Walk on the Striped Side (9 page)

She heard the tigress gulp. In a
wary, hushed tone she answered. “I was at home by myself crying into a pint of
ice cream.”

Elena didn’t move a muscle. She
stayed right in her crouch over the table with the hammer between them to
remind Lulu that she meant business. “And why were you crying into a pint of
ice cream?”

She sniffled. Her skin paled
drastically and her pretty green-gold eyes watered. Not the kind of reaction
Elena imagined a cold blooded killer would give her. “Because Andrew and I had
fought.”

Starting to feel annoyed because
she was having to pull answers out of this chick much the same way a dentist
had to pull teeth out of a patient, Elena growled. “Why did you fight?”

“We fought because I brought him
photographic evidence that his wife was cheating on him. I wanted Andrew to
leave her, for me.”

Now things were starting to make
more sense to Elena. From what had been explained to her, shifters weren’t
known to break up matings or marriages. While shifters weren’t supernaturally
tied to a mate to keep them faithful, they did very much believe in the
sanctity of matings. More so than humans did. And while Lulu would know that
Demons didn’t necessarily have those same qualms about cheating on their mates,
Elena knew that it had to grate against every belief the tigress had to be a
mistress and not the dead demon’s mate. So, of course Lulu had been hoping
Holden would leave his mate for her.

“And he said no?”

Nodding, “He said no.”

“Why?” Elena asked.

The first tear leaked out of the
corner of her eye and slid down her cheek. “He wouldn’t leave her because she’s
pregnant, and he was sure he was the father.”

“Did you kill Andrew Holden Lulu?”

Shaking her head, her breath
shuddered in her chest as she tried to suck in air. “NO! I loved Andrew!
They’re framing me Amazon! I didn’t kill him!” A ragged sob escaped Lulu before
she hoarsely whispered, “I c-couldn’t kill him…”

“Who’s framing you? The wife? The
Ninth Circle? Be more specific.” Elena murmured as she stood up, walked over to
the open door where Chloe now stood with a
kleenex
box, and then took the tissues to the weeping
woman.

Lulu grabbed a tissue and tried to
wipe her face off. “His w-wife and h-her lover.”

“And how do you know that they
killed Holden and are framing you?” Elena asked.

Lulu blew her nose into the tissue
so loudly that it sounded like a warped elephant mating call in the wild.
“Because they both know I saw them. They know I would’ve told Andrew.”

Elena nodded. The pieces to this
puzzle were finally coming together. “So one or both of them probably
confronted Andrew. When it went bad, they tried to pin it on you.” Elena’s mind
was in overdrive. Going over all of the angles in this case and trying to
figure out how she could clear Lulu for the crime.

Chloe walked over to her and softly
requested the key that would unlock the spelled handcuffs that still held the
tigress immobile. Elena heard metal softly clanking and murmurs between the two
women as she continued to think about what would prove Lulu’s innocence in the
Ninth Circle Council’s eyes. Elena was so deep in thought she didn’t even
notice that Lulu’s grandmother now stood at the doorway watching the scene with
Delta and Aunt Thea. She also tuned out Chloe’s snort as the glimmer of an
epiphany started to niggle its way into her mind. Elena halfway turned to ask
Lulu a question when her sister’s voice spoke before she could.

“Hey Elena.”

Shooting Chloe an irritated glance
for stopping her soon to be almost as great as Sherlock Holmes moment, Elena
snapped. “WHAT?”

Chloe’s mouth spread into an evil
grin right before she said, “There’s a giant spider on the wall behind you.”

Elena spun around and immediately
spotted a real spider and her body shuddered in disgust. The bastard was huge
and she swore he was staring right at her with all of those creepy
googly
eyes of his from where he sat high up on the wall.
With the lightning fast speed of a ninja, Elena shrieked a war cry and flung
herself at the wall with her hammer aimed above her head at the spider’s
location.

Hitting the wall fast and hard, her
hammer buried itself deep in the sheetrock with Elena’s lean body was left
hanging from it, her feet about an inch off the floor. She tried to pull her
hammer out of the dusty rubble to see if she’d squashed the disgusting bug, but
her hammer was stuck. With an annoyed grunt she let go, turned to her sisters
and barked out, “Did I kill it?”

