Once Bitten (6 page)

Tears
slid from her eyes when she realized she was screwed. She couldn’t move, couldn’t
fight back, but she somehow had to get past the beast to the man. Not knowing
what else to do, she resorted to begging, “Please, Gabriel. Please don’t do
this.”

As soon
as his name was on her lips, he snarled but quickly pulled his mouth away from
her skin. His entire body shook as he struggled to regain himself. The claws
she had felt digging into her hip shrank back. He let go of her hands and she
tried to pull herself away from him. When he sat back on his haunches, she
scampered away. Huddling down in front of the fridge, she brought her knees to
her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs.

She was
silent, blinking back tears as he changed back to the man she recognized. At
first he appeared confused, but when he saw her shredded pants, he looked
horrified.

“Lila,
fuck. I’m so fucking sorry. Please, Lila.” He sounded anguished and she couldn’t
help but pity him. The fear she felt morphed into anger when she realized that
she had somehow come out of their encounter with all of her limbs intact and
without even the smallest trace of blood on her.

“Jesus,
Gabriel! What the hell was that?” He sat across from her, his back pressed
against the cabinets as he looked at her, pain written all over his face.

“You
swore you wouldn’t run. God damn it, I’m so sorry. I can’t always control it
when I turn. I should’ve waited until Kaleb got here to show you.” He closed
his eyes and shook his head as if trying to rid himself of mental cobwebs.

“You scared
the crap out of me!”

“Don’t
fear me, Lila,” he breathed. “I’m not going to turn again, and I’m not going to
hurt you.”

“You
smelled my crotch like a damn dog. You’re just lucky you didn’t try pissing on
my damn leg.” Now she was the one growling at him.

Gabriel’s
face paled and she wondered how much of what transpired he was actually able to
remember.

His
voice was barely audible when he spoke again. “I’m sorry.”

He
climbed to his knees and inched toward her slowly as if waiting for her to move
away from him. Stopping when he was in front of her, he sat back on his legs
and he peered at her through the long strands of blonde hair that had fallen
over her eyes.

Pushing
her hair back, his thumb brushed her cheek as he wiped away a wet trail that
had been left there. He searched her face as he smoothed his hands over her
hair and cupped her face. He leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss on her
forehead, his lips a warm whisper brushing against her skin. She sighed, her lips
parting and her eyes suddenly heavy.

When he
started to pull away from her, she tilted her head up. His lips were mere
inches away from hers and his hand was still on her cheek, his thumb caressing
her skin. She wanted nothing more than to lean forward and graze her lips
against his. The desire to close those few inches between them was
overwhelming. Before she could question her actions, she brushed her lips
against his.

Lila
felt his entire body stiffen and thought he would pull back. She was just about
to end the kiss and apologize for being so bold when he relaxed. He didn’t
immediately kiss her back, but he did let her continue with her gentle
exploration. His lips parted as she brushed her mouth against his, her tongue
lightly tracing over his bottom lip.

She
stroked the stubble on his cheeks with the back of her fingers, loving the
sharp prickling sensation on her sensitive skin. He sucked in a breath when she
scraped her teeth against his lip. His fingertips slid through her hair as he
pulled away from her lips.

Disappointment
shot through her when she thought he was ending their kiss, but a second later
the disappointment faded when he caught her upper lip between his. He sucked
gently, his tongue tracing a pattern over the flesh. When her tongue brushed
his, his mouth opened further to deepen the kiss.

His
fingers combed through her hair as he wrapped his other arm around her waist to
pull her onto his lap. She straddled his thighs and wrapped her arms around his
neck. Leaning into him, she pressed her chest against his. Her nipples hardened
through the fabric of her thin tank top and dug into his skin.

His
rigid cock pressed against her pussy, the material of her underwear the only
thing keeping them from the skin-to-skin contact she craved. He groaned against
her mouth and his arms tightened around her. His tongue tangled with hers in a
languid dance that left her moaning against him.

