He laughed with a wince. "Whys that?"
"Because you look pretty and you're meant to look pretty, not fight."
As she gripped him hard, her heart was pounding with relief as he answered. "I couldn’t agree more, I love you Ellie, but that broken rib is being crushed by you."
Jumping up she remembered where they were. "MAY, MAY." Her sister could fix him, that’s what she did. Instead though, Assaud stepped forward.
"Please let me." Although she was wary of trusting Assaud with her man she stepped back, but pulled a knife from her boot until she saw the laughter in Luke's eyes.
"What, I don’t know him."
"He's my brother Ellie."
Indignant she had her hands on her hips. "And that mass of blood over there was your father, and that one was your uncle." As she looked around she saw two other bodies and confusion hit her, what the hell had she missed? It was the blood and scratches on Assaud's back that told her the answer, the brothers had fought together to reclaim the pride.
"Good point warrior, good point. Asaud, please don’t be offended when Ellie is being threatening." So she stood with her knife and watched Assauds hands run over Luke's body, there was no contact as his hands hovered maybe an inch from skin before Luke smiled and a slowly stood grabbing her in a hug. When he finally put her down May was staring at Assaud, Ellie knew what was coming next.
"No sweetie you cannot run tests on him, some things just are." She saw the disappointment in Mays face as Danny pulled her away. The crowd around them cheered and hugged Luke. When everyone settled, Assaud stepped forward.
"Luke, brother we thank you. You are both brave and honourable, and you deserve to lead us, we just hope to stand by your side."
Ellie's heart dropped, why hadn’t she understood the implications, the strongest animal led the others. She couldn’t live here, she couldn’t think of anything worse, but she couldn’t leave Luke behind in the Rainforest? His beaming smile as he took his brothers hand increased her melancholy.
"Assaud I thank you, but truly I have done little. It was easy for me to walk in here surrounded by friends and family; you however, have lived this and tried to protect your friends and family. You fought with me side by side, I do not know the forest and as I have already been reminded, my job is to look pretty, and I believe that is something I do well." A tiny blossom of hope hit her stomach when Luke addressed the rest of the Jaguars.
"I thank you for offering me the honour; however your true leader has been with you all along. A true leader is strong and kind and needs to have the best interests of everyone and this is not me, it is Assaud."
The crowd cheered as did Ellie, her man was coming home, and she was going to make sure he stayed as he should, her man.
Chapter 35
Four weeks later Ellie was frustrated; while Luke was appearing on a TV show, she was sick and sat at home leaving Danny to watch over Luke who had been acting slightly different to usual. Only this morning she had woken before the sun rose to find Luke conferring with Vlad in the lounge, both appeared to be hiding something, only she hadn’t been able to find out what this was. Life had been pretty hectic over the last three weeks, she had returned to work although her main job was protecting her investment, which was how she now referred to Luke. Their relationship had strengthened significantly since their return only now the damn fool kept buying her things, ridiculous things like a damn sports car, and a fancy necklace which amused Luke when she declared she would need to hire a team to protect it.
The closeness between them had developed; Ellie loved sharing her life with him. The only bone of contention between them continued to be Luke's insistence in hiding his animal. Whilst Ellie didn’t agree with this, she had conceded that it was Luke's decision.
Life was pretty sweet, and Ellie was slowly getting used to the opulent way Luke lived, until she seemed to get some awful flu, why she couldn’t have animal DNA she didn’t know, they were never sick. Even though, all he wanted to do was sleep Luke insisted on dropping her off at her mom's, after citing that he was worried about her. Now she was sat in the lounge with Beth, her mom, Ben, May and her brothers. Apparently everyone decided to crowd into the damn room whilst she was sneezing and spluttering. Beth sat next to her, seemingly unconcerned for her unborn vampire baby even though Ellie was surely spreading germs.
As the show started, she nearly had a heart attack when Vlad poofed into the room, Jesus it was becoming a family day out. "Vlad please warn me when you are going to do that."
