Authors: Alice Cain

Tags: #MM Gay romance paranormal

His to Protect (13 page)

BOOK: His to Protect

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"You told me vampires stay the same.
You promised."

Adrian didn't seem inclined to change back
into a man and verbally defend himself, so Tyler finally found the strength to
do it for him.

"He wasn't lying. They do stay the
same."

The man huffed
in annoyance as if he wasn't pointing an automatic weapon at a huge angry
werewolf and a scared-as-fuck human.

"Clearly
you've never had a person you love be turned into a vampire."

"My
best friend is a vampire," Tyler said as annoyance overruled good sense.
Was he really arguing with a man with a gun? Except that, oh yeah, Brian had
come here to kill Tyler anyway, so arguing was probably buying him some time.
Surely, Adrian's brother, Kyle, wasn't that far behind. "He was only
changed a few weeks ago."

"Did he
change? Did he forget you?"

"He
did…for a little while," Tyler admitted, "but he's mostly back to
himself now. Every vampire I've met is the same."

And yeah,
okay, he was exaggerating since he'd never actually met another vampire, but
Adrian and Gavin had both spoken of other men and women who'd retained their
human traits after being changed.

"So why
didn't she remember me?" Brian asked in a voice that cracked with grief.
"I loved her so much."

It probably
wasn't wise to point out that Brian's relationship with the woman might have
been all in his head. From what Lilly had found in her investigation, no one
who knew Jane had ever heard her mention Brian. It seemed very clear they were
dealing with someone who'd only imagined he knew the woman well enough to love
her.

"I
don't know why she changed," Tyler said, hoping that his sympathetic tone
hit the right notes. "I'm really sorry it didn't work out."

"So am
I," Brian said, his tone suddenly devoid of emotion. Tyler couldn't see
past the werewolf in front of him, but judging by Adrian's increased tension,
the gun was once again pointing in Tyler's direction.

Tyler nearly
leapt out of his own skin when the deafening sound of gunfire filled the room.
Adrian yelped, but kept his body between Tyler and the gunman even as he moved
toward the bullets. Tyler closed his eyes, too terrified that Adrian was dead
to care if he was about to be shot next. He didn't even bother to scream when
he felt someone kneel beside him.

"Are
you hurt?" an unfamiliar voice asked.

Reluctantly
Tyler opened his eyes.

"Are
you hurt?" the man asked again. Tyler's ears were still ringing from the
noise of gunfire, but he was pretty sure that was what the stranger was asking.

Tyler shook
his head and finally found the courage to glance over where he'd last seen
Adrian. His lover was back in human form, naked and bleeding, but still alive
and apparently still doing his job.

"He's
not hurt, but he's going into shock. Get your ass over here, Adrian. Tyler
needs you."

Adrian
raised an eyebrow and then dropped his gaze to the man he currently held facedown,
and gave the man a completely exasperated look. "Do you think maybe you
could take over here, Kyle? And what took you so damn long to get here
anyway?"

"Locked
doors," Kyle said with a shrug and a smile for Tyler. "I figured the
school board wouldn't be happy if I smashed through them." He winked as he
moved back onto his feet. "Besides I knew you'd have everything under
control." Kyle patted Tyler's upper arm affectionately, and then moved to
take over their prisoner. "The sheriff is on his way," he said to
Brian as he easily took over the hold Adrian had been using. "He's going
to be very interested to learn that a human was trying to kill a high school
teacher. That's against the law you know."

Adrian
laughed and shook his head at his brother, and then moved back to lie over
Tyler the way he'd been doing earlier. Except, this time he was naked.

"You've
been shot," Tyler said, trying to lift up so that he could offer some sort
of medical attention. Adrian simply shook his head, and eased him back to where
he'd been.

"It's
only a scratch." Judging by the amount of blood it was a bit more than
that, but Adrian didn't seem to be in any pain. "Now where were we?"
he asked with a happy grin. "Oh, yeah…you haven't answered my
question."

Tyler was
completely lost.
Question?
What fucking question?

"Marry
me," Adrian repeated.

"That's
not a question," Tyler said inanely, his inner English teacher taking over
for just a moment.

"True,"
Adrian conceded, but he smiled unrepentantly. "Marry me."

It wasn't until Tyler found himself laughing
at Adrian's bossy, inappropriate reaction to getting shot at that Tyler finally
realized where he was—lying on the floor, jammed against a brick wall,
surrounded by glass and destruction. It wasn't his idea of an idyllic proposal.

But it was somehow perfect anyway.

He wanted to say yes with every fiber of his
being, yet practicalities held him back.

"But you're a werewolf," he
blurted, not entirely certain that he could explain all of the problems
swirling through his mind. Hell, he wanted to scream the word "yes"
at the top of his lungs, but he'd never been one to deny the truth.

Life wasn't fair.

People rarely got what they deserved. Love
went awry, death intervened, accidents happened. It didn't matter how much he
loved Adrian, it wasn't fair to hold onto him. He was a long-lived werewolf with
an important job and Tyler was just a fragile human.

When Tyler hesitated too long, Adrian
started to take back what he'd said, trying to make a joke of his words.

"No, Adrian, please. Don't do that."

"
It's
okay,
Tyler," Adrian said, leaning over to brush Tyler's hair out of his eyes. "It's
a complicated situation. I get that." He leaned in to kiss him softly. "I
can't give you the future you deserve. I'll find you a suitable Dom at
Santutegia. You have a right to be happy, sweetheart."

