Charming the Beast (Purgatory 3)

“After the stunt you pulled, did you really just think you’d be sleeping alone?”

“Yes, I did.” He’d better not say—

“You’re a flight risk now. To make sure that you don’t try to escape through the window in the middle of the night, I have to stay close.” His hand lifted and his knuckles skimmed down the side of her arm. “Very close.”

She jerked away from him. “You are not sleeping in my bedroom!”

He nodded. “I figured I’d just sleep in the bed with you. Someone had to make the sacrifice.”

What? Sacrifice? Her jaw dropped.

He smiled. Then he reached out his hand and turned off the lamp.

Her own hand flew out, fumbling as she tried to turn that light right back on. But he caught her fingers in his. Held her easily.

“This isn’t happening,” Chloe said. Why was her voice all husky? She cleared her throat and said, “You aren’t staying in my bed!”

“I’m not saying we’ll be f**king.”

She was grateful for the darkness right then. She could feel the heat stinging her cheeks and knew that she’d flushed a dark red.

“But I have to make sure you don’t run.” His voice was a hard rumble. “You’re my assignment. And unlike Harris, I won’t be fooled by a pair of big, blue eyes.”

Right. “Because you know I’m a monster.” His words had hurt. Cut her to the quick. Mostly because…she felt like a monster. When she thought of the things she’d done, there was no denying her nature.

“You’re my assignment,” he said again. “Eric Pate wants you protected, and I’m here to make sure that you keep living.”

Wonderful. Jailer.

“So climb into bed, close your eyes, and get some sleep.”

Sleep would be impossible, especially if he was right next to her.

“I promise,” he added as his fingers slid away from hers, “I won’t touch you. I’ll stay on my side of the bed and you can stay on yours.”

Nothing he said reassured her. “I guess it’s a good thing my magical, amazing scent doesn’t work on you.” She threw those words out deliberately to mock him and herself. Then she dropped her sheet and put her clothes right back on. She wasn’t about to crawl into that bed with him, not just clothed in a bra and panties. “I mean, if the scent did the mojo like you’ve been telling me it does to other wolves, we’d be in trouble.”

She climbed into the bed and slid as far to the right side as possible.

Connor lowered his body onto the mattress. It sagged beneath his weight, and Chloe almost rolled toward him. Her fingers clamped around the edge of the mattress and she held on tightly.

Moments passed in silence. All she could hear was the loud drumming of her heartbeat.

She closed her eyes, trying to shut out Connor, trying to pretend that he wasn’t there. An impossible task, considering how hyper aware of him she was. His scent—rich, masculine—teased her nose and the heat from his body seemed to reach out and surround her.

“I never said that it didn’t work on me.”

Her eyes shot open. His voice had been such a low, deep growl.

“I never said your scent didn’t influence me.”

She licked lips that had gone desert dry.

“If I were just a werewolf, I’d be on you right now.” The mattress dipped a little more as he shifted toward her. “There’s a reason Eric isn’t sending any werewolf guards for you. You smell like f**king temptation.”

Chloe shook her head. “I don’t.” She’d had werewolf guards in the past. No one had gone all crazy and said she was irresistible.

“Trust me, you do. After you…came back…something was different. I had to put two werewolves in the med ward at the Para Unit, because they were trying to get to you the first time you sauntered out of Eric’s office.”

Her fingers tightened around the bedcovers. “You’re a werewolf. You don’t—”

“You don’t ever really want to know what I am.”

Now that just made her curious. Her head turned on the pillow so that she could better see him. “Why did you kiss me?” Chloe hadn’t meant to ask that question, but well, there it was. Hanging out there all awkward-like in the dark.

“I didn’t want you screaming at the humans, trying to get them to help you.”

She waited. He didn’t say more. “You’re such a liar.”

Now his head turned toward her.

“I can tell when a man wants me.” And there had been no missing his arousal. He’d definitely been game-on for her in that alley.

“I’m sure there have been plenty of men who want you.” His voice sounded funny. Too tight. Too hard. Was he angry? Jealous? She couldn’t be certain.

“Why is my scent different?” It was easier to talk with him in the dark. “Did I come back…wrong?” That was her fear. But then, she hadn’t exactly been right before the change, either. At sixteen, she’d been bitten by a werewolf—several werewolves. She had the DNA that should have made her transform after that bite. Because once a human was bitten, there were only two options.

Death.

Or transformation.

Once upon a time, she’d had an ancestor who had been a natural-born werewolf, so Chloe should have transformed. She had, sort of.

Her beast had lived and breathed inside of her. She’d felt the elemental, the primal call from deep within. But when it came time to shift, she’d—

Gotten stuck.

A horrible mix of human and wolf. Not fully either. Stuck. In agony.

“You left me.”

Chloe blinked.

“Right then, you just went somewhere else in your head. Where did you go, Chloe?”

Why not confess? “I think my beast is dead. I came back, but it didn’t.” Because she hadn’t felt that primal call since she’d literally risen from the dead. Hadn’t shifted—even in her stilted, painful way.

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” he murmured.

Like he would know about her pain. The guy was an alpha. Shifting wasn’t a problem for him. The guy could become a wolf in an instant. A blink.

“Eric ran his tests on me in that lab.” Eric’s sister Holly had been the doctor in charge there. Holly had poked and prodded Chloe until she had felt the urge to scream. Maybe she had—a time or twenty, mostly from the pain of all those experiments. Sometimes, it felt as if her whole life were one big experiment. “Do you know what he found?” Because Eric hadn’t shared those results with her. He’d just sent her away—with Connor.