“No. I don’t know why you think otherwise, but you don’t have any rights over me. I’m not moving anywhere. And while I’m at it, get out of my head.”
She was back to being pissed, thank God. Couldn’t he just sleep with her and let it go? He ignored her anger and stepped closer, followed her as she retreated through the hall. If she had any sense, she’d teleport out. She scowled. What the hell was wrong with her? Her back hit the door and his palms slammed down against it next to her shoulders, his hips thrusting forward to hold her still when she tried to duck under his arms. She was pinned in and disgusted with herself for being caught and liking it.
“I have every right.”
He didn’t, but her body was sure as hell acting like he did. Glaring, she pressed her lips together, refusing to answer. He leaned forward, slowly, letting her watch him come. He spoke a second before his lips touched hers. “You’re mine.”
She didn’t argue. She couldn’t as his tongue swept into her mouth. Claiming. Marauding. And so very very dominant. Every objection, every logical argument, every fear fell away and she melted, would have been a puddle at his feet if he hadn’t been holding her up. It was over too soon. He jerked away, coming to stop several feet from her, breathing as deeply as her, almost panting, flushed with need. She took a step forward, determined he was going to stop denying them both. He was going to finish what he’d started eight very long weeks ago.
“Don’t. Unless you’re ready to accept that when I take you I’ll be feeding from you and it’s forever, Winter. No way out.”
That brought her up short, shock immobilizing her. She eyed him nervously, sure she’d heard him wrong. Like lupines, nightwalkers mated only once and for life. Hybrids bonded to survive. Nightwalkers and lupines bonded because there was one person, one soul meant to be theirs and once they met that person they couldn’t resist the connection. Humans, which hybrids essentially were, didn’t have soul mates. Of course, he hadn’t actually claimed she was his mate. It was definitely implied though. She shook her head. No. He had to be mistaken.
“You’re wrong.”
He laughed the teasing, slightly amused sound she sometimes heard in her head. She had the impression it was a rare occurrence, that she was the only one who’d heard it in a long time. “I’m not wrong.”
Damn, she should have paid more attention to those history lessons when she’d just joined the Order, but old mythology hadn’t seemed that important. With a sigh, he offered her his hand, palm up. “Come sit down. I’ll fill you in on those myths.”
Reading her mind again. She narrowed her eyes as she studied him without doing the same. Her senses, her instinct was still working fine though. The offer was genuine. She was surprised how tempting it was, the chance to just sit and have a conversation with him. Another time she would have taken him up on it. She shook her head.
“I can’t stay right now.”
He didn’t lower his hand, didn’t retract the offer. “Winter.” He smiled and she caught her breath. Would he always affect her like this? “Gia and Dupree have things under control for the moment. There’s nothing you can do there.”
Why did he have to sound so logical?
“A few minutes delay won’t hurt.”
Hell, he was right about that. Gia, driving her car, couldn’t even have arrived yet, and Dupree would act under her authority until she got there. She moved forward and set her hand on Marcus’s palm. His fingers closed around hers and even that slight touch made her body come alive with awareness. Without saying a word, he led her deeper into the large foyer and through an open door on their right.
It was an office and she looked around while he went to the long bar on one end. Like the rest of the house it was richly appointed. Thick carpets covered the floors and plush dark leather furnished the room, a couch under the window and two chairs facing the huge mahogany desk. The wall behind the desk was lined floor to ceiling with books. If she had more time, she’d look them over, see what his reading habits could tell her about him.
He returned to her side, handed her a bottle of water, and with his hand on her lower back, nudged her toward the sofa. She sat, twisting so her back was to the arm, one leg pulled up a bit and hooked under her knee. He mimicked her position on the opposite end and she looked around the room again. It was very masculine. It suited him.
“You’re not used to living in a house like this.”
She snorted. “Hell, no. Even before the merging I was never rich. I was just a secretary married to a mechanic with a little two-bedroom house.”
But she’d loved that house. She’d painted and decorated the place, poured her love for David into it. She sipped her water, uncomfortable with the memories while she faced the nightwalker. She didn’t want him plucking them out of her head. If he was aware of them he didn’t say a word. She wasn’t sure if that should relieve her or irritate her, but he changed the subject so she couldn’t pursue it.
“What do you know about my people?”
“You’re psychic vampires.” The words were out before she could censor them and thankfully he didn’t take offense. He laughed.
“I guess that’s fair enough. We don’t kill when we feed though.”
That’s not what the rumors said.
“Never?”
A look of revulsion crossed his face. “There have been…accidents. It’s not simply energy that feeds us. It’s emotion.”
Of course, she should have made that connection before since, in the case of hybrids, it was the excess of feelings from their demon sides that drove them to madness. There was energy in emotion. Strength and weakness. But if nightwalkers fed off emotion and the preferred way to feed, again according to rumors, was during sex did that mean…
“It can become an addiction,” she whispered. “So those who kill?”
“Once is an accident. If it happens again the punishment is death.”
So maybe the nightwalkers were less haughty than she’d believed. Maybe they kept their distance to protect the other races.
“Have you ever?” She couldn’t say the words.
