knew he didn’t do it on purpose, the underlying sensuality in his husky voice made her shiver. If that was, in fact, what sensuality sounded like. She, who knew everything about how to endure torture and experiments and pain, knew absolutely nothing about a healthy relationship between a man and a woman. The closeness she’d experienced with her brother and his wife had been her first experience in fifteen years with anything remotely resembling love.
If that’s what it was. With the ground constantly shifting under her feet, she didn’t feel certain about anything. After all, she’d just begun to feel comfortable around her new-found family, and now she was being sent away with a man she barely knew.
“For your own safety,” Kane said, making her start and wonder if she’d said what was in her head. She hoped not.
“Did I...?” she asked, waving her hand to indicate what she meant.
“Speak your thoughts aloud? No.” He shook his head. “But you didn’t have to. Believe me, Lucas loves you. He only wants to keep you safe.”
“I understand.” Again, she thought she sounded cool and confident, the opposite of how she felt. Everything about this man made her feel unsettled. Even the throaty rasp of his voice danced along her nerve endings like a silk edged sword soaked in fire.
How did one respond to that?
“What’s in this for you?” she asked, more to distract herself than any real curiosity.
Instead of answering, he laughed. While she stared at him with a weird mixture of annoyance and trepidation. “Not everyone is completely self-serving. Some of us do things because it’s the right thing to do.”
She wanted to ask him to explain this cryptic message, but wasn’t sure how. Instead, she turned and pretended an interest in the passing scenery.
He didn’t speak again, which should have relieved her. Instead, her discomfort grew, making her fight the urge to squirm in her seat. Finally, she gave in and glanced at him. “Where are we going?”
“Someplace safe.” Though he barely looked at her, one corner of his mouth lifted to take the sting off his words.
“How far away?” Again she had to quell her own uneasy restlessness. She hated—no, despised—this weakness within her. She’d felt unsafe for so long she’d begun to wonder if she even knew how to be strong. Even with her brother, she’d found herself jumping at the slightest sound and battling the urge to crawl into her bed and take refuge under the covers.
“Across the country. It’ll take us four days to get there, if we travel easy.”
Again she nodded, keeping her face expressionless while she wondered what the hell was wrong with her, that she could don a mask of normalcy while inside she struggled with a maelstrom of conflicting emotions.
“And then what?”
He cocked one eyebrow, looking devilish and dangerous and a thousand other things that all made her want to wrench open her door and leap from the vehicle. Only the knowledge that she’d promised her brother—sworn to Lucas that she’d let Kane keep her safe—made her stay in the car.
“Once we arrive at our destination, we’ll work on beginning to teach you to protect yourself.”
Even trying to understand his cryptic pronouncements fatigued her. In fact, weariness slammed her with a force nearly as strong as one of her father’s blows. Too exhausted to fight any longer, she relaxed and gave in to it, closing her eyes and willing herself to fall asleep.
Chapter 2
Kane nearly grinned as Lilly closed her eyes and pretended sleep, as if by doing so she could shut him out. Whether she liked it or not, and she’d made it quite clear she did not, they were going to be spending a lot of time together.
The first few miles were awkward, as Kane had suspected they’d be. He drove in silence, giving her the space he knew she needed, trying not to let her scent make him dizzy. Her breathing slowed and evened, and he realized she truly had dropped off to slumber. Oddly enough, he felt honored. The fact that she could do so meant she trusted him, even on a subconscious level.
Either that or, in her years of captivity, she’d learned to take her rest when she could.
Though he couldn’t get a read on her inner wolf, his own beast had gone into an adrenaline-fueled high alert. Kane couldn’t figure out why, unless it was reacting to Lilly’s unusual aura. The visible aura was the way all Shape-shifters identified their own kind. Most were a subtle glow of color, pleasing to the eye.
Not Lilly’s. Hers pulsed a violent purple, so dark it appeared black. Such an unnatural color, the Pack doctors had said, could mean madness or even...death. None of them had seen anything like it.
Naturally, this worried Lucas and Blythe. Now that Kane had seen it, he understood their concern. He hoped with time he could help Lilly regain her confidence and perhaps bring her fractured inner wolf some kind of healing.
She dozed for a little over an hour, giving him time to work on relaxing, as well. It surprised him, this antsy restless feeling. In his work for the Protectors, he’d been in lots of dangerous situations. He and his wolf had always been in accord—none of the warring between the two halves of himself, as he’d heard happened with others.
But now, when there was no apparent danger, at least at this exact moment, his inner beast couldn’t be calmed.
Finally, Lilly stirred. Stretching, she smiled sleepily and opened her eyes. When she speared him with her bright blue gaze, the catch in his heart nearly made him recoil. What the hell?
An instant later, when Lilly realized where she was and who she was with, her smile vanished. Turning away, she resumed staring straight ahead, her entire body stiff and tense.
He put on a CD of old-school country music classics, believing that even the most die-hard introvert couldn’t sit quietly through Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, and Dolly Parton.
Eventually, even though she never looked directly at him, she began tapping her foot, proving him right.
Good. An outward sign she was finally relaxing.
Again she glanced sideways at him, and then looked away without speaking. He didn’t ask her if she had a question or needed something. Not yet. Since it would be a long drive cross-country from Seattle to upstate New York, he had the luxury of taking things slow.
Her stomach rumbled, causing her to flush red.
“Are you hungry?” he asked quietly.
“I could eat,” she admitted, careful to keep her eyes firmly fixed on the passing terrain. “What did you have in mind?”
An image flashed before him. He saw himself, as vividly as if it were happening, slanting his lips over hers, plundering her mouth with his tongue.
Swallowing hard, he blinked to dispel the picture. “How about a burger?” he managed. “I’m sure we can find a fast-food place.”
She made a noncommittal sound that he chose to take as agreement. He stifled the urge to smile. After speaking to Lucas and agreeing to help, Kane hadn’t been sure what
