Chapter 4
Lawson
The next day…
I couldn’t get her off my mind. No one had ever stood up to me like her before. Her constant defiance made me curious, and I hadn’t stopped thinking about her since I’d left her safe and sound and sleeping in her bed that morning.
I’d used every resource at my disposal to learn more about her.
I scanned over every public record available from her birth certificate to her credit report and to her rather impressive grades at the ritzy private college she’d attended.
She was highly intelligent, daughter to a famous professor of mechanical engineering, at least until he’d lost it and shot up the French Quarter last year.
I remembered that day like it was yesterday. The city had gone wild with fear until he’d been put down by a group of men brave enough to stand up against him.
I’d thought nothing of it. It had been simply a human matter that had gotten out of hand. One that had nothing to do with me, my pack, or the vampires that dared to walk my streets.
Looking at it now though, I wasn’t convinced that I’d been right.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe I’d overlooked something that day, that maybe it wasn’t just the simple massacre that I’d thought it to be.
Curious now, I pulled open every news article that I could find.
I read about her father’s history, the psychologist’s diagnosis, and finally, I clicked through to a news article that focused on the men who had stopped the whole thing from becoming worse than it already was.
I scrolled down to a picture of the group of five men. I paused and at first, I was unsure why, but then I studied the men even more closely.
I enlarged the picture, narrowing in on one man in particular. There was something about him that looked familiar, and I couldn’t quite place it.
He was wearing contacts, dark ones. I could see the outline of them around his irises. I sat back and imagined him with red eyes, and it finally clicked.
He was the lead security guard that had charged into the Venuti prison. He was a vampire.
I’d bet good money that the rest of the men with him were vampires too. When I zoomed in on the other men, I realized they were all wearing contacts, all of them wearing a dark enough color to hide the bright red that gave away their true identities.
Last night, the mistrust in Ava’s eyes had been blatant and perhaps this was a part of the reason for that.
She wouldn’t have talked no matter what I’d done to her last night, but that didn’t mean I was giving up on her.
There were other ways I could break her, and I would keep trying until she gave me exactly what I wanted.
I wanted to learn everything about her, and I wouldn’t give up until I did.
I wouldn’t give up until I made her mine completely.
Last night, I’d had the forethought to slip a tiny tracking device inside her without her knowing. I’d done it when I’d forced my finger into her virgin little bottom. I moved my mouse and opened the tracking software, and I swore out loud as soon as the indicator flared to life on my screen.
I’d known she probably wouldn’t be in her own bed when I came for her tonight, but I certainly hadn’t expected her to be back inside the Venuti tower either.
Crafty girl. Fucking reckless too.
The little spitfire of a human had somehow made it back into the hornets’ nest of vampires and I didn’t know how she’d managed it.
To be honest, it was so impressive that it was making my cock very, very hard as I thought about what I would to do her to make her tell me why she was so dead set on putting herself in one deadly situation after the next.
Hard enough to give her the hard bottom fucking she not only needed, but sorely deserved.
I’d been preparing myself for another fight when I went to her tonight.
I had expected her to hide out somewhere to avoid what she had coming, but I wasn’t prepared for this.
I’d had my men watching her home since I’d left in the early morning hours, and she’d somehow given them the slip.
I hadn’t wanted to leave her without protection.
I feared for her safety, especially when she had access to knowledge that would undoubtedly get her killed by any number of vampires or shifters should anyone else find out about it.
Before I’d left, I’d watched her sleep for hours, enamored by the angelically peaceful look on her face.
Her cheeks never lost the beautifully pink hue from the orgasms I’d forced on her.
Her body shivered for quite a bit of time after she fell asleep, her breathing even and soft and truly musical to hear.
I’d kept her warm with my elevated body temperature and when I was finally convinced that she was in a deep enough slumber for me to leave, I’d slipped out of her bedroom without a sound.
She hadn’t even stirred.
