Lover Claimed

by A. M. Griffin

  Silence.

  “Andras?”

  No answer.

  She took a deep breath. Holy fuck, I’m relying on the voice in my head for a game plan. Fuck this.

  After Alexei had beaten her up he’d tied her hands behind her back and planted her on the chair by the desk. Her ego had suffered a blow at having been taken down so easily, but she’d sucked it up and decided not to dwell on that. She had to focus on escaping if she wanted to live.

  She looked up at the three men. Two were loading up the guns that were laid across the bed and the other was standing by the window with his eyes peeled to the backyard. The other five, including Alexei, had returned downstairs to get ready for Lajos. There was a little surge of pride at the way they were acting. Yeah, they wanted and expected Lajos to come after her, but they were also a little scared of him.

  “You do know that he’s going to kick your asses when he comes, don’t you?” she asked the men.

  None of the shifters acknowledged her. They hadn’t the other times she’d taunted them either.

  “How much do you think Gray is going to give us for killing the Farkas wolf?” one of them asked another.

  “So someone named Gray hired you? What about the Yaruzi? Are they part of this too?” she asked.

  One of the shifters turned to her, acknowledging her for the first time since Alexei had tied her up. “What the fuck is a Yaruzi?”

  Meisha didn’t know if she should be happy or mad. Happy, because the Yaruzi haven’t found her family and they weren’t after them and mad because she’d gone a wild goose chase trying to find that simple information out.

  A little bit of both. The only consolation in the entire fiasco is that she’d gotten to know Lajos and, for whatever it was worth, she didn’t regret a second of their time together.

  “Shit, dude,” one shifter said to the other, pulling her from her train of thought. “Don’t mention his name around this chick. We aren’t supposed to be saying it.”

  “Well, hell, it’s not like she’s going to live to tell anyone. As soon as that Farkas brat gets here we’ll kill her and then slice him up,” the shifter said.

  “I know, but…but just don’t mention his name out loud when we’re with anyone again. As a matter of fact, don’t mention his name again. We’re getting a large payday for this job, we don’t need any screw-ups.”

  “Can you two stop arguing,” the one at the window said, turning around just long enough to chastise his friends. “I swear you guys argue like an old married couple.”

  “I’m not the one arguing, it’s Boris. He keeps acting like a bitch.”

  Boris slapped his friend in the back of his head. “I’ll show you a bitch.”

  “Stop!” a voice boomed from the door, bringing all attention to the shifter standing there.

  Alexei. She narrowed her eyes at him.

  “I need for you two pussies to stop fighting and load up the guns.”

  “We’re done,” Boris said.

  “Well,” Alexei said sarcastically.

  Boris and his friend exchange glances. “Well, what?”

  “Get your asses downstairs and pass them out to everyone.” Alexei turned and left in a huff. “I swear, it’s like fucking babysitting sometimes.”

  “You heard him, Demyan,” Boris said. “Help me carry the guns downstairs.”

  “No,” Demyan said. “You help me carry the guns downstairs.”

  Meisha rolled my eyes because, despite her dislike for him, she agreed with Alexei. It must be hell working with these idiots.

  When Boris and Demyan left, arms full of guns, the one at the window was the only shifter in the room. He was too busy looking outside to pay any attention to her.

  She needed a weapon. She would be damned if she let them take her down without a fight. Plus, all those years learning how to escape from the Yaruzi should apply to these guys too.

  “No, just hang tight. Lajos is coming for you.”

  “Oh, so you’re back?” Meisha asked the voice in her head.

  “You aren’t a wolf. It takes a lot to keep a link going. It weakens me.”

  “Right. How about you disconnect the link or whatever and let me do me.”

  “Meisha.”

  “Lajos?” She shook her head. “Wow, my head is getting full.”

  “I’m coming for you, baby.”

  She smirked. She really was crazy. Lajos had never called her baby before. This was just further confirmation that she was losing her mind.

  “Rain, rain go away, come back another day…” She sang the song in her head, drowning out the voices, pushing all craziness aside. She had work to do.

  Since they’d patted her down and taken away the knives tied to her shins she was weaponless. She needed to find another one and get out of this place before they could harm her or Lajos.

  Her weapon search was on.

  She turned in her chair and looked at the desk drawer. When she’d searched it earlier she thought she saw a letter opener, the kind with the five-inch long metal point. It would probably bend if she tried to stab him through his jeans, but it should go through his flimsy T-shirt with ease.

  She looked back toward the shifter at the window. He was full of muscles like the others. If she could get to the letter opener she would have one shot at him. She’d have to make it count, stab him somewhere that would do the most damage. Eye, neck or side. Those were her best choices.

  She scooted up on the chair. When he didn’t turn around she leaned forward and angled her hands to reach up and grab the handle. She paused, waiting to see if he would notice the movement. He didn’t. She pulled the drawer out, slow enough not to make any noise. When she had it open, she used her fingertips to pat against the drawer contents, not daring to shuffle or move anything, fearing any kind of noise.

  Her fingers landed on something cold, solid and sharp. The letter opener.

  She wrapped her fingers around it, bringing it out of the drawer. She leaned against the drawer, slowly closing it.

