The Protector

by Desconhecido(a)

  Josh was unsure why he'd be helpful now, but he nodded. "Thanks."

  ****

  Blair woke up to the sound of Mandy crying. The upholstery of the seat was rough on her skin. By the vibrations and sounds of a motor, she could tell they were in a car. She cracked open her eyes to see she was not in a car, but a van. She could make out the doors, and saw it had grown dark outside. She closed her eyes to try to ease the pounding pain in her head. She had to think. With them being in a car, no one could track them. She had to find a way to get out of here. She tried pulling her arms free, but the twine was too tight. She couldn’t get her hands free. Her legs were bent and were attached to the rope holding her wrists together. There was no way she could shift and not fracture bones. She needed to find a way to help Mandy, and not kill them both in the process. Now I just need to keep my head, and not accidentally shift. That was a pain she never wanted to experience again.

  Goddess, what am I going to do? Cole can’t find me with the trail broken. Her head throbbed in time with her heartbeat, making thinking clearly hard for her. She closed her eyes to try to form a plan.

  Blair jerked awake, realizing she had fallen asleep, and they had stopped. She heard a slap. Then Mandy screamed in pain. “I didn’t get a chance to finish with you before your freak friend showed up.”

  “Don’t touch me.” Mandy’s voice was high pitched and shook with fear.

  Blair heard thrashing around and forced her eyes open. The man that hit her had Mandy pinned in the back of the van. He looked down at Mandy with a look of hatred. “Are you one of those freaks that turns into an animal?”

  “They’re not freaks.” Mandy thrashed around trying to break free.

  He held her down easily. “You’re a little bitch.” He raised his fist, preparing to slam it into her face.

  “Don’t you touch her!” Blair screamed. “I will kill you if you put one finger on her.”

  He turned and gave Blair a grin that was full of malice. “You’re finally up. Good.” He let go of Mandy and stood, crouching over in the van, and walked over to Blair. “Come here, freak.”

  Blair tried to move away from him, as much as being hogtied allowed. Fear made her heart pound. He looked insane as he stalked her. “So, is this the only way you can feel like a man? Beat on defenseless women who can’t fight back?”

  He glared at her. “As long as you’re dead at the end, I don’t care if you can fight back or not.” He rubbed his crotch. “This makes me a man, not how I kill animals.”

  “My mate will kill you if you harm me.”

  “Your mate is going to be too busy crying over your dead body to worry about me.”

  Blair shook her head. “Why are you doing this to us? We have never done anything to you.”

  “You’re a fucking liar!” Silas picked her up, and Blair feared he was going to kill her. He pulled out a knife and moved it close to her throat. He was going to cut her open, right here in front of Mandy.

  Blair heard Mandy screaming and closed her eyes. Blair should be braver, but she did not want to watch his face as he murdered her.

  ****

  Cole walked into the room at the city hall expecting to find Blair and her friends going through magazines. He was stunned when he walked into an empty room. He pulled his gun. There was the strong scent of fear in the air. There was a chair knocked over and magazines on the floor. His wolf’s hackles rose instantly. He walked around the room to the closet and opened the door, while keeping his gun ready. The closet was empty, so he moved to the next room. He flipped the light on and did a sweep of the room. After he went over the building and knew it was clear he picked up his cell phone.

  Michael picked up on the third ring. “Hello, Cole.”

  Cole cut through the pleasantries. “Blair is gone, and there has been a struggle here at the hall.” Cole paced like a caged animal. His instincts roared at him to go and find his mate.

  “Shit, hold on.”

  Cole waited as he heard Michael talking to someone else. If this was a joke, he was going to spank Blair’s ass until it glowed, but then again he knew his fox. Blair knew better than to scare him like this. Something was wrong.

  Michael came back on the phone. “Cassie says when they left Mandy was on her way.”

  “There is no sign of Mandy either.”

  “I’m sending Lucas to help you find them.”

