Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 59422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Even as I had the thought, my wolf snarled in rage. No way I could let Marion near my mate. No way in hell.
Of course not. I’d never subject my mate to any potential harm. And wiping her memories was that and more.
I would have to solve this some other way.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I paced some more, debating. Fighting with myself, my wolf, and my alpha.
Even setting aside the large problem of disobeying my alpha and letting her keep her memories of Tyler being a wolf, she would surely go for a gun again the moment she woke up.
I needed to get her out of here. Get her somewhere… secluded. Keep her as mine. Safe. Fuck, I’d have to hold her captive until I could make her understand she belonged to me.
Hell, that sounded wrong. But that was essentially what it meant to a wolf shifter. My wolf growled at that. There was nothing “essentially” about it. Riley Abbot was MINE.
Now that I knew she was my mate–now that I’d caught her scent–I couldn’t pretend I could ever go on living without marking Riley Abbott. I had to claim her. Fate couldn’t be denied.
Once I fully made her mine, then I could figure out the next step.
I scooped Riley up into my arms, savoring the feel of her, the scent of her. “Sorry, sugar.” I nuzzled my nose into her wet hair. “Fate made the decision for both of us. You belong to me now.”
4
RILEY
I smiled, rubbing my face into the soft pillow, feeling rested and content. Rolling onto my back, I stretched, raising my arms over my head. My hands bumped into the headboard.
I froze because that was not the brass headboard on Nana’s bed.
I shot up and blinked. Oh my God, this wasn’t Nana’s house. This wasn’t Dad’s house. I didn’t recognize the room. Where was I, and why was I sleeping here? I felt like Goldilocks and wondered if there was a big bear coming in to claim his bed.
“You’re awake.”
Startled, I jumped a foot. Seeing a big man in the doorway, I pushed back into the very rugged, very log, headboard. He wasn’t a bear. He was… holy shit! He was–
“Mr. McIntire,” I breathed. I sat up, fast.
It all came back to me in a rush, like a fast-forward button on a movie. Tyler. The wolf. The shower. His dad coming to the house. The needle. Then nothing. Then… here.
The big man winced and ran a hand over the back of his neck. “Cody. Just Cody.”
His deep voice was like the scrape of a snowplow on an icy road, and it made me shiver.
“Fine,” I snapped, throwing my legs over the side of the bed. I’d been kidnapped. I needed to get out of here. “Cody. What’s going on?”
He held up his hands in a non-threatening gesture. I chalked it up to how hot he was that I wanted to trust him, despite my better judgment.
“You’re going to stay here with me for a while. I need to explain some things to you.”
I frowned, alarm bells going off. “What? Um… why? And where is here?”
I was in a log cabin with timber walls and ceilings, wood floors. The simple furnishings were also made of pine. Through the bedroom window–with simple white curtains flanking the glass–I could tell the sun was still up, so I hadn’t been asleep for more than an hour or two. I could also tell by the fact that the view consisted of trees and more trees that we weren’t in town.
He approached the near side of the bed, and I slid across in the opposite direction. I wasn’t scared of him like he might harm me, but I was scared of not knowing why I was here and why I was more attracted to him than freaked out. Maybe the drugs messed with my head. Except, I’d been mesmerized by him when I’d found him at Nana’s house, too.
I should be really freaking out. Okay, I was. Some.
Mr. McIntire… Cody… was big. Broad. Dark. Handsome. Hot. Sexy. His eyes bored into mine, and I felt seen and exposed, as if my clothes were made of thin tissue, not satin. When his gaze lowered to take in every inch of me, my nipples hardened. Traitors!
He drugged me. Kidnapped me. Saw my body, apparently, because I’d been in a robe before, and now I was dressed. Put me to bed. God, his bed.
This was Tyler’s dad. His DAD. And the more we silently stared at each other, the more I was drawn to him. That close cut beard was doing it for me. So were his intensely blue eyes. His strong body. His–Oh, God… Stockholm syndrome? Daddy issues?
“This is my cabin, sugar,” he said. He lived in town. I’d been to his place before because of Tyler, so this must be a retreat? A mountain getaway? A lair for hiding kidnapped women? “You’re here because…” He stopped and rubbed the back of his neck. He couldn’t stop staring at me. Into me. “Well, you’re mine.”