With a furious snarl, Roman stalked away. "I'll destroy Eduard. He should have died when my father died, the sorry motherf.u.c.ker. If he dies before it happens, is she safe?"

His gut knotted as the Countess shook her head. "No, Roman. She is Blood Prize. Until she is mated, Julianna Capiet is not safe."

Chapter Six.

Deep within the Smoky Mountains, the sanctuary of Wolf-clan Montgomery hid. The sanctuary was built within the remains of an old stone church. Long since fallen to the ages, the only things that had stood when Roman's father found it were the stone stairwell and the arched doorway. Roman's father had been buried here, along with his brother and many of their fallen dead.

The sanctuary was made of stone, built around the repaired stone of the steps and door, a great monolith of stone that towered to the sky. Hidden pa.s.sageways gave the inhabitants secret ways to escape, should that need arise. And the stone protected against deadly fire far better than wood.

As he crossed through the doorway, Roman felt the presence of Wolfclan around him. Jenner had called them in. A cruel smile curved Roman's mouth. Good. If a vampire dared to try to take her from him, they'd have quite a shock waiting them, If they could find them.

Julianna was pacing by the stone fireplace at the northern end of the great room, rubbing her arms, her eyes cool and blank. When she sensed him, she spun around and stalked up to him, drilling her finger into his chest as she snapped, "Bad enough you have to kidnap me. But why in the h.e.l.l was I brought out here in the middle of nowhere? There's no f.u.c.king TV, there's no computer... d.a.m.n it, I can't even find some paper and a pencil."

"Bored, are you?" Roman drawled, flicking Jenner and Steven a telling glance. Jenner nodded, while Steven stood by the window, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared at them with searching eyes. "Go on, Steve."

Steven's eyes moved to Julianna's face, then to the darkness outside where cousins, friends, and other werewolves prowled the grounds. His lashes lowered over his eyes, and the younger Montgomery sighed, running a hand through his hair before he finally looked at Jenner with a forced smile. "I'm not going into hiding, big guy. Hope you know that," he drawled, sauntering out the door.

Julianna jumped as the door closed behind Jenner and Steven and the sound of a long, eerie howl filled the night air. Roman smiled slightly. Steven loved a fight. Even though they didn't know what was coming, the wolves sensed the tension in the air.

"What's going on?" Julianna demanded. Her soft blue eyes hardened to cold diamonds as she stomped away. "There was something in the air at your house, or wherever in the h.e.l.l that was, something that scared you. And I don't think you scare easily. But it wasn't my father, wasn't any of his men. I would have recognized them."

Roman stared at her face with intense eyes, the words of the Countess echoing through his mind. He'd be d.a.m.ned if he let anybody harm her. Let anybody take her. She was his-had been from the first moment he had seen her painting in the street, smiling as a child looked up at her with delight as she captured his image on paper. His.

It was said that when a werewolf found his mate, part of him recognized it from the beginning. She was his. The certainty went gut-deep.

"I saw you in the street, painting a little boy," he murmured, moving up to her, catching her stiff shoulders in his hands, and drawing her back against him. "You wore a blue shirt with beads that sparkled in the sun, and it left your back bare. I watched as you smiled at that little boy, watched as you painted him for his parents, and I wanted you. I haven't wanted a woman like I want you in ages. No, in forever. I've never wanted a woman the way I want you."

Her breath caught in her chest as she lifted her head, tipping it back so she stared at him. He watched as emotion flooded her eyes, and she melted.

"Then, at the ball, I was there, I saw you, saw the sadness in your eyes. I wanted to take you away from there, make you smile, make you sigh... then scream out my name as I f.u.c.ked you late into the night." Lowering his head, he skimmed his lips over her cheek. "When Eduard announced you to the ball, it felt like somebody had driven a knife in my gut. How could something so lovely, so pure, have come from a b.a.s.t.a.r.d like him?"

He kissed her, licking at the seam of her lips, pushing his tongue inside her mouth as he cradled the back of her head in his hand. Pulling back just a breath, he admitted, "Part of me knew then what I was going to do. If you hadn't offered to free Steve, I would have taken you that night, away from your home. I had to have you, Julianna. And I'm going to... right now."

Breath left her in a shaky rush as he gripped the front of her tank top and tore it straight down the middle, brushing the sc.r.a.ps away before he did the same to the lace and silk of her bra. Slanting his mouth across hers, he locked her against him, one hand fisted in her hair, the other a steel bar at her waist.

