Brock (4 page)

She
didn’t want him to let her go, but she knew that him holding her was going to be trouble. She might not have a lot of experience with sex, but she knew when a man wanted her. And his erection felt as big as her arm.

When he let her go
, she stepped back but grabbed the counter behind her. She didn’t know what to do now. When he moved to the other side of the counter, she went to the cash register and waited for the woman who was making her way toward her. She didn’t have much, but she was something to take her mind off the man sitting so near, yet who felt as if he were miles away.

Writing in
her pad, she asked the woman if she’d found everything she needed. The woman read the note and handed it back to her with a frown. When she looked at Brock, so did she. He took the note and then read it to her.

Her hands started to fly as she spoke to her.
Her name was Cassandra White, and she was a teacher at the local deaf school. She also asked if the shop had any African violets that were already potted.

“Yes,”
Em told her. “I know that the boss was working on some this morning, and I’ll see if she’s finished with them yet.”

As she walked
toward where she knew Rayne was, she reached for her boss and told her about the order and what she’d told the woman. Rayne laughed and told her to give her two minutes, and she’d have one finished for her. She also told her that she was proud of her for thinking on her feet so quickly. When she entered the workstation, she saw that Rayne and the vampire were back there, and she turned to go.

“Wait.
He would like to speak to you. Peter feels badly that you dislike him so much. He wants to know if he’s done something wrong or has hurt you in any way.”

She shook her head.
“
I don’t dislike him. I just…he is a vampire, and I…I want nothing to do with them and their kind. He is…I don’t want anything to do with him.”

“Then I’m sorry
, Em, but if you want to work here, you’re going to have to give me a better reason than that to treat one of my dearest friends this way. He’s willing to meet you halfway, but you’re not even trying.”

She looked at Rayne as she handed her the little violet.
It was a bright purple, but mostly it was blurry. She was being fired. Nodding once, she moved toward the cash register and blindly rung the rest of the things the teacher had up. Then she went to the back room to get her things.

Em
wasn’t sure how she was going to get home from here, but she’d walk it if she had to. When she started back out of the break room, the vampire was standing there. He asked her if she had just a moment.

“I need to go
, please. I no longer work here, and I would just like to go home.”
He nodded but stepped in front of her when she tried to go around him.
“I want to leave.”

“I
can’t let you go like this. I need to…I would please like to know who bit you.”
She looked at him, terrified.
“I can tell if you would just let me touch the wound. I won’t harm you in any way.”

She put her hand over her throat and stepped back.
He didn’t move, but she thought that if she lowered her hand he’d bite her before she could run. When she backed into someone and they wrapped their arms around her, she felt dizzy with fear and turned on the person, and started to tear at his face and anything else she could get at. Then suddenly she couldn’t move.

“Take deep breaths.
Stop fighting me, you can’t break me. Take a fucking breath before you pass out. Open your eyes too.”
Her breath came back into her body like she’d had something fill her. She looked at the people standing around her and realized she was lying on the floor. Then she saw Brock.

She’d clawed him.
His face looked like she’d torn him so deeply in places that he’d need stitches. When he smiled at her, she could see that his lip was bloodied and that blood was even on his teeth. Em started to cry as she reached for him. But suddenly the vampire was there, and she cringed.

“When I grabbed you from him
, I touched your throat. I did not do it on purpose, I swear to you, but I know now who hurt you.” She watched his lips as he continued. “He will harm you no more, and I swear to you he has paid for what he’s done to you and all the others. As his maker, I will make it my life to keep you from harm from him and the others that seek to find you. Of this I swear to you.”

“They want me to change too.”
He shook his head at her.
“They will find me. They always do, and…and I’m so very tired of fighting them.”

“I would like to give you a gift.
You do not have to take it, but it is my blood.” She started to shake her head. “Please listen to me. It is a gift of life I offer you. They will not be able to bite you so long as I live. No vampire will, ever.”

“My father said that’s the way it works. You take in a
vampire’s blood and he will own you.”
Peter shook his head.
“Are you saying that when I take your blood, if I take it, that you won’t own me body and soul?”

