Alpha’s Claim (Bad Boy Bears #1)

Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

P aloma

Darius tugs the tie binding my wrists, releasing them. He rubs the red bands his bowtie left on my skin and kisses my fingers. He leaves for a moment and returns without the condom, carrying a glass of cold water that he offers to me.

I drink thirstily as he strokes his large palm over my body. He left marks all over me. My chest is chafed pink, and there’s some faint redness lingering on my ass from my punishment. He fusses over them, and the sight of my Viking giant frowning at a faint bruise on my hip is enough to make me swoon.

He puts a hand on my belly, cupping my curves. I should feel self-conscious about my belly, but I don’t. Darius makes me feel like my body is perfect, exactly as it is. “You okay?”

“Better than okay. That was…amazing.” There aren’t words in any language to describe how good it felt. “Thank you.”

“It was my honor.” He looks so serious .

I lean forward and kiss his chin. He cups my head in his large hands, looking deeply into my eyes. I stare back, studying the gold-flecked gray of his pupils. They were shining so brightly during sex, but it must have been a trick of the light. And was his beard always this bushy?

My stomach growls loudly, breaking the moment.

Darius chuckles and kisses my forehead. His scratchy beard tickles me.

“I’m going to see if I can get some food for my princess.”

I start to push up to say I’ll come with him, but he rolls me to my side and swats my ass. “Stay.”

I sink back into the plush bed, savoring the languor in my limbs.

But the moment he disappears behind the door, reality sets in.

I had my fun. I chose and controlled who took my virginity and how. It was incredible. Better than I ever could’ve imagined.

But our moment is over.

Thom will have every brute on his payroll out looking for me. Not to mention, he still has my sister. My body goes cold thinking of what he might do to Wren if he doesn’t hear from me soon. Right now, she’s on a choir tour with school, but he might try to snatch her while she’s on the road and make good on his threat.

I want my freedom, but I’m not willing to trade her life for mine.

And I don’t want Darius’ death on my conscience, either.

I have to act. I rise and put on Darius’ black button down over my skimpy pajamas. I search his pants for the car keys but come up with nothing.

No matter. We’re in an area of vacation homes, but there’s bound to be some traffic on the main road. I just need to get to a phone, so I can call Thom and stop the bomb from ticking.

I don’t have much time.

I hear Darius out on the porch that faces the ocean. He’s talking on his phone. “Thanks, man,” he says. “I appreciate it.” He turns away, facing the sea.

I use the opportunity to dash through the house. There’s a side door in the kitchen, and I make for that, pausing when the light glints off some metal. I found the car keys.

I take the time to leave a quick note.

Thank you for rescuing me, dear Viking, but I have to go back. I will make a bargain with Thom to keep you safe or convince him it was a drunken escapade.

Besos,

Paloma

Slipping out the door to the garage, I hesitate. I don’t actually know how to drive because Thom didn’t allow me to learn. Too bad there’s not a stable around here–I’m way more comfortable on a horse.

But how hard can driving a car be?

I hit the button to open the garage door. Ack! I didn’t know it would be so loud. Darius will definitely hear. I run for the stolen sports car, climb behind the wheel and adjust the seat way closer, so my feet reach the pedals.

But how does the keyless fob work? I press buttons until the car roars to life, then I adjust the gear to the R button. Or I try to. It won’t move. I shake the handle .

My foot presses one of the pedals, and suddenly the lever moves.

My heart pounds as I pull it down to the R and step harder on the pedal.

Nothing.

Okay. Other pedal. I floor it.

That one works. The car lurches, tires screaming on the garage floor as the car flies out of the garage way too fast.

I hit something.

Oh shit.

Oh shit! I clap my hand over my mouth. It’s Darius.

I throw open the car door, but the car lurches again.

Darius’s hands are braced against the back spoiler, and he has the rear wheels lifted off the ground to keep it from moving.

“Put it in park! The P,” he barks.

I shove the handle to P, and the car lurches again, then stops.

Darius lowers the rear tires as I climb back out. He arches a sexy brow. “Going somewhere, princess?”

I suck in a breath, considering whether to tell him the truth or lie.

No, he deserves the truth. I just don’t want him to play hero for me and end up dead.

“I have to go back.”

Darius

“What?”

My bear tries to rip free of the hold I have on him. He’s going insane over Paloma trying to leave.

Over the fact that she wants to go back .

He wants to rampage, ripping his claws through the walls of the garage Paloma drove halfway out of.

“No,” I say before she can explain. “No fucking way you’re going back.”

“Darius, there’s more to this than you understand. Thom has leverage on me.”

Everything in me goes still. A dark prick of warning seeps under the rage of my bear.

“What do you mean?”

“He has my sister. He said if I tried to escape again, she’d die.”

Ice sluices through my veins. I grind my teeth together. “Where is she?”

“At a boarding school in Connecticut.”

I nod. “Then we’ll get to her first.”

“ No . You don’t understand.” She’s not soothed by my words.

“Explain it to me.”

“They don’t allow cell phones at her school, and it only has school intranet, so I can’t get a message to her.”

“Then we’ll go there. Connecticut is just an hour away.”

