Checkmate
Page 28
Not that the man was superhuman—at least she didn’t think so—but he had to be at least six-five and probably two hundred and fifty pounds. Well-developed muscle over a large frame. It was more than intimidating. Especially since—
Nina blew out a silent breath. She was not going to think about that. It was impossible. And she had yet to actually see it with her own eyes, so…
You knew there was something radically different about their DNA. Don’t pretend otherwise. And you didn’t let that bother you when you were using it to create your serums.
Of course, that was before she was trapped here in the same bedroom with one. Before another one had pointed a gun at her and threatened to kill her for knowing too much. It was almost like a bad gangster movie. Except not.
The joke was that she knew nothing about them. And didn’t care to, either. She just needed the enzymes she could create with their DNA. The idea that those who possessed said DNA would take exception to her research had never crossed her mind. Marten had asked for her help, after all.
And he had been only too happy to see she had a steady supply of the necessary DNA, provided she didn’t ask too many questions. And she was fine with that. She didn’t need to know the answers. Like how they could even exist. You don’t know it’s true, Nina. You don’t actually have proof. But the evidence was pretty damning. She had operated on a wolf today. That one of them had insisted was his sister.
Her heart started racing again as the idea tried to form in her mind—and she did her best to reject it—again. But really, what were the other possibilities? What other explanation could there be?
I have to get out of here.
The noises in the house had ceased some time ago. Nina cautiously pushed back the covers and slid her feet to the floor. She tried in vain to make out the black hulking shape on the couch. She should have worn clothes to bed instead of these pajamas, but unfortunately, that had not been an option. He would have been suspicious of that for certain. The man didn’t say much, but he watched her like a hawk. So when she’d gone into the bathroom earlier to get ready for bed, she’d settled on these.
She made a face. She wished she had something darker than this light-blue cotton tank and matching pants. The pants had little white dogs on them. Noiselessly, she stood and began creeping across the floor toward the closet. Her heart rate sped up, drumming in her ears as she padded barefoot over the carpet. She snagged her sneakers and the pair of socks she’d set out earlier and turned to head back across the room without putting them on. She was halfway to the door when the dark lump on the couch shifted, coming upright.
Nina’s heart nearly stopped. She froze. He just sat there unmoving. Watching her. She imagined she could see the glitter of his eyes in the darkness. They stayed like that for one long, silent moment. It reminded her of the way he’d demanded she hand over her phone earlier that morning. He’d just stood there like some kind of giant immovable object, bent on bending her to his will. The brief confrontation flashed through her mind, making her stomach clench tighter.
“Phone,” he said, holding out his hand. The one word was clearly meant to be an order.
“No,” she said, trying to keep the quaver from her voice.
He waited, not moving, for several long moments.
“We can wrestle for it,” he offered finally.
Nina handed over her phone. Thank God it was password protected and he couldn’t read the text she’d been trying to send.
“Going somewhere?” he asked now.
She fought a shiver at his deep voice coming out of the darkness at her. “Bathroom,” she said. This time her voice did shake, just slightly.
“Through there.” He pointed at the door that led to the en suite. Back the way she’d come, next to the closet.
Which she knew. And clearly he was aware of that, since he’d directed her there to shower earlier today after the surgery, and again later this evening, to prepare for bed. But she just nodded and switched directions. Her hands shook as she slipped inside and depressed the lock on the door.
I have to get out of here!
He was just too alert. Too big and silent—and scary—to face. Although, he’d been nothing but gentle with her so far. Careful, even, in the way he handled her. Putting her in the car, he’d easily contained her struggles, but ensured she didn’t hit her head. Then shepherding her to her apartment so she could pack a bag. She’d given up struggling by then, so he’d just kept one hand wrapped around her upper arm. She’d been surprised that they would let her do that, but it had been Boaz’s idea. She’d packed three bags, actually. Boaz had insisted. Still, there was no getting around the fact that he was one hundred percent in charge. And that he considered her his.
“I claim her,” had been his exact words, in that deep gravelly voice of his, before he stepped in front of the gun pointed at her chest and coaxed her into his arms. At the time, it had seemed like the safest place to be. Now? Now she wasn’t so sure about that. Because she had a pretty good idea what he expected of her. Not that he’d pushed her. Not yet. But it was coming. And there was no way she would even contemplate that. Whatever kind of creature he turned out to be.
