Chapter 4
His head was splitting, and he needed something to make himself feel better. It wasn’t having Calla Lily around, just the opposite. Having her around made his head and body feel so much better. But it was the constant pulling of the police, Daniel Marshall, and the unknown force that seemed to think this land was free to roam. Three dead now from the pack and it didn’t look like an end to it anytime soon.
Brew looked up in time to see that she’d joined him in the office. Telling her what he had going on, never keeping anything from her, he decided that he needed to rest more. When she was sleeping, which she needed as a partial human, he would work himself to nearly falling over until she woke. Then, he would spend the day with her, making plans for their future and neglecting his needs in favor of spending time with her.
“You’re looking poorly. I think that even Landon noticed it.” He told her what he’d just been thinking. “Good to know. You’ll come up to bed with me now, and we’ll get this waiting thing over with.”
“I don’t know that I could be gentle with you. I have had a need for you for some time.” She said that she’d had one for him, too, but he’s never rested enough to join her. “How long do you think you’ve been waiting for me to make the first move? I hope not as long as I’ve been pining away for you.”
“Several days, I guess. I’ve also been worried for you for the same amount of time. Why aren’t you resting when you need to.” He said that he loved spending time with her. “And how much time do you think you’ll get to spend with me if you’re dead? You do know that you can die from not resting, don’t you?”
“I do. I take it you’ve been reading the books again. Is there anything about my kind that you don’t know?” She said she had four more books to read, but he was distracting her. “By hanging around with you? I hope that I’ve not caused you any kind—”
“Shut up and make love to me. Any way you wish.” He thought of her beneath him, over him, and sucking his cock. But the way that he thought that he needed to take her was from behind. He needed to be able to control himself and figured that was the only way.
His need for Calla Lily never ceased to amaze him. His mouth crushed against hers, and he took what he wanted. He’d been waiting long enough, his body told him, but his heart said they could and would wait forever.
Her body responded to his need immediately. He lifted her up so that her soft folds met intimately with his hard cock. As soon as Calla Lily wrapped her legs around his hips, he took them to the floor. Pulling away from her, he was on his knees between her legs on either side of him. He rested back on his heels while he looked down at her.
“Take off your blouse, Calla Lily. I need you. I want to fuck you right now.” Her fingers moved to the buttons, but his monster wasn’t happy with how long she was taking and split the blouse up the back quickly. “I’m sorry. I cannot wait too much longer.”
While she pulled her ruined blouse from her jeans, he worked at the snap and zipper of her pants. Standing to pull them off her, he stripped off his own shirt and tossed it behind him. The sight of her in only her bra and panties made his cock jerk hard in his pants.
“Take off your bra. Make your nipples hard for me, baby. Make them ache for me.” He felt his fangs drop in anticipation of tasting her. He loved her taste, her scent that she exuded just for him. When his eyes began to turn, her body was outlined in a deep red that made his need sharp. Stripping his pants off along with his boxer briefs, he stood before her naked and stroked his cock while she watched, her nipples beading hard as she rolled and squeezed them for him.
“Brew, please. I need you. I want to feel you inside of me. I want you to drink from me. Make me come hard. Please, baby. I want to feel you come deep inside of me.”
Brew knew he wouldn’t last if she touched him now. He needed to take the edge off, needed to sip from her so that he would last longer than it would take for him to enter her. Dropping back down, he ran his hands up her thighs and his fingers under her tiny thong. Gripping it in his hands, she looked into her eyes, and he tore it from her body. Her cry of hunger made his fangs burst more through his gums.
“It’ll have to be hard, Calla Lily. Fast, hard, and dirty. Roll over for me. I need you too much to do this another way.”
When she rolled to her belly and curved her body up over her knees, he growled at her. Her arousal was strong, and he could see her pussy was wet. Pushing her head down to the floor, he nudged his cock at her entrance. She coated him with her juices. Grabbing her hips and pulling her hard back against him, he slammed into her hard and deep.
