The Transformed Box Set: Books 1, 2, 3, 3.5

by Stacy Claflin

  "No. I'd definitely rather be in your car with you."

  He squeezed my hand. "I was hoping you'd say that." He pulled out a key chain and aimed it at the car, unlocking it. He opened the door and held it open for me.

  When he sat down in the driver's seat, I asked, "Where are we going next?"

  "I could take you home if you want. Or I could bring you to mine. I'd love to show you around my place."

  I pretended to think it over. "Well, I guess I could see your house. If you want to."

  He laughed, and then leaned close to me, holding my gaze. "I would like nothing more." He cupped my face in his hands and gave me a quick kiss. I wanted to grab him and kiss him back, but he moved back before I could. "Let's save the rest of that for later," he whispered. "I don't want to make out here in the car. That's so…."

  "High school?"

  He laughed, starting the car. "Exactly."

  We talked about the meal and made other small talk on the ride back. When we got to Delphic Cove, he turned up a street that I had rarely gone on. Only a couple times that I could remember, both when we were going to a fancy work party of my dad's. His boss lived in the most expensive neighborhood in town. All of the houses were enormous, they were mostly mansions.

  "Where are we going?" I asked.

  "To my home."

  "Do you live…here?"

  He laughed. "Don't sound so surprised."

  "Well, you can't blame me. No one could afford to live here on a teacher's salary."

  "That's true. But I'm not living there on that. My family has money, and the house was given to me as a gift for graduating high school so early. I'd had my eye on that house my entire life, and when it came up for sale, my dad told me that if I worked hard and graduated before I turned sixteen, it would be mine, free and clear."

  "That's impressive."

  "I'm not all that different from you. When you want something, you get it. I'll never forget the time you followed my pack out into the woods on the full moon," he said, shaking his head.

  "You know, I probably wouldn't have, if you would have told me what you were."

  "So now it's my fault? I see how this works," he said, and then chuckled.

  "What? How it works?"

  "It's my fault that you followed my pack out into the woods without doing your homework. You could have asked me, you know."

  "Uh, yeah. No. I don't think so."

  "Why not? I'm an approachable guy."

  "Approachable or not, we didn't exactly have the…rapport…that we have now. Asking you what you were was not in the sphere of things that were going to happen."

  "Well, you could have. That's all I'm saying. If you had, then you could have saved yourself a lot of trouble."

  "I'm pretty approachable myself. You could have just told me, and spared yourself some trouble as well."

  He laughed. "You have me there."

  Thirteen

  When we pulled up to the house, I noticed that it was at least four times as big as my family's house, and that was only what I could see from where I was. It was probably even larger than that. One of the five garage doors opened on its own, without Tobias doing anything.

  "You use magic?"

  "Nah. My security staff always does that," he said, pulling in.

  "Of course," I said. "Mine does that too."

  "At the castle?"

  "I wasn't even thinking about that. No, I was being sarcastic—just playing with you."

  "Oh, I'm sure that compared to everything the castle has to offer, this place won't seem impressive."

  "Don't worry about that. I hardly think about that place anymore. I have a perfectly good life here, with people who actually care about me." I looked at him and smiled. I looked around the inside of the immaculate building. It looked like something from a reality show. "Do you fix cars?"

  "I like to build them from scratch."

  "From scratch? Are you kidding? How do you do that?"

  "They sell kits."

  "That's impressive. I've made stuff with model kits before, and those can be challenging enough. I can't imagine building an entire car."

  "As you know, having supernatural abilities helps to make things like that easier. Plus when you enjoy what you're doing, it seems more like fun than a chore."

  "True, but I'm still impressed. You'll have to show me more of those later."

  "I'd love to. In the meantime, should we go inside? I didn't intend to bring you here so that we could sit in the car."

  "Sure. Let's go I can't wait to see what else you're hiding from the world."

  He laughed. "I'm not trying to hide anything, but if I were to broadcast how rich I was, it would bring a lot of unwanted attention." He got out of the car and opened the door for me.

  "Thank you. You're such a gentleman."

  "But of course." He put his elbow out, and I linked my arm through his. We walked the length of the garage to the door leading to the mansion. A tall, buff man appeared out of nowhere and opened the door for us. Was it my imagination or was he glaring at me?

  "Thank you, Bruno," Tobias said, as we walked through the door.

  I looked around the inside of the house, not sure where to look first. I could see several rooms from where I stood, and they were all filled with beautiful, expensive items.

  "How did you get all of this?" I whispered. "And what are you doing teaching public high school?"

  Tobias laughed again. "I enjoy teaching—really," he added, after I gave him a look that expressed how crazy I thought that was. "It's what I enjoy, and when you have everything you need at your disposal, sometimes it's nice to be able to do something that makes a difference."

  "So you teach math to kids who couldn't care less?"

  He leaned over and kissed the top of my head. "Some of them don't care, but a lot of them do. Watching their eyes light up when they learn something new, especially if they've been struggling to figure it out, is a great reward."

  "I'll have to take your word on that. Teaching isn't something I've ever had any desire to do."

