His to Protect (7 page)

Chapter Seven

"Her donor found her before she woke
and he managed to prevent the worst of the bleeding."

"Lucky lady," Adrian said as he
nodded a greeting to the man current cuddling a very tightly bandaged vampire.
She fed tiredly from his throat as he rocked them both slightly back and forth.
The poor thing looked like an Egyptian mummy, but at least she was still alive.
"Do we have any leads?"

Brody nodded and tilted his head for Adrian
to follow. He scented the air, at least trying to determine if this had been
done by the same perpetrator who'd attacked William and Logan less than five
days ago. He growled in frustration when he caught the scent of yet another
human—five identical attacks on vampires made by five different attackers in
less than three weeks. The only thing he knew for certain was that the people
who'd committed these heinous acts were human.

Adrian followed his youngest brother to the
internal door that hid the safe-like room that all vampires in this area
installed. It was a recommendation of Alateeka Security. A damn good one,
Adrian believed, but it also had a downside. Vampires tried only to deal with
other paranormals and a handful of trusted humans, but sometimes it simply wasn't
possible. Sometimes a human stumbled across their secret.

"The killer knew the code," Brody
said leaning down to point to something that Adrian had no hope of seeing. As a
werewolf his eyesight wasn't that much better than a human's, perhaps worse in
some conditions, but his brother's animal gave him eyesight that seemed almost
beyond Adrian's comprehension.

He turned to Brody, raised an eyebrow, and
waited for him to explain.

"There are two sets of finger
prints—the vampire's and the donor's—and a set of smudges, probably from latex
gloves, in between. But they all only touched the correct buttons. The killer
only touched them once indicating that he or she not only knew the numbers but
the sequence as well."

Adrian glanced around the small area. This
door and the panel that activated it were completely protected from prying
eyes. Either the killer had somehow learned the number or they'd watched
someone punch it in.

"Did you do a sweep for electronic
surveillance?"

Brody gave him an irritated look. "Yes,
I checked for bugs and cameras. I've been doing this as long as you have."

"Sorry," Adrian mumbled as he
stepped into the unlocked safe-room. Brody was good at his job. He'd grasped technology
a lot faster than the rest of them, so he was quite entitled to his annoyance.
Hell, if Adrian wasn't currently half thinking with his dick—he could still
smell Tyler's sweet arousal in his mind—he wouldn't have even asked such a
stupid question.

"I called our resident computer genius
hoping he could explain how someone might have gotten the codes," Tyler
said. "Brian admitted that there may have been a hacker in our computer
systems."

"Fuck,"
Adrian grumbled. They were a security firm for heaven's sake. Keeping hackers
out of their computer systems was supposed to be something they were experts
at. "Why didn't he say anything?"

"It was
a global issue, and we weren't the only ones affected. Some of the world's
biggest companies faced the same problem…something about a single line of code
creating
a vulnerability
in a common piece of
freeware." Maybe Adrian was too old to truly embrace technology, because
he was sure that very little of that explanation made sense to him. "Brian
said he couldn't find any evidence of information having been stolen, so he
updated everything, closed the vulnerability, and went on with business."
Brody shrugged and grimaced. "We don't even know for sure if that was how
the codes were stolen."

Adrian
rubbed a tired hand over his eyes. He was truly beginning to hate the modern
world. They'd spent a long time hiding in plain sight, but the last couple of
decades of technological advancements had made that nearly impossible. It was
disturbing to think about where society was heading.

"You okay?" Brody asked. Closing
his eyes for a moment, Adrian inhaled deeply, trying to get his mind back where
it should be—investigating a crime scene.

"I'm fine," he said absently. He
could still smell the killer's mixture of excitement and fear, the acrid scent
burning his nostrils as Adrian stepped closer to the bed. The killer was
definitely male and probably overweight. The smell of sweat was stale, as if
the guy hadn't bothered to shower in the past week or that maybe the stench was
imprinted permanently in his clothes. For Adrian's heightened wolf senses it
was quite unpleasant.

