The next growl was so deep and animalistic that it had to have come from a wolf. Three more shots rang out and the man screamed. There was a scuffled on the ground and then complete silence.
The atmosphere was so quiet that all she could register was her own panicked breathing and the sound of fire burning the house.
A black wolf emerged from the corner of her eyes. Its eyes were gold and majestic. Its body was large and muscular and the fur was shiny and sleek. At the sight of such beauty, her muscles relaxed. It was a reaction she didn’t understand, but yet she felt she knew this wolf.
“Dane,” she whispered, her hands still gripping the bark.
The wolf shook its massive head and torso and out of the haze of what Trina could only describe as magically, Dane Magnus appeared.
“Let’s get out of here now.”
Chapter Nine
Trina peered out through the motorcycle helmet at the long row of retail shops as Dane brought his motorcycle to a halt in front of a local post office. They’d ridden almost thirty miles before crossing into the county line into a town known for their abundant shifter population.
In a matter of days, her life had completely changed and she was still trying to process everything. She kept having to remind herself of the deal she made with Dane Magnus, and more importantly, of the reason she was in this place now. In less than six weeks, she wouldn’t have to worry about where the money would come from to pay for her dad’s surgery.
However, Trina still felt a strong pull toward Dane. One she concluded would still be there had it not been for the money. There were many questions to be answered. Not only was she intrigued by the man itself, but by his declaration that she was his intended mate.
Dane helped her off the bike and put their helmets away. All the while she was assessing the row of shops situated just on the outskirts of Aspen Valley. Besides the post office, there were several retail and restaurants along the main street. There was even a fresh produce stand adjacent to the lot where Dane had parked. From recollection, the town of Aspen Valley was larger in acreage than population. However, it was one of the biggest shifter towns in the U.S.
“Welcome to my birth place,” Dane said, taking her hand.
“Looks cozy,” she said.
People started coming out of their shops with their immediate attention fixed on them. Suddenly, it was Trina who felt like the alien here. She was a human in a shifter town. She even wondered if they were partial to her being here.
Dane led her by the hand down the paved walkway, nodding and lifting his palm up to acknowledge the spectators. Then it dawned on her that she wasn’t the one they were entranced with. It was Dane. Several of them bowed as he passed by their doors. There was no mystery now—these people knew Dane very well.
He stopped in front of some double doors and held it open for her. “I’ve got to pick up some paperwork and then we’ll head over to my pack home.”
“My father. I need to make sure he’s okay.” She dug her cell phone out of her purse.
“I sent Brock out already to speak with your father. He and Marcia will be moved to a safer home. One of my rentals out west.”
“You think of everything, don’t you?”
“You are my priority now. I take care of you and that includes your father.”
She chuckled nervously. “Do you still think I’m your mate or intended or something?”
“No, I don’t think it.” He took her hand. “I know it.”
They entered another door and approached a counter. A woman stood behind it, flipping through papers and applying a stamp. She stopped what she was doing as Trina and Dane reached the counter.
“Good morning, Alpha. What can I do for you?”
Trina gasped and executed a ninety-degree turn. She glanced up at Dane, whose expression was unreadable. “Wait a minute! Alpha?” If she had registered correctly, the woman had just called him Alpha, which in shifter terms was reserved for the leader of a pack.
“Yes, Trina. I’m Dane Magnus. Alpha of the Aspen Valley Pack.”
Her blood rushed hot through her as an emotion kin to deception filled her heart.
“I’ll leave you to your business, Dane Magnus, but this was not what I signed up for. You led me believe that you were just some wolf down and out on his luck with your parents’ land being snatched from under you.” She folded her arms across her chest. “You could have told me you led a wolf pack.”
The woman waiting behind the counter brought her hand up to her lip in shook and her eyes were wide with curiosity.
“I need you to understand something.” Dane ushered Trina aside, out of earshot but not out of eyesight. “None of that information would have mattered to our agreement had I not found out you were my intended.”
She shrugged out of his grasp. “What do you mean?”
He took her forearm and pulled her against his chest again. “We agreed to split after six weeks? What does my being the Alpha of this pack have anything to do with the end of our agreement?”
“You could have been truthful. You dug into my past like I was filling out a freaking job application. You know almost everything about my personal life.”
“Let’s take this outside and somewhere in private. We have a lot to discuss. I told you that before we left that home.”
“As far as I’m concerned…” She snatched her arm away from him, putting several feet of space between them “…there is nothing more to discuss. You had plenty of time to tell me about your position before and after you fucked me. What did you think?” She didn’t pause long enough for him to answer. “That I would want more of your money when I found out?”
Dane studied her. “I recall telling you the main reason why I couldn’t make this arrangement with a woman in my own pack.”
She swallowed. “It’s because you don’t want commitment…”
“That was the reason,” he said. “Was.”
“Let’s keep it that way.” Trina frowned and backed away.
“Where are you going?”
