Wynter's Captive (7 page)

Lili nodded. She’d gone on the internet and looked him up. Cade Wynter was a big player in the financial markets and dabbled in everything that caught his attention. He was called Midas because whatever he sponsored or invested in turned to gold. He kept his entire pack’s portfolio well lined, from what Brandon said, and each and every one of his people had enough money that they didn’t have to work for him, but they still chose to.

“But Cyrus is the more problematic brother. He didn’t want to work hard; he wanted things to be easy. He was always angry and working shady schemes. So when their father left all control of the company to Cade, well Cyrus rebelled and took off.”

Lili remembered the man clearly. She’d seen massive amounts of anger in his eyes. “Well I saw him, and let me tell you he’s not going to give up easily. He acted like the pack belonged to him and all he had to do was tell them what do.”

“Yeah, that’s not really how packs work.”

Lili snorted. “Tell me about it. I tried bribing Kevin and Korbin into letting me go. Which, I must say, was really difficult to do since it was freezing and they were walking around buck naked.”

“You didn’t tell me about that!” Jaylin’s eyes widened into saucers. “You saw two men, other than Cade, naked?”

“Well…” She hated sounding like she was boasting, but she did see more than that.

“What? What? Spill it. Don’t be mean.”

“It was more like eight.” She giggled and shushed her cousin when Jay squealed. “Because when Cyrus showed up he had a group of guys that shifted right in front of me, and they were all naked too. And chasing after me.”

Jaylin burst into laughter. “You had a group of naked men chasing you down?” She continued laughing until tears streamed down her face. She wiped at her cheeks. “So what did you do?”

“Well I wasn’t going to stand there and take pictures, I ran toward Cade. Who came to my rescue.” She sighed.

“So are you going to give Cade a chance or what?” Jay asked the question she’d been mentally debating with herself.

“Come on that’s not fair. I’m not the one that lied to him. I’m the innocent party in all this.”

Jay nodded sympathetically. “True. But the reality is that if you don’t see him, maybe talk things out and see where you can go from here, you are not going to be able to handle the emptiness you feel.”

“How do you know?”

“Because sweetheart.” She patted her knee. “One woman in love can recognize another.”

In love? She’d been with the man for what amounted to a day. It couldn’t possibly be love. She had to be sick. There was no other explanation for it. Besides, how many people in love complained of high fevers? None that she knew.

“So tell me about this whole mate business.” She remembered Cade saying she was his mate the first time they’d had sex. It had made for an explosive orgasm. One she’d never forget. Not that she’d forget any of the others, but that one seemed special somehow. As if their first time would always be embedded in the back of her mind.

Jaylin stared at her for a moment before answering. “Werewolves mate through bites. Kind of like marriage but with a more permanent feel.”

Lili didn’t mind permanent.

“Meaning they’re very loyal to their mates?” She’d read that somewhere. Not that she’d been doing research or anything. Oh god, was she considering a permanent relationship with Cade? After what he’d done? She’d need to have a serious conversation with him before she even agreed to a date again.

“Yeah, there are no divorces.” Jay sighed.

“How come you and Brandon haven’t mated?” She gasped. “Or have you?”

Jaylin giggled. “No, we have not. When we were discussing it, I came out pregnant so it will have to wait until the little one is born.”

“Oh. Well when you do, see that you tell a person. I don’t want to be caught unawares next time something important happens to you.”

“I promise, now let’s go get some food. I’m starving,” she groaned.

Lili rolled her eyes. “You’re always starving.”

Cade glanced at the opening elevator and stood to welcome his guest.

“Cade.”

“Brandon. Thanks for coming.”

Brandon nodded and closed the distance. “Your request said it was urgent.”

He motioned around and lowered to a chair once Brandon had taken a seat opposite him. “Look, first I need to apologize.”

Brandon’s brows flew up high. He had clearly not expected those to be Cade’s first words. “OK. What are you apologizing for?”

“I’m sorry for ever doubting your friendship. You never did anything remotely wrong to give me the impression that you’d take my fiancée from me. My only explanation is that I never thought she’d lie to me that way. If she would’ve been in front of me I would have known she lied, but she made it a point to call. I was lost in confusion and hurt that you would do something like that to me.”

