Ruling Fire (Bad Boys Of The Underworld Book 4)

by Crowe, Mallory

  Elsie stepped back and once again looked him over. She glanced to Dean and Cade for confirmation of what Lucian said, but his comrades were nowhere to be seen.

  Could he really not change back to human once the sun went down? That was a tidbit of information he didn’t need to give her. Just another breadcrumb to build trust.

  At least Brock could turn at will. And even when he was a wolf, he was a pretty—well, handsome—wolf. Lucian and his people had to spend half of their lives like this. No wonder they couldn’t find a mate.

  “Can you take me to the car? We need to get back to the city.”

  “Are you sure you don’t need an escort?”

  Considering how much her head was spinning from him transporting her a few blocks over, she could only imagine the jarring effect of going all the way to Manhattan. “I need some time alone with Dani, and I’d like to get out of here as soon as possible.” She had a feeling it wouldn’t take long for Cullen and his lackeys to catch their scent, and she’d rather be in a moving vehicle before that happened.

  “There’s the car Cade left for you.” He motioned with a jerk of his head to the nondescript black sedan. “You can pick up your car tomorrow.”

  “Why didn’t you just—” Elsie stopped herself. He didn’t just transport her back to her car because he wanted her to come back to him. Because he wanted to make sure she didn’t renege on their deal. “Okay. I’ll give you a call some time when I can stop by. I’m sure Brock will want to say hello,” she added with a bite of warning.

  “Tell him I say hi.” He tossed her a set of keys and then vanished.

  “That conversation isn’t going to go over well,” muttered Elsie under her breath.

  Dani was turning in a circle as she looked for any sign of where the three monsters went. Hopefully she didn’t run because Elsie hadn’t turned into a wolf again since the first time she’d met Cullen, and she really didn’t think she’d be able to give chase.

  “Who the hell were they?”

  “A few days with your dad and you’re already cursing like a sailor. Fantastic.” Elsie started to the car and hit the unlock button on the electronic keypad. “Come on,” she called, holding her breath until she heard the soft footfalls of Dani running to the car.

  A rush of relief shot through her as she climbed into the car with Dani sliding into the passenger seat. Elsie hit the lock button and adjusted the seat as quickly as possible before hitting the gas to get the hell out of there.

  Dani was quiet as Elsie made her way to the freeway, and Elsie figured she was torn between asking about Lucian and her hesitancy to talk to the woman she’d almost killed.

  Once Elsie was far enough away, she glanced over at the sixteen-year-old. She looked rough. There were bags under her eyes, and her hair wasn’t in the neat ponytail she’d always worn around the cabin. Instead, the feathery blonde locks were tangled around her face, as if she hadn’t brushed it since the night of the dance.

  “Do you want to come back?” asked Elsie.

  Dani looked out the window, avoiding eye contact with Elsie at all costs. “What does it matter?”

  “It matters!” snapped Elsie. “I went against Brock and a lot of other people to get you back. Those men who pulled you out weren’t doing it for free, Dani. So if I need to drop you off right here so you can call your dad to pick you up, I will. But if I’m going to go back to Brock and face whatever he’s going to dish out, I need to know I did it for a good reason. So, honestly, what do you want?”

  Dani glanced over to Elsie just long enough for a headlight to glint off a tear rolling down her face before she turned back to the window. “I want to go home,” she said softly.

  Some of the tension immediately left Elsie. At least this entire day wasn’t for nothing. “Then you’ll go home,” she promised.

  “Brock won’t let me.”

  “He’ll listen to reason.”

  Dani shook her head. “You don’t understand. You didn’t see him. I almost got you killed. His mate. He’s not going to forgive me. I’m just lucky he didn’t kill me when he found out. He was...feral.”

  Elsie thought back to how upset he’d been when he came to the city to pick her up from the Tower. So what would he have been like when she really was in danger? When he was standing in front of the person—well, child—who’d served her over to his enemies? “I never said he’d be happy to see you, did I? But he will accept it.” She’d see to it.

  Dani didn’t say anything, but her face read skepticism loud and clear.

  “Did Cullen treat you well? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

  Dani scrunched her face and shook her head. “He’s nice enough.”

  “But you obviously didn’t like it there.”

  “It’s not Da—I mean, Cullen isn’t the problem. It’s the other weirdoes he keeps hanging out with.”

  “Like Rachel?” Cullen’s mate who’d been there when they’d taken her. She hadn’t done much during the attack, but she hadn’t seemed too conflicted about it either.

  Dani scoffed. “Rachel is...”

  “Mean? Weird?”

  “She’s a lot of crazy in a small package.”

  “Crazy like what?”

  “Can we not talk about this right now? I’m just trying to get myself ready for Brock throwing me out his window. His penthouse window,” she said pointedly.

  Elsie wished she could laugh at the ridiculous idea, but all she could do was tighten her hands on the wheel and continue on to Manhattan.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Brock jumped up as the elevator door opened into the apartment. Finally. He’d been waiting for Elsie for over an hour since he’d gotten home. He’d held off on calling her, but she’d been texting him a few times about when she was supposed to be home. That didn’t make waiting easier.