  Looking around, I noticed a couple of other guys standing inconspicuously, who looked almost exactly like Bruno—or any bouncer you would see in the movies. "Are they your security staff?" I asked, nodding toward one of them.

  "Yes. They're much more reliable than an electric system. Although, I have one of those too."

  I nodded, taking in everything from each room. In many ways, walking through his house reminded me of walking through a part of the castle for the first time—not that I was thinking about the castle or anyone in it. I shook my head, trying to clear it. Why did I constantly need to be reminded of vampires? They were dead to me.

  "Are you all right?" Tobias asked.

  "I can't believe you live here. I never would have guessed."

  "I'm good at hiding my wealth. I don't want to broadcast it. It also helps me to know who really likes me for me. Since my entire family has massive amounts of wealth, I've seen the destruction that can come from people pretending to like them because of the money and possessions."

  "Yeah, but you're still hot. Lots of people probably just like you for your looks. You still can't know if someone truly likes you for you."

  He burst out laughing so loud that it startled me. Wiping a tear from his eye, he apologized. "I hadn't thought of it that way. I guess I can't get away from it. But given the wealth and riches of your family, I'm pretty sure that you don't love me for my money."

  "You've got that right."

  "Would you like to watch a movie? I've got a home theater."

  "Oh, I'd love to see that. I've only seen those in magazines."

  "Really? The castle doesn't have one?"

  "Not that I've seen. There are enormous screens in huge rooms, but not an actual theater."

  He grabbed my hand and pulled me along. "Let's go, so you can see your first actual home theater." We walked through several hallways and some large rooms before stopping in front of
a closed door. "Are you ready?"

  "Ready as I'm ever going to be."

  He smiled, and then reached for the knob, turning it ever so slowly. Finally, he pushed it open and I stepped in and saw what looked like a regular theater, but smaller, and inside of a home. "You even have glowing exit signs."

  "Of course. I wanted the feel of being in a real theater. Look at the seats."

  "Cup holders! All you need is a concession stand."

  "I have something better than that: a wait staff. Who hasn't ever wanted to have someone waiting on them during a movie? In the middle of a film, if you want something, you either have to wait for the movie to end or you have to get up and miss part of it. Not here."

  "It's the best of both worlds. Do you bring your pack here often?"

  "I wouldn't say often, but I do bring them from time to time. It's a good place to get together when we need some down time. My parents have always been big on hosting parties, and sometimes I let them have them here. They did buy the place, after all."

  "You're such a good son," I said, teasing him.

  He rolled his eyes. "So where would you like to sit?"

  "Right in the middle, and I won't have to worry about anyone tall with a big hat sitting in front of me. I swear those people look for me before they sit."

  "If that happens here, I'll beat the guy up for you."

  "Oh I could beat him myself. I just don't want to cause a scene out in public. It could raise too many questions."

  "I'm sure it would," he said, leading me to the middle row. "What do you want to see? We've got all the new releases."

  I thought about it and named a movie that had just been released on DVD.

  "We can watch that if you want, but I mean new theater releases."

  "Really?" I exclaimed. "Why am I surprised? Do you have that new romantic comedy?"

  "The vampire one?"

  "Ugh. No, I can't stand watching those anymore. Now the fake stuff bothers me. No reflections? Needing to ask permission before entering a building? Really? We can go through walls. Humans are ridiculous."

  "You have to give them a little credit."

  "What do you mean?"

  "They don't even believe that supernatural creatures exist. They're basing everything off ancient tales that have gotten twisted over the centuries. Plus it's Hollywood. There's not a lot that's actually based on reality to begin with."

  "I guess you have point, but I still don't want to watch a vampire movie."

  "No problem." He held his fingers in the air and snapped loudly. Barely a second passed before another burly guy stepped out from hiding. How did they do that? Tobias told him which movie we wanted and asked for popcorn. "Do you want anything else? Something to drink?"

  "No. I'm still full from dinner."

  He nodded at the security guy and then he took off. We sat down in the middle of the theater. He moved the arm rest between us up and pulled me close. The butterflies returned to my stomach.

  "I'm so glad you're here with me. I really fought my feelings for you, but I'm happy things have worked out the way that they have."

  I rested my head on his shoulder. "Me too. I never would have thought I'd fall for you, but some things are too good to keep fighting."

  The screen lit up in front of us.

  "Do we still have to sit through the previews?"

  "Unfortunately with the way the equipment works, that's part of the deal. But it gives more of a genuine experience, wouldn't you say?"

  "That it does."

  He kept pulling me closer. Soon I'd end up in his lap. But before that happened, Bruno's buddy showed up with a gigantic tub of popcorn. He disappeared and then the movie began. Somehow I managed to snuggle even closer to Tobias, and we sat snacking and watching the movie.

  I wanted to make comments throughout the movie, but I kept thinking that we were in a public theater, so I kept quiet. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that it was just the two of us there.

