Alpha Mate: BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance (18 page)

“
Lucas, I will hunt rogues. I have to. My life
depends on it. Literally. And it's better that I hunt them as an
Enforcer than as a vigilante. As an Enforcer, I will be well
trained, well equipped and well protected. I won't get hurt...”
When Lucas shot her a look, Charlotte tagged on, “...much.”

“
I won't let you get hurt,” Lucas had
growled. “I might not be able to release you from that damn
Promise, but I sure can protect you. I will hunt for you, so...”

“
Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Charlotte had put up a
hand. “Hunt for me? No, Lucas, it doesn't work that way.
Neither do I want it that way. I will hunt, as an Enforcer, with my
partner. You're my mate, and I know you'll always make sure I am
safe, well and happy. But this is my life. The Potion gave me a
second chance at life, and happiness. I am to be a hunter of rogues,
and
your mate. I am mated, not handicapped, Lucas. You can't
do everything for me.”

A few days after their talk, Jett had announced that the
PAC would be scheduling retests for all the trainees who had failed
their Finals due to interference by their assessors. All the
trainees had whooped and punched their fists in the air at the
announcement.

At a cough, Charlotte looked up to see Bryn giving her a
rather naughty, knowing look, and smirking. Blushing, Charlotte
glanced around the foyer. She hadn't seen Lucas since she arrived at
the PAC Headquarters and reported to the Enforcement Unit. Lucas had
driven her here in his Porsche, and had given her a fierce, scorching
kiss before making his way to the PAC Conference room for an urgent
meeting.

“
I'll make you proud,” Charlotte had told
him. She would pass her Final test with flying colors.

“
You already do. Every single day,” Lucas
had answered with a smile that never failed to make her heart skip a
beat.

As she watched him enter the Conference room, she
realized that she loved him. He was strong, intelligent, fun,
sensual, protective, decisive, and he loved her. He respected her
and cherished her, and didn't try to control or command her, even
though he was the PAC Alpha. He was simply her mate.

“
Helloo, earth to Charlotte.” Bryn waved a
hand in front of Charlotte's face. “It's almost time.”

Charlotte blinked and nodded. “Okay. I'm ready.”

They checked and synchronized their watches. At exactly
twenty-one hundred hours, they strode out of the PAC Headquarters and
started their patrol.

Jett had briefed them on their route. But he refused to
divulge who their assessor would be. Charlotte peeked
surreptitiously over her shoulder, but she could see no one. She
couldn't see any PAC member or senior Enforcer shadowing them.

She blew out a breath and continued to stroll through
the dwindling crowd of civilian humans and paranormals. The streets
were relatively quiet on Monday nights.

“
So, what happened to you after Glenn came and
misted you away?” Charlotte asked, nudging her partner as they
walked. “Your Master vampire is dark, brooding, and very
handsome.”

“
Ooh. Don't let Lucas hear that,” Bryn
said, pretending to look around for eavesdroppers.

“
Why? I'm mated, not blind,” Charlotte
sniffed. “And Lucas is cool. He knows that he is my mate, my
one and only, and I am his, forever.”

Bryn responded with loud, exaggerated kissing sounds and
they both burst into chuckles.

When they stopped laughing, Bryn fell silent with a
faraway look in her eyes. Finally she said softly, “Glenn
turned me into a vampire, to save my life. Sort of. I think. I'm
not sure if I'm really alive now. I'm like undead or something...”

“
Of course you're alive!” Charlotte
snapped. “I see you and I'm talking to you, aren't I? I don't
see dead people, all right? Plus, if you're dead, how can you
feeeeeel for our hunky trainer, Jett?”