  Every second he was away from her was like torture. He’d forgotten the feeling of having a mate. Somehow he’d convinced himself that he could make it work in this modern age, but he’d severely underestimated the power of the bond.

  He prepared to pounce on her the second she stepped into the apartment, but he smelled the third party before he reached the entryway.

  “Dani?” A snarl escaped, making the question a menacing growl.

  Dani took a nervous gulp and moved to stand behind Elsie. That just pissed him off more.

  “What the fuck is she doing here?” he bit out.

  “Brock, let me explain.” Elsie took a step forward.

  “She’s a fucking traitor and gave up her place in the family,” he snapped, pointing at Dani as though the force of that one finger was enough to banish her from his sight.

  “She’s your family, Brock.”

  “She tried to kill you!”

  Elsie stepped forward as rage flashed in her eyes. “Well, she’s my family now too! And I’m not going to leave her there with those...things!”

  “Does the idea of werewolves disgust you now?”

  “No. The idea of thugs who beat me and tied me up disgusts me, and Dani has no business being around people like that. Especially not if we can help it, so this is me helping it.”

  Elsie stared up at him, her bright blue eyes blazing with her anger, and Brock twisted around as he slammed his fist into the drywall. He heard Elsie gasp behind him and Dani back away. He needed to get out of here before he did something he was going to regret. “I’m calling Russell,” he snapped as he crossed through the living area to the master suite, where he pulled off his business suit and traded it for his loose t-shirt, sweatpants, and tennis shoes.

  “You’re going for a run?” asked Elsie hesitantly from the doorway.

  “We’re going for a run. Obviously I can’t leave you for one fucking day without you trying to get yourself killed. And if you think you’re getting one single second to yourself after this shit, you’re wrong.”

  A muscle in her jaw ticked but she didn’t fight with him. Probably a good idea. He didn’t think he could take her
pressing any buttons at the moment. He was on the verge of changing now, and who knew what damage his wolf form would do to his apartment.

  “Let me get my running clothes on.”

  Brock caught her arm as she crossed to get her bag and pulled her back against him; her ass pressed against his cock as he bent forward and took a long inhale of her delicate scent. The scent he’d been craving all day. The scent he’d been waiting for. “Wear a dress,” he whispered into her ear.

  “But—”

  “We won’t be wearing clothes when we’re running and the dress is easier to manage. Trust me.”

  He let her go and watched her as she shakily took off her work clothes and pulled out a sundress. “I don’t know how to change,” she said tentatively.

  His mouth watered at the pale expanse of her back and the curve of her waist. If Dani wasn’t here, he and Elsie would be able to work off his frustrations in other ways, but he’d have to take it out to Central Park.

  “What if someone sees you?” Elsie smoothed the sundress over her stomach, obviously not realizing the intense pressure to change he was under.

  “Then we deal with it then. Are you ready?”

  Elsie slid on her bright pink running shoes and nodded. He could see the hesitation in her eyes, but she still took his hand when he reached out for her. Brock glared at Dani as he pulled Elsie through the apartment and to the elevator. “Russell is going to be here any minute,” he warned. “You’re going to go with him to your mother’s and you’re not going to leave her sight until you both hear from me. Is that understood?”

  Dani nodded but kept her gaze averted and glued to the ground. At least she had the grace to look uncomfortable, but it didn’t help the mix of anger, fear, and adrenaline that pumped through his veins. He needed to get out, and Elsie was coming with him.

  Even through his anger, a little bit of excitement mixed in. Going out with his mate... Running with her...

  As the elevator descended, he called Russell and ordered him to pick up Dani and take her somewhere she’d be safe and he could piece together some semblance of logical thought. Because right now all he could think about was getting Elsie alone. Running with him or screaming beneath him, he didn’t care. He could barely focus on anything at the moment but her.

  The elevator doors opened; Brock took Elsie’s hand in his and pulled her along through the lobby and pushed the doors to the lobby open. “I need you to tell me what you did.”

  “Brock, I—”

  He stopped his frantic pace for a second to look down at her. “No. No apologies. No sugarcoating. What’s done is done and now we deal with the consequences. But I need to know everything.”

  Her brow creased and he knew she was still fighting the urge to downplay it. But then she took a steadying breath and started to talk. “I went to Cullen. I told him to give Dani back and I threatened him.”

  “You know there were reasons I didn’t do the same damn thing.”

  “You didn’t get her back yourself because of the risk of collateral damage. If you took ten guys with you, if even one of them got a scratch, it would look bad for you. Plus there was no way to go in and guarantee Dani wouldn’t get hurt in the process. She could turn into a hostage or, even worse, be fighting alongside Cullen and proving just how little control you had over your own people.”

  Well, fuck, she really did know. “So what made you think this was possibly a good idea?”

  “Because I didn’t risk any of your people. If Dani had refused to come home, no one would know except us. And, considering how happy she eventually was to see me, I don’t regret a single thing.”

  “You risked you!” he shouted. A few people on the street paused to look at them and Elsie gave a weak smile to assure them she wasn’t in trouble.

