LRR Hood

by Cassandra Johnson

  “She’s dying.” Marik choked back as he walked through the door slowly, his face and hands smeared in blood. He could smell her blood, so much had been lost as he looked at the guardian beside Gallen, whining softly for his mistress. Dropping onto his knees beside Gregory he looked at Elle, his hand falling to her leg, gently squeezing her just above the knee. He wanted to hold her and tell her that everything was going to be ok, but it wasn’t. There was no car here to rush her to the hospital, he didn’t know what he’d done with his phone. Taking her hand into his own, he laced his fingers through hers as his face crumpled and his chin began to warble. It wasn’t like a man, like him, to cry, but he felt like his heart was being ripped in two as he tried to force himself to look at the extend of what Jamal had done to her. He could see bruises on her thighs, and he had to look away from them quickly and search out her face. Flashes of the bodies of the women who had come before her, had he done the same to them only there hadn’t been anyone there to save them, and it looked like he was to late even now to save Elle.

  “Gaerik.” Elle murmured turning her head softly, she felt so tired, but she knew that face from the picture that Marik had shown her the first night that they met and right now she had a few choice words to say to him.

  Sitting up on his knees he moved into her line of sight better, not sure what to say back before a smirk filled his features as he nodded down at her.

  “I guess my reputation proceeds me.” But the laugh that left his lips was hallow as he gently wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.

  “No more stalking,” Elle whispered as she looked up at him, she barely felt his finger touch her lips, the taste of blood in her mouth almost felt natural as she pulled the corners of her lips into a small smile.

  “No ma’am, no more stalking.” Gaerik choked. She was as sweet as she was beautiful and now that he was speaking to her he knew there were a million and one questions he had to ask her that he had yet to be filled in on yet but he knew that he wanted to know her.

  “Gallen? Take care of the boys and Gregory for me. He will be so lost.” Elle gurgled faintly, a fresh line of blood making it to the corner of her lips as she looked at him though whether she truly saw him or not none of them could tell for sure.

  “Listen to me, stay with us, Elle. We will get through this together.” Gallen pleaded softly, his tone tender as he squeezed her close to him. He didn’t want to let her go, he couldn’t. In a few short hours she had become his daughter, and as he had once felt he couldn’t stand to see his sons rip each other apart, he didn’t think that his heart could stand to see her lost to the other side.

  “Like a family?” Elle smiled softly, her teeth stained with blood while he held her. She could feel very little but the pain that kept shivering in waves through her abdomen.

  “Yes.” Gallen choked. “Just like a family.” He nodded. He was turning into a mess as he quickly brought his lips to her forehead.

  “Bite her.” Gaerik’s voice came out clearly as he shook his head. The large body of the guardian moved from Marik and Gallen’s side coming to stand by Gaerik’s side whining as he nudged his way closer, his nose brushing the burn mark that traced her rib cage, his tongue coming out and licking the wound gently.

  “Wh-what?” Marik snapped his head up suddenly.

  “Bite her, give her the bite. She can live through this Marik just do it god damn it!” Save her.” His voice dropping deeper, the rumble in his chest vibrating within the room, a command that could not be questioned, the Alpha’s command.

  “No.” Marik gave pause, shaking his head at his brother as he held her hand tighter in his own. He couldn’t comprehend biting her though he understood the compulsion to do so, yet every muscle in his body fought against it, battling it until the demand settled in the pit of his stomach and was completely driven from his mind.

  Crying out weakly Elle’s hand held onto one of Gregory’s hind legs, her blood fingers knotted in the fine thick silk of his fur. Swallowing, Gregory had never once bitten her or snapped his teeth at her, even as a child when she got to close to his dog dish, but now he did. Not savagely but she felt his teeth sink down deep into the flesh of her shoulder.

  Gasping, Gaerik quickly grabbed Gregory around his ribs, pulling him away as the wolf’s face was buried in the woman’s neck. His muzzle coming up bloody. Running his tongue over his chops another whine made the wolf’s body shiver before he settled onto his hind legs staring at his mistress.

  “I don’t think he meant you, boy,” Gallen said, his eyes roaming over the guardian with sympathy. He was going to be so lost without her; she was his mistress, his friend. They had loved and protected each other for the entire length of Elle’s life probably.

