Winning the Legend by B. Kristin McMichael Page B

Rhys. Rhys backed up two steps, feeling the
anger roll off of Andrew.
    “How did you get into this wing?” Andrew
demanded, shifting into his full, imposing baku form. His muscles
expanded to twice their normal size as his skin paled. Arianna
stood just behind him, and while she had to stop him, she wanted to
see his baku. It had been over a week since he had transformed, and
part of Arianna missed him.
    Rhys held up his hands. “Since I’m the only
person in the house, the guards don’t stay at their posts all
night. I saw them leave and thought maybe it was my chance to talk
to Arianna. I came only to help her.”
    “You’re purposely trying to get her alone?”
Andrew demanded. The hulking baku was quickly becoming
uncontrollable.
    ‘Stand down,’ Arianna ordered Andrew. As his clan leader, he
had to do as she said, but as her mate he wouldn’t if he thought
she were in danger. Arianna finally noticed how that could be a
problem.
    ‘He’s here sneaking into
your wing of the house. This is too dangerous to back down
from,’ Andrew replied, explaining why he
was still fuming.
    “With what?” Arianna asked Rhys, stepping
beside Andrew and placing a hand on his arm. Andrew’s anger
dampened slightly, but he was still fully alert, ready to attack
Rhys if he made even a slight move. “Stop being my mate and look
carefully.” Arianna pointed to Rhys. There wasn’t a bit of emotion
to make Andrew as mad as he was. Rhys didn’t have any romantic
feelings toward Arianna. Andrew, as a baku, should have at least
noticed that much. Andrew was just reacting to what he thought was
going on, and not what he was actually feeling in Rhys.
    “I can help,” Rhys offered.
    “Are you offering to get rid of all the
other competitors?” Arianna asked, cocking her head to the side to
get a full view of Rhys from around Andrew, who had moved a few
steps in front of her. That would be a grand offer, but one she
couldn’t accept.
    “That I can’t help with, though I truly wish
I could,” Rhys replied. He had thought that would be fun also, but
the sidhe clan would never allow that. “I can help with your newest
problem with blood and fluctuating powers.” Arianna’s head snapped
up. How did Rhys know she was having problems with her blood
intake?
    “What do you mean?” Andrew demanded. He was
still seeing Rhys as a threat, but that didn’t dissuade Rhys in the
least.
    “I can see it. This happens
often to the sidhe.” Rhys ignored Andrew and his hateful stares. He
spoke directly to the partially-hidden Arianna. “You have pathadh ; unquenchable
thirst.”
    “Pathadh?” Arianna questioned the term she
had never heard before.
    “Yes. It’s a thirst for blood that cannot be
sated,” Rhys explained, keeping his distance from the
still-volatile Andrew. Helpful or not, Andrew didn’t trust
Rhys.
    “But I’m not really hungry. That’s not the
problem,” Arianna replied, moving to stand beside Andrew now as he
was finally controlling himself and his urge to protect her.
Arianna hoped he was seeing that Rhys wasn’t a threat.
    “You may not feel the thirst, but you feel
how your body cannot get enough blood. That’s why your night human
powers are all over the place since your abstinence from blood.
That’s why you cannot feed enough to stop the fluctuation.” Rhys
waited for his words to sink in. He was correct. Devin had noticed
she was having problems, and Andrew could not explain why Arianna
wasn’t feeling content with all the blood they had fed her in the
past few days.
    “Okay. Let’s just say that you’re right,”
Andrew entered back into the conversation. Rhys didn’t even glance
at Andrew, but stared only at Arianna. “Hypothetically speaking of
course. What does one do for this problem to correct it?”
    “Blood of another species,” Rhys replied,
finally looking at Andrew and waiting for his attack. Andrew moved
toward Arianna, but she kept him still by gripping him harder.
    ‘We cannot