Shifters on Fire: A BBW Shifter Romance Boxed Set (62 page)

Chapter Four

Damn, this girl was frustrating.

Cole Fraser shoved her back down onto the chair and grabbed the first loop of rope. Not planning on making the same mistake again, he moved behind her and pulled her wrists together. She hissed air in over her teeth, but she didn’t call him any more names—not for the moment anyway.

His nose throbbed from where she’d kneed him, but he ignored the pain. He liked that she was fighting back and hadn’t given in to him. He’d been able to tell from her scent that she was a feisty one, and so far everything she’d done had confirmed as much.

But he needed to prove things to her. He needed to convince her he was the one man she needed in her life, that he could give her everything she’d ever need, and she should turn her back on her pack and go with him. Cole only knew one way of doing that and to do so he needed to take her back to her basest state, to make her forget the role she’d been given in life. She shouldn’t be some bottom of the rung pack member. A woman as vivacious and beautiful as she was should be ruling the pack. She should be their queen.

He needed to open up her mind, and her body, to a different way of life. If he didn’t break her down, she’d get right back up and run back to that pack of hers. He couldn’t allow that to happen.

Securing the rope around her wrists, he pulled the knots tight.

Unable to help himself, he leaned in and pressed his nose to the soft, blonde waves of her hair. God, that scent. It did something to him he couldn’t explain. He’d never experienced this before—that absolute certainty he had to have this woman. He had to have her as his own, or he’d never mate with anyone. Her luscious curves didn’t help matters. The way the thin cotton dress clung to her breasts, hips and backside made him hard, and having her struggling beneath him had practically made him come in his jeans.

But he wouldn’t do that to her. He wanted her to want him. He wanted her to beg him to touch her, to understand he was all she would ever need.

Moving around to the front of her, but keeping his face and body at a safe distance, he picked up the second length of rope. She glowered at him with those beautiful brown eyes, her full mouth pinched, her nostrils flared. He ignored the dirty glares and grabbed her ankle and held it against the leg of the chair. Quickly, he looped the rope around and tied a knot, and then pulled the rope over to her left leg and tied that to the other leg of the chair. The chair was solid and heavy, and there was no way she’d be able to run with her legs tied to it, plus she’d no longer be able to knee him in the face if the desire took hold.

The stance spread her legs apart and he noticed her press her knees together in order to hide her underwear from him. The movement caused her cheeks to flare with color and the angry expression melted from her face to one of embarrassment. She pressed her lips together and glanced away.

He remained on one knee. “You shouldn’t ever feel self-conscious about what makes you a woman.”

“What?”

“You’re closing yourself off from me. You shouldn’t feel you have to do that.”

“You’re crazy. I’m not just going to spread my legs for you.”

The idea of her doing just that, lying wanton and delicious on her back, those thick thighs spread wide so he could see right into the very center of what made her a woman filled his mind and he felt himself start to get hard again.

He forced the thought from his mind. “I don’t want you to be frightened of me.”

Her head snapped back to center and her dark eyes focused on him again. It was such an intriguing combination—the golden blonde hair with the fierce dark eyes.

“You kidnapped me, threw me in a trunk, and now you’ve tied me to a chair. What else am I supposed to be?”

“I knew you wouldn’t come with me voluntarily.”

“Too damn right, I wouldn’t! I’m hardly going to choose to go off with some woman snatching rapist.”

He jolted back at her words. “I’m not a rapist, Alyssa.”

Her eyes widened. “How do you know my name?”

He thought quickly. “I checked your purse after I’d thrown you in the trunk. Your license was in there.”

“If you’re not a rapist, what do you want with me?”

“I want to get to know you.”

“Most guys would ask a girl out on a date.”

He felt his smile widen. “I thought you’d figured out by now that I’m not most guys.”

“No, you’re not. Most guys I know are decent.”

He narrowed his eyes at her and she shrank slightly in the chair. “Is that right, Alyssa? Most guys you know are decent?”

“Well… I…” She stumbled over her words. “They don’t go around kidnapping girls, I know that much!”

“Is that the worse thing I can do to you? Stop you from going back to your life with the pack.”

