“Tank.”
His black eyes, gleaming with power, focused down on her.
“I will not hurt the man, little sister.” He sounded barely human.
Richard raked over the multitude of tiny braids spread over Tank’s massive shoulders, leather vest, pants, and oversized boots.
“I see you’ve sunk to an all time low, Diana. Can’t even stick to your own kind.”
For a brief amazed moment Diana thought that Richard was talking about Tank’s species, not his color. She shook her head, holding Tank’s arm as if that would keep him from ripping Richard into itty-bitty pieces.
“Sooo, you’re a bigot as well as an asshole? I didn’t realize you were multitalented.”
She couldn’t resist one last jab. It wasn’t big of her, but she’d had enough.
She bared teeth at him, wishing her smile was as toothy and sharp as a wolven’s. “I’ll tell Laina and her girlfriend you said hi.”
He jerked as if slapped. He turned dull red in the low light.
“Matthew. Karen. Get in the car.”
Diana tamped down the urge to sic all of the guys on him. Or tear into Richard herself. Karen sat, safe in the circle of Bradley’s arms.
“I’m not going.” She lifted her chin, wrapped her arms over Bradley’s.
Diana pointed at the Lexus in the driveway.
“Leave Richard. Before I call the police and slap a restraining order on you.”
Multiple low growls from the wolven males underscored her threat.
“Fine.” His gaze arrogant gaze narrowed on Karen. “But I wash my hands of whoever stays with the freak show. Permanently.”
Karen stayed in Bradley’s embrace. Matthew followed on his father’s retreating heels.
“Matthew?”
“Don’t hold me back Mom.”
Her son’s voice was a cold flashback to the day Richard had walked out. His eyes just as hard and unforgiving. For a second time in her life, her heart ripped in two by a man that she loved.
Warm, familiar hands slid around Diana. She turned into the comfort of Brandon’s scent. He rubbed her back in the same soothing motions she’d used on her daughter.
The betrayal flooded past the numbness.
She’d known he was leaving. Soon. But like this ...
“Little Sister.”
“Go.” She told Tank.
She was at the end of her energy. Her body ached horribly, she was filthy, dressed in a borrowed tee shirt and coat. Her heart lay shattered at her feet.
“Just go.”
Chapter Fifteen
Adam stared at the pack piled in the bed curled protectively around their chosen, what? Den mother?
How the hell had she bonded herself into his pack anyway? And how was he going to convince her to stay?
They watched him warily, waiting for an explosion. Several heartbeats passed, then one by one the group slid off the bed and out of the room.
Karen paused in the doorway. Her steady gaze and tilted head was very wolven for a human.
“She trusts you. We all do.”
The girl left him, slipped away downstairs before he could form an answer.
Diana Ridley was the answer. His answer.
The dull ache of her pain called to him even in her sleep. Adam couldn’t help but offer the only comfort he could. Shutting the door, he stripped out of his clothes and slipped between the sheets.
Gently, he curled his body around her battered one and inhaled the scent that was unique to her. Other scents that raised his hackles clung to her body, but he set that aside to concentrate on his almost-mate.
She whimpered in her sleep and curled closer. The press of her body to his skin set him on fire. Her hands smoothed across his chest before she buried her nose there and sighed.
“Safe. Missed you.” Her mumbled whisper made him groan.
God, how he wanted her. His body was hard with need, but that, too, he would ignore for her sake. As much as he wanted sex, needed to complete the mate-bond with her, now was not the time.
Adam allowed himself to caress her hair before pressing a chaste kiss on her crown. He’d hold her tonight and prove that he wasn’t like that jerk she’d divorced.
Adam J. Weis was faithful, honorable, and yeah, damn horny.
———
The rich aroma of coffee seduced her from the comfy spot. Her body was a mass of aches and pains.
