by Wilde, Kati
There’s a crimson stain on Ranger’s pillow—and a distinctive mark on his neck that wasn’t there last night. A bite mark. The wound is faint, almost healed…but so were my wounds, the morning after I was mauled.
I bit him.
A choked sob rips through my chest, barely muffled behind my hand. On the bed, Ranger’s big body stiffens and his eyes open. As if he heard me. Because he probably did. Desperately I stumble to the bathroom, grab a towel from the rack and bury my face in the white cloth before screaming into it, screaming and screaming, collapsing to the floor with my back against the door, my heart dead and broken, broken.
What did I do? What did I do?
“Alicia?” His sooty voice sounds just on the other side of the door, gritty with sleep and thick with concern. “Baby, you okay?”
I should never have come. I should never have dared getting close. Because I’m a fucking monster.
Now I’ve made him one, too.
I never want to open this door. Never want to see his horror, his anger—if I can even convince him. He’s going to think I’m crazy and push me away. Until the next full moon, when it all comes true. Then he’ll hate me for what I’ve done to him.
Knowing I would have to let him go was already going to destroy me. But this? This?
All because I was selfish. Because I thought I could control the beast.
As soon as I knew Ranger was coming, I should have run far away. Or told him to run from me.
But I can’t run from this now. Tears fill my hot, hiccuping breaths. “I’ll…be out…in a minute.”
“Alicia.” His voice hardens. “Tell me what’s going on.”
I can’t yet. And I need help. But my hands are shaking too hard to text. I tap my sister’s name and press the phone to my ear.
“Let me guess,” she answers dryly. “You want me to pick up half a dozen Egg McMuffins and—”
“I bit him,” I sob into the phone. “I bit him.”
“Okay. Keep calm. I’m on my way.” She audibly exhales a breath. “Is he still alive?”
“Yes.” Though he might soon wish he wasn’t. I bury my face in the towel again. “I’m at the Columbia.”
“I know where you are, sis. I’ll be there in five. You hang in there.”
I nod though she can’t see me, my throat a raw burning knot. Because now I’ve got to get up and tell Ranger what I’ve done.
Except he already heard it.
“You haven’t hurt me, Alicia.” His voice is a low, soothing rumble—and right behind me, as if he’s crouching next to the door, at my level. “You haven’t done anything to me.”
More hot tears spill down my cheeks. Because this is the last time I’ll ever hear him speak to me this way. As if I’m precious and wonderful and not a horrifying beast.
“You don’t know what I’ve really done,” I whisper.
“I do know. You think that you’ve cursed me with that bite, that I’ll become a werewolf now. But you can’t change me into something that I already am.”
My heart stops. “What did you say?”
“That I’m already like you, Miss Simmons. So come out here and talk to me.”
Am I dreaming? Slowly I get up from the tiled floor, my mind racing. Trying to make it fit. And maybe it does. Because there’s his scent, which isn’t like any other man’s. And his strength. Even for someone of his size, Ranger seemed too strong. Now other bits come back to me, too. Like him saying my dress smelled new. I didn’t think about it then, because it does smell new. Or did before he fucked me in it.
But…no. It can’t be true. Still, he knows something.
Hesitantly I crack open the door. Ranger’s standing with his hands braced on either side of the doorframe, his huge body blocking the path out of the bathroom as if making sure I don’t try to dart past him.
In a pained whisper I say, “You first wanted to meet on the night of the full moon. You couldn’t have done that if you were like me.”
“That’s true. I’m not exactly like you, because I was born this way. Not bitten.” His gaze searches my face through the door’s narrow opening. “I had a chat with your beast last night.”
My breath strangles in my throat. “A chat?”
With the monster? He saw the thing inside me?
Oh no. Please no.
“I did most of the talking. But, yeah. I told her that I wasn’t going anywhere. That I’ll be everything she needs.” His voice deepens, those gold flecks in his eyes sparking and glowing. “Now I’m telling you.”
