The night came, but Taber didn’t. The next morning, his brother Dayan was there, and in his hands he held the destruction of all her dreams. The letter Taber had sent her had shattered everything inside her. You’re still just a child, Roni. I’m a man. Mature and needing more of a woman to fulfill the needs I have. Someone old enough to understand those needs, not a ripe little virgin. Go home. You’re just a little girl playing with something you and I both know you can’t handle. Upon reflection, I’ve decided it’s best that our friendship terminate. I’m sick of rescuing you. Sick of the burden you’ve placed on me to protect you.Learn to protect yourself, and how to grow up. I have no idea how to raise a child, and I don’t want to start with you. Taber.

She returned to her home, the silence, the fears, and a hunger for Taber that had grown to nearly painful proportions. And fury. Sweet, hot fury coursed through her, both at Taber and at herself. Little girl. The words haunted her. He may not have fucked her, but he had made certain she had grown up quickly. One day, she swore, he would pay for that alone.

Chapter One

Fifteen Months Later

“If you’ll notice the small mark on her shoulder, you’ll see it appears to be a love bite.” The reporter pointed to a bruise-like shadow on the picture of Merinus Lyon’s shoulder, at the point where it met her neck. “We have no confirmations, but rumors are suggesting it’s a ‘mating’ mark. That there is an instinctive mating recognition between the Feline Breed, Callan Lyons, and his wife. It includes the mark, as well as a semen and saliva-based hormone that essentially acts as an aphrodisiac on the female. The Feline Breeds are denying this, but the reports that were slipped from the labs where the tests are being conducted are proving the supposition…”

Roni was in shock. She stood beneath her father’s regard, watching the report, feeling the blood drain from her face as her eyes centered on the mark revealed by the photo. It would be easy to claim it was no more than a love bite, but several photos in the course of three months showed it never changed, never healed. The reports smuggled to them said it never would. Roni’s hand rose to her shoulder, covering the mark she knew marred her own flesh, just as it did Callan’s wife.

“What the hell possessed you to fuck that freak?” her father sneered as he paced the room, his breathing harsh, fury outlining every inch of his body.

Reginald Andrews was a big man, not as muscular and tall as Taber, but strong enough that his anger caused Roni to flinch at the thought of remembered whippings. She was an adult now. She wouldn’t tolerate a whipping from him anymore, but she had never gotten over her fear of him. Her fear, or her hatred.

“Go back to wherever you came from,” she told him harshly as she continued to stare at the television screen. “They’re wrong.”

She had survived just fine without Taber, even after the way he marked her skin, destroyed her dreams. She had survived the endless threats and attempted attacks her father’s creditors had staged, and she had survived it alone. She could and she would get through this.

“You think you can lie to me?” he spat out as he came up beside her. He jerked her around until he could stare down at her, his washed-out brown eyes darkening in fury. “Do you look in the mirror often enough to see that disgusting place on your neck, Roni? Or does it sicken you too much to remember you spread your thighs for an animal?”

Roni watched him suspiciously. He didn’t care about her one way or the other and she had enough sense to know it. She highly doubted that he cared who she fucked, which meant there was more behind his anger than any parental concern or personal insult.

“Take your hands off me before I call your last employer and let him know exactly where the hell you are.” She kept her voice low, but there was no disguising the hatred that welled up inside her for her parent.

She hadn’t seen him more than half a dozen times in the past three years. None of those sightings had been pleasant. This one least of all.

“Roni, you’ve gone and ruined everything,” he yelled back at her furiously, but he did release her. “I nearly had you married, girl. Mr. Tearns would have paid for the use of you, while you let that cat have it for nothing.”

Ah, so now we get to the real story, she thought mockingly. How very typical ofReginald. Marriage to his boss, though, was a little bit extreme.

“My marriage? To your boss?” She laughed at him. “Is that why you showed up, Reggie? Do you think I’d so much as talk to the snakes you run with? I don’t think so. Fend for yourself. It’s what I do.”

What she had always done. She turned back to the television, nearly losing her breath at the recorded

interview with the five Feline Breeds. Taber’s voice sent a surge of heat flowing through her body that she didn’t even attempt to fight. She had learned over the years not to fight it. It only hurt worse when she did.

“Beats fucking an animal,” he sneered again. “You’ll be lucky to live if anyone sees that mark on your neck, Roni. I bet those Council bastards would love to get hold of you.”

Fear shot through her as she turned back to her father. How desperate was he, she wondered? She wasn’t stupid enough to think that any parental bond would keep him from selling his information to the highest bidder. He would turn her over in a heartbeat, if he hadn’t already.

“Don’t look at me like that, girlie.” His mouth twisted in disgust. “I’m not about to tell anyone. Hell, like I want it known my kid is a dirty cat fucker.”

She almost flinched at the term. Almost. She hadn’t fucked him; hell, he hadn’t even kissed her. All he had done was mark her, ruining her forever for any other man, then left her in a way that made her father’s desertions pale in comparison.

“Leave, Reggie.” She turned off the television. “I don’t need you here now any more than I’ve needed you over the past years. I don’t have any money, and I don’t want to put up with your crap. Just go away.”

