His to Protect (12 page)

"Thanks, Adrian. We will stay in touch."

Adrian nodded, quickly offered a goodbye,
and stepped out the front door of Ricky's home...and nearly fell into his own
living room.

Damn. He hated when Anaedra did that.

 
Chapter
Thirteen

"Okay, class dismissed."

Tyler couldn't help but smile at the
enthusiastic response to those three simple words. Slow moving, docile,
barely-awake teenagers suddenly sprang to life and left the room in record
time. He laughed as they all tried to go through the narrow doorway nearly at
the same time. Tyler's classes were usually better received, but being the last
class on a Friday before spring break had rendered most of his kids impatient
to finish school and get their vacation started.

"Mr. Defoe," Kelly, one of his
harder working students said as she ignored the mass exit and moved closer to
the teacher's desk. "Dixie told me that Mr. Danton resigned."

"That's true," Tyler said, wishing
that the cover story they'd concocted wasn't really necessary. "He has a
family issue to deal with."

"Do you think he'll come back?"
the young girl asked hopefully. Tyler wanted to say yes. He really did, but it
would be cruel to give hope where there truly was none.

"I'm sorry, Kelly, he won't be coming
back."

"But you're still friends with him,
right? I mean you can still…like…talk to him and stuff."

"Yes, we're still friends," Tyler
said, wondering where this conversation was going.

"Do you think he'd mind if I sent him a
letter or an email or something?" The girl looked slightly embarrassed to
have said that so loudly. She glanced behind her, seeming to sag with relief
when she realized the rest of the kids had already left. "It's just that
he was, like, you know, my favorite teacher." She blushed and stammered, "That's
um not saying…I mean, not that you're not my um…favorite as well or anything,
but well…he helped me with my math, made it make sense for me. All my other
teachers just sort of, you know, didn't get that I didn't understand it."
The girl blushed, probably realizing she was
dissing
other teachers to a teacher but it was clear that she had a point she really
wanted to make. "Mr. Danton helped heaps. He took his time to explain it
to me in a way I could, you know, get. I went from like a D minus to a B plus
and that made my 'rents real happy. Mr. Danton's the reason I can do math at
all, but he left so suddenly I didn't get a chance to thank him, you know?"

"I know," Tyler agreed quietly.
Logan had been an extraordinary teacher, always going above and beyond what was
expected by the education system and truly helping his students to succeed.
Losing him would be a harsh blow for many of the kids at this school. "I
think he would really enjoy getting an email from you, but maybe leave it a few
weeks while he deals with important stuff."

Tyler grabbed his cell phone, scrolled down
to Logan's details and quickly wrote down his email address on a slip of paper.
Kelly took the paper, but hesitated.

"If I…um…you know, flake out and get
too embarrassed to send it, or something, can you make sure Mr. Danton knows
how much I appreciated his help?"

"Of course," Tyler said with a
soft smile. He'd dealt with teenagers long enough to know that it wasn't really
acceptable to suck up to teachers, but he appreciated Kelly's attempt to at
least try and thank a teacher who'd made such a difference in her life. "Enjoy
the break."

"I will," Kelly said, smiling
brightly. She was half way out the door before it occurred to her to offer a
similar farewell.
"And…ugh…you, too, Mr. Defoe."

Tyler nodded, smiling at the current
similarities between the teenagers Logan used to teach and the half man, half
vampire he was at the moment. Kelly might be awkward and self-centered at this
stage in her life, but it was clear that one day soon she would grow into a
lovely young woman. Tyler hoped Logan didn't take quite as long. Having a best
friend who acted like a teenager at times was growing very wearing. Logan's
childish moments were fewer and further between now, so he was heading in the
right direction. Tyler would never turn his back on Logan, especially when he
needed a friend so much, but it would be nice to permanently get back the man
he'd known.

"Ready to go?"
Adrian asked from the doorway. He'd "allowed" Tyler to go
back to school for the last week of term, but he'd insisted on keeping a close
eye on him. Tyler probably should have been a bit annoyed at his heavy-handed
bossiness, but it had sort of become an informal part of their Dom/sub
arrangement. And it was kind of nice to have someone care enough to make sure
he got home safely each day, and he really liked the way Adrian's caring made
him feel. Of course it had nothing to do with hoping to get an invite into
Adrian's life permanently.

A part of him knew it was a futile dream.
Adrian was a very long-lived werewolf for heaven's sake, but that still didn't
deter Tyler's imagination on what might have been under different
circumstances.

Tyler was still shivering inside from the
amazing orgasms Adrian had given him one night last week, but Adrian had been
the perfect gentleman since. Tyler had been disappointed to wake in Adrian's
spare bed in the guest room the following morning, and since then nothing at
all had happened. It was very confusing, especially when Adrian still acted
like he was Tyler's Dom.

Cohabitating with him was growing harder and
harder each day. Getting to know him as a person made Tyler want to know him as
a real lover—not just the sub he was supposedly training. In the past week the
man had shown far more restraint than Tyler had thought humanly possible.

Although considering that Adrian wasn't
actually human…

"I just have to make sure everything is
locked and then I'm good to go."

The sound of breaking glass only reached his
ears after he hit the ground hard, a huge body pinning him to the floor as the
strange popping sounds seemed to go on and on. He shook violently, not even
realizing until he closed his mouth that the high pitched keening noise had
been coming from him.

Adrian half dragged, half rolled him against
the brickwork and wedged him under the window before moving his weight off him.

