Claiming Her Mates Complete Series Collection

by Dia Cole

  Her raccoon eyes widened as she studied my face. “Seriously?”

  “Until then, take this.” I fished out two twenties and gave them to her.

  Her eyes widened and then narrowed. “For real?” Like most of us, she’d probably been kicked around by life to the point she had a hard time believing that anyone would do something nice for no reason.

  “Yeah, consider it a welcome-to-the-club present. I was new once too, and I barely made anything my first night,” I said, lying. “I’m Havana, by the way.” I held out my hand to her.

  She shook it. “Melody.”

  “Nice to meet you, Melody. Now don’t waste any more tears on this shithole. Go home and enjoy your baby.”

  She smiled for the first time. “I will.”

  I walked back over to my bag and slung the strap over my shoulder. As I walked through the doorway, I stopped and said, “Hey, if you and Payton aren’t doing anything Christmas Eve you’re welcome to come to my place. I cook a mean turkey with all the sides.”

  She blinked up at me. “Thanks, but we’re going to my sister’s.”

  Of course. It was destined to be me and me alone this Christmas. “Well, I'd better not keep those cops waiting any longer. See you tomorrow assuming they don't throw me in jail.”

  She blinked. “You mean the pirate-looking guy and the hot blond that came in a little while ago?”

  “Yeah.”

  “They aren’t cops.”

  I whirled around. “What do you mean?”

  She dabbed her eye with the tissue. “My stepdad was a sergeant with SVPD before he died. If there is one thing I know, it’s law enforcement and those guys aren’t it. Not by a long shot.”

  My stomach dropped to the floor as I looked toward the side stairs. If Mason and Gabriel weren’t cops, who were they? And what did they want with me?

  3

  Mason

  Gabriel glowered. “We’re wasting time. There’s a goddamn apocalypse happening if you hadn’t noticed.”

  I shook my head at the ornery male. His mood was surlier than ever. “The female just wanted to get dressed.” Although to be honest, I’d prefer she didn’t. I peered through the darkness in the direction the woman had gone. My inhuman eyes quickly adjusted to the dim light allowing me to see the empty backstage area as if hundred-watt bulbs illuminated it. Unfortunately, it gave me no glimpses of the lovely Havana.

  Just imagining her peeling away that tiny black number made me catch my breath.

  What a magnificent creature she was from her slumberous dark eyes, to her generous breasts, to her long legs that I couldn't help but imagine wrapped around my hips. Even the exotic sweetness of her scent was intoxicating. If I never saw the female again, her smell would be branded inside the marrow of my bones for the rest of my days.

  I looked down at my shaking hands. Odd. It’d been years since I’d reacted like this to a female. Although to be honest, spending twenty-hour days at the hospital didn’t lend itself to commingling with the opposite sex. However, commingling was something I very much wanted to do with Havana and maybe more. Like every Lykos male, I dreamed of finding the female who would claim me forever.

  “Get a hold of yourself,” Gabriel snarled into my mind.

  I growled at his mental intrusion. Although speaking telepathically was an ability of our species, it was considered rude to read another’s thoughts. Not that Gabriel cared about offending an Omega like me. As the head Enforcer, the lethal Beta male did whatever he pleased and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.

  “She’s a human,” he said in a chiding voice.

  “Is she? You weren’t able to compel her to come with us.” I hadn’t missed the Enforcer’s attempt at compulsion. The strongest members of our species could compel weaker Lykos and humans to do their bidding. Sadly, I lacked that ability.

  “She must be an Atavus,” Gabriel muttered more to himself than to me.

  I nodded in agreement. Given her resistance to his compulsion, it was highly likely she had a Lykos ancestor. Over the years, inbreeding between Lykos and humans resulted in distant generations that carried dormant Lykos genes in their DNA. Although they didn’t shift or have many of our other abilities, their Lykos genes made them stronger than normal humans and more resistant to compulsion. It also made them very attractive to our species. Very attractive indeed. I glanced back over at the stairs willing the lovely Havana to reappear.

  “She belongs to Nathan,” Gabriel growled.

