by Karin Tabke
“I think you are beautiful,” he whispered.
Her skin flared with heat. His voice. The timbre deep but different. His scent the same, but different.
She pressed her hips up to meet his palm. She opened her mouth to scream as her orgasm hit her out of nowhere. His lips captured hers, silencing her cries of pleasure, and his tongue violently fucked her mouth as his finger pressed the secret place inside her, forcing her orgasm to deepen.
She opened her eyes, expecting to see blond hair and turquoise eyes.
She did not.
She didn’t see Rafe’s wolf either.
The jet-black hair swirled around the angry face of the tortured brother. His deep, tawny eyes molten in lust or fury she could not tell. His power, his energy, his sensuality smashed into her, stifling her to stunned silence.
Lucien.
He smiled against her lips, then nipped at her bottom lip. Her body thrummed with sensation. She stiffened, tore her lips free, and screamed in terror at the exact same time the orgasm exploded inside of her, tearing her apart.
Terror mixed with raw ecstasy created a leviathan of sensation overload. Darkened eyes watched in supreme satisfaction as her body gripped and writhed around his finger, the vestiges of the orgasm racking her body like harsh waves pounding against pilings during a storm.
Lucien! She shook her head and pushed away from him, wanting separation, yet her body cried out for more of him. He cupped her hot mons and pressed his finger more deeply into her. Wide-eyed, she arched, as her eyes rolled back, her lids closed. Gasping for breath, she strained against him.
“I am in your blood, Falon.” He pushed her back into the downy comforter. “You can never be rid of me.” His lips descended onto a hard nipple.
Falon swallowed hard, licked her dry lips, and with every bit of will she possessed, she arched, trying to push him from her. He only clasped her tighter to his naked body. His lips hot as fire, scorching her skin.
“No!” she cried. Rafael! Where was he? He promised to protect her. With his life. She screamed. He would never forgive her if his brother took her! She could not bear his rejection. She could not bear his disgust. Her heart ached for him. She would never put him through that.
“Say yes to me,” he commanded.
Falon twisted out of his grasp, wondering how she had managed it. He was stronger. She backed up against the headboard. “I will never say yes to you, Lucien. Never!”
He was on all fours. His black hair a wild mane around his head. His golden eyes sparked in passion. He reached out a big hand and traced his fingertips across her knee. Shivers, not completely unpleasant, ran across her body. Guilt washed over her. She would never betray Rafael. Falon pushed back harder, kicking him. He grabbed her foot and kissed her instep. In fascinated horror, she watched him lick a slow, deliberate trail up to her knee. Her body shook.
Hypnotic gold eyes glittered, never once wavering from her. He put a hand on each of her knees, then slowly pushed them apart, exposing her pink glistening opening. Falon bit her lip, mustering the power she knew she was capable of.
Her musk scented the air. Lucien closed his eyes and inhaled. “My brother’s scent mingles with yours.” He inhaled again, this time deeper. “I see he hasn’t lost his touch.”
Falon held her breath. If he trespassed further, she’d rip his heart out. He opened his eyes and stared directly at her.
“My scent will override his.”
Falon stiffened to tempered steel. “I will kill you if you trespass again.”
He threw his head back and laughed so loud she thought the ceiling would come tumbling down around them. “Your body cries out for mine. Why do you deny what nature intended?”
Falon shook her head. “I thought you were Rafael.”
“You came in my hand, your eyes wide open.”
Falon shivered. “You tricked me. It was too late.”
He laughed low. Sensuality and danger oozed from him. “You cannot deny you are attracted to me. Part of you knew it was me. Reveled in me.”
“I didn’t! I will deny you. Always. I have no interest in you other than I demand you release Rafael from your ridiculous Blood Law.”
Lucien smiled a thoughtful half smile. “So he told you.”
