Page 9 of Kidnapped by the Wolf (Gold Creek Wolves)

CHAPTER NINE

ADRIAN

My cock is still rock-hard when I slide into the front seat of my 4Runner. The expression on Cassie’s face as she looked me up and down was enough to send all my blood rushing south.

Despite her clear disdain for wolves, I know Cassie is attracted to me. The body doesn’t lie, and the arousal I scented tells me there’s a part of her that wants me no matter how much she might hate me.

As I tear down the narrow dirt road, I try to manage my, er, situation by imagining what my feisty little human might get up to while I’m away.

But the thought of Cassie alone in my cabin has the exact opposite effect I’d intended. My wolf loves the idea of her strutting around as though she owns the place — raiding my fridge, wearing my clothes, sprawling out in the sunshine spilling across my bed.

Soon my fantasies stray into less wholesome territory: Cassie, naked in my shower, letting the water run over her peaked breasts; Cassie walking around in nothing but one of my T-shirts; Cassie’s back arching off my mattress as she massages her swollen clit.

By the time I reach Sebastian’s place, I’m a complete wreck. I’m horny and frustrated, and my wolf is one wrong look away from snapping his leash and claiming Cassie as his own.

I have to get a grip.

The contemporary slate-gray cabin is just the sort of home I’d expect Sebastian to own. It’s flashy, expensive, and annoyingly chic, built to mimic the lines of the mountain behind it.

With floor-to-ceiling windows along the entire first level, it must be a nightmare to heat in the winter. There are about a million steps leading up to the entrance, and all visitors are captured on video surveillance by at least six different cameras.

Slamming my door, I start up the steps, silently berating myself for showing my hand with Cassie.

I said too much over breakfast this morning, suggesting we double-cross her father. Based on his motives for mating her off, Clint hasn’t been good to his daughter. But growing up among ruthless bear shifters has given my girl a fucked-up view of pack life. Why would she think my wolves would treat her any better than the scumbag who raised her?

As far as Cassie’s concerned, I’m just another male trying to control her life. I shouldn’t have assumed she’d accept my offer, but I’m not sure what I’ll do if she says no.

My wolf whines at the possibility. He can’t stand the thought of letting her go.

For whatever reason, my animal has decided that Cassie is his —even if she wants nothing to do with us. He wants me to mark her and claim her as my own, which is the one thing I absolutely can’t do.

If I marked Cassie, her father would disown her, and I’d lose any leverage I had. Worse, my pack would see it as a betrayal, me tying myself to our enemy’s daughter.

Not that Cassie would let me get that close to her. Despite our mutual attraction to one another, she’s immensely distrustful of wolves. And I’m the wolf holding her prisoner.

“Whoa. What’s gotten into you?”

I look up to find Sebastian standing in the doorway wearing only a pair of boxer briefs under a red silk robe, which is open in the front. He’s got a steaming mug of coffee in one hand and looks as though he just woke up.

“Cardio,” I huff, jerking my head at the long flight of stairs.

Sebastian’s lip curls in a wry smile. Those steps are nothing for a shifter; my wolf is just annoyed that we didn’t sense him standing there.

Then I remember the reason for my visit, and all my fury comes rushing back.

I’m dying to wipe that smug look off Sebastian’s face, but instead, I decide to go alpha. “What were you thinking , bringing that girl?”

Something like satisfaction crackles in my lieutenant’s eyes, which only pisses me off more. “Giving you trouble, is she? I figured our steadfast alpha could handle one tiny human.”

“She’s not just any human,” I growl, shoving past him even though the bastard hasn’t bothered to invite me inside.

“Well, she does have a truly tremendous backside, and her tits aren’t bad, but I wouldn’t say —”

BOOM!

It happens so fast that he doesn’t see it coming. One moment, Sebastian is lingering in the doorway. The next, he’s flying across the room and hitting the wall with a thud that rattles the light fixtures. Coffee goes everywhere — all over the rug, the walls, dripping down his expensive artwork.

For a heartbeat, the asshole just stares at me, blinking as little rivulets of coffee stream down his face. Then he breaks into a shit-eating grin. “I knew it.”

“You knew what ?” I growl, panting as I try to rein in my wolf.

As my pack brothers go, Sebastian’s not my favorite, but right here in this moment, my wolf wants to fucking kill him.

“Knew you liked her.”

The iron tang of blood makes my wolf sit up, and when Sebastian reaches behind his head to feel for damage, his hand comes away bloody.

The sight only excites my animal more, and it takes all of my self-control to keep the beast restrained. “She’s Clint McGregor’s daughter.”

“And you still haven’t contacted him with your demands, have you?”

I open my mouth to make some excuse, but Sebastian’s satisfied smirk nearly snaps my restraint.

“I didn’t think so.”

“She’s an innocent human,” I growl. “This isn’t her fight.”

“Who bloody well cares if it’s her fight or not? You know what is at stake!”

“Of course I know what’s at stake,” I snarl back.

How fucking dare he question my resolve? As alpha, my pack is my first thought upon waking and my last thought before going to sleep at night. At least they were , until he dropped a certain gorgeous, infuriating human on my doorstep.

Maybe Cassie has skewed my priorities.

“I thought I was doing you a favor, snapping her up. Since you couldn’t seem to do what needed to be done.”

“A favor ?” I bellow, my anger ratcheting up a notch. “You snatched that poor girl who’s had absolutely nothing to do with this and brought her to me. She didn’t even know the McGregors were kidnapping she-wolves for Red Feather Lake. Her father planned on shackling her to that asshole Dane to save his own goddamned skin. She’s the only one who’s innocent in all this!”

