The Mane Event (25 page)

She did, the book still in her hands. “What?” she asked once she stood near him.

Those gold eyes swept her from head to toe and back, leaving all sorts of interesting tingling in their wake. “Stay with me. In this bed. Now.”

She nodded. “Okay, hoss. Okay.” She stepped closer, brushing his cheek with her hand, and he closed his eyes on a sigh.

Her own fangs bared, Ronnie grabbed the eight-hundred-pound book in both hands and swung. It slammed into Shaw’s jaw, knocking the man on his side and completely unconscious.

Tossing the book back across the room, Ronnie shook her head and sighed. “Damn cat.”

“
Is he supposed to be that horny?
”

The doctor, a cutie-pie leopard, glanced back at the nurses who had to turn away so they wouldn’t laugh in his face.

“Miss uh…”

“Ronnie. Just call me Ronnie. And answer my question, doc. I mean, I could have been rolled in catnip the way that boy was acting.”

Clearing his throat, the doctor took her arm and steered her away from the nurse’s station. All of them shifters, Ronnie didn’t worry about what they might overhear. And with such a light onsite staff due to the holiday, Ronnie didn’t give a damn how loud she got.

“Ronnie, have you never taken care of anyone with fever before?”

“Of course I have. My daddy. My brothers. But they never…ya know.”

The doctor quickly shook his head. “No. No. Of course not. They’re family. But how did your father act around your mother when he was in the fever?”

Ronnie had to think about that. She’d been sixteen when her daddy had the fever after an ugly battle with a wild boar and she hadn’t spent much time thinking about it once he recovered. But then she remembered how her momma kept throwing her out of the room. A lot.

“Oh.”

Smiling, the doctor nodded. “Yeah. ‘Oh.’ He must be attracted to you, Ronnie. Otherwise, he probably wouldn’t bother. Especially lions.” He rolled light gold eyes that would freak even Ronnie out in the dark. “You know how they are.”

He patted her shoulder in an almost friendly gesture. “If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll get one of the male nurses to watch him. He’s a bear. Huge. Can easily handle him. That way you can go meet up with your Pack.”

She almost agreed immediately but then remembered how he’d ordered her to not leave him. There was a desperation to his demand that had her frowning when she realized none of the Llewellyn Pride would be around to take care of him.

“I can’t leave.” Although she really should. “I promised him I wouldn’t.” Ignoring the doctor’s raised eyebrow, Ronnie turned away and headed back to Shaw’s private room.

“Use the call button if he gets really out of hand, Ronnie.”

She waved in agreement and kept walking, turning a corner and heading down another hallway. Considering shifters didn’t need the hospital all that often, they sure did have a huge amount of space around this place.

After pushing the door to Shaw’s room open, Ronnie froze. Shaw was gone, which would definitely concern her. But the two bodies lying on the floor concerned her more.

Ronnie moved closer, her nose wrinkling when she smelled that they were human. Both looked to be in their thirties, one with dark brown hair and a big mustache. The other blond with a brutal scar on his throat, like someone had taken a knife to it. She also smelled the gun oil from their weapons and grimaced at their incredibly tacky suits.

And what, exactly, had they done with her lion?

Ronnie crouched beside the men and found their guns, Glock .45s, expertly dismantled. The pieces tossed under the bed. Seemed her rich lion had some hidden skills. Shaw had battered these guys pretty good, but they’d definitely live.

She sniffed the air and locked on to Shaw’s scent. Keeping her nose up, she followed Shaw down a long hallway and around a corner. As she reached the end of that hallway, she saw a door leading to a set of stairs that would take Shaw down and out of the building.

“Oh Lord.” She ran the last few feet, slamming into the door and shoving it open. Her momentum kept her moving forward. Right into the back of Brendon Shaw who, for some unknown reason, felt the need to sit on the railing. She should have sent him flying over, but he only grunted when she collided into him.

Glancing over his shoulder, Shaw smiled at her. “Well, hi, sexy.”

Ronnie pushed away from his back, taking a few seconds to tie his hospital gown back so she didn’t keep staring at the man’s perfect ass.

“Darlin’, what are you doing out here?”

“Just watching the sun rise.”

Brushing his hair out of his eyes, she said, “You’re in a stairwell, darlin’. And the sun rose several hours ago.”

“Really? And it looked so pretty, too.”

