by Cynthia Eden
“But…but you’ve worked with him before.”
Connor grunted. Worked with him…been blackmailed by him…same thing as far as Eric was concerned.
“This job matters to me.” Harris straightened his shoulders. “Vamps killed my parents when I was thirteen. I know the monsters are out there. I want to stop them. I want to make a difference.”
Right. Connor paused in front of the guy. “There’s an important lesson that you’ve missed here. Those monsters you want to take down? They can look just like everyone else. Hell, they can even look like a sexy, little, dark-haired minx with big, blue eyes…” He looked over Harris’s shoulder and saw that Chloe had turned back to look at him. She was gazing at him, her expression stricken. Hell. “Chloe—”
“Right.” Harris nodded. “I forgot. She’s not…human. She just—she looks so innocent, you know?”
Chloe turned on her heel. Went in the bedroom. Quietly shut the door.
“You always have to be on guard,” Connor said. “Especially with the innocent ones.” Then he slapped his hand on Harris’s shoulder. “Go home. Get some rest. I’ve got the next twelve hours covered.” Actually, he’d be keeping a twenty-four, seven watch from now on. Because, yeah, Eric was going to totally rip Harris a new one when he found out that the guy had let Chloe escape.
I got her back though. She’s safe.
Harris looked relieved. “Thanks, man.” He grabbed his bag and headed out. As Connor watched him go, he wondered…just how would the guy react if he knew he’d just been talking with one of the monsters out there? One of the beasts he wanted to stop?
The big, bad wolf.
That’s me, all right.
Connor prowled around the little cabin. He secured the doors. Checked the front windows. He watched through the glass as Harris drove away. Then, there was just silence. The thick, engulfing silence that came from being far away from the city. That night, even the insects weren’t chirping.
No sound at all.
He tensed.
Why aren’t the insects making noise? He stared out into the darkness, but saw no threat.
He turned off the lights in the cabin and headed for the bedroom. The floor gave a faint creak beneath his feet.
***
His phone rang again. He’d left the town, left the body where it fell. Why not? He didn’t care if Wesley was discovered. Let the cops find the body. Let the ME cut into him and see that monsters were horribly, terrifyingly real.
He was tired of being in the shadows. He and Senator Quick had made plans, so many plans. The monsters shouldn’t have been in the dark anymore.
The senator also shouldn’t have been dead.
Chloe has more fire inside than I realized.
He put the phone to his ear. “You have Chloe.”
“We’re watching the house right now.”
A smile curved his lips.
“Looks like it’s just her and that other wolf—Connor.”
Connor Marrok was a problem that needed to be eliminated. Unfortunately, it wasn’t always easy to eliminate an alpha. They could be frustratingly strong.
His pack member gave him directions to the location and ended, saying, “We’re two hundred yards away. We won’t close in, not until you arrive.”
“Good.” Because if the wolves got too close to Chloe, there would be no controlling them. Chaos would reign. It wasn’t time for chaos, not yet. “I’ll be there soon.” He put the phone in his pocket. Looked up at the moon. Such a beautiful sight.
Had Connor enjoyed the moon that night? He certainly hoped so…because Connor would never live to see another one.
I’ve been planning to kill you for a long time, Marrok. The fact that the bastard was with Chloe now, well, that just meant the timeline for his death had been moved way, way up.
***
Chloe ditched her clothes. She shoved off her shoes and jeans and threw her shirt across the room. He said I was a monster! Damn him. Did Connor have any idea how much his words had hurt her?
She stood there, clad in her bra and panties, as rage and pain twisted inside her. Connor had no clue about her past. He didn’t know what it had been like for her all those years. Not human, not werewolf. A freakish mixture of both.
The door opened. She whirled around, her hands automatically rising to cover herself in a sad and feeble attempt at modesty.
Connor stood in the doorway. It was dark behind him, and the darkness just made him look all the more menacing.
