by Lexi C. Foss
A shifter?
How the fuck can she be a tiger but lack the subtle scent that shifters give off? Why would she sit through being tortured when she could damn well get herself free at any time? Nothing makes sense.
Rolling up off the floor, I hear the sound of running footsteps from the door. Vincenzo and Mateo appear with some of my werewolf bodyguards.
“Dante!” Mateo raises his gun aiming at the tiger and the male she’s fighting.
Hand jerking out, my brother tries to stop him. “No.”
“Leave it,” I command in a bark, moving between them.
Mateo gives us both a confused look but lowers his weapon. “We need to get the hell out of here!”
Joining them in the doorway, we race for the stairs, knowing the elevator has now become a death trap. “How the fuck did they get in here?”
“A breach in security.” Mateo growls, handing me a gun.
Crashing into the stairwell, we pick off the assassins waiting for us. A silver bullet straight to the heart or head takes them down easily. Shifting, the wolves run ahead, two others lurking behind watching our backs. We show no mercy and leave none standing in our path.
“Samuel has the car ready and waiting in the underground garage,” Mateo informs us by checking his phone. Our footsteps are the only noise as we hurry down floor after floor. Picking off the few assailants waiting for us, we make it to the underground floor in record time. Mateo goes first with two of the werewolves making sure our path is clear. Sparing a fleeting glance up, I wonder if Yukie has made it out. Pushing the thought aside, I shadow my brother and second in command toward the waiting vehicle. There are plenty of safe houses we can use to regroup. Figure out what the fuck is going on before making our next move.
Senses on alert, I spy the ambush just as the others realize it’s a trap. Using the pillars, shadows, and parked cars, they have us pinned down.
“Get back,” my brother Vincenzo shouts, firing at our enemies.
I’m not about to hide like a mouse. This is my territory. These bastards have declared war on me, and I will not go quietly. Fangs bared, I leap high squeezing the trigger of my own gun and landing on the ground close beside them.
A roar thunders around us in the air. A streak of black velvety stripes bright against white fur a tiger bounds onto the men, taking them down in one blow. A red stain mats its pelt on its left shoulder.
Yukie.
Even wounded, she continues to battle. Claws slashing, fangs shredding into flesh, she rips out throats, her feline form a sleek powerhouse of muscle.
From out of nowhere, a grenade lands between us. There’s no time to shout a warning. Running in the opposite direction, heat sears my back throwing me forward. The blast doesn’t just deafen me; it shudders right through my bones. The flash blinds me even with my eyes screwed closed. I regain my senses slowly, in agony and semi-blindness. Mateo grabs my shoulder, hauling me up onto my unsteady feet. Around us it’s chaos. The closest cars are now twisted hunks of burning metal. Two of my bodyguards lay dead, while the others pick off the assassins who still linger.
“Move,” Mateo snaps, breaking the daze I’m in.
Whatever damage has been done internally, I can already feel my body healing it. Ignoring the pain, I see my brother waiting for me beside a car. Time to make an exit and hope they don’t give chase. Limping toward the blacked-out SUV, I sweep the underground garage one last time.
Pale limbs snag my attention. Laying still on her back, Yukie is some distance from us, unconscious. From the rise and fall of her chest, my little assassin is still breathing. Blood soaks her shoulder from a small bullet wound. Without even giving it a second thought, I divert my path, lifting up the bottom of my shirt and ripping a strip from the material.
Vincenzo joins me tearing a long narrow length from his own garment and hands it to me.
“What the fuck are you two doing?” Mateo complains in frustration, banging the roof of the vehicle to get my attention.
Ignoring him, I crouch, pressing the material into the dark hole in her skin to stop the bleeding. Using the cloth Vincenzo provided, I create a make-shift bandage. With no exit point, it means the bullet is still lodged inside and will have to be extracted especially if it's silver. Like vampires, shifters are easily poisoned by this precious, natural metal. From a quick examination, I can’t see any other injuries.
“It would be easier just putting a bullet in her head now,” Mateo tells me, tone edged with impatience.
