Taken by Moonlight (6 page)

“Yes,” she
murmured against his neck, sounding breathy and willing. “Yes.”

That was
all he needed to hear. Conall was about to lead her upstairs, to the private
apartment that served him when he was in the city, when Vivienne was suddenly
tugged away from him. He spun and his anger only grew when he recognized that a
human male now stood before her, his arms crossed over his chest as he sized
Conall up.

“Whoa there,
buddy. She’s not going anywhere with you,” the man said firmly, and Conall
looked behind him to see that Vivienne was still staring at him with the same
stark, naked need he was sure reflected in his eyes as well.

“Step
aside,
boy
,” Conall snarled, baring his teeth in clear warning to this
stranger. If the man didn’t do as he said, he was going to attack and bedamned
whoever witnessed the transformation and the murder of a human.

Max had
just been about to close the deal with a particularly busty redhead who’d been
following on his heels for the last ten minutes. If
she
could look at
redheads, then so could he, he decided in a way that even he admitted was very
childish. He was about to suggest that he and the Jessica Rabbit doppelganger
take a little trip, to the bathroom or a nice secluded corner, when Drew
approached him, frantic, about something happening to Vivienne. He’d reacted
immediately and followed Drew to where two lovers were embracing passionately,
except one of the lovers was his best-friend and the other was some random guy!
He knew it was her birthday, but Vivienne would never do something so…
out
there
. So the only other logical thing was that she was completely
plastered. Or drugged.

“Okay, old
man,” Max replied sarcastically, the three or four shots, not to mention the
stout, doing nothing for his instincts. “We’re going to leave now so just cool
it.”

Max grabbed
Vivienne’s arm and she resisted slightly before he stepped directly into her
view and shook her. As long as he was breathing, Vivienne was going nowhere but
home. He heard something akin to a snarl behind him and ignored it. The bastard
could growl, snarl, and spit all he wanted.

“Viv—hey,
Viv. Are you okay? Can you see me clearly?” he began, touching her cheek and turning
her head from side to side. Her reflexes were slow, and she kept looking over
his shoulder, instead of focusing on him. A scowl touched Max’s lips as he
turned to Drew, who stood behind Vivienne and looked frightened. “Take her
outside and call a cab. She’s been drugged.”

Drew’s eyes
widened and she lifted a brow at him as if she wanted to say something, but she
grabbed Vivienne and against her protests began to lead her away.

Max turned,
only to find that the man was being restrained by his two Muscle-Milk drinking
friends. They were dragging him backward, toward a door that had not been open
before. Max moved closer and glared; he was not in the least bit intimidated.
The snarling man lunged for Max but the men held on, and he dragged them a few
feet but not far.

He was
obviously strong. Max did not care. He wasn’t just going to leave without
calling scum, scum! If not for Drew, this backward bastard would have probably
raped her.

“Listen to
me, you sick fuck! Forget about her. If I ever see you again, especially if I
ever see you around her, I’m going to rearrange that face of yours! You got
that?”

Max turned
and headed for the exit. A shout behind him made him turn briefly. The pervert
had broken away from the men holding him, and in the end, four men—including
the bartender who’d served him both of his drinks—had to restrain him and force
him through the door. Max scowled, not sharing the fascination that everyone
else seemed to exude at the number of men necessary to restrain him. He didn’t
doubt that if it came down to it, he’d easily put the idiot on his back.

It took
Vivienne long seconds to realize that she was being led toward the exit.
Everything outside of Conall was a vivid haze of bright colors, streams of
light and incoherent sounds. Shaking her head and fighting against the waves
that seemed to be pulsing through her body, she tugged at Drew’s hand. Except
for a quick glance over her shoulder, Drew neither slowed nor stopped. It was
not until they were outside, in the bitter chill of the night, that Drew turned
to Vivienne with a look of concern over her face.

She placed
the back of her hand against Vivienne’s forehead.

“Drew—I’m
fine,” Vivienne began, her voice both breathy and shaky as she thought back to
what had happened in the club. Her heart and pulse still raced frantically, and
her body still felt erotically sensual, but her brain was functioning once
more.

What the
hell did I do?

“You didn’t
look like it in there,” Drew interrupted, using both of her hands to cup
Vivienne’s face. The streetlights shined down on them but even in the dim
light, she could see the dark brown of Drew’s irises and the little flecks of
black in them. Drew blinked, and the movement was so slow that she saw hundreds
of curved lashes meet before separating once more.

Vivienne’s
eyes bulged before she blinked rapidly. At that moment, her ears picked up on
something. A strange sound like a quiet grinding. As she looked around every
other sound faded except for the brief crunching. The two bouncers stood before
the door leading into the club, and one was staring down at them with an
expressionless face. The other man was popping something into his mouth—
peanuts?
Her head tilted as she continued to stare at him.
Impossible.
It was
impossible that the sound that she was hearing was his chewing when she was at
least ten feet away.

The bouncer
staring at her suddenly turned to the one eating nuts.

“Have
you seen her before?”

“No.
Why?”

“She
looks suspicious
….
”

They both
turned so that they could properly scrutinize her and Vivienne spun away from
them.

The sound
of blasting music hit her ears, causing her to wince before it quieted to
reveal other voices.

“How
awesome is this place, Terry?”

Who was
Terry? Who was speaking—whispering, actually, as though from a distance? Her
eyes frantically looked around, passing over Drew, whose lips were moving
rapidly.

“—take you
to the hospital—?”

Another
voice interrupted.

