Charming The Beast Read online

  “Then let me go.”

  If only things were that simple. “I can’t.”

  Her lips trembled. Her lips were the first thing he’d noticed about her—they were full and red. The kind of lips that instantly made him think of sex. Then he’d gotten caught in her eyes. No one should have eyes that blue. Maybe it was because her hair was so dark, a perfect black, and, in contrast to that darkness, her eyes appeared to be such a bright, electric blue.

  Her face was heart-shaped, her cheekbones almost ridiculously high. She had a small nose and a slightly pointed chin. Her skin was pale, probably because the Para Unit had been keeping her in various stages of isolation and she hadn’t exactly been free to roam in the outside world and soak up a bit of sunshine.

  But that was what happened when you killed a man…and when you rose from the dead. You get monitored by the Para Unit.

  Chloe Quick wasn’t supposed to be in front of him. She’d died a few weeks ago. Not some near-death BS, either. She’d been knifed in the heart. She’d died.

  Then she’d come back, thanks to the dark wish of a djinn. Only now, the Para Unit didn’t exactly know what Chloe was.

  “I warned you not to escape,” he told her. The other werewolf had been right. Her scent was damn near intoxicating, and if he’d just been a werewolf, he probably would have been nearly mindless in his desire to claim her.

  But he wasn’t just a wolf, and that was why Eric Pate had given him guard duty with Chloe. Because I’m supposed to be able to control my baser impulses. But if that were truly the case, would he be holding her so carefully, his fingers sliding over her wrists, his body pushing ever closer to hers?

  And would his cock be so heavy with arousal?

  “I can disappear,” Chloe promised him, her voice breathless. “Just give me a head start. I’ll vanish and I promise, the Para Unit won’t ever have to worry about me again.”

  Part of him wanted to let her go. It was her eyes…that gaze could make a man—or a paranormal—weak.

  He didn’t know exactly what end game Eric had planned for Chloe, but if Connor let her vanish, then he’d be the one paying for it. His freedom hinged on his doing this mission, and no one—not even a woman as sexy as she was—would stop him.

  Connor shook his head. “No head start. You don’t escape from me.”

  Then he heard footsteps—people approaching. Dammit. His head turned and he saw three men stumbling toward him. Their scents marked them as human, and in another instant, they’d see him and Chloe.

  He felt Chloe tense against him. He knew she wasn’t going to just let this opportunity pass by. She was going to scream and no doubt bring those drunken fools running. Then he’d just have to hurt them.

  Before she could scream, before those fools could rush to her aid, he lowered his head, and he kissed her.

  She bit his lip.

  Deep inside, his wolf growled in pleasure.

  Chloe, no, you know the beast likes things like that.

  She strained against him. She opened her mouth, as if to scream even then—and his tongue swept inside.

  He’d known for a while that he wanted her. Most men looked at Chloe Quick and wanted her. But until that moment, until he’d had his first taste of her, he hadn’t realized just how truly dangerous she could be to him.

  Because something happened. To him. To her. He felt her body stiffen, felt shock rock through them both. Because the desire that came right then—as he kissed her, as his tongue slid into her mouth and she actually fucking kissed him back—was unlike anything he’d felt before. It was as if a match had been ignited, and that small flame turned into an explosion, consuming him.

  He couldn’t get close enough to her. Couldn’t kiss her deeply enough. His hands let hers go so that he could touch more of her. He had to touch her. His fingers curled around her waist, and he lifted her up against him. Chloe was so small and delicate compared to him. Chloe curled her legs around him, arching toward him. Her nails sank into his shoulders, and she kissed him with a fierce desire that matched his own.

  His cock shoved against his zipper. He needed his jeans out of the way. Needed her naked so that he could thrust deep and hard into her. Needed—

  “Get a room!” The shout was followed by drunken laughter.

  His body tensed. Arousal and fury battled within him. Need her. Want her…and they’re in my way. His thoughts were primal. Animalistic.

  His head turned. He saw the three men, now just steps away.

  “Fuck me,” one muttered. “Am I drunk…or are his eyes glowing?”

