by Faye Avalon
His. No matter how much she knocked him back, how much she tried to pretend there was nothing between them. She. Was. His.
His woman. His mate.
He almost bypassed the old engine house, but snapped his head around when a whiff of something caught his attention.
Naomi.
The fear and terror she felt came to him so strongly that, momentarily, his head swam. And Stoltz was in there with her. He could smell the bastard’s stink.
Through the dense gorse, the trunk of a car was just visible. With quiet stealth, Tynan padded toward the structure, his head down and every muscle alert.
From inside came a muffled sound, a scuffling. Ready to roar in, to get to Naomi, only a split second’s instinct held him back.
Never let a human see you in panther form.
Tynan took only enough time to shift and yank on his jeans, hating the delay and praying it didn’t put Naomi at risk of further harm. If she’d been hurt…
Keeping his back to the wall, he glanced through the window opening.
In the faint light, he saw Naomi on her knees, her hands bound and Stoltz pressed up behind her with one hand over her mouth and the other around her throat.
As blood thundered in his veins and a red haze swam in front of his eyes, Tynan kicked in the door.
* * * * *
Naomi squeezed her eyes shut, trying hard to breathe when the room began to spin. Stoltz’s hand pressed hard over her mouth and nose, cutting off her air supply. She tried to gulp in air, her own bound hands clutching at his in a futile attempt to dislodge his hold on her. His other hand pushed down hard against her throat and made her muscles vibrate with the need for release.
She didn’t know what she could do to stop him, but she did know that she was not going to die here. Stoltz wasn’t going to suck the life from her. He wasn’t going to be the last man she saw in this life. He wasn’t going to prevent her from getting back to Tynan.
Tynan.
His handsome face swam before her eyes: those green eyes, his cocky grin, the arrogant jerk of his shoulder. Her heart squeezed painfully at the thought of never seeing him again…
Her vision blackened. At the same time, energy gathered at the base of her spine, This time she knew what it was and went with it, knowing that to save herself, she had to embrace the strength she had found that night at the hotel. This time was so much worse than that. She was fighting for her life. Later, she would deal with the consequences of her actions, but right now, she had to survive.
She allowed the energy to spread into her core and erupt along her limbs, but before she could release the final tenuous hold on her strength, she was abruptly liberated from Stoltz’s clutches. She gasped in air, dropping to her hands while she heaved and her body shook from the aborted attempt to summon her strength. Behind her came a scuffle, a sickening thud, and then groans of pain.
Coughing, spluttering and grabbing lungfuls of much-needed oxygen, Naomi glanced over her shoulder and saw Tynan about to yank Stoltz up from where he was currently sprawled on the ground.
He grabbed the man, slammed him back against the wall and held him by the neck. Eyes glaring, Tynan looked over at her. “Are you okay?”
She sat back on her heels, wheezing, and nodded.
Tynan kept his attention on her for several moments as if to assure himself that she was telling the truth, then turned back to Stoltz. “You like brutalizing women, asshole?” he growled, squeezing harder around the man’s throat until he turned puce. “Well, let’s see how you do with the likes of me.”
A ferocious intensity emanated from Tynan, and Naomi knew that he wasn’t planning to let the man go until he’d exacted revenge. Since, in the process, he would likely cause excessive physical harm, Naomi crawled across the floor to Tynan. It wasn’t that she didn’t want Stoltz to pay for what he’d done—by God, did she want him to pay—but she didn’t want Tynan hauled up on physical assault charges. Stoltz needed to face the consequences of his actions, but legally and via the police.
“Let him go,” she rasped. “Please, Tynan. Let him go.”
With his hand tight around the man’s throat, Tynan looked at her. “No fucking way.”
“We need to call the police. Let them handle it.” When he didn’t budge, she scrambled to her feet. “Tynan. Let the police handle it.”
Tynan continued to glare at Stoltz with menacing intent, his teeth bared and chest heaving. She needed to snap him out of this.
