by Lara Adrian
No article or image she’d ever seen could have prepared her for the reality of facing a livid Breed male in the flesh. But it was the anger in the man who scared her more than the outward evidence of what he truly was.
“Jesus Christ, Leni. Were you going to say anything to me about this at all?”
“No.”
At her denial, he cursed again, more vividly this time. He still hadn’t let go of her. With one hand grasped around her arm and the other now fisted in the shredded hem of her loose flannel shirt, Knox drew in a breath through flared nostrils.
Everywhere he’d touched her Leni’s skin felt seared, stretched too tight. Part of her bristled at his arrogance as he had run his fingers over her bared stomach, searching for the mark she’d been foolish to try to conceal from him.
He’d had no right. Not to touch her, nor to glower at her in accusation.
He’d had no right to lay his palm so tenderly against her face in the moments before, either, but the heat that touch had stoked inside her had less to do with outrage than she cared to admit.
She hadn’t missed the crackle of hot sparks in his eyes when he’d caressed her cheek. Had he wanted to kiss her? She felt certain he had. Despite his outrage, every instinct in her body clenched with the anticipation that he might want to kiss her now, too.
Kiss her or kill her, she couldn’t be sure.
Either option should have given her plenty of reason to be afraid.
Knox released her on a snarl. Under his lowered brows, his fiery eyes were narrowed and scorching. “This is why you don’t have a scratch on you. Your Breedmate gift. It’s self-healing, isn’t it?”
“Not healing. It’s different from that.”
“Different how?”
“I can’t be harmed.” She lifted her shoulder, uncertain how to explain the extraordinary power that had been part of her all her life. “Whenever I’m in physical danger, my body creates a kind of shield around me. Nothing can penetrate it.”
He scoffed. “No wonder you’re not afraid of anything.”
“That’s not true.” She shook her head. “I am afraid, Knox—for Riley. My ability is no use to him. It only protects me, not anyone else.”
“Fuck.” He took a step back, and she could feel his displeasure and frustration rolling off him. “What about your sister? Was she a Breedmate too?”
“Shannon is human,” Leni said, refusing to talk about her missing sibling in anything but the present tense. “We’re half-sisters. Her father was a local man. Mine was something . . . other.”
Knox grunted. “Are you in touch with him?”
“No. I never knew my father.”
“Where is he now?”
“I have no idea. My mom was in Portland on vacation with some friends when she met him. He was living on a large sailboat then, traveling the world. Apparently, he wasn’t the type to stay put in one place for long. Why do you want to know?”
“Because you and the boy need somewhere safe to go. You need to be with someone who can protect you.”
“I already told you, I’m not going anywhere. I’m not leaving Parrish Falls.”
Knox’s gaze flared brighter with the curse that gusted between his teeth and fangs. “You’re a fool if you stay, Lenora. From everything I’ve heard and seen tonight, you and I both know it’s going to be that kid upstairs who pays the price if things escalate between you and the Parrishes.”
Leni’s hackles rose as he spoke. In her heart, she knew he was right. For six years, she’d known eventually she would have to choose between keeping her sister’s memory alive and keeping her nephew away from the brutal man who’d fathered him.
But dammit, she wasn’t ready to let go of Shannon.
She wasn’t ready to allow herself to imagine her sister was truly gone.
“I’ll find a way to keep Riley safe.”
“What about yourself?” he demanded. “Just because you can’t be physically harmed doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to hurt you. How are you going to feel when that boy is ripped away from you? Because you know it’s going to happen. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have asked me to kill Travis Parrish for you.”
God, she hated the sound of that. Hated to think how low she might be willing to stoop out of love for the sweet little boy sleeping so innocently upstairs. But she couldn’t deny it. She couldn’t pretend she wouldn’t be capable of anything if it meant keeping him safe.
“I’ll manage on my own. I always have.” She folded her arms, squaring off against the fuming Breed male in front of her. “Thanks for the advice, but we’re not your problem, Knox.”
