Chapter Three
It had been far too long since Thea rode on the back of someone’s motorcycle. Her high school boyfriend of two years had had one, and it made her dad go ballistic every time she was even five minutes late coming home. To say that her father was ecstatic when they broke up would be an understatement.
She envied the man in front of her for being able to feel the wind blowing through his tousled dirty-blond locks as they zipped along the highway. He was right, of course, from what she knew about shifter physiology, about her head being a lot more fragile than his.
He leaned back into her as she hugged him tighter, his hard muscular back pressing up against her front. She cursed her own traitorous body for its reaction to him, and she couldn’t help the shivers coursing through her at his nearness. Not only did he smell amazing with his clean, fresh scent, mixed in with a little woodsy spice, but when she closed her eyes, all she could see was the penetrating gaze of his soft baby-blue eyes. The man was gorgeous, boyish and yet rugged looking, and he definitely gave off the vibe that he was not to be messed with. He was very tall, muscular, and his presence quite imposing.
She was afraid of him back at the cabin when he tore those men apart like they were nothing more than ragdolls, even more so when her advanced Taser had very little effect on him when it had easily dropped the other shifters. She had learned to move with her weapons like they were a part of her, infusing her training from her kickboxing classes, and the men, unsuspecting of the damage a mere human could do to them, were taken completely off guard.
None of her earlier fears, however, compared to the one she was having now—falling for the man who claimed ownership over her.
They arrived in Brooklyn—Park Slope—about an hour later and parked in front of a brownstone with a small, well-looked-after garden in the front. “Why are we here?” Thea asked.
“I live here,” he replied as he gently prodded her on the small of her back to walk in front of him. “I promised your father I’d deliver you safely to him, but they’ll be looking for you now. You’ll be safe here while I go search for Teresa.”
Thea whirled around on him. “She’s my sister.” Her voice broke on the last word and then she felt her ire stir. “If you think for one second that I am going to stay here like a good little girl and wait—”
He placed a finger gently over her lips, the move shocking her into silence. How dare he!
“I get it,” he said. “You’re going to be a complete pain in my ass until we find your sister and make me chase after you again unless I take you with me.” He stepped in closer, invading her space. She could feel his breath on her face as he next spoke. “And I find good little girls to be extremely boring, Thea. Now let’s go inside so you can tell me all about your little pink toy.”
She gulped loudly, making him chuckle, cursing herself again for her visceral reaction to him. She had never had this reaction to another man before, probably why she always easily walked away from her past relationships.
He led her inside. A large name plate on an apartment door on the first floor made her stop in her tracks. “Logan Munro,” she read aloud.
“That’s me … my office,” Logan replied. “I live upstairs.”
“So my dad was the highest bidder, I take it?” She folded her arms, waiting for a response.
“What the hell are you talking about?” he asked, appearing confused.
Thea wasn’t buying it, though. Instead, she kicked him in the shin, instantly regretting it as the pain shot up from her toes to her leg while her blow literally had zero effect on him.
“What the hell are you doing?” he snapped.
“Ow, ow,” was all she could muster in response at first as she began hopping on her uninjured foot. Finally, through gritted teeth she replied, “I was trying to kick you.” She felt like such a ninnyhammer.
“Are you always this violent?” He growled his displeasure.
She snorted. “Are you the pot or the kettle?”
Logan pursed his lips. With a roll of his eyes, followed by an exasperated sigh, he threw her over his shoulder and carried her upstairs, and deposited her, not so gently this time, on his couch after they entered his apartment. He left her alone for a minute and returned with an ice pack before sitting himself down in front of her on his coffee table. He handed her the ice pack. “For your cheek.” Thea heard him add in a mumble, “Fucker’s lucky he’s dead.”
He shocked the hell out of her, by lifting her injured foot, removing her four-inch heeled boot, and then gently rubbing her toes. “Nothing’s broken.”
