We laid in each other’s embrace for a long while, enjoying the quiet calm of our mutual release. After a bit, questions began to swirl in my mind. I had so many things I still needed to find out about Aidan.

“So how long are you going to keep me stranded here at your cabin? You know I have work to do. Can’t I at least call my boss so he won’t worry?”

“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” he said with a hint of flirtation.

As fucked up as it was, I understood Aidan’s predicament. On one hand, I knew he wanted to let me go free. On the other hand, he had to answer to the pack. His loyalty to everyone he knew was at stake. It was completely against his deepest instincts to betray them. Besides, if he let me go, he’d run the risk of someone in the pack turning on the both of us. No, it was better that I stayed here in his safe little cabin in the woods.

It was so cozy by the crackling, warm fire. I hadn’t been able to relax like this in as long as I could remember. The air smelled faintly like dried pine needles from the fireplace, and I caught the minty scent of peppermint on Aidan’s breath.

As I stretched between Aidan’s legs, I felt his erection pressing into my back, ready for another round. How did he get hard again so quickly? Was it a shifter thing?

I leaned forward and kissed his mouth gently. He tasted good; his breath was warm and naturally sweet. I ran my fingers through his tousled hair, and nipped his neck with the edges of my teeth. He’d awoken an insatiable, primal desire inside me, and I didn’t want to stop for anything.

“You’re so hard,” I whispered.

A smile widened across his face all the way up to his expressive eyes. “It’s what you do to me. I didn’t know humans could be like this.”

“You’ve had a lot of human women, then?” I narrowed my eyes at him, not sure why the jealousy rose inside me, but it was there. He was mine.

“You’re the first human,” he said as his cheeks turned pink. “I’ve always stayed with the shifter girls who understood me. I didn’t think someone like you…” his voice trailed.

“Don’t say it.” I shook my head. “I don’t want to hear you say that.”

“God, do you know how sexy you are?” He nipped my neck playfully as he let out a feral moan of pleasure.

I was ravenously hungry, but all I could think of was him. Just as I started to reach for his cock, his cellphone buzzed against the coffee table.

“Stupid phone,” he said as he silenced the ringer.

He held my jaw tenderly in his hands and kissed me gently. I could stay lost in his kiss forever and never tire of being held in his arms.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

His phone kept its incessant ringing. This time when he went to silence it, he checked the caller ID.

“I’ve gotta take this,” he murmured as he scooted off the couch. He walked into the kitchen, where he was out of earshot.

I stretched lazily in front of the fire, noticing the fading glow of the embers and how the room had begun to chill. I reached for another log and rolled it into the fireplace. Hot ashes sparked, almost burning me.

I looked around the room at the throw pillows and blankets, all in disarray around the living room. We’d made such a mess in our passionate love-fest. The room smelled heavily of sex and pheromones. Just inhaling it brought me back to him. I shook my head and laughed at myself.

What was I doing here? He’d kidnapped me, and on some level, I liked it. This couldn’t end well for me. I’d read about Stockholm Syndrome in law school. It meant when you came to pity your captor, and care for him. I already felt that way about Aidan, and I’d met him only two days ago. Was I going to end up one of those missing women who never came back? God, no. Not if I could help it. Besides, Aidan was nothing like that. Or was he?

I eyed the front doorway; Aidan’s silver keychain laid casually against the entryway table. While Aidan was distracted in the kitchen, I could make a break for the door and steal his truck. I could get back to Bond and warn the police about the shifters’ plan to bust Chase out of jail. It might be the only way to save Chase’s life, since who knows what kind of vigilante justice the shifters had planned for him. I shuddered at the thought.

But then what? I’d have a pack of shifters after me who could track my scent all the way back to Bond. If I told the police, that would piss Aidan’s pack off even more. I’d seen that bear shifter in my apartment and I couldn’t forget how vicious he was. There was no way the police could protect me from the shifters if they wanted to harm me. At least Aidan was on my side; he wanted to protect me. Besides, I didn’t want to leave Aidan or betray him. I already cared about him far too much.

Just then, Aidan said goodbye to whoever he was talking to on the phone, and walked back into my line of sight.

“I’m making a surprise for you.”

“What is it?” I said casually as I scooted back onto the couch.

I heard the pop of the propane stove lighting in the kitchen, and then the sizzle of butter on his cast iron skillet. Aidan was cooking again, and damn, I was hungry. My head felt dizzy from the sexual satisfaction he’d given me, and now I needed sustenance.

“Afraid all I’ve got is meat,” he called from the kitchen. “If I’d known you were coming, I would have scared up some of that human food. Toast, or whatever you eat.”

