Claimed by Her Panthers (15 page)

When
he opened it, he found
Draken
standing on their
doorstep. His anger melted away as he stood stunned.
“How?
You’re … but you’re a Vampire?”

The
man smirked. “I’m also a very old one, so early morning sun and twilight
don’t
affect me so much. Now if it were the middle of the
day, things might get dicey. But regardless, do you think you could let me in?”

“What
the fuck do you want?” Stephan demanded to know.

Draken
sighed. “As
much as I detest having to do this, it seems I may need your assistance where
my mate is concerned.”

“Did
he just ask us for help?” Owen asked incredulously as he joined them.

“I
think he did.”

Draken
growled. “Is it
possible for the two of you to not be smartarses?”

Stephan
narrowed his eyes on the man. “You tried to take our mate, misunderstanding or
not.”

“I
truly believed she was my mate. So imagine how I felt.”

Stephan
begrudgingly admitted, at least to himself, that heads would have rolled had he
been in
Draken’s
shoes. Still didn’t change how he
felt though.

“Listen,
it’s been a week since I have spoken to her. Not for lack of trying, but for a
human, she is remarkably good at avoiding me.”

“We’ll
help you, but then you owe us,” Stephan said begrudgingly, ushering the Vampire
inside. “This isn’t going to be easy … for anyone.”

“Fine
with me,”
Draken
agreed, stepping over the threshold
and into their home.

Stephan
closed the door and made to follow their new guest, only to be stopped by a
hand on his arm.

“You
can’t be seriously thinking of helping this douche, are you?” Owen stared at
him as though he had lost his mind.

“Shut
up,” he hissed. “Think about it. We convince
Jenika
to give the whole mating thing a go with him, and then what do you think would
happen?”

Owen
cocked his head. “You think
Draken
will leave and
take
Jenika
with him?”

“Seriously,
it’s like a two for one deal.”

Owen
chuckled. “That’s assuming they don’t just decide to stay here.”

He
narrowed his eyes on his best friend. “Dude, don’t ruin my happy moment. It’s a
chance I’m willing to take.”

They
walked into the kitchen to find Angelica sitting there, coffee in hand while
she stared at
Draken
. The Vampire seemed to be trying
desperately not to make eye contact with their mate, which Stephan thought was
an extremely wise move. He’d think even more of
Draken
if he couldn’t scent the awkwardness and nervousness coming off of him. Damn leech
wasn’t showing respect. Their quiet, little mate was staring the vamp down … and
winning.

God,
he loved her.

“
Sooo
, we have a guest,” Angelica asked innocently.

“Someone
needs some help wooing your friend.”

“So
he came to the both of you,” she scoffed, leaning forward to rest her elbows on
the counter and her chin in her hands. “Oh, this ought to be good.”

“Your
mate’s lack of confidence in your skills is a tad concerning,”
Draken
muttered from where he stood.

Stephan
opened his mouth to snap something at him when the doorbell rang. “Crap.
Seriously?
So much for a quiet morning.
I’ll get that.”

Walking
back out into the hall, he paused a moment, grinning when he scented who was
behind the door. Pulling it opened, he greeted their new guest with a
welcoming, if somewhat cheesy, smile.
“
Jenika
,
how lovely to see you.
Come on in.”

For
her part,
Jenika
glared at him, as if attempting to
work out what he was up to.
Clever woman.

****

Owen
watched Angelica as
Jenika
came into the kitchen
behind Stephan.
Jenika’s
eyes widened as they fell on
Draken
. “What the fuck is he doing here?”

“Hello
to you, too, my mate.”

“Whoa,
buddy. I’m not your anything. I’ve told you this several times now. Do you need
to me to speak louder? Maybe come over and turn your hearing aid up?”

Jenika
may be an
annoying pain in the arse, but she was amusing as hell to watch with the Vampire.
Draken
glowed at his mate and raised an eyebrow. “Are
you always this rude? How on earth do you still have friends if you speak like
this?”

Owen
chucked at the outraged look on
Jenika’s
face at the
giggling coming from Angelica. “Yeah, she grows on you,” he said winking at
Angelica. “
Kinda
like a fungus.”

“Ha,
ha, I didn’t know you’d become a comedian,”
Jenika
grumbled. “Look, I didn’t come here to listen to your attempts at jokes. I came
to speak to my best friend.”
Jenika
gave pleading
eyes to Angelica.

Angelica
got up and walked to
Jenika
stopping to kiss both him
and Stephan on the cheek. “Be good, and no listening.” He nodded, and she
smiled at him.

When
the girls left
Draken
sat at the kitchen table. “You
see what I have to deal with. She won’t even acknowledge she’s my mate.”

He
came and sat at the table, and Stephan sat next to him. “I know why she
wouldn’t want a leech as a mate. But I think what you just saw is what
Jenika
is always like. Well, I’ve never seen her act any
different.”

“Yeah,
I think she’s being tame from what I know of her,” Stephan said as he eyed the Vampire.
“Now I think about it I don’t like your mate talking to ours alone in the mood
she’d in.
Jenika
is already a bad influence.”

Before
the words were even finished Owen stood and stalked to his mate, only to be
stopped by
Draken
. “What do you mean bad influence,
and you said you’d help?”

