Claiming Her Beasts (Claiming Her Beasts #1) - Dia Cole Page 0,1

inhaled deeply, branding her alluring scent into my mind and body. My sources were wrong.

She couldn’t be entirely human if her scent called to me on this level.

What is she?

My highly acute senses detected no shifter blood. Nor was she any of the other abominations genetically engineered by the military. And yet, her scent called to me on a level nothing ever had before.

For the first time in my miserable existence, I wanted to claim a female. This female.

Weeks of inhaling her pheromones and watching her seductive dance night after night had aroused me to a dangerous level.

Venom pooled in my mouth as I tracked every one of her sinuous movements. Pretty. So very pretty.

Fuck. Pretty was an understatement.

Her curvaceous body was perfection by the standards of any species. Round hips. Heart-shaped ass. Breasts large enough to fill even my enormous hands.

Like me, Javier seemed unable to tear his gaze from her smooth golden skin and long toned legs that wrapped around the pole. The Alpha leaned forward, looking ready to pounce.

A warning growl escaped my lips.

If the other shifter made any move toward my dancer, it would be his last.

My dancer? Fuck. When did I start thinking of her as mine?

I shook my head as if to clear it. This assignment was getting the best of me. Maybe it was a good thing it would soon end.

With the coming apocalypse, the military would have more important things to worry about than the clandestine activities of a rogue shifter’s faction. And they would reassign me to doing what I did best—killing.

But what will happen to my dancer when shit hits the fan?

I clenched the feather tighter in my fist before realizing I was crushing it. Fuck. I gently put the delicate plume back in my pocket.

I’d drawn out this mission for weeks so I could watch over my dancer as long as I could. She had grit, but not the fighting skills she’d need to survive what was coming.

The crippled old man who drove her home each night wasn’t strong enough to protect her. Nor could that cocksucker roommate of hers, unless he grew a pair overnight.

When the end of humanity came, she’d die, like everyone else in this fucking town.

Unless I save her…

My twin brother, Ghost, used to say that opportunity came from chaos. Perhaps I could leverage the upcoming panic and mayhem to break free from my handler.

And maybe pigs can fly.

Sighing, I rubbed the back of my head. Until I figured out a way to remove my implant without killing myself, I was nothing more than a highly trained pet. One wrong move and my handler wouldn’t hesitate to put me down.

But my dancer might be worth dying for…

Visions of my hands and mouth on her delectable body made my cock throb against the suddenly too-tight fabric of my pants.

“Hunter, your vitals are going haywire. What’s going on?” a deep feminine voice asked through the tiny electronic device implanted in my inner ear.

I cursed under my breath. For a moment, I’d forgotten that my handler could sense my emotions and monitor my biometric readings. Jen could also give me orders I was compelled to follow and punish me if I displeased her. It was the military’s way of leashing their most lethal weapon.

“It’s that dancer, isn’t it?” she said with a heavy sigh. The artificial link between us wasn’t anywhere near as strong as the natural bonds I’d had with my brothers or the connection I’d had with my previous handler, but I could still feel echoes of her annoyance and frustration.

I grunted, unable to lie to her.

“You know the rules. Don’t touch the humans,” she warned.

Screw the rules.

Jen sighed again. “Your mating drive is spiking. We’ll… find you a receptive female.” Her voice grew tight and unease pulsed through our bond. She must have remembered what happened to the last breeder they tried to force on me.

“No.” I’d never let that happen again.

“Then focus on the goddamn mission. Find out where Javier is keeping Dr. Hurran.”

The mention of the army scientist who loved inflicting pain on her subjects made me clench my jaw. Javier could have the sadistic bitch.

“Hunter, are you listening? We need to find out where he is keeping her.”

Why does it matter? Especially now, when the countdown to the end of days had begun.

“Surely, he’s said something about her by now.” Her desperation filtered through our bond.

“No. His conversations are all about deliveries and construction projects.” Disappointing, really. You’d think the leader of