What if I die and don’t come back?

What if this is my last night with Connor?

What if we don’t have a chance at forever?

What if this moment is all we have?

The door opened behind her. She looked over her shoulder and saw Connor. His eyes gleamed in the darkness.

She turned toward him. Opened her arms. Tipped back her head.

When he kissed her, the what if’s in her mind finally quieted. She drank him in, loving his touch, needing him so much that her whole body ached.

So this is love.

She’d always wondered what it would be like. For some reason, she’d thought it would be sweeter. Softer. Kind of like a sappy song on the radio.

She hadn’t known it would be so hot and wild and consuming. She hadn’t known that it would twist her up in knots. That it would wreck her.

That it would make her stronger.

It had.

“We don’t have much time,” Connor said. “Baby, I need to be with you…please, let me have you again. Right here.”

She wanted to be with him a thousand more times.

“Here, now…with the stars on you. No one else can see. It’s just us. Baby, always us.”

He lifted her into his arms. Carried her back to the side of the building. They were hidden there, behind the door. He stripped her. His touch tender, his desire obvious in the fire that lit his gaze.

Her hands weren’t as tender on him. She was frantic to feel him. She shoved up his shirt. Her hands slid over his hot, muscled flesh. Then she moved down, down, and opened the button of his jeans.

He was strong. He positioned her, held her easily, and her legs curled around him. One thrust—and he sank to the hilt inside of her. She was so full that Chloe felt stretched and it was amazing. She loved the way he filled her. When he withdrew and thrust in again, her eyes nearly rolled back in her head. He was holding her, surrounding her so totally, consuming and dominating as he controlled the rhythm. The guy was driving her out of her head.

Chloe’s nails bit into his back. She offered him her neck. “Bite me.” Because she knew just how to push them both over the edge.

His breath blew over her neck. Hot. Making her tremble.

Then his fangs sank into her.

Pleasure ripped through Chloe and her body went bow-tight. Her right hand flew out. She grabbed the fence, not even thinking about the silver until it was too late—

But it didn’t burn.

He thrust deep.

Her sex clamped around him, holding so tight.

She rose up, pushed back against him, and his teeth stayed in her neck. Pleasure hit her, rolling through her again and again and Chloe cried out, unable to stop herself because it was too much.

Her sex contracted around him as the orgasm blasted through her. She couldn’t breathe, for a moment, she wasn’t even sure if she could see. The pleasure was so intense it was almost painful. Almost…

“Connor!”

He poured into her. He shuddered and held her so tight. She wanted to freeze that moment. To hold it close because as he lifted his head and looked at her, Chloe could have sworn that she saw emotion—love—flash in his eyes.

I want him to love me. I want him to feel just a little bit of the emotion that I feel for him. I want—

The pleasure crested again.

He held her close.

Her legs were trembling when the waves of release finally ended. Ever so carefully, Connor righted her clothes. He brushed back her hair. He kissed her cheek.

Then he yanked his jeans back into position.

Chloe stared at him. Her heart was still racing in a triple-time beat. “He’s…he’s going to know what we just did.” She should have thought of that before. Keegan would catch the scent, he’d know—

“Fuck what he knows. You’re mine, and the whole world needs to recognize that fact.”

She was his. And he was hers.

He stood before her. So strong and powerful. Brave.

“I’m scared, Chloe,” Connor confessed.

She shook her head, sure that she’d misheard. Not Connor. Not—

“You’re the one thing I can’t lose,” he said.

“You won’t lose me.”

He swallowed. “What I’m about to do…if there was another choice, I wouldn’t…I wouldn’t do it.”

Okay, those words were not good. Some of her bright post-sex and post-multiple orgasm glow began to fade.

“If something happens, if Keegan bites you, he will compel you.”

Her worst fear.

“Today, we learned that another compulsion can cancel out his power.”

Yes, right, but that compulsion had been given after Keegan’s.

“Eric wants me to try something with you.” His breath exhaled on a ragged sigh. “He wants me to compel you, and baby, I think I should. I just…I can’t do it without telling you first.”

He’d better not tell her to forget the mission. Or to forget him. Or to—

“I want to compel you…to ignore any suggestions or orders that Keegan gives you. Hell, this shit might not work, it’s just a shot in the dark. But Eric and I think that any additional chance we have—”

She threw her arms around him. “Do it.”

“Chloe?”

She looked up at him. “Compel me. I don’t want to be used against you or the other agents. I want to help. I want to be strong.”

“Baby, you are strong.”

She tried to smile for him.

He kissed her once more. Such a soft, gentle kiss.

Then Connor looked into her eyes. The stars behind him didn’t seem to shine as bright. They turned a little hazy, but his voice was so clear…

“Chloe, you will not let Keegan into your mind. You will not let him control you. He will not compel you to follow any orders. If he tries you will only hear my voice…”

His voice was all she could hear right then.

“You will hear my voice, Chloe, and you will resist him. You will hear my voice, and you will ignore him. You will hear my voice…”

She waited, her body locked down…

“And you will know how much I f**king love you.”

***

“Another armored van?” Keegan murmured when he was led inside—and then shackled in place. “How not surprising.”

Connor kept his gun ready and aimed at the bastard. One wrong move, and he’d pump the guy full of so many drugs that Keegan would be drooling on the floorboard.

Beside him, Duncan was armed, too. Duncan was on his left. And Chloe was on his right.

The back door swung closed and Connor heard the distinct sound of Eric locking that door as he secured them inside.

A small window was overhead. One that let the moonlight spill into the transport van.

Keegan stretched a bit, as if trying to reach for that light. Then he sighed and glanced over at Chloe. “You screwed him again. I hate it when you wear his stench.”

