ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (49 page)

“Bears must be at it again already.”  She said to some unknown listener, or maybe she just said it to herself, before she shook her head and went back into the building. 

Dalton wasted no time.  He hopped in the car and started the engine.  He felt an exhilaration as he drove down the driveway, careful to not drive too fast, in case anyone was watching.  Once his tires hit the pavement of the road, it was a whole different story. 

Dalton let the window down and sucked in a large lung full of air.  The night was cool.  Fall would be there soon.  He grinned into the night, but it promptly faded, as the beating in the trunk became more intense, and he was sure he could hear sobbing.  He turned on the radio and let the car fill to capacity with heavy metal music.  His favorite band, Opeth, blared from the speakers. 

You, my friend, are a rotten egg.         

“No!  No, I’m not!  This is for a good cause!”

You steal a woman and expect her to mate with you?

“Maybe she’ll love me in time!”  Dalton made a face.  “What does love have to do with it anyway?  We just need to reproduce!” 

Coward. 

Dalton gripped the steering wheel tightly, leaning his body towards the windshield.  He thought his mind was cracking.  He had just had an argument with himself.  He shook the steering wheel and jerked the car hard into a right hand turn.  The tires let out their complaint in a long screech.  The car fishtailed slightly as he pulled to the side of the road just before a creek.  He closed his eyes and hung his head as he shut the motor off and heard that it was in fact sobbing happening in the trunk. 

Yes, you’re an ass.   

“I can’t do this.  Maybe since she’s a shifter she will understand.  I can just take her back.” 

Dalton exited the car.  The moon was full and bright above his head.  He took a deep breath and unlocked the trunk. 

“Look, I’m so sorry…”  He began, then stopped as a curly red head looked up at him with leaking large eyes.  He shut the trunk with a slam, and backed away, a shaking hand covering his mouth.  The woman began beating at the trunk again, this time she sounded furious.

“Oh God…what have I done?” 

He walked to the trunk and put his hands on his knees, leaning near the key hole.  “Hello?”

The banging stopped.  The rich voice of his previous waitress spoke to him from within the confines of the trunk.  She sounded like she was taking great pains to speak clearly and calmly. 

“I don’t know who you are, or what you want, but you need to let me out of this car…right…now.” 

Dalton squeezed his eyes shut.  “What’s your name?”

“My name?”

“Yeah.”

“My name is, I’m going to kick your ass when I get out of here!”  The way she was beating the inside of the car again, Dalton had no doubt that she could. 

“Look!  You need to calm down!  You’re going to hurt yourself!” 

“Let…me…out!”

“Ok, let’s make a deal…I’ll let you out so we can talk, but no ass kicking, and no screaming.”  Dalton straightened and looked down the road.  There was an abandoned house almost retaken by nature diagonal to his right, but other than that, the road was dark, and didn’t look populated.  He bent and put his hands on his knees again.  She was quiet, and he hoped she was considering.  “Do we have a deal?”

Her voice answered thinly.  “Yeah…it’s a deal.” 

Dalton hesitated, then unlocked the trunk.  The woman stared up at him with wary eyes, but took the hand he extended.  Dalton grimaced as he felt and smelled blood on her knuckles. 

The woman stepped tentatively from the trunk, her curly hair coming loose from her now lopsided pony tail.  A drop of sweat trickled down the side of her face.  She glared at him before lowering her head, striking like a snake, biting him as hard as she could on the top of his hand. 

Dalton sucked in air and dropped his hand.  The woman took off at a sprint, her tennis shoes slapping the pavement, her voice cutting into the night. 

“HELP!  SOMEONE HELP ME!” 

Dalton took off after her, catching her easily and toppling her to the ground.  He flipped her onto her back, pinning her legs with his, and her arms at the wrists with his hands.  She struggled anyway.  A growl ripped from his throat before he could stop it, his eyes glittering in the moonlight.  The woman stilled and stared up at him in wonder. 

“Oh my Lord…you’re one of them!”  She whispered.

“One of what?”  Dalton was already shaking his head in denial, though his question had denied nothing.

“You’re a…a…”  She stammered. 

“Say it!”  Dalton yelled, and clamped down on her wrists harder.  “Go on!  What is it that you think I am?” 

“A werewolf.”  Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes.  “You’re hurting me.”

Dalton loosened his grip, but not enough to let her go. 

“What do you want from me?”  Her voice had thinned again, trembling from the tears. 

Dalton shook his head.  “I…I didn’t mean to…to take you.” 

She lifted her head from the pavement, her brow furrowed, eyes confused.  “What?”

Dalton shook his head, his jaw clenched.  “I needed…I meant to take the blonde.” 

She let her head fall back to the pavement.  “Oh.”  Was all she managed to say. 

“I’m really sorry, I am.”

Her brow furrowed again.  “Were you talking to yourself after you took me?”

Dalton cleared his throat.  “I…uh…”  He stared down at her and sneered.  “What if I was?”

“Please, let me up.” 

“Are you going to run again?”

“No.” 

Dalton eased off of her, but kept one hand firmly encircled around her wrist.  The thought occurred to him that he wouldn’t be able to just let her go right then.  She had seen his car and she had seen him.  The ludicrousness of her telling a police officer that a werewolf kidnapped her didn’t dissipate the fact that she could describe everything else. 

Dalton roughly pulled her to her feet.  “Come on.”  He began pulling her back towards the car. 

“Where are we going?” 

“Don’t know yet.” 

“You can’t just keep me!”  She stared up at him frantically as he opened the trunk again.  “Please…please don’t put me back in there.” 

“Fine.”  Dalton growled.  He took her to the passenger door and opened it for her, leaning his head to her ear.  “If you try anything…I’ll rip your pretty little throat right out of your neck.” 

