To the Edge and Back [The Royal Wolves] (Siren Publishing Allure)

by Honor James

  There the hands were again, teasing her breasts, and lips trailing over her neck. She had been distracted lately and more prone to daydreaming than any other time ever, so when he took her so easily into that place, she wasn’t surprised. She missed him, funny enough. She missed his snarling and snapping.

  She had made it to the picnic tables and leaned back in the bright sun as she allowed her mind to drift into daydream, and there he was, big, beautiful, and so very naked. When he held his hand out, Mina didn’t hesitate. She slipped hers into his and went into his arms readily, and when he began to kiss her, she shifted slightly and moaned.

  She had been enjoying her daydream and ten minutes later screamed as she came in her dream, felt his seed bursting inside of her. However, eleven minutes later when she opened her eyes, there they stood, her boss and the warehouse head.

  “Mina.” Her boss tugged at his shirt. “We have to let you go.” His ruddy complexion was even redder than normal. “You allowed a customer into the warehouse after hours and gave away free merchandise.”

  When she tried to explain, he shook his head at her. “And now this? Mina, we think you need some help. See a professional.” With that, he turned to walk away, and then she saw Cindy carrying the small paper box in her arms, watched as if disconnected from the whole scene as the box was placed on the table, and then she was all alone.

  Spending a precious dollar, she took the bus home, and as she let herself in, she was still so far from the moment that she didn’t pick up her mail, just pushed into the apartment, locked the doors, and since that afternoon there she sat. Wide awake, she sat on her couch, still in her work clothes, simply too shocked for words.

  Chapter 13

  Reaching her door, he knocked on the panel and frowned when he caught the oddest scent. Knocking again, he stepped to the door. “Mina, honey, it’s Janos. Are you in there?” he called through the door. It was past when she should have been home and, though the lights were off, he knew she was in there. “Mina, let me in please,” he called gently to her, pressing his hand to the door as if he could will her to open it for him.

  Mina turned her head toward the door. “I will be just a moment, Janos.” Okay, she needed to change clothes and hide the box. “I’m just changing, just a sec.” Grabbing the box, she threw it into the closet even as she pulled out another pair of clothes and stripped quickly.

  Pulling on jeans and a sweater, she went to the door. Opening it, she smiled up at him. “Hey there,” she breathed finally when she tugged it open. “How was your week?” she asked quietly and tugged the door open wider. “Come in, please.”

  Stepping inside, he pushed the door shut and locked it without saying a word. Taking her hand in his, he guided her slowly to the couch. Sitting, he tugged her onto his lap. “What happened?” he asked her as gently as he could. “And don’t try to deny something did. I can smell it on you, Mina. Your scent is off.”

  “It’s nothing really, Janos, nothing that needs to be worried about today.” She smiled and leaned her head down and laid her head on his shoulder. “I would rather not talk about me.” She would start to cry again, and that was just humiliating. “How are the clubs going?”

  “They are fine,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her. “Tell me please, Mina?” he asked softly again. “No lies can be between mates, especially when one of them has a Wolf’s nose that can pick up miniscule changes. So just tell me, Mina. Mates share, mates talk, and mates are there for each other in times of need. Please talk to me, honey,” he whispered against her cheek as he pulled her closer and leaned back. “I’m feeling particularly helpless around you right now, and this is not a feeling I happen to like.”

  She closed her eyes and sighed. “I was let go today.” She whispered quietly, “I was fired, but soon I will find another job.” Well, as long as her bosses didn’t put out the “why” of her termination. “I worked for them for seven years and never took a vacation, so this will be my vacation while I figure out what to do.”

  She had seven weeks of vacation pay due to her. However, after taxes it would be only about three and a half weeks worth of pay, but she could and would make it stretch. “I didn’t want you to know, not because I wanted to lie to you, but because I didn’t want to break the moment of happiness that I had with having you come to see me today.”

  “I’m sorry, Mina,” he murmured softly as he stroked back her hair and pressed a light kiss to her jaw. “But now it’s out there, honey. Better to have the air clear to let you better enjoy the moment. We can recreate the moment at any time, but we need to get everything out there so there’s nothing creating friction.” Leaning his head to the side, he tipped up her chin slightly. “Are you going to tell me why you got fired, or should I guess based on what you’ve told me so far and what you’re going to tell me about the time it may have occurred?” he asked her.

  She flushed as she dropped her gaze to the suddenly too-interesting floor. “It’s not your fault.” It was hers, hers and how her body reacted and how loud she seemed to be with sexual things. “It would have happened no matter what, I think.” It sucked, but there it was.

  “At least this way now I can find another job, one that I will love even more so.” She loved her old job. It was now as if she had lost her whole family. Not her coworkers so much as all of her clients. She had built up a rapport with them that had them sending her birthday and Christmas gifts and her sending those cards for all of the important dates in their lives. She had saved and put away money just to buy stamps, cards, and to always have them ready, and now, well now they weren’t needed.

  “How about you, Janos, how has your week been?” He was far more interesting than her anyway. He was so much more than she could ever be.

