Authors: Kathi S. Barton
“I know.” She took one of the cookies out of the plastic container and held it in her hands as she sat there. “I’m going to have you remove the tracker if you can. If not, then I’ll find someone else. I don’t want to involve your brothers any more than we have too. Hawkins is already involved, but he has an advantage over the rest of them in that he can use a weapon and use it well.”
“I can see that.” He took the cookie from her when she started crumbling it up and handed her a branch of grapes. She ate two of the small green orbs while he got up and took some fish he’d been marinating from the fridge. “Then what happens to it?”
“I stick it to something that I want them to follow that’s not me when I have to be where I don’t want them.” He wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that. “Or, and this is more than likely a better idea, I remove it, but keep it on my person until I can’t take them with me. Like on a mission to figure this out. In the meantime, I have it in my pocket, so I have some control over it. But, Colin, you can’t be with me when I go out. I have to make sure that you’re safe.”
He’d already figured that part out as well. When she went out, and she would have to, it would be without him. He didn’t know anything about guns, less about being covert, and he would get them both killed if he even tried to help her on this. She knew things and she knew people who knew more than he ever would that could get her help. He would be a burden. It was hard to swallow, but he knew his own limitations when this shit was involved.
“I need to do something. I can’t just be one of those people that sit around waiting for the call. You know what I mean.” She nodded but didn’t look at him. “Lauren, this person or persons you think this is, is it bad?”
“The worst.” She got up then and tossed away the empty branch of grapes. He held her when she curled her arms around his waist from behind, and stood still while she leaned against him. It was all he could do not to beg her not to leave him. But they wouldn’t have a normal life with this hanging over their heads.
“Don’t trust anyone with any information. Your family will be fine, but no one else. Not Tony, the doctors, or even the people that you’ve worked with for years. Everyone can be bought, and when they can’t be, there are those that will prey on them until they roll over to do what they need. I’m not saying that Tony is involved, but he may be chipped as well, and we can’t take the chance that he is.” He nodded, afraid for them. “Victoria is coming here as soon as it’s twilight. When she gets here, I’d like for you to give her a taste of your blood. I trust her with my life and yours too.”
“All right.” He turned then and held her. “I’d like for you to do the same with my family. They have your scent now, but your blood will make it so that you can talk to them if you need them.”
He noticed that she didn’t mention her family, and he also realized that they had been pretty absent from their lives until now. He started to ask her about it, if they were part of who she thought was doing this, but she spoke first.
“My mom and dad don’t want to be involved, or they’d like not to be involved in what’s going on. They…it’s because of Pete. They’re afraid that he’ll get hurt too. I don’t blame them. I’ve tried my best to keep him out of my life, but he’s been there all along. I don’t think they realize how much…we talked all the time when I had service, and he’d keep me up on what was going on at home.” She tightened her hold on him. “Pete isn’t involved, none of them are, but they worry about him.”
“I’ll see about sending over some people to keep an eye on them for you.” She told him she’d taken care of it. And when he thought about it, he thought she’d be better equipped to know who to trust than him. “Anything I can do to help out with this?”
“Yes.” She looked up at him. “I have given this a great deal of thought. And I want you to convert me. I know that it’s hard and that it’ll put me out for a while, but I’ll be able to do so much more than just get beat to shit. I’ll be able to run with you.”
“All right.” He lifted her chin up more and kissed her. She tasted of grapes and chocolate, his mate and love. When he deepened the kiss, he thought of all the things he wanted to do to her and lifted her up, cradling her body around his. “I need you.”
Her clothing was shreds by the time he got her naked. Her panties had been small pieces of silk at one point and not just threads on the floor. Her jeans—new, she’d told him—didn’t survive either. The zipper had burst the moment he’d tried to pull her pants off without undoing it.
His pants were down around his thighs when he slammed into her. She held him, tearing at his shirt, which he’d not bothered to remove, until he was bare chested. The moment she moved her mouth to his nipple and bit down, Colin wanted it rough. And he was pretty sure she did as well. Pulling from her heat, he pulled her off the counter and turned her around.
