Wild and Free

by Kristen Ashley

  And it worked so well it lasted even after they both came. It lasted while Delilah purred and Abel held her and she shared snippets of her life—her friends, her apartment, what she liked to do, stories of her father’s and his friends’ antics—doing it sleepier and sleepier until she trailed off and he lost her to her dreams.

  When he did, Abel closed his eyes, and with his mate tucked close for the second night in a row, he became lost to a dreamless sleep, her sweet voice, lilted with its natural husk as well as love and sometimes laughter, still ringing in his ears.

  Chapter Ten

  Small Successes

  Delilah

  They had him.

  They had him.

  They had him.

  I had to get to him. I had to stop it. I had to save him.

  They hit me in the back.

  Paws.

  The force immense, knocking my breath out of me, the weight tremendous, taking me down to my front so fast I didn’t even lift my arms to cushion my fall.

  He used his powerful head to nose me to my back.

  Then he was on me.

  The wolf.

  And he didn’t hesitate to bare his teeth and go for my throat.

  * * * * *

  I jerked violently awake to see Abel’s face close to mine, illuminated only by the light from the lamp over the bed.

  I felt his hand cupping my jaw.

  My hand darted to his of its own accord, my fingers curling tight around his wrist.

  “Lilah, bao bei,” he murmured gently.

  “Shit, I just had a nightmare,” I breathed, realizing dazedly my entire body was hot and I was panting.

  “You did, pussycat,” Abel confirmed. “You were jerking around, got hot to the touch. Been tryin’ to wake you for five minutes.”

  Seriously?

  “Five minutes?” I asked.

  “Maybe more,” he told me. “You were beginning to freak me.”

  I focused on him and could only respond with “Ugh. Sorry.”

  “What were you dreaming?” he asked.

  I blinked up at him as my mind went blank.

  “I don’t know,” I answered.

  “It just happened,” he noted.

  “I know, but…” I hesitated, trying to call it up but failing. “It’s gone.”

  Abel studied me as his thumb started to stroke my cheek.

  Then he asked, “Do you have nightmares a lot?”

  I shook my head on the pillow. “No, I…I mean, I have them. But not a lot.”

  “When you do, do you remember them?”

  I nodded. “Yes. Mostly.”

  “Do you dream a lot?” he pressed.

  I shook my head again. “I dream, but I wouldn’t say it’s a lot. Why?”

  “I do. Every night. Or, I did.”

  “Did?”

  “First night you slept beside me was the first night I can remember for centuries that I didn’t dream. This night the same.”

  Wow. Weird.

  “Is that, um…good?” I asked.

  “It is for me. Sometimes I don’t dream good dreams. And all my premonitions came through my dreams.” He kept stroking my cheek and gave me a small, sweet smile. “Tamed that in me, pussycat. Just by sleepin’ at my side.”

  Wow. Weird.

  And awesome.

  “Cool,” I whispered.

  “Yeah,” he whispered back.

  I gave his wrist a squeeze. “Don’t worry about my nightmare, honey. It happens and I’ve never premonitioned anything.”

  His sweet smile turned into an amused one. “Good to know.”

  “Is it morning?”

  “No,” he answered.

  “Is there a reason, since you can walk in the day, why your windows are blacked out?” I asked.

  “So no one can see inside,” he answered.

  “Oh,” I mumbled.

  “You gonna go back to sleep?”

  “You gonna turn off the light so I can do that?”

  “I turned it on, hoping it would wake you,” he informed me.

  “I’m awake, baby. Now I need more sleep.”

  He gave me a new look, one I hadn’t seen before, one that I read as a my-Lilah-is-adorable-and-also-kind-of-a-pain-in-my-ass-but-I-still-like-it look.

  It was a look I liked.

  Then he twisted, reached his long arm out, giving me a lovely view of the bunched muscles of his defined biceps, and the light went out.

  He settled in.

  I snuggled close.

  “Glad you’re okay, bao bei,” he murmured.

  It was safe to say I was so totally digging my werewolf vampire.

  I cuddled closer. “I’m more than okay, honey.”