Chloe smiled at Lulu. “Told you she
was a freak.”

CHAPTER-NINE

Elena

Wiping the sheetrock dust off of her
shirt, Elena ignored the traitorous bitches she called sisters as they laughed
at her and chose to focus on Lulu instead.

“Do they know you took pictures of
them?”

Confused at the change in subject,
Lulu gave her a funny look.

“Holden’s wife and her lover, do
they know you took pictures of them?”

Shaking her head, “No.”

“Do you still have the pictures
Lulu? Or did you give them all to Holden?”

A spark of hope ignited in the
devastated tigress’ eyes. “I still have them! Holden wouldn’t even take the
pictures from me that day.”

“Go to your house and get them.
Bring them back here so we can devise our plan on how to take down Mrs. Holden
and prove to the Ninth-”

A thunderous roar shook the house.
Followed by some foul cursing.

“Oh fuck.” Elena muttered. Gage was
here. She turned back to where her hammer still hung high up in the wall and
jumped up, trying to pull it out so she could use it as a weapon. Planting her
foot against the wall, she tugged hard, and finally managed to rip the damn
thing out of the sheetrock. Spinning around to face the doorway, Elena’s jaw
nearly dropped to the ground when she didn’t see her sister or her Aunt
scrambling for weapons.

“What the hell are you all doing?
We’ve got a pissed off tiger probably about to tear us to shreds and you’re
just standing there!”

Chloe crossed her arms over her
chest. “We told you we thought it was a bad idea to kidnap his sister. But did
you listen to us? NOOOOOOO. Then you had to go and make it worse by kidnapping
his grandma too, because you’re a moron like that. Leaving your spiteful little
message behind in his house probably didn’t help either.” Chloe shrugged. “I
figure you’re fucked now that he’s here. I’m just not sure if it’s
metaphorically or literally.”

Delta chimed in just when Elena
considered beating Chloe with her hammer instead of the oncoming threat. “I
don’t think he’ll hurt you Elena. I think he loves you.”

Elena gave a mirthless laugh. “You
fool! Gage doesn’t love me! I’m just the dumb bitch that let him screw her for
six months. I’m-”

She never got the chance to finish
that sentence. A blur sped into the room, and in the next second Elena found
herself pined to the wall facing a very pissed off Gage Ivanov who snarled in
her face loudly, “MINE.”

Looking at the shifter, she wasn’t
sure who was in control, the man or the tiger. His eyes were now more gold than
green and little orange and black hairs were covering his forearms. He’d
probably snap her neck in a second, but she wasn’t going down without a fight.
Baring her teeth at him, she gritted through them. “Your family is safe so put
me down motherfucker!”

Baring his teeth back at her, Elena
forced herself not to flinch when she spotted his wicked looking fangs. Gage
tightened his hold on her upper arms, the tips of his claws digging into her,
but not breaking the skin as he leaned in closer to her face. “YOU. ARE. MINE.”

“Fuck you Ivanov! You’re not going
to do a damn thing to me because I’m going to help clear your sister’s name
with the Ninth Council! So put me down asshole, you won’t be burying my body
today!”

Growling, “I don’t want to bury you
Elena.” His words were barely human. Perhaps the tiger was the one in control
right now?

She scoffed. “If you don’t plan on
burying me, then what were you going to do? Snack on me in tiger form for your
next meal?”

A weird chuffing sound came from
Gage’s chest. Was he laughing at her? That jackass! She opened her mouth to let
him have it, but Elena ended up gasping instead. Gage pressed the lower half of
his body into hers. “I don’t want to bury you, I want to bury myself
in
you.”

For the first time in her life,
Elena was shocked speechless. Gage’s long, hard length was pressed into her
belly. He lifted her body up the wall a little so that their hips were aligned,
and then Gage ground himself into her. Rubbing what she knew was a big,
beautiful cock up and down her mound. Even through her jeans, Gage was hitting
her clit in the perfect combination of pressure and stimulation that Elena knew
that it was a
flippin
’ miracle she didn’t
spontaneously self-combust into a much needed, long overdue, not self-induced
orgasm.

