Desire Unchained Read Online Free PDF Page A

to the United States, but to the entire
    human race. And when the U.S. Army’s Raider-X Regiment issued an order, you followed
    it—and not just because they’d planted a microdetonator in your brain. No, the supersecret
    military unit inspired loyalty by giving “special humans” a purpose and a sense of belonging in a
    world that had rejected them.

    She hadn’t been rejected, but her situation had guaranteed that, without help, The Aegis
    would have killed her, but probably not before she slaughtered countless innocent humans.
    Fortunately, her brother, a high-ranking officer at R-XR, had known exactly what to do the night
    he found her bleeding to death in the alley where she’d been attacked. The Army had saved her
    life, had even attempted to prevent the lycanthropic virus from taking hold. They’d failed, but the
    side effects of their experimental treatment turned out to be handy.

    She still turned into a giant, slavering beast three nights out of every month—a beast with
    no control over her actions and very little memory of what took place while she was in beast
    form. But thanks to the Army, she could also turn into the beast any time she wanted to. Even
    better, when she changed form intentionally, she retained her humanity and could control her
    actions and remember everything once she returned to her human form.

    Laughter bubbled up from somewhere, female laughter, followed by a long, drawn-out
    noise. An erotic growl. Shade ’s erotic growl. She’d know that sound anywhere. So what, they
    were torturing him with sex?

    That bastard. She hated him. But she was pretty sure that just before the werewolf attack,
    he’d saved her brother’s life. And, truth be told, probably hers, as well.

    Runa had met him when she’d been at the lowest point in her life. Twenty-five years old
    but feeling double that, she still hadn’t gotten over the death of her mother four years
    earlier—how could she when her mother had died alone and miserable, thanks to Runa? But
    more recently, her best friend had moved to Australia with her new husband, Runa’s coffee shop
    had been only days from closing, and her brother had been dying. Arik had, in fact, been dying in
    her house, and the only reason she wasn’t with him was that he’d insisted that she tend to her
    shop and employees, who would soon be jobless.

    One of her employees, a pierced, green-haired girl who called herself Aspic, had been
    razzing Runa about never taking risks, which was probably why her business had failed in the
    first place. No risks in love, business, or life. And where had that gotten her?

    Arik might have been dying, but he’d lived. Should she be struck by a mysterious disease
    that killed her by slow measures, would she know the satisfaction of having truly lived life to the
    fullest?

    The answer to that had been painfully obvious, especially because guilt had been killing
    her as surely as whatever had struck down Arik. She had denied herself anything that even
    resembled pleasure with the ruthlessness of a religious zealot. How could she allow herself to
    experience what she had denied her mother?

    Not a day had gone by that she didn’t think about how she’d ruined her parents’ marriage
    and sent her mother into a downward spiral of depression. No matter how many times Arik tried
    to tell her that she needed to forgive herself for telling their mother about finding their father
    with another woman, she couldn’t. Because Arik didn’t know her secret—that deep down, Runa
    feared that she hadn’t done it out of concern for their mother.

    She’d done it to hurt their father.

    The day Shade walked into her life had been the day she’d wondered, for the first time, if
    she would have anything to live for once Arik was gone.

    He’d sauntered into her coffee shop, huge, impossibly gorgeous, black motorcycle boots
    thudding on the floor, his leather pants and jacket making that soft rasp, the pirate earring in