by Mina Carter
“Fuck! Incoming!”
The driver hauled the humvee to the side and the big gun mounted on the roof flared to life again. He gunned the engine, rattling the wolves around in the back like peas in a can. The view out of the windows was reduced to a blur of dark shadows and the flash of muzzles.
“Hold on!”
The vehicle lurched, rocking and rolling as the driver spun off the road. The back tires tried to gain traction, spewing up dirt and dust before they gripped and the humvee sped across the grass.
“Shit, watch for the towers!” Darce yelled back, wrapping himself around Toni. Any moment now the big guns on the towers would start up and they’d be fucked. Their only chance was to gun the engines and hope to get under the firing arc before the MK19s started up.
“No worries, big guy. Tower’s are all out.” Palmer grunted as he wriggled in his seat, finally back in human form.
Darce turned his head, a frown creasing his brow. What did he mean, the towers were all out? He didn’t get chance to ask. Right at that moment, the driver yelled a warning and they hit the fence with a metallic bang. Panels tore free and flew past the windows. Then the vehicle was past, free and clear. The driver roared in triumph, which turned to a bellow of anger when they were buzzed by a gunship. Bullets kicked up dirt and dust either side of them. Lilly squeaked and dove for the safety of Jack’s arms.
“Shit shit shit. Is it coming back?” Darce tried to look behind them through the small window but couldn’t see anything apart from brush, low bushes and dirt screaming past.
“Keep going!” Jack bellowed. The driver didn’t need any encouragement. The engine roared as he pushed it harder and faster. Then, just when Darce didn’t think things could get any weirder, the crazy bastard driving cut the headlights.
“Fuck! Can you even see?”
“Don’t ask.” Palmer shook his head, his knuckles white as he held onto the seat to stop himself from rattling around. “Freaking weird shit happening all over tonight.”
Darce nodded, holding his breath in case the gunship came back. Seconds stretched out, becoming minutes and he slowly released a sigh of relief. They might just make it through tonight alive.
The humvee rumbled on through the darkness, leaving the death and the destruction of the camp behind. Head against Darce’s shoulder, Toni breathed a sigh of relief and let the motion of the vehicle and the warmth of her mate’s bigger body lull her into a light doze. She was still aware of everything going on around her—and of the other Lycans—but didn’t care. All she cared about was the man she loved and being held in his arms. Warm. Safe for now. There would come a point when they’d have to fight again but that was too far away to think about. For now, all she needed was him and some rest.
Because she was beat. Totally and utterly. No fight left in her. Her body was changing, had been since Darce had made her feed from him to heal her injuries. Who knew Lycan blood would have such a dramatic effect on her? Would change her so much into something else. A Hybrid. Not a Blood, not anymore.
She could feel the changes in her body. A new presence lurked deep within, nestled right next to her soul. Feral. Wild. Female. Was this how Lycans felt with their dual natures? Was this how their wolves felt within them? Because it was certainly a new entity—separate but inextricably linked to her.
She’d first felt its presence in the ring, when it had burst free to help her save Darce but she couldn’t recall all the details—like the memory was fuzzy and degraded somehow. All she knew was that she had changed. Darce’s blood had changed her and for that she was glad. It made her feel special to have such a connection with him.
The rumble of the humvee and the soft murmur of conversation lulled her further into sleep. She wasn’t fully healed yet, despite Darce’s life-giving blood. The skin across her abdomen pulled when she moved. A warning all wasn’t completely okay beneath the surface.
She came to a while later to realize they’d stopped. Darce smiled as she looked up into his handsome face.
“Wake up, sleeping beauty. We’re here.”
“Beauty? You need to get your eyes checked, buddy.” She grouched but sat up, blinking the sleep from her eyes. Despite her tone, the compliment warmed her through. He thought she was beautiful.
