“Oh my god!” I uttered in shock. “That's insane, Casey—why?! Why did they need to do that?”
“Because someone is paying them a lot of money for this research,” he answered. “And so I can't leave. They always told me if I left, if I tried to escape, they'd make me shift, and I would probably kill people.”
“That's why you ran away so fast after the Ted thing...why you were shaking?” I asked.
He nodded. “I could feel the shift starting. Ruby had triggered the electrode. She stopped as soon as she could see that I was coming home.” He shook his head. “This is why I didn't want you around—why I tried to go alone tonight—I don't want to hurt you.”
“Well, you could have told me this before!” I snapped, jumping up from the bed, suddenly furious at how he had withheld this huge piece of information from me. “Jesus, Casey! When were you going to tell me this?”
“I don't know!” he rebutted. “I didn't know how!”
“You had no problem telling me all those lies in the basement last weekend! Why not then? Wouldn't it just have been easier to tell me truth?” I yelled.
“Those weren't all lies, they just weren't the whole truth,” Casey corrected.
“Same thing in this case,” I said. “So, when were you going to tell me, Casey? When?! If I hadn't forced your hand tonight, when were you going to drop this on me?”
“I don't know—”
“When we're moving into a new house in a new city? Or just casually over dinner years from now? Or as soon as Carly moves away for college, or—”
I cut off abruptly as a realization hit me, like a punch to the stomach.
“Carly...” I murmured. “Oh my god.”
Casey stood quickly and put his hands on my shoulders. “Alex...”
I threw his hands off. “How could you not tell me this?!” I snapped. “Our daughter! Our daughter is part...part werewolf,” I dropped my voice on the word. “Didn't you ever think I should know that!?”
“Of course I did!” he barked.
“What does this mean for her, Casey?” I cried.
“I don't know!” he responded, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “Chances are with a half-breed that noticeable changes might not occur until puberty or late adolescence—”
“Oh my god...” I groaned, feeling like I'd been punched again. I wanted to sob, but the anger was still in charge. “I can't believe you didn't tell me this,” I growled as I shook my head at him.
“I was going to, Alex!” Casey pleaded.
“Oh, I'm sure you were. You just had to make me fall in love with you first,” I spat.
His face changed in an instant. He was overjoyed, his eyes lit up like tiny moons and his lips spread into an emotional smile. I had no idea why he was happy right in the middle of a fight. Then I realized what I had said.
He grabbed my hands and held them tenderly in his. “Alex, I—”
His gentle hold suddenly turned into a crushing grip as he clamped down on my hands with his. “Casey?” I looked up at him, my heart racing. His jaw was clenched and his body shook violently.
“Get out of here,” he managed to growl through his clenched teeth. “Now.”
He let go of my hands and I took a few steps back, and he lurched forward, falling to his hands and knees on the floor in front of me.
“GO!” he roared, his face bright red, the shaking turning to convulsing.
I turned and dashed to the door, hearing the rip of fabric behind me. I didn't look back as I fumbled with the locks—why were there so many damn locks!?—with trembling fingers and my heart trying to pound its way out of my chest.
A sound like breaking bones popped and snapped behind me, then, my blood turned to ice in my veins as a long, haunting howl filled the entire room. Not a split second later, he was right behind me, his warm breath on my neck.
I sobbed as his teeth latched onto the hood of my sweatshirt, and after a brief lingering and a snort through his nose, he whipped me away from the door with a swift jerk of his head. I stumbled back and tried to find my footing, but I fell to the floor. Through blurry, tear-filled eyes, I saw him prowling toward me—a huge, steel gray wolf, the size of a mule. Twice the size of a normal wolf. His eyes were locked on me as I cried and scooted away from him on the floor.
But I had nowhere to go, unless I was going to jump out the window. As my back hit the bed frame, I took a quick look at the window and saw there was no way to open it, which I had suspected would be the case. When I turned my focus back to the wolf, he was right on top of me, a giant paw on either side of my legs, his head hovering over me and looking down at me as I cowered underneath him.
“Casey...” I cried as his hot, humid breath blew across my face, and a low growl rumbled in his throat. Shaking, I reached my hand out and placed it on his neck. His entire body shuddered and shivered, and his dark gray fur stood on end. “You won't hurt me,” I said. “I know you won't hurt me...”
He snorted in my face, and lowered his nose to my neck, sniffing around with his wet nose. He growled again, right in my ear, and from the corner of my eye I saw his lips pull back over his long, knife-sharp fangs.
“You won't hurt me!” I repeated frantically, trying to pull away from his teeth, but I had nowhere to go. I closed my eyes tight and covered my neck and head with my arms. “You won't hurt your mate!” I cried in desperation.
I kept my eyes closed and my arms wrapped around the back of my neck and my entire body tensed as I braced myself for the bite—the fangs stabbing into the flesh of my shoulder—but nothing happened...
Then the warm breath stopped. Was he leaving? I wondered. But I hadn't heard foot steps...
I was afraid to, but I finally opened my eyes and was surprised to see Casey, human Casey, sitting on his knees in front of me on the floor, completely naked. He was panting, his shoulders slumped forward in exhaustion as his entire body heaved with each labored breath.
