Otherworldly Bad Boys: Three Complete Novels (19 page)

Dana leaned back in her chair, drawing a deep breath.

“You frustrated?” Ursula asked her. “You think I’m not listening to you?”

“I’m fine,” said Dana. “There’s a correlation between Coraline, Beverly, and Arnold. All three of them became obsessed with werewolves months before this shift happened. I think that Cole may have had some kind of contact with them, maybe some kind of hypnotism.”

“And he’s triggering it while he’s locked up here?” said Avery.

“Possibly through email?” said King.

Dana sat back up. “I guess. Maybe?”

“I’m taking this seriously, Gray. I’m not discounting what you’re saying. But we have to pursue this as rationally as possible,” said Ursula.

“Seriously?” said Avery. “Hypnotism?”

Ursula spread her hands. “We don’t know what’s going on, Brooks. We’re trying to piece this together.” She sighed. “It doesn’t help that we aren’t exactly trained to be detectives. We’re more like bloodhounds.”

“We’re going to figure it out,” said Dana.

“We’d better. The pressure I’m getting from higher up isn’t good. This all couldn’t have come at a worse time, you know,” said Ursula.

Avery crossed his arms over his chest. “If this is all because of Randall, I don’t see why we don’t just kill him. Problem solved.”

Both Ursula and Dana glared at him.

“What?” he said.

“We’ve got to start somewhere,” said Ursula, “and so I think we need to question all of the rogues about Cole Randall and about any possible connection they might have with him.”

Avery and Dana nodded.

“Next, I think we need to try something preemptive,” said Ursula. “All of the rogues have fit Cole Randall’s profile. We need to compile a list of every wolf that could conceivably fit the profile.”

“It’s going to be pretty big,” said Dana.

“I know,” said Ursula. “But we can reference that list against Cole’s emails, see if anything lines up. That might give us someplace to start.”

“All right,” said Dana. She wasn’t looking forward to the massive amount of paperwork ahead of her, but it would be worth it if they could figure out what Cole was up to.

“If the situation escalates, then we have a list of potentials. We can pull them all in, and that will ensure everyone’s safety,” said Ursula.

Avery looked surprised. “All the potentials? But we don’t have the resources to collect that many wolves. There are only four trackers.”

“I’m not saying it would be easy,” said Ursula. “It’s a last resort.”

“Especially considering people don’t take kindly to being locked up for no reason,” said Dana.

“Find me something in the email,” said Ursula. “I don’t want it to come to that.”

* * *

Dana had never been more disgusted with Cole. He’d forced those two rogues to shift somehow, she just knew it. And because of that, he’d almost killed a baby.

A baby.

He was sick and unfeeling. He was insane. He was literally a horrible person.

And it seemed like she thought of him more than ever.

After her briefing with Ursula, she’d only wanted to get a morning catnap before diving into paperwork, but when she lay down, she was assailed by thoughts of Cole.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, her wolf seemed to be feeling frisky as well.

She was sitting up in bed, sweaty, exhausted.

Shift for me, Dana.

“Shut up,” she muttered. “Shut up!”

The back of her neck itched. The wolf was there, clawing inside her skin, trying to get out. It felt exactly the way that Coraline had described it.

Dana fumbled for her scar, stroking it. Pain would keep back the wolf.

Cole must have done something to the both her and Coraline. He’d gotten inside their heads. Somehow.

But how?

Shift for me, Dana. You’re very beautiful. Think about my lips on your skin.

His voice was satin and sex. She could feel heat growing between her legs.

She threw the covers aside and leapt out of bed. Dammit.

There was nothing she was going to be able to do except go for a run, was there? No matter that she was exhausted, that she hadn’t slept in god-knows-how-long. There was no other way to banish him from her head than to push her body until it broke.

She stumbled across the room and opened the drawer where she kept her running clothes. Pulling her nightshirt over her head, she shrugged into her sports bra.

It rubbed against the scars that Cole had given her.

She shuddered.

She yanked on her sweats quickly, urging herself not to think about Cole. To think about anything else but him.

The wolf surged forward. Like the time with Hollis, she wasn’t in control. A wave of intense scent washed over her. She’d activated her wolf sense of smell involuntarily. She could smell the dirt on her tennis shoes as she tied them. The scent of her own deodorant was nearly overpowering.

Dana slammed the wolf down. Jesus. What was going on with her?

That had only served to remind her of one more thing she didn’t want to think about. Hollis.

Ursula hadn’t brought it up, but it was only a matter of time. She didn’t know what she was going to tell her boss. Hollis might have promised not to write about her attacking him, but she was fairly sure that she’d ruined any chance of him writing something flattering about her. She’d let down Ursula. She’d let down the SF. And she was scared to death of herself.

She felt like she was losing herself. Like the wolf inside her was swallowing her whole.

You and the wolf are one
, whispered Cole.
Join with her.

Man. Fuck Cole Randall.

It was noon, and it was a warm spring day. The sun beat down on Dana as she began to run around the interior of the fence. Within minutes, sweat was pouring down her face. This was torture.

Hopefully, it was enough to keep Cole away. To keep the wolf away.

I want to see Dana again. I think she can be convinced to join me
.

Ugh. There it was again. Cole’s damned voice. The wolf seemed to be moving too, excited to hear him.

She’s the most important part of the mission. Without Dana, there is no victory.

She was really losing her mind now. Because before, she’d always heard Cole talking to her, remembered things he’d said in the past. But now she was hearing him talk about her. And she’d never heard him say these words before.

