Braum lunged for him, but the man flexed his powerful thighs and jumped straight to the top of the building. Jade gaped after him, and then looked back to see that Braum had shifted back into human form too. He had a gash on his forehead and blood was soaking through the shoulder of his dress shirt as he fixed his eyes on Jade. Eyes, she noticed, that were still golden.
“Thanks for the help back there. Are you alright?”
“I…” She wanted to yell at him, to ask a thousand questions, but her vision narrowed, and dizziness washed over her. “You have a lot of explaining to do.” She could barely hear the sound of her own voice over the roaring in her ears.
Her vision grew black, and she pitched forward.
* * *
“Are you sure?” Adam demanded after Braum had finished telling the story. “One hundred percent, without any doubt?”
“Well, I can’t be completely certain,” Braum snapped, “but I know they don’t belong to any of the clans I’m familiar with.”
Adam sat back in his chair and pressed his fingers to his temples. “I’ll have to check with the Network, see if these two pop up anywhere.” The Network was, well, a network of shifter clans, headed up by each of the clan leaders. Every member of every shifter clan the world over was registered, so if these two were or had ever been members of a clan it would be easy enough for Adam to find out. “You have no idea why they were after her, though?”
Braum glanced down the hallway from his seat on the living room couch. Jade was behind one of those bedroom doors, still passed out. He’d brought her straight to Adam, not just because he was the clan leader, but because Adam’s house was one of the safest places in the city. As an ex-special forces commander, he’d outfitted it with enough security and weapons to last through World War III. The human friends he had mostly thought he was just a paranoid bastard, but Braum knew from experience that Adam had more than enough reason to take those kinds of precautions.
“I can only imagine they were trying to get to me.”
Adam narrowed his eyes. “You have a cousin and a mother they could have gone after. Why would they choose her?”
Braum swallowed hard. He couldn’t lie to Adam; his clan leader could sniff a lie out from a mile away, and he’d be skinned alive for it. Then again, he’d be skinned alive for telling the truth anyway, so what was the difference? Thankfully, the sound of footsteps padding down the hall saved him from having to answer. Jade entered the room, her face pale, her fiery curls in disarray, and Braum’s blood fired instantly. She looked so sexy, standing there with bed head and bare feet and a wrinkled suit, that it was all he could do not to scoop her up in his arms and carry her down the hallway into bed.
Adam’s nostril’s flared he caught the scent of Braum’s lust, and he gave Braum a dangerous look that clearly said we’ll discuss this later. Then he slid a mask of calm over his face as he rose to greet Jade. “I’m glad to see you’re awake. How are you feeling?”
“Like I was nearly kidnapped by two people who can turn into wolves,” she snapped. “Who are you? And what the hell happened back there?” She turned her fiery green eyes in Braum’s direction.
“You’re welcome for saving you,” he said dryly.
“Don’t give me that. It’s obvious that all this has something to do with you, since you can turn into… into…” She looked like she wanted to be ill. Adam took her gently by the elbow and guided her to a chair, which she sank into gratefully. Braum held back a snarl—he didn’t like the idea of Adam touching her in any way, even if it was casual, but he was in no position to complain.
“Here, have some water.” Adam pressed a glass into her hand. “I know this must all be very shocking for you.”
“You could say that.” Jade sipped her water slowly, and Braum was pleased to see some of the color come back into her cheeks. She looked up at him. “So, who are you people? Are you… werewolves?”
“We’re shifters,” Adam said in a pained voice. “Werewolves are a completely different animal.”
“What he means,” Braum said before Jade could respond, “is that we don’t have the same handicaps as werewolves. We don’t change at the full moon, or become mindless monsters that destroy everything around them. We also don’t have an allergy to silver. We just change from wolf to man.”
“And we have super-regenerative healing abilities.” Adam added.
Jade just stared at them. “And this is supposed to be better than being a werewolf? It sounds like you’re a lot harder to kill.”
Adam growled. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“He’s the boss around here,” Braum felt compelled to explain. “So he gets a little touchy when people talk about killing wolf shifters around him.”
“I see.” Jade had the decency to look a little abashed. She glanced up at Adam. “What’s your name?”
“Adam Drake.” His eyes were still narrowed, but he took a seat. “I’m the clan leader of the local wolf shifter clan.”
She was silent for a moment. “Are… are there a lot of you?”
“A fair number.” Adam cleared his throat. “How is it that you know Braum?”
“Braum?” She glanced over at him. “We went to high school together. And we see each other at the courthouse every once in a while. Just yesterday we were even working together on the same trial.”
“I see.” Adam didn’t look like he was buying it. “Do you two have a… relationship?”
Jade’s tone turned frosty. “Not to my knowledge.” She sent Braum a venomous glare. “Not that I see how it’s any of your business.”
“Those wolves attacked you because of your connection to Braum,” Adam explained in that patient tone adults often used with small children. “I thought, under those circumstances, it might be interesting to know what kind of connection you two had.”
“Oh.” Jade was silent for a long moment. “So, what happens now?”
“Now?” Adam shrugged. “I will be looking into these wolves. But as far as I’m concerned, you’re a human with no affiliation to the clan, and I have no personal obligation toward you.”