Now... before anybody had a chance to get to them, he would take her, claim her. And before she realized somebody was coming. He had a bad feeling that if she knew what was coming, she'd try to outrun it, try to flee. And he'd be d.a.m.ned if he'd let her leave him.

Julianna felt her heart melt within her chest as Roman kept murmuring to her, his voice so low, so rough, so primal. As her shirt and then her bra fell to the floor in shreds, a fist of desire hit her in the gut, robbing her of her breath and all logic. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s crushed into his chest, her nipples tight, aching points of heated agony.

The cooler silk of his mouth closed over one nipple, his tongue a rough contrast to his lips as he suckled lightly, a soothing sensation-for a moment. But then hot little darts of agonized pleasure started rippling through her. Arching against him, she buried her fingers in the thick silk of his golden hair as he lifted her up, holding her feet off the ground as he straightened, his mouth still feasting avidly at her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, moving from one to the other, leaving the wet gleaming tip to throb hungrily for more.

One big, hard hand left her waist, guiding one leg around his waist, and she lifted the other, hooking her ankles at the base of his spine, shuddering as it opened her folds and he started to rock against her, forcing the blue denim material between her thighs to drag tauntingly across her c.l.i.t. His hands cupped her a.s.s, the fingers of one hand digging into the seam, pushing against the crevice between the cheeks of her bottom.

Slowly he lowered her down, kissing a path along her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, up her collarbone, until he could sc.r.a.pe his sharp teeth over her neck. Julianna sobbed out his name, not even recognizing that hoa.r.s.e, needy voice as her own. She hadn't ever felt anything like this, this gut-twisting ravenous need for him. Her eyes opened to see his, those pale green orbs staring into hers, waiting for her to look at him. Against her mouth, he growled, "You're the sweetest thing I've ever held in my life. I don't think I'll ever get enough of you."

His moves made her cream, until he was steadily pressing against the tight pucker of her a.s.s. She exploded against him, her eyes wide with shock, bright pin-wheels of color exploding before her as she came in one hard convulsion after another.

His mouth nuzzled against her tenderly, his tongue stroking soothingly against her c.l.i.t as the climax tore through her. Then Roman was gone, and she was lying cold and shivering against the floor, her body still wracked with harsh shudders.

Her lashes opened, and through the fringe of them, she saw the gleaming gold of his body as he tore away his shirt, kicking off his boots. The thick, hard bulge of his c.o.c.k tented the tight denim of his jeans, and he reached for the b.u.t.tons at his fly with a grimace, working them loose as he lifted his eyes to meet her gaze.

She shivered at the look there, that bald, blatant hunger as tangible as a caress. Seconds later, he had shucked the jeans and now he lay down, covering her body with his, his hands spreading her thighs wide. Against her p.u.s.s.y, she felt the steely hard length of his c.o.c.k. Her lashes fluttered closed as she felt him probing against her.

"No. Don't close your eyes," he muttered, the command in his voice driving through the fog of sheer hunger that clouded her brain.

Dragging open her lashes, she stared up at him as he pushed against her, his s.e.x pulsing against her tissues as he breached the first tight inches of her p.u.s.s.y. "Yeah," he growled. "That's it. Look at me while I take you, make you mine. Watch me..."

His voice trailed off as she arched against him with a hungry whimper, her hands digging into the muscles of his back, trying to draw him deeper. "Holy h.e.l.l, you are tight," he rasped, pulling out slightly and working his length back inside. "Tight and soft, like wet satin."

Julianna cried out then, as he plunged deeper, pulling back, driving back inside her, a tense, strained look on his face. Hot, burning pain tore through her as he drove relentlessly deeper, his eyes landing on her face, first with blind confusion and then with a soft look of wonder that had her flushing even as she tried to pull away.

"You're a virgin," he whispered, pressing his lips gently against her mouth.

Her only answer was a whimper as he pulled out, his c.o.c.k rasping against swollen, oversensitized tissues. She flinched as he started to stroke her c.l.i.t, and then she moaned, rocking her hips hungrily to seek out those feather-light strokes. Her nails raked his back as she threw back her head and screamed as he petted her into o.r.g.a.s.m, half of his thick length spearing into her p.u.s.s.y.

Her lids drooped and she sighed out blissfully. Her entire body felt warmed from the inside out, and she sprawled boneless on the floor as his hands shifted her body, draping her thighs across his, one big hand cupping her hip and his chest coming down to crush her b.r.e.a.s.t.s against him.

