Free Taming the Darkness: Love & Monsters, Book 2 by Devin Harnois

inside me, Claire. You can never forget that.” He never did. “This morning was a mistake. You treated me like I was human, and I’m not. I’m not .”
    She clenched her jaw. “You’re more human than you think. You’re stronger than you think.”
    So close now. Victor rushed across the room and grabbed Claire. He’d get her out of there even if he had to throw her out of the room. “Open the door,” he yelled at Berkstrom. The door didn’t open from the inside even when it was unlocked, as a security measure.
    Berkstrom reached for the handle. “Don’t you touch it!” Claire turned, struggling in Victor’s arms. “I’m staying in here.”
    “You’re leaving. Open the fucking door, Berkstrom.” He wasn’t going to let her die because of stubbornness. The thought of losing her was bad enough, but to know he was the one to do it would break him far more than being altered had.
    “I’m going to watch you.” She glared at him.
    “You can watch from outside.”
    Sharp pain flared in his knee as Claire kicked him. His hold slipped just enough and she ducked out of his arms, backing away as quickly as she could. “I’m staying,” she repeated.
    He was slipping, and the anger wasn’t helping at all. “What the fuck are you trying to prove?”
    “That you’ve got more control than you think you do.”
    “And you’ll risk your life to prove it?”
    She nodded.
    Above them, the light kept slipping away. “I can’t lose you, Claire.”
    “You won’t.” Her fear increased, but she stood there like an immovable rock. Smart enough to be afraid, but too stubborn to get out.
    “Oh, Claire.” Full dark rolled through him, and the monster burst to the surface. He closed his eyes against the rush and for a moment he forgot everything but how good it felt. Victor opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was Claire watching him. He drew in a deep breath, inhaling her scent. Never could get enough of that scent, wanted to smell it forever. Just a hint of his own scent still on her. Wanted to mark her again, wanted everyone and everything to know she was his. He closed the distance between them in a blink and pulled her into his arms.
    Claire gasped and tried to pull away.
    “Want you,” he rumbled, bending to rub his nose in her hair.
    Much of the tension went out of her. “Not here.”
    He lifted his head. “Things to kill. Out there.” He looked at the ceiling, the night calling to him. The chase and the fight and the kill calling to him.
    “Yes. So let’s go.” Claire moved to get out of his arms and he let her go. She went for the door and he appreciated the view, licking his lips. First fighting, then fucking.
    “Good plan,” he muttered to himself.
    “Let us out,” Claire said to Berkstrom.
    Berkstrom shook his head. “No way. I’m not letting him out of there for at least fifteen minutes. He needs to calm down after nightfall.”
    Claire turned to Victor and studied him, then turned back to Berkstrom. “Looks calm enough to me.”
    Berkstrom shook his head again. “Fifteen minutes. I can get the major to confirm it if you want me to.”
    Claire sighed. “No, I understand.”
    Victor rushed past her and slammed his fist against the glass. “Out!” He could almost feel them out there, nasties roaming through his territory.
    “Victor, calm down.”
    He turned and growled. “Need to get out.”
    “I know, but we can wait fifteen minutes.” The fear in her scent was almost gone, the ghost of it lingering in the room.
    Victor growled again and paced. Claire watched him, and he watched her. It got easier to think, to hold more than one or two thoughts in his head at the same time. With an effort, he stopped pacing and sat on the edge of his bed. “How much longer?”
    “A few minutes,” Berkstrom told him through the intercom.
    Claire sat next to him. “So you didn’t eat me.”
    “You’re fucking crazy.”
    “I’m also right.” Her smile made him want to take her right