Page 83

Gods – he looks just as handsome when he’s smiling as when he has that stern expression on his face.

Up close, it’s hard to resist him. My fingertips tingle with the urge to reach up and touch his strong, powerful jaw. I want to know what his skin feels like – whether it’s as cool and smooth as the marble it resembles.

Lazar’s smile is as warm as a crackling log fire.

“Oh, I saw it, Natali,” he grins. “If that black spot on the wall had been a person… Well, he’d be pissing himself from the warning shot you just fired…”

I turn, following Lazar’s gaze.

“…ten feet to his left.”

My cheeks burn hotly. I was nowhere close to the spot he’d told me to aim at.

“Don’t worry,” the towering warrior reassures me – his fingers squeezing my shoulder. “I’ll give you a lesson outside. For your first shot, you did great.”

“I mean, she hit the wall,” Otho scoffs. “I think that’s better than you did, your first week at the academy.”

Lazar gives his battle-brother a scathing look, and then turns back to me.

Although, I’m not looking at Lazar anymore. It takes all my effort, but I turn – pulling my eyes from the handsome Aurelian to look at the wrath my weapon wrought on the wall opposite.

I’m not going to lie – it was almost as hard to pull my eyes from Lazar’s handsome face as it had been to tear them from the otherworldly, blue-black glow of that tiny Orb.

They’re both intoxicating –hypnotic.

I shake my head, and try to focus on the wall opposite.

There’s a new black mark there – from where I scorched the wall with my mis-aimed blast. It’s far from the mark I was supposed to aim at – but, as Otho said, at least I hit the wall.

Otho’s flippancy has derailed me. What’s changed with the Aurelians?

Why don’t I feel like they’re all going to rip my clothes off at any second, and take me right where I stand?

I look from Lazar to Otho, comparing their equally perfect faces and their huge, beautiful bodies. They make me feel so small and insignificant in comparison to them – and Ilikeit.

But things are suddenly different.

“Otho,” I murmur. “You’re not…” My cheeks burn red. “You’re not feeling the mating frenzy anymore.”

The mating frenzy.

I can barely utter those two words. I feel like even saying “mating frenzy” could set these two men off again – and as for Brennan? Well, forget about it…

Lazar listens to my words, and then narrows his eyes in confusion – as if it takes a moment for understanding to dawn on him.

“The mating rage,” he breathes. “You’re right. It’s like… It’s like my mind is clear, just for a second.”

The powerful warrior turns and glances at his battle-brothers.

“Do you not feel it too? For the first time since I tasted Natali’s scent, it’s like it’s there, in the background – but it’s not controlling me any longer.”

They don’t feel it.

I know Ishouldfeel relieved – but there’s a thought nagging in the back of my mind. The thought that I’m not so special after all.

I mean, it’s nice not to worry that I’ll be pressed against the wall andtakenby the aliens – but there was this seductive, intoxicating feeling of power knowing the impact I had on them. Ilovedthe way they looked at me – like they were constantly on the brink of losing control.

I mean, of course I wasn’tplanningon making them snap – but I still loved knowing that I could push them over the edge at any second…