Another howl rent the air. Paige turned and faced her opponents, half afraid the good doc would take advantage of her twisted position and get her from behind. One plunge of that needle was all it would take to incapacitate her, and then he could do whatever he wanted.
To her surprise, the doctor’s eyes widened and he put his hands up.
She should have known he was faking. His mouth curled into a smirk.
To her right, the doctor moved again. They both advanced. Suddenly her only option looked like the window across the room. She could shift and break through the glass. It was risky and she might not make it anyway, but…
Paige held her breath. She dared not close her eyes with as close as they were. It was now or never. She could take them by surprise.
She just hoped she didn’t hurt the baby.
“Don’t even think about it, Paige,” he growled.
She did more than think about it.
“The serum won’t work on a wolf. She has to stay in human form!” the doc yelled.
“Advantage, me.” She willed her wolf to the surface, thankful she’d perfected the art of shifting on the fly. Her muscles bunched and transformed, bones popped at a crunching rate she wasn’t quite used to.
In the distance she heard a crash and a shout. From her haunches she sprang. She didn’t meet glass. Instead, a much bigger furry wall smashed into her from the side. Razor-sharp teeth chomped down on her shoulder and held.
The whimper that escaped wasn’t an act. Her bell had been rung.
“Craig!”
There was a buzz in her ears, but she swore she heard Derek’s voice. Paige scrambled to get her feet under her despite the hold Craig had on her. She shook to dislodge him. His teeth burrowed deeper.
“Don’t do anything stupid, Craig.”
Derek’s heart pounded when he saw his woman lying there beneath the jowls of Craig’s much bigger head. Blood seeped from a tear near her neck, soaking into the golden fur.
Caelan had successfully wrestled the doctor to the ground, and his simpering protests were quickly starting to annoy Derek. Gun held in his left hand—he couldn’t thank Eli enough for teaching him to shoot with either hand—he didn’t dare move and risk Craig sinking his teeth in for a final deathblow.
“Killing her won’t do you any good,” Derek reasoned.
A low growl reverberated through the room.
“Don’t think I can’t put a bullet through your head from where I stand.” Glowing eyes met his. Craig’s lip curled in a snarl, the rumbling continued.
“Give it up, Mr. Pendelton.”
Derek snuck a peek at Caelan’s charge. The man was down on his stomach, his wrists handcuffed behind his back, his face a contortion of anger. Caelan stood slowly, trying not to rile Craig further.
Paige twisted, earning a more menacing growl from her captor. His paw landed on her back, forcing her still. Derek swallowed. Paige huffed. Her body deflated in surrender. Recognizing the move, he narrowed his eyes and envisioned her squabble with Tucker all over again.
Craig rose a fraction, almost in triumph, as if thinking he’d won.
“Stupid bastard,” Derek whispered.
It happened in a split second. Paige reared back, dislodging Craig’s teeth, surprising him into a yelp. Then she attacked, swiping at him with her front claws, tearing two lines into Craig’s chest when he moved to defend himself.
He lunged at her. Derek didn’t have a shot. Not with Paige blocking his line.
Caelan did. The blast echoed through the space, rendering Derek deaf for a second and throwing Craig’s wolf back, stunning him but not killing him. He hurtled forward as if he hadn’t been shot at all.
Derek put a bullet between his eyes. He slumped to the ground and never moved again.
Derek shook his head to clear it and crossed to Paige, who sat on her haunches, her head cocked to one side as she studied the man who’d caused so much havoc in her life.
“I trusted him,” she whispered a few minutes later, back in her skin. The bite Craig had inflicted was already mostly healed due to her shift. “I had no idea.” A tear dropped from her lower lashes to splash on her cheek.
She turned in Derek’s hold and snuggled against his warmth. She’d never been so glad to see someone in her whole life.
“You couldn’t have known,” he murmured, kissing the top of her head. “No one did.”
“So how did you figure it out?”
“Caelan got a phone call while we were leaving the hospital.”
She groaned. It was all her fault he’d been shot. Twice. Tucker hadn’t seen the last of her. Stupid moron. Ooh, she was so mad. He hadn’t even had a clue about Craig’s gifts and had only been responsible for the ones he’d left the night she’d thrown him off her porch.
“Craig drove a navy-blue car. The only thing Matthews knew for sure was the car had been dark and so had the man’s hair. Eli did some extensive research after I got shot and found out Craig Pendelton was really Thomas Carver. He lived in the same city you grew up in.”
“He killed my parents.”
“Shit.” His good arm wrapped tightly around her.
Paige turned and stared at the mound of fur. What a waste.
“How could we not have known about him?”
“I think that’s something the good doc will be able to answer,” Caelan said, joining them. “Somehow he was able to mask Craig’s wolf scent. And we never suspected him because he’d become your friend and his smell had permeated your life. Something he intended, I’m sure.”
She shivered. She couldn’t seem to control the quakes shaking her whole body.
“I feel like such a fool.”
Derek tugged her closer. “Don’t. None of this your fault.”
She knew that, deep down. Didn’t make her feel any different.