“You only eat meat then?” I walked towards the kitchen and slid onto the tall stool behind the breakfast bar. I had to admit, whatever he was cooking smelled good. I used to be a vegetarian when I was a teenager, but I didn’t tell him that.

“It’s the only thing I count as real food,” he said as he flipped the meat in the pan. “I hunt it, and it doesn’t grow up in a cage or get pumped full of hormones. It’s the natural way.”

“You kill all your own food?” I didn’t know whether to be impressed or appalled. Whatever he was doing, it clearly worked for him. He was lean and cut, without an ounce of fat on his toned abs. The zero-carb diet obviously suited him.

“Yep.”

“But then, you cook it? Why not just eat it raw?”

He smiled. “Call it a quirk of my interesting biology. I like the way it tastes cooked, mostly rare. Sometimes I eat it raw if I’m in a hurry.”

I wrinkled my nose.

“It’s not that bad. But I’m not in a hurry right now, so I can take my time making it taste just right.”

Every word Aidan spoke sounded sinfully dirty to me. He was talking about cooking meat, and I imagined his lips traveling down my body, pleasing me again. I bit my lip and watched him work over the hot stove, while I enjoyed the view immensely.

He finished cooking the moose steaks and slid one onto a plate for me, still pink. He tipped a jug of cool, clear water into my glass. Meat and water. What a feast.

As different as it was, there was something so seductive about Aidan and his way of life. It was slower paced, simpler…more natural. I could be happy living like this, especially if I had him by my side.

He put the dishes in the sink and soaped them up. The fresh smell of lemon from the dish soap wafted through the room, making the kitchen smell suddenly like spring. The fire crackled in the background, and Aidan turned on the small kitchen stereo to a jazz station. I didn’t know who the artist was, but I liked how it sounded.

What was it about Aidan that made me feel so safe? Was it just the way he looked? Certainly, that would be enough. His tall, handsome physique was the stuff of dreams. His smooth voice lured me in with every word he spoke. And the way he smelled was divine. Even after a marathon of sex, he smelled clean and manly. And now, he also smelled a little bit like fresh-squeezed lemons from the dish soap.

“What was that phone call about? If you don’t mind me asking, that is?”

“Nothing for you to worry about.” He turned his back towards me and slid the greasy spatula into the sink. I wanted to see his face, but it was obvious he was trying to hide it from me.

“Well, now I am worried.” I smiled half-heartedly.

He looked at me for a moment, and I could tell he was holding something back. I’d learned enough in law school to know when someone wasn’t telling me the full truth.

“I can take it. Let me guess, they changed their minds about everything? The council wants you to let me go back to Bond,” I said sarcastically.

Aidan’s eyes widened before he let out a gut-piercing laugh. “Are you serious? No. You couldn’t be further from the truth.”

“I figured not, but I was hoping it was good news. C’mon, tell me what they said.” I played with the food on my plate, making a lazy figure-eight across the porcelain dish. Anxiety ripped through my body, stealing my appetite with it. Whatever the news was, it couldn’t be good.

“The pack wants me to deliver you to the High Council.”

“You mean, the guys who govern over all of you?”

Aidan nodded. “But I’m not going to do that. I told them I won’t. If I take you to the High Council, they’ll kill you for sure. I couldn’t live with that.”

“But if you don’t take me there, they’ll kill you and then me. Isn’t that how it works?”

“They can try.” His jaw tensed and his whole body went rigid.

“Well, if both of us are dead, that’s not going to help anybody.”

It was suddenly quite still inside the room; I only heard Aidan’s shallow breaths and the way his heart raced inside his chest. Despite his calm exterior, Aidan was as terrified as I was.

“Look, I’m trained to be persuasive. Let me talk to the High Counsel and make my case. I can be very convincing when I make up my mind to be.”

“That’d never work,” he shot me a disapproving glance. “That’s a really bad idea.”

“Well, it’s the best bad idea we’ve got. Besides, I feel like a sitting target here in your cabin. Unless you have another option, I say we confront the head alpha and I’ll talk some sense into him.”

Aidan shook his head. “You don’t know what you’re saying. You haven’t met Dominic.”

“Look, I’m just trying to think of a way out of this alive. You and I both know that shifters would prefer to clean this up themselves, and leave no trace of evidence. My jeep is still out on Highway 72. Cops will probably say I got stuck in the ditch and froze in the woods while I was looking for firewood. Like you said, Alaska is a place where people go missing. And the High Council is counting on that.”

Aidan ran his fingers through his silky, dark hair. His deep-set eyes trained on me, met my gaze, and held it.

“You’re the bravest woman I’ve ever met.”

“Don’t say that.” I smiled at him. “Say that after I convince the High Council, okay?”