The Heat (21 page)

She was bent over, cradling her wrist in her other hand, tears streaming down her cheeks as she hurled wanna-be obscenities at him in that southern kind of way that only true ladies really had down.

He blinked. Then, as if on auto pilot, he was moving. “Lily, let me see your hand,” he told her. He reached for her, but she jerked away from him just as the door flew open and two people barged into the room.

Daniel looked up, as did Lily. Tabitha went for Lily immediately, but James took one look at Lily’s bent form and the tears on her cheeks and he was suddenly turning on Daniel, his fangs extended, his gray eyes glowing like quicksilver.

“What did you do to her, Kane?” the Guardian demanded. His tall form radiating massive amounts of power.

The wolf in Daniel roared to life in response and his fangs tore from his gums, extending to their full length. His eyes flashed. “
Nothing
, Valentine. This doesn’t concern you.” His voice had gone gravelly, and the air in the room was growing thick with their combined supernatural tension.

“Please you two, not now!” Tabitha tried to wedge herself between them, but Lily rushed forward, grabbed her arm, and pulled her away.

“He works for Cole!” Lily exclaimed frantically and aimed them both for the door.

“No, Lily, he
doesn’t
! He’s your Guardian!” Tabitha tried to reason with her best friend.

Lily wasn’t listening, though, and Tabitha had to forcibly grab the other woman by her upper arms. With great effort, and only because Lily was presently weakened, Tabitha managed to jerk her to a halt and even spin her around. “Lily, please! Listen to me! He’s not here to hurt you, okay?” She gave Lily a small shake, as if to drive her point home.

Lily’s head snapped a little and she blinked, her expression bewildered. “What?” she asked, her voice hoarse and quiet.

The men had gone still. Daniel was torn between a confrontation with Valentine and the scene unfolding between the two best friends.

Lily looked from Tabitha to James. Their gazes locked and James suddenly stepped back from Daniel and turned toward Lily. Daniel blinked. James clearly knew that she was afraid and that it was his fault. Daniel was impressed, despite himself. It seemed that a Guardian’s protection could take many forms.

“It’s true, Lily,” James said. “Just take my hand and you’ll understand.”

Daniel suppressed a sudden, rising growl. He didn’t like the idea of someone else touching his mate, but he managed not to move or say anything. This was for Lily’s benefit and he was smart enough to realize that.

“Take his hand, Lily.” Tabitha gestured to Valentine’s outstretched palm. “I promise, it’ll be okay.”

*****

Lily was so tired. So, so tired. She was hungry and she was weak and suddenly, she had no more energy with which to fight. She sighed a shaky sigh and placed her trembling hand in Valentine’s strong grip.

He gently closed his fingers over hers.

Her eyes widened at the surge of warmth and protection that instantly came spread from the contact. It began in her fingertips and raced up her left arm to her shoulder and then across her chest. It quickly infused her entire body with the sensation of being safely wrapped in a fleece blanket and protected by a hundred armed soldiers. Nothing could hurt her. Her right arm didn’t sting at all with the contact, as she’d half expected it to. In fact, she felt nothing coming from the mark whatsoever.

This was so unlike how it had been in Cole’s car with James, when she’d been overwhelmed by his presence and the wine and she had been aching for something…
more
. No, this was different.

“What happened?” she finally had the nerve to ask.

Valentine’s smile was warm when he replied, “I’ve been made your Guardian. You will always be safe with me, Lily. Whenever you need me, I will be here.”

Lily blinked. She was confused as to this turn of events; when it had come about, how it had happened, what it meant, and why. But she did understand that James was telling the truth. She somehow just knew. The answer was there, in her blood.

He would protect her – against anyone – if he had to. That included Daniel.

She pulled away from him and he let her go. “He didn’t hurt me, James. I punched him,” she told the tall, handsome man, a blush creeping up into her pale cheeks. Her eyes were as tired as her voice when she finished with, “Only, his head is even harder than I thought it was.”

Daniel waited as this information sank in and James turned his mercury gaze onto him once more. There was a wealth of thinking going on behind the older wolf’s eyes. But to his credit, Valentine said nothing further on the subject. He nodded once at Daniel and then nodded once, more respectfully, at Lily.

