Rescued & Ravished: An Alpha's Conquest (A Paranormal Ménage Romance) (9 page)

“Hell, Harper. I already broke the law,” he interrupted. His gaze was hot, conflicted. “It’s not good for you to be locked up all the time. You gotta stretch your legs. Breathe the air. I can take you out, if you promise to stick close.”

“I promise,” she said surprised.
I mean, I guess I promise.

“Alright.” He took her hand this time, not her wrist or her arm; she liked the intimacy of it. “Come on. We’ll go right now, then come right back. I know a place where no one’ll see you.”

They cut through the forest, sidetracking off the footpaths to force their way through the trees. She knew she should be worried, being led into the wilderness by this stranger of a man, but she wasn’t. She trusted him. He wasn’t going to hurt her.

“It’s up ahead, not far now. There’s a nice clearing just a bit on.”

“Okay,” she answered, half bemused, half winded. It was cool under the shade of the pines, but she was still sweating heavily as they trekked uphill.

“It’s right here!”

They broke out into the sunshine. There was a beautiful meadow in front of them, full of fireweed, wildgrass, and flashing insects. A mellow breeze flowed over the stalks.

“Nice, huh?” he asked. “God, but it smells like fireweed, though.”

The germ of an idea came to her. “Does it?”

“Yeah powerfully strong.” He looked at her. “Come on, now. There’s a good place for sitting and taking the weather.” His strong hand closed on hers, and he guided her through the lush grasses.

He was right about there being a nice place to sit: a broken stone, half sunken into the ground, formed a natural bench. He let her sit first before he sat next to her. Fox sparrows were singing in the trees.

“This is nice,” she admitted, enjoying the slight spring wind and the birdsong. “Much nicer than a toolshed.”

“Yeah. Sorry ‘bout the shed. Not my call.”

“It was your call to take me out and bring me here,” she tried slowly. “So why can’t you just let me—”

“Don’t finish that sentence. You’re staying in clan hands as long as the Alpha says, even if I’m lenient with you. Got it?”

“Yes,” she said, knowing he meant it.

For a while they were quiet, letting the forest fill the silence. She thought she heard a mountain bluebird somewhere in the rustling trees.

“It’s beautiful up here. In the range, I mean,” she said finally, gazing at the pines’ green, brushy tops swaying slowly against the sky. “I can see why you people love living here.”

“We do love it. It’s a good life.” He glanced sideways at her. “What’s a Chicago life like?”

She laughed. “Does that actually interest you?”

“Everything about you interests me.” He said it so honestly that she had to blush.

“Chicago is—is a big city,” she stammered, turning pink. “Lots of culture. Lots of commerce. Lots of good food. I don’t know what you want me to say. It’s totally different from here. Crowded and busy and fun and—well, a little bit grey. Dirty. But that’s a city for you.”

“Do you like it?”

She shrugged. “Sure. I mean, I prefer the great outdoors, but it’s hard to make a living outside of a city, so...”

“I don’t think a city life would be for me.”

“Yeah, I don’t think there are many bears on our census.”

He chuckled, a deep, low sound. “What’s your family like, Harper?”

“What’s yours like?” she asked, tossing it back to him. Maybe he was trying a good cop interrogation on her, relative to Galangal’s screaming invective. She wouldn’t let it work. She wouldn’t tell him anything too personal.

“None to speak of, besides the clan itself. Jason has been near a father to me, but I got no close blood kin left. Roundworm infections took ‘em years ago, during a hard winter when we all ate cold meat. Healer said their hearts swelled up.” He was staring at her intently. “Your turn.”

“I don’t… want to talk about it,” she said, looking away. The sunshine was hot on her shoulders. She focused on a bee crawling over a fireweed bloom.

“Alright. Sorry, honey.” He backed off, and she appreciated it. “Tell me about your work then. Or what you do for fun. I don’t know—tell me about anything.”

She looked back at him. His expression was sincere.

“You really
do
want to know about me?”
Not just for tactical bullshit reasons?

“I do. I can tell you about me, if you want a trade.” The gold ring in his eyes was catching the sunshine in a brassy, hypnotizing way. “ Or if you really don’t want to talk, that’s alright. We can just sit here and smell the fireweed and watch the clouds change. That’d be fine, too.”