  He drew me even closer.

  I grinned into his chest.

  Then I fell back to sleep.

  * * * * *

  I opened my eyes to see the light by the chair dimly illuminating the space. Abel was not in the chair or in bed with me, but there was a note tacked to the back of the chair.

  I got up on a forearm, throwing my hair back with my hand, and looked around in confusion.

  The door to the toilet was opened, no one inside. The shower curtain was closed, but no shower noises. The rest of the room was empty.

  Sleepily, I threw back the covers and padded to the chair.

  I tore off the note that was pinned to it with a thumbtack, then lifted and read it.

  Bao Bei,

  I’m out. You get up before I return and want company, just call one of the boys to take you upstairs. I’ll be home as soon as I can.

  Abel

  He ended this with a list of all of his brothers’ cell phone numbers.

  But…

  He was out?

  I thought he needed to stay in so none of the supernaturals could catch his scent.

  This did not make me happy, and since I didn’t have my werewolf vampire close to share that sentiment with, I went to my phone, programmed the guys’ numbers in, and called Xun.

  “Yo,” he answered.

  “Hey. It’s Lilah. Abel’s out and—”

  Xun cut me off. “Uh, say what?”

  “Abel’s out.”

  “You’re shittin’ me.”

  Yeah, he didn’t like it either.

  Shit.

  And I was beginning to feel that hole open up inside me again.

  Shit.

  “I wish I was,” I told Xun. “I need to come upstairs. Can you come get me?”

  “I’m not there, but Chen is. I’ll call him.”

  “Thanks, Xun.”

  “Now, where’s Abel?” he asked.

  “No clue. Maybe donuts?” I suggested hopefully, trying to rein in the feelings of anger and fear that were battling for supremacy inside me as well as trying to ignore that hole that was opening wider.

  “The man likes his sugar, but he is not gonna get his ass scented for donuts. He’s doin’ somethin’ stupid.”

  This was my thought.

  Fucking shit.

  “I’ll call Chen. Then I’m on my bike to find his stupid ass,” he muttered.

  “Thanks again, Xun.”

  “Don’t mention it,” he replied, still muttering, before he hung up.

  I brushed, flossed, washed my face, and threw on some clothes, doing my morning routine breaking two cardinal rules.

  One, I did not shower or do my hair and makeup even though I intended to be seen by someone that was not me (or, now, Abel).

  And two, I did not make a pot of coffee so I could suck back some caffeine as a morning priority.

  As I was tugging on my boots, I heard pounding on the door.

  “Come in!” I shouted.

  Chen opened the steel door. With one look at him I knew he wasn’t happy, just like me.

  “Please tell me there’s coffee upstairs,” I begged as I walked to him.

  “Ma’s got a war room filled with bikers. There’s coffee,” he replied.

  This surprised
me. My phone said it wasn’t even nine yet. Bikers didn’t do before nine.

  I didn’t take this as a good sign.

  Then again, maybe The Chain didn’t offer coffee, and bikers did coffee for certain.

  “Have you heard from Abel?” I asked.

  “Called him. Xun’s called him. No answer. Xun’s lookin’ for him. Called Wei. He’s gonna be lookin’ for him too.”

  He closed the door and we walked down the murky hall made of cement (at our feet) and cinderblock (at our sides) toward the sun shining on the stairs at the end.

  “Any idea where he’d be?” I asked as I hit the stairs.

  “No clue,” he answered.

  But he had a clue.

  I had a clue too.

  The Biltmore.

  And if he went there, when he got back (and I hoped to God he got back), I was going to kick his ass.

  Chen escorted me through the back door of the restaurant and, thankfully, straight to the coffeepot. I poured Chen and me a cup. We were sipping, and I was doing it angrily in order to stop being scared out of my brain, when Jabber filled the door.

  “Your boy’s back and he wants his ma,” Jabber announced.

  My extreme relief that he was back, and the resulting closure of that fucking hole in my belly, was instantly replaced with extreme fury.

  “Abel’s back?” Chen asked before I could.

  “In the war room. And warning, man, he’s pissed,” Jabber told Chen. “Like werewolf pissed, and this I’m seein’ is not a good thing.”