  Bloody hell. A sharp ache flashed through me at the reminder the female was off-limits. Why didn’t I find her before Nathan did? I gritted my teeth. Is she his mate? No. Alphas didn’t take mates and even if they did, humans and Atavus didn’t mate with our kind. Well, not in the share-a-lifelong-bond-until-death kind of way. However, there was nothing preventing our kind from enjoying the pleasures of their flesh. Something I’d never been tempted to do. Until now.

  Gabriel scowled. “She’s a complication we don’t need. Especially now. I don’t know what Nathan is thinking sending us after her.”

  I took a deep breath and brought my thoughts back under control. “It’s not our place to question the Alphas.” The Alphas gave the orders, and we followed. Something I’d discovered the hard way when Tasha, the ruthless Alpha female who ran our faction, educated me on the natural order of our species. I swallowed down the bitter taste in my mouth.

  “Don’t I know it,” snapped Gabriel.

  I couldn’t help glancing at his eye patch. Not for the first time, I wondered what he’d done to warrant Tasha’s cruel punishment.

  Gabriel paced back and forth in front of the red velvet curtain. “Tasha ordered me to bring you and Nathan back to Winterhaven ASAP. If that doesn’t happen…” His expression darkened.

  Thud.

  We both looked over at the red curtain.

  “What the…?” Gabriel swiped the curtain open.

  The infected human male was lying prone on the ground. Based on his shallow breathing, he was not long for this world. The faint pulse of his carotid artery seemed to flutter along with the beat of the music coming from the speakers on the wall.

  I fisted my hands, torn between wanting to help and wanting to get the hell away from him as quickly as possible.

  “There’s nothing you can do,” Gabriel reminded me.

  That wasn’t entirely true. I reached for the syringe in my jacket pocket. I hadn’t tested this substrain of the antivirus yet. So far my research had been confined to samples of the Z-virus in petri dishes. Conducting a human trial without thorough testing went against my medical ethics.

  The human moaned again.

  Screw ethics. I might be this man’s only chance. And if it worked, we’d have a proven cure to stop the spread of the virus before it destroyed all humanity. Filled with resolve, I ran over to the human and grabbed his arm. Frantically, I searched for a vein that wasn’t necrotic.

  “What are you doing?” Gabriel asked as I slid the needle into the human’s cephalic vein.

  “Trying to save him,” I murmured, pressing the plunger. Injecting directly into the bloodstream would disperse the antivirus faster than an intramuscular injection and right now time was of the essence.

  Gabriel pointed at the dark veins covering the man’s arms and chest. “Is that from the vaccine?”

  “Yes. The necrosis likely originated at the shoulder, that’s where the vaccine was given.” Bloody hell. Why hadn't the CDC extensively tested the vaccine before distributing it? “Hopefully, this works.”

  Gabriel watched me with narrowed eyes. “I thought there wasn’t a cure.”

  “There isn’t one yet, but I’ve been experimenting with the blood of our species. We’re immune to this virus, like all viruses, and if we could confer that immunity to humans—”

  “Our blood is poison to humans,” Gabriel interrupted.

  As if I didn’t already know that. “I’ve been working to suppress the toxicity of our blood while e
nhancing the immune—” I broke off as the human on the floor convulsed. Panic gripped me. “No!”

  The man let out a bloodcurdling cry. Blood poured out of his eyes, nose, and mouth—the signature reaction to Lykos blood poisoning. With a loud shuddering gasp, the human went still. He didn’t draw another breath.

  Regret pounded through me as I looked down at the empty syringe. “I killed him.” Damn it. I never should've attempted a live trial. I’ve just robbed this man of several hours of life. With a curse, I threw the syringe across the small room.

  In a rare show of empathy, Gabriel rested his hand on my shoulder. “He was already dead. If anything you put an end to his suffering.”

  There was truth to his words. The last stages of the Z-virus were devastating and at least I’d saved this man that harrowing fate. Letting out a deep breath, I pushed myself to my feet and followed Gabriel out of the room.

