“I was running from the wolves,” she declared in a voice far too raspy to be strong as she’d intended.
He lowered his head, his sensual mouth far too close to hers for comfort, far too tempting to not think about their past kiss, about kissing him now.
“But I was the wolf you really wanted to escape,” he rebutted, his warm breath grazing her cheek.
“No,” she whispered, “not you. I can’t go to jail until I deal with Derek. Don’t you understand that? Can’t you try and understand that?”
For long seconds he didn’t move, so still that she would swear he turned to stone. Abruptly, he set her away from him and dismounted. There was nothing said. He just charged toward the warehouse, towing her along with him. Sarah considered fighting him, but she didn’t. She should, too, because once they were inside the building her chances of escaping Kole were slim. But she didn’t and she didn’t know why.
Instead, she tried to keep pace as they charged up a set of steps to a steel door where he rang a bell. The door opened so quickly that it was clear whoever was inside knew they were there before they announced themselves. A wolf she didn’t know, towering and broad with long black hair streaked with red, filled the door frame.
His bright green eyes slid to the rope on her arm before he arched a brow at Kole. “Kinky Kole does Dallas,” he said dryly.
“Kinky Kole kicks Shi’s ass if he doesn’t stop with the bad jokes.”
The other wolf, Shi, snorted. “Right. Only you get to tell bad jokes.” He motioned them forward. “Room ten is all yours.” He backed away and let them enter.
Kole charged on inside, dragging Sarah with him, through what looked like offices, with two desks and a couple of chairs on each side of them. They exited another door on the other side of the room and Kole cut to the right, down a hall.
“What does ‘ten is all yours’ mean?” she asked, but he was already shoving open yet another door and pulling her with him.
Sarah had only a few seconds to take in the large training gym with weapons of all sorts hanging on the walls. Two wolves were working out, grappling. “Jacob,” Kole said with a nod to the one with light brown, wavy, collar length hair, before eying the second wolf, who, like Kole, had long blonde hair. “Eric. We need the gym.”
“Not a problem,” Eric said, heading for the door. Jacob did the same, but he cut his gaze and Sarah could feel something uneasy in him. She didn’t have time to give that much thought though.
Kole dragged her to the center of the mats and the instant the other wolves were gone, he challenged, “You want freedom? Take it.”
“What?” she asked, blinking.
“If I were Derek how would you get away?”
“I’d kill him.”
A muscle in his jaw tensed. “Then give it your best shot, sugar pie. Kill me.”
“I don’t want to kill you, Kole. I just want my freedom.”
“Then take it.”
“No, I-”
He kicked her feet out from under her and she was flat on her back with him on top of her. “So far you aren’t doing so well.”
“I wasn’t trying.”
“You want Derek?” he questioned.
“You know I do.”
“You can’t handle him.”
“I’m not like other wolves, Kole. You don’t know what I can handle.”
“Prove it.” He pushed to his feet and pulled her up with him. “If you can handle me, then I’ll believe you can handle him.”
“You’re Royal Guard,” Sarah argued. “He’s a rebel.”
“Who is a century old and good enough to be Royal Guard.”
She lifted her rope-twined wrist. “Let go of me.”
He lowered his chin, fixed her in a challenging stare. “Make me. Feel free to play rough. I like it.”
She growled in frustration. “I’m not fighting you. I’m fighting the rebels and doing what I have to do. I’m doing what you and the Guard have not.” Now she was angry. She threw a punch. He blocked it. She threw a knee. He blocked it. She stomped his damn foot with her heel and it broke off.
“That all you got?” he challenged.
She threw another punch. He shackled her free wrist and their eyes locked, “I’ve tried to get Derek,” he said. “He’s been in hiding.”
“I’ve only been at this for six months, and I, one female wolf, followed him here, when the entire Guard did not.”
“He’s not here. He’s in a rebel training camp that’s built like Ft. Knox.”
“That’s not true. I have intel-”
“Fake intel. I promised you I’d get him and I’m still going to get him. Let me handle this.”
“No,” she said. “I’m not waiting anymore and I don’t have to. I’ve got skills. I’m meant to fight.”
“Had you stayed around I would have kept you up to date on what was happening. Why did you disappear from the ambulance in the first place? You missed the funerals.”
“You think that didn’t destroy me?” Her stomach knotted just thinking about that decision, about grabbing every dime she had stashed away and then hiding.
“Then why Sarah? Why did you leave?”
Because I was on Derek’s radar and I knew the instant I took over the casino, Derek would target me again. I had to go when he was on the run, unable to track me.” It wasn’t the entire reason, but it was all he was getting.
“I would have protected you.”
“I’m not going to sit back on my hands and let some big, macho alpha wolf coddle me. I can take care of myself.”
“I saw that tonight. You would have been dead if I didn’t show up.”
“Like you’ve never made a mistake.”
”I have, but that is what Pack is for. They have your back.”
“We all have our ways of dealing with things.”
“Running away and hiding with magic, is not dealing with things.”
She growled. “I didn’t run away.”
“How’d you get your hands on magic?”
“A witch I went to school with owed me a favor.”
