Stefan bared his teeth at Cole and lunged for his throat with outstretched arms. Wrapping his hands around Cole’s neck, Stefan started to squeeze as hard as he could. Cole had no choice but to let go of Stefan in order to pry his fingers loose. He knew it was a mistake the moment he let go.
Breaking loose, Stefan started for the front door. Before he could escape, Cole grabbed him by the arm and swung him into the banister at the bottom of the staircase. As Stefan came running forward again, Cole sunk a punch into his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Taking advantage of the situation, Cole punched Stefan in the face hard enough to knock him out.
As Stefan slumped to the floor, the officer came huffing and puffing from the kitchen. “Thanks, man. He might not be a big man, but he’s pretty tough! Knocked my partner out cold and managed to knock the wind out of me.”
Cole nodded. “I saw him on my way in. In a way, I’m glad he broke in. Otherwise, we might not have ever caught him.” Cole paused. “Or worse, he would have caught Marin when she was alone. I hate to think about what would have happened to her.”
Flipping Stefan over and making sure that the man’s wrists were firmly gripped in his hands, Cole held him in place while the officer got out his cuffs. As the second one locked into place, Stefan started coming around. The officer helped the groggy man to his feet and read him the Miranda Rights. Once Stefan was securely cuffed and Mirandized, Cole backed off and helped escort the trash out of his house. Making sure that Stefan was securely locked in the police car, he went back into the house to check on the other police officer.
Bending down, he checked the officer’s pulse. It was slow and steady. Thankfully, the man was just unconscious. He’d probably have one hell of a headache when he got up, but he should be no worse for wear.
While the arresting officer called for an ambulance and back-up, Cole went out to the truck to check on Marin. She was sitting in the front seat with her face buried in her hands. Cole wasn’t sure if it was from fear or relief that it was finally over. He gently tapped on the window to get her attention.
Startled, Marin jumped. Seeing that it was Cole standing beside her window, she opened the door and threw herself into his arms. “I was so scared when you went in there!”
Wrapping his arms around her, he said, “I’m sorry honey. I had to make sure that everything was okay.”
She nodded that she understood. “Is it really over now?” She looked over at the police car. “They’re really going to take him away?”
“Yes, it’s over. They arrested Stefan for breaking and entering, along with assault with a deadly weapon, attempted kidnapping, and assaulting a police officer. He won’t be getting out of jail for a long time.”
Marin sagged against him. “Thank goodness!”
“Let’s get the groceries inside before the cold stuff ruins and then we can call Gabriel with the good news. It will be nice for things to get back to normal around here.”
Marin pulled herself out of his arms and started grabbing grocery bags out of the truck with shaking hands. While they were unloading the truck, the ambulance arrived and took the unconscious officer to the hospital. The second police car finally arrived and hauled Stefan off to jail so that the arresting officer could ride to the hospital and check on his partner. Once everyone was gone and the groceries were put away, Marin and Cole collapsed on the couch.
Cole pulled out his cell phone and called Gabriel. Of course, his brother didn’t answer since the hospital had probably told him to turn off his cell phone. Cole left a message, briefly explaining what had happened and let him know it was safe to come home. When he was finished, he ended the call and sat his phone on the coffee table.
Beside him, Marin was trembling. While she was grateful that she no longer had to worry about that horrid man coming after her, she was still shaken from their recent experience. When Cole had rushed into the house, she had been worried he wouldn’t come back out. Stefan might have been a fairly small man, but he was ruthless. Marin had no doubts that Cole was strong and could hold his own, but he also played fairly and that would have been a big disadvantage when he faced off against Stefan. It’s how Michael had gotten injured and Marin wasn’t sure she would be able to stand the sight of Cole in a hospital bed.
Leaning into him, she rested her head against his shoulder. It seemed almost impossible. After all these years, she was finally going to have a life and a family again. Just knowing that she was going to spend the rest of her life with Cole, was enough to wipe away all of the bad memories. She owed it to him and their future family to move on with her life and put the past behind her.
