Lycan Christmas

Chapter Fifteen

Sherry sipped on a cup of tea as she sat in a chair across from Melony.

“It will be heaven to have my hair done, Melony. Do you think you could do it soon?”

“Yes. My supplies are supposed to be in by the end of the week.

Whenever they get picked up, I’ll let you know.”

“Thank you.” Sherry smiled and rubbed her belly. “He’s quite the kicker today.”

“Do you know what you are going to name him yet?” Melony smiled as Sherry’s face lit up at her question.

“I have a few ideas, but Piers and I can’t seem to agree on anything yet. I think we will both be happy just as long as he’s healthy.”

Melony could have sworn a fleeting moment of worry crossed Sherry’s features before she set her cup down and straightened in her chair. She figured it was a mere case of nerves. After all, she was getting close to her due date, and it was her first baby. She had to assume that, although a joyful situation, having a baby had to be a trying time for a new mother. Pregnancy messed with hormones, emotions, and the body to the point where she couldn’t imagine it not being stressful at times.

“I have a favor to ask of you.” Sherry watched Melony expectantly.

Maybe there was another reason for the fleeting moment of worry. She didn’t know why, but she had a feeling she wasn’t going to like what Sherry was about to ask of her. “What is it?”

“Piers refuses to take me to town. Says the roads are too rough right now and I’m too far along in my pregnancy to be jostled around so much. But I want to get him something special for Christmas, and if I send anyone else, I know he’ll end up finding out. I want it to be a surprise.”

“Oh! I can pick something up for you. I’m sure Knox or Rose would take me into town.” That wasn’t such a bad favor, although the relief she felt was short-lived with Sherry’s next words.

“No. I want to go myself, and I was hoping you could take me.” Sherry gave her an innocent, pleading smile, one that could rival an angel’s.

“Ohhhh. Well, I’m not sure that would be a good idea.” Holy hell. She’d be skinned alive if she took Sherry to town. By Knox, Rose, but mostly Piers, and she liked her skin.

“Please, Melony. You’re the only one I can ask that I know I can count on to keep it secret. If I tell Janine, she’ll tell Raze, and he’ll tell Piers. If I tell Rose, she’ll tell Knox, and he’ll tell Piers, and—well, do you get what I’m saying? If I ask any of the other girls to take me, it will get back to Piers.”

“I really want to help, but Sherry, I’m not sure it’s a good idea. I mean, if we got caught . . .” Melony’s nerves got the better of her, and she chewed on her lower lip.

Sherry frowned, and tears glistened in her eyes. She sat back with a big sigh, and her shoulders slumped. “I don’t understand why it’s such a big deal.

I mean, I’m not sick. I’m pregnant. I simply wanted to get Piers something special, something that showed him how much I love him and how happy I am that we are having a baby together.” She sniffed. “It’s okay. I shouldn’t have asked you to help me.”

Melony scowled at the floor. Damn. She hated when people cried. And seriously, what was the big deal about letting Sherry ride into town? Sherry was right. She wasn’t sick. She was pregnant. Lots of pregnant women did more than ride around on a bumpy road. And getting Piers a gift seemed to be extremely important to her. If she drove real slow and planned it carefully, they might be able to pull off the trip to town without anyone finding out.

“Listen. If I do this—”

Sherry sprang forward and grasped Melony’s hands between her fingers.

“You’ll take me? You really will?” She hugged Melony tight. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“Now wait. If we do this, we have to plan it out carefully, and make it fast.”

“The best time to go is a week from this coming Sunday. There is a meeting planned for that day, and everyone will be attending. There are normally two meetings a month to discuss security, new reformants, and maintenance on the property, but there is only one this month because of Christmas. Everyone will be tied up for several hours that day. We can slip away and be back before anyone misses us.”

“Isn’t the closest town a couple hours away?”

“Less than that. I know a shortcut. We can be there and back within three or four hours, probably less because I already know what I want to get Piers. All I have to do is run in and right back out.”

“I doubt you will be running anywhere.” Melony raised a brow and looked at Sherry’s protruding belly.

Sherry giggled. “True, but I’ll hurry. Thank you so much, Melony.”

Melony stood. “Thank me once we are back and no one is the wiser about our trip, because if you get me in trouble, I’m not going to be happy.”

“I won’t. We’ll be fine.”

Melony wasn’t as confident as Sherry, but she couldn’t really turn back at this point. Sherry seemed so much happier now. She couldn’t agree to take her and then take it back.

“I have to go. I’m going to be late for my meeting with Lorent if I don’t get going. I enjoyed visiting with you.”

Sherry walked, or rather waddled, her to the door, where she gave her a quick hug before Melony continued on to the Learning Center.

Ten minutes and a thousand worries later, the Learning Center was in sight. Why had she agreed to take Sherry to town? What the hell was wrong with her? It had been Sherry’s tears. Those had been the death of her logic.

She’d just wanted to make her friend feel better. She sighed, and decided it would be better to accept it for what it was. It was a simple trip to town, and she was blowing it out of proportion, worrying over nothing. They’d get there, get back, and that was that. At least she hoped.

