Otherworldly Bad Boys: Three Complete Novels Page 26

  “Mine’s closer,” said Avery.

  She came to an abrupt halt in front of it. She stood still, feeling antsy, wishing she could chase Cole out of her brain.

  Avery let them inside. “Well, I was thinking about some of the stuff we were reading in Sullivan’s writings about alphas. And you remember how only alphas could mate?” He strode into his kitchen, opening the refrigerator. “You want a soda?”

  She sat down on one of Avery’s bar stools. They were identical to her own. “Only alphas can mate?”

  He turned, sodas in hand. “Yeah, I mean, there are exceptions, but for the most part, the structure of a werewolf pack is like a typical family. The parents are mated, the female and male alpha. While their offspring are part of the pack, the offspring don’t mate. If they want to, they have to start their own packs.” He offered her the can of soda.

  She took it, her brow furrowed.

  “If Randall’s an alpha, he can have a mate,” said Avery. “And since the two of you technically consummated this whole weird thing—in wolf form, no less—I’m saying it’s a pretty good bet you’re mated to him.”

  Dana clutched the soda. “Mated.”

  Avery opened his soda. “I think so.”

  “What does that mean? Does it mean that it’s not my fault?”

  “Your fault? Shit, Gray.” Avery set down his soda can. He took Dana’s out of her hand and put it on the bar. Then he wrapped his arms around her. “You blaming yourself for all of this?”

  The hug felt so good. Dana melted into his arms, burying her face against his hard, muscled chest. She felt as if she could let go all of her tension in that moment, that Avery could hold her up, support her. She clung to him gratefully, infused with his strength. “Who else would I blame?”

  “Cole fucking Randall, that’s who,” said Avery. “He’s the jackass that chained you up in his basement and tried to kill you. He’s the one who’s been messing with your head. It’s his fault.”

  She’d been so caught up in trying to fix her obsession with Cole that, ever since she’d been free, she hadn’t really spent enough time blaming him. Avery was right. Cole had hurt her. He had forced her to shift. He had taken away her freedom. She would never have become obsessed with him if he hadn’t done those things. It wasn’t her fault. No matter what. She lifted her face from Avery’s chest and peered up at him.

  “Hey,” he said.

  “So, if I have this werewolf connection to Cole, it would explain why I’m so drawn to him.”

  “We need to read up on it,” said Avery, “but what I was seeing in the Sullivan stuff was that it’s a pretty intense bond. And apparently the alpha is pretty protective of his mate, because if another wolf takes her from him, he’s the one ousted out of the pack.”

  Dana bit her lip. “So if I’m mated to Cole, he wouldn’t want anyone else.”

  “I think that’s why he said I was sniffing around,” said Avery. “See, lone wolves will be attracted to mated alpha females. Because mating with them means you’re an instant alpha of an established pack.” He moved away from her. “Remember how Randall said that it was instinct that guys were attracted to you?”

  Dana picked her soda back up. She kind of wished Avery was still hugging her. “I think so.”

  Avery looked at her. “That’s why I kissed you.”

  She took a drink. And she felt disappointed for some reason.

  “Look, it makes sense,” said Avery. “You and I spend a lot of time together. And I keep my wolf pretty suppressed, but I don’t know if I’ve ever been around a female alpha before. I’ve never been attracted to you before, Gray. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

  “Right,” she said. “It was all instinct.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “Doesn’t that make you feel better?”

  She nodded.

  He nodded too. He ducked around the bar and settled on the couch in the living room.

  Dana drank soda and didn’t follow him.

  Avery reached for the remote control to turn on the television.

  “Actually, no,” she said. “It doesn’t make me feel better.”

  He put the remote down. “Gray?”

  “If it’s all instinct, then we’re all just animals. And we have no control of ourselves. And I don’t want to live that way. I don’t want everything to be about my wolf forcing me to feel a certain way. Some of what I feel has to be real.”

  “Do you want your feelings for Randall to be real?”

  “No.” She toyed with the soda can. “Maybe.”

  “Maybe?”

  “I want to be in control of myself again, Brooks. And I want you in control of yourself. I don’t want you to tell me you kissed me because of some weird instinct.”

  He looked at his hands. “You didn’t like it when I kissed you.”

  “I know that, but...” She was too frustrated to know how to finish.

  “It’s not like it doesn’t feel real, you know?” He glanced up at her. “But you’re... I don’t know if I can ever deal with the Randall thing. I might be attracted to you right now, but what you did with him makes my skin crawl. I know you didn’t mean to do it. But the only way I can accept that about you is if I accept that my feelings for you are out of my control. Does that make any sense?”

  She took a drink of her soda. “Yeah, I get it.”

  It was quiet.

  “You wanna watch TV?” asked Avery.

  * * *

  “If I remember correctly, you two are on suspension,” said Ursula as she straightened a stack of papers on her desk. “You aren’t even supposed to be here.”

  “This can’t wait,” said Dana. “We’ve got to move on this before Cole does anything else.”

  “Suspended means that you don’t do any work,” said Ursula.

  “Please, just look at the report we wrote up,” said Avery, handing her a folder.

