“Maybe that’s why he stole from you and fucking disappeared.”
I gulped. The haze of my slight buzz made it difficult for me to fully process his words. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about you being a cunt.”
It was like he had slapped me again.
“Hey!” Markus barked. “Eliseo get a hold of yourself!”
“Tell me where the fuck he is!” He jutted his finger at me.
Markus jumped up and grabbed his shirt front in a fist, knocking over a glass of wine. His face had turned beat red, the veins popping out on his neck. He looked as though he was straining to control himself. “You’re just angry Don put me on the bust tomorrow morning and not you. Do you want it?”
“Don’t fucking do that. Don’t you dare fucking try make me your charity.”
There it was again, that deep growl.
I started to scoot back in my chair.
“Get a hold of yourself, Eliseo.” His eyes glowed even more so than I had seen before.
Eliseo’s gaze had taken on a silver quality. He tipped his head up, letting out blood-curdling growl.
Why was I the only one in the room who wanted to scream?
My makeup woman-friend stood up, mumbling something and reached behind the curtain retrieving a faux wall. It was made of steel and slammed shut, a lock coming down with it. I glanced around me again, taking a closer look. Behind all the curtains, everything was steal. Holy shit. Phantom pain from the slaps and the punch and the torture took over my body. I was stuck. Fucking stuck in this room with mobsters and Markus…
“You don’t tell me what to do. Only Don can do that.” He reached over the table and backhanded Markus so hard he let go of the shirt. His chair tipped so he stood up, letting out a growl of his own. It was guttural, unhuman like. I pressed my back against the steel door, suddenly feeling like the whole room was closing in.
“Except you don’t listen to him. You don’t deliver.”
Eliseo was shaking all over. “Don’t provoke me.” His eyes changed right before mine. They weren’t grey, they were silver and they were getting bigger, red rims around them.
Markus backhanded him so hard he turned all the way around, flying against the wall. He turned back around and shoved Markus who flew towards my wall. I screeched stepping out of the way. I heard something crack. A bone maybe? “Markus!” I sounded like a hyena.
“Emily.” Another man stepped towards me. His face was stern, but unconcerned, like this scene was commonplace. He lifted me up and held me but I couldn’t tell if it was to keep me there, or to keep me out of harm’s way.
Markus rolled over. “You don’t need to be provoked.” He was growling like an animal or a monster. He was shaking too, just like Eliseo. Something was about to happen, I could feel it. “You can’t get results.” He was gaining on Eliseo, who had now started hyperventilating, breathing so hard his whole chest looked like it was going to explode. Was I watching a seizure? Were they both dying? No. That didn’t make any sense. “You are failing Don.” He reached out on either side of him, turning his head up to the ceiling again.
The make-up woman went around the room, blowing out all of the candles.
Suddenly, it was pitch black.
Another howl. I heard crackling and popping sounds, whimpers of pain. Something sloshed to the ground, blood? The sounds were coming from everywhere, all around me. I couldn’t distinguish anything but I thought I might have heard ripping and tearing. More growls. It was so loud, it drowned out my own heart pounding in my chest.
“Oh no. They’re dying.” Markus had slipped from my fingers. What was happening? Were they fighting? Why the hell didn’t anyone care? “Markus!”
Someone flicked on a flashlight. It was about time.
But my heart stopped when I saw the scene before me. Eliseo was on the ground, lying face up and naked, his clothes sprawled around him. But it wasn’t just his clothes, some of them were Markus’s. But Markus wasn’t anywhere to be seen. There was wolf standing on top of Eliseo with blood dripping from its fang-like teeth. His coat was white, but damp with a red substance that must have been blood too.
I was four feet away from an actual wolf. Where had it come from.
What the fuck had I gotten myself into?
