Chapter 2
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 Garrett’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. Garrett, 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 Garrett’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, Garrett 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 Garrett 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?”