I was in this for real.
I didn’t want it. I’d only ever wanted one man, and he’d rejected me. To let a stranger touch me now was the worst thing I could imagine. My skin crawled, and my throat clogged with tears.
“Touch her and I’ll tear ye apart.” Furious words shredded the air.
I knew that voice. It was Kane, somewhere in the middle of the pack. I had to be hallucinating.
“You can’t do that,” another man hollered back.
His reply came just as angry. “Lovelyn, long brown hair, fucking beautiful. Any of you arseholes go near her and I’ll put ye in the ground.”
Another snarled back, and at last, I caught a glimpse through the bodies. Kane really was here, no mask, no disguise, just huge, brutal, and enraged.
A thickset man with long hair got in Kane’s way. “You don’t get to call dibs.”
Kane picked him up andthrewhim. He crashed in a heap to one side.
My jaw dropped. My back kissed the brick wall at the far end of the space. I couldn’t look away from the force of nature coming for me.
Nor could I understand why he was here, but he was calling out my name, claiming me before he’d even seen me. My broken heart ached for the words I’d so badly wanted to hear.
“She’s mine. Mine.”
Then he spotted me.
Kane’s prey.
He bellowed and charged. I clasped my hands behind my back to anchor myself, my legs seconds away from giving out.
But others clogged the gap between us.
A shadow broke from the melee, one of the men who’d been brawling nearest the cages. Over his mask, his face was red and slick with moisture, his eyes wild with bloodlust. He saw me, and the grin that spread across his mouth turned my blood to ice.
“Aw, you’re shaking. I’ll make you sweat, too.”
I shook my head and stumbled backwards. He came at me in three strides, so fast I barely had time to gasp. His hand shot out, catching my arm, and the bastard wrenched me hard against his chest. The stench of sweat and blood filled my nose.
“Scream for me.” He dragged his tongue across my cheek.
Revulsion crawled where he touched me. I rammed my knee up between his legs. He grunted but didn’t let go. Panic clawed up my throat, and I raked my nails down his face. He roared, releasing me long enough for me to shove him back.
I bolted, bare feet slapping on the concrete, but he recovered fast. He snatched my hair, jerking me to a halt so viciously myscalp burned, then yanked me back against him, his hot breath on my neck.
He growled, “You’ll do what I say?—”
The words were cut off by a brutal impact. The man jolted, the air leaving his lungs in a grunt, and then he wasgone, snatched backwards and slammed into a wall with bone-crunching force.
Over him, Kane breathed like a beast, sweat gleaming on his huge form. “Go near her again and I’ll tear ye apart.”
He didn’t need to raise his voice. Every man around us heard the promise.
The attacker tried to rise. Kane didn’t let him. He planted his foot on the man’s chest then followed with a savage punch that dropped him cold.
I staggered back, shaking, and pressed a trembling hand to my mouth. I’d fought, I’dtried, but the sound of my own cry still resounded through the chaos. Kane’s head snapped toward me, that same fury in his eyes softening.
“Lovelyn,” he said, his voice rough and low.
Shaking, I extended my hands to hold him off. “Stop.”
