Bram hesitated, then nodded. “I’ll ask one of the others to assume her training. If she conceives, I’ll restrict her or eliminate her altogether. I know she wants revenge against Mathias, but if Shock gets her with…” Bram sighed, as if realizing he’d said the one thing designed to turn Lucan somewhere between miserable and murderous. “If she does conceive, I’ll remind her to focus on the life in front of her, not the one she’s left behind.”
Lucan would do well to remember that himself. As he stomped onto the first step, descended to the second, he resisted the urge to look back. He’d want to tear into the room, and for what? Did he really want to see Anka naked under Shock while he strained to fill her fertile body with energy, pleasure, and seed?
With a grimace, Lucan whipped around and began running down the stairs before a scream unlike any other ripped the air in two with a shrill wail. Stomping feet came next, a curse, and the jiggling of a doorknob drew him back around. Finally, Shock wrenched the door open and stood in the portal looking disheveled, his hair askew, his jacket hanging off one shoulder. He sported a series of angry red gashes down one cheek. Marks from Anka’s fingernails. He zipped his leathers up, shrugged on his coat, and squared those concealing black shades on his face. Then he charged toward the stairs, stopping just beside Lucan. Menace rolled off him in an angry wave.
“I fucking hate you. You’re a pussy and you don’t deserve her. If you don’t give her what she needs now and always, there won’t be a hole deep enough for you to hide in. I will hunt you down and kill you as slowly and painfully as possible.”
Shock was…leaving? Conceding defeat? Hadn’t he and Anka just been having sex? Hadn’t Shock been feeding her need created by the spell?
Lucan didn’t plan to stay here and ask the bloody lout, not when Anka was alone and hurting.
He zipped past Shock and ran for the open bedroom door, searching out the desperate little whimpers coming from inside.
A sudden crash had Lucan spinning back, one fist raised, his wand ready in the other. But the noise hadn’t come from an invading foe. Instead, Shock had punched the wall, knocking a hole through the plaster and paint, leaving a gash and bleeding knuckles behind. He glared at Bram, daring the wizard to say something. Bram merely rolled his eyes.
“Bugger.” Shock shot Lucan a disdainful snarl. “What are you looking at? Why are you standing there when she’s waiting? Do you need me to draw you a fucking picture?”
Anka had really rejected Shock, given the bastard the heave-ho?
“Yes, for fuck’s sake! Go!” Shock shouted, then stomped down the stairs, slamming his way out the front door. With a heavy bang, he teleported away.
Anka had rejected Shock…and now she waited for him.
Shaking, his heart flipping madly in his chest, Lucan rushed into the shadowed bedroom, shutting the door behind him. It took a moment to adjust to the dimness, but he found her huddled in the corner with frightened eyes, clutching the spread from the bed up to her chin. She trembled so hard, her teeth shook.
His heart broke.
Lucan forced himself to take slow steps into the room and kneel in front of her. One thought circled his brain over and over: Shock wasn’t the true mate of her heart.
But what if he wasn’t either? That question haunted Lucan as he reached for her, giving her plenty of time to reject his touch if she needed.
“Love?” He reached out for her, his hand closing the distance between them until he cupped her cheek.
She gasped, trembled harder. “Lucan.”
“Am I hurting you?”
“No. The pain of Shock… I couldn’t bear to have him touch me. That hurt brought me out of the frenzy, but your hand…that’s nice.”
He could touch her and not cause her pain, as Shock had. Hope crashed in, thrashed around inside him, making mayhem of his logic. Did that mean he was the mate of her heart? Shoving aside the question, he forced himself to focus on her and her alone. “Tell me how I can help you, Anka. Or can I at all?”
She closed her eyes and her body started to shudder with sobs. God, he wished someone would simply take a knife to his soul and cut him wide open to bleed out. It couldn’t hurt less than seeing her suffer, than this misery making her delicate shoulders shake.
Then she nuzzled her cheek into his hand. “Tell me what’s wrong with me.”
“Morganna put a spell on you, love. You’ll be all right in a few days. You’re not dying. There’s no need to worry. I’ll stay by your side, if you need me.”
“Shock…” She opened her eyes and looked away. “He tried to…” She swallowed another sob, not letting it loose. “But it hurt. I couldn’t stand it, no matter how patient or coaxing he was. It was bloody agony. Something I’d closed my eyes a hundred times and endured for the sake of energy and friendship, but I couldn’t tolerate him—or the sudden pain—today. I’m sure you would rather not discuss him, but I’ve no one else to talk to.”
His heart stopped. Hope surged. She’d only ever endured Shock’s touch? “You didn’t want him?”
“In my head, yes. He’s safe. But in my heart, I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.”
Relief let loose some of the stranglehold wrapped around his lungs and evened out the careening between hope and fear. Breathing came easier, thoughts quicker. He nodded as he gathered her into his arms. “We only want what’s best for you, so he left. I’m here. You’ll tell me if I hurt you.”
“I already hurt,” she whimpered.
He released her instantly, despair spiking inside him. “Is that my doing?”
“No.” She leaned in and nuzzled her face in his neck. “You feel good.”
There was a wealth of meaning in that sentence. He soothed her and made her feel protected. But when she nipped at his earlobe and kissed a little spot just beneath, he shivered. Comfort and safety obviously weren’t the only things on her mind.
“It’s coming back, the frenzy.” She sounded slightly panicked.
“You needing, love?” He gently pulled the bedspread away from her tight grip and set it aside where she couldn’t reach it and hide from him again.
Beneath it all, she sat naked, a flushed tangle of soft skin and shaking legs. She closed her eyes and turned her face away, looking embarrassed and torn. “Yes. I’m sorry.”
He hooked his finger under her chin. “Look at me.” He waited until she complied, blinking those amber eyes up at him, now swimming in tears. “Never apologize to me for what you need. Just tell me so I can help.”
“It’s not very… proper.”
A slow grin stretched across his face. “Even better.”