The look that Valentine then gave to Daniel’s little sister was entirely different. Tabitha locked gazes with him, her hazel eyes darkening ever so slightly, her cheeks reddening just enough to give her away

Lily’s brows arched. She looked up to see that Daniel’s eyes were glowing and his fangs had yet to recede. He was watching the two of them with dark promise.

Valentine’s expression became appreciative and admiring as he looked down at Tabitha, his pupils expanding hungrily before he turned for the door and gracefully slipped out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Lily watched Daniel seemed to force his fangs back into his gums. He eyed the door with malice. “I’m going to kill him.”

Tabitha blew a raspberry and rolled her eyes. “Sure you are, big brother. Good luck with that, by the way.” She took Lily’s right hand and held it up to the light. “No real damage done, I think. For what it’s worth, sweetie, wait to throw the punches until you become a werewolf. You’ll actually be able to hurt him then.”

At that, Lily’s eyes flew to Daniel’s once more and their gazes locked. Reality came washing over her again in that moment. She was a Dormant and she was marked. She was going to have to become a werewolf.

Tabitha pulled back a little and eyed her best friend. “Oh hell,” she said. “You look scared again, girl. I think this is a conversation you need to have with the Chief over here, but I’m not so sure I can trust the two of you alone….” She turned to pin her brother with a warning. “You think you can behave like a gentleman and not like a cop long enough to get through this?”

Daniel cocked his head to one side and pointed to the door. He didn’t dignify her question with an answer; there was no room for argument in his expression. His blue eyes glittered like sapphires in his face, a stark contrast to the rather pale hue of his skin and the blue in his raven black hair.

Tabitha stood there for a moment and studied her older brother. There was sudden concern in her expression. Lily turned to regard Daniel carefully. Now that she was really looking, she could see the slight violet cast to his eyes and the way he was actually more pale than normal. He appeared starkly hungry. His tall, masculine form seemed a barely adequate cage for the animal within. He looked more inhuman than ever. Lily wondered why.

“You got a lot of fight in you, Daniel, but whatever you do – you’d best make this soon,” Tabitha said softly. “You’re strong, big brother.” She shook her head. “But you’re not that strong.” She took a deep breath, gave Lily’s good hand a gentle squeeze, and then headed once more for the door. “James is just outside, Lil’. He’ll be able to hear everything you two say.” Tabitha stopped at the door and gave her best friend a meaningful look. It was meant to reassure her. Lily wasn’t alone.

She opened the door, stepped through it, and shut it again behind her.

Chapter Fifteen: Internal Affairs

Lily was dumbfounded. She wondered what Tabitha had meant by Daniel needing to do something soon. Was she talking about Lily?

Once more, Lily found herself alone with Daniel Kane, Police Chief of Baton Rouge - the very beautiful but very supernatural-looking alpha werewolf. Lily swallowed hard.

“Have a seat, Lily. We need to talk.”

She frowned. “Would it kill you to say ‘please’, Chief?”

A muscle ticked in Daniel’s jaw, and the corners of his mouth seemed to want to turn into a smile. But his eyes were as intense and as serious as ever. “It’s Daniel to you, cher. And,
please
– take a seat.”

Lily went to the bed and sat down, pulling the covers over her dangling legs. She was a little cold. Plus, the covers helped serve as a barrier between her and the big bad wolf standing a few feet away.

“I couldn’t be more sorry about the way I had to mark you, Lily.
That
, I promise. But, like I said, I would do it again. I had to do it. You don’t know how tempting a Dormant is to our kind. Sooner or later, you’d have been found out and taken. There’s not much a human can do against a werewolf, Lily. Except, maybe, burn his house down,” he added, his tone suddenly a bit mystified.

But then he ran a hand through his hair and continued, as he took to pacing back and forth in front of her bed. “If you had to be claimed, I’d rather it be by me than by someone else. I know how selfish that sounds, Lily. But I’ve been in love with you for more than a decade. I stayed away,” he said, as he stopped and pinned her with his blue fire gaze. “For Tabitha’s sake. But I can’t do it any more, cher.”

