“Fine, let’s start with an easier question. How do you know the name Abigail?”
“Because I’ve known about you since the day you were born.”
She rested a fist on her waist. Her whole body was strung tight. She was ready to explode at the first, wrong word. “Yeah?” she spat out. “As my protector, right? Isn’t that what you said?”
She gritted her teeth and lifted her chin. The more she thought about what he was saying, the more pissed off she became.
“Always.” He bowed his head.
“Then where the hell were you a year ago?” She lunged for Evan, ready to strangle the lies from his throat.
“There is much you don’t know.”
Rhys caught her in his warm, strong embrace. He wrapped her into his arms, pulling her back against his chest as if sensing she needed the restraint.
He placed a tender, calming kiss on her neck, and her anger returned to a simmer, waiting for the temperature to kick in. “He’s lying.”
“Unhand her, bear,” Evan demanded in a deadly tone, rising to stand in front of the fireplace. “My job is to protect you, Abigail, even if it’s from yourself. He is not your mate.”
She chuckled at his words. Maybe it was her nerves, her agitation, maybe even the sex she’d just had, or hell, it could have been from the deathly stare Evan was giving her, but she couldn’t help herself. She let the giggle building inside spill from her lips. Anger and agitation about this whole new feeling ripped through her. Here was this maniac telling her not to trust the only man, besides Trapp, who’d ever helped her, who’d ever vowed to make her happy. Who she was learning to…like. She hadn’t wanted a mate, but now…Being told that Rhys wasn’t hers? That just aggravated the piss out of her. What the hell did this schmuck think she was going to do? Trust him? Her whole body shook as she laughed at the situation. The attack, Evan, hell, even Horace coming after her. She continued to laugh hysterically until tears slipped free from her eyes.
They all watched her as though she’d grown a second head, but their confused looks just made her laugh even harder until she snorted, and that sound had her doubling over at the waist laughing even more.
“Did you tell him?” Evan asked, stepping closer.
She righted, swiping at her tears, taking deep, long breaths to push away the humor that only she apparently felt from the situation.
Dylan and Max moved across the room closer to her and Rhys, as if waiting for Evan to attack.
“Tell him what? That you’re missing a few screws? I think that’s pretty obvious.” She cleared her throat, trying not to smile.
He clicked his tongue and folded his arms over his black sleeveless leather vest. The top of his muscled arms were covered in some type of intricate tribal tattoos. Others might call her stupid for baiting this man, but she was past the point of caring what anyone thought. Evan was surrounded by a roomful of bears…and her.
“That the cat isn’t your only animal, that they’re all part of you.” He growled. “I saved you when you were taken.”
Elizabeth’s mouth parted at his words, and heat flooded her cheeks. She moved out of Rhys’ embrace, calling on the strength of her dragon that would tear apart Evan’s lies. She stepped toward the intruder, the man no longer welcome in this house. “Saved me? I don’t remember anyone putting a stop to those needles being shoved in my arms.” She took another step closer, grinding her teeth, the muscles in her shoulders strung tight. “Or when Boris was trying to tear out my throat…or hell, when I was on the verge of dying from all of that foreign DNA mixing in my veins. No…I don’t recall seeing you anywhere nearby, you delusional prick.”
“How easily we forget.” He answered.
She was standing directly in front of Evan, daring him to make a move, daring him to shift into anything so she’d be justified for killing the asshole just like she’d done to the scientist that had tried to kill her soul.
“Elizabeth.”
Rhys’ warm palms rested on her waist. He’d moved in behind her, and she felt his warmth radiating and surrounding her like a blanket on a cold winter’s day, calming her anger once again, in a way only he could. He eased her body back into his chest. His move was such a natural thing and yet unfamiliar to her.
Evan’s jaw ticked. His eyes flicked from mossy green to deep black like the pits of hell before returning to green. “You might not have seen me, but Iwasthere. I switched the vials they filled you with. If it hadn’t been for me, you would have died. They would have stripped away and killed every animal you have, leaving you nothing but a shell. That was their plan all along. You and you alone were the target. The other women that were taken were merely test subjects. It was you who they planned to make into a killing machine, and if that didn’t work, they’d planned to destroy you. Did you honestly think that it was possible for a normal human to survive all of that DNA?”
She remained silent. Her eyes flashed, changing the color of the room red in her vision.
“They pumped you full of your own blood, Abigail. That wasn’t a coincidence. It’s your own blood coursing through your veins.”
“This doesn’t make any sense. Why me? And how was it my own blood?”
A shimmer of something flashed in his eyes before he quickly masked it. “Because of who you are. You don’t you remember?” His words softened. “I promised to help you escape.”
Recognition of his voice made her pause. “You didn’t stop the bear? Because of you, I almost died.”
“The bear that used his bite to infect you with his enzymes was a stupid fuck. It was never his bite you had to worry about killing you. He’d ingested the enzymes in your blood and would have died within a month had you not already taken care of it yourself.” He stepped closer to her. “No, sweetheart, if I hadn’t intervened, you would most definitely be dead from the crap they had planned for you. There was a reason why I had access to your blood. They took it from you, and they studied it.”
