Page 7 of The Scent of Seduction

Nicole let out a breath, and a little smile kicked up the corners of her mouth. It was sweet, if not a touch, presumptuous. She eyed the inviting bed. It was elegant-looking, like it belonged to some Victorian-era Parisian aristocrat who’d escaped to the country. But she couldn’t picture her and Jaryn rolling around on those sheets locked in a passionate battle. She heard Jaryn shut the cabin door, then sensed his presence behind her. He placed his warm hands on her shoulders. He gave a tender squeeze, then slid his touch down her arms to gather her in and embrace her from behind. As he placed another one of those soft kisses on her skin, his lips grazing the side of her neck, a shiver raced across her body.

“Let’s get you tucked in bed.” He walked over to the bed and pulled the quilt and top sheet back.

Her body sagged, and her eyes burned from exhaustion. Her feet moved forwards on his command, then she sat heavily on the thick mattress. Jaryn kneeled at her feet and untied the laces of her shoes. Her hands automatically went to the button of her jeans, but froze as she realized Jaryn was still kneeling in front of her.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. Let’s get you comfortable, otherwise you won’t have a good rest.”

Jaryn unfastened her jeans, and she lifted her hips so he could pull them down. To his credit, his eyes didn’t linger on her lace panties, although she noticed he inhaled an extra long breath before standing to tuck the quilt around her. He closed the curtains, then came back and sat on the edge of the mattress. His hand smoothed her hair away from her face and his thumb caressed her cheekbone.

“I want nothing more than to kiss you right this second, but I’m going to wait until you’re wide awake. Our first kiss will begin the bonding process, and I want you to desire and cherish the sensations it will bring as much as I will. So all I’ll do right now is say rest well, Nicole Holland, and I will see you this evening.”

Jaryn apparently couldn’t forgo a small touch because once again his firm lips landed on her forehead, lingering for several seconds, before he quickly stood and exited the cabin. Nicole turned on her side and closed her eyes. As sleep quickly overtook her, she wondered if she would dream of the man calling himself her mate.

Jaryn sat across from Nicole in the quiet restaurant. The hostess had seated them in the back corner, so they had some privacy. He gazed at her burgundy hair as the light from the flickering candle in the center of the table highlighted the various red hues. Her forest green eyes lit from within at his contemplation. The waitress broke the spell as she delivered their drinks. He watched Nicole take a long drink of her water, her throat moving as she swallowed. He wanted to kiss the soft pale skin, especially that spot at the base where her pulse pounded. Nicole put her glass down and he reached for her hand before she could place it back in her lap.

“Before we get to the heavy discussion, tell me about you,” he said.

“What do you want to know?”

“Why don’t we start with the basics?”

“I’m thirty-five years old. Originally from Chicago, but went to the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I majored in natural science, and have a Master’s degree in education.” Nicole took a deep breath and looked across at Jaryn before she slowly said, “And for the past year and a half, I’ve been a prisoner of a shifter named Adam Broyles.”

Jaryn clenched his water glass so tightly it surprised him it didn’t shatter. He knew something had made his mate so skittish, but he never suspected a hostage situation. He studied her dark-green eyes, so sure he’d find evidence of the trauma she’d experienced. Her scent was rich with determination, mixed with a touch of anxiety, but there was no terror. No emptiness. Nothing to really reveal the ordeal she’d gone through.

“Can you talk about it?”

Nicole nodded. “I promised them I would. That I’d find help.”

He’d figure out exactly what she meant by ‘them’ later. He could see that Nicole needed to unload her burden, and as her mate, it was part of his job to be there for her. Jaryn saw her hand shake as she lifted her glass of water. He reached across the table and enfolded her other hand between his. “Take your time. Why don’t you start at the beginning?”

“Adam is a wolf shifter living in the Northwoods area of Wisconsin. I’m not sure what he has can be called a pack, since almost everyone there is being held against their will. Adam likes to call it recruiting, but I believe there’s a more accurate term for what he does. I was living and teaching in Wausau when I met Adam at a singles’ Valentine’s Day party some friends were having. We talked for a little, but I wasn’t completely comfortable around him, so I tried to extricate myself as smoothly as possible."