She looked at the wolf again. “What did Katie say the wolf who attacked her looked like?”
Caelan sighed and nodded at Craig. “Him. I’ll have the DNA tested to confirm, but I have a feeling he used her because she resembles you. I didn’t put the two together. He probably met her through Ryan and decided she would be a good substitute until he could have you.”
“No wonder he’d been such an absolute shithead lately. You know he had the gall to say it was because he was having woman troubles of his own?”
“He was getting close to having you and then I came along,” Derek murmured, swiping his hand up and down her back. “No telling how that set him off.”
She dropped her head back so she could Derek’s face. “I am so glad you came when you did. Is it over?”
“It is, sweetheart.”
“Thank God.”
“Well, all except for your punishment.”
Paige pushed away and held herself at arm’s length. “Excuse me?”
“You remember what I said I’d do to you if you ever put yourself in a dangerous situation again?” He walked her to the door just as her packmates from the force entered.
She hoped Caelan could handle the questions for now, because she couldn’t.
“This was hardly the same kind of thing. It was either jump in or get stuck in the ass and have our baby aborted.”
His steps faltered and his fingers squeezed into her side. “Good point.”
“I thought so.”
He resumed walking. “But I knew what you were planning when you lay down and acted all submissive.”
She snorted. “It worked, didn’t it? Got him to remove his fangs.”
“Yes, it did.” He pushed through the front doors, and the glare of the afternoon sun blinded her for a moment. “Won’t keep me from hammering your ass, though.”
She chuckled and cuddled into his side as they made their way to his car. “I bet your left arm isn’t as strong as your right, so I
’m good with a hammering.”
“And I bet you’ll get your butt cheeks reddened twice. Once now with my left hand and once later with my right.”
“Hmm…” Her clit clenched despite the horrific events she’d been through in the last twenty-four hours. “I can’t wait.”
About the Author
Annmarie McKenna lives with her husband and five kids in the Midwest. Throw in a dog and a cat and she’s well over her limit for the average family. Luckily, writing fantasies has proven to be an excellent way to destress from her daily life of being a cleaning woman, chauffeur, cook and mom. Okay, cleaning woman—not so much. She leaves that to her hubby. Now, if only she could figure out how to destress her kids, she’d be all set.
To learn more about Annmarie, please visit www.annmariemckenna.com or her tries-to-keep-up-with-it-but-rarely-succeeds blog, annmariemckenna.blogspot.com. She’d love to hear from you. Send her an email to [email protected].
Look for these titles by Annmarie McKenna
Now Available:
Blackmailed
Fantasmagorical
Look What Santa Brought
Court Appointed
Between a Ridge and a Hard Place
Tooth and Claw
Bridging the Gap
Make Mine Midnight
To the Max
Burden
Graham Pack Mates
Seeing Eye Mate
Checkmate
Finding Strength
Two Sighted
The Strength of Three
Don’t miss the other titles in Annmarie McKenna’s Graham Pack Mates Series!
He’s a shape-shifting wolf, she’s a psychic and his other half. In order to catch a killer he has to rely on his Seeing Eye Mate.
Caelan Graham is on the hunt for a shape-shifter bent on killing female mates. As Prime, it’s Caelan’s duty to protect his entire pack, so it’s a good thing he doesn’t have a mate of his own to look after right now. Too bad the most alluring female has just walked past his nose.
As a clairvoyant, Tieran Jones has given up on men and their lack of understanding her gift—until Caelan. The man ignites her passion, sets off a vision of a gruesome wolf attack, then shows up in her bed. In wolf form. To top it all off, he keeps insisting she’s his mate.
When the attacks continue, Tieran’s visions evolve and point in one direction. Caelan’s twin brother. With a lack of physical evidence, Caelan must depend on Tieran’s sight for clues. An act making her a prime target.
Warning: This title contains the following: explicit sex, graphic language, and violence.
What’s an alpha shape-shifting wolf to do when the woman pre-destined to be his mate no longer trusts men?
After returning home from an eight-month security job, Eli Graham is ready to claim his best friend’s little sister as his mate. He’d put it off for years, thinking he was doing the right thing by waiting. Instead of the stubborn, independent, carefree girl he left behind, Eli finds a shell of the woman he once knew.
Having lived through a near fatal attack, Nikki Taylor has hidden herself away from the world. Now the time has come to face head-on the one man who could devastate her completely, Eli Graham. She’s loved him forever, craves him, body, heart and soul, but he’s never treated her as anything but a little sister.
When Nikki witnesses a murder, she has no choice but to rely on Eli’s expertise. While guarding her from the man bent on wiping out a witness, Eli shows Nikki that he’ll not only protect her body, but he’ll show her just what it means to be a wolf’s mate.
Warning: This title contains the following: hot, explicit sex, graphic violence and language, and is not for the faint of heart!
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Ultimatum
Copyright © 2015 by Annmarie McKenna
ISBN: 978-1-59998-687-6
Edited by Amy Sherwood
Cover by Kanaxa
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: May 2015
www.samhainpublishing.com
Ultimatum: Graham Pack Mates, Book 3 Page 22