She was just a woman. There were dozens of women, Breed and non-Breed, that he could have with no more than a snap of his fingers. Women who would smile, who would gasp and cry out for him as he moved into their luscious bodies. He didn’t need Ria. He just wanted her.
Wanting was not the same as needing.
Or so he tried to convince himself as he stalked to the front door and flung it open before stepping into the shadowed recess of the porch and the darkness of night.
He inhaled forcefully, pushing back whatever primal demand was making him so irrational. He checked his tongue against his teeth again. Nope, no swollen glands. No hormonal fluid tormenting his tongue and his lusts. Not that he had expected it.
He restrained his disappointment. With each passing year more Breeds mated, and found a sense of peace and balance in this freedom they had found. A balance Mercury knew wasn’t meant to be his.
His mate had died long ago. He was alone.
He leaned against a heavy post and stared into the black velvet night and the forest surrounding Ria’s rented cabin and remembered the bleak years before the Breed rescues. Not that his captivity had been as hard as some of the others’. The scientists at the South American labs he had been created within had ruled with cooler heads. There were strict guidelines, but the Breeds weren’t tortured just to see how much they could endure.
They had been trained from birth. They had been cuddled at odd times as babes by their caretakers, but each day of their lives, even as infants, contained lessons in being Breeds. For Mercury, it had been a life of almost complete isolation from other Breeds, though. His training had been more exacting, his body and his mind pushed harder. And he strove to succeed, because success meant time with the small pride he shared those labs with. It meant a chance to see one small Lioness who smiled back at him shyly and made his heart race.
As they grew older, they were trained harshly, but not horrifically. And yet Mercury couldn’t remember a day of his life when he didn’t dream of freedom. Of running with the wind, of testing himself against his own goals. Of a day when he wouldn’t be required to kill on demand, but only in self-defense.
And he remembered Alaiya. Strong, confident, the young Lioness had been filled with life, and he had loved her. With all a young man’s passion and a warrior’s soul, he had loved her.
He had rarely spoken to her. Had never touched her. Yet he remembered the day the scientists had found the strange hormone in his semen and saliva, and the confusion it had garnered. From him as well as from the scientists. And he remembered when Alaiya had died.
The animalistic core of his psyche had never been far beneath the surface, but when he learned of her death, he lost what little control he had managed to learn. The drugs they kept in his system to try to restrain the feral rage of his beast were powerless against the flood of animalistic adrenaline that washed through him that day.
He hadn’t even touched her. He hadn’t kissed her. But the thought of her death nearly drove him mad.
Mercury shook his head at the thought. It seemed impossible that he was destined to live his life alone because a woman he had never touched, never held, had died.
In ways, though, perhaps he was better off. The worst thing a Breed could have was a weakness. A mate, a child, were the epitome of weakness. Their loss could destroy a man’s soul, but it could rupture a Breed’s sanity. And Mercury vowed long ago to always maintain his sanity.
He wanted Ria. Wanted her like he had never wanted another woman in his life, even Alaiya. But there was no chance of her getting close to his soul. Ever.
CHAPTER 5
Ria came to a bleary-eyed stop the next morning as she opened her bedroom door and met with a sight she couldn’t have expected, no matter the circumstances. Rather than sleeping in the spare bedroom, Mercury was propped against the wall beside her bedroom door, his drowsy gaze holding hers as he came to his feet.
His chest was bare. Gloriously, incredibly, strong-and-hard bare. And he was seriously ripped. All that powerful muscle flexed and rippled beneath his skin as he rose and caused Ria to lose what little mental capacities she had left.
All he wore was a pair of thin, light cotton sweatpants, and the gun he had picked up from the floor beside him. Good Lord, she couldn’t handle this. She could feel a flood of response surging through her body, sensitizing her nerve endings, forcing her to fight to control her breathing.
“Where did you sleep?” She winced at the rough sound of her voice.
Mercury stared at the floor for a long moment before lifting his eyes to her once again.
“Guess I slept in front of your door.” It was said with weary acceptance, as though he didn’t quite believe it himself.
Ria shook the thought away. God, it was just too early for this.
“The beds are comfortable,” she muttered, stalking past him to the kitchen and the coffeepot she had prepared the night before.
“Yeah. They are.” His voice was cool, yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that the undercurrent she heard in it was more confusion than sleepiness.
She filled the coffeepot with water then turned back to him.
“Don’t touch the pot. Do not get your own coffee first. First cup is mine. Understood?”
His eyes narrowed, his gaze flicking from the coffee to her before he nodded cautiously. “Fine.”
“Good. I’m taking my shower. I need to go back to the office this morning.” She turned and headed back to the bedroom.
“Why do you need to go back to the office? I thought you weren’t working on the weekends.” The suspicion in his voice-hell, his voice itself-seemed to grate across her nerves.
She paused at the door.
“Don’t talk to me. Don’t question me. No comments, no nothing until I drink my coffee.” She shuddered at the effort it took to think. “Just… be invisible or something.”
She moved into her room and slammed the bedroom door closed, ignoring the surprise on his face. She just couldn’t handle thinking. If he spoke to her, if she was required to respond in any way, there was no way she could manage even a semblance of civility.
Waking up wasn’t her favorite pastime. Especially in strange places, to the sight of a man she wanted to lick like candy.
She was an early riser, but a grouchy one. She could out-growl a Breed first thing in the morning any day of the week. And if anyone dared touch her coffee before she got that first fresh cup, then she could get rabid. It just tasted different after that, she swore it did. And it was her coffee, so she should know. That first cup was hers, or someone paid for it.
Okay, she was a bitch; she readily admitted to it. But hell, she went without sex for years, worked long hours and put up with no small amount of frustration in her job. She deserved to have a few quirks.
Half an hour later, dressed in a straight black skirt that fell below her knees and a white silk blouse, Ria wound her hair into its comfortable bun and pushed her feet into the leather shoes she wore in the office-whichever office she happened to be working in at the time-and headed back to the kitchen.
Her brain was in semi-working condition, and as long as Mercury hadn’t messed with her coffee, then she could tolerate him. As long as he wasn’t sleeping in front of her door again.
That was just odd. It wasn’t as though she was actually in any danger, especially with two more Breeds parked outside her front door.
Mercury was standing in the kitchen reaching into the cabinet for a coffee cup as she entered the room. He was dressed in the black enforcers uniform that just looked way too good on him, his hair slightly damp from his own shower.