Claim Me (Body Scenes 4)

He actually chuckled. “You just can’t do anything in a normal way, can you, Jane?”

“Vampire, remember?” She was finally able to accept that fate and was decidedly relieved to be immortal. It had a multitude of advantages, after all.

She rounded the desk and gave Drake a quick kiss on the cheek. Then she said, “I’ll be back soon.”

“You’d better be.”

Squeezing his hand, she told him, “You’ve been my dearest friend for five decades. That’s another bond in my existence that can’t be broken.”

Releasing him, she turned away and hurried back downstairs, where Jude and Cray awaited her curbside, the back door of a taxi opened for her.

She slid in between the two men and gave her address to the driver. Elation and apprehension were two contradictory emotions that had no business mingling together, but they did just that in Jane’s stomach. She was thrilled to be with Jude and Cray. Deliriously happy to be tied to them in such a significant and powerful way.

She was also terrified of what lay ahead for the three of them.

They obviously shared similar feelings, because they didn’t utter a word on the way to her apartment. When they reached her building, the doorman did his duty and opened the back door of the car. Cray stepped out, then turned to Jane, not allowing the doorman to continue his job and assist her from the car. Jude paid the fare and they were just about to enter the complex when all three of them pulled up short at the same time.

That dark and ominous sensation snaked down Jane’s spine again.

“Let’s take a walk,” Jude suggested in a strained tone.

The disconcerting scent wafting their way was so faint, of course a human could never catch wind of it. But they did.

Jane bade her doorman a good evening and walked along with Jude and Cray, tightly packed between them.

Cray said, “Vincent must have followed us to Manhattan, wondering why we’d abandoned the chase.”

“If that’s the case,” Jude said, “he would have smelled Jane’s scent mixed with ours this evening. And now, for sure, he knows about her.”

They walked stealthily toward the aroma that grew stronger to their ultra-heightened senses. It felt as though Jane’s heart was lodged in her throat, but she would show no fear.

Oh fuck. It was irrelevant for her to hide her fear. Wolves could smell it. She’d forgotten that part.

Still, she’d made her bed. She’d do whatever she could to stay out of immortal jeopardy, because that would only comprise her lovers’ safety. She couldn’t suffer through that again.

They rounded the corner and crossed the street to Central Park. It was past two in the morning and there were very few people milling about, other than the revelers who’d just left the bars and the homeless who were looking for someplace to sleep tonight.

Their stealthy advance on Vincent morphed into a predatory stalking. All dressed in black, they blended into the shadows as they wove their way through a thick patch of tall trees. They neared their quarry and the tension escalated amongst them. Jane sniffed the cool evening air…and discovered Vincent was no longer alone.

Her hand gripped Jude’s arm. He said, “He must have formed a new pack.”

There were at least two more werewolves in addition to Vincent. All the wolf scents became difficult to discern and individualiz

e for Jane. But one thing was certain. They were no longer at an advantage. This would be a three-on-three fight.

She swallowed down a lump of anxiety and, instead, let her more primal nature reign.

They stopped in a dense area of forest close to the lake. She kicked off her high heels and Jude grinned at her, despite his obvious unease.

“You’re going to make Lara Croft look like a ninny, aren’t you?”

“No one messes with my family,” she retorted. These were her people now and she was determined to defend them as much as she would herself. Not that she expected Jude or Cray to fall short in any way, shape or form. She had no doubt they were voracious warriors in their own right.

From behind a huge elm came a silver-colored wolf with glowing green eyes and a low snarl tearing from his lips.

Vincent.

Where the other two wolves were, exactly, she didn’t know. She couldn’t dissect the scents enough to separate them and locate the other two, which frustrated and alarmed her.