She curled her fingers around Tynan’s arm. “My wrists ache. Can you untie my hands?”
Thankfully, it did the trick, and he whirled around to face her. When Stoltz groaned, Tynan lashed out, his fist aimed at the man’s gut. Stoltz doubled over, coughing as he crumpled again to the floor.
Tynan released her hands and threw down the unfastened tie. He caught her wrists gently and began to soothe the skin by rubbing softly with his fingers. “Did he hurt you?”
She shook her head. The last thing she wanted was for Tynan to start laying into Stoltz again.
“We need to get you checked out.”
“I’m fine.” But he gave her such a vehement look, she touched her trembling fingers to his cheek. “I’m a doctor, remember? I can tell if I’m okay. Just a little shocky.”
“Call Ryan,” he said, referring to a local police officer who was also a member of their pack. “His number’s on my cell.”
Naomi ran her gaze over his naked chest and the jeans that had yet to be zipped. “Where is it?”
He tapped each pocket of his jeans. “Shit. Outside. Black pouch by the clearing. Tell Ryan we’re at the engine house on the old copper track by Golitha Falls.”
Naomi nodded. She wrapped her arms across her chest and started out. Now that the adrenaline was slowing, her body was beginning to shake. At the door, she glanced back. Tynan had Stoltz facing the wall and was wrapping the tie around his wrists.
She found the pouch and dug through the contents to find the cell phone. Her hands trembled as she scrolled through his contacts list until she found Ryan’s number. When he answered, she gave him the gist of what had happened and Ryan said he was on his way.
Keeping the phone in her hand, she grabbed Tynan’s shirt and shoes and started back. Tynan was frog-marching Stoltz to his car, where he shoved the man down on the ground beside it.
“Stay where you are, asshole,” Tynan grated. “Unless you prefer to deal with me rather than the cops.”
Stoltz glared back, then stared straight ahead, his face a mask of pure hatred.
Tynan turned to Naomi and cupped her face with his hands. “Sure you’re okay?”
“I will be. Once I stop shaking. Here, you’d better get dressed before you catch your death.”
Tynan shrugged into his shirt and wrapped his arm around her. “Let’s go over here,” he said, leading her toward a cluster of boulders. “Then we won’t have to breathe the same air as this lowlife.”
Making sure to keep Stoltz in view, Tynan eased her down to sit with her back against the stone, then slid down next to her.
“I couldn’t stop him,” Naomi blurted, giving in to the uncontrollable shaking that only seemed to intensify. “He had me pinned down, and I couldn’t stop him.”
“It’s okay now.” He drew her close. “It’s okay.”
She wrapped her arms around Tynan’s waist and simply clung. “I’ve never been so relieved to see anyone in my life.”
“Tell me what happened. Why did you leave?”
She drew in the scent of him, letting his heat warm every cold place inside her. At last, the tremors began to subside. “I had a call, supposedly from the hospital. It was late, and I didn’t want to disturb you… No. That’s not entirely true. You were mad at me, and I was pissed at you.”
He narrowed his eyes and frowned. “You should have told me an
yway. What the hell did you think you were doing, driving across the moor in the middle of the night in that wreck?”
“I didn’t think. I just wanted to get to the hospital. Stoltz was following me. He said he’d been planning to get me alone in the hospital car park, but then my car broke down, and he was right there. He tied my hands, shoved me in his car and brought me out here. Tynan, he’s been following me almost since that night at the hotel.”
“I know.”
“You knew?” She eased away from him, drawing the edges of her coat tight around her. “Why didn’t you tell me? Didn’t you think I should be made aware of that fact?”
“Since there was no way I was planning to let you out of my sight, there seemed no point worrying you with it.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, resignation replacing the terror she’d felt while Stoltz’s hand had been around her throat. “Don’t you see how patronizing that is? Protect the little woman because she hasn’t the skills or the wit to handle things that directly concern her?”
