by Cynthia Eden
She blinked and her gaze became a little unfocused. “C-Connor?” Fear flashed on her face.
“You’re not going to fight me,” he told her. He could damn well feel that surge of dark power within him, seeming to heat his veins. “You’re going to walk to the bed and you’re going to sit down on the mattress.”
She stood there, and, for a moment, he could see the struggle in her expression. Then she took one step and stopped, shaking her head.
Well, well…
According to everything he’d learned, humans were supposed to be easy to control. Werewolves took more effort.
“Go to the bed, Chloe.”
Her breath came faster. There was no emotion showing in her eyes now, those bright eyes of hers looked blank, but the struggle was plain to see on her face.
He hated this.
She took one step. Another. He kept focusing on her.
And she went to the bed. Sat down.
Waited. Just waited for him to tell her what to do next.
His claws were out. Would this really be what it was like if Keegan got control of her? He could just take her blood and make her do anything? The images that flashed through Connor’s head had him snarling as he stalked toward Chloe.
But she didn’t move.
Just waited.
“Offer your neck to me.” The words came out unbidden. Because something was happening inside of Connor. The more he used that dark compulsion, the more he could feel his control fracturing.
This was Chloe. She was his. He’d marked her in the way of the wolf, a sign that all other werewolves would recognize—they’d know she was his.
But that bastard Keegan had tried to take Chloe away.
No one can take her away.
She offered her neck to him. He could hear the fast beat of her heart. Could all but taste the warmth of her blood.
He leaned over her. Pressed his lips to her neck. Her skin was so soft and silken and her blood—her blood was nectar. How had he gone so long without tasting her? And now, now that he knew how good she’d be…why not take more? She’d enjoy it. Prey enjoyed the bite. Prey would—
She’s not prey. She’s Chloe. She’s—
Everything.
Connor spun away from her. “Lesson over, okay? Fucking over.” His hands pressed to his eyes as he fought to get his control the hell back.
So hard, when all he really wanted was to plunge his fangs into her throat and drive his cock into her warm, wet sex.
Behind him, Connor heard her inhale sharply. Then the floor creaked as she headed toward him.
“No, Chloe.” A refusal, not a compulsion. “Don’t touch me now. I don’t have much control.”
“I would have done anything you wanted.” Her voice was soft, scared. “Anything. I tried to fight when you first told me to walk to the bed, but then…then it was as if I were just a puppet, moving right along to anything, everything you wanted.”
“I stopped,” he said, his own voice hoarse because his control was truly razor thin. “I never want to hurt you.”
“He does. He will. And I won’t be able to stop him.”
Connor whirled toward her. “I’ll stop him.”
“You can’t be with me every second. He tried to kill me before, he’ll do it again.” She shook her head. “And if he’s realized that he can kill me over and over and over…is that what’s waiting for me?”
“No.” He held his body perfectly still. She wasn’t touching him, and he couldn’t touch her. “I’ll kill him before that happens. I won’t let him torture you.” He sucked in a deep breath, and dammit, he could taste her. “We’ll contain him. Lock him up.” Or kill him. “He won’t be a threat to you again.”
“I never realized just how dangerous vampires could be.”
“Not all vampires compel their prey.” He never wanted to compel again. Because…there had been too much power in that particular darkness. Too much temptation to become something he didn’t want to be.
I’ve got too much of my father in me.
“The vamps who compel and kill…their victims never have a chance, do they?”
No, they didn’t.
“If you shoot a vamp in the heart with a wooden bullet,” Connor knew his voice was still too rough, “that can stop a vamp in his tracks. Freeze him, and make him look and act as if he’s dead.”
“But…does that work on you? Silver doesn’t hurt you, so do you still have a vamp’s weakness for wood in the heart?”
“Sunlight doesn’t slow me down,” Connor confessed.
“Does the wooden bullet stop you?”
Grimly, he shook his head.
Her breath rushed out. “Then it won’t stop him, either. Not if he’s really like you.”
There was another way. A fool-proof one. “Cut off his head,” Connor said. “That stops werewolves and vampires.”
Chloe stared up at him. “I’m scared.”
So the fuck was he.
“I’m scared of him. I’m scared of what I’ve become, and Connor, I’m scared of you.”
Shock held him still. I terrified her. When I was using the compulsion…shit, now she looks at me as if—
“I’m scared because I want you, Connor. I know you’re dangerous, and I don’t care. I look at you and I want.” She wet her lips. “What does that say about me? When you were compelling me to offer my neck, I did…I moved automatically, but deep inside…I wanted you to bite me. I wanted you to taste my blood.” She paused. “And I still do.”
“Be careful…what you say…”
“It’s just like before. I don’t know what will happen when the sun rises. But I know what can happen right here, right now between us.” Staring at him, she started to strip.
The woman knew he got weak when she did that. “Chloe—”
“You’re not compelling me. I’m seducing you.”
“You—you should rest. You should—”
“I want to be with you. Because there is no way that it was really that good before, right? I’ll have sex with you again, and I won’t feel the same way.” Her shirt hit the floor. “I won’t feel like my soul is touching yours. I won’t feel like I fit you.”
