My eyes got big at this total awesomeness. I looked to Abel to see him staring at Jian-Li with a weird look on his face that made my heart clutch at the same time I wanted to jump with glee.
“If we can perhaps arrange a meeting that you would be comfortable with, one of theirs alone but all of yours with you. Or perhaps one of their females—” Jian-Li started to suggest.
But I interrupted her. “Females?”
“One human who is bride to a vampire. One female werewolf who is queen to the werewolf king,” Jian-Li explained.
“Holy shitoly,” I breathed.
Vampire brides?
Girl werewolves?
Wow.
“The nonthreatening one,” Abel whispered, and we all looked to him.
“What?” I called.
He focused on me. “I smelled another wolf who was nonthreatening. I didn’t get it. Now I know it’s female.”
I wanted to roll my eyes before suggesting maybe it’s the queen who kicks ass and takes names, but I decided that was probably not wise at that moment.
“Put your coffee down.”
I focused when this order came to me from Abel and saw him heading my way.
Snake and Jabber didn’t seem all fired up about this, but Abel clearly didn’t care and I didn’t have time to deal with it as I asked, “What? Why?”
He made it to me through the stiff bodies of my dad’s friends and didn’t answer. He also didn’t wait for me to comply. He took the coffee out of my hand and set it on the table, doing this looking to Dad.
“Gather the troops. Strategy session here at noon,” he decreed, then zoom. I was in his arms and my hair was flying out behind me as he took off like a bat out of hell. Then we were suddenly behind the closed steel door in his room downstairs.
My hair (and body) whooshed the other way as he stopped us, put me on my feet, and let me go.
I opened my mouth, probably to yell.
He got there before me.
“Your father is pissing me off.”
I closed my mouth in order not to yell, because if I did, I’d probably say things I’d regret.
I took a deep breath.
“Fuck,” Abel growled, dragging his hand through his hair. “He’s like a biker guru.”
Oh.
Well then.
Abel focused on me. “It’s irritating as fuck when you’re pissed to an extreme for someone to fight fire with logic.”
I suddenly wanted to laugh.
Instead, with years of experience with my dad, I replied, “I feel your pain.”
Abel stared at me. He did this a while.
Then, quietly, he said, “I did what I had to do.”
All of a sudden not angry at all, I moved toward him, lifting a hand to touch him, starting, “Honey—”
“Apparently, it’s beyond instinct. It’s why I exist, Lilah. Yesterday was great. Fuckin’ loved it, havin’ time with you, gettin’ to know you. But it’s not in me to stay in bed fuckin’ my woman while my brothers, her father, and his boys keep us safe. It just isn’t.” He shook his head and finished, “I did what I had to do.”
I laid my hand on his chest and got close, murmuring, “Okay, baby.”
The tightness of his chest relaxed (well, not all of it; it was safe to say my man was built so muscle like that stayed hard, thank God) and I got closer.
“You need to apologize to Jian-Li,” I said gently.
His hands spanned my hips and he muttered, “Yeah.”
Yeah.
I liked it that he agreed and did it so quickly.
Hell, I just liked my werewolf vampire.
I got up on tiptoe and touched my mouth to the skin under his chin.
When I rolled back, he dipped his chin deep and looked down at me.
The brown was seeping into his blue eye.
God, I loved that.
“You scared me,” I blurted.
“I’m sorry, pussycat,” he said softly.
“You gotta do what you gotta do, honey. I won’t stop you. I promise. But I want you to tell me so I know where you are.” I pressed into his chest. “I need to know where you are, like…need. It doesn’t feel good not to, and when I say that, I mean physically.”
He slid his arms around so he was holding me, his face getting soft with remorse, showing me he knew exactly what I was saying, as he replied, “You got it.”
“Thank you,” I whispered.
He bent his head and I rolled up on my toes to get his kiss. I thought he’d brush his mouth against mine. He didn’t. He gave me a sweet, soft, wet kiss that was also long.
When he broke it, one of his hands slid up to cup the back of my head and he tucked my cheek to his chest.
“Gotta go talk with Jian-Li,” he told me.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“You good down here by yourself, or you wanna come up with me?” he asked.
“I still gotta shower and do my hair and makeup so I’ll stay down here.” I put pressure on his hand and he let me tilt my head back to catch his eyes. “Give you both a little privacy.”
“Thanks, bao bei.”
I smiled.
He bent again but only to give me a lip brush this time.
When he lifted his head, he whispered, “Be back.”
“’Kay,” I replied.
Then, whoosh, he was gone.
* * * * *
“Rode Serpentine Bay north to south. No scent,” Abel said to the men congregated around the round table in the war room.
I was sitting in his lap.
This was weird, seeing as there were a couple of chairs vacant (one for me, one for Jian-Li, who, after she’d forgiven Abel for being a horse’s ass, had chosen to manage her restaurant and be briefed later about the session).
But when Abel and I walked in five minutes ago to a table filled with food, pitchers of water, and a variety of canned soft drinks and bottles of beer sticking out of a bucket filled with ice (Jian-Li knew how to throw a war party), Abel just kept dragging me to the far end of the table and then he pulled me right into his lap.
I didn’t mind sitting in his lap, say, should we be having a quiet moment or he wanted a cuddle. In fact, I’d love it.
But this…
Weird.
I didn’t protest, mostly because of the way he did it. Like it was natural. Like we’d done it a million times before.
It was not lost on me he’d had other women. But during a strategy session, I didn’t need to get miffed and jealous, thinking about how he’d had practice yanking women in his lap and conversing like they were seated beside him, not on him.
We’d discuss that later.
Now, we had more important matters at hand.
“So none except the ones at that hotel,” Dad replied.
“None except them,” Abel confirmed.
“You think it’s pertinent we move?” Dad asked.
“I think we should consider it,” Abel answered. “They know where we are and we’re an unmoving target.”
Oh man.
“That said, we know the lay of the land here, we got a network, and they might expect us to move, gettin’ us to a place where we lose that upper hand,” Abel went on.
“Where are you leaning?” Dad pushed.
“Stay,” Abel declared. “It’s populated, and my guess is my kind are hidden. They attacked in the night, not broad daylight. They don’t want attention. But we also can dig in. More cameras on the restaurant and alley, patrols with me to see if we can sniff any out, give a heads up to those in town who owe the Jin boys a favor to keep their eyes open for new players in the city and let us know who they are so we can take a look at them.”
“Think that’s smart, bubba,” Dad grunted.
“I also think we make a meet with The Biltmore supernaturals,” Abel continued, and my body went solid.
His arm around me got tight, his fingers digging into the flesh of my hip.
“Like Jian-Li said, one of them,
all of us,” Abel concluded.
“Agreed,” Xun put in. “Ma isn’t stupid. She trusted them. And if they agree to that kind of meet, that’s more trust.”
“Little girl?” Dad called, and I