Elijah: Calhoun Men _ Erotic Paranormal Wolf Shifter Romance (7 page)

“What’s your point? I’m sure you think you might have one.” Daniel nodded but continued to stare at him. “Well, when you get around to thinking one up, you tell me. But for now, I need for you to go and do as I told you. And don’t think that I’ll forget about this when I’m out either. I don’t stand for backtalk.”

“You don’t stand for a lot of things when someone is questioning you, do you, Dad?” He didn’t like this and told his son that. “Yeah, well I don’t like being tossed around like we got done to us out there either. She handed us our asses, when I have a feeling that she could have had us killed and not thought another thing about it. And all you could do was see how she wronged us, when it was us all along that had been wronging those people. Hell Dad, we’ll be lucky if you don’t drag us all along with you to prison.”

“There won’t be anyone going to prison if you just do as you’re told.” When Daniel started for the doorway, Howard sat down on his bed. This was just stupid. He’d been wronged, and the sooner his boys saw that the faster they could get back to business. There was money to be had around here, and he was going to be just the man to make it.

Howard had seen a load of new construction stuff being delivered just today, and he was sure he could make a tidy profit off it, as well as anything else that might have come in. Then there was the large bulldozer that had been delivered just down the road from the construction stuff. Taking it might be difficult, but he was sure that he could get someone to buy it off him and get it out before anyone noticed. Howard wasn’t without a few contacts.

It was perhaps an hour later when his dinner was brought to him. The tray had a salad on it, a small sandwich that looked like it had been smashed a bit before it had gotten to him, and a cola. There was an apple too, as well as an orange. He asked the man who had brought it to him when he was getting his real food.

“That’s it for tonight. We didn’t know you were coming, so had to get you something from the diner. And from the looks of you, I think you should watch a few things you put in your mouth anyway. You certainly don’t watch what you spill out of it.” Howard picked up the tray and was ready to toss it back at the cop when he laughed. “You do and you’ll be pretty starved when breakfast comes in the morning. If you even get anything. I was thinking you should be more appreciative of what you have.”

Howard might not throw it, but he wasn’t going to eat it either. This was just cruel. He needed food, not this snack that wasn’t even going to fill his belly for an hour. But the longer he sat there, nothing else came to him. No steak like he wanted, no fat potato with all the trimmings, and not even a piece of pie or two for dessert. He picked up the sandwich and examined it.

“Two pieces of bread and three slices of meat? What sort of meal is that supposed to be? Not even a big bag of chips or some peppers on the side for me to munch on.” He bit into the sandwich and found that there wasn’t even any mayo on it. Howard liked it thick on his sandwiches, along with about half a pound of cheese. Eating it, he tried to ignore the salad, but there was no hope for it. He was about to pass out, he was so hungry. Eating it without the diet dressing that they set on the side, he eyed the fruit like it was a bomb about to go off.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten fruit that wasn’t in a pie or on a slab of cake. Even then he’d work it to the side while he filled his belly on what he really wanted. And if there wasn’t any ice cream or whipped topping to go on it, he’d get a bottle of syrup and pour it all over his dessert just to make it worth eating.

When the same cop came back to get the tray, he was just lucky that there were bars between them. The comments about how he’d done well with eating all his vegetables before his dessert was just too much. Treating him like a five-year-old was going to get the man seriously hurt. Howard had wanted to get up and beat the man to death with the empty tray and plastic plates. As it was, the fucker had laughed at him for ten minutes, standing in front of his cell while he did it. Howard asked him when his son was coming back.

“Back? I don’t think anyone is coming to see you anymore. Ron said that you’d need yourself one of those court assigned attorneys, and Daniel said that he was leaving town and asked if that would be a problem. I told him that so long as he was gone for good, he didn’t have to worry about the unpaid tickets.”

Howard was still mulling over the fact that his own sons weren’t going to help him out when he realized what he’d said. “What do you mean, he’s leaving town? He can’t do that. I’m sitting here in a cell and he can’t just leave me here.” The cop said apparently he thought that he could. “You go get him and have him arrested. Put him in this cell with me so that I can teach him a lesson on respect and taking care of your parents when they need you.”

“Respect? I’m pretty sure that we all thought that word wasn’t in your vocabulary. But about those boys, I’m not going to do that. All of them deserves better than you.” As he walked away, Howard wondered what the hell was wrong with people today. “You have yourself a nice night there, Howard. I’ll be bringing you some light breakfast in the morning.”

“Uppity is what they are. Just thinking on it, I can see them thinking that because Noelle got married to one of them Calhouns that they’d have to toe the line. And instead of doing that, they run off without me.” Howard wondered what he was supposed to do until one of his sons came to their senses. “Stupid little shits. And after all I’ve done for them, too.”

Howard hadn’t been a good worker, even he would admit that. And he’d made himself much more important looking to his family than he really had been. There were days when he’d nap at his desk or play games online all day rather than do any actual work. But he’d figured, and still did, that if they weren’t smart enough to know what he was doing, then it was their fault.

