Jules (Golden Streak Series Book 5) (8 page)

“You’re naked.” He nodded.
“You should…how did you…Christ, you’re beautiful. And so hard. I want to touch you.”

He leapt from the bed before her fingers touched him.
“You touch me and I’m not going to be able to stop.” His cock ached in the cool morning air. “Do you have any idea how much I want to say fuck the open window and take you? How much I want to suckle at your nipples while I move in and out of you?”

She nodded.
“Yes. I want the same thing, too, right now, but we can’t. We’re not…I’m not going to be what you want, Jules. I can’t. I have to figure out who killed Mason and why they did this to me.”

He took a step toward her to show her how much she could be what he wanted, what she wanted
, but she put up her hand. “You’re my mate, Lenny. Now that I’ve bitten you, you’re not going to leave me. I want you to let me take care of this for you.”

She laughed and
got out of the bed with a sheet wrapped around her. She went into the bathroom without a word. He felt his anger surge forth. Before he opened his mouth again or followed her, he felt Bronwyn touch his mind. She was laughing and that made him nearly snarl at her.

You do and I’ll hurt you in ways that your children’s children will feel. Get dressed and get out of the house.
You’re going to fuck things up worse if you don’t.
She was suddenly pissed, but so was he.

You
can’t tell me what to do with my mate. You have no rights—
His head exploded in pain. Blood dripped to the floor when he went to his knees as his belly tightened up, too. He was feeling the darkness swamp him, then suddenly he was free.

You still think I
can’t? Get dressed and leave her alone. She’s had…Christ, Jules, where the fuck did you get these ideas in your head that she would simply do what you wanted because you’re her mate? You fucking idiot, she’s stronger than you’ll be on your best day, and a lot smarter in thinking this won’t work if you continue treating her like a thing rather than a mate.

She’s mine.
And as such, it is my duty—

Fuck your duty
, you moron. She’s going to leave you, and what the fuck are you going to do then? Follow her? Make her have to shoot you? She will. I have no doubt about that at all. Now this is the last time I’m going to say this. Get your fucking clothes on and get out of that house. I’m waiting for you.
He wanted to tell her to go to hell but she simply tightened around his head a little again and he reached for his clothes
. She’s hurting. Not badly but enough. And she’s afraid of you. Are you happy about that?

I didn’t mean to frighten her.
But she needs to learn that she can’t just go out and do things on her own anymore.
Bronwyn laughed at him
. You wouldn’t think this was so fucking funny if that was Ryland in there.

No
, but Ryland wouldn’t be treating me like some sort of idiot like you are her. Have you once asked her what she wants or needs? Did you ask her or even explain to her what you did to her when you bit her? I know you didn’t.
He flushed, knowing that by law, streak law, he should have.
You are a Neanderthal. A pigheaded, moronic, dumbassed Neanderthal, and I’m ashamed to call you family right now.

He stopped pulling on his socks.
Neanderthal? He was a little old fashioned, but not that bad, was he? He moved out of the house by the window he’d come through and looked at his brothers standing next to a truck. It was loaded with boards, and he could see other things to fix the damage he’d done as well. When he glanced back into the room, he saw Lenny’s grandmother speaking to Lenny, but his brother slapped him on the back before he could figure out what they were saying. He looked at Alistair, then at Bronwyn as she stood talking to Ryland.

“You really fucked up this time.
I’ve never seen Bronwyn so pissed off before. Glad it’s you and not me. I think she’s planning to castrate you.” Both of them cupped their cocks and balls when she started toward them. “This is the first time since I’ve discovered the law that I’ll be glad to be somewhere where you’re not. She’s going to kill you.”

When she stood in front of him he tried to stand his ground
, but she was his female to the streak, and he knew as well as his cat did that he’d handled the situation wrong. As he dropped to one knee in front of her and bowed his head, his cat moved along his skin. The thing was, his cat might be agreeing with his female, but Jules still could see nothing wrong with wanting Lenny to stay put.

