Charming the Beast (Purgatory 3)

How had this guy learned the truth?

From someone at Purgatory? Did someone tip Keegan off? Had someone there been watching that final battle with Connor, Duncan, and their father? And that watcher had given the information to Keegan?

“You think…the only prison…is Purgatory?” Keegan’s lips twisted but he lay docilely on the table. “Senator Quick…he had a back-up. Not dangerous paranormals there…weak ones. Easy to control. To use. To…kill.”

“No!” Horror sharpened Chloe’s voice. “That’s not true!” She tried to run around Connor and get to Keegan.

Connor caught her and held tight.

“True,” Keegan whispered, his lips twisting. “Started it…for you…because he wanted to make you…stronger…so they died…for you.”

Connor felt the tremble that slid over her body. “No.”

Keegan’s smile stretched. “Can take you…to them…you can…save them…”

She shook her head.

“If not…they die…tonight…by…midnight.”

***

Eric ran back into containment. Shane was standing near the cages, glaring at the men who seemed determined to die.

“Fools,” Shane muttered. “You’re just hurting—”

“Bite them!” Eric ordered.

Shane spun to face him. “Do what?”

“Bite them. Then compel them. Your compulsion will cancel out the order that Keegan bastard gave to them all.” Because no one could resist one of Shane’s compulsions. The guy was the most powerful vampire that Eric had ever encountered, and Shane was also the reason why Eric wasn’t exactly human anymore.

“You’re telling me to take werewolf blood,” Shane said as his eyes widened a bit. “And with this many wolves, it’s going to be a gorge fest.”

Which meant Shane would get one serious power rush.

“Consider this your free pass.”

Shane smiled. He flashed fang. And when the next werewolf shoved his hands against the silver bars, Shane just reached out, grabbed that hand, and sank his fangs into the guy’s wrist.

One by one, Shane fed. He compelled. And soon, the men weren’t enraged and on a crash course with death.

They were curled up on the floor. Sleeping.

Olivia ran into the room. “The guards are stable! And—um, Shane?”

He turned toward her. For an instant, even Eric thought about backing up because that guy looked damn scary.

“Shane?” Olivia said again as she edged closer to him. “What did you do?”

Gorged. “He saved their lives,” Eric said.

And he had.

But now it looked like Shane might be on too much of a feeding high.

Olivia wrapped her arms around Shane. “Focus on me.”

He shuddered, and his arms wrapped around her.

Mates…they could really do the damnedest things.

***

“He is their brother.”

Their group—such as it was—had gathered in Eric’s office.

The chaos was over. For the moment, anyway. Eric had told them all that the werewolves had been controlled, and Chloe hadn’t asked a whole lot of questions about that control—especially once she’d gotten a look at Shane.

The vamp was in the office with them, but Olivia was keeping a close eye on him. And a hand. Chloe had noticed that Olivia was constantly touching her vamp. Trying to soothe him?

“I did a rush order on the blood work and DNA,” Holly said, clearing her throat. “Had to use some of those special connections that Eric has…” She slanted a glance toward him. “But we hit a match. Keegan wasn’t lying. I’m sorry to say it, Duncan and Connor, but Keegan really is your brother.”

Chloe wanted to reach out to Connor. To touch him the way that Olivia touched the vamp, but Connor had marched away from her. He stood near a window, staring out as dusk swept over the area.

“He killed our mother’s family.” This news came from Duncan.

Connor’s shoulders stiffened.

“He said…he said they blamed him. That they saw our father in him, and he killed them all.”

“I see our father in him,” Connor said. “He’s just as eaten up with hate and evil as our old man ever was.”

Eric was behind his desk. His gaze slid from Duncan to Connor…then to Chloe. Eric exhaled and said, “I think he may be telling the truth about another prison facility.”

Chloe shook her head.

“Someone had to transform him,” Eric continued roughly. “And from my own intel work, I can tell you that I’d already begun to suspect that the senator had taken some not-so-willing volunteers for his experiments. I’d actually thought he was trying to experiment in Purgatory, but my men found no evidence of that. When Case Killian was working undercover as the warden, he had a full run of the prison, and he never saw any experiments.” He shook his head. “No, the senator was doing those somewhere else. Somewhere that he could monitor. And I believe that he was using weaker prey.”

“The better to control and to kill,” Connor muttered.

Eric nodded. Chloe didn’t think Connor saw that faint movement.

Her heart seemed to be encased in ice. Those people—they could be suffering or dying right at that moment.

No, no, he said they had until midnight.

“I doubt they’re criminals,” Eric continued. “Probably just unlucky bastards that the senator found and imprisoned. Victims that he didn’t think anyone would miss.”

Her father had been such a stellar human being. Shame wrapped heavily around her. “We have to find them,” Chloe said.

All eyes turned to her—including Connor’s glittering stare.

“If they’re out there, we have to help them.”

“The only person who knows their location is Keegan,” Eric said, his jaw locking. “Shane checked with the other prisoners, he compelled them…but they don’t know where the place is.”

“Then we can compel Keegan! We can make him—”

Connor shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way. You can’t compel…someone…something like us.”

Connor wasn’t a thing. He was her lover. Her mate.

Her shoulders straightened. “Keegan said he would take us to them.”

“No,” Holly’s voice was soft. “He said he would take you to them, Chloe.”

She nodded. “Then let’s do it.”