  He was pissed?

  I looked to Chen and saw he felt like me—that others should be pissed, not Abel. Then Chen moved to the stairs.

  I moved to the war room with Jabber at my heels, prepared to go head-to-head with Abel for disappearing.

  I stopped in the door when I saw him prowling the room like a caged animal.

  One could say the sight of it was more than a little scary.

  I ignored the scary and demanded, “Where were you?”

  He stopped prowling and turned eyes to me that were even scarier than the prowling was.

  They were both brown.

  I was getting a lock on the “magic” of his eyes turning—they got brown when he felt something deeply, that being turned on or another good emotion.

  Obviously, this also included bad emotions, like him being pissed off.

  “Not now, Lilah,” he growled.

  “Now, Abel. You’re not supposed to leave. It’s dangerous,” I shot back.

  “Not now!” he roared. I jumped in surprise and Jabber got close to my back.

  Moose and Snake, who were sitting in the war room sipping coffee while cautiously observing Abel, took their feet and inched my way.

  “Calm down,” I whispered.

  “Where’s Jian-Li?” he returned in a snarl, which I didn’t like much, but at least it wasn’t a roar.

  “Chen’s getting her,” I told him. “But you need to calm down before she gets here.”

  “I’m not calming down,” he replied.

  “Take a breath, Abel,” I advised.

  “Delilah—” he started, just as Jian-Li said from behind me, “What’s going on?”

  Jabber and I turned to our sides and I saw Jian-Li with Dad trailing her, Chen trailing him.

  My movement was the wrong one. This afforded her the opportunity to slide in front of me and into the room.

  And when she did, Abel thundered, “Have you lost your fuckin’ mind?”

  Jian-Li came to a quick stop just inside the room. I slid in beside her and felt the others do the same.

  “Abel, honey, calm the fuck down,” I snapped.

  “Went out, seein’ as the boys can’t smell what they’re lookin’ for and I can. Seein’ as I can’t be cooped up and everyone knows it. Smelled nothin’ ’til I went to The Biltmore to see if I could get a sense of what we were dealin’ with there. And when I did, I got hints of you,” Abel informed Jian-Li, totally ignoring me for he was not calming down in the least.

  But I was stuck back at The Biltmore.

  “You went to The Biltmore?” I asked Abel.

  His eyes sliced to me. “I went to The Biltmore.”

  “Alone?” I demanded to know on a near-shriek.

  “This is not for now, Delilah,” Abel bit out.

  “It fucking is!” I shouted, moving further into the room, Jabber sticking close, Snake adjusting so he was closer. “They could have smelled you, set on you, killed you.”

  “They didn’t. Didn’t see them. Smelled them, didn’t see them,” Abel returned and looked to Jian-Li. “And, as I said, also smelled you.”

  “I went there yesterday,” Jian-Li shared calmly, and my mouth dropped open as my eyes went to her. “I sat down and spoke with them,” she went on, and that was when my eyes got big. “They were very gracious.”

  “You went to The Biltmore alone without tellin’ anyone?” Abel asked, his voice quiet but frightening.

  “I did, my Abel,” Jian-Li confirmed.

  “Then I’ll repeat, have…you lost…your fucking mind?” Abel fired back.

  “No,” Jian-Li answered. “And I would have shared with you earlier, but you were with Delilah and you haven’t had much quality time together. Even if their message seemed urgent, you connecting with Delilah was more urgent, so I decided this morning would be soon enough. Unfortunately, you found out before I could explain.”

  “Unfortunately I did,” Abel clipped. “Now tell me, tian xin, how the fuck am I supposed to keep you safe if you walk your ass into a den of vampires and werewolves?”

  “I took a chance for you, Abel, to keep you safe, and that risk bore fruit,” Jian-Li replied. “They’re not like the ones who attacked you and Delilah. They have urgent things to share with you. But they’re good.”

  “They’re good,” Abel spat.

  “They are,” Jian-Li confirmed.

