Chapter 5.

Scar.

Saturday, 23rd January. Next day.

Morning.

The bed rocks as she moves on top of me. Straddling me. Her pussy wet for me. Slick, just as I like it.

I slip my fingers between us and part her folds, parting her clit until her cum soaks my fingers, soaks my hard cock buried deep inside her.

“Scar… fuck me… yes… just like that…” She cries, louder now.

Her mewls fill the room, rocking something deep inside me.

I push deeper into her. Push the toy in her ass some more, and she cries out from the delicious pain I know it sends ripping through her. She leans forward, trying to press a kiss to my lips, but I sink my fingers into her hair and yank her back, stopping it.

“No kissing the lips. Did you forget, Officer Cassidy Torm?” I groan, voice low.

I press a kiss to her neck, graze her skin with my teeth. Her heart rate spikes instantly. I feel it, her pulse racing beneath my lips, throbbing against my mouth. That rhythm stirs something feral and familiar inside me.

My fangs slide out slowly, scraping that spot where her pulse pounds hardest.

The memory hits me without warning.

Valentino. Last night. The girl beneath his lips. Her blood as he drank her dry. The way desire had coiled hot and dark inside me as I watched.

“Bite me, Scar.” Cassidy moans now, breathless, grinding her pussy harder against my cock.

“Ah…” I groan as her pussy squeezes me, pulls me in.

I flip her suddenly, forcing her down until she’s bent over for me. Her ass raised. Her slick, dripping pussy exposed. Her back arched just enough for me to sink into her properly.

“You want me to bite you?” I murmur against her ear as I yank her hair back.

I slide into her slowly. She moans as I enter, right as I press my fangs to her neck. I move inside her at a controlled pace while I sink my fangs in, just a fraction. Enough to tease. Enough to threaten. Not lethal. No venom injected into her.

She cries out, clutching the sheets as I press my body closer. My cock drives deeper into her. The toy vibrates relentlessly inside her.

“My ass… my neck… Scar… I’m gonna cum… I’m gonna cum.” She cries, over and over.

I pull her hair back harder, arching her body until her ass is offered up to me. Then I pound her, fast, hard, my fangs still embedded in her neck. My tongue laps at her blood as her pulse throbs wildly beneath it.

And as I feel myself swell inside her, my mind betrays me.

I imagine Emerald.

Not Cassidy beneath me. Emerald.

Her body. Her werewolf scent. I imagine that it's her pussy raw and wet for me.

My pace slows. My movements turn reverent. Worshipping. I glide inside her, slow and deep, licking her neck, her shoulder, her jaw as I build the rhythm again.

Faster now. Closer.

I spread her ass wider, drive deeper, until the crest hits and I explode inside her.

“Ah...Emerald… Emerald!” I groan, filling the condom as release tears through me.

We collapse onto the bed. My forehead presses against her back as I try to breathe. I place soft kisses along her skin, grounding myself, searching for words that never come.

Then a voice comes.

“Emerald?”

The name breaks through the fog.

I lift my head and catch Cassidy Torm staring at me, eyes glassy, breath still uneven.

Not Emerald. Cassidy.

“Who’s Emerald, Scar?” She asks quietly.

She pushes me away and rises from the bed, naked, flushed. The heat in her eyes is gone, replaced by irritation. Disappointment.

My gaze drifts to the blood trailing down her neck.

“Let me get you something to clean that.” I mutter, sidestepping the question.

“Really, Scar? How disrespectful.” She snaps. “We fuck, and you call me another woman’s name?”

I lean back against the headboard, watching her lazily. “You said it yourself. We fuck. That’s all we do, Officer Cassidy. No attachments. Or did you forget?”

I stand, discard the condom, grab wipes and my first aid kit.

When I return, she’s already dressing in a rush.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

She doesn’t answer.

I reach for her neck, set the kit down, pull out a wipe, but she slaps my hand away.

“Don’t touch me, Scar." She snaps. “Don’t. I’ll clean myself up when I’m out of here.”

Tears pool in her eyes.

Something stirs in my chest, sharp, unfamiliar, almost warm. Then it dies as quickly as it came.

I reach for her again.

