By her count, it was three or four in the morning when she wriggled out from under the bedclothes. Carefully, she stepped over Ivy—the girl barely stirred—and tried the bedroom door. It came open.
Slipping through it, she tiptoed down the creaky hall, holding her breath at every squeak and hiccup of the wood underfoot. By the time she got to the main room, she was covered in a thin layer of sweat. She wasn’t sure where they’d put her things, so she picked up a pair of rain boots by the door, shrugged on a man’s jacket hanging from a peg, and ghosted out onto the porch. Once she was down on the grass, she pulled on the rain boots and took off with the quietest run she could manage.
She had no sense of direction. It was dark and she still didn’t know the country she was in. The best she could figure out to do was to rush downhill, heading toward the deep cut of the Pass that showed in the silhouette of the range. If she ran that way, she had to hit a trail. Didn’t she?
If only these fuckers hadn’t taken her gear—her compass and her flashlight and everything! Then she could orient herself in line with the notch!
And what if that huge bear was still out here? They’d taken her bear spray, too. That thing would kill her easily.
But she had to risk it. It was better than being trapped in this homestead and possibly murdered. Haley had been right about there being insane backwoods murderers out here.
The night was cool and damp. She was hot and cold at once, and kept slipping on the wet ground and going down hard. Cloud scud often blocked out the moon.
“Shit!” she hissed, falling on her ass for the umpteenth time, but this time from surprise. There was a cabin in front of her, and the squares of the windows were yellow with lantern light. Someone’s still awake!
Scrabbling up, she stumbled into a stump. Stuck deep into the stump was a wood-axe. Without thinking, she grabbed it by the haft and pulled it out, then she plunged back into the woods.
She ran fast and hard, desperate to get away from these people who talked about locking her up and murdering her and putting her on trial. They didn’t act like they were living in the present, and they were so suspicious of her for no good reason at—
Boom.
She’d run into someone. Instinct made her spring backward, even though the collision was hard; he tried to grab her, but she’d already jumped a few feet away.
The cloud cover broke and she got a dim, silvery look at him. She didn’t recognize him. He was tall and strong and young—thirty-something, maybe—but more than that she couldn’t tell.
“Whoa, there! You’re Harper, aren’t you?” His voice was deep and naturally dry. “I’m Hudson. Maybe you heard of me. Doing a runner, are you?”
“Let me go,” she panted, trying to strafe him. He moved with her like a goalie blocking a shot. “Let me go!”
“No.” The way he said it covered her with goosebumps. “I’m bringing you back and you’re going in the shed.”
“You can try!” She raised the axe. “Try it!”
There was a standoff. Every time she made a move to dart past him, he blocked her, and she had to back off. Even now, she was reluctant to actually use her weapon.
“Come on, girl,” he growled. “Fight or give up! Choose which—”
“Stay! The fuck! Away!” she shrieked, her knuckles whitening on the axe haft. He was trying to get closer to her.
“Listen, there’s twenty-five hundred square miles of wilderness out there. You’ll never make it.”
“So I should stay here and fertilize your garden?”
He held up a big hand. “Put down the axe, Harper. Nobody’s gonna dump you in their flower bed. Don’t make me—”
“Don’t make you what?” she seethed, anger making her brave. Now she was feeling ready to use the weapon in her hands. I’m not going to die here! “What are you gonna do?”
Abruptly, with superhuman speed, he rushed her. She brought the blade down with full force.
But his rush had been a feint. He dodged to the right, and the full weight of her swing went wide to the left. He got a hand on the axe shaft and held it down while his other arm went around the back of her neck in a non-lethal chokehold, crushing her to him.
She tried to struggle, but he was full of raw, rough power and it overwhelmed her. He wrestled the axe away and flung it off under the trees. Then, after an extended tussle, he swung her up into an unwilling fireman’s hold.
“Put me down!” she shrieked, kicking, hitting, and flailing. The last thing she wanted was to be shouldered by this psycho and carried off back to captivity.
