Marked By The Vampire (Purgatory #2)(33)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Her pulse raced beneath his touch.

“You like the bite, Olivia. You love it. You were meant to be with a vampire. A perfect mate.” As he’d thought before…a vampire’s wet dream. “That’s why you always had the fascination with monsters. Because you were drawn in, something inside of you recognized what you wanted—”

“Stop.” Her voice was low, shaking. “I’m some kind of genie, you’re a Viking vampire, and now I’m supposed to mate with you?”

Actually, he’d been around since before the Vikings. And she was the first female that he’d felt the bond with.

He’d been warned before…

You’ll drink from her and want no other.

His father’s words. Of course, he’d had to kill that ruthless bastard on a battlefield one thunderous night. The bloodlust had been too strong within his father. He’d gone on another rampage.

So many bodies. Men. Women. Children.

Shane had stopped his father, once and for all. He’d taken his head, right after his father begged for mercy.

You never showed your prey any mercy. Those had been Shane’s final words to the man who was far more devil than vampire.

Shane tried to shove that memory away. The past didn’t matter. Olivia mattered. She was his present. His future. Everything that he needed.

“You’re wrong.” Her voice was soft, but he heard her perfectly. “You’re so wrong about me. The reason I studied the monsters wasn’t because I was drawn to them. It was because—”

When she stopped, he just waited.

“Because there’s darkness in me.” Whispered. Such a quiet confession. “I can feel it sometimes, pushing to get out. The darkness is there, in half forgotten dreams that haunt me. In nightmares that seem too real. In—”

A werewolf’s howl split the night. Shane surged to his feet because he knew that howl belonged to Connor—and the guy was sending up a warning signal.

He headed for the door.

“Wait!”

Shane glanced back. Olivia had jumped from the bed. She had the sheet wrapped around her because after the wreck, they’d needed to cut her clothes away.

“What’s happening?”

There was only one reason Connor would send up an alarm like that. “Company.”

“And you’re leaving me here? No, you can’t do that.” She motioned to the floor. “Get rid of the marks. Let me out! Let me come with you!”

But she’d tried to run from him before.

The howl came again, and…he could hear growls drifting on the wind. More than one beast was hunting in the darkness.

“I’m not leaving you,” Shane told her. As if he would. They were past that now. She had far too much value to him. “I’m making damn sure no one gets to you.”

Then he yanked open that door and rushed out to face the beasts who mistakenly thought they’d take her from him.

***

Olivia’s jaw dropped. One minute, Shane had been telling her that he was her mate or some other fated nonsense, and in the next instant, he’d left.

While she was basically stuck there, naked.

Hell, no.

Olivia started searching the cabin, or as much of it as she could. Howls and snarls were sounding in the distance, and goosebumps pretty much covered her skin.

Clothing was her priority. She couldn’t face whatever threat was out there while she was bare-assed naked.

There!

A bag was on the floor. She opened it, and found a t-shirt and jeans inside. Her size. Yes! Maybe the clothes had come from Pate. He struck her as the resourceful type. Right then, she didn’t care who’d brought them. Olivia was just glad they were there. She jerked on the tennis shoes that were in the bottom of the bag and stood up.

That was when the silence hit her. No more growls. No more howls. Nothing.

Olivia crept toward the door, or rather, as far toward it as her invisible cell would allow. “Shane?”

No answer.

She bit her lip. She wanted to scream for him, but a scream would just give away her location. Right, like the werewolves can’t smell you!

Her nose twitched then, because she’d just smelled something. Something that smelled a whole lot like…fire.

She whirled around. Saw the flash of flames right outside of the cabin’s window. That flash grew, grew…and suddenly, fire was eating up the side of the cabin and rushing toward the ceiling.

She opened her mouth and screamed as loud as she could. “Shane! Shane, I—”

A werewolf leapt through the fire and came straight at her.

Chapter Nine

Shane shoved back the werewolf who’d just gone for his throat. He heard bones crunch when the wolf hit the ground, but he didn’t care.

Ambush.

They weren’t just facing off against one or two wolves. Not just that bastard David or the warden…a whole pack had attacked them. A pack that had closed in quickly—a pack that wasn’t stopping.

Connor was in werewolf form. Fighting fiercely. Biting. Clawing.

Duncan was near his brother. Slashing with his own claws and protecting Connor’s back.

Holly was outside. Firing silver bullets at the beasts and Pate—

“Fire!” Pate roared.

Hell, yeah, Shane knew about the fire. He could smell it, too. The pack had come in from the east, and they’d torched the med cabin first. Duncan had gotten Holly out of that place with a bellow of fury.

The wolves who’d been foolish enough to try and hurt Holly were dead on the ground.

“Shane!”

Olivia’s scream reached him over the fury of the flames. He whirled and saw the fire shooting up from her cabin. No!

Two wolves tried to take him down.

They were the ones to fall, and they didn’t get back up.

He kicked in the door of the cabin. “Olivia!”

She was on the floor, backing away from two wolves who stalked toward her. One was a big, hulking white wolf. A wolf with bright eyes that were fixed solely on Olivia. The other beast was a heavy, muscled gray wolf with bright, blue eyes.

The white wolf was familiar to Shane. He’d seen that beast on Purgatory. That beast had been hunting them both there.

David. The bastard had tracked Olivia to the mainland.

And the fire was spreading around the cabin. Too fast.

“Get away from her!” Shane lunged for them.

The white wolf sprang away from Olivia and came at Shane with his fangs snapping. Shane caught the beast’s mouth, slammed its jaws shut and then threw the wolf right toward the flames.