Chasing Cristabel (Ashland Pride Six) (13 page)

“I shouldn’t have been so nice in the
beginning.”

Chase snapped the lid shut on the medical kit
and hung it on the wall hooks. “Don’t beat yourself up about it.
You’re a nice guy.”

“You and Hunter wouldn’t have let her get
close enough to touch you.”

Chase shook his head. “Cris needs you.”

Dylan stared at his cousin. “What?”

“She can’t have three males who are
aggressive. It wouldn’t work. If we were all like Hunter, Cris
would be overwhelmed. The three of us balance each other out. Me,
I’m more of a planner. I look at the big picture, what I want to
see for our future. Hunter worries about everyone’s safety, so he’s
like the family bouncer. And you’re the caretaker. You worry about
us, but not like Hunter does. You want us to all be happy. You’d do
anything to make Cris smile, and hell, so would me and Hunter, but
it’s not the same as it is with you. You crave it, right?”

There was no use denying it. Dylan did want
Cris to be happy, no matter the cost. “Yeah.”

“Maybe Theresa’s one of those humans who just
wants to fuck a shifter, and she knew that you’d be the best bet of
the three of us.”

“Because I’m weak,” Dylan said.

“Hell no. Because you’re
nice
. Now,
our mate is out in the bar and wants to see you for a bit.”

His cat perked up. “Why did Hunter bring her
here? It was their time to be alone until you got off work.”

Chase’s brow rose. “Judging from the
shit-eating grin on Hunter’s face, I’d say they had plenty of fun
alone. He said that she missed us. All of us. Since you’re closing
tonight, she won’t get to see all of us at the same time until
tomorrow.” He crossed his arms and leaned against the counter. “I
think her cat is bothering her.”

Dylan recalled the conversation Chase had
shared with them about Cris’s mating concerns. Dylan worried about
marking her throat again, scarring her lovely skin another three
times, but he definitely liked the idea of her biting his
wrist.

“Then we need to do the ceremony with her. If
it’s what she needs to feel like we’re a fully mated group, then
that’s what we should do.”

“Plus, it has the added benefit of her going
into heat so we can start our family.” Chase smiled.

“We need to find a place to live away from
the boarding house, and the sooner the better.”

“I’m working on it. I’ve got some places for
us to see later this week with a realtor.” Chase straightened and
clapped his hands together. “Let’s go see Cris before my shift is
over. Our sweetheart’s waiting.”

Dylan couldn’t stop from smiling at the idea
of seeing her. He followed Chase out of the kitchen and into the
bar. It took only a heartbeat for him to locate her at a table
against the wall, with Hunter seated next to her, his arm over the
back of her chair. Chase hadn’t been overstating Hunter’s
shit-eating grin.

Cris stood as they joined them and slipped
her arms around Dylan’s waist, hugging him tightly. “Hey, love,” he
said, holding her close. She smelled like summer sunshine, and he
breathed in her familiar scent.

She purred and he smiled as he kissed the top
of her head. He cupped her face and lowered his head to kiss her
properly when she growled suddenly. Her eyes flashed as she grasped
his wrists.

“What happened?” Her voice was low and
furious.

“It’s nothing.”

The door to the kitchen creaked as it opened,
and Cris turned slowly to stare at Theresa as she walked out. Cris
looked at Dylan, and her nostrils flared. He opened his mouth to
ask her what was wrong when she shot out of his arms like a
missile, heading straight for Theresa. She growled sharply as she
pushed the female into the kitchen. Theresa screamed, but no one in
the bar seemed to notice.

Dylan raced for the kitchen, with Hunter and
Chase on his heels. Dylan skidded to a halt inside the kitchen as
he witnessed Cris manhandling Theresa, the human’s arm twisted
behind her back as Cris’s eyes glowed with her beast.

“Ow, let me go you fucking bitch!” Theresa
shrieked, trying to twist out of Cris’s grip.

“Dylan is mine. Mine!” Cris roared the words.
“You put your hands on him. You cut him. He’s too nice to beat you
until you get a clue, but I’m not.” She twisted her free hand into
Theresa’s tangled mass of hair and wrenched her head to the side.
Theresa screamed in pain.

“Shit,” Chase said under his breath.

Hunter stepped ahead of them and put his
hands up. “Sweetheart? Let her go.”