She grinned and Shaw groaned in response. “You have the prettiest smile I’ve ever seen.” Ronnie felt her heart warm for the big goofus. Until he added, “Just like that sunrise.”

“Okay, hoss, let’s get you back—” That scent hit her hard, causing her to pull back.

“What?” he asked, his gold eyes suddenly clear. “What’s wrong?”

She briefly placed her hand over his mouth to keep him quiet and she sniffed the air again. The humans Shaw had dropped were on the move. She doubted they were still looking for Shaw after that beating, but no telling what they’d try if they stumbled across him. And Ronnie really didn’t want to kill anyone today—if she could help it.

“We’ve gotta get you out of here,” she whispered, knowing their voices would echo enough for humans to hear.

“Why are you whispering?” Shaw demanded, ten times louder than was necessary.

Again Ronnie slapped her hand over his mouth. “Keep it down!” She used her other hand to guide him back over the railing and onto the stairs.

“Come on, darlin’. We’ve gotta move.”

She hustled him down five flights of back stairs to the exit that would lead her out the rear of the hospital. She knew she could take Shaw back into the hospital, but she wasn’t real impressed with their Christmas day security if humans could sneak around the Shifter floor undetected. No, she’d be better off taking him someplace safe and away from the city.

“Stay here,” she told Shaw, leaving him by the stairs.

Ronnie took several quick steps to the back door. She examined it and saw it had an alarm on it to alert the hospital staff of anyone coming in or out. Still not wanting to alert the men after Shaw, she quickly located the necessary wires and yanked them out, disconnecting the system. The hospital would probably know someone had tampered with it and their security guards would be there soon to check on it. Just enough time for her to get Shaw out.

Pushing open the door, she carefully leaned out so she could see if it was safe to leave. Thankfully, she didn’t see or smell any humans lurking around and, even better, there was a taxi on the corner.

But before Ronnie could move, she felt big fingers brush against her lower back as they pulled the waistband of her jeans out. Eyes wide, she looked over her shoulder at the man staring intently down into the gap between her jeans and her skin.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“You have the cutest ass,” he sighed out. Gold eyes looked up at her. She had no idea if the fever gave him that hungry look or her butt. “I could spend
hours
playing with this ass.”

“Now isn’t that a lovely compliment.” She slapped his hand away. “Look, you need to get control of yourself.”

Placing his hands against the door frame, with his enormous arms over her head, he leaned into her. Great, the man was hitting on her like they were at a disco.

“Let’s get a hotel somewhere and work this out,” he murmured.

“We need to get you someplace safe, cat.”

“But I like you.”

“Once you get through this fever, you won’t even remember my name.”

“I’ll remember that ass, though.”

Lovely
.

A door slammed several flights up, and Ronnie could hear yelling. She couldn’t wait anymore.

“Come on.” She pulled the door open and took a quick look out, relieved to find the street still empty. Grabbing Shaw’s hand, she pulled him out onto the street and toward the cab.

Once she got him bundled inside, she slammed the door shut and looked at the driver.

“Hey,” she greeted.

The driver stared at her and didn’t say anything. Lord, these Yankees were damn rude.

“I need to go to…” She pulled the slip of paper out of her back pocket and read the address off.

“That’s Long Island,” the driver stated. Like that would mean something to her.

Ronnie stared at the piece of paper. “This says Westbury.”

“That’s Long Island.”

Shrugging, “What’s your point?”

“He’s saying,” Shaw grumbled while trying to remove his hospital gown, “it’s too far to drive—unless you have cash.”

“I have cash.”

“Lots of cash.”

“I have lots of cash.” Ronnie looked at the driver through the partition separating them. “And I’ll give you a huge tip over the meter, but you have to drive now.”

The driver continued to stare at her and Ronnie stared back. When she didn’t turn away or back down, he paled a little bit and pulled out into traffic.

She didn’t mean to scare him, but to be quite blunt she didn’t have time for the little man’s bullshit.

“Where are we going?” Shaw asked.

“My aunt’s house.” Ronnie pulled the gown back into place. “She moved out here years ago, and my momma gave me her address in case I had a problem.” She looked at Shaw. “And you are definitely a problem.”

“Sweet talker.” He grinned even while his eyes closed.

Finally, the big horny bastard slept. Ronnie relaxed against the seat and prayed he didn’t start shifting to lion randomly in this poor man’s cab. There’d be no explaining that to the driver.

