by Amelia Jade
“Hel.”
“Yes?”
“I’ve got an idea.”
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
She giggled and kissed him on the lips this time. “Shut up. It’s a fun one.”
He propped himself up on his palms so he could look her in the face. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. I was thinking about the shower.”
“Wonderful idea. What about it?”
“It’s big enough for two and—”
Hel was already rolling off her. “Last one there has to sponge-bathe the other!”
Megyn shrieked and went after him, smacking his ass to distract him.
Neither of them won, but they both still got sponge baths.
Chapter Seventeen
Hel
The next morning he awoke early. Much earlier than intended, but his mind was awake, his body refreshed despite the night’s activities, and he knew there was no hope in getting back to sleep. Hel was awake, and it was going to stay that way.
Grumbling at his inability to sleep in, he eased his way out of bed, pausing a moment to watch Megyn sleep. There was something innocent and pure about her when she was asleep, and if it wasn’t considered creepy he would have stayed and watched her for a long time, basking in nothing more than her presence.
Ten years it had taken him to finally put together the courage to do something with his mate, and now it seemed that things were going well. He still had to get over his inability to tell her that he liked her, or more accurately, was head over heels in love with her, but that would come in time.
I hope.
Fixing some breakfast from the groceries they’d gotten during a break in their bedroom activities, he decided that maybe he’d go down and try to get a handle on the renovation that they were expected to work on.
He quickly sent her a text so she knew where he was, and then headed downstairs, a smile plastered to his face knowing that his mate was there in his bed.
It bothered him to know that he’d not realized just how much of a grandiose asshole her ex was right away. As the Alpha of a local pack of wolf shifters it was a given he was a dick. That basically went with the territory. But a cheating, abusive asshole? That was far from guaranteed.
Hel still couldn’t figure out why Ian had gone after her. Wolf shifters had mates too, just like dragons. It was a shifter trait, and he must have known that Megyn wasn’t his. What had his purpose been? Just to manipulate Hel, to watch him be miserable while someone else was with his mate?
It had hurt. There were days Hel had gone and destroyed entire swaths of forest to help appease his anger at Ian. But Megyn had seemed happy, and he wasn’t able to do anything about that. His entire job in life was to make sure his mate was happy. Preferably with him, but with someone rather than no one if he failed as a mate.
All of that was in the past though, and knowing that put a big smile on his face as he took the elevator down a level. She was finally his, and they could begin the joining of their lives into one. What more could he ask for in life?
The chimes sounded and the door slid open.
“They’re here, I know it!”
“So are a lot of other dragons. I don’t like it.”
“Nothing recent! We can get them and get out.”
“I say we wait outside!”
Hel stepped out of the elevator.
Nine sets of eyes turned to face him. He recognized some of them. Ian. Danny, and others.
“Funny,” he drawled, glad he was wearing his work clothes. “I thought the furry convention was next door. Aren’t you guys a little lost?”
One of the wolf shifters snarled and came at him, shifting in mid-run.
Hel rolled his eyes at the savage beast. His hand shot out. He ripped a four-by-four beam from the wall, whipped it around, and slammed it down on the mutt’s head as the beast passed through the space he’d occupied.
Bone cracked, and the wolf yelped in pain and went down, sliding across the bare concrete floor and into a pile of construction materials.
“Who’s the big bad doggy?” Hel taunted, dropping his jaw and panting.
The other shifters roamed out wide or picked up their own weapons and came at him.
“I have to admit…” he started to say before charging two of them with the beam still in hand.
Five feet away he tossed the beam in the air horizontally, slammed his palms into it, and sent it flying at the pair he’d picked out first. The heavy wooden post hit them, rebounding off toward him. Hel brought his arms up from underneath it, bracing it against his chest and dropped his knees. Sliding across the concrete he caught the wolf shifters off-balance as they recovered, dumping them to the ground.
One was too slow to avoid the awkward downward slam of the post, taking the butt end right in his face, but the other was more alert and kicked it free from his grasp. The maneuver didn’t work as planned. The screws that were still embedded in the ends from where he’d ripped it out of the wall pierced the soft toe of the shoe and went right into skin.
The shifter screamed. Hel got up, hit him with a roundhouse kick, and then was moving on, the whole encounter taking perhaps three seconds. Only six effectives remained, though the two dangerous ones, Danny and Ian, were still unharmed.
Growls filled the level.
“As I was saying,” he said, dodging a wolf and moving to another section to buy himself some room. “I’m mighty impressed at how well you’ve managed to track me. Even for a wolf shifter this must have been no mean feat. I’d love to know how you knew to come to Barton City.”
There was no response. The men all continued to circle each other. This gave Hel the advantage, allowing him to assess the situation. Four shifters still in human form, and two wolves who seemed to be designated as blockers. They stayed between him and the elevator, preventing him from escaping. As if he would leave before the party was over!
“Nothing to say for yourself, Ian?”
“You’re going to die in here,” Megyn’s ex grinned.
“That’s still not going to get you Megyn back. She’s done with you, idiot.”
Ian rolled his eyes. “I never wanted her in the first place. She was just a project. A challenge.”
