Hale: Love Me Harder - Alien Paranormal Romance (8 page)

The one who seemed to be in charge spoke not that Hale ever looked at him. His eyes were glued to the unassuming man standing in the corner of the alley.

“I really hate when the prey tries to offer me a deal, I then feel obligated to offer one of my own. Drop your weapons and walk out of here alive or die. I’m good with whatever you choose.”

Tori’s mouth opened in a silent O as the voice from last night emerged from Hale. Her reaction was the same, her body was turned on even as her mind screamed at her to be scared.

Clutching her tablet tighter in her hand made her remember the phone in her jeans. She could call for help. If she called 911, she took the phone out and hesitated, and Hale killed one of his attackers they would take him to jail. No she couldn’t call them, but who.

She called Lorali, she had memorized her number that very morning.

“Lorali.” She answered her phone.

“Lorali, this is Tori, Hale’s in danger. There are six men and they are going to kill him. Please send help, ask his brothers to come, we are downtown in an alley.” Her words tumbled over each other as she tried to give directions to where they were.

“Calm down, Tori. I doubt six humans can take Hale down.”

Lorali called for Sergey then there was total silence on her end of the phone.

“Tori, are you still there?”

“Yes.”

“Are they coming?”

“Yeah, they said to tell you to hold on they will be there for clean-up. They don’t want to ruin Hale’s fun, or make him think they don’t trust his abilities. It might look a little scary, but trust Hale, he can handle this.”

They were all crazy and that included the females. How had she gotten hooked up with them?

The hand that covered her mouth and wrapped around her waist had her trying to scream and kick the same time. The deep voice in her ear was relaxing her even as she tried to resist. Her heart picked up as her body went slack, none of this was making sense.

She looked up to see Dante. He released her waist and placed a finger in front of his lips.

“I wanted to see the fight.” He spoke to her softly.

“Are you going to help Hale?’

His head shook no. “Believe me he doesn’t need help, and he’s about to prove it to his brothers.”

The man who had offered him a deal charged at Hale with a yell. He had a huge blade in his hand and was intent on cutting Hale. Hale side stepped it and tripped him.

“You will need to do better than that.” He put his hand in front of his mouth and yawned.

Two of the others came after him. Not charging this time they approached wearily. When they got close enough they began to circle him making him move to keep them both in sight.

The man on the ground jumped up and went for Hale’s back grabbing him around the neck as one of the two went low for his legs. Hale flipped the guy on his back over and used him to hit the guy going for his legs.

Then he dove for the ground and picked up the discarded knife and flung it at assailant number two who was pointing a gun at him. The knife hit him in the chest making him fall to the ground with a heavy thud.

“And then there were five.” Hale said in the voice of an announcer reporting the facts.

Tori was screaming, not that anyone could hear her. Dante’s hand covering her mouth muffled all sound.

“Tori, you don’t want to take his attention off of his assailants. As long as you’re quiet he knows you’re fine, I’m the only one who can get behind him. He needs you to know he can take care of you. Let’s say it has something to with his other side.”

She nodded her head. It made sense that if she screamed he would be concerned about her and miss the guy who was trying to sneak up on him as he looked at the two men on the ground.

“Never say I am not the better male. I will allow everyone who has not attacked me to leave, no hard feelings,” Hale said as he watched the two on the ground groan in pain.

“What about those two?” The one sneaking up asked, pointing to the two on the ground.

“They’re mine.”

“No deal. I suggest you fight,” the assailant said, presumably to the two on the ground as he came for Hale.

The two on the ground pulled themselves up and attacked when the other two did. Four against one, they intended to kill him.

Tori bit her tongue when she saw Dante look at her. She refused to scream, she could always cry later.

Someone got in a kick to Hale’s gut causing him to bend over missing the knife that was aimed at his back. The assailant in front of him fell with a knife sticking out of his throat. Killed by another assailant.

Hale laughed and dispatched the other three without breaking a sweat.