The
pounding on the front door broke them apart. Gabriel was on his feet in a flash
and she was right behind him, panting and looking from the door to him.

“Gabriel!”
A man’s voice boomed from behind the door.

Gabriel
sighed, his body visibly relaxing. “It’s my brother. Go get some pants on.”

She
looked down at her ripped pants and nodded. As he went over to his discarded
jeans still lying on the kitchen floor, Lila went to her bedroom. She pulled on
a pair of sweatpants and, just for good measure, a bra. Chucking her torn pants
into the bathroom’s trash can, she went back into the living room to meet
Kaleb.

Chapter Three

Gabriel
jerked his pants up his legs as Lila walked past him to her bedroom. When the
door closed between them, he shook his head. If Kaleb hadn’t interrupted them
when he did, he didn’t know how far he would’ve taken things. He wanted her,
there was no denying that, and he knew that she wanted him. She did nothing to
hide it.

But the
sole fact remained—she was off limits.

Making
out with her was probably forgivable. But going further than that? Inexcusable.
He already knew he was in trouble where she was concerned. He couldn’t let what
had transpired between them on her kitchen floor happen again. Next time he may
not have his brother there to intervene.

Gabriel
opened the door and Kaleb stepped inside, thrusting a stuffed black duffel bag
against his chest.

“Thanks,”
he said, tossing the bag onto the floor next to him.

Kaleb
glanced around the room, his nose lifting in the air. “Where is she?” He asked
in hushed tones.

“Getting
dressed.”

A smirk
crossed his brother’s face. “I bet she is.”

“Shut up,”
Gabriel ground out just as Lila’s bedroom door opened.

She had
put on a pair of sweatpants but hadn’t bothered to change out of the gray tank
top she had on before. He breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed she had put
on a bra. Not that he didn’t love to see her walking around the house, her
breasts bouncing with each step, but he didn’t want his brother or anyone else
to have the same privilege. Her long blonde hair was pulled back in a low pony
tail, a few of the shorter strands having escaped from the elastic fell onto
her face.

“Hey,”
Kaleb said to her when she walked up to stand next to Gabriel.

She
smiled warmly at him. “Hey.”

Lila
and Kaleb knew each other in the same capacity as she and Gabriel knew each
other—waiting on her and her friends at The Wolf’s Den—but as far as Gabriel
knew they never had a conversation outside of the bar before.

Kaleb
stepped into the living room and plopped down on the couch. Gabriel closed and
locked the door behind him. Going over to the fireplace, he leaned against the
mantle and glanced at Lila. She had sat down in an overstuffed chair across
from Kaleb. Her big blue eyes flickered between the brothers before landing on
Gabriel, as if waiting for him to say something.

He wasn’t
in a hurry to talk to his brother, not when he could see where her lips were
still swollen from their earlier kiss. Not when the swell of her breasts rose
and fell with each breath, straining against the thin fabric of her tank top.
And certainly not when he could still smell her arousal lingering on the air.

Kaleb’s
voice interrupted his lurid thoughts. “Your cell phone is in the bag. It took
me a minute to find it in the bar last night.”

He tore
his eyes away from her. “Thanks.”

“Yup.
So, what’s the plan?” He stretched his long legs out in front of him and looked
at Gabriel expectantly.

He knew
that Kaleb knew. If Gabriel was able to smell her arousal, Kaleb had probably
caught the scent while she was still in her bedroom. His senses were keener
than most. Still, he couldn’t force himself to feel guilty for kissing her. He
wanted to kiss her again.

Gabriel
sighed, knowing Kaleb wasn’t going to like what he said. “Some of Lila’s
friends are on their way. We have to let them know what’s going on.”

He was
right. Kaleb shot out of his seat, anger written on his face. “Wait one damn
minute. I got it when you told her since she walked into it last night, but
what the fuck? You can’t go around flapping your gums to all of her girlfriends
about what we are! What are you going to say? That they all saved your life?”

