“Wh-where did that come from?” she gasped, when he finally let her come up for air.
“I couldn’t wait any longer,” he growled, keeping her in his arms as he headed for his cabin with a long, purposeful stride. “And as soon as we reach a bed, I’m going to kiss you that way between your legs again, Chelse. I can’t stop thinking about it. About how unbelievably good you taste.”
And it was true. Her scent was unreal, but her taste was somehow even better.
“Before we go inside,” he said, setting her down on the porch since he had to get his keys out of his pocket to unlock the front door, “I want you to know that I won’t hurt you. I would never risk you that way.”
Running her palm down his arm, she laced their fingers together when she reached his trembling hand. “Your dark side doesn’t scare me, Eric. I might have a problem with dominating males, but it won’t keep me from enjoying you. I’m not afraid of you.”
Shit. When she said things like that, she should be. Because they just made the wolf want to force her submission that much more.
“Now get moving,” she said with a grin, pushing him toward the door. He gave a low, excited laugh as he got out his keys with one hand, still clasping her hand with the other.
Eric was just about to open the door when someone shouted his name. Wondering what was going on, he stepped over to the edge of the porch. “Yeah?”
Jeremy came running up the glade. “Some girl just called us using Sophia’s phone. She said that Soph’s in bad shape, but she’s still alive.”
“What?” Sophia wasn’t meant to check back in with them until the morning, since she’d planned on staying overnight in Hawkley at Brandon’s. “What the hell happened?”
Jeremy reached the porch steps, his golden eyes burning with fury. “One of those sons of bitches put a bullet in her.”
* * *
It took Eric and Cian no more than five minutes to load up on weapons and ammo, then they were ready to go. After a quick discussion, it’d been decided that they would head up together to Miller’s Ridge, a bluff near Hawkley where the caller had said she’d taken Sophia, with Mason and Jeremy holding back, ready to move in if needed. Brody, Wyatt and Reyes were staying at the Alley, ensuring that Chelsea and the others remained safe.
After arguing with Chelsea about why he had to be in the team going to collect Sophia, she finally relented. “Okay. I understand that you’re going to run off and be all heroic and everything. Just...be careful. I mean it.”
He started to say something flip, like he would to Jillian or Elise. But the glib response wouldn’t form. Instead, he pulled her into his arms and took her mouth in another scorching, brain-melting kiss.
When she was breathless and trembling, Eric forced himself to let her go and step back. For one searing moment, their gazes held, an electric charge in the air as a thousand messages transmitted between them. Then he turned and climbed into the truck, hoping like hell he had good news to bring her when he made it back.
When they were close, they left the truck parked on the side of a dirt road, then went the rest of the way on foot. As soon as they reached the bluff, they found a human female in her late teens, dressed in jeans and a sweater, kneeling on the ground beside Sophia’s body. The girl didn’t notice their approach, her focus on the balled-up sweatshirt she was pressing against the bleeding bullet wound in Sophia’s right side.
Eric knew exactly who the human was from the first whiff he got of her scent. “Perry?”
Her head whipped up at the sound of his voice, her gaze wary as she watched their approach. “How do you know my name? I didn’t give it to the guy on the phone.”
Eric held his hands out so that he wouldn’t spook her as he came closer. “I’m a friend of your sister’s.”
She didn’t look like she believed him, but then, she didn’t look like she believed in a whole lot anymore. She didn’t have any of her sister’s vitality or freshness, her pretty face already telling a story that was too rough for a girl her age.
She backed away from Sophia as Cian knelt down beside the girl, his deep voice hard with anger. “What the hell happened to her?”
“I don’t know,” she told him, wiping her bloodstained palms on her jeans. “I was home by myself tonight, sitting out on the back porch having a smoke, when I saw her trying to make it into the woods behind the house. She asked me for help, said that she’d gotten shot trying to get information for some friends of my sister’s. But I don’t know who shot her. She hasn’t been able to talk much. I just helped her get here and called the number she told me to call.”
Cursing under his breath, Cian lifted Sophia into his arms, then started heading back to the truck.
Eric looked at Perry. “Are you coming with us?”
Instead of answering his question, she chewed on the corner of her lip, then asked two of her own. “What’s my sister doing? I heard that she showed up at that club in Wesley. Is she okay?”
“Why the hell should I tell you? You don’t care about her.” His voice was rough, thick with disgust. “You’ve been sitting here for the past hour with Sophia’s phone, and I bet you haven’t even called her, have you? Do you have any idea how worried she’s been?”
“Excuse me for not being in the mood for another one of her boring lectures about what a screw-up I am,” Perry sneered, sounding like a snotty teenager. “I didn’t ask her to come chasing after me. It’s not my fault she ended up in trouble.”
“You selfish little bitch!” he snarled, angry enough to put his fist through a wall—and he was quietly thankful there wasn’t one around. He had enough problems to deal with without adding a broken hand to the list.
Struggling to get a hold on his temper, he took a deep breath and said, “Look, are you coming with us or not?”