“This marriage of convenience doesn’t require me to live anywhere near you. The papers have been signed. At the end of six weeks, contact me again and I’ll release the deed for your land.”
She tore off into the hallway.
“Trina, wait!” Dane called out to her just as she exited the building.
Trina didn’t look back as she headed down the sidewalk toward the bus station she noted on the way in.
What was wrong with Dane Magnus anyway? What gave him the right to demand that she stay with him all of six weeks, enjoy sex with her, and toss her aside after the deal was done?
Something didn’t feel right about this at all, but Trina picked up her pace anyway. As if on instinct, her hand went up to rub the area where Dane had insisted there was a mark. She dug into her purse and pulled out a case of pressed powder and held the side with the mirror up to her face.
Sure enough, there was a mark. Her fingers trembled at the discovery. It was the exact same pattern as the one at the nape of Dane’s neck. Two infinity symbols running through each other.
She rubbed hard at her skin, but that only made her flesh burn. When she lifted her fingers, the mark was still there.
Someone stumbled into her and the mirror slipped from her hand and crashed to the sidewalk. They growled. Literally. “You might want to watch where you’re going before you hurt yourself.”
“Sorry.” She scoped up the case then ran like the wind to the bus station.
Her stubbornness urged her legs forward, but her cognizance wanted her to remain behind with Dane Magnus.
Chapter Ten
One week later…
Taylor Daniels’s laughter rang out from the other end of the house into the guest bedroom where Trina had set up her files and laptop computer. The tone of her dad happy carried throughout the room and filled her heart with warmth. She hadn’t heard her dad laugh like that in years. Marcia’s gentle voice followed his
laughter. It sounded like they were in the kitchen, probably preparing dinner or discussing the latest mystery thriller.
Trina put down her pen and leaned back in her chair. Marcia and her dad had been living in the small three-bedroom, one-bath home for almost a week after the fire at Dane’s ranch home. Obviously Dane had not taken the threat lightly and they hadn’t returned to his mansion ever since, but neither had Trina. There had been calls, but her dad had answered them all as she refused to speak with Dane. But Trina did miss her dad and wondered why he hadn’t returned home. To her surprise, Taylor was having a better time with Marcia. She visited each day after closing up the dry cleaners to make sure he was okay.
“Trina.”
At the sound of her dad’s voice, she jumped. “Hey, Dad.” They’d invited her to stay, but she almost felt as though she were intruding on something.
He stood there in his chair with one hand propped against the open door and the other on his wheelchair. His salt and pepper hair was growing long. It swept against his shoulders, but he never allowed her to cut it. His blue eyes examined her. He showed the same expression whenever he was unsure or nervous about something.
“Is dinner ready?”
“Not quite.” Her dad rolled in on his chair. “It seems you have a visitor.”
“A visitor?” She went to meet her father in the center of the room.
“Magnus.”
She sighed. “Dad, I explained to you that I wasn’t seeing Dane right now.”
“Look.” Her dad took her hand. “I have no idea what’s going on between you two. You told me you were working on some marketing project for him, but you act as if there’s something personal. Are you doing freelance work like we talked about? If so, this is not the way you do business with your clients.”
“No…it’s complicated.”
Dad narrowed his eyes. “Were you dating him?”
There were some things that you just couldn’t tell a parent outright and there was no way she was going to tell her father that she was married to this man on paper and that they’d had sex within days of meeting over and over again.
“Sort of.”
“If this is about him being a shifter…that’s okay.”
“It’s not.”
“I talked to Magnus and he’s a really nice fella. I appreciated how he offered help with my care while you worked on the project for him. I never would have met Marcia if it wasn’t for you deciding to pursue your marketing work again.”
Trina hated keeping the truth from her dad. There had been no project. Only an agreement to marry for material and financial gains. She couldn’t break her dad’s happy spirit. There would be an opportunity to come clean, but right now was not the perfect time. “It seems that you like Marcia very much.”
Her dad visibly swallowed. “Don’t get me wrong. I loved your mother. I tried to reconcile with her. I really did. I wanted her to be happy and she said she couldn’t do that with me.”
“I know. Mom told me that she was dating a younger man.”
A pained expression crossed her dad’s face. He’d never wanted to talk about her mom’s infidelities. Not before and not after the accident. There was a moment of silence before he looked up again with a smile. “Marcia’s different. Not because she’s a shifter. She’s patient and…I don’t think of her as someone to wait on me hand and foot. That day we met in Magnus’s mansion, we talked for hours after the two of you left. I think…” Dad averted his gaze. “I think maybe we can be best friends.”
Trina smiled and bent to kiss her dad on the forehead. “I’m happy for you.”
There was a soft rap at the door. Marcia stood there and Dane Magnus was right behind her.
Trina’s breath immediately caught in her throat and her train of thought derailed.
Marcia stepped aside to allow Dane to enter the room.
Her dad and Dane exchanged a handshake and a few words.
Marcia came to stand behind her dad’s chair. She placed her hand on his shoulder. “Taylor, let’s take a walk while the key lime pie is cooling. We can all have dinner together when we get back.”