He considered her a long moment, his eyes narrowing, before surprising her with, “You don’t have anything to prove. You didn’t cause your family to die.”
Her stomach knotted. “I didn’t save them either. I didn’t know how. I won’t ever be weak like that again.”
“You’re not as good as you think you are, Sarah.” He kicked her legs out from under her again, as if proving his point.
“Damn it, Kole!” she shouted as she stumbled and caught herself on her hand. “You’re starting to tick me off.” She shoved to her feet. “Take the rope off and I’ll show you what I can do.”
He pulled her close and wrapped her in his arms. “Derek wouldn’t take it off.”
“I would not have ever let him get the rope around my arm.” Nor would she be this aware of him as a man, or this aware of the powerful thighs pressed to hers in a wholly masculine way, she added silently.
“So I’m to believe you just let me do it?” he challenged.
“I knew the risks when I got on the bike with you, and that included being arrested, but getting ripped to pieces by those wolves back there wasn’t a good survival technique. I intend to survive.” She reached her leg around and tripped him.
He tumbled backward and took her with him. In an instant, he was on top of her, and she was on her back. Heat rushed over her at the intimate position, the heavy weight of his body framing hers, the nearness of his lips to her mouth.
“I’ll say it again,” he said in a soft, sensual challenge. “If you can’t handle me, you can’t handle Derek.”
He was hard all over and she felt suddenly soft and yielding, a willing female that she couldn’t afford to be, not if she was to avenge her family. “And I’ll say it again. I want to kill Derek, Kole. I don’t want to kill you.”
His eyes glinted with steel and fire. “And what, Sarah, do you want to do to me?”
 
; Chapter Six
Kole didn’t give her time to reply, didn’t give her time to reject him. Driven by both the hunger he felt for her, that he had from the moment he’d met her, Kole’s mouth closed down on Sarah’s. Her response was instant. Her body softened into his, the scent of her arousal, her passion, teasing his nostrils, filing his senses, driving him insane. Hunger like he’d never known ravished him, devoured him. He yearned to devour her. His tongue pressed past her teeth, the sweet taste of her passion exploding on his taste buds, his hand caressing her slender waist. He’d wanted her before Derek had stolen her from him. He wanted her even more now that he’d lost her, now that he’d found her, this woman he’d known he was falling in love with, that he’d known – he knew– had to be his mate. He pulled her closer, molding her against him, his hands traveling her back, her slender, womanly curves.
But instead of giving him the submission he demanded, she shoved against his chest, tearing her mouth from his in the midst of a moan filled with both pleasure and torment, as if ending the kiss caused her pain. “What is this, Kole?” she panted, accusation in her tone. “You want to fuck me and then lock me away? Is that standard protocol for the Guard?”
“I’m not locking you away. Not unless it’s in a bedroom with me present for about a week.” He lowered his head, brought his lips a breath from hers. “Make that a month.”
She didn’t pull back, but her fingers flexed against his chest. “I thought-”
“You thought wrong.”
She searched his face, electricity charging the air around them.“The King-”
“Can’t have you anymore than I plan to let Derek kill you.”
“I thought you were arresting me. I don’t understand.”
“You will.” His mouth came down over hers again, tongue stroking hers with command. The animal in him was in control, the wolf that screamed ‘mine‘ when Sarah was near, that knew her in a way he’d never known another woman. She would submit to him, she would give herself to him, right here and right now.
This time, she didn’t resist him, she didn’t pull back. Her fingers slid to his hair, and when he pressed her legs apart, she opened willingly, welcoming him as he settled the thick ridge of his shaft, pressing into the intimate core of her body. Kole didn’t need more encouragement. He wasn’t of his normal, controlled mind, where sex was sex, and while he needed it, wanted it, he didn’t have to have it or any particular female. He had to have Sarah, just Sarah, and that need had him all but shaking. He tasted her, kissed her, feathered caresses down her neck, his hands exploring her breasts, her slender waist. And when she stabbed her fingers into his hair, her head tilting in a silent plea for more, he felt his cock thicken, and passion blinded him. He had to be inside her now, in this instant.
A loud thunder of footsteps and some muted voices sounded not far away and Sarah jerked. “Is someone going to walk in here?”
He pulled on her blouse, and the button flew. “Not if they want to keep their fangs.” He shoved down the black lace of her lingerie and teased the rosy red buds into stiff peaks, before suckling one into his mouth and drawing deeply on it.
She gasped and let her weight drop back to the mat. “I think....we need...a bed.”
“We’ll get there,” he promised, kissing his way down her stomach. “We’ll get there. Right after you understand exactly where it is we're going.” He shoved her skirt up and found no panties.
His gaze jerked to hers, something fierce and dark stirring inside him as he thought of her like this with those wolves from the bar.
“The wolves-”
“Smell you,” he finished as something fierce and dark stirred inside him. He moved up her body to bring his mouth to hers. “And you used yourself as bait.” It wasn’t a question, and he didn’t wait for an answer. He slid his hand between her thighs and pressed two fingers into the slick heat of her body. “Were you wet for them like you are me?”
“No!” she moaned as he stroked her. “Kole...I..”