He scoffed under his breath. “Yeah. That’s what I’ve been telling myself all night. I should’ve kept walking right past this damn town. My first mistake was stepping inside your diner tonight. My second one, stopping to pull you out of that ravine. But the biggest mistake of the night is all yours, Leni.”
He took a step toward her, furious and immense. Seething with a dangerous, animal rage.
A low growl rumbled deep inside him, yet another reminder that he was far from human. Especially now, when his reaction to her Breedmate mark still had him pulsing with aggression and barely contained rage.
“You knew what I was,” he said, his deep voice deceptively calm, given the intensity of the rest of him. “You recognized I was Breed as soon as you saw the glyphs on my hand. You should’ve steered clear, Leni. You should’ve told me to get the fuck out of that booth, not invite me to stay. I would’ve left this town and never looked back.”
She swallowed as he closed the meager distance between them.
Apparently, she had lost all grip on her sanity tonight. Because instead of fearing the predator in Knox now, she stood firm against him. Refusing to back down.
God, even worse, she couldn’t stop wondering what it might feel like to be caught in those strong arms, pressed against all of that power.
Yep, crazy. Along with reckless and stupid.
He was right. She had made a terrible mistake tonight. She had enough problems in her life right now without inviting this snarling, dangerous new one any closer.
Not that he wanted that, either.
His fury pulsed off him, palpable and hot.
Leni lifted her chin. “I want you to leave now, Knox.”
A wry smile twisted his mouth as he slowly shook his head. “No, you don’t. But you damn well should.”
Another step forward and there was no room between them. Nowhere to run. No space to mask the rapid tempo of her breathing or the heavy thud of her heart beating in her breast.
When she thought he might reach out to her face, instead his hand stayed low, moving aside the torn hem of her shirt. He stared at her Breedmate mark once more, a tendon going tight in the side of his dark, beard-shadowed cheek.
His gaze lifted to hers, those molten irises scorching her all over again. They mesmerized her. Unearthly and terrifying, yet beautiful. Just like the man himself.
No, she corrected, needing to find some distance here, not only from the intensity of his nearness, but from the unsettling heat of the reaction he awakened in her.
That uninvited warmth licked along her limbs and up her nape, while inside her, awareness pooled, sending that same fire into every vein and fiber of her body. It was electric, the energy that ignited so swiftly between them. It was undeniable. Perhaps even for Knox.
As he stared at her, a low curse fell from between his parted lips. Then he backed off, allowing a chill to fill the space he’d just occupied.
“We’ve both made enough mistakes we can’t take back now,” he uttered tersely. “I’m sure as fuck not going to add another one to that list now.”
If he expected her to answer, she couldn’t. Breathing was about all she could manage with the way her heart was galloping against her ribs.
Knox swore again, scrubbing a big hand over the roughened shadows of his jaw. “Lock your doors, Lenora. Stay put.”
He gave h
er the curt order, then pivoted away from her and started walking toward the back door in the kitchen.
She followed after him, confused. “Wh-where are you going? Knox, what are you going to do?”
He didn’t answer.
He didn’t even bother to turn around before he stalked out of the house and into the howling blizzard outside.
Leni rushed to the door behind him, but he was already gone.
Vanished in that next instant, nothing but darkness and blowing snow in his wake.
CHAPTER 8
Cold wind buffeted him as he took off on foot through the storm.
His boots chewed up the snow-drifted terrain between Leni’s house behind the diner and the vast expanse of wild, open forest that surrounded it. He needed the frigid air to batter him, snap him back to his senses. Flying ice crystals and bracing gusts sandblasted his uncovered head and face as he ran. He relished the needle sting accompanying his every step.
Knox craved every bit of punishment the blizzard could deliver.
Anything to cool the unwanted desire he felt toward the woman he’d left confused and upset behind him.
