Escaping From Fate (Escape Book 2) Read online

  Glancing at his human mate, Dax was glad he’d had time. He wasn’t sure after leaving the Air Force if he’d have been okay with having a human mate. He was old enough to remember shifters coming out and how the humans acted. At sixteen, Dax noticed the changes. He remembered having to move and start at a new school. The different looks on people and all the restrictions that were suddenly put-upon shifters. He joined the Air Force at eighteen and stayed in longer than the now mandatory time for shifters. Dax stared at the road and wondered if he could do this. He still felt the bitterness of how humans treated shifters. Clenching the steering wheel, Dax picked up speed. He needed to get home and be surrounded by his family and with his mate.

  Dax hated what the humans forced shifters to do. He needed to get over some of his resentment for humans. He reminded himself that his mate hadn’t even been born thirty years ago when shifters came out. Dax was guessing, because she looked young and he hoped that it wouldn’t cause problems for them. She was human and he was brought up in a different era as her, and shifters treated their women differently to humans. He had to trust in fate, and the mate bond to have matched him to the right woman.

  Ranger must have called his family as his father waited at the gate and opened it for him and Dax drove straight to his cottage. Lisa stayed asleep the whole drive and didn’t wake when he stopped the car and opened her door. She stirred when he carefully lifted her out of his car and held him against his chest.

  She moaned and clutched at him rubbing her cheek against his naked chest. “Please. Oh, I don’t feel so good.”

  “Angel, I’m sorry. I’ll get you to bed and make sure you have a bucket if you’re sick. I’ll bring you some water, and before you nod off again, I’ll get you to take something that’ll help how you feel.”

  “Mmm thanks,” she groaned and snuggled against him. Dax loved that she felt comfortable with him enough to fall asleep and cuddle into his embrace.

  His mother stood at his front door and opened it as he went through with Lisa and he turned to face his mum. “Is this her?” Her accent was thick and he was surprised she was speaking English.

  “Yes, Mum.”

  His mother’s sharp assessment took everything in before she followed behind him, stepping through, and moving closer to look at Lisa. “You haven’t claimed her?”

  Spinning, he went to his room and gently laid Lisa on the bed before he turned back to his mother. “No. Not yet. I didn’t want to do it at the club, and I haven’t had a chance to yet as she’s drunk. I want to do it when she’s feeling better.”

  His mother placed her hands on her hips, her gaze narrowed on him. “You can’t. You have to do it now. You can’t wait until tomorrow, because your tiger will go loco. What do you know about the girl? If you don’t mate her and she runs you may never find her again.”

  He sighed and scrubbed his face with his hand. His parents worried about him and they didn’t like how he’d come back when he finished with the Air Force. “I want to do this the right way. I want her to trust me. I shouldn’t have to tell you how important that is. She’s drunk, Mum. I can’t claim her now.”

  His mum’s gaze darted from him to his mate on the bed. “Yes, you can. If you claim her, she won’t be ill in the morning and she’ll sleep as soon as your claim settles over her.”

  Unsure what to do, he studied his mother, her lips were thinned and turned down in a frown, her shrewd gaze held his and that told him she was right, but it didn’t feel right to mate her without her being sober. Dax wanted her to remember him and what she meant to him.

  “Your mother’s right, son.” His father came into the room. “You also have no right to take her unless you mate her. If she leaves in the morning without being claimed, we could be charged with kidnapping.”

  Lisa moaned from the bed and clutched her stomach. “What are you all mumbling about?”

  His dad was right, and for a moment, he hated the humans again with the burning rage he felt after he left the Air Force. Going over to the bed, Dax brushed her hair away from Lisa’s face and shoulder. “I’m sorry to claim you this way. I will make it up to you, kitten.” Dax stroked her cheek before leaning down and brushing his lips over where his fingers left. “I claim you. I give you my mark, my life, and everything I am. I will give you my seed. You will give me young. You’re my tiger’s and you’re mine. My mate. My woman. My soul. Mine.” When the words left his lips, he bit down on the part where her shoulder and neck met.

