Taming the Fire (24 page)

She shook her head wildly, her hair whipping into her eyes.
“I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!”

Hurling the words at him over and over, she tugged on her restraints and bucked until her bones cracked and she felt the sting of blood at her ankles and wrists where the restraints cut into her skin. The blanket had long since slid to the floor, leaving her naked and exposed, but she didn't care. At this point, her nudity was the least of her worries.

“Shit,” Annika said. “You got a sedative?”

“There's a hypodermic in my bag. It's in the corner.”

“No!”

The beast inside snapped. She couldn't stop it, didn't want to. Pain overwhelmed her as her skin stretched and her joints popped. Sharp teeth erupted from her gums as her jaw cracked and elongated. The transformation took only seconds, but it always felt like a lifetime. For the first time, though, she welcomed it, because she could let the beast handle things while she sank into the background, into the darkness and prayed for numbness.

“Holy mother of God,” Annika breathed, as Ulrika heard herself roar so loud the air vibrated. She jerked one of the chains around her ankle so hard it snapped free of the table.

Yes
. She was going to rip apart every one of those bastards, taste their blood, feel their bones crunch between her jaws—

“Annika, no!” But Trance's words came too late. Annika touched Ulrika's arm, and suddenly the world exploded in a cascade of colors and her body stiffened and seized under what felt like a million volts of electricity.

When it was over, Ulrika lay stunned, her brain scrambled, her vision blurry. Her ears buzzed, so she could hear voices but not words as someone restrained her loose leg. She felt a prick in her thigh, knew she'd been given that shot.

But all she could think about, even as Trance spoke softly and stroked the thick fur that now covered her arms, was that he'd lied again.

He'd said no one was going to hurt her.

“I
TOLD HER
that no one would hurt her.” Trance tried to keep his cool with Annika, but it wasn't working. Together, he and the blond agent loaded the metal cage into the private jet. Better that his hands were busy, because they wanted to wrap themselves around Annika's neck.

After he'd given Rik the tranq, he'd ordered Annika away, told her to stand the fuck down. He'd tried to talk to Rik. He didn't know if she could understand him while she was in beast form—didn't know if her rage overtook any power of coherent thought, but figured it had to be worth a shot.

She hadn't responded with anything but gnashing of teeth and several lunges that came far too close for comfort. He hadn't moved away fast enough and she'd ripped a nice-sized gash in his arm. And he swore she smiled at that before she passed out.

That's when he gave up the explanation.

Annika dropped her end of the cage with a loud crash. Rik didn't move. “She's not going to care about your honey-baby mushy shit, Trance. She's pissed.”

“She's pissed because you went after her.”

Annika put one foot up on the metal and gave it a final shove toward the back and then shook her head as if he was an idiot. Which, in this case, he fucking was. “She's pissed because she thinks you betrayed her. But you had to. So get over it and get on the plane already. I've got a class to teach tonight.”

Annika's attitude was one he'd always held as well—partially because of his days as a Dom, and also because he hadn't allowed himself to form bonds with anyone. Until now.

He was such an idiot.

“You should really stick with the non-beasts to date. I mean, going out with another agent, fine, but when they can change into a werewolf when someone makes them the least bit angry… well, that's just not cool.” Annika pushed some hair off her face.

“I'm not dating her.”

“Yeah, I know—the whips and chains were just for show.” Annika smirked.

“You know I can take you out quicker than you can shock me, right?”

“And you know that's bullshit, right?” She sang softly, under her breath, “Trance and wolf girl sitting in a tree…” But she stopped once Trance locked eyes with her. It was nice, for a change, to watch her helpless.

“You will not shock me,” he ordered, but he didn't take his eyes from hers—not yet. This would be the only peace from Annika he would have on this flight. From behind him, he heard Rik rattling the cage, and Ryan and the woman he was with—Coco something—were shifting around, trying to get comfortable while handcuffed to their seats.

Annika refused to take chances with Ryan until Devlin cleared the rescued agent. She was right—about that and about Rik, and the more he thought about the past days, the more he realized how deeply in he'd let himself go. How much he'd trusted her.

How stupid he'd been.

Rik would have to get over herself. Plenty of people were brought into ACRO against their will—and they all got over it. She would too.

“I
'VE GOT
to call my brother. Will these people let me do that?” Meg whispered to Ryan, even as the big man called Trance turned toward them as if he could read minds. And maybe he could—since the blond woman seemed able to shock people with electricity she produced from nowhere.

And then there was the woman who'd turned into a wolf-creature, currently housed in a cage in the back of the plane. A traveling freak show extraordinaire, and she was along for the ride. Albeit reluctantly, as the fact that she was handcuffed to her seat proved. Ryan was trussed up in the same fashion. “Although, on second thought, I guess you don't have all that much pull there anymore.”

He gave her a small, weary smile. “I'm hoping to change things—to get my life back to the way it was. Back to normal.”

“None of this is normal. I just watched a woman morph into a bloodthirsty wolf-thing and now I'm traveling with her, a woman who could shock me to death and a man who literally hypnotizes me every time I look into his eyes. It's a freak—”

She didn't finish her sentence as she saw Ryan flinch.

“Yeah, a freak show. Nothing we haven't heard before.”

“Ryan, I'm sorry.”

