Page 66 of Red Fire

Taro steps forward. “You are acting irrationally and clearly not—”

“I’m fine. I’m perfectly rational. I tried to talk to you in a calm manner. I tried waiting. I tried talking to you again. You won’t listen to me. None of it worked, so here I am, raising my voice andmakingyou listen. It doesn’t mean that I am deluded or that there is something wrong with me. It means that I am frustrated to no freaking end.” I stomp my foot. “No one will listen to me. I’m being treated like an imbecile because I went through an ordeal, or perhaps because I’m a woman, or maybe it’s because I’m a human…I’m not sure which it is, perhaps all of the above. I feel like no one will hear me or take me seriously. It’s making me seriously angry. There is nothing wrong with my intelligence.”

“You should lie down,” the colonel tells me.

I make a noise of both anger and frustration. “I do not need to lie down. I need you to stop treating me like I have somethingwrong with me. I don’t! I crashed in the jungle. I have a few scrapes and bruises, but otherwise, I am fine and of sound mind as well.”

“You must have hit your head,” he says.

“I didn’t!” I lie. “Can you stop talking and let me finish?”

The good colonel makes a noise that tells me he isn’t used to being spoken to in this manner and that he doesn’t like it, but I don’t care. He can suck it.

“I crashed and was chased by a mob of wild shifters, all wanting to mate and breed with me whether I liked it or not.”

“And Creed was among them,” the colonel says.

“No, he saved me. He helped me.”

“He forced himself on you,” Taro growls. “He is no good. He is aggressive and—”

“That’s not what happened. You are wrong, Colonel. I threw myself at Creed and begged him for sex. It was the best sex of my life, too. Hands down the best. My vagina thought it had died and gone to heaven.”

Taro makes a choking noise, and the woman shifter giggles but quickly stops when he glares at her.

“If you want to arrest and torture someone, it should be me.” I hold up my hands like I want him to slap shackles on them. I pray all the while that he doesn’t. I’m trying to prove a point, that’s all. “Guilty as charged. I forced myself on Creed.”

“It wasn’t force. It was consensual,” Creed says.

“Lies!” Taro spits.

“Totally consensual,” I say. “If it was up to me, we would have had more sex. Lots more. Unfortunately, there wasn’t another opportunity for us. So you see, Colonel Taro, if it wasn’t for Creed, I’d be mated and bred by now and against my will, too. It didn’t happen…I’m here and safe and all because of him.” I go and stand in front of Creed. “If you want to hurt him in any way,you will need to come through me. I refuse to turn a blind eye while atrocities are committed against him.”

The colonel looks at me for ages. His whole body is tense. He keeps looking and looking. It goes on for so long I want to squirm. I don’t! I hold his stare. I refuse to be intimidated by the man or the mask.

He eventually sighs. “You’re sure he didn’t force you?” Taro asks, sounding unsure. “He isn’t a good male.”

I make a sound of irritation. “Yes, I’m very sure.”

“Did you force the female?” he growls at Creed, still treating him like he is a criminal.

“No,” Creed says. “I would never do such a thing.”

“Unlock these now.” I reach up, but his hands have been shackled too high for me.

Creed’s muscles bunch, his shoulders, biceps, and certainly his abs. They all pop, and the chains snap. He pulls them off his hand, tearing through the metal like paper. The shackles clang on the floor at his feet. He was able to escape this whole time, but obviously, trying something like that with all these guards around would have been stupid.

Watching him snap metal was hot. Seriously hot. I-want-to-fan-myself hot. It shouldn’t be, not right now and yet here I am.

Holy moly.

“I’m leaving, and I’m taking you with you,” I tell Creed. “I don’t want to stay here even a minute longer.” I glare at Taro for a moment before shifting my gaze. “I would like to catch the next flight to the Mainland,” I tell the woman. “It would be amazing if you could organize that.”

“No problem.” She nods. “How can I reach you to send you details?”

“Octavia will stay with me at my house,” Creed says, and I heave a sigh of relief. I was half expecting him to tell me that he’s returning to the jungle right away now that he is free. Instead,he rattles off the details of where his house is. “You can reach Octavia there,” he adds.

The woman nods. “Okay. That’s perfect. I’m sure we have all your information in the system,” she tells Creed.