Scorpio Sons 4: Chase: (SF/Shifter Romance) (8 page)

“I will make that happen. You don’t have to go back there. I don’t want you out of this building without me at your side. And right now I can’t be your bodyguard. I have more important tasks to deal with.”

His arrogance was annoying. She was too good to clean the Sons rooms; he was too busy with important tasks to come with her to sort out her life. He expected her to drop everything and be at his beck and call, and give nothing in return. Fury began to build inside her.

“Message received. You have more important tasks than dealing with me and my needs. I get that. So how do we do this? When does this...whatever this is between us... start?” She lifted her chin and stared into his light-brown eyes.

Chase’s pupils shrank and his nostrils flared at her tone. “Now. It starts now. Is this room suitable, or do I need to find us better quarters?”

She glanced around. The space was large enough, but it was dark and sterile, and that reminded her too much of her life in Russia. She wanted light and colour and the beautiful things that he could clearly afford. She wanted a view!

“I thought you said there weren’t any others? And this feels like a dungeon. I want a room above ground where I can look outside and see the sun.”

“You can’t. This is a secret headquarters. The only way it stays secret is by being underground. And there aren’t any other rooms. I was thinking of swapping with someone else if need be. But I can have a large screen TV installed in here that has a live feed from outside. It will feel like you’re looking out your window. Will that suffice?”

She considered that. It wasn’t perfect, but she could probably handle it for the length of time it took him to get bored with her, with some modifications.

“Okay, but I need to decorate the room. I know it’s crazy. I know you probably think there are far more important things for me to focus on than home decoration, like tracking down the monsters who took me captive. But unless I have a space that makes me feel comfortable, that I choose, I won’t relax enough to focus. I can’t be trapped again in a room someone else decorated to suit themselves.” Her mind flashed to that girly bedroom her last Protector set her up in. She still couldn’t look at pink without feeling fear and abhorrence rising to overwhelm her.

“The carpet is okay, nice and thick and a pretty dark blue, but the rest is bare and plain. There’s enough space in here for a lot more furniture.”

“Get Caleb to show you how to order stuff on-line, if you don’t already know. Make it good quality, but don’t get carried away. Good quality, American, handmade items using recycled wood helps the economy and looks good. But before you get started on that, write me a list of items you want collected from your apartment, a figure that will satisfy your roommate while she gets herself someone to take over your rent, and the details of your employment. If you have friends, write them letters telling them you have a new job in San Francisco and give them Scanlan Industries’ address.”

“I...I don’t really have friends. Just workmates and a few people I know from my martial arts class. Can I train while I’m here?” she asked.

“There’s any number of guys who can train you here. I do a bit too, just for physical fitness. Come on, I’ll take you back to Caleb. But remember, I’ll have to hurt him if you let him step out of line again. And he’s the best IT guy we have.”

“I didn’t encourage him the last time. He was just being kind. He felt sorry for me.”

“Yeah, whatever. I get it, but my cat doesn’t. So just be warned.”

She nodded, hunching her shoulders. This guy was really getting on her nerves. The sooner he lost interest, the better.

For the rest of the afternoon Chase left Anna with Alyssa and Caleb, slightly more confident his new mate would not be bothered by the attentions of his men.

He'd felt the roller-coaster ride of anxiety ebbing when she returned to the hotel, and then rising inside him again the moment he'd looked at her closely. Dressed in jeans that hugged her long, slim legs; wearing makeup that highlighting her delicate features and big blue-grey eyes; and with her white-blonde hair billowing around her shoulders like a cloud, she had been the most glorious creature he'd ever seen. How could he have
not
seen her as beautiful?

And, in that moment, Anna had suddenly gone from unwanted responsibility to precious possession he was afraid he might lose to one of the other Sons. He'd never known such an aching need for a woman before; a vulnerability that was as unwelcome as it was unfamiliar. It was more than his cat's need for a mate; it was
his
need for
this
breathtakingly beautiful woman. And he didn't have a clue what to do with that feeling.

Because it didn't change anything.

And the admiration he saw shining in Caleb's eyes had only confirmed his fears of losing her. The experiment with the other brothers had to be called off; he’d insisted on that. After what he'd nearly done to his IT guy, he was afraid what his cat might make him do to anyone else who tried to claim her.

So he’d made sure word got around that he’d claimed the newest Mate. That way, the other Sons would respect the bond between them, just as they had with Alyssa and Colt. None would try to take from him his precious, unwanted burden.

Even with piles of work to contend with, he still found time to consider the room situation. He’d blatantly lied to her about there not being any spare rooms. The place was set up to house a hundred Sons. But he couldn’t let her stay in another room, not with the place packed with men, not with his cat as edgy and possessive as he was.

