Skin Walkers: Monroe (15 page)

Monroe tried to smile but the action was rare and felt out of place on his lips.  He walked to Micah and stopped.

“How is she?” Aries asked.  Her tone was laced with concern.

“Fine.”
  Monroe reached up and grabbed Micah’s shoulder to give it a reassuring squeeze.  “She’s going to be fine.  No broken bones, nothing serious, just a few stitches.”  It had been more than a few stitches, but he didn’t want to make Micah feel more guilty then he already did, so he kept the details to himself.

Relief washed over the teenager’s features before being quickly replaced with anger.  He jerked from Monroe’s grasp.  “It’s your fault,” he accused. 
“If you weren’t hurting her.”

Monroe was used to dealing with difficult Walkers but not children.  It was new and had him
regarding Eden with a whole new level of respect.  “I wasn’t hurting her Micah.  I was talking to her and…”

“And you made her cry,” the boy finished.  “What did you say?”  The boy stepped closer in challenge, “What did you do?”

If Micah were any of his Walkers, Monroe would have simply ignored the demand but he was merely a boy and a boy that had an unyielding loyalty to Eden, which endeared Monroe to him.

“I didn’t
do
anything.  We were discussing you.”

“Me?”

Monroe nodded his head toward the three other sleeping children.  “All of you.  I was trying to convince Eden that you all might be better off here, with your own kind.”

Micah paled.  “She’s getting rid of us?”

“No,” Monroe spoke swiftly, lest Micah get the wrong impression of Eden.  He didn’t want her character demeaned by any mistake on his part.  “She refuses to let you go.  She wants you.  She loves you too much to give you up.”

Micah tried to disguise it but Monroe didn’t miss the tension leave the
boy’s shoulders with the relief at his words.

“I suggested she might want to introduce the idea to you and allow you all to choose for yourselves.”

“We’re staying with Eden,” Micah squared his shoulders.

“What about them?” Monroe’s gaze shifted to the Cole,
Ransum, and Peyton.  “Don’t you think they should choose for themselves?”

Unperturbed, Micah shrugged
negligently.  “Ask.  You’ll get the same answer.  We want to stay with Eden.”

“Well, that settles it then.”  Monroe
nodded at the boy before he turned to King, “Take Bishop and Gauge and collect their things.”

Micah cut in, “We’re not going home without Eden.”

Monroe stared at the boy over his shoulder, his blue eyes flashing dangerously.  “You’re not going home at all.  My men are collecting your belongings from Eden’s cabin.”  Monroe turned and stalked toward the door in his typical leave-with-the-last-word style.  “You and your family are moving here.”  Closing the door behind him, Monroe smiled, certain he’d heard and adolescent growl thrown at his back.

Chapter
16

Eden woke feeling groggy.  She’d spent one night in the infirmary so far and Monroe refused to allow her to return to her suite until Dr.
Arkinson monitored her for another twelve hours to make sure she hadn’t missed anything.  It was frustrating.  She’d had enough of the estate’s damn infirmary to last her a lifetime.  She wasn’t in bad shape.  Micah’s claws had torn across her chest and his teeth had locked into her shoulder.  She needed stitches,
a lot
of stitches, but she’d heal.  Surprisingly, while a little restless, she was in good spirits for the most part, considering what had occurred.  Secretly, she was glad Micah hadn’t attacked Monroe.  She didn’t know Monroe well enough yet to gauge how he’d take being attacked by a teenager and she didn’t want to find out. 

More than anything, Eden wanted to get to Micah.  She knew her son was most likely in a state of turmoil over the accident.  She didn’t want him beating himself up over what happened.
  However, staring at Monroe now as he stood at the foot of her bed, her plea to leave the infirmary failed to spring forth.  Instead, she wanted him to understand her stance on a completely different topic.

“I’ve thought about it and you can’t have them.  They are more than my family
, Monroe.  They are my heart and soul.  How can I just give them up and walk away?  Someone else has already done that to these kids and I refuse to do the same.”  She inhaled a deep breath and set her shoulders.  “I’m going to be a mother to these kids for as long as they’ll have me.”

She didn’t know how he’d react.  She half expected him to protest.  Instead, something akin to respect flickered in the depths of his eyes before it was quickly wiped away. 
“Fine.”  He stood and smoothed his hands down the front of his dark suit after buttoning his jacket.  “If you won’t give them up, there’s only one thing that can be done.”

Fear pitted in her stomach.

Monroe stalked to the door, pulled it open and turned to smile menacingly at her.  “You’re
all
coming to live at StoneCrow.” 

“Wait!”

He turned and partially closed the door.

“It
was just sex Monroe.  You don’t have to…”  It hadn’t been just sex to her, it had been so much more, but she would never reveal it.  She’d been trying to give him an easy out.  She had no idea the reaction her words would evoke.  One second he was holding the door and the next he was hovering over her with a look of such rage on his face that she actually recoiled and lifted her hands defensively.