Chapter Eight
At the hospital, Gabriel was waiting outside of Michael’s room. The nurses had walked into the room a few minutes before in order to get Michael ready for the trip home. His doctor had signed off on the release forms and declared him fit enough to sleep in his own bed, with restrictions of course. Michael wouldn’t like being confined to a bed in his own home anymore than he liked being in the hospital, but hopefully he wouldn’t over-do it and rip his stitches out.
While he was waiting, Gabriel decided to go down to the waiting room so he could check his voicemail. It was odd that Cole and Marin hadn’t arrived by now. As he cleared the ‘No Cell Phones Allowed’ section, he turned his phone on. He had two missed calls from clients and one from Cole’s cell phone. Quickly going through the voicemail messages, he was stunned when he listened to Cole’s. He replayed it two times just to make sure he had heard correctly.
As he was closing his phone, a nurse tapped him on the arm. “Excuse me, Mr. Andrews. Your brother is ready to go home.”
Gabriel turned and saw Michael being wheeled in to the waiting room by a cute blonde nurse. True to form, his baby brother was flirting shamelessly, too. Rolling his eyes, he walked over to Michael. At this rate, Michael would be fifty and still flirting like a twenty year old.
“Okay, Romeo. It’s time to head home.”
Michael smiled at the nurse and thanked her for her assistance. Glaring at his brother, he said, “Well, let’s go. They won’t let me walk out of here so I guess that means you’re pushing me.”
Gabriel chuckled. “Sounds like a typical day then.”
Michael would have loved to punch his brother in the arm, but he knew it would pull out some of the sutures. While he didn’t mind the assistance of the cute nurses, he really didn’t want to stay in the hospital any longer than he had to. Grumbling under his breath, he allowed Gabriel to wheel him out to the car. Besides, he had already been turned down by the cute blonde when he’d asked her out. There really wasn’t a point in staying if he couldn’t at least get a date out of it.
“Where are Cole and Marin anyway?” he asked, as he noticed his own car parked outside instead of Cole’s truck.
“Apparently they were too busy arresting Stefan to meet us.”
“They were doing what?” Michael asked, sure he hadn’t heard correctly.
“Cole left me a message. It seems that when they arrived home, Stefan had cut the alarm system and broken into the house. He managed to knock one of the officers out and temporarily stunned the second one. Cole wrestled with Stefan and knocked him unconscious.” Gabriel looked down at his brother. “At least, that’s the cliff’s notes version Cole gave me. I’m sure it’s more entailed than that.”
“Man, I go to the hospital and all kinds of fun things happen at home!” Michael shook his head. Leave it to his twin to be the hero of the day. At least he would be able to rest at home without looking over his shoulder all day. He was in no shape to be fighting battles right now.
“I somehow don’t think Marin would agree with that. Cole didn’t say much about her, but I’m sure she’s pretty shaken.”
Michael nodded. He could imagine how she had felt when Cole ran into the house. She had to have been terrified. Now that Stefan was out of the picture, maybe things would fall into place with Marin and Cole. He was happy for his twin brother
. For as long as he could remember, all that Cole had ever wanted was to find his mate and have a family. Hopefully, he was going to get his wish. Anyone with eyes could see the two were madly in love with each other. It proved that love at first sight really did exist and gave Michael hope that there was someone out there as perfect for him as Marin was for Cole… not that he wanted to find his mate any time soon. An image briefly flashed in his mind of a woman he had dated a few times. Michael shook his head, clearing her image from his thoughts.
It took Gabriel only a moment to get Michael in the car and return the wheelchair to the ER lobby. Getting into the driver’s seat, he fastened his seatbelt and drove home. Michael was quiet on the way to the house. Gabriel wasn’t sure if he was thinking about Cole and Marin or if he was still drifting on pain medication.
