Unleash the Night Read Free Page B

it.
    She certainly wasn’t the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, but there was something about her that held his attention. Something about her that seemed lost and hurt.
    Sad.
    In the wilds of Asia where he’d been born, such a creature as she would have been killed and eaten by something stronger. Fiercer. Vulnerability of any kind was an invitation for death. And yet he didn’t feel that familiar swell of adrenaline that made him want to attack the weak.
    He felt an inexplicable desire to protect her.
    More than that, he wanted to go over to her and offer comfort, but then, what did he know about comforting a human? He was a feral predator in human form. All he knew was how to stalk and to kill.
    How to fight.
    He knew nothing of comfort. Nothing of women. He was alone in the world by choice, and he liked it that way.
    Marvin, the resident monkey mascot of Sanctuary, came running up to Wren with a new cloth for cleaning the tables. He took it from Marvin’s hand as he forced himself to go back to cleaning the table. Still, he felt the unknown woman’s presence, and before long he found himself staring at her again while she talked to her group of friends.
    *   *   *
    Marguerite took a sip of her beer while Elise and Whitney ogled the men in the bar. She reached for a pretzel only to have Blaine slap her hand.
    He looked aghast at her. “Are you insane? Do you know how long that has been out? How many grimy hands have been in it? For that matter, our termagant waitress probably poisoned it just for spite.”
    Marguerite rolled her eyes at his unreasonable paranoia. She glanced back to the busboy, who had moved closer now. He was working again, but even so she sensed that she was his primary focus.
    She frowned as she saw a tiny brown spider monkey run up the busboy’s arm to rest on his shoulder.
    The busboy pulled a small carrot from his white apron’s pocket to hand to the monkey, who ate it while the busboy returned to work. She bit back a smile as she realized who this guy was. He must be Wren. Nick used to talk about him from time to time. He’d told her that at first he’d thought Wren was mute, since he never, ever spoke to anyone. They’d known each other for a full year before Wren had finally mumbled, “Hi,” one day when Nick had come in to visit his mother.
    According to Nick, Wren was a complete loner who kept to himself and who refused to participate in the world. The only reason Marguerite knew it was him was that Nick would talk about the monkey … Wren’s only real friend, who was prone to steal their billiard balls while the two of them played in the back corner of the bar.
    The monkey was named Marvin.…
    Blaine caught sight of her watching the busboy. He turned in his chair to see Wren, who had returned to staring at her. At least that’s what it seemed like, but again, he kept his hair over his eyes, so there was no way to know for certain.
    â€œIs he bothering you?”
    â€œNo,” Marguerite said quickly, afraid of what Blaine might do. In a weird way, she felt almost flattered. Men didn’t normally notice her unless they knew who her father was. It had been her mother who had turned heads.
    Never Marguerite.
    â€œWhat are you looking at?” Todd snapped at the man.
    Wren ignored him as he moved to the table beside theirs that was covered with glasses and a plate of half-eaten nachos.
    Marguerite could sense that he wanted to speak to her and she found herself wondering what he looked like underneath all that blond hair. There was an air of danger around him. One of powerful restraint, and yet she sensed that he didn’t want to attract anyone’s attention.
    It was as if he wanted to blend in seamlessly with the background but was completely unable to do so.
    A strange image of a sitting tiger in the zoo came to her mind. That’s what he reminded her of. A large beast that was