She hated going over to her aunt’s for this reason. Ronnie had planned to call first, find out if her aunt even wanted to see her after all this time. It had been nearly fifteen years since Ronnie’s momma and her aunt had that big knock-down-drag-out scuffle. Daddy and her oldest brother had to drag the women apart. Yet even though they hadn’t spoken to each other in all that time, her momma always said, “Family is family, Ronnie Lee. You need her, you go on over there or call her.”

Glancing over at the big man next to her, happily snoring away, Ronnie hoped her momma was right.

B
rendon sat up in the strange bed and looked around the room. He didn’t recognize this place, but he liked it. It smelled good.

He’d like it better, though, if that She-wolf were here. Where could she have gone? He knew she hadn’t left him. Not while the fever still raged through his body. Unlike the Pride, she wouldn’t desert him. He knew that about her already.

Leaning back against the pillows, Brendon tried to remember how he got here. It had something to do with his brother. Maybe. To be honest, he couldn’t remember at the moment, but his brother being involved wouldn’t exactly shock him. Mitchell had been a fuckup since birth. Brendon’s twin sister, Marissa, had written Mitch off a long time ago, but Brendon couldn’t do that.

Had the kid gone missing? Again? Mitch, now twenty-eight, went missing a lot, it seemed. The brothers were born to different mothers but the same father. A father who raised Brendon and Marissa when their mother died during childbirth and her Pride seemed less than interested taking in the two of them. A father who had very little to do with Mitch over the years. Something Mitch couldn’t forget or forgive.

The life of the Pride. It definitely wasn’t for everyone.

Christ, why couldn’t he remember? Was Mitch in New York? For some reason Brendon thought he might be.
Was that why I was looking for him?

Brendon shook his head. He didn’t know. Everything was so fuzzy. But he’d been in those tunnels for a reason, and probably when the fever finished with him, he’d remember why. Now, however, all he wanted was more time with that She-wolf. Fabulous kisser that one. Amazing. Lust inducing.

She wouldn’t leave him.

Even though his body burned with fever, he couldn’t see the harm in checking out the rest of the house. Maybe he could find She of the Wonderful Lips. Besides, he could explore a bit, couldn’t he? That wouldn’t be such a big deal, would it?

Ronnie smiled at the man sitting in the enormous SUV at the curb, waiting for her aunt.

“My hot date.” Annie Jo Lucas winked at Ronnie.

“Very cute.”

The older woman grinned. “Polar bear. I love bears.”

Ronnie laughed. She’d completely forgotten how entertaining her aunt could be. And her momma had been right. Family was family. Her aunt didn’t blink an eye when Ronnie knocked on her door holding on to a man only wearing a hospital gown. Annie Jo let them in, got Shaw settled, and even handed Ronnie a Christmas present she would have mailed to her after the holidays, like she’d done for fifteen years. True, Annie still had nothing good to say about Ronnie’s mother but that went both ways.

Her aunt even talked about canceling her date, but Ronnie had no intention of getting between a wolf and a “proper layin.” That would be plain wrong.

“What about you and that cat?” One dark brown eyebrow peaked up as her aunt smirked at her. “Hhhhmm?”

“I’m just doing my Alpha a favor.”

“Oh. Is that all?”

“What does that mean?”

“Well I just find it surprising you haven’t called in the Pack yet. Let them take care of Mr. I’m Gorgeous.”

“Why should I ruin their Christmas?” The way hers had been ruined.

“Because when you’re Pack, you’re never alone.”

“I’ll call them in the morning. I promise.”

Annie headed toward the SUV, Ronnie trailing behind. “You know, Ronnie, I really can stay. Help you with that boy. He is a big one.”

“We’ll be fine. Go! Have a great Christmas date.”

“You have my cell number if you need me.” Annie opened the door and blew a kiss at her date.

“I won’t need you. I can handle him.”

“Really?” Annie didn’t sound like she believed that for one second.

“Yes. He’s one man. I can handle one man.”

Annie’s date leaned down to look at Ronnie through the open passenger door. “Is that your lion?”

Ronnie spun around and watched Brendon Shaw—all seven feet and five hundred pounds of him now that he’d shifted to lion—trot down the nice quiet streets of Long Island, New York.

“Oh Lord!”

Laughing, her aunt waved at her. “Have fun, darlin’.”

Ronnie didn’t wait to see her aunt drive off with her date. Instead, she took off running after the big idiot.

