by L. L. Ash
The room went silent and Evelyn looked shocked, eyes flicking from Mason to Clarence and back.
“Will you take Eve out for a short time, Mason?”
“My pleasure,” Mason said, motioning Evelyn with his hand toward the door.
He took her hand and the two of them left us alone, bits of glass still on the floor where I dropped the cup.
“What is he talking about, Clee?” I asked, feeling a sense of dread drift around us.
“Mason thinks I need to tell you everything. My hopes, my dreams, my fears, my weaknesses. I’d rather you didn’t know those things about me, but Mason reminded me that if I truly intend to be with you for the rest of your life, that I need to open up to you, and that you need to know those things.”
“I tell you those things about me,” I reminded him. “Feeling things doesn’t make you weak, Clarence.”
“Yes, I know that in theory. But from the moment I was a young man, taking responsibility on my shoulders that never should have been mine… I’ve learned to shoulder things silently. I’m a martyr and I know it.”
“There’s not supposed to be martyrs in a loving relationship.”
“I know,” he sighed, still not meeting my eyes.
“So this was just a bottle rocket build up,” I guessed and he shrugged.
“I thought I could tuck my hurt silently inside of myself. I know you were struggling with your own things, not the least of which was your abduction and getting physically and mentally tortured for 5 days… It wasn’t the time and I didn’t really… I just thought I could bury it and it would disappear.”
“So, tell me now. I’m not a weak girl, Clee. I may not understand why you feel the way you do, but I’d like to.”
“Ok,” he threw his hands down into his lap. “I feel absolutely betrayed that you fucked another man. More than once… I don’t even want to know how many time.”
“Why do you feel betrayed if we weren’t even together at the time?” I asked carefully.
“Because I told you I was going to marry you. And I meant it. You gave me your virginity and your heart, and I treasured it. I tried to give you your space and respect your boundaries, and shit... That backfired right into my face.” He rubbed at his forehead for a moment before going on. “I thought that given enough time you’d cool off and eventually you’d hear me out. I bided my time and the bastard slipped into your bed before I even knew what was going on. When I saw him at the bar you worked in, I thought it was a coincidence… Later I find out all at once that you were a bloody werewolf. Attacked, bitten and turned and all of a sudden you have a new beau? And he… He liked to rub it in, like salt in a wound. Meanwhile he’s sleeping with MY woman, with the woman I love, and you think nothing of it, denying me the chance to care for you in your new state and choosing him over me.”
He took a long second to sort through more thoughts and calm himself before he continued.
“And all this within a week since I saw you last. If I hadn’t left, if I’d have been there… If you’d have LET me be there like I wanted to, it would have never happened. You would have never been there and you would have never been abducted.”
My fingers hurt now from how badly I was strangling them in my own grip.
“Is there any fixing that, Clee?” I asked gently. “I know I hurt you… At least, I know I hurt you now. You honestly didn’t seem like you were too bothered at the time. Just mostly angry.”
“I was furious,” he huffed, still not meeting my eye. “I’m still furious about it, if I’m being honest.”
“So what do I do? How can I prove to you that I love you, not him. That if I had to choose again, it would be you, each and every time. Even if I turned werewolf and stayed werewolf, it would still be you and not him.”
Clarence blew out a breath and finally looked at me.
“Why didn’t you choose me in the first place? I thought you knew I loved you. When I was human, I all but proposed to you, pending a future marriage.”
“When you were human,” I whispered, going back to strangling my fingers in my lap. “When you were human you were… you were amazing. But when you turned back, you held me at arm’s length. It’s like you didn’t truly want me, all of me, if we weren’t the same kind. And when I was bit, I just thought that if you couldn’t truly love me as a human, you could never love me as a werewolf, who you hated with a burning passion.”
Sadness tore through his expression.
“Then it is my doing, all of it. If I had loved you well enough, if I had showed you well enough what you mean to me, this never would have happened.”
“I was also mad, Clee. I was mad over everything with Mom and I held out stubbornly thinking that if you wanted to prove your love, you would. So when you didn’t, and you left me alone, I guess I got lonely. Mom was gone, Aunt Cindy was going through mourning, same as me. Eddie just came around at the right time and he was a distraction. He was handsome and he showed me the affection I craved from the moment Mom died and I threw you out of the house. I figured you didn’t want me and he did… Then when I got bit and I turned… I thought that was it. That would be my life and I didn’t really have much say in it. At least, Eddie didn’t make it sound like there was much else besides that after I was turned.”
“So you stayed with him of desperation?”
“I guess, sort of. There was this weird part of me I couldn’t control. A part that wanted to be with my own kind, and when I hit my heat, I couldn’t control myself anymore. Honestly and truly I couldn’t control myself.”
“I smelled it on you, the heat.”
“After that it just kind of… became unremarkable. I didn’t feel like I did with you, and though I was lonely, I missed you, I craved YOU and used him as a substitute. Every time you came into the den I would look at you and wish that I could be with you, instead of trapped as a werewolf. Then I was taken.”
