Blood Law by Karin Tabke

Lucien, he’d prefer to
keep Lucien suffering for as long as possible. Without answering his brother,
Rafe strode away from his pack and started up the stairs.
    Lucien
followed him.
    As
each step brought him closer to the woman, even though he’d committed himself
no less than seconds earlier, Rafe was not without reservation. The girl was an
innocent. She had no hand in what fate had dealt her. Was it right that she
would die today, just so his pack could survive?
    He
should not have to pay. He was just in destroying Lucien’s Slayer. Only without
indisputable proof that she was, the council sided with Lucien.
    Rafe
shook his head, angry that he even contemplated the wrongness of what he was
about to do. It had to be done, damn it! If it wasn’t her, it would be another.
This wasn’t about an eye for an eye, but rather an eye for an entire race. He
had made the choice when he destroyed Lucien’s mate, Slayer that she was. He’d
do it again.
    Fuck!
    For
the first time in fourteen years, Rafael considered how his brother must have
felt. Could he blame Lucien for his Blood Law revenge? Rafael was having
difficulty as it was, and he had no emotional bond with the woman in his bed.
    How
had Lucien felt when he was in love and that love had been ripped away from him
by the person he trusted the most? Rafael swallowed hard. He didn’t want to
know. Not knowing was easier, and he swore he’d keep it that way.
    He’d
never succumb to emotional chains again. He had died a thousand times as he
watched Corbet skin his mother alive, then endured the agony in his father’s
screams for him to stop. Rafael never wanted to experience anything remotely
close to it again.
    His
resolve galvanized. This was right for him and his pack.
    Upon
reaching his room, Rafael flung open the door.
    It
was empty.
    Shock
held him silent until he sensed Lucien’s presence just behind him. “Son of a
bitch!”
    He
ran into the bathroom to find the window open and that fool of a woman hanging
by her fingernails from the edge of the roof. He shot through the window and
grabbed her hand just as it slipped off the roof tile. She screamed as he
hurled her back onto the roof, then tossed her over his shoulder and proceeded
to shove her through the open window she had escaped from twice!
    When
he’d wrestled her back into the bathroom, he tossed her over his shoulder again
and took her kicking and screaming into the bedroom. Lucien’s eyes darkened.
Rafael tossed the woman onto the bed. She bounced several times before coming
to rest near the edge. She turned a blue-eyed glare up at him. Rafael glared
back. He didn’t want to feel compassion for her. He didn’t want to feel
anything except relieved.
    He
didn’t want to feel the wave of possessiveness that rolled over him when Lucien
moved toward her, but he did.
    Stopping
several inches from her, Lucien’s nostrils flared. His eyes simmered with the
luster of pure gold before he shot a smug smile at Rafael. “It looks like
you’re the one who’s marked a human now, Brother.”
    Rafael
clenched his teeth and rubbed the back of his neck even as he glared at the
woman and the mark he’d put on her. “The difference, Brother, is she is not a
Slayer of our people.”
    “So
you repeatedly say.”
    “You
still refuse after all these years to see the truth. She had to die or she
would have killed us all!”
    Lucien
sneered. “Admit it, Rafael, you wanted control of the pack. To get it you
destroyed me. Your brother. Your only brother!”
    Lucien’s
hatred for Rafe and what he had done spewed like toxins into the air. Regret
clawed at Rafe. Not for what he had done but for what he had lost. “We will
forever be at an impasse. You will see the Blood Law avenged. So do what you
must.”
    Rafael
forced himself to turn away from her then. Tried to brush her off as
inconsequential. But there was a primal part of him that was willing—no
itching—to fight his brother for her.
    He
had claimed her.