  “It’s ok.” Elle murmured fighting to keep her eyes open to see them, but they just wouldn’t stay open, it made her heart skip a beat as the darkness swirled around her, unafraid her eyes remained closed.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “She’s been asleep for three days,” Marik said pulling himself up a seat at the kitchen table and bringing the coffee mug to his lips. He wasn’t aware of it yet but what was obvious to everyone else was that he had feelings for Elle that ran a lot deeper than just a friend or an annoying little sister type. Where the feelings had sprung from was a mystery, but she was something important to him that he couldn’t explain. Gallen and Gaerik could see the dark circles that had formed underneath his eyes as he watched over the blonde day and night each of them in awe as her wounds healed beneath their wrappings. Gregory’s bite was healing her or was she healing herself?

  “Give her time, she will wake up,” Gallen said reaching over and patting Marik’s arm gently before he slumped onto his elbows once more. “I think what we need to worry about right now is the Council.” He added somberly.

  “I don’t think those were just delirious ramblings.” Gaerik murmured from behind his coffee mug.

  “Neither do I.” Mark agreed.

  Gallen had told them what Elle confessed to him when they found her, at first Gallen thought she was just talking out of her head but once they got her home, the pieces began to slide into place. Not only that but since Jamal’s body had ‘disappeared’ they hadn’t heard a single word from the Council about Gaerik’s capture. They already knew that their errand boy was dead and with him their plan to eliminate the Chaliceman wolves from the Council of Alphas.

  “So, what do we do?” Gaerik asked looking around the table at the men that made up his only remaining family save perhaps for the woman upstairs.

  “Right now I don’t know if there is anything that we can do, we wait for them to make contact and see what happens from there.”

  “Dad, they want us dead, or at least Jamal did, and I get the sick sense that he was only the beginning. If what Elle said is true then they aren’t going to stop until we’re completely out of the picture, for good.” Marik said getting up to refill his coffee cup. He needed a shower, to shave and comb his hair but since they’d brought Elle home, he’d barely found the time. Every second that he left her bedside he was afraid she was going to wake up, and he wouldn’t be there, and despite the fact that he knew his brother wasn’t a killer he wasn’t leaving it up to chance to leave him guarding her sleep. Gaerik was after all stalking her as he found out before this shit storm came crashing down on their heads. Marik wasn’t leaving his brother alone with Elle for a New York minute. The truth of the matter was Marik knew what a fool he was. Jamal had been playing them against each other for years, but Mairk also still knew that Gaerik wasn’t completely innocent. He was the type of man that once he set his sights on something, he didn’t stop until he had it and Marik knew he still wanted Elle and he wasn’t hiding the jealous, possessive streak that he had when it came to watching over her.

  Marik didn’t want to take the chance of Gaerik being the first person that Elle saw when she woke up. It had to be him.

  “This is more than we can handle. We need help.” Ga
llen rubbed the back of his head slowly as he looked around at his sons.

  “Who’s going to help us? I’m sure that the Council has already been working to turn everyone against us already.” Gaerik smirked stretching in his seat.

  He was ready for this woman to wake the fuck up and give them some answers, in the time while they were waiting for that moment to arrive his own dying questions had been sated by his father telling him about Elle’s history in their family, primarily what her grandmother had been to their grandfather. Of course, his first thought was that Lucian had been dipping his wick in at both ends and he still wasn’t convinced that Elle wasn’t somehow a blood relative to them. Men, after all, were men, but for now, he would take his father’s word for it until he could be proven otherwise.

  “Then we will just have to keep looking,” Gallen swore under his breath as he stood from his seat, the bones in his spine crackling as he straightened to his full height.

  “Where?” Gaerik laughed from his seat shaking his head.

  “You’ve forgotten apparently we have some very powerful allies in the south. They looked after Elle and her grandmother for a very long time all because of your grandfather, we can always contact them.”

  “So we are trusting our fate in the hands of a bunch of werewolves that we’ve never even met?” Gaerik questioned doubtfully.

  “If we must.” Gallen looked at him frowning slowly, he wasn’t even entirely sure how to go about contacting the Arkansas packs, how had his father done it?

  While Gaerik and Gallen tried to work out the details of this flimsy idea Marik took his coffee and went back upstairs, his feet slowly ascending the stairs one at a time. He couldn’t remember how many times he had come back up to his room hoping to find Elle awake only to see her body curled up under the covers sleeping off the wounds that had damaged her body. How this was even possible, he didn’t really know, every time he thought they had met the end of the road and all of the questions were answered they were only hit with another bombshell. Opening the door to his bedroom his heart sped up somewhat thinking perhaps she might have woken, but she’d only turned over in her sleep so that her sleeping face was turned towards the door. Placing his coffee mug on the desk, he paused toeing his shoes off. He had no other intentions than to just being close to her, god knew she’d been through enough, but he needed to know that she was here somehow and she wasn’t going to disappear like this had all been one very vivid nightmare. Stretching himself out on the empty side of the bed he turned, laying his arm over her side careful not to apply to much pressure to her abdomen where she’d been stabbed. All thought disappearing from his mind as he closed her eyes, breathing in her scent.

