Eyes Like a Wolf Read online

  “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 licked 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, 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 faded 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 lay 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 lay 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 hoped 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