"No," Tyler said sharply.

Adrian raised an eyebrow and waited for
Tyler to explain.

"No, I don't want to be happy with
someone else. I want you, Adrian. I want to be your husband and your sub. I don't
care how complicated that is. We belong together."

"Well in that case," Adrian said
with a wide grin. "Marry me, Tyler."

"Yes, Sir."

Epilogue

"The good news is that there won't be a
trial," Lilly said as she walked into Adrian's office. "Brian's
lawyer convinced him to plead insanity, and the prosecutor, the psychiatrist,
and the judge all agree. Apparently Brian has been screaming that vampires,
werewolves, and all sorts of other mythological creatures are real. I wonder
where he got that idea…"

"So
he'll be locked up?" Tyler asked, turning away from the computer he'd been
using. With school out for a couple of weeks, Tyler had happily agreed to come
into the office with Adrian whenever he needed. Adrian was technically on
vacation time too, but there were just some responsibilities that couldn't be
avoided. Tyler hadn't even blinked at Adrian's busy lifestyle, and had simply
used the time to work on his lesson plans.

Truly when it came down to it, Adrian couldn't
have asked for a partner who was better suited to him.

Lilly grinned at Adrian, apparently noticing
his sappy reaction to the man he loved, and then nodded in answer to Tyler's
question. "The psychiatrist diagnosed Brian as criminally insane and a
danger to society, and recommended indefinite incarceration. It's very likely
that if Brian ever is released, that he'll remember working for us as simply
part of his delusion."

"Good to know," Tyler said with a
brief shudder. Adrian quickly moved to pull his soon-to-be husband into his
embrace. "Sorry, I want to be compassionate and forgiving, but the guy was
willing to kill me just to hurt you. That kind of stretches my tolerance a
little too far."

Adrian understood that. Even after
everything he'd seen in his long life, he couldn't find it in himself to forgive
the man. The fact that Brian had imagined a relationship between himself and a
woman who barely knew him, and had then chosen to blame Adrian when things went
wrong, were both very clear signs of mental illness, but even knowing those
facts Adrian couldn't set his anger aside. The man had tried to take Tyler from
him.

Tyler was human so they had a limited time
together, anyway, but Adrian was hoping for decades not a few short weeks.

"So when are you going to make Tyler a
werewolf?" Lilly asked casually, almost as if she'd been following Adrian's
train of thought.

"You can do that?" Tyler asked in
a neutral tone, not giving any indication of whether he might want that or not.

"I…" Adrian hesitated. "I'm
not…sure if I can. We're not exactly regular paranormals."

"So you think Anaedra gave us these
gifts," Lilly said thoughtfully, "but held back the one thing that
might make you happy?"

Adrian shrugged. "It sure sounds like
Anaedra's style."

Lilly didn't defend the goddess who'd made
their lives both better and worse since they'd met her so long ago. She just
grinned more widely. "I guess you'll never know till you try it. Of
course, if it doesn't work we do have a few contacts in Lupinville who could
help you with that." Lilly winked at Tyler. "Assuming of course that
you actually want to spend five or six hundred years with this old grouch."

"Yes," Tyler said with a warm
smile. He lifted onto his toes, pressed a kiss to Adrian's jaw, and then
cuddled him tighter. Adrian was sure he was wearing the goofiest grin
imaginable, and judging by Lilly's smirk she was well aware of his sappy
thoughts, but when Tyler suddenly stiffened in his arms, Adrian's heart damn
near stopped.

"Unless," Tyler said, trying to
move out of Adrian's embrace, "you're…um… It's okay if you don't… I mean…"

"Stop, sweetheart," Adrian said,
placing his hand under Tyler's chin and urging his gaze up. "I want you
beside me for the rest of my life, but I'll be happy with however long you
want. Human or werewolf, sub or lover or partner… whatever you want, however it
works. I love you, Tyler. It's as simple and as complicated as that."

Tyler grinned.
"Sounds
absolutely perfect to me."

Adrian nodded in agreement. It sounded
pretty damn perfect to him too. After more than four centuries of living without
his mate, Adrian simply couldn't imagine a future without Tyler in it.

His human, soon-to-be werewolf, soon-to-be
husband grinned happily, and then lifted up to kiss him passionately. "I
love you, Adrian," Tyler said softly, "and I want to spend as long as
I can beside you. How long will it take to find out how to make me a
werewolf?"

"Hopefully
a single phone call," Adrian said, his mind already leaping forward to the
question he needed to ask. He laughed out loud when he and Tyler both found
themselves standing on the front porch of the alpha's home in Lupinville.

Adrian held
Tyler close just in case his first time traveling via "goddess" left
him kind of woozy.

"Thank
you, Anaedra," Tyler whispered softly.

The goddess
laughed, the unusual sound making Adrian smile.

"Who am
I," she asked in a lilting tone that Adrian had never heard from her
before, "to argue with a
bsolutely perfect?"

THE END

http://alicecainromance.blogspot.com

About the Author

Alice Cain is a pen name for an experienced
romance author who decided to try something a little different. Alice writes
gay erotic romance in several genres including contemporary, BDSM, paranormal,
and science fiction.

For the latest news and upcoming releases
please visit
Alice
at:

http://alicecainromance.blogspot.com

Other Books by Alice Cain