by Milly Taiden
It didn’t take long for her to recognize the two goons kidnapping her. They were Seriff’s men, Hans and Frans.
“Careful with that painting, Frans,” she said from the back as he unrolled it in the passenger seat. “It’s worth a lot of money.”
Frans snorted. “This piece of shit is worth something? My sister’s kid can paint better than this. I don’t even know what it’s a picture of.” He rubbed his fingers over the paint.
Hans reached out and slapped Frans’s arm. “It’s art, dumbass. You’re not supposed to know what it is.”
“That’s stupid,” Frans said. “What’s the point?”
“The point is that there is no point,” Hans informed. “That’s what art is.”
Robyn rolled her eyes. Idiots. Finally, they slowed and turned. For a while, Hans’ driving was scarier than shit. She was sure they were going to wreck and die. Her legs and arms would be bruised from hitting the walls and bouncing off the metal floor.
“All right, miss, time to go inside. The boss wants to meet with you.” Frans dragged her to the door and Hans hefted her over his shoulder. The two men could double as lumberjacks if their jobs as dumb dolts didn’t work out.
From what she could see, they were in a wooded area. The night sounds of crickets were loud and no other lights were around. Her captor stepped onto a porch that looked to be attached to the front of a cabin. Not a rental cabin like those around her grandmother’s place, but a much nicer, bigger home.
When Hans carried her inside, a familiar voice reached her. “It’s about fucking time. What took so damn long?” Seriff said from a short distance.
“Sorry, boss. She went into a museum and didn’t come out for a long time.” Hans dumped her onto a sofa and stepped back. Seriff looked her over with an appreciative eye, especially where her dress was torn up the front.
“She had this wrapped around her leg.” Frans handed him the canvas from the gallery. He unrolled it and studied the piece for a moment.
“If she had it around her leg, then she was sneaking it out,” Seriff figured. He glanced at her. “Is this the big, expensive treasure you mentioned?” He laughed. “I’m no art evaluator, but if you took it, it will bring in a good penny.” He rerolled the painting and tossed it on a table. Robyn cringed at the rough way the priceless artwork was being treated.
Seriff planted himself in an upholstered chair next to the sofa. “Good to see you again, molodaya ledi. I see you were busy today.” He tilted his head toward the table with the canvas on it. “I have a business proposition for you to consider.”
“Forget it, Seriff,” she said. “I don’t work with dumbasses and clearly you’re about as smart as your comrades.” The Russian leaned forward and growled like an honest to god dog, fur erupting on his forearms. When his eyes glowed, she gasped. Superstition had it that when a shifter was angered, his eyes glowed. Seriff, her black-market contact, had to be a monster shifter. Her heart skipped into overtime. He took in a deep breath and chuckled.
“You are right to be fearful,” Seriff sneered. “In my shifted form, I can tear a human body apart in seconds.”
Robyn remained calm. Getting excited now wouldn’t do any good. “Can you undo my hands?” When Seriff hesitated, she said, “What? You afraid of a little ol’ woman?”
Seriff growled louder and the bones of his face started to move. He grabbed her throat and pulled her forward. He put a hand in front of her face and she watched razor-sharp claws emerge from the ends of his fingers. He dragged the smooth curved side down her cheek.
“Careful what you say to me. I would hate for you to find out how much pain a set of claws across the face feels.” He reached around her and cut her ties with a single swipe. She rubbed her wrists and he released her neck.
“Miss Loxley,” he said, walking to a small wet bar and pouring a drink. Shock rolled through her at the sound of her name on his lips. “Yes, Miss Loxley, I know who you are. You are a very difficult woman to find information on. It’s as if you didn’t exist until a few years ago.”
Robyn kept her silence. She had nothing to share with him. He tossed back his shot and slammed the small glass on the bar. “The proposition is simple. You work for me, obtaining what I tell you, and I let your grandmother live.”
Anger whirled through her. How dare he threaten an old lady who had done nothing against him. “I don’t have a grandmother.”
