Eyes Like a Wolf Read online

  “What?” He looked at me in disbelief. “But we're bonded now, Rachel. We belong together—we need each other. You don't mean that.”

  “Yes,” I said. “I do.” I struggled to sit up and get away from him, away from the constant pull of my body toward his. There was no way I should want him again, not after what I had just been through. But I did, despite the ache between my thighs, I still did. I was sick, and not just physically. I looked away from him, looked around the warehouse in order to keep from meeting his eyes.

  We were still in the large iron cage, but now there was a gaping hole between two of the bars. It looked like a creature with immense strength had bent and broken its way through the side of the cage. Richard hadn't been kidding when he said sealing the bond with me would give him ten times his normal strength, apparently. But the damage to the cage didn't concern me nearly as much as what I saw outside it.

  Lying in grotesque heaps like piles of dirty laundry, lifeless bodies littered the warehouse floor. It was still very dark, but my night vision told me that Tampa was now less six or seven wiseguys. Along with Gravel Voice and a few others I didn't recognize, I saw the sharp features of Momo “the shark” Andretti. I couldn't believe he'd done so much damage while I was passed out.

  “Oh, my God, Richard!” I turned to him and noticed for the first time that there was blood drying on his broad, bare chest. “What did you do?”

  “I had to.” His green eyes were pleading. “It was either that or let them kill us both. That's what they came here for, Rachel, to see me put on a show and then to shoot us and get rid of the bodies. What was I supposed to do?”

  “I…I don't know.” The sight of so much blood sickened me, and I found myself longing for the familiar if boring existence I had been leading before Richard came back. I had disobeyed my mother's dying wish and let him into my life, and look where it had gotten me. Not content with incest and bestiality, I could now include mass murder in the list of delightful life experiences Richard had subjected me to. Suddenly, I couldn't stand it any more. I knew I had to get out of there, out of the cage and the warehouse where I had seen and endured so much and away from Richard who was the cause of it, or I would scream.

  I got to my feet, ducking away from Richard when he would have lent me a hand, and began gathering my scattered clothing. I didn't bother with the panties, nylons, or bra. I just shrugged back into my shirt and pulled my work skirt back up over my trembling, sticky thighs. There was blood on my skin—my blood—and other substances I didn't want to think about. I wanted to take a bath in the worst way, or at least a very hot shower, but I had a lot to do before I could sink into a hot tub filled with bubbles.

  “What are you doing?” Richard asked reasonably. “Where do you think you're going?”

  “First of all, I'm going to take Genevieve to the ER,” I said. As I said the words, I had a sudden surge of panic. “She's still breathing, isn't she?”

  Richard nodded slowly. “Yes. She never regained consciousness through the entire thing.”

  “Thank God for that.” The idea of my friend seeing what had happened to me was unthinkable. I didn't want Genevieve to have any permanent damage, but I was grateful beyond belief that she hadn't seen my shameful submission to Richard's beast.

  “You're ashamed of it. Ashamed of what we did, aren't you?” Richard asked in a low voice.

  “What do you think?” I snapped. “And don't you mean I'm ashamed of what you did to me?”

  He faced me, his big body tense. “Rachel, tell me now if I raped you. I don't believe I would have taken you completely against your will—even in beast form—especially in beast form. I can tell by your scent whether you want me or not. If your body is ready for mine.”

  “I—” I blushed hard, looking away.

  “What did I do?” Richard demanded, his deep voice insistent. “I need to know, Rachel. Did I force you down on the ground? Did I?”

  I thought of the way I had faced the bars and spread my legs. The way I had offered myself to him, dipping into my wet sex to tempt him with my scent. But what other choice had I had? I shook my head.

  “Well?” Richard sounded more and more upset, and I could see I wasn't going anywhere until he got an answer.

  “No,” I almost shouted. “No, I…” My voice dropped to a whisper. “You were going to kill Genevieve—to eat her. I had to distract you some way so I…so I let you do what you did. I had to.”

  “So you didn't want me at all? Your body didn't react to mine in the least?” He was probing now, looking for answers I didn't want to give. He stepped closer to me and lifted my chin to look in my eyes. “Were you wet, Rachel?” he murmured. “Did you come?”

  “That's none of your business!” I jerked away from him and pointed at Genevieve's sprawled form. “Help me get her out to the car so I can take her to the ER. And after that, you need to clean up this mess. Bury the bodies or dispose of them some other way—I don't care. Just don't tell me about it.”

  I knew that was wrong, knew that I ought to be calling the police right now and letting them handle the bloody crime scene the empty warehouse had become, and the old me would have done just that. But when I tried to care, I just couldn't. The old me—the me that cared about truth and justice and due process—was dead. There was a new woman in her place. A woman who had been forged in blood and fire and pain and pleasure, and all she cared about—all I cared about—was getting out of here and forgetting everything that had happened in this Godforsaken place.

  Richard was still naked, his jeans ripped to shreds, but he didn't seem to mind it—or maybe he was just concentrating on what he could say to change my mind. He was smart enough not to speak a word until Genevieve was deposited safely in my car and strapped in, but obviously he wasn't about to let me go without a struggle. Before I could start the engine, he came around to the driver's side and grabbed my hands.

  “Rachel, don't go. Not like this.” There was desperation in his deep voice, and need, too, as if he could never get enough of me. I felt the pull of his body once more, the tingling between my thighs and at the sensitive tips of my breasts. Despite the ordeal I had been through tonight, or maybe because of it, my body still wanted him. But I refused to give in.

  “I have to go,” I told him. “I have to get Genevieve to the ER. And you have to clean up this mess.” I thought of the last time he'd “cleaned up a mess,” of his rough tongue between my legs, licking the last of his essence from my sex, and had to suppress a shiver of desire. I don't want him anymore, I told myself sternly. Not like that. Never again.

  “We're bonded now, Rachel,” he said, still looking intently into my eyes. “That means neither one of us is complete without the other. Don't break our bond so soon. I need you, and you need me. We'll never be happy apart, either one of us.”

  “Forget happy,” I said, frowning. “I'd settle for sane at this point. Richard, I just want things in my life to go back to normal. To go back to the way things were before…before you came back to me.”

  “Fine.” He released my hands and folded his arms across his broad, bloody chest. “I'll see you later.”

  “I hope not,” I said shortly. I slammed the door and drove away, leaving him standing in the darkness.

  Chapter Twenty

  The green, glowing numerals of my dashboard clock said 6:15 by the time I finally left Tampa General Hospital and turned my little car toward home. The first faint blush of dawn colored the sky a delicate gray-pink, and I was supposed to be married in less than five hours.

  I felt like hell.

  At least Genevieve was going to be okay. She'd regained consciousness not long after being admitted, and I had held her hand until the nurse made me leave. She seemed a little disoriented, but she was still sharp enough to take in my appearance and see that I wasn't my normal self.

  “Holy shit, Kemet,” she muttered when she got a good look at me. “What the hell happened to you? My head feels like a pride parade is going fu