Dead After Dark by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Dianna Love, J. R. Ward, Susan Squires Read Free Book Online

almost be killed and done nothing to protect him.
    She wasn’t any better than the animals she hated, and that part of herself she despised even more.
    “I’m not proud of it, all right. I should have done something sooner and I know it. But I did keep them from doing anything more to him.”
    “You’re rationalizing your cruelty.”
    Angelia clenched her teeth. “I’m not rationalizing anything. Honestly, I just want to go home. I don’t like this time period and I don’t like being here with my enemies.”
    Bride gave her no reprieve. “And I don’t like what was done to Fury, but until I know more about it, we’re not enemies. The hostility at this point is only coming from you. I told Fury I’d keep you company and that’s what I’m doing. No enmity here.”
    Angelia cut a vicious glare toward the woman and her patronizing tone. “You have no idea what this feels like.”
    “Oh wait . . .” Bride said with a sarcastic laugh. “I was minding my own business when Bryani sent in a demon to kidnap me here in my time period and take me to her villagein medieval England—this back when I didn’t even know such things were possible. Once there, everyone I came into contact with threatened me when I’d done absolutely nothing to any of them, ever. And that included Dare Kattalakis. Then the males of their patria tried to rape me for no other reason than I was mated to Vane . . . Oh, wait, what am I saying? We hadn’t gone through the mating ritual yet. They were willing to attack me for nothing more than bearing his mark. So, I think I do have a little clue about what you’re feeling here. And in our defense, you’re not being manhandled.”
    Angelia put more distance between them. What Bride described had been four years ago. And though she hadn’t participated in it, she knew from the others how much damage they’d intended to do to the woman before her, and that sickened her, too. “I wasn’t there when they did that to you. I was out on patrol. I only heard about it afterward.”
    “Well, bully for you. It was still extremely traumatic for me. And unlike
your
people, I can assure you that not a single wolf in this house will attack you unless you provoke it by something
you
do against them.”
    Angelia scoffed at her arrogance and naivete. “You’re human. How can you entrust your life to animals? Don’t you understand how savage they are?”
    Bride shrugged. “My father’s a veterinarian. I was raised around all kinds of animals, wild and tame, feathered, furred, scaled, and other. And honestly, I find them much more predictable than any human. They don’t backstab and they don’t lie or betray. In all my life, I’ve never had an animal hurt my feelings or make me cry because of something they did.”
    “Count yourself lucky,” Angelia sneered. “I watched my entire family as they were eaten alive by the very pack of animals you have downstairs in your house with your child. The blood of my parents flowed from their bodies throughthe floorboards and drenched me while I lay in terror of being torn apart by them.”
    She looked to the crib where Bride’s son slumbered, peacefully unaware of how much danger he was in because of his mother’s stupidity. “I was only a year older than your child when it happened. My parents gave their lives for mine and I watched as they gave them. So you’ll have to excuse me if I have a hard time thinking good of any animal except those who are dead or caged.”
    “It really makes you wonder what the animals did to be provoked, doesn’t it?”
    Angelia turned at the sound of the low, deep voice that rumbled like thunder and sent chills over her. Standing head and shoulders above her, this man had a bad attitude so fierce it bled from every pore of his skin.
    Dressed all in black, he wore jeans, Harley biker boots, and a short-sleeved t-shirt that showed off a perfect male body. He had a long silver sword earring in his left lobe with a hilt made