Seducing his fate, p.1
Seducing His Fate, page 1
Seducing His Fate
Predator Peak
Book 2
Elena Aitken
E.R. Aitken
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
His to Protect
Also by E.R. Aitken/Elena Aitken
Join Me!
About the Author
Chapter One
The light was wrong. It was too dark and there was a weird shadow over her right eye.
Dakota Hill took one more look around the living room that she’d converted into a temporary studio and adjusted the ring light to give her better lighting, but it still wasn’t quite right. She needed daylight. Her eyes flicked to the picture windows at the back of the room. She generally had the heavy curtains pulled open wide to the wild forest behind her small house. One of the perks of living in Predator Peak in the remote Canadian Rockies was that she was surrounded by trees, mountains, and wilderness. As far north as they were, there were a lot more trees than people. Just the way she liked it.
But instead of looking out over the forested area behind her house the way she usually preferred, Dakota had the curtains pulled closed. In fact, every window covering in the house had been buttoned up tight for the last little while. It was safer that way.
Even if she hated every second of it.
And it definitely didn’t help her with her current lighting situation.
Once more, Dakota sat at the table she’d set up with her laptop, a mirror, and her makeup supplies. The shadow was still there, but she was going to have to live with it. She was out of time.
With a deep breath, Dakota leaned forward and clicked a few buttons on her laptop. The green light that indicated her camera was on flashed for a moment and then glowed solid. She took a moment to check the shot on the screen. She made a few slight adjustments until she was satisfied that only her left eye was in the camera shot.
Only once she was happy with the angles did she click the button that set her broadcast to public. And just like that, she was live on social media.
“Hello, lovelies,” she purred into her microphone, keeping her voice low and soft despite the fact that the voice her viewers heard wasn’t hers at all. Dakota used a voice filter to further soften the edges of her voice to a melodic, overall pleasing, almost hypnotic tone.
“Thank you for joining me today,” she continued. “You’re live with Fuchsia.” Her influencer name rolled off her tongue. “I’m so glad you’re here with me” Her gaze flickered down to the corner where she could see the number of people watching her feed. The number was multiplying quickly, but she knew from experience that she needed a few minutes of chatter before she could get into the technique of the day. She filled the time by telling a cute and completely made-up story about how she’d ordered a latte at Starbucks earlier that day and the barista had mixed up her order. There were no chain restaurants of any kind within hours of Predator Peak, but that little detail wasn’t important.
Her followers enjoyed hearing little slice-of-life stories about her day-to-day activities. Even if they were totally fiction. And they were. The life that Fuchsia led was much more exciting than Dakota’s reality. But no one needed to know that as long as she wasn’t hurting anyone with her little white lies.
All she needed to do was keep coming up with unique makeup looks, and easy-to-follow tutorials for the more basic ones, and her followers would be happy. Even if she would have preferred to be more open and honest about…well, everything. It wasn’t always about what she wanted. She’d learned that early on.
She glanced one more time at the number of followers. “Okay, everyone,” she purred into the microphone, satisfied with the number of live viewers. “I think we’re ready to get started today. I think you’re really going to like today’s look.” She winked slowly into the camera before she got going.
Even a year ago, if someone would have told her that she would be a makeup influencer—on social media, of all things—there was no way she would have believed them. More likely, she would have checked for a hidden camera and the assumption that she was on some kind of prank show. Growing up, she’d never been into makeup. Not the way she was now. The dramatic and sometimes wild looks she created now would not have been tolerated when she was younger.
Presentation was important, and there was a certain expectation about how she presented herself. As the only daughter of the King family dynasty, those expectations were very, very high.
At first, she’d learned enough basic makeup techniques to satisfy her father that she wouldn’t embarrass him at the many, many functions where he paraded her around as the princess he seemed to think she was. But over time, she started to experiment with different techniques, including some wilder and much flashier looks that she would never dare to wear outside of her room. It wasn’t until she’d left the city and all the prying eyes who were always watching her every move that she allowed herself more freedom with her look. And then, as luck would have it, the world of social media allowed her to actually make money with her hobby.
Dakota kept up a steady stream of chatter as she walked her followers through the eyeshadow technique, careful to only keep her eye in the camera shot. At one point, she stopped to adjust herself a little, centering her eye. She’d become pretty good at finding the right angle, so the shot was interesting enough but also maintained her privacy. It was imperative that her privacy was maintained above all.
The fact that she’d even dared to put herself out there so publicly when her situation was so tenuous was riskier than she would have liked, but with her back against the wall, Dakota needed to provide for herself. There hadn’t been a lot of options. She did what she had to.
