Shifters on Fire: A BBW Shifter Romance Boxed Set (61 page)

Chapter Two

She froze in the man’s grip, allowing herself to be dragged backward.

Gregory?
Surely it wasn’t him?

But no, even facing away from the man, she could feel this person’s build was different. Where Gregory was short and stocky, though fearsomely strong, this person was long and lean. Plus the hand covering her mouth was nothing like her alpha’s scent or taste.

She’d have smelled the man coming and been ready for him if it hadn’t been for that damn whiskey stench filling the air, and her knock to the head must have affected her hearing.

The distance between herself and her truck grew greater, while the space to the partially hidden car reduced. Alyssa’s brain suddenly switched into gear as she realized what was happening. This wasn’t her alpha trying to teach her a lesson in humility, this was a strange man dragging her toward his car.

The realization burst panic through her body. She wasn’t a small woman, and she bucked and squirmed in his grip, trying to kick back with her feet and jab with her elbows. She opened her mouth, trying to bite the fleshy pad of his palm, which pressed against her lips, but she couldn’t get a decent grip with her teeth and only succeeded in nipping him. The man didn’t even break his stride.

Except, he wasn’t just a man, was he?

Now they were farther from the stench of the whiskey, she could detect the distinctive scent of wolf about him. Something about the scent pinged a memory—she’d smelled it before. In the parking lot, when she’d believed herself to be watched.

Could that be right? Had he seen her then? Had this whole thing been a setup, and he’d thrown the nails on the road in the hope of damaging her vehicle.

Why her? She wasn’t much to look at, with her thick thighs, and big backside, and bust. Plus she knew her dress had been too short, exposing every bulge and dimple. Had she appeared vulnerable? Was that why he’d chosen her?

She didn’t get any more time to think.

He was too strong for her to fight him. With one arm locked against her body, his hand pressed against her mouth, he reached out and popped the trunk.

No,
she wanted to cry.
Please, not the trunk,
but it just came out as a mumbled moan against his hand.

“Sorry, darlin’.” He spoke against her ear. “It’s got to be done.”

He released her mouth, enough for her to let out a yell, though there was no one around to hear her, and he caught her up under her legs. With a scream, she was lifted off her feet and thrown unceremoniously into the trunk. She hit the metal bed, jarring her shoulder and already stiff neck, but she didn’t just lie there. Rolling toward the opening, she lunged forward, hoping to get out before he shut her in. But just as the trunk slammed down, she locked gazes with him for a fraction of a second. Hard eyes of ice blue, framed by a fringe of thick, black lashes. Then the lid blocked out any view and she was shut into darkness.

Alyssa let out a sob.

The smell of metal and gasoline surrounded her. The heat felt suffocating.

The driver’s door opened and then slammed shut, and the engine chugged and stuttered to life around her. The vehicle got moving, taking her with it.

She bumped and jolted as the car drove down the road and then swung around. They were heading away from town, but she assumed they wouldn’t be going back to her shifter compound. He would have to take a turn off somewhere up the road, and head in a different direction, or would he drive right by, perhaps bringing her within meters of her home, and her family. They would have no idea the car that drove past contained their sister and fellow pack member.

Alyssa held in a sob. She couldn’t cry. If she was going to make it out of this, she needed to be tough. Tough and smart.

Using her hands, she felt along the inside of the trunk lid, hoping to find a safety catch that might allow her to pop the trunk. But if such a feature existed, she couldn’t find it.

In her frustration, she slammed her palms against the inside, yelling until her throat hurt. “Let me out, you son of a bitch!”

She was strong, but not strong enough to bust out from inside the trunk, and not strong enough to fight the man who had taken her.

Realizing there was another way out, she kicked out, thumping what would be the back of the seat with her feet. She couldn’t get enough movement in her legs to make the kicks efficient. Besides, she didn’t know what she planned on doing if she did break through. Would she strangle the guy while he drove? Cause an accident and hope she wasn’t badly hurt so she could run.

The stifling heat in the trunk grew worse with her struggles, forcing her to stop. Her thin dress clung to her body, sweat beading across her skin. Would she die in here if he didn’t get her out soon? Would she run out of oxygen?

The thought caused her panic to build again, and only the force of her will kept the emotion at bay.

