The Alpha Target

Thirteen

Darca stared at her friend wide-eyed, impatiently waiting for an explanation to what had just happened. There was more to this story than she had first initially realised and Cora had the answers that pieced together the puzzle. Twice – twice – Cora had escaped death from this man. The man who swore nothing but a brutal end, yet only seemed focused on having Cora tucked up safely in bed. It was absurd, ridiculous even. Darca put the first time Knox had left Cora alive down as a warning, but having watched him carry her like a sack of potatoes and drop her in the passenger seat like a boyfriend rescuing his intoxicated girlfriend, it was obvious that there was more at play here.

Every shifter had heard the rumours surfacing around Knox. He had a horrific temper and was known for his torturous ways. Having caught Cora following him, Darca would have at least expected anger to be radiating off Knox in waves, suffocating the air around him with his Alpha vibes. But that wasn’t what Darca picked up. No, Knox was amused by the circumstances. Even his wolf seemed calm, pleased even. And frankly, that made no sense.

Cora shrunk in her seat, her pink hair shelved on the base of her head while she watched Knox return to his car with a scowl on her face. The man had left her exasperated, like her skin had been set on fire. Yet instead of desperately wanting to put the fire out, she bizarrely wanted to relish in the flames he had coaxed her in, feel burn from his touch.

She wretchedly tried to feel repulsed by him, to ignore the alluring features of his face and his captivating piercing blue eyes. She didn’t want to feel hot all over from the way her towered over her, leaving nothing but her shadow to be seen as he had her pinned against the wall. And she’d certainly rather his silky smooth, gruff voice didn’t call to her on such a primal need that her body urgently pleaded with her to do anything he asked.

The man had a magnetism that rocked her to her core, that drew her in like a moth to a flame. He was nothing but darkness. Though Cora had never been afraid of the dark, in fact she welcomed it. Her internal conflict only seemed to be worsening and the longer they found no evidence against him, the deeper she was falling into his deathly grasp. She’d had him, right there, yet she’d found herself overcome by lust for the glorious devil when she should have been kicking his psychotic ass straight back to the underworld.

And now, he was gone again. The bastard knew he affected her ability to think clearly and used that to his advantage, rendering her powerless against him by blurring her senses with promises she knew he’d deliver. Now, they were no further in their investigation, had no idea where those poor girls were being kept and Cora was feeling as murderous as she was horny.

Reluctantly, Cora’s golden eyes met Darca’s. “You f****d him, didn’t you?” Darca asked calmly.

Cora’s eyes bulged. “No, I did not f**k him,” she snarled, as if Darca was suggesting something insane and Cora hadn’t spent the last several nights fantasizing over what it would in fact be like. Cora could feel the blood rising in her cheeks, and then her left eye twitched. f**k, Darca knew that was her tell.

“You did!” Darca bursts, her hand slamming against the steering wheel as she peered down at Cora in shock.

“I didn’t! I promise,” Cora rushed out, grabbing her hand. “But… I don’t know, there’s something going on.”

Darca puffed out her chest and settled back into her seat, scooting around to face Cora. She leaned in, an unreadable emotion flared in her eyes. “What?”

And this was where Cora got tripped up, because she didn’t know exactly what. She just knew there was something happening between them that made her want to set the fucker on fire, before putting out the flames so he could attend to the inferno he’d lit in her.

Cora’s hands cover her face, but Darca forces them away, nearly bumping her nose into Cora’s as she intently waited for an answer. “You have such pretty eyes,” Cora told her.

Darca snarled at her. “Spill, bitch.”

Closing her eyes with a resigned sigh, Cora began. “It started the night of Kettle Black. I can’t explain it but the man is captivating, I’m drawn to him like nothing I’ve ever experienced in my life. Not even Kai,” Cora emphasized the latter’s name to bring home her point. “Even my wolf is enchanted with him, purring like a wildcat the second even his name is mentioned.”

Darca blinks. “So, you haven’t f****d him but you want to f**k him?”

Cora sunk deeper into the seat. “Don’t get me wrong, he’s so devastatingly handsome that I think I’ve been dragged to the pits of hell every time I see him, but it’s more than that. It’s magnetic, the pull I feel towards him. I know I should fear him or be intimidated by him but I’m not, if anything I’m engrossed in the need to provoke him and pull-out reactions from him. I think I’m becoming clinically insane, because who the hell willingly tries to piss off the devil? Who in their right mind fantasies over a murderer f*****g the soul of their body?”

“Could he be your mate?” Darca interrupted.

Cora shook her head. “Kai is my mate,” the thought alone made her grumble in irritation. “Anyway, I lied about the bugs, kind of anyway. He did find them and he did erase them, but he left me a message.”

“He left you a message,” Darca echoes.

“’Because I always get what I want,’ that’s what he told me in his office when I asked why he presumed he would see me again. He erased everything but him telling me that.”