"Stay down," he growled a moment
before scrambling away. He lifted his head just enough to see over the window
sill, before quickly ducking back down. His phone was in his hand even before
he could blink. "Kyle, I've got a shooter on top of the east building of
the high school." He listened intently for a few moments as he shuffled
back to where Tyler was still lying on the floor trembling. "No, he's all
right. Shaken but not injured."

Shaken didn't begin to describe the terror Tyler
was feeling. Even after everything that had happened in the past few
weeks—discovering the murders, learning that his friend was a vampire and that
werewolves and other paranormals were real, falling for a bossy man who was
likely more than he could handle—none of it had really prepared him for getting
shot at.

"Somebody just shot at us?" Tyler
asked in a voice that didn't sound anything like the one he owned.

"It's okay, sweetheart."

"No, it's not," he said
deliberately letting anger start to burn low in his belly. "Somebody just
fucking shot at us." He tried to stay angry, tried to hold on to the
clarity it provided, but then his responsibility to his students kicked in. "Kelly!"

"The students were all gone. The
hallway was empty when I came in."

Tyler nodded, refusing to give in to fear
ripping at the edges of his mind. Adrian said something else into the phone,
searched for the button that would disconnect the call, and then crawled back
to where Tyler was still pressed against the wall.

"I hate new phones," he said as he
moved to lie over the top of him. Tyler rolled onto his back so that he could
see Adrian's eyes.

"I hate being shot at," Tyler said
as the absurdity of his situation started to sink in.

Adrian leaned over and pressed a kiss to his
nose. "Believe it or not, sweetheart, I don't much like it either."

"Is Kyle okay?"

"He's fine. Pissed off that he had to
climb in human form, but he got the guy's scent. Our shooter is the man we've
been looking for. Shooting at and attempting to murder a human teacher should
earn him a good long jail sentence."

Tyler nodded. He'd hated the idea that when
they did find the human who'd murdered Logan and William that he might get to
walk away simply because there was no record of William having even existed and
Logan wasn't exactly dead.

"How did Kyle get here so fast?"

"That was luck rather than good
management," Adrian admitted with an apologetic smile. "We've been
tracking down leads all day and it's been one of those days when everything
took longer than it should have. I didn't have time to go back to the office
and get my car." He tucked a stray curl behind Tyler's ear. "To be
honest, I think it was just Kyle's way to manipulate me into finally
introducing you."

Tyler smiled at Adrian's annoyed expression.
He'd already met Gavin, Lilly, Brody, and Derek, and Troy was still on
assignment out of town, but as far as Tyler knew, Kyle had been home for more
than a week now.

"Why do I get the feeling you'd rather
not introduce me to Kyle?"

Adrian laughed softly. "Is it that
obvious?"

"Only to everyone
else."

Adrian leaned over Tyler, smiling widely as
he dipped his head to kiss him. It took at least three minutes of serious
necking before Tyler realized what the man was doing.

"You're trying to distract me."

"Is it working?" Adrian asked
unrepentantly.

"No, well, yes, but…what if the guy
with the gun has friends helping him?" Ironically, despite the question he
wasn't really worried that they were in danger any longer. It almost seemed
strange to trust someone so completely.

Adrian laughed, and grinned widely. "I
have one word for you," he said leaning over him, cocooning him in his
warmth, blocking everything else from his vision so that Adrian was the
beginning and the end of his world.
"Werewolf."

~*~

Adrian had no doubt that Tyler would react
differently once he realized how close he'd been to dying only moments ago, but
right now it was in everyone's best interests if they both remained calm.

The fact that Adrian chose to do that by
pressing against Tyler and kissing him passionately wasn't something he
intended to explain even to himself. Tyler accepted his kiss, relaxing in
Adrian's arms, showing complete faith in his ability to keep him safe. Adrian
tried to deny the fine tremor that ran through his muscles as he replayed just
how close the bullets had gone to taking Tyler from him, but he'd never been
one to avoid the truth.

Tyler wasn't just another assignment, wasn't
just a sub he would play with at Santutegia once a week. He was an essential
part of him, a man he loved, the mate he'd never realized he might one day
find.

"Marry me," Adrian demanded as he
finally lifted his mouth away from Tyler's.

Tyler looked stunned, but Adrian didn't care
that his timing was lousy.

He just needed Tyler to say yes.

The sound
from the hallway was really bad, fucking timing.

~*~

Tyler didn't
have a clue what was happening.

A moment ago
he'd been cuddled up to a man who'd just demanded he marry him and now he was
face-to-fur with a huge wolf. The fact that the furry beast licked Tyler's face
before moving away simply made the situation more surreal.

Yes, Adrian
had told him he was a werewolf, but apparently knowing and seeing were two very
different things. Tyler was really close to hyperventilating when he realized
just how huge a wolf—sharp teeth and all—Adrian truly was.

The wolf
growled, low and deep, the sound scaring the ever-loving-crap out of Tyler.
Intellectually he knew he was in no danger from the wolf, but that knowledge
was doing nothing to slow the rapid beat of his heart.

He almost
missed when a man he didn't know, had never met, and had only seen in a single
photo, stepped into the room and aimed a gun at Tyler and the wolf now standing
between them.

"You
took her from me. Now you're going to know what it feels like to lose someone
you love."

Her?

Tyler might
have blurted out a question or two if he hadn't very literally been paralyzed
with fear,

"I
loved her, but when she woke up a vampire she didn't even remember me. You
stole her from me."

Her?
As in the girlfriend that had only existed in Brian's
mind
?
Jane…something?

The huge
wolf shuffled in place, but it seemed that Adrian was controlling his instincts
to attack so that he could stay in front of Tyler and protect him.