Beauty Dates the Beast(42)

“Why are you doing all this?” I asked.

Jason looked up from his BlackBerry in surprise. “That’s a rather asinine question.”

“I’m an asinine human,” I shot back. “Humor me. I thought Wendigos were supposed to be strong and invincible.”

He pocketed his phone and moved across the room toward me. “There is no greater power in the world than that of a Wendigo. I have the strength of those that I have devoured.”

“So why eat me and change back?”

“My mate is not happy with her transformation. This is for her.”

I squirmed a little. “Okay, I get that. But why drag Beau into this? What has he done to you?”

He squatted near my chair. “Why am I after Beau?” Jason seemed to be amused by my concern. “Are you truly that worried about him?”

I shrugged. “Just curious. He was only using me for his heat.”

“I’m not so sure about that.” Jason reached forward and began to pull my T-shirt out of the waistband of my jeans. “At any rate, I’m sure we’ll find out shortly.”

I jerked as he tugged at my clothing. “What are you doing?”

He sliced my T-shirt open with his claws, jerking it apart and dragging it across my shoulders so it exposed my pale torso and my bra. “Making sure our kitty cat takes the bait, my sweet.” He picked up a roll of masking tape from a table and pulled off a piece. Then he crammed a sock into my mouth and slapped the tape over it, muffling me and making me gag. My heart hammered in my throat, my eyes went wide. What was he planning on doing?

Jason slid around the chair and wrapped his arm around the back of it, curling it around to rest on my breast. I yelled against the sock, shoving my tongue against it to try and loosen the gag.

He held up his phone and snuggled up to me, grinning at its camera. “Smile for your boyfriend,” he said and pinched my nipple.

I snarled as I heard the click of the camera.

To my relief, he got up and wandered across the room. His thumbs flew across the keypad as he typed in a text message, whistling to himself. Jason clicked one final button, then glanced over at me, the toothy smile revealing itself again. “All done. We’ll see if that brings your boyfriend out to play.”

I gave him a mutinous glare.

Jason just smiled, moving back toward me again, and chuckled when I shied away. He pulled my hair free of the ponytail and arranged it over my shoulders, looking at me thoughtfully. “It’s a shame you’re human,” he said, trailing a finger over my bra again. “But if Beau can look past it …”

My breathing stopped in fear.

But he simply smiled at me, stood up, and left the room.

Hot tears of fright threatened, and I gave in for a few seconds before nearly choking on the gag. I forced myself to recompose, and thought hard, my mind frantic.

How could Beau possibly take down two super-fast, superstrong shifters?

How could I?


“Well, well,” a voice cooed near my ear. “It looks like the cavalry has arrived.”



I looked up, half-conscious, from where I was slumped in my bonds. Arabella loomed over me, and I blinked at her.

She slapped me across the face so hard that lights danced in front of my eyes. “Wakey wakey.”

Bitch. I groaned, “Fuck you” around the sock.

She put her hands on her knees and stuck her face in mine, eyeing me with entirely too much interest. Her fetid breath fanned my face. “You are just full of surprises, aren’t you?” She reached out and poked the end of my nose.

Alarmed by her too-chummy attitude, I looked around for Jason. But it was just me and the crazy girlfriend. Lucky day.

Arabella sliced my bonds from the chair and grabbed me by the arms. Her grip was so tight that I thought she was going to break my arms, and tears of pain streamed from my eyes. My nostrils flaring as I sucked in a frightened breath, I struggled against her grip, but it was useless. Despite my terrified jerking, she dragged me over to the window.

Was she going to throw me out of it?

She flung open the curtain and shoved my face against the glass. “Take a look, sweet-cheeks. Take a good look.”

It was a little hard to look with my face plastered to the window, but I quickly scanned the wintry lawn, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Bare trees. Large patches of muddy lawn, and …

I gasped and nearly gagged on the sock. It took me a moment to recover before I could look again and make sure I wasn’t mad.