“Shut up!” he roared, gripping her arm and the back of her knee. “I can make this worse! You want to tangle with the bear?”
The bear? Hell, the bear would be better than this!
“Yes! Leave me here! I’ll take my chances with the animals!”
“What?” He sounded disgusted and confused. She managed to get her arm free and pounded his shoulderblade in a rage. “You’re an ignorant puss, aren’t you? Calm the fuck down!”
He started carrying her back to Egan and Gentian’ homestead. No matter how much she fought him, she couldn’t get off his back, and it wasn’t long before he got a grip on her thrashing arm again.
“Stop fussing or I’ll carry you back in my mouth!”
“Your mouth? Are you gonna eat me?! You’re insane!”
“I might! Stop hitting me, before I get mad!”
“Totally insane!”
She couldn’t get away, but she refused to settle down, either. Finally, after half an hour of struggling with her resistance, he’d obviously had enough.
“Fine, girl! You want to make this hard?” He seethed. “It can be hard!”
He dropped her from his shoulders. She slid down and hit the ground with an oof.
“You’re an animal! You—” but then she stopped, midsentence.
He wasn’t a man anymore. He was changing—shifting—growing. What she saw with her eyes made no sense to her brain.
A bear. He was a bear. The bear. The grizzly that had charged her on the trail!
Her instinct was to scream, but she couldn’t. She was locked up, frozen on the ground. The bear was every bit as big as she remembered, taller than a man at the shoulder, pan-pawed, muscled like a furry tank. Its fire-gold eyes were every bit as frightening as she remembered, too.
It opened its huge mouth and the scream she’d been holding in burst out. It closed its teeth on the back of the men’s jacket she was wearing. The bear picked her up by the jacket and started to tote her through the dark, wind-stirred woods. She was too petrified to struggle, too petrified to speak.
It was a long way back to the cabin, all uphill. The bear carried her like a cub almost the whole way there until the jacket ripped and she fell to the ground with a thud.
The bear disappeared, shifting back into a man. Naked, tall, and hard-bodied as a block of marble, he grabbed her up in his arms. She didn’t resist.
These people are monsters. And I can’t fight monsters. I don’t know how.
He toted her back the rest of the way. She recognized Gentian and Egan’s cabin when she saw it.
I’m really trapped now.
I’m really doomed.
Chapter Nine
Hudson had dumped her in the shed beside Gentian and Egan’s cabin, then he’d slammed the door, locked it, and left.
Hours passed. At first she tried to dig out the floor, shoulder the door, pry back a board—anything. But there was no way out, and the close, damp darkness eventually overwhelmed her. She crawled up onto the worktable and waited restlessly.
Night ended. She could smell dawn through the dewy wood walls of the shed. The air warmed up. Day. Morning. When would someone come for her? And what would they do when they did?
I could die here.
Finally, the door clicked and swung open and she was blinded by hot sunlight. She sat up quickly, holding a hand in front of
her dazzled face.
“Harper?” It was Ivy’s voice. Squinting, she saw Ivy and Chance duck into the shed with her, closing the door behind them.
Harper had nothing to say to them. What did you say to bear people?
“Oh, Harper… I know you tried to run. I know Hudson brought you back. Look, honeycomb, for now just…just stay in here. You have to stay in here,” Ivy said gently. “Don’t make more trouble. The elders will sort this out soon.”
“Yeah?” Harper said acidly. “They’ll settle it by tearing me apart?”
Ivy’s mouth thinned. “Chance will watch you. Someone’ll bring food later.”
She got up to leave the shed. Chance tensed as if Harper might run for it through the briefly-open door, but Harper knew better than to try that. What was the point of trying to run? Grizzlies could run thirty-five, forty miles an hour—she wouldn’t stand a chance. And she’d already taken a full inventory of the shed, there were no supplies to be found anywhere. She was here all because she’d gotten lost without food, water, or gear; what good would running do when she didn’t even know where to run?
