Ryland (13 page)

Blood dripped from his mouth
and chin; his eyes had lightened, changed to his cat as he filled her. Screaming
out again, she clutched him hard enough that her nails drew blood at his chest and
she came again. When he pressed her mouth to his wounds she instinctively
licked, then covered her mouth over them and suckled. He roared this time. His
cat moved along his body so that she saw him; fur replaced skin then back
again. Stripes marred his flesh then were gone. His cat claimed her even as she
drank from him. When he fell over her, his body spent, she felt the room shift,
the lights dim then brighten. Suddenly, it was too much and she closed her eyes
just as he rolled to the side and took her with him.

The last thing she heard
before exhaustion took her was him telling her that he loved her. That he loved
her for all time and that she was his. She wanted to be pissed. Wanted to tell
him that she belonged to no one, but it felt right. It felt true. She was his
mate.

~~~

Ryland was standing in the
kitchen when his mom came down. He flushed when she smiled at him. He knew that
she could smell that they’d bonded. There wasn’t a cat alive that wouldn’t be
able to tell that. She moved to the stove while he drank the last of his tea.

“She’s going into town with
me. She needs some things.” His mom nodded. “I bought a house.”

She looked at him and
laughed. “Well, you wasted no time, did you? Have you told Bronwyn yet?”

“I’m going to take her there
today. I’ve not seen it either. We might…I was thinking we might stay in town
tonight, get things squared away for us to move in when things are settled.” She
smiled at him and nodded. “She and I are mates.”

“We heard.”

He flushed again,
remembering that she’d screamed and that, when he’d taken her, he’d roared.

“You’ll need your own home
if you’re going to be mates.”

He laughed. His mother was
politely telling him that they needed their own place if they were going to be
that noisy. He kissed her on the cheek and looked to the door when it opened. Bronwyn
stood there.

“Hi.” He’d made love with
her again before coming down here. She’d told him that she needed to shower and
that doing it alone would be much quicker if he wanted to get to his job. He’d
been tempted, very much so, to say fuck it and stay in bed with her all day.
But they both had things they needed to do.

“Hi. I had to borrow one of
your shirts.” She pulled it away from her front. “I don’t have a lot to wear
here. Not that I did anyway, but this is… I babble when I’m nervous.”

“Why are you nervous?” His
mom asked her to sit as she continued talking. “I was just talking to Ryland. He
said that you’re going to get a few things to wear, so that’ll be nice. There’s
a lovely shop on Seventh Street. It’s only a block or two from the Towers.”

“I think that’s a little out
of my price range.” Bronwyn smiled at his mom when she set a plate of ham and
muffins in front of her. “I have to collect some things from a few places. Money
mostly. I couldn’t open a bank account so I stashed cash when I had it.”

“Because that man was
chasing you.” She nodded at his statement. “Well, he knows you’re here now, but
it wouldn’t matter. I have enough money for whatever you need.” He knew the
moment it left his mouth it had been wrong. She stiffened and his mother left
the room with a pat on his back. He raised his hands to have her stop before
she exploded. But she wasn’t having it.

“You think because we fucked
that I’m going to take your money?” He shook his head, but before he could
explain, she punched her finger into his chest. “You think that last night
gives you the right to make me a kept woman? That you owe me, or worse yet, own
me?”

“No, I only meant—”

“Only meant what? That I’m
poor and helpless and need a big, bad-assed tiger to make me safe and secure? I’ll
have you know that I’m quite capable of taking care of myself. I’ve been doing
it a very long time and I’m fucking good at it. And if I—”

He kissed her. It worked
well enough shutting her up, but now he wanted to take her back upstairs and
make love to her again. When she wrapped her arms around him he pressed her
against the closest hard surface he could find. The refrigerator was perfect.
When her legs came up and wrapped around him he rocked into her and she moaned.

“You’re a pain in the ass,
did you know that?” He laughed when she nodded. “If this was our home, I’d
think nothing of it to take you right here and right now, but there are a lot
of people in this house who need to eat. Mom is holding them off right now.”

She looked to the door then
back at him. “Aren’t you bad ass male? Make them go away for thirty minutes. We’ll
make it a quickie.”

He set her on the counter
and stepped back. “We have to go. And we have to talk about your short fuse. I
wasn’t saying I owned you, but that you own me. Lock, stock, and all my money. I
meant that since I ripped them off you, I’ll gladly replace them. And besides,
I love seeing you in my clothes.”

He reached for the last
muffin and tossed it at her as the door opened and his family spilled in. He
nodded to all five of his brothers and his mom. He helped her off the counter
and looked at his family. “I know that each of you have had contact with Bronwyn
over the past weeks, but I want to take this time to formally introduce you to
my mate. Bronwyn Lawrence, this is my family. Alistair is my partner at the
Towers, as is Neal, and Brock is my enforcer, or the heavy. This is Jules, he’s
the owner of a pottery company downtown that does stoneware and some art stuff,
and this is Keith. Keith is our nerd. If he can’t fix it then you should simply
replace it. It won’t be fixable.”

“And I’m his mom, Sandra
Golden.” His mom hugged her. “Welcome to the family, dear. You’re going to be a
wonderful addition.”

He took her out to the car
and, when he got in the limo after her, she moved to the other side of the seat
and looked at him. He waited. When they had left he knew that something had
happened, something about his family, but he didn’t know what. He knew that if
he were in her shoes, he’d have been overwhelmed.

“I don’t want them to get
hurt.” She took a deep breath. “None of them. But they will. You know that,
right?”

“I know that the person
we’re dealing with is a monster and we’ve not had a great deal of experience
with men like him. I know that, especially after I saw him work to get you the
other day, he’ll stop at nothing, not even killing anyone to get you.” She
nodded. “But I’m not a kind and generous man when it comes to them, my family
and you. You’re my mate, my love. I will die before he gets his hands on you.”

