Neal (Golden Streak Series) (15 page)

“What was his reasoning for hurting
her?” She looked at him because she’d expected him to ask what she’d done to
him. “No man should hit anyone smaller or weaker than them. And no mate should
ever hit. Evan should have been taken before his alpha.”

“He was the alpha. We tried going over
his head, but he’d only shown them the man that people loved and said that my
mom was still distraught over the change.” Her skin crawled when she thought of
the way he’d converted her. “He told her it was his right to change her and
that she should have known that before they married.”

“He changed her against her will.” She
nodded. “And when he did it, what did he tell the council when they’d asked him
about it? They have rules as we do. Did anyone ask your mom if she wanted to be
a wolf?”

His voice had gotten hard and she took a
step back when he came toward her. “You’ll not hit me, Neal.”

He stopped moving and stared at her. “He
hit you, too. He’s the…. I wish the motherfucker was still alive because I’d
like nothing more than to hunt him down like the animal he was and tear him
apart.”

“I killed him.” He nodded as if he
already knew. Hell, for all she knew, he knew how she’d done it. “The snow was
coming down hard and he’d been driving me home from the movies with one of my
friends. He wouldn’t let me drive, and when I suggested that we walk, he had a
fit and said he’d pick us up. After he dropped off my friend, he said it was
high time that I became an active member of the pack.”

Neal nodded and took a slow step toward
her. She knew that if he touched her she’d never finish the story, and he had
to know why she’d never be another man’s property.

“He pulled over and I was jerked from
the car. Not by him but by several members of the pack. He had them hold me as
he took off his belt. He was going to beat me. Then they were all going to take
turns biting me until I was changed. He said that if they all did it, then they
all could claim me when it was over.” Neal took another step toward her. “I…the
first man slipped and fell. But I didn’t do that, and when one of the others
helped him up, I knocked them both down and broke their necks. I don’t think
the others knew what I’d done until…until later.”

“How many, Rayne? How many of them hit
you before you killed them?” She heard his anger and was afraid. She told him
three more men besides the two she’d killed.

“I murdered them all and then put them
into the car. It was easy enough for me to drive it back down the road and park
the car near the top of the bend and wait. The snow was coming down hard enough
by then that the tracks were all gone and the place where they’d hurt me was
covered up. Once there were no tracks I put the car into gear and made it go
over the railing and into the ravine at the bottom. I walked back to my friend’s
house and spoke to her and then left.”

He asked her what she’d told her. “Nothing.
I just…she thought we’d walked there and I walked the rest of the way home and Mom
was on the couch. It wasn’t until a couple of days later that they found them.”

He touched her then. He ran his hand
down her arms to her hand and laced his fingers into hers. He held her that way
for several minutes until he lifted her chin up and kissed her. She felt his
love for her all the way to her toes.

“I’m not like him.” She tried to pull
away, but he wouldn’t let her. “I’m not like any of them. I’m in love with you
and you love me, but that’s beside the point.” He took the ring out of his
pocket and slipped it on her right hand and not her left. “I want to marry you,
but I can understand why you won’t.”

“But you’ll keep at me about it, won’t
you?” He shook his head. “I don’t understand. You don’t want me anymore?”

“Oh, I want you. I want to spend the
rest of my life with you, and if you won’t marry me but stay with me, then I’ll
have to learn to live with that. But I won’t ask you again either. I need for
you to tell me when you’re ready and I’ll be there.” He kissed her gently on
the mouth. “I love you with all my heart and will always and forever keep you
in my heart, but I won’t force you to do anything that you’re not comfortable
with. I want you to trust me.”

She nodded. She did trust him. She just
didn’t ever want to marry him. Taking a step back, she walked to the trolley
that had some water bottles on it and picked one up. She wasn’t thirsty but
needed something to do with her hands.

“What about the shop? Are you going to
still buy your brother out?” He told her he was. “But it will be yours then and
not mine.”

