Sanibel Sizzle - Vampire Werewolf Menage (21 page)

“You’re risking yourself and you think I won’t tell Jayce and Bren?”  He steered Tatum towards his leather sectional opposite an amazing view of the deepening sky…and well away from his computer.  “I know Bren is wrapping things up at The Blue Pelican before he leaves for Scotland, but Jayce isn’t that overwhelmed not to notice you’re missing.  Considering you’ve already driven for several hours, I suspect he knows you’re gone.” 
Alpha’s p
robably
in a killing spree
as we speak.

Tatum sat without grace, burdened with dread, crunching the leather under her soft behind. “Jayce misted out of state to settle some sudden territorial dispute and left me with Rock. ‘Mind Rock while I’m gone’,” she mimicked the Alpha.  “I’m not a baby.  You’re all hiding something from me, treating me like glass.”

“And you drove here instead of phoning me?” 
Not that I’m complaining, mind you.

“Ah, come on, Gage.  You’d never agree to meet me here.  Yeah, I’m human with a
n immortal lifespan.  But
I’m not
stupid
.”

“No one thinks you’re stupid, only extremely vulnerable and still learning our ways.  Any member of the pack is expected to die for you, and he or she would do so without conscious thought.
Facts are facts.  You’re throwing yourself out there for a shifter or any rogue immortal when you sneak away from your guard.  Times are what they are, rough and evil.  Take care to adapt or someone dies due to carelessness.”

“Point taken,” she kept going. “Jayce says he’s handling it.  I can’t wait for him to handle it, and I don’t know where to start.”  Her shoulders shook, face falling in her hands.  She be
gged, “You always help me
.  You were the one that saved me from…
you know
, that night.  Can’t you do it again?  For Bren, I mean?”

Gage would die for her a thousand times over.  Even though he knew better, he sat next to her, placing an arm around her shoulders whil
e ignoring the twitches his dick gave off from her nearness
.  “I’ll do most anything you ask.  Nothing is too much.  But promises?  I can’t make
them, not while under the Alpha’s rule.  I can only try.”

“Thank you, thank you so much,” she clutched his l
apels,
brushing her
plush
breasts against his chest. 

Gage smelled Tatum’s hair, burned it to memory.  But death would meet him if he took this where he wanted it to go, and this was a volatile argument he would have with his balls.  Distance was required for two reasons:  his sanity and a necessary phone call. “You know Jayce’s office is right next to this one.   Full bath and fresh towels,” he soothed, trailing a thumb across her cheek and wiping tears.  “Freshen up and grab a drink from his fridge.  I’ll get your car, and we’ll discuss everything while I drive you home.” He stared at her lips when he asked, “Sound good?”

A chill erupted from her creamy skin.  “Are you still telling Jayce?”

“Tatum, in all honesty, what do you think will happen when he finds you gone, and your guard is unaware?” 

She shuddered, hugging her herself. “I don’t know.  But I hope he keeps the werewolf down when he finds me.  I love my Bren and can’t stand to see him in this kind of pain.   So I’ll deal with the repercussions.”

“While we’re shooting for the truth, how in God’s name did you ditch Rock?”

“Sleeping pills.”

“They wouldn’t work on a werewolf.”  He shook his head no.

“In a high dose, they do.”

“Damn,” Gage pinched the bridge of his nose, knowing he was sinking fast.  “Off you go, turn left at the door.”

Misting to his desk, he made the first call with immortal speed.  Ringing, ringing, ringing, leaning on the corner, Gage held the phone and
grumbled
, “Pick up, damn you.”

“Yeah,” a coma-induced voice answered.

“Missing anyone?”

“Shit.”

“Get to Miami!” Gage threatened Rock with an icy whip.  He couldn’t read Tatum’s mind, but he sensed her deception and knew somehow she’d been tipped off to the truth, their little secret. 
So naturally, as nothing stayed calm in the lives of Weres, this whole situation had the making of an unpinned grenade.   One he and Rock would have to throw their bodies atop to keep everyone
else protected
.  Slamming the handset on his desk, he absently patted his pockets and wondered where he’d left his cell phone.

12

“
I
’m in.
N
ow what?”
  Tatum whispered in the phone she lifted from Gage.  That last hug
did the trick.  Breasts were
powerful weapons when in the right hands, especia
lly if those particular hands were
horny.

“I’m nearby.”

“Do you realize,” Tatum protested, “the only human working here just left? The ones remaining can smell you.” She thought twice. “Wait, Gage’s secretary did leave, right?  You didn’t make a meal of her or anything did you?”

“You provided my meal, beautiful queen.  Get going down those stairs,” he barked. “Gorging
on
your delicious blood has hidden my scent and I’m still too far away for the werewolves to notice.  In fact, I smell just like you…yum.”

She ignored that.  Tatum never met an immortal male who wasn’t rock hard and dying to sink balls deep into wet flesh while dropping fang.  “They won’t sense you?”

“For the love of all things holy, just do as I say!”

“Can a vampire really talk about holy things?” Tatum wondered aloud.

“You’ve
watched
too many movies,” he hissed.

She took note of the very real hiss. “Not trying to rile you, vampire,” Tatum conciliated, wondering if a stake through the heart was also bullshit, or if it really could kill the fang-blessed.  She’d have to ask Jayce
…if she made it through this.

Opening a heavy door that led to the basement, she eased through.  No, there shouldn’t be a basement here due to the sea level.  Flooding issues usually hinder that sort of thing in Florida.  However, there
was
a basement in this building, and she was standing in it. “How do you know they’ll let me in?”

“You’re the queen.”
 

“You really don’t know Jayce,” she muttered under her breath.

