Noah. Jacquelyn Frank

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      Isabella coalesced with a sharp snap in Corrine’s living room. It made no sense to her that Corrine would take Leah without sending Kane to them with a quick pop-in-o-matic message telling them so. Even if it had been terribly close to dawn, Corrine would have known she’d be mad with worry and would have found a way to reassure her that her daughter was safe in her care. Then again, Kane was limited to teleporting to places he had been to or seen before. With the two Enforcers running around like they had been, getting a locus on them would have been impossible for Kane.

      Bella rubbed her hands together anxiously as she oriented herself to her surroundings. Right away her hunting senses flared to life, alerting her to the presence of not only her daughter, but her sister and the elusive Demon King. Instantly on the heels of that was the aura of something else…something powerful and distorted…and a blanketing underlayer of fear that was so potent, the little Druid could practically taste it.

      Everything she sensed went directly into her husband’s awareness, but she ignored his shouting voice of warning in her head as she ran across the room to Corrine’s meditation quarters. She threw herself at the door, which burst open with the momentum of her weight.

      The room was swirling with eerie, alien energy, a fog of smoke, and a crackling web of lightning that ran along the ceiling. The rush of air the opening door sent into the room pushed the center of the cloud of smoke back in an angry swirl. The wild billows and curls parted with abrupt violence, revealing the imposing figure of the Demon King standing within.

      In his arms he held the limp form of a human woman.

      Isabella gasped with shock, no matter how much Jacob’s thoughts had warned her she might encounter something exactly like this.

      “Bella!”

      Isabella turned at the sound of her sister’s voice, instantly making out Corrine’s huddled figure and the fact that her daughter was clutched desperately in her arms.

      “Be careful! He’s gone mad!”

      Isabella snapped her attention back to Noah. She instinctively braced her feet as she took note of his abrupt advance on her, the unconscious human woman still clutched in his powerful arms.

      “Noah,” she addressed him quickly and softly, “what are you doing?”

      “Making things right,” he answered as if it would explain everything. “She is mine.”

      “That may very well be,” she said hurriedly, purposely putting herself in his path when he made the move to go around her.

      He could have altered form in a blink, but he knew as well as she did what that would force her to do. If there was truly one person in all Demon society who could bring this to a quick end, it was Bella. But there was a price to pay when she snatched someone’s power, so if she could avoid it, she would. She had taken of the King’s power once already, with disastrous consequences that had nearly cost several lives, including her own. It wasn’t something she wanted to repeat, especially with her vulnerable family in such close proximity.

      “Noah,” she continued, her voice pitched with calmness and gentleness. “If she is your destined mate no one will keep you from her. However, this isn’t the way to bring the woman into our world. It isn’t our way or the way of your laws.”

      Bella glanced down at the woman in question, taking a better look at her. Her head hung limply back over the King’s left arm, a braid of pure white hair swinging in the smoky air. She was pale, clearly drained of most of her vital energy, a condition Isabella was familiar with enough to know who had initiated it. Since Noah had committed his crimes in Corrine’s presence with apparent purpose, it was very likely that this woman was his intended mate. However, she could also be an innocent on the wrong end of the King’s misdirected and volatile emotions. Either way, Noah was in no state to be in charge of the fate of a vulnerable human female.

      “She looks weak,” Isabella noted softly. “Let me help.”

      “Stand back, Enforcer. You will not take her from me.”

      “I didn’t say I would,” she agreed quickly. “But if you force us into an altercation, Noah, it could harm everyone in this room. Leah, Corrine…and this female as well. You’re so powerful that I’d have to dampen your power with every ounce of my strength. There would be little room for finesse, Noah. The young woman you hold couldn’t stand such a drain on her energy.”

      “As you say, Leah is in this room. Can so young a child bear the brunt of her mother’s power?” he countered coldly.

      “Perhaps not. But I can guarantee that you will not survive her father’s wrath if anything happens to her or any of his family.”

      Noah looked up over the tiny Druid who blocked his path, to meet the black gaze of his male Enforcer. He realized then that Isabella had been stalling him while awaiting her husband’s arrival.

      Finally, the monarch visibly hesitated. One Enforcer; perhaps he could get away with the advantage in such a battle. However, the matched set was something else entirely.

      It was this moment of hesitation that always heralded a turn in the dynamics of an enforcement situation. Jacob was quite familiar with it after all these centuries. The hesitation was no doubt as selfishly motivated as anything else the King had done in these past few hours, but it was also the first step toward logical reasoning. If he realized how futile his situation was, he would be on the path of recognizing the other flaws in his uncontrolled behavior.

      Jacob put a hand on his wife’s waist, nudging her gently in the direction of their child. As Bella hurried to inspect and protect her sister and her baby, Jacob squared off with his longtime friend.

      He observed every detail of Noah’s body language for a quick second, everything from the solid brace of his feet to the death grip he had on the blond woman hanging so limply in his arms. She would sport some serious bruises come the evening, but Jacob was determined to see that was the worst of the damage. It worried him that her breath came so shallow and that she was so deeply unconscious, but his senses, as sharp as all of nature, told him Noah hadn’t had the time to put any other marks or damage on her.

      “I will not allow anyone to take her from me. I no longer care what sacrifices have to be made, I will make them to keep her. Do you understand me?”

      Jacob understood perfectly. In that moment, the King would go through every single living being in that room—in their very society—to keep his prize. Jacob knew the feeling well. Even he had once threatened Noah when he’d been forced away from Bella after their first intense encounter. It had torn at his soul and his sanity in a way that he didn’t think he could ever truly bear again. Not without becoming pure animal and instinct, pretty much exactly like the Demon before him.

      “I understand. But the only way you can truly keep her is to obey the law and its protocols. You realize that, do you not?”

      Noah hesitated again, taking a moment to СКАЧАТЬ