Duke (21 page)

He licked her chin, stood, and walked to the other side of the room.

“
You should come back up here with us, Duchess.”

Gen looked up, accepted Brain’s hand, and sat between him and Isaac this time.

“
The strongest shapeshifters have a dual form. It means we hold the
change
, so we have bits of both our human and animal qualities. It looks an awful lot like a scary monster, but it’s still Duke.”

Gen watched in awe this time, a little more prepared to see what was happening. Her brain hadn’t fully registered the shift before, but this time she could see the morph, watch the
change
.

When he stopped
changing
he stood at least seven feet tall, his legs, arms and torso more human than wolf, his head more wolf than human, but with a shorter snout. His claws were neither human nor wolf, the fingers not quite what they should be, with long, scary looking claws on the end. Not retractable claws, either.

Gen went to stand up but Brain stopped her. “Give him a minute. Most shapeshifters can make one
change
, and then their bodies revert back to human when they go to sleep. Duke has just made two
changes
, and he’ll need to make a third in a few minutes, so he can answer your questions.”

Duke turned to a table by the door, lifted a dome off a plate, and turned his back as he lifted a huge chuck of what Gen thought must be raw beef. He downed it in a few short minutes, looked as if he was trying to wipe his mouth, and turned back towards them. Three steps brought him what it would’ve taken ten for her. He looked at his hands a few seconds and the long claws disappeared. He took a breath, closed his eyes, and gradually, much slower this time, turned back into Duke.

It looked like it hurt this time, like it was much harder, and when he finished he looked as if he needed to sit down, but he just stood, looking at her.

“
So, werewolves drive motorcycles because it’s too hard to hang your head out the window of a car while you’re driving?”

Duke smiled, Brain chuckled beside her, and Abbott burst into laughter.

Gen stood and went to Duke, stopped a foot from him. “Abbott isn’t just here as a witness, he’s here for another reason, one I don’t understand. However, if werewolves exist, other supernatural creatures probably do, too. He sleeps during the day, not hard to guess what that might mean. I have no idea what Isaac is, but I’m guessing he’s some kind of magical bad-ass, too.”

Duke turned and looked at Abbott with a smile. “Told you she was smart.”

“
You did.” He looked at Gen. “Yes, I’m a vampire. Most werewolves are in a pack, with the Alpha having the final word for, well, pretty much everything. Some werewolves don’t deal well with this, but still need the basics of what a pack gives. Rolling Thunder gives these men a place to go. Duke is the defacto Alpha of the pack, but it’s run like more of a democracy than a totalitarian government.”

Duke practically growled, “I’ll explain the wolf stuff to her, you’re just here to explain the legalities.”

“
Yes, of course. Humans aren’t supposed to know about us, and when you do, there are procedures to follow. You’ll be required to make a promise to not tell of our existence. If werewolves don’t have a vampire around, and the human refuses to make the binding promise, the werewolf is obligated to either imprison the human or kill them. As a vampire, I can make you forget the past twenty minutes, as if it never happened.”

Gen looked at Duke. His expression grim, he said, “Not my rules, but I’m bound by them. Why are you still over there?”

“
You look tired. I wasn’t sure what to do.”

“
I need you to come to me this time, Beautiful. Not sure I can handle it if you start backing up when I walk to you.”

She stepped into his arms and said, “This actually explains a lot. The look in your eyes when it seems there’s something wild in there? The way you stalk towards me instead of merely walking?”

Isaac walked to them with a wine glass and a bottle of wine. He produced a corkscrew, opened the wine, and poured about an inch into the glass. Duke sat in a chair, pulled Gen into his lap, and looked at his right pointer finger until a claw formed, poked it into his left pointer finger, and let a few drops fall into the glass of wine.

The hole in his finger healed within seconds, and Duke licked the little bit of blood from the end.

Duke looked to Abbott, who came to them, grew a razor-sharp talon on his finger, pricked Gen’s finger, and squeezed what had to be two tablespoons of blood into some water. He licked Gen’s finger, and Gen watched it heal before her eyes.

Duke accepted the glass from Abbott, and Isaac handed the wine to Gen.