  “Ok.” Cole wanted to bang his head on the wall. He wasn’t thinking clearly. If he were he would have already called Lucas. Cole was a Kelach, but Lucas was a stronger tracker than anyone. His fear for Blair was clouding his judgment. What would Warren do? He thought about that as he paced. Then he knew. Warren would make his cholan to search, and he would stay close, but not too close. He was too emotional to be an effective leader at this point, so Cole would have to rely on his highly trained cholan to do this job.

  Cole paced the building while he talked Travis, his cholan second in command, on the phone. Aaron had come as soon as Cole called him. He tried several times to call Mandy, but she never answered.

  Aaron hit the wall with his fist. “This isn’t fucking good at all."

  "Thomas and Brad are searching around the building for clues, and Lucas is on his way." Cole was torn. He wanted to be out there searching for Blair, but he also wanted to stay close in case she escaped and came back here.

  Cole looked over when Lucas walked in. “Thank you for coming, Lucas.”

  Lucas scowled at him. “I was in town watching that human woman.”

  Cole was confused. Maybe it was all the anxiety for Blair. “Who?”

  “Jennifer McCallen, I tried to scare her off. Most human females would have run away, but it only made Jennifer ask me questions. I decided to watch her.” Lucas looked sheepish. In another time and place, Cole would have laughed. He'd rib him later, but now he had more important things than thinking about Lucas's stalking.

  Lucas had to focus was on Blair, and, he hoped, when he found Blair he would, in turn, have found Mandy, too. Blair had a good head on her shoulders and would do her best to keep Mandy with her. “Can you get a scent here?” Cole asked.

  Lucas took a long sniff, then scowled at Cole. “The fucker is trying to mask his scent. He knows about our weaknesses. But I can tell it’s the same human that attacked Mandy.”

  Cole scented the air. He could smell the heavy perfume of body spray, but nothing else. He closed his eyes, then finally caught a trace of it.

  “Son of a bitch!” Cole yelled. "I can't believe I missed it." Once again he felt like he had no business in this position. He should have never let his guard down.

  “Stop feeling sorry for yourself, pup.”

  Cole snapped his head up to see Warren had come in. “Uncle Warren. I really messed up.”

  “Yeah, I heard about it. Listen, you may be the Kelach and sheriff, but you won’t catch everything. You are also very stressed. That is going to affect your tracking sense, which is why we always pull shifters off a trail when it involves their own family. That is what the other cholan and Guardians are for. Lucas is not emotionally invested and more sensitive to scents underneath the cologne that was used.”

  Cole knew he was right, but he just needed to think. He looked over at Warren. “Can you track them?”

  He shook his head. “Not reliably. They are in a car.”

  Cole gave him a stricken look. Without being able to track them, they could be anywhere. They would have to search the human way, and the longer Blair and Mandy were missing the more likely it was that they would not find them in time.

  Lucas cleared his throat. "I can though. I can track the scent of their fuel. It smells like he's added some gas cleaner to it.”

  Cole’s eyes widened. He could scent the gas, too, but then if he came across another car, he wouldn’t know which trail to follow. “You can scent the additives?”

  Lucas nodded. “Different companies use different chemicals. I can make out the differences and follow the scent.
”

  “Fuck.” Cole started to take off his uniform. “Let’s go then.” Cole barely got his clothes off before he shifted.

  ****

  Blair opened her eyes when she hit the hard ground. Silas had not killed her like she feared. He had cut the rope off of her. She was stunned for a moment, and looked up at Silas.

  He stared at her with insanity shining in his eyes. “Change into a fucking animal.”

  Blair stared at him defiantly. “No.”

  “Do it, you’re a fucking abomination. Change into an animal.” He kicked her hard while screaming.

  Blair covered her head while he kicked her body. She had to get out of here, but if she left that would leave Mandy alone with Silas. She was still young and unable to defend herself. She couldn’t leave her unprotected. Blair felt the tingling and falling sensation. She knew once again she was shifting due to stress.

  “That’s it, now I can kill a rabid animal that was attacking people.”

