Dragon's Ward (3 page)

Chapter Four

She wasn’t sure how she made it to the spare room, or when she’d fallen asleep. All she could think of when she awoke was pure fear. She was alone, in the dark, and Roach was coming. She had never seen him, had never felt his touch, he was like some great nebulous figure that she only knew by the horrendous letters he wrote her and the gifts he left her in her room when she’d let her guard down enough to stay in a house too long. His letters had become progressively worse, going from tentative connection to full blown anger that she had yet to realize who he was, and go to him. He was no longer interested in their game of guess who. He thought that she would remember him. That by now she would be able to name him and then she would be ready to be his bride, his consort for all eternity.

Now she thought she could smell him. He’d made sure to use the same cologne on any package he sent her. She’d recognize that scent on her deathbed. He’d sent her a dress here, a necklace there, dead animal other times, usually animals that she had taken in during her travels for companionship. She’d stop taking strays in soon enough. Her heart pounded as she smelled him on the air. She scrambled out of her bed, falling ungracefully to the floor, before she realized that she wasn’t in her bedroom back at home. She wouldn’t be able to grasp the hilt of the knife she kept hidden between the mattresses of her bed. Nor would she find the half sword stashed behind the headboard. She hadn’t gotten a gun because to get one registered she’d have to give her personal information, something that Roach would be able to find.

Getting one off the street would be just as hard. She was a lone woman who had looks. They were quicker to try to take her, from her experience, than Roach would be, she felt sometimes. She’d learned hand-to-hand combat, defensively at least, as quickly as possible when she realized that dilemma. Her terror skyrocketed through her as she then looked for some type of weapon, anything to get her hands on. Roach was here. He had come for her and she was never going to be safe.

“Brook.” She heard her name as if through a fog before warm, strong arms came around her and lifted her. Her face was buried in Stefan’s throat, she knew his voice, and his scent chased away Roach’s. He smelled of life, sweetness, vanilla, and jasmine. He smelled so good, delicious even. He lowered her to the bed and stepped back. Once she could see past him, she noticed Cadoc standing at the ready, a handgun flashing in his hand for a second before he put it away. Nero was there as well, a thin, long sword, at his hip. They’d come to protect her.

“I thought he was here. I smelled him,” she whispered, feeling small and oh so tired.

“Your stalker? No one can get passed us, Brook. You are safe,” Cadoc said.

“Roach has left me presents on the end of my bed with me sleeping, and slipped back out of my house without me even realizing. He’s just gotten crazy enough, finally, that he wants to have me for real now. I smelled him here.” Nero took a deep breath, scenting the air around the room. He walked toward the window and breathed deeply.

“Maybe we should get all the details we can now. This man is dangerous,” Nero said.

“Not as dangerous as I am,” Cadoc returned, his voice pushing through the darkness. She found herself comforted by the violence she heard in it. He would fight, he was strong, she could sense it. She didn’t know how, didn’t understand this odd connection she was having with them. It didn’t make any sense.

“You don’t understand,” she tried then.

“You came to us for help. You have seen that I am not completely human. He would have to be very strong indeed to harm you when you are with me,” Stefan added, and she believed him, oddly enough, but they just didn’t understand.

“Roach has been playing this game with me. Somewhere, at some point, at some time, I met him. I spoke to him and knew his face. He fixated on me from that moment. He then started contacting me. He distanced me from my friends, one at a time, by telling me their secrets, plastering them for others to see, until they were scared to even stand by me. He slowly destroyed some of my family’s reputations. They couldn’t prove it, but I knew it was him. The police couldn’t do a thing to stop him. Finally I left my family behind, thinking that if I just ran away, just disappeared, everyone would be safe…that I would be free of him.”

“You gave him what he wanted. He got you isolated, without any support system. In essence he wanted you to only have him,” Nero said then, his face thoughtful.

“Exactly.” Brook had made that connection soon after she ran. She’d realized her mistake but she hadn’t wanted to see the guilt in her family’s eyes. In a way, they blamed her for the loss of their family home, the foreclosure, and the lost jobs. Even though she hadn’t personally done it, her nearness had created it. She’d run away from the pain of that look as well.

