Chapter One
Millie
“Come on, Millie. Don’t be a prude!” Charlotte accused, as I hemmed and hawed at my reflection in the mirror.
“I’m not a prude!” I emphatically defended, though I knew I kind of was. At least, when compared to most girls my age. “I’m just not used to wearing heels and things like… this.”
Charlotte rolled her eyes. “Exactly! That’s why you have to wear it tonight. You can’t keep going out looking like a nervous virgin your whole life.”
That was going to be a problem, because I was a nervous virgin.
Sure, I’d gone on dates and even kissed a few guys in the past, but I’d never felt comfortable enough with any of them to go any farther than that. Of course, Charlotte didn’t know that. We’d only just met a few weeks earlier when I’d applied for a job at the local Pizza Palace. Though I hadn’t gotten the job, I’d gotten a friend out of the new deal. Which, in my opinion, was the far superior outcome.
I knew Charlotte was trying to help me break out of my comfortable bubble, but it didn’t feel like help. It felt like pressure. And I didn’t like that anymore than I liked the scarlet-red body-hugging dress she’d poured me into tonight. Maybe even less, given how my butt looked in the dress.
Unlike Charlotte, I wasn’t accustomed to clothes like these. I’d been raised by a single father and had dressed me like a tomboy my whole life. That hadn’t changed when I’d gone through puberty and developed a double D chest and curves that made me self-conscious in anything more form-fitting than a baggy t-shirt and jeans.
Sighing, I turned to the side and bit my lower lip. We all needed a push now and again to get out of our comfort zone. Unfortunately for me, this felt like a straight up shove over the edge of a fifty-foot cliff. But perhaps it was necessary. I was nineteen after all. Time to grow up and start acting like the adult woman I was.
“Come on! I told Alice we’d meet her by eleven, and we haven’t even left yet,” Charlotte whined, as she texted furiously back and forth with her cousin about our ETA.
Accepting my fate, I snagged my purse off Charlotte’s dresser and followed her to the door. “Okay, okay. I’m ready. Let’s go meet up with Alice”
Jumping into her Lexus, courtesy of her very generous parents, Charlotte fiddled with the radio as I buckled in. As soon as I closed the door, she backed out of her parents’ driveway and down the street of her beautifully landscaped neighborhood.
I tried not to be the jealous sort. I really did. But when I saw families like Charlotte’s——you know, intact and so indulgently loving of their baby girl—I couldn’t help but be a little envious. Okay, a lot envious.
I lost my dad in a terrible accident when I was seventeen, my mom when I was six. Before Dad passed, he didn’t talk about her much. The long and short of it? He’d awoken one morning to a note that said she “needed space”. Some time to clear her head. A week turned into a month. A month into a year. A year into three. In the fourth year after her abandonment, we’d learned she’d passed away from ovarian cancer through a mutual acquaintance. We’d never even gotten to say goodbye or inherited any keepsakes to remember her by.
So when I saw two-parent households like Charlotte’s, replete with a family dog and little brother that were oh-so-adorable, I was more than just a little envious. That life had been all I’d dreamt about since childhood. Safety. Security. A place of belonging. Not living in apartment after apartment, in nameless town after nameless town, like I’d experienced growing up with my dad.
“Here’s your fake ID,” Charlotte said then, interrupting my thoughts as she handed me the plastic disc that would get me into the bar, no questions asked. “Memorize the info on that now in case the bouncer quizzes you.”
I looked over the image of the woman on the front. She was twenty-five and had glasses. In this case, that might actually help me. I could account for the differences in our appearances by claiming I was wearing contacts. Plus, everybody looked different with their makeup and hair done, right? I’d had worse. I could make it work.
“You two aren’t exactly twins,” Charlotte conceded, “but it’s a way better match than mine.” She flashed me her ID, and I had to stifle a laugh.
