My Commander (Bewitched and Bewildered #1) (10 page)

"Byron? Why?" Adelaide looked interested.

"I may or may not have called the vampire Elder guy a douche bag." Both Ben and Adelaide stared at her.

"It was an accident!" Meryn exclaimed. Adelaide stood.

"Marius! Marius!" She called and began to pull ingredients from the cabinets.

"My lady! Whatever is the matter?" Marius appeared in the doorway a cleaning cloth in one hand.

"Can you reach out to your contact in the city to see if they have any fresh lobster delivered from Maine today? I'm afraid Byron may have had a rough afternoon with the council, and will need a special dinner." She grimaced.

"Of course. How bad?" he asked. Meryn looked anywhere but at Adelaide.

"I'm making a Honey Bun cake." Was Adelaide's response. Marius paled.

"I'll go myself." Marius removed the apron and darted from the room.

"I'm so sorry!" Meryn wailed.

"Don't be sweetheart, you haven't said anything we haven't all thought at one point or another. Plus, you're still so very young and new to our world." Adelaide pulled a dozen eggs from the refrigerator.

"She did earn an invitation from Elder Vi'Ailean to visit his prized gardens." Aiden said grinning from ear to ear. Adelaide paused and this time she looked delighted when she turned to Meryn.

"High praise indeed. Only a handful of people have ever been invited to the heart of a fae garden. I can't wait to drop that pretty little bomb on Daphane Bowers. Wonderful job Meryn." She congratulated.

"But what about the vampire guy?"

"He's only popular with other vampires. It won't hurt your reputation one bit if that story leaks out, it might actually help." Adelaide giggled. "He is a pompous douche bag though." Adelaide said breaking open eggs.

"Mother!" Aiden and Ben sounded shocked. Adelaide ignored them.

"Oh, Aiden, you might want to take Meryn to her apartment to fetch her things before dinner. She might like to put on some new underthings." Adelaide turned to the cabinet.

"How did you know he ripped them off? Are paranormal's psychics?" Meryn demanded. Adelaide dropped the large stainless steel bowl she had pulled out of the cabinet.

"He did? Oh dear, I only assumed that you would like fresh clothes." Adelaide blushed clear to her hairline. Beside her Aiden groaned and buried his face in his hands. Meryn turned to Ben, who was staring at them, his eyes wide.

"Right. Well, on that note, let's go!" Meryn grabbed Aiden's hand and pulled him out of the kitchen.

Just as they cleared the doorway, Ben exploded into laughter.

"I love having a sister!" She heard him shout. Meryn felt her heart swell. She had a feeling she was going to like having a brother too, if she could stop embarrassing herself around her new family.

CHAPTER FIVE

They pulled up to a questionable looking apartment building. When Meryn got out of the car and walked past a drug dealer to check her mail he started having heart palpitations. She lived here?

He quickly got out and growled lowly at the man eyeing his mate. The man glanced up startled and kept moving down the street. The storm door was nothing but a sheet of cracked glass and rusted metal. When he stepped into the foyer, he noticed that the entryway light bulb had been removed. How convenient for a mugger. He was grateful that he wasn't able to see the state of the floor, but was concerned about the security risk the dim foyer presented. He followed her up a set of dark stairs, careful not to touch the railing. Meryn fished out her keys and went to unlock her door. The second her hand touched the knob the door moved, swinging inward slightly. She jumped back as if she had been electrocuted. Her eyes were huge when she turned to him. Pushing her behind him, he violently kicked open the door making it crash loudly into the wall. Meryn thumped his back.

"Shush, they may hear you." She whispered.

"Baby, if they're robbing the place, I want them to hear me so they leave." He explained.

"Oh. Good idea." She nodded.

"Stay here."
 

"Yeah,
fuck
that. I'm sticking to you like glue. I've seen this horror movie, the person waiting in the hallway dies." Meryn shook her head.

Aiden turned to stare at her.

"Later we're going to talk about your movie choices." He edged through the open doorway and looked around the room.
 

"How many rooms?" He asked.

"Main room, kitchen and bedroom with attached bath. That's it." Meryn grabbed his belt and he felt her small hand at his back.
 

