“If you break here, you’ll never forgive yourself.” Dane’s voice lashed at her, a quiet male hiss of fury as Alaiya tilted her head up to Mercury and spoke.
“I knew when I read the tabloid stories what happened.” She sighed against Mercury. “Mates. That’s what we are, aren’t we? That’s why I never forgot you, Mercury.”
Ria couldn’t breathe. Oh God. It hurt. It was knifing through her chest, shredding flesh and bone, and she was going to scream with the rage and the pain of it.
Don’t touch him!
The words were whipping through her mind as Mercury gripped the other woman’s wrists and pushed her back. Just a little. Just enough to keep Ria from collapsing, from begging him not to hold her.
“Alaiya?” There was a wealth of surprise, shock and perhaps anger.
Of course he would be angry. Eleven years they had been separated and here she was, mere hours after he had pledged himself to another woman. To some stupid human that just couldn’t understand where her place was.
“Ria.” Dane’s arm was around her shoulders.
He was trying to shelter her. He had done that when she was a little girl, every time he saw her. He would wrap his arm around her shoulder and try to shelter her from whatever had hurt her while he was away. There was no way to shelter her from this.
Ragged, gaping wounds tore through her soul. She could feel herself bleeding from the inside out, ripping apart and not a sound was made.
“What the fucking hell is going on here?” Guttural, ragged and filled with fury, Mercury’s voice echoed around her. Sliced into her. She looked into his eyes, and they were nearly blue. They weren’t amber. They weren’t hammered gold. They were blue, the color they had been when he showed the first signs of mating Alaiya in the labs.
Alaiya was back. And, it appeared, so was Mercury’s animal.
“You need to take care of this,” she whispered to him, glancing at Alaiya. “I know it’s been a long time.” She backed away from him. “You’ll need to”-she waved her hand helplessly-“talk.” She couldn’t imagine anything else. If she did, she would die. Right there, she would lose her will to live.
She couldn’t bear it. It hurt. Nothing-no desertion, no vicious words from cold, cutting lips-had ever hurt as this hurt.
“Mercury, could you step into the office please?” Jonas’s voice was like a whip slicing through the tension. “Dane, Ms. Rodriquez might be more comfortable in the receiving room across the hall.”
She stared back at Jonas. His silver eyes seemed alive, an entity separate from the rest of him, swirling and clashing with tempestuous anger as he watched her.
Of course, he would be angry. He would believe this could affect her job. That it would affect Sanctuary’s relationship with the Vanderales.
She shook her head. She was the poor little orphan to the family, not really family at all. She had always known that.
She backed away, feeling Dane’s hand on her arm like a live current, painful, unwanted.
“The hell she will.”
Before the words were out of Mercury’s lips he had hold of her, jerking her to his side, his arm curved around her back, pulling her to him.
“Don’t do this to me.” The sound of her voice shocked her. It was barely passable, so thick and rough it was hardly understandable. “Don’t make me see this.”
His eyes were almost pure blue; now the gold flickered in tiny pinpoints rather than the opposite.
“This isn’t what you think.” He glared into the room before pulling her outside it, out of sight of the others, pressing her against the wall as he stared down at her, his eyes raging.
And the pain was raging inside her. She had to get away from him. Before she begged him. Before she pleaded with him, Please don’t leave me alone.
She pressed her hands against his chest. “Take care of this. I’ll wait with Dane.” She shook her head, knowing he wouldn’t be returning to her.
Mating heat was like a drug, an addiction. He wouldn’t be able to leave his mate’s side until it eased. And Ria would be long gone by then. Long gone and far away.
“Like bloody fucking hell.” He snarled the words into her face. “Not happening.”
“Mercury, listen to her,” Dane urged quietly from behind him. “Do you want to hurt her like this, man? I could smell the mating heat on you the moment Alaiya flung herself into your arms. Denying it isn’t going to keep Ria from hurting.”
Her knees turned to rubber.
Oh God. She couldn’t fall. She stared up at Mercury in horror.
“It’s not like that. Ria, listen to me.” His hands gripped her face, his expression twisted in agony. “Baby, you have to listen to me. It’s not like that.”
His head lowered, and she knew what was coming. He was going to kiss her. Let her taste what she couldn’t have. Let her know what belonged to another woman. And he would destroy her with it.
“No!” Her hand jerked up, covered his mouth. “Let me go, Mercury. Let me go.”
“You’re my mate.” He shook her hand away. “Damn you, you will listen to me.”
“Let her fucking go.”
Dane spun him around, away from her, but none of them could have expected what happened next.
A roar tore from Mercury’s chest and Dane went flying. He slid across the waxed floor, ending up in a pile against the wall before he shook his head and came to his feet with a snarl of rage.
“Touch my mate and you die.” Mercury placed himself between her and Dane. “Do you hear me Vanderale? I’ll gut you like I did that fucking bastard in the labs and I’ll shove it down your throat.”
His voice-wasn’t his voice.
Ria backed away from him, shaking her head as Callan, Kane and Jonas rushed from the office, putting themselves between Mercury and Dane as Jonas held his brother back, snarling in anger as Dane fought him.
“Mercury?” Alaiya stepped from the office. Sensuous silk hissed as she moved, like a serpent’s whisper. Her voice was almost childishly soft, confused, but her eyes-Ria stared into Alaiya’s eyes, and she saw the smug satisfaction there. “Mr. Vanderale hasn’t touched me.”
She touched his arm as Mercury’s gaze swung to Ria.
“Don’t you walk away from me.” He shoved a finger in Ria’s direction, fighting for control, obviously fighting against the rage tearing through him with mating heat.
Mating heat. For her. Ria looked at the other woman and felt like screaming in her own rage.
“Looks like the party’s over,” she whispered, staring back at him, aching to the depths of her soul. “Take care of your mate, Mr. Warrant. I’ll take care of myself.”
She felt the ice building, though she knew it wouldn’t last long. It was forming in her veins, covering her flesh, washing through her mind. The shield was as brittle as frost, and just as cold.
Mercury’s lips pulled back from his teeth in a silent, warning snarl as he started for her. And he might have reached her, he might have actually touched her, if Alaiya hadn’t been there. If she hadn’t reached up, her hands sliding over his shoulders, her lips pressing to his before he could push her from him.
And Mercury stilled, silent as death, against her.
Ria couldn’t bear any more. She turned and ran, aware of Dane behind her, calling out her name, catching up with her. He stopped her at the entrance to the foyer, forced her to slow down before wrapping his arm around her and leading her quickly for the door.
The doorman was waiting with her cape.
Dane grabbed it. Ria would have kept going. She had to run. She had to escape. She had to get away from the pain. It was splintering inside her so sharp and deep she didn’t think she could survive it.