Her Wild Hero Read online

  She put her hands on her hips and tipped her head back to look at him. “Declan MacBride, if there’s one thing I thought you would have already learned about me, it’s that I’m nothing like your ex-fiancée.”

  His brows furrowed. “This isn’t about her.”

  “It’s not? It sure seems like it is to me.” She snorted. “You go all shifter trying to protect a woman you care for, like Marissa. Then you see something that looks like fear and panic in my eyes, and decide all on your own that I suddenly don’t want to have anything to do with you and your fangs and your claws—like Marissa.”

  She didn’t realize that she was poking him in the chest with her finger again until he caught her hand in his to make her stop. She pulled away from him angrily.

  “But this time, instead of waiting for the woman to bail on you, you decide to bail first. I bet you thought it’d be less painful for you that way, huh? Well, it’s not going to happen, Declan. I’m not going to let you walk out on us because you’re worried I can’t handle your inner bear.”

  Declan arched a brow. “Are you honestly going to stand there and tell me that you weren’t freaked out when you saw me? That you weren’t absolutely horrified?”

  She closed her eyes and counted again. She wanted to scream. He could be so dense! When she got to ten, she opened her eyes and leveled her gaze at him.

  “Was I freaked out when I saw you? Hell, yes. Was I horrified? Definitely. But was it because I was scared of you? No.” She took his hands in both of hers. “I was scared because I’d left you in that shelter the night before to save your life. And there you were, practically hand-delivering yourself to the very people I was trying to protect you from, the ones who wanted to capture you and experiment on you. What you saw on my face was pure and total fear. I was terrified they’d grab you and torture you like they’d done to Ivy. Marcus practically admitted to me that was what he planned to do if he ever got his hands on you.”

  Declan’s hands tightened around hers. “I thought that was why you left me alone in the shelter—to lure the hybrids away.”

  Tears welled in her eyes. This time she didn’t blink them back. “I would rather have died than let them get their hands on you.”

  He reached up and caught the tear rolling down her cheek with his thumb, tenderly brushing it away. “When I woke up and realized you were gone, I…I sort of went nuts. I was so scared when I couldn’t find your trail. That’s when I finally completely shifted.”

  She stepped closer and rested her palm on the part of his pecs she’d poked earlier. “I’m sorry I frightened you like that. But I’d do it again if that’s what it took to keep you safe.”

  He cupped her cheek. “There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to keep you safe, too.”

  “Including leaving the DCO because you thought it was best for me?” she asked.

  He nodded. “I couldn’t understand why someone like you would want to stay with someone like me. Not after seeing me like that.”

  She took his big hands in hers again, holding on to them tightly. “Someone like me would want to stay with someone like you because I love you. You were willing to pull down all the walls you’d built around yourself and be the shifter you were always meant to be to save me. That’s the kind of someone you are to me, and it’s all that matters. I love you. Is that so hard to believe?”

  He lifted their joined hands to his lips and kissed her fingers. When he raised his head again, there were tears in his eyes. “Yes, it is hard to believe. But I’m glad. Because I love you, too.”

  Then his mouth closed over hers and he was kissing her so hard she could barely breathe. But she didn’t complain. She kissed him back just as fiercely. She’d missed him.

  “So, we’re good, right?” she asked when he lifted his head. “You’re not going to quit the DCO?”

  He grinned. “No, I’m not going to quit.”

  “Good.”

  She snuggled against him, but he caught her chin and tipped her head back. “Now I have a question for you.”

  “What?”

  “You and Derek?”

  The question had come from so far out in left field that it took her a moment to get her thoughts together. Then she realized she better not hesitate too long because if she didn’t know better, she’d swear Declan looked jealous. Which was cute but also possibly dangerous. She’d just pulled their relationship back from the brink, she didn’t want it going south again because Declan thought she had a thing for another guy.

  “Derek and I met when he and the rest of Landon’s old Special Forces team went to Washington to help rescue Ivy. Like I said, we danced a few times at Ivy and Landon’s wedding. That’s all. The moment he kissed me, I immediately shut him down and let him know I’m not available.” She made a face. “Something you would have known if you’d hung around a few minutes longer.”

  Declan chuckled, then shook his head. “I still can’t believe it.”

  “Believe what?” she asked.

  “That Ivy and Landon are married.”

  She groaned. Oh, that. “I was serious before. This is more than top secret. If you leak a word of this, Dick will split them up and—”

  “I’m not going to say anything,” Declan promised. “Besides, I’ve known that Ivy and Landon were more than partners for a while.” He grinned down at her. “You know, you have a lot of secrets. At some point real soon, you’re going to tell me all of them.”

  She’d gladly tell him anything and everything. Well, everything except the matchmaking software she came up with. And no way was she typing her name in there, either. She didn’t need some computer to tell her that Declan was her soul mate.

  “I will,” she told him. “At least as much of it as I can tell you without betraying confidences. But I’ll tell you everything I can, as long as you promise you’re going to stick around to hear all of it.”

