by J. L. Wilder
“I’ll tell you how to get there,” she said.
He nodded. Maddie told him the turn-off, and ten minutes later, they were downtown, among the skyscrapers of Seattle.
Maddie craned her neck up to take in the sights.
“It’s only been a few days, but damn if it isn’t good to be back home.”
Scorn nodded. Her feeling better made him feel better, but he knew the way the shifter world worked well enough to understand that the odds of them being out of the woods were slim to none. He still wanted to try to talk her out of going to her apartment.
“Here,” she said. “Take a left here on Third Avenue.”
He did, and Maddie pointed to a building up ahead, a tall tower of glass and steel.
“That’s me!” she said, eagerness in her voice. “Come on!”
Scorn felt ill at ease. Not just from his sense of danger, but from being in the city. He’d never liked cities, never liked all the humans, the density, the pollution. But he put it all aside, focusing on the task at hand.
“There’s a valet,” she said as they approached. “I don’t drive, but you won’t have to worry about parking.”
Sure enough, a suited employee approached as Scorn pulled up in front of the building. But Scorn just drove right past.
“What’re you doing?” she asked.
“No one’s touching my truck but me. I don’t need some valet.”
“God, so stubborn. Well, you can park in the garage—I’ve got the keycode.”
Scorn drove on, taking the next corner and pulling into the parking garage. He could tell that Maddie thought he was being silly, but he didn’t care. After what he’d just been through, he wasn’t about to trust anyone, even some valet.
They got out in the parking garage, taking the elevator up to the twentieth floor.
“You’re going to love my place,” said Maddie. “Not the penthouse, but almost. And it’s got a great view. Lots of space, too. And the elevator opens right to it. Not bad, huh?”
Scorn said nothing. The back of his neck tingled as the elevator rose—his instinct’s way of telling him danger was near
“Oh, and I’ve got a great kitchen,” Maddie said, going on. “And I just went to the store before I left on my trip. I can make us something good. I mean, I’m more into take-out, but we can do that too, if it’s your thing.”
“Shh.”
“What? Did you just shush me?”
“Yeah. Get behind me.”
“What?”
“Do it.”
There was enough gravity to Scorn’s voice to get Maddie to obey. She stepped behind Scorn right as the elevator doors opened.
And when they did, he realized why his sense of danger had kicked in.
The place was trashed.
“What...what the hell?” Maddie rushed from behind Scorn after she spoke, but he shot out his arm to stop her before she took even more than a single step.
“Stay here.”
He pressed the “stop” button on the elevator, the doors staying open and the elevator remaining open to Maddie’s apartment. Scorn slowly stepped inside, sniffing the air and trying to catch the scent of shifters.
And he did—wolf and dragon. But the smell was faint. They were gone. But he hurried from one room to another anyway, making sure no one was lying in wait. Every room was trashed. When he returned to the living room, Maddie had disobeyed his order to stay put.
But he wasn’t about to scold her for it. He had a few guesses at what she was feeling, tears welling in her eyes as she glanced around.
“My...my apartment. What...what the fuck happened?”
“They broke in. Must’ve found out where you lived, came here to see if they could get to you. And I’d bet you anything that they’ve gone through your information, figured out places where you might stay.”
She plopped down on the couch, staring off into space.
After checking to make sure she was OK, scorn stepped over to the windows. There were two small punch holes in the glass, the balcony high up enough that whoever had broken in would’ve had to fly there.
“Dragons landed on the balcony,” he said. “Then probably sent the elevator down to have a couple of wolves come up and help them look.”
“Those...those fucking pricks,” she snarled, pure rage in her voice. “I’m...I’m going to fucking kill them.”
“Don’t worry,” said Scorn. “We will. But right now, we have to get the fuck out of here.”
“Ok, let me just grab a quick bag of important things,” she said while she rushed frantically into her bedroom.
“Where are we going to go?” she asked when she returned with a small duffel bag. “Where’s safe in this town? I can’t even live in my own damn apartment!”
It was a good question. Scorn stepped over to the window, gazing out on the endless stretch of Seattle as he tried to answer it.
Then it hit him—the one place they could go to blend in.
“I know where. You’re not going to like it, but it’s our only option.”
Without waiting for her response, Scorn strode across the apartment and took Maddie’s hand, leading her back to the elevator. She held out her hand as the doors shut, lowering it sadly as her ruined apartment vanished.
She stepped back against the wall, letting her body slide down.
“I...I can’t believe it. Everything was in there. That apartment was my whole life.”
Scorn shook his head. “Not your whole life—that, you’ve still got. And I swear I’m going to keep it that way. As long as you’re with me, you’re going to be safe.”
He meant it. The rage returned, but for a different reason—the idea of any harm coming to Maddie was enough to make Scorn see red, to clench his hands into fists, his heart to thud in his chest.
Scorn thought back to the dragons at his cabin, how he’d killed them without mercy or hesitation after they put Maddie in danger. He had a feeling he was going to do a hell of a lot more killing before this was all over.
