Cade cocked his head, his gaze lowering to her chest. From the flare in his eyes, Alex figured the robe had drooped open.
She glanced down. She’d been right; the slight swell of her breasts was tipped by moonlight.
Another flash of silver and flames erupted from the four-inch slit Cade put in her chest. He’d obviously done this before, because he did it just right. If he cut too deeply she’d be doing a Joan of Arc imitation. Instead he just grazed the surface enough to cause blood to flow down her ribs like rain, putting out the tiny fire and leaving just a little bit of smoke.
“Honey,” Cade murmured, licking his lips, “I lied to my brother about everything.”
Boosted by his anger, Julian covered miles in an instant. He would have barreled right into Cade’s back if he hadn’t seen the flash of silver, caught the scent of flames and blood, then heard his brother’s words.
The wolf’s body sensed danger. Silver meant fire, and fire would kill. The human mind understood that Cade had a knife, and he was using it on Alex.
But he hadn’t killed her yet. Right now he was just playing with her, as a cat might play with a mouse right before he ate it.
And just like a cat, if something bigger threatened to take away that mouse—
Gulp.
So Julian fed his anger with the scent of blood and fear—Who dared mark her but him? Who dared scare her at all?—and he threw up his invisibility cloak just as Cade turned around.
His brother’s eyes narrowed. But there was nothing to see.
Cade spun back to Alex. “I’ve got all night. I can make this last. You’ll beg to die. You’ll wish you had.”
“Eat me,” Alex muttered.
“Oh, I plan to.”
Cade drew a test tube out of the pocket of his loose sweatpants. “First things first, just in case I get carried away.” He slid his fingers into the belt of the robe, then slid the flat of the knife along the smooth, flat expanse of her stomach. “Hmm,” he said.
“Don’t even think about it.”
Cade laughed. “I’ll think about what I want and do what I want. My days of listening to anyone are over.”
Alex lifted her eyes and seemed to look right at Julian. But she couldn’t know he was there. Except—
He sniffed. When he’d arrived he’d smelled her fear. He’d seen it in the stiff set of her body and the wariness in her eyes. Now…
He smelled blood but no fear. Flames but no panic. She seemed as relaxed as a woman-wolf could be while hanging from a monster truck with a psychotic werewolf running a silver blade over her abs.
“Whoops.” Cade’s wrist twitched, and a thin line of red appeared at Alex’s waist. She didn’t even flinch. Not when he cut her and not when the flames danced along the wound like a thousand tiny tongues.
Cade waited for the flicker of fire to die, then bent and licked the blood. As he straightened he stepped in and captured her mouth with his.
“Urgh,” Alex said, twisting and turning as if she was in greater pain than when she’d been bleeding and burning.
Cade lifted the hand that wasn’t holding the knife and cupped her breast, viciously tweaking the nipple until she gasped.
Julian erupted from the invisibility bubble, hands and feet sprouting from paws, even as his snout crunched inward to become both nose and mouth. If anyone had been watching it would have seemed as if he just appeared from thin air, a wolf pouring out of the ether and landing upon the earth as a man.
Before Julian could grasp his brother by the neck and wring it, Cade had danced to the side and the tip of the silver knife hovered just above Alex’s jugular.
“That’s what I thought,” Cade murmured.
“You are so fucked now,” Alex said.
Julian’s eyes widened. She had that much confidence in him? He wasn’t sure anyone else ever had.
“Let her go, Cade.”