“Then the letters and the gifts began. He could always find me, was always one step behind me. I got our ‘wedding dress,’ animals torn to pieces for doing nothing more than spending the night with me, letters about how he was going to have me, and what he was going to do when he got me, and the guess-who questions. He was positive that I knew who he was, and when I could say his name, I could admit to myself my feelings for him.”

“Have you thought of any suspects?” Cadoc questioned.

“No. I met countless people at college. I’m a graphic designer that deals with just as many people. It could be anyone, or no one. For all I know he could have glimpsed me on the street somewhere and picked up a nasty habit of following the damsel. I just don’t know.”

“Fair enough. Get some rest. We are not going to let you get hurt. We will be close by. We won’t leave. Tomorrow, when you’ve had enough sleep, we’ll go get some of these items that Roach has sent. If he’s always been this close, then it’s possible he already knows that you are now with your next door neighbor.” She agreed with Cadoc.

“A very male neighbor,” she whispered. Then a thought occurred to her. “I’ve got to get out of here.” She sprang out of bet, going around it to look for her shoes. She grasped hers and sat to put them on.

“Where are you going?” Nero questioned.

“I have to get away from you. He’s killed animals that have just stayed the night in my house. I can’t imagine what he would do to you. I need to leave. I never should have come here.”

Shoes on she tried for the door but Stefan’s body surrounded hers from behind. It was then that she realized that he didn’t have a shirt on, and that her sweatshirt had been removed. She could feel the heat of his body seep into the cold of hers. Cadoc was very close to the front of her body, and he stepped even closer.

“You are safe,” Stefan whispered to her and the heat of his breath sizzled over her nerve endings. Suddenly her fear leeched away as if it had never been.

“You came to us. Let us help you,” Cadoc said and sighed against her, his breath blazing hot and bringing her nipples to throbbing points.

“We won’t let him hurt you,” Nero whispered, as if he were afraid to break the tension surrounding them all. He stepped to her side and she felt like she was on fire. She couldn’t remember what she was doing, or why she wanted to leave these men. Roach had no place here. He had no hold over her in this moment.

“What’s happening?” She couldn’t believe that needy voice came from her but it did. She didn’t sound like she was arguing against it, that she didn’t want it. She sounded as if she was begging for it to continue. She slid her eyes close.

“Shh, little one, we are here.” That was Nero. She could tell by the very softness of his tone.

“I thought you said we wouldn’t try,” Cadoc moaned, shifting closer until she could feel the imprint of his cock against her stomach and something wild flared in her. She felt it swell within her with a great, whooping screech, like a massive bird. She could feel its happiness, its eagerness for what was coming next. She could taste it.

Stefan gripped her upper arms tight, pulling her back against his rock hard frame. She felt his broad cock against her back. Cadoc followed, as if he couldn’t bear to be away from her. Nero followed closely too, hovering on the edge.

“I cannot stop. Can you?” Brook could feel the vibration of Stefan’s voice along her spine and trembled, hands coming up to grip Cadoc’s strong arms. She felt, and heard, him hiss from her touch.

“No,” he growled.

“No,” Nero sighed, and she could feel the change in them, like a decision was made.

She could feel it in their tension, in the set of their bodies against her. She could feel it in the answering emotions deep inside of her when Stefan touched her, as if he meant to have her and she was his. Cadoc framed one of her breasts and massaged it through her T-shirt. The tension intensified when Nero guided her hips in a back and forth roll against Cadoc and Stefan, and if he were teaching her the way to pleasure them. They pressed closer against her, as if they could crawl into her and they could all become one. Brook didn’t know who was more terrifying, Roach who would take her life, or these men who had taken her very will.

Chapter Five

In a haze of passion she was lifted into the air. She knew that Stefan was behind her. His arms were wrapped around her body, under her breasts. Cadoc had lifted her legs, one on each side of his body, so that her groin was pressed tight against him. Nero seemed to have his hands everywhere, shifting her hair to one side so it wouldn’t get caught, helping her wrap her arms around Stefan’s neck to balance her, and then pushing things out of the way so that they could crowd on the bed in one pile. Stefan sat back against the headboard, cradling her body between his legs, and pulled her back to rest against his chest. Cadoc knelt between her legs, his strong hands massaging her thighs. Nero sat to her left rubbing her temples.

