“You bastard! I would never let you f**k me. I was going to put your c*ck in my mouth and bite it off!”
He chuckled. “Now, that I believe.” He walked to the door and went through shutting it behind him.
Olivia screamed. She couldn’t believe his nerve. He was laughing at her. Laughing at her survival instincts. He knew and anticipated her every move. It was like he sensed her thoughts.
Chapter Three
Garrick leaned against the closed door and sighed.
GThe woman was feisty, to be sure. For someone so petite, she sure had quite the wallop. He ran a finger over his swelling lip. Damn fine punch! He grinned.
Too bad they had to meet under such strained circumstances. Garrick thought he would have liked to spar some more with Ms. Olivia Jordan. Sparring that most certainly would lead to more interesting maneuvers. When he had picked her up and tossed her back on the bed, her beautiful auburn hair had spread out on the mattress. As he gazed down at her, he wished she had been looking back with desire in her green eyes and not fear.
Goes with the territory, he supposed. Regret he had been pondering for some time now. He was starting to get too soft for the job.
Garrick went up the long flight of stairs out of the basement. He turned the corner and went into the small but bright kitchen. Picking up the cordless phone, he wandered into the den dialing. His party answered on the second ring.
“The situation is under control.” Garrick said then paused waiting for a response. “Keep your people under control from now on. I’m tired of cleaning up your messes.” He sat down on his leather computer chair and looked out the big bay window at the surrounding woods. “I know I’m the Keeper of Secrets, Corin, but if keeping our secrets means dealing with you personally, I will do what must be done.” He pushed the disconnect button and tossed the phone onto the antique wooden desk.
He swiveled his chair back to the computer. He did an Internet search on the ambulance crash. There were five different stories about the crash, and the mysterious disappearance of the body and of EMT
Olivia Jordan. Roger had made it safely to the hospital and only sustained mild head injuries.
Garrick was relieved he didn’t have to pay him a visit.
He swiveled again in his chair and stared out the window. He loved the view from this room. Trees and grass, and nature. This was the reason he had bought the house out of town. He hated living in the city among so much concrete. Open space and fresh air was what made him feel at peace. But even that did not do it for him on this assignment.
He rubbed his hands over his face and through his hair. Damn! This one was getting to him. It was time to find a replacement. He was tired. Too tired to do what he knew he had to.
Sonja, the woman who had been shot, was easily disposed off. She had died in his arms, but he felt no remorse. She had it coming. She knew the rules and continually broke them. She had been a troublemaker from day one. Corin knew, but constantly sent her out to do his business. Garrick had bailed her out too many times. He could not keep the peace when members of a pack deliberately went out to disturb it.
He would have to meet with the other pack leaders and decide on a course of action. Corin needed to be dealt with. But Garrick was afraid it would turn into an all out war that no one would be able to hide.
He leaned back in the chair and twitched his ears.
Finally, the woman had stopped screaming. He could hear her taking in shallow ragged breaths. Probably damaged her windpipe. She was a fighter most definitely. He really didn’t want to deal with her, like the others. She was different. Spirited, healthy, alive.
Not like most humans, he had dealt with in the past.
Actually, he couldn’t remember the last time a human had interested him in this way. His hormones were swirling and his blood pumping. He could feel his desire mounting deep in his loins. It had been too long since he exercised that area. He had been fulfilling his needs in other less inventive and interesting ways. Hair actually did grow on his palm.
He turned the chair toward the doorway and listened intently. He could hear little grunts and groans coming from the room downstairs. What was she doing? He stood up and moved toward the stairs.
He would check on her to make sure she was all right.
Then he would decide what to do with her.
He moved quickly down the stairs and opened the door to the small room. He was shocked at the scene on the mattress. She had managed to wriggle her hand through the metal cuff and was now working on her ankle. But the show of cunning and bravado had cost her. Blood spotted the mattress and ran in rivulets down her arm. The skin on her hand had torn off. He noticed she was raw over her thumb and on the back.
“Damn it, girl, what did you do?” He moved swiftly to her side and tried to grab her arm.
She pulled away from him and scrambled across the mattress into the far corner. “Get away from me!”
Garrick stood and looked down at her, concern furrowing his brow. “Let me fix your hand.”
