Venice Heat (17 page)

Glass shattered somewhere nearby, setting her teeth on edge. Eiji’s broad shoulders shifted as he loosened his muscles, but before he could open the door, someone thrust it wide, sending him falling backward. Three men advanced into the room, one morphing into a wolf as he ran. The beast landed in the middle of Eiji’s chest, but Eiji threw him against the wall. The crunch of bone gave Shae a sense of satisfaction, but she had no time to focus on her lover. More people flooded the room. From the look of it, Darryl commanded more than she’d thought, or he had allies.

Throwing caution to the wind, she sprang into action, swinging the sword just as Eiji had taught her to do. The sharp blade caught the end of a man’s arm, and he made the mistake of trying to stop it with his bare hand. Blood spattered onto the carpet.

“Even a werewolf isn’t invincible, fool,” she sneered at him and went after the next bastard who came at her while the last crouched on the floor holding his wounded hand. A flick of her wrist and a lunge dragged the sword across the man’s torso. He crashed to his knees, growling like a wolf, but it did no good with the amount of blood pouring from his wound. Shae kicked him in the chin to send him the rest of way to the floor. He didn’t get up again.

Somehow she fought her way to the hall and then down it to the living room. The mistake came when she ran into the spot where someone had smashed a lamp. Shards of glass cut into her feet, and she lamented not taking the time to put on shoes. The momentary distraction was enough for someone to grab her from behind and wrap a muscled arm around her neck. She gasped for breath and kicked back at his leg. He winced, but his grip didn’t lessen. The tighter he squeezed, the less strength she retained to hold on to the katana. The weapon clattered onto a nearby table and then rolled off to hit the floor. The next instant, Darryl appeared before her, and the man holding her let go. The back of Darryl’s hand and his hard knuckles connected with her jaw. Despite locking her jaw, the blow wrenched a cry from her, and she slammed against the wall.

A growl of rage seemed to shake the house on the hill. Several men screamed in pain, and a small crowd of them fell backward from the hall. They didn’t stay down long, but sprang up to their feet, Eiji stalking in wolf form. With the moon shimmering through the open terrace doors, his white hair shined like something ethereal. For a moment, they all appeared to be transfixed, and time stood still. Then Darryl came to his senses and grabbed Shae again by the throat. She struggled to get free to no avail.

“Stop,” he snapped at Eiji, who had coiled to attack. “Before you can reach me, I’ll have crushed her windpipe. I told you not to fucking touch her, but I can smell you all over her. You marked her, you son of a bitch. She’s mine.”

Eiji shifted and stood on two feet. The white hair receded, all except for the silken locks on his head. She couldn’t help thinking how sexy this Asian man looked with pale hair, but it also told her Eiji was on the edge of a rampage.

“He killed Travon,” one of the men told his alpha. “And John and JD.”

“Kill
him
,” Darryl roared.

Several men sprang forward.

Shae screamed, “No!”

“I challenge your position as alpha,” Eiji blurted.

Everyone froze.

“Who the fuck you think you are challenging Darryl,” one of the guys spat.

“He has the right.”

Shae glanced at the man who’d spoken, and something told her he was close to Darryl. He seemed calmer than the others. When he had spoken, the man criticizing Eiji fell silent and stepped back a pace, but they all looked at Darryl. When he said nothing, Eiji cut in again.

“If you’re afraid…”

Shae’s knees gave out, and she sank to the floor finding herself released.

Darryl sucked his teeth and sneered at Eiji, eyeing him up and down. “Afraid of what? Give me room.”

Everybody fell back, including Shae. Trying to keep her gaze on the two men circling each other, she dug bits of glass out of her foot. Her heart raced so hard it hurt. They fought over her, and she was tempted to yell she didn’t want either one of them, but that wasn’t true. She wanted Eiji, and she definitely didn’t want him dead. Darryl beating him didn’t bear thinking on. She searched her surroundings for the katana, not giving a damn about their rules. The minute she got a chance, she’d take the bastard down, but someone must have picked up the sword because she didn’t see it.

A hand dropped on her shoulder, and she jumped. She peered over and found the guy she had studied earlier. When the hell had he crossed from the other side of the room to stand next to her?

