A possessive growl rose from deep inside Nicole,from a place she hadn’t even known existed. “Andwhat better way to humiliate an enemy than to takesomething from him while he’s helpless?”

“Exactly.”

Now she got it. Now she understood why Rikerhad gotten so jealous at the idea of Nicole feeding fromanother male. Because right now, jealousy like she’dnever experienced before seared her from the insideout. Jealousy, fury, hunger, and lust made for one hell of a potent cocktail, and with a guttural snarl, she rounded on Fane.

“Take me to Riker. Now.”

• • • • • •

The heady odors of blood and sex reached Riker, even inside the dank chamber where he was still chained. The air hummed with the familiar thrill of an erotic storm as the moon fever took hold of the clan.

Riker gritted his teeth, fighting the urges taking over his body and cursing his errant cock. Usually, after he fed Benet, he spent the rest of the night alone, with a bottle of liquor, or out hunting.

Riker was alone, but sans alcohol, and both hands were bound behind his back. Excellent. Another form of ShadowSpawn torture.

And where the hell was Nicole? He knew how difficult the first new moon was on newly turned females, how they couldn’t control their need for blood, how hard it was for them to differentiate between blood hunger and sexual hunger. New vampires were often mindless, feeling as if starvation for both had set in.

The idea that Nicole might be slaking her thirst with a ShadowSpawn male ate into his brain like corrosive acid. He had no one to blame but himself for chasing her away, but he swore he’d find that male and dismantle him. Slowly.

The door opened, and he threw himself against the chains, hoping against hope that they’d break, but nope, the suckers held, and— His heart skipped a beat. Maybe a hundred.

Nicole stood in the doorway, bathed in light like an angel. An angel with fangs and glittering silver eyes.

Wordlessly, she slammed the door shut and came at him with a growl. She hit him full force, knocking him from his knees onto his ass. His spine hit the wall, and the force against his shoulders wrenched them in their sockets.

He didn’t give a shit. Not when Nicole straddled his thighs and sank her fangs into his neck. He shouted at the searing bliss, and somewhere in his lust-soaked brain, he remembered to be thankful that she’d remembered to activate the pleasure gland.

Awkwardly, he shifted his legs out from under him.

She moaned as he moved, rubbing her sex against his erection. The decent thing to do, given their last argument, would be to tell Nicole to relax, to take the blood but ignore the lust.

But he’d never been decent, so when she reached under the waistband of his pajamas and took his c**k in her palm, he gasped. “Oh, f**k, yeah.”

She writhed on his lap as she stroked him in her tight fist to the rhythm of her mouth sucking on his vein. So good. So. Damned. Good.

An urgent whimper broke from her chest as she picked up the pace, grinding hard against him.

“Nicole,” he moaned. “You have to take off your pants. Stop feeding—”

She growled, a basic, primitive sound he’d heard from wolves whose food was threatened.

“It’ll only be for a second,” he assured her. “You can take my vein again as soon as you’re naked.”

With a pure animal snarl, she pulled back and tore at her jeans. Damn, she was beautiful in her frenzy, as wild as the wolf he’d compared her to. As she shim— mied out of her jeans, her hair fell in untamed waves around her shoulders, and her lips, swollen and red, were parted just enough to reveal a tantalizing glimpse of snow-white fangs.

He strained at his chains, knowing that if he were free, he’d be on her and in her in about half a heartbeat.

“Stand up.” He met her fevered gaze. “Straddle my thighs. Let me put my mouth on you.”

“Yes,” she rasped, as she shoved to her feet.

Her long, toned legs gave way to a delicate, plump mound covered by pale strawberry curls. She planted one foot on either side of his thighs, putting her core right where he wanted it.

“Closer,” he murmured, tilting his face up to meet her flesh as she scooted forward. His mouth watered for her, his body ached for her, and the moment his tongue slipped between her pillowed folds, they both groaned.

