by Honor James
“I’m glad, Mina,” he told her honestly. “But you need to sleep, honey,” he added, feeling something tugging at him to wake. He wanted her really out of it so she wouldn’t notice he wasn’t there.
What the hell was that god-awful noise? Oh…right, his alarm, crap! Tuning it out for the moment even though he knew he couldn’t do it for long, Janos stroked her back lightly. “Get some more rest, honey, and have a good day. I’ll be thinking of you,” he promised, quietly pressing his lips to her cheek for a fleeting kiss.
* * * *
The light kiss made her smile and she slipped even deeper into sleep. It was nice, to be in a dream of hers where he was the star, and do something, anything, other than dream of the mind-blowing sex she was sure he could deliver. No, it was nice to dream about being held as if she mattered more than just a lump of flesh.
She felt it when he left the bed and curled closer to the pillow he had vacated and tugged it closer to her, breathing him in as she did so and allowing herself to sleep deeper than she normally would have.
Chapter 7
When Mina finally woke she felt better than she had in, well…forever. For once she’d actually slept. She didn’t feel as if someone was going to bust into her house at any moment and rob her, again. It was nice, to just sleep, feeling safe.
Once up and showered, she tugged the too-curly red locks behind her head with a ribbon and gathered her clothes to be cleaned. A smile on her face and humming softly in her throat, she moved her hamper and hangers to the hall, locked the door, and moved up the stairs and to her landlady’s apartment.
Seeing the two baskets already there, she sighed and, taking a deep breath, nodded. It was what it always was, no changing it.
Placing her small hamper on top of the two larger ones, she hefted one of each of the hampers up and under her arms, balanced on her hips. Of course there was hopefully enough money to wash the landlady’s clothes, this time. If not, well Mina would just wash hers by hand at home and deal with it.
Wouldn’t have been the first time and most certainly would not be the last.
Using the stair railings on one side of her for the double hamper, her clothes and the landlady’s, she quickly went down the five flights of stairs and through the door that thankfully opened out without having to use a door handle.
The kids were there playing, as usual, five girls and five boys, not all belonging to the landlady, but hey, who knew who each of them belonged to. Calling them each by name as she walked past and said her hellos and good-byes in one breath, she went to the bus stop.
As she was waiting, and just as the bus pulled up, she heard one of them say, “She’s gone, let’s go see if she has anything at all this time.” Mina was torn, chase after the little thieves who wanted to rob her, or do her laundry.
Considering she had nothing worth stealing and had her purse with what little cash she had with her, she chose the Laundromat.
Once she was on the bus and settled into the torn and duct-taped seat with her laundry by the window, she leaned back and closed her eyes. The thoughts of being held in his arms once more were…Her thoughts were interrupted by a young man. Well, he looked young, but his eyes told of his true age.
Dressed in leather and gang colors, no, pack colors, he leaned in close to her and breathed in at her neck before pulling back, hissing. “What the fuck?” he nearly yelled. Well, she wanted to yell, too. Why was he sniffing her? He looked up at the two men that were closing around her as well, and she watched as the kid shook his head. “No, the boss needs to know that the youngest dickling prince has found a mate.” Tugging on the pull string, the bus quickly stopped and Mina watched them piling off and onto the sidewalk, their eyes watching her as the bus started back up again.
A shiver of dread walked over her spine, but she didn’t have time to try to pinpoint why. Three blocks later and at the Laundromat, she thanked Teddy, the normal driver, and was off and into the Laundromat before the sun began the slow descent to Earth for the night.
Finally, as she had all the clothes packed in the washers, sadly mixing some of hers with her landlady’s because, again, the woman forgot to add the roll of quarters for her, and taking a seat in one of the hard plastic seats near the back, she picked up the 1987 issue of Cosmo that had been there for the last two years that Mina had been coming here. At least it made her look like she was busy.
Again the young man’s words swirled in her mind, but it wasn’t long enough before the first washing machine needed to be changed to the dryer. Feeding two precious quarters into the dryer, she leaned her forehead against the warm glass and, for the hundredth time in an hour, thought of him.
Chapter 8
“Full Moon, Janos speaking,” he muttered into the phone as he propped it between his shoulder and ear as he dug out two longnecks and cracked them open before setting them on the waitress’s tray. Moving to the hard liquor, he barely registered that it was his eldest brother, Laszlo, calling or what he was saying.
But when he heard that there was a pack rumbling about a prince finding his mate, he stopped cold in his tracks. “What?” he asked, stunned, wondering who had found the one woman meant for him.
“Apparently there are rumors floating around that you’ve found your mate,” Laszlo repeated patiently, knowing his brother was working the bar because of problems at Edge, the same way he knew about the rumors. Laszlo cultivated humans and Wolves alike to sell him news, any news.
“I’ve found my mate?” Janos asked, confused and then, after a second, he said in stunned horror, “No.”
“Apparently you didn’t know?” Laszlo asked in a dry tone.