Charlotte looked nothing like the woman on her “borrowed” license. For starters, my friend had pin straight auburn hair and the person on her ID was a strawberry blond with natural curls. You’d have to squint pretty darn hard to think either girl was even loosely related, let alone the same person.
“Do you think these are going to be a problem?” I wondered, afraid we’d be turned away at the door after getting all dolled up for the night. On second thought, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad after all. I wasn’t in the going out mood. I’d just agreed so Charlotte and I could hang out before I started my coffee shop job and got bogged down with my work schedule next week.
“Nah. The bouncers at the door don’t give a shit as long as the licenses are real and you know the info on them,” Charlotte explained. “I’ve been there a dozen times before and I always get in, easy-peasy.”
I’d better commit it to memory then. I’d hate to be the one who mucked up this operation. Glancing down at the rectangular plastic card in my hand, I noted the name on the license was Karen Steinberg.
“Who does this one belong to, by the way? Another cousin of yours?” I wondered aloud.
Charlotte shrugged. “I don’t know. We found it outside a bar in the parking lot about a year ago. It’s within the expiration date, so we use it every weekend. No problems yet!”
Great. I certainly hoped that her winning streak didn’t end with me tonight. Or, God forbid, we bumped into Karen Steinberg while we were out and about at the bars. That would be the literal definition of awkward. Not to mention highly illegal. If I wasn’t nervous before, I definitely was now.
When we pulled up to Maverick’s, Charlotte had to circle the block twice before she found a parking space. It was several streets away from the bustling district where the bar was located. In these heels, that was going to prove interesting. And by interesting, I meant painful.
Getting out of the car, I adjusted the hem of my “dress”, which fell higher on my body than some of my shirts, and tugged it as low as I could get it to go. The only problem was that when I did that the bodice dipped and exposed even more of my bulging cleavage, which was already pretty substantial.
Charlotte was typing away on her phone as she double-timed it toward the door of Maverick’s. It was freezing outside, so at least the military pace was keeping us warm.
“Alice is having a conniption over how late we are. It’s not my fault she gets everywhere twenty minutes early,” my new friend grumbled, as I struggled to keep up with her.
As soon as we neared the bar, Alice, a petite blonde, was marching straight toward us. “Took you two long enough,” she scolded, her phone clutched in her right hand, which was currently painted with a perfect ballerina-pink French manicure.
Charlotte pointed in my direction, throwing me under the proverbial bus. “It’s not my fault. Millie didn’t like her outfit so I had to convince her for like, twenty minutes, she should wear it.”
“What’s wrong with your outfit?” Alice posed, squinching up her upturned button nose as she gave me a thorough once over. “I think you look great.”
I smiled at her genuine confusion. “Nothing, I’m just not used to being so exposed.”
Alice waved away my concern. “If I had your breasts and curves, I’d be exposed all day and night, girlfriend.”
I let out a pent-up breath and stood a little taller at her compliment. “Thanks. I’m Millie, by the way,” I introduced myself, as this was the first time the two of us had ever met.
“Alice,” the petite blonde returned, shaking my hand forcefully like we were in the midst of an important business deal. “Good to finally meet you. Charlotte keeps saying Millie this and Millie that every time she talks about doing something fun. I simply had to meet you.”
I was flattered that my new friend spoke so highly about me. Blushing, I smiled and tucked some of my thick, blown out, brown hair nervously behind my ear.
“We can talk inside the bar,” Charlotte told us, corralling us toward the growing line. “I want to get inside before they fill up. It happens fast on Thursday nights.”
Luckily, we managed to get into the club without too much trouble. My heart had nearly thumped out of my chest when the bouncer had eyed me closely while studying my ID. However, before I could blurt out anything condemning, he ushered me and my two friends in with a small smile. Where Charlotte and I were still underage, Alice was actually twenty-one, so her license was the real deal and no cause for concern.
“It’s been a tough week,” Alice shouted over the blaring music. “I need a drink ASAP! What does everyone want? The first round is on me.”