Crossing her arms over her chest, she lifted her chin in a way that reminded him of Chelsea. “Whether you believe it or not, I’m sorry that Chelsea’s caught up in the middle of this. And I’d go with you if I could. But I—I can’t. Jason is in trouble because of me. I can’t just abandon him. They’ve already threatened to strip his ranking if he screws up again—which is exactly how they would see my disappearance. I can’t let that happen.”
“Has he said that he’ll get you out of here?” he asked, wondering what in God’s name he was going to tell Chelsea.
“He’s going to try, because he wants us to go somewhere and start a new life together. He...he says that he loves me.”
“For your sake,” Eric muttered, “I hope it’s true.”
“What about you and Chelsea?” she asked, stepping a little closer. “What’s going on between the two of you?”
“It’s...complicated.”
She almost smiled. “That sounds like my sister.”
“Perry, I know you think you’re doing the right thing, but it’s dangerous for you in Hawkley. The best thing you—”
“The best thing I can do is stay with Jason,” she said, cutting him off. “It’s where I belong.”
He wanted to keep arguing, but could see that she wasn’t going to change her mind. Apparently love trumped danger, which left him in a goddamn mess. Short of throwing her over his shoulder and taking her out of there kicking and screaming, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do.
With a frustrated sigh, he said, “If you change your mind, you can reach me on your sister’s number. Day or night.”
“Okay. And...take care of her.”
He didn’t know if she meant Chelsea or Sophia, and he didn’t have time to ask. He could hear Cian revving the truck’s engine, signaling him to get moving or be left behind.
Muttering every foul word he could think of, Eric left Perry Smart standing on the bluff and ran back to the truck. He made sure that Sophia was okay in the backseat, then climbed in on the passenge
r’s side, and Cian drove like a demon, getting them back to the Alley in record time.
Chelsea and the others were all waiting for them in the center of the Alley when they arrived. “What happened?” she and Jillian both asked at the same time, the second Eric climbed out of the truck. Cian grabbed Sophia from the backseat, carrying her to the Burnses’ cabin, and Eric explained as they followed after them.
“She hasn’t been able to tell us much. Only bits and pieces. But it sounds like Brandon wasn’t being cooperative, so she got him drunk and started questioning him. The plan was working, until his roommate came home and overheard what Brandon was telling her. He tried to drag Sophia over to Roy’s, but she managed to get away. The bastard got her with a bullet as she was running.”
As soon as they were inside, Jillian headed back to the guestroom, where Cian had taken Sophia, and Eric sat down on one of the sofas, scrubbing his hands over his face. Chelsea sat down beside him, and asked, “Did Sophia say anything about Perry?”
“I’m afraid not,” he told her, which was technically the truth. He was the one who’d asked Sophia not to mention anything about Perry Smart until he’d figured out the best way to tell Chelsea that her sister had chosen Jason Donovan over her.
By the time Jillian came back into the living room an hour later, it was crowded with people, everyone gathering at the cabin to find out how Sophia was doing. From Jillian’s troubled expression, they all feared the worst, since Sophia had lost a significant amount of blood. But Jillian said that she was actually doing a lot better, and had even been able to talk about what she’d learned from Brandon—and it wasn’t good.
Looking at Eric, Jillian said, “You were right to have a bad feeling about the Whiteclaw and the Donovans. They’re not dating the humans who work at that club. They’re using them in private sex shows up in Hawkley. Clients are paying a fortune to rape the girls, sometimes up to ten males at a time. The men are all Lycan, and they’re allowed to take the girls in whichever form they choose.”
Eric felt the color drain from his face. “Son of a bitch,” he grated, while the others muttered their own outraged curses.
Jillian went on. “From what I understand, they have a drug that they give the girls. It acts as a high-powered aphrodisiac, making them mindless with lust, then leaves them with no memory of the event. That way, they can use the same girls over and over. They keep stripping at the club, until a client hires them out, and then they’re taken up to Hawkley. The rapes can last up to two days, and then the girls’ injuries are healed by the pack’s Spirit Walker, and they’re returned to the club with some fabricated story about a drinking binge.”
“Those men are monsters,” Chelsea breathed out, her eyes glistening with tears.
Eric completely agreed. He’d thought that maybe there’d be some rough play involved. Maybe even wolves getting off on the fear factor. But he hadn’t expected anything like this. They might not be feeding like rogues on those girls’ bodies, but they were feeding on their spirits, and that was just as evil. No matter what he had to do to make it happen, he was going to bring their sadistic operation down.
Chelsea wiped her eyes, then looked at Jillian. “Do you think it’s the same drug they gave me on Saturday night?”
There was a low sound in his throat, Eric’s fury rising as he made the same connection Chelsea just had. But there was a significant difference. “You still had a lot of your memories, Chelse. They must have given you something different.”
“I wondered the same thing and asked Sophia,” Jillian explained. “She talked to Brandon about it, and he said the drug Curtis gave Chelsea was part of a new batch they recently had created for clients who are interested in a long-term arrangement with the girls.”
“You mean like sex slaves?” Cian demanded in a near shout. “Those dirty motherfu—”
“Cian!” Jillian said, cutting the Runner off. “I know you’re angry, but we need to keep it down out here for Soph, okay?”
