Two-Rhayden

I can smell her.

A mixture of fear, sweat and something… sweet. She knows the pheromones she gives off are a beacon to our kind. A flash of what her emotions are, in a single scent. A clue to where they are at any one time if we are on the hunt.

What she does not realize is how much she is giving off right at this moment.

The confines of the Alfa, as I send it racing through the streets, amplify her scent. Showing me how hot under the collar she is over my presence. This woman is going to be my downfall.

Marlene Brennan.

My brother’s hunter.

Off. Limits.

For two long years I had been watching, as she folded herself neatly into our world. One of the only humans to know of our existence.

How quickly she picked up the art of hunting...

How quickly she got under the skin of my brother and into his bed.

Now with her sitting in the passenger seat, I was the dumb schmuck taking her right back to his arms, when she should have been moaning in mine.

Slowing the Alfa, a little, I pulled the beast of a car up in front of the gates to our family mansion and waited. While I could go in and out without a care, Marlene could not. Absinthe had beefed up the security of late and the security guard stepped forward.

The woman by my side put the window down and dug into the bag at her feet. “Evening Hank.”

Fuck, even her voice set my body off and I had to shift in my seat.

“Evening Miss Brennan. Master Raynes.” He held up a camera, taking her photo and Marlene flashed her ID. He nodded and smiled, flicking the switch just inside the booth. “Have a good night.”

Waiting for the gates was never my strong point and as soon as they opened enough, I flung the Alfa through them and hurtled toward the mansion, kicking up gravel as I went.

“Has he gotten more paranoid since I was here last?”

She had not been here for almost two weeks… I knew because I had been counting the days.

It had been twelve days, fifteen hours and twenty-two minutes, since Marlene had set foot on mansion grounds.

My gaze did not shift from my destination, the parking garage under the back of the building and I turned the car toward it. “Absinthe is worried, that’s all.”

Stupid ass.

If he had just done as I said, when the first Mated had been found, we would not be in this mess. Now the communication channels were clogged with the Mated killings, and we knew it was far from over.

“Worried? About what? It is only one Mated pair de—”

“Four.”

The silence in the car was deafening, but I heard Marlene’s heartbeat kick up a notch and it sent my libido skyrocketing.

“Four? Four what? Four Mated?” Her voice gained pitch, and I looked over at her and shook my head.

“Four pairs. Eight Mated.”

“Eight… Fuck.” Her eyes were wide in shock. “What about other covens?”

“We do not know. Absinthe is only worried about his own.” I pulled the Alpha up in my spot, two away from the elevator and switched it off. Turning in my seat, I touched her arm as she picked up her bag. “Marlene, there is shit happening here that we don’t yet understand.”

“What’s there not to understand?” She asked innocently and I had to stop myself from kissing her. Those plae hazel eyes were mesmerizing. “Mated are being killed. Absinthe wants me back here, to find out who is doing it.”

No.

That was not why my brother had called her back to the mansion. He had other hunters, vampires who could easily track down a rouge killer and bring them to justice.

Absinthe calling Marlene back was for purely selfish reasons.

He wanted to fuck her.

She climbed out of the car and walked toward the elevator, her perfect ass wiggling in her tight jeans. She would go upstairs and interrupt Absinthe’s meeting. He would tell her to go and wait for him… and then he would fuck her.

She would smell like him for days and lonely old me, would get a fucking headache, from my brother’s scent being on the woman I wanted.

My gaze stayed on Marlene as she stopped in front of the elevators and pushed the button. She turned her head, expecting me to be by her side… when I was not, she turned and raised an eyebrow.

“Fuck.” I pushed a hand through my hair and climbed from the car.

It was not only my brother whipped by this woman.