Chapter 36 Prey
PREY
EZRA
Dinner tested my patience.
Cyn and Raelynn traded cutting remarks, while Zeke attempted to play peacemaker. Ash continued to watch her as if someone had told him she only had days left to live. They’d all forgotten our earlier discussion, driven by impulse and raw emotion.
Which left me to uncover why she possessed a Zhyfri crystal.
After everyone cleaned up, Raelynn retired upstairs for an early shift the next morning. I waited until Zeke distracted Cyn and Ash with a movie before slipping upstairs to confront her.
The bedroom was empty when I entered, but I heard the sink running in the adjoining bathroom.
When she stepped into the room in nothing but an oversized T-shirt and saw me, she jolted. “Jesus. Don’t sneak up on me like that.”
My gaze drifted from the disheveled nest of hair on her head, over her makeup-free face, to the dark bruise marring her neck right above the cord of the hidden crystal.
She cleared her throat when my gaze slid down to her bare thighs, taking in the tattoo on one and the healing claw marks on the other.
Looking back at her face, I kept silent. It didn’t take long before I got the results I wanted.
Her gaze shifted to a point across the room.
In the beginning, her nervousness intrigued me.
Whenever I watched her, trying to learn more about our situation and the one who brought us here, she squirmed beneath my scrutiny. I suspected that if I heard her heartbeat, I’d find it racing. She never held my gaze long, unable to challenge me in the way she did with Cyn.
I liked that.
The more time passed, the more I realized how much I enjoyed when she yielded. Though I favored willing submission over self-preservation.
She didn’t respond to me the way she did to the others. In fact, she didn’t treat any of us the same. I wondered how many sides the woman possessed, or if it was all a clever lie to manipulate us.
With that thought in mind, I stepped forward.
She sucked in a sharp breath, stepping back as I moved toward her. “What are you doing?”
I continued corralling her toward the wall without a word. Telling her we needed to talk seemed unnecessary. When I had her where I wanted her, then—and only then—would I speak.
When the wall stopped her retreat, I placed my hands on either side of her head, caging her in. My nostrils flared at the trace of her essence in the air.
Interesting.
So the little human enjoyed being hunted? And here I’d believed her skilled in predator avoidance.
Leaning close, I counted her shallow breaths as her scent spiked.
How easy it’d be to break you.
My fingers flexed on the wall. I ground my teeth and banished the intrusive thought. I wouldn’t allow her scent to distract me from my task.
“You have something I want,” I whispered.
Her quick intake of breath made me smirk. I had her where I wanted her.
I lowered my hand from the wall and ran my fingertips along the side of her neck, tracing the cord along the neckline of her sleep shirt. I slipped my fingers beneath her collar and curled them around the cord to pull it free.
The little black stone in my hand confirmed Ash’s words. The smooth, cylindrical pendant, made from the same crystal as the band on my index finger, warmed my skin where it lay.
As if surfacing from a spell, Raelynn blinked, looking down at the Zhyfri crystal in my hand. “What are you doing with my necklace?”
“Where did you get this?”
“It was my mom’s.”
I lifted my gaze to hers, finding no trace of deception in her silvery-hued eyes.
“Where did your mother get the stone?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered, her gaze falling to the stone again. “She shoved it into my hands before she closed the door of the shed.”
“Where was it before then?”
I wouldn’t force her to relive the trauma of the night her parents died.
Even I didn’t relish mindless mental torture. Dredging up the weakest moments of someone’s life to break them for information was the laziest way to obtain knowledge. I didn’t want a prisoner—or troublesome human—sobbing from heartbreak.
Dysregulated emotions led to cognitive dysregulation, which led to inattention, spotty memories, and poor decisions. Prisoners broken that way rarely cared what happened to them anymore.
I couldn’t get what I needed from sadness.
“Mom always wore it.”
“Always?”
She frowned up at me. “I don’t remember her ever taking it off.”
“And you know nothing about this stone?”
“No,” she said, her tone sharpening. “Why the hell do you wanna know about my necklace?” She snatched the stone from my hand, stuffing it back beneath her shirt.
Ignoring her outburst, I asked her the question that remained at the forefront of my mind. “Why do you keep it hidden beneath your shirt if you know nothing about it?”
“So I don’t accidentally break it.” Her gaze slid to the side, her hands clenching at her sides.
