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.This made her more powerful than he was, and Drake’s whole life had been spent trying to ensure that the world saw him as the strongest shifter around.He was her alpha, he’d said, and she the beta.Only she’d always known it to be false.Deep down, she knew now, she’d always controlled the situation.She saw him studying her as he left the vehicle; he’d never seen this version of her and yet she knew that he would immediately recognize her for the woman she was.“So,” he said as he approached, “This is…Zoe, is it?”“Zoe.Yes.That’s my proper name.” She stood, her back bristling.Had she fur at the moment it would have stood on end; such was the revulsion that she felt.“And this is your proper body?”Why, she wondered, had she never noticed how beady his eyes were or how his nose ended in a strange little bump at the tip? How had she ever been physically attracted to him, let alone enthralled by his personality?“This is my ‘proper’ body, if that’s what you want to call it.I call it my body.”“You should’ve stuck with the other one.This one makes you look like you live on cheesecake and beer.”Zoe wanted to strike him then.Not because she believed him; she didn’t, in fact, care what he thought.But because he thought he had the power to bring her down again and that power had long since been taken from him.She was loved now, and she loved herself as well.This jackass of a man couldn’t make her feel wretched.“What is it that you want, Drake? Why did you send that asshole detective to Wolf Rock?”He was right in front of her now; he’d walked up the steps and was standing over her, breathing on her face.More than anything she wanted to shift into her panther and stalk away, or perhaps strike him down.But she controlled her urge and stood her ground.“I want what’s mine,” he said, grabbing her wrist.“And you think I’m your fucking property, is that it?”“I don’t give a shit about you, Annette or Zoe or whatever the fuck your name is.I want my damn money.”Zoe now felt more strongly than ever as though she rather wanted to keep the cash.“Oh, that’s too bad.It’s gone,” she said.“Spent.”“On what? Your monkey house in the treetops?” laughed Drake.“Yeah, our mutual friend found it.Surely that didn’t cost you ten grand.Then again if it did, maybe my friends ought to tear it down and sell the parts.”“No, not on the house.I gave it away.”Drake pulled his right hand back and looked as though he intended to slap her on the face with it.But instead he opened the front door.“Go in,” he said.Zoe entered the house, her breath going short as she felt the prison close in around her.“So then, what are we going to do about this little problem of ours?” Drake asked, closing the door behind him and locking it.“I don’t know,” said Zoe, turning to him.A defiant look was setting in on her face and she could see that it made him nervous.Last time she’d defied him, things had gone poorly for his chest.“Maybe,” said Drake, picking up the phone off the table next to him, “I should just call the cops and have you arrested.”“Fine.Be my guest.It would be better than spending time with you.”This seemed to light a fuse within the hyena shifter and Zoe saw his body tense.It was, she thought, the ultimate insult to imply that he was awful to be around.But it was the truth.“I think spending time with me is exactly what needs to be done,” he said, approaching her now.He put a hand on her cheek.“It’s going to take a long time to make up for ten grand.”With that, he leaned in to kiss her, his hand sliding down to her breast.So many times in her other form, Zoe had kissed this man.Made love to him, even.But somehow that woman whom she had created purely to satisfy such a man was someone else, someone distant and unattached to who she now was.She was acting, she told herself, the entire time that she was Annette, and so his presence hadn’t been a violation.But this, now, was her body.This was the physical representation of her soul, and the only man who’d ever been allowed near it was Colson.“No,” she said, pushing him away.“What did you just say to me?”“I said no.” I’m not your lover.I’m not your fucking slave.If you want to call the police, you do that.But there is no way in Hell that I’ll ever let you touch me again.”With that, Drake’s eyes narrowed.Zoe didn’t have to guess at how hard he was fighting his inner animal.She suspected that he wanted nothing more than to attack her and to hurt her, and badly.But she didn’t care.She’d done what she needed to; she’d left Wolf Rock and Colson, and the man and town she loved were safe.“If you want me to stay here, Drake, I will,” she said.“But that’s it.You have no claim over me.”“My claim is ten thousand dollars,” he yelled, lunging at her now.He tore at her dress, which came away in front, revealing more than Zoe would have liked him to see.When Drake’s eyes settled on her plentiful breasts he became an animal in human form, pulling at her and trying to get his hands and mouth on her.In one swift motion Zoe shifted.This time it wasn’t into the tiger who’d injured this awful man months earlier.It was into her panther form, which backed away, out of her dress, and laid its ears flat back on its head, snarling.Drake followed suit and in an instant his hyena stood opposite.It began to pace back and forth across the narrow hallway in which they stood, waiting for a chance to leap at the panther.Hyenas, Zoe knew, played dirty.She’d watched Drake in action with other shifters and she knew that he didn’t have a kind bone in his body when in his shifted form; he was even more cruel than in human form.She didn’t wait.She leapt at him, coming down at his body from overhead and digging her sharp claws into his flesh, pushing him to the ground.Her teeth sank into the back of his neck and she felt the salty blood begin to trickle as the hyena let out a yelp.But Drake was quick too.He twisted around, loosing Zoe’s grip on his flesh, and managed somehow to get under her, biting at her with razor-sharp teeth.They sunk into her left front leg, causing her to lose her balance and to come crashing down so that he could then get on top of her.This time he bit her shoulder and neck, seemingly trying to get a firm grip on her, to control her.Streams of pain shot through her entire body as the teeth seemed to hit nerves; causing her to writhe in agony.She tried to twist and to turn; to gain the upper hand, but he was stronger than she knew, and he was determined.Finally, he had her pinned to the ground.Zoe didn’t know what was in his mind but she could imagine that he wanted her dead.It seemed that he was spending a moment debating the consequences.After all, no one knew that she was there.He could probably get away with it.And in all the time she’d known him, with all of his ugliness, she’d never seen him so enraged.She closed her eyes, her legs pinned down, preparing herself.But a thought came to her.Control.Maddox had said early on that she needed to remain calm and that her shifting would be under control [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]