Marena turned over onto her side, dropping an arm above her head as she slept. Seconds later she turned onto the other side, her mind drifting in and out of sleep with something on the side of slumber pulling at her persistently.
She moved as if in a fog, walking slowly because she wasn’t certain what was before her, yet not wanting to turn back because a part of her knew he was there. He had come for her, just as he’d promised. Marena kept walking. She kept looking.
And there was nothing.
Just an ominous darkness and apprehension so thick it threatened to choke her. A cool breeze blew and the long silk nightgown she wore moved with silky smoothness over her bare legs. There were long slits up both sides of the gown, so in a few minutes with another gust of air she would be entering the X-rated department as more of her thigh and probably a good portion of her bare and shaved crotch would be visible.
Still, she moved forward, refusing to be deterred.
He touched her then, a featherlike wisp of his fingers over her thigh, and Marena hurriedly looked down. There was nothing there. She gasped as she felt the touch on her other thigh. Again, there was nothing there.
Then she was falling, hitting a soft surface with a huff of breath as he climbed on top of her. She opened her mouth to scream, but there was no sound. There was only the breeze and the weight of him pressing down on her.
“I told you I was coming for you, Marena,” Davis said, his voice raspy and creepy.
So much so she wanted to clap her hands to her ears to keep from hearing it altogether, but she didn’t. Marena remained perfectly still, determined to use her brain this time, to think and not react as she did before—the time when she’d shot his sorry ass for trying to rape her. No, this time she was determined to get the answers she wanted from Davis—even if he was only in her dream.
“You shouldn’t have been a coward and run the first time!” she snapped back, knowing he would respond.
Davis loved a good argument, almost as much as Marena did. It’s why they’d both excelled at their jobs and, sadly, why he’d been drawn to her in the first place. Marena had no idea where that thought had come from, but she instinctively knew it to be true.
“Not a coward,” he replied. “Just biding my time.”
“For what? A command performance?” Her rapid heartbeat was surely a dead giveaway of her nervousness, thwarting the steady edge of her voice.
“Oh, no, sweetness,” he said, and then chuckled. “You think this is about you, don’t you?” The sick and demented laughter continued. “You have no idea.”
“What’s your motivation here, Davis? Make your case and I’ll see if you have sufficient evidence to proceed,” she said quickly, grasping for the part of him she hoped was at least a bit of the human attorney he’d pretended to be all those years.
“Totally justified,” was his response, the sound of his amusement making her stomach churn.
Marena opened her eyes wider, hoping and praying it would help her see through the darkness. Why she wanted to look him in the eye she had no idea; it had been enough seeing his facial expression that night in the hotel.
“Explain the justification,” she pushed. “Tell me what the hell I ever did to you, to make you want to put me in this position.”
“Oh, that,” he said, and then cleared his throat. “Let me see, you walked around that office for years with your head held high as if you were better than every other attorney in that firm and probably in the whole state of California. And then one day I realized you were absolutely right. You were better. You were smarter and stronger and perfect to get me what I needed.”
She’d been listening to his every word, trying to decipher what he meant by them, and losing that battle pitifully.
“I don’t understand,” she admitted, biting back the fear that circled in the pit of her stomach with that admission.
Marena always understood her cases. She knew what her goals in life were right down to the second of each day that it would take her to achieve them. She’d always been superorganized and focused to a fault. Not understanding something was not acceptable, especially not now.
“You don’t, do you?” he asked with a laugh.
His hands were on her then, cupping and squeezing her breasts until tears stung her eyes.
“You were meant for this,” Davis taunted. “You were meant to be used to bring about a new leader. The partners all thought you were meant for greatness and when I finally saw it I knew they were right.”
“You don’t know a damned thing about me!” Marena yelled.
She lifted her knee on pure instinct, hoping like hell it would land in his groin and send the sick bastard’s balls straight up to his throat. She had no idea how that worked in a dream with a lycan or whatever the hell Davis was, but she did it anyway and when the weight on her chest lessened she rolled to the side. Her nails extended immediately, scraping over the nothing that seemed to be beneath her, and she heard a growling sound that she thought might actually be coming from her.
Davis laughed.
“Silly bitch!” he yelled. “You have no idea what’s about to happen.”