His mouth covered hers, and she sighed as he kissed her gently, his tongue stroking against hers... and then he bit her, a sharp sudden pain. Her eyes flew open in shock as he used that tiny second to drive completely inside, lodging his length within her, kissing away the tears that streaked out of her eyes as he murmured soothingly to her.

Roman's entire body ached under the control he had lashed it under. Nothing had ever felt this good, the tight, wet silk of her virgin p.u.s.s.y rippling around him as he cuddled her against him, soothing away the tension from her body, kissing away the salty tears that dampened her face. As her body relaxed against his, he started to rock against her-not thrusting, just circling his hips in the cradle of her thighs, rubbing against the sensitive bud of her c.l.i.t, one hand cupping the curve of her breast, his other hand stroking the satin skin of her a.s.s.

As she started to move in his arms, he rose up, bracing his weight on his hands as he stared down into her flushed face, watching as her eyes widened while he stroked in and out of the gloving silk of her s.e.x, his c.o.c.k gleaming from her juices.

The scent of her hunger was heavy in the air, the perfume of hungry woman, the musk of vampire, and that nameless, sweet scent that was purely her flooding his head, tightening his gut as he started to shaft her harder.

Her tissues clenched around his c.o.c.k, and he growled hungrily, shifting to cup her head in his hands, arching her face up to his. Taking her mouth greedily, he drove his tongue inside the honeyed well, drinking her down as she clenched around his d.i.c.k and screamed into his mouth.

Sweat gleamed along their bodies as Roman fought back the demons inside him that whispered, Harder, harder... now . . . now ... He sank his teeth into the curve of one sleek shoulder, marking her as he took her body higher and higher. "Again," he whispered against her flesh. "Come again. Let me feel it."

Her damp hair clung to her face as she sobbed, "I can't." Her hands fell limply to her sides, her face turning so she could press one cheek against the stone floor. Against his chest, he felt the slamming of her heart, and soft flutters in her p.u.s.s.y still caressed his c.o.c.k.

"Yes, you can," he purred, catching her knee and bringing it up over his hip, sliding his fingers down the sweat-slickened skin of her thigh, squeezing the supple curve of her a.s.s before stroking his fingers down the crevice between, pressing his fingers against the sensitive skin between her p.u.s.s.y and the cleft of her b.u.t.tocks. She clenched around him, a startled wail falling from her lips.

A fiery hot-cold sensation built at the base of his spine when she contracted around him again, that sensuous little tremor of her p.u.s.s.y gripping his c.o.c.k leaving him swearing and sucking air into his lungs. "Come for me, Julie," he rasped.

He came into her, harder, swifter, as she climaxed a fourth and final time around him, a long, slow moan shimmering out of her.

Roman howled out her name and flooded her, hot jets of s.e.m.e.n pulsing out of him, flooding the receptive depths of her s.e.x.

It lasted forever-and no time at all, holding him in a viselike grip as he emptied himself inside her and slowly came down atop her body with a weary, replete sigh.

She stroked her fingers up his arms, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him against her, and Roman felt his heart clench in his chest as she whispered out his name in a soft, awe-filled voice.

"Why in the h.e.l.l were you still a virgin?" he muttered, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that he was her first. She had been untouched, and now she was his.

A soft chuckle escaped her as he rolled them, landing with him on his back against the hard floor, her cuddled against him, the flickering firelight dancing over their skin and warming them. "Do you really think I'd want to sleep with somebody who answered to my father? He'd give out a detailed report, and I'd be watched like a hawk to see if I became pregnant," she said with a shrug. "I'd rather be wanted for me, not for anything that has to do with Eduard."

A niggling little doubt settled in his gut, but he shoved it aside. He had taken her because he wanted her. Protecting her from her father and his men was just a side benefit.

Her head shifted, and he glanced down to see her staring up at him with those wide blue eyes and a smile on her lips. "Besides, until you touched me, I never really felt the need to get naked with somebody," she said cheekily.

He chuckled, pulling her atop him and kissing her quickly. "Soon as I can breathe again, I'll show you how much I appreciate that," he told her.

From all around them, a deep echoing voice, ripe with amus.e.m.e.nt, said, "Well, I'd really prefer you two waited until I've had a word with you."

Julianna rolled off Roman, her eyes wide, flashing with fire, anger brewing in her gut as she recognized that voice. Roman's hands pulled her to him, and he ducked his head, whispering in her ear, "I'll take care of you, Julie."

Her heart fluttered at the sound of her name, shortened, oddly sweet, on his tongue. But she swallowed and shook her head, fear crowding her mind as she slowly stood up. "I fight my own battles," she said thickly. She stared all around them, searching for the deadly man her father had sent after her. Roman came to his feet behind her, a quick, easy motion she saw from the corner of her eye as she spun in a slow circle.