“Casey,” I murmured.
“How did you know?” he asked, his voice strained and breathless.
“How did I know what?” I asked, still too shaken to move, rooted in place by the lingering shock and fear.
“What you said,” he replied through his heaving breaths. “About being my mate.”
“I—I just guessed,” I answered with a little shrug. “I watched a show with Amy, and the werewolf guy could sense when his mate was in trouble, and it seemed like what happened with Ted, so I—I just said it in case it worked.”
“It did,” he said, locking his eyes with mine, his face full of urgency. “So, you are.”
We stared at each other for a moment, both of us battling for control of our breath, and spoke with our eyes. Mine took in his face, then flitted across his body, the hills and valleys of his muscle formations, covered in a thin, glistening sheen of sweat from the exertion of the shift. His eyes burned into me like lasers. I could feel them on my face as he stared at me intently, then hungrily. I watched as his face hardened with urgent desire, and it was so smoldering and intense that I could feel it growing inside me, as well. Heat filled my chest as he inched closer to me, and I prepared for his kiss.
But there was none, he just hovered his lips an inch away from mine, his breath ragged and choppy. “You're my mate,” he finally whispered, his face serious, his voice possessive.
The words set my body on fire. I nodded.
In an instant, his hands were on my body, lifting me from the floor as he shot up to standing. He threw me on my back on the bed and was hovering over me immediately, on all fours like the wolf he had been just minutes before.
“You're my mate,” he repeated in a growl before he plunged his face down toward my neck, taking my flesh into his mouth, then into his teeth. I gasped and my back arched of its own accord.
He pulled away from my neck abruptly and set his attack on my lips, letting his naked body drop as he did, crashing it into mine, eliciting moans from both of us at the contact. He was ready. I felt h
im pressing into me between my legs and it made me want him inside me that instant.
As if reading my mind, he broke away from me and stood up, then ripped my yoga pants from my body, then my underwear. I sat up just enough to pull my arms out of the sweatshirt, and he urgently pulled my t-shirt over my head, then attacked me again—driving his lips into mine, sending us both backward onto the bed. I opened myself for him, giving him plenty of room in between my legs as he drove downward and plunged inside me.
We cried out in ecstatic unison. He slid out slowly and drove himself back in, and I cried out by myself this time. I didn't care who heard me. We were in a motel, surrounded by strangers, many of whom were probably doing the same thing we were. Our last time together had been quiet, restrained—amazing, but quick and forbidden.
Not this time, I thought as my moans grew in volume with every movement he made.
“Casey,” I purred as he set himself deep inside me and lowered his head down to my ear, nipping at its lobe.
He growled loudly and his rhythm grew more fervent and urgent. One of his hands worked its way to my hair, ripping it from its bun and snaking its fingers through the wavy tendrils, while his other hand reached back to my leg, grabbing me under the thigh and pulling it up toward my chest.
The angle completely changed—he was deeper, hitting different nerves and spots. I yelled his name, and it drove him even wilder. He pulled his face back to look at me, and his eyes were feral with passion. He put both of his hands on my butt and pulled my hips up toward him as he immersed himself inside me. My neck craned back and I called his name again.
He roared as his pace turned frenzied, sliding out and rejoining us at a rate that was sending so many sparks through my core, I knew I wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. I clawed at his back, pulling him into me so that our bodies were touching at every possible location. His bare chest was warm and rock solid against my soft skin, while his lower body continued in its urgent tempo. Roars and growls and moans and cries all jumbled into a chorus of pleasure and passion as we both neared the finish line.
The tension was finally too much, building to an agonizing burn that broke free and flooded across my entire body. I arched and screamed and cried his name and clawed his back, then dug my hands into the comforter, grabbing fistfuls of it as I writhed under him, moans of ecstasy pealing from my lips, tumbling from my throat, one after the other, with no time to do anything but gasp for breath in between. I tightened and twitched around him, and he roared and howled like an animal as he drove himself inside me for one final time—his breaking point.
“Fuck, Alex!” he groaned as he finished.
I grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled his lips into mine, kissing him with all the passion that had built inside me. He moaned in approval. We broke apart for air, and he rolled off of me onto his back. I rolled onto my side and traced my fingers down the middle of his chest, which was now thoroughly covered in sweat.
“Okay, now I'm glad you stayed with me,” he joked.
I laughed and laid my head on his shoulder. “Me too,” I said softly. “I'm still mad at you, though.”
“I know,” he murmured. “I deserve it. You were right. I should have said something. I'm sorry.”
“It's okay,” I sighed.
He grabbed my chin with his fingers and tilted my head up to look at his face, which was serious and full of emotion.
“No, it's not okay,” he said. “And I'm going to make it up to you, I promise. Because I love you.”
My heart flipped in my chest and a euphoric warmth spread across my body. “I love you, too,” I said.
“Well,” he said with a smile, “that's good, because you're kind of stuck with me now.”
“Oh, really?” I asked with a smirk.
“Yes,” he stated, his smile turning to a foxy grin. “Because you're my mate.”