“You think you can be
at me?” He looked up at her. “You think if I used the same strength that Lenny has, you can take me down?”

“Are you serious?”
She nodded and told him to stand. “You want me to knock the shit out of you? Then what? Have Ryland kill me?”

“No. I told him what we were going to do.
You think that because you’re a male and I’m a mere woman that you can protect me, right?” He thought there was a trap but nodded anyway. “Okay then, you try to knock me on my ass. I won’t use any other strength than Lenny has in her current condition. Hurt.”

“So you want me to fight you.
You’re fucking nuts. I’m not going to swing at you. You’re a girl. And I can’t hurt you.” He took a step back when she took one toward him. “Seriously, Bronwyn, I’m not going to fight with you. So just get that stupid thought out of your head right now.”

The punch nearly knocked him off his feet.
When she swung at him again, he ducked and she got him in the belly. He took two steps back from her just as she came around with a roundhouse that did knock him down.

“I’m winning so far and I’m not even using the strength I know she has.
You gonna just let me take you?” He stood up, pissed off now. “Come on, big bad Jules, show me what you got.”

Chapter 8

Naomi wanted to scream
, but she only stared at the wolf in front of her. She couldn’t even kill him right now either. Without Milo there to help her, she hadn’t fed yet and she was starving. The wolf had told her when he came in that if she fed from him she’d die because he’d taken precautions. She wasn’t sure what they were, but she could smell the bite of silver around him and stayed in her chair.

“He was spotted hanging around the house until about six this morning
. Then he left. I watched him go north on the main road, but I lost him after that. There was a great deal of activity at the house when I returned, but I didn’t ever hear what had happened. Also….” He paused just enough that she leaned forward in her chair. “He’s marking the place. I don’t know if he realizes it or not yet, but the large wolf that is running the security team has found his marking and knows that they’re not a part of his pack.”

“I don’t know a great deal about your kind. Tell me what you mean.”
Naomi knew very little about anything actually, because Milo had kept up with that part of her business. “I’m a little short staffed right now.”

He
didn’t look to where the blood still stained the floor from her watcher. It was like acid to her and she couldn’t clean it. Her mouth, too, was sore and she wasn’t even sure whether the man had told her she could bite him. Smiling without revealing her teeth, she nodded for him to go on.

“Marking an area is nature to us.
Every time we smell another wolf, we have the need to remark it. Lamb would have had the same needs. More so because he was once an alpha.” She nodded, still no clue what he was talking about. Lamb had been an alpha? News to her.

“Will this head of security be able to find Lamb now? Will he know
when he comes within a few feet of the place now?” The wolf—she had no idea what his name was, but had seen him talking to Milo before—nodded, then shook his head. “He will be able to find him or not?”

“Yes
, mistress, he’ll be able to find him, but more like miles from him instead of feet. He’s an alpha, as I said, and his mark is stronger to keep away other males. The head of security will know him by scent now. He will be able to hunt him down as well.”

More than she could do right now.
He still wasn’t answering her calls, and no matter how many times she left him messages to call her back, he wasn’t doing it. And the worst part was she had no idea how to find him. She eyed the man in front of her, who started shaking his head.

“Even if I could find him
, I wouldn’t be able to give you the information. Not because I wouldn’t want to, but because he’d kill me. He doesn’t want to be found, and I’m sure that he’d be really be pissed off at me even if I could find him. Which I probably couldn’t. He’s that good.” He handed her a Baggie. “This is what his scent is. It’s not as good as a piece of his clothing or fur, but he marked those leaves and his scent is on them.”

She took them
, wondering what the hell she was supposed to do with this, and it occurred to her he was telling her if she wanted the wolf then she had to find him herself. She looked over at the stain again. Milo would have found him for her.

“I suppose if I asked you to keep looking for him for me, you’d not do that either. You’re just too afraid.
I’m thinking I have very little use for you, wolf, if you can’t carry out a few minor details that I need.” He shrugged and she wanted to come across the desk and strangle him. “You do know that there are other ways to kill you other than biting you, don’t you?”

