He shook off his cat’s urge to pout. He hadn’t taken care of Lucie in the past, but he fully intended to be the only one to see to her needs in the future.
“You know that Xavier’s going to do everything in his power to get you back after this?” he warned.
She buzzed around a truck pulling a wagon of hay. “There’s nothing he could offer that would tempt me to return,” she proclaimed. “I like my life.”
He pressed his hand flat against her stomach, his touch deliberately possessive. He was willing to spend part of their time in New Orleans if that made her happy, but he intended to make sure that she shared his home in the bayous.
“He’s not going to be the only one trying to convince you to return to the Wildlands.”
“Whatever you say.”
Rage frowned at her flippant words, turning them over in his head. There was some sort of message in them. He knew women well enough to realize that there were always hidden meanings when a woman was acting as if it didn’t matter. A smart male learned to decipher them.
It took several minutes, then, like a bolt of lightning, it hit him.
Hell. She’d decided he was a frivolous flirt. A male who drifted from one bed to another. And right now, there was nothing he could say that was going to make her believe that he wanted more than a casual affair. Obviously he was going to have to prove his sincerity with deeds.
A grim smile of determination curved his lips. “You can doubt me, Lucie, but eventually you’ll accept you’re not getting rid of me.”
“That sounds like a threat,” she muttered.
His fingers skimmed up until they were just an inch from the delicate curve of her breast. “A promise.”
She shivered, reaching up to turn off her Bluetooth. Rage smiled. She could try to shut him out as much as she wanted.
Nothing, not even her stubborn distrust, was going to stop him from claiming her as his own.
* * * *
Lucie pretended an all-consuming concentration on navigating the five-and-a-half-hour drive to Bossier City. Not that she was stupid enough to think for a second that she was fooling Rage. They both knew that she’d have to be dead not to be aware of the six-foot plus male who was snuggled so tightly against her back she could feel every inch of his hard body. That didn’t even include the sparks of awareness that were sizzling between them. She wouldn’t be surprised if her skin was scorched from the heat.
Thankfully, she managed to arrive at their destination without crashing. Or halting the bike so she could rip off Rage’s clothes and have her evil way with him, which had been way more likely than crashing.
Pulling the bike to a halt a block away, she nodded her head toward the large warehouse that overlooked the Red River.
“That’s the place.”
Rage stepped off the bike and removed his helmet, his gaze locked on the brick structure that looked abandoned from a distance. Lucie, however, didn’t miss the new chain link fence that was ten-foot tall and topped with barbed wire. Or the bars that’d recently been added to the windows. Someone didn’t want any stray trespassers having a peek inside.
“Stay here while I check it out,” he murmured.
Lucie reached out to lay her hand on his arm. Shit. She didn’t want him going in there alone.
“I should come with you.”
He shoved back his hair with impatient fingers, clearly anxious to be on the hunt.
“You’re staying here.”
“But––”
“When it comes to geeky stuff, you’re in charge,” he interrupted, tugging off her helmet so he could stare down at her with a ruthless air of authority.
The casual charmer was replaced with the lethal predator.
“Geeky stuff?”
“When it comes to hunting the enemy, I’m in charge.” He reached to cup her chin in his hand, forcing her to meet his steady gaze. “Deal?”
Lucie hesitated. Once she agreed, she would be giving her word that she would be stuck waiting for him, even if her every instinct screamed she should be with him. What if he went in and never came out? What if she truly lost him?
The thought made her heart clench with panic.
Unfortunately, she knew that he wasn’t going to leave until he had her promise.
Stubborn cat.
“Deal,” she grudgingly conceded.
Easily sensing how difficult it’d been for her to accept his demand, Rage leaned down to brush his lips lightly over her mouth.
“I’ll come and get you once I’m sure it’s safe.”
She reached up to grasp his sweatshirt, a strange sense of premonition inching down her spine.
“Be careful.”
“Always.”
He paused long enough to steal one last lingering kiss before he was straightening and jogging down the street, staying in the shadows of the nearby buildings. She held her breath as he reached the fence and scaled it with fluid ease. He was fast, but they didn’t know anything about the enemy’s security.
No alarms sounded as he jogged across the empty parking lot and entered through a back window, but Lucie knew that didn’t mean anything.
Crawling off the bike, Lucie stored the helmets before she pulled out her phone. She wanted to call Parish and ask the leader of the Hunters what Rage had said to him earlier. And more importantly, she wanted to make sure he was sending backup in case things went to hell.
She frowned as she scrolled through her contacts, feeling an odd prickle in the center of her back.
It felt as if she was being stalked.
The thought had barely formed when she caught the unmistakable scent of a human male. Glancing up, she watched as a man jumped from a second floor window to land directly in front her. The stranger was dressed in camo pants and a green henley that was stretched tight over his bulging muscles. His face was square with blunt features, and his dirty blond hair was pulled into a short tail at his neck.
Lucie grimaced. Damn. She didn’t need the edge of musk that clung to the man’s body to realize he’d been drinking Pantera blood. That leap would have broken the legs of an average human.