  Lisa let out a scream that could wake the dead, her body convulsed and she reached out and grabbed him, she rubbed her body against his arching up and circling her arms around him. She clutched him and rubbed herself against him until her scream subsided and then she mewled, like the little kitten she reminded him of, and passed out. She was claimed. She was his.

  ****

  Lisa

  Snuggling into the warmth, Lisa breathed in the yummy scent that surrounded her, a woodsy smell that had her thinking of walking in the bush. She couldn’t remember feeling this comfortable or warm. A sense of safeness surrounded her and she frowned at the feeling that she hadn’t felt since she was young. It was strange. She hadn’t felt safe, well not since she was a kid before she was put in the foster system.

  Slowly, she opened her eyes, and as the room came into focus, she realized she wasn’t in her own room and she wasn’t alone. Holy moly, what had she done? Wiggling, she gasped as the softness beneath her became apparent it wasn’t a bed she laid on. She was on top of a big wide, warm body. The body was soft, but hard with muscle.

  Oh wow, had she had sex? Was she no longer a virgin? She quickly assessed her body, nothing hurt, well her head throbbed a little, but the part of her body that she was sure was supposed to hurt didn’t.

  Something was wrong though. Lisa glanced around the room again noticing the sparse space, no photos, or painting, clear white walls, and a plain wooden chest of drawers and bedside tables. Finally, she rose and crossed her arms to pop her up as she looked down at the male she laid on. He was beautiful, he had strong manly features, and he was breathtaking, his skin bronzed, his jaw square, his cheeks high and his lips were so plump and full, they looked like a couple of bees had stung them. His hair was short, almost military, it was black, but there were light white stripes through it. His eyes were closed so she couldn’t tell what color they were, and she couldn’t remember them. Now she thought of it, she couldn’t remember much about this gorgeous man.

  Easing off him, she quietly thanked God she still wore the barely-nothing dress. Her shoes were missing, but right now she didn’t care about them, just finding out where she was was her top priority. She stilled, closed her eyes and wondered why she wasn’t scared, or even eager to leave. Something was definitely wrong. She was sure this wasn’t how she was supposed to feel. She mentally checked her body again. Now she was more awake, she could feel a throbbing where her neck and shoulder met. It didn’t hurt, more like throbbed.

  “Kitten, you’re an early riser?” the gorgeous man spoke, it was deep and gravely, sending shivers she’d never had before shooting through her. She jumped back off the bed and blinked, focusing her eyes on ones that were such a clear sky blue she felt like she fell into them. For a moment, she just stared and let the feeling of falling from the sky settle over her, it was surprisingly relaxing.

  He sat up and she blinked again as his muscles flexed. How the hell had she slept on all that hard muscle? She took a calming breath and moaned as the woodsy scent settled over her again. He smelt amazing.

  “Are you okay?” the gorgeous man asked and his voice had her body aching in a way that she’d never had before. Sure, she’d found men attractive, but never this burning need to have and spend more time with this man.

  Lisa nodded, her mind unable to construct a sentence or even come up with one simple answer. He eased off the bed and she gasped at his naked form, and stepped back again. How had she not known he was naked?

  She watched him, fasci
nated at each of his movements as he causally came toward her. He stopped at the chest of drawers, opened the middle drawer, and got out black track pants and slipped them on. He then turned back to her, ran a hand over his head and sighed loudly.

  “Do you remember my name?” He raised one perfectly shaped black brow.

  Lisa shook her head. Her brain couldn’t remember much of last night, it was all fuzzy.

  “I’m Dax.” His smiled, and this time when she stepped back, it was because he became breathtakingly beautiful. His teeth were white and just as perfect as the rest of him.

  He waited and Lisa knew he wanted her name. She opened her mouth and…. nothing came out. What on earth was happening to her? Sure, she was shy, but never usually this shy. Clearing her suddenly dry throat, she tried again opening her mouth and a husky voice she didn’t even know she had rasped out, “Lisa.”

