“What the hell does that mean?”
“My father has chosen a mate for me. He’s going to announce our betrothal when I go back home.”
“You don’t sound very happy about it.”
“Victor Rinaldi is the most conceited, arrogant male I’ve ever known.”
“So, why are you marrying him?”
“Three reasons. My father loves Victor like the son he lost. Victor’s father and mine have been friends for over fifty years. And Victor’s father is Alpha of the Green Mountain Pack. Their territory borders ours, and my marriage to Victor will make both packs stronger and more secure.”
“Don’t you have any say in the matter?”
“No.” She looked up at him. “Do vampires get married?”
“Some do.”
“But not you?”
“Nope. Never found a woman I wanted to spend more than a few days with.”
“Do you really think we’ll get out of here?”
He looked at her, his gaze sliding along the length of her neck, lingering on the pulse throbbing in the hollow of her throat. “For your sake, I sure as hell hope so.”
* * *
Chapter 7
Dorothy Alissano fidgeted with her apron while listening to one side of the phone conversation her husband was having with Kiya’s employer. It was bad news: She knew it. David Saltzman had never called them before.
“What is it?” she asked when Russell ended the call. “What’s wrong?”
“Kiya is missing.”
“Missing?” Dorothy felt the blood drain from her face as she dropped into one of the kitchen chairs. “What do you mean, missing?”
“She didn’t report to work on Monday, and Saltzman hasn’t heard from her since. Her friend, Wanda, said the last time she saw Kiya was at some nightclub. She thinks Kiya went home with a man she met there.”
Dorothy shook her head. “Kiya wouldn’t do that. She would never go off with a stranger.”
“Maybe you don’t know our daughter as well as well as you think you do.”
“I know her a hell of a lot better than you do!” Dorothy folded her arms over her chest, worry for her daughter unleashing words she had never dared speak aloud. “You’ve never loved her. Never forgiven me for being unable to give you a son to take Mark’s place.”
Complications from Kiya’s birth had made it impossible for Dorothy to have another child.
Russell’s eyes narrowed ominously. “Watch your tongue, mitawicu.”
Dorothy bit down on her lower lip, a sudden stab of fear making her tremble. In all their married life, she had never dared talk back to him. Her husband was not only an alpha male, he was an Alpha werewolf, accustomed to being obeyed without question.
“It’s true, isn’t it?” she whispered. “You wish Victor was your son. You love him more than you love your own daughter.”
He didn’t deny it. “I’m going to make some phone calls, see if anyone has heard anything about Kiya.”
Dorothy held her tears in check until he left the room, then she buried her face in her hands and let the tears flow. Not being able to give Russell another son had created a gulf between them that could not be crossed. For Dorothy, it was a pain that had never healed. And yet, in spite of the bitterness between them, she loved him still.
Wiping her eyes on her apron, she let her thoughts drift back in time, remembering how it had been in the beginning… .
She had been walking home from a girlfriend’s house one evening when a large dog attacked her. She had fallen to the ground and curled into a ball, her arms folded over her head, screaming bloody murder, but no one had come to her aid and then, seemingly from out of thin air, a man had appeared. He spoke to the hound in a language Dorothy didn’t understand and the dog had whimpered and run off with its tail between its legs.
“Are you all right?” the man asked.
She had been too scared to speak, too frightened by the blood running down her arms and leg to think coherently.
He had looked undecided for a moment, then swept her into his arms and carried her to the hospital located several blocks away. In the emergency room, she had begged him not to leave her alone, so he had lied to the nurse, saying he was her husband. He had stayed at her side, holding her hand, while they bandaged her arms and stitched the nasty bite in her leg. When they left the hospital, Russell had called for a cab and taken her home.
Dorothy had been afraid she would never see him again, but when the cab pulled to a stop in front of her house, he had surprised her by asking if he could call on her the next night.
They dated for several months and she fell head over heels in love with him. He was tall and dark and in some ways, a total mystery to her. She was fascinated by his Indian heritage, by his bearing, which was almost regal. To her, he seemed like Rhett Butler and Superman all rolled into one.