Not her freakin' libido, which had chosen the worst time to wake up and ride her.
She cursed her own traitorous body as she ran harder. The friction of her leather pants, rubbing against the inside of her thighs as she ran, made her groan and every bounce of her heavy breasts made her aching nipples rub wantonly against her bra.
She was one horny hunter all right.
And her humiliation would be complete if she let the target get away.
With her heart thundering in her ears, Charlotte wiped her sweaty palms down her coat. She clenched her jaw and her fists.
Lose the tail. Catch the target.
She could do that.
She was gaining on the rogue wolf when he turned a corner suddenly and vanished from her view. Charlotte swore under her breath and frantically pushed people out of her way, not bothering to slow down and apologize. Swatting away exclamations and expletives, she turned the corner at a run and stared into the shadows.
Where was that rogue? And the woman?
The back of her neck began to prickle, and she knew that he hadn't gone far. She could sense the tension, the danger, hanging heavily in the air. Time swayed ponderously like a noose over her head, her hammering heartbeats measuring the passing seconds.
A scream erupted from the end of the street. A woman's terrified, agonized scream.
No!
Charlotte jerked into action. The scream had come from the large, abandoned warehouse sitting at the very end of the street. It was a rambling, old building, awaiting demolition. There was a rusty wire-mesh fence surrounding the warehouse, and a lopsided gate which was padlocked. Charlotte pulled out her dagger and sliced at the lock. The old, rusty lock fell apart, dropping to the ground with a clang. She slammed through the gate, and raced for the broken entrance of the warehouse. The woman's high-pitched screams were now interlaced with sobs and whimpered pleas. The rogue had not killed her outright. He probably wanted to hear her beg, see the stark terror and fading hope in her eyes, feel the final desperate beats of her heart before he ripped her heart out of her chest.
Charlotte crashed through the broken door, her silver daggers in her hands. The light of the waxing moon flickered into the old, dusty warehouse, throwing crooked shadows across the walls. The blond woman was on her knees, her dress torn from her shoulders. Mascara streaked down her face, and her red lipstick was smeared across her cheeks. Charlotte saw scratches on her arms and neck, but she didn't seem to have been bitten. Yet.
A werewolf could bite to kill, or turn, its victim. An ancient, powerful werewolf would be able to turn its victims into werewolves with its bite. The turning was agonizing, prolonged, and the victims usually turned into rogues, unless they possessed an iron will and discipline to control their beast.
A shadow moved and Charlotte saw the rogue walk languidly towards the woman. His red eyes followed Charlotte as she circled him slowly. She swallowed as his teeth bared in a feral grin. She had to be very careful, or the woman would be dead.
Growling, the rogue twined the woman's blond hair through his claws and jerked her head back, exposing the slender column of her throat. He raised his other hand to rake a claw down the side of the woman's face and slowly down her throat. The woman let out small, panicked sounds, like a wounded animal as he flexed his barely human fingers and closed them around her throat.
The rogue's tailored suit was crumpled and torn in places but still largely intact and his body was still human, but his head was a blur between man and wolf. Charlotte stared into a pinched human face and saw an overlapping image of a large wolf head flickering in and out of focus. The rogue was losing control of his beast, barely able to maintain his human form.
“Let her go, wolf,” Charlotte grated out.
The rogue cocked his head with a smirk. “Or what?” His voice was gravelly, the accompanying animal growl almost drowning out his words.
The silver blades twirled expertly through Charlotte's fingers, a blur of pure silver in the dark warehouse. She stopped the dizzying, mesmerizing spinning of the blades by catching the hilt of the daggers firmly in her palms. She had considered answering the rogue wolf, but her answer would have been a lie. If she had told him 'Let her go or you die,” that would have implied that if he did let the woman go, he would live. But that wasn't true, was it? He was not leaving the warehouse tonight.
“There is no 'or',” she muttered absently. It was simply 'You die'.
The rogue narrowed his red eyes at her. “What?”
She shrugged.
And with that small movement, she quickly and quietly eased one arm back and threw the dagger.