I want so much to believe him. But no hope fills the deep and ragged hole in my chest where my heart was. Only pain. Because if he’s telling me that… “You must not have really seen her, then.”
“She hid herself from me, true. Just like you’re doing now.”
Behind the bathroom door. I don’t want to be anything like the beast. That’s probably why he made the comparison, trying to prod me out. The same way I might gently prod a reluctant student into opening up.
I’m not a kid, though. And the lesson to learn here is that I can’t control the beast and her hunger for Ranger. Not even the night after the full moon. I thought I could, but I can’t. So there’s no safe time for me to be around Ranger. Maybe it’s true my bite didn’t hurt him. But what about next time? Eventually, something worse will happen and he’ll see what’s really inside me.
Then he’ll push me away. Because he said it himself—I’m cursed. Cursed. And he’s not.
I made such a terrible mistake agreeing to meet him. I should have denied myself. I should deny myself now.
But he’s not pushing me away yet. And if I can have a little longer with him—just a bit more time—I’ll have more memories to hold close when he’s gone. The damage is done. The question isn’t whether I’ll be hurt. It’s only how much will I hurt?
So much. Because when I swing the door wider and step through, Ranger captures my face in his big hands and kisses me as if I’m everything. Helplessly I respond to the promise in that kiss, to the heat, to the need. He’s still naked from bed, his cock stiffening against my stomach. And all I want to do is take him inside me again, show him that he’s my everything, too.
But this is what got me into so much trouble—wanting so much, and not denying myself. Maybe Ranger realizes it, too, because he pulls away slightly, still cradling my cheeks, his breath harsh and hot against my moistened lips.
“This time, we talk first. Yeah?”
My chest aching, silently I nod.
“All right. I know you must have questions. So lay them on me. And—” He breaks off when my stomach growls. With a grin, he kisses me gently before letting me go. Naked, he stalks to the fridge. “There’s a cold steak in here. And we’ll order breakfast. We can eat and talk at the same time.”
A steak sounds so good. But I don’t want to rip into a piece of meat in front of him. “My sister’s still on her way. Maybe we can go downstairs to eat. This is a conversation that we should probably have together, anyway. Since she’s been helping me. And she knows what happened to me.”
Knows more than I do, really. What the beast does, where it goes.
Ranger gives me a considering look. “You’d be more comfortable with that?”
I lift a shoulder in a half-shrug. “Maybe.”
I can’t see myself ever being comfortable talking about what I’ve become, sister or not.
“That’s all that matters, then. And I’ll drag in my brother, too. Introduce you to him. That all right?”
A big family breakfast. Though nervousness quakes through me, I nod. “I’ll call my sister, let her know the change of plan.”
“I’ll call my brother, too.” He angles his head, voice deepening. “Hey, Brandon! Wake up, you lazy fuck. We’re heading down to breakfast and to tell my woman and her sister all about werewolves.”
I can’t stop my giggle. “Really? That’s how you call him?”
“Yeah, really.”
And I gu
ess I’ll do the same thing to Sam when she pulls into the parking lot. The balcony door’s still open. So when I hear her come, I’ll just head out there and tell her to meet us downstairs, instead.
“Your brother’s like you?”
“Not quite. A bear, not a wolf. Still hears me fine when he wants to.”
A bear. And not like me at all. Swallowing hard, I drop my overnight tote on the bed and pull out a change of clothes. “So he’s not cursed, either?”
Something in my voice must have told Ranger how much that word hurts me. All the amusement leaches from his expression and he regards me solemnly. “He isn’t.”
Not cursed. And I realize there’s only one question that really matters to me. “Can the curse be broken? Can I become human again?”
“No, baby,” he says softly, and even as agony shoots through my heart, he adds, “But you can tame your beast.”
Tame it? “What does that mean?”
“It means the curse doesn’t tear you apart anymore. You’ll be able to control yourself in your other form. And change at will, even on the full moon.”
Hope lifts through me. “You mean…I would never have to turn into that monster again?”
