Walk on the Striped Side (24 page)

In the aftermath, he lay on top of
her, covering her completely while he licked at his mark on her neck. He should
have felt a bit of guilt on how long it was going to take her to heal that mark,
but all he could feel was a supreme satisfaction that she was, once and for
all, finally his.

Her heart was drumming loudly, her
body still shuddering as she whimpered a little when he finally stood up and
pulled himself out of her. Gage redressed them both quickly before picking up
his mate’s limp body and arranging her so that she was sitting in her seat.
Reaching around to buckle her seat belt, he chuckled when she leaned her face
forward and kissed his cheek before promptly passing out.

He had a temporarily sweet, almost
submissive Amazon passed out in his truck. It was time to take her home and let
her nap before he woke her up for round two.

CHAPTER-TWENTY-EIGHT

Elena

The smell of French toast woke her up
for the second time that day. The first time she’d woken up was because Gage
had insisted she should get her ass up and watch him change for the first time
before he ran off to go catch his early morning breakfast. She’d dragged on his
basketball shorts and t-shirt and then followed him out to the living room
where he’d changed into a big ass tiger. Then he’d stood there, staring at her
like he expected her to freak out or whatever.

She was half awake, half hung-over
and he’d sprouted a freaking tail.
Whoopty
-fucking-do.
If he wanted more of a reaction than a pat on the head, then he should have
waited until she was halfway alive. She’d just told him to go catch a squirrel
and brush his teeth before he got back into bed with her before she opened the
French door to let him out into the backyard.

As she had stared out the glass at
the tiger walking towards the woods, her cell phone in the short’s pocket had
rung and she’d answered it grudgingly when she saw it was Chloe. As usual, her
sister had been ungodly obnoxious first thing in the morning, however Elena had
put up with the conversation since it had been about Delta. Chloe had just
watched their little sister walk into the house wearing rumpled clothes from
the night before and doing an obvious walk of shame. The two of them had
attempted to remember if they’d seen her talking with any one guy in particular
last night, but neither of them had been able to come up with an answer.

Still not awake enough to deal with
Chloe’s ramblings, she had turned around to head back to the bedroom she now
shared with Gage when she’d stopped short as her eyes had landed on a white
tiger with his hind leg extended in the air as he used his tongue to groom
himself in an area that she never wanted to see him grooming again. She might
have called him a freak, however she couldn’t be sure since there had been no
coffee in her system yet.

So waking up for the second time
that day to yummy smells was infinitely better than how she’d been awakened the
first time. As she sat up in the bed, she had to wince at the small shot of
pain that traveled up her neck and over her shoulder. That mangy feline better
be cooking her breakfast after biting her last night.

Elena moved to get out of the bed
to take a quick shower, groaning at the other areas of her body that were sore.
Gage had fucked her like a madman all night last night and she might be walking
a little bowlegged today because of it. That breakfast smelled really good,
though, so she was going to ignore all the pain and get her ass to the kitchen
ASAP.

Rushing through her shower, she
dressed in jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt for the mild, North Carolina,
November weather and then headed towards the man she’d, in essence, married
last night in a parking lot. He was waiting for her at the kitchen table with a
plate full of food and a cup of coffee. At the sight of the food, her stomach
grumbled loudly and Gage must have heard it because his face spread into a wide
smile.

Hunger pains hit her hard as Elena
sat down and started shoveling food into her face. She couldn’t remember the
last time she had been this hungry. She practically inhaled her three pieces of
French toast and the bacon. Before she knew it, she was picking food off Gage’s
heaping plate.

The man didn’t complain once as she
repeatedly stole pieces of bacon or toast and gobbled them up. He did tease her
a bit, though. “If you’re going to eat all of my food, the least you could do
is come over here and sit on my lap and give me some love, woman.”

Elena rolled her eyes in feigned
annoyance and plopped herself on his lap. He wrapped his arms around her waist
and nuzzled his face into her neck. She was used to him acting all cuddly and
cat-like with the ‘pet me, pet me’ routine, but she wasn’t used to the whole
sniffing thing he was doing right now. The chuffing sounds he was making while
he smelt her up like she was catnip were tickling her skin.

She reached her hand around and
tried to push his face off her neck. “What’s with you this morning? Stop
smelling me.”

He nipped the tips of her fingers
so she pulled them away from his face and then started nuzzling her neck again.
“I can’t help it. You’ve never smelled this good before—” His body froze,
statue still by the end of his sentence.

Elena rolled her eyes and nibbled
on another piece of bacon. “Stop acting like a creepy stalker sniffing my
panties.”

His arms suddenly tightened on her
midsection. “Uh, I have something to tell you, mate, and you might not be happy
about it.”

“You have a giant litter box after
all? I’m not scooping it, Gar-field. You’re on your own.”

