Part 5 (2/2)

Daniel pursed his lips and narrowed his shrewd, calculating eyes. Victor straightened his spine and returned Daniel's careful scrutiny, his gaze traveling from the Kolen Alpha to his men. Tall and broad-shouldered, the Kolen had always been an impressive pack. Much more so than the Zante, whose lack of pack unity and the absence of male pups born of Zantean unions over the past decade had left them broken and dispirited.

The Kolen were also known for their cruelty, both to outsiders and to members of their own pack. Most of Victor's household was made up of former Kolen members who had been cast out of the tribe.

Daniel tapped his fingernail against his teeth. ”Ali once told me you had a thing for her. That's how she knew she'd be able to get into J.C.'s mating ceremony unchallenged. Why would you let me have her now?”

Victor's nostrils flared, but that was the only outward reaction he'd allow himself. Ali had known of his feelings for her all along? No wonder she'd played him for a fool.

”It's precisely for that reason I can't kill her myself.” He took a deep breath, released it in a huff. This was it. If Daniel didn't believe the reasoning he offered, his plan would fall apart. ”Because of her, our pack is dying. You have what you've always wanted. The destruction of the Zante pack, once and for all. I need to let my tribe meet their end in peace. Surely you can understand that.”

”I would have never allowed Ali to take off with her payment after she'd accomplished her mission,” Daniel mused. His tongue snaked out between his lips. ”She was always part of the payoff. My payoff.”

Bile rose in Victor's throat, and he fought the urge to wrap his hands around Daniel's neck and squeeze the life out of him right then and there. Another look at the men flanking their Alpha and the shadows sweeping through the forest cautioned him against any rash moves. If they killed him, they'd go after his household next. He'd sworn to protect those inside, and there was no way he'd allow the Kolen to lay a hand on any of them.

”You want her for yourself, then,” Victor said.

Daniel smiled. ”Wouldn't you? Come on, you can't tell me you haven't f.u.c.ked her sweet p.u.s.s.y at least once. All that time having her under your roof... I'll bet she moans like a wh.o.r.e when you stuff her full of c.o.c.k.” He rubbed his hands together, his grin widening further. ”I can't wait to find out.”

”Tomorrow, then,” Victor said, surprised to find his voice steady. ”Let's not delay this any further.”

”Bring her. You'll be given safe pa.s.sage through Kolen territory. If you behave yourself, I might even let you watch as my men and I teach little Ali Hill what it really means to learn to obey.”

Chapter Six.

Ali's stomach lurched as Victor gunned the motor of his metallic silver luxury Jaguar sedan and pulled out through the front gate of the mansion. She lifted her head through a haze of denial. From where she lay in the back seat, she could only make out his eyes in the rearview mirror, glittering harshly as he glanced back at her.

A litany of curses settled on her tongue. She yearned to tell Victor exactly what she thought of him and his latest attempt to command her obedience, but the thick cotton strip of fabric he'd stuffed between her lips and tied behind her head prevented her from uttering all but the lowest of moans.

”I hope you're comfortable back there.” The glint in his cold, black eyes told her he wished her to be as comfortable as a skewered boar roasting over an open flame.

Unable to respond, Ali kicked out her feet. He'd bound her ankles, but she managed to smash her toes against the backrest of the empty pa.s.senger's seat.

”Feisty. And to think that was one of the things I'd always liked about you.”

Victor's chuckle sent an icy jolt slithering through Ali's veins, freezing her blood. She'd never seen him like this before. Even when he'd captured her after learning of her crime against the tribe, he hadn't been this cold, this cruel. Then, he'd been furious, burning with an intensity that both enraged and aroused her. Now, he seethed with a raw inner wrath that flickered beneath his calm demeanor, aggressive and inevitable.

When enough pressure finally built inside him to warrant an explosion of all that pent-up ire, Ali knew she wouldn't be able to avoid it. Bound and gagged as she was, she doubted she'd be able to do anything about it, either.

Despite her best efforts to keep tears at bay, they p.r.i.c.kled her eyelids, tormenting her further.

d.a.m.n him.

d.a.m.n him for letting her believe he was more than simply a man bent on obtaining her submission at all costs. She might have been able to see this coming and defend herself if he hadn't spent so much time making her buy into a charade.

But that had been the point, hadn't it? His victory would be that much sweeter if he managed to break her first. And he'd done it. The old Ali wouldn't be lying here, bound by her wrists and ankles like a Thanksgiving turkey to be carried off to G.o.d-knew-where to meet her end. She'd have preferred to take her chances with the elders. The end result would have been the same, but at least she wouldn't have had to taste the honeyed sweetness of true bliss before meeting her demise.