  The next part was going to be the trickiest. She held her breath and rotated her left shoulder until it popped from the joint.

  “Shit.” She grimaced. There was no way of getting around that pain.

  The shifter turned from the window. He squinted down at her. “What the hell is going on with you?”

  “I hurt my shoulder when Alexei roughed me up. It must’ve happened when he slammed me against the wall. Do you want to help me reset it?”

  He snorted. “Pretty soon you’ll be dead and won’t be thinking about your shoulder pain at all.”

  “Fuck you,” she snarled.

  “I’m not like your mate. I don’t do humans.” He turned around, dismissing her.

  Eye. I’m going to stab him in his motherfucking eye.

  But at least he turned his back and ignored her again. Using her good hand she moved her hands and relied on her dislocated arm to give her the extra length she needed to get her arms under her butt. She leaned to her side and maneuvered, lifting her legs and feet, successfully bringing her hands to the front.

  She took some deep breaths of both excitement and pain. She stood. He didn’t turn around.

  Now or never.

  She crept as fast as she could to his back. By the time he turned around to find her freed it was too late, she was on him. He tried to push her away but she ducked under his outstretched hands and angled up to stab him in his eye. He let out a scream, but she silenced it by pulling the opener from his eye and driving it through his throat, hitting his windpipe. His screams became gurgles.

  His good eye watched her with shocked surprise. The other dripped blood. He reached for his throat, trying to stop the bleeding. When his eye closed and he went limp, she trapped his body against the wall and, using her body weight, slid him onto the floor. If they hadn’t heard his half yell, they would most definitely hear him hitting the floor. She laid him down and listened. Hearing nothing, she got up and peered down the hall.
No one was there.

  She took her seat on the chair and worked at the ties that bound her hands. If the others came up here and found that she’d killed one of their own, she was sure they would kill her now. There would be no waiting for Lajos to show up. They’d probably kill her and toss her carcass at him.

  She pulled at the last of her bindings and stood. She needed her arm back in its place pronto. She slowly held her hands together and used her good arm to help raise the lifeless arm up and over her head until she felt it slip back into place. Dislocating her arm to get out of bonds had been one of the first things her dad had taught her. It was like child’s play.

  With her shoulder back in place, she figured she had two choices. She could leave the same way she came, out the window, or she could leave the hard way. Out the front door.

  I’ll take the easy way. I’ve had enough adventure for one day.

  She went to the window and looked outside.

  Wolf.

  One was paroling the backyard.

  Shit.

  Still, the lone wolf outside would be easier to get through than the six downstairs.

  “Hold up, let me ask him,” said a deep voice from nearby.

  Double shit.

  Someone was coming down the hall. She ran to the desk and jumped on top of it. As soon as Boris came through the door she stuck the letter opener in his throat. It had worked so well on the other one and two times were a charm right?

  Wrong.

  Boris flailed, trying to get to her. With a wild look in his eyes and blood oozing from his throat he stumbled into the room. She jumped down from desk and ran out of the room, shutting the door behind her. He was going to die. There was no doubt about that. Hopefully he could do it in silence.

  She crept to the room across the hall and went to the window. It opened to the street. There was a couple walking their dog. She thought about calling out to them and getting the police involved. That would stop the shifters right in their tracks. Maybe, just maybe, they would be too worried about leaving before the police came to care about her anymore.

  She raised her arm to flag down the couple.

  Movement across the street in the shadows.

  Lajos.

  Chapter Twenty

  Lajos was busy trying to mentally coax the dog that a couple was walking to go faster and drag them down the street. But the dog seemed too interested in what Lajos and his team were doing to comply. The couple was the one thing standing in the way of him rescuing Meisha.

  Hunter pulled on Lajos’ shirt. “Hey,” Hunter said. “Is that your mate up there?”

  Lajos’ attention snapped to the house where the shifters were hiding out. “Where?”

  Hunter pointed to one of the second story windows. “Up there.”

  Meisha was looking out the window. The lights weren’t on, but he would recognize her silhouette and gestures anywhere. His wolf reared up. He’d already had a hard enough time keeping him calm. That was the reason he couldn’t keep a link with Meisha; his wolf was hell-bent on coming forward and going after the other shifters. Between trying to calm his wolf and his wolf bombarding him with pictures of Meisha, his mind was a total mess.

  He started forward. “I have to get her.”

  Hunter grabbed his arm, trying to hold him back. “Yeah and we are. But we’re going to do it together, as a team.”

  Andras warned Lajos to do things the right way. Otherwise Andras wouldn’t have allowed Lajos to come on the mission. Lajos looked up at Meisha and frowned. She’d begun to work at the screen. She was going to escape by the window. But that’s not what had him frowning. It was what was painted on her. By the light of the street lamp it looked like she’d been dipped in blood.

  He growled.

  Without thinking, his instincts drove him to sprint across the street. When Meisha spotted him, she began working harder and kicked at the screen. By the time he was under her the screen fell to the ground.

  “Go away,” she whispered, shooing at him. “They’re going to kill you.”

  “I’m going to kill them,” he promised.