Why would he do this to her? Why
would he torture her with the hint of a pleasure that she hadn’t felt since
he’d broken her heart? Because it was torture of the cruelest kind. A grim
reminder that all she’d been to this man that she’d loved was a release of
bodily fluids. Yet, knowing that’s all she was to him, she also knew that no
one would ever make her feel as good as he did. Needing to do something,
anything, to stop this manipulation of her body and hopefully get him away from
her, Elena said the very thing she had to convince herself of.

“I wouldn’t fuck you again if you
were the last man on Earth.”

Gage stopped grinding his cock
against her and Elena felt both relief and regret. Her relief, however, was
short lived. He leaned into her, completely covering her body with his own so
that she felt him
everywhere
. Placing his lips against the shell of her
ear, he whispered. “It’s a good thing I’m not just a man then, isn’t it my
little wildcat? Since I’m more animal than man I can smell how much you want me
right now. The scent of your pussy weeping for me is making my mouth water. I
can’t wait to taste it again. And I won’t be tasting it because I’ll be eating
you for a meal Elena. I’m going to bury my face between your thighs and lick
all of that sweet cream because it belongs to me, just like you do. I may have
pushed you away once, but I realized my mistake a long time ago. You. Are.
MINE. If I have to tie you to my bed and fuck you senseless until you’re
unequivocally addicted to me, I will.”

The feeling of his lips whispering
over her ear as his voice rumbled the sensual threats sent her senses into a
tailspin. Her nipples were pebbled hard against his chest. She was breathing in
soft, rapid pants. Her entire body tingled and she felt herself growing wetter
by the second.

Elena felt his head move down until
he buried his nose against her throat. She felt his warm breath against her
skin as he inhaled deeply and then exhaled with a soft growl. “God I love the
smell of you. I’ve missed it so fucking much and I don’t care what I have to
do, but I’m never going a day without the smell of you warm, wet and ready for
me again.”

Elena looked down at the top of
Gage’s head, which was now buried between her breasts. A throat clearing
brought her attention back up to the rest of the room, where everyone was
staring at her. Including some new people who hadn’t been there a few seconds
before. Alec and her Aunt Indigo. No one was moving towards her, to save her
from the obviously bat shit crazy shifter. Apparently Chloe didn’t even feel
bad for her current predicament because she mouthed the words ‘lucky bitch’ at
her. What. The. Fuck? Was she in an alternate universe of some kind? Had she
fallen asleep and put herself in some twisted ass version of The Twilight Zone?
Because Elena thought someone should be rescuing her right now. Not standing
around, watching as an oversized shifter played scratch and sniff with her
body.

Gage suddenly started rubbing his
face all over her breasts. She felt the warm flush of a blush spread over her
cheeks. Alec laughed, Lulu’s eyebrows shot up to her hair line and Gage’s
grandmother smiled. Which freaked Elena out on a level she frankly didn’t know
was possible. She could apparently strip down and take a communal shower with
other women in the Army, but she now knew that she could NOT handle Gage
playing with her boobies in front of an audience. Especially if that audience was
related to them.

Mortified, she moved her gaze away
from Grandma Ivanov’s and looked to her sisters for help. Chloe was silently
laughing at her, but Delta looked like a lobster she was blushing so hard.
Yeah, she wasn’t sure who was more embarrassed here right now, her or her
virginal sister. Gage began purring as he continued to rub his face all over
her chest and Elena finally hit her limit.

He still had her upper arms pinned
to the wall, but the lower half had range of movement. Elena reached over, put
her palm on his chest, which made him purr louder, and then moved her hand over
his firm flesh until she felt the little hard pebble of his nipple. Bingo!
She’d found her target. Using her thumb and her pointer finger she proceeded to
give Gage a
titty
twister of a lifetime.

Dropping her so he could rub a hand
over his offended nipple, he roared. “What the fuck did you do that for?”

Propping her hands on her hips,
Elena scowled back. “Maybe because you were rubbing all over me like I was
covered in catnip?”

Gage stopped rubbing his
pec
as a look of predatory intent came over his face. That
look caused her heart rate to spike and her palms to get sweaty. The man had
just told her that he wasn’t going to snack on her like she was a cheeseburger
through his favorite fast food joint, so why was he looking at her now like he
wanted to order a large order of fries. He stepped forward, invading her space,
and it took everything she had not to back away from him. That would show
weakness or fear.

