Devil Takes His Innocent (5 page)

Bobby moved in closer to Gabby.
“Am I in trouble for telling Gabby? You won’t hurt her, will you?”

“
No, cub,” Judge reassured,
reaching over and ruffling Bobby’s hair. “I’m proud of you for finding a way to
survive until you could find your dad. We do trust some humans with our secret.
From what I have seen, Gabby would protect our secret with her life, if only
for your sake. She protects you like your mother should have. It would seem
that she is deserving of your trust, and I’m going to give her mine as well.”

That seemed to cajole Bobby,
because he was on to his next question before Gabby had a chance to say her
piece. “So what else exists?
Werewolves?
Vampires?”

“
Yes to both, but let me warn you,
Son,” Jason said. “Werewolves prefer the term wolf shifters, just as we are
mountain lion shifters. Do you understand?”

Bobby muttered his affirmative
reply. It worried Gabby, because he had lost some of his enthusiasm. Was it in
response to Jason? She wasn’t sure, but the man seemed slightly hurt by his
lackluster response. She looked down at the boy sitting beside her. She raised
an eyebrow in question. He leaned over to whisper in her ear, quickly
explaining his sudden mood change.

“
I need to go to the toilet, but I
don’t want to leave you if you’re scared,” he whispered.

Her earlier tears resurfaced. She
pulled him into a quick hug and whispered back, “I’ll be fine, honey. Go do
what you need to do and wash up for dinner. You’re probably starved by now.”

Bobby stood and nodded. He was
just about out of the room when he paused and turned back to her. “Can they
stay for dinner? We made heaps and that way I can get to know my dad a bit
better before they have to leave.”

“
Of course, honey. If they wish,”
she replied, turning her attention back toward their company.

“
As long as you’re sure there’s
enough,” Judge replied.

“
Yep, heaps, and Gabby’s a great
cook too!” Bobby stated before running from the room.

It would seem that like Gabby,
Jason had lost his words at the moment, the extra shine in his eyes showing his
true feelings. Gabby couldn’t blame him for his display of emotion. She had
never been prouder of someone than she was in that moment of Bobby. He was
giving Jason a chance despite both of their previous misgivings. Though she
couldn’t help but smile at his comment highlighting that they would be leaving
without him tonight, and she wasn’t the only one to have noticed.

“
Is it all right with you that
Bobby
stay
here while he has a chance to get to know
Jason and his family?” Judge asked.

“
I wouldn’t have it any other
way,” she replied immediately.

“
Pity,” Judge muttered under his
breath.

“
What’s a pity?” she asked.

“
You would make an amazing Alpha
female. You’re strong, gorgeous and caring,
all the
perfect attributes for an Alpha’s mate,” Judge replied, staring intently at
her. “It’s just a shame that you aren’t my mate. I could see myself enjoying
the rest of my life with you in it.”

His honesty had her laughing
nervously. The truth was
,
she too thought him to be
handsome, in a scruffy kind of way. She liked his straightforward way of
speaking, and his power comforted her, making her feel safe. But it wasn’t
enough for her. Something was holding her back from exploring her attraction to
this man. Or should she say
someone
. The man who’d taken her virginity
continued to haunt her, preventing her from seeing Judge as anything other than
just another man.

Chapter
Five

“
Where have you been lately?”
Viper asked as he walked into the office. “And thanks for disappearing the
other night. You have no idea what you missed out on. Those women were fucking
amazing.”

“
Chaos and I were investigating
Gabriella further,” Devil said without looking up.

“
Why don’t you just forget about
her?” Viper asked, slumping into his chair.

“
Because
she’s my mate.”

“
Bullshit! You would have
recognized her as such when you met her.”

What Viper had said was true.
Vampires, like their shifter brethren, found their mates through their scent.
The more magical paranormal creatures, like
fae
and
warlocks, discovered theirs through their aura. Unfortunately, for Devil, it
wasn’t that easy with Gabriella.

“
You’re right, except she had a
lot of perfume on that night. It would have masked her scent to me. Since Chaos
suggested she may be my mate, I have been to the house that we originally
thought she lived in, which was correct, by the way. Her roommate sent the
flowers away. Gabriella Winters is mine!”

“
Why did she send the flowers
back, do you think?” Viper asked one of the many questions that had been
haunting Devil.
Then added another more intriguing one.
“And why the hell would Gabriella give up her virginity to clear that asshole’s
debt?”

“
I don’t know, but I will find out
as soon as Gabriella gets back,” Devil vowed.

“
Do you know when that is yet?”

“
No, but I have some people
watching the house,” Devil explained, picking up his mobile and checking the screen.
“When she gets back, I’ll know.”

“
What are you going to do then?”

“
Claim her,” he replied bluntly.