"Same wounds, same time of day, same
method of entry—jimmied the back door open, used the code to get in, took his
time slicing and dicing, packed up, locked up behind him, and left," Brody
said in a casual voice. Adrian knew his brother well enough to know that he was
trying very hard not to think of the victims as actual people. If they got
emotionally involved in every murder, or attempted murder, they wouldn't be
able to do their jobs properly. Humans called it "professional distance."
Adrian and his family considered it a survival instinct. There was no way they
could have done this job so long otherwise.

Yet he'd broken all of his own rules when he'd
invited Tyler and Logan into his home. Hell, no wonder his brothers and sister
kept asking him if he was all right.

He shook his head, trying to erase the sexy
images of Tyler and the arousal just thinking about him had caused. He had it
bad, for a human no less. Hell, the kindest thing would be to walk away. No, he'd
agreed to train Tyler as his submissive. Adrian would train him, find him a
suitable Dom, and then he'd walk away. He discreetly adjusted his jeans around
the hard-on that wouldn't quit and tried desperately to get his mind back on
work.

Five unsolved murders, but at least he had a
pattern now. They were all using the same method and apparently had some very
accurate information on vampires—how their metabolisms worked, where they slept
and the security systems they used, and what they needed to recover from such
horrific wounds.

"I think we need to put out an alert to
all known vampire donors in the area. They need to check on their vampires at
least an hour before the sun goes down."

"You'll likely cause a panic," Brody
said thoughtfully, "but it might save lives. I'm getting sick of seeing
good people die."

Adrian nodded in agreement.

Chapter Eight

"The Vampire Council will shit a brick,"
Gavin said as Adrian let himself back into his apartment.

"Can't be helped," he mumbled,
nodding in agreement. The whole function of the "Vampire Council"—a
self-elected group of three vampires who thought way too much of their own
importance—was to inform the other vampires if, although lately it seemed to be
when, there was the potential for a problem with humans. Their e-books were
actually pretty clever, and it sure as hell was faster than the word of mouth
they used to use, but Adrian often worried they were making a few too many
details public. Thankfully, though Adrian would never say it out loud, the
e-books were also rather overpriced and poorly written so it was usually only
the people who knew what they actually contained who were willing to buy them.
The stories were presented in the form of fictional tales but every new member
was advised what coded information to look for.

Adrian didn't really agree with the way they
seemed determined to perpetuate the idea that vampires were fast, mean, and
deadly. Considering the reality, it seemed self-defeating to play up the
mythical stereotype. "How's Logan doing?"

Gavin gave him a cocky grin and winked. If
Adrian knew his brother at all the man was having the time of his life. He
loved dealing with bratty subs. With Logan's hormonal fluctuations as he slowly
changed into a vampire he was probably the exact type of challenge Gavin thrived
on.

"Anaedra dropped by earlier,"
Gavin said in a low voice. It was clear he hadn't been any happier with his
visit than Adrian had.

Adrian nodded. "She's looking for
information."

"That's what I thought," Gavin
said, shaking his head tiredly. All of the years they'd been dealing with the
woman who called herself a goddess and they still had no idea what she could or
couldn't do.

The only thing they knew for certain was
that she was dangerous, her decisions seemingly made on a whim, her reactions
often over-the-top or inappropriate. If dealing with a newly made vampire was
like dealing with a woman with a severe case of PMS, then dealing with Anaedra
was like dealing with a newly made vampire with PMS on steroids carrying a
machine gun and a rocket launcher.

The word "volatile" took on a
whole new meaning when applied to Anaedra.

"Any leads?" Gavin asked. They
knew there was a chance Anaedra could be listening in, but they'd long ago realized
that she had a rather short attention span. She'd probably done a round of the
Alateeka brothers, stopped by to bitch about them to Lilly when she got no
useful information, and then promptly moved on to something else.

"Same technique as
the others.
At least this one survived."

"And with the alert, hopefully more
will as well."

Adrian nodded. He hated the necessity, and
he sure as fuck hoped there weren't any more attacks, but at least they might
reduce the risk. The vampire earlier tonight had been saved because the man who
loved her had gone to lie beside her while he waited for her to wake up.
Thankfully he'd known enough about his lover to call the right people and get
urgent help before the sun went down.

"Did Tyler wake up?"

"No," Gavin said with a shake of
his head.
"Can't say I'm surprised.
A guy who
screams like that during orgasm uses an awful lot of energy."

"Get out of my house," Adrian said
with an exasperated shake of his head.

