“I told you to pick a different topic.” He glared at her. From the sultry rasp of her voice to the open invitation in her eyes, she was playing with fire. Surely she knew that.
“You wear anger well.” Her foot slid into his lap.
He stared down at her foot. Even covered in tiny scars, her skin was silk under his fingers. When she flexed, the bones of her ankle and foot seemed fragile. But a fragile person wouldn’t have survived the abuse she’d experienced. She knew what pain was—suffered God knows what. An uneven scar ran along the outside of her calf. His thumb smoothed the raised white line. “Who did this to you?”
She would have snatched her foot away if he hadn’t held it in his lap.
“It’s my turn. Tell me.” The words tore from his chest, broken and raw and furious.
“Let go.” Gone was the playful teasing. In its place was brittle fury.
“Cyrus?” he pushed. “Byron. Who?”
She tried to pull away again, but he held tight. “Let me go, Hollis.” Her voice wavered.
“You wanted to play this game. Answer me.” He knew he should stop. There was panic in her eyes…and pain. But the roar of blood in his ears and a veil of red clouded his vision. All that mattered was her answer. He had to know, had to act. “Tell me, Ellen, so I can kill him.”
Ellen froze, her gaze locking with his. Her forehead creased. A deep, unsteady breath spilled into the quiet of the cabin. “Would you?” she whispered.
He let go of her ankle then, shame burning his palm—and pressing in on his chest. What the hell was wrong with him? He didn’t want to restrain her or put pain or fear in her eyes. He would have pushed out of the chair if she hadn’t climbed into his lap.
Her head fit against his shoulder, the short wisps of her silken black hair brushing his chin. She pressed as close as possible, twisting until the beat of her heart thudded against his chest, against his own heart. The tip of her nose brushed his throat as she sighed. His arms wrapped around her. This was right. It soothed him to hold her.
And scared the shit out of him.
“You make me lose control,” he murmured against her temple.
“You can lose control with me,” she whispered, burying her face against the side of his neck.
…
Ellen stared around the lab, shock and awe rendering her speechless. If Finn and Hollis used their money on things like weapons and defense instead of planes and vaccines, the Others wouldn’t stand a chance. How could Cyrus compete with such resources?
“You could defeat them,” she said.
Hollis glanced up from the chart he was reading aloud to her. “What?”
“Look around you. Think of the weapons you could create, the men you could hire to hunt them. Your pack would be unstoppable.” She stared at him, saw the confusion on his face and tried again. “I understand you do important work here.” She took the chart form him, scanning over the pages and pages of charts and numbers that made her head spin. “I would never ask you to give that up. But defeat the Others and you can come back to it, Hollis. Once they are gone, there is nothing to stop you from doing what you want.” She sighed, shaking her head. “You disappoint me.”
He sat on the stool at her side, taking the file from her hand. “Because I’d rather cure—”
“You think they will leave you alone when this is cured? That he’ll care you’re no longer wolves?” She frowned. “You’re not a stupid man, Hollis. Think.”
He frowned back at her. “What threat would we be to him then?”
“You’d know he existed—that this world existed. And you’d have beaten him, by surviving and escaping.” She touched his cheek. Her wolf loved touching him. “He’ll never let you live. Once you’re cured, you’ll be that much easier to kill.” Didn’t he understand? They could stop this. “Once he is gone, your lives—as wolves—would be forever changed. There would be nothing to run from, Hollis. You and your pack would be safe. This cure won’t save your pack. Only killing Cyrus can do that.”
His hand covered hers. Those green-green eyes searched hers until her body thrummed with need.
“Dr. Robbins?” A woman in a white lab coat came in, carrying a stack of files and papers. “You wanted the latest results.” She paused, watching Ellen as she pulled away from Hollis’s touch.
The way the woman looked at Hollis made her wolf bristle. And that the human dared to look her up and down? Her wolf longed to put the woman in her place. Her hands fisted at her side as she stared at the woman. But Hollis clasped her wrist, his tone calm as he murmured, “Thank you, Kim. You can leave them on my desk.”
Kim glanced between them with a nod, then left them.
“Kim should learn her place,” she snapped.
“She’s my administrative assistant,” Hollis explained. “That is her place. Here, in the lab.”