Emerald: Rare Gems Series - Billionaire Wolf Shapeshifter Romance (9 page)

“I’m in his territory and there are laws. He could get pissy with me about it and fine us. I’m not…coming here on your plane didn’t cost us anything, but my wife had to miss work. Money will be tight for a while.”

“I’m going to give you a raise and…and there is a job for your wife if she wants it.” Colby started to shake his head. “I want to do this, Colby. You’ve uprooted your family to come here for me. I need to do this.”

“I’ll talk to my wife. She might…she’s not going to like that I said anything to you about it.” He could understand that. Em had hated when he asked her about her car. He wanted to buy her a new one and she said hers still worked.

Blair was at the gate ten minutes later. They hadn’t called him as yet, and Colby was nervous. It was Jul’s fault; they’d gotten to talking about the production lines here in the States and completely forgot.

“I’m sorry, alpha.” Colby dropped to the floor and spread out. His mate came from the kitchen, and she did the same. The children, Jul noticed, stayed by Em. “We should have called you before coming here, but it was urgent and I had forgotten. Please don’t punish my wife.”

“I’m not sure where you came from, but I’m not a hard ass.” Em laughed and Blair tuned to her. “Not with nice people. You’re not a nice person.”

“You love me and you know it.” Em walked to the couple and helped Dawn up off the floor. “What do you think Sapphire would say if she knew you had a breeding woman on the floor?”

“She’d knock him on his ass too.” Sapphire breezed into the room handing the baby, a little guy, to Jul. “Hold him like you would something that if you dropped it, I’d kill you.”

Jul looked at Blair. The man was laughing, and he shoved the baby at him, but of course, he didn’t take him. This wasn’t funny. He’d never held a kid in his life. Blair just told Jul to get used to holding him, and he tried, but the guy was very squirmy. But then the kid—he thought his name was Carter—looked at him and smiled.

Gets you in the heart, doesn’t it?
He looked at Em when she spoke to him.
I love that little guy, and he’s so sweet.

You should know that I’m never changing diapers.
She laughed and he smiled. Cuddling the little boy into his arms, he felt him relax against him.
I could get used to this.

Colby and Blair were shaking hands when Jul decided that he wanted a house full of kids. He had no idea how to deal with them, but having them around was going to be fun. As they all entered the office again to work, he held onto Carter until his mom said he was sleeping. Jul hated to let him go.

“I want you to know first off, I don’t care for Whitney Wines, the name you asked us to work with.” Jul wanted to tell her that was what he wanted, but she went on before he could. “It sounds cheap, like you should have a wino holding the bottle up. Whitney and Williams sounded sharp, old world. Your name alone on the label doesn’t project the same feelings. And the wine is top rated. I really enjoyed it.”

“Thank you, I think.” She nodded and he frowned. “But I want people to know it’s the same wine they’ve been buying, but a different label.”

“It’s not the same wine.” He looked at Colby when he spoke. “It’s not. We lost part of our grapes when the storm hit our vinery about six months ago. The stuff that we’re producing, the bottles that I sent to Mr. and Mrs. Henson, are not what you labeled with Mr. Williams.”

“We have what you’re making now?” Colby nodded at Blair’s question. “Then we’re going to go with that. Not saying it’s new. People may not want to branch out with that when they’re used to a certain taste. I would suggest you have an open house and serve the wine. Also the new line of cheese you have. The crackers, I understand, are still in mock-up mode.”

“There have been some problems with the way they’re being produced. Baking them in the ovens to the crispness that we want is failing.” Sapphire nodded at his explanation. “I’ve called in a few people, but they aren’t giving me any help.”

“Because you didn’t call me.” Thad walked in just as he started to explain that they kept telling him he was doing it correctly, that it was the oven. “The ovens are fine. It’s the flour you’re using. I’m going to send over the expert I have on my staff. She’ll get you straightened out in no time.”

“Why would you do that? Help me as your competition?” He looked around the room when no one answered him. “I know that my crackers are going to be packaged as an adult kind of thing, but you are still making them too.”

“We’re family.” Jul didn’t think that was a good enough answer, but the rest of them did, it seemed. “None of us are going to make any money if we are constantly worrying about stepping on each other’s toes. I make a line of crackers that are shaped like frogs and sheep. They’re for lunch boxes for children. The others, the ones for the adults, are round. Not because they’re trying to be different, but because I was told they would look better when we marketed them.”