Gabriel
had called his brother once he had known Lila was asleep to explain what had
happened. Kaleb had been just as disturbed as him to know that there were
warlocks sneaking into their territory and pissed that they had attacked his brother,
but he had been even more upset by the fact that Lila now knew what they were
and the problems that entailed.

Kaleb
had argued with him when he told him his plans to stay with Lila in order to
ensure her safety since he knew about Gabriel’s attraction to her, but had
quickly backed down when he heard she had saved his life. He had reluctantly
agreed that it was what had to be done, but Gabriel understood his brother’s
fear of revealing more than what was absolutely necessary. It was the same fear
all beings of the Netherworld felt.

“No. It’s
not that simple.” He glanced down at Lila, who was watching their exchange with
quiet curiosity.

“Bullshit.
You know the consequences of telling her, but that’s something that they should
forgive since she saved your life. Running your mouth off to everyone else is
going to get you—”

“Kaleb.”
Gabriel growled and his brother instantly quieted. He didn’t need Lila to know
the consequences of revealing the secret of the Netherworld to a human. “There’s
no other option that I can think of. By all means, if you can think of a way to
keep these women safe until the magic wears off of them, please tell me. I’m
all ears.”

Kaleb
sighed, but didn’t sit back down. He walked over to the front window and peered
through a crack in the blinds before answering his brother. “If this is what
you’ve decided to do then you know I’ll stand behind you. But know that I don’t
approve. This isn’t going to end well for anyone involved. Let’s just hope the
magic they carry wears off before the council finds out.”

“Let me
worry about the council.” The sound of an approaching car caught Gabriel’s
attention as he spoke.

“First
you should probably worry about how these girls are going to handle seeing a
werewolf up close and personal.”

* * * *

Lila
watched the brothers’ conversation with interest. She was intrigued by all the
things that they weren’t saying, trying to read between the lines the best she
could.

 
From what she understood about the
Netherworld, they weren’t the nicest bunch of folks. Between what she had
learned from Gabriel and then Kaleb’s reaction, she was fairly certain she
wanted to stay as far away from them as possible.

“Who do
you know that drives a little blue Volkswagen Bug?” Kaleb asked her, still
peering out the window.

“That
would be Beth.” Lila got up from the chair, opened the front door and looked
through the screen. Sure enough, Beth had pulled up to park next to Kaleb’s
large green pick-up truck.

Her
friend did not have a happy look on her face as she got out of her car. She was
wearing her scrubs, an obvious indication that she had been getting ready to
head into work when she had received Lila’s call. It also must have been why
she looked like she had just been sucking on a lemon.

 
“She looks miserable,” Kaleb remarked
before allowing the blinds to snap back in place and stepping away from the
window to go sit back down on the couch.

“She
must have called out.”

Lila
glanced over at Kaleb, who was looking at her in disbelief, his brow arched. “She
looks that way because she’s not going to work?”

“Probably.”
It was obvious that he didn’t know Beth. The woman wouldn’t miss work for
anything.

“Wow.
If I had a good reason to not go, I’d jump on it.”

“I don’t
know if you know the difference between a good reason and just a reason,”
Gabriel commented.

As soon
as Beth stepped onto the porch, Lila opened the screen door for her to let her
into the house. Her brown eyes darted from Lila to Gabriel and finally to
Kaleb.

“What
the hell are they doing here?” she cut out, still staring at Kaleb with her
hand on her hip. Even though Beth didn’t frequent The Wolf’s Den as often as
either she or Carey, Beth recognized both the men. After all, it was a small
town.

“Long
story. We’ll get into it when Natalie gets here,” Lila told her before turning
and heading into the kitchen with Beth hot on her heels.

“Natalie’s
coming too? Damn, what is this? An intervention?” Beth asked as she leaned
against the countertop, watching as Lila started making a fresh pot of coffee.

Glancing
up at her, Lila frowned. “Um, no. Why would you think it’s an intervention?”

“Well,
you have been drinking a lot more lately…”

Lila
snorted. “I have not. And besides, why would I hold an intervention for myself?”

