It seemed like forever had passed. Maybe if just felt like that as she tried to hold her breath far too many times only to have her lungs burn in protest. What were the burglars going to do? Smell her up here and drop all the money and jewels her parents owned and take her instead? That was absurd. What criminal wouldn’t take the money and run? With this thought in mind, she brought her knees closer to her chest and tried to remain still and quiet.
Turns out she was wrong. The rumbling up the stairs sent her heart into frantic mode again. The moment she realized the rumbling sound came from feet running up the stairs, it was too late. The door to the utility closet was jerked open and a male as wide as a linebacker stood in the doorway. He wore a hood, his face was covered, and she could see nothing but his eyes. They were brown, dark, and feral-looking.
“Don’t think we couldn’t smell you up here,” he growled. “Get up.”
Chelsey screamed. “Please, take what you want. I won’t call the cops. I promise.”
The hooded man laughed and then grabbed her by the arm. She struck him across the face and he uttered a string of curses. While he was rubbing at his eyes, she dashed from the room but slammed head first into another linebacker. She fought against him until she couldn’t fight anymore. The man who she’d struck bounded her arms behind her back, led her out of the bedroom, and down the stairs.
They came to a stop outside where another hooded linebacker was waiting by the car.
“Look here! We got a live hostage,” one of the men informed the third guy.
“Let go of me,” Chelsey screamed. Although the men weren’t hurting her, she didn’t want to be carted away anywhere with them. She wasn’t some object. She was a person.
The third guy turned swiftly and did something no real burglar would have done. He snatched off his face cover and lumbered toward them.
It was the stranger from the nightclub. The third guy was the shifter she’d been daydreaming about. Chelsey would’ve remembered that face anywhere. Same blue eyes, blond hair, and dark stare. It was the stranger. Oh fuck.
“Hands off!” The voice was also sounded the same and it sent chills up her spine.
“Jesus, Brock…are you fucking kidding me?”
The stranger—Brock—growled like an animal. The warning he sent caused the two men that captured her to step a good two feet away from her.
“She’s mine,” Brock stated, and then took her by the hand. “Are you okay?”
“Are. You. Fucking. Kidding me?” the hooded guy to the right bellowed.
“Chill out, alright!” Brock demanded. “I know her.”
“Know her? We’ve just gutted her home and you’re just now telling us that you know her. What the fuck, man?” One of the others paced aggressively in front of them.
“I didn’t know I knew her.”
“Bro…do I need to knock some goddamned sense into you?”
Brock was staring down at her arm extra hard and his thumb was rubbing back and forth over something red on her skin. She must have missed a spot while wiping up the nail polish that she’d smudged on her skin.
“It can’t be.” His expression changed from angry and possessive to troubled. “Where did you get this? How did you know to mark yourself this way?”
“Mark myself?” she asked. “I was painting my toes when you and your posse rudely broke into my home.”
“This isn’t paint, Princess. This is an exact replica of my birthmark.”
“Holy shit!” one of the hooded men exclaimed.
“Are you insane?” Chelsey tugged her arm out of Brock’s grip. She rubbed at the red mark that reminded her of a pair of butterfly wings. Sure enough, it wasn’t smeared fingernail polish. Whatever it was, it appeared to be something under her skin.
“I should have known after I couldn’t get over you…” Brock muttered.
“What?” She stepped back a couple feet. “You’re a real criminal that just tried to kidnap me. How could you come after me?”
Brock shook his head. “I’m not after you. What relations do you have with Governor Canon? Are you…seeing him?”
“No!” I swallowed my disgust. “He’s my dad.”
“Oh man,” the aggravated man started pacing back and forth. “We’ve gotta get out of here.”
“Chill out, Raoulf,” Brock instructed him. “We had sex a few nights ago, all right? That’s how I know her.”
“Why would you do this?” Her throat tightened as she waited for his answer.
“I have no time to explain here. I’m a shifter and an outlaw. I—”
“Stop.” Chelsey held up her hand. “Stop right there. You mean you’re part of that group that runs around causing trouble all over the country.”
Brock shook his head. “You’ve got it all wrong. Your dad wants to seize our property using eminent domain laws. If he does that, our Pack will have nowhere to roam freely. He knows that and so does all of the other lawmakers standing with him on this matter.”
“So your plan was to fuck me hard and then kidnap me to get back at my dad?”
“I had no idea who you were until tonight. We’re here to dig up and get what we can on Governor Canon including the fact that he provided funding for us shifters before he took the Governor’s role. He seems to have switched out on us real fast once we got richer.”
“So you want to blackmail him for doing his job?”
Brock paused, his gaze lowering to the ground.
Raoulf stopped pacing and approached them. “We’re outlaws, woman. Your father and the local government are trying to take almost everything away from our Pack. What do you think? We’re not going to just bow down to be trampled upon when we have a right to be here just like anybody else.”
“I don’t care who you are. I want you off my property and my land. I will call the cops on each and every one of you…including you…Brock. How’s that for blackmailing?”