The rogue's eyes widened and he let out a rough curse as the silver spun through the air. He released his victim partially to jerk to the side. The knife missed his heart and lodged squarely in his shoulder with a hiss. Smoke and blood issued from the wound as the skin and flesh around the silver blade began to burn.
The rogue's face began to contort as he gritted his teeth against the pain. His face and body were contorting and jerking, as his wolf came to the fore. The burn of the silver and his own maddening rage was shredding his tenuous hold over his beast. He wouldn't be able to control his shift, his wolf, and in a matter of seconds, the wolf would take over completely.
Charlotte watched his agonized, angry shift from man to wolf, trying to aim her remaining dagger at his heart. But with the violent spasms and rapid shifting of his shape, she couldn't quite make out his exact form. She could see both the man and the wolf at the same time, their shapes blurring and overlapping as bones snapped and muscles bulged and twisted. Skin gave way to fur, and the rogue fell to the ground, then arched his back sharply, his hackles raised.
The woman was thrashing wildly in his grip, her mouth wide open in a silent scream. The fingers around her neck had become long, curved claws and were gouging into her tender flesh.
The dagger was still embedded in the wolf's shoulder, and around the silver, there was no fur, just a patch of sizzling, blackened skin. The rogue let out a howl, his black fur bristling, his fangs sharp and dripping. The rogue wolf was huge, with glowing red eyes crazed with blood lust and pain. He released the woman to try to claw out the dagger in his shoulder.
Charlotte hissed at the woman, who was frozen to the spot, gaping and whimpering. “Move! Run! Get away!” But the woman didn't and couldn't move at all. She was either too scared or too stupid to scramble away to safety, to at least try to save her own life.
Charlotte flicked her eyes back to the wolf, her dagger poised in her right hand. The rogue wolf was thrashing about too violently for her to get a good aim. She had to bury the blade in his heart. And she couldn't afford to miss.
With one vicious swipe, the rogue gouged the blade out of his shoulder. The blood soaked dagger clattered to the ground and skidded a few feet to Charlotte's left. Her eyes snapped from the spurting wound in the wolf's shoulder to the dagger glinting darkly, just out of her reach. Silently, she began to inch towards the dagger, slowly lowering herself to a crouch.
The wolf's glowing eyes locked on her, and even before she could tense to attack or defend, he had flown across the room. In a blur of fur and fangs, he slammed into her, knocking the dagger out of her hand and pinning her down with his claws.
She struggled hard, kicking and twisting and spitting. The wolf seemed to smile down at her, a low growl rumbling from his throat. As she writhed furiously, she saw those wolf eyes lower from her face to her chest, his ears twitching as he listened to the hypnotic pounding of her heart. She knew he could scent her fear, her human sweat and blood, and he wanted the human heart beating in her chest.
No!
She kicked out in a frenzy, her fingers scrabbling under his claws to try to reach her dagger. She could almost reach it. Just an inch more...
Just as she managed to flick the edge of her blade with her nail to send the dagger spinning towards her splayed fingers, the rogue caught her movement at the corner of his eye. His claw
s slashed across her chest, ripping her leather coat and t-shirt. As Charlotte bit down a scream, his jaws closed over her forearm, the arm that was reaching for that blessed dagger.
When his serrated teeth sunk into her flesh, the scream that she had tried so hard to contain finally exploded from her. She had not wanted him to have the satisfaction of hearing her scream. But...this—this pain burnt worse than the fires of hell. It was like a million knives twisting into her arm, stabbing and spreading through her flesh. The pain spread from her arm to every muscle in her body like wildfire, raging and scorching and destroying. Every nerve exploded, and she almost snapped her spine in half at the violence of her screaming convulsions. Every cell in her body was in revolt, rebelling against her attempts to calm them down, and manage her own unmanageable pain.
As she arched her back in agony, her chest heaving and rising with her own tormented breaths, through her hazy vision, she saw the wolf slashing down towards her chest. He was preparing to rip her heart out, and devour it.
“No!”
