Tempting the Beast

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

She wasn’t about to wait on him. She was fed up with tests and orders, and the throbbing, heated need that pulsed through her body. All she had to do was get away from him. That was all. The enforced confinement only bred the dependency her body was harboring for him. If she could just get away from him, then she could control it.

Merinus hurriedly dressed in jersey shorts, a light tank top and her running shoes. She tucked some cash in the zippered pocket of the shorts, then slipped from the house. She knew the other three males were patrolling the hills around the cabin for mercenaries, but she hoped they were overlooking the main road in. A vehicle could be heard easily coming in, she knew. That area wouldn’t be a weak point.

Taking a deep breath, she sprinted across the yard and worked her way into the forest that bordered the road. Staying close to the graveled track, she kept just inside the tree line, jogging quickly toward the main road.

It wouldn’t take Callan long to find out she was missing, and tracking her sure as hell wouldn’t be a problem for him. She had to get to camp. Callan may have stolen the cell phone she carried with her, but there was a spare hidden in the jeep. And the jeep was still there. She had heard him discussing it with the others that morning. He wanted them to get the jeep and begin taking her camp down, removing all traces of her from the area.

Despite Sherra’s attempts to ease her fears, Merinus feared Callan’s intentions. He spoke so easily of killing those soldiers. What was to keep him from killing her when their passion had ended? When his body no longer craved her, when his lusts dimmed for her. She would become an inconvenience, one that knew his secrets.

Fear rushed through her veins, giving her the added adrenaline needed to push herself, almost at a run, over the two miles of rough terrain to the main road. There, luck was with her. She had no more begun a hurried jog down the pavement when a car passed, then slowed.

Relief washed over her when she saw the young girls watching her expectantly.

“Hey, ain’t you the journalist that’s been running around town?” the blonde, gum snapping driver asked her with a smile.

The girl waitressed evenings at the small restaurant she ate in, Merinus remembered.

“I need a ride back to camp,” Merinus told her urgently. “Could you drive me there?”

She was sweating, her blood thundering through her veins. She needed Callan. She swallowed at the bile rising in her throat as she fought the weakening symptoms.

“Sure. Get in. You look kinda sick, though. Sure you don’t want to go to the doctor?”

Merinus pulled the back door open and slid in thankfully.

“No doctors.” She barely halted the shudder of her body at the thought of someone touching her. “Just take me to the access road to my camp. I’ll be fine from there.”

She wondered if her jeep was still there. Another cell phone was hidden there, a spare, just in case, Kane had told her. She had to get to that phone.

“Sure. No problem.” A heavy foot hit the gas and the car shot forward.

Merinus bit her lip, fighting the need to scream out at her to stop, to take her back to Callan. Addictions could be cured, she told herself. Detox. Kane had gone through it a long time ago, and he told her once, any addiction could be cured. All you had to do was fight it. Just fight it.

She could fight it, Merinus assured herself.

Her fists clenched in the pockets of her shorts, her body throbbed and the air became stifling. She tasted blood from her teeth biting into her lips and she was forced to clench her teeth instead. Control, she chanted to herself. Control. Kane said all it took was control.

The roar that erupted from Callan’s throat when they realized Merinus was missing almost shocked him. He knew it shocked the others. Dawn whimpered, Sherra flinched. The three men whose sole job it was to protect the house paled.

“You didn’t even know she was out there?” The primal growl in his voice had the three men taking a step back.

“We were above her, Callan. There was no reason for us to believe she would try to slip away from you,” Taber defended them all.

“And why would you not patrol the road? Do you think no one would think to use it?” he bit out harshly. “What the hell is it there for?”

“We would have heard—”

“Nothing if they were on foot as Merinus was,” Callan rasped furiously.

The rage pulsing through his body was hot and violent. Damn her to hell, she had run from him. Taken money and the keys to her vehicle and ran, despite the needs raging through her body. And she needed. He knew, because the hot throb of lust was making him demented.

“We miscalculated,” Taber admitted.