“Then there was one. What do you choose? To run and tell your employer to cut his losses or do you prefer to die with your crew?”

The last assailant was perched against the wall with his arms over his chest in a lazy stance. He stood silently tucking his long black ponytail inside the back of his shirt.

“I prefer not to waste time on useless words.” Hale smiled.

His final opponent walked towards him with the cat like grace of a trained fighter.

Tori’s gut tightened and her frightened eyes swung up to meet Dante’s. A shake of his head kept her silent. She wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans and commanded her heart to slow down.

The first kick started the fight. She was right, he was trained probably in some sort of martial art. Hale blocked the kicked and met him hit for hit. They seemed evenly matched as far as she could see.

Every now and then Hale would get in a lucky punch and then his opponent would counter with a lucky punch. It looked like a draw until his assailant drew a knife plunging it deep into Hale’s stomach with a twisting move.

A roar emerged from Hale as his body shifted, becoming unhuman. The beast tore open the throat of his opponent. The body dropped slowly to the ground with eyes opened in amazement.

“That’s what happens when you turn a fair fight into a dirty one.” Dante spoke up in a loud voice speaking to the man dying on the ground.

“How many times have I told you not to play with your opponent, Hale?” Aran stepped out of the shadows followed by the rest of his brothers.

Nicolas walked over to him. “Change back, I need to treat the male.”

In a blink of an eye Hale stood where the beast had been.

Tori looked around with wide eyes wondering how she could escape.

“Don’t run, Tori.” Dante said softly in her ear.

All she could see was Hale’s body as he started to fall over. His warning of no matter what happens don’t run, was ringing in her ears. She took a deep breath and waited for the worst. How could they let her live after she saw their secret? They weren’t human.

“Dante.” Aran called out to him.

“I’ll collect Hale’s car with Tori and meet you all back at his place.” Aran nodded his head.

Dante took Tori by the arm and started walking before he stopped. “Where are the females?”

“They’re on their way to Hale’s.” Aran’s mouth quirked in a smile. “Even though I told them all to stay still and not move. Seems Rena wants a thick steak on the grill. Looks like we are having a cook out.”

“Of course none of the other females stopped her,” Dante gave a laugh.

“She’s about to have the baby at any moment. It seems she must be catered to. Which of course means that when all the other females become pregnant they will expected to be catered to also,” Aran replied with a light voice.

There were groans and huge smiles on the faces of the brothers who were mated. Even Hale groaned and smiled which looked more like a grimace as Nicolas started probing his wound.

Tori frowned and started walking out of the alley without Dante leading her. Looking around she realized no one was paying her attention. Why wouldn’t they stop her? Duh, Tori, what would happen if you walked into the police station to tell them you saw a fight and the person who killed six men turned into a giant monster? Strait jackets for all.

Dante seemed to be the best choice she had right now. Foolishly she took one last peek at Hale.

Chapter Ten

The house was in chaos. Everyone was there. The kitchen was full of brothers and mates making dishes and laughing when Tori finally made it to the house.

Dante took the long way to Hale’s house, never saying anything. He simply gave her time to slow her heart beat and think about what she’d seen.

Now she looked at all the brothers, not one of them had been surprised. That’s because they’re all aliens her inner voice chimed in. She needed time to process what she had seen.

Tori was looking for Hale. He had some explaining to do. He killed six men her inner voice reminded her. Maybe we should run long and hard. Too late for that, we should have done it before we got back in the car. True.

“Tori.” Hale approached her.

She jerked and turned around. She was going to put a bell on him. A big fat cow bell. The picture allowed her shoulders to relax some as she laughed silently.

“Hale.” Her voice was tight. She needed more than a cute mental image to make everything ok again.

“I was hoping we could take a walk and talk.”

She lifted her eyes up to meet his; she had been focused on his abdomen where he’d been knifed. She couldn’t tell but he looked fine to her.

“Should you walk? What about your wound? He put a knife in you and twisted it.”