Chapter Seven
I sat up in that bed all night, waiting for Markus and it wasn’t until the sun had started to rise when he finally came for me. His shirt was completely unbuttoned and his pants had dust stains on them. He looked tired. Drained. I stood up and walked to him because I just couldn’t wait any longer. I hadn’t stopped shaking since the incident. “What the hell was that back there? Where did that wolf come from? Where did you go?” He shook his head, brushing past me. He let himself fall onto the bed.
Without wasting a second, I went to join him, climbing up next to him. “Why did you leave me?”
He seemed to wake up to this. He turned his face toward me. “I didn’t leave you. I was there the whole time.”
Now, things were getting even more confusing. “You have to explain yourself.” Without thinking, I reached my hand under his shirt and touched the skin of his torso. He inhaled sharply and his eyes glazed.
He turned over, resting on his elbow and fingering the hem of my dress. “I don’t want to scare you away.”
I snickered. “I met you in middle of being tortured. You got into a fight right in front of my face. You work for the mob. What could be worse?”
He let out a dry chuckle and focused on a spot on the ceiling. “All of that sounds pretty bad.”
I shook my head. But he wasn’t Cody. For some reason, those silent mornings and cold shoulders were a million times more exhausting and terrifying than real conflict.
He traced his hand across my cheek. “You look so sad.”
I lifted it from my face and held it to my chest. “You have to give me something.”
He let out a sigh. “There is more.”
“What?” I was hungry for knowledge. Ready to know everything. “God just explain that to me. That wasn’t a fight that was… the way the two of you were shaking like that? And why didn’t anyone stop you—“
He silenced me with a hand to my lips. “Let me explain.”
I nodded.
He sighed. “There’s another element keeping us together. Something other than working for Don. We have a bond, Eliseo and Don and I.”
“Is he your real family?”
Markus shook his head. “The three of us are shifters.”
I had written exactly two novels about shifters and even with all that research, I knew they weren’t real. I now felt as though I had written myself into one of my stories. “No you’re not.”
“Yes, I am.”
I started breathing heavily What was all of this? Again, shit started running through my head. My heart sunk. I knew what all this meant. I wasn’t stupid. I knew how shifters worked because they weren’t so apart from the world in my head that… Wait a second. A thought just popped into my head that sent chills up and down my spine. “By lover, did Don mean… mate?” My lips twitched. A smile was coming on but I felt like an idiot doing it. Why in the hell was I smiling? Was this a good thing? Should I be happy to be a part of this fictional world?
He nodded, scooting closer to me. “Yes, I think so. I’ve never felt this way before and certainly not about anyone that I just met.”
I nodded. “Why me?”
He shook his head. “Because… Because you’re perfect.”
I was, surprisingly, feeling a little star struck. A real werewolf? Easier to believe because I really had seen his true form. White fur. How beautiful. The writer in me wanted to write it down right then and there, get it on paper. But then, Markus slid his hand over my thigh and my flesh responded with electrifying tingles. I suddenly wanted him more in that moment than I have ever wanted anyone. “Does it go both ways? The mating thing, I mean.” Stupid. If I had to ask the question…
He shook his head. “I don’t know. We’re both new to this.” He was trailing his hand down my face and neck, raising goosebumps everywhere. “But I certainly hope so.” He pressed his lips to mine in a hungry, passionate kiss.
A moan slipped from my lips and I melted into him. His tongue tangled with mine and his kiss turned slow and sensual.
With a ragged breath, he pulled away, “Do you want me?” His voice was a low and husky.
I slipped his shirt off of him, nodding as I did this. “Hell yes.” He closed his eyes and pulled me against his hard chest. He was running kisses down my neck and inhaling my scent. I could feel his rock hard erection against my stomach.
He swiftly snatched me up and threw me down on the bed and before I knew it, he was on top of me, pressing his body into me, bedding me the way I had always wished Cody would. My skin was on fire, my blood boiling, my heart pounding and the best thing about it was that I could feel his heart pounding too. He wanted me just as much me as I wanted him, and that was electrifying.
“You’re not scared?” He ripped my night dress clean off, my breasts bobbing out in front of him.