He walked into the main room, there were no closets for anyone to be hiding in. He popped his head into the tiny, galley style kitchen. It was empty.
 

"Baby, stay here while I check the bedroom, okay?" She nodded. She closed the apartment door and her eyes darted around the room. He could tell she was trying to see if anything had been taken.

When he opened the bedroom door, he was immediately overwhelmed with the scent of another male. Someone had marked this room with urine and seed as his territory. Feeling sick, he pulled back the covers of the bed to find that the mattress had been slashed and semen decorated the pillows. His bear rose to the surface roaring. He barely managed to keep from shifting. Breathing through his mouth to stay calm he checked the bathroom and the closet. Both were also marked and empty.

"What's taking so long?" Meryn asked about to walk in.

"Stay out!" He barked. She looked at him with a hurt expression, but then noticed his barely contained rage. She stared past him, her eyes noticing every small detail.

"Is that ... is that semen?" She asked. He didn't answer, he didn't have to.

"I'm going to be sick." Meryn bolted down the hallway and he was right on her heels. She leaned over the kitchen sink and lost her latte. He rubbed her back. She rinsed her mouth out with tap water then stumbled to the fridge. She threw the door open and grabbed a container of orange juice. She swished the juice around her mouth before spitting that out in the sink. She took another drink and swallowed. Her hands were shaking when she put the juice back.

Aiden reached for his phone.

"What's up?" Colton asked.

"Have the Beta Unit fill in for you guys and bring Alpha to Meryn's apartment. I want the guys here five minutes ago." Aiden growled into the phone.

"Are you injured?" Colton demanded, in the background Aiden could hear Gavriel barking orders.

"I'm fine, so is Meryn. We're at the old apartment building on ninth street, apartment 3B. Just get here quick."

"On our way." Colton hung up.
 

"What if you hadn't found me yesterday and kidnapped me? What if I had come home to find this guy waiting for me?" Her body looked like it was trying to shake itself apart. Aiden scooped her up and sat down on the couch with her in his lap. He cuddled her close and kissed her hair.

"You were meant to be with me. It's why Fate had you climb that fence. He will never come near you, I promise you Meryn. This guy is a walking dead man." He didn't have the heart to tell her that the semen was fresh. They had missed this creep by minutes.

"Let's get you packed up. The guys will be here soon." He stood and placed her on her feet.

"How will I know what he touched? I don't want anything he ... touched." She made a face.

"I'll bring anything that carries just your scent out here for you to pack up. When that is done, you can walk through the bedroom to see if the things left are things you're willing to part with. If you want to keep those items, I will clean them for you." He lifted her chin and kissed her softly. "How's that?" He asked gently.
 

Her eyes filled. "You're amazing. I might be sorry I hit you with your toilet after all." Though her eyes were filled with tears she grinned.

"You're never going to let that go are you?"

"Nope."

"My little warrior." He ruffled her hair.

"I'm going to get started, let the guys in or they'll break down the door when they get here.

*****

Aiden had most of her things out in the family room for her to pack before the guys got there. When she walked through the bedroom to see what had been 'contaminated' he noticed that her bottom lip trembled, but she took a deep breath and went over everything. He was so proud of her.

In the end everything left over were things she could part with. Aiden was furious to see that nearly all of her underthings, lingerie, and nightgowns made up the pile on the bed. He would get her brand new things and make sure she had fun picking them out.

Gavriel hissed when he walked through the bedroom door.
 

"We need to find this guy, he needs to die." Aiden clenched and unclenched his fists.

"It will be done brother. We won't let a threat to your mate exist." Gavriel laid a hand on his shoulder. Aiden was grateful for the unit's support, he knew, had they not been able to get there when they did, he may have lost control and went after this guy alone. But knowing that his brothers were on their way helped him keep his bear under wraps until they arrived.

"Aiden, can you smell it?" Gavriel took another deep breath.

"The fact that this asshole jerked off all over the place, yeah, I smell that."

"Then you missed the fact that it's a shifter." Gavriel took a step closer to the bed.

"It's faint, so faint." He surprised Aiden by walking over to the closet and pulling out a hanger before returning to the bed. Using the plastic hanger he shifted the bras and panties around.