“
Are you sure you’re ready to go
from having any woman you want, to the same one for the rest of your life?”
Viper challenged.

Like most young men, in their
youth vampire males were insatiable. No amount of sex was enough. Devil was no
different. In fact, neither were his three brothers.
Except
none of them had outgrown it.
They were all ancient by anyone’s
standard, but still their sexual appetite knew no bounds. That had been true
for Chaos until he had found his mate, a little over ten years ago. And now it
was true for Devil. No other female had the same effect on him that Gabriella
did. Just thinking about her had his cock hardening.

“
You know as well as I do, once
you meet your mate, no one else will do,” Devil replied, adjusting his hardened
member in his trousers.

“
Better you than me,” Viper
scoffed. “I can’t imagine just sticking with one woman. No more thrill of the
chase, or experiencing the high from capturing all those sexy bodies. I can’t
imaging
no more threesomes like I had the other night. God,
I’m getting hard just thinking about those two.”

“
When it happens to you, brother,
you won’t be able to do a thing about it.”

“
Ha! You want to bet?”

“
I would love one,” Devil said,
laughing. “But I don’t think it’s fair to take your money. But hey, I sure will
enjoy watching you eat those words.”

“
Never!”

“
Never
say never, Viper!”
he warned. “After the number of years we have walked this earth, we had all
given up on finding our mate. Now Chaos and I have found ours. You and Judge
will probably be next!”

“
Don’t count on it. And do I need
to remind you that Chaos hasn’t claimed his mate, and you can’t find yours. No
one’s fallen into the trap yet, brother.”

“
I’ll find her, have no doubt,”
Devil vowed, suddenly looking forward to the day she returned home.

****

Gabby ended up having a great,
action-packed holiday. She had seen Bobby settled in with his new, loving
family. He now had three younger sisters to deal with, and he seemed to
be loving
every minute of it. Maryanne proved to be the kind
of mother every child would wish for. She baked and cooked just as well as any
high-class chef, which was exactly what she was before she had met Jason. Gabby
got to meet the Jason she had originally assumed him to be. He displayed all
the qualities a father should, gaining both her and Bobby’s trust.

 
Judge
had spent a lot of time showing her around the pack lands. Though she was
human, he was true to his word and trusted her with their secret. He wasn’t shy
with his explanations about the paranormal world, either. It seemed that shape
shifters and vampires weren’t the only creatures to live secretly amongst
humans. He spoke of
fae
, warlocks, and demons. He
claimed that angels also existed, but he had yet to meet one in person.

He then went on to explain that
every paranormal creature had a mate out there. It was Mother Nature’s way of
ensuring the most feared people, who tended to only exist in nightmares, had a
chance at love. Due to the high number of interspecies pairings that occurred,
the attraction was immediate and irreplaceable. A mate could not deny their
future, no matter how scared or how little they understood. The chemistry
between the two couldn’t be ignored.

Judge’s pride had welcomed both
Bobby and Gabby into their midst with open arms, and by the end of her two-week
holiday she had invited the pride to use her land. The beautifully dense
terrain had gone unused for long enough. The property had a large body of water
fed by a spring that she had named The Lake. Her grandfather had bred trout in
it, and for the life of her, she could never seem to bring herself to catch
one, kill it,
then
eat it. Anything she had seen with
a head would not be passing her lips. She couldn’t look something in the eye,
then
eat it; it just wasn’t in her genetic makeup.
Thankfully she lived in the city, where, for a price, supermarkets took away
that guilt of taking an animal’s life.

She had finally returned home,
but she wasn’t alone. She knew she wouldn’t be able to hide her adventure from
her best friend, and had forewarned Judge that one other human would know of
their secret. She had guaranteed that Nikki wouldn’t expose them, but Judge had
still insisted on being present when she was told.

Over dinner and several glasses
of wine, Nikki flirted harmlessly with Judge. It was typical Nikki behavior.
She could flirt with men, but as soon as it turned serious, she ran a mile. As
a survivor of an abusive relationship, Nikki didn’t trust men easily. She had
survived a brutal rape and beating from a man who claimed he loved her. It
would be a long time before she felt safe offering her body and heart to
another man.
Her flirtations, yes, but nothing else.
And any man looking to get involved with Nikki would have to be
worthy,
otherwise Gabby would have no problem sending him
packing.

Judge laughed at something Nikki
had said. He seemed to be lapping up the attention, claiming it had been a
while since he had shared a dinner with two beautiful women. He was a smooth
talker, of that Gabby had discovered early into their friendship. He flirted
with every woman he came in contact with, elderly, married, single, or
pregnant. Gabby had come to the conclusion that he just couldn’t help himself.
She definitely pitied the woman he ended up with. She would have to be strong
and confident to put up with his antics.

