Page 49 of Forced Mate Bride
“You almost got away, you know that?” he said. He had long scratches scored along his cheek. “Who would have thought you’d have that sort of fight in you?”
She narrowed her eyes and struggled against her captor, trying to break free. But even if she did get free, what would she do? There were three other shifters who would grab her the second she tried to make a break for it. She might have had a chance against one. She didn’t have a chance against four.
Vincent ran his fingers against the scratches, pulling them away and examining the faint traces of blood on his fingertips with interest. He made a sound that might have been impressed or amused. He glanced back at her.
“You gave us more of a headache than we would have thought, I’ll give you that much. But it’s over. Now, if you stop fighting and come with us quietly, we can all leave now and be on our way,” Vincent said. “But if you want to keep fighting, then we can stay here for a while, wait for your husband to come home. It’s four-on-one. Do you think that you’ll be able to warn Jasper before we slit his throat?
She understood what he was saying: come quietly, and they would leave Jasper alone. If she kept fighting, they would kill him in front of her.
Trying to fight now was pointless. She knew that. But that didn’t mean she was entirely helpless. She had other avenues, alternatives she could pursue. Except it would have to wait. She needed to bide her time now, even if she wanted to keep fighting.
Glaring, the fight not leaving her but changing from impulsive to something more rational, she stopped struggling. Her arms fell to her sides, going limp, the struggle slipping out of her. She glowered at Jasper, her mouth still covered.
“Are you going to scream if Alek lets go of your mouth?” he asked.
Promising herself it wasn’t the end, that she would find a way out of this mess, she shook her head.
Vincent nodded. “Atta girl,” he said. “Figured you would see sense.”
He nodded to the person holding onto her, and Alek uncovered her mouth. When she stayed silent, they spun her around, put her hands behind her back, and began binding her hands tightly together. Once they were sure she wasn’t going to make a break for it, they thrust her out of the back door.
***
They shoved her into an idling car, wedging her between Vincent and Rick in the back. The other two shifters took up so much room that she couldn’t move. She didn’t say anything as they peeled down the road.
The drive seemed to be taking them up into the wooded mountains far from the outskirts of town. Silently, she kept trackof the twists and turns, following their path out of town and committing it to memory. The shifters must not have thought she would bother, because none of them noticed just how intently she was staring at the road.
Eventually, they twisted onto a small dirt road, barely visible from the road unless you knew it was there. Her hope began to dim the deeper they got in the woods. The road would be tricky to follow, but doable. The problem was how far into the woods it was. She would be on foot, and if they found out she escaped, it would be easy enough for them to chase her down in wolf form. Despair began to sink in, but she shoved it down. She could get out of this, but she couldn’t give in to that hopelessness. The second she did, it was over.
They pulled up in front of an old log cabin, one that looked as though a strong breeze could blow it over. A sagging roof hung over ancient rough wood. A light peered out of a filmy, cracked window. A generator whirred and groaned off to one side of the house.
The men hauled her out of the car. She stumbled and would have fallen had one of her captors not grasped her shoulder. The wrenched her upright again and dragged her toward the cabin.
A stench of musk and damp filled the air the second she stepped inside. She wrinkled her nose despite herself. The interior was shabby, almost pathetic, in Nikki’s mind. Cobwebs clung to molding corners, and cracks stretched along the ceiling like skeletal fingers. Hardwood floors were littered with debris and detritus. Dead leaves and dirt that had been pushed into the cabin were spread everywhere.
It wasn’t exactly the type of hideout she would expect. Lucas must have been scrounging even more than she thought.With this place, it was impressive that he had managed to convince anyone to follow him. It was bedraggled and rundown and looked like it was on its last legs.
But the figure lounging on the sofa shoved all those thoughts out of her mind.
Lucas was watching her with a covetous gleam that made her skin crawl. He saw her watching him, and that greedy smirk turned into a triumphant smile filled with malicious glee. A long scar that hadn’t been there the last time she had seen him dragged across his cheek and nose, a lingering reminder of his fight with Jasper.
“There you are,” he said, and pushed himself to his feet. He stalked forward, eyes lingering on her as if he’d just won a prize.
She instinctively stepped back. A strong hand grasped her shoulder and pinned her in place.
Lucas stopped right in front of her. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
His hand stretched out and caressed her neck, fingers trailing down along her collarbone. Shivers of repulsion shot through her. His thumb traced her jaw, eyes roaming up and down her body.
“Take your hand off me before I break it,” she said, her voice surprisingly even despite her rage.
He barked out a delighted laugh. “You’ve grown some backbone, I see,” he said. His hand slipped around her neck, and he yanked her forward until they were inches apart. He stroked her hair, pushing it back behind her ear. “That’s okay. I’ll have fun breaking you.”
Fear threatened to crawl through her once more. With her hands behind her back, surrounded by shifters who would grab hold of her the second she tried to run away, it would be easy to slip into those old, familiar feelings of helplessness. Memories of her time under Sier’s thumb, his command, nearly dragged her back down. She forced them away and glowered at Lucas.
“Let me go now, and you might get out of this alive,” she said, trying to keep the small tremor threatening to creep into her voice out.
He laughed. “Adorable. You know, I liked you before when you were meek. This bit of spark, though… It’s fascinating. I wonder how long it will last, though.”