“Oh?” his brows shot up. “I can snap my fingers and my boys can have her here in ten minutes. I believe her home isn’t too far from here, am I correct?”
To keep from screaming at the bastard, Robyn fisted her hands, digging nails into her palms. It wouldn’t surprise her if she drew her own blood.
Outside, a noise came from the side of the cabin. It sounded like something hit one of the logs directly behind her. Seriff pulled a gun. “Boys, go see what’s out there. If it’s an animal, kill it. I hate fucking forest critters.” His shoulder shook.
Robyn laughed loudly. “You, a shifter, hate animals. Isn’t that hating yourself?”
“Shut up, bitch.” He tucked his gun under his suit jacket. “You don’t know shit about shifters.”
“You’re right, I don’t. Tell me about them,” she said.
“The only thing you humans need to know is that you’re lower on the food chain,” he said, pouring another drink.
“Unless I have a gun, then you’re just like every forest animal then, aren’t you? Food for the roaches.” Damn, that was cutting. She smiled after saying it even though his eyes began to glow. He stalked toward her, gun extended in his hand.
“Who has the gun now, bitch?” He placed it against her forehead and she stared him down. At least if she were dead, he wouldn’t be hurting her grandmother. But Elijah and Ellie wouldn’t be able to stay at the academy either. Maybe Sister Helen would find a way to allow them.
What really surprised her as her life flashed before her was how much she cared for Aitan. A stranger who caught her completely the moment he walked through her doorway had her heart.
Then a memory of the little boy from the story she told Elijah popped into her head. A few words from that long-ago occasion she had suppressed came to her.
He sat next to her in the alley and told her she smelled really good. At the time, she didn’t know what to think. She knew she hadn’t taken a bath in a while. He reached for her hand and held it in his despite how groomed he was. “What’s your name?” he asked. “Mine is Vytaut Aitanas Ojeras Hansen. My friends call me Aitan.”
24
Aitan paced in front of the alpha’s lodge waiting for a signal from the scouts that they’d found his mate. His own wolf itched to join in the search, but without knowing the area, he’d be more of a hinderance than help.
A low howl reached the village and Aitan shifted and took off in that direction. Several from the pack followed including the alpha. A mile out, the wolves gathered and morphed back to two feet. Aitan listened as the men discussed the situation and options.
They’d found the van, engine still hot, parked outside a cabin that had been built not too long ago and was seldom inhabited. Two human men where inside along with a male wolf and a female in a red dress. There was no doubt in his mind the woman was his Robyn.
The stench of fear and evil permeated the home, warning off any visitors. Aitan was ready to say fuck that and tear the place down to get in. Until he heard the men were carrying guns. Then he simply wanted to kill if any of them hurt his woman.
The plan was to stake out the location to see what the bad guys’ scheme was. The idea of calling in local authorities was brought up and shot down. With the male shifter in the house, they couldn’t chance a sighting or killing on either side. It was guys like him who gave shifters the bad reputation they had for bloodlust.
The group shifted and hightailed it to the cabin and surrounded it, listening to the conversation inside. Aitan put his head against the outside wall behind where Robyn sat on the sofa.
<
br /> He could smell a touch of her if he breathed deeply. Then he smelled a touch of her blood and his wolf revolted and made Aitan beat his fist against the house’s side before he could stop himself.
The alpha grabbed Aitan by the scruff and yanked him away from the cabin. Aitan growled in the elder’s face, his eyes glowingly dangerously, hands changing into fur-edged knives.
The alpha scowled in his face. “Don’t fuck with me, boy. My wolf will eat yours for breakfast.” Aitan backed down, knowing the alpha spoke the truth. Of all the things Aitan had learned in preparation for ruling, dog fighting had not been one of them.
His land was peaceful and had been for hundreds of years. With the advancement of civilization and technology, his people had pushed the art of fighting to the back burner.
They no longer needed the old ways to survive and such killing was seen as murder—an offense met with death for the offender.
