Rule Breaker(113)

            Sometimes, in those Breeds with the stronger genetics, it was almost as though the human and the animal simply shared the same body. He’d often sensed that in Rule. Despite his brother’s control, his denials to the contrary, it was often the animal senses that guided him.

            What if the man had suddenly sensed what the animal was trying to hide from him?

            He grinned at that.

            God, to have been a fly on the wall. Gypsy probably thought his brother was fucking crazy. Or would, once she’d gotten over the pain.

            And maybe, he thought, he could have helped, should have done more. But Rule had gotten himself into this mess and he was going to get himself out of it. If he was too stubborn to accept that his animal would never have accepted a mate who was too weak to be the woman he needed, then he’d just have to suffer until he realized the truth.

            Or until Lawe decided he’d suffered enough and felt sorry for him.

            He’d wait till morning, Lawe decided. Then he’d decide if his brother deserved the help.





CHAPTER 15



“Going somewhere, Breaker?”

            Rule paused outside the hotel lobby, his gaze narrowing as a whiff of cigar smoke reached his nose and Dane Vanderale stepped from the shadows of the hotel.

            Mockery filled the hybrid’s expression, but his eyes were cold, hard. Like frozen emeralds.

            “I’m busy, Junior,” Rule sneered, almost hoping the bastard would give him the fight he was itching for since he’d stepped from the bathroom and realized Gypsy had run.

            Dane leaned against the side of the hotel, holding the thin, aromatic little cigar loosely between his fingers.

            “I’m almost tempted to give you what you’re looking for, cub. You’re a dumb little fucker, aren’t you? I didn’t expect that of you.” His gaze never wavered.

            Rule gave a harsh snort of laughter. “Dumb little fucker, am I?” he asked the other Breed mockingly. “You’re really itching for a fight tonight, aren’t you? Too bad, I’m not in the mood to give you what you’re after.”

            “No more than you were able to give your pretty little mate what she was after,” Dane tsked as Rule suddenly froze in disbelief.

            “And you called me a dumb little fucker?” he growled, feeling, feeling, something wild and animalistic rising too close to the surface of his skin as fury began to boil in his blood. “She’s not . . .”

            What the fuck?

            The words he would have bitten out in fury were locked inside him, a snarl emerging instead as though a part of him refused to allow him to utter the words.

            It wasn’t a part of him. Animal instincts—the animal that resided just beneath the skin was suddenly enraged. With him.

            Dane laughed.

            A low, savagely cruel sound that had the hair at Rule’s nape prickling in warning.

            “Do you know, Rule, I’ve sensed your mark on that girl since she was no more than fifteen years old. As I stood at her brother’s casket, mere feet from her, the scent of the animal that paces inside you marked her, even then.”

            “What kind of fucking game are you playing, Vanderale?” Rule was in the other Breed’s face before he’d realized he was moving.

            Eye to eye, he glared at the man who could easily break the back of the entire Breed community if he had a mind to, and wanted nothing more than to plant his fist in his face.

            “Game?” Dane drawled as though the only threat he was in danger of was boredom. “No game, Breaker. Even if you were too stupid to realize the animal that paced inside you was keeping you out of that cave the night Jonas and your brother’s teams rescued her, that didn’t mean others were near so stupid. Even your brother caught your scent that night and turned to find you nowhere near. But that animal inside you was. It was there, watching over its future mate.”