Free A Bit of Bite by Cynthia Eden Page A

sensuality—lowered toward hers. “Would you really shoot me, baby?” Doubt cloaked his whisper.
     
    Ava risked a fast glance at the deputy. Right. Figured Ken hadn’t even heard the wolf’s approach. He was too busy talking on his phone and trying to keep his lunch down. “Don’t test me,” she snapped back to the wolf. Sure, they might have been lovers once—
once
—but that was over. She had a job to do.
     
    She’d do it. A sexy werewolf wouldn’t stop her.
     
    Julian cocked a dark brow, but he also stepped back. Good.
     
    “Now put your hands up,” she ordered him.
     
    Smiling a bit, he raised his hands. In the early light, she didn’t see any blood beneath his nails. Nails, not claws. The claws would only come out when he shifted.
     
    “Want to tell me what you’re doing here?” Ava asked.
     
    He shrugged but kept his hands up. “I just followed the scent of blood.”
     
    Supernaturals enjoyed the scent of blood far too much.
     
    So she had a dead human, one who’d had his throat ripped open, and a werewolf, right at the scene of the crime. She also knew for a fact that said dead human had been planning to interview Julian last night.
     
    Things weren’t looking good for the wolf right then.
     
    And it wasn’t like she had a whole lot of options. Sighing, Ava pulled out her cuffs. “These are gonna sting,” she warned him. Silver cuffs. Because of their enhanced strength, werewolves could break free of almost anything else instantly.
     
    He dropped his hands. “You aren’t serious.”
     
    She was. Did it look like she was joking? “I need you to come to the station with me. You can either come willingly…” Then she’d leave the cuffs off, at least for the time being. “Or I can take you in the same way I do other paranormal suspects.” She had a little more freedom than the sheriffs who only patrolled human counties and captured mortal criminals.
     
    When the monsters you hunted could kill with claws and fangs, new rules had to be made.
     
    The blood had drawn out a werewolf, but, even though the smell was like pure ambrosia to a vampire, she knew none of the undead would be coming to join their little party. Everyone knew vamps and sunlight didn’t mix.
     
    She’d get to them, though, soon enough.
     
    Julian glanced toward her patrol car. “You don’t want to make a mistake here, Sheriff.”
     
    Oh, wait, she wasn’t “baby” anymore? If the big wolf wasn’t careful, he’d hurt her feelings. “I know claw marks when I see them,” she told him, still holding tight to her cuffs. “As far as I know, there’s only one wolf pack in Mississippi.” Nothing happened in that pack without his approval.
Nothing.
     
    His gaze, bright blue, came back to her.
     
    “Now,
Alpha
,” if he was gonna be all formal, then she could be, too. “Will you play nice and get in the car, or do I have to cuff you?”
     
    Sirens wailed in the distance. Had to be her back-up racing toward them. The deputies always responded quickly when it was a supernatural call. Humans had to stick together.
     
    “When have I ever played nice?” Julian growled the words.
     
    Right. Of course, the guy wouldn’t make this easy.
     
    She locked one cuff around his wrist. There was a slight sizzle as the silver burned his flesh. His gaze held hers. “You don’t want me as an enemy,” he warned.
     
    She reached for his right hand. She wouldn’t put the cuffs behind him. Ava figured she owed him that much. “Sometimes it doesn’t matter what we want.” Since that night they’d shared, she’d learned that bitter lesson. Her hand curled around his wrist. Staring into his eyes, she snapped the other cuff onto his wrist. “Alpha Julian Kasey,” she’d do the legal bit to make sure she covered her ass, “you’re a paranormal person of interest in a murder and, as such, you’re now in supervised custody.”
     
    His lips curled in a very slow, wicked smile. A smile that showed the