Darkest Wolf(3)

“Try it and I will make you repent.” His sisters-in-law had temporarily warded him from witches. It wouldn’t last forever. Hence the reason why they needed a witch—they could never permanently protect themselves from the evil ministrations of his father’s pet coven.

He couldn’t take her out through the diner. In this day and age, humans had rules about abduction and, if she wanted to, the witch could make his life miserably harder than it need be. He would still get her out of there but he could do without the scene she would cause.

Instead, he carted her out the back door of the kitchen. The smell of restaurant garbage made him want to gag as he hurried with the screaming woman still perched over his shoulder toward his van. “Witch, you will listen.” She snarled, an impressive sound considering she was not a canine. “Wolf, you will put me down.”

“I will.” He nodded. “Inside my van. I can either tie you up and stick you in the back, or you can behave like a well brought up woman and sit up front with me.”

“You have no idea how I was brought up.”

“I will have your choice.”

She cursed. “The back of the van.”

Fine. So far Rex’s mating was not going the way he might have hoped. None of his brothers had this much trouble with their soul mates. His brother Tristan had been trapped as a wolf, his brother Theo had accidentally managed to take part of the soul of a demon inside of him, Az’s mate had herself been stuck as a wolf, and Michael had mated a latent wolf-shifter who had been horribly abused. And, yet, none of them had found a mate as bad-tempered as his. Hell, he still didn’t know this witch’s name.

Thumping her down on the inside of the van, he grabbed some rope he kept stored there. Also collected were lots of tools and assorted weaponry he might need whenever he left the island. All of his equipment would have to be moved up front because even tied up he suspected his mate-slash-witch would find a way to wound him if she could.

She was going to have to go up front with him whether she liked it or not. He grabbed the rope and tied her wrists. “I really don’t want to do this to you. I have no interest in tying you up.”

Her eyes flared with anger. “I thought you wolves were into all kinds of kinky stuff.” Rex rolled his eyes. The woman would say anything to get a rise out of him at the moment. “When I have your hands on me sexually, I won’t want you tied.” She gulped, the muscles on her neck stretching slightly. He wondered if he’d made her mouth go dry.

“Nothing to say?”

With her wrists fully secured, he heaved her over his shoulder again. “Stop. Right now. I don’t like how you’re holding me. It makes me feel like you’re going to drop me on the ground.”

“Witch, if you weighed twice what you do, I wouldn’t drop you. I’m a wolf-shifter. I can carry three times my own body weight.”

“Good to know.” She kicked again, this time landing a blow on his chest. It stung but he wouldn’t rub it, not in front of her. In their power struggle, he would come up on top.

This witch would not be allowed to see him weak, even if she were his mate.

She is.



He wanted to slam his wolf. Shut up. “I would think you would be pleased. You said they were going to kill you. I’ve removed you from the situation, witch.”

“Would you please stop calling me witch?” Her eyes flared as he placed her in the front passenger side of his blue van, bending over to buckle her in like she was a child who needed help.

“What else should I call you since you won’t tell me your name?” He closed the door and used his key remote to lock her in while he walked to the driver’s side. If she managed to escape and run away, he would catch her with no trouble. But the time he spent doing it could be better spent getting back to Maine. If he rushed, he would be there in seven hours.

In an irony not lost on him, this wasn’t his first time in New Jersey picking up a mate he needed to bring back to Maine. The only difference was the first time Tristan had been with him, stuck in wolf form, and Tristan’s mate Ashlee had at least accepted she was mated to Tristan.

Also, it hadn’t been his fate and soul on the line. Which seemed, he rapidly discovered, to make all the difference. Was he doomed to spar with this woman’s attitude for the rest of eternity?

Not the rest. You will start to age as soon as you take care of the sexual part of mating. Then you’ll live a normal and happy life like the rest of your family.

Only if I can avoid getting murdered by my father. His wolf had left the troubling part out of the happily-ever-after scenario.