Stalk Me (7 page)

Nicole screamed again. “Yes, oh, yes, please.”

Ayden’s cocked swelled around her tightness, and he thrust a few more times before he pulled out, shooting his cum all over her ass.

With a strength that surprised Nicole, he pulled the zip ties apart with his hands. Time seemed to momentarily stop. Weren’t the ties designed not to be broken? He didn’t even put effort into freeing her from her binds.

Numb, her arms and legs fell to the bed. A stiff aching immediately took over. The sound of Ayden getting dressed barely registered to her while she went over her suspicions.

Unexpectedly, she felt herself lifted as Ayden carried her to the bathtub. In a daze she let him turn on the water and clean her off. The strength and power, almost everything about him, made her ex’s words repeat in her head. Pain racing up her arm broke the thoughts.

“Did Michael do this to you?”

Nicole looked down at the bruises beginning to circle her arm.

“It’s not a big deal. Like I said, he was drunk. He really wanted me to listen to him about this ‘thing’ he thinks you are. What exactly happened when you met him?”

Ayden looked away and then back at the bruises. “It is a big deal.

He shouldn’t be touching you. Will you please allow me to talk to
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him again? I won’t scare him. Michael just needs to know to keep away from you. That’s all.”

“Before I give you an answer, answer my question. What happened between you and Michael?”

Nicole watched him shift uncomfortably. The sound of the police radio echoing through the room made Nicole jump in surprise.

“I’ll tell you everything tonight. I promise. I have to go. Are you going to be all right?” Ayden asked, standing.

“Of course.”

The taste of Ayden’s mouth swept over her senses. He smiled down and she watched him quickly take off through the door. For endless minutes she stared at the spot where he’d last been. If Ayden in fact wasn’t human, which was ridiculous, what could he be?

Nicole shook her head and tried to laugh it off. She wasn’t even sure why she dwelled on Michael’s words. They were no doubt the ravings of a drunken man. But what if they weren’t? What if, for once, her ex wasn’t completely full of shit?

Standing, she grabbed a towel and headed for her room. The ties still sat in the place Ayden left them. Nervously, she walked forward, staring down at the thick plastic. Could any human break those, one possibly as built as him? If she knew one, she would have tested the theory, but she didn’t know anyone with a body as perfectly sculpted as his.

Picking up the plastic, she made a new, smaller circle. Endlessly, Nicole pulled. Burning raced through her fingers while she put everything possible behind separating the plastic, desperate to prove and dismiss the growing anxiety.

“Fuck!”

Red welts already covered the expanse of her fingers, but she didn’t give up. She couldn’t give up. Throwing on some clothes, Nicole walked next door. A man in his early twenties answered.

“Hello, I know you just moved here, and we really haven’t gotten to know each other, but I was wondering if you could do me a favor.”

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“Sure.” He smiled down at her while she tried to think of a story.

“Well, you see, I’m planning to help friends move soon and they want to use these ties to help secure their stuff. Since I know I’m not very strong, I wondered if maybe you could try testing your strength against them to see if they would be good enough for my friends to use. I would hate for something to happen to their stuff if one of the ties broke.”

The man grabbed the small circle and began to pull. Nicole watched his face turn red while he tried to break it. Repeatedly, he pulled at different angles.

“I think your friends don’t have anything to worry about. Their stuff isn’t going anywhere. Where did you find these?”

“I don’t remember. Thank you, I’ll be sure to tell them.”

Nicole raced inside her apartment and collapsed to the couch.

How did Ayden do it? Not only once, but twice he pulled the plastic apart like paper. Fear settled through her. She wasn’t physically afraid of him but more scared of what he might be hiding from her. Was she jumping to conclusions? Based off her neighbor, she didn’t think so.

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The sirens wailed while Ayden headed to the crash dispatch reported. Car accidents were his least favorite thing to go to, especially major ones, but the thought of someone being hurt and no one there to help allowed him to put his emotions aside and do his job.