Then this thing with leaving Noelle at Mr. Stark’s. He’d figured that she’d just run away, or worse, come on back to the house. He’d taken precautions about that too. Changed the locks, even had a gun by the door to shoot at her should she try to come in. He wasn’t going to kill her, just scare her a bit. But she’d called him, something he’d not figured her being smart enough to do. He felt that the ordeal had been finished, that she’d known now that she was no longer welcome in his home. And had spent the weekend drunk and stealing shit for his kids for Christmas.

Then the next Monday, he’d gone to work, even cleaned himself up a bit, and was working on reading through the rules on a game he’d downloaded when Mr. Stark came into his little cubby hole and sat down. Howard had been singled out, he’d thought. Mr. Stark had come to see him.

“I met your daughter on Friday night. She’s a lovely little thing, isn’t she?” Howard had agreed and wondered what he was to do if he asked her for something. He had no idea where she’d landed her skinny ass. “You should know that kicking her out of your house is something that I don’t condone.”

“Kicking her out of the...what did she say to you?” Mr. Stark only sat there, and Howard tried to think what the stupid little shit might have said to his boss. “I’m telling you right now that she’s not right in the head. She might be pretty and all, but she’s not smart.”

“Oh? Is that right?” Howard had nodded. “Well, that’s too bad to hear. I thought she was very intelligent in her manner and words. And cooperative as well. She let me listen in on the phone conversation that she had with you after you abandoned her at my home.”

“She did what?” Mr. Stark had only sat there, that weird grin on his face. “I was only teaching her a lesson on being nice to people. I don’t think you might have heard it all.”

“I dialed the phone for her. I was right there the entire conversation.” Howard nodded, not sure how to salvage things. “As I said, I don’t condone that sort of treatment to children. I hope you understand that.”

“Yes sir. I do. And I’ll make it up to her. I don’t rightly know where she is. The stupid girl didn’t even come home all weekend.” He’d not thought of what she might have been doing at a single time all weekend. Only thought of her when he could almost see her face when she realized that she was on her own. “As soon as I find her, I’ll make her understand that she can’t be bothering you about this anymore.”

“I would suggest that you leave her where she is. I have a feeling that she’d be better off without you and your family dragging her into your little schemes. Oh, and by the way, you’re fired, Howard.” Howard had stood up then, wanting to hit the man to have him take it back. “These men are here to help you out of my building and the property. You won’t be able to get unemployment, so I’d not even bother with that either.”

“I can’t lose my job. I have a family to support. This is all her fault.” Mr. Stark had walked away, and the security guards—three of them—told him to go with them. “I have to talk to him. He needs to see reason. She wasn’t even my kid.”

And now here he was, sitting in a jail cell for no good reason while his boys were out there all on their own, and that stupid girl, who had caused this entire thing, was living it up with a rich bastard.

Chapter
7

There was no hope for it. She was going to have to do this the old fashion way. Get to the wolf, have him fuck a human, and create her beasts that way. It would be long in coming, but she figured once she had the first one, she’d just have him breed with every female he could corner and that would move it right along. She closed the books she’d found in the lab without understanding a single word written there. Learning to read hadn’t been something that she’d thought of until now.

The lab was ruined. Even getting things up and running again wasn’t going to work. She had no one to run things for her. The two men that she’d brought here to work for her had told her that they couldn’t do what she wanted.

“What do you mean you can’t do it? Of course you can. You just mix my DNA with his cum and then we have a monster.” The first guy had told her that they needed an egg. One of hers. “I don’t have any eggs here. I told you that the power was off and all the eggs that we had here weren’t even fit for an omelet, Basil told me. I’m not sure what you want with them anyway, but if it’s that important, I can get you a few dozen of them.”

“Not a chicken egg, you idiot. An egg from your body. You are a female, right? You do know your own reproductive system, right? Christ woman, we can’t use chicken eggs for you to have a child by. Not even a chicken for that matter.”

She might not have killed him had he not laughed. And for so long. It had taken her nearly a week to find this fool, and in two minutes, he was dead. Not that his death hadn’t been fun, but it was over and she’d had to go and find another guy. The fucking bastards weren’t as plentiful as she had thought they would be.

The second guy had told her the same thing. It wouldn’t work. And when she’d asked him about the egg, he’d explained it to her. They needed an egg that was produced from her body for the child to grow in. Then they would put it back inside of her and she’d have a child.

“I don’t have anything like that.” He nodded. “No, I don’t. I have nothing in me like a human has. Just magic. The rest of it was useless to me, so I removed it.”

“You must have a heart. Everyone has a heart.” She told him that the only heart she had in her was the one she’d eaten before going to get him. “I don’t understand.”

“I ate it. The last man who laughed at me, I killed him, then ate his heart. But this thing with the eggs, there is no other way to make it work?” She handed him the book she’d found in her ruined lab and noticed the horrid look on his face. Good, she thought. She loved the terror of others. “Basil, the other lab guy, he took notes. He said that he made sure that all his findings were right here.”

