My heart constricts. I try to talk myself out of the idea, but too much of it fits.
How he found me out of nowhere… taking us from the house so he can dump our bodies somewhere… the feral glint in his eyes…
“I know you’re scared,” he says. “But you really don’t have to be. Everything’s going to be okay.”
“Why does it sound like you don’t even believe that?” I say softly.
He looks over his shoulder, and I see that troubled look again. “I…” he begins, sighing. “It’s complicated.”
“It doesn’t look complicated from back here. It looks really fucking simple. I’ve been kidnapped by a maniac, and I’m afraid for my child.”
Rhys sighs, a sharp sound of exasperation. He quickly pulls the car over, and my fear jumps up a notch.
Uh-oh. What the fuck have I done?
He gets out, walks around the car, and opens the door. I try to cower away, but he leans in, briefly looks Cassie over, then grabs me.
“No,” I gasp, struggling as hard as I can. “What are you going to do? Don’t—”
Rhys dumps me into the front seat, then goes back to the driver’s side. We get going again. I look around, but the only thing around us is the forest, and it doesn’t tell me anything about our location.
“This is going to sound really fucked up,” he says, “but it’s the truth. I’m a shifter—a werewolf. I live in a pack where I am the alpha, in conjunction with two other packs. And magic and all the things of legend are real.”
I stare at him for a second, the fear in me slowly dissolving. Even though I try to hold it in, I break into sudden laughter.
“Really?” I choke out. “That’s what you’re going with? Hey, if that’s the story you have to tell to justify your actions, then whatever. You’re a fascinating psychological case, you know that?”
He sighs. “It’s true. It’s all true. I found you through a magic spell because you’re my mate, and you have to come back and rule my pack with me.”
An even harder cackle breaks through my chest even as threads of doubt slither through my mind.
“This just gets better and better. Are you a serial killer? How many ‘mates’ have you had? Is this your first time kidnapping a child?”
Rhys sighs, his mouth set in a hard line. “You’ll see,” he says in a flat voice, and that brief declaration scares me more than anything else he could have said or done.
We turn onto a small dirt road, and the trees close around us. Fear rises in me, a sick wave of nausea and cold chills that ring through me, making my breath burn in my throat. I hear Cassie wake up and whimper softly.
“It’s okay, baby,” I say. “I’m right here. We’re okay.”
“No, we’re not, Mommy,” she mumbles.
Since I can’t argue with that, I just shut my mouth, marinating in the rising fear that simmers in my guts. When the trees fall back, and an ancient, tall building of stone and wood appears before us, shock pierces through my fear.
Oh, God. We’re here. Whatever is going to happen, it’s happening now!
Rhys gets out of the car, and I see two men come out of the front door and meet him in the driveway. They speak briefly, and he points at the car, then they all start walking towards us.
Every single horrific news story I’ve ever heard crashes through my brain in an instant. The infinite, horrible ways we could be about to be killed literally send me reeling, and I start to pant, losing all control.
Rhys opens the door and drags me out, holding the rope that’s still bound tightly around my midsection.
“My friends are going to watch the car while we go inside,” he says. “I need you to—”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” I scream, twisting against the ropes. “You want to leave my daughter with these strange men? For fuck’s sake—”
“It’s okay, ma’am,” one of them says with a kind smile. “I’m Owen. We’ll take care of her.”
I shake my head, trying to struggle again.
