Oh God, Katherine thought. "No," she said. "We have to get out of here!"

"It’s too late." Byron closed his eyes, only for a moment. "They’re near."

"Byron!" Katherine cried. Her voice shook. She tried to turn toward the cave entrance, wondering if when she did she would find a line of vampire silhouettes blocking the exit. "There has to be something we can do!"

*****

Byron could think of only one thing. It had always worked among his people; a mark prevented another male wolf from touching an alpha’s intended mate. But would it work against an Offspring’s bite?

Because he knew that’s what would happen. No vampire in his right mind would pass up a chance to have dormant for supper. The precious women were so rare, their blood so sweet, they were like drugs and sex and candy and alcohol on the tongue all at once. Dormant blood running through a werewolf’s system was pure ecstasy. Byron knew that it would be no different for a vampire; he was a part of them now. He could feel what they would feel. And Katherine Dare was a prize that was calling to him in a really, really bad way.

The vampires were coming. She needed to be protected.

"Just this," he said before his grip on her tightened once more. Her head snapped back around, her white-blonde hair flying about her lovely face as he pulled her into his arms and released her right wrist so that he could slide his hand around her waist.

She tensed in his embrace. "What are you doing?" she asked through gritted teeth. Fear was sending her into fight mode and no doubt her training was kicking in as well.

His hold on her left wrist, he maintained. "I’m going to mark you," he told her, and as he’d suspected she would, she instantly tried to pull out of his embrace. Of course, she failed. "You’ll be fodder for the Offspring who take us otherwise, Katherine," he told her over her struggles. And I want to do this, his wolf growled inside of him. Almost more than anything I’ve ever wanted to do.

Desperation tilted her tone when she cried, "You can’t do this!"

It was a useless thing to say to him at that moment, and they both knew it was patently false as well. He could do what he was about to do. And he was going to do it.

"You have ten seconds to pick a place, Kat," he told her, feeling his gums ache and his dick throb with the very idea of sinking his teeth into her sweet flesh. "And then I pick for you."