“You’ve frightened me,” she said, a blush in her cheeks rising high, giving her an innocent appearance. “You’re frightening me, still.”

“What if I stop? What if I make you feel good instead?”

Her whole body went rigid, her eyes widening. “What do you mean?”

“Are you a virgin, Alyssa?”

“That’s none of your god-dammed business,” she snapped.

“You haven’t found your mate yet,” he said, ignoring her comment. Perhaps she’d screwed around with guys who weren’t wolves—God knows, he’d fucked enough human women in his life, but he’d never taken the binding step of finding another wolf-shifter to mate with. Maybe she had, but he got the impression she was far too well-behaved to leave her pack and head into town to find some regular guys to screw around with. His guess of virgin was most-likely the correct one.

“You know we mate for life,” he continued, “even if some wolves decide to take other mates, they never leave the ones they had at the beginning. The fact you didn’t mention anyone when I talked about the men in your pack means you haven’t been mated yet. Besides,” he moved closer to her and reached out to run the backs of his fingers along the fine line of her jaw. “I’d be able to scent it about you if you had. No wolf has claimed you yet.”

“Is that why you took me?” she said, her voice a whisper. “You plan to mate me?”

He bent down and placed his face beside hers to speak low in her ear. “No, I plan for
you
to mate
me
.”

He heard her sharp intake of breath and the way her heartbeat stepped up a notch. His words had affected her, and he wished he could see the images going through her mind right now. Was she imagining pinning him to the ground and straddling him, or did she just think he was some pervert?

Pervert,
he decided,
she thinks you’re a pervert.
A slow smile spread across his face.
Which, to be fair, you probably are.

“I don’t even know your name,” she said. “You can’t seriously expect me to want to mate someone when I don’t even know their name.”

He grinned and stuck out his hand. “Cole Fraser at your service, Ma’am.”

She lifted her eyebrows and jerked her chin toward her back. “I can hardly shake your hand now, can I?”

He laughed. “I guess not.”

She pressed her lips together. “But if you untie me, I’ll think about it.”

He shook his head. “Sorry, no deal. Apart from the fact I know you’ll try to run again, I’m enjoying seeing you tied up. The way the rope is pressing against your skin is probably one of the most erotic things I’ve ever seen. Part of me wants to unwrap your bonds just to stroke my thumb across the imprint.”

He didn’t think he was imagining things when he saw her shiver, only this time he didn’t think the reaction was from fear.

Chapter Five

His name was Cole and he’d let her see his face.

That can’t be good,
Alyssa decided. Men only took women for one thing, and the fact he’d allowed her to identify him meant he didn’t think she’d be reporting him any time soon. Either he planned on using her in such a way she would be too humiliated to tell anyone. Or he was going to kill her.

She could shift, but turning against the moon was painful and dangerous. There was always the possibility she wouldn’t be able to shift back again. But if that happened, wouldn’t she be better off living out the rest of her life in the forest as a wolf, than not living at all?

Not yet
, she thought. There was still a chance she could talk her way out of this. Shifting would be an absolute last resort.

Alyssa wished the guy wasn’t so stupidly gorgeous, and that he didn’t smell like a hot, gooey dessert on a freezing cold day. If he’d been five feet two, with buck teeth, and stank of body odor and booze, she’d be feeling a whole lot differently about things right now. But the man—Cole—had something magnetizing about him. Though she didn’t want to admit it, he was incredibly sexy and the things he said to her caused an unaccustomed heat to spread through her body. No man had ever told her he wanted her before—including her alpha. Gregory hadn’t said anything, but instead gave her lewd looks while licking his skinny lips. When Cole licked his lips, something deep inside her clenched. When Gregory licked his lips, she wanted to throw up.

But Gregory has never kidnapped you and tied you to a chair,
a little voice in her head spoke up.

That’s because he’s never had to,
she retaliated.
He’s already got me doing everything he wants.

Alyssa caught herself.

Ugh. She wasn’t justifying why Cole was better than Gregory, was she? That was what her life was down to—the choice between a creep and a madman.

“Are you hungry,” Cole asked her.