Falon dragged a pillow across her chest, leaving her bottom region in plain sight. When Lucien’s gaze dropped to her thighs, she tucked the pillow safely between her legs. His gaze dragged up, and he smiled a most disarming smile. “I envy my brother. You are a mate worth keeping.” He looked over his shoulder to the sleeping wolf beside them. Falon gasped, just noticing Rafael still in wolf form for the first time. How could he sleep when she was practically being raped?
“He cannot hear us, Falon. You and I, we share blood. It is just the two of us in our own little world. I can come to you at my leisure, and Rafael will know nothing of it. Unless you choose to tell him. Then”—Lucien shook his head—“what do you think my brother will do when he discovers his chosen one came to me in every sense of the word?”
Falon kicked at him. If she told Rafael what happened, he would shun her, and in the process might get himself killed taking his revenge. “Tell him, and I’ll give you a headache you won’t ever forget.”
Lucien threw his head back and laughed again. “You cannot harm me, Falon. But mark my words; I intend to destroy my brother just as he destroyed me.”
“Your woman was a Slayer! She would have destroyed all of you!”
Lucien’s head snapped back; he eyed her suspiciously. “So says my brother.”
“How did he know?” she asked, her voice suddenly shaky. If she were related to Edward, that meant she was a Slayer by blood. Could Lucien see it in her?
“He says she showed herself to him. Slayers’ eyes go black when they reach the height of passion. Whether it be anger, lust, or bloodlust to kill.”
“He-he saw her eyes turn black.”
Lucien looked down at the wolf and sneered. “My brother could not handle the fact that I had taken a mate and would become solo alpha. He concocted a lie and killed her.”
Falon did not believe it. Rafael was noble. High above lies. “You’re a fool, Lucien. A jealous, selfish fool. You will sacrifice all for your petty revenge!”
He pounced on her, shoving her back into the covers. His body was blistering hard. His scent earthy with a hint of ocean, like the Monterey pines meeting the turbulent Pacific. He was as primal in his anger as Rafael was in his passion for her. Lucien’s fury rose thick and hot against her thigh. He forced her legs apart. “I would have given my life for my brother, but instead he took mine when he took my chosen one from me.” Lucien dropped his head down to hers. “Did he tell you how he did it?” he hoarsely demanded against her neck. His teeth skimmed along her jugular.
“Yes,” she breathed.
“Everything?”
“Yes.”
“Did he tell you that he ripped her heart out of her chest as I made love to her? That she died in my arms?”
“Yes,” she said, barely able to say it, unable to imagine Rafael doing such a heinous thing to his brother. His twin. A spark of compassion for Lucien ignited in her heart. Rafael may have been right, she was a Slayer, but she was still the woman Lucien loved.
“I’m sorry, Lucien,” she whispered.
He snarled, ignoring her words. His ragged gaze pierced her. His lips drew back from his teeth in a nasty smile. “What poetic justice it would be if I took you right now. If I fucked you and ripped your heart out of your chest and left it here, on the bed for my brother.”
“No,” she whispered. She didn’t want to be someone’s vengeance.
“No. That would be too easy. He needs to suffer longer. Harder.” Lucien bit her. His fangs pierced her tender skin where Rafael had earlier, then sank deep into her flesh, muscle, and artery. Falon screamed and arched into him. Straining in a macabre sexual dance. She wished death over his taking of her, but she could not stop her body’s lustful respons
e to him any more than she could stop the moon from rising.
Lucien’s body responded in kind. He lifted his hips, forcing himself upon her. Panic seized her. She tried to calm enough to gather her powers, to force him from her with her mental lightning bolts, but she was too afraid if she took even the slightest part of her attention from his taking of her, he would seize the moment.
The head of his cock tapped her nether lips, then slowly rocked back and forth between them. A shock wave of sensation hit her body. Falon bit her lip so hard she drew blood. The copper scent added fuel to his raging flame. His fingers dug into her skin, and his body tensed as he prepared to take her. “Stop, Lucien!” she commanded. “I will despise the sight of you forever if you do this.”
