AllFreeNovel
Share Us
One second she was staring away from him, in the next she was staring up at him, her breasts pressed into his cheek, his erection, restrained only by the denim he wore, pressed into her lower stomach.
“When I found you, I was completely maddened,” he growled, staring down at her with a hungry demand that flickered in the gold flecks of jungle green eyes. “I was instinct and intellect only. No mercy, no compassion.” One hand threaded into the back of her damp hair, clenching there as his gaze flickered over her face. “The last time I was in this desert searching for you, only the scent of Claire Martinez surrounded your body. There was no hint of my Cat, no matter how similar you were in looks, I was fooled. When I returned, there was no hint of Claire, only my Cat, and her pain. Her loneliness.” His voice dropped, his head lowering as his lips brushed against the corner of hers. “All the madness that had driven me for so long eased away and the monster I’d been settled back. What little sanity remained snapped into place and I knew why the monster existed to begin with.” He paused, his lips whispering over hers, but refusing to initiate the kiss she was suddenly hungry for. “Do you know why it existed, Cat?”
She shook her head, fighting to breathe, fighting not to take the kiss she needed.
“Why?” She forced the question out, wishing he’d just hurry and give her what she needed.
“For you,” he breathed. “It lived for you, Cat. To protect you. To hold back the horror of the risk of Bennett finding you and dragging you back to the center. It existed, to ensure you lived.”
The monster everyone spoke of in the past months had existed for blood . . . And each time it had taken blood it had been someone that threatened her, or those she cared for.
“You swore to kill me.” It was all she could do to force the words past her lips. “To kill me and Judd. You knew what you were saying.”
She remembered that clearly. Cold, deadly purpose had filled his eyes, his expression.
“I was a child, G,” she whispered, remembered pain slicing at her heart again. “You were all I had to depend on. All I knew of love.”
I never loved you . . . You were my experiment.
She pressed her forehead to his chest, wishing she could wipe the memory from her mind, from her heart.
“I needed you.” The fingers gripping his shoulders curled into fists. “Years, Graeme. For years I worried, I cried, I searched for you.” Shudders tore through her body as aching, furious rage tore through her. “I needed you.” It was a snarl, a deep female rasp of overwhelming pain as she tore from him, memories and so many nights of unrelenting hunger to just see him. “Damn you, G. Damn you. I survived without you for the past thirteen years and I’ll survive without you now. Get the hell away from me.”
She felt as though she was going crazy now. Rage and hunger. The need to push him away, the need to hold to him so tight she was never without him ever again. The conflicting emotions were tearing her apart.
“You survived?” Catching her arm he swung her around again, his lips pulled back from his teeth in a grimace of anger. “Is that what you call it? Hiding? Pretending to be Claire Martinez? You took her personality as well as her identity and hid everything you were, every part of you, when you could have been who you were, who you were intended to be.”
Mockery shot through her. “Who was I intended to be, Graeme?” she questioned with such false sweetness she nearly gagged on it. “It seems only you know that answer. What did you think you created when you shot that shit inside me with those therapies? Did you justify it each time I screamed and cried and then lay wasted for days begging you to let me die?” she screamed that question at him. A question she hadn’t even known tormented her until that moment. “What was I supposed to be, G?”
Tears filled her eyes. She hated that. Hated the weakness and the emotions that tore her apart each time she remembered that she had been his experiment.
His experiment.
“You were supposed to live,” he growled furiously, gripping her arms and hauling her back to his chest, glaring down at her as the pupils of his eyes became obliterated by the green. “You h
ad to live and there was only one way to ensure that, with Breed DNA. There was no other way to wipe that fucking disease out of your body and I wasn’t going to let you die. You were mine.”
“I was your experiment,” she cried out. “You said it yourself, you never loved me.” A sob tore from her throat, knowing that wound had never healed. “Do you know what you did to me that night? Do you have any idea what you did when you told me that?”
“Do you have any idea what it did to me?” Before she could answer him, before she could do more than recognize the animalistic rasp of pain in his voice as his lips suddenly covered hers.
Hard. Possessive.
His tongue pushed past her lips, determined and hungry and spilling the most alluring hint of spice. That hint of taste captivated her, left her wanting more and had her lips closing around his tongue, some primal impulse demanding she draw on it, to pull more of that elusive taste into her senses. Moaning, clutching at his shoulders once again, Cat reveled in the pleasure, losing herself in it.
She should be fighting him and she knew it. She should be fighting this overwhelming need, and she couldn’t, had no desire to now that she was being consumed by his kiss. All she could do was hold on to him, hold him to her and relish in the fact that he was here now. That the lost, agonized part of her soul found solace.
When his head jerked back, his lips pulling from hers, Cat could only stare up at him, dazed and uncertain. Blinking in shock at the abrupt withdrawal it took a moment to realize what had disturbed the chaotic hunger he’d unleashed on her. The Wolf Breed scent was vaguely familiar though she couldn’t quite place it until he spoke.
“Sorry, Graeme,” the Breed cleared his throat uncomfortably. “We have a situation at the estate. Alpha Reever asked that you be found immediately.”
Cat moved to turn and face the Breed, uncomfortable with her back turned to him.
“Don’t.” Graeme held her still with a growl as his hand jerked out and returned with the robe discarded on the back of the patio chair.
Staring up at him she let him help her into it, remaining silent as she pulled the front edges together and belted them snugly.
The disturbance was for the best, she thought. No good could come of the trust she wanted so desperately to give him, or the emotions burning in her chest. He’d already betrayed her once, he would betray her again.
