Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 91622 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91622 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“If that’s the case, better forget us ever getting closer,” Dane snapped, tossing off his pants and reaching into the pile of dry ones. He hoped they weren’t rotten, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. “I don’t know where you got those insane views from, but prey doesn’t love its predator. It’s unnatural.”
Jag undressed in rapid moves, betraying his agitation. Dane might have tried attacking him, but he wasn’t taking his chances with a man who hid weapons all over the junkyard and might as well have a poisoned needle in his hair.
“Maybe love isn’t necessary! All prey needs to know is its place in the food chain! So maybe I can’t have a woman, but my father taught me how things should be, and he knew what he was talking about since he secured not one but two mates!”
What. The Actual. Fuck.
“Oh, he abducted them too?” Dane asked, pulling on a pair of sweatpants while staring at Jag in the faint light. The fucker didn’t deserve to be this handsome. “Your mommy didn’t want to be there?”
Jag slapped him. “Don’t you dare talk about my mother like that! She knew her place and was perfectly satisfied with it.”
Dane snorted. “Wow. I’ve never ever met a person who wanted to be perfectly satisfied rather than happy. And your father sounds like someone who deserves to be put down.”
“Why? Because he’s strong enough to lead his pack, and outsiders can’t stand it?”
Dane couldn’t believe Jag defended the guy when right now, it was clearly him who had been the outsider. Jag hadn’t been allowed to stay in the fucked up commune because he liked dick, so why the hell was he so nostalgic about that place?
“Yeah, and you had to leave your family because of him. It’s fucked up!”
Jag dressed in a big-ass T-shirt and sweatpants, but kept pacing like a wounded wolf about to lash out. “Are you saying I’m weak? Did I not provide you food and shelter?” He spread his arms wide as madness glinted in his beautiful green eyes.
“I already had food and shelter,” Dane growled, rising on the sloped floor and drying himself with a T-shirt. “There are things you could offer me, but since you want everything to be your way, I don’t want them!” he said, keeping his gaze on Jag’s face, because his torso always looked too tempting, and even more so now, with the fabric clinging to damp flesh.
Jag huffed and plopped down into the blankets like a sack of unhappiness. “What can I offer you? I have chocolates,” he mumbled and pointed to the box nearby.
Un-fucking-believable.
“This way? Nothing. I want nothing from a man who takes me away against my will and tries to make me live by the rules of some crazy cult of polygamists!”
Jag rolled the back of his head against the wall. “They weren’t all polygamists. Most of my brothers only had one wife.”
“Doesn’t fucking matter. Why would you even attempt living like the community that rejected you? Open your fucking eyes, Jag,” Dane growled, tossing the damp T-shirt away as soon as it had absorbed some of the moisture in his hair.
“You might not see it, but I’ve changed a lot since I left. I live life my own way, but the world is still hostile and strange. This is simpler. This is the good way,” Jag said and patted the blankets next to him. “It will be warmer if we sit together,” he said as if Dane couldn’t see right through his sneaky intentions.
“It’s simpler for you because you’re not the one needing to make all those adjustments,” Dane snapped, putting on a bright red hoodie he found in the pile.
“Dane… you must see I’m trying.” Jag leaned forward and pulled on the pant leg of Dane’s sweats. “I’ve been working hard to make you comfortable. I saved you even though I was told to bury you.”
Dane scowled at Jag’s hand as anger burned through his veins, and he stood his ground. “You might be far away from your father, but he is still the one you’re trying to impress, not your potential mate. Am I right or am I right?”
Jag took his sweet time processing that and huffed like an unhappy Labrador. “But if you had it your way, you’d just leave.”
“No. I wouldn’t, because you saved my life, and I was grateful. But instead of helping me, you put me in a fucking collar, as if I were your pet! It also happened right after the guy I’ve been fucking beat me up unconscious! Forgive me for being mistrustful.”
Jag’s head snapped up, and he jumped to his feet. “I will find him and kill him.”
This fucking guy. He was infuriating. A caveman with crooked morals.
“I don’t care. I want my life back!”
Jag’s shoulders fell. “You say you won’t leave?” he asked in a gentler voice and reached toward the padlock on Dane’s collar.