Of Humans and Monsters

by Candace Blevins

  He shook his head. “Your dad would’ve given the same damned instructions, with the same damned tone of voice. You’re fifteen years old, Angelica.”

  “You never call me by my name.”

  He shook his head. “Think you’ve earned it tonight, Princess.”

  I rolled my eyes and looked back at Sloane. “I owe you big.”

  “You have no idea. I had three nice pieces of ass lined up for tonight, and had to blow ‘em off to come rescue your ass.”

  I’d seen him with two women on a picnic table at a party a few months ago, so I didn’t doubt he could line up three. The standard party line was that his nickname stood for Bashful, kind of like one of our biggest enforcers was named Tiny. However, I’d heard it was because he had a habit of bashing people’s heads in.

  And now, I’d seen him in action.

  I still wasn’t afraid of him, as in, worried he’d hurt me. I knew he’d never change into a nice guy, but I also knew he’d always protect me. I wished he was keeping me safe because I was important to him, but I knew it was all about getting his last patch.

  Somewhere in a parallel universe, I hoped things were working out so Bash and I could be together, and it was me he was having sex with. I’d had to keep those thoughts out of my head as much as possible, though, because werewolves can smell arousal, and if my dad picked up on it then he’d assign me someone else. I’d grown to love Bash, but I’d had to keep it completely platonic, and admire his body as one would a work of art, instead of the most beautiful man on the planet. All thoughts about my being one of the girls bent over the picnic table had to be relegated to my bedroom in the middle of the night.

  When the men arrived in the cargo van, everyone went to work. Brain got started on Sloane’s phone, looking at the texting history and saying he’d have to erase it from the two different phone companies’ servers. “We lucked up and he only texted his plans to you, so if we blow it out of your phone, destroy his phone and make sure it stays lost, and wipe the phone companies’ servers, there won’t be a record.”

  Duke got Bash’s clothes, and the guys went about making sure all DNA evidence went into bags. Brain had come in a separate vehicle, and he drove me home before I could see too much of what they did. I’d been schooled in how to get away with murder, should it ever come to it, so I had an idea of what they were doing, but without my dad there to make the decision these guys weren’t going to let me stick around and watch.

  “You holdin’ up okay?” Brain asked as we pulled onto the main road.

  “I’m an idiot, and now Bash had to kill someone else. Will he be okay?”

  Brain chuckled. “Bash doesn’t have enough of a conscience for this to make him lose any sleep, Angelica.”

  Brain always used my real name, and I wished he weren’t driving so I could give him a hug. “I know he’d never hurt me, but he’s a little scary, isn’t he?”

  “Most people think all of us are scary.”

  “Yeah, and I’m used to all of you, and think he’s scary, so I’m guessing it makes him truly frightening.”

  “Always listen to your gut. I like him, but have to admit your instincts are probably dead on. What did your gut tell you about Sloane?”

  “It told me sneaking out was a bad idea, but I thought it was just because of what my dad would do if he found out.”

  He pulled into my driveway and said, “Your mom isn’t home, and I won’t tell her anything, but you know we’ll have to tell your dad when he gets back.”

  I nodded, knowing this was too big to keep from him. “Can we keep this from erupting into a war?” The RTMC and Pack didn’t get along under the best of circumstances. If they thought we’d killed one of them it would get ugly, and fast.

  “Depends on who he told he was meeting you. Nothing in his text messages, but that doesn’t mean someone else didn’t know. He and his car are gonna disappear, and if the Pack gets wind he was supposed to be with you, it won’t be pretty. Since he was forcing you, we can hope he didn’t tell anyone of his plans for the evening, so he could deny being with you at all if you levied accusations later. His calendar has lots of dates listed in the past and future, but he didn’t put a note about meeting you.”

  “Bash is gonna get his colors now, since he saved me, killed for me, and I’ll have to break someone else in.” And I would miss Bash something awful. I might not be able to have him, but I got to see him nearly every day.

  “Yeah, and if you don’t ace your chemistry exam tomorrow, Georgia State is never gonna let you start taking classes this summer before you graduate high school.”

  A car pulled into the driveway behind us, blocking us in, and a patrol car pulled up on the street. Adrenaline flooded my system, fear racing through my veins, and Brain touched my arm. “They can’t know. Kayla’s dad’s behind us and I recognize the cops on the road. This is something else. Play it cool, yeah?”