“We never did talk about that, Addie,” he said quietly, looking into my eyes through his top lashes. “You didn’t talk about it after you woke. You acted like you were ok, besides the aversion to darkness… But I never really asked you if you were ok. If you ARE ok.”
I shook my head, feeling bubbles of tears flowing up my chest. My eyes remained dry but I sobbed as his arms came around me.
“I’m not ok,” I fumbled for the right words. “I thought I was going to die, Clarence… I thought I’d die from the pain, the thirst and the hunger… They fed me IVs to keep me alive so they could keep going, keep torturing me. The man laughed at me… He enjoyed watching me scream in agony!”
I clung to him, feeling his muscular figure swallow me up in his arms in a protective embrace.
“You’re not there anymore, Darling,” he whispered into my ear. “I have you, and I will protect you. I will go to the ends of the earth a thousand times looking for you. I will never give up on you. And someday when you’re ready, I’m going to marry you and we will spend the rest of your life together.”
“And what? When I grow old and you stay young? First I’ll be a cougar, then I’ll be your mother, your grandmother?”
“We’ll make it work, and we’ll figure it out as we go. But as it is, if we can keep you vampire on a generally constant basis, even semi-permanently, it’ll be hundreds of years before anyone even notices. You’ll live weeks and only age a single day. There is hope for us, you just have to trust this to work out.”
“And what do we do meanwhile?” I tried now. “While the man who had me tortured is still walking and talking? How are we supposed to live like that? I’ll only get you killed Clarence. Maybe you should just hand me over and be done with it,” I growled, throwing myself away from him.
His face hardened and his jaw firmed.
“I don’t give a horse’s shit if I die protecting you, Addie. You’ll never turn yourself over, do you hear me? They will kill you and you will have killed me anyway.”
My churning stomach calmed at his words.
“Do you
really love me so much?”
“When you die,” he said quietly. “Cause eventually you will, pray it be many hundreds of years in the future, I intend to either cut off my head or burn myself alive. I will not live without you, Addie. You are my reason to live, and I’m not lost anymore. Not when I have you, at least.”
“I don’t know how I can continue to live with them dangling over me,” I sobbed again, trying to get a handle on my emotions. “Every night I’m afraid. They’ll come out of nowhere, they’ll torture me again, starve me. They’re evil people and they are stronger than me. I can’t protect myself from them and you can’t protect me by yourself, either.”
“Then it’s settled. We’ll destroy them. Jasper’s head will roll.”
“Nice sentiment, but how?”
“We’ve got a whole contingent of werewolves beside us,” he said gently, taking my hand tightly in his. “There’s me, Eve and Mason. Even you, if you stay as you are now.”
“It’s not enough, Clee.”
He sighed and shoved his hands through his hair.
“Then let’s go see if Eddie has found us any other partners.”
“You’ll have to tell me what he says,” I sighed back, leaning back into the couch.
“You’ll come with me.”
“I thought you didn’t want me around him anymore.”
“You are a grown woman, Addie. I won’t dictate who your friends are.”
“Even him?”
“I believe you, and you’ve made it abundantly clear that you do not want him, but me. I shall trust and you will prove my trust well placed.”
“Fine, you’ll come with me when I see him. To put your own mind at ease.”
“It would,” he agreed, moving to stand.
I took his arm to stop him and he looked at me, apprehension in his face.
“I really do love you,” I told him. “And I’m sorry I hurt you. I wish I could take it back.”
He nodded and pressed a kiss to my lips.
“It seems to me that we’ll both have to trust in each other in order to heal our own wounds.”
“Sounds like a fantastically dysfunctional relationship,” I smiled wanly.
“Every relationship had a little bit of dysfunctional. At least, the lasting ones do. You just have to figure out how to make the dysfunction work for you. In our case, it’ll bring us together and teach us to trust each other.”
I nodded and stood.
“Let’s get over there quick so we don’t have to explain to Mason or Evelyn where we went.”
“I agree,” he nodded and stood with me. “You may wish to change clothes though. I would appreciate it considering the anticipated company.”
I looked down at the silk pajamas, pants riding up my thighs and nipples displayed proudly through the thin fabric.
“Yeah, just give me a minute.”
As I turned away, I paused and looked back.
“And just so you know, Clee,” I told him, catching his attention again. “The best sex I’ve ever had has been with you.”
The corners of his mouth lifted and I finished going down the hall to change.
We were ready and out of the house before Mason and Evelyn came back, heading in a taxi toward Eddie’s wolf den.
Chapter Thirty-One
We got to the Wolf’s Lair and were immediately set upon by werewolves. When the men recognized me they embraced me with hugs and grins and happy words of welcome. Clarence looked around in awe as the men led us in, making sure I had a seat at a table in the warehouse before Raymond spotted us.
“We came to see Eddie,” I told him. “Is he around and available to talk?”
“For you he will be,” Raymond said quickly but quietly, looking over at Clarence skeptically.
“I’d appreciate it if you’d get him for me, please,” I told him and he was off at a jog, heading toward the door that led to the bedroom.
He knocked, poked his head inside then closed it and stood by the door. When Eddie emerged he was trailed by Raymond and Adonis, who’d quickly caught on to our sudden appearance.
