Dangerous Mating (A.L.F.A., #3)(21)

Everything was so dark. She could only see a narrow swath of the area that her flashlight landed on. This really creeped her out. If she had had claustrophobia, this would not have been the place for her.

The tunnel narrowed to a one-person passage. Her toe hit a rock in the middle of the path and she tripped forward, losing her balance. Her shirt was grabbed from behind and a breeze hit her face. What the hell? She straightened and turned around. Fixing her shirt, she scowled at the man. That was quite rude. “Agent Day,” she said, “there is no need to be manhandling me. I can take care of myself.”

His brow raised. “Call me Bryon. I’ll call your Kari.” He looked over her shoulder to whatever was behind her. “You can take care of yourself?” He shined his light past her and nodded for her to turn around.

She spun around and inches from her face was a metal spearhead. She screamed and jumped back. Bryon shined his light over the area. Not only was there one spearhead, but two dozen heads attached to wood boards that shot out from both sides of the wall. And to make matters worse, a partial skeleton hung from several of the spikes. Oh, fuck. She’d have been a shish kebab if he hadn’t snagged her shirt.

She looked at him. “How did you know?”

“I smelled a dead body and figured since it wasn’t on the ground, there could be a trap. As soon as you stepped on the trigger, I knew that was right,” he replied.

Her face scrunched. “What trigger?” Then she remembered. The rock she’d tripped on in the first place. “Never mind.”

Bryon stood close to the spears and sniffed. “This trap has caught more than one person. It must reset itself somehow,” he said.

“How could it do that?”

He shrugged. “Could use gravity to eventually pull down a rock attached to a pulley to yank a rope to pull it back. Something like that.”

“You mean we have to wait for this to open before we continue through?” she asked. Patience wasn’t a virtue right now. The guards could still be behind them. Bryon put a hand on each piece of wood and pushed out. Nothing happened for a second, then slowly, the boards moved. When his arms were fully stretched, the spears were spread enough for her to pass through. Which she did. He slid his hands across to the other side then jumped out when close to the far side.

Kari swiped her light along the path in front of them and wondered what other traps lay ahead.





Chapter Fourteen




Bryon pushed ahead of his mate. His pulse and mind had yet to slow to normal. He’d almost lost her. After years of waiting and praying, losing her before he even got to kiss her. That wouldn’t happen. He wouldn’t let it happen.

She was his mate, and he wanted to know everything about her. He smelled her anger, but wasn’t fazed. He’d win her over. What do women like to talk about?

“Kari, tell me something about yourself.”

“Myself?” she asked.

“Yeah. Something about your childhood or anything interesting,” he replied.

“There’s nothing interesting about me. I’m rather boring,” she said.

He laughed. He loved her modesty. “I doubt that. I bet you’re extremely fascinating.”

She snorted again. “You really don’t know me.”

That was the purpose of this conversation. He wanted to know what made her laugh, what made her cry, what made her love someone, what made her want to make love to someone.

“Well,” she started, “I almost died once.”

Panic shot through him. He didn’t want to know that.

“When I was twelve, one of my friends was toting me on the front of her bicycle. She hit a pothole and I flew over the handlebars.” A million horrific images flew through his mind. He looked back at her to make sure she was fine. He chastised himself: of course she was fine. But still . . .

“I don’t remember anything after that. Mom told me a while later. Supposedly, I hit the asphalt face first. My front two teeth were knocked out.” Her voice changed as if she were poking at her teeth as she talked about them.

He wondered about other things in her mouth. What did she taste like? How would her tongue feel gliding over his? How soft would her lips be? Shit. He adjusted his pants as he walked. Good thing he was in front of her. He turned when they came to another side opening.

She continued. “The skin on my chin and forehead was scraped off. And I’d managed to break my arm.”

“That doesn’t sound that bad,” he said. He could live with such minor injuries on her. Of course, he’d take care of her until she was perfect again. Then he wouldn’t have let her out of bed.

“The bad thing was the concussion,” she continued. His wolf flipped out. Their mate had gotten brain damage when he hadn’t been there to protect her, hadn’t been there to save her. Bryon reminded his animal they didn’t know her then. They were only fifteen or sixteen themselves.

“I was in the hospital for several days, in and out of consciousness. Mom said the tests the doctors took showed extensive damage to the left side of my brain. They said I could be partially paralyzed or challenged in some way.”

“Were you?”

They came to a sudden stop at a pile of rocks that blocked the tunnel. With a sigh, he turned her around to head back. Kari hadn’t said anything to his question. Her delayed replied couldn’t be good. What did he say?