Charming the Beast (Purgatory 3)

“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 ass**les. “So that means you follow my orders.”