Читать книгу Claimed by the Wolf - Saranna DeWylde - Страница 9

Chapter Two

Cedar and bergamot—Stefan. Bethany would know his scent anywhere.

She also knew he was going to die. The Blue Ridge Research Facility had erupted in a war zone of explosions, gunfire and blood. He was an accountant, not a soldier. Beth scanned the landscape for him, sure he was near. Following the scent, she focused on finding the origin.

Bethany was hungry for the sight of him—her fiancé. When she had been in the terrarium gathering information on the victims of the virus and had realized she’d been infected with the LZ—the lycanthropic zombie virus—she had been sure her life was over and that in minutes she’d become some snarling cannibal dog only looking to fill her belly with meat. Any meat. The sound of the emergency doors locking her in with the beasts had been like the clanging of the gates of hell.

Dr. Daphne Panetta, her boss and best friend, had been the one to slam those doors, but it’d had to be done, they couldn’t risk releasing the virus. She’d understood, and Daphne had stood with her, watching her transformation as much to bear witness and be with her as to study her. Daphne’s nearness had been a comfort, and Bethany had felt like she wasn’t facing the darkness alone.

When the attack on the facility had begun, she had been glad to see Konstantin, the other test subject whose virus was like Bethany’s, carry Daphne away from the carnage. He’d promised her he’d keep her safe, and Beth didn’t doubt it. There was some connection between them, and whether Daphne accepted it or not, they were mated. They belonged together.

When Konstantin had scratched Beth, he’d infected her as a way to help her. His action prevented her from becoming a mindless beast; but it changed her, too, on a cellular level, and there was no undoing it.

Bethany was no longer human—she was a werewolf.

She assumed Stefan had gotten The Call—the next-of-kin notification done by the Department of Defense. But if he thought she was dead, what insanity made him think he could storm the facility like some avenging god? She shook her head and scanned the landscape for Stefan again. She had to find him. The jet with the containment protocol was most likely already in the air.

Her appraisal focused on a man who smelled like Stefan, but the man in her line of sight couldn’t be him.

He was bigger somehow, taller—stronger. He wore his uniform like a second skin, barked orders like a man used to being obeyed. This man cut through his enemies with deadly precision. Each Aeternali soldier who engaged him paid with his life. He was a stone-cold killer—the perfect weapon. There was no hesitation, no remorse. Only death. If this man was an accountant, it was in hell tallying the dead he sent before him.

Epiphany splashed over her like ice water.

He’d lied to her.

It was obvious Stefan was here to kill the things she’d studied, maybe even kill her now that she’d been infected. He’d used her to mine information. How could she have been so stupid?

The knowledge settled with heavy weight in her human consciousness, but in her wolf form it was the beast who was in control. The beast didn’t understand betrayal—that was a human emotion. All the beast knew was that her mate was under attack. When uninfected werewolves poured from the blast hole in the facility wall, Bethany launched herself toward him.

Even as she leaped, he pulled out knives that caused lycanthropic flesh to smoke and tear without regenerating. There was no tang of fear to his scent—he obviously knew exactly what he was doing and exactly what kind of creature he faced. He ripped through the werewolves like paper. They roared and he roared back—a guttural war cry filled with rage.

Beth added her own roar, drowning out the other wolves. Since there were only two of her kind, by default Beth was a Beta wolf to the Alpha of Alphas. She was an Alpha in her own right, and wolves, even of another species, would submit to her might.

Mine, she said to the other wolves. Mine. She lay claim to all the men with Stefan but left the remaining Aeternali for the others. The soldiers were the ones who’d imprisoned them—their own government had handed them over for testing without pause. The tide of wolves turned on the Aeternali soldiers with fierce jaws and brutal claws. She pushed images of the destruction headed their way into their minds and hoped they understood.

She turned to Stefan and his knives were still at the ready—his brows drawn together in confusion as he looked into her changed eyes. He may have been confused, but disdain curled his lip back in a sneer.

“Looks like you have a fan,” a voice echoed from the throng.

“Silence,” Stefan demanded, and silence reigned.

Beth stood bipedal, her wolf form making her as tall as Stefan. Her breath came out in quick puffs, bringing her tongue out as she tasted the pheromones in the air. The coppery tang of fear and blood splashed together, but none of it was from Stefan. She wondered if revulsion had a taste and if she’d mistaken it for something else.

Her heart twisted in her chest and all the hopes and dreams she’d had for their future together were discarded. He hated what she was, and even if he didn’t, he’d never loved her. He’d used her, lied to her, and all those dreams she’d mourned were nothing but broken glass.

She didn’t want to feel this as the beast; Beth needed her humanity. She didn’t care how he’d react.

As soon as her human consciousness was in the forefront and her human form washed over her, she was hit with a tidal wave of memories. All the planning that had gone into their wedding—the seating charts, the chapel, her colors... Things they were going to do together, memories they talked about making. Shame flooded her. How stupid he must’ve thought her with her silly plans.

“What are you doing, Stefan? You know about the bomber.”