  “Long,” he said softly as he felt guilt ripping over him. “I should have warned you more fully about the connection. I’m so sorry, Mina,” he whispered, knowing he’d be pulling his business from the liquor supplier that had fired her and he’d be telling them just why he’d done it, too.

  Kissing her cheek again lightly, he buried his nose against her neck and breathed her in slowly. “I missed you and the fact I couldn’t talk to you except in sleep, and even then I was trying not to do anything to drag you into my dreams. I really am sorry about today. I fell asleep in my office and my mind just swung to you and how much I missed you.” Among other things.

  She shrugged and tilted her head sideways. “Don’t be sorry.” Her hand stroked his shoulder absently as she continued, “Never be sorry, Janos. I know you didn’t mean to pull me in, and it was likely my fault, too, because I had missed having you holding me in our dreams. I don’t have a phone or I likely would have called you through the week, because I really did miss you, believe it or not.”

  When she looked up at him, she sighed. “It’s all right, I will find another job.” And she would. She didn’t worry about that. She would find another job, maybe one that paid just as much if not more than the last one. “I think, however, when I look for my next job, it will need to be one where I can sleep when you do.”

  Smiling at her words, he relaxed his hold a little as he watched her. “I probably shouldn’t say it, but I’m glad you missed me. I’ve definitely missed you.” Like she couldn’t have figured that out considering the dream he’d yanked her into earlier that day. “It’s been pure hell forcing myself to stay away from you this week. I’ve caught myself walking out the door to come here and had to turn back around and find something to do that would keep me busy.”

  Chapter 14

  Shifting slightly, he rubbed her back lightly. “What kind of job are you thinking about doing this time around?” he asked quietly.

  She shrugged and toyed with his shirt. “No idea.” She didn’t have a college degree, so she wasn’t a massive asset to anyone, but she was a fast learner, and if she had to she would work at the local fast food place, it would be fine. “You could have come to see me, Janos,” she heard herself mutter and shook he
r head. “I just didn’t want you to expect phone calls from me, which was why I said a week.” It had been a hell of a week, too.

  “Janos, can I ask a question?” This time she pulled back to look up at him, and when he told her “of course,” she asked, “Do all of the Wolf Packs wear gang-like colors?” She really did have a good reason to ask.

  It seemed that the first man that found her wore blue and black, and on Tuesday when she got on the bus, it was as if the whole bus had half of them blue and black and half of them white and red, and both sides seemed to be ready to kill the other side. The men in the white and red welcomed her, cocooned her into their center, and kept her occupied, while the others looked ready to kill. It was the most surreal thing she had ever before encountered.

  Frowning, he nodded slowly. “The Packs wear the colors of their original flags of whoever their ruling lord was at the time before the Royal fall. They wear them to identify what side they are on and who they have allegiance to.” Stroking back her hair gently, he shook his head. “Why do you ask, Mina?” He was curious from where the question came.

  “So why don’t you wear colors like that?” She answered his question with a question. It was odd. She had sat there in disbelief all night, hadn’t slept, and now that he was holding her close and stroking her hair she felt like a warm kitten and could have almost purred in reaction. Her eyes closed and she nuzzled against his shoulder as she pulled her legs in closer. “Do you work tonight?” If so, she needed a nap today so that she could stay up all night and into tomorrow for her job searching.

  “I was working but nearly bit off a waitress’s head, so I came here instead,” he told her softly as he shifted so she would be more comfortable. “I don’t wear colors because I’m technically a lord and could wear our house colors, but since they are the colors of the Royal line it would be just faster to shoot myself instead. Remember,” he said when she twitched her head up to look at him, “we’re not exactly well liked for whatever crazed reason by many of the Packs.”

  “Right, good point.” She smiled and patted his chest. “I like you well enough when you’re not growling at me. When you growl at me though, you make me want to kick you,” she muttered.

  “You can kick me any time you want,” he told her, “as long as you promise to kiss it better at a date and time of my choosing,” he teased.

  She moved slightly and sighed happily. She was exhausted, mentally, physically, but most of all, emotionally. “So what are the colors of the Royal line? I’m sure that they aren’t worn very often, which is kind of sad really.”

  “The Royal colors are silver and black with a lightning bolt of bright blue corner to corner of whatever it’s on. And no”—he shook his head—“they haven’t been worn since the death of my parents in 1818. We all have pieces from our childhood in those colors, but since coming to the States we’ve never even taken them out let alone gotten new pieces made in the colors.”

  “I’m so sorry.” She hurt for him. She had never had parents, but he had, and he recalled them, and for them to have been taken from him as they had been, it made her sad for him. “What about blue and black and then white and red?”

  She was curious now about the two opposites that had nearly given the normal driver a heart attack on her way to work that day. It had been the most insane part of her day, which didn’t say much, as she was normally a boring kind of woman anyway. “And I will kiss it and make it better anytime,” she mumbled now as she felt more and more of his heat penetrating into her very soul. She should get up and make something for them to eat, but ramen noodles didn’t appeal right now, so for now she was perfectly happy being held in his arms as she was.