I returned my hand to the wall. “Now, Raelynn,” I said, keeping my voice steady and indifferent. “I recall your disdain for liars. Yet you would stand here and lie to my face?”
She glared at me. “I’m not lying.”
“Your scent changed.”
She squinted, confusion crossing her face.
I understood her natural perfume altered without warning when her moods changed. Given her hatred of liars, her inability to deceive wasn’t unexpected. Her unstable emotions and sour scent betrayed her.
“My scent?”
It seemed Ash and Zeke refrained from sharing our discovery with her. I could use that to my advantage and unbalance her.
I lowered my head, bringing my nose to her throat, hovering over the bruise on her neck. “Yes, your scent.” Her intoxicating fruity-floral perfume filled my lungs. “I know when you lie. When you feel strongly. Even when you’re aroused.”
I dragged my nose across her throat.
A faint whimper slipped past her lips.
I fisted my hand against the wall, calling on the self-control I’d honed over the years. I wouldn’t let this human hook me in her snare.
“I’m not lying,” she said, voice breaking. “Or a-aroused.”
The artery on the side of her neck fluttered like the wings of a butterfly. Her words didn’t tell the whole story.
I waited.
When the silence of the room proved too much for her, she mumbled, “Not entirely, at least.”
My low chuckle rumbled closer to a growl than amusement. I wondered which statement she amended. “Tell me,” I said. “The entire truth.”
“It’s true I don’t wanna break it and lose the stone Mom gave me,” she said, irritation lacing her every word. “But…”
“But?” I breathed across her neck and listened to her swallow.
“But there was one time I noticed an infernal staring at it. I didn’t want them to take it, so now I keep it hidden.”
I hummed against her throat, not allowing my lips to touch her skin. “Good girl.” The corner of my mouth curled up at the hitch in her breath. Another reaction I hadn’t expected.
Only Shyrlivi royalty could legally possess Zhyfri crystals in the infernal plane. The crystal meant access. Power. Something that shouldn’t exist on Earth. It made sense the stone would attract the attention of lesser infernals.
I needed to understand why her mother possessed such an important treasure.
Her gaze darted to the door.
I raised my head, looking down at her. “Looking for someone to save you?”
“What?” She looked up at me, no longer fearful, but apprehension stiffened her body.
“Do you believe my brothers could stop me?”
Her chin lifted, defying common sense yet again in the face of a predator. “Stop you from what?”
Grasping her chin in my hand, I angled her face higher.
She gasped at the unexpected move.
I’d never put my hands on her before—never this way.
Leaning in until our faces were inches apart, her uneven breath ghosting over my lips, I whispered, “Whatever. I. Want.”
She tried to squirm out of my hold, but her weak attempts told me she didn’t want to escape.
She feared me, yet she desired me.
The revelation did nothing but deepen my curiosity about the woman.
“I find it strange you have this necklace when you insist you didn’t intentionally summon us,” I said, releasing her face and bracing a hand on the wall. I needed to redirect the conversation before I acted impulsively.
“Why is my necklace important to you?”
Telling her the truth wouldn’t put us at any greater risk than we already faced. It might reveal whether she knew more than she admitted. But I wouldn’t reveal everything. She didn’t need to know about Shyrlivi royalty.
“Because that crystal only comes from the infernal plane.”
Her face pinched with confusion; panic flickered beneath it.
“I wonder how your mother came to own such a trinket.”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I really don’t.” After a moment of silence, her eyes rounded, and she covered her mouth with her hand.
“Tell me,” I demanded, driven to know what new thought occupied her mind.
Dropping her hand, she murmured, “You said trinket.”
“Yes. And?”
“I remembered how I used the book. I’d forgotten.”
It took great effort to hold my unruffled expression. She tested the limits of my patience. “You told us.”
“I did?” She looked down, then stared up at me again. “Did I tell you what I used? I can’t remember.”
I’d found it strange she couldn’t recall the words on the summoning page before. Her fading memory of the summoning only deepened my concerns. I watched for any hint of recognition when I said, “Your blood and a trinket. You placed it on the page and recited something you claim not to recall.”
“I can’t,” she insisted, and I believed her. “But I remember now the spell required an important trinket.” She placed her hand on her breastbone over the crystal beneath her shirt.
