Pack

by Cassandra Chandler

  The queen rose, its face brushing the ground as if searching for Tessa’s flattened body. It didn’t seem like it could see very well, even with all those eyes.

  It reared up again, then started that earth-shaking gallop toward the van. Redcaps scurried around it, trying to stay out of the way of its piercing legs and crushing body. The queen plowed right over them.

  Tessa unzipped her jacket and let it slide from her arms to land in a heap on the roof of the van. She lifted her right arm, and started fidgeting with her wristband.

  “Shit!” Marcus said. “She’s luring the queen to the van so she can blow it up.”

  “The crane’s in position,” Vaughn said. “Hit the big red button and it’ll drop the claw to the ground.”

  Marcus slammed his palm on the button, holding his breath. Time seemed to pause as he could only register his heartbeat pounding in his ears.

  Then the claw fell.

  One of its three prongs impaled the queen through the back. The other two crushed it.

  The queen shrieked briefly until a sudden loud pop brought an end to its existence. Gray ichor sprayed in a circle around it as its body burst from the pressure.

  The Redcaps that had been scurrying around all let out a keening wail, then flipped over on their backs, legs writhing in the air. In seconds, they started vanishing in little flashes of light.

  The queen’s body took longer. The blue glow spread over it, devouring its still form. Even the ichor around it vaporized.

  Tessa stared at the claw with her mouth hanging open. Her gaze traveled up the crane, then back down to the cabin, until it locked with his. She snapped her mouth shut.

  “That is not a class-C dweller,” Vaughn said.

  “That was too close.” Porter’s tone was admonishing.

  Vaughn snorted. “Are you kidding? I’ve seen Marcus’s close calls. This wasn’t even in his zip code.”

  “I’m not talking about him,” Porter said.

  “Right, because who gives a shit about the only Guard we have in Providence when there’s a hot new hunter in town,” Vaughn said.

  Porter ignored the dig. “Bring her in, Marcus. That’s an order.”

  “Understood.” He was already planning on it.

  Marcus leapt out of the crane’s cabin. He pulled out his earpiece and tossed it in front of him. Porter’s voice kept calling his name right up to the moment Marcus stepped on the earpiece and crushed it into the ground.

  Marcus reached up to the transmitter in his glasses and pinched the spot until he heard a crack. The screen overlaid on the lenses flickered briefly, then vanished. He needed some privacy. He needed Tessa to himself.

  Tessa climbed down from her van. She staggered back a few paces as she hit the ground. Was she hurt?

  Rage boiled up in him and he wished he could kill the queen all over again. But then Tessa turned to look at him and the anger vanished.

  She was smiling. More than smiling, she was laughing. Lips spread wide, eyes crinkled at the edges, and the most musical sound he had ever heard soared out of her chest. She ran toward him and leapt the last few feet between them, hitting him hard and wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.

  Those legs…

  “Did you see that?” Her voice was loud enough to hurt so close to his ear, but he didn’t care.

  “I had a pretty good view.”

  “That was incredible.”

  She laughed again and he felt the strangest lightness in his chest. It wasn’t from growling. He was laughing, too. And that was a miracle in itself. His face hurt from his smile.

  Until she kissed him.

  He should have seen it coming, but didn’t. She tightened her grip, pulled his head closer, and planted her lips on his.

  Heat flooded through his body—much more pleasurable than a change. He wanted to pull her hair free and bury his hands in it, to breathe her scent into his body.

  Her tongue slid into his mouth, molten and wet. Marcus pulled her closer. His fingers curled against her back. It would be too easy for him to sprout claws, to dig into her flesh, to bury himself in her in every way he could.

  Panting, he pulled his lips from hers. She didn’t let him get far, biting his jaw and then sucking on his neck. It felt so good. Too fucking good.

  He let out a rumbling growl before he could stop himself, but managed to turn it into words. “This is a bad idea.”

  “I know,” she said. “I don’t care.”

  She tightened her legs, drawing his dick against her hips and making it much harder for him to resist. She ground herself against him, her teeth scraping the skin of his neck. He wanted to do the same, but held back. He pressed her against the door of her van instead, thrusting against her.

  Wait, when had he walked them over to the van? He froze, struggling against the urge to tear off her clothes. He could have them both naked in seconds, could be buried deep in her heat.

  Dammit, he wouldn’t lose control.

  Tessa let her legs slide down his thighs, but she didn’t stop kissing his neck. He heard something rattle and realized it was her keys. Finally, she shifted away from him, unlocking the side door of her van and opening it. He alternated between flexing and curling his fingers to give them something to do other than grabbing her again.

  “Tessa, there’s something I have to tell you before—”

  She pulled her tank top over her head. The creamy skin of her back caught the sunlight, reflecting it back at him. She pulled her hair from its bun, letting it fall down past her shoulder blades.

  With that devilish smirk in place, she turned to face him. Her breasts were perfect. Full and round, peaked with pale pink nipples that tightened as he watched. He heard himself grunt.

  It was better than growling.

  She sat down in the open space on the floor of her van and untied her boots, tossing them over her shoulder. Then she jumped back up and stood next to him. “Were you saying something?”

