Dakotah hoped Domino was suffering as much as she was.
The wine glass shattered as Domino slammed it against the kitchen counter in frustration. The herbs weren’t helping to still the clamoring. To silence the insidious whisper of The Hunger urging him to leave the house and hunt as it tried to regain what it had lost when The Heat rose in Domino.
But Domino wasn’t so arrogant in his confidence that he would risk becoming rogue. If he hunted this night, it would end in death. A human’s first, but perhaps his own in the end.
He knew the sweet ecstasy of killing as he fed, he knew how hard it was to resist the temptation to take everything. How the beat of any human heart would beckon and tempt. Tonight, it would be nearly impossible to resist The Hunger.
The Transformation had left him vulnerable. Dakotah’s absence made it worse. If he left the house, the herbs he’d ingested wouldn’t hold against the bloodlust.
Wild emotion raged through Domino, stripping him of his ability to deny the truth. Whether it was the mating of their wolves or the fact that he’d taken her in the woods immediately before The Transformation and the sharing of blood—it didn’t matter. What shouldn’t be—was. The very trap he’d planned to avoid had caught him unprepared.
He’d bound himself to her sexually.
A hiss escaped as he thought about her out in the night—drawing men to her with the pheromone lure she would gain from his blood. Free to fuck them if she wanted to while his cock would now fill only for her.
He hadn’t wanted the responsibility of a kadine, had thought he’d rather enjoy the pleasures to be found in a thousand different pussies, but now… The Heat made him crave and ache for only one. It promised fulfillment beyond anything he could imagine as the blueprint designed by his alien ancestors unfolded and Dakotah was at its center.
Fuck!
A snarl escaped as his cock responded to the word. As his mind flooded with images of what they’d already done, what he still wanted to do.
Domino pushed away from the counter and reached for his cell phone. Irritation scraping along every nerve ending at the necessity of asking for help.
Dakotah probably shouldn’t have been surprised to see Fane’s sleek black sports car at the campground. He and Cable had been a fixture around the carnival in the days before Sarael left. She’d even teased Sarael about them, though she knew Sarael wouldn’t pursue either man and she wasn’t entirely certain that the men were interested in women. They always smelled of wild sex and darkness. Of each other.
She paused in the shadows, wary as she remembered what else they smelled like. Or at least what Fane’s scent reminded her of. Domino’s. As well as the man who’d hunted for and claimed Sarael.
Dakotah didn’t trust many people, but she trusted Cable. She wasn’t drawn to the pain of others and yet Fane’s was a darkness that filled his soul, reminding her of her own. There’d been times when she’d wondered if Fane’s scent meant he could shift forms, the contrast between the hot beat of a human’s heart and the coldly alien aura making her speculate that if he had another shape, it was something reptile.
She didn’t know the details of either of their lives. She hadn’t asked. The carnival was a refuge, a place to hide, the men and women there all running from something, hiding from something, even if it was just themselves.
As she watched, Fane and Cable emerged from a travel trailer. Laughing, the sight of Fane’s animated face a shock. But not nearly as much of one as seeing the blonde woman between them, her hands held in theirs.
Longing filled Dakotah and she tried to squelch it. Automatically. Ruthlessly. As she’d done for most of her life.
But the longing wouldn’t yield. The fortune-teller’s prophecy and the wolf’s claim pressed in on her with the image of Domino, filled her mind and heart with thoughts and dreams she’d put away long ago. Even before she’d gone to live with her father and his mother. Even before the first of her mother’s never ending string of “boyfriends” tried to molest her.
The door to the travel trailer closed, leaving the others in the yellow glow of a porch light. And as if sensing her presence, Fane’s face turned in Dakotah’s direction. He said something then nuzzled against the woman’s neck before letting her hand go. Rather than climb into the sports car, she slid into the passenger seat of a Suburban while Fane and Cable moved toward Dakotah.
Dakotah’s hands went instinctively to her jacket pockets, curling around the handles of the knives there. The move making Fane’s lips pull back in a flash of teeth that reminded her of Domino.
Surprise rippled through her when the very knives she held concealed in her jacket became an invisible leash, pulling her toward Fane. She knew he was skilled with knives, they’d thrown them at targets, challenging each other in fun as the carnies had gathered to unwind when their booths were closed and their rides shut down for the night.
“We’re all born with talents beyond what’s necessary to survive,” Fane said when she was standing in front of him, reeling with the knowledge that like Domino, Fane’s scent had changed since the last time she saw him, making her guess that he was now a vampire.
“Let me guess, yours is knives.”
“Yes.”
She took her hands out of her pockets and included Cable in her glance. “What are you two doing here?”
Fane’s eyes danced with amusement. “Our bride wished to visit with her friends and the timing was right. Domino called. Apparently he allowed his own bride to escape then thought better of it.”
Dakotah took a step backward but was halted by Cable’s hand on her arm and his sympathetic, caring expression. “You can’t run from this,” he said and she heard the absolute certainty and truth in his voice.
“I can try.”
He shrugged. Smiled slightly, deflating her resolve before it had formed, piercing it with words. “He needs you. Right now he can’t even leave the house for fear of what he might do before he finds you.”
Fane grinned. “A sight I can hardly wait to see for myself.”
“Come back with us, Dakotah,” Cable said. “It’s not safe for you to be away from him.”
“It hasn’t been safe for me for a long time, Cable.”
“It’ll be worse now. His blood has changed you.” Cable grimaced. “Men won’t see the No Trespassing signs you’ve got posted. You’ll be fighting them off wherever you go.”
She frowned in disbelief. “Like I’m doing now?”
“I’m already bound to Fane. Come back to the house with us. There are things you need to know.” Cable squeezed her arm. “Don’t turn this into a fight. You won’t win. You can’t. Not against what Fane and Domino are.”
Fuck. She could hear Cable’s sincerity.
“Just roll over?” she asked, but there was no heat in her words. One of the lessons she’d learned early on was the importance of adapting, compartmentalizing. You didn’t survive otherwise. And sometimes you didn’t survive anyway.
She knew Cable was telling the truth. Her blood burned and with each step she’d taken away from Domino, a knot had formed in her chest, tightening to the point of pain and panic. But what really scared her was that part of her wanted to go back—and not just the part that was wolf.
She’d made it this far by sheer force of will. She believed she could make it even further. She could make it alone. And that was a salve to her pride, along with the knowledge that whatever she and Domino had done to themselves and each other—or more accurately, whatever their wolves had set into motion—he hadn’t asked for it any more than she had.