Desire Unchained

He let his senses fire up to listen for approaching enemies, and he heard the quickening of her breath as he reminded her of why they were so damned good together.

“He wouldn’t know that my favorite part of making love to you is afterward, when you come apart in my arms while I watch.”

Her breath caught, just enough to let him know that she didn’t doubt his identity, and his words hadn’t left her unaffected.

“Yeah, you know it’s me. I need you to change back. I can explain what you heard.” Tension radiated from her, as well as confusion, and a spike of hurt at his words. “Please, lir—” He cut himself off. Lirsha? Was he going to say it? Lover. Beloved.

Hell’s rings.

“Talk to me. Please.”

Her entire body trembled, but she remained as she was.

In the distance, he heard voices. Human. Too far away to worry about, but they needed to move this elsewhere. Most demons were invisible to humans unless the demon wanted to be seen. But werewolves and humanoid demons like his species were clear as day.

“I’m going to back away. No sudden moves.” He eased off her and to the side, where he sat on his heels and planted his hands on his thighs, trying to appear as nonthreatening as possible. Since he was now naked, his clothes shredded and on the ground, he figured he looked about as nonthreatening as he could. He risked a glance at his extremities, and felt lead in his gut even though he knew what to expect. Shimmering transparency that had spread from his hands to his wrists, from his feet to his ankles.

Immediately, Runa shoved to all fours and swung around to him, baring her massive teeth. Damn, she was big. And beautiful. Her toffee fur glinted in the light of the moon, and her eyes glowed like amber coals.

“Come back to me.” His voice was pleading and gravelly, because everything was on the line now. She could kill him or leave him, but either way, he’d die.

For a moment, the air went still. Runa made a soft noise, and then the transformation began, sparking hope. Knowing she was self-conscious about it, he looked away until the gruesome sounds of muscle and tendon snapping back into place came to an end. When he looked again, she was standing there in the night air, as naked as he was.

“We have to go someplace safe,” he said softly, knowing how lame that sounded.

“Safe?” She laughed bitterly. “With you? That’s a joke, isn’t it? Why did you bother saving me from Roag when you could have just let him do the job for you?”

“I know what you heard, but I swear to you, I’m not going to kill you.”

“You’ll leave that to one of your brothers?”

“They won’t touch you. I won’t let anyone hurt you, Runa.”

She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. “But you were going to.”

“Yes,” he said bluntly, because there was no way to sugarcoat the truth.

Hurt flashed in her eyes, and right now he’d do anything to make it better, but they were long past that. “You must truly be desperate to get out of the bond. I didn’t realize you hated me so much.”

Gods, he wished that were true, and it pissed him the hell off that he couldn’t rein in enough discipline to make it happen. “That’s the problem,” he muttered. “I don’t hate you enough.”

“Are you serious?” She gaped at him, making him feel about two inches tall. “You are, aren’t you? You want to hate me? What kind of jerk wants to hate someone?”

She shook her head as though trying to make his words come together in a way that made sense.

“Look—” He broke off at the sound of approaching footsteps. Instantly, he leaped to his feet and shielded Runa from the intruders he hoped would be at least one of his brothers. A sane one would be good.

“Who is it?” Runa whispered.

“Just stay behind me.”

Two demons emerged from the foliage, and Shade’s heart froze. They were different species—one a Nightlash, and the other a pres’genesis Seminus, whose dermoire revealed that they shared a great-great-grandsire. Both wore the uniform of the Carceris, demons who captured and held other demons accused of violating demon law.

The Nightlash stepped forward. “Shade, son of Khane, you are accused of slaughtering a warg in order to interfere with First Rights. What say you?”

Runa gasped. “You killed Luc?”

“As much as I’d like to take credit,” Shade said, “I didn’t do it.”

The Seminus inclined his head. “That will be an issue for the Judicia to determine. Your response is noted. You will now submit to our custody.”