He stood up and shifted.
Just like that, the man was gone and the wolf, huge and his teeth snapping at her, made her lean back as far as she could from him. He snarled at her, then crashed through the window just behind him, and took off to the woods.

“Fucking bastard.
As if I don’t have enough shit in this room to replace.” She looked around the room that had been cleared of the all the debris and wondered how the fuck she was supposed to get the things back to normal in there. She couldn’t shop during the day, of course, and her computer had taken a lot of the damage she’d created. Naomi tried to decide if she could call the local computer store, and realized that there would be no one awake when it arrived. She simply had to find her a watcher, but those were so hard to find nowadays, too. She simply didn’t know where to turn.

When she looked back at the broken window
, she saw one of those fucking vampires lurking around her yard. Taking them into her fold had been the stupidest thing she’d ever done. She told him to come in, and he sat in the chair across from her. She could smell the blood all over him immediately.

“What have you been up to?”
He grinned at her, his teeth a nasty stained black. “You do know that you can use a toothbrush still, right? I mean, your breath must about kill your prey when you lean over to drink from them.”

“I’m menacing.” She rolled her eyes.
“I wanted to tell you what we’ve done just so when you see it on the news, you’ll know we did it. We killed another family like before.”

“Why?”
He shrugged, and she took a deep breath and counted to ten. “Okay, why did you feel the need to let me know when I couldn’t care one shit what you do so long as it doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass?”

“You said that girl
that killed Ben was a detective and that she was retired.” She remembered something like that, but right now she was more focused on finding her and killing her than anything else.

“So?
You’re killing and she is no longer even on the case. What did you hope they’d do, call her back in for help? Not fucking likely. They think she was the one who killed that cop. And that was a major fuck up on your part, too. What the hell were you thinking calling that in? Do you have any idea how many minds we had to erase? We finally just gave up and started killing them.”

“They would have to go in and arrest her for another death, right?” She wanted to snap his neck.
There could be no way he was this stupid.

“
Arrest her for deaths that she couldn’t have committed because she’d been in another state? Or the fact that she’s been sliced up so badly she can hardly walk?” She shook her head. “They’d be lucky if she could get to the jail without hurting herself. What I’d really like to know is why the fuck you haven’t brought her to me?”

“You want
us to bring her to you?” She stood up, tempted to kill him where he sat. “You said we was to find her. You never said we was to bring her to you. Hell, we could have done that weeks ago.”

She had him against the far wall before she could think about what she should or shouldn’t do.
When he struggled for air, she thought about telling the moron he didn’t need air, but liked the feeling of him trying to fight her. She banged his head against the wall hard enough that she smelled blood erupt from him.

“You’ll find her
tonight and bring her back here or so help me, I’ll kill you all.” He nodded at her, his eyes as wide as saucers. “And she will be unharmed so that I can do it. Do you understand me?”

He nodded
, and she dropped him. “Mistress, we was—” She held up her hand as she walked to the desk. Whatever he had to say was going to get him ended right now and she needed him. When she sat down, she told him to get out.

It took her almost an hour to calm down. By that time she’d made her a list, two actually
, and had discarded most of the things on them. But the few that remained were a good start.

Find a watcher.
She knew that the Holders of the Realm would help vampires when their watcher had been killed, but she was pretty sure that they’d stake her out in the sun if she went to them for help. She’d just have to find one on her own. She’d start with someone from the nearby town. Surely one of them would help out a vampire for enough money.

Second on her list was
to find out what Viktor knew. She hated the man for what he’d put her through, but she was more afraid of him than anything. And if he found out that the kid she was trying to kill was her daughter, she was afraid he’d do something horrific to her and she’d beg him for death.

The third thing on her list was forgotten as she remembered the first time she’d met the man. He’d been so handsome and slick
that she’d wanted to drop her vampire and go and work for him. He had so many rules that she’d given up on the idea even before she’d gone to him, but he had approached her not long after her daughter was born.