Thankfully he wasn’t really trying to get away. Instead he seemed to be just wandering…and romping.

She caught up to him nearly three blocks away, rolling around on some poor person’s lawn.

“Shaw,” she called out softly. He ignored her.

“Brendon!” she tried this time, whispering as loud as she dare, hearing music and the people inside the house laughing and having a wonderful holiday. “Come here!”

Shaw, on his back with big paws in the air, stared at her, his tongue hanging out. Lord, what was he doing?

“You heard me, mister. Come here!”

Scrambling to his feet, Shaw gave a low growl. If he started roaring, she was so screwed. But instead of roaring, he…he…

It was the calypso Christmas music coming from inside the house that set him off. Eyes wide, Ronnie watched the King of the Jungle shimmy his lion ass around on some poor human’s lawn. They’d never understand those paw prints come morning.

Ronnie’s head tilted to the side.
Is he
…? Yup. He was doing the mambo. Paws crossing over paws. Head bopping to the beat. Thick, regal mane waving in the cold December air. He actually wasn’t too bad. For a big cat doing the mambo.

Rubbing her eyes, Ronnie realized she had to focus.

“Get over here!” she commanded again, still whispering.

Shaw looked up at her, then he lowered his head toward his front paws, his big lion butt in the air.

Oh my Lord in heaven, he’s in a play bow.

She hadn’t done one of those since her first couple of years of being able to shift fully when she’d still been a pup. And she’d never heard of cats doing them ever.

Ronnie walked toward him, and he literally jumped back away from her.

Keep away. The big idiot wanted to play keep away.

She didn’t have time for this. She had to get his crazy cat ass back in the house before someone saw him.

“Brendon, please come on.”

Another step toward him, and another step back.
Dammit!

He watched her, his gold eyes examining her from head to toe. Then his gaze locked on her tits…and stayed there.

Ronnie Lee rolled her eyes. No matter what breed they may be, all males were pigs.

However, she’d learned over the years that males could be controlled. With the right bait.

Looking around to make sure they were still undetected, Ronnie did what she’d promised she would never do again since that Motörhead concert when she was eighteen. She lifted her shirt and bra, flashing him.

Shaw charged her head-on, and Ronnie barely had time to pull her clothes back into place before she gave a surprised squeal and tore off back to her aunt’s house. Lifting her legs, she cleared the eight-foot fence that cordoned off her aunt’s yard from her neighbor’s. Ronnie made it up the back porch stairs when she heard Shaw right on her ass. She got inside, throwing the door closed behind her, hoping to slow him down, but he rammed right into it, knocking it off its hinges. She winced, realizing she’d have to fix that before her aunt got home.

Ronnie squealed again as humongous paws slapped against her hips, forcing her to the living room floor. She scrambled onto her back, only to realize she had a naked man on top of her with his head under her T-shirt.

“God, your breasts are beautiful,” he rasped. “Can I play with them for a little while?” He planted a small kiss against the side of her lace-covered nipple.

“No, you cannot. Now get off me!” She slapped at his head, trying to get him to let her go. The snoring, however, suggested he wasn’t going anywhere until she moved him herself.

“Lord!” she snarled. “I am gonna kick Sissy’s ass when I see her.”

Panting, Ronnie scrambled out from under Shaw. She intended to think her breathing problem merely an outcome of the outrageous situation she currently found herself in and not because the cat had the softest lips known to man or God.

She stood up and cracked her neck to the side. Grabbing Shaw’s hand, she dragged him across the floor and up the stairs back to the bedroom.

And the entire time she cursed Sissy Mae Smith’s name.

Okay. She had to stop feeling sorry for herself. True, this wasn’t how she’d wanted to spend her Christmas—fixing doors and chasing after lions—but she was here and she just had to deal with it. Like her momma would so eloquently put it, “Oh, get the fuck over it, Rhonda Lee.”

Sitting at her aunt’s kitchen table with her head in her hands, Ronnie stared down at the rapidly chilling cup of hot chocolate she’d made herself. She hadn’t even bothered to put in the marshmallows.

How, exactly, did she get herself into these kinds of situations? First off, she knew better than to trust Sissy Mae. Second…oh hell. There was no second.

