Aidan’s face darkened. “So, I guess it was okay to spell me and force me to take you here?”
Sophia winced, then straightened as she realized he was trying to make her feel guilty. “That was different. I used you for one day, yes, I admit that. You’re talking about a heck of a lot longer. So, the answer is no. Now go before I call my sisters.”
He shook his head. “I’ll leave, but you’re coming with me.”
Sophia opened her mouth to scream and call her sisters for help, but he clamped a hand over her mouth. You’ve got to be kidding me. How dare he!
She bit him, hard, but he didn’t even flinch. The sound of ripping fabric filled the air as he tore a strip from the sleeve of her robe and a moment later he stuffed his makeshift gag into her mouth and tied it in place. She glared daggers at him, but he just shrugged unapologetically.
“You’ll thank me later.”
Then the jerk slung her over his shoulder. Initially when her face brushed the naked-scorchingly lickable-skin of his back, she forgot to breathe. But common sense returned quickly and she pummeled his bare back and kicked her feet. He responded with a firm whack to her bottom.
He spanked me! Enraged, she went nuts on him, but several more resounding slaps on her ass later, she finally gave up. Not only had she not managed to even come close to escaping his iron grip, her ass now throbbed painfully-even more disturbing, her pussy throbbed too. With pleasure.
Oh, I am going to make him pay when I get free. Angry words and intentions, and yet her body still betrayed her, pulsing with heat and arousal.
Aidan didn’t know he was going to kidnap her until Sophia flat-out refused to even consider being his mate. Usually a reasonably level-headed man, he went a little crazy-maybe he’d blame it on hormones like the women in the pack did.
Whatever the reason, he gagged her when she would have screamed her pretty face off and carried her struggling like a hellcat to where he’d parked his truck. He’d be lying if he claimed he hadn’t enjoyed smacking her full bottom, a practice he’d heard of but never partaken of before. He did note for future reference, though, the effectiveness of the punishment. Not only did she end up behaving, but her arousal spun around him in a heavy perfume. If only he dared seduce her like his body clamored to, but so close to her sisters, he didn’t dare. He needed to get her away from here so he could work on convincing her that pairing up with him wouldn’t be as horrible as she thought. Sex slave indeed. She didn’t seem to realize that the crazy desire she felt went two ways.
With her no longer fighting him, he made quick work of the distance between the woods and his truck. It amazed him actually in retrospect that no other witches had come across them during their disagreement. I wonder if my new friend, the dragon, played a part in that. Although it would have been funny to see what they thought of a naked man kidnapping a witch.
He arrived at his truck and opened the passenger door, then placed her on the seat. As he rounded the truck to climb in the other side, she used her unbound hands to open the door and she jumped out.
He sensed more than heard her cry of pain as the little idiot turned her ankle when she hit the ground. In seconds, he was by her side where she sat in the gravel, rubbing her ankle. She tried to shrivel him with a glare, but he shook his head at her.
“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.
Ah, the pleasurable things a man’s got to do for his woman.
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. I guess there’s no denying, even with his cave man tactics, that I’m attracted to him. But, dammit, it’s one thing to be attracted, a whole other to be his slave for the rest of my life.
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 breeders, as her teacher had sneeringly called them, were guarded closely and not allowed the freedoms of other castes.