She stretched and rubbed against his face. His gasp of surprise made her freeze, but his rumbled purr then vibrated through her, igniting a fire inside her. Her cat wanted to roll on him, to mark him with her scent and drive away any other females.
“I think she’s feeling better,” said a female voice.
Meg’s lips drew back in a snarl and something stabbed her in the side as she puffed out her chest. Her hackles rose in a display of possession.
“Mine,”
her cat screamed in her head.
A tall, slim woman in a white lab coat raised her hands in front of herself and smiled. “I’m Doctor Charlie Paige. Your mates brought you here so I could help you. They have been equally territorial of you, Meg.”
Meg would have been blushing again had she been in her human form.
How embarrassing.
She glanced up at Caleb, hoping he wasn’t angry at her for nearly attacking a doctor. He was anything but angry. She looked at Prescott, and then Lachlan. They all wore huge smiles.
“We’re glad you’ve already staked a claim on us,” Prescott said. He cupped her head and she licked his palm, growling in pleasure at the sweet taste of him. “We were worried you’d rejected us when you ran.”
His dark brown eyes clouded in pain. She hadn’t even considered that. She thought they’d be angry with her, not that they’d consider it a rejection when she’d left without talking to them.
She broke free of Caleb’s hold. She leaped to the floor, ignoring the stab of pain in her side, the shaking of her body. She had to tell them that she hadn’t rejected them. They had to know that she was sorry. So very sorry for being such an idiot. She drew her human form to her and shifted.
* * * *
Caleb ran his eyes over Meg as she appeared before him, memorizing every inch of her bruised and battered body. He stored those memories away in the corner of his mind where his vengeance waited, hot and demanding, for the time when he could deliver his bloody retribution.
“Don’t move,” Charlie said, running to Meg’s side with a package in her hand.
“I’m sorry. I never thought that’s how it would seem,” Meg said. She batted Charlie away as the doctor tried to remove Meg’s chest tube.
“Meg, you need to let the doctor help you,” Caleb said. He tried to keep his voice calm and soothing, but his cat was too fearful that Meg had injured herself further, so his voice came out as a threatening growl.
“I didn’t want Nicholas to hurt you. If he saw you with me. If you’d touched me, he would have known somehow. He always knew.” Meg was shaking now, her legs beginning to buckle.
They all ran to Meg’s side, Prescott reaching her first. He wrapped her in his arms and held her small body tight to his chest. He turned her so that Charlie could remove her drain.
“There, it’s gone and I’ve sealed the hole with a plastic dressing so her lung doesn’t collapse again.”
“Shit,” Lachlan said. He moved to stand close behind Meg and ran his fingers over the bruised flesh. “He nearly killed you.”
“I’m sorry. Please let me explain,” Meg said. Her voice was soft with her face still squeezed against Prescott’s chest.
“I think we can let her breathe now, Prescott,” Caleb said. Prescott relaxed his grip with a sigh and allowed Caleb to gently lift Meg from his arms. He moved to sit in the big recliner Lexie had been sleeping in earlier and settled his smaller mate across his lap.
“Meggie, you have no clothes on.” Lexie giggled as Meg blushed and took the blanket Lexie was holding out to her.
“Thanks, pumpkin. I got a little crazy there when Prescott told me what they’d all thought.”
Caleb helped her to cover her body with the blanket, it really was a sin to hide such beauty, but he was not alone with his mate, so he’d allow her some modesty.
Once he’d catalogued her every bruise and cut, he’d noticed what a goddess his mate truly was. He’d seen her small frame clothed before and knew her to be curvy and sexy, but those clothes had hidden her full breasts with their pink nipples. They’d failed to show how small her waist was as it flared out to womanly hips and a rounded ass that was worthy of a statue.
“Why are you all growly with your eyes all glowing?” Lexie said. She tugged on Caleb’s jeans to make sure she had his attention. “Is the man who disappeared back?”
Caleb’s gaze snapped from his distractingly beautiful mate to focus on her sister. “He disappeared, Lexie?”