Both Charlotte and I ordered margaritas and Alice strolled over to the bar to place our orders. As we waited, I could feel the eyes of several men in the room crawling over me. I’d never been one for attention of any sort, least of all, attention from leering male strangers.
Taking a moment to look up from her phone, Charlotte jerked her chin in the direction of a group of guys who looked like they were in their early thirties. “The guy in the red shirt is fucking hot! I hope he comes over here and offers us a drink. He keeps glancing our way.”
Red shirt guy was good looking. That was true. But there was just something about the man that instantly made me a little leery. Like there was a polluted aura about him that just didn’t sit well with me. I know that’s ridiculous, declaring someone weird after a single glance, but it was how I felt. I’d learned long ago to trust my gut, and my gut was saying he was a creep. End of story.
Not that it mattered what I thought. Charlotte liked the guy, and he wasn’t asking me to marry him or anything. It was just an observation, although one I couldn’t shake.
I glanced in Alice’s direction and saw she was flirting pretty heavily with the bartender. I guess I know why we’d picked Maverick’s over all the closer bar choices. The pretty blond was clearly into him. She was practically leaning over the bar top exposing as much cleavage as she could marshal. It was pretty impressive actually. By the look on the bartender’s face, he thought so too.
“Let’s go help Alice with the drinks,” I suggested to Charlotte, when I saw the tiny woman struggling to carry them all by herself.
When she saw us coming, Alice offloaded her icy burden into our outstretched hands.
“Garrett gave us all doubles for free,” she said with a wide grin and a wink. “I think I’m going to owe him a pretty substantial thank you at the end of the night.”
“Works for me,” Charlotte quipped. “Keep the double shots coming!”
The two women broke out into a fit of giggles, and I couldn’t help but smile as I sipped my cocktail. Damn! She wasn’t kidding. These strawberry margaritas were strong. I’d better go slow. The last thing I needed to do was get sloshed and make a fool of myself in front of my new friends.
“I love this song!” Alice gushed. “Let’s go dance. I’m ready to shake my ass and tease some fuckboys.”
Turning toward the parquet floor in the corner of the room, we obediently followed Alice to where many others were already gathered and gyrating together en masse. Drinks in hand, we merged with the crowd and began to move alongside them.
Not going to lie, I loved to dance. I didn’t feel comfortable doing it in a room full of strangers, but after about half my drink, some of the fear and most of my inhibitions melted away.
By the end of my second drink, I was feeling no pain. I had to pee, so I told my friends I’d be right back and tossed my empty cup into the trash on the way there. In a stroke of incredible luck, there was almost no line, and I was able to get in and out of the bathroom in under ten minutes.
Heading back to the dancefloor, I was stopped by the guy in the red shirt that Charlotte had been crushing on earlier. Seemingly materializing out of nowhere, he physically blocked my path with his muscular body while I was focusing on my friends.
To further secure me, his hand snaked out around my waist and his gaze fell about eight inches below my eyeline. “Need a refill, gorgeous?”
Startled, I tried to pull away, but his grip was strong. “Um, who, me? No, I’m good. Thanks.”
“You sure? I’d love to buy you a drink. I saw you earlier and I told my friends I wasn’t going home without your number. I’ve been watching you ever since. That dress looks fire on your body, by the way,” Red Shirt replied in what he truly believed was a compliment but was reading as hella predatory.
“Thanks, but I don’t need another drink,” I denied, managing to squirm away from his unwanted touch on the second attempt.
“Come on. This was the first chance I had to get you alone all night and now you won’t let me buy you one measly drink,” he whined annoyingly.
Not wanting to argue the point, I simply lied. “Thanks, but I’m done drinking for the night. I’m the designated driver. I appreciate the offer, but I’ve got to get back to my friends before they start looking for me.”