The front door of the cabin opened and two humans walked out. The wolves quickly and quietly took the couple down and incapacitated them. Aitan was ready to barge inside and take back his mate. He’d had enough of this waiting shit.
Once again, the alpha held him back. “The wolf inside has a gun,” he said to Aitan.
Aitan scoffed. “It takes a lot to kill a wolf.”
“But your mate isn’t a wolf,” Dax reminded him. “One misfire or ricochet and she’s dead.”
That stilled his feet for the moment. He would do nothing to endanger his mate. Moving around to the side of the cabin, he slunk past one of the covered windows. But this window he could see through a narrow opening into the front room. There he saw the shifter inside put a gun to Robyn’s forehead.
His wolf would be held back no longer. Their mate was going to be killed and he would die making sure that wouldn’t happen. His body had never shifted so quickly nor while his human form was running.
His two-legged form leapt from the grass and his four-legged body slammed into the door, tearing it from its hinges. He rolled on the floor and came to a halt, teeth bared.
The man’s eyes widened and he dove toward Robyn, grabbing her to him. She screamed which spurred his wolf into a tizzy.
Behind Aitan, the rest of the pack flowed in. With each new body, the fear from his mate increase and the anger from the man rose. When Dax entered, the man spoke. “Alpha Dax, what is the reason for this? You have no reason to trespass on my property.”
25
Several of the men shifted and Aitan followed suit. Robyn gasped and stared at him. Their nakedness didn’t bother the men, but Aitan didn’t want her seeing anyone else. Not much he could do about it now. When her eyes didn’t leave him, his heart pounded with pride and love he wasn’t ashamed to show.
“Seriff,” Dax said, “you have a friend there and threatening her. We’re here to take her back. That’s it.”
Aitan was surprised the alpha knew the foreign shifter, but it made sense since the cabin was in pack domain.
“This woman and I are married and here to enjoy time together,” Seriff said. Aitan stepped forward, a deep growl emanating from his chest. His mate yelled the asshole was lying and squirmed in his grip. But neither action was needed.
“Seriff, you have been around humans too long,” Dax replied. “You know we smell your lie.”
Aitan watched the man become more irate. “Sorry, Alpha. I’m not letting her go. She knows too much and will expose shifters to humans. We can’t have that.”
Aitan called bullshit. “She will not. She is my mate and will not do anything to jeopardize our race.”
“Your mate?” Robyn said. “As in wife?” Aitan didn’t know how to respond to her. Was she angry? If she said she wasn’t, would Dax leave? She stood frozen in her captor’s hold. “Yes,” she said, “I’ve loved him ever since I met him as a child.” When Aitan didn’t smell a lie, he was baffled by her words. He’d never met her as a child. He’d only been to the States once twenty-some years ago.
Then in his head, a memory replayed that he’d forgotten over time.
Young Aitan and his family had just landed in New York City. They were out walking, searching for a restaurant that looked good, when he smelled the best thing he’d every scented. He ran ahead to find the origin of this deliciousness and turned a corner to an alleyway.
In the narrow passage, he saw a little girl with a white box in her hands jump down from a dumpster and sit against the wall. She lifted the cardboard top and ate what she picked from it. She was the prettiest thing he’d ever seen even if she was a little dirty.
He sat next to her and she gave him a mean look. “This is mine,” she said, pulling the box closer to herself, then she looked him over and relaxed, “but if you’re hungry, I’ll share with you.”
Whatever the food was, it smelled divine, but he didn’t want to take any if it was hers and she was hungry. Instead, he took her hand and sniffed it. “You smell really good,” he said, referring to the food particles on her hand. Her smile made his insides feel funny. He’d never felt that way since then.
Then his parents caught up to him. They talked to the girl for a few minutes then his father took him to a restaurant while his mother walked the opposite way with the girl.