When she didn’t get a growl or
warning or a laugh of amusement back, Elena knew something was wrong.

Turning to face him, she took in
his worried face and asked, “What’s wrong, Gage?”

He sat there, staring at her instead
of answering. Not talking, just gawking at her… and more gawking.

After several silent minutes of
nerve wracking staring she finally snapped, “Spit it out already!”

“You’re
pregnant
,” he
blurted.

Silence ensued again. Elena sat
there, waiting for the ‘Hey, I’m joking’, or the ‘Don’t mind me; I was just
smoking crack’, however the man didn’t say another word. He just sat there
looking slightly panicked.

She didn’t know what was more
unnerving. The bomb he’d just dropped or the silence. Since she was kind of in
denial about the first thing, she was going to say it was the second thing.

“Say something!” she shouted.

Looking a little sheepish, he
replied, “I hope we have boys.”

At those five, small words, Elena
flipped her shit.

Jumping up from his lap, she
angrily stood in front of him. “Are you really sitting there telling me that
you’ve put a bun in my oven?”

He nodded.

“You injected me with your baby
batter?”

Gage snorted. “Funny, that’s what Babushka
called it last night when she told me you were in heat.”

That sentence made Elena see red.
“Are you sitting there fucking telling me that you knew you could knock me up
and decided to do it without asking me?”

He held his hands up in surrender,
trying to placate her. “We were drunk. The idea sounded better in my head at
the time. Besides, shifter children are hard to conceive, Elena. How was I
supposed to know that you would get pregnant so easily?”

“How could you do this to me?” she
screamed.

“Because I want to own you in all
ways, mate! Your heart, your soul and your body. And I will do anything and
everything I have to, to tie you to me, including children.”

That bloody tiger was going to be
the death of her sanity. She’d told him she loved him, let him chew on her like
a cat toy, and forgiven him for hurting her. Why in the hell was he still
afraid that she would leave him?

Not having words to describe her
anger, confusion, and frustration, she decided to let him know how she felt
with actions instead.

Elena walked over to the stove,
grabbed the dirty frying pan that was still sitting there, and threw it at his
head. She knew she wouldn’t hit him; the man was fast enough to dodge it. She
didn’t bother to stay after that. She stormed out of their home’s back door to
get some fresh air and try and calm down, ignoring the sound of her sister’s
voice, not knowing or caring when she had gotten there, as she slammed the door
shut behind her.

CHAPTER-TWENTY-NINE

Gage

“Why is she throwing shit at your big,
fat head?” Chloe asked as she walked into his house with Alec right behind her.
Just what he needed. Twiddle-
dee
and Twiddle-
dum
showing up uninvited while he and his mate were
fighting.

“Because I just told her that as of
last night, she’s pregnant. She’s a little pissed I didn’t talk to her about it
before doing it,” he answered truthfully.

"
Shut the front door
!"
Chloe shouted excitedly.

Gage and Alec glanced at the front
door of the house, which was shut, and then back to Chloe questioningly.

"I didn't mean literally,
assholes."

One of Alec’s eyebrows cocked up
and he crossed his arms over his chest. Looking from Chloe to his brother, he
said, “I swear, the older we get, the more ridiculous the human dialect gets
with its idioms. The other night I met this chick after a fight, and just when
things were starting to get hot and heavy, she told me she wanted to watch me
‘spank my monkey’.”

Gage cringed at the mental image
his brother had just given him and hoped fervently that Alec would stop talking
soon. Otherwise, he might need therapy. As usual, however, Alec just kept
running his mouth.

“The sad thing is,
bro, that
should have been hot as hell for me. Her wanting
me to get off in front of her like that. Instead, all I could think was that a
hundred years ago it would have meant she actually wanted me to spank a real
live monkey. Instant erection killer, I tell
ya
.”

“
Ewwww
,”
Chloe mumbled. “Anyways, let’s go back to the part where you explain how you
knocked my sister up on purpose without her consent. After her the little
temper tantrum I just witnessed, I’m guessing she’s not very happy with you
about it?”

Gage glared at Chloe incredulously.
“Temper tantrum? My woman just threw an iron skillet at my head! I don’t want
to even think about what will happen if she finds my weapons stash!”

“Swiss cheese,” Chloe stated.

He shook his head in confusion.
“Swiss cheese? Are you hungry or something?”

Shaking her head, she snorted. “No,
dummy. If Elena finds your weapons stash, you’re going to look like Swiss cheese.
I hope you have a really good life insurance policy. I expect my niece or
nephew to be well taken care of if my little sister fills you with holes.”

Before Gage could respond, Alec
said, “Nieces or nephews,” putting emphasis on
the ‘s’
in each word.

