Unchained (Dark Shifter Romance) by Sophia Wren

authorities here were prepared for animal attacks, but animals with the minds of men? No human is prepared for that. They like their disasters brainless and wild, not with true human cunning behind them.”
    “That can’t be right,” Lacey protested. “There’s cops, there’s the military, the— the FBI! How can a pack of dogs stand up to trained men with guns?”
    “Hmm.” Her captor drummed his fingers on her shoulder, thinking. It tickled. “What’s more dangerous, a tiger or a man with a knife?”
    Lacey frowned. “Okay, I’ll play along. A tiger, naturally.”
    “If a tiger escapes from a zoo, what happens?”
    “Well... I guess they shoot it. I think I remember seeing something like that on the news, once. They evacuated the zoo and shot it before anyone got hurt.”
    He cocked his head. “If a serial killer is on the loose, what happens?”
    Belatedly, Lacey began to realise his point. “The cops find evidence and stuff, then they try to track him down...”
    “How long does that usually take?”
    “Okay, okay, I get it. Humans are harder to catch.”
    He nodded. “A human is a lot less dangerous than a tiger, but what they lack in teeth and claws, they make up for in brains. A murder can play keep away with the cops for years without getting caught— sometimes without being caught at all."
    “And these humans do have teeth and claws, to boot...” Lacey ground her teeth. "Where do I come into this?" she asked, flatly. "You say that they're just killing people, but then why didn’t he kill me?"
    The man behind her put his impromptu hairdressing on hold. A moment later, she felt the press of his hand to the scar on her shoulder, those strong fingers tracing the jagged silver lines where the beast's teeth had sunk deep into her. "You're a prize."
    It was a short sentence, delivered bluntly, but it was still enough to send a shudder down Lacey's spine. "He didn't get me though," she said. "He bit me, but I fell into the river before he could eat me…"
    "He wasn't trying to eat you." His hands left her scar, as if it was repulsive. "He was trying to turn you."
    "To make me one of his... what did you call it? Pack?" Lacey's heart pounded sickly, feeling overwhelmed. For a moment she felt exactly as she had back when her father was dying in hospital, feeling something huge and inevitable barrelling towards her, and knowing she was powerless to stop it.
    The man touched her shoulder again, gently turning her around to face him. Her skin prickled with goose bumps, and she remembered that she had been naked this whole time. Somewhere along the line, she’d forgotten. She felt small and vulnerable in a way that she had never felt before.
    His eyes were calm as he locked gazes with her. "To turn you into his mate."

CHAPTER
SEVEN
     
    The cabin was quiet that evening. The girl had been silent after Jack had filled her in on the details of her captivity, following him numbly on the walk back. He’d even had to remind her to dress herself again. For a moment he had worried about her spirit, as if she had broken under the weight of what he had told her, but the straightness of her back and the quiet in her eyes reassured him otherwise. She hadn't broken. She was merely bending under the weight of what had been placed upon her, adjusting to it…
    And Jack had no doubt that, when it came time to it, she would snap back up.
    "Here." He placed a meal down in front of her on the bed. It was meagre offerings indeed, just made of what he'd been able to find in the supplies of the cabin, but the groans of her stomach were audible. The plate clinked against the metal links of her chain.
    She looked up to him, those wide brown eyes still vague and distant, working through some internal calculations he was not privy to. "Do I really have to be chained up again?"
    "Yeah, you do." He turned away from her, crossing the room to settle back at in the armchair at the far wall.
    When he didn't elaborate on this, her eyes