Page 5 of Ice King

While shifters enjoyed the hunt, we rarely fed on small creatures any longer. Our experts warned us that our natural instincts were being bred from us, a gift stolen by modern technology and pretending to be completely human. Our appetites had changed, hunting used for stress relief more than anything else. Hunts had lost their sense of presence in my life ten years before. So why now?

My skin was on fire, my stomach rumbling differently than I was used to experiencing.

I rubbed my jaw as a strangled laugh pushed up from my throat. Wow. So much for lacing leftover painkillers with alcohol. As I thumped onto my bed, hanging my head, the light caught a silhouette of my feet.

A cold chill replaced the earlier fire as I lifted one foot.

My toes were covered with mud.

CHAPTER 2

Gigi

Somewhere off the coast of Grand Bahama Island

“I have something for you, baby.”

Even with Hoffman’s seductive tone, I’d come to understand the backside to his moments of generosity. I twisted the ring on my finger as I studied him from across the deck. There was no denying how handsome he was. Tall with broad shoulders and a well-toned body from spending hours at the gym. Just thinking about how fit he was reminded me that I wasn’t.

At least according to him.

While I doubted he’d ever gotten dirt under his fingernails, he made certain his body fat percentages were low, his testosterone high.

“You do?” My voice was saccharine sweet even though my nerves were already raw from anxiety. I was alone with him in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. What could go wrong?

Everything.

“Come here, baby.” His tone dipped dangerously low, a husky hum cascading several yards away and straight into my nervous system.

Using the wineglass as a prop, I took another sip before advancing. I was trying very hard to pretend everything was fine when nothing would ever be the same as before. Not one damn thing in my life. All because of a few bad choices during perhaps the worst possible time in my life. Even now, the agony of loss was a constant reminder of how precious life should be for everyone.

In his hand was an elegant black velvet box, a matching representation of the ring box from a month ago when he’d asked me to marry him. Of course I’d said yes because doing anything else would have meant disguising bruises. Which I’d become an expert at doing over the last year.

I’d gone along with the plan while finally finding the courage to make one of my own.

He noticed my trepidation, becoming impatient as always. “You know, Gigi, you could be a little more grateful about all the things I do for you. I provide you with everything in your life. All your clothes. All your jewelry. Even your car. The least you could do is seem grateful.”

My clothes, which I hated and preferred my own. My jewelry, which was lavish and flaunted his money, something that disgusted me. And a car that reeked of his bank account and not practicality. I longed for my little Toyota, which he’d sold out from under me, saying it was beneath the Carrington name.

The same name I was supposed to carry after a lavish wedding that he was planning without my involvement.

A match made in heaven.

“Mmm… I am grateful. Very much. I can’t wait to show you later.” At least I’d learned about his tics and every nuance and voice pattern. I could avoid a solid percentage of his outbursts, but I was fidgeting, more on edge than normal, which prevented me from paying close attention to his mood swings.

I rolled my hands up his chest, tilting my head as if I gave a damn his pecs were perfect, marveled over by every woman he worked with, every man envious of who he was and what he owned. When I darted my tongue across my bottom lip, I could see the effects of my obedience with the bulge between his legs swelling.

“That’s more like it. My beautiful girl. You’ve been so good lately that I wanted to reward you.”

He was the same way with his nurses and other employees of his practice, keeping them under his thumb like his powerful father had taught him. With wealth did come corruption. That’s something I’d wished I’d learned before moving in with the man.

Correction, being coerced on the day of my mother’s funeral.

I took the box, placing my Academy Award-winning smile with the twinkle in my eyes front and center before opening the box. “Oh, my gosh. What a gorgeous bracelet.”

A tennis bracelet.

Not that there was anything wrong with being given a huge diamond bracelet that I knew easily cost well over one hundred thousand dollars. That was how the man rolled.