“You’re twisting this out of proportion.”
“Ryan didn’t seem too surprised when I mentioned Stoltz’s name and what had happened. Has he been in on this too?”
“He’s been digging into the sleazebag’s past,” Tynan admitted. “Found out this isn’t his first rodeo when it comes to stalking women. Which is why I didn’t want you out of my sight.”
A chill ran through Naomi’s already cold body, confirming her earlier fears, but the gravity of what Stoltz had done made her even more incensed that Tynan had kept her in the dark. “Are you saying this is on me? That it’s my fault because I dared to leave the house without telling you?”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “All I’m saying is that I had you covered.”
Naomi shook her head. “I appreciate what you were trying to do, but maybe if you’d been straight with me, I wouldn’t have gone off alone. I’m not stupid, Tynan. I wouldn’t deliberately put myself at risk like that. If anything, you were the one to do that by withholding this information from me.”
His eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to say something, but the rumble of an engine and the twinkle of headlights indicated Ryan’s arrival. The officer got out of the car and headed over to them, sparing a glance at Stoltz, who eyed him cautiously.
At first glance, people could be forgiven for thinking that Ryan courted the wrong side of the law. His close-cropped hair and pugilistic features gave him a brutish appearance, but Ryan was a cop through and through.
Without breaking stride, he nodded to Tynan, then bent down and brought himself eye level with Naomi. “You okay?”
Naomi nodded, keeping eye contact with Ryan and trying not to think about the fact he knew of her sexual escapade at Seth’s hotel.
She swallowed. “Yes.”
“Sure? Because you need to press charges, and the sooner we can get the ball rolling, the sooner we can put this scum away for a long time.”
Bile rose in her throat. Ryan’s words brought back the grim realization of what could have happened if Tynan hadn’t shown up when he did. She stood and smoothed down her dust-covered trousers. “If you want me to give a statement now, I’m more than ready to do that.”
“She needs to rest,” Tynan growled, moving beside her. “You can get her statement in the morning.”
Naomi turned to him. “I want to get it over with.” Since she knew he was about to argue, she held up her hand. “It’s my decision, and I’m doing it now.”
Ryan nodded. “I’ll take this dirtbag in. You want to ride with me or find your own way to the station?”
“We’ll find our own way,” Tynan said firmly.
Naomi recognized the battle of wills that was being played out, and she wasn’t going to let him get away with it. No matter how hard she tried to get him to back off and give her the courtesy of directing her own concerns, or at the very least allowing her to have knowledge of them, he wouldn’t get the message.
And besides, finding their own way was code for shifting. Tynan obviously thought that a run would help get rid of whatever residual tension Naomi was holding after the ordeal. What he didn’t know was that the thought of it was almost as horrifying a proposition as facing off with Stoltz.
Ryan tapped two fingers to his forehead in a salute, then started to move away.
“Wait,” Naomi said, hurrying toward him. “I’ll ride with you. Like I said, I want to get this over with.”
She didn’t look at Tynan but caught Ryan’s glance over her shoulder. He hesitated only briefly, then gave a sharp nod. Naomi watched Ryan haul Stoltz up, lock cuffs around his already bound hands, then toss him into the back of his car.
Tynan came up behind her and reached to open the passenger door. “I’ll go back and get my car and meet you at the station.”
His gruff tone matched the displeasure in his eyes, but beneath it she glimpsed a glimmer of hurt. She’d known he would be upset by her request to ride with Ryan. But she’d had to do it. This whole thing with him was getting so intense.
Last night, lying next to him, she’d felt a satisfaction, a contentment that she’d never known before. It had seeped into her blood, her heart, until all she knew was that she wanted more. Much more. Which meant it was vital she take a stand to stop herself from getting sucked into the sheer pleasure of having him in her life. Before she knew it, he would take it over.
“What is it?”
