Tempting the Dryad Read online

  Marjani made an impatient sound. “This is Lord Dion’s brother. Now, get out of the way, Corban.”

  The sentry’s cold dark eyes narrowed, but at that moment Ed and Davi came up on either side of him and the other sentry.

  “What’s the problem?” Ed growled.

  Before Tiago could explain, the door to the meeting room opened and Dion exited, checking that the hall was safe for Cleia to enter. He saw Tiago and put a hand out to stop Cleia.

  “Wait here,” he told her and strode toward their little group.

  Adric was right behind him. “Marjani. Where the hell have you been? I’ve got half the clan out looking for you.” He pulled her into a tight hug. She stiffened and he released her, frowning. “What is it, Jani? What’s—”

  He halted and lifted one of her hands, staring at the bracelet of fingerprint-sized bruises marring her skin. Tiago had been too out of it back in the rowhouse to understand their full import, but now he realized someone had held her down by the wrists.

  Adric’s gaze traveled to the ugly splotches higher up her arms. He bit out a vicious curse. “What the fuck happened?” Without giving his sister a chance to answer, he glanced at Tiago, his bronze eyes dangerous. “And why the hell are you with him?

  “I’d like to know that too,” interjected Dion. “What’s going on, Tiago?”

  And then Cleia came up, flanked by Artan and Grady, and suddenly everyone was talking at once, demanding to know what had happened.

  Marjani passed a hand over her face. “I—”

  “For God’s sake,” Tiago interjected, “leave her alone. Can’t you see she’s hurt? She needs to sit down, not—”

  Adric swung toward Tiago. “What the fuck business is it of yours?”

  Tiago’s nostrils flared. Beneath his skin, the beast bristled. He glared back at Adric. He was injured, hung-over from that damn aphrodisiac—and sick unto death of the Baltimore shifters trying to push him around. The beast clawed at his insides, demanding blood.

  And, by the gods, he was tempted.

  “Enough.” Cleia’s low voice cut through the hubbub. She turned to the hurt woman. “What would you like to do, Marjani?”

  Marjani shot her a grateful look. “I’ll answer your questions, Ric. But please, not in the hall.”

  The earth alpha’s face softened. “Of course, babe. Why don’t we use the conference room?”

  “All right. But not everyone—just you and them.” She indicated Cleia, Dion and Tiago. “I don’t…I can’t—” Her face crumpled and she turned into his shoulder.

  Luc made a movement toward her, but checked himself.

  “Jani?” Adric rubbed her back, his expression taut. “Calm down. We’ll do anything you say.” He jerked his head at his men and they withdrew a few feet.

  Cleia moved to Marjani’s other side and slid an arm around her waist. “It’s all right. You’re safe now.” She and Adric steered Marjani down the hall to the conference room.

  Dion gave Tiago a searching look, then jerked his head for Tiago to precede him down the hall.

  Inside the room, Adric guided his sister to a seat at the large black table, then removed his quartz pendant. “Here, kitten. Put this on.” He stepped behind her chair and hung it around her neck.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, wrapping her fingers around it. “They smashed mine. It’s—the pieces are in the harbor now.”

  Adric’s fingers closed on the chair back, white-knuckled. “Who?” he asked hoarsely, his gaze shooting to Tiago, standing on the opposite side of the table. His bronze eyes flashed an eerie metallic blue. It was like looking into the heart of a flame. Tiago had to lock his knees to keep from taking a step back.

  Dion moved in front of Cleia, instinctively putting himself between her and the furious man.

  “Ric,” said Marjani. “It wasn’t him. I swear it.”

  Adric inhaled, visibly regaining control of his animal. Removing his hands from the chair, he took the seat beside Marjani with Cleia on her other side. Dion sat at the end of the table next to his mate, which left Tiago opposite Adric and Marjani.

  “Talk,” the Baltimore alpha barked at him.

  Tiago glanced at Marjani, who gave him a small nod. “I was out drinking at the Full Moon and I ran into an earth shifter. A woman. She invited me to an afterhours club. The Wildcat.”

  “Who? I want her name.”

