Page 60 of Kidnapped By the Beast
Her heart slammed into her ribs as the last thought solidified.
Oh my God—Rage. He’s going into Rage!
Natalie’s voice came back to her, unbidden, from a night long ago when they’d sat up late in her apartment on Earth, whispering secrets.
“It was back before V’rin and I were mated—when we were still getting to know each other. I invited him to come with me, to my high school reunion,” Natalie had told her, twisting one long braid around her finger nervously. “V’rin went to get us some punch, and I ran into this guy I used to have a crush on—Jed Winters. He was so friendly—noticed me like he never did back in the day. Stupid me, I thought he just wanted to talk. He said he had something to show me—an old trophy he won—so we went down the hall to the gym to look at the trophy case. I thought we’d just be gone for a minute, so I didn’t bother to tell V’rin.”
Lexi remembered how her friend’s face had darkened, her brown eyes serious.
“What happened?” she’d breathed, fearing the worst.
“He attacked me,” Natalie said bluntly. “He shoved me against the bleachers and put his hand over my mouth so I couldn’t scream. He started trying to—” She swallowed hard, shaking her head. “I couldn’t breathe. Lexi, I was terrified—I didn’t know where V’rin was. I thought I was on my own.”
Lexi had gasped, clutching her friend’s hand.
“Natalie, that’s awful!”
“But then he was there.” Natalie’s expression had softened with awe and lingering fear. “V’rin. He ripped the guy off me and punched him so hard I thought his face would cave in! His fangs were bared and his eyes had gone blood red—he didn’t even look human anymore. Or Kindred, I guess. I mean, he looked like death coming for that man. And I really think he would have killed him if a bunch of the other guys at the reunion hadn’t pulled him off. It took six of them, Lexi!”
Lexi remembered the shiver that had run down her spine as Natalie related the story.
“He told me later that the Goddess warned him I was in trouble. He felt me in his blood, Lexi. He knew I needed him. That’s what Rage is—it’s when a Kindred male’s love for you turns into fury—when he’d destroy anything or anyone who threatens you. It’s amazing…but it’s terrifying, too.”
And now Lexi understood exactly what Natalie had meant.
Because Brandt didn’t look like the calm, controlled scientist who’d lectured her about nectar production, or even the stern man who’d spanked her until she sobbed. He looked like a beast unchained.
His red eyes locked on the Terian who had dared to reach for her, and his growl deepened into something primal, promising imminent violence.
The man stumbled back, his purple face blanching as Brandt’s snarl split the air. There were no words this time—just pure fury in the low, guttural growl.
Lexi’s breath caught.
Is he actually going to kill him?
The square trembled with silence, every eye fixed on the Beast Kindred in Rage.
And Lexi, locked and helpless, could only watch as the man who had once treated her like nothing but a science experiment now looked ready to rip someone’s head off for her.
31
BRANDT
A bloody curtain had fallen over his vision—a curtain of violence and Rage.
One instant Brandt was hurrying into the square, scenting Alexandra’s fear and humiliation…the next he was swallowed by pure, unrelenting fury.
His eyes burned red, his muscles surged with impossible strength, and every rational thought was drowned beneath the roar of a single command: Destroy anyone who fucking touches her.
The Terian male who had dared to reach for her breast stumbled back as Brandt’s growl rolled across the square like thunder.
“Touch her and die!” he thundered, the words tearing from his throat in a voice so deep it seemed to vibrate the whole square.
The Terian took one more look and fled, shoving his way through the crowd. Brandt’s eyes tracked him for a heartbeat, his hands itching to rip the bastard apart. But then his gaze snapped back to Alexandra—his Alexandra—locked in the stocks, her breasts exposed, her sweet nectar dripping for all to see.
Rage howled inside him. How dare they hurt her like this? How dare they put her on humiliating display?
With a roar, he strode forward and the crowd scattered like dry leaves before a storm. He wrapped his hands around the heavy alien wood of the stocks and pulled, his muscles bunching. The lock snapped with a shriek of metal and the thick, resinous boards that would have held any Terian immovable, cracked apart like kindling beneath his grip.
