Four Days (Seven Series #4) (21 page)

“Good to see you, William. My ears have been burning all night.” Lorenzo appeared and placed himself between us. His dark T-shirt looked painted on, and his long hair hung loose in the back, as it always did.

“Enzo. I didn’t know you were here,” William said. “It’s not your usual night.”

I placed my hand over my stomach, feeling a strange fluttering sensation from standing so near to Lorenzo.

“Keep your words of wisdom to yourself and focus on the task at hand,” Lorenzo said in a caged voice, one that sent a chill up my spine.

I stepped around him so I could hand William the Jell-O. “Take this to Denver.”

He grabbed the cup and stared at Lorenzo again, awaiting orders.

Lorenzo gave none, so William looked between us and then walked away. Few men were as loyal and obedient as William, but when it came to the relationships he formed with Packmasters, he seemed less intimidated by Austin. Then again, Lorenzo didn’t just throw off menace—he
was
menace. If what Jericho said was true, then I should have been afraid of this man.

I turned to face Lorenzo. I couldn’t help but notice his body language—how closed off he was with his hands in his jean pockets. Dark jeans, slightly loose and slung low on his waist. No matter what he wore, Lorenzo always managed to look impressive. And yet here I was, still in the same shirt, reeking of cigarettes, and hadn’t even washed my hair.

His eyes swung down to my cane, and in that moment, I felt the stinging truth of how others saw me: incompetent and inferior. Had he slept with me out of pity or just convenience?

Stop it
, I thought to myself. I refused to taint our memories with self-doubt, so I pushed those poisonous thoughts away and lifted my chin. “You look well.”

“Austin informed me of your situation. This is hardly what I would have dreamed up,” he said, looking around the room.

“Sometimes you have to make bold moves.”

Lorenzo folded his arms and looked down at me with a penetrating gaze. He must have been at least five inches taller than me. “Something tells me this was not entirely Cole’s idea.”

“What brings you here?”

Laughs erupted from behind me at the bar and Lorenzo gave them a baleful look, waiting for the commotion to die down before he spoke again. “You’re not thinking of doing something impulsive, are you?”

I looked around and didn’t recognize anyone else in Lorenzo’s pack. He was here alone. “Tell me why you’re really here.”

“Careful, buddy. She might smack you over the head with that cane,” a man jeered.

Many eyes pressed upon us—judgmental eyes. Ones that would appraise a Packmaster’s worth by the men at his back and the woman at his side. Uncertainty became a stony mask on his face, and I stepped away.

“You’re not safe in a place like this,” he said.

“My pack is looking after me. I’m surrounded by those who love me, so why would I not be safe?”

Something flickered in his eyes, but he remained impassive. “Does Cole care nothing about his land that he would leave it unguarded for any man to seize?”

“Better his land than his pack. Only trees are rooted in land, and there they stay. You should know this,
great oak
. But a man whose heart is rooted in family finds a home wherever his pack is, and he is truly the free man.”

Lorenzo reached out and stroked my cheek. “When we first met, you were but a flowering vine swinging from the tree I found you in, trying to cling to anyone who would hold you.”

I brushed his hand away and drew back. “You are no better than my father, comparing me to a poisonous vine. I am not the desperate woman you make me out to be, and I have no need to cling to anyone but those who love me. I will not hold on to a great oak, because as magnificent as it may be, it will never hold me back. My
family
holds me with their kind words and love, and that is
all
a Shifter can ask for. What is it you want, Lorenzo? To question the integrity of my Packmaster? Fox is an intelligent man, and he might have easily flushed us out of that house. We’re better off within the city. There are places to take refuge, those who might help us, and…”

Through my powerful speech, Lorenzo cracked a smile. It was slight at first, but it became wide and he flashed his teeth at me.

I had begun to turn away when Lorenzo captured my wrist and tugged me against him. The cane dropped to the ground and his arm slid around my lower back in a claiming gesture. He cupped the nape of my neck with his other hand, and before I could protest, Lorenzo rubbed noses with me.

In the middle of a crowded club.

“Such a spirited wolf you have,” he growled.

“What do you want of me?”

He drew in a breath, as if taking in my scent. “Don’t you want to be my friend?”