“Forget it. Look, you can call your brother and go back to your nice, quiet life of stealing money from people for kicks. Get your orgasms that way, at least.”

“Screw you,” she whispered furiously, felt the tears rise in her eyes. Trance and Annika had turned back to look at them at Ryan's last words and she blushed and contented herself with staring out the window and telling herself that she no doubt deserved what he'd said.

“I'm sorry, Meg. You're scared. And I'm not helping.” Ryan eased closer to her and there was nowhere for her to go, nowhere to escape the press of his body to hers. He leaned in to whisper in her ear, “What I said wasn't fair.”

She shrugged, like it didn't matter, but both of them knew it did. Reluctantly, she tore her gaze from the window to look at Ryan. “Once they get you back to ACRO, they'll know they can trust you, right? I mean, you remember… everything, right?”

He shifted. “Most everything.”

“Good. Then you won't need me anymore. And I can get the hell out of this mess.” She turned away, anxious to get as far from him as possible, because if he had his memory back, he had to remember what they'd had together. And he acted as if it hadn't been a big deal.

She wondered why, after all this time, he was still able to hurt her this much.

It wasn't midnight—it was four in the morning, and this time the phone rang instead of the doorbell, and Dev barked a hello into the receiver.

It was the night guard. “Uh, Mr. O'Malley? Sir, I'm sorry to bother you. I didn't mean to call. I swear I'd dialed Creed's number, so I have no idea how I got you…”

Creed. This had to be about Gabriel. Fuck. “It's okay, Wheeler. What's going on?”

“Well, your new boy's causing a scene at the Town Bar. I was going to get Creed over here—”

Dev clenched his teeth so hard he swore he'd break them. “No, don't do that. I'll send someone. And how the hell did he get off the compound?”

“He has a pass, Mr. O'Malley—it's valid. Signed by you.”

Fucking, fucking Oz. But there was no reason to let the guard know that Dev's life had suddenly gone insane. “I'll take care of it.”

He called Marlena, because there was no way he would go down to the bar himself and court Gabriel in front of everyone who happened to be there. He had to maintain some sense of decorum. “Marlena, I need you to stop Gabriel from making an ass out of himself—he's at the Town Bar. Please go pick him up.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line and for a second he swore that Marlena would tell him no. But then her voice, still sleepy, whispered, “I'll get him and bring him home.”

Yes, home. To Gabriel's home at ACRO, not Dev's. “Please. And I don't want to hear any more about it.”

That was so far from the truth that Dev could barely get the words out.

“Why do I fucking care about this?” he asked the ceiling after he'd hung up, but no answer came.

H
EADS TURNED
when she walked into the bar in the middle of the small Catskill town ACRO was located near, something Marlena was always keenly aware of whenever she entered a room. The irony of the situation never failed to both amuse and sadden her.

She was gorgeous—yes. She could both see and agree to that as impartially as someone who looked at a work of art and declared it perfection. But it didn't matter what she looked like outside because she knew the reality of her own situation—few others did, and to tell them would mean exposing herself to pity. So she took the glances and the come-ons with a grain of salt and tried to tell herself that many great people had lived great lives without being loved.

She was never going to be truly happy, and instead tried to content herself in making others that way. Like Devlin. And now a very drunken and upset Gabe.

Gabe, who was currently circled by three large, non-ACRO biker types who would have no shot against the young man. And that's just what Gabe was after tonight—he wanted to lash out, to hurt someone.

He was beautiful—handsome, masculine—but there was something about him that simply shone. Marlena could see the attraction right away.

When she stepped directly in front of him, his eyes locked on hers, and his hand grabbed her shoulder, as if he meant to throw her out of the way.

“Listen to me—if you hurt me, Dev will absolutely kill you on sight,” she told him, keeping her voice low. He settled down immediately at the mention of Dev, and yes, something was there. The connection had tugged at her when she'd first come across Devlin refusing to read Gabriel's file the other day, more strongly when he'd spoken of losing his instincts this morning.

She turned and nodded to the men Gabe had been ready to fight. They were used to Marlena's presence, and out of respect for her—and because the bartender had his own brand of justice out, a well-worn metal bat—they backed off into the crowd.

She moved Gabe toward the bar, where she ordered two waters. “You know, there's a bar on base.”

“The guy who brought me here told me this was the kind of crowd I would be comfortable in. I told him I didn't want to be around anyone from ACRO right now.”

“Dev sent me here to get you.”

“Why the fuck would he do that? Dev hates me,” Gabe muttered.

“The problem is that he doesn't.”

“Yeah, because I was sent to him like a fucking sex gift from some man named Oz.” He studied her reaction, and as much as she tried not to have one, he saw the surprise. “Do you know what that's like? To be attracted to someone who's only attracted to you because of some fucking afterlife manipulation?”

“Yes.”

He snorted drunkenly “Yeah, that's what they all fucking say. I didn't think you'd be condescending, but hell, I've been wrong before. And fuck it—you and Dev have something going on, I don't give a shit what Creed says.”

She grabbed his arm and held it roughly—stupid to do to an excedo, probably, but she'd learned a long time ago that they were actually more conscious of not hurting anyone than were mere mortals. “My stepsister cursed me,” she told him, her voice low enough that he had to lean in to hear her above the noise in the bar. “No man will ever love me, but I'll love any man I sleep with. I'll always be alone. I'm no threat to you and Devlin.”