A shudder skittered through her body as if the wolf was shaking her. Tell him! Let the world know what your father did to us!

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Trust the wolf. The wolf knows best. It was right. Why was she hiding the truth?

She clenched her fists. This wasn’t going to be easy. This was five years of nightmares.

“Brynley?” Phineas asked softly. “Are you all right?”

She squared her shoulders. “My father requested I come home for the Hunt. All the local Pack Masters hold hunts the first night of the full moon, but my father’s hunt is the most prestigious in three states. It’s invitation only, so it’s a big honor to attend.”

Her skin chilled and she crossed her arms. “It started off like every other monthly hunt. We all shifted and took off into the woods. I caught the scent of a pair of elk and gave chase. I heard wolves behind me. They’d caught the scent, too. That was normal. Wolves usually kill in groups. I didn’t think anything of it. Until I realized . . .”

Tears gathered in her eyes, and bile rose in her throat. She swallowed hard and pressed the back of her hand against her mouth. “They were hunting me!”

“What?” Phineas stepped toward her. “Why?”

“I didn’t know. I was so afraid, and I couldn’t understand why I was the prey. I ran and ran. I tried going upstream, swimming in icy cold lakes, anything to lose them. But they kept coming. And then they . . .”

She strode to a tree and rested a trembling hand on it. “They were young males. They surrounded me. Tightened the circle. Snarling and snapping. And then he attacked.”

“From behind,” Phineas whispered.

She nodded, and tears ran down her cheeks. “He bit me in the neck and used his weight to hold me down and . . . take me.”

There was a tense pause.

When Phineas finally spoke, his voice sounded choked. “He raped you.”

“No.” She shook her head. “A male wolf always takes his mate that way. It’s an animal thing.”

“Bullshit. Did you want him to? Did you invite him?” Phineas’s voice grew louder, and when she didn’t reply, he slammed a fist into the tree.

She jumped back, looking at him for the first time.

“It was rape!” He crashed another fist into the tree.

She stepped back, shocked by the rage on his face.

“Did you turn the bastard in?” he demanded.

“I—I tried to. I ran back to the house and stormed into my father’s office. I told him what they’d done, and he just looked at me and said I’d defied him for too long, refusing all the men he’d chosen for me. I needed to learn how to submit.”

Phineas’s eyes grew wide. “He—?”

She nodded as more tears rolled down her face. “He arranged it. He’d chosen a new mate for me, and he’d told him to—”

“To rape you?” Phineas growled.

“To take me as his mate. It’s the normal way for a—”

“Really? Then why did you run? Why were you so terrified? Why do you still freak out if a man comes up behind you?”

She wiped the tears off her face. “I’ve had trouble dealing with it.”

“Of course you have! The bastard terrorized you and forced himself on you. And your father, that bastard—” Phineas punched the tree again. “I’ll rip his damned head off!”

“Stop! Your hands are bleeding.” And the tree wasn’t looking too good, either. Strange, but it looked like the other damaged tree she’d seen earlier.

“You had better hope I never meet your father.” Phineas wiped his knuckles on his shirt. “How long has it been since . . .”

“Five years.”

He glanced up at her. “And how long have you been doing the underground thing, helping out the Lost Boys?”

“Five years.”

His eyes gleamed. “Good for you. You fought back.”

She grimaced. “Only in secret. I’ve never stood up to my father. When he pulled this last stunt, arranging a wedding for me, I just ran away.”

“Are you going to let him choose a husband for you?”

“No, of course not.”

“Then you plan to choose your own husband?”

She groaned inwardly and pushed her hair behind her shoulders. “I’m not choosing anyone right now. If my father doesn’t approve of my mate, he’ll kill him. He’ll never allow me to defy him.”

“Are you going to live your entire life in fear of him?”

She winced. Her inner wolf longed for its native territory, but if she ever returned to the Lycan world, her father would control her. She would be forced into a life of submission. Centuries of submitting to her father and the mate he chose for her.