  The sexy grin that spread over his face had her heart rate speeding up, and she took another calming breath and slowly let it out drawing her gaze down to the ground to gather herself and slow her racing heart. She’d never reacted to a man like Dax before, not that she’d been around a lot of men, but the ones she had, they looked nothing like the man before her.

  “Hi Lisa. You told me your name last night, but I thought since you forgot mine you wouldn’t remember.”

  She nodded. Lisa didn’t remember much from last night. “Thanks. I’ve never drunk alcohol before, so I don’t remember much from sitting down at my seat and ordering my first drink. I didn’t think alcohol was supposed to taste that sweet and good. I thought it was bitter, and with how good the Fruit Tingles I was drinking tasted, I just kept ordering more.” Lisa knew she was blabbering but she couldn’t stop. She was nervous. Dax was so yummy looking, she couldn’t stare at him for long, not with how her body reacted to him. She looked down at the floor trying to get herself under control.

  A deep masculine chuckle had her stomach fluttering. “I’m Dax White. You’re in my home. Our home. Mate of mine.”

  It took her a moment to register what he said, but when it did, she screeched, “What!”. Darting her head up, she gazed at his lips and wondered if she’d heard him correctly. Surely he hadn’t said what she thought he had. Realizing she’d just shouted at a shifter, she shrank back. “Bbb…eee…gg your ppppardon,” she stuttered.

  She swore his eyes flashed a darker blue and he stepped a little closer to her. “You, my little kitten, are my mate.”

  She swore she felt her jaw hit the floor. Her gaze this time really studied the man. He was tall, wide, and breathtakingly handsome. The striped hair looked natural too. Wow, how had she missed it? Dax was a shifter. Idiot, she told herself. She should have known. The stripper club was run by shifters. She knew this, so why had it taken so long for her to realize? Then she repeated over what he said. “Oh,” she mumbled. “I can’t be. My parents wouldn’t be happy if I was a shifter’s mate.”

  Whoa, what was she saying? It was true that her foster parents wouldn’t be happy, but why was she telling Dax? She bet her apartment that Dax didn’t care what her foster parents thought about him mating her, or what they thought of shifters. Lisa didn’t know much about shifter mates besides it being fate, and that once mated neither cheated, and it was said to be a perfect pairing, one where both were devoted to each other and totally in love. That couldn’t be right though, if this shifter thought she was his. She wasn’t that lucky.

  She wasn’t scared. She should be though, as the mate thing was the only nice things she knew about shifters. They were violent, and said to be possessive of land and anything they owned. They were stronger than humans, and Bruce and Helen had told her many other things which she wasn’t sure were true now as she was here and still alive. The shifters she met last night seemed fine too from the little she remembered of the shifter strip club. Bruce had always said that shifters wanted to take over and would eventually make all humans their slaves. He and Helen had said that a shifter would kill a human if they were on their land. She was on shifter land and had spent the night with Dax and he hadn’t harmed her, but maybe Dax thinking she was his mate was why he hadn’t hurt her. She wasn’t sure though, since moving out of Helen and Bruce’s home she was learning a lot of what they’d said was untrue.

  His brow raised. “Why? They haven’t even met me. If they knew me or got to know me and found out that when a shifter found their mate, they devoted themselves to them, maybe they might like me. Shifters make their mate feel like they are the most special being on Earth.”

  Oh, that sounded amazing. That didn’t sound bad at all. She worried though. Was this a joke? Had her friends put Dax up to this so she would lose her virginity? Maybe Dax was crazy, but he hadn’t hurt her, or forced her into anything. She was sure that last night he could have taken advantage of her. She didn’t remember much, but she did know she had alcohol and had so much she didn’t remember much after a couple of drinks. Lisa’s thoughts were so scrambled she couldn’t figure out what was going on and what everything he said meant. She tried to explain some of the chaos she felt going on in her head.

