Blood Law

by Karin Tabke

  Something touched his arm, and Rafe looked down. He’d completely forgotten about Lana. She’d sidled up to him again, pressing against his body, ignoring Lucien completely. Rafe knew it was a deliberate insult to Lucien, and so did his brother. He was about to push her away when, growling, Lucien yanked her hard to his chest. His nostrils flared as Lana hung hypnotized in Lucien’s arms. “My brother doesn’t want to fuck you; if he did, he would have marked you years ago. He has found and marked his mate.” He raised his nose toward the back staircase and sniffed. “I can smell their sex even through the stench of all your own.”

  The pack bristled at that, any softness for Lucien immediately leaving them. That Lucien would mock the sacrifices the pack had made over the years—because of Lucien’s and Rafe’s blood feud—was akin to sacrilege.

  “Who I fuck is none of Lana’s concern. Or yours, Brother,” Rafael snarled.

  Lucien laughed and shook his head, shoving Lana away from him. “Come now, Rafe. It’s not about the fucking. It’s much much more important than that. Did you seriously believe I’d forgo personally congratulating you on such a momentous occasion? Your marking a mate is cause for great celebration.” Lucien looked hard at Rafe and smiled, showing a perfect set of straight white teeth. “On my part, at least.” He threw his head back and laughed deeply, thoroughly amused at the power he held at the moment.

  Rafael simmered and swore Lucien wouldn’t hold the power very long. In that moment, Rafael’s decision about whether to give the girl to Lucien tonight or not shifted in favor of the latter. Obeying the Blood Law was one thing. Allowing his brother to make a mockery of him in front of his pack was something else altogether.

  Lucien must have seen the defiance in Rafael’s eyes.

  “You know what’s coming, Rafael. I’ve come to claim my rights under the Blood Law of the Lycans. A mate for a mate. You’re bound by the law to hand over your chosen one to me.” He smiled so demonically that if Rafe didn’t know better, he’d swear Lucien was possessed by a Slayer. Were that true, Rafe would be as duty-bound to kill Lucien as he was to give him his mate.

  Under no circumstances could the blood of Lycan and Slayer mingle. It was the only reason he had destroyed Lucien’s mate. Duty to the pack above all else. Even if he hated himself for it.

  Lucien ran a finger along the high curve of Lana’s breast then looked at Rafe. His eyes widened in mock surprise. “Still here, Brother? Maybe I didn’t make myself clear. You’re bound by the Blood Law to hand over your mate, and I want her. Now.”

  Rafael grinned. “Fuck you and your little dog, too.”

  Lucien’s eyes widened slightly before he nodded. “Then you’ve sealed the pack’s fate. For a female, Brother.” Lucien glanced at the pack that stood behind him, uncertainty and almost fear in their eyes. “You see how your alpha hesitates? He’d sacrifice you all, even though he marked the girl knowing what was to come.”

  As one, every pair of eyes in the room looked at Rafael for reassurance that Lucien spoke lies.

  Rafael shook his head, and their eyes filled with relief.

  Lucien was right. The woman’s death was Lucien’s to command. If Rafe refused, he’d be removed as alpha. He’d lose face with his pack and would be banished. And then the pack would die out, because Rafe knew in his gut there was no other male who could effectively lead the Vulkasin pack as its alpha. Not even Lucien.

  Rafael swiped his hand across his chin. Damn it all to hell! What was he waiting for? What did it matter if it was tonight or a week from now? He should just get it over with. It didn’t matter that he’d mated her or that he felt a natural possessiveness after having taken her body with his. He had no emotional bond to her. And it would remain so. For everyone’s sake, he would hand the woman over to Lucien, then claim a Lycan mate and breed.

  He looked at Anton. It was on the tip of his tongue to command him to bring the woman to them.

  “Do you defy the Blood Law, Brother?” Lucien snarled.

  Lucien’s attitude stilled Rafe’s tongue. His instinct was to meet aggression with aggression. If he was going to hand the woman over to Lucien, he’d prefer to keep Lucien suffering for as long as possible. Without answering his brother, Rafe strode away from his pack and started up the stairs.

  Lucien followed him.