“He said he would see you again?” Darca frowned, shuffling in her seat.

“When he asked why I was in his office, he said it didn’t matter if my reasonings weren’t honest at that moment. He said I might have had a change of heart when I next see him.” He’d been wrong though, she hadn’t and she wouldn’t. “Anyway, after we headed to bed that night, I realised he’d been in my room again.”

“What? How could you know that?”

“Because he refers to me as his ‘little rose’ and when I got to my room, it was covered – and I mean covered – in pink rose petals. The floor was literally non-existent, Darca. Then on my bed was a singular pink rose and a note from him saying ‘I’ll see you soon, little rose’. Though I have absolutely no idea how he’s managing to get in undetected.”

Darca jerked back, surprise filled her pale green irises. “Is that all?”

Cora shook her head. “At the trafficking event, he was there just before the bomb went off. He’d left a rose for me on a chair, somehow knowing I was going to not only be there but sit on that exact chair. I saw him briefly before the explosion happened, but he’d disappeared just in time. Then when we were searching the grounds he’d left me another message.”

“That said?”

“I’ll gladly set the world on fire and let it burn into nothing but

destruction and chaos around us before I let you escape me, little rose.” The words ignited something in her that she couldn’t explain. Something she didn’t want to explain.

“Holy f**k,” Darca gaped.

“Then, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling as if someone was watching me. So, I looked out the window and that’s when I saw him. He was stood there - on the grounds completely undetected - watching me. Taunting me. Looking like s*x on a f*****g stick with that stupid, seductive smirk. And yes, I know I should have called security, but I didn’t. I didn’t want to. I wanted to play the game with him. Like an i***t I wanted to challenge him, push him and see what he would do.”

She knew how insane she sounded, but Darca did nothing to affirm that thought. Instead, she only watched and listened to Cora with pure intent. Though, explaining the situation out loud only made Cora feel more deranged. It was official, she had a screw loose. Perhaps it fell out when Dion banged her head against the riverbank. Her wolf, on the other hand, didn’t care how certifiably loopy the whole thing made them seem. She was besotted with Knox and Cora couldn’t blame her.

Darca c****d a brow. “And what did he do?”

Cora passed her phone to Darca, letting her best friend read the text exchange from the previous night where he’d promised to punish her. Darca’s eyes widened as she scrolled through the texts, before abruptly passing the phone back to Cora.

“I know, you can judge me. I’m judging me too,” Cora said pitifully.

“Baby girl, I am not judging you. But let me get this straight. The target we’re investigating – who is supposedly so dangerous even Lucifer himself would stay clear of - has managed to repeatedly sneak into our impenetrable home, decorated your room in roses, promised to punish you by means of basically f*****g you senseless and you’ve been egging him on not only because you felt like a bad b***h but because you also want him to follow through on his threats?”

Several emotions swirled in Darca’s eyes. Confusion, shock, maybe even intrigue. But not judgement. That was why she was Cora’s best friend. Cora rolled her lips. “Pretty much,” she agreed. “Oh, and I just held a gun to his c**k and threatened to shoot it off.”

Darca choked on the air she sucked in. “You what?” she shrieked. “What did he do?”

Cora blinked. “Said it was turning him on before throwing me over his shoulder and bringing me back to you.”

“Damn,” Darca breathes, a note of awe in her voice. “Are you sure you aren’t mates?”

Cora groaned. “I would feel it, wouldn’t I? Plus, second-chance mates are so rare and I’m pretty sure you don’t get one when you’re still mated to the first bastard. I don’t know what it is, but the infatuation is driving me crazy. It doesn’t help that we’ve found no evidence against him, it’s only encouraging my delusional thoughts and deranged wolf.”

Darca nodded, showing she understood her friend’s predicament. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know, I’m so f*****g confused.” Cora admitted. “I’ve never wanted someone the way I’ve wanted him. It’s unfair how even his voice has such a physical effect on my body. And his scent, goddess his scent. He’s a f*****g aphrodisiac. Maybe I’m just addicted to the adrenaline and excitement he awakes in me, I don’t know, but it feels like he’s hunting me. Like he’s a beast readying to consume its prey, painfully slow. And I don’t want him to stop. But I also really want to kill him.”

“You’re not narrowing the plan down like you think you are,” Darca interrupted, her tone dry as she reignited the ignition of the car. “But we definitely need to keep this between us for now. At least until you’ve figured out what the hell is going on.”

Cora nodded, letting out a deep breath. Darca was right, she really did need to figure out what the hell this was between her and Knox, hopefully sooner rather than later before the inferno he’d ignited within her burned her from the inside out until she was nothing but ashes in his bear-sized hands.

Lustful thoughts chased her in his presence, and his rough aggressiveness did nothing to deter her away from him, instead only leaving her wondering what the hell the man would possibly do next. But her desire for him was a dangerous web, entangling her in an unrelenting need for more.

Though there was one thing she knew for certain. She was doomed.