Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night

'So, she's definitely ready for a mate.' Rydstrom scrubbed his chin. 'Never have I seen a female so ready.'

'Doona speak about her like that!'

He shrugged. 'You should have heard Tierney. I've been near her for three weeks—it's getting stronger every day. If you take her back to civilization without some bond between you... other males will seek to steal her from you.'

'A bond? I doona see it forthcoming. She despises me.' Bowe sank onto a stump. 'I used to have it so easy with females.' He had no experience with this. For a millennium, a crook of his finger had him anyone he'd wanted. Now he truly had to question if he could win Mariketa over.

'There is a pleasing sort of irony that you actually want a witch, and she doesn't want you back.'

'Enjoyin' this, are you, then? She said we're no' compatible, or some such bullshite.' He frowned. 'Do you know what jangle pop is?' When Rydstrom shook his head, Bowe continued, 'And she asked me if I would go back for Mariah.'

'Discerning question.'

'Whose bloody side are you on?' Bowe asked, but Rydstrom merely hiked his shoulders. 'So she asked me, and I told her I... would.'

'Ill-advised, Scot.'

'That's the way I felt at the time. Should I have lied to her?'

'At the time? Twelve hours later, and it's different? Didn't I tell you to make a decision and stick to it?'

'It's no' that easy. Every time I realize how much I want the witch, I continue to feel disloyal. And I doona want Mariketa to think me disloyal—but then I'm really no' if she's truly Mariah.' He raked his fingers through his hair. 'One could go crazy thinking about all this.'

'Just reason it out. What are the pros and cons with her?'

'Reason! Always with your bloody reason. Do you know what I'm going to enjoy? When you meet your demoness and she shakes to hell your unflappable demeanor. I'm going to laugh when you turn enraged, horns flaring ramrod straight every time she saunters by.'

'Noted. Now, begin with the pros.'

'Verra well. She's clever, she's brave, and, by all the gods, she's been graced in form. And I'm no' going to apologize for being a typical male—I do want the sexiest female I've ever laid eyes on to be mine. I'll admit that I want her on my arm and in my bed. And I want to be smug over having her desire me, too.'

'The cons... '

'Right back to the witchery. Would you no' be a tad unnerved if your female could unleash the force of an atomic bomb whenever she got nettled with you?'

Rydstrom nodded in commiseration, then said, 'Take away the fact that she's a witch—'

'I will be taking away that fact,' Bowe interrupted. 'Practicing witchcraft is voluntary. I could see to it that she never—'

Out of the blue, a bee stung him. 'Damn it,' he muttered, slapping it away, then continued, 'If I snatched her away from her coven and immersed her with the Lykae—'

Another sting. 'Son of a bitch!'

When the odd breeze blew once more, Bowe narrowed his eyes. 'The witch.' He gazed up at the sky and all around him. 'Playing with me again! I'll turn her over my knee for this.'

When Mari had seen Cade and Tierney return, she'd hastily shut the mirror and returned it to her pocket. Yet even now, she was still reeling from everything MacRieve had said—and, naturally, she was dying to sting him some more.

She didn't know what had thrown her worse—that he'd so easily thought to take away her magick, or that he'd said she was the sexiest female he'd ever seen. Sexiest meant sexier than even his perfect mate...

'Survived last night, I see,' Cade said as he took a spot next to her on the rock.

'I was about to die of irritation, but that's about all I faced.'

He drew off his sweat-dampened shirt. 'I have to admit I thought things would be different.' At her raised brows, he said, 'Bowen used to have a lot of success with women. Or with 'wenches,' as he called them back then. A new one every night.'

Wenches? 'Is that so?' She wasn't jealous. Whatsoever. 'Rydstrom seems to be friends with him, but you're not. Why's that?'

'We fought over a female, of course.'

Maybe a tinge of jealousy. No males had ever fought over her. 'What happened?'

'He knew she wasn't his mate, but she still could have been mine. He took her to spite me. After him, she had no time for a demon mercenary, though he never saw her again.'

'Am I an attempt to get back at him?'

Cade ran his hand over one of his horns. 'Maybe. Does that offend you?'

'No, because I might be using you to make him jealous.'

'Because you want him?'

'No, because he wants me'—she smiled sweetly—'and I want to hurt him.'

'MacRieve is long overdue for someone like you.'

'I do my best.' She tucked her hair behind her ear. 'Cade, I was wondering about something. Rydstrom told me you two didn't grow up in the same household.'

'I was fostered out. I rarely saw my family, but that's the custom.'

'Oh, that must have been awful.'

'Actually, it was great. I never wanted to return... even refused to when Rydstrom summoned me to rule while he went to war. He blames me, you know, for losing his crown. Said if I'd been there while he was away from his kingdom for so long, he'd still have it. Hell, he blames me for all his troubles.'

'I heard you two arguing about it in the tomb. Do you wish you had returned now?'

He nodded slowly. 'At every hour.' After glancing around, he leaned closer to her to murmur, 'Mari, I wouldn't have said this in front of the others—because my reputation as a cold, selfish, and untrustworthy bastard suits me—but you sound like you've got a destiny to fulfill. And if you turn your back on your calling—maybe to be a Lykae's browbeaten mate and wife—fate will not just slight you.' His expression grew grave. 'She will punish you, over and over—'

A sudden roar sounded behind her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a huge fist swinging out at Cade.

It was MacRieve. In a killing rage.

29

Mari heard the crack of bone just before Cade flew across the rocks, landing in the brush.

She thought that his collarbone had snapped, but he still scrambled to his feet to face MacRieve.

As Cade snarled, his eyes and horns turned black. MacRieve's fangs and claws lengthened, but neither had fully turned to his beastly or demonic form—they both seemed just on the edge.

When Mari unsteadily stood, Tierney said from behind her, 'Don't even think about getting in between them.' Was he eating at a time like this?

Without looking away from the two, she said, 'But they'll kill each other!'

'A single stray punch from one of them, and you're dead.'

As Mari watched them fighting, she truly began to believe that. The two circled, scanning the other for weaknesses, striking out at intervals with fists like anvils. She caught herself flinching every time they smashed each other's face.

Like a shot, they both charged, their heavy, pounding steps punching through the brittle limestone ground. In