Chapter 1
Jude Donovan was used to hunting killers—used to running them down like the damn dogs they were and caging the bastards.
So when he followed his latest prey into the swamps of Louisiana, an area that looked like it had been home to nothing but beasts for the last few centuries, he wasn’t nervous.
Until a bullet thudded into him.
Sonofabitch. The fiery pain blasted in his shoulder even as the retort of the rifle echoed in his ears.
“You’re not taking me back, you bastard!” The snarl came from up ahead, to the right. The tip of the barrel jutted over a fallen log.
Jude gritted his teeth, but didn’t bother glancing down at the wound. No time for that, not now. “Bobby Burrows!” He called out the man’s name. Voice loud and hard, as if he weren’t bleeding like a freaking stuck pig. “There are two ways we can handle this…” He stalked forward. Drops of blood littered the ground around him. Great. Blood would attract the gators and hell knew what else. The bastard would pay. “First way’s easy, as in…you drop that rifle and come out with your hands up.”
“I’m not giving up! I won’t go to jail! I won’t!” The tip of the weapon began to move. Fuck.
“Then we do it the hard way.” Jude inhaled and caught the cloying scent of the swamp, the rich flavor of his own blood, and the man’s scent of fear and sweat. “I come and get you— and I rip you apart.” Simple enough. His eyes narrowed on his target. The ground disappeared beneath Jude’s feet as he sprang forward.
A man darted out from behind the log, eyes wild, rifle clutched tight to him. With a big-ass scope on it, of course. He lifted, aimed—
Jude growled, a deep, inhuman sound, and he swiped out with his right hand. He caught the wanted man in the right shoulder, and saw the spatter of blood in the air. Bobby’s this time, not his.
Wound for wound. Blood for blood. The way of his kind.
He grabbed the weapon, wrenching it out of Bobby’s hand. Bobby, a guy in his forties, balding and with big fists, stared up at him, terror on his face. “You—you’re not—”
Jude smiled. Held up his hands. Blood stained the claws that seemed to burst out of his fingertips. “Human?”
A whimper.
The smile stretched even more. His shoulder ached like a bitch, pulsing every few seconds, but Jude ignored the pain. An old habit. He leaned forward, ran his claws over the squirming man’s stubbled face. “No, I’m not. What I am, Bobby, is the worst nightmare you’ve ever had.” He let his claws dig into skin. “Tell me, did you enjoy cutting those women?”
Bobby’s screams pierced the night.
The first time she saw him, Jude Donovan was covered in blood. Erin Jerome recognized him instantly—she’d seen his picture in the local paper just days before. She watched as Jude handed the wanted man he’d apprehended over to the local cops. Watched as Bobby Burrows, a man who’d cruelly sliced up the faces of his ex-wife, his two ex-girlfriends, and some unlucky woman he’d stumbled across in Baton Rouge, was shoved into the backseat of a squad car.
She could hear Bobby’s shouts from across the street. His yells of “Monster!” And his ravings about claws and killers.
Disgust tightened her lips. Jerk was probably already preparing for his defense. An insanity plea. Erin would bet a month’s salary on it.
Not that she was going to let the freak get away with something like that.
Oh, no, as an assistant district attorney, it was her job to make sure that old Bobby got to see the inside of an eight by twelve foot cell, preferably for the rest of his miserable life. Angola prison was waiting for him.
Straightening her jacket, because this was only her second week on the job and she needed to be professional—or, at least try to be—Erin crossed the street. Her eyes were drawn to Jude.
The bounty hunter.
He worked for Night Watch, a huge, multi-state operation that had a main base in Baton Rouge. Night Watch was reputed to be one of the best, if not the best, bounty hunting agencies in the country. No matter what it took, their hunters caught their prey.
A fact that, right then, made her enormously grateful. Her job would get a whole lot easier now that she had the defendant in custody.
Her heels tapped on the pavement. Time to—
Jude’s head shot up. His eyes, the bluest she’d ever seen, lazered in on her.
Erin stumbled. No, oh, hell, no—
She caught his scent then. The wild scent of her kind.
Other. Shifter.
Erin wasn’t human, well, not completely anyway. And she knew the truth about the world around her.
She knew that humans weren’t the only killers out on the streets.
Sucking in a sharp breath, she straightened her shoulders and kept walking. The animal scent of the hunter teased her, as did the thick fragrance of blood in the air.
Dammit, this is the last thing I need. She’d tried so hard, for so long, to be normal.
Then this guy had literally landed in her path.
His nostrils widened as she came closer. She knew he was drinking in her scent, knew too by the faint line that appeared between his brows that he couldn’t quite understand what she was.
Story of my life.
“Ms. Jerome.” One of the uniforms stepped toward her, a wide smile on his face. His partner slammed the car door, effectively isolating Bobby and ending his claws rant.
Maybe that hadn’t been an insanity plea in the making after all.
She crouched down, gazing at Bobby through the window. Her breath rushed out. “What happened to him?” But she knew.
The uniforms looked at Jude.
Jaw clenched, so did she.
And Erin realized she’d made a serious mistake. His eyes held hers. Saw too much.
Danger.
Oh, yeah, this guy was a serious threat. To her.
Not good-looking, not really, at least not in that classic, magazine way. A mane of thick blond hair teased his shirt collar.
Framed a face that was hard, a little cruel. High cheeks. Sharp nose. Square jaw.
No, not a GQ face. But still…
Sexy. Somehow, he was still sexy. Maybe it was those lips. That scar that slipped right over the edge of his top lip.
Shouldn’t have been sexy, but it was.
He was.
Freaking animal attraction, that’s what it was.
The guy had an air about him, one of those I-don’t-give-adamn attitudes. A wildness in his eyes and in the curl of his lips.
Erin swallowed. She couldn’t help taking an uneasy step back.
His eyes followed the movement, and one golden brow rose. After a moment, he shrugged. His gaze raked over her body.