“Hold on.” He wasn’t sure that she understood him. His voice had deepened with his need, but the moment he slammed his cock into her pussy from behind, she cried out that she was coming. Colin leaned her over the counter and, holding her head tightly to it, he fucked her like the animal that he was, and then leaned over and bit hard into her shoulder. He knew that his cat was ready to take her as well.
When she came the second then third time, screaming out his name as she did so, he picked her up and took her to their bedroom. As soon as she was on the bed, he let his cat take him.
He wants you
. Nodding, she sat on the edge and held onto the mattress while he moved toward her.
Let him taste you, Lauren. Then we’ll start the process now. He wants you to be his mate fully.
“Please hurry. I’m so close to coming now thinking about his tongue on me.”
He lapped at her pussy, then at her thigh. Lauren curled her fingers into his fur at his head and opened her legs wider for him. His cat leapt to her and licked her from gate to clit, then nipped at her.
Lauren screamed. Her body fell back against the mattress while his cat feasted on her. Every time she came, crying out when she did, his cat would growl low, drinking her cream down as fast as she released it. When he nudged at her thigh again, he knew he was going to bite her, and Lauren did as well. At her command to do it, his cat bit down onto her creamy thigh and Colin heard bones break.
The process. He knew some of what had to be done but not all. Colin also knew that there was going to be a great deal of pain for her. His cat never wavered in his duty to his mate.
The next bite was at her other leg, this time at her calf. Colin had never done this before, converted anyone, but he knew his cat would know just how to do it. When Lauren whimpered slightly, holding him to her body, Colin told her he was sorry.
“Don’t be. I need this as much as you do.” He moved up her body, telling his cat to be gentler to her. And when he licked her face, they both tasted the tears. “I’m not going to lie to you, it hurts like a motherfucker, but I’ll be all right. Just tell him to get it done so we can move on with our lives.”
He hoped so because his cat licked her belly then, and Colin was worried that this would bring him to his knees should she scream out in pain. As soon as he sank his teeth into her, Colin felt her pain. And when she went limp, her hand sliding from his cat’s head to the bed, he knew that he’d either killed her or she’d passed out. Christ, this was the scariest thing he’d ever done in all his life.
It was another twenty minutes of his cat holding her in the belly before he tasted the difference. His cat must have as well, because soon after, he let her go, then let Colin take him back. Picking her up, he laid her on the other side of the bed and stripped the sheets off and cleaned her up. The amount of blood wasn’t as bad as he’d thought it would be, but it was still enough to make him slightly nervous.
When the bed was remade and Lauren was cleaned up, he sat in the chair next to her. Colin thought about getting into the big bed with her but wanted her to rest, knowing that she needed that more than him being close to her. It was well after midnight when he felt Boyd touch his mind.
I found a number on that tracer that she has in her body.
He asked him what that meant.
It means that I can give this to someone and they can find the manufacturer for her. I tried to call you guys. Is the phone out?
It’s in the kitchen and she’s…I changed her tonight.
Boyd said nothing for a long time, and Colin felt the need to explain.
She’s hoping this will give her an edge that she didn’t have. I agree with her. And she wants to be able to run with me.
Yeah, I can see that. And understand why she’d want this edge, but it seems to me that she’s going to be under for a while and I worry for you and her. She’s one hell of a woman.
Colin laughed and said he agreed. Then he remembered what she’d told him about trusting anyone. He told Boyd to pass it on to the others too.
Hawkins already let us know some of that. He also told me to not put these records in my office or home. I gave them to him and he said he knew just where to hide them.
Colin wondered why they thought having them around was dangerous, then remembered the surveillance cameras everywhere.
Colin, did she tell you who she might think is out to get her and Hawkins?
