NOCB 008 - Scions 02.5 - Patrice Michelle - Perception (3 page)

“Gabriel! What’s wrong with the phone? I’ve been trying to cal for the past two hours.”

“I had the line disconnected for a while. What’s up?”

“I’m cal ing because there’s been a bit of a mix-up. Landon just told me he said you could stay at my house, but I told my friend Abby she could stay there this weekend. Is Abby there yet?”

Gabriel gripped the phone tight. He might have an al -weather SUV sitting in the garage, but he wasn’t leaving. Hel no. Not now. “She’s here. We had an interesting introduction, considering we each thought the other was a burglar.”

“You didn’t hurt her, did you?” Kaitlyn voice rose with worry. Gabriel grunted. “She’s quite capable of taking care of herself, but no, I didn’t hurt her. Other than her pride. I get the impression she’s used to winning.”

Kaitlyn let out a relieved laugh. “I see you’ve learned a bit about my friend already. Since Abby needs a place to get away for the weekend, maybe you could head back here.”

What does Abby
need
to get away from?
“Neither one of us is going anywhere. We’re in the middle of a bad ice storm.”

“Oh. Can you put Abby on the phone?”

Crackling came across the line as he answered, “She’s taking a shower at the moment.”

Kaitlyn sighed. “Wel , at least I can speak freely since she’s not around. Abby has no idea about my father’s past connection to the Lupreda. Like al the other humans living in New York City, she’s blissful y unaware of the wolf pack’s existence.”

“You don’t think she can handle the truth?” Gabriel asked, his throat suddenly dry.

“Abby’s obviously aware of the Sanguinas vampires’ vicious treatment of the human population before the vampires withdrew from society twenty-five years ago, so I’m sure her practical side wouldn’t al ow her to discount the possibly that werewolves could exist, too. Stil , I didn’t want to run the risk of exposing the pack by tel ing my friend about it. I wasn’t sure how she’d react.”

“I see,” he said, wondering how he was going to convince the stubborn, sexy, tough little human upstairs to trust a wolf. She didn’t seem to trust human men very much. Or maybe it was because they’d just met. Learning more about her could help him determine what he was up against. “Something Abby said made me wonder…did she have it pretty hard growing up?”

“She hasn’t shared much about her childhood with me, but let’s just say Abby’s a definite success story for Handleburg Hal ’s troubled-teen program.” The line began to crackle more, cutting in and out. “Listen, Gabriel, I know how you are—and I know I joked with you—Abby a while back, but she real y doesn’t need—fling right now.”

A fling was the
last
thing on his mind. Kaitlyn’s half-human and half-Lupreda status made it easier for him to accept her as his alpha’s mate. But Abby was al human, and even though his body howled for her, Gabriel’s brain had a hard time grasping the idea of a human mate. Stil , he couldn’t stop thinking about her. “The line’s dying out, Kaitlyn. The storm’s getting worse. Abby’s in good hands.”

“In—hands? What does—mean? Gabriel? Gabriel Hawthor—”

Steady loud static sounded, making him wince and yank the handset away from his ear. The line was completely dead. Gabriel hung up the phone and stared at the ceiling above him. “I never thought a human would chal enge me the way you have, Abby Brooks.”

Abby didn’t realize just how cold she was until she unzipped her damp jacket in the bathroom. Of course, the moment she swept off her jacket and shirt, and chil bumps spread across her skin, that’s when she realized she’d been so distracted by Gabriel that she’d forgotten to bring her bag upstairs.
There’s no way I’m I going back
down there now. He’l know he flustered me into forgetting my stuff
.
Then again, it’d serve
the guy right if I sashayed past him to get my bag wearing nothing but a towel around my
clean body
. Abby closed the shower curtain with a smirk and stepped under the pounding hot water, sighing in pleasure.

As she lathered her skin with lavender-and-rose scented soap, thoughts of Gabriel floated through her mind. His earlier comment that “being her boyfriend is a start”

shocked her, reminding her of al the warnings that had scattered through her mind downstairs.

