Free Secrets Of The Alpha 2: (BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (His Secrets Series) by Elena Stone Page B

I was.
     
    “Dead? If only I could be so lucky,” Nathan said, raising his hand to steady his aim.
     
    My heart skipped a beat. I knew that he was getting ready to fire. Given the terrible things I knew Nathan was capable of, I found myself thinking that he was most probably planning on shooting me first so that Vincent could suffer more by watching me die. And I also knew that the first shot at me wouldn’t be a clean kill shot. He would most probably knee cap me first and then maybe shoot my stomach… I was so lost in my own thoughts that I didn’t even notice that all this time, Vincent had been talking.
     
    “Please don’t shoot, Hughes,” Vincent said. “I know you are perhaps angry with me for attacking you a few months back, but you have to understand, I was doing that in self-defense. I had to,” he said, as he looked at Nathan.
     
    “I have nothing against you or the people you work for, but I had to defend myself and the people I love, so please don’t shoot,” he went on pleading. I saw Nathan lower his weapon.
     
    “Shoot you? The gun was merely to get your attention.” He said as he made his way into the room. “I’m afraid killing you is not a pleasure that I can afford.”
     
    I didn’t know what was going on, but I breathed a sigh of relief when Nathan tossed his gun aside. Vincent took a step back, his arm stretched out trying to shield me from whatever Nathan was up to. We both watched in surprise as Nathan undid the top button of his shirt as he got closer and closer to us.
     
    “Whoa…what are you doing?” Vincent asked in surprise when Nathan continued to unbutton the rest of his buttons.
     
    “See that?” He asked, pointing to what looked like a bite mark between his chest and shoulder. “This is why I cannot kill you even though I would very much like to be the one who rids the world of Vincent Muse.”
     
    I raised an eyebrow at Nathan. For a person who claimed that he didn’t want to kill Vincent, he was being very smug.
     
    “I don’t know anyone else who can teach me how to live… how to exist deal with this… curse,” Nathan said, and Vincent raised an eyebrow at him.
     
    “You are… you’re a wolf?” Vincent asked in a guilty voice, and Nathan nodded as his gaze fell.
     
    “At first, all I wanted to do was kill myself… the thought of living as a monster was enough to make me want to end my misery, but I just didn’t have it in me. I guess you can say I didn’t have the guts to do it,” Nathan explained. He looked up at Vincent.
     
    “I suppose my decision had a lot to do with the conditioning of my job… I mean I do hunt werewolves for a living after all. But…” he looked at me and then back at Vincent.
     
    “I now know that I’m not a monster. I’m a man who sometimes turns into a wolf… but I’m still a man all the same,” he concluded.
     
    I didn’t know what to do or say. I was still trying to understand how a man I had seen literally being torn apart could be standing before me.
     
    “So,” Vincent started. “What happens now?”
     
    Nathan shrugged.
     
    “You and I are now the same, Vincent. We have both been cut from the same cloth, and having said that, I cannot go back to my job. As far as they know, I am on a secret mission,” he said.
     
    “What kind of secret mission?” Vincent asked. Nathan exhaled loudly.
     
    “I was supposed to attack while you slept and kill everyone…you, your lover, your sister…everyone.” I noticed a smile on Nathan’s lips almost as if he relished the thought.
    “But I can’t do it now, can I? There is something I know which they don’t, and that is that I need you as much as that repulses me. If I’m going to keep on living, then I need you.”
     
    Vincent looked at me and then looked at Nathan Hughes.
     
    “Why should I believe you? I mean, you did try your best to kill me, and you are still on a mission—your words. So why should I trust you? What assurance do I have