"I say, when Mercury arrives, we just pretend we're not here." Lawe tipped back his whiskey and swallowed in a single drink. "Stay real quiet. Don't make eye contact."
They all nodded.
"Damned good idea," Rule muttered as one lion roared a challenge to the limo. "Yeah. Damned good idea."
CHAPTER 19
As Alaiya's lips pressed against his, Mercury froze. He went completely still, completely silent, all his energy, all his consciousness focused on the animal that broke free of the mental chains he now realized had held it, roaring out in rage.
The sensation was like having a piece of his brain ripped from his skull. Animal instinct poured into him, breaking through his consciousness with the force of a blast ripping through concrete. It disintegrated the chains Mercury hadn't been aware of.
He felt power pouring into him, strength surging through his body and the adrenaline they called feral displacement overtaking him with such violent force that even the Breeds watching him growled at the threat he could become.
He was a threat. At the moment he was pure power and rage, man and beast, and the beast was strong. It was screaming out, roaring, and from his own throat came the rumble of danger. Of death.
He could smell Ria, Dane. Another man was taking his mate from his presence. Another male's scent surrounded her now, that male enclosing her in his strength. Only one thing was saving Dane Vanderale. There was no lust in his scent. Only protectiveness. Only pain. But he was taking Mercury's mate, and for that he would have to pay.
And Mercury felt the animal. It was free. Adrenaline was spiking through him now in crashing waves, the feral displacement threatening as the animal clawed at his mind in rage.
He felt his muscles thicken, blood pumping into them. He felt the strength he had once known pouring into him. His senses became sharper, brighter. Suddenly, Mercury knew every shift of every body around him, each individual smell, each ounce of anger that was filling the hallway. And the suspicion, the knowledge, that the woman that pressed herself so tightly against him was no more than an elite player.
Calculating. Manipulating. A woman who was there for much more than what she claimed.
As Alaiya's lips pressed harder to his, her tongue against the closed seam of his lips, his hand released her arm, shot out and gripped the wrist of another hand nearing him. He tightened his hold on Alaiya's other arm and peeled her from him easily, despite her struggles.
She had been attempting to gain access to the hormone filling his tongue now, his mouth. The hormone that had begun racing through him as he danced with his mate earlier, the scent of her panic and fear jerking at the animal until it stretched, paced and reached for her.
That had been the first moment Mercury knew his animal wasn't dead. The first moment he had known that everything his soul had told him was true. Ria was his mate.
He drew Alaiya away, ignoring the scent of her desperation, the scent of her anger, and turned his head to see Jonas, the extraction vial in one hand, the determination to take blood filling his silver eyes. But there was no threat only concern, only a need to know.
He stared into the other man's eyes, swirling silver with power, and knew the reasons why he would attempt to take rather than ask. Because they knew the animal screaming inside him now. Jonas knew. And he might not fear it, but he did fear for it.
Mercury smiled. A baring of canines as he took the vial, shoved the needle in his vein and watched the blood, brilliant red, fill the small attached canister.
"Is this what you need?" He pulled the needle free and looked around.
He knew Ria was gone, but he could still feel her. Her agony was reaching out to him, causing the animal inside him to roar in rage, to shred his control with the overwhelming fury within it.
He tipped his head back and roared. Anger was a living, breathing entity inside him now. He was no longer half a Breed; parts of him weren't even human. More parts of him than ever before.
He slapped the vial into Jonas's hand, a small part of him realizing that the community as a whole would need the answers within it. They couldn't confine him simply because the animal was back. And if they tried, they would die.
He moved to follow his mate.
"Mercury, where are you going?" Alaiya was on him again, blocking his path, her body slithering against him as he snarled in distaste.
"Mercury, she's safe." Jonas's assurances behind him did nothing to ease the fury tearing at him. "Let's take care of this first. Dane, Lawe and Rule are watching over her. You can go to her soon."
"The hell he can." Alaiya's hands were digging into his shoulders, her expression twisting in anger. "Do you think I'll lose you to that weak little human?"
A hiss of silk at her movements and she rubbed against him as he inhaled her scent. The smell of other men clung to her body, the scent of anger and jealous rage. The smell of a woman who wanted things, simply because they weren't hers.
He remembered that about her. He remembered a time when it had been a challenge to him, the thought of taming that part of her. She had pricked the animal's sense of fairness, and he would have taken her to mate because she was the strongest female, the most defiant and, at the time, the one he felt the most need to f**k once her body matured.
But that was no longer true. Now her scent was an affront to him. It was nothing compared to the sweet scent of his Ria. With all her little contradictions, her honor and her fears. It didn't compare to Ria's warmth, her gentleness or the pleasure he found in each smile that he drew from her.
The scent of his mate was an elixir. It was nectar to his senses. And the scent wrapping around him now was waste and blood. It was death and disease.