“Lord Robin.” The pooka’s tenor voice was soft and filled with amusement. He met Robin’s gaze dead on, with only a slight twinge of fear, quickly masked.
Robin grinned, intrigued. Maybe the boy has potential after all. Robin was always on the lookout for potential Blades, men and women of integrity who guarded Oberon and did his will. This one could be a recruit, if he proved himself capable.
He turned his attention back to Oberon, one eyebrow cocked, the grin still lingering on his face.
Oberon merely shook his head. They knew each other well. Oberon would know how Robin would react to Kael. “If the prince is no longer with us, I expect you to dispense justice.”
The green glow in Robin’s eyes was swiftly hidden by his long lashes as he bowed to his king and friend. “Yes, my liege.” He ignored Lord Kael’s swiftly hidden shiver of unease.
This had the potential to be fun.
Taking her captive could prove his innocence…or make her a target.
Savage Revenge
© 2013 Shelli Stevens
Savage, Book 3
Agent and Alpha Nathan Larson has fled his pack, his agency and Washington State on a life-or-death mission to prove himself innocent of a savage massacre he’s pretty sure he didn’t commit.
So far he’s covered his tracks, but it’s only a matter of time. He needs a place to hunker down under the radar, and he intends to make it happen. No matter who becomes collateral damage.
Sage Christensen knows every shifter in this small California town, and the darkly attractive, brooding alpha attempting to flirt with her stands out like a flea on a white cat. She quickly realizes she was right to be wary when he follows her home and holds her captive.
Despite her refusal to be a compliant victim, she can’t deny their chemistry. Or the gut instinct that maybe he really is innocent. But with the trail of dead women growing longer, Sage begins to wonder if it was a mistake to trust her safety, her body—and her heart—to a man who has no idea how deep his dark side is buried.
Warning: This book has an Alpha male on the run, and a quirky novelist destined to be his captive. There will be bloodshed, lovemaking, and excitement aplenty.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Savage Revenge:
Sage had the door open, with one foot out, before he reached her and snagged her around the waist.
“Son of a bitch,” he roared. “How in the hell did you get free?”
He lifted her back into the house and slammed the door.
She was apparently done being complacent, though. She squirmed, kicked and hit before he finally had to drop her to try and get a better grip.
But it wasn’t that easy, because in an instant she had scurried away and grabbed any kind of makeshift weapon she could get her hands on.
He ducked from the remote control that flew at his head and lunged toward her. He missed.
“How did you get yourself untied?” he roared.
“You seriously underestimate me.” She darted past him, throwing a small lamp at him in the process.
It clipped his shoulder before crashing to the floor. “Clearly.”
A growl of fury erupted past his lips as he threw himself at her full speed.
He took her down linebacker style, rolling them both on the hardwood floors.
“Get off me.”
She slapped at his shoulders, trying to free herself, and he caught her wrists in one hand to get her under control.
Her expression morphed from frustration to pain, and her sharp cry had his anger vanishing. Had he hurt her? He hadn’t realized his grasp was that tight.
A quick scan of her body, though, and he dropped her wrists from his grasp after seeing the raw, red cuts there.
“Jesus, woman, what the hell did you do to yourself?”
She winced and gently cradled one wrist. “I cut them while freeing myself.”
He leaned down and slid an arm around her waist, helping her to her feet. “You mind filling me in on how you even got free?”
“I rolled myself off the bed and cut the rope on the metal frame. There’s a sharp corner that I’ve cut my foot on more than once while climbing into bed.”
Smart girl. “So when I found you on the floor and scooped you back up, you were probably already halfway through your ropes?”
“Pretty much.”
He grunted and steered her toward the kitchen. “You’re bleeding.”
“I’m a shifter—it’ll stop fast.”
“Still, it wouldn’t hurt you to wash the cuts. That frame might be rusty and why risk any slowed healing?”
“Does it matter? I have a feeling you wouldn’t mind seeing me suffer.”
Christ. This again. “It’s not my intent to hurt you, Sage. I can’t stress that enough.”
“Then what is your intent?”
“I just need a place to lay low. To figure out a few things.” He turned on the sink and gently pulled her wrists under the water. “And you’re going to help me with that.”
She winced as he added soap over her raw but already healing wrists. “Not exactly willing here.”
Their heads were close and he was suddenly all too aware of her as a female. The wrist he held was delicate and soft, and the scent of her shampoo mixed with the citrus soap he was using to wash her wounds.
“It would be a little weird if you were,” he finally agreed.
Her gaze lifted to meet his. Searching. “Are you really a P.I.A. agent?”
“Yes. And not just an agent. I’m also the commander of my unit.”
She shook her head, her breathing not quite as steady now. Was it from the information he’d just divulged, or their proximity?
“You sound as if you should be one of the good guys. What did you do?”
He was a good guy. Or so he’d used to think. He shrugged, not quite ready to answer that. Not quite sure he could.
So he changed the subject instead.
“This could’ve been so much easier on both of us, Sage. At the bar last night I was trying to make you fall for me. Trying to gain your trust so you’d willingly take me home.”
“I’m sorry I was so uncooperative.” Her sarcasm ran rampant. “And I don’t take men home.”
When he glanced up at her, her gaze had slid to his mouth.
Interesting. Maybe she was a more aware of him than she cared to admit. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips and everything primal inside him responded.
He turned off the sink and maneuvered her against it, straddling her legs with his own.
“Well I guarantee you if I’d been the one kissing you outside instead of your pretty musician, you would’ve taken me home.”
She swallowed hard and met his gaze once more. The amount of defiance there was outweighed by excitement.
“For a criminal, you’re awfully full of yourself. It would take more than a kiss for me to have brought you home.”
“Careful, Sage,” he warned softly and leaned in closer. His breath mingled with hers. “Because that almost sounds like a challenge.”
He heard it then. The slow thud of her heart that had become a pounding thunder. She didn’t reply to his statement, and the wolf within him rose to the surface in an instant.
Was he right? Was she as physically drawn to him right now as he was to her?
Maybe he was going about this wrong. Maybe if he tried to seduce her mind—her heart—he’d have her cooperation. She’d stop trying to escape and break his skull in.
Or maybe, you just want to charter the inside of her mouth with your tongue.
Whatever it was, the primitive side of him was far too close to the surface to be denied now.