"He raked a hand through his thick hair. He needed to feed soon. There was a dark, cold anger in him. It crawled through his body, dangerous and deadly. Jacob was unscrupulous, even with his sister, it seemed. And he had looked upon Raven with lust. Raven looked up and found unblinking eyes on her. They were dark, fathomless, the eyes of a hunter. A prickle of unease ran down her spine. She felt her hand tremble as she smoothed out her skirt. "What is it?" Sometimes Mikhail looked like a strange, not the warm man she knew with laughter and tenderness in his heated gaze but someone calculating and cold, someone more lethal and cunning than she could imagine. Automatically her mind reached out to his. He slammed a block down hard. Raven's lashes fluttered against a sudden spurt of tears. Rejection was painful anytime, and coming from Mikhail it hurt like hell. "Why, Mikhail? Why are you shutting me out? You need me. I know you do. You're so willing to help everybody, be everything for everybody. I'm supposed to be your partner, be all things, everything to you. Let me help you." She approached him slowly, cautiously. "You do not know what could happen, Raven." He stepped backward, away from temptation, away from her pain. She smiled. "You always help me, Mikhail. You look after me. I'm asking you to trust me enough to let me be what you need." He was allowing his mind block to fragment, bit by bit. She sensed grief mixed with rage at Noelle's senseless murder and fear for Raven's safety. Love, strong and growing, a hunger, sexual and physical. Raw need. Someone definitely needed to love and comfort this man. "I need you to do as I ask you," he said in desperation, fighting the beast lifting its head hungrily. Her laughter was soft, enticing, the sound dancing over his skin. "No, you don't. Too many people think your word is law. You need someone to defy you a little bit. I know you won't hurt me, Mikhail. I can feel your fear of yourself. You think there's something in you I can't love, some kind of monster you're afraid for me to see. I know you better than you know yourself."