I tried to turn and walk away, but the man snagged my wrist and reeled me in closer. “You don’t need to hurry back, babe. Your friends look like they’re having a good time dancing together. Stay a while. I want to get to know you. I’m a good guy, I promise. You’ll find that out if you give me half a chance.”
Glancing in my friends’ direction, I saw that Charlotte was laughing and twirling her older cousin around in circles to the beat of the fast-paced song bleeding out of the speakers. From where they were, they couldn’t easily see me. This guy had waited until I was away from the herd and cornered me here, out of sight of my friends, on purpose. He was clearly a wolf in sheep’s clothing, insisting he was a “good guy”, and now I was on my own with him.
Countering his weight, I angled slightly away from the man and tried to pull back my arm. This close, I could smell the beer he was drinking on his breath, and the scent was far too sour for my liking.
“I’m Will, by the way,” he belatedly introduced, his alcohol-soaked brain just now processing he’d never introduced himself.
Pulling against his grip like a wild animal caught in a steel trap, I ignored his introduction and my eyes wildly darted around for an exit strategy. “I’ve really got to go.”
The man immediately switched up on me then. Gone was the “nice guy”. In his place was an angry, frustrated, incel version of the former man. Or more like it, his mask had just slipped and I could see the real him beneath the facade.
At my implied rejection, Will’s brow furrowed, his eyes squinted hard at me, and his upper lip curled. “I just want to buy you a drink, lady. For fuck’s sake, why are you being such a bitch about it?”
Garrett, Alice’s friend, must have seen what was happening. Leaving the bar, he started plowing through the crowd toward us with a furious look on his handsome face.
Will clocked where my attention was and swore under his breath. “Fuck it! You aren’t worth the fight,” he growled, before releasing his death-grip on my arm.
Because we’d been playing a sort of tug of war with each other, I stumbled back into a group of unsuspecting people when he’d suddenly let me go. I felt cold liquid spill all over me seconds after I tipped backward, and heard a woman curse a blue streak over her spilled drink.
Garrett raced to my side and steadied me on my feet. He was a tall, muscular guy, so he made it look absolutely easy, though I know it must have cost him considerable effort.
“What the heck was that about?” He asked, his eyes searching mine as he checked me over for any potential injuries.
Embarrassed by the scene, and the fact that my chest was now covered in something dark, syrupy, and sticky, I shrugged. “Just some guy who couldn’t take no for an answer. Thanks for scaring him off. My attempts weren’t working so well.”
Garrett’s nostrils flared then and his pupils dilated. For a moment, I thought he was going to hunt the guy down and beat the shit out of him. But, in true gentlemanly fashion, he quickly calmed himself down and refocused his attention when he saw how upset it made me.
“I think that asshole ruined your beautiful dress,” he noted, reaching into his back pocket for a clean bar towel.
My stomach twisted as I accepted the proffered cloth. This wasn’t even my dress. It was far too expensive for anything that would hang in my closet. The polite thing to do was to offer Charlotte the money to pay for it, now that it was likely irreparably stained with whatever berry concoction I’d been doused in. The only problem was, I didn’t have the money to do that.
Thinking fast, despite all the liquor I’d consumed tonight, I decided I needed to go home, change, and soak the dress in cold water before the stain set. It was my only shot of salvaging the expensive material. But one glance over at Charlotte, who was doubled over laughing at something Alice was saying, told me neither girl had any interest in leaving the bar so early in the evening.
Garrett saw me shiver as my adrenaline wore off and the feel of wet, clammy cloth penetrated my skin.
Shrugging out of his plaid fleece, he thoughtfully offered me the oversized garment. “Here. Take this. The last thing you need to do is catch a cold after what just happened. I’m going to find that guy and make sure he’s trespassed from the bar permanently. We don’t need his kind around here. Women shouldn’t be afraid to come to Maverick’s.”
Alice had truly found herself one of the last “good guys” out there. Even though we’d only just met, I was happy for her. I hoped it worked out between them.