She’d never been attracted to dangerous men. Or at least, she hadn’t, not until she’d met him. The guy was so much trouble.
Chloe notched up her chin. “You don’t need to come in here and tell me to stay inside. I’m not planning on running, okay?”
He stalked into the room. Shut the door. That golden stare of his raked over her. Her skin actually seemed to warm as he looked at her.
“This isn’t a peep show,” she shot at him. Chloe grabbed for the sheet and wrapped it around her body. “And you can show some courtesy and knock when you enter a room. That’s what normal people do.”
He shrugged. “I’ve never been accused of being normal.”
Her eyes narrowed on him and he just…kept stalking forward. Toward her. Toward the bed. “Wh-what are you doing?”
“After the stunt you pulled, did you really just think you’d be sleeping alone?”
“Yes, I did.” He’d better not say—
“You’re a flight risk now. To make sure that you don’t try to escape through the window in the middle of the night, I have to stay close.” His hand lifted and his knuckles skimmed down the side of her arm. “Very close.”
She jerked away from him. “You are not sleeping in my bedroom!”
He nodded. “I figured I’d just sleep in the bed with you. Someone had to make the sacrifice.”
What? Sacrifice? Her jaw dropped.
He smiled. Then he reached out his hand and turned off the lamp.
Her own hand flew out, fumbling as she tried to turn that light right back on. But he caught her fingers in his. Held her easily.
“This isn’t happening,” Chloe said. Why was her voice all husky? She cleared her throat and said, “You aren’t staying in my bed!”
“I’m not saying we’ll be fucking.”
She was grateful for the darkness right then. She could feel the heat stinging her cheeks and knew that she’d flushed a dark red.
“But I have to make sure you don’t run.” His voice was a hard rumble. “You’re my assignment. And unlike Harris, I won’t be fooled by a pair of big, blue eyes.”
Right. “Because you know I’m a monster.” His words had hurt. Cut her to the quick. Mostly because…she felt like a monster. When she thought of the things she’d done, there was no denying her nature.
“You’re my assignment,” he said again. “Eric Pate wants you protected, and I’m here to make sure that you keep living.”
Wonderful. Jailer.
“So climb into bed, close your eyes, and get some sleep.”
Sleep would be impossible, especially if he was right next to her.
“I promise,” he added as his fingers slid away from hers, “I won’t touch you. I’ll stay on my side of the bed and you can stay on yours.”
Nothing he said reassured her. “I guess it’s a good thing my magical, amazing scent doesn’t work on you.” She threw those words out deliberately to mock him and herself. Then she dropped her sheet and put her clothes right back on. She wasn’t about to crawl into that bed with him, not just clothed in a bra and panties. “I mean, if the scent did the mojo like you’ve been telling me it does to other wolves, we’d be in trouble.”
She climbed into the bed and slid as far to the right side as possible.
Connor lowered his body onto the mattress. It sagged beneath his weight, and Chloe almost rolled toward him. Her fingers clamped around the edge of the mattress and she held on tightly.
Moments passed in silen
ce. All she could hear was the loud drumming of her heartbeat.
She closed her eyes, trying to shut out Connor, trying to pretend that he wasn’t there. An impossible task, considering how hyper aware of him she was. His scent—rich, masculine—teased her nose and the heat from his body seemed to reach out and surround her.
“I never said that it didn’t work on me.”
Her eyes shot open. His voice had been such a low, deep growl.
“I never said your scent didn’t influence me.”
She licked lips that had gone desert dry.
“If I were just a werewolf, I’d be on you right now.” The mattress dipped a little more as he shifted toward her. “There’s a reason Eric isn’t sending any werewolf guards for you. You smell like fucking temptation.”
Chloe shook her head. “I don’t.” She’d had werewolf guards in the past. No one had gone all crazy and said she was irresistible.
“Trust me, you do. After you…came back…something was different. I had to put two werewolves in the med ward at the Para Unit, because they were trying to get to you the first time you sauntered out of Eric’s office.”
