Page 50 of Forced Mate Bride
She took a step back. His eyes narrowed, and he jerked her forward again, closer this time.
“Go to hell,” she said.
He clicked his tongue. “Is that really how you want to speak to your master?”
“You’re nothing of the sort,” she spat. “You’re small and pathetic, just like this cabin.”
That amusement he’d shown earlier evaporated entirely. His face contorted in a sneer. His grip on the back of her neck tightened.
“You’re mine now,” he snarled. “Don’t forget that.”
“I’m not yours. I never have been, and I never will be,” she said. “And in case you’ve forgotten, I’m married. You have no idea what sort of shit storm is coming your way.”
It was a feeble, last-ditch attempt to get him to retreat. She knew that, but she had to try. But she wasn’t surprisedwhen it didn’t work, and that grin resurfaced. It was a sinister, nauseating sight that made her insides churn.
“True, you are married, but not for long,” he said. “The second I barge into the Silverrose pack and take over, the first thing I’m doing is finding your mate and tearing him to shreds before he has a chance to do anything.”
Her eyes widened. She would have recoiled on instinct, but his hand was still locking her in place.
Jasper. He was going to kill Jasper.
Horror rippled through her, and it took all her willpower not to flinch away from that leer. Part of that unease came from that unnerving sincerity in his words. He meant every one of them. She tried to keep her face a mask, to hide how horrified his words had made her.
“Good luck with that,” she said. “He’s not that easy to take down. That scar along your face should remind you of that.”
His eyes burned for the briefest of moments, the deep line across his face contorting, looking more gruesome.
“Careful with that tone,” he said. “Don’t forget where you are. I own you now.”
“No, you don’t. And just know I am going to fight you every step of the way,” she said.
He grinned. “I know.”
He released her, then glanced up at his goons, his eyes cold and burning with triumph at the same time. “Throw her in the back room,” he said. “Give her a little bit of time to grow accustomed to the new status quo.”
One of the men—she thought it might be Vincent—untied her hands. She barely had time to rub feeling back into thembefore two more of Lucas’s men grabbed her by either shoulder and hauled her to a door made of rough, unfinished wood. They opened the door to a pitch-black room that couldn’t have been larger than a shoebox. Before she could do anything, they threw her inside. She stumbled forward, arms outstretched to catch herself in case she fell. They slammed into the far wall, stopping her from running face-first into it. Her palms scraped against rough wood.
She spun around just in time to see the door slam shut, and she was thrown into darkness. The sound of a lock sliding into place with ominous finality echoed through the small, empty room.
Just like that, she was alone.
Chapter 19 - Jasper
Jasper hunched over the papers in his office, frowning, trying to focus on the information scribbled on them and constantly failing. His thoughts kept drifting every time he tried to concentrate. They kept sneaking up on him, thoughts of Nikki and the fight looming large.
Snarling, he tossed the page clutched in his hand back to the desk. It was no use. He couldn’t focus on anything. Every time he tried, he found his thoughts drifting idly back to Nikki.
After their fight, he had come back here to find something to preoccupy himself with, something that would get his thoughts off her, something that would make him feel productive after that fight. Except he needed to focus on Lucas, and that meant he had to think about her, too.
Why couldn’t she just see that he was trying to protect her? Why did his intentions make her so furious? Yes, he should have told her about Donovan. He’d made a mistake there, but if she hadn’t been so stubborn and resistant to everything he’d done to help her, maybe it wouldn’t have come to that.
A stab of guilt lanced through his stomach at that last thought, and he knew it wasn’t fair the second it crossed his mind. He growled, fingers tightening around the pen clutched in his hand, and willed himself to focus again.
He read the pages in front of him for the third time, trying to retain their information. It was the reports on the area that the scouts thought Lucas was hiding in. He needed to study them before they made any semblance of a plan to go after him.
As he scribbled, he realized with a jolt that he hadn’t even told Nikki the good news. The fight had shoved all thoughts of it out of his head. Growling in frustration, he ran his fingersthrough his hair, biting back a snarl. He had been trying to protect her, but even now, he knew he had gone too far.
What was it about her that made him behave like this? It had always been this way about her, ever since he had first laid eyes on her months ago, the first time he had stepped into the gym to start his self-defense lessons and had seen her toward the back of the class, watching him studiously, trying to pay attention to every little thing he was teaching them. Ever since then, he hadn’t been able to get her out of her head. He had this overwhelming need to keep an eye on her, to protect her. It was why he had watched her, because he knew that if anything happened to her, he would all but lose his mind. He still couldn’t explain why. It was like something had come over him and had never left, at least not where Nikki was concerned.
