What she’d been didn’t matter. “I’m a vampire now.” His sworn enemy. Only…he still wanted her. She’d thought werewolves were supposed to be repulsed by her kind. She’d sure been told that often enough.
The voice from her nightmares whispered through her mind, saying, “Do you think he’ll ever want you again? One look, one taste…as soon as he knows what you are, you’ll be dead.”
And she wouldn’t be able to rise again.
She waited to feel claws at her throat again. Because she didn’t want to see this end, Paige closed her eyes. She’d remember him as he used to be. If only Drake could remember her the same way.
Some dreams just weren’t meant to come true.
Paige took a breath, tasted him–strength, power, man–and waited for her second death to come.
Chapter Two
A ghost lay beneath him. A ghost who’d haunted more nightmares than Drake could count.
She was as still as a statue, her features pale and perfect. High, curving cheekbones, a small, pert nose, and lush, red lips made for sin. Her hair–dark as the night he’d always loved–tangled around her face.
And she didn’t move. Barely seemed to breathe.
Why?
“Do it,” Paige whispered, her voice still that same combination of sin and seduction that had driven him to the edge too many times in the past. “Just…make it fast.”
He really hoped she wasn’t talking about sex. With her, fast hadn’t ever been an option. He’d always needed to take her again and again, to erupt inside of her, to lose himself.
She lifted one eyelid just a bit. Her green gaze darted over him. “You’re not…you’re not killing me?”
What. The. Fuck. It took every ounce of his will-power to hold back the rage that threatened to swamp him. “Not yet,” he managed to snarl.
Paige trembled beneath him. Her slender body had trembled beneath his before, but back then, those little shivers had been from pleasure.
Not fear.
He could all but smell the fear covering her. He hated that smell on her.
“How.” Drake bit off the world. How had she become a vampire? Had she chosen this life? Some humans wanted to be vampires. They went out seeking the bite because they wanted to live forever.
Fools. The price of forever was a river of blood and death.
He hadn’t thought Paige would be like those desperate humans. He also hadn’t thought she’d vanish and leave him aching for her–ten damn years.
“It doesn’t matter,” she told him and both of her eyes opened fully as she gazed up at him. “I can’t change what I am.”
The scent of her blood filled his nostrils. When he got hold of Michael again, he was gonna give that claw-happy werewolf some marks to remember him by. You don’t touch her.
Drake caught both of her wrists in his left hand and raised them over her head. She wasn’t fighting him, and as a vampire, her delicate form was hiding one hell of a lot of strength.
She just stared up at him, reminding him of all the stupid dreams he’d once had…and lost.
He’d almost left his pack for her. He’d wanted to be human. For her.
But now, the beast was in charge. There was no going back. There was only blood, death, and darkness.
For both of them.
He gazed down at her, trying to figure out when she’d stopped being human and become a vampire. She’d been nineteen the last time he saw her. He’d been twenty-one.
Right then, Paige’s skin was still flawless and pure, giving no hint to her real age.
What did her age matter? She was right. There was no going back. Not for either of them.
“Are you going to glare at me all night?” Paige asked. “Or do you want to know why I’m here?”
Why she was there…and still wearing his medallion. Or she had been wearing it, until he’d taken it from her neck. It was on the floor now. He’d dropped it when he’d pushed her onto the bed. Paige’s neck was bare, and…why the hell did he want to bend down and lick her flesh?
Because I still want her. More than breath. More than life. He saw her, and he needed.
“Why?” He didn’t lift his body off hers. Paige would feel his aroused flesh pressing against her. So what? If she wanted a favor from him, she’d pay the price he demanded.
And I demand her.
Vampire or not, she was still his.
Even death couldn’t change some things.
“I’m being hunted,” she told him in that low, husky voice that made his cock swell even more. He could just see the hint of her fangs behind her red lips. The sight should have repulsed him. It didn’t. “If you don’t help me, I’ll die.”
“You’re already dead.” That knowledge made him feel as if his chest had been ripped open. Since Paige had been human when he’d known her before, she must have been made into a vampire.
A rare few, the purebloods, were actually born as vamps, but the rest of the parasites out there? They’d been turned. They were bled until the point of death, then brought back as a vampire.
Drake would kill the one who’d turned her. He couldn’t wait to hear the vampire’s screams.
“Don’t say that,” Paige snapped at him, then she showed him just how strong she really was. She twisted beneath him and yanked her hands free. A fast roll sent them tumbling across the bed. Then she was on top of him. Her knees straddled his hips, and her hands slammed down against his chest. “I’m as alive as you are!”
Color stained her cheeks. Her breath heaved out. For an instant, they just stared at each other. Then she grabbed his hand and shoved it against her breasts.
“My heart still beats,” she told him and he could feel the frantic beat beneath his hand. That fast beat…and that sweet, plump flesh. Paige was curved in all the right places.
“I breathe,” she told him and he heard the rush of her breath. “I feel. More than you can imagine, all right? So stop treating me like shit!”
Maybe if she’d stop clawing his heart out…
But then, she was doing that just by breathing. Just by being there. Close enough to take…
So take her. The growl was from his beast, one that was never far from the surface these days.
“You want me to protect you.” He held the beast back, barely, because they had a deal to strike. He knew how these bargains worked in the supernatural world. So much could be bartered and exchanged. Flesh. Blood. Sex. Souls.
Sure, humans might be shocked by a deal like this–but then, humans would be shocked to see a man turn into a wolf.
Deal with it.
“You came to me, to my pack,” he said slowly, determined not to let his rage escape, not yet, “because you want us to keep you safe.” And he would. He–
“No.” She shook her head.