“I only suggested you do that. I didn’t say you had to.” He looked at Sapphire as she continued. “Round was what we needed to fit in the containers. No one else makes round ones but those really expensive ones. Cracker sales were down on his line because they were buying another brand and putting them in the refillable containers. Since he made them round, sales have gone through the roof.”

“How much?” Sapphire looked at Thad, who was grinning. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. When he told him, Jul sat down and stared at Sapphire. “You tell me what you have in mind and I’ll do it. I want those kinds of numbers.”

“Good. I have an idea in mind.” As they worked around the label design and names, he noticed that everyone seemed to be relaxed and open. Blair, even being the alpha, treated everyone with respect, and didn’t order anyone to take his idea as gospel. And when his mom came into the room, he had to hide his smile when she started in on Colby about not telling him what he was.

Jul realized in that second that this was his family, and he would do anything in the world to keep them safe and with him. At noon the rest of the gems came over, as well as their spouses, with the exception of Sloan and Rufus. Being vampires, even as old as they were, they needed to wait until the day was a little later into the evening.

Curtis announced lunch a few minutes later, and they all moved to the dining room. But with one look at Em, he knew that something was wrong. Going to her, he pulled her into his arms. She told him that she had lost her job at the school.

“Good.” He looked at Blair and wanted to sock him in the nose. “We’re expanding the school with the pack, and I was going to talk to you about running it. This will make it easier to convince you.”

The entire lunch was centered on her new job and her hiring Dawn as her assistant. Everyone was thrilled. Even Jul thought it was the best idea. She’d be safe and with people who loved her as much as he did. And that, to him, was the best thing ever.

Chapter 9

Nolan listened to the message twice before he decided that it was a scam. “Come in to the office to discuss your options” was too vague, too…too nothing. The company that he worked for would have called him before the cable company would have, and he also knew that his options were not up for another sixteen months. They wanted him there so they could question him.

He’d been thinking a lot about the book. His book. There was a great deal of incriminating information in it, but nothing they could tie to him. The writing in it was all printed in block letters. The pictures were printed on the printer he’d brought with him. Every time he’d sent one to his email address, he’d been careful to delete it. The same from his phone. There was nothing there either. Even if they got onto his computer, he’d taken all that stuff off it and had made sure that his history was erased daily.

Nolan knew that the book had been found in his apartment, but he thought he had a good case in claiming that it wasn’t his. That someone had planted it. He was also counting on the fact that he was a good man, had a steady job, and he was well respected. Because, he thought with a smile, if you didn’t respect him, then he simply killed you.

Having a plan worked out as to why he wasn’t home was harder. He didn’t have any family left. His mom had died some years ago. He had no idea where or even who his dad was. There were no sisters or brothers as far as he knew, and if he had any other family, it was news to him. So him using one of them as an excuse was out of the question.

There was his plan about being hurt. So far that one, to him anyway, had the most merit in being true. He’d been mugged, or better yet, shot. Eyeing the gun again, he wondered if the wound at his side was simply too old and he’d have to shoot himself all over again. Maybe he’d have someone else shoot him, but that brought up a whole new set of issues. They would talk. Or kill him outright.

Stabbing would work, but he had no knife, and he was actually more afraid of a knife than he was a gun. A person could hurt himself so quickly with a knife, with just a slip of it. It’s why he always used his box knife when cutting someone to kill them. It was at a controlled depth, one that was deep enough to make them bleed, but not so much that he could be hurt if they got it from him. He had a thought that his logic was all wrong, but he was thinking about too many things to let that bother him.

After another hour of going back and forth, his phone ringing numerous times, Nolan decided on a bullet. He had to wipe it down, of course, make sure that the bullet had none of his prints on it, nor any of his DNA. He’d seen that somewhere on one of the cable shows. But that still left the problem that he had to have been somewhere so they’d not think he did it…he needed an alibi.

His phone. He would say he’d lost his phone. Brilliant, he thought to himself, and tried to think how to get rid of it. There were tracking things in it, he knew that much, and he was positive that once he reported it missing, someone somewhere would be able to track it.

He was living in the wrong sort of town, but he knew that if someone really started looking—and he was pretty sure they would for a murder or two—that they’d find his place. And as much as it was disposable, it would have enough evidence in it to show that he’d been there.