  Brock shook his head at her and pulled her across the street and to the entrance to Central Park. Any wolf living in Manhattan needed easy access to the park.

  “So what do you do if someone sees you?” asked Elsie as she obediently followed him.

  “We track them down and have one of our friends pay them a visit.”

  Elsie stopped in her tracks. “What do you mean, pay them a visit?”

  Brock leaned in closer. “We have a vampire friend give them a brain wipe if they’ve seen anything.”

  She let out a sigh of relief. “Oh...” As they went deeper into the park, the shadows seemed to stretch farther and he led her away from the glare of the streetlamps. “Isn’t this place dangerous at night?”

  Brock ducked behind a tree to hide them from view and pushed her back against the tree with his body until all her heat and curves were pressed up against him. Between him and the trunk against her shoulders, she was trapped.

  “I think the only thing you should be really worried about is me,” he breathed against her neck as he leaned into the delicate crook of her shoulder and took a long inhale, savoring the scent as he ran the tip of his nose along her skin until he got to her ear. He took a delicate nibble and felt her jump in surprise against him.

  “I’m not afraid of you,” she said with a cracking voice.

  He didn’t know whether the shakiness in her voice was because she was afraid of him or turned on, but he was past caring at the moment. “That’s your problem, Elsie. You really should be afraid.”

  He reached down, hooking his fingers in the loose hem of her sundress and drawing the material up, skimming her thigh as he moved until he was able to cup her panties-covered ass in his palm, groaning at the contact.

  “Brock, I—”

  He cut her off with a kiss, pressing his hard cock into the vee of her thighs even as his tongue probed her lips. As she started to lean into him, he ripped himself away. “You what?”

  For a few seconds, she stared blankly up at him. Her breasts moved up and down as she tried to catch her breath. “I, umm... What do you want from me?”

  He smiled down at her, not caring that his fangs were starting to show. There was just such a primitive thrill at knowing he had Elsie with him and he could do whatever he wanted with her. For the moment, she was his...

  “I want you to turn.”

  She stiffened in his arms. “Turn? You know I can’t.”

  “You will. You just have to learn.”

  “The only reason I could do it last time was because I was about to die. I didn’t have a choice.”

  “Then run from me.” He took a step back.

  “Excuse me?”

  “I said, run. I’ll give you a thirty second head start, but after that I’m coming after you. And you won’t like it when I catch up.”

  The confused look on her face didn’t go away. “But what will you do when—”

  He reached out and palmed her through her dress and panties; his palm pressed against her clit as his fingers teased her entrance, even through the layers of fabric. “Then I win and I can do whatever I want. So are you going to forfeit or are you going to run from me?”

  The fear in her eyes mixed with heat, and he could practically hear the wheels turn in her mind as she decided whether being with him again was worth the fear. “And if I get away from you?”

  “Then I forget this ever happened and we go back to the truce we had before today.”

  She glanced down and he could tell she was weighing her options. Except she didn’t realize that she didn’t have any options.

  “Thirty,” he said menacingly as he stepped away from her and released her from his grip. “Twenty-nine.”

  Her eyes widened. “I’m not going to—”

  “Twenty-eight.”

  She jerked away from the tree and took a hesitant step back. “Can’t we talk—”

  “Twenty-seven.”

  “Fine. Have it your way, Neanderthal.” With that, she twisted around and started off.

  It took everything in him to not give chase, but he knew that would come soon enough. Because no matter how fast she ran, how far she got, he would catch her. And then he’d show he
r why mates didn’t go against each other.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Elsie lost track of the numbers in her mind as she ran faster and farther. But she knew it was useless. Once Brock was in wolf form, there was no way she could outrun him. Part of her, the logical part, knew that her best chance would be to escape out of the park to the more populated streets.

  But that would lead to exposure, and she knew deep down that Brock would find her no matter who saw him. She was his mate.

  So she needed to stay to the secluded park and focus on her only chance of escape. She had to turn.

  But how could she turn while running? She needed to stop and focus. Hell, a good meditation wouldn’t hurt at this point. All she could do was think how it felt when she was the wolf. The freedom of escaping with her life. The crunch of the leaves against her paws. The rush of the breeze in her fur and eyes.

  Some mental dam within her broke. One second, she was a two-legged human; the next, her hands had become paws and she hit the ground, her speed increasing exponentially as the earth pounded beneath her.

  This was it. That freedom she’d been craving. The cool night air filled her lungs, and her new eyes saw more than she’d ever seen even during her daylight visits to the park. She could smell a thousand different stories, see a hundred different tales of animals and humans alike. The city took on another dimension she never knew existed.

  Right as exhilaration started to fill her, she heard it. The soft growl from behind her.

  Elsie came to an abrupt halt and looked over her shoulder. There he was. Her mate was so impressive. Big, dark, and imposing as hell. And he happened to look pissed as he ran right toward her.

  As happy as she was to see him, her flight response took over and she sprinted off away from him. Why was she running? She wanted to see her mate. She loved him.

  But even as fast as she could go in this new body, it wasn’t fast enough. In only a minute, she could hear his panting breaths behind her. Feel that same breath against her hind legs.

  No. She could make it. She just had to—