  A deep rumbling voice called out from down the hallway, “Gabe, what’s going on? I thought we were doing a quick in and out. Where’s the female?”

  I glanced up at the massive seven-foot-tall bearded giant whose broad shoulders skimmed both sides of the hallway. “Havana is changing.”

  Gabriel scowled at the other Enforcer. “You’re supposed to wait in the car, Liam.”

  “I thought you might’ve run into trouble."

  “The only trouble is the female is taking too long.” Gabriel scowled at me.

  “I’m sure she’ll be here shortly.” I turned to face the side stairs. Although I’d just met her, my blood hummed in anticipation of seeing her again. Her beautiful face could ease the sting of failing to save the infected human.

  Liam cleared his throat. “You don’t think she’ll run, do you?”

  She won’t run. Will she? Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to let her think we were cops. I swallowed hard imagining Nathan’s reaction if we let her slip through our fingers. Getting on the wrong side of an Alpha was deadly. Even worse, we’d have lost one of the most captivating females I’d ever encountered. It’s too dangerous for her out there on her own. “She’ll be here in a minute,” I stated with more confidence than I felt. Bloody hell. What if she runs?

  Liam must’ve picked up on my worry. He straightened his thick shoulders. “There’s a back exit that leads to the alley. I’ll watch it.”

  “Good idea,” Gabriel said with a relieved look.

  Liam nodded and stomped back down the hallway toward the front of the club.

  A gurgling sound came from the private room.

  Gabriel and I whipped around to see the human stagger to his feet. A new scent wafted off the man—the sickly odor of death.

  A sinking feeling hit my stomach. I should’ve anticipated this.

  The human’s eyes snapped open revealing cloudy white irises that fixed on my face. Its lack of heartbeat and the fact it no longer drew breath made it clear it was one of the reanimated. Although how it could possibly exist baffled me along with the rest of the medical community.

  “It’s one of them now,” I said over the sound of the man’s chattering teeth.

  Gabriel cursed.

  The creature sniffed the air in a decidedly canine-like way.

  “Do they use smell to hunt like we do?” Gabriel asked in a low voice.

  “It appears so.” My exposure to the creatures was limited to the blood samples I’d worked with, the reports I’d been getting from other doctors and nurses, and the handful of restrained infected I’d dealt with in the hospital.

  The creature staggered in our direction.

  The impossibility of it fascinated me. “Look at how it ambulates without a working respiratory system, limbic system, or any functioning organs. Despite limited cortical activity, this man is… to put it in lay terms…deader than a doornail. And yet, look how it walks and hunts.”

  Gabriel gave me a dry look. “Do you want to make out with it, or do you want me to kill it?”

  “It needs to be put down.” Based on what’d I learned so far about the reanimated, they’d attack and try to consume any living creature until they experienced significant cerebral damage.

  “I’ll take care of it.” Gabriel pulled out a gun, screwed on a sound suppressor, and shot the creature in the middle of the chest.

  The reanimated man continued staggering forward seemingly unaware of the fist-sized hole in the center of its torso.

  Gabriel fired several more body shots.

  That won’t do anything. “Shoot it in the head.”

  “Well, why didn’t you say so?” Gabriel switched aim and pulled the trigger again.

  At nearly point-blank range, the bullet took out the back of the creature’s skull and its brains splattered nearly every surface of the red room.

  I jumped back before reminding myself that we were immune to the virus. Still, we didn’t need infected blood and skull fragments on our clothes when we were about to take a trip with the female. I looked over at the side stairs both relieved and disappointed not to see Havana there.

  Gabriel snapped the curtain closed, hiding the grisly scene. Then he cocked his head as if listening for the club’s reactions to the muffled sound of gunfire. Seemingly assured that no one heard anything over the sound of the music, he turned to me and said, “The female’s five minutes are up. Where is she?”

  4

  Havana

  “It’s time to go,” a deep voice boomed from beyond the dressing room.

  Another male voice called out, “Havana, are you ready?”

  It’s them. I froze. Thinking back on my conversation with the guys, neither of them actually said they were cops. Crap, I’m such an idiot. They could be serial killers for all I knew.

