“Parish,” Michel said with more force than he’d shown all night. “Do I need to pull you back here?”
Parish grinned broadly. As if that were possible. “That’s my doctor.”
“Yes, but you can’t just barrel down the hospital hallway and take what you want.”
Watch me. His eyes narrowed into predatory slits and he moved forward, but Michel put a hand on his shoulder to stay him.
Parish shrugged him off, then growled, his canines vibrating with their need to drop.
“Goddamit, Hunter.” The Pantera spy cut in front of him. The male wasn’t as tall as Parish, but he was broad shouldered in his suit and tie, and his green eyes flashed with the thick heat of the bayou. “It doesn’t work this way. If we want to keep our alliance with human law enforcement, and the identities of our spies hidden, protocol and rules cannot be broken.”
“Rules don’t apply to Hunters,” Parish snarled.
Michel’s frown deepened. “Inside the Wildlands, that may be true. But this is the human world.”
Parish didn’t care where they were. “Raphael wants a female doctor for his pregnant human. She will help deliver the first Pantera child in decades.” His gaze cut once again to the blond woman who was bending over to retrieve her co-worker’s pen from the floor. Parish growled softly at her, his assignment. He suspected she would look very appealing on her hands and knees before him.
“I think this is a mistake,” Michel remarked dryly. “Perhaps someone from the Nurturer Faction should be sent—”
Parish’s gaze ripped back to the male before him. “Too late. I will have her.”
Michel cursed. “This is not a store, and she is not for purchase.”
“I’m not buying, Michel, I’m taking.”
Even as he said it, the possessive purr in Parish’s tone surprised him. He’d never felt such an immediate and intense need for a female. No doubt she’d be afraid of him when he approached. Most females were. Perpetually on the hunt, he didn’t have the softness, the easy manners of some other Pantera males. But he would try to be gentle with her.
The male shook his head and sighed. “I don’t understand Raphael’s choice in sending you.”
“Do you not?” It was in fact a job for both himself and his second-in-command, Bayon. But the other male had been called away on some emergency when they’d arrived in New Orleans. Knowing Bayon, the emergency probably had large breasts, a ripe ass and the morning free. “I am leader of the Hunters, and Raphael’s mate carries our future within her womb.” One dark eyebrow lifted sardonically. “Never send a Suit or a Nurturer to do a Hunter’s job.”
Michel reddened and his lip curled.
“You’ve done your part. Go back to work.” Parish pushed past the male, his nostrils already filling with her scent once again.
“Do not hurt her.”
Parish didn’t even glance back, but his lips did twist into a humorless smile as the woman left the nurses’ station and headed for the bank of elevators. “She will be well taken care of.”
CHAPTER 2
THE French Quarter, the nerve center of downtown New Orleans, was overflowing with people, and yet the moment Julia hit Gravier Street, she knew she was being followed. Living in Los Angeles, always working late, taking the bus everywhere or walking home, her instincts had been tested, proven and finely honed. Just seconds after leaving the hospital, she’d felt something, sensed someone keeping pace with her, but she hadn’t stopped or turned around. That was an amateur’s move. One that could easily get the looker hurt or killed.
Don’t ever let the bogeyman know you know he’s there.
Her mother’s words, back when she’d still been able to communicate, had fallen on teenage know-it-all ears. But one night after a late class, Julia had found herself on the terrifying and ill-prepared end of a mugger’s switchblade. The lesson had cost her a computer, medical school books, ID, credit cards, cash and a week’s worth of sleep. From that day forward, her mother’s warning remained steadfast in her head.
Don’t ever let the bogeyman know you know he’s there until you’re ready to either lead him directly into the path of a cop, you have a clear and realistic way to ditch him, or you can bring him with you into a crowd of people and make a huge goddamn stink.
The hair on the back of Julia’s neck prickled and she quickened her pace, heading directly into the eye of the NOLA bar crawl.
Just a few blocks to the hotel.
As the sound of cool jazz, and the scents of body odor, grilling crawfish and stale beer came at her on the warm air, her eyes searched the massive crowd for a cop, but came up empty.
What did he want? she wondered, the concentrated sounds of revelry enveloping her, driving up her adrenaline, making her senses incredibly keen. Didn’t he know she had nothing?
Shit. Less than nothing?
Didn’t he know she’d already been robbed this week? Of a life, a future, a promise?
The noise grew in strength, and the crowd thickened. Instead of fear, anger started to stir within her. Anger that had been festering in her chest, waiting, squeezing, aching to find release. Maybe this was it. The time.
The bogeyman.
It was in that moment she felt a hand brush her waist. Her pulse jerked in her blood and instinct fed her already jacked-up rage. Coming to a sudden halt, she whirled around and faced the bastard who had just dared to touch her.
Eyes the color of melted gold met her.
Julia froze where she stood, her anger leaking from her gut like a punctured balloon. All she could do was stare at the creature before her. He was stunning, incredible, unlike anything she had ever seen before. Around her, the crowd noise dissipated to a dull hum, but she barely noticed. Her gaze was slowly traveling the length of him, taking in his predatory stance and powerful muscle and tanned skin. He wore plain clothes; jeans and a black T-shirt with scuffed combat boots. But he was the furthest thing from plain she’d ever seen. Far over six feet tall with broad shoulders and long, ink-black hair that was tied back at his neck. A few stray pieces had escaped and were licking at the ridges of his sharply drawn features. His face was shockingly handsome, tan and smooth, except for the two healed scars near his right ear and mouth. Her nails scraped against her palms as she thought about running her index finger over the small white lines.
A low growl sounded, but Julia didn’t register where the noise was coming from. Her head was far too fuzzy, and her skin felt uncomfortably warm. It was only when a heavily muscled arm snaked around her waist and pulled her close that she snapped out of the haze enveloping her.
“I like the way you look at me,” he said, his voice a dark, sensual rumble. “For once, I am the prey.”
His words and the feel of his breath against her face turned her legs to rubber. What the hell was going on here? What was wrong with her that she was reacting like this? She brought her hands to his chest and pushed like hell, but he didn’t budge.
“You don’t have to be afraid of me,” he said, his eyes cutting away for a moment to check their surroundings. “I would never hurt you.”
The man’s dark, erotic scent rushed into Julia’s nostrils and she whimpered. Where were her guts? Why wasn’t she screaming in terror? That coveted ability she thought she possessed, the one where she kept her shit together in the face of danger, lay completely out of her reach as his golden eyes, now flecked with blue and gray, returned to hers and all but urged her to relinquish her very soul to him.