Laying Claim to the Soul (18 page)

“The same one who threw up a shield around his house before you could get close to it,” Wol-itelm said.

“You okay?” Tabby asked, reaching over touching his arm.

He looked up at her and smiled through his tears. “Your mother was a smart one. She sent me something I had long forgotten. It has all your years growing up. She gave me the one thing I always wanted, to see you grow.” He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. “My baby.”

“Well now you will be able to walk me down the aisle like all human fathers do at their daughter’s wedding to give me to my men. It’s one of the most dreamed of, the big wedding with…Oh my God, I know where we can have the wedding, Melody,” she yelled, getting up and running to the wall safe where her mother’s husband had kept all the deeds.

“What are you looking for, Little Pet?” Wol-itelm asked, coming up behind her, his body brushing up against her ass, making her jump. “Damn it, that hurt and you know it, stop it,” she swatted at him, but kept going through the papers until Tabby found the one she wanted.

“Yes, we still own it! I guess my attorney kept up the property because this was last updated three years ago.” She frowned looking at the date.

“But how was it put in here if I haven’t been here in a while?” Tabby glanced up at Wol-itelm who took the deed in hand. “Furfur, Nicor,” he started to shout, but she grabbed onto his arm.

“No, I want to confront him, Wol-itelm. I need this. He pretended to be mated to Melody, which I still don’t know how he fooled us all, but I guess having powerful friends helped. Anyway, if I’m right, he was the one that set the bomb in the boat that killed his own parents, not to mention everything he’s done to me. I need this please, we both do.” She looked at Melody. Shane was behind her and growled, but she swatted his arm.

“She’s right, we both do and even you, Shane, need to confront him. Hoyt, he was your best friend. It’s time to find out why he did what he did.” Melody said, standing up for herself.

“See we all need to know why, please? I’ll even stay behind you?” Tabby said sliding her hands up his chest staring up into his green eyes.

“Tabby,” he growled smoke coming out of his nose and his eyes danced with flames.

“Do you know how hot it makes me when you get like this? It’s going to be a very, very long night
,” she sent him, looking around the room at all the guests.

“My brother and I will go too. Maybe we can see something others cannot,” her father said. “Plus I have a feeling you will be worrying about my daughter, rather than scoping the area.”

Yanking her closer to his body, Wol-itelm lowered his head and whispered. “I don’t care who’s in the room, Little Pet, so don’t push me.” With those words, her gecko worked his magic sending them to the Poconos resort she had heard so much about from her mother.

It was the one place her father, no, her mother’s husband had taken her all those years ago, just her and him. Her mom had told her about the resort they bought and it was a perfect place for weddings. It was too bad that in her gut Tabby knew without a doubt that her brother had been living there.

*****

Wol-itelm held his woman close to him, while Trace, his brother, Furfur, Nicor, and others spanned out. Melody stood next to them with Shane behind her as they moved up the stairs to the fancy resort.

“Wow, when your mom talked about this place, I had no idea. No wonder they were loaded. Shit, Tabby, you own this?” Melody squeaked glancing at her and she shook her head.

“I had no idea. I totally forgot about it. It’s like one of those fantasies we used to dream up. I thought mom was just adding to them, you know,” Tabby took the title out of Wol-itelm’s hand and read the title. “Yep, it has my name on it, damn.”

He smiled at her little snorts. They were so cute, but now was not the time to go there.

Guests were coming in and out of the place. Limos lined up to releasing their passengers. A man held open the door to them, bowing. As soon as they walked in, Tabby looked up and stared. He could see the memory of her mother giving them little crystal chandeliers that looked just like the ones above. “Melody?”

“Yep, one and the same,” she said turning in a complete circle as did Tabby.

“Hello my name is Grant Teller. How can I help you,” a gentleman in a black suit said. Tabby handed him the deed, still looking around. The man seemed to pale looking at her. “You are this Tabatha?” he asked?

“Oh crap I forgot my…” Chax came up behind them holding out her purse to her, knowing he had gone back home for it.

“Here you go, baby,” he said and she smiled, winking at him.