Nina ran the water in the sink and tried to think. Obviously there was nothing she could do tonight. She’d have to bide her time. Pretend to play along. Be fine with this whole charade. Because she was pretty sure that that Lucas fellow was more than willing to put a bullet in her if she gave him the least excuse. And he still had her gun.
She turned off the faucet and tiptoed back to the bed. Boaz still hadn’t moved. “Goodnight,” she called softly, trying to pretend she was in control of this situation.
“Night,” he answered.
She settled under the covers and forced herself to close her eyes. You can do this. She had to. Her sister needed her. She willed herself to relax. She would need to be well-rested if she wanted any hope of escape. But it was a long time before sleep found her.
Boaz stared through the darkness at the blanket shrouded form of Dr. Evans—Nina—and listened to her breathing settle back to more normal rhythms. She smelled of fear and determination. And… paradise. She smelled of that most of all.
The determination he could appreciate; he was feeling pretty determined himself. The fear, not so much. It was completely understandable given the circumstances, but that didn’t mean he liked it. But a healthy dose of fear might keep her from doing something foolish. Dangerous. Like trying to escape. He was pretty sure it wouldn’t take much more than that for Lucas to decide that she was just too much of a threat.
He’d have to stay close, make sure she never got the opportunity to get into trouble. Because he had no illusions that she had accepted her fate. She hadn’t. The whole sneaking through the room carrying her shoes was proof enough. But that was only natural. She was human after all. It would take time. He could wait. For someone who smelled like that? Yeah, he could wait.
He settled back down onto the couch and listened to her soft breaths. It took a while, but eventually she drifted off to sleep. Boaz knew a thing or two about determination. For most of his adult life, he’d been resigned to the fact that he’d never find a mate. Not with the current birthrate problem. There just weren’t enough females. It took his older brother Aaron actually mating a witch—a human witch—to get Boaz to re-evaluate things. He had to admit it had taken him a while to wrap his mind around it, but seeing his brother so happy…
It had gotten him thinking about humans in a whole new light. And his brother wasn’t the only one. Cray also had a human mate.
Not that just any human would work. And no one could say for sure whether the bond would take. But you could tell which ones might. So he’d decided if one should happen to come along, well, he didn’t intend to hang back.
And Maiden’s own, had she ever. Nina. Even her name was beautiful. Boaz was not the kind of man to spurn such a gift. Her scent alone had been driving him crazy for over a week now. Sweet, tangy oran
ge and cinnamon spice. He’d been drawn to her from the beginning. He’d known. And that was before he laid eyes on her.
Boaz shifted on the couch, remembering. Last night, that first sight of her had taken his breath away. Her scent had changed by then, too. Become more powerful—more fertile. So fertile, it was a little hard to concentrate on anything else.
And she was beautiful. Tall and striking, with glossy dark hair and creamy skin. And her eyes. They were the deepest emerald green he’d ever seen. They’d been opened as wide as saucers behind her dark-rimmed glasses. In terror. It had taken all his powers of persuasion to get her to come to him. But she had. And she would accept him as her mate too. In time. It wasn’t like anything could happen until the new moon anyway.
He settled more deeply into the couch. The first step was to earn her trust. He just wasn’t quite sure how he was going to do that. Boaz didn’t have a lot of experience with humans.
** *
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Dedication
This book is dedicated to my father, who taught me how to dream and how to plan. And when he took me on as an employee in his craft furniture business, never treated me like a girl who hadn’t so much as held a screw gun before. My first project was the Irish Chimney Bookcase. A tall slim shelving unit similar to a hutch with cabinets below. He brought me over to a pile of cut pieces of wood that looked like so many extra-large Tinkertoys and told me this would be my first job.
I said something like “Um… So what's first?”
He turned to me and said, “What? You mean you can't just look at it and figure out how it goes?” He was only half kidding.
But he showed me each step and then he left me to do it. I learned everything I need to know to complete the chimney bookcase from start to finish, the doors, the cabinets, how to install the tongue and groove backing, up to and including distressing and finishing it with milk paint. In something like three weeks, I made four bookcases, working four days a week. It was an extremely empowering experience, and something I will never forget.
So this book is for you Dad. Thanks for everything. Love you!
Irish Chimney Bookcase
Yes – Made by yours truly!