“I could say the same for you,” Marena said, coming up to a stand, then launching herself in the direction where she thought he was standing.
* * *
Eureka rubbed her palms over her breasts. Phelan frowned because they were too small.
She sat atop him totally naked, moving her bare pussy over his thick length. He was hard, that was for sure, but not for her. The thought hit him like a boulder, smacking against his head with such force he actually jerked back.
“What’s the matter, baby? Don’t you love me anymore?” she asked, her head tilted, eyes gleaming with arousal.
Phelan did not hesitate to say, “No.”
She froze, hands still on her tits, hips in mid-tilt, eyes darkening instantly. Phelan didn’t give a damn. He put his hands on her waist and lifted her off him, dropping her to the bed or the chair or wherever they had been lying. He had no idea where they were and didn’t care. What mattered was that he was completely over her and totally into someone else. The thought should have made him frown or at the very least bristle at the idea, but it did not. Instead, it gave him a burst of energy, a purpose, he thought with an inward smile.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Eureka called from behind him. “Back to her?”
Eureka laughed then, a throaty chuckle that stopped him in his tracks. There was something eerie about her laugh, something he’d never heard before, and it had him turning back to look at her. Still naked, she’d come to a stand, dropping her hands onto slim hips, tossing her hair back over her shoulders.
“You thought you were going to get to keep her, didn’t you?” She shook her head making a tsking sound as she moved closer to him. “It was all a plan, Phelan. She was the bait and you bit—from the looks of it you bit hard,” she said, looking down at his throbbing erection.
His body ached with the need to be inside of Marena. She’d lie next to him already asleep when he’d climbed into bed. How she managed to look so peaceful in slumber after the day they’d had he wasn’t able to figure out. They’d spent hours on the computer, searching every lead they could on Davis and wondering how in the hell he could have known that Phelan was connected to Blaez and why he’d wanted to thrust Marena into the equation. That was Marena’s scenario, as she’d told him after Blaez and the others had left them alone. It was about her and not in an egotistical way, because Marena Panos was proud and confident, but she wasn’t arrogant or conceited by any means. Phelan, on the other hand, hadn’t wanted to believe it had been solely about her. He’d been so used to all the fucked-up shit in his life stemming from the day he was born and branching out over the years. It had to be Eureka, he’d thought even while he’d entertained Marena’s ideas.
Now, in the depths of his dreams, with Eureka standing just a couple of feet from him, gloating, Phelan knew he’d been absolutely right all along. But somehow, so had Marena.
“Tell me what you’ve done,” he said to Eureka in the most lethal, no-nonsense voice he could muster. “Tell me right now.”
“Always demanding,” she said. “That’s what first attracted me to you. That ‘I know what I want’ attitude combined with the ‘fuck you if you’re not willing to give it to me’ eyes. I loved it from the start.”
“You lied from the start and I’m not in the mood for any more lying!” he snapped.
“You’re not in the mood?” she asked. “I’d beg to differ with you.”
Again she was looking at his dick, and for the first time in all his life Phelan hated the fact that he slept in the nude. Still, he did not falter.
“What does Marena have to do with any of this? How do you know her?” he asked through gritted teeth.
Eureka shook her head. “Oh, I don’t know that damned human, or well, I guess she’s not a human anymore, is she?” She lifted a brow as she grinned. “She wasn’t my plan, but when they came to me with their thoughts I figured it would work because I knew you and I knew this day would come.”
“What the hell are you talking about? What plan?” Phelan asked, rage building steadily inside him.
Eureka had come to stand directly in front of him now, dragging her long, black, deadly nails down his bare chest and over his ribbed abs. He didn’t even blink as her fingers went lower, the scrape of the sharp nails moving along the length of his still-rigid cock.
“What. Did. You. Do?” he asked, resisting the urge to grab her by the arms and shake the hell out of her, literally.
“Oh, it’s not what I did this time, Phelan my love. This was all you. I wasn’t certain you’d walk so blindly into the trap, but you did. They’d already seen the mate in your future; all we had to do was intercede,” she said, her voice going to a low whisper.
“Who’d seen my mate? What are you saying, Eureka? Just spit it out, dammit!”
