moment Demi didn’t care if she was laying in a pile of shit—she just wanted this man inside of her.
Demi loved when he touched her. His hands, softening up from not doing such hard work anymore, felt good on her overheated body. She realized that he wasn’t so much touching her as he was marking her. His fingers would make her skin heated, like he’d put a branding iron to her, before he’d move to the next place on her body.
Lucian was very good at making love. He made her feel sexy, special, and beloved.
There wasn’t a time that he took her that he made her feel rushed, like he’d rather not be with her. Men in her past would be out to please themselves rather than her. It was like they were hurrying through sex so that they could move on to the next conquest.
Men were very odd—most were anyway.
“Your breasts are fuller, have you noticed that?” She shook her head, unable to make anything squeeze past the muscles in her throat. “And your nipples are so pink. I delight in tasting them. You are so beautiful, Demi. And I don’t know what I’d have done had you not found me.”
She kissed him, making up for the fact that she that speaking was impossible. He slid deep inside of her. Her body responded by flushing hotly, her pussy seeming to soak more. And when he began to move, his big body taking her over the top, she cried out his name several times before he kissed her again.
“Come for me, Demi. I want to feel you milk me.” She nodded, wanting to please him in any way that she could. “That’s it, baby. I can feel it, I can feel you rising up for me.”
When she came, he bit down on her throat. It wasn’t painful, but she did come harder the second time, then the third time, when he lifted her ass up, pulling her body to his so close that they looked like they were one. And when he dug his nails into her flesh, his claws biting into her as well, he cried out, his body bent back as he growled louder than she’d ever heard him do before.
Lucian dropped on top of her. She held him there. His hot skin felt wonderful under her fingers. And when he lifted just his head, she smiled at him and told Lucian how much she loved him.
“I love you as well. You are the world to—”
He stopped talking and stiffened. She did as well, knowing that something or someone was out there. Through their link, without moving, he told her to not move.
To pretend like nothing was wrong.
Should I be worried? He didn’t answer her as he moved off her, rolling to his back, bringing her with him. She thought that was scarier than him telling her she should be worried. Lucian, you’re scaring the shit out of me, and I’m fucking naked. If this is a joke, I’m not finding it very funny.
I want you to roll to your back, then your belly. I’m going to roll the other way but come up as my bear. You stay here. I don’t know what’s out there, nor do I have any idea what they might have with them. She asked if he meant a gun. Yes. Or something like that.
The bullet zipped over her head. Before she could move, to worry about how close that had been, Lucian was his bear and no longer looked cuddly and soft. He was a fucking monster going after someone that had tried to hurt them.
Demi heard the screams, knowing that it wouldn’t be Lucian; bears didn’t scream, she told her rattled mind. Demi lifted her head just enough to see where he’d gone. She wished in that moment that she’d not—the blood was everywhere. The man that had shot at them was flying backward in the air, with his arm holding the gun dangling precariously from his body.
Laying her head back down, she counted to ten before she looked again. They were still fighting, and she laid her head back to the soft earth. That’s when it occurred to her that it was more than one person—it was several.
She heard the stick snap as she was lifting her head again. The man apparently hadn’t seen her, or he thought of her as no threat. Whatever, when he started to step where her head was, she grabbed his leg and shoved it upward, knocking him back.
The rifle went off, the round in it flying up in the air, startling birds. Not waiting for him to get up or to aim at her this time, she jerked the rifle from him and bashed him in the head with it. She was ready to hit him a second time when the gun was jerked from her from behind.
Demi had learned hand to hand combat. So when she turned, she grabbed the man behind her and socked him in the face. Blood sprayed over her from his lips, and she knocked her forehead into the man’s nose, causing him to drop like a rock. Demi dropped too, her legs weak with the use of adrenalin.
“Are you all right?” Demi looked behind her and a towel hit her in the face. “Go on now, honey, you go and wash up in that creek. The boys are coming too. I was just the closest one. My goodness, though, you had it all taken care of before I could shift and help you out. I don’t think I’d be one to sneak up on you ever again. You sure do—”
“Alden. I’m all right.” He nodded and looked away when she stood up to go to the waterway. Stopping, she looked for Lucian. “Where is he? Lucian, where did he go with that other group of men?”
“He’s up the creek a bit. Got himself a little hurt. Nothing that won’t be gone when he shifts, but he was more worried about you than getting himself cleaned up. I told him that I had you.” Sitting in the water, she began splashing the cold liquid all over her face before scrubbing her arms and legs. “You are all right, aren’t you, love? I was sure scared out of my mind when Lucian told us that someone was in the forest. Never would have believed that seven of them got by us.”
“Did anyone check the guard house?” Alden said he’d not thought of that but would send one of the boys. “I have two men down there. I hope they’re all right.”
Demi was wrapping the towel around her just as Lucian came to where they were.
He wasn’t hurt—just a few scrapes and bumps on his face—but he looked good. Going to him, hugging him tightly, she asked him if he was all right.