Hel snarled, the shifter confirming his suspicions that he’d wooed Megyn just to get at him.
“Yeah, that’s right, you ugly lizard. Finally got it through your skull into that tiny brain did you? I had your woman before you did. Na na na na na.”
Ian yelped as a sliver of frigid metal hissed past his head. Hel didn’t stop to watch; he was already moving for one of the others. He raised his hands in fists, and the other shifter did the same, content to engage in hand-to-hand combat. Hel jabbed once, then twice. Each time the shifter blocked it.
Then he jabbed a third time while focusing on his fist. The shifter went to block at the same time that spikes of quicksilver burst from every angle of Hel’s hand and forearm. Screams filled the area as the ultra-cold metal pierced skin and muscle, parting it with ease. Hel spun, flinging a backfist into the man’s kidney as he danced past, a single long spike jutting from the back of his hand.
The shifter howled and went down, seriously but not fatally wounded.
Five to g—
Something hit Hel hard in the back, and he went down under a pile of skin and fur. With a mighty roar he curled up into a ball, and then used up a bunch of energy. Foot-long spikes of quicksilver burst from his skin, turning him into an armored ball.
Wolves yelped, humans screamed, and bodies of all species went flying, blood spurting left and right.
“Are we done here?” he snapped, advancing on Ian. “I don’t want to kill you. But if you show up and threaten me or Megyn again, I will, do you understand me? I will snap your puny little puppy necks like they were chicken wings on all-you-can-eat night. Got it?”
Ian, holding a hand to his neck as it gushed blood nodded, coughing slightly as more red liquid came up through his
mouth.
“And don’t mess the place up, okay?”
“You know this isn’t over,” Danny snarled, held up by another shifter, one leg not working properly. “You’re dead.”
“I’m so scared,” he said, monotone. “Nine of you couldn’t stop me. What are you going to do next time, bring ten?”
Danny grinned. “You haven’t told Megyn yet, have you? Sure would be an interesting way to have to explain things to her. Is she ready to know the truth about you yet?”
Hel took a step forward and the wolves hastily retreated into the elevator, beaten for now. They were easily scared, but would return, and in greater numbers. He needed to find a way out for the two of them, and soon. Danny was right; there was no way Hel could do what he’d just done with Megyn around. The fight at the wedding had been a fluke. He’d caught everyone off guard and unprepared, then he’d fled.
“Maybe I should have snapped a few necks tonight,” he muttered to the empty floor, wincing at all the blood everywhere. Most of it could be covered up, but the next people to do renovations would be left to wonder what sort of murder had occurred in their apartment.
Something in his back hurt from where he’d been tackled. Reaching back, he found a piece of metal shoved in just next to his spine.
“How pleasant.” He groaned and without thinking about it ripped it free, gasping as pain flooded his body, making him suddenly aware of the extent of the injury. Hel took a knee. The “piece of metal” was actually about seven inches long and four wide. How had he not felt that earlier?
The pain throbbed and he lay flat on the concrete, waiting for his body to close the wound and stem the bleeding to the point that he could move.
I wonder if Megyn slept through that?
Hopefully, because he needed a short nap now to recoup some of the energy he’d expended, and to wait for his body to heal.
Then he’d have to do the unpleasant task of telling Megyn what had just happened.
Yeah, a nap first definitely sounded like a good idea. This wasn’t going to be pretty.
Chapter Eighteen
Megyn
“He did WHAT?” she screamed, leaping from the bed without bothering about clothes. “Hel, you’re covered in blood.”
“Not mine,” he said, waving her attention off. “I got the drop on them, made a few of them pay for coming all the way over here.”
“Back up.” Her brain was still a little foggy, but she was rapidly putting all the bits of information she’d received into the proper order. “Explain this to me again.”
“Ian, Danny and some of his buddies were downstairs. I woke up early and knew I wasn’t going to fall back to sleep, so instead of waking you I went to go take a wander down there and just get another look at it. You looked cute and peaceful, so I let you sleep in. When the elevator doors opened they were just standing there arguing about whether or not we were actually there.”
“Right. Then what happened?”
Hel looked away.
“Hel, what happened next?” she growled, taking a step toward him.
“I insulted them?”
“Of course you did.” Megyn buried her head in her hands, sitting back onto the edge of the bed. She mostly missed, yelped and felt to the ground. Crossing her arms, she waved off Hel’s offer to help her up. “I’m fine here. Now tell me why you thought insulting them was the smart thing to do?”
“They get angry really easily. The angrier they are, the easier it is to beat them all up.”
Megyn slammed her head back, regretting it when she remembered there was a footboard and rubbed her head. “Ow. Look at how worked up you’re getting me.”
“Sorry,” he said apologetically.
“Tell me why you thought that fighting them was the best course of action? Why didn’t you try talking first? Isn’t that, I don’t know, the normal thing to do?”
“Natural instinct? I’m sorry, but he has a really punchable face. I just have this urge to put my fist right through it.”
“Right.” She sighed. “What did you say to insult them?”
“I told them that they must be lost, that the furry convention is next door.”