Roman's hands cupped her shoulders as he slid his shirt over them, the worn white cotton b.u.t.ton-down dwarfing her, covering her from neck to knee. His lips brushed her cheek and he whispered, "You're mine. If you haven't realized it by now, here's your wake-up call. You're mine, and I take care of what is mine."

Heat and pleasure, arrogance and awe all warred within her at his words. But she shoved it aside. Now wasn't the time.

"May I enter, An Ri Mac Tire?"

Wolf king. The Gaelic rolled from Mikhail's voice, the echoes of Russia still in his voice. Julianna shook her head, her hands sliding back to grip Roman's still-naked thighs, the metallic taste of fear heavy in her voice. "No," she whispered. "Don't let him in. He's dangerous."

Roman chuckled, hugging her against him, before he kissed her temple and stepped away, flicking her a sly glance. "Julie-sweet, so am I," he replied. Then he lifted his eyes to the ceiling and called out, "You, alone, may enter, vampire. No other Capiet is welcome within my walls."

The mist settled in front of them, solidifying until her father's second stood before them, the fire seeming to set his deep red hair aflame. Mikhail's characteristic smirk danced on his mouth as he studied them for a long moment in silence. Then he shrugged. "I am not of Capiet," he said shortly, his eyes dark with secrets. "Nor have I ever been, Julianna."

His eyes moved to the windows, staring out to the south. "Men of your father's come, youngling. But I do believe they will find themselves robbed of their prize," he mused, pacing over to the windows, reaching out his hand, and resting his palm on the window.

"What prize?" she asked sourly. "I'm n.o.body's prize."

Mikhail's eyes rested briefly on her face, and something hot and tense moved in her belly as he slid his pale blue eyes to Roman. "I beg to differ, Julianna. Your father declared you Blood Prize just this morn. Apparently, he felt I was the one most likely to successfully tear you from Roman Montgomery, and he told me hours before he told the others."

Her knees buckled as the gravity of his words. .h.i.t home. "He wouldn't," she said thickly, remembered horror stories of women declared Blood Prize racing through her mind. She tore away from Roman, grabbing a flaming torch from the wall and brandishing it toward Mikhail, not seeing the sympathy in his eyes. "He wouldn't!"

Roman's heart broke at the pain and shock in Julianna's voice. Part of her was still a small child waiting for her father's love, he realized, watching as tears rolled down her cheeks.

She might have been blind to the sympathy in the other vampire's gaze, but Roman wasn't. "Many protectors," he murmured, recalling the Countess's words. Then he moved to Julianna and gently took the torch from her hand, returning it to the sconce on the wall before he folded her in his arms. "Julie, look at me."

Her eyes were still locked fearfully on Mikhail's face, and her body shuddered with deep, wracking tremors as he stroked his hand down her back. "Look at me, pet," he ordered, cupping her face in his hand and forcing her eyes to his. "He is no harm to you. Look at him."

She shrieked out, "No harm? He is my father's f.u.c.king second. And he's twice as dangerous as my father ever was."

Yes, Roman had sensed that already. "Exactly. So if he had wanted to force you, he could have done it in New Orleans, whether your father wanted it or not. Isn't that right?"

Mikhail's shoulders moved in a restless shrug. "Rape has never appealed to me, Julianna," he said levelly. "Neither have many of the things your father has done of late. The Ancients are not happy with him." The fire danced eerily on his face as he added softly, "I should know. I've been watching him since before you were born."

Julianna stilled, her eyes narrowing on Mikhail's aquiline face. "Watching him?" she repeated, her voice cold and flat.

"Yes. Watching him," he repeated, an amused smile curving up his lips.

The answer was there, in his eyes, and he wasn't even bothering to hide it. "You fought a hundred battles to become his second. It's obvious you don't like him, but why go to so much trouble to spy on him?" she demanded, her voice thick with suspicion.

Mikhail chuckled. "There's an old proverb. Keep your friends close-and your enemies closer," he said, his voice dry. "Eduard Capiet has done many things the Ancients do not care for-many things that risk our way of life-but he has yet to break our laws. He skirts that edge very well. I was sent to watch him. If the time came that he needed to be dispatched, yet he continued to adhere to the letter of the law, then I could challenge him. And fighting those whelps who surrounded him was little trouble. I've been battling better men than that for longer than your father has been alive."

"You're not that old," she scoffed, her lip curling.

