Mandy's Story Read Free Page A

him. Sitting back
down, he stared at her. She passed the smaller pillow over. He
managed to work it through the slats and lay down. His body didn’t
fit well, so he curled slightly on his side facing her.
    “ Do you need to relieve
yourself?”
    “ No.” He couldn’t believe
she still had the upper hand.
    “ Then I’m tucking myself
in.”
    “ Be my guest.” He waited
until she climbed inside her sleeping bag and appeared settled.
“Tell me why Stockholm syndrome fascinates you so much.”
    Her breathing slowed and her voice
softened, “I want you to love me.”
    He inhaled sharply. “You think
kidnapping someone makes them love you?”
    “ That’s where S.S. comes
in,” she said in the same dreamy voice.
    He succeeded in lowering his tone to
match hers, “And you couldn’t wait two years from now?”
    “ The whole twenty-one rule
is ridiculous.” She delayed her next statement by looking up at the
ceiling for a moment before proceeding. “I heard you were going to
claim your mate.” Her voice cracked, but she looked back at him
with endless depths of pain pooling in her eyes.
    “ If I have a true mate,
you can’t stop it,” he said, trying to get through her thick
skull.
    “ She isn’t your true mate…
I am. I feel it in here.” She slowly brought her hand to her heart
and rested it slightly over one breast.
    A million thoughts went through his
head, but his focus was her one covered breast. “I’m sorry I
brought you to this.”
    “ You should be.” She
snapped.
    Closing his eyes for only a moment
didn’t help the sadness that momentarily overwhelmed him. “There’s
someone special meant for you Mandy.”
    “ Yes, and I’m staring at
him.” Pure defiance came through in each word.
    Honey gave a quick bark of laughter.
“Now you’re being childish again.”
    She lay there, also curled and facing
him, eyes glowing with sparks of fire from the candlelight. “One of
the male wolves tried to kiss me.”
    At first, Honey didn’t realize his
hands had curled tightly around the bars. “What
happened?”
    She watched his hands and her voice
trembled slightly. “It made me sick to my stomach.”
    He tried counting to ten again, but
only made it to three before he asked, “What does that mean?” His
hands didn’t loosen their hold.
    Mandy’s eyes flashed to his. “The
thought of any other man touching me is repulsive. I dream of you
running your hands across my skin and I heat up.”
    The erection he’d been trying to hold
back had a mind of its own and he could barely control himself.
He’d lost another round. “I’m not discussing this with
you.”
    “ How will you stop me?”
Her soft, sleepy voice vibrated across the space between
them.
    “ I’ll turn my back and go
to sleep.” Now he sounded like a petulant five year old.
    “ That’s a good idea.” She
extinguished the candle, but he could still make out her form in
the dark. “Goodnight.”
    The huskiness of that final word made
him fight back a groan. He didn’t reply, but he stayed facing her.
The night stretched endlessly and sleep didn’t come until long
after her breathing grew steady.

Chapter Four
     
     
    They spoke little the following
morning. Mandy continued to drive on the bumpy road then jumped
onto a main highway. He noticed her faster speed along with an
increase in traffic and wondered where the hell she planned to take
him.
    Breakfast was another bag of fast food.
She left the emptied urine bottle beside him, returned to the cab,
and ate her food while driving. He finally gave in and used a
plastic bag, the toilet paper, and then the baby wipes. He tossed
the offending bag through the bars to land against the corner
nearest the door. Just for that humiliation alone her ass would be
bright red before his hands closed around her throat.
    He noticed a lone key hanging from a
chain around her throat and knew it had to be for the lock on the
cage. Getting it would be the easy part. Discovering