When Melony arrived for their lesson, Lorent was surprised that she no longer seemed angry with him. She hadn’t brought up what happened Thanksgiving night. Maybe she’d thought about it and finally realized that there had been nothing going on between him and Shannon. Hell, how could anything go on between him and anyone other than Melony? He didn’t want anyone but her. Yeah, but she doesn’t know that, you idiot.

He looked at her closer and noticed she seemed a bit preoccupied. Maybe she was still angry at him, but he didn’t get that feeling. Something was distracting her, because he was now preparing, for the fourth time, to show her how to break a front choke hold.

“When I grab your throat, tuck your chin under my hold, if possible, to force some space between my hands and your neck.” He placed his fingers around her delicate throat, she tucked her chin, and he was pleased at the way she worked her chin under his fingers. “Good. Now bend your legs just a little, and turn to the side.” She did that part perfectly as well, and he smiled in encouragement.

“Bring your arm up, over, and down on my forearms as hard as you can, then swing up at my temple with your elbow.” This was the part where it fell apart each time.

She followed his instructions to a tee, but seemed to lose heart at breaking the hold and hitting him.

“I can’t hit you.”

Did she not understand that if she didn’t get these moves down, it could possibly mean her life down the road?

“Yes, you can.”

She tried to back away, but this time he refused to release his hold on her throat as he had each time before. He didn’t hurt her, but he had to make her understand why she needed to learn self-defense properly.

Her chocolate eyes sparked at him when he didn’t release her. “Let me go,” she said through tight lips.

“Make me.”

“Stop it, Lorent.” Her teeth were clenched now.

“No.”

“I’m getting angry. Let me go.”

She tried to twist away from him, but he kept his grip firm enough to keep her imprisoned, yet gentle enough that he wouldn’t leave marks on her skin.

“Good. I want you to get angry. Now slam your arm down across my forearms and crack me a good one in the temple.”

“Seriously, I don’t want to hit you. Why can’t we just go through the motion without me actually hitting you?”

“Because you need to feel the move, not just imagine it. I want you to know exactly what you need to do to break the hold. I want you to be able to save yourself if you’re ever in a situation like this.”

She tried to break the hold again, but he held her easily. Her eyes sparked again, and he smiled.

“That’s it. I want you to get good and pissed.”

She tried to back up out of his grip, but he followed her without letting go of her throat. “You can’t get away from me, Melony. Not unless I let you.” When she grunted in frustration, he laughed at her in an attempt to piss her off even more in hopes that she would finally do what he asked of her.

“Stop it!”

“Make me,” he taunted.

Suddenly, she tucked her chin, turned, brought her arm down across his forearms as he’d instructed, then up, and knocked the holy hell out of his temple with such grace and fluidity it would have taken his breath away if he wasn’t trying to stop his brains from jiggling in his skull.

Her eyes grew wide, and her mouth hung open as she stared at him. “Oh my God! I’m so sorry!”

He grinned and hugged her to him when she tried to examine his temple, then picked her up and spun her around until she giggled. When he let her slide down his body until her feet touched the floor, the rub of her against him set his blood on fire.

“That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to get you to do. Don’t be sorry.”

“But I hurt you,” she whispered.

“No. You didn’t,” he whispered back next to her ear.

He’d never get used to the effect her scent had on him. Every time he breathed her in, his knees weakened, his heart thudded, and his body ached to possess her. He nuzzled his nose against her hair—the hint of jasmine clinging to the silky strands only enhanced her natural scent—and she sighed.

The sound was like an invitation, a temptation he couldn’t resist, and it had been entirely too long since he’d last kissed her. Denying himself the pleasure of taking her mouth was no longer an option as his wolf pushed to the surface, and he bent to taste her.

Lorent’s mouth came down on hers, possessively, urgently, and stoked a fire inside her in two seconds flat. She’d missed his touch, his kiss. She’d missed him. When his tongue slipped inside to taste her, every cell, every part of her honed in on Lorent, lost to the passion sparked by his mouth devouring her, and the rest of the world was forgotten.

She linked her arms around his neck and pressed against his hard, hot body. When he growled, she took the sound as encouragement and rubbed against him shamelessly, needing to be close to him, craving to be skin to skin with him. As his kiss became even more urgent and possessive, need built deep in her belly and an insistent ache throbbed between her thighs.

When he touched her, it was as if her very essence melded with his until they became two parts of a whole.

She wanted him, and if the bulge pressed against her thigh was anything to go by, he wanted her. A moan escaped her throat when he ran one hand along her hip and around to cup her ass. She’d always thought she had a generous butt, but his big hand made her feel small and feminine. His other hand skimmed down her side and stopped just over her tummy, fingers splayed in a protective gesture as if in anticipation. Could he possibly be thinking about her carrying his child?

While the thought of having his baby was appealing to her, it brought things back into perspective, and just before his fingers made their way to her breast, she broke the kiss with a gasp. Her needy body cried out in denial of the sudden absence of his touch, but the passion-induced fog was clearing from her brain now.

He watched her from under thick lashes as she took a step back from him. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I just can’t think clearly when you touch me.”

