Sanibel Alpha Vampire Werewolf Menage (Fanged Romance Series Book 5.5) Page 2

  Waving a hand, Bren muttered, “Your father knew my parents.”

  “Knew?” She grabbed the bank bag and headed to the back door, flicking the lights off as she moved through the store.

  “They’re dead,” he said solemnly.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “It happened a long time ago.” Gently swatting her hand away, he lifted a bulging bag of garbage. “Dumpster out back?”

  “Yeah, thanks.” His parents were dead? But he had a sister, Rebecca. “So you and your sister have guardians?”

  “I take care of my sister,” he answered almost angrily, then seemed to compose himself as they walked the darkened boardwalk behind the island shops.

  “But you’re so young to be like a father to someone.” Her eyes rounded as Bren swung the heavy garbage bag across the parking lot, landing it precisely in the dumpster.

  “I’m stronger than I look.” He slipped his hand around the bank bag and tugged. “I’ll drop it for you. You shouldn't be taking cash to the bank at night alone. It isn’t safe.”

  He was right about that. Tatum hated making night drops at the bank. “It’s not safe for you, either. A weapon is a weapon. A blade or a bullet can go through you just as easily as it could me.”

  He opened his mouth as if to refute her, then clamped it shut. Glancing at a watch that had to have cost more than her car, he said, “I have to be somewhere within the hour. Indulge me, Tatum Shirley.” When she shook her head no, he amended, “Then I’ll follow you to the bank.”

  “I have to do this four times a week now.” Tatum made her way to her car, jabbing the keys in the lock and turning. “What difference is one night going to make?”

  “One night can change your life, Tatum.” His breath whispered across her cheek. “I can protect you every night you work.” One hand shot out and caught her door; his other came around her opposite side, caging her in. “And the nights you don’t work.”

  This wasn’t right. She’d started dating Troy Hillman two nights ago, and they’d agreed to be exclusive. “Bren, I’m going to be late getting home,” she explained softly, expecting Troy would be there soon. This could be her night, her first time, since her parents were weekending in the Florida Keys. “I can’t stop you from following me to the bank, and I appreciate your concern over my safety, but this is where your concern has to stop.” A strange vibration whipped through her body, one pulsing with static power. “What the…” Tatum looked around but found nothing out of sorts.

  “Tatum, don’t tell me to stop.” The weird sensation ended when his eyes locked onto hers. “I don’t think I could handle it very well.”

  This was incentive to keep him away as his instability was entirely evident. “Don’t make this more than it actually is.” She gripped his biceps, noticing the lines and swirls of ink that mimicked Jill’s motorcycle man. Tatum doubted the marks were merely a fashion statement, but asking him such questions would lengthen their time together.

  “Give us a chance,” Bren murmured as the weight of his body leaned into hers.

  Tatum’s thighs tensed when he traced a wet line down her throat with his oddly scratchy tongue, stopping to nip her between her neck and shoulder. Keeping his teeth firmly attached to her tender spot, he lowered himself, aligning his distinct hardness against her. “Bren,” she warned in an unconvincing voice. “No.” She gasped when he bit harder, circling his hips. Just when her knees grew weak, fear shot through her like a piercing bullet. The same fear that had flared the night they’d gone out, when he’d kissed her. It was telling her to run. Run away and never look back. Still, Tatum had to get away from him without any further damage to his pride. It wasn’t in her to hurt him. “Come on,” she whispered, pushing at his chest with shaky hands, “private school doesn’t mix with public school. Everyone knows that. You’ll lose your friends’ respect for slumming.”

  “Do not ever talk about yourself like that, Tatum,” he chastised with a growl. “Do you think I care what anyone at the Academy says about me?” He inhaled again, stiffened, and pulled away from her body in blurring speed. “Believe me when I say that we’re more alike than you realize.”

  His breaths were harsh, his hands now fisting at his sides. His frustration was palatable, filling the air around them and enticing her to get in the car quickly. She turned the engine while taking deep, calming breaths.

  “Your father,” he said in a gravely voice. “He keeps your head in the sand, but he can’t do that forever.”