It was a good long while before Lily was able to swallow past the lump that had formed in her throat while he was speaking. He was in love with her. He’d
been
in love with her. Since high school?
Dear God
…. All that time…. She couldn’t believe it. He had to be lying.

Lily took in his expression, frank and stark and hungry. She noticed the way he was breathing, as if he couldn’t quite get enough air, as if his body were in pain. She realized that this was what a man looked like when he was being painfully honest and that honesty involved love.

Christ,
she thought.
Oh, Christ….
She was certain that Daniel could hear her heart hammering, rapid-fire, in her chest. Her blood felt like Novocain in her veins and little stars of light were dancing before her eyes.

Daniel came forward then, and Lily watched in paralyzed silence as he sat at the edge of the bed, one hand wrapped around the bed post so tight that his knuckles were white. She absently hoped he wouldn’t accidentally break it as Cole had done with his chair. Werewolves were so strong – and this bed was an antique.

Her thoughts were rambling in chaotic nervousness.

Daniel’s gaze continued to burn into her. “You have two options at this point, cher. You can join me. Mate with me – and I’ll turn you. You’ll become a Made wolf, a werewolf’s mate who becomes a werewolf herself. You’ll be stronger and faster and you’ll heal quickly. Not much in this world will be able to harm you. Not even our female born are given such a chance, by nature. And Made wolves are very rare these days, cher. They are the only kind who can give birth to more werewolves. They are our only means for continued survival.
You
are our only means for survival, Lily.”

Lily sat in silence and digested this for a long while. The room grew quiet. He’d just given her a lifetime’s worth of news. She wasn’t sure which was more shocking. Finally, a question slid onto her tongue. It may not be the one she wanted an answer to most, but it was the first one to come out. “I’ll be able to actually turn into a wolf?” she asked softly.

Daniel nodded slowly. “And I can imagine you would be breathtaking, cher. As you are now.” His tone had lowered, his eyes darkening a little.

A shiver rode through Lily and the mark on her arm began to warm up. But she wasn’t ready to give into her sex-craved side just yet. She was still blown away by Daniel’s confession. There was still too much she didn’t understand. Too much she needed to know.

She chewed on the inside of her cheek and then asked, “What do you look like in wolf form, Daniel? I’ve seen you in my dreams, but… I’ve never seen any of you actually, well,
shift
, I guess.”

Daniel’s brow knit together. “You mean Cole never – ”

She shook her head.

Daniel pushed himself off of the bed and took a step back. “You promise me you won’t go rabbit on me now, cher? The wolf is a hell of a lot harder to control than the man, and both are real hungry right now.”

There was no doubt in Lily’s mind as to what he meant by that. But she steeled her nerves and nodded once, gripping the blanket tightly in her hands.

He nodded in return and then there was a strange flash. The light expanded, engulfing Daniel’s frame in a blinding aura, and then it contracted once more, dying out as quickly as it had come to life. When it was gone, Daniel was too. In his place stood a massive wolf with thick blue-black fur and bright blue eyes.

Lily stared at the massive creature for what seemed like an eternity, her breathing all but stilled, her mind reeling at what she’d just seen. It should not have shocked her – shouldn’t have surprised her this much after all that she’d been through and knowing all that she now knew. But it did. There was just something about knowing for once and for all that the man who loved her was a real, live
wolf
that blew Lily away.

The wolf, for his part, watched her too. He never took his eyes off of hers, even as he began to come forward, approaching the bed as cautiously as a lion would have approached a gazelle.

Lily was fascinated by the way he moved. He was so graceful and smooth and quiet. She could see the muscles rippling beneath his fur. She could hear his breathing, a low rumble deep in his massive chest.

The mark on Lily’s arm was very warm now. And that warmth was spreading.

With great courage, she slowly pushed her covers aside once more and slid off of the bed until she was on her knees on the soft, plush carpet.

Equally as slowly, she extended her hand toward the wolf. He paused as she knelt before him and then, eyes shining bright, he came forward, and very gently nuzzled her out-stretched palm with his muzzle. This brought a smile to Lily’s face that she simply couldn’t control. As if in response to her smile, the wolf gently licked the tips of her fingers.