She looked out the window
and stayed where she was. “I was going to leave last night. Sindy was safe and
I knew that no matter how pissed you might have been at me you would keep her
safe. But I couldn’t.”

She looked at him. There
were tears there and he wanted to wipe them away and hold her, but she shook
her head when he started to move. He wanted to tell her that he loved her and
that he would have found her because of their blood connection now, but that’s
not what she wanted or needed to hear. He reached for her hand instead.

“I’m glad you didn’t leave
me. I don’t know what I would have done if you had.” He grinned at her. “I bought
you something. Something you’ve never had before and, if you had left, then I
would have had to deal with all the stuff that comes from it on my own.”

She looked at him
suspiciously. “What the hell have you done? Please tell me that you didn’t
order me clothes. Ryland, I don’t do fancy. I like my jeans and t-shirts. I
don’t like people and I’m not what one would call socially active.”

He laughed. He kissed her
hand then pulled her to him. She was sitting in his lap when the limo stopped. He’d
asked the driver to take them to the house first. If there were any changes
they needed to make before they moved in he could get started on them this
morning. When the door opened he held her tight and told her what he’d done.

“It’s ours. I know it looks
big, but…” She looked at him then at the open door. “I bought us a house.”

“You didn’t.” He nodded. “When?
During sex or while I was in the shower? Either way, it was fucking fast.”

“No, I bought it before all
that. I had a deal with my mom. If I didn’t buy a house she would do it for me.
She was tired of me living in a hotel. I wasn’t going to do it at all, then I
met you. Then I needed one with you.” He slipped from under her, got out, and
reached for her. “Come on. You can be pissed with me after we see it.”

“You’ve never even seen it?”
she asked from within the depth of the limo. He told her he hadn’t. When she
took his hand he thought for sure he heard her call him a moronic idiot, but
wasn’t sure. When they turned to look at their new house he fell in love with
it and she seemed awestruck.

“Holy monkey feather, it’s
fucking huge.” She looked at him, smiling. “Maybe I will let you buy me
clothes.”

She liked it. That’s all he
could think of as they walked up the front steps. She really liked it. As soon
as they stepped into the main entrance, the realtor greeted them. He took the
keys and handed them to Bronwyn. “For you.” Then he bent on one knee and pulled
out his mother’s engagement ring that his mom had given him right before they
left. “Bronwyn Lawrence, will you marry me so that I can live here with you for
the rest of our lives?”

“Get up, you idiot. I said I
wasn’t leaving you.” He held her hand. “You’re for serious?”

“Yes. Now you say yes so I
can get up and kiss you properly.” She looked scared and he stood up. “I love
you. Say yes.”

“Yes, but there are things
you have to know about me that might—”

She said yes. He pulled her
to him and kissed her, devoured her, and moved them to the wall where she
wrapped her legs around him. This could be habit forming. When someone cleared
their throat behind them, he turned. The fucking agent. He looked back at Bronwyn.

“We have company. Maybe we
should just look around some other time when we can take our time.” She nodded
as she dropped her feet to the floor. “We’re going to buy us a bed first.”

Laughing, they thanked the
real-estate agent and left for his office. By the time they got there he’d made
arrangements to have the best security system put into place and a service to
have an armed guard at the front gates. He was mated and a home owner. He was
the happiest he’d been in his life.

Chapter 11

Bronwyn looked over the
catalogues she’d been handed and sat at his front desk. Between answering the
phone and taking people in and out of his office she tried to find some
clothes. It wasn’t working. She was more of a discount shopper and this thing
she’d been handed had stuff in it that she’d never wear to anything. She tossed
it in the trash.

“No much of a shopper, huh?”

She looked up at the woman
she’d never seen before.

“I hate it too. Sort of like
looking at a magazine that specializes in naked men. Just not the same.”

“If you say so.” Bronwyn
reached out and touched her mind. Cat, tiger, and one that belonged to
Crawford. Bronwyn leaned back in the chair as she reached for Brock. He was
close and she had learned that he was also head of security. She told him what
was going on, to come to her on a ruse.

“I’m Angela Marcus. I’m here
to see the male.” She reached out her hand and Bronwyn ignored it. “You’re not
very friendly, are you?”

“Nope. Sit down.” The cat
had no choice in the matter as Bronwyn was more powerful and was mate to the
male in the other room. She reached for him.
“Come here now. Be aggressive.”

She had no idea that he
would be so quick. So when Brock came around the corner shifting into a cat and
the door opened behind her and Ryland was one too, she tried not to be
startled.

“You were saying something
about needing to talk to the male. Here he is. Speak.”

The girl cowered then
dropped to her knees. Terror poured from her as she lay supine on the carpet. “He
sent me to tell the male that he is required to report to him by noon tomorrow. He said that he will be coming for his ambush and felt it only fair that he gave
you fair warning, as he knows that your mother is in house. He wants the two
women. The ones that he harbors.”

Bronwyn looked at Ryland.
“She’s telling the truth. She’s going to be beaten if she comes back without an
answer from you. You should also know that she’s been raped repeatedly and
beaten regularly because she’s a lesser female.”

“Hold her here. Can she
contact her male?”
She told him that she’d taken care of that when she’d figured out
she was a cat.
“I’m going to shift back to talk to her and would rather not
do that naked.”

“Good. I’ll watch her.”
She
winked at Brock.
“Behave before I tell Ryland that you’re flirting with me.”

Ryland growled as he walked
back into his office. A few minutes later he came out putting on a tie, not the
one he’d come in with this morning. He kissed her on the nose and looked at the
female on the floor.