Hunting Ember (Pride of Alphas #1) - Milly Taiden Page 0,37

intake of breath was a clear indication that he was fucking it all up again. He shook his head. “Ember, love. I know you want to do this all by yourself, but you have to face this new reality. Someone wants to hurt you.”

“But how? Will this psycho walk up to me and attack me? You’re always around me, and you have the studio locked up tight. How could anyone get to me?”

“I don’t want to take that chance.”

“Well, I do.” She tightened her arms around herself, not budging.

“That’s not how it works,” he snapped. His fear of losing his mate was getting too great. “How am I supposed to protect you if you won’t make better decisions?”

“Kai, I have known you all of two seconds. You say I’m your mate, and sure. Fine. I believe you. But you need to understand one thing. I will not be the kind of woman who melts into this puddle of incompetent and helpless goop because of it. I was a person with a life, with dreams and ambitions before we met. That won’t change.”

“Infuriating woman,” he growled. “Don’t you get it? This has nothing to do with you being a human or a pastry chef. Or my mate, for that matter.” That was a lie, but she wouldn’t know that. It had everything to do with being his mate. He would protect any person from a threat, but there was so much more on the line because Ember was his mate. “You can’t keep competing if it means someone is going to hurt you.”

“I don’t see how they could. And why over the baking competition? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“You’re right. It doesn’t, which only makes this more volatile. We’re clearly not dealing with a stable person. Who could want you out of the competition?”

“Other contestants? Ashleigh?”

“What about your boss, Ciro? Do you think he would threaten you to keep you working for him?”

Ember’s dry laugh filled the room. “Ciro wouldn’t do that. He’s a busy, world-renowned baker. He doesn’t need me to run only one of his bakeries. There are thousands of people out there who could do the job.”

Kai nodded, but he wasn’t so sure. Ember had a natural talent. Maybe Ciro should be on his suspect list. He would get some of his staff to look up the baker, dig into his past. He already had them running extensive, if not entirely illegal, background checks on all the film crew and other contestants. What was one more?

If Ember insisted on putting her life on the line, Kai was going to have to double his efforts to make sure his mate was safe. Though why she couldn’t just walk away, he would never understand. He was getting gray hair just thinking about letting Ember leave the apartment now that she had received a second letter.

Tie her up. Do not let her leave. Do something.

Kai considered his lion’s suggestion. For a second, he even considered doing just that, tying Ember up to the bed or to a chair to make sure she couldn’t leave the safety of her house.

That wouldn’t go over well.

He might not have known his mate for very long, but she was a strong, stubborn woman who was likely to never speak to him again if he stood in the way of her dreams.

Damn it all to hell.

She was going to be the death of him, and all for some goddamn cupcakes.

Chapter Thirteen

Ember

The huge timer on the back wall was set at eight hours. For those four-hundred-eighty minutes, Ember was going to have to keep her fear and apprehension on lockdown and focus on the task at hand.

Winning.

The second letter she had discovered that morning had set her on edge. Kai’s reaction to it had done nothing to put her mind at ease. She was surprised the man had let her leave the house at all. For a second, she had really thought he would hold her captive in her own apartment.

It had passed, and he had walked her to his car.

If Kai had tried to stand between her and the competition, he would have had a serious shit storm heading his way. She would have broken up with him right then and there. She wasn’t a shifter. She didn’t care about this whole mate thing.

Well, that wasn’t strictly true.

She had to admit that she did feel a profound connection, an insane pull toward Kai. He was a sweet, attentive man when he wasn’t fucking the daylights out