“I suppose if you don’t want to.” His eyes narrow slightly. “But changing’s not so bad. A lot of times, it’s damn fun.”
“Fun?” In sheer disbelief, I shake my head. I wouldn’t call it fun. I’d call it horrific. Agonizing. Yet I don’t think Ranger’s lying to me…so he must be talking about something else, some other kind of transformation. Because if he’s saying fun, then what he calls a werewolf and what I call a werewolf are two wildly different things. “Can you show me? Or do you have to—”
No no no nonono. Earlier, I wondered if I was dreaming. But I’m not dreaming.
Instead I’m in a nightmare.
Ranger’s not standing in front of me anymore. Only the monster who mauled me, a giant horror of fangs and claws and fur. Terror shreds me open, ripping a scream from my throat and tearing apart every rational thought, leaving only desperation.
I have to get away. Have to escape. Or it’s going to tear me into pieces again. And hurt me so bad.
Panic surges through my legs. I stumble over the bed, feet tangling in the loose blankets, shrieking as I fall. No, no. The thing looks like Ranger again, his face taut and the edges of his lips white with tension, but I cringe away from the hard body that suddenly comes so close, the big hands that hold me tight, because all I still see is the monster coming for me.
Then my own beast comes roaring up beneath my skin—protecting us, protecting me—but nothing the beast ever does protects me. Only rips me open more, delivering new agony that makes me scream and double over as my bones snap and muscles bulge and face splits spart, my skin stretching horrifically and it hurts, hurts, hurts.
“Alicia! Oh, baby, baby. No. You’re safe. You’re okay.” Ranger’s sooty voice. His wonderful smell. His strong grip on the back of my neck. “You’re safe here with me. I’ll never hurt you. I’ll never let anything hurt you.”
He can’t stop what’s hurting me. Nothing can. And I can’t respond as my mouth cracks wider into jaws, until the sound coming from them isn’t screaming but howling, and all pain. All agony.
“You’re safe, Alicia.” His breathing roughens and his face presses into my fur. His voice is thick and hoarse as he says, “And I’m so fucking sorry, baby. I didn’t realize I’d scare you.”
He didn’t scare me. What scared me wasn’t Ranger. I know that couldn’t have been him, even if he looked like the monster that tore me apart.
A monster like I am.
But the beast seems to take comfort in his voice, his touch—and she retreats, while I scream and scream as the excruciating agony of transforming back into human cracks me open and rips me apart all over again, leaving me a sobbing wreck on the floor.
And Ranger saw me. He saw what I am.
Mindless panic tears through me again. To get away. To never see how he looks at me now. Screaming, I lurch out of his grip for the open balcony door, leaping onto the railing and then down, down, landing in a crouch on the pavement and then sprinting away from the heartbreak that awaits me, as if running fast enough and far enough will stop it from ever catching up.
Except Ranger does, in an instant—powerful arms wrapping me up so tight, so close to his huge body. I cry out and thrash against that strong grip, but he doesn’t release his hold.
“I’ll never let you go,” he snarls into my ear. “Never.”
The vow douses the fight in me. All panic gone. Only pain left. Squeezing my eyes shut, I tell him on a sobbing breath, “You will.”
“No,” Ranger replies, more softly this time. “And you can’t scare me away, Miss Simmons. So don’t even try. Now, is this your sister who’s about to shoot me?”
Samantha, standing in the open door of her patrol vehicle—her hand ready on the weapon at her hip, her face pale. “That was a hell of a jump you both just made. You okay, sis?”
No. But I nod, forcing myself to swallow past the lump in my throat. “We were just about to get breakfast.”
Her gaze flicks downward. “Not like that, I hope.”
Because I’m still in my little dress, even through my transformation, but barefoot. And Ranger is stark naked. If he wasn’t holding me so close, she’d probably already be writing up an indecent exposure citation.
There’s a pillowy thump as a pair of jeans and T-shirt drop to the ground. On the balcony above, a big man waves at us.
“Got you covered, brother. So we’re meeting downstairs?”