Gavin just laughed, knowing the words weren't
truly meant. "Go crawl into bed beside your sub. I'll keep Logan out of
trouble."

Adrian wanted nothing more than to do just
that, but it wasn't really fair on Tyler. Adrian had a job to do, a sacred
calling. He couldn't offer Tyler anything more than a quick roll in the hay.
Hell, he couldn't offer him a future, couldn't make any promises, he couldn't
even give him the stability he most likely wanted. As relationships went, Adrian
was fucking useless.

Gavin watched him almost as if he could hear
Adrian's confused thoughts. Eventually Gavin shook his head. "Don't think
so hard. Just go hold him."

It was selfish and unfair and probably
misleading, but that's exactly what Adrian did.

~*~

Tyler woke surrounded by hard, warm muscle.
There wasn't any confusion. He knew exactly where he was and who was holding
him.

And he knew exactly what he was doing when
he wriggled closer and rubbed Adrian's hard cock with the cheeks of his ass.
The hard pinch on his nipple had him gasping in surprise.

"Behave, little brat."

"But I want—"

"I know what you
want,
Tyler, but I can't offer you anything in return."

Tyler rolled over, ignoring Adrian's
attempts to hold him still. If he'd truly wanted to immobilize him, he easily
could have.

"What is it you think I expect?"

Adrian shook his head but didn't stop
holding him close. Tyler took that as a good sign.

"I can't give you the future you
deserve."

"What?" Tyler asked feeling a
little bit shocked. "I don't remember asking for a ring. Hell, you offered
to train me as a sub. I know how this stuff works. I'm not expecting anything
more from you than a few weeks of kinky fun."

He wanted way more than that, but if Adrian
only had a few weeks to give, then Tyler planned to build happy memories to
last him a lifetime. There was something unique about Adrian Alateeka—werewolf
part aside—that made Tyler feel certain he would never meet another man like
him.

"So you just want to be my sub for a
few weeks?"

Tyler nodded, sincerely hoping that
werewolves couldn't smell lies. Adrian seemed to be battling some sort of
internal war. He closed his eyes, let out a deep breath, and finally nodded in
agreement.

Adrian climbed out of the bed, planted his
feet in a wide stance, crossed his arms over his chest, and stared down at
Tyler in such an intimidating way that he had the sudden childish urge to hide
under the covers. If it wasn't for the fascinating sight of Adrian's cock
growing harder even as he watched, Tyler probably would have done just that.

"What is your safe word, little sub?"

Tyler swallowed hard and tried to convince
himself that he hadn't just bitten off more than he could chew, figuratively
speaking of course. Just the thought of taking Adrian's hard cock in his mouth
filled him with aching need. But with the way Adrian was looking at him, he
knew he wouldn't be doing anything that Adrian didn't order him to. Fuck, if he'd
thought his last Dom was strict, how the hell would he describe this guy?

"My safe word is 'tomato,' S–Sir,"
he said with a slight catch in his voice.

Adrian smiled and nodded, his sudden
approval warming every part of Tyler.

"Come here, little sub." Adrian
indicated where with a tilt of his head. Tyler moved quickly, kneeling beside Adrian
the way his former Dom had instructed. He was surprised by the warm hand that
cupped his head and pulled his face against the side of Adrian's thigh. It felt
like a very possessive move and he couldn't help but sigh in contentment. "Tell
me your hard limits, Tyler."

"Ah…" Did it say something about
him that he couldn't remember any of the hard limits he'd made with his
previous Dom? Strangely, he trusted Adrian far more than the man he'd known for
a long time and had once thought himself in love with.

Adrian caressed Tyler's face with his
callused fingers for a few moments before starting to talk.

"My hard limits," Adrian said in a
quiet voice. "No permanent damage, for either of us. No piercing,
tattooing, or deliberate scars. No scat play, or golden showers. I will not
humiliate you, but I won't tolerate bratty behavior either. Deliberately embarrass
me at the club and I will punish you in front of everyone." Adrian
continued to caress him as he let that list sink in. "And I don't share,
ever. If you're looking for a ménage experience you'll need to find a different
Dom."

"Yes, Sir," Tyler whispered with
more than a hint of relief. Adrian had covered many of Tyler's hard limits in
that list as well.

