His eyes stared down at her, his hands softening, stroking soothingly down her arms, rubbing her back in soft, slow circles. Julianna pushed at his chest, shoving free of his arms as she stumbled away, her body feeling bruised and battered.

"The bottom line is... I wanted you. You were the only thing in my mind when you were touching me," she said hollowly. "But I wasn't the only thing in yours."

She turned away and walked off on unsteady legs.

Roman's jaw was still dropped as she reached out and closed her hand over the door. He lunged for her and closed the door shut with a snap while she was trying to pull it open.

Something cold slammed against his mind. They were here. The men of Capiet had arrived to try to claim the blood daughter of Eduard Capiet. He hadn't given them enough credit-they had found them fast.

They wanted her very badly. He could sense their anger, their hunger in the air.

A snarl tore through him even as the alien magick of vampire reached out, trying to call to Julianna.

Mikhail grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her body in a bear hug as he spun her away from the door, kicking it closed with the heel of his boot. "This lover's quarrel will have to wait, Julianna," Mikhail said, lifting his eyes to stare at Roman over her shoulder.

"Let me go," she said faintly, pushing at his arms. "I just want to get out of here."

"And go out there, having them fight tooth and nail to be the first one to shove you to the ground and rape you?" Mikhail snapped, tightening his arms around her as she started to struggle. Finally, he just lifted her feet off the floor and let her fight ineffectually in his arms with her feet dangling in the air. "Roman has claimed you, yes, but he is werewolf, not vampire. He will have to convince them of his claim on you. He may have to fight for it. Until they acknowledge it, if you step outside this building, you are fair game to them."

Roman's eyes locked on her pale, tear-streaked face, his gut tied in knots, his heart bleeding within his chest. There hadn't been any other way, d.a.m.n it! Mikhail had gotten here on the heels of their arrival, and already, the vampires of Capiet had stormed his grounds. He hadn't had time to talk to her, to convince her before he made love to her.

Women! he thought, infuriated, as he spun away from the sight of Julianna crumpling against Mikhail in defeat.

The sounds of battle-hisses, howls, and screams-became apparent. The wolves of Wolfclan Montgomery had descended on Capiet. In waves, the scent of blood came floating to him even through the closed windows and bolted door.

His wolves were out there, fighting the men who had come to try to take his woman, and they didn't even know why.

A sour smile curved his mouth. To give him time to claim a woman who may well walk away when she was safe. h.e.l.l, she would walk away now if the vampire holding her would just let her go.

Looking at Julianna, he said, voice dull, "Stay inside, Julie. You're safe here."

Chapter Seven.

The odd ring to his voice resounded through her mind as she watched him walk outside, slamming the ma.s.sive oak door behind him. The windows rattled their casings, and outside, she heard a wave of voices raising in eerie howl.

"He loves you," Mikhail murmured against her temple, his hands slowly loosening. "What was he supposed to do, talk you into letting him make love to you before Capiet arrived?"

"He wasn't making love to me," she said thickly, moving away from Mikhail as his hands fell aside. "He was protecting me."

"You're his. Why shouldn't he?" Mikhail replied easily, shrugging one shoulder as he studied her.

"I'm not his," she shouted, spinning away from him, fisting her hands and pressing them against her temples. Pain and indecision wavered inside her belly.

"Aren't you?"

She stood there, shaking, as she slowly turned to face Mikhail, his voice coming from just over her shoulder. His pale blue eyes gleamed at her from the shadows the dancing firelight cast upon his face.

"I was here, watching from without as he took you." A wicked smile lit his face, and he murmured, "And that was the most pleasure I've had in quite some time. But I saw a man claiming a woman, making love to her. And she reveled in it. Accepted it. Wanted it. That was lovemaking I saw, Julianna."

Her eyes burned from her tears as she tried to blink them away.

Mikhail's eyes watched her closely as he asked, "Wasn't it? You claiming him as surely as he claimed you? Wouldn't you fight anything and anyone that tried to take him away from you?"

Her voice shook as she whispered, "Yes." Her eyes moved to the window, and she felt the tears spill free, running down her face in hot tracks. An enraged shout flooded her ears, followed by a terrific crash that shook the building.

From outside the building, she heard voices raising in fury.

Slowly, she moved to the window, staring outside, wishing her hearing was as acute as her vampire cousins', or the weres who battled outside. The voices were indistinct.

A body went flying across her field of vision, followed by a tremendous cracking sound. "Why are they fighting?" she asked.

"They have only what he says-even though your scent clings to him, they want further proof," Mikhail said, lifting one shoulder in a slow shrug. "You're no small prize."

"I'm not a prize to be won," she said flatly, spinning around and glaring at him.

"That is all you are to them. To him, you're more."

Arching a brow, she said softly, "I get the point, Mikhail." She turned back to the window, staring outside with stark eyes as a pair of men came tumbling to ground just outside the window, a werewolf, his body in midshift, tearing at the vampire that had wrapped himself around the wolf's waist, sinking his teeth into the thick skin of the wolf's furred hide.