Looking over at Michael, Gabriel said, “I’ll pick up your prescription after I take you home.”
“It’s no rush. I’m hoping I won’t have to use it.” He hated the disoriented feeling the pain medication gave him, most werewolves did. Michael liked being in complete control of himself. He noticed that he was more sluggish when he took the medication.
Gabriel could understand. Werewolves used all of their senses all of the time. When you mixed in pain medication, it meant feeling completely disoriented and vulnerable. It wasn’t a feeling that most humans enjoyed, but it was debilitating to a werewolf. All of the brothers had avoided pain medication when at all possible.
Arriving at the house, Gabriel pulled into the driveway and turned off the car. By the time he got around to the passenger side of the vehicle, Michael had already opened the door and was trying to lift himself out of the car. Reaching in, Gabriel grabbed both of Michael’s arms and gently heaved him out of the car.
Giving his big brother a disgruntled look, Michael said, “I could have gotten out on my own you know.”
“Yeah, I could see that. The wincing you did every time you moved was particularly convincing.”
He gave his older brother a dirty look. “Oh, shut up.”
Gabriel grinned as his brother walked, rather slowly, past him and into the house. Closing the door behind him, he watched Michael head into the living room. Cole was on the sofa holding Marin.
Looking up, Cole saw that his brothers were home. Michael seemed a little pale, but considering how many stitches it had taken to sew him back up he seemed to be doing well. Scooting over, he and Marin made room for Michael to join them.
“How are you feeling?” Marin asked her future brother-in-law.
“I’m okay. I’ve definitely been better, but I’m going to make it. It will be nice to sleep in my own bed though.”
Marin relaxed. She had been worried about Michael, but he really did seem much better. She glanced at Cole. “Can we tell them now?”
Smiling at his fiancé, Cole nodded. While he wouldn’t have minded letting his brother get a little more settled, he knew that Marin was anxious to share their news. His brothers may have assumed that she was going to officially be one of them, but it would be nice to hear the actual words.
With a huge smile, Marin said, “Cole asked me to marry him. Our engagement is official now.”
Both of his brothers broke into big smiles and congratulated them. Cole could tell that they weren’t surprised by the news, but hearing the happiness in Marin’s voice warmed his heart. She had to be the most special woman on earth.
Starting to feel exhausted, Michael excused himself and went up to his room. Gabriel was right on his heels making sure that he didn’t tumble down the stairs. Wanting some alone time with Marin, Cole stayed behind. He had never realized before how crowded the Victorian was. Or maybe it had just never bothered him when there wasn’t a woman, his woman, in the house.
Marin leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
“What was that for?” he asked in surprise.
“Because… I love you.”
He smiled at her. “I love you, too.” He brushed her bangs back from her face. “Is there anything you’d like to do this afternoon? I’m sure that Gabriel will be keeping a close eye on Michael for the rest of the day.”
“Well, I wouldn’t mind doing a little sightseeing.”
Cole chuckled. “Honey, you did that when we went to the hospital and to the store. I think we’ve covered just about every square inch of Ashton Grove in the past two days. There isn’t much to it.”
She looked a little disappointed. “Oh. Well, maybe we could go to lunch and do a little shopping?”
“Shopping? Isn’t that what we did this morning?”
She shook her head at him. “No, that was grocery shopping. I mean real shopping.”
“I’m glad to see you’re no longer afraid to spend my money.”
A hurt look flashed through her eyes. He could have kicked himself for being so careless with his words. It was obvious that she had taken his statement seriously, even though he had only meant it as a jest.
“I didn’t think about that when I suggested it,” she replied.
Cole sighed. He was going to have to be careful around her for a little while. It was going to take some time to un-do the damage that her brother and Stefan had inflicted. “I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I really am glad that you don’t mind spending my money. As far as I’m concerned, it’s our money. I plan on marrying you and part of that is taking care of you, both physically and monetarily.”