He took another step forward, and
this time she had to back up because otherwise they would be touching. Elena
couldn’t allow that to happen. As mad, and maybe she was finally willing to
admit utterly devastated, as she was because of Gage’s actions two years ago,
parts of her still wanted him. It was like her DNA was hard wired to light up
her body like one of those old pinball machine games every time he touched her.
Her nerves were still flashing and zinging from when he was rubbing all up on
her a moment ago. She didn’t know what she would do if he touched her again
right now.

Gage’s hands came up, landing on
either side of her body, so that he had her caged between sheetrock and him.
Her frantic mind gave an internal nervous giggle as she realized it was a whole
new version of a rock and a hard place. She kept her breathing calm and even,
but her heart had sped up more, pumping like she was running in a marathon.

“Elena.” Gage crooned.

“What?” She’d tried to make the
response snippety, but even to her ears it had sounded kind of breathy.

“I was covering you in my scent. Do
you know why I would do that?”

Elena’s mind blanked. She blamed
the rising sense of panic for that. “No. Why?”

Gage’s tongue licked over his
bottom dry lip, and it reminded her of all the times he had used that slightly
rough instrument to lick her to orgasm. When she tore her eyes away from his
mouth, she noticed he was smirking at her. DAMN HIM! He’d done that on purpose.

Leaning his face a few inches
closer so that their lips were almost touching, “You are my catnip Elena.” She
started to shake her head no frantically, but he stopped it by moving his face
so that it touched her cheek. The five o’ clock shadow sensually scraping over
her skin as he now spoke into her ear. “Yes. You’re my catnip, my temptation,
my Eve in the Garden of Eden. You might not have been made from my rib, but you
were made for me. And only me. I won’t push you away again, and you won’t run
away again. Do you understand me
…
MATE.”

Elena pushed against his chest. She
needed to get away from him. Put space in between them so she could think. So
she could breathe. The smell of him was clouding her judgment. His words, his
body encasing her in the cocoon of his warmth, were going to her head faster
than her favorite bottle of whisky. He was somehow pushing past the wall of
anger she’d erected around herself, and now she was feeling raw. Exposed. She
couldn’t let him do this to her again. Settle a part of himself so deeply
inside of her that she’d end up not knowing where he began and she ended.

The last time she’d let him in like
that, he’d ripped himself away and it had been so much worse than ripping off
that band aid everyone hated. It had felt more like he’d reached inside of her
and ripped
everything
out. The heart that had come to love him. The
lungs that had become addicted to the smell of him after they made love. Even
the womb that had started to tick its biological clock because she wanted to
have children with this man. When she had left last time, Elena had felt like a
hollow shell. What would he do to her if he ripped himself away again? What
would be left of her this time?

Her breath hitched in her chest,
and she felt a tear escape her eye and start to slide down her cheek. She
pushed harder against him, and when that didn’t work, Elena started slapping
furiously at his chest. Desperate to get away from him, and out of this room
full of people she just remembered were still there. Who were probably standing
there, watching her break down.

Gage grabbed her hands in his and
held them immobile against his chest. Then he closed the last few inches
between them and once again pinned her body to the wall with his own. Only this
time he had pulled his face back to look her in the eyes. He looked determined,
and she started to pray that she would survive that determination of his.

“You have every right to be upset
with me.”

Upset with him
? Her mouth
dropped open, and she was about to tell him just exactly how upset she was with
him when he cut her off.

“I’m just going to have to prove to
you that you’re never leaving my side again. Starting now.”

And while Elena stood there,
feeling dumbfounded, and probably looking like a large mouthed bass with the
way she kept opening her mouth, only to shut it again, Gage grabbed her. Putting
his shoulder into her stomach, he lifted her into a fireman’s carry that had
Elena’s face dangling right above his butt. She was too shocked to move at
first. Too stunned to know what to say. So she just hung uncomfortably over the
behemoth’s shoulder trying to figure out what the hell was going on here. Of
course, that only lasted a few seconds until she heard Chloe’s voice calling
her name.