“God no,” I whispered as I reached my hand down the front of his pants and stroked his manhood.
His mouth attacked my nipples and trailed warm, passionate kisses down my stomach until he buried his face between my thighs and lapped hungrily at my juices. His tongue laved every inch of my pussy like he couldn’t get enough, like he was savoring every drop of me. Being with Cody was never like this. Was I supposed to be thinking about Cody at a time like this? It didn’t matter because if there was ever a question of comparisons, Cody would never measure up.
Markus pushed his tongue into my pussy, penetrating me. Every inch of my body tingled and I could feel the warm burn of my orgasm beginning in my belly. When he rubbed his thumb over my engorged clit, it was all over, I screamed, “I’m gonna cum Markus!” as the first wave of an intensely pounding orgasm overtook me.
He, he slid himself up over me and my excited fingers found their way to his belt and tugged it off. Many quickies with Cody in his office on his lunchbreak had taught me to be efficient. He growled and the sound practically rumbled within me. “I need you now.” He pinned my arms above my head as he kissed my neck and my chest. Then, he stared into my eyes as he inched his cock into me inch by inch until he had fully penetrated me. I gasped, like it was my first breath. He pressed in as hard and deep as he could go and I felt myself opening up to him. It felt like we were one person I could sense his internal shutters.
Mmmmm…..
He bent his head and his teeth grazed my nipple. He suckled and gently bit. I could feel the tingle all the way down to my core. He thrust into me again and again until I shivered and cried out in ecstasy as another powerful climax overtook me. I felt Markus shudder and his cock pulsed and throbbed as he released his seed into my clenching pussy. I realized in that moment that there was nowhere else I would rather be…
Chapter Eight
The next morning, I woke up to the sun streaming through the window and Markus practically laying on top of me, like he was afraid I might get away. It was endearing, heartwarming. I wriggled myself out of his grip so that I could lie on top of him. His eyes flickered open. “Hello, you.” That sleepy smile and the look in his eyes made me feel so important.
“Hey.” I wanted to go back to sleep, but my mind had already started working and there was no way I was going to be able to silence it. “Tell me something. Tell me what this is.”
He nodded, sitting up. “First thing in the morning?”
“What, are we dating now?”
He chuckled. “I guess you can say that.”
“So, what now? I have a life at home. In Manhattan.” For the first time, my deadlines came to mind. I guess with the threat of dying out of the way, I could think about the matters of living.
He sighed. “I must admit, we have some working things out to do—” Then, he stopped himself short.
“What?” I rested my chin on his chest, taking in every detail of his face. I liked this close, intimate angle.
He opened his mouth to say something, but then stopped again as if there was a secret inside of him he wasn’t sure he could tell me. But what could that possibly be? What was it he wasn’t telling me?
“Nothing. We need to get you dressed. You might be able to cooperate with us in our search for Cody.”
I gulped. Cody. What were they going to do if they found him? Before I had a chance to ask this question out loud, someone knocked on the door. I slipped under the covers while Markus slipped out of bed and put on his boxers. He opened the door a crack. I could just barely hear the voice of the person on the other side. “We have Cody’s secretary. She knows something about where he went.”
Markus nodded. “How do you know?”
The man rolled his eyes. “She’s his goddamn secretary, she had to have caught wind of something.”
Markus nodded then glanced back at me.
The man followed his gaze. “Bring her with you.”
I furrowed my brow. “Why?” I asked as Markus shut the door behind him. He went into the armoire and pulled out a green blouse and black jeans for me, then a pair of dress pants and dress shirt for him.
“It’s all protocol. This is what I was afraid of,” He said as he hastily dressed. “Not the shifter stuff.”
I guess it made sense. “You want me to watch or something…?” My voice trailed off. Another torture? It was the first time I had really thought about it: a potential boyfriend and the mob stuff.