He flinched away from her when she changed form. Her nakedness and humanity were somehow more abhorrent to him than her wolf form. “We were supposed to be in and out. Then the wolves came.” His voice was devoid of emotion.

Not that she expected him to have any. He’d lied about everything. Seduced her with cold calculation, inserted himself into her life until she believed a life without him was unthinkable. Even as she tallied his sins, the love she felt for him didn’t diminish. Though she desperately wanted it to. The man she’d fallen for wasn’t real; it was a pretty mask he’d made. Still, her beast roared, Mine.

No, not ours. Not real.

Mine.

“That wasn’t a very good plan, was it?” she said softly. Beth wanted to flee, not just the bomber but everything he made her feel. The pain, the humiliation and that damned torch he’d ignited in her—love. Only, it was so much more than love. It was unquantifiable. It was more and it was less, it was everything and nothing. It was the reason she couldn’t leave him here to die alone.

The beast wouldn’t let her, even if her humanity told her he had it coming.

He stood, knives drawn—frozen. “They told me you were dead.”

“I know.” She reached out to touch his arm, but he jerked away from her like she’d tried to burn him with a hot poker. Beth was struck by the ridiculousness of the situation. He was the one who had betrayed her, but he got to play the injured party. She was so angry with him, but with death looming, it didn’t matter so much.

The sound of the jet rumbled in her ears.

“Do you want to live?” she asked him, her tone still low and soothing. Beth wasn’t ready to give up yet. She didn’t want to die, and even though she wanted to kick him with a brick, she didn’t want him to die either.

One of the uninfected werewolves, obviously an Alpha by his size and bearing, took human shape and approached them. “Bethany, the jet comes. Leave the Gypsy scum.”

“The Gypsy scum freed you. You owe them a debt,” Beth said.

He snarled, muzzle erupting from his face as his beast overcame him.

Stefan immediately shoved her behind him, his grip like a brand on her wrist. Beth put her hand on his shoulder, and once he realized she was touching him, he shrugged her off. It hurt, but Beth was determined. They had only minutes left. She stepped around her would-be protector.

“Konstantin was once the Beta to Luka Stanislav, your Alpha. He still speaks for him and I speak for Konstantin. Help me save the Gypsies and your debt is resolved.” She turned to Stefan. “Drop your silver and you can save all of your men.”

“We do not fear death,” Stefan assured her.

“You owe me a debt, Stefan. You betrayed me. Let us save you and then we can both walk away.” She fought as much for her own life as she did for his.

He looked at her, an unrecognizable expression on his face.

As the seconds ticked by, Beth knew they were reaching the point of no return—where even if he agreed to let her save him, they’d be doomed. She wouldn’t leave him. It didn’t matter to her beast what he’d done, he was still her mate.

She sighed and turned to the other wolf. “Go. You don’t need to die here.”

Beth had already resigned herself to death once; maybe he was just now catching up with her.

The other wolf looked at her, head cocked to the side. “We stand with you.”

“Take my men,” Stefan croaked, and then called the order to stand down.

Beth nodded to the wolf and watched as they bounded away with their passengers. She knew she’d done a good thing. She’d been unable to stop or cure the infection, but saving those lives would have to do.

“What are you doing, Beth?” he asked, sounding tired and dejected.

“Staying with you.”

“Go. You can still make it.” He narrowed his eyes at her.

She shook her head. “No. I can’t. Wolves mate for life. You were my mate when I was turned. You still are. I couldn’t leave you here if I wanted to.”

“But it was a lie.” Incredulity stained his words.

She snarled and pushed at his shoulders with no care for his silver or his weapons. “Don’t you think that’s obvious? I may have been stupid enough to fall in love with a pretty mirage, but I can see the writing on the wall. If I could leave you here, I would, you bastard. It’s what you deserve. I don’t want to die!” she cried and shoved at his shoulders again. “I had dreams, and just because you’re not part of them anymore doesn’t mean they’re gone. I still want a home, a family. I want to help people. I could still have that. But no, you’d rather stay here and rot instead of accepting help from something you hate. The animal doesn’t understand betrayal. It doesn’t understand lying. The human part of me wants to hate you, but the beast won’t let it.” Fear choked her as the roaring of the jet reverberated ever louder in her ears. “So thanks for making that choice for me, too.”

“That’s ironic as hell, isn’t it?” he asked gently.

“Because you kill them? Things like me?”

“Yes.”

“That’s not irony.”

“Then what is it?” His dark eyes searched her face as if he actually didn’t understand.

Tears streamed down her face as a million memories crashed over her in a tsunami. Her first chemistry set, her doctorate, the night when she’d met him. The way he’d touched her, the first time he’d told her he loved her. When he asked her to marry him. It was nothing now—just like her. In about one minute there’d be nothing left of them but ash. None of it mattered. What she wanted, what she’d hoped, even his betrayal. In the endless ocean of time, she was nothing more than a molecule.

“Over.” She shrugged as the F-16 entered the airspace above them and dropped its payload.