“A man like you doesn’t make friends—he makes enemies.”

Lorenzo kissed me hard, his tongue slipping so deep that my legs quivered.

Then he drew back and rubbed noses again. “I can do friendship. Sunday night. Checkers. My place.” He pressed his lips to my ear and seduced me with whispers. “I can’t get you out of my head. These men leer at you in a way that makes me want to lose control. You need protection.”

“My pack protects me,” I said, forgetting the crowd around us as we held each other close.

“Will they protect you with their bodies as I will with mine?”

I tried to create distance between us. “Actions speak louder than words, and nothing but honey drips from your mouth.”

He chuckled darkly. “Your sharp tongue and wise words make my wolf sing. Is my embrace not enough to prove I don’t care about the opinions of others?”

“I’m sure you embrace a lot of women in this club. Look around. What strangers think matters less than your family, and consider how you hid me away in your room like a dirty secret.”

The song changed to something sexy and slow.

Without taking his eyes from mine, Lorenzo knelt down and a flicker of sexual desire sparked in his irises. It made me want to grip his hair and feel him nuzzle between my legs. He rose back up and placed my cane in my right hand. Lorenzo wasn’t about to dismiss me like someone who had displeased him. A tremor of anticipation rolled through me.

He lowered his chin, a few strands of hair slipping in front of his face. “Let’s get one thing straight: it’s no mystery that I have a voracious sexual appetite, but I have committed no sin by taking bitches to my bed.”

“I’m beginning to like that word even less when spoken from your lips.”

Lorenzo stroked his fingers down my knotty braid. “Have you ever noticed that in the modern packs, the only men who use the term
bitches
are unmated? It used to be a compliment that she was a dominant female. But humans have muddied the word, and because we have to defend our women whenever the word is used as an insult, its meaning has changed for some. You’re the first woman I’ve met where I wanted to tear a man apart if he called you that name.”

Lorenzo tugged me to a dark corner and placed his hands on the wall, pinning me with his body. “You’re not just the woman in my grandmother’s dreams. You are the woman in
my
dreams. The one my spirit wolf has been calling for. If you give me the word that I can pursue you, then neither my body nor mind will desire another woman. So keep growling, because it only makes me want to rip the buttons off your shirt and take you where we stand.”

When he moved his body against mine, it drew a light gasp from my lips. His hand slipped beneath my shirt and cupped my waist, burning like a brand against my flesh.

“Give me your answer, sweet Ivy,” he said against my cheek.

“Two conditions,” I said, pushing him back with my hand. “Treat me supremely and be willing to bend,
mighty oak
. Bend to my words, bend to advice, and bend to the idea of leading with respect and not tyranny.”

His mouth twisted into a crooked grin. “Is that all?”

“It’s much more than you think it is.” I tugged at the ends of his long hair. “Your pack will judge and criticize you when they see me at your side. How you react to their judgment directly links to my conditions. Hold me like you would grains of sand, and remember how it takes so little for me to slip through your fingers. I’ve been through so much pain in my life, and I’m careful with my heart.”

“I will hold it like precious glass.”

Was I accepting his offer to court me?
I felt such an enormous tug at my heart whenever I thought of Lorenzo—such a fierce desire to know him, even though he was imperfect. Could any of us claim perfection? Goodness, right there in the stench of that club, surrounded by flickering lights and loud voices, I fell in love with him just a little bit more. Not all the way, but the light drizzle had turned into a steady rain.

“Have you slept?” he asked, stroking my brows with his thumbs. “You look tired.”

“I can’t sleep with all this around me.”

Lorenzo’s powerful arms embraced me and his heart thundered against his chest. “Can you sleep with all
this
around you?”

Lorenzo was able to order a warm cup of cocoa from the bartender even though it wasn’t on the menu.
The staff knew him well since his pack brought a lot of money into the Blue Door, so they made exceptions and honored his requests. The cocoa relaxed Ivy, just as he’d hoped. He ordered William to stand guard outside the door to the room the Weston pack had rented.

Austin greeted him coldly, as expected, and most of the other men in the pack merely lifted their eyes to meet his before looking away. A television on the left wall played silently. Two of the chairs had been pushed together, and Denver was sitting on the floor, leaning against one. Lorenzo couldn’t see who he was protecting, but Denver carried a look that was all too familiar to Lorenzo.