“I’m fine.” He lifted his shirt to show her his flat stomach. There was a line where he had obviously been stabbed, but the skin was together and it was healing at a rapid rate.

He’s alien, Tori, did you forget that already? Her inner voice chimed in again and she shushed it.

“I would like to take that walk.” She clenched her hands.

He turned and led her out the back door walking away from the outdoor kitchen. They walked in silence for a while until she could barely see the house or hear the sounds of laughter. They stopped when they came to the edge of a small lake.

“The lake is what drew me to this property.” He sat down on the edge after taking off his shoes to allow his feet to dangle in the water.

Tori followed suit. The unclenching of her hands was painful. Her nails pressed deeply into her palms kept her from giving into the desire to accuse him of murder as well as the desire to touch him all over to assure herself he was truly ok.

“It’s beautiful out here.”

“I’m sure that was a lot to take in. Sorry you had to find out that way.”

Sorry? Really? A sensation climbed her spine whispering if he could kill so easily what made her think she was exempt. Guilt made her lower her eyes. How could she still want him? Her voice of reason reminded her of the fate they had in store for her, still she was brought up to believe two wrongs didn’t make a right.

“That’s the thing, Hale, I’m not exactly sure what I found out. You killed six men with your bare hands. Why aren’t I panicking? Of course’ that’s the easy stuff so let’s stick to that for now. Why did you kill them? I mean couldn’t you have incapacitated them somehow?”

“I could have. Except they would have kept coming for you and they wouldn’t be alone next time. They would add more men to their ranks. They would avoid me and wait to catch you alone or maybe with Lorali or one of the others. Even now it’s not over. Eventually, John will come for you. That’s who I want.”

“But why? What did I ever do?”

“Tori, you don’t have to do anything. Most violence is senseless. The strong pick on those who they think are weaker than them. You were picked because of the way you look. No one looked below the surface to see the woman I see. They looked at your face and your body and targeted you. It’s not fair, but often that’s life.”

“Are you going to kill John?”

“Yes.”

Tori tried to feel remorse, to dredge up some words to make him reconsider. She’d been living in fear because of John for over a year. There was no remorse in her. Maybe she deserved a man like Hale. He’s not a man her inner voice whispered.

“I guess that brings us to the other thing I saw in that alley way.”

The silence stretched between them. Each lost in their own world.

“Tori, I am not from this planet.”

“Really! How could I miss that?” His lips trembled with suppressed laughter.

She tried to keep a serious look on her face, but couldn’t manage it. She laughed with him.

“Hale, I’m pretty sure I figured that part out. It’s the missing pieces I need you to explain.

“Fair enough. My brothers and I are part of an experiment. We call ourselves the Created. We come from a planet of scientists. They used to be warriors, but over time they became so interested in developing their brains they let their bodies go. It took more years than I know, but eventually they couldn’t defend themselves or their planet anymore and needed someone else to do it for them. That’s why we were created.”

“Sounds like sheer laziness to me.”

“I disagree. I believe they were at the top of the food chain for so long they took it for granted. In taking it for granted they forgot to be diligent about the things that mattered to them.”

“I can see that. I have seen many people lose things or even relationships because they stopped paying attention to what mattered.” Tori thought about her and Rita.

“That doesn’t explain how you got here.”

“We fought every battle and every enemy that came to our planet, until one day they stopped coming. We waited and then we tried to make a life for ourselves there. That’s when we realized we were unwanted. The people there were scared of us. Rumors and lies the scientist spread over the years were frightening so the people, especially the females wouldn’t accept us. Long story short we left.”

“You threw a dart at a space chart and it landed in our solar system?” He gave her a slow smile.

“I like your imagination. We had several choices of places to go, this was just one. In the end we picked your solar system and earth because Dante and his brothers spoke a lot about it. Out of all the Created we have always been the closest to them. If I were to use an earth term I would call them our older cousins.”

“Does it hurt when you turn into the other being?”