~

 

“I’m going to kill Bowie…” Dane felt rage within him. For one long moment, it almost consumed him like a tidal wave.

“I don’t think you’re seeing the wood for the trees.” The vampire motioned back toward Rayner with a nod of his head. “This isn’t about your psycho brother right now. This is about her. If she transitions…”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Rayner demanded as she pushed up to her feet. She could hear them just fine, but she didn’t have a clue what they were discussing.

She felt hot like she had the damn flu but without all the other joys that went with. She didn’t think that was anything to do with the Scotch, but she had to wonder if it was to do with the vampire’s blood.

“That’s not going to happen,” Dane was adamant. That couldn’t happen to his mate — no damn way.

“I’ve been around long enough to know that you never say never. You need to be prepared. She — needs to be prepared,” Giles warned him.

“Are you going to report this?” Dane demanded.

His mind was racing, spinning. Yes, he wanted to kill his brother — but, more importantly — he might just need to kill the vampire first.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Giles tapped his temple. He’d been reading the both of them since they’d walked through his door.

Dane growled. His hands fisted at his sides as he considered all of his options.

He wouldn’t have the element of surprise if he tried to kill the vampire, but at least trying was better doing nothing at all.

“Rayner — leave now,” Dane growled out the warning to his mate.

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen until I get some answers.”

She wasn’t about to walk out and let boys being boys. She’d already been in the midst of a shifter fight, and she had to ask herself if she wanted to witness one between a vampire and Dane as well.

“Trust me, if you shift into your bear in my house then you and I are going to have a problem,” Giles warned him.

“You threatened my mate,” Dane growled. He felt his beast rising to the surface within him.

“The paranoid nature of the shifter strikes again. I have no intention of reporting your mate, or your brother for that matter, but I do need to know that you have this situation under control so that it doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass with the powers that be,” Giles said.

He wasn’t about to put his life, his cosy existence, and everything that he had on the line for Dane.

“Why would I trust you?” Dane demanded.

“For the same reason you came here in the first place — a lack of options — you have no choice.”

“If someone doesn’t tell me what’s going on…” Rayner felt as if she was losing the fight that she was having with her temper.

She had an irrational need to punch something or someone. Usually, it took a lot more than two idiots ignoring her, making out as if she was invisible to rile her up that damn badly.

It felt as if something was clawing at the back of her mind to be heard, recognized, like that word that was on the tip of her tongue that you couldn’t quite manage to find. She felt the frustration rise within her; it mixed with anger, rage, and the need to find out what the hell was going on.

“We’ve hit a little snag,” Giles offered as he turned toward her, ignoring the posturing of the shifter. Although, he was still more than aware of the danger that Dane presented.

“In English,” Rayner demanded.

She didn’t need them to paint a pretty picture, sugarcoat anything for her, but she needed answers fast before her head exploded.

“The vampire thinks that my brother may have inadvertently bitten you,” Dane said.

It wasn’t a conversation that Dane had ever expected to have — especially, not with his mate. His brother was a fuck up of epic proportions, and yet, Dane had never truly foreseen this happening.

The law demanded that he kill his brother, but right then and there he was more worried about his mate transitioning into a damn beast. Cursed. He felt the deep shame of his brother’s actions within him.

He was the alpha of their clan. It was his responsibility to police his brothers — a police the rules — the law of their people, their kind, and he’d screwed up beyond all recognition.

“And that’s not good,” Rayner said.

Her mind was spinning. It was hard enough to concentrate on his words and to find the information that she must have had in her brain somewhere on shifter bites, let alone try to read between the damn lines.

“Not unless you have a passion to wear fur,” Giles offered back.

Dane growled long and hard at the man as he shot him a dark glare. In Dane’s reasoning, it was no time for sarcasm and stupidity.

“It would appear that this affects all of us now,” Dane reminded the vampire. “All of our lives are on the line here.”

“Oh — crap…” Rayner’s brain finally kicked in and the information that she’d been seeking snapped front and center.

A moment ago her legs had felt so strong, then they gave way beneath her, and her backside hit the cushion once more. Bitten. She knew what that meant.

Dane was on one knee in front of her before she could blink. He wanted to reach for her, but the moment that his hand came out in front of him, he saw her wince, noted the way that her body pulled back just an inch, more than enough to make him hold in place.

“There’s a chance that the vampire’s blood will stop you transitioning,” Dane growled.

He was trying to be as gentle as possible with her, sugarcoat what might happen, at the same time that he was praying that it didn’t, and trying to decide how he would deal with it if it did.

“But there’s a chance that it won’t,” Giles said.

He didn’t think that she needed to be babied. She was strong of will, of mind, and of the body, and that was something that her mate didn’t realize because he couldn’t hear her thoughts.

“That’s not…” Dane growled a warning at the man.

“No — I need to understand this,” Rayner said.

She knew that she needed the answers that the vampire was providing for her. She could understand why Dane would not want to face the situation head-on, but she needed to.

“Well, you’ve already pulled up a chair — let’s crack open the good Scotch and put our cards on the table,” Giles said.

He certainly could use a drink. She wasn’t the only one whose future was hanging by a thread.

“That sounds damn good to me.” Rayner nodded.

“I need to get you out of here — home,” Dane growled once more at the thought of taking her back to his land.

He wasn’t quite sure what he’d do when he saw his brother, but he knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to rip the man’s head off — kill him where he stood.

“No, she needs to stay here — she needs to hear this. And I need to keep an eye on her,” Giles said as he cracked open his best Scotch, and poured them a large drink.