Once Bitten (15 page)

Only he
didn’t let her go.

Chapter Seven

Lila
had bit him. She’d actually gone far enough to draw blood.

Gabriel’s
heart was pounding in his chest so hard and fast, he thought it was going to
explode. He couldn’t slow it. Sweat poured from him, mixing with the warm water
of the shower, as he struggled to control the humming that started deep in his
gut.

His
fingers bit into her flesh as he held her, every muscle in his body painfully
clenched. He could feel his skin stretching over every muscle, every joint. He
couldn’t control it. He was changing right in front of her.

This
wasn’t good.

Somehow
he managed to find the strength to release her and stumble back, his hands
coming up to his face to block her out. He couldn’t look at her or it would
drive him right over the edge. He had always been able to control his changes
before, but not now. There was no stopping it. He was barely able to slow it
down.

“Gabriel?”
He heard her whisper his name, could hear the confusion in her voice.

Just
the sound of her sweet, wavering voice made his teeth erupt from his jaw,
nicking his lip. A drop of his blood landed on his tongue and he swore he could
taste her in it. He could smell her tantalizing scent stronger than ever
before. Her sweet release, mixed with his own, still clung to her thighs. The
shampoo she had used. And then there was her. Her own natural scent that was
slowly driving him insane. He was suffocating with it.

He
wouldn’t be able to stop himself if she didn’t get away from him. The need to
claim her—to finish what she had started—was overwhelming him. He was losing
himself in the battle to possess her. To thrust into her and sink his teeth
into the soft skin of her shoulder at the same time. To mark her, both with his
teeth and his cock. To tie them together permanently.

He
couldn’t think of anything else.

Already
he could feel her in his veins. It was as if her scent had seeped in under his
skin and was pounding through his body with every beat of his heart. She had
changed him and had brought on the start of his uncontrollable transformation
with her innocent actions.

He
couldn’t do this. He needed to do this. He needed to claim her with every fiber
of his being.

He
heard her step toward him and the beast inside of him lunged forward, desperate
to get to her. If she touched him…

“Get
out!” He growled at her, his voice no longer sounding remote
ly
human.

Thankfully,
she didn’t hesitate. She was out of the bathroom faster than he ever thought
she could move.

Alone,
he tried to focus on anything except the sounds of her tears coming from the
other room. He tried to focus on the spray of the rapidly cooling water. He
tried to calm his exploding heart. He struggled to keep the beast at bay.

If he
relaxed, the change would happen. With every muscle in his body tight, he was
sure the fibers would tear from the bone. The familiar popping noises were
turning into grinding sounds as he struggled to keep ahold of his human shape.
It was the most painful thing he had ever experienced and yet, he continued to
hold on.

Claiming
her as she had unknowingly claimed him would mean the end of both of them.

His
cock was straining, pulsing with a life of its own. Desperate to stop it, he
held it and pumped himself painfully until his release coated the wall of the
shower.

His
canines dug into the flesh of his bicep as he braced himself against the tile.
Tasting her inside of him was almost enough. Almost. Twice more he came and
finally, finally the change stopped almost as abruptly as it had begun and he
was able to breathe again.

What
the fuck was he going to do now?

* * * *

Lila
couldn’t stand it. She didn’t understand what was happening to him and she felt
powerless to do anything to help.

All she
could do was cry.

She
could hear the agony he was in, every growl and then the whimpering. She was
lost.

Had she
done this to him? She didn’t know if she could live with herself if she had.

When
she heard the shower turn off, she jumped up from where she had flung her naked
body on the bed. Digging through her bag, she found an old T-shirt and a pair of
sweatpants. She hastily wiped her eyes and pulled them on just as the door
opened and he stepped out into the room.

The
first thing she noticed was that his arm was bleeding terribly, soaking through
the towel he had wrapped around it. The second thing she noticed was that the
place where she had bit him on his chest was almost
glowing
.

Small
streaks of light seemed to emanate from it until it suddenly fizzled out.

“Gabriel,
what the hell…” Her eyes were wide as she looked from his chest to his face.

At first
she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, but deep down she knew what
she had seen. And she knew she had been the one to cause it.

She
took a tentative step toward him, but his arm shot out, stopping her dead.

Regret
shone in his eyes. “I can’t. I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

“Are
you okay?”

He
sighed, exhaustion overwhelming his features. “I’ll be fine. Go to bed, Lila.”

She
didn’t say anything. She didn’t know of anything she could say at that point.
Instead, she watched him walk through the connecting door and close it tight
behind him. The sound of the lock turning nearly broke her heart.

Lila
crawled into the bed, pulling the thick cover up over her head. The tears didn’t
return, but she spent hours tossing and turning. She didn’t understand and there
was no way she could possibly understand what was going on with him unless he
talked to her. But how was she supposed to ask the question when he was
sleeping behind a locked door?

Finally,
just when she thought she would stare at the ceiling for the rest of the night,
she fell asleep.

The
shrill ringing of her cell phone startled her awake in the early morning hours.
Light shone in through the cracks in the blinds and a glance at the digital
clock on the nightstand told her it was just after eight.

Snatching
the offending phone off the nightstand, she held it to her ear.

“What?”
she grumbled into the line.

“It’s a
beautiful day outside and you’re wasting it by laying around and being lazy.”
The sound of Beth’s voice was just what Lila had needed to hear.

“I’m
up.”

