Cynthia Eden on the Prowl Read Online

  By Cynthia Eden

This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to real people, places, or events are not intentional and are purely the event of coincidence. The characters, places, and events in this story are fictional.

Copyright ©2016 by Cindy Roussos

Comprehend art and design past: Sweet 'North Spicy Designs

Copy-editing by: JRT Editing

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Table of Contents

Title Folio

Copyright Page

On The Prowl

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter Two

Chapter Iii

Chapter Four

Affiliate Five

Affiliate Half-dozen

Chapter 7

Affiliate Eight

Chapter Nine

Affiliate Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter 13

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Xvi

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Writer's Notation

About The Author

Prologue

"There are…things you don't know about me," Julian Craig said gruffly, his faint British accent slipping into his vocalism. "Things I didn't know how to tell you."

Rose Kinley forced herself to smile. "Whatever it is, I'grand sure it's not as bad as you're making it seem." And he was making information technology seem bad. Her heart thudded in her chest equally she stared at him. They were in the Florida Keys, a virtual paradise, and the moment should have been perfect. Julian had taken her to a private domicile on the gleaming water, and they were continuing on the balcony equally the waves crashed below them. She'd been dating Julian for nearly two months—two of the best months of her life.

Rose was pretty sure that she was falling in dear with him.

Julian. Tall. Nighttime. Handsome and and so very sexy with his powerful build and those mysterious, golden eyes. When he came into a room, she couldn't look away from him. She'd actually felt pulled toward him from the very showtime moment that they met.

"Rose, practise you believe in monsters?"

A surprised and nervous laugh escaped her. "Monsters?" She put her paw on his chest and felt the strength beneath her touch on. "You mean the boogeyman?" She smiled, teasing.

He shook his head and Julian didn't smile.

The moments ticked by. Is he serious? Her ain smiling vanished. "No, I don't believe in monsters. I'm non a child to exist scared of the dark." She stared up at him. "I know there is evil in the world." This was and then not the conversation she'd anticipated when he brought her to such a romantic setting. So much for those plans. "Robbers, killers…I know they're out there. I see stories almost them on the news every night."

"I'k not talking virtually bad humans." For a moment, she could take sworn that his eyes gleamed. Sometimes, they seemed to practise that…to be brighter. To almost glow. A trick of the lite or the night or something, she was certain. No way were his eyes actually glowing. "I'chiliad talking virtually existent monsters," he continued gruffly. "And, love, you need to believe in them because they are out there."

Her heart lurched in her breast. No, Julian, please, don't exist insane. You were so wonderfully perfect. "Are they?" Rose asked him carefully. Her friends had warned her, but had she listened? Oh, no. If a guy seems too good to be true…

"Yes, they are out there. They hide in plain sight and humans just don't see them."

If he seems as well good to be truthful, then he probably isn't all that skilful in the first place.

She swallowed and her manus brutal abroad from his chest. Rose pulled in a deep breath and despite the estrus of the night, it seemed to arctic her lungs. "Do you…see whatsoever monsters right now?" Probably something she should know.

He growled. Goosebumps rose on her arms because it was such a deep, animalistic sound. That was one of the things near Julian. He had sort of an animal attraction vibe going on. A wildness that he barely held in check. Perhaps that wildness was what had first drawn her to him. She'd taken one look at Julian and thought…

He isn't like other men.

Now she knew why…information technology was considering the guy might but be certifiably insane. Monsters walking around with humans? Sounded like he'd definitely taken a break from the meds.

"I'1000 expressionless serious, Rose. Fuck, I knew yous wouldn't believe me. I have to bear witness yous…"

She backed up a step. "I-I thought we were just going to accept a nice night out. You don't need to show me annihilation about monsters—"

His left hand lifted. A strong, powerful hand. One tanned by the sun with long fingers and…and claws that were sprouting from the tips of those fingers.

Claws. Claws.

