Arik
It felt like the night would never end. Normally my kind squeezed out every moment of darkness we could before retreating from prying eyes and the sun, but I wanted nothing more than to close the door of the lair behind me and forget the rest of the world existed. Forget what I’d seen tonight.
Lose myself in soft flesh and sweet hazel eyes.
My griffin purred his agreement. I ignored him, ignored the heat and hunger catching fire in my gut. If tonight had served no other purpose, it reminded me exactly what I risked by giving in to emotion. That young shifter’s terror-stricken eyes, Basile’s grief-ravaged face…
No, I wouldn’t be going to Kat, not right now.
I beelined instead for the office and my computer.
Or attempted to. I’d taken no more than a step when rage thundered through my body. My griffin slammed against my breastbone, angry at being denied, especially after our evening hunt had ended without the satisfaction of blood in my mouth. Before I knew it, my feet were taking me toward the hall.
“Damn it, no!” Slapping the animal down, I ignored his roar and forced my body in the direction of the office once more. The distraction of a different sort of hunt was the only option I’d allow tonight. The only safe option—for all of us.
The office was cool, dark, soothing to the man’s senses if not the griffin’s. Until I saw the message icon flashing in the corner of the center screen. Brody. I dropped into the computer chair and ran quickly through the security protocols before linking to my informant.
Found girl. Laney Jennings.
Shit. I did not want to know her name. She was real enough in my nightmares as it was. Where?
Our Lady Cemetery, Lebanon, TN, plot 142G. Buried two days ago.
Cause of death?
Bear attack, national park.
Except it hadn’t been a bear, it had been shifters, and she hadn’t died in a national park. The sickening image of the dead girl’s attack played like a grisly reel-to-reel on the screen of my mind, a memory I would never be able to erase. Rubbing a hand along the back of my neck to relieve tension I knew wasn’t going away anytime soon, I waited for more information.
Results compiled on searches in nearby cities. See in-box. More later.
Thx, B. Cash wired in as usual.
Anytime. L8r.
I completed the money transfer first, then clicked over to my email. The encryption software seemed to take forever to decode the file Brody had sent, though I knew that was impatience slowing the clock. When the contents finally opened, I wished they’d taken longer.
A lot longer.
What I saw chilled me to the marrow—report after report of savaged bodies, missing girls. The Anigma had swept across the Southern US like locusts from a plague, leaving a trail of death and grief only someone who knew what they were looking for would recognize. Rural areas in this region—and there were a lot of them—were isolated, insular, the perfect hunting ground for a predator that thrived on human fear and pain.
The Anigma dealt in death and destruction; they always had. What better way to rule other races than to make them cower with terror? Maddox’s own parents had been murdered while traveling outside of their clan when their son was still a pup. I stared at name after name and saw my mother’s torture, her death in every line, females who’d disappeared, likely converted or their bodies never found, and those who were…
I rubbed hard knuckles over my aching eyes, wishing I could wipe away the whole damn night.
But I’d never had the luxury of turning away from the destruction Maddox left in his wake. And so I opened my eyes and took another look.
All the females fit the parameters I’d specified exactly. The question was, what linked them? I returned to the beginning and reread each entry, noting the dates, and knew there must be more than one team in each area tracking females. The earlier attacks had resulted in more deaths, it seemed; either that or the Anigma got better at hiding their mistakes. But as they learned to keep their prey alive, they also seemed to find more victims. So where were they all? At Maddox’s compound? Was the Anigma hierarchy involved, or was this all Maddox’s doing?
Closing the file, I left the office and went to fix myself a drink. As the alcohol burned down my throat, the image of Sun’s team dragging Baer and his brother into a van rose to taunt me. Did Sun already know what was going on, how far this went? If not now, then it wouldn’t be long. Baer wouldn’t break for his own pain, but for his brother’s…
My griffin growled his displeasure at the fact that our hunt had been nothing but a cocktease. Then, out of the darkness, the scent of another cocktease hit my nose: sweet female, a hint of salty sweat, and the musk of my recent possession.
Kat appeared from the hallway.
Uncertainty hovered in her gaze, at least until it met mine. The warmth that lit her eyes curled low in my gut, warming me and my animal at once. Like a rubber band snapping, my cock broke free of its stupor and shot to attention as if ready to go wherever this female chose to lead. The pain of it forced me to suck in a breath, and the ashy scent of death mixed with Kat’s feminine fragrance.
She stepped fully into the room. “Hi.”
I stared, silent. My mind was taken over by death and destruction, what I’d witnessed tonight and what I’d seen in Brody’s file—and the knowledge that Kat was on that list somewhere. Missing, not dead, but how easily it could have gone the other way. When I held my hand out to her, I chose to ignore the faint tremor of my fingers.
Kat crossed the room to the couch immediately. Only when her palm met mine and our hands entwined was I able to breathe again.
And that pissed me the hell off.
Seeming to sense the power of my emotions even if she wasn’t certain exactly what they were, Kat didn’t speak. I definitely didn’t want to talk. Instead I jerked her between the V of my thighs and buried my face in the soft curve of her stomach. Her scent surrounded me, drowning out the death coating me inside and out. I tried holding my breath, tried denying her entry, but my body had a thing about breathing—it needed air, for fuck’s sake, and I was forced to take a breath just as Kat’s palms cupped my head. Her fingers scraped through my hair.
A sound suspiciously like a moan escaped before I could choke it back.
It’s the sex; that’s all. Nothing more. Sex was necessary but manageable. I could lose myself in sex. I couldn’t afford to lose myself in her.
“Everything okay?” she asked, each word careful, clear. Cautious. The hint of tenderness jacked me up even more. I jerked back to meet her stare—
And just like that, the events of the night, the information from Brody, everything burned to ash as I locked on to those brown-green eyes. In its place was the raging hunger of the animal and the man, and neither would be denied.
I was on my feet, Kat scooped into my arms, before either of us blinked. Cradling her to my chest, I strode toward the hallway and a bed, any bed—a bed as close as fucking possible.
“Arik?” she whispered, her voice peaking when my steps sped up to inhumanly fast. The words necessary to reassure her were beyond me; all that came out was a rumble from deep in my chest where my griffin crouched, waiting for the time to strike. Our hunt had been cut short tonight, but now a new one had presented itself, and we wouldn’t back down—either one of us.
Kat’s room came first. I threw open the door, making for the largest horizontal surface—the bed. I dropped her onto it. A squeak escaped her, and I swear I grinned, though it probably came closer to a scowl. My animal rode too close to the surface for true amusement.
Needing to free myself, to slip the reins on my griffin—hell, my control, period—I turned back to the end of the bed, stripping on the way. Kat’s panting breaths echoed in the air as she watched, her gaze an aphrodisiac that sensitized my skin, drew my body tight until I thought I would burst. The griffin rose, shining from my eyes as I put one knee on the mattress near Kat’s feet and began a slow, satisfying stalk up to where my prey waited.