by Cynthia Eden
His eyes seemed to see straight into his soul.
“So how about we don’t play games? How about you don’t come over here telling me what I’m going to do? How about you talk to me? Honestly. Tell me what you’re holding back.”
A muscle flexed along the hard line of his jaw. “You don’t want to know…”
“I’m asking. I want to know.”
“Jane…”
“Truth only, got it? When I ask you a question, respond honestly.”
Grimly, he nodded.
“Did you really lose that guy’s scent tonight?”
“Yes.” Flat. Bitter.
“Do you think the Master Vampire is going to come for me?”
“I think he plans to kill you…but only so you can come back like him.”
An insane killer. Hardly the life she had planned.
“And you being with me.” She stopped, cleared her throat. “You think you can stop him?”
“I think I’d fucking die trying.”
This was the part that she just didn’t get. “Why?”
His lashes lowered, shielding his eyes from her.
She put her hands on his chest. Her fingers balled around the fabric of his shirt, making two small fists. “Truth, remember? Why does it matter to you? Wouldn’t I become just another vamp for you to stake? Why go to all of this trouble? You don’t know me.”
Silence. She needed him to answer her. To stop with the games and just say—
“Because I want you.”
Her heart thundered in her ears.
“I want you more than I can damn well ever remember wanting anyone. I look at you, and I ache. I want to take and take until you scream as you come for me.”
Breathing was hard. Real hard. And her fists tightened even more around his shirt.
“There’s a little known fact about alpha werewolves and…women like you.”
Weren’t most facts about werewolves “little known” to people? Or else, the whole world would realize monsters were real.
“Your scent…attracts.”
Wait, what?
“That was another sign. Another way I knew what you were.”
No wonder he’d been sniffing her so much. “What?” Jane asked as she stared up at him. “Do I smell like some kind of aphrodisiac to you?” The question was sarcastic.
But he nodded. Then he said, “You smell…like you were meant to be mine.”
She should let him go. She should really get her ass off that balcony.
“It’s a physical instinct. You feel it, too, don’t you? Back in the old days…” And now his laugh was bitter. “The very old days, a woman like you was given a protector. A werewolf alpha who would make sure that she never died that violent death, that she lived a long life—one full of happiness and a hell of a lot of kids.”
She knew where this was going. “Werewolf kids?”
“I said most werewolves weren’t like me. That they couldn’t shift fully. Do you wonder why there aren’t a lot of alphas like me running around? Because there aren’t a lot of women like you any longer. The bloodline is stronger when it’s someone—” He stopped, but he didn’t need to say anymore.
When it’s someone like me.
So that was it. He wanted her because she could be some kind of magical genetic aphrodisiac to him? Some great breeder for him? That wasn’t exactly…sexy. Or overwhelmingly romantic.
It also just wasn’t damn fun. Not words a woman wanted to hear.
Aidan drew in a ragged breath. “An alpha’s job is to protect.”
Ah. So much made sense now. Like how he’d suddenly been extra hell-bent on protecting her. When before, it had just been about making her forget.
“Nature designed us to fight vampires. No other being is physically capable of fighting them. We are natural enemies…enemies who sometimes want the same thing.”
Okay, now something new was worrying her. “So you guys—you alphas—you find women like me. You stick with them, protect them, try to make sure that they live long, healthy lives.” Minus the violent ending.
He just watched her.
“But what happens…” Jane asked, as an ache grew in her heart. “If you don’t manage to keep the women safe? What if they change? What if they become vampires?”
His jaw hardened.
“Only say it doesn’t happen when you first meet them.” Her words shot out in rapid-fire succession. “What if you’ve made some of those super alpha babies you mentioned…and then, after the woman has the kids, then she’s murdered and becomes a vamp.” Jane had always played the What if game too much. Her mother used to tell her that she borrowed trouble. Jane just liked to think that she was trying to prepare herself for coming danger. “What happens in that situation?” The ache in her heart got way worse. “Or has that situation happened before?”
Aidan backed away from her.
Oh, crap, that was an answer, wasn’t it? “The alphas…they still kill the vampires, don’t they? You told me they were driven to kill. So even if the alpha had a child with that woman, if she became—”
“Vampires are monsters. No souls. Just evil. They live to destroy everything and everyone around them. A vampire who turned like that would kill her own child in a heartbeat.”
He’s saying the alphas killed their mates.
“I won’t let that happen to you,” he promised. But there was something about his voice. A darkness. A pain…
I think he’s holding back with me again.
And she decided that if they were playing the truth game, he deserved plenty of honesty from her, too. “I don’t know what scares me more. You…or the vampires out there.”
“I’m not here to hurt you.” Intensity deepened his voice even more.
“Not right now you’re not, no.” She rubbed her chilled arms. “But I can’t count on the fact that you’ll always be on my side.” As long as she stayed human, yes, but…
Her arms fell. Her hand brushed against her right side. It was a habit that wouldn’t die. And it reminded her of a nightmare that would never end. Aidan didn’t get it. He thought he was just protecting her from a threat that was just unfolding around them. He didn’t realize…
Monsters had been in her life for a very long time.