  “Whatever you say.” She realized her mistake in entertaining this conversation. “You’ve scared me for the last time.” Shutting the door, she backed out of her parking space and yelled through the window before she took off. “Stay away from me, Bren Walker.”

  Briefly, he closed his eyes and uttered a single word, “Impossible.”

  Chapter 2

  Jayce waited several heartbeats before he tailed Bren. He stayed high in the trees, jumping from branch to branch, while keeping out of sight. When Tatum stopped her car at the bank, Bren stayed back a few feet and positioned himself behind a green dumpster. With his keen senses, Bren heard the faintest rustle of palm fronds as Jayce stepped from the brush.

  “Bren, you missed football practice again tonight,” he whispered. “Why are you following that mixed blood again?” He inhaled sharply, scenting her Irish, werewolf blood. “She’s intoxicating.”

  “Yeah, well, don’t get carried away,” Bren snarled quietly, keeping his eyes on Tatum.

  “Carried away?” Jayce almost groaned as Tatum’s car left the parking lot. “I couldn’t even get started with Tatum Shirley.” He’d met her at the last beach bonfire, had made the mistake of asking her if she wanted to be with him for the night. She had the nerve to act all insulted so he’d shrugged and went for a run. He’d never been turned down by a female before, and to this day, it just blew his mind. Why wouldn’t she want him above all other males? Perplexed, he shook his head and then sent out his senses to encompass his surroundings, making sure no other threats were around as she drove home.

  “She wants absolutely nothing to do with me.” Bren admitted, “Won’t give me a chance.”

  “You had more of a chance than I did. You just fucked up somehow.” Jayce watched her taillights disappear in the distance. “Wasn’t she the one Jill fixed you up with on that blind date?”

  Bren kicked a rock out of his path. “Does everybody know about it? I mean; is there any way of getting any privacy around here?”

  “Not when you’re sniffing around a rarity, such as an Irish mixed-blood,” The island breeze lifted the hair off his forehead, soothing him. “How many female werewolves do we have around here? I can count them on two hands, including the ones who are already mated.”

  Bren spun around, glaring. “I want her.”

  “Well, now, so does every other male at the Academy.”

  “Including you?”

  Jayce shook his head, lying, “Oh, I’ve got my hands full with other females. You know this.”

  “As long as they aren’t full of Tatum, then we’ll stay friends.”

  “Like it works that way in our world, Bren, even for Alpha blood.” He jumped high on a Live Oak, swinging to the next tree. “You know everybody ends up sharing. There’s too few females to go around.”

  Bren landed onto a rooftop with silent feet. “Statistics aren’t something I want to discuss now.”

  “Well, let me spell it out for you anyway,” Jayce whispered, the moon nearly bleaching his features, apart from his glowing eyes. “Tatum’s father is a half-ling.”

  “You’re wasting my time with facts I already know,” Bren said tightly. “I think he’s the one who’s keeping her away from me.”

  “Possibly.” Jayce jumped to the next roof, nearly sliding on the mildewed, barrel tile before adjusting his balance. “Considering he’s not a Pack male, he probably doesn’t want his daughters learning their true heritage and mating with werewolves. Easy fix, man, give h
er up…for now.”

  Bren scoffed. “If I could shake her off, I would. Problem is… I don’t want to shake her off. Every time I close my eyes at night, all I see is her. I think I’m going to go insane until she’s underneath me. I want to bite her. I want to protect her, and I don’t want to see any other male around her, especially human males.” He blew out a long suffering breath. “God help me…What do you think this all means?”

  “Let me check.” Jayce grabbed Bren’s arm, searching his be-spelled tattoos. Jayce’s father insisted all Youngling males wear them so they wouldn’t go nuts on females during their hardest, hormonal years. The urge to bite and pin down a female shouldn’t be hitting Bren with those babies in place. “All still there.” But hadn’t Jayce felt those primal stirrings when encountering Tatum?

  “Yeah,” Brin snapped, while rubbing his arms. “They’re there yet every primal instinct is roaring inside me, telling me to scratch them off, release my werewolf, and go after her.”

