Love Bites (Bitten Book 4) (22 page)

“I
hate you,”
I panted as I sprawled on the grass.

Sweat trickled down my cheeks and my breath burned in my lungs. Every muscle in my body ached as though I’d been worked over by a big bruiser, and not in the fun, sexy way.

Chloe stood over me, her hands on her hips, not even breathing hard. Hell, she hadn’t even broken a sweat. “Get up.”

I scowled at her. “So you can knock me on my ass again? No thank you.”

She shook her head and her lips twitched as though she were fighting a smile. “Get up, Ricki.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “If you promise this torture will end in the next five minutes, I’ll get up.”

Without missing a beat, Chloe threw back. “Fifteen minutes.”

“Ten and not a second more.”

She nodded. “Deal. Now get off the grass because your ass is mine for another ten minutes.”

Groaning, I rolled to my hands and knees and painfully pushed myself to my feet.

“Okay, now let’s try again.”

Chloe was trying to teach me how to break free of various holds. So far, every time I tried the countermoves she showed me, I ended up on my ass.

“Can’t I learn how to knock someone out?” I asked.

She shook her head. “It’s best if you learn defense first. Since you’ve taken a self-defense class this is more like a review for you. We’ll work on attack and strikes after you refresh your memory.”

I snorted at her reference to my self-defense class. It was nothing like what we were doing now. Mostly I was with a group of women who listened to the instructor explain about situational awareness and safety precautions. We spent very little time actually defending ourselves against the guy in the gigantic foam suit. While it was extremely informative, it was nothing like what Chloe and I were doing now.

When she grabbed my arm, her grip was tight enough to leave marks. And when she knocked me down, it took the wind out of me. I understood it was just practice, but it felt so real.

I felt so pathetic and weak. Tears threatened to fill my eyes and I blinked hard to keep them at bay. I would not cry anymore. I made my choice and I might not like my current situation but I didn’t regret letting Kerry bind me to Calder. I loved him and I wanted to be with him. I had to deal with this and toughen up.

Of course Chloe saw right through my attempts to hide my emotional distress. “Ricki?”

I sniffed hard and shook my head. “I’m fine. Let’s go again,” I insisted, holding out my arm.

“No, I think we’re done for the day,” she stated firmly.

I glowered at her. “Chloe, I’m fine—”

“No, you’re not,” she snapped. “You’re feeling vulnerable and weak and I don’t want to add to that.”

My mouth fell open at her accurate assessment of me. With her brash, blunt words and no-nonsense attitude, I just assumed she would gloss over my tears and force me to continue. “Uh…”

She sighed and smiled a little at my response. “I know I’m being tough on you, but it’s not because I’m trying to be a bitch or because I’m blind to how you’re feeling. The Faction’s attack here at the compound showed our weaknesses as a pack. It’s important for all the members to know how to fight, but especially important for the more dominant members and their mates. Because Calder is the beta, you may be a target. If you’re ever cornered, you need to be able to defend yourself.”

At her words, I thought of Lachlan and Belinda and how the alpha was deteriorating without his mate. “Because our life forces are tied together, right?”

Chloe nodded, her expression grave. “Too many males, especially the alphas, don’t think about teaching their mates how to fight and how to protect their young. Because, as far as they’re concerned, they are the protectors, the defenders.”

I realized then that Chloe wasn’t treating me as though I were weak. She was training me to be stronger, faster. She understood exactly what I was going through.

We stared at each other for a few moments. I stepped forward, holding out my arm. “I think we still have ten minutes left, don’t we?”

Chloe stared at my wrist for a few seconds, then she smiled. “I guess we do.”

Fifteen minutes later, Chloe helped me up the steps of Calder’s front porch. The door flew open as we reached the top.

“Dammit, Ricki, are you okay?”

Calder stormed out of the house and scooped me up in his arms. Any other day, I would have made him put me down, but today my entire body ached and I’d managed to twist my ankle on the last fall. Chloe assured me that it would heal up within a half hour, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.

