Mated By Fate by Christa Wick

Chapter One

Leavingthe third-floor laundry room of her apartment building, Lana Howard stepped into the elevator with her arms wrapped around a clothes hamper. With two hulking males she’d never seen before occupying most of the small space, she had no choice but to tuck herself into the back corner, her gaze flicking over in their direction just long enough to notice that both wore leather jackets and heavy-duty tactical boots.

They were built like bouncers and carrying themselves with a strong, silent intensity. Slightly scary. In a hot and captivating sort of way. And though the taller of the two had his back to her, she couldn’t seem to stop peeking up at him through her lashes. He had rich, dark brown hair a bit overdue for a haircut, meaning it was simply impossible not to imagine running her hands through it.

Somehow, even his breathing was sexy, the sound a low rumble like a deep purr. That is, if the cat doing the purring were about six-two and two hundred pounds of pure muscle.

Catching his scent then, Lana's stomach tightened. Call her crazy, but all her life, she'd learned to trust or avoid people based on the smells emanating from them. Not the fragrance they chose to spritz on from a store-bought bottle, or even the aroma that came with manual labor or a silver-spooned lack thereof. How expensive or hard-working they smelled had no consequence.

Rather, it was the way each person's body combined their everyday environment with other personal effects and things they made a part of their lives, whether that was their owning a pet or even the things they liked to eat and drink. All of it blended together to make their own unique signature scent that never escaped Lana’s notice.

The man with the dark hair smelled like a combination of candied apples still warm with dripping caramel, a toasty campfire in the middle of the woods, and something else she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Truth be told, she'd never smelled anything so seductively appealing on a man, and the effect of his scent on her senses was immediate. Her skin felt tingly, her vision slightly hazy—her entire body almost feverish.

She had half a second to wonder if the stranger looked anywhere near as good as he smelled before he turned and faced her.

A full head shorter than him, Lana found herself at eye-level with his broad chest, which was rising and falling now as if he were in the middle of a workout at the gym.

When she finally tilted her chin up, his gaze locked on hers, holding it hostage as he took a step closer, noticeably crowding her without any pretense or apology. She felt a warm burn as her skin flushed again, every inch of her fully aware of his rapt scrutiny.

He was intimidating. Bold. Brawny. And his scent was still doing crazy things to her.

"What floor?"

His question exploded at her, his words rough, harsh. Like he was the lead investigator working a tough case, and she some newly discovered suspect who might’ve just robbed a bank. Or worse.

Startled, Lana hugged the hamper to her chest and whispered, "Eighth floor, please."

The gruff man’s Thor-looking companion promptly pressed the button for the eighth floor.

While similarly attractive, the blond man’s scent barely registered for Lana. Oddly, the combination of ginger and honey and earthy spices fell flat with her senses.

Woodsy Hot Candied Apple on the other hand…

"Tell me your name."

The abrasive bark wasn’t quite as brusque as when he’d asked for her floor, but she still flinched. Menacing and magnetic, she didn't know whether to be afraid of him or turned on. Her body settled on experiencing both emotions equally as adrenaline saturated her nerve endings, the urge to answer his firm command strangely overwhelming.

At her lack of response, his eyes narrowed, focusing in on her mouth as if he could will her to answer. When still she didn't, he took a step forward and repeated his command. "Your name. Now."

A scarred, calloused hand dropped down heavily on his shoulder. "Not here, boss."

Finally breaking eye contact with the rugged stranger wanting her name, Lana tuned back in to the other man’s scent again to try to get a read on him. The herbaceous combination of spicy ginger and rich honey definitely matched his reddish-blond hair, cut short but stylishly messy. Though certainly pleasing, his scent just wasn’t as compelling as his boss’s. And it weirdly offered no insight as to whether she should trust or avoid him.

“You’re scenting us,” graveled Mr. Tall, Dark, and Brooding with a raised brow.

Her eyes widened in shock. How could he have possibly known that?