She had learned that it wouldn’t do her any good if she did need him. The minute he thought she might, he ran.

“You can use this, Roni,” he finally said, his nasal voice wheedling. “We could give ‘em a story that could make us millions. We wouldn’t have to worry anymore.”

Horror rushed over her in a wave of sickening realization. She hadn’t seen him in months, and now he was here. Another scheme, another get-rich-quick idea and once again he didn’t care how he used her to attain it.

It was time to leave. She silently admitted that there was no way in hell her father would ever keep this to himself. She might have a few days at the most to get her things together and run. She stared around the small house she had lived in all her life. It wasn’t much, but it was all she had. The home her mother had dreamed of, but hadn’t lived long enough to enjoy. She would lose it now. The small cabin was no longer the shack it had been. The job she had found in Morehead as an accountant had allowed her to fix it up; new curtains and appliances, a comfortable sofa in a dark forest-green color with matching chairs, a small cherry coffee table and matching end tables, a delicate glass lamp. And she had a new bed rather than the mattress on the floor she had used for years. And now she was going to have to walk away from all of it.

“Go away,” she told him again. “And keep your mouth shut unless you want to die. Does it sound like the Council is something you really want to tangle with, Reggie? They would kill you before they paid you a penny.” There wasn’t a chance he would listen to her.

Fury flowed through her veins like acid, eating away the peace she had managed to find in her life in the past fifteen months. Just what she needed. To be drawn into something so dangerous that it made her father’s escapades look like tea parties.

“I’ll leave. But I’ll be back. You think about this, Roni. The bastard fucked you and left. What do you owe him? Make him pay, like he should have to begin with.”

He stomped to the door, casting her an angry, narrow-eyed look before he slammed from the house, leaving her alone once again. Roni shook her head wearily as she collapsed in the new chair.Leather, sinfully soft and supportive beneath her body.

“God, now what?” She raised her eyes to the ceiling as she fought back her tears and the reality of this new blow.

She didn’t want to leave her home. She had fought most of her life to stay, to hold together the fragile remnants of happier days and comfort herself with them. Now that was being taken as well. She would have to fix the truck. It was more dependable than the car, and would get her further. Unfortunately, like the car, it wasn’t in the best of shape. But it could be fixed. And she’d better fix it damned soon, because sure as hell her father wouldn’t wait long before trying to sell her to the highest bidder.

She shuddered in fear.

“Why did you do this, Taber?” she whispered with bleak sorrow into the empty living room, her empty heart.

She had been alone since the day Dayan had handed her the letter Taber had sent her. At first she had dated, determined to get over the one man she had always dreamed of loving. But she had learned quickly that her body would never accept the touch of another man, and her heart ached for what she knew she couldn’t have. But at times like this, when she desperately needed a shoulder to cry on, being alone really sucked.

Chapter Two

Roni stared into the guts and glory of the pickup truck she was working on hours later and sighed wearily as she finally admitted failure. It just wasn’t going to get fixed today, no matter how badly she wanted it done. And time was running out.

The ever-present trembling in her hands, the ache in the pit of her stomach, were too severe, and the fear washing through her mind did little to allow her the concentration she needed to fix the stubborn vehicle. Her father wouldn’t wait long before he made his move. When he did, her life wouldn’t be worth spit. But if she didn’t control the effects of what Taber had done to her, then she was in more trouble than she needed anyway.

It was getting worse, the weakness that assailed her, accompanied by an arousal that came just short of painful. This was one of the more severe spells that she had suffered over the past months, and the knowledge of where it stemmed from terrified her.

She lowered her head wearily as she braced her arms on the front of the vehicle and shook her head. She wanted to run, to hide. She wanted to return to a time when she could dream and find comfort in those dreams, but reality refused to allow her the vacation she needed.

There was no escaping the news stories, no escaping the truth that had exploded across the world. Roni had tried to bury herself in work rather than become glued to the television screen, as many others were. Or worse yet, being interviewed by many of the television crews that had invaded the small town of Sandy Hook, Kentucky. She had ignored it, until her father had forced the truth on her. Thankfully, so far she had managed to avoid the intrepid reporters and suspicious journalists. There were plenty of others more than willing to talk, though, and those interviews aired several times a day. As though the world couldn’t get enough of this newest sensation. Project Alpha. The creation of a special army designed to fight, to kill. Part animal, instinctive in their fighting responses and in their savagery. Rumor and innuendo hinted that the animal genetics they possessed went much deeper than just surface awareness or their incredible fighting skills. It had been hinted that the sexuality of the creatures was in question as well. Leaks among the scientists that had tested the five Breeds and Callan Lyons’ wife, Merinus Tyler, hinted at a hormonal infection, a biological “marking” that had bound Merinus to the fierce Callan. Roni trembled as she remembered the news story, her hand moving instinctively to her own neck, her own “bruise”. It didn’t matter that the Breeds were firmly denying this, that many in the scientific field were scoffing at it. She knew it was the truth. She knew because she carried Taber’s mark; suffered, often painfully with an arousal that couldn’t be dimmed no matter what she tried. And yet couldn’t be assuaged by another, either.