Needing to know the exact 10-20 of the accident, Ayden called back into dispatch for the location. The voice broke through laced with static. From what he could make out, he was only two blocks away, not far at all.

The cruiser flew past the stop sign, making a left. As Ayden slid around the turn, he saw the smoke billowing out of the two cars that hit head on. His heart raced. Visions of his sister’s accident flashed into his mind. Pushing them away, he tried not to think about how he forever ruined her life. She hated him, feared him for infecting her.

He never felt the cut from the broken glass, but she didn’t understand that. Now she refused to see him, and Stephen, one of his pack members, took care of her a good twenty minutes away. He shook his head and focused.

One officer was already on the scene. The cruiser slowed down as he approached. He quickly radioed his arrival in to dispatch. Ayden got out, running toward the two cars.

Officer Valdez talked to a woman sitting dazed in the driver’s seat of one of the vehicles. The two red cars were almost unrecognizable.

Metal twisted together at odd angles. Glass littered the road up to fifteen feet away.

Ayden cleared his thoughts and focused on what Valdez was
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saying. “The driver of the other vehicle, I’m almost positive is a DWI.

He hit her head on. Go check on him. I’ll stay with her until EMS gets here.”

Ayden didn’t wait for him to finish. He jogged over to the vehicle.

Brown hair rested against the deflated air bag on the steering wheel.

When a man’s eyes met his, Ayden’s stomach dropped.

“Michael, are you all right?” He leaned toward the window.

The glass was completely missing, so he peered inside to see if he could survey any damage to his body. The smell of blood hit him hard. Michael was injured somewhere.

“I think I’ll be going now, officer. I’m late for my anniversary.

My girlfriend is going to kill me,” Michael slurred.

“Head injury, probably a concussion,” Ayden said under his breath.

The EMS pulled up, rushing to get everything ready. Nicole would be upset. Ayden was sure of that. Michael might have been a shitty boyfriend, but they still lived together for a year. Feelings evolve over time, no matter what happened.

“Michael, after they take you, I’m going to get Nicole for you and tell her she needs to go to the hospital. Would you like me to do that?”

Blood caught Ayden’s attention while Michael turned more in his direction. He had yet to get a clear visual of the victim’s face. The way Nicole’s ex rested with his eyes looking towards his lap, made it impossible to assess him accurately. With a groan, he finally lifted his head off of the steering wheel, and what Ayden saw was enough to stop his heart and breath completely.

Michael’s face could hardly be recognized from the other side.

Bone was exposed over his eyebrow and multiple lacerations looked to be along his cheek and forehead. He tried to see more but paramedics pushed him out of the way.

“Nicole, where’s Nicole?” Michael started saying repeatedly.

Ayden’s head swirled as he thought of the way Nicole would
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react. More officers arrived on scene and the pandemonium only left him grasping to stay focused on his job.

A hand clamped onto Ayden’s shoulder. Startled, he spun around.

Trevor stood there in his fireman gear, his blond hair smelling of coconut, still dripping water from the shower he must have been pulled from.

“Hey, you okay? You look lost. This isn’t like you.”

Ayden relaxed a bit at seeing his second in command. “Yeah, I know the DWI driver. The woman I marked, my mate, Nicole. That,”

Ayden pointed toward the totaled car, “is the ex-boyfriend I threatened. He doesn’t look so well. Michael hid in her car when she got out of work today. He was wasted, so she took him home.” Ayden paused. “I have a pretty good idea of where he was headed. Our complex isn’t blocks from here. She said he mentioned my half transformation. He seemed pretty persistent, trying to make her believe him. Fuck, I can’t even think right now.” Ayden nervously ran his fingers through his black hair.

“This isn’t anyone’s fault but the driver’s.” Trevor’s eyes narrowed at Ayden. “Don’t blame yourself. You didn’t make him climb behind the wheel of that car. He had a choice and he made it.”

Anger filled every inch of his body. “It
is
my fault. If I could have controlled my temper, then I wouldn’t have shown him that side of me. He would have just thought I was some jealous guy or something.

Not some…monster.”

“You’re not a monster. None of us are, Ayden.”

