Force of Nature Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 4) (28 page)

“The note, dear, tell him about the note,” Jessie chimed in quickly. “It said that she was going to be hunted for her abilities and that she needed to be cared for and the person who loved her would be richly rewarded.”

“Hunted how? I mean, it’s not really telling you much, is it?” CJ frowned when neither woman answered her. “Surely it said more than that. Hell, I’m hunted now. There’s that stupid guy who wants me to buy the property next to his so we can keep the unmentionables out. He looks for me every time he sees my car. What a moron.”

“He wants to keep your panties from being exposed? Whatever for?” Jessie looked over at Glad before she continued. “I swear, every day people get more and more strange. Anyway, we came here. It was a lovely trip, wasn’t it?”

Glad rolled her eyes and then she nudged Jessie again. “You’re losing them again. Focus. They want to know where we came from. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes,” Austin said. “Where did you find Alexis? I’m sure if there had been anything in the paper I would have remembered. And what did the police say when you told them?”

“Oh my, as I said, we didn’t tell anyone. That would have…they would have taken her, you see. So Caroline and I simply raised her as our own. She was such a good baby and a wonderful child. Very smart too. Then when Judith got married and then divorced and moved here from the Yellowstone area, we came with her. She was trying to hide out from that bastard of an ex-husband of hers. He was a bully, but it wasn’t until he…well, changed that we knew how much.” Jessie looked around the room as she continued. “Then after he killed our Judith and the poor homeless children needed more than…we’re not exactly young chicks anymore, so Alexis dropped everything and came to help. She gave up so much, the poor dear.”

“What did she give up?” They all turned to the doorway where Gordon stood. Austin didn’t expect to see him for a few days yet and was very happy to have him up and about. Gordon brushed off any attempts of helping him as he made his way to the couch. He did lean slightly more on his twin when he simply shouldered him, but he sat down. He asked again.

“Oh my, she had a wonderful job. She was a chemical engineer. She worked at the space shindig.” Jessie frowned. “No, that’s not quite right. Is it?”

Glad shook her head. “No you old fool. It’s space shuttle. Why do you take those memory pills if they don’t work? You should do crossword puzzles or that Sudoku thingy. Keeps my mind sharp. Then there’s the sex. I enjoy that too.”

“Poo on them. Besides, I keep forgetting to take them. Space shuttle, that’s it. She worked at the space shuttle. And then she stayed. What sex? With who? Never mind. I’m betting it’s Wilbur Norris, that delivery guy who works down at the post office. He’s cute. Then she bought this house and had it fixed up. She’d been making her scents forever at her old home and she continued them here. Opening that nice little shop has given us a place to play and to make a little money for ourselves.”

Austin shook his head. He was going to need a scorecard to keep up with this family or, at the very least, to take notes. He wasn’t sure what was being said, but thought he’d get with his family after they got home and compare notes. He looked around the room as one of the aunts began talking again.

“I doubt she’d miss us if we didn’t get under her feet in the lab.” Gladys turned to Gordon. “You know that she’s given you a part of herself. And now that you have it, what do you plan to do to protect our little girl? Because now that she’s given away her secret there will be a bigger chance of dumb ass Paddy finding out.”

“Paddy will be back, won’t he?” Gladys nodded at Gordon’s question. “And when he does he’ll not be so easily chased off and he’ll come more prepared. He’ll need to be put down, Austin, and we both know it.”

“Oh my, yes. He needs to be put out of all our misery. And when you do….” Jessie leaned forward and Austin found himself leaning forward with everyone else in the room. “You need to cut his balls off and feed them to him.”

Austin sat back and looked around the room. He wasn’t sure who was more shocked by her statement. They all looked stunned. When she stood up all the men did as well, and she grinned.

“Oh my, how lovely. I’m going to fix us a late night snack. Would you gentlemen please go out and round us up a deer? You do that, don’t you?” Jessie smiled. “Or perhaps you could go to the local market and get some steaks. It may be much quicker for us. Those sandwiches sure didn’t last all that long.”