Dad covered Marcia’s hand with his palm. “I could use some fresh breeze. Let’s swing by the park.”
Before they exited the house, avid conversation could be heard amid the silence in the room.
Trina’s gaze slowly roamed upward to meet Dane’s heated stare. “You are quite the matchmaker.”
The corners of Dane’s lips twitched upward. “They’re good together. Marcia lost her husband five years ago to a boating accident they were both involved in. They pulled her out unconscious, but the injuries she sustained stripped her ability to shift.”
Trina brought her hands together and rubbed at her palms. “My dad is all I have now. About this arrangement…I did all of this for him. It was my fault that my parents were in that car, on that night, on that particular interstate. I wanted to make it right. I still do.”
Dane shut the door, secured the latch and closed the gap between them and took both her hands in his. “It wasn’t your fault, Trina. It was just an accident.”
“I know.” She fell into his embrace. She couldn’t help herself and with him standing here, his inviting warmth became irresistible. “What happened to your mother’s home? Why would someone set fire to it?”
“Certain humans don’t want me to lay claim to the land, so they were sending me a message. Remember when I told you about my involvement in the outlaw group?”
She nodded. “I remember. You fund their operations.”
“And humans are getting suspicious.” His brows furrowed. “I shouldn’t have taken you there to begin with. I’m sorry.”
“Do these people want the land for themselves?”
“They don’t want me to gain it. It’s been a while since I’ve acted out. My job now is to lead and protect my pack, so I keep a low profile except during core business meetings involving our partnerships. My brothers are very active in the cause. You’ve met Brock already.”
“Why did you come here tonight, Dane?” She glanced up at him. “Why come here when you have so many other things to deal with? All you need is my signature to get your land. Why come back to rub these feelings in?”
“I came here to get my mate.”
“You’re the Alpha of a pack. You can have any mate you want.”
“Right,” he said with a teasing air to his voice. “And I want you.”
“Funny, but seriously. I don’t know anything about living with a pack, let alone an outlaw. You’re a leader. They would expect your second half to be knowledgeable about the ways of your society.”
“It’s my job to teach you. That won’t take long. You just have to watch and listen.”
She sighed. It seemed his mind was made up and she couldn’t convince him otherwise. “Your mark won’t disappear. The moment I left your side, it grew hot. I tried soaking in vinegar, baking soda…”
Dane chuckled. “You can’t get rid of me that easily, Trina.”
“It’s permanent, isn’t it?”
“Fortunately, it is. Our pairing last week is what caused the emblem to appear. Remember when I told you that I imprint on women I’ve had sex with.”
Trina placed her hands on her hips. “You imprinted on me then, but you said the imprint only lasted a week. It hasn’t faded.”
“I did more than imprint on you. Imprinting is only temporary. No woman has ever worn my mark as a result a pairing except for you.”
“But you don’t want commitment and I don’t want to be led on,” she said.
“You never let me explain.” Dane led her to the small work desk where she’d left her laptop and sat her on top of it. “I have never committed to any woman, Trina, and that is the truth. Frivolous meaningless relationships won’t do me any good.” He slid his palm against the crevice in her throat where the mark lie. “But when presented with my intended mate, meaning and purpose returns to my life full force.”
/> “But before you knew any of this, you agreed to never see me again after six weeks.”
“I agreed to end our pretend marriage, but I never agreed to exit your life. I met you outside of our arrangement…before all of this. I wanted you then like I want you now. Once I caught your scent, I would have pursued you to the end of this Earth.”
“You didn’t even know my name.”
He grinned. “I have ways of finding out these things.”
She chuckled. “Of course. I can’t forget how you turned into Inspector Gadget to get the scoop on me.”
He pressed her palm to his cheek. “Let’s start over, Trina. Even if you weren’t my mate, I don’t think I could ever agree to not seeing you again.”
“There’s no need for us to start over. Our circumstances were what brought us together, but don’t promise me commitment on this idea of mating. We need more time to…inspect each other, don’t you think?”
“I agree. We’ll take it one day at a time.”
“We can revisit this at the end of the six weeks.”
He kissed her softly on the lips. “My mind is made up, Trina. The passage of time will only make me crave you more.”
“We’ll see about that.” She kissed him back, longing for more of him.
A week had passed, but she remained intrigued by Dane. Maybe it was only the result of the giddy feeling lovers retained when they first met. Maybe it was because of the sex appeal that oozed off his body in abundance.
Whatever it was, if affected her in ways she had never experienced. Not with any man…except for Dane Magnus.
Trina grabbed his shirt by the collar and pulled him closer into her body. “You have six weeks to convince me that this mark on my throat isn’t the only thing keeping you interested.”
The deep chuckle in his throat resonated throughout her body and a warm shrill ran up her spine. “Do we even need to go there? There are hundreds of things... I can show you or tell you. Which one would you prefer?”
Shifter Untamed Page 7