She let out a long slow breath. “I’m sorry,” she finally said. He was being incredibly generous, given the fact her second injury was incurred trying to do him bodily harm. “I shouldn’t have kicked you.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” he said matter-of-factly as he continued to massage her toes. “For starters, you could have really hurt yourself had you put just a little more pressure into your kick. And second of all, it wasn’t very nice. What the hell did you mean by your father being the highest bidder? For what exactly?”
“We knew that Leon had located Teresa a few weeks ago,” Thea began. “So we started digging into what he and his followers were up to.”
“Leon Kostastakis, you mean?” Logan asked.
“Yes,” she said, figuring that her dad must have already filled him in on the history between Leon’s pack and her sister. “Teresa and I came across your name in our findings. He was going to hire you to … retrieve us,” she concluded on a distasteful note.
Logan stopped his attentions to her foot, but he still kept hold of it on his thigh. “Let’s get two things straight right off the bat.” He looked angry, making her flinch. “Make that three. One, I would never hurt you, so stop being afraid of me.” He took her hand, the one she was holding the ice pack with, and gently placed it over her bruised cheek. He let his hand linger there for a moment before continuing. “Two, I would never deliver innocent women to a bunch of cultist criminals. And lastly, I take cases on a first come, first serve basis, and those I deem worthy of my time. I don’t drop a client because someone else offers me more money. It’s not how I operate, not to mention the fact it would ruin my reputation.”
Once again, she saw the sincerity of his words on his face, heard it in the tone of his voice. Her gut told her he meant every word. Teresa had told her once that not all shifters were bad, which wasn’t hard for Thea to believe since her sister was one of the kindest people she had ever met. Teresa had also spoken of her family many times, all of whom were nothing like Leon and his family. But Leon was an alpha, and so was Logan, based on not only the abilities he had displayed earlier in the cabin, but also from what she had read about him in Leon’s files. Alphas were uncommon, and extremely dominant.
Teresa had not been able to sense Leon as her mate from that young of an age, but he, being a teenager at the time, had sensed her. His family had groomed him for leadership, to take what he wanted, and now he would stop at nothing in order to keep Teresa, like she was nothing more than his possession. Her sister had felt the threat of this looming over her since the murder of her parents, never allowing herself to find someone of her choosing to be happy with. She was terrified of what Leon might do to a man she became involved with. Now Thea had her own reason to be terrified.
She cast her eyes down and whispered, “I told you before that I won’t be owned by anyone.”
And then Logan was on the couch next to her. She felt his fingers under her chin, gently prodding her to look over at him. “I do want to own you,” he said, his voice raspy. “I want to own you body and soul, as you will own me, but I want you to give yourself to me freely. Mates are a beautiful gift to be cherished and protected, Thea.”
She couldn’t help the shiver of excitement that ran through her body at his words. She had to press her legs together when she felt that same rush reach into her core. “And if I refuse?” she asked, her voice breathy.
“I won’t take you against your will, if that’s what you’re asking me,” he said firmly. And then she saw a sly smile forming at the corner of his lips. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll stop trying to convince you. I see how your body is reacting to me, Thea. You want me, but you’re trying to convince yourself you don’t. I can see how you are pressing your legs together and I can smell your desire. You may not be able to sense a mate like wolves do, but you can still recognize me as yours.”
“You’re arrogant, aren’t you?” she asked, but her voice quivered, losing its bite.
He only smiled wider at her words. “Confident, not arrogant. We were made for each other, you and me.” He stood up. “I need to make some phone calls to my outsourced contractors. I’m going to put some detail on all of Leon’s properties tonight, get some of their routines down.” He took out his phone and sent a text. “Your rental car will be taken care of shortly.”
“Thank you, Logan,” she said, “for everything.”
“You’re welcome.” His smile was breathtaking, revealing perfectly straight white teeth and making his eyes sparkle. “Thea…”
“Mmm?”
“A wolf always catches his prey.”
Thea got the feeling he wasn’t just referring to Leon and his demon pack.