Page 10 of Mace

I told Nine to wait and hold tight then closed the hatch and climbed down with no problems. When I got to the bottom, I turned on the light because Alicia had clearly been too distracted to do it.

As she stood there looking around, I slid off my backpack, pulled out a bar of chocolate and said, “Head’s up. Treat incoming.”

She turned just in time to catch it, and her eyes lit up. “If I’m getting rewards, it’s gonna make me wildly more adventurous. You know that, right?”

The teasing quality of her voice made me think it wasn’t going to be as easy as all that.

Chapter 5

Alicia

We’ve been here at their little bunker in the woods all night. Mace had sent me to the one and only real bedroom, which I assumed used to belong to the serial killer he mentioned, because the décor was spartan and there was a huge weapons collection on the wall gathering dust. Having so many tools of death nearby was making me anxious. Also knowing that bad things happened down here wasn’t doing much for my state of mind. Maybe there was a market for vacation rentals in serial killer’s disused lairs, but that would not be my first choice for accommodation. Though beggars can’t be choosers, as my mom used to say, so I had to be grateful that Mace had found us somewhere safe.

Since I tended to pace when I was nervous, I’d been wearing a footpath into the concrete for hours when I should have been sleeping. I didn’t know exactly what tomorrow would hold but I couldn’t calm down long enough to rest, much less sleep. The lack of windows was freaking me out and learning for the first time that you suffered from claustrophobia was no fun.

Two things were bearing heavy on my mind. The first was being swarmed with Mace’s club brothers tomorrow. Just because Mace seemed like a nice guy, didn’t mean his club brothers were. It only took one bad apple for me to end up raped, beaten, or dead. I’ve learned that strangers were not to be trusted and men in general could be unpredictable. I planned to stay as far away from them as possible.

And the second was knowing my father and Alejandro were close by and might stumble upon this bunker. I remembered Mace saying it was secure, but my father was a smart and determined man. If there was a way into this bunker, he would find it. I hesitated to think what they would do to me if they found me. My best guess was that my father would give me to his right-hand man with no questions asked. And Alejandro would think nothing about making me pay for hitting him with that rock, and running off with Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome.

I kept looking at my phone and pacing until I dropped with exhaustion. There was no signal down here, which was another worry. I wasn’t sure how my contact would get in touch. I’d kept my phone with me at all times since I’d arrived in the US. I couldn’t risk it falling into my father’s hands, so I even took it in the makeshift shower with me in the waterproof pouch I kept it in. I was thankful for my paranoia, because at least it meant that I’d escaped my father’s clutches with a means of contact, and the pouch had kept it dry when we were in the river.

Instead of crawling into the camp bed, I cuddled up in a big easy chair and finally fell asleep in the wee hours of the morning. At first my dreams were haunted with images of being found and punished by my father.

Slowly, those nightmares gave way to Mace coming onto me. Unlike Alejandro, he was bold, sexy, and sensual rather than grabby and threatening. He pulled me down onto his lap and kissed me. He wasn’t wearing a shirt so there was nothing but his burnished skin and miles and miles of muscles and intricate tattoos. His arms were like steel band pulling me ever closer.

And I came willingly to him because here there were no consequences for following where my desires led. When hishands slid down my body sparking sensations of pleasure along the way, I moved closer, willing him to take me and do as he liked with me. His hand moved up beneath my shirt to cup my breasts and toy with my nipples. My virgin body responded to his touch. His mouth nipped at my neck and then licked away the sting.

I whimpered when one of his big hands came down to pull my legs apart. I craved his touch there as well—and this hot biker didn’t disappoint. I was unbelievably wet for him and when he rubbed my clit, I moaned his name.

And in doing so I woke myself up. I was shocked to discover the fingers rubbing my clit were my own, but I didn’t stop. I closed my eyes and pretended it was him. When I came, it was the hardest I’d ever come in my entire life. I lay there, curled up in the huge chair trying to catch my breath as I thought about what just happened. I chided myself for developing a slight crush on my rescuer. He might be a hot biker, but he was still a biker—a criminal, any way you cut it. Fantasizing about him was fine, I told myself. I just couldn’t allow it to lead anywhere.

***

After tumbling back off to sleep. I woke up to the sound of fighting and growling. Alert in an instant, I rushed to the door and peered out, barely cracking it.

I could see in the living area that Mace had lost control of his wolf companion. They were circling each other, as if they were sizing each other up, and then the wolf suddenly lunged towards him. Mace brought out both hands, easily rolling him away.

My heart was pounding in my chest as I stood there watching this handsome man face off against his oversized wolf. I wondered if I should go for one of the rusty weapons hanging on the wall. Although Mace might be a gentleman, the wolf had an element of wildness about him. They circled each other again, the wolf growling and suddenly he lunged, this time knocking him down to the ground where his massive jowls wrapped around Mace’s throat.

Afraid he was going to rip his throat out, I screamed for him to stop. Hoping that one of the random commands would work, “Down boy! Stop! Sit!”

The wolf’s head popped up in an instant and Mace laughed, roughly shoving him away. When the wolf rolled over onto his back and stared up at Mace, I slowly opened the door. It hit me like a ton of bricks that they were playing with each other. This roughhousing was a game they both enjoyed.

When Mace’s eyes lifted to mine, I blushed. His expression turned bashful. “Come on out if you like. We couldn’t sleep. You caught us roughhousing.”

I walked into the room and sat down on the far end of the sofa. “You boys play rough,” I told him lightly.

He flipped his long braid back over his shoulder when his wolfdog reached out to paw at it. “Nine gets restless when he’s pent up for endless hours—so do I.”

“Do you mind if I ask how he got his name?” I knew that was prying but this man and his ginormous pet intrigued me.

He continued rubbing the animal’s belly as he explained, “I called him Nine because he’s a wolf that’s part canine.”

I couldn’t help but grin. “That’s clever. He’s really big. Is that the wolf part or the canine part.”

“A little of both, but mostly canine. He’s third generation.”

My mouth fell into a little circle. “Oh, that makes so much more sense. I just thought he was a huge wolf that you took as a pet, like someone would a dog.”

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