“Holy shit!” She quickly shifted away from him. “You’re a wolf,” Daylen said in a quiet voice. “And you’re the wolf I locked in the bathroom this morning.”
Jager nodded his lupine head. At least Daylen had recognized him in his wolf form.
But the way she was staring at him, with fear and shock flitting across her face, he wasn’t sure if this had been a smart move on his part.
Daylen pushed herself back into the corner of the couch. When he followed, she practically leaned backwards over the arm to get away from him. “You can understand what I’m saying?”
Once again, Jager moved his head up and down. He then let out a whine and tried to put his head under Daylen’s hand so she would pet him. All that got him was a hand in the face as she roughly pushed him away.
She jumped off the couch. “No, no, no. I don’t think I can handle this.”
Realizing he was doing more damage than good the longer he stayed in wolf form, Jager shifted to his human one. He got off the couch and went to stand in front of Daylen.
She held out her hands to keep him away.
“You don’t have to be afraid. I would never hurt you. You’re my mate,” he said.
“Back up there. I’m not your mate. And, since you’re laying it out all on the table, I’m going to be truthful here. I seriously can’t see myself being mated to a freakin’
werewolf.” Daylen’s voice rose a couple octaves when she said those last two words.
“It isn’t as if we’ll have much choice in the matter. We were meant to be together. I know you’re my mate, and I’ll never be able to just walk away from you.”
“Well, you’re going to have to because I’m not tying myself, mated or whatever you want to call it, to you. Yes, I lust after you, but it doesn’t go beyond that. And now that I know what you are, the lust part just isn’t there anymore.”
Already having his nerves stretched thin from the mating urge riding him, Jager had reached the end of his tether. He lunged for Daylen, took her by the arms, and yanked her to him. He brought his mouth down to hers and kissed her until the lust she said was gone flared between them. The scent of her arousal swirled in the air, giving testament to the fact that Daylen wasn’t as unaffected by him as she wanted him to believe.
Jager continued to kiss her as he brought his hands down her arms and pulled them behind her back. He kept them shackled in one of his hands and lifted his head. He gave a grunt of satisfaction when he saw the glazed look in Daylen’s eyes.
Spinning her around, he kept his grip on her hands and walked her to her bedroom.
Once inside the room, he looked around until his gaze landed on her uniform belt hanging from the closet door handle. Going over to it, taking Daylen with him, he opened the pouch that held her handcuffs. He pulled them out and put the key to unlock them in his jeans’ pocket.
“What are you going to do with those?” Daylen asked as she eyed the handcuffs warily.
“Since you’re not going to make this easy on me, I’m going to play by my rules now.”
Jager then slapped the handcuffs on Daylen’s wrists and pulled her back out into the hallway. It was time for Plan B.
“Where the hell are you taking me?” Daylen asked as Jager pulled her down the hall in the direction of the front door. She tried to yank her arm out of his grasp, but with her arms cuffed behind her back, she couldn’t get the leverage she needed.
“I’m going to take you to my place and keep you there until you start to see reason.”
Daylen dug in her heels, which had no effect on Jager whatsoever. “That’s kidnapping, another criminal offense.”
Jager pulled her to a stop and turned her so she faced him. “Do I look as if I care?
We’re mates. The sooner you admit that the better off both of us will be. I want you, you want me, so no more trying to get rid of me. It won’t work. Once you accept what we mean to each other, you’ll wish you’d never fought it.”
She couldn’t believe the audacity of the man. “For your information, I don’t want you.”
Jager shook his head. “Do I have to kiss you again to show you how wrong that statement is?”
No, she didn’t want him to kiss her again. She lost all will to resist when he did that.
When his mouth claimed hers, Daylen no longer cared that Jager was a werewolf, or that he could shift into a wolf. Even now, her body wanted to feel his lips and tongue again.
When she didn’t say anything, Jager gave a quick nod. “I didn’t think you’d want me to, but I’m not promising I’ll keep my lips to myself later.”
Daylen’s heart started to beat faster at the thought of Jager’s lips kissing every inch of her. God, she was losing it. Here she was handcuffed, about to be taken against her will to some place she didn’t know with a man who happened to be a werewolf, and all she could think about was how well Jager knew how to use his tongue.
Keeping his grip on her arm, Jager led her to the living room where he turned off the TV and all the lights. Before leaving the room, he scooped up his duster and sword. He then steered her toward the front entrance hallway. He snagged her house keys off the key rack that hung on the wall next to the door. Before he opened the front door, he got her to shove her feet into her running shoes that sat in front of the closet. For someone who was kidnapping her, Jager was taking his time to do everything someone would do if they were leaving the house for the rest of the night.
After he pulled the front door open, Jager walked her through it then closed and locked it behind them. Daylen looked at the neighboring houses as he led her toward the driveway where a new model black Camaro was parked. If one of her neighbors happened to be outside, all it would take would be one call for help and they would come running.
As if he knew what she had been thinking, Jager said, “Don’t even think about it.
You can either walk nicely to my car, without kicking up a stink, or I can sling you over my shoulder and carry you there. I’m sure your neighbors would get an eyeful if I start fondling that shapely ass of yours. I wonder what their reaction would be, you being a cop and all.”
“Did anyone ever tell you you’re a fucking asshole?”
Jager chuckled. “Actually, I get that quite a lot. I have a reputation for saying whatever is on my mind, no punches pulled. It tends to piss some people off.”
“You think?” Daylen said sarcastically.
He chuckled again. “You’ll get used to it.”
Jager pulled open the Camaro’s passenger door and helped her inside. Once he had her settled on the seat, he strapped the seatbelt around her. Starting to feel what it must be like for the people she’d arrested and stuck cuffed into the back of her police cruiser, Daylen watched Jager walk around the front of the car and get into the driver’s side.
After he threw his duster and sword onto the backseat, he started the car and backed out of her driveway.
As she watched her house grow smaller in the side view mirror, Daylen decided she would bide her time. Once Jager took the handcuffs off, he was going to find out what a black belt in karate could do to a werewolf.
Daylen felt her jaw drop when Jager pulled onto a long drive of a house that could only be called a mansion. When he had driven across the Golden Gate Bridge and into Marin County, she’d known that there were some pretty swanky homes here, but Daylen hadn’t expected a werewolf to live in a place so rich. She really hadn’t thought of where Jager would live, but the mansion that loomed in front of the car was not what she had expected.