  As each step brought him closer to the woman, even though he’d committed himself no less than seconds earlier, Rafe was not without reservation. The girl was an innocent. She had no hand in what fate had dealt her. Was it right that she would die today, just so his pack could survive?

  He should not have to pay. He was just in destroying Lucien’s Slayer. Only without indisputable proof that she was, the council sided with Lucien.

  Rafe shook his head, angry that he even contemplated the wrongness of what he was about to do. It had to be done, damn it! If it wasn’t her, it would be another. This wasn’t about an eye for an eye, but rather an eye for an entire race. He had made the choice when he destroyed Lucien’s mate, Slayer that she was. He’d do it again.

  Fuck!

  For the first time in fourteen years, Rafael considered how his brother must have felt. Could he blame Lucien for his Blood Law revenge? Rafael was having difficulty as it was, and he had no emotional bond with the woman in his bed.

  How had Lucien felt when he was in love and that love had been ripped away from him by the person he trusted the most? Rafael swallowed hard. He didn’t want to know. Not knowing was easier, and he swore he’d keep it that way.

  He’d never succumb to emotional chains again. He had died a thousand times as he watched Corbet skin his mother alive, then endured the agony in his father’s screams for him to stop. Rafael never wanted to experience anything remotely close to it again.

  His resolve galvanized. This was right for him and his pack.

  Upon reaching his room, Rafael flung open the door.

  It was empty.

  Shock held him silent until he sensed Lucien’s presence just behind him. “Son of a bitch!”

  He ran into the bathroom to find the window open and that fool of a woman hanging by her fingernails from the edge of the roof. He shot through the window and grabbed her hand just as it slipped off the roof tile. She screamed as he hurled her back onto the roof, then tossed her over his shoulder and proceeded to shove her through the open window she had escaped from twice!

  When he’d wrestled her back into the bathroom, he tossed her over his shoulder again and took her kicking and screaming into the bedroom. Lucien’s eyes darkened. Rafael tossed the woman onto the bed. She bounced several times before coming to rest near the edge. She turned a blue-eyed glare up at him. Rafael glared back. He didn’t want to feel compassion for her. He didn’t want to feel anything except relieved.

  He didn’t want to feel the wave of possessiveness that rolled over him when Lucien moved toward her, but he did.

  Stopping several inches from her, Lucien’s nostrils flared. His eyes simmered with the luster of pure gold before he shot a smug smile at Rafael. “It looks like you’re the one who’s marked a human now, Brother.”

  Rafael clenched his teeth and rubbed the back of his neck even as he glared at the woman and the mark he’d put on her. “The difference, Brother, is she is not a Slayer of our people.”

  “So you repeatedly say.”

  “You still refuse after all these years to see the truth. She had to die or she would have killed us all!”

  Lucien sneered. “Admit it, Rafael, you wanted control of the pack. To get it you destroyed me. Your brother. Your only brother!”

  Lucien’s hatred for Rafe and what he had done spewed like toxins into the air. Regret clawed at Rafe. Not for what he had done but for what he had lost. “We will forever be at an impasse. You will see the Blood Law avenged. So do what you must.”

  Rafael forced himself to turn away from her then. Tried to brush her off as inconsequential. But there was a primal part of him that was willing—no itching—to fight his bro
ther for her.

  He had claimed her. Marked her as his. As an alpha, it was unconscionable that another take what was his without a fight to the death. But he could not defy the Blood Law.

  Immediately after giving his brother the go-ahead to take her, Rafe turned back and, without thought, moved to stand between the woman and Lucien.

  The girl sat openmouthed, staring at Lucien then Rafael then back to Lucien. Then she bolted. Straight out the door and down the stairs, her feet practically flying, despite her injured leg and cast.

  Rafe bounded after her, Lucien’s disdainful laughter following him.

  “Maybe I was wrong,” Lucien called after Rafael. “Your chosen one doesn’t appear to want anything to do with you let alone to be your mate.”

  Rafe was right behind her, but by the time he got to her, she was surrounded by the pack, spinning in circles and hissing at them as they pressed in on her.