“I know that.” He turned to see them carefully lay Michael on a stretcher. His eyes darted toward him, and something passed through their depths. Ayden wasn’t sure what. Deep down Michael still knew what he saw. It was only a matter of time before he remembered.

“I need to go and get Nicole. I’ll see you tonight at the apartment.

You are off tonight, right?”

“Yeah. See you later,” Trevor said, walking back toward the fire truck.

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Ayden took in the scene, letting every detail burn into his brain.

He caused this. All of his actions led up to the moment they were in now.

Walking to Valdez, he explained needing to leave. Everything was already being taken care of. An abundance of officers littered the area, directing traffic and keeping pedestrians at bay.

He climbed into his cruiser, letting the weight settle on his shoulders. Guilt ate at him the whole way back to Nicole’s apartment.

No one would be able to convince him that this wasn’t his fault. If he would have reacted differently to his jealousy, then Michael wouldn’t have gotten wasted and felt the need to go to Nicole to warn her or protect her. Regardless, it didn’t matter. The blame rested on him.

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The pounding on Nicole’s door echoed throughout the apartment like a cannon. She placed the brush down on the bathroom counter, feeling herself begin to shake. Who would bang so loudly if it wasn’t an absolute emergency?

Another set of panicked knocks thumped through her body as she approached the door. Fumbling with the dead bolt, she finally managed to open it. Ayden’s face looked paler than his usual tanned skin. She knew immediately something was wrong.

“What’s happened?”

His mouth opened and then closed. He walked past her and into the living room where he started to pace. She closed the door and slowly walked toward him. Unsure how to approach the subject that obviously left him shaken, she waited for him to proceed.

“I’m sorry, Nicole.” He slowly turned to her. “Michael’s been in a very bad car accident. He was driving and hit a lady head on. He’s alive, but it’s not good. I think he might have been headed over here.

It happened only a few blocks away.”

Nicole collapsed to the couch, feeling dizzy. “I have to get to the hospital. I shouldn’t have left him like that. He didn’t even make it to his apartment before I took off.”

Trying to stand, Nicole gave up and sat down again. She bowed her head and placed her hands on the sides of her thighs to make her head stop spinning.

“This is all my fault,” she whispered.

Ayden quickly sat beside her. “This is not your fault. This is my fault. I shouldn’t have threatened him. If I wouldn’t have gotten angry
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and changed, then he wouldn’t have been scared. Don’t you see? I did this, not you!” Ayden yelled, getting back to his feet and pacing.

Nicole looked up. “What do you mean, changed?” Just the words placed the fear back into her head. But the more she looked at him, the more she knew she wasn’t necessarily afraid of him compared to the overdramatic images her mind kept producing.

Ayden turned around slowly and faced her. His eyes connected with hers, glowing a golden brown color. The light illuminating through left her staring at him, stunned. She came to her feet, not sure of what to do.

“You see, I did this. He would have never gotten in the car if he didn’t think I would hurt you. But I wouldn’t do that, Nicole. I could never hurt you.”

Nicole took a slow step forward, believing his words. “So he was telling the truth. What…are you?” she asked, taking another step cautiously toward him. A part of her wanted to know while another part wasn’t so sure knowing was such a good idea. Ignorance seemed a pretty good option, but one she knew she couldn’t take.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” Ayden rubbed his eyes, turning away from her.

“Try me. I’m pretty open-minded. Plus, what I just saw proves you’re not entirely human.”

Ayden took a deep breath. “What if I said I was a werewolf?

Would you believe me then?”

Nicole hesitated. “A werewolf?” She picked up the tie and walked over to him. “After you left I tried to break this like you did. I even had the neighbor try his luck. We couldn’t get it. Some part of me knew you weren’t like everyone else. But, a werewolf…I never would have guessed or even imagined. I’m still not sure what to think.” She paused and then lifted her hand. “Break it,” she said, handing him the small circle.

His eyes never left her face while he lifted the plastic and broke it apart between their connected gaze. Something inside of her stomach
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