The guy who hadn’t said anything since the whole exchanged laughed. “It’s three to one.”
“Listen…both of you,” Brock said. “If either of you lay a hand on her again, you will answer to me. I said that she is mine.”
His statement sent a surge of arousal straight through her. She didn’t understand it. Why was she so affected by this man?
“We’re getting the hell out of here,” one of them said. “You can stay behind.”
The two men started for the van leaving Chelsey and Brock standing there.
“Chelsey…is that your name?” Brock whispered, picking up a few locks of her hair and bringing it to his nose. “You smell like cherry pie.”
She chuckled nervously. “I’m so freaking confused and you’re talking about pies. Why are you doing this?”
“Your father hates shifters, Chelsey.”
She shook her head. “No, he doesn’t. That’s not my dad.”
“Then why is he hell-bent on stripping us of our ancestral lands?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s just about bringing in money into the town. That’s what governors do. But he’s not against shifters. I know that.”
“Aren’t you aware that he plans to take our lands?” Brock asked.
“Take? Doesn’t there have to be an agreement between both parties?”
“Not entirely. And when you’re a shifter fighting for equal rights for your people, that answer is likely not. This is why I do what I do, Chelsey. So in answer to your question, yes, I’m part of that group that runs around, but it’s not trouble we’re trying to cause. We fight for the rights of shifters when they’re not strong enough to fight for themselves?”
“I’m sure my dad doesn’t want to fight you,” she said.
“We don’t want to lose our land and we need him to understand that. We’ve tried talking and sending letters, but everything has been returned unopened.”
“I don’t know what’s going on. I hate politics, but maybe I can get him to understand,” she said. “Your friends look like they’re ready to go, by t
he way.”
“My brothers will continue to do what’s necessary as part of our mission. We work as a team. Regardless of how far off the path I travel, they’ll stay the course. I meant what I said, Chelsey. I won’t let anything happen to you now that I know how irresistible you are.”
“You’re a charmer.”
“It’s all truth, but trust me, my wolf wants you more than you know.”
Her core heated as a vision of him pumping between her legs flashed through her mind. “He does?” she muttered.
“I can smell your heat, Princess,” he added.
“There’s nothing we can do about it here in front of your friends,” she said.
One brow quirked and he tossed her a challenging stare. “Says who? I’ll fuck you in front of anyone, anywhere if you ask me to.”
Chelsey fanned herself as heat rose up her neck. “Jesus you’re blunt.”
“How much time do we have?” she asked.
“To fuck? All the time in the world.”
She swatted him. “That’s not what I meant.”
He laughed. “I know what you meant. The proceedings begin next week.”
Chelsey placed her hands on her hips. “Here’s my ultimatum. You tell your arrogant ass brothers to bring back what they took from my dad’s home and I’ll call him promptly tomorrow morning.”
“How will you convince him to stop the orders?”
She smiled. “Don’t worry about that. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.”
“I’m gonna need collateral until tomorrow morning,” Brock said, grinning. “Who knows…you might just up and leave the State without a word, kind of like you did the other night.”
“What about my body for use as collateral? I’m feeling a bit neglected and could use another one night stand.”
Brock closed up the distance between them and took her mouth in a full kiss despite his crew still waiting in the van behind them.
Chelsey pulled back, her lips tingling from the warmth of his kiss. “Is that your answer?”
“That’s more than an answer.” He picked up her arm again, turning it over to view the red mark that hadn’t gone away. “And there’s a reason you’re wearing my birthmark. You probably don’t quite understand yet what’s happening to your body and what’s happening between us.”
“What’s happening? Did you slip some shifter magic into my drink or something because I can’t seem to stop thinking about you? Is that what your kind does to women? The rumors must be true.”
Brock gently stroked the underside of her chin with his fingers. “Let’s finish what we started the other night, Princess. I have a lot to explain to you and we’ll have our entire lives to understand it together. There’s a pretty good reason why both of us have been thinking about the other day and night.”
“You too?”
He nodded. “I drove to LIVE the following night hoping you would show.”
She smiled. “I didn’t think you would be there. We did agree on just the one night, so…I didn’t bother. I thought it would pass.”
“It won’t pass, nor will I let you out of my sight again. Go back inside and pack a bag, Princess. You’re coming with me.”
Chapter Six
All of Brock’s brothers filed into an empty LIVE Nightclub. The one they called Raoulf headed straight for the unmanned bar and made himself a drink. The club had closed over an hour ago and only a few drunken patrons and what looked like the cleaning crew remained.
“Whatever you do, don’t kill my dad,” Chelsey said.
“That was never the plan,” Alpha Dane said. “Besides, we’re used to getting our way without ending lives. We have other methods.” He slid onto a bar stool next to Raoulf. “Isn’t that right, Raoulf?”
“Damn straight,” Raoulf added, taking a shot of whiskey. He still hadn’t removed his hood, which told Chelsey that either he still didn’t trust her or didn’t want to see all of his face.
“Like what?” she asked.