He needed the words, the truth, like he needed his next breath. Because Phelan was absolutely certain that whatever she told him, whatever master plan he’d unwittingly been a part of, was about to get blown straight to hell!
“The Moirai, you goof. They know everyone’s fate, remember,” she told him as she looked up into his eyes. “They showed Zeus who she was and the rest fell neatly into place.” She cupped his balls then and groaned with the weight of them in her hands.
Phelan grabbed her by the wrists, remembering another time that he’d done the same thing. That night he’d thrown her off a cliff. This time he’d felt like ripping her fucking head off!
“Zeus knew about Marena? How could he? She hasn’t been a lycan for that long. If you so much as even think about touching her—”
“What’s going to happen, oh Phelan the mighty?” a male voice asked from behind where Phelan and Eureka stood. “What are you going to do when you find out I not only bit that bitch, but I claimed her, too?”
Pushing Eureka back with all his strength, Phelan turned slowly to see the infamous lycan he’d spent the last few weeks searching for, standing only a few feet away. Phelan contemplated asking the bastard the same question he’d asked Eureka. Then he considered simply shifting and killing the sonofabitch, but he didn’t. Instead, Phelan found himself pausing, listening to a voice he’d never heard in his mind before.
Phelan! she screamed his name as if she was desperate for him to hear her. Phelan! He’s here! Davis is here!
Marena?
He’s here and I know why. I know how. I know what he wants to do. It’s been about us all along. You and me and—
She’d stopped talking and Phelan knew why. In the seconds he’d been hearing her mindchat with him she’d come into the area where he stood with Eureka behind him and Davis in his lycan form in front of him. Marena had come in and looked around, not sure what she was seeing and, then again, Phelan thought, perfectly aware of what was going on.
You’re mindchatting with me. Only lycans can do that, he told her.
They can’t hear us, she said.
No, they cannot. Although he’s a lycan, your words are for me.
You’re in my dream.
Phelan tilted his head slightly. You’re in my dream.
How is that possible?
Davis turned to her then, his claws elongated, a growl ripping from him as he charged toward her. Phelan didn’t hesitate but jumped through the air, knocking the lycan down.
Wake up, Marena. Wake up now! he yelled to her.
But you—
Wake up!
And she did. They both did, sitting straight up in the center of the bed, chests heaving as their hands moved over the comforters until finding each other and twining together. They did not speak this time and did not mindchat, because they both knew. Now they knew exactly what was going on with Davis and Eureka.
* * *
“I don’t know how that just happened,” Marena said, shaking her head. “I was asleep and Davis was there and you were there. Were you there for real?”
She’d looked over to him at that moment and Phelan felt his chest constrict. In her voice he heard trust and expectancy. She expected an answer from him, a truthful one, and what else? What had this really turned into?
Eureka said it was all a part of a plan that Zeus was told by the Fates—that Marena was his mate and therefore would be the perfect one. The perfect one for what? To reel him in? Because damn, that’s exactly how he felt right now, like she’d been reeling him in from that very first day.
“It was real,” he replied. “Tell me about your dream. Tell me what Davis did and said to you.”
The room was dark, but Phelan could see every part of her. He knew it all by memory. The arch of her brows, the sharp line of her nose, the pert shape of her lips, it was all emblazoned in his mind so that, even if he tried, Phelan knew he would never forget her. Not even when it was time for her to go.
She sighed. “He was on top of me, laughing and taunting me, but I wouldn’t cower,” she told him.
“No,” Phelan said then, squeezing her hand in his. “You would never cower.” She was too strong for that.
“He said I was meant to be used to bring about a new leader. Like he planned to bite me all along.”
Phelan frowned into the darkness.
“I can’t believe it; Blaez and the others were right yesterday. I did bring that centaur here. I told Zeus where Blaez was hiding,” she stated in a voice that sounded both small and incredulous.
“You did no such thing,” Phelan told her. “All you did was live your life. You had no idea what was on the other side or, hell, what was walking right beside you. If you had known you would have gotten so far away from Davis he would have had no choice but to figure out another plan.”
“Would I have?” Marena asked him.
Phelan didn’t understand her question or, rather, he didn’t want to think too hard on what she might be trying to tell him, because it didn’t matter. Nothing else mattered but the issue at hand; still he couldn’t help but say, “What are you asking me?”