Twice, he’d almost kissed her tonight. He hadn’t counted that one among his list of mistakes he’d rattled off where she was concerned, but when it came to grenade-level bad moves, getting physically entangled with Leni had to rank right up at the top. Especially now.
Christ, what if he had decided to tap her carotid instead of feeding from the tattooed loser working at the gas station? One sip of Leni’s blood and Knox would be shackled to her for as long as either of them continued to breathe.
A Breedmate, for fuck’s sake.
He snarled at the notion, furious over the fact that she’d wanted to conceal it from him.
Right now, there was a part of him that wished like hell she’d been successful because everything changed when he spotted that mark.
He couldn’t unsee it. Just like he couldn’t deny that as special and rare as Lenora Calhoun seemed to him earlier tonight when he’d assumed she was fully human, that tiny teardrop-and-crescent moon stamp on her belly was irrefutable evidence that she was even more extraordinary than he could have ever guessed. A female to be protected, and cherished, no matter the cost.
It would take a Breed male with a more bankrupt sense of honor than his to pretend those things didn’t matter.
He’d been wrestling with the idea of walking away even before he saw what she was. Afterward, none of his arguments for leaving held any weight at all.
He couldn’t turn his back on Leni now. Nothing would convince him that she and the boy would be safer somewhere else—anywhere else—than Parrish Falls. Obviously, persuading her toward that fact was going to be a challenge. Unfortunately for him, until he could bring the stubbornly loyal female around to his logic, Breed honor dictated he do whatever was in his power to ensure her protection.
Even if that was the last damn thing he wanted or needed in his life.
“Fuck.” The curse exploded out of him on a puff of steam as he pushed deeper into the uninhabited woods, his path following the general direction of the main road through Parrish Falls. The land was treacherous, dense forest and jagged ledges that grew steeper as he neared the cut of the river.
Knox didn’t slow for anything. He wasn’t only trying to burn off the heat of a bad impulse; he was on the hunt.
Vibrating under the rush of the cold air and snow swirling around him, he caught the distant rumble of the prey he was after. The sound of the pickup’s diesel engine carried on the night wind, the lone sign of life for several square miles in the midst of the howling storm.
Knox followed his ears, taking off in the direction of the engine’s monotonous growl.
He found Dwight Parrish on the two-lane, rambling away from town at a steady clip on the newly plowed stretch of road. Knox used his Breed agility to keep pace with the vehicle, observing from atop a long ridge that ran parallel with the road below.
The plow blade was up, no longer in use. High-beams sliced the darkness, swerving back and forth with the careless, weaving motion of the truck. Inside the cab, music blared. Evidently, Parrish was finished for the night and heading home.
Or so Leni’s tormentor might have thought.
Knox sped up on his jagged promontory over the road, a blur of motion that no human eye could track, especially not in the dark. He paused about a mile ahead of Parrish with plenty of time to look for the detour he was about to deliver.
And there it was. He smirked, eyeing the thick trunk of a fallen pine that leaned against its neighbor up ahead of him on the wooded ledge.
Knox waited until the pickup’s headlights approached below.
Then he hefted the heavy, snow-sodden obstacle and threw it down onto the road, blocking the truck’s path.
Parrish laid on the brakes so hard he nearly fishtailed right over the edge of the ravine on the other side of the narrow two-lane. Taillights flared bright red in the dark. Snow kicked up in an arcing fan behind the rear bumper while the protesting tires steamed and screeched as the truck stuttered to a halt on the ice.
Inside the closed cab, Parrish’s scream rose over the thumping bass of the sound system.
Now that he was stopped, he lifted his head to peer out the windshield at the large projectile that nearly totaled him. At the same instant, Knox leapt down to the road in front of the truck. He tried not to smile at the look of stupefied shock on the human’s bearded face.
Instead, he lowered his head in a charging stance and flashed the bastard his fangs.
Parrish’s eyes went wide at the threat. Panicked, he dropped the silver liquor flask he’d been holding in his right hand and scrambled to reach for the gearshift. “Holy shit!”
