To the Edge and Back [The Royal Wolves] (Siren Publishing Allure) (7 page)

“But you are right, neither method will prevent them from killing you, or even if we fully mated it won’t keep you from being a target. As long as you’re human you would be vulnerable to attack by my enemies and, unfortunately, there are a lot from back when I could barely spell my own name.” Reaching out, he gently touched her cheek. “For now, though, you need to think on what I’ve told you, so I’m going to head out, if you don’t have any more questions, that is.”

“No, no more questions,” she whispered. Her mind was racing, and she couldn’t process what he had given her, much less anything else. When she looked up, she felt her head tilt and closed her eyes as she breathed him in. “Will I have dreams of you again tonight?” And please not Monday morning when she was sitting at her desk.

“Depends on whether or not we sleep at the same time, but I doubt it. I have to work tonight, so you’ll be sleeping long before I even find my bed. And I have a feeling by the time I do sleep you’ll already be up and moving around,” he said softly. He wished that he could hold her in their dreams again, especially since he now knew just what was going on, but knew she likely needed a night without him invading her dreams.

She frowned and shook her head. “That sucks. Especially if you dream of me Monday morning when I am trying to work.” That would be bad. “I had my first orgasm sitting at my desk at work.”

She realized she said that aloud and blushed at her words. “I know that it really is a lot for me to ask, but do you think that you could hold off on sleeping between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.?” She couldn’t lose her job, and all it would take was something like shouting in ecstasy for that to happen.

His lips twitched, but he nodded. “I can try,” he said softly. “But it only works if you drift off as well, Mina. If I’m asleep and you’re awake you might pick up a bit of my dreams, but I doubt it would be enough for you to start shouting in ecstasy. But if you nod off, I promise I’ll keep my hands to myself.” As much as he could, that was. She was a delicious bit that he’d gladly nibble on, but not if he knew it would get him in trouble.

“I was wide awake that first time, Janos.” Her lips twitched in happiness and then she shook her head. “I like those dreams, however,” she admitted to him and then sighed. “I know you have a lot to do, so go ahead. I need to think about everything that is going on, all right?” She hadn’t let his hand go. She liked to touch him, a lot.

“Are you sure you’re all right, Mina?” he asked her softly, shifting just a little further forward so he was perched right on the edge of the chair. “This has been a lot to take in, and I don’t like leaving you if you’re upset.” Shifting, he sat next to her, one leg bent up onto the cushion so he was facing her but not too close. Reaching out, gently he brushed back a piece of her hair. “Tell me you’re fine and make me believe it and I’ll take off.”

“Yes, I’m sure that I am fine.” She looked at him and nodded. “I really am fine, Janos. It is a lot to take in and it changes my life completely.” She sighed. “It’s an adjustment that I will need to make, but it’s still an adjustment.”

Her hand lay on his knee as she faced and looked at him. “Tomorrow is work for me, so I will be fine. I will talk to you in a week?” She didn’t have a phone where he could call her, and she was so tired when she normally finally made it home that she didn’t stay up late enough for him to come and visit her. “Be safe, Janos. I promise you that I am fine.”

Trailing his fingers back across her cheek, he nodded. “All right,” he said softly though a little hesitantly. Getting to his feet, he looked down at her for a moment before heading for the door. “I’ll say good night to you then, Mina. Lock the door after me, please, so I know you’re safe tonight?” he asked as he pulled the door open and scanned the hall, scenting the air.

She moved with him to the door and watched as he scented the air. “I will lock all the locks behind you, Janos. Thank you for coming and explaining to me in person.” She nodded and grinned. “Now go. You have a bar to run, and I’m sure that they are even now likely demanding my head on a platter because I’m keeping you.” One hand on the door, she leaned against it. “I will see you next Sunday. Next Saturday, of course, is laundry day, so a week from today, okay?”

Looking down at her, he nodded slowly and handed her a card. “That’s my personal line. If anything happens, call me, Mina. I mean it. Please,” he added to soften what came out sounding like an order. “Be safe,” he murmured, and, going on instinct, leaned down to brush a light kiss over her cheek, breathing her in at the same time, his body practically shuddering as her scent poured over him. Moving quickly, he stepped back and stood waiting. “Lock it up, honey,” he said with a half smile.

