by Cynthia Eden
The shirt was a little too tight as it stretched across his shoulders, but it would have to do for the moment.
He headed to prisoner transport and watched as the werewolves were brought in. Each prisoner had already been collared. Most of them were unconscious. All but the one with the scar.
Eric’s gaze zeroed in on the fellow. “That’s the guy,” he murmured to the guards near him. “Get that fellow set up for a little chat.”
“Right away…” The agent started to turn, but then he hesitated. “Boss, are you okay? You just…you look different.”
Automatically, Eric put his hand up to his mouth. His fangs weren’t out. No, of course, they weren’t. “Just pissed off, Lawrence,” he said. “I don’t like it when a pack attacks a woman and leaves her crying on the ground. That bastard—” He pointed to the scarred wolf.
“He was the one in charge tonight. He will be telling me everything I want to know.”
Lawrence Carter, one of the newer agents but one who was proving to have a serious knack for the job, nodded quickly, “Yes, sir. I’ll get him ready for you.”
Lawrence hurried away and as he left, the guy nearly plowed right into Connor. Growling, Connor shouldered Lawrence back, then he closed in on Eric.
“What the hell is going on?” Connor asked.
“Keegan.”
Connor’s face hardened. “A dead man isn’t an issue for me.”
Actually, he was. And since the bastard in question was Connor’s blood, Eric couldn’t hold back with him. “I told you before, I’m not sure he’s dead. Unless I have remains, I’m not sure.” His heart was pounding too fast, and he could still smell lilacs. “Those men were waiting. They knew Ella would come after them. They picked a remote spot, and just…bided their damn time.”
“They knew she’d catch their scent.”
He nodded. “I think that scarred asshole there—he must have been part of the group that originally took her.”
“You mean you don’t know?” Connor asked. “Hell, man, what have you been doing if not questioning her?”
Nearly fucking her. “Building trust,” Eric snapped. “It’s an art, okay?” He and Connor hadn’t started with the best of relationships—mostly because Eric might have sent the guy to Purgatory. But things had changed between them. He now considered Connor his friend. Connor didn’t have to work for the Para Unit any longer—he’d repaid his debts—but the guy had stuck around because he understood the battle they were facing.
Connor knew—first-hand—just how dangerous paranormals could be when they went out of control. He had the marks to prove that, delivered courtesy of his own father.
“Right, an art,” Connor nodded.
Eric growled at him.
“Dude, you are sounding way too much like a beast. Maybe you need a werewolf break—before you start shifting just like we do.”
Connor didn’t understand his secrets. Friend or not, there were some things Eric didn’t share. “I’m bringing Shane in on this case.”
“The vamp?” Connor whistled. “Calling in the big guns, are you?”
“Shane August has been around for a very long time.” More years than most could ever guess. “I need his input on Ella.”
“Your winged vampiress.” Connor nodded. “Got to say, I’ve seen some trippy shit in my time, but I’ve never seen a vamp with wings, until tonight.”
Your winged vampiress. “She’s not mine,” Eric said as he turned and headed down the corridor that would take him to the interrogation room.
“But you want her to be…”
Eric stilled and glanced back at Connor. Laughing, Connor touched his nose. “Seriously, man. You know we all have enhanced senses. You smell like you bathed in lilacs.”
He could feel himself flushing. Seriously—blushing twice in one damn day? This shit was stopping. “Do not fucking push me.”
Connor just grinned.
“Where’s Chloe?” Eric asked, changing the topic before he had to punch the guy. “Because the last thing we want is this pack seeing her.”
That wiped the grin right off Connor’s face. “They aren’t touching her.” Connor delivered those words with lethal certainty. “She’s miles away from here, and that’s the way it’s staying until we figure out what’s going on.”
If they found out that Keegan was alive, they’d have to take steps to protect Chloe. Keegan had been obsessed with her before. And Connor—well, he was in love with her. “Fucking mates,” Eric muttered. “Why is that such a big deal in the paranormal world? Mates and bonding and shit that makes my head want to explode.”
