Hunger Untamed (Feral Warriors #5)(32)

A smile. He felt like laughing, but contained the urge, settling for a small smile of his own. "How are you feeling?"

"Since the last time I saw you? A thousand times better."

"Good."

She nodded, but her expression sobered. "We're still in the cages, though. How long has it been? Since the . . ."

"A week."

Unhappiness clouded her eyes. "My mom and my fiance are going to be frantic. Have we hit the news? Are they looking for us?"

"You're all the humans are talking about around here."

Dark blond brows drew together. "Humans. And you're not. But of course you're not." She looked down, then back up again. "Werewolves, or were-animals?"

"We prefer the term shape-shifters."

"What were those . . . flying creatures that attacked us?"

Daemons. "Nothing to worry about anymore. They're dead."

"And there aren't any more of them?"

"No." Not yet, not unless the Mage found a way to free more of them, but she didn't need to know that. "Are you hungry?"

That smile flitted across her face again, pleasing him more than it should. "Starved."

Wulfe pulled out his cell phone and speed-dialed Kara. "I have a starving guest down here. Lyon said you might have a tray with Natalie's name on it?"

"Coming right up." Kara's cheery voice carried to him through the phone. "Or down, I guess I should say. I'll be right there, Wulfe."

A few minutes later, Kara appeared with a tray laden with a full three-course meal--salad, ham, potatoes, and a sweet-smelling cherry cobbler that had been sending their stomachs into wild tumbles of hunger all morning. Kara left, and Natalie dug into the salad as if she was indeed about to expire from lack of food.

He wished he could let her out of her cage for a while when she was finished eating. She had to be sick and tired of being locked up. A walk through the woods came to mind, but it was the middle of the day, and he wasn't kidding when he'd told her they were all over the news. Human law enforcement had found the bodies of Natalie's three friends where the Ferals had left them, more than a mile from the actual site of their deaths. They'd left the Mage bodies on the field of battle, warding the area against human senses for the few days it took the earth to reclaim them. Immortal bodies might live centuries, but they decayed to dust quickly.

"Can you shift into anything you want?" Natalie asked when she'd clearly taken the edge off her hunger.

"No." He didn't elaborate.

Her pretty mouth twisted. "The less I know, the better, right? It's hard not asking questions when there's so much I want to know." Her eyes moved over his face as if studying his scarring. "You intrigue me," she said quietly.

He turned away, feeling like he'd just been shoved under a microscope. "Finish eating," he said gruffly.

When she had, he took her tray, then motioned for her to stand. She was tall for a woman, probably close to six feet, though he still towered over her by over a foot. She might be slender, but she was no stick-thin model. The woman had curves. His man's eye noticed, but his body paid little attention. His mate, Beatrice, the Ferals' previous Radiant, had been dead only a few months. And while their mating had never been what he'd hoped for, he'd loved her. And the severing of their mating bond had ruined him in ways he was still trying to figure out.

Even if he were whole and normal, it wouldn't matter. The woman standing in front of him wore another man's ring. Another's mark.

"Let's try this again."

Calm gray eyes met his. "To clear my memories?"

"Yes." He reached for her jaw, but she touched his hand.

"Wait. In case this works, I just wanted to say thank you. To you and your friends. I know you had as much reason to want those things dead as we did, but I overheard you talking out there. I know we saw things we shouldn't have and that our lives hung in the balance for a while. Thank you for saving us."

He nodded, meeting her gaze, yet oddly reluctant to continue. Once he captured her memories, he'd have to knock her out and take her back, and he'd finally just gotten a chance to talk to her again. Whatever her reason for not being put off by his looks, it was a novel experience he wasn't quite ready to end.

His gaze fell to that jagged cut on her cheek, his thumb lifting to trace it lightly.

Natalie flinched.

Wulfe jerked his thumb back. "It still hurts."

"Not too much."

Which was a blatant lie.

Her brows drew down. "How bad does it look?"

"Not as bad as mine."

A genuine laugh escaped her throat, utterly delighting him. She caught herself with a groan, though wry humor continued to light her eyes and tug at her mouth. "I'm sorry, but that wasn't quite the reassurance I was looking for."

He grinned at her, amazed at how easy she was to be with.

To his surprise, she lifted her hand, almost touching his face, before lowering it again. As she did, her smile died, her expression sobering. "I'm sorry for all you must have suffered."

He grunted. "It was a long time ago." And the suffering hadn't been his. Not until later. Much later.

Without thinking too much about what he was doing, he made a decision. "Hold still. This may be uncomfortable for a moment, but I won't hurt you." When her eyes gave him the go-ahead, he said, "Close your eyes."