Chapter 20

A rough hand grabbed me and pulled me away from the window. I dropped the cell phone with a clatter. My bare forearm caught a jagged piece of glass, and I felt a stinging line of fire as it sliced my skin. Dimly, I heard Richard roar with outrage and anger, and I caught one last quick glimpse of him as he slammed into the unyielding bars of the cage.

“Well, well, what have we here?” The coarse masculine voice was familiar, and when my captor spun me around, I recognized the man I had nicknamed Gravel Voice to myself on the night of my attack. The night when I first learned what Richard really was.

Gravel Voice was dressed entirely in black, and he looked about the same, except for the ragged pink scars that decorated one cheek and the right side of his throat. I could imagine how he had gotten those.

“Leave me alone!” I said, fighting his grip and trying to staunch the flow of blood from my cut arm at the same time. “Let me go—now!”

“Can’t do it, girly,” he said, frowning. “See, you’re trespassing on private property here. And it looks like you already seen too much.” He shook his head. “I told the boss we shoulda gone after you again, but he seemed to think it was enough to have your boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I said instantly. “He’s my brother.”

One salt and pepper eyebrow shot up instantly. “Oh yeah? Well, you must have a helluva strange family unit, girly.”

I felt my face heating. “It’s none of your business.”

“Is now.” He started dragging me over the cracked concrete as I struggled uselessly.

“Where are you taking me?” I demanded. My head was filled with every mob movie I had ever seen. Was my body going to be dumped in the bay wearing cement shoes? Or would they put two behind my ear and leave me as a warning for nosey ADAs everywhere?

“Where you wanted to go in the first place,” Gravel Voice said. “To see your brother.”

He pulled me around to a small side door that led directly into the cavernous space inside the warehouse and marched me over to the large metal cage. Richard was at the bars, shirtless and growling, looking twice his normal size. There was a caged tension in his big body, but as far as I could see, he hadn’t changed in any other way. Was there a reason he was holding the beast inside himself at bay? If there was ever a time to let it out, this was it, in my opinion.

Gravel Voice kept a firm hold on one of my upper arms with one hand and drew a gun smoothly from some hidden holster with the other. “Back down, friend,” he said, his voice cool and deadly. “We both know I’ll do it.”

“Take your hands off her. Don’t touch her—she’s ~mine.~” Richard’s voice was a low, uneven growl.

“Back away from the bars, and you’ll get to see her up close and personal. But any funny business and she buys it right here in front of you.” Gravel Voice was all business, just as he had been the night he and Rat-face had attacked me.

“Fine. But you’re going to pay for putting your hands on her.” Richard backed away from the bars, his green eyes blazing, his broad chest heaving.

Gravel Voice went slightly pale, and I thought he might be remembering the way Richard had ripped out his buddy’s throat. “Big talk,” he said, pressing me up against the bars. He let go of me, but I could feel the cold ring of metal as the mouth of the gun slipped into my hair and settled snugly against the nape of my neck. I went absolutely still. One twitch and he could blow my head off. Better not to twitch.

There was a jangle of keys, and then the door of the cage slid open with a protesting screech. Gravel Voice shoved me inside. Before I could even turn around, he’d slammed the door shut again and turned the key. Obviously, he wasn’t taking any chances.

“You’re a lot of big talk,” he told Richard, still pointing the gun in our direction. “But I know you can back it up. I know what I saw.”

Richard grabbed me and pushed me behind him, shielding me with his body. I peeked out from behind his muscular arm to see what Gravel Voice would do next.

“The others think I’m crazy,” he continued, frowning. “Hell, I convinced the boss to steal this damn cage from that fuckin’ Big Cat Rescue place special just for you—to keep you locked up once we brought you in. This cage could hold an eight hundred pound tiger—you know that? And all you do is sit in it. But I know you can do more. Because I saw.”

“What do you think you saw?” Richard grinned at him ferociously, and I shivered at the malice in his tone.

“I don’t know, but whatever it is, I’m gonna see it again tonight. The boss is coming over later on, and you ~will~ change for him or I’ll shoot that pretty little girlfriend, or sister, or whatever the hell she is to you right between ~they~ eyes.”

Richard roared and threw himself suddenly at the bars. To his obvious satisfaction, Gravel Voice paled and took two quick steps back. Then he scowled.

“Just wait,” he said, holstering his gun with quick, jerky motions. “Just you wait, you freak.” He turned and stalked away from the cage, his footsteps ringing in the huge dusty space of the warehouse. Leaving me alone in the cage with my unconscious friend and my possibly dangerous brother.

When he was gone, Richard grabbed me in a fierce hug. “Rache,” he murmured hoarsely in my hair. “Never thought I’d see you again.”

“I didn’t think I’d see you either.” I hugged him back, content for the moment to just be near him and drink in his wonderful, masculine smell. It was the scent I had missed so much as it slowly faded from my sheets and pillows in the last few weeks. Breathing him in, I felt like a drowning woman who had just gotten her first breath of air in days.