  Ursula glared at it. “It means not writing reports.”

  “Well, it’s already written,” said Dana. “Read it, please, King.”

  Ursula sighed heavily. She snatched the folder away from Avery. “Fine.”

  Dana grinned at Avery.

  Ursula opened the folder. She began to read. Within a few minutes, she set it down. “Fredrich Sullivan?”

  “Keep reading,” said Avery.

  Ursula picked the folder back up again. Her eyes moved rapidly back and forth over the paper. Then she looked up again. “You two stole Cole Randall’s laundry and interrogated the rogues?”

  “Yes, but did you see how they reacted?” said Dana. “They clearly behaved as if they were betas to Cole’s scent. He’s their alpha. We have proof.”

  Ursula studied the folder. “It does look that way.”

  “This means that we need to go through the list of potentials we compiled,” said Avery. “We need to figure out which of them are alphaed to Randall and which aren’t.”

  “He can make any of his beta wolves shift at any time he wants,” said Dana. “And they could kill people.”

  Ursula nodded. “It’s better than bringing in the whole list, I guess.” She set down the folder. “But once we get them here, what are we going to do with them?”

  “I think that’s something we’ll need to figure out once they’re here,” said Avery. “At any rate, we need to get them someplace protected, someplace where they can’t cause anymore damage.”

  “Okay,” said Ursula. “Fine. The two of you are officially unsuspended. You can start gathering up the wolves in Randall’s pack first thing tomorrow.”

  “Really?” said Dana, a big grin breaking out on her face.

  “Thank you, King,” said Avery.

  She glared at them. “I should extend your suspension. You worked when you weren’t supposed to. But it looks like what you’ve been looking into paid off. You two are both good trackers, willing to go above and beyond. Honestly, I’ve been feeling a little lost without you.”

  “We appreciate it,” said D
ana.

  “Take your access badges and start getting ready to leave tomorrow,” said Ursula. She took the badges out of her desk and handed them over.

  “Thanks,” said Avery.

  “Oh, and Gray,” said Ursula, “that reporter... what’s his name? Moore? He’s been asking after you. Maybe you could go down and see him. His first transition last weekend was a little rough, but he’s making progress. I think he could use some encouragement.”

  * * *

  Dana wasn’t sure she wanted to see Hollis after the way he’d treated her last time. But she decided that Hollis had been angry and frightened. He wasn’t used to the idea of being a werewolf. He’d lashed out at whoever was closest. She owed him another chance.

  She found him in his room. He was wearing the initiate robes that Dana remembered so well from her own training. They were meant to make one comfortable and focused, but Dana had always found them awkward and strange.

  Hollis lounged on his couch, reading a newspaper.

  “Missing the internet?” Dana asked in sympathy. “Dana.” Hollis set down the paper. “You came.”

  “I came,” she said.

  “I was afraid you wouldn’t,” he said. “After everything I said to you, I thought maybe you’d never want to talk to me again.”

  “You were dealing with a lot of stress, Hollis. You weren’t yourself.”

  “But I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have been so horrible.”

  “Forget it,” she said. “The important thing for you to focus on right now is getting your wolf under control.”

  He patted the seat next to him on the couch. “Join me?”

  She sat down.

  “Yeah, not having the internet is really quite a change,” he said. “I see why they don’t want us to contact the outside world during this time, but I’m not used to it yet. I don’t know how I’m going to last another three weeks in this place.”

  “You’re going to last,” said Dana, “because you need to get your wolf under control and get back to your life.”

  Hollis snorted. “What life?”

  Dana wasn’t sure what to say.

  “You know as well as me that The Jefferson Post won’t let me stay on now that I’m a werewolf.”

  “Maybe they will.” It was a lost cause, and she knew it.

  “Nah,” he said. “No way. But since the SF is in such desperate need of good press, maybe they’ll let me handle their public relations.”

  Dana cocked her head in surprised. “You’d do that?”

  “It would be nice, wouldn’t it?” he said. “You and I would be working for the same people. I could even live here, like you do. We’d be close. And since I’m a werewolf now, the problems we had before wouldn’t matter.”

  Dana scooted away from him. She didn’t like where this was going. “Hollis, look, I guess I never really made myself clear, but...” How to put this? “I’m not interested in rekindling a relationship with you.”

  He was quiet.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “God damn it, Dana,” he said. “I can’t stop thinking about you. Ever since I became a wolf, you’re on my mind. At first I thought it was because you bit me. But then it wasn’t you. It was someone else. So, then, I didn’t know. I want you so bad, more than I ever did before I got bit.”

  “You’re lonely here,” said Dana. “It’s normal. When you get out, you’ll meet someone else.”

  “I don’t want someone else.” He grabbed her hand. “Come on, give this another shot. We were good together.”

  She pulled her hand away, thinking of what Avery had told her the night before. That being a female alpha made her more attractive to other male wolves. Was it affecting Hollis as well? He said that he wanted her more now than he did before. “Hollis, this isn’t your fault.”

  “My fault?” he said. “I just want you, Dana.”

  “No, you don’t,” she muttered.

  “Don’t say something like that,” he said.