  Blair heard him cocking his gun, and knew she had to act fast. Her legs tangled in her clothes, and she kicked to get free. She was an easy target thrashing around trapped. She shook off the cotton shirt, and stared at him for just a moment. She jumped at him with her mouth open. She landed on his face. She sank her teeth in, ignoring his screams. He grabbed hold of her and tried to yank her off of him.

  Blair dug her teeth in harder, imagining Mandy screaming and Silas’s cruel smile as he held her down and beat her. She could kill him. She wanted to, and he deserved it.

  He was just as cruel and sinister as his brother. Warren had been right to kill him.

  Teeth grabbed the scruff of her neck, and she yelped and let go of Silas. She turned with the intent of biting whoever was trying to stop her attack on Silas.

  Cole stood over her in his wolf form, with pride and love shining in his eyes. Blair ran to him and nuzzled up against him. His fur was soft and smooth, and he smelled of the forest. My mate is here. I am safe.

  Blair heard snarling and looked up to see Lucas’s wolf form pinning Silas to the ground. He bared his teeth menacingly.

  “No, Lucas!” Michael shouted as he ran at them. Michael had having shifted back to his human form. “I need to question him, and I can’t get any answers if you kill him. You have no right to attack him as Blair is not your mate. I will be forced to judge you again.”

  Blair watched as Lucas snarled, his teeth against Silas’s face. She could see Lucas’s body shaking with the effort to hold himself back. He shifted suddenly, then grabbed Silas’s throat. His claws dug in making him bleed. Blair could scent the blood knowing he got an artery. For a moment she wondered if Lucas was going to kill him and everyone would stand by and let him.

  “I should kill you! You come here to hunt us when we have done nothing to you! You kill our women and children for sport! You deserve death.”

  Blair felt Cole shift and watched him put his hand on Lucas’s shoulder.

  “He isn’t worth it. You would lose a piece of your soul if you killed him. Let our laws handle him.”

  Lucas stood up with a snarl of disgust. “Get him away from me before I give in to temptation and rip his throat out.”

  Michael pulled Silas up. Aaron handed him a folded cloth, and they put it on Silas’s wounds. “You have a lot to answer for. I think you will wish I allowed Lucas to kill you by the time we are done with you.”

  Silas struggled as Michael pulled him to a waiting police car.

  Aaron walked out of the clearing holding Mandy in his arms. She was clinging to him and breathing fast and hard. Blair could tell she was crying.

  Blair shifted now that Silas was gone. The evil she felt coming off of that man had given her chills. The last thing she wanted was for him to see her naked. “Is Mandy all right?”

  Aaron nodded. “She will be. I will make sure of it.”

  Mandy looked over at Blair. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying. “I am so sorry. I should have waited for Aaron.”

  Blair picked up her clothes and gave Mandy a reassuring smile. “None of this is your fault, Mandy.”

  Mandy buried her head in Aaron’s chest.

  Cole handed Blair her shoes. “Come on. Let’s get home. I want to get away from here. We will stop by the clinic, then home.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Blair watched the sunrise and the trees go by as Cole drove them home. The stop at the clinic had not taken as long as Blair feared. She and Cole both told Doctor Trask of her problems shifting during when she was scared. He looked her over, then decided it was a stress reaction and understandable given the circumstances she had found herself in recently. “Some shifters have more trouble controlling their shift during times they fear for their life. I am going to give you and Cole some exercises to do together. That should help you remain in control of your shifting.”

  Blair was relieved it was something simple and she could get control of. She relaxed against the seat and let out a calming breath. They caught the man that attacked Mandy, but she had a lot of troubling questions.

  How was he so sure his brother died here after hunting, and why was he so sure it was Cole that had killed Levi? How did Silas know how to mask his scent from them?

  Things that he knew about them were frightening. Things humans should never know about shifters, unless they lived with them.

  “Hey,” Cole said grabbing her hand. “You ok?”

  Blair turned to him. “I am just worried about how he knew so much about us.”

  Cole nodded. “I know, baby. Michael is going to question him as soon as he is cleared by the doctor.”

