Primal Possession (40 page)

Worry and possessiveness rose up inside him. His need to protect Kat was deep-seated and something he still didn’t understand completely. He’d felt it the moment he’d met her and it jarred him every time he was near her. Or thought about her.

Inhaling, he followed the trail of her scent out the back door, through December’s backyard, and on to the next street over. The distinctive scent of roses was so blatantly Kat, every time he smelled the damn flower he thought of her. But it was slightly different from the actual rose. The classic smell intermixed with something sweeter, purer, and all Kat. He’d recognize it anywhere.

She hadn’t been gone long, so he hurried back to his bike and headed out. He didn’t bother telling Ryan that Kat was gone either. No one was going after her except him. If anyone tried to interfere tonight, they’d probably get hurt. Including any shifters.

On his motorcycle it was easy to trail her in his human form. Hell, as an enforcer, he preferred his human form. He
was much older than most shifters, and once he let his animal take over, it was always a struggle for control with his inner wolf. Right now, where Kat was concerned, it was important if not absolutely necessary to exert as much restraint as possible.

A short ride later he pulled into the parking lot of Kelly’s Bar and Grill, a local Irish pub in the middle of downtown Fontana. The mountain town in North Carolina saw a lot of tourists in the winter months, and judging by the number of cars in the parking lot, the place was packed tonight.

He rolled his shoulders as he stepped off his bike. Being around too many people—humans or supernatural beings—always put him on edge. All those scents were overwhelming. He much rather preferred to be outdoors, far from civilization.

As he stepped inside, Kat’s scent grew stronger. Even among the stench of perfumes, booze, and other body odors, her sweet rose aroma tickled his nose and wrapped around him, embracing him like a gentle caress.

“Would you like to be seated in our dining area or would you prefer to find a seat at the bar?” A bubbly blond female wearing black pants and a black T-shirt held a menu in her hand as she looked at him.

“Bar’s fine,” he said as he brushed past her.

A burst of annoyance rolled off the human, but right now all he cared about was tracking down Kat. After a quick lap around the place, he followed her trail out a side exit door.

Once he was outside in the crisp night air, the strong scent of roses entwined around him. She was close. Frowning, he looked around behind the restaurant. A Dumpster was to his left, which gave him cover as he scanned the small area. There were a few cars on the makeshift gravel parking lot. Employee vehicles, he guessed.

And that’s when he spotted Kat.

She leaned against the passenger side of an extended cab truck with her back to him. Tall, lean, drop-dead gorgeous. Her long, dark hair was pulled up into a ponytail that hung halfway down her back. She wore formfitting jeans and a skintight long-sleeved black T-shirt. If she’d still been
human she’d have needed a coat, but thanks to her transformation from human to shifter, she had a higher body temperature.

Sticking to the shadows, he moved behind the Dumpster and slid along the wall of the restaurant until he was at the edge of the building and twenty yards away from where Kat stood talking to some human male.

A growl rose inside him but he tamped it back down and listened to their conversation. As the human talked about heading back to his place to “party,” Jayce nearly lost control of his beast. His inner wolf clawed at him with razor-sharp aggression, tearing and stripping away his insides, begging for freedom.

When the human opened the passenger door for Kat and she actually got inside, Jayce’s claws extended and dug into his palms. The tearing of his flesh jerked him back to reality. Ducking back behind the Dumpster, he somehow managed to keep himself under control as the vehicle pulled out of the parking lot.

Just barely.

As they drove around the left side of the restaurant, Jayce raced back around the right side and headed straight for his bike in the front.

Whatever Kat thought she was doing with that guy tonight, she’d better think again.

Kat glanced over at the dark-haired guy with the buzz cut next to her. He shot her a quick look and winked as he steered his truck out of the parking lot of Kelly’s Bar and Grill. She wasn’t sure what she was doing with him and was tempted to tell him to stop, but something held her back.

He was one of the bartenders at Kelly’s and had been getting off work right as she’d walked in. From the moment she’d sat down, he’d started flirting with her and buying her drinks. Too bad the alcohol couldn’t numb the pain inside her.