“No. Even if you don’t marry me I still
want you to have it.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her to him.
“I give it to you. Would you like to see what I have as a plan to expand in
other five years?”

She nodded and they sat at the table. He
had written out a five-year plan with projections of spending and also a way
for them to make more money. He’d never once called it his business, and he
never ordered her to do what he’d said. She would, however, because it was a
good plan and a safe one. She liked safe.

“And if you wouldn’t mind, I’d still
like to work with you in the shops as well as do the books. I’m unemployed now
and will need to keep busy or drive you nuts. Besides, your mom said you were
doing them anyway, and I’d like to keep you busy in the showroom while I help
you manage the money.”

She thought of what Ally has said about
her and Alistair working together and wondered if that would happen to them.
Christ, she hoped so. She’d just have to make sure she had someone who could
run the register while they were having their own bit of fun.

Chapter 15

Peter stood near the building for nearly
an hour before he could work up the nerve to go and see her. He could see her inside
the building running around while people came and went, nearly all of them with
trays of plants. When Rayne came out and walked toward him, he nearly disappeared
but held his ground.

“You going to stand out here all evening
or were you going to jump us as we left for the day?” He started to protest
when she laughed. “I’m kidding. Why don’t you come inside? We’ll be closing
soon anyway.”

“You called him.” She stood still while
he continued. “He told me that you called him and told him if he took your gift,
you’d hunt him down. Are you aware of what he could do to you if he had wanted
to?”

“Yes. But as I said to you before you
left me that you were my friend and that if he even considered it, I would hurt
him.” He nodded. “Did he take it from you?”

“I gave it to him for a period of one
year.” She growled low and he laughed. “But he would not accept it. He said
that while he was not afraid of you, he did respect you for what you’d been to
me.”

“He’s a good man too.” Peter nodded at
her. “So you’re still a day walker but you still won’t come to see Neal. That’s
not very nice of you.”

“I have to go back to him. Tonight. I
have to…I have a fine to pay and I must pay it. But I have…he gave me this
night to ask a favor of you.”

“How long?” He knew she’d want to know
and was nearly not going to tell her but she’d find out soon enough. “How long will
you have to stay away from your beloved plants?”

He looked at her sharply. “You are too
smart for your own good and it may get you into some trouble someday. You
should heed my advice and—”

“How long, Peter?” He looked into her
shop and saw there were two beings, people that were not quite human there that
he’d never seen before.

“I cannot have them for a decade.” He
looked at her. “I would ask that you’d care for them for me. The seeds of life
that you gave me have sprouted true leaves and I have ten growing now. And the
others…the other seeds you have given me, they fill my rooms of my home fully.”

“You know that I’ll care for them for
you.” He nodded. “Will you have your cell phone with you where you’re going?”

“Yes. It is not as if I’m being punished
in staying with him. I will be like a king just without a castle of my own.”

And a king without a true friend. And
she had been to him for more years than any other being had been. He tried his
best to think of something happy to tell her, but all he could think about was
not seeing her for a whole ten years.

“When you return, what will you do?” He
shrugged, too depressed to think what he’d do. “You’ll have a job working for
me if you want it.”

“You’d have me work for you? With your
plants and other…humans?” She laughed and told him yes. “Do you believe that to
be wise? I am still a vampire.”

“And you will forever be my friend.” She
pulled out her cell phone when it rang and she looked at him with a smile. “I
have just heard, my lord. And while I understand what you’ve done, I don’t like
it.”

He was afraid of who she might be
talking to. Peter knew it was his maker and he was asking when he was
returning. He should have been there over two hours ago. He looked at the
little girl running in the parking lot with her purchase. She was so happy that
he had to smile. He felt the same way when he was given something that grew by
his care. He looked back at Rayne when she handed him her phone. Viktor started
speaking as soon as he put the device to his ear.

“There are a great many people in this
world that I like. Less that I love. And fewer more that I respect. Your friend
is one of the few. She loves you dearly, I think.” Peter nodded, then realized that
Viktor could not see him.