She screamed as she felt his claws start to sink into her flesh. Despite the unrelenting, wrenching pain that was wrecking her entire body, she held on to what was left of her strength and her senses to try to twist away. No wolf would have her heart. She would kill him!
But to do that, she had to not die.
As her scream reverberated through the shadows and swirled around her in a vortex, it seemed that her own humiliating scream would be the last sound she heard. The pain kept escalating, until to her immense shame, only one thought throbbed in her shattered mind. Perhaps death would be a release.
No, death was not a release. It was an escape. And only cowards tried to escape.
Charlotte caught the hilt of her dagger in her hand, and she flicked the blade up, aiming it straight towards the wolf's heart.
Die, wolf!
The claws lifted from her chest suddenly as a shadow flew before her blurry eyes, knocking the rogue wolf away from her. There was a thunderous bellow, and she lifted her head to see a tall, powerfully built man wrestling with the black wolf in the middle of the dirty warehouse. In her confused mind, he looked too much like the man who had been following her, stalking her while she stalked the rogue.
My sexy stranger, she thought deliriously.
Clutching her bleeding arm to her stomach, Charlotte struggled up and limped to her fallen daggers, keeping her eyes on the fighting pair. “Run,” Charlotte wheezed to the woman, who was blubbering and muttering incoherently in a corner, hugging her knees. The woman simply stared up at Charlotte with wild, uncomprehending eyes. “Go home, now. Go!” With her good arm, Charlotte hauled the woman to her feet and shoved her towards the broken door. “Keeping running, and don't stop! Go!”
With a squeak, the woman obeyed, running madly out of the warehouse with tears gushing from her eyes. Charlotte turned back, and gasped.
There were two wolves grappling on the floor.
Where was her sexy stranger?
She took a step forward, and gasped.
Was that...him? That fierce wolf with the brown fur and golden eyes?
The two wolves were a blur of black and brown, fur and blood. Claws and teeth glinted and tore into muscle and tendon.
Staring at the two wolves which were locked in a fight to the death, Charlotte took a painful, staggering breath and raised her daggers.
As she narrowed her eyes at the large brown wolf, she felt an odd pang in her heart. Why, oh why, did her sexy stranger have to be a werewolf?
Now she would have to kill him.
Swallowing hard, she crept forward. Her Final test had just gotten that much harder.
Now she had not one, but two, werewolves to kill.
Oh joy.
CHAPTER SIX
As Lucas extricated himself from the maddening throng of humans and paranormals, he saw Charlotte turn the corner at the end of the street and vanish from his view. He locked onto her scent and growled, the hunter fully engaged. In no time at all, he had located the old warehouse squatting at the far end of the deserted street. He was just circling the perimeter when he heard her scream.
Charlotte's scream was filled with anger and anguish. It wasn't a cry for help. It was more like a war cry, inciting him to battle.
His mind and body responded to his mate's scream with a violence and fervor that was unparalleled. Wrath and blood lust surged through his beast, as he tore through the weak, metal fence and flew straight towards the entrance to the warehouse. His wolf eyes could see shadows moving inside, and he could scent his mate...and her blood.
She was bleeding!
That rogue had hurt his mate!
With a bellow, he slammed straight into the black wolf that was snarling over his mate, digging his dirty claws into her chest. How dare he touch her!
A current of pure energy and electricity streaked through his body, igniting his shift from man to wolf. Between one powerful heartbeat and the next, he had shifted completely into wolf.
Lucas rolled on the floor with his jaws snapping ferociously at the rogue. His teeth snagged on matted black fur, but the rogue was thrashing and twisting so violently he couldn't clamp down on the bastard's neck. The rogue clawed at Lucas, aiming for his heart and his eyes, but Lucas was faster and stronger.
Lucas shook away his rage-filled vision, which was drenching the whole scene red and clouding his judgment. He had never lost his senses and his control over his wolf, but things were a little different when it came to his mate. The thought that this rogue had hurt her made his beast rise to the fore, every animal instinct and human emotion swirling and swelling within him. Fury and pain made him strike out recklessly and ruthlessly. The instinct to possess and protect his mate blinded him to the fact that she was silently advancing towards them with her daggers raised in her fists.
