Page 4 of Follow Your Instincts

She flipped me off and stomped away.

I walked the short couple of blocks to the precinct and headed straight for the gym. Murray would probably be wrapping up at the scene of the robbery soon, and I could fit in a short workout before he came back to the precinct.

The precinct gym was just as bleak as every other aspect of the place. It had two treadmills, an ancient weight bench and rack, and a set of rusted-out dumbbells in a dank, dark room all the way past the locker rooms. I changed into my ratty gym clothes and peeked out into the hallway to make sure no one was around. I was the only one who ever used it on the day shift as far as I knew, and I thought it might be because no one else knew it existed. Most other officers worked out in proper gyms, but I didn’t want to waste the money. You can’t get better than free.

I still felt like shit, but I forced myself to run through my upper body workout.Maybe this is some kind of flu, I thought.Maybe that’s why I’m so achy.

I wrapped up my last set and headed back to the locker room to shower. Hopefully I hadn’t missed Detective Murray and I could catch him in the bullpen before I went home and finally put an end to this weird fucking day.

The women’s locker room shower had two shower heads; one that barely let out a trickle and one that blasted off a jet like a firehose. As I contemplated which one sounded less like torture to my protesting body, my mind circled back to Detective Murray. Soren. What had happened earlier? I’d never, ever responded to a scent like that, and especially not to a Beta. I’d hooked up with a few Alphas back in college, and they had smelled good, sure, but I’d never wanted to do the things my mind had conjured up back at the jewelry store just by giving someone a sniff.

He was attractive, though. And smart, confident, and successful. It was actually crazy I’d only noticed it in passing before. His hair was so thick and luscious.I bet he has a fucking pelt on his chest, I thought. The memory of his smell brought that same desire I’d felt earlier searing back. I whimpered and gripped the tiled wall of the shower, then squeezed my legs together.Am I seriously getting wet just thinking about the smell of a coworker? I need to get laid.

But that just led my thoughts further down the dangerous path. I didn’t want to get laid. I wanted Detective Murray to bust through the door of the locker room. I wanted him to press my face against the wet tile and pull my hips back until I was pressed against the hard length of his cock. I wanted him to thrust in hard, and the whole time I’d be buzzing off that tipsy scent.

I only realized I was touching myself when I came, hard, my sharp cry echoing off the tiles.

I turned off the shower and grabbed my towel that now felt so scratchy I thought my skin might be sloughing off. Iwrapped it around myself and headed into the locker area.

Time to go home before someone hears you yelling out Soren’s name as you come in the fucking shower AT WORK, I thought. My face was burning. Thank god no one ever came down this hallway.

As if my thought had conjured it, the door to the locker room burst inwards. For a moment, my whacked-out brain was sure it would be Detective Murray. But even before I turned, warning bells were going off.Wrong, wrong, wrong,my body chanted.

Sweet orange and clove, overpowering and right behind me.

“Well, isn’t this a surprise?” Todd growled. I turned to face him, and he was already too close. He grabbed my upper arms in a punishing grip, then shoved his face into the crook of my neck. “Been holding out on me, huh?”

“Get the fuck out of here, Phillips,” I said and yanked my arms straight down, out of his grasp. His pupils were blown wide, and his lip was in a snarl. A muscle was ticking in his jaw as he clenched his teeth. I’d been trained to recognize the danger signs of a feral Alpha and Todd was fucking textbook. “Go home. Now.”

Todd didn’t respond; he just shoved my back against the lockers behind me and stepped in even closer. My head cracked off the metal, and my teeth knocked together. He grabbed a handful of my hair, which was up in a bun for my workout, and yanked my head to the side. His tongue slid obscenely up my neck while he growled.

I desperately tried to recall the training we’d had on de-escalating conflict with a feral Alpha. “Think about them as a bear,” the instructor had said. “Be loud, be big, and don’t try to run.”

“Get THE FUCK out of here,” I yelled in his face and squared my shoulders. “Get out NOW!”

Todd laughed and gripped my throat, letting go of my hair. “That’s only making me harder,” he said and stroked himself through his pants. He was cutting off my air completely, andI tried not to panic. “Have you always smelled this good, little bitch?”

I jammed my hands against his wrist to try and break his grip, but he didn’t even seem to feel it.Fuck this, I thought. I pulled my right knee into my chest, set my foot against his solar plexus, and shoved with the rest of my strength.

His grip slipped from my throat, and he fell backwards across the bench running lengthwise between the two sets of lockers. His head hit the lockers on the other side, but he was unfazed. He leapt back to his feet even as blood trickled from the back of his head onto the floor. His smile was predatory, and fear flooded my whole body with adrenaline. I screamed in frustration and fear, and prepared to run out into the fucking street in that towel if that was what it took to keep this shithead away from me.

Just as I prepared to bolt, the door slammed open and Detective Murray prowled into the room. Todd’s head snapped to him, and he bared his teeth. Murray reacted quickly, pulling his Taser. As Todd stalked toward him, Murray Tasered him, and he fell, twitching, back to the floor. Murray immediately turned him on his stomach and got him cuffed. I stood rooted on the spot and felt like maybe I was watching all of this happen from somewhere up on the ceiling. My thoughts flashed to Greta, the victim of the robbery.Did that really just happen?

The ringing in my ears was back but the thread of Murray’s scent brought me crashing back to earth.Not now.

“Officer Carter? Officer Carter, can you hear me? Are you okay?” Murray was asking, and he stepped closer, his hands raised. I could barely hear him over the ringing in my ears. I wanted him so badly my hands were shaking, and it was such inappropriate timing I thought I might start laughing.

“Officer Carter, can you hear me?” He took another step and I realized that the ringing in my ears was actually a high pitched whine.What is making that noise?

“Me,” I said, my voice raspy, and the whining stopped.

“You what?” Murray asked.

“I was making the noise,” I said.

“Yes. You okay? I can get help, but I don’t want to leave you like this.” He took another step toward me, and I bit off the whine before it took over again. His scent was drowning me, but it was sweeter now somehow. No, that was my own scent, but now it was like overripe peaches and a spicy ginger that made me feel like I might sneeze.

Once again, the door banged open, and my sense of unreality heightened again.Am I stuck in some fucked-up version of a Shakespeare play?

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