  A warning snarl broke from Connor. The three men turned then, and they ran away, screaming.

  “Let. Me. Go,” Chloe gritted out her order.

  She wasn’t trying to desperately pull him close any longer. Now she was shoving against him. “Let me go,” she said again. “Then tell me what the hell is wrong with me. Why did I just do that? With you?”

  Slowly, he lowered her back to her feet, but he caught her left wrist, his fingers winding tightly around her. “The why is easy.” His heart was racing and desire had him aching. “Because you want me and you’ve been fighting the urge to jump me from the moment we met.”

  She gasped. “I have not! I do not—”

  “Save it, baby.” He choked down his lust. For the moment. “We need to haul ass. Those drunk bozos will be back soon. Right now, they’re shouting to anyone who will listen about the monster they just saw in the alley.” He backed away from that wall, pulling her with him. “Now you either run with me, or I’ll carry you away. But we are getting out of this place.”

  “You’re the one who went all glowing eyes on them,” she muttered, tugging against him. “I’m not—”

  “Option two then,” he decided. “I’ll carry you.” He could make better time that way. She wasn’t equipped for super speed. Thanks to the Para Unit, he was.

  She yelped when he hefted her over his shoulder, but then Connor was racing away, zipping through the maze of alleys and heading back for his motorcycle. The last thing he needed was to deal with a group of angry humans. Better to have an empty alley waiting when the three drunks returned with their reinforcements. Then everyone else would just think their story of a monster in the dark was total BS. The way everyone usually did when a monster story was being passed around.

  In moments, he was back at his motorcycle. He lowered Chloe to her feet. Her glare seemed to singe. “I could have ran,” she muttered. “You didn’t have to turn me into a sack of potatoes!”

  He hopped on the bike. Handed her the helmet. “Come on, baby. Time to haul ass.”

  “Stop calling me baby.” She yanked the helmet away from him. “You don’t mean it when you say it, so just stop. I’m not your baby, not your sweetheart. I’m nothing to you, and we both know it.” Despite her angry words, she climbed on behind him. He noticed she was making an extra effort not to touch him. That wasn’t going to work.

  “Hold tight,” Connor told her, his voice flat. “This will be one hell of a ride.” Because he needed to get out of there fast—fast enough that any other werewolves who might be in the area wouldn’t be able to follow them…or follow Chloe’s scent.

  He revved the engine. Her hands fluttered around his waist.

  “Chloe…” Her name was a warning.

  She slid closer. Her thighs curled around him, and her arms slipped around his waist. Much, much better.

  He shot away from the curb. He thought he heard Chloe yell, and she definitely tightened her grip on him then. In fact, she started holding onto him as if her very life depended on him.

  It was time she realized that fact.

  He’d been assigned her case because his job was to make sure that Chloe Quick stayed alive. While the Para Unit might want her to keep breathing, his boss believed there were others out there who had far more sinister plans for Chloe.

  The motorcycle whipped through the streets.

  And Chloe held tight to him.


  ***

  He stepped into the shadows as the motorcycle roared away. Chloe Quick…his informant had been right. She was still in the Seattle area. Oh, that was certainly a huge mistake for the Para Unit. They should have taken her far away.

  She might have been safe then.

  Might have been.

  Now, she was just easy prey. He pulled out his phone. His pack was stationed throughout the city. Eyes and ears everywhere. “They’re on a motorcycle, heading north.”

  And the Para Agent called Connor was driving hell fast. No doubt, the alpha thought he could ditch any pursuers they might have.

  But Connor was wrong. He hadn’t counted on the fact that a full pack was hunting for Chloe. He didn’t understand how important she was—but I do.

  “Do not engage them,” he said softly. Connor’s motorcycle had already vanished in the distance. “Just follow them. When you find the safe house,” the spot the Para Unit had been using to hide Chloe, “take up a position nearby and contact me.” Because he had to plan his attack carefully. Chloe couldn’t escape him.

  Not when the full moon was getting so close. He had plans for Chloe and that moon. He’d waited too long to claim her. When that moon rose, when his beast surged with power, he would be mating her.

