Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 113936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
It was a while before she could find her voice, and she hated the weakness inherent in the reedy syllables she spoke.
“I left my mahmen and sire. After… my difficulties.”
As a surge of anxiety rippled through her broken body, she, too, was seized by a need to move, even though she had long ago learned that everywhere she went, there she was. No true escape was available for her, which was why Kane’s chivalrous mission to free her from the prison camp was always going to be in vain. Her ruined body formed the bars she languished behind, her past the warden of her incarceration.
Her physical location was immaterial.
“Tell me,” he said in a low voice. “What was done to you.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Callum almost didn’t make it out of that hunting cabin in time. It wasn’t that he wouldn’t have spent the day guarding that wounded female, if he’d had to. But when her male showed, it was a case of three was not a party.
Besides, he wanted to go check on That Vampire.
The one with the bad attitude.
You know… just to make sure the guy was okay. With all the shooting and car rolling and other fun and games, one couldn’t be too sure that somebody like him might not need resuscitation of some sort. You know, chest compression. Assisted breathing.
A hand job.
And Callum was a fine Samaritan, the very model of a servant to others. Hell, he’d even put on a nurse’s uniform. He had the legs to carry off a skirt, assuming thick calves and muscled thighs were what the vampire was attracted to.
As he re-formed at the foot of the mountain, he rushed into his garage’s interior, for once forgetting to double-check that he hadn’t been followed as he entered the place. Except daylight was here, and he was out of energy. Wolven of his clan didn’t turn into torches like vampires did in sunshine, but his strength would get drained very fast, and he had no intention of feeling like he had the flu until the next full moon could recharge him—
Callum halted. Sniffed the air. Started to smile.
Shutting the door, he went over to the workbench and released the trigger on the toolbox, then beat feet around the old Monte Carlo as the staircase was revealed.
“Don’t shoot,” he said as he jumped down and the cover slid back into position. “I own this… place…”
Over in the shower, That Vampire was facing away and under the warm spray, his hands braced on the tile on either side of the fixture, his thick arms bowed, his back rippled with muscles. His head was down, the force of the water focused on the nape of his neck as if he had an ache there.
Well… what do you know. Callum suddenly knew something about aches—
As if his presence registered, the male he couldn’t look away from twisted around. The torsion in his torso made all kinds of things flex and bulge—with the flexing happening over at the shower, and the bulge being Callum’s department.
That Vampire’s eyes narrowed, and then they went for an up-and-down travel. When they stayed at Callum’s hips, he felt like someone had started a hot shower over his own head.
Looked like a candy striper uniform might be in his future after all.
And under the theory that it was better to apologize than to ask for permission, he walked forward, passing by the jackets that were hung on pegs, the extra supplies and weapons, the snow boots and the gas cans.
In the back of his mind, a familiar internal warning bell went off, but he ignored it.
It was beyond time to move on, he told himself.
When he came up to where the flooring switched to white tile, That Vampire turned back to the spray and pushed his hands through his short dark hair, sloughing the water off his head. As he arched back, his shoulders flared and his ass tightened—and Callum decided that, Gray Wolf’s presence up on the mountain aside, there absolutely, positively was a god.
And then the male turned around. The pivot was slow, and what swung to face Callum was the kind of thing that was worth getting sore knees for.
That Vampire’s erection was a dumb handle that needed a good handshake, and far be it from Callum not to properly introduce himself.
“How did you know I was here,” the vampire demanded.
And people thought romance was dead, Callum thought dryly.
“Where else were you going to be.”
“I didn’t come here because of you.”
“I don’t mind being your last option.” He pulled his shirt out of his waistband. “As long as you don’t mind being mine.”
One by one, he undid the buttons starting at the bottom, splitting his heavy, long-sleeved flannel shirt up the center, exposing his abdominals, his pecs… his throat, because they were supposed to like that, right?