“If your boyfriend wins,” he whispered to her, “he gets to be alpha, but that won’t last long, because I will challenge him.”

Dread closed her throat. Did he have so little faith in Darryl? Did no one in his group really respect him? The latter wouldn’t surprise her, and she prayed this guy was right in his guess about the outcome of the fight. Then again, Eiji would have to go up against him in order for them to get away, and he would be tired.

When Darryl sent Eiji over the back of the couch and into a glass table, Shae sprang forward. The man at her side gripped her arm, holding her in place.

“Get your damn hands off me.” She threw a punch toward his face, but he caught her fist. He twisted her arm behind her back and dragged her to him from behind. Shae stomped his foot, causing him to suck in a sharp breath.

“Man, you’re a bitch,” he snapped. “I like my women easy.”

“They’d have to be,” was her quick comeback.

To her surprise, he laughed. “I’m not going to hurt you. Just let them do their thing. If you promise not to try to jump in it, I’ll let you go.”

“I’m going to do whatever I need to, to help Eiji.”

He stared at her for a minute and then shook his head. “That idiot never had a chance.”

She frowned at him. “What are you talking about?”

A shout of alarm went up, and they both turned back to the fight. Terror and pain rocked Shae’s being when she saw the blood running down Eiji’s arm, but then she transferred her gaze to Darryl. He lay on the floor unmoving. Even on the other side of the room, she saw that he wasn’t breathing. The large brown wolf’s body curled unnaturally, and as he lay there, he began to return to human form. Eiji had shifted as well and knelt on one knee holding his injured arm. His dark eyes scanned the room and rested on Shae, then the man who held her. Black bled to pale gray, and a snarl rose in his throat.

The man next to Shae let her go and grinned. “Now it’s my turn. I’m second in line, and I’m going to wipe the floor with your ass. You don’t belong here, and you definitely won’t be our leader longer than it takes me to kill you. ” He stepped away from Shae. “I challenge you for the position of alpha.”

“Can’t you see he’s been hurt?” Shae ran to Eiji and stood in front of him with her fists raised to the other shifter. If she had to fight on Eiji’s behalf, she would. A protective instinct rose in her that she’d never felt before, and just as had happened on the beach, the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth. She’d begun to turn again, but she knew the risks. What mattered most was saving the man she loved.
Damn it all to hell, when did I get so soft?
“Come at me! I will be the one to fuck you up.”

Eiji’s good arm shot out from behind her and encircled her waist. “Shae, no.”

“I say let her fight,” someone called out with amusement in his tone.

More glass breaking distracted everyone from the pending fight, and then Shae and all the rest were coughing with burning lungs. Smoke filled the room, along with a pungent odor. Beyond it, she picked up an unmistakable scent—her brother’s.

Pandemonium hit the house. Bullets flew through the air, and men shifted to their wolf forms in seconds.

Eiji tossed Shae to the floor and landed on top of her. She beat against his chest. “Stop, Eiji. Get off me. You have to get out of here, or they’ll kill you.
Please!
”

He gazed with narrowed eyes at several points where they might escape, and she followed his line of vision. The windows, the doors, all were crowded with men flooding the room, guns drawn. “I’m not leaving you.”

“Once my brother sees me, he’ll make sure no one kills me, and I’m pretty sure none of the wolves will either. Right now, you’re still alpha, and I’m…I’m yours.”

He stared down at her. She saw a flicker of emotion in his pale gaze. As if in slow motion, he began to change. Her heart ached. He had to get out. She licked her lips, swallowing to try to wet her dry throat. Scanning the room, she searched for anything or anyone who could help Eiji. A bullet sliced through the air, and her lover jerked hard. An expression of pain crossed his features, and she screamed. Animal growls rose above human cries, and Shae realized they were her own. She stood, and Kasen appeared before her.
How did they find us?
Her brother’s harsh glare bore into her, and then he cocked the gun in his hand and pulled the trigger without hesitation. Everything went black as Shae went down.

* * * *

“She’s one of them. I say we kill her now and get it over with. After all, we’re back on top. That new information specialist we hired is the shit. His idea of finding out if her rental agent owned any other properties in the area was brilliant.”

