Read Katie's Hellion (Rhyn Trilogy, Book One) Page 18

  Rhyn stormed out of the bed and breakfast. The streets of Dublin were too busy for him. He felt claustrophobic in the city, needed air and space. Without a thought as to who might be watching, he ducked into an alley and flung himself into the air. Pain blazed through him as he took the shape of the ancient creature. He beat the air mercilessly with his wings, rising high above the city and coasting on cold wind currents until he reached the ocean. He floated on the updraft of air off the water and then drifted to the beach below, changing into his human form as he landed with a gentle thud on rocky sand.

  You. Are. Mine

  He hadn't believed the words himself until he said them. He hadn't wanted them to be true. He wanted to fulfill his promise to Gabriel, piss off his brothers, and then walk away. It wasn’t quite as easy as he thought, especially since she was so helpless.

  The doll with the large blue eyes crying on the bed bothered him on more levels than he wanted to admit. He'd meant to piss her off earlier, keep her from developing any sort of affection for someone who had no intention of keeping her.

  That, too, was more for him than her. The minute he found her missing from the cave, he'd felt an uneasy, unfamiliar sense of concern. He didn't just notice she was gone--he found himself wishing she wasn't.

  He sensed the death dealer’s presence.

  "What, Gabriel?" he said without turning.

  "Brought you another book," Gabriel said, handing it to him.

  "Hope it's better than the last."

  "This one was written by someone in the human realm. The other one was from a bitter immortal."

  Rhyn accepted the book, glanced at it, and flung it into the ocean.

  "You're right," Gabriel said, unaffected. "That one was probably bad, too."

  "I burned the other one. How to Train a Pet Human. Really, Gabe?"

  "It was worth a try. I don't know anything about them."

  "They don't eat fish," Rhyn grunted. "You never did answer my question about Andre."

  "You know I won't."

  They stood in silence, watching the waves fling the book around before sinking it.

  "I fucking hate Kris," Rhyn snarled. "I've been waiting for someone to tell me what to do with this human."

  "She's your mate."

  "So why did you insist I protect her? Death doesn't have something up her sleeve?"

  "Death always has all the cards," Gabriel grunted. "But the woman is yours."

  Rhyn frowned, not sure whether he wanted the woman or not. Gabriel cocked his head to the side and then shifted.

  "Death's calling. Talk later."

  He disappeared. Rhyn sat and draped his arms over his knees, staring at the horizon. He'd been furious when Katie mentioned Kris. He didn't understand why the self-proclaimed guardian of humans would drag such a helpless creature into this web of evil.

  He remembered little about how to deal with humans and nothing of how to deal with their women. The women he remembered were docile and silent. The men of his time had been harsh with them, and he thought he was doing well by tolerating her.

  Even so, his own conviction to keep what was his made him uneasy. A human was weak. A human mate was a liability he couldn't afford.

  Yet he'd done what Andre always warned him about: he'd acted without thinking and affected someone he hadn't intended to. He'd claimed her as his, and the tattoo around her neck proved it.

  You can't protect someone so fragile from what's coming.

  Maybe there was a way out of it yet. Maybe he could undo what he'd done.

  He dwelled on her scent, the taste of her, the kiss. He'd never felt such a connection with anyone. The sight of her being attacked by the lesser immortals infuriated him like nothing else ever had. He'd wanted to go back and tear apart the pieces he left.

  Maybe there was a part of him that didn't want to undo whatever he'd done. She was destined for him. His mate.

  He couldn't shake the sense he'd reached the first challenge in his life he didn't know how to handle. He'd never been entrusted with anything to care for, not when he was unable to control his powers.

  And now he had a mate who infuriated him as much as she turned him on.

  For the first time in years, he doubted himself. Could he really protect her, since he was now bound by Immortal Code to keep her? Or was this another Immortal Code he dared break, for the sake of another, and take whatever consequences came his way?

  He'd been to Hell. The only thing worse would be to make him dead-dead.

  Rhyn dropped back to stare at the sky. He wasn't ready to be dead-dead yet, not after all the time he'd spent in Hell and all the unfinished business he had.