Rescued & Ravished: An Alpha's Conquest (A Paranormal Ménage Romance) (7 page)

Yarrow helped the old man away while Ivy came around the table, gripped Harper’s arm, and tugged her out of her chair and down the hall to the bedroom. She shoved her inside.

“Stay here! I’ll be back!”

Then the door closed with a slam. Harper hugged herself, her fingernails digging into her arms.

Where
am
I? Who
are
these people?

But where and who and why didn’t really matter anymore. All that mattered was escape.

“Out of my way, boy! And you, Yarrow, leave off! I can walk to Jason’s alone!”

Galangal shook off Yarrow and swept past Chance, limping off into the woods.

“Well. That went as well as I imagined,” Yarrow said gloomily, watching him go.

“What happened?” Chance asked, standing as far back from her as he could. The scent of her, even twelve feet away, was scorching his blood.

“He scared that poor girl, Chance. She’s afraid for her life now, I’m sure of it. He said we should get rid of her—right in front of her! Heaven knows if she’s even a Hunter.” Yarrow sighed, then closed her eyes. “You smell too good, Chance. I’m going inside before I get tangled up with you.”

He let her leave, although it was hard to pull his eyes off her body as she went. For him, she held no candle to Harper, but she was still a pretty woman and—

“Chance!”

It was Ivy, popping out the cabin’s back door, through the mudroom. She had a steaming cup full of something.

“What?”

“Here, drink this, and drink it fast.”

She darted out and put the mug on a stump in the yard, then backtracked to the doorway of the mudroom.

He picked it up, sniffing it. It smelled terrible.
Valerian root.

“It’s valerian and hops,” Ivy said, sounding tense. “Drink it. It’ll help with your urges. I’m going to drink some, too.”

“I heard Galangal scared Harper.” The idea that anyone had scared her made him angry. “Is that true?”

“Yeah, it’s true.” Ivy closed her eyes, impatient. “Drink your tea.”

“How long will this take to work?”

“Hours.”

He grimaced. Even outside, even distracted by Ivy’s scent, he could smell a breath of Harper on the air. There was a twitch between his legs.

“Hours? Are you sure?”

“I’ve never made it before, but I’m fairly sure. Why?”

“I can’t control myself like this.” He sighed tightly. “I’m going to go and talk to Jason and Galangal about this girl while the tea works on me. I’m no match for all the women’s charms coming from this cabin.”

Her look was understanding. “Alright. Yarrow and I can handle her. I’m sure she’s just a girl, Chance—not a Hunter. That’s what my instinct’s saying.”

“Mine too.” He downed the rest of the tea, then set the mug down on the stump again. “I’ll be back later.”

Her eyes were sliding over him; a slight smile appeared on her mouth. “You better run. I want you.”

He knew it wasn’t quite a joke.

Harper hadn’t slept a wink, not one. She’d balled up under the quilts and willed herself to breathe evenly until Ivy had fallen asleep on the throws on the floor. Then she’d made herself be still through the early hours of the night, waiting until the cabin was as silent as ice. Until everyone was asleep but her.

By her count, it was three or four in the morning when she wriggled out from under the bedclothes. Carefully, she stepped over Ivy—the girl barely stirred—and tried the bedroom door. It came open.

Slipping through it, she tiptoed down the creaky hall, holding her breath at every squeak and hiccup of the wood underfoot. By the time she got to the main room, she was covered in a thin layer of sweat. She wasn’t sure where they’d put her things, so she picked up a pair of rain boots by the door, shrugged on a man’s jacket hanging from a peg, and ghosted out onto the porch. Once she was down on the grass, she pulled on the rain boots and took off with the quietest run she could manage.

She had no sense of direction. It was dark and she still didn’t know the country she was in. The best she could figure out to do was to rush downhill, heading toward the deep cut of the Pass that showed in the silhouette of the range. If she ran that way, she had to hit a trail. Didn’t she?

If only these fuckers hadn’t taken her gear—her compass and her flashlight and everything! Then she could orient herself in line with the notch!

And what if that huge bear was still out here? They’d taken her bear spray, too. That thing would kill her easily.

But she had to risk it. It was better than being trapped in this homestead and possibly murdered. Haley had been right about there being insane backwoods murderers
out here.