“But it isn’t right that you should have to pay for everything.”
He smiled at her. “Have you forgotten your interview tomorrow? You’ll have your own money soon enough. Until then, why don’t we buy you a few more outfits for you to wear to work along with whatever else you wanted to get today?”
“You really don’t mind?”
“No, honey. I like being able to do things for you, even if it’s something small like taking you shopping.”
Marin’s smile could have lit up the darkest day. It didn’t take much to make her happy and Cole was glad to see her smiling. If he had any say in the matter, she would be doing a lot more of it in the near future. He hadn’t told her yet, but while they had waited on Gabriel and Michael to come home Cole had sent a message to Matt, asking if he currently had any property for sell that had a decent size yard and was near the woods or the larger park in town.
Matt always had some real-estate that he was looking to rent or sell. Having millions of dollars gave him plenty of room to buy up property cheap and then renovate it and make a profit. Apparently Cole’s message had arrived at a good time as Matt had several properties that might work for a werewolf looking to start a new family. They had an appointment later in the week to meet Matt and go over the available properties.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Marin asked, having caught him staring at her.
Cole shrugged. “I just like looking at you. There’s nothing wrong with admiring the most beautiful woman on earth.”
Marin playfully smacked him on the arm. “Stop it. I’m glad that you find me attractive, but I think that’s taking it a bit far.”
His expression grew serious. “Not to me it isn’t.”
Smiling, she leaned into him. Her life was pretty close to perfect right at that moment. She was engaged to a wonderful man who seemed to truly love her. Okay, so he turned a little furry every now and then, but that wasn’t so bad. She’d found that she enjoyed having Cole around in both his human form and his wolf form.
Cole bent his head and gently kissed her on the lips. “Let me run upstairs for a minute and talk to Gabriel. When I get back down, we’ll go to lunch. While I’m upstairs, why don’t you pull out the yellow pages and find a restaurant you want to go to.”
“Okay. I’m afraid I won’t be familiar with many of them, unless it’s a nationwide chain.”
“That’s okay. If something looks interesting, I’ll let you know if it’s any good and what type of food they serve. It won’t take you long to get acclimated
to Ashton Grove.”
Giving her another quick kiss, he jogged up the stairs to the third floor. Gabriel was in Michael’s room arguing with him. From the sound of things, Michael was being obstinate as usual.
“Is the patient giving you trouble?” Cole asked Gabriel as he walked into the room.
His twin shot him a dark look. “I’m not giving him trouble. He’s just being unreasonable!”
Gabriel threw his hands up in the air. “Fine, be pigheaded. If you don’t rest, you’ll end up back in the hospital. You’re white as a ghost and if you keep moving around you’re going to tear open your sutures.”
Cole raised an eyebrow at his older brother. “White as a ghost? Cassie might have something to say about your phrasing.”
Gabriel sighed. “You know what I mean.”
Cole grinned. “How about a compromise? What if Michael lies still and watches TV or reads a magazine? Would that be restful enough?”
“I guess that would work. I still say he needs more sleep, but I guess he’s old enough to know when he needs to sleep.” Gabriel realized he sounded like a mother hen, but he was worried about his brother. If Michael tried to over-do it, he could set back his recovery by a week or more.
Michael was still glaring at Gabriel, but he seemed a little less aggravated. “I would hope that by the age of thirty I would know when I needed to sleep. I have no problem with lying in this bed for another day or two.”
Gabriel started to open his mouth, but thought better of it and decided to keep quiet. The nurse had told Michael he needed to stay in bed for about a week to give the stitches time to heal. If the fool wanted to rush around before that and rip himself open again, then that was his business.
Cole was trying not to laugh as he watched the silent battle going on between his brothers. Clearing his throat, he said, “I actually came up to let you know that we’re going to step out for a bit. I thought I’d take Marin to lunch and maybe do some shopping.”
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