  The first leg of their journey had only just begun, and Marik was honestly afraid to ask himself what more could be thrown at them. He felt as if he might jinx their luck somehow like they were lucky at all. The only good thing to have come from this whole situation was Elle.

  Hello!

  You just finished reading my debut novel LRR Hood, book one in the Little Red Riding Hood Novels, I hope that you enjoyed it. Turn the page if you would like a preview of book two, Through the Woods coming in the year 2019.

  CHAPTER ONE

  “I THINK THE local wildlife has enjoyed Elle’s hospitality,” Gaerik said looking over the kitchen. There were animal droppings everywhere. The strong acrid scent of piss filled the house.

  “I can’t believe no one called the cops what with the door being open,” Mark said. He didn’t like the smell of this place. It wasn’t just the animals that bothered him, it was the people. Marik could still smell them in Elle’s house. He could detect the faint whispers of perfumes and masculine deodorants. These weren’t people who were down on their luck looking for a dump to squat in for the night, they were well bred, employed individuals who took it upon themselves to come into someone’s home and stealing things of value that they could afford to buy for themselves. The thought made his skin crawl. And people considered them animals.

  Making his way into the bedroom, he went straight to her closet. There were dresser drawers thrown upon, some laying on the floor turned upside down. Marik couldn’t remember if it were like this before. That day seemed so long ago. Grabbing a duffle bag from the closet, he started picking clothes up from the floor and shoving them into it.

  “What about Elle’s phone and laptop?” Gaerik asked from the door. His light gray eyes assessing his goddesses’ bedroom. So, this was where she slept, among other things.

  “They’re still here?” Mark asked skeptically.

  “Yeah, her phone was under a canister in the kitchen, and the laptop is sitting right there on the floor next to the bed.” He pointed in that direction, at least he thought it was her laptop. It looked like some small light was blinking from beneath a discarded blouse.

  “Grab them both,” Marik said emptying a drawer full of socks and panties into the duffle bag.

  Gaerik’s heavy boots thudded along the hardwood floor of the bedroom as he tossed the blouse aside and yanked the charging cork out of the wall socket wrapping them around the computer.

  “Anything else of value she might want from here?” He looked at his brother tucking the computer under his arm casually.

  “I don’t think so. Clothes, things Elle uses for her work.” Marik paused, looking at her laptop under Gaerik’s arm. “She already has her pictures at home. Hopefully, when she wakes up, she has enough to keep her mind busy.” Marik had his doubts though. What if when she woke up, she ran as far away from them as she could? Elle was a smart woman and could find a way to leave all of this behind her. She could change her name and go to Europe, writers did that, right? Marik could feel the bond growing stronger each time he looked at her sleeping face in his bed. He didn’t want to lose her, even if she chose to sleep and never open her eyes. Marik yearned to keep her.

  “Playing guardian to her isn’t going to keep me away from her,” Gaerik told him, breaking through his brother’s thoughts.

  “What?” Marik snapped.

  “I know what you’re doing. You’re falling in love with her.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Marik said, zipping the duffle bag and slinging the strap over his shoulder.

  “Is it?” Gaerik said stepping in front of the doorway, stopping his twin from blowing past him. “You’ve slept in the same bed with her every night since we brought her back, you barely leave her side. You are falling for her.”

  “So, what if I am?” Marik spoke, his icy blues glowing electric as he looked his brother in the eyes. “You want her so fucking bad? Maybe you should have walked up to her like a normal person and introduced yourself. You do it easily enough in bars, and everywhere else you pick up women, including my goddamn office.” He fumed. “Just because I know you didn’t kill those women doesn’t mean that the boards wiped clean. You’re my brother, and I know the games that you play. You will toy with her and then toss her aside when you’ve satisfied your curiosity.”

  “You don’t know that, Marik. I found her because of what she was writing. She drew me to her just like you were drawn in by her when you were looking for me.” Gaerik snarled before turning from the doorway. “She’ll make the decision, but you can’t keep me away from her. I’ll make damn sure of that.”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Born and raised in Arkansas, Cassandra is a Mountain Dew addict as well as a sometimes over indulgent cat mom to her kitty, Boo. She currently lives in Connecticut with her mother where she works full time in the medical billing friend.

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

 
Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Hello!

  CHAPTER ONE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR