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  “The disk,” she blurted. “I don’t have it anymore. Anatoly took it from me before the limousine crashed into the river.”

  “Yes,” Karamenko said. “We found it still clutched in his dead fist when divers pulled his corpse out of the water. We have a team searching his premises now to look for the possibility of other copies.”

  Marina shook her head. “There are none. He only had the data on that one device.”

  “Then that’s good news, indeed.” Karamenko gave her a rare smile. “JUSTIS owes you a debt, Marina. It would not be wise for you to remain in Russia now. So, we’re prepared to offer you asylum anywhere else you might wish to go.”

  As he spoke, two more men in dark suits came into the room. She instantly recognized the salt-and-pepper whiskers of the older JUSTIS officer and his ginger-haired Breed partner.

  “Officers Powell and Jonas from our Miami office wanted to thank you in person.” Karamenko stepped aside to make room for the pair at her bedside.

  Officer Powell spoke first, the older man reaching out to rest his hand against her shoulder. “How are you doing, Ms. Moretskova?”

  “I’m okay.” She took a breath and let it out on a sigh when her gaze met Cain’s gentle regard. “I’m better than okay now. And please, call me Marina.”

  “All right, Marina.” The JUSTIS man smiled. “We cannot understate what you and Cain have done for us. For all of us in law enforcement around the world.”

  “That’s right,” added Jonas. The Breed officer who had been so suspicious of her in her hotel suite, even combative, now looked at her with gratitude shining in his eyes. “I’m sorry we pushed you the way we did that night in Miami. We had to push in order to see if you would be willing to bend or give anything away about the disk and where you were supposed to deliver it.”

  “I understand. I’m sorry for my part in all of this. I’m only glad to know the information can’t hurt anyone now.”

  Karamenko cleared his throat. “We’ll make arrangements with the hospital for your release. You’ll have the full protection of JUSTIS once you’re ready to leave. And, of course, your security will be provided for on a permanent basis once you’re settled in at your new location.”

  Cain’s grasp on her hand flexed almost imperceptibly. He watched her with sober intensity, and she knew him well enough to understand that he was remaining quiet to let her consider all of these new options.

  But she didn’t need to think about anything. Her mind—and her heart—were already decided.

  “No,” she said. She held Cain’s gaze and slowly, but firmly, shook her head. “Thank you, but no. There’s nothing JUSTIS needs to do for me. I’ve already accepted a better offer from someone else.”

  A grin broke over Cain’s handsome face. He leaned down and kissed her. Not a small one. Not some sweet peck on the lips, but a kiss that promised so much more.

  Karamenko and his colleagues began to file out of the room, leaving them to their joy.

  But then Cain drew away from her mouth, a grin tugging at his lips.

  “Actually, there is something JUSTIS can do for us,” he told the departing men. “Any chance we could get a lift back to Miami?”

  CHAPTER 27

  Home.

  Cain hadn’t expected the word to pack such a punch. But after the fifteen-hour flight from Saint Petersburg, followed by two hours in the car from Miami to the Darkhaven nestled in the center of the Everglades, he couldn’t think of anything more welcome—nor more restorative—than the place he was now.

  Home.

  It wasn’t only a place to him anymore. It was a feeling—one that overwhelmed him every time he looked into Marina’s burgundy eyes.

  He hated letting her leave his arms even for a moment as they entered the Darkhaven and were greeted by Lana and Bram. Raze and Logan jogged into the living room a few minutes later, everyone talking at once and asking a hundred questions.

  Amid the excitement, Knox’s absence couldn’t be ignored.

  Bram shook his head when Cain asked where he was. “Not sure this time. I found him repairing the corridor wall on his own a couple of days ago. When I went to talk to him that night, he was gone.”

  Cain couldn’t deny his disappointment, or his concern. “He’ll be back, though. Right? He always comes back eventually.”

  “Maybe.” But Bram’s grim face said more than he was letting on. He blew out a low curse. “He cleared out his quarters.”

  “Shit.” A constriction took up space behind Cain’s sternum at the news. He had hoped he and Knox might find some way back to the friendship—and the trust—they once had. But now his brother had taken that chance with him. And given the male’s volatile nature, Cain dreaded the kind of trouble Knox might find wherever he’d gone.

