The voice was in her head again and Marena wanted to scream. Instead, she rolled over in the bed until she was flat on her back, her eyes open wide and staring at the ceiling. He continued calling to her.
I’m coming for you.
The voice repeated that over and over again until she was convinced he was getting closer. Recognizing Davis’s voice and feeling the sting of the bite each time was driving her insane. It was one thing to recall that slimy bastard had planned to rape her, another entirely to know that now—even though he hadn’t achieved that horrific feat—he’d certainly imposed another. He’d bitten her and now she was going to turn into a wolf, or a lycan. And there wasn’t a damned thing she could do about it.
All her life Marena had worked hard. She’d had no other choice. Her parents were regular working-class people; her father had been employed as the manager in the men’s section of a local department store and her mother was a cafeteria aid in the elementary school Marena and her siblings had attended. Darlene had loved that position because, she said, it allowed her to be home with the children more, especially throughout the summer. Her income, combined with Matthew’s, had kept a roof over Marena and her siblings’ heads and food on their table. But there wasn’t much left for anything else, like vacations and the Barbie Dreamhouse that Marena had wanted more than anything else for three Christmases in a row.
Matthew and Darlene loved their children and had built a steady family, teaching Marena how to do the same. Only her aspirations had been much higher, and grander than she probably had a right to. The latter had come from her older brother Lorenzo. He’d taken a job at an auto body shop during his junior year in high school and almost twenty years later was still working there. He had, however, married his high school sweetheart and they now had three beautiful daughters. Similarly, Marena’s other two brothers were now married with kids and her sister had finally gotten hitched last year. Marena was certain that baby news would be coming from that household very soon.
As for Marena, there would be no such news.
She wouldn’t get married and have children. Not now anyway, because that added commitment and responsibility would surely disrupt the fast track she was on to career success.
On the surface that was cool with her, as Marena had never seen herself as a mother, or the homebody type for that matter. She loved working a case, spending hours into the night going over discovery motions and responses, strategizing and winning. Power lunches and networking events occupied any free time she ever had. Her condo was decorated with only the most stylish pieces, her closet full of designer clothes, shoes, and purses. It was a fulfilling and exhilarating lifestyle, one she was convinced she was made for. That’s why she’d worked so hard in school to graduate at the top of her class in undergrad and law school. She’d clerked with one of the top judges in the state for two years and then had only sent her résumé to the largest and most prestigious firms in the area. To call her an overachiever wouldn’t have begun to cover it. She had to be the best, buy the best, and own the best; there was no other road in life for her.
Now, however, through no fault of her own, she was on a different path entirely and she wasn’t certain how she felt about that just yet.
What she was certain of was that hearing Davis’s voice in her head was getting old pretty damned fast. She didn’t want to hear him. She wanted to see the bastard so she could make him go back to the firm and prove that he wasn’t dead. That would clear her name, even if it wouldn’t explain all the bullets she’d known she’d pumped into his trifling ass.
That was her priority. Dealing with this supposed change into a lycan, well, that was just going to have to wait.
Marena flipped back the sheets and let her feet fall to the floor. A quick glance out the window showed a sky just barely changing colors from night to day and she frowned. She couldn’t call Gail this early in the morning, but she could send her an e-mail. Reaching over to the nightstand, she grabbed her phone, dislodging it from the charger she’d plugged into the side wall. Her work e-mail box was programmed to come up instantly on her phone, so she went to her Internet application and logged in to her personal in-box, thankful that the Wi-Fi in this lodge wasn’t password protected. That would have required her to wake Phelan, and she did not want to do that.
Hell, she hadn’t been able to sleep good all night knowing he was lying so beautifully naked beside her. By everything in this world that was holy, that man had the body of a god and a dick with size and perfection that would put a porn star’s to shame. No, she would let him sleep for as long as she possibly could. And that, to Marena’s chagrin, might not be much longer, since as she’d been scrolling down her e-mail list she’d stood and attempted to walk to stand at the window. Even that little distance, no more than ten to fifteen feet away from where he lay on the bed, had her already beginning to ache.
