AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Simply telling her would never be enough. And it wasn’t enough for him. She had enraged him when she ran from him. Torn at his own pride and sense of worth. This was his mate. She would fight for him. She would fight for him or there would be no fury greater than his own.
He lifted his head and focused on the open closet door. Within it were those ugly clothes she insisted on wearing. He looked at the clock, and a hard, determined smile pulled his lips back from his teeth.
He eased away from her, tucked the blankets around her and moved for that closet. He had a few hours before the heat would awaken her. Before the need would begin clawing through her.
He stepped into the large closet, closed the door behind him and switched on the light. He turned, and his eyes narrowed on the clothing before he looked down at his hands.
The clawlike nails were blunted, but they were still dangerous. He took the first skirt from its rack silently, and only the rending of cloth whispered through the night as he began the destruction. Every shred of dowdy, miserable clothing she had in her possession was dropped to the floor of the closet, shredded. Skirts, tops and slacks. Sweaters and blouses. They were all rent beyond repair.
The shoes came next. Excellent quality, perfect workmanship. They were no hindrance to the silent rage working through him. His mate hid, even from him, and he would allow it no longer.
When he finished with the closet, he moved to the dresser and chest. He left nothing but the sexiest underwear, the lightest, skimpiest gowns. He dropped each item to the floor as he finished with it. Ripping it, tearing it, destroying every last article that she had brought with her.
Except one outfit. One pair of jeans. One shirt. A pair of leather ankle boots. She would need something to wear when he took her into Buffalo Gap and bought her new clothes. Clothes that befit the woman he knew she was.
Arrogance surged through him. He had an abundance of it, there was no doubt. And he knew that the fury he would face tomorrow would be one he might wish he had avoided. But there was more at stake here than her anger, her pride. Her confidence and belief in him were at stake, and he’d be damned if he would lose any of that.
He was her mate. Damn her for thinking she could so easily give him to another. That she would simply walk away. He knew, had sensed and felt and been rocked by, the complete love that surrounded him when she stared at him. She was devoted to him. He knew this. And still, she had walked away.
Her selflessness went far deeper than his ever could. Because he would kill the man that tried to take her. Even before the mating, he would have torn any competitor for her heart, limb from limb. Shredded him just as he shredded her clothing.
Then, as though those shreds of fabric were no more important than the sigh of satisfaction he gave, he returned to the bed.
He curled around her once again, and as sleep came over him, he smiled. Ria was right, he could purr.
She was burning. Ria could feel the blistering arousal dragging her from sleep, imperative, tearing at her body and at her mind as she fought awareness. She didn’t want to wake up. She wasn’t ready to face reality.
She wasn’t ready to face her own emotions. The ones that clawed at her far deeper than the arousal did. The satisfaction, because he had chosen her. Willingly, though she hadn’t believed it was possible for a Breed to make such a choice. According to Elizabeth Vanderale, it wasn’t possible. But Mercury had made that choice.
He had walked away from the woman whom nature had chosen for him years ago, and he had come to her. He had loosed the full force of all that savage hunger on her and she had taken it eagerly. Not just physically, but emotionally.
Something inside her had eased, while another part of her tensed. He chose her, for now. She was terrified the other shoe would drop later.
God, this was why she didn’t involve herself in relationships. She had been terrified of caring to this depth about anyone. Scared of loving to the point that she didn’t know how to walk away. And that was how she loved Mercury. When she did walk away from him, she didn’t know how to go any further than the bed they shared.
His touch fed a part of her soul that had always been closed off from others.
But her body was ready to be fed now. It was hungry for the taste of Mercury. For the feel of him. His possession and his kiss.
She moved against him, feeling his erection pressing against her stomach, his hand petting her hair. Her own hands were pressed against him, the feel of his flesh warming them, exciting them.
He was awake, so why didn’t he just take her? He could smell her need, she knew he could. She had watched him inhaling her scent last night, pulling it into his nostrils and growling with pleasure.
So why was he waiting? Her fingers curled against him as she fought to restrain herself. To keep from attacking him. Devouring him.
“If you want it, then you’ll have to take it yourself, mate.” The hard growl in his voice assured her he wasn’t asleep. Assured her he was still as volatile, still as wild as he had been the night before.
She struggled to open her eyes, feeling her heart pounding in her chest as he stared down at her with those arctic blue eyes. Eyes that sank inside her and reminded her of the lab photos she had studied before coming to Sanctuary.
“Your eyes changed colors,” she whispered, remembering that from the night before. The color was even more vivid now.
“My eyes were blue until they tried to destroy what I was,” he informed her, a flash of anger sending sparks of gold through the blue. “It’s not my eye color you need to worry about, though.”
The tone of his voice was just on the edge of pissing her off. The storm, the emotional upheaval from the night before, had passed. Thinking was still a delicate process, but she was getting there. Her emotions were volatile, though. She could feel them rising inside her, pushing her, straining to break free of her control. She would have to deal with them later, though. As soon as he put out the fire blazing in her body.
“What do I need to worry about then?” She pulled the sheet over her swollen breasts as his gaze flicked to the covering.
“Do you want me, Ria?” he crooned, his voice heating with his own arousal.