  He was. Something important. He put his hands over his eyes, almost crushing the damn glasses against his face as he tried to block out the sight of her. That did nothing for his ears. He heard the zipper on her jeans, and the soft sigh of the fabric sliding over her legs.

  Where the hell was his dweller when he needed it? The irritating voice in his mind would help distract him from the temptation Tessa presented—remind him of why he needed to resist.

  But he didn’t need a reminder. He knew what he had to do.

  “Tessa, stop.”

  “Okay.”

  He let out a huge breath, relaxing a tiny bit. He would tell her what he was and she’d lose interest immediately. She might not even attack him, since she was probably completely naked.

  He groaned at the thought. She was standing right next to him—bare—and she wanted him. But only because she didn’t know what he was.

  He turned around and sat in the open door to the van, hoping to keep her blocked off from her weapons. The last thing he wanted was to have to fight her.

  “We need to talk.” His hands were still pressed tight over his eyes, his senses saturated with her. He didn’t realize what she was doing until he felt her hands on his ankles, lifting his legs and shoving him back into the van.

  Damn, she was stronger than he thought. She hopped in next to him and slid the door shut.

  “We can talk later,” she said.

  Her lips were on his again in a flash, tongue demanding entry to his mouth. He let her in, groaning at the taste of her. Almonds and brown sugar.

  His hands shook as he ran them along the smooth skin of her back. She was so soft. His senses sparked to life as she pressed her body against his. Breathing deep, he filled his lungs with her scent. Floral, like night-blooming jasmine.

  He tried to memorize every nuance of her. Lean, muscled flesh balanced with softness and warmth. He prayed he would have a chance to feel her this way again. If she would listen to him—give him a chance. She could have a real life
, a real home.

  Her kisses moved to his neck, teeth gently raking his skin. That was too much. Too tempting.

  He wanted to bite her back.

  He grabbed her arms and pulled them away, rolling over so he was on top of her and pinning her arms above her head. He kept his head down. His eyes had to be glowing golden. He didn’t want her to find out about him that way. He struggled to speak, every breath filling him with her scent, making it harder to resist.

  “Okay, if we’re going to play this way, we need to set up some ground rules,” she said. “My safe word is ‘barbeque’. And you need to be very careful of my right arm. The wristband needs to stay in place.”

  He hadn’t even realized it was still on. It was the one piece of clothing she had spared.

  He focused on the mystery of that while he panted, trying to find enough breath to form a longer sentence. “Why?”

  “Because it contains a heart monitor that’s tied in to the explosives I have rigged up in my van. If my wristband is removed—or I’m killed—they’ll go off.”

  Marcus froze. Was she serious?

  Shit.

  She’d been ready to die a moment ago. If she was as unhinged as most hunters he’d met and found out what he was, she might decide taking him out would be worth sacrificing herself.

  He gripped her wrists more tightly, careful of the wristband. “I’m going to tell you something that you won’t like. Please hear me out and really think about what we’ve been through together before making any judgments about me.”

  “What we’ve been through?” She snorted, but then her smile faded. “You’re not married, are you? Because that’s a dealbreaker.”

  “No, I’m not married. But I can’t do this without you knowing more about me.”

  She let out a frustrated sigh. “I don’t want to know your life story. I want to have a little fun.”

  “It’s more complicated than that.”

  “It doesn’t have to be. Look, I’m not telling you everything about me, either. And there’s some seriously fucked-up shit you probably would want to know. But I can swear to you that it’s safe to have sex with me—no risk of babies or diseases or…anything like that.”

  The way she had paused and her body tensed made Marcus wonder what she was keeping from him. For a brief moment, he entertained the absurd notion that she was a dweller, too. But there was no way she could be colonized without him knowing.

  “I won’t even be in town afterwards,” she said, “so you don’t have to worry about me getting clingy.”

  “I want you in town.”

  “We don’t always get what we want.” There was a bitter cast to her words. She let out a puff of breath and shoved against him. “Like now. Get off me.”

  A shiver traveled up his spine that had nothing to do with her warmth beneath him. He looked toward the front windshield and took a deep breath through his nose. The windows were sealed and the open bag of cut grass interfered with his sense of smell.

  But he could feel something. A vibration coming up from the wheels, from the earth.

  “Do you feel that?” he said.

  “It’s a little late to try to rekindle the mood.”

  “Shh.”

  Something hit the bottom of the van hard enough that the whole thing was airborne for a moment before crashing back to the ground. Marcus grabbed Tessa, wrapping one arm around her as he used his other limbs to brace himself against the ceiling, floor, and side-door.

  Another crashing impact came from below, knocking them into the air. This time, the van toppled onto its side when it fell. The window cracked beneath his foot as he regained his balance.

  He held Tessa off the ground for about two seconds before she started struggling, trying to get to the compartment that held her weapons.

  “Where’s the bat I gave you?” she yelled.

  “Outside on the ground. Along with the grenades.” He’d dropped them when he was running toward the crane.

  She handed him a knife and grabbed one for herself. “We have to go out through the driver’s door. The side doors are pinned and the back is welded shut.”