Nothing could. For the past month, it had festered, growing like an out of control vine. It twisted and expanded with no regard for anything in its wake, least of all her heart or emotions. If she dwelled on the ways she’d been tortured a month ago, she tensed up and her inner wolf wanted out.

Aiden, her friend and the wolf who’d changed her into a shifter, had explained it was a protective thing. Her inner wolf didn’t want her to suffer, so it tried to take over whether she wanted it to or not. Some kind of coping mechanism.

Taking a deep breath, she forced those thoughts from her mind. Tonight she was taking control of her life again. Maybe sleeping with a stranger wasn’t the smartest way to go about it, but she needed to be in charge of
something
. It’s not as if the guy next to her could hurt her. He was human, and sure, he had a sexy edge to him, but she was still a hundred times stronger.

She kept reminding herself of that.
She
was the one in control tonight.

“Surprised I haven’t seen you in Kelly’s before,” the guy, Scott…something, said.

She’d been there before a few times when she’d been human. But usually she’d hung out at the bars at the ski lodge where she used to work up until a month ago. Shrugging, she smiled and shifted in her seat, crossing her legs in his direction. She didn’t want to make bullshit small talk. That wasn’t what tonight was about.

The man’s dark gaze drifted down to her covered legs, then back up to her chest. Even though she was clothed, the way he looked at her made her feel practically naked. That should have been a good thing, she told herself. She needed to be exposed in front of another person in a way she hadn’t been since that awful night. Maybe this would help with her nightmares. Anything to help her get rid of the nausea-inducing memories she couldn’t seem to outrun.

So why did she feel so guilty being out with someone else? She and Jayce had broken up nearly a year ago. He’d made it perfectly clear she wasn’t good enough for him. Oh, sure, he’d loved her in the bedroom, but that was all he’d been willing to give her. He hadn’t been willing to make her his bondmate when she’d been human and she sure as hell wasn’t going to give him a second chance now that she was like him. Not that he’d actually asked for one. He’d just been calling a lot since her attack.

Acting all concerned.

Well, he could take his concern and shove it. She didn’t
need him or his help. She’d take care of her own problems the way she always had—by herself. Unfortunately, she couldn’t seem to keep her head on straight. For a brief moment back in the parking lot, she’d thought she scented Jayce but knew it had to be a figment of her imagination.

“So how far from your place are we?” Self-loathing bubbled up inside her as she asked the question.

Scott’s dark eyes glanced her way and he grinned before turning his gaze back to the road in front of him. “Not far, baby. Not far.”

Baby
? She hated that term. Before she could dwell on it, she sniffed the air. Something sensual rolled off him and it took her a moment to realize it was lust. She was still getting used to tapping into her extrasensory abilities and deciphering one smell from another. This was like a sweet wine, clean and refreshing.

It reminded her that even though she might not care about this guy or plan to see him again, he wasn’t a bad person, which was why she’d chosen him tonight. Before she’d been turned into a shifter she’d been a human but also a seer. Just like her mom. Back then she’d only been able to see the true faces of supernatural beings. She’d been able to see the wolves or jaguars or whatever kind of animal lurked beneath the surface of shifters. And with vamps, she’d been able to see their teeth and hunger for blood. After being turned into a shifter she could also see the truth of humans’ nature. It was a weird addition to her psychic abilities. With the ability to see the truth about people, she could see Scott’s “real” face, and he was just a horny guy looking to get laid. No darker intentions or freaky sexual proclivities.

As they pulled into the driveway of a cottage-style house in a normal-looking middle-class neighborhood, she took another deep breath. She could do this. Couldn’t she?

When he put the truck in park, she fought the growing dread inside her, moving like molasses, weighing her down and making it hard to breathe. With a numb hand she opened the door and slid out of the vehicle. The second her boots hit the pavement she knew she couldn’t go through with this. Not if she wanted to be able to look at herself in the mirror in the morning. One-night stands weren’t her style, and while she
desperately needed control in her life, the thought of this guy’s hands on her body made her nauseous. Not because he was bad-looking or gave her the wrong kind of vibes, but because she didn’t want this from a stranger. Not truly. As she started to walk around the truck to Scott’s side, she turned at the sound of a motorcycle pulling into the driveway behind them.

