Page 13 of Born Savage

I allowed a low growl to rumble in my chest in way of warning.

She couldn’t care less, shifting her gaze from me to my companions with a snort. Maybe she didn’t understand that she was outnumbered. More likely, she just didn’t care. She should. She should fear everything around her.

It was a dog-eat-dog world after all, loyalty bought and paid for instead of earned.

I knew her name. We all did. We’d been given as much information as was known about her. Why she was important to the cause simply didn’t matter. What my gut told me was that she would be used as a bargaining chip. What I didn’t like was the thought of her being used or interrogated by the Resistance.

Whatever she might know or whoever she was hiding was important enough we’d risked exposing the most important place on the planet. What I knew was that at this point, she should be considered the enemy.

It wasn’t my place to question why.

Still, with the understanding in mind, my body’s reaction to her had come close to blindsiding me. The way my heart thudded in my chest. The way my blood surged through my veins.

My own arousal was close to matching hers, but for an entirely different reason.

When she swung the sword, not to kill but as a warning, she had a smile on her face. Perhaps that worked with the stupid bastards controlling this city, but not with me. Within seconds, I had her pinned to the wall, one hand wrapped around the arm holding the sword.

“I will fucking kill you,” she hissed and with every movement in trying to escape, she learned how attracted to her I’d become. Once she did, her eyes opened wide and a single drag of her tongue across her bottom lip kept my attention.

Enough so I lowered my head, the undeniable longing becoming a problem.

“Rage,” Wrath said under his breath, a warning that we had little time.

She laughed while tilting her head until our lips were almost touching. I couldn’t remember another time I’d experienced such extreme hunger.

“Don’t,” she hissed in a low and steady voice, no quaver highlighting fear. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Hurt?” I threw out, laughing as I did. Her lips were so close, I could almost taste her.

The lingering moment was one the others couldn’t stand.

“Rage,” Vicious added while stepping closer.

She pressed her other hand against my chest, daring to tease the beast by rubbing her fingers up and down. “Yes, I could hurt you. Is that what you want?”

Unable to resist either her or the moment, I fisted her hair, tilting her chin even more. “Give it your best shot.”

A series of unearthly growls as the other beasts made it across the rails was a reminder that toying with her was as dangerous as everything else.

She chuckled in a low and seductive voice, not even triggered by the ugly creatures’ approach. “Gladly.” The shift in her body was quick and easy. So was the push to break our connection and the knee she shoved into my groin.

My hold was broken, the female pulling away by several feet and prepared to use her weapon however necessary.

The other bastards were mere feet behind.

As soon as she lifted the sword, glancing at me then at the approaching men, I grabbed the weapon from her hand.

“Allow me.”

Perhaps she was shocked my actions had been so bold, even more so by the gasp when I turned and lunged toward the bastards determined to finish their mission even with six Savages standing in their way. I swung from one side to the other, catching two with ease. As their heads shot off the platform onto the track, their deaths became a signal to the others to engage.

Spilling blood had never affected me. Even the anguished cries of those still succumbing to the aftermaths of the war had never summoned any emotion.

But her sharp cry, which was more about enjoying the beheadings than anything else, affected me.

I struck again, driving the blade into another, even wishing there were more. I was in the mood to destroy things, which always eased the discomfort. Not tonight. We’d hunker down in the safe zone we’d created until morning’s light.

There was no real battle, the last two falling quickly, but as soon as Vicious pushed the last onto the track, Wrath laughed, less out of annoyance and more out of knowing how I’d react. “We underestimated the woman.”