“Okay, lovelies. I think that’s it for today.” Dakota blinked slowly and lowered her eyelid for her viewers to get the full effect of what she’d created. “If you have any questions, be sure to type them in, and I’ll address them in a follow-up post.”
She didn’t usually like to stay on camera while she answered questions because she had less control and there was a greater chance that she would slip up and expose herself. As much as she craved a deeper connection with them, it just wasn’t possible. At least not yet. Maybe not ever.
“Be sure to check the links I’m going to post under this video for all the amazing products I used in today’s look. Stay beautiful, lovelies. I appreciate each and every one of you. I’ll talk to you all soon.”
Dakota signed off, making sure the camera on her laptop was covered before she sat back and exhaled.
Before she clicked off her social media profile, she peeked at the comments.
“Beautiful. I love you.”
“You’re the best.”
“Thank you. My daughter loves you.”
“Can we be best friends?”
She got her share of negative comments, too, but Dakota didn’t let those bother her. Nothing a stranger on the other side of a computer screen could say to her would be nearly as hurtful as what she’d endured in her real life.
It was better to focus on all those who loved her.
Only it was Fuchsia they loved. Not her.
The smile slipped from her lips as Dakota closed the top of her laptop, stood, and stretched her long, toned arms over her head. Her muscles ached from lack of use. It had been too long since she’d allowed herself to shift and let her cougar take over.
She looked around her empty house. With all the curtains closed, it felt more like a prison than the refuge it had once been.
Dakota wrapped her arms around her waist and gave herself a squeeze as the loneliness and fear settled over her the way it always did when the cameras were off.
Her house was dark. But Konner Stark knew without getting any closer that she was in there. And he was not getting any closer. He’d almost been noticed a few times already, and the last thing he needed was to get caught.
Especially before he figured out what the hell he was going to do about Dakota Hill.
And he had absolutely no idea what that was going to be. From the moment Konner had set foot in Predator Peak for the first time a little over a month ago, he’d known he was in trouble. But he’d had no idea just how much until he saw her for the first time.
Trouble didn’t even begin to describe the situation Konner had found himself in.
Konner slipped behind a tree and moved around to the back of the houses on the short street that Dakota lived on. There was still a good layer of snow on the ground, even in April, and Konner was careful not to leave any fresh prints. It had been years since he’d ventured out of Vancouver, and he wasn’t used to the lingering winter of the Northern Canadian mountains. When he’d left the coast, buds were already popping out on the trees and the daffodils were blooming. In Predator Peak, there were no indications that spring would ever arrive.
Konner had spent his whole life in the big city of Vancouver, only occasionally heading out of town to let their bears run in the surrounding woods. But even then, those trips were far and few between. His mother had spent the majority of her life working to provide for him and his younger sister. And pay off his father’s gambling debts. Truth be told, that was what Tess really worked for. Between her tailoring and alteration business and cleaning homes in the evenings and on weekends, Konner didn’t know anyone to ever work so hard and never get ahead. In fact, it always seemed to be the opposite.
Every time it looked like they might have enough money to get a birthday present or maybe even a Christmas gift, Konner’s father, Teddy, would have the brilliant idea that he could double their money to buy them even more gifts. A few hours later, without fail, he’d come home from the casino with a fresh black eye, or maybe a broken arm. He’d beg his wife for forgiveness, groveling at her feet to help him out of his mess just one more time. It sickened Konner to watch his mother—after a full day of work—get up from the chair, having just sat down for what was probably the first time all day. He’d beg her not to go. And then, when he was older, he’d offer to go in her place. But she’d never let him. Instead, his mother would silently pull her coat on, and slip her purse through her arm no matter what time of night it was, in any weather, and she’d make the trip downtown to King Casino, where she’d make a deal.
There was no way Konner could know exactly what those deals entailed, and he didn’t want to. But he had a pretty good idea. Eight years ago, Teddy had finally worked himself into a hole that he wouldn’t be able to get out of. When he hadn’t come home that night, Konner knew in his gut what had happened. This time, before his mother found out, a twenty-year-old Konner went to the casino and spoke with Javier King himself. The debt would be too much for his mother to handle. She would crumble under the weight of it, and Konner knew it. So he’d offered up himself.
As a black bear shifter, he was big, strong, and intimidating enough to handle all of King’s dirty work. It went against everything in his nature to do it. But with little choice, and his mother and little sister to protect, Konner did the only thing he could. He’d indentured himself to the mountain lion Mafia family. Over the last eight years, he’d seen more than he’d cared to and done things that he couldn’t let himself dwell on, but it would all be over soon.
He had one more job, and he was free. His family would be safe, and he could move on.