  Seeing his concern, Marina came back to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and nestling close. “He’ll be all right,” she said, more certain than anyone else seemed. “Knox just needs time alone to figure things out. But he’ll come back again.”

  Cain kissed the top of her head. “I hope you’re right, love.”

  Lana leaned against Bram, her hands settled atop the swell of her belly. “You two must need some time alone as well.”

  She was more than right. The questions and explanations could wait.

  There was so much to tell, and no easy place to start.

  Besides, Cain had Marina in his arms again and he was in no rush to let her go.

  They made their excuses and slipped away to his quarters. Once they were closed inside, Cain turned the shower on in the other room and came back to carefully undress each other.

  Feeling Marina’s warm, naked body against him was a balm he needed more than anything else in this world.

  She was alive.

  She was home.

  And she was his.

  Cain stood under the steamy water, holding her close. Her touch was tender on his contusions, loving as she caressed all the unmarred places on his body.

  He couldn’t keep his arousal from stirring as she stroked him. Nor did she seem to want him to. Her wet fingers traveled down his abdomen to the jutting length of his erection. She traced the underside of his shaft, rising up on her toes to kiss the sensitive hollow at the base of his throat.

  He growled as her tongue darted out to lick at his throbbing pulse. “You’re not playing fair.”

  “Who says I’m playing?”

  He chuckled, but inside he was on fire. His desire had twined with his joy to be holding her and with the relief of knowing that she was safe—truly safe—for the first time since he’d first laid eyes on her.

  And he wanted her.

  He wanted her kiss, her touch, the hot, wet haven of her sex.

  He wanted her blood too.

  His fangs surged against his tongue as she licked a teasing path along his chest and drove him to the brink of utter madness with her touch on his cock. The memory of nearly losing her was still fresh in his mind, her return to the living only a few days past, yet she moved against him full of passion and life.

  “Marina . . . holy hell.”

  She drew him in like a siren, and he had no will to resist her. Not now. Not after everything they’d been through.

  His need for her was only secondary to his love for her.

  And right now, he wanted all of her.

  “Take it,” she whispered. She gathered her long hair over her shoulder. The smooth column of her neck drew his gaze like a beacon. Delicate purple veins pulsed beneath the velvety cream of her skin. “I don’t want to wait another minute. I love you, Cain. I need you. All of you.”

  “You’re mine.” His growled reply sounded inhuman, otherworldly, even to his own ears.

  He took her beautiful face gently in his hands and kissed her. Her eyes wrecked him, so full of love for him. So full of hunger for the bond they were about to share. With trembling fingers, he smoothed his hand along her neck, guiding her head to the side and baring her throat for his
bite.

  His thirst for her was fierce, a fever raging in his blood. But it was also reverent. She was so precious to him, a gift he would spend the rest of his long life striving to deserve.

  On a low sigh, he placed his mouth over her carotid . . . then carefully sank his fangs into the soft flesh of her neck. She gasped as the sharp points pierced her. Her hands came up around his shoulders as he dragged her deeper into his embrace and took the first, incredible drink from her vein.

  Ah, Christ.

  Her blood was a revelation. Hot and sweet and electric on his tongue. The scent of roses and spices filled his senses. He inhaled it deep, savoring the powerful rush of her blood as it raced down his throat and into his body, into his cells.

  Into his soul.

  He’d heard the bond was a staggering force, but he hadn’t been prepared. God, not even close. Every fiber of his being reached for her, connected to her. She fed his wounds, but she fed so much more than that too.

  She fed his heart.

  He didn’t realize how empty it had been until her.

  Until now, with Marina’s blood flowing into him, joining with his.

  He drank some more, then, reluctantly, ran his tongue over the twin punctures to seal them closed.

  She groaned softly as he lifted his head from her neck. “I don’t want you to stop.”

  “Oh, love.” He grinned, fangs and all. “Who said I’m stopping?”

  He took her mouth in an unrushed kiss, letting her taste herself on his tongue. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her naked curves moving against his hardness and igniting a need unlike any he’d ever known. All for her. Always for this incredible woman.

  His woman.

  His mate.