He pulled back from me and frowned. “You’re bleeding.”

I looked down at the long, shallow cut in my forearm. I had almost forgotten it was there, but sure enough, I was still dripping blood.

“I cut myself on the window,” I said. “It’s nothing.”

“The hell it’s not. Here.” Richard lifted my arm to his mouth, and for a moment, I thought he was going to bite me. I tried to pull away, but he shook his head, his voice as soft and coaxing as it had been harsh and menacing a moment before when he talked to Gravel Voice. “Trust me, Rachel,” he said. “I would never hurt you.”

I allowed him to bring my arm to his lips, but instead of kissing or biting, he stroked gently over my cut flesh with his tongue. I gasped at the sudden warm tingling sensations that shot up my arm. It was as though he was licking me somewhere else entirely. I pressed my thighs tightly together and tried not to think about that.

“What…what are you doing to me?” I could barely get the words out.

“Healing you.” Richard gave my arm one last long caress and looked at me, his pale green eyes filled with fire. “Look.”

I looked down and was surprised to see that the long jagged cut in my arm was almost entirely healed now. Only a faint pink scar remained, and even that was fading as I watched.

“How did you do that?” I looked up at him in bewilderment.

“Born light and dark, yet of one breed. If one is bitten, the other will bleed. Joined as one, their bond to seal. If one is wounded, the other may heal,” he murmured.

I had the strangest feeling I’d heard those words before, but I couldn’t remember where. “What does that mean?” I asked, looking up at him.

“It means that I’m your Lanor-zur—your mate, whether you want to admit it or not. It’s the reason I can heal you—because we’re bonded. Because I love you.” He stroked my cheek softly with one hand, and for a moment, I forgot that we were standing in a cage waiting for Momo the shark Andretti to come do away with us.

“The same way that bullet wound in your chest healed,” I said.

“Yes,” he said. “Because we’re stronger together than apart. Because we need each other. I missed you, Rachel. I need you.” He captured my mouth in a hot kiss, sliding his hands into my hair to hold me in place. I felt the forbidden fire pour into my veins like a drug, and for a moment, I melted against him, giving in to the kiss completely. He kissed me long and thoroughly, exploring my mouth as though he needed to reassert his ownership of me. I felt my body heating under his touch, my nipples tightening, and the tender vee of my sex getting suddenly wet. Oh God, we couldn’t do this now…not now.

It took a tremendous effort, but I finally managed to push him away. He tried to kiss me again, almost roughly, as though he was driven to do it, unable to help himself.

“Please, Richard,” I gasped, putting my hands on his chest and trying to catch my breath after the merciless kiss.

He frowned and let me go. “So you’re still not ready to admit what you feel? What you need?”

I shook my head. “We don’t have time for this now. We have to get out of here.”

“Like I haven’t tried about a thousand times already.” He laughed mirthlessly and sat down heavily, his bare back to the iron bars. “But you’re right, if we don’t get out of here in the next half hour, your friend is going to be in serious trouble.”

“Genevieve!” My hand flew to my mouth, and I ran to where she was lying in the far corner of the cell. I felt a surge of shame that I’d completely forgotten her in the urgent rush of seeing Richard again. I got on my knees beside her and touched her face tentatively. She was lying on her side, breathing deeply, but when I patted her cheek and called her name, she didn’t wake up. There was a small smear of blood on her forehead, and I could feel a lump rising under her bushy brown hair. Gravel Voice must have knocked her on the head with the butt of his gun—I only hoped she wasn’t in some kind of a coma.

“There’s nothing you can do for her, Rachel. And if we can’t get her out of here, it’s better she stays unconscious.” Richard’s voice was bleakly pragmatic. Reluctantly, I turned away from Genevieve to face him.

“What are you talking about? You wouldn’t really hurt her, would you?”

He looked tired and sad. “I won’t be able to help it when I change. I won’t touch you—you’re my Lana-zeel, and I’d know you, know your sweet scent, in any form. But her…to the beast inside me, she’s just prey.”

“I don’t understand,” I sank to the ground in front of him, wrapping my arms around my knees. The light in the huge warehouse was growing dimmer and dimmer, and soon the moon would start to rise. “Why couldn’t you escape earlier? I know how strong you are.”

Richard shook his head. “I was weak. I stayed away from you too long, and it took a toll on me.”

“I was weak too.” I thought of my horrible dreams, the way I couldn’t seem to think properly, the way I barely had the strength to do anything in those past horrible two weeks, and realized that I felt better now, stronger than I had in the last fourteen days since Richard had left.

“I knew you would be,” Richard said. “Because we ~need~ each other, Rachel.” He sighed. “I wanted to go back after the end of the first week—couldn’t stand to be away from you anymore. And I was hoping you might be feeling the same way. That you’d finally be ready to admit what we both need.”

“So what happened?” I asked, refusing to be drawn into a discussion of what we meant to each other again.

