Read Dead After Dark for Free Online Page A

happened?”
    He turned to find Fang standing in the doorway. “It looks like the Arcadians grabbed him and had some fun with him.”
    Fang’s nostrils flared. “I saw one of their bitches downstairs. Want me to kill her?”
    No
.
    Vane frowned as he heard Fury’s voice in his head. Fury opened his eyes to look at him.
    Where is she?
    “Downstairs. I have the pack guarding her.”
    Fury turned human instantly. “You can’t do that.”
    “Why?”
    “Her parents were killed by our pack. Ripped apart in front of her when she was only three years old. She’ll be terrified.”
    Before Vane could respond, Fury vanished.
     
    Angelia kept swinging at the wolves with her broken lamp as they closed in on her. Terrified, she wanted to scream, but the sound was lodged in her throat. All she could really see was blood, and feel the same horror she’d had the night her parents’ screams had echoed in her head.
    She couldn’t breathe or think.
    The next thing she knew, someone was grabbing her from behind.
    She turned, trying to hit her new attacker, then froze as she saw Fury there in human form.
    His touch gentle, he took the lamp from her hand and set it on the floor. His expression stoic, his eyes were every bit as blank. “I won’t let them hurt you,” he said, his tone soothing. “I haven’t forgotten my promise.”
    A sob came out from deep inside her as he pulled her against him.
    Fury cursed at the way she trembled in his arms. He’d never seen anyone more shaken and it pissed him off. “Back off,” he barked at the others. “You’re acting like fucking humans.” Angry at their cruelty, he led her toward the stairs.
    “I didn’t need your help,” she snarled at him.
    But he noticed that she didn’t pull away. “Believe me, I’m well acquainted with your willingness to stab and kill in cold blood.”
    Angelia stumbled at those cold words that were tinged with a well-deserved hostility. It was true. He’d been unarmed when they attacked him and she’d left him to his family and their brutality.
    Shame and horror filled her. “Why did you save me just now?”
    “I’m a dog, remember? We’re loyal even when it’s stupid.”
    She shook her head in contradiction. “You’re a wolf.”
    “Same difference to most people.” He stopped before a door and knocked.
    A gentle voice told them to enter.
    Fury pushed it open and nudged her inside. “It’s me, Bride. I’m still naked so I’m hanging out here. This is Angelia. She’s not real fond of wolves so I thought she might want to stay with you . . . if that’s okay with you?”
    Bride rose from her rocking chair as she cuddled a sleeping toddler in her arms. “Are you all right, Fury?”
    Angelia saw the fatigue on his face and could only imagine how much he must be hurting. Still, he’d come for her . . .
    It was amazing.
    “Yeah,” he said in a strained tone, “but I really need to lie down and rest for awhile.”
    “Go sleep, sweetie.”
    Fury paused and met Angelia’s gaze with a feral hostility so potent, it chilled her all the way to her soul. “You hurt her, you even give her a bad look that hurts her feelings and so help me, I will slaughter you like yesterday’s meal and no power, yours or otherwise, will save you. Do you understand me?”
    She nodded.
    “I’m not kidding,” he warned again.
    “I know you’re not.”
    He inclined his head to her before he shut the door.
    Angelia turned to find Bride closing the distance on her. Without a word and still holding the toddler, Bride stepped past her and opened the door. Fury was back in wolf form, lying in the hallway where he must have collapsed as soon as he closed the door.
    Her expression sympathetic, Bride knelt on the floor and sank one hand in his white fur. “Vane?”
    He manifested in the hallway beside her. “What the hell’s he doing here? I was looking for him downstairs.”
    “He wanted me to watch Angelia.”
    Vane looked at Angelia and gave her a nasty