Big Bad Bite Read online

  Next time, she promised herself. Next time they made love she would ask Adam to give her the Mark. Perhaps even later tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on how the rest of their visit at the club went. Soon her Alpha would get his desired mate, and Jenna would get the fulfillment of her dreams of a full life.

  Adam’s affectionate petting brought her around from her musings, and she opened her heavy eyelids to see the amused Alpha watching her.

  “Nice head trip, love?”

  Unable to move her lips yet due to the blissfully happy endorphins running through her system, she nodded. This caused the smug man to chuckle before nuzzling the side of her face. “We have to go back out there, you know. Your family will be waiting on us, and your Uncle is probably preparing a lecture for us about how this isn’t a joy trip we’re on, and we need to get our priorities in order. Personally I just think he needs to get laid more often.”

  That caused a rough laugh to bubble through Jenna’s numb lips. “Yeah, I guess we should get back out there.”

  He placed a string of sweet kisses of her neck, the side of her jaw, and then a lingering one over her lips before disengaging from her and settling her gently down on her feet, making sure to hold her up by her arms until she was steady on her own. When she walked over to the sink to clean up, and straighten her skirt back out, he buttoned up his pants while watching her intently. She was starting to think it was a hobby of his. Watching her. No matter where Jenna looked, she could turn back to Adam, and he would be watching her. Did she distract him? Or was he that hyper aware of their surroundings that he was able to study her on a constant basis while still knowing if danger lurked nearby. Surely the man would grow tired of staring at her all the time one day. Wouldn’t he?

  When she finished up, he opened the bathroom door for her and escorted her out of the men’s room with his arm wrapped around her shoulders, down the hallway, and out into the shouting crowd that was avidly watching the fight now in process. Alec was shirtless, dressed only in his jeans and shitkickers, and circling the ring that was only enclosed by a painted white line on the floor and the bodies of the patrons watching the fight. He was currently dodging swipes from the claws of his opponent who was surprisingly the light haired vampire Jenna had been watching during his feeding, and later his intimate acts, with his female on the floor below.

  Now that the man was under the bright lights, she could see that he was a bit smaller than Alec, somewhere around five foot, ten inches, with a lean lightly muscled body that couldn’t compare to the tiger’s, but was still impressive. He was by no means a gym jock since he was on the smaller side, but then what vampire went to the gym anyways? The vampire was also shirtless, showing off pale skin that was not due to him being a vampire, but had more to do with his heritage that looked like possible European decent. He had a strong patrician nose, with a bump in the middle as if it had been broken several times before his immortal healing abilities had activated to prevent it. He also had a strong jaw, with a pointy chin, and mesmerizing grass green eyes unlike any others she’d ever seen.

  Adam’s hand on her shoulder tightened, so she looked up to him to see what had caused the reaction. She found him looking across the room, his gaze on the two women who her brother had trailed hours earlier. The blonde looked pale and scared shitless. Her eyes still bloodshot from crying, her body seemed frail, and stress still radiated off her. The brunette had her caged in a circle of bodies as she spoke with two beefy men with her hands doing half the talking, flailing about like fish out of water, and occasionally pointing to the frightened blonde. Those men where more than likely cut from the same cloth as the brunette than that of the scared woman now trapped in a pack of wolves. The two men wore almost identical outfits showcasing their ‘high-class’ titles. Suits minus those smothering jackets. The taller of the two, only by a mere inch, was showing his love for the color black. Charcoal buttoned shirt with the sleeves rolled up and ready to do business. Black slacks adorned with a shiny woven leather belt and yep you guessed it, shiny ass shoes. His twin was dressed the same but in smoke gray, and of course rocking his shiny shit kickers, as well.

  Jenna subtly scanned the room for her brother and Uncle and spotted them separately, each a few yards away, but in opposite directions of the group of presumably Corvus wolves. Logan was halfheartedly cheering Alec on in his fight, but kept his body turned in the Corvus wolves’ direction to keep an eye on the situation. Her Uncle, however, stood propped up against a wall silently watching the room before him, which just happened to have a line of sight to their targets.