The doors opened, and Scorn led Maddie back to the car. Minutes later, they were back on the road.
“Where are we going?” asked Maddie. “I need to know.”
And she had a right, he considered.
“Remember how I told you Seattle has a huge shifter community? There are spots around town that are more shifter than human, believe it or not. And they’ve all got meeting places. One of them is this bar called the Red Tooth.”
“Wait, you want to go to a bar? That’s seriously what’s on your mind right now?”
A drink did sound damn good, but it was far from his main motivation.
“I know people there—contacts. We can find someone to help us out, give us a place to stay.”
He could tell Maddie wasn’t sure about this idea, but she kept her mouth shut, nodding as she turned her attention back to the road.
They reached a lower-rent, run-down part of the city. And it wasn’t long before Scorn spotted the Red Tooth, the purple and orange neon lights washing over the sidewalk in front of the bar.
He parked, and when he killed the engine, Scorn turned to Maddie.
“These shifters...they’re going to know that something’s different about you. And that means you need to stay at my side. Got it? No wandering off, no talking to strangers.”
“You want me to look both ways before crossing the street, too?”
He allowed himself a sardonic grin at her point.
“I know, I know. But you need to get your footing. This is a new world you’re in, and it’s going to take some time for you to wrap your head around it all.”
She nodded. Maddie could be a pill, he understood, but she wasn’t stupid—far from it.
“Now, come on. Goal tonight is to find a place to crash. Tomorrow, we can get to the bottom of what’s going on.”
Another nod. He could sense she was still shaken up from her apartment, but there was nothing to do about that other than keep moving.
More wolves, he thought. Fuckers better behave themselves.
They stepped into the Red Tooth. The place was low-lit and dingy, slow, twanging rock music on the stereo, dozens of rough-looking shifters drinking and talking and playing pool.
One of them, a long-haired guy in a ripped-off-sleeve shirt, approached the pair with a scheming grin.
“Look at this piece of ass,” he said, his dark eyes on Maddie. “Baby, why don’t you ditch this loser and—”
He didn’t get a chance to finish. Scorn moved in with blinding speed, clamping his hand onto the back of the man’s head and slamming his face into the nearest table. A thwap sounded out, and the man sprang back up and stumbled backward, falling into the table behind him.
Scorn smirked—that got the rest of the bar’s attention.
Not to mention it sent the right message. The rest of the patrons turned back to their drinks, knowing Scorn and Maddie were off-limits. The man he’d nailed pushed himself up back onto his feet, skittering away from Scorn and Maddie like a cockroach.
Maddie was clearly shocked by what she’d seen, but Scorn was quick to put his hand on the small of her back and lead her toward the bar.
The bartender approached, clearly not too bothered by what had happened.
“What can I get you?”
“A whiskey, double. And—”
Then he glanced over at Maddie, remembering what she’d said about ordering for herself.
“And a vodka soda.” She followed this up with a smile to Scorn, letting him know his gesture had been noticed.
Seconds later, the drinks were placed in front of them. Scorn could tell by the bartender’s mossy scent that he was a bear.
“Hey,” said Scorn to the bartender. “We’re new in town and need a place to crash for the night. Got anywhere?”
The bartender glanced at Scorn, then Maddie. Then he sniffed the air.
“What the hell is she?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“I can think of a place. But it’s not cheap. Silence is expensive.”
Scorn was low on cash and didn’t want to pull the one card he had out of his sleeve.
“Bill it to the New Haven Logging Company. Tell them it’s from Scorn.”
The bartender narrowed his eyes and gave Scorn another once over.
“When you need to get there?”
“Now.”
The bartender nodded before scribbling something down on a piece of paper, then he handed it over.
“It’s just down the block. But one night only—the owner doesn’t like shifters lingering.”
“Got it.”
Scorn nodded to Maddie’s drink, and she got the hint. They finished and headed out, Scorn feeling the eyes of everyone there on him as they left.
The pair followed the directions, which led them to a seedy-looking motel at the end of the block. Scorn entered, and the scent of shifter was thick in the air. The clerk, a fox by her scent, narrowed her eyes skeptically at the two of them.
Scorn handed over the card.
“Got one room left,” she said. “Honeymoon suite. All the way at the top, door at the end of the hall.” Then she gave scorn a key.
“Thanks.”
Scorn and Maddie made their way up the stairs, the sounds of arguing or sex muffled from behind the doors. They reached the end, and Scorn unlocked the door and opened it.
“You’re fucking kidding me,” he said, taking in the sight of the room.
The place was done up in a corny, romantic style with a hot tub and heart-shaped bed, red neon lights glowing. And to his surprise, the room was actually pretty clean.
“I didn’t think rooms like this actually existed,” he said, shutting the door behind them and entering further.
“Not the most tasteful place in the world,” said Maddie. “But it’ll be safe, right?”
“For the night, at least. Until word gets around that I’m in town.”
He caught sight of a small fridge in the corner.
“Hell yeah—minibar. You want anything?”
“Nah.”