Chloe’s jaw dropped open in
surprise then she shrieked, “You guys can tell that? If she’s breeding more
than one spawn? Is it a smell or something?” She didn’t give him or Alec the
opportunity to answer, she just kept shrieking. “My
God
. Elena was
right. You guys are
freaks
.”

Gage felt his temper rising.
Freaks? His mate had called him, and by association, their future children,
freaks?

He snarled, “She said what?”

The color drained from Chloe’s face
at his tone of voice. She took a step back, putting her hands up in the air,
presumably to ward him off, and then took another step away from him. “Now,
now. No need to go and get all growly on me. In her defense, she didn’t mean it
quite as bad as it sounded.”

With the stress of all that was
going on around him, Gage felt the tenuous control on his beast start to slip.
His tiger was pushing to the forefront, demanding to take over. Not that his
other half would hurt his mate’s sister, but it sure did want to scare the shit
out of her for her careless comment.

Doing his best to keep his claws
from emerging, he gripped the back of the couch in front of him. Gage knew that
asking further questions on the matter could cause him to get angry enough to
lose complete control, yet he had to know. Had he been wrong about Elena? Gage
wouldn’t have dreamed that the woman had a racist bone in her body, and yet,
she thought he was a freak? If that was the case, what would she do about their
impending cub or cubs?

“Well, what did she mean then?” he
finally snapped out.

Trying to play it cool, he watched
as Chloe ran a trembling hand through hair and fluffed it. Huffing, as if this
whole conversation was ridiculous to her and she hadn’t just metaphorically
stabbed Gage in the heart, she answered, “She said it this morning, Gage. You’d
just turned furry to go catch a meal on the go. After she watched you change
form for the first time and run off, I’d called her to talk about Delta.”

Gage wasn’t liking how this
conversation was going so far. He’d thought Elena had been fine with his beast.
She hadn’t acted disgusted or put off when he’d come home. In fact, that night
had been one of the best of his life. Not just because they’d made love for the
second time, but also because she’d come to him on her own. No handcuffs, no
excuses or ulterior motives like the night she’d played her games to get the
truth out of him. All of his instincts had been sure that Elena was finally
ready to give him what he wanted. Her. Unconditionally.

That was why he’d gone a little
crazy when he’d scented the heat his Babushka had told him about. So, in a weak
lapse of judgment, he’d decided to make her surrender as his mate also
irrevocable. She could never leave him if he got her pregnant. It might not
have been his best plan, however a desperate man was prone to do desperate
things. Now he worried more than ever that his plan had backfired.

“Are you listening to me, you giant
fur ball?”

His head snapped up in Chloe’s
direction. “What?”

She rolled her eyes. “How typical
of a man not to listen. Like I was saying, just as she was assuring me that
everything was all right between the two of you, she turned around to go back
to bed and found Alec in his tiger form licking his balls. It
weirded
her out, okay? So there’s no need for you to get
all mad about it. I’m sure I would have said a lot more if I’d walked in and
seen one of you guys licking your furry cat balls.”

Gage couldn’t believe his ears.
Glancing over at his brother, who was still sitting on the couch, he noticed
Alec was blushing. He didn’t need to ask if his brother had been caught by
Elena grooming himself. Jesus, no wonder his mate had called them freaks.

His head dropped down in relief. He
didn’t know whether to punch his brother for inadvertently causing him grief or
start hysterically laughing at the whole situation. This whole mating thing was
some stressful shit.

“Are you done with your hissy fit
now? Because, if you are, I’d really like to get back to this plural baby
thing,” Chloe demanded.

At the mention of his newly
conceived cubs, Gage smiled. He couldn’t help it. The thought of two or three
little rascals crawling around and snarling at their mom, making her crazy, was
enough to brighten his whole day. However these cat references from Elena and
her family were starting to get old. He hadn’t missed the jab by her wordage of
“hissy”.

“I don’t know, are you and your
sisters ever going to stop abusing me with the feline innuendos?” Lifting his
head to look at her, he watched as Chloe tapped her pointer finger to her lips
with her eyes rolled up at the ceiling like she was thinking.

She finally shrugged her shoulders
and said, “Nope, so you should cough up what I want to know anyways.”

It was Gage’s turn to roll his
eyes. “I never realized Amazons could be so ridiculously single minded. No, we
cannot detect how many cubs are gestating. We can scent a pregnancy, but
nothing else.”

“So why would Alec hint that
there’s probably more than one baby?” Chloe asked.

Alec snapped, “Nature. Genetics.
Think about it, but don’t overtax those slow moving brain cells of yours.”

