Chapter 2
Conor’s Ultimatum
Watching Anna stare at him with such defiance and courage, Conor couldn’t regret his decision. This close, she smelled of earth and nature, and beneath those scents, he could smell her desire. Her gorgeous body, so thin with illness the day before, vibrated beneath him with restless energy.
If Anna told the pack she hadn’t chosen to be part of the culled, they would punish Conor outright—no defense and no trial, only judgment. It didn’t matter that his father was a tribal elder or that he was a first gen. They would not show leniency.
He’d resisted the urge to run his thumbs over her bra—the blue satin fabric barely concealed her tightly drawn nipples. He’d always loved her sexy curves, the ample shape of her ass, her round hips, and full breasts. More than her body, her indomitable will and inner fortitude had made him fall hard. She’d always been the most spirited woman, human or lycan, he’d ever encountered. He couldn’t give up on her. The disease had taken her will to fight, and he’d taken this measure to help her find her strength again. The strength to live.
Her gorgeous brown eyes, deep set and large, were wide as she kept them averted. She had a small nose with a slightly broad tip that twitched when she became nervous. It twitched now. Conor wanted to soothe her fears, but it was all he could do to keep his beast from completing its claim to Anna.
Finally, she turned to him—her pupils so dilated only a hint of her chocolate irises remained. Her rounded lips parted in a softpahas her warm hand pressed into his chest, keeping inches between them. If he tilted his head forward their lips would meet. They’d only kissed once when she’d worked as his assistant, and he would give the world to taste her again.
Anna’s eyes shimmered with unshed tears as her unwavering gaze held steady with his. She finally spoke, her voice tight and strained. “Conor. Don’t.” Her fingertips caressed the hair on his chest in an act of betrayal to her words.
The musk of her arousal made his cock hard and made him ache to touch her. He deeply inhaled her again. The sweet, pungent odor of cancer had disappeared. Her scent—the one he’d memorized all those years ago, the scent he still smelled in his dreams—had reverted to its healthy state. When her fingers grazed his stomach he bared his teeth.
Fuck!He wanted to sink his bite into her flesh—to mark her as his own. Without thinking, he snapped his jaws.
Anna gasped. She dropped her hands to the floor, clenching fistfuls of the blankets beneath her. “You’re scaring me.”
He could sense her fear mixed with anger and another emotion, one that had very little to do with being afraid. Inside, he cried out in rage and triumph. Rage, because he’d never force his claim on her, and triumph, because he knew she would offer little resistance if he did. “I won’t hurt you.”
“You already have.”
“Let me save you, Anna.”
She blinked—a tear spilled down her cheek. “Oh Conor. How little you’ve changed.”
Conor wiped the tear with his thumb, placed it to his lips, and drank her sorrow. He couldn’t keep the truth from her. Not anymore. “If you want to leave, you can go.”
“But I can’t now. You’ve taken away that choice.”
He caressed her face. He loved Anna, and real love had a price. He chose to let her go if she truly wished to be free of him and his world. “You’re still human.”
Shock and disbelief animated her expression. “How can that be? I’m not sick. I feel stronger than I ever have in my life. My sense of smell, my hearing, my sight… Hell, my body.” She cupped her large breasts. “It’s like I’m thirty again. I don’t understand.”
Explaining would have been complicated if Anna had been a layperson, but she’d spent time at his side in the lab. “I’ve developed a serum using the enzymes from lycanosapien saliva. Its effects are…temporary,” he said ruefully. “You can go back to your life.”
Her eyes widened, and she couldn’t keep the excited tremor out of her voice. “Am I cured?”
The question felt like a kick to his gut. “No.” He couldn’t keep the anger from his tone. “The cancer will come back after the effects of the serum wear off.” He gripped her by the shoulders. “Please. Let me change you, Anna. I—”
Conor froze as the energy in the room shifted. Anna tensed. Her eyes widened for a moment—and he knew Rebecca Johnson had entered the den. Anna’s gaze narrowed in on the woman behind him. He cursed himself for not sensing her sooner.
Rebecca’s sultry, low voice echoed in the small space. “I can’t believe you spurned me for a bitch who doesn’t even want you.”
Conor’s stomach clenched as a growl rumbled through his chest. How long had Rebecca been listening? The concrete dens on the tribe’s property were built to keep sound muffled, especially in their human forms, but if she’d been at the door… He couldn’t think about the consequences. If Anna agreed to the culling, the point would be moot.
He’d been family-bound to Rebecca. They’d both been first gen—littered together—and their parents had made arrangements for them to mate in their fortieth year when they’d become adults.
He turned to look at her, unsurprised to see her lean body completely naked. “What are you doing here, Rebecca?”
She tilted her head sideways. Her long red hair brushed against her arm and fell over her small breasts. She pursed her lips, her cheeks flexing as she scrutinized Conor and Anna. “I’m trying to figure out why you’d turn your back on me. On us.” She pointed at Anna. “For this pathetic human.”
When Conor had petitioned the tribe to receive special dispensation to go to college and study medicine, the elders had granted his request. This had effectively changed the terms of his binding contract with Rebecca. He’d been working to find a treatment for the infertility in lycanosapiens when he’d met Anna. He’d kept up the research until the day he’d found out Anna had developed cancer. From that moment on, he’d turned his efforts to curing her instead.
He’d failed.