Cris bared her teeth, her fangs flashing in
the light. She pushed up against Theresa’s arm, eliciting a groan.
“She touched Dylan. He’s mine!”

Dylan moved around Hunter, sucking in a
breath at the sheer fury on Cris’s beautiful face. She looked like
a lioness ready to devour prey. “I’m yours, love. You know I am.
Let her go, and I’ll take you home.”

Cris gnashed her teeth, her gaze pinging
between the three of them. “Why are you guys looking at me like
that?”

Chase said, “Because your eyes are gold, and
your fangs are elongated. We don’t want to have to bail you out of
jail because you snapped a human in half.”

Dylan wasn’t sure that Cris even realized how
furious she was. She ran her tongue along the front of her teeth
and seemed surprised that her fangs had descended. Dylan held his
hand out to Cris. “Love, come to me.”

Theresa started to cry, and Cris gave her a
shake, seeming unsure of the next step. Putting a little more
authority into his voice, wanting to get her away from the human
before she really hurt her, he said, “Cris, now.”

Baring her fangs, Cris shoved Theresa away
from her. Dylan and Chase both rushed to Cris, caging her between
them and moving her away from Theresa, who fell to the floor in a
crying heap.

Theresa scrubbed her fist over her eyes.
“It’s not worth it! I don’t even like him. I just want to get the
hell away from those women and go back to my old life.”

Hunter frowned. “What women?”

Theresa stumbled to her feet and glared at
Cris. “I should call the police on her. She’s nuts.”

Cris’s whole body vibrated as she growled.
Theresa darted behind Hunter and screamed. “Don’t let her hurt me!
I’ll leave town, and I’ll never come back, I swear. They said they
were going to skin me alive if I didn’t get Dylan, but I’ll just go
back home. I don’t even want the money now.”

Hunter stepped away from Theresa and joined
their trio. “What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded.

Theresa, her face running with mascara, said,
“I was panhandling in Indianapolis, and these two women approached
me and offered me five grand and a place to stay if I’d get Dylan
to come back to the hotel with me.”

Dylan hugged Cris closer as she snarled
softly at Theresa. “You can’t kill her, love,” he whispered.

Cris’s fingertips curled into his chest,
gripping his shirt. “Mine.”

His eyes stung with tears. He couldn’t help
the rush of emotion as he rested his head on top of hers and said,
“I am. Honestly and truly.”

Hunter looked at Cris for a long moment and
then turned his attention to Theresa. “What women?”

As Theresa began to describe the blonde
women, dread filled him.

“Do you know their names?” Chase asked.

Theresa sniffled. “Tanya, Bella, and I think
the other one is Hannah. They caused the car accident that got the
other waitress, Claire, out of the way. Then they told me to bring
Dylan to the hotel, and they’d give me some more money. It wasn’t
supposed to take this long.” She made a face at Dylan. “What’s the
matter with you anyway? I’ve been throwing myself at you, and
you’re not interested. There must be something wrong with you.”

Dylan felt Cris’s whole body tense, and he
held her tightly and swung her away from Theresa, pushing her
against the wall and caging here there. She roared, a sound so
furious and loud that it made his ears ring, but he didn’t let go
of his hold on her. Chase and Hunter left the room, pulling Theresa
behind him.

After a few moments, Chase joined him.
“Hunter and I are going to call the pride and have them go with us
to her hotel. If the females are actively trying to abduct you,
then we’ve got a much bigger issue here than some human trying to
get in your pants. We’ll have Aaron come and get you two and take
you to the house.”

“I can take her home myself,” Dylan said.

“Absolutely not,” Chase said. “You stay here
with Cris, and don’t leave until you have an escort from the
pride.”

Dylan’s cat protested, but Chase snapped his
fingers in front of his face. “This isn’t about you being strong
enough to protect her. What if the females are just waiting for you
to be on the road? Don’t forget that these are the same females who
rammed Micah and Melody’s vehicle and nearly killed them both in an
attempt to get to her. They could do the same thing. Can you
protect Cris when you’re unconscious?”

Dylan relaxed his hold on his beast. “You’re
right.”

“Good. Hunter’s already on the phone with the
pride. Theresa is back in Perry’s office. I suspect that Eryx and
James will come with us to see where the females are.”