With the fervent appetite of a male who had gone far too long without a female to love, he licked at her, swirling his tongue around her swollen nub and then sucking, drinking in her sweet juices. He swallowed and licked, working her into a fit of impassioned mewls that made his blood pound in his ears.

“There,” she said on a strangled gasp.

She pumped against his mouth, taking what she wanted, and damn, he’d never seen anything so sexy in his life. Suddenly, she went rigid and let out a strangled cry. He dragged the flat of his tongue through her slit slowly, wanting to make this last, but she would have none of it. She dropped to her knees, sank her teeth into his vein, and sat down hard on his cock.

“Christ!” he shouted. Her slick heat surrounded him, hotter than the times they’d made love before.

Her new vampire body was stronger, faster, more flexible, and she was using all of it.

Her fingers dug into his shoulders as she rose up until the tip of his c**k nearly broke free of her body, and then plunged down, driving him deep inside her.

Taking long, hard pulls on his vein, she did it again, faster, then faster still, until her h*ps were hammering into his. She let out a throaty moan that undid him.

His balls tightened and pulsed, and his molten rush pumped into her. He roared her name over and over as the endless waves of euphoria poured over him.

She bucked, her entire body clenched around his, and her cl**ax took her.

“Nicole,” he whispered. “That’s it, baby.” He arched his back as best he could, meeting her brutal thrusts.

She jerked, biting down hard. He bore the pain with pride, thinking he’d be happy to go through that every day.

Gradually, she eased up, pulling her teeth free. He smiled at the soothing stroke of her tongue over the bite wound. Either Myne had taught her well, or the instinct was strong in her. He’d made a dozen mistakes before his healing instinct kicked in.

She slumped against him with a sigh. He wished he could wrap his arms around her.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered against his chest.

“For what?” Man, his voice was shot to shit.

She shifted, and his c**k slipped from her warmth.

“Attacking you. Using you like that.”

“Are you kidding?” He inhaled a choppy breath, wondering how long it would take to recover. She’d used him well. “That’s pretty normal.”

What wasn’t normal was how powerful his orgasm had been. Or how many emotions she’d stirred up. And wait, had the word love actually gone through his head?

Yes, he thought it had.

He waited for the remorse over Terese’s life and death to descend like a wet shroud. Nothing. For some reason, the absence of the guilt bothered him. He’d been so filled by it for so long that he felt almost . . . bereft. As if the guilt had been a limb. A cancerous limb, maybe, but something that was useful nonetheless.

It had kept him primed for revenge. It had ensured he kept his mind focused and his fighting skills sharp, because the only thing he had to live for was making things right for Terese.

“Normal?” Nicole nuzzled the curve between his neck and shoulder. “Wow.”

Well, not completely normal, at least, not for him.

Sex with Nicole the first time had easily been the most amazing sex he’d ever had. But this . . . this blew the last encounter away. “Welcome to the new world.”

Lazily, as if she was ready for a nap, she pushed back to look at him with heavy-lidded eyes. “It won’t happen again. When I get back to MoonBound, I’ll arrange for a moon partner.”

So much for the warm fuzzy feeling. “Like hell you will.”

“We’re not doing this again, are we?” She sighed.

“I can’t be with you like this.”

“This,” he growled, “was pretty damned great.”

“And it would be great in your chambers. In your bed. Right?”

He hesitated, once again waiting for the insane guilt to take him in its jaws and shred him to pieces.

The brief delay cost him.

“That’s what I thought,” she said coldly. “You should probably know that I stayed in your chambers during my transformation. With Myne. In your bed.”

A white-hot poker of fury impaled him from the top of his head to the base of his spine. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because the world didn’t end, Riker. Terese’s ghost didn’t come slay either one of us.” She put her hand directly over his heart. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but I love you. I’m not sure I would have made it through the turn if I hadn’t been surrounded by your scent. When I was hurting and delirious, I thought you were there with me, and I fought to stay.”

She locked her gaze with his. “So yes, I love you, but I’ve lived my entire life connected to a company that didn’t want or need me. I won’t do that again. We’ll always be connected because you turned me. But what you and I want are two different things.”