“Bring my boots,” Ranger rumbles, then presses a kiss to my temple. “Why don’t you take your sister up to the room while you change. Then my brother and I will meet you in the restaurant and answer any questions you have about this curse. All right?”
Wide-eyed, Sam arches her brows at me.
On a shuddering sigh, I nod. “Okay.”
But he doesn’t immediately let me go. For another second, he holds me close. “I meant every damn word I said, Alicia. You’re mine now. I’m yours. And I’ll never leave.”
Throat aching, I can only nod again. Not really believing it.
But it’s a wonderful thing to dream.
7
Ranger
She doesn’t believe me. Any other time, any other woman, maybe that would have pissed me off. Having to prove myself.
But not with Alicia. With her, I’m lucky to get a chance at all. I know that for damn sure. Because her sister’s upstairs telling her that maybe she shouldn’t be so quick to push me away, and to listen to what I have to say first.
Which means I wasn’t wrong about Alicia. She isn’t just shy, she’s also wary. And, fuck. After what I saw in that hotel room, I can’t blame her. She probably doesn’t think anyone can handle that.
She’s almost right. Most people couldn’t.
But I can.
Brandon slides his phone across the table with a message written there for me. You ever get around to telling her about the job?
I grit my teeth. No, I didn’t. So she really doesn’t know yet that I’m staying.
He shakes his head at me like I’m the most pathetic asshole who ever lived. “You know that communication is the most important part of a relationship, yeah?”
“You get that from Instagram, too?” Because he’s sure as hell no expert on relationships.
“It was from Dad,” he says.
Shit. He’s got me there. Our parents are as solid as any couple I’ve ever seen. You wouldn’t think it, a wolf and a bear. But they’ve made it work for thirty years, so they’re doing something right.
Brandon begins writing something else. Growing up in a family where everyone has excellent hearing means learning how to avoid someone listening in on what they shouldn’t. Alicia and Sam haven’t quite worked that through yet—or maybe they just don’t realize how easy it is for me and Brandon to pick up what they’re saying.
>
Or maybe they think we’re decent men who’ll respect their privacy. Most of the time, we would. But fuck that right now. I need to know how to fight for her.
Brandon shows me his phone again. Never seen a cursed werewolf change. Was it as bad as it sounded?
“Worse,” I say softly. And not because of the way she looked. As a werewolf, she’s gorgeous. Sleek and strong, fur tinged the same red as her hair. But the way it happened was fucking horrifying, literally breaking and ripping her apart—and hurting her. Hurting her so goddamn bad, and taking forever to finish.
That’s not how it is for Brandon or me. The change happens in a blink. And it feels good, like a warm stretch after a deep sleep.
“What triggered it?” he asks.
“Me.” Terrifying the fuck out of her. My chest still aches from the way she screamed and panicked. But she knew that I intended to transform. She asked me to do it. So I don’t figure it was me that really scared her. Voice real low, I tell him, “I’m thinking she got ripped up bad.”
His face hardens and the rest goes without saying. We’ll find who it was. But since I hear Alicia and her sister on their way, that’s something we can discuss later.
We got a booth in the corner, with Brandon sitting across from me. Maybe it’s a jerk move to split up the women, but two big assholes won’t fit on one bench. Still, I’m glad when Sam deliberately hangs back until Alicia chooses her seat—and she chooses the one beside me.
Even more glad to see that she didn’t bring her overnight bag down with her. As if she intends to return to that room upstairs.
A big knot of tension eases from my chest, letting me draw my first real breath since the moment she started screaming. She smells so good, fresh from the shower, her own delicious fragrance mixing with the soap and shampoo. Her thick hair is damp and piled on top of her head. Loose red tendrils trail down her vulnerable nape. Her tiny shorts and little top aren’t as new as her dress was but just as damn sexy—and I love that this is what she packed to wear during her time with me, as if she wanted to drive me crazy with her long sleek legs.
My brother reaches across the table. “Brandon Ranger.”