Humbly accepting the clean garment, I said, “Thanks. I’ll get it back to Alice so she can return it to you the next time you see each other.”
Garrett waved away my promise. “I’ve got a million of them. No worries.”
The second bartender waved over at Garrett then, and he raised his hand back at him to acknowledge he noticed. “I’ve got to go. Vincent is getting swamped with orders. Are you going to be okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I assured him. “Thank you for coming to the rescue. Go back to work, Garrett. I’ve got to try and clean up before heading out.”
“Okay,” he reluctantly returned. “I’ll talk to you later before you go just to make sure you survived the rest of the night unmolested.”
I laughed at his jest, and he rushed back to help Vincent with the backlog of impatient customers.
Trudging dejectedly over to Alice and Charlotte, I shouted over the music. “I have to go. Some girl just spilled her drink on me after some asshole tried to feel me up. You guys can stay if you want. I’m calling it quits and taking an Uber home.”
I didn’t really have the money for an Uber, but sometimes you had to suck it up and spend, even when it wasn’t convenient. I’d just have to pinch my pennies somewhere else this week. Who needed electricity and heat in their apartment in Montana in October, right?
“No!” Charlotte pouted, the glaze of one too many margaritas evident in her unfocused brown eyes. “You should stay. We just got here. We’re having so much fun!”
Though I wasn’t completely sober, I’d definitely gotten much clearer minded after being accosted by an idiot and baptized in multiple chilled cocktails.
“I’m sorry, I have to go,” I repeated, already thumbing through my phone to order my ride. “We’ll do it again soon. Maybe celebrate together after my first week at the coffee shop.”
Alice nodded. “I get it. Shitty night. Happens to the best of us. Do you want us to walk you to your Uber?”
I could see why Garrett really liked this girl. She was a class act, just like him. “Nah. No need. They’ll pick me up right out front.”
“Okay,” Charlotte said with a pout. “Text us when you get home so we know you’re safe.”
“Will do,” I replied, before heading outside to wait for my ride.
To my disappointment, the Uber didn’t pick me up out front. The bar district was far too busy for any vehicle to block traffic or find a parking space halfway close to Maverick’s.
To my frustration, I saw that my transport was circling the block and requesting to meet up closer to where Charlotte and I had found parking earlier in the evening.
Being that it was fall, the night had become much colder than it was during the day. Literally soaked in booze, I wrapped myself in the fleece Garrett had given me. I was becoming more grateful to the thoughtful man by the second having something to protect me from the harsh elements.
My hair spun around my shoulders in a fluffy cloud as it caught in the wind. Tucking my chin low to protect any exposed skin, I hustled down the sidewalk into the less crowded part of town. After turning a corner, I could only hear the faint sounds of people and music in the distance. That, and quiet footfalls behind me.
The further I got from the bar, the louder the footsteps got. Slowing down, I surreptitiously glanced over my shoulder to see who was there, but I didn’t see anyone at all, and everything fell silent.
Thinking I was imagining things, I pulled the fleece against my skin even tighter and began to powerwalk toward my Uber’s location. It was only a few streets ahead, so there was nothing to be afraid of. I could see the icon on my phone even now, resting in our agreed upon location.
Just as I saw the headlights of my ride, I felt an arm curve around my waist and drag me backward into a dark alley.
Before I could scream, a strong hand slapped across my mouth and effectively silenced my attempt to shout out for help.
[divider]Chapter Two
Millie
I tried to kick and scream, but my efforts were fruitless. The man holding me was too strong.
I knew it was a man because I could smell the aftershave on his skin, as well as feel his impressive size and girth pressed up against my back.
Clawing at his fingers, I tried to pry them loose from my face, but his hold was terrifyingly immovable.
“Stop it!” My assailant growled low into the shell of my ear. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
I wasn’t born yesterday. You didn’t drag a woman into a dark alley just to ask her for her number. You did it to abuse her in some sick, fucked up way!