Sebastian lets out a huff of humorless laughter, and his voice takes on a hard edge. “The alpha I know would have no problem using that girl as leverage.”

“Then you don’t know me at all.”

“Oh no?” He stalks toward me then, shoulders back, eyes flashing. “What about Khazget?”

At those words, all the blood drains from my face. My wolf’s hackles go up, and I have to clench my fists to keep from grabbing him by the throat.

Khazget is a village in Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan. It was at the center of Operation Jade Falcon — a stealth mission carried out by the private military company I worked for after I got out of the marines.

Operation Jade Falcon never made the news. Nor did Khazget.

My unit took out a cell of terrorists who’d bombed a school, killing hundreds of innocent children. We’d been informed that our targets were using the abandoned building as their base. What we didn’t know was that they’d taken hostages.

The mission was a complete shit show that resulted in the death of an eight-your-old and a ten-year-old, as well as two of our own.

“Oh, yes,” Sebastian murmurs. “I know all about Khazget — including the innocent blood that was spilled.”

“That was different,” I growl. “If you know about the mission, then you know it was never supposed to happen that way.”

“But it did happen,” Sebastian growls. “And I bet you stand by the decisions you made that day.”

I grit my teeth. Every cell in my body is vibrating — thrumming with the urge to shift.

“Choose your next words very carefully, brother, or I won’t have to justify spilling more blood today.”

Like any soldier who’s seen active combat, I’ve had to rationalize my actions to myself a hundred times over in the years since. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning. Khazget is no different.

I told myself we saved an untold number of lives that day, but it doesn’t erase the stain of death from my soul.

“No need. I was only going to say that the Adrian who was in Khazget would have no problem sacrificing one measly human for the good of his pack.”

“I have always put my pack first,” I growl. My wolf is dangerously close to the surface now. I can feel the prickle of fur along the back of my neck and my nails lengthening into claws.

“So what’s the fucking problem?”

“The problem is that she’s not just some human !”

My voice reverberates in the cold, elegant house, and something inside me seems to settle. My wolf stops glowering and lies down, mollified by my admission.

Sebastian is glaring at me with a sharp-edged look of triumph, and I blink.

Cassie isn’t just anything — not to me.

“She’s the one, isn’t she?” he whispers. “She’s your fated mate.”

I let out a shaky exhale.

Fated mate?

Cassie can’t be. A shifter’s fated mate is the one . The one he’s meant to spend the rest of his life with. The bond between mates is more than chemical — it’s a soul-deep connection that cannot be severed.

It seems insane that the female who makes up the other half of my soul is the one woman I can’t have. And yet I can’t think of any other explanation for my insatiable urge to mark her.

“It doesn’t matter,” I croak. “Cassie’s a McGregor.” I give a rough shake of my head. “I could never mate her.”

Sebastian chuckles. “I’m afraid your wolf’s not going to give you much of a choice, mate.”

I bare my teeth to remind him who he’s talking to, but Sebastian’s not wrong.

I know better than most how strong the mating urge can be. I’ve watched it take hold of my pack brothers one by one.

Once a wolf finds his fated, the drive to mate with her is undeniable. Ignoring the urge is enough to turn a shifter feral.

But I can’t mark Cassie. An alpha’s only loyalty should be to his pack, but when a wolf finds his mate, she becomes his whole world.

“What do I do?” I ask, the question barely more than a whisper.

It goes against my alpha nature to show weakness. But my wolf has already decided that Cassie is ours, and I am on my knees.

“What would you tell any of us?” Sebastian demands. “What did you tell Silas when his wolf was acting like a total psycho?”

“You know there was no other option for Silas.”

Sebastian rolls his eyes. “Fucking Mad Dog Maddox then. Surely he wasn’t fit to mate with Paige.”

“That was different.”

“Why? Because they’re not you?”

“No, because —” I break off, frustrated. “Silas was in trouble. He was losing time whenever he shifted, and I was going to have to put him down. Finding Malorie saved his life.”

“And Maddox? Did his going for a human seem like a bright idea at the time? What about Damon? Or fucking Nick ?”

I raise my eyebrow. Certainly allowing the pack’s only delta wolf to mate with a traumatized submissive had had me worried, perhaps more than any of the others.

In every scenario where one of my wolves found his mate, I knew there was a risk. But there was no alternative but to allow them to follow their instincts.

“You claim her,” Sebastian tells me.

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Because she’s a McGregor?”

“That’s one reason.”

“Why else? Give me one more good reason why you can’t.”

Because Cassie would never accept me.

After her experience growing up in Clint’s pack and Sebastian’s stupid-ass plan, she’ll never see me as anything other than another male trying to control her.

“The bond trumps blood, and you know it.”

I shake my head, dragging a hand through my hair. My skin is itching with the urge to shift — to run. I need to turn off my fucking brain so I can sort out this mess.

“I’ve gotta go,” I say, turning to leave.

I don’t know why I even came here. Part of me thought it might make me feel better to rip Sebastian a new one, but another part — a bigger part, perhaps — just needed to talk to someone.

It’s lonely being an alpha because I can’t afford to make mistakes.

“Have you told her?” Sebastian calls after me.

“Of course not.”

He lets out a judgmental rumble that makes me want to put his head through a wall. “Don’t wait too long, mate. It’ll drive your wolf insane. None of us wants to start over with another bloody alpha.”