  Tiago hesitated. He hadn’t forgotten that Shania hadn’t wanted the men in her clan to know that she was flirting with a Rock Run male. But there had been that odd interest in him and Jorge, as if she’d deliberately brought the two of them together.

  Marjani spoke up. “It was Shania. But she didn’t leave the Wildcat with us.”

  Adric nodded without saying anything, but Tiago knew he must be wondering what Shania had been up to.

  “At the club,” Tiago continued, “I ran into some river fada I know.” He met his brother’s eyes. “Jorge and Benny.”

  Dion’s expression didn’t change but Tiago could see him absorbing the implications. “How?” he asked coldly.

  “Hell if I know, but it was Jorge and Benny all right. I had a couple of drinks with them—that’s when they drugged me. The next thing I knew we were in a rowhouse on the east side.” He gave the name of the street. “There were four men by then—Jorge and Benny and two others. I didn’t get a good look at them, but I’m betting they were those two Greek sea fada—the ones who were part of Okeanos’s den. Anyway, I passed out. Apparently they gave me too much of the drug on top of the drinking I’d already done. And Marjani, well—”

  He cut his eyes at Marjani and halted. Across the table, her breath shuddered in.

  Adric turned his head to glare at Dion. “You know these men? They’re yours?”

  “They were. At least, Jorge and Benny were—I don’t know about the other two, but I suspect I know who they are. I banished all four of them five years ago.”

  “Why?”

  Dion’s mouth flattened. “For attacking Valeria and Merry,” he admitted.

  “It was them? And you left them alive?”

  “Four of them. Rui killed the leader in a mate-duel. I sentenced the other four to live out their lives in the desert. Jorge and Benny—we were friends, once, and Jorge was one of my tenentes. So like an idiot, I showed them mercy.”

  “But for a water fada,” Cleia interjected, “that was a harsh punishment—to be kept from the water like that…it’s a living death.”

  Both men ignored her. “Still, somehow they escaped,” Adric said in a neutral tone. “In less than five years.”

  “Yes.” Dion’s jaw clenched so hard Tiago feared he’d crack a tooth.

  “Orius.” Marjani spoke into the fraught silence. “I don’t know the other’s name, but Orius is the one I met at the Wildcat.”

  Dion cursed. “It’s them all right. The four men I banished were Jorge, Benny, and two Greek sea fada named Orius and Mys.” He turned back to Tiago. “Did they—”

  “Yes. They must have drugged us with the same aphrodisiac, the one Okeanos used on Valeria.”

  “An aphrodisiac?” Adric repeated. “You mean a love potion?”

  Marjani pressed a fist to her mouth. “I didn’t even want to fight back,” she said lowly.

  “Oh, sweetheart.” Cleia rubbed the younger woman’s back. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. It wasn’t you; it was the drug.”

  Adric’s hand went to where his quartz should’ve been. When he didn’t find it, his fingers curled into a fist which he set back on the table, softly, menacingly.

  “I want the truth, Jani.” He jerked his chin in Tiago’s direction. “I don’t care if he was fucked out of his mind. Was he a part of it?”

  “No.” Marjani had been looking down at the table, but now she lifted her head and met her brother’s eyes. “He’s telling the truth. They drugged him, too—put it in his whiskey while they were still in the club. I heard them boasting about it. When he came out of it, he fou
ght back. If it wasn’t for Tiago, I’d still—they’d still have me. He saved me.”

  Tiago tensed, waiting for her to get to the part where he’d turned into a beast, but all she said was, “He didn’t lay a hand on me. And I know he wanted to.” She swallowed noisily. “But he didn’t.”

  Adric speared his fingers through his hair, leaving the bleached spikes sticking straight up. “Then I owe you my thanks,” he told Tiago.

  Tiago jerked his head in acknowledgement, although he didn’t deserve the man’s thanks.

  “If it would help,” Dion told Marjani, “I could send a man to retrieve your quartz.”

  She shook her head. “I appreciate the offer, but no. They broke it into pieces too tiny for me to use.”

  “So let me understand,” Adric said to Dion. “These men are outcasts.”

  “That’s right.”

  “And you had a chance to kill them and you let them go.”

