Free NocC 027 - Michele Hauf - Wicked Games 07 - Claiming the Wolf - Harlequin 2012-11 by Nocturne

wolf said, and turned to spit at her. “Bitch
ruined our best wolf.”
    “What the hell?” she asked after the stairway door had slammed
shut. “Hart?”
    “They know I’ve been bitten and the principal is brassed off
over the whole situation. They’ll banish me later. Remy wants me tucked away
down here for safe keeping until the pack can sharpen their talons and gather
the wolfsbane.”
    “Wolfsbane?” That didn’t sound good. Danni swallowed a reedy
moan. “This is all my fault! Look what I’ve done to you.”
    “Danni, I wish you could get beyond that.”
    Get beyond ruining his life? Was the wolf on something? Maybe
the UV rays they kept flashing down here had affected his thinking.
    “Right now,” Hart said, “we have to worry about how we’re going
to get you loose.” He tested the bars, wincing as he pulled at them and they
didn’t move. “Made to keep in vampires. Very strong. Iron strafed with titanium,
I’m sure.”
    “Yes, but what about a fully shifted werewolf?” Danni offered
absently, stunned he carelessly disregarded his own danger.
    He tilted his head, eyeing her with a sexy grin that melted her
core and made her want to kiss him. “You may have something there.”
    An electronic sizzle preceded the metallic clank of the
overhead UV lights being switched on. The vamp two cells down yelled and moaned
as his skin sizzled under the deadly rays. Thrusting her hands over her face,
Danni cried out too. This time it hurt. The light felt stronger than a thousand
suns and her skin burned.
    “I can’t let this happen to you,” she heard Hart say. “Take
this!”
    The sleeve of his shirt landed on the base of the outer bars of
her cage. Danni crept over to it.
    “Put it over your head and cover as much of your skin as you
can. Crouch down. I’m going to get you out of here, Danni, if it’s the last
thing I do.”
    And the wolf howled, declaring to all who would listen he would
not be silenced.
    Danni pulled the shirt over her head but her bare legs were
exposed still and the pain was fierce. She panted and crouched, trying to
protect as much of her body as possible. Behind her, she heard bones crack and
Hart’s growling moans as his body shifted. Peering out from under the shirt, she
watched her lover shift into the half man, half beast werewolf within seconds.
She had hoped her first sight of him like that would have happened in a
different situation, in a more trusting atmosphere, at the least.
    But she couldn’t argue the appearance of her rescuing knight,
once again.
    A slash of his talons across the wall cut the concrete block
into dust. The werewolf charged the iron bars, gripping them, and they bent.
    The heat on Danni’s legs seared into her veins, and she gasped
as her thoughts blacked out.
     

Seven
    Danni woke in her apartment, lying on the sofa, a half
dressed man standing over her, his gray-blue eyes intense and worried. Relief
spread though her like a swig from a whisky bottle. “You got me out.” She pulled
Hart down to kiss, but after a mere touch of their mouths he pulled away.
    He paced before her, shaking his fists near his thighs. “I
can’t stay. I just wanted to make sure you woke and are okay.”
    “I’m good now I’m home. But your pack—what will they do to
you?”
    “They let me escape too easily. I suspect they’ll be tracking
me soon enough. I have some clothes in your bedroom.” He marched into the room
and called out to her. “I have to go back!”
    Danni sat and smoothed a palm over her forearm, which was
tender to touch. The UV lights in the compound had given her a nasty sunburn,
and she wondered how long it would take for her superfast healing capabilities
to kick in. Didn’t matter right now.
    Hart strode out, tugging on a T-shirt. She grabbed his shirt
tail and stopped him before he could touch the doorknob.
    “You can’t go back. They’ll kill you. Then they’ll come after
me.”
    “They are not going to touch you ever again.