Jessie dropped the tablet and flew across the room, slamming the bedroom door shut and throwing the lock. How long would it hold? The knob was old and flimsy.
She yanked her phone from her pocket. As her finger pushed the nine, the door exploded inward. Knob, frame, everything splintered. Braden stood in the doorway. Before she jabbed the one, he’d grabbed her arm. The phone went flying.
“We don’t need an audience.” Braden smiled at her, the scar pulling it into a grimace.
Jessie froze in his grasp. Because he wasn’t the beast, but the human. And he was buck naked. Six foot four of stripped human male in her bedroom, with a physique that would make a body builder drool. He had a rather obvious interest in her. And so not in a platonic fashion.
Impossible to rip her gaze away from him as he advanced on her.No.She’d gotten away from Braden once. But he’d come back for her. Just like he promised he would.
“Well, my pretty,” he said. “Did you miss me?”
He kept advancing, and she kept retreating. All the way across the bedroom. Where the effing hell was that bear spray? She’d knocked it off the table, but a glance down to the floor revealed nothing.
Her back hit the wall between the little table and the window. Suddenly she was out of room. He pressed in on her. The heat of his body made her heart pound. As did his warm, musky scent.
Jessie’s knees wobbled, and she could barely stay on her feet. Why wasn’t she repelled? Horrified, even? Anything but what she was.
When she didn’t try to dodge him and get away, his smile widened. The effect produced by the unresponsive side gave it a macabre twist.
“Like what you see?”
She finally ripped her eyes off his prominent erection. “You bastard,” she hissed.
“Yep. I am a bastard. But a damned horny one. Something you can help me with, Sterling.”
“Sterling?”
“Your eyes.” His voice deepening. “So pretty. Not as nice as the rest of you, though.”
He put his hand against the wall on one side of her head. When she didn’t bolt—her legs refused to obey—he pressed against her. His free hand moved up beneath her loose sweatshirt to trace her breast. It sent an answering pulse rippling through her. His arousal shoved hard against her belly.
“You’re disgusting,” she hissed, but she trembled.
“Uh, huh,” he muttered as his fingers tweaked her nipple.
Her entire body shuddered. His scent was intoxicating, all animal musk and warm human. How was he doing this to her? Naked men were part of her job. None had ever affected her like this. Not even, to be honest, those she’d gone to bed with.
What the hell was going on?
He leered at her, and before she could stop him, he lowered his lips to hers. And kissed her.
He tasted as good as he smelled. Her knees buckled as she leaned into him. Her thighs parted, inviting him to push his hips between them. Long fingers hooked into the waistband of her sweatpants and tugged them lower. He drifted his lips along her jaw. He lowered his mouth to her throat. His teeth pricked and pierced her skin.
NO!
Jessie’s brain screamed at her. She yanked her head away. Her arm snapped up and around in an arc, her hand cracking him across the face. At the last second, she hooked her fingers into claws.
The short human fingernails left red welts on his skin. He didn’t even flinch. Instead, his eyes ignited. Molten gold. He shoved against her, hard as rock and insistent, only the thin fabric of her clothing between them.
A crash rang from somewhere below. A roar, and snarls. Things breaking, and not all of it was china.
There was a dogfight going on in her kitchen. Not a dogfight. Awolffight.
Braden’s body went as rigid as what pushed between her legs. His snarl was half curse. Huge fangs dropped from his lengthening jaw.
Another crash from below, and snarls that transformed to a shriek.
Jessie struggled against his hold. Braden stepped back, caught in transformation from man to beast. He wrapped one hand around her arm. The fingers clutching her grew wicked claws. The other slipped free from her breast as the arm rippled and writhed with new muscle.
