Unwanted (19 page)

“I suppose we could use that fixture there, it’s bolted to the crossbeam and should create support if I slip.”
 
Roderick tossed a length of chain through a looped fixture as thick as her wrists.
 
Finn gave him his back, locking both wrists behind him, causing his shoulders to bunch and his chest to bulge.
 

His eyes found hers while Roderick secured the chains to his shackles.
 
A feral excitement burned within their depths, but they were also resolute.
 

“Don’t let me harm her,” he looked to Connor.
 
“Even if you have to put me down.”

“Aye,” Connor nodded and drew a sharp, frightening dirk.
 

“I’m sorry, what exactly is going on?”
 
Rhona
eyed the knife with apprehension.
 

“Now that he’s kissed
ye
, he has to introduce ye to his Berserker,” Roderick explained.

“
Doona
worry,” Connor smiled again, which seemed a little more dangerous now that
he
brandished a knife as long as her forearm.
 
“This has to be done.
 
We have to see if his Berserker wants
ye
, as well.”

Rhona
swallowed and took a step back.
 
“What if he doesn’t?”

“That’s what we’re here for, and the chains, of course.”
 
Roderick lashed them in a fashion that was blocked from her view by Finn’s immense body and pulled tight.
 

Finn winced.
 
And then nodded as though satisfied.

“And the both of us will be here to subdue him, so
yer
safe either way.
 
It’s up to
ye
to accept or reject him after that.”

Rhona
looked to Finn.
 
Even with his hands bound behind him, he still looked formidable.
 
Lethal.
 
All but for the boyish vulnerability glimmering in his gaze.
 

“Of course I accept him,” she blurted.
 

The men paused and three pairs of identical green eyes gaped at her.
 

“Of course I accept you.”
 
She went to Finn and pressed a tender kiss to his lips. “Your Goddess answered my prayers when she sent you to my door.
 
If you’ll have me, I am yours.”

Finn pressed his forehead against hers.
 
“No matter what happens here, you are mine and Iain is mine,” he vowed.
 
“We’ll make it work.”

“All right.”
 

His lips took hers again in a searing kiss.
 
She was his.
 
He belonged to her.
 
No matter what sort of creature lurked dangerously within him.
 
They were bound together by need and, in time, by hope and love.
 
Rhona’s
heart rejoiced.

“Neither of us procured our acceptance so easily.” Connor muttered.
 
“
Ye’d
better keep this lass, she’s mighty rare.”

Roderick chuckled and then grappled Finn into a secure hold from behind, looping his arm about Finn’s thick neck.
 
“Do it,” he ordered.

“Tell me what I am to do,”
Rhona
said.

Connor advanced on her with the knife.
 
“He needs to see fresh blood.
 
It is better if it’s
yer
blood.”

“Fresh blood?”
 
Rhona
hid her arms behind her and
retreated
another step.
 

“
’Tis
only fresh
living
blood that stirs the beast.
 
He subsides once a battle is done or the quarry is dead.”

The worry tightening Finn’s features didn’t help to allay her trepidation.
 
“Wait.
 
Won’t that awaken your Berserkers?
 
You’ll both slaughter me.”

Connor shook his head and stopped coming towards her.
 
“Come lass, we wouldn’t risk that.
 
We’re mated.
 
We have control over the beast.
 
He
doesna
come out without my say so.”

“
’Tis
an unmated Berserker that is most dangerous to those he loves,” Roderick supplied.
 

Rhona
leaned against the bedpost for strength and lifted her gaze to Finn’s.
 
The hope she read on his features spurred her into action.
 
Rolling back the fine billows of her sleeve, she lifted her forearm to Connor.
 

“Do what you must.”

Gripping her wrist gently in his palm, Connor placed the knife against the meat of her forearm.
 

A warning growl erupted from Finn and
Rhona
carefully studied his stark, brutal features.
 
He tracked the movement of the blade, a storm already brewing in his eyes.
 
 

“A good sign,” Roderick murmured.
 

When Connor applied the slightest pressure and broke the skin,
Rhona
winced, hoping with everything she had that he hadn’t just condemned one or both of them to death.
 

The cut wasn’t deep at all, more of a scratch, really.
 
But when Connor took the knife away, blood welled above the pale skin.
 

Finn closed his eyes and his body jerked as if captured by an invisible force.
 

Connor stepped in front of
Rhona
, his every muscle readied for an attack.
 

When Finn’s eyes opened, an abyss of shadows replaced the familiar green.
 
If the shadows weren’t moving in a most disconcerting fashion,
Rhona
would have thought his eyes had been plucked out.
 

