Fury of Seduction

by Coreene Callahan

  Women were funny that way. They tended to get irate when a guy confessed to not remembering their name, never mind sharing a mattress. Or a pool table. Or the coat check in a—

  Okay, then. No need to go there, but...

  Mac frowned. What was he supposed to be doing again? Oh, right. Putting her to bed.

  Good plan. Now all he needed to do was stick with it. Especially since he now stood beside the bed, muscles twitching, his dragon rebelling, refusing to lay her down. His mouth brushing the top of her head, Mac cursed. Terrific. Just what he didn’t need, his base instincts riding shotgun.

  Fighting to stay on an even keel, he leaned down, supporting her with one arm, and grabbed the corner of the duvet. He flipped it aside, revealing the expanse of white cotton. The territorial beast inside him went into lockdown, wanting to keep her in his arms. Mac shook his head. Jesus, it shouldn’t be so hard. All he wanted to do was take care of her, do right by her, but...

  Sometimes the right thing wasn’t the easy thing. And as he stood there, heart thumping, bare feet planted, need rising, he waged an internal battle. Stay. Or go. Be the good guy. Or the needy one. Forcing himself to unlock, he laid her down. The sheets rustled. Tania grumbled, an adorable pucker between her brows. Mac murmured, hoping the sound of his voice would compensate for the loss of his body heat.

  Her dark eyelashes flicked.

  He froze, his arms still half around her.

  “Mac?”

  Ah, fuck. He was so screwed, wanting to get away, but unable to leave. “Shh, it’s all right. Go back to sleep. Everything’s all right.”

  “No.” The denial slurred by sleep, she turned toward him, wrapping both her arms around one of his. Mac sucked in a quick breath. “Don’t.”

  Brushing the hair away from her temple, he caressed her cheek. “Don’t what, honey?”

  “Go. Don’t...go.”

  Another gentle stroke across her superfine skin. Another sigh from her. “It’s okay. I’ll just be in the other—”

  “He might come back,” she whispered, her eyes drifting closed.

  “Who, mo chroí?”

  “The red one.”

  Mac closed his eyes. Shit. The red one. She meant Ivar. Even in her sleep, the bastard chased her, making her afraid. “You’re safe. I won’t let him get you.”

  She shook her head, panic making her breathe faster.

  “No one knows where we are, Tania,” he murmured to reassure her. It didn’t work. She was too worked up, and as she whimpered, his heart sank. And he ached for her. For the fear she suffered now and the changes to come. Life as she knew it was over. No more landscape design firm. No more apartment in Seattle. Good-bye, human world. Hello, Dragonkind. A total frickin’ makeover was in order.

  “I’ll keep you safe, Tania. He can’t find us here, I promise.” He retreated another inch.

  She clung to him. “Please...don’t.”

  Her plea wrecked him, just leveled him where he stood and...ah, fuck. He couldn’t do it. Couldn’t leave her knowing she needed him. Which meant more torture. He really must be a masochist. A sadist or something because, without a doubt, holding her without making love to her first would kill him. Yet even knowing that, he slipped in beside her. The mattress dipped. He settled on his back and reeled her in, pulling the duvet back into place, cocooning them in feather down. She snuggled into his side, her head on his shoulder, one leg thrown over his thigh and her hand—

  He jumped like a jackrabbit as she caressed his skin. Oh so not good. He was already set to go off. So damned sensitive her touch made every single one of his skin receptors fire...at once. Sensation flooded him, ratcheting him into the danger zone.

  Clenching his teeth, Mac stared at the ceiling, counting the planks of Douglas fir tongue-and-groove paneling to distract himself. Her hand coasted over his belly, moving beneath his T-shirt before she laid her palm in the center of his chest. Tense muscles twitched in protest. He inhaled, filling his lungs to capacity to keep from exploding, hoping she was done with the renegade hand routine.

  When she settled deep, relaxing completely against him, he released the breath he’d been holding. Okay. He was up and over hurdle one. Now all he needed to do was leap over all the others in his path between now and nightfall. Mac frowned. Or maybe not. Maybe salvation was just minutes away.

  Firing up the connection he now shared with his brothers-in-arms, Mac reached out with his mind. “Rikar. Where you at?”