“Hold
him! Ah shit—grab his legs, Sloan!”

Her eyes
scanned the sidewalk and street once more. Who was speaking and where were
they? There wasn’t anyone outside except for the bouncers and Drew.

“I can’t
believe you’re breaking up with me, Daniel.”

Her eyes
shifted back and forth as the number of voices increased, and grew louder. A fine
sheen of sweat broke out across her forehead and perspiration trickled down the
crease between her breasts.

“Stop!” Her
voice was hoarse, ragged.

“Calm—down.
She’s human— It’s not worth it.”
That was followed by a loud grunt, as if the person speaking were now in pain.

“How
about we leave here, and head back to your place?”

She lifted
her hands to her ears, trying to stop the sounds, as her eyes squeezed shut.

“Shit!
The cage! Put him in the cage!”

“Stop it!
Oh, God, stop!”

“Stop what?
Viv, are you okay?” Drew’s voice faded out toward the end.

“What’s
going on out here…what’s wrong with Viv? Viv!”

Someone was
shaking her. As Vivienne’s head snapped back and forth, she tried to regain a
sense of control. The voices still raged on, overlapping, mixing, contorting,
confusing, but she managed to pry her lids open.

Max stood
before her. His hair was tousled badly, as if he’d recently run a hand through
it, and the expression on his face was one of concern mixed with rage.

She could
see Drew off to the side of Max. Her phone was to her ears and her eyes were
focused on Vivienne.

Her head
felt like it would soon implode.

“Stop,” she
muttered again, and before she could elaborate on what she meant, her eyes
rolled back and her world went peacefully quiet.

“Release
me.”

Conall’s
voice was the equivalent of a whiplash, quick and harsh, as he paced the
silver-reinforced steel cage into which they’d thrown him. His quick strides
took him from one side of the square cage to the other, and back again.

Raoul
Salazar and Sloan McTavish, his betas, both stood in the room with him, their
arms crossed over their chests as they lifted brows at his command. Half an
hour had passed since they’d subdued him long enough to get him into the cage,
and they seemed to have no intention of letting him out anytime soon.

“Release me
now
,” Conall repeated, locking his angry gaze on each of them in turn.

“No,” Sloan
replied calmly, shaking his close-shaven head in the negative.

“Our laws
prevent the murder of humans unless it cannot be avoided,” Raoul interjected, a
trace of humor in his voice. “No matter how much it’s deserved.”

Conall
snarled and glared before beginning a new round of pacing. His nose was still
filled with her scent, but it was also filled with the scent of the human male.
He would find him and sacred law or not, kill him. He would not stand for
anyone—human or immortal—coming between them.

A thought
entered his mind and sent him into another frenzy. Was the man her lover?

Red
obscured his vision, and his canines punched into his mouth, before he
remembered her scent, free of any others, and calmed enough to see clearly.
Vivienne did not have a lover, had not had a lover for months, perhaps years.

He
remembered her eyes, clear and open, and his rage gradually began to subside.
The scent of sunlight and ripened peaches overwhelmed him and he took his first
controlled breath following his encounter with her. She was human. He could not
have this type of attraction to a human. It was dangerous, for both of them.
Wolves mated for life, and humans, fragile,
mortal
creatures that they
were, died easily. He’d heard of instances where male wolves took human females
as their mates, and the females died during a particularly intense mating
session or the birth of the pups. It was their fragility more than anything
that rendered them unsuitable mates for his kind. Another half an hour of
controlled breathing and thoughts like those, and Conall found it easier to
quell his attraction to the human. He could also sense she was no longer as
close as she’d previously been. Her scent had faded.

Moving to
the front of the cage, he repeated his command to his betas.

Sloan
stepped forward and surveyed him. Conall’s piercing gaze unflinchingly met his,
and a frown marred his lips. “Are you disobeying a direct order from your
alpha?”

His beta
shook his head even as a slight scowl touched his lips. “No, I am protecting
him and our pack from the repercussions of slaying a human. Has the madness
passed?”

Conall
might have killed him for that statement, but Sloan and Raoul had been with him
for the past century. They were the closest to litter-mates he currently had.
After Gregory’s untimely death, after a cutting betrayal by one of their
allies, Conall had fought his way to the head of the pack with both of them at
his side. Although each was strong and powerful in his own right, Sloan and
Raoul were content to let him lead, and never once in his years as alpha had
they attempted to usurp his rule. It was for that reason that he overlooked
most of the things they said, though not all.

“Release me
now or fight me at dusk.”

A snort
sounded, and Conall turned to Raoul, who’d emitted it, and now wore a grin. Of
his betas, Raoul had always been the quicker to laugh. “That sounds like the
old Conall. Ultimatums galore. Let him go, Sloan. If he wants to kill the
human, let him. It’s only
one
human and no one will have to know. I
certainly don’t want to face him at dusk. Do you?”

Sloan had
no reaction save for the tightening of his lips. Still, he retrieved the key
that opened the large lock on the front of the cage.

When Conall
had agreed to have a cage put in one of the many rooms above the nightclub,
he’d never anticipated being forced into it. He’d intended it for those who
chose to create havoc in his establishment, the immortals he couldn’t kill
without repercussion…and his own betas had locked him in.

Both Raoul
and Sloan backed away immediately, moving to block the door as they grew
serious. From their identical stances, Conall knew they were bracing for an
attack. They still did not fully believe his “madness” had passed.

After
pushing the cage door open, he swiftly jumped down, his big body slightly
hunched over in a crouch. Straightening, he headed for them.