"Would you like to add anything, Tyler?"

"I don't think so, Sir." He was
shaking nervously so he knew he wasn't thinking very clearly at the moment. He
wanted this man more than he could explain but he was sane enough to realize
his list with his previous Dom was much, much longer. "Oh, condoms,"
he added quickly.

"Good," Adrian said in a deep,
approving voice. "It's a very strictly enforced rule in the fetish rooms at
Santutegia. Everyone uses a condom no matter how long they've been together."
Adrian caressed Tyler's face again and he got the impression the man was again
fighting that internal war. "However, with me being a werewolf and you
being human there are no diseases we can give each other. If you agree, we can
forgo condoms everywhere except the club."

~*~

Adrian held his breath as he waited for
Tyler's reaction. Fuck, he hadn't meant to make that offer, but all he could
think about was sinking his cock in that gorgeous ass with no barriers between
them and then riding them both to oblivion.

"I would like that, Sir."

"Good," Adrian said. He'd trained
a lot of subs over the years, but none had affected him on the same levels as
this beautiful school teacher. Worse still, despite all of his talk on hard
limits, he wanted to mark Tyler, to make a permanent claim on his body and
soul. His cock grew harder as he imagined everything he wanted to share with
this man. "Lie facedown over the spanking bench." He indicated the
low, padded bench that doubled as a footlocker, and again held his breath as
Tyler seemed to hesitate.

"Am I being punished for something,
Sir?" he asked nervously.

"No, little sub. I just want to see my
handprint on your ass."

As soon as the words left his mouth Adrian
wished them back. He'd always thought of his possessiveness over a sub as just
his natural need to protect, but the territorial feelings he had for Tyler made
the past emotions pale to insignificance. How the hell could one human turn him
inside out so easily?

Tyler nodded and moved to lie over the padded
footlocker, not even showing any hesitation once he understood Adrian's motive.
Hell, it had been the wrong thing to say. Even if he was feeling like this, it
didn't change the fact that he had nothing to give long term.

It didn't stop Adrian from dropping to his
knees beside Tyler, or discourage him from running his callused hands over
Tyler's soft flesh to warm his skin. The first slap was pretty hard, Tyler's
immediate reaction one of pain and surprise, but as Adrian rubbed over the
slightly pink skin, Tyler moaned softly. Adrian smacked him again in the same
spot, grinning when Tyler's soft moan of pleasure came a little faster this
time. The third in the same place obviously stung, but Tyler gasped, panting as
Adrian rubbed over the spot before gliding his hand toward his balls.

Tyler was already hard, his cock oozing
pre-cum, but he also seemed on the verge of an emotional meltdown. Adrian knew
the slaps were hard enough to cause tears, but Tyler seemed to be reacting out
of proportion to the pain.

"What is your safe word, little sub?"

"T–Tomato, S–Sir."

"Do you want to use your safe word,
Tyler?"

Tyler shook his head quickly, rocking
slightly on his knees as he very clearly said the words Adrian needed to hear. "No,
Sir."

"Okay, little sub," Adrian said
,
trying to stifle a relieved sigh as he finally realized he
needed this as much as Tyler did.

He started truly spanking him then, the
slaps deliberate and well placed, the rest of Tyler's ass turning a very
appealing shade of pink around the still red area where Adrian's handprint was
clearly outlined. He placed his left hand against the small of Tyler's back,
trapping him against the padded surface, stopping the man's instinctive
wriggling as Adrian landed the last and hardest slap to his ass, straight over
the handprint he'd already made.

Tyler sobbed then, the pain finally pushing
him into the cathartic release Adrian had been hoping for. He sat on the floor
beside Tyler and gathered him in his lap, rocking slightly as the man began to
cry harder. Tyler had been so strong for Logan that he hadn't truly let himself
grieve for the innocence they'd both lost. Even if Tyler somehow achieved the
unimaginable and managed to go on with his life, he would always carry the
knowledge of what had happened to his friend. He'd probably have nightmares and
flashbacks of the horrific scene he'd found at Logan's home that night for a
very long time, maybe even for the rest of his life.

"It's okay, little sub," Adrian
said as Tyler tried to pull out of his embrace. "You need to cry."