Kalen (11 page)

“Give us a minute. He promised to tell me he loved me.”

She could tell Kalen wanted to laugh at her impromptu performance, but instead he winked at her and said, “She’s right. I did. Give us one minute, will you?”

“Hurry the hell up out there. I’m getting impatient and my finger is getting itchy.”

Now, there’s a man who has seen way too much TV.
Kalen shook his head, then started to count.
One.
He hurriedly stripped off his clothing.

You’re always getting naked.
Ally shook her head and looked up. The last thing she needed was to get all hot and bothered looking at his broad shoulders, washboard abs and, oh God, she didn’t mean to look at his impressive package. She looked away and counted to ten.

You can look now, Ally. My impressive package isn’t so impressive in wolf form. Not to human women anyway.

Shit!
Why did she keep forgetting to censor her thoughts?

Two.
Now, look at me, Ally. I’m going to explain all of this later, but as difficult as it is to believe…
He paused for a moment.
I
do
love you. Three. Now, go!
Kalen pushed the door open and Ally sprung to life, prompted more by his urgency than his words.

Still, it didn’t stop her thoughts from running rampant as she ran into the room, then dove to the side as the man, sitting on her sofa, aimed his gun her way.

As Kalen hoped, he went for the easier target instead of the most dangerous one. Kalen leapt into the air, grabbed the man by the throat, and pinned him to the couch.

“Oh, do try not to kill him on my furniture, will you? I just got it about a year ago.

I won’t kill him, but you’ll still have to have it cleaned. He just urinated on it.

Dammit!” She picked up her umbrella and hit the guy’s arm with it, knocking the gun from his hand. “I haven’t even had
invited
guests to sit on that couch. Stop pissing on it!”

The man gurgled something she didn’t quite catch. “I can’t understand the idiot when you have his throat closed off like that, Kalen.” She glared at the man. Hell, she was almost mad enough to rip his throat out herself. “That better have been,
I’m sorry for peeing all over your quasi-new couch, Ally. I’ll pay to have it cleaned, honest,
that I heard coming from your frickin’ mouth, buddy.”

Kalen still held the man by the neck while she paced in front of him, still holding her umbrella. She stopped occasionally to narrow her eyes and shake her umbrella at him. God, she was pissed off that her couch had been pissed on.

Shoot him, Ally. You know you want to.

“I can’t do that!” She stared at Kalen, her mouth open.
Have you lost your mind? I can’t shoot him. Bad guy, or not, it’s just not in me to do something like that.
She looked at the man and her anger returned.
Though, I might be able to rip his heart out.

Boy, aren’t we bloodthirsty today?
He chuckled.
You’re holding a dart gun, Ally. It’s not going to do any permanent harm and we’ll be able to stuff him in Milly’s trunk and take him to the Alpha unharmed.

That was true. Ally looked at the guy who had probably just permanently stained her beautiful cream-colored sofa, raised the gun and shot him in the leg…three times.

“Why couldn’t he have sat in my ratty old recliner?” She tossed the gun down and waved to the old chair. “Noooo, he has to sit on my couch, then piss all over it. How much do you want to bet he’s dehydrated, too? The stain is probably dark yellow, dammit!”

Kalen looked up at her and grinned. It looked funny on the wolf’s face. He opened his mouth, letting his tongue hang out, then barked.

“Don’t act like a dog now, you.” She pointed toward the front door. “Go drag your clothes in here and get dressed while I go pack. Don’t worry about me. I’ll protect myself against inept criminals who should be wearing
Depends
with this.” She picked up the gun and shook it. Turning, she stomped into her bedroom, yanked her suitcase out of her closet, and packed everything she could fit into it.

Ally dragged her suitcase out of her bedroom and left it in the hall outside her office where she packed her laptop and its accessories along with her e-reader and the cord that would charge both it and her cell phone that she’d found on her bathroom counter when she’d packed her toiletries.

She took one last look around, making sure she had everything she wanted. Now, it was time to go do the same for Milly.

She turned to the door, jumping when she saw Kalen standing there. “You know that was a dirty trick you played on me to try to get me to stay on the porch.”