So now, where was he going to be robbed and shot? He’d been all over this town, so he had to know of at least one or two places to be mugged.

There was the warehouse downtown that had recently been converted to a homeless hang out. Bartholomew P. Winchester House of Rest, he remembered now. Stupid name. As if they had some sort of class, or something. He hadn’t been assigned to go in and wire the place up with cable, but those that had said it was nice. Nicer than their own homes.

“Sure it was.” He was liking the idea of going there. There would be enough of the bad element around that someone would be thought of as shooting him, and he’d be found pretty quick if the bullet was in a bad place. But first, he had business.

Erickson had to be dealt with. He wanted her dead for no other reason than he just did. Tomorrow he was going to get into the school and take care of her there. The place where she used to live, the one where he’d killed the old broad, was off limits to him, of course, so he had to go to the school. Maybe—and this was as far-fetched as him going to jail for his crimes—by the time he took care of Erickson, things would have blown over, and he’d save this plan for another time. By dinner he was confident that things would be worked out.

His phone rang again, and this time he thought about picking it up. Lucky for him he’d put a sticky note on it to ignore it. When a person heard a phone ringing, he’d come to realize, they just had to answer it.

By ten-thirty he was headed to bed. Looking out his small window, he saw some movement around the big parking lot, but knew there were all kinds of creepy people that only moved at this time. Vagrants mostly. Some prostitutes too. Not that he’d ever used one, but he knew where they hung out. But when someone knocked on the door to his hideaway, he nearly screamed.

“Mr. Bruce?” He didn’t answer the call of his name, but moved closer to the door. “Mr. Nolan Bruce? I have a message for you.”

He thought he heard the person laugh, but couldn’t understand why he’d be laughing and waited. Finally the person said that they’d leave it on the step and he could pick it up at his convenience. Nolan waited almost an hour before he opened the door.

The envelope wasn’t thick. And if it held anything other than a few sheets of paper in it, he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what it might be. But the name printed on the front, in block letters as he’d used in his book, was what had him worried. It looked as if he might have written it himself.

Opening it was terrifying. If he did, was it like admitting something? He had no idea, but he stared at the thing for another hour before he even considered it. When he did open the thing up, his hands were shaking so hard he could hardly hold onto to it. Reading it was going to have to wait until he calmed a little.

By nearly two in the morning, he’d finally taken the letter to the living room and read it by flashlight. He’d turned off all the lights when he’d gone to his bedroom, and he didn’t want whoever had left it for him to think he was home and, given that, cared about what was in the stupid thing. So he was trying to work it out when it became clear who had sent it.

“Hello Stupid.” Nolan frowned at the greeting. Whoever had written to him was rude, and should have taken better care than to write such a thing. As he read on, however, he realized not only who had written the letter to him, but why.

“I want you to leave me alone. Actually, what I want is for you to go to hell, but since we both know that is where you’re going to end up, we’ll both just have to wait. But leaving me alone will let you live a little longer. Maybe.

“I have a family that will tear you to shreds. Not that I didn’t have them before, but when you went to my school and fucked with me there, you brought all of them to your doorstep. And trust me when I tell you, you’ve barked up the wrong tree with that one. They’re wolves.”

Nolan had to laugh. If Erickson thought her family was wolves, he wondered why she would bother telling him to be afraid. Wolves indeed. He was…Nolan tried to think of something that was more of a predator than a wolf, and came up with a hawk. They could fly and swoop down and kill their prey, while the stupid dog that she’d compared her family to could only walk in the woods. His bird of prey was much fiercer. He continued with the letter.

“If for some reason you don’t have the brains to listen up, you can find me at the warehouse downtown. It’s called Winchester House, if you need to ask. Most people know where that is.” He had to grin. Just where he was headed anyway. Two birds—or in her case, a bitch dead and an accident for him—in one place. “I’ll be there tomorrow night at seven. No cops will be there, even though there should be.” Her name was at the bottom.

