Walk on the Striped Side

by Jessie Lane

  Elena pretended to look the table over again until she reached under the table and hit it right in front of where Lulu was sitting, almost hitting her knees in the process. The tigress roared again in anger and was practically hopping in her chair now. Desperate to try and put some space in between herself and Elena.

  Elena pulled back from under the table and once again pretended to look for the make believe spider. Lulu’s hands were now on the edge of the table, trying to push herself and the heavy ass arm chair she was shackled to, away from the table, but not making much headway.

  Elena thought as her eyes zeroed in on the tigress’ hands clenched on the table. Bingo. Elena swung her arm one final time, as hard she could swing the damn hammer, until in smashed into the table less than half an inch from her captive’s hands. Lulu let out a god-awful shriek, but the rest of her body froze like a statue. She was staring at the head of that hammer, embedded into the wood of the table she was clutching for dear life. Eventually, she oh-so-slowly moved her gaze up to meet Elena’s slightly crazed, but determined one.

  Elena watched as the dawning of realization crossed Lulu’s face. It was now or never.

  With an angry whisper, Elena said. “Now I’m going to ask you one more time, and if you don’t answer me, the next time I see my invisible spider and swing this hammer at it, it’s going to just so happen to be on you. Where were you on the night of October 28th?”

  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?