“What do you mean, pumpkin? Did he run really, really fast?” Meg said. She reached out from under the blanket to hold Lexie’s hand.
“No,” Lexie said. She was shaking her head, her eyes wide with fear again. “Is he here?”
“He’s not here, Lexie,” Caleb said. “I was just happy to see Meg awake. You know that our eyes glow with all strong emotions.” Caleb was not about to explain arousal to a five year old.
“How did Nicholas disappear, Lexie? It’s important we know everything we can about him,” Prescott said. He picked Lexie up and held her in front of his face. “We don’t want him to take Meg away from us.”
“He did it at Paula’s house first. He was in the room. It made us both scream.”
Caleb raised his eyebrow at Meg. “A good friend from work. I asked her to look after Lexie while I was at Kaitlyn’s wedding, just for the two nights. When I went back there today, yesterday, whatever, she was hurt and there was a note telling me to come alone to get Lexie.”
“That explains why you didn’t wait for the police,” Lachlan said. “Do we need to get help for your friend?”
“I called 911 before I went to the warehouse. He hit her on the head, but she was alive.” Meg looked down and played with the holes in the cotton blanket that covered her.
“It’s not your fault, Meg. You didn’t ask him to attack your friend and take Lexie,” Prescott said. “Tell me more about the man, Lexie. We need to have a long talk with your sister about how this all started, but we can do that while we’re driving home.”
Caleb was proud of his little brother. He was a powerful shifter and a great enforcer. His strategic abilities amazed Caleb. He would find out everything he could about this Nick and find the best way to protect their mate and his pride. Even the drive to mate was not distracting him, which was more than Caleb could say about himself.
“He took me from Paula’s house. I was coloring a nice picture for all of you. I wanted to give it to you as a present.” Prescott wiped the tear from her cheek. “I wanted you to like me so I could stay with Meggie. She said I could, but…”
“We would have loved the picture, Lexie,” Lachlan said. He took her from Prescott and settled her on his hip. “We want both you and Meg to come live with us. We never had a sister and we’re all very excited to have one after all these years.”
Caleb smiled at the joy on Lexie’s face. Her blue eyes lit up and shined as they filled with fresh tears.
“Really?
“Really,” Lachlan said. “Caleb has waited a million years for a sister.”
Lexie snorted as she laughed. “He’s not that old.” She leaned across Lachlan and stared at Caleb. “You’re not are you?”
“No, little cat. Lachlan was being silly. I’m only one hundred,” Caleb said. He laughed as her eyebrows knitted together in concentration. “Can you tell us about the man now?”
“Well. After he hit Paula, he picked me up and we walked through the cold place into the room where you found me.”
Caleb looked at Meg and she shook her head. “What was the cold place? Was it the rain?” Meg said.
“No.” Lexie shook her head as her eyebrows creased again. “It was cold, like the freezer, and dark. Then one more step and we were in the big room.”
Caleb felt fear, real fear for the first time in his life. This was a creature they’d never encountered before. He’d thought at first that Lexie was describing a vampire like Aiden, but this was not a vampire.
He looked at his brothers, and they were both staring at Meg. Caleb knew they were thinking the same thing he was. How were they going to protect her from this creature who’d become obsessed with her?
“We need help,” Prescott said. “If we don’t know what it is we can’t kill it? I think we should call Aiden.”
Prescott had spent the last eighty years feeling nothing more complex than happiness or anger.
Well, mostly anger.
Only because everyone was so fucking annoying.
So the last few days had been hell. He was existing in an emotional maelstrom.
He squeezed Meg tighter against his side and marveled at the sensations the action elicited. His body hummed with pleasure where they touched. He felt the swirl of his emotions threaten to overwhelm him again. He was elated to have her safe in his arms. Aroused beyond the point of sanity by her hand resting on his thigh. Terrified by his uncertainty that he was able to protect her, and frustrated by her refusal to see reason.