A crushing pain seized hold of her heart, and she pressed a hand against her chest. Her inner wolf howled in despair.

She could never return to the Lycan world. Not as long as her father lived. And that could be centuries.

She should have known that the moment she’d fled her father’s house. Instead, she’d fooled herself into thinking her exile was only temporary. But she was like Phil now. She could never go home. Never spend time with her younger brother and sister. Not for hundreds of years.

She’d end up abandoning her sister just as Phil had abandoned her.

Tears crowded her eyes once again. Why was the cost of freedom so damned high? “I can’t go home.”

Phineas touched her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

She reached for him, and he pulled her into his arms.

“Bryn, sweetheart.” He held her tight and smoothed a hand up and down her back. “It’ll be all right. You’re not alone. You have me. And your brother. And all of us.”

“Phineas.” She drew back and touched his cheek. “I need to go back. One last time. For the full moon tomorrow night. So I can say good-bye.”

Rape. He couldn’t get past it. That a father would actually subject his daughter to something that heinous, that cruel.

Phineas accompanied Brynley back to Romatech, silent because he couldn’t trust himself not to curse her father. Hell, he’d been afraid just to touch her elbow as he escorted her back. Would she object to being touched after all she’d endured? It was no wonder she was prickly and suspicious, afraid to get close to anyone. She’d been betrayed over and over.

But he wasn’t a werewolf. He didn’t have any ranches or cattle to gain by pursuing her. He simply loved her for herself. Just the thought that she could marry a Lycan someday who would treat her like an inferior broodmare filled him with rage. He wouldn’t allow it. Dammit, she shouldn’t allow it. She needed to be strong like her mother had said and choose freedom.

She needed to choose him. He’d never mistreat her. A part of him realized that not all werewolf males were bad. Phil certainly wasn’t. If he ever mistreated Vanda, she’d take her whip to him.

Still, he didn’t want Brynley to end up with a werewolf. He wanted to be the one to give her the love she deserved, and the freedom she needed. As far as he was concerned, he was her best choice, her best chance at happiness. He just had to convince her of that.

She was quiet, and he couldn’t help but wonder what she was thinking. At least she wasn’t asking to be returned to the academy. She seemed happy to stay by his side.

The cafeteria door she’d escaped through earlier had automatically locked upon closing, so he led her to the side entrance and used his ID to get them inside.

“Let’s check with Jack and Zoltan to see if any of your father’s minions have shown up at the cabin,” he suggested.

She nodded. “Good idea.”

He used his ID again to get inside the security office. “Hey, Freemont.”

“Hey, bro, Wolfie-Girl.” Freemont glanced up from his computer and grinned. “I saw you guys run into the woods. Playing hide-and-seek?” His smile faded. “Is that blood on your shirt?”

“It’s nothing.” Phineas glanced at the wall of monitors. There were no cameras that deep in the forest, so their talk had been private.

“He punched a tree,” Brynley said quietly.

“Again?” Freemont asked.

“Again?” Brynley regarded Phineas suspiciously. “You have a habit of punching trees?”

He ignored that and frowned at his brother. “Have you heard from Jack or Zoltan?”

“Yeah. About ten minutes ago. No one has shown up, and Lara was very excited because Jack has suddenly agreed to do that TV show.”

“Real Housewives of the Vampire World?” Brynley asked. “What changed his mind?”

Freemont chuckled. “Well, apparently Heather claimed her husband was the best fencer in Europe, and Jack thinks he is. So now he wants on television to set the record straight.”

The phone rang, and Freemont answered. “Just a minute, Mr. Whelan. Let me put you on the speakerphone.”

Phineas strode toward the desk. “Do you have news, Sean?”

“Phineas, is that you?” Sean Whelan asked. “I thought you were in Wyoming.”

“I was. And I’ll be going back. What’s up?”