  “I’ll be here.” He cupped her face, his thumb brushing her cheek. “Although, if we’re going on missions together, we’re going to have to learn to sneak around like Ivy and Landon.”

  She laughed. “We don’t have to worry about that. I don’t think I’ll be going on any missions anytime soon. I’ve decided I like being an office drone a lot more than I thought.”

  Declan grinned. “Good. Because I want my ring on your finger where everyone can see it. Including Derek.”

  Her breath caught. “Ring? As in wedding ring?”

  “Yeah.” He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. “If you don’t mind being married to a bear.”

  Kendra laughed. “I don’t mind at all.”

  “I was hoping you’d say that.” He gazed down at her, his blue eyes turning that same beautiful rose color they had in the cave. “Then what do you say we go into the bedroom and celebrate?”

  She went up on tiptoe to kiss him long and lingeringly on the mouth. “I say, lead the way.”

  Declan did better than that. He swung her up in his arms and carried her there. She caught a glimpse of a big four-poster bed and a huge built-in bookcase as he set her down on her feet, but she was too focused on him to pay much attention to the decor. He undressed her slowly, kissing each and every part of her body as he exposed it, leaving her quivering and weak-kneed by the time he was done. She clutched his shoulders, afraid she’d fall if she didn’t hold onto something, but Declan was already urging her back on the bed. She lay on the pillows, watching as he unbuttoned his jeans and pushed them down. Then he was on top of her, bracing his weight on his forearms as he covered her mouth with his.

  Kendra wrapped her arms around him. Had it only been a few days ago that they’d made love like this in the cave in Costa Rica? It seemed like years.

  She cooed as her trailed scorching kisses along her jaw and down her neck, shivering when his teeth scraped against her skin. No, not teeth, fangs.

  She grabbed his head, gently urging him to look at her. He gazed down at her in confusion, his eyes glowing like the setting sun.


  “What is it?” he asked.

  “I just wanted to see your face,” she said softly. “Your fangs are out.”

  His eyes widened, and she caught the panic in them before he quickly looked away. She cupped his cheek, gently bringing his face back to her. He didn’t meet her gaze.

  “Declan, look at me,” she entreated. “Please.”

  He did, slowly. His eyes were almost back to their natural color, and his fangs had retracted nearly all the way. She couldn’t see much more than the tips peeking out. Knowing he was hiding that part of himself made her want to cry all over again.

  “Declan, when I say love you, I mean all of you, including your shifter half,” she said. “You never have to be afraid to show me that side of yourself, especially in the bedroom. Okay?”

  He started to say something, but then stopped and swallowed hard. She waited for him to try again, but instead he kissed her so hard she could barely think much less remember what they’d been talking about. When he finally lifted his head, she saw that he’d unleashed his inner bear again.

  “Thank you.” She smiled up at him. “Now I want you to stay just like that while you make love to me.”

  He did, not shifting back until he made her scream with pleasure and they were both lying back on the pillows gasping for breath. Kendra knew because she’d been gazing into his eyes when they both came.

  “You’re going to wear me out,” he said huskily.

  She smiled as she snuggled up to him. “Shifters don’t get worn out.”

  “Maybe not, but they do get hungry.” He lightly ran his fingers up and down her arm. “And I’m a bear, so I get hungrier than most.”

  “Then maybe you should make good on your promise and take me to P.F. Chang’s.”

  “Sounds good to me,” he said. “Though as hungry as I am, I might have to order one of everything on the menu.”

  She laughed. “They have a very large menu.”

  Declan rolled her over with a sexy growl, settling himself between her legs again. “I have a very big appetite.”

  Yeah, she was learning that about him. Kendra’s reply was muffled against his mouth as he kissed her. Mmm, maybe dinner could wait a little longer.

  Epilogue

  Somewhere in Tajikistan

  Minka Pajari watched warily from her seat on the cold stone floor as the two guards talked softly among themselves outside her cell in a language she couldn’t understand. Normally, that wouldn’t be enough to make her uneasy. But the doctors who’d turned her into the monster she was had been away for a few days, and something told her those vicious thugs were coming up with a new way to torment her. They’d always been mean to her, throwing rocks and poking her with sticks, putting vile things in her food and water bowls, but things had gotten worse after she’d killed their friend.

  She hadn’t wanted to do it, and in some ways, she hadn’t. It had been the animal inside her defending itself that had caught the rock the man had thrown at her and sent it whistling back to hit him in the head. But the other men didn’t care about that. Their friend was dead and they wanted to make her suffer.

  Today was different, though. She didn’t know whether it was the rapid beating of their hearts or the sudden acrid, bitter smell of their sweat that made her nose wrinkle in disgust. Either way, she knew they were growing tense with the anticipation of violence and that they meant to hurt her badly this time. Without the doctors here to stop them, they might very well kill her.

  Not that she cared very much whether they killed her or not. Death might be a blessing. But she feared the pain the men would inflict on her before they ended her life. Because when they hurt her like that, the animal inside her came out.