“It’s more complicated than that. She’s on a school choir trip to Ireland right now. We need to figure out how to find her before Thom does.”

Fuck.

Paloma is all warrior. Her jaw is set with determination. Her eyes flash with anger. She may have been a princess in a tower, but she’s no wilting flower.

“Also, I’ll die without my medicine. We have two days until I go into full cardiac arrest.”

My bear tries to claw out of me in a rage.

Stay. Down .

Fuck. The medicine that smells like toxic. I should’ve remembered that.

“Okay. We’ll get your medication. What’s it called? My brother’s a doctor–he can call a prescription in somewhere for you.”

She shakes her head. “It’s not a standard prescription. Dr. Handel compounds it himself. Some kind of proprietary blend.”

My brows slam down. “What is your exact diagnosis?”

“It’s a form of hemophilia.”

“Okay. We’ll get you medicine for it. And we’ll find your sister.” I look around, not liking us being out in the open, especially with a stolen car’s plates visible to anyone who drives by. “Let’s go inside and find something to eat. We will both make better decisions when we’re properly nourished.”

Paloma looks around but finally nods, and my bear eases back on the choke-hold he has on me.

“I’m right behind you–I’m just going to pull the car back in.” I call Kylie Jackson, a cat shifter hacker who lives in Tucson. She’s known in the shifter world as a fixer of sorts.

Paloma has already pulled a box of macaroni and cheese and a can of tuna from the pantry and is heating a pot of water.

“Listen, I need a favor,” I say to her after reminding her who I am. “It’s a matter of life and death. I need help locating a student at a boarding school in Connecticut–one that limits communication with the outside world, so she doesn’t have a cell phone.”

“That shouldn’t be too big of a problem.”

“Well, to add to the dilemma, they’re on a field trip to Ireland. ”

“No problem. That means there will be a document trail through customs.”

“You can hack into customs?”

“Of course. What’s the student’s name?”

Paloma stands close to me, listening. “Wren Castillo.”

“Wren Castillo,” Kylie repeats, her shifter hearing picking up Paloma’s voice through the phone. “I’ll see what I can find. And one of my contacts is on the way to drop off groceries and some clothes.”

“Thanks again. I owe you, big time.”

“Yes, you do,” Kylie agrees, but I’m not worried about owing her or her wolf mate a favor.

Wolves aren’t crazy in the head like vampires. Owing a wolf isn’t anything to fear. I’m friendly with her mate Jackson King and the other billionaire wolf shifter, Brick Blackthroat. His cousin Aiden Adalwulf is another story. He’s more of the Thom Thompson kind of creepy.

The water starts to boil, and Paloma empties the box of macaroni into the pot and sets the oven timer for eight minutes.

I step up behind her and rest my hands lightly on her hips. “So, what am I missing, Rapunzel? Thompson is a sex trafficker?” I ask. “Are there other women he’s auctioned off?”

She shakes her head. “No.”

“Just you? Why now? What’s so special about your virginity?”

Paloma turns toward the stove, hiding her face.

I knew there was something else she hadn’t told me. It’s something she doesn’t want to tell me.

I step right up behind her. “What is Thompson up to?” I keep my voice low.

She rotates slowly to face me. Her hands come up to my chest. I’m not sure whether she’s going to push me away or tip her face up for a kiss. She hesitates.

“You can trust me, Paloma–whatever it is. I can help you better if I understand what’s going on.”

She draws in a breath and nods, like she made up her mind. “Do you know that movie where the kid sees dead people?”

“ Sixth Sense? Yeah.”

“I see dead companies.”

My eyebrows rise. “What do you mean?”

“When I was in eighth grade, our economics teacher gave us paper accounts to make stock trades. We discovered I have a knack for it. I have this intuition about companies that are going to go out of business, and I learned to make short sales on them.”

“In eighth grade ?”

Paloma laughs. “Yes. My mom was a trader, so I’d grown up with stock trading in my blood. She was so proud of my success that she showed my paper account to her boss.”

“Thompson.”

“Yes. He offered to mentor me. He wanted to find out my methodology. Of course, I didn’t have one–it was all intuitive.”

Paloma’s eyes cloud, and she folds her arms across her chest, protectively.

I squeeze her shoulders. No wonder Thom has the most successful hedge fund in the world. He found a talented psychic and enslaved her.

“Our parents died in a car accident not long after that. Thom told me this weekend that he had them killed.” She shivers, and I draw her into my arms, pulling her cheek against my chest .

“Fuck, Paloma. That’s horrible.”

“And then he locked me up. I’ve been trading for him ever since. He holds Wren’s liberty and now her very life over my head to keep me from running away. I barely get to talk to her. My only pleasure is our Sunday video calls.” She shrugs. “And riding Starlight on the weekends.” She lifts her big brown eyes to my face. “And historical romance. You know–fantasizing about a giant Viking taking my virginity.”

I smile at her flirtation, but my smile quickly fades when I realize just how horrific her life has been. I don’t know how she can even keep things light.

“So the auction wasn’t just about your virginity.”

“No, it was supposed to be a lease of my stock trading services via a fake engagement to the winner. The engagement will be broken off in a year, when the winner returns me to Thom.

