Page 41 of The Secrets of Roan Island

“Take your hands off of her,” Noah growls, his voice reduced to the lowest common denominator of masculine rage.He looks… beautiful, an avenging angel. Tall, broad, strong. He wears a suit and mask like every other man in the room, but not a single man looks like he does.

My stomach flutters, then dives deep, winding around itself until I’m tied up in a way only Noah can untwist. His dark hair is wavy around his face, unkempt as if he’s raked his hands through it one too many times.

My heart jumps with relief, even knowing what he is. Even knowing what he could do to me. I trust that he won’t hurt me.

Tell me to stop.

“This doesn’t concern you. The bitch is my wife, and she wasn’t giving me what I’m due.” David tugs my hair harder, and I stumble, dropping to my knees, tears pricking my eyes.

“Ex-wife,” Noah corrects. His voice is calm but his eyes are completely black, telling me he’s not in control. And even now, I’m more scared of the man holding my hair than the monster with the dark eyes and sharp teeth. I don’t think David is aware of the danger he’s in.

David’s face slackens with surprise that Noah would know I’m divorced, or maybe in confusion and fear at the way Noah’s eyes have changed. His grip loosens just enough for me to twist, push him in the shins, and scramble away. Noah quickly pulls me into his arms.

“I’ll have you know,” David says, brushing off his pants as if I soiled them by my touch, “I’m a very powerful man, and your interference in my personal affairs will not go unnoticed. I was invited here by Noah Roan himself.”

Noah chuckles, and my heart stutters.

“You brought him here?” I look up in shock.

Noah’s hand is heavy and possessive on my hip, claws threatening the fabric and skin underneath. “I told you I would find out who hurt you.”

“What?” David sputters. “You’re…”

“Noah Roan.” Noah lets go of me and stalks forward. David’s mouth falls open. “And I didn’t bring you here for friendship, or influence, or your inflated ego. I brought you here for one reason only.” Noah moves so quickly he’s a blur. “Payment.” He grasps David from behind, pins his arms, and jerks David’s head to the side. His eyes meet mine, his fangs long. He holds for a moment like he’s trying to silently tell me something I can’t understand. Then he bites.

This isn’t the discreet feeding I saw with Jafeth and his woman, the one that looked more pleasurable than painful. Noah muffles David’s scream as fangs tear into flesh. Blood pools around Noah’s lips, his eyes on me as he drinks. David slips, but he doesn’t fall. Noah’s grip is too strong. He sucks and drinks viciously. David groans, stops struggling, and slumps.

“Noah, stop,” I cry, tugging on his arm. I care nothing for my ex-husband, but I don’t want to see Noah kill a man. “Noah, please.”

He blinks, removes his teeth from David, and drops him unceremoniously on the floor at my feet. “Do you see what I am now, Ruby? Do you understand?” He wipes the blood from his mouth with his sleeve. “Lock yourself in your room and be on the boat tomorrow.”

David groans and tries to crawl away. He only makes it a foot before he passes out.

I square my shoulders and look Noah straight in the eye. “No.”

21

Noah

“What do you mean, no?” I feel feral, completely at odds with the rational part of my brain. I’ve nearly killed a man at a new moon party, but all I see is her.

Before I can stop myself, I charge toward her, pinning her to the wall. “Don’t you get it! I’m dangerous. I’m the monster from your nightmares. The devil you should fear.”

She shakes her head, her eyes never leaving mine. Never wavering. “You’re not.”

Looking at her, my hearts slow. I don’t know what she sees in me, how she can look at me the way she’s looking at me now after what she just witnessed. There isn’t fear in her gaze, there’s something else. Something like compassion. It guts me. I step away and sink down on the chaise along the wall, elbows to knees and hands clasped behind my neck as I stare at the blood-speckled floor.

“But you see what I’m capable of, what I’ve done.” My inhale barely fills my lungs. I need to calm down, need to make her understand, but my blood pounds in my ears, my hearts racing at a dangerous pace. “You’re not safe here, Ruby. Not with my father. My brothers.Me. You’re a butterfly among beasts.”

When I risk a glance up, Ruby’s staring down at her ex-husband, the man who hurt her, who I’d still like to eviscerate. He’s unconscious, knocked out from the pain and the blood loss, since I refused to use the venom that would have made the experience pleasurable and healed his wounds quickly. Not for him.

“I know monsters, Noah.” Her gaze shifts from David to me. All the adrenaline has seeped out of her, leaving her looking tired and vulnerable. She walks toward me with sure steps and sits so close her hip presses against my side. Her sweet scent floods my nostrils. The blood I took from David has curbed my hunger, but I’m not satiated. What I really want, I still haven’t tasted. I bite my fangs into my own lip and knot my hands together to keep from reaching for her. At least now that I’ve fed, I feel more in control of myself. Slightly.

“When I was twelve, my younger sister and I were out playing in our tenement. I was supposed to be watching her, but she was–” Ruby pauses, looking at her hands clasped in her lap. She offers a short smile filled with poignancy and grief. “She was ten and refused to listen to me when I told her not to go past the boundary. We fought, and I left her.”

I think of my own brothers, our fights over silly things as children. Something so normal. I don’t understand why she’s telling the story, but I settle my beast and listen, fighting against my need to press her back against the chaise and drink my fill.

“I walked home, and Pearl didn’t follow. A few hours later, we were frantically searching for her.”

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