“Here is my license. Can you tell me, do we have a private retreat here? I’ve never been here before,” she asked and the guy seemed to be smitten by her. His gaze traveled up and down her body and that is when Wol-itelm became aware of how other humans would see his woman.

He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her back into his body not liking it one bit others were checking out what was his. He heard her giggle and Wol-itelm looked down. “What’s so funny?” he asked.

“You, I quote you. ‘I don’t care who is around. I’ll take you anywhere.’ Yet here we are, a few men give me the stare, and you have a jealous fit,” she dared to tease him.

He smiled, showing his teeth. “Little Pet, I eat little worms like him for breakfast. Remember, I told you I would do the meat?” he said, teasing back, but her reaction was not one he wanted.

Her face went pale, slapping a hand over her mouth as she looked for a bathroom. Not caring what people thought, he lifted her into his arms and ran to the closest bathroom just in time to see her dump more of her food. “When I find the one responsible for injecting you with that crap, I’m going to watch as he’s stripped…” his words stopped when she hit his leg while she was hovered over the toilet.

“Shut up already!” she managed to get out while cleaning herself up as he handed her a damp towel. “You just had to go there, didn’t you? And you better be teasing or I’ll be…”

“You’ll be what?” Wol-itelm asked looking down at her.

“I’ll be hurt and upset,” she said raising her head. “I don’t have to be beat the crap out of you Wol-itelm, but I would hope seeing my distress would stop you from doing that, even if the idiot deserved it.” She pushed past him and made her way to the sink where three women were standing.

“Sorry, morning sickness, just wish it would stick to mornings, and I’m afraid the big guy is very protective of me,” she pointed at him, but leaned down to splash cool water on her face.

“Oh you poor thing. I know how it goes. I was sick for six months with my son and daughter. Even the doctors were worried because I didn’t gain much weight to the end. Mint tea helps a lot,” the one older woman said giving him a glare. “And it helps if you don’t’ bring up disgusting things like that.”

“You are absolutely right,” his mom said coming into the bathroom and slapping him on the back of the head. “You should be ashamed of yourself. Here your woman is carrying your children and you tease her like that when you know she gets sick.” His mother glared at him, then helped Tabby out of the bathroom.

“
You are so going to pay, Little Pet,”
he grumbled and followed them out the door at a close range. His father, laughing, joined them as they made their way back into the main room where the little pest was waiting.

“Are you okay?” he asked coming to her side at once.

She glanced over her shoulder giving him a stare and he smiled. “Yes, Little Pet?”

“Stop growling,” she snipped and turned to the man. “I’m sorry but I’m afraid my men are a little possessive of me and before you say anything yes, I said men. Three actually she nodded to Hoyt who stood behind the man, then to Chax who was to his left. Now, I need to know where our private area is and a list of everything on our property including any little buildings that are used for tools. We’re searching for my long lost brother and he has this bad habit of turning up and causing trouble.”

“Oh my I’m so, so sorry and please forgive me sirs if I intruded. I’m afraid you don’t understand this hotel is for swingers. A very fancy one, but we support all the BDSM clubs, Poly relationships so there is no cause for you to worry. Now your private quarters are up the road to the top. There is a private chalet there. I don’t believe your brother has been around, but there was a woman up here a few weeks back and I had to insist he keep her up there. The woman was downright dirty, if you get my drift. I’m sorry to bring this up to you, but we had so many complaints about it.”

“Well then let me say I can promise you that she won’t be staying here again. Now, we won’t be staying long, just to check a few things, but I will need your number because we would like to organize a wedding here. Haven’t decided where yet, but this place is big enough to hold our guests just fine. Oh, and we will need the whole hotel for that week.” His little woman and Melody just went on and on explaining what they needed, while her father and uncle went up to said place.

Thanking the man, Tabatha took the maps, keys, and walky-talky and smiled up at him. “Let’s go. They were going to call up some cars but I told them we were walking wanted to see the property and I do.”

Hoyt reached over and took the map out of her hands handing it to Chax. “If it’s not too long we will walk, but you are still recovering from what happened and need to rest as much as possible. Plus, we still have people at the house we need to get back to,” Hoyt reminded her and she sighed.