“She is a true and wonderful friend. And
though she does not tell you often, I believe she enjoys you as well.” He
looked at Rayne as she moved toward the little girl who had just dropped her
flower and spilled it out. “I shall be there momentarily, sir. I have been…it’s
more difficult than I would have thought to tell her good-bye.”

“I’m sure that it would be.” He chuckled
slightly and Peter wanted to tell him not to laugh at him at a time like this.
“You should also know that she is going to be harder on you than I would have
been.”

“Sir?” He watched her still as she took
the little girl inside and sat her on the counter as her mother stood by. After
a Band-Aid was put onto the wound at her knee, the little girl was given a new
plant that was slightly bigger than the other and a hug.

“She’s going to be your guardian whilst
you serve your sentence for me.” His heart took a strange beat as his maker continued.
“I will visit you from time to time to be assured that you are not visiting
your
flowers and such, but she assures me that I have nothing to worry about.”

He didn’t understand the emphasis on the
word “your” but he was still trying to work out what he was being told. And not
to get his hopes up too much if what he was thinking wasn’t true.

“Are you saying that I’ve no need to
come there for the decade?” He held his breath as he waited for him to answer. Rayne
was walking toward him again, and he realized that he was in love with the
young faerie.

“Yes, that’s what I’m saying. She drives
a hard bargain, but in the end, I believe I will be getting the better end of
the deal. I won’t have to see you moping around as you think of your plants.”

“She…what will she owe you, sir? I would
ask that you not tax her overly much. She does not have much, but she is a good
woman. The entire Golden family is.” He laughed again and Peter smiled. “You
know this already.”

“I do, but I’m glad to hear that you
know it as well. Her tax will be nothing. She did not beg me but…I should like
to meet her one day. Not by email or calls as we have done so much of recently,
but actually meet her.” Peter nodded again and reached for Rayne’s hand. “You
will have a list of jobs to perform for her as well as me. Some of them will be
easy for a man like you. The rest…well, we shall see, shan’t we?”

After a few more minutes of them setting
up their first meeting, he handed Rayne back her phone. “You have saved me from
being bored. I don’t know what to say.”

“You say ‘thank you, Rayne’ and let it
go. And you’ll be here tomorrow morning bright and early to begin your work for
me.” She handed him a tee-shirt that he hadn’t noticed before. “You’ll wear one
of these every day when you come in. You might not like the colors, but I want
you to stand out if people need you.”

The shirt was an overly bright pink, and
when she waved it at him, it nearly made him ill. But he took it like it was a
badge of honor. She nodded and told him that she’d see him in the morning and to
go home.

“But I cannot see my plants.” She walked
back to him and put out her hand. He looked at it, then at her.

“Sell them to me.” He started to shake
his head, not understanding her. “Sell them to me for whatever I have in my
pocket and they’ll no longer be your plants, but mine. And you’ll have to care
for them as I don’t have the time to be messing with them.”

