ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (93 page)

“Did you marry me for your job, or for me?” I asked.

“For you,” he whispered. “But I’ve messed up your life completely.”

“I love you,” I said. “I still mean it. And I want to be with you.”

I smiled. “Besides, you’re kind of cute as a wolf.”

He pulled a face, but I leaned in and he met my lips with his.

As soon as he was ready to leave the hospital, we left. I said goodbye to my family. They were unhappy to see me go, but they couldn’t say anything. I could make my own choices. It was customary for a vampire to stay with her parents until marriage, and they expected it from me. I wasn’t about to tell them I’d already married. A werewolf. Instead I told them I had a life I wanted to live.

Dante, I’d started calling him that, and I moved to a small village a couple of miles away from Alberta, Canada. The vampires there accepted me with grace, but we kept away from the community. When we did go into town, and Dante came with me, he put on his fangs and vampire attitude. It was safer for him to do that, both from the vampires and the werewolves in the area. No matter where we went, if there were vampires, there would be wolves.

When we pulled down the shutters for the day in our cabin, Dante turned to me.

“I love you, you know,” he said, taking me into his arms. “You gave me  a new life.”

“You did the same for me,” I said, thinking back to the ways in which we’d saved each other. We’d had a rocky start to our marriage, but we were stronger for it.

Dante pulled me closer, his hands already under my clothes, dropping them on the floor has he pulled them off. He dragged a fang along the skin on my neck and then punctured the skin. I moaned and tipped my head back, letting him take my blood. It was a strange thing for a werewolf to do, but we weren’t an ordinary couple. His hands found my bra and undid it, and we fell into bed. He pulled the covers over us, and showed me what it meant to be the wife of a werewolf.

It was going to be a long, hot day.

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BONUS

The Werewolf Navy Seal

by Sicily Duval 

A pinprick of light shone over the horizon.  It warbled and seemed to blink out, before reappearing, now larger and growing in strength. 

Vince Torres spat in the sand, keeping his eyes glued to the night vision goggles.  His breath came out in a small puff, momentarily suspended in front of his face.  The desert would cook a person all day long, then freeze them like a Popsicle at night. 

“What’s it looking like?”  Stanley Michaels voice was barely above a whisper and barely below Vince’s ear.  Any second now, the man would whine.  He was having stomach issues, but…Navy Seals don’t whine. 

“Single headlight.  Probably a bike.” 

“Is it our man?”

Vince shifted his weight slightly, barely a movement at all, and replaced the night vision goggles with a night vision scope attached to his 82A1 rifle.  The long slender barrel extended away from the small support tripod nearly 29”.  Vince exhaled slowly, found his center, and waited for a confirmation from the boys positioned near the road. 

The sound, of what he was positive now was a dirt bike, reverberated over the dunes and brought a brief smile to his lips.  Their informant had been truthful; at least about the bike. 

A disembodied voice spoke softly in his ear through an earbud.  “We have visual on the Prince of hearts.” 

Prince of hearts.  Bingo. 

Vince let his lips part, re-found his center and waited.  The bike slowed slightly, and he could see a passenger balanced precariously on the back of the bike. 

Shit. 

Stanley spoke softly into the handset, his own goggles still over his eyes.  “Two birds to gopher, uh…confirm a passenger.”

“Passenger confirmed.” 

“Two birds to gopher…status of passenger.” 

There was a painful twenty second wait that Vince felt in his entire body.  The bike had come to a crawl, like a stray dog that was spooked.  They didn’t have much time before he would tear off down the sand and hard clay road, leaving the moment for action as nothing more than a wasted memory. 

“Gopher to two birds…passenger has a package…repeat…passenger has a package.”

“Copy.”  Stanley said.  He backed away from Vince doing a backward belly crawl.  “Game on.”  He whispered.

Vince willed his pulse to nearly a stop, he didn’t dare blink.  The bike resumed its original speed.  Vince kept his eye steady within the scope and took out the passenger.  The front tire weaved as the driver had just enough time to turn to look over his shoulder, before Vince sent a .50 caliber bullet through his head. 

Vince looked through the scope, waiting for movement.  None came, except for the still spinning front tire of the dirt bike.  The engine revved then shut off as gopher team surrounded the spectacle with weapons drawn, and shut it down.  One gave a thumbs up, before Vince heard the disembodied voice in his ear again. 

“Nice shooting.” 

So long Prince of hearts.  

Sydney Torres dusted the mantle, pausing only a second to gaze at the framed picture of her husband in his dress blues.  His tan skin had always looked taut to her in that photo, and he didn’t smile.  He never smiled in photos.  It irritated her. 