  Static buzzed between his temples, then...jackpot. The connection flared, his kind’s cosmic equivalent of a cell phone opening the channel between them. Wind whistled inside his head, the sound one of ass-hauling as his XO mind-spoke, “Nowhere good. Got multiple rogues on our tails.”

  Concern lit Mac up. “You need backup?”

  “Nah, B and I got it covered.” A pause, then, “You safe?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “Holed up in my cabin.”

  Bastian chimed in. “Where?”

  “On an island off the coast of Seattle.”

  Silence met that happy bit of news. Static filled the radio waves, stretching out, making Mac wonder if he’d lost the connection.

  “Jesus fucking Christ,” Rikar grumbled. “Couldn’t you find somewhere a bit closer to home? Somewhere without a shitload of ocean between here and there?”

  Bastian laughed. “Water dragon syndrome. The more ocean, the better.”

  Mac guessed that was true. It hadn’t occurred to him to find somewhere in the city to keep Tania safe. He’d wanted to be in the water, out to sea, as far away from Ivar and his band of assholes as possible.

  “How long will it take us to get there?” Rikar asked.

  He gave his buddies the location of his weekend getaway, then estimated the flying time. “A couple of hours...give or take.”

  “Not happening tonight,” B said. “Sun’s up in forty-five.”

  Huh. Was it really that late? Craning his neck, he looked over the top of Tania’s head. She snuffled, nestling her cheek against his shoulder. He caressed her back, soothing her while he glanced toward the dresser along the far wall. His cloak radio glowed from its perch on top of a stack of books. The red numbers read 5:03 a.m. Wow. Guess time really did fly while you were having fun. Or rather...teaching a gorgeous brunette how to play poker.

  “Stay put,” Rikar said. “We’ll come for you at sundown.”

  Mac nodded, even though neither male could see him. He required the self-reinforcement. With no cavalry on the horizon, he was, well...FUBARed. Trapped by daylight, he’d be stuck inside with Tania for the next twelve hours. No buffer. No relief. Just torture central on the desire front, waiting for his brothers-in-arms to show up. Mac suppressed the urge to squirm. How the hell was he supposed to resist her that long?

  And not do something stupid?

  Mac dropped another f-bomb. Now more than ever, he despised his fledgling status. ’Cause, yeah. If his magic worked the way it should’ve, the ability to cloak himself would be nothing but an afterthought. Just business as usual as he flew for the safety of Black Diamond. But, oh no...not him. He never did anything the easy way.

  The manner of his change was proof enough of that. His first shift had been anything but normal. Most Dragonkind didn’t need female energy at the moment of transition. A male required two things. One...to have reached physical maturity. And two? A strong male to connect through mind-speak and guide him through the brutal shift into dragon form.

  Mac was an exception to the rule.

  He’d been raised outside the Dragonkind community. Had never benefited from being surrounded by members of his own kind. From the moment of his birth, a male fed from the collective energy emitted by his pack, siphoning the excess until he reached a magical threshold. The second a male finished growing and his energy tank read full, his dragon DNA ground into motion, catapulting him into the change.

  Too bad his upbringing hadn’t been quite so idyllic.

  Abandoned by his father in t
he human world, Mac had never gotten that kind of nourishment. Which meant his dragon half had lain dormant until he’d gotten zapped, blown through the one-way mirror in SPD’s interrogation room by the Razorback XO’s nasty-ass exhale. The magical onslaught triggered his change, causing the Nightfuries to scramble. Rikar and Bastian had chosen the path of least resistance, hoping an infuse of female energy would stabilize his levels enough to save his life. The gamble had worked, topping him up, doing in a few hours what took most Dragonkind males eighteen or twenty years to accomplish.

  Which had put Tania on the hook. And him in the hot seat.

  So here he was. A thirty-four-year-old fledgling with fucked-up magic and a soon-to-be-pissed-off female. One he couldn’t protect properly, because...shit. He couldn’t cloak himself or her while in flight yet. And that left him with an inescapable truth. One that chafed his pride and made his heart ache. He was 100 percent inadequate. Not man enough for the woman he wanted so badly she twisted him into knots.

  Mac hugged her tighter, desperation taking hold.

  Sensing his disquiet, Bastian asked, “How is she?”