Rose shook her head. That wasn't possible. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, just when they opened again, the claws were notwithstanding there—and growing longer with each moment that passed. Long and wicked sharp claws.

"I'grand one of the monsters, love."

Her head whipped up. She stared into his eyes and they were definitely glowing. That wasn't normal. Glowing optics. Claws from his fingertips. Oh, my God. Fifty-fifty his face shape had altered a bit, becoming sharper, harder.

She took another stumbling step back. "This isn't funny. I don't know how you lot're doing this, but stop the joke."

"It's no joke." His vocalism had changed, too. Gone deeper. His words were more growl than anything else. He lifted his right paw, and it was changing, too. More than claws. Long and night and sharper than a pocketknife.

Rose shook her head—over and over—and then she did what any smart adult female would do when her lover suddenly sprouted claws. She turned and she ran.

"Rose!"

She didn't dull down, she just ran faster. She flew through that house and rushed down the stairs that would take her to the footing floor. She didn't hear him behind her and that scared her because she was sure he was trailing her. She grabbed for the door and yanked it open—

Only to have it immediately slammed closed again, by Julian. He hadn't simply trailed her, he'd caught her, all without making a sound.

Her breath heaved out and she whirled to detect another fashion out. Merely…she was trapped. He'd trapped her between his difficult body and the forest of the door. His eyes were still doing that scary glow thing and she was besides agape to wait downwards and see if he all the same sported claws. "I-I desire to leave." She tried to audio calm. Rose was sure she failed.

"Let me explain…"

Explicate claws? "You lot already did. You lot're a…" Monster. Rose couldn't get that word out.

"I should have stayed the hell abroad from you." His gaze swept over her face. "But there was something well-nigh you, from the first moment. I saw you, and I wanted you more than than I've ever wanted whatever other woman."

Her heart was most to jump correct out of her breast. He wasn't touching her, but she could feel his rut surrounding her. He was so big, well over six feet, and he dwarfed her own five-foot-five frame.

His nighttime caput leaned toward her. "But I never wanted you lot to fearfulness me."

"Then maybe you shouldn't take flashed your claws," she blurted. Considering how was she non supposed to fear those things? They were like knives that had but grown straight from his fingers.

"I'k a shifter. It's what I've been since nativity." Dark stubble lined his jaw. "If I could change who I was, I would. Trust me, I've wished to exist unlike more than times than I could count only I never wanted it more…" He swallowed. "Never more when I met yous."

A shifter. That meant…he turned into some kind of beast or something, right? "What do yous…become?" Was she seriously having this conversation?<

br />
"A panther."

Correct. Certain. Because of grade he wouldn't plow into something cuddly and sweet. He would exist a panther. Raw ability and danger and claws that could rip her pharynx open in i swipe.

She felt dizzy. Rose really didn't desire to faint on him. "I need y'all to let me leave."

"That's the terminal thing I want to do." And then he was locking his hands effectually her shoulders. She couldn't help information technology, Rose flinched, but his claws didn't piece into her. He touched her with the hands and forcefulness of a man, not some kind of beast. "Y'all think I've ever told another human being what I am? That's against the rules. I'm non supposed to tell mortals, but you lot're different." His gaze still blazed. "Because you're mine."

When he touched her, her body reacted. It was like a oestrus burned between them, ane that raged and destroyed everything in its path, everything simply the white-hot need and passion that erupted. He touched her, and she wanted. It was a want different annihilation she'd ever felt earlier. And, yes, perchance she had thought it was unnatural at first…

Then she hadn't cared.

Simply now… "What did y'all do to me?" Rose whispered. "How did you make me desire y'all and then much?" Fifty-fifty then, when she was terrified of him, she wanted him. Her breasts were agonized, her torso readying when she should be running as fast and as far from him equally she could.

"I remember y'all were made for me."

Rose shook her head.

"And I was made for you."

