Her breath left her in a whoosh. "Who said I was taking a mate?" Presumptuous b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

"Zoe."

"Tyler," she mimicked, a growl sneaking into her voice. "Before you grab a shotgun and start wedding planning, maybe you should check to see if the bride is willing."

"This isn't exactly how I pictured my life going either," he said, the words sharp.

"Oh, well done. That's the way to convince me we should get married. b.i.t.c.h about how I'm s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up your life plan. Bonus."

"That wasn't what I meant and you know it. We're both stuck in this, so we might as well-"

"I'm not stuck in anything, Tyler Minor. So you can just cram your make the best of it speech up your a.s.s, okay, sweetie?"

58."Dammit, Zoe! What did I do to get you so p.i.s.sed at me? I thought we were good and then you bolt on me with no f.u.c.king explanation and avoid me for days. What did I f.u.c.king do?"

You wanted me. Zoe knew it was messed up, but him wanting her had scared the s.h.i.t out of her. She was allowed to pin all her emotion on him when he was running hard in the opposite direction, but she hadn't been prepared for his about-face. When he wanted her, when it was real and she had to choose between a real life with him here and the life she knew on her own, suddenly everything she felt was bigger and scarier than she could handle.

But she couldn't tell him that.

"You didn't do anything. What do you want?"

His jaw locked and his hands fisted at his sides, but he lowered his eyes, visibly restraining himself from the urge to dominate her. Zoe was more impressed than she cared to admit by the effort.

"Landon wants you to take a look at the perimeter security. You know more about that techno-spy s.h.i.t than anyone else on the ranch. I'm supposed to escort you."

"Babysit me, you mean. I can do it myself. I'll be on pride land the entire time."

"You'll be on the border and everyone is using the buddy system, so stop whining and get any gear you need. We're going as soon as you're ready."

Zoe stiffened, itching for a fight, wanting to take out all of her frustration and confusion on someone.

"Is that an order?"

Tyler stepped forward until he was looming over her, but he didn't touch her, just saturated the air around her with the weight of his presence. "Zoe," he growled low. "We can play all the dominance games you want later, but right now you have a job to do for the pride, so get your a.s.s moving and f.u.c.king do it."

If she'd needed it spelled out for her that his family would always come first to him, Tyler had just done that. Pride first-even if his definition of pride was narrower than Landon's. Zoe didn't want to be another person he protected and bossed around. It wasn't in her.

Suddenly the picket fence looked more like bars. He would keep her safe, even if it meant building a cage around her with his own two hands. The two of them chafing against their restriction together she might have been able to handle. Tyler as her jailer would be unbearable.

"I'll get my things," Zoe said, her voice soft and expressionless.

Tyler rocked back on his heels, a flicker of satisfaction at the victory showing on his face. Zoe didn't bother telling him he'd lost something bigger than this argument. He'd lost her.

"Three more and we're done."

59.The truck rumbled over the cattle guard fifteen feet from the outer perimeter. Zoe sat in the pa.s.senger seat with a laptop open on her legs, ignoring him with a businesslike concentration that was starting to make him crazy.

For days he'd tried to give her s.p.a.ce, even as his lion fought against the restriction, urging him to prove to her he was strong enough to be her mate the only way the animal in him recognized-through dominance. He'd nearly ripped Landon's head off for no good reason, just because he was another male in Zoe's life and Tyler couldn't stand the idea of anyone else having a claim on her. His human side refused to be ruled by his instincts. He knew Zoe would be as resistant to the idea of spending forever with him as he initially had been, but she didn't have decades of bending to Fate's will to prepare her as he did.

Strangely, the more time he'd given her, the more certain he'd become that he didn't need any more.

The more she'd resisted, the faster he'd adjusted. He would never find anyone else who suited him the way Zoe did. It was her or no one, and now that he'd been with her, no one wasn't an option anymore.

But her rigid silence in the pa.s.senger seat couldn't be cla.s.sified as encouraging.

They'd been replacing and updating the electronic monitors at the perimeter for the last four hours, and other than instructions, she hadn't said more than two words to him.

With only three more points to work, he realized he was running out of time when she'd be forced to be in his presence. He'd already wasted hours he could have been pleading his case. Whatever the h.e.l.l his case was.

Tyler cleared his throat as he pulled up next to a fencepost that concealed motion sensors and a tiny infrared camera. "Zoe-"

She was out of the truck, the door slamming on her name. Tyler scrambled out after her and circled the bed. He scanned the horizon for threats automatically, even as he tried to figure out some way to convince her being his mate wouldn't be too horrible.

