Tameka's Smile (19 page)

“I’m never sick. Something must be wrong. People don’t just suddenly up and have seizures, unless… Did I have a 124

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stroke?”

“No.”

“Well, I know it’s not epilepsy and I didn’t hit my head, so there’s no trauma to the brain. Hypoglycemia? I did get dizzy for a while there. That’s one of the signs of low blood sugar.”

“Your insulin levels are fine.”

“Oh, God, is it meningitis?”

He dropped his fork and just stared, a horrible, hunted expression on his face.

Her heart clenched. “That’s it, isn’t it? How bad is it? Tell me. I can handle it.”

“It’s my fault, all right?” He pushed his food away and surged to his feet. “I did it. You almost died because of me.” There was a moment of stunned silence, then she quietly said, “I don’t understand.”

He stalked over to the window and parted the curtains.

From the way the light reflected off of the glass, she doubted he could see anything, yet he stared intently.

“That day at my house, when I bit you…”

“You gave me rabies?” She said it half-jokingly, hoping to at least get a smile.

The fingers clutching the curtains turned white. “When I bit you, I licked the wounds to heal them. In the process, I flooded your body with too much of my DNA. That’s why you got sick.

You system couldn’t handle it and reacted.”

“I see.”

He spun around. “Do you?” he asked fiercely. “I don’t think you do. If you did, you’d be yelling right now, kicking me out of the room.”

“Why? It was an accident. You didn’t mean to make me ill.

It happened. I survived and we know not to do that again.” Tameka didn’t understand why he was being so hard on himself.

He was a different species from her, and he’d already admitted he didn’t know much about his nature. Only what he managed to learn through trial and error growing up. Accidents were bound to happen as they adjusted to each other.

“Was it, Meka? Are you so sure? What if I told you I did it on purpose?” He stalked over until he stood three feet from the bed, almost within touching distance. His hands were fisted at 125

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his side and his body rigid with tightly leashed anger.

If all of that rage were directed at her, she might have been nervous. But it was clearly self-directed. “I’m certain of it.

Whatever your intent, it wasn’t to harm. You would die before doing anything to intentionally hurt me.” The quiet confidence in her voice deflated him like a balloon. He sank to his knees beside the bed, an earnest expression on his face. “I swear to God, Meka, I didn’t mean to hurt you. Alex was explaining to me about true mates, and he said that the more of my DNA you had in you, the quicker you would accept that I was your mate. Only he didn’t get a chance to finish. I took it from there and almost lost you forever.”

“You wanted me that bad, that you were willing to change who and what I am just to keep me? Without my permission?”

“Yes.” His answer was stark and honest, but the feeling in the depths of his eyes shook her right down to her soul. This green-eyed Viking didn’t simply want her. He craved her the way a drug addict lusted after his next fix. He gazed at her as though he would die if he couldn’t have her, like she was the very air that he breathed.

She scooted over and lifted the cover. “Come here. You’re too far away. And take off those jeans. I want to feel you skin-to-skin.”

He hurried to comply. Once he was in the bed, she fell into his arms, immediately tangling their legs together. When they lay face-to-face with the same pillow supporting both of their heads, she asked, “Does this mean I’m like you now?”

“Alex believes so.” His gaze searched hers, as though he were trying to decipher how she felt about him and the news he’d just given her.

Logic dictated that she be angry. After all, thanks to him she was no longer human, but strangely, she wasn’t. Though she’d been furious at the time and believed it to be one big joke at her expense, she remembered every word of what Kiesha explained about true mates, the mating fever and bond, and its effect on her body. If Kiesha was to be believed, her changing into a werewolf was inevitable as long as she continued her relationship with Chad, and she’d done nothing to end it. In fact, she’d welcomed him with open arms once she realized he was telling the truth 126

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about who and what he was.

On the basis of all she’d been told, she deduced that all Chad had done was speed the process of something that would have happened anyway. She couldn’t be angry with him for that, although he clearly thought that she would be. She could see the guilt and self-condemnation written all over his face. He expected her to reject him, maybe the same way everyone else he ever cared about had. Growing up in foster care couldn’t have been easy.

She’d deal with that in a moment, but while he was being so open, there were a few more things she needed to know. “What was in the envelope?”

He stiffened and tried to move away, but she held him tight.

“Chad,” she growled warningly. She was sick and tired of him trying to evade answering this question. Something was going on. Something that effected her and she was damned if she’d let him continue keeping her in the dark. “Talk!”

* * * *

“Pictures of us.”

“Is that all?” She rolled her eyes. “What’s so bad about…wait a minute. We haven’t posed for any photos. Who took the pictures?” First she looked puzzled, then suspicious.

“Pictures of us where…doing what? The camera wasn’t on when you stopped me that day, was it?” Her eyes were narrowed and mouth pursed as she glowered at him.

“No,” he responded absently as images cascaded through his mind. The first ones weren’t so bad. Tameka as she exited the house in his work shirt, flip-flops and nothing else, looking sexily rumpled. Him, right on her heels in his work pants, bare chest, and feet. Them examining the tires. Meka backing away as he tried to kiss her.

Then they changed. Him with his white blond hair covered head buried between her meaty brown thighs. The purplish, swollen head of his cock as it parted the puffy, fuchsia-colored, 127

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inner lips of her sex. Meka, head thrown back, eyes slitted and mouth parted, a look of ecstasy on her face. Another of Meka with her feet up in the air, one flip-flop dangling from her big toe as he bent her in half and rode her hard.

Thank God he’d been too intent on getting inside of her and bringing them both to completion to bare her breasts. From the angle of the photos, this person must have been in a tree upwind of them, or he’d been so focused on his mate he failed notice anyone else around.