“I think you should go now.” She made her voice sound brisk. “I’m exhausted and I’ve got a long day of vamp hunting ahead of me tomorrow. A girl needs her beauty sleep if she’s facing undead monsters who want to take her soul.”
His hand lifted. Jane tensed as his fingers slid over cheek. “It’s when you do things like that, when you say things like that…” His own voice was gruff. “That you make me want you even more.”
Her lashes lowered. “We just talked about why we are so very wrong for each other.”
“I want you.”
Her heartbeat needed to slow the hell down. “You aren’t having me.”
His lips tilted just a little and what could have been a dimple flashed in his left cheek. “We shall see.”
Arrogant werewolf.
Then he sauntered back inside. She followed, more than ready to get him out of her apartment. Only…he still wasn’t leaving. Did werewolves just have issues getting the hell out? As she watched him in mounting horror, he eyed her lumpy sofa, looked disgruntled, but finally stretched his too-long length across the cushions. His legs dangled over the arm rest.
“Um, what are you doing, wolf?”
He looked up at her. “Getting comfortable. Unless you wanted to share that bed of yours?” Now he sounded hopeful.
“Get comfortable in your own home.”
He looked hurt. And…hot. Dammit.
Aidan gave her a quick smile. “There are actually women who would kill to have me right here. They think I’m rather sexy.”
“I think you’re rather a pain in my ass.”
His sigh was long and rough. “My Mary Jane—”
“Jane.” She was sure he did that just to mess with her.
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“A Master Vampire knows who you are, so it stands to reason that he knows where you live, too. I’m staying here, in case the bloodsucker gets the idea to come for you tonight. When dawn arrives, I’ll leave you be.”
“What are you going to do? Stay here every night until he’s stopped? Sleeping on my couch?”
“I’d prefer your bed. Or we could always go to my place.”
Insane. “I had a normal life two days ago.” She whirled away from him.
“Did you?” His voice followed her.
No, I was just pretending. I always knew I was different.
“Normal is boring,” he said, before she could respond. “I promise you, sweetheart, life with me won’t be boring.”
She was bone tired and the bed was calling—screaming—her name. And maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t so bad to have a tough werewolf on the premises, at least not until she figured out how powerful that Master Vampire actually was.
Jane yanked open the closet and grabbed the quilt there. An extra pillow waited on the shelf up top, and she snagged that, too. Then she hurried back toward Aidan.
But as she approached, the guy began to appear seriously…alarmed.
He sat up quickly. “What are you doing?”
Her eyes did a little roll. “Giving you a pillow. And a quilt.” She tossed the pillow at him, but held a little tightly to the quilt. “A warning, wolf. Do not mess up this quilt. My grandmother made it for me right before she passed away, and I freaking treasure it, got that?”
His gaze took note of the way she was caressing the quilt. “If it matters, why give it to me?”
“Because you need a cover. And I have it.” She offered the quilt to him.
He didn’t take it.
“Aidan…”
“I appreciate your kindness,” he said gruffly. And when he took the quilt, his fingers brushed over hers. “I will take care of it for you.”
Right. Good. Great. Why does his touch slide right through me? Is it really just that genetic mumbo jumbo he was talking about?
Or is it something else? Something more?
She turned away from him.
He caught her hand. His fingers slid over her knuckles and his thumb brushed against the inside of her palm. Until that moment, she never would have thought that her palm was sensitive. Definitely not some kind of erogenous zone. But as he rubbed his thumb into the center of her palm, her breath came a bit faster. “If you ever want to let yourself go,” Aidan said. She glanced at him and found that bright gaze locked on hers. “I’ll be close by.”
She had to swallow. Twice. “I’d think letting go with a werewolf would be a dangerous thing.”
His thumb stroked harder against her palm. Her breasts were starting to ache. Did he know what he was doing to her? Just with that touch?
“I wouldn’t hurt you.”
“Not unless I became a vampire.”
Another hard caress, and then his hand slid from hers. “I give you my word. I will fight hell to make sure that never happens to you.”
She needed to get away from him. Just back away.
So why was she standing right there? “I can fight my own battles.”
“But who says you have to fight them alone?”
Her lips parted. His gaze slipped to her mouth. “You taste so sweet. So good. I’d love to taste you…again.”
She licked her lips.
He growled.
No, dammit, she had not meant to lick her lips. Wrong move. Very, very wrong.
She took a big step away from him. “Good night, Aidan.” She hurried for her bedroom. Just as she was at the threshold to her room, she heard him say—
“Good night, sweetheart.”
Jane shut the door. Her back slid against the wood as she tried to get her body back under control. He wasn’t a man. He was a werewolf. Incredibly dangerous. And she shouldn’t want him so much.
But she did.
Dammit, she just did.
Chapter Ten
The werewolf was there. In her apartment. In her bed?
Fucking werewolves. He hated the slobbering beasts. Always thinking they were so perfect. So strong and unstoppable.