Her answering groan nearly sent him over the edge. Pulling out to nearly the tip and slamming forward again, he felt her grip around him; her tight sheath wrapped around him tight and sucked him deeper. He felt his climax grip his balls, and the tingle of it run up his spine. Reaching his hand around her front and finding her clit, he pulled hard on it and then squeezed. Over and over, he tormented it until she started to grip him tighter.
“Brew now. Please, I’m coming now. Bite me.” Leaning forward, he licked at her shoulder and then sank his fangs deep into her. The hot, spicy blood filled his mouth as she came, milking him and bringing him over the edge with her. As he filled her with his seed, she fed him, nourished him. Sealing the tiny prick marks with his tongue, he pulled her up so that both of them were on their knees, and he was still buried deep inside of her, her back to his chest. Brew pressed his wrist to her mouth and moved slowly inside of her again as she bit into him and drank, bringing her to another climax. As soon as she sealed the wound with her saliva, he tilted her back and took her throat.
Taking enough to sustain him, he licked her throat and kissed the tiny wound. He held her to his body, feeling her heartbeat return to normal and her breathing slow. He wanted her again, but not now. He would move them to the bed soon.
“Brew, I love you very much. I don’t know what I would have done without you all this time. You’ve made me feel like a new woman.” Nodding, he tried to form the words that would tell her what she’d done for him. They were there, but…Christ, he loved this woman.
“And I love you, my Calla Lily. You’ve given life to these old bones. Given me an outlook on things that I’ve never felt before.” He kissed her on the mouth. “I’m so lucky that you came into my life when you did. I was ready to face the sun, and then you came into my life. I…I love you so very, very much.”
She rolled over him when he got them both in the bed. His eyes had never been this heavy, and when he finally let them close, he could feel his body tingling with need. If he didn’t fall asleep now he didn’t know when he’d get a better opportunity. His body was about as relaxed as it had ever been in his life. His last thoughts were that he hoped his household was safe as he was simply too exhausted to wake up.
~*~
Daniel called the house three times in the last four hours. If he didn’t stop, she was going to go down to the station and kill him herself. The man was absolutely batty if he thought that he was endearing himself to her. Calla stepped out on the porch and called to one of the wolves that had been roaming the grounds.
“I need to go and see my uncle.” The wolf shook his head. “I know that I can’t go alone, but I was wondering if Conri could send someone to go with me. I don’t want to face him alone, not that I’m afraid of him, but someone with me could keep me from killing him. Not that he doesn’t deserve it, but I don’t want to go to prison for his ass right now.”
The wolf nodded once and took off. She thought about how far away the pack house was and wondered how long it would take Conri to come and see her. Or perhaps he’d just send one of his men. She then thought about Brew.
He’d been asleep for the last three days. She wasn’t upset or worried about him. Landon had told her that he does this when he’s been stressed out and doesn’t get the rest that he needs. He told her that he’d been as long as a week in getting caught up on his rest and there was nothing for her to worry about. She wasn’t worried, but she did miss him terribly.
“You wish to go and see your uncle, my lady?” Hugging Conri, she told him that she didn’t want to, but he was calling all the time. “While there, we’ll tell the police to stop allowing him to call you. It will be a simple thing for Brew to do but I’m to understand that he’s resting. Are you in need of anything while he is down?”
“No. Landon has told me that he’s done this before.” Conri said that he had some years ago. “I want him to rest as much as he can. There isn’t anything that I can’t handle with him down and if it is, I’ll simply call to you as I have done.”
“Shall we go?” Conri was dressed nicely. The suit that he had on was beautifully tailored and pen-striped. She loved his tie. When she was close enough to it to see what the pattern was, it tickled her that they were wolves chasing one another in a forest of a tree or two. “I have a car that we can take as well.”
Conri didn’t clutter her head with small talk. She had been practicing what she wanted to say to him for the last couple of hours. The man was going to be spending more time in jail if he kept bothering her. She turned to the large wolf when he cleared his throat.
“You smell magical. I’m assuming that you’ve been either practicing it or you’ve gotten more with the bonding with the old vamp.” She asked if it was noticeable to everyone. “No. Just to me, because it is equal to mine and Brew’s. You had some before from him, but now you have much more. Have you been practicing it?”