“I tried to escape Thursday night, but Thom caught me. That’s when he told me he would kill Wren if I ran away again. And last night is when he revealed that the auction was for my virginity as well. The intention is to breed me to produce equally talented stock traders.”

“That is… sick. Utterly twisted.”

“I thought you were one of the men who wanted to bid on me.”

“I knew nothing about it. I hope you believe that.”

“No, I do. I have good instincts. I secretly hoped you’d be the winner because something about you made me feel safe.”

My heart gallops. How did this human suddenly become my whole world?

“You are safe. There’s no fucking way I’m letting you go back to Lockepoint. We will find your sister, and we will get your medication. Then we’ll figure out how to take Thom Thompson down once and for all.” My bear rumbles in agreement. I shush him and rub my belly, hoping to pass off the noise as my empty stomach.

The timer goes off, and Paloma picks up the pot from the stove and pours the water off the macaroni shells. She stirs in the cheese and some of the cream from the box she opened this morning for our coffee.

I find a can opener and open the can of tuna she pulled out. We stir it into the macaroni and cheese to make a poor man’s one pot dinner.

“I feel like I’m in college again,” I say as I try a bite, eating straight from the pot. Then I remember that Paloma didn’t get to go to college, and my bear nearly erupts to the surface. I grit my teeth and bend my head, fighting to push him back.

“Yeah? Where did you go?” Paloma serves herself a bowl of food and takes it to the breakfast table, nestled in a window nook that overlooks the ocean. She’s busy eating. She doesn’t seem to notice my struggle.

I follow her with the pot. “First, a small community college near where I grew up. Then to business school at Columbia.” My bear recedes enough for me to pick up the pot and shovel in some food.

“Where did you grow up?”

“New Mexico.” I don't like talking about my childhood, but sharing with Paloma feels right. “In the mountains.”

“I’ve never seen the mountains,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to.” I could kill Thom for what he’s robbed from her. My teeth ache, growing thicker. My bear is ready to bite someone’s head off. Literally. “Maybe one day you could take me.”

My heart does a double-pump. She’s planning a future for us. Except…I’m not safe for her. Not long-term. My bear is already too volatile being around her.

“Maybe.” I hate to sound so ambivalent, but I vowed not to return to my home. It’s too dangerous. Out in the wild, my bear is stronger. He might take control and not give it back.

Her face shutters. She finishes her food and takes her bowl to the sink to rinse it. “Well, let’s focus on getting Wren away from Thom. After that, who knows? We’ll have to go into hiding.”

I can’t ignore the grim determination in her voice and, beneath it, the thread of despair. I go to her and stand at her back, reaching around her to put the pot in the sink. I help her finish the washing then brace my hands against the counter, caging her in. “It’s going to be okay,” I murmur into her ear.

“How do you know?”

“I’m going to keep you safe.” I stroke back her hair, baring her neck. The scent of orchids rises from her skin, and my mouth waters.

Claim her.

The instinct rocks through me with more conviction this time. I tighten my grip on the counter to keep from pulling her close. It’s not just my bear wrestling for control. It feels more like all of me.

Like Paloma really is my fated mate.

Damn .

It must be true.

That explains why I just risked losing my entire company and everything I fought so hard to win on Wall Street to save her. But it doesn’t change anything.

I can’t claim a human. My bear is too wild. I’ve never even allowed myself a relationship, in case I lose control .

The most I can have is this moment of closeness, sharing my body heat and comfort with this incredible woman. Paloma leans back into me. Her head doesn’t come up to my chin. I close my arms around her, savoring the feel of her in my arms.

“I wish…”

“What do you wish?”

Instead of answering, she grips the counter and lets out a little moan. She sags against me.

I turn her to face me. Her eyes are glassy. “Paloma?”

“I don’t feel so good–” Her eyes roll up, and she slumps.

“Paloma!” I carry her to the couch and lay her out. She’s unconscious, her arm limp when I lift it and let it fall. I feel for her pulse, and it flutters against my fingers.

She told me she was sick and needed medicine to forestall her collapse. I thought we’d have more time.

I need to get her to a doctor, one I trust.

And there’s only one person on earth that fits that description.

I pull out my phone and dial Sully. “I need another favor. It’s an emergency.” I explain my plan while getting Paloma into the car, and Sully promises to make arrangements.

“Hang on, princess.” I strap her in and kiss her forehead. Her skin has turned clammy to the touch.

I’ll break all speed records getting us to the tiny airstrip where Sully will have a private jet waiting. From there, it’ll be a direct flight to New Mexico.

There’s just one call left to make.

“Darius? Is that you, brother?”

“Matthias.” I brace myself for his anger, but he only sounds curious. “I need your help. I’m bringing someone to you. A human. She needs medical attention. She’s…important to me.”

There’s a pause. It’s probably only seconds long, but it feels like years. I watch Paloma’s chest rise and fall with labored breaths.

Finally Matthias says, “Does that mean…”

I’m breaking my self-imposed exile and going back to where I vowed I’d never return.

Back to Bad Bear Mountain.

“Yes, brother. I’m coming home.”