“Yeah.” He rested his hands on his hips. “I need you to get dressed. With that, he picked up his phone from the side table and went to work on it.”
Something felt off. “Will you always pick out my clothes?” I asked as I started to put them on.
He shrugged. “Only until you get used to them.”
I furrowed my brow. They were expensive, Saks Fifth, Prada, Marc Jacobs. But I was dating the stock market and apparently a thief there was nothing to get used to. I was starting to get annoyed with the way that he assumed he knew things about me.
“Okay. I’m ready.”
He gave a short nod, grabbed my hand and then led me out the door. Thirty minutes later, we were back at Gino’s restaurant, only, there was a very different scene, one that was all too familiar to me. But instead of me tied to a chair, there was another woman with blonde hair and green eyes. Her blowout was caked in blood and she was crying breathlessly. “Oh God.” I croaked.
Markus shot me a quick look. There were two other men already there. “Where is Eliseo?”
One of them nodded. “Don took him off this job.”
Markus nodded. “Alrightie then.”
I tried not to look that woman in the eye but it was hard because she went right for me. I could see her eyes pleading with me as if she thought that I was some sort of ally in this situation but I was boning the man who had just become her biggest problem.
“Lexi.” Markus knelt down in front of her.
Good cop.
“Tell us what you know.”
She burst into tears. I flinched. My skin crawled. I didn’t want to be there. Why was I there? They were torturing her over money. Markus, my Markus was torturing her.
“I can’t tell you. He’ll come for me.”
“Who? Cody?”
She nodded.
One of the men handed Markus a paring knife.
More tears, screaming, pleading. It wasn’t long until I was imaging myself in that chair feeling what she was feeling, scared for my life and wondering what I could have done that was so horrible that I deserved this. She was there in that position now, no doubt feeling the same right now and this time it was all because of Markus.
My jaw swung open as he pressed the knife against her cheek. He leaned down into her. “I know you’re scared of him, but you should be scared of me.”
Should I be scared of him?
&nb
sp; Her only response was more tears. “Oh God!!”
Markus swung… he slapped her.
I grunted. I wanted to cover my eyes or run from the room but then I thought that this was important. Maybe they would kill me if they knew I was disgusted with this whole thing. Maybe I had to pretend. So I did.
“He’s in Morocco!!” Her cheek was still red from Markus.
Markus turned to the two men. “Morocco. Get the rest out of her. I’d like to get out of here.” He reached for my hand but I wouldn’t take it. I just followed him back out to the car, ashamed of myself for reasons I couldn’t even verbalize.
Chapter Nine
My hands shook the whole way back up to Queens. As they drove on to the bridge, I couldn’t help but think of what was going on in my apartment during all of this, who was sitting in my spot at Think Coffee.
It wasn’t until we had eaten lunch with “the family” and gotten back to my room that he even thought to probe me. “What’s in that head of yours.” He kissed my forehead.
It took everything in me not to shudder away from him. I needed to make sense of this in my head, of my feelings for Markus, of my missing ex-boyfriend, of the fact that he seemed to be willing to do anything to find him. “What are you gonna do when you find him?” There. I asked the question. It didn’t matter if I was terrified of the answer. It was going to come anyway.
He set his jaw, his eyes wide as if he had been caught in headlights. “I can’t say.”
He was sparing me. Or was he afraid of how I would react. “How can you tell me that? You’re practically in charge around here.”
“Not for long, “He muttered.
What was that? A ray of hope? “What does that mean?”
But he turned away. He wasn’t going to tell me.
I placed my hand on his shoulder. I needed this from him. “Tell me what’s going on.”
He gave me a pleading look, his amber eyes sucking me in.
“Tell me what really going on.”
“I can’t.” He practically spat the words at me.
BOX SET: Shifter 4-Pack Vol 2 (Wolf Shifter, Dragon Shifter, Mafia, Billionaire, BBW, Alpha) (Werewolf Weredragon Paranormal Fantasy Romance Collection) Page 13
