Page 10 of Pregnant Kidnapped Mate

“Dan—” Alek began.

“No. She should know what she’s getting into, staying here.”

“Iris.” Alek’s head spun back toward me. “Go back now.”

Part of me was rooted to the spot, but the other part wanted to listen to Alek. Something about the way the other man—Dan—was looking at me made my skin crawl and made me want to run as far away as possible.

Before I could order my legs to move, there was a snarl, and Dan crouched to the ground. At first, I thought he was having a seizure or something similar. But a moment later, I nearly screamed. And I would have if it weren’t for the fact that my voice had stopped working out of sheer horror.

One moment, Dan had been standing next to Alek. The next, a wolf, larger than any I had ever seen with fur the exact brown shade of Dan’s hair, was in his place. His eyes glittered as he bared his fangs, snarling as he took a step toward me, looking as though he was about to lunge.

“No!” Alek yelled, and he moved in front of the wolf man. I was going to yell at him not to do something that stupid. Except for a split-second later, Alek wasn’t there anymore, and a giant red-furred wolf was in his place. He put himself between me and the other wolf, growling low, his hackles raised.

I stumbled backward, nearly tripping over myself and falling on my ass. But I managed to right myself just in time, and I spun on my heels and raced into the woods. I could swear I heard a bark of laughter and a responding snarl as I tore through the bramble, but I didn’t look back.

My mind was racing. Alek was one of the wolf men my village had warned me about. A vicious, cold-blooded killer who didn’t care about humans and would kill them whenever they saw fit. The other one—Dan—was certainly that, too. I’d seen the way he had started to lunge toward me. I’d seen his teeth. They could tear through me in seconds.

And Alek had brought me into this world.

What was more, he hadn’t told me what he was. He’d kept it from me. Why? What had been his end goal? To eat me?

The thought would have been absurd an hour ago, but now…

He’d kidnapped me, just like my brother and father had warned me the wolf men would do. What else had they been telling the truth about?

I had to get back. I had to get away.

My heart thundered as my mind went blank with terror. I pushed through the brush and wove through trees, trying to make my trail as erratic and unpredictable as possible. My panting filled my ears, the only sound I could focus on without collapsing in fear.

Tears stung my eyes as I kept running, the hurt of betrayal creeping through the edges of the fear. My trembling legs threatened to give way beneath me, but I kept running. I had no idea where I was even going. I would figure that out after I got out of wolf territory.

But then, the horrifying sound of something large crashing through the bramble behind me pierced through the sound of my own breathing. Oh, god. I saw the brown-furred wolf in my head, certain he was following me, that he would pounce on me from behind and tear me to shreds.

“Iris—” a voice yelled after me. It was Alek. I would have wondered how he’d managed to catch up to me, but if he could turn into a wolf, that answered my question.

“Iris, wait—”

But I didn’t listen. I kept running.

“Shit, Iris—”

I pushed myself to run faster, kicking up dirt behind me with every step.

A hand grabbed my shoulder, pulling me down to the ground. I screamed as I hit the dirt. Strong hands spun me around so I was on my back, and Alek’s face loomed over me. He pinned my arms over my head as I writhed. He straddled me as he leaned over me, his legs pinning mine in place.

“Iris.” His brown eyes were wide and pleading. Strands of red hair were plastered to his forehead.

“Let go of me,” I hissed, but it was useless. I was trapped beneath him until he decided otherwise.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Alek said gently. “I’m sorry you found out this way. It wasn’t how I wanted to tell you.”

“You’re one of them,” I said, my voice cracking. “A wolf man.”

He grimaced. “Shifter,” he corrected. “But yes.”

“And you didn’t tell me.”

It felt bizarre that we were having this conversation as he continued pinning me to the ground. What was more bizarre was the fact that a fire seemed to have ignited between my legs, and I was painfully aware of every inch of him. He was shirtless, and his torso was perfectly toned, defined even more by the sweat glistening there. And he smelled good. He should have reeked of sweat, but all I could smell was something like musk and leather that was more appealing than it had any right to be.

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