Monroe had been about to admonish Eden on her stupid comment when her reaction to his anger stopped him.  Knowledge struck and his throat convulsed as he attempted to swallow down his absolute fury.  When he spoke his voice was strained.  “Who hit you, Eden?”

She blanched and dropped her hands.  “What?  N-no one!”

He scented her lie instantly and made a mental note
to inform her of the ability, but right now, he wanted to know who had harmed his angel so he could find the fucker and kill him!  Slowly, to avoid frightening her again, Monroe grabbed her chin and turned her face to his.  “Tell me who hurt you.”

She blinked rapidly in an attempt to dispel the unshed tears that stung her eyes.  “
No one…”

“Stop.
  I know you’re lying.”  His voice was gentle despite the need for murder that was coursing through him.  “Tell me.”

Eden sighed and closed her eyes, not wanting him to see the pain the memories still caused.  “I-it w
as a long time ago.  Just forget it?”

“Who?” he demanded.

Her eyes opened slowly.  “Some guy I used to date.  It was before I had the kids,” she rushed to explain, “I’d never have subjected them to his cruelty.”

“Why?”

She blinked, “Did he hurt me you mean?”  She shrugged and tried to pretend it didn’t matter.  “He told me it was my fault.  I believed him for a very long time.  I…” she dipped her head, “allowed it.”  Wringing her hands, she swallowed hard and lifted her eyes to his.  “It’s why I attended the Law Enforcement Academy.  I took my life back.  No man will ever hit me in anger again.”

“No!” he growled viscously, “
No one
will harm you ever again, my Domina.”  He bent and brushed his lips gently across hers.  “I apologize for frightening you.”  He turned and stalked to the door before stopping to throw over his shoulder, “And it wasn’t just sex.  We both know it.”

He grabbed the door handle but before he even opened it he called to
RedKnife through the mist. 
“Find me Eden’s ex.  Bring me his fucking heart!” 
It was all the direction the Sentry would need to do his Dominant’s bidding.  Eden’s ex-boyfriend would die for having harmed her, Monroe wouldn’t lose a second of sleep over it, and RedKnife would make it appear is if the man had simply vanished without a single, solitary trace.

In the hall, King caught pace with the CEO. 
“Crow?”

Monroe didn’t slow his stride
, still stewing from his angel’s confession.  He knew his Chief of Security would take issue with his demands on Eden and her family, but King’s opinion was irrelevant.

“You can’t force them to stay.”

Coming to a hard stop, Monroe curled his hands into tight, white-knuckled, fists.  His brain knew that King wasn’t challenging him for Eden, but some primal part of him couldn’t comprehend and coupled with the revelation that she’d been abused, it was too much.  “She’s mine!”  His words were expelled on a harsh growl that sounded too animalistic even to his own ears.

“I understand that she’s your angel.  We all understand that, but you can’t force her…”

King didn’t get the chance to finish.  Monroe spun so fast that King didn’t have time to react.  One moment King was addressing Monroe’s turned back and the next he was flying through the air.  Monroe’s hand had collided violently with King’s chest sending the Walker airborne.  When King’s massive from crashed into the wall some ten feet down the hall, nurses rushed to King’s aid. 

Jenny was one of the last one’s to reach King’s side.  She knelt and was reaching for him when King shoved her hand away
.  “I’m alright, Jen.”

Jenny spun
on Monroe with accusing eyes, intent on giving him a firm lecture when she gasped instead and took a step back, tripping over King’s large feet.  She’d have hit the ground hard if King hadn’t caught her and gently lowered her to the ground.

Seeing Jenny’s shocked expression, King followed her eyes down the hall to look at Monroe.

The typically refined and impeccably tailored CEO had shredded his tie and ripped open his button-up shirt.  Beneath his business suit, a heavily muscled chest heaved as the CEO stood sneering at King, hands still fisted as if prepared to battle. 

“Jesus!” Jenny whispered.  “Get…
get back girls.”  She spoke to her nurses without taking her eyes from Monroe.  “What did you do to him King?”

At her side King slowly rose to his feet.  Careful to keep his
opened hands extended out in front of him.  “Easy, Crow.”  When the CEO didn’t move, King reached down and pulled Jenny to her feet.  He spoke to her but kept his gaze on Monroe.  “It’s the affliction, Jenny.  It’s bad.  He needs…something.”

Jenny blinked hard and her mouth fell open.  “
This
is the affliction?  It can’t be!  I’ve never…”  She was about to say that she’d never seen it so bad so soon, but from her own study she had already expected Monroe’s affliction to be worse than any other Walker’s.  He did, after-all, hold the Dominant position over the Walkers in his domain.  He was the apex Skin Walker, the Alpha, which meant he’d be more demanding.  She lowered her voice to a whisper even knowing that Monroe would still hear her.  “Does he want to fight?”