  I nodded, and we both got out of his car.

  I could smell grief and sorrow coming off Kayla’s dad. “Your mom was in an accident, Angelica. We need to get your dad home, can you give us a way to reach him?”

  “Which hospital is she at? I need to go to her!”

  He exchanged a look with Brain, and then looked back to me, shaking his head, his eyes sad as he said, “I’m so sorry. She’s gone, Angelica.”

  It took a good five or ten seconds for his words to sink in enough for me to register what he was saying, and I screamed, “No! She can’t be!” I looked to Brain, knowing I couldn’t say anything about her being a werewolf, but we’re hard to kill, so maybe they thought she couldn’t survive her injuries, but she just needed someone to help her change.

  Brain was holding me, his strong arms around me. Supporting me, because my knees didn’t want to hold me up. I felt myself panicking, losing focus, and I took a breath to clear my head. This wasn’t right. My mother couldn’t be dead. We just needed to hear the facts and then everything would be okay.

  One of the uniformed officers stepped forward and I smelled cat. Leopard, maybe. Some kind of shifter. “When someone is pronounced dead on the scene, it means it was bad, ma’am. The Lieutenant here says your dad’s out of town. Can you reach him?” Was this his way of letting me know he knew she was a wolf, and it’d been bad enough to kill her? My mind was swimming, unwilling to accept the fact my mom was gone. There had to be a mistake. I’d just seen her a few hours ago, and she’d been fine.

  Brain held me tighter. “Her dad can’t be contacted. He’s in the woods where there isn’t any cell service. I’ll see to it she’s taken care of. Thanks for the notification.”

  He turned me towards my front door, and I let him walk me inside. I still didn’t believe my mom was dead. She’d been fine the last time I saw her — this had to be a mistake.

  I listened as he made a few phone calls, getting people to the house. Bash was there within thirty minutes, though he took a shower and changed clothes again before he came to me. By then, Brain had hacked into something and found out my mom had been hit by a drunk driver, and had been decapitated. I was starting to believe by this point, and I was on the sofa with Brain, crying, trying to make sense of everything going through my head.

  I’d never lost anyone close to me before, and I didn’t truly understand how my life was about to change. I was in shock, I think, but the grieving process had already begun, and it felt as if my heart had been ripped from my chest.

  Brain needed to work on the phone records, because we still had Sloane’s death to cover up. He handed me off to Bash and went to work on his laptop.

  And Bash… hard-assed Bash, who never showed any emotions, held me, petted me, and kept me from spinning out of control. He let me cry, let me soak his shirt with my tears, and didn’t tell me it would be okay. The only specific things I remember him saying was, “I have you, Princess,” and, “The man who killed her will pay.” I know he said other stuff, and none of it was a lie, and nothing was empty words. Bash would never say any
of the asinine things people say when they don’t know what else to say — everything happens for a reason, or the good Lord needed one of his angels home. It’s all bullshit. Some idiot human got drunk, got behind the wheel of his Hummer, and killed my mom. You can’t make sense of that, and Bash didn’t try to force sense into something so fucking senseless. He held me, he comforted me, and I’ll always love him for it.

  One of the ol’ladies brought me something to take, and I didn’t even ask what it was, I just put it on my tongue and let it slide down my throat as I drank some water, and then let Bash hold me until I fell asleep. I saw Bash look at the bottle before he let her give it to me, and I trusted him to keep me safe.

  I woke up on top of Bash the next morning, both of us fully clothed, on the sofa. Brain was asleep in the recliner, and we all looked at each other as the doorbell rang again.

  Brain ran his hands through his hair as he walked to the front door, and Bash and I sat up, so we were side by side on the sofa.

  I smelled Kayla’s mom when Brain opened the door.

  “Angelica, baby, you need to come home with me, let us take care of you until we can reach your dad.” She’d brought a breakfast casserole, which told me she already knew I wouldn’t come. Still, I got the message — she didn’t approve of my being in the house alone with Bash and Brain, and I bristled.

  “I’m sorry you can’t understand, but these guys are my family. They’d die before they let anything happen to me, and that isn’t a figure of speech.”