“But I didn’t,” Brandon said. “I held our friendship near and dear to my heart. I was really hurt when you wouldn’t see me. When I finally found out what you thought I did wrong, I felt like coming back here and beating your ass just for even thinking it, but I knew you needed to realize it on your own.” He shook his head. “Only you never did. And now you’ve dragged Lili into this.”

“I need to find a way for her to forgive me.”

Brandon snorted. “Good luck with that. From what I hear, she doesn’t want to see you again. Apparently you have two strikes against you. The fact you lied and the fact you’ve got money.”

“What? Since when is having money a bad thing?”

“Since her father is super wealthy and always trying to control her with it. She’s got a trust fund, but she won’t touch it. She prefers to do without rather than take any money from her dad, so he can’t tell her what to do.” Brandon grinned. “I heard you tried that a few times, telling her what to do. Didn’t work very well, huh?”

Cade shook his head and scratched his five o’clock shadow. Life must be laughing its ass off at him. All this time he’d wanted a woman who didn’t care about money, and when he finally found one, he may not get her back
because
of it. Adding insult to injury? He’d tried to boss her around enough times he was sure she wouldn’t talk to him again. He was well and truly fucked.

“So what do I do now?” Cade stood, started pacing the length of his living area, and glanced at the falling snow. He wished his mate was there with him, watching the falling white flakes and giving him the chance to hold her. He’d played himself and put what he wanted most in jeopardy when he’d lied. And now he couldn’t even be near her.

“Look, I know you mated her.” Brandon sighed. “But you can’t expect her to just get over what you did without giving her some time to think. I’m sure that when her change takes place she’ll come looking for you.”

“And if she doesn’t? If she decides that it doesn’t matter that we’re not only mates but connected on a much deeper level? That she won’t be with me because she can’t trust me?”

Brandon winced. “Let’s not get drastic. You can’t live your life alone. That would be the result and you know it. Mates are for life and if yours rejects you, you know you won’t want another. I know Lili. She wouldn’t decide to never see you again if she has feelings for you. And from what Jay has been saying, she’s been very sad lately.”

His gut clenched. It was his fault she was sad and upset, and he couldn’t go to her and make it better. The stupid plan had brought him his mate and taken her from him at the same time.

“She’s coming up on her change, Brandon. I don’t know what to do. I didn’t even get a chance to explain to her that she would turn wolf after we mated.”

Brandon whistled low. “That is just wrong. But I will ask Jaylin and others to keep an eye on her to make sure she’s well-guarded when the moment arrives.”

“I’ve told my own people to guard her also, but I don’t want her to go through that without me. I should be there with her. Teaching her how to go back and forth between human and wolf,” he growled, exasperated.

“Calm down. She needs time. Lili is not a person that holds on to things, so once she’s not hurt or angry enough to want to string you up by your balls, she’ll come see you.”

“She said she wanted to string me up by the balls?” If she was that angry he wouldn’t be seeing her any time soon. And he missed her. He missed talking to her and holding her. Kissing her sexy lips and touching her curvy body.

Brandon shrugged. “She either said string you up by your balls and hang you out to dry or shove them down your throat. I can’t remember which one she used.”

Chapter Seven

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

Brandon hooted in laughter. “Oh yes. I’m glad you apologized, C. I missed this kind of shit. My brothers aren’t as fun to watch fuck up their love lives. You’re much better at spreading the shit around until there’s no way to clean it.”

“Asshole. So that’s it? I just wait around until she decides she wants to see me again? And if that never happens, what then?” He was never going to survive this. He made things happen. Now he was subject to waiting until Lili decided to forgive him and talk to him again. After he’d told her what to do and pretty much lied? That would be a cold day in hell.

Brandon sat back, folded his legs, and placed them on a glass coffee table. “Then you need to start thinking of ways to get your mate back. Because Lili’s amazing, and pretty soon some other man is going to want your woman for himself.”