He hurried over and pulled out a bottle of scotch, cracking it open and not bothering to pour it in a glass. Maddie sat despondently on the edge of the bed, staring off into the middle distance.
“You all right?” he asked, sitting down next to her.
She shook her head. “I...I don’t even know what to think. All this might be normal for you shifters, but I have no idea what to make of any of it. I keep thinking about seeing my apartment like that, knowing people who wanted to hurt me were in there...”
Maddie sighed.
“But I’m being selfish. Your place didn’t just get wrecked—it got burned down.”
Scorn took a long pull from his scotch.
“It’s fine—it’s just stuff. In case you didn’t notice, I didn’t have much of that anyway. Mostly dirty flannels and beer cans and whiskey bottles. Nothing I’m gonna miss.”
“But they did it because of me, right? You had a quiet life out there, and I ruined it when I showed up in your life.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Don’t you ever think that. When I stumbled on you in the woods, I was in the middle of drinking myself into a lonely death in the middle of nowhere. You showing up reminded me that there’s a world I’ve been ignoring, hiding from.”
“I understand. But Scorn...what happened with you and your clan? How the hell did you go from the alpha to...whatever you are now?”
He offered a wry smirk. “Whatever I am now? You mean nothing?”
“You’re not nothing. You’re a good man—or a good dragon.”
He chuckled. “Whatever you think I am...it’s not the truth. I’m a shifter who can’t control myself.”
“What do you mean?”
He took another sip of his scotch, trying to figure out where to begin.
“Part of being a shifter is controlling your animal side, the feral part of you. The shifter life is about balance—knowing when you need to be a human and knowing when you need to unleash what’s inside. And I’ve never been good at that.”
“Tell me. Tell me what you mean.”
“The part of me that dwells inside, the part that makes me an alpha, gives me my power...it’s strong—too strong. So damn strong that it’s almost impossible to put it aside, to control it.”
He finished the scotch and got another, not used to talking about himself this way.
“But it’s different around you,” he said. “Maddie, I don’t know how to explain it, but when I’m with you, I can keep the rage at bay. You calm me, make me see clearly. I can’t explain it, but damned if I’m not grateful.”
He went on.
“And I swear, no matter what, I’m going to protect you. Anyone who tries to do you harm isn’t going to get far. You have my vow.”
Maddie regarded him with wide eyes as if she weren’t sure how to react to his words.
But then she did. Maddie leaned forward and kissed him hard.
And he kissed her hard right back.
CHAPTER 9
MADDIE
Like the last time Maddie’s lips touched Scorn’s, she was sure it was nothing but a bad idea. But she couldn’t help herself. She’d never been attracted to a man the way she’d been attracted to him. Even her ex-husband became nothing more than a foggy memory in her mind the more time she spent with Scorn.
And like before, there was magic the moment they kissed. She placed her hands on his powerful, thick arms, the muscles solid as he held her. Maddie opened her mouth, and Scorn’s tongue was inside almost instantly, his taste flooding her senses.
She moaned, falling deeper and deeper into the kiss by the second. As before, the spell he cast over her was one Maddie couldn’t resist, one she knew deep down meant that there wa
s some kind of connection between the two of them, something more than physical.
He placed his hand on her breast, squeezing her firmly through her bra. Scorn’s other hand went to her thigh, traveling up, teasing her, until he pressed against her clit through her jeans. The pleasure was instant and overwhelming, Maddie taking in a sharp gasp as he rubbed her.
She closed her eyes, focusing on the sensation of his strong hand on her pussy, feeling herself grow wetter and wetter by the second. He knew just how to touch her, just how to tease her, how to make her want more and more and more.
Before she could reach for his cock, Scorn placed his hands on her hips and effortlessly lifted Maddie, laying her down on the bed. He stood over her like a god, that same cocky smirk on his face that she wanted to smack and kiss all at the same time.
“Pants off,” he growled.
“So bossy,” she said with a slight smile. “You think because you’re an alpha you’re in charge of me?”
But he said nothing, instead putting his hands on his hips and gazing down at her button and zipper.
She wanted to playfully fight with him a little more. But she also wanted whatever she was sure he had on his mind. So, she undid the button and zipper and shimmied her jeans down, taking her panties off along with them. Once the jeans were at her ankles, Scorn took them off the rest of the way and tossed them aside.
Maddie was bare and exposed, her soaking-wet cunt there for the taking. Scorn dropped down to his knees, wrapped his arms around her legs, and pulled her close until her pussy was only inches from his face. His lips fell onto her thighs, moving from one to another as he covered this most sensitive skin in kisses.
And when he reached her pussy, his tongue pressing against her clit, all she could do was moan. The man ate Maddie like he’d been practicing for years, his fingers slipping inside, her walls gripping his touch, his tongue making slow, lazy circles around her clit.
Maddie sighed and moaned, her hips shifting as his tongue traced around her clit and lips, his fingers moving in and out as if giving her a taste of the fuck to come, how his cock would feel inside of her. She moved one hand into his thick head of hair, holding him in place as the orgasm grew and grew.