“What?”

Kalen looked confused, but she knew it was nothing more than an act.

“Don’t give me that I’m-innocent-and-don’t-have-a-clue-what-you’re-talking-about look, dammit. You know exactly what I mean. You thought telling me you love me would keep me on the porch.” She stuck her chin in the air, proud to know she figured out what he was up to before he came into her house and got himself shot and maybe killed.

Based on what he’d told her about that doctor and his men, they wanted women to breed, not men. They had plenty of men volunteering to become super soldiers, from what she’d seen so far.

Kalen moved closer, his expression difficult to read. “Keeping you on the porch would have been a good thing, yes.” He kept advancing until he stood right in front of her, looking down at her with those intense gray eyes that seemed to change color with his moods.

“There’s something you should know about our people, sweetheart. Mother Nature chooses our mates,
we
do not. We also mate for life.” He skimmed his hands up her arms to rest them on her shoulders. “Another thing Mother Nature does for us is make certain that we do not let our mates get away once we find them. We recognize them immediately and…” pausing, he bent toward her before adding, “…we fall in love with them very quickly.” He pressed a gentle kiss against her lips.

Ally closed her eyes as warmth stole through her. For the first time today, the heat she felt in her face, throughout her body, wasn’t from embarrassment, but desire. Everything seemed to slow down. It felt as though time had somehow shifted to low gear. Her heart thudded in her chest. It should have felt as if it was racing. Instead, it felt as though her blood thickened in her veins and caused her heart to slow to a sluggish pace.

Her stomach flip-flopped and her legs grew weak. Lightheaded, she swayed beneath his hands, and instead of letting her go, he moved closer, wrapped his arms around her and deepened their kiss.

Kalen cupped her cheek, then tilted her head back and trailed his lips over her jaw to her ear. His lips and tongue burning a path to her ear then down her neck before he finally lifted his head to look deep into her eyes.

“Remember this, Ally. I have never, in my life, uttered those words to another female, save my mother. Like it or not, you are my mate and we owe it to ourselves to find a way to get used to that fact.”

Swallowing, Ally looked up at him and didn’t know what to say. Exactly how was a woman supposed to reply to such a declaration?

Things had gotten so strange. Yesterday she had been living her life oblivious to all these strange…paranormal things, now she
was
a strange, paranormal thing. She wanted to laugh about it, cry or even scream about it.

How many times had Ally wished that she had called in sick today and never walked into that room? If she had, she wouldn’t have been there when the doctor and his companion arrived.

She looked at Kalen and realized that she never would have met him either. She wouldn’t have met a man who didn’t complain about her weight. Hell, he’d even carried her several miles and didn’t even run out of breath. Not to mention the fact that he thought he was in love with her and he was hot with a capital
H
. There
was
that.

“So…what do we do about it, then?”

Chapter Twelve

“We get to know each other,” Kalen said with a smile. That was his Ally. She met every new challenge head on with courage that he’d seen only in the bravest of men. Perhaps that was what had drawn him to her.

He stared at her mouth. God, he loved those full lips of hers. All day he had wondered if they were as soft as they looked, if she would taste as good as she smelled, and it had been driving him crazy. Now that he knew, matters weren’t any better. In fact, they were worse.

Kalen wanted to close his eyes, take a deep breath and savor her scent. He wanted to lean down, press his face to her neck, and take such a deep breath that he would be able to hold her delicate fragrance within him all day. He knew it was impossible, but it didn’t stop him from wanting.

“That sounds easy enough.” She smiled and looked past him to the hallway. “But we should get back to Milly’s, don’t you think?” She checked her watch. “We’ve been gone a little over thirty minutes. We want to get back before she changes, don’t we?”

“We
do
need to get back there.” He turned and picked up both of her bags. “I don’t think she
can
change, actually. She may have internal injuries that will have to heal and she’ll heal slower as a human.”

“That’s good, isn’t?”

“I don’t know. I have no idea what will happen if the serum is trying to force a change when her body is incapable of such a thing.”

