The Bear King's Captive: Curvy Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (37 page)

Hands shaking, she grabbed the glass and yanked. She gritted her teeth. Pain lanced the wound. Blood coated her fingers. Fucking hell, that shit hurt.

She leaned into a tree before setting off in a run. Branches swooshed past her. Shots rang out behind her. Fear escalated. She struggled to run and breathe. She used a burst of speed and hid behind a large trunk. The man closed the distance.

Shift!

Of course. She shrugged out of her clothes. She knew this was her chance to keep herself alive. The shift took hold fast. Her wolf was ready to come out. She crouched on the ground. Waited. A tall, younger man in fatigues and an automatic military weapon appeared between trees.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are.” He grinned. The smile didn’t reach his eyes. “You’re pretty sexy when you’re not bleeding.”

He stopped and listened. Pointed his weapon and did a full circle. A radio went off. He continued to take steps in her direction. She moved through the trees, until she was directly to his right.

“What is it?” He yelled into the walkie.

“Do you have her, Roman?”

“If you gave me a minute, I could exterminate the bitch.”

A soft rumble worked up her throat. Instinct told her to attack. She ran for the man. Time to pounce.

“What the–”

The brown wolf caught him off guard. Clearly he’d been looking for Raine to be a woman. He dropped the weapon when she knocked him off his feet. Thump. He landed on his side, the big rifle a few yards away.

“Fuck!”

She growled. Dug her claws deep into his face and pulled. Skin tore. Blood gushed. He punched her off him. Turned to reach for the rifle. She bit into his arm, crunching hard. Bones broke.

“Ahhhhh!”

He yanked a knife out of his waist. She clawed at his chest and stomach. She wasn’t in charge. The beast was.

“Fuckin’ bitch.” He plunged the knife into her side. Red anger hazed her vision. She doubled her efforts. Biting the arm holding the steel.

He struggled against her canines. She bit him everywhere she could reach. But he used a mangled hand to stab her again.

“You’re dead, mutt.” Blood spurted from his mouth.

She zeroed in on his neck. Bit down and locked her jaw closed. The man struggled to breathe. She crunched. More bones broke. The beast inside wanted him dead. Now. His struggles diminished, until they stopped altogether.

“Raine?”

She jerked her head sideways and growled. Ryder. He was running toward her. Theo some feet behind. She dropped the limp attacker.

“Baby, are you okay?” He dropped to his knees a few feet in front of her.

“Wow. Think he pissed her off?” Theo huffed behind him.

“Go see if you can get anything out of his truck to help us figure out who he is and what he wanted with her.”

Raine panted. There was so much concern in his gaze that it made her move. She closed the distance and dropped at his feet. He lifted her into his arms. “I got you, sweetheart.”

TEN

“Someone wants to look at my parents’ house.” She’d just dressed to go do the books at the bar. They’d been living together for a week and things couldn’t have been better.

He was about to head out himself, to search for Quinn. They still had no news, and the longer it went without finding him, the less hope they had for finding him alive. “Do you need me to come with you?”

There he went again. Ever since the stabbing, he’d been crowding her with the need to secure her. It was nice, for the first few minutes. But after a few days of the same thing it was getting exhausting.

“Ryder, stop. I know that some mercenary trying to kill me put you in a position of paranoia with my safety.”

“It’s not paranoia. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He grumbled.

“Of course you won’t, but nothing else has happened.”

“The man was a killer for hire. Theo got his information from some friends in the FBI. He works with whoever will pay the most for a job. Someone wanted you dead.” His brows dipped low in a menacing scowl. “I won’t stand by and let anything else happen to you.”

“I know the guy was a killer, but you guys have looked everywhere for a connection. Nobody knows who he’s working for.” She curled her hands around his neck, hugging him tight. “I can handle it. Besides, it shouldn’t take long.”

“Raine—” He pulled back.

“I will call you the minute I’m done, so that you know all is okay. All right?”

He frowned. “I can come with you.”

“We’ve been on guard for days,” she reminded him. “No other attempts have been made. Focus on finding Quinn. He might need help.”

“If something happened to you—”

“Nothing will.” She met his stare. “I’m sure of it.”

He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. Her hormones went on full aroused alert. Throbbing grew in her pussy. All he had to do was kiss her and she was a desperate horny nympho.

She whimpered and stepped away. “I have my cell phone. I’ll call if anything delays me.”

He nodded, continuing to watch her with a worried frown.

“I’ll be fine.” She got on her toes and kissed his jaw before grabbing her car keys and making her way out the door.

After all the months she’d had the large house up for sale, someone was ready to buy the place. She was glad she’d told Mandy about wanting to sell it. The caller had said they knew her best friend and heard about the house from her.