Drake frowned. If not for protection, then–
“I want you to kill the bastard after me.” Her fangs seemed to lengthen. “I want you to rip his head off, and I want you to make damn sure that he never rises again.”
Never rises again.
“You’ve got a vampire you want me to fight.” He’d grown used to battling them. In this part of Alaska, where the cold could creep straight to the bone, where darkness could reign for days and days…this part was home to all manner of supernatural beasts.
The ones at the top of the food chain? The wolves…and the vamps who kept trying to fight them for supremacy. A supremacy they weren’t ever getting.
“I’ve got a vampire I want you to behead.” Her breath rushed out. “A vampire named Gabe is the one who made me, he’s–”
Drake’s claws burst from his fingertips and sliced into the bedding. “He’s fucking already dead.” As far as Drake was concerned, the vamp–Gabe–had died the instant he put his fangs in Paige.
Her gaze held his, and he saw the worry there. “Gabe is a pureblood. He’s strong, he’s–”
“No match for an alpha.” Didn’t she get it? He wasn’t the boy she’d left behind. He was a warrior. A monster. A walking nightmare.
Since she’d left him, he’d seen more blood and hell than she could possibly imagine. No, he’d always known the blood and hell…Paige had been the only thing that had been good in his life.
Sweet. Pure.
Then she’d left him, and he’d gone back to the darkness.
She won’t leave again.
He stared up at her. He could move her easily enough, but he didn’t want to do so. He wanted to keep her just where she was, only he’d like to remove a few of her clothes. Or all of them.
But business came first. “What will you do for me?” Drake demanded.
She blinked. Vampires weren’t supposed to look so innocent. “I…um…”
He smiled and knew that his own sharpened teeth would flash. “Death doesn’t come for free. In the supernatural world, there’s always a price.”
He heard the slight hitch of her breath. “And what do you want?”
You.
But he wanted to play the game longer and see just what she’d offer him. “What have you got?”
Her gaze fell to his chest, but while she wasn’t looking at him, her slender shoulders straightened in a move he remembered. Pride. “I have some money. Not much, but a few thousand that I can pay–”
Drake laughed at that. A hard, deep laugh that sent her bouncing on him. Really? A few thousand to take out a vamp? She didn’t quite understand the paranormal market value. Most assassins wouldn’t touch a vamp for less than fifty grand.
Unless those assassins were werewolves.
Sometimes we do those hits for free. Depending on the vamp…and the blood and death that the bastard had left in his wake.
But she didn’t need to know about the free hits. That knowledge wouldn’t work in his favor.
“I can–I can fight with you. Help your pack.” Her gaze rose to meet his and a light flush still covered her cheeks. Her voice had hardened, probably because she was pissed by his laughter. “Having a vampire on your side wouldn’t be a bad thing.”
The laughter faded away and Drake knew his gaze hardened as he said, “I don’t want your strength.” She’d always had strength, even as a human. A solid core that had drawn him to her. Paige’s parents had both been killed when she was just thirteen. They’d only been in Alaska for a little over a year before their accident. Her parents had promised her that they’d all get a fresh start in America’s last frontier.
They’d only gotten death.
After their funeral, he knew that she’d bounced around the foster care system and never found a real home. But all that pain, it had never weakened her.
Wolves were attracted to strength.
“Then what do you want?”
Did she realize that her nails were digging into his shoulders? The wolf inside growled.
He liked that.
Time to take what he wanted. Drake stared up at her and said, “I want to fuck you.” Endlessly. Again and again until the ache for her, that damn gnawing ache that had kept his body tense and hungry for her–for years–finally vanished.
She stared down at him. Swallowed.
And nodded.
Chapter Three
So, what? Did the wolf think that she was gonna pull some kind of shocked, Oh, no, you can’t have sex with me! routine on him? When she’d been dreaming about him for so long?
Guess again, wolf. If he beheaded that sick freak Gabe and gave her the passion that she’d been yearning for, well that was just win-win in her book.
But she didn’t want to look too eager. A girl had her pride, after all, and she’d already had to come dragging into his compound looking for some werewolf strength.
Paige swallowed back that eagerness and slowly said, “Well, I guess once we can–”
“Not once, sweet, not even close.”
Sweet. He’d called her that, so long before. Only then the word had drifted with affection, and not held the tight, tense edge that honed the endearment now.
“H-how many times?” So she could plan. Savor.
His eyes burned up at her. His cock was also shoving right at the junction of her legs. It was all she could do not to rub against him. If she told him that there’d never been anyone since him, Drake wouldn’t believe her.
Even if the words were the truth.
Her body was starving. She was already wet for him. Just the touch of his hands had sent a shiver sliding over her. She wanted more. Just how much more would she get?
“As many times as I want,” Drake told her, voice rough and dark. “Until you can’t breathe without feeling me on every inch of your body.”
Her nipples ached. She wanted his hands on them. His mouth.
Did he smell her arousal? Those wolves…
His lips curled in the faintest of smiles. Damn him, he did.
His hands rose and tangled in her hair. He began to pull her toward him. Toward his mouth.
Her heartbeat drummed in her ears. They had a deal, and finally, she’d have him.
His lips were so close. She could already taste him on her tongue. Would taste him. And he’d taste her. He’d–
A shrill alarm cut through the room.
Sonofbitch.
She blinked, confused, aroused and–
Drake pushed her to the side of the bed and jumped to his feet. “Stay here,” he ordered and rushed for the door as the alarm kept shrieking.
Stay? She was a vampire, not a dog. Paige jumped up and raced after him.
He was already thundering down the stairs. More men and women were out now, all racing toward the main level of the house. She joined them, and hoped no one decided to attack the vamp in their midst.