I glanced over Calder’s shoulder at Chloe and rolled my eyes. She giggled, which cracked me up because she definitely wasn’t the giggling type.

Calder stopped in the doorway, turning so he could see her and look at me as well. “What’s so funny?”

Chloe shook her head. “Nothing. See you tomorrow, Ricki.”

I waved at her, still grinning when she walked away.

Calder carried me into the house, kicking the door shut behind him. “So what happened, darlin’? Why were you limping?”

I leaned my head on his shoulder. “Because Chloe kicked my ass.” I snorted, not caring if I sounded completely unladylike. “She’s tough as hell. I wouldn’t want to be facing her in a dark alley.”

He chuckled. “Me either.”

My eyes widened. “Really?”

“No way. I’m pretty sure she’d wipe the floor with me and never break a sweat.”

I smirked at the image he described but couldn’t believe it. “Whatever.”

“I’m serious. She’s quick, ruthless…lethal. I may be bigger and stronger, but Chloe is incredibly skilled.”

Hm. To hear my uber-alpha mate admit that he might not win against her was completely unexpected.

I pressed my palm against his chest. “So what’s a girl got to do to get a hot bath around here?”

At the low growl that rumbled in his chest, my head came up. “Nuh-uh. No way. I’m hurting too badly for any monkey business.”

He laughed again as he carried me up the stairs. “You won’t ache after an hour or two, I promise. It’s one of the advantages of being a werewolf.”

I studied his profile. “Are there any downsides?”

“I’ve never really thought about it,” he answered.

I stared at him, immediately realizing he was telling the truth. Calder wasn’t the kind of man to dwell on the bad things that could or had gone wrong in his life. He tackled them with the same zeal and effort he did everything and moved on. It was a trait I admired.

It was also annoying because I may not have been the type of girl to wallow, but I did sometimes need a good cheese and whine party…..that also included the kind of wine that tasted good with dairy products. Every girl needed to throw a pity party once in a while, especially when handling a raging case of PMS.

“So you can’t think of a single bad thing about being a shifter?”

He hauled me into the master bath and settled me on the small bench in front of the vanity. After he removed his arms from around me, he went to the deep bathtub in the corner and turned on the taps.

“Will you please add some Epsom salts?” I asked, knowing they would help with the aches.

Calder grinned but did as I asked.

“What?”

“You don’t really need the salts, Ricki. Your body is already healing on its own. I told you, within an hour or two, you’ll be as good as new. Better, actually, because you’ll be stronger and quicker than you were before.”

I sighed. “Yeah, but a hot bath will still feel awesome while I wait to heal up.”

“Whatever you want, darlin’.” There was a thread of sarcasm in his words.

“Just for that attitude, you have to cook lunch.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “I’ve cooked most of our meals anyway,” he grumbled.

I shrugged, hissing as the motion pulled my sore muscles. “I warned you that I wasn’t big on cooking.”

“Yeah, but you
can
cook.”

I laughed. “Well, yeah, but I don’t enjoy it. My mom used to joke that it was the only reason I didn’t gain weight. I was too lazy to cook, so I ended up eating salad, soup, and fruit most of the time.”

My heart twisted at my memories of my mother. I had precious few good ones. I wondered what she would think about Calder. I knew she would have found him handsome, but I was curious if she would have thought he was a good choice for me.

Then again, the way he lavished affection on me and paid close attention to my needs, she probably would have told me I was a thousand times a fool if I didn’t snap him up while I had the chance.

Once the tub was full, he walked over to me and tugged my shirt over my head. My shoulders still hurt but the pain wasn’t as sharp.

When he started on the button of my pants, I swatted his hands away. “I can undress myself. Go make lunch.”

Laughing, he stepped back, lifting his arms in mock surrender. “Okay, calm down. What do you want to eat?”

“Anything but tuna salad sandwiches.” He’d made those a few days ago and he put all kinds of nasty stuff in his tuna salad, like onions, mustard, and walnuts.