  “My foster parents are very strict, religious, and ultra conservative. They control my life, but they’re all I have. They’re…they…” She tried to think of more to say, but nothing else came out. It wasn’t that she was scared of Dax, which was weird, she should be because she didn’t know him, and everything she’d been told about shifters weren’t positive. Lisa was unsure of the situation now though. She didn’t know what to do. Dax hadn’t hurt her and he’d had plenty of chances to do so. He’d told her she was his mate. She needed to find out more about shifter mates. More about Dax. Other than what Helen, Bruce, Father Tomas, and Helen and Bruce’s friends had said to her. She knew they’d come out to the world about thirty or so years ago. They had rules that they had to follow. She frowned, would he get in trouble for taking her? She hoped not. She didn’t want him to get in trouble.

  “They will get to know me. You are mine now.” He crossed his big arms over his wide chest.

  She shook her head, and turned her focus back to him. “If you keep me, you’ll get in trouble. You’re a shifter. I don’t know much about shifters, but I know that your kind are still having issues with humans and how we treat you.” She raised her hands. “I have no issues with you. I don’t want you to get in trouble for taking me.”

  A dazzling smile spread over his handsome face and she sighed enjoying his beauty and what he made her feel. “You’re a mate—m—my mate——and that means that I won’t get in trouble. It’s one of the rules we have against humans. Mates can’t be separated. I mated you so we won’t be separated. Humans can’t take you from me. Shifters have more power than you realize.”

  She backed up some more, not sure how she felt about what he said. What did he mean by humans not being able to take her? Why would they want to? He was going to let her go. He had too. “You will let me go though, won’t you?”

  “You can go, but I will follow. We are mates, and I want you safe. I need to be with you. I want to get to know you.” He stalked toward her, his prowl showed he was pure shifter, and she gulped at the intense stare that held hers.

  Lisa was sure she should protest, argue with Dax who she barely knew, but she’d always wanted someone to love. To come and sweep her off her feet like the heroes in the romance books she read. She held out her hand, not sure if it was to stop him or bring him closer to her needing more. “Please. I know nothing of your kind or what it is to be mated. I don’t even know you. I need you to tell me more.”

  His arms circled her waist, lifted her up and carried her to the edge of the bed and let go, she sat and he sat beside her. “What do you want to know?” She loved his deep voice and would gladly listen to it for hours.

  Lisa wondered what she needed to know about first. “Why do you think I’m your mate?”

  “You have a scent that brings me to my knees. As soon as I smelt you, I knew you were mine. When my gaze landed on yo
u, I knew I would claim you. You’re beautiful.” He leaned in and sniffed her neck before placing his lips against hers.

  A shiver spread through her and her body heated. “I’m not, but, um, thank you.” She wiggled away from him and stood. She knew she wasn’t ugly, but she wasn’t beautiful, at least not like her friends, she wasn’t tall like Racheal, or skinny like Alexis or even super smart like Becky.

  “I have to go to work tomorrow.” She had no idea why she’d told him about work when she intended to go home. She didn’t think she’d see him again once she left and disappointment assaulted her.

  “I’ll take you to work. Where do you work?” His gaze seemed to penetrate her from the tips of her toes to the top of her head, it sent warmth through her and a tingling feeling settled between her legs.

  “Forest Cove Nursing Home. I just became full-time. I love it there. The residents are the best and I get along with all my co-workers.” Lisa knew how lucky she was to have a job she loved and to work at a facility that most of the patients liked. “You said you can take me to work tomorrow, but I can get myself there when I go home. I know you think I’m your mate, but I don’t know you. I can’t stay here.”

  “You’re my mate. I mated you. You can’t leave me. I need you. I crave you.” Dax stood and walked closer to her, leaned down, and kissed the tender part of where her neck met her shoulder. “You’ll get to know me. We’re meant to be.”

  The flutter in her stomach intensified and she had a feeling Dax would get what he wanted. She wouldn’t fight him either. She wanted him and she would trust her gut instinct and how she felt with Dax. She just hoped she had the strength to tell Bruce and Helen what she wanted and stick to her decision and not be bullied by them.