The man had read over the book for several seconds and handed it back to her. “This won’t help anyone. It’s about you, and his tricking you into paying him to work on a lost cause. He goes on to say how stupid you are as well.”

“Read it to me. Tell me what he said.” The man took the book back and read three sentences before she snatched it back from him. “There is no way that he was lying to me. I got him everything that he needed. Everything.”

“Well, apparently he was selling off some of that too. And so you know, he thought you were going to kill him. My favorite part is where he says that at one point he had you bring him eggs, and that you brought him ones from a chicken. He put them in the incubator and then took the chick home for his children. Are you really that stupid?”

This time her rage was consuming. Not just of the man in front of her but the buildings surrounding the one she’d set up. As she left the wreckage, the place blowing up different areas around it, she took the book and went to her home. It was the only place that calmed her when she was like this.

Helenia walked around her lair. There was so much stuff in the room, furniture that had taken her fancy, jewelry that she’d liked, and even a few things that she still had no idea why she’d bothered with it. But she couldn’t part with it. Any of it. The things here calmed her.

Reaching out to her alpha, she wanted him to kill. She might not be able to see him do it, but she could feed off his rage for a few minutes. When nothing touched her, not any part of the alpha, she tried harder. There wasn’t anything there. It was as if he’d been killed.

“No. I won’t have that. I found him first.” Going out into the night, she reached further, far beyond where she thought he’d be. When she found Noah she nearly moved on, but he spoke to her.

Helenia. Causing trouble, are you? I think that, on several occasions, you’ve been warned to behave.
She told him to fuck off.
I think not. If you were the only thing...and I do mean thing…left on this earth, I would not touch you. I’d rather meet the sun.

I can do that for you. I have the power of several suns. You just stay where you are and I’ll come there to show you. You should have been dead long ago.
Noah asked her why.
I heard from Dante that you turned me into the Board of Vampires. You do realize that they have no hold over me. I am not a vampire.

No. You’re much worse than that.
She thanked him
. Don’t thank me. It wasn’t meant as a compliment. I think with what you’re doing now, I’ll be able to take care of you as I should have done decades ago.

Always such a sore loser, Noah. What is it that you think I’ve done to you? And I should also point out that Dante is dead. The idiot should have known better than to try and take me in.

I know about the wolf.
Helenia felt a finger of something, a feeling that she’d never felt before, touch her.
What do you think is going to happen to you when you come here to try and take him?

There will be no trying, Noah. He belongs to me. I have marked him as such. And even if he did put up a fight, I only want one thing from him. And once I have it, I will be the most powerful being in the world.
He laughed, and Helenia felt her temper explode in her head.
Noah, you aren’t strong enough to take me on. You know this. I’m more powerful than you’ll ever hope to be.

Do you really think so, Helenia? I don’t. I’ve been around longer than you. And even without the added years, I’m still much smarter than you. Stupid never wins. Haven’t you learned that?
She started to tell him that he was dead, that she was going to kill him, when he laughed and spoke again.
He is no longer yours. I have taken him.

You can’t do that. I took him. When he was there for the taking, I killed to have him all for myself. The alpha is mine.
He said nothing, but his laughter rang in her head
. I’m coming for you both. Tell me what you’ve done with him. I swear to you, Noah, you have pissed off the wrong being.

She felt his power roar through her head. Even as she fell to the ground, her nose started hemorrhaging something green and vile smelling. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before. Her ears rang loudly until she was sick from it. And as she lay there, she saw him in her mind.

He raped her head and memories. Took her thoughts and plans and ran over them. She knew when he found the night she’d found her alpha and had tried to kill him. Even when she’d had other wolves in her sights and what she’d done to them. Other dreams as well, things that she had accomplished. Even where she lived.

You really are a monster, aren’t you? The worst kind too. You don’t even kill for any kind of magic. But I will kill you for pleasure. I’m coming for you, Helenia. And when I get there, you will know a power beyond what you think you have. You are nothing.
She tried to tell him to fuck off, to make him tremble in his shoes.
You are no threat to me and mine. I am the power that you seek.

This time when he hit her mind, she curled into a ball. Her body changed from her façade to herself back and forth, over and over until she burned from it. Her flesh peeled away from her bones, wings were torn from her back. Bones broke in her arms, only to be repaired but mended in the wrong direction. Her fingers bent back toward her wrists, while her feet twisted around until she thought them to fall off. And through it all, Noah laughed, his voice in her head as if he planned to be a part of her.

Come to me, Helenia. Let me kill you on my own ground.
She told him no, that she’d kill him first.
Even after this, you think it still possible? That you are stronger than me?

I will kill you and take my alpha. He will give me my greatest creations as yet.
He laughed again and told her where he was.
I’m coming. You’ll rue the day that you took what was mine, Noah. See if you don’t.

As will you. If you think you can come here to try and harm me, then come to me. Come here and let me kill you.
His laughter faded, but the pain in her body was never-ending.

When she thought him gone, she sat up. She hurt and her body was ruined. Touching her fingers to her leg, she cried out at the pain and wondered what he’d done to her. But before she could get up and get herself to safety, he was there again. His power took her under.