Bryn made a face at her. “Okay, okay. Where were
we? You were asking what happened after Glenn misted me away, right?
Well, Glenn misted me and the human kid back to her home. He took a
small drop of her blood and saw where she lived. He dropped the kid
off at her home, in her bedroom. I tucked her in, and she told me
'You're pretty when you're not being scary!'” Bryn smiled.
“She's a sweet kid. When Glenn misted me back to the PAC
Headquarters, Jasynta was already waiting in the medical bay, and she
gave me two packs of blood from the blood bank straightaway. I was
made to rest and recover. Jett came to see me. He didn't say much,
he just stayed with me the whole time.”

Charlotte caught the faint blush on her partner's face
and was about to say something when Bryn cleared her throat sharply.
“I heard they caught one of the rogue hybrids,” she said.
“The one you didn't shoot.”

Charlotte nodded, allowing Bryn to get away just this
one time with changing the topic and evading her interrogation.
“Yeah. Lucas told me they couldn't get much information from
the hybrid, Timmy. He was in shock, and he couldn't give them any
names. But he did describe the rogue wolf who turned him into a
hybrid. He said it was a half-wolf, half-man creature, a scary
wolfman with a long scar across his face and a mangled eye socket.”
Charlotte shuddered. “If that monster can attack four vampire
punks and turn them into hybrids, he must be one scary son of a
bitch.”

“
That he is,” Bryn concurred
wholeheartedly.

They had moved past the main roads and were starting to
patrol the smaller, quieter streets. Charlotte shivered, but it
wasn't from the night chill. Her skin was beginning to crawl, with
every hair sensitized and standing on end. A street lamp flickered
and went out overhead. Shadows stretched and loomed nearer to them.
The only sound that could be heard was the echo of their footsteps
along the length of the deserted street.

“
Stay alert, Bryn,” she muttered. “Be
careful.”

“
What?”

“
I sense...something.”

“
Something beginning with 'r'?”

Charlotte nodded. “Something beginning with 'w',”
she whispered back.

They both drew their weapons. Bryn held her gun out and
Charlotte clutched two silver daggers in her hands.

“
Just to clarify, is it a rogue witch, warlock or
were-something that you sensed?” Bryn whispered.

“
Wolf.”

“
Okay.” Bryn gulped. “Silver
bullets, check.”

“
We're going to do this, just like we practiced,”
Charlotte said quietly, trying to still her breathing.

“
Y-yup.”

Charlotte moved ahead of Bryn, her eyes scanning the
moving shadows. All the shop windows along the street were dark.
The offices above the shops were closed. After office hours, this
area was like a dead town, with hardly any signs of life. Not even a
stray cat or rat scuttled past these old streets.

Charlotte felt her old scars begin to throb, and she
stifled a grimace. These were her scars from that night, the night
Charlene died. She could hear Bryn at her back as she crept forward,
her silver blades flashing.

There was a jarring, scratching sound to her right, like
a claw dragging on concrete. She turned, and saw a single red eye
staring back at her from the depths of a narrow alley.

A cry lodged in her throat as something big and black
flew towards her, all teeth and claws.

Bryn screamed and fired, but the bullet merely grazed
the creature's side. Charlotte scrambled back and saw what had
attacked her. The walls of the dam that she had so painfully
constructed in her mind collapsed and memories came flooding through
her mind. She had tried so hard to lock these memories away, just so
she could get up every morning and function, to continue breathing
and living each day. She had tried to block out the nightmarish
images of the monster that had killed her sister.

But now, she saw that face, that horrible, animal face.

The same scarred, hellish face was now staring
unblinkingly back at her, its one red eye glowing. From the ugly
mess of scars that covered its left eye socket extended a jagged scar
that slashed across its face to the corner of its snarling mouth.

A vivid image of her own hand, gripping a broken bottle
and stabbing it into the wolf's left eye flashed before Charlotte's
eyes.

“
You!” Her voice was a harsh, tortured
whisper. “You...killed...Charlene!”

The wolfman stood tall on its muscular human legs, its
glowing eye fixed on Charlotte. It touched its scarred, empty eye
socket with the tip of a claw, clearly recognizing her as the woman
who had taken out its eye so many moons ago.