“Chloe is not Keegan’s mate.” That lethal intensity had sharpened even more. “He’s a delusional bastard. Chloe belongs with me.”
Too bad Keegan hadn’t gotten that message. At least, he hadn’t until they’d burned a house down on the fellow.
“The prisoner should be secured now,” Eric said, giving a firm nod. “Let’s do this damn thing.”
***
Keegan threw his phone across the room. No one had checked in. The pack knew they were supposed to contact him. They followed orders. Always.
Fury beat within him and a sinister voice seemed to whisper in his mind…
Maybe they aren’t following your orders any longer because they think you’re weak. You can’t transform. If you have no beast, they won’t respect you.
He’d once sought a mate who hadn’t been able to fully shift. He hadn’t thought of that as a weakness for her. She’d still kept the beast’s strength while in human form. He’d thought that Chloe was the next step in werewolf evolution.
But he…
I have no enhanced strength. I have burns and pain and hell.
“Come back,” he snarled into the night. His men should have contacted him, dammit. They only wouldn’t have checked in if…
If they decided to keep Ella for themselves. They know of her power. Maybe they want it.
Or…
The Para Unit had Ella. Maybe she’s working with them now. Maybe she trapped my men.
Neither possibility was a good one.
Keegan marched to the gun cabinet. He loaded silver bullets into his weapon. First one gun, then another. If his pack had turned, he’d put them out of their misery.
And if Ella was trying to play him…
He’d show her the error of her ways.
Chapter Six
The werewolf was collared and sat at the narrow, wooden table, a glare twisting his face.
Eric headed toward the table and took his time sitting down in the chair across from the guy. He saw the werewolf’s nostrils flare and the fellow’s eyes glinted.
“Ella…” The wolf whispered.
Connor had been right. The others were picking up her scent on him. If she’d marked him, had he marked her?
I hope so.
“No wonder,” the werewolf’s voice was a growl, “you came in with guns blazing. Tried to take your new pet, did we?”
“She’s hardly a pet.”
The werewolf’s hand lifted to the silver collar that circled him. “Get this fucking thing off me.”
The collar’s remote control rested comfortably in Eric’s hand. “What’s your name?”
“Get it—”
Eric pressed a button on the control.
“Fucking hell!” The werewolf’s breath hissed out. “Reece. It’s Reece.”
“Got a last name?” Eric was aware of Connor entering the room. From the corner of his eye, he saw Connor lean against the right wall and cross his arms over his chest.
“No, I’m like damn Madonna,” Reece muttered. “And don’t shock me again!”
Eric looked at the remote. “I didn’t shock you. Don’t you understand how the collars work? Silver is in there. Liquid silver. And when then remote is used, that silver is injected into your blood through tiny needles that line the collar.” He looked back up at the prisoner.
Reece’s eyes had gone wide.
/> “Really, I thought you’d understand more about how this all worked. Keegan knew about the tech we had here. Why would he keep you in the dark?”
Reece smiled. “The dead can’t talk. So he wouldn’t—”
“This is how it’s going to work.” Eric gave the fellow a smile of his own. One that he knew was cold and cruel. “I don’t have time to waste. So if you don’t want to cooperate with me, there are plenty of other werewolves in there who do. The first one who talks is going to get better treatment from the Para Unit. Maybe that one won’t rot in Purgatory. We’ll just have to see…”
Reece’s jaw had hardened. “I’m not afraid of Purgatory.”
“Why? Because Keegan told you he had control in there?” Eric shook his head. “I have control there now. Full authority. Things have changed. My men took over. You go there, and you’re gone.”
The werewolf’s breathing seemed to get faster.
“I know a scar caused by claw marks when I see one.” Eric tilted his head as he studied the marks on Reece’s face. “But because werewolves heal so well…I’m guessing you had to get that scar when you were a lot younger. Maybe even before your first shift.”
