Claiming Her (Keeping Her Series) by Kelly Lucille Read Free Book Online Page A

by the heat
pulsing at her from across the very small space of the table.  “Lucky for me,
it didn’t take.  He was not happy.” She shuddered at the memory, even as Lucas
seemed to be frozen, every muscle in his body tight, and his eyes . . . it was
the lion that watched her now.  She had to look away. 
    “When he reacted so
strongly to my ‘human inferiority’,” she air quoted with her fingers, “I knew
he had just been pretending to be nice, but his wolf had claimed me, no matter
that I didn’t feel claimed.  I knew he would not ever let me go because he told
me that.  Eventually, I managed to get a message to an old friend who helped me
disappear.”  She blew out a breath.  “And you know the rest.  I came here and
here I stay.”
    “Who?”  His voice was
like a cold wind.
    “Lucas . . .” she
started shaking her head.
    The next moment he was
out of his chair, the table with their breakfast went flying and he had his
hands on both sides of her chair.  Isabella cringed, her eyes closed tight, but
he didn’t touch her, and when he spoke, his voice had softened minutely.  “Who,
Miley?”
    “Jeffrey Rickarts, alpha
wolf of the Rickarts pack.”
    He was silent for so
long she had to look.  He was studying her, the rage in his eyes banked.  “That’s
why you faked your own death, fucking Jeffrey Rickarts?”
    She swallowed back the
secret that Rickarts had discovered.  The real reason he would never let her
go.  She had learned that lesson well.  Lucas didn’t need to know that, and she
wouldn’t tell him if he did.  “Anyone I could have gone to for help is family
beholden to his pack, and you know the kind of power he wields.  He thinks he
can have anything he wants and he doesn’t care who he hurts to get it.”
    “And he wants you.” 
The words were like a lash but she refused to flinch.
    “Yes.  And if you
insist on this mating he will find out I’m alive.  You’re too notorious to
think otherwise.  Lucas, your pack might be the baddest of the bad, but he has
hundreds of warm bodies to throw at you.  This is not a fight you can win.”

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER SIX
     
    They looked at each
other, less than an inch apart, Miley in the chair, Lucas bent over her, his
hands on either side of her hips keeping her in place.  His eyes were glowing
with the fury he kept contained.  “You expect me to walk away?”
    Miley shook her head
and fought against the tears pressing at her eyes.  “Why wouldn’t you?  I’m not
markable and it’s not worth your pack’s life, or Cleo’s and Ian’s, when you can’t
even truly mate me.”
    He shook the chair she
sat in, his hands bending the metal filigree with his strength.  “Miley, what
do you want?”
    She took a deep breath
and looked away.  “I was happy here, before you came.  I’ll be happy again when
you leave.”
    This time his voice was
gentle.  “Always on the outside looking in?”
    She met his eyes, her
own firm with resolve.  “How would that be any different with you?”
    “Do you know why his
mark didn’t take?” he asked, making her blink at the shifting subjects.  He
went on before she could attempt an answer, his voice turning hard and
unyielding.  “Because you were always mine.  The first time you walked into my
office.  Before either of us said one fucking word, you were mine, and you know
that. ”
    When she opened her
mouth to deny him, he swooped in and branded his lips to hers.  It was quick
and merciless, and when he lifted his head, her lips were tingling and her
chair was balanced on two legs.
    “I will take care of
this,” Lucas said, his eyes conveying steel resolve.  “Then we will figure out
what you really want.”
    “Lucas,” she
whispered.  Lifting her hand, she laid it on his cheek, her eyes beseeching, “I’m
trying to save you.”
    “I lost you once,” he
whispered gruffly back.  “Hell, twice because I was a fucking