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Mischa kissed her again and let the truth of his words travel down the bonding link to her. He left her in the locked SUV and jogged back over to the hotel room, where Valentin was questioning the only survivor.
“He says he didn’t know what they were going to do. He claims he is innocent,” stated Valentin.
“I swear I didn’t know, and they said they’d kill me if I didn’t go along,” said the man who seemed to think the immediate threat of death was over.
He was wrong. Mischa glanced down at the man’s unbuckled belt and partially unzipped fly. The man began to cry and speak incoherently in Russian.
“We both know you’re lying through your teeth.”
“What is she?” asked the Russian.
Mischa turned and smiled a smile that was every bit as feral as the dire wolf the man and his companions had tried to take down. “She is death, and I am her master.”
CHAPTER18
MISCHA
With no remorse and no warning, Mischa removed a knife from the waistband of his jeans, stepped behind the man, grabbed him by the hair at the front of his head, wrenched his head back and slashed his throat, severing the jugular vein.
He looked up at Valentin. “Cut off an identifiable piece of each of them. Send it back to the Russians and let them know this is what happens when they think to visit violence upon my people, especially my fiancée. Let them know any and all business we might have had in process has ended and that unless they want a full-scale war and to find themselves at the bottom of the Gulf of Alaska, I recommend they stay in Russia and away from my people.”
Valentin smiled grimly. “Your will be done, Alpha. Our people should be here shortly. I’ll stay in here and supervise the cleanup.”
Mischa nodded and returned to the SUV, climbed in, said nothing and pulled away from the hotel.
“Are you sure you’re not mad at me? Because it feels like you’re mad at me. I had a little time to think, and you shouldn’t be mad at me.”
The rush of adrenaline was wearing off and she was beginning to babble. “I promise you I am not angry with you.”
“I was thinking you actually might be because you told me to rest and taking a boat to the abandoned cannery probably wasn’t what you had in mind.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“You probably don’t know this about me, but I kind of have a thing for haunted places. Sometimes I can feel and even see the spirits that remain, but often all I get is a vague sense of malevolence, and I definitely got a hint of that when you took me there.”
“And it is you who needs to forgive me for that. I never should have exposed you that way. First, you knew where the place was; second, Kozlov saw you well enough to identify you and recognize your importance to me; and third, I should have known better than to expect you to rest and do as you were told. You’re not very good at that.”
“I know,” she said seductively, placing both of her hands on his thigh and leaning over to kiss him. She sat back. “You should have seen her, Mischa. First of all, she’s beautiful and strong and kind of vicious. I know I should probably be horrified by what she and I did and the feeling of righteousness that is welled up inside, but I’m not. She was amazing. I can’t wait to get home and go for a run as a dire wolf. I’ve been waiting my whole life to do that. Will you run with me, my mate?”
Mischa chuckled. “Let’s get home and see how you feel after we get you cleaned up and you have a chance to let that bloodlust and adrenaline start to fade.” He reached over, taking her hand in his and bringing it to his lips. “You should know you just took ten years off my life, little wolf. The next time I tell you to stay home and rest, for the love of god, could you just do it?”
“Maybe,” she said, teasing him and settling back comfortably in her seat. “And then again, maybe not.”
Mischa groaned and beat his head against the steering wheel. “I think I’ve created a monster.”
“You know, monster sex is a hot-selling genre in a lot of romance books these days.”
Her grin and her lightness of being were palpable. She should be scrunched into a corner, overcome with terror at what might have happened or what she had done. She wasn’t. He didn’t doubt she’d want to talk about what happened at some point, but for right now she was reveling in the power it was to be a dire wolf and pleased with herself that she had kept herself alive. He would ensure those were the lasting memories she kept of the incident.
“Well, you and your monster are going to have to wait until we get home and get you cleaned up.”
“Do you think you can handle knotting and tying a monster?” she teased.
He laughed out loud. “I don’t know, but what do you say we find out?”
Mischa drove into the fading light of the day, resplendent in the knowledge that regardless of the DNA she had possessed when she started her life, his fated mate was a glorious dire wolf, and he was the luckiest man that had ever lived to be able to bask in her light.
* * *