So did the rock singer, Jericho, whose pregnant female was lying on the couch beside him with one leg on the coffee table. Women were so peculiar during pregnancy. Strange cravings, mood swings—as if their sleeping wolf were growing temperamental.

Alexia was stretched out on the opposite sofa, wrapped up in a blue blanket with her straight hair hanging off the edge.

Lorenzo leaned against the door and watched Ivy as she coaxed Lynn off the barstool and onto a pile of blankets. That’s when he looked around and realized his woman had no place to lie down.

His
woman.

The word rattled in his head like more than a suggestion, and he wondered why he felt hell-bent on protecting a gentle female so opposite from the women he normally pursued. He’d wrestled with it all day since leaving Austin’s house. Never in such a short period of time had he been so taken by a woman—so completely transfixed that he couldn’t focus his mind on anything or anyone else.

After Ivy gave Lynn an extra pillow, she returned to Lorenzo and he called to her wolf until she shifted. Whether her wolf wanted to sleep or not didn’t matter, because Ivy’s mind would tumble into darkness—far from bad spirits and dreams. She nuzzled against Austin’s leg and he rubbed her ears, casting his affection on his packmate.

Lorenzo looked around at this motley crew and felt like an interloper. Austin’s pack behaved more like a family, and those were two things he’d always considered impossible to converge. He sat down beside the door and stretched out his legs.

Austin handed him a cold bottle of beer and sat to his right. “Just so you know, I never loved Winnie. She was just the first Shifter I’d ever dated. It’s not like we’d slept together,” Austin said quietly. “That was ages ago.”

Lorenzo chuckled. “Just so you know, she wasn’t that good in bed.”

Austin sipped his beer. “Better you than me, my friend. So… what’s your angle with Ivy? Is this just about that old-fashioned competitive streak? Still trying to take something that’s mine?”

“Yours?” Lorenzo growled more than said. “She’s in your pack, but Ivy is not
yours
.”

“Well, she sure as hell ain’t yours.” Austin set his bottle on the rug beside him.

Ivy’s wolf trotted over so gracefully that one would hardly notice her hind leg had never touched the ground. She stood before the two men, her nostrils twitching as she took in their heavy scents. They remained silent, realizing her wolf was about to prove which man she belonged to.

Austin patted his lap. When Lorenzo sent him a sharp glare, Austin returned the glance—his cocky eyes lit with amusement.

So Lorenzo patted his leg.

Ivy wagged her tail and growled low, looking between the two men. She sniffed harshly, showing her frustration, and then bowed.

“Ivy, come,” Austin said.

She lifted her brown eyes to her Packmaster and Lorenzo could see the compliance in her posture. This became more than a game, but a contest to show which man Ivy’s loyalty lay with.

Lorenzo patted his chest and tilted his head to the side. “Come, Ivy,” he said softly.

She barked at both of them.

“Shhh!” Denver said. “What the hell are you two doing over there? You’re going to wake everyone up.”

After a high-pitched whine and another growl, Ivy walked forward and stood between them. Then she turned around, facing away, and wagged her tail so hard that it slapped both of them in the face. Eventually she settled down, folding her front paws and resting her head on them.

“
Now
I think we need to talk,” Austin said with a hard sigh. “What’s your plan?”

“She’s accepted my offer to pursue her.” Lorenzo crossed his legs at the ankle and noticed Reno’s woman lying on the floor behind Jericho’s sofa. Just a spray of bright hair peeked out from a dark sleeping bag.

“Ivy didn’t mention that.”

Lorenzo smirked while Austin scratched his stubbly jaw. “She only just agreed an hour ago while on a food run. Is that how you value a woman of her character? Send her for peanuts while a man who assaulted her is on the hunt?”

“My men have secured this building. It won’t take long to spot someone who’s out of place. In case you haven’t noticed, Church, we’re not trying to hide from Fox. We’re luring him out of his foxhole. Soon he’ll realize we have all the comforts we need in the city and he’ll make a stupid move. Let him try to burn this club down and face the wrath of a hundred pissed-off immortals who would love nothing more than to make a fur coat out of him.”

