Shameless Desire (The Outlawed Realm) by Tina Donahue Read Free Book Online Page A

being here proved it. So did the cruel scratch marks on his arms.
    Lowering her revolver, Gwen pushed to all fours to get a closer look at his injuries. In the gloom, the lacerations appeared black. She recalled when he’d been in the bathroom. He must have been washing the blood off. If those gashes were from the wolf, Kuma would need rabies and tetanus shots. She stated the obvious. “You’re hurt.”
    Her breasts appeared to entrance him. His Adam’s apple bobbed with his hard swallow. “I’m fine.”
    Spoken like every other man she’d ever known, so macho they’d deny a bullet to the heart. “Screw that. You’re still bleeding.”
    He ran his fingertips over the wounds. They narrowed instantly, closing to thin lines as they healed.
    Gwen gaped. “Oh my God, how’d you do that?”
    “Do what?” Staci asked, moving toward him.
    Kuma regarded her. She stepped back and flapped her hands. “I won’t come any closer. Don’t hurt me.”
    “He won’t,” Gwen said, even though she didn’t reach for her gun again. Somehow, she knew she wouldn’t need it…at least not against him. “I don’t understand any of this. What you just did, it was a trick, right?”
    “No.”
    “Then how—”
    He interrupted, “The experiments the rulers conducted on my kind millennia ago allowed us to heal ourselves to some extent, as long as the wounds are superficial. For serious injuries…” He stopped, a pained look racing across his face.
    “What?” Gwen asked.
    His expression changed, as though he noticed her again. “The rulers wanted to use my ancestors to benefit their kind as warriors, fighting whatever battles they faced. They bred us for strength, resiliency and intelligence. We’re able to adapt quickly, learning customs, languages, whatever we need to survive.”
    Their kind? His kind? Rulers? Gwen forced down a swallow. “I get it that you’re not from here.” It took her a moment to continue. ”That is, Seattle or this country.”
    “This plane,” he said.
    That didn’t sound good at all. Before Gwen could stop herself, the words rushed from her. “Are you saying you’re from another planet?” Was such a thing even possible?
    “Not another planet,” he said. “Another realm. E4.”
    Staci moaned.
    “It’s okay,” Gwen said to her, not wanting her cousin to make this worse than it already was. He’d just healed himself when that wasn’t at all possible, and now he was claiming to be from another realm, whatever the fuck that was. How could that be? Did this country’s scientists know about this? Had the nitwits caused the phenomenon?
    “No matter how shocking you find what I’m telling you,” he murmured, “it’s the truth.”
    That remained to be seen. “Where exactly is this E4 realm?”
    “Beneath your plane, closer to the planet’s core. From the stories my ancestors passed down, there are five dimensions on this planet. The one we’re on now is known as E1, the nearest to the sun.”
    And E4 was called that because it was three realms down? Made sense in a crazy sort of way, not that Gwen wanted to believe any of it. She stared at his arm again. What he’d done had to be a trick. Maybe he performed as a magician when he wasn’t in alleys, carrying women home after psychos had attacked them.
    “You sense I’m not one of your kind, but you want more proof,” he said.
    “What’s he talking about?” Staci asked.
    Gwen lifted her shoulders. “What proof do you have?”
    He rested his hand on the metal button of his jeans. Was he going to strip now and show her his goods? Gwen had no doubt they’d be as magnificent as the rest of him. His biceps were deliciously toned, his smooth chest solid with well-defined muscles, his belly flat, the bulge behind his fly weighty, his balls and cock no doubt pendulous, smelling of—
    “Watch out!” Staci warned.
    Gwen froze as he approached the bed. To her surprise, he didn’t reach for her gun, nor did he strip and give her some