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Without bothering to see him out, he knows his way, I lope up the stairs to my female.Mercy is fast asleep. My beast rides me to wake her up, to fuck her one more time before curling my body around her and getting some much-needed sleep. She looks so peaceful, but my head is buzzing from the talk I just had with Luka about challenging Marcus. It occurs to me that she’s going to be hungry when she wakes, so I hurry back down to the kitchen where I make up a plate of carefully selected meats and veggies. After I set the covered plate on the bedside table, I slip away down the hall to my office.
Seven
MERCY
Myeyelids flutter open, but my brain is still mostly wrapped in the warm haze of sleep. At first, I don’t recognize where I am, only that the bed I’m in is infused with Jarik’s masculine scent. My eyes track around the dark room and slowly things start becoming familiar.
I’m in Jarik’s room. Cocooned in his bed. Safe, after he and Jacob rescued me from the cabin. After he washed me and then fucked me like he might never have the chance again.
Stretching my arms over my head, I yawn a great jaw cracking yawn and pull the sheets up under my chin when I push myself up against the headboard to look around. Right away I notice that the side next to me is untouched. Disappointment hits me like a punch that he didn’t join me after I fell asleep. I tried to stay awake. I waited for him to come back, but with every passing moment my eyelids grew heavier and heavier, until the big warm bed finally won.
I turned my attention to the other side to find a plate sitting next to me. My stomach rumbles loudly and some of the disappointment fades as I reach for it. After days of nothing but a stale sandwich, the cold chicken over rice and julienned carrots and zucchini are about the best things I’ve ever tasted.
After I’ve nearly licked the plate clean, I slide from the bed and cross the room to the dresser where I sift through his drawers until I find a t-shirt. It’s soft, well worn, and falls to my knees. Bringing the collar to my nose, I breathe in the dark spicy scent that is uniquely Jarik. Then, I ease open the bedroom door and peek out into the hallway where I’m met with inky darkness, except for a shaft of soft blue light spilling out from under a door at the end.
I’m not sure why, but I feel the need to tip toe as I make my way as quietly as I can toward that door. Then I hold my breath and ease it open, just enough to peek inside. Sure enough, Jarik is sitting at a desk in the dark. His face is lit up with blue light from a bank of computer screens. His chin is resting in his hand, and he looks like he’s half asleep.
I push the door open further and his eyes dart to me. He straightens. Recognition lights up his face and he pushes his chair back at the same time he beckons me to come in.
“Is something wrong?” His voice is rough and deep and stirs up a wave of butterflies in my belly.
“You weren’t there when I woke up,” I say as I make my way around to his side of the desk. “Have you slept at all?”
“I’m fine,” he says dismissively. As soon as I’m close enough, he pulls me into his lap and wraps his arms around me, burying his nose against the side of my neck. His breath fans over the place he bit me, and chills skitter across my body, tightening my nipples and sending a flare of heat between my legs.
“Don’t werewolves sleep?” I tease, enjoying the feeling of having him wrapped around me.
He snorts against my hair. “We do. We just don’t need as much sleep as humans.”
“So, what are you doing?” I ask him when the silence starts to stretch between us.
“Just catching up on some work.” I don’t miss the subtle way his body tenses beneath me.
“You’re lying.”
Jarik chuckles and his arms tighten around me. “What makes you think I’m lying?”
“I don’t know, but I can feel it.” It’s the strangest thing, really. Like I can feel the tiniest vibration of emotion that I know is coming from him.
He tucks my head against his shoulder and turns to face the computer screens. One monitor is broken up into several surveillance feeds. Black and white grainy glimpses of alleys, a street, businesses, the front of this building, and maybe the back as well.
“I’m trying to find where Marcus is hiding.”
“You’re going to go after him.” I tilt my head back to look up at him at the same time he looks down at me. “Is it because of me?”
“Yes.” This time he doesn’t bother lying. “He threatened you, and by doing so threatenedme, and I can’t let that stand.”
“I’m not worth any of this. I’m no one special.” Even as I say it, I feel how wrong those words sound to my ears, even before Jarik tenses and a low growl begins to vibrate through his chest.
“Don’t. I don’teverwant to hear you belittle yourself to me,” he snarls and grips my chin with his hand, turning my head so that his eyes are blazing into mine. “You are mine. My mate, mydestined—”he seems surprised for a moment when he says that. “Like it or not, you are part of the war that is coming. Just like I am.”
My lips are pursed from his grip, otherwise my mouth would be hanging open. His eyes don’t leave mine as he takes in my shocked reaction to his words.
“Let me make this clear, Mercy,” he says, leaning in until his lips are hovering just over mine and I can feel the heat of his breath fanning across my skin. “I will raze this entire city to the ground to defend you. Any slight against you is a slight against me and will not be tolerated.”
“B-but—” Before I can say anymore his lips crash to mine, and his tongue forces its way between my lips. His rich flavor floods my mouth and my eyes roll back with a low, needy moan. His arms band around my waist, twisting me around so that my legs straddle him, feeling him hot, hard, and pulsing against where I ache for him.
Then he lifts me.
