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Then she stopped at her locker to grab her things. She wouldn’t have bothered except that she’d left her favorite necklace inside.
That had been where she’d found the picture. All her rational thought had flown out the window. Dave and Roxie were dead, and the killers knew who she was and where she worked.
They probably knew where she lived too. Could she even risk going home to pack? She had to. Her bike was there. She’d be quick. She would sneak out of the hospital and take the back way home. Even that longer drive would still only take twenty minutes. She could reach home, pack and be gone within an hour.
She drove fast and carefully, reaching her little two-bedroom ranch rental in seventeen minutes. After parking the car out of sight, she ran inside. She grabbed her UCLA duffel bag and stuffed it with a couple changes of clothes.What do I need? Where will I go?She had an aunt living in Michigan, but she couldn’t risk endangering her. Where she ran to wasn’t important. All that really mattered was getting her ass away from Vegas.
At the bottom of her closet, she found the black bag. The damn thing would finally come in handy after sitting ignored for nearly five years. She jerked it free. How many times had she settled somewhere new and carefully repacked her escape bag, just to feel safe? Now she felt damn lucky for the paranoia.
The two thousand in the bag would get her out of town and she’d worry about the rest later. With that bag added she didn’t need anything else. All that mattered now was staying alive. That meant getting on the road immediately. She carried both bags in one hand and opened the door with the other–
–and was slammed back into the wall with a crash.
Sunshine outlined a huge man, combining dark shadow and blinding light. Her heart slammed once before she was heaved off her feet, pinned to the wall and confronted by black wrap-around sunglasses which reflected her own terrified face.
She clawed at the thick arms and kicked against his body. But the man’s weight crushed her to the wall.
The pressure changed, loosened. His honey brown skin came back into focus.
“Oh, fuck.” The voice was familiar, from a past she’d left behind. He slammed the door and threw the wrap-arounds across the room with a vicious snarl of fury.
She met the man’s cold, pale gaze.Dear God, how did he find me?Her racing heart skipped a beat. Was it terror or something else?Was it really him? Really Zeven?
He buried his face in her neck and nuzzled her skin as if he could draw her scent into him. He was a wolf after all, and it felt every bit the animal reaction. He pulled back and met her gaze for half a second before claiming her mouth in a deep wild kiss. As if they hadn’t been apart for ten years. As if this was the only thing he wanted in life. As if they were still back on the sand under the stars. But his passion was different, so much darker and deeper than before, demanding a response from her.
In that moment her fears faded and all that mattered was where they connected. His hands pinned her still to the wall. His tongue and lips stole her ability to think. Her whole world shrank down to just the two of them. Nothing else mattered.
She wasn’t the same as when they’d met. She bit his lip and then kissed him back, matching his passion, pouring her stress and emotion into the connection. She’d tried so hard to forget, to ignore that desire that she’d discovered in his arms. For just this one moment she’d cling to him and accept every bit of it, filling up that vast ache that had kept her alone and so very lonely all this time.
Then Zeven broke the spell and ripped away from her lips. “Harley…. Just what the fuck were you thinking?” His body was shaking as he jerked back away from her.
That brought Harley back to the moment, back to the stupidity which giving into this dangerous animal attraction would be. “Shit. I need to get out of here.” She struggled, jerking in his grasp. Zeven showing up took her terrifying day straight into a deeper level of hell. Now it wasn’t just the ones behind the threatening note. She’d have to escape Zeven and his homicidal family too.
His rough hands tightened on her arms, holding her in place, when she should be running. He was just as tall and broad as he’d been ten years ago. But now his leaner frame was covered in heavy muscle. His face was hardened. And the stormy, ravaged look in his golden eyes tore open a soul-deep wound she’d thought was healed or at least scabbed over. Why was he here? Why now, after ten very long years?
For one second, she imagined saying,Zeven, come with me.Then her survival instincts kicked in. No matter how her body reacted to him, being with Zeven was never going to be a good thing. Being together would only end in misery and suffering for them both. “I’ve got to get out of here.”
But Zeven, her long-lost, first love, wasn’t moving.
Almost visible memories passed between them. Memories she’d love to linger in, try to reclaim if only she had more time. If only being with him wasn’t such a dangerous mistake.
“You’re not going anywhere. Those sons of bitches sent me to kill you.” The low growled words shattered the newly reborn chemistry and snuffed out the slow burn rising between them.
It couldn’t be the same werewolves. The irony forced a choking sound from her suddenly dry throat. “No, it’s not possible. It can’t be your pack.” The place where his family had killed hers was more than a thousand miles away. But being the same pack or a different one didn’t make much difference, did it? Was it just her fate to be killed by werewolves? Zeven’s pack hunted her for being human, knowing their secret, and loving Zeven. She’d relocated a dozen times before settling in Vegas. And after five quiet years, she wandered into a werewolf hangout and was suddenly back on the most wanted list.
Her eyes burned from the stupidity of it all. All she wanted was to just live in peace. Maybe meeting werewolves again would have been inevitable. But why now and here?And why did it have to be Zeven?
The confusing flashes of Zeven’s emotions came to a sudden full stop. All that remained was deep cold anger, something darker than she’d ever seen before. Like a killer without mercy. Very different from the man she’d known all those years ago. So completely different…
Oh shit.He wasn’t the sweet, quiet Zeven of those long-gone days. And it was too soon to predict the actions of the rage-filled man he’d become. “Are you going to kill me?”
Chapter Four
Zeven fought through the angry red haze that had been trying to swallow his reason since he’d opened that folder.Damn it all to fucking hell.How could Harley be here? He’d searched half the country for her. And now here she was right in his path. What exactly had she done? How the hell was he going to keep her safe?
He ached to take her into his arms, to ignore everything but the feel of her under his hands and lips. He backed away from the temptation. With a little air, maybe he could think this through.
“Are you going to kill me?” she repeated.