His lion insisted he dominate her. His human side urged him to reason with her. But on one thing the man and lion were in perfect accord. Zoe was his. Which made his priorities clear. Keep her safe, no matter what.

Which would have been easier if she wouldn't insist on throwing herself toward every hint of danger just to prove she could.

"Zoe," he began again, trying to make his voice sound reasonable rather than frustrated. "Would it really be so terrible to be my mate? You know you can always depend on me to watch your back."

"What about your back?" she asked without looking up from the tiny device she was fiddling with on the post. Her tone was hard and ruthless. "Do I get to watch it?"

Tyler hesitated, knowing his instinctive response of h.e.l.l no wasn't going to get him the reaction he wanted. "If it were necessary to have someone watch my back..."

60.Zoe's head snapped up and her eyes narrowed at the evasion. "Bulls.h.i.t. If I tried to do anything to defend you, you'd probably tie me to your bed for a week."

Tyler couldn't deny the idea held some appeal.

"If I were to mate with some lion- if, mind you-it would have to go both ways. Equals."

"It does go both ways." He protected her body, and she protected his heart. If anything happened to her...

"G.o.d, Tyler, you are such a c.r.a.ppy liar."

He flinched, feeling his future with Zoe slipping away at the distance in her voice. "You have to understand-"

"Oh I get it. The idea of me being hurt makes you feel sick and you're convinced the only thing that will keep me safe is you standing there ready to take any bullet aimed at me."

His breath left him. "Yes. That's it."

"Did you ever stop to think that I feel exactly the same way? That your complete lack of trust in my ability to watch your back is as frustrating as it is insulting? How would you feel if I left you chained to the stove while I went waltzing off into G.o.d-knows-what? I'm not asking you to stop protecting me, Tyler. I know that would go against every alpha instinct you have. I'm just asking you to let me protect you. We have to be equals in this or I'm going to end up trying to kill you someday-and it'll be self-defense because you couldn't stop smothering me. I'm not like Ava. If you want to date some delicate flower, you need to look elsewhere."

He didn't want to look elsewhere. He wanted Zoe because of her strength, the fight that was a part of her down to her soul, but he'd been denying her that part. He'd admired her fierceness, her power as a lioness, but then he'd tried to bind her spirit.

And he didn't know how not to. If her definition of compromise put her in danger, he didn't think he could do it.

She must have read the truth on his face. Her hands fisted, her expression locking down to a flat, emotionless mask that looked so wrong on her expressive face.

"It isn't going to work," she said softly. "We have to end this now, before things get any more complicated."

"No." The word sprang out of him with the same force as his claws that suddenly unsheathed. He never shifted involuntarily, never lost control, but the thought of Zoe just giving up and walking away pierced right through his shields and stabbed his heart.

"You don't get to dictate to me," she retorted. Her eyes were bright with anger, the vivid expression back in her face, but her hands were deft and gentle as she handled the sensors, never pausing in her work.

"I never agreed to take you as my mate and even if I had, it wouldn't be a free pa.s.s for you to run my life."

She snapped the cover closed on the post sensors and swept her tools up. She stalked toward him, challenge 61.in every line of her body. "I'm never going to be the meek little woman who sits obediently by with her f.u.c.king needlepoint while you ride off into battle." She flung her tools through the open truck window onto the bench seat, but didn't move to climb in, turning to snarl up at him, "And I am never going to take orders from you."

Tyler started toward her, intending to give the words kiss her into submission new definition, when something sharp jabbed into his shoulder. He hesitated, raising a hand to the sting, blinking as the world slowed and the colors of the pasture bled into one another before his eyes like an impressionist painting.

What the h.e.l.l?

"Tyler?" Zoe's voice sounded like it was coming from an out-of-tune radio, soft, then suddenly loud then soft again, and all battling against the static that filled his ears.

"Run," he grunted, as his knees gave way. Whatever drug they'd shot him with, it was fast working.

His cheek smacked into the ground hard. He couldn't lift his arms to brace for the impact. His vision was still functioning-blurred though it was-as all the rest of his motor functions shut down one by one.

He saw Zoe's boots running away from him-obeying him for once in her life, thank G.o.d-but the steps were slowing, staggering, and she didn't make it ten yards before she slumped to the ground.

No.