“We’ve been staking out the Russian Coven House in Brooklyn, monitoring Dimitri. As far as we know, his tracking device is still operative. And it’s moving. He just jumped to Cleveland, then Omaha. Headed west. Wait. It jumped again. He’s in . . . Wyoming.”

Phineas exchanged a glance with Brynley. “Then we were right. Corky’s there.”

“Looks that way,” Sean agreed. “We’ll get Dimitri’s exact location to you soon. But if he discovered the tracking device, he could be taking us on a wild-goose chase.”

“We’ll let Angus know. Thanks, Sean.” Phineas hung up, then turned to his brother. “Angus will be in his death-sleep right now, so can you send him an e-mail?”

“Will do.” Freemont swiveled in his chair to face the computer. “Oh, I found out who’s the current owner of the Haggerty ranch. Some dude named Rhett Bleddyn.”

Brynley gasped.

“You know him?” The shocked look on her face put Phineas on edge. His hands clenched into fists. If this Rhett was the one who’d raped her, then his days were numbered. “Is he the one who—”

“No.” She shook her head, her face pale. “That guy died in a drunken brawl three years ago.”

“Good riddance,” Phineas growled. Though he would have enjoyed beating the crap out of him. “Then who is this Rhett Bleddyn?”

“He’s the guy from Alaska I was supposed to marry.”

Chapter Sixteen

The next evening, Brynley hurried to the basement of Romatech, a warm bottle of synthetic blood in her hand. Phineas would be waking soon, and no doubt, he would be hungry.

She’d spent a restful day at Romatech, hanging around the security office, cafeteria, or a bedroom she’d been given in the basement. Phineas was in the bedroom next to her, and she’d checked on him earlier in the day. He lay still in his death-sleep, a sheet pulled up to his waist, his gorgeous chest bare.

He looked so peaceful, nothing like the angry Vamp who had punched a tree till his hands bled. She touched his hands, running her fingers over his. They were cold, but healed. Tears came to her eyes as she recalled how upset he’d been when he’d heard her story. He’d shared the pain and outrage with her. He did love her. She didn’t doubt it. She just didn’t know how their relationship could work.

Phil seemed very happy with his vampire spouse, Vanda, but he’d given up so much. He’d been disowned by their father, his inheritance stripped and given to their younger brother, Howell. And worst of all, Phil had given up the chance to have children.

She’d always hoped that somehow, someday, she’d find a werewolf husband who didn’t care that her father was rich and powerful. He’d love her for herself, and they’d have little werewolf babies. They could make their own little Lycan world somewhere in the country.

Phineas did love her for herself. And like the other Vamp men, he could probably father children. Half-Vamp, half-werewolf children? Was that even possible? Could the genes coexist? Could she be happy living in the Vamp world? Phil had lived with the Vamps for nine years before marrying Vanda. He’d had plenty of time to adjust and put the Lycan world behind him.

He’d managed to make a clean break, but Brynley wasn’t sure she could. She’d spent too many years at home with their younger siblings, so she was attached to them in a way that Phil wasn’t. Especially her younger sister. Glynis had been only eleven years old when Mom had died and so distraught that Brynley had sheltered her from the ugly truth about their father’s unfaithfulness and their mother’s hopeless despair. Maybe that had been wrong, but Brynley hadn’t wanted to burden her younger sister with more pain.

Brynley winced. If she chose to stay with Phineas, her father would probably banish her. She could end up separated from her sister for centuries. Glynis had grown up so trusting and eager to please that it would be akin to leaving an innocent lamb among wolves.

And what about her inner wolf? It was overjoyed about going back to Wyoming tonight for the full moon, but it would object to being banished. Hell, it would tear her up inside if she could never go back. With a groan, she realized she didn’t know what to do. But she did know one thing for certain.

She’d fallen in love with Phineas.

That morning, she’d gathered up the pile of clothes he’d left on the floor and washed them in the basement laundry room along with hers. Lara had loaned her a bathrobe to wear, and after putting the clothes in the dryer, she’d gone to her bedroom for a long nap.