  She was already headed toward the front of the van when something crashed into the windshield. Glass exploded toward them.

  Marcus grabbed her, trying to pull her behind him. He wasn’t fast enough.

  The metallic scent of her blood blossomed in the air. Just a trace—letting him know she wasn’t badly wounded. Human blood still tested his control, and he’d already fought off so many changes.

  His dweller chose that moment to speak up. “Fool. She’s yours. Fight for her.”

  “Thanks for joining us, fuckhead.”

  Marcus looked back over his shoulder at the thing that had crashed partway through the windshield. It was too big to fit into the van and seemed to have its head stuck.

  It was shaped roughly like the Redcap queen, but was at least twice its size. Instead of being white, it was a sickly shade of purple. A broad streak of red ran down its back. Its head was bright orange, and covered with eyes just like the queen’s had been. The middle of what passed for its face was taken up by a huge mouth filled with thin arms with pincers on the ends, like the mouths of the smaller Redcaps.

  “What the fuck!” Tessa’s voice was filled with panic.

  Marcus glanced over to see her eyes were wide and her mouth hanging open. “You don’t know what it is?”

  “I don’t know everything about dwellers,” she said. “These things are fucking aliens.”

  “You know that?”

  “Yeah.” She glanced at him briefly. “Wait, you know that, too?”

  Whatever it was, the thing screeched, claws clacking as it tried to reach them. The entire van shook.

  “I’m guessing it’s a Redcap king,” Marcus said.

  “I didn’t know there was such a thing.”

  Shit.

  So much for having her expertise to help them out.

  The king banged its head into the ceiling of the van, bending the metal and giving it more space to move—to get closer to them. Marcus swung his knife at the arms reaching from the thing’s mouth. Tessa backed away, pulling him with her.

  “That’s not going to work,” she said. “We can’t escape.”

  He dared to look over at her. No smirk. No bravado. She dropped her knife, then grabbed his face and kissed him briefly.

  “I’m sorry it has to end like this,” she said. “But it’ll be quick. I promise.”

  She reached for her wristband and started to pull it off.

  Chapter Nine

  Tessa really wished she had been wrong about Marcus in the sack. She hadn’t even managed to get him naked.

  It would have been nice to go out on a happy endorphin rush. Instead her body was flooded with adrenaline and other fear chemicals. It would make her more delicious, according to the dwellers she had been forced to talk to.

  This Redcap fuck wasn’t eating anybody.

  Guess it’s today after all.

  She started to pull off her wristband, but Marcus grabbed her hand.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Stopping you from blowing up the van.”

  “There’s no getting out of this, Blade. You knew the risks you signed up for. At least this way we can take the Redcap king with us.”

  And all of their bodies would be incinerated. Including the alien parasites wriggling like crazy in her arm.

  “I’m not giving up,” he said.

  Optimistic idiot. Her heaviest gauge shotgun wouldn’t slow this thing down, even if she could reach more of her weapons.

  The van lurched side to side as the king shook itself. The sound of rending metal blended with its intermittent screeches. Her head was pounding.

  Fuck this.

  Nobody dictated how Tessa went out. Nobody but her. And she sure as hell wasn’t sticking around to become a meat puppet.

  She tried to pull free from Marcus’s grip, but he didn’t bu
dge. He dropped his knife as he crushed her against his chest, pinning her arms at her sides.

  Damn, he was strong. He turned away from the Redcap king, picked her up, and…kicked out the back door. Just lifted his foot and kicked it out.

  The seams she had painstakingly welded shut popped like cheap plastic, and the heavy metal door went flying several feet away. With the van lying on its side, all he had to do was dart through the small opening that created, Tessa tucked snuggly at his side.

  The scenery blurred as he ran impossibly fast toward a stack of compacted cars. He ducked behind them and set her on her feet. He wasn’t short of breath, hadn’t broken a sweat while carrying her as he ran flat-out. She hadn’t slowed him down a bit.

  Tessa had seen and been through so much. The last few minutes, though…they were testing her sanity. She let out a brief laugh, then turned back to her van. She could see it through the cracks between two of the cars.

  The Redcap king could sense that they had moved. From the outside, it was even uglier—and bigger. It lurched back, lifting the van from the ground momentarily.

  “Tessa.”

  She looked back at Marcus, no longer sure where she faced the greatest threat. Until he grabbed her wristband and tore it off.

  “No!” Her scream was drowned out in a deafening explosion.

  Heat and light blasted through the gaps in the stack of cars in front of them. She barely noticed. The wriggling little maggots waking up in her flesh held her full attention.

  She grabbed her arm just above where the wristband had ended, wrapping her fingers all the way around and pinching tight. Marcus was holding her against his chest. He had stepped between her and the blast. As if that would protect her from the real danger.

  “Put it back on!” She barely recognized her own voice—a shrill shriek.

  “What?”

  “The wristband! Put it back!”

  She didn’t dare let go of her arm for a second. If she did, the parasites would spread and multiply, infesting her, devouring her, remaking her in their image. It only took one escaping further into her body.

  She wasn’t ready to become a Hive Mother. She never would be. And Marcus had just destroyed her exit strategy.