Hearts Unleashed: A Limited Edition Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection

by C. D. Gorri

  It was the ocean—something I’d only seen in books in the museum. Yet I saw it now in my mind. Wonder expanded in my being, and I searched my mind’s eye, greedily taking in every detail. It was like looking at a dream—if I focused too hard, the image slipped away. I had to take it as a whole, letting the impression flow to me. When I did, the waves roared back into view. Water stretched to the horizon, its surface sparkling with sun. It was the deep blue of a marble.

  The color of my eyes. Appreciation flowed through my head.

  The same emotion burned in Rurik’s gaze.

  Understanding dawned. The river wasn’t mine.

  It was his.

  He transmitted his thoughts. Except they weren’t thoughts. Not really. They were more like memories or impressions. Yet they were clear and powerful. The scent of saltwater teased my nose, and I could almost hear gulls crying as they swooped through the air.

  The scene in my head changed. Now, fertile soil cracked apart in my hands. Big chunks of it stained my fingers a rich brown so dark it was almost black.

  My hair. When he looked at it, he was reminded of the places he’d been where the earth still produced growing things.

  His fingers on my arms tightened. He stared down at me, his eyes intense.

  I had to shift. The alpha commanded it. His wish was like a hook embedded in my chest. It tugged, warning me he could rip the shift from me if he chose.

  But he was willing to pull it gently if I obeyed.

  Will it hurt?

  The river didn’t answer—and that was answer enough.

  Fear was a lead weight in my gut, but I let the yes slip from my mind and into the river.

  The golden eyes gleamed, and the river dried up. I didn’t have a chance to mourn its loss, because the hook in my chest tugged harder.

  Harder.

  Harder.

  It lifted me up, bowing my spine. The fire in my bones burned higher. Pressure built, and I opened my mouth wide and screamed. Blood coated my tongue. Two gunshots rang out—loud pops that seemed to come from inside my skull. A high-pitched buzzing filled my ears. My teeth throbbed.

  I turned my head and spat blood.

  Fangs sliced my lip. My fangs.

  Shivers coursed over my skin, running down and around and up and everywhere. Sobbing and dripping blood, I pushed to my hands and knees with my palms flat on the ground. The skin on the backs of my hands rippled and bubbled. Vomit surged up my throat, and I opened my mouth to retch. As my jaws unhinged, the bones in my face shifted, snapping with sickening cracks before sliding and reforming.

  The shift sped up. Before one stage finished, another began, until my body moved of its own accord, twisting and changing in a wet, pulpy dance. Shivers turned to fire that seared my arms and legs. My femurs snapped in half. Every vertebra punched through my skin, my spinal column contorting and twisting. White-hot pain shot through my legs as nerve endings severed and repaired themselves.

  Throat gurgling, I collapsed on my side in a heap of bloody flesh and exposed bone. A fierce itch swept me, and then hair sprouted all over my body. Black as night, it rushed across my skin, taking the itch with it. My heart raced. A great drum pounded in my head, the boom so loud it drowned out my choked gasps. My consciousness dimmed.

  The hook in my chest pulled taut, jerking me forward.

  Then it snapped.

  The world blazed into focus, every color sharper and more vivid. Sounds flooded my ears—each one amplified a thousandfold. My heartbeat boomed like thunder, and the gust of wind outside the cave wailed like a hurricane. Something on four feet scurried over loose pebbles.

  But it was smell that got my attention. Scents were everywhere. The cold tang of iron inside the rocks. The damp earth a dozen feet below the ground. The charred remnants of the fire a few paces away.

  And him.

  The alpha’s scent surrounded me. He was earth and male sweat and sex and power.

  He sat beside me, nude and watchful, his eyes like molten amber. His power licked over me, taking my measure.

  I whimpered, instinct urging me to roll onto my back and show him my belly. But my head was too heavy to lift, so I squeezed my eyes shut.

  He spoke, his voice rippling with power. “Look at me.”

  I obeyed, my insides trembling.

