Dana was shaking her head. She felt angry and frightened all at the same time. How could this woman be saying these things? “It was self defense.”
“By your own admission, you shifted into a wolf with the intention of killing those men. Is that not true?”
“I had to. They were going to kill me. I thought they’d already killed Cole.”
“That’s murder, Ms. Gray. You’re a murderer. And werewolf murderers never go free. So, you’re going to be locked up here for the rest of your life.”
Dana felt alternately warm all over, then ice cold. “Well, okay, fine. Maybe I do deserve that.” Patton was sort of right about the campers, after all, and that was inexcusable. “But you have to believe us about Enoch, because he’s not going to stop.”
“Ms. Gray—”
“No, she’s right,” said Cole. “He’s on a mission. He wants to rid the world of the SF. He thinks that your organization is oppressive, and that wolves need to be free to prey on whatever they choose to prey on, including humans. I know this, because it used to be my mission. That’s why I tried to create a pack years ago.”
Patton looked at him. “But now you’ve changed?”
“Yeah, I have.”
“What changed you?”
“I told you. Dana and I have really great sex.”
Patton rolled her eyes. “You’re toying with me. You’re both toying with me.”
“No,” said Dana. “No, Enoch is a serious threat. You have to pay attention—”
“I’m going to make sure the two of you never get out. You are going to be locked up forever,” said Patton.
Cole massaged the bridge of his nose. “Yeah, I’ve never heard that one before.”
But Dana felt horrified. “What about my daughter? Who’s going to find my daughter?”
“Frankly, you should have thought of that before you abandoned your child for Cole Randall,” said Patton.
* * *
They locked Dana and Cole both up after that—each in separate cells. And then Dana was alone.
Her cell was tiny, and there was nothing there to do. They brought her food once a day, but never more often. She tried to get Lenny to speak to her a few times, but he wouldn’t. She tried to find out what was happening as a result of the attacks, but she couldn’t get any information.
Instead, every day was a long stretch of intense loneliness and sheer boredom.
Dana felt tortured by her thoughts.
She went back and forth.
This was her fault. She’d brought this all on herself.
This wasn’t fair. She’d had to kill those men to save herself. She and Cole weren’t lying. She didn’t deserve to be locked up.
By the fifth day, she started talking to herself. She didn’t have anyone else to speak to, and she was losing her mind with boredom. She’d never realized how long a day could be, how the hours could stretch into nothing when she was alone with nothing to do. It was torture, worse that any pain she’d ever felt, worse than the wolf bond, worse than Cole’s claws in her belly.
By the tenth day, she was fairly certain that she was going crazy.
She was hearing things. Sounds outside the cell. Yells and screams.
It was her own brain playing tricks on her, making the noises she felt deep down but was keeping inside. But if she kept hearing them, she was going to have trouble stopping herself. Then she’d really be a raving lunatic, screaming away at herself in her cell all alone.
She couldn’t believe it only took ten days to get this bad. She couldn’t believe that she hadn’t been able to squelch this, to keep her sanity.
Rocking on the floor, her arms wrapped around her knees, she thought of Piper, and she wished like hell she could have done something different.
I never should have left you, baby, she thought. I never should have left you.
The door to her cell opened.
What? She stood up.
Cole was standing there. His jumpsuit was unzipped and there was blood on his face. He had the beginnings of a beard again—but nothing quite as long as it had been before. Blood was clinging to the hair on his chin. He was grinning. His teeth were red. “Come on, Dana. We’re leaving.”
She stumbled forward. Was she hallucinating now? Had she gone that crazy?
But she was able to walk into the hallway.
And she saw that they were all dead. Lenny, Jim, and the woman who sometimes brought her food.
Their bodies were strewn over the floor—bloody and ripped.
“What did you do?” said Dana.
“Well,” Cole, slinging an arm over her shoulder, “I waited until I was stronger, and then waited for the right moment, and that moment happened today.”
She would have shook off his touch, but she was so glad of any kind of human contact that she let him keep his arm around her.
“When Mabel over there was sliding my food in, her arm came into the cell. And I grabbed it. And then I started breaking her fingers until she opened the door. She yelled for help, of course, but that just meant that it was easier for me to get at them. I shifted, and then I killed them. And now we go.”
She peered down at Lenny’s body. He lay on his side. His neck was ripped and shredded. There was blood spattered against the wall behind him. Dana was struck by his lifelessness. He’d been alive the last time she’d seen him, walking around and talking. But now he was dead, and whatever spark that had existed in him was extinguished. Cole had stolen that from Lenny. Lenny was dead. Over. Ended. Done.
Why was it so easy to do that to human bodies? Why were they so fragile and vulnerable?
She shut her eyes. “I liked Lenny. He was decent to you. He saved your life.”
Cole zipped up his jumpsuit. “Well, that was his mistake.”
She shoved him. “You’re awful.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Seriously? I just got us free, Dana.”
She put her hands over her mouth. It was all too horrible.