Lucas drew back for an instant, his eyes darting to Charlotte. He shouldn't be fighting blindly like a crazed animal. Doing so would only endanger his mate. He saw that the blond human woman had scrambled out the door and made it to safety even as she blubbered and shrieked hysterically.
Lucas held the rogue wolf down and saw the hunger and madness churning in those glowing red eyes. Even as he struggled, the rogue's red eyes kept flicking over Lucas's shoulder and a ravenous growl told Lucas that the rogue wanted to claw out the furiously beating heart of that delicious human Enforcer and devour it. Rogues usually started by catching strays and eating their beating hearts. Devouring a live heart gave rogues a fix of added strength and power, and gave them a high. It was like being hooked on drugs. More was never enough. From killing small animals, the rogues soon hunted humans and paranormals in order to rip their hearts out of their chests while they were still alive and screaming, and eat the quivering, convulsing hearts.
The rogue wolf wanted Charlotte's heart.
The rogue would eat Lucas's heart too, but the rogue knew that Charlotte was the easier prey.
From the corner of his eye, Lucas caught a sudden flash of silver, like lightning. He saw Charlotte move towards them with a silver dagger raised in her shaking fist, a look of pure hatred on her face.
The rogue wolf gave a deep growl of satisfaction at her approach, as he slackened against Lucas. Lucas turned his head sharply to warn her away.
“Out of my way!” Charlotte hollered and charged.
The rogue wolf struck at the same time.
The black wolf opened its jaws and lunged at Lucas's throat.
Lucas reared up, his massive paw and claws slashing down. The black wolf collapsed and skidded across the floor like he had just been hit by a wrecking ball.
Charlotte ran at the black wolf, her knife poised for the kill.
But the rogue had already pushed himself up and was waiting for her.
The black wolf crouched, preparing to pounce.
Charlotte didn't slow down. Shrieking like a banshee, she kept charging, running straight for the rogue.
“For Charlene!” she y
elled.
As she plunged her blade down, aiming for the rogue's heart, the black wolf shot up like an arrow, his claws and deadly jaws flying towards her soft, pale throat.
Lucas darted forward and knocked her away with his shoulder. She flew back and landed on her rump with a loud “oof!” She sounded pissed, and some choice swear words confirmed it. But she wasn't giving up. In an instant, she was back on her feet, and hurtling towards them with her hackles and both daggers raised.
“Die, monster!” she screeched.
He hoped she meant the rogue.
The black wolf rose to his full height and growled—with pleasure. The rogue wolf was staring at Charlotte with undisguised hunger and anticipation. Her pink lips were twisted in a scowl and her green eyes were shining with an intense, blazing light. She looked deadly—and delicious.
The rogue took a running leap towards Charlotte. In a flash, Lucas threw his entire weight against the rogue. The two huge wolves slammed into the far wall, and cracks could be heard as bones snapped and dislocated.
Fangs and claws sliced through fur and flesh. With his claws sunk deeply into the rogue's shoulders, Lucas clamped his jaws hard over the black wolf's twisting neck. The rogue wolf's neck snapped, and his head lolled back. Lucas dropped the black wolf at his feet and stepped back slowly, watching the wolf partially shift back into human form.
“Get out of my way!”
Charlotte galloped up, shooting Lucas a resentful look as she passed. Without delay, she stabbed the silver blade straight into the rogue's chest, pushing the silver deep into his heart.
When she withdrew her knife with a grunt, the patches of black fur shimmered and started to shed from the skin of the rogue wolf, leaving him in his shrunken human shape. His body rippled and disintegrated into ashes.
A breeze blew through the warehouse, scattering the vaguely human shaped pile of black ashes. There was nothing left of the rogue wolf.
Lucas turned to take a good, long look at the beautiful and feisty Charlotte Cole. She was breathing heavily, her eyes following the swirling ashes for a moment before darting to him. She narrowed those emerald eyes at him, her expression unreadable.
Alpha Mate: BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance Page 5