The woman shuddered. 

Dalton slid into the driver’s seat feeling a sticky revulsion for the threat he had just made.  He didn’t want to hurt the woman.  He just wanted the night to be over.  He wanted to wake up in his bed in Spotsylvania and find that it was all a bad dream.  That wasn’t going to happen, however, so he needed a place to go and think. 

He put the car in gear and drove one handed, grateful the car was an automatic.  His other hand reclaimed the woman’s wrist.  She twisted it once, but stopped as he cut her a sharp look.  Dalton remembered a motel that he had passed when he had ridden through nearby Madison earlier. 

“What’s your name?” 

Silence. 

“I asked, what your name is!”

The woman jumped slightly.  “Autumn.” 

“Autumn?  That’s pretty.”

She looked at him sidelong.  “What’s yours?”

Dalton considered lying, but saw no point.  “Dalton.”

“Are you local?”

“No.”

Autumn chewed her lower lip.  “Why were you going to kidnap Trina?”

“It’s a long complicated story.” 

“I guess it’s because she prettier?”

Dalton swiveled his head too quickly, causing the car to swerve slightly.  “What?  No!  Hell no!”

“Then why?” 

“I needed her…at least I thought I did.” 

Autumn’s face became still.  “Is she like you?  A werewolf?”

Dalton nodded his head.

Autumn laughed with her head thrown back.  “Wow! I knew something was up with her!” 

Dalton couldn’t believe how calm she was about it.  In a matter of minutes, she had found out her kidnapper was a werewolf, and her coworker, and she had no idea where he was taking her; yet she was still able to laugh. 

Maybe she’s in shock.

“Tell me who will miss you tonight.” 

“My Mom and boyfriend.”  She paused, a shadow creeping over her face.  “Unless they’re too lit to notice until morning.” 

Dalton crossed the motel in Madison off the list as a possibility.  He needed to be farther away, but not closer to his own home. 

“Shenandoah Valley…how many lodges and things like that are there?” 

Autumn tilted her head to the side, her hazel eyes regarding him in the blue glow of the dashboard lights.  “There’s a few.  We could go near Luray Caverns, but most lodges aren’t open 24/7.” 

A nervous flutter entered Autumn’s stomach.  If he wanted to kill her, he could have done it already.  The situation was surreal, but it was starting to feel more and more like an adventure novel coming to life.  Something stirred within her, making her aware that she liked it.  

“There’s Massanutten.” 

“The ski resort?”

“Well, they won’t have snow on the ground yet, but there’s a nice resort there.” 

Dalton thought about the amount of money he had brought with him.  He had taken all of his emergency funds from under his mattress.  A grand wouldn’t cut it for long at a resort.

Autumn seemed to read his mind.  “There’s a hotel there that’s a little cheaper, or we could just go on to Luray Caverns.”

“Why are you trying to help me find somewhere?  Do you know anyone at either place?”

She sighed and looked out the passenger window, her eyes watching the dark woods stream past.  “I just want my throat to stay intact.” 

Dalton decided to make the drive to Luray.  He only needed a little guidance from his captive.  They rolled into Luray just before midnight. 

“I need to use the bathroom.” 

Dalton shook his head.  “You can wait until we get a room.” 

“Can we at least get something to eat?”

Dalton sighed loudly.  He spotted a 7-11 in the distance.  “I’ll stop, but if you try anything funny…”

“Yes, I get it…I’ll be able to spoon feed my stomach through a gaping hole in my neck.”

Dalton kept one eye on the restroom door as he grabbed a couple bags of chips and two bottles of water.  The clerk had barely looked up from her magazine when they walked in.  A plus for Dalton. 

Autumn emerged from the bathroom, her hair falling past her shoulders in red ringlets.  The rubber band that had held the messy pony tail was wrapped around her wrist.  She stared at him blandly then let her eyes drop to the chips. 

“Can I at least get a hotdog and soda?”

Dalton rolled his eyes.  “Whatever.” 

“Hey, you kidnapped me, remember that!”  She hissed. 

Dalton was amazed at how bipolar she was.  One minute she was scared, the next sassy and arrogant.  What was he supposed to do with a woman like that? 

Dalton found a motel called the Mountaintop on Rt. 211.  It was cheap at only $55 for a room with two double beds.  He could have saved another ten dollars if he was willing to have a room with only one bed, but he thought that to be inappropriate. 

Like kidnapping a woman IS appropriate? 

Autumn looked around the room.  The bedspread and curtains were a deep brown with gold stitching worked in small leaf patterns.  The carpet was almost an amber that accented both the brown and gold.  She sat on the edge of her bed and wondered what she would do for clean clothes. 

“My purse is still in your trunk.  I had it on my shoulder when you grabbed me.  Do you think I could go and get clothes in the morning?  I have my debit card.”

Dalton shook his head.  “Credit cards and debit cards can be traced to exact locations.” 

Autumn narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms and legs at the same time.  “How long are you planning on keeping me?” 

“As long as I think I need to.” 

Autumn threw her hands in the air.  “You don’t need me!”

Dalton mustered enough of a hard deadly look to make her jaw snap shut.  He kept his gaze locked with hers for a few moments before continuing his assessment of the room.  They were on the second floor, and the room door lead straight out onto a walkway overlooking the parking lot.  The bathroom had no windows.  That only left the phone as a risk.  He walked over to it and yanked it from the wall. 

“You’re crazy.”  Autumn whispered. 

“No.  I’m cautious.  I don’t need you trying to call anyone if I fall asleep.”

“We don’t even have a land line at my house.”

“Then how do you communicate with people?”

Autumn shrugged her shoulders.  “It’s like the olden days.  I just don’t.  I had a cell phone, but the service was so terrible, I let the plan expire.”