  “I banished them, sim.” Dion gazed back steadily, refusing to meet the challenge Adric was all but flinging in his face, but not backing down either. Tiago knew how hard it must be for his brother to allow a man a third his age to reprimand him. “A mistake—one I’ll never make again.”

  “A mistake,” Adric repeated scornfully. “My sister was drugged and raped, you S.O.B. Because of your frigging mistake.”

  Dion ignored him to look at Marjani. “All I can say is that I’m sorry. Believe me, senhora, if I’d known this was going to happen, I’d never have let them leave Rock Run alive.”

  She gave a jerky nod.

  Adric rose to his feet. “Let’s get out of here, Jan—”

  “There’s more,” Tiago interjected. “Benny’s dead.”

  The earth alpha retook his seat. “You?” He eyed Tiago with something like respect.

  “Yes. We fought, and I—killed him.”

  “Then I owe you doubly.”

  Tiago felt a wave of self-loathing. He couldn’t allow this to go on any longer. He knew damn well he wasn’t the savior Adric was making him out to be. Hell, he’d come close to raping Marjani himself. If it wasn’t that he’d thought about Alesia in that moment…

  “You don’t owe me a damn thing. If I hadn’t been so drunk, they’d never have hurt your sister.”

  “But she might still be there if you hadn’t fought them off.”

  Tiago moved a shoulder. “I suppose.”

  “They’re mine.” Adric shoved away from the table and stood up. “I claim them.”

  “No.” Dion rose too. “This is my problem. I’ll clean it up.”

  “Yeah?” Adric’s lip curled. “Will you have the balls to execute your friend Jorge this time? Or will you just slap him on the wrist so he can keep hurting women?”

  Marjani placed a hand on his arm. “Adric, please—”

  He covered her hand with his own but continued to glare at Dion. “Tell me. How would you feel if she were your sister—Rosana?”

  Tiago stiffened. They’d certainly done their homework. Dion kept Rosana close, only allowing her to leave clan territory to visit Cleia’s sun fae until she came of age next year. But then he recalled how Adric had stared at Rosana five years ago at the mating ball. The man had actually had the balls to ask her to dance. Tiago had been gone by then, but a couple of Rock Run males had run him off.

  Dion’s mouth tightened. “I’d want to rip off their goddamn colhões and feed them to the fishes.”

  “Then we understand each other. It’s my sister. My territory. I claim them. Let’s go, Jani.” Adric helped his sister to her feet. She couldn’t conceal a wince and Tiago saw the flash of anguish on the earth alpha’s face. But when he spoke, his voice was soothing. “Oh, baby. I’m sorry we kept you here so long. First thing we’ll do is call a healer.”

  Tiago and Cleia stood as well. The sun fae queen touched Marjani. “I’d be happy to help. I’m a healer as well.”

  Marjani shook her head. “Thank you, but I just want to go home.”

  “Again,” Adric said to Cleia, “peace, and our thanks. But we have our own healer, thank the gods.” He set a hand on the small of his sister’s back and started for the door.

  “Wait,” Dion said.

  Adric halted. “What?” he asked without turning around.

  “I haven’t agreed to your claim. Jorge and the others are my problem. I’ll take care of them.”

  “Like you did before?” Adric twisted his head so they could see his sneer. “No thanks.”

  Dion went rigid. His expression didn’t change but everyone in the room stilled, even Adric, the scornful look fading from his face. Tension thrummed in the air like a struck tuning fork.

  A beat passed. Two.

  “That was a mistake,” Dion replied evenly. “One for which I accept full responsibility. But since it’s my mistake, I’ll take care of it. Jorge’s life is mine, as well as the other two. For one thing, if they’re in the water, you’ll have the devil of a time tracking them.”

  Adric glanced at his sister, then bit out a curse. “Three days,” he said. “That’s all I’ll give you. After that I’m going after the bastards if I have to follow them into Hades itself.”

  Dion inclined his head. “Fair enough.”

  Adric helped Marjani from the room.

  Grady appeared in the doorway. “My queen?”

  “Give us a few minutes,” she said with a glance at Dion, and he withdrew.

  As soon as the door closed, Dion slammed his palm onto the table. “Damn Jorge and Benny anyway. I should’ve slit their sorry throats when I had a chance. And how the hell did they escape? They swore an oath on their true-names. Breaking a vow like that should be tearing them up from the inside out.”