  She looked back at Adam to see he’d turned his attention back to the fight, and Jenna joined his gaze just in time to see Alec throw an uppercut to the vampire’s chin. The punch sent his ass flying in the air until he landed half dazed on his back with his jaw at a grotesque angle that didn’t look natural. As Alec stomped forward, the vampire shook his head as if to clear it, and looked up just in time to see Alec practically on top of him. Then he used his preternatural speed to issue a kick to his opponent’s midsection that promptly sent Alec sprawled out on his ass.

  The vampire jumped to his feet, quickly popping his jaw back into place, and closed the short distance to try and stomp-kick Alec while he was down. Alec must have known something like this would happen and rolled out of the way just in time to miss the connection. He then executed a sweeping kick that connected with the vampire’s ankles, bringing his body crashing back down to the floor. Without hesitation, Alec brought his leg up, then stomped it down into his opponent’s face in three quick strikes until there was blood streaming down the vampire’s nose before rolling away again.

  This was not the same playful tiger that had toyed with his opponent in Wilmington. This fight was calculated and exceedingly brutal. Either Alec wasn’t playing around because he wanted the fight to be done with quickly so he could get back to their mission, or this time his opponent was a considerable threat that he was trying to shut down quickly. Maybe even a combination of the two possibilities. Either way, Jenna was sure that it was going to be one of the most blood thirsty things she’d ever seen.

  She watched the two men go at each other like rabid animals. Kicks, punches, and claws were used at every opening in hopes to weaken their opponent, all working towards that moment where they could take advantage of fatigue, or an injury, to put the other down and end the fight. Alec’s fighting style was a mix of martial arts that was well complimented by his feline agility and his brute strength. The vampire’s fighting style was a bit of classic boxing since he had that full upright stance, with legs shoulder width apart, and one foot halfway behind its counterpart.

  His left fist was held vertically, about six inches in front of his face at eye level. His right fist was beside his chin, and he had his elbows tucked against his ribcage to protect his body. Lastly, she could see where he’d tucked his chin down a little to try to avoid those sneaky punches to the jaw. Looking at his entire stance, it wasn’t what she would have expected from a guy who would have learned to fight in the last one hundred years or so. No, if she would have to guess, she’d say the vampire had learned to box hundreds of years ago, back when the sport was probably considered more civilized than it was these days. Of course, with the stomp kick the vampire had tried to deliver a few minutes ago, she knew that boxing wasn’t his only skill. The man liked to mix it up between that and what she would call dirty street fighting.

  Alec was now half shifted on certain areas of his body. His tiger claws had sprouted from his fingertips, his chocolate colored stripes were running up his arms, and his canines had visibly dropped over his bottom lip. He would lunge in towards the vampire, trying to tear him apart with his claws, and the vampire would respond by using his preternatural speed, which apparently was a bit faster than Alec’s own speed, and deliver a jab to the tiger’s face. In a matter of minutes, Alec’s anger was getting the best of him, which was obviously seen by his glowing eyes. His beast was in danger of b
reaking free, and the vampire had gotten in at least a dozen jabs to the tiger’s face.

  Jenna slid her eyes away from the fight to peer at the Corvus wolves again. The two burly German wolves now had the small blonde between them as they dragged her kicking and screaming towards the elevator, with the smug looking brunette sauntering closely behind in those stilettos. Looked like shit was going downhill quickly. Her eyes didn’t have far to travel to see that both her Uncle, and Logan, were on the warpath to intercept the foursome before they made their escape. They shoved bodies out of their way, causing mass fistfights to break out in their wake. They were unable to reach the group before the elevator known for ‘carrying out dead bodies’ door’s closed though.