Acknowledgements
As always, need to thank my fabulous critique partner, Anastasia. She has been an unending source of advice and support, and I truly don’t think I could have done this without her. Sometimes a book is just a particular challenge for an author, for one reason or another, and Checkmate was that for me. I have to say I learned a LOT about chess throughout the process and I had a lot of fun picking quotes/strategies that would sort of match or comment on what was happening in that chapter. Had I known that there were standard openings that everyone learned in chess, I might have really enjoyed the game when I was growing up.
I thought you sort of had to wing it each time and the value was that it made you a more strategic thinker. While that last part is true, you don’t have to recreate the wheel each time! Yes, I know, you are thinking “duh, Elyce,” but it was a real revelation for me. And now I am eager to challenge my progeny to a game, but since they have both been in chess club since first grade, I know I still have an uphill battle.
And I have to thank the two of them and my husband for their chess term recommendations. I got the Sicilian Defense, an Isolated Pawn from them, among others, and my youngest really wanted me to get the quote “We are in the endgame now,” into the book (from the Avengers movie), but I resisted.
All of the terms are 100% chess terms (that it’s possible I got wrong – but I did do my best) except for Chapter 13. I looked, but I couldn’t find the term Discovered Mate anywhere. It fit so perfectly I used poetic license and threw it in anyway. For any chess mavens out there, I mean no disrespect.
I need to give a particular shout out to Cheryl of OffGridHomesteadPrepper.com for her generous gift of time, and excellent work reading over my manuscript. She always catches a number of things for me and I very much appreciate it. Thank you Cheryl! Check out her blog on living off the grid – very interesting.
I want to take a moment to thank Romance Writers of America for providing invaluable resources to the developing writer, including thousands of on-line courses and recorded presentations at very reasonable rates. And then I must mention my own chapter of RWA—because you people rock—and you are certainly shining the light on romance. An awesome bunch of people with fabulous programs and workshops. Keep up the good work!
I would also like to thank Wendy, the Passionate Proofreader, who has once again done a stellar job proofing the (semi) final draft. I did make some edits after I got it back from her so if you do find errors, those are probably mine. Please, if anyone does find a typo, send me an e-mail. Just put Typo in the subject line. We did our best to weed out these pesky critters, but they’re wily. Some of them still slip through. elyce@elycedereefe.com
Finally, I just want to acknowledge that I got the great background photo for the cover from Upsplash.com a free photo website that’s really fantastic. Check them out, it’s a great source of free photos. So let me just list the photographers of these photos:
The waterfall background from: Anders-Ipsen
And the Wolf from Michael-Mazzone
I paid for the use of the cover model, of course. Isn’t he cute – I thought he was a perfect Dean. I actually got two different photos of him and used one more for promotion (such as it was)
And hat’s off to Shashika2 of Fiverr.com who redid this cover for me – actually she did all of them for me – and I am so happy. She took my ideas and brought them to the next level. Thanks Shashika!
I would love to hear from you, my dear readers, about this series, gardening, or really anything else. Oh yes, if you don’t have my free cookbook yet, shoot me a message and I’ll send you the link. (It’s really Elizabeth’s Cookbook, but I helped her writer it). My e-mail is elyce@elycedereefe.com
Oh, and check out my website www.elycedereefe.com
All my best,
Elyce
About the Author
Elyce de Reefe grew up in Santa Cruz, California and New York City. She likes to call herself a coastal girl, since she has spent nearly all of her time on one coast or another. She enjoys all genres of romance as long as there’s a hot, sexy hero with something to learn, a smart female lead who refuses to compromise on who she truly is, and the promise of a happily ever after. Her characters often find themselves on a journey of discovery, struggling to achieve true intimacy while solving the real-life problems thrown in their way.
To date, Elyce has written paranormal wolf shifter romance, contemporary romance, and romantic suspense. But there’s a Sci-Fi series in there waiting to come out, and possibly a
n epic fantasy series, as well as thoughts on a time travel story. Her ancestors were highlanders, after all.
Elyce loves hiking in nature, riding horses, watching wildlife, swimming under a blue sky, digging in the dirt, and sitting in front of a fire with a good book. She enjoys these things even more in the company of friends and family. Add wine and chocolate, and voila! It’s a beautiful life.
Oh, yes – and she has a very special place in her heart for wolves…