“I don’t know what I have, but when I feel it, like bringing things to me, I play around with it. I can bring anything I want to me—large or small. I can also make up the beds in the upper levels. I’ve been sleeping elsewhere so that Brew can get a good night’s sleep. He’s dead when he sleeps, isn’t he?”
“I would say that he’d not like to be told that. It would bother him that he cannot be woken if you were in trouble.” She said that she’d not thought of that. “He is a very prideful man, your vampire. I myself am one as well. I hope to find my mate someday, but I don’t have much hope for it after all this time. Brew and I are the same age. But unlike him, I have younger brothers who are around me all the time. They’re good men, but we’re lonely. Much like Brew was before you came along.”
“I love him.” He told her that it shows. “Thank you. I’ve never been in love before, and I love the feeling. Having Brew around makes me feel very safe. These last few days have taught me that I can take care of myself, too.”
“Good for you.” They got into the large, pale, white limo and headed to the police station. As soon as they pulled up in front of the place, several officers came out and surrounded the opening door. She didn’t know what was going on, but she was glad for the extra security, whether it was for her or for Conri. He told her that it was for him.
“You enjoy the extra as well, but these men are my pack, and they like to make sure that nothing happens to me while I’m visiting them. Not that too much can harm me, but it’s a nice perk that I can take advantage of while I’m in town.” She thanked him. “No need for that. I do believe that Brew would insist that I have your protection as well. He’s a good man in love with his mate, and that’s the way that it should be.”
She was put into a room with mirrors all around. There was a recording device in one corner and a large table with three chairs. The large ring in the middle of the table, there for handcuffs, she assumed, was another thing that she was grateful for while visiting her uncle. Hopefully, they used it.
The man brought in didn’t look very much like her uncle. The man in front of her, with his wrists and ankles chained up, looked like a man much older than she knew her uncle to be and a mess. It wasn’t until he was sitting across from her that she realized that it was indeed him and that he had been beaten up as well.
“Daniel? It looks as if you’re getting a bit of what you served me while in here.” Conri laughed and didn’t bother hiding it from the other man. “What is it you want? And so you know, you’re not getting any money, the calls will stop as of today, and there will be no special treatment of you unless they treat you more badly.” Again, Conri laughed, and then he told Daniel that he had a few things to say to him as well.
“You’ve been trying to abuse your so-called power with my pack members. I’ve given them permission to take you to task when you try that again. Especially the women officers.” Daniel told him that they should be down on their knees doing what he wanted. “No one is going to do shit for you, old man. And the sooner you learn that, the better off you’re going to be. It stops now, or they’ll handle you like they would any other human that bothers them. Understand?”
“What I understand is that you’re a dog, and you’ve been a dog all your life. Whatever you say about them is nothing compared to what I am to you.” That didn’t make any sense, and both she and Conri told him so. “I know what I said, and I stand behind it. You’re nothing but a dog.”
“I’m a canine, actually.” Conri let a little of his wolf go, and he could see the size of the man. His nails, long and lethal-looking, dug deep into the wooden table and left long scratches there. “You don’t want to fuck with what I consider mine, Daniel Patrick Marshall. I will end you with just a swipe of my hand.”
Daniel did swallow hard. It was good to see him a little afraid. She discovered just then that she was no longer afraid of him. She wasn’t stupid enough to pretend that she wasn’t a little leery of him, but she wasn’t going to back down right now. Calla was sick of all the shit that he’d been doing to her over the years.
“Now that you’ve had your say, I’m going to tell you what’s really going to happen. You’re going to go ahead and pay off my fine and give me some walking around money. Seven grand. It’s an odd amount but that’s what I’ve been wanting. Then when the banks are open again, you’ll make it so that I can get into your accounts like it was before. I don’t want to have to be turned away again, Calla, or so help me, I’m going to cut that ugly face of yours to ribbons.” He looked at the officer behind him. “You there. Give her some paper so that she can write this down. I don’t want any fuck up from her saying that she forgot something. Give her a nice pen, too. This shit is going to happen, or I’m going to be pissed off, and you know better than to piss me off Calla.”