“I don’t
know. You’re strange sometimes.” When Lila threw her a dirty look, Beth smiled.
“Hey, I’m just saying.” She pulled her vibrating phone out of the pocket of her
scrubs. Her fingers moved over the touch screen in a blur as she responded to
someone’s text.

She
heard Beth’s phone vibrate again as she pulled mugs out of the cabinet. Beth
had put her phone back in her pocket by the time Lila handed her a full mug of
steaming coffee.

Lila
heard a noise and looked up to see Gabriel walk over to the door and open the
screen door for Natalie, whom Lila hadn’t even heard pull up. Natalie looked
startled to see the two men at first, her eyes immediately searching for Lila.
She made a beeline for the kitchen, not speaking to either of them as she went
by.

“Are we
having an intervention?” she asked, hopping her slim form up onto the counter.

“No!
Why do you both think I need an intervention?”

“You do
like to drink.” Natalie tried to keep a straight face, but she couldn’t hide
the telltale twitch at the corner of her mouth as she tried to suppress a
smile.

Lila
turned to glare at Beth. “You told her to ask that when she came in, didn’t
you?”

Beth
didn’t reply. Instead she sipped her coffee and looked around the kitchen,
trying to appear innocent when she was anything but.

“So
what’s all this madness about?” Natalie asked, tearing Lila’s attention away
from Beth’s misdeeds. “You sounded all ‘life-and-death’ on the phone. Gave me
the creeps. Not to mention I had to cancel my date with this really gorgeous
doctor who had plans to take me bowling at three.”

Beth
nearly choked on her coffee. “Bowling. Seriously?”

Natalie
looked almost offended. “Yes. What’s wrong with bowling?”

“Nothing,”
Beth said too quickly.

“It’s
fun!”

“I’m
sure it is.”

“Oh, be
quiet,” Natalie ground out before turning back to Lila. “Tell me why I’m here.
Not that I don’t love hanging with you Lila, but you know, I have places to go,
people to see…”

“Let’s
go sit down,” Lila said, pouring a cup of coffee for herself and another for
Gabriel before turning and walking back into the living room.

Gabriel
had sat down on the couch to wait for the women to join them while Kaleb
wandered around the living room, looking at the pictures she had placed on the
crowded bookshelves. She handed the coffee to Gabriel and he took it from her
with a grateful smile that nearly stole Lila’s breath away. She needed to get a
grip on herself.

Her
lips still tingled from their earlier kiss. Biting her lower lip, she sat down
next to him, her shoulder pressed against his arm. The heat radiating from his
skin was relaxing and she had to stop herself from snuggling up against him and
using him as her own personal teddy bear.

“Kaleb,
do you want coffee?” Beth called from the kitchen, always a good host, even in
someone else’s house.

“I’m
good.” He responded as he walked back over to the coffee table and grabbed the
remote, switching off the television before wandering back to the living room
window and peering out. Beth shrugged and joined them in the living room with
Natalie close behind her.

Beth
sat on the arm of the chair across from them, leaving the thick cushioned seat
for Natalie. She glanced between Lila and Gabriel with a knowing expression on
her face.

“Can we
get some kind of explanation now? This emergency of yours is taking forever,”
she said.

Lila
didn’t know where to begin, so she started with explaining what had gone down
the night before. She told them about jumping in to help Gabriel when the
warlocks had him pinned, which got Kaleb’s full attention. He studied her
openly, no doubt trying to figure out why a little girl like her would try to
take on some warlocks.

When
she told them about Gabriel’s partial transformation the night before and his
admitting to being a werewolf, Natalie started laughing and Beth looked pissed.

“You
made me miss work to tell me about some werewolf fairy tale?” Beth demanded.

“It’s
the truth.” She could see why Gabriel had told her that seeing was believing.
Beth would never believe it unless she saw it.

“It’s
bullshit.” Beth was glaring at her and probably debating whether or not to take
Lila to the hospital to get her committed.