  “Sleeping now.”

  Rikar snorted. “With you?”

  “Fuck off,” he said, resenting his XO’s teasing tone. It kicked up all kinds of mental debris. Guilt? Inadequacy? Self-loathing? Take your pick. Mac owned them all. “She was scared...needed to sleep, but couldn’t settle down. I drew off some of her energy to help her.”

  The guys remained silent. An unusual occurrence, one that spoke volumes.

  “Motherfuck,” Mac growled. “What else was I supposed to do?”

  “Nothing. You did what was best for her. No one’s faulting you for that.” Static interrupted the connection for a second. B’s voice faded out, then back in as he said, “But she may not think so when you explain everything later.”

  Didn’t he know it. Tania was going to kick his ass when he opened that can of worms. Started the conversation in which he confessed all and hoped she not only understood his reasons but forgave his selfishness.

  And still he turned in to her instead of away, wrapping both arms around her. As he snuggled in, he kissed her softly. Not much. A simple brush of his mouth against the corner of hers, nothing more, telling her without words he was sorry. Thanking her too. For what she had unknowingly given him, for the gift of allowing him to hold her.

  The sound of the wind picked up, the increased velocity coming through mind-speak. His sonar pinged, and, closing his eyes, Mac reached for his magic, tracking the flight path. And what do you know? His dragon came online, charting his brothers-in-arms’ course, giving him the longs and lats of their location. East of the city, flying fast toward the Cascade Mountain range.

  “You free and clear yet?”

  “Looks like it.” Rikar’s scales rattled in flight. The sounds echoed inside Mac’s head. “The rogues are bugging out.”

  “Fucking pansies,” B said.

  Rikar growled, the lethal sound full of agreement. “Mac?”

  “What?”

  “Get some sleep. It’ll all wash out...look better in the evening.”

  Uh-huh. Right. As if that was going to happen. Sleep and him weren’t the best of friends. Mac snorted. Enemy was more like it. Insomnia always beat on him with brass knuckles, disrupting his ability to rest, keeping him wide-awake most days. But even as he signed off, severing the link between him and his friends, he felt the tug...the slow slide into exhaustion.

  His head on the pillow, his face tucked into Tania’s shoulder, the duvet up around their shoulders, Mac allowed his eyes to drift closed. Up, then down. He fought to stay awake. He failed, losing the battle as his muscles uncoiled one taut thread at a time, rushing him into relaxation.

  Wow, that was weird. He hadn’t been sleepy in ages. But with Tania nestled against him, oblivion beckoned, drawing him into a dark fall down a long tunnel. As he succumbed, surrendering to dreams, he wondered if she was the cause. The thought drifted a moment before he let it go. Stopped trying to figure out why and simply thanked God for the effect she had on him instead. ’Cause, umm-yeah, it felt so good to be in her arms.

  The smell of blood propelled Nian through the Emblem Club’s outer door, over the threshold and...

  Straight into a load of lethal.

  A dark blur hurtled though the air, coming at him like an inbound missile. With a curse, Nian ducked and dodged right. The Dragonkind male smashed into the solid wall behind him. A sickening crack echoed, bouncing around the stairwell, ricocheting off steel and ancient stone. His brows snapped together as he watched the bloodied stranger turn belly-up on the floor with a groan. The door clicked closed, thick mahogany blocking out the smell of cigar smoke and soothing croon of jazz music. The sound of knuckles meeting flesh replaced it, cracking through the foyer of the Emblem Club’s back entrance.

  Nian’s attention snapped toward the foot of the stairs. Good Christ. What the hell was going on here?

  Jaw gone slack, he took in the scene. He shut his mouth, then shook his head. Well, so much for decorum. Or a modicum of decency. A full-on brawl was in progress. Fists and feet flying. Grunts and groans rebounding up the spiral staircase to reach the upper floors. Although, come to think of it, maybe brawl wasn’t quite the right word. Beat down was a more apt description, because holy God...

  He’d never seen anything like it.