This “changing” crap was going to be difficult, not to mention battling the lycan’s sexual appetite. Yeah, she’d heard Phelan loud and clear when he’d said that—while his dick had been rock hard and her pussy had been throbbing with need. Shaking her head to those thoughts, she opened a new e-mail and started to type to Gail: Need you to call me on my cell right away. Thimgs are not what they seem. I’m innocent.
Just typing those words had Marena’s heart beating wildly. She’d never thought there would come a time when she’d have to convince someone of that fact. All her life she’d made sure to do the right thing. How she’d ended up here and why she was the one selected to be here at this moment she had no clue, but she was going to fix it. She was going to make everything better because that’s what she did. It’s what she’d always done in her life.
“If the police are looking for you, your phone should be turned off.”
His voice startled her and her fingers froze over the keys as she gasped. When she looked up it was to see that he was not only awake but also standing at the foot of the bed, the sheet—thankfully—wrapped haphazardly around his waist.
“I told you the lawyer wasn’t going to call you back,” he continued when she figured she was standing there gaping at him like some kind of lunatic.
Clearing her throat and squaring her shoulders, Marena reached for her calm. It was growing harder and harder to remain aloof around this guy. Especially when her body was constantly reacting to his, with or without his permission.
“I sent her an e-mail this time. From my personal account, not the business one, so she’ll be able to respond,” Marena said. But now that she’d spoken the words aloud she realized what he was really trying to tell her.
A guilty party, or even an innocent-until-proven-guilty person, was allowed to contact their attorney. And said attorney was allowed to call their client or potential client back, without any of them breaking any laws. Besides that fact, Gail was her friend. They’d gone to law school together and kept in close contact even though they worked at competing law firms. So there was no reason that Gail would not have returned Marena’s messages, whether she called, e-mailed, or wrote a message in the sky.
Unless she couldn’t.
“He wouldn’t go to her,” Marena said, taking a step toward where Phelan still stood. “Davis knows her, but there would be no need for him to approach her, right?”
He frowned. And damn, even that was sexy. It was something about his eyes and that beard and the wild way the top of his hair spiked that called to her. That in itself was strange since Marena was normally attracted to the well-dressed and -groomed intellectual type. She’d also never been attracted to a white man before. Seems she was breaking all kinds of rules now.
“He’s looking for you,” Phelan replied. “He’ll stop at nothing to get you back.”
“But he’s already bitten me. What else could he possibly want?”
“To own you.”
She harrumphed and attempted to run her fingers through her tangled hair. “Nobody’s ever going to own me. It’s illegal, you know.”
Phelan nodded. “A person can still be owned,” he told her, taking a slow step toward her. “Your body and your mind can both be owned, by the right person, that is.”
Marena tilted her head, ready to ignore the throbbing between her legs and the fullness of her breasts as he came even closer to her, in lieu of becoming pissed off by what she thought he might be presuming.
“No, I’m not talking about someone paying for it, or even taking it by force. I’m not that guy,” he said, making her feel as if he were reading her mind.
When she opened her mouth to speak—not sure what she was going to say—her words were stalled by him touching a finger to her bottom lip. Marena snapped her mouth shut. She must look a hot mess, after retching her guts out only moments before she first met him, then riding through the night on the back of his motorcycle. After her shower, she’d even gone to bed without running a comb through her hair and had yet to even rub toothpaste over her teeth this morning. Still, in his eyes all she could see was desire.
It was thick and potent and circled between them like a brewing storm.
“I want to taste you again,” were his next words, and Marena felt like she would either faint, or spread her lips wide open at this very moment.
Just who the hell was this guy and why was she responding to him like this? She knew the answers, but damn, she still couldn’t believe it.
Swallowing quickly, she still tried to hold on to her calm. “Just because I enjoyed that doesn’t mean you or anyone else can own me that way.”
The left corner of his mouth lifted in a half smile as he pushed his finger past her lips to touch the tip of her tongue.
“Your pleasure would be my purpose,” he whispered, his voice deep and raspy. “Whatever I did would be to make you feel good, so that I could see over and over again how beautiful you are when you come.”
Her tongue circled around the tip of his finger and his eyes grew darker, stormier. She wasn’t even going to ask herself why she was doing it. What made more sense was to focus on how damned good it felt to see he enjoyed what she was doing.
