Page 10 of Shadow

“Yes?” I replied, working to block the dopamine threatening to flood my brain again. Beast sensed my irrationality, and his agitation rippled beneath my skin.

“Mate?” Nokita asked.

I stopped running abruptly. Nokita took a few more steps before halting and turning to face me.

The wordmatecircled in my mind, and I shook my head.

“No. The need to protect her is not heightened beyond that of any other female.”

“Grrph, lust,” he grumbled.

There was no denying the truth of it. Lust was there, and Beast was fully aware.

“We need to head back,” I said, dismissing the conversation before it continued.

“Lust,” Nokita grumbled again, this time quieter.

“I haven’t denied it, so stop with the ‘lust,’” I snapped.

Nokita clamped his jaws shut, and we turned back toward the motorcycle.

I’d had enough of Nokita’s presence, so I shifted into my human form and hopped onto the bike, leaving him to find his own way back. The hum of the engine filled the silence as I navigated through the narrow streets, retracing the path Boot had taken with the woman earlier.

Her arrival had been planned down to the smallest detail. The Federation might lack satellites to monitor our progress since taking over the island, but we suspected a spy.

No one had been caught.

Yet.

The state of the town itself didn’t matter. What did, were the civilians we were hiding. The Federation didn’t need to knowabout most of them. These people were ours now, and the only way the U.S. would get their hands on them was through battle.

If it came to that, not a single human in the Federation would survive.

Right now, they needed us to deal with what they called hellhounds. Only a select few in their government truly understood what they were up against, and they kept the truth hidden from the rest.

We would guard the secret of what the hellhounds really were for as long as it served our purpose.

Our kind had stayed hidden for two centuries. We had mastered the art of secrecy.

The question was whether Marinah could keep her mouth shut when it mattered.

Her ability to hold onto a few key secrets could determine everything.

Beast stirred beneath my skin.

“The woman has a chance,” I said aloud, letting the wind carry the words.

Beast didn’t like that.

He retaliated, slamming one of my ribs with a sharp jolt of defiance.

Pain rippled through me, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

He hated being controlled.

Chapter Six

King

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