He threw his head back and guffawed. “You don’t like my tuna salad?” he asked, putting a hand to his chest. “I’m hurt.”

I gave him the stink eye, pointing to the door, and watched him walk out of the bathroom. When he was gone, I finished stripping off the rest of my clothes and lowered myself into the hot bath water with a hiss.

I soaked my aching body for twenty minutes until the water started to cool, then drained the tub and dried off. Though it was a short bath, I was already feeling better. My shoulders and hips didn’t throb as much as I bent over to pull on underwear and yoga pants.

After I finished dressing, I headed downstairs to find Calder standing at the stove, talking to my cat.

“No, Pepper. No more chicken. Ricki will notice if you start to gain weight and we’ll both be in trouble.”

I bit back a smile as my cat wound her body around his ankles and meowed. Now that I was looking at her, she appeared a little chunkier than usual. As I watched, he tossed her a small piece of chicken breast that he was using to make us sandwiches. She gobbled it down in quick yet dainty bites. Obviously this was something they’d been doing for a while.

I must have made a sound because Calder turned and saw me standing just outside the kitchen door.

“So you’re feeding my cat table food, are you? Didn’t I mention that she wasn’t to have it?”

He smiled but didn’t respond as he finished making our sandwiches.

After we sat down at the table and began eating, I decided now was the time to discuss a few things.

“Calder?” Once I had his attention, I continued. “What’s really going on with the pack right now?” I asked. “I got the impression that you only had one monthly pack meeting and a full moon run, but you’ve had meetings with Chloe or other members of the pack every few days since we returned to the compound. What gives?”

His face shut down tight as he chewed his food. “With Lachlan out of commission for the time being, I’m in charge. There are some pack members who don’t approve of that and they’re doing their best to make it as difficult for me as possible.”

I studied him closely. “Is that all?”

Though nothing in his face or body language gave it away, I was certain he was lying when he answered, “Yes.”

Calder

I
hated lying
to Ricki and it was clear she knew I wasn’t being honest, but I had no choice. I intended to tell her everything, but I knew we had an audience. Though I couldn’t smell them through the walls, I heard them as they crept closer, coming to a stop beneath the dining room windows.

Skulking fuckers. Where in the hell were the guards patrolling the compound? How did they go unnoticed. Unless…

Ricki looked back down at her plate, barely picking at her food. The back of my neck felt tight with the need to reassure her, but I couldn’t do or say anything. I didn’t want to alert the assholes watching us that I knew they were there.

I slid my cell phone out of my pocket, setting it on the table next to my plate. I pulled up my messaging app and texted Chloe.

Spies outside my house now.

After I pressed
SEND
, I turned the phone toward Ricki. She frowned at the screen until she read the words. Her eyes shot up to mine. When she opened her mouth as though to say something, I shook my head.

Calmly, I picked up my sandwich and took a bite, even though I tasted nothing. Ricki stared at me incredulously for a moment, but understanding dawned and she nodded. She began taking tiny bites of her food and sips of her water. We had to pretend we didn’t realize they were there.

I could see that it was killing her not to confront the wolf watching us, but she followed my lead. A few minutes later, we both stiffened at the sound of grass rustling and feet running away. The spy had fled.

Another set of pounding paws moved past the house and I knew it was probably Chloe in pursuit. They both must have been in wolf form and close to the house, because I couldn’t see them from the dining room window. I leaped to my feet.

“Ricki, go upstairs to our bedroom. Lock the door. If anyone comes in that isn’t me, Chloe, or Lachlan, you keep that door shut and locked. It’s reinforced and it will take them a while to break it down. Then go out the window in the bathroom, it’s the closest to Lachlan’s. Don’t climb down from the upper porch, jump, and run to his house. He’ll protect you.” I hoped. In his fragile mental state, I didn’t know what Lachlan would do, but he was the only wolf in the pack I trusted except for Chloe and Ricki.