“I’m saying that if I knew who and what Davis really was and what he was attempting to do—become some type of new otherworldly leader—wouldn’t I have tried to stop him? I’d like to think I’m a fair person and that I believe wholeheartedly in the little democracy the humans of the U.S. have got going. So I wouldn’t be likely to accept someone or something trying to change any of that. That’s what Davis is doing, isn’t he? He’s trying to become a new leader for the lycans on earth? And he’s going to get Zeus’s help because Davis is going to give the angry god what he’s been searching for—Blaez.”
Phelan inhaled deeply, letting each word she’d spoken resonate in his mind. She was probably right. No, he admitted, she was right. That had been Davis’s plan all along. But how had Eureka been connected to this?
“I’ve got to go,” he said, releasing Marena’s hand quickly and moving until he was off the bed.
“What? Go? Where are you going?” She was talking while moving to switch on a light.
By the time Phelan had grabbed his shorts from the chair near his dresser, Marena was up and coming to stand beside him.
“Where are you going?” she asked, touching a hand to his elbow. “Tell me, Phelan. This involves me, too, so I have a right to know.”
He thought about her last words long and hard. He supposed she was right; she was involved in this even though she’d never planned to be. And damn, how Phelan hated that they’d sought her out and made her a pawn in a game they knew was going to turn deadly. He wanted to protect her, to keep her as unscathed as possible, considering she would never be the same again and there was absolutely nothing he could do about that fact.
“I’m going to find Eureka,” he told her. “She’s involved in this, too.”
“You think she and Davis were working together, that’s why she was in the dream, too,” Marena said.
Phelan hadn’t realized she’d seen Eureka. He’d pushed her aside before he’d lunged for Davis.
“I think this was a bigger plan than any of us ever realized and now it’s time to put an end to it, once and for all,” he said tightly, and moved to his closet to get a pair of jeans.
Marena moved, too, going to the other side of the room where the bag she’d had with her weeks ago was sitting on the floor beside the dresser. He’d given her drawers to use for her clothes. She also had things in the closet with his and Phelan touched them each time he went in there to get something of his own. He’d never had a woman’s garments near his, never smelled another person’s scent in every direction he turned. A scent that with each passing day was beginning to smell more and more like his.
“You can’t go, Marena,” Phelan said without even turning around to see that she’d begun putting clothes on as well.
He just knew that’s what she was doing, that she would be thinking about fighting this battle, too, out of some misplaced sense of duty.
“I can and I am,” was her response.
She probably hadn’t stopped or even slowed down what she was doing, either. They were just alike in that way, stubborn to the core.
“It’s a long ride and it’s going to be dangerous,” he said as he pulled a shirt over his head and turned to where she was doing the same thing across the room.
He watched as the tight-fitting hot-pink material moved down over her breasts and torso, pressing the breasts he loved touching and licking down. She already had on yoga pants and moved to sit on the side of the bed so she could pull on the matching black-and-pink tennis shoes he’d bought for her. Months ago, when Phelan had walked into the kitchen to see Channing and Kira ordering clothes online, he’d sworn he would never do anything as domestic as buy clothes for a female. Just two weeks ago he’d logged on to the same Web site he’d seen Channing and Kira using and he’d selected pieces that he wanted to see Marena in as if she were there for his pleasure. That wasn’t the case. Phelan found himself trying to remember that more often than not lately.
“I don’t want you to get hurt,” he admitted, and her head snapped up as she looked at him in surprise.
“Same here,” was her quick response as she went back to tying her shoes. “I don’t want you hurt, either. And the best way for both of us to remain safe is for us to remain together.”
“Marena—”
“No,” she said, coming to a stand and shaking her head. “This is a pointless argument that’s going to waste more time than we have. The supermoon is less than twenty-four hours away. All hell’s going to break loose at that point, so it makes more sense for us to take care of this situation sooner, rather than later.”
She made total sense and she’d already grabbed her jacket and was walking out of the bedroom before it dawned on Phelan that he still needed to put on his boots and get his own jacket. Doing those things, Phelan thought it was best not to try to figure out exactly when he’d lost this argument or what, if anything, he planned to do about it.