Shit!
"No. That's not what I meant." He toyed with a curl that was brushing her bare shoulder. "I want to be with you, Bride. Only you. I want you to accept me."
"Why?"
"Because I need you."
"Why?"
Vane ground his teeth. How could he explain to her the feral yearning inside him to claim his mate? This infectious insanity that wouldn't rest until they were joined.
He'd never understood what had driven his father to attack his mother. Now he did. Every part of him simmered for her. It was feverish and raw and he wasn't sure how to control it.
How did a wolf mate with a human?
"I'm scaring you," he said as he smelled her fear. "I'm sorry. I'll leave you alone now." He started away from her.
Bride took his hand. She was being stupid and she knew it. Vane had done nothing to hurt her. He'd gone out of his way to make her happy and to be kind.
What was she so afraid of?
The mere fact that he was willing to just walk away told her he would never do her harm.
Before she could stop herself, she pulled his lips down to hers and kissed him soundly.
Every hormone in her body sizzled at the taste of him. He crushed her against him, holding her in those steely arms she remembered so well.
He was overwhelmingly masculine.
His breathing ragged, he pulled back from her. "Tell me to go, Bride, and I will."
She stared up at him in the moonlight and saw the sincerity of those hazel eyes.
"Stay with me, Vane."
His smile made her knees weak as he threw his head back and let out an eerie howl.
Before she could move, he picked her up and carried her through the door of her apartment.
"You were right. They're not dead."
Markus Kattalakis looked up from the bonfire where his wolf pack was gathered around as fury grabbed hold of him. For the last two months, his pack had been out in the backwoods of Nebraska, tending their young and biding their time until the pups would be old enough to jump time periods under the light of a full moon.
"What?" he asked his second in command, Stefan.
"Your senses were correct about Vane and Fang. I shifted to Sanctuary myself and saw Fang there."
"Why didn't you kill him?"
"He wasn't alone. One of the bears was with him. Their female cub. It appears the Peltiers have made them welcome. I can't strike at either of them while they are there. Not unless you wish a feud with the Peltiers."
Markus curled his lip at the news. It was tempting. But wolves and bears It had been a long time since Katagaria clan had fought clan. To engage the bears, who were renowned for maintaining one of the few Were-Hunter sanctuaries, was suicide. If the bears and their miscreants didn't kill his clan, others would. The Peltiers were respected by all.
To take them on would be to break their one and only cardinal rule.
Damn.
"For once you showed good judgment," he said to Stefan. Damn it, though. He needed those two killed. He should have sent someone sooner, but he kept hoping that he was wrong. That the Daimons he had sent for Vane and Fang would return with news of their deaths.