Stolen and Forgiven (Branded Packs #1)(57)

“I think there must be a mistake.” She pasted a stiff smile on her lips. “I have no position in the Pack. If you need to speak with someone, then you should contact my father.”

“I’m sure your father will be contacted,” the man said, glaring at the soldier behind her that had sniggered at his words. “Once we have what we need.”

Cora swallowed the lump in her throat. So, this had something to do with her father. No big surprise. There was no reason for the humans to even know her name if she weren’t the daughter of Jonah Wilder.

“What do you need?”

“As I said. You.” The male nodded his head toward the nearby fence. “We have your transportation waiting.”

Cora took a covert step to the side. There was a large tree just a few feet away. If she could shift fast enough, she could be in the top branches before the guards could catch her.

The trick was going to be turning into her cat before they could shoot.

“If you have questions for me, you can ask them here,” she said, taking another step to the side. And then another. “I’m not leaving.”

“You’re coming with us, cat,” the man snapped, pulling his gun from his holster. “We can do this the easy way. Or the hard way.”

Dammit. She carefully judged the distance between herself and the tree.

“Fine.” She sucked in a deep breath, well aware that it was going to take a miracle to escape. “But first, I need to go by my home and tell my family.”

“No.”

“They’ll worry if I’m not there for dinner,” she insisted.

“Trust me, they’ll soon know that you’ve been invited to stay with us.”

“Invited?” She gave a humorless laugh. “That implies I can refuse.”

“Refuse all you want.” The man studied her with all the emotion of a cobra. It truly didn’t matter to him if she came quietly or if she struggled and he had to shoot her. For him, she was nothing more than a job that had to be completed. “Take her.”

Accepting that it was now or never, Cora shifted in an explosion of fur and fury.

There were several cries from the humans at her abrupt transformation, and hoping to use their shock against them, she headed straight for the nearby tree. Two men bolted in fear at the sight of the two-hundred-pound tiger heading in their direction, but one idiot moved directly in her path, aiming his gun at her head.

With one swipe of her massive paw, she sliced her claws toward his face. He ducked, but not before she managed to draw blood.

The man squealed in pain, dropping to his knees as he clutched his face. Cora didn’t hesitate, bounding over him and leaping toward the tree.

She’d managed to dig her claws into the thick trunk when she heard the click of a trigger followed by the sound of the gun firing a shot. She braced herself for the impact of the bullet, but instead, she felt a small prick of pain on her right haunch.

Had the man missed his shot?

She surged up the tree, not realizing that the pain had come from a tranq dart, not the graze of a bullet as she’d originally assumed. It wasn’t until her mind began to fuzz and her muscles loosened that she realized the danger.

Cora released a snarl of frustration as she felt her body falling through the air, the darkness closing in.

Oh…hell.





Chapter 6


It was the absence of a warm body snuggled next to him that drug Soren out of his nap.

Damn. He hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep since Cora had arrived at the compound. It’d been the feel of her wrapped in his arms that had, at last, allowed him to relax enough to truly rest.

Now he was more than a little grumpy to wake up alone in his bed.

“Cora?” he called out, his brows drawing together as silence answered him.

Pulling on a pair of gray sweatpants, he headed out of the bedroom, his brows drawing together as he realized that Cora hadn’t just snuck out of his bed, but out of his cabin.

He reached the shadowed front room to discovered a short note lying on the battered sofa:

See you around.

Cora

A growl rumbled in his throat as he crushed the paper in his hand and tossed it across the room.

She’d panicked.

Not that she’d admit the truth.

No. Not his Cora. Instead, she would have a thousand excuses for sneaking out like a thief in the night.

She’d say that it was nothing but sex. Or that her father needed her. Or that she had to bake brownies for the picnic they’d planned tomorrow. Or…blah, blah, blah.

But he knew the truth. At some point during the hours of their fierce lovemaking, the barriers that she was so determined to keep between them had shattered.

He’d touched not only her fabulous body, but also the heart that she so jealously guarded.

And now she was on the run, determined to rebuild the walls that kept him out.

“No. Hell, no,” he snarled, heading out the front door. “She’s not getting rid of me that easily.”

Confident that she couldn’t have gone far, Soren didn’t waste time trying to follow her trail. Instead, he headed down the path that would lead to the communal area. If she wasn’t there, then he would go to her father’s cabin.

On the edge of the opening in the middle of the compound, Soren slowed his pace as a wolf with light brown hair and blue eyes abruptly moved to block his path.