Chapter 4

Charlotte Sanguinite POV:

Two dead vampires are one thing. A dead Alpha is a death sentence. A painful one, at that.

“This is just not a good day for me,” I mutter before grabbing the side of the wolf’s neck and lowering my mouth.

My fangs slice into his neck, and I have to be careful not to swallow any of the blood. Shifter blood is said to be incredibly addictive, and I’m trying to decrease my problems in life, not add to them. His blood is sweet, most likely due to the wolfsbane. I spit it out and then sucked some more, spitting it out as well. The process continues until the unnatural sweetness fades away.

Sure enough, minutes later, his body began to change.

I’ve never seen a wolf shift before. My breath catches as it takes less than a second for the wolf to turn into a man. A very naked, well-built man.

I can’t stop my eyes from straying, and when they peek at his lower body, I press my lips together and look away, feeling flustered.

Forcing myself not to stare, I took off my light sweater and covered his privates with it before studying the wounds on him. He’s got plenty of them, but they’ll all heal eventually. One or two are particularly bad, and I clean them up, covering them with gauze. While I’m wrapping a piece of gauze around his chest, where there is a particularly nasty wound, he stirs.

“Mr. Montgomery?” I ask slowly.

“Hmm?” He sounds groggy, and his movements are a little slow. I still don’t know how he managed to wake up long enough to attack Mack and Droga.

“Mr. Montgomery, how’re you feeling? "Can I call somebody for you?” I tied up the ends of the gauze in a clean knot before helping him lean against the back of the desk.

His eyes are half-open now. “Did you save me?”

I open my mouth, and for a second, I forget how to speak.

“I—No, no. Can I call somebody for you?”

“H—Harry.”

“Okay, alright. Do you know his number?”

He seems a little out of it, but he has the number memorized. Slowly, he gives me one digit after the next, his voice rough and husky.

I dial the number, but no one picks up. I keep calling, and finally, a sleepy voice answers. “What?”

“Is this Harry?”

“Of course it is!” the person on the other end grumbles.

“I have Robert Montgomery here with me. He was badly injured.”

The alertness in his voice is followed by a creaking sound, as if he’s sitting up in bed. “Address?”

I shoot off the address, and he verifies it once before abruptly disconnecting the call. I sank to the cold floor beside the Alpha.

“This is going to be a long night,” I sigh tiredly. I still have to figure out what to do about the blood on the street and inside the shelter. Then there are the bodies. Where do I bury them? And how on earth do I explain all this damage?

“You have beautiful hair,” the Alpha suddenly murmurs. I notice the flicker of awareness in his gaze when I turn to look at him, but he’s not completely alert.

“Th—Thank you,” I stammer. “It’s mine.”

I close my eyes in mortification as soon as the words are out of my mouth. What was that? Why didn’t I just stick to a brief “thanks”?

I shook my head, embarrassed.

Of all the things to say.

It’s mine.

Sometimes I wonder if my brain cells like to give up on me momentarily, just to see what kind of gibberish comes out when they abandon me.

“I know it’s yours,” the Alpha chuckles. “Pretty hair always belongs to a pretty lady.”

“That makes no sense.” I pat his hand, pretty certain he’s not going to remember any of this tomorrow. “But thank you.”

Once he gets to a healer, the remaining wolfsbane will be removed from his system, and he’ll be fine. But right now, he’s acting a little drunk.

“Do you think I’m pretty?”

His question, along with this entire situation, is so ridiculous that I can either laugh or cry. I choose the former.

Leaning my head against the desk, I giggled. “Very pretty. In fact, you’re prettier than I.”

“Oh, I don’t think so.” He rests his head on my shoulder, and from the limpness in his hand, I know he’s on the verge of passing out again. His voice is growing hazier. “You look—You look like a medieval queen with that beautiful hair and those eyes. I could get lost in them...”

He slumps forward into my lap, and I freeze.

“Are you okay?” I push him a little, but he doesn’t move. “Hey,” I say, poking his cheek.

He’s as still as can be. Sighing, I ran my fingers through his short, silken strands. “May as well.”

I stay there like that for what seems like an eternity before someone begins banging on the shutter.

“Oh, shit.” I blurt. “Oh God, Ricky’s here.”

“Robert! Robert, are you in there?!”

Relief fills me, and I practically shove the Alpha off my lap before running to the door. It’s hard to see out of my swollen left eye; it’s really hurting. I opened the shutter and glared at the man around my age standing outside. “Keep it down! I’ve got two dead vampires in here!”

He stares at me and then growls. Before I could blink, he grabbed me by the throat, his teeth bared in a vicious snarl.

“Stop it!” I struggled to speak. “I’m the one who called you!”

“Liar!” the boy roars. “Is this a trap? Did you lure me here to—”

“Are you blind, you idiot?!” I snapped back. “Look behind me!”

He moves his head to the side, and his eyes widen. “Robert!”

Pushing me to the ground, he makes a dash for the unconscious Alpha. “Robert, are you okay?”

Coughing from his attempt at strangling me, I sat up. “He’s got wolfsbane in his system.”

“You—”

“I didn’t do anything to him!” I scowl, angry now. I saved his life. And if you don’t believe me, you can check the security camera footage!”

“I will,” he declares furiously. “Come on, Robert.”

I get to my feet. “You’ll need a vehicle. You can’t carry him. He’s got stitches.”

“My car’s outside.”

“I’ll help you.” At this point, I really just want both of them out of here.

“You’ll help?” Harry looks suspicious.

“Help carry him to the car,” I say, annoyed. “Look, I’ve got enough to deal with here." There are two dead vampires in the back shed, one broken glass door, blood everywhere, and the human vet is about to arrive. I don’t have time to deal with you. I’ll help you carry him, and then please, never come back here.”

Harry flinches. “Okay.”

I grab Robert’s legs, but as I do so, my sweater falls off of him.

I dropped him immediately.

“Hey!” Harry shouts indignantly. “He’s an Alpha! Have some respect!”

“You take his legs, then!” I can feel my ears burn. Robert Montgomery is wickedly attractive even with the scarring on his face, and I would rather not look at him any more than I have to. It’s bad enough that I’m harboring a crush on this man; do I have to look at his naked form, too? My heart can only take so much!

“You’re crazy,” Harry hisses through his teeth. Wait till Robert wakes up. He’s going to have a few things to say to you…”

“Those words better be ‘thank you’ and ‘I will never bother you again’!” I pant as I helped move the unconscious man, who really is heavier than he looks, to the car.

Once Robert is secured in the back seat, Harry turns to look at me and then the damage. He must not have realized the extent of it when he first got here. His expression distorts. “Um, I can have a team here in ten minutes to clean everything up and deal with the bodies.”

“Really?” My irritation fades.

He nods. “Just wait here.”

He starts the engine, and I watch him drive away.

As his car grows smaller and smaller in the distance, my heart tightens in my chest.

Two dead vampires.

My father’s not going to let that go.