Shoving her phone back into her pocket, she pinned a faux smile to her lips. The man might have juiced himself on Pantera blood, but that didn’t make him any match for the real deal.
“Nice trick, stud,” she murmured as she strolled forward. A few more feet and she would be in striking distance. “I was just waiting for my boyfriend, but the jerk is late. Again. Maybe we should––”
“Don’t move, bitch,” the man snapped, reaching into a holster to pull out…was that a dart gun?
She narrowed her gaze. “You have no idea what kind of bitch I can be,” she growled.
He pointed the gun at the center of her chest. “Hands behind your back.”
Yeah, right. Like she was going to give him an opportunity to cuff her with those zip-locks she could see dangling from his belt.
“Fuck off,” she snarled, surging forward.
She’d managed to get her fingers wrapped around his thick neck when he squeezed the trigger and she was hit by a small dart. Instantly, a crippling pain exploded through her.
It wasn’t the tranq gun she’d assumed.
Instead, the dart was filled with malachite, the one thing that could decapitate a Pantera. The mineral not only hurt like hell, but it cut her connection to her cat, leaving her as helpless as an injured human.
Shit, shit, shit.
Nearly paralyzed by the poison pumping through her blood, Lucie didn’t even put up a fight when the man grabbed her by the waist and tossed her over his shoulder.
“Bad little kitty,” he mocked, smacking his hand on her ass. “I have ways of punishing you.”
Her head bounced against his back as he headed down the street and through a narrow gate in the chain link fence. Lucie gave a low groan. They were going to the warehouse where Rage had so recently disappeared. She could only hope that he was well hidden.
E
ntering the building through a side door, the man carried her up a set of metal stairs to the loft on the fourth floor.
“I got her,” her captor called out.
Lucie caught the scent of two more males, both humans who’d used Pantera blood to enhance their power.
“Put her in the cell,” one of the males commanded.
There was the sound of the man’s heavy boots hitting the wood plank floor as she was carried across the room and roughly dumped into a cage made of iron bars that was shoved against the wall. She hit the ground with a bone-jarring thud, glaring at the man who slammed the door shut and locked it.
He ignored her seething fury, turning on his heel to head toward the two men who were standing beside a long folding table that was loaded with various computer and surveillance equipment.
It was obviously a temporary setup. The numerous cords were hanging from the rafters, the monitors were resting on cheap TV trays, and the only places to sit were plastic patio chairs. Once the auction was done, they intended to pack up shop and get the hell out of Dodge. Or Bossier City.
Despite her pain, her heart skipped a beat.
This was exactly what they’d come here to find.
If she could get out of the cage, she could…
Her thoughts were brought to a sharp end as one of the men strolled toward the cage, eyeing her with a vulgar heat that made her skin crawl.
“She’s a pretty little thing,” he drawled, his narrow face and thin frame reminding Lucie of a rat. “I think I might have a taste of her.”
Lucie tensed, cursing the malachite that continued to cripple her. She wasn’t sure if she could fight off the jerk or not.
“You can have fun with her later,” the oldest of the men thankfully snapped, pointing toward one of the monitors. “First we need her to capture our unwelcomed visitor.”
Lucie made a strangled sound as she crawled to the edge of the cage to catch the image in the monitor.
Rage.
Oh, hell. They knew he was in the building. And they were going to use her to try and capture him.
On cue, the older man, who was clearly the leader of the trio, reached to touch a button on a silver panel arranged in the center of the table.
“Pantera, we know you’re here,” he said into and old-fashion microphone, the words echoing through the warehouse. “Move to the doorway and go to your knees with your hands behind your head until my guard can arrive.”
Lucie watched the monitor as Rage came to a startled halt, his gaze lifting toward the ceiling of the room he was standing in before he was flipping off the camera pointed directly at him.
“Now, now, that’s not very nice,” the human continued, his tone taunting. “You should be more grateful. After all, we have your pretty companion all safely tucked in her cage waiting for you. It was so rude of you to leave her waiting on the street. Anyone could have come along and hurt her.”
Rage’s eyes filled with the golden fury of his cat. He couldn’t shift away from the Wildlands, but his animal gave him a speed and strength that no human could match. Which was obviously why they’d taken Lucie as their hostage.
Silently praying that the Hunter would be smart enough to escape and wait for backup, Lucie’s stomach twisted with dread as he slowly lifted his hands in surrender.
“No, Rage,” she screamed. “Get out.”
The man standing near the cage reached through the bars to smash his fist into her face, the blow violent enough to snap her nose. She felt the rush of blood as she tumbled to the side, smacking her head on the floor. Weakened by the malachite, she couldn’t battle back the darkness that rushed up to claim her.
Her last thought was that she’d never, ever had anyone sacrifice themselves for her…
Chapter 6
Lying in the center of the cage, Rage pressed his body against the unconscious Lucie, silently contemplating the various ways he intended to kill his captors.
Ripping out their throats was always the easiest. But there was a certain satisfaction in the thought of slowly peeling off their skin. Or maybe he’d wait and let Lucie decide how she wanted them to die.
