Finding Chrissten: Legacy, Book 5 (33 page)

“Congratulations to you and Hank.” Bethany pushed her mate aside and gave Chrissten a hug.

Quinn growled but not quite as loudly this time. Taking his cue from Bethany, Craig stepped up and gave Chrissten a hug. “Be happy.”

Chrissten sniffed and swiped at the corners of her eyes. “Thanks. I am happy.”

Quinn still stood as still as a statue. She reached out to him. “I need you to be happy for me.”

He raked his fingers through his hair and shook his head. “I guess I don’t have any choice.”

Not exactly the ringing endorsement she was hoping for but for now it was enough. “Thank you.”

Her twin turned his laser gaze on Hank. “Make her unhappy and I’ll kill you.”

Fear caught in her throat. How would Hank react to the threat? Would they fight? She tensed, ready to jump between them if necessary. She should have known Hank better than that, should have trusted him.

He gave her a reassuring smile before turning his attention to her brother. “I’ve got no problem with that.”

The tension slowly eased out of the room and Meredith jumped to her feet. “Congratulations to you both.” She pulled Hank into her arms before doing the same to Chrissten. She hugged them both long and hard. “We should have a party. To celebrate everything.”

Her suggestion was met by a round of cheers from the others.

“Well,” Chrissten began. “I want a real wedding and Hank has only given me a couple of weeks to handle the details.”

“Men,” Meredith groused. “They have no idea what goes into planning an event of that kind.”

“I’ll help.” Bethany glanced at Quinn. “Maybe I’ll get some pointers for when we have a formal wedding ceremony.”

Chrissten glanced at her brother and held out an olive branch. “We could make it a two for one. Have a double ceremony.”

Quinn shook his head in mock despair. She could see the slight twinkle in his eyes and relaxed. Everything was going to be okay.

“I can see I’m going to be outnumbered and overruled by you women anyway. So what the heck.” Quinn grabbed Bethany, dipped her over his arm and kissed her in dramatic fashion.

Everyone laughed and Craig gave a whoop and started hugging all of them. The rest of the pack joined him and Chrissten found herself passed from one person to another. They were all genuinely happy for her and Hank. Chrissten laughed out loud, feeling lighthearted for the first time in a long time. Things were going to be okay.

She watched Hank having his back thumped by Isaiah, Michael and the rest of the males. It looked to her like they were trying to see who could hit him the hardest. He returned the gesture and soon the men were ribbing one another and smiling.

This was Hank’s family. Which turned her thoughts in another direction. “I suppose we should invite Donovan Brody.” Chrissten turned to her brother who’d come up to stand beside her. She hadn’t given her father much thought since the night of her rescue and she felt a twinge of guilt over it. She knew he was still in the city and had called several times to ask Quinn about her, but she hadn’t spoken with him.

“I suppose we should.” Quinn put his arm around her shoulder. Their lives had changed so much in the past two years. But things were definitely on the upswing.

“Where do you want to live?” She wanted this matter settled.

Hank must have heard her question because he immediately left his pack mates and came back to her side. Quinn reluctantly let his arm drop away and Hank replaced it with his own, pulling her close to his chest.

Quinn reached out for Bethany and his mate wrapped her arms around his waist as if sensing he needed the contact.

Craig stuffed his hands in the back pockets of his jeans and rocked back on his heels. “I think we should stay.” He glanced around the club. “Not here, specifically. As much as I like everyone there’s simply not enough room for all of us.”

Meredith heard Craig and gave a cry of dismay. “You don’t have to go. You’re all welcome here.”

Chrissten sensed Hank’s tension, his dismay at hurting Meredith. The woman had been like a mother to him, had given him a home and an understanding of himself, of who and what he was. She didn’t want to take him away from that.

Craig smiled at the alpha female. “You’ve been more than kind and we’ll always be grateful for it. And I wasn’t suggesting we go far.”

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. He unfolded it slowly and handed it to Quinn. “There’s a building not far from here with a small retail space on the ground floor and three apartments above. I’ve checked into it and it’s solid. It will need renovating, of course, but it would be a good investment, a good place to settle. We could try it for a while and see if it works. We could open a business or something or rent out the retail space to someone else.”

Chrissten was impressed with her younger brother. He’d been busy and had obviously put a lot of thought into this. She glanced up at Hank. “What do you think?”

“I’d like to see the building, but I like the idea. A lot.”

“You can still work here if you want,” Meredith told them. “We can always use waitresses,” she said to Chrissten and Bethany. “And Hank, you know your job is here for as long as you want it.” She turned to Craig and then Quinn. “That goes for you too. There’s always plenty to do in a place this size.”

The offer truly touched Chrissten. “Thank you.”

“We’ll help with any renovations,” Isaiah offered. Chrissten had a feeling the alpha would do just about anything to make Meredith happy and that meant keeping all her children, natural and adopted, close to her. It was obvious to everyone that Meredith didn’t want any of them to leave.

“Quinn?” It was Bethany who questioned her mate. Chrissten waited, barely daring to breathe.

He looked at all of them standing around him waiting for his reply. “Sure. What the hell.”

A huge smile broke across Craig’s face. “Good because I already put an offer in on the building.”

Chrissten burst out laughing. Quinn simply shook his head, caught their younger brother in a headlock and rubbed the top of his head. Craig laughed and the sound was beautiful to her ears. There was a time she’d feared she’d never hear such a wonderful sound again.