  “Well, if I remember my history”—he frowned slightly—“blue and black was Lord Fekete, not our family’s most avid supporter. Hell, I’m pretty sure he tried to run my father through with a blade on the field even though he claimed he stumbled. As for the red and white, that would have been Lord Feher, who was a close family friend and lost a son during the slaughter of my parents and other family members, as he was there for the dinner.”

  Right, well that explained that. “So the one who initially sniffed me, I should likely avoid, right?” Duh, her mind shouted at her. She was a human and they were Wolves, honest-to-god, tear-you-limb-from-limb Wolves.

  “Yes, I’d avoid them like the plague,” he told her even as he wanted to know why she’d asked about the colors, but he had a feeling it had to do with her bus ride that first time.

  “Can I admit something to you?” she asked quietly, eyes closed and hand now stilled from its soft and gentle caresses of his chest.

  Kissing her forehead gently, he hugged her. “You can tell me anything anytime you feel like it no matter what it is, honey,” he assured her softly.

  When he told her she could admit anything to him at anytime, she whispered quietly so no one but him could hear, “I’m scared, but I think I might want to try for a possibility of something with you, Janos. Mark me so that when something happens, you can at least have revenge and not be hunted for it.”

  Chapter 15

  Just like that his breath stopped moving in his lungs and he stared blindly across the room. “Nothing’s going to happen to you, Mina,” he whispered softly. Hugging her closer, he shook his head. “Nothing is going to happen,” he said again.

  He wanted to mark her though with more than his scent, but…“Honey, if I mark you…are you sure you’re ready for what might come of it?” he asked her with uncertainty in his voice. “They know the scent of my lineage, and to find you marked…” He swallowed hard. “If they catch you alone, Mina, it won’t be an easy death by any means,” Janos warned her, not sure just what he should or shouldn’t tell her.

  “Janos, they have found me already,” she reminded him simply and then sighed. “Tuesday the bus I normally take back and forth to work was packed, not a normal thing, right? However, it was packed, half with those of white and red, who, believe it or not, I think were oddly there to protect me, and half with black and blue.” So she knew that she wasn’t exactly the safest person on the planet right now. “If I can have a small amount of happiness, shouldn’t I?”

  “They were,” he said softly to her as he hugged her a little tighter. “White and red, white and green, green and blue are all on our side. There are a few others but these I know are in large enough numbers in the city. Anything other than those colors, run,” he told her as he wondered how the hell he was going to protect her.

  If he marked her, then she might be taken just to spite him, and no one would ever give up whomever the killer turned out to be. He could mate with her and same deal. Her only real chance was to go through the transition and become Wolf, but he also knew she was nowhere near ready.

  She shrugged. There was nothing to be done about it. It simply was what it was and there was no amount of wishing that would change anything. She’d learned that years ago. “Anyway, for now I’m safe and you’re here with me.” She looked up at him and smiled. “So see, these are two very good things, right?” Patting his chest, she sighed. “You worry too much, Janos. Please don’t worry about me, all right?”

  “You’re my mate, Mina. I’m allowed to worry about you. It’s my god-given right,” he said, softly kissing the tip of her nose. “And I have nowhere I need to be. If my staff needs me, they know to call Max.” He grinned slightly. “I just want to hold you, Mina. Can I do that tonight?” he asked carefully.

  “I would like that very much, Janos.” She did give him a quirky grin and then a little sadly admitted, “I will miss my weekly chats with Maxi. He really is funny and was just one of the clients I could always count on to call me when I needed it.” She shrugged and then moved slightly. “My bed is not the largest of places, but if we are face to face we can sleep in there together.” Her bed was a full size, and he was, well, he was massive.

  “You know you could still call him to chat, right?” he said, trying to keep the jealousy down. He
was Wolf though and was fighting his instincts to even say the words.

  Sliding his one arm under her knees, he stood with her in his arms cradled close to him. Heading down the hall, he paused as he looked into her room and moved in slowly, stopping once he reached the bed, and let her legs slide down. “I’m going to go and make sure we’re locked up tight so you can get ready. I’ll be back in five,” he told her, stroking her cheek once before stepping back slightly.

  She caught his hand and shook her head. “I can’t call him.” She shrugged. “Besides, I’m sure that Veronica will take very good care of him.” Veronica was one of her previous coworkers who always made a point to meet all of the clients, in the most intimate ways possible. “Go, the locks are all thumb turn and the windows have never opened, so…” She shrugged and let his hand go. “I will be the one sleeping when you come back,” she teased.

  Smiling at her, he nodded and stepped from the room, moving quickly through her apartment. Locking the door fully, he turned off the lights as he went, leaving a small table lamp on for a soft light in the outer room. Kicking his shoes off at the door, he hung up his jacket and left his wallet and keys in the pocket. Palming his phone, he went back to the bedroom and set it on the bedside table before using her bathroom quickly and then lying on the bed. Stroking her hair lightly, he eased closer and wrapped his arms around her gently.

  She turned so that she faced him and sighed as he pulled her close. It felt strange. Here he was, a complete stranger, but she felt safer with him than she ever had in all her life. “I know I should cover us up, but I don’t think we will need it being fully dressed and all.”