“Ahhh,” he sighed, his lips staying partially open until she felt herself craving the sight of his tongue. The same tongue that had lapped expertly at her clit last night.
“You would make me come so easily. I can see it in your eyes. The hunger, the desperate urge to submit to this—”
His words halted abruptly and so did her tongue moving along the length of his finger. The face that had been full of desire and need was quickly masked with tight consternation. His lips had snapped shut, his eyes going cold as he pulled his finger slowly from between her lips. Marena hadn’t caught on to what he was doing until it was done and the popping sound her astonished mouth made echoed throughout the room.
There was an immediate knock at the door.
“We’re meeting in the library in ten minutes.”
It was one of the other men who lived in this house. She couldn’t tell which one, as she hadn’t memorized the sound of any voice but Phelan’s and Davis’s, of course.
“Turn off your phone and get dressed,” Phelan said before moving away from her. “You’ll need to go with me to my rooms so I can change and then we’ll go to the meeting.”
Marena was already shaking her head. “I need to get in touch with my lawyer. Finding Davis and clearing my name is all I’m worried about.”
When Phelan turned this time, her breath caught. He’d only moved his head giving her a searing look over her shoulder, those thick brows of his arched.
“Davis is one of ours, so we’ll find him and we’ll take care of him. As for you, laying low here is the best plan. If I come up with something else I’ll let you know.”
He’d spoken so matter-of-factly, as if he expected no argument and no resistance. Marena was the queen of arguing, or at least that’s what her sister and then a few of the other attorneys at the firm had said about her. She could argue the wrong point for hours and hours, until the person who was right had begun to doubt themselves. While there were so many things she thought of saying to this man at this moment, something deep inside warned her to remain silent. To bide her time and do what he said for now. It wasn’t an easy feat, as evidenced by her fists clenching at her sides.
“Fine. If you want to be the one to find him, I’m okay with that. Just so long as his reappearance can clear my name,” she told Phelan before grabbing her bag and heading toward the bathroom to change into her clothes.
The pain began a lot slower this time, like a growing ball of heat in the pit of her stomach, and by the time she stood at the entrance to the bathroom Phelan was behind her.
“I’ll stand outside the door while you change. The proximity should be close enough to make you feel better.”
His proximity was close enough to make her want to turn around and jump on him, she thought, still trying to get control of the quick shifts of pain and pleasure between the two of them. Not sure what to say and hating the helplessness that came with this situation, she simply nodded and headed into the bathroom to get dressed. She didn’t begin to understand the logic or the rules of the lycan world and insisted that now was not the time to find out. Now was the time to get things back in order. Later, after her job was secured, she would consider how her actually turning into a lycan was going to fit into the career and life she’d planned for herself.
* * *
“The supermoon is coming,” Channing said, sitting on the arm of the leather couch in the center of the massive library.
“That’s when he’ll come for me,” Blaez said in his serious tone.
He was standing beside the wing-backed chair that Kira was sitting in, his hand on her shoulder and her hand covering his. The alphas of this pack united.
“I haven’t heard any more about the bounty,” Phelan spoke up.
Since the appearance of the harpy a couple of months back, Phelan had kept an ear to both realms for news of what beings had accepted Zeus’s challenge to bring Blaez to him, dead or alive. At the same time, Phelan had been keeping an extra-close watch on his own enemy who he knew could turn on him at any moment. Neither had given him any reason to believe that Zeus was aware of where Blaez was or that he’d even planned a special day and time to come for him.
“Excuse me, did you say ‘Zeus’?” Marena asked.
She had opted to stand while the other females in the room sat, believing still that she had no part in what was going on here. Phelan had thought about reminding her of the bite on her shoulder and that once it healed completely she would be one of them for the rest of her life. He’d declined, figuring it was best if she came to terms with what her future held on her own, just as he had done so long ago.
“Yes,” Kira replied. “Zeus is the one responsible for setting the ball that created the lycans in motion. He’s the father of this big mess and he’s attempting to exercise his parental control by killing Blaez.”
Marena tensed.