“If you’re finished with my son, can you hurry on out? I have something important to discuss with him.”

My hands freeze midair.

That voice, cold, detached, lethal.

I turn. My mother stands in the doorway, imposing as ever. Dressed in complete black, expensive wool coat. Hair pulled into a flawless bun. Her gaze sweeps the room with clinical disapproval.

“Mum?” I frown, stunned.

Cassidy scrambles for the rest of her clothes and bolts past her without a word.

When it’s just us, I fold my arms across my chest.

Mother’s eyes drag down my naked body. She strides forward, snatches my pants from a chair, and tosses them at me.

“Get dressed. We’ve got work to do.”

Then she leaves. Her boots echo down the hallway.

Minutes later, we’re underground inside the den where she conducts her business. Above ground, it’s an expensive apartment. Abandoned. Below, it’s a fortress.

As we walk, last night crashes back into me.

Cross, the gun.

His frozen expression when I aimed the gun at him. The silence after the shot.

“What?! You just shot one of my business partners!” Valentino had yelled.

“I hate men who force themselves on women,” I’d said. “And your man there was doing exactly that.”

Valentino had stated at me in horror. And Cross, well Cross had almost fainted in relief.

Now fluorescent lights flood the den. Mum's workers move methodically, assembling bottles filled with strange liquids.

“What are they doing?” I ask, curious.

“High concentration wolfsbane,” she says coolly. “Mixed with silver.”

“Silver and wolfsbane?” I echo.

“Yes. Some will be used next Wednesday at the gathering of werewolf elders in Silvaton Ridge. The rest is for the war for when we’ll take control. Form our own pack.”

My stomach drops.

“Or have you forgotten about the plan to hurt those elders as they converge? Have you forgotten your mission?” She circles me now.

The air shifts with tension. “Have you grown soft on your mission, working as an enforcer, as a protector of all the creatures?” She stops in front of me.

My brows crease in a frown.

I remember the plot to cause havoc at the annual convention of elders at Silvaton ridge. She called me to remind me, days back. But I hadn’t expected the day to approach so fast. But I don’t admit that to her.

“You know that’s not possible mom. Your dream for us to someday take over the pack is most paramount in my heart.” I remind her.

My voice trembles with emotion. She raises a brow and then gives a signal to one of her men, who disappears behind a door.

“Then if you haven’t grown soft, I bet you wouldn’t mind doing something for me.” She demands, just as the man returns dragging a masked person along.

He sets the person on his knees in front of me and yanks the mask off. Dread suddenly fills me as I watch the gagged person. A man? But his clothes are tattered. And then I inhale his scent.

Werewolf.

Something twists inside me, just as mum speaks.

“If you haven’t grown soft. Then kill this werewolf from Silvaton Ridge, who we found trespassing on this property.” Mum says, coldly.

I stare at her, shocked. Knowing her hate for Silvaton Ridge, her former home. Knowing her hate for those that killed my father.

“Mother…”

“Your son really has grown soft, Erianna.”

I turn sharply at the sound of that voice.

Riley Cordswell. Mother’s ally. Both of them, were hurt by the same person. My uncle. Mum’s brother, Gerald Ford.

Riley Cordswell steps closer, his eyes lazily taking the kneeling man in.

“You've grown soft protecting all the creatures." Riley circles me slowly. His tone dark. Menacing. He stops in front of me. Gaze hard as steel. "Otherwise, take his life.”

My gaze narrows. “But trespassing isn’t enough crime for me to…”

Riley rips the gag free.

“Please.” The man sobs. “I didn’t know... I didn't know it was private property. I saw it abandoned and wanted to see if it was listed....Please...I smell it in you.” He pleads to me, desperately. “You’re one of us...A werewolf.”

Something ugly coils inside me. I think of my mother’s pain. My father’s death. Mum's bitterness.

My body breaks.

Bones shift. My skin splits. Fur crawls over flesh. My face morphs into half beast, half human as a howl rips from my throat.

I loom over him.

“You made one mistake,” I growl, monstrously.

“I’m a vampire. Not a werewolf. Never a werewolf.”

He never sees it coming. I tear him apart.