“Nay
, child, I will only be able to protect you as none other can. I’m old and very powerful, and the vampire that bit you is long dead. Your family, they are all vampires now, save you?” She nodded. “Then you will need me to protect you against so many. Your mate, too, will have my protection, because you know as well as I that if they find you, and as you said they will, they will use him against you.”

“They will kill him.”
Peter nodded. She looked at the man who’d only moments before kissed her so wonderfully. His wounds were healing; she could see that his lip no longer bled. When her family found her, they would use Brock to try to bring her in line. They’d done it before and had killed her one and only friend.

Peter helped her sit up
, and Brock scooped her up off the floor. She was afraid to struggle against him, but held on to his neck as he took her out the back door and into a little apartment she’d seen earlier. He sat her on the room’s only chair and held her hand as Peter came in behind him.

As they spoke to each other
, she thought about her father. He had told her the last time he’d captured her that he would change her if it was the last thing he did. He said that they needed someone to care for them, to fetch and carry for them all, and it was her duty to do so. Her duty, he’d told her, was to find them food and lure it back for them. When she’d asked him what he meant, she was slapped.

“A
human, you imbecile. Someone we can all have our meal from, and then you’ll be responsible for getting rid of it. In exchange for you doing this, I’ll make sure you have a place to rest. You owe me and your brothers for this.” She asked him how she owed him and earned another slap. “You will be turned tonight when we rise. You’ll be here when we wake, or so help me, Emma, I will make your change hard on you.”

She believed him.
He chained her to the wall and left her hanging there. It had taken her nearly all day to get loose, and when she did, she took as much money as she could find from the house—which wasn’t much—and ran. She’d been running since that night eighteen months ago.

Chapter
4

Brock watched her as she lay on the little bed. Peter had gone to contact his maker and to tell Rayne what was going on. He wanted to join her in the bed, but also knew that right now she was as fragile as he’d ever seen anyone be. When she looked at him, he smiled.

“I wish that we had a way of
communicating.” She nodded at him and pulled out her pad. He walked to the bed and sat on the edge, and when she didn’t move but continued to write, he leaned over her to see what she was saying. Her scent made him close his eyes.

He wanted to taste her skin.
He moaned when she shifted on the bed and her breast brushed against his arm. When she didn’t move, he slowly slid his hand up over her knee and held it there, waiting for her to make the next move. She turned to look at him, and he felt his blood heat.

“I want to taste you.” When she continued to look at him
, he moved slowly toward her shoulder and kissed her there. Her shiver made him nip gently at her flesh. Adjusting them so that she was facing him, he moved his mouth up and over her throat and over the scar until he could curl his tongue around the shell of her ear. He whimpered when she laid her hand over his thigh.

Wrapping his hand around hers
, he moved it up his thigh to his groin, then over his erection. She watched his face as he lowered his mouth to hers. Laying her back on the bed, he rolled his hips between her thighs and rocked into her as he kissed her. Christ, she was as hungry as he was. Cupping her breast with his right hand, he lifted her against him with his left and rocked into her again and again until she pushed at his chest.

He waited for her to do something
, anything. Feeling his heart pound in his chest and his cock throb with need, he would welcome whatever she did that gave him something of her. When she pushed him a little more firmly, he sat up from her but didn’t leave the bed. Her hands were shaking as she wrote on a clean sheet.

“Your friends will be back.” He looked at the note
, then at her. Was she telling him that for now they couldn’t do this, or that she wasn’t going to even later? He looked at the door, then at her.

“I could lock the door.”
She smiled at him, and he started to stand when the damned door opened and Peter walked in. He stopped at the entrance and looked at them both.

“I’m sorry.”
Brock nodded because he knew that as much as he liked the big vamp, if he spoke now he didn’t think what he had to say would be very nice. “I could…I suppose I could come back.”

“Do what you need to do, Peter.
We have the rest of our lives.” At least he hoped so. Right now all he could think about was rolling her back on the bed and burying himself as deeply as he could and staying there. But he also knew that she was in trouble with a group of beings he had no way of beating on his own.

P
eter sat down and looked at them both. When Em leaned back against Brock, he had to fight hard with his cat to not bite her. He had to tell them both over and over “soon,” but he wanted her now. Finally, he licked along her shoulder, and that calmed them some, but they both were still seemingly pacing just on the edge.