Shaking his head even though his brother couldn’t see him, Janos braced a hand to the bar, his knees feeling weak. “Fuck me,” he breathed out, and then another piece of the puzzle clicked. “Mina,” he murmured her name aloud for the first time. “Wait.” He frowned suddenly as another piece clicked. “If the packs know…”
“She’s in danger, Janos,” Laszlo said softly. “The disgruntled packs will do anything to keep our line from reproducing and possibly reclaiming the throne, you know that.” Not that they’d actually ever lost it. Since the five brothers were still the only remaining living members of the Royal family, if they chose to reinstitute their rule, they could. They had more than enough supporters to take it all back. But there would be a bloody war with those that wanted the current democracy to continue even though there were more deaths and problems under the reigning Council than there had ever been under Royal rule.
“If they know about her”—Janos tried to work it out in his head—“then they’ve seen her.”
“If they’ve seen her, baby brother, they likely will find where she lives and she’s as good as dead. You need to find and protect her. The new laws state that your mate is to be protected against all others, but until you mark her as yours she’s vulnerable and you can’t demand retribution if they do kill her.”
Sometimes he really hated his levelheaded and much-too-cool older brother. Now was one of those times. “She’s not exactly going to be thrilled about this.” Hello! There was the understatement of the century. “She’s got a very distinct and likely justified hate for males.”
“Does she have a justified hate for you?” Laszlo asked, and if Janos hadn’t known his brother so well, he’d swear he was laughing at him.
“No. Well”—he winced—“none that I can figure out. I tried to be nice to her, do something out of the goodness of my heart, and she went loco on me.” Not entirely the truth, but some things no man was willing to admit to another male. “In time she might tolerate me,” he grumbled, hating to even give that out.
“Time is not something either of you have. You need to mark her as yours and soon. If you don’t and they harm her, you’re screwed. Get to her, mark her, and then at least they’ll rethink any acts of retribution. In the meantime I’ll keep my ears open for anything new and let you know.”
Staring at the no
w dead phone, Janos shook his head. “Bye to you, too, big brother,” he muttered before hanging up the line.
“Shit,” he hissed, pushing his hands through his hair. How the hell was he going to mark his mate when she was as skittish as a rabbit being hunted by a Wolf? He was amused by the unintentional pun he had made in his mind. Shaking his head, he looked to the other bartender and told him that he’d be back in fifteen and then headed upstairs. Calling his other brother, Miklos, he had him do a check on Miss Mina Tremayne and ended up with her address. Sometimes it totally rocked to have a cop for a brother, especially when you were the baby of the family and they all catered to you.
Chapter 9
She sat cross legged in the middle of her floor as she watched out the windows at the way the clouds raced across the midnight skies. She had always loved the nighttime, loved to watch the clouds that everyone assumed were only associated with day. She knew, however, that the clouds were just as abundant in night as they were at dawn.
Finally she leaned back on her elbows and then back a little more so that she was now flat on the floor, a pillow now resting under the bend of her knees as she simply tried to relax. It had been a hellish day. She was exhausted. However, in her mind, deep in her thoughts she wondered what her next dream about him would be.
She knew she would be dreaming about him. There was no reason not to. She was exhausted and ready to nod off, but on her mind was one and only one person, Janos. “I like to dream about you. In my dreams you don’t look ready to kill me,” she whispered quietly, and bracing her hands now flat on the cool floor, she waited for sleep to take her.
Yes, she likely should have gotten into bed, but it was the oddest thing. Her bed, pillows and sheets, smelled like him. She knew she wasn’t imagining it. They smelled like him. So she wanted to sleep here on the wood floor, the only pillow under her knees, because just the smell of him was making her want, no, need him more.
Staring at her door, Janos again wondered if he’d lost his ever-loving mind. Shifting, he looked around and, while he couldn’t see anyone, he could definitely smell them. The fact he could also smell other Wolves made him nervous. They were watching her. Thankfully, for their sakes, they weren’t there when he arrived, or he’d have had to bash in some heads.
Lifting his hand, he knocked before he could talk himself out of doing it and make a beeline for the street, which his brain was telling him would just be smarter. His gut, on the other hand, was freaking out. If the Wolf Packs knew about her, and there was no reason not to think that, given Laszlo’s information, he needed to at least warn her. How he was going to tell her was a whole other problem and one he was desperately trying not to think about.
Hearing the knock, she looked at the clock and frowned. Rolling backward, feet over head, she came to her feet with one smooth motion and moved to the door. Dressed in just shorts and a T-shirt, she really wasn’t up for company, and since she couldn’t reach the peep hole, she had to open the door.
Sliding the security chain into place so the door would only open so far, she put her hand on the Louisville Slugger at the side, and after sliding three dead bolts she twisted the knob and opened the door.
Nearly falling over when she saw him, she had to blink rapidly several times before she said, “Mr. Farkas?” She could call him Janos in her dreams, not reality.
Closing the door, she slid off the chain and leaned the bat back against the wall before fully opening the door. “Mr. Farkas, is everything all right?” A million things ran through her mind. However, topmost was, how did he get her address?
Now that he was staring at her, he realized that coming there had been a really, really bad idea. Especially considering what she was wearing.
