Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
I run across the mesa until I get to my family’s cabin. Set in the middle of our hunting grounds, it’s the place I went after dinner to undress and shift. It’s also the haunt my brother and his friends used in high school to bring females for–
No, I can’t think of that.
Lauren doesn’t want that from me.
“Abe!” There’s a note of real alarm in her voice that bothers my wolf.
Bothers him enough to need to soothe her. “Take it easy, princess.” I tip her down to drop her to her feet on the porch as I reach for the key above the door frame. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
She doesn’t run. Maybe she’s too shocked by my behavior. I doubt it’s because she trusts me or what I just promised. She stares at me as I push open the door to the cabin and step inside to grab my clothes.
“Why did you bring me here?” She follows me to the doorway, standing in the middle of it–neither inside nor out. The pink and purple of the fading sunset make the sky behind her glow, backlighting her with the aura of a goddess.
I don’t answer, but yank on a pair of boxers and shorts. I’m thanking the sweet moon she hasn’t already taken off running.
It’s not because she’s turned on by me. It can’t be.
She probably craves answers about what just happened. I shifted right before her eyes. Fuck!
I had to or she would have plunged to her death below. The thought still makes me sick to my stomach.
But now, I have to do the unthinkable. I have to get her mind wiped.
I shrug on a t-shirt as I walk swiftly to the kitchen to grab duct tape from the junk drawer. “I’m really sorry about this.” I advance on her, stretching a length of tape from the roll.
She catches on quickly–she’s smart as fuck–I already knew that from chemistry class. In a second, she’s bolting out the door, but she’s no match for me.
I catch her with just a few long strides and wrap an arm around her waist to haul her off her feet. “Don’t freak, princess.”
It’s hard to describe how satisfying it is to have my mouth pressed against her neck, the silk of her dark, copper hair falling against my jaw. Her apple candy scent gives me a fresh hard-on. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
She flails and fights me, her nails digging into my forearm. “You are hurting me,” she lies.
“I know I’m not. If you’d stop fighting me, I could put you down.”
She immediately goes slack. The moment I lower her feet to the ground, she attempts to run again.
I give her ass a smack. “I don’t want to do this.”
It’s only partly true. The satisfaction of picking her up, carrying her to the sofa, and straddling her hips to hold her down is far too delicious to deny. I catch her wrists and hold them together to wind the duct tape around them.
“Wh-what are you doing?”
Abe
I scent real fear on Lauren now, and it nearly knocks me on my ass. My wolf is going berserk–he wants me to soothe her.
I want to spread her legs and take care of her other needs. The kind that involves her choking out my name on a scream of pleasure.
But neither of those things can happen right now.
I wrap the tape as quickly and efficiently as I can. “Don’t freak, Lauren. I mean, of course, you’re going to freak because I’m taping your wrists and ankles together, but I swear to fate, I’m not going to hurt you. You just won’t remember what happened tonight.”
Worst thing to say, apparently.
Lauren loses her shit and headbutts me. It doesn’t hurt, but her eyes water, which guts my wolf. I sit her up and crouch at her feet to wrap her ankles together with the tape while she beats me around the head and shoulders with her bound hands.
I finish taping and catch her wrists. “Hey,” I say softly, like I’m quieting a spooked horse. “That doesn’t hurt me. You’re just hurting yourself.”
I press her hands down to her lap. “You’ll be okay, Pearls. I promise.”
I’m not even sure if my promise is true. I mean, what do I know about getting a human’s mind wiped? I’ve never even met a vampire, much less hired one to take care of a mess I made.
If I hadn’t already fucked up and been told to stay away from Lauren Sterling, I might risk punishment and take her to the alpha right now. Ask him to clean up my mess and trust that he would do it right.
But that’s not an option. Doing so could get me banished from the pack. And banishment for a species like ours would be condemnation to a life not worth living. Just ask Asher, whose dad was banished when he was ten.