Lifting the female into my arms, I carry her carefully toward him. “She’s coming with us.”
“Fuck man, this isn’t a good idea.” Vincenzo retreats to the side allowing me into the rear of the SUV with my wounded prize. “You saw what she did. Let me take her. I can keep her in one of the safehouses.”
Sprawling Yukie across my chest with her legs over my thighs, I keep one hand pressed to her spine the other wrapped around her waist. “I never asked for your opinion, little brother.”
The smell of her blood excites me. It makes me want to feed. Sink my fangs into her slender neck and drain her of her precious life force. Tightening my hold around her, I push my urges aside. Until I find the answers I’m after, I can’t indulge my blood lust. It's only a matter of time. Once she’s given up her secrets, nothing will save her.
7
Yukie
Opening my eyes, I find myself laying on my stomach on a massive bed, silk sheets caressing my body. Arms chained above my head to a metal headboard, my ankles are also bound leaving me spread-eagled on the mattress. The room smells like Dante. Why am I not dead? I remember the men. The Vampire King fighting them. The pain of a bullet as I’d blocked it from striking him fatally. Preventing the other assassins completing their assignment outside the hotel.
Wincing at the pain in my shoulder when I flex it, I find a bandage covering the bullet wound. I’ve been shot before and know it will heal. It won’t leave a scar. They never do.
Scanning the bedroom, my gaze takes in the expensive looking furniture, the décor in earthy shades of brown and green.
Attention shifting to a noise to my left, I see Dante through a door. Naked with his back to me, he’s standing in a tub toweling drops of water off his skin. My gaze lingers on the perfect globes of his arse, his toned muscled physique. I don’t understand the flutter in my stomach, the way seeing him like this makes me breathless. The way my tiger side purrs in approval. Right now, she wants to be heard.
Head tilting to the left, I know he’s sensed I’m awake. Turning slowly, he bares the rest of himself for my viewing. Abs tapering down to a lean waist, his impressive erection is hard between his legs.
With predatory grace, he eats up the space between us coming toward the bed. “Take it easy, Pussycat, you're still weak from the silver. There's nothing you can do in your current condition. I'm not about to let you loose. Besides the silver infused chains will keep you weak for a while.”
My brain is floating in an odd lucid state “Where are we?”
“A safe house. You deliberately protected me. Why? You’re not here to kill me, are you?” he questions with genuine curiosity.
I don’t reply.
“How can you be a shifter but smell human? Why did you let us torture you when you could have escaped?”
My tingles turn into wildfire as he settles himself on the mattress beside me.
“Tell me who you’re working for.”
A hand skims my spine. Biting back a moan, I can’t stop myself from shuddering at the caress and the bolts of intense pleasure they invoke. I don’t understand it. No one has had this effect on me before.
“I’ll triple whatever you're being paid if you give me names and the real objective why you're here,” Dante offers. “I’m being very generous. I would accept it before I change my mind because there won’t be a second time.”
Pressing my cheek into the cool cotton of the pillow, I close my eyes for a heartbeat in an attempt to blot out
what he’s doing, but it only makes everything a hundred times worse. My tiger purrs louder in my head, ready to arch up and accept everything it's being given.
“Is your fealty to your master unbreakable? Is that the reason you won’t talk?” he drawls softly.
I can't stop myself arching into him. It's as if my body has a mind of its own. “Yes.”
“You like that, don’t you?” he repeats the action making me writhe.
Clenching my jaw, I stifle another moan, the sensations he’s invoking ricocheting through me.
Dante’s eyes glint deviously with wicked intent as he continues to touch me. “I recognize loyalty. I get it, Pussycat. It's something I value in my people, but do you know how to be a woman, not just a killer?”
“I don’t need those set of skills and am not driven by that sort of behavior,” I hiss in his face, my own threatening murder if he doesn’t release me.
Dante laughs, the sound making my insides clench.