“Yes, I am now that I know you’re fine. Christ, honey. Had you not taken those two out, they would have gotten the drop on me. It was all I could do to take care of the five that had tried to kill us.” Demi asked if he knew what they were there for. “I didn’t stop
to ask, but they did have a picture of us on them. And a note, I’m assuming, to leave behind. They were planning to kidnap us.”
Demi had dealt with this kind of thing before—someone trying to kidnap her or someone that she loved. Grandma had been the target before, and she’d shot the man when he’d broken into her house to take her. And being here, with these people, Demi had let her guard down.
Alden told her that both men at the gatehouse were dead, a single bullet hole in each of their foreheads.
“Demi?” She looked at Lucian and realized that she’d missed something. “Does this have to do with what happened earlier? In town?”
“Oh no. Nothing like that. The city planner wants to get a bunch of buildings off the books, but he’s not willing to part with them one at a time. If we want them, then it’s all or nothing.” She grinned at Lucian. “You might have to go to the next few city meetings. I might have pissed the man off.”
“Might have pissed him off, or you did piss him off?” She laughed with him, feeling the stress from today lighten up. “Why don’t you tell me what has you so upset about this group of men? I’m thinking that this has happened to you before.”
After going home, they had showered off the rest of the afternoon and then got dressed. She sat down on the edge of the bed and tried to think how best to tell him that they’d have to be on guard. He told her to just say it, like she normally would.
“Now that we’re all used to having money, we have to be extra careful when we go out. There is always some idiot out there that figures taking a rich person, or someone that they love, is a fast and easy way to make money. It’s not. Not the times that it happened to me.” He asked her how many. “Five, not counting today. Twice to my grandma, and I haven’t any idea how many times before that to her family. But we have to be careful.
I think that the people from today were better prepared and equipped than the ones before. They came in a group, with guns, and killed. Kidnappers usually don’t. And the reason for it this time is that they don’t have an inside man. All the people here are loyal to this family and only this family. It’s why we pay them so well.”
“What happened before?” She told him, the highlights anyway. “I have a feeling that it was more than you at the mall when someone tried to take you, wasn’t it?”
“How they did it isn’t as important as that they didn’t get me. Had it not been for me carrying a gun, it might have ended badly. As it is, the man is still in prison for shooting a cop, and I’m here to talk about it.” She got up and went to the window.
“Those two men that worked for us—I’m going to have to do something for their families. I should have taken more precautions with them and us on this.”
Demi leaned into him when Lucian came up behind her. He simply held her in his arms while she thought of the lives that had been taken today and why. Money. It seemed that it always came down to money.
“I got a call from the police station. They said that if you want to come and claim
Nathan and Astrid’s things, you can. There isn’t much for either of them. Not even a cell phone.” She told Lucian to have them donate or dispose of it. “All right. And the city planner. You want me to go there as my bear and make him do what you want? I
will, no problem. In fact, it would be my pleasure to slay this particular dragon for you.”
“No, he’s going to be all right. Especially when he reads the report from Jamie. He did a little investigating around town, and there are far more things for him to worry about than just a few buildings on the book. The water that goes out to where the building is going to be isn’t up to code. Jamie connected his lines to the city lines, and that’s as far as he can go for the moment.” Lucian asked what would happen if the city guy didn’t bring things up to code. “Then Jamie will sue him. And win too. If the city doesn’t make it so that he can hook up to the water lines, then Jamie will build his own water plant. After that, he’ll sue the city and the planner for the money that he used to make it so he could bring his business out here. A win win for Jamie, and not so much for the city.”
Lucian laughed. And even as they made their way down to lunch, he was still laughing. It was funny, really, to see a grown man get such a kick out of someone else’s problems. Demi was glad now that she’d told him. After this morning, it was good to have a good laugh.
Chapter 13
Lucian was looking over the rest of the paperwork from the bank when his phone rang. It came in as an unknown, but since he’d not set up the desk type phone yet, he supposed everyone would come up unknown.
“Hello. My name is Micky Mantle. I was wondering if you could tell me if you have any strangers in town.” Lucian started to ask the man if he was kidding or he really was named after a famed baseball player. “I’m doing an article for a big newspaper, and we want to see how small towns, such as yours, deal with unwanted strangers.”
“I wouldn’t know if they were unwanted until I got to know them. Then they’d no longer be a stranger, now would they?” Lucian was sure that he’d taken the man off guard with his answer. “What is it you’re writing about? Strangers? That doesn’t seem like a very read worthy article. Which paper is this going to be in?”
“It’ll be syndicated, so it’ll be in all kinds of papers.” That wasn’t an answer at all, and he told the man that. “What does it matter which paper it is? I’m just trying to get a perspective on what it is your town does with strangers. Until you get to know them.”
“As I pointed out before, they’re no longer strangers. Why don’t you get to the point, and then we can get on with our day?” The man growled. “Buddy, you’re going to have to do a great deal better than that, dealing with me. Tell me.”
The compulsion was something that Lucian rarely used. But in this case, he thought it was necessary. Either for his family or for the woman that they were hiding. The man fought against Lucian making him tell the truth, but in the end, it was extremely helpful.