“You fucked up, there’s a difference,” Callan accused him. “She’s headed for camp.” He pushed his fingers through his hair, fighting to think. “She’ll want her vehicle so she can run. Let’s go.”

He turned on his heel, unwilling to wait any longer.

“Sherra, you and Tanner head for town, make certain she’s not there. The rest of us will head to camp. My damned luck she’s fucking called in the Marines by the time I get there.”

The Marines or those damned brothers she kept threatening him with. That woman thought her brothers could move the damned world if they wanted to. He bit back an oath of disgust as he jumped into the Bronco and turned the key. Taber and Dayan followed quickly, settling into their seats as Callan tore out of the driveway.

“She’s becoming a liability, Callan,” Dayan charged as they sped onto the main road minutes later. “A danger to us.”

“Shut up, Dayan.” Callan flicked a glance at the other man through the rear view mirror.

He watched fury wash over Dayan’s face, his brown eyes narrowing in offense. Callan was passed caring. Respect came with a price. He and Taber had fucked up, and Callan would be damned before he would accept the responsibility for that himself. They each had a job to do and he had done his part. The other males had failed in theirs and the price could end up being their lives if they didn’t find Merinus.

“She shouldn’t have much of a head start on us,” Callan bit out. “No more than an hour, and she would have taken much of that jogging to the main road.”

“Could be less if she didn’t get a ride right off,” Taber offered.

Callan flicked him a sarcastic glance. Of course, she would have got a ride right off. No one around here left anyone walking.

“If she’s called her family, you’ll have to let her go, Callan,” Dayan bit out. “We’ll all go into hiding again. There’s no other choice.”

Callan refused to answer him. He turned sharply onto another graveled path, a short cut that would take him right to the area Merinus had parked her jeep. The drive was mere minutes compared to the half hour it would take by going around. He prayed he got to Merinus before she got to that damned jeep. If she managed to get out of the county before he caught up with her, then they were both in more trouble than he even wanted to consider.

Callan would not even consider letting Merinus go. He couldn’t. Not yet. Not now. Not while his body was inflamed, his natural instincts to subjugate his mate rioting within his body. He couldn’t believe she had made such a damned foolish move. That the strong, determined woman he was getting to know would run in such a way. That she was brave enough to tempt the beast lying just below the surface.

She was sweating, her breathing laboring in her lungs by the time she reached the small clearing where her jeep was parked. It was still there. She was almost crying in relief as she stumbled against the vehicle, fighting the zipper to her shorts pocket and struggling to pull her keys out. She nearly dropped them twice before she managed to fit the key into the lock and twist it.

She scrambled into the interior, shuddering, her body weak, unsteady as she groped at the glove box to open it. The door finally fell open, revealing the spare cell phone that Kane insisted she keep up.

Flipping it open, she keyed the rapid dial and listened for the call to go through.

“Merinus!” His voice was a desperate yell across the line.

“Kane,” she gasped, lying across the seat now, clutching her stomach. “Oh, God. I’m in trouble, Kane.”

She could hear him cursing, raging. There was fear in his voice though, and worry.

“Dammit, Merinus, I told you this was fucking stupid,” he screamed again.

“Just shut up,” she tried to yell back, but her voice was weak. “Come get me, Kane. He’ll find me and I can’t drive. You have to come get me. This is big. God, bigger than we knew—” The soft growl at her back had her freezing in terror.

“Merinus?” Kane questioned into the sudden silence.

Merinus whimpered. She felt him behind her, big, hard, aroused. She knew he was aroused, knew he was furious.

“Hurry, Kane—” The phone was jerked out of her hand as she was lifted from the jeep seat.

She heard Kane screaming at her, watched as Callan closed the line, slowly, deliberately.

“That was a mistake,” she snarled in his face, her fist striking out at him, catching him off guard.

He released her long enough for her to scramble away from him then dash through the trees as she ran for the main road. If she could get close enough, maybe someone would hear her screams for help. Someone would know she was in trouble.

“Leave her,” he ordered Dayan and Taber as they started after her. “Pack this shit up and hide it. Jeep and all. I’ll meet you at the house in a few hours.”