“Can you calm him?” He shook his head at Peter’s question.
“He’s not going to be happy when she takes my blood, and I would as soon keep my body parts just where they are if you wouldn’t mind so much.”

“He can smell her.” Peter nodded.
“What is it you have to do? And I’m not being a dick here Peter, but do it slowly so he can understand too. They’re as aggressive as I am, and both my tiger and beast want her.”

“I have to give you my blood, both of you. But until you mate with her, I will only go to her when she needs me.
Em and I have a connection because of Jimmy.” Brock knew who Jimmy was. He’d set up the labs that had been experimenting on beings and trying to change them into something they weren’t.

“Give it to me first
; that way if…Christ, he is pissed.” Brock stood up abruptly and moved around the room. There was no calming them. When Peter went to stand by Em, he snarled at him. “Peter, walk away from my mate.”

“I can’t
, and you know it. The way you are right now, you could scare her. She’s already terrified, and if you’d just let him see that, he might calm.” Brock felt his brother touch him, and he snarled at him to fuck off. “Brock, you’re shifting.”

He had to leave
, but he couldn’t leave her with Peter. When his cat started to get the better of him, he reached for Ryland and begged him to hold him. But he’d waited too long, and his beast took him.

Staring at the two of them through his cat’s eyes
, he watched as Em cringed away from him. Peter moved two steps closer to the bed, and he growled low. Brock moved to the other side of the bed and felt the moment that Ryland’s cat, bigger and badder, reached out to his.

“Step back now.”
His beast lowered his body to the floor.
“Now or I’ll punish you. Move away from the female or I’ll hurt you.”

His
beast snarled at him but did finally move back. His cat, the calmer of the two inside of them, roared too. Ryland kept talking to him, but all Brock could see was fear in Em’s eyes. Peter finally stepped away from her, but Brock watched him.

“Brock, you have to control him or he’s going to hurt someone.”
He snarled at Peter. “What’s going on? This is more than me just touching her. What’s happened?”

He wished he knew.
He was so close to the edge right now that he was suddenly afraid for her, but his need to touch her was overwhelming. He crawled forward on his belly toward her, and when she didn’t move, he heard Peter telling her not to make any sudden moves but to comfort the cat. Ryland was telling him to shift back, and he knew he should, but he didn’t think he’d be able to.

When he leapt up on the bed
, Brock laid his head on her thigh and watched her. She was staring at him so intently that he wasn’t sure if she was upset or not. When she reached out her hand toward him, it was trembling. He lay very still, and when her hand touched him, he purred.

“Brock, move toward her
, but slowly. She’s not nearly as afraid as I am.” Brock looked at the vampire. “I’m going to give you my blood this way, and then her. Then I’m getting out of here, if you don’t mind.”

Brock nodded and moved closer to
Em. When she curled her hand into his fur, his cat calmed his beast a great deal. Peter moved toward them, and he didn’t want to tear his throat out any longer. His brother Ryland laughed.

“You’re going to have to explain to me what the fuck just happened.
You’re much calmer now, but, Christ, your cat was fucking irate.”
Brock agreed with him.
“Has that ever happened before?”

“No
and yes. I couldn’t do anything but let him shift. It’s like…I have no idea, but I knew that somehow if I didn’t, I was going to hurt someone. The two of them are fighting to claim her.”
He smelled blood and looked at the wrist in front of him as Ryland asked what he meant by “the two of them.”
“Let me get back to you after this. I promise I’ll explain everything that I know.”

Peter held out his wrist that he’d cut open.
Em’s hand tightened in his fur, and he rubbed his head over her. When he licked the offered wound, he felt the connection to Peter snap into place, more so than even with his brothers.

“Christ.”
He agreed with Peter as he lifted his arm to Em. She looked at him, and he purred for her. When her tongue lapped at Peter, he felt his beast’s anger once again, but nothing like before. When Peter stepped away from the bed, Brock didn’t move.

“I’m locking the door on my way out.
If you need me, either of you, I’ll know. But as I said, she’s a child of my child, and I’ll go to her first. She’s my responsibly more than you.” He nodded. “I must go. I don’t know what happened here, but…Brock, something happened more than you taking my blood. You know that, right?”