Jade shot to her feet. “What about the wolves who attacked me?”
“If they were mine, I would discipline them. But they’re not, and so the best I can do is track them down. Something I would have done regardless, since they are after one of my own.” He looked pointedly at Braum. “You’ve involved her in this; therefore if you want to ensure she stays safe, you had better take care of her protection.”
“Yes sir.” Braum tried to keep the anger out of his voice—his pack leader was doing this as a kind of punishment. How the fuck was he supposed to stay out of Jade’s pants if he was supposed to be guarding her?
“Good. Now go home and get some sleep.”
* * *
The drive back to Jade’s house was silent and tension-filled. Braum searched his mind desperately, trying to think of what to say that would dissipate the evil glares she was still sending his way, but he couldn’t think of anything. To be fair, he completely deserved it. He had no right to move in on her the way he did and expect to be able to walk right back out. Not only hadn’t that worked, but he’d brought trouble in the form of rogue wolf-shifters to her door. She had every right to be furious with him.
He pulled into the driveway, then killed the engine. They sat for a moment, then he mustered up his courage and turned to face her.
“Jade, I’m sorry.”
Crack! His head snapped to the side from the force of her slap. He shook his head, then caught her second slap before it could connect.
“Let go of me!” she cried, tugging her hand free as though his touch was burning her. “You are so completely unbelievable! Do you really think a simple apology is enough for what you’ve done to me all these years.”
“I—all these years?” he sputtered, flabbergasted. “Jade, you’ve only been back in town for a year, and during that time I’ve hardly seen you at all.” Watching her fr
om the rooftop at night didn’t count, dammit.
“No. No, no, no. You put a wall between us during our freshman year of high school.” She wrenched open the passenger’s side door, then slammed it shut as she stalked into the house.
Braum was stunned for only a moment; then he was out of the car and following her inside. “Are you serious? You’re mad about something that happened nine years ago?”
She whirled around to face him, jabbing a manicured fingernail into his chest. Despite the situation, or perhaps because of it, heat flooded through his veins as he remembered how she’d raked her nails down his back last night. “If it was just that, if it was just the way you’d shut me out that day in the park, I could have handled that. But I never forgot the smoldering looks you gave me whenever you thought I wasn’t looking, or the way your eyes would flare whenever you saw me holding hands with another guy. And it drove me crazy because whenever I looked at you directly your stares were always so cold, and I couldn’t figure out whether or not I was just imagining it.
“And then, after all those years of keeping me at arms distance, you waltz into my house and fuck me ten ways from Sunday, then leave without so much as a goodbye.” Tears shimmered in her green eyes now. “I don’t know why you think I deserve this, but I don’t. My heart isn’t your plaything, Braum.”
“Do you think I don’t know that?” He wanted to wipe away the tear that had trickled down her cheek, but he knew that she wouldn’t welcome his touch right now. “And do you have any idea how hard it was for me to stay away? The reason I gave you those looks was because every time we crossed paths, I could smell your desire for me. It was torture, knowing that you wanted me as much as I wanted you, and being unable to touch you. And then seeing you with those other guys… it’s a small wonder I didn’t lose my sanity.”
Jade’s eyes had gone wide. “You… you can smell arousal?” Her cheeks colored.
Braum’s eyes flared gold as he stepped forward, reducing the space between their bodies down to a scant inch. “I can smell it on you right now.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Her pupils dilated as she took a step back. “I’m pissed at you, not horny.”
“You’re pissed and horny.” He backed her up against the wall, boxing her in with his arms. “A dangerous combination.” He dipped his head into the crook of her neck and inhaled. “Don’t you know what you do to me, Jade? Don’t you know how you make me burn?”
He felt her shudder beneath him, and knew he would find her wet if he slipped his hand up her skirt and between her legs. “You… you have no right to expect me to let you back into my bed again.”
Braum lifted his head so she could see the pain in his eyes. “I know that. But you make it damn hard for a man to keep away from you. Don’t forget, you’re the one who approached me at the courthouse. You opened this door.”
“Well then why the hell didn’t you walk away like you always do, instead of stepping through?”
“Because I’ve never been able to deny you anything you’ve asked for directly, and you know it.” He backed away, then turned on his heel before he gave into the urge to kiss her. “I’ll be on the couch tonight if you need me. Sleep well, Jade.”
He stalked off to the living room, knowing this was going to be a very long night.
* * *
Jade didn’t get a lot of sleep that night. Between the attack, the revelation that the man she’d lusted after her years could change into a werewolf—wolf shifter, she corrected herself—and the fact that said man was sleeping downstairs on her couch in order to guard her, her mind was whirling. She alternated between being hurt, confused, angry, and simply exhausted.
The one thing her mind kept coming back to was the pain in his eyes. I’ve never been able to deny you anything, he’d told her. How ironic. So, if she’d simply come straight out and asked him to kiss her, he would have done it. Gee, why hadn’t she thought about that before?
