With Her Capture (4 page)

“God,” she stammered, her teeth chattering
enough to make speech impossible.

First she found a t-shirt, then a sweatshirt,
and struggled to pull each over her head and burrow her arms into
the sleeves. It barely provided enough comfort to block out the
freezing temperatures sinking into her until they hit bone
marrow.

Her eyes completed the transformation and
darkness enveloped her. In her flesh, her vision was nothing
compared to how it was in her fur. She groped at the other contents
the male had brought her and grabbed more clothing. Magda found
long underwear and socks by feel. There were sweatpants and she
shoved her legs into them, but not before falling backward. Her
already cold rear slapped against the hard stone floor of the
cave.

“Fucking tail!” she cried out, this time
managing two coherent words in between the painful chatter of her
teeth.

A light shone in her face. Magda ducked her
head instinctively. It created spots before her eyes and made it
harder to pull the sweatpants up her thighs.

“What the hell?” she snapped. “Let me guess.
You decided to convince me to change so I’ll freeze to death.”

“Not at all, little bitch,” the male mumbled
and lowered the flashlight that conveniently he’d forgotten to
mention that he had. “Damn.”

Magda rolled to her side and pulled the
oversized sweatpants over her freezing rear end and up under the
baggy sweatshirt. The pants were long enough to pull over her feet,
which she did before moving to a cross-legged position on the
incredibly cold cave floor. In moments her underside went numb.

She glared at the male she had deemed
necessary to hate. Having shown a flashlight in her face the moment
she’d changed made it easier to do.

“What?” she demanded.

He lowered the light so it created an oblong
circle on the cave floor. She had no idea how he’d managed to see
her in the cave when he’d first arrived. With the cave entrance
blocked, and it being night, it was pitch black and her limited
eyesight made it impossible to see anything past the circle of
light.

“You’re beautiful.”

Magda blinked. She moved her thick, long and
tangled, dark hair away from her face. Intentionally she did her
best to focus on him in the barely lit cave and allowed her gaze to
travel slowly up his magnificent body. If she lied, he’d smell it
instantly. Making a snarky comment in turn might not be her best
move.

She decided on a practical answer. “Thank you
for the clothes.”

“Shit. You’re shaking like a leaf. We need a
fire. Hold this. I’ll drag in some firewood.” He walked to her and
extended his hand, offering the flashlight and causing its light to
bounce off the cave walls.

Magda took it and wondered at his actions, as
if they were best running buddies preparing for an overnight and
adventure. She was damn near done with adventures. And there were
no best buddies in her life.

“There are some candy bars in the bag. I’m
Ayden, by the way. What’s your name?”

Already he was pulling on the closest trunk
she’d used her gift to lay long ways against the cave entrance.
Wood cracked and snapped as he put muscle into it and began
breaking it down.

Magda moved the light to focus it on the bag.
Later she’d wonder why this male brought chocolate. At the moment
it was the greatest treat she could have imagined. She ripped at
the paper, peeling it away and sunk her teeth into the candy bar.
Nothing had ever tasted so good. She’d already thanked the
male—Ayden—once and wasn’t going to shower him with gratitude, not
when his true motives weren’t clear from his scent.

He smelled amiable, but more than that. She
picked up on the scent of his shampoo, the soap he’d used and the
smell of his laundry soap. It was more than the external aroma
about him. There was that friendly, content scent but there was
also curiosity, and determination. Determination to do what?

If she dwelt on it he would detect her fear.
Already he knew she was hiding. He knew why. He knew what she was.
It wasn’t clear yet why he was playing friendly instead of killing
her.

If he fought with some internal moral code
that killing a female was wrong, she might need to play that to her
advantage. For the time being, she would return the amiability.
There was no harm in allowing him to see what he was doing while he
broke down the trunk into sizes small enough to make a fire. She
flashed the light in his direction and took another bite of the
delectable chocolate.