Fury popped inside her at the sight of Jayce. Well, fury and something else she refused to define. It might have been relief but she wasn’t going to go there. Not tonight. Not when anger was so much easier.

Stalking toward Jayce, she tried to keep her eyes from trailing down to those incredibly muscular legs as he slid off the bike. Didn’t matter that he was wearing jeans—she’d seen every inch of his naked body and the image was seared into her brain. He moved with such fluidity that it always amazed her.

Even now, when she wanted to pummel him for having the audacity to follow her, she still had to admire the strength and power he radiated. He’d never be called handsome or even good-looking, but there was something dangerous about Jayce that was incredibly alluring. Without even trying, he exuded a raw sexuality that made women stand up and take notice. With his shaved head and a generally dark disposition, he had…a presence that refused to be ignored. The scar that crisscrossed over his left eye only added to his edginess. And he was directing all of that at her with a
very
heated stare.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she practically shouted.

Before he could answer, Scott was next to her—in front of her actually—partially blocking her from Jayce. “Can I help you, buddy?”

Kat smiled haughtily at Jayce. At least Scott wasn’t a total wimp.

But then Jayce trained his gaze on the other man. Jayce was scary when he wanted to be, and as she watched his normally gunmetal gray eyes turn to black, she actually had to force herself to stand her ground. He growled low in his throat. “You can go inside your fucking house and leave us alone.”

Scott cleared his throat nervously, then looked at her. “You, uh, know this guy?”

She could smell the pungent fear on him. Bitter and acidic, it stung her nostrils. So much for not being a wimp. Ignoring Scott, she turned back to Jayce and placed her hands on her hips. “Did you
follow
me here?”

“What do you think?” he practically purred as he took a step closer.

Now she scented something dark and rich, like chocolate.
Lust.
As a human she’d never had a clue that lust or desire actually had a smell, but this…was addicting. She inhaled and for a moment she felt light-headed. But when she saw the knowing look in Jayce’s eyes, she snapped. “I think it’s pathetic that you’re following me around like a little puppy dog.” She knew he still wanted her and the knowledge gave her power. Even if she was playing with fire by taunting him, it gave her perverse pleasure to see anger flare in that newly darkened gaze.

“Puppy dog?” His voice was low, a soft, menacing growl that made the hair on her arms stand straight up.

Next to her Scott actually took a step back, using her body to block his own. Oh, yeah, total wimp. “Should I, uh, call the cops?” His voice was a little higher pitched than it had been earlier.

“No. Just go inside and forget you met me.” She didn’t look at him and he didn’t question her directive. She just heard him shuffle away, then fumble for his keys. They hit the pavement once; then seconds later she heard the front door slamming.

Jayce continued staring at her, his chest falling and rising erratically. Oh, yeah, she’d pissed him off really well.

“Get. On. My. Bike.” The words tore from his chest with apparent difficulty.

She really should just have given in, especially when he was geared up like this. But she wasn’t in the mood to be passive or appeasing. She’d much rather fight. “No.” With her gaze still on him, her eyes mocking, she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and flipped it open. Before she had a chance to call someone for a ride, Jayce plucked it from her hand and shoved it in his front jeans pocket.

Kat stepped toward him until they were inches apart, and held out a hand. “Give me my phone.”

“If you want it, come get it.” He lifted a dark eyebrow in challenge.

Swallowing hard, she looked at the front of his jeans where the bulge of her phone was. Yeah, that so wasn’t happening. Glancing past him, she looked at the bike. She could be stubborn and walk home, but that thought wasn’t appealing. So she ignored him and strode toward the bike. After sliding onto the back—no helmets for either of them apparently—she sat there and tried to ignore the heated stare he gave her.

A combination of red-hot fury and lust emanated off him, both of which she could have done without. She wasn’t scared Jayce would hurt her, but she didn’t want to deal with his anger. Despite her desire to fight with him, when they argued, things almost always ended up in the bedroom.