He nodded again and watched the man leave
, shaking his head. There was something more, but he wasn’t sure what it was, and it scared him a lot, more so that Peter didn’t seem to know either. He looked at Em as she stared at him.

~~~

Em knew she should be afraid, but she wasn’t. Not of him. He looked so large lying next to her in the tiny little bed. He raised his head and looked at her, and she knew he was trying to communicate with her. She wondered if he could read if she wrote it out for him. When she picked up her pad, he put his large paw over it and shook his head.

“Hi.”
She felt Rayne touch her mind and smiled. The woman had so much humor in her voice that Em laughed back her greeting.

“
Brock has contacted me to tell you what he wants. He said for you to only do this if you want because he is in no hurry to scare you anymore.”
Em told her okay. “
He wants to know first, did he hurt you?”

“No
, he didn’t. He…I was scared at first, but after he changed I…I was okay. He’s very beautiful, isn’t he?”

She waited while she knew that Rayne was speaking to him. When he lowered his head to her thigh again
, she smiled and rubbed just behind his ears and felt his purr along her entire body.

“He said you’re more beautiful than anything he’s ever seen. And so you know, I’ve told him that I’m not going to be repeating any romantic shit for him. He’ll have to do that on his own.”
Em laughed, and Brock raised his head and looked at her.
“Brock is a good man, Em, and he only wants what you want to happen. That being said, the only way the two of you will be able to talk is if he bites you.”

Her body stiffened
, and she wanted to tell her no, but Rayne continued.
“You know that he won’t hurt you, right? And if you know this, then you know that his bite will only mark you and not change you. He said he would never do that to you without your permission. And Em, he could do it without your consent or knowledge, but when he bites you, it will give the two of you a link that you can speak together like we are.”

“
How is it that you and I can talk? Why can’t he do the same?”
She knew the answer before Rayne could tell her.
“Because you’re not just a tiger, are you?”

“No
, and neither is Bronwyn. She’s the female to this streak. In case you don’t know what a streak is, I’ll tell you. It’s a family or a pack of tigers. And Ryland is the oldest, so he is considered the male. And, of course, Bronwyn is his female counterpart and a pain in my ass.”

Em
looked down at the big cat that had closed his eyes. She had no doubt that he wasn’t sleeping but as alert to his surroundings as she was. When he opened one eye and looked at her, she asked Rayne if it would hurt.

“Not much. He’ll lick the area
first, and that will take away most of the pain, but it will hurt a little. He can bite you anywhere, but they prefer the shoulder. The left one because of how close it is to your heart, I think.”

Could she let him bite her? She
thought she could but wasn’t sure. He was…he could have done so without asking, and as big as he was, he’d not have any problems holding her down while he did it either. She wanted to try.

“Tell him that…would you please tell him to do it?”
Rayne said she would.
“And Rayne, I wanted to tell you thanks. You…you didn’t have to do this.”

“I wanted to.
As I said, Brock is a great man, and he’s a wonderful protector. Even though I knocked him on his ass the first time I saw him.”
She laughed. Em knew the exact moment that he’d heard her answer from Rayne.

He leaned up and pushed his nose under her shirt. She wasn’t sure what he wanted her to do until he licked along the exposed skin.
She pulled her shirt up until it was just covering her breast when he nosed her again.

Okay, she thought, he wants it off
me. She took her shirt off and covered herself with it until he pulled it from her with his teeth. Being half naked to him like this had her feeling very exposed. When he nosed her bra, too, she felt her toes curl up and watched his face as she stared at him. This was going to be a great deal harder.

He never took his eyes off her face as he pawed at her.
Heart pounding, she reached down and unclasped the front closure on her bra and held it over her as he moved closer. Her body was burning up, and she tried to squeeze her thighs together to hide that she was also very aroused. But he put his other paw between her legs and prevented her from doing it.

When she let go of her bra
, he licked her breast and took her breath away. Then when he moved his mouth to her shoulder, she wrapped her arms around him and held him as he ran his tongue over her entire throat and to her shoulder again. She shivered when he scraped his teeth along her. And when he sank them into her, she cried out, not so much from the small pain, but from the surprise of it.

“Hold me.”
His voice sang through her mind, and she held him tighter to her
. “Hold me while I seal the wounds.”