The Vow: Dangerous Suggestions Book 1 (3 page)

I looked at Mason confused. “I am not
acting off. You are all in my room, now all of you get out!” I
snapped getting impatient.

“
Let’s get out of here.
Deek, just wants this moron,” the guy holding Mason said jerking
Mason as he spoke.

“
You’re right,” the guy
holding me said softly as he released me, and pushed me back. I
glared at him and adjusted my shirt. They were all a bunch of
brutes. I didn’t even pose a threat, and he manhandled me like I
did.

“
Do something,” Mason
hissed at me.

I looked at him confused. “What do you
want me to do? You obviously got in trouble, now you fix
it.”

“
Deek will kill me! You
can’t just let me die! You like me!” he pleaded as the two guys
holding him dragged him toward the door.

“
I never said I liked
you,” I countered.

“
Please!” he pleaded. His
big brown eyes were full of fear. All the mischief and playfulness
was gone from his expression. He was actually scared.

I didn’t know why, but I had the urge
to interfere. I knew better than to get involved. I was
outnumbered, and if these guys were anything like Mason, then I
couldn’t persuade them to do what I asked. “Wait,” I said
impatiently.

The lead guy that had been holding me
looked at me, daring me to interfere. “This isn’t your fight pretty
lady. I suggest you stay out of it.”

I sighed. “I can’t, even though
getting involved is against my better judgment. Is there any chance
you will let him go, maybe tell this Deek guy you never saw
him?”

The man laughed like I was cute. “Deek
is one of the strongest pack leaders in the area. There is no way I
am going to lie to him. I am loyal to him, and it is an insult for
you to even ask,” he hissed.

“
My brother is one of the
strongest pack leaders too!” Mason cut in.

He was watching me like this
revelation mattered. I guessed a pack leader was the same in a
werewolf pack as in a regular wolf pack. I really had no clue, but
I had to admit this whole thing was slightly interesting. It was
nice to know there were others out there that weren’t the human
ideal of normal. Obviously a werewolf wouldn’t be considered
normal. When I didn’t immediately respond, the men turned to walk
out of the room with Mason.

“
No!” Mason growled
panicked as he began to struggle.

I cussed in annoyance. I looked around
the room trying to find a weapon. The lamp was the closest thing to
me. I grabbed the lamp as I hurried toward the guy that seemed to
be the leader. He was the same guy that held me. I swung the lamp
as hard as I could, hitting the guy in the back of the head. He
collapsed to the floor, unconscious, and the other two hesitated,
and looked at me.

Mason took the opportunity to start
fighting. He shoved the first guy holding him backwards. The guy
hit his head and collapsed to the floor. Mason then broke free from
the second guy’s grasp and punched him; knocking him down as well.
“We have to go!” Mason yelled at me.

I didn’t want to go, but I knew I
couldn’t stay. When the big guy woke up, I was sure I would be in
trouble. I hurried over to the bed and grabbed my leather coat.
“This is ridiculous. I knew I would regret letting you stay in my
room,” I muttered as I followed him out of the room.

“
I didn’t think they would
find me here,” he said sounding annoyed as he went through the
door. He took the stairs instead of the elevator. It was the
logical thing to do considering the stairs were much
faster.

“
You shouldn’t have
involved me. I have lived peacefully off the radar for years,” I
said quietly.

“
I asked for help, but you
didn’t have to help. You chose to help me,” he said as he hurried
down the stairs.

I couldn’t argue with his logic. He
was right. I was the one who picked up the lamp, and hit the big
guy over the head with it. I could have just let them take him. I
was beginning to think I should have. I knew Mason was going to be
nothing but trouble when I met him. I knew this, and I still let
him in my room. If my actions weren’t an obvious human act of
stupidity; then I honestly didn’t know what was.

We made it out onto the street without
incident. This was where I planned to part ways with him. He could
take himself and his problems elsewhere. He turned and headed down
the sidewalk away from the hotel. I started walking in the opposite
direction he was going.

He stopped in his tracks when he
realized I wasn’t following him. “Where are you going?” he asked
confused.

“
Away from here, and you.
It isn’t that it hasn’t been fun, but I liked my life as it was
before you barged into it,” I said smoothly as I continued
walking.

He scoffed. “I highly doubt you even
know what fun is, and I need your help,” he said catching up to
me.

I stopped walking and looked at him.
“I hit a very big, very angry, guy over the head for you. That is
as much help as you get from me.” I turned and continued walking. I
wasn’t going to give those guys a chance to catch up with me. I had
no quarrel with them; Mason did for whatever reason. Who knows what
he did. For all I knew he could have done something terrible, and
here I was defending him. Nothing was making sense. It was not in
my nature to act like I was acting. I was beginning to think that
the reality that I was no longer alone overwhelmed me to the point
that I thought it necessary to protect him. It was a ridiculous
notion; one that I was hoping to rid myself of very
soon.

“
Wait,” he growled
impatiently as he fell into step beside me. “I need you to do that
thing you do to get things. We need a car,” he said looking around;
trying to find a perspective vehicle to steal.

“
You need a car; I don’t,”
I corrected him as I continued on. I was going to remain resolute;
no matter what he said to try to convince me to help him. I had to
avoid any further interaction with him if I intended to return to
my peaceful life.

“
Please,” he pleaded as he
moved in front of me, blocking my path. “I need to get back to my
pack. I thought I would be better on my own, but as you can see I
am not. I am going to beg my brother to let me back in.”

I really didn’t want to help him; well
at least most of me didn’t. Part of me had a soft spot for him, and
it was annoying. He was obviously immature, or he wouldn’t have
these problems. I decided I would help him until he got to his
brother; then I was done. After that, I was going back to my boring
life. I looked around and spotted a man getting out of his car near
the sidewalk.