Beau stood down there in cat form, his large body visible near the tree line. He was beautiful—long, swishing tail and buff feline form. There was nothing to distinguish him from any other cougar, but I knew it was Beau. He’d come for me.

Oh God, he was going to get killed.

More shadows melted out of the trees, and with them, more animals. A giant brown bear appeared at Beau’s side. Ramsey.

More shadows—more cougars, who stood a few feet behind Beau, unequivocally stating that he was their leader.

Beau began to walk forward and then it was like Noah’s ark threw up on the lawn. Animals of every shape and size, predators of every imagining, began to appear on Jason’s front lawn. A giant Siberian tiger prowled next to Beau, at his other side, a lion. An eagle circled in the sky, swooping low around them. I counted dozens, then I gave up when they continued pouring out of the trees. I could even pick out Sara’s small wolf form.

They were showing their allegiance to him. Supporting him in his bid to get me back.

It was beautiful.

It was very, very bad.

Arabella grabbed the back of my head, her hand snarling in my messy, loose hair. “You must have a magic snatch for him to bring out the cavalry like this.” She grabbed between my legs in a painful clench: I snapped my thighs shut, trying to shove her away. She laughed, but there was a desperate edge to it.

I shoved at her and bolted, but she grabbed me by my hair and threw me to the floor, knocking the wind from me. “Dumb bitch.”

I flexed my hands, gasping for breath to return. The pool table was enticingly near and I crawled under it, then worked on pulling the tape off my mouth.

A pair of new shoes appeared on the other side of the pool table. “Arabella,” Jason said warningly. “Have you seen the front lawn?”

“I have,” she said, sounding a little defensive. Was she scared of Jason, too?

“Didn’t I tell you quite specifically that he was to come here alone if he wanted to see her alive again?”

“That’s what I told him,” she said, her voice rising. “Since he’s not listening to you, he must want her dead.” A hard, raspy edge entered her voice. “Let’s just eat her, already.”

I stilled, not daring to breathe.

“Not yet. He wants her. I know he does,” Jason said, furious. I watched as his feet thunked across the floor and over to the window. “He filed for a mate visa yesterday. He’s trying to get her permanent status in the Alliance.”

A mate visa? Beau wanted to marry me?

“He what?” Arabella sounded furious. “He can’t possibly mean to mate a human; he’ll be laughed out of the Alliance.”

“Then why is my lawn filled with a display of force?” His voice was becoming rougher with anger. It was frightening to hear. “He needs to come up here, alone.”

Alone? No—they’d kill him.

Jason looked under the pool table and grinned at the sight of me. I stared at him, muffling my defiance and hoping he didn’t notice that I was missing the tape across my mouth. I’d spit out the sock and clutched it in my hand.

He grabbed me by my ankle and dragged me across the carpet like he would a rag doll. He stroked my hair and admired me like one might a fragile possession. “Arabella’s not hurting you, is she?”

I looked over at Arabella, who was glaring at me with hate.

“Good,” he said, taking my silence for obedience. His hand continued to stroke my hair in that odd, possessive way. “If he intends to have a siege, we’ll give him one.” Jason smiled coldly. “But I have to wonder how long it will last when he hears your screams when I’m f*cking you.” He gazed down at me, almost tenderly. “Do you think that would bother him?”

Yes, I thought and tried to shove him away.

He batted my hands away as if they’d been nothing, grinning.

“It would bother me,” Arabella snarled and shoved between us. Her force knocked me against the nearby wall, and my head cracked against a painting. “You said I could eat her! Not that you would f*ck her.”

Jason gave her an amused look. “My dear, I have no interest in a human.” He took her hand and began to kiss her wrist, then delicately up her arm. She watched him with intense, crazily possessive eyes. “But think of how much it will bother him. First I steal you away from him, then he finds that I’m f*cking his little pet human.”