo was silent. “Good choice,” he finally commented. “So why do I feel the but?”
That was his father. Sometimes Dane wondered if Leo wasn’t aware of every damned game he was involved in.
He sighed wearily, spoke heavily and told his father the situation. Leo listened, for once without exploding in the middle of the story. Leo liked to explode. It made him feel better. When Dane finished, he remai
ned silent and watched that damned snow pile up. At least Ria wasn’t screaming any longer.
“Have you identified the traitor yet?” Leo’s voice was hard, furious.
“Not yet. She was working on it when Alaiya showed up.”
“I’m having the jet prepared. Meet us at the airfield in Buffalo Gap. Your mother, the girls and I will be there ASAP.”
“Not good, Leo,” he sighed. He hadn’t expected that. “We can’t risk it yet. And we sure as hell can’t risk the girls.”
“Leo Vanderale is arriving in Sanctuary to check the status of how his fucking money is being spent,” his father snarled. “The Leo doesn’t have to advertise who the hell he is. Arrange it. And I want that whelp Jonas ready to account for himself. Tell Callan to make room for me in the estate. I’ll bring my security with me as well.”
Dane rubbed at his forehead. “I’m bringing her home tomorrow. She’ll be ready to go.”
Leo waited. Listened.
“You don’t want to see her like this, Dad.” He rarely called Leo dad. “Let me bring her home. We’ll heal her there.”
Leo snorted. “If you’re not on that jet by afternoon, I’m heading out. Count on it.”
“I’ll count on it,” he answered.
“Did you get her nice baubles for risking her ass against my anger when I found out what you two were up to?” Leo finally snarled.
“Yeah. I did.” But they weren’t enough. There weren’t enough baubles to ease her now.
“Hell,” Leo sighed. “Take care of her Dane.”
“I always do.” Dane disconnected the line and continued to stare into the night. He always did, yet he hadn’t this time.
And as he watched, the first powerful four-legged lion stepped into the clearing. The male animal shook the snow from its dark, flowing mane, tilted its head and roared into the night.
Another call followed, and yet another. And as Dane watched, Lawe and Rule moved warily from their positions, edging back to the limo as he threw the doors open and allowed the two Breeds to slide inside the warmth of the car.
Rye didn’t bother to get out and enter the back through a door. He slid over the seat positioned behind the driver’s area and stared back at Dane in surprise.
“There’s a lot of fucking lions out there,” he commented uncomfortably.
They were screaming into the night now, spurred by the animal Dane could swear he could feel heading this way.
Another animal stepped in. A lioness, her scream echoing through the night as the lions surrounded the cabin.
A dozen fully grown, enraged creatures, following one simple command. To protect Mercury’s mate.
Dane let a smile tip his lips as he opened the small bar set in the center of the seat and pulled free the whiskey and glasses.
“Looks like the night just got interesting, my friends,” he drawled, pouring the alcohol. “I say we enjoy the show while we can.”
Ria’s mate was coming for her. He had feared the mating was for the bitch that arrived that night, and his instincts had been infuriated by that. He’d have to call the Leo back.
He saluted his companions as another lion appeared. Damn, those bastards were big.
“I say, when Mercury arrives, we just pretend we’re not here.” Lawe tipped back his whiskey and swallowed in a single drink. “Stay real quiet. Don’t make eye contact.”
They all nodded.
“Damned good idea,” Rule muttered as one lion roared a challenge to the limo. “Yeah. Damned good idea.”
CHAPTER 19
As Alaiya’s lips pressed against his, Mercury froze. He went completely still, completely silent, all his energy, all his consciousness focused on the animal that broke free of the mental chains he now realized had held it, roaring out in rage.
The sensation was like having a piece of his brain ripped from his skull. Animal instinct poured into him, breaking through his consciousness with the force of a blast ripping through concrete. It disintegrated the chains Mercury hadn’t been aware of.
He felt power pouring into him, strength surging through his body and the adrenaline they called feral displacement overtaking him with such violent force that even the Breeds watching him growled at the threat he could become.
He was a threat. At the moment he was pure power and rage, man and beast, and the beast was strong. It was screaming out, roaring, and from his own throat came the rumble of danger. Of death.