The Lycans sat in a semicircle around a small campfire. No more than a few twigs in a pile, the fire gave off minimal light and smoke but it was enough. Darce took her hand as they walked toward the group, and gave her a reassuring squeeze. She returned it, even though she didn’t feel in the least reassured, wariness invading every cell in her body. After all, up to a couple of days ago, she’d been hunting these people. And here she was walking up and expecting them to welcome her with open arms just because she’d gotten down and dirty with their LT?
“We’re still down Sanders and Richards.”
The pack’s big alpha, Jack, dug viciously at the dirt between his bare feet with a stick while he spoke to the two men who sat opposite. With a start Toni recognized Fredericks and one of the other SARAs.
“Plus your two guys and the two we picked up in the ring with Darce’s gal. You guys aren’t telepathic by any chance, are you?”
Toni didn’t hear the answer but she figured it was negative when Jack shrugged.
“Huh,” Jack said. “Didn’t think so, but figured it was worth a shot. Stranger things have happened. I’m sure they’re okay, just being careful making their way back to us.”
The pack alpha looked up at Toni and Darce’s approach and rose to his feet, unfolding himself with a lazy grace which would have clued anyone in that he wasn’t human.
“Hi there.” He extended his hand with a smile. “I’m Jack Harper.”
Toni smiled back, her fears eased at the smile and the open, honest expression on his face. Stepping forward, she took his hand and shook it.
“Hey there. I’m Toni, the homicidal bitch who tried to kill you all a couple of nights ago. How you doing?”
Jack chuckled, the deep amused sound rolling around the small clearing, and looked at Darce. “I like her already. C’mon. Grab a pew…we have things to discuss.”
They slid into place next to the woman who had been with them in the humvee. Like the others, she was dressed in tattered fatigues which hung off her tiny frame. But unlike the men, she wore a T-shirt at least three sizes too big for her. Toni drew in a breath and rolled it over her tongue. Lycan for sure, but her scent held tones of Jack’s in the same way she knew her own held hints of Darce’s. She offered the woman a smile as she settled down and Jack started to talk again.
He turned to the two SARAs.
“So, you guys still sitting on the fence in all this? Or was coming back to help us just a flash in the pan?”
Fredericks shrugged, hands clasped loosely in front of him, elbows on his bent knees. Someone had been at him with a medical kit. Bright white dressings were dotted all over his torso.
“We didn’t ask to be part of this, but we are. No running. No hiding. Not anymore.” He looked off into the distance for a second, his expression tight. His head twitched to the side—that rapid movement she’d noted before—then he looked back at them.
“Sow the wind, then you damn well better be prepared to reap the whirlwind.”
“Amen to that, brother.” Jack nodded and held out his hand, his expression serious. “They want a war, then we’ll damn well give them one. Us, the pack and your guys…when they catch back up with us. You ready?”
Fredericks took his hand and shook it firmly.
“Bring it on.”
Epilogue
“Antonia Fielding, do you take this man to be your mate?”
Jack Harper’s deep voice rang out as the gentle summer breeze washed over the little group assembled on a bridge in the ass-end of beyond. The landscape cut away beneath them, the silver ribbon of a river meandering hundreds of meters below their feet.
Toni smiled, the chiffon skirts of her dress rustling around her legs as she looked up
at her groom. He was so handsome it made her heart ache. His hair tumbled around his shoulders just the way she liked it, and he wore black slacks and a shirt open at the neck.
They couldn’t marry in a church, but she didn’t care. Apart from the fact she still wasn’t sure if she’d spontaneously combust if she tried to set foot in one, all she needed was right here. All she needed was Darce and the pack who had rapidly become a second family. They still hadn’t recovered Richards or Sanders and the status of the two missing SARAs was unknown, but Jack had asked them to go ahead with the ceremony anyway. Something bright to look forward to in the dark times.
She gripped the small bouquet of flowers Lilly had managed to rustle up from somewhere along with the dress, and gazed deep into Darce’s eyes. They shone with love and devotion so deep it stole her breath away. She knew without asking he would lay his life down for her, and she would him.
