"I hate losing when I love," she whispered into the darkness.
Each time she did, she remembered being a child, only six, rocking herself in her mother's bed when night came and her mother hadn't returned to their small apartment.
She remembered being hungry and cold and being too frightened of the darkness to venture from the bed. She remembered crying for her mother, and knowing she wasn't coming back to her.
That same pain filled her each time she had allowed herself to feel security, or to feel love. Because each time she had done so, it had been taken from her. And she had never cared for anyone as she did Mercury.
"I won't leave you, Ria." The rumble of certainty in his voice had her relaxing in his arms. "I promise you. I'll keep you warm."
His mate was dead, she reminded herself. Gone forever. And Breeds only mated once. It wasn't as though someone could walk in and take him away from her.
He could belong to her. She could let herself belong.
She let the fear and anxiety seep from her until sleep stole over her. If she dreamed she heard her Breed purr behind her as she slept, then she marked it down to her own need to know, to belong to him as fully as she felt she was meant to.
If she felt his lips touch hers, and tasted something so wild and primitive that it drew a moan from her lips, filled her mouth, then she let herself sink deeper into the dream. Because she knew nothing could be this easy. Something or someone would take him from her. After all, now that she was playing with the ultimate fire, there was no way not to get burned.
* * *
The animal waited until the man slept. Only when he slept was it safe to emerge. The man was watching, on guard, strengthening his control against the animal's freedom.
But here in sleep, with his defenses lowered for the woman, the animal found that smallest hint of freedom.
It stepped forward slowly, opened the man's eyes and stared at the woman. She slept curled against the man's chest, her expression at peace. There was a part of her that wasn't at peace, though.
The animal could feel her pain, even in her sleep, and it sought to comfort her. It let a soft rumble of a purr free, let it vibrate against her cheek as it reached out and felt her hair against the man's fingers.
She relaxed, a little. A little smile touched her lips, lips that parted to take the man's pleasure, the animal's pleasure. During those moments the animal could ease closer, feel more, and the man was unaware.
But still, the woman wasn't bound to him enough. The man feared her leaving. The Breed, the hybrid that had invaded their lair earlier, thought to take her from him later. The animal had felt the strength of that man's inner animal. There was no threat of a mating, but there was the threat that the man could touch her, mark her, possess her.
The animal couldn't allow it. It feared what the man feared, and no other could possess its mate. It slipped further from its cell, let itself stretch, just enough, just enough that the glands in the man's tongue began to thicken the slightest bit.
And the man searched for his woman, laid his lips against hers and slid his tongue inside.
The animal snarled silently, and made certain there was more of the taste that would bind the woman to him. Enough to feed into her system, to make certain no other could take her, no other would be allowed to claim her.
As the kiss aroused both man and animal, it retreated once again. The man sighed and tucked his head against her shoulder, his tongue licking over the primal bite he had left on her once again.
The remainder of the hormone fed into that bite, into her flesh.
The power it took for the animal to slip so silently, to control itself with such exacting precision was wearying. If only the man did not regard the animal with horror. If only the man didn't reinforce the chains surrounding the animal each time he awoke, it wouldn't have been so hard.
The animal would merge with the man if he would allow it. It would protect that man and the female. It would pour its strength into the man and allow him to be the Breed he had been created to be.
For now, weariness flowed over it. It collapsed within its chains once again and let itself rest. Not a true sleep, for there was fear of the darkness and the eternal night it had known for so many years.
* * *
The next morning dawned cold. There was a hint of snow in the air, and as Ria and Mercury stepped from the cabin to the limo waiting outside the door, she realized winter was definitely on for the mountains where the Breeds made their home.
She was bundled tight in a long leather coat Mercury had produced for her. She wore another skirt, but only because he had taken her jeans away from her when she went to dress.
Not that Ria was a jeans person; she wasn't. Even her casual wear was mostly dresses. Jeans were only used where a skirt or a dress couldn't or wouldn't apply. She had to admit the skirt outfits and dresses she had brought with her were the worst she owned, though. They were her "persona" clothes, not her preferred attire.
Today she wore one of the better outfits she had brought, however. The skirt wasn't bulky; it was soft cotton with a little flare at the knees, and the drab gray color didn't detract from the attractive cut of the cloth. The matching long-sleeved light sweater made her brown eyes seem darker, maybe a little bit prettier.
Ria wasn't big on her own looks. She knew she was rather plain. Her eyes were her best feature; they were thickly lashed and dark and matched her darker flesh, compliments of her father's Puerto Rican-American roots.