His eyes started to glow, a smile dancing on his lips. "Are you so certain, Daughter of the Blood?"

His voice echoed eerily through the room as he moved closer, bending down until his eyes were on level with hers. "I'm very good at what I do. I can hide in plain sight, and my enemies never know I am there until I have already struck and withdrawn. Even you, who looked at me with searching, unsure eyes, never knew I was there not to take your father's place, but to protect his people. And you are the one person from Capiet I thought sure would figure me out."

"Deceit isn't something she is familiar with," Roman said from behind her. "She's very un-vampire-like."

Julianna sent him a narrow glance.

Roman gave her a roguish grin. "It's a compliment, sweet," he said, dropping one lid in a quick wink.

Julianna turned away from him, rolling her eyes as she stared back at Mikhail. "So I don't need to worry about running from you? Just the rest of his men?" she asked, rubbing her hands down her chilled arms as she scanned the room. Once she spotted her clothes, she grabbed them, turning her back to the men as she slid into her jeans, tying Roman's shirt into a knot at her waist when she saw the shreds of her shirt.

"You don't need to run at all," Roman said from across the room, folding his arms across his chest.

The firelight flickered off the long, lean lines of his nude body, distracting her for a long moment as she stared at him, her mouth going dry. "Will you get dressed?" she asked, her voice cracking at the end.

Roman's lips curved into that slow, arrogant smile of his, but he turned away, grabbing his jeans and tugging them negligently, c.o.c.king a brow at her as he finished the b.u.t.tons on his jeans. "Better, sweet?" he asked.

She swallowed, running her tongue over her dry lips, ignoring his question as she concentrated on what he had said just moments ago. In a sarcastic voice, she said, "So I should just wait here for my daddy's men to come and fight over me?"

Mikhail, wisely, was silent, withdrawing into the shadows across the room. Roman didn't even spare him a glance as he moved closer to her. "They may well come, but there's nothing left for them to fight over. You've already been claimed, Julie," he said softly.

Heat flared in her belly at the look in his eyes, but in her head she heard something else. Already claimed. The knowledge hit her like a fist, exploding through her head as she stared at him, her throat getting tight, the knot growing there almost painful.

In a rough whisper, she said, "You knew." She blinked away tears as she tried to reconcile the fact that he hadn't been making love to her. He had been protecting her. "You knew!"

One brow rose over his unreadable sea green eyes and he nodded, a slow single move of his head. "Yes. A lady from the Ancients was waiting for me at my home," he said. "I knew. But all that did was change the time table, Julie. I had every intention of taking you-make no mistake about that."

One hot tear spilled out. "I don't like the idea of being a mercy-f.u.c.k," she snarled, her mouth trembling.

She never saw him move. But he was there in her face, his hands clasping tight over her arms, lifting her up until she was on her toes, arched up against him as he growled, "Don't. That was never what it was about. I wanted you. I'll want you until my heart stops beating. If I hadn't wanted you, I wouldn't have f.u.c.ked you, no matter what the reason. I would have found a way to protect you without involving my d.i.c.k in the issue."

"But that's why it happened now," she hissed, trying to jerk back from him. "You had to f.u.c.k me now to protect me."

"You're my woman, d.a.m.n it. I would have f.u.c.ked you yesterday if my idiot brother and Jenner hadn't interrupted." His mouth slanted across hers, and she shoved at him for a long moment as his tongue probed for entrance to her mouth. Need tore into her with greedy hands, blinding her to everything but the taste and touch of his mouth. His hands delved into her hair, holding her still and steady for the rough invasion of his mouth. Roman's mouth moved in a line of hot, hungry little bites from her mouth to her ear, where he caught the plump little lobe in his mouth and bit it roughly before he rasped, "My woman. And you're d.a.m.ned right I'll protect you. But I wanted you. That is the bottom line."

Her heart broke in her chest. The bottom line... no. The bottom line for her was that she had slept with him because somehow, in the handful of hours they had known each other, she had fallen in love with him. h.e.l.l, she had been born in love with him, she thought. It just took meeting him for the love to explode throughout her being. That was the bottom line. And the fact that he hadn't just had her on his mind when he f.u.c.ked her.

Another tear trickled down her cheek as she tried to get her rampant emotions in check. In his arms, she stood still, coldness radiating through her even though his hands, hot and hungry, ran over her, down her back, over her hips.

As a watery sigh escaped her lips, he lifted his head from her neck, staring down at her face. Maybe the stillness of her body got through to him. Maybe he heard the tears that had thickened in her throat.