Scarlet Heat Read online

“I…” She looked at me and I was sure she was going to say yes—of course, she would, so she could see her friend Addison again. But then she just shook her head. “No,” she said softly, turning her head to look out the window at the dark road whizzing by outside. “I think…I think I’d rather go home, if you don’t mind. To your home, I mean.”

  “Our home,” I said firmly. I couldn’t figure out why she’d turned down my offer to stop by the club. But then suddenly, I smelled it—that warm, rich, feminine scent. The smell of a female wolf who needs her mate—needs him badly. It was filling the cab of my truck, filling my senses, making it hard to concentrate on the road.

  Taylor must have seen my nostrils flare when I scented her because her cheeks got flushed. She crossed her legs tightly and scooted away from me, biting her lip.

  “Hey,” I said, trying to keep my voice normal. “You okay over there?” If only she would talk to me about it, I would try to help her. Try to explain.

  But she only shook her head.

  “I’m fine. Are we almost home?”

  “Almost,” I said with a sigh. We didn’t say anything else and drove in silence until I pulled up in front of the house.

  The minute we got inside, she headed straight for the bathroom. The door closed and I heard the telltale sound of fabric being pulled hastily out of the way. A muffled moan of painful pleasure followed it…and then another and another.

  Okay, that was it. I couldn’t let her go on like this—I had to say something. I knocked on the door and the soft little sounds she had been making stopped abruptly.

  “Taylor?” I said, knocking again. “Come on, open up.”

  “I’m busy. I’m…I’m about to take a bath.” She sounded slightly panicked.

  “Open up,” I repeated, prepared to be firm.

  Slowly the door opened and her flushed face appeared. Her clothes were rumpled and askew and her long dark hair was tousled, as though she’d been running both hands through it, trying to straighten it out.

  She looked fucking gorgeous and she smelled even better. I took a deep breath and immediately regretted it when her delicious scent invaded my senses. Okay, I had to keep it together here, especially considering what I had to tell her.

  “What do you want?” she demanded, frowning at me.

  “I know what you’re doing in there, and it’s not taking a bath,” I said simply. “But Taylor, honey, it won’t help.”

  “What? What are you talking about?” She crossed her arms over her chest protectively and took a step back. “I don’t…don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Yes, you do.” I took her right hand and brought it to my nose. I inhaled deeply, taking her warm, feminine scent into my lungs, deliberately letting it overwhelm me. I was instantly achingly hard. “You’ve been touching yourself, baby,” I murmured, my voice deepening to the Wolf’s growl. “But it’s not doing any good, is it?”

  Her eyes widened and for a moment I thought she would deny it again. Then finally she hung her head.

  “How…how did you know?”

  “It’s a wolf thing,” I said. “I don’t know how or why it’s happening to you, since you’re a vamp. But I’ve seen it before.”

  “Seen what?” She looked at me uncertainly.

  I took a deep breath and looked her in the eyes. She deserved the truth, no matter how bizarre it sounded. “Taylor, baby, I think you’re going into heat.”

  Chapter Ten—Taylor

  I stared at him, trying to take in what he was saying. Going into heat? That couldn’t be true. Could it? Then I remembered what Gwendolyn had said. “He’s been a were all his life—you’ve only been a vamp for less than ten years. If anybody is going to change it’s going to be you, sweetie.” But could it be that I was really changing that much? Could Victor possibly be right?

  “What…what does that mean?” I tugged nervously at my rumbled blouse and skirt. I’d been in such a hurry to touch myself when we got home I hadn’t even had time to take them off. But the multiple orgasms I’d already had before he knocked on the door hadn’t even touched the raging desire inside me—if anything, they had made it worse.

  Victor took a deep breath and I could tell he was trying to think of a way to explain without freaking me out. Then finally, he shook his head.

  “Damn it—there’s no nice way to say it. It means you need to be bred.”

  “Bred?” I took a step back. “As in…” But I couldn’t make myself say the words.

  “Taken,” he said in a low voice. “Fucked.”

  Hearing that word coming from him in a soft, deep growl did things to my insides. My pussy was suddenly liquid, my nipples so tight they ached. But at the same time a rush of ugly memories came crowding down on me.

  “You’ll get used to it,” Celeste said, tightening the straps of the silver chastity belt. It burned me horribly, plumes of smoke rising from its hinges but it was the long, cruel silver wand she had forced inside me that hurt the most. The searing pain of being burned from the inside out was almost more than I could bear. It was only my second week as a vampire. How could I stand this for the rest of my long, unnatural life? For the rest of eternity?

  “Shut up and stop sniveling,” Celeste snapped. “Or I’ll shove it in deeper…”

  And that wasn’t all…there was more, so much more. So many things I had been forced to endure. So many memories. So many nightmares… I had pushed them all to the back of my mind, constantly avoiding them, ignoring them, pretending they didn’t exist. Now, though, it was as though the physical desire Victor had raised in me had brought them rushing back. I couldn’t avoid them anymore. Couldn’t pretend they hadn’t happened.

  “No!” I gasped, taking a step back. “No, you can’t…I can’t let you.” I bolted past him, out of the bathroom and through the bedroom. I didn’t know where I was going, only that I had to get away, away from him and from the awful memories.

  But some things you can’t outrun.

  * * * * *

  Victor

  I caught her in the kitchen with her hand on the doorknob.

  “No, Taylor.” I pressed my hand flat against the wooden door, holding it closed despite her desperate attempts to wrench it open.

  “Please…” She turned to face me, her face naked with fear. “Please, Victor…please don’t,” she begged brokenly. “Don’t…I can’t…I can’t stand it if you…if you do that to me.”

  “Baby, baby…no. Of course not. Of course I won’t.” I wanted to reassure her, wanted to let her know that I would never hurt her, never take what she wasn’t willing to give.

  But she was too far gone, too upset to hear me.

  “Please…” She was crying now, her big blue eyes wet and red with blood tears. She wrapped her arms around herself, holding on tight like she might shake herself to pieces if she let go. “Please…” she kept repeating. “Please, no.”

  I didn’t know what to do with her. I couldn’t let her out into the night—the moon was still mostly full. There were probably members of the local pack out there, hunting. She would be an easy target.

  “Honey, come back where we can talk,” I begged her, trying to take her by the arm.

  “No!” She shied away from my touch violently. “No, don’t…please don’t.”

  Her tears, her fear of me—they were tearing me up inside. Why had I been such an idiot and blurted it out like that? Why hadn’t I been able to think of a better way to tell her what was going on? Now she was sure I was going to rape her like that bastard Roderick probably had. No wonder she didn’t want me anywhere near her. What was I going to do? How could I ever earn her trust back after this?

  Inside me I felt the wolf howl with anguish. The pale girl—the female we had adopted into our pack and claimed as our own was hurting. She was hurting and there was no way to ease her pain.

  Or was there?

  The wolf—she liked my wolf. She trusted that part of me more than she trusted…well, me. The human me, anyw