She didn’t want to throw his concern back in his face, but the predator in her was never stronger than in the grips of blood thirst or battle rage. Right now, Brynne was swamped by both. Fueled by hunger and adrenaline, she was a deadly creature.
As much as the woman in her yearned for Zael’s comfort—for his compassion—the part of her that was nearly pure Ancient saw only another obstacle in front of her. An enemy it recognized on a primal, instinctual level.
One that needed to be destroyed.
“Go away, Zael.” Her stare bathed his handsome face in amber light. The care she saw in his expression, in the way he unflinchingly held her transformed gaze, tore at her heart the way nothing in her life ever had before. She snarled, forcing herself to look away from him. “I said, leave me the fuck alone.”
“Sorry, sweetheart. That’s not happening.” He took a step toward her on the narrow ironwork platform. “You think I’m going to walk away and leave you here like this? Come on, Brynne. Let me help you.”
He reached out to her. Brynne dodged him, catapulting herself off the fire escape in one fluid leap.
She landed in a crouch on the street below, ready to bolt on foot.
But Zael was there in that next instant. She barely registered his motion, yet there he stood, blocking her path in the alleyway. His scowl knit his brows. “Don’t do this, damn it. Don’t shut me out, Brynne.”
His gentle tone made the beast in her bristle. “Get away from me, Atlantean.”
He shook his head, obstinate. Immovable. So dangerously foolish. “This is why you’ve been pushing me away? Because you were afraid I’d see you like this?” He swore softly, his scowl deepening. “You don’t have to be afraid of me, Brynne.”
“Afraid of you?” The predator in her all but spat the words. “Never.”
Her vitriol didn’t seem to faze him at all. Zael held her stare, even took another step toward her. “You’re not alone. Don’t you see that?”
“You’re wrong. I am alone. It’s you who can’t see that.” A hot breath gusted out of her, shaky, uneven. “I’ve been alone all my life. It’s the only way I’ve survived.”
He gently shook his head. “It doesn’t have to be that way. Not anymore.”
She eyed him warily as he closed more distance between them. Her senses filled with him, from the deliciously warm scent of his skin to the heat that radiated off his muscular body. Her head filled with the awareness of him as a man, as the one man she desired more than any before him.
“Let me in, Brynne. You can trust me.”
She tossed her head in automatic response, torn between wanting to believe him and wanting him as far away from her as possible. Her vision locked on his throat as he moved in closer. The drum of his pulse echoed in her skull, in her temples, in her marrow. She stared, riveted to that hard ticking of his heartbeat, as she had been when they’d lain together, naked in her bed.
God help her, but the hunger with which she ached for him felt less about the monster and its cravings and more about the need to feel Zael inside her, comforting her with his body and his blood.
On a groan, she stepped around him. Or, rather, she tried to. Zael stopped her, his body planted in front of her, physically barring her from getting past.
“Dammit, Zael. Get out of my way and let me go.”
He ignored all of her warnings. He ignored the unearthly rasp of her voice, which should have told him just how close she was to the edge.
And it was too late now, too much for her to bear.
Rage spiked through her, breaking loose from its thin leash. She shoved at him, but he was strong too. And he was fast. He grabbed her hands and held her still, restraining her.
She roared, no longer in control of her senses or her reactions.
The beast owned her now.
The monstrous power she could not contain exploded out of her and she knew only that she was lethal like this. She couldn’t hold herself back—not even with Zael. A bellow shot out of her, anguished and unhinged fury setting her into motion.
She broke loose from his hold and flew at him on a banshee howl.
Zael raised his hands as if to fend her off. They were glowing, his fingers limned in pure white light. In the center of both palms, the symbol of a teardrop and crescent moon was illuminated with energy so pure it blinded her.
She couldn’t fight it. Couldn’t fight him.
Zael’s power was too strong.
He touched her, and light instantly engulfed her vision. His light. It poured into her, obliterating her senses as it seeped into her mind and her limbs, and into every raging cell of her body.
~ ~ ~
Zael knelt on the pavement, holding Brynne in his arms. She was unconscious, unmoving, except for the slow rise and fall of her chest as she breathed.
He hated that he’d used his power on her—for several reasons—but she’d given him little choice.
Brynne was formidable enough as a Breed female. What he saw in her just now was something far more lethal.
Ancient.
Or something damned close to it.
He didn’t know how it was possible, but the proof had been right in front of his eyes.
If relations between the Breed and his people were tenuous, it was nothing compared to the visceral loathing that every Atlantean felt toward their otherworldly enemies who had spawned the Breed on Earth. That hatred was especially strong in Zael and his former comrades of Selene’s royal legion, who had been on the front lines of every war with the Ancients.
Yet despite what he saw in Brynne just now, it wasn’t hatred he felt for her.
Holy hell. Far from it.
Glancing down at her, he watched as the dermaglyphs that had been so livid and pronounced on her face and neck and limbs now began to subside. The glyphs on the backs of her hands had vanished, along with the black talons that had sprouted from the tips of her fingers in her transformation. She rested now, forced into a heavy calm.
The light had done that for her, just as he’d hoped it would.
He didn’t know what she needed, but one thing was for damned sure—he had no intention of leaving her side. Nor would he let her endure her torment alone.
He needed to get her out of the city. He needed to see that she was safe.
They both needed to get somewhere secure, before the recklessness of using his power brought even more problems down on them.