With that, she went into the kitchen. Austin looked over at the stunned expression on Gordon’s face, thrilled beyond words to see him sitting there. Austin grinned when he looked at him.

“Think of all the fun you’re going to have when you and Alexis mate and become a couple. The fun will never stop.”

Gordon groaned and Austin started laughing. Life for this couple may out do the one that he and CJ had. Especially when they figured out what the girl sleeping upstairs was.

Chapter 7

Gordon watched her sleep. It had been two days since she’d healed him and she’d only moved in the big bed when he’d lay down with her. At first, she would move away from him, then about halfway through the first night she would lay close. Early this morning she was spread across him like she belonged there.

He looked down at the tiny pink scar on his leg. It should have still been an open wound. He could heal quickly, much quicker than a human could, but a break in his leg and the tears he knew had been there would have taken days to heal, not minutes. Looking back at Alexis, he wondered at what Phil had told him.

“She’s told me she’s not wholly human. I think that in order to figure her out…and please don’t get pissy until you hear me out…I’m going to need to taste her blood. I won’t need a great deal. A small drop will do me.”

“What will that mean for you and her then? Will you be privy to our conversations?” As a mated pair of wolves they would be able to speak through their minds through a telepathic link. But a vamp could do that as well. He didn’t want anyone to know their thoughts. Not ever.

“She and I would have a link, but the one between the two of you would be just that, between you and her. She isn’t going to have to know if you don’t want her to. I can never let her know that I’m there, just in the back of her mind.” Phil began pacing, then he turned back to him. “You should tell her, or I can, but we can keep it from her if you’d like.”

“No. If we decide to do this then she’ll know. I don’t want her to ever mistrust me and that stinks of lying. No.” He watched as his brothers came into the room. They had information and it didn’t look like good news.

“Patrick Booth paid someone to convert him about two years ago,” Dallas said as he handed him a file. “He’s also a vampire, which explains a great deal.”

Phil spoke up then. “That does explain some, but there’s more. He’s been converted by a rogue vampire, someone that has been changing without permission. I thought… well, I had thought that Booth was something more than wolf when I smelled him on Alexis the first time I met her. You should know, Gordon, that he has beaten the children on occasion, and once he hit Gladys. I’ve seen firsthand what he’s done to the little boy Tim. Alexis nearly killed him then. I have a suspicion that he may have a clue as to what his sister-in-law can do.”

Gordon looked at her again as he took off his shirt. He wasn’t sure when she’d wake, but he needed to touch her. Needed to be with her. Crawling into bed with her, he smiled when she moved closer to him then wrapped her arm around his waist. He had a feeling that when she woke she wasn’t going to be so easy to be with. She was going to be one pissed off woman.

He lay there for some time thinking. He’d read the note that had been with her when she’d been found. It wasn’t very helpful in figuring her out, but he could smell the person who’d written it. The writer’s scent was as much a part of the paper as the woman lying in his arms was to him. And they were related.

Gordon wondered, not for the first time, what she was. Phil had hinted that she was something special. He already knew that. Gordon thought maybe the vamp already knew but was almost afraid to tell anyone for fear of being wrong. What on earth could make him think that he wasn’t sure, but he could almost smell the fear. When she stirred he tightened his arm around her, fearful that she was pulling away.

He closed his eyes and smiled. Gladys had told him that tomorrow she would more than likely wake enough to go to the bathroom, and then it would be a couple more before she took food. Alexis had given so much of herself to him that he couldn’t help but want her to wake now. But he also knew that her awake would mean an end to his sleeping arrangements. He slid into a deep sleep thinking about the child Darcy and her fear of her father.

His last thought before he drifted off to sleep was that Patrick Booth had a great deal of explaining to do and even more to be sorry about. And Gordon was planning to make the younger wolf feel sorry for a very long time.

“Come in,” Gordon said to the office door when someone knocked the next morning. He was distracted or he might have looked up sooner when no one said anything. When he finally realized he wasn’t alone he looked at Tim and Jake.