“That sort of behavior? How very Victorian of you. I’m going to fuck you into ecstasy, Pussycat.” Planting hot kisses on my neck, he teases slowly up to my earlobe to nip at the flesh, taking it between his teeth. The low possessive growl that emanates from him vibrates through my body, setting off a needy throbbing in my core.
“Don’t do that.” It comes out in more of a breathy whimper than the snarl I was aiming for.
“You're not in a position to demand anything.” Cupping my arse, he kneads the flesh before parting my cheeks with his fingers.
When he presses the tip of one against my back passage, I squirm in protest. “No.”
“Arse, pussy, mouth,” he promises in a velvety tone that has my heart racing in panic in my chest. “Every piece of you is now mine.”
“If you even try to…” I bite back angrily.
Fisting my hair, he yanks it back with enough force to make me yelp in pain. “I’ll shove whatever I want up there, and you’ll take it like a dirty girl.”
Dante is a different kind of danger than I’m used to. He has me spinning out of control. Bring impulses and instincts I’ve never experienced before, sending me into sensory overload. Treating me like his own personal toy. Teasing my body, degrading me for his own pleasure. My tiger side accepts it all as if submitting to this vamp is the most natural thing in the world.
An insistent banging on the door interrupts us. Whoever it is, they don’t sound like they're about to go away.
Releasing my hair, Dante scowls at the noise. “I’m busy.”
“Get your dick out of the bitch, it’s important,” Vincenzo hollers in reply. “We need to talk.”
Swearing under his breath, my captor rises from the mattress. Snatching up the soft comforter at the bottom of the bed, he drapes it over me covering my nakedness.
Still reeling from the sensation of loss when he’d moved away, his protective action confuses me. They’ve already seen me without my clothes on. Why would he care about them seeing me like this now?
Storming across the room, he throws open the door letting it slam against the wall with a thud. “What? You know you're a real cockblock. I was just about to fuck her.”
“We need to deal with Piovene not waste the day fucking some hoe that shouldn’t even still be breathing.” His younger brother grates, jabbing his finger into his chest and looking unfazed by his brother’s naked state. Instead he slices me an angry glance.
Is he jealous? He looks it. Still bound to the bed, it doesn’t stop me from flipping him off.
Dante chuckles at my silent response. “I’m not sure he’s behind the assassination attempt. It makes no sense. If he wants my throne, it would have been more strategic to wait until I’d married Vanna. Which means someone else is behind this.”
“Do you think your new toy might know?”
Dante hums, watching me thoughtfully. “I’m not sure, but she’s been protecting me, which makes me think her motives are different. I’ll contact Piovene discreetly. Feel him out and see if he’s involved or not, although I highly doubt it.”
Vincenzo takes the opportunity to stroll in through the door and closer to the bed. “I don’t mind watching the kitty cat while you do that.”
“Careful, little brother, she has claws,” Dante cautions as he takes clothes out from a dresser drawer and starts to get dressed. “Where’s Mateo?”
“In the kitchen feeding. We have a couple of humans if you're hungry.” Vincenzo drops down to sit on the edge of the mattress beside me, running his hand up my leg over the top of the blanket.
Giving him a stony stare, I keep it trained on him until he removes it. In the mood I’m in, he’ll lose it if he leaves it there.
Jeans hang low on his hips showing off his tightly packed abs, Dante carries the shirt he’s holding toward me. Leaving it beside my head on the pillow, he reaches for the chains securing me to the headboard. He’s careful not to touch the silver laced ones around my wrists but unhooks the length so I can lower my arms. Vincenzo unbuckles my ankles, allowing me to finally sit up.
Taking a pair of black leather gloves from a drawer in the bedside table, he slides them down over his long fingers. “If you try anything, I’ll leave you shackled in the bathtub immersed in ice water for the rest of the night, understood?”
I nod at his threat, weakness from the silver keeping the strength from my body. Holding my hands out, I sit quietly while he frees them. Retrieving the shirt, he stuffs my arms into it one at a time. I can’t stop myself from shivering when his fingers brush the sides of my breasts as he fastens the buttons. Once I'm covered, he binds my wrists together again with the chains. Discarding the gloves, he grasps my biceps and drags me off the bed. Bare feet meeting the smooth wooden floor, the material of my new baggy garment falls down to mid-thigh.