That was Kasen, her heartless brother. Now she knew how they’d found her. Shiya had already been replaced, and it looked like nothing would stop her family from killing all shifters. Shae opened her eyes and scanned the room. She lay on a bed, handcuffed to the rails, in a bedroom she recognized as being at her father’s house. No one appeared in her line of vision, so she assumed she’d heard the voices coming from the hall. An ache in her side caught her attention. She raised the dress she wore to find bandages on her side. Her bastard-ass brother had shot her. When she got her hands on him, she’d wring his neck.

“And I told you, son, I’m not ready to kill my baby girl in cold blood.”

“Dad, you’ve always been too softhearted with them,” Kasen railed. “You know there’s no coming back from this shit. She’s a werewolf, as far as we’re concerned, the strongest and the most vicious of the shifters. Our mission is to—”

“Don’t preach to me what my mission is, boy!”

Kasen fell silent.

Their discussion continued, but their voices faded, and Shae figured they had walked away. She breathed a sigh of relief. At least she had a little time, but what about Eiji? Had that shot killed him? Was he safe? She shut her eyes and breathed deep. Before she could figure out what to do, the door opened, and a woman entered. This was the lady her father was dating, a friend of the family for years and her mother’s best friend.

“Gladys,” Shae murmured and tried to swallow, her throat still dry. “Please, help me. I—”

“Don’t.” She crossed the room with a tray and set it down on the nightstand next to Shae. “You didn’t follow procedure, Shae, and got yourself into this. I heard how that one protected you. You were lovers, weren’t you?” Her disgust radiated.

“Where’s Eiji?” Shae demanded. She rattled the handcuff. “How long have I been asleep?”

Gladys picked up a needle from the tray and flicked it. Shae stilled.

“You are not using that on me. Gladys! When I get free, I’m going to—”

“What? Kill us all?”

The calmly spoken words were the strongest proof to why they had been doing what they’d been doing all this time. Shifters were violent. They had no qualms about killing humans, but Shae knew that was wrong. She did have qualms—and pain and loss. She lay in this bed in her father’s home with her family around her, yet there couldn’t be a wider chasm between them.

“You were only out since last night when your brother brought you in. It broke your father’s heart to learn you’d been whoring with those things. Well, you’re going back to sleep until he comes to his senses and has you put down.”

“Don’t do this!”

The needle pierced Shae’s arm. She jerked away, and the bed frame bent. Gladys’s eyes widened. She stumbled backward. Shae might not be able to break the metal cuffs, but the frame wasn’t real metal. She tugged hard again, but her brain had already begun to fog over.

“No,” she mumbled. “You have to let me go. Tonight…tonight is the…”
Full moon. I need an alpha. I need Eiji.
She hadn’t the strength to say it out loud. Sleep claimed her once again.

* * * *

Shae opened her eyes to low light. The room had begun to darken, and the knowledge of what that meant scared the crap out of her. Already, she felt it inside, that stirring of something wild and inhuman. The beast strained to take control, and she knew her grip would slip.

“Eiji,” she cried out in longing.

“
Hai
.”

She started and scanned the room. There he stood in the corner near the window. “You were here. You’re alive.” Her babbling grew worse as he approached, and her heart pounded. Her fingers ached to touch him. She needed to look him over to make sure he was okay. When he bent beside the bed, something clinked, and she realized he was using a lock pick on the cuffs.

“How do you know how to do that?”

He paused long enough to cast her an amused glance. Damn, she’d missed that handsome face, even if it had been merely a day since she’d seen him last.

“I was not always a policeman.”

“Hm, I bet.”

The cuffs fell away, and she launched herself into his arms. They both winced in pain, and she drew back, alarmed. “You were shot.”

“So were you.” Rage appeared in his gaze. “It is my right to kill them. You belong to me, and anyone who hurts you must die.”

She grinned. “Thanks, baby, but now is not the time to go all caveman—or wolfy, I guess. Then again, it is. The full moon will be in the sky soon. Eiji, I don’t mind admitting I’m scared.”

He drew her close and raised her from the bed to set on her feet. The dress she wore did not include underwear, and she saw no shoes in the room.
Thanks a lot, Gladys!

“I have taken care of you from the start, and I will continue. We will go somewhere safe.”