“There is a woman that I’ve been looking for. Her name is Meadow Spring. She is supposed to have killed her entire family. There is a doctor that I’ve been following who has been trying to say that she had nothing to do with it. I want her to be found guilty of these crimes. And I’m going to make it so she is when I find her.” Lucian asked him why he’d made himself judge, jury, and executioner. “Because I’m the only one that cares that she is found guilty, I told you. The rest of the world believes her to be someone that is sick and hurt too badly to stand trial. I’m sure that it’s all a lie.”
“Is it? So, for the last—what, seven years or so, since the accident, she’s been pretending to be this person who plans to get away with it. Doesn’t seem very likely if you ask me.” The man said he had only been searching for her for six, and he’d not asked him. “No, it’s been only six since she was taken out of the hospital and moved around. The murders took place over seven years ago.”
“It was seven years, four months, and ten days to be exact. Plus, don’t you think you know a great deal about this for a person who doesn’t know anything?” Lucian could have told him that he and his wife were looking over everything nightly to help the woman out, but he didn’t. Nor did he tell the man that he remembered the murders.
“Where is she?”
“Who?” The man growled again, and Lucian couldn’t help it; he growled right back at him. “Christ, what the fuck are you? A dog? Just tell me where she is, Meadow
Spring.”
“No, I’m a bear, and I haven’t any idea where she is. And you’re going to think this is really funny, but I don’t care at all where she might be either.” Micky, or whatever his name was, laughed. “You think that’s funny?”
“Sure I do. And when I find her, I’m going to make sure that I get all the information I can before I kill her too. You’ll see. I’ll be famous.” Lucian told him what he’d be was dead. “By you? Nah, I’m not worried about you. You’re just some fat fuck that doesn’t do much of anything but sit behind a big desk and order people around.
Just like her old man did. Someone should have taken him out a long time ago.”
Lucian felt the hairs on his neck dance, his bear rolling over him in the need to hunt the man down and kill him. But as calmly as he could, and with more compulsion then he’d ever used before, he asked the man if he’d killed the family.
“Of course I did. And that fucking bitch saw my face. I need to end her before I can move on to someone else. Some other family that I want to fuck up their lives. Because as long as they believe she did it, I’m safe. But once she’s dead, then all bets are off. But she will die.”
Lucian laid the phone in the cradle and sat there. He wasn’t sure what he was to do now, and instead of picking up the phone to call the police, he called Demi. She might not know what to do either, but she’d surely know who to call. Lucian was afraid, more than he had been even the other day when they’d been attacked in the woods.
“Demi. Where are you?” She said that she was in the office downtown. “I need for you to come home. Now. I have something that I need to tell you face to face.”
“You’re scaring me, Lucian. Is it bad?” He said that it was about as bad as it gets.
“I’m coming there. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Like what?” She told him not to do anything. “I can do that. My mind won’t allow me to do much more than to sit here and not piss myself. I have to call in my brothers and get them in on this. My parents should go to the place where Meadow is. To make sure that she’s safe.”
“Why?” He said he’d explain when she got there. “Lucian, you’re scaring me more and more with each passing minute.”
“I talked to the killer of Meadow’s family.” She didn’t say anything, but he could feel how shocked she was. “Come here, love. I n
eed to hold you while I tell you about the monster that I just spoke to.”
“I’m on my way.”
He didn’t know what to do but did finally get up out of his chair. As soon as Demi got here, he was going to have his phone number changed and the phone that he’d spoken on destroyed. It was tainted somehow. As soon as he heard someone pull in the driveway, his bear roared out against his skin. Lucian knew he was making him scared too. They all would be after this.
When his brothers were there, Demi sent two more to the nursing home to keep an eye on Meadow. There wasn’t any point in all of them being here when she was in town
basically alone. As soon as they were all seated, Moses brought in drinks and sandwiches. Lucian wondered, not for the first time, if the man had them in reserve someplace.
After telling them what the two of them had spoken about and what the man had finally told him as it pertained to Meadow, Lucian began to pace the room. Demi had been quiet since she’d arrived, but his brothers had plenty of questions. Mostly it was about the nerve of the caller.
“We have to figure out not only where he called from, but his name.” Demi told
Pierce that it wasn’t necessary for them to have his name right now. “Okay, but I refuse to call him Micky Mantle.”
“We can call him Micky Mouse for all I care.” Lucian took a deep breath and let it out slowly before speaking again. “I’m sorry. You have no idea how dirty that guy made me feel. And to hear him talk about killing that young woman like she wasn’t anything at all made me slightly ill to my stomach.”
“Demi, you have to help us. We can’t have her hurt.” Demi said that she didn’t want that either. “All right. What can we do for her? There has to be something.”
“We’ll bring her here. This would be the safest place for her while that fool is out there.” They were all nodding, and he found himself nodding as well. “At least with all of us around, close, then we can keep a better eye on her, as well as watch out for this guy. Because I have no doubt that he will do just as he says. From the crime scenes, I’d say that he had no trouble with murder.”
Lucian: McCray Bruin Bear Shifter Romance Page 16