  She waved at him. “Go you fool. I’m coming down.”

  Hunter and the rest of his team came up behind him. “How do you plan on getting her down?”

  “She can get down herself,” Lajos said with pride.

  Just then Meisha screamed and was yanked from the window. Lajos’ heart fell to his stomach. Fuck what Andras said, he had to go and get his mate. He ran full on to the front door, splintering it as he crashed through.

  He didn’t look to see, but he knew his team was right behind him. He went after the first shifter he saw. Shoulder down, he caught the shifter in the stomach and rammed him back into the wall. The drywall cracked under their weight.

  Lajos reached for the knives in his jacket pocket and pulled them out. The shifter struggled against him and landed a punch on the side of Lajos’ face. If Lajos had planned properly he would’ve come through the door holding his knives, but even so, now with a knife in each hand, he stabbed the shifter in his sides. The shifter continued to struggle. Lajos pulled his knives out and stabbed him again.

  The shifter went to the floor. Lajos turned and scanned the room. Everyone in his team was engaged in a fight. His team had the other shifters outnumbered two to one. They had this covered.

  Lajos bounded up the stairs and ran down the hall. His steps picked up when he heard crashing and banging coming from one of the back rooms. He stopped in front of the bedroom and tried the door. Locked. He took two steps back and then rammed into the door, forcing it to open.

  He froze in place.

  There Meisha was, sitting on top of a shifter that was in wolf form, stabbing him over and over again.

  “You motherfucker!” she cried.

  “Meisha,” he said.

  She didn’t acknowledge him. He crossed the floor and put a hand on her arm. She pulled away and skittered on her hands and knees into a corner.

  He reached out to her. “Meisha, it’s me.”

  “Lajos?” she asked as if she were still unsure.

  “It’s me, baby.”

  “He…he…wanted to eat m-me,” she stammered.

  He went over to her and crouched in front of her. “I’m here. You’re safe now.”

  * * * * *

  Meisha lay on the bed facing Lajos, their eyes locked on each other. It had been a month since the shifters had caught her and two weeks since she felt somewhat normal. Lajos was patient with her. He listened when she talked and was silent when she didn’t want to. He even promised to stay out of her mind so she could keep her thoughts about what happened private. It was a relief to find out that she wasn’t crazy, that the voices in her head really were Andras and Lajos. She wasn’t mad at them for invading her mind. It was nice to not be alone, especially at a time like that.

  She ran her thumb over his thick eyebrow, smoothing one side down and then doing the same to the other.

  “Are you alright?” Lajos asked.

  She smiled at him. They’d just finished making love and he’d been so gentle, going slow and taking his time to bring her to an earth-shattering orgasm. “I told you, I’m fine.”

  “I know that’s what you say. But you’ve been through a lot.”

  “That’s an understatement.”

  “Meisha, I don’t want you to think that this is what life with me will be like. This was in play long before we ever met and with the cell phone you found and the notebook that I found in Trudy’s office, we should have more clues on who hired the Russian shifters. Soon this will all be over.”

  “I know,” she said, reassuring him.

  “So, you’re alright?”

  She chuckled. “You just asked me that.”

  “I know, but…I don’t want to lose you. I can’t lose you.”

  “You aren’t losing me. I’m yours.”

  Now it was his turn to smile. “I was so afraid that you’d want to bail on me. My wolf was havin
g fits. He was afraid you wouldn’t want us to be together anymore.”

  She squinted. “I never met him—your wolf.”

  “No, it’s really not safe to shift in an unknown city. You know, people see an oversized wolf, they go crazy, call the police, and I get a bullet in my head.”

  She lifted up. “Show me.”

  “What, here?”

  “You’re safe, it’s my apartment.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She nodded. She wanted to see who she was sharing Lajos with and who she’d be sharing the rest of her life with.

  Lajos got out of bed. His naked body was perfection. “Just remember that I won’t hurt you,” he said.

  “I know.”

  The air around her seemed full of electricity. The hairs on her arms stood on end and, before her very eyes, he changed. It wasn’t like one of those horror movies where the man was in pain and screamed out as his body became deformed, turning him into a horrible monster. It was something…different. Three blinks later and she was staring at a grey wolf with light green eyes and a white underside. The wolf watched her silently, and when she didn’t move or say anything he lowered the front of his body to the ground so that his butt stayed high in the air.

  “You’re—you’re beautiful,” she stammered. All she wanted to do was touch him.

  His tail wagged.

  She pushed the blanket from her body and moved to the side of the bed. Then she stood and walked over to him. She put a tentative hand on his head, feeling his soft hair. Then she trailed her hand to his ear and scratched him. The wolf angled his head toward her and lowered his eyes.

  She crouched in front of him and stroked the fur on his face. He lay down and rolled to his side, exposing his belly to her.

  He kept calm as she explored his body, running her hands up and over his legs. She was his and he was hers.

  Her wolf, her man, her shifter.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Shit,” Meisha said, tripping over yet another one of Lajos’ shoes. “Why can’t he put his shoes in the closet?” she mumbled. She picked up the dark blue gym shoe and tossed it toward the open door of the closet.