Desire Unchained

“Calm down. I’m safe.” Sort of.

His curses could have melted the circuitry in the satellites transmitting their conversation. “I told Davis not to send you on this mission. Goddammit. I should have been the one to search for Kynan.”

Arik had been against her work with R-XR from the beginning, but with her coffee shop closed, her heart broken by Shade, and her new werewolfyness, there had been nothing to keep her from doing something interesting for the first time in her life.

And the work was interesting. Sometimes it was even a little dangerous, like the time she’d followed a lion-shifter through the streets of Madrid and walked right into his entire pride as they prepared to head to the country to hunt. Only her ability to shift at will had saved her.

“It’s not the Colonel’s fault,” she sighed. “You were busy, and I jumped at the chance to come back to New York.”

“You jumped at the chance to see that demon again, you mean.”

She didn’t waste her breath on a denial, partly because it would only lead to another argument about how crazy she was to have feelings for Shade, and partly because she no longer knew if she’d come to hurt him or to see him one more time.

“So what happened with the Ghouls?” Arik asked, when she didn’t argue.

“It’s a long story, but the gist of it is that apparently I’m bonded to Shade.”

“What do you mean, bonded?” Runa knew her brother well enough to know he’d spoken through clenched teeth.

“I don’t know. I need you to research that, too. Find out if there’s a way out of it.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. But it isn’t all bad news. I found Kynan.” She leaned her head back against the tree. “He’s working at the demon hospital.”

“You’re fucking kidding me. He’s the one who told us about it in the first place!” He was also the one who gave Arik the demon caduceus that had made her put two and two together to equal Shade’s being involved with the hospital.

“I know. I saw him treating Shade’s brother, Wraith.”

“You were inside the hospital?”

She closed her eyes and listened to the screeches of some kind of creature in the canopy above. “Shade took me. He and his brothers work there. I haven’t been able to talk to Kynan, so I don’t know what his deal is.”

“Where is the hospital located?”

A bird exploded out of the brush. She watched it, wishing she could fly away with it instead of walking the dangerous line she was straddling. On one side was the Army, and on the other, Shade. No matter what she said or didn’t say, she was going to betray someone.

“Runa? Where is it?”

“I can’t say.”

“Can’t, or won’t?”

It was a fair question, and she didn’t know the answer. True, she couldn’t draw a map to UGH, but even if she could, would she? “I can’t. We accessed it through Harrowgates, which I can’t use by myself.”

“I don’t like this. You need to come home.”

“That’s not possible.”

“Is Shade holding you prisoner? We’ll send a team—”

“It’s not that.” Well, it was that, in a way. “It’s the bond, Arik. He needs me.”

Arik’s voice went low and deadly. “Why?”

Oh, because he needs sex a few times a day, and only I can give it to him. But what would happen if she wasn’t around? Sex was like air for his species, so if he didn’t get it … could he die?

“He just does.”

“Come. Home.”

“I plan to. But I need to know more about this bond, like what will happen to me if I leave him. Just do the research for me. And hurry.” Because each day brought her closer to Shade, and she had a feeling she soon wouldn’t want out of the bond.

The forest around her went silent, and a chill ran up her spine. She scanned the area, saw nothing, but she didn’t like the sudden vibe. “I have to go. I’ll call again when I can.”

“Wait—”

A branch snapped, stopping her heart and drawing her gaze to a shadowed recess in the trees behind her. Oh, God. She saw eyes. Burning, glowing, red eyes.

She stumbled backward, fumbled the phone. Her heel caught on a vine and she nearly went down. The darkness surrounding the red eyes began to shimmer and take form even as the eyes closed on her. A scream welled in her throat, clogged behind the lump of terror.

The shape solidified.

Shade.

Her brother’s tinny, panicked voice blared from the phone, which trembled in her hand. “I’m okay,” she said into the mouthpiece. “I’ll call later.” She disconnected, wondering, sickly, how much Shade had heard.

His eyes were little more than red, laser-intense slits now. “Mate,” he rasped in a voice that sounded as if he’d forgotten how to talk.

“Shade? What’s wrong?” She caught his forearm, and he closed his eyes and swayed.