CHAPTER 13
We slept soundly in each other's arms, which surprised me when I woke up and realized it, as I had fully expected that Rex and Ruby would have tried to trigger Casey to shift again.
We got up and showered, and while I dressed and dried my hair, Casey went to the lobby to look for breakfast. He returned in less than ten minutes with two bananas, two muffins, a box of cereal and two bottles of orange juice. He set them down on the desk, save for a banana that he peeled and started eating, and flipped the television on. I watched him out of the corner of my eye as I brushed my hair under the barely warm currents from the underwhelming motel hairdryer, admiring him in his muscle-hugging blue t-shirt and jeans. But my stomach churned as I watched his face flip from contented to horrified at something on the screen.
I switched off the hair dryer, set it down on the bathroom counter, and rushed to his side. My face soon matched his as I stared at our faces and names on the local news, a banner that read 'Highdale Park woman kidnapped by mentally ill man' under our pictures, and a scrolling bar beneath that with instructions to call the HDP police if either of us were seen.
“I was just in that lobby,” Casey muttered without taking his eyes from the screen.
“What are we going to do?” I rasped, my heart pounding in my chest.
“Of course they would do something like this,” Casey growled in his throat. “How could I be so stupid? We never should have stayed in one place...”
“Casey!” I snapped, grabbing him by the shoulders and turning him toward me, away from the screen. “What should we do?”
“We can't take your car,” he said.
“Okay, so...”
“And we shouldn't go out the front.”
Sirens wailed in the distance, but grew louder as they drew nearer with every second. “Shit,” I cursed.
“We have to go out the window,” Casey said.
“You can't open the windows, I looked last night,” I said.
Casey grabbed the large high-back chair and threw it effortlessly at the large window, creating a crescendo of shattered glass.
“I can't jump down there!” I protested, but I knew it was the only shot, and we had to go now before the police secured the back of the motel.
“I've got you,” Casey said as he came back and scooped me into his arms. “Trust me.”
“What about the bags?” I panicked as he made his way to the gaping opening that had just been a window pane.
“Do you have your wallet and ID on you?” he asked, and I nodded.”Your phone?” I nodded again. “That's all you need. We'll get new stuff. But we have to go now.”
My stomach jumped into my throat as if I were on a quick-drop amusement park ride as Casey leaped from the building with me in his arms, landing gracefully and easily on the ground like he had just jumped down from a two foot ledge and not an almost twenty foot high window.
“You okay?” he asked, looking at me with concern.
“I'm fine,” I replied with a short nod.
“Close your eyes,” he said.
“Why?” I asked.
“I'm going to run, and it's going to be really fast, and you'll probably get dizzy,” he explained.
“Okay.” I closed my eyes tightly and wrapped my arms around his neck.
He certainly had not been lying about the fast part. I kept my eyes clenched shut as my hair whipped in my face, along with chilly spring morning air as we rushed through it at the same speed as a car on the highway. I shivered against the current and buried my head into his firm chest, and opened my eyes briefly to take in his face, but couldn't get a good look at it through the constant whipping and swirling of my dark chocolate hair. I closed my eyes again, wondering what his plan was.
We stopped abruptly and I opened my eyes as he set me down. I surveyed our surroundings—a vast but relatively empty parking lot for a large office building, that was likely closed considering it was the weekend, with not much else around it. I snapped my head toward the sound of breaking glass just in time to see Casey smashing the window of one of the few cars in the parking lot.
> I ran to the car. “What are you doing?” I snapped when I was close enough to him to not have to yell.
“Stealing a car,” he answered, matter-of-factly, looking up at me from underneath the steering column, where he fiddled with wiring. “What does it look like I'm doing?”
“Why do we have to steal a car?” I asked.
“I can't run like that forever, and we can't take public transportation, or your vehicle, which I'm sure they have plates for and is currently surrounded by cops,” he explained. “We need to get to an airport, one where hopefully they won't have seen our faces all over the news, and get out of the country as fast as possible. So, car.”
“Won't the cops just be looking for a stolen car then?” I questioned.
“This company is a large computer accounting firm,” Casey said, gesturing his head toward the large building as the ignition turned and the engine growled to signal its start. He stood quickly and climbed into the drivers seat, so I hesitantly opened the passenger door and sat in the car, as well. “I wrote some code for them last year—and I distinctly remember that they are only in the office Monday through Friday. If there is a car in this parking lot, it was left here for the weekend. Nobody will notice it missing or report it until Monday.”
He pulled the car out of the large and desolate concrete sea of parking, with its curbed, rocky little islands of lilac shrubs and sapling oaks at regular intervals, and we were on the highway in minutes.
“Which airport?” I asked, having to raise my volume to combat the loud wind howling and thundering into the car through the glassless driver-side window.
Casey shrugged. “Something international, and not in Kansas or Missouri. But something we can get to today.”
“Dallas,” I suggested.
“Perfect,” Casey said. “I have passports and IDs under fake names for us.”
“How did you—”
“I know people,” he cut me off. “And it's better if you don't know them.”
“Okay,” I muttered. “But why do we need to leave the country?”
Captive: a Paranormal Romance Page 11
