Darkness Clashes Read Free

necessary?”
    It was all I could do not to lean into him. Our chances to meet didn’t come often and they were usually brief. I understood he had to find his brother, but as time wore on the separations got harder. We’d begun our relationship a year and a half ago and had yet to spend more than a few consecutive days together.
    “I wanted to catch the guy off-guard,” I said, answering his question. “Men always underestimate women in pretty dresses.”
    He dropped his hand. “I don’t.”
    “Don’t you?” I grazed my nails across my chest, drawing attention to my cleavage.
    His gaze shot down to watch the movement. Lust rose up and his eyes glowed.
    “Perhaps.”
    He pressed his hands to the brick wall, caging me with his arms. For a moment we just stared at each other, allowing the tendrils of our bond to strengthen. He needed the closeness as much as I did, though we both fought the force of our attraction.
    “Lucas…” I began.
    His face closed off. “Tell me where the alpha is.”
    There was a reason he’d let me go on this particular hunt. I’d been the one to get the lead for it. A new werewolf had moved to Fairbanks from a town not far from Spokane. A few weeks after she arrived, we got to talking and it turned out she’d seen Zoe in the area around the same time Lucas’ brother had disappeared. She hadn’t caught sight of Micah, but it had given me hope that maybe he’d been hidden somewhere in the city.
    I ran a hand down Lucas’ chest. “If I tell you, are you going to flash over there and leave me here?”
    “You don’t trust me?” He leaned in closer.
    I breathed in his musky scent and felt my body stir. Part of me wanted to forget the Micah business and take him back to the hotel instead.
    “Under the circumstances, no.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and rose up on my toes—two could play at this game. “If I tell you, you’ll go see the alpha without me and claim it’s for my own safety.”
    He grabbed my ass and yanked me up, wrapping my legs around him. My back hit the wall. Our lips were only inches apart, but when I tried to kiss him, he pulled his head back.
    “You’re testing my patience, Melena.”
    Someday we were going to have a conversation that didn’t involve a battle of wits or sexual coercion. Then again, probably not.
    “If you don’t let me go with you to see the alpha.” I ran my hand up his back. “I’ll put a blood circle around my house. Then you’ll have to come in through the front door like a normal person and there will be no more showing up naked in my bed in the middle of the night.”
    “I told you before what would happen if you tried that again,” he growled.
    I batted my eyelashes. “That was before you fell in love with me. You won’t destroy my house now.”
    “Your confidence in yourself is becoming wearisome.”
    He readjusted his hands under my ass and traced a finger along my bare skin. With my skirt open to him, he was getting dangerously close to discovering how wet he was making me. I was acutely aware of this and trying hard not to think about it.
    “You like my confidence,” I replied, nipping at his neck.
    He growled and nipped me back.
    “Must you two carry on like this every time you see each other?” Kerbasi asked, walking up.
    It was about time he showed up. I’d sensed him leave the car and had counted on him being the proverbial cold splash of water I needed.
    Lucas’ eyes glowed gold as he turned his head in Kerbasi’s direction. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll go away—now.”
    The guardian let his own eyes glow silver. “I think not. Your woman has forced me to sit in that horrible contraption humans call a car by myself for too long.”
    This was going to turn into a full-out brawl if I didn’t stop it soon. Kerbasi was too powerful and full of himself to back down. Lucas had been tortured daily by him in Purgatory and wanted revenge. Not that I could blame him, but the animosity