For a moment, she was struck by how peaceful he looked in his sleep, lying face-down, his now clean-shaven jaw hidden under his tousled red hair.
She remembered the scene in the bathroom, how he’d looked at her so softly as she finished washing his hair in the bath they were sharing at his insistence, with a shampoo she had made herself out of tea tree oil and castile soap.
“Is there nothing at which you do not excel, beauty?” he had asked her.
And her heart had zinged a little, because Rafe had found all the little things she made and had taught herself to do more odd than endearing. But the Viking had looked at her like he was the luckiest man in the world to have her as his fated mate.
And then less than a few hours later, he had threatened to kill her ex-fiancé and make her do his bidding after they returned to his time.
The memory of that terrible argument and the fact that she was no longer in heat was enough to clear away any goodwill his compliments had engendered within her. And when she gazed upon him again, he looked exactly like what he was. A very dangerous man who would stop at nothing to get his way.
It suddenly became very clear what she had to do now.
Run. As fast as she could and as far away as she could as soon as possible.
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHLOE didn’t even get half a mile out of town before she saw the flashing lights of a police car in her rearview mirror. And less than an hour after sneaking out of her own house with nothing but a laptop and one hastily packed overnight bag, she found herself locked up in the clinic’s basement cage.
And less than fifteen minutes after that, the Colorado alpha king showed up.
It took all the manners Myrna had drummed into her not to groan upon the sight of Dale Nightwolf coming down the steps, his long, lean body a twin of his son’s, even if his face was longer with more wrinkles.
She stood, which was the respectful thing to do in the presence of your alpha, and mumbled a small, “Hi.”
“So let me get this straight,” he said, ignoring her greeting. “First you lead my son on for seven years, then you go into heat with another wolf, and then to top it all off, you decide to run away, leaving us to deal with the out-of-time Viking currently residing in the house my son bought for you to live in. Do I have that about right?”
Chloe’s cheeks heated. “In all fairness, I did offer to pay Rafe rent. But he wouldn’t let me.”
He sniffed the air. “And you’re pregnant. Well, doesn’t that just about beat all?”
“Rafe asked me to leave. He told me not to be here when he got back from Alaska.”
“He didn’t mean run away and leave your Viking behind. He wanted both of you gone.” He gave her a disappointed look. “You know that, Chloe. You shouldn’t have tried to run away. You made an already bad situation even worse.”
Having her king be angry with her, she could take, understand even. Rafe was his son, after all. But having him look at her with such disappointment in his eyes was almost more than she could bear.
If not for her need to get out of this cage and fast, she would have begged him for his forgiveness as opposed to saying, “You realize that me running away isn’t a crime though, right? You don’t actually have any grounds to hold me here, under arrest.” Chloe had to swallow in a deep breath of bravery to say this next thing: “And just because you’re the alpha doesn’t mean I have to explain myself to you or that you can treat me however you want. There’s no law that says I can’t go anywhere I want any time I choose. But the time the Viking is trying to force me to go to doesn’t have protections like that. That’s why I ran away.”
Dale’s face went from disappointed to angry again as he took a step closer to the cage. “Forgive me if after watching my son moon over you and let better prospects mate with other wolves for seven years, I don’t feel all that sorry for you.”
“And forgive me if I don’t think your anger is a good enough reason to travel a thousand years back in the past with someone I barely even know.”
“He’s your mate,” he said, shaking his head. “I know you modern she-wolves are all about your rights this and your rights that. But back in my day, a good she-wolf knew how follow.”
She folded her arms and sat down on the bench, not caring how insulting an action like this was to her alpha king. She was so sick of alpha kings from both the past and present trying to tell her what to do. Also, he had lost any right to her deference when he had the sheriff haul her into this cage like a common criminal.
“Well, I guess I’m not a good she-wolf then,” she said. “Now either charge me with something or risk me suing you, Dale, and this entire town for wrongful imprisonment in the human courts. You know how the North American Lupine Council hates to see us in the human news. They’d probably make you settle out of court and send the Viking back through the portal yourself.”
The way Dale’s face twisted with annoyance let Chloe know she was right, and though it was agonizing for her to talk this way to the man she had hoped would one day become her father-in-law, she pressed on. “Release me,” she demanded. “Release me now, or I’ll make you pay.”
He sighed. “You know, I like you, Clo, I always have, from the moment we opened our home to you. But when my boy started talking about proposing to you, I had a bad feeling about it. Not just because you were odd with all that alternative stuff you’re into, but also because I looked at you two and I didn’t see lovers like Lacey and me, but two four-year-olds who didn’t want to stop being friends. I tried to tell Rafe that you weren’t a match, and Lacey also had her doubts but she loved you too much to back me up with Rafe. Now look what’s happened. You’ve wasted seven years of our boy’s life and you’re sitting here demanding that we all bend over backwards to accommodate you.”
He all but spat the words at her, and Chloe couldn’t mask the hurt they caused her. She had been so looking forward to joining their happy family, and thought Rafe’s parents felt the same. But apparently Dale had never wanted her to be with Rafe in the first place. And if what he was saying ways true, his wife, Lacey, who she’d loved like a second mother, had also had her doubts from the start.
But she couldn’t let her hurt feelings take her off course. She had to get out of this cage and out of town before the Viking woke up.
“I’m sorry,” she said to Dale. “I know you don’t believe me, but I’m truly sorry for all the hurt I’ve caused. And I’d give anything for things to have worked out differently. But I can’t go back in time to Norway. That’s insane. I have got to get out of here and you’ve got to help me—”