Even though Ryder had been trying to shove money into her pockets, she couldn’t take it. It wasn’t like they were married or anything. And their relationship was much too new to add money talks into it. Well, not really new. They had something special. Committed. Hell, she loved the man. And neither her nor her beast was going to let anything get in the way of her relationship with him.

And with full mating season on them, Ryder didn’t want her too far from his sight. When the heat struck, they were going to be busy for days. She shivered. Excitement coursed through her veins. Sex. For days with Ryder sounded like pure bliss.

When she got to the house there was a couple and a man standing there. The woman’s shorts and tank top looked just a little out of place with the fall weather. A tall slim man stood to her left, holding her hand. The second man wearing sunglasses paced behind them.

“I’m sorry. Did you have to wait long?” She rushed forward and shook the couple’s hands.

“Nope. Not at all.” The woman smiled. “I’ve just been dying to get inside.”

Raine yanked out the house keys and dashed to let them in. From the man’s foot tapping on the ground, she was sure they were in a rush.

She jerked the lock and hurried inside ahead of them to flick on the lights. “As you can see—”

Her words were cut off when the three people jumped her. She tried to fight them off, but was caught off guard. The two men held her down while the woman struggled to put a folded cloth over her face.

“Hold her harder!”

The scent of chloroform dug into her lungs, overpowering her ability to stay lucid. She struggled, but with every breath she took, her muscles felt weighed down. Useless. Fighting the drug’s effect was more than she could handle. Darkness took hold.

She woke up in a rush. The cold cement at her back told her she was naked. Upon sitting up, her suspicions were confirmed. Not only was she naked, she had some kind of collar on. She raised a hand to her throat and tugged. The thick metal didn’t give. Her gaze slid around the white room. There was a glass wall on one side, and at the other end of the room was a man on the floor, a man who was very, very naked.

Her normal instinct would be to check on him. Make sure the man was okay, but something told her to get the hell away from him instead.

Her gaze never wavered from the prone body. Anger built inside her. Her wolf didn’t like feeling closed in. She stood, the chain dangling from the collar rattled. She grabbed the thick chain. An electric bolt shocked her. Fuck! She dropped the thing.

“No touching the chain.” A female voice filled the room through speakers mounted on the walls.

White-hot energy slid through her limbs, heating her blood until her entire focus was on the building fury. She glanced down, brown fur sprouted from her arms, legs, and all down her body.

A growl made her jerk her face up, the man stood, his limbs twitched in a half-shift.

Her vision went a hazy red. Bones twisted, but something yanked her back from a full shift. Whatever was on her neck stopped her. She clawed at the collar. Dropped on all fours. Blades of electric currents pierced her neck. Panting through the rage and pain, she swiped her claw on the metal around her neck.

“Stop it. You’re only going to hurt yourself.” The voice was familiar. “What a smart girl you turned out to be, Raine. A perfect case study.”

Tamping down the wolf was turning into a difficult task when she realized who the voice belonged to. Her wolf wouldn’t be deterred from tearing the weasel to shreds.

It was Joe Franks. Mandy’s weirdo scientist boyfriend.

“Calm down, Raine. I needed a test subject, and you were so perfect. No family to worry about if something went wrong.”

She could hear the enthusiasm in his voice. Oh but she was going to gut him as soon as she was able to get out of the collar holding her back. A wave of heat slid from her nipples down to her pussy, making her moan.

“Now, you are here for a second part to the experiment we never finished when you were a bad girl and escaped.”

The other man sniffed and snarled, tugging at his own collar and focused solely on her.

“I see you’ve met your new mate.”

What?
No no no
. Ryder was her mate.

“He seems pretty eager to get his hands on you.” The bastard laughed. As if her present situation was some kind of joke. “But I can’t have you going at it without formally introducing you,” he sing-songed, clearly enjoying the show. “Raine, this is my PE #2, and the one who helped me create you. Quinn Falkyn.”

Quinn!

She saw the man leap for her, but the thick metal held him back.

“He can smell your heat. It’s much more potent than any regular werewolf. And I didn’t want him all emotional and not wanting to do his job, so I put a special mix in his blood. He is so far gone he wouldn’t recognize his own mother if she stood in front of him. It should create one very interesting test subject when you conceive.”

She snarled, claws extended, ready to attack if Quinn came any closer.

“I am disappointed that you didn’t conceive with Storm.” He sighed. “I guess you needed more time in the sack. But don’t worry. I’ve added some special hormones to make you ovulate.”

The heat in the other wolf’s eyes made her stomach churn. She didn’t want it to come down to a fight between her and Ryder’s cousin.

“Raine!”

She jerked her gaze around the room until she spotted a small camera next to one of the speakers.

“I have your attention again. Good. Like I was saying, I wanted my first subject to be special. You.”

