Beta (Vanguards Book 3) Read online

  Waving with her right hand, she tucked the left one behind her back. “Goodbye, Rob.” Her heart ached at those words.

  He grinned and strutted down the block, turning at the corner.

  Releasing the breath, she held, she examined the content of her hand. A worn brown leather wallet the size of her palm. She couldn’t bring herself to use him for information. Her gut said she’d never recover from that kind of intimacy with someone like Rob, but she could use the info in his wallet to find what she wanted.

  Give up a million dollars for a man? Not likely.

  Chapter Two

  The building blocked Robert’s view of Esther as he turned the corner. His car wasn’t in this direction, but he didn’t want her to witness his jump and heel click. The werewolf blood running in his veins enhanced the excited leap, making it higher than a human’s. He bent his knees to absorb the impact of landing. Tonight, he’d kicked ass and kissed a dark-haired beauty. Her smell still lingered on his hands with the memory of how her thick, mahogany hair felt curled around his fingers.

  He couldn’t believe his ears when she asked him for the time. Tall, she had long legs with a nice curve to her hips and breasts, intelligent blue eyes and a playful personality. Something the serious wolf in him appreciated. He loved smart, confident women but they had never liked him back. He wasn’t sensitive enough to tiptoe around delicate flowers like Sugar or Katerina. No, if he ever took a mate, she’d have to be strong enough to stand next to him as an equal.

  Not that Esther was a potential mate. She was human after all.

  Grinning like a fool, he jogged to his car, burning off the extra energy her kiss produced. Why had she lied about where she lived though? And where had she been when he walked out of the apartment building? His senses hadn’t registered anyone else in the area. He’d bent to tie his shoe and she had just appeared.

  Hmm…

  Approaching his car, he pulled out the keys. The gas gage had read empty on his arrival here. He needed to fill the tank. Reaching into his right back pocket, where he usually placed his wallet, he found it empty. Checking the left pocket, his heart sank as it turned out empty as well. He patted the front ones and only found his cell. Maybe he’d dropped it while wrestling with Talon?

  Deep down inside, he knew the truth.

  Esther.

  She’d grabbed his ass, playing him like a love sick puppy.

  He was such a fool. Beautiful women weren’t attracted to men like him. Grinding his teeth, he pictured her laughing at him as she flipped through his wallet, counting what little cash he carried. Probably pitying him for being broke.

  The hole in his gut grew. Crap, he didn’t have any means to buy gas and no way to get home but his own two feet. The last thing he wanted to do was call Daedalus or anyone from the pack for a lift. He’d never hear the end of it and give the pack something different to gossip about.

  Respect was something you earned, and how would he ever obtain any if he allowed himself to be pickpocketed?

  Clenching his fists, Robert turned around and marched back to where he’d left Esther. His beast stretched inside him, frustrated that he wouldn’t release it. Control over one’s inner monster sounded easy, but the struggle became an hourly routine. Shifters dealt with this all the time, day or night, in sickness or in health. The first rule of the Vasi pack was human dominance over animal instinct, because once the beast started calling the shots the shifter began to forget right versus wrong and listened to the laws of the wild instead.

  Robert crouched by the spot where Esther had stood as she’d kissed him. Sometimes animal skills came in handy though. Her scent left a trail. He wanted his wallet back, and his pride.

  Creeping into the nearby alley, he undressed, folded his clothes into a neat pile, and hid them behind a trash can. Naked, he triggered his shift and allowed the full change. Pain built in his body as his limbs grew and bones molded into new shapes. He used to scream or howl as he transformed, but after three years of making the shift, he’d learned how to take the pain. It only took a few seconds, then he saw the world through his beast’s eyes.

  As a powerful, efficient killing machine he needed restraint. He took a deep breath, taking in the surrounding scents, then shook to settle his fur. Bi-pedal, he stood over six feet tall, but the elongated arms and increased flexibility meant he could run on all four when needed, topping speeds of forty miles an hour on a flat stretch.

  Esther didn’t stand a chance.

