Page 78 of Shifter Marked and Claimed

“What will you give me?”

“Everything in this room will be yours,” he said without hesitation.

Although he was lying on more riches than I would ever again see in my lifetime, I glanced around me. The bed was nice. The pool, too. I’d even love calling the bathroom my own if it had a door.

“It won’t do me any good if you’re planning on killing me the second you know my name.”

“Why would I kill you?”

“I don’t know. As you pointed out, I don’t know you and haven’t a clue what your intentions are.”

He made a harrumph noise and started to close his eyes.

“Kelsey.”

That clicking sound started up again, and he watched me as if waiting for more information.

“How long are you going to keep me here?” I asked after a long moment.

“Forever.”

“And what am I supposed to do in here forever?”

He shrugged his massive red shoulders. “Swim?”

“Seriously? Swim? You’re keeping me locked up so you can watch me swim?”

He closed his eyes.

Was that his way of saying he wasn’t interested in the watching part or that the conversation was over?

“You need to let Zoe and me go. We have lives.”

No response.

“Vedar!”

Nothing.

I grew up with a sister and knew exactly how to get a response when I wanted one. Kicking him in the nose had worked once. However, after agreeing never to do it again, I wasn’t sure I wanted to test that boundary. But if he had one pushable button, there were sure to be others. I just needed to find them.

His observation that I didn’t know him rang partially untrue. I already knew he had a love for sleeping on his treasure under his sunlamps, and it certainly didn’t stem from comfort.

I eyed the lamps then the pool. Breaking his beloved lights might provoke him. But it might also endanger me since they were close to the water. Not the lamps then.

My gaze drifted down to his treasure, and a piece of memory clicked into place. This house. How incredible it looked. The way he’d ordered me to take off my shoes. How he slept on all that crap. He loved his things.

Turning on my heel, I marched to the bed and pulled off all the sheets. He wasn’t watching me when I turned with the bundle in my arms or when I threw them into the pool. But after I watched them slowly sink, I looked up in time to see his eye closing.

It would seem he didn’t care much about the sheets. Fine. I needed something with more value, then. Returning to the sitting area, I snatched up the vase from the coffee table. It looked old with fine hairline cracks in the white and blue glaze. Old and very pretty.

It went into the pool with a splash, tangling with the sheets.

This time, when I looked up, Vedar met and held my gaze for several long moments before both eyes closed.

I almost grinned.

“It doesn’t smell like chlorine in here. So I’m guessing this is some kind of salt water or mineral pool. I wonder how long that vase will last in the water.”

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