The child's innocent question caused crimson to creep over Jamie's face. Not embarra.s.sment. Fury. Damian met her enraged look with a level one.

"I'm not cut out to be a den mother," Jamie shot back.

Sandra, Marie's mother, stared in amazement. "Jamie, I don't understand. Without you his line dies. You're very privileged because only you can carry his heir."

"There's always adoption. Lots of unwanted wolves around, I'm sure." Jamie pushed off her chair. "I need to get more refreshments."

The little group fell silent as she banged the door behind her. Armand shot Damian a bemused look. "It's the highest honor for a female to bear the young of a powerful Alpha."

Damian suspected Jamie would rather tie his private parts up in a nice, neat knot than partic.i.p.ate in said honor. "It's complicated."

"Good luck, sire." Armand's gaze held a measure of respect. "I sense this is a difficult mating, but it may be a sign. Perhaps your mate possesses powers the Draicon left behind and this is why you must become one with her. Our Alpha recently said odd things are happening. The coming together of the one again as was foretold. The halves made whole, and the Draicon regaining strength to defeat the enemy."

Tension made his jaw rigid as rock. "My people will fight to the end, to our last breath. And I will die before I let another Morph take one of my pack."

"It's not your fight alone. We must learn to fight as one pack, and defeat the evil walking among us," Armand insisted.

Armand studied Archimedes wending about his daughter's ankles, meowing loudly as if begging for attention. After Damian told him how it was Renee's pet, the man gave him a speculative look.

"Marie has always longed for a cat. If she doesn't mind, can we take this one with us since he was Renee's pet? You still have another cat."

Damian frowned. "Two? We don't have two cats here."

"Then what do you call that?" Armand pointed at the tangle of bushes in the garden.

Dread filled him as Damian stared at the second black cat silently regarding him. Same size as Archimedes.

Of course it was just a cat-probably snuck in. And the house had a shield against Morphs. But magick shields weakened the more times a Draicon performed magick. He'd performed powerful magick since arriving. And failed to reinforce the house shield.

The feline in the bushes blinked. Green eyes showed a soulless black.

At Marie's feet, the other black cat arched his back, hissed and then ran off. The cat in the bushes released a chilling yowl and hissed as it darted out of the bushes toward Marie.

Realization slammed into Damian. The real Archimedes had been outside the gate all this time. This one he had taken from Renee's shop, thinking it was Archimedes, was really...

A Morph.

The cat swiped at Marie's bare calves. The little girl screamed in pain. The cat began twisting. Changing.

"Take your family and run. Now," Damian ordered Armand.

The Draicon didn't need an engraved invitation. He whooshed his little girl into his arms, herded his family out, slamming the gate shut behind them.

Damian turned to face the cat. It contorted, twisted, shifting into its original form.

Morph.

Ugly yellowed fangs showed as it hissed; greasy hair hung from its skull in strands. The hunched figure was hideous. Then it shifted again. Human this time.

A female human, with big eyes, and a helpless look.

"Please, don't hurt me," it whimpered loudly.

It glanced upward at the house where Jamie was and smiled.

His emotions vanished as if someone pulled a plug. With a hand wave, Damian dispensed his clothing and shifted into wolf with a snarl. He sprang forward to attack.

As his ma.s.sive jaws opened to rip apart the Morph, he prayed Jamie wouldn't witness this.

What an exhausting way to turn twenty-one.

First the draining emotions of Renee's burial. Then finding out she was destined to bear Damian's children.

"Happy birthday to me," she muttered, shoving a hand through her casual hairstyle. "You get to mother a race of wolves. Don't think so."

Spent, she sagged against the wall. Marie's innocent words bothered the holy h.e.l.l out of her.

Especially coming on the heels of her mother's conversation. Jamie had realized this was a rare opportunity to get to know a Draicon female better. She'd asked questions. Questions about Alpha males and s.e.x.

Sandra had smiled a little and told her.

Male Draicon were always tender and considerate of their mates, but they were dominating and highly aggressive. It drove them crazy to smell their female's arousal.