She kept the card and nodded, closing the door and locking all the locks before putting her back to it and bringing the card up to her nose, inhaling the scent of him. A grin crossed her lips as she murmured, “Now I’m sniffing things, too.”

With a sense of purpose, she moved from the door and headed toward her bed. Now she wanted to sleep in it, now she wanted to smell him, and now, now she needed to think.

The phrase “week from hell” took on a whole new meaning as Janos was forced to stay away from Mina. It was also something he never ever wanted to repeat. Checking the time for the fortieth time in the last minute, he nearly snarled when a waitress came up with an order. Taking a breath, he did the order of drinks that the waitress had put in and knew he had to get out of there or he’d end up going rabid on someone’s ass damned fast.

Passing off his towel, he told the bartenders to call his cell if there was a problem, but otherwise he was off the clock until further notice. He also told them that if his brothers called or stopped in, he was out and in a meeting.

Grabbing his keys and jacket, he was quickly on his way to Mina’s. He hadn’t heard from her and he hadn’t heard anything from Miklos either, so he hoped it had been a good week for her. Soon enough though he’d find out, and she better damn well be fine or he’d be finding someone to kill.

* * * *

Later that afternoon

Mina stared at the bobbleheads in the box and touched a finger to one of them. She set it off to nodding and closed her eyes against the pain. She had given them seven years of her life. It had been the only job she had ever had, and she lost it.

It was Friday morning when “it” happened. She had just finished taking the order for Sampras on Nine when she was hit with the feeling of hands caressing and touching her. She bit her lip and closed her eyes. Standing, she moved toward her boss’s office as she said, “I’m taking a fifteen minute, all right?”

Fred Storm looked up at Mina as if it was the first time he had seen her and nodded. “Yeah, sure.” He made a shooing motion with his hand and went back to his game online of killing trolls and the like. She hated that everyone in the office seemed to goof off, even when busy, but to be dismissed as if she didn’t mean anything, well, it hurt her on a deep level.

There the hands were again, teasing her breasts, and lips trailing over her neck. She had been distracted lately and more prone to daydreaming than any other time ever, so when he took her so easily into that place, she wasn’t surprised. She missed him, funny enough. She missed his snarling and snapping.

She had made it to the picnic tables and leaned back in the bright sun as she allowed her mind to drift into daydream, and there he was, big, beautiful, and so very naked. When he held his hand out, Mina didn’t hesitate. She slipped hers into his and went into his arms readily, and when he began to kiss her, she shifted slightly and moaned.

She had been enjoying her daydream and ten minutes later screamed as she came in her dream, felt his seed bursting inside of her. However, eleven minutes later when she opened her eyes, there they stood, her boss and the warehouse head.

“Mina.” Her boss tugged at his shirt. “We have to let you go.” His ruddy complexion was even redder than normal. “You allowed a customer into the warehouse after hours and gave away free merchandise.”

When she tried to explain, he shook his head at her. “And now this? Mina, we think you need some help. See a professional.” With that, he turned to walk away, and then she saw Cindy carrying the small paper box in her arms, watched as if disconnected from the whole scene as the box was placed on the table, and then she was all alone.

Spending a precious dollar, she took the bus home, and as she let herself in, she was still so far from the moment that she didn’t pick up her mail, just pushed into the apartment, locked the doors, and since that afternoon there she sat. Wide awake, she sat on her couch, still in her work clothes, simply too shocked for words.

Reaching her door, he knocked on the panel and frowned when he caught the oddest scent. Knocking again, he stepped to the door. “Mina, honey, it’s Janos. Are you in there?” he called through the door. It was past when she should have been home and, though the lights were off, he knew she was in there. “Mina, let me in please,” he called gently to her, pressing his hand to the door as if he could will her to open it for him.

Mina turned her head toward the door. “I will be just a moment, Janos.” Okay, she needed to change clothes and hide the box. “I’m just changing, just a sec.” Grabbing the box, she threw it into the closet even as she pulled out another pair of clothes and stripped quickly.

