The Mate Challenge (BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Sassy Mates Book 4) by Milly Taiden Read Free Book Online Page B

to hurt you to punish you.” He brushed his lips over hers in a feather-light caress. “In fact, the best types of torture involve pleasure.”
    A hot shudder raced down her spine, shooting embers of lust straight to her pussy. She needed to control her body. This wasn’t the time to get all sexual because he talked of torturing her with pleasure. Goddamn that sounded like something she wanted to try.
    “Mason—”
    “Promise me you will stop the suicidal visits to the vamps.”
    She couldn’t promise him that. It went against everything she believed in. If the vamps had Maria then she’d do whatever was necessary to find the girl. “Help me find Maria.”
    “I’m trying. There’s been no trace of her.” She tried to look away, but his grip on her hair kept her still. “I’m doing the best I can. We do have a war raging with the Rahound pack. It’s only a matter of time before lives from our pack are taken.”
    She nodded. “I understand. You do what you need to do.” She bit her lip, hoping he wouldn’t take her next words negatively. “I’ll do what I have to do as well.”
    “Emma...” He growled her name as if ready to snap.
    “I don’t look to put myself in danger, Mason. But you have to understand that I won’t let a young girl go missing and leave it at that.” She tried pulling out of his hold again, to no avail.
    “I have people looking into it.”
    Not good enough. Emma wouldn’t feel right about letting others handle it and sitting back. What if Maria was in trouble? What if she needed help? Emma knew all too well what it was like to be a teenager rebelling against the world. Her heart ached just remembering her family. She’d rebelled alright. To the point she’d lost them.
    “I appreciate all you are doing and have others doing to help find Maria, I really do. But I can’t act like nothing is wrong. I can’t go back and teach her sister and say someone else will let me know what happened to her. I could not live with myself going to bed at night knowing that child is out there and not at home with her parents, where she should be.”
    He snarled and released her arms. “I’ll find her.”
    “You’re so hard-headed,” she sighed. “You really don’t want me to look for her?”
    She gritted her teeth and marched for the car. He stopped her just as she reached the driver side door, flipping her around and pressing her against the side of the car. His naked, hard body plastered to her.
    Their gazes met and the torture she saw in his eyes took her breath away. “You don’t understand how precious your life is to me.”
    She gulped. Knots formed in her chest. Her heart beat tripled and she tried to calm the rapid rush of air in and out of her lungs. The words sunk through her pores to heat her from the inside. “I—”
    He shook his head. “Don’t say anything. You’ve fought me every step of the way on us. I know there’s things about you I don’t know and until you feel comfortable sharing, I won’t push, but your safety is not something I am going to relent on.” He caressed his hand over her jaw. “I couldn’t survive without you.”
    “But nothing—”
    “You don’t know the future,” he chastised. “Listen to me carefully. Your life means more to me than my own. I would give mine up in a second for you.” He frowned, the glow in his eyes dimming with a flash of pain. “Life wouldn’t be worth living without you in it.”
    She tried to find something to say, but couldn’t. What was there to say when a man said something that special to her? Mason had always been intense. He’d always tried to boss her around and for the most part she ignored his overbearing ass. But she hadn’t truly realized that he honestly worried her life could be in danger.
    She lifted on her tip toes and kissed him. There was nothing she wanted more than to show him how much she loved what he’d just said. A rollercoaster of emotions bloomed in her chest. Need skyrocketed