Sliding off the edge of the bed, she nearly tripped over a full sleeping bag. Only a swatch of reddish brown hair peeked out the end. The bag gently rose and fell, matching the soft breath snores of the occupant. She stepped over carefully, spying Rick’s innocent sleeping face. Another pallet sprawled at the end of the bed contained Mark and Seth, huddled together like sleeping puppies.
Seth whimpered and twitched in his sleep. Immediately, the other boy scooted closer, flinging an arm over his sleeping companion.
Diana smiled. There was nothing sexual or perverse about the action, as a matter of fact, she was sure either boy would viciously defend himself on that score. It was just one pack brother offering comfort and safety. She imagined that if the need arose, Rick would abandon his pallet to plop down on the other side, adding his support to the group.
She considered the rumpled bed, remembering Karen crawling in beside her.
Obviously, others had followed suit.
Rather than getting upset, Diana decided to accept the gift for what it was. She was hurt and the boys had taken her into their circle. The gesture left a warm feeling in the region of her heart.
Too bad she couldn’t have woken up in Adam’s arms. That would have been comfortable. Diana frowned. She liked them all. To be honest, she was far more involved than a mere promise to bake Mark’s birthday cake. She didn’t want to be this involved.
She made a quick run through her drawers, grabbing underwear, the sturdy grandma kind, and a stretchy sports bra. She found another oversize tee shirt and a pair of cutoffs. Sexy, the outfit was not. For comfort and a feeling of blah camouflage, it was perfect.
———
He’d nearly lost her, just like Amanda.
The strays had given her their blood.
Adam poured himself a cup of coffee and struggled to get a grip on his erratic emotions. Otherwise he was going to owe her more than the shattered birdbath in the backyard. He hoped she wasn’t too attached to that one.
First Adam was relieved. Then, the self-recriminations had set in, followed by jealousy. That was the point where the birdbath had lost its cutesy concrete existence in the backyard. It was now a pile of rubble and he was still agitated. Only, now he owed her a birdbath.
What kind of injuries had she sustained, that she needed wolven blood to heal? He owed those strays for protecting what was his.
Then again, they could be the ones moving in on his territory. By creating a blood bond with Diana, taking Adam’s position as Canis Pater would be smoother.
He bared his teeth at the thought. They’d have to take him out first, and Adam didn’t plan on making his death an easy one.
He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. His hands were raw from the battle with the birdbath, but he didn’t notice.
He didn’t really think that the strays were after his position. They wouldn’t have brought Diana home. She would be the perfect bait to ensure Adam agreed to a formal challenge. Plus, she wouldn’t have needed the strays’ protection if he hadn’t goaded her in the first place.
Diana’s footsteps above alerted Adam that she was up. He’d know her movements anywhere. His breath caught in his chest. He wanted desperately to go up to her again, but decided to give her privacy.
Coward.
To prove that he wasn’t, Adam closed his eyes and followed the pack bond to Diana. Even without the mate-bond, every time they touched, physically or psychically, it seemed their connection became stronger.
Her flimsy barrier did nothing to hide her fragile emotions. The pain and vulnerability
triggered Adam’s own volatile emotions.
A psychic vision invaded his mind. His first. A brief flash of the monster and her rescuers shone in raw horror movie style. Rage boiled up in him.
Now he knew the whole story.
Adam did the only thing he could. He retreated from the connection before she realized his trespass.
———
In the shower, Diana scrubbed viciously, fighting the horror of Dog’s attack. Each event after she left the bar flashed vividly behind closed eyes.
The moment that the motorcycles first drove up. Diana shuddered.
The sensory memories were both emotional and physical. She could still feel the sick hunger of lust. The heavy hairy weight of the werewolf getting more excited by the scent of her fear.
Diana scrambled out of the shower, threw up, and then brushed her teeth. Her fresh minty breath allowed the coffee smell to be appealing once again. Diana followed its lure downstairs. She hoped the kitchen was empty so that she could use it to fortify her defenses in peace.
