a step back. “Why won’t you leave me alone?”
“Why would I do that?” Evan stepped forward, close enough to reach out and stroke her cheek. Casey’s entire body recoiled. “I’ve chosen you.”
“Me?” Casey felt like the whole world had just slipped into insanity. “For what?”
His smile slanted playfully. “To be my mate.”
“No.” Casey shook her head, backing away from him. “Get away from me.”
“Do you know what I want to do to you, Casey-Case?” He took one step forward for every step she took backward. “Yes, of course you do. You know how much I want to fuck you. How I want to hear you scream.”
Casey looked around, desperate for anyone to see her.
“I want to make you beg for my cock,” he whispered hoarsely. “I want to slide it into you one inch at a time until you’re screaming for it.”
“Stop it,” Casey breathed. She felt a wall behind her back and panicked. She was trapped.
Evan boxed her in, his arms outstretched on either side of her shoulders. He leaned in close, smelling her hair, the nape of her neck. Casey grimaced and beat at him, trying to push him back. He ignored her attempts to get away.
“You smell so sweet, Casey.” He nipped at her earlobe. “I could just eat you up. Starting with your tight little pussy.”
He licked the side of her face from jaw to temple, and Casey cried out in disgust. His breath stank of copper and dead things. He raised his head to look at her, and Casey knew that he was enjoying her fear and anger. He moved as if to do it again, but suddenly stopped, his gaze tracking something above her.
He looked back to Casey, a lewd smile on his face. “Another time, sweetheart.”
Before Casey understood what was happening, he was gone, running in the opposite direction. A half-second later, Brady was at her side. She almost collapsed into him.
“Casey! Casey, are you okay? Did he do anything to you?” Brady caught Casey and lifted her up in his arms. He half-ran to the entrance of the club. She felt as if she were floating in his arms.
“How did you know?” Casey asked. Her entire body trembled from fear as much as from the cold.
“I followed you.” Brady shouldered open the club door and carried her inside. “I didn’t want you to see me.”
Casey reached up and cupped his cheek, forcing him to stop walking and look at her. “Brady, I…”
Before she could finish, she felt the world drop away from her as darkness rushed in. She welcomed it.
14
Brady
Brady pulled a chair up to the couch, where Casey slept uneasily. He held her hand and stroked her hair, hoping that she could somehow sense that he was with her. His stomach roiled as he thought of what might have happened if he hadn’t been following her. It had been so easy for Wallace to get to her. He felt like they were managing to keep Casey only a half-step ahead. Someone like Evan Wallace rejected all of the human niceties shifters were expected to conform to in this world. He had somehow managed to carve out a career for himself among the humans, but his bestial side was always close to the surface.
Something within him had to have snapped. When Brady found Casey, he could smell the faint scent of pheromones hanging in the air. Casey still smelled of it. Wallace was marking his territory, announcing his claim on Casey. Maybe he was choosing her to be his mate, although Brady knew that bear shifters never settled down with just one conquest. Male and female bear shifters were both notoriously promiscuous. If he wasn’t stopped, Wallace would do what he wanted to Casey and then toss her away once he was bored. Brady suspected that Wallace had probably done the same thing many times in the past.
He flattened his palm against Casey’s temple, gently brushing his thumb along her cheekbone. There was not a damn thing delicate about this woman, but now as she slept, he realized how fragile she really was. Especially against a bear shifter. It would be so easy for Wallace to hurt her if he wanted. Brady sensed the time was coming that would see Wallace wanting to do just that. Once he realized Casey was rejecting him, he would have to destroy her in order to preserve his own pride.
Brady’s jaw clenched at the thought of it. He would never let that happen. He couldn’t save