The night was cool and damp. She was hot and cold at once, and kept slipping on the wet ground and going down hard. Cloud scud often blocked out the moon.

“Shit!” she hissed, falling on her ass for the umpteenth time, but this time from surprise. There was a cabin in front of her, and the squares of the windows were yellow with lantern light.
Someone’s still awake!

Scrabbling up, she stumbled into a stump. Stuck deep into the stump was a wood-axe. Without thinking, she grabbed it by the haft and pulled it out, then she plunged back into the woods.

She ran fast and hard, desperate to get away from these people who talked about locking her up and murdering her and putting her on trial. They didn’t act like they were living in the present, and they were so
suspicious
of her for no good reason at—

Boom
.

She’d run into someone. Instinct made her spring backward, even though the collision was hard; he tried to grab her, but she’d already jumped a few feet away.

The cloud cover broke and she got a dim, silvery look at him. She didn’t recognize him. He was tall and strong and young—thirty-something, maybe—but more than that she couldn’t tell.

“Whoa, there! You’re Harper, aren’t you?” His voice was deep and naturally dry. “I’m Hudson. Maybe you heard of me. Doing a runner, are you?”

“Let me go,” she panted, trying to strafe him. He moved with her like a goalie blocking a shot. “Let me go!”

“No.” The way he said it covered her with goosebumps. “I’m bringing you back and you’re going in the shed.”

“You can try!” She raised the axe. “Try it!”

There was a standoff. Every time she made a move to dart past him, he blocked her,\ and she had to back off. Even now, she was reluctant to actually use her weapon.

“Come on, girl,” he growled. “Fight or give up! Choose which—”

“Stay! The fuck! Away!” she shrieked, her knuckles whitening on the axe haft. He was trying to get closer to her.

“Listen, there’s twenty-five hundred square miles of wilderness out there. You’ll never make it.”

“So I should stay here and fertilize your garden?”

He held up a big hand. “Put down the axe, Harper. Nobody’s gonna dump you in their flower bed. Don’t make me—”

“Don’t make you what?” she seethed, anger making her brave. Now she was feeling ready to use the weapon in her hands.
I’m not going to die here!
“What are you gonna do?”

Abruptly, with superhuman speed, he rushed her. She brought the blade down with full force.

But his rush had been a feint. He dodged to the right, and the full weight of her swing went wide to the left. He got a hand on the axe shaft and held it down while his other arm went around the back of her neck in a non-lethal chokehold, crushing her to him.

She tried to struggle, but he was full of raw, rough power and it overwhelmed her. He wrestled the axe away and flung it off under the trees. Then, after an extended tussle, he swung her up into an unwilling fireman’s hold.

“Put me down!” she shrieked, kicking, hitting, and flailing. The last thing she wanted was to be shouldered by this psycho and carried off back to captivity.

“Shut up!” he roared, gripping her arm and the back of her knee. “I can make this worse! You want to tangle with the bear?”

The bear? Hell, the bear would be better than this!

“Yes! Leave me here! I’ll take my chances with the animals!”

“What?” He sounded disgusted and confused. She managed to get her arm free and pounded his shoulderblade in a rage. “You’re an ignorant puss, aren’t you? Calm the fuck down!”

He started carrying her back to Egan and Gentian’ homestead. No matter how much she fought him, she couldn’t get off his back, and it wasn’t long before he got a grip on her thrashing arm again.

“Stop fussing or I’ll carry you back in my mouth!”

“Your
mouth
? Are you gonna eat me?! You’re insane!”

“I might! Stop hitting me, before I get mad!”

“
Totally insane
!”

She couldn’t get away, but she refused to settle down, either. Finally, after half an hour of struggling with her resistance, he’d obviously had enough.

“Fine, girl! You want to make this hard?” He seethed. “It can be hard!”

He dropped her from his shoulders. She slid down and hit the ground with an
oof.

“You’re an animal! You—” but then she stopped, midsentence.

He wasn’t a man anymore. He was changing—
shifting
—growing. What she saw with her eyes made no sense to her brain.

A bear. He was a
bear. The
bear. The grizzly that had charged her on the trail!