No, I won’t die,
she reasoned with herself. The slightest breeze came from the front, between the joining of the seats and the metal casing of the car. The bastard must be enjoying the air, or had the windows rolled down. Her anger churned in a slow roil inside her. She wouldn’t let him get away with this. Sure, she might only be eighteen, with too many curves in all the wrong places, but she had claws and would rip his eyes out at the first opportunity.

Alyssa lost track of the amount of time she’d spent in the trunk—at least a couple of hours, it felt like anyway—and her whole body ached. Being cramped into such a tiny space, especially after she’d just been in a car accident, had left her stiff and sore.

Finally, the car slowed and stopped, and the engine cut out.

Alyssa held her breath, her ears strained as the sound of footsteps crunched on the ground outside. She tensed as the catch of the trunk popped open. She wanted to launch herself out, and catch him by surprise, but she wasn’t sure she could even move. Her whole body felt like it had seized in the fetal position.

The trunk opened and bright sunlight flooded the space. She lifted her hand to shelter her already watering eyes, and squinted. He stood, silhouetted against the light—a tall, lean figure, whose strength she’d already experienced, and whose bright blue eyes she had already seen.

He leaned into the trunk and reached for her.

Despite her promises to herself to be fierce and brave, she cowered back, and screamed, “Help! Somebody help me!”

His hand wrapped around her arm and dragged her forward. She pulled back against him, but his strength was overpowering and she didn’t stand a chance. He hauled her out of the trunk and dumped her to the ground. The padding on her hips and backside helped cushion the blow, but she still landed awkwardly, jarring her sore shoulder.

He didn’t give her any time to recover. Bending down, he yanked her back to her feet, and then lowered his shoulder, fitting it under her chest and lifting her up and over.

Alyssa gave a scream of surprise—she wasn’t exactly lightweight—and smacked him on the back with her fists. Her balled hands hit hard muscle, and she was horribly aware of the way the skirt of her thin sundress had ridden right up. Not only that, the man had hold of her leg in order to steady her. His fingers were wrapped high on her leg, so they dug into the inside of her thigh. She hadn’t allowed a boy to touch her there, never mind a man like this—aggressive, powerful, and strong.

With stunning blue eyes and dark eyelashes to die for...

No, no, no.

She wouldn’t let herself be that person. He was still a man who was abducting her. Whether he looked like a catalogue model, or a troll, it didn’t change who he was inside and what he was capable of.

“Help!” she screamed again, though the pressure of his shoulder against her diaphragm stole some of her breath. She battered at him again. “Put me down, you fucking bastard!”

“You can scream and yell all you like,” he growled from beneath her. “No one is around for miles.”

She lifted her head enough to take in her surroundings. They appeared to be in a clearing, a narrow track leading away, which she assumed he must have taken from the road to get here. At the far end of the clearing was an old, dilapidated barn. With the big double doors hanging off its hinges, broken windows, and sagging roof, it looked like something she’d seen on a horror movie.

Oh, God.

Her terror reared up inside her again and she put every ounce of energy into kicking and hitting. It only served to cause him to increase his grip.

“Quit it!” he snarled.

But she barely heard him. Blind with fear, she wriggled and writhed in his grip, until he released his hold on her leg and repositioned his grip, only this time his whole hand cupped the mound between her thighs.

Alyssa froze, and he gave a low chuckle. “I thought that might get your attention.”

No one had touched her that intimately before, and, though she hated herself for it, a pleasurable throb tightened between her thighs and spread like a low heat through her belly. The sensation both thrilled and sickened her.

With his hands still on her, he lifted a foot and kicked open the barn doors. A portable floodlight, like the kind used for camping, had been attached to one of the beams in the middle of the barn. Beneath the floodlight was a wooden chair. Coils of rope lay on the floor.

The sight caused ice to run through her veins. He had planned this. He might not have planned for it to be her he abducted—that might have simply been a case of her being in the wrong place at the wrong time—but he’d definitely planned on taking someone.

Somehow, that knowledge made everything worse.

Chapter Three

The man carried her into the barn, his hand clutching her pussy to keep her frozen over his shoulder.

He reached the chair and dumped her in it. Before he got the chance to do anything else, she jumped back up, her eyes fixed on the door, meaning to run. But his big body blocked the way and he grabbed her by the upper arm, forcing her to sit back down again.