The vampire clan hadn’t come for her there. I was sure of it. My men would have seen something if they tried. Instead, she probably snuck by my men somehow and made it back into the vampire fortress all on her own.
The part I was terribly unsure of was whether she went there willingly or not.
I chewed my lip and tried to figure out what to do next. I didn’t know whether I wanted to fuck her or spank her. Probably both.
I rolled my upper lip and stroked my hand up and down my cock, remembering the delicious moan that I had elicited from her when I’d punished her naughty little bottom hole with just my middle finger.
Her bottom had been so tight around it. I had no doubt that it would feel that much tighter when I punished it with my cock.
I couldn’t wait to hear her cries and whimpers, her fear and desire for me to fuck her there harder.
I was going to enjoy every last moment when I finally took that virgin hole. I would take it all.
I’d known the moment that I’d thrust my cock into her delicious virgin pussy that she was mine. She wasn’t just a woman to me now. She was my mate whether she wanted to be or not. There would be no choice in the matter for her.
I was going to possess her.
Own her in every physical sense of the word.
I was going to be her life, her everything.
I didn’t care if she didn’t want it at first. It was simply a matter of time until she begged for it, until I decided it was time to mark her as mine.
She was my destiny. I could feel it deep in the marrow of my bones.
My cock was so hard it felt like an iron spike. I closed my eyes, remembering the way her beautiful body writhed beneath mine with pleasure. Her skin had glowed with the most gorgeous sheen of perspiration, clear evidence of her loss of control at my hands.
I growled, feeling my arousal settle at the base of my spine. My thumb grazed up and down the fabric of my slacks as I thought about the little minx before I finally managed to pull my hand away.
I’d never lost control like this. Not for anyone.
Ever.
It was deeply unnerving, and I didn’t know how to handle it, but I knew that it wasn’t time to give into my desire no matter how much I wanted it.
There would be time for it later when she was back in my arms and then I would show her that there was a much better place for me to mark with my seed that wasn’t in the palm of my own hand.
The next time I came it would be with my cock deep in my mate’s disobedient little bottom because I’d made a promise and I intended to keep it.
With a sigh, I turned my gaze back to the map on my screen.
It still showed Ava to be somewhere within the Venuti tower and I would bet money on the fact that she wasn’t a guest in one of their hotel rooms. It was possible she could once again be trapped in a prison cell or sneaking through the building on a mission seeking out God knows what.
Either way, I’d bet money on the fact that it wasn’t for anything good.
I scratched my chin thoughtfully.
I was going to go after her. I’d lost too many members of my pack the last time, however. This was something I was going to have to do on my own. I wasn’t willing to risk their lives when I was off chasing my mate.
I picked up my cell phone and called my second in command. In some mafia circles, he’d be known as a consigliore, but in my world, he was my beta and that meant so much more than a basic mobster definition. He picked up on the first ring just like I knew he would.
“What’s up, boss? You’re agitated. I can feel it,” Toboe said knowingly. The bond between an alpha and beta was stronger than the rest of the members of my pack. This wasn’t the first time he’d sensed my inner turmoil and I knew it wouldn’t be the last.
“Come up to my office. I need to talk to you,” I answered impatiently.
“On my way,” he replied, and I hung up the phone. I pushed myself up from my desk and wandered over to the window that overlooked my property, watching the guards patrol the perimeter fence with a rising sense of irritation.
This was my sanctuary outside the quarter, the place we could oversee the city that my ancestors and now I had reigned over with an iron fist for centuries.
Even though it was early evening, and the sun was just beginning to dip on the horizon, I could see the flashing lights of Canal Street.
The quarter never really slept and if anything, it was just beginning to wake up for what would most certainly be a long night for tourists and locals alike.
I ruled over most of the territory of New Orleans from here. We’d operated the ports here for the majority of the city’s history, controlling what came into the city and what was sent out, which ultimately meant we governed the financial well-being of New Orleans.