Her instinct was to scream, but she couldn’t. She was locked up, frozen on the ground. The bear was every bit as big as she remembered, taller than a man at the shoulder, pan-pawed, muscled like a furry tank. Its fire-gold eyes were every bit as frightening as she remembered, too.

It opened its huge mouth and the scream she’d been holding in burst out. It closed its teeth on the back of the men’s jacket she was wearing. The bear picked her up by the jacket and started to tote her through the dark, wind-stirred woods. She was too petrified to struggle, too petrified to speak.

It was a long way back to the cabin, all uphill. The bear carried her like a cub almost the whole way there until the jacket ripped and she fell to the ground with a thud.

The bear disappeared, shifting back into a man. Naked, tall, and hard-bodied as a block of marble, he grabbed her up in his arms. She didn’t resist.

These people are monsters. And I can’t fight monsters. I don’t know how.

He toted her back the rest of the way. She recognized Gentian and Egan’s cabin when she saw it.

I’m really trapped now.

I’m really doomed.

Hudson had dumped her in the shed beside Gentian and Egan’s cabin, then he’d slammed the door, locked it, and left.

Hours passed. At first she tried to dig out the floor, shoulder the door, pry back a board—anything. But there was no way out, and the close, damp darkness eventually overwhelmed her. She crawled up onto the worktable and waited restlessly.

Night ended. She could smell dawn through the dewy wood walls of the shed. The air warmed up. Day. Morning. When would someone come for her? And what would they do when they did?

I could die here.

Finally, the door clicked and swung open and she was blinded by hot sunlight. She sat up quickly, holding a hand in front of her dazzled face.

“Harper?” It was Ivy’s voice. Squinting, she saw Ivy and Chance duck into the shed with her, closing the door behind them.

Harper had nothing to say to them. What did you say to
bear
people?

“Oh, Harper… I know you tried to run. I know Hudson brought you back. Look, honeycomb, for now just…just stay in here. You have to stay in here,” Ivy said gently. “Don’t make more trouble. The elders will sort this out soon.”

“Yeah?” Harper said acidly. “They’ll settle it by tearing me apart?”

Ivy’s mouth thinned. “Chance will watch you. Someone’ll bring food later.”

She got up to leave the shed. Chance tensed as if Harper might run for it through the briefly-open door, but Harper knew better than to try that. What was the point of trying to run? Grizzlies could run thirty-five, forty miles an hour—she wouldn’t stand a chance. And she’d already taken a full inventory of the shed, there were no supplies to be found anywhere. She was here all because she’d gotten lost without food, water, or gear; what good would running do when she didn’t even know where to run?

The shed door banged closed; the lock outside clicked. Harper covered her face with her hands.

“You’ll be alright, Harper,” Chance said slowly. She glanced at him.

“What makes you say that, Grizzly Adams?”

He almost smiled. “Because I believe in you. I believe you’re not a Hunter. And others do, too.”

“Do you?” she asked quietly. “Why?”

“Instinct.”

She hesitated. A few fox sparrows twittered outside.

The way he was looking at her. There was a softness there, she was sure of it. Could she use that? Could she use his sympathy and beg him for information, for mercy?

Why not try it? Is my dignity worth more than my life?

Hell
no
, it’s not!

She slid off the worktable, onto the floor and onto her knees. She gripped his wrist and his thigh, and let her expression go desperate.

“What
are
you people? Please tell me. Please.”

The gold ring in his eyes brightened.

What does
that
mean? Should I be scared? Is he about to eat me?

He threaded his fingers suddenly through her hair; the skin of her temple prickled where his thumb settled.

Oh.
Oh.
I didn’t expect this.

“We’re skinchangers.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Of course not. You’re human. We live apart from your people, so it’s strange to you.”

“Please explain.
Please
. Do you… hurt people? Were you born this way? Can—”

“Yes, we’re born like this. It’s just something in our bloodlines. And no, Harper: my clan doesn’t hurt anyone.”

“There’s… more of you?” she stammered, horrified. “Other… clans?”

“Yes.” He didn’t elaborate. “But we keep to ourselves, all of us. It’s why you’ve never seen a shifter before.”

Her mind was racing. “Are you afraid I’ll tell people? Is that why I’m not allowed to leave? Because I swear I won’t, and even if I did, I swear, I
swear
it wouldn’t matter. Everyone would just think I was crazy, delusional—”