Richard shrugged. “I was weak with wanting you when they jumped me—too weak to even do a partial change. They beat me. When I wouldn’t lose consciousness, they drugged me. I woke up here.” He gestured around the stark confines of the cage. “I think they’ve been holding me because the big boss is out of town. I guess he’s coming back tonight.”

“And you’re supposed to be the prime entertainment,” I murmured, thinking furiously. “Look, Richard, do you think that you could break out of here now? Now that we’re back together?”

He looked thoughtful. “It’s worth a try. I do feel better than I have since that last night... the night we—”

“Well, maybe you should try,” I said urgently, cutting him off. Why was it that we were stuck in a life-threatening situation and all I could think about was his hands on my body, his mouth covering mine and moving lower in a hot, wet trail of kisses? Things I knew I shouldn’t be thinking about at all.

Without another word, Richard stood and put his hands on two of the bars. They were rough and thick, about the circumference of one of my wrists, and I never would have expected a normal man to be able to bend them apart. But I knew my brother’s strength, and I was hoping against hope that it would be enough to get us out of this mess.

He closed his eyes, and I saw his biceps and the impressive muscles in his broad back flex as he pulled with all his might. All the veins under his smooth tan skin popped out alarmingly, and the iron bars gave a low groaning sound. His face contorted with effort, and I could tell he was doing the best he could, but they gave less than a centimeter.

He stopped, panting. “It’s no good. Maybe if we hadn’t spent so much time apart. Or if we’d sealed the bond. A sealed bond would give me ten times my normal strength. But not now. It’s been too long, and I’m too weak.” He sounded bitter, angry, and disappointed with himself.

I bit my lip, not wanting to talk about the bond between us or what it would take to seal it. “Try again,” I urged. “One more time—they gave a little bit. If they were just a little wider apart, I could squeeze through and go find help.”

Richard nodded. “All right.” He grasped the bars again with the same result—nothing. But he strained against them until the big muscles of his arms were jumping with tension.

“Stop, Richard.” I put a hand on his broad back and felt him trembling. But when he turned to face me, I could see that it wasn’t exhaustion that was making him shake. His eyes were wide and full, the pupils tiny pinpricks as the pale green fire around them ate the black. I could smell his scent again, and it was stronger than ever, muskier, more animalistic. He looked at me with unmistakable hunger in his eyes.

“The moon...I can feel it.” His voice was a low growl.

To my horror, I could feel it too—the familiar icy fingertips on the back of my neck sensation that told me the full moon was out overhead. And, oh, God, Richard was starting to change! I didn’t know what to do, how to stop it. If he changed, he would kill Genevieve who was still lying helplessly on the floor in the far corner of the cage. And if I saw him do that, if I saw him kill my friend and bathe in her blood, I knew things would be over between me and Richard forever. Because no matter how horrible I felt physically when we were apart, I just couldn’t get over watching him do something like that. I just couldn’t.

“Rachel, God! I don’t want you to watch this. I’m sorry...sorry it had to come to this.” Already his features were distorting. His even white teeth were lengthening into fangs as I watched, and his eyes were growing wilder, less human by the second.

“Richard, ~stop~,” I begged him as though my pleas would do any good. Inside, I was cursing myself. If only I had made love to him, had let him breed me when he wanted to, this would never have happened. In fact, if our bond had been sealed, Richard probably would have been strong enough to break out of here and come back to me. But then, he never would have left in the first place if I had granted him full access to my body and let him do what he wanted. It still felt wrong to think of letting him do that, to think of letting him take my virginity and shove his thick cock all the way inside me to flood me with his essence. But breaking a taboo that was mostly in my own head would have been infinitely preferable to watching him change helplessly into a beast and tear my friend apart.

Even as I thought these things, it was too late. Richard’s entire body was changing. His face was lengthening into a muzzle, and his fingers were growing together into paws. I watched in the semi-gloom, horrified at what I saw, what I heard. His skin was popping, and patches of thick black fur were breaking out all over his body. He was shaking, trembling, and I knew the process had to be horribly painful for him. The jeans he had been wearing on his lower body suddenly split at the crotch and waist with a low purring sound and fell to the floor at his feet.

I watched in horrified fascination, unable to look away as my brother became something completely alien. This was nothing like the semi-human monster I’d seen him change into the night after our dinner at Berns. This was an animal, pure and simple. And as I looked into its eyes, I realized it was a ~hungry~ animal.

“~Richard~.” I was almost crying in fear and despair. “Oh, God, don’t do this! Come back to me!”

I think he may have tried to talk, but by then his mouth wasn’t able to form words at all. I watched as his body contorted and the last of his humanity leaked from the pale green eyes. And then, suddenly, I realized he was completely gone.

Standing in front of me was a huge black wolf-like creature with eyes like green fire. As I watched, it threw back its head and howled, a long, lonely sound that split the night and froze the blood in my veins.

I was going to die.