“Why, so you can chain me again?”
“I’m not going to chain you.”
She glared up at him, cradling her hand against her chest. “I don’t believe you. You’re a lying homicidal psychopath.”
“I’m not what you think I am. And if you don’t believe me, then you’re going to have some problems.”
“I already have some problems, a**hole! I’m chained to a bed and you’re going to murder me for some f**ked-up reason!”
Garrick started to laugh. He couldn’t help it. She was unbelievably adorable as her eyes flashed with fury. She was like a little cute puppy with a deep and furious bark, but all the while they were yapping, all you wanted to do was pick them up and cuddle them close.
He didn’t dare try and pick her up and console her, because he knew that there was a mighty bite behind her barks.
“Why are you laughing? You’re a callous bastard, you know that?”
He put up his hand in defense. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be laughing.” He tried to suck it up. “It’s just that you are the feistiest woman I have ever met.”
“And what’s wrong with that? Oh, you probably like your women docile and passive. So you can have your way with them without a fight.”
Garrick sobered up and stopped laughing. He looked down at her intensely. “No, I like feisty woman. And I have never had my way with any woman without consent.”
She snorted. “Oh, well, thanks for clearing that up.
I can rest easy now.”
Garrick grabbed the chair and sat down. He would have to alleviate some of her fears. He wasn’t sure how to, but maybe he could tell her the truth. He had never tried that before. He didn’t think humanity was ready for the truth. But maybe just maybe this woman with the flashing green eyes and the waves of hearty energy could be the one person that would listen.
“Look, Olivia. I’m not going to kill you and I’m not going to hurt you. Let me doctor your hand and then I will tell you why you are here.”
She stared at him hard narrowing her eyes. He could tell she was seriously thinking. Trying to see how much she should trust him.
She stuck out her hand toward him. “Fine.”
Garrick sat beside her on the mattress and dressed her hand. He applied some antibiotic ointment and wrapped it up in gauze. He tied it securely in place.
She glanced up at him when he finished. “Did you sew up my head?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I’m a fixer of sorts.”
She rubbed a hand over her head and fingered the stitches, all the while eyeing him curiously.
He moved farther from her. He needed to give her some space. The truth would be very hard for her to swallow. Besides, her feminine scent was driving him mad. She smelled of sweat, musk, and a light, sweet odor of jasmine.
He turned facing her and sat cross-legged. He put his hands on his thighs. He begged them not to move.
Although he desperately wanted to reach across the bed and tuck the stray hair behind her ear. It kept falling in her face, hiding her glorious eyes behind it like a dark shade hid the sun.
“What I’m going to tell you will be impossible for you to believe. But it is the truth and you will have to make up your own mind.”
Olivia stared at him. He was up to something. The man she woke up to was not the man sitting in front of her. He had softened somehow. Even his face was not as stern, and his eyes flashed something else rather than fury. And she was not sure she really wanted to know what it was.
“My name is Garrick Blackthorn and I am a peace keeper of sorts. There is a mounting war between two clans and I am stuck in the middle of it trying to keep it from spilling out into your world.”
“My world, huh?” Olivia smirked. “You do realize that this is planet Earth, right?”
“There is more than one world on Earth. There is your world, the world of humans and animals living side by side in somewhat peaceful harmony, and then there is my world. The one where the two have become one.”
She narrowed her eyes and shook her head. “Okay, psycho, whatever you say.” But her stomach began to ache and bile rose in her throat as images of human hands covered with thick black hair, long talons, and razor sharp teeth flashed in her mind.
“I see in your eyes the hesitation. The hesitation not to believe me.”
“What are we talking about here? Spell it out for me clearly, so that I know you’re a raving lunatic.”
“Werewolves.”
Olivia swallowed down the bile that rose in her throat. The man was crazy and dangerous. She needed to get out of here immediately, except she did see something last night, didn’t she?
“As in shifting from human to wolf on the night of a full moon? Running na**d through the trees chasing after rabbits, peeing on everything, marking territory…that kind of werewolf? The kind that are only in books and in movies?”
Garrick chuckled. “Yes. Except I’ve only peed on things that were mine. Like the bushes around my house. And I usually go after bigger game…like deer.
Rabbit is much too stringy.”