Cade growled and stalked off. He needed a drink. He’d been mated for less than a week, and he’d fucked up well enough it had driven him to alcohol. Not that it would do anything since shifters metabolized the stuff before they even felt a buzz. Once he grabbed two ice-cold beers from the fridge, he returned to the living room and found Kevin sitting down with Brandon.

He tossed a cold bottle at his old friend. “You can get your own beer. You know where they are,” he said to Kevin.

“He’s very hospitable, isn’t he?” Brandon chuckled.

“Usually he’s a lot bossier, but he’s mellowed out since he mated.” Kevin laughed.

Cade sat down to mope, wondering at the different ways he could appease Lili’s anger.

“I heard Cyrus made an appearance at your cabins,” Brandon said.

Cade nodded. “Yeah. He says he wants the right to the pack.”

Kevin laughed. “As if that’s something he can just get. No offense Cade, but are you sure you’re related?”

“What are you going to do about him?” Brandon asked before he had a chance to answer Kevin.

“I’ve got people on him. He’s got two choices.” Cade clenched his jaw. “He can leave, and I will act as if he never returned. Or…” His voice deepened, his animal pushing at his skin. “He can fight.”

Kevin cleared his throat. “I don’t think it will come to that. From what I understand he’s lost some of the few followers he had due to his unwillingness to fight you that night. Apparently it made him look weak in the eyes of his men.”

Brandon nodded. “But that doesn’t take away the threat, right?”

“No,” Kevin agreed. “But it does mean that for now he’s got nothing. We’ll stay on top of him and whatever moves he makes.”

Cade leaned back in his seat and sighed, his mind going back to his current, curvy, sexy mate problem.

“All right, so let’s think,” Kevin said once he returned from the kitchen with his own beer can. “You need to figure out a way to get in her good graces.”

He glared at both men. “Was I talking to myself? I have been saying that.”

Brandon shook his head and gulped down his beer. “I already told you. I know Lili. Just give her some time, and she’ll come to see you when she has questions.” He took another drink. “Or she’ll come when she grows some fur and a tail. She’ll probably want to know what the hell that’s about.”

Kevin laughed, and Cade realized that he’d missed Brandon. It had been a lonely few years without his friend. But he had bigger problems now that they had worked out their issues. He needed to figure out how to get Lili back. He missed her.

He stood and strolled to the elevator.

“Where are you going?” Kevin asked.

“I need to take a breather. I’m not going far, so just relax,” he replied and pressed the button. “Sit down and stop stressing over me. I
can
take care of myself you know.” He laughed at Kevin’s frown. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

Brandon marched up to him, got in the elevator cab beside him, and pressed the lobby button. “Come on. I know where she’s at tonight.”

He just wanted to see her, even if from a distance. Even if it was kind of stalker-ish and made him look like a pathetic wolf.

Lili frowned at the deserted area in front of her and shivered. Why the hell had she parked her car on that tiny side street? Now she was creeped out and didn’t want to go in there.

“Stupid horror movies. Why do I continue to watch them?” she mumbled.

She lifted her thick scarf up to her ears and peered up and down the road. She didn’t see another person. It had been stupid to visit her aunt and leave so late. Aunt Patty never let anyone get out of her house without having at least two meals there, which meant that she ended up leaving late after dinner and dessert. She firmed her spine while taking careful steps toward her car, determined to not let anything scare her.

Digging into her pocket, she searched for her car keys as she neared the vehicle.

A figure appeared out of nowhere and stood in front of her. “Cade’s little mate.”

Lili jerked her head up. Holy crap. Cyrus. The big, angry, evil-looking man was smiling at her. She took hasty steps back, turned, and attempted to run, but he was on her in what felt like the blink of an eye. He grabbed the neck area of her coat and yanked back. She screamed.

“Where are you going? We haven’t even gotten to know each other yet.” He laughed.

“Let go of me!”

In a blur of movement, he grabbed her arms, and held them behind the back of her neck. Then he shoved her face-first up against her car, her body flat on the car’s side. Fear rushed over her. He started tearing at the material of her coat. Panic surged with every rip, because it became clear he was going to rape her. She kicked, screamed, and tried to buck him off. Every move was a struggle because it was like being held between a steel wall and an unmoving rock.