She was clad in just her bra and panties. When her hand moved to the clasp of her bra, he stopped her, catching both of her hands in his. “You’re making a mistake.” His body curled around hers. His cock shoved against his jeans and wanted in her. So deep. He wanted to hear her scream for him.
“I don’t have a soul,” he told her. If only. “I lost that long ago.” It had been clawed out of him.
But Chloe shook her head. “Liar,” she accused then she rose onto her toes. Her mouth pressed to the curve of his shoulder and she—
Bit him. Marked him, right there, in the way of werewolves.
It was a shock to his system. Because that part of his body was damn sensitive and for Chloe to mark him there, for her to lick and bite and—
“You’re mine now,” Chloe told him, “just as I’m yours.” Then she licked his neck.
His control shattered. The marking was primitive, elemental, and so was his response. He yanked her up against him, spun around and pinned her to the wall.
Chloe would have known…the one thing designed to rip through his control…the one thing that would call up his beast with a ferocious hunger…
To be marked.
Claimed.
He lifted her up higher and yanked away her panties. He could feel the spot she’d marked on his shoulder, it was warm, the heat spiraling through him.
“I want you to bite me,” Chloe said, her voice a husky temptation. “It feels so good…”
Yes.
Her head tilted back. He wasn’t compelling her. She was offering herself to him, and he couldn’t resist her. His fingers pushed into her sex even as his fangs sank into her throat. Her taste was heaven on his tongue, and she was growing hotter and wetter against his fingers. Her hips arched toward him as she cried out his name.
A wave of power and euphoria swept through him. He thrust his fingers into her, but that wasn’t enough. Not nearly.
He withdrew, pulled out his cock, and positioned her. He should go slower, take more care, but he couldn’t.
The blood was burning in his veins. His thoughts had splintered and all he knew was her.
Take.
Mate.
Mine.
He sank into her and felt her come around him. Her sex squeezed him tight, nearly making him go insane. Her contractions slid around the length of his aroused flesh, driving his hunger higher, wilder…
And still he drank from her.
Chloe.
He locked his hands around her waist and lifted her against him. He held her there, moving her against his rocking hips. Then he licked her neck, kissing the wound he’d made.
She was still climaxing. Whispering his name and shuddering against him.
He let go then. Connor emptied himself in Chloe. He fucking got lost in her as his orgasm pounded through him.
When it ended, he carried her back to the bed. He tucked her in. Pressed a kiss to her lips.
And Connor knew he was well and truly fucked.
Nothing can happen to her…because I can’t let her go.
Chloe was his, and he was hers. If Keegan tried to get her again, the bastard wouldn’t live to see another sunset.
***
“Let me go…”
Connor opened his eyes. He’d fallen asleep in the chair next to Chloe’s bed. He could have left her, but…he’d wanted to stay. Just in case she needed him.
“Chloe?”
She was twisting on the bed. “I…like it here…” Her head moved from the left to the right, twice, in a frantic shake. “Let me go…let me stay…it doesn’t hurt here.”
A chill skated up his spine. There was something about the way Chloe was talking…
“So beautiful…” Chloe whispered. “I want to stay. Let me go so I can stay!”
He reached out to her. Caught her hand in his. “Chloe, wake up.”
She didn’t. “Want to…stay…but…Connor?”
“Chloe, wake up.” The chill was growing worse. He almost felt as if Chloe was slipping away from him, right then. “Wake up!”
She gave a little gasp and her eyes flew open. Her hand grabbed onto his. “Connor?”
He eased onto the side of the bed, needing to be closer to her. “You were having another nightmare.”
She stared up at him. “A…a nightmare?” She tucked her hair behind her ear. “Right, a nightmare.”
The unease he felt got worse. “Tell me about it?”
“I-I don’t remember it.” She pulled her hand from his. Grabbed the covers.
Connor didn’t move. First, Chloe had dreamed of fire. Now, she dreamed of something else…something beautiful. “Where were you?” Connor asked, unable to hold the question back.
At first, he didn’t think Chloe would answer him. He didn’t want her to lie to him. Not again. Connor never wanted any more lies between them. He wanted Chloe to be able to tell him anything.
“I don’t know,” Chloe finally said. “But it didn’t hurt there. And I wasn’t afraid.”
He was afraid.
“No fire, no screams. It was peaceful.”
“And you wanted to stay.”
Her head turned on the pillow. She stared at him. “I thought I did.” She bit her lip. “But then I remembered you. I wanted you more than I wanted to stay.”
His chest burned.
“Will you…will you hold me for a little while?”
He climbed into that narrow bed with her. Positioned their bodies so that she was on top of him. The chill finally left Connor when her arms wrapped around him.
“Connor, what’s the one thing you want most in life?”
He didn’t know. His arms tightened around her.
Maybe I’ve found what I want.
“I don’t want you to think I’m your jailer,” he said, his voice rumbling.
“I don’t think that, not anymore.”
Silence.
He had to ask, “What do you want most?”
“To be free. To not be afraid of anyone or anything.”
Then I’ll find a way to make that happen for you.
He pressed a kiss to her temple and as the sun began to rise, he held her.
