Wynter's Captive by Milly Taiden Page A

much fun when your kid starts doing the same thing to you.”
    “Oh shut up and talk.” They both laughed at Jaylin’s words.
    “Fine. He’s so thoughtful. Can you believe he cooked for me? And he’s amazing in every single way that counts, but he has this whole macho, dominant thing that needs like a ton of work, because I am nobody’s property, but still he was just…so sweet. And he protected me from his asshole brother.”
    Jaylin gasped. “Oh! That’s right. Cyrus. I heard about him.”
    “You did?” She jerked up on the bed into a sitting, half-assed lotus position. “So what the heck did you hear?”
    Jaylin sat up facing Lili and mimicked her position. “That Cade’s parents had always tried to teach them both to be strong, independent leaders. Their mother apparently favored Cade because he always showed true leadership and Alpha material to boot. When their parents died, it became clear to the group that Cade was the best choice. He was nominated Alpha without the need to fight. No one wanted to have anyone other than Cade in that position. Early on, he’d proven to the pack he’d take care of them.”
    Lili nodded. She’d gone on the internet and looked him up. Cade Wynter was a big player in the financial markets and dabbled in everything that caught his attention. He was called Midas because whatever he sponsored or invested in turned to gold. He kept his entire pack’s portfolio well lined, from what Brandon said, and each and every one of his people had enough money that they didn’t have to work for him, but they still chose to.
    “But Cyrus is the more problematic brother. He didn’t want to work hard; he wanted things to be easy. He was always angry and working shady schemes. So when their father left all control of the company to Cade, well Cyrus rebelled and took off.”
    Lili remembered the man clearly. She’d seen massive amounts of anger in his eyes. “Well I saw him, and let me tell you he’s not going to give up easily. He acted like the pack belonged to him and all he had to do was tell them what do.”
    “Yeah, that’s not really how packs work.”
    Lili snorted. “Tell me about it. I tried bribing Kevin and Korbin into letting me go. Which, I must say, was really difficult to do since it was freezing and they were walking around buck naked.”
    “You didn’t tell me about that!” Jaylin’s eyes widened into saucers. “You saw two men, other than Cade, naked?”
    “Well…” She hated sounding like she was boasting, but she did see more than that.
    “What? What? Spill it. Don’t be mean.”
    “It was more like eight.” She giggled and shushed her cousin when Jay squealed. “Because when Cyrus showed up he had a group of guys that shifted right in front of me, and they were all naked too. And chasing after me.”
    Jaylin burst into laughter. “You had a group of naked men chasing you down?” She continued laughing until tears streamed down her face. She wiped at her cheeks. “So what did you do?”
    “Well I wasn’t going to stand there and take pictures, I ran toward Cade. Who came to my rescue.” She sighed.
    “So are you going to give Cade a chance or what?” Jay asked the question she’d been mentally debating with herself.
    “Come on that’s not fair. I’m not the one that lied to him. I’m the innocent party in all this.”
    Jay nodded sympathetically. “True. But the reality is that if you don’t see him, maybe talk things out and see where you can go from here, you are not going to be able to handle the emptiness you feel.”
    “How do you know?”
    “Because sweetheart.” She patted her knee. “One woman in love can recognize another.”
    In love? She’d been with the man for what amounted to a day. It couldn’t possibly be love. She had to be sick. There was no other explanation for it. Besides, how many people in love complained of high fevers? None that she knew.
    “So tell me about this whole mate business.” She remembered