She didn't believe in soul mates. She hardly believed in dear. She—

"I volition never hurt you," Julian vowed. "Believe that, if you believe nothing else. I told yous the truth because I don't want to prevarication to y'all. I desire you to know all of me. Everything. No secrets and no—"

Merely he broke off, his eyes widening in alert.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

She heard the thunder, as if from a altitude. She heard the blasts and she felt the wooden door shake behind her.

Then the pain came, erupting through her torso. Her right side. Her left. Her back then—then direct through her breast.

Julian was shouting and jerking her away from the door. She grabbed his arms, holding tightly, and she looked back over her shoulder.

At that place were…holes in the door. As if someone had…shot through the door?

She could feel a warm wetness on her body. Julian had her in his arms and he was running through the business firm. He rushed upward the stairs and put her on the bed.

"Don't movement, love. Simply…fuck, stay here, I'll accept care of them. I'll take care of y'all."

Rose tried to speak, only couldn't. A faint moan was the just sound to escape her lips. She tried to lift herself upward, but…something was wrong. She couldn't motility her legs. And the pain that had wracked her just moments earlier?

She didn't feel information technology any longer.

She didn't feel anything.

But she could hear screams. Desperate, terrified screams that seemed to shake the night itself. And she heard the inhuman snarls of a brute.

Her breath whispered out and her eyelids sagged closed.

She was dying, and Rose knew it. Someone had shot through the door. The bullets had torn into her and now…now her life was over.

***

"I hope you know what you lot've done."

That voice—low and oddly sinister—pulled Rose from the darkness. Her eyelids flew open up and she sucked in a greedy gulp of air.

"Be certain y'all hold upwards your end of the bargain, panther." Once again, it was that sinister vocalization talking. One that seemed to reek of ability and danger. "Because there is a price for the gift I've given."

Her gaze shot to the man speaking. He was tall, with dark hair, glinting eyes, and a face that seemed to exist cutting straight from stone. For just an instant, she actually wondered if she was looking into the confront of the devil. Simply and so he smiled at her…

Rose didn't wonder any longer. She knew.

"Welcome back," he said.

Back? Her gaze jumped to the left and she saw Julian…Julian—who was wearing but a pair of faded jeans and who was covered in blood. The coppery scent reached out to her and Rose found herself licking her lips.

I similar the way it smells.

What in the hell? She jerked upright in the bed, a bed that was also stained with claret. Her claret. Her easily flew over her trunk, searching for the wounds that had been there before, but now they were gone. No torn skin. No bullet holes. No hurting at all.

"Wh-what happened?" Rose whispered. Her throat seemed parched so she swallowed a few times and licked her lips. "I was…hurt."

"But you're not any longer," the mysterious man said. "Amazing, isn't it? The toll some people volition pay to keep the things they value."

She wasn't a matter and she didn't think she liked that mystery guy. "Who are you?"

He shrugged. He wore a suit, a perfectly pressed suit that seemed so out of place in that room full of blood. "Call me Luke. All my friends—and my enemies—exercise." He stalked toward Julian and clapped a hand on the other man's shoulder. "See? She's as practiced every bit new. Well, with a few small-scale adjustments, of grade."

She slid from the bed and stood on trembling legs, feeling at a terrible disadvantage. "What'southward going on?" Rose struggled to remember. "I was…shot."

"At least three times," Luke offered helpfully, even smiling as he shared that tidbit with her. "Or was it iv? I bullet severed your spine. Rather nasty."

She looked down at her legs. Rose remembered that she hadn't been able to experience them. A tear slid downwardly her cheek. I feel them at present.

"And what weak assholes shoot through a door, anyway?" Luke demanded to know. Her gaze flew back to him as he shook his head in disgust as he released Julian'southward shoulder and turned the force of his rather creepy stare onto her. "Using heat sensors, trying to accept out Julian. Not caring who got in their style. Hardly the sporting matter to do." His grinning hardened. "I sure hope they're enjoying hell."