  Jayce felt his canines tingle the very way they had when he first met Tatum. “You can’t possibly think she’s your one and only.”

  “What else could it be? Answer this, Jayce? Have you ever experienced this? Considering all of the females you’ve taken, how many times did you feel this way?”

  Precisely two weeks ago and just now, Jayce thought, only with Tatum. But Bren didn’t need to know that. “Don’t ask me.” He held up both hands. “You know I don’t pay attention to details on most days.”

  Bren aimed for the next roof, swinging out on another branch. This one covered in moss. “Tatum is under my skin, and somehow I have to get under hers.”

  Jayce didn’t follow him. “I’ve got to run.” He had the scent of Tatum in his head, knew where she lived. And like Bren, he couldn’t keep telling himself that what he felt meant nothing. “Sparring first period tomorrow, I’ll be ready for you.”

  Bren’s eyes darkened. “If you don’t make it in by curfew tonight, Headmaster’s calling your father, and he does not enjoy dealing with the Alpha.”

  Jayce shrugged. “Who does? I sure as hell don’t like dealing with Dad when he’s pissed.”

  Swearing loud and long, Bren pleaded, “Come on, Jayce. Don’t screw up, again. They’ll drop you from football permanently.”

  “Cover for me.” When the clouds parted, revealing the full moon once more, Jayce lifted his face to the night sky. Celestial power charged his body, surging through his veins, thick and electrifying. “I won’t be long.” Jumping high, he swung out on a Royal Palm and gained momentum. Bren was shouting something after him, but nothing mattered. Jayce had to try again.

  As the next street rose ahead of him, he turned left towards her house and that’s when it happened. “Ah!” He grabbed his temples with his hands and pressed inward. Pain fogged his brain, muffling all sounds. With a resounding whack, he landed on a soft patch of sand right when a growling voice raged inside his head, ‘Take her!’.

  Lifting himself on his elbows, Jayce shook the sand from his hair and took a look around. No. No. No. He was too young for his Alpha Beast to raise his head and he still bore his be-spelled tattoos, ones that also prevented him from misting. With a deep inhale, he couldn’t scent anyone but he also knew some vampires were conveniently scentless.

  “Who’s there?” He wiggled his legs. No broken bones but he would be bruised for the night. “Show yourself.” A fine mist appeared at his left but it was natural, not even a phantom.

  “All right, then.” He stood up, rolling his shoulders. Tatum’s house was halfway down the street, and he spotted her car pulling into the driveway. “Let’s try this again.” He jumped over the sand, landing in a narrow berm filled with Coconut Palms and ficus. With a weary sigh, he started walking. Swinging on Coconut Palms sent the fruit to the ground like random missiles. They’d land on houses, cars, and heads.

  When he was close enough to scent her that voice thundered through his head again, the pain nearly splitting his skull apart.

  ‘Take her.’

  Well, hell, he couldn't deny it this time. What luck! His Alpha Beast had picked this very night to emerge for the first time. Sucking in a large breath, he blew it back out slowly and steadily. And when he did, he pushed back against the pain and worked at corralling his werewolf. He and his Alpha father had gone over this a million and one times during the past three years. His father instructed him to find that glowing ball inside and push it back unless his life was in danger, or he was old enough to run with the Pack males.

  His eyes snapped open, the glow brighter than normal, reflecting off the black asphalt of the street. And when he focused on Tatum’s driveway, he saw something he really shouldn’t.

  “Hey, baby.” Troy Hillman wrapped his arms around Tatum, squeezing her hips with his roaming hands. “Tell me your grandmother has your sisters before I get too excited.”

  “Yeah,” Tatum answered with a nervous laugh, entwining her fingers around the back of Troy’s neck. “Granny wants me back at her house, too, but I talked my way out of it.”

  Troy’s grin widened. “To be with me.”

  “Slow,” she said shakily. “Just…go slow and we’ll see, okay?”

  “Anything you want, I swear.” He lifted her off her feet, kissing her lustily. When they came up for air, Troy breathed, “I just want to touch you however and wherever you are comfortable.”