Stark confusion registered on his colleague’s face. "Boss? You and I both know she’s not—"

The elevator door dinged open onto the eighth floor, cutting him off. Though admittedly curious, Lana didn’t stick around to hear him finish whatever he was going to say about her. Instead, she just smiled politely and bolted past them.

He reached out to stop her.

She didn’t need to turn to know which man was preventing her escape.

"What the fuck, Seth? Let her go."

Seth.Figured Mr. Bossy would have a strong, no-nonsense name like that.

When the elevator door started to slide shut, hot and bossy Seth blocked it with his boot, still watching her as he drew his bottom lip into his mouth and inhaled sharply.

As if he were now scenting her.

His big hand was at her waist, gently gripping the soft, yielding flesh of her love handles.

“Stay.”

Instantly, an inexplicable hot stab of need gutted her insides and turned her knees into jelly. Though it made no sense whatsoever, she was all but ready to do as he insisted.

That is, until he ordered, "Answer me. You were scenting us just now, weren’t you? Tell me what you smelled, beautiful."

Beautiful.

The word hit her like a cold slab of spoiled meat, quickly replacing the heat coiling through her stomach with disappointment. It was obvious now that she'd walked into some kind of elaborate con. There was no other logical explanation for a man that looked like him to be calling her beautiful.

Clearly, he was some kind of grifter. And she was no fool.

Angry now, she shoved his hand off of her waist, stepping off the elevator before turning to glare at them both. “Take your act somewhere else. If I see you trying your scamming bit on another woman in this building, I’ll tell the building manager to call the cops on you.”

He took another step toward her.

“Stay the hell away from me,” she yelped.

Appearing to take particular exception to her saying that, he dropped his forehead against hers, and rasped in a near feral timbre, “Never.”

Terrified she was about to become the big man's dinner, she went into self-defense mode and used the only weapon at her disposal, swinging her clothes hamper at his head as hard as she could. She hit him square on the left side of his face with an impact so jarring the entire basket went flying out of her hands, scattering all her clothes across the hallway floor.

And yet Seth appeared entirely unfazed by the blow. In fact, he was grinning at her now, his whole expression wicked, predatory.

Just as Lana was certain Seth was about to literally pounce on her, his burly blond sidekick wrestled to hold him back, pinning her with a warning gaze when her eyes jumped to her apartment door. "Whatever you do, Miss, don't run."

Or he’ll chase you.

The unspoken words hung in the air between them.

"Listen to him, baby," Seth rasped, his voice graveled, almost vibrating. "Stay here. With me."

Lana blinked at the husky tenor of his voice now. Talk about mood swings! Seth went from looking ready to throttle her for calling him out for being a conman, to sounding like pure, unadulterated sex. Worse yet, she could smell him more sharply now that he was tussling with his friend, and bizarrely enough, his warm, sweet scent was calling out to her.

Urging her to trust him.

Seriously, what the hell was going on with her? Was she possessed? Since when did her instincts try to point her toward the irrational and reckless?

"Trust us," insisted Seth’s companion, looking from his boss to Lana and back. "Don't run. And while you’re at it, don't scream either."

Hell, if she could do either she would have already, but her legs felt rooted to the floor, and her throat was so tight she could barely breathe.

"Just stay calm. Both of you."

Lana wasn't sure if the man was talking more to Seth or her, but he was too late on both counts. There was no calmness to be found. Her heart was thudding so hard in her chest, she felt like puking, and she couldn't get any of her limbs to move now. Meanwhile, Seth was flexing his muscles impatiently as his gaze zigzagged up and down her plump curves, gruff masculine intensity ebbing out from his entire frame in electric, visceral waves.

As he looked his fill of her, suddenly, a low, deep growl rumbled out from Seth’s chest.

Instantly, her panties flooded with moisture in response.

Something was desperately wrong here. Not only with this while situation but in her head and body as well. When he made that sound, that…growl, all she could think about, all she wanted to do—desperately—was turn and drop down to the floor so she could arch back against him and revel in the feel of his torso firm against her spine as he took her hard from behind.

