Page 13 of Defiant
“You’re fucking insane,” she spits, bucking in my arms just as my butler opens the tall white front door.
Standing there in his formal penguin suit, there isn’t much shifter shit that Matthew hasn’t seen at fifty-two. But tonight, his eyes widen when he spots the struggling girl in my arms. It’s a first for us. “Dark Night spy,” I tell him. “Get the basement storage room ready.”
He nods briskly and turns on his heel.
Meanwhile, Elena’s frozen and is staring up at me in shock, those eyes of hers so round that her lashes brush the ridge of skin below her brows. “I amnota spy. I’m a fucking Lobo!”
I clamp down on her arms as I walk across the grand marble foyer, skirting the wolf statue set in the middle. “We’ll see.”
“Call my mother dammit!” Elena’s cheeks grow flushed with fury and her brows crease.
I ignore her as I stroll across to the stairwell. Matthew’s thoughtfully left the door open so I can descend with my prey in my arms. As I carry her down into the dimly lit basement, the dark, baser part of me, that monster I normally keep chained, raises his head. His eyes gleam when Elena’s mouth drops open. His head tilts in interest when one of her stiff nipples drags across my chest after she tries to escape and I clamp her to me.
“Careful. Don’t want to drop you on the stairs,” I tell her. And actually, I don’t. I don’t want her bruised from an accident. If she deserves it, I want to be the one hurting her.
She stops struggling at the look on my face, which I know is a step beyond sane right now.
Sick, twisted fuck,I scold myself. But that doesn’t stop my blood from racing at the thought. Alphas always have a little evil in them. The stronger the alpha, the greater the evil, or so I’ve always thought. But monsters make the best protectors because we can recognize the darkness in others … we can keep more dangerous demons at bay. Like the fucking alpha of the Dark Nights, Cooper Stone. This is his fourth attempt at sabotaging our pack in the last few years.
First, that fucker bribed the CFO of my stores to create fake vendors and pay fake invoices. The asshole drained nearly three-hundred-fifty grand before I ripped his throat out and had his severed head baked into a cake and then hand-delivered to Stone just as I’d had three of my wolves break into Stone’s local bank and rob it and him blind. Another time, Stone had his wolves come across and not only piss in our territory but set out traps in our forest. One of our new wolves broke a damn leg—the girl still had a limp.
I’d gone after several of his alphas, his inner circle … and now quite a few of them walked with a limp. Eye for an eye? No. Bullshit. I live by the code: an eye for a fucking head. Everything he did, I’d do back to him ten times over. There was an airplane incident, which I didn’t like to think about. And now this.
Elena.
I wonder what her real name is.
I briefly try to contemplate what might be a suitable punishment for Stone in retaliation for sending someone like her—the perfect fucking temptation. I can’t think of one off the top of my head but I’ve got no doubt a solution will come. Evil’s never been hard for me to channel.
Elena stiffens under my gaze but stops struggling as we descend.
I stop at the foot of the stairs and watch her as she surveys the room—taking in the tan walls and plush carpet, the bar counter at the back, and the few recliners scattered randomly about. I had the basement redone a few years ago … so it’s not quite got a dungeon vibe, what with the ping-pong table and dart board off to the right.
There’s a bedroom and an ensuite bathroom down here too … but I head past those doors, past the rec area, to the storage room, where there are empty wooden shelves in a room lit by only two fluorescent lights, their tubes suspended on little chains hanging from the ceiling. It’s some Pinterest housewife’s wet dream, a huge space to store decorations for every holiday or event imaginable.
But Matthew’s currently carrying my one solitary box of childhood memorabilia out of the room. He doesn’t even glance at Elena when she pleads, “Call the cops. Maddox is kidnapping me.”
Kidnapping.
As if human laws apply to shifters.
I refrain from rolling my eyes as I set her down and resist the urge to flick one of those nipples as she scurries back from me into the shadows.
“You wanna hide? Fine. Enjoy.” I head to the door and grab the handle, scanning the room one last time for anything she might take or break. But it’s empty shelves as far as the eye can see. There is only one tiny window letting light enter this room, a small rectangle near the ceiling, and the air conditioner has made the space cold.
Satisfied, I pull the door shut and hold a hand out for the key, which Matthew hands over promptly before striding off, as if watching me lock a young woman up in my basement is a bit too much for him, though his place doesn’t allow him to say so.
As long as he’s discreet, which I know he will be, I don’t much care.
I slide the key into the lock just as I feel the round handle start to turn. I grip the knob, holding it tightly in place against Elena’s attempts to tug it.
“You bastard!” she yells and pounds on the door.
But her fury provides me the opportunity I need. I turn the key and lock the little vixen inside.
What I’ll do with her … well that remains a question.
I guess it’s time to get some answers so I can decide.