  Licking his muzzle, he bent low to inhale her delicious scent, not surprised to find it led away from the duplex she claimed was her home. He followed her heady smell farther up the street where she’d crossed and entered another alley. The muscles in his back bunched, wanting to spring into action, to run howling into the night, sending fear in all who dared cross his path. He stopped in the alley and forced calming thoughts. Nothing good would come from rampaging through this neighborhood. He needed to focus, take his time, and catch his prey.

  Fury at how the female had manipulated him boiled in his stomach. A growl rose in his throat as he stalked along the narrow alley. Filthy water lay in scattered puddles, and the faint scent of urine almost masked Esther’s trail. He swung his head back and forth in a slow arc, not wanting to miss it.

  The alley opened to a quiet street, not far from where he’d met Daedalus. No one should be around to witness a werewolf out for a stroll this late at night. He hoped. Even as a legal citizen, his size and form still freaked people out. Dead was dead when lynched by an illegal mob. Prosecution needed evidence, witnesses, and a compassionate jury to convict for murder. Those things tended to disappear when paranormal beings were the victims. Better to keep a low profile.

  Scrambling over the cement, he raced along the sidewalk from shadow to shadow. His heart pounded as her scent grew stronger, fresher. Around the corner, he spotted her not fifty yards away, wallet in hand as she rifled through his stuff.

  The snarl escaped him before he could control the urge.

  The address on Rob’s driver’s license was located in a wealthier part of the city, according to the GPS app on her phone. Esther saved it and rubbed her chest. For some reason, it felt hollow. Achy. She was probably catching a cold.

  The wallet contained very little—some cash, ID, and an ATM card. No credit cards, gym memberships, business cards. Hell, it looked like her wallet, except her ID was fake. She gasped. Could his be? He had been seen with one of the most powerful vampires in the world. She was so stupid. He’d played her and she fell for the good-boy routine hook, line, and sinker.

  Someone who lived in a rich area should have more in his fucking wallet. Nothing about Rob had been real. She knew men like him didn’t exist. Investigating him and finding out his dirty little secrets interested her far more than her ticket-to-wealth Nosferatu now.

  A snarl from the pits of hell tore through the night air. Her heart leaped straight into her throat. Years’ worth of experience had her diving for cover between two buildings. Once there she rolled to her feet.

  Approaching from the end of the street was a huge, dark werewolf. Amber eyes glowed as it stalked closer.

  She shoved Rob’s wallet into her bra and palmed the thirty-eight special from inside her waistband where she had a special made holster. Many believed that women should carry small caliber handguns like a twenty-two or even a thirty-two, but that shit wouldn’t stop a two-hundred-pound man, let alone a vampire or shifter. Just piss them off enough to want to take their time tearing her limb from limb. A large caliber gun was a necessity in her profession. Her easy-to-conceal gun packed power.

  Standing with her legs braced apart, she aimed. “Don’t try it, fucker. I carry silver bullets.” She knew better than to lie to a shifter. They could smell that shit, but he didn’t have to know the silver bullets she carried were in her trunk.

  The beast didn’t listen, just kept pacing forward. Head lowered and his luminous gaze targeted on her.

  Breathing became
difficult when fear wrapped its claws around her throat. Stupid idiot probably lost control of his beast and now she’d have to wound him. She squeezed off a warning shot next to his clawed foot. She didn’t kill for free.

  The werewolf leaped from the ricochet of cement, rebounding off the building next to him with his feet, and sprung forward with incredible agility. This wasn’t the run-of-the-mill shifter out of control, he was a trained fighter.

  Shit!

  She twisted and ran, knees pumping to her chest with every ounce of speed she could gather while wearing heels. People would be amazed at how fast a terrified woman could move on stilettos. She’d had enough practice to be a gold medalist. Killing werewolves was easy, it was the not getting scratched or bitten part that made her run like a coward. All it took was one good bite then goodbye humanity. She didn’t stand a chance at hand-to-hand combat with the thing, let alone outracing it. Her only escape lay with reaching her car.