The shed door banged closed; the lock outside clicked. Harper covered her face with her hands.
“You’ll be alright, Harper,” Chance said slowly. She glanced at him.
“What makes you say that, Grizzly Adams?”
He almost smiled. “Because I believe in you. I believe you’re not a Hunter. And others do, too.”
“Do you?” she asked quietly. “Why?”
“Instinct.”
She hesitated. A few fox sparrows twittered outside.
The way he was looking at her. There was a softness there, she was sure of it. Could she use that? Could she use his sympathy and beg him for information, for mercy?
Why not try it? Is my dignity worth more than my life?
Hell no, it’s not!
She slid off the worktable, onto the floor and onto her knees. She gripped his wrist and his thigh, and let her expression go desperate.
“What are you people? Please tell me. Please.”
The gold ring in his eyes brightened.
What does that mean? Should I be scared? Is he about to eat me?
He threaded his fingers suddenly through her hair; the skin of her temple prickled where his thumb settled.
Oh. Oh. I didn’t expect this.
“We’re skinchangers.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Of course not. You’re human. We live apart from your people, so it’s strange to you.”
“Please explain. Please. Do you… hurt people? Were you born this way? Can—”
“Yes, we’re born like this. It’s just something in our bloodlines. And no, Harper: my clan doesn’t hurt anyone.”
“There’s… more of you?” she stammered, horrified. “Other… clans?”
“Yes.” He didn’t elaborate. “But we keep to ourselves, all of us. It’s why you’ve never seen a shifter before.”
Her mind was racing. “Are you afraid I’ll tell people? Is that why I’m not allowed to leave? Because I swear I won’t, and even if I did, I swear, I swear it wouldn’t matter. Everyone would just think I was crazy, delusional—”
“No. That’s only half of it.” His thumb moved along the curve of her ear, heat flushed beneath her skin. She couldn’t deny that his rough, calloused touch was stirring something inside her.
“There’s nothing I can do to you people,” she whispered. “Nothing! I just want to go home, that’s all I want. I’m starting a new job soon. People are going to worry, I have a life, I—”
“I believe you, Harper. I believe you about everything. But I can’t and I won’t let you go… not without the Alpha’s say-so.”
“The Alpha?” She’d heard them throw the word around and she’d never liked it. It frightened her. “Please tell me what… who… that is, Chance. Please.”
Saying his name did something to him, she could see in his face that it did. The gold in his eyes flashed and his hand tightened in her hair in a rough, delicious way.
“He’s our leader. The best and strongest man we have. Every clan has an Alpha.”
“But who is he?” Her scalp was tingling with pleasure from the grip of his hand in her hair. There was a heat growing between her legs, too, contrasting obscenely with the sharp, cold fear she felt. “Have I seen him? Will I? I could beg him to let me go. I will beg him to let me go.”
“You haven’t seen him, but you might. His name is Jason.” His hand tightened in her hair even more and she loved it. “His heart’s not made of stone, Harper. Just be honest with him if you see him. Tell him what you’ve told me and what you’ve told Ivy, and he’ll let you off. He’s like a father to me, he’s a good man. He’d see the innocence in you, I’d stake my claim on it.”
“I want to go home,” she breathed, her panties slick from the smell of him, from the warmth of his body heat, from the feeling of his fist in her hair. This is not the time. This is not the time. What is wrong with me? “I swear that’s all I want.”
“I know.” Abruptly, he swallowed, let go of her, and sat back. She had the sudden wild urge to crawl into his lap and straddle him. “Get off the floor, honey. You don’t have to humble yourself for me.”
Except some part of me wants to. Now that she was down there, level with his knees, filthy, explicit fantasies were lighting up her brain. Delicious, trashy, completely inappropriate fantasies. Having this skinchanger’s fat cock in her mouth, for example—
Stop that! This man is keeping you locked in a shed!
