Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 81208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“Goldie.”
I blink, managing to get my eyes open for just a second. A handsome face. That’s all I see. Beautiful chocolate eyes that seem pained, high cheekbones, and straight nose. Full lips that are close enough to kiss me.
I blink again, this time seeing more. Shaggy hair. Furrowed brow. It’s Hunter. He’s the one to touch me like I’m a sleeping princess who he’s desperate to awaken.
“She’s okay,” another voice says. “She’ll be okay. Just give her some space.”
“You don’t know that,” Hunter barks. “What the hell have they given her to keep her so sedated?”
“Just chloroform. It’s wearing off. Give her a minute.” It could be Evan or Robert. In my disoriented state, I can’t tell.
“This is our fault,” Hunter says. “We never should have left her alone.”
“She was safe in the house. We had to go.”
“It was all a ruse for them to get us to leave her alone. They want to destroy our future, the future of our clan.” His voice breaks. “They wanted to destroy our hearts.”
“We know.” Is that Evan’s voice soothing? “But it’s over now.”
“For how long? If we’d got there any later…” Hunter’s voice is tight with desperation. His hand strokes over my hair again, firm and frantic. “Wake up, Goldie. It’s okay. You’re safe now. We’ve got you.”
My hand is lifted and pressed to warm lips. Hunter presses a hard, urgent kiss against my knuckles. “We won’t let anyone hurt you,” he murmurs against my skin. This is Hunter. The furious and demanding Neanderthal brother who wanted to claim me. He sounds broken.
“There’s going to be retaliation,” Robert says. “We killed one of them. Wounded more.”
“I should have killed him that day by the house. He tried to take Goldie once. I knew he’d try again.”
“We gave him a warning he should have listened to.”
“This just shows that they’re not thinking clearly. The fire. Kidnapping. Something has changed.”
“They’re waiting for their mate, too,” Evan says. “It’s been slow for our generation, which isn’t good. It can drive a man crazy.”
“Hunter knows,” Robert says, and Hunter scoffs.
I’ve been conscious for a while now, but I’ve tried to keep as still as possible, letting them talk while I soak everything up. Wolves took me. Wolfmen. Other creatures like the Bjorns are out there, and they’re at war.
The fact settles inside me strangely.
Until now, I’ve thought that the idea that I’m destined to be with these bears is crazy—a convenient fiction that Robert, Evan, and especially Hunter have latched on to. But there are other creatures out there that know, too—enough to kidnap me so that I can’t be with the triplets, steal me to crush their hope for the next generation.
This is all real.
I open my eyes again, and this time, I keep them open, taking in Hunter’s furrowed brow and the pain etched in his expression. He was frantic about my safety. His touch is tender and concerned, not rough and selfish.
It’s clearer why Hunter has been this angry and arrogant man. He’s yearning for the next stage in his life and worried about what could stop him from fulfilling everything he’s been promised. I understand what it’s like to have a dream and find that there are barriers to achieving it.
“Goldie,” he says, pressing his rough, bearded cheek against mine.
“What happened?” I croak. Is that really my voice? It doesn’t sound like me.
“You were kidnapped,” Hunter says. “But we got you back. They didn’t do anything, right? They didn’t hurt you?”
He’s obviously worried. Worried there might be wounds that he can’t see.
I wiggle my fingers and stretch out my legs. There’s pain that feels like bruising. Did they do something to me while I was too out of it to remember?
“We had to carry you,” Evan says, noticing my movements. “You might feel a little sore.”
Hunter brings my hand to his lips again, and he kisses it. “Why did you go, Goldie? Why did you put yourself in danger? If something had happened to you, I don’t know what I would have done.”
“Killed someone,” Robert mutters under his breath.
“That goes without saying.” Hunter’s eyes burn into mine with more fierceness than I’ve ever seen in another person. “I look after what’s mine. I protect what’s mine. And I avenge what’s mine.”
“And I don’t get a say,” I whisper.
“You get a say… of course you do.”
“You don’t own me, Hunter,” I whisper.
“We own each other.” His eyes shift from dark pools to warm chocolate, and he closes them as though he’s fighting against the intensity of his own feelings. Filaments of connection form between us, tickling my skin, breaking through to my soft center, like magic is at work.
Magic is at work. Fate’s fingers are all over everything, at least, that’s how it feels.
“Hunter,” I murmur, and a shudder runs through him at the sound of his name on my lips.