She hesitated. She probably shouldn’t tell him anything—he was her jailer—but that deep, inexplicable instinct to trust him won out. She wanted to talk to him. She wanted to be close to him.
Why? I don’t understand. I just want him near me.

“I work in finance. It’s not that exciting.” She paused. “For fun, I like to cook. And I like to run. And, ironically, considering where it got me, I like to be outside. Last year I was really into gauche painting, until I had to admit to myself that I had no talent for it. And I like to watch TV while eating takeout, but that’s not really a hobby.” She trailed off. “What about you people? What do shifters do for fun out here?”

He grinned. “For fun? Hell… we spend time together. Hunt. Play music. Whittle… brew liquor… embroider. Couple.” She raised an eyebrow, but he went on. “Riding horses. There’s a lot of great trails for—”

“You’ve got horses?”

“Sure. How else would we get to town? We need to sometimes.”

“I like horses.”

“I don’t have one,” he laughed. “Not since I lost mine a few years back. But we all borrow from each other, so no one’s ever short a ride.”

Harper shifted, watching him. The way the sunshine turned his eyes to a mix of honeyed colors was hypnotizing. “What are other clans like? Are they like this?”

“A lot are. Some aren’t.”

“That’s a little bit vague.”

“I know. And my answer’s gonna stay vague. Why would you wanna know more about people you’re fixin’ to run from?”

“Curiosity,” she said honestly, quietly.

“A lot of clans live in the mountains, or just the wilderness somewhere,” he said slowly. “Their lifestyle is really similar. They’ve got goats an’ gardens, they’ve got horses, they’ve got hunting bows and maybe a snowmobile or two. We keep things basic. We have to.”

“That’s kinda nice,” she admitted. “Living a simple life, I mean.”

He gazed at her. Slowly, his eyes moved from her eyes down over her nose to her mouth—then, reluctantly, up again. “It is nice.”

“Do you ever see other clans? Visit them?” She waved a bug away.

“Sometimes. We have this annual festival called the Gathering. That’s when—”

He stood abruptly. Startled, she gripped his wrist.

“What?” she whispered.

“Bear,” he said lowly. “Wild bear. With babies.”

She followed his look: there, at the fringe of the meadow, was a rangy-looking grizzly sow and her two fuzz-furred cubs. The babies were running clumsily around their mother, excited by the open space of the field.

“Stay here, honey. She’s a danger to you. I’m gonna talk to her.”

“
What
?”

“Well, not really
talk
, talk. I just mean I’m gonna… you know what, forget it. Wait here, okay?”

He moved off from her, hands up. When he’d gone twenty, twenty-five feet, she edged up off the rock. When he was fortyish feet away, communicating with the bear mother, she stood up completely and made a break for the trees.

Let her distract him! Let her keep him busy!

She rushed through the pine and spruce trees, sunlight flashing through their brushy arms. She ran as fast as she possibly could, her chest tight, her breath coming in raw gasps. She ran and ran and ran, losing tracks of direction, losing track of time. She just ran. Until—

A grizzly cut her off, a huge one, easily as large as Hud’s bear form was. She screamed and went down hard on her side, the ground sliding out from under her.

Then it was Chance again, pulling her up to her feet.

“Didn’t I tell you not to run?” he asked, exasperated.

She stared at him, trying to catch her breath.

“Didn’t I tell you?” he repeated, but he sounded frustrated more than angry. She couldn’t help noticing, almost subconsciously, what a beautifully-made man he was: naked, it was easy to see just how strongly muscled he was… and how well endowed.

“You did tell me,” she finally managed to say, her heart starting to slow down.

“So? Why did you do it anyway?”

She shrugged. “That bear distracted you. I saw an opportunity so I took it. I thought maybe the fireweed would hide my scent and you wouldn’t know which way I went.”

He sighed, but there was something in his eyes that seemed like respect.

“Well, you’re a clever thing, I’ll give you that. Come on. I left my clothes back at the meadow.” He started towing her that way. “Let’s get back, get presentable, and get back to Gentian’s.”

“You’re not going to… punish me?” she asked slowly, being pulled through the afternoon-gold woods.

“Punish you?” He gave her a look like she was insane. “You’ve got a lot to learn about me.”

No, I don’t,
said some inner voice.
I know you. I know you wouldn’t hurt me. It’s why I dared to run.

“I’m sorry,” she heard herself say.