"I apologise Ellie; however I was searching for my wife and it appears that she is here."
"Well take your wife home; I may give your unborn baby cooties."
Did he listen and take her home, no he just sat down on the arm of the chair? Ellie was distracted when Luke walked onto the stage smiling and waving at the screaming crowd, she hushed her brothers so that she could listen, apparently Luke was going to be announcing his plans for the next twelve months, plans that he had refused to discuss with her.
She listened to the conversation carefully.
"So Luke, where have you been?" The host was a pretty blonde woman whose top was a little too low and skirt a little too short.
"Well Mindy, I have been taking a little siesta to wind down and plan for the next twelve months."
"When you say it was a siesta can I ask, did a female keep you company during this time?"
"You can ask and there was a female."
Ellie listened to the collective sigh from the audience as well as the host.
"Please don’t tell us that you are off the market, half of the women across the world have spent years hoping that they may be the one."
Luke laughed, his face and demeanour relaxed as his charisma pulled everyone closer to him, hanging off his words.
"Well I hate to be the bearer of distressing news, but I am now officially off the market."
Everyone in the room looked at her, Ellie's face blushed tomato red. "Stop looking at me."
Inside her head had started pounding, she didn’t want him to tell the world about her, quite frankly she was still struggling with people mobbing them and staring at her as though she had a third head, it was a security nightmare. She turned back to the screen, while inside she plotted her revenge which would worsen with every little thing he said about her on national television.
The host continued. "So who is the lucky lady and how serious are we talking."
Ellie cringed while Luke smiled. "Oh it's serious, in fact, I am taking a year off to plan the wedding, this time next year I will have a Mrs Drakos by my side."
Her face dropped, her heart leapt from her chest, everyone in the room was looking at her, but she was looking at the screen.
"Wow, we didn’t expect that Luke so tell us about her. Who is she, do we know her? Tell us about the ring."
Ellie's head was screaming, whilst she didn’t want the world to know about her, she did want to know about this. Her mom looked at her. "I don’t know anything about this."
With a cheeky wink, her mom nudged her. "We know you don’t sweetheart." Then she realised that everyone else knew what was going on, back to the screen she waited with baited breath.
"She is the most incredible woman I have ever met, she is bright and funny, strong and beautiful, and I once promised her that when I proposed the whole world would know, and now they do. The ring is one of the Tsychovsky designs and totally unique." He slipped a box out of his pocket and Ellie watched as the show went to a commercial.
"NO, no, what about the ring?" She had taken to shouting at the screen so she hadn’t seen Vlad poof out or back in again.
"Turn and I will show you." She turned to see him where she stood in a well-tailored suit and an enormous smile on his face as he dropped to one knee.
"I need a warrior to stand by my side, to protect me, love me and marry me. Ellie will you do the honour of being my wife, my partner and my warrior?"
She wanted to be sarcastic a
nd make a funny quip; instead she nodded and nodded and nodded some more, she didn’t even notice the gigantic sparkling diamond in his hands, or the absolute silence of her family until Luke swept her up into his arms.
Sometime later she found herself alone with her fiancé. "What if I had said no?"
He laughed. "I would have kept asking until I wore you down."
Vlad arrived and held out his hand to them. "I believe you both have siblings who may want to share your news."
She did, and as Vlad poofed them to Claire, she was somewhat surprised to find Claire and Assaud huddled over a roaring fire with those damn monkeys. Both shared in their happiness, and it seemed that they too would have something to share if the quick glances at each other were anything to go by.
Chapter 36
Ellie woke to find her body slick with sweat and heat coursing through her tired limbs, looking at the clock she groaned at the time when she saw that it wasn’t even six am. The beautiful man snoring lightly beside her barely moved she smiled at his sleeping form. She could feel how swollen her throat was when she tried to swallow. Tiptoeing from the bed as the sweat poured from her, she groped for her clothes as she stood making the decision that she needed fresh air and medication. Pulling on some sweats and runners, she made her way down the elevator ordering the security to guard Luke whilst she was away. The concierge stood to greet her, but she waved him away.