Maybe he was over-reacting to the situation. Maybe his cat would let her sleep in another room, as long as it was nearby. But he’d rather not test that hypothesis. He had enough on his plate. He’d rather give his cat what he wanted so he could focus on his work.

So lying about the rooms seemed the best option until he convinced her by experience that she could share a room with him without fear.

At first he’d thought her insistence on immediately redecorating his room a completely superficial frivolity. Like girls who knew every type of designer shoe there was and wanted them all. But then Anna had explained about not wanting to be imprisoned in a place decorated by someone else. And something in the way she said it, something in her eyes, told him that the room was more than just a room, it was a symbol of something way more significant for her. And he believed her when she said she couldn’t focus on more important things until she had her own space the way she wanted it.

So he considered the view she also wanted. The more he thought about that, the more he realised just how horrifying it must be for someone who had been imprisoned for years to contemplate living underground. There had to be a way he could make that less onerous. And again, the more he thought about it, the less a wall size TV screen seemed to suit the purpose.

A few calls got him what he envisaged: a faux window for his room, part of an old set from a TV series, which included lighting that mimicked sunlight. He had a removal van pick it up from LA, and it would be delivered to the warehouse at the end of their underground tunnel overnight. In the morning he’d have a couple of the Sons install it. By then they might also be bringing in furniture.

Chase wasn’t sure how he felt about having his private space invaded by a stranger. Even when he’d lived at home in his father’s small mansion on the outskirts of Mountain Views he’d never brought any of his short-term girlfriends home for the night. Either he’d stay with them, or if they still lived at home or had roommates, he’d book a hotel room for their hook-ups. His bedroom had always felt like his sanctuary, the one place where he could be totally himself.

When he’d finally decided to join his new brothers in the refurbished underground HQ, five years ago, he’d done it for efficiency. He worked incredibly long hours and even the short drive across town to a bed seemed a waste of time. Anyway, the mansion had really stopped feeling like a home when his mother died, three years before that, and became just a luxurious, empty space he shared with house staff. His father was rarely home, and they usually saw more of each other at work than anywhere else.

Chase may have moved in for efficiency, but he’d quickly realised it felt good to be sharing the underground living space with a growing number of his brothers. It felt right. Though he never allowed any of them to get too close, it still felt like they were family; extensions of himself and his goals. For the last five years that had been enough.

Now... Now he wasn’t sure. His cat had claimed a mate; he couldn’t doubt the truth of that anymore. And even though she was absolutely the last woman he would have chosen, there was something about her that drew him. The man, not just the cat. And it was more than just her beauty, because he'd dated a lot of beautiful women before.

Chase didn’t know exactly what it was that made her stand out from those other beautiful women. Maybe it was the way she’d stood up to him, even though she was clearly terrified. Or the way she seemed to trust him, even though trust would be difficult to give, for someone who had endured years of abuse at the hands of the Guild. He felt his fury rising as he thought of his Anna being used by men, kept imprisoned for their pleasure. Being handed around like A. Fucking. Sex. Toy!

Chase tried to rein in his raging cat, as his imagination painted more and more vivid images of the life she must have led. He found the only way to keep control was to pace and consciously draw in deep, cleansing breaths of air. This he did for what felt like forever.

How did anyone get past that? How could it
not
colour every waking moment with cynicism and distrust?

The
only
way was by being a hell of a lot stronger in character than he gave her credit for; as if her trials had strengthened, not broken her.

Forcing his mind away from those disturbing thoughts, he focused on what she’d said she needed to be happy staying with him. Her list had been meagre. But even those few requirements he hadn’t been able to meet completely. A room with a view wasn’t such a big ask. Yet he couldn’t even give his mate that!

But she’d get as close to what she wanted as he could buy for her. And he’d keep his cat in check so that she didn’t feel sexually compromised. And he’d be kind to her, and as considerate as he could manage without giving her any cause to love him. Because if she fell in love with him, then she’d want more of his time and his attention. If she couldn’t get it, she’d lose heart, just as his mother had. And then she’d end up dead, just as his mother had.

Even though he’d wasted half his day already and still had a mountain of work to finish, come dinner time he found his feet carrying him downstairs to the Son’s Mess. He told himself it was just because he wanted to discuss a few matters with the team that had just come in, and it was as easy to do that over a meal as it was to hold a debrief in the conference room. But he knew the truth. He wanted to spend more time with Anna and assure himself that the Sons were respecting her new position as his mate.

As soon as he entered the noisy dining room his gaze unerringly sought out and found the girl, the stranger in their midst. Anna looked both dazed and frazzled, sitting there with a plate of uneaten food in front of her. Alyssa, to her left, was clearly chatting away in an effort to make her feel at home, but even from a distance he could tell that Anna was on overload. The three Sons sitting around her like adoring adolescents didn’t help either. Couldn’t they see she was using every bit of her strength to stay seated, when all she clearly wanted to do was curl up in a corner with her arms over her head?