His arm was around her again. “Let’s go.”
She let him lead her. They made their way out of the prison. When they got outside, it was raining. The sky was gray overhead, spitting angry raindrops down on their heads.
Cole took her by the arm and tugged her through the rain.
There were cars parked behind the building. Cole had taken keys off of the bodies. He matched the keys to one of the cars and threw her inside. He climbed in after her and shut the door.
The rain pelted the roof—a haphazard drum beat.
Cole started the car. “I was a little worried that Patton and her goons might still be here, but they seem to have jumped ship. Good thing, too. I might not have been able to handle all of them at once.”
Dana looked at him. He was still covered in blood.
Cole began to back the car up. “I heard you in your cell, you know. Talking to yourself.”
“You heard me?”
“I tried to talk to you, but you wouldn’t key in with your wolf hearing.”
Right. She’d forgotten she could do that.
“Dana.” Cole’s voice lowered. “You were losing it. I could hear you losing it. I couldn’t let that happen to you.”
She tugged on her seatbelt. She felt numb.
“You’re just not good at it,” he said. “When I was a kid, Jimmy used to lock me up in those punishment rooms. I figured how to deal with the loneliness and the boredom. But you… you were cracking.”
She didn’t say anything.
“Look, you don’t belong in a place like this. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Her throat felt tight. “I killed those campers, Cole.”
“I told you not to think about that anymore.”
“It’s my fault that Avery died.”
“It isn’t your fault,” he said. “Don’t blame yourself for this shit. Let it go.”
“Oh, is that what you do? Let everything go?”
“No, not really. It doesn’t bother me like it
bothers you. I have to work to feel bothered by it.”
“Shut up, Cole.” She gritted her teeth. “You disgust me.”
Cole glared at her. The blood on his face made him look like a monster. “I’m never going to figure out how to please you, am I?”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Cole drove. The only sound was the slap of the windshield wipers flicking away the rain. Sometimes, he thought Dana was the most confusing being on the entire planet.
She wasn’t speaking to him.
He tried to talk to her about where they should go, but she was mute. So, he was driving aimlessly, sticking to back roads, driving through the country. It was better than being in the cell, but not by much, honestly, if Dana wasn’t talking to him.
They were out in the middle of nowhere. It had been nearly an hour since Cole had seen a house or a sign of civilization. Everything was woods and fields and rain. The car’d had a full tank of gas when he took it, but it wouldn’t last forever. They needed fuel, and they needed money too.
“Stop the car,” said Dana suddenly.
“What?” he said.
“Stop the car. I want to get out.”
“No,” he said. “I’m not letting you out here. There’s nothing here. Where are you going to go?”
“I don’t know. I just don’t want to be near you.”
He rolled his eyes. “Come on, Dana, you and I both know that’s not true.”
“Isn’t it?” She reached over and grabbed onto the steering wheel.
The car skittered across the road.
Cole slammed on the brakes. “Jesus, what are you doing?”
She threw the door open and leaped out of the car. She went running off into the rain.
“Fuck.” Cole pulled the car onto the meager shoulder and went after her. “Dana!”
She was running, but she wasn’t going so fast that he couldn’t catch up. He sprinted. “Dana, wait!” He picked up the pace even more.
And then he caught up to her.
He tackled her, and they both went down on the slick, wet grass.
She struggled beneath him. “Let go of me, Cole.”
“No.” He turned her over, pinning her to the ground. “What the hell?”
“You ruined my life,” she spit at him.
The rain had soaked her. Her hair was sopping wet, and the jumpsuit she wore clung to her body.
Cole suddenly realized that their bodies were very close.
“If it weren’t for you, none of this would have happened. I lost everything, Cole. I lost my job, my husband, my daughter. I have nothing. And we’re fucking fugitives now, you asshole. I can’t get any of it back.”
He kissed her.
She brought her knee up into his stomach.
He pulled back, grunting.
“There’s blood in your mouth.”
He let go of her, standing up, facing the sky. The rain poured down onto him. He opened his mouth.
Dana got to her feet. “I hate you.”
He wiped at his chin. When he looked down at his hand, it was smeared red. “I know you do.”
She slapped him across the face. “I hate you.”
He grabbed both of her arms. “Do not hit me, Dana.”
“Oh, I’m not allowed to hurt you? You fucking held me down on that table and forced your cock into me even though you knew it would hurt me.”
He cringed. He thought of the way it had felt, the way her body had writhed, the way she’d clenched against him.
He was hard.
“Don’t you have anything to say about that?” she said.
He pulled her closer. He pressed his body into hers, and he moved his hands to her back. “Forgive me,” he whispered.
She shook her head. There were droplets of water beading up on her eyelashes. “Why should I?”
“Because we belong to each other. You know it. I know it. You’re mine, Dana.”
“I don’t want to be yours.”
“Yes, you do.”
“You don’t know what I want.” She thrashed in his arms.