“You
were not. I just woke your ass up.”

“So
what if you did.” Lila said, sitting up in the bed. The rustling on the other
end, followed by Beth’s string of profanities, had Lila only guessing what was
going on.

She got
her answer a second later.

“It’s
Kaleb,” a deep voice said over the line. “I just want you to know that your
friend here is freaking nuts. I’m not going to tell you what she did.”

Lila
couldn’t stop the sudden laughter that welled in her throat. She hadn’t meant
to laugh at him, but all the thoughts of what Beth was capable of were running
through her head. She was sure Beth was giving him a run for his money.

“This
isn’t a laughing matter. She’s insane.”

The
sound of Beth’s voice boomed in the background. “Don’t act like I can’t hear
you!”

“Frankly,
woman, I don’t care if you can hear me or not,” he barked.

Lila
laughed again, needing to after what had happened between her and Gabriel the
night before. “You two just need to play nice.”

“Huh.
Tell that to your friend. It’s her fault that—”

The
line rustled again and Lila could just imagine the two of them fighting over
Beth’s cell phone.

Beth
won. “I swear, he’s so overdramatic. One chick flick and he’s freaking out.
Last night I thought he was going to gouge out his eyeballs.”

Lila
could hear Kaleb’s voice in the background, “It was more than one!”

“Please.
The big strong werewolf can’t handle
Steel
Magnolias
? Cut me a break.” Lila could almost feel Beth rolling her eyes at
him.

“Beth,
please ease up on him a little bit. You forget that he’s doing us a favor.”

“And
why should I make his life easy?”

“Maybe
because he’s risking his life to keep you safe!”

“Yeah,
okay. Make him out to be the hero.”

She was
quickly becoming annoyed. “Really, Beth. Knock it off. Kaleb doesn’t have to be
burdened by you. He could easily kick you out on your ass and then where would
you be? None of them have to be burdened by us. Gabriel certainly doesn’t have
to be burdened by me.”

She
didn’t know what had possessed her to say the last part and she regretted it
instantly.

“Oh.
My. God. You fucked him, didn’t you?”

“What?”
Kaleb’s yell interrupted anything Lila was about to say.

“You
have. I bet you fucked the hell out of him!” Beth laughed, clearly enjoying
putting Lila on the spot and wreaking havoc with Kaleb.

“It’s
none of your business,” Lila tried but she knew it was useless as soon as the
words came out of her mouth.

“When
has it ever been none of my business? As your friend, it’s always my business
to know who you’re sleeping with. Hell, I knew you wanted to, I just didn’t
think you had the balls to go through with— Hey! Let go of my phone!”

More
rustling, followed by the slam of a door.

Alarmed,
Lila asked, “What the hell are you two doing?”

There
was panting on the other end. “How…was…it?”

“Are
you okay?”

A few
more deep breaths and Beth answered, “I’m fine. He couldn’t catch me if he
tried.”

Lila
heard the pounding on the door through the phone line.

“I’m in
front of the door, so don’t even try breaking it down. You certainly don’t want
to hurt the woman you’re supposed to be protecting, my big howling hero.”

“Cut
him a break.” Gabriel had told Lila about what would happen if any of them got
caught protecting humans, but she doubted that Beth knew the full extent of it.
If she did, she would probably be a helluva lot nicer than what she was being
now.

“Fine,
fine. You win. I’ll play nice. Tell me about Gabriel. How was it?”

The
sound of Gabriel’s phone going off in the next room alerted Lila that Kaleb
hadn’t wasted any time after giving up on Beth to dial his brother.

“I…I
don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Jeez,
that bad huh?”

“No it
wasn’t bad at all.”

“Then
what’s the issue?”

Lila
didn’t want to rehash what had happened the night before. It would probably
only freak Beth out and it was still too painful to discuss. “It’s a long
story.”

“Honey,
that’s why you have me.”

“I
really don’t want to talk about it right now.”

“All
right, I get it. I’m not going to pretend that I’m not hurt, though.”

She
knew Beth better than that. “You’re not hurt.”

“I
know. You’ll tell me when you’re ready to.”

“I love
you, you know.”

“I love
you too. Stay safe and keep me updated.”

“I
will. Be nice to Kaleb.”

“Fine,
but only for you. Talk later.” The line went dead before Lila could say
anything else. For Kaleb’s sake, she really hoped Beth would take her advice.

Crawling
out of bed, she went into the bathroom and took a quick shower. She didn’t know
what time Gabriel planned to leave for headquarters, but she wanted to be
ready.

Getting
under the hot spray just brought back memories from the night before, both good
and bad. Washing quickly, she got out of the shower as fast as she could.

She
took her time dressing and applying her makeup, even taking the time to dry her
hair instead of letting it dry naturally.

Lila
was standing in front of the mirror braiding her hair when Gabriel knocked on
the connecting door.

“Yeah?”
Her stomach flipped over at the thought of seeing him. She didn’t know what he
was going to say to her this morning, and she feared him walking away from her.

The
door swung open and he came into her room, dressed and ready. As tempted as she
was to stare at him, she focused her attention on her reflection as she
finished her hair.

“I just
got off the phone with Kaleb,” he said, shuffling his booted foot across the
thick carpet.

“I
figured.” She tied a hair band around the end of her braid and flipped it over
her shoulder.

“Apparently
Beth is making him pull his hair out.”