  He ended the call. He heard the hard rasp of breathing and the shuffle of footsteps. A blond male ran toward him. The guy was rubbing his jaw.

  His eyes narrowed on the man—the werewolf.

  “That was one tough bastard,” Wesley Green muttered. “Didn’t even shift to fight me.”

  Interesting. Not surprising though, not given what he knew about Connor. “And he was still stronger, even in human form?”

  Wesley nodded.

  He didn’t know if that information made Wesley especially pathetic or if it made Connor particularly dangerous.

  “Never…never seen anything like him.” Wesley yanked on his jaw. Bones cracked. “I think…think he’s even stronger than you…”

  Not possible. His eyes narrowed. “You were supposed to just follow Chloe. Didn’t I give you that order?”

  “But her scent…it was so sweet…”

  He knew all about Chloe’s scent, and that was one of the reasons he’d stayed back. Why he’d told the others not to engage. Chloe’s father had manipulated her biology, nearly turning her into a perfect weapon. Her scent drove werewolves wild, and anything that wrecked a werewolf’s control was very, very dangerous indeed.

  “You’re in my pack,” he murmured. His…ever since the last alpha David Vincent, had been captured by Eric Pate and his Para Unit assholes. “So that means you follow my orders.”

  “But—”

  He drove his claws into Wesley’s chest. “There is no ‘but’ in this,” he said. “Because of you, Chloe got away again. I’m the alpha of this pack…”

  A gurgle slipped from Wesley’s throat.

  “You follow my orders,” he said, and he twisted his claws, moving for maximum damage in the man’s chest, “or you die.”

  His hand jerked back. Wesley fell to the ground. A big hole was where his heart had once been. But, just to make certain…

  He pulled the gun from his waistband. Aimed right between Wesley’s eyes. Those eyes were wide and terrified.

  He fired, and the silver bullet exploded from his gun.

  Chapter Two

  I kissed him! I kissed him—why in the hell did I kiss him?

  Connor braked the motorcycle at the edge of the woods. They were once again back at her home away from home—courtesy of the Para Unit. A snug cabin in the woods, complete with twenty-four, seven guards.

  Connor shoved down the kickstand.

  She quickly pushed away from him and hopped off the bike. Her thighs were a little trembly after that insane drive, but she locked her knees and just rode out that quiver.

  “Been wondering…” Connor murmured, his voice a low rumble. “Just how you made it all the way to town.”

  It had been easy enough. “I hitchhiked.” She’d gotten incredibly lucky. After she’d run to the main road, she’d found a big rig cruising by. The driver had taken her close to the city, and, well, freedom had been at hand.

  “Hitchhiked.” He shook his head as he climbed off the bike.

  She yanked off the helmet and tossed it to him.

  Of course, he caught the helmet. Connor grabbed it in one of those too-fast moves of his. He stared down at the helmet a moment, then looked up at her. “You know, the wrong person could have picked you up.”

  “The risk was worth it,” Chloe said as she turned away. She started marching toward her prison.

  She’d taken about two steps when he grabbed her and spun her back around.

  “Dying would have been worth it? I’m protecting you! That fool you ditched earlier—the one that Eric is probably going to fire from the Bureau—he was protecting you, too!”

  Now she had to wince. Chloe had known it would be too hard to escape when Connor was keeping his too attentive eyes on her, so she’d waited until he’d gone to check in with his boss. While Connor was gone, a younger agent, a man named Harris Grey, kept tabs on Chloe. Unfortunately for Harris, he was only human. So he’d actually trusted Chloe and thought she was sleeping in her room and not, um…running wildly through the woods as she tried to escape.

  “I would have thought dying once would be enough for you,” he muttered, his eyes a golden fire in the dark.

  But his words—they struck right to her heart and Chloe felt her own anger burn inside of her. “You don’t know anything about dying or about what I want.” She jerked away from him. “You’re my jailer, right? Nothing more and nothing less.”