  Tatum raised her brows, shaking her head. “I don’t believe that for a minute.”

  “Okay, I want to touch you however and wherever I want,” Troy amended with a devilish laugh, “but I won’t go past your limitations.” Taking the keys from her hand, he tossed her over his shoulder and marched to the front porch.

  Jayce watched them disappear into the darkened house, the lights never coming on. However, the sounds of cloth brushing against cloth and then skin rubbing against skin met his sensitive ears. Then the musk of human, male arousal bloomed in the air.

  The Beast raised his head. This time, his power was too strong to fight back. He snarled as twin pains met his gums, releasing the full length of adult canines. Jayce stared through his red haze, opening his clenched fists to find them sliced by his newly emerging claws. He gasped, holding them out before his face. He’d seen his father behead vampires with these things. Now he had them, too.

  “God…it’s too soon,” he groaned, falling to his knees in a mixture of fascination and terror. He wondered how he would bridge the gap between being a seventeen-year-old Youngling with this inner creature far too powerful for him to understand completely.

  Or control.

  ‘Take her!’

  “It’s too late,” he snapped back, staring at Tatum’s still darkened house. “If I go in there now, you’ll take over and-”

  ‘Kill!’

  Shit. Shit. Shit. “No!” He tried again, corralling that glowing ball but it was no use. The seams of his jeans started popping. His T-shirt became so tight that he tore it away with his claws. With everything he had, he started walking away from her, fighting the werewolf within. All the while his muscles were punching out everywhere, his frame growing a head taller.

  Three breaths in.

  One long exhale out.

  Three breaths in.

  One long exhale out.

  He somehow made it to the end of the street without killing Troy Hillman, but he was still thinking about it. Now, he couldn't tell the difference in what his Beast wanted and what he wanted. They were one and the same. Then, his mind flashed to Bren, and how his best friend’s desire for Tatum overwhelmed him. Jayce understood Bren’s predicament completely. “Oh, God, what can I do?”

  Chapter 3

  Jayce lifted his knees and took off in a blue blur, the wind hitting his face as he jumped low rooftops. His instinct took him to the marsh adjacent to Lighthouse Beach. When his skin rippled, the rush of power singing through his veins, he let everything go.

  Run.

  Run.

  Run.

&nbs
p; He was free, going so fast the air beneath his feet displaced sand and broken foliage. The drive to mate wasn’t the only thing hitting him head-on, but his will to rule. He glanced around the sights of the island, his home, realizing he would rule from here just as his father before him.

  When Jayce took another leap, nearing the Academy, he hadn’t a clue how to call his werewolf back. A panic hit him, causing him to slow his run. With his next breath, he found a familiar power swirling around him before his father’s hand gripped his shoulder.

  “Dad,” he roared in a strangely distorted voice.

  His father flashed his canines, his body in mid-transformation as he ran alongside Jayce. “What have you done, son?”

  “Instead of committing an act of murder on an innocent,” he growled back, trying to quiet his Beast but he still couldn’t find his way, “I took to the marsh.”

  To his surprise his father grinned. “Better to run than kill and run, right?”

  Suddenly, Jayce’s red haze popped like a soap bubble, releasing his rage over Tatum and Troy. He hadn’t a clue whether it was his doing or his father’s will. Wondering how much trouble he was in, especially if Bren couldn’t find a way to cover for him at the dormitory, he stopped to think of possible excuses for the Headmaster to accept. Unfortunately, there weren’t many left to try he hadn’t used. “Ah,” he sighed when that inner, glowing ball finally simmered to a faint flame.

  Ardan demanded, “Tell me you weren’t after that mixed blood again.”

  What didn’t his dad know? “Okay, I won’t.” A straight fence made of limestone came into view, its wall a good twenty-five feet high, but Jayce had jumped it before his Alpha Beast reared. Therefore, tonight shouldn’t be a problem. Except his dad was still watching. “Listen, you have enough to do so why keep tabs on me?” Bending his knees, he jumped high, landing perfectly atop the fence. He ducked when a roving spotlight nearly caught him. “Damn perimeter lights,” he hissed low.