Jude already was too close because the things he’d said… You’re in my head every minute. I close my eyes, and I see you and I want you so much I can hardly breathe.
She could have said the same things about him.
All true.
“So I’m gonna take him down,” Jude growled, “and I’m gonna take the fear out of your eyes and I’m gonna prove that you can trust me, that I’m not some sick freak like him.”
“No, Jude, I know—”
“You’ll see who I am.” He stared down at her. “And we’ll see if we can’t fix this damn timing.” She saw him take a hard gulp of his own. “And as for the mating…”
Her chin lifted. “I can’t control the mating. If that—that wolf is right, then—”
“Then nothing! You…you’re different from every other shifter out there, sweetheart.”
Yeah, different. Nice, easy word for her situation.
Because she’d always been different.
“You’re different…human and shifter. So what makes you so sure that you’d mate like the others? What makes you so sure you’d only have one mate?”
Her lips parted in surprise. “Jude.” What was he telling himself? No, no, he had to see—shifters only had one mate. One chance for children. Fate didn’t care if a shifter’s mate was a killer or a savior. The mating was forever.
The beast inside her had recognized the wolf. That part was the most humiliating for her. So humiliating, she hadn’t told Jude. Her body had known the wolf shifter at the first touch. No, not her body, but the dormant beast inside. Erin had been horrified, afraid, but, dammit, aware of him. An instinctual response she couldn’t control. One that made her sick.
“I know.” Simple words, gruff.
Her gaze met his and she saw the understanding in his eyes. Understanding and a banked rage. Erin licked her lips.
“I know,” he continued, “but I also know how your body responds to me, and I know the beast. It’s awake when I’m near, and it’s hungry for me.”
He was right.
Erin rocked back on her heels, banging her hip into the desk. She’d thought the sex was just great because she wasn’t having to hold back and because, well, Jude was freaking fantastic, but what if there was something more there?
What if…
No. No one got two mates, and sure as hell not someone who couldn’t even manage one shift.
“Forget the mating,” Jude told her and his eyes burned with intensity. “The mating isn’t what matters anyway.”
He’d know. He’d seen firsthand just how wrong those fated matings could be.
So had she.
“I’m not looking for a mate for the beast.”
But with full-blood shifters, the beast was never separate from the man. Not really.
His fist thudded against his chest. “I’m looking for someone who—”
“Get the f**k out of my way!”
Erin jerked at the raised voice. Her gaze locked on her closed door. That voice…she hadn’t heard that deep baritone in months.
“Back up, Boy Scout, or I’m gonna have to hurt you.” Zane. Loud, confident, pissed.
“What the hell?” Jude strode toward the door.
Erin, moving much slower, did the same. Shit for timing. Always.
“Try it, asswipe. I’m a cop. Lay the first finger on me and—”
Jude yanked open the door, a snarl on his lips.
Erin scrambled after him.
She caught sight of the two men in the outer office. Tall and strong, almost nose to nose.
And she knew that her day was about to get even worse.
The throbbing in her temples flared again. Harder. Aspirin. Need aspirin.
“Zane!” Jude’s voice snapped. “Who the hell is this guy?” His nostrils flared and Erin knew he was trying to catch a scent.
But he’d only smell a human because Lillian Detective Ben Greer was human through and through.
Ben shoved Zane out of his way and locked his warm chocolate eyes on her. “Erin.” Softness there, and anger.
She eased to Jude’s side, far too conscious of all the curious stares. Way too many people were around. Amy. Another assistant, Donna. And Karrie, the ADA next door was also peering in, though it looked like she was trying real hard not to be obvious. “Ah, Ben, it’s been a while.”
“A while since you left me bleeding out in a hospital bed, you mean?”
Okay, no softness that time, only anger. She stiffened and took the hit because the way she figured it, she deserved his rage. He’d been hurt because of her.
“Aw, Jude, come on! Let me take this prick outside and teach him some manners,” Zane wheedled.
Ben jerked out his badge. “I’m a cop. I’d like to see you try to teach me some—”
Zane grinned and stepped eagerly forward. The fact that Ben was a cop didn’t seem to matter much to him.
“I take it you’re Ben Greer?” Jude asked quietly. His legs were braced apart. Hands loose at his sides.
Ben’s gaze raked him. “And I take it you’re the ass**le who’s sleeping with Erin now?”
Amy sucked in a sharp breath.
Jude just smiled. “Yeah, I am.”
“Then you’re also the prick who was screwing around with my case files.”
Jude just shrugged.
Erin knew it was time to take charge. She stepped forward, putting herself between Jude and Ben.
Ben. He looked the same. Handsome face. Thick, slightly curling brown hair. A dimple in his chin.
A solid guy. A good cop.
Human.
Not for me.
He didn’t understand her. Never would.
Not like Jude.
“Ben, perhaps we should go into my office and talk.” Away from all the watching eyes and straining ears.
He pulled in a deep breath. His fingers whitened around his badge. “Yeah, yeah, let’s do that.” His head cocked to the right. A move she’d seen a hundred times. A move he always made just before he threw out a challenge to a suspect.
Her heart thudded too hard in her chest. He’d come to Baton Rouge. Why? Not for me, but for…
“Let’s go talk, Erin, and you can tell me just why you interfered in a murder investigation this weekend and why the hell I found your picture clutched in the hands of a dead man.”
Ah, that would be why.
Chapter 16
His claws wanted to spring free. Jude could feel the burn beneath his fingertips, but he held onto his control.
The cop. The one he knew Erin had cared for back in Lillian. They were in Erin’s office now. The guy stood less than five feet away—and he was watching Erin with far too much knowledge in his eyes.