As the fresh air hit her, Ellie saw a shadow to her right that caught her attention, moving stealthily to the side of the building she saw a large bouquet of roses being laid on the ground. The figure laying them looked disgustingly familiar, as she moved in Ellie grabbed the figure by the scruff of the neck and pulled the form up to face her.
"Eric, what the fuck?" Her anger reached a high as she resisted the urge to punch him.
Looking down she saw that the heads of the roses had been chopped off, she maintained her grip on him even though he was squirming she bent down to pull the card reading it out loud.
"You are mine, not hers; I will kill you before I let her have you."
His face blanched. "I just found them here; I was coming up to tell Luke." There was desperation in his tone.
Do I honestly look that stupid Eric? So it was you all along? I think I can safely say you are fired."
Eric spluttered as his face turned to a snarl. "You can't fire me, I do it for Luke the publicity keeps people interested."
She was furious, sick and seriously annoyed. "Publicity, he is a man you idiot not a cash cow."
"Really and what about you? You waltz in here, and now he's getting married when he didn’t even ask me first."
Squeezing her hand round his neck, she watched his face blanche, and just as his face turned a little red she dropped him. "You are fired."
Calling security, Ellie arranged to have Eric picked up and taken to the police station, pleased that it was one less threat for her to worry about. The fresh air cooled her down so that by the time she arrived at the drug store, she felt a little better. Grabbing her purchases and a bottle of water she gargled some throat syrup before knocking back some pain killers until some idiot knocked into her. Something sharp hit her arm immediately making her woozy, as she hit the floor her last thoughts were about Luke sleeping.
*******
Luke was being shaken awake, opening his eyes expecting to find Ellie, he was disappointed to see Danny's large frame in front of him.
"Where's Ellie?"
"Huh, what?"
He looked around unsure why Danny was in his bedroom. "Where the hell is Ellie? We can't find her."
He was awake now and jumping out of bed shouting her name, his eyes becoming wild when she didn’t answer.
"She was here, where is she, what's going on?" At the same time, Ben and Lucky burst through the door. Ben took the same action as Luke by checking the apartment, he didn’t know why but Ben was panicking. Thankfully Lucky took charge.
"Luke when did you last see Ellie?"
"Uh, we went to bed about eleven, she was still feeling sick and I… that’s the last time I saw her."
"Danny?" Lucky was turning to Danny.
"She left the apartment at around five to go to the drug store, she ordered the guys to guard Luke. She waved the concierge away five minutes later saying she needed fresh air, she then found Eric planting the flowers so she called it in and Joe came down and took him to the police station."
Luke was lost. "What's Eric got to do with this? Why wasn’t I woken earlier?" He hadn’t spoken to Eric since he had returned to America. It was Danny that filled him in.
"Eric was your stalker; apparently he was drumming up publicity. Tonight Ellie caught Eric planting beheaded roses outside the hotel. Anyway Joe took Eric, and Ellie went to the drug store. I have checked the camera footage there; she brought medication and left at five forty. We thought she might have gone for a walk which is why I didn’t wake you."
His brain was a mess, how was she gone? He didn’t believe it, but inside he knew that something had happened to her. "I need to go to the drugstore."
Danny pulled him back when he made to leave their suite. "No point, I have been there. Her cell was on the floor as where her medication, but she was nowhere."
He started pacing the floor when Vlad appeared in the shadows from the kitchen. "Ben I cannot find her, when I try I get nothing."
Lucky burst into tears shocking Luke. "Lucky stop, she is alive I can feel it, I can feel her."
Ben nodded as he comforted his wife though his body was tense and coiled. "Lucky it doesn’t mean anything has happened to her, it just means magic is involved and preventing Vlad getting a hit on her."