“
Excuse me sir,” I called
to him as I walked quickly toward him.

He looked at me and smiled. “Can I
help you?” he asked politely.

“
I need to borrow your
car,” I said simply.

His face had the blank, confused look
I was expecting. “Of course,” he said as he offered me his
keys.

“
Thank you,” I said, then
tossed the keys to Mason. “I will stay with you until you meet up
with your brother; then I am gone,” I said firmly.

He grinned like he normally did when
he got his way. “This is awesome; I knew you liked me.”

I sighed in defeat. He just didn’t get
it. I couldn’t like him like he wanted me to. I could be his
friend, I guess, but I didn’t understand feelings. I had thought
about it many times, and I could never bring myself to relate to
the feelings most humans showed for one another. I walked over to
the passenger side and climbed in the car. I was ready for all of
this to be over.

He pulled away from the curb and drove
toward the highway. Wherever we were going was outside the
city.

“
Is your brother far?” I
asked once he turned onto the highway out of town. I found the
silence in the car was awkward; which was odd. I usually enjoyed
silence; however, Mason and silence did not go together. I knew he
had something on his mind because of how silent he was being. I
figured starting a conversation might ease the tension, and make me
more comfortable.

“
No, only a few miles
outside the city. I am sure he isn’t going to be happy to see me,”
he said sounding a little nervous.

I wondered what he could have done to
sound so worried. He sounded like he didn’t believe his brother
would take him back. I didn’t see how that was possible. People
seemed to forgive so easily; perhaps the rules were not the same
for werewolves as they were for humans. Maybe they didn’t forgive
and forget like so many humans seemed to do.

“
What did you do to make
your brother so mad? What did you do to make Deek come after you?”
I asked trying to get a better understanding of his situation.
Maybe if I could understand what he was running from; then I would
be able to understand him better. I doubted I would ever understand
him, but I had nothing better to do at that moment, I figured I
might as well try.

He shrugged. “I may have slept with my
brother’s girlfriend, and Deek is mad because he thinks I slept
with his girlfriend, but I didn’t.” The small crooked smile that
played across his lips told me everything. There was no ‘may have’
about it. He was guilty as charged; whether he wanted to own up to
it or not was a different story.

I was learning more and more about his
kind. It was obvious werewolves were very similar to humans when it
came to personal interactions. They obviously didn’t like to share
their lovers; like many humans didn’t. Monogamy seemed like it was
important to them; maybe not to Mason, but to Deek and Mason’s
brother it obviously was important. Then again perhaps it was just
an insult to them. Mason would be a lower wolf in the hierarchy of
the pack. If Deek and Mason’s brother were both pack leaders,
perhaps it was a matter of pride alone, and it had nothing at all
to do with monogamy.

I decided it was all too much to
consider at the moment. I decided to stick to the basics; instead
of diving into the details that were probably too far over Mason’s
head. “So basically, all your problems in the world are because you
can’t keep your pants up?” I asked slightly amused.

He shot me a dirty look; then he
looked back at the road. “Maybe.”

I smiled shaking my head. This was a
good example of something I didn’t quite understand. He claimed
Deek was going to kill him over his girlfriend, but I had no doubt
Mason would do the same things that got him in trouble in the first
place over again. It was just his personality. This vicious cycle
didn’t make sense to me. I remained quiet while I considered
everything he said. The amount of trouble he caused himself, simply
for a female’s attention, made no sense to me. I doubted I would
ever be in a situation where it did make sense.

“
You never told me your
name,” he said; breaking the silence after a few
minutes.

“
I told you, I don’t have
one,” I said as I watched out the window. He was turning the
conversation to me, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to discuss
myself. It wasn’t something I did.

He looked confused. “You just don’t
have one?” he asked skeptically.

“
No, I don’t. I never
needed one. You are the first person to even ask if I had one,” I
said trying to sound as indifferent as possible. I knew it probably
didn’t make sense to him, but it was my reality, and I was okay
with it.

“
Your parents didn’t give
you a name?” he asked sounding even more confused. He was
persisting like I knew he would.

I sighed; deciding to put his
curiosity and confusion at ease. Although it was possible my
explanation would just confuse him more.

“
I don’t have parents; at
least not any that I remember,” I said simply.

“
You do realize how
strange you are, right?” he asked as he glanced at me. He sounded
like he couldn’t fathom what I was saying.

Maybe I was stranger than I thought;
stranger than even a werewolf. I smiled as I thought about the
possibility. “I know I am not normal to the human standard, but
neither are you. I know I am different, and it doesn’t bother
me.”

“
Whatever,” he said
shaking his head as if it was too much for him to handle, so he was
just going to let it go.

He pulled off the road; into the
parking lot of a seedy looking biker bar. When I say seedy, I mean
it looked like a place I wouldn’t normally frequent. The building
was crude, and looked hand built. The number of motorcycles in the
front is why I dubbed it a biker bar; it wasn’t simply the
architecture, or lack thereof that gave it away.

“
Why are we stopping
here?” I asked as I looked at the place. It didn’t look like a
place I would hang out at in any reality. If I was ‘normal’ as
Mason would say; I believe I would be afraid of a place like
this.

“
This is, Dawson, my
brother’s hangout. It’s like the first stop before you hit the pack
territory. Everyone in there is a werewolf,” he said nervously as
he looked at the bar.

“
Well then, this is where
we separate. I will take the car back to the city. Good luck with
your brother,” I said, then I climbed out of the car. I fully
intended to leave. I accomplished my mission. I got him to his
brother; now I was free to go back to my life.