“What—” she began.

“Shh. Just let us touch you. Let us keep you safe. We will do nothing more,” Stefan whispered against her neck.

His lips, warm and smooth, caressed her skin as he kissed his way up to the edge of her ear and then sucked the lobe into his mouth. She shuddered in his arms. She was losing her mind. Cadoc rubbed his way down her thighs, leaning over until his face was between her legs. Her back arched when he pressed hard enough to rub her clit. The bite of pleasure streaked through her. Nero was not to be forgotten. The soft locks of his hair slid across her arm as he bent over her chest. He grasped the edge of her T-shirt with his teeth and tugged down, stronger than should have been possible. She heard the rip of fabric seconds before she felt cool air kiss her breasts.

“Hershey Kisses. They look like Hershey Kisses. I wonder if they’ll taste better,” Nero said then, and sucked one pebbled nipple into his mouth.

He drew on it stronger than she would have thought his temperament would have allowed him. Between Stefan’s mouth on her neck, Nero’s tongue rasping over her nipple, and Cadoc’s face buried against her cloth covered pussy, she was riding the edge of the best pleasure she’d ever known. She was no virgin. She’d had men before, had good sex before she’d given her life up after Roach came along. She knew what it was to be lost to passion, but nothing was quite like this. She was between three men, as if there was nothing wrong with that. As if she hadn’t been terrified for her life just moments before. She should not have been so lost to passion that she couldn’t pull away. She didn’t know them. Didn’t understand why she instinctively trusted them so much.

She knew why she’d come to Stefan originally. Could even admit to herself that she felt safe with them. But to complicate things with sex was not going to get her free of Roach. It was only going to make things worse. She struggled away from the pleasure, trying to turn her body away from each of their touches.

“Wait,” she gasped, rolling her hips against Cadoc’s face when he pushed at the exact moment Nero bit down, and Stefan’s tongue swirled inside of her ear.

“Why would you want us to stop? We could give you unimaginable pleasure.” She didn’t know who spoke. She couldn’t concentrate. She just needed them to stop. They couldn’t do this.

“Stop,” she tried again. “Please.”

The men froze against her and their sudden departure from her made her body go cold. It was as if she had been snatched from nearly touching the sun, only to be flung back to Earth. Stefan slid from the bed and stood with his back to her. Cadoc withdrew as well, his face going blank, as if he was trying to hide all emotion from her. Only Nero showed momentary hurt before he too backed away from her.

“I’m sorry,” he said to her. “We got carried away.”

“No we were doing what’s right,” Cadoc argued, face still blank, but Brook could feel the anger underneath. She could feel it.

“We can’t have her.” Stefan said then, not turning around. “She will be my ward. As such she has the protection of us all. When this threat is removed we will make sure she is taken care of and returned to her family.”

With that Stefan left the room. Still watching her with a blank look, Cadoc stood and left. Nero shrugged, his eyes saying something that she couldn’t read, but she could see the loss in his eyes, the disappointment, before he turned and left as well. She didn’t know why she felt so lost when they left, but she did. It was as if she had denied something that she should not have. She hugged herself against the cold still encasing her. She covered her breasts with what was left of the torn shirt, and hissed when the cloth scrubbed over her nipples. She was still sensitive. What she wouldn’t give to have them back.

She didn’t know why, but she felt like she had made a mistake turning them away. That somehow she should have let them take her away. As she curled on the bed trying for sleep she knew wasn’t going to come easy, she wondered when the hell her life had gone so wrong. She had been a good girl, raised in Middle America, with parents who worked hard and siblings she fought with but loved. She’d been a normal girl. Went to college and graduated, worked in her career field and had been moving toward having a life like her parents. Now she was running from her life, terrified to tell anyone her story, to lean on anyone, to trust anyone. She couldn’t go back to what she once had, and she couldn’t move on. Not only did she have Roach to contend with, but now she had Nero, Cadoc, and Stefan—three men who should have just been protection, but who seemed like they could have been more.