He took her hand, then jerked her body
to his to hug her. He had never been so happy in his life. He had his friends,
a job, and now he was going to be able to see his…no,
her
plants daily.
They struck their bargain and she returned to the shop and he to his home. He sat
in the room with the new seedlings until the sun rose. He was going to work. He’d
already written out her receipt for a dollar and twelve cents for his flowers,
all the money she had on her.

~~~

“He touched you.” She looked up at Neal
as he leaned against the doorjamb where she was working. “You let that vampire
touch you to his body, and now you smell like him.”

Her body responded to his voice, not so
much his words. When he stood up and moved toward her, she could see his cat
race along his skin. When he stood over her, she felt her cat purr just below
the surface and she rubbed her head over his belly.

“Is there a way for me to make it up to
you?” She didn’t move when he pulled her rubber band out of her hair. “Is
everyone gone?”

“It doesn’t matter if they are or not.
You’ve been bad.” Her cat snarled at him and she let her go just a little and
he yanked her hair back. “Behave or this will go worse for you.”

Worse could only be better with him. She
groaned when he lifted her up. “Neal, I’m so sorry. I won’t misbehave again.’

“Yes you will. And we both know it.” She
didn’t nod because he was in the mood to play and so was she. “Did you bring
any extra clothes and put them in the apartment like I asked you to?”

“Yes,” she managed to hiss out when he
bit her in the shoulder. “I put them with yours and some wine in the
refrigerator. Christ, Neal, I’m soaking wet.”

He tore her clothes from her. Not gently
either, but using his claws, he shredded them into long strips until she was
naked. Lifting her by her ass, he sat her on her work bench and took her breast
into his mouth.

He suckled so hard that she thought for
sure he was going to take all of her into his mouth. When he pinched her other
nipple, she wrapped her legs around his hips and pulled him to her. His cock
was so hard that she could feel herself getting wetter.

He stepped back a little without letting
go of her breast and opened his shirt. Buttons bouncing off the pots made a tinkling
sound. When he unsnapped his pants and freed his cock, she reached down and
wrapped her hand around him.

“Do you have any idea how wild it makes
me when you smell like another male?” She told him it was why she let him hug
her. “Fuck, you’re evil. I’m going to enjoy this.”

He entered her hard, his cock slamming
into her so deeply that she cried out. When he took her mouth, she sucked his
tongue into her and toyed with it like she wanted to do to his cock.

He lifted his head. “My cat wants to
fuck yours. But I can’t seem to stop.” He pressed her back on the table and
held himself still in her as he ran his hands up and down her ribs and over her
breast. His cock rode her slowly and she wanted to scream at him to finish her.
Her clit was so needy of his touch that she reached down to slide her hands
over her.

“No.” He held her hand away. “Not yet. I
want to make you pay for teasing me. Making me wild for you. When I come, I’m
going to pull out and come all over you and then use it to bring you to peak.”

He continued to tease her body, leaning
over and nipping at her flesh and then licking the tiny wound better. When he pulled
her tighter against him, she felt his cock stretch, but when he suddenly pulled
from her, she sat up.

His cock exploded on her. As he fisted
himself in long, quick strokes, streams of hot cum splashed on her breasts, and
hung from her nipples and belly until she was covered in him. When he pressed
her back again, he buried his mouth over her pussy and bit her just enough that
she cried out. Begging him for her own release, he suckled her clit into this
mouth and fucked her with his fingers. Her climax roared from her, and her cat
snarled.

Her body was still reacting to her
release as tremors shook her. He lifted his head and she could see the cat take
him and lay very still, knowing what he was going to do. As soon as his giant
cat stood where the man had, he, too, buried his face in her pussy and licked
her until she came twice more. When he moved away from her, she could see his
erection, and her cat snarled again as she let her take her.

The shift was painless, but he was on
her in seconds. As he took her to the floor, she tried her best to crawl from
beneath him as he bit down into her shoulder. Even as he entered her, she knew
that he was not just marking her but claiming her. Her cat tried once more to move,
but he bit her until she stilled.

“Christ, do you have any idea what it
does for him when you let him taste you like that?”
Neal moaned.
“He
loves your taste and you. My cat is in love with you as a human.”

His cock pistoned in her and she tried
to meet each of his thrusts, but he was too quick, his body too heavy. When he
released her from his mouth, he roared as he held her with his enormous paws
and filled her.

He shifted back first, and as she lay
there watching him walk around, she stood up and walked to him and rubbed her
head on his thigh. She licked him there and then sank her teeth into him. He
cried out and held still as she tore at his flesh and held there. When she was
finished, she shifted before she knelt down and licked the wound closed and
looked up at him.

“She wanted to mark you.” He nodded. “Is
that right? I didn’t know what she was going to do until she was already doing
it.”

“Yes. She…the female, as far as I know,
rarely marks her mate.” They both looked down at the scar already forming.
“I’ll wear this proudly.”

She nodded, and they walked through the
office to the apartment in the back and dressed. He lay on the bed while she
told him what had happened with Peter.