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The animal couldn’t allow it. It feared what the man feared, and no other could possess its mate. It slipped further from its cell, let itself stretch, just enough, just enough that the glands in the man’s tongue began to thicken the slightest bit.
And the man searched for his woman, laid his lips against hers and slid his tongue inside.
The animal snarled silently, and made certain there was more of the taste that would bind the woman to him. Enough to feed into her system, to make certain no other could take her, no other would be allowed to claim her.
As the kiss aroused both man and animal, it retreated once again. The man sighed and tucked his head against her shoulder, his tongue licking over the primal bite he had left on her once again.
The remainder of the hormone fed into that bite, into her flesh.
The power it took for the animal to slip so silently, to control itself with such exacting precision was wearying. If only the man did not regard the animal with horror. If only the man didn’t reinforce the chains surrounding the animal each time he awoke, it wouldn’t have been so hard.
The animal would merge with the man if he would allow it. It would protect that man and the female. It would pour its strength into the man and allow him to be the Breed he had been created to be.
For now, weariness flowed over it. It collapsed within its chains once again and let itself rest. Not a true sleep, for there was fear of the darkness and the eternal night it had known for so many years.
The next morning dawned cold. There was a hint of snow in the air, and as Ria and Mercury stepped from the cabin to the limo waiting outside the door, she realized winter was definitely on for the mountains where the Breeds made their home.
She was bundled tight in a long leather coat Mercury had produced for her. She wore another skirt, but only because he had taken her jeans away from her when she went to dress.
Not that Ria was a jeans person; she wasn’t. Even her casual wear was mostly dresses. Jeans were only used where a skirt or a dress couldn’t or wouldn’t apply. She had to admit the skirt outfits and dresses she had brought with her were the worst she owned, though. They were her “persona” clothes, not her preferred attire.
Today she wore one of the better outfits she had brought, however. The skirt wasn’t bulky; it was soft cotton with a little flare at the knees, and the drab gray color didn’t detract from the attractive cut of the cloth. The matching long-sleeved light sweater made her brown eyes seem darker, maybe a little bit prettier.
Ria wasn’t big on her own looks. She knew she was rather plain. Her eyes were her best feature; they were thickly lashed and dark and matched her darker flesh, compliments of her father’s Puerto Rican-American roots.
As she slid into the warmth of the limo and Mercury moved in snugly against her, Ria couldn’t help but think about the mother she barely remembered, the father she hadn’t known since his death while she was still an infant.
She had been so alone that sometimes, over the years, she had ached at that loneliness. Until Mercury. Until he stepped forward and filled all those cold, empty places, and made her wonder how she had survived without him.
But you couldn’t fully appreciate, or fully miss, what you had never had, she reminded herself silently. Until Mercury, she’d had no idea the depth to which she could belong to another person. She hadn’t known how easily she could lose in a man’s arms the core element of exactly who and what she was.
And she had done that last night. When he had whispered that she was the mate of his soul. That she was his soul. When he had wrapped her in his arms, sheltered her with his body and eased her to sleep with his vows.
“You worry too much.”
Ria looked up at her lover as his hand slid past the opening of her coat and smoothed beneath her skirt.
She had been off balance since waking. She couldn’t seem to decide if she needed to cry or to throw his body to the ground and rub herself against it. Take him. Explode with him in ways she hadn’t exploded with him yet.
He had taken her in the shower. He had taken her after that first cup of coffee, and still she burned inside for him.
“It’s going to be difficult to make certain we have everything in place once we manage to trap the traitor in Sanctuary.” She spoke low, even though Mercury had raised the window, and the driver, the Breed Lawe, had been present during the meeting the night before.
“Oh, he’ll be caught. And he’ll be dealt with.” The underlying growl in his voice was one of retribution.
Ria shook her head. “There’s more than one. Just one person couldn’t pull this off.”
“It doesn’t matter how many there are.” His hand slipped higher, causing her breath to catch as his fingers touched the damp material of her panties.
This time, his growl was sexy, sensual.
“You’re still wet for me.”
He lifted her into his arms, staring down at her, approval and arousal building in his eyes now.
“You’re addictive, even without the mating heat.” She pushed the fingers of one hand into his hair and drew his lips to hers.
She loved his kiss. The feel of his lips moving over hers, his hands holding her to him as his tongue twined with hers, and she swore there was just a hint, the slightest flavor from her dreams.