  “Jeez. You’re white as a ghost. Are you okay?” Jade asked in a concerned voice.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” I said with confidence I didn’t feel. “See you tomorrow night.” I gave her a wave and walked through the doorway into the backstage area of the club. For a moment I debated going straight to Max. He and Justin would run the guys off the property in a heartbeat, but I hated the idea of bringing drama to work especially when Max had his hands full dealing with the Calaveras.

  Deciding to ditch the guys for now, I rushed over to the side exit. Hopefully, I’d be halfway home before Gabriel and Mason even noticed I was gone. Bracing myself for the chill, I shoved open the door, and stepped out into the dimly lit alley.

  The rancid odor of urine, rotting garbage, and a tangy metallic scent I couldn’t place engulfed me. Ugh. Now I remember why I don’t go out this way. Besides the creep factor of trekking through a dark alley alone, the stench was enough to peel the flesh from my bones. My breath fogged the air in front of my face while I struggled not to lose the salad I’d had for dinner.

  Click. Click. Click.

  What’s that? Swallowing back nausea, I peered down the alley.

  Three figures lurched around an overflowing Dumpster. The weird chittering sound seemed to be coming from them.

  Initially, I dismissed the trio as homeless Dumpster divers. Then they moved into the light.

  I gasped in recognition. It was Jess, along with her drug-dealing boyfriend, Brody. But they didn’t look right. The light from the parking lot illuminated their strange white eyes and the crimson stains around their gnashing teeth. Limping next to them was an unfamiliar short guy who was missing half his face. His one remaining eye swung from his socket like a lost headphone.

  They’re like the crazy people on the news!

  Shit! Deciding it’d be better to take my chances with Gabriel and Mason, I grabbed for the club door handle. It wouldn’t open.

  The three of them staggered closer.

  My heart pounded like a kettledrum. “Stay back!” I pulled the folding knife from my boot and flicked out the blade.

  Jess let out a low moan. Intestines spilled out of the front of her yellow dress and swung from side to side like tentacles as she tottered toward me in platform heels.

  Oh, God! If
being disemboweled hadn’t stopped her, my four-inch knife sure as hell wasn’t going to be a deterrent. Fear turned my blood into ice as I turned and raced down the alley as fast as I could in my stiletto boots. The parking lot was in sight when the biggest man I’d ever seen in my life stepped into the alley ahead of me. Shit! I stopped so suddenly, the heel of my right boot snapped off and I flew forward.

  As I slammed onto the ground, the knife sliced into my palm. I muffled a cry focusing not on the pain, but on the hulking man ahead of me.

  The giant’s massive shoulders blocked out the light as he let out a growl that made every hair on my body stand on end. Impossibly, his eyes seemed to glow in the darkness.

  Oh, God! Monsters in front. Monsters behind. Terror paralyzed me, and the knife fell out of my bleeding hand. The frenzied chattering of teeth grew louder and louder until it seemed to rattle my bones. A rush of adrenaline had me stumbling to my feet. Hearing a low moan, I twisted around just in time to see Brody launch himself at me.

  Damn it. He wasn’t as big as the giant, but his lanky six-foot frame knocked into me like a wrecking ball. As I fell onto the ground, pain radiated out from my back.

  The drug dealer immediately lunged for my throat.

  “Get back, you asshole!” I braced my hands on his chest, struggling to push him away. His flannel shirt was wet with blood and as I fought with him, the fabric tore revealing a huge bite wound at the top of his shoulder.

  Click. Click. Click.

  The other two were almost on us. Panic had me trying to bring my knees up to kick him off.

  He’s too strong.

  My arms shook with the effort of keeping his snapping teeth from my neck.

  Just when my muscles began to fail, Brody was wrenched off me.

  Gasping for breath, I watched in disbelief as the giant picked up the drug dealer and tossed him straight into Jess and the short guy.

  They went down like bowling pins in a tangle of body parts and flailing limbs.

  Before the giant could attack me, I searched the ground for my weapon. Finding my knife, I fisted it in my uninjured hand and swung it at the hulking creature.