  If that monster scratched her, then she’d be joining the pack. She didn’t play well with others. The irony of a slayer turned monster wasn’t lost on her. Actually, it happened more often than not, but she owned a special bullet to take care of herself if that ever occurred, and she’d take her destroyer on that last journey as well.

  Heavy panting drew nearer as it closed the distance between them. She should have shot him between the eyes when she had him in her sights. Jumping onto the hood of her silver-gray sedan, Esther slid across it and landed on her feet. She swung around, aiming her thirty-eight special at her assailant’s chest, but nothing followed her.

  She choked on her fear. Where’d it go? Crouching low behind the car, she kept the gun ready, scanning the area. Nothing. How could something that big vanish?

  The thumping of her heart drowned out her hearing. She tried to take a deep breath, to find the calm void she escaped to while hunting monsters, but damn it, she was the prey this time. A chill ran down her spine.

  Taking one hand off her weapon, she reached in her pocket for her car keys. She tugged at them, but they snagged on something. She yanked and yanked, but it wouldn’t budge. Her stomach cramped as the street remained quiet, almost as if it held its breath.

  She glanced at the tangle of loose threads wrapped around the key ring and gave a harder yank, but it only tightened the knot.

  Hot breath blew on the back of her neck. She jumped in a lithe motion, landing on her feet, and spun around with her gun ready.

  The creature plucked the thirty-eight special from her hands before she could pull the trigger. He discarded it over his shoulder like it was a toy. Towering two feet above her head, he glared with his iridescent amber eyes. His shoulders spanned at least twice her width.

  “You are one big mother fucker,” she whispered.

  He bared his teeth and lunged.

  She pressed against the car as her body froze, then pried her eyes open when the end didn’t come.

  The werewolf melted before her eyes as it transformed back to his human form. His fur shrank into skin covering hard muscles that slid back into place. The color of his irises darkened until she gazed into a set of sharp green eyes.

  “You!” She placed her hands on Rob’s bare chest and tried to shove.

  He didn’t budge an inch.

  Rob was a werewolf? It took a moment for her thoughts to collect into something coherent, then she realized he was a naked werewolf. Her prior imagination didn’t do his body justice. Fine sculpted muscles covered his torso, arms, and legs. She stared—no, she might as well be honest—she gawked.

  “You have something I want.” Rob placed a finger under her chin and dragged her gaze back to his face. He had something she wanted too.

  With his hands, he patted her body. He yanked her car keys out of her pocket, tearing the tangle of threads, and dropped them to the ground. A growl rumbled deep in his chest. He spun her around, pressing her to the car.

  “I knew the nice guy act wasn’t real.” She could taste the dirt on the surface of her vehicle.

  He used his hip against her lower back to pin her as he continued to search for his wallet. “And I figured out you’re just a thief.”

  Pickpocketing the thing was the worst decision she’d ever made. “Why do you want your wallet? There’s barely anything in it.”

  “There’s enough cash to get gas in my car so I don’t have to walk all the way home.” His hand slid over her abdomen. “Where did you hide my wallet?”

  “I threw it away.”

  He snorted. “I’m a shifter. Don’t lie to me. I saw it in your hands.”

  She closed her eyes and sighed. “In my bra.”

  “Of course, it is.” He gave a long and pained sigh. “Which side?”

  She yanked on his hold. “Let me go and I’ll give it to you.” Gentlemen, her ass. Men were all the same.

  “That’s what I’m afraid of. You giving it to me with your fists, forcing me to hurt you.”

  Esther stomped the heel of her shoe on his barefoot. “Like that?”

  “Bitch.” He growled, yet keeping her pinned with his body. “Women like you are all the same. Self-serving, stuck up, and untrustworthy.” Then he shoved his hand in her bra.

  “Wrong one.” His palm was rough and hot, but he jerked it out as if her tit had stung him. That was all kinds of insulting.

  “A-ha.” He used two fingers to extract his wallet from the other side.

  “I’m not contagious.”

  He set his wallet on the roof of the car and whispered in her ear. “Are you asking me to go deeper?” Incredulous tone.

  “No.” But even she heard the lie. She arched back and met that amber stare. So, what she’d seen in his eyes the first time they met had been real. “No.” She said it with more force.