***
The Para Base had been quiet all night. But at dawn, an armored van left the facility. Keegan was watching closely, and the sight of that van immediately caught his attention.
“Well, well,” he murmured. “Just who do we have running…?”
He left a team watching the base, men who were all staying back a safe distance, and he followed that van with a core group of his pack. When the van was far enough away from the base…he attacked.
He leapt onto the hood and drove his hand right through the front windshield. He grabbed the driver and yanked him out through the broken glass. He tossed that bleeding bastard across the street. The passenger was firing, but the idiot was shooting silver.
Doesn’t work on me.
He drove his fist at that guy, too, shattering more glass. Soon the second man stopped firing.
Other members of his pack had closed in. They pried open the back door of that vehicle. More guards were waiting inside, and their silver did work on two of the werewolves who were in front of Keegan. When they fell, he just walked over their bodies.
He knocked out the guards. Easy enough.
Then he saw the prisoner who was inside that vehicle. A man who was chained up. Smiling at him.
David Vincent. His former pack leader.
David said, “Hurry, hurry! Get me out of here!”
His claws tapped against the side of the door. Did the fool really think he could still give orders? “You’re not alpha anymore. You’re not even a werewolf.” He was a waste of space.
But then, Keegan hadn’t attacked the van in order to save any prisoners. He’d attacked because he had a plan. I take the van, then I can use it to just drive right into the Para Base. The fools there would just think their own men were returning in the vehicle.
He’d get in the base, easy as pie.
He’d have to repair the windshield, of course, but with his resources, that wouldn’t be hard. Then…then he’d just slip right inside the base.
Too simple. So perfect.
He stalked toward David.
And the guy finally got a damn clue. Because David’s eyes widened in horror and he pressed back against the side of that armored van. “No, no, you don’t understand! You don’t—”
The rat-a-tat of gunfire cut through the night. Keegan spun around just as bullets blasted into him. Not silver bullets, but tranq darts.
“Learned that one from you,” a mocking voice called out. “And by the way, dumbass, you’re kind of easy to predict.”
A tall male with green eyes appeared at the back of the armored van.
Keegan’s knees gave out beneath him, and he sank onto the floor of the van. “Lock him in,” the man ordered.
David Vincent started laughing. That mocking sound grated in Keegan’s ears.
Armed men jumped in the back of the vehicle. They locked restraints around his wrists and ankles.
“The rest are werewolves,” Keegan heard the man—the leader—shout. He recognized the bastard as Eric Pate. “Put them in silver collars and we’ll transport them all back to base.”
Then Eric jumped into the armored van. He closed in on Keegan, and the guy kicked him in the side.
“Hey,” Eric snapped. “Don’t go out on me, not yet.”
It was hard to keep his eyes open.
“Really, you’d think you were the only one who knew how to cloak a scent. Hell, I’m the one who invented that shit. Someone just stole my product and gave it to you.” Eric kicked him again.
Keegan howled in pain.
“That’s for biting my agent. I don’t take kindly to peo
ple attacking my team.” Eric bent down toward him. His voice dropped to a low, lethal whisper. “And I really get pissed off when some jerk kills a woman on my watch.” Eric locked his fingers around Keegan’s neck. “So I’m thinking…maybe it’ll be your time to die soon.”
Keegan tried to reply, but his tongue had gone thick in his mouth. He couldn’t speak, couldn’t move. All he could do was listen to the grating sound of David Vincent’s laughter.
That prick is the first to die when I’m free.
Doors slammed shut a few minutes later. The vehicle lurched forward.
The drugs that had been pumped into him made Keegan a prisoner in his own body. He wanted to move, but he couldn’t. He wanted to fight, but his claws weren’t even coming out.
“So much for being an alpha, huh, asshole?” David Vincent taunted. “You didn’t even see the trap coming for you. And now, it’s too late.”
Is it?
He couldn’t move, but Keegan could plan.
Chapter Eleven
A knock sounded at the door. He woke instantly, his body fully alert.
“Connor?” Chloe murmured. “What’s happening?”
“Connor!” Eric’s yell. “I need you, now.”
Hell. He pressed a kiss to Chloe’s lips. “Stay here, baby. I’ll be right back.” He grabbed his jeans, yanked them on, then pulled on a t-shirt. When he opened the door, he made sure not to open it wide enough for Eric to see inside. Connor sure didn’t want the guy getting an eyeful of a naked Chloe.
“About time,” Eric muttered. “Man, you are slow as shit.”
Connor glared at him. “And you are always pounding on our damn door. You know what you need, Eric? A date. A woman. You need to have issues of your own.”
Eric turned on his heel. “I need you downstairs.”
Connor hesitated.
“Chloe is fine.” Now Eric sounded annoyed. “And as your boss, I’m giving you an order…come downstairs.”
Connor followed, but he wasn’t happy about it.
Only Eric didn’t stop at the first level of the base. He went all the way down to containment.
“We got some new prisoners this morning. I thought you might want to see them…” Eric typed in his passcode and the doors to the containment area slid open. “Oh, and by the way, you can thank me with a case of beer later.”