Her fingers tightened around the bedcovers. “You’re a werewolf. You don’t—”
“You don’t ever really want to know what I am.”
Now that just made her curious. Her head turned on the pillow so that she could better see him. “Why did you kiss me?” Chloe hadn’t meant to ask that question, but well, there it was. Hanging out there all awkward-like in the dark.
“I didn’t want you screaming at the humans, trying to get them to help you.”
She waited. He didn’t say more. “You’re such a liar.”
Now his head turned toward her.
“I can tell when a man wants me.” And there had been no missing his arousal. He’d definitely been game-on for her in that alley.
“I’m sure there have been plenty of men who want you.” His voice sounded funny. Too tight. Too hard. Was he angry? Jealous? She couldn’t be certain.
“Why is my scent different?” It was easier to talk with him in the dark. “Did I come back…wrong?” That was her fear. But then, she hadn’t exactly been right before the change, either. At sixteen, she’d been bitten by a werewolf—several werewolves. She had the DNA that should have made her transform after that bite. Because once a human was bitten, there were only two options.
Death.
Or transformation.
Once upon a time, she’d had an ancestor who had been a natural-born werewolf, so Chloe should have transformed. She had, sort of.
Her beast had lived and breathed inside of her. She’d felt the elemental, the primal call from deep within. But when it came time to shift, she’d—
Gotten stuck.
A horrible mix of human and wolf. Not fully either. Stuck. In agony.
“You left me.”
Chloe blinked.
“Right then, you just went somewhere else in your head. Where did you go, Chloe?”
Why not confess? “I think my beast is dead. I came back, but it didn’t.” Because she hadn’t felt that primal call since she’d literally risen from the dead. Hadn’t shifted—even in her stilted, painful way.
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” he murmured.
Like he would know about her pain. The guy was an alpha. Shifting wasn’t a problem for him. The guy could become a wolf in an instant. A blink.
“Eric ran his tests on me in that lab.” Eric’s sister Holly had been the doctor in charge there. Holly had poked and prodded Chloe until she had felt the urge to scream. Maybe she had—a time or twenty, mostly from the pain of all those experiments. Sometimes, it felt as if her whole life were one big experiment. “Do you know what he found?” Because Eric hadn’t shared those results with her. He’d just sent her away—with Connor.
“According to his tests, you’re a werewolf.”
She flinched. “Then why don’t I change?”
“The full moon hasn’t been up since you rose.”
Rose…what a nice way of saying came back from the dead.
“Let’s see what happens then.”
“And my scent?”
“Vampires can’t detect it and neither can humans. Eric didn’t even realize what was happening with you, not until I had to throw those other wolves against the wall.”
She had to let go of her death grip on the bedcovers. “What does it mean?”
“Probably something very bad.”
Fabulous. “That’s the story of my life.” She turned away from him. Closed her eyes. “Stay on your side of the bed, wolf, understand?”
“I hear you.”
She tried to slow her breathing. Tried to pretend that Connor wasn’t right beside her. Tried to pretend that she wasn’t afraid of sleep.
“I hope the fire doesn’t come,” Chloe whispered.
“What?”
But she didn’t speak again.
Chapter Three
Chloe was asleep. Her breathing was deep and even and she was on top of him.
Every muscle in Connor’s body was tight with tension. He’d been staying on his side of the bed, playing by the rules she’d thrown out, but, ten minutes into her little sleep routine, and Chloe had slid closer to him. Before he could do more than realize he was in trouble, she’d been on him. Her arms were draped around him and her head was snuggled over his heart.
Maybe he should have pushed her back to her side of the bed. If she woke up and saw them that way, Chloe would freak. But she wasn’t awake right then, and she felt….good… against him. Warm and soft.
He hadn’t exactly had a lot of softness in his life.
Not with his jerk of a father. A man who’d believed in giving as much pain as possible. A man who’d murdered Connor’s mother, who’d made his life hell for so many years.