“I don’t care what you think of me,” he snarled. His body tightened, his hips moved against her.
Falon opened her eyes and caught her breath. His eyes burned red-hot. His wild black hair fell down into her face, shrouding them.
“Yes, you do,” she breathlessly said. “You’re an alpha, Lucien. A leader.” His muscles clenched as a sheen of sweat broke out across his dark skin. His jaw clenched, his lips drawn tight, revealing straight white teeth, his breathing labored. “Please,” she softly said, “Act as a true alpha would, and release me.”
He rolled from her with a curse but yanked her up by a hank of her hair, so close to his lips she thought he was going to kiss her. “I’m not done with you.” He shoved her back onto the bed. He looked down at the stirring wolf on the bed beside her. “Or my brother.”
Falon closed her eyes, knowing she was safe. For the moment. When she opened them again, Lucien was gone, but the big golden wolf stood over her with a questioning look on his face.
Confusion reigned supreme. What the hell had just happened? She sat up and looked toward the closed door, then around the room. Where had Lucien gone, and why hadn’t Rafael gone after him? The wolf licked her hand. She looked at him. Her body trembled. Her head ached. Had she dreamed Lucien? She touched her neck where both brothers had marked her. Fresh blood stuck to her fingertips.
More for comfort than anything else, Falon reached out to pull the great gold beast to her. She was cold, afraid, and confused. He licked her neck where she had just touched. She flinched. He pressed his nose to her skin and sniffed. He snarled viciously, snapping at her. She screamed, pushing away from him. He snarled again and jumped from the bed.
Dear God, Rafael knew.
Her body iced. She looked at Rafael, who continued to snarl viciously at her. His words so recently spoken came back to haunt her. I don’t share. Ever.
She slipped from the bed, wanting to explain but not daring to. Though it had been a dream to her, it was real to him. Lucien’s scent mingled with her musky scent and hung damningly between them. “Rafael—I’m sorry,” she whispered. And knew as she said the words, whatever they had shared was gone.
Rafael turned and bolted against the thick door, sending it flying off the hinges. Falon stood naked and terrified in the middle of the room.
Her instinct screamed at her to go after Rafael, demand he listen to her, force him to understand that she had no hand in what happened. Lucien tricked her, using her love for Rafael against her.
Falon gasped, slapping her hands over her mouth. Love! When had love happened?
“Rafael!” She desperately called. “Come back!”
But he would not. She knew it as sure as she knew she loved him. Crazy as it sounded, she did. That love took hold of her determination to get her man back.
Quickly, she dressed.
Fifteen
ALL HER LIFE Falon had run. Run from who she was, what she was. Run because she was different and feared those differences.
She was done running.
The only running she was going to do now was toward answers.
She’d already started. She had discovered and embraced her powers here in the compound. Not only that, but she had been emotionally and sexually awakened, not by one man but by two. One man she loved; the other she despised. The first was lost to her because of the second. Or was he?
As unconventional and different as Rafael was, she loved him. She belonged to him. He had marked her. He had trusted her! Promised to protect her from Lucien. Her place was by Rafael’s side. But how? He was a stubborn, testosterone-driven man and beast, and both were convinced she was guilty of a crime far worse than death. Adultery, with his nemesis of all people, akin to treason in his mind.
Grief clogged her throat, making it difficult to exhale. As did the feeling of hopelessness seeping into her soul. She had lost something so precious, so profound, something that had breathed life into her hollow soul. She realized when she saw him chained by the Slayers and about to be destroyed that she loved him, would die for him. She had found him only to lose him. No amount of begging, borrowing, or stealing could get him back.
It was as if their connection had died. Once a life was taken, there was no rebirth.
Argh! She threw the pillows across the room. Even if she could convince him she did not have sex with his brother, she had to leave. What, dear God, what if she were a Slayer? Rafael would destroy her on principle alone. There was no staying here. Not now.
