Immortal Ops: New & Lengthened 2016 Anniversary Edition (6 page)

“What’s wrong?” asked Missy.

“What’s wrong?” repeated Peren. “I’ll tell you what’s wrong. You two can’t seem to stop meddling in things you don’t understand. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be fixed up with another one of your ideas of the perfect man. Contrary to popular belief, we all don’t want to get fucked by the first thing that shows any interest in us. Besides, testosterone-driven sex machines with little to no brains do not appeal to me.”
 

“Now that’s a shame. For a minute there, I thought I actually had a shot. But I can’t do much about the testosterone thing. Sort of comes with the territory when you’re dealing with me, sweetheart. As for showing an interest in you…that shouldn’t be too hard. I should take offense that you think all men with muscles have no brains. I
should
, but I won’t.”
 

Peren turned to see who had spoken to her. Her gaze fell on the tall man who stood with Lance. As much as she hated to admit it, he was breathtaking, with his wide shoulders and head of shoulder-length black hair. Its waviness rivaled her own, although her hair was at least a foot longer than his. She noticed right off the bat that he had a tiny scar above his right eyebrow and that his eyelashes were blacker than hers. The thick lashes drew attention to his royal blue gaze. The blue was so intense that it couldn’t be natural. She was sure they were contacts.
 

You’re sensing danger and focusing on some guy’s eyes. Ohmygod, you’re now a brainless dumbass too,
she thought
,
and then took a deep, calming breath.
There is nothing to be scared of. Your nerves are just shot. Go home and rest.

The beginning of a five o’clock shadow softened what could easily be taken as too masculine a face. His jaw tightened as she took a step back. He wasn’t pleased that she hadn’t taken an instant interest in him.
Oh well
. It wasn’t like she hadn’t given any thought to having sex with him

I’m grieving, not dead. And I’m also leaving.
 

Peren turned and went quickly toward the club door. She heard her friends calling out to her but didn’t turn to them. They could busy themselves with their new finds all night. She hoped they’d be too sore to walk after spending the night getting ridden hard. It’d serve them right. No fear of that for her. No, she’d be sleeping alone again, because she was going home. Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Sexy would have to be reserved only for her dreams.
 

Thankfully, I’ve got fingers. And, if need be, the will to use them.

Chapter Ten

“Shit,” the tall blonde girl said as she watched the target leave. She turned to run after her but found Lance holding her arm like a good soldier, making sure the woman stayed in place. Having the other woman running out while there was a target painted on her back wasn’t good at all.
 

“Peren,” said the blonde woman, looking worried.

It wouldn’t do any of them any good if all the women were scattered to the winds. No. His men could watch over these two while he went after the one who made his dick hard enough to hammer nails with.

“I’ll go. Maybe I could throw up a white flag or something,” Lukian said, smiling widely at the girls. Not wanting to alarm them, though he knew the situation was serious. If a kill order was on Peren, there was a reason for it. That meant she wasn’t safe. Didn’t help that he wanted to bed her in a way he’d never done another. And that meant she
really
wasn’t safe at all.
 

Not even from him
,
sadly.

The girls exchanged glances then nodded.
 

Leave it to women to trust a cold-blooded killing machine with their friend’s life
.
He glanced back at Roi and nodded in the direction of the door before leaving. Roi gave him a thumbs-up as he left to retrieve Peren.

Lukian hit the outside and took a deep breath. The scents of the night filled his lungs. He craved the night air and running free in wolf form. Tonight he craved something else too, and it was headed down the darkened street, apparently planning to walk all the way home, rather than use a car.

Stubborn woman.

Damn, he wanted her even more after she’d scolded him and then stormed out. He liked a challenge, and Peren was proving to be one. He just had to keep her safe long enough to figure out just how much of one she was capable of being.

Lukian took off in a slow run in the direction of her scent. Even in the darkness of the night, he could see her clearly. His night vision was excellent. It had to be. The blood of the wolf that ran through him would not have it any other way.
 

He caught up to Peren with ease and slowed his pace, reading her thoughts, mildly amused with her opinion of him in the process. She was definitely attracted to him but conflicted. She was also doing her best to fight off her feelings of fear. He wanted to tell her she had nothing to worry about
,
but explaining how he knew she was afraid of anything at all wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have. Besides, he was reading way more from her than he did others. Reading her thoughts was easy for him. Most humans weren’t too difficult for him to eavesdrop on, but Peren was like an open book to him. That caught him a little off-guard.
 

He stopped and put his hands up in the air slowly as she shot a dirty look over her shoulder at him. “I come in peace.”
 

Her full lips curved into a smile so white that she lit up the night, causing his insides to lurch forward. His cock wanted to be in her so badly that he wondered if he could control himself. He was far too old to be behaving as if he were still a young pup. He was experienced now and wise enough to be able to control his erections at will, or at least he had thought so prior to meeting Peren.
 

The wind caught her long skirt and blew it up. Shiny black leather boots that ran up to her knee showed through. He waited for a better glimpse at what kind of panties she wore under her skirt, but the wind refused to help out any longer.
 

Just as well. He’d probably jump on her right here and now.
 

This target of his, Peren, stirred things in him that hadn’t existed in over a century. He watched her take a wider stance, one a person with defensive skills would assume. She was ready to try to protect herself. It hit him then that if all had gone according to plan, she’d be dead already, so her instincts were good, but so were his.

Chapter Eleven

Peren tried but failed to wipe the smile from her face as the man from the bar stood near her, his hands in the air, looking like a fool with a lopsided grin on his face. She wanted to be angry that he’d followed her, but something about him made her grin. “What do you want?”
 

He gave her a large smile and shrugged, his shirt pulling against his muscles as he did. “I’m not sure, maybe to know that I wasn’t what chased you off. That could leave lasting effects on a man’s ego.”
 