What in the world?

She took one last look at her apartment. To the right and six doors down, there was no way she’d be able to reach it and unlock the door before they caught up to her.

No, her only choice was the fire escape stairwell. She needed to get to the lobby. Get her throat to loosen enough so she could scream her brains out and snag someone, anyone’s attention. It was Tuesday night after ten; half the floor's residents had to be home. They might not jump in and fight off her hulking assailants, but at the very least they would call 911 for her.

"Don't be afraid of me."

Hearing his graveled words murmured in her ear, she looked back to gauge what sounded like yet another mood swing.

What she saw then was nothing short of terrifying. Four of his teeth had elongated, two top and two bottom, all of them narrowing to deadly tips.

Not possible!

She felt the seeping onset of true panic, unlike any type of fear she’d ever felt before.

Inexplicably, her mind’s eye was bombarded suddenly with flashes of long-buried dreams as real as lived experiences, all shooting through her like memories…memories she didn’t recognize, or remotely understand.

She stumbled a step back.

"Just want to talk." His tongue traced the edge of his top fangs before his gaze dropped to her full hips again. Green fire burned in his irises—which had been dark chocolate just a few seconds before—as he released a hot puff of air.

Like the big bad wolf come to life.

Why that errant thought managed to jolt her muscles into being operational again, she wasn’t sure, but her feet were finally working.

Shoving her way past them, Lana scrambled left toward the stairwell next to the elevator and took off at a dead sprint. Slamming through the door, she raced down the stairs at full speed. One flight above her, she heard a loud thump followed by the blond bodyguard swearing after his boss who was hot on her heels, both of their roars of frustration echoing off the walls, filling the stairwell with sounds she’d only heard animals in the wild make on TV.

Halfway down to the next landing, she felt more than heard him behind her, which caused her to stumble over her own feet down the last steps and hit the wall at the bottom full force, a dull crack sounding in her head, courtesy of her temple taking the brunt of the impact.

A heartbeat later, Seth was there, cradling her skull and spine as she crumpled to the concrete.

His big body was pressed tightly against hers as he surveyed her injuries, his expression a mix of worry and fury…and something else she couldn’t describe. She could hear Seth’s colleague a few steps above them, his words urgent, foreboding.

Seth flat-out ignored him, his sole focus on her face, his pupils pulsing like a madman's.

"It's okay, beautiful. I won't hurt you."

As his hand ran over her hip, she realized the hard object she’d thought was the barrel of a gun wedged against her belly was in fact, Seth. His thick, steel-like shaft was huge and incredibly aroused.

Because of her.

Even though her barely coherent thoughts couldn’t make sense of how a man like him could be turned on to this extent over someone like her, still, she knew it to be true. Just like she knew the sight of her in pain was the reason for the rage and severe distress in his eyes.

As her unfocused eyes slowly fixed on his to ascertain just how crazy of a madman she was dealing with here, she heard him groan and bend his head toward hers…

His lips sealed over hers firmly, his tongue testing the seam of her mouth while another husky sound rumbled out of him, as if he just couldn’t keep it bottled.

A ragged sigh burst out of him then as he pulled back. "You're coming home with me."

Just like that, her fight or flight response kicked in. With her ability to flee no longer an option, seeing as how he was on top of her and she likely had a concussion, her brain did the one thing it could still do.

She finally let loose the bloodcurdling scream that had been building inside her.

Her cry for help lasted less than a heartbeat before he raised a strong, calming hand to cup her cheek, stopping short when a halo-like shimmer of light seemed to radiate from the palm of his hand.

He looked as surprised as she felt, but seemed to find his bearings much quicker than she did. While she stared up at him soundlessly, he took in a deep breath and softly brushed the pad of his warm, calloused thumb across her forehead.

With that glowing touch on her skin, and his rough gaze locked on hers, Lana promptly lost consciousness.