  She got up off the couch. “I’m going to help you. I’m going to find some way to make this go away.”

  He got up too. “That’s not what I want.” He took her by the shoulders. “You’re the most attractive woman I’ve ever seen. I don’t want any part of that to go away.”

  “You don’t know what you want,” she said. “Now let me go.”

  His fingers dug into her flesh. His face swam closer.

  And then his lips were on hers.

  There was an explosion of wrongness in her chest, a hundred times stronger than anything she’d felt when Avery had tried to kiss her.

  She put her hands on his chest, summoned the strength of her wolf, and pushed.

  Hollis was propelled across the room. He landed on the couch, stunned and winded.

  “Don’t ever do that again, Hollis,” she said.

  * * *

  “So, not only do I have this disgusting desire for you, but I’m also attracting every lone wolf for miles as well?” Dana hissed in the darkness of Cole’s cell.

  The lights came on.

  Cole sat up in bed. “Dana. This is a lovely surprise.”

  “Fuck you,” she said. “Fuck you, Cole, I’m not doing this anymore.”

  “Doing what?” he said, sliding his legs out over the bed.

  “This shit with you. I’m not letting you do this to me. I’m done with you. We’re over.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Really?” He looked down at his bare feet. “Well, I have to admit I was a bit crude with Avery Brooks the other day. I shouldn’t have spoken about your body in that way, should I? I made you angry.”

  “This has nothing to do with that,” said Dana. “You can tell anyone you want how my tits look like strawberries—”

  “Raspberries is what I said, I believe. And it’s true. They do, very much. You have fantastically beautiful breasts, and I miss them desperately.”

  “Stay away from me.”

  He stood up. “If you wanted away from me, why did you come to my cell in the middle of the night?”

  She was feeling shaky. Damn it. Why did everything get so much harder when she was around him? She hated him. He was making her into something she didn’t want to be. She needed to hold onto that.

  “To tell you that it was over,” she said.

  Cole walked over to her.

  “Stay back,” she said.

  He didn’t listen. Before she could stop him, his arm was around her waist. “It can’t be over for us, beautiful. Haven’t I told you that we are deeply bonded?”

  “Oh, yeah,” she said. “I know all about the fact that we’re werewolf mated or whatever. But that doesn’t mean that I actually want you. It’s animal instinct. It’s not me.”

  He sighed. “Dana, Dana, why must you continue to try to separate yourself from your nature?”

  “Let go of me,” she said.

  He brushed his fingers over her cheek. “I sometimes think I’m destroying everything I’ve worked for because of you. I keep waiting for you to understand everything, to accept it all. And you keep resisting.”

  “I will always resist,” she said. “Let go of me.”

  He let go of her.

  She was surprised. She struggled to keep her balance.

  He turned away from her. “Sometimes I wish I could have killed you when I had the chance.”

  “The mating bond, Cole? I’m going to find a way to break it.”

  “There are people who want to kill you now, you know. I don’t let them.”

  “Are you threatening me?”

  He still wasn’t looking at her. “No,” he said quietly. “I don’t think I could bear hurting you.”

  She fingered the scar on her stomach. “You hurt me before, Cole.” She pulled her shirt up, exposing the long twisted line of red flesh. “Look. You did this to me.”

  He turned around. He nodded. “Yes. I had my claws in you. Tearing you apart.”

  Her heart sped up. For some reason, th
at was intimate. Something that only she and Cole shared. Their own disturbing kind of first date or something. The way he’d tried to kill her before he’d decided he’d much rather fuck her.

  Cole dropped to his knees. He pressed his lips against the scar.

  She gasped, her eyes fluttering closed.

  His fingers went to work on the buttons of her shirt. Starting at the bottom, he began to unfasten them, planting a kiss on her skin each time.

  She sighed softly as his mouth went higher and higher.

  He slid her shirt over her shoulders. He reached around her to deftly unclasp her bra.

  And then her breasts were in his mouth again. “Raspberries,” he whispered.

  “No,” she said. It felt so nice. So right. Cole’s lips, Cole’s tongue, Cole’s fingers. He wrung a symphony of ecstasy from her body. Every touch thrilled through her, perfect and right, urging her further into the madness that was their coupling. The more he touched her, the less she cared about anything except him. “I’ll break this.” Her voice cracked.

  He covered her breasts with his hands. “To break it, one of us has to die.”

  “What about the lone wolves?” she said. “The ones who are sniffing around?”

  He tugged her face down, kissing her lips. “You’d never let one of them do it. You’d fight as hard as you could. You belong to me.”

  She pulled away. “What if I did?”

  His hands went to her shoulders. He pushed, and she was on her knees too, facing him. He unzipped his jumpsuit and placed her hand against his chest. “Then I’d hunt him down, and I’d kill him, and I’d take you back.”

  “You’re locked up, Cole.”

  He guided her hand lower. “You’re mine, Dana. I’m all you want.”

  “That’s not true. I have to have a choice. I can’t be controlled by the wolf.”

  He laughed softly, moving her hand right where he wanted it, and letting go of her. “You have a choice, Dana. You don’t want to admit to yourself what you choose.”