“
When you drink my blood and make the oath with purpose, it’ll bind you. You won’t be capable of even hinting what you know, and if you somehow manage to, I’ll know.” He glanced at Abbott, looked back to Gen. “I won’t be able to control you, it isn’t that kind of a binding. I want your permission to add something to it, so I’ll know if you’re in trouble. The first part, the promise to keep our secrets, isn’t optional. If you don’t, Abbott will erase your memory from the point you walked into the room. We’ll all go outside the room, come back in, and I’ll ask Abbott if it’s okay for us to take over the old chain restaurant three blocks away, try to work out a deal.”

Abbott’s look was casual, but Gen had a feeling it said volumes to people who knew him. “Three blocks? You can’t be serious.”

Duke shook his head, looked back to Gen. “The last part is up to you, but I hope you give it to me.”

Gen looked at Isaac, who said, “Cassie and Cam don’t know about any of this, but if I ever have to tell them, I’ll add this part onto their binding as well.”

“
Why haven’t you told them?”

He shook his head. “I want to protect them. I’m not in the business of pissing people off like Duke, so I can get away with it. He had a few ways he could’ve gone, but you’re probably safer in the long run knowing.”

Gen looked at the wine, back up to Duke. “This won’t turn me into a werewolf?”

He shook his head. “Nothing I do while in human form can turn you. A bite or a scratch while in wolf or hybrid form may or may not, depending on a number of factors.”

“
Okay then. What do I do?”

“
The wording is designed to keep you from telling anyone, writing it down, or so much as giving hints so they can figure it out.”

“
Okay.”

“
Look at me, repeat what I tell you to say, and mean it. Let it soak in, say it again, and drink the wine. Don’t break eye contact. Abbott will test you, and then everyone will leave, so it’s just you and me.” He kissed her forehead. “The eye contact will let me do the other. Will let me add my protection of you to the binding, so I’ll always know if you’re in trouble, if you need help.”

“
What kind of trouble are we talking about? I mean, you don’t need to be alerted if a deal falls through.”

“
No, it’s an adrenaline and fear thing. When both hit, I’ll know it.”

She smiled. “Yeah well, losing a twenty million dollar deal might qualify.”

“
You say, ‘I will keep your secrets’.”

Gen shook her head. “We’ve already talked about this, I’m not promising to keep all your secrets. I’ll keep the ones I’ve learned today, I won’t tell anyone you’re a werewolf.”

God, her boyfriend was a
werewolf
? And in a motorcycle club! She was going to need some time alone in the tub with a bottle of wine to process this later. Or maybe two bottles of wine. Everyone in the room was looking at her, so she finished her thought.

“
But I’ve already told you there are some secrets you just shouldn’t tell me. This doesn’t change that.”

He shook his head. “You think of the secrets you intend to keep — the things you’ve learned in this room. Abbott will test you, make sure it took, so be sure you have it in your mind when you take the drink. If it doesn’t take, we’ll have to do it again.”

“
You’re missing something. She needs to know
all
the facts,” Isaac told him.

Duke rolled his eyes and told Gen. “Sometimes, rarely, the process creates more of an attachment. It means we’ll be able to talk to each other without speaking. We’d be able to think at each other; it isn’t the same as reading each other’s minds.”

Gen looked at Isaac. “How often does this happen?”

“
One in a hundred thousand, except with Alphas, and then it’s about one in twenty.”

She let her head drop, considered it from all angles. Bottom line, she didn’t want Abbott messing around in her head, so not taking the oath wasn’t an option. Isaac seemed to be in favor of her letting Duke do the protection thing, but she thought maybe she might want to reconsider.”

“
Let’s do the part we have to do now, talk about the other, and maybe do it later?”

Duke looked towards Brain and Isaac, and Brain said, “It’d be better to do it all at once, Duchess.”

“
I’m out of my comfort zone,” she told Duke, hoping he’d understand.

“
I know, Gen, and I’m sorry. I’ll do my best to put enough power into it to bind you without putting so much into it we can’t get out of each other’s heads.”

