He’d also taken her away.
“He stole my prey,” Natalie muttered. She’d been desperate to make a deal with him because Roy…he was her friend. One of the few she had in the world. Would the stranger remember the deal? Would he come back to her, looking for his mate?
Because I know what you are, hero. I could smell the beast on you.
If the stranger came back to her, then she’d bring him to her side. A mate would be worth far more to him than a useless vamp.
And if he didn’t come back…
“I’ll find that vamp,” Natalie swore. She had plenty of power at her command. Dark magic. Magic that she’d traded bits of her battered soul for over the years. She’d use her magic. She’d have her revenge.
She would make Antoine suffer. He’d feel the hell she’d experienced. She’d rip his heart out…
And then she’d laugh while he bled.
Chapter Two
Werewolf Rules To Live (or Die) By…
Rule Two: The vamp is the enemy. Don’t trust your enemy.
Carter hadn’t counted on wanting Lauren McIntosh.
She’d been a target. A mission. A means to a damn end. But as Carter drove down the long, winding road that led away from Savannah, Georgia, he realized that he had a serious problem on his hands.
Lauren was sexy. She was tall and curved, with warm, chestnut hair that tumbled over her shoulders. Her skin was absolutely flawless, her eyes were bright blue, her lips were the stuff of absolute sin, and her scent…
Fuck me. I’m in trouble.
Her scent was a freaking aphrodisiac to him.
When she’d bit him, his body had gone rock hard. His dick had been so stiff it hurt, and all he’d wanted was to fuck her. He hadn’t been kidding about that part—if he hadn’t been pissed as all hell that Lauren had been hurt, that the witch in that alley had used a knife on his vamp—then Carter would have taken what he wanted.
But he’d held back. The priority had been getting Lauren to safety.
A witch. Shit. When he’d caught the stench of dark magic in the alley, he’d known Lauren was in trouble, and he’d been desperate to get to Lauren’s side. The exact level of that desperation still unnerved him.
His hand lifted and rubbed against his neck. He healed fast as a general rule, but Carter could have sworn he still felt her bite. It seemed to burn his skin. Like a brand.
“Are you okay?”
His back teeth clenched. Even her voice was sexy. Husky and sweet.
She shifted nervously in her seat. She wore a pair of black pants, black heels, and a black t-shirt. A shirt that was still covered in her blood.
And the scent of her—and her blood—it’s making me jones for a taste…
“Um, Carter? You keep rubbing your neck. I’m sorry if I bit you too hard—”
“You didn’t.” His words were snapped. He sounded like an asshole. Not like he could help it. He was trying to drive and not jump her bones. Not go in for a taste of all that vamp blood, but the dark need inside of him…the need that had ignited when his life went to hell a while back…
I can do this. I just need to get her some place safe. I’ll drop her off, and then I’ll go out to hunt.
“I don’t have a lot of practice at…biting.” She made that announcement as if she were ashamed.
He caught the flash of lights up ahead. A motel. One with a VACANCY sign. Perfect. “Want to tell me why you were in that alley tonight? It’s obvious you planned to meet those two. I heard you talking to them.”
“The woman, um, she’s called the Dealer.”
The Dealer. Shit. He’d heard plenty of stories about that particular witch. But he tried to play it innocent. “You getting drugs from her?”
“Drugs? What good would drugs do someone like me? Vamps only get high on blood.”
Vamps aren’t the only ones.
“I was there because the Dealer is a witch. I thought she could change me back.”
He laughed. Carter didn’t mean to laugh, but the sound just exploded from him.
She didn’t join in the laughter because—right—her words hadn’t been a joke. He should clarify things for her. “There is no going back for you. The only way to stop being a vamp is to die.” He spun the truck into the graveled parking lot of the motel, braked, then turned his head toward her. Aw, hell, were those tears in her eyes?
“I don’t want to die,” Lauren told him. Her lower lip trembled. “But I also don’t want to kill.”
