Free Dead After Dark by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Dianna Love, J. R. Ward, Susan Squires Page A

centuries.
    Even after she’d betrayed him.
    Balling it in his fist, he looked at her. “Why are you here?”
    She wasn’t sure really. No, that wasn’t true, she knew exactly why she’d come. “I couldn’t leave without telling you something.”
    He rolled off his retort in a dry, brittle tone. “You hate me. I suck. I’m an animal unfit to breathe the same air.” He dropped the necklace back into the top drawer and closed it. “I know the tirade. I’ve heard it my entire life. So go away.”
    “No,” she said, her voice cracking from the weight of her fear and guilt. “That’s not what I wanted to tell you.” Uncertain of her reception, she approached him slowly, like she would any wounded animal. She placed her hand over the one he had balled into a fist. “I’m sorry, Fury. You gave me your friendship and loyalty, and when I should have treasured it, I turned on you. I have no excuse for it. I could say I was afraid, but I shouldn’t have been afraid of you.”
    Fury stared at her hand on his. All his life he’d been rejected. After he’d left his mother’s patria, he hadn’t reached out to anyone for fear of being hurt again. Because of his untrained powers, he’d always felt awkward around everyone.
    The only person who’d ever made him feel like the man he wanted to be was . . .
    Her
.
    “You stabbed me.”
    “No,” she said, tightening her grip on his hand. “I stabbed at a painful memory. You know me, Fury, but what you don’t know is that I have never in my life turned into a wolf. Even though it’s part of me, it’s a part that I have never been able to accept. I’ve lived my entire life trying to silence a nightmare that has never relented. We were friends, you and I. And not once since you left have I ever found anyone who made me feel like you did. In your eyes, I was always beautiful.”
    He met her gaze and the pain inside him scorched her. “And in your eyes, I’m a monster.”
    “A monster named Furry?”
    He snatched his hand away from hers. “He can’t pronounce my name yet.”
    “No, but you answer to it and you protected a woman who twice wounded you.”
    “So what? I’m a stupid asshole.”
    She reached up and touched his face. “You were never stupid.”
    He turned his face away. “Don’t touch me. It’s hard enough to fight your scent. After all, I’m just an animal and you’re in heat.”
    Yes, she was, and the closer she was to him, the more that basic part of herself wanted to be with him. Every hormone in her body was on fire and it was weakening her will.
    Or was she just using that as an excuse? The truth was, even without this she’d spent hours at night remembering him. Remembering his scent and his kindness. Wondering what it would have been like had he been Arcadian and still with her.
    In all these centuries, he’d been her only real friend and she’d missed him terribly.
    Swallowing her fear, she forced herself to say what she really wanted to. “Sate me, Fury.”
    He blinked at her words. “What?”
    “I want you.”
    He shook his head and cast her a scathing glare. “That’s your hormones talking. You don’t want me. You just need to get laid.”
    “There’s a house full of men downstairs I could pick from. Or I could go home and find one. But I don’t want them.”
    He moved away from her.
    She followed him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Your brother told me that the lions are hunting us. I have no doubt they’ll find me and kill me. But before I die, I want to do the one thing that I used to dream about.”
    “And that is?”
    “Be with you. Why do you think while you were in the patria that I never chose a male to sleep with after I reached my prime?”
    “I figured you thought they were limp.”
    She smiled at his insult. It was so classic Fury. “No. I was waiting for you. I wanted you to be my first.” She trailed her hand down to cup him in her hand.
    Fury sucked his breath in sharply. It was so hard to