“
I like that you aren’t making a promise you aren’t sure you can keep.” She looked at her hands, made a decision, and gazed into his eyes.

“
I will keep your secrets.” She thought of the secrets she intended to keep, watching him turn into a werewolf, hearing Abbott tell her he was a vampire, and knowing Isaac was involved somehow even though she didn’t know the details, and she repeated, “I will keep your secrets.”

Someone put the wineglass in her hand and she drank it, and as it went down she felt… different. Like she’d somehow joined with Duke, was feeling what he was feeling, sensing what he sensed, smelling what he smelled. For a handful of seconds, she could smell where Abbott was, could smell Isaac behind her, and Brain beside him. Abbott smelled cold. Brain smelled a lot like Duke, and Isaac was similar with a hint of… water? Not exactly a fishy smell, but something that lived in water.

And then she was herself again, and Duke reached out to steady her as gravity seemed to catch her again.

“
You okay?”

“
Yeah. Do you always smell people like that?”

He nodded. “I know when you’re afraid, when you’re happy, when you’re sad, when you’re pissed, when you don’t feel well.”

“
To be honest,” Brain quipped, “we don’t need our sense of smell to know when you’re pissed. You’re pretty good at telling us.”

Gen rolled her eyes and looked to Abbott. “You needed to do something?”

He nodded to a piece of paper and pen at the edge of Isaac’s desk. “Sit down, write a note to your mother telling her about how the guy you’re seeing is a werewolf.”

Duke helped her up, kissed her cheek, and said, “I’m gonna step outside. I need to let him know when I get the hit you’re trying to tell.”

Her hand wrote just fine until she reached the word
werewolf
, and suddenly she froze. The pen wouldn’t move, her hand wouldn’t move. She couldn’t do it.

In a fog, she heard a knock at the door, and Isaac touched her. “Okay, stand up, walk it off.”

When she was breathing normally again, they had her write a note to one of her friends about Abbott being a vampire. When she failed at that, she had to write a note to her brother about the fact Isaac was some kind of supernatural creature, though she didn’t know what. Each time she froze, a knock sounded at the door.

Brain let Duke back in, and he prowled to her, pulled her out of the chair, and wrapped his arms around her. The rest of the room filed out, and Duke collapsed into a chair with Gen in his lap.

“
I need some time to pull myself together, Beautiful. Brain will stay outside the door, and will have my back while I recharge. I need a short nap, can you lay with me?”

“
Yeah, but I have questions.”

“
And I’ll have answers, but three
changes
and then powering the binding drained me. Twenty minute nap and I’ll be good. Promise.”

* * * *

When Duke awakened, he did indeed seem to be back to normal.

He sat up, put his boots on, and said, “Something’s wrong. Can you open the door and let Brain in, please?”

She opened the door to see Brain leaned against the wall, working at his phablet. When he looked up, his eyes left no doubt something was wrong.

He looked at her a few seconds and asked, “You holding it together okay?”

“
I think so.”

Brain nodded and walked into the room, “We need to get back to the compound. Duchess needs to be either here, her brother’s house, or the compound.”

“
I can go home, if there’s something ya’ll need to do.”

Duke looked at her, back to Brain. “Status update?”

“
Two of the girls were beaten. Doc’s taking care of them. Bash and Gonzo recognized the smell of the attackers in the room. All family has been ordered on lockdown.”

Shaking his head, Duke muttered, “Knew this was going to cause problems.” He looked at Gen. “Brain’s right about where you need to be. Safest place in the city is where you’re sittin’ now, but I’d prefer you at your brother’s house or the compound. Your choice, Beautiful.”

* * * *

Duke drove them all to the compound in her car, and surprised her by driving into the garage, following Brain’s instructions to a parking space. Gen thought it funny the club had assigned parking, but deemed it an inappropriate time to laugh about it.

The men were talking in code, trying to keep her from figuring out what this other ‘income stream’ was, but she had a sinking feeling she knew. After all, there were only so many money-making ventures a bunch of bikers could go into, and she’d been assured they didn’t do anything involving drugs, nor were they involved in the illegal gun trade. That pretty much only left prostitution or something else involving sex.