They were nothing more than animals, hiding behind the bodies of men.
He kept watch from the shadows. He couldn’t get too close to the building. The mangy werewolf might catch his scent. And not just any werewolf, either. An alpha.
Which made him even fucking madder as he saw the lights turn off in his prey’s apartment.
The werewolf should have been dead. If he hadn’t been an alpha, he would have been dead in that alley. Drained and then ripped apart by the vampires so that they’d enjoy the power of his blood. Every last drop. Only things hadn’t ended that way.
And now the werewolf was fucking his vamp-to-be.
The foolish beast probably thought he was keeping her safe. Locking her away from the big, bad vamp. But he didn’t have to get inside that apartment in order to get to her.
I can make her come to me.
He slipped deeper into the shadows and watched as two humans skulked around her building. Humans, ah, but they could certainly be useful. He’d paid them just the right amount of money, and, no questions asked, they’d agreed to the job. In this instance, he knew it was smarter to use humans and not vamps. The alpha wouldn’t even think twice when he caught the scent of humans in her building. The humans would be able to get close enough to do the job he needed.
And he could watch. See hell come alive. All before the sun rose.
You thought I was done for the night? Think again. He couldn’t give the werewolf time to hunt him. He had to keep attacking. Had to claim his prey.
It was a good thing that, after death, a vamp-to-be like the pretty detective could regenerate. Because her death wasn’t going to be pleasant.
For her kind, it never was…
***
The dream came again. Dream. Nightmare. Memory. All one and the same for Jane. She was young, barely eleven, and tied down. The rope cut into her wrists and her ankles, and no matter how much she begged, no one would let her go.
When she turned her head, she could see her mom. Tossed on the floor, her limbs all twisted and a big pool of red underneath her body. Her dad…he was there, too. Another quick turn of her head showed Jane her dad’s form.
His eyes were still open, but she didn’t think he saw her, not anymore.
“There, there…no need for tears, little one. It’s all for you.” That voice was back. The voice she hated. Mean and cold and cruel and she wouldn’t look at him. She just wouldn’t.
“We waited a long time for you. You’d better not disappoint.”
She looked back at her dad. This was her house. Her mom’s house. Her dad’s house. These people—they didn’t belong there. They should never have been inside.
“You can scream if you want,” that mean voice told her.
It was all the warning she got. Pain came then. So hot. Burning, branding. She screamed and screamed but it didn’t stop. And she could smell something—something funny. Something—
It’s me. I’m burning.
Her voice broke and her cries stopped.
“Good girl.”
She didn’t want to be good. Not if he liked that.
“I’ll be back soon.” He stroked back her hair, and his green eyes gleamed down at her. “We’ll take a little break. Let you get a bit of strength back so that we can finish things up.” His blond hair was swept away from his face. A face that seemed so normal.
It isn’t. He’s not normal. He’s evil. Monster. Monster. Monster!
There were no tears on her cheeks. She’d stopped crying after…Daddy.
The green-eyed man—monster—shut the door on the way out. Her home. He had taken over. They had. In the middle of the night, monsters had come for her. Her mom had told her that monsters weren’t real. That she should never be afraid of them.
Her mom had been wrong.
She heard faint squeaks. The softest of rustles. Her eyes had closed. When had they closed? She should look around. See what was happening.
But she was afraid and she didn’t think she wanted to see anything else.
Her right side kept hurting. Throbbing.
“Mary Jane…” A soft voice. “Mary Jane…are you okay?”
Don’t be here. Don’t. Run away.
“Y-you didn’t tell them I was here.”
Now she did cry. One long tear slid down her cheek.
“I’m gonna…I’m gonna get you out.”
She shook her head and kept her eyes closed. But she felt him pulling on the ropes that held her ankles down. There was a faint sawing motion. It sounded so loud to her ears. She was afraid he would hear. “Stop.” The barest of whispers.
But the rope gave way. Her legs were free and her feet hurt because it felt like needles were shoved into them. She bit her lower lip as hard as she could, trying to hold back her cries. Now wasn’t the time to scream. She knew that.
Her eyes opened.
Her dad’s sightless eyes stared back at her.
No, look away. Look away!
Then the rope was gone from her wrists. Sawed away. He’d cut her wrists with the knife he had, but she didn’t care about that. Then he was pulling her, pushing her toward the window. Such a small window. They were in the basement. And that window was up high.
“I’ll go through first,” he said. He shimmied up and vanished.
I don’t want to leave mom and dad.
“Mary Jane!” He reached down for her. His hand was small, barely bigger than hers. Dirty. Bloody. “Come with me, Mary Jane!”
Had he been hiding, during everything? Hiding and waiting?
She looked at his hand and she—she heard the basement door opening. The faintest of clicks from the top of the stairs. He was coming for her again.
She grabbed for the dirty little hand, and he pulled her up, yanking with all of his strength. Her body slid through the narrow opening. Her shoulders. Her chest. Her stomach. Her—