That’s when I realized who must be behind me. Will, the man from the bar in the red shirt. That asshole just couldn’t take his precious man-feelings being hurt because I didn’t accept his drink or give him my digits. Now I was paying for his inability to take rejection in the worst possible way.
Well, I wasn’t about to be his next victim. My dad had taught me to fight back. I was about to show this loser how far a girl was willing to go to protect herself from a loser like him.
My hands dropped to my waist where my purse was currently dangling. I’d carried it as a clutch for most of the evening, but it had a strap that allowed me to sling it over my shoulder if I wanted to. It was hidden beneath the voluminous folds of Will’s fleece at the moment, and I had to feel around for a moment to access it through all the additional fabric blocking my path.
Frantically working open the clasp after navigating under my de facto jacket, my fingers dug around until they found what they were searching for. A switchblade. The one my dad had given me on my twelfth birthday. Ironically, he’d hidden it inside another gift, a purse from a local store I’d fallen in love with.
My assailant was still dragging me backward to the back of the alleyway as I fumbled through my belongings. He was grunting and snuffling like an addict who’d missed his last three fixes. Sending up a silent prayer of thanks to my father for his foresight, my fingers wrapped around the textured, rubber grip and hauled it out of my purse in one swift motion. Simultaneously, I depressed the discrete trigger and the blade snicked open.
With a guttural war cry, I plunged the shiny blade downward into the thick of the man’s upper thigh meat, and his flesh slowed the steel’s sharp descent in a sickeningly satisfying way.
My assailant howled his rage, spun around, and threw me roughly onto the ground. Not able to catch myself, I gracelessly sprawled to the ground, limbs splayed in every direction.
Unfortunately for me, I landed behind the beast instead of in front of him. That meant I was facing the back of the alleyway, and not the entrance. Even more unfortunate, my skull smacked against the stone wall on my way down to the pavement, causing me to feel nauseous and dizzy.
“You fucking stabbed me!” my attacker shouted in a voice so deep and gravelly it sounded practically inhuman.
Momentarily dazed, my gaze travelled upward to see his face. Shock, and absolute panic, coursed through me. It wasn’t Will, or even a random junkie, standing in front of me now. It was someone I never would have expected.
“Garrett?” I queried, too confused and wounded to understand why he’d done it. “Why are you doing this?”
“You made me bleed, you cunt!” The man yowled, glancing down at the weeping wound like I’d kicked him and not stabbed him so deep that the injury had no chance of closing on its own. “Now I’m going to make you bleed. Not just from that pretty little neck of yours, but from that unclaimed cunt that’s been teasing me with its sweet scent all night long.”
My right stiletto heel cracked and broke against the cobblestone as I awkwardly tried to find my feet. My ankle went with it, twisting at a funny angle. Pain shot down the length of my leg. My dress, now covered in the filth of spilled drinks and whatever else coated the trash-filled ground of this alleyway, had ridden up around my waist, exposing my thong and my entire ass with it.
Tears began to run down my cheeks from the pain of my twisted ankle and the revelation that Alice’s would-be boyfriend was trying to assault me.
Scuttling forward on my hands and knees, I tried to escape the alleyway. Will, however, was too quick. Just as I was passing him, his fingers snarled in my hair and cruelly yanked me backward.
“I can’t take the smell,” he hissed, as he began to vibrate with some unspoken emotion. “I need it. I need inside of you right this second!”
What the fuck was this guy high on? It must be something new on the market. A powerful mix between meth and bath salts because Garrett was acting like a fucking crazed monster right about now.
In a last-ditch effort to save myself, I kicked out my left foot. The one that was still encased in my blood red stiletto. The pointed heel made direct contact with Will’s balls and sank several inches into the soft, vulnerable pouch there.