  Rafael grabbed her arm, wrenching her up to her toes. “You’re not going anywhere,” he said, even as his eyes leveled with his brother’s amused face.

  “No, she’s not. But I’m suddenly feeling . . . amused. Do you have a name?” Lucien asked the girl.

  At the question, Rafael jerked around to face her. As he did, he let go of her arm. He’d marked her, been inside her body, and not once bothered to ask for her name. He hadn’t cared enough to ask. Hadn’t wanted to know. But now, he did.

  “Screw you,” she threw at Lucien. She turned to face the entire pack. “When I get out of here, you’ll all be screwed!”

  “You won’t be leaving here,” Lucien said as he moved closer. “In fact . . .” He yanked her up to him, lowered his head, and ran his nose down her neck and inhaled. “You won’t be leaving this house at all. The only question is, how long will I allow you to live?”

  The girl looked helplessly to Rafael for aid. His instinct to protect what was his raged. He snarled a warning to his brother.

  Lucien paid no attention. All his attention was on the girl, and it wasn’t because he was planning where best to inflict a mortal wound. Rafael knew his bother well. As a race, Lycans were highly sexual creatures, but the alphas were hardwired to spread their seed far and frequently. Rafael was no exception, nor were the others.

  The surrounding pack moved restlessly around them now. Their need to mate again was reaching a fevered pitch.

  Rafe didn’t care. Not about Lucien’s sexual needs, that of his pack’s, or any other person in the world. At that moment, he didn’t care about the Blood Law, or that he’d splintered his relationship with his brother for the very thing that was now overwhelming him—an inexplicable need for a human female. Something foreign and hot coursed in his blood, flaring hotter the longer he saw the woman in Lucien’s arms. “She is not yours to take, Lucien.”

  Lucien looked up from the terrified woman, his eyes dark because of his heightened sexual awareness and his impending night shift. In less than fifteen minutes, he would be on all fours. If he could just stall him . . .

  “She is mine to kill, though.”

  “There’s a difference,” Rafe said, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with him.

  The girl gasped and tried to twist out of Lucien’s grasp. When his grip increased, Rafael watched in astonishment as she turned to face his brother and glared at him. She thrust her hands and then . . . Lucien howled and let go of her, grabbing his head with both hands.

  Stunned excitement thrummed through Rafe. Is this why Salene wanted her? What power was this? Where did it come from? Only a few Slayers he knew possessed it. Yet he sensed no dark magic in her—was he fooled as Lucien had been?

  The girl paled and moaned as if she were in pain. Then her body went limp, dropping as if she’d lost consciousness. Wolf-quick, Rafael caught her just before she hit the floor. He set her down and looked up at Lucien, who was slowly lowering his hands from his head. He didn’t know what the hell had happened, but whatever it was, he was glad.

  Fury twisted Lucien’s features. “What trickery do you employ, Rafe?” Lucien moved toward the girl, but Rafe pulled her protectively closer. “Give her to me. Now.”

  Instead of answering, Rafael stood, cradling her in his arms. She was light, little more than a child. A feeling of admiration swelled within him, and with it, his own urge to mate again.

  Lucien’s rage exploded when Rafael refused to hand her over. He lunged toward them, but Anton and several others intercepted him, grabbing him by his arms and pulling him back. Lucien howled and tried to shake them off, but more of Rafe’s pack jumped in. In total, it took ten of his men to keep Lucien at bay. Silently, Rafael’s gaze moved from Lycan to Lycan. His gaze was steady. Theirs not so. They weren’t sure they liked what he was doing, but he’d seen the amazement in their eyes when the girl dropped Lucien to his knees.

  His pack had recognized the strength in their alpha female and were now willing to give Rafe what he needed: space and time.

  Breaths heaving out of him, Lucien roared again and managed to drag the men holding him forward. His eyes flashed red, betraying his rage. As was to be expected, the instant Lucien’s fury bypassed a certain threshold, his body went to all fours, then from smooth skinned to furry black beast. Both he and his brother had learned long ago how to shift quickly and easily, nothing like the horror movies the kids loved to agonize over.

  His men backed away, all satisfied. Lucien would not avenge his lost love as a wolf.