“Right,” he muttered, shoving both hands back through his hair as he paced the floor. “Sorry.”
Leaning forward in his chair, Mason braced his elbows on his parted knees. “We need to come up with a way to put a stop to this. The sooner, the better. But until we do, I’m worried they might try to move the girls now that they know Brandon talked. In addition to the surveillance group that’s been set up at the club, we need something on the roads going in and out of Hawkley.”
Brody moved away from his place by the wall. “I’m on it.”
Cian headed out with his partner, and while the others went to the kitchen for coffee, Eric stayed on the sofa with Chelsea.
“I’m worried about Perry,” she whispered. “I hate the thought of her being there in that town.”
Eric squeezed her hand, letting her know he understood, but then Torrance and Carla came back into the room, and the conversation turned to Sophia and how her family was going to react when they found out she’d been hurt. As the hour grew later, the Runners started heading back to their cabins, and he finally said, “We should get going, Chelse.”
They said their goodbyes, then made their way out into the crisp night air. Eric put his arm around her shoulders, sharing his warmth as she huddled against his side.
“I don’t think I’m going to be able to fall asleep,” she murmured. “I’m too worried.”
Despite the gravity of the night, a low, husky laugh rumbled in his chest.
Tilting her head back, she gave him a disgruntled look. “You think my worrying is funny?”
“Not at all, sweetheart. I was just thinking about how much fun it would be to wear you out.”
“Oh. Okay,” she whispered. “I’m still game if you—”
He didn’t give her a chance to finish, her words choking off with a gasp as Eric lifted her into his arms...and started running.
Chapter Thirteen
Eric set Chelsea on her feet as soon as they were inside his cabin, then turned and locked the door, making sure they wouldn’t be disturbed. Her scent was all over him, all around him, making him feel like a live wire. Making him furious that it didn’t call to him. That he couldn’t sink his fangs into her tender throat and claim her for his own.
He knew of others who had committed without being able to make a bond. It could be done. But he couldn’t risk it. Not when he was dark wolf and she was human. Only the claiming would ease his wolf completely and balance its hungers. Without it, there was too much risk of disaster.
“Remember, no biting,” she reminded him in a soft voice. “And no holding me down.”
Lifting his hand, he pushed her hair back from her face, and said, “You can trust me, Chelse. I won’t bite. Won’t hold you down, either.” Grinning a little, he added, “Though someday you might actually like the idea of being at my mercy.”
He didn’t give her a chance to respond, suddenly pulling her close and taking her mouth in a hard, relentless, ravaging kiss. And his heart damn near exploded when she wrapped her arms around his neck and started kissing him back, her tongue rubbing against his, telling him that she accepted him. That she wasn’t going to turn him away.
As he lost himself in the warm silk of her mouth, his hands moved over her body, pulling and ripping at her clothes, needing the feel of her smooth, bare skin with a desperation that shook him to his core. Hunger clawed through his system, his blood rushing so hard and fast it was all he could hear, and with a guttural growl vibrating in the back of his throat, Eric lifted her against his chest.
Then he carried her to his bed.
* * *
One moment Chelsea was lost in the dark, succulent taste of him, and in the next she found herself lying on Eric’s massive king-size bed, in the shadowed darkness of his room, while he tore away what was left of her clothes. When she was naked beneath him, he took a deep brea
th and pulled away, moving back to his feet. She tracked his tall, broad-shouldered form as he reached down and turned on one of the bedside lamps, casting a wash of warm, golden light through the room. For a split second she thought about reaching for the edge of the bedspread and pulling it over her, but then he pulled off his shirt, and she forgot to be embarrassed or shy.
Then he started undoing the buttons on his jeans, and she had to prop herself up on her elbows just so she could get a better view, the flexing of muscle in his arms and across the broad expanse of his chest making her mouth water. But it was the thick ridge trapped behind the fly of his jeans that stole her breath. “My, God, Eric. You’re so beautiful.”
“You’re the beautiful one,” he groaned, taking down his tight black boxers with his jeans, then kicking them away. Her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped as she got her first look at him. With his muscular thighs braced apart, he wrapped his hand around the heavy, vein-ridged shaft, and stroked it with a few long, strong pulls that had her panting...melting. It was the most masculine, erotic sight Chelsea had ever seen.
But what she loved most was the way he stared down at her, his glittering, molten gaze burning with heat, warming her blood until she didn’t care about being too short or curvy or pale. When Eric gave her that hot, primal look of hunger, she felt like the most beautiful woman in the world. One who didn’t have a single frigid bone in her body.
She wanted to touch him...taste him. Wanted to run her mouth over the burnished, satiny skin of his chest and abs, feel the tight stretch of golden skin over powerful muscles that thrummed beneath her lips. She wanted to eat him alive. Gobble him up like something she could hold in her mouth, savoring for years. For...ever. Like something she could keep.
“Spread your legs for me, Chelse.”
She licked her lips, surprised by how badly she craved him. “No way, Eric. I want you in my mouth first. It’s my turn tonight.”
“No.”
Her eyes went wide again. “Why not? I thought guys like getting head.”
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