“Are you hurt?” he asked gently. “Tell me what’s wrong with you so I can try to help you.”
She couldn’t contain the miserable moan that leaked out of her at the sincerity of his plea.
He couldn’t help her, and she couldn’t stay near him. Not when she was like this.
Not ever again, now that he knew the ugly secret she could no longer hide from him.
“Brynne, please.” His brows drew together over tender, determined eyes. “Are you injured? Did those Bloodlusting fucks… Did they do this to you somehow?”
A laugh burst out of her, caustic, coarse as gravel in her throat. “Those Rogues couldn’t harm me if they tried. Can’t you see that?”
She didn’t want to throw his concern back in his face, but the predator in her was never stronger than in the grips of blood thirst or battle rage. Right now, Brynne was swamped by both. Fueled by hunger and adrenaline, she was a deadly creature.
As much as the woman in her yearned for Zael’s comfort—for his compassion—the part of her that was nearly pure Ancient saw only another obstacle in front of her. An enemy it recognized on a primal, instinctual level.
One that needed to be destroyed.
“Go away, Zael.” Her stare bathed his handsome face in amber light. The care she saw in his expression, in the way he unflinchingly held her transformed gaze, tore at her heart the way nothing in her life ever had before. She snarled, forcing herself to look away from him. “I said, leave me the fuck alone.”
“Sorry, sweetheart. That’s not happening.” He took a step toward her on the narrow ironwork platform. “You think I’m going to walk away and leave you here like this? Come on, Brynne. Let me help you.”
He reached out to her. Brynne dodged him, catapulting herself off the fire escape in one fluid leap.
She landed in a crouch on the street below, ready to bolt on foot.
But Zael was there in that next instant. She barely registered his motion, yet there he stood, blocking her path in the alleyway. His scowl knit his brows. “Don’t do this, damn it. Don’t shut me out, Brynne.”
His gentle tone made the beast in her bristle. “Get away from me, Atlantean.”
He shook his head, obstinate. Immovable. So dangerously foolish. “This is why you’ve been pushing me away? Because you were afraid I’d see you like this?” He swore softly, his scowl deepening. “You don’t have to be afraid of me, Brynne.”
“Afraid of you?” The predator in her all but spat the words. “Never.”
Her vitriol didn’t seem to faze him at all. Zael held her stare, even took another step toward her. “You’re not alone. Don’t you see that?”
“You’re wrong. I am alone. It’s you who can’t see that.” A hot breath gusted out of her, shaky, uneven. “I’ve been alone all my life. It’s the only way I’ve survived.”
He gently shook his head. “It doesn’t have to be that way. Not anymore.”
She eyed him warily as he closed more distance between them. Her senses filled with him, from the deliciously warm scent of his skin to the heat that radiated off his muscular body. Her head filled with the awareness of him as a man, as the one man she desired more than any before him.
“Let me in, Brynne. You can trust me.”
She tossed her head in automatic response, torn between wanting to believe him and wanting him as far away from her as possible. Her vision locked on his throat as he moved in closer. The drum of his pulse echoed in her skull, in her temples, in her marrow. She stared, riveted to that hard ticking of his heartbeat, as she had been when they’d lain together, naked in her bed.
God help her, but the hunger with which she ached for him felt less about the monster and its cravings and more about the need to feel Zael inside her, comforting her with his body and his blood.
On a groan, she stepped around him. Or, rather, she tried to. Zael stopped her, his body planted in front of her, physically barring her from getting past.
“Dammit, Zael. Get out of my way and let me go.”
He ignored all of her warnings. He ignored the unearthly rasp of her voice, which should have told him just how close she was to the edge.
And it was too late now, too much for her to bear.
Rage spiked through her, breaking loose from its thin leash. She shoved at him, but he was strong too. And he was fast. He grabbed her hands and held her still, restraining her.
She roared, no longer in control of her senses or her reactions.