  And I shouldn’t have kissed you! I should have clawed out your gorgeous eyes! But she hadn’t. She’d pretty much been rubbing against him like a cat in heat.

  Or a werewolf in heat.

  They glared at each other.

  “Don’t ever kiss me again!” Chloe fired at him. “I have enough to deal with as it is! I don’t need you—I just don’t need you!” Then she spun around and started her furious march once again.

  “Oh, baby…”

  Her eyes closed. Why was his voice sexy?

  “You definitely need me. And I’ve got the claw marks on my shoulders to prove it.”

  Her eyes flew opened. She glanced down at her hands. Saw the small nails there. Nails, not claws. Chloe kept walking. She heard him swear behind her, and then the thud of his footsteps followed her.

  Chloe climbed up the rickety steps that led to the porch. Three of them. They squeaked beneath her feet. She reached for the door—

  Harris yanked it open. His blond hair was mussed, as if he’d raked his fingers through it again and again. His brown eyes were stormy and his face—a fairly handsome face, but not that hard and sexy like Connor’s—showed his fury. “If you’re here for protection,” he snapped at her, “you aren’t supposed to run!” He stabbed his index finger toward Chloe. “We protect you! You aren’t supposed to run from us!”

  “Ah…” Chloe nodded and glanced over her shoulder at a watchful Connor. “He missed the memo, huh? Didn’t get that whole part about me not being here willingly?” Well, now she didn’t feel so bad about ditching him. She looked back at Harris. “It’s not protection, it’s prison. And inmates, well, they try to escape prison. It’s just sort of what they do. A thing.”

  His mouth opened and closed, rather fish-like. She gave him a grim smile. “But I am sorry if you get in trouble.” Those words slipped from her, utterly sincere. Harris had been good enough, as jailers went. She certainly didn’t want the guy getting booted from the Para Unit because of her. “Maybe I can talk with Eric.” And while I’m having that talk, I can try and convince the guy to let me go.

  I mean, really…so a girl’s father turns out to be an insane werewolf megalomaniac. Doesn’t mean I’m like dear old daddy.

  Her father’s image flashed in her mind, and pain shot straight to Chloe’s hea
rt.

  “Oh, I’m sure Eric will have plenty to say to you soon,” Connor murmured. “For now, go inside and crash. You have to be dead on your feet.”

  Actually, she wasn’t. That was the problem, right? She was supposed to be dead, only she was definitely back in the land of the living, even if she had been stabbed in the heart. By my dad and then…then I turned on him.

  Only she didn’t remember that particular attack.

  Harris was still glaring at her. Obviously, he was more than a bit angry. Not that she blamed the guy. Not at all. “Sorry,” she said. “Sorry for sneaking out while you were in the bathroom.”

  His glare got worse, and he flushed a deep crimson. Maybe she should have kept the bathroom part quiet. She slipped around him and headed back for her room. There was one bedroom in the place—hers. The men had been bunking on the couch, so at least she had a little privacy. She liked that privacy, especially when the nightmares came to her.

  And they came every single time she closed her eyes.

  Her steps were slow but certain as she headed to her room. Chloe kept her head down, hoping the pose made her look defeated, but…she wasn’t.

  I won’t stay caged forever. She’d find a way out of this mess, sooner or later.

  ***

  “What’s Pate going to do to me?” Harris Grey asked, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I busted ass to get into the Para Unit. This shit matters to me!”

  He’d busted ass, huh? Connor had gotten in a different way…mostly by attacking the Para Unit. Rather specifically, Connor had attacked his do-right brother Duncan, a guy who’d been human for far too many years.

  Not anymore. Now Duncan is like me.

  Connor had been on the wrong side in the battle with the Para Unit. Now, he was having to make amends for the deeds he’d done. Keeping Chloe alive? That was his current—and last—atonement.

  “Can you…can you put in a good word with Pate? I mean, he likes you.”

  Connor laughed as he climbed up the stairs. They creaked beneath his weight. “I don’t know if Eric Pate likes anyone.” Maybe one person, his sister Holly. Everyone else? Not so much. Eric had a reputation for being cold as ice.