"And if he's coming off a fight, where his testosterone is up, he'll instinctively turn all that male aggression toward s.e.xual release." Sandra had said this with a small, secret smile.

The image of Damian, jacked up and hot, did weird things to her body. Jamie felt herself grow soft, wet and wanting. It was biology. Sure. She wanted s.e.x, just s.e.x with Damian, a big, domineering Draicon who wanted her. A wickedly handsome Draicon. Wanted his big maleness and all those hard muscles covering her, thrusting inside her until he'd given her enough o.r.g.a.s.ms to light up all of New Orleans.

Made perfect sense. Biologically speaking. Now if she could just get her mind to tell her body to get with the program and remind it Damian was a dangerous killer who would destroy anyone who got in his way...

A woman's cry of distress derailed her thoughts.

Jamie scurried for the window. She looked down and saw Damian change into a wolf. Oh G.o.d, was that Renee's daughter-in-law there with him?

Damian charged, relentless as a locomotive. His powerful jaws opened, snapped and tore flesh off the woman's leg. Blood splashed over the redbrick walls. The woman's mouth opened in a silent scream.

The Draicon gave no mercy. He went for her throat.

Jamie ran downstairs, her short heels clattering on the wood steps. She flung open the door, shouting for him to stop.

Just as she hit the courtyard, the wolf's jaws locked around the woman's heart. Jamie skidded to a halt, panicking as the wolf bit down.

Her heart thudded a crazy beat as instinct screamed to run. Something shimmered inside her, humming with power. Riding it beneath was a quiet sense of calm, as if this were good.

Good? Damian just killed a woman, a woman, oh G.o.d, and...

The woman dissolved into a pile of gray ash. No human woman. Damian had killed a Morph. Just like the crayfish vendor and Paul.

Dumbstruck, she watched the nasty acid burns on the wolf's muzzle slowly scab over. Then it seemed turned toward her. It sniffed the air, jacked up from its powerful kill.

The wolf advanced. It was ma.s.sive, muscled, gray with black bands about the muzzle. Alpha markings. Jamie shrank back against the wall. This was Damian, the wolf who ripped her brother to pieces.

In an eyeblink, he shifted into human form. Cruel l.u.s.t hardened his face. She remembered Sandra's warning about all that male aggressiveness.

Naked, he stalked toward her with an intent look. Her shocked gaze fell downward, caught a glimpse of the steely erection thrusting from his groin. Marie's sweet voice echoed in her mind.

He can only make babies with you.

She was integral to his survival. And he would ensure his line went on, whether she wanted to partic.i.p.ate or not.

Reasoning with him might help. But spying the fierce desire darkening his eyes and seeing the tensile strength in his rippling muscles, she knew the truth. She was much shorter, much weaker than the powerful Draicon.

It was hopeless. He wanted her now. And he'd have her.

Aggression poured through Damian. Having vanquished the enemy threatening his mate, he only wanted to rip off Jamie's clothing, push her flat on her back and spread her legs. Thrust deep inside her softness, filling her with his seed. Claim what she'd withheld. His right. His draicara. The mating instinct screamed. Enough stalling. This was his right. Mine, all mine.

Jamie made a small noise. "Please," she whispered. "Don't."

One word. Damian ground to a halt. His body shuddered with the effort to control himself. With all his strength, he roped in the raging l.u.s.t.

She bit down on her plump lower lip. Her full, rosy mouth reminded him of the softness yielding against the hard press of his own. He wanted to take her mouth, stroke his tongue inside her...Damian looked away from the temptation. He inhaled.

Terror glanced off Jamie in huge, spiking waves. Horror darkened her large, gray eyes. Oh mon Dieu, she'd seen. Watched him tear the Morph's heart out.

Damian forced his hands to hang limp at his sides. In her eyes, he saw a reflection of himself, ugly and stained with violence.

"I wish you hadn't seen that."

"It...that...was a Morph you attacked...killed..." Her voice faltered, as if seeing the blood splatter.