“Are your men armed?”

“Judge all you want,” Austin said. “When a man threatens my family, it’s not about fair. You come at my pack, and I’ll come at you with guns blazing. I spent years working as a bounty hunter, and the one thing I learned was that nobody plays fair.”

Lorenzo respected that. “Do you think Fox has found the child?”

Austin coughed into his hand and took a swig of beer. “I think he’s blowing smoke. That’s what men like him do best. Reno’s pulling a few strings to track the boy down, but I don’t think we’ll need to worry about that.”

“What if Ivy wants the child back?”

Austin drew up his knees and draped his arms over them, covering up the hole on the left knee. “We’d take him in. But if she does that, no Shifter will want her. That’s about as scarlet letter as it comes, and most men don’t want to raise another man’s child. That’s something she’ll have to consider, because it’ll be life changing. She’ll always have my pack’s protection, but Ivy could be giving up a future of having her own family. Even when the child is grown, the stigma will be there. People don’t know her story, and they’ll just assume she was unfaithful or promiscuous.”

Unfortunately, this was true. Shifters had only recently acquired their freedom from slavery, so in many ways, they were still wrapped up in the ways of the old world. Wolves mated for life, and a woman with a fatherless child represented a woman unwilling to devote herself completely to one man. Lorenzo was beginning to see how fallible that belief really was.

“So tell the truth, Church. As a Packmaster, how serious are
you
willing to get? Are you ready to stand up to your pack and any outsider to defend that choice?”

Lorenzo stroked Ivy’s silky fur and admired the exquisite layers of color that blended from dark grey to white to silver on each hair. “I’ve given it consideration.”

Austin chuckled. “That I don’t doubt, but I have a feeling Ivy will have a problem if you cut a man’s throat for calling her a gimp. She’s not the kind of woman who puts up with that kind of shit. Ivy’s never embraced violence as a form of punishment. I wouldn’t mind going a few rounds with some of the jackasses in my pack, but now I get where she’s coming from. I don’t want the women or children in my pack to become afraid of me because I condone physical punishment among the men, so I’ve found other creative ways to enforce my rules. There’s more than one way to run a pack and earn their respect. But yeah,” he said with a laugh, rising to his feet. “Good luck with that.”

Ivy hopped to her feet and trotted over to Denver, licking his face. He turned away and looked annoyed as she continued cleaning his neck with her pink tongue.

Austin set his beer on the black bar. “Do me a favor and tell Wheeler to come back. I want him to get some shut-eye and switch places with Jericho. Ben slipped out before you came in, so tell him to get back in here too. I’ve got five women, one child, and three men in here. That ain’t sittin’ well with me.”

Lorenzo rose to his feet and threw Austin a frosty glare. “I’m not your runner, but since I could use a drink, I’ll pass along the message as a courtesy.”

Lorenzo headed into the bar. He’d lost track of the time since there weren’t any clocks. Vampires didn’t require sleep, so their clubs were busy morning and night. He neared a table on his left that was located next to a half wall, giving its occupants privacy.

Wheeler had his fingers laced behind his head and was leaning back in his chair.

Ben sipped his drink, watching one of the waitresses strut by. “I’d give my left nut for some of that.”

Wheeler took notice of her slim legs and perky breasts. “I’d give your left nut for some of that, too.”

Lorenzo lifted the edge of the table and tipped a few empty bottles.

“Hey, what the shit?” Ben complained.

“Your Packmaster wants you to return to the party. Both of you.” Lorenzo watched them get up as he sat in one of the chairs. Wheeler seemed the more obedient of the two, which came as a surprise given that his physical appearance made him seem more rebellious. Ben looked nondescript and forgettable, and Lorenzo noticed his reluctance to follow orders.

Jericho swaggered into the room—jeans ripped in various places and his concert shirt unkempt. The bear claw hanging from his neck caught Lorenzo’s eye; only warriors carried tokens like that. Jericho kept his shoulder-length hair in his face and tugged at the long sleeves of a thin shirt he wore beneath the T-shirt. The grey sleeves were jagged at the cuff, as if cut with a pair of dull scissors. He sat in the chair across from Lorenzo.