Owen
eyed the Vampire’s hold on his arms and raised his eyebrow.
Draken
took the hint and let go. “Yes, the kind of bad influence who takes our mate to
biker bars and out clubbing to get laid. Oh, and we will help you get your
mate. We will just need Angelica’s help.”

The
Vampire studied him for a moment before he sighed. “I really don’t have a
choice anyway. She avoids me like the plague right now. Surely it couldn’t get
worse.”

Owen
turned back toward where his mate was and grinned. He felt sorry for the leech.
Things could always get worse especially when
Jenika
was involved.

He
strolled into the lounge room where the two women sat on the sofa smiling.
“What has you smiling so wide?” he asked her.

Angelica
gave him a smile that melted his heart. “
Jenika
and I
have been talking.”

Owen
shared a look with Stephan.
Great
.
He already didn’t like the sound of this.
“And?”

“We’ve
decided that we need a holiday.”

Owen
sighed in relief. “That actually sounds like a great idea, sweetheart. Stephan
and I can take some time off. We can go somewhere romantic, just the three of
us.”

“Yeah, cupcake.
It shouldn’t be
too hard to organize the time,” his friend agreed.

“Umm.”
Angelica
hesitated, her eyes moving from him to Stephen and then back again. “I meant
Jenika
and
I
. You know, like a
girls’ week away.”

Owen
frowned. “Is there a reason you want to get away from us?”

“No,
no of course not,” she reassured them. “Everything has just happened so fast,
and now
Jenika
is having
to
deal with all that
Draken
stuff. We need some girl time,
best friend time.”

He
didn’t like the idea of Angelica going anywhere without one of them, but he
understood where she was coming from. Stephan was his best mate, and sometimes
the most relaxing times he’d had were just the two of them chilling.

“Where
exactly would this girls’ week holiday be?”

“The Gold Coast.
We’ve found a
great hotel that has an awesome deal at the moment.”

Stephan’s
gut clenched.
“Gold Coast?”

“Yep.
Where the party
never stops,”
Jenika
all but squealed in excitement as
she piped in for the first time since they walked in. “Hell, all the tourist
places state, this place is so awesome, half the people who go there never go
home. I mean, seriously, how cool must a place like that be.”

Owen
paled. Those people never went home because they usually ended up dead.
Oh hell no.
His mate wasn’t going
anywhere near that Demon-infested place.

“I
really don’t think it’s a good idea, sweetheart,” he hedged. “Maybe you could
check out Nelson Bay or something. Great shopping, plenty of holiday spots…”

Angelica
frowned. “And all that stuff is on the Gold Coast, too.”

It
was obvious that Angelica wasn’t grasping the depth of trouble she could get
into. While they had told her their reasons for wanting to keep her away from
other paranormals and the Gold Coast
Schoolies
event,
they had done so much to shield her from how dark the truth was that she still
took chances. How were they supposed to keep her safe, while making sure their
mate didn’t end up with information overload and freak out? The last thing
either of them wanted was for Angelica to feel scared. But had they sheltered
her too much, though?

“Oh,
there is
sooo
much more than that on the Gold
Coast.”
 
Jenika
waggled her brows.

He
and Stephan growled at the woman’s suggestion. She had a damn mate herself.
Jenika
may be running from
Draken
at the moment, but the Vampire was her mate, and he would catch her eventually.

Thinking
of
Draken
, Owen peered over to see the man’s fangs
had dropped, a snarl tilting his lips. Yep, the dude was as pissed as they
were.

“You
are not going to that place,”
Draken
demanded.

The
irritating woman cocked her hip, folding her arms in defiance.
“Oh really?
And are you going to be the one who stops me, fang-boy?”

“If I have to.”
The challenging
gleam in
Draken’s
eye warned Owen that things were
about to escalate.

The
bantering between the pair did nothing but intensify Owen and Stephan’s
feelings, each of them losing their cool and shouting, “We forbid it.”

“You
seriously did not just say that.”
Jenika
gaped at
them before her eyes narrowed in on
Draken
. “And you,
where the hell do you get off even having an opinion?”

“Christ.
Perhaps I should have lowered my expectations for this evening,”
Draken
muttered.

“Excuse
me? You go on and on about how we are mates, fated to be together, perfect for
each other. And then you have the nerve to say I don’t meet expectations?”

Draken
floundered for
a minute.
“N-no.
That wasn’t
wha
—”

“Well,
I guess we can’t be mates if I don’t even meet expectations.” Venom dripped from
her voice. “Fuck you, fang-boy.”

“I
think, maybe we need to take a time out,” Angelica announced. “
Jenika
and I were going to get some shopping done today
anyway.”

“Sweetheart?”
Owen asked, not
liking how distant she suddenly sounded.

“It’s
just shopping, Owen,” she muttered as she followed her friend out.

The
sound of the door slamming behind the women made them all cringe.

“Well,
that could have gone better,” Stephan drawled.

“Yeah,
thanks for that, captain obvious.”

“What?
Don’t blame me,” Stephan said before pointing to
Draken
.
“He’s the dickhead who mentioned
Jenika
not meeting
expectations.”

“That
is not what I said at all. Christ, would people stop putting words in my mouth?”

“How
about you just stop words from coming out of it altogether,” Owen snapped, in
no mood to banter with either of them.

He
hated the way Angelica had looked at them before she left. Something was off,
and without her being here, he couldn’t fix it. All he could do was wait for
her to get home and try to make things better.