“I heard the story you told Gage,” his voice
wrapped around her, as if they were walking together instead of speaking over
the phone.
He’s so creepy.
“Couldn’t you’ve come up with something better than hunting for the fallen Rebecca?”

“No, since I would have done it in a heartbeat, and it’s the same genuine story I gave them all at home.  Only then it wasn’t a story but truth.”

“I must say you sounded a bit stupid,” he replied.

“Thanks for confirmation.  But it’s old news.  They all treat me like I’m stupid.” Tatum found the corridor she was looking for.  “Three wolves on the left and one very freaky wolf guarding the door,” she barely moved her lips knowing the vampire heard.

“Good girl,” he commended.

“You won’t sound so happy when you’re caught,” Tatum said, dreading what she was about to find.   If she hadn’t overheard that conversation between Jayce, Bren and Gage, she wouldn’t have believed a word Maestru had told her. 
Secrets.
  The bigger they are…

“I’ve never been caught.”

“
That’s
reassuring.  Would you’ve really battled our pack over this?”

“Yes.”

“Knowing deaths would accumulate on both sides if war started,” Tatum pushed, “without any remorse on your part?”

“Remorse corrodes my veins daily.  I live with it,” he breathed, something he didn’t need to do often. “I wouldn’t know how to live without it.”

“That’s a sad place to be, Maestru,” Tatum tightened her hand on the phone.  “I’m here.”  She didn’t want to be.  The whole territorial dispute that had Jayce up in arms when he had better things to do – like hunt for Rebecca – was a farce orchestrated by Maestru’s Coven.  The vampires had staged an out of state “issue” requiring Jayce’s presence or immediate civil war threatened to break out among the vampire coven and the werewolf pack.  

After poisoning Rock, the Coven Master stealthily slipped in, drank her to the brink of death and swiped her.  An inside job if there ever was one.   Steve Palazzo, Maestru’s brother, came to the forefront of Tatum’s mind as Grade
A
Snitch.   Tatum gritted her teeth.  If that asshole had anything to do with this, especially after she’d defended him to Jayce and Bren, she’d find a way to kill him herself. 

Maestru misted next to Tatum, praising, “Very good, beautiful queen.” Right when four werewolves charged. One jumped on top of Tatum, shielding her with his powerful body, sensing she was his queen to protect.   A heavy pall disoriented the guards, clouding their vision.   They saw things that weren’t there, yet Tatum’s sight and mind remained protected.

“Promise, you won’t hurt them,” she begged.

“I have no intention of hurting them, unless they hurt me.”

“Seriously, we both know their intents are to hurt you,” she ground out. “It’s a job requirement.”

“I’ll show all leniencies I can,” he sighed, rolling his eyes. “
Let’s move on
, shall we?”

“What am I supposed to do now?”

“Look ahead,” he said, pointing to a cell with a silver bars and a single door with a small opening in the center.  It was just enough space for a tray of food.

Tatum gaped. “A prison system, they really have one for Weres?”

“Evidently,” Maestru said, “hurry, look inside.”

Tatum closed the distance, approaching the cell with a singular will.  She had to face the unimaginable.  “Oh…not…possible,” she gasped, knees shaking as she fought to stand upright. “It’s true…what you said…all of it.”

Mike Carter met the force of her shocked stare with one of his own.  “I scented you.  But I thought it was another dream.”  He cocked his head sadly. “I never thought the vampire would come through.”

“What is this?” Tatum’s stunned expression melted into her voice.  Turning to Maestru, she asked, “Another trick?”

“No.  Even though I can make the dying undead, I cannot raise a dead werewolf.”

“Who can?”

“No one.”

“So
,
Mike was never….”

“Killed by your mate,” Maestru
finished when she couldn’t, “just like I said. 
Let’s hurry, or I’ll have to off the guards – something you don’t want to happen due to human sentiments,” Maestru taunted, rolling his eyes.

“Mike?”  She stepped to the bars, taking a better look.  His appearance was somewhat different, strained and exhausted.  Still, he flashed the beautiful otherworldly blue eyes that dominated the male werewolves, and his hair was more of a deeper brown minus the lighter streaks he’d had.  Probably from staying out of the island sun, she supposed sadly. 
“Mike, tell me,” Her voice trembled.  “Tell me the truth.” She sucked in a breath. “I need to know what happened.  Please, I’m begging you.” 
Nightmare.
  It’s just another bad dream.

A low grumble left his throat.  “You beg me?  I beg you.  You’re mine.  I sit in this cell, a compartment no less, waiting for release, waiting for you.  I didn’t kill your ex-husband,” he spat the words, disgusted.  “My sister is to blame, and she’s dead.  The death offering to the pack, the Alpha, was met.”  His eyes flowed through her; longing resided.  Promises of heart-filled passion speared their depths, challenging Tatum’s sense of what was right…or wrong.  “The only way to save your mate’s sister, even if it were still possible, is to present me to the Alpha.”

“How do you know any of this?
Present you?  Obviously, Jayce knows you’re here, a fact kept well hidden from me.” 
How could he not tell me this?

“Jayce,” Mike scoffed, “how he trusts you, or doesn’t as the case may be.”  Hope suddenly flashed, turning his lips into a cautious smile. “Didn’t he think you would long for me?”

“I can’t speak for Jayce.   Although I want no secrets between us, I wholly trust him.  Obviously, he doesn’t trust
you
.  There’s a reason you’re here, one he carefully chose.”  She leaned on the bars, holding in the tears that threatened to fall. 
So afraid
I
’m
gonna freak.
 
“How do you know about Rebecca,” she changed course, needing to find any information she could.