“Yes…and no,” he said softly so she wouldn’t hear the growl that was building in his chest. Clearing his throat, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and forced himself to look down at his feet. “I know that I shouldn’t be here, but”—he glanced at her—“can we talk for a minute?” he asked softly.
She opened the door wider and nodded. “Sure.” What in the world did he need? It was so strange, to have him here at her door. He was like a dream come true to her.
He was about to say something else when he caught the faintest whiff of Wolf. His head snapped up toward where the scent came from and then it was all instinct. His lips curled up as his eyes shifted to afford him with greater vision, including the heat spectrum, and he slipped his hands from his pockets, letting them hang loose at his sides.
“Mina,” he said softly, “go back inside and lock the door,” he added, his eyes focused down the hall where three bodies stood, very hot, which told him they were Wolf. Humans were warm, but they didn’t output the same intense heat of a Wolf body, which burned energy faster and therefore was much hotter.
Mina frowned at him and shook her head. “First you come knocking on my door at”—she glanced back at the clock on the wall—“at two a.m., and now you are telling me to get back inside? What is with you?”
Turning his head slowly, he looked at her. “There are three Wolves hiding down the hall,” he murmured in a low enough tone that the other Wolves couldn’t hear. “They weren’t here when I came in and they aren’t tenants or visitors or I’d have scented them. They are here because of the reason I came to see you. Go in, lock the door, and don’t open it again unless I say your name and knock. If I’m not back by morning, call the Eighth Precinct and ask for Detective Miklos Farkas. He’s one of my brothers. Tell him what I just told you and that I didn’t return. He’ll know what to do from there, clear?” he asked, turning his head back to the three heat signatures when he heard a boot scuff on the flooring.
Mina shook her head but backed away. She understood that she was nowhere near a fighting partner for a Wolf, so she did as he asked. She backed into her apartment and locked all the locks and grabbed her bat just for good measure. “Please be okay,” she whispered quietly.
Chapter 10
Smiling softly, Janos put his palm lightly to her door before he moved off down the hall on light feet. Stopping when they took off, he cursed and took off running. Reaching the street, he looked up and down and scented the air, but they were gone.
“Son of a bitch.” He kicked at a can on the street, sending it skittering toward the gutter. Turning, he looked up at the building and shook his head. “Dumb, dumb, dumb,” he muttered, heading back inside.
Reaching her door a few moments later, he knocked. “Mina, it’s me,” he said loud enough she’d hear but not the other tenants. Stepping back so she wouldn’t feel threatened or throw something at him, he waited patiently. He still hadn’t figured out what he was going to say or do, but he knew she had the right to know…everything.
She opened the door once more after placing the bat back down again. “Come in, Mr. Farkas.” She stepped back from the door, and when she looked into her too small apartment, she stepped back. “I would like to know why there were Wolves in my building, and I’m sure you will tell me why one sniffed me today?”
Stopping with his hand on the door, Janos looked to her. “One sniffed you?” he asked, pushing the door shut and throwing a lock before he moved toward her.
“Where were you when it happened and how many were there?” he asked, quickly following with, “Can you describe them, and did they say anything?” This could be even worse than he was making it in his mind depending on what happened.
“I was on the bus. I was on the way to the Laundromat, and one of them dressed in leather and pack colors leaned in and sniffed me. I think they were going to rob me, but he pulled back and said something like, ‘What the fuck?’” She winced at that word. “‘No, the boss needs to know that the youngest dickling prince has found a mate.’” She shrugged. “That was the last of what he said.”
Janos straightened up and frowned. “He actually said ‘dickling’?” he asked. At her nod, he growled. “I’ll kill the bastard just for that.” The word was an offence to the Wo
lves. Dickling was a slang word that implied a small and flaccid cock. Pacing away, he pushed his hands through his hair before turning to face her once more. “You may want to sit down for this. I have a feeling you may fall down before I’m done.”
She had a feeling that whatever he was about to tell her was something that she wasn’t quite ready for. Moving to the sofa, she sat. “All right, I’m sitting, and I think that I’m ready for whatever you have to tell me, I think.” She licked her lips as she pulled the throw pillow before her and shook her head. “I seriously think that whatever this is is going to change everything, isn’t it?”
Looking at her, he nodded slowly. “Yeah,” he murmured softly before moving to sit in a chair across from her. Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on his knees and rubbed his hands together. “Okay, some of this is going to sound a little strange, but bear with me since I’ve never told anyone any of this, so I may be a little bit all over the map and erratic,” he requested, glancing up.
She could only nod as she watched him. He was beautiful, but the barely leashed animal inside of him was oddly endearing, so she wanted to listen to him, needed to.
At her nod, he dropped his gaze to his hands and decided to just start at the very beginning. “I was born in Hungary in 1814,” he said softly. “My parents were the Royals of the Wolf people.” He shot her a quick look before letting his gaze fall again. “Those guys on the bus were right, I am a prince, but I have never truly held that position since my parents and the rest of our family were all killed.”
She wanted to reach out and touch him. She felt his pain radiating off of him and it hurt her to see him hurting. She finally did reach out, her fingertips lightly touching his knee, but otherwise remained silent, just listening.