She snapped her eyes to his. “Why do you care?”

“Because even though it doesn’t look like it, I want to take care of you.”

“You’re crazy.”

“You haven’t answered my question.”

She was hungry, and thirsty, too. The heat of the day, combined with the adrenaline that had been soaring through her system for the past couple of hours, had left her tongue glued to the roof of her mouth and her lips sticking to her teeth.

“I’m thirsty,” she admitted.

“Of course you are. Forgive my neglect.”

He walked over to a rucksack left beside the barn door. She watched him as he moved—the roll of his shoulders, the muscles in his lean back, the long stride. If she saw him in the street, he would catch her eye, but then she wouldn’t be able to do anything about it because he wasn’t a part of her pack.

Cole pulled a couple of bottles of water and a packet of something out of the bag and turned back to her. His face was swollen around the bridge of his nose, and already a darkening bruise of purple spread across the area and beneath his eyes. Good. She was glad she’d hurt him. It made him understand she wasn’t some little wall flower who would do anything he wanted, or who wouldn’t go down without a fight.

Unscrewing the lid as he approached, he stopped beside her and held the bottle to her mouth. She pressed her lips together, even though she was desperate for a drink, and shook her head.

He exhaled a sigh. “What’s wrong?”

“Untie me. I can drink it myself.”

“After you just kneed me in the face, and tried to run? I don’t think so.” He bumped the lip of the bottle against her mouth. “Now, open up.”

She was too thirsty to fight any more. She opened her mouth and allowed him to tip water down her throat. She gulped and swallowed, and somehow he managed to pour the water at exactly the right speed, neither making her choke, nor spilling a drop.

When she’d had enough, she pulled her head back from the bottle.

He lifted the packet she’d seen him take from the bag and he gave it a shake. “Hungry?”

She held back the groan of desire. A bag of Hershey’s Kisses. Her absolute favorite. How did he know? Was it luck, or had he been watching her eat them during her trips to the store?

“You can’t win me over with chocolate, you know?”

One dark eyebrow lifted. “I thought flowers and chocolates were the way to a woman’s heart?”

She gave a closed lipped smile that felt more like a grimace. “They don’t normally involve abduction.”

“You’re right, but then we’re not normal people, are we? We live by rules regular people don’t have to.”

“It doesn’t look like you live by the rules to me.”

He shook his head. “No, I don’t. But you do.”

He was right. She’d never broken a single rule in her life. Even after her parents had died—shot by hunters when they’d been in wolf form—and she’d been left to be raised by her brothers and the rest of her pack, she hadn’t rebelled. Hell, she followed the rules so closely she’d end up being mated off to Gregory if he requested it, simply because it was the law of the pack. “What do you want with me? Why have you brought me here?”

“It’s for your own good.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I had to get you away from that pig of an alpha of yours.”

“Gregory?”

He leaned in and his cheek grazed her jaw, and she felt the brush of his breath against her throat as he inhaled deeply. “You’re my mate, Alyssa. The second I got the first scent of you on the air, I knew you were the one.”

“What? When, this morning?”

He laughed, the sound throaty. “No, I’ve seen you at the store several times now. I know how unusual it is for a pack member to mate outside of their own pack—it only happens when the gene pool grows too small—something I thought was a possibility due to the fact I’d picked you out as my mate, but your alpha wasn’t so keen on the idea when I approached him. In fact, he said he’d rather kill you himself than let me have you.”

“You could have just approached me and said hi. You know, asked me out on a date, or something wild like that.”

“You know that would never have worked. Would you actually have considered dating a wolf outside of your pack?”

No chance,
she thought but didn’t say. It wasn’t that she wouldn’t have liked to date outside of her pack, it was that the rules didn’t allow it. The only time it was allowed to happen was at the alpha’s orders, and that was only ever to keep the gene pool well populated. Everyone knew what happened when cousins married.

“So you abduct me instead?” she spat.

“This way you don’t get the chance to say no.”

“Yes, I do,” she said. “This is me saying no!”

