Lauren tilted her head as she studied him.
Riley’s feet pounded over the ground as he rushed back toward them. “The side effect of addiction,” he announced, voice cold. “Talk about a bitch of a beast.” He threw a pair of jeans toward Carter. “Here, we’re roughly the same size. Cover your ass up for the vamp.”
Carter let Lauren go while he jerked on the jeans, but he watched her warily. This wasn’t a conversation that he wanted to have with Riley watching.
“Never been hit by a truck before.” Riley cocked his head as he studied Lauren. “Normally, that would make me want to take your head.”
Carter whirled toward him, claws flashing.
Riley held up his hands. “Normally. I said normally. I want to see how this fucking thing plays out first.” His smile held an evil edge. “Because from where I’m standing, this is a very interesting situation. We’ve got you here, Carter, saying this sexy new blood vamp is your mate.” He paused and gave a little shrug. “And then we have that bastard Antoine Abandonato calling her his. He’s sent out word to all the vamps that he’s willing to pay plenty in order to get her back.” Riley walked around Lauren, his gaze drifting over her. His nostrils flared. “Humans don’t change easily into vamps, so I see why he’s desperate to have her back. He wants to figure out why she’s so special.”
“I’m not special,” Lauren threw back immediately. “I’m just a woman whose life has pretty much turned into a nightmare.”
Riley stopped pacing. “You are special. Most humans die when vamps try to transform them. They don’t rise. That’s why the vamp population is so low. But you rose and you’re the mate for a werewolf? That means something about you is different. Very different. The vamps will want to know what it is.” His jaw hardened as his gaze slid over her once more. “And the werewolves will, too.”
A rumble that was part growl and part snarl slipped from Carter. “You’re gonna need to back the hell away from her.”
Riley’s gaze shot to him. “Werewolves can spend their whole lives searching and never find a mate. Don’t you think it’s one huge ass coincidence that she could become a vamp and a werewolf’s mate? Don’t you think we need to figure out her genetics and see what makes her—”
“I’m not your freaking science experiment.” Lauren’s voice was sharp and cold. “So stop looking at me as if you want to dissect me.” Her teeth snapped together, and her sexy fangs were most definitely out. “I don’t even understand this mate crap you’re talking about, but what I do get—it’s that Antoine is hunting me. So that means I need to get the hell hidden, fast.” She pointed at Carter. “And what I said before still applies. I won’t have you getting hurt because of me. I won’t—”
Riley was laughing again. “Vamp, Carter is your perfect killing machine. He can take out Antoine for you. Like I said before, no one is better at taking the heads of vamps.”
She licked her lower lip.
Carter squared his shoulders. “I’m coming with you, Lauren. I’m going to make sure you stay safe.”
“I’m not your mate.”
Baby, you’re my everything. He didn’t say that, though, instead, he told her, “I want to help you. You don’t need to spend the rest of your very long life looking over your shoulder, fearing Antoine.”
She took a slow step toward him. “I don’t want you dead. I’ve seen Antoine when he attacks. He’s terrifying.”
Carter stroked his hand over her cheek. “I can be plenty terrifying on my own.”
He could see the struggle on her face.
But then she gave a grim nod. “Get your wolf ass in the truck.”
She turned on her heel and marched away. Carter watched her, admiring the sway of her ass, and then when Riley started to pass him, he threw up an arm, blocking the guy. His voice was low and lethal as Carter ordered, “You spread the word…she is mine.” Lauren didn’t understand mating, but he’d make sure she did, soon enough. “Any wolf who has a problem with that will need to face me.” He’d challenge any wolf to keep her safe.
Riley nodded.
“Do we have a problem?” Carter pushed him.
Riley flashed his cold smile. “We did, until your vamp hit me with a truck in order to save you. That showed me right there—she’s linked to you. Even if she doesn’t realize it. She’ll fight to protect you, no hesitation.”
“What the fuck? Were you testing us?”