“Do you promise to love and care for him, as long as you both live… As he will love and care for you? Will you help him when he needs help, and turn to him when you need help? Do you promise to stand by his side in the good times and bad, and, when he pisses you off totally, promise not to kill him?” Jack’s voice dropped from serious to joking and he winked at her. “Because, seriously, he’s a pain in the ass.”
“Oh, thanks for the vote of confidence, boss.”
Darce’s lips broke into a broad grin at the teasing and he stepped forward to take Toni’s hand, his vows already made. Going down on one knee, he lifted her hand to his lips and placed a gentle kiss on her knuckles. Then he rubbed them against his cheek, the gentle move making her knees weak.
“What do you say, babe. Take a chance on me?”
Tears of happiness collected in the corners of her eyes as he stood and took her in his arms. Heart almost overflowing, she nodded.
“I will. Always and forever.”
About the Author
Mina Carter was born and raised in Middle Earth (otherwise known as the Midlands, England). After a slew of careers ranging from logistics to land-surveying, she can now be found in the wilds of Leicestershire with her husband and daughter…the true boss of the family.
Suffering the curse of eternal curiosity, Mina never tires of learning new skills, which has led to aromatherapy, corsetry, chain-maille making, welding, canoeing, shooting, and pole-clinging (closely related to pole-dancing but for those terrified of heights) to name but a few.
A full time author and cover artist, Mina can usually be found hunched over a keyboard or graphics tablet, frantically trying to get the images and words in her head out and onto the screen before they drive her mad. She’s addicted to coffee and Nutella on toast.
www.mina-carter.com
www.twitter.com/minacarter
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Look for these titles by Mina Carter
Now Available:
Solar Storm
Reaper
The Project Rebellion
Perfect Mate
Print Anthology
End of Days
Monsters do exist...and they’re the good guys
Perfect Mate
© 2012 Mina Carter
Lillian Rosewood leads an ordinary, boring life working as the manager of a psychiatric hospital. The highlights of her day, other than her skinny hot chocolate, are the hunky guards who work in the secure section. Until a late-night emergency is wheeled in.
Captain Jack Harper is insane, drop-dead gorgeous...and just had his abdomen shredded. Despite the fact they're not an emergency room, Lillian can't turn him away and risk a death on her hands. Unable to get the handsome soldier out of her mind, Lillian sneaks into the restricted area to check on him. What she finds is beyond belief. Somehow Jack has managed to heal himself from a near-fatal wound in mere hours.
When one of the doctors, Walker, attempts to rape her, things go from bad to worse. In the blink of an eye, Jack is loose and Walker is dead... and Lillian must accept a truth about her rescuer that will change her world forever. What if the patients aren't insane? What if their stories of secret government experiments and monsters are true?
Contains blood, mayhem and nude werewolves operating heavy weaponry. Large amounts of sarcasm and smart-ass vampires may offend some readers. No civilian hospital staff were harmed in the making of this story.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Perfect Mate:
She couldn’t believe she was crying. Lillian didn’t cry. Ever. She was tougher than that. Tougher than the stereotypical little woman who fell apart at the first sign of danger… Or the mother who couldn’t cope after the death of her husband and hightailed it to her lover with teary demands to “make the nightmare go away”. And conveniently forgot the fact she’d left her baby daughter behind.
She was not that woman, nor anything like her.
Once in the corridor, away from the stench of death and the sight of all that black, wrong blood, she stepped away from Jack and swiped at her tears with the back of her hand. Despite the fact he’d just killed a man, there was something about him that made her feel safe. Safe with a murderer. Okay, now she knew she was losing it. Perhaps insanity ran in her family and they’d just never told her?
“I’m sorry. I’m not normally like this,” she apologized as she looked up and offered a small, teary smile. Her mouth already open to explain, she stopped.
He was gorgeous.