Nolan went to his bed again. Rest would come easy now; things were falling into place and he’d have it all taken care of by the day after tomorrow. He was almost too excited to sleep. It was as if he knew he was going to watch blood pour from the bitch, and he was going to get to have the climax of his life.

~~~

Emerald wasn’t thrilled with the plan. It was a good one, but not that good. So many things could go wrong. She was pretty sure that she’d thought of nearly all of them and had tried to work out a plan to counteract them, but there was going to be one thing, just one, that she’d not thought of that was going to fuck it up.

She looked up when Jul said her name. “You’re going to have a head explosion if you keep thinking that hard.”

“I’m worried about so many things that could go wrong.” He came into the sitting room that was part of their suite and sat beside her on the couch. “He could not show, for one thing.”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen. He, for some reason, isn’t going to give up the chance to see you once more.” That, too, frightened her a little. He was going to see her again. And there would be people around…mostly her family, but there would be others, and one of them could get hurt. “I’d do just about anything to see you if I didn’t already have you here all the time. Bruce is going to be the same way.”

Emerald turned so that she was sitting over his lap facing him. “You mean me or my body? I’m pretty sure you’ve seen every inch of me. For that matter, I think you’ve tasted me too.”

“I have. But I can’t seem to get enough of you.” Jul unbuttoned her blouse and moved it down her shoulder. “The way you taste when you’re aroused. The scent you give off when I touch you.”

She let him pull her blouse off and felt his cock thicken beneath her. When he rocked upward, she rode him while he nipped at her breasts still cupped in her bra. Wrapping her hands around his shoulders, she moaned when he unclasped the front snap and freed her breasts. He wasted no time in pulling her right nipple into his mouth and suckling it as he pulled and tugged on the other. Her ride across him was getting more desperate, and she wanted him naked.

“Take off your pants.” He moaned at her command. “Please, I want to ride you this way. Feel you inside of me.”

He moved her off him and opened his pants. His cock was thick with need and leaking from the tip. Leaning over him, she licked her tongue over the pearly juices, and then took him into her mouth. All thoughts of riding him were gone now that she had him in her mouth.

She’d tasted him before, had him fuck her mouth while he laid out before her. But this time she moved to kneel between his legs as soon as she got his pants completely off. Cupping his balls in her hands, she marveled at their weight and took one of them into her mouth. He cried out and she thought she’d hurt him.

“More.” His breathless voice made her want to have more of him, and she took him back into her mouth as she fisted him. Emerald loved his taste here, the way they tightened in her mouth, and she was enjoying that he was at her mercy.

When she licked up his shaft and took him into her mouth, he rolled his hips upward and she felt him at the back of her throat. Swallowing around him had him sliding past the tightness of her throat, and she no longer felt like she was going to strangle. When his fingers curled into her hair, she thought he was going to pull her way, but he pushed her down over him harder.

His balls were tight now, so close to his body that she could fit both of them into her hand while she let him fuck her mouth. Her pussy was so needy that she slid her hand down her pants and into her heat. She nearly cried out when she brushed against her clit. But Jul pulled her up before she could explore more.

“Bed.” She was so close to coming that she had no idea what he wanted her to do. When he picked her up and carried her to the bed, she cried out when he dropped her onto it. “I want you to spread out. I’m going to eat you while you suck my cock. Then if I can, if you don’t kill me first, I’m going to fuck you hard enough that you scream.”

Spreading her legs for him, she watched him stare. Emerald was amazed at how wanton she felt when she was with him. The thought of him eating her pussy was making her wet, but when he got onto the bed with his cock at her mouth, she nearly came the moment he licked her pussy.

Nothing would have prepared her for them having sex this way. He ate at her while fucking her mouth over and over until she screamed through a climax. Still he ate, licking her and sucking on her clit until she was sure she was going to die from it. When he rolled off her, his cock still wet from her mouth, she wanted to ride him again, but he moved before she could.

Jul tossed her over onto her belly and then lifted her ass up. He buried his cock into her so quickly that she came quick and hard. When he leaned over her, taking her like a wolf would a mate, she lowered her head and let him pound into her. Christ, she wanted him to be a wolf so she could feel him take her wolf like he was right now. When he paused, stopped moving over her, she felt his teeth graze her shoulder.

“If I bite you, draw blood, what happens to me?” She felt his teeth nip at her again, and she nearly came. “If I bite you, what happens?”

“I come. Harder than ever before.” He bit her harder, and she had to breathe through the sudden need for him to do it before she could answer him. “You’ll heal faster than before. Be stronger too. Not as much as I, but…please, bite me.”

“I’m going to.” Him licking her shoulder had her sliding her fingers to her pussy when he started to move again. “I want you to convert me. I want to be your mate in all ways. Can we do that?”