In that heartbeat, Kateri pulled out of the past or her dream or whatever it was she saw and found herself back in Ren's house in Las Vegas. Thunder and lightning echoed as Rain pulled her back into the hallway.
In the living room in front of them, Ren was surrounded by dark spirits that attacked as one and then split apart to fight separately. Even so, he held his ground with an admirable skill.
The wolf is never tamed through violence. But rather with a kind, gentle, and above all, patient hand. The most ferocious of beasts see enemies everywhere. They have to in order to live. All they know is how to be attacked and how to fight. They expect treachery from all. Her grandmother's voice whispered through her head.
One of the beasts caught Ren a blow that sent him to his knees. He rolled with it, but didn't make it completely free. Another one caught him and kicked him hard.
They were about to defeat him.
Refusing to watch him go down while he fought to protect her, Kateri ran forward....
Then realized she had no weapon to fight them with.
Oh snap ...
Ren glanced up as another shadow approached him. He drew back to strike the beast, only to see the woman there.
For a full heartbeat, her unexpected presence paralyzed him. He couldn't move as he waited for her to attack him, too.
Instead, she went after those he was fighting....
It was so unexpected that it took several seconds before his brain could reconcile the incongruity of someone fighting for him.
Until it dawned on him that she wasn't a match for them.
His only thought to save her, he ran at her and wrapped himself around her body, then teleported them out of his house and into the only other haven he knew.
Kateri couldn't breathe through the tight hold Ren had on her. Completely surrounded by a wall of muscle, she had her face pressed against his chest. His heart pounded under her cheek while the warm, masculine scent of his skin soothed her. There was an underlying spicy smell. Something that made her mouth water.
After a few seconds, he loosened his arms and took a half step back so that he could look down at her.
The concern in those dark eyes caught her off guard. It was such a hot, sexy look. One that set her on fire. Especially when he cupped her face in his hands and leaned down so that their heads were level.
"Are you all right?"
She nodded. "You?"
"I'll live."
To her chagrin, he released her and stepped away. The sudden absence of his warmth sent a chill over her. And as she glanced around the room, she sucked her breath in sharply.
It was a nice hotel suite. The kind of penthouse suite that a billionaire playboy would rent.
What the ...
"I am having one wicked dream," she breathed, wondering what was going on with her unconscious mind.
Ren shook his head. "It's not a dream."
She snorted. "Then how did we get here?"
"I have the ability to teleport."
Sure he did. She laughed nervously. "Yeah. Beam me up, Scotty, right? Did you guys slip me something? Is Rain in on this?"
"You don't really believe that."
Kateri ran her hand along the dark blue curtain beside her. A curtain that didn't vaporize and turn all of this into some psychotic dream. "No, but I want to." She wanted to believe anything other than what this appeared to be.
I'm insane. I have to be-that at least makes sense.
Otherwise ...
She flinched at a reality she wanted no part of. Personally, she liked having an address in the state of Denial. "This is real, isn't it?"
"As real as it gets."
Covering her face with her hands, she tried everything she could to come up with some other plausible explanation.
There wasn't one. When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.... Damn you, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Damn you!
And in that moment, everything overwhelmed her. The death of Fernando, her recent spree of brushes with death, her crazy, weird dreams ... Everything.
Oh God, it's true.
All of it.
No, he can't be the same man in the past. He couldn't be. He couldn't ...
Ren recognized the shock she was falling into. Knowing he had to ground her, he closed the distance between them and cupped her face again in his palms. The softness of her skin caressed his and made him yearn for things he knew he could never have. Things he knew he shouldn't even want.
"What's your name?" She'd called herself "Teri" earlier, but it didn't seem to fit what he knew of her.
Kateri blinked at his unexpected question. "Huh? What?"
"I don't know your name, little one. What do they call you?"
That made her laugh. "Of course you don't. Why should you? You've only saved my life twice now. Pulled me out of..." Her brain went from her situation to another one that scared her even move. Is Rain okay?"
"They won't hurt him. They're after you."
Of course they were....
"What are they?"
Ren hesitated. Being told that basically everything wanted a piece of you wasn't conducive to calming someone down. While he didn't have a lot of people skills, he knew that one bit of knowledge was best kept to himself. "Enemies."
She screwed her face up at him. "Really?" she asked, her voice dripping in sarcasm. "Enemies? That's the best you can do?"
"You still haven't told me your name," he reminded her.
"Kateri Avani, though most people call me Teri."
Ren repeated it in his head. It was a beautiful name, like the woman who bore it. "I'm Ren."
"I know."
"But I didn't tell it to you."
She frowned at him. "Does that make a difference?"
"Where I come from, it does."
Kateri bit back another retort as she stared into eyes so black, she couldn't even make out his pupil.
From the deepest part of her brain, she remembered something her grandmother had once told her about the way her people viewed names. Why "Waleli" was only known to the two of them and no one else. "It's a sign of trust."
He nodded. "When someone knows your name, you give them a small piece of yourself. It's the first step toward friendship."
And in that moment, she had another insight into why he so seldom spoke. That, too, was giving her a part of himself. If he really was the man in the past, then he was trusting her not to mock him should he stutter. "So we're past that whole two-syllable thing, then?"
One corner of his mouth quirked up into the most devastating smile she'd ever seen on a man. "We are..." and then as if realizing he was about to give her only two syllables as an answer, he tacked on, "Kateri."
Dang ... the way he said that with his accent ... It sent shivers over her. She'd never particularly liked her name. While it was uncommon, it came with the annoying drawback that no one ever could spell or pronounce it.
But her name rolled off his tongue like a caress.
Against her will, she felt a part of her melt toward him. He really was sweet when he wasn't being a total ass.
And that made her wonder if his lips would taste as good as they looked....
Teri! She never had thoughts like that. She was too focused on her career to bother with something so trivial. But for once, she couldn't seem to quell her desire.
She really, really wanted to bury her face into the crook of his neck and inhale his warm, masculine scent.
Licking her lips, she leaned in to him. She was almost home free when they heard a sound at the door. At first, she thought it was a mistake.
Until the lock turned.
A moment later, the door was blasted open, spraying debris all over them. Ren shielded her body with his. Violent winds tore through the room. They were so strong that it stole her breath and whipped her hair around her body. If not for Ren holding her, she'd have been sucked out of the room. How he continued to stand strong against the ferocity of a hurricane, she had no idea.
And as the winds picked up speed, she met Ren's gaze. Her heart stopped.
His black eyes had turned blood-red.