A surge of something vicious and powerful ran through his blood. His vision cleared. He still had no feeling in his arms, but he managed to move them even though they felt like they belonged to someone else. Rolling slightly to the side, he shoved himself up. Half-crawling, half-dragging himself, he inched toward Zoe.

Protect your mate.

Another sting pierced his neck. Tyler lifted his dead-weight hand and yanked the dart out before the tranquilizer could find its way into his bloodstream. But enough of the d.a.m.n poison had gotten in to send him crashing back to the ground.

Zoe, Zoe, Zoe. His eyes stayed locked on her unmoving form in front of him as he willed his body to fight the drug. She'd become his mantra, his reason for being. They could take him, but he had to get her out of here.

His eyes were still open, his hearing still staticky but functioning, when a pair of footsteps approached.

"Jesus, he's still conscious."

"Hit him again."

"Will that damage him? I already gave him enough to take down an elephant. He said a breeding pair is no good if one is damaged."

"Do you want this big f.u.c.ker waking up before we get him back to the lab? Hit him a-f.u.c.king-gain."

"Fine, but you get to explain it to the boss if he's sterile or brain-dead."

62.The second man snorted. "Just don't aim for his junk. Brain-dead isn't a problem."

Tyler didn't feel where the next dart hit him. He only knew it had when a yellow fog swamped him and the world faded away.

Chapter Ten.

The voices were the first thing that infringed on Zoe's consciousness. Long before she was awake enough to move, she heard them, broken riddles that faded in and out and meant nothing in her fuzzy cotton-candy world.

"...can't keep him under. Nothing in the data suggests a male of his size should be able to..."

"...responding to the hormone yet? Check her temperature again."

"...don't think the wall will hold if he attacks it again..."

"...shouldn't she be shifting? The data clearly states within four hours of injection..."

"...you wanna try putting him in restraints, be my guest. I'm not going in there..."

"...running out of sedative..."

Sedative. That explained the IV she could feel in her arm. She was drugged. Was she in the hospital?

Lying on her back, she could be in a hospital bed. Had she been in an accident? Emergency surgery? The voices didn't sound like the pride doctor. If she wasn't at the pride, where was she?

The last thing she remembered...huh. What was the last thing she remembered?

Tyler's face pushed to the front of her fuzziness. Tyler. She remembered the shock on his face as he told her to run, the sickening dread and fear that had hardened in her stomach as he'd collapsed at her feet, the sting in her upper arm. She remembered running for help, though everything in her screamed to stay and guard him. Then nothing.

Chills shot through her blood, but Zoe couldn't let terror freeze her. They'd been taken. Were they being held together? Was he all right? Was she?

She flexed her muscles as much as she could without moving, careful not to alert their captors that she was awake. She tested her extremities. Everything seemed to be working, but she felt...odd. Achy, hot, and like her skin had been stretched too tight.

"I can tell you're awake." The voice was feminine and high-pitched, young. Not one of the voices.

Zoe opened her eyes. The room was tiny and poorly lit, the walls and ceiling corrugated metal, like a container from a cargo ship. But they were in west Texas, or at least they had been when they were captured, not exactly close to a port. The room barely fit the narrow twin bed Zoe was strapped to and a pile of unidentifiable medical equipment.

The girl who'd spoken stood in the corner, as far as she could get from Zoe without leaving the room.

She was older than Zoe'd guessed from her voice, but still couldn't be much more than twenty-five. Thin and nervous, she clutched a water bottle against her breastbone, her wide eyes fixed on Zoe as if she might leap from the bed and eat her-which she would, if she weren't strapped to the bed tight enough to restrict circulation.

"Where am I?" Zoe tried to say, but her voice came out a ragged croak. Her throat was raw, as if she hadn't swallowed for days. How long had she been out? She felt nauseous. From lack of food? Or the aftereffects of the drug? She hadn't completely shaken it off. The room still seemed to lurch and sway around her.

"Are you thirsty?" the girl asked, though she showed no inclination to give Zoe the water.

Zoe ignored the question as beyond idiotic. "What do you want?"

She fidgeted with the bottle. "I'm not supposed to be talking to you. They only let me check your vitals."

A low growl and a shuffling thud sounded through the wall. Zoe's heart rate quickened. Tyler.

The girl made a keening noise and scuttled away from the metal barrier. "You need to get him to calm down," she whispered urgently. "They want him alive because they've never been able to capture a breedable pair before, but if they can't keep him sedated, they'll kill him. You have to make him stop."