My Human Mate...

ar when she heard footsteps. Heavy, deliberate, and just fa

ing her pace steady. Faster would mean giving in to fear, letting whoever was behind her know she'd noticed. I

steps qu

ears. Every self-defense class, every late-night warning her mom had ever g

he tightened her grip on the spray, s

ls. She could hear him following her, relentless, gaining ground faster than should have been possible. The few late-night sounds of the c

ching for anyone, anyone who could help. But this part of town had always been e

r, hard enough to yank her

gotten a good look at him. But it didn't hit. He moved with inhuman speed, grabbing her wrist and twisting it

she noticed his eyes. Dark, like polished ony

mocking. His hand on her wrist was painfully

erself for it, but she didn't dare look away. Fe

closer, his face inches from hers. "

. "How... How do

been working in that dingy bar for nearly a year now. I know you walk home alone most nights, cutting through that alley to save a few minutes. I kn

until it was nothing more than a shuddering fragment. She tried to pull back, but

ht?" He laughed softly, the sound dark and cutting. "I don't think you understand, El

was unbreakable. His face was unreadable, a mask of cold contro

Her voice was barely a w

e mine," he said simply, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. And before she

ere staking some dark claim on her very soul. She twisted in his grip, bu

n intense, almost feral gleam in their depths. "Consider that yo

k in his eyes, the brutal strength in his grip, told her on

th as much defiance as she could muster. "I don't know who you th

mile. "You're wrong. You belong t

er as if she weighed nothing at all, ignoring her fists as they beat aga