  “That’s something I’d like to know myself,” said Tiago.

  “And why haven’t I been contacted?” Cleia added. “I expected Lord Okot to keep me updated about all four of them.”

  Dion growled. He sliced a glance at Tiago and switched to Portuguese. “What I don’t understand is why? Why you, Tiago?”

  “Easy pickings,” he said bitterly. “I happened to be there and I was stupid enough to drink with them. But I’m also your brother.”

  “Maybe they were trying to disrupt today’s meeting,” Cleia said.

  Tiago nodded. “Jorge hates you,” he told Dion. “He’s got to be pissed at seeing how the clan is doing so much better since you and Cleia mated. He’d do anything to cause trouble for you.”

  “Well,” said Dion, “as far as I’m concerned, this is war. All three of them are dead—by sunset if I have my way.”

  “Maybe I could help,” Cleia started to say.

  Dion was by her side in two large strides. He grasped her shoulders and gave her a little shake. “Don’t even think of it. I don’t want you within a mile of him—especially now. Entendes?”

  She blinked up at him. “Yes, of course. But—”

  “I mean it, woman. If he somehow got a hold of you—”

  “Hey.” She cupped his cheek in her hand. “Don’t worry. I’m stronger than him, remember?”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. But that’s not the point. Promise me, Cleia. I want to hear you say it.”

  She rolled her eyes but did as he asked. “I promise.”

  “Bom.” Keeping an arm around her, he turned back to Tiago, taking in the bruises, the wrinkled, pungent T-shirt, the day-old growth of beard. “Deus, Tiago. They worked you over, didn’t they? What the hell were you doing in that bar anyway?”

  “Not now,” Cleia said. “He’s hurt, Dion. Let me help him.”

  “I’m fine,” gritted Tiago.

  His brother just shook his head. “Where’s Benny, anyway? I’d better send some men to clean that up—unless Jorge got there first.”

  Tiago gave him the address. Dion called Ed and Davi into the room and explained what needed to be done. Benny would be feeding the fish by the evening.

  With them gone, Dion turned his attention back to Tiago. “Now talk. I want to know e
xactly what happened. I believe I ordered you to stay away from Baltimore and the earth shifters.”

  “You said stay away from the earth shifters, not Baltimore.”

  “And having a drink with an earth shifter female is your idea of staying away from them?”

  “No.” Tiago met his brother’s angry scowl. “I disobeyed a direct order. I spoke with an earth shifter at the Full Moon, too. One of Adric’s tenentes—Luc. I saw a chance at finding out what the earth shifters were up to, and I took it. And you know what? I’d do it again. Because if I wouldn’t have had the run-in with Jorge and Benny, I might have gotten some useful information.”

  Dion brought a hand up and squeezed his nape. “Deus, irmão.”

  Tiago straightened his shoulders. “I have no excuses. I deliberately disobeyed you. I’m ready to take the consequences.”

  “What about Jorge? How did he get involved?”

  “He came to our table, wanted to buy me a drink. I told him no but he did it anyway.”

  “And? Did he have you tied to your seat so you couldn’t haul your ass out of there?”

  “Dion, please.” Cleia placed a hand on her mate’s arm. “This can wait, can’t it? He needs healing.”

  Dion stared at Tiago, his jaw tight. But what cut deep was the disappointment shading his eyes. “Fine,” he said and stalked across the room to stare out at the harbor.

  Cleia pointed Tiago to a seat beside a window on the other side of the room. “Sit down and I’ll see what I can do.”

  He sank into the chair she indicated. The adrenaline that had sent him across Baltimore in order to see Marjani safe had completely dissipated, leaving him drained and aching. His head was pounding and his body felt like one big bruise. Even breathing hurt.

  Cleia had, of course, set him in a shaft of sunlight. As a sun fae, she drew energy from the sun; it would boost her Gift of healing.

  He closed his eyes against the brightness and let his chin sink to his chest. Cleia’s hands settled on his shoulders. He gave an involuntary sigh as energy undulated through him in slow waves, seeking out his bruised and battered places. Warming…soothing…repairing.