“Maybe I was. I figured you wouldn’t be in a werewolf safe house with just any vamp.” Riley’s smile widened, but his eyes stayed shadowed. “If you’d found her before Antoine, you would have mated with a human. She was human, not a born vamp.”
Carter nodded. Yes, he’d already thought that same thing.
“That means the werewolves can mate with the humans.” Riley’s voice roughened. “We’d been told to stay away from them, that they were too fragile to ever handle our beasts, but you just proved to me that at least one human was meant to be with a wolf. A vamp just got to her first.”
Carter’s hands had fisted. He knew that Riley had once loved a human, but Riley had walked away from her…because wolves were too wild for humans. Too rough. “You never bit her, did you?” Carter asked, referring to the woman who lurked in Riley’s past.
Riley turned away from him. “It was forbidden.”
“Just like a mating between a vamp and a werewolf.”
Riley glanced back at him. “Maybe it’s time all the fucking rules changed.” A muscle jerked in his jaw. “There’s a reason I’ve been rogue all these years. Never did much care for pack laws.”
Carter knew Riley was going to chase after his human. “Good luck.”
“You’re the one who needs luck.” Riley’s voice carried only to Carter’s ears. “I know you were working for Antoine. The guy’s vamp goon told me that part, right before he became dust. Just how do you think your mate is going to react to that news?”
Not well. Not fucking well at all.
Chapter Seven
Werewolf Rules To Live (Or Die) By…
Rule Seven: The beast will never be denied—and he can rarely ever be fully controlled.
“I feel like the vampires are closing in on me.” Lauren kept her gaze directed out the passenger window, at the dark night. “How many vampires are even in the world?” She had no clue. “I mean, are they everywhere? Because I feel like they are. I feel like they’re all coming after me.”
“We have to get you to a safe place—a place the vamps won’t ever think of breaching.”
She turned her head and glanced over at Carter. His profile was so hard and fierce. “Another werewolf safe house?”
“More like a werewolf pack.”
Okay, that was scary. She was still wrapping her mind around the whole werewolf bit. The idea of just waltzing straight into a werewolf pack terrified her.
“My pack,” he added quickly as if he sensed her fear. “It’s back in Vegas. My friend Griffin is the alpha there, and his mate Isabella is the vamp I told you about before. They can give us sanctuary. They’ll keep you safe while I take care of Antoine.”
“While you kill him, you mean.”
He nodded. “That’s exactly what I mean. Once he’s dead, the other vamps will back the hell away from you. Then you can get your life back.”
Not really, no, she couldn’t. Because she’d died and that old life was gone. “I wanted to be human again,” she told him softly. “That’s what I was fighting so hard for. That’s why I hunted down the Dealer. Why I fought with every single bit of my control not to drink from humans, and when I did give in and drink…I didn’t kill. I didn’t want that on me when I turned back.”
He drove in silence.
“But there is no going back.” It was a truth she’d been forced to accept. The Dealer had shattered that hope. Her hands fisted in her lap. “There’s only going forward. Antoine did this to me. And I am not going to run and hide while you fight my battles. If we’re taking Antoine down, then we a
re doing it. Together.”
“That’s not the deal.”
“It is now.” She was definite. “I’m tired of everything spiraling away from me. Antoine did this, and I’m going to give him payback.”
“He’s a born vampire. He’s been around for centuries. And, unlike you, he doesn’t hesitate to gorge on his prey. So he’s stronger than you, far stronger, and in a fight, he will take you out.”
Carter’s words had been brutal, but she wasn’t giving up. “No. He won’t.” And this she was sure of. “Don’t you see? He wants me back—alive. Or, well, at least undead. He’ll let me get close to him, and when I do, I’ll kill him.”
He turned off the road, and the tires spun in loose gravel as they slid into what looked like an abandoned gas station. Then Carter turned toward her.
She swallowed down her fear. “You’ll teach me what to do. You’ll show me how to end him.”