  When the movie was over, he brought me to one of the mansion's living rooms. We sat on the soft leather sofa, and he looked deep into my eyes. "This evening has been nothing short of a dream come true. I've been thinking about you ever since you returned to Delphic Cove. It broke my heart to see you wasting away like you were. Now to see you like this, so dressed up and gorgeous…I don't know what to say. In a way, it's hard to believe that we're really here together."

  I nodded. "It's been an amazing night. For a while, I've barely been able to think of anything else, other than you. I thought for sure that you'd think I was a fool for having feelings for you."

  He ran his fingers through my hair. "Never. I'm honored."

  "Thank you."

  "For what?"

  "Taking care of me. You knew that I needed blood, and you made sure that I got some."

  "I only wish that I could have given you more. I know that you need more than the little I was giving you, but I was also afraid that you'd refuse. I got the feeling that you were bent on self-destruction."

  I shrugged. "I felt all alone. More than that, really. I felt completely abandoned—not that I want to think about that now. But you helped pull me out of that. I hate to think of what kind of shape I'd be in right now if you hadn't."

  He frowned. "Me too. I was really worried for you. But look at you now. You've really made a comeback."

  I couldn't help smiling. He reached his hands to my face and ran his fingertips along my cheeks and down to my lips. I kissed his finger and looked back into his eyes. We held the contact for what felt like both only an instant and an eternity at the same time. He closed his eyes and placed his soft lips on mine. I responded by kissing him back with even more strength and passion than I had the night before.

  There was nothing holding us back. I reached my arms around him and pulled him closer to me. I closed my eyes and took in his scent, smelling nothing other than love and desire. I reached my hand up and ran my fingers through his hair. I couldn't get over how soft it was, softer than anything I'd ever felt.

  He reached his arms around me, pinning me between him and the couch. He opened his mouth, gently forcing mine open.

  Suddenly there was a loud knock on the door. I jumped in surprise, and he pulled back. "I said I was not to be disturbed!" he shouted.

  "There's an emergency with your pack," said the voice from the other side of the door.

  "What?" He jumped up from the couch and ran to the door, opening it. "What kind of an emergency?"

  I sat there, feeling selfish for being so disappointed. Of course his pack was his priority; he couldn't drop them just because we were spending time together. But why, oh why, did they have to have an emergency right then?

  "I'm told that a couple other pack members have gone missing. There are also a few new ones in town, looking to join a peaceful pack. It looks as though the pack changes have finally hit home, sir."

  Tobias sighed. "Where is everyone now?"

  "Most of your pack is on their way to the meeting spot in the woods. A few of those from the dormant lines are finding ways to sneak out since their parents know nothing of the lifestyle."

  "Yes, I know. Many of the lines have been dormant for generations. I remember how shocked the kids were to find out they were becoming werewolves. Well, if everyone is meeting out there, I need to get there and figure out what's going on. They're going to be looking to me for direction."

  "Yes, sir." He turned around and left the room.

  Tobias turned to me. "I'm so sorry, Alexis. I need to get out there and take care of this."

  "I know," I said, trying to not to sound as disappointed as I was. Then I remembered that I needed to get a picture of the two of us. "Can I at least get a picture of us together? So I can see you while you're out. I'll make my phone password protected so no one will be able to accidentally find it."

  "That's a great idea. Then send it to me so that I can pretend that you're with me when you're not."

  "Okay." I pull
ed my phone out as he sat back down next to me. I found the camera setting and then held it out as far as my arm would go.

  "Say cheese," he said.

  "Cheese!" we both said in unison as I snapped the picture.

  "How'd it turn out?"

  I scrolled to the image, and we looked at it. It was perfect. So perfect that I wanted to frame it and show everyone. Only I couldn't show anyone.

  "I love it," he said, and then gave me a quick kiss on the lips. "We'll get together again as soon as possible. I promise."

  "Tomorrow?"

  He squeezed my knee. "I'll see what I can do. It's already tomorrow, technically. I have a lot to do to get ready for my classes this week."

  "Of course," I said, feeling dumb. Why would I have expected him to be able to drop his entire life to spend every minute with me? "I have a lot of homework myself. I haven't touched any all weekend. I don't know if you know how much work the honors teachers assign, but they never care what time of the year it is. They don't give us breaks."

  "They're trying to prepare you for college. If we can get together tomorrow, we'll make it happen. Believe me. If it was up to me, I wouldn't leave you for a second."

  I nodded, afraid to speak, knowing that my voice would betray me.

  He pulled me close and planted his silky lips on mine again, letting his lips linger. I pulled him even closer, not wanting him to go. He pulled away, smiling. "You make it exceedingly difficult to leave. Remember to send me the picture. Do you need me to have one of my men drive you home?"

  "No. I'll be fine. If I run, I'll be home in a couple of minutes. Besides, it's probably for the best that I'm not seen with one of your guys. I wouldn't want anyone to connect the dots and get you into trouble."

  He gave me a quick kiss, not giving me a chance to respond and try to hold on to him. "You're so sweet. But the reality is that anyone who would recognize them as being associated with me would be more concerned about you being a vampire than a student. I can deal with that."