“No.” She stood up, and he tried to do the same. “I told you when I arrived, you’re not getting any money from me, and I’m not going to bail you out. I like you in here. It means that I can walk around and not have to worry about you coming up behind me for anything.”
Conri didn’t stand, but she wasn’t worried about him. The man was big enough and strong enough to take care of himself. As she was leaving the room, each step away from him making her feel better all the time, she sat down in the bullpen or whatever they called the open station house room and collected her thoughts. It was heady being in charge of herself.
“My lovely bride, how are you?” She nearly burst into tears hearing from Brew. Only she couldn’t find him anywhere near her. “Just think of what you want to say to me, and I’ll hear it. I’ve spoken to Conri and his second, and they told me where you are. Good job on taking someone with you so that I didn’t have to kill my good friend.”
“I’m not entirely stupid.” He laughed. “How are you feeling? I hope that you’ve had enough rest. I don’t like being without you for days on end. Also, why would you kill Conri? He’s been keeping me company while you were sleeping. I’m so glad that you’re awake.” He laughed again.
“I can tell that. Conri is taking care that Daniel understands that as soon as he’s out of jail, he’ll be dead. Telling him that he’s better off in there instead of out where I can get him is going to have to make a lasting impression on the man. I have no trouble at all ending his life if he keeps messing around with my heart.” He paused a moment. “You are my heart, love, and I want you to remember that for the rest of your days.”
Conri joined her a few minutes later, and he told her that he was to take her out to dinner. That Brew would join them. She didn’t know how that was going to work but didn’t put up a fuss. She was suddenly hungry and thought that she could eat her weight in French fries.
They met Brew at the local hamburger joint. It was a nice place and had been around for some time. Scottie’s Den was a good place to get a nice hot meal and to also hear about how the Scotties, the local high school mascot, was doing in the local sports arena. She thought that the local football and basketball were the only things that people around here loved more than they did football on television.
After ordering, her getting a triple order of fries and a burger, she waited while the two men talked. There were things too that she needed to talk to Brew about but none of it was as important as making sure that Daniel knew his place. If she was honest with them, she’d tell them that she wanted him out of her life in a permanent way. Right now, she couldn’t care less if he was killed while in jail, so long as he didn’t try to hurt her again.
“Calla?” She smiled at Conri. “I must leave now. I’ve had some things going on at the pack. I would like to extend a visit from my mother. She’s been wanting to meet the woman who tamed Brew. She believes you to be saint-like for having to put up with him daily.” The three of them laughed.
“I’d love to meet your mom. You told me that your father is gone, correct?” He said that he was indeed gone. “Good. Maybe when this thing is over with Daniel, then I’ll come around to see her.”
After Conri left them, the two of them talked while she ate. Never would she have thought that she could finish the fries, but she’d not been eating as well while Brew was down, and it was nice to have him there while she enjoyed her food. The malt that she got while there was better than she’d had in a while, and it was made with chocolate ice cream and darker malt. Enjoying food had never been something that she partook in, but this was fun.
“Conri had a talk with Daniel before he left. You know that he’s going to be killed when he leaves the jail. Not so much for what he’s done to you but for the things that he’s been doing to the pack members that are working at the jail. Especially the women.” She asked what he’d been doing to them. “Mostly ordering them around and the like. Twice, he’s touched them in an improper manner that has their mates upset. They’ll have a first swipe at him.”
“Wolves are very jealous, I heard.” Brew said that they were and that it would get someone killed if the mates weren’t together very long. “I hope someday that Conri and his brothers find mates. I bet they would be good mates to their partners.”
“I believe you might be right.” They talked about things that were going on around town. With it nearly being summer break for the kids, they were out looking for jobs to do through the summer. The town was sort of down on its luck in some areas. The season for summer fun was heating up, and the pool was being worked on so that it would be ready when the kids started to show up.
The two of them walked back to their home as Conri had taken the limo with him when he’d left them. She did wonder what sort of trouble he had going on at the pack. Brew had mentioned that he would help him if he needed it. What surprised her was that he’d not turned him down but said that he might well need him. Whatever the man wanted from her as well, she’d give it to him. There was no way that she was going to let him have trouble, and she not help him in any way that she could.
