I didn’t leave you even then, the last time, when your seed took root within me and I knew that I would give birth to an Ansara. I stayed with you until you fell asleep, assisted by an ancient sleep spell that Sidonia had taught me. And when I knew you would not awaken for hours, I searched and found the mark of the Ansara on your neck, hidden by your long hair.

Judah brushed her lips with his. She sucked in a deep gulp of air.

“I knew you were Raintree from the moment I saw you,” he said. “I disregarded my better judgment, which told me to avoid you, that you were trouble. But I couldn’t resist you. You were the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen.”

And I couldn’t resist you. I wanted you the way I’d never wanted another man. You were a stranger, and yet I gave myself to you.

I loved you.

Even now, Mercy found it difficult to admit the complete truth, because it was so heinous. The very thought that she had fallen in love with an Ansara was an abomination, a betrayal of her people, an unforgivable treachery.

And if Dante and Gideon ever learned that their beloved niece was half Ansara…

“You were a delightful amusement,” Judah told her, his breath hot against her lips. “But don’t think that I’ve given you a second thought in the past seven years. You were nothing to me then, and are nothing to me now. But Eve…”

Fear boiled fiercely within Mercy, a mother’s protective fear for her child. “The only way you can claim Eve is to kill me.”

“I could kill you as easily as I squash an insect beneath my feet.”

His words proclaimed indifference, but his actions spoke a different language. Judah took Mercy’s mouth in a possessive, conquering kiss that startled her and yet stirred to life the hunger she had known only for this man. She tried to resist him but found herself powerless. Not against his strength, but against her own need.

How could she want him, knowing who he was?

When they were both breathless and aroused, Judah ended the kiss and lifted his head. “You’re still mine, aren’t you?” He sneered. “I could lay you down here and now and take you, and you wouldn’t protest.”

Mercy jerked away from him, humiliated by her own actions.

“I am Raintree. Eve is Raintree,” Mercy said. “You cannot claim either of us.”

Judah ran his index finger over Mercy’s lips, down her chin and throat, pausing in the center of her chest, between her breasts. “You are of no importance. You were nothing more than a vessel to carry my child. But Eve is very important to me. She is Ansara, and when the time is right, I will claim her.”

Mercy sensed a frightening truth when she caught a momentary glimpse into Judah ’s mind. The instant he realized she had invaded his thoughts, he cloaked them entirely, shutting her out. But not before she saw her own death. Death at the hands of her child’s father.

“If you kill me, Dante and Gideon-”

“Dante and Gideon are the least of my worries at the moment.”

Puzzled by his statement, she glowered at him. “If you harm me, if you try to take Eve, my brothers will fight you to the death.”

“The time is not right for others to know of Eve’s existence.” He grasped Mercy’s shoulders and shook her none too gently. “I have an enemy who would kill Eve if he knew she was my child. And many others who would take her life simply because she is a mixed-breed.”

With his hands on Mercy’s body, he passed currents from within him into her, a physical and mental awareness that he could not prevent.

“The protective cloak I’ve kept around Eve since before she was born has been penetrated,” Mercy said. “This was your doing. If you truly wish to keep her safe, you have to help me form a stronger barrier around her. Now that she is aware of you and you of her, it will take both of us to protect her. Will you help me?”

“Do you actually trust me to protect her?” Judah ran his hands up and down Mercy’s arms, then released her. “After all, she is half Raintree and the Ansara have sworn an oath to destroy such children.”

“She is also half Ansara, and yet I love her with all my heart and would protect her with my own life.”

“What makes you think that I would do the same?”

Mercy saw past the exterior steel crust to the center of Judah ’s soul. Not a soft or pliable soul, not one easily touched by the pain and suffering of others, but a male soul. Strong, fierce, loyal, protective and possessive. He had been unable to hide that truth from her seven years ago, and he still could not.

“Blood calls to blood,” Mercy said. “It is true of mankind, but even truer of the Raintree and the Ansara.”

“If you knew I wouldn’t harm Eve, why keep her a secret from me all these years?”

Mercy hesitated. She felt Judah probing, trying to invade her thoughts again.

“I was afraid that you would try to take her from me,” she said. “I couldn’t allow that. If you had tried-if you try now-Dante and Gideon will join forces with me and stop you from taking her.”

“They might try, but…”

Mercy realized that Judah had seen beyond the obvious.

Judah ’s lips curved downward into a speculative frown. “Dante and Gideon don’t know that Eve is Ansara, do they? You were afraid of how they would react, perhaps afraid that they would kill her.”

“No! My brothers would never harm Eve. The Raintree do not murder innocent children.”

“Then who were you protecting by hiding the truth from them?”

“I had hoped to protect Eve from the truth,” Mercy said. “I should have known that she would soon realize she was more than Raintree, and that eventually she would have sought you out and found you.”

“Blood calls to blood,” Judah repeated her words.

“Then we are in agreement-we will protect Eve.”

“We will never be in agreement,” he said. “But for the time being, yes, I will help you keep your secret. It will be difficult, now that Eve knows I am her father. Because she is so young, she doesn’t have complete command of her powers, and that alone puts her in danger. Since she is unable to control her powers, we must do it for her. For her own protection.”

“You are welcome to try. I’ve managed to subdue her powers from time to time, to keep them partially under control, but…” She hesitated to admit the truth to this man, this Ansara who could try to use their daughter’s unparalleled gifts against the Raintree.

“Is her power that great?” he asked.

Mercy kept silent, afraid she had already said too much.

“Eve has equal measures of Ansara and Raintree power,” Judah said in astonishment. “She inherited your powers and mine, didn’t she? My God, do you realize…? Our child possesses more power than anyone in either clan.”

“More than you or I.” Mercy bowed her head and silently uttered an ancient incantation.

Judah grabbed her. She gasped, startled by his actions, not realizing that he had somehow figured out what she was doing.

“It won’t work,” he told her. “You cannot use your magic on me. Surely you know I won’t allow you to-”

Mercy focused, sending a sharp mental blow to Judah ’s body, hitting him square in the stomach. He groaned as the shock wave hit him, then narrowed his gaze, burning through the shield around Mercy, retaliating with a searing pain that radiated from her belly. She cried out, then vanquished the fire inside her.

“Do you truly believe you are as strong as I am, that you are capable of defeating me?” he asked.

“Yes.”

He stared at her, apparently skeptical, unable to believe that her power not only equaled his but might surpass it. As they stood there glaring at each other, neither backing down nor escalating the battle, Judah studied her intently.

“You’re different,” he told her. “And it’s more than that you’ve matured into the premiere empath that you are today. That was always your destiny.”

She held her breath, realizing that he was on the verge of understanding a truth that even she herself had not wanted to accept.