I've been looking for you.

The creature growled but its words snaked insidiously
into Charlotte's mind. She clutched her arm at the sudden jolt of
pain through her scars. This rogue had attacked her and drawn her
blood, and she could now sense him and hear his growled words as
clearly as if he had spoken them. A glance at Bryn's wide-eyed face
confirmed that her partner had not heard the rogue's words.

“
You will die...tonight,” Charlotte said,
twirling her daggers and catching them firmly by the hilt. She held
them out, crouching slowly.

The wolf opened its mouth, in a parody of a smile.

You can't kill me, but I can kill you—and turn
you.

“
I will never be like you,” Charlotte spat.
“You killed my sister. You hurt a lot of people. It's time,
wolf. An eye for an eye!”

With that, she ducked cleanly out of the way. Behind
her, Bryn fired a single shot, her stance upright and her aim true.

At the code words, Bryn had aimed for the wolf's
remaining eye.

A couple of nights before the Final test, Bryn had come
over to the mansion and the two of them had hunkered down in Lucas's
study to brainstorm and prepare for their Finals. They decided that
they would shout out their mode of attack to each other using a few
agreed upon catchphrases. They were going to be a team to be
reckoned with. No more splitting up and running helter skelter in
all directions. No more being unprepared and taken unawares. No
more being caught and taken hostage by rogues. They were the
hunters, not the preys.

They would shout out the code words to each other and
coordinate their attack.

An eye for an eye
—aim for the eyes.

No guts, no glory
—hit the target low in the
gut.

No brainer
—literally.

The bullet pierced the wolf's right eye and burrowed
into its brain. The rogue werewolf let out a terrible bellow of
wrath and agony. It stumbled back blindly, but managed to remain on
its feet. Raising its head, it sniffed the air furiously, and turned
its head sharply towards Charlotte. It could scent her, even if it
could not see her. It took another whiff, zeroing in on Charlotte's
exact location and pounced.

Charlotte saw the wolf move in a blur, and she slashed
out with her daggers. One blade lodged in the wolf's shoulder as it
came crashing down on top of her. Its deadly claws raked down her
side, opening up a long, ugly gash.

Charlotte bit down hard on her lip to stopper her cry.
She clutched her side and breathed hard as she pushed herself up.
She could feel her blood pooling in her palm and flowing through her
fingers. Shit!

Shaking her head, she forced herself to focus. Bryn was
running towards the rogue, shooting off a round of silver bullets,
but the wolf twisted and rolled out of her way, its ears pricked and
its nose twitching to hear and scent her approach.

“
Charlotte, this is the rogue—who turned the
vamps! You said Timmy described him...” Bryn was yelling as
she backed away from the snarling wolf.

Charlotte stared at the half-shifted wolfman, and
realized that Bryn was right. Timmy had described the rogue wolf who
turned him as a half-wolf, half-man creature, a scary wolfman with a
long scar across his face and a mangled eye socket.

Bryn's hand was shakily pulling out a wooden stake from
under her jacket. Bryn couldn't touch silver, and her wooden stake
wouldn't be able to kill the wolf. But she could sure cause some
damage.

“
I heart you, Charlotte!” Bryn hollered and
charged, driving the stake into the rogue's chest and quickly ducking
out of the way just a fraction of a second before those razor-sharp
claws slashed through the spot where her throat had been.

Charlotte staggered forward, her bloodied hand gripping
her dagger. “I...heart...you!” she rasped.

For Charlene and Bryn.

For Lucas.

For her life, and her loves.

Ignoring the deep gash in her side, Charlotte ran
forward, her vision narrowing to zoom in on the target. Shadows
seemed to crowd in, darkening her peripheral vision. Only the rogue
wolf remained in her sight.

This was the moment.

She would end this.

Her blood flew from her wound as she gained speed and
momentum. Her blood sang and screamed for vengeance, for release.