“I don’t think so.  I was merely suggesting tha
t Eden and her children should be given the option of leaving.”

Jenny turned her head to gape at King.  “And
that
drew
this
reaction?”  Her eyes darted back to a still snarling Monroe.  “God, I knew it’d be bad but I never thought…”

“Any idea on how we get him calmed down,” King cut in.

As if on cue, the door at the end of the hall opened and both Jenny and King turned when Eden’s soft voice asked, “Everything alright out here?  I thought I heard something.”

Jenny opened her mouth to speak but didn’t get the chance.  Monroe strode past so quickly that the wisps of hair that hung around her face actually blew forward in the breeze he created in his rush to get to Eden.

“MONROE!” King barked, unsure whether the CEO had regained his composure enough to remember that Eden was injured.

Monroe didn’t stop.  He did slow however when he got close to Eden. 

King could tell from her expression as she took in Monroe’s state that Eden was shocked by Monroe’s appearance.

“A-are
you okay?  What happened to you?”

Jenny and King could only watch as Eden lifted a small hand and placed it on Monroe’s cheek.  Wordlessly the CEO bent and lifted her
gently into the cradle of his arms as he spoke softly.  “You shouldn’t be out of bed, angel.”

He disappeared with Eden into her
room.

Both Jenny and King stared
slack jawed at the closing door with dazed expressions. 

“Holy shit!

“You can say that again,” King muttered.

“Did that beauty just soothe the savage beast?”

King nodded, “I believe she just did.”

Jenny looked up at
a towering King.  “We are in serious trouble.”

“We are
,” were the only two words King supplied.

***

Back in his office Monroe tried to concentrate on the pages of intel Tyce Steele had sent over from Apex.  King lounged in a chair in front of the CEO’s desk.  He was using the hem of his shirt to shine his pistol.

“About earlier,” Monroe began.

“Don’t worry about it.”  King kept shining his pistol.

“I’m having…”

King looked up to watch as Monroe struggled to formulate the appropriate word.

“…
difficulty
controlling my temper where Ms. StCloud is concerned.”

King smiled.  “I’ve been afflicted
, Crow.  No need to explain yourself to me.”

Both men turned to the door
.  Leto hailed them through the mist to notify the CEO and the Chief of Security of he and his angel’s imminent arrival.

The door clicked open and
Leto Reigns stalked through and scanned the room before reaching behind him and pulling Shy forward.  “King,” he nodded once as King stood then smiled at Monroe.  “We hear congratulations are in order.”

Monroe scowled.  “Congratulations?”

“Yes,” Shy practically squealed.  “You’ve found your angel.  It’s Eden isn’t it?”

If possible, Monroe’s expression darkened as he dropped his head to sign some paperwork that rested under his hands.

“He’s still afflicted,” King supplied.  “There has been no binding or claiming.”  He glanced at Monroe’s still bent head when he heard the undeniable snap of a pen.

“Does Eden know?”

“No.”  King shook his head sadly.  “She knows some of our mating ritual, but not all.  She doesn’t know about the affliction”

“She doesn’t know she’s his?”
Leto countered.  “What happens when she leaves?”

King winced and turned his head in time to see Monroe’s hands grip the sides of his chair so tightly that the piece of furniture actually creaked under the pressure.  “
Leto, get Shy out of here.”

Leto
was already moving.  Shy was flung over his shoulder and carried out of the office before her shriek had a chance to die.

 
“Easy, Crow,” King soothed calmly as he backed toward the door.  “Eden’s here.  She’s fine.  She’s staying.  No one is going to take her.  She won’t leave.”

Monroe slowly lifted his head to pin King with a viscous
sneer.  His canines had elongated and his fellow Walker knew from experience that he was having difficulty controlling the territorial beasts within.

Reaching the door, King felt behind him until his hands clamped on the doorknob.  He opened the door slowly with the intention of giving Monroe the time he needed to cool down. 
“I’ll be outside.  Calm down.”  He toed the door open and had one leg out when the door was thrust open.

“Hi King
, we came to see Monroe.” Cole’s red head bobbed by and King lunged for him, grabbing the boy just in time to haul him up by an arm.

“Yeah,”
Ransum chimed in.  He raced between King’s spread legs to dash into the room.  “Mama’s still sick an' we was bored.  Micah said we shouldn’t bug anyone so we came to see if Monroe would take us to see mama.”

King reached for the second boy when something clamped onto his leg.  He bent and was about to forcibly remove the object when Peyton smiled up at him from between his legs
, her too small arms not even reaching to wind around his leg.  She squealed in delight at the look on his face, having no idea that sheer terror was racing through his heart.