  The eighth floor was turning into pandemonium. The level of violence had spilled over from the ring into its crowd of spectators, starting with the handful of patrons who had confused Owen and Logan’s pushing as deliberate shoves from someone else around them, and spreading into several small brawls throughout the floor. Jenna didn’t have time to worry about the fist fights. She placed two fingers on either side of her mouth and blew a shrill whistle to get Logan and Owen’s attention. Once she had it, she pointed to the bathroom hallway and they started pushing their way through the bodies again, accidentally sending a few of those individuals flying several feet, since they were moving with their preternatural shifter speed.

  With one last glance in Alec’s direction, she saw that he was still engaged in the fight with the ruthless vampire, so she turned with the decision to leave him there and pursue the blonde who was now in obvious need of a rescue. Rushing to the hallway, zipping down its length, and then throwing the door open, she didn’t need to turn around to know that Adam was practically walking on the backs of her heels he was so close, and she smelled Owen and Logan rushing in their direction.

  It was a good thing she’d noticed the ‘EXIT’ sign earlier. Every building with an elevator was required to have a set of stairs as an alternate means of escape in case the power went out, or there was some type of emergency such as a fire. Luckily, Jenna had spotted it even in her lust induced fog as Adam had carried her to the men’s bathroom like a caveman. The question now was, could they make it down eight flights of stairs, even if they ran down the steps using their shifter speed, before the elevator reached the bottom floor and they lost the woman forever? The way those two wolves, whom she was still assuming were part of the Corvus Pack, moved towards the exit a moment ago hadn’t looked to fortuitous for the blonde having a long and healthy life after she left the club. Hopefully, they would be able to reach her in time to make sure she would still be breathing after tonight.

  As she leaped down the twelve concrete steps, deciding to skip the idea of actually running down them, she dropped to the seventh floor landing, pivoted on her heel, and launched herself down the next flight of stairs. The four of them jumped down the flights of stairs, one after the other, landing after landing until they’d reached the bottom floor, hoping beyond hope that they were in time to reach the one link they’d found to their underlying problem. Once Jenna pushed through the stairway’s entrance door she recognized the back of the building that Alec had brought them through earlier in the night. Running as fast as she could for the back entrance to the building, she knew that if a human happened to see them pass that they wouldn’t actually see them. Instead, they’d feel that odd breeze that blew by from seemingly nowhere, and wonder what the hell was going on. Luckily she didn’t pass any poor unsuspecting humans on the way to her destination.

  The back metal door came in sight, and she heard Adam growl at her to wait. She knew her mate wanted to go through the door first to make sure there was no immediate danger, but her job on the SWAT team was filled with nothing but danger. This was going to be one of those areas that Adam would have to learn how to deal. She reached the doorknob, barely sliding herself to a stop in time before she would have more than likely taken the door out altogether, turned the knob, and burst out of the building already on alert for threats. Whimpering cries sounded from the ally their cab had driven down, so she sprinted in that direction, turned the corner, and came to a stop when she spotted the girl on her knees pleading for her life.

  Fifty feet away one of the men held the woman down using one hand on her shoulder, and the other tangled in her hair, tipping her head back so that her neck was exposed and vulnerable. The other male stood in front of her with his hand wrapped around that fragile throat, his claws punctured through the skin causing little rivers of blood to drain down and pool in the fabric of her shirt. The blonde’s tiny hands were wrapped around his wrists, futilely trying to pull his hands away to end the pain. The skanky brunette was on the far side of the scene, leaning against the hood of a silver BMW, and watching dispassionately as the blonde’s eyes overflowed with tears and obviously begging to be let go. Jenna’s wolf was angered at the grotesque display of three dominant wolves preying on an obviously weak submissive wolf. Of course, now all of the Corvus’ wolves focus was on her since they’d scented her and the others the moment they’d stepped into the alley.

  The brunette pointed her finger at them and shouted, “Verpissdichvon hier!”

