Tigress for Two by Marissa Dobson Read Free Book Online Page B

than he was.
    “Damn it, Kal, you should know better than to abruptly wake a sleeping bear. I could have attacked you.” He retracted his claws and pulled her to his body, snuggling her close to him as his eyelids drifted shut once again.
    “Stop that.” She swatted his arm, wriggling to get out of his grip.
    “You need to stay here. My body heat…” His words were heavy with exhaustion.
    “What the hell do you mean?”
    “Kal, you tried to poison yourself. Bethany has done what she could to reverse it, and now your body needs to heal the damage. Stop moving so much. I’m on strict orders from the healers to provide body heat and keep you calm for the next forty-eight hours.”
    Her fingers roamed her neck, seeking the capsule she kept on a chain. She could feel by the weight alone, it was empty. She had one safety measure and it failed her. She left Mark, and jumped out the window, running until she was certain no one had followed her. Kallie then grasped the only escape she had been certain of. “You’re dreaming if you think I’m going to stay cuddled with you for the next two days.”
    “I’ll sedate you if I have to.” He ran his hand over her arm, and she trembled with excitement. “Damn it woman, look at you. You’re freezing. Your body can’t provide the heat you need while it’s doing such extensive repairs. Once the chills have past you won’t need my heat and I can get out of your bed, but until then be still.”
    When she continued to fight him, he added. “The longer you fight me the longer you’ll be stuck next to me. You’re using energy that your body needs to heal.”
    She was cold and his body was so warm, like her own personal heater. Sucking up her pride, she curled around him.
    “Why, Kallie?” He whispered, gently rubbing her arm.
    “They were here for me.” She cringed at the thought. They would find her and try to take her back. She knew it was inevitable, and tried to prepare for it, but her plan failed.
    “Kenneth, he was the threat that attacked command center. He showed us a picture of the two women he was here to find. Tabitha and you. But what I don’t understand is why. Why was he after you?” He squeezed her tight against him. “Kal, if I’m going to protect you, I need to know the truth. Why were you so scared that you thought death was your only option?”
    No one ever asked about her past before. Regardless of her fight, fate mated her to Taber. She wanted to be honest with him, to confide her deepest fear with him. “Before my father passed, he promised my hand in marriage to someone he thought would protect me since he would no longer be able to. In the end, the man he chose betrayed me. He traded me for his own life when a shady business deal went wrong and he was head over heels in debt to a Russian company. They wanted money or they’d kill him, instead he gave them me. I think he expected them to kill me…and I wish they had.”
    “What happened?”
    “The man I was taken to in Russia, Wesley, he was human. Through the black market he purchased one of those collars that prevent us from shifting. He drugged me, forced me to shift, and when I came to, I had the collar around my neck. It was modified so I wasn’t able to shift out of my tigress form. It forced submission and wouldn’t allow me to leave the grounds.” Her stomach rolled and she fought the rising bile.
    “Did you ever meet someone called Victor, or hear of Bratva?”
    “Wesley had a brother named Victor. He was a shifter and Wesley was jealous. What does he have to do with anything?”
    “We had Victor Senior’s son in section four and the people who attacked today were his men. We believe Victor and Pierce contacted Kenneth, telling him you and Tabitha were sisters and were kidnapped by us and held here against your will. Kenneth was leading the men, desperate for the money Pierce paid him.”
    “I knew Wesley would never give up. He thought of me as a prize because he could