Otherworldly Bad Boys: Three Complete Novels (36 page)

* * *

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, that 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.”

Her fingers curled around his hardness. Her hand lurched up. Back down again.

He groaned. “You’re mine.” His lips were on hers.

And she stroked him there in the tiny cell. God help her, she stroked him. And she liked it.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“Gray?” said Avery’s voice from his bed.

“It’s me,” she said. Her voice shook. She made her way across the room.

“I’ve been looking for you. Just because we’re off suspension doesn’t mean our deal is off. You’re not supposed to go anywhere without me.” He flipped on the bedside lamp, and she saw him illuminated there, his muscles half-shadowed in the scant light. He was a very good-looking man.

She pulled her shirt over her head.

“Gray, what the fuck?” Avery was on his feet, grabbing a pillow from his bed and slamming it against her chest, covering her.

“It’s the only way to get me unmated to him,” she said. “I have to do it with another wolf. For whatever reason, you’re feeling things for me, Brooks. So, if we just do it, then I won’t have to feel what I feel for him anymore.”

Avery swallowed. “Shit.”

“It wouldn’t be that bad, would it?”

“We work together,” he said. “We’re partners.”

“You already kissed me. That didn’t screw anything up.” She was pleading with him. Her visit to Cole had left her aroused but unfinished. She was excited, moist, and eager. Avery was there. He was half-naked and gorgeous.

“Well, it kind of did, though,” said Avery.

She knocked the pillow onto the ground. “Look at me.”

He didn’t. He stared up at the ceiling. “Don’t ask me this, Gray.”

“Who else can I ask? Who else can I trust? I need to break the bond.
Please
.” She closed the distance between them, pressing her naked chest against his.

He grunted. “You’re not playing fair.”

“You think that’s not fair?” She slid her hand under the band of his boxer shorts.

He grabbed her wrist. “Gray, don’t.” He looked deep into her eyes. “This is fucked.”

“My life is fucked,” she said. “Help me get it back.”

“Damn it,” he groaned. And then he was kissing her, his tongue nudging its way into her mouth. His hands moved on her, running over the smoothness of her skin.

It felt good. It didn’t feel like the way things did with Cole, like the earth was spitting out flowers and rainbows, but it felt nice. She kissed him back as hard as she could. She wouldn’t let this stupid wolf thing fuck everything up for her. She was stronger than the damned wolf. She could fight it.

He pushed her down on his bed, crawling over her. He planted kisses on her neck, her ear lobe, in the hollow of her clavicle. His mouth found her breasts.

His lips closed around her nipple, suckling her.

Revulsion suddenly shot through her.

She convulsed against him, and it was incredibly horrible. Dark, black, inky badness. She’d never felt quite so bad.

Avery pulled back. “Gray?”

She tried to breathe. “Fine,” she managed. She was okay. She needed to overcome this if she wanted to be free. It was the wolf, and that was all. The wolf didn’t want this. But she was stronger than the wolf.

“You’re shaking,” he said. He leaned back. “Look, I don’t know about this.”

“Skip the foreplay, okay, Brooks? Let’s just get it done.” She struggled to unbutton her pants, but her hands
were
shaking. A lot.

He helped her, but he stopped with her pants midway over her hips. “I don’t like this.”