He pumped into her, his thumb playing with her swollen clit. “Did they do this to you? How far did you go, Sarah, before you killed them?”
“Nowhere,” she panted. “I just killed them.”
“You kissed them?”
“Kole I-”
He covered her mouth with his, unwilling to hear the confirmation, punishing her with his angry kiss, before he added, “You will not use yourself as bait ever again.”
A beat of silence. “I’ll do whatever I have to to get to Derek.”
“No,” he said tightly, “you will not.” He lapped at her nipple and suckling it roughly. He was angry and she was a wolf. She could handle him, at least in bed. That she could handle the other wolves too, well that pissed him off. She was a young wolf, but she knew on some level what they were to each other, she knew who she belong to. He brought his mouth to her ear, still caressing the slick folds of her body, still pumping into her. “Not ever again, Sarah. Do you understand me?”
She moaned, her fingers digging into his shoulders, her back arching, head tilting to the side. “You have no say so in this, Kole.”
Mine. The word echoed in his mind again, a word he’d never used with any other female, and he moved between her legs, licked her clit and suckled it. Mine. She was his mate. He’d hunted for her, grieved for her, and she’d hidden from him as she could never do once they had exchanged blood. He’d be able to track her, he’d be able to protect her. She’d be stronger, live as long as he. Kole lapped at her, licking and tasting, claiming her.
He could feel himself shaking inside with the need to make it so, could feel his skin heat as if flames were burning him as they had by that warehouse. The need to strip her naked and take her right here and now was almost unbearable, and so was his anger, at the thought of those wolves touching her, fucking her.
She tensed and shook, her body clenching at his fingers in release. He worked his tongue over her, in her, all around her, until she collapsed in heavy gasps. He was on top of her again in an instant. His mouth came down on hers and this time it was brutally passionate, filled with anger and primal need, he didn’t even try to contain. His anger at her wasn’t fair, when he’d let this happen, when he’d failed Sarah. “How many rebels did what I just did to you?” he demanded as he felt the tension curled around his fingers, the edge of her orgasm.
“None,” she whispered. “It’s not what you think. It’s-”
“Don’t explain,” Kole said. “Not now.” He shoved to his feet and brought Sarah with him, before she said something and he snapped and lost control. She might not know the volatile state of a wolf with a mate he has yet to bond with, but he’d seen many a male in that state and it wasn’t pretty. To think he could be otherwise, had been foolish. He wouldn’t claim a mate who was destined to resent her desire for him.
“Why not now?” Sarah asked, stumbling to steady her footing, and quickly tugging her skirt down. “I didn’t do anything you think I did and I don’t see why its your business anyway.”
“You know why its my business,” he said, his voice low, tight. “We both know, Sarah. We both knew before any of this happened with Derek.” His gaze dropped and raked over the slash of skin where her shirt gaped, one of her nipples peaking from the top of her bra. His blood thickened and his cock joined the party, stretching against his already straining zipper.
“Kole you-”
“Cover yourself before we end up back on the mat and I do something to make you hate me more than you already do.”
She adjusted the bra. “I don’t hate you and I’m without buttons. My shirt won’t shut.”
Because he’d ripped them off just like he wanted to rip off the rest of her clothes. “I’m more aware of that than you can possibly know. Let’s go.” He snatched the rope dangling from her arm, every muscle in his body tense.
“Like I have a choice,” she said in a soft challenge behind him.
He halted his retreat.“You always have a choice.”
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She studied him, searched his face. “Then let me go, Kole.” There was a plea beneath the words.
“I can’t do that and you know it.”
Her tone hardened. “Then I don’t have a choice.”
“In all things but your own death wish you do. So hate me if you must, but I won’t let you die.” He turned and started walking, not giving her an option but to follow thanks to the rope.
Kole led her down yet another hallway, knowing he was doing exactly what Shi had done five years before, turning his back on the Guard for a woman. And that woman had burned Shi, damn near destroyed him, and Kole feared he was headed the same place, only unlike Shi, Kole would deserve it. He might as well have been standing on a ledge about to jump hundreds of feet to a concrete smack down with a rebel shoving a silver loaded weapon to his back. He knew he couldn’t survive the fall but he was going to jump anyway. That idea quickened his pace down a hallway with a good half dozen studio style living quarters that resembled hotel rooms, all used by the leather-clad, and sometimes shady wolves, that Shi contracted as mercenaries.
Kole stopped at the last door, room ten, and entered. Once they were both inside, he let go of the rope and turned to face Sarah, wondering if her beauty would ever stop punching him in the gut. He’d known his share of gorgeous females, but none did this to him, but her. It was the mating heat and he knew it. She felt it too, she’d cave to it just as he would, and regret it later. He couldn’t let that happen.“You aren’t to leave this room without me.” But he was leaving, before the damnable sweet scent of her, sexual and flowery, at once, convinced him otherwise.
She inhaled and let it out. “So I’m just what I said I was. A prisoner you want to fuck.”
He squeezed his eyes shut. “No. Yes.” He forced his gaze to hers. “I want you more than you can possibly understand and that’s why I’m leaving before we both forget why that is such a bad idea.”