Severed your spine…And what weak assholes shoot through a door, anyway? His words echoed in her ears. She stumbled abroad from him and found herself backing into the nearby corner equally her shoulders hit the wall. If some bullet had severed her spine, she wouldn't be standing right then. She wouldn't even exist moving at all.

Terrified, her gaze darted around and she realized that every piece of furniture in that bedroom—every piece but the bed she'd been in—had been wrecked. The dresser was smashed to $.25. The chair had been clawed open. The walls were even smashed—deep holes and gouge marks were in them. What is happening?

"A thanks isn't out of the question," Luke appear every bit he released Julian'due south shoulder. He waited a trounce, as if he expected someone to suddenly shout out thanks. When no gratitude came, he sighed. "I pretty much bent the laws of nature for y'all, lady. Then…aye, you're welcome."

"I'yard having a nightmare." At that place. That made sense. Julian wasn't a monster. He hadn't grown claws. She hadn't been shot. Creepy Luke wasn't there. This was all—

"You are the nightmare now, sweetheart." Luke gave her a chilling smile. "And again, y'all're welcome."

Her gaze snapped toward Julian. Why hadn't he spoken yet? And why was he staring at her with that twisted expression of grief and relief on his handsome confront? "Julian?"

A musculus flexed along the hard line of his jaw. "I wasn't going to allow you dice."

Her breadbasket was twisting.

"Technically, she did die," Luke supplied helpfully equally he tapped his mentum. A big, ominous-looking band curled around his finger. "And I brought her back. Undead style."

She grabbed at her shirt once more than. Her blood-covered shirt. There were holes in her shirt. Bullet holes? OhmyGod, aye, they are. But no wounds were on her body.

"So, y'all'll demand to know a few things." Now Luke seemed brisk. "Sunlight won't kill yous. That quondam story is total bullshit. My asshole blood brother started circulating it centuries

ago. Leo is such a bastard."

"Julian?" She whispered in one case more than. "What's happening?"

His gaze seemed tormented. She felt tormented.

"You however exhale. Your heart still beats," Luke continued. "I mean, if it didn't, your body would start to decompose. Your flesh would rot. You'd be all gross and icky and basically a zombie. Which you are not," he added hastily when Julian glared at him. "Simply since you still have a heartbeat and brain function and what non…that does mean you lot can die. See, that'south where the stories always become wrong once more. One time more, courtesy of my dick brother."

She didn't intendance about his brother and Luke was only talking nonsense.

Why was Julian not speaking?

"So yous tin exist killed with the usual methods," Luke's vox was flat. He snapped his fingers. "Pay attention here, okay? Focus. This shit is important."

Rose blinked.

"A gunshot to the heart, drowning, stabbing…you go the idea." His hand did a petty roll in the air. "Yous'll die, but y'all'll come up dorsum. Lucky y'all."

"This isn't real," she mumbled. It couldn't be real. Her breadbasket wasn't just twisting whatever longer. Information technology was knotting. Cramping.

"You'll come dorsum," Luke nodded, "only yous'll be damn thirsty. Simply remember that blood is e'er of paramount importance for you. Drink up, drinkable, potable, drink."

He'd merely told her to drink blood.

And…

Her teeth were burning. Stretching?

"There they are." Luke clapped his hands, as if proud. "Right on cue." His head cocked. "Gorgeous fangs, past the fashion. They'll aid you with that whole blood drinking issue. Yous can likewise compel humans, to a certain extent, and then they'll pretty much just offer their throats to you." He sighed. "A word of warning, though, endeavor not to impale your prey. That will just attract my blood brother's attention and, as previously noted, he can truly be a pain in the ass."

Her fingers were over her mouth and she touched—fangs. Honest-to-God fangs were coming out of her oral fissure. Her canines had extended to wicked sharp points and when she talked—"This isn't happening!"

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