Pulling on jeans and a sweater, she went to the door. Opening it, she smiled up at him. “Hey there,” she breathed finally when she tugged it open. “How was your week?” she asked quietly and tugged the door open wider. “Come in, please.”

Stepping inside, he pushed the door shut and locked it without saying a word. Taking her hand in his, he guided her slowly to the couch. Sitting, he tugged her onto his lap. “What happened?” he asked her as gently as he could. “And don’t try to deny something did. I can smell it on you, Mina. Your scent is off.”

“It’s nothing really, Janos, nothing that needs to be worried about today.” She smiled and leaned her head down and laid her head on his shoulder. “I would rather not talk about me.” She would start to cry again, and that was just humiliating. “How are the clubs going?”

“They are fine,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her. “Tell me please, Mina?” he asked softly again. “No lies can be between mates, especially when one of them has a Wolf’s nose that can pick up miniscule changes. So just tell me, Mina. Mates share, mates talk, and mates are there for each other in times of need. Please talk to me, honey,” he whispered against her cheek as he pulled her closer and leaned back. “I’m feeling particularly helpless around you right now, and this is not a feeling I happen to like.”

She closed her eyes and sighed. “I was let go today.” She whispered quietly, “I was fired, but soon I will find another job.” Well, as long as her bosses didn’t put out the “why” of her termination. “I worked for them for seven years and never took a vacation, so this will be my vacation while I figure out what to do.”

She had seven weeks of vacation pay due to her. However, after taxes it would be only about three and a half weeks worth of pay, but she could and would make it stretch. “I didn’t want you to know, not because I wanted to lie to you, but because I didn’t want to break the moment of happiness that I had with having you come to see me today.”

“I’m sorry, Mina,” he murmured softly as he stroked back her hair and pressed a light kiss to her jaw. “But now it’s out there, honey. Better to have the air clear to let you better enjoy the moment. We can recreate the moment at any time, but we need to get everything out there so there’s nothing creating friction.” Leaning his head to the side, he tipped up her chin slightly. “Are you going to tell me why you got fired, or should I guess based on what you’ve told me so far and what you’re going to tell me about the time it may have occurred?” he asked her.

She flushed as she dropped her gaze to the suddenly too-interesting floor. “It’s not your fault.” It was hers, hers and how her body reacted and how loud she seemed to be with sexual things. “It would have happened no matter what, I think.” It sucked, but there it was.

“At least this way now I can find another job, one that I will love even more so.” She loved her old job. It was now as if she had lost her whole family. Not her coworkers so much as all of her clients. She had built up a rapport with them that had them sending her birthday and Christmas gifts and her sending those cards for all of the important dates in their lives. She had saved and put away money just to buy stamps, cards, and to always have them ready, and now, well now they weren’t needed.

“How about you, Janos, how has your week been?” He was far more interesting than her anyway. He was so much more than she could ever be.

“Long,” he said softly as he felt guilt ripping over him. “I should have warned you more fully about the connection. I’m so sorry, Mina,” he whispered, knowing he’d be pulling his business from the liquor supplier that had fired her and he’d be telling them just why he’d done it, too.

Kissing her cheek again lightly, he buried his nose against her neck and breathed her in slowly. “I missed you and the fact I couldn’t talk to you except in sleep, and even then I was trying not to do anything to drag you into my dreams. I really am sorry about today. I fell asleep in my office and my mind just swung to you and how much I missed you.” Among other things.

She shrugged and tilted her head sideways. “Don’t be sorry.” Her hand stroked his shoulder absently as she continued, “Never be sorry, Janos. I know you didn’t mean to pull me in, and it was likely my fault, too, because I had missed having you holding me in our dreams. I don’t have a phone or I likely would have called you through the week, because I really did miss you, believe it or not.”

When she looked up at him, she sighed. “It’s all right, I will find another job.” And she would. She didn’t worry about that. She would find another job, maybe one that paid just as much if not more than the last one. “I think, however, when I look for my next job, it will need to be one where I can sleep when you do.”