It should have been a fairly easy one: find the entitled, spoiled brat of a Mafia princess who’d skipped out on her wedding, and bring her home to Daddy and her equally entitled, shitty husband-to-be.
One and done.
Konner had never met the princess. King had done a good job keeping his family away from the dirtier side of his business, which was most of it. Konner had caught glimpses of her once or twice over the years: dressed in designer clothes, looking as if she’d just stepped out of a salon where she’d spent the day—she probably had—her nose in the air, looking down on everyone else.
He had no idea why she’d run off on her fiancé, but he could guess it was for attention. He’d happily return her to King’s castle and her soft, spoiled life.
When King gave him his final assignment, the one that would end their relationship once and for all, Konner went after it with extra enthusiasm. It hadn’t taken long to track Angelica—even her name was pretentious—King to the backwoods town of Predator Peak. He had to give her props, though: she’d done a good job in hiding in plain sight. She’d changed her name to Dakota Hill, and she’d figured out how to make a living as a makeup influencer. What did that even mean? It was definitely the job of an entitled brat princess who had no actual marketable skills. He shouldn’t have been surprised.
But he had been surprised. Very surprised.
He’d expected her to be beautiful—even from a distance, under all the makeup and fancy clothes, he could tell she was pretty. What he hadn’t expected—no, what he hadn’t even considered—was that the first time he saw her outside the local pub, the breath would be sucked from his lungs. Just a glimpse of her had sent something inside him into a frenzy, making it hard to move, to think—hell, making it hard to breathe.
No, he hadn’t expected that at all.
After that, Konner retreated. He’d traveled to a nearby town, needing some space to think about what it meant. But it could only mean one thing, and there was no way it was even possible. She was a mountain lion; he was a bear. Fated mates? It shouldn’t be possible, for so many reasons. But it became impossible to stay away. The pain of being apart from her increased every second he couldn’t see her. His bear fought him until, finally, he relented and returned to Predator Peak.
He’d only been back for a few weeks, but he still refused to let himself get too close. He followed her, keeping a safe distance. He didn’t know how his bear would react if he got close enough to really inhale her delicious scent of caramel and chai that he’d caught on the air when the breeze was just right. It was an intoxicating combination he would deny himself of for as long as possible.
Her behavior had changed since he’d come back to town. Konner knew he must have slipped up somewhere along the line, and she was on to him. She looked over her shoulder, she kept her blinds drawn when she was at home, and she usually didn’t walk outside unaccompanied, especially once the sun set. She was scared.
He hated the fact that he was the cause of that fear. She was a cougar shifter. She shouldn’t be scared of anyone. She should be fierce and formidable. But she was hiding. Why?
Konner couldn’t allow himself to consider the fact that there was a different reason than the one he’d considered for why she was in hiding. That would complicate everything. Especially when she hadn’t seemed to react to his presence the way he had to her. But maybe that was because she didn’t know he was there? What if…
No.
He didn’t have the luxury to entertain any other option besides returning her to her father and fiancé, earning his freedom and moving on.
The spoiled Mafia princess was his family’s ticket to a future free of King.
To hell with fate.
No matter what his bear thought was going to happen between them, there was no way it could. Konner would make damn sure of that.
Chapter Two
“How are you feeling?”
Dakota eyed up the growing belly of her best friend, Ivy. She was only six months pregnant, but as far as Dakota was concerned, Ivy looked like she could pop any day.
“I feel great.” Her friend ran her hands over her swollen stomach. “I’m not even that big yet.” Dakota raised an eyebrow, and Ivy laughed. “I’m not. Really. I have a feeling we’re going to see some big changes in the next few months as this baby really starts growing.”
Dakota shook her head and looked away. As subtly as she could, she flicked her gaze around the wooded path they were walking on. She didn’t want to worry her friend. She loved their walks every few days. It was the only opportunity she had to catch up with her best friend lately, and Ivy was going to find herself with a whole lot less free time when the baby came. And of course, it didn’t hurt her to get out of her house for some fresh air. Especially when Dakota knew she was just being paranoid. There was nothing to be afraid of. She was safe in Predator Peak.
Wasn’t she?
Truthfully, there was no reason to believe she wasn’t safe. But the feeling that she was being watched over the last month or so was starting to make her crazy, and that was almost worse than running away again. She was strong, she was fierce—at least in theory. She hadn’t felt that way in a very long time, if ever. But certainly, if she had to, she could defend herself. Right?
Besides, there wasn’t anyone following her. She had to believe that. Because if someone was following her, they would have made their move already.
Wouldn’t they?
“Are you okay?” Ivy had stopped walking and stared at her, her arms crossed and resting on her belly.