All of this, though, was a perfect example of how she needed to change her life. School seemed like a good start. She already had interviews set up with a few of the local universities after the New Year holiday. Hopefully they’d ignore that freshmen year grade report from twelve years ago. It had not been a thing of beauty, and her momma’s reaction…well, She-wolf fights were never pretty. A day after the fight, Ronnie and Sissy Mae took off for Europe with their backpacks and five hundred bucks between them. Ronnie had seen a lot of the world because of Sissy’s constant drive to keep moving. England, France, Germany, Italy…When they got done with the romance language countries, they moved on to Asia, Africa. Wherever. Wherever two She-wolves could get into trouble, they were there.

Then six months ago Ronnie Lee woke up with a German wolf whose first name she knew—and not much else. “How many times,” she’d asked herself in the shower that morning, “how many times can you wake up like this?” That’s when she decided she wouldn’t anymore. She would no longer wake up with strangers. She’d no longer get into barroom brawls. She’d no longer randomly challenge other Packs for dominance. She’d no longer look for trouble.

Three weeks ago Ronnie Lee turned thirty and it looked like all was well on its way. For a while she’d even had a steady boyfriend. But that only lasted a month. She’d brought the poor Beta home and her daddy and brothers had kicked the living tar out of him. He hadn’t actually done anything wrong either, her daddy simply didn’t like him. Not surprisingly, that Beta wolf never returned her calls after that particular family dinner. So, she’d decided a few days later, she’d lay off men for a while. She had toys, and she was a woman not afraid to use her fingers. Really, what else did you need a male for except to fuck and breed with? And she was holding off on the breeding until she got her act together.

Unfortunately, kissing Shaw was like slipping back into her old patterns. Even worse, the cat had a Pride she had to worry about. Cheetahs, leopards, even tigers were mostly loners. Yet Pride females were real protective about their Breeding Males.

Of course, how protective could they be when they hadn’t even shown up at the hospital? Mace had told her Shaw must be on his way out if they didn’t bother to check on him. Apparently he’d bred two healthy cubs with a couple of the Llewellyn females and that’s pretty much all they wanted or needed from him.

“Nice,” she muttered out loud, feeling bad for Shaw.

She spent a few moments wallowing in
his
misery—apparently her own wasn’t enough—when she felt his extremely hot breath against her neck. Ronnie Lee sat up straight and slowly turned her head. He’d shifted back to lion. It amazed her how many times a body could shift while going through the fever. She’d lost count of how many Shaw had gone through. Shame there was no way to control it. Maybe then Ronnie wouldn’t have one of the biggest cats in the world staring at her like a slab of prime rib.

That’s what she got for sitting around her aunt’s kitchen feeling sorry for herself. She never even heard the big bastard come into the suddenly very tiny room.

“Why are you out of bed? Are you
trying
to irritate me?”

He stared at her for several long seconds, then his enormous tongue came out of his mouth and slashed her from chin to forehead.

“Oh! Dammit.” She wiped at her face, disgusted. “Don’t do that.”

Shaw took a step closer and nuzzled her under the chin, his massive gold and brown mane going right up her nose.

Trying to push him away but unable to see with all that damn cat fur in her face, “Bed! Go back to bed!”

“Come with me.”

Startled, Ronnie Lee opened her eyes and found Shaw had shifted yet again. Now he kneeled naked and so damn gorgeous in front of her.

Ronnie never thought she’d go for these gold guys. They were perfectly tanned without all that messy skin cancer concern. Not an ounce of fat on that body. His face…perfect. Even with all the bruises and still healing lacerations, the man was so damn beautiful.

“Come to bed with me, sexy,” he purred in her ear. “I promise…”

She waited for more. With none forthcoming, she had to ask, “You promise what?”

“Anything you want.” His head dipped a bit, and his beautiful gold eyes seared through her. “Absolutely anything.”

Lord, help her.

Taking his hand, Ronnie stood up. “Come on,” she coaxed. “Let’s get to bed.”

He purred and followed.

Brendon woke up back in the room he’d found himself in five minutes ago…or was it five hours? To be honest, he was no longer sure. It didn’t matter. He needed to get up and face the day…or was it night? Whatever.

Trying to sit up, Brendon quickly realized someone had bound his arms and legs to the four-poster bed.

“What the fuck?”

“Oh, look. The idiot of the jungle awakens.”

Brendon blinked, trying to focus on the woman talking to him. She stood at the end of the bed, arms crossed under her breasts, glaring at him as if he’d shot her dog.

“Where am I?”

“Westbury.”

Voice cracking, he yelped, “Long Island?” Why the hell would he be on Long Island?