No wonder it summoned us. Using a crystal mined only for Shyrlivi royalty in a summoning spell…
I shook my head.
Why were infernals a part of her life? There had to be more to her situation, even if our summoning was unrelated. Yet it didn’t explain my brothers’ attraction to her, or why we could smell her and sense her emotions.
“Can you, like, back up?”
My attention dropped to her face, but I didn’t move.
“Seriously?” She crossed her arms and looked away. “You infernals sure are stubborn.”
I smirked. “If I move, then you’ll run. And then I’ll have to chase you.”
She flinched, avoiding my gaze.
I ran my tongue over my teeth. “I won’t have you running to my brothers while I’m not finished speaking to you.”
“I’m not afraid of you,” she mumbled in feeble protest.
I closed my eyes for a moment, summoning a partial shift to change my hand. Lifting it to her cheek, I turned her face toward me with a single claw.
She froze, her breath coming shallower by the second.
“Rule number one,” I said, allowing a growl to infuse my voice. “Never tempt a predator.” I ghosted my claws over her cheek, down her chin, and over the front of her throat.
Her panicked eyes locked with mine as she panted.
“That is what you called me, right? A predator?”
She didn’t move.
Didn’t speak.
Didn’t breathe.
My claws at her throat held her still. One swallow and I’d pierce her fragile flesh.
I dragged the claw of my index finger lower and paused over her sternum, leaning in to whisper in her ear. “Am I wrong?” I lowered my hand, satisfied I’d reminded her of the type of creature she dealt with.
“No,” she breathed, her scent changing.
My proximity affected her the way her proximity to the others affected them. It surprised me. We’d spent no time alone together. She’d avoided me, and I’d done nothing to make myself approachable.
I couldn’t resist burying my nose in the hair above her ear, breathing her in like a beast scenting a kill. A growl vibrated in my chest. With the partial shift, I didn’t feel as in control around her. The realization both alarmed and excited me.
“You know, your scent reveals so much about you,” I said, dragging my nose over her neck. “Even if they hadn’t admitted to fucking you, I’d know by scent alone.”
Her breathing grew erratic, her body leaning toward me, submitting beautifully. I couldn’t stop the blood rushing to my cock if I tried.
“I know you want them all. Not just Ash and Cyn.” I lifted my head, commanding her attention with my stare alone. “Do you know what else you want?”
Her glassy stare remained captive to mine as she shook her head side-to-side in denial.
The scent of her arousal, thick and sweet, saturated the air. I’d never felt so intoxicated.
I pressed my tongue against the tip of my fangs, allowing her to see them.
Blood didn’t hold much interest for me, but I wondered what it’d feel like to sink my teeth into her—to taste her pure blood, untainted by venom.
I bent my head close to her ear again, and she whimpered, expecting me to bite her. Instead, I whispered, “You want me.”
“No,” she rasped.
I lifted my head. “No? If I reached beneath this threadbare shirt and into your panties, I wouldn’t find the flimsy material soaked?” She pressed her thighs together. “Are you saying that if I slid my finger through your slit, my claw wouldn’t come away dripping?”
She squirmed.
I bent to her ear again and whispered, “Are you also saying that if I put you on that bed right now, you wouldn’t spread your legs for me and let me own your body the way I own your mind?”
The moment the last words left my mouth, I knew I’d broken the spell. Her scent soured so fast it made me nauseous. She wasn’t ready to admit the truth.
“As if I’d let you touch me like that.”
Her resistance bolstered my weakening resolve, allowing me to reset my mask.
I straightened. “You have nothing to worry about,” I reassured her, striking where it would strengthen her resolve and prevent us from making a mistake we’d both regret. “I’d never fuck a human, even if it meant stripping my hand raw and pleasuring myself for the rest of my life alone.”
Without looking at her, I exited the room.
When I turned the corner, I found Ash leaning against the wall, arms crossed, a severe frown cutting across his face.
“You’re full of shit,” he said.
I lifted a brow. “Excuse me?”
He pushed off the wall and came to me. “She’s just as much in your head as you’re in hers.” His half-grin sparked a flicker of annoyance inside me. “I know you, brother. Had Rae been receptive just now, you’d be balls deep inside her, and you know it.”
I didn’t entertain his statement with a response.
My parting words had said enough, because Ash was right—and I hated it.