“I told you before, I won’t let anyone hurt you!” Jake’s voice was fierce and his eyes glowed pale fire in the dim trunk.
“Thank you,” I whispered. But how could he protect me if we were both bound and restrained in the trunk of a car headed God-knew-where?
I didn’t know. I only knew I had never been more frightened in my life.
NINE
The car ride seemed to take forever, but maybe it just seemed like that because we were locked in a trunk. We were going up into the mountains—I was pretty sure of that by the tilt of the car and the way I kept rolling into Jake. By about the fourth time I’d done it, he growled,
“Here,” and used his long legs to anchor my own. His arms were bound behind his back too, so there wasn’t much else he could do, but I appreciated the effort and not just because it stopped me from rolling around. It was cold in the trunk and Jake, as I said before, put out heat like a furnace.
Carefully, I entwined my legs with his, holding onto him the only way I could, and snuggling closer so that my face was against his broad chest. I breathed him in, taking immediate comfort from his warm, wild scent. What was it about the way he smelled that both called to me and calmed me down at the same time?
“God, Ani…we shouldn’t be doing this,” Jake growled hoarsely.
“Shouldn’t be doing what?” I asked, nuzzling closer.
“Shouldn’t be…all cuddled up together. It’s not good for you to be too close to me.”
I thought of how he was always so careful about not touching me too much. In fact, I could count on one hand the number of times my stepbrother had reached out to me on purpose and they mostly included the times when I was upset and he felt he had to comfort me. Didn’t this time count? We’d been kidnapped—I could certainly use some comforting.
“I don’t care what your dad said about you staying away from me—because yes, I heard that particular conversation,” I told him. “He’s not here to see us right now and I’m scared, Jake—I need to be close to you. So stop worrying about what anybody might think if they saw us—it’s just the two of us in here.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about,” he growled, though I noticed he didn’t make any move to get away from me. “It’s not a good idea for you to get so close to me and breathe in my scent this way because it might bring on your Heat Cycle.” He sighed. “Which I’m sure is exactly what those fuckers who kidnapped us want.”
“Heat Cycle? That’s more werewolf bullshit, right?” I demanded. “Please, Jake—don’t let your family’s weird beliefs keep you away from me. We need to stick together now!”
“A female Were’s Heat Cycle isn’t just some ‘weird belief’,” he told me. “And the later you have your first one, the harder it’s going to be for you. Most female Weres start their cycles at fifteen or sixteen and you’re nineteen going on twenty, Ani. You’re going to have a tough first Cycle and there’s no way I can help you with it because I’m your brother. I don’t want to bring it on by being too close to you.”
“Fine.” I untangled our legs and shoved away from him. “If you want to let some weird idea come between us when we ought to be planning how to get out of this, be my guest.”
I couldn’t keep the hurt out of my voice. Couldn’t he see that I needed him now? Why couldn’t he put aside his crazy belief that he was a werewolf just for a minute and give me the comfort I needed, damn it?
Then it occurred to me that maybe Jake needed comforting, too. After all, he had admitted that he’d been kidnapped by these people before. What had they done to him? His stomach must be tied in knots, wondering what they would do this time.
“Jake?” I said in a small voice. “These people, when they had you before—”
“I don’t want to talk about that.” The words came out harsh and clipped. Then he took a deep breath. “Look, Ani—I’m sorry, but I can’t think about that right now. All I can think about is surviving this time and trying to get out of this situation alive.”
“Can we?” I asked. “They’ve got my hands tied with rope. Maybe I could find something sharp to saw through it or something and then I could untie you as well.”
“They’ve got me bound in silver,” Jake said flatly. “There’s no sawing through that or untying it either. Feels like it’s locked in place somehow.”
“We could at least try!” I pointed out.
“Fine, lets get back-to-back.”