She glanced up at him, saw the concern on his face. “Nothing. I was just thinking that I’m going to have to go through the whole thing again, aren’t I? There’s no way my grandfather won’t hear about it now.”
“Ryan’s a circumspect guy. He’ll keep it quiet if he can.”
It wasn’t Ryan she was concerned about, because she knew he put the pack’s interests paramount when it came to his police work. On more than one occasion, he’d deflected interest away from the shifter community, most usually when one of the young shifters chose to use their powers in a reckless and unthinking way.
What worried her was that once she pressed charges, it might be all over the local papers. She could only hope that, as a reporter, Talia would step in and divert attention away from that particular story.
Before she slipped inside the car, she turned to him. “Thanks for coming to look for me. For…for turning up when you did.”
“That was never in question.”
He leaned down and before she could stop him, he kissed her. Naomi pulled back. It wouldn’t pay for Ryan to spread the word that she and Tynan were an item. But Tynan was having none of it. He placed his hands either side of her face and held her steady until she met his gaze. “I’ll see you at the station.”
There was no mistaking the possessive way he held her, nor was there any way she could misinterpret his words and the meaning behind them. He might have given in to her request to travel with Ryan, but he wasn’t about to be fobbed off by it.
He released her, and she got into the car. Seconds later, Ryan joined her. He jerked his head toward the backseat. “Are you okay with this?”
Since she knew he meant her traveling with Stoltz behind her in the backseat, she nodded. “As long as he’s in handcuffs.”
They pulled out of the clearing, and Naomi glanced in the side mirror. Tynan looked pretty menacing standing there with his hands on his hips, his shoulders wide, and a deep frown on his face. The mist that came in off the moor whirled around his ankles, adding to the primal, dangerous aura surrounding him. But he also looked…vulnerable.
It took her unawares, and her throat tightened. It was for the best, she thought, still watching him. He needed to realize that this thing between them couldn’t go any further.
“Ty looks like he’s ready to kill someone,” Ryan said, whipping the car back onto the track. “Good thing I got there fast, or something tells me I’d be bookin
g him along with shit-face here.”
After she had gotten his attention away from Stoltz, Tynan had been more interested in checking on her and making sure she was okay than laying into her attacker. She could only be grateful for that. The last thing she wanted was to see Tynan up on charges.
Naomi felt bad about the way she had virtually dismissed him in favor of traveling with Ryan, and could hardly blame him for feeling angry about it. She hoped that in pushing him away and trying to keep him at arm’s length, she hadn’t made things worse. If he was meeting her at the station, he would no doubt demand he remain with her while she gave her statement. She pitied the poor desk officer who tried to tell him different.
Like all shifter males, it was his nature to protect. It was in his DNA. And thank heaven he had arrived when he did. She couldn’t bear to think what might have happened had he not come to her aid.
It angered her to realize she had been helpless against Stoltz. Had she nurtured and respected her gifts over the years, she would have been easily able to summon just the right amount of strength to escape his clutches while not drawing overdue attention to it.
It was her own fault that she’d tried to deny her gifts, her skills. She hadn’t valued them. Hadn’t valued her strength, her ability to shift. In fact, she had denied them.
It came from feeling unworthy. Unworthy of being a shifter. Unworthy of belonging to the pack. As a female, she had failed in her duty to perpetuate the species. It might seem old-fashioned to some human women, but it was a woman’s vital role in the shifter community. Many packs had become extinct over time, mostly in remote parts of the world where sexual integration with neighboring packs was often impossible. But all shifters knew the importance of continued procreation for the survival of their kind.
Naomi had failed to perform her vital role. She had lost her baby. For which she could only blame herself.
It had taken many years to deal with her loss. At first she had thrown herself into her studies, and then into her work. It had gone some way to helping her feel she was making recompense for what had happened, and that through her medical expertise she was able to be of use to her people, and contribute to the pack in the only way she could.