They were fighting... over her. Tearing each other apart, over her. On quivering legs, she made her way to the door, reaching out and closing her hand over the ornate scrolled metal of the door handle.

It opened, and she stared out into h.e.l.l.

Blood flew, the sickening thud of bones breaking, and she watched as a shifted werewolf fell upon an injured vampire and tore out his throat, gripping the head of the fallen vamp in his hands and jerking it clear off, beheading him, very messily, but ensuring total death.

"Sweet heaven," she whispered, her eyes wide with terror.

"They would have fought each other like that-over you," Mikhail said, his voice flat, disgust rampant in his voice. "We can do so much, yet we act like animals."

"Roman." Her voice trembled as she murmured his name, staring through the sea of battling men, searching for him.

A shifted werewolf appeared ahead of her, ma.s.sive, his hide a warm, golden brown, gleaming wetly in the faint light as he sank clawed hands into a vampire who lunged at him, catching the smaller man and throwing him aside.

Some instinct deep inside her whispered, That's him.

"Mine!" the wolf snarled, the words booming from him in a deep, possessive shout. "Julianna Capiet is mine. Go back to your master. Get off my lands. Or die."

From behind, she watched as a man snaked out of the woods, his fangs gleaming under the moonlight as he stalked closer to Roman-one of her father's lieutenants, Lucien. Lucien kept to Romans' back as another vampire squared off against him, his glowing eyes never once leaving the furred throat of the wolf king.

He lunged for Roman, and she screamed out his name, watching in disbelief as Roman ducked and rolled, coming up behind Lucien and grabbing him, jerking him back against him with a growl.

Lucien bellowed, his voice echoing through the clearing before the sanctuary as Roman whirled around, brandishing Lucien's captured body as the wolves aligned themselves at Roman's back.

Silence fell across them, touching first one and another and another, until all eyes were on Roman.

"I am Roman, An Ri Mac Tire, wolf king of Wolfclan Montgomery." His voice boomed out across the sea of people, so many bloodied and bruised. Still bodies littered the ground, and she smelled death in the air. "I have claimed Julianna Capiet, my lover, my woman."

His eyes met hers, and her heart stilled as he dropped his voice to a rough whisper, "Owner and keeper of my heart."

In a louder voice, he added, "You can have her over my dead body."

One werewolf from the line at his back stepped forward, throwing his golden-maned head back and howling to the sky, as though echoing his support of the wolf king. Jenner stepped through the throng of people, still in human skin, his jacket missing, the sleeve of one shirt torn at the shoulder, but no other signs of battle on him. He aligned himself at Roman's back as the golden werewolf moved to his side. The remaining wolves threw back their heads-some in wolfman form, others in the form of ma.s.sive timber wolves-and a chorus of long, eerie howls rose from their throats and echoed through the night.

"Julianna Capiet is Blood Prize until she's been mated-and I don't care that you have her scent on you. She wouldn't have f.u.c.ked a dog," Lucian snarled, struggling against the ma.s.sive hands that held him. "We'll find her. We'll f.u.c.k her. Whoever gets her first claims her."

"Roman's already taken care of that."

All eyes turned to her, and she felt blood stain her cheeks as she stood in the arched doorway of the sanctuary. Lifting her chin, she said, "I was claimed. Good and well, not even an hour ago, by Roman Montgomery, An Ri Mac Tire of Wolfclan Montgomery. Not one of you can dispute this, not with me standing before you." She skimmed a glance down her body, a smug smile curving her lips as she added, "Still wearing his scent, wearing his clothes... his seed on my thighs."

Lucien's eyes narrowed and he spat, "You let a dog like him between your legs?"

She arched a brow at him. "Better Roman than you. If he is a dog, At least he is his own dog, and not one of my father's," she drawled back at him, a delicate sneer curving her lips.

Roman's eyes rested on her face, and she smiled, a half-hearted, shaky smile that bloomed as she saw the answer in his.

She stepped forward, thinking of nothing but getting to him.

"No!"

Chapter Eight.

Roman would never forget it, the look in her eyes as she started toward him, then the widening of her eyes, her head tipping up to search for the voice. The scream that tore out of her throat as her father swooped down from the sky and grabbed her, leaping to the roof of the building, holding the struggling form of his daughter in his arms.

"No," Eduard said, shaking his head as he stared out over Wolf-clan Montgomery and the surviving vampires. "I have not fought this long to ensure my Blood House to let my blood daughter go to the arms of a f.u.c.king werewolf!"

Julianna struggled in his arms, sinking her teeth into the hand that had clapped over her mouth. Eduard snarled at her, jerking her out from him and backhanding her before throwing her to the ground. His eyes met Roman's, and Roman held his gaze, aware of the wolves that had sidled off, moving through the woods on silent feet to work around to the back of the building. Jenner stood at his side still, but Steven had disappeared.

"She's mine, Eduard. Ask her. Look at her," Roman snarled. "She's mine, and quite likely pregnant with my baby already. A werewolf is much more fertile than a cold-blooded vampire."

"Then I'll change the b.a.s.t.a.r.d when she whelps it," Eduard said with an evil grin. "Unless he takes after you. Then I'll just throw him into the river, like you do with any mongrel dog."

