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“Easy, Merc.” Jonas was breathing harshly as he jerked the silken robe Ria had worn earlier from the floor and tossed it to him. “Take care of your woman. We have this.”
Merc caught the robe, feeling his blood pounding in fury at the thought of anyone seeing Ria naked. Seeing her bend over Dane, naked, her long silken hair flowing around her, he had wanted to kill Dane. Rip his throat out. Had Dane been conscious, Mercury wondered if he wouldn’t have done just that.
He turned back to her, helping her into the robe as the tears continued to fall from her eyes.
“Keep crying for that bastard and I’m going to lose my mind,” he bit out, that hard, violent rasp of his voice causing her to flinch.
“You’ve already lost your mind.” She slapped his shoulder, hard. She could have punched him in the face and he knew it. The fact that she pulled back was a testament to her fear.
He tied her robe around her waist gently.
“Get dressed.” He was fighting the surge of adrenaline now. “Get enough clothes on that I don’t go crazy. Do it now.”
Ria stared up at him, swallowing tightly as the blue burned in his eyes now, mixing so deeply with the hammered gold that it was hard to tell the true color of his eyes. They glowed in the savage features of his face. Feral rage tightened every plane and angle and warned her that he hadn’t yet gotten control of the fury raging through him.
She slid a
round him, casting a look toward Dane despite Mercury’s growl of protest. He was alive. Bloody, but Callan and Jonas and the two Breeds surrounded him, as did Ryan. Or Rye, as Dane had a habit of calling him.
Rye was battered, bloodied, his shirt nearly torn from him and his throat bruised. Dane looked worse. Blood matted his tawny hair, smeared across his face, and his lips were bleeding, his nose.
She glanced back at Mercury. He had his back to her, his hands braced against the wall, ignoring all of it as he obviously fought to get hold of himself.
What the hell had happened?
She gathered her clothes together. Jeans and socks, a bulky sweater. Enough clothes that he wouldn’t lose his mind, he had warned her.
She slipped into the bathroom, uncertain what to think, what to feel. Uncertain who or what the animal was that her lover had turned into.
“Fuck.” Dane came around with a slow, slurred curse as Mercury dropped his hands from the wall and turned back to the room.
He stalked across the room, jerked a clean shirt from the dresser that had had its top cracked clean through, and tugged it on over his head.
It was tighter than normal. His jaw clenched. Feral displacement.
He pushed his fingers through his hair and fought it back. The need to kill was like a hunger burning inside him. He turned and focused on Ryan DeSalvo and Dane Vanderale, and his lips tugged into a primal, silent snarl.
“They slipped into the fucking room,” he bit out. “Nothing but shadow and they thought I wouldn’t attack?”
Ryan lifted his gaze from his boss, and Mercury saw the suspicion in his eyes. Just as he saw it in everyone else’s.
“He’s right.” Ryan shook his head and breathed out roughly. “Dane slipped in. He likes to play games with Ria. Hell, he thought it would be funny to scare the hell out of her. We didn’t know she had company until we were already in the room.”
“Li’l witch never has company.” Dane chose that moment to cough out the accusation. “She’s so damned grouchy no one can put up with her long enough to stay in a bed all night beside her.” He cracked his eyes opened and focused on Mercury. “Figures it’s you.”
Callan’s growl was intimidating, furious. “You slipped past her guards, broke into her cabin and thought for one damned minute that you could sneak up on the Breed sleeping with her?” He jerked to his feet, his long tawny hair unrestrained and flowing around his shoulders. “Son of a bitch. Do you know what? Vanderale can shove its fucking money because I’m sick of your games.” He jabbed his finger toward Dane. “Obviously genetics fucked up with you, Dane, because anyone of the first Leo would have better sense.”
“Hybrid,” Ryan snorted. “Just wait, Lyons, you’ll find out what fun raising a hybrid is.”
“He tries to slip up on me again and he’ll find out how a hybrid dies,” Mercury snapped, barely in control, but hanging on to it as Dane sat up slowly.
“Get him out of here.” Jonas rose to his feet, his gaze meeting Mercury’s, his silver eyes flat and hard. “Out to the living room and patch his ass up before I finish it off for him.”
He ran his hands over his short hair, and Mercury’s jaw bunched as they helped the other Breed to his feet.
“Dane.” That growl was still in his voice.
Dane turned his head painfully, wincing at the movement.