His eyes gleamed in the darkness. “You think I’m going to put you in his path? You’re my mate and—”
“I don’t know what that means.” The very idea of being his mate terrified her. “You say it like it’s…it’s everything, but I’m not a werewolf. I’m barely making it as a vamp, and I can’t handle some forever mate thing right now.” Her words burst out too fast, but she needed him to understand… “I want you, Carter. And the way I want you? That out-of-control need? It scares me. Because I don’t want to make another mistake.”
“I won’t hurt you. I won’t ever hurt you.”
She ran her tongue over the edge of her teeth. Her canines were sharpening. “If we have sex, I’m afraid the desire I feel will only get worse.”
“What if it gets better?”
Wasn’t that the same thing? Her eyes closed. “I need to feed.” A few drops of blood would work wonders for her right then. “Drive the truck, okay? Get us to a bar, let me find some drunk guy who won’t remember my bite—”
His fingers curled under her chin. He tipped her face toward him, and she opened her eyes. The faint gold in his stare was even brighter now as he rasped, “You really think I’ll let you waltz into a bar and put your mouth on another man? That I’ll just watch that shit go down?”
“Carter…”
“Drink from me.” His hand slid away from her chin. His arm turned and he offered his wrist to her. “Go ahead.”
Her breath hitched. “When I take your blood, the desire just gets worse.” The dark lust that she felt for him. The stark need that told her to damn the consequences and just take what she wanted.
What she wanted was him.
“Worried you can’t keep your control with me?”
She stared into his eyes. “Yes.”
“Fuck.” There was a savage hunger in that curse.
“I’m not going to lie to you, Carter. I’ve never lied to you.”
His gaze cut away from hers.
“If I bite you, I don’t know what will happen. That’s why I need a stranger. I need someone who doesn’t make me feel this way.” This much. “A stranger doesn’t matter. You do.”
“Take my blood.”
She wanted to bite. She— “When I bite you, when you bite me, I feel the connection getting stronger between us. I can’t handle that right now.” She pushed his wrist away. “Get us moving again, okay? I-I can wait.” Maybe.
“Lauren…”
“Drive.”
With a brutal jerk, he yanked the truck into gear and they sped away from the lot. And she tried not to think about just how very desperately she wanted him. Not just his blood. But his body.
His…heart?
***
Jealousy was ripping Carter apart. It was an angry, snarling bastard. One that wanted to claw and tear everyone around him into pieces.
She doesn’t want my blood. And Carter knew why—Lauren was scared. He’d terrified her with his mate talk. He’d moved too fucking fast, too soon, and now he was in danger of losing her.
And she wants to drink from another.
They were in a club. Some loud, packed place that he’d found after he’d hauled ass away from the mountains. Lights flashed overhead. Music blared. He’d stopped on the drive just long enough to pick up new clothes for himself and for Lauren.
She wore jeans that hugged her body like a second skin, a cheap t-shirt that cupped her breasts, and ten-dollar shoes that somehow made her look like a million bucks. The black heels clicked on the floor as she maneuvered through the crowd.
He stalked behind her, unable to hold back the tide of jealousy. He couldn’t believe he was doing this shit. Actually helping her to find new prey. They should still be on the road. He should be getting her to safety—back to Vegas.
They should not be stopping for a bite. Literally. Shit. He jerked at his t-shirt, the damn thing was too tight across his biceps. Like Lauren, he also wore jeans, and he’d grabbed some shoes at their pit stop.
The others in the club were dressed in a range of clothes—some elegant, some casual. No matter what they wore, every other woman in that place paled next to Lauren.
She went to the bar. Her fingers tapped on the surface, and Carter could practically feel the nervous energy pouring off her.
“Want a drink?” The bartender had turned Lauren’s way.
Carter saw her gaze immediately dart to the guy’s throat. And, in instinctive response, Carter growled.
“Or not.” The bartender lifted his hands in an I-Surrender gesture aimed at Carter as the fellow backed away. “Easy, buddy. I was just getting the lady’s order.”