Tossing back his head, the man let out a primitive, gut wrenching screech. If I had any doubt that I’d hit him square in the family jewels before that second, the quality of that scream assured me I had.
Rallying far faster than was humanly positive after such a solid blow, Will staggered forward, then began to vibrate from head to toe. Slumping to the ground, he began to seize like an epileptic, then collapsed onto his side.
My theory that he’d taken some freaky drug was becoming more and more plausible with each one of his erratic movements. It was one of the scariest things I’d ever seen.
Garrett’s whole body quaked and shivered. He began to jerk so fast my eyes were having a hard time keeping up with him. That’s when it happened. He became one big blur, and that blur was continually changing with every frantic gyration. Morphing into something I couldn’t quite make out.
I blinked, and it was over. The bartender from Maverick’s was no more. In his place was a huge, white wolf.
The wolf got to his feet and shook his powerful head. Blood, thick and oozing, trickled down his leg as he stalked toward me.
Crab crawling backward, I attempted to put space between me and the wolf as my brain frantically tried to process what I’d just witnessed. Then, I hit a sickeningly solid force behind me. It was the enclosed wall that heralded the end of this doomed escape attempt, both literally, and figuratively, for me.
That’s when I heard it. A second rumbling. A growl even more fierce than the one in front of me. In the light of the full moon above, I saw a beautiful, majestic animal take form in the mouth of the alleyway.
A second wolf.
The animal formally known as Will began to bristle and whipped about to stare down the larger wolf. Both creatures sized each other up, then pounced, colliding with one another in midair like foes from a very Grimm fairy tale.
Ethan
I smelled her in the air before I ever even saw her. Her scent was unreal. A mixture between the most familiar and the most pleasurable fragrance I could ever imagine. My mouth watered as the notes of her personal perfume wafted over me. I could practically taste her pussy on my tongue, feel her cunt gripping my cock, as the delicious aroma curled into my nostrils and down my itchy throat.
I had to stop thinking this way. Millie was only a young woman. Too young for me. And my best friend’s daughter to boot. She was off limits. Only mine to protect, not to taste, touch, and fuck, as much as my body might wish otherwise.
At nineteen, Millie knew next to nothing about the world, least of all about her heritage. One that had been forced upon her at birth. Because of that, her world was about to change in ways she’d never imagined possible.
Compared to my thirty-five years, Millie was still just a child, but none of that mattered to my dick. It was so hard, it felt like I was about to burst some blood vessels if I didn’t get some much-needed relief. Her smell was driving my inner wolf wild. It whispered how close she was to triggering her shifter form. How I should be the one to extinguish the fire that would soon rage within her and call to every available alpha to fight for the chance to claim her.
I’d been following Millie all night. Actually much longer than that, if I was being honest. Since her father’s death, I’d been keeping tabs on the girl. It had been a promise I’d made to her old man before he’d tragically died two years ago, and I’d been left her secret benefactor.
Tonight, however, something had changed with Millie, and I wasn’t just talking about the sexy new clothes and heels, either. Her scent was different. More pungent. She might not know it yet, but she was at the start of her cycle. Her heat. And that delicious smell would draw in ware shifters from all corners of the city at a dangerous rate if I didn’t get to her first. Before she unexpectedly became a wolf for the first time.
When she and her friends had gone into Maverick’s, I’d hung back and waited outside. To my surprise, Millie had left the bar shortly after she’d entered. Even more surprising, she’d been alone.
Putting some distance between us, I tried to figure out what she was doing. Did she have a fight with her friends? Was she sick? Why the hell was she walking the streets of this dangerous city alone? All important questions I planned on getting answers to, as soon as I got her pretty little ass back to my cabin.
Furious that she would put her safety at risk like this, I hung back so she wouldn’t know I was tailing her. I’d worry about punishing her indiscretion later. Right now, I had to focus on my charge and her needs.