Watching him almost made her forget how cold
she was. Muscles rippled in his back as he put more strength into
making firewood than a normal human was capable of doing. His arms
were long, and well proportioned with the rest of him. Through the
sweater he wore, she noticed biceps bulge when he turned and began
piling the wood on the cave floor.

It was a toss up on whether those powerful
looking, long legs, or his perfectly shaped tight ass were her
favorite parts of his body. Although when she glanced up, his
focused expression on a perfectly chiseled face, damn near did her
in.

His skin was very white, but there was
healthy color in his cheeks. He had broad, high cheekbones and a
firm, square jaw bone. His eyes were a beautiful blue and blond
hair cut short around his face showed his maturity. This was a
healthy, well built in his prime male. Large and powerfully strong.
Muscular and sexy.

Damn. She was in trouble.

Hurrying to make herself busy, Magda shifted
the light off him and into the bag in search of another candy bar.
If she started drooling over this ideal specimen of the human male
body, her scent would ripen with her lust. It would be incredibly
foolish to forget she was now alone in a room-sized cave with him.
There was no way she’d be able to out power, or out run him. He
wasn’t mated. She didn’t smell another female on him. In spite of
how well he was treating her at the moment that didn’t mean he
wouldn’t try fucking her the moment the fire was going.

Maybe that was his plan. Fuck her then kill
her. He didn’t smell like a sick, demented werewolf.

Her hand slipped over something smooth in the
bag. Fried chicken in a ziplock bag! Her mouth started watering.
Such a wonderful find couldn’t have happened at a better moment.
One more second of imagining what he might do after the fire was
going and he’d smell how wet her thoughts were making her.

When was the last time she’d had sex?

The moment the fire he was building warmed
the cave and filled it with light, Magda would crawl over to him.
If she seduced him first, it would throw off balance any schemes he
might have in mind. Possibly once he was naked and sated, she’d
escape him.

“What’s your name?” he asked again.

Magda leapt out of her thoughts. Her hand was
pressed flat against the freezer bag still inside the duffle. She
shot her attention to him, praying her scent would remain skeptical
and wary. What the hell had she been thinking?

Ayden squatted on the other side of the wood
pile and ripped bark free from one of the logs. Then reaching into
his back pocket, he pulled out a lighter.

“Look,” he said, his voice lowering into a
sexy rumble. “I’ve spent the last day searching for you. I saw how
hard you ran from those leopards. Obviously you aren’t from around
here and there isn’t anywhere nearby that you could be from. I know
of all packs of all species on these mountains. There isn’t much
between here and Prince George. You’ve been on the run for a
while.”

“Why do you care?” She wasn’t sure why she
asked.

He had beautiful blue eyes. There were faded
streaks of red mixed in with his blond hair. There was stubble on
his jaw and she imagined if he had a beard it would be thick with
red highlights. Once again it was the expression on his face that
caused a pressure to constrict around her heart.

“Little bitch,” he whispered. “No one should
be hunted down like a dog the way it appears you’ve been.”

Magda had begun pulling the chicken out of
his duffle bag. She dropped it and stared at him.

“Out of pity? You feel sorry for me, without
even knowing me, based on my breed?” Anger spiked through her. The
firewood he’d just stacked between them began shaking as if each
log had suddenly come to life.

Which in a way, they had. Her anger took
life, dispelled from her in waves. Sometimes she swore she saw it.
The spicy smell of her instant outrage filled the cave.

Ayden glanced down at the wood. He didn’t
move, continued squatting, and slowly raised his gaze back to her
face. When he looked at her, she froze. Her anger reached out only
so far, grabbing a hold of the wood between them. It went no
further. She didn’t dare touch him with it. Touching him in any way
seemed more dangerous than her anger was capable of being.

“I wouldn’t call the emotion I’m feeling
toward you pity, little bitch,” he growled, his eyes growing as he
ran his thumb down the small wheel in his lighter. A small flame
grew to reach the wood in his other hand.

