Blood Mate: A Paranormal Romance (2 page)

The man was too busy rolling
in the dirt, too wrapped up in his pain to do what had to be done.
Someone would have to pull the knife out for him.

Hurt him. Help him.

Jett lowered himself slowly,
his hand outstretched. “I'm going to take the knife out, kid,”
he said. “Just keep still.”

The young man kicked out and
screamed when Jett laid a hand on his leg. Hearing his scream, the
other three wolves closed in at once.

Jett cursed, and wrenched the
knife out of the man's thigh in one swift, smooth motion. The man
howled in agony, his body bucking and convulsing. But Jett didn't
have time to attend to him.

The wolves flew towards Jett
in a deadly blur of fangs and claws. Jett ducked and rolled away.
Silently, he pulled out two knives from under his jacket.

He had to defend himself, and
with knives he could temper his strength. Guns just spat out the
bullets, slamming the silver bullets with deadly force into the
target.

Unloading a round of silver
bullets into these wolves at such close range might kill them.

Wesley's jaws snapped an inch
from his throat. Jett spun away, and landed soundlessly in a crouch
a few feet away.

“
Don't do this, Wesley,”
he said quietly.

Wesley's yellow eyes glowed
and he pounced in a mad rage. Jett blew out a sigh, and raised his
blade.

He buried the silver blade in
Wesley's shoulder as the enraged wolf barreled into the wall behind
him. His two comrades backed away a step at his agonized howl.

Jett stood and turned to face
the two crouching wolves. He blinked slowly, waiting for them to
back away. He was giving them the last chance to walk away.

But the young could never be
counted on to make smart decisions. Between smart and stupid, they
would invariably choose stupid. Consistently and repeatedly.

Behind him, Wesley staggered
to his feet and raised his head in a howl. The two wolves gave an
answering howl, their voices blending together to weave an eerie,
almost poignant, melody.

Jett shook his head at them,
but they ignored his silent warning.

Don't do it, kiddos.

As one, they hurled themselves
at Jett, going for the kill.

Stupid sods thought there was
honor in getting themselves killed.

Jett swore loudly and twirled
his knives through his fingers.

As the two wolves leaped up,
he plunged the silver blades into their soft underbellies.

The two wolves collapsed in a
heap at his feet, and shifted violently back into human form. The
two young men clutched at their bleeding stomachs, screaming in pain.

Wesley narrowed his yellow
eyes at his fallen comrades.

Jett recognized the disdain
and determination in those slitted eyes.

It was the same look of scorn
and contempt he had given his gang members when his underlings backed
away from a fight with a rival gang.
Good-for-nothing weaklings.
He had despised his underlings for their weakness, their
cowardice.

There was no one he could
count on. The only person who would fight for him—was him.
And he had broken out the machete and gone on a rampage, diving
headlong into a bloodbath.

This was what Wesley Mack was
about to do—dive into a bloodbath.

Jett watched Wesley take a
step back, a growl rumbling from his throat as his eyes locked on
Jett.

Jett held up his hands slowly,
speaking in a low, steady voice to the slavering black wolf in front
of him.

“
Wesley, stop. Stop
this.”

But Wesley didn't stop. Ego,
wrath and hate drove him straight towards Jett.

Wesley's jaws opened wide, his
sharp, serrated teeth aiming for Jett's throat.

Jett didn't move. He waited
till the very last instant. Then he pulled out his gun. He had run
out of knives.

He fired a silver bullet into
Wesley's chest.

He'd missed the heart.
Intentionally.

The wolf fell to the ground.
But despite the pain, Wesley stubbornly held on to his wolf form.

Jett holstered his gun just as
running footsteps rounded the corner. Two of his Enforcers had been
patrolling the area and had heard the shot. Jett stepped back as Mia
and Zymfer ran up, their guns aimed at the mess of bleeding, jerking
bodies on the ground.

Zymfer let out a low whistle,
looking slightly stunned. The young demon was still a rookie
Enforcer, and hadn't hunted and apprehended too many rogues.

Mia was already pulling out
her silver handcuffs. “What are you waiting for?” she
snapped at her gaping partner. “Cuff them!”

Zymfer immediately knelt down
and snapped a pair of silver cuffs around Wesley's shivering paws.

Wesley still refused to shift
back to human form despite the excruciating pain. Jett knew that he
was going to lose consciousness very soon. The young werewolf
wouldn't have enough strength to hold on to his wolf form and fight
the draining effect of the silver at the same time.

“
You okay?” Mia
glanced at Jett over her shoulder.

“
Yeah. Thank goodness
you guys arrived when you did. You saved me,” Jett said,
putting a hand over his heart.

Zymfer beamed and chuckled
delightedly. But Mia simply snorted at her boss. Mia Lin was a
former police officer like him, and she had worked closely with him
in the NMPD. She knew his quirks and quick temper better than most.

Jett had shamelessly gone and
poached her from the NMPD when he took up the position of Head
Enforcer with the PAC. The pint-sized human woman was sharp, smart
and quick. She was even quicker to anger, but she was also quick to
forgive. With her sharp intuition and intelligence, she was one of
his best Enforcers.

“
Get them in there.”
Jett jerked a thumb at the PAC Headquarters. “Who's on
interrogation duty tonight?”

“
Scott and Bryn,”
Zymfer answered, smoothing a hand quickly down his horn.

Mia yanked the two groaning
naked men to their feet and rolled her eyes. “You think she's
cute, don't you?”

“
What? Who? I don't
know what you're talking about,” Zymfer stuttered.

“
Bryn. Bryn Ellis, that
pretty little vampire.” Mia winked at him. “I saw you
ogling her.”