Uh, oh. His fingers tapped against the steering wheel. “Lauren, how many people have you killed since becoming a vampire?”
She unhooked the seatbelt. Her head turned away from him. “You know, this is a perfect place for us to part ways. I’ll get a room here and you can keep going—going wherever it was that you were headed before you met me.”
I was going straight to you, sweetness. You were my target.
“Thanks for your help. I know that sounds incredibly lame considering everything that happened and with me, you know, taking your blood, but I only have one hundred bucks on me, and I need that for the room.” She shoved open her door. “So the thanks will have to do because it’s all I’ve got for you—”
He locked his fingers around her wrist and immediately yanked her back toward him, pulling her across the seat. “We’re not done.”
Her eyes widened. So freaking blue. Beautiful. He could see them perfectly in the dark. “Wh-what do you mean?” Lauren stammered.
“I mean that I’m not just walking away from you.” He couldn’t.
Hope suddenly appeared on her face. It was there one second, big and bold and desperate, but gone in the next instant. “Why would you help me? I mean, you’ve done so much already, and I’m just a stranger to you.” Her expression turned grave. “You should stay away from me. I’m dangerous. I stopped feeding from you earlier, but it was a very near thing. I can’t trust myself. You can’t trust me.” She looked down at his hand, still circling her wrist. “You’re better off away from me.”
Not happening. “I’m going to get you a room. You’ll go inside, you’ll shower the blood off…” I really need you to get the blood off. “And I’ll run out and get you some fresh clothes.” The lies were easy for him. I’m planning to hunt. “Then you and I will figure out a plan for you.”
“Why?” The question seemed to burst from her. “Why would you want to have anything to do with me? I was some woman you met in a bar—a woman who blew you off, by the way.” Red flared in her cheeks. “You don’t know me.”
I know plenty about you. Because for the last forty-eight hours, she’d been his absolute obsession. He’d learned every single thing that he could about her. She’d been a dancer in Vegas, an up and coming showgirl who’d had the unfortunate luck of catching Antoine’s attention. Antoine had been in Vegas hunting for his cousin, Isabella, when he’d stumbled onto Lauren instead.
We were both in Vegas, Lauren. So close…
Antoine had taken her to Chicago. He’d charmed her, dazzled her, and gotten the hell out of wolf territory because he’d realized just how dangerous Vegas truly was for his kind.
And while Antoine had been seducing Lauren…
“You’re hurting me,” she said suddenly.
Fuck. He immediately eased his hold. He hadn’t even realized that he’d been holding her so tightly. But the image of Lauren and Antoine—them together—flooded his mind and it pissed him off. “Sorry.” He was. He would never intentionally hurt her. Without even thinking about it, Carter brought her wrist to his mouth. He pressed a kiss to her skin. And…
Bite her. The dark desire came from his wolf.
Her pulse was right beneath his lips. Her skin was soft and silken, and the scent of her blood was tempting him—driving him right to the edge of his control. Antoine had made sure Carter had vamp blood before he’d left Chicago, made sure that he’d be more than ready for the hunt…
And that should have allowed Carter better control
.
Only it fucking didn’t. Because her wrist was at his mouth. His teeth were scraping over her pulse point. And he wanted to bite.
“C-Carter?”
He closed his eyes. “I need a moment.” More than a moment. His neck seemed to burn. That spot where she’d bit him throbbed. What in the hell was happening?
“You didn’t really hurt me.” Her words tumbled out fast. “Your hold was just tight. It surprised me because—I think you’re stronger than I am.”
Werewolves were incredibly strong.
“You aren’t a vampire. I mean, you told me that.”
His eyes opened.
“So what are you?”
Tread carefully here. Unfortunately, treading carefully meant he was going to straight up lie to her. “I’m the man who was hired to find you.”
Fear flashed—it appeared as fast as the hope had appeared before on her face. But the expression of hope had vanished quickly. The fear stayed on Lauren’s face. She tried to jerk away from him, but Carter held her fast. Held her, but made sure not to hurt her. Never hurt her.