"Found it." Gavriel lifted up a bra with the hanger.

Aiden shook his head, whatever it was, even being a shifter he couldn't smell it.

Gavriel laid the bra on the comforter and used the hanger to point to the bra clasp.

"Someone forgot about small metal hooks when they were using this to jerk off. There are faint traces of blood around each hook."

Aiden stepped closer and looked again. He could see smudges of red, but he would have missed it since the bra was a floral print.

"Good work. Bag it up and take it with us."

They walked out of her bedroom to the family room. Aiden snarled when he saw Darian packing the few pairs of panties that the psycho had missed into a small suitcase. Meryn laughed and walked over to him. She patted him on the chest and he quieted down.

"You're so cute." She smiled up at him. Aiden was glad to see that the traces of fear were gone. He frowned down at her.
 

"I am not cute. I am a ferocious killing machine. Paranormals everywhere tremble before me."
 

"My teddy bear." She pulled on his shirt until he was bent down enough to reach her lips and kissed him. He looked over to see Colton about to say something.

"Not a motherfucking word." He warned.

"Yes, Commander." Colton gave a salute, but his eyes danced with suppressed mirth. Aiden sighed. It was going to be a long day.

*****

While they finished packing Aiden called his mother and let her know what had happened. She promised to make dinner extra special for both Byron and Meryn.

"What's next Commander?" Colton asked.

"Call Lorcan, tell him I'm pulling Alpha out of rotation. Until we catch this fucker you guys are assigned guard duty at my parents' house. I'm not letting Meryn out of my sight."
 

Meryn tried to hide her sigh of relief. It wasn't that she didn't think she'd be safe with Adelaide and Byron, she just felt better knowing that Aiden would be there too.

"Roger that, be right back." Colton was pulling out his cell phone as he walked out the door.

Aiden turned to Meryn.

"Everything packed?"

"Yup, Darian and Keelan took the last of the boxes down and Gavriel volunteered to speak to my landlord about my lease."
 

Aiden smirked. "I bet he did. Come on, let's go make sure the guys aren't causing trouble."
 

Meryn didn't wait for him to take her hand, she latched on to his arm instead. She wasn't sorry to see the last of the apartment. She knew it wasn't in a good part of town but it was the only place that didn't have a waiting list. When they passed the rental office Meryn peeked inside and saw that Gavriel had the slimy-looking landlord up against the wall.

"And you will replace the front door and make sure that the foyer is well lit, won't you?" Gavriel's tone was pleasant but the man in front of him was sweating bullets. Keelan watched, amused. Every time the landlord looked in his direction Keelan would wave his hand and the trio of rats at his feet would hiss at the slumlord.

"Enough fun guys, time to move out." Aiden barked. Gavriel and Keelan turned in unison and joined them. Outside Colton and Darian had two men pinned against their SUV. Aiden sighed.

"I swear I can't take them anywhere."

"When we got here they had taken the tires off your car Aiden, I think Darian and Colton were just making sure that everything was good to go." Keelan said. Aiden's dark gaze turned to the two men. He stalked over and stood behind Colton.

"See, you didn't move quickly enough, our boss here has noticed what you've done. We tried to warn you buddy." Colton spread his hands as if giving up.

"No, please! We're sorry! We put them back! We put them back!" The larger of the two men babbled.

"Run." Aiden's harsh tone made both men flinch. They stared at him in terror.

"I said run! If you look back, I'll be the one right behind you!" Aiden growled. Both men screamed and took off.

Meryn walked over to stand beside the men.

"You're all little boys. Every single one of you." She nudged the back of Aiden's knee with her foot laughing when his leg collapsed causing him to wobble.

"Those men deserved worse. Maybe they'll think twice before doing such wicked things again." Gavriel's tone was cordial.

"Move out!" Aiden barked and the men moved to their car. Aiden held the door open for her and she got in. Two days. Her life had been completely changed in just two short days. She shook her head and tried not to think about it. She was having more fun now than she had in years. She glanced over at Aiden. She had never been in love before, but so far it was a wonderful feeling. Growing up, she and learned to rely on herself. Having people take care of her was something new. Grudgingly, she was being forced to open her tiny bubble and let others in. That was more terrifying than falling in love.