Reece wasn’t talking.
So Eric just kept going. “You’re in a pack, so I figure one of your pack mates gave it to you. Seeing as how Keegan is such a twisted, sadistic SOB, I bet it was him. Was he punishing you? Did you try to break the rules and Keegan snapped your ass back into shape?”
Still, nothing.
“So now, you protect him.” Eric shook his head. “Don’t see why the hell you should. This is your chance to be free of him. Tell me where he is, and I’ll make sure he’s out of your pack for good.”
Reece glanced from Eric to Connor.
“Tell me…” Eric said.
Disgust filled Reece’s face. “I don’t turn on my pack. Someone like you would never understand that. You can’t.”
Bullshit. The Para Unit was his pack. His family. And he would do anything to protect his agents. What he wouldn’t do—kill innocents for them. “Think about it. You have five minutes to make the decision to talk or that deal is gone.”
“What—”
“Why did you go after Ella?” Eric fired out the question.
Reece licked his lips. “Why do you want to fuck her? Cause she’s hot and—”
“Pissing me off isn’t to your advantage.” His voice was soft but fury had roared through him. “You knew the type of net to use on her. You were just waiting, weren’t you? Because you thought she’d come looking for you.”
Reece’s thick brows lifted. “Is that what she told you? She has been here with you, right? Getting all cozy. Seducing you so you’d be on her side.”
He’d tried to seduce her, but Ella had backed away. Desire still had him tense, and the jerk across the table was about to feel the full brunt of his fury.
“Do you even know what she is?” Reece taunted. “Or has she already taken your blood and told you what to think?”
Connor’s arms dropped to his sides.
Eric laughed. “Don’t worry. I’m not under anyone’s control.”
“You sure came running fast after her.” Reece leaned forward. “Is she that good of a screw? I always wondered. I mean, I know she’s supposed to be waiting for her own kind and all that shit. But like it was gonna happen. She’s the last, isn’t she?”
He knows what she is. And for that reason, Eric didn’t rip Reece’s throat out. Yet.
“Yes,” Eric said softly, playing along. “She’s the last, and that’s why Keegan wants her, right? Why he will do anything possible to get her back. He was stronger than he should have been, because he took her blood.”
Reece laughed. “We had to keep her starved or there would have been no controlling her. The first night, we got lucky. Caught her with the net then slashed her with our claws. She bled fast.”
Every muscle in Eric’s body tightened. “Connor, leave now.”
“Uh, boss, I don’t know…”
“Leave.”
Connor headed out.
Eric waited for the door to shut. “Do you enjoy hurting women?”
“Not like she’s human. She can take the pain.” Reece smirked at him. “Maybe she even liked it.”
He wanted to push the button to send a maximum silver dosage into the bastard. “I don’t think she did.”
Reece shrugged.
“You kept her starved and chained—gold was in the chains, right? Because that would have made those burn marks on her wrists. You and your pack kept her there for Keegan because you’d learned just what she was.”
Reece kept that stupid smirk on his face. The fool did not realize the danger he faced.
“After you’d made her transform Keegan…” Because that was exactly what they’d done. They’d forced blood exchanges between Ella and Keegan, he knew that. And Keegan had become something far more than just a werewolf. “What were you going to do? Kill her?”
Reece leaned forward. “No, we were going to let her think she’d escaped. We needed her wings to come back out, see.”
Now the bastard was chatty. Because he thought it was safe to talk about Ella and not Keegan? He won’t turn on his alpha. Now Eric was even more convinced that Keegan was still alive. After all, if the guy was dead, Reece would just say so. Instead, he was doing everything he could to take the focus off Keegan. And that everything involved telling all about the hell he’d put Ella through during her captivity.
But the fool didn’t know that each word was pushing Eric closer and closer to the edge.
Ella…in pain.
Ella…bleeding.
Ella…starving…
Ella…dying?