With few options for escape that didn’t involve taking out his front end trying to get past the tree trunk blocking the entire span of the road in front of him, or risking the steep drop into the ravine and riverbank on the other side, Parrish chose to reverse course. The truck lurched backward, gasoline and exhaust smoke acrid against the freshness of the blizzard.
But it was going nowhere fast.
Knox had already leapfrogged to the back of the truck. Boots planted firmly, he pushed against the rear bumper, forcing the wheels to spin and whine on the ice.
Parrish gave up, grinding the gears as he started to put the truck into drive again.
Knox didn’t allow him that chance to escape, either.
He flashed around to the driver’s side window and dropped his knuckles against the glass. Parrish jumped, swiveling a cornered look at him.
“How does it feel, asshole?” Using the power of his mind, Knox locked the truck’s doors and jammed the transmission into neutral.
“What the hell do you want from me?” Parrish yelled on the other side of the glass.
He was a big man, one not accustomed to being on the losing side of an argument. Beneath his fright, he was pissed off. The twist of his lips within the thick growth of his dark beard gave away his contempt. Although right now, it was fear that overrode everything else.
He dived to the other side of the cab as if he thought he could escape out the passenger door, but it was no use. The locks held firm under Knox’s will. So did the gearshift, which didn’t budge no matter how hard Parrish tried to yank it loose.
“Son of a bitch! What do you want?” Parrish barked from inside. He gestured aggressively, despite the look of worry in his glare. “You want to kill me, vampire? Just fucking do it!”
“You’ll know when I’ve come to kill you,” Knox replied with utter calm.
He started pushing the truck toward the opposite side of the two-lane, toward the sharp drop-off into the ravine and the deep, frozen river below.
“What are you doing?” Parrish asked, his big head swiveling to gauge Knox’s intent. “Oh, fuck. You can’t—”
“I can,” Knox said.
He kept pushing, pivoting the heavy front end of the truck and its plow bl
ade right to the edge. Then a bit more. The front bumper teetered there, one nudge away from a head-first crash down through the bracken.
“Before you think about causing any more problems for Lenora Calhoun, understand that there will be consequences now.”
Parrish swallowed, anxious, impotent in his anger. His shiny new truck groaned as the edge of the shoulder began to give way beneath it.
Knox did smile now, baring the tips of his fangs. “I’ve decided to stick around town for a while, so that means you Parrishes are going to answer to me if anything happens to Leni or the boy. We clear?”
“This is about her?” Parrish sneered. “What the fuck does she mean to you?”
It was a good question, one Knox wasn’t prepared to answer. Least of all to an asshole like Dwight Parrish.
Finished with their conversation, he gave the truck a hard shove. It dipped forward, a rocking lurch that wrung a low moan out of Parrish. Then gravity took hold of the truck and the man inside it. The shiny black pickup crashed down the embankment, branches raking the sides, bracken and old stumps crunching beneath the tires and undercarriage as the heavy vehicle rolled all the way down to the bottom of the incline and onto the frozen edge of the water.
Knox didn’t free the locks until he heard the ice pop and crack as it began to give way and the front tires started to sink into the river. Parrish poured out as soon as he’d been freed.
Knox stared, unmoved. What he’d told the human was true. He hadn’t come to kill him tonight.
Whether he would on another night would be up to the Parrishes.
Because he meant what he said to Leni back at her house. One dead Parrish would mean war with all of them.
Knox wouldn’t go there unless they pushed him to, but he had just sent the first shot over their bow.
If they were smart, they’d heed it as the warning it was.
CHAPTER 9
The sun came up too early for Leni that next morning.
She’d barely slept, tossing and turning in her bed until only a short while before dawn. Every time she closed her eyes, she slipped into nightmares revolving around Travis Parrish. Wide awake, her thoughts returned repeatedly to the Breed male who’d entered her life as unexpectedly as he’d apparently left it last night.
