A. Arthur - Hunger for You

I hung up before they did because I didn’t want to hear any more arguments. I didn’t want to hear the love in Brayden’s voice as he talked about his mate, Lidia, the sister I never knew I wanted. I didn’t want to hear any more of their concern or hope for my return to the team we’d created as kids.

I just wanted to be on my own, to deal with the demons that lived within me through no fault of my own. I didn’t want to be a part of a team or a family and I didn’t want to be drawn to this girl.

And yet, on more than one of these fronts, I was, and I didn’t know if I had the power to stop it.

Zoe would be at work tonight and Dex would most likely appear. When he did I would be right here, to get rid of him once and for all.

I cut the engine and the lights and reached over to the passenger seat to grab my jacket before getting out of the truck. I wasn’t cold, was actually enjoying the chill in the air but didn’t want the patrons of the bar to see the gun I had stuffed in the back of my pants. I hoped I wouldn’t have to use it, hoped that Dex would listen to reason, or good common sense. If not …

Just as I was heading to the front door of the bar I heard noises coming from around the back of the building. The heightened senses of a Shadow Shifter tended to annoy me, and I usually could ignore them, but not this time. There was laughter with an edge to it that I immediately recognized, maybe because noticing the pain in Zoe’s arm yesterday had put me in a hunting mood.

I moved around to the back of the building, taking slow, almost predatory steps. Passing the Dumpster and the two feral cats hanging around it, I made my way to the back. I frowned as I moved because the scents back here were comingling—rotting trash, discarded liquor bottles, urine, and rogue. My fists clenched as my nostrils flared and I turned the corner.

Dex had Zoe pinned to the wall, his face close to hers. Zoe had her hands on Dex’s chest as she attempted once, twice, to push him away. Dex didn’t budge. She pushed harder and he grabbed her by the wrists. And that was enough. I was beside them in no time, grabbing Dex by the collar and pulling him off her. He stumbled back, struggling until I let him break free. My attention immediately went to Zoe.

“Are you okay?” I asked, going to her and touching her shoulders lightly.

She jerked away from my grasp, giving me a look as if I’d been the one roughhousing her. To say I was a little confused would be an understatement.

“He was hurting you,” I replied, feeling even more stupid than I had two seconds ago, if that was possible.

“It’s none of your business!” she yelled. “I’m none of your business!”

From behind I could hear laughter, the same as I had a few moments ago. His eyes were dark when I turned to face him, almost black and I knew that any second now they would switch totally to the eyes of a cat. The putrid stench of betrayal rogues carry with them blanketed the area like one of those itchy-ass wool throws. I rolled my shoulders, readying my body for anything—the fight or the shift, whichever was necessary.

“You heard what the human said.” Dex frowned at me like he knew what I was about to do and conveying that he was also down for the fight.

At his sides his fingers wiggled, no doubt feeling the sting of trying to hold back his claws. Mine didn’t hurt at all. I’d mastered keeping as much of my shifter traits controlled and bound as possible. The pronounced smell, hearing, and vision were a little harder to suppress, but I’d learned ways to ignore them.

“Stop it!” Zoe yelled, coming between us.

She turned to me, her fiery gaze locking with mine.

“I told you this was not your concern. I can handle my own business. So you should go.”

Dex laughed and inside my cat raged. I almost stumbled forward with the force it used in its attempt to break free. I didn’t want to hurt Zoe, couldn’t live with myself if I did. But I definitely wanted to kill Dex for putting his dirty hands on her. The cat inside wanted to be the one to lock its jaws around his neck and hold on until death was the only option.

Zoe was in the way.

I couldn’t shift in front of her, couldn’t risk her knowing how screwed up I really was. I took a deep breath, willing the cat to stand down, taking a couple of physical and mental steps back.

“We’ll meet again,” I said, pointing past Zoe to where a smiling Dex still stood.

“Fuck off, half-breed!” he said.

I moved forward again only to feel the instant sting of heat as Zoe put her palms on my chest. Now I was the one she was attempting to push away. The cat inside me bared its teeth, rearing back at her touch as heat spread throughout my chest. My entire body shook with the two feuding entities. To save us both possibly, I pushed her arms away. “Fine, if you don’t want my help, let him beat you to death. I don’t care!”

I was walking away without looking back, refusing to answer the burning desire to protect her, to keep her safe. It just wasn’t possible to save somebody that didn’t want to be saved, my mind screamed to no avail. I kept right on walking, every step heavier than the last until I was safe in my truck, slamming my palms onto the steering wheel repeatedly.

She wasn’t my concern, she wasn’t my girlfriend. I didn’t have a girlfriend and damn sure didn’t want one. I’d never even been interested enough in another female to go so far as to protect her, especially not from her own boyfriend. That’s just not what I did, it wasn’t how I was made. I was sure my brothers were protective as hell over their mates, but Zoe wasn’t my mate, she wasn’t anybody. Or she shouldn’t have been.

I jammed my key into the ignition and started my truck thinking this would be the last damned time I’d be at this bar. There was nothing for me here, nothing and nobody. There never had been.

It was a horrible flashback. As I stood, still reeling from Caleb’s appearance and his subsequent departure at my request, Dex struck.

In the past weeks that I’d known him he’d been very nice, kind of subdued in a lone biker type of way, but definitely a leader among his friends. He’d taken me on simple dates, nothing that I’d find in a romance novel, but fun things all the same. I didn’t feel this out-of-this-world attraction to him, but I continued to go out with him believing that the spark would eventually appear. I’d read enough books to know that it wouldn’t, especially not now.

Dex’s hand fisted in my hair, pulling me back to him all the while yelling something about shadows and minding their own business, and more incoherent words I would later try to decipher. Right now the pain was excruciating, shooting through my skull like a million knives were being pierced into my skin. I didn’t scream though, didn’t have any intention of giving him that sadistic pleasure. For a few seconds my arms just flailed as I tripped over my feet trying to keep from falling to the ground as he pulled me. We were going deeper behind the bar to where there was a gate and then an incline leading into a dark copse of trees that faced the highway on its other side. I knew if he got me down there it would be over.

I reached back then, grabbing his hands to try and still some of the force he was exerting. He was still mumbling something about shifts and revenge and whatever, I stopped listening. All I could hear now was the pounding of my heart as my brain went into overdrive trying to figure out what to do, how to save my life.

The scene was all too familiar to me. How many times had my stepfather dragged my mom up the stairs and back down again? How many times had he used his grip on her hair to bang her head into the side of the bathtub or the corner of the dresser? It was a wonder she still lived and sometimes when I used to stand and stare at her, I got the impression that she really didn’t. That maybe, she thought death would be better. But then he’d take that out on us and she didn’t want that, she’d never wanted that.