“Who hired you?” Lauren demanded.
If he said Antoine, they’d be done. She wouldn’t cooperate with him, and getting her back to Chicago would mean that he had to tie the woman up—no, handcuff her, with cuffs that would resist her vamp strength—and drag her all the way back up north. So he lied. And he felt like shit. “A woman much like you hired me,” he said quietly. “Her name’s Isabella. She’s a vampire, and she’s…married, I guess you could say, to a friend of mine.”
“What?”
Married, mated—to werewolves, it was the same thing. “Isabella can help you. You’re new to this vamp life, and she can help you transition.”
Her eyes widened and suddenly, she was the one holding tight to him. “Can she turn me back?”
“Baby, that’s not possible. You died. You don’t get to go back to being a human.”
Her thick lashes lowered.
“But you don’t have to kill in order to survive. Isabella doesn’t kill when she takes from her donors.” Donors. Isabella’s preferred word choice instead of victims. “She can teach you control. She can help you. When she found out about you, Isabella sent me after you.”
Lauren swiped her tongue over her lower lip. “So, you’re like…what? Some kind of private investigator?”
No. He shook his head.
“A hunter? A bounty hunter?” Lauren pushed.
That was much closer. “Isabella isn’t the only one who wants you,” he said slowly, feeling her out. “There is someone else who put a price on your head.”
“You are a bounty hunter.”
“I can keep you safe, but you have to trust me.” He was shit. Absolute shit.
She threw her arms around him and hugged him tight. “Thank you.”
He should burn in hell.
“You have no idea how scared I’ve been. I’ll trust you, I’ll do whatever you say…just…keep helping me, okay?”
His hand curled around her back. Carter couldn’t force the words out. Couldn’t say…I’ll keep helping you. Because he’d reached the limit of his lies. At least, with her, he had. So he held her a minute, and he tried to ignore just how good she felt against him. How she seemed to fit him, perfectly. How the beast he kept chained inside wasn’t snarling or clawing for freedom. How his beast was just—quiet. Still.
But Lauren pulled back. She flashed him a quick, nervous grin, and he saw the woman she’d been before this nightmare in the wink of her dimple. “Sorry.” She laughed and the sound was absolutely enchanting. “I didn’t mean to go cling-zone on you.”
She could cling to him anytime. He cleared his throat before he gave into the impulse to say that corny shit out loud. “Stay here. I’ll get the room.”
“Yeah.” She made a face as she glanced down at her shirt. The Dealer’s knife had slashed right through the fabric. “A blood-covered woman will attract the wrong kind of attention.”
A woman as sexy as she was—blood-covered or not—would attract too much attention.
Without another word, he hurried out of the truck and stalked inside the little motel office. A young guy was behind the counter—a fellow with a knowing smile and slicked back hair. “Saw you and the honey in the truck.” He held up a room key and smirked. “Wasn’t sure you’d be able to make it to the room.”
Carter looked at him. Just looked. And the temperature in the room seemed to go arctic.
The man’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
“Keep your eyes off her from now on,” Carter ordered grimly. “You didn’t see her. You never saw her. And you’ll never see her again.”
Sweat trickled down the clerk’s temple. His smirk was long gone. “See who?”
Carter slid a hundred across the counter. The clerk’s shaking fingers handed him the key, and then Carter was marching away. His beast wasn’t quiet any longer. Inside, his wolf was snarling.
Don’t hurt humans. Even dumbass humans. Don’t hurt them.
He kept up his mantra until he was back at the truck. He opened the door for Lauren, and she slid out, her body brushing against his. His dick—already at full attention—jerked toward her.
“That was fast,” she said, smiling at him.
The parking lot was dead empty. Not surprising since they were pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Carter took her arm and led her to their room. Once inside, he did a quick sweep. The place wasn’t fancy, but it was clean. A fairly large bed, a TV, a chair, and even a fridge were in the motel room. The curtains were heavy, too, a good thing when a vamp was staying there. “Get a shower,” he said. “I’ll be back soon. I’ll bring you some new clothes.”