It wasn’t. Adam’s drawn face looked up from her morning paper. Lines pinched around the chiseled slash of his mouth. A banked fire glowed behind the blue ice chips that made up his eyes. His white blond hair hung loose around his shoulders, obviously finger combed many times.
The work shirt he wore was as wrinkled as her bed sheets and his feet were bare.
That she thought he was sexy after heaving her guts up less than twenty minutes ago told her something. The comfort she felt at his presence was something she didn’t care to examine closely.
Adam’s nostrils flared. Diana reinforced the shield around herself to keep out the mix of emotions from him and the rest of the house. Her own were too much for her to deal with.
She didn’t need to find out if she could leak her trauma back through the pack bond. The boys, Brandon especially, might not be able to handle the reminder of past rapes.
She probably needed therapy. But any therapist that she told, “Hey, I’m having issues about being nearly raped by a werewolf,” would probably heavily sedate her.
She’d deal. Diana wasn’t willing to go down that road again.
She paused and ignored Adam. She reached into the cabinet for a coffee cup. She was still unhappy with his macho act at the Saloon anyway.
If she tried hard enough, Diana could lay the series of catastrophes last night squarely on his broad shoulders. Sharing the blame made her feel better. Petty, but better.
Diana poured her coffee with deliberate precision, keeping her back to him. She felt, more than saw, Karen enter the kitchen with Bradley at her side. Brandon would no doubt soon follow. The boy was near inseparable from his brother.
Diana took a sip of coffee, waiting for her wolven king, no-despot, to explode. Thinking of Adam Weis as hers made her frown. She would not become attached to him.
“I told you to stay in the bar.”
Yes, she decided, that was one ticked alpha male. She took another sip of coffee, pointedly ignored the waves of frustration and anger that poured out of him.
“You deliberately disobeyed my order.”
Diana turned slowly and leaned back against the counter. She rested one arm under her breast, balancing the other to sip her coffee. Let the man stew.
“You kids eat yet?”
She watched Karen and Bradley watch Adam simmer. They looked concerned, as they ought when the pack leader was upset.
Adam drummed his fingers impatiently on the forgotten paper. Brandon answered, slipping past his brother and Karen.
The boy gave Adam a wide berth and stopped next to Diana. His voice was soft and polite while he reached into the cabinet for a coffee cup, filling it for himself.
“We ate the cereal. Karen made biscuits and ham.”
Brandon cradled the cup between his hands and took a drink. His chocolate brown eyes half closed in pleasure.
Diana thought it a little odd that he wasn’t hiding from the tension in the room.
Since emotional and psychological evaluations were beyond her this morning, she pushed the occurrence to the back of her mind and focused on his words.
She figured that all four boxes of cereal and the three-pound hunk of ham were long gone. Matthew could eat … she sighed silently and shied away from the thought.
Diana gave Brandon a quick hug, ruffling his hair. A twinge in her shoulder protested the movement but she pushed away the memory with a false, bright smile.
Brandon’s shy answering smile made the movement worth the pain.
“Would you kids mind running out to the garage freezer and getting the brisket out for dinner?”
She sensed, not through any special gift, but through plain old intuition, that Adam had finally reached the end of his temper holding abilities.
Not that she’d experienced his temper holding ability to be all that vast before.
But he seemed to be doing a better than usual job of it this morning, er, afternoon.
“Pull out anything else you want to add to the menu.” Take your time, she added silently, because when he blows, it’s going to be a doozy.
The kids fled through the adjoining door leading into the laundry room and garage that served as a storage area to more than the freezer. The car lived in the driveway.
His explosion was swift and silent. Diana found her back pinned to the refrigerator, two hundred plus pounds of wolven in her face.
“I told you to stay inside the bar,” he repeated in a low growl.