  “Even if you did, Esther, I wouldn’t touch you. You’re poison.” As Rob strolled away from her, he changed back to his beast form. She’d never watched the transformation before. The fluid way he changed and grew must have hurt like hell, but he didn’t utter a sound, just kept walking with his wallet in hand.

  “Rob?”

  The werewolf glanced over his shoulder.

  “I’d let you tie me up if that would make you feel safer.”

  Chapter Three

  Esther dozed with one eye open. All afternoon she sat in her car, parked a few houses from Rob’s, and watched nothing happen. She had checked his address on her GPS so she’d kept the info she’d been looking for.

  Since the place stayed quiet it gave her too much time to think. Re-think. Evaluate. Silently die of embarrassment when she recalled her tying up comment. She banged her head softly on the steering wheel. Where was the delete button?

  Vampire and werewolf working together. Rob could have easily killed her last night, stuffed her in a trash bin, and no one would ever come looking for her. Hell, they wouldn’t be able to identify her remains because she didn’t exist on paper.

  What the hell was going on? She should be focused on the vampire, not a man. Rob wasn’t a man though, but a full-blown werewolf, a warrior werewolf.

  Fanning herself with her hand, she cracked open the car window. She was a little young to be having hot flashes. It was probably the hot sauce she poured on her only meal today. She glanced at the remains of Taco Hell on her passenger seat.

  Rob’s brownstone had a lovely granite staircase. Expensive. The whole neighborhood cried money. She’d planned this stakeout in hopes of following Rob to Daedalus’s lair. It sounded slasher-stalker-ish now. Focus on the Nosferatu, not the hottie werewolf.

  A pretty blonde walked by her car, wavy hair hung past her shoulders, heels clicking on the pavement as she hurried in the evening’s fading light. If Esther had curves like that Rob would never have walked away.

  The blonde climbed the steps to Rob’s home.

  Esther sat straighter in her car seat. No fucking way. Her heart took a nosedive and she clutched the steering wheel as if it were the edge of a cliff. Double-crossing bastard made a
pass at her when he already had a nice piece of ass at home. The door to the house opened, and a gorgeous Asian woman with silky black hair past her waist stepped out. They exchanged a few words before continuing in opposite directions.

  Esther checked her GPS. The address was correct. Could she have saved it wrong? She watched the Asian woman climb into a car, imagining Rob caressing her slim body. She had the right place.

  Rob had a harem. Freaking shifters and their weird pack life. She gasped. Had he wanted to add her to his collection? Play nice boy until she followed him home where he could turn her and force her to be part of the pack.

  And she thought she was acting like a slasher-stalker. Were these women victims? What the fuck was going on?

  Before she killed him, she’d castrate him first.

  Contract or not, this trip just became personal.

  Twisting in his bed, Robert tossed the sheet off. He dragged his fingers through his hair and didn’t need to look to know his cock tented his boxers. All afternoon he’d tried to sleep, but Esther kept intruding on his dreams.

  Glaring at the bulge, he palmed it as he recalled the way her soft breast fit in his hand. Stroking his cock, he pictured her arching her back and meeting his glare without a flinch. She’d offered to be tied as he deserted her last night. He imagined her strapped to his bed, oiled, and really pissed off. His breaths quickened as he watched her writhe in his mind. He curled onto his side, pumping harder as he pictured climbing between her thighs and thrusting deep inside her. Over and over. In hot jets, he came. Her name a moan on his lips.

  He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. How pathetic, he jacked off to a woman he’d turned down. She hadn’t reacted like he’d expected when he found her with his wallet. Most women would have run screaming. She’d gone intense and pulled out a gun, then shot at him.

  What was really shocking though, was her naked interest as she assessed his body after a shift. He’d been around shifters too long and forgotten how nudity could affect humans. It had an intoxicating effect. Her fear scent had faded and the smell of her arousal took over. She couldn’t fake that. He turned her on. A small victory, but a victory nonetheless. Grinning, Robert rose from his bed and pulled the sheets off, tossing them in the laundry basket.