“No, Winter. We are taught control, just as your people are.”
Thank God. She killed demons for a living, sure, but she’d never killed an innocent. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to handle being so attracted to someone who had.
“Do you know about the Alukah?”
“The ancient race? Just that y’all were once all one race.”
He nodded. “It’s our creation myth. There’s no telling how much truth there is to it, but it says we were once one race, not separated into lupines and nightwalkers. We all could shift. We all could read minds.
“The story says we were created by Samarian gods to protect humanity against demons. And we did for a time, but like all sentient creatures divisions were formed. Alliances made. Eventually they petitioned the gods to divide them into two races and we became what we are today.”
She frowned. She’d known that much. “To take such drastic steps that division must have been a chasm. What was it?”
He shrugged. “Who knows? The separation of the races didn’t make any difference. They still distrusted each other. We still distrust each other.”
“So why enter the Alliance? Why ask to work more closely with us now?”
He gave her that damned sexy grin. “You know why, Winter.”
Her phone rang before she could deny it and she was happy for the distraction. She checked the screen and flipped it open. Gia must have driven like a bat out of hell to arrive so quickly.
“Gia. I’ll be there as soon as I hang up.”
“Hurry. The quadrant leaders are all here.”
She sighed. She didn’t have to imagine their fury and fear since she shared it. She’d have to send everyone underground until they could find new, secure quarters. Two compound attacks in two days was too much coincidence. Someone was giving the demons information about them.
“I’m on my way.”
She closed the phone without saying good-bye and faced Marcus. “I have to deal with this.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “You have to deal with us too.”
She shrugged, unconvinced and confused about how she felt about him. She left the room, stepped outside and teleported away before he could stop her.
Chapter Thirteen
Marcus kept his mind locked to Winter’s as she left, plucked the location from her thoughts when she arrived, and teleported seconds behind her. He was in front of a large wall, the gates left open to expose the house that should have represented safety inside. He received a few startled looks, but no one halted his passage through. He saw why when he stepped into the big courtyard. The way had been prepared.
His brother was in deep conversation with the woman called Gia, which was interesting in its own right. He’d realized as soon as he entered the dining room that the hybrid female was the woman Luke had been spending so much time with. It had been equally obvious her mental state was much more stable than Winter’s. Since the two were the same age he concluded the old stories were right about feeding from hybrids.
Marcus had been surprised for other reasons, though. Luke tended to stay away from hybrids and lupines. Even more interesting was his body language. He crowded the smaller woman, every line of his body screaming possession, turning aggressive when anyone approached her. Marcus grinned. Luke’s talk of never taking a mate was pure bravado. It was clear his single days were long gone. Marcus couldn’t deny the anticipation he felt at watching Luke in the hunt. He sensed Luke’s carefree, bachelor charm wasn’t going to work on this woman.
Luke looked up and caught his gaze. He remained expressionless for a long moment then grinned, the smile so full of expectation it put Marcus on guard. What the hell was he up to now? Luke nodded to the far corner of the house and Marcus followed his gaze. It was a good thing the shock of his less-civilized side held him frozen in place.
He’d been watching her for weeks, at once disturbed his mate was one of the demon-human hybrids and pleased at her skill. She was not a woman who could be pushed around. He sighed. In a roundabout way that was a problem. Female nightwalkers were protected and treasured. They did not fight or wander the world unescorted. His protective instincts were in overdrive.
And his possessive instincts…the alpha lupine’s scent was all over her. It was the first thing he’d smelled when he went into the conference room and it had taken all his restraint not to rip the wolf’s mind to shreds then and there. He’d have to pay Mitchell a visit and explain things to him. The thought of the lupine touching her, even if it wasn’t sexual, made him snarl.
But this was so much worse. She stood surrounded by men, hybrid and lupine both. There was a lot of rage coming from the cluster of forms, but it was hers he felt the strongest. Did she realize how close she was to surrendering her soul to the demon? His hands fisted hard enough for his fingernails to break skin. He smelled his blood and forced them to unclench. She wouldn’t give in to that evil. He wouldn’t let her.
The possessive fury that held him in place lessened, but before he could move in her direction and assert his place at her side, he felt a presence behind him. Turning, he met Mitchell’s gaze. Good. He wouldn’t have to seek the lupine out later. He could deal with him now.
“Wolf.”
“Walker.”
As greetings went, it wasn’t much but even that little bit tested the bounds of his civility. He felt Winter’s alarm and jerked his head up to see her watching him.
Don’t kill him, will ya? He makes a good sparring partner. Her voice was sardonic, half amused and half uneasy. It was a tone he’d never heard from her before and seemed to signal an opening up, a small acceptance of him in her mind, in her life. That brief conversation in his study had done him more good than he’d realized.
He can live. For now.
Turning back, he registered the other man’s study and returned it. He’d been in Winter’s mind. He knew the lupine alpha was an old lover. Somehow he’d trained himself not to care about that. Well, not care too much. If he didn’t bury the anger he felt toward the man who’d dared touch his woman soon, even though it was long before he knew her, he’d lose control. He could destroy Mitchell’s mind where he stood and damned the consequences.
