Mated to the Moon (Portal City Protectors Book 6), Georgette Clair [best classic books to read .TXT] 📗

didn’t expect was for Pasquale to get out of the passenger seat and look directly at her in the camera.

“I’m sorry.”

She read his mouthed words easily. She and Pasquale had learned the trick when they had to communicate in secret around her father. She shook her head, knowing her brother couldn’t see her. Could she really blame him? He had a pack to look after, and he couldn’t ignore all of them for her.

They all knew a mate claim couldn’t be denied.

He’d given her as much time as he could, and she loved him for it.

Giuliana stood and spread her feet shoulder-width apart on the wraparound porch, a snarl twisting her face into a vicious expression. “I swear I’ll find a way to kill you if you hurt her.”

Adonis.

Goddess, the man was big. His frame unfurling from the car was a sight to see in itself. Even on the lowest of the three steps up to the porch, he looked Giuliana in the eyes, and she was not a small woman. He didn’t answer her for a moment, scanning the surroundings before lifting his nose in the air. Even though Fabiana knew he wouldn’t be able to catch her scent through her suit and the safe room walls, she still held her breath.

“You are Pasquale’s mate.”

“I am her sister.”

Adonis cocked his head to the side. “Yes, I can see that. It is good to see you as an Alpha mate. I always thought you were wasted as only an Enforcer. Arturo let a priceless weapon remain on the shelf for too long.”

What?

Fabiana’s confusion was reflected on Giuliana’s face. “You’re not one of those Alpha assholes who believes women are better at a stove?”

Adonis’s bark of laughter pierced Fabiana, the deep, rich sound wrapping her insides in a warm cocoon. My goddess.

“No. Women are deadlier than men, when it’s warranted. I bet,” he continued, taking one step up, “you would tear me bloody right here.”

Another step.

“Die or not, you’d rip off my balls and stuff them down my throat.”

The last step. Fabiana sucked in a breath as Adonis stood toe to toe with Giuliana. Pasquale never moved from his place near the stairs, but Fabiana knew that blank expression when her brother used it.

The look on his face promised danger and death.

One move, and he’d be at Adonis’s side before he could take his next breath.

“You’re a mother guarding her pup, and it’s stupid for any man to get between that. But …” Adonis leaned forward, his face hidden from the camera but his words filtered up anyway. “I am not a man, hermana. I am a monster, and I belong to the woman hiding in this home. Who do you think would win?”

Giuliana smiled, the slash of her mouth more threat than humor. “You’ll find out if my sister doesn’t walk out of her own volition in one hour. One. Hour. That’s all you get, pup. I’m the bitch from hell when it comes to what’s mine.”

Adonis stood tall once more before his gaze unerringly found the camera, and Fabiana leapt back. “Deal. One hour before we find out if a monster is more dangerous than a sister.”

The man had no fear as he stepped around Giuliana. He never looked back, his entire focus on the room in front of him.

He was larger than life, swallowing up the place holding Fabiana’s memories. The attacking wolf statue received a gentle, appraising pat from his large hand, and, somehow, the statue was nothing more than a pet waiting for its master.

Adonis.

Fabiana was an academic, and she knew the origins of his name. The god of permanent renewal, beauty, and fertility. The one true love of Astarte, goddess of love. He had a counterpart in the Greek pantheon, but it paled in comparison to the god of a wolf who stalked the halls.

He must have known she wasn’t in any of the rooms he traversed, but he did it slowly, eating up time without a care. The kitchen where she had been forced to eat portions barely big enough to sustain her to keep her weight under control. The dining hall where she had been put on display.

Even the main living room where she never had a chance to relax, always standing at her father’s side—a trophy he’d put on display to tease his soldiers.

“Are you watching me, pequeña? Here in a home that smells of pain and torture?”

He stalked back to the foyer and took the stairs. “Am I getting closer? You don’t know me, but here I am learning so much of you. This existence was cold, pequeña. It wasn’t meant for a woman like you. But you found a way to survive. You’re stronger than you know.”

“You don’t know me,” she whispered, her fingers finding his seeking form on the screen. “You know nothing.”

He stopped on the second floor and glared at the cages. “I want you to answer me, right now, because I know you can hear me. Were you ever kept here?”

What would it matter? No, she hadn’t been, but she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of hearing her response and letting him know she was watching.

Once more, his gaze found the camera, and he shifted.

Just … shifted.

Fabiana gasped, putting her hand to her mouth. If it were possible, he grew, his shoulders broadening and his chest expanding. Bones crunched and reformed until he had an elongated muzzle with strong teeth.

“Answer me!”

If he had bellowed, she would have fought. She would have stayed silent.

But the whisper-roar was only for her, a quiet sound filled with so much threat, and she moved before she realized it. “Not here.”

He cocked his head to the side, the same way he had with Giuliana. “Not here. So you were kept