That seemed fair considering they’d broken her nose.
A low growl rumbled in his throat. Even though she’d healed over the past few hours, he was never going to forget his first sight of her crumpled in a heap with blood pouring down her face. If he hadn’t been able to pick up the steady beat of her heart, he might very well have torn apart the three humans with his bare hands.
Instead, he’d allowed the men to shove him into the cell. Idiots. It was exactly where he wanted to be.
He’d known from the second he’d heard the human’s voice over the intercom that he was going to have to change his plans. It was no longer a matter of finding the mystery man and forcing him to halt the auction. He had to get to Lucie.
End of story.
Thankfully, he’d managed to make a quick call to Parish before the guard arrived. He’d asked for the backup Pantera that were on their way to the warehouse to stay hidden in the neighborhood until he had Lucie away from the humans.
She was, he’d swiftly determined, their only hope to stop the auction.
His little time with the leader of the trio had already convinced him that the bastard wasn’t going to give up his shot at a fortune. The human had clearly sacrificed everything to join Benson Enterprises. His reputation as a legitimate researcher, his place in the academic world, and his morals. Now that it was collapsing around him, he was obsessed with getting what he’d been promised.
Money. And a lot of it.
Parish had given him until eleven p.m. to escape with his soon-to-be mate. Then the Hunters were coming in. Which meant that they had less than an hour for Lucie to wake up before the cavalry came charging in and they lost this last opportunity.
Burying his face in her hair, he breathed deep of her primrose scent, his cat pressing against his skin as it tried to comfort his female. Then, without warning, he felt her stir in his arms.
“Rage?” she murmured in a husky voice.
Sitting up, he carefully scooped her in his arms so he could cradle her in his lap. “I’ve got you, sweetheart.”
She blinked in confusion, her face still pale from the malachite that had ravaged her body. Although the poison had worked its way out of her system, she would be weak for hours.
“Where are we…” Her words trailed away as she realized they were sitting in the middle of a cage.
Then, astonishingly, she wiggled until she could free her arm to punch him in the center of his chest.
Rage scowled. Not because it hurt. Even at full strength she couldn’t do much damage. She was a Geek, not a Hunter. But in sheer surprise.
Perhaps he was crazy, but he’d expected some gratitude that he’d come to save her.
Just a smidgeon.
“What was that for?” he demanded.
She scowled right back at him. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“My mother would tell you nothing,” he assured her. “As far as she’s concerned, I’m perfect.”
She rolled her eyes, not nearly as impressed as she should have been.
“If you were perfect then you wouldn’t have been stupid enough to surrender to the enemy.”
He shrugged. “You needed me.”
“That’s not the point.” She gave him another punch, but Rage didn’t miss the hint of vulnerability that softened her features. She’d never had anyone who truly cared about her. She didn’t know how to deal with his concern. “It’s your duty to escape so you could stop the research from being sold.”
He grabbed her face in his hands, staring down at her with a grim intensity.
“I couldn’t risk you,” he growled. “Nothing is more important to me than your safety.” He tilted his head down until they were nose to nose. “I will sacrifice everything, including my duty, to protect you.”
Their gazes locked, the weight of his words vibrating in
the air.
It was a pledge not even Lucie could dismiss as his usual flirtations.
She licked her lips, a rapid pulse fluttering at the base of her throat. “You are…”
“What?” he prompted as her words faded away.
The emotions she usually kept so rigidly contained slowly darkened her eyes. Need, hope, and something that Rage desperately wanted to believe was love.
“Impossible,” she at last muttered, reaching up to tangle her fingers in his hair as she planted a possessive kiss on his lips.
Pleasure exploded through him.
It was the first time she’d initiated a kiss. It made the caress all the more sweet.
Stroking his fingers down the slender arch of her throat, he savored the feel of her lips as they demanded his response. Deep inside, his cat purred with contentment, even as it twitched with the need to get his female out of this cage and back to the safety of the Wildlands.
Lifting his head, he gazed down at her with a faint smile. “Obviously you’re dangerously addicted to males who are impossible,” he teased.
She rolled her eyes, but even as her lips parted to punish him for his smartass comment, she was sucking in a sharp breath.
“Shit, what time is it?”
Rage reached down to pull out the cell phone he’d hidden beneath his sweatshirt. The idiots hadn’t bothered to frisk him before throwing him in the cage.
“Just after ten.”
Scrambling off his lap, Lucie shakily rose to her feet to glance around the empty loft.
“Where are the humans?”
Rage shoved himself upright to stand next to his female. She was too stubborn to lean on him, but he’d make damned sure he was close enough to catch her if she fell.
“The leader just stepped out of the room,” he told her, nodding toward the door across the room. “The other two are keeping watch on the lower floor. They seem to think there might be other Pantera on the way.”
She arched her brows. “Are there?”
He leaned down to speak directly in her ear. He couldn’t be sure they weren’t being monitored by a hidden camera.
“They’re waiting for my signal.”