He wasn’t hurting her. His grip was gentle, yet immovable. Under normal circumstances, Diana would have given him some leeway. She could feel the fear that had finally rattled his cage open leak through her shield. Instincts that drove him to protect what he perceived as his.
She was still angry that he’d butted in to her business last night. Her ego was bruised and she was still hurting from her son’s rejection. Angry that she’d let ‘the Dick’ find a way to rip her heart out a second time, through their son. And through it all, she felt sick and violated by Dog’s attack.
She felt guilty that maybe Adam had been right. Maybe she’d brought it all on herself by leaving.
Deprived of any of the true objects of her fury, Diana rounded on Adam.
“And I told you—you’re not my anything. Get over yourself.”
Diana embraced the fury and pain twisting in her gut and threw it at him like a fireball, a weapon. Dealing with the horror by lashing out at the safest target.
Adam flinched. He let her go and backed up a step.
Diana continued, empowered and on the offensive.
“I know exactly what you are. And I’m not impressed.”
She poked a broken silver nail in his chest, forcing him back yet another step. She embraced the power she’d buried all her life. She’d wasted so much time by hiding and still the monsters had caught up with her last night. The seductive magic of her power flared under her skin, feeding the maelstrom inside.
It felt good. Strong.
“You think you’re so god-damn above the rest of us. That you say jump and the rest of us do it.” She poked at him again. He backed away, a bemused look on his face.
“Not. Me. I’m a grown woman. I will do what I want, when I want. And you can take your macho shit and choke on it.”
Adam stopped and held his ground. Diana took a breath, her fury and power driving her on.
“Or I’ll drive a stake through your chest.”
“That would be vampires, sweet, not wolven.”
His low careful voice contrasted with her yelling. She blinked and lowered her tone.
“Vampires, wolven, whatever. You want to try me Fido?”
She still wanted to fight, to hurt. Picking at him might not be smart, but she knew she was safe with him.
Adam grabbed hold of her arms and gave her a quick, hard shake. His eyes glowed with suppressed emotion and power. The mingled scents of her angry passion and the aphrodisiac scent of psychic power rolling off
of her heightened his own needs, making it hard for him to hold himself in check.
Diana snarled and attacked. She screeched with frustration as he held her firmly away from him.
Adam was surprised at the strength of her fury. It threatened to consume him through the bond. The sweet human female that had entranced him was gone, replaced by a mad she-wolf bent on tearing him apart. If he let go long enough for her to do so.
Last night his territorial nature had spurred him to displace Bob Benedict in Diana’s affections. He wanted her for himself. He accepted that now.
Even when Amanda, his fiancée, had disappeared, Adam had been angry, more interested in justice than grief stricken. His pride might have been damaged, but his heart had survived intact.
Finding out Diana was missing had frightened him, threatened to carve a hole in his heart. It was a new experience that confused him, making a dangerous predator even more dangerous while he searched the streets for her.
He felt her pain though the pack bond. Like with the boys, it made him feel ineffectual. That riled him as much as the stray’s blood scent on her skin, knowing that strange males had a link to her.
“I’m sorry.”
She didn’t hear and kept trying to get at him. Adam repeated the words with more force.
“Diana. I am sorry.”
She stilled and blinked at him, unaware of the tears tracking down her lovely face, even with the alarming red splotches. She heaved a breath.
“Why? Why?”
It was a general why. He understood that. He didn’t have an answer for her, hated that he didn’t, and offered up the only comfort he could.
“I would kill to keep the hurt from you if I could.”
She shook her head, unaware of the audience they had drawn from both doorways.
“Really? Or just a way to use me for your own gain?”
Adam frowned.
“I don’t understand.”
Diana laughed, harsh and disillusioned. She had a feeling Doc Tank had left out a lot of details in his explanation about dragon delicacies. Otherwise, why would Chase have warned her about being on the menu. No one had ever mentioned why she should avoid other supernaturals. Just to stay far away from them. Why were the wolven so interested in her?
Weremones Page 17
