The wolf stepped beside him. Pressed a hand against the glass. "Think that'd be up the vampire, don't you?"

Adam tramped down on the anger that began to rage in him. He turned his head, just a fraction, and saw Lucas watching Maya. "No, it's up to me." His voice roughened as he growled the words.

The guy needed to learn his place-and that place was nowhere near Maya.

He hadn't marked her, but he sure as hell wished he had.

She was his.

He wasn't about to give her up to some furry asshole-an asshole who'd tried to kill her.

"She's strong." The wolf didn't sound particularly intimidated. Fool. Lucas continued, "She's a hell of a fighter-and she'd make a passionate mate."

Adam grabbed him, slapping his hand around the wolf's throat and hauling him away from the door and away from Maya. He forced him back against the wall, held Lucas there with the strength of one hand. "I think you're forgetting just who I am." Maybe it was time for a reminder.

"I haven't forgotten a damn thing!" Lucas's eyes began to shine with the power of the wolf. "A woman like her-she might just be worth any fight I have to-"

"She's not for you." His fingers tightened. The wolf's face reddened.

"Is…she…f-for…y-you?" He was huffing out the words.

"Only for me." He lifted Lucas and then slammed him back against the wall. He could still see Maya's body, sprawled on the ground in that filthy alley. If he hadn't gotten there, this jerk would have killed her. And now he wanted to screw her.

Not going to happen. Ever.

"I don't care if the woman strolls in front of you naked," which his lady vampire was prone to do, "you so much as touch her and I'll make you wish you'd never walked on this earth." His breath blew across the wolf's face and a cloud of smoke rose around them. Adam smiled, letting his sharp teeth and the smoky air carry his threat. "You understand?"

The wolf tried to nod.

"Good." Adam dropped him.

But Lucas didn't leave. He raised a hand to his throat. "Wh-what…makes you think…she'd w-

want to stay…with you?"

Adam glanced back at Maya's figure. At her tattoo. "'Cause the woman has a thing for dragons."

He turned away from Lucas. The urge to rip the wolf in two was strong, but the desire to go to Maya, to touch her, was so much stronger.

Adam shoved open the door and stepped into the night.

"You two finish up?" Maya asked, her back to him.

"Yeah." For now, but if the wolf tried to make a move on Maya, he'd find hell raining down on him.

She glanced over her shoulder, eyes reflecting the stars and moonlight. "You don't have to worry, you know. I don't usually decide to sleep with men after they try to kill me."

He exhaled and took a step toward her. "Good to know."

Her lips curved, just the faintest bit. Her shoulders were stiff, and there was a strange tenseness to her face. "Maya?"

She looked back at the moon. "I didn't thank you."

He stalked closer. "For what?"

"Getting me out of that alley. Saving my ass." She shook her head and the silky mane of her hair drifted around her face. "I died in an alley like that once-or at least, my human self did. I sure as hell didn't want it to happen again."

He reached out his hand. Curled his fingers over hers. "Hey, you would have done the same for me, right?" He tossed the words back to her, expecting a smile, preferably a full one, or a laugh.

Instead, she said, very softly, "Yeah, I would have." She swallowed, opened her mouth, then hesitated.

"Maya?" Something was going on, something he didn't understand.

"When she was fifteen," her fingers were steel tight beneath his, "my mom gave birth to me in an alley like that. I was born in the dirt and the trash."

He stilled, his heart thundering. This was important. She was trusting him with her past.

He knew Maya Black didn't trust many people.

"I was in foster homes at first, then she got me back-don't really know how. She was always drinking and whoring herself out-there were so many men. Men who liked to hurt her."

There was more she wasn't saying, he knew it. "Did they like to hurt you?"

A nod.

Bastards. What he wouldn't give to find them all and to-

"She died when she was twenty-four. God, no one should die that young." The wrought iron groaned beneath her fingers. "There was so much blood. I stepped in it, trying to get to her. Her eyes were open, staring straight up. She'd always been pretty, even when she was drinking and high, but-he made her ugly. In death, she was so ugly. Face smashed in. Lips cracked and dripping blood…" She broke off, shaking her head. "I couldn't help her. I wanted to, so badly. But there was nothing I could do."

That's why she'd become a cop, he realized. To atone for a life that hadn't even been hers to save. "It wasn't your fault, Maya."

"No, but she didn't deserve to die like that." Her sigh drifted on the wind. "She tried to be good to me-sometimes she'd take me to the park or buy me some crayons, but she was sick, you know? The drugs-they had her too messed up inside."

There was an ache in her voice, one that made him hurt.

"I went back to the homes after she died. Bounced around for years. Didn't let anyone get too close."

She still didn't, he thought, and wished things were different.

"Cammie said she closed her eyes and saw the vampires. For most of my life, I'd close my eyes and see my mother." She shook her head. "I don't want the same thing to happen to the kid. I don't want her to live with fear. To stare into hell."

"She won't." He'd make certain of it.

Maya's hold finally eased on the railing. "No, she won't." Said with absolute assurance. She shook her head, as if shaking off the past, and turned toward him. "She'll live a long, good life, won't she, Slick?"

If he had anything to say about it, yeah, she would. He nodded.

"Good." One of her hands was still beneath his. Her fingers turned, curled around his. "You're a pretty solid guy, you know that? For a, you know, thousand-year-old, fire-breathing dragon." The words were light, but there were lines of tension near her mouth.

She was still holding something back from him.

"And you're something damn special, Maya Black, for a vampire with a serious attitude problem." She was special, and so very important to him. Becoming more so each moment.

Her lips curled into one of those real smiles that he liked.

Her fingers broke free of his and rose to stroke his chest through the shirt he wore. "I've been thinking about you," she said, and her voice was tinged with the faintest huskiness.