“We come to talk to you. You hit me or my brother and I’ll whoop your ass.”

Gordon fought the smile and leaned back in his chair, motioning to the two boys to take a seat across from him. He decided to ignore the cussing. This was going to be a serious conversation between men and he thought that it deserved serious words. “For the record, I don’t hit. I punish, but not hit. You think I might have a reason to hit you?” The boys looked at each other, and it was then that Gordon realized that he’d never heard the other boy speak. “You have something to add to this, Jake, or are you the strong silent type?”

“Our mom is dead.” Jake glanced at his brother before he continued. “We don’t have nobody to keep us ‘cause the mean bastard won’t let them.”

Okay, he thought, he was suddenly in over his head. Gordon looked at each boy and knew without a doubt that this was going to be the changing of their lives. They would either trust him after this or not, and he wanted their trust. He had a feeling he was going to be a huge part of their lives from now on.

“Why do you think your Aunt Alexis won’t want you? By ‘the bastard,’ I’m assuming you mean your father?” Both nodded, looking relieved, he was sure, about not being in trouble about the name-calling or, for that matter, the word itself. “I’m very sorry about your mom. I love mine very much and I can see where you’d be worried. But I’m pretty sure you have a home with your aunt. She’s trying to make sure that your father is out of the picture.”

“He’s very mean. Very.” Tim said the word like it was a curse word. “And he…he can do stuff. Like we seen on television once. He can grow hair.”

Gordon thought this was the perfect time to win their trust, or scare the shit out of them. He pulled back his sleeve and told them to come closer to him. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Okay, I’m going to show you something. Something that I don’t share with many people, but I trust you guys to keep my secret. I don’t want you to freak out.” They both gave him the look that said, “Please, we don’t freak out,” and he smiled. “I can grow hair too. I’m a wolf.”

He let the change move along his arm. The hair sprouted quickly, thick and dark. Both boys took a step back, but surprisingly neither of them ran from the room. Jake was the first to take the step forward again, but Tim ran his fingers along the fur.

“Can you change all over like that?” Gordon nodded at Tim’s question. “Does it hurt? I mean, you can probably take it, but it’s gotta sting a little bit.”

Gordon grinned. “Sometimes it hurts when I have to do it quickly. Like the other day when I wanted to protect your sister and Alexis. But I didn’t let it bother me. I had to see to the womenfolk.”

They nodded, understanding the role of a man better than he had at their age he was sure.

“Do you get to bite people? You could bite our dad and we wouldn’t care one bit. He’s not a nice person and I hate him.”

Gordon wasn’t sure how to answer Tim’s request so he let it go. He covered his arm back up and called his beast to him. It really didn’t hurt. At times when he was really stressed, his wolf would appear just to remind him he could help out, but he’d never lost control of him. He started to tell them that they needed to keep his secret once again, but he could suddenly smell Alexis. She was getting closer to him.

“Your aunt is awake. She’s coming here now.” They were all staring at the door when it opened, and with wide eyes Tim and Jake looked back at him. “Maybe you guys should go and ask Gladys if she has a snack for you. I think your aunt and I have to talk.”

They didn’t hesitate but flew out the door like the hounds of hell were after them. Gordon couldn’t blame them. He thought maybe he was in for it by the expression on her face. He stood and moved toward her.