  “You need a woman around you, someone to comfort you. You don’t need men to protect you, Angelica. Come to our house until your dad gets home. You can stay with Kayla as long as you need to.”

  I took a breath and nodded. “I might take you up on that offer in a day or two, if my dad isn’t back by then, but I need my family right now. There were plenty of women around last night, and I’m sure they’ll be back today. You of all people should know how close I am to Brain and Bash. The women left me with them because they knew I was well taken care of. Someone’s working on the best way to get my dad, but he wasn’t expected back for another five days, at least, and it’ll likely take some time for them to find him.”

  He was off on club business, not in the wilderness, but we couldn’t tell the cops that. We didn’t have a way to contact him at all, though. Not even a burner phone. He was scheduled to call in tonight, and they’d have to break the news to him over the phone.

  Brain handed the casserole off to Bash, and walked Kayla’s mom outside.

  “I want a do-over on yesterday,” I told Bash when he came back to me on the sofa. “I want to make better decisions about Sloane, and I want to keep my mom home. God, Bash, I’m so sorry you had to—”

  He put his finger to my lips. “Hush, Princess. Sloane didn’t deserve to live and I never want you to bring him up again. We’re gonna have to talk about a few things, though. Did Kayla know you were planning on sneaking out with him?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. And with Brain bringing me home instead of you, I guess we’re gonna need to come up with a story.” Because Kayla’s dad would immediately know something was up, with my old prospect, now a patched member, stepping in.

  “Let’s keep it simple. He came by to help you study, messed up your plans with Sloane. We’ll put fake texts on your phone, so it looks like you told Sloane we’d cock-blocked you once again, with you apologizing for having to stand him up.”

  “So why weren’t we here? Why did we go out?”

  Brain walked back in, closing the door behind him. “I’ve already put all the text messages in place, as I figured Kayla knew, and it’s likely Sloane told some people, too. Got a few people at the barbecue place down the street who’ll say we were going over notes and shit while we ate. They don’t have cameras, and there are no traffic cams between here and there, so LEO won’t be able to confirm or deny.”

  I looked at the clock, realized I should be in first period at school already, but also knew I couldn’t go. I pulled out of Bash’s embrace and headed toward the bathroom. “I’m going to take a shower.”

  I didn’t want them to leave, but I needed a few minutes alone.

  My shower didn’t help anything, but it did tell me I didn’t need to take any more pills to knock me out. It takes serious shit to knock a werewolf out, and I felt like crap from it. When I came out of the bathroom, dressed in jeans and a Harley t-shirt, my long brown hair in a towel on my head, I told them, “I need to change and run. Can ya’ll take me out to the property?”

  “Just the three of us?” asked Brain. “Or do you want us to gather as much of the MC as we can?”

  I just wanted them, but before I could answer Bash said, “Just us, and of course we can, but you need to eat if you’re gonna change. We’ll hunt and eat as wolves, if you want, but you need to eat before we go.”

  I didn’t want to eat, but Bash refused to take me to the property until I did, so I ate.

  Click here to continue reading Bash Volume I.

  About the Author

  Candace Blevins lives with her husband of eighteen years and their two daughters. When not working or driving kids all over the place she can be found reading, writing, meditating, or swimming.

  Candace writes BDSM Romance, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, and is currently writing a Motorcycle Club series.

  Her Safeword Series gives us characters who happen to have some extreme kinks. Relationships can be difficult enough without throwing power exchange into the mix, and her books show characters who care enough about each other to fight to make the relationship work. Each book in the Safeword series highlights a couple with a different BDSM issue to resolve.

  Her urban fantasy series, Only Human, gives us a world where weredragons, werewolves, werelions, three different species of vampires, as well as a variety of other mythological beings exist.

  Candace's two paranormal romance series, The Chattanooga Supernaturals and The Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club, are both sister series to the Only Human series, and give some secondary characters their happily ever after.

  You can visit Candace on the web at candaceblevins.com and feel free to friend her on Facebook at facebook.com/candacesblevins and Goodreads at goodreads.com/CandaceBlevins. You can also join facebook.com/groups/CandacesKinksters to get sneak peeks into what she's writing now, images that inspire her, and the occasional juicy excerpt.

  Stay up to date on Candace’s newest releases, and get exclusive excerpts by joining her mailing list!

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