Chelsea cleared her throat nervously, slid from the counter and wondered if she’d ever lose the shakiness in her legs. She could still feel the arousal, the need racing through her. The impulse to order the two Wolf Breeds from the house and drag Cullen to her bed was almost impossible to resist.
Almost.
“I have to go.” Her voice sounded far too weak, too desperate as she moved to go around Cullen.
“Go where?” Reaching out, his fingers gripped her arm, pulling her to a stop as the hoarse growl in his voice had her staring up at him in surprise.
The tone was rough, grating, animalistic. A sound she’d never heard in all the years she’d known him. It was the question that jerked her fully back to reality, though. The possessive demand tore through her, reminding her of everything she was fighting to escape.
Jerking her arm from his grip, Chelsea flicked him a glare; hurt pride and the fear of surrendering forced her to step farther away from him and away from the pleasure and the need she’d felt for this man for far too long.
“It’s time you leave, Cullen.” She forced the words past her lips, forced herself to put more distance between them.
“The hell I will.” The amber in his green eyes seemed to burn. “What are you up to with these two, Chelsea?”
What was she up to? She didn’t dare tell him.
She shrugged, fighting to ignore the nervousness, the needs clashing inside her.
“Lock up when you leave, then,” she told him, heading for the door. “I have things to do, and explaining my actions to you isn’t one of those things.”
At least not today. Later, she had no doubt.
Hurrying from the house to her truck, she could feel her hands shaking, her stomach roiling with the need to go back into the house, to go back to a man who couldn’t love her and damned sure didn’t know how to work with her.
His heart had died with his wife, he’d once claimed; he had nothing left to give another woman but whatever lust he felt for her. And as much as she wanted the lust, it was the heart she’d always dreamed of.
CHAPTER 4
From Graeme’s Journal
The Recessed Primal Breed
Once awakened, Primal Breed genetics can and will play havoc upon a Breed’s mental, emotional and psychological balance. The animal, for a while, may act independently of the human he resides within, in essence taking control of the human psyche without the Breed realizing exactly what he’s lost control to. At this point, a Breed is at his most dangerous.
Especially if the animal genetics have awakened for Mating Heat—
What the hell was she up to?
Cullen stood at the bar of yet another underground club, his eyes narrowed, tension raging through him as he watched Chelsea from where she stood talking to several Coyote Breed females on the other side of the room.
It wasn’t just those females around her, though. At least a half dozen Coyote Breed males, the females’ security detail, stood, arms crossed, expressions interested as they listened to Chelsea talk. If he wasn’t mistaken, every damned one of them had checked out her ass. And those rounded curves looked real damned good in the snug jeans she wore. So good that it was hard to keep his eyes off her himself. Still, watching those Coyotes check her out made him want to plant his fist in their faces. They had no business staring at her ass, not when he knew for a fact that the smell of his touch, his lust, covered her like an invisible cloak.
Now, that thought brought an edge of smug satisfaction.
He knew the animals he was dealing with, and there was a silent code among most Breeds. No Breed would touch her as long as his scent lay on her like that. The animal inside them wouldn’t allow it, even if Chelsea invited it.
Not that she had invited any man or Breed to touch her. He had no doubt that if his scent hadn’t covered her, many would be offering, though. Just as those at the other clubs she’d visited.
This particular club was located beneath a warehouse outside Gallup, New Mexico. Each illegal club she’d chosen was in the same area, within ten to twenty miles of one another.
Though this was the only club she’d been to that was located underground.
The cavernous room throbbed with the sound of the latest dance music and an abundance of alcohol. Humans and Breeds alike filled the dance floor and congregated in small groups.
Chelsea seemed to have made her rounds of all those groups and then some. The three Coyote females she now stood with had shadowed her, seemingly without her knowing it. Ashley, Emma and Sharone were regulars at many of the underground bars. Like most Breeds they never became drunk, but enjoyed the music, dancing and socializing.
Cullen had followed her through three different highly illegal establishments over the course of the night. She stayed an hour or so at each one, nursing a single drink as she moved through them, and if he wasn’t mistaken she chatted with every damned Breed she could find, with the exception of him.