Lover Claimed (11 page)

“What?” he said, raising his voice.

She’d expected that reaction from him. She’d
expected that reaction from anyone who had a conscience. “They
wanted my father to give us over to the Yaruzi boss to do with as
he pleased. My father refused and made a deal with the US
authorities. The information he’d given up had earned us a spot in
the protective custody program. It afforded us new lives here. He
hadn’t always been good, but my dad did right when it mattered.”
She said the last sentence with pride.

There was a time when she would’ve never
thought her father would go against the Yaruzi. The gang had been
his life—since he’d been a boy. She thought he loved that gang more
than anything—including his wife and children.

“Is that why you said “stand in line’? Are
they still after you?”

She shrugged, because even though her family
still looked over their shoulders and watched their backs, they
didn’t know for sure. “I can’t say. But my dad thinks that if given
a chance, they’d kill us if they could.”

“Hence the reason why he’s taught you how to
fight and how to escape, just in case they ever caught you?”

She nodded. Her hair fell into her face and
she hooked it behind both ears and out of the way. “He taught my
brother and me everything we know. While other girls were trying
out for the cheer team or going on dates, I was in our backyard
getting the snot beat out of me by my dad.” She chuckled,
remembering that while it’d been work they’d also had a lot of good
times and fun.

He raised a brow. “I don’t see what’s so
funny about a dad beating up on his daughter.”

“I didn’t see it as anything bad. I wanted to
spend time with my dad. I wanted him to teach me everything he
knew. You have to understand that before we came to America, he was
practically an absentee father.”

“So, he’s the one I have to thank for your
fighting skills and attitude?” he asked jokingly.

She inclined her head toward him and laughed.
“You can thank him for the fighting skills and thank my mom for my
attitude. She’s from Compton and she doesn’t play.”

“A father in the Japanese gang and a mom from
Compton. An interesting mix.”

“My dad met my mom while he was in Los
Angeles on a ‘business trip’. It was love at first sight. When he
left a month later, she went with him.”

“That’s almost sweet.”

“I think it is. I just leave out the part of
him being in the US to distribute drugs and guns and it’s a very
nice story.”

He chuckled lightly.

“If the Yaruzi have anything to do with this
and if they’re now planning on harming Trudy, I’d never forgive
myself. I know you think I’m crazy for not wanting to stay at home,
but I can’t. I
can’t
know that she’s out there, in danger
and it might be because of me.”

“Don’t carry this burden around, Meisha.
Whoever has Trudy isn’t working for the Yaruzi.”

“Who
are
they working for then?”

He frowned. He didn’t have an answer for
her.

“See? You don’t know and you already told me
the Yaruzi have aligned themselves to the werewolves. What’s
stopping them from joining forces with this shifter pack to come
after my family and me?”

“You’re right, I don’t know who hired the
Russian shifters, but it’s not the Yaruzi. Whoever hired the
Russians are trying to stop us from conducting the investigations
into our audit, not find you and your family.”

She shook her head. “I’m still not sold. Why
would someone murder and abduct someone over an audit?”

“They would if they were stealing millions of
dollars from Dark Wolf Enterprises.”

Millions of dollars?

Her mouth hung open in shock.

Chapter
Twelve

Meisha tried to fight against consciousness
as a hand shook her shoulder. She knew who it belonged to, since
Lajos kept calling her name. She clamped down her eyelids, trying
to keep hold of the dream she’d been having. It was bad, oh so bad,
but no harm could come of it, right?

“We have good news,” Lajos said.

“What?” she replied, in a not-so-nice
tone.

Her dream of hot-n-sweaty sex was fading away
fast. She was on top of him, riding his cock. In her dream it’d
been large and thick. Her hips pumped up and down, her hands were
on his chest, gripping onto his well-defined pecs. His hands were
on her breasts, squeezing them and playing with her nipples. Sweat
dripped down her body; her hair hung in wet clumps on her back.

“Meisha.”

She tightened her eyelids. She was just about
to get to the good part. She squeezed her legs together. Her clit
tingled as she did.

“Come on, get up,” he coaxed.

“Go away,” she mumbled.

“Kristof and Trudy have been found.”

Her eyes sprang open and the dream left in an
instant. She lifted straight up in bed. “Where are they? Are they
hurt?”

“Their plane was hijacked, they’re in North
Dakota—unharmed.”

“North Dakota? Why would anyone take them
there?”

“Probably to get them as far away from our
pack as possible. Kristof said he recognized the scent of the
shifters who attacked him there. It matches the same scent of the
ones who killed Mark and attacked Trudy. The entire pack is in this
together, we just have to find out
which
pack it is.”

“That should be simple enough, right?”

“Not hardly.” He shrugged and her eyes
couldn’t help but be drawn to the loveliness that was Lajos. “But
that’s not going to stop us from trying. We’ll bring whoever is
behind all this to justice.”

He’d slept on the floor, wrapping himself in
the comforter even though she’d tried to explain how utterly nasty
hotel comforters were. He had lines in his face from a crease of
the blanket and sleep in his eyes, but his body…

Sometime between the time she’d fallen into a
fitful sleep and now he’d taken off his T-shirt. She’d thought him
lean before, but his clothes had deceived her. He had muscles that
were nicely defined and everywhere. She wanted to trail her tongue
along every one of them. His neck was long and thick, not body
builder thick but just enough to have her wondering about the
thickness of other things. His shoulders were well formed and led
down to arms that looked as though he’d done his fair share of
push-ups. His chest…holy smokes, that’s what made the heat begin to
boil within her.

The first thing she noticed was his nipples.
Dark brown and erect. When had she ever been a sucker for
nipples?

Since now.

She looked at them as if they were on the
breakfast menu. She could almost taste them on her tongue. She
pulled her eyes away from his nipples to focus on the dark hairs
that were sprinkled along his perfect pecs. Her gaze followed the
path that those hairs made down to his six-pack and to his cute
little belly button. Her eyes stopped when they reach his
waistband.

My, my, my.

She inhaled a lustful breath.

“So…if you’ll finish molesting me with your
eyes, I’ll tell you what’s up.”

Her eyes snapped to his face to find him
watching her with an eyebrow raised.

“Don’t flatter yourself, I’ve seen better,”
she said, lying pitifully.

A grin spread across his face. “Yeah, right.
No human has anything on me.”

“Pft, so sure of yourself are you?”

He leaned closer. “If you know anything about
canine physiology you’ll know that we swell when we come,” he
whispered. His eyes glanced down to his lap.

Oh Jesus.

She tore her gaze away from him and slammed
her back onto the bed. “Hasn’t anyone told you that it’s not the
size of the boat but the motion of the ocean?”

He laughed. “That’s a human saying, not a
wolf one.”

He was right. She didn’t believe it either,
but she couldn’t let him know that or that he’d had a physical
effect on her. If he asked, she’d probably drop her panties for him
right now. She squeezed her legs closed.

No panty dropping today.

“Whatever. Get your head out of the gutter
and tell me what’s going on with Trudy.”

The smile was still on his face as he stood.
He walked to one of the chairs by the only table in the room.

Good. That’s what she needed—distance.

He took a seat, grabbed the remote and
switched on the television. “Apparently they were taken to North
Dakota to be killed.”

She inhaled a sharp breath.

He waved a hand at her. “Calm down. I already
told you how this story ends. Kristof fought off the wolves that
were sent to kill him. He was able to put down two and sent one
running. They were a million miles from anywhere and they had to
walk from the airfield to a motel. My brother Andras is on his way
to get them now.”

“So what do
we
do now?”

“We wait here. Once in Michigan, Trudy will
finish her work finding out who’s embezzling from Dark Wolf
Enterprises. I’ll continue to gather as much information as I can
about the Russians and when I’m ready to take them down I’ll have
Andras send my team to me.”

“So we just keep staking out the
shifters?”

“We’ll go back out, maybe I’ll send you into
the liquor store by their house to nose around. But that can wait
till later.”

“Thank the lord.” She lay back down, closed
her eyes and pulled the blanket up to her neck. “Goodnight,
Lajos.”