Sydney spent the first two years of her marriage enamored with the fact that her husband was a Navy Seal.  He was fighting the war on terror in distant exotic sounding places, and she was proud as peacock.  Now she was just tired.  Tired of his silence when he was home, tired of the silence when he wasn’t.  Her once fresh and proud face had been replaced by something hard and brittle. 

Vince was due home in two days.  She didn’t know what Kandahar looked like this time of year, and didn’t care, but right here in good ‘ole Little Creek Virginia fall had settled in, and Halloween was coming fast. 

“Mommy!”

Sydney smiled as Dakota wobbled into the room.  Her three year old sleepy face contorted in a squinty eyed toothy grin.  Black curls poked out in odd angles all over her little head. 

“Hello, Sunshine.  Hungry?” 

“Yeah…toat.” 

“You mean toast.”

“Yeah.” 

Sydney smiled wider.  The bi-polar opposite of her irritation with her husband, was her mighty love for their little girl.  Sydney marveled (and bored whomever was within earshot to hear) at how smart their little girl was.  She had toyed with the idea of home schooling her, starting the next school year, and the more she thought about it, the more she liked the idea.  She was a college graduate after all, why couldn’t she teach her?  To hell with what Vince thought!  He wasn’t ever around anyway! 

Vince stared at his commanding officer as if the man had just told him E.T. was real.  The room held a stifling stillness that made him want to clear his throat.  Even the potted fern in corner by the window reached its willowy leaves towards the shaded window, earning for escape. 

“I don’t understand.”

“What’s not to understand?  You’ve been recommended for OCS.”

“Officer School.”  Vince said flatly. 

Captain Bryant stuck tree pieces of Juicy Fruit in his mouth and chewed viciously.  His black eyes never leaving Vince’s face.  He was a tall lanky man, and Vince had always thought he reminded him of Louis Gossett Jr. when he was in An Officer and a Gentleman.  

“I thought you’d be thrilled.” 

“I’m appreciative.”  Vince began cautiously.  “I just wanted to sign up for another tour as soon as possible.” 

Captain Bryant stopped chewing, pushing the wad of gum to the opposite side of his jaw.  “Why?

“Because…I want to do more.” 

“Son, go home.  Take some time.  I’m sure your family misses you.  This promotion could ensure you more time with them.”  He leaned his elbows on the desk, flattening his forearms and folding his hands.  He leaned in on them, hoping to get his point across. 

“Can I refuse?”

The gum stopped again.  “Refuse a promotion?”

Vince nodded. 

Captain Bryant pushed away from the desk and sat against the back of his chair.  “Boy, you’ve baked in the Afghani sun too long!  Go home!”

Vince stood and saluted.  He posture stayed ridged all the way to the barracks.  Tomorrow he would fly home, and that just didn’t settle well at all.

Being part of the Lincoln Military Housing had its perks.  Sydney and Vince had a nice little house for their daughter and the Exchange had decent shopping which included a movie theatre and fitness facility.  Sydney had also begun to take advantage of the pool, but that was closed for the season now.  She hoped the ten pounds she had shed since Vince saw her last was noticeable.  She wanted him to appreciate what he had missed, but she didn’t necessarily want him to touch her.  She just wanted him to look. 

Dakota happily chatted to her doll as they made their way through the large warehouse style store to ladies wear.  Since he might be looking, she thought a cute outfit would be just the ticket.  The temperature hadn’t dropped below seventy during the day yet, but most of the summer items were already gone. 

Sydney pushed one shirt after another along a metal rack with one finger.  She wanted just the right thing.  Her face spread into a smile.  She pulled medium shirt covered in light fall leaf print with a dark brown and blue butterfly along the right bottom side.  The pattern was complicated but no obnoxious, since most of the fall colors were muted.  She quickly found a light tan set of capris and a pair of low slung brown and tan heels.  The toe of the shoes came to a point, and made her feel sophisticated.

“Mommy pretty!”  Dakota exclaimed as Sydney slipped the clothes on and turned around in front of the dressing room mirror.  She imagined what type of hairdo she should wear to the airport.  She twisted her hair onto the top of her head and let her curls fall softly around her ears.

“How does this look?”

“Pretty!” 

Sydney sighed and tugged the hair to one side.  Maybe she could do a low side ponytail. 

“How about this one?”

“Pretty!” 

Sydney shook her head, letting her hair fall back into place.  “You’re no help, kiddo.”

