Bonus Chapter (A Maniac For a Mate)

Bonus Chapter (A Maniac For a Mate)
    Daniel’s POV
    I didn’t move when she asked the question. I didn’t bother to hide the irritation in my voice as I scoffed.
    “Can I buy you?”
    The words still hung in the air, ridiculous and fragile, like she’d plucked them from the wrong page of a book and read them with confidence anyway.
    I turned slowly, just enough to see her...red hair tangled, dirt on her cheeks, clothes torn, eyes still bright like nothing grotesque had happened here. Like she hadn’t just been seconds away from being violated. Like she hadn’t just watched me kill three men with my bare hands.
    She didn’t flinch. Didn’t stutter. Didn’t even blink. Instead, she pushed her tangled red hair out of her face, stood up straighter
    She stood there rocking in her heels like a child…smiling brightly.
    “I’m serious,” she said, lifting her chin. “I need a bodyguard. And you look hired.”
    I just stared at her.
    She cleared her throat. “Right. Proper introduction. I’m Audrey Dawson, twenty-three, heiress to the Dawson estate, and I have—let’s call it—an inconvenient amount of enemies. My uncles and aunties murdered my parents and are waiting for me to die so they can take everything, which is rude and inconvenient. So I need revenge. Also protection. Also someone who can rip people in half—which you seem very good at.”
    I blinked once.
    She kept going.
    “And before you tell me to go to the police, I already tried that. They’re useless. Or paid off. Or incompetent. Possibly all three. I need someone no one can bribe,” she gestured to the bodies, “so… you.”
    I exhaled through my nose. “Go to the cops.”
    She nodded as if I hadn’t spoken at all. “I can even get you a police uniform if that helps. You’d look very sexy in navy blue. I’d prefer shirtless, honestly, so I can grab your arm dramatically anytime you rescue me, but uniform works too.”
    I stared at her.
    Not in confusion.
    In disbelief.
    This girl was… insane.
    I took in a breath. “No.”
    “No?” she echoed, offended. “You mean no as in ‘I don’t work for strangers,’ or no as in ‘I’m emotionally constipated and don’t know how to accept job offers from pretty girls’?”
    I stared at her. “Go home.”
    “Can’t,” she said cheerfully. “My home is bugged, watched, possibly rigged with explosives. You know. Family stuff.”
    I turned to leave. ‘She’s obviously nuts,’ I muttered to my wolf. ‘It’s best we ignore her.’ But he growled in anger, insisting we take her along.
    She’s clearly sick in the head!
    She was almost assaulted, watched me murder three men, and still had the mouth of someone trying to bargain at a farmer’s market.
    “Find someone else,” I said flatly. “I’m not interested.”
    “Oh, that’s adorable,” she said, like I’d just told her I didn’t like chocolate. “Name your price, sweetheart.”
    I almost laughed. Not from amusement…from utter shock.
    She pointed to the corpses. “I literally proved I need a bodyguard. You saw what happened. They nearly tore me apart, and guess who sent them? My relatives!”
    I looked at her then…really looked…and only then noticed how exposed she was. Shirt ripped open, shoulder bleeding, skin shaking from cold.
    Before I could think about it, I shrugged off my jacket and tossed it over her.
    She froze.
    Then grinned.
    “See? You’re already good at this,” she said softly, slipping her arms into the sleeves. “I feel like I’ve known you forever. And the way you fought? You’re not normal, are you?”
    I looked at her, deadpan. “I’m not human. I’m a werewolf...a monster.”
    I said it to scare her. To make her run. To end this conversation before it became something the moon goddess could sink her claws into.
    Instead…she squealed. Like a kid who got her favorite toy for Christmas.
    “Oh my God, I knew it,” she said, bouncing on her toes. “I always knew I was special. I’ve had dreams about wolves my whole life, so I read everything I could. Guess the part that always had me all warm and fuzzy inside? MATES!” She squealed.
  “I read about how your kind goes crazy for their mates…especially if they are human…” she said wiggling her brows at me and I almost face slapped myself. 
  Why didn’t I just ignore it…walk away and pretend like I didn’t hear her or feel her? Fucking mate bond!
  She rocked on her heels, her hands behind her back as she smiled adorably. No…not that…she’s clearly a lunatic!
  “So… Am I your mate?” She whispered.
    I growled…low, dangerous, the kind that makes even strong warriors step back.
    “Stop talking,” I snapped. “I saved your life. That doesn’t mean I want anything to do with you. Go home. Get help. And stay out of things you’re not meant to touch.”
    “But I want to touch you,” she said slyly, batting her lashes like a vixen, and I almost melted like butter.
    Get a grip, Daniel. Focus.
    “I don’t care what you do. Just fucking stay away from me,” I said firmly.
    “Oh?” she said lightly. “Then you won’t mind if I jump off this cliff, right?”
    I froze.
    Not because I thought she was bluffing.
    Because she didn’t look like she was.
    I turned my back on her anyway and started walking. Maybe if she saw that I wasn’t interested, she would get her shit together and go home.
    Or better still…let her jump. Let her fall. Let the bond break by force. 
    Her footsteps moved…backward.
    Closer to the edge.
    “Hey, wolf boy,” she called, voice too bright. “I’m at the edge. I’ll jump. I read that werewolves go crazy when their mate dies. Are you ready to watch it happen to you?”
    I stopped. Didn’t turn. My fists clenched until bones cracked.
    Fuck.
    The bond pulsed like a blade twisting in my chest.
    I wanted to snarl. To curse the moon goddess. To tear the sky apart for thinking she could manipulate me like this.
    Why her?
    Why now?
    Why when my life was already a pile of ash and vengeance?
    “Alright then,” Audrey said cheerfully. “Bye, wolf boy.”
    She leaped.
    I didn’t think.
    My wolf took over the second her feet left the ground. I was off the edge, shifting mid-air, claws digging into rock as I launched down after her.
    I caught her before the fall could kill her, my arm locking around her waist, my body absorbing the impact as I slammed us into the cliffside and then the ground below.
    She was laughing.
    Laughing.
    “I knew it,” she said, breathless, upside down in my arms, grinning like a lunatic. “You’re officially my personal puppy now. Don’t worry…I’m very good at training dogs.”
    She leaned forward and kissed my furs…soft, light, playful.
    A shiver shot through me so violently I almost dropped her.
    She looked pleased.
    I looked up and howled at the sky as she continued giggling.
    Why the hell would the moon goddess pair me with this maniac?!