She laughed, clamped a hand over her mouth. “That is not approval of what you did!” she said, standing up, only then becoming aware of her nudity as his eyes traveled along her body. “Stop that.”
Hel just winked, but he didn’t do anything more while she got dressed in some clean clothes, except maybe clear his throat as she bent over to put her underwear on. It was quiet enough she couldn’t pin anything on him.
“I still can’t believe he’s here,” she hissed, grabbing her phone from the nightstand and punching a few buttons on the screen. It started to ring.
“Hello—”
“Listen you stupid asshole,” she shouted. “Leave me the fuck alone. I don’t want to be with you anymore. I’m done, it’s over. Go away and stop following me you creep! Okay? Go. Away. Do you need me to spell it out for you? Or better yet, maybe I can find a coloring book, would that cater to your intelligence a little better? I promise it’ll be color-by-numbers, so that you can’t fuck it up, like you have everything else so far!”
The sudden turnaround in her attitude and the profanity-laced tirade caught her by surprise, even though she was the one saying it. Hel was leaning against the doorframe to the rest of the condo, eyes wide, unblinking.
“Megyn,” Ian said, his voice sounding off. “You can’t listen to the lies he’s putting in your head. I came here to win you back, to show you that I still love you. The guys were helping me put something together for you when that jerk attacked us from behind without warning or provocation.” There was a pause. “I just want you to come home, Meggie. Come home with me. Where you belong.”
She laughed. “Don’t ever call me that again. You lost the right to do that when you tried to kill me with your truck, if not before! And don’t tell me where I belong. The more I listen to you, the more I feel like you believe I should belong to you! I’m not your fucking property, Ian, you abusive piece of shit. Now go away, and leave me alone!”
Ian snarled loudly into the phone. “Fine, you want it that way? You want to go jump around like your little whore of a mother? Do it. Go get married again, and again. It won’t make any difference. Just remember that I had you first!”
Hel was suddenly there, taking the phone from her hand. “One mistake, Ian. If you make one mistake, I’ll be there, and I will kill you. I’ll snap your neck with my bare hands.”
She’d never heard him talk that way before. His voice was icy cold and foreboding. This was a promise he would keep no matter what, she was confident of that. Megyn’s anger fell away. She’d known Hel had dabbled in some things she wouldn’t approve of before, but the way he wasn’t fazed by the idea of killing Ian said that maybe she didn’t know as much as she thought she did.
Ian’s reply was loud enough for her to hear even with the phone no longer pressed next to her ear. “Try it, lizard-brain. We’re waiting outside. You’ve got to come out eventually. Oh, and I brought some more friends this time.”
Megyn looked at Hel, noting the tightness in his normally relaxed features. Getting up, she went and looked out the window at the street level far below.
Sure enough, she could pick out men standing around. Alone, or in groups of two or three. She counted five, made her way to the windows on the other wall and saw another seven there, flanking the entrance to the lobby.
“Probably equal numbers elsewhere,” Hel noted. “He brought the entire damn pack with him. Must have been a pricy flight.”
“Pack?”
“Yeah. The Farmiers are like a pack of dogs, and Ian is the wannabe Alpha.” Hel snorted. “Too bad such things don’t actually exist. Nobody tell him that.”
“You’re taking this incredibly well. They’re out there waiting for you. Shouldn’t you be a little bit worried?”
Hel’s eyes glittered briefly in the early-afternoon
sun as it streamed through the window. “I am,” he admitted. “There’s more of them than I can confidently handle, in public at least.”
“Police are still out of the question?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
“Yes. We need to find another way out of here.”
Megyn watched his shoulders stiffened. Abruptly his gaze moved up to the ceiling. At the same time he started to gnaw on his bottom lip, likely unaware of the gesture. His focus was so intense he completely ignored her clearing her throat. Finally she had to result to throwing a pillow at him.
It bounced off his chest as if he were a statue, registering no impact. She readied a second and third round, but they weren’t necessary.
“This place has a roof, doesn’t it?”
She stared at him. “You’re so astute. The building has a roof. Wow. I think that’s safe to say, Hel, yes. The question is, what the hell does that have to do with anything?”
“It might have everything to do with anything,” he said quietly.
“Meaning what, exactly?”
Hel rolled his shoulders. “Meaning that tonight you’re going to find out the truth.”
“The truth about what?” she asked, suddenly very nervous.
“Me.” He grinned wide. “I have a plan.”
Chapter Nineteen
Hel
“Hel, I should tell you something,” she said, following him into the elevator.
Hel frowned in thought for a moment, then punched a code into the elevator and it whisked them upward so quickly his stomach dropped. “What’s that?” he asked, putting an arm around Megyn to steady her as she took a step to adjust her balance.
“I’m not very good at whatever it is you expect me to do to get us out of here.” She sighed. “I really think you should just call the police. This is getting to be ridiculous.”
Her phone buzzed. She looked at the message on the screen. He could read it over her shoulder. It was from Ian. Come out, come out, wherever you are!
He really wasn’t very imaginative. Both of them rolled their eyes and she shoved it back in her pocket.