Ali closed her eyes and gritted her teeth around the gag to keep the nausea roiling through her stomach at bay. What in the world had she been thinking? If only she'd given Victor more credit, she might have been able to elude him before he caught up to her. If only she hadn't given in to his tantalizing promise of pleasure beyond belief, or to Emma's soft touch, or to the breathtaking sensations that swirled through her when Victor's lean body pressed against hers. If only she hadn't spotted Daniel lurking in the shadows and gone to investigate.

The tears she'd been trying so hard to swallow back spilled unheeded down her cheeks and sank into the cus.h.i.+oned fabric of the back seat.

If only you'd listened to me.

”If only you'd listened to me.”

Victor slammed the heel of his hand against the steering wheel, but it was the way he echoed her thoughts rather than his sudden violent action that made Ali snap her eyes open and suck in a sharp breath.

”Why did you have to head for that open gate? You're too smart to fall for such a lousy test. You had to have known I'd left the gate open on purpose. Yes, I'd wanted you to taste freedom, but I also wanted you to prove to me that you were capable of learning. Of changing.”

Ali's heart hammered against her ribcage. Her pulse pounded in her ears, drowning out the sound of the motor as they flew down the highway, dimming every background noise and focusing all her senses on Victor. She wished she could see his face. The anguish in his voice was almost more than she could handle.

Her thoughts spun as she tried to make sense of what she was hearing. Swift comprehension dawned in a flash. She'd betrayed the trust he'd placed in her. When she'd betrayed the entire pack, he'd known how to handle it and had made it his mission to make her see the error of her ways. It was deceiving him -- Victor, the man, the wolf, not the head of security of the Zante pack -- that he couldn't bear.

She had to make him understand.

Not knowing what else to do, she banged her feet against the seat in front of her. The dull thud of impact echoed through the car. He ignored it. She tried again, and again, slamming her bare toes into the soft upholstery until they ached. He'd allowed her to dress in a tee s.h.i.+rt and a loose pair of jeans before storming into her bedroom and tying her up, but he hadn't given her any shoes.

It didn't matter. She'd make him listen if she had to break the backrest to pieces with nothing more than her toes.

After a dozen frenzied blows, Victor met her gaze in the rearview mirror. She didn't know what she looked like, teeth wrapped around the saliva-soaked gag, eyes wide, decades' worth of unshed tears staining her cheeks, but whatever Victor saw in her face stopped him cold.

He swore loudly and swerved, pulling the car off the highway with a sudden jolt that sent Ali rolling against the backrest of the seat. The texture of the upholstery bit into her cheek. She held her breath while he stopped the car, yanked the keys from the ignition, and got out.

It felt to Ali like an eternity pa.s.sed between the time he slammed the driver's side door and the moment he opened the back door closest to her head, but it couldn't have been more than a second or two.

A rush of cold, crisp air blew inside the vehicle. Ali barely had time to suck in a breath before Victor grabbed her upper arms and dragged her out. Her knees buckled as her feet hit the pavement, and he slammed her against the side of the car hard enough for the breath she'd just inhaled to whoosh out of her lungs.

”I swear to G.o.d, Ali, if you're playing me...”

He let the threat hang in the air, unfinished. She could see his canines already beginning to extend as his claws bit into her upper arms. She shook her head wildly and moaned through the gag, silently pleading for him to listen.

He swore again, even louder this time. Though it had to be past midnight judging by the position of the half-moon hanging just overhead, a few cars still whizzed by them down the highway. He glanced behind her shoulder, and she saw the inner battle that waged within him in the set of his tense shoulders and his furrowed brows.

At last, he reached behind her head and loosened the knot that tied her gag, then slipped it down to hang around her neck.

”I saw Daniel.” His eyes widened, but she didn't want to risk unleas.h.i.+ng his ire before she could finish what she had to say. ”I didn't betray you, and I didn't try to run. I looked for you, but I couldn't see you anywhere. And I smelled him, Victor. I knew something was wrong. When I spotted him beneath those trees, I couldn't believe my eyes. I had to find out for myself if what I was seeing was real, or just a figment of my overheated imagination.”

He raised both hands, and Ali flinched as he brought them up to her face. She didn't know what she'd expected, but the whimper that escaped her lips when he cupped her cheeks told them both that tenderness hadn't been it.

”You weren't trying to escape?” Victor asked, as though not quite believing what he was hearing. ”Really?”

”I tried to tell you. You wouldn't listen.”

He sank his teeth into his lower lip, his eyelids drooping over his impossibly dark eyes. ”G.o.d. I am such a fool.”

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