  He took me by the ruff around my neck and gazed into my eyes. “Rurik is my name. Hold it in your head. Let your human brain control your beast. Otherwise, you could get trapped in this form.”

  The alpha commanded, so I did as he said. Rurik. As I thought it, a veil lifted away. The rush of wind in my ears quieted. Memories fell into place like puzzle pieces. I was Eden. I was in the Alterlands. I was attacked and lost all my serum.

  I was feral. A beast.

  Panic gripped me, and I tried to jerk from his grasp. I knew what I looked like—an oversize wolf with claws and fangs. The thing that had torn the world apart, killing two-thirds of the population and taking human civilization to the brink of extinction. What if I couldn’t shift back? My life—everything I ever knew—would be gone. I jerked harder, a whine vibrating my chest.

  In a flash, Rurik seized my head and bit my muzzle—a quick press of his teeth that was there and gone.

  Shocked into stillness, I gave him a wary look. My face itched, and I shook my head and sneezed.

  His eyes crinkled at the corners, and then he smoothed a big hand down my flank. As he went, the river entered my mind again, flowing cool and light over my thoughts.

  Beautiful. The word—more of an impression, really—surfaced and fluttered along the current. His fingers stroked my black fur, which was as silky as the long, dark hair he liked to watch when the wind caught hold of it.

  Our gazes met, and his glowed with admiration. In my mind, a dreamy vision of me stood at the base of a wall, my chin lifted as I faced off with him. My brow furrowed, and anger snapped in my eyes.

  He liked that, too. He enjoyed my displays of defiance. No one ever challenged him. He found it…interesting.

  One by one, images flickered in my mind. Me with a hand on my hip, my eyes flashing. Me pressed against a stone pillar, my breasts heaving. Me sitting next to a fire with my hair lying heavy over my shoulder, the black ends curled around a nipple poking under my T-shirt. Me naked and moaning, the muscles in my neck straining as I screamed my release.

  Me in wolf form, my blue eyes glowing like sapphires. Beautiful.

  The visions rippled and faded, leaving me staring at the solid Rurik at my side.

  I held his gaze, my thoughts whirling. He wasn’t indifferent to me.

  He’d found me intriguing from the moment we met.

  Without warning, he gripped my ruff and pulled me halfway onto his lap. Power licked my body, and the hook tugged hard inside my chest.

  “Shift,” he said, his power snapping in the air like a whip.

  The agony began anew, the change sweeping me at once. It moved faster this time, cracking bones and shredding flesh at double the speed. Still, I writhed in pain, my mouth open on a soundless scream. The fur receded. Claws retracted, replaced with short, human fingernails. My snout shortened and reshaped itself to a human nose. My eyes were the last to change, my vision graying out before settling back to the less vibrant human color spectrum.

  Then I was naked and panting in human form, my body sprawled in Rurik’s lap.

  I stared up at him. “I saw your thoughts. Can you do that with everyone?”

  He shook his head. “Only a mate and only through touch. Not every pair can do it. But your beast is strong.” Arrogance entered his voice. “Probably because you’re tied to me.”

  As my desire cooled, my head cleared. The full import of his words sank in.

  Tied to him.

  Little wings of panic beat in my chest. I moved off his lap, ignoring my protesting muscles. “Why did you force me to shift again?”

  He watched me settle gingerly on my knees, his expression unreadable. “The first transition i
s the most dangerous. For some, the beast takes over, smothering the human half. When this happens, the lycan is usually lost to their wolf.”

  “Lycan,” I murmured. “That’s what you call yourselves.” I remembered Michael speaking of it.

  “Ourselves. You’re lycan now.”

  The panic beat faster. Somehow, seeing his thoughts was more terrifying than thinking he was merely an unfeeling brute who enjoyed ordering people around. He may have resisted the urge to mate me, but now that he had, he considered me his.

  Permanently.

  I made my voice neutral. “Maybe we should think about this. I can reverse the shift. I just need more serum.”

  His eyes went cold. “We settled the question of unmating.”

  The reminder made heat blaze in my cheeks. I could still taste him. Us. As if on cue, the wound from his claiming mark throbbed again. I’d begged him to fuck me. I told him he owned me. But I would have said anything in the frenzy of my heat.