“Happy?” Hank whispered in her ear.

“Extremely.” She pulled his head down and kissed him, not caring who saw them. Hank was her mate. Her rock in the storm.

The unmistakable sound of hoots and hollers broke them apart. Hank grinned down at her. “How about we get something to eat and then go look at the building.”

“Deal.” She gave him kiss and started to go to the table, but he tugged her back.

“And later,” he promised, his eyes telling her exactly what he was going to do to her.

She shivered and her body ached. Oh yes. She couldn’t wait for later.

Damek slowly lowered the phone, setting it back into place. He had a cellphone, of course, but he still had a landline. He was old-fashioned about some things and thought it safer for certain, more sensitive phone calls. His office was encased in shadows. He was a creature of the night and embraced it. He’d had to in order to survive all these long years.

He was relieved that Chrissten and the others were safe and the threat to the Haven pack had been neutralized. Such a sanitized word for killing, but true nonetheless.

He hadn’t gone to them. Hadn’t been able to make himself leave his club when Craig had called looking for the address and asking for help. He’d given his new friend the location and information he’d discovered. But that was all.

He was too close to the edge.

He ran his tongue over his sharp incisor. Yes, he was definitely a vampire on the edge. He’d lived a very long time. Some would say too long, but he’d laughed over their graves centuries ago. He enjoyed life, for the most part, but the long years had taken their toll on him.

Very little interested him these days. Yes, he had his business concerns and the friendship of the occasional human, like Craig Lawton, who fascinated him. But he was…lonely. That was the word he was searching for.

He’d stopped making close friends centuries ago. It was too hard to watch everyone around him die, to see empires rise and fall around him while he remained the same. He survived by maintaining total control over himself and his environment. He took what he needed from humans to survive. No more, no less.

But sometimes…sometimes the demons rose up within him demanding more.

Werewolf blood. Paranormal blood. He pricked his tongue against his tooth and tasted the sweet tang of his own blood. Paranormal blood had the power to push a vampire past all restraint, thus creating a much more dangerous creature.

Monster.

Sometimes he feared he’d become just that. It was bad enough he’d had to search out the former members of Doctor Morton’s military experiment and either steal their memories or exterminate them for the good of all concerned.

No one could be allowed to expose his secrets and live. He was safe from the general populace as long as the myth of the vampire lived in the annals of fiction and folklore. Proving the existence of a werewolf was only a step away from proving his. Plus, he liked the Striker family and their packs. He didn’t want to see them harmed. Survival was hard enough with the paranormal bounty hunters searching for all of them.

Fire burned in his gut at the mere thought of those abominations. They killed women and children, males and females alike with no discrimination. It didn’t matter to them if the ones they murdered were good, decent people. All they cared was that paranormal beings were different. Not human.

And they called him a monster.

The fight with the rogue pack would have been too much of a temptation for him. Six rogue werewolves who needed to die. All that lush, lovely blood to be had. He could have gorged himself on it. Drinking until he could drink no more.

But would he have stopped there?

That was the question, the one he feared to answer. Would he have stopped or would he have attacked one of his friends simply because he was lost to the bloodlust? He couldn’t risk it. Wouldn’t risk it.

The Haven pack accepted the fact he hadn’t come to fight beside them. They didn’t question his decision, but he knew Craig was disappointed in him. He’d heard it the hurt in the human’s voice. But he’d made it up to him even if Craig didn’t know it. His realtor had just called to inform him he’d met with Craig and his family earlier today. The property the Lawton family was currently considering purchasing was one of his. He planned to see they got a good deal on it if they wanted it. He hoped they would.

Angry with himself for caring, he sat in his chair and pulled his ledger over to him. There was always work to do when one owned a variety of properties. Damek had nothing but time on his hands. It was good he kept busy.

But he was too restless to work and got up from his desk and left his office behind, heading out into his club. Music pumped wildly through the speakers that ringed the room. People danced and drank and the shadows hid more intimate encounters.

The smell of sweat and alcohol, sex and desperation filled his nostrils. This was his domain, his world, his kingdom.

It’s good to be king
.

About the Author

N.J. Walters has always been a voracious reader of romance novels and decided one day that she could write one as well. The contemporary story, Discovering Dani, was the very first novel she wrote while living in a little town much like the one Dani O’Rourke lives in, though all other similarities to Dani’s life pretty much end there. Then she wrote another one that followed up on Dani’s friends and neighbors. But she didn’t consider herself a “real” writer yet.

Just a few years later N. J. had a mid-life crisis at a fairly young age, gave notice after ten years at her job on a Friday and received a tentative acceptance for her first published novel (an erotic romance) from a publisher on the following Sunday.

Happily married to the love of her life, with his encouragement and support she gave up the job of selling books for the more pleasurable job of writing them. She now spends her days writing novels of her own. Werewolves, vampires, time-travelers, seductive handymen, and next-door neighbors with smoldering good looks—all vie for her attention. It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to do it. And some days she actually feels like a “real” writer.

N.J. enjoys hearing from readers, and she can be reached at
[email protected]
. You can check out her web site at
www.njwalters.com
.

Look for these titles by N.J. Walters

Now Available:

Jamesville

Discovering Dani

The Way Home

The Return of Patrick O’Rourke

The Seduction of Shamus O’Rourke

A Legal Affair

By the Book

Past Promises

Legacy

Alexandra’s Legacy

Isaiah’s Haven

Legacy Found

Spells, Secrets and Seduction