Julianna lifted up from the ground, her eyes full of hate as she stared at her father. Roman kept his eyes from her as well, although he watched as she pushed to her knees.

He moved slowly through the crowd, leashing his power and calming the wolf, shifting from wolf to man in the span of three steps. "You hurt her, Eduard, and you are dead," Roman said flatly.

"You'd break the law over a useless b.i.t.c.h like her?" Eduard sneered. "She's mine to do with as I choose. My daughter, my House... mine.'"

"Murder is a law-breaker," Roman replied, a chill running through him. She was a tool to him, nothing else. "She is not yours, not even by the old laws. You recognized her within Capiet's House just three days ago. And I've claimed her. She's my mate, my woman. She'll be my bride, G.o.d willing. And she's only useless in your eyes because you couldn't control her."

Julianna had pushed to her feet now, staring at the back of her father's head with disgusted eyes.

Eduard still never acknowledged her as he glared at Roman. "She is mine to control, you f.u.c.king dog. Just like her mother was. Just like some of the men around you-useless."

Roman laughed, studying the eyes of the vampires who stared at Eduard with varying degrees of anger in their faces. "They've fought and bled to do as you ordered, to try to claim your daughter. I don't think they relish being called useless."

"Not one of them succeeded." Eduard dismissed them as he searched the crowd. "Not even that cretin Mikhail. I thought for sure he would have luck tearing your heart from your chest."

"Perhaps if I had wanted to, I would have."

Mikhail stepped out of the sanctuary and rose in the air, floating until he could step out onto the roof of the sanctuary. He smiled coolly at Eduard, his hair dark in the moonlight, his pale eyes colorless and glittering. "I was never the lackey you wanted me to be, Eduard. Tearing Roman's heart from his chest was never part of my agenda. Now yours..."

Roman lunged forward as Mikhail dove for Eduard. Distantly, he could hear his wolves scrambling closer to the sanctuary now, not bothering with silence as they took advantage of one vampire attacking the other.

Roman slashed through the men separating him from the sanctuary and his woman. Many moved out of the way, retreating with eyes downcast. The few who didn't move felt the claws ripping through their bellies, through their unprotected throats, until blood had painted the ground a dark, wet color.

He reached the stairs and lunged, gripping the sill of the window on the second floor. Roman busted the gla.s.s and flipped through, racing to the other side and onto the balcony where he lunged for the roof, catching the edge in his hands and hauling his weight up and over.

Mikhail had taken Eduard down, his hands wrapped brutally around one of Eduard's arms, jerking it with a sickening thud as Eduard continued to struggle. Roman ignored them, moving past them, intent only on getting Julianna.

She stared at him, her eyes gleaming... and then they went dull.

Roman roared as Julianna fell to the ground, blood trickling out of her lips. As she fell, the woman standing behind her was revealed. His entire body trembled with rage as he lunged for Isabeta and backhanded her, knocking the vampire from the building. She fell boneless into the throng of wolves and vampires at the ground.

The knife she had stabbed Julianna with lay on the roof, the pure gleam of it winking at him in the moonlight. Pure silver... he knew the scent, the sight of the deadly metal.

Kneeling beside her, he pulled her slowly into his arms, his throat locked tight as he rolled her over, staring into her dull eyes. A slow smile curved up her lips, and she gasped, "Well, I guess he lost in the end, didn't he?"

"Shhh," Roman murmured, laying his fingers across her lips.

"I didn't become what he wanted-once... that might... have been... enough," she said, her voice harsh, breaking, full of pain. "I wanted you, though. Now that's all I want. And I can't have it."

Her eyes closed, a stillness settling over her body. Roman moved his eyes to the side where Eduard lay broken and battered at Mikhail's feet. "Why?" he growled, his eyes flashing and swirling with rage as he stared at the vampire king.

He laughed, a wet, choked sound. "I'd rather see her dead than with you," he forced out through his mangled mouth.

Roman whispered, "Get ready to die, Eduard." Brushing Julianna's hair out of her face, he touched his fingers to her throat, searching for a pulse he knew wasn't there. Her heart wasn't beating. Isabeta had aimed her stroke well, driving it into Julianna's human heart, killing her.

"You do not have time to bother with Eduard," Mikhail said quietly. He called out into the darkness, and Roman watched as two men whom he had seen standing in the shadows during the battle floated upward, stepping onto the roof, their eyes grim and somber. "My men-not Eduard's," Mikhail clarified. "I've been seeding that house with my people for decades, and he never knew."

The men took guard at Eduard's side-the fallen vampire opened his mouth to hiss at them, but Mikhail said softly, "One word, Eduard, and I'll have them feed you to the wolves. Literally."

Mikhail knelt by Roman, reaching out to stroke Julianna's brow. "There's time left. We will bring her over."

"She's dead," Roman said hoa.r.s.ely. "She had to be bitten before she died... it won't work now."

Mikhail said softly, "You know much of vampires, Roman, but not all. The blood children do not have to be bitten. They need only to bite... to drink of the blood of a creature more than human. I would give her mine, but I'm sure you would much rather she take of yours."