He nodded. "I'm not going to hurt you."
His deep, sexy voice should be outlawed.
"I'm sure that's what all the serial killers say to their victims." She eyed the lamp on the nightstand.
"I just want to talk." His words were careful and he spoke in gentle tones.
"I suppose you want to talk about your dog people." She edged closer to the nightstand.
"Dog people? Oh, you saw Colton. Right. How do I explain this?" He rubbed the back of his neck, his face taking on a sheepish expression. If he weren't her abductor, she would say he looked adorable.
"Start with the dog thing." She suggested.
"Colton is one of the men in the unit that I serve with. Each man in the unit is a little ... different than most people. Colton happens to be a shifter. He can turn into a wolf."
Meryn blinked. Then blinked again. Without looking away from him she ran her fingers over the heavy looking lamp base.
"So you're a wolf?" She asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
He looked offended. "Of course not."
She let out a relieved breath.
"I'm a bear."
She closed her eyes. "Why me? Why does this shit always happen to me?" When she opened her eyes he had moved a little closer. She tensed. He leaned in and sniffed her hair.
"Are you sniffing me?" She asked incredulously.
"I want to be sure. Let me ask you something, are you drawn to me?" His eyebrows were bunched together as he frowned down at her.
"Do you mean do I want to have hot, sweaty sex with you?" She asked.
"No! Wait. Do you?"
"Not answering that."
"Do you know about animals?"
"I guess I know what most people know."
"Do you know that wolves mate for life?"
"So do swans." She had seen that on National Geographic. He looked surprised.
"They do? Really?"
"Yup." She nodded.
"I never knew that."
"What was your point?"
"Sorry, got distracted. The point is that people like me and Colton, we get one mate in life, like wolves in the wild. You are my mate." He smiled down at her.
Oh God, he wanted to mate with her!
She grabbed the lamp and pulled the wire from the socket.
"Is this some freaky ass cult?" She threw the lamp as hard as she could at him. She smiled in satisfaction when it bounced off his head. The satisfaction was short lived when he turned his irritated gaze her way. She jumped on the bed and kept going until she backed into the corner with the second nightstand at her back and the king size mattress between them.
"I won't become part of the collective. I refuse to have your babies. Resistance isn't futile!" She screamed and picked up the second lamp. He turned and fled the room. Breathing hard, she put the lamp down with shaking hands. He seemed to run from objects thrown at him. She decided she needed to search the room and bathroom for more projectile objects. Feeling better now that she had even a small plan she got to work.
*****
Aiden sat downstairs with his men around him. He let Lorcan's unit set up patrols in case any other women decided to scale their perimeter fences. How could one tiny woman cause so much damn trouble?
"She's lively." Darian said consolingly.
"I have no idea what she is saying half the time." Aiden groaned.
"She's female of course you don't." Keelan said.
"Let her calm down. She's been up there for the past of couple hours, she should be getting hungry. Maybe by providing food, you can show her that you mean to take care of her and be a good mate." Gavriel suggested.
"That's not a bad idea. I know food always makes me feel better." Aiden nodded. Maybe a nice quiet dinner where they could get to know one another was just the thing they needed.
"Do we have any food here?"
"Leftovers from that Italian place we went to the other day, it should still be good." Keelan reminded him.
"Okay. I'm going to try to feed her and get her to listen." Aiden stood with a renewed sense of purpose. His men on the other hand, looked worried.
"I'm sure everything will be okay." He smiled, feeling more and more confident. He could after all handle one small human female.
*****
She heard him at the door and jumped up. Grabbing the heavy porcelain toilet back she ran over and climbed up on the long dresser next to the door. She held her breath when the door inched open. He had only taken a single step inside the room when she brought the toilet back down on his head as hard as she could. He fell to his knees with a loud crash. Two styrofoam containers dropped out of his hands and landed on the floor. He floundered around on all fours before falling forward. Shaking, she dropped the toilet back, hopped down and ran out of the room. She sprinted through the hallway and down the stairs. If she could just get outside, she could make her way back to the fence and find her car. She was about to open the front door when she was grabbed from behind. The blond man, Colton held her again.