  “And you know this,”—he threw out a long arm—“how? That they didn’t kill you but obviously talked you into gettin’ me to have a sit down with them. Is that how?” Abel asked.

  “They wish to speak to both you and Delilah,” Jian-Li told him.

  “I bet they do. Two birds, one stone, and you deliverin’ us up for that shit,” Abel snarled.

  Jian-Li’s head moved like she’d been slapped.

  I cut my eyes to my man. “Abel, calm down,” I hissed through my teeth.

  Abel again ignored me. “You are my daughter, my sister, my mother, and you put yourself out there for possible slaughter, then sat down with them and let them feed you bullshit.”

  “How do you know it’s bullshit, Abel?” I asked, and he turned his angry eyes to me.

  “Because I smelled them. Three vampires, one werewolf, all threats. I know. They smelled like me, but they also smelled like danger. The bad kind. The kind that’ll get your head ripped off,” he stated. “You do not mess with these guys. You do not look funny at these guys. Two of the scents nearly had me turnin’ to wolf without control. I managed to fight that back, but my fangs came out and I didn’t manage to fight that. That’s how big of a threat they are.”

  Oh man. I didn’t know much about his abilities or his control over them, but I got for certain none of that was good.

  Dad moved from Jian-Li’s other side to stand partially in front of her.

  “You gotta be pissed, son, be pissed at me,” he said. “I reckon Jian-Li did this because I told her that you and Lilah were thinkin’ of takin’ off.”

  “Then you’re lucky you’re Delilah’s father or I’d rip your fuckin’ throat out,” Abel growled.

  “Abel!” I yelled.

  “Deserved that, Lilah. Keep cool,” Dad muttered to me, his eyes on my man. Then he addressed Abel. “I hesitate to do this, considerin’ your mood, but gotta point out, heard word you were gone. That means you’re pissed at Jian-Li for doin’ exactly what you did just this morning.”

  “I wanted to rip your throat out, Hook,” Abel began,
“I could. Before you could take a breath. Jian-Li cannot do that shit.”

  “My point still holds,” Dad said quietly. “Now, we got a situation here where we got a lot of unknowns out there, but what we know is, some of ’em are not good. But we’re fuckin’ this shit up worse our own damned selves because we’re reacting when we should be planning.”

  I so loved my dad, and in that instance, I did because he was so smart and he was so right.

  I looked to Abel. “Please listen, baby.”

  Abel said nothing, didn’t even look at me. His eyes were locked on Dad and a muscle was jumping in his cheek.

  “You guys still thinking of takin’ off?” Dad asked.

  “We decided against that,” Abel answered. I felt relief sweep the room, but his gaze moved to Jian-Li and he obliterated that relief. “Until I learned folks are doin’ stupid shit that puts them in more danger than we already are, so now I’m considering it again.”

  “I hope, the man I need you to be to give a life of love and peace to my daughter, that you’ll be the kind of man who reconsiders statements like that when you calm down,” Dad replied.

  “I wish to say something,” Jian-Li cut in.

  I kinda wished she wouldn’t say anything. Dad was doing a good job and I sensed Abel pulling his shit together. We didn’t need Jian-Li setting him off again.

  “Your place, your son, your voice,” Dad murmured, stepping back to her side.

  Fabulous.

  Jian-Li looked to Abel. “You know I’m no fool.”

  “Sweetheart—” Abel started.

  “Those I spoke with yesterday shared openly that one of the vampires was the mightiest of their kind, and one of the wolves the same,” she said. “Think for one moment, Abel, that the threat you sensed was just a threat, not to you, but instead it could be the threat at your side fighting your enemies.”

  “And what else did they tell you?” Abel asked. “Did they share what the fuck is going on?”

  “No, they said they could only tell you and Delilah that,” Jian-Li replied, and I looked to Dad but my eyes went quickly to Abel at hearing his nonverbal snarl.

  Jian-Li kept speaking.

  “They also shared with me precisely why you’re behaving the way you’re behaving right now. That you are wolf and the wolf is about his pack. A werewolf exists to protect his mate, his family. It was impressed upon me that he doesn’t do this simply as instinct. It’s his reason for existence.”