“I know, but it’s so nice being out around others and to know our place is exclusive I love it. At least I have the papers and things we’ll need to plan our wedding. Plus, Grant is going to help us set everything up from home. I have his personal phone number to which will help.” She waved the paper in the air and Wol-itelm grabbed it out of her hands.

“Wol-itelm!” his mother glared at him, snatching the paper away from him. “What is wrong with you? You’ve never acted so strangely,” Hoyt laughed next to him.

“It’s called jealously. It seems our mate is a very possessive man and I do not blame him.” Hoyt reached over and squeezed Tabby’s butt earning a squeal from her.

“Don’t think I didn’t see those women checking you out, either,” Tabby glared at Hoyt, then at him. “If we stayed here, you three would have a line of women waiting to be possessed by you.” She mumbled and stopped sniffing the air.

“Oh God please tell me my brother wasn’t’ screwing around with Lilith?” Tabby said before throwing the papers into Melody’s hands and running up the rest of the way to the private dwelling before he could catch her.

“Tabby!” he yelled and was beside her in seconds, but wished he would have been a few seconds later as she turned, losing what left she had in her stomach onto his chest down to his feet.

He scanned around him and found the reason for her recent attack nausea. Sure enough, Lilith had been there. The place smelled and looked horrible. Matter of fact, Wol-itelm looked down to see he was standing in a pile of shit.

“Apollyon!” he yelled and at once the man was there in front of him, slipping when his figure was solid and landing on his ass in shit.

“I swear I’m going to rip her head off!” the man snapped, jumping up and almost falling again. That is when he heard Tabby’s little giggles behind him now.

“Oh my God, what the hell happened here?” Melody said coming to stand as near as she could to Tabby, but out from the mess.

“I’m afraid Chax’s mother,” Tabby said sitting down on the ground, her face still pale.

“Apollyon, find Lilith. She will not ever leave you world again,” Wol-itelm cleaned himself in an instant and moved to where his woman was. “You are going home and no more questions. If your brother is found, they’ll bring him to us.” He bent and scooped Tabby into his arms, latching onto Melody at the same time, bringing Shane with her.

Chapter Twenty-One

Tabby laid the map out on the kitchen table, while everyone was eating in the dining room. Even though she knew the food was safe from Wol-itelm’s comments earlier her stomach was still rebelling.

“I thought I’d find you in here,” Grace Hoyt’s mom said, sliding a plate in front of her. “I know your stomach is acting up, but you have to try and eat. Those two little ones need their strength too. I just got you a little, now eat.”

Grace sat across from her and gave her the mother look. “I wonder if I’ll be as good as you with the look when the time comes?” Tabatha asked taking small bits of beans, potato salad and the meat.

She snorted. “I think every mother learns it as the child grows. My mom can still give me that look and make me cringe.” Grace said looking down at the map. “Impressive, so this is the place where you are thinking of having the wedding?” Grace asked and took one of the brochures Tabby held out.

“I was looking at the grand staircase. I think that would be so cool coming down it to have Hoyt waiting at the bottom. There is enough room in the lobby there that we could hold over a couple hundred people easily. Even though I don’t think we will need that many…”

“Oh you are going to need more seats than that I’m afraid,” Wol-itelm came in with three plates of dessert handing one to each of them. Melody carried her own and it looked like hers was overstuffed with three different kinds of sweets.

“What? My stomach was empty, plus you know I can’t turn down carrot cake, chocolate cake and well, any sweets,” she moaned taking a bite of the chocolate.

Tabby laughed and turned toward, Ivyflame. “Why do you think we’ll need more guests?” she asked.

“Honey, you are mated to one of the most powerful men in the lower galaxies. Not to mention that your father alone will bring guests from half the upper ones.” She reached over and squeezed her hand looking at the map.

“There would be nice. It would hold enough, it will be tight. Plus, some of those coming you really don’t want inside a building with you for too long. I’m afraid Chax’s mother isn’t the only one who stinks out there and we can’t go offending planets since they can’t help how they smell.”