I meet the Vampire King’s smoldering dark eyes, which clearly dare me not to fuck with him.
“Feed her while I make the call.”
I’m shoved unceremoniously into his younger brother's arms. I wince, releasing a pained noise when Vincenzo’s grip clamps down on my wounded shoulder. Instantly removing it, he clutches the back of my neck instead, his free hand using the length of chain as a leash. Walking me toward the door, he maneuvers me out into the corridor. From the layout, we’re in a tastefully furnished house. Escorted down the steps, I find myself in an open plan living space. Ceiling to floor glass windows give the perfect view of Rome, beyond the lights of the city in the dark. Dante’s men are posted around keeping watch, a mix of vampire and werewolves no doubt all loyal to their master.
There’s no sign of anyone when we enter the kitchen. Forcing me down onto a chair at the table, Vincenzo sets about fixing me food. Ignoring him, I memorize the contents of the room. Anything that I can use as a weapon and ways to escape. Although vamps don’t eat, the shifters they have in the house do. From the looks of the well-stocked sides full of food, it appears they plan to stay in this bolt hole for a while.
Vincenzo places a plate in front of me. “Roast chicken and lettuce sandwich enjoy.”
Eyeing his offering my lips curl up in disgust. “I’m allergic.”
Face scrunching up in confusion, he blinks slowly in disbelief. “Since when? You're a cat shifter, how can you be allergic to chicken?”
“I never said it was that,” I point out.
“So I’ll remove the lettuce.”
“That’s not going to help.”
Snatching the plate up so fast he almost spills the contents all over the floor, he growls angrily low in his throat. “I’ll make the whole goddamn thing from scratch again then.”
“I’m still not going to be able to eat it.”
Vincenzo groans in frustration. “You're just doing this to wind me up, aren’t you? Is this your attempt at payback? You were hurt, and you need to regain your strength. Just give me a break and tell me what you want.”
Payback for making me take this goddamn job. How he’d sweet talked me into coming here. He should know by no
w I was never going to make this easy for him. Vincenzo is going to owe me big time.
Lips quirking, I give him a smirk. “Bite me.”
Stalking across the kitchen, he dumps the rejected lunch in the trash before spinning on his heels and baring his fangs at me. “Don’t tempt me, Kitty cat. I might just do it.”
We glare each other down, the air between us crackling with more than just hostility. If he thinks I’m about to back down, he can forget it. I don’t give a flying fuck if he’s a prince or not. His title means nothing to me. He knows that. I can see where he gets it from. His brother Dante has mega asshole written all over him. My first meeting with the Vampire King of Rome and I already hate him.
Blue eyes drilling into mine, he remains unblinking. “My brother might think it's fun to keep you as his own personal pet, but you put one paw out of line, and I’ll end you myself whether he agrees to it or not.”
Resting my bound hands on the table in front of me, I keep my own eyes fixed on his face. “You can try, pretty boy.”
I can tell he wants to say more, but ears are listening, and we both know it. All his words have been for their benefit not for mine. In response, I flash him a grin. He’s always been good at manipulation. It’s probably the reason I’ve let him live all these years. We’re too much alike. Using people's gender expectations of us to extract information and get close to a target. Letting them think they’ve bested me because I look small and fragile.
Vincenzo rolls his eyes, and I see the mischief that lays beneath. “You know he’s going to kill you once he’s done with you.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything else from vermin like you,” I reply drily. If he thinks he’s frightening me, he’s mistaken. The only reason they're all still breathing is because he hired me. In any other situation they’d all have been dead hours ago. It makes me wonder if he plans to get me alone. We can’t talk freely until he does. I need to know if he’s learned anything. In the situation I’m in at the moment, I can’t do much other than protect the son-of-a-bitch he’s related to.