She stood and hupped herself back onto the worktable, watching him. He stared back at her, his eyes bright, his jaw tense. She got the feeling that he was exercising self-control.
“Who are you, Chance?” she asked, clutching the splintery edge of the table. “I mean—who are you?”
“Chance MacFadden.”
“Yeah, of course, but what’s your story?” She could hear the chickens arguing outside, their hiccupy voices filling the yard. “I want to know. Please?”
He barked a laugh, short and loud. “What’s your story, Harper? Who are you?”
“Nobody. Just a girl. I work in wealth management at a trust. I like to eat pasta and I like to hike.” She laughed humorlessly. It’s fucking hiking that got me into this. “I’m just… average. Normal. Except for the fact that I happen to be in this thousand-percent not normal situation right now.”
He half-smiled, and for a second her stomach broke with gravity. “Yeah? Well, hell, I’m normal too, by my lights. By the clan’s lights. So what’s ‘normal’ worth?”
“So what is normal for a clan? Tell me that,” she asked him, rubbing her temple. She could smell sunshine heating the raw, weathered wood of the toolshed and longed to be outside, running for her life until she hit the border. “Officer, let me back into the States, stat! Bear people are after me and they’re gonna rip me apart like a mouse full of catnip! USA! USA! USA!”
His smile broadened, but he didn’t answer. She’d pushed her luck far enough for now.
Unless I can charm him more. He was vulnerable to her somehow; she could see it and she could sense it. And if she was completely honest with herself, she was vulnerable to him, too. Why else would she feel like she could actually talk to him? And why else would the gusset of her underwear be wet just from kneeling next to him? Another indecent, imagined flash of her tongue on his thick, commanding cock made her bite her lip.
“Why do you people live out here? Because you like the range?”
“We’ve been here for generations. There’s privacy. And other things we need.”
She made a face, she couldn’t help it. “Oh, God. ‘Things we need.’ Does that mean you… go hunting? As, like, animals?”
He laughed for real; she loved the sound, despite everything. I haven’t seen a man this beautiful in… well, in ever. Logan wasn’t anything compared to this. “There’
s nothing wrong with a mouth full of marmot, Harper. Yeah, we hunt like animals when the need’s on us. But you saw Gentian’s garden for yourself—most of what we eat, we grow. There’s space and soil here for that. And no humans around to see us do any of it.”
A strange thought occurred to her. “Are you people… afraid of us?”
“Suspicious is a better word.” He shifted in the chair; a chink of sunlight coming through the door-joint lit up his broad, powerful shoulder. “It’s you people who are afraid of us. Powerful afraid. Afraid enough to kill us when you find us.”
“Is that what Hunters are?” she asked quietly, piecing his world together in her mind. “People who… who look for you and—”
“Yeah. People who search us out to put us down.”
“Oh.” She wasn’t sure if that was terrible or justified. People who could turn into wild animals—who were capable of locking her up and maybe murdering her—might deserve to be extirpated.
“You can see why we take your being here seriously, Harper. Can’t you?” He leaned forward and his scent—flannel, heat, skin—strengthened headily. She breathed in deeply. “Hunters are killers. The elders have lived through more than one raid and they never want to see it happen again.”
“I don’t… I don’t have any weapons,” Harper managed, frowning. She squeezed her thighs together, drunk on the smell of him. “How could I hurt anyone? I don’t even know self-defense.” Maybe I shouldn’t have admitted that. Shit, though, he smells amazing.
“No? Hud said you came at him with that axe pretty fierce.” Chance grinned.
“I just grabbed it off a woodpile! It wasn’t mine! I didn’t even know how to use it! I don’t know anything about fighting.
“I said I believed you, Harp, and I do! You don’t have to argue your case with me. I know you’re just an innocent girl. I know it.” He sounded so, so certain. She was afraid to ask him why he was so certain, in case that made him rethink it. “Just have faith we’ll sort this out.”
Rescued & Ravished: An Alpha's Conquest (A Paranormal Ménage Romance) Page 6