  Didn’t he know that?

  I scooted backwards in the dirt.

  He growled low in his chest.

  Footsteps approached, and Soren’s voice echoed from outside. “Rurik! We buried the bodies, but we should expect a search party.” There was a flash of movement, and then my pack skidded inside the cave.

  I eyed it, allowing the faintest hope to rise in my chest. Maybe I missed a vial of serum when I replaced the medicine Rurik dumped. If I could dose myself soon, I could suppress the virus. No more fangs. No more heat.

  No more Rurik.

  He stood and looked down at me, his features hard.

  A flicker of lust flared low in my belly. I held my breath. Anything to block out his scent and stop the madness from claiming me again.

  I needed that serum. I was not spending my life as a mindless sex zombie or an alpha’s plaything.

  “Go to the pool and clean up,” he said. “I’ll come in a minute.”

  I rose on shaky legs, my gaze on my prize.

  He blocked my path.

  Tension rose all around us. My heart pounded, and now I could hear the valves closing as blood rushed into my aorta. I could hear Rurik’s heart, too, except his was a slow, steady beat.

  Because he had nothing to fear. In any contest between us, he knew he’d be the winner.

  That knowledge gleamed in his eyes now. “Go,” he said quietly. “Unless you prefer to join me outside as you are.”

  I swallowed. He’d do that? Drag me outside naked and covered in the traces of what we’d done?

  Looking into his eyes, I knew he would. He wasn’t a male who made threats. He didn’t have to. He was the alpha.

  Just another reason this mating would never work. Even if I was okay with spending the rest of my life with fur and claws, I would never accept someone trampling over my will.

  My neck throbbed. His gaze bored into mine.

  Retreat wasn’t always cowardice. Sometimes, it was self-preservation in the face of a stronger enemy. But that didn’t mean I was defeated.

  I held his gaze a moment longer. Then I turned and started for the back of the cave.

  “Eden.”

  His soft voice stopped me more forcefully than any shout.

  “If you think to test me, know that I’ll enjoy the outcome far more than you will.”

  Chapter Ten

  Stupid.

  The word racketed about my head as I scrubbed myself free of Rurik. I was stupid to have sex with him, and I was stupid to think he might actually respect me. His calling me “doctor” around the fire was clearly a momentary blip in an otherwise unblemished record of misogyny. As for defending me against Cain? That was just a male marking his territory.

  Because he liked me well enough. His little mental river made that plain. He was drawn to my scent, and he enjoyed my body. He even liked it when I pushed back against his commands. He thought it was entertaining.

  But only to a point.

  If you think to test me…

  He didn’t have to elaborate for me to know what he meant. If I had any thoughts about breaking our bond or trying to suppress Lykos-D with serum, he would stop me. He’d savaged my neck for all the world to see.

  That wasn’t the action of a man looking for an equal partner.

  Water lapped around my thighs as I rubbed at my arms and legs. Blue finger bruises marred my hips where he held me down. My pale skin had always bruised easily, and he hadn’t done anything I didn’t ask for, but the evidence of his possession was a warning. He could make me want him. Even now, the glide of water on my skin reminded me of his touch. My nipples hardened, and tendrils of lust unfurled low in my belly.

  I scrubbed harder. As I did, I couldn’t help running my tongue over my fangs. They were slightly longer than my human canines, with sharp tips that grazed my bottom lip if I wasn’t careful. I’d have to get used to them.

  Except I wasn’t going to get used to them. I was getting rid of them—and everything else that came with being feral—as soon as possible.

  Including a certain alpha.

  Ferals were ruled by their animal instincts, and animals were driven to mate. When the virus first leapt into the world, there were attacks in the streets. Cameras broadcast the horror into people’s living rooms as the stronger among the infected claimed the weak. Television preachers said it was the apocalypse and urged everyone to pray. Nations blamed each other, citing emissions reports that said glaciers were dying faster than anticipated. As they melted, they released ancient viruses. Infectious disease specialists raised the alarm. This latest virus was unlike anything seen before—at least outside myths and movies. Whispers started and then grew to rumors.