“What did you do?” Her growl bounced off the walls and mixed with Quinn’s snarls.

“I enhanced the infection. What could have been a gene that turned you into just another wolf was mutated to make you more. Better.” He sounded so fucking proud. “You were the very first of my created shifter project.  He is my first created alpha. I altered his regular shifter genes, until he was alpha material. Then I used it on you. I mixed his new DNA with some of my special compounds and got you.”

“You sick freak!”

“I am a scientist. Not a freak.” He sounded offended. “Of course, there were some things I didn’t account for when I created you, but I made sure to take note for the other test subjects. You’re much more than just a werewolf, or an Alpha, even. You’re stronger than most, more aggressive, faster and deadlier.” And as soon as she figured out how to get the collar off, she’d also be the last face he saw before he died. “Because I used some very special drugs to mutate the wolf gene, Quinn can scent your heat. It’s stronger than that of a regular female werewolf. He can also smell the link you share with him. His blood runs through you.”

This was so wrong. She was Ryder’s mate. Her animal fought the restraints and Joe’s words. She didn’t want Quinn, and he’d die if he tried to touch her.

Quinn hurled himself her way, but the chain jerked him in place. She snarled. Hoped he’d get the hint to stay back. But it was clear whatever he’d been given dominated him. The wildness in his eyes told her the man was no longer in control.

“He’ll be breaking out of the chains in no time. I suggest you stop antagonizing him and focus on the need to breed.” Joe’s voice turned steely. “I can’t wait to see what your offspring will be like.”

Disgust rolled through her. She’d die before she let anyone other than Ryder touch her. “Fuck you, Joe. I’m going to get out of here, and when I do…” She growled and tugged at her chain again, glaring at the camera. “You’re dead, Joe. Dead.”

Joe cleared his throat. “Yes, well. As fun as that sounds, I don’t think I am.” His voice was unsteady. To know she put that insecurity in him gave her a measure of comfort.

Quinn jerked at the chain. The wall cracked, loosening the steel holding it in place. Her time was about to be up.

Ryder and Theo were going through the southern side of the Tenam Forest. None of his pack ever ventured this far, but he needed to find Quinn. As he neared the river side, he pulled out his cell phone. They still had signal, but no calls from Raine. She’d been out of contact for hours and it didn’t sit right with him. He dialed her number. It went straight to voice mail.

“Let’s go on a few more miles and then I want to go back.”

Theo frowned. “Everything all right?”

“Raine said she’d call me, but it’s been hours, and I haven’t heard from her. I’m not sure what’s going on. I want to go back and check on her. If she’s in some kind of trouble—”

“I understand. We’ll go soon.”

Theo sniffed. Then snarled. Ryder jerked his head in the direction Theo was staring at. There was a building down the hill. He’d never noticed that place there before. The wind whirled around them. Fear and anger wafted from the building in their direction.

Ryder inhaled deep. Raine’s scent and that of his cousin surrounded him. He roared. Her fear and anger punched him in the gut. She needed him. Without a second’s hesitation, he took off. Theo ran beside him, ready to fight whoever had the two.

The sun set in the horizon, surrounding the building in darkness. The stark gray structure had two armed guards at the gate. Four others climbed on a Jeep and left the holding. These were not your typical guards either. Mercenaries. Ryder’s hackles rose. Inspecting the building at a distance, they found an unmanned wall on the left side. Both men jumped into a narrow walkway. He followed the scent of his mate. The closer he moved toward it, the more powerful the fear and anger he could smell coming from her. A rumble sounded in his chest.

“Calm down, we’ll find them,” Theo whispered.

“You don’t understand. That merc tried to kill her. Would have killed her if she hadn’t been faster than him. I won’t lose her.” He ground out.

Their attention was drawn by the steps of a man walking in their direction. They plastered their backs to the wall, out of view. The guard turned the corner. Ryder pounced, put the man in a choke hold before twisting his head backward and breaking his neck. The guard’s body slumped into him. They dragged him deeper into the walkway before looking out. Ryder removed plastic ties from the guy’s pocket and shoved them in his own. Only one of the armed guards remained. He stared out into the forest, scanning for anyone heading toward the building.

Theo silently walked up to the remaining soldier. Quick as lightning, he snapped the man’s neck. Ryder rushed toward the scent of his mate. She was distressed and angry. Inside the building, they found multiple doors leading to rooms with beds and gurneys with chains.

Each room they passed, made it clear in his mind this was the place Raine had escaped from. A woman, dressed in medical gear, stepped out of one of the cells and into Theo. He shifted her in a heartbeat to face the same door she’d walked out of. He shoved her hard against the door. Held her hands behind her back with one of his and covered her mouth with his other hand. Wide-eyed, the woman stood stock-still.