Until that old bastard was killed in Purgatory. Right before Ian would have killed Connor, his father had been taken out.
His hand lifted. He…stroked Chloe’s hair. For the first time in his life, he almost felt a sense of peace slide through him. It was wrong. He shouldn’t be feeling peaceful, not with danger all around, not with Chloe so close but—
I think Chloe is the one giving me peace.
That didn’t make a bit of sense to him.
Still, he stroked her hair. He—
“Help me…” Her whisper. Low. Pain-filled. “It…hurts…”
“Chloe?”
“F-fire…stop the fire…” Then she shuddered against him.
His arms curled tighter around her. “Chloe, wake up.”
But she wasn’t waking.
He slid her to the side, settling her on the pillow there. He could see the tear tracks on her cheeks. She was crying in her sleep, whimpering as if she were being attacked.
This shit wasn’t happening.
He leaned over her. “Chloe!” Connor snapped out her name. “Wake up, now!”
She didn’t.
His fingers curled around her shoulders. “Chloe, wake up.” Her tears were cutting into him. He hated to see them sliding down her cheeks. “You’re having a bad dream.” He shook her once, gently. “Wake up, baby, wake—”
Her eyes flew open. She stared up at him, and then she screamed.
He was pretty sure that his ear drums nearly burst, but he managed to smile down at her. “Glad you’re back with me.”
“Get off me!” Chloe shoved against him.
Connor moved back, but he didn’t go far. He watched her, wary now.
Her hands were trembling as she touched her cheeks. She swiped away the tears. “I told you not to come on my side of the bed,” Chloe muttered. “Did you listen? No…”
“Tell me about the dream.”
Her shoulders stiffened. “What dream?”
Seriously? “The dream that had you crying. The dream about fire, Chloe.”
She jumped from the bed. Paced to the window. Stood in front of the blinds. “I wasn’t dreaming a
bout fire.” She tucked her hair behind her left ear.
His eyes narrowed. He’d been watching Chloe carefully over the last few days. She’d just given him one of her “tells”—when she lied, she tucked her hair behind her left ear.
He rose, but stayed near the bed. “You said ‘fire’ and you asked for help.”
She didn’t look at him. She lifted the blinds. Stared out into the night. “You’re mistaken. I didn’t—”
He could hear the whistle of the bullet coming. Rushing through the air. Coming so fast—and heading right for Chloe. Using his enhanced speed, he rushed toward her, he grabbed Chloe—
The bullet cut across his arm.
He pushed Chloe to the floor and covered her with his body. Her breath sawed out as she trembled beneath him.
“What in the hell just happened?” Chloe asked, her voice hushed.
“Someone took a shot at you.” Only…that hadn’t been a silver bullet. Not a wooden one, either. He knew how both of those bullets felt.
“But no one knows I’m here!”
“Correction, no one knew…then you went for a drive into town.” And they must have been followed back. Sonofabitch. Connor had tried to be so careful.
I wasn’t careful enough.
“Connor, I’m scared.”
Those words pierced right into him. He lifted his head, just a bit, certainly not enough to present a target to whoever was out there shooting at them. Connor stared into Chloe’s eyes. “Don’t be. No one is going to hurt you.” Not on his watch.
Because they’d have to go through him in order to get her.
From the corner of his eye, he spotted something gleaming on the wooden floor. He reached over and his fingers curled around the object—not a bullet, not a regular one anyway. It was… “A tranq,” he muttered. “Hell, they’re trying to take you in alive.”
He could practically feel her fear filling the room.
“We have to get out of here, Chloe,” Connor told her. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to be easy. “We’re sitting ducks in this cabin. I’m not going to wait for them to close in on us.”
“I thought this place was supposed to be safe! It’s a safe house!”
And it should have been safe. The place was isolated, so he should have heard the approach of any unwelcome guests. He hadn’t, though. So that means paranormals are outside. And since those paranormals were hunting Chloe…werewolves.