  “I’m never going to lose you again,” he said, a solemn vow. He held her close, letting those deep wine-colored eyes drink him in. “I love you, Marina. You’re mine. You belong to me forever now.”

  “Yes,” she agreed, emotion swamping her gaze.

  He saw the depth of her feelings for him in her eyes, but now, through the connection that bonded him to her, he also felt the strength of her love for him in his blood.

  He couldn’t resist another kiss. He wanted more. One taste and he was already addicted to her.

  He would never have his fill of his sweet, courageous, extraordinary Marina.

  But there would be time for more.

  Thank God, there would be all the time in the world, now that she was his.

  ~ ~ ~

  His.

  Even though she had known it almost from the start, Marina had never felt so sure of anything in her life until the moment Cain had bitten down on her and taken the first taste of her blood.

  She was his.

  And he was hers.

  She saw that promise in his beautiful Breed eyes, glowing bright with amber as he held her against his hardness. She felt it in his kiss, which had always held the power to both comfort and inflame her.

  Now, that deep, unhurried joining of their mouths stirred all of her senses, passion exploding through her nerve endings, fueled by the delicious, lingering ache of his bite and the awakening of something powerful and demanding deep inside her.

  “Cain.” She drew away from his lips on a fevered sigh. Desire flooded her, along with the new craving she could not contain. “Oh, God, Cain. I need . . .”

  “I know, baby.” His hands roamed her body, leaving fire everywhere he touched. “I know what you need.”

  He cut off the water, then reached for a towel and wrapped her in it. Her breath caught with amazement as she looked at his unblemished skin. His dermaglyphs surged with color and life, but there was no trace of any wounds. “Your body is healed.”

  “Yes.” He lifted her chin and kissed the tip of her nose. “That’s the strength of your blood. Your Breedmate blood.”

  She couldn’t help but marvel, tracing the healed skin with her fingers. When she leaned down to follow the arcs and flourishes of his glyphs with her mouth, Cain’s chest vibrated with a low, rumbling growl.

  He scooped her up, carrying her out of the shower and onto his bed. Their bed now.

  With the towel moved aside, he covered her naked body with his. Then he entered her slowly, filling her completely. She arched to take all of him, reveling in the totality of his possession of her.

  She was his.

  She told him so as he brought them both to the peak of an incredible climax. She told him again, as he rolled onto his back and took her with him, seating her astride him, their bodies still intimately joined.

  His blazing eyes seared her, fueling the fire that already lived in her veins. “Are you sure this is what you want, love? There’s no breaking the bond. It will live in us forever, an invisible chain linking our strongest emotions, both pleasure and pain. You’ll be the only one to sustain me, Marina. And once you drink from me, until I take my last breath, there will never be another male for you.”

  “I don’t need a blood bond to understand that.” She cupped his cheek. “But that’s what I want. Right now, Cain, there’s nothing I want more than your bond.”

  He uttered a strangled curse. “I wanted to wait. I wanted to make this moment special. I wanted it to be perfect for you.”

  Marina smiled. “We’re together. We’re home, Cain. What could be more perfect than that?”

  With his hand at the back of her neck, he brought her to him for a tender, but passionate kiss. As they parted, he lifted his wrist to his mouth. His fangs sank in, opening his vein.

  “Take this,” he whispered fiercely. “Take all of me now.”

  Marina sealed her mouth over the punctures. She inhaled a stunned cry as the first hot taste of his blood raced over her tongue. As fierce as a storm, as bright and jagged as a bolt of lightning, his blood roared into her body. Each spicy, dark taste of him brought a deeper intoxication . . . and a quickening inside her that woke every particle of her being.

  But there was something more coming to life within her.

  Something more than the sweeping intensity of her desire for this man. Something even deeper than her love for him.

  It was Cain.

  She felt his desire too. She felt all of the love he had for her. She felt him inside her with every beat of her heart, and with each thundering answer of his.

  They were joined in all ways now.

  Together forever.

  Home, where they both belonged.

  And she was right. There was nothing more perfect than that.

  ~ * ~

  Thank you for reading Hour of Darkness. I hope you enjoyed it!

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  * * * * *

  More thrilling paranormal romance from Lara Adrian!

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