From an early age, Abby had learned from her mother’s mistakes never to al ow any relationship to get serious. She’d lost count of the number of times her mother had cried herself to sleep because her latest lover had walked out and never come back, or because he’d left her for another woman. The men treated her mother like she was a piece of disposable tissue to use up and then throw away. Al Abby’s adult life, the only person she ever truly depended on was herself, for money and for personal happiness. Staying emotional y detached meant that if things didn’t work out, the only person she could be disappointed in was herself. And so far, with every relationship she’d had, she’d made the right decision to move on. Abby squeezed shampoo into her hair and lathered it up, scrubbing her scalp hard to try and rub away her instantaneous reaction to Gabriel. It was almost surreal how she’d so easily fal en into his embrace, desperate for his touch and achy with need. Such an intense response to his earthy smel and the feel of his hard body wrapping around her, like a protective circle of hard steel, smacked of emotional dependence, and she didn’t like it. At al .

Closing her eyes, Abby bent her head back under the hard spray. As the suds washed away, her mind conjured an arousing picture of Gabriel standing in the shower with her, water beading on the barbel in his eyebrow, highlighting his sexy scar. She’d run her hands down his muscular chest and touch every hol ow between his cut abs. His hands would slide along her slick skin, exploring every intimate place, arousing her to a fever pitch of need. Despite the warm water, her skin prickled and her body throbbed. Even in her imagination, the man’s magnetism was palpable and his dark intensity irresistibly seductive. She couldn’t deny it. Their attraction was inexplicably powerful. What was wrong with giving into her desires? She’d never had a problem doing that in the past.

Because this enigmatic man’s penetrating eyes don’t miss a single detail. His blatant
invasion of your personal space was purposeful and predatory. He won’t let you keep him
at arm’s length. He’l burrow deep, and once you’ve fal en completely, he’l walk away,
leaving you raw and empty inside
. Gabriel didn’t appear to be anything like her past lovers or the losers her mother had lived with, but al men eventual y showed their true colors. Huffing in frustration for mental y arguing with herself on Gabriel’s behalf, Abby turned to shut off the water and gasped when she opened her eyes. Someone had turned out the lights, leaving the windowless bathroom completely black. Abby’s heart seized and her throat shriveled to a dry husk, preventing the instinctive scream of terror from escaping.

Breathing hard through her nose, she tried to pul in air, but it didn’t seem like she’d ever get enough. Her heart thudded and she blindly reached for the tap, managing to shut it off. Over her whooshing pulse, she barely heard the last trickle of water washing down the drain. Gripping the curtain, she closed her eyes tight and tried to swal ow the old fears, but her throat and chest cinched tight, stepping her back in time. It didn’t matter that decades had passed. She was eleven al over again. In the dark and al alone.

Tiny sparks began to dance in her vision and Abby let go of her pride. She didn’t want to pass out stark naked in a bathtub! “Gabriel, please help me,” she managed a squeaky whisper.

“I’m here,” he said at the same time the curtain yanked from her hand. Relief flooded through her when strong fingers gripped hers.

“The storm knocked out the power,” he murmured while he helped her step from the tub.

The second Abby’s feet settled on the plush carpet in front of the tub, he released her hand and a thick towel settled around her shoulders. The soft cloth tugged tight in front of her and Abby quickly gripped the ends. She tried to thank him, but the words wouldn’t come, she was stil so traumatized.

Big hands landed on her shoulders, gripping them. “Why are you shaking? Abby, what’s wrong?”

She couldn’t see him, but his presence and the concern in his voice relieved some of her anxiety. “Li—light. Need some light.” She hated how helpless she sounded. How weak the darkness made her.

He instantly scooped her into his arms. Holding her against his chest, he carried her to the closest bedroom. Abby’s gaze zeroed in on the faint light coming from across the room and the tightness in her lungs eased a little. Once Gabriel laid her on the chaise lounge underneath the picture window and the dim evening light began to filter into her vision. Her throat slowly unclenched, al owing her to croak out “Thank you.”

Gabriel sat facing her, his hip touching hers. Gentle fingers brushed strands of wet hair away from her face. “Why were you so unsettled?”

Abby was surprised by how much Gabriel’s attentive response meant to her. Without question, he seemed to instinctively know what she needed. Even now his gentle touch was an instant, soothing balm, calming her frazzled nerves. If she didn’t remember to keep her distance, she could quickly become addicted to this man.