Luke saw that Ben desperately wanted to believe his own words for he did too. Taking charge, he ordered Danny to get everyone together and start scouring the streets. Lucky called her boss, and within fifteen minutes his apartment was crowded and a hub of activity. Inside he tried to call out to Ellie; if he had bonded to her already he would have been able to talk telepathically to her. Unlike the wolves, the isolated nature of the Jaguars meant they needed a mating ceremony to link mentally. It didn’t matter though; he was trying to link their minds anyway and would keep trying until he found her.
Epilogue
Her arms hurt, her head hurt, everywhere hurt. Opening her eyes, she blinked to clear her blurry vision, having tried this several times relief surged through her when was able to see effectively. Looking around, she saw four walls and a door with a hatch in the middle. Leaning her head back, Ellie understood why her arms felt as though they were burning. They were tied above her head, held by a hook in the ceiling that left Ellie hanging with her feet maybe a foot from the floor. She tried to grip the thick rope so that she could lift her legs up, failing when she couldn’t get enough leverage.
She sneezed reminding that she was still sick, she ached everywhere and wanted to lay down which wasn’t going to happen. Other than her, the room around her was empty, the light was blaring from the naked bulb over her head. She attempted to grasp the rope again and movie up to the hook, but the rope had been greased so her hands couldn’t grip it, actually she could barely feel them now. The movement caused pain to shift through her chaffed wrists.
Hearing footsteps moving towards her, she stilled herself as the sound of the key increased her heart rate, the handle creaked, and Ellie braced herself.
She kept her eyes closed, and allowed her other senses to give her information, two sets of footsteps, one man significantly heavier than the other deduced from the heavier steps. There were no discerning scents from either of her abductors ruling out several other species, but not vampires which heightened her anxiety. The first voice was a whisper telling her that at least one feared her.
"I told you that she would still be out so let's get out of here, the boss will be here soon." Ellie could hear the anxiety in his voice.
The other was not so scared. "Calm down, I just want a taste of her."
The o
ther man tried to stop him with a warning. "Remember the boss said we were not to touch her, just keep her here until the full moon."
The heavier man stepped forward. "What the boss doesn’t know and all that."
He was still a distance away so Ellie waited. "Shit, you heard what he said, she is going to be the peace offering, if she is damaged by us then he will send us there too, and I don’t want to go there not again."
The other man laughed. "We are here now; he can't send us back so stop worrying."
With one more step Ellie opened her eyes and swung her legs up, kicking them up high she connected with his jaw and had a moment of triumph when she heard bone crack.
"Come on you son of a bitch, come closer again." His eyes flashed red, as he stepped forward again, this time she let him get a little closer before she kicked him in the balls and had the satisfaction of watching him drop to his knees.
"You fucking bitch, I will kill you." In the distance, they all heard a door slam; the look of fear on the face of these men gave her a moment's pause. They rushed from the room and locked the door even though they didn’t move from the other side of the door, she could still hear them breathing.
Listening to the voices outside of the door, she couldn’t decipher the words, but there was now three men outside. Taking a breath as the key turned in the lock, she was left in darkness as the light was extinguished before the door opened. Silence greeted her and she slowed her breathing, she needed to conserve her energy.
"I know you are awake."
She ignored the words as she tried to determine any clues to her who her captor was, the smell of his aftershave was strong, his voice unfamiliar. This one did not make the mistake of coming close enough for her to take action.
"You are a surprise, exceptionally bright and resourceful. It has taken eight months to find a way to get you. Initially I watched your sisters and thought I would take one of the, until I saw you and how strong you are. You strength will feed my colleagues for a while, it is a shame to lose one as strong as you, but needs must. Unfortunately, you will be here for a few days until the time is right then I will take you to somewhere you have never dreamed of; a place from where there is no escape"
Taming the Warrior Page 24