“In your yard, but that’s not all.” He hurried on before she could probe for further details. “Those flat tires of yours were no accident. Neither were the flowers. You’re being stalked.” She reared back in shock. “Chad, that’s crazy. I just got here. Barely even know anyone. Stalkers fixate on their victims.

I haven’t been here long enough to attract anyone’s attention, let alone piss them off.” She was shaking her head.

“You got mine,” he reminded her quietly.

“But,” she sputtered. “That’s different.”

“There’s more. While you were unconscious, this same person butchered a dog and hung it from a noose in your front yard,” he continued grimly.

Meka froze and her eyes rounded as she searched his face.

Whatever she saw must have convinced her he was serious, and the threat was real. “Why? None of this makes sense. Stalkers don’t just randomly choose people.”

“The land,” he told her firmly. “It’s the only thing that fits.

We believe someone’s trying to scare you off, force you to sell.

This same person contacted the Markham Group to contract a housing development deal using your property.”

“Markham…but those are the people trying to buy my property.” Chad could smell her confusion.

“No they’re not. Someone’s trying to use them to hide their actions. Have you ever called the Markham Group and asked for this person?”

“What person? She never gave me a name. Even the letters never mention a specific contact, just a department. I don’t know why I never noticed before,” she finished, the disgust she was feeling rich in her tone.

“Why would you? It’s not like you were actually interested 128

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in selling. As far as you were concerned, this woman was just a nuisance.” He cupped her chin and gazed steadily into her eyes until she acknowledged the truth of his words.

He could literally see her brain processing the information he’d given her. Her face was that expressive. He wasn’t surprised when she continued questioning him, but the direction she took did.

“If someone’s trying to scare me off, why hang a dog in my yard? Just a plain noose would have been more effective. I would have immediately jumped to the conclusion that this was racial targeting a la the Ku Klux Klan.” Tameka rose up onto one elbow and rested her head in her hand.

“It was, but it was aimed at me, not you,” he confirmed, liking the way her mind worked. Of course, there wasn’t much he didn’t like about her.

“I hate to keep saying this, but I don’t understand. Enlighten me. How was this targeted at you?” She began to absently draw circles on his chest.

He caught her hand and held it, not wanting the distraction.

“The dog they chose was an Alaskan Husky, very wolf-like in appearance. And they left a note.”

“What did it say?”

“Beast lover. Go back where you belong.”

“So, whoever this person is, they know what you are. That should help narrow down the suspects,” she concluded confidently.

He felt a spurt of annoyance. “This isn’t an episode of
CSI
.

Real crime solving isn’t that easy,” he snapped.

He thought again of how little they knew and got pissed off all over again. This was his mate being threatened. He felt a burning desire to hunt down whoever was responsible and eliminate them, by any means necessary.

Heat rose and his skin felt on fire as his wolf, responding to his anger, tried to rise to the surface. He shoved it back down and clamped a lid on it before his beast could call hers. She was too new and didn’t have the needed control. The less her beast stirred the better. During sex was one thing, but this was totally different.

“I didn’t think it was, but actually, how hard can it be? You 129

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know it’s not one of…one of…” Her face scrunched as she searched her memory. Then she snapped her fingers. “You know it isn’t one of the pack. They all know whom the land really belongs to. So you’re looking for a human female that knows about you. This area is small. How many woman can there be that fit that description?”

She was so earnest that he forgot his anger. Besides, she was right.

“And another thing, why my land? There’s plenty of undeveloped property in this area for sale. I see the signs all the time. Not in Refuge itself, but definitely in the surrounding area.

Why is she so focused on mine?”

Chad was stunned. He’d been so intent on discovering the who, he hadn’t given much thought to the why, besides the obvious. He reached for his phone on the bedside table.

“What are you doing?” She sat up on the bed.

“Calling Rome.”

“Who’s Rome?”

“My boss.” He held up a finger, telling her to wait as Rome answered.

“Chad. How’s your mate?”

“Fine. Look, I was explaining the situation to Tameka and she brought up and interesting point. Why this land in particular?

There’s plenty around the county for sale.” There was silence on the other end. “That’s a good question.

Following her line of reasoning, that makes this personal. The note said, ‘Go back where
you
belong.’ The implication being that Tameka didn’t belong here. I took it to mean Refuge, but it may have been more specific to the land itself.”

“Was someone else in line to inherit my property? Did Mr.

Ned have any children that feel they’ve been cheated,” Tameka asked.

Chad’s eyes narrowed at this further proof that his Meka was no longer human. Before the transition, she wouldn’t have been able to hear Rome’s side of the conversation.

“Not that I know of,” Rome answered. “I can ask some of the elders. They’d know more so than I.”

“Whoever she is, she’s very angry and not just about the land. She doesn’t like the idea of humans and shifters sexually 130

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interacting. That’s why she butchered the dog and sent the pictures. She’s trying to shame me.”

Chad was stunned again by the way her mind operated.

“What makes you say that?” There was a wealth of curiosity in Rome’s voice.

“The dog that was butchered, was it male or female?” Tameka asked while Chad sat quietly holding the phone, his mind racing as he tried to figure out where she was going with this.

“Hold on.” The sounds of paper shuffling came through the line. “Male.”

“Was it castrated?”

There was a short pause as he looked for the information, then Rome cursed.

Tameka didn’t wait for him to confirm it. “I wonder if she killed the dog before or after she photo’d us having sex,” she mused. “Probably after. She took the pictures, then killed the dog and castrated it to show what she thought about werewolves,” Tameka concluded.