Page 6

Chapter 6

Bjorn

“ O din’s hairy balls,” I curse.

I’ve kidnapped a scientist. One that people will look for. She could expose all shifters to the human world. That is nothing compared to the reality that my mate is on the other side of that door, tied to a bed and left alone. My fist pummels through the plaster of the hallway wall.

“Fuck.”

How low I have fallen. I’ve captured my mate as though she’s raider’s spoils off to the flesh markets. Yet I cannot force myself to return to that room and untie her as I should.

My kraken’s smug satisfaction seeps through my veins. We have chased and captured our mate. He is ready to claim her, brand her with our marks, and fuck her until she grows large with our hatchling.

How the fuck am I going to get out of this? Capturing her was impulsive. Stupid. A temptation spurred on by the mate call. But beneath that raging desire to keep her close is the reality of our circumstances. She has proof that my kind exists, even if she doesn’t understand what she possesses.

She is dangerous. There is no way she didn’t feel the menace of my words. Did she run like a sane person faced with a monster? No, this woman opened her legs and invited me onto the bed. And I followed her, allowing myself to get lost in her mouth and the cradle of her hips as she rocked against me. Her arousal was thick in the air, her lips soft and sweet. The world faded; everything was lost to me but her. My cock ached with the need to fill her, to see the shape of her curves and to trace them with my lips. My Beast nearly took over, desperate to claim her as ours.

One afternoon in her presence, and I’m ready to forsake all my promises. The reminder rolls through my body like a brush fire, swallowing up dry land and propelling my body with rage. She is a temptress who has come to see me break my vows. Not to mention, she is a scientist. I can’t trust that she’ll keep her questions to herself. She’s too curious.

I don’t want her here, luring me in with her beautiful body and her reckless bravery. Any longer in her presence and I risk succumbing to my instincts. But I can’t simply let her go back to town. Until I figure out what to do, the human stays. And my Beast will heed my command.

His agitated rumble of discontent rolls up the back of my neck and settles as a tension-laced headache. I ignore it and go in search of my laptop.

The woman is right. I do hate technology, how it tracks and invades, sucking people in. But even for me, learning to navigate the modern human world has been necessary. It’s a trade-off that eases the burdens of staying hidden, but at the same time, it ups the risk of exposure.

Outside her door, I hesitate, attempting to shore up my resolve. It’s no use—she calls to me whether a door separates us or not. I open the door where she remains as I left her on the bed, her arms bound above her, laid out for me like a booby-trapped treasure. Her violet eyes bore into me, full of hot anger, but her scent has wilted with fear. It makes my stomach clench and my body rigid. I hate the smell and loathe the idea of her fearing me. Yet it is a gift.

“Untie me. Let me go,” she demands, tugging against her restraints. Black tear marks run down her pale skin. Even with them, she is beautiful.

I harden my voice. “What university do you work for again?”

She shakes her head and jerks forward, yanking on the fabric. It doesn’t loosen, and she tries again. Her chest heaves, causing her breasts to push against her shirt. I look away, ashamed that my cock thickens at the sight amid the stink of her fear.

“Untie me, and I’ll tell you.”

My Beast tries to take me closer to my mate so I can cover her in my scent and wash away the rancid stench of her fear. I force myself to stay near the door.

“You will tell me now. I need to fix this mess by explaining to everyone you made a mistake. Until then, you’re staying here.”

“You’re keeping me?”

Her question is said with a kind of breathless terror that strikes like the blunt edge of a rusty knife, hacking away at my insides. I cannot keep her. She cannot be mine, no matter how much I crave her. But of course, that isn’t what she meant. To her, I am only her captor. That fear will serve us both well.

I ignore her question and repeat mine. “What university?”

“You’re scaring the shit out of me. You can’t come in here and ask that without telling me what the fuck is going on. I know you think I’m going to blab. Let me go, and I won’t tell anyone. I’ll destroy the files. It will be like it never happened.”

The files from her camera that my Beast delivered to her. Without thought, I move to her and fist my hand in her silky hair. She sucks in a sharp breath at the sting.

“You will destroy the files. You will email what I tell you to. Until I believe the danger has passed, you will do as I say or risk all our lives.” I tug on her chin and force her to look at me.

Fresh tears pool in her eyes. “You didn’t have to do this. I would have helped you if you’d explained. You still don’t have to do it. Untie me, and I’ll do what you ask.”

My kraken fights me for control, causing my skin to vibrate with the need to shift. I grit my teeth. “If you run, I will hunt you down, catch you, and bring you here. If I untie you, this is not your freedom.”

Her lips tremble. “Untie me.”

“Say you understand.” I brush my lips near her ear, and she shivers, her scent a mixture of trepidation and lust.

“I understand,” she says on a shaky breath. “I won’t run. Untie me.”

I toss the laptop on the bed and kneel between her legs, reaching over her to work my knots until her arms are free. Her wrists are irritated from where the material has chaffed her skin in her attempts to escape. I want to kiss them, but instead, I rub the abused flesh, massaging her wrists briefly before letting them go. She pulls her arms to her chest, holding herself as if her hands might shield her from what comes next.

Reaching behind me blindly, I grab the laptop and thrust it in her face. “Email. Work. Your ex.”

I’m too on edge near her scent and body heat. The desire to claim her is nearly overpowering.

She opens the laptop and sits up, scooting to the edge of the bed. I move with her, putting myself between her and the door. My eyes track the screen as she goes to the university website and clicks around. She starts with the email to her ex, and after a moment of furious typing, she holds the computer out for me to inspect.

In only a few sentences, she has explained away her findings as a discovery of a fake gold coin from a local party cruise.

“A party cruise?” I ask skeptically.

“I saw the ship in town at the docks today. It’s believable.”

“What the fuck is a party cruise?”

She turns to look at me, scrunching her button nose. “You go on a boat. Drink too many cocktails. Maybe fish a treasure from the sea or fight with inflatable swords. Like any party cruise but Viking-themed.”

My jaw tics at the absurdity, but it’s an intelligent lie. The self-deprecating tone of her email, however, grates on my nerves. The way her ex-husband talked to her on the phone leads me to believe she’s used to criticizing herself. I hate it, but I haven’t treated her any better. She wears my marks on her wrists.

“Send it.”

She does, then begins on a second email.

“Who is this?” I demand.

“My boss.”

This time, she writes that she will be out until she recovers from a bout of sickness after her dive. I nod my approval when she is finished and take the laptop from her.

“To delete the files, you need your computer? Your camera?”

She gives a sharp nod.

“We can worry about that later. I’ll leave you untied, but I’m warning you now that if you try to get away, I will chase you down.”

“Yeah, I got it. You’re a dangerous mountain man. I’m not an idiot.”

For a captive, she sure has a smart fucking mouth. My lips threaten a smile at her fierceness.

“What’s your name? Why are you in danger? What are you hiding?”

I ignore her questions and leave the room to snatch the skeleton key from the kitchen so I can secure the bedroom door now that I’ve gone and left her unbound. It was easy to hate my mate in the abstract because her very existence means I failed to protect my family. But the more time I spend with the adorable curvy scientist, the more I don’t know what to think or how to feel. I’m finding her hard to resist. It’s as though she brought color into the world, and I don’t know if I can go back to only muted grey.

I slip the skeleton key in the lock, securing her inside, and walk away.

“What are you going to do now?” she shouts from behind the door.

Now isn’t that the fucking question?