At her touch, his cock immediately began to swell. "Oh?" He'd wanted her since she first woke and he'd gotten to taste her sweet flesh. He'd tamped down the hunger, wanting to play the gentleman and to show her that he had control, not the beast that lusted within him.

But she was looking at him now, with a fierce need in her eyes, and her lips-so red and wet-were just inches from his.

"After the way you touched me, I couldn't stop thinking about you." Her index finger traced over his left nipple. "I think it's time we finished what you started."

He wanted to, with every cell in his body, but…"Maya, the wolves are patrolling, they'll see us."

He didn't want anyone seeing her body but him.

Her smile stretched, but didn't reach her hungry gaze. "Relax, Slick." She pushed him back, forcing him deeper into the darkness alongside the house. "No one can see us from here."

He wasn't so sure about that. His back was to the wall. The glass doors were about five feet away, and Maya-

She was undoing his jeans.

"Maya-"

"Relax." His zipper slid down with a loud hiss. "Isn't that what you said to me?"

His cock sprang into her waiting hands. At her light touch, his erection tautened, arousal building hot and fast.

She made a faint hum in the back of her throat and her fingers tightened around him.

Adam clenched his back teeth.

Her hand began to move on him, slow, steady strokes from root to tip. Again and again.

"Do you like this?" She asked, her voice husky.

"Yes…"

She kneeled before him, lowering her mouth just over his straining erection. "What about this?"

Her lips closed over the tip of his cock, sucking lightly.

"Yes!"

Her tongue licked him, a long, winding caress that covered the head of his shaft. Then her mouth was moving on him, sucking strong and hard and she took more of him into the wet warmth of her mouth. More, more .

Adam thrust against her, unable to stop the desperate movement of his hips. Her mouth-so damn good.

She took him in deep, caressing every inch of his cock with her skilled tongue and lips.

His balls were tight, his muscles locked, and he knew that if he didn't stop her soon, he'd come in her mouth, in the next thirty seconds.

"Maya." Her name was a warning, one gritted from between his teeth.

She didn't stop.

" Maya." A shudder worked over him. So close.

Her mouth tightened around him.

He grabbed her head, forcing her to stop the delicious motions. She looked up at him, eyes wide and full of dark desire.

The man struggled to hold on to his control as he stared at her, on her knees before him. The beast raged in a maelstrom of greedy lust and need.

Then Maya scraped the edge of her teeth over his shaft. Pleasure ripped through him.

The man's control shattered as the beast took over.

He growled, a deep rumble that filled the night, and jerked Maya to her feet. Their hands fought, struggled as they both tried to strip her clothes away.

She kicked out of her jeans. He ripped her underwear. Lifted her into his arms. "Wrap your legs around me." Because he was going to take her there. Screw any audience who might be watching.

He'd take his woman right there.

His shaft pushed at the entrance of her body. In the past, he'd waited, wanting her to be ready for the hard length of his cock.

Now, he couldn't wait.

He had to take.

His hands clamped tight over her hips. Her legs clamped around him. Her gaze, black as the night, held his.

Adam thrust inside her, burying his shaft in her creamy warmth.

Her mouth opened on a gasp and the tips of her fangs peeked out at him.

Need thundered through him. "Bite me," he snarled, pumping his hips against her, driving as hard and deep as he could go.

Her teeth closed over his throat, pierced the skin.

Fuck, yes.

His cock swelled even more inside her and her delicate muscles clamped around every inch of his erection.

So. Damn. Good.

She took his blood, sucking, licking-and he took her, thrusting harder, harder, as the beast inside screamed for release.

Her hips jerked against him, rising and falling in a frantic rhythm. She ripped her mouth from his neck, blood on her lips-

She came, squeezing him with her climax and soaking his cock with her cream.

The dragon broke free of his reins.

His claws lengthened. The scent of smoke rose in the air around them. Claim. Mate.

In a swift move, he spun around and shoved her against the hard bricks of the house.

He pulled his cock out, keeping only the tip in her quivering sex. He stared down at the flesh glinting with the cover of her cream-then plunged in as deep as he could go.

Maya moaned and her claws dug into his shoulders, ripping past the fabric of his shirt.

Fire built in him, a ravenous blaze of lust and need, greed and possession.

Mine.

A thrust that shook her body.

Mine.

He yanked up her shirt, shoved her bra out of his way, and clamped his mouth over one tight nipple.

Mine.

He'd never thought to have a woman of his own, not after Isabella. He'd taken his pleasure over the centuries, more times than he could remember, but Maya, she was different.

Mine.

The base of his spine began to prickle. His balls were drawn up tight, and-

Maya came again, shuddering, and the shields around her mind fell away and the blood link clicked into place.

Hunger.

Need.

Mine. His thoughts, hers. It didn't matter.

Adam thrust deep into her, faster, faster, his control gone, only aware now of the animal need to take.

The soft thud of their flesh filled his ears, the scent of sex blended with the smoke in the air.

"Maya." Never had he wanted like this, not with any other woman, not in all the centuries he'd lived.

He knew he'd never feel this way again.

Her mouth locked on his throat again. Drinking, sucking so strongly.

Adam sank into her as far as he could go.

His climax exploded through him in a blinding wave of passion. His cock jerked, semen flooding inside her as he came, calling her name and holding her tight.

His shout echoed in the night and he didn't give a damn who heard him call-

Her name.

The release shook him, sending a burst of euphoria to every nerve in his body and lasting– lasting

-

Adam shuddered. Fucking perfect.

When the orgasm finally ended, the soft vibrations of Maya's sex, aftershocks of pleasure, swept over the sensitive head of his cock.

Her tongue swiped slowly across his neck. Her head lifted. Black eyes met his.

Her heart raced in a rhythm far too fast.