He surged against Roderick’s hold, aiming for
Rhona
, his already-straining muscles seeming to build on themselves until he was half again as large.
 

“Holy Christ, he’s strong,” Roderick’s voice hissed from between gritted teeth as he struggled to restrain his brother.
 
“I
canna
hold—”

A sharp crack sounded as Finn threw back his head and connected with Roderick’s jaw.
 
Rhona
was shocked that the other Berserker still clung to him after such a blow, but he did, his own muscles bulging with the effort.
 

Roderick’s pupils began to overtake his eyes, the black swirling about as he called his Berserker forward to help.
 

Connor rushed forward, securing the chains and hastening to wrap them again around Roderick’s torso for extra leverage.
 
“She’s
yer
mate,” Connor hissed.
 
“Stop
yer
thrashing and we’ll let ye have her.”
 

Finn’s teeth bared in an enraged snarl, uncovering sharp, dangerous teeth.
 

One heartbeat erupted into hundreds as
Rhona
heard the ominous sound of metal snapping.
 
In three untraceable moves, Connor was sprawled on the floor and Roderick flew backward through the air, crashing against the stone wall next to the fireplace.

Finn honed in on her again, his lips pulling apart in a low growl.
 
His demonic eyes pinned
Rhona
where she stood before he lunged at her.

There was no escape.
 

The air whooshed out of
Rhona’s
lungs as Finn snatched her and vaulted the entire expanse of the bed.
 
He landed and pinned her to his impossibly muscled body, roaring at Connor and Roderick who’d already gained their feet.

The stunned looks in both their eyes did nothing to dispel the unease surging through her.
 
She half expected him to tear her limbs from her torso at any moment.
 

Connor’s shoulders slumped in relief.
 
“I’m sorry lass, we
couldna
have known the extent of his strength.”

Roderick cracked his jaw, eyes returning to normal, and stooped to retrieve the broken chains from the floor.
 
“We’ll leave
ye
to it, then.”
 
He circled Finn with a wide berth and nudged his brother to the door on the opposite side of the bed from her.
 

“Wait,”
Rhona
pleaded, eliciting a warning growl from the beast currently imprisoning her.
 
“You’re just going to leave me with him like this?”

“The danger is passed.” Connor looked ashamed.
 
“If he was going to kill
ye
, it’d be done.
 
We
couldna
have stopped it.”

“He’s
yers
to do with as ye please,” Roderick grinned, then grimaced and rubbed his jaw again.
 

“But I—”

The door clicked softly behind them, ominous in its finality.
 

Rhona
gasped as she was roughly turned to face Finn.
 
He consumed her with fathomless eyes and
Rhona
found herself absorbed by them.
 
His impossible strength frightened her.
 
She could feel it in the hands that gripped her shoulders.
 
She could sense it in the muscles that vibrated with some kind of Herculean restraint.
 

The Berserker wanted her.
 
His nostrils flared with quick, uneven breaths.
 
His powerful body bunched and quivered in the firelight and
Rhona
could swear that the flames grew brighter.
 
Her eyes lingered on his body.
 
All that unmitigated power.
 
All that primal, bestial masculinity belonged to her.
 
Finn was pledged to her as she was to him.

And the Berserker meant to claim his mate.
 

The knowledge hit
her a
breath before the force of his raw passion unleashed with the primitive strength of a Highland tempest.
 
It erupted against her, as a tidal wave against the rocks as he backed her against the wall, tossed her skirts up, and thrust his tartan above his hips.
 
 

One arm encircled her and lifted her entire body off the floor, pinning her against him and the wall.
 
It seemed the stone would give before he would.
 
The inevitability of what he was about to do caused a rush of desire so intense that she gasped.
 

He wedged himself between her legs with a possessive growl, his nostrils flaring and his black eyes churning.
 
His arms reached beneath her knees, imprisoning them wide apart as he gripped her bottom, exposing her intimate flesh to him in a way that left her utterly vulnerable.

He claimed her mouth, his tongue thrusting deep as he drove inside her.
 
The pleasure was excruciating and
Rhona
lost her haggard cry into his mouth.
 
He gave her no time to adjust, withdrawing and plunging deeply once again.
 
This was not the considerate, patient lover of the night before.
 
This was the beast, and he denied himself nothing.
 

His need fueled
her own
and she used the wall to push her body back against him.
 
He pulled his head back, breaking the contact of their mouths.
 
He growled a warning at her and hitched her higher against the wall, pulling her legs impossibly wider and surging against her in long, relentless thrusts.