I’ll just bet you’ve got ego problems
.
 

No, he looked like the type who was incredibly comfortable in his own skin. She thought about how comfortable she’d be skin to skin with him too and shook her head.
 

Cut it out. You don’t sleep around. You leave that up to Melanie. She’s good at it.
 

“I’m Lukian, and you must be Peren,” the man said, extending his large hand out to her. She took a small step forward and grabbed it quickly. A spark of energy flew between them.

The same thing had happened long ago, the night she’d had her fortune told, the night her entire world turned upside down. All the fear and dread she’d been sensing since arriving at the bar hit her in a wave that nearly took her legs out from under her. There was no way she could push down or ignore the urge to flee. It coursed through her every fiber.
 

For a split second Lukian appeared confused
,
and then an expression settled over his face that told her he was fully expecting her to panic and run. But how did he know? She wasn’t going to wait around to find out.

Distance.

She needed distance between her and the feeling of danger—whatever the hell was causing it. Peren didn’t run back in the direction of the bar and her friends. Instinct drove her away
,
as if something deep down was telling her to avoid taking the trouble to them and laying it at their feet. She gave in, turned
,
and ran as fast as she possibly could, her past blurring with her present, the fear all-consuming.

She hit the edge of the woods and never skipped a beat. She knew she didn’t have that good of a lead on him and that he’d catch up if she dared to stop. A limb scraped her cheek, and she whimpered, pushing onward wildly.
 

It’s just a scratch, definitely not worth dying over.
 

She could see the forest in her mind, even though she could not see her hand before her face in the darkness. The same type of darkness that had blanketed her that fateful night when she was ten. That same feeling of fear and of being hunted.
Not again
—her mind raced as she ran. She thought back to the night of her tenth birthday. Every fear and bit of pain she’d felt then washed over her, giving her the strength to push forward, to draw on whatever thing lived inside her—whatever thing that made her an abomination. Whatever thing that had saved her life that night long ago.

Chapter Twelve

What the hell is she?
Lukian’s mind raced as his feet moved quickly under him. He was faster than any human could hope to be. Yet this tiny woman was managing to outrun him. She couldn’t weigh more than a buck o’ five, yet she made him work to catch her. Perhaps he’d been wrong to abort the mission. Apparently, he was dealing with more than just a pretty face. And more than just a human.

No
, his inner beast roared. He wasn’t wrong. She was not to be harmed. The beast was very clear on that much.
 

Stopping, he sniffed the air, the wolf in him clawing at his gut, demanding to be set free to hunt her. It didn’t want to harm her. It wanted to own her, mark her, make her his.

Mine.

The word thrashed around in his head, jumbled with her thoughts, still assailing him in a way no other’s ever had. Lukian did his best to hone in on her location, but somehow she blocked it from him. The only others he’d ever encountered who were able to do such a thing were trained operatives. He’d never met a civilian able to pull off such a feat. Had she been trained? Had she been recruited to join an elite team too? Perhaps she was from a unit similar to his own? Maybe she was with Paranormal Security and Intelligence (PSI), another branch of government that stayed hidden from humans but operated to help police supernaturals. But if she was, an elimination order would not have been issued to the I-Ops. No. PSI handled their own affairs. A sobering thought struck him. Maybe she didn’t work for the same side he did. Maybe she was with the enemy.
 

No!
 

His wolf nearly won the struggle for freedom, its insistence she was not the enemy making him sway as he fought for control. He fixated on her scent, sweet vanilla with hints of flowers. He took a moment to catch his bearings and figure his exact location. They’d scouted the area enough for him to know where he was and what she was doing. She was headed back to the road.

Smart girl
.

He heard her rustling off to his left, and a slow smile crept over his face.

Not smart enough, though
.

He leaped up and over a rock to a ledge, hoping that the higher vantage point would allow him to not only see her but possibly be able to surprise her from above as well. It took a moment for him to calm his wolf side enough to focus fully on Peren, but when he did, he heard her pulse racing. His own sped to match, syncing with hers as if he were afraid. As attuned as he was to her, Lukian’s breathing fell in line with hers as well. In all his years, he’d never had such a thing occur.

What was she?

And why did he care so much?

You know why
, he thought, shaking his head, hoping to banish the thought. No. It couldn’t be. She couldn’t be his mate. The odds of that were too high. And he’d long ago given up any hope of ever finding the one person created for him. Yet there was no denying the pull to her or the fact his wolf was obsessed with her.

Her thoughts hit him hard once more. Images of a carnival of sorts flashed in his mind. He saw a young girl, no more than ten, holding the hand of a woman as they entered a tent. Drapes of red hung from all directions in the tent, and a circular table sat in the center. At the table was a woman wearing many necklaces
,
and a silk scarf tied around her head. Large hoop earrings adorned the woman’s ears, and they jingled as the woman leaned, looking at a crystal ball on the table. The young girl was fascinated by the earrings at first before her attention went to the woman—the fortuneteller.

Lukian realized then the flashes were memories of Peren’s. That she was somehow sharing them with him, though he wasn’t even sure she realized she was doing it. Crouching, he lowered his head and put a hand on the ground to steady himself as her memories continued to wash over him.

The fortuneteller’s head had snapped up. Her dark gaze whipping to the young girl, her eyes going milky white suddenly, scaring the girl, right before the woman proceeded to yell.

Abomination.

The word sent a chill down his spine.

Scenes from the past continued to play out in his mind, the emotions tied to them feeling as if they were his own. It was nearly impossible to stay removed from it all—to feel nothing. He wanted to reach through the memories and rip the woman to shreds. The very moment the idea struck him, another vision came, this one of a clawed, fur-covered arm doing just that—killing the woman.