Free The Billionaire's Secret Boxed Set by Daphne Loveling

wrists, the other in a menacing fist hovering over her face.  “How ugly does this have to get?” She flinched; he would do it, she knew: he would hit her.  He would even like it, and might not stop right away.
    Wildly, Rebecca tried to think of a way to stall for time.  “Okay, fine,” she said, pulling her arm away from him.  She walked to her bathroom and gathered her toiletries in her arms.  Walking back to her bag, she dumped them in and zipped it up.  Slinging the strap over her shoulder, she walked past him and down the spiral staircase.
    Matt followed her down to the first floor, pushing her toward the front door, but Rebecca stopped abruptly. “Wait! I forgot something in the living room!”
    “Oh yeah?” he asked, instantly suspicious.  “What did you ‘forget’?”
    “THIS!” She cried, heaving the bag toward his face.  The force of it knocked him down, but only momentarily.  She ran toward the open sliding glass door, planning to leap over the deck and into the forest, but he caught her in the living room, flinging her down on the rug.  He knelt on top of her, knees on either side of her waist, and slapped her once, hard across the face.  He grabbed her wrists and slammed them to the floor, pinning her.  “Fucking bitch!” he yelled. “You just don’t know what’s good for you, do you?”  Releasing one of her wrists, he raised his hand to strike her again, but suddenly he was off of her, a blur of fur and teeth knocking him to one side.
    Rebecca scrambled up and watched in horror as a huge grey wolf tackled Matt, driving him into a corner of the cabin.  Everything was snarls and screams as Matt tried unsuccessfully to fight off the beast.  In a few short seconds, the wolf had him pinned against the wall.  Matt had stopped screaming now and could only look at the beast in sheer terror, his breath coming fast and shallow.  She saw blood on his neck where the wolf had scratched him, and his shirt was torn.  A dark spot had formed on the crotch of his jeans where he had wet himself in his fear.
    The wolf took a final swipe with his claw, ripping the front of Matt’s shirt wide open.  Beads of blood formed instantly where the claw tracks were.  Then strangely, the wolf took two steps back, coming to a standstill halfway between Matt and Rebecca.  He snarled at Matt, and then continued emitting a low, menacing growl.  Matt scrambled to his feet and flew out the sliding glass door, vaulting over the railing of the deck onto the ground below.  Rebecca heard the rapid retreat of his footsteps as he ran for the woods.
    Then, something happened that left Rebecca utterly speechless: the wolf, turning around to look at her, morphed before her eyes.  Suddenly, it was no longer the huge grey beast, but a very naked Nathan, standing before her.  Her eyes widened in shock, her mouth opening to scream, but no sound came out.  Nathan looked at her, an unreadable expression on his face.  “I thought I smelled something rotten in here,” he said with a tight smile. “Turns out I was right.”
    *   *   *
    Hours later, Rebecca sat across from Nathan on the boat, anchored out in the middle of the lake.  What Rebecca had seen in the cabin had so stunned her that, despite her profound gratitude toward Nathan for rescuing her from Matt, she was at a loss as to how to make sense of all that had happened.  Nathan had begged her to stay, and they had agreed that he would answer any questions Rebecca had, fully and honestly.  After he had answered all of her questions, if she wanted to leave, he would take her to someplace where she could rent a car to drive back to the city. 
    “But how can it be possible for you to be… a wolf?!” she asked in amazement.  “I thought that was something that only happened in movies!”
    “The human imagination is an amazing thing, but most of the things that humans imagine have at least some basis in reality,” he explained quietly.  “Werewolves