When he dropped the burning bark on the
bouncing logs, they stilled. He’d sobered her anger with something
even stronger, desire. At least it smelled like desire. His
happiness wasn’t just over her. This male lived a life so content
that happiness was strongly embedded with any other emotion he
emitted.

“What emotion are you feeling?” she asked,
her voice husky.

It wasn’t a question she should have asked.
With her next breath she smelled her answer without him having to
voice it. His gaze on her didn’t waver. The flames grew,
intensifying the blue glow in his alert eyes. And the smell of his
lust grew strong enough for her to bathe in it.

Chapter Three

Ayden watched the female across the growing
fire between them. The temperature in the cave rose several
degrees, although he wasn’t sure it was from the fire. The mystery
of her that she held on to like a damn life line made her as
appealing as her incredibly erotic body. He’d never sniffed out a
more beautiful female. Not that he hadn’t already guessed she’d be
as beautiful in her flesh as she was in her fur.

There was something exquisitely captivating
about her. It didn’t exist in any other female he’d ever known.
Ayden admitted the challenge of hunting her, and now learning about
her, held its appeal. Most females bellied up the moment they got a
whiff of his scent. There was howling over him being the next pack
leader. Although it wasn’t a job he wanted, or had ever suggested
having, it didn’t stop available, misguided females from strutting
around him with their tails in the air. Something told him this
female had never bellied up for anyone. What he wouldn’t do to be
the first to be honored with her submission.

“There are several emotions I’m feeling right
now,” he told her honestly. “But first, it seems I’m going to have
to give you a name, my
beaute noire
.”

“You aren’t hiding some of them very
well.”

Ayden didn’t care if she picked up on his
lust for her. What male wouldn’t crave such an intoxicating
female?

What mattered was that her anger was gone.
She now smelled curios. If she were afraid, feared him in any way,
he would pick up on it. She didn’t. Possibly a life on the run, as
he imagined it had been for her, had trained her never to show
fear. It would be a survivor technique, and one he admired.

He also smelled her lust. Not that he minded.
He had a feeling she warred with the emotion inside. Ayden wouldn’t
do anything she didn’t want. If that meant keeping his thoughts off
how he’d love to earn her submission, he’d manage that. He wanted
her trust before having her body. But once she sniffed out the
truth, that he truly was here to help and not hurt her, damn was he
going to enjoy every inch of her beautiful, dark skinned body.

He smiled. The flames dancing higher between
them brought out auburn highlights in her otherwise black, straight
hair. He’d never seen a female with her coloring before. Cariboo
lunewulf
, as well as
lunewulf
, were all blond. But
this
beaute noire
, with her tan skin and even darker hair
that tumbled down her shoulders and arms, was a rare sight. She
should be honored and adored, not hunted. Ayden wondered if her
guarded wariness kept her eyes from glowing. Would they shine like
onyx if she no longer feared life and all who were in it?

“Are you going to share that kill I brought
for you?” he asked, deciding to start working on that trust.

Any howling of how she pulled certain
emotions out from deep inside him would only make her mad again.
And his black beauty had a temper different from most. Her
differences didn’t seem cause to be hunted and killed.

She looked down and something played at her
lips. Was that a smile? He liked her mouth. Her lips were full and
the color of a rich, dark red exquisite wine. When she moistened
them his dick instantly hardened.

She held up the freezer bag full of the
chicken and something flashed in her eyes. If it was amusement, he
didn’t quite capture the smell of it.

“This kill? Did you kill a chicken just for
me?”

He almost laughed. “Just an expression,” he
admitted. “It’s hardly an honorable kill to reach into a pen and
pull out a docile bird and break its neck. Trust me, when I lay my
kill at your feet, you’ll know it.”

She stared at him a moment, not lowering the
bag of chicken. When a male brought his kill to a female it meant
more than his desire to appease her hunger. It was laying claim,
honoring her from his heart. Ayden wasn’t sure why he’d just said
that.

“Magda,” she said.

“Magda?” Was that her name?

She dropped the bag of chicken between her
legs and lowered her head, focusing as she unzipped the
opening.