He didn’t let go of her. “I think I do.”
She shut her eyes.
He unzipped her jumpsuit.
Her eyes snapped open. “What are you doing? You can’t think that if you force me again—”
His hand was already inside, and he’d already found the round swell of her breast. This was the way he always soothed her. She had such sensitive nipples, and if he just brushed them…
She gasped.
He ran his fingertips over her nipple, feeling it stiffen with each stroke.
“Cole…” She sagged in his arms.
He peeled the jumpsuit away, baring both of her breasts to the downpour. He put his mouth on one of her nipples, kept toying with the other one. He rubbed the hard nub of skin, gently pinched it. And he sucked the other one. She tasted like rain.
She sighed.
“That’s it,” he murmured, his mouth still on her flesh. “It’s okay, Dana. Calm down.”
She whimpered. “Fuck you.”
“I never wanted you hurt, beautiful. I swear I didn’t.”
“But you did hurt me.” Her voice was unsteady, breathless with pleasure.
“I’m not hurting you now.”
She moaned, her hands scrabbling with the zipper of his own jumpsuit. “Do it, then. Hurt me.”
He moved his head away from her body, looking up into her eyes. “What?”
She yanked his jumpsuit over his shoulders, giving herself just enough access to get it away from his crotch. And then she had his cock in her hand. She squeezed it.
It felt good, and then it was too much. He winced. “Dana—”
“It’s what we do, Cole. It’s all hurt. It’s all it is.” She began dragging her tight vise grip over his shaft.
He let out a gasp.
“Do it,” she breathed. “Hurt me. Pinch me. Bite me.”
His finger was still on her nipple. He rubbed his finger gently over it, and then he pinched it between his thumb and forefinger. Pinched it hard.
She cried out.
“That’s what you want?”
“Harder,” she moaned.
And her grip on his cock relaxed a little bit. The rain was on her fingers, and her grasp was slippery as she stroked him. It felt good. It felt better than good.
He twisted her nipple.
“Yes.” She gritted her teeth.
He sat down on the ground, shedding the arms of his jumpsuit, and he pulled her on top of him.
She straddled him, rubbing her pelvis into the center of his pleasure
And now her breasts were right in his face. The nipple he’d been pinching was reddish, standing up straight and hard. He put his mouth on it.
She moaned loudly, throwing her head back. “Bite it.”
He thrust against her, pushing into her wet jumpsuit, feeling the heat of her sex behind the cloth. And he dragged his teeth tentatively over her nipple.
“Harder. Harder.” She grabbed handfuls of his hair and yanked.
He felt like he was hovering in some place of pure excitement, waves of painful pleasure washing through him. Everything was just getting better.
He sank his teeth into her nipple.
She groaned.
He released it, sweeping his tongue back over her sensitive flesh, soothing where he’d just bitten.
She panted.
He tugged at her jumpsuit, stripping it away from her, then settling her nude body back against his crotch.
His cock slid between her slick folds, and he took her other nipple into his mouth.
“Hurt me, Cole,” she whispered.
His teeth closed around that nipple too, and then he pushed into her wet, snug heat.
She moaned.
He sighed. She was perfect. He didn’t move for a second, just savoring the first moment of being back inside her again, feeling her surround him. This was where he belonged. Joined to Dana. Inside Dana.
> She bucked against him. “Fuck me,” she whispered.
“You like it when I fuck you, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she moaned, undulating her hips over him.
He started to thrust. “Because you’re mine.”
“Cole…” She sounded frustrated by his words, but she was riding him, and her breasts were bouncing right in front of his face, both of her nipples swollen from his teeth.
He caught them in his hands, ran his tongue over the tiny red tips.
A shudder went through her.
“Say it, beautiful,” he urged.
She squeezed her eyes shut, moving against him. “I’m yours. I’m yours, Cole.”
He grabbed her chin. He kissed her—kissed her hard, clutching her against him, forcing his cock and his tongue into her, wanting to savor the moment, the fact that she’d admitted…
He broke away. “And I’m yours.”
* * *
Dana’s nipples throbbed. They ached.
“I’m yours,” Cole muttered.
She touched his face. The rain was thudding down around him, and there were droplets of water on his nose and mouth.
He rocked into her, and he was huge and thick, every inch of him thrilling her. He felt good. Fucking him felt so good.
She kissed him.
He clutched her, digging his fingers into her back. He buried his face in her breasts. “You’re perfect,” he rasped. “I would kill for you. I would die for you. I’m yours.”
And it seemed like everything ached. Not just her heavy, sensitive breasts, but her whole body. Something deep inside her ached in an exquisite way, and every time he pushed his shaft into her body, he brushed the center of the ache, radiating it through her—hurting her and pleasing her.
God, no matter what, she adored this. She adored their coupling. When he was in her, she felt complete.
As he rocked into her, pushing against her tightly aching body, the ache was dissipating. It was breaking up and flowing out her pores, and the rain was washing it away.
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