“Uh-uh, no you don’t.”

She was able to get a decent look at him now. In his mid-twenties, she guessed, he was at least six feet two, with black hair and those blue eyes that had caught her attention. The edge of his square jaw was darkened with the promise of stubble, and his full mouth was narrowed into a hard line.

“Please, just let me go,” she begged. “I won’t tell anyone you took me. We’ll pretend like this never happened.”

A smirk touched his mouth. “Now why would I want to do that?”

“Because people will come looking for me, and when they find you, they will kill you.”

He laughed. “Who’s going to come looking for you?” He seemed to catch himself.  “I mean, obviously there are people who are going to wonder where you are—you’re a beautiful young woman—but what I mean is who is even going to know you’re missing?”

“My pack will. As soon as I don’t come home on time, they’ll all be out searching for me.”

“Do you really believe they’ll find you in a forest made up of thousands of acres?”

She straightened her back. “They’ll find me. They’ll sniff me down, and when they do, they’ll tear you to shreds with their teeth.”

He leaned in closer, his nose brushing against her cheek so he could speak in her ear. “What makes you think I’m not stronger than they are?”

She froze at his contact, so aware of every single cell making contact with hers. But the scent of him—
oh God, the scent of him
—flooding over her was like honey and chocolate and warmed brandy all rolled into one. A sudden desire to put out her tongue and lick the side of his face gripped her, and she had to physically ball her fists and clamp her jaw shut to stop herself from doing so.

What the hell is wrong with me?

“There are a lot more of them than there are of you,” she managed to say, though her voice sounded forced. She wished it were due to the stressful situation she was in rather than her own struggle to control herself.

He chuckled. “Oh, sweetheart. Do you really think that’s going to make a difference?”

Anger fired through her, anger at both her own body’s reaction, and his irritating cocky attitude. “Yes, actually, I do. What the hell makes you so special?”

“I’m a fighter, I always have been, always will be, and I don’t get others to run around doing my chores for me. I don’t rely on anyone else. It’s just me and the things I want to fight for.”

“Like what?”

“Like you.”

Their eyes locked and she stared at him, not wanting to be the first to glance away while trying not to drown in the blue glacier of his gaze. A slow smile spread across his face, and the tip of his tongue flicked out and ran over his full lower lip.

Alyssa’s breath caught, her cheeks flaring, and despite what she’d wanted, she looked away.

“So you’re saying you’re a lone wolf?” she flustered, trying to get the image of his tongue swiping across his lip out of her mind.

His head tilted to one side, contemplating. “For the moment, though I wouldn’t be averse to starting my own pack if I were to find the right mate.”

“Well, if this is your idea of dating, you really suck at it.”

He grinned, wolfish. “I don’t date. I take what I want.”

“Yeah, well I’m not available to be taken, so I suggest you let me out of here.”

“Sorry,” he said. “Not gonna happen.”

He crouched at her feet and picked up the length of rope.

He’s going to tie me up!

She couldn’t let him do that. Sensing an opportunity, she jerked her knee upward, catching him in the face. He let out a yell and fell back, clutching his bloodied nose.

Alyssa leaped to her feet and ran for the door. This time she managed to get past him, her feet digging into the dirt floor, skidding as she ran, but he lunged forward and snagged her ankle with his hand. The contact sent her flying, and she hit the ground with a full body slam, the impact jarring through every part of her.

She let out a groan and tried to get up, but the next thing she knew, he was on top of her, his heavy weight pressing down, his breath hot against her ear.

“Stop fighting me, darlin’. This is all for your own good.”

She managed to gasp. “You’re crazy.”

Alyssa wriggled and struggled beneath him, could feel his body pressing firm into hers. Perhaps a little too firm against the rounded top of her bottom. Alyssa instantly fell still.

He gave a gruff laugh and got to his feet, pulling her up with him. “You’ve got some wicked curves going on, girl. I couldn’t help but react to them.”

“Pervert,” she spat, but he only laughed again.

His arm locked across her chest, pushing into the full mound of her breasts. He kept her pulled tight against him, and she tried not to think about the hardness pushing into the base of her spine. He wanted her, of that she had no doubt. She just wondered how long it would be until he took what he wanted.