That’s when I picked up on his scent. There was a ware stalking her. My nostrils flared and I became enraged by his musky, animal odor. Even from a distance, I could tell he was in the early stages of rut. He was looking for Millie so he could satisfy his animal urges on her young, nubile body. With or without her consent.
A growl of jealousy bubbled up inside my chest, and I worked hard to suppress it. Millie wasn’t mine. Well, not mine to claim. She was mine to protect. Mine to care for. I made that promise to her father years ago, when she was a little girl. I never broke my promises, and I wasn’t about to start now.
Planning to sneak up on the interloper and break his fool neck in one of these side alleyways, my intentions were thwarted when I heard a muffled scream. Fuck! The sick bastard must have gotten to Millie before I had gotten to him.
Flames of hot fury licked the insides of my chest. He’d put his filthy hands-on Millie! He was going to pay a heavy price for his audacity. Nothing short of his loathsome life would suffice.
Slipping into a dark alcove, I stripped off my clothes and began to concentrate. My wolf, with the ease of endless practice, erupted to the surface. As painful as it was, I’d done it so many times over the years that the agony of change ceased to register as I passed through the grueling phases of my metamorphosis.
Cloaked in my strongest form, I leapt out of the alcove and torpedoed down the street. The air was ripe with smells, many of which belonged to Millie. Fear. Anxiety. And the omnipresent sweet, sweet smell of her pre-heat pheromones pouring out of her in tantalizing waves.
I came upon them and was surprised to see the ware that was stalking Millie had openly shifted into his wolf form. That was unexpected. No matter, I still had the element of surprise on my hands. Besides, this man’s wolf was no match for mine. Not tonight. Not when Millie’s life was on the line.
When the ware heard my growl, he immediately spun in place, teeth bared and hackles raised. This asshole wanted to fight over Millie, over being the one to knot and claim her. Well, if he wanted a fight, I was more than willing to give him one.
We launched into the air at the same time. When we collided, my dagger-sharp teeth gouged into his shoulder and tore into flesh, then through sinew and muscle as my bite found purchase.
The ware howled in pain but did not surrender. Instead, he retaliated by giving me a bite of his own. The sting of my wound was white hot, but I kicked it to the back of my mind as I concentrated on striking my next mark. His jugular.
Circling one another now, we both sought our opening to attack. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Millie, frozen with terror, pressed up against the far wall. My opposition took the opportunity to strike while my attention was divided. Going for the femoral artery in my leg, he missed by a hair and sank his fangs into the thick of my thigh, though only briefly.
We wrestled for dominance. When I ripped my leg from his teeth, I jumped, twisted in midair, and came down with open jaws aimed for his neck. I was able to pin the beast down and sink my teeth into his jugular. Sensing his imminent demise, Millie’s assailant began to thrash wildly, trying to shake my hold. The more he thrashed, the more he bled, something that worked in my favor. As strong as wares were, there was a limit to how much abuse our bodies could take, especially blood loss. We surrendered to mortality like that of a human if subjected to enough damage.
After a full minute of struggling in vain, the ware slowed his movements. After another, they ceased altogether. When I felt the last, faint beat of his heart extinguish, I knew he was gone and no longer a threat.
My jaw released and my opponent flopped lifelessly to the pavement. When I looked up, my gaze locked with that of Millie’s. Her blue eyes were shot wide and brimming with terror.
I took a step closer in my charge’s direction to soothe her fears, but the wound in my thigh was worse than I’d realized and I faltered.
In an attempt to heal myself, my body forced a change to conserve energy and begin the process of super-charged cell repair that wares were renowned for.
Dropping to the ground, I began to vibrate and fiercely shake until the air around me grew hazy. When I emerged in my human form, I was naked, bleeding, and panting hard.
Millie gasped and clutched at her chest when her eyes lit upon my face. Slowly, those big, beautiful, blue orbs filled with recognition.
“Ethan?” She choked out, equal parts shocked and horrified. “What the hell is going on here?”
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