The alarm tripped Rhye's senses. Ah, fuck. If Joseph had harmed her, accidentally or not, there would be some serious hell to pay. Rhye liked the witch with an intensity that surprised everyone, even himself. Once the reckless bad boy, Rhye was wrapped around Livia’s slender finger and didn’t care who knew it. He'd kill Joseph with his bare hands if anything happened to his mate. Brother or not. Rhye growled. Something inside him snapped at the thought. How could he think of such an awful act? Joseph was his brother, his only remaining family. Damn it! There was something about that woman that made them all crazy about her. Something no one could even comprehend. Rhye hissed a curse. "What did you do, Joseph?" Joseph gave a miserable shake of his head and gestured vaguely toward the back wing of the sprawling mansion. Rhye was about to take off in that direction when urgent footsteps sounded on the long corridor that led from the general area of the estate’s indoor pool. The soft sm
Rhye smirked. A few months ago, Joseph and his sidekick were ready to tear out each other’s throats. They’d been tossed together by Leon as unwilling partners when she-wolf agent Jasmine showed up at the compound with information about a dangerous magical drug and to solicit help from the hunters in getting the shit off the streets. Now, Joseph, Leon, and Jasmine were almost inseparable in the field; they had been ever since Jessa, Jasmine's older sister, left her and came on board officially as a member of the hunters."Alpha Rhye, what do you think happened to Joseph?" Jasmine's eyes held a trace of confusion as she looked up from the mess in front of her. "If you thought it was a witch, then we should be careful. If this happened to Joseph, then it could happen to anyone.""How can we heal him?""I'll talk to someone, someone who knows about such magic." Rhye groaned. He just hoped Livia could help him heal Joseph. Rhye exhaled a wry breath as he steered Joseph into the hallway. He
They climbed out of the huge dark SUV and skirted the residential area on foot, all three of them keeping to the shadows as they navigated back to the old warehouse lot where the tip had led them.The building looked like shit from the outside – a 1970s industrial eyesore of concrete, wood, and glass. Steel posts from what had once been part of a chain-link fence poked out of the perimeter lot at various angles, not a single one of them straight, not that it mattered. The place had a derelict, keep-out quality about it, even amid the snowglobe flurries that were filling the night sky.The men stepped onto the loose gravel of the empty lot, their boots' heels cushioned by the fresh fall of snow. As they neared the building, he spotted a dark ash trail on the ground. The large, irregular shape was still visible, still smoldering and hissing as the delicate white flakes fell on it and melted on contact. He gestured to the pile of disintegrating remains as Bryan and Leon came closer. "He
For reasons Rhye had no interest in examining even now, he had stood in the center of the carnage he’d wrought, wanting nothing less than complete obliteration. Fire and cinder, smoldering rubble. He had wanted the lab erased from existence, nothing but a scar of black ash on the empty lot where it stood. And whether he wanted to acknowledge it or not, he knew that his want for destruction had more than a passing connection to Livia. It had been her face he’d seen in his mind as he lit the place up. It had been the thought of her grief that made him savor each of the rogue deaths he delivered tonight.Shoving his hands into the pockets of his coat, Rhye headed against the wind and cut down a South End side alley. He wasn’t sure where he was going, although he supposed he should have known. He recognized Livia’s shitty neighborhood even before he turned onto the street that would eventually dump him onto her block. Rhye still couldn’t fathom her living in such squalid conditions. As t
Rhye approached her slowly, not wanting to upset her any further. With a curse, he crouched down, and carefully put his hand on the delicate arch of her spine. His fingers spanned wide, his senses open to the connection, Livia’s pain shot into him like an electrical current.He felt the splintering agony of the migraine that gripped her, felt the hard thud of her heartbeat ringing in his ears as if it were his own. He tasted acid on his tongue, his teeth aching from the force with which she clenched her jaw to combat the torment that was riding her.He heard the voices.Nasty, corrosive, terrible voices that were traveling in the air around them, silent to all but the psychically sensitive witch crumpled before him on the floor.
Livia woke up slowly, feeling as though her consciousness had been transported somewhere far away and tranquil, only to be returned to her body like a feather carried gently on the breeze. Maybe it was a dream. A long, sweet dream... a peace she hadn’t known for months. She stretched a little on the futon, her bare legs rasping against the terry-cloth of her bathrobe and the soft crush of a blanket that covered her from chin to toe. She snuggled deeper into the pleasant warmth, sighing, and the sound of her own breath startled her. No noise. No blaring music or chattering television, even though she couldn’t sleep – could hardly function – without them. Livia’s eyes snapped open and she waited for the psychic assault to hit her. But there was only silence. Dear Lord. Seconds passed, then a full minute or more … and there was only blessed, wondrous silence. "Did you sleep well?" The deep male voice carried from across the studio apartment somewhere. She smelled toast browning, and t
Rhye moved over to the treadmill and calmly pulled out his phone from the long, black trench coat that was neatly slung over it. Livia now had the insane temptation to pick up the plate in front of her and hurl it at the icy warrior as he started dialing, simply to see what kind of reaction she would get.Livia came to the conclusion that she envied the alpha more than she disliked him as she listened to him call into his pack's compound in his deep, mysterious voice. How could Rhye maintain such a detached and icy demeanor? His gift wasn't all that different from hers. Livia had felt his pain last night through his touch, but Rhye hadn't been knocked out like she had been. How was it that he could endure the suffering? The pain and the voices?Maybe it was because of his alpha strength and being a pureblood werewolf that he was so impenetrable and distant. But that could have been training. If he had learned it, it could be taught if not."Rhye, show me how you do it," Livia said as
Leon led the way, bounding up the stairs like an overly excited puppy. In a move she probably should’ve seen coming, he tried to put her bags in his room. Alpha Rhye made a sound almost like a growl and gave him a look, then retrieved her bags and led her farther down the hall. "I just wanted her to feel safe, that's all!" Leon said with a frown. Livia hid a grin and shook her head. She had a feeling staying with these men would be a lot of things, but boring wouldn’t be one of them. It took two hours to unpack everything and get her belongings set up in the guestroom. Rhye showed her too, telling her it was hers for as long as she wanted it. That had surprised her, to put it mildly. She’d been operating under the assumption that she would be expected to leave as soon as she found a new place. That still might be true, if Leon had anything to say about it, but oddly enough, Mr. Dark and Brooding had clearly overheard the invitation and hadn’t disputed Rhye’s words. Leon had gone