Charming the Beast (Purgatory 3)

The bullet sank into the bastard on the ground. His rasping words stopped.

“I know where one of the agents went!” A smaller werewolf stepped forward. A man with stopping shoulders, a ladder-thin frame, and a big, slanting nose.

“I-I didn’t try to follow the alpha,” he confessed. A heavy southern drawl coated his words. “Figured the others were on him. I-I went after the human. The one here earlier.”

Yes. Now this was intel he could use.

“Since the human was working with them, I thought he’d know where the alpha went when he raced away.”

He holstered his gun. “You’ll show me where the human is.” What was that wolf’s name? Bryant? Bennett? No, Barrett.

“I will,” Barrett promised with a fast nod. “I will.”

Then we’ll find the human, and I’ll make him tell me everything he knows.

Humans were so very easy to break.

***

Chloe waved her burning hand in the air. She could see the blisters on her skin. Big, red and—fading?

The blisters disappeared in seconds. The dark red burn turned a light pink.

She sat down, not on the little cot, but on the floor. She stared at her hands. Silver burns, but I heal faster now.

So much faster. What did that mean?

Only…she looked at her left wrist. The fang marks were still there. She hadn’t healed from Connor’s bite. The marks were still just as bright, seeming to mark her skin. His mark.

Her hands curled around her knees as she hunched forward. She’d spent so much of her life afraid. Would the fear ever stop?

Maybe it never would. Death certainly hadn’t slowed things down. She was still—

The lights flashed on above her. Too bright, blinding.

“Chloe…” Her name came from the area behind her cell. A shiver slid over her spine. “I see you, Chloe…”

Slowly, her body turned toward that voice. Now that all the lights were on, she could see that there were other cells back there. One of those cells was occupied by a man.

He was standing in a cell about twenty feet away. He wasn’t touching his bars. He was just watching her.

“Do you remember me?” he asked her.

Chloe shook her head. Was she supposed to?

“That’s right…we only met at the end, didn’t we?” He laughed and she hated that grating sound. “Maybe I started by saying…I knew your father.”

She jumped to her feet.

“I was the werewolf alpha he partnered with. The one who was helping him to cure you.”

No, no, this couldn’t be happening. Eric wouldn’t have locked her up with that guy. Would he?

“I’m David Vincent,” he whispered. “I was the alpha, until you and your f**king father ruined everything.”

He lunged forward then and grabbed the bars. She thought he’d scream. She thought she’d smell the stench of burning flesh.

He didn’t scream.

He didn’t burn.

“I was alpha!” Now he was yelling and his words echoed in that cavernous space. “Until you and your father brought hell to my life! He promised me power…and all I got was the death of my beast! My wolf is dead! Dead!” He was jerking on his bars and yelling at the top of his lungs. “Now you…you’re going to be dead, too, bitch!”

Chapter Five

The werewolves had cleared out. And they’d torched the safe house before they left. How f**king annoying of them.

“He’s dead,” one of the Para Agents said as he stood over the body of a werewolf. Connor knew the guy on the ground was a werewolf because his claws were out. At death, a werewolf’s teeth and claws always came out. As if the beast inside had died too, but wanted to leave his mark on the world.

“He’s dead…” Connor agreed as he inhaled…and then he turned to the right. “But that one isn’t.” He and Duncan raced ahead at the same moment, following that scent in the air. Blood and wolf. They exploded into the woods, rushed forward and saw the man. Staggering, bleeding…and not getting away.

“Stop!” Duncan yelled.

The man jerked but he kept going.

Duncan sighed. “What, does he think I’m going to fight his ass, werewolf to werewolf?” Duncan pulled out his gun. “They’re not the only ones with tranqs. Hell, I think they got the tranq idea from us.” And he fired. The tranq hit the fleeing werewolf and he stumbled.

Then fell.

Connor took his time closing in on the guy. One step. Another.

The werewolf rolled over to face him. And the guy…laughed. “They’ll have…your man…by now…” He spat out blood. Someone had shot the guy with silver. A shot in the face and a shot in the chest. “Why do you…think…they left me? To…distract…wanted you...to follow me…not them.” His eyes were sagging closed as the tranq pumped through him.

Connor grabbed the guy’s shirt front and hauled him upright. The guy couldn’t pass out, not yet. “Where did they go?”

“After…after the human…who was here…before…”

Fuck.

Connor kept one hand on the guy even as he reached for his phone. He had Eric on the line within two seconds. “Get a team over to Harris Grey’s house, now. He’s the target. They’re going after him.”

***

Connor raced hell fast to Harris Grey’s house, but when he got there, Harris was long gone. The front door had been smashed in, and the small house was filled with broken furniture. Hell, there was even plenty of blood left behind. But no Harris.

He and Duncan chased the scent of the wolves for five miles, but then that scent vanished.

He glared at the scene around him. An airfield. Hell, yeah, that would explain the loss of their scent trail. There were choppers there, and it would have been too easy for the werewolves to just fly away with their prisoner.

“I’ll start talking to folks, look for witnesses, get flight manifests,” Duncan muttered. “The usual routine.” He headed away with part of the team.

Connor nodded as his brother left, but he wasn’t hopeful. It wasn’t like werewolves would just tell everyone where they were going. This pack had power and pull—and they were using both right then.

He knew they’d taken Harris for a reason. They’d try to break the agent, try to make him share every bit of intel that he had on Connor and Eric and all those in the Para Unit. If Connor couldn’t find Harris before the guy gave in to their torture…