Roan's Fall

Chapter Eleven

The next day, Roan and Ansley arrived at her apartment a little later than they had first planned. It was already going on late afternoon. Considering they hadn’t gotten much sleep during the night, they had both slept in. Instead of taking his Lexus, Roan had taken the black Cadillac Escalade SUV that belonged to his family. He figured they would be able to pack most of her things into the SUV, and then rent a truck later to get the furniture.

The first thing Ansley did when she arrived was to go to the building’s superintendent and give her notice. Even though she would have thirty days to clear out her apartment, Ansley knew she would be long gone before that deadline. Glad she hadn’t accumulated too much stuff over the years, Ansley started to pack her belongings in the boxes she and Roan had brought with them. With Roan’s help, the packing didn’t seem to take as long as it would have if she had been by herself. She hadn’t forgotten how hard it had been for her to move most of her things into the apartment alone. She had only asked Sherry and her boyfriend at the time to help with the heavy lifting.

By the time they had packed everything in boxes, night had started to descend. Ansley stood up and stretched her aching back. She took in all the boxes stacked on top of each other in her living room. What had originally looked like not much at first glance had turned out to be more than just a little. Ansley hated moving and hoped this would be the last time she would ever have to do it.

Roan came into the room from the bedroom where he had been dismantling her bed.

“All done?”

“I think I got everything. It looks as if we’re going to have to make more than one trip.”

He glanced over at the boxes. “I think you’re right. At least we have lots of time. Why don’t we just load up the SUV with the things you’ll miss if you don’t have and we’ll leave the rest for tomorrow? I’ll ask Leif or one of the others to come with us. I’m going to have to get help with moving the furniture anyway, plus we’ll have the rental truck by then.”

“All right. You can bring the SUV to the back of the building. The super doesn’t like tenants to use the front entrance when moving.”

Roan gave her a kiss. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

After Roan left, Ansley pulled out the boxes she wanted to take with her. She also decided they could just pull the drawers out of her dresser and take them too. It would make the dresser much lighter for the guys to move. Once Roan returned, he and Ansley started loading up the SUV. Roan seemed to be able to get up and down the stairs much faster than she did. Obviously this was one case where being a werewolf had the advantage over being a mortal. He also could carry a lot more than she could. Her sixth trip up the stairs, Ansley had to sit down for a few minutes on the couch to rest. Her legs started to feel like lead weights. Roan didn’t seem tired at all. While she sat he continued to take boxes downstairs.

One particular run, it took Ansley a few minutes to realize Roan hadn’t come back up. Usually he came back up in a minute or less. Wondering what could be keeping him, she got up and headed downstairs to the back entrance. She hoped the super hadn’t decided to give Roan a hard time about them moving her things so late. She didn’t find Roan cornered by the super. What she did find had her frozen in place with fear. Roan stood by the back of the SUV while another man stood with a sword pointed in his direction. Roan stood with no expression on his face as he stared down his attacker. Ansley had to cover her mouth with her hand to stop herself from calling out to him. She didn’t want to distract Roan. Neither man had noticed her standing on the other side of the glass door.

From one second to the next, the standoff ended. The man swung his sword at Roan. Even though he had no sword of his own, Roan avoided getting hit by jumping out of range. The man continued to swing at Roan, forcing him back until both men had disappeared around the side of the SUV. No longer able to see them, Ansley quickly bolted outside. She didn’t go too close to where the two men fought. When she heard both Roan and his attacker growl at each other, Ansley realized Roan’s attacker was a werewolf just like him.

Feeling powerless, not sure of what she could do to help Roan, Ansley searched for something she could use for a weapon. Her best bet would be to look in the SUV, but she knew if she distracted Roan now he could end up hurt. Just about ready to go back up to her apartment to get one of her kitchen knives, the attacker’s sword skidded across the pavement not too far from where Ansley stood. Somehow Roan must have disarmed his attacker.