“Meg, we need to call him,” Prescott said. He had been having this “discussion” with his mate for the last twenty minutes and he was no closer to convincing her. He was an enforcer. No one
ever
disagreed with him. If they ever had, he’d just ignored them and done what he thought was best anyway, so this experience was exceedingly frustrating, and his cock had never been as hard.
His mate was a tiny little thing. She didn’t look to be much over five feet tall and her snow leopard was the size of a cub, but she was fierce and passionate. He wanted to ask Aiden if he knew what sort of a creature this Nick might be, but Meg was standing up to all of them.
“It’s not right to disturb people on their honeymoon. What if they decide to come home? I’d never forgive myself.” Prescott wanted to bite those lips that were stubbornly pressed together. “Kaitlyn deserves this time with her mates. It’s so romantic that they’re in Scotland. In a castle even. You should see the pictures?”
“They sent pictures?” Caleb said.
“Was Aiden in them?” Lachlan had turned in the front seat and had a smirk on his face.
“Of course he was. Why?” Meg said. She was distracted from their argument and didn’t see where Lachlan was going with this. They’d had a few weeks of Lachlan’s vampire jokes, and Caleb groaned at Meg’s question.
“Don’t encourage him, Meg,” Caleb said.
“I didn’t think vampires showed up in photographs,” Lachlan said. He looked thrilled to have a new audience for his jokes.
Lexie laughed loudly and bounced in her seat next to Meg. “I can’t wait to see his fangs. Meg said he’d show them to me.”
The sun was just starting to rise, as was Prescott’s blood pressure. But as he stared down at Meg’s beautiful face, he couldn’t regret a single one of his new feelings, even the frustration. He was finally living. He’d been oblivious to the fact that his existence until now had just been a journey leading him to Meg so his life could begin. No one had told him he’d love his mate so much or so soon. But he did.
He cleared his throat. It stopped Lexie’s laughter and drew everyone’s attention. That hadn’t been his objective. He’d just been trying to swallow past the lump of emotion that had formed in his throat. “I don’t know anyone else who can help us, Meg. We need to know what Nick is if we hope to keep you safe.”
Prescott poured his love into his gaze and hoped Meg could see it. “I can’t live without you now. I have to keep you safe.”
“Oh,” Meg whispered. She squeezed his thigh and smiled at him. “I’ll tell you everything I know before you call then. But please don’t ask him to come home.”
“I hope we don’t need to, honey,” Lachlan said. He reached over the seat and Meg held his hand. “But we can’t let him take you. Would Kaitlyn want that?”
“No. She’d hate herself if that happened and Aiden could have helped.” Meg straightened in the seat and pulled her shoulders back. “I’ll tell you everything I can.”
Finally. Prescott’s cat relaxed inside him, its anxiety draining from him and leaving a determined calm. They would protect her. With Aiden’s help they might stand a chance.
What sort of creature could walk fifteen miles in a single step? And what else could it do?
They were taking Meg and Lexie back to their ranch. It was going to be a real home now that she was going to be there with them. A place where he hoped she would be safe. Safe with them surrounding her, as well as the entire pride for backup.
They now had two mates to protect. Kaitlyn from the continued threat of vampires and Meg from this creature. They wouldn’t fail either of the women. They couldn’t or the pride would simply cease to exist.
* * * *
Meg wanted them to know everything she could remember about Nicholas and his strange behavior. She didn’t want Lexie to be taken from her again or for her mates to be hurt by him. She had already placed them in danger just by meeting them. There really wasn’t a lot to tell, she’d only gone out with him that one time.
“He’d been asking me out for about a year, but I’d always refused. I was so lonely after Katie left that I finally accepted his invitation to dinner.”
“Why had you always refused?” Prescott said, his gaze and tone both piercing her with his change to the deadly pride enforcer he was.
“He just made my cat uneasy, nothing more until that night.”
“Did he force himself on you?” Caleb’s voice was rough. She saw his reflection in the rearview mirror as he continued to drive with his eyes fixed on the road. He looked deadly. His eyes blazed amber, his lips distended as his canines distorted his beautiful mouth.