When he asked his father where she was going, he told him that Mother was taking the girl back to the hotel for a little bit. And that was the last he’d seen of her. But in their room at the hotel, he did catch a whiff of her food, and he fell in love with the smell.
Standing there in the cabin, he wondered why that moment from his past came to him just then. He recalled the food’s aroma and realized it wasn’t the food that he’d smelled as a young boy, but the girl who held the food.
He barked out a laugh, unable to hold back how silly he felt. As a ten-year-old, he hadn’t learned about the wolves and the bees, so the mate scent he associated with the food, not the person.
No wonder he could never find the cuisine with the same smell—until last night alone in the woods with his mate. No wonder he lost control.
The others stared at him from the outburst of laughter in the stressful situation. “I’ll explain later,” he said, clearing his throat. So many things from the past day now made sense as well as what his mother said on the phone.
“Humans know we exist, Seriff,” Alpha Dax said. “She won’t be telling them anything they don’t already know.” The alpha leaned to the side, crossing his arms. “Well, as I see it,” Dax continued, “Seriff, you need to release his mate or offer a challenge if you want to keep her.”
Seriff smiled at Aitan. “I challenge you to a fight to the death.”
“What?” Robyn said. “A challenge to the death? What the fuck is this? Caveman times?” She tried to jerk away from Seriff’s hold.
He growled in her ear. “You are staying with me until your mate accepts the challenge. Pray he is a good fighter. In Russia, I was a champion.”
“He accepts, you piece of shit.” She elbowed him in the gut and yanked away when he doubled over. “My mate will kick your ass so hard, you’ll run back to Russia crying like a baby.” She ran to Aitan and threw her arms around his neck. He held her to him for a second, breathing her in.
She whispered, “You can kick his ass, right? Tell me you’re an excellent fighter or whatever.”
“Um...” he said, “whatever.”
26
Robyn held Aitan in her arms, feeling safer than she had in a long time. Seeing him change from a wolf to a human shocked the shit out of her. But realizing he was the boy she’d loved since she was eight was much more important.
She leaned back from him. “What do you mean whatever? Shifters are killers, aren’t they?”
He sighed. “Only if they are trained to kill in their human form. In animal form, they are natural hunters like all other predators, but have human minds.”
“So you can kick his ass then,” she repeated.
“For you, I’ll kick anything.” He kissed her hard. She gave as good a
s she got. She would allow herself to love this man like no one else she ever cared for. Dax was right when he said humans knew about shifters, even though most wouldn’t admit to it. And one shifter trait that was ubiquitous was the love of a true mating pair.
Her grandmother told her all about shifters and what it meant when they found their other half. Robyn didn’t know whether or not she believed the stories, but she wanted to. She wanted the incredibly strong love and trust that came with a shifter mate. Someone she knew who would never leave her, never look at another female, never think about anyone but her. And fight to keep her by his side and happy.
No, she had no problem accepting who and what he was. But was it possible that she could now lose him? To a damn fight to the death? No! This was stupid. An idiotic male thing. She took his hand and pulled him toward the damaged door.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said. “I’m exhausted.” When he pulled back, she couldn’t believe it.
“I cannot leave yet,” he said. Wrong thing to say to her.
“Are you serious?!” she yelled. She whipped around to the alpha. “Are you really going to let one of these guys die because of some pissing contest meant for savages who can’t control their urges?”
The alpha frowned and stood straighter. “The blood challenge is the best way to solve a problem that would otherwise go into battle and kill hundreds, maybe thousands of innocents. How many have your wars killed over the years? How long has fighting been continuous in other parts of the world?”
Yeah, he had a point. But still, she was pissed this had to happen. Seriff abducted her, for fuck’s sake. She balled her hands and swallowed her scream. “Fine,” she said. “Let’s get it over with then. My mate and I have a lot to talk about.”
Seriff laughed. “You had better talk now. You will not be leaving with him.”
Robyn raced out of the house while the pack gathered around the two men in the center of the backyard—everyone in the buff except her. Talk about a little awkward.
