Page 7 of A Snowed in Valentine's

A throbbing headache roused her back to consciousness, and before she opened her eyes, her first thought was that she was still alive. She blinked once, twice, and took in the details of the room as quickly as she could. She lay on her back on a soft surface, staring up at a set of wooden rafters. She was in some kind of building, a cabin perhaps, on some kind of bed,

Slowly, she sat up, wincing as she massaged the side of her head and looked around. It was a bedroom, alright. It wasn’t very large, but the minimalistic style made it appear roomier than it really was. She was sitting on a low-slung cot. A gentle crackling told her there was a fireplace somewhere in the cabin. A small torch hung in a bracket on the wall, dimly illuminating the room.

It dawned on her all of a sudden that she was undressed; all she had on was a lacy bra and panties.

“What the heck?” she murmured.

“At last,” said a deep, familiar voice, “you’re awake.”

Her head traveled to the sound. It was the man who’d attacked her, sitting in a corner, half-shadowed by the flickering flame. His dark eyes glistened as he stared back at her, and his lips curled in a smile. She let her gaze travel lower and drew a sharp breath. He wore trousers but was completely naked above the waist. In the firelight, she could just make out his torso.

Daphne swallowed hard. His broad shoulders gave way to a barrel chest, and veins bulged in his biceps, crisscrossing his forearms and spreading like vines across his hands. His washboard abs were just as taut as the rest of his body.

Damn.

It dawned on her thathemust have pried her clothes off while she was asleep. Feeling suddenly self-conscious, she folded herarms across her chest, wondering just how much of her body he’d seen.

She could feel his gaze devouring her even as she sat stiffly on the cot. A pleasant tingle spread through her extremities and down to a spot between her legs. A slight ache began in her breasts, and her lips parted slightly. Swallowing again, she looked back at the man.

And that was when she saw it. The mark on his neck.

The darkKstood out like a neon sign. Her heart thudded in her ears as she looked at the back of her hand, where she saw the same symbol.

The memory of the man charging her with his sword hit her like a brick to the head, jerking her to full attention. He’d branded her with that mark just before he’d hit her.

Shit!

She shot to her feet and tried to bolt for the small wooden door leading out of the bedroom, but the man was just as quick as he’d been when she’d faced him earlier. In the blink of an eye, he blocked her path, that massive chest heaving with each breath.

She resisted the sudden urge to reach out and touch it. “Get the hell out of my way.”

“Or what?” he shot back.

She raised an arm and muttered a spell, but nothing happened. The man’s lips curled into an infuriating yet sexy smirk. Up close, she could see his features more clearly. He looked like he was in his mid-forties, not much older than she was. He was gray at the temples, something she hadn’t noticed when she’d first seen him.

“What did you do to me?” she snapped.

He didn’t respond. He didn’t need to. The memory of his words bombarded her:Your magic is bound now, witch. You won’t be causing any more trouble here.

She clenched her fists.

Damn.

Whatever he’d done must be blocking her magic somehow. She rubbed the back of her hand against her thigh, half-hoping to erase the mark, but no such luck. This wasnothow she’d expected her expedition to Frost Mountain to go. Here, it was day one, and she’d already been deprived of the one thing she needed to survive.

Her eyes narrowed. She was just going to have to find another way past him. She needed to take him out somehow. The man who’d tried to kill her earlier wasn’t about to let her go just because she said pretty please.

Before she could come up with a plan, a sudden movement caught her eye. It was the man. Daphne stifled a gasp as grey fur sprouted from his skin and his face elongated into a snout. A second later, he dropped onto all fours before her, a large wolf baring very sharp, dangerous-looking teeth.

Ofcourse,he was a shifter. Frost Mountain was teeming with their kind, both those who had been sucked into this dimension and the descendants of the original shifters who’d been imprisoned here centuries ago. Whichever group this man belonged to, it mattered little. He’d stripped her of her power while he still had his. She was completely at his mercy, and something told her she couldn’t expect any mercy from him.

When the wolf snarled, she nearly jumped out of her skin.

The message was clear:Get back, or I’ll kill you.

Daphne took a few steps backward.

The man shifted back into human form, standing completely naked before her. The wolf had been a warning, she realized. Nothing was stopping this man from ripping her to shreds just because.

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