“
No! I was only...”

Mia waved away his protest.
“Why don't you ask her out?”

Zymfer swallowed and mumbled.
“I...I did. She said no. Ah, let's just get these wolves into
the building, shall we?” he huffed.
And quit probing into
my embarrassingly non-existent dating life.

The demon looked crestfallen
as he dragged Wesley and the other werewolf towards the PAC
Headquarters.

Mia shrugged at Jett, and
turned to the two handcuffed, moaning youths behind her.

“
Grit your teeth,”
she advised the two young men. They did, but still they screamed
when she yanked the silver knives out of their stomachs.
Immediately, their wounds started to knit shut. Shifters, like most
paranormals, could heal pretty quickly.

“
Hey, Zymfer, wait up,”
Mia called after her sulking partner. She jogged after Zymfer,
pulling the two cuffed and groaning werewolves towards the PAC
Headquarters by their ears. “Chin up, Zymfer. Maybe you
should try to get to know Bryn better,” Mia rattled on, freely
dispensing her well-meaning but unwelcome advice. “Get closer
to her. Oh, I know! You could ask to swap with Scott. Ask Jett to
rotate you so...”

At that, Jett stiffened, but
Mia's voice had trailed off.

Jett scowled. Was Mia
suggesting that he rotate Zymfer so that the lusty young demon could
be on the same shift as Bryn? Was she suggesting that he help that
hot-headed, hot-blooded demon get closer to Bryn?

Jett's knuckles popped as he
balled his fists.

Mia was a great Enforcer, but
at this moment, he felt like strangling her.

A shriek and a thunderous roar
made Jett whirl round.

Wesley had shifted back to
human form, and had broken free from Zymfer's grip. Wesley lunged
towards Jett, stumbling and snarling. Zymfer launched himself at the
runaway werewolf and hauled him back. “Sorry, boss,” the
demon mumbled sheepishly to Jett. “I got a little distracted.”

Wesley continued screeching
even as Zymfer dragged him into the building by the back door.

“
I'll hunt you down,
Jett! I'll hunt her down, your loved one, your woman...”

At that, Jett gave a smirk.

“
Good luck with that.
There's no one I love,” he muttered, walking slowly to his car.
“No loved one, no woman.”

He stood for a moment beside
his car, trying to believe his own lie.

He closed his eyes and her
name escaped on a painful breath.

Bryn.

Mia's words echoed in his
mind.

Get closer to her.

Perhaps Mia was right. Why
shouldn't Zymfer take the chance to get closer to Bryn and date her?

If Zymfer put in an official
request to be partnered with Bryn, he should approve the request,
shouldn't he?

He would approve, wouldn't he?

Jett almost bent his car key
out of shape in his palm.

No, he would never approve.

The thought of Bryn dating
another male was...enough to make him want to put his fist through
glass.

But he couldn't...love her.

He loved no one.

It was a lie he had to live.

Tonight proved that.

He had too many enemies.

There was a target on his back
and he was pretty sure there was a price on his head.

Loving her would only get her
killed.

He turned back to his car.

“
Shit.”

There was three long, deep
scratches along the door. And a big, crooked dent.

He could send the car in for
repairs. But some marks just couldn't be covered.

Some scars could remain.

They were there, covered but
not erased. Then there were some scars that couldn't even be
covered, not even by an Enforcer's leather jacket.

Bryn finished typing out her
report and logged out of the system. The interrogation of those four
teenage werewolves hadn't taken too long. Wesley Mack was the
leader, and he was out to avenge his old man. He was an angry young
man, full of bitterness and bluster. The other three werewolves had
followed him out of fear and insecurity. The recommendation was to
have them collared, not shot. They would be monitored by the PAC,
and if they behaved themselves, their collars would be removed and
they would hopefully go on to live long, productive lives.

Bryn rubbed her eyes and
glanced around. The computer lab was empty. Scott had already
hammered out his report and left in a hurry. And there was only one
reason why the laid-back, easygoing bear shifter would be in a hurry.

Bryn was quite sure that Scott
was seeing, or stalking, someone.

Bryn shook her head. These
bear shifters could really stalk. They could scent a mate, or
potential mate, from miles away. And they'd stalk her. Stalk her
until she couldn't stand it and agree to date them and mate them.

The bears were single-minded
and focused when it came to wooing their mates. There was something
primitive and primal in their pursuit, but it seemed to work for
them. Blake Madden, the powerful Council member, had followed his
mate all the way to hell and back. Levi Madden shadowed his mate for
months, watching her back, being her big, brooding bodyguard. The
Madden cousins were close, and family was everything to them.

Bryn liked all the Madden
bears. She liked Scott and she worked well enough with him. He was
good-humored and loyal, and he was pretty easy on the eyes. Big,
blond and blue-eyed, like most of the members of the Madden clan of
bear shifters.

Too bad he wasn't her type.

Bryn winced and blew out a
rough breath. She always went for the bad boys. Bad boys who didn't
treat her right and hurt her.

And she had hurt herself. She
had broken her Nana's heart.

“
Nana,” she sighed
and glanced out the window. Her grandmother would pretend to have
just woken up when she got home just before dawn. Nana was an early
riser, but she knew that Nana made it a point to climb out of bed in
the wee hours of the morning, just to bake Bryn's favorite blood pie
for her supper. She always made sure Bryn had a nice, warm supper
before going to sleep at dawn. As a young vampire, Bryn was greatly
weakened during the daylight hours and needed more rest than older
vampires. A hit of direct sunlight and she would die, permanently
this time. There was no resurrecting ashes.