  Jenna’s hands snapped up in the air as she started to internally gather her telekinetic powers about the time that Adam, Uncle Owen, and Logan stepped around her toward the threat. In the blink of an eye, the male in front of the blond backhanded her so hard that she flew several feet to the side to land unconscious in front of the brunette’s feet. The two Corvus males launched themselves at Owen and Logan as Adam headed for the pitiful looking body of the submissive wolf. The nasty brunette tried to launch herself at Adam when he got too close to the woman’s prey, but Jenna used her powers to pick her body up and throw her to the other side of the car and past the truck, where she heard the harsh thump of her body landing on the hard pavement. Adam closed the distance between himself and the inert woman, scooping her up gently in his arms before heading back in Jenna’s direction so that they could leave this place before more trouble joined their impromptu little party.

  Looking to her left, Jenna saw that her little brother had his opponent on his knees already as he delivered violent punches to the man’s face, causing a sick crunch and squishing sound that kind of turned her stomach. Turning away from the scene she looked right to see her Uncle stomp kicking the other Corvus wolf repeatedly in his spine until there was an alarming ‘snap’ heard. When the wolf lay there semi-conscious but unable to move because Owen had snapped his spine in half, her Uncle reached over, took both sides of the man’s head in his hands, and gave a sharp twist until another awful snap could be heard. Then Jenna heard a third snap back on her left, and she knew Logan had snapped the neck of his opponent as well.

  She’d been a trained Police Officer for a number of years now and had seen some sick shit while on the job, but she didn’t know if she’d ever get use to the sound of a neck being broken. It took everything she had in that moment not to upchuck the small dinner she’d eaten hours ago. Her only consolation was that she knew the wolves weren’t actually dead, just incapacitated until their regeneration process could kick in and heal the breaks.

  Adam had just made it to her side when they all heard the sound of a gun chambering a round. Shoving the slack form of the woman into her arms, Adam turned to face the potential threat just in time to see that evil little skank hide her body behind the driver’s side door of her BMW as she pointed a Heckler & Koch MP5K submachine directly at Jenna and the blond, then pulled the trigger. Adam roared in rage as the staccato of gunfire sounded. He flung his body in front of hers, shoving his hand out to push her in the chest, causing her own body to fall backwards as she held onto her precious cargo.

  The ‘pop, pop, pop’ carried on for agonizing seconds as she landed on her back, rolled to the side to lay the woman down, and then roll back to face the danger in front of her. Adam was down on the ground covered in blood. His flesh sizzling where several bull
ets had embedded in his chest and around his heart.

  Silver.

  The bitch was shooting silver bullets at them! The sight of Adam lying motionless brought her wolf to the front as their sanity snapped with their mate silent on the ground. Blood pounded in her ears as she looked up the woman who had caused her precious Adam so much damage, and she was laughing.

  His flesh was burning because of her and she was laughing.

  Whatever the brunette saw in Jenna’s face caused her to stop her malevolent chortle, and pause in uncertainty. Fear flashed in her eyes. Jenna climbed to her feet as the world around her disappeared in a haze of red. Glancing back down at the man she had denied less than an hour before something so treasured as his Mark, she saw the veins in his body start to turn black from the poison the silver bullets were causing. The poison that was centered and strongest around his barely beating heart. Looking back up to the-one-she-would-kill, who was hiding back behind her car door, she watched her raise the submachine gun again, aiming it for Jenna’s chest this time.

  This time, she wouldn’t get the chance to pull the trigger. Jenna jerked her hand out and a tidal wave of power swept from her body. A look of horror spread across the brunette’s face because she was now held motionless from the neck down. Jenna manipulated the woman’s arm to drop and point the gun at her left knee cap, and pulled the woman’s finger that still rested on the trigger. The short staccato of gunshots sounded again as the bullets ripped through her knee, but she couldn’t collapse with her screams to the ground since Jenna still held her body upright.