Page 12 of Forced Mate Bride
“Good,” Jasper snarled.
Camden began pacing, rubbing his chin. “We need to figure out what his game plan is,” he said. “Because I doubt it ends at kidnapping Nikki. There has to be more going on than just that.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Jasper said. He didn’t add that, in his opinion, Lucas going after Nikki alone was a good enough reason to send everyone hunting for him.
“If we can figure out his plan, then we can probably get a general idea of where he might be hiding, too,” Camden continued.
“So how do we figure out his plan if we can’t find him?” Jasper asked.
“I can do some recon,” Cillian said. “See what I can come up with. Odds are he’s been sniffing around for a while, so I can imagine someone might have seen him, even if they didn’t recognize him at the moment.”
That would work, with the way Lucas had targeted Nikki. That had felt too planned out for it to be a chance. How long had he been stalking Nikki in order to find the perfect time and place to strike? The only reason it hadn’t worked was that Jasper had arrived on the scene.
Granted, Jasper was just as guilty of following Nikki as Lucas, albeit for far different purposes. The fact that he hadn’t noticed Lucas following Nikki sent new ripples of alarm through him. Jasper wasn’t as good a tracker as Cillian, but he was still skilled at it. He should have noticed someone following Nikki. If Lucas had managed to conceal himself that well, it meant they had a much bigger problem on their hands than they realized.
“This is just what we need,” Camden growled, rubbing his face. “We’ve got enough to deal with right now.”
“How’s that?” asked Jasper.
“Donovan’s stirring up trouble again,” Camden explained.
A collective, exasperated groan filled the room. Though most of the pack had no issue with the women learning self-defense, a handful of the pack felt differently. These outliers didn’t think it was a woman’s place to fight, even if it was to protect themselves. That was the men’s job. Some of them were powerful pack members, physically strong, and they had been high-ranking under the previous alpha’s command. Out of all of them, Donovan was the most vocal.
It wasn’t as though Donovan had been outright antagonistic since Camden had taken over, but he made a point to constantly question Camden’s choices and make snide remarks that, though he pretended they were supposed to be asides no one could hear, always intentionally carried. He showed up in the pack house more frequently than one might expect, as if wanting to throw his weight around or make himself heard. He would talk loudly about how Camden’s uncle, the previous alpha, had done a better job, or how he would have done something differently than Camden. Tiny little digs that would constantly grow and fester.
The biggest problem with Donovan was that he had a small following. All of the dissenters had rallied behind him. Jasper couldn’t understand it. Donovan only seemed to like provoking Camden.
“What’s he doing this time?” Franco asked.
“Something about wanting more openness to the pack,” Camden explained. “He wants more town meetings and transparency, despite the fact that we already hold meetings every other week to go over things that don’t affect security.”
“Why don’t they just leave if they’re going to be this disgruntled?” Cillian asked. “Do us all a favor.”
Camden shrugged. “As long as they want to stay, they’re welcome, so long as they don’t make any real trouble. I’m not going to kick them out for complaining.”
Cillian grunted, but didn’t argue. At that moment, they all knew they had more problems on their hands than a few unsatisfied pack members.
Chapter 6 - Nikki
She wandered through the library’s towering shelves, pushing the cart of returned books in front of her. She craned her neck up to scan a shelf, pinpointing a gap between two books, one leaning against its current neighbor. She tugged a ladder over to rest next to the spot. Tucking a book under her arm, she began clambering up. Once she reached the correct level, she stretched out her hand and slid the book into place. When it was secure in its rightful home, she clambered back down to the cart and continued moving along.
This was one of her favorite parts of the job, though she couldn’t fully explain why. There was something nice about getting to roam the shelves and return books to their rightful place. She found it strangely soothing, like fitting a puzzle piece into its perfect slot.
She plucked the next book from the cart, a romance. The man on the front, a handsome, muscular man with sandy hair and a strong jaw, bore a startling resemblance to Jasper. Heat spread across her cheeks, and she put the book back on the cart, face down.
It had been a week since Jasper had insisted they get married. A week of her living in the guest room. A week of her trying to avoid speaking with Jasper at all costs.
She hated Jasper. She doubted she would ever forgive him for what he’d done. For a brief moment, when he’d helped her after the attack, when he’d been tender and reassuring, she thought he might have been different. She could have seen himself falling for her. That had all come crumbling down the next morning when he’d shown his true colors. To him, it didn’t matter what she had wanted. He assumed he knew best andmade her decisions for her. He was no better than any of the others who had decided she was property instead of a human.
And yet, despite that, she couldn’t help but feel that spark. She was furious with him, but some other part of her was inexplicably drawn to him, like they were two magnets always tugging toward one another. She couldn’t ignore the flutters in her stomach whenever she saw him. She might hate him for what he was doing to her, but she couldn’t help but notice his strong jaw, how that intense gaze seemed to stare right into her, as if able to pull apart everything about her. Her heart clenched at the memory of that gaze, and she felt herself heat despite herself.
She paused at the appropriate shelf, picked up the romance book, and considered it once more. No, she couldn’t deny that she was attracted to Jasper. That didn’t change anything, though. He was still her captor. He was still doing exactly what everyone else had done to her. He was still trying to control her.
She slid the novel back into its spot, trying to shove those thoughts from her mind. She didn’t need to dwell on them right now. They muddied everything.
The next hour was spent in a similar fashion: shelving books and trying not to think about Jasper. Sometimes it worked. Most of the time, she kept thinking about that stare and the way his hands had felt on hers when he had held her. Gritting her teeth, she shoved the final book in its place with more force than necessary.
The shelving finished, she made her way back to the circulation desk and to the brunette hunched over a piece of paper, drawing a tiny cartoon dragon in the corner. Amber,a friend Nikki had made when they’d both been under Sier’s thumb, glanced up from her doodle and smiled.