Her heart raced. Ansley went over to the sword and picked it up. She tiptoed to the SUV afraid of what she would find. She stuck her head around the back end of it and took a quick peek before she pulled back. Two large wolves were snarling and clawing at each other where Roan and his attacker had been. With the sword gone, they had switched to teeth and claws.

Taking a couple of deep breaths for courage, Ansley hefted the heavy sword in both her hands and moved around the back of the SUV to the side where the wolves fought. She easily could tell which wolf was which. She recognized Roan as the wolf with the light brown fur that matched his hair. The other wolf had dark grey fur. She focused on the dark grey wolf as she slowly stepped closer.

She tried not to think about what she was about to do. She focused on the fear she felt for Roan. He was her mate, her other half. No one would take him away from her. She loved him too much to allow anyone to hurt him. Ansley blinked. She loved Roan. Now that there was a chance she could lose him she knew without a shadow of a doubt she loved him, and had from the start. More determined to make sure she got a chance to tell Roan how she truly felt, she gripped the sword tighter in her hands. Once she dared to get close enough to the wolves, Ansley used all her strength to lift the sword as high as she could. She then brought the flat of the sword down on the dark grey wolf’s back, putting all the force she had behind it. The dark grey wolf yelped and went down hard on the ground. Roan took advantage of the situation and jumped onto the back of the dark grey wolf and took the back of his neck in his strong jaws. The other wolf yelped again and then went still when Roan growled and dug his sharp claws into the grey wolf’s side. Defeated, the dark grey wolf whimpered and put his tail between his legs.

Roan released the other wolf’s neck, but didn’t move away. Both wolves shifted to human form at the same time. Roan rolled his attacker onto his back then cold-cocked him. Unconscious, his attacker went limp. Roan picked him up and carried him over his shoulder. He put the other man in the back of the SUV. He pulled out some rope from the back and hog-tied him. Ansley stood quietly by shaking as she waited for Roan to finish. His attacker taken care of, Roan spun around and hauled Ansley to him in a tight hug. “What were you thinking, Ansley? You could have been seriously hurt. If anything happened to you…” He couldn’t seem to finish his sentence.

“But nothing did.” Roan squeezed her so hard Ansley could barely draw in a deep breath, but she didn’t care. “If you think I would just stand by and let you get hurt you have another thing coming. You’re my mate. I won’t let anyone take the man I love away from me.”

Roan went still. He released her enough so he could pull back and look down at her.

“What was that last part?”

Ansley smiled. “I said I won’t let anyone take the man I love away from me.”

She’d hardly said the last word before Roan kissed her so thoroughly Ansley’s legs almost gave out and she barely remembered her own name. When he lifted his head he said, “If I didn’t have to get rid of this trash,” he nodded to the back of the SUV, “I would haul you up to your apartment and show you how happy you’ve just made me.”

Ansley shivered with pleasure. “What are you going to do with him?”

“He’s one of Miles’ men. I’m going to take him to Roxie. As the ruler of the packs she gets to decide his fate.”

“What will she do to him?”

Roan chuckled. “To start with, he’s going to learn his place. I hope he likes being stuck in his werewolf form while chained up in Roxie’s backyard like the dog he is. If that doesn’t make him inclined to talk, I don’t know what will.”

Ansley bit her bottom lip and looked up at Roan. “Since we’re going to Roxie’s, while we’re there I think I’ll ask her if she has time to use that spell of hers.”

Roan cupped her face in his hands. “Are you sure that is what you want, Ansley? I don’t want you to do it if you’re only doing it for me. I want you to do it because it’s what you want.”

She stood up on tiptoe and brushed her lips across his. “I’m sure. I want us to have the thousands of years together the spell will give us. You’re my mate. I want to be mated to you in every sense of the word.”

As Roan kissed her tenderly, Ansley knew she had made the right decision. No longer would she ever have to worry about being alone. Her wolf would always be by her side.

The End