Phelan couldn’t see her because she’d opted to stand behind him as they came into the library. While he’d immediately joined the others, she’d still considered herself an outsider and stood as far back as her physical discomfort would allow her. He didn’t agree with her not dealing with her new status in the world head-on, but he wasn’t going to make that his concern. He didn’t want to make her his concern any more than was necessary. Still, he couldn’t ignore every sound she made, every time she winced in pain; even the scent of her arousal had seemingly been etched in his mind. That thought alone had him frowning.
“We’re never going to let that happen,” he said tightly.
Those words didn’t calm Marena.
“Okay, so there’s a god after you. Isn’t there some type of otherworldly legal system at play here? Surely hunting and killing someone or some … being … is not simply allowed in your world?” she asked.
“The rules are a bit different in our world than in the human one,” Blaez said to her calmly.
He would have noticed her distance as well; everyone in the pack would have. However, none of them spoke of it.
“We’ll deal with this situation ourselves,” Malec continued.
Channing nodded. “Other Devoteds have been in contact; they want to help.”
“An army equates to the possibility of more deaths,” Phelan spoke up. “We’re all trained soldiers here. We can take Zeus.”
“A soldier is no match for a Greek god, Phelan. You know that,” Kira countered.
Phelan immediately shook his head. “Don’t underestimate me.”
“So wait, you’re really talking about a battle with a Greek god?” Marena asked. “Here? On earth? Is that where this will take place? What about us? What happens to the human world while this little fight is going on?”
“The humans are hunting the Shadow Shifters,” Blaez stated evenly. “They’ve brought together NATO to begin a combined effort to flush out all shape-shifters on this planet. Their goal is to kill them out of fear, because they do not understand them. I’d say they have their own wars to worry about right now.”
Phelan could only stare and frown. He’d known about the military’s attempts to round up all those they suspected of being shape-shifters. A few months back when Jace Maybon, a Shadow Shifter leader, had shown up on their doorstep looking for one of his fellow shifters, Phelan had been irritated beyond words. The Shadow Shifters had allowed themselves to be unveiled on national television. In one live news broadcast they managed to tap into all of the humans’ fears of beings who were not like them. In the year since then there had been reports of caught and confined shifters; killings and robberies and all other types of crimes were being blamed on the illusive shifters. Now the lycan packs had to be very careful of everything they did, else the human world would learn that they had so much more to fear than the feline shape-shifters they were currently fixated with.
“I’m surprised you haven’t received a call for us to come in,” Malec commented.
“I did,” Blaez told him. “I turned them down.”
“You received a call for who to come in to what?” Marena asked. “I mean, if that’s something I can ask.”
“This situation involves you, too, Marena,” Kira said, looking beyond Phelan. “Especially since you are staying here with us now. So I believe that full disclosure is warranted.”
Those words were aimed at the alpha, who looked to Phelan. Marena was going to change into a lycan. There was nothing any of them could do to stop that from happening. Everything else—including which side she would select, the Hunters or the Devoteds, and what type of lycan she would become—was totally up to her.
So why was each member of this pack looking at him as if he somehow had some say in this?
“We’re not just lycans,” he began after Blaez arched a brow in his direction. The alpha apparently thought Phelan should be the one to tell her who and what they really were.
Phelan took a deep breath and then turned to face her. He’d been content telling himself that she was just a human who had been unfortunate enough to get bitten by a lycan and that the sweet taste of her honey still lingering on the back of his tongue was simply because it had been too long since he’d partaken of that delectable part of a female. Looking into her soft brown eyes at this moment, however, gave him momentary pause.
Her hair was bone straight, hanging past her shoulders, parts pulling to the front to lounge in a completely plain yet terribly sexy way. Her eyebrows were thick and arched perfectly, while her pert lips were only barely glossed. When she’d stepped into the bathroom to dress just a short while ago, he’d stood with his back to the bathroom door, his head hung low, trying like hell not to envision the clothes slipping over her naked body. Now he couldn’t help but stare in what felt like a trance at the black jumpsuit that cinched at her waist and flared into cargo-type pants to the ties at her ankles. The outfit was strapless, hugging her full breasts in a way that made Phelan extremely jealous. Even the flat black shoes with the tiniest white bows at the tops had his dick twitching.