She smiled at him again. The slow, curving smile that lit her eyes. “You are my hero, have I told you that?”
No, he wasn’t a hero. He was just a bastard who was using her.
She headed toward the narrow bathroom, and as she crossed the threshold, her hands went to the hem of her shirt. She lifted it up, revealing the skin of her spine—and the tattoo right in the base of her back.
It was a tattoo of a wolf.
Fuck me.
He turned on his heel and put one foot in front of the other until he was out of that motel room. He didn’t look back because if he had…
I’ll make her mine.
***
Carter’s phone was ringing. He dropped the bag of clothes he’d acquired onto the truck’s seat—that part wasn’t a lie, I got her clothes—and he yanked the phone from his pocket. The annoying-as-hell ring tone had been specifically picked out for this caller because this particular sonofabitch was annoying as all hell. Carter swiped his finger over the screen. “Do you know what time it is?”
“You’re supposed to check in with your progress!” Antoine shouted at him.
Carter grunted. “And you’re not supposed to be a stalking bitch who calls me every single day.” Needy much?
“Do you have her? Do you have my Lauren?”
Carter stilled. And then he counted to five, then to ten because he had to suddenly calm his wolf down. His claws had burst from his fingertips. It took everything in him not to snarl, She’s not yours. But…she was.
That was the whole point, right? Antoine had hired him to find Lauren, to bring her back to him. Carter was going to be paid in blood and cash, and his life was supposed to be one hell of a lot easier.
You’re going to…help me? Lauren’s husky voice whispered through his mind. He was such a bastard. “Yeah, I have her.”
Antoine’s sigh of relief slid over the phone. “Trust a wolf to track down his prey.” He laughed. “Your kind do have their uses!”
Carter nearly crushed the phone. Antoine was such a dick.
“Are you on the way back with her now?” Antoine wanted to know. “Tell me your location. I can get my vamps to meet you and—”
“You gave me a week to return her to you in Chicago. I’m all the way down in Savannah, and, hate
to break this shit to you, but your girl isn’t exactly thrilled to be living the vamp life.”
Silence.
“She was trying to get herself changed back,” Carter added, wanting to push Antoine. “I found her in an alley, trying to make a deal with a witch—only that witch tried to take Lauren’s pretty head.”
“The Dealer.”
“Uh, yeah, that’s what Lauren called her. Seems Lauren was under the impression that her vampirism could be taken away, that she could go back to being a human.” Which was total bullshit. No one had ever gone back as far as he knew. It was impossible.
As impossible as vampires existing in the first place? As impossible as a man turning into a wolf?
“I’ll pay you a million dollars to kill the Dealer.” Antoine’s voice had gone low and cold.
Carter laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. “I thought you were paying me two million to bring back your runaway vampire.”
“The Dealer hates me. If she knows that Lauren is mine, she’s not going to stop until my Lauren is dead.” His ragged breath shuddered. “But you have Lauren now. She’s safe with you, right? You can stand between her and the witch—”
“I’m not exactly with Lauren, not right now.”
“What?”
He rolled his eyes. “Relax, vamp. I got her away from the Dealer. Lauren is in a motel, washing the blood off her body—”
“You didn’t drink from her. That was part of our deal—I told you to never drink from her!”
Carter laughed. “Seriously, chill your ass out. No, I didn’t drink from Lauren, but I sure as hell wanted to.” He rubbed his knuckles over his lips. “And that’s one of the damn reasons she’s not with me right now. I have to go out and hunt, I need—”
“You need to get back to her! The Dealer will find her—if she made Lauren bleed, then she will track her. The Dealer will kill Lauren!” Antoine was practically screaming now. “Get to her—or Lauren is dead! And I didn’t pay you to let my mate die!”
Fuck, fuckity fuck. “Fine,” he growled back, “but if I wind up biting Lauren, that shit is on you.”
“No!” Antoine roared. “Never! You never take her blood! Don’t you—”