Rapture Untamed (Feral Warriors #4)(42)

Pamela Palmer Rapture Untamed

"Enough, Liv."

She stopped immediately, her eyes filled with concern. "Too much?"

"Yeah. I'm feeling it. You're not full?"

"No. It's like my metabolism has been ratcheted up half a dozen notches."

"When the gang arrives, you can try it again. Go slow, just a little at a time."

Olivia grabbed his arm. "Sit down, Jag, until it passes. If you fall, I won't be able to catch you."

"Sure about that? You're a lot stronger than you look." But he let her pull him down onto a stump.

She stood in front of him, watching him with worried eyes.

"I'm fine, Olivia. Just a little light-headed." But it was disconcerting to realize how fast she could kill him if she wanted to. Fortunately, he could tell how much that realization scared her. "You don't like to kill, do you?"

Pamela Palmer Rapture Untamed

"On the field of battle, I never hesitate. But I don't kill innocents. Or friends."

Slowly, he cocked his head at her. "There must be another category, because I'm pretty sure I don't fall into either of those."

He'd been trying to ease that fear in her eyes, he realized. Hoping to draw a smile.

But the look she turned on him was far too serious. "When you're not trying to make me mad, you are my friend, Jag. For all the flaws in our relationship, you understand me better than anyone ever has. I never know what you're going to do, and I still don't know if you're going to turn me in, but for now you're the best friend I have. In a weird kind of way, maybe the best friend I've ever had. Because I can completely and totally be myself with you."

Her words hit him hard, at once a sweet, drenching rain on a parched soul, and a full-out assault on the thing that lived inside him. The bitterness. And he knew she was right. Part of him didn't want this, didn't want her to like him or call him friend. Didn't want anyone to like him.

But as that ugliness started to rise inside him, threatening this truce, Tighe's white Land Rover pulled into the parking lot. Behind it, he saw Hawke's black monster of an SUV. The GMC Yukon might be as big as Jag's Hummer, but it wasn't the gas guzzler Jag's was. The damned hawk shifter had bought a hybrid.

Jag stood, glad to find the light-headedness gone. "Let's go. Lunch has arrived. My lunch, at any rate." He glanced at her as they started back through the woods toward the motel. "What if this jump in your metabolism continues to accelerate?"

Her startled gaze met his, her eyes, for once, looking every one of her nearly six hundred years. "I won't be responsible for the deaths of innocents. I refuse. If I start harming others, you're going to have to stop me."

"I know."

And he would. He'd have no choice. But he had no illusions, either. Being forced to take Olivia's life would destroy him.

Chapter Thirteen

"How's the wanker?"

Niall asked the question beneath his breath as he and Ewan joined her in the motel parking lot, one on either side.

As Jag led Delaney and the Ferals up the stairs, Olivia held back, needing a report from her men, knowing they wanted one in return.

"Jag's a challenge," Olivia said coolly, fighting to mask the emotion she feared might creep into her voice. These two knew her far too well. And yet, in some ways, they knew her not at all. "But he's nothing I can't handle."

"If he hurts you..." Niall began hotly.

Ewan punched him in the shoulder. "You'll what? Attack a Feral?"

"He'll do nothing." Olivia used her command voice, the one that brooked no argument.

Niall was usually a wise, levelheaded soldier, but Jag clearly brought out the worst in him. Especially when it came to her.

Niall's gaze dropped, a storm rising in his eyes as he looked at her shoulder. "He clawed you."

"No. For heaven's sake, Niall. This happened in the woods. It wasn't Jag's doing."

They'd have to get into the discussion of the Daemon when they joined the others upstairs. She just prayed Jag left the draden attack out of it.

She strode forward before Niall could question her further, leading them up the stairs after the others, following the scent of warm bread and spicy meats drifting from the bags of sandwiches Tighe carried.

As they followed the others inside, the motel room quickly became dwarfed by the six huge men and two women. Tighe wore sunglasses despite the cloudy day, leaving them on in the room. She'd heard that his eyes turned to tiger eyes spontaneously sometimes, which forced him to keep them covered whenever humans were around.

He flashed dimples at his wife as she nudged him aside to place the tray of drinks on the table. As Hawke leaned his long body back against the chest of drawers, Kougar positioned himself beside the door, part of the group and yet not, as he watched them with eyes completely lacking in warmth.

Though she knew all four Ferals wore the armbands with the heads of their animals - bands through which they accessed the power of the Earth - only Jag's armband showed.

Jag sprawled across the bed farthest from the window, lying on his side and propping his head on one thickly muscled arm while Niall and Ewan sat side by side on the edge of the other bed.

Jag caught her eye and patted the bed in front of him, clearly suggesting she join him.