“But it’s the morning.”

“I’m beat. I got up early yesterday to track
you and I didn’t get a good night’s sleep. If you don’t mind I’m
taking a nap.”

Even though she didn’t want to get physically
involved with Lajos, the dream version was a good stand-in.

“Fine, but I was going to order breakfast.
You’ll miss a lovely meal of omelets,” he teased.

She opened one eye. “Can we have pancakes
too?”

* * * * *

After breakfast she’d tried to call Trudy,
but couldn’t get through. Kristof said she’d immersed herself into
the files and he’d have Trudy call Meisha back later. Satisfied
that Trudy was now safe, Meisha’s mood improved. She’d showered
first and he had to listen to her off-key singing. The only
consolation was that he could imagine her gliding a cloth across
her skin. He’d closed his eyes and thought about her soapy and
naked body, her brown skin glistening and wet. He would’ve liked to
have been - the towel, running over her. He would caresses every
inch of her, not leaving a speck of skin untouched.

He wondered how soft her skin was. On more
than one occasion he’d wanted to reach out and touch her. He almost
had, last night in the driveway. She looked so vulnerable—so sweet.
His wolf had purred with want. He wanted Lajos to lick her—but that
would’ve been too much at the time. His Meisha would’ve ripped his
tongue right out of his mouth.

He chuckled at that.

His Meisha.

She wasn’t his. She couldn’t be tamed. They’d
forever be at odds, one trying to prove to the other who was boss.
But just thinking of trying to tame her made his cock harden under
the flimsy shorts he wore.

Take her.

His wolf didn’t say the words but Lajos
understood them just the same. A flash of a picture projected in
his mind, Meisha on all fours and he on his knees behind her, his
hands gripping her soft brown skin and his cock driving deep in her
tight, warm sheath. He wanted her, his wolf wanted her, but Lajos
wouldn’t act on it, despite the impulses his wolf sent him. His
wolf didn’t know the consequences of getting involved with Meisha.
Lajos had doubts he’d be able to make her a one night stand like
he’d done with the other humans. She was different, unlike any
woman he’d ever encountered.

He didn’t know if she would expect more of
him—more than he could give. Humans were emotional beings, their
relationships played out on television and the internet all the
time. They weren’t like wolves, where sex was just sex, a means to
pass time and release pent-up energy.

But still, just the thought of her naked in
the shower made his dick swell with need. He wanted to take her.
He’d take her anywhere.

He’d take her as soon as she exited the
shower.

The fight raged on within him. He watched the
door, battling for self-control. Heat spread across his body as the
shower turned off. He imagined her body still dripping as she
wrapped herself in a towel.

He let his head fall back and stared at the
ceiling, silently wishing for strength not to accost her as soon as
she came out of the bathroom.

Not a second after she opened the door, he
grabbed his clothes and ran into the bathroom, almost knocking her
down to get there. He slammed the door and locked it and took a few
minutes to catch his breath. He looked down at his cock, which was
standing at full attention.

Shit.

If he was going to make it out of this
without attaching himself to Meisha he’d have to stop imagining her
naked and definitely stop dreaming about her riding him to
bliss.

He walked over to the shower and turned on
the water—cold—and stood underneath it. His jutting cock still
didn’t lose its rigor.

He had no choice.

He wrapped his hand around his cock and
pumped madly over its thickness. As he let the water pour over him,
he imagined it was Meisha’s mouth over his cock instead of his
hand. Her beautiful lips worked up and down his length, taking him
down her throat and teasing him with her tongue. He used his free
hand to cup his tight balls and milk them away from his body. His
breath caught in his chest as he imagined her wet tongue flicking
across his head, darting between his slit, lapping up the pre-cum
that was beginning to form there.

His hand pumped faster, gliding over his
skin. His heart picked up a notch, thrumming against his chest.
When he imagined her looking up at him with those beautiful eyes
and her mouth filled with his cock, he came—forcefully. The
sensation seemed to rip through his body and explode from his slit.
Squeezing his eyelids tight, he bit down on his lip to hold back
his yell. With each pump of his fist, his legs weakened more.