They were night and day, he and this wolf. Both tall but where he was leanly muscled, his body better used for speed, the wolf was almost bulky, his build more for strength and force. He had shorn black hair and glowing green eyes. Marcus supposed most women found him attractive. And what about Winter? What did she think? He shied away from the questions; that way led to madness.
“She’s a remarkable woman,” Mitchell said, making the first move. There was a hint of possessiveness in his voice and it engaged every one of Marcus’s senses. He turned to face the wolf, opened his mind in aggression and widened his stance. He wasn’t as strong as the wolf, but he was faster. More agile. And he could crush his mind if it came down to it.
“She’s mine,” he practically snarled, not worried about losing control anymore. He had to assert his dominance, his claim against the one person his instinct said was the only real threat.
Mitchell watched him for several seconds then turned his gaze to seek her out. Marcus clenched his fists. He didn’t want anyone else even looking at her and he knew the impulse was ludicrous. It would ease when she accepted him, but in the meantime he was very dangerous. He almost didn’t trust himself.
“She won’t be happy about that.”
Marcus shrugged. He’d resigned himself to that at their first meeting. It’s why he’d physically stayed away and tried to get to know her first. There was no walking away now. He knew that. It was only a matter of hours before she did too. There was no way he was letting her go anywhere alone when day broke.
“She’ll get over it.”
The wolf gave him a look that was pure disbelief then threw his head back and laughed. It was the last thing Marcus expected and unsettled him a little.
“Good luck with that,” he said between chuckles. Marcus took an aggressive step forward. He didn’t like his control of his mate being questioned. Mitchell stepped back and held his hands up in mock surrender. “Hey, believe it or not I’m on your side.”
He didn’t believe it. He’d watched the wolf at the Alliance meeting and seen his longing. His thoughts must have shown on his face. He had to be more careful.
“She’s not for me. I know that.” He didn’t try to hide the disappointment he felt over it and Marcus’s respect for the alpha leader went up a little against his will. Mitchell continued softly, “She has to bond soon. She’s too close to giving in to the demon.”
Marcus didn’t respond that that was his problem not Mitchell’s but he wanted to, wanted to hang a flashing neon sign over her head announcing who she belonged to. He was through playing around. The lupine was waiting for a response but Marcus didn’t intend to give him the satisfaction of a reply. Finally, he shrugged.
“If you hurt her, I’ll shred you,” the wolf said softly enough none of the other sharp ears in the courtyard would pick up the words. Marcus smiled, feeling exhilarated, more alive than he’d felt in years. He wasn’t worried. Mitchell knew what he could do in retaliation. The lupine laughed softly, shaking his head. His tone was wry. “I guess we understand each other.”
“Not exactly.” Marcus grew serious again. He knew there were going to be men around her, knew she wouldn’t give up her position as commander if he asked, knew she wouldn’t stay away from Mitchell even if he ordered her to. He was afraid of what he might be capable of if she disobeyed him. “Stay away from her. You’ve had your last sparring match.”
“Impossible,” he replied with narrowed eyes. He added sarcastically, “I’m part of your little task force for one thing.”
Marcus opened his mouth to reply, to tell him to substitute one of his people for his place, but the lupine went on before he could get the words out.
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“It’ll be me and Baron. That’s non-negotiable. We don’t trust you. You don’t trust us.”
Marcus knew he was right, but hated like hell to admit it. That was why he and Luke would be handling it themselves, with Kadall, one of Luke’s most trusted soldiers.
“And the sparring? Take that up with her. I have no intention of stopping.”
Marcus felt his control slipping, felt his mind beginning to expand. The lupine felt it too. He didn’t budge, his stance still as aggressive as always, but his eyes widened, wariness stamped across his face.
“We’ve been at peace for fifty years, wolf.” And he didn’t mind blowing it over a woman, his woman, but he was also responsible for the welfare of every nightwalker in the area. He struggled for control. “Are you ready to ruin it over a woman who isn’t even yours?”
He watched as Mitchell struggled with what he knew was the right course and his instinct to assert his dominance. Antagonizing a nightwalker was probably a bonus. Marcus forced the tension from his body, striving for perfect control.
“I’m putting a stop to the fighting. Don’t get in my way. You’d react the same way if the situation were reversed.”
Mitchell shoved a hand through his short-cropped hair and his features relaxed. That slightly self-mocking tone was back in his voice when he spoke. “You people are as bad as us during the mating hunt.”
It wasn’t a question so Marcus didn’t reply. He wouldn’t have anyway. Nightwalkers were not fully in control of themselves, of their powers while pursuing their mates. They were dangerous, but exactly how unsafe they kept to themselves.
He should tell Winter, warn her, but he wasn’t sure that she wouldn’t try to take off. She saw herself as a strong independent woman and she was, but he lived inside her. He knew her secret heart, her most secret desires, and he had every intention of giving them all to her. Getting her to accept that she could submit to him and still be the same forceful person with everyone would be the trick.
Tonight. He’d start tonight.
Kiss of Darkness Page 8