  The virus killed most of its victims. But when it didn’t, it left them transformed. Turned them into something that belonged in the realm of fairy tales.

  Werewolves. Lycans.

  Governments banned those words, but people used them anyway. The virus took its name from one—and from the Dimkov Glacier where scientists first sent out a warning about a highly contagious virus that was spreading faster than they could track. Countries closed their borders. The G-7 nations ceased all vehicle traffic and grounded all flights in an effort to stop the spread.

  But it was too late. The virus rampaged. As neighbors turned on each other and nations went to war, the glaciers melted faster. The weather went haywire and temperatures soared. Vicious storms decimated whole countries. Wildfires took out the American west coast and whole swaths of Europe. Lightning ruled the skies, striking so violently it took down airliners. Crops failed. Cities fell. Then nations fell.

  All the while, Lykos-D decimated every population on the planet. There was no cure for the virus, only a serum that could suppress it.

  In the aftermath of The Fall, humanity shuffled itself into two groups. Those who wished to remain “normal” retreated to what was left of the cities, erecting huge walls around them. Those who shunned the serum claimed what was left of the world.

  And the fiercest among them ruled over the Alterlands, seizing territory and mates by force.

  That was the world I inhabited now.

  Rurik’s world.

  The water teased at my thighs, but the desire was long gone.

  As if I summoned him with my thoughts, he appeared out of the shadows and moved toward me. He was shirtless, but he’d donned his pants, which rode low on his hips.

  I sank deeper in the pool, until water covered my breasts.

  He stopped at the edge. “Can you shift?”

  “I…don’t know.” I frowned. How was I supposed to tell? I’d been feral for less than a half hour. Which was a half hour too long.

  “You have to try. We need to reach The Vale by nightfall, and we’ll move faster on four legs than two.”

  My heart skipped a beat. The Vale? “You’re taking me to Black Rock.” As I said it, shame washed over me. In the chaos of the day’s events, I forgot why I was in the Alterlands in the first place.

  Impatience fla
shed across Rurik’s features. “The males we killed didn’t go unnoticed. Even now, their people search for them. And more males will come, drawn by your heat. Even with Soren and Cain, I can’t fight them all. You’ll be safe at my stronghold.”

  My cheeks flamed. “I’m not in heat anymore. It’s over.”

  “Wishful thinking. Now get out of the water. I’ll help you through the shift.”

  Anger made me bold. “I don’t want you to help me shift. I want you to take me to Black Rock.”

  “I’ve told you what we’re doing.” His eyes glowed. “Out.”

  I opened my mouth—

  His power snapped against my upper arm, making me suck in a breath. I lowered my voice—and a thrill tripped through me when it went far lower than I expected. “Don’t do that again.”

  A curious light flared in his eyes. “Would you prefer I enforce your obedience another way?”

  “I don’t owe you obedience.” Even as I said it, I was aware of the air between us shifting. My heart rate sped up, and even the coolness of the water couldn’t stop a flush from spreading over my chest. Under the water, my nipples tightened.

  “Oh, but you do,” he said. “I’m your alpha, as well as your mate. Obedience is part of the package. And I think a little gratitude is in order, as well.”

  My jaw dropped. “For what?”

  “For saving your life. Those males would have mounted you whether you liked it or not. You’re fortunate I chose to take you. I ensured you derived pleasure from our mating.”

  For a second, I couldn’t speak. He wanted me to thank him for having sex with me? “Nothing about that was pleasurable,” I spat.

  “Lie.” His fangs showed as he offered a tight, humorless smile. “You should start using your nose. I can smell your arousal from here.”

  I backed up a step, and now the water lapped at my collar bones. He was right, damn him, and arguing was pointless. Hadn’t he warned me not to lie to him? Better to change tactics.

  “Please,” I said, “I need to get to Black Rock.”

  “I’m not in the habit of explaining things twice, Eden. Get out of the water.”

  “No, I—”