His brilliant blue eyes narrowed and flashed yellow. He moved in even closer, so her every sense was filled with the dominating presence of him. “Ah, but sweet Alyssa. I never take no for an answer. Just give me three days, my little wolf. In three days I guarantee you will not only be saying yes, you’ll be screaming my name with it.”

Despite herself, something deep inside her shivered with longing. “I’ll die before that happens,” she said, trying to snipe, but finding the shiver inside her had permeated to her voice.

“Hush. No one is going to die.”

Cole twisted open the foil of the first chocolate and held it beneath her nose. The sweet, creamy scent filled her nostrils, making her mouth water. She snatched out at it with her teeth, but he whisked it away.

“Uh-uh. Not like that.”

He’d gotten that wicked look in his eyes again, and she held her breath wondering what he had planned.

Slowly, he raised the candy to his mouth. At first she thought he was going to eat it himself, just to tease her, but then he placed it between his teeth—straight, perfect, white teeth. Placing his hands either side of the seat of her chair, he leaned forward, bringing the chocolate to her mouth with his.

Alyssa twisted her face from him, pulling away the best she could, even though the smell of both him and the chocolate had woven itself into some crazy scent that was playing havoc with her senses. Had her body ever felt so alive? Her skin tingled with the proximity of his body heat, her heart racing, her breath shallow in her chest. Her mouth had flooded with saliva, and deep down, between her legs, a low heat had settled and was beginning to spread.

Lifting his hand from one side of the chair, he gripped her jaw and forced her face back to his. She stared at him, furious, but he just stared right back. He leaned in again, pressing the now softening chocolate to her lips. The chocolate smeared its sweetness against her mouth, causing her lips to part, and he pushed closer, forcing the candy against her tongue, and his lips against hers.

Alyssa wasn’t going to let him get away with it that easily. Snapping out with her teeth, she bit him on the full lower lip he’d been tantalizing her with, and she tasted blood mixing with the sweetness of the chocolate.

“Ah!” he exclaimed, pulling away from her slightly. He stared at her, his anger mixing with lust, and the next thing she knew, his lips were pressed hard against hers, the hand that had been clutching her jaw now looping around the back of her head, knotting into her hair and forcing her mouth to his. His other hand—the one that had been pressed onto the seat of the chair—moved to her thigh, gripping hard. His thumb dug into the flesh of her inner thigh, so close to the apex of her legs. She wanted to fight him, tell him to fuck off and leave her alone, but his tongue pushed forcefully into her mouth, lacing with the taste of blood and chocolate, and teasing the tip of her own tongue. No one had kissed her like this, ever, and she found her body responding to him, kissing him back so their tongues danced. Her hips and breasts pushed upward, as though searching for contact, demanding a release she’d never experienced. The heat between her thighs was now a raging fire, and a moan escaped her lips.

He broke away, leaving her panting, a look of victory in his blue eyes.

“I knew I was right. You want me.”

Still she fought against what her body desired. He’d woken a deep yearning inside her, and started something she desperately wanted him to finish. She was so conscious of how her legs were spread, and how his kiss had caused her to grow wet between her thighs, so her panties molded to every dip and fold of her. With mortification, she realized she could smell the musky fragrance of her arousal.

“No, you’re wrong,” she said, trying to ignore her traitorous body. “You forced me to kiss you.”

“Ah, but you
admit
you kissed me. I wasn’t wrong about you, Alyssa. You’re my mate, and I plan to take you as such.”

She shook her head in panic. “If you do that, I’ll never be able to go back to my pack. No other wolf will want me. I’ll be an outcast.”

“Again, I ask you, is that really the worst that can happen?”

“I have my family in the pack, my brothers. They’ll miss me, and I’ll miss them.”

“What about your parents?”

A wave of sadness swamped over her, and she clutched at it, hoping it would drown the desire Cole had awoken in her. “Both dead,” she said. “Killed by hunters when I was only small.”

He bit his lower lip. “I’m so sorry.”

“It was a long time ago, I barely remember them. My brothers, and my pack, have all raised me, which is why they’re so important to me.”

“But you’re an adult now, Alyssa. You know it, and your alpha knows it. If you don’t want to be mated to him, I’m the only chance you’ve got.”