With her lack of experience with
men, and Judge’s perpetual flirting with anything in a skirt, Gabby couldn’t
believe how at ease she felt with him. Though she knew a sexual relationship
wasn’t on the cards with him, she often found herself wishing that she could
get Devil out of her head so she could explore a relationship with another man.
Maybe one like Judge.

“
So how did you two meet?” Nikki
asked after they had finished dinner. “And don’t even try to tell me it was at
a pub. That’s just not Gabby’s scene.”

“
Actually, we met through a young
boy named Bobby,” Gabby explained before sharing everything that had happened
on her two-week break.

She wasn’t surprised that her
friend took the existence of shape shifters in stride. Gabby knew that if
anyone else had told Nikki the same story, she would have laughed it off as a
joke. It once again spoke of the trust her best friend placed in Gabby. It was
a trust that she had no intentions of destroying.

The first question out of Nikki’s
mouth had Gabby chuckling. It was true to form of the bluntness that had many
people steering clear of Nikki. “So can I see your cat?”

“
It’s a mountain lion,” Judge
corrected, feigning injury through insult.

“
Fine, can I see your big,
ferocious, deadly mountain lion?” Nikki added sarcastically.

Before Gabby could object, Judge
was down on his knees, working through the transformation. It wasn’t the first
time Gabby had met Judge’s animal form, but this would definitely be the first
time inside. She feared for the furniture she and Nikki had worked hard to
purchase. Somehow, Judge managed to maneuver his large beast around the tiny
coffee table that sat in the middle of their lounge room. He plonked himself
down beside the armchair that Nikki sat on and rested his head on the arm.

“
Who’s a pretty boy, then?” Nikki
cooed as she stroked his head. The comment earned her a soft hiss from Judge,
but still he remained by her side, accepting the pat.

Gabby had learned that mountain
lion shape shifters differed in several ways from their animal counterpart. For
starters, they were larger, hence her concern for her furniture, and lived
harmoniously in a pride. Another difference was they loved the sensation of
being touched.

“
So does that mean you two are
those mate things that you were explaining about?” Nikki asked, now rubbing
behind Judge’s soft ears.

“
No,”
came
the menacing voice from behind Gabby. It was a voice she would recognize
anywhere. “Change back, Judge!”

Thankfully, unlike in the books
she liked to read, shape shifter magic allowed Judge’s clothes to reappear with
his change. He was wearing his Alpha’s face, hiding all emotions behind a mask
of blankness.

“
Hello, Devil, fancy seeing you
here,” Judge said, moving toward the very still newcomer. “So you want to tell
me what brings you to these lovely ladies’ home?”

This had Devil moving, and far
too quickly by human standards. In the blink of an eye, he had Judge by the
collar of his shirt, and stated, “My mate lives here. What’s your reasoning?”

Judge pulled himself from Devil’s
hold, ripping his shirt in the process, and moved over to where both Nikki and
Gabby now stood by the window. He placed himself in front of them.

“
Since neither woman knew of the
existence of our kind before I met them, I’m assuming this is news to whichever
one is your mate? And as for my presence here, I was invited by Gabby.” His
response was met with a low, menacing growl from Devil. Judge chuckled. “I
should have known. As soon as we met I knew she was meant for one of our kind.
In fact, I had wished it to be me.”

“
She’s mine! Keep your grubby paws
off of her, Judge. Otherwise your pride will be looking to find
themselves
another leader, and our brothers will be denied
your presence in their lives,” Devil warned, glaring at Judge as he made his
way over to Gabby. He then tried to pull her out from behind the large mountain
lion shifter. Judge’s arm and Nikki’s hold prevented her from going anywhere,
though her body desperately wanted to abide the man.

“
Are you a mountain lion too?” she
asked the man whose touch was currently doing strange things to her body. Even
though his hold was strong and unmoving, it gave her comfort rather than
scaring her.

“
No, angel, I’m a vampire, and
you’re mine.”

“
Who is he, Gabby?”

Nikki’s fear and worry acted as a
cold shower for Gabby. Gone was the confident woman most people knew to be
Nikki. Instead, beside Gabby stood a trembling woman whose gaze was fixed on
Devil’s hand gripping Gabby’s arm.

“
Both of you need to leave.
Now!”
Gabby ordered, not caring how rude she appeared. Her
friend needed these men out of their house.

“
We need to—” Devil started to
say. Gabby had no idea whether it was her fixed stare that she hoped held her
resolve, with maybe a little bit of pleading, or the whispered words delivered
by Judge, but thankfully Devil made a move to leave. “We still need to talk.”

“
Come on, Devil,” Judge said,
pulling on the man’s arm. “Let’s head back to the hotel, and you can tell me
what’s been going on.”