“Stubborn witch, aren’t you? Did you really think you were going to escape?”
“A girl’s got to try,” she said sulkily.
He chuckled at her spirit then palpated her hurting ankle. His wolf, roused by the pain he could faintly feel emanating from her, paced in his mind unhappily. It stunned him that a mental resonance had already begun between him and Sophia, one that allowed him to sense some of her thoughts and emotions. It was a little disconcerting, especially the knowledge that their eventual mating would amplify it. A benefit or curse, depending on how you looked at it.
After he’d swung her into his arms, he perched her back on the seat and regarded her sternly. “Do I need to tie you to the dash, or are you going to sit there like a good little girl?”
She just scowled at him and crossed her arms.
He arched a brow. “I’m waiting. You haven’t answered my question.”
“I’ll stay, for now.”
Inwardly chuckling at her stubborn nature, something he admired-he couldn’t imagine being shackled to a weak-willed lily. He hopped into the driver’s side and started the truck. He locked her door with the master switch on his side, then dressed quickly, used to doing so in confined spaces, a skill all shifters acquired. He loved the way she studiously ignored him. He loved even more the scent of her arousal that, even as angry as she was, she couldn’t control.
He started the truck and pulled onto the road. Next stop, his cabin, where he’d have his work cut out for him if he wanted to convince her to be his mate.
Sophia kept her mouth shut and refused to look at him, but in the close confines of the cab, she couldn’t help but feel the heat radiating from him. Her treacherous body replied in turn by moistening her cleft and tightening her nipples. Dressed in only her robes, she felt her thighs rub together slickly and her tight nipples protrude beneath the cloth. She gnashed her teeth.
Or so she’d been taught. As part of her magical studies, she’d learned about other beings, many of whom resembled humans, like shifters and the fey. They’d spent a whole week on shifters, with the different classes divided into lupine, feline, ursine, more commonly known as bears, aquatics, which the merpeople belonged to, and dragon, the rarest and strongest. Unlike what was shown in legends and movies, shapeshifting was not contagious, but rather it was a matter of genetics. One thing the media and other storytellers got correct was the fact that most of the shifters tended to live in packs where an alpha set the rules. All, that is, except dragons, who tended to be loners and few.
As she looked at Aidan surreptitiously, she wondered if this determined man could possibly be alpha for his pack. He seemed too young. However, considering that the position of pack leader was often based on strength, he definitely fit the bill. That and she had a hard time seeing him kowtow to someone else. Stubborn and determined to do things his own way, she really kicked herself for believing he’d actually fallen for her persuasion spell. All along the signs of his not succumbing had been there. Just look at the way he’d ordered her to bed and…
While squirming in her seat, she changed the direction of her thoughts-reluctantly, because the few moments they’d kissed on the bed had definitely left their erotic mark-back to what she knew of shifters. Maybe she’d remember something that would help her convince Aidan that mating with her was a bad idea.
Shifter hierarchy and history had proved interesting, but it didn’t compare to the mating aspect of their kind. Shifters bonded for life. No one was quite sure how the magic of it worked, but once the male marked his chosen one by biting her hard enough to draw blood, something happened. A twining of souls, some opined. Controlling magic, argued feminist others. Whatever the underlying factor, the end result was unanimous-the pair became utterly devoted to each other.
Not too bad-sounding until you read further and found out that while the men continued to live life as before, the women were kept tied to the hearth popping out babies. Infant mortality rates were high in the packs, which contrasted with how healthy the surviving babies were. Only the strongest children survived, so women, or
Then there was one other fact. Supposedly although shapeshifters did occasionally breed outside the clans, the offspring in the case of witches tended to all end up being shifters. Or so the textbooks said. The low incidences of this type of mating made information more difficult to come by, because both sides tended to guard the purity of their bloodlines closely. Interspecies breeding was greatly discouraged because of the dwindling witch and warlock population. It was expected and encouraged that when a witch did choose to settle down, she would do so with a warlock and thus continue her magical line. Yet this didn’t make complete sense to Sophia since she’d heard rumors of witches who’d been born of a human and witch and who had more powers than full-blooded witches.
All the history and background info, good or bad, wouldn’t change the fact she wouldn’t marry a man after knowing him for only a day, hot in the sack or not.
Now if only she could convince him-and her body.
The darkness and the drive lulled her, and Sophia lost the struggle with her eyelids, waking hours later to full daylight and to discover her head nestled in his lap.
She scrambled upright, and her cheeks heated at his low chuckle. After scrubbing at her eyes, she looked around, not recognizing anything, not that this area was familiar to start with, but she didn’t recall a huge forest on the drive to the Covenhouse Inn. She’d obviously slept a while since the sun seemed to have moved past midday.
“Where are we?”
“Close.”
She pursed her lips at his oblique answer. “Close to where, smartass?”
“You’ll see.” With that enigmatic answer, he started to whistle jauntily while Sophia simmered.
Her stomach growled, and she wanted to die of embarrassment, but instead she got mad. “So, does your convincing me to be your slave include starvation?”
“Look behind your seat.”
Sophia craned around and saw a cooler. Lifting the lid, she found cold water bottles, packaged sandwiches, and fruit. “Nice to know you came prepared for your kidnapping.”
“Actually, I stopped and bought that and some other supplies.”
“While I was asleep?” Something was fishy. No way she’d slept through all that. She peered at him suspiciously and was rewarded with color blooming on the tops of his cheeks.
“I might have had some help with that,” he admitted. “I made a friend, a dragon shifter, while you were dancing naked. When I stopped for gas, he was already there waiting for me, and before you ask me how, I don’t know. Anyways, he wove a sleep spell around you to allow me to make it to our destination.” As he said this the road they were on went from pavement to packed dirt, and Sophia bounced and jiggled on her seat as he drove over the ruts.
“You mean you weren’t the only one spying on us?” she asked as outrage filled her.
Aidan shrugged. “Dracin and I weren’t the only ones. Apparently, there are a lot more shifters bonded to witches than I previously thought. Don’t worry, though,” he said with a mischievous smile. “You were by far the hottest witch there. I quite enjoyed the way you shook that luscious ass of yours and the way your tits jiggled. Maybe you can give me a private dance later?”
Shocked into silence at his words, she turned to look out the window. She wanted to feel angry he’d watched her, but instead she fought two vastly different emotions. Arousal because his words made her picture herself giving him an up-close and personal dance wearing nothing. The other emotion made no sense. It felt like jealousy- the idea he’d laid eyes on other naked women did not please her at all. Yet why should she care?
The bumpy road finally ended in a clearing wherein a log cabin sat.
