Total pages in book: 202
Estimated words: 193561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 968(@200wpm)___ 774(@250wpm)___ 645(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 193561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 968(@200wpm)___ 774(@250wpm)___ 645(@300wpm)
“Or what?” she asks.
And this is a true question, not a dare. She’s trying to determine if I’m threatening her.
I stroke her face with my thumbs while continuing to cradle her jaw. “Tell me your name now, babe, so I’ll know what to whisper into your skin while I make you mine.”
“Stacy,” she whispers immediately.
I feel a touch of relief, but it’s short-lived; she’s not okay and I need to fix that.
“First … you don’t need to be afraid, Stacy, okay?”
She swallows.
“You’re supposed to be mine. Don’t you feel it?” I ask.
She stares at me like I’m speaking in a language she doesn’t understand.
“So, you don’t feel it. But I promise you will. I’m gonna take good care of you tonight as I make you mine. You’ve got nothing to be afraid of.”
She continues staring.
“Gonna be blunt with this question, Blossom. Are you untouched?”
Still staring.
I rephrase, “Virgin?”
She shakes her head just slightly.
And before I’m able to guard it, I know I’m showing disappointment. She sees it; she looks embarrassed.
“Once you’re mine, that won’t matter to me, because you’re never gonna be touched by anybody but me going forward. I know you’re terrified right now so I thought it was because you haven’t–” I grind my teeth and haul in a big breath and let it out slowly in an attempt to shove off the possessive anger I feel right now at the idea of someone else touching her. “Never mind that. Let’s talk for a minute.”
She doesn’t speak.
“Okay?” I prompt.
She looks baffled as she nods just slightly, those huge brandy eyes full of fear and confusion.
“Right. So, the rutting urge is closin’ in on me, just being honest, but the nurture urge is stronger, luckily, so we’re gonna talk this out before we proceed. And Stacy… I promise I’ll make it good for you.”
She frowns.
“You’re afraid of me,” I state. “You shouldn’t be. Okay?”
“I… I shot your pack member,” she whispers.
“And why’d you do that?” I ask.
She blinks a few times.
“He’s gonna be fine,” I advise.
The relief is evident. She didn’t want to do it.
“And I hurt some of the other alphas,” she adds.
“And you think you’re in trouble.”
“Aren’t I?” she asks.
“We’re not in the habit of harming women. We want to know why you tried to take out Ty, of course. We make it a priority to protect our people, yeah. We have a right to be able to eat at a restaurant without being poisoned.”
Her expression drops even further.
“I’m thinkin’ you didn’t wanna do any of that. I’m guessin’ you were doing someone else’s bidding. Am I right?”
She flinches.
“All right, we’ll get to that later. You in a relationship with the guy who put you up to all this?”
She shakes her head.
“No?”
She shakes her head again, but there’s something strange in her expression.
“No relationship?” I prompt.
“Not exactly…”
“Well, you’re in one now. One that’ll last the rest of our lives.”
My eyes travel the length of her body as she exhales slowly. Her fingers tremble as she tries to adjust the t-shirt I gave her, either because she’s hiding her legs or because she’s cold.
I catch Linc’s scent just before my doorbell rings three short rings. She jolts so hard her body bounces off the bed, but I catch her before she falls to the rug.
She stiffens in my embrace as I guide her back to sitting on the end of the bed, explaining, “That’s just Lincoln.” I tap my nose. “Linc’s probably just dropped off your bag. Everyone knows to stay away when an alpha takes his mate home to claim her. We shouldn’t be interrupted again.”
My phone dings with a text message. “Or we shouldn’t be,” I amend distractedly as I fetch my phone from my pocket. “Chances are, the only other interruption will be tomorrow sometime, when my family drops off food, but they’ll just ring the bell and leave it.”
“Food?” she asks.
My eyes scan the text message Linc just sent. He wants my attention otherwise he wouldn’t have texted and rang the bell.
“Pack tradition. When an alpha claims his mate, they don’t typically surface for a week or so, so their family cooks a bunch of meals and drops them off. Where were you staying in The Hollow?” I ask. “Linc’s offering to pick up the rest of your gear. Says there’s a set of keys clipped to your backpack. One of them a key to your place?”
“Uh…”
“You got more gear? You’ve been here a bit?”
Linc’s text said he’s got the gun and a dead phone, too.
“I… a bit.”
“Where’d you stay?”
She shakes her head. “I can’t tell you.”
I lean in. “We might not be able to catch your scent trail since you masked it, but we’ll figure it out the regular way. Not a big town and you work at the diner, so it won’t be difficult. Either you rented a place or stayed at the motel. Sooner you start telling me everything, the faster we can put it all behind us.”