Bound to Shadows

"Yes, but it's not set up here. Why?" He pushed open a door and walked in. I followed, my gaze sweeping the small basic kitchen before coming back to Kye, drifting down the muscular V of his back before coming to rest on his well toned butt. I clenched my fists against the sudden need to touch him.

"Because a suspect I was following went into Dante's, and I'd prefer not to go in after him."

He paused in the middle of making coffee and looked over his shoulder. "Why are you reluctant to go into Dante's? You're many things, Riley, but a coward isn't one of them."

I crossed my arms and leaned a hip against the counter. "I don't like Starke."

He raised an eyebrow. "I would have thought not liking someone was something of a career hazard for guardians."

"And I make it a habit of avoiding the ones I dislike if there are other options available."

He returned to his coffee making. "So that little dance out in the foyer was a way of softening me up?"

"No, that was out-of-control need. I'll do my best not to let it happen again."

He laughed—a sound so cold and harsh that a chill ran down my spine. "We are destined to be one, whether we like it or not."

And he didn't like it. Not one little bit. At least we had that in common. "If you're so intent on fighting this, why keep insisting that I come to you?"

He looked over his shoulder, his locking on mine. There was something very chilling in those warm amber depths. "Because to control it, I have to face it. So here I am—and here I will stay—until I have a leash on this. On us."

Oh god, oh god… I didn't have the strength to keep on fighting this. I couldn't. Not when I hungered so. "The bonds that bind us only grow stronger the more we are together. It would be better if you simply left—"

His hand crashed down on the counter top, the force so great he cracked the stone. "I will not retreat from this. I will control it."

All I could do was stare at him. This man really was crazy.

After a moment, he turned around and offered me a coffee cup. The explosion of anger might have gone, but the embers of it still burned in his eyes.

I clasped the cup and took a sip. The rich scent of hazelnut teased my nostrils, and that only succeeded in increasing the turmoil.

"I have several jobs at the moment, so it gives me time to concentrate on this." His gaze came to mine again and the sensible part of me trembled. Not in fear of the man, but in fear of what I saw there. This wolf might want to control both the situation and me, but he had no intention of actually letting go. "And while I am here, I will have what is mine."

"I will never be yours, Kye."

"If I reach for you now, you would be mine for the taking. We both know it, Riley."

He was right. As much as I might want to deny it, as might as I might fight it, he had my body and he had my soul. But he did not have my heart. That I would protect against his assault with my life itself.

I sipped my coffee and said nothing. After several minutes, he smiled. It was a twisted, bitter thing. "What time did your suspect enter Dante's?"

I glanced at my watch. "Twenty three minutes ago."

His gaze narrowed a little. "Was he a dark haired man with a hunched demeanor who walked like a predator?"

"Yes." I hesitated. "I thought you said your surveillance equipment wasn't here."

"It isn't. That doesn't mean I can't access it from here. Phones can do amazing things these days."

I guess they could. "What made you notice him?"

"The mere fact he didn't look like the usual type of customer Dante pulled in."

"So you can supply me with a photo of him from your system?"

"I can do more than that. I'll pull up his information." He paused, considering me. "But if you want it, there is a cost."

I snorted softly. "Like I was expecting you to give me something out of the goodness of your heart."

His grin was fierce. "I have no heart. You'd do well to remember that."

"Oh, trust me, I do." I shoved the coffee on the counter top and crossed my arms. "What's your price? Another fuck?"

God, the mere thought had me trembling in anticipation.

Fate needed to be shot.

"Yes and no." His voice was flat, and yet there was an odd hint of amusement teasing his mouth. It made me want to kiss him again, and I hated that. Hated myself for wanting it. "I want you to stay with me."

"What?" I stared at him for a moment. "Why?"

He shrugged. "Maybe because it's the last thing you actually want. Or maybe because I want your vampire to understand just what it's like to know that his mate is in the arms and the bed of another."

He was a bastard. A bastard.

Although that wasn't exactly a new revelation.

"I'm not spending the night with you."

"Then you don't get your information and you risk more people dying."

"Maybe I'll just call the Directorate and confiscate your entire system."

"And maybe I'll just call the man following your brother's mate and give him the go ahead for a little target practice."

Anger and fear surged in equal amounts and I lashed out. Though I moved with vampire speed, he moved almost as fast, and the blow barely even brushed his chin. Even so, there was enough strength behind it to send him sprawling backwards.

I stepped forward, wanting to finish it, wanting to punish him for everything he was putting me through, but somehow I got the urge under control and stopped several inches away, my fist clenched and body shaking with fury.

"You ever threaten him like that again—"

He rose and the force of his anger hit me like a ton of bricks. It was all I could do not to step back, to remember this man was just a wolf and didn't hold half the threat of some of the other foes I'd faced.

But as I met him glare for glare, he seemed far, far worse.

"I am your soul mate," he said flatly. Coldly. "I will do whatever it takes to possess and control what is mine. And if it means destroying everything you hold dear, then that is precisely what I will do."

"But you don't want me. You don't want this." My voice rose, until I was almost shouting at him. "So what is the fucking point?"

He smiled again. Once again, it was a cold and harsh thing to behold. "The point, as I have already said, is the fight. It's wi

I stared at him for several seconds, thinking nothing, feeling nothing, my mind seemingly frozen and his words echoing around in the emptiness of my thoughts.

I was never going to win this fight, because the mere act of fighting was what he wanted, what he enjoyed. No matter what I did, I was going to lose.

If he wanted control, then I'd give it to him.

Or at least, give him the illusion of it.

I stepped back, turned around, and picked up my coffee. "Fine," I said. "You win. I'll spend the night with you."

Surprise flickered through his eyes. "Really? You're giving up, just like that? Somehow, I'm not quite believing that, Riley."

"I don't care what you believe." I rubbed my eyes and suddenly felt a hundred years older. "You want me, you can have me. It's as simple as that."

He raised an eyebrow, the disbelief still very evident, then he held out a hand. "Fine. Come with me now."

I hesitated, then placed my fingers in his. His grip was warm, fierce, and—God help me—a tremor of anticipation ran down my spine. He smiled, obviously sensing the hunger I just couldn't control, then led me from the kitchen, back down the hall and into his bedroom.

Where we made love, again and again, until our bodies were spent and our wolves sated and all I wanted to do was cry.

But I managed to place the tracer at the base of his neck, just near the hairline as I'd been told, so at least the night was not a total waste.