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 onhisscent. 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 sickbastard 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 herfears, 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?”
CHAPTER 3
Millie
No. This wasn’t possible. Not any of it.
I must be hallucinating after hitting my head on the pavement earlier. It was all just too crazy. Too much to take. I couldn’t have just watched not one, but two men become wolves! Strike that. One man became a wolf, while one wolf became a man. Surely, I was losing my mind.
Those drinks at Maverick’s must have been so much stronger than I’d thought. Or, more likely, Garrett had put something in mine hoping I’d be weak and vulnerable when he finally decided to make his move. That’s why I was seeing things. Yes, it was the only thing that made sense. I’d been drugged and was currently having the “trip” of a lifetime.
To complicate matters, the wolf that had become a man, wasn’t just some stranger. No. He was someone I knew very,very well. He’d been my father’s best friend, Ethan Conner. The man I’d had dirty, sex-fueled fantasies about since I’d hit puberty.
Ethan had been my first and longest lasting crush. He’d also been my first sexual fantasy. The first time I’d made myself come, it was his face, hands, body, and hard cock, I’d been imagining.
I knew it was wrong. He was more than a decade and a half older than me, but hell if that made a difference to my teenage, sex-crazed brain. Well, maybe not my brain. More like my hormones and certain body parts.
Sadly, I’d lost contact with Ethan after my father’s death. Now, he was here, in this alleyway, panting and naked, after having morphed from a wolf into the man I’d thought I’d known since childhood. Clearly, I hadn’t known him as well as I’d thought.
“Ethan!” I gasped out, after I’d reclaimed my ability to speak. “What the hell is going on here?”