“Once the wings were out, we would’ve used our claws to cut them off her. We would have—Ah!” Reece screamed in agony.
“Oh, sorry.” Eric glance down at the remote. “I guess my finger slipped.”
Reece kept screaming. He’d lurched out of his chair and was straining and twisting as he tried to find relief from the silver onslaught.
“Whoops. It’s still slipping. How about that?” He could taste fury burning in his mouth as he focused on Reece once more. “Maybe we should get a few things straight here. One, you are never ever supposed to so much as even look at Ella again. If you do, I will push so much silver into your blood that you will still be hurting even when you’re roasting in hell.”
Reece’s screams bounced off the walls.
“Two,” Eric said, voice grim and cold, “no one touches her wings. No one touches her. If they do, I’ll fucking kill them.” That warning came from deep inside. Primal. Instinctive.
No one would hurt her again.
His finger eased off the remote.
Reece had fallen to the floor.
Eric took a deep breath. Can’t kill him. Can’t kill the bastard. I’m supposed to be the one delivering justice. He’ll go to Purgatory. He’ll be judged and punished just like any other criminal and—
Reece was laughing again. “Dumb…human. You can only…hurt me…with that stupid box.”
The box? The remote?
Reece lifted up his head. “Why don’t you try coming at me…one on one…see how tough you are then?”
Eric’s heart beat faster. “I was really hoping you’d say some stupid shit like that. I mean, if you ask for an ass whipping, all I can do is oblige.” He headed across the room and put the remote down, well out of the werewolf’s reach.
Then he stood there and rolled back his shoulders as Reece climbed back to his feet.
“Just so we’re clear,” Eric said. “When we’re done and you beg me to stop…”
We would’ve used our claws to cut them off her…
Eric’s hands fisted. “After the guards drag you back to your cell, word is going to spread to the other werewolves that you talked about Keegan. That you told me everything.”
Reece’s eyes widened.
“And we’ll see just how much
that pack accepts you then.”
“You bastard—you can’t—”
“Then you’d better talk. Because they’ll think you did, no matter what.” Playing dirty? Yes, he excelled at it.
Reece started running toward him.
“Maybe after the ass whipping, you’ll get chatty,” Eric said. Reece’s hand flew toward his face, but Eric caught the guy’s wrist and stopped him. “Something else you should know,” Eric said as he easily held the guy. “I never said I was human.” Then he slammed his head into Reece’s face.
***
Twenty minutes later, Eric marched out of the interrogation room. Connor straightened when he saw him. “Uh, Eric…”
“Give him five minutes, then take him back with the others. Let it be known that he just came out of a long sit-down with me.”
Connor’s gaze swept over him. “There’s blood on your shirt,” he said.
Eric glanced down. “Huh. How about that? It’s not mine.” He moved to step around Connor.
Connor blocked his way. “And I can see your fangs.”
Eric stilled. His tongue slid over and sure enough, he could feel the sharp point of a fang. His gaze shot to Connor’s. So much for that damn secret.
“Do I need to get Holly?”
He was lucky no other agents were around. Connor might have questions, but the guy wasn’t going to ask, not then. Or maybe…maybe he’d suspected the truth about Eric for a while.
“I don’t need Holly.” His voice was too rough. Way too hard. “I need—” He stopped.
But they both knew what he’d been about to say.
Ella.
“If Reece gets ready to talk, come and get me.” He made sure not to flash fang as he shouldered around Connor. “I’m going to crash.”
“Is that what you’re calling it?” Connor murmured.
“Screw off,” Eric threw back. The fangs weren’t going away. Adrenaline and fury pounded through him. A dangerous combination that was fraying his control.
We would’ve cut off her wings with our claws.
His vision darkened and he headed for the elevator.
No, he headed for Ella.
***
When the door opened, Ella immediately shot to her feet. She’d been lounging on Eric’s sofa, trying to figure out just how much to tell him about her past and—