“You’re going to murder your own child if you do not get some help with her.
She is too precious to leave to starve for so many days.” Naomi had glanced at the child in the crib and shrugged. “Will you consider giving her to another for safe keeping?”

“Her?
I could care less what happens to her, but Grunt liked her well enough.” He did seem to like her, but Naomi had other things on her mind. “When will you release Grunt from the prison? It has been several months, and I need him with me.”

Viktor had
shaken his head. “It has been only a few days, and you will see him soon enough. I must insist that you feed the child. She is dying; are you aware of that?”

Naomi
was but didn’t really care. She picked up the baby and shook her a little, and heard Viktor’s sharp intake of breath. She turned to look at him, confused about why he should care so much. She wondered if he wanted her for himself, but knew that couldn’t be right. Viktor had Peter, and everyone knew the men were gay.

“We are not lovers.”
He took the baby from her, cut open his wrist, and pressed it to her lips. “You will do well to keep her safe from now on, Naomi. She will have my blood now, and I will come hunting for you should she be harmed again. What is it you’ve called her?”

Called her? If the child had a name at all
, she had no idea what it was. When she’d gotten pregnant with her all those months ago, she’d only kept the child because Grunt had wanted her to. Now that he wasn’t there to take care of it, she found she hated it even more than when it was misshaping her body. She watched as the brat suckled from his wrist.

“You can have her.”
She smiled at his surprised look. “I don’t want her, and I’ll give her to you if you release Grunt to me now. Otherwise she might not survive the next time I take her out in the car.”

“You’d trade your child for that monster.” It wasn’t a question
, but she nodded anyway. “You do know that she will have powers you won’t. She’ll be stronger than you will ever be. And she’ll hate you for this.”

“Like I care.
Give me Grunt and I’ll be happy. She can be the next leader of all vampires for all I care. I just want my lover back.” He sealed the wounds at his wrist, snapped his fingers, and the brat was gone. “We have a deal then?”

“We do.
But I will take something from you at her maturity. When she reaches her age, I will come and take all that you have from you.” She tried to focus on what he was saying to her, but all she could think about was no brat and her Grunt was coming home. “Do you understand what I am telling you, Naomi? You’ll have nothing.”

“Yeah, yeah. Give me Grunt or bring back the kid.”
And he had done what he’d told her. Grunt and she had gone on a feeding spree that had lasted for a week. Then he’d asked her about the kid and she lied to him. She told him that she’d died.

And now in four days
, her kid was going to turn twenty-five―the age of her majority. She had to kill her before then or she’d lose it all. Everything she’d worked so hard for.

~~~

Lenny stepped into the kitchen to chaos. Jules was sitting at the table with an ice pack on his face, Ryland was laughing so hard tears streamed down his face, and the other four men in the room were having a hard time not laughing, too. She looked at her grandma.

“They
had this bet, I guess. Bronwyn and this young man made a deal and he lost. I’m not entirely sure what the bet was about, because every time someone starts to tell me, they start laughing again.” Grandma handed Jules the bottle that she had in her hand. “I think, from what I can gather, it was about you.”

“Me? I didn’t do anything.”
She looked at one of the men she didn’t know when he coughed loudly. “What is it, buddy? You need something?”

“She was pissed at the way
he’s been treating you.” Lenny glanced at Jules, who stiffened. “She said she wanted to see if he could knock her on her ass with her using the same strength you have being hurt.”

“No, you’re telling it wrong. She said she’d let him try.
She damned near had him begging, too, before Ryland held her back.” She looked at Ryland, who was wiping the tears away and nodding.

“She
kicked his ass all over the yard and back. Didn’t even get a chance to touch her.” Ryland started laughing again and she smiled. It wasn’t what he was saying that was funny, but the fact that he could hardly tell the story without laughing. Then Jules dropped the rag and stood up, and she got a good look at him and what had been done to him.

“Christ
, what did she use? A bat?” He glared at her and she took a step back, then two forward. “If you think she hurt you, look at me like that again and I will tear you to pieces.”