Lauren turned toward Carter. Her body brushed his. “Didn’t we cover this in the truck? You agreed I could drink.”
He’d broken down and agreed because he felt like shit over the lies he’d told her. She’d stared at him with her beautiful eyes and told him that she’d never lie to him, and she’d savaged his heart. He owed her this, and even though the jealousy was already burning him like a wildfire, he’d see this through.
“You have to back away,” Lauren added as her gaze slipped away from his. “No one will approach me with you this close.”
“I’m not walking away, baby. Other vamps are hunting you, remember?”
Her lips curved down. “Like I could forget.” Her hand rose to press against his chest, seemingly an unconscious move on her part. “But can’t you—I don’t know—like, smell them or something?” She leaned closer to him, lowering her voice. “You’re a werewolf, and I’m assuming that means you have better senses than a human, right? Like…a wolf’s senses? You knew when that other werewolf was coming for us, I saw you respond, I saw—”
“It would be harder to sniff out a vamp in a crowd this size, especially if the vamp tried to mask his scent.”
She peered up at him.
“So, no, sweetness, I’m not going to vanish while you feed. I’m going to be watching you every second.” And if the human she chose got too handsy with her, Carter would be stepping in. “So find a human.” Now he leaned into her, and his lips brushed over the shell of her ear as he whispered, “And get that drink. Before my beast breaks loose and goes wild in this place.”
“It’s not that easy.” A shiver slid over her body. Maybe because he’d just licked her. “I’m not so good at compulsions. That’s why I get men from bars. Men who’ve been drinking a bit. It makes them easier to handle.”
Carter pulled in her scent, and he shoved back the jealousy as he took a few steps away from her. “Plenty of drunk fools here. Pick one.” He nodded toward her. “I will be watching.”
“Carter?”
He slipped away, but he didn’t take his eyes off her. As soon as he put five feet between him and Lauren, the sharks circled in, just as he’d known they would. Fools who were eager to be close to her. Fools who wanted to touch her.
A blond, a redhead, and a guy with a buzz cut.
“Ready for some new company?” The blond had been the bold one to ask that question, his voice too bright.
Carter had t
aken up a position at the end of the long bar. His hands curled around the bar’s wooden top. His claws scraped into it.
“You…uh…want anything?”
Carter yanked his hands back before the bartender could glimpse his claws. His eyes were on Lauren. She was talking to the blond. The other men had backed away.
I’m staring at what I want.
Only Lauren was smiling at another man.
“Right.” The bartender cleared his throat. “You’re one of those guys who likes to watch, I guess? Damn, man, I don’t know how you do it. Not with a woman like—”
Carter’s hand flew up. In an instant, he’d locked his fingers around the bartender’s throat. “You don’t know me. You don’t know her. So keep your comments to yourself.”
The bartender’s eyes were about to bug out of his head.
And Lauren had taken the blond’s hand. She was leading him toward the back of the bar. Eyes narrowing, Carter let go of the bartender and he followed in Lauren’s wake.
No one got in Carter’s way. Folks took one look at him, and they backed the hell away.
Lauren stopped near the back exit of that bar. She turned around and pressed her body against the blond male’s.
Carter’s back teeth clenched.
She pushed the blond against the wall. She stared into his eyes. She whispered to him. The jerk put his hands on her shoulders. The idiot smiled at her. The sonofabitch offered his neck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Carter did not want to watch this. His gaze cut away from Lauren and her prey because if he stared for another second, he’d be killing the blond.
For a moment, everything around Carter seemed to go red. His beast was howling inside of him. Carter tried to pull the beast back but…
His bones began to snap.
Hell, no. He’d been able to control his shifts since he’d been fifteen years old. He’d never lost control before.
And I’ve never watched my mate tempt another man before.
“No.” Lauren’s voice rose above all of the other noise in the bar—or maybe he was just tuned to her voice. Carter spun back toward her just as Lauren said, “I can’t do this.” She jumped away from the blond, putting her hand over her mouth. “You…you need to get away from me.”