Sydney thumbed through a magazine, while waiting to be checked out, her basket full of groceries and the casual outfit she had picked out. 

“Sydney?”  A voice cautiously asked. 

Sydney turned around to see an instantly familiar redhead staring at her.  Her hair was pulled back in a severe bun and she was in khaki shorts with a blue t-shirt.  Sydney’s brow furrowed, before realization caused her mouth to open in an O shape.

“Bridgett?”

The woman relaxed and nodded her freckled face.  Sydney embraced her quickly. 

“How have you been?  When did you and Peter get here?”  Sydney was so pleased to see the woman that she didn’t register the slight drop of her features. 

“Peter isn’t with me.”  

“Deployed?” 

The woman’s eyes flattened.  “He was.”

Sydney put a hand to her mouth.  Even Dakota watched the women with a strange solemnity that she couldn’t possibly understand. 

“When?” 

“Eight months ago.  It was an IED.  I requested transfer here last month.” 

“Oh God, Bridgette…I wish I’d have known.” 

Bridgette shook her head and looked at the tiled floor for a moment.  Sydney felt a fleeting guilty relief that the woman’s eyes were dry when she looked back up. 

“It was hard keeping in contact.  How long has it been?  Two…three years?” 

“Almost two.” 

The checkout lady, a short woman of Asian descent, cleared her throat and looked at Sydney with meaning. 

“Oh…hey I need to get checked out.”  She scribbled her number on a corner of the back of the magazine she had been looking at and tore it off before tossing the magazine onto the moving checkout counter.  “Please call me.  It would be good to get together.” 

Bridgette smiled gratefully.  “I will.” 

Sydney watched her walk away as she mechanically placed her items on the belt.  Her stomach churned.  It was a military wife’s worse nightmare, the news that her husband wasn’t coming home.  It was a military husband’s worse nightmare for that matter.  She may have felt distanced, and often angry with Vince, but she never wanted that visit from the higher muckety mucks.

Vince watched the naval base spread out beneath the plane.  He wasn’t ready to be home.  He wasn’t ready to face Sydney.  Her words were still ringing in his ears from six months ago. 

“Why can’t you see what you’ve become?”  The screech to her voice was like nails running along a chalk board. 

“And what’s that, Syd?”

She had hesitated, her brown eyes staring up at him, before she spoke in a then hushed tone.  “A monster.”

Vince’s jaw jutted forward at the memory.  A monster.  Yeah, that’s me.  I’m over there trying to protect the free world, and she calls me a monster.

He had only received one letter in the six months.  It had been a lengthy affair tucked into the one care package she had sent.  The letter talked about Dakota mostly.  What had struck him the hardest was the way she had signed it.  There wasn’t an ‘I love you’ or ‘I miss you’, it was simply ‘Sydney’.  What the hell kind of way was that to sign a letter to your husband?  He frowned deeply, then again he hadn’t helped matters any by sending a four sentence reply letter.  No wonder he hadn’t received any more boxes with clean socks and peanut butter. 

Sydney’s feet were already hurting in her new shoes.  Why on earth had she come anyway?  He was landing less than ten minutes from their housing. 

You want people to think you’re still a happy couple, that’s why.  Sydney’s inner voice chided her.

She pushed the stroller back and forth to keep Dakota lulled in her current sleep condition.  The kid had hardly slept at all the night before.  Sydney couldn’t understand the excitement.  She had only seen Vince maybe six months total in her three year old life.  Sydney supposed every little girl wanted a daddy.  She certainly wished she had one.  Her own father had skipped out when she was seven.  Memories of him were hazy, but she never forgot the look on her mother’s face the final time he walked out the front door.  She knew he wasn’t coming back.  Sydney also never forgot the fact that he hadn’t even told her goodbye.  He simply vanished into the world, sucked in without even a return address.

A handful of soldiers were making their way across the tarmac and into the small waiting area.  Sydney spotted Vince’s tall bulky frame easily.  He had on standard tan camo and his bulging duffle was slung over one shoulder.  Neither smiled a greeting.  He stood before her and leaned in for a dry kiss to her cheek. 

“Hi.”

“Hello.”  Sydney replied stiffly. 

Vince crouched in front of the stroller and gazed at his sleeping daughter.  “She’s grown.” 

“Yeah, a whole inch.”  Sydney selfishly waited for Vince to look up at her and be dazzled by her up do and new outfit, but he simply stood and slung the duffle back over his shoulder. 

They drove back to their housing in complete silence which was only broken when Dakota woke from her nap and squealed “Daddy” with obvious delight.