Forever Bound Series 1-4(33)

“Cade?”

He didn’t look at her. Just stared toward the dark window. “Company.”

Cade leapt out of the bed and raced for the door. Allison grabbed for her clothes and yanked them on as she stumbled after him.

Then she heard the growl of motors approaching. At least two. Oh, crap, this wasn’t good.

She grabbed Cade’s arm. “Wait!”

He spun to face her.

“You don’t know what’s out there—”

“Two trucks. Seven dumbass humans. I can smell ‘em.” He inhaled and offered a grim smile. “And those humans are about to get an ass beating.”

Okay, so he did know.

Cade stalked outside. He was still bare-chested, and the guy didn’t even look for a weapon to take with him. She didn’t know much about werewolves, but no way were they indestructible.

Allison rushed after him, yanking down her shirt. The trucks had just braked to a halt, and dirt danced in the air around them.

Cade stopped on the small porch, braced his legs apart and kept his arms loose at his sides. “Griggs!” He called out. “You dumb bastard, you don’t want to get in this battle.”

Griggs? The guy from Blood Bath? Like she’d be forgetting him anytime soon.

The truck door opened, and sure enough, Griggs poked his shaved head out. “For enough money, I’d gut my own mother.”

Lovely.

The men climbed out of the trucks. Cade had been right about their “company” after all.

“The money’s real good,” Griggs continued as he began to edge toward them. Oh, damn, was that a wooden stake in his hand? “Too good to pass up. Not my fault if you went all * weak.”

A quick glance showed her that Cade’s claws were coming out.

“What?” Griggs demanded. “Did you decide to spend some time screwing the target? I mean, she’s hot, but not worth the—”

Cade lunged forward, and when he moved, in that instant, Allison saw the flash of metal. A gun. The jerkoff sidling up behind Griggs had a gun that he was aiming at Cade.

Had Cade even seen the weapon?

She screamed a warning and leapt toward Cade. Leapt—and moved faster than she’d ever moved in her life. Faster than a human could ever move. Her body slammed into his, and she knocked Cade out of the way even as she felt a fierce burn lance her skin.

She hit the ground, stunned, and realized that her side was still burning. Allison glanced down and in the growing dawn light, she saw the blood seeping through her shirt.

“Fucking wrong move,” Cade snarled.

Her head lifted, and she saw him charge for the gunman. One twist, and he’d broken the man’s wrist. Cade grabbed the gun, and fired two quick shots at the two men coming from the second truck. They fell, screaming.

I know the feeling, *s. Allison pushed her hand against the wound as she tried to stop the flow of blood.

Griggs just kept standing there with the stake clutched in his fist.

“You’re a fool,” Cade snarled the words at Griggs. He tossed the shooter against a tree. The guy moaned and fell to the ground. “You come out here, and you think a bullet’s gonna stop me?”

Griggs backed up a few steps.

Cade stalked after him. “Because you know about the supernaturals, you think that makes you some kind of bad ass slaying machine?”

Allison managed to get to her feet. She only swayed a little, and the blood was slowing, wasn’t it?

She blinked, and Cade had Griggs pinned against the truck. All of the men Griggs had brought with him were on the ground, moaning in pain.

Cade’s fingers, no, his claws, were at Griggs’s throat. “Come after me again,” Cade warned, “you’re dead. So much as look at Allison wrong…and you’re dead.”

Oh. Allison swallowed. He was protecting her again. If he didn’t watch it, she’d definitely start to think he had a soft spot hidden beneath those claws and fur.

“I’ll rip you open,” Cade continued, voice grim, “and cut your heart right out of your chest while you scream and beg for me to stop.”

Maybe not such a soft spot.

“Now get the f*ck out of here,” he ordered. “And make sure every hunter in the area knows…stay away from what’s mine.”

Wait—hold up—did she qualify as his?

Cade stepped back from Griggs. Griggs hauled ass for his truck and his men, wounded, bleeding—their blood smelled sweet—limped after him.

The trucks roared away, fish-tailing it through the woods.

Slowly, Cade turned to face her. “Why?”

She lifted her hand and saw the blood on her fingertips. “Because you couldn’t die for me.”

He stalked toward her. “I wouldn’t have.”

Well, that seemed harsh. She’d saved his butt. Didn’t that count for anything in his mind?

His nostrils flared. “Wolves like the scent of blood.”

So did vampires.

He was almost upon her now, and she could see the sharp edge of his canines. “It usually makes us want to attack,” he said in that lethal voice of his.

Allison barely managed to swallow the lump in her throat as she looked up at him. Don’t attack. Down, wolf. Down.

He’d said his control wasn’t that good. She sure didn’t want him losing control right then.