At the kitchen dispensary he grabbed a tray holding a plate of pepper steak and steamed veg. All the food was cooked by gourmet chefs off-site and brought in once a day. It was then reheated and served by the Sons on roster.

He wondered fleetingly who would be taking the scraps of leftover steak up to Cooper’s cats. There was no way their medical researcher would have left the country unless he was sure his strays were being looked after in his absence.

Filling a wine glass from the carafe of imported red, he wandered over and joined Anna, taking the seat to her right, which Charles had quickly vacated.

“Eat,” he demanded of Anna, trying to make it sound like an inducement rather than an order. “The food here is good. I make sure the Sons get only the best. This is no army mess.”

She nodded in silence and poked lethargically at a baby potato. But the morsel never reached her mouth.

While talk flowed around him, Chase ate in silence, shovelling in food without really being aware of what he ate. There was nothing new in that. Food was simply fuel to sustain him. As long as it was good quality and tasted okay he didn’t care what it was. And the wine? That simply helped him relax a little. Although tonight it would take more than one glass to make a dent in his stress levels.

When he finished his meal he took Anna’s and his plate to the kitchen, gathered a bottle of white wine from the fridge, two glasses, and two desserts of chocolate mud cake, and put them all on a tray.

Anna needed to get away from all the pressure, but shouldn’t be left on her own in a strange new place. He could give her that at least.

“Anna, come with me, please. Goodnight Alyssa, guys. Thanks for keeping my mate entertained in my absence,” he said after returning to the table to collect the girl. Chase knew he sounded snooty and officious, all the things he hated, but he couldn’t seem to stop.

Anna obediently rose; her head lowered, shoulders hunched, and began following him out of the room. Chase heard growls around the now-quiet room, and knew his men were unimpressed by the way he was treating their newest Mate. He strode on regardless.

By the time they reached his room, he was moving at cat speed and Anna was running to keep up. He stopped at his door and waited for her to open it. Then he strode in and dropped the tray on the one decent piece of furniture in the room – a small writing desk.

He didn’t look up as she closed the door quietly behind them. Instead, he made much of opening the wine and pouring it into the two glasses.

“Anna?” he said imperiously, looking over at her and holding out a glass. Obediently, she scuttled over to him and took the glass.

While he sipped, he watched her out of the corner of his eye. She attempted to drink, just as she had tried to eat, but it was no more than a token effort. Her stress levels were through the roof, and his cat was furiously protective because of it.

He strolled over to the bed and sat on the edge. Cautiously, Anna followed and mimicked him. She was clearly terrified, unsure what he would do next. And with his track record so far, he didn’t blame her.

“I took you out of there because you were clearly overwhelmed. Did I do the wrong thing?” he said, staring at the blank wall in front of him. How must it look to her, this hollow, empty space? He’d never looked at it as anything more than a place to lay his head. Now he saw it for what it was: a reflection of his non-existent personal life.

“No, you were right. I...I am very tired. It’s been a big day. I’m sorry I didn’t eat. It was good food. Better than what I’m used to. But ... my stomach wouldn’t let me.”

“I know. I could tell. Now you can relax a little. I’m not going to talk at you or interrogate you. And I’ll repeat this once more, just so you get the message. I’m not going to make a move on you, either. I made you a promise and I’ll keep it. Okay?”

He looked across at her and saw her nod, as she took another sip of wine. It was a good quality sweetish wine he thought she’d like. Not to his taste, but that wasn’t what mattered here. What he wanted to do – what his cat wanted him to do – was make this girl relax so he could too.

Taking another swallow of wine, he toed off his leather loafers and pushed further onto the king size bed so his back was pressed against the wall and one of the pillows, his long legs extended out in front of him. His actions were designed to appear relaxed, unthreatening, and after a few minutes of companionable silence, it seemed to work.

Anna removed her sneakers and began to clamber onto the bed. Chase immediately saw her problem. The glass she held made manoeuvring across the semi-soft surface to the other side of the bed difficult. He took her glass so that she could more easily settle herself in a similar position to his own, head resting against the bare wall, back supported by one pillow.

“Thanks,” she muttered, taking back her glass and sipping from it once more. Chase had no idea if she was enjoying the wine or not. She might not even
like
wine. Just because all the girls he’d ever dated liked wine didn’t mean she would. A domestic might prefer beer.

“Is it okay? The wine?”

She nodded and dutifully took another swallow. The glass was getting close to empty and there was a faint blush to her cheeks now.

“I can get you something else if you’d prefer. I just thought...”