Conri was a good man and seemed to be a good leader. He’d been leading his pack for some time now, and from what she’d heard, he was doing a very good job of getting more work for the people and being able to retain his younger pack members, unlike a lot of packs that she’d heard about.
The two of them spent the rest of the evening going over paperwork. He’d put her on all his deeds and investments, and she had done the same for him. There was a great deal of money that he had and hers, while to her was a lot, it wasn’t nearly what he had in his accounts all over the world.
“This account is very old, but it has been a good investment. I’ve been using the proceeds to help around town instead of reinvesting it into the company. I do believe that the way that the company is going, always updating its working schedule, it will be around for a bit longer. Also, we’re invested in a lot of smaller grocery stores. There are a few of them around here that we have.” She asked the name of them and he told her. “It’s good to have a place like these to just pop into them to get something that you might be missing. I don’t know if I’ve ever used them, but they are great to have around.”
“I’ve used them a great deal. But just because things are on the shelf of the cheaper store, that doesn’t mean that they’re cheap either. You have to watch every penny to make sure that you’re getting a good price.” He agreed with her. “Did you know that there are some stores that buy things from the dollar store and put them in their store for double the price? I’ve seen that happen in gas stations a few times. Little toys for the kids. I can see parents buying them to keep the kids quiet while they’re going on the trip. It helps the store’s bottom line to have things like that in the store for the kids. They’re the worst at buying things that aren’t really all that good of a price.”
The two of them enjoyed talking about different things. She wasn’t as well-read as he was, but she could hold her own in a conversation. They also played chess, another game that she wasn’t all that good at but enjoyed. Brew had had decades of practice while she’d only had about five or so years of it.
They ended up on the deck before going up to bed. She was able to spot a few of the wolves that were about, and she was glad that a couple of them came up on the deck to look around. Brew told her that it was good for them to get her scent so that they could find her if something were to happen to her. She gladly let them lick her hands when they came up a few at a time. She’d not realized that there were so many of them patrolling around.
“I think they sent more over just in case. You can tell the pack members from the wild ones in the pack. I never realized that when Conri said he was the pack leader of the wolves, he was the pack leader of the wild ones as well. I wonder how they communicate?” It was something that they talked about as well, but the conversation got silly after a while, and they were laughing hard by the time they were called into dinner. Calla would still giggle a couple of times at something that was said, but all in all, it was a great evening after having Brew gone from her for so long.
Dinner was a steak and potato. Brew didn’t eat the potato, but he did enjoy the steak. His was a little more rare than hers was but that was fine too. She was beginning to like the rarer steak than she had before, and the two of them talked about her magic while she enjoyed a nice pudding. It was one of her favorite desserts. Hot-cooked pudding, still almost too warm to eat. And only in chocolate. Brew called her odd, and she agreed with him. Things that she ate were a bit on the odd side.
After dinner, they retired to the living room. Brew had some paperwork that he had to keep up with, and when he left her in the room, she got another book to read. So far, she’d been able to go through some of his paperback books. Most of them were science fiction and a couple of his romance books. He told her those were for reference, what people were saying about their kind in the books that they wrote.
“No one has it all right, for which I’m glad. There is one person, I do believe him to be a vampire, who writes good murder mysteries. The vampire is a detective who solves crimes committed by supernaturals. He doesn’t always get it right, for which I’m glad, but he does get his man in the end. I get his books delivered to me as soon as they’re released. And I can read them in just a couple of days. I believe that you’ll find them in the office rather than the library. If you’d like to read them, I do believe that Landon reads them as well.” She asked him if he’d read them all, too. “I do believe he reads them as soon as I’m finished. It’s a nice way for the two of us and now you to have a good conversation about them. I do believe that you’d enjoy them a great deal.”
“I’ll read them. I love a good murder mystery.” When she went up to bed, the books, about thirty of them were stacked in order on her dresser. She couldn’t wait to get a start on them.