  Even though she’d come to accept some aspects of the animal the doctors had put into her blood—the hearing that allowed her to know when the men were about to strike, the sense of smell that warned her when the doctors were coming back to continue their tests, the eyesight that let her see the rats and bugs near her in the darkest part of night—overall, she still hated what she’d become.

  The rage inside her was a living thing, coming out whenever it wished, no matter how hard she tried to control it. Even now, the animal purred in the back of her mind, wanting the men to come close, so she could tear them to shreds for everything they had done to her.

  Minka closed her eyes and tried to find a calm place, tried to will the animal to go back to sleep. She had learned the technique from the female American soldiers when she worked as a translator. Yoga, they called it.

  But then the metal door of her cell smacked against the wall. She opened her eyes just in time to see the two men burst into the room with their newest torture devices—long black sticks that crackled and sizzled on one end like the electric wires that fell to the ground during storms in her small hometown.

  She remembered what those sticks felt like from the last time they’d tormented her with them, and so did the animal. It came out with a hiss and she sprang to her feet, long claws slashing at the sticks in an attempt to keep them away.

  But the animal’s fast reflexes couldn’t overcome the advantage Minka had given the men when she’d closed her eyes and tried to shut out the monster. Even as she knocked one stick away, the other found its target, thumping into her stomach and sending her whole body into spasms on the ground. She yowled, trying to drag herself away from them. But there was nowhere to go. They backed her into a corner, jabbing her with the things until all she could do was lie there in a twitching, sobbing heap.

  Even then the men didn’t stop. They only laughed and prodded her until her vision went black at the edges. She was right. They were going to kill her.

  Minka didn’t know she was alive until she came to later. She was tied to the bars of her cell, thick rope around each wrist keeping her upright. The metal dug into her breasts, and she tried to pull free but couldn’t. Her legs, on the other hand, weren’t bound at all. She realized suddenly that her left ankle felt lighter than it had in a very long time. She looked down and saw that the men had removed the heavy metal manacle that had kept her chained to the floor every day and night since she’d been there. Why had they done that?

  Dread crept into her, making her shiver. She cocked her head to the side, listening, and heard movement behind her. She twisted her head to look over her shoulder and saw her two captors staring at her with a look she hadn’t seen on their faces before. Her heart began to pound. She’d seen that look on other men before, men who hurt women and took what they wanted from them.

  Her captors grinned at her and unbuckled their belts.

  That was when Minka knew the evil men had something more horrible in mind for her. They had tied her to these bars so they could do anything to her that they wished without her getting her claws on them.

  Tears sprang to her eyes and though she tried to blink them away, more took their place. She’d been ready to die, but while she was sure they would kill her when they were done with her, she wasn’t ready to let them take her this way. It was more shame than she could accept. She refused to submit to it, and the animal inside her refused as well.

  Minka threw her bare feet up and onto the bars right below where her wrists were tied. She planted them firmly, then yanked with every fiber of her being. Either the ropes would break or her arms would come off, she didn’t care which.

  She howled with all the rage inside her. The ropes snapped and then she fell free of the bars. She didn’t even know if she still had hands, much less arms until she twisted in the air and landed firmly on all fours. She jerked her head up, flinging her long hair over her shoulder. The man closest to her was staring at her in confusion, his mouth hanging open. He wasn’t laughing now.

  The second guard swore and came at her with his crackling stick.

  Without the metal manacle around her ankle, she was freer to move. She leaped sideways, avoiding the stick the man thrust at her, and slashed with her claws, finding flesh.

  The man
dropped the stick with a shout that made the animal inside her rejoice. She dropped onto all fours again to lash out and ripped out his hamstrings so he couldn’t get away. But there was still her other captor to contend with.

  Minka turned around. The second man was already out the door and halfway down the hall. She caught up to him before he got more than ten feet and leaped on his back, crushing him to the ground. She dug her claws into his back and sank her teeth into the junction of muscle at his neck and shoulder.

  The man cried out and struggled, but she pressed all her weight into her claws, digging them in even deeper. His pulse throbbed under her teeth. One savage jerk could finish this man forever.

  But the animal hesitated, almost as if it was asking her for permission to continue.

  Minka faltered. These men had tormented and tortured her for a very long time. They had wanted to do things to her that no man should ever do to a woman. They deserved to die. But for reasons she couldn’t explain, she couldn’t give the animal the approval it sought. With a growl, she retracted her claws and her fangs.

  She glanced over her shoulder at the man still in the cell. He was curled into a ball on the floor, moaning.

  Minka hit the door running and didn’t stop. Around her, the night was completely dark, or it would have been if not for the animal allowing her to see through its eyes. She tried to get her bearings, but nothing looked familiar. There was no mistaking the mountainous terrain of her homeland, though. She was still in Tajikistan.

  She was barefoot, her shirt was torn, her skirt was ragged, and she had no food or water. But she was going home.

  Tears of joy filled her eyes and overflowed onto her cheeks. After being a prisoner for so long, she was finally going home.