She had no clue that Gabriel’s wolf senses had alerted him to her distress. He’d picked up her erratic heartbeat a few seconds after the power failed and he instantly flew up the stairs to the bathroom. Up until that point, his mind had been fighting his body’s physical response to Abby and the idea of a human as his mate, but the way he’d automatical y responded to her fear, the moment he sensed it, obliterated every mental doubt. This woman was undeniably his mate. By the time he’d opened the bathroom door, she’d managed to turn off the water, but her pulse rate had skyrocketed and deep fear coated every droplet of steam, permeating the entire room.

Al Gabriel’s Lupreda instincts told him to yank her from the shower and pul her into his arms, but he didn’t know how she would react to a wolf’s natural response to protect his mate. Instead, he’d clenched his jaw and held a rigid, quiet stance, waiting for her to ask for help.

When she whispered his name, the pleading in her voice undid him. He’d never moved so fast in his life, nearly ripping the curtain rod off the wal . Abby’s hunched, trembling shoulders tore at his heart. Tears fil ed her gorgeous green eyes while she opened and closed her mouth in silent screams. The look of sheer terror on her face etched in his mind, burned into his memory.

Once he’d helped her out of the shower and draped the towel around her shaking body, it took every ounce of wil power not to wrap himself around her and offer his warmth and words of reassurance that he’d never let anything happen to her. Abby had no idea what he’d seen or how deeply instinctive his feelings ran. And now she laid on the lounge, trying to downplay her reaction. Cupping her jaw, he turned her face toward his and frowned slightly. “You were real y shaking.”

“I was cold.”

Heart-wrenching vulnerability lurked in her eyes as she stared at him in the semidarkness. She opened her mouth as if she were going to say something more, then her lips curled into a tremulous smile.

Lifting her fingers to his eyebrow, she gently brushed his piercing. “Where did you get that scar?”

Gabriel felt his eyebrow being raised under her fingers. “Quid pro quo?”

Abby bit her lip and tilted her head, then nodded. “I’l share if you do.”

Gently tugging one of the ends of the towel from her hand, he ran the soft terry cloth’s corner along her throat, drying the water droplets. “A long time ago, I got into a long, drawn-out fight with a guy who’d made it his self-assigned goal to torment me. I guess you could say I considered him my deadliest enemy.”

“Your deadliest enemy? Those are some pretty harsh words. Were you just a kid when this guy bul ied you?”

He paused his movements with the towel and concentrated so he wouldn’t growl his response. “I was fairly young and this bastard was definitely a bul y.” Gabriel thought about the Sanguinas vampire who’d given him the scar on his eyebrow—as wel as various mental ones that didn’t show—and long-suppressed anger surfaced anew. Since the vampires had created the Lupreda wolf race to hunt as prey, and the only reason vampires existed in the first place was because the humans’ secret government genetic project, known as Scions, had failed, Gabriel had—unjustly or not—always lumped the humans in with the vampires. He knew that only a smal group of humans was responsible for creating the vampires via genetic testing on humans, and that those vampires had broken free and terrorized the rest of the human race for the atrocities that happened to them in the Scions labs…wel , until the humans’ blood started making the vampires sick. Once the Sanguinas withdrew from the human world, leaving their Lupreda prey behind, Gabriel had relished his freedom for the past twenty-five years. But he continued to despise al vampires and had never gotten over his aversion to humans. Humans were a means to earn a living, nothing more. From his perspective, just like the vampires, humans couldn’t be trusted.

And yet, here was this
human
woman, tugging at his heart and making him want to ease fears. His human mate, whom he
trusted
without question. Ironic much? Hel , yeah!

Abby slid her fingers along his biceps, a smal smile playing at her lips. “I can’t imagine anyone trying to bul y or intimidate you.”

Gabriel slowly ran the towel’s corner down the center of her chest and stopped where her cleavage began. The swel of her breasts pushed against the edge of the towel, making his mouth water. He wanted to run his tongue along her sweet skin, to delve between her breasts and brand her with nips and kisses, to inhale her unique scent. His heart thumped and his cock swel ed painful y against his jeans.

“Your turn,” he rasped.

Abby shrugged. “It’s just an embarrassing phobia of the dark carried over from childhood. I was taken by surprise, that’s al .”