  Gage was a force of nature. A sight to behold...unleashing hell, taking on five males at once. Nian’s brows popped skyward as the Nightfury bashed two males’ heads together. The pair crumpled. Gage lashed out, kicking a third one in the face. Swinging around, his bronze gaze aglow, he locked on the final two. The pair squawked and retreated. Tuxedo tails flapping, they scrambled up the stairs. Gage snarled and, with a quickness that defied reason, went after them, hauling both back into the foyer. Within moments his adversaries lay unconscious in a bloody heap on the floor next to their brethren.

  Surprise still circling, Nian glanced at Haider.

  Standing off to one side, a sobbing female in his arms, the male shrugged. “Gage doesn’t like rapists.”

  “I can see that,” he murmured, reading the rage in Gage’s eyes. Breathing hard, the warrior pivoted toward him. Nian tensed and got ready to sidestep. Getting in the Nightfury’s way wasn’t a good idea. Especially considering the devastation he left in his wake. “Does he like anyone?”

  “Not really.” Haider made a soothing sound and rubbed the human’s back. “I’m an exception to the rule. Most days, anyway.”

  “Bully for you.” His focus shifted to the light-haired female. Tucked up against Haider, he couldn’t see her face, but...

  Nian’s heart clenched. Her dress was ripped. One stiletto on, one off, her stockings were wrecked too, huge holes in the nylon along both thighs and knees. But that wasn’t the worst part. Clothes could be repaired and shoes replaced. The bruises on her upper arms, though, turned his stomach. His hands curled into fists as he stared at the angry marks on her pale skin. The bastards. They’d held her down, torn her clothing...hurt her without a moment’s hesitation.

  Nian growled low in his throat. “Is she all right? Did they—”

  “No,” Haider said, holding her slight form close, comforting her with gentle hands. “We intervened in time.”

  Thank God. He couldn’t stand the thought of a female being raped. Not anywhere, but certainly not in one of the clubs he owned. Stinking Archguard festival. Had the situation played out differently, he would’ve refused the high council’s request. Never let them darken his doorway, never mind use his establishments as ground zero for festival parties. He hadn’t wanted to, but having eyes and ears on the other members of the council was useful. Intelligence-gathering at its best. As the newest member of the Archguard, he needed to make inroads into the group. Trust, after all, was earned, not freely given.

  Hence the offer to use his clubs. Situated in the city center, Prague rose majestic and true around his nightclubs and t
he upscale cigar bars he favored. Perfect for the festival. The constant stream of female clubbers kept the Dragonkind males who’d made the trip to honor the traditions of their kind not only satisfied but content.

  Still, Nian disapproved of them playing fast and loose with the rules. He hated his race’s disregard for females. Low-energy. High-energy. It didn’t matter. Women, regardless of their capacity to feed his kind, ought to be treated with respect. Valued. Granted every kindness. The fact his counterparts on the high council disagreed simply cemented Nian’s wish for real, sustainable change.

  Which meant knocking the leader of the Archguard off his perch. The sooner, the better.

  The glow in his gaze subsiding, Gage stepped around the unconscious heap of male bodies and approached on silent feet. Holding out his arms, he met Haider’s gaze. “Give her to me.”

  Haider didn’t hesitate. Turning her gently in his embrace, he nudged her toward his comrade. Still frightened, the female clung, shying away with a flinch, mascara streaking her cheeks. Her breath hitched on another sob. With a murmur, Gage calmed her, and she settled, curling against the massive male’s chest. He gathered her up and pivoted, carrying her toward the security door that would take them outside into the alley beyond.

  “It’s all right, talmina. You’re safe now,” Gage said, deep voice full of gravel, his mouth brushing the top of her head. “Let’s get you home.”

  She nodded. And Nian marveled. Talmina...“little one” in Dragonese. Incredible. Not the word so much, but Gage’s gentleness. The Nightfury had just creamed five males without breaking a sweat and yet was able to treat the female with a caring that belied his aggressive nature. Witnessing it was like watching a spectacle, one with a twist at the end you never saw coming. Unexpected, but welcome all the same.

  No doubt about it. The Nightfury pack would be excellent allies.

  Which meant he needed to put his feet in motion. If he didn’t act fast, Gage and Haider would disappear into the night. Leave him behind to return the female home, and he’d miss his chance. To chat. To make his argument and present his case. He must do it now. With the festival coming to a close in a couple of days, the Nightfury males wouldn’t be around much longer.