“Hello, love. Sleep well?” He was only a foot away when she went to move away from him, but he pulled her to him before she got far. “No. I need to taste you first.” And he brushed his mouth over hers.

~~~

Alexis wanted to tell him no, but her body seemed to know it was going to be a losing battle. She had her arms around his neck and her length pressed to his before she could make a sound. His low growl made her heart pick up in speed and her nipples peak under her shirt. When his tongue slid along her lips, she opened and let him in.

She’d been kissed before, but not a great deal, really. Her work had always come first. Men seemed to think she was okay looking, but she was usually bored to death by the first hour or so talking to them. Mostly she went to functions with people she worked with. When Gordon cupped her ass and brought her softness to his hard cock, she moaned deep in her throat. No one had ever made her feel like this.

“Do you have any idea how hard I’ve been, sleeping with you every night and not being able to make love to you?” He licked her neck and her entire body went into overdrive. “Alexis, I can smell you. Your heat, your arousal is making me ache to make you mine.”

She pulled back slightly and his growl made her pussy wet. She couldn’t seem to stop touching him, but she needed to make things clear to him. But every thought she had in her head flew out the window when he dropped to his knees before her.

“Gordon, you shouldn’t—” Her pants were suddenly down and off. She was hanging onto his shoulder as he lifted her leg to remove them completely. Her body was like a live wire now. Need didn’t just wash over her, but stormed over her like a torrential rain.

“A taste, love. I need to taste you.” He lifted her leg and put it over his shoulder. She looked down at him as he said her name. “You belong to me, Alexis. Now and forever, you’re mine. Say it. Say the words. Say you belong to me.”

“Please, you’ve no idea—” He touched her inner thigh with his mouth. The kiss was wet, hot, and full of promise. She wanted him, wanted him to take her.

“Say it, Alexis. Say it for me so I can drink your sweet nectar and feel you come in my mouth.” This time when he touched her with his mouth, he ran his tongue up to the elastic of her panties. She could almost feel him there, taking her into his mouth.

“I’m yours. Now and forever.” She grabbed a handful of his hair before he took her. “But know this, you are mine as well, understand me?”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” The panties, the only thing keeping him from her, were suddenly floating to the floor behind him. He’d ripped them from her. Before they touched the surface Alexis was being devoured by him.

His hands seemed to be everywhere, and as soon as his mouth covered her mound she started to shake. He suckled at her clit and she cried out. Then when he slid his finger deep into her she felt the room tilt. Begging him now, begging him for everything and not really knowing what, she began to moan and ride him. He cupped her ass even as she started to undulate into his mouth.

Before she could protest when he pulled his mouth away, she found herself on the floor. He’d laid her down and had both her thighs over his shoulders now. Christ, she was in trouble. He ate at her like she was his last meal. Alexis palmed her breast. They ached, making her want to free them. Gordon seemed to understand, reached up with one hand, and ripped her shirt open for her.

“Let me see you. Open up and show me your bounty.” His voice was husky and low. She found she didn’t want to disobey him, didn’t want to displease him. “That’s it, baby. Christ, I want to suckle at your nipples, but your taste is all I can think about. Come for me, baby. Let me drink my fill.”

She nodded. He grinned at her, sinful and full of heat. He moved his mouth down to her navel. His tongue swirled there, making her sensitive hollow a surprising erotic zone. She moaned when he nipped at her skin.

“Please, you have to do something. I’m hurting. Please,” she begged him. When he sat up on his knees, her breath caught. “You’re beautiful.”

He ripped his shirt open and his chest was furred, muscled, and her mouth watered with want to touch him. When she started to sit up to do just that, he pressed her back down with a hand to her shoulder.

“Not this time. Next time you can have your way with me, but this time is for you. But I have to have a sample of you.”

He crawled up her, not really touching her, but making her very aware of his heat. She could have reached up and touched him, ran her hands along his skin, but she waited, watched, and held her breath. He touched her with his tongue at her shoulder and she nearly came up off the floor. When he sank his teeth into her with just a bit of pain, she did grab his head and pulled him tighter to her. Her world was spiraling out of control and he was her lifeline.

“Please,” she begged him again.

This time when he pulled away she sat up with him. Her hands made short work of his belt and snap. She wanted him now. He moved her hands and ripped the zipper out; zipper teeth pinged over the hardwood floor and were barely noticed. It was his cock, fully erect, that had her attention. He was thick and hard, and the stream at the tip of the engorged head made her lick her lips.

“I don’t want to hurt you. I know you’re a virgin, but I…baby, I don’t know how gentle I can be entering you.” She was shaking her head at him even before he finished. “Alexis, this is a mating. When I take you, everyone, every supernatural, will know it.”