"I have an unending supply of women who possess the poor habit of interfering in my business."
She could hardly argue with that.
"And what's your business with me?"
"I have told you, cara." His gaze slowly moved down the length of her body. "I wish you to be my consort. I assure you that it is a position of great honor among our people."
She pressed herself into the hard mattress. It wasn't that she was entirely oblivious to this man's attractions. He was breathtakingly handsome and blessed with the sort of charisma most women would find irresistible.
Perhaps under different circumstances she might have found herself pleased with his attentions.
But the current circumstances included being stalked, chained to a bed, and informed she possessed a genetically altered womb so she could carry litter after litter for the pack.
Not the sort of thing to dazzle any woman.
Besides, he wasn't Styx.
And that was that.
"I don't doubt that it is a position of great honor," she said slowly. "But what if I don't want it?"
He smiled to reveal his perfect white teeth. "You will."
"You're very certain of yourself."
"Our union was destined from the day you were born. There is no escaping it."
She glanced pointedly at her wrists. "Obviously not if you intend to keep me chained to the bed."
"I would release you if you would give your word that you will not try to escape." His smile faded as he met her gaze steadily. "May I have your promise?"
Darcy gritted her teeth. It would be so simple to lie. Just open her lips and promise him whatever he wanted.
It's what she wanted to do.
Salvatore's trust might very well offer her the opportunity to escape. Reason enough for any lie.
But more importantly, if she could free herself soon then she could return to Styx before the dangerous vampire made the horrible situation even worse.
Darcy shivered. She didn't know what time it was, but she suspected that it was late afternoon. Which meant that sundown was only an hour or two away.
Only an hour or two before Styx would be able to follow her trail and charge to the rescue.
She would do anything to avoid the inevitable confrontation.
Unfortunately, the word simply wouldn't cross her lips.
She couldn't utter a blatant lie beneath that steady gaze.
"No."
"Then I fear the chains must remain," he said. "At least for a time. Eventually you will become reconciled to your fate."
Darcy gave a short, humorless laugh. "To become a ... breeder? I don't think so."
Salvatore's expression hardened with annoyance. "Sophia's doing, I suppose. She should learn to keep her mouth shut."
"Why?" Darcy studied his dark eyes. "Did you intend to keep secret the fact that I am a scientific experiment? Or that my sole purpose in life is to produce as many children as possible?"
Surprisingly, he winced at her blunt accusations. Even more surprisingly, his eyes darkened as if he felt at least a small prick of guilt.
"Cam, it is no secret that for centuries the Weres have been fading," he said in a low voice, an unmistakable pain edging his words. "The pureblood females lose more and more children, and even the curs have become rare. We are rapidly looking into the face of extinction."
Darcy bit her lip as her stupid heart threatened to soften. "I... I'm sorry, but..."
Salvatore held up a slender hand. "Wait. I want you to understand, Darcy," he said, his tone nearly pleading. "I hired an entire battalion of doctors and scientists to assist us quite simply because we are desperate. We have to have children if we are to survive."
She struggled to hang on to her perfectly reasonable anger. She was a person, not a piece of property to be manufactured and shoved into her proper role.
"And they came up with the brilliant idea to mess around with my DNA?" she demanded.
"The scientists isolated the genes that make us shift and suppressed them in you and your sisters." He paused before reaching out to lightly touch her cheek. "It is hoped that you will be able to carry my children to full term if you do not shift."
Darcy jerked from his lingering touch. "Your children?"
His dark brows lifted. "I am the king. I am always given first choice of females."
Her brief flare of sympathy was effectively squashed.
That tended to happen when a man began yapping as if he didn't have a brain in his head.
1 am always given first choice of females...
Jackass.
"Not this female," she snapped.
He frowned, almost as if he was caught off guard by her annoyance. "You are a part of my pack, cara. It is tradition."
"It may be your tradition, but it's certainly not mine," she gritted. Jeez, she thought Styx was arrogant. He was an amateur compared to this man. "Do you truly believe that I would jump into bed with a complete stranger for any reason?"
Salvatore gave a lift of his brows. "I am not opposed to waiting a day or two to become better acquainted."
"A day or two?"
He shrugged. "By then you will be fertile."
Darcy gave a strangled sound. "Gripes. Has anyone ever told you that your pickup lines suck?"
His lips twitched. "You want me to court you with sweet words and false promises?"
Darcy stiffened as she recalled Styx's dark, beautiful voice whispering in her ear as he made love to her.
That's what she wanted.
So desperately it made her heart ache.
"You can save your sweet words for some other woman."
"For the next few months there will be no other woman." His eyes narrowed. "Until you are pregnant I will remain faithful."
She just stared at him for a long moment.
"You can't be serious."
"I'm perfectly serious."
She gave a short laugh. "Just when I think this can't get any worse it does."
"I have just promised to be faithful. How can that be worse?"
She pushed herself from the headboard to stab him with a narrow glare. "Tell me, Salvatore, after I've produced a litter for you am I going to be passed along to the other pureblood males so they can try their luck?"
He studied her with a frown. "You will have your choice of bed partners."
Disgusted by the entire situation, Darcy gave a lift of her chin. Enough was enough. She would throw herself out the window before she would ever agree to such a soulless arrangement.
Children should be the result of two people who are committed to one another and can provide a home that is filled with love and security.
She understood that need more than anyone.
Besides, she already belonged to another.
Race, duty, nor iron shackles would ever change that.
"There's only one man whom I will have in my bed, and he's not a Were."
A sharp silence descended as Salvatore stepped toward the bed.
"Forget your vampire," he growled. "As much as I hate to agree with Sophia on anything, she is right. I have wasted too much time. You belong to me. There is no choice for either of us."
Darcy gave a slow shake of her head. "No."
"Yes, cara." He grasped her chin in a bruising grip. "Tonight beneath the moon I will make you mine."
Unlike Darcy, Styx wasn't actually chained to a bed. He was, however, firmly locked in a dark cell far beneath Dante's elegant home.
Not the first place anyone would expect to find the powerful Anasso, leader of all vampires. And not the first place that the powerful Anasso would want to be.
Thankfully for all involved, as the daylight hours slowly passed, Styx managed to regain control of his thundering fury. In fact, he was forced to concede that he hadn't left his friends much choice.
To say that he had been aggravated when he had discovered the Weres had taken Darcy while he was gone would be like saying a category five hurricane was no more than a stiff breeze.
He had, quite frankly, erupted into a black rage.
Without his friends not only would he have killed the traitorous vampires who had tried to kidnap Darcy and frightened her from the safety of the house, but he would have charged blindly into the cresting dawn in an effort to retrieve his mate.
A certain death sentence and no doubt precisely what the Weres had hoped would happen.
Now, as the dusk approached, he forced himself to put aside his distracting emotions and consider the situation with the tiny amount of logic he could muster.
Which wasn't very damn much, he ruefully conceded.
He might not be foaming at the mouth with fury, but his need to get to Darcy was a painful ache that clutched his entire body.
Still, it was enough to assure him that he would have to convince his friends that he had regained his sanity if he was to get out of this cell and on the trail of his mate.
Moving toward the door, he spoke with the cold authority that was far more his style.
"Viper, I know you can hear me. You have precisely one minute to join me."
There was the sound of footsteps, but the door remained firmly locked. "Take it easy, ancient one. I'm here."