“Blaez is the alpha of our pack and Kira is his mate. The rest of us are betas in the lycan world. To the humans we—the guys and I—are members of a covert operations team that sometimes does contractual work for the U.S. military. We’re all trained Marines,” he told her, and was supremely grateful for the serious words he could speak, versus the sexual monologue that was currently running through his mind.
Phelan wanted to taste her again. This time he wanted her flat on her back, his face buried between her legs. He wanted her open and available to him for the taking, ready and waiting to submit to his will. The way she reached a hand up to tuck strands of hair behind her ear before meeting his gaze told him she was thinking along those same lines.
“So you’re saying that the government has contacted you about hunting the shape-shifters that they already know exist,” she said. “But you turned them down because you’re keeping your own secret.”
“We’re trying to protect the human world,” Channing added.
Marena shook her head. “Secrets do not equate to protection. They breed deceit, which ultimately unfolds in devastation. I suspect the feline Shadow Shifters thought they were doing the same thing you’re attempting and look how that turned out.”
“But you weren’t surprised by the revelation of the Shadow Shifters, were you?” Caroline interjected. “When I first saw what Malec was I was shocked and intrigued, and a little bit afraid. I’d seen the news reports and watched the ones that the authorities had managed to capture. They called them shape-shifters and yet they looked just like you and me. They looked totally human. Until I saw the Solo in his lycan form reeking of revenge and evil. That was what made him different, not just the sharp teeth and wolf features. It was his purpose here on earth, the intent to do harm in his eyes. That’s what frightened me. But you,” she continued. “You don’t seem daunted by all that you’ve endured in the past couple of days at all. Why is that?”
Phelan hadn’t liked Caroline’s line of questioning. He hadn’t cared for the suspicious tone of her voice or the way the others remained quiet as if Caroline had spoken what they’d been thinking all along.
“We should go,” he said. “The effects of the bite will drain your energy for a while yet.”
Marena shook her head slightly as she let her arms fall to her sides. “I feel fine,” she said coolly.
“To answer your question, Caroline, no, I’m not afraid,” Marena added. “I learned a long time ago that fear was the result of ignorance, especially where man was concerned. I cannot summon any apprehension against a species that I know nothing about. You are right in the sense that this may be because before this weekend I’ve had no encounter with the feline shifters or lycans. Even the one I eventually found myself face-to-face with didn’t scare me until the very end. Now, however, all I can think about is finding that bastard and making him face the destruction he’s caused in my life. The fact that he is another type of being is of no consequence to me.”
“Even though he bit you?” Kira asked her.
Marena’s shoulders stiffened then. It was a barely perceptible motion that Phelan doubted anyone but him had seen as Marena shifted her attention from where Caroline sat on the couch to where Kira and Blaez were now standing a couple feet away. Phelan moved closer to Marena in that moment, standing so that the bare skin of his arm brushed over hers. The jolt of heat that fired through him was only the first bit of shock he would receive.
“That,” Marena told Kira, “is something I will deal with at a later time. For now, my only concern is salvaging my career.”
“And our concern is protecting Blaez and saving this world from unwanted turmoil,” Malec stated firmly.
“That’s a pretty ambitious goal, but I wish you the best of luck,” Marena told them, before turning to leave the room.
Phelan didn’t hesitate and he didn’t look to the others to see how they’d taken her blatant brush-off. He moved with her as if they’d been thinking along the same lines the whole time, following her out of the library and toward the back doors of the house. She wanted to go out, needed air to breathe into lungs that felt congested and a mind that was all of a sudden weary of the changes going on within as well as around her.
It only took an extra step from him to cross in front of her in time to reach for the control panel to disengage the motion sensors and locks that were on all the windows and doors of the lodge. Pulling the sliding door open, he stood to the side and watched as she quietly stepped through. She walked to the very edge of the planked deck without looking back at him, almost as if she’d been there before. Phelan knew that wasn’t possible, and he focused more on the lithe movements of her feet, the slight lift of her hair on the breeze, instead of tapping into all the strange déjà vu–like emotions he was having where she was concerned.
“I don’t belong here,” Marena said suddenly, her back still facing him.
She’s right. She doesn’t belong here. She should leave, the other voice sounded in Phelan’s ears, instantly soliciting a growl.