“Do you really want the answer to that?” Brock countered, leaning back on the counter on his elbows.
She tossed her purse on the bar and slid on a stool. “Are all the crimes and threats and stuff necessary?”
“We’ve asked your dad nicely and we’ve even warned those crooked town cops to stay off our lands. They’ve been using physical force of their own trying to keep us from bringing a stop to the eminent domain proceedings. Some of the human hunters in the area have even gone as far as hunting with rifles on the land. None of us have been shot yet, but other small animals and prey haven’t been so lucky. The carcasses are left out in the open for us to see. They weren’t killing for food. These were just senseless killings…almost like planting warnings for us to find. We traced the bullets to one single manufacturer in Texas. This is the last step,” Dane said.
Chelsey frowned. “I’m sorry that all of this is happening, but I promise you that my dad has nothing to do with planting carcasses. But what do you mean? The last step before what?”
“Before we get what we want, of course.” Dane shrugged. “For him to stop the eminent domain proceedings. If we lose this tract of land, we’ll be losing a lot of hunting grounds. Just in case you haven’t noticed, we are shifters. We shift and run as a Pack there. Some of us even live out there. Stripping the land will also push out other animals that have taken up shelter there.”
“Is that another way to say that if the County wins, your food source will disappear?” she inquired.
Dane pressed his lips together in a grim line, and then said, “You learn quickly. It’s been a little over thirty years since shifter existence was revealed. Some of us haven’t blended into human society. Some of us never will. Therefore, that’s what uncharted, and supposedly, uninhabited tracts of land—like the one they’re looking to confiscate—is used for. Wolves live there, they hunt there, they eat there. I’m sure you know that it’s not wise to fuck with wolves and their right to eat and live in their natural habitats.”
She swallowed. Yeah, she fully understood now. “I understand where you’re coming from. What do you have on my dad?”
Dane narrowed his gaze. “Why should I tell you?”
“Because I agreed to help. Whatever it is you have or took from my house, I want you to give it back,” she said. “I’m sure my dad will settle this without this last ditch effort to bribe him by using me.”
“The plan was never to use you,” Dane said, his gaze sliding over to Brock. “But it just so happens that you’re now connected to Brock. And actually, we don’t need to use you at all.”
Chelsey sighed. “My dad has held the seat less than a year. I assure you that he means no harm to the shifter community. I’ll try and help y’all, but I won’t stand against him.”
“Understood,” Dane said. “Your dad isn’t the only official in this town pushing this agenda, but he sure as hell does sign off on them.”
“So tell me…” She crossed her arms over her chest. “What’s your plan now that you have me?”
“That’s the thing…” Dane shrugged. “We’ll have to find another way to get your father’s attention in honor of respecting you now that you’ve bonded with my brother.”
“What other ways?” she asked, suspiciously.
“You’ve got a lot of questions.”
“You’re the one who ordered a raid on my house. Since this involves my family, I think I should know. And…like I said, I want to help your cause. I came with you willingly.”
“You came because there was no way you would’ve been able to run from Brock,” Raoulf countered. “You have his scent all over you, sweetness.”
Chelsey blushed. Brock’s scent was all over her, but so were his hands…among other things. Big things. A hard fleshy thing in particular. She bit her lips as heat rose up her spine and fanned across her neck.
“Now that it’s obvious to all of you that Brock and I had…were together and something happened between us, can I suggest that you no
t make any more adverse moves against my dad. There’s gotta be another way.”
“You’re right. And yes, we’ll find another way. Working with your dad is what we’ll deal with,” Dane said. “Focus on your mating with my brother and leave this to us. We never planned on harming you or your dad. What we do plan to do is defend and keep our properties.”
Chapter Seven
Chelsey moved across the small living area of Brock’s home, taking in his choice of furniture and setup. The space was devoid of clutter. The two bedroom, two bathroom log cabin sat on a small lot adjacent to one of the town’s biggest ponds. The Aspen Valley nature park that she had always wanted to visit was just five miles up the road. When her dad had first been elected as Governor, the privately-owned park was one of the first places she’d had on her list to explore. Unfortunately, even after her family was settled in at the mansion, much of her free time had been devoted to preparing for her last semester of college and she never got around to visiting.
“Is this where you live?” she asked.
“Yes. When I’m in town.” He shrugged out of his leather jacket and hung it on the coat rack beside the door. “My brother Garrett lives close by. He’s never home, though.
“It’s so secluded,” she said. “Don’t you get lonely.”
“Not really. I prefer the seclusion. Besides, if I want company, I can just race across town. Doesn’t take very long.”
“Right. With you being a wolf shifter and all that, I bet you travel back and forth through the woods so easily. Where do you spend most of your time when you’re not in Aspen Valley?”
“On the road mostly dealing with matters outside of the Pack that affects us.”
“Isn’t this eminent domain thing a Pack issue?”
He sat down in a chair and took off his boots before answering. “Yeah. I was in Jersey when Dane called me about it. This is a big deal since what they’re trying to take makes up the bulk of our acreage.”
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