“Crap!” Grabbing the dart gun from her nightstand, she hurried toward the door. “We have to get back to her. What if she’s suffering? You can help her the same way you helped me. The pain wasn’t so bad then.”

“I don’t think I
can
help her the way I helped you, Ally.” He grinned when she lifted the gun and shot the stirring intruder as they passed.

“Take that, you jerk.”

It was obvious that she was still upset about the man urinating on her furniture. He followed her out onto the porch, set her bags down, then pulled Milly’s keys from his pocket to lock the door.

“Why can’t you help her?” She stood with her arms crossed, the dart gun hanging from her fingers as though she held one every day.

Kalen hated that frown on her face. It was as though she thought him capable of helping her friend, but didn’t want to do so.

“It’s not like I don’t want to help her, Ally. The reason I could help you is because we have this…connection.”

“I don’t understand.” She scowled at him. “I thought you had this connection with all weres.”

“All of us have like a…community connection. I can reach Bastien and he me and I you, I can even communicate with Milly when she’s fully turned, but I can’t connect with another were the way I connect with you.” He held his hands out palms up. “I have no idea why. Only mates are connected fully enough to block one another’s pain. That, and someone I have a blood bond with. I have neither with your friend.”

He wanted to help Milly if only because he knew it would please Ally, but short of biting her, or letting her bite him, he just didn’t know how. He had already thought of letting her bite him, but he’d needed help getting Ally off him. He wasn’t taking chances with Milly.

If what the alpha suspected was true, she could come out of it a seventy-year-old werewolf female in her prime. If that was the case, he was going to have his hands full enough without getting in the way of her teeth.

“I’ll carry my laptop bag so you won’t have to carry them both.” She blushed and looked away. “I’d carry my suitcase, but I know it’s too heavy for me.”

Kalen picked up the larger bag and followed her to Milly’s. He had no doubt that she would be able to carry both of her bags if she set her mind to it, but her mind still set human limits. It didn’t matter either way. His mother brought him up to be a gentleman.

The house was quiet when they entered. Too quiet, and Kalen feared the worst. None of them knew what would happen. The older woman could have had a heart attack while they were gone. He only wished he would have thought of
that
before they left. Either way, it was a good thing he hadn’t let Ally go to her side of the structure alone. If she had, she would be on her way to the doctor’s clutches.

“Do you suppose she’s still sleeping?” Ally asked as she set her burden down on the kitchen floor.

“I hope so.” The thought that she could have died of a heart attack while they were gone was something he didn’t want to think about. “Whatever condition she’s in, we need to get her and the asshole at your house in her car along with her luggage. Please tell me she doesn’t drive a compact.”

Ally laughed. “Milly would never be caught dead in a dinky car. She has one of the largest SUVs you can buy.”

Kalen couldn’t have been more relieved. “Great. We’ll check on her and if she’s doing okay, I’ll leave you to pack her things and go get mister nice guy, tie him up and carry him over here.”

They paused outside Milly’s bedroom door as though afraid of what they would find on the other side.

“Here goes something,” Kalen said as he reached around Ally and opened the door. Neither of them was prepared for the sight that greeted them.

Milly sat on the edge of her bed, her head in her hands. At least he was pretty sure it was Milly. The woman he saw now no longer had gray hair. Her hair was a glossy black. The ebony waves spilled around her shoulders, contrasting with the sunflower yellow t-shirt she still wore.

If he wasn’t mistaken, the young woman on the bed was Milly Jenkins, reborn female werewolf. Only the bloodstains on the t-shirt would tell.

“Milly?” Ally stood just inside the door, obviously afraid to approach the woman for fear it was some sort of trick.

Even Kalen didn’t know if it was a trick or really Ally’s friend sitting on the bed.

The woman looked up. “Ally. What…what’s happened to me?” She looked down at her hands, then felt her body. “How did this happen. How can I be young again?” She laughed, almost hysterically. “Hell, even my boobs are perky again. Can you believe it?”

She stood and turned to them. “The last thing I remember was those criminals breaking into my home and beating the hell out of me.” She turned toward Kalen and smiled. “Then you came in and saved me from them.” Frowning, she added, “But not before they injected me with werewolf serum.”