The anger drained abruptly, leaving in its place a feeling of dread and a strange burn near his hip bone.

“Nicole, I want you.”

“You want parts of me. You want what’s in my veins and between my legs,” she said, and he kicked himself for making her believe that. “I’m not judging you, and

believe me, it’s tempting to settle for what you’re willing to give. But I’m worth more than that. I’ve thrown off the Daedalus shackles, but if you can’t do the same with Terese, if you can’t look at me without seeing a

Martin who destroyed your life, we have nowhere to go but our separate ways.” Standing, she shoved her feet into her jeans, and he was helpless to stop her. “I’d better go. The females I dosed will be starting to come into the supply-closet-slash-lab for some tests. You’re going to be taken to Hunter now.”

“I’m not leaving. Not until you do. We need to talk, Nicole.” The burn at his hip intensified, and he shifted to get comfortable.

“We just did, and we’ve been through this,” she said, sounding tired. “I need you to go. If I’m worried about you, I can’t work.” Reaching up, she pinched the bridge of her nose as if trying to stave off a headache. “Please.”

As much as he hated the idea of leaving her here alone, he didn’t want to jeopardize her work or her chances of getting out of here as soon as possible.

“I’ll leave the compound,” he agreed. “But I won’t go far.”

“I’d rather you went back to MoonBound.”

“I don’t know what gave you the impression that you have any say it,” he said, throwing her words from earlier back at her.

She cocked an eyebrow. “Touché.” Pivoting, she headed toward the door.

A stabbing sensation joined the burn, and seriously, what the f**k? He glanced down, sure someone had jammed a red-hot needle into his lower abdomen.

But no, there was some sort of reddish marking. He craned his neck a little more, and . . . oh, damn. A feather had been carved into his skin. The Mark

of the Crow. Or the Mark of the Raven, if the individual

subscribed to that particular canon. Riker had never truly believed in the vampire superstitions, legends, and hokum so many of his kind—especially the oldest and born vampires—subscribed to, but now that he was experiencing this, he might have to reconsider his stance.

Because as he stared at the glyph setting into his skin, its lines growing darker and more distinct, there was no mistaking the fact that he hadn’t put it there.

There was definitely no mistaking what it was: the mating mark all males both feared and wanted.

Nicole paused at the doorway, but she didn’t turn to look at him. “Please don’t worry. I’ll be okay.”

He jerked, the mark forgotten. He’d heard those words before. Riker couldn’t help but feel that this was Terese all over again. He was leaving Nicole with the enemy, just like he’d left Terese, who had also assured him she’d be okay.

The difference was that this time, he not only loved the female he was about to lose . . . he’d imprinted on her.

Chapter 31

Of all the things ShadowSpawn had done to Riker, being blindfolded and dragged from his cell to Hunter’s camp several miles away sucked the most. Having his skin scraped off during the drag wasn’t even the worst of it. No, what Riker hated was being blind.

The way the other senses became overly acute made him too reactive and combative, so by the time the ShadowSpawn goons dumped him at Hunter’s feet, he was a mass of lacerations, abrasions, and contusions, and he was pretty sure his nose had been broken by a couple of different fists.

After a brief wait that included a lot of harsh words and kick in the ribs, someone unlocked the chains around his ankles and wrists. He bounded to his feet and ripped the blindfold from his eyes.

They were at the edge of a moonlit clearing, with MoonBound’s warriors fl anking the meadow, weapons drawn, bows trained on ShadowSpawn’s males.

Whatever confrontation had taken place while Riker was blindfolded and on the ground was over, and as he rolled his shoulders to ease the aches, the enemy clan disappeared into the shadows that gave them their name.

Hunter, wearing only camo pants and boots despite the fact that the scent of coming snow was in the air, pulled Riker into a rare, and awkward, embrace. “Good to have you back and in one piece.” Stepping back, he revised his initial impression. “Mostly one piece. I think you left some bits of yourself behind.”