“I have the same problem.”

It was time to lay it all on the line, her heart, her soul, herself. She had to find a way to crack the wall—more like the fortress—he had erected around himself. She sat down, patted the seat next to her, and waited for him to sit down before taking his hands into her own.

“I want to tell you about my mother’s accident.” She swallowed hard around the lump forming in her throat. “And why I no longer believe it was an accident.”

The desire that had burned in his eyes only moments ago died, and the serious, more reserved Lorent returned.

“You don’t have to talk about it, Melony. Not if it hurts you to.”

“But don’t you get it? That’s why I do need to talk about it. I need to share it with someone else. I need to share it with you.”

“If you really need to, you know I’m here for you.”

She nodded. She did know that, but somehow she needed to make him understand that she wanted to be there for him as well.

She took a deep breath before continuing. “It started out as a day like any other. Mom had gotten up, and we both ate breakfast together—cereal, because as I told you, she wasn’t the best cook in the world.” She laughed halfheartedly. “She made up for it in so many other ways, though. She was an awesome mother.”

He squeezed her hand in encouragement, and she continued on. “I had planned to go job hunting because the diner I waited at part-time closed down. Mom wished me luck and headed out to work at the local vet’s office.

She’d never gone to college, since she got pregnant with me at a young age.

After Dad ran off when I was two, she had to work to support us. She’d always loved animals—must be where I got my love for them. Anyway, she’d recently decided to go back to college to become a vet technician.

“When she’d first brought the idea up to me, she’d been hesitant, thought she was too old to be chasing after dreams. But I encouraged her to do it if it was what she truly wanted, and she finally did. She’d been so happy when she’d first started her classes. She’d come home, and I’d help her with her homework. It was nice to be able to repay her for all the years she’d helped me.

“But within a few months, things started changing. She became less enthusiastic about the classes, withdrawn, and talked about quitting. She tried to play it off as a simple case of changing her mind, but something hadn’t seemed right. She started getting calls late at night, and would leave home at all kinds of late hours. When I questioned her, she’d just laugh and tell me Dr. Carson—the DVM she worked for—had given her more responsibilities and she was helping with emergency calls.”

“And you didn’t believe her?” Lorent asked.

Melony shook her head. “My mother never lied to me. I had no reason to doubt her, but for some reason I did.”

He leaned toward her and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. “That’s called instincts, honey. You should always listen to them.”

She nodded in agreement. “I know that now. The night of her accident, she got a call and told me she had an emergency at work. She kissed me good-bye, and that was the last time I saw her alive.”

She could feel the tears gathering behind her lids and knew it wouldn’t be long before they slipped down her cheeks. She leaned against his chest and sighed in the safety and comfort of his arms when he wrapped them around her. He gave her the courage to continue, to say out loud what she’d never told anyone before.

“I got a call from Dr. Carson the next morning. He told me he was sorry, but there had been an accident, and Mom was dead.”

The tears fell freely now, and her body shook with the effort to remain calm so she could tell him the rest. Fighting back the sobs, she took a couple calming breaths before continuing.

“Later, I found out she’d been attacked by one of the feral dogs they’d been keeping at the office. Apparently, it had been brought in the day before by a stranger and was supposed to have been put down that evening, but hadn’t been for some reason or other. No one could explain to me how it had gotten out of its cage or how it had disappeared from the office after killing my mother.”

She leaned back and looked up into Lorent’s hazel eyes. “Knowing what I do now, you can understand why I question what happened to her.”

He nodded and wiped the tears from her face with his thumbs. “Yes. I understand, and I think you are probably right to doubt that it was an accident.”

“Is it my fault? Did my mother even have the scent, or was she killed because I had the scent? Now I think it was a rogue that killed her and could smell me on her.”

“If your mother was as wonderful as you say, she would not want you to blame yourself for any of what happened to her.”

“Yes, I know, but it’s hard to forgive myself for possibly being the cause of my own mother’s death.”

“Melony. You cannot blame yourself for something that you had no control over. What’s in the past is in the past. You must focus on the future.”

“Logically, I know this, but it doesn’t stop me from feeling guilty or from wondering that if I am right, where is the bastard that killed my mother? If a rogue killed Mom, I want him punished.”

Lorent’s eyes suddenly looked haunted, and she squeezed his hands gently. “You are no longer a rogue. You are a good man.”

He stared at her with such sorrow in his eyes, her heart ached.

“Tell me,” she whispered. “Tell me what haunts you so.”

“I can’t.”

She stood. “I’ve opened my heart to you. Told you something that I’ve never told another, will probably never tell another. If you care for me, if you want us to have a future together like I do, you have to trust me. I cannot be with you if you cannot trust me.”

“I do trust you, Melony, but I can’t tell you. You’ll hate me, and I can’t bear that.”

She cupped his cheek. “I won’t hate you. I care for you, Lorent. I want to be with you. I want to see where the future leads us, but I won’t lie. I can’t be with a man who keeps himself from me. In fact, I’ll be wide open with you. I love you. But I can’t be with you if you don’t believe that I will love you no matter what you’ve done, no matter what you do.”