She must go, and she could not come back to him until she knew who she was. Falon prayed to every god imaginable that she was not remotely related to any Slayer. But, if by some terrible twist of fate she were, she would move the entire Sierra range if that’s what it took to convince Rafael she was a worthy mate, that she loved him above all others and would stand beside him and battle each and every Slayer that walked the earth. If she were Slayer, and she could love him, a Slayer with no hate in her heart toward Lycans, only love, then surely there could be peace between their people.
Though her heart ached, a sliver of hope shone through the bleakness that had become her despair. She would discover the truth about herself and, regardless of what that truth was, she would force Rafael to face it and accept it. Then he would accept the truth about Lucien. The truth about her.
There was only one person who could give her answers now: Corbet. She would find him and demand he tell her who she was. Why she had been abandoned. Whatever information she learned, she’d use it to leverage an end to this craziness between Slayers and Lycans.
New resolve filled her with a confidence she had never experienced. The bloodlust between Lycans and Slayers made no sense to her. Did they kill each other just because their ancestors had? How meaningless was that? She’d show them the stupidity of their eight-hundred-year war and why it held no relevance in today’s world. She’d help them heal. Could she make them BFFs?
No, that could never be, but there could be peace.
Falon dressed, then kicked out the glass of the bathroom window Rafael had staked shut, and this time when she jumped, she cleared the compound fence by several feet. She was stronger now. Faster. She hit the ground running. To the warehouse, from there she would track Corbet. Her feet flew over the soft, loamy grass. She hurdled downed logs and exposed boulders. Everything smelled crisper, cleaner, sharper. Her vision was that of a cat’s. Each forest sound was distinct rather than a resonant mixture.
Behind her, she sensed the warm breaths of several Berserkers. She didn’t fear them. She had saved Angor. Instinctively, she knew he would not harm her. Unless . . . Falon stumbled. Unless Rafe gave the kill order, something he might do, given his belief she’d betrayed him. Betrayed him with . . .
She picked up the scent she had come to fear. Fear on so many levels, and yet the fear of losing Rafael was greater than the fear of his brother.
Lucien was close. He would know where Corbet was. But she didn’t dare go to him. She would do that later, after she discovered the truth. And asking him questions or favors wouldn’t be her purpose.
In the back of her mind, Falon had the ridiculous notion that she could reunite the brothers. That she could mend the hatred that clogged both their hearts. Only then, she realized,
could there truly be peace.
So many vague memories muddled her brain as she ran, her thoughts focusing on that night in the warehouse. On the ring that had brought her here to Rafe. On the niggling thought in her subconscious that she’d seen the ring long before she’d encountered Conan at Del’s market.
She stumbled again as memories solidified. She had seen it! As a child, not just on Conan’s hand. God help her, but had it been her father?
Dear Lord, was he a Slayer?
Was she?
A new scent drifted in the air. Female and distinctly Lycan. Familiar. Not from Rafael’s pack but strangely from long ago. Falon slowed her frantic pace, coming to a dead stop. She lifted her nose and quieted her thoughts.
The scent escaped her as another one overpowered it. Lucien. He was closer now. She could hear his deep breaths, feel the pounding of his heart.
You can run from me, but you can never hide.
Falon took off, ignoring Lucien’s words. She could run and she could hide, and when she had her answers, she would use all her power to force him to confront Rafael and tell him what hadn’t happened. Rafael would accept she’d been a victim of Lucien’s manipulation. That she hadn’t been a willing partner in his sex games. And then, maybe, Rafael would soften.
Lucien’s scent intensified around her.
Angor, she silently called. Help me.
The great black beast growled behind her. Had he heard her, or was he going to attack her? Falon turned to plead her case and to beg him for his help. As she turned, he leapt toward her. She ducked and stumbled backward, preparing to ward him off. But he jumped over her into the darkness. His pack followed him.
Vicious snarls reverberated through the trees. Falon changed direction and headed for what she knew was the main road that led to the compound and down the mountain. From there she would head toward civilization. And Corbet.