Page 9 of The Warrior's Captive

She hadn’t responded and he took her silence for defiance. “You can either behave, or I can make you behave.”

That ominous warning sent a terrible tingle right between her legs. She might be a middle-aged virgin, afraid of the outside world for all intents and purposes, but she knew what Stockholm Syndrome was. It must be that—because nothing else about this whole damn situation made any sense, and especially not what had happened in the Jeep.

She needed to find her backbone. She was the daughter of an alpha and the sister of the current alpha. She could be fierce, she was a wolf, she was a survivor. She was no trembling mouse or damsel in distress. This man was literally the devil incarnate. He was her captor. She wasn’t just blithely going to obey him or give him an easy time. He’d pay in any way she could make him. He wanted to play at being the devil? She’d make his life a living hell.

Maybe he’d get so tired of her, he’d just let her go.

Her mind suddenly went back to his warning about what his pack would do to them. She remembered the she-wolf who had been her elder brother’s mate and gave an involuntary shudder. Could his pack be worse than the Rangers?

No, that would not be her fate.

She tilted her face up, refusing to cower, shoving down the sick desire that edged into the pit of her belly when she got another full-on look of his powerful build. It wasn’t her fault that her body reacted. Men like this, physical specimens who defied nature in every way, in their prime, obviously skilled in the arts of protection, he was exactly the kind of man who lured women into reading smutty romances because he was so hot he set the cover on fire. It was that face they’d imagine as they read, those icy eyes staring straight into their souls.

She knew because she’d read more than a few in her time, but maybe she should have spent those years reading self-defense manuals instead.

“You’ll make me behave?” she taunted. She was pleased when a shudder of pure fury slowly rolled through Hades. His jaw visibly ticked, and she continued. “How will you do that, Mr. Viking Wolf? With your blood-soaked axes? I’m not some princess you stole away from a sacked battlefield. You can dress up and play warrior all you want, but you’re just some twisted little boy in a big man’s body who took a defenseless woman from her home. How are you going to make me behave?”

Her palms grew damp at his silent, lethal posture. He was angry, but there was zero change in his breathing. In his cold, dead face. She could just sense it.

It might be a mistake to goad him, but she’d watched as he’d kicked the axes out of the way. Maybe if she could get him angry enough, she might be able to make her escape. She just needed him to shift away from the open window. She had no chains on her now, and the effect of the sedative had almost worn off.

She’d taunted him. Parroted him. Sassed him.

He turned with deceptive calm and faced the window, massive hands resting at his sides. She hadn’t quite pushed him hard enough, she needed him to step to the side.

“How are you going to make me behave?” Perversely, she wanted him to tell her. She wanted to see just the tiniest crack appear in his control. She wanted to know if it was even possible to find a single weakness in a man like him. Part of her just straight up wanted to let him know that he might have kidnapped her, but she wouldn’t let him win. She wasn’t afraid of him.

She watched his broad back intently. “Is it with your cock?”

He growled viciously and spun around. There was a darkness in those icy blue depths that promised her endless pleasure, but only if she was willing to take the endless pain. That fire burned bright, but he quickly extinguished it. His eyes were still abnormal. Strange eyes for a wolf. For a human. For anyone. They were so pale, a blue that was almost gray, with light ashy flecks, all of it caged by a vivid cerulean ring.

“That’s a big word for a scared, naive little wolf.” He was the one taunting her now. A wicked grin pulled his lips back from straight, white teeth.

“I’m not a little wolf,” she snapped. She realized just how deep she was digging her own grave. Naive indeed. She was just proving him right and it was mortally embarrassing.

He stalked over and knelt in front of her, so close that the heat from his body felt like she was staring straight into the bowels of the very hell he’d crawled out of.

Hades.

While she didn’t doubt it was a false name, there was no moniker more suited.

“I’ll make you obey with restraints and the tranquilizer if I have to. If that doesn’t work, then I’m not afraid to get the chains back out.”

She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing just how much that disturbed her. The thing any shifter most feared, or at least any wolf, was captivity. Nothing wild ever thrived behind bars. No human truly could either.

She wished she could shift now, but after reassessing the situation she’d realized it would be pointless. He was a wolf too and he’d always be faster, stronger, and more deadly than she was. If she ran, he’d catch her. If she wanted to make her escape, then she’d have to come up with a better plan.

“As to the rest, I’ll never touch you.” He was back to throwing off ice, his face hard and expressionless. “You’d have to beg me first, and still not then. I’m here for one purpose only. My mission is revenge and only revenge. Your pack took something from me. They took my family. Mybrother. I took you in exchange. I can never get my brother back. He’s dust of the earth now.”

“And that’s what you plan on doing with me? Killing me?” Fear curled through her blood like a toxic smoke, but her anger was greater. His words only pumped much needed adrenaline through her veins. Right now, was the time for action. But what could she do?

She bit down on her lip in frustration. When his eyes were drawn straight there, she released it, tasting the blood.

Suddenly he was on her, the heat of his body pressing against her, as her back hit the wall. She felt the roughness of his beard graze her cheek as his lips crashed against hers, his tongue licking up the ruby red droplets. Heat flared to her core and her heart was racing. She could feel his hardness, and with a gasp she realized just how big he was.

His tongue plundered her mouth and she felt as if she was falling. Shockwaves coursed through her body and it was as though the flames would devour her. Then just as suddenly he jumped back like he’d been scorched.

She could sense the anger which seemed to emanate from every pore, anger not directed at her, as far as she could tell, but at himself for losing control.

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