  Rafael clutched the girl tighter to his chest. Lucien’s great glossy black wolf rivaled Rafael’s tawny version in every way but did not eclipse it. In human or wolf form, they were different but equal in every way in terms of strength. Rafael’s only edge was his patience over Lucien’s hair-trigger temper. It was the reason they were still alive, because if they truly fought to the death, it would mean both of theirs.

  Looking down at his brother, Rafe said, “We’ll resume this man to man at dawn.”

  Lucien snarled at Rafael’s back as he strode back up to the bedroom.

  His mind swirled in a million different directions. What had she done to Lucien? How had she injured him as no other could? Did she possess the same dark magic as the Slayers? And damn it, why had he prolonged the inevitable? An urge to go to the ancient Amorak, his mother’s people, for answers pulled at him.

  He rarely visited them. It had been years, maybe a decade? When they refused to believe Rafe’s claim that Lucien’s mate was a Slayer, he’d stormed away in anger, never to return.

  In many ways he had cut off his nose to spite his face. The Amorak were wise people, the caretakers of the Lycan since that day three hundred years ago when they were created. Perhaps with them, he could find answers about the woman who was driving an even deeper wedge between the brothers who were sworn blood enemies.

  Entering his bedroom, Rafael gently set the girl down on the bed. As he studied her, an amazing thing happened. The anger, rage, and doubt whirling inside him calmed. Thoughts of his brother, his pack, and the Blood Law left him. He worried naught about the pack’s fate or even his own. His entire being focused on this girl and how she had the power to call to him.

  His hands moved to undress her, but then hesitated. He fought his greatest fear, the one that still managed to linger within him. His fear of love. Of being so bound to anyone, let alone someone destined to die, that he would scream and fall to his knees, and beg like his father had, only to be kicked away.

  He did not want to see her milky smooth skin or her full breasts or the soft tangle of curls at the junction of her thighs. If he did, he would touch her. Then take her. His cock thickened at the thought of having her again. She’d been so tight and sweet, he could have made love to her all night long. But given how she’d reacted to him this morning, she would have had a heart attack if she’d awoken to find herself linked in a very physical way to his wolf.

  He smiled despite himself.

  If only she knew what he could do to that sweet pussy of hers with his wolf tongue. His dick twinge
d and lengthened. Yeah, he could make her howl so loud every Lycan for three hundred miles would know what he was doing to her.

  As he stared at her, admiration threatened to turn into something more. Something softer. No, he thought. This was purely physical. It was about fucking, nothing else, and he’d prove it right now. Deliberately, he pushed her hair away and ripped open her top. His hands itched to touch her smooth skin. His lips to taste her.

  The ring on his finger warmed. In agreement, his dick swelled thicker. The correlation cooled his desire immediately.

  Rafael closed her shirt and stepped back, digging his fingers through his hair.

  The ring. The damn ring. He was no one’s servant. He was an alpha who chose when to act, when to fuck. As his mind refused to accept what his body and the ring demanded, he set his jaw. “No. Not again.” He was done. He would not use her for simple sexual gratification when he knew he’d be turning her over to his brother in the morning. She deserved at least that small respect from him. He closed his eyes and slowly exhaled.

  The girl moaned softly, and his eyes popped open. Her small hand reached out for his. As if he were a voyeur watching someone else through a window, he watched his big hand take hers and their fingers entwine. Her body arched. Through the thin fabric of her shirt, he watched her nipples tighten. Her soft, full lips parted, and her breath accelerated. Rafael pulled away, but her grip was tight. Her eyes softly batted open. The deep blue of them called to him. “Take me again,” she softly pleaded.

  He shook his head and took a step away. “No,” he whispered.

  The ring flamed his skin. He hissed in a breath. She raised herself, and with her free hand, she smoothed her fingers into his hair. Imperceptibly, she rose higher, and her soft lips took his. His dick flared, yet he did not give in to her. He could not. Would not.

  Suspicion clouded his desire. What end did she hope to achieve by seducing him? Did she think he would change his mind? Did she know he could not? That he had no say in the Blood Law?

  He refused to go there. He didn’t want to feel anything more for her than he did.