No. She said it was bad and I let it go. I think she’s still trying to wrap her mind around it. I think they fucked with Larson’s account too. He said that someone had a freeze on his checking account and he wasn’t able to buy food. Lauren gave him all the cash she had, and he was pretty upset but not at her. You heard anything from the rest of the family about that?
That might explain why I couldn’t pay my monthly dues this morning. The bank said that there was a strange hold on my account when I inquired about it, and then a couple of hours later, they called to say it was gone. I don’t know. Are they fucking with our livelihood because of Lauren and Hawkins?
Colin said he didn’t know but would ask Lauren when she woke up
. I’ll come by in a couple of days to check on her. I’m sure she’ll be fine, but I want to make sure that she’s doing well anyway. I love her, by the way. Have you told her that you love her yet?
I only just figured it out myself. And not yet. I was waiting for her to settle down a little. She scares the shit out of me if you want to know the truth.
Boyd said she did him too, a little.
I’ve never…having a mate changes things, you know? Like your entire outlook on life is different.
I’m sure it does. And hopefully someone will come along and change all of us for the good. Or be willing to bash our heads in so that we get it.
They both laughed.
Take care of her for us, Colin. And let her take care of you when she’s up and around.
Colin said that he would, on both accounts. When Boyd told him he’d get back to him in the morning, Colin got up and moved to the door that led out onto a private deck. He loved this place, and all the property around it. Going to the main part of the house to lock up and make sure the oven was off, he saw two wolves on the front decking that surrounded that part of the house, and then a bear, big as a fucking car, sitting by the back door. He knew that they were there for her, at her request, and that made him feel a great deal better. She really did have people she trusted, he thought, as he locked up and headed back to the office to use the computer.
Colin knew it was going to be a long few days until she woke up. And in the meantime, he was going to see about moving his things here too. She’d already told him to, and he figured he’d get some work done while she rested.
Victoria showed up in the living room just as he was going through there.
Chapter 7
Tony sat down hard. He wasn’t sure what to think right now, only that this was going to get him in deep shit. He looked at the report in front of him again, this time trying not to focus so much on the ages of the dead but the names there and where they had worked. All the dead and their ranks with ages were of the people killed in the ambush of Lauren and Hawkins. But the real kicker was that all of them were from the United States and serving under him in some capacity. The men that served their country were getting younger and younger all the time. And dying for no other reason than greed and stupidity.
The report had been given to him by Lauren earlier that morning without a word spoken between them. It had been a chance meeting, her bumping into him as she walked by him. It took him several seconds to realize that she’d given him something. And now he had information that he was sure he wasn’t supposed to ever see.
“Sir?” He looked up at his assistant, Private Mark Wayne, and smiled. He wasn’t sure that it looked good or not, but the man smiled back. “I thought I heard you say my name. I’ve been working on the computers for over an hour now.”
“What’s wrong with them now?” Mark told him they’d been running slowly since the department came in and did some upgrades on them. Tony glanced down at the report and the names on it and his mind went into overdrive. More puzzle pieces were falling into place all around him. “When was that?”
“Last week. Oh, that’s right, you were out with the emergency. Yes, sir. They came in saying that all the computers needed to be upgraded. Then they said that the phones needed to be replaced as well. If you ask me, they look just like they did before, but I’m not a computer whiz like some are.” Neither was he, but Tony would bet his last dollar that nothing more than a bug had been in the “upgrade” to the computers. “I’m ready to call the computer help desk. I’ll be right here if you need me, sir.”
Tony waved him off and said nothing. He eyed the computer, then the phone. He wasn’t going to be using them for anything important from now on. And on his way home, he was picking up a burner phone, one that only he had the number for. Christ, he thought of Lauren and Hawkins. How to contact them?
He was sure that they knew. Even if they didn’t, Tony had a feeling that they would go to other means to contact him if they needed him. He did have a sudden thought, one that frightened him a little. He didn’t want them to think he had anything to do with this. But then he realized she would never have given him what she had if she suspected him of anything.