“No one recognizes the big rock star?” Lorenzo said more than asked.

“This yours?” Jericho lifted one of the glasses.

“Ben’s.”

Jericho knocked it back and shivered like a woman. “Damn, he drinks that nasty shit that tastes like licorice. Nah. No one recognizes me as long as I cover up my tattoo. I wear the thick eyeliner onstage because without it, people aren’t sure. Just a few tricks I learned over the years about creating an alternate image.”

Lorenzo studied this tall wolf for a moment. “I saw you have a little one on the way.”

His face beamed. Milky-green eyes flashed back at him. “Yeah. Izzy’s pretty settled on the name Melody if it’s a girl.”

“And if it’s a boy?”

He shrugged. “I suggested Floyd, but she’s not digging it. I guess we’ll meet the little fella first before we give him a name. Or her. Either way, I’m having a bunch of babies with that woman, so we’ll have plenty of opportunities to choose names,” he said with a laugh.

Lorenzo felt his chest constrict. The idea of family had never struck him as profoundly as it did now. For a fleeting moment, he imagined Ivy with a full belly, sun shining on her honey-brown skin, soft hair cascading down her back. Then a realization entered his mind that she had once reflected that very image, and no one had admired her beauty or glow because she was only a child herself. Then to have her baby cast away as a shameful secret filled him with rage. Not even her father had given her unconditional acceptance.

What he felt for Ivy was more than an alpha’s desire to care for a woman in need. Why else would his heart soften when thinking of the way she smiled at him? Or her sweet laugh when she called him Thunder? Even that nickname roused an unexpected heat in him. He loved the way she’d throw back her shoulders when standing up to him, and he loved the resilience in her spirit that made her accept her fate of having a limp, because she had endured much worse pain in her life. Sorrow and heartache—emotions he wanted to erase with a kiss on her lips and tender words whispered in her ear. He had never been struck by anything so fast as the love he felt for Ivy.

Love. Something he knew little of when it came to women. Was his grandmother right in that they were fated? Then he thought of her prophecy of blood.

“Uh-oh,” Jericho said. “I’ve seen that look before.”

Lorenzo cleared his throat, coming out of his thoughts. “What look is that?”

“There’s nothing innocuous about the faraway look in your eyes. Especially combined with that ghost of a smile that you probably didn’t even realize you were doing. Not to mention the blush on your face when I suggested it, and yeah, men don’t blush unless it’s over a woman or someone finding their dirty magazines. Not to mention the contemptuous look you’re giving me right now. Yep. Someone’s been acquainted with lady love. Can’t say I blame you; Ivy’s one of a kind. But just remember she belongs to
our
pack, and I’ll say this in the nicest way possible—don’t fuck with my sister’s head.”

“Tell me how that redheaded wolf in there came to fall in love with a man with one of the worst reputations in town.”

Jericho laughed and shook his head. “You can’t help who you love. It is what it is. You remember how as kids we used to tug their hair and call them names? Well, paybacks are a bitch. That’s when you know you got her heart in your pocket—when she can’t stand to look at you. You represent something she hates, or you’ve done something to hurt her. But either way, she’s mad as hell at herself for loving you, so she spits fire. They don’t make it easy.”

“And that one in there gave you trouble?” Lorenzo asked. Redheads were known to have fiery tempers.

Jericho lifted the bear claw and turned it in his hand, staring at the tip. “A good woman doesn’t make it easy. They want to push all your buttons to see how willing you are to chase after them. You don’t get a woman like that by saying you love her. You’ve got to write them a song, walk through fire, jump off a building, or slay a bear. And you know what? If you love ’em enough, you’ll do it. I wake up every morning at five to get my woman donuts, fry her bacon, or just make love to her. And not because she asked me to. When you can do all that and because of it feel like
more
of a man and not less, then that’s the girl. That’s the one. The
only
one. It never gets old either.” Jericho let the necklace fall against his shirt and glanced around the room. “There isn’t a woman in this world that compares to my Isabelle. Even when she’s yelling at me because I got potato-chip crumbs in the bed or when she’s hiding her face because it’s too early and she thinks I won’t love her anymore when I see her morning face.”