Callan tossed the ringing cell phone into the jeep with a snarl.

“You just going to let her run?” Taber asked him curiously.

“She’s headed away from the road, not to it.” He shrugged, knowing how often greenhorns got lost in the area due to the paths that pretty much looked the same. “Do as I said. I’ll catch her.”

“Uhh, Callan, maybe you should let me go after her,” Taber suggested. “You’re not exactly calm right now.”

“She’s safe. For now,” Callan assured him. “Just do as I said, and I’ll meet you back at the house later.”

Callan was furious. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t managed to get to her before she made that damned phone call. The last thing he needed was the Tyler newspaper clan descending on the little town, looking for him. He should have taken care of the camp and her jeep sooner. That was a miscalculation on his part. And he would have never suspected she was carrying two cell phones. All he could seem to consider right now was the fact that she had run from him. Deliberately, had left the house and tried to escape him. She belonged to him, at least until whatever the hell it was that made his cock throb decided to stop. Until then, she was a necessity to him. Just as he knew he was to her.

He could smell her heat beckoning him. Fear and confusion and arousal. It was a heady scent that sent his own pulse pounding, his erection jerking in response. He didn’t run after her, he stalked her. Moving around her, behind her, choreographing his moves as he pushed her towards the area he wanted.

A clearing in the heavy growth of the forest, a secluded, private area sheltered on three sides by cliffs, with only a narrow entrance in or out. He wanted her there, in the privacy of the place he had chosen as his own.

It didn’t take him long before he was following her through the entrance, his steps light, silent. He could hear her breathing heavily, cursing. He smiled, her brothers must have taught her those curses, because no lady could have thought of them on her own.

She was sitting beside the stream, sweat dampened, her head lowered as she muttered weakly about “damned animals and superior men.”

“Oh, you’ve had it now.” She stared up at him, her eyes dark, glittering wildly with lust and defiance. “He’ll hunt you down like a dog.”

“Wrong species, darling.” He smiled slow and sure.

She narrowed her eyes on him as he stripped the shirt from his back.

“Asshole,” she muttered, her breathing becoming harsh, heavy as he kicked the leather moccasins from his feet.

“Mine.” He growled.

Her eyes widened as he stripped his pants from his body, his cock springing free, hard, jutting. He watched her nipples harden further beneath her shirt.

“I’m not yours,” she bit out, her protest weak.

“Take your clothes off, Merinus,” he told her softly. “If I attempt it, I’ll tear them from your body. You should have never run from me.”

“Should I just wait around—”

“Take the fucking clothes off before I rip them from you,” he threatened her again, his fists clenched as he fought the urge to do just that.

“I don’t want you.” But she did. He could smell her want, feel it in the heat radiating from her body.

“Now.” He made a move toward her, satisfaction filling every pore in his body as her shirt came off quickly, then her shorts.

She was naked. Gloriously, beautifully naked. She stared up at him, flushed and furious, her breathing harsh in the sudden silence of the glade.

“Kane will come for me,” she warned him darkly. “Him and the rest. He won’t let you keep me like this.”

“He’ll have to find you first,” he told her softly, smiling with his victory as he came toward her. “And I promise you, he won’t find—”

Stars exploded in front of his eyes as her foot connected with his balls. He blinked, fought the onrush of bile rising in his throat, and fought for breath as he fell to the ground.

Fuck. That hurt. He wheezed, fighting for breath, aware of the jerkiness of her movements as she pulled her clothes back on. She was weak, her body trembling, the need pouring through her making her clumsy. Son of a bitch, she was going to want for a while. Then she was off and running again.

Callan pulled himself weakly to his feet, fighting for breath and mentally cursing the little bitch for everything she was worth. Or wasn’t at that moment. Damn her. He was going to tan her hide.

He jerked his jeans from the ground, intent on stepping into them when he heard her scream. Terror filled the sound. He dropped his pants and with more than a little pain, sprinted after her, fury rising inside him once again. He’d kill whoever scared her. Then by God, she would pay for this little stunt.