As that thought drifted across her mind, she felt him.
She didn’t smell him; there was no scent to warn her. She felt him.
Her heart raced, her breathing became faster and she could feel the whisper of the air drifting through the area, against her. It eased past her gown, stroked her flesh, sensitized it.
What an odd sensation. She’d never felt that before, until him.
“If you’re caught, they’ll kill you.” She didn’t shift, didn’t try to call out to the guards standing outside the doors.
She wasn’t frightened of him, though she sensed she should be.
She should be terrified.
“Think they will?” The amused drawl was teasing, playful, his accent just a bit alien. “They didn’t know I was here when they checked the area before letting you in. And they were quite thorough.”
He remained behind her, hidden within the heavy foliage that had brushed against her back as he sat down. And she let him stay hidden, because she didn’t want to know … She liked the feel of his warmth against her back as she felt him lower himself behind her, the warmth of his breath against her neck.
“You know they will.” Her voice trembled. “Are you here to kill me?”
How wrong it seemed that what she was feeling now would be for the Breed who would kill her. And he was a Breed. She could sense it, feel it, though she wasn’t certain which designation of Breed.
“Do you want to die?” Amusement laced his voice, amusement and something more, something dark and shadowed.
Something hungry.
Her eyes closed as she felt a caress against her hair, fingers twining in it, testing the curls, as a hum of appreciation stroked against her senses.
“I’ll die either way.” She stared into the pond, wondering at her own cowardice. “I won’t leave here alive, you know?”
Silence met her question, but she knew he heard her, knew he hadn’t left. She could feel him in the air she breathed, in the slow caresses in her hair.
“What makes you so certain of that?” Curiosity filled his voice. A voice that was dark, sensual.
“I know things …” Sometimes, she knew terrible things. Things she didn’t want to know, didn’t want to see or sense. “I see things sometimes …”
“I won’t let you die, little halfling,” he whispered just behind her, causing her to tremble at the warmth of his breath at her ear. “I’ll watch over you.”
He wasn’t taking her seriously, but it didn’t matter. She wasn’t going to protest the fact. Why argue when this would likely be the only time she knew a measure of what it felt like to be desired, to be touched by a man.
“You were watching me when I was on the balcony,” she whispered, her head tilting to the side as she felt a calloused finger stroke down her neck.
“I was,” he admitted. “I should have been keeping watch on the property. Instead, all I was watching was you.”
Still, that amusement lingered in his voice.
“Why?” She needed to know. She needed something to hold on to, to make the next few days bearable.
“Because, my little halfling, you’re mine …”
She stiffened in outrage, in anger, but before she could turn and inform him just how insane he was, he was gone.
Wide-eyed, her heart racing, she stared at the swaying leaves of the huge ferns behind her and heard a whisper of a chuckle somewhere in the darkness.
“Cassie.” The atrium doors were thrown open as her father’s voice echoed through the artificial glade, dark with menace, with warning.
His enforcers rushed through the atrium, at least half a dozen, converging on her as she drew her robe on and tied the satin ribbons holding it closed.
“What’s going on?” She jumped to her feet, staring around at the Wolf Breeds suddenly searching the spacious atrium, checking the areas of heavy growth with dangerous purpose.