“Don’t be sorry. I understand completely, girl. You’re scared.” He folded her a little closer to him; she liked the heat of him, the size of him, she had to admit. “But you don’t have to be scared of me. Just… work with me. Trust me a little.”

“I’ll try,” she said lowly, pressing herself even closer to him. Unconsciously, she put a hand on his muscle-cobbled middle. “I will.”

The gold ring in his eyes thickened and brightened.

“Good. Come on, now.”

“Wait. What did you say to that bear mother?” she asked, curious.

He almost smiled. “That you were with me, that’s all. Now come on.”

He closed the door, locking it hard—then turned around and put his hands on her shoulders.

“Stand back. Don’t get near the door, honey—I can’t allow it.”

His touch woke a sweet heat between her legs and a strange ache in her chest. But why? She didn’t really know him from Adam, did she?

Looking at him, though, it was like she had memories of him, vague ones, just below the surface of her consciousness, memories that whispered he was someone important to her. He was no stranger to her at all, and never had been.

He ran his hands down her arms, his eyes burning with supernatural gold. Before she knew what was happening, those same hands moved to her middle, and they closed on her waist, tight.

“Chance—” What was he doing? And why didn’t she want him to stop? A strange man touching her, keeping her locked in a fucking shed… She should be terrified. So why wasn’t she? Why did she feel like she could trust him?

Without warning, he kissed her temple, then her hairline; one of his hands ran up her front, over her breast as her nipple hardened. It ran along her neck to tangle in her hair. She gripped his wrist, thinking she should try and pull his arm down, try and make him stop, but then she realized that she honestly didn’t want him to stop. He bit the rim of her ear and she gasped.

“Harper,” he growled, a feral sound, “you are beautiful. Damn beautiful.”

Beautiful? Was she? She didn’t feel beautiful. She was newly dumped, heavy, captive, and dressed in an old nightdress. What was he seeing?

“Fuck, I love your body.” He squeezed her round hips. “So
feminine
.”

“Chance.”
Don’t stop touching me.

He bit at her jawline and instinctively she pressed her pelvis against his. He was hard already, hard as a lead pipe. Her panties felt slippery and hot.

“Tell me to stop,” he whispered, his voice like gravel. “Tell me, or I won’t!”

She rolled her hips against his, making him groan. Her body was desperate for his in a way that she’d never experienced before. She’d wanted men before, of course, but this… this was different. Animal. Exhilarating.

“I don’t know if I want you to stop,” she breathed, able to smell her own moist, honeyed arousal. When was the last time she’d
needed
a man like this? Sex with Logan had been perfunctory for months—for years, even. This man, in spite of what he was, in spite of her situation, in spite of where they were, had her wet as sin and dying to spread her legs. The chemistry between them was too deep and raw to ignore.

“Harper.” He sucked her neck, and she mewled. When he spoke again, it was just a burr against her flushed, slick skin. “Let me take you. I need you.”

“You need me?” she repeated thickly. “Tell me that again.”

He slid a hand up under her nightdress and then under the band of her underwear. She swallowed a cry of pleasure. The feeling of his broad, rough palm cupping her swollen pussy was almost good enough to make her come. His skin was so calloused, but her folds were so tender. It was unbearably exciting.

“I need you, Harper.” He was nipping the softest part of her throat. “You’re built like a goddess. All those curves.”

“Curves?’ she repeated mindlessly, stupid with pleasure. One of his fingers was stroking along her wet, silky slit experimentally. Abruptly, deliciously, he slid it in. She whined, electricity running up her spine.

“Gorgeous curves.” He was hoarse. “Let me mount you, baby! Say I can take you, before I lose control. You’re wet! Say it, girl!”

“Oh, Chance,
take
—”

Suddenly there was a knock at the shed door, loud and staccato. They froze; she could see his eyes clear up.

“Who’s that?” he asked in as normal-sounding a voice as possible. His hand slid out of her underwear, the fingers wet. Her pussy clenched desperately, hungrily on nothing.
No! Don’t make us stop!

“It’s me.” Gentian’s gentle voice. “I made dinner. Dove came by—she says that Jason wants you to go home and sleep, Chance. Hudson will watch Harper for the night.”

Chance’s jaw tightened. “I can stay awake.” Gold sparked in his eyes, and Harper’s clit pulsed. Why did she want this—animal-man—so much?