She’d known that. When they’d brought him in, her mind had told her that he was sex on a stick. But he’d been injured, a patient. Even though she was the hospital manager, she was bound by the patient-doctor thing, surely? The one that said “thou shalt not lust after the patients”.
Now though, without all the blood and the ragged uniform—even in the hospital gown that did nothing for anyone—he was so good-looking it took her breath away. She shook her head slightly, waiting for the hidden cameras and some cheesy reality show host to burst out of the supply cabinet in the corridor next to them. He couldn’t be for real. Soldiers just didn’t look that good.
With warm amber eyes set above sharp cheekbones, his face was bisected by a strong, straight nose over sensually full lips. A severe buzz-cut merely highlighted his attractiveness, concentrating all attention on his face. He should be strutting his stuff on a catwalk, not getting down and dirty playing soldier.
Her eyes travelled downward, and the rest of him more than fulfilled the promise of his face. He was toned…hell no, he was ripped. Even his muscles had muscles. Tall and broad shouldered, he was built like a quarterback, and his life had obviously been one of violence. Old scars dotted his skin like a mad artist had gone to town with his body as the canvas.
“I know you’re not. You’re strong.”
His words drew her attention back to his face. His eyes were blue again. He smiled, which almost robbed her of reason, but she held onto the thought for grim death. No one’s eyes changed that fast. What the hell have they done to him?
“Your eyes… What the hell are you?”
The smile turned cold, his features freezing around it and locking it into place. In hindsight, perhaps a demand for information wasn’t the best way to deal with this, especially after what had gone on in the room behind them. Walker was slumped, dead, but somehow she knew Jack wouldn’t hurt her.
He moved toward her. Only three steps, but with those blue eyes intent upon her, it seemed more like a stalk. With every movement he made, her instincts screamed “predator”.
She held her ground, tilting her head to look at him as he neared. He stopped inches away from her, so close the heat of his body beat at her skin even through her clothing and his gown.
“We don’t have time for this, Lilly.”
He lifted a hand to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. As though he couldn’t stop touching her, he stroked a gentle finger down her cheekbone to the corner of her lips. It took everything she had not to turn her head and press into the small caress, but she held true to her purpose, he
r eyes on his.
“Make time.”
His lips quirked, and everything female in her went into meltdown. He had to know the effect he had on women, so she ignored the reaction and met him look for look.
“Stubborn little minx.”
She choked. “What did you call me?”
“Minx,” he repeated, lowering his head and brushing his lips over hers to silence her. As a tactic, it worked. The first touch of his lips, warm and firm over hers, was like setting light to kindling. Heat flared and caught, racing through her body like wildfire.
She moaned, unable to stop her lips parting automatically in invitation. No matter what her mind was screaming about the dead guy in the next room and the possibility the hunk stood in front of her wasn’t just human, her body knew what it wanted, and what it intended to get.
He didn’t pass up the invitation. Groaning, he moved closer and deepened the kiss. With a ruthless sweep of his tongue, he parted her lips farther and slid into the softer recesses of her mouth. She shivered, hot and cold chills chasing over her skin as he kissed her in the darkness of the corridor.
She’d been kissed before and, as she’d thought anyway, she’d been kissed well. This was something else entirely. He kissed her as if there was nothing else in the world. As if she was his sun, his moon and stars…his everything. He didn’t kiss her, he made love to her with his lips and tongue.
Abruptly he broke away, tearing his mouth from hers. With a groan of frustration, he leaned forward to rest his forehead against hers.
“I don’t want to let you go.” The tone in his voice pulled on her heartstrings. “When they brought me in, there was just pain and blood…so much blood. Darkness was coming for me, and I was ready. But an angel called my name… I had to come back to see if she was as beautiful as she sounded.”
His words reached deep inside her. She already thought he was gorgeous, but to have him spouting words that…romantic wasn’t the word. The claim he’d come back just to see her, that hit her deep down and resonated in her soul.