“I take it this is business and not pleasure?” Eddie said first off, glancing between me and Clarence.
“Business,” I said quickly, sternly.
“What can I do for you?” he asked, sitting at the picnic table with us.
Adonis and Raymond both took a flanking side on the bench.
“We came to ask if you have had any luck in recruitment,” Clarence asked for me, sitting beside me.
“No such luck,” Eddie sighed. “You?”
“None,” Clarence joined in the somber sighing.
“What the fuck are we doing?” Eddie shrugged, frustrated.
“We’re going to figure it out,” Clarence answered in a calm voice.
“How are we supposed to take them on if there’s only a few of us?”
“We’ll have to consider moving away. Removing Addie from the situation and running. Maybe Jasper will lose the desire to hunt her. Maybe we can outrun them.”
“Literally forever?” Eddie sounded doubtful.
“What other choice do we have?”
A loud clanging started coming from the door. Wolves looked around confused before the door slammed open and hairy beasts started flooding into the warehouse. Eddie growled deep in his chest and flung his shirt over his head, arching his back in preparation to turn. That was when Clarence dropped to his knees beside me, landing face down on the cement floor.
I shrieked and gasped, seeing a stake sticking out of his back, directly over his heart as Adonis stood behind him with bloodied hands.
Eddie’s eyes went wide as he looked at his brother.
“Adoni, what have you done?”
Chaos erupted around us as I fell to my knees beside Clarence. My fingers barely touched the bloody silver stake when a hand wrapped around my neck and dragged me away from his body.
Screaming, I kicked and pulled at the hands around me, but even in my vampiric state I was too weak. I hadn’t learned how to control my strength yet and this beast was too powerful.
“Eddie!” A high pitched voice sang through the warehouse.
The hand around me tightened, but I didn’t care. I didn’t breathe anyway.
“Jo!” Eddie growled back at her, turning from a hairy beast back into a naked man.
“So you haven’t forgotten about me since getting your new bitch,” she grinned in a feral way. “You may not have appreciated me, but Rory does. BOY does he.”
Jo appeared from behind a line of men surrounding Eddie and his pack. There were at least 2 or 3 of them for every 1 of us.
“What do you want?” he demanded, scooping his pants back off the floor and slipping them on.
“Adonis? Would you like to explain?” she asked with a sigh and a smile.
Eddie turned on his brother again, this time his expression radiating death.
“I had to,” Adonis told his brother with a grimace. “They would have killed us all if I hadn’t. I saved them, the men, the children. Rory and Jo only want you and the girl. Then the pack is mine and we’ll be at peace again.”
I looked up past my eyelashes and saw that the arm attached to the hand choking me sure enough belonged to Rory.
Jo ticked her long fingernail against her lip as she assessed the situation. Brother staring down brother, Vampire lying on the floor and another, me, in Rory’s grip.
“I’m bored. Finish this, Rory.”
The hand dragged me across the room again to where the brothers were standing.
“Fight and die or come with us,” Rory said in a bland tone. “I really don’t care which.”
Eddie looked around the room at the people counting on him, then he looked down at me.
“I’ll come quietly,” he said in a hushed tone, his eyes filling with tears.
“Wonderful!” Jo exclaimed before turning toward the door. “Finish this, Rory.”
Rory handed me off to two of his me
n, another two holding Eddie’s arms too as the dragged us away. Rory went back to where he’d come from, grabbed Adonis by the shirt before smashing his fist into his chest, tearing out a warm, beating heart.
The room erupted again and Eddie screamed, throwing his weight against the other men before someone stabbed a needle in his neck, making him collapse almost instantly.
Jo clapped her hands and said aloud, “You’re all still mine, boys. I’ll be back.”
Murmurs and protests, but nobody stopped her or us. They couldn’t.
Tossing us in the trunk of a car, a needle came toward my face as I started to thrash, trying not to get pricked again. I was done with needles and unknown substances being injected into my body.
The needle found my neck and as the liquid sank in, my brain clouded over and quickly backed out.
Fingers stroking my hair woke me up. My head was still foggy but I knew I was somewhere other than where I last remembered being. My hand touched cold, stony floors as I pushed myself up, and my eyes met bright green ones as I turned to see who was touching me.
Eddie sat there, shirtless, shoeless and looking cold, damp and tired.
“You ok?” he asked in a gravelly voice.
I nodded, looking around the room. We were in some kind of holding cell. It looked almost medieval in styling with an iron door and stacked stone walls.
Panic started seizing me as I realized where we were, and who had us.
“Calm down, hey, calm down, relax.”
His hand touched my hair again and he forced my head gently back to his shoulder.
“How am I supposed to calm down?” I groaned. “Clarence! What did they do to him?”
“I think you should be a little more worried about what they’re going to do to you,” he said in a low voice. “I’ve tried getting out of here. It’s impervious to our strength. The door won’t even budge.”
Panting, I realized that I didn’t need air anyway and forced myself to stop and slow down. There had to be a way out. We weren’t even tied or shackled, and we had the strength of a werewolf and vampire in our favor.