  Blair nodded, then smiled with relief when they pulled onto the gravel road to their home. When the dome light came on, she lowered the visor and looked in the mirror.

  “You are beautiful, Blair,” Cole said with affection in his voice.

  “Thank you. But our wedding is the day after tomorrow. I want to be sure I am not all bruised up.”

  “You may have a little, but nothing can take away how beautiful you are to me.”

  Cole turned off the car and got out. He was on her side before she could get the seatbelt off, and had it open. Blair smiled up at him and took his hand. One thing had not changed. Cole was still a gentleman. He picked her up, and carried her into the house.

  Blair wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder. Cole was so strong, and he made her feel so safe. She understood the reasons why he doubted himself. His Uncle Warren was a seasoned sheriff and Kelach, but she knew Cole didn’t give himself enough credit.

  Cole turned around and kicked the door closed and walked straight to the bathroom. He set her down and looked into her eyes. “I love you so much, Blair. I was terrified when I didn’t know where you were or if you were ok.”

  “I was terrified you wouldn’t be able to find me.” She looked at him strangely for a moment. “How did you find us?”

  “Lucas followed the scent of some additive in the fuel of Silas’s van.”

  Blair frowned. “I didn’t scent anything different.”

  Cole nodded with a grim look on his face. “Neither did I, and I am the Kelach.” Cole reached over and turned on the faucet for the shower. It was only a moment before steam was rolling out of the shower. He pulled off her clothes, tossing them in the dirty clothes hamper, then stripped himself. He pulled her into the shower while keeping his eyes locked on hers.

  The hot water hit Blair’s skin making her close her eyes in pleasure. She felt goosebumps rising on her skin from the luxurious hot water.

  Cole squeezed some shower gel onto his hands and rubbed them together. “Turn around.” Blair turned without a word, but moaned out loud when Cole started rubbing the gel over her back. He massaged her back and shoulders as he scrubbed. Blair rested her forehead on the shower wall while Cole massaged her muscles. Just when Blair was sure she was about to fall asleep, Cole rinsed the soap off of her back.

  When Blair felt she could stand again without
using the wall for support, she turned and smiled dreamily up at Cole. A massage like that deserved a reward. She looked into his eyes as she sank slowly to her knees. Cole watched her with a heated expression, and his lips slightly parted.

  Blair pulled his cock into her mouth, swirling her tongue around the head. Cole gripped her hair and hissed. “Goddess, baby, you make me feel so good.”

  Blair glowed at the praise and tried even more to please him. She traced her tongue down his shaft, to his soft, velvety ball sac. She kissed them, then ran her tongue back to the head to swirl it around. She would have smiled, but she would lose suction.

  Cole grabbed her hair, moaning louder. She found the perfect rhythm that was almost enough to drive Cole to his knees. He pumped his hips while she sucked on his shaft. Cole threw his head back, and his mouth was open. He was close to losing control, which was what Blair wanted. Cole sexually out of control was extremely dominating.

  Blair used her hand to pump his shaft while sucking on the head of his cock. She could feel him trembling while she continued to work him over.

  “That’s it,” Cole growled. He picked her up and shoved her against the wall, lifting her. Blair looked into his eyes and saw they were dark with lust. His mouth covered hers, as he positioned her to take his cock. He lined his cock up, then let her fall onto him. Blair gasped at the feeling of him filling her.

  “Cole, oh Goddess, Cole.” Blair panted while Cole thrust fast and hard into her.

  “Don’t come yet. I want you to come with me, sweet Blair. I want to feel your pussy convulsing around my cock as I come.”

  “I can’t wait, Cole. I need to come now.” Blair threw her head from side to side and dug her fingers into his shoulders.

  “Yes, you can,” Cole said, and emphasized every word with a thrust of his hips.

  “Oh Cole, Cole,” Blair cried while she tried to hold her orgasm back.

  “Almost there, just a little longer, baby. Just a bit more.” Cole ground his hips so he would stroke her clit.