“Somehow he got my phone number and started calling all the time. It was a little unnerving, but no red flags went up. In fact, I found it flattering that this handsome, rich man was giving me—a high school teacher—so much attention. I finally agreed to go out with him about a month after we met. That night, instead of taking me home, he drove me back to his compound. He locked me in a small chamber. He… he…”

Jaryn could see that Nicole was unraveling. He stood, then went over to her side of the table, lifted her from her chair and settled her on his lap. He didn’t care about the other diners. All that mattered was that his mate was hurting, and if being in his arms would ease her pain, then he’d move heaven and hell to make it happen. She curled into his chest and he slowly rubbed her back until she stopped shaking.

This Adam's psychotic demeanor and the abuse he inflicted on his mate made sure Jaryn would seek retribution. Heat surged through his body and he seethed with rage at the thought of his mate being anywhere near such a creature. Every primal instinct to protect what was his coursed through him.

“I have you, Nicole. He can’t hurt you anymore. Just tell me, and we’ll take care of it. Did he… did he violate you?”

“Yes, but probably not in how you mean. He never raped me, at least not that I know of.” She lifted her head from Jaryn’s chest. “There are quite a few blocks of time that I can’t account for. Times when I’d be in one place, then wake up in a completely different area of the compound. For a while, I believed he was drugging me with the food, so I stopped eating. However, he then forced me to watch as he punished those who prepared the meals. I couldn't tolerate being responsible for another person's whipping, so I consumed whatever was served to me." Nicole unconsciously rubbed the scar on the back of her neck. "Then there was the time…"

Jaryn took Nicole’s hand in his, placed a small kiss on the pads of her fingers, then held her hand in his lap. He moved her mane of hair aside and frowned when he saw the scar on the back of her neck, directly over her spine. Some type of incision had clearly made it, since it was too neat to be from an attack. About two inches long, it was slightly red and puffy. He sniffed at the puckered skin, but there was no trace of disease—only a lingering medicinal scent. He gave it a little lick, hoping that maybe his saliva might help the healing process.

Nicole’s eyes went wide. “What did you do?”

“I licked it. As your mate, my saliva holds special healing properties for you. It’s part of the mate bond. Why?”

“It doesn’t burn anymore. One morning, about a week ago, I woke up and found a taped bandage back there. I have no idea how the incision got there. When I confronted Adam, he told me that my time was up. That it was his mating mark and from that moment on, I belonged to him. A few of the others helped me escape a couple of nights later. I’ve been driving for the last two days, and only stopped in the bank here because I’d run out of the cash I’d stolen from Adam’s safe.”

He worried about the missing blocks of time from her memory, and if he thought too hard about what may have happened, there’d be nothing to stop his wolf from hunting down this Adam Broyles and tearing the man limb from limb. There was a very good chance this man was the one he’d been searching for. They had received no information about him kidnapping humans, too, but from what he’d gathered from Nicole so far, this Adam Broyles fit the profile. Before they explored that any further, he needed to reassure his mate.

“It’ll be all right. This Adam lied to you. I’m not sure what caused this scar, but I can assure you it’s not a mating mark. The only authentic way to gain a mating mark is the introduction of a shifter’s saliva with a bite here”—he placed a gentle kiss on the curve of Nicole’s neck where it met her shoulder—“at the moment of climax. Then my body will knot inside yours. My seed and special enzymes in my semen will bathe your womb, and our bond will be complete. This will only happen between two true mates. A shifter cannot force a mating on someone. The soul will not recognize the claiming, and the bond will not form.”

Nicole turned and slipped her arms around Jaryn’s neck. “So what you’re saying is that whatever else Adam did to me, I don’t belong… he can’t force me to… he used scare tactics to threaten me into submission?”

“That’s right. He can’t hurt you anymore. My pack will protect you with our lives. I promise to investigate this Adam person and find out exactly what kind of operation he’s running. In fact, I think he may actually be the person I’ve been trying to track down for some time.” He saw Nicole’s eyes widen and her delicate auburn eyebrows arch. “I’m a member of the ASC—you’ve heard of them, right?” Nicole nodded. “Well, over the last several years, there’ve been shifters disappearing from all over the country. The ASC asked me and two other men of my pack, Shaun and Cooper, to examine all the individual investigations to find some pattern. To find out exactly what had been happening to the shifters. From what you’ve said so far, it sounds probable that you may hold the key to unlock this mystery once and for all.”

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