Connor’s finger tightened on the trigger.

Chloe patted his leg. But she told Keegan, “Start giving us directions.”

That had been the deal. Keegan was conscious because he had to give them directions to his little house of horrors. His voice wasn’t slurred because Eric had eased off on the guy’s dosage.

A bad idea.

Keegan looked up at the window. “We’d better hurry. At midnight, everything will end.”

Chloe pulled out her radio.

“We’ll drive down the main road here…for about forty-minutes. Then head west.”

Chloe relayed those instructions.

“I’ll give you more directions as we go,” Keegan said. “Wouldn’t want to give too much away, too soon.”

Connor really wanted to shoot the guy.

The truck lurched forward.

Silence.

“Bet you and Duncan didn’t even know about me…I mean I did my research on you two. You were so young, it makes sense you didn’t remember me. And Duncan?” His laughter was low. “He was so f**ked up after our father killed our mom…hell, he didn’t remember much of anything did he?”

Connor just stared at the bastard. But, yes, the guy was right. Connor didn’t recall a damn thing about him and as for Duncan…Duncan didn’t even know me when we first met.

“Do you remember our mother dying?” Keegan asked. “I’ve always been curious about that.”

Connor could hear the echo of screams in his mind.

“Are the stories I’ve heard true? You and Duncan were supposed to stay in the closet, but you ran out?”

He’d been so young. A lost kid. Afraid of the dark.

“Did she die protecting you?”

Connor’s chin lifted. Chloe’s shoulder brushed against his. “Yes,” he said flatly. “She loved me.” He’d always clung to that one truth.

Keegan looked back up at the window. “What a f**king waste.” Silence. “All her family? Guess why they died?”

Connor didn’t want to guess.

“Because they didn’t love me,” Keegan murmured.

Duncan shot off the bench.

Connor grabbed him before Duncan could take Keegan’s head.

Keegan laughed. “This is going to be such a fun night. I’ve got so many surprises planned.”

***

Eric stared at the screen in front of him. “I’ll just bet you do.”

Chloe didn’t have to radio the directions back to him. That whole armored van was wired for sound and video. But Keegan didn’t know that…and anything that bastard didn’t know…

Gives us an advantage.

“All right, people,” he said to the group in his van. “We’re looking at a destination we can access by midnight. As we keep driving, we’ll work to narrow this shit down. We want to know the location as soon as we can. The last thing we want is to send our agents in there blind.” The sooner they knew the location, the sooner he could get an air patrol in to sweep the area.

His gaze stayed locked on the monitor. Keegan should be secured, for the time being.

But worry still gnawed at him because he’d learned long ago…when it came to paranormals…should didn’t apply.

***

“We’re nearing Wessex Road,” Keegan murmured after they’d driven and driven for at least two hours, following his sketchy directions. “Turn right on Wessex.”

Connor heard Chloe speak those same directions into her radio.

“Ah, Chloe…” Keegan shook his head and pulled lightly on his restraints. “I have to confess, I thought you’d be too afraid to come on this particular mission.”

“I’m not afraid of you,” she said, voice flat.

“Liar,” Keegan accused. “Ever since Eclipse, I bet I’ve been starring in your nightmares.” He licked his lips and studied her. “Though you did surprise me there. I was so enraged that you’d screwed Connor, my emotions got a little out of control.”

“I didn’t just have sex with him,” Chloe said, still in that calm, unemotional voice. “I mated him.”

Rage twisted Keegan’s face—just for an instant. “Mating isn’t really for life. It’s just until one of you dies. But, in your case, death doesn’t take, does it, sweetheart?”

“I’m not your sweetheart.”

Keegan leaned forward, as much as his restraints would allow. “You were supposed to be. Your father promised you to me. A perfect virgin werewolf…easy for breeding. He even adjusted your scent so that I’d be pulled in…every time I smelled you, it was like I’d caught a bit of paradise.”

“I can’t even shift,” Chloe said. “Why waste your time with me?”

Keegan shook his head. “Now see, that’s where your thinking was wrong. Your father’s was wrong, too. He thought you had to go full-on wolf to be strong, but you’re better than that. You have the beast’s power, but it never fully controls you. You don’t have to worry about losing yourself to the beast.” He smiled at her. “You see flaws. When I look at you, I see perfection.”

It was taking all of Connor’s control not to leap off that bench.

“Does he see perfection?” Keegan asked and he inclined his head toward Connor. “Have you asked him just what he sees when he looks at you? Because I think his answer might surprise you.”

Connor felt Chloe’s gaze cut to him, but she didn’t speak.

If she had asked, he would have told her the truth. I see my life. My future. Every wish I’ve ever had.

“When I get stuck between shifts,” Chloe said, “is that still perfection?”

“Ah…those happened because of your father. He was messing with you. Trying to draw out the full wolf. I changed your injections back to normal for the last year.”

Connor felt surprise ripple through Chloe.

“Your claws came out, your teeth sharpened, and your enhanced strength was there. All without the pesky problem of being a full-on werewolf.”

Chloe shook her head. “No, those shifts that didn’t work, the pain—”

“That was all on your father. Twisted bastard. He should have just accepted perfection when he had it.”

She trembled near Connor.

“I’m sorry I killed you,” Keegan told Chloe. The jerk’s voice actually sounded almost sincere. What a lie. “But…it certainly opened some new doors, didn’t it? I thought you were good before…and now…oh, now, sweetheart, I’ll do anything to have you.”

Those words sounded like a warning.

It was time for Connor to give his own warning. “And I’d do anything to protect her from you.”