Chloe’s eyes narrowed on his
brother and Gage almost cringed. It looked like Alec hadn’t appreciated the
whole ball licking story and was out for blood. He was wrong on his assessment
of Chloe, however. Gage could see how most people would take one look at her
high maintenance persona, sarcastic attitude, and flaky tendencies and see
nothing except a good time girl. He’d already figured the oldest Demos sister
out, though. It was all an act. The woman was a highly intelligent, shrewd strategist.
Perhaps you wouldn’t put her in front of an Army and tell her to win the war
with your soldiers, yet if you gave her a scenario to manipulate… Yeah. The
outer packaging said ‘man eater’; the inner soul that everyone seemed to
overlook was something entirely different. He really couldn’t wait until
Elena’s older sister met a man who didn’t fall for her bullshit because,
frankly, any man who tamed that little schemer deserved a good shot of bourbon
for fortitude and a pat on the back.

Chloe retorted sharply, “I don’t
know anything about shifter genetics, you lack wit. We only found out we were a
tad bit more than human ourselves a few months ago. Did you expect us to become
genetic experts overnight?”

Inserting himself back into the
conversation to head off the impending fight, Gage answered Chloe, “To expand
on what Alec said, we assume Elena will be pregnant with more than one cub for
a couple of reasons. On the human genetics side, I’m one in a set of triplets.”

Chloe interrupted him, “I get that,
but from what I understood, the chances were higher if it was a woman who had a
family history of multiple babies, not a man. For instance, your sister, Lulu.”

Gage nodded his head in consent.
“That’s true. The chances are much higher if it’s the female from the side of
the family with a history of multiples. However, you and I both know that we’re
not just facing human DNA here. That brings me to reason number two. Our
preternatural
Other
DNA. In the case of shifters, some animal tendencies
are more dominant than our human ones. If you look at your average reproducing
tiger in the wild, they usually give birth to multiple cubs. So although Elena
is in essence
huma
—”

“What you’re trying to say is that
you have super swimmers.”

Gage choked on his words and Alec snorted.

Suddenly, Gage’s French doors
crashed open and Elena ran inside from the backyard, past their stunned little
group, and down the hall to Gage’s bedroom. She reemerged less than a minute later
holding the flamethrower she’d used on the mission in Germany.

Chloe stared at her sister,
dumbfounded, not understanding what she was doing. Alec gave a small roar in
alarm and held his hands up in the air in surrender. Gage watched the insane
woman he loved ignore all three of them and try to storm past him and back out
the door.

As she went to past him, he snapped
his arm out around her waist and stopped her. “What in the hell are you doing
with that?”

Elena finally looked at him and
he
saw that her left eye was twitching, which was never a
good thing. Gage liked to think of that twitching eye as her sanity meter. The
more it twitched, the more you had to worry about her doing something seriously
stupid and catastrophic. At the rate her eye was twitching now, he considered
evacuating the entire neighborhood as a precaution to whatever she was trying
to do.

In a fervent whisper she told him,
“He’s back. I swear that he’s fucking stalking me. The little shit is so fast I
can’t goddamn kill him and he won’t fucking go away, and if he doesn’t leave me
the
fuck
alone,
I will burn the entire
WORLD
down
in
the pursuit of killing the little fucker
!”

Maybe he should evacuate the state
and not just the neighborhood.

Trying to grab and pull the nozzle
of the flamethrower’s gun away from her, they got into a small tug-o-war. Gage
attempted not to use his superior strength to just rip it out of her hands
because he didn’t want to startle her into pulling both of the triggers while
she held onto the weapon. He had no idea if she’d already turned the valve of
the pack on or not.

“What is this crazy talk, woman?
Who in the hell do you think is stalking you and why are you trying to kill
him?”

They were still playing tug-o-war
with the gun when she shouted, “It’s that furry, little bug-eyed fucker! No
matter how many times I try to kill him, he just keeps coming back! Let
go
!
I have to
roast him out of existence
!”

Was there another shifter on his
property? Was that what his irrational mate was talking about?

Gage looked out of the many windows
he had and the French doors for a threat. Some sign of a wolf, feline or bear
shifter on his property. When he didn’t see anything, he looked back to Elena.
“I don’t see anyone. What are you talking about?”

Snatching the nozzle out of Gage’s
lax hands, she ran for the doors. “Follow me! I’ll show you before I incinerate
his disgusting little ass!”

Little? What small shifter would
possibly scare her? Gage ran out the back of his house after his seemingly
unstable mate with his brother and her sister right behind him. He watched as
Elena stopped in front of a tree a hundred feet away from his house and pointed
with the nozzle of the gun up to a branch.

“SEE!” she cried hysterically. “Do
you see the little freak? I’m going to get him this time and kill him for
good!”

Gage ran up behind her and grabbed
the nozzle of the gun again just after she’d turned the valve on the tank. All
she had to do now was pull the two different triggers in the correct order and
she’d light up his old oak tree like it was a log covered in gasoline on a
bonfire.

“There’s nothing up there, you
deranged woman. Give me the M2 Flamethrower before you hurt yourself. Think of
our cubs!” Gage yelled at her.