When she headed for the kitchen, she was greeted by the sizzle of frying bacon and the heavenly aroma of freshly brewed coffee. Standing in the doorway, she watched as Braum deftly flipped pancakes, wearing nothing but a pair of jeans. Desire flared instantly in her lower belly, and she bit her bottom lip. How could he look so good so early in the morning?
“Good morning,” he said, without turning around. “I’ve already poured you a cup.” He gestured to the steaming mug waiting on the counter for her.
She took it wordlessly, not trusting herself to speak until she’d gotten some caffeine in her system. After a few sips, she cleared her throat. “You’re a brave man, frying bacon without a shirt.”
He gave her a nonplussed look. “Not really. I barely notice it.”
Jade raised her eyebrows. “Do wolf shifters have less nerves in their skin than normal humans?”
“No. I’ve always had a high pain tolerance.”
They sat together at the kitchen table, and Jade watched Braum pile his plate high with bacon, eggs and pancakes. She took a few of each herself, and decided to give herself a few moments of silence to enjoy the food before she spoke.
“Braum,” she finally said, “you don’t have to follow me around all day. I know you’ve got a business to run and other interests to attend to.” And she would never get anything done if he was constantly in her presence.
“Wasn’t planning on it,” he said after swallowing a mouthful of eggs. “I’ll have a detail posted on you during the day. Two men—or rather, two shifters—one who will stay by your side at all times, the other who will be on the lookout and canvassing the area.”
“Seems like you’ve got it all figured out.” Why was she hurt by the idea that he was entrusting her safety to someone else? She’d just said she didn’t want him to have to give up his life for her safety.
“I had plenty of time to think about it last night when I was guarding you.”
She stared at him—not a single shadow under his eye. “You don’t look like someone who stayed up all night.”
He smiled a little. “I’ll be here every night with you.” His expression darkened, as if it was the last thing he’d rather do.
“No need to trouble yourself,” she said bitterly.
He arched an eyebrow. “Your life is in danger. I think I’m okay with it.”
“I can tell you’d rather be anywhere else, so why bother?” She lifted her chin. “I’m sure one of your employees can handle the job.”
Braum slammed a fist down onto the table. A web of cracks spread like wildfire across the surface as he leaned across the table so their noses were inches away. “The only thing that would drive me even more insane than spending the night here, surrounded by your scent, your need, is the thought of leaving another shifter alone with you. Even one of my own.”
That shouldn’t have made her feel good. It really shouldn’t have. “I see. You must really have to make some tough choices,” she cooed.
He fisted his hand around the front of her shirt and pulled her forward, chair and all. “I forgot how much of a stubborn bitch you could be.”
“And you’re constantly reminding me how much of an insufferable bastard you are.”
With a snarl, he crushed his mouth against hers. Need flooded through her, white hot and powerful, surging through her blood, through the very marrow of her bones. With a little snarl of her own, she vaulted into his lap and fisted her hands in his hair. The chair crashed to the floor, and she heard the snap of wood against tile as she shoved her tongue inside his mouth, but she didn’t care. There was only him, and the powerful storm they created together as they rolled across the cold floor.
“Naked. Now,” Braum growled, ripping her pajama tank top down the front. He latched onto her breast, suckling hard, one leg jammed between her legs. She rubbed herself shameless against his thigh, clutching his head to her, and came. His dark chuckle sent shivers down her spine as he yanked her pajama bottoms off, and then he was inside her, filling her, simultaneously quenching and stoking the fires
of her need.
“Yes,” she cried, gouging her nails into his shoulders. “Oh God, yes, more!” They moved together in a frenzy, pushing each other to the edge, and she watched his golden eyes go blind as he emptied himself inside her with a roar.
Afterward, he levered himself onto his arms and stared down at her with an unreadable expression. He brushed a hand against her cheek, lingering, and the gesture was so tender she wanted to cry. She opened her mouth to say something, but the doorbell rang, and he was on his feet, fastening his pants.
“That’ll be your security detail coming to relieve me. Throw something on so I can introduce you before I leave. I’ll be back here at six-thirty.”
He stalked out of the kitchen, and she struggled with the urge to heave her empty coffee mug at his sexy, naked, retreating back. The need for clothing won out, though, and she hurried up the stairs to change.
Today was going to be a long day.
* * *
“What do you mean, you let her get away?”
Randy cringed inwardly at the censure in their master’s tone, though his face remained a mask of stone. He glanced at Kyle, who was still unconscious; healing from the bullet wound, and wished he were awake. He was better at dealing with people, and usually was the one who dealt with these conversations.
“Jackson appeared just as we were about to bag her. While we were trying to fight him off, she shot Kyle in the neck. We had to retreat.”
His master let out a disgusted sigh. “Sometimes I wonder if I should have just gone down to do this job myself. How long until Kyle is back in commission?”
“At least another day.” Shifters normally healed pretty fast, but this was a serious wound.
“I can’t afford to wait that long. I’m sending someone else in. He’ll meet you this afternoon. If that woman isn’t delivered to me within twenty-four hours, I will personally skin you and mount your hide on my wall. As for your brother, he’ll share your fate.”
Claim Me (Curves For The Alpha) (BBW Erotic Romance) Page 3