"Jamie, chere, I won't hurt you. Stop looking at me like that," he said quietly.

"What you did...to that...thing..."

"I did it to protect you. It's my nature."

"Your nature. You mean, wolf. Wolves are ruled by instinct." Her gaze fell to his erection. She wrapped her arms about herself, her gray eyes huge. "You would force me to get what you want. That's what your people do. You take what you want and the h.e.l.l with all else. You're after me to mate, so what's stopping you?"

He felt as if sandpaper scratched his insides raw. d.a.m.n, the way she looked at him, as if he were some two-headed Gorgon. He softened his voice, hoping to rea.s.sure her.

"Don't be afraid of me. I would never force you."

"But you're a wolf-you mate, you want to breed."

"For you to become pregnant, we have to achieve a mating lock first. Become equals, exchanging emotions and absorbing each other's powers and magick. It's mutual pleasure, not force that brings us together as one, Jamie."

He had to convince her he wasn't a threat. What would help? The fear shone in her eyes like lights reflecting on gla.s.s.

He never humbled himself before another. He was Alpha, powerful, dominating, in control. But this was Jamie, who needed rea.s.surance. Rough brick sc.r.a.ped his bare knees as he sank down, facing Jamie in the least threatening position he knew.

"Look at me, Jamie. I won't hurt you, or ever force you. I want you so badly I feel like I'm being eaten up inside, but I won't do it. This mating drive, I can't control the wanting, the needing. But I can control myself. I'm a Draicon, yes, but everything in my blood and bones is shouting at me to protect you, not violate you. It's what males of my race do. We cherish and honor our females. We never degrade them."

A heartbeat of silence pa.s.sed.

"Honor females? Never...degrade them?"

He put a hand over his heart. "To my last breath, I would keep you from all harm. I would die for you before allowing anyone to hurt or humiliate you."

Jamie took a step forward. The fear evaporated from her expression, replaced by wondering awe. "I wish human men were the same. Draicon males could teach them something about gentleness. I wish every man was the same."

They stared at each other across the courtyard in an odd moment of communion. In a flash he saw her barriers drop. It was if he faced her in his physical nakedness and she bared herself inwardly to him.

Given access at last, he merged into her thoughts.

What he saw there made his blood freeze.

Sobbing screams, the pleas, please stop, don't do this, please don't...images of a large man, hands big as whole hams, a knife gleaming in the light raised to strike...

Damian pulled out, shocked and horrified.

What the h.e.l.l had happened to her?

Immediately he scrambled to his feet, driven by the need to comfort her and banish the thoughts hemorrhaging from her. The moment of unity snapped like a cracking branch. Jamie blinked. She shook her head, a.s.suming her usual mask of indifference.

"Okay, then. What now? It's not Mardi Gras yet. Put some pants on. We need to hit the Lafitte Bar tonight and you'll have every woman in the place staring at me in envy."

He angled a smile. But she didn't fool him, because he caught the slight quiver in her voice. Damian waved a hand and clothed himself. Jamie, brave, spitfire Jamie. Could probably face a horde of Morphs and ask them to please step aside, they were blocking her d.a.m.n sidewalk.

His smile faded as he realized the truth. Beneath the bravado and tough talk, Jamie was running scared. She wasn't afraid of him.

She was terrified of something else.

Her past.

Chapter 8.

J amie combed through her bureau. She clawed through the hateful, waist-high cotton briefs, tossing a handful into the suitcase. Archimedes, the real Archimedes, had gone home with his new owners, Renee's family. Damian did not want to take any more chances with shape-shifting cats who might be Morphs.

Laptop, secure in her backpack. Toothpaste, toothbrush, facial soap...cosmetics? Didn't wear any.

Her fingers paused on the two lacy thongs lying at the drawer's bottom. Jamie fished them out, dangling them from her fingers. How she hated wearing embarra.s.sing granny panties. She stroked the soft silk, staring at the electric blue and green colors. Not for her. Not with her deformity. Jamie shrugged, tossed them into her luggage.