She picked up the pace, struggling to force the wolf down.

She had to get this under control somehow. She couldn’t trust herself anymore, and she never knew when the wolf was going to try to push its way out.

But who could help her?

She couldn’t trust Chantal anymore. Chantal had taken Cole away from her. She had to convince Chantal that she was okay now. Otherwise, she’d never see him again.

She had to convince everyone she was okay. Avery. Ursula. Hollis.

There wasn’t one single person she could turn to for help.

She was going to have to figure this out herself.

Except...

Maybe there was one person who could help her. The person who’d started all of this. Cole. He would know what he’d done to her. He would be able to tell her why she was losing control of herself. Maybe he knew a way to fix it. After all, Cole was always in control of himself. She’d never seem him struggle with his wolf.

Cole had been trying to teach her what he knew, but he hadn’t finished. They’d been interrupted. If he’d finished with his lessons, maybe this would all be better.

She had to get back to see Cole.

But she couldn’t. She’d been ordered to leave him alone, to stay away from him. Not only for the sake of her own health, but for the sake of the case.

She couldn’t go see Cole.

She ran harder, trying to push the thought from her head, and soon...

It seemed almost as if she had. The blood pumped hot in her veins, pulsing against her skull. Sweat poured over her flushed skin. She was tired, dead on her feet.

She managed to get back to her apartment, but she couldn’t handle a shower.

Instead, she simply collapsed on her couch. Her eyes closed, and she fell asleep almost immediately.

But right before she was dragged into dreamland, she thought it again. Her last thought before sleeping.

I need to see Cole.

CHAPTER TEN

Six months ago, pain shot through Dana’s limbs as her bones collapsed back into human form. She sagged against the chains that held her, her naked body covered in a sheen of sweat as she hung there. She was tired. “Not again. Don’t make me do it again.”

It was the third day that he’d been forcing her to shift like this. Over and over. Wolf to human. Human to wolf. One second she was herself. The next she was engulfed in animal darkness—like sinking into black water. She never did it right, though. Not the way Cole wanted. He was never satisfied. And so for days, they’d gone back and forth. Dana felt like she was helpless to resist him, like she couldn’t do anything except give in to what he wanted.

But she hated it.

Cole wasn’t wearing his glasses. His chest was bare. He wore only a pair of jeans with a hole in one knee. His feet were bare. He rolled his head on his shoulders. “Stand up, Dana,” he growled.

“No.” She was so weak. She’d just hang from the chains. She couldn’t possibly use her feet to hold up the weight of her body. She was too tired.

He was next to her, hands on her waist, lifting her, forcing her legs to straighten.

At some point, they’d both gotten used to the fact she was naked. Cole’s previous shyness about it seemed to have melted away, and if Dana had felt ashamed or embarrassed before, now it meant nothing compared to the overwhelming exhaustion she felt.

She pressed her toes into the cold of the concrete floor, flexed her legs, and then relaxed, letting him take her weight again. “I can’t.”

He glared into her eyes. “You can.”

She didn’t have the energy to argue with him. It was hard enough to hold up her head.

“You’re making this harder than it needs to be anyway,” he said. “If you’d just stop fighting your wolf, merge with it, let it become one with you—”

“Stop it,” she managed. “Stop spouting all that mystical shit. I’m letting the wolf out. I’m not fighting it.”

“You are fighting,” he said, “or you’d be aware of what was happening after you shifted. You’re afraid of the shift. You have to do it over and over again, until there’s no fear.”

“I’m not afraid of it,” she said. “I’m just sick of it.”

“You need to welcome it.”

“I never will.” Her chin jutted up defiantly.

He let go of her, and she sagged against the chains again.

“You might as well kill me,” she muttered.

“For fuck’s sake, Dana.” He drew a hand over his face, and she watched his taut, lean muscles ripple in his upper arm. Then he let his body sag too, not quite as dramatically as hers. “Fine.” He reached above her head, working at the chains.

A half-hearted leap of excitement. He was freeing her?

But no, he only loosened the chains, so that they didn’t force her upright. He lay a few blankets on the floor, and she gratefully sank down on them. She could sit now, her hands in her lap, even though they were still shackled. She almost curled into a ball. It had been quite some time since she’d been allowed to change position. She’d been sleeping standing up. She looked up at him, and she felt a surge of gratefulness. “Thank you.”

She knew it was idiotic to feel thankful towards her captor, to the man who was torturing her. But he was all she had now. The world had become small and focused. There was the basement. There were the concrete walls, the drain in the center, the chains that held her. And there was Cole. She remembered that there was more to life, but all of it seemed fuzzy and distant. Cole was real. The chains were real. Shifting in and out of being a wolf, that was real.

Cole looked down at her, an expression of what seemed to be genuine tenderness on his face. Of course, he was insane and mentally unbalanced. Whatever he thought of tenderness was only a distorted view of it. It still made her melt a little. She found herself smiling at him.

He settled down next to her on the blankets, sitting down as well. “I’m trying to help you, you know?”

“By killing me.”

He touched her cheek. “We’ll let the wolves decide that. I don’t want you dead. I want...” His fingers traced her jaw.

She closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation of his feather-soft touch. “I don’t understand. I keep shifting. Why haven’t you just shifted yourself and gone ahead with this duel?”

He stroked her neck. “I won’t do that until you are aware during the shift. Until you are both the wolf and the woman at the same time.”

“That’s not possible.”