“And you couldn’t have told me this when I had clothes on?” She resisted covering herself with her hands. It wouldn’t do any good, he’d already seen it all, and she would only succeed in making herself look childish.
“I didn’t expect this. I so badly want it, but I didn’t expect it.”
“Didyou plan on telling me or were you hoping you were wrong?”
“Of course, I was going to tell you,” he said when he felt her ire mounting.
When he tried to draw her closer, she planted her heels into the ground and resisted him. He could easily pull her against him, but that would only prove he was like everyone else who never cared about her feelings. He had to proceed cautiously, but dread over the possibility of losing her clawed at his insides.
Charlie almost kneed him in the nuts, but instead, she yanked her wrist from him and stalked away.
Jack bit back a groan as he watched her walk away from him. The sway of her hair against her back and the roll of her hips was almost his undoing. With trembling hands, he pushed his recalcitrant erection back in his jeans.
“When did you plan to tell me about this mate thing?” she asked as she pulled her pants on and buckled her belt.
“When we were out of this mess and you didn’t have so much on your plate.”
“Sure.”
She snatched her shirt off the ground and tugged it on. Fire burned her cheeks; she felt like an idiot.Whatdidyouexpect?Well, she hadn’t expected this kind of an excuse to end things between them, but she certainly hadn’t expected white picket fences and a happily ever after either.
He moved so silently she didn’t know he was behind her until he gripped her arm and turned her toward him. Charlie glowered at him, and her hand fell to one of her knives, but she didn’t pull it free.
“Listen to me,” he said. “I’m not lying to you; I’m not making this up. I’m—”
“My mate; I got it,” she pulled her hand free of his and shoved her feet into her boots.
“My friends, Liam and Sera, have been mated for years, and some of their children have also found their mates. I didn’t tell you this to push you away; I told you so you might have some choice in this before things progressed too far. If you drink from me, Charlie, there will be no going back. I don’t think I can go back now, but I refuse to take the choice away from you. Before this continues, you should know I want you for eternity.”
His words robbed her of any reason, and her brain felt as if it had taken a vacation, as she could only stand there and stare slack-jawed at him.
“I mean it when I say I won’t let you go. You’ll have to walk away from me to get rid of me, Charlie.”
She hadn’t believed it possible for her jaw to hang any lower, but it felt about to hit the ground.
A small scuffling sound from outside caused Jack to release her. Stepping forward, he placed his body protectively in front of Charlie’s as he listened for another noise, but he didn’t hear anything. Still, his instincts screamed that something wasn’t right as tension thrummed through him.
Charlie kept her eyes on the beach as she pulled a knife from its holster. She placed it on the sand in front of her when she bent to tie her boots. She almost grabbed Jack’s hand when he stepped forward but kept herself restrained. This whole “mate” thing had thrown her for a loop. She didn’t want anything bad to happen to him, but she couldn’t reveal she might care for him in case he was messing with her head.
He was the opposite of Chad, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t sick and twisted in some other way.
She pulled her other knife free when she heard another scrape and then someone landed in front of the cave. When Charlie glimpsed the security patch on the front of the black coat, she let her knife fly. It struck the vamp in the throat, effectively silencing it from calling out a warning.
Jack charged as the shocked vamp’s hands flew to its throat. Before the Savage could recover, Jack slammed into it and, shoving his shoulder into the vamp’s chest, he lifted the vamp off the ground and drove it into the sand. Blood and breath exploded from the vamp’s mouth and sprayed Jack in the face as he came down on top of the Savage.
The vamp beat at Jack’s shoulders while his hips bucked to try to dislodge Jack. Seizing the Savage’s head, Jack yanked it to the side and broke its neck. The vamp’s hands fell limply onto the sand while its eyes rolled wildly. Twisting the vamp’s head further, Jack ignored the sound of tearing sinew as he succeeded in ripping the head free of the vamp’s shoulders.
Sitting back, he tossed the head aside as a heavy weight crashed onto his back.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Charlie stifleda gasp when the Savage landed on Jack’s back and thrust him onto its fallen comrade. Jack didn’t cry out, but she knew he was injured, and that knowledge ignited a vibrant rage in her.
She almost raced out of the cave, leapt on the back of the Savage, and tore out its throat, but her fury hadn’t completely clouded her judgment. Where there were two, there could be more. At the end of the cave, she stopped and craned her head so she could look cautiously up at the cliff face.
She half expected something to fall off the cliff and land on her, but there weren’t any more Savages above her. Charlie checked the beach before bolting out of the cave and throwing herself on top of the Savage. The creature grunted, but she didn’t give it time to issue a warning before she sank her fingers into its hair, jerked its head back, and slit its throat in one smooth motion.
The vamp’s fingers clawed at its throat as it made gurgling sounds that wouldn’t travel far. Rolling to the side, Charlie pulled the vamp off Jack’s back and released it before it could fall on top of her.