When the kitchen was empty, he looked down at
Cris. “I’m sorry, love. I’m so fucking sorry about all of
this.”

Her eyes bled back to the pretty blue he
loved so much, and she sagged against him, as if the cat had
finally released its hold on her. “It’s not your fault you’re so
irresistible.”

He chuckled. “It’s not just that, though, is
it?” He cupped her face and brushed a few stray tears from her
cheeks.

Her eyes brightened as more tears welled in
them. “I need to mate with you guys for real. My cat went nuts
because you’re not marked. She’s afraid you’ll leave.”

“I would never.”

“My heart knows that, but my cat needs the
physical evidence.”

Even though the thought of scarring her neck
again, without the benefit of her being so blissed out on pleasure
that she wouldn’t feel them biting her, made him feel terrible, he
hated even more knowing that her cat was insecure.

“We’ll do it as soon as you’re ready. We’ll
show you that we’re yours and you’re ours forever.”

She closed her eyes with a sniffle, and he
hugged her close, letting his cat out as he purred so she’d be
surrounded by his scent and strength. He’d make it up to her
tonight in any way that he could, whatever it took. She was worth
it.

Chapter 11

Cris sat next to Dylan in the backseat of a
cruiser as Aaron, who was an Ashland police officer, drove them to
the boarding house. Aaron and Dylan were both quiet, and she didn’t
mind the silence since she was still dealing with her own actions.
She’d never attacked another person in her life before. Her cat was
still kind of pissed about the whole thing.

It had taken only ten minutes for James,
Eryx, and John to show up at the bar. Theresa rode in the back of
Eryx’s cruiser, which Cris had appreciated. She wouldn’t have been
able to handle the human in her mate’s vehicle. Dylan had explained
to Perry about their situation with Theresa, and although he was
human, he did seem to understand that there were bigger issues than
finishing their shifts. Dylan closed out the tickets in the kitchen
while Cris sat on a chair and tried to soothe her cat with the
knowledge that the human was not coming back to the bar to work
again, and then they’d waited for Aaron to pick them up.

Aaron parked in front of the boarding house.
Light illuminated the huge building against the darkness. He turned
off the engine and got out. Dylan opened his door, and she
followed, sticking close to him. He didn’t seem to mind that she
wanted to plaster herself to his side, and she was glad. What she
really wanted was to be with all her mates right then, but she
understood that there was something bigger going on than her cat
having a panic attack because a human touched Dylan.

“We’ve got the pride on alert,” Aaron said as
he unlocked the front door. “The panthers are helping us patrol.
Until we know for sure what’s going on with the females, we’ll keep
up the patrols.”

After they stepped into the house, Aaron shut
the front door firmly and locked it. “Until further notice, no one
goes anywhere alone.”

Dylan looked down at Cris and said, “We
understand.”

Aaron said, “This isn’t anyone’s fault, you
know.”

Dylan’s head shot up, and he said,
“What?”

“The females won’t leave us alone. They
always seem to be trying to find a way to get us back in their
lives. From what we’ve been told by Theresa, they targeted you and
your cousins because you were the youngest unmated males in the
house. You’re more likely to be swayed by the females than Holden
and Jackson, who are older. And you are the youngest of the three
of you, and let’s face it – you’re the nicest cat in the
house.”

Dylan made a face. “I’m not.”

“No, really. You’re genuinely a nice guy, and
I’m sure that the females knew that when they targeted you
guys.”

“What would they want with Dylan?” Cris
asked. She was still thoroughly confused by the females’
behavior.

“I don’t know,” Aaron said, scrubbing his
hand through his hair. “Hopefully, we’ll find out and be able to
prevent another situation like this from happening in the future.
Whatever they wanted, you can bet that it’s not good.”

Dylan said, “Thanks for coming to get
us.”

“Anytime.”

Aaron left them alone in the foyer. In the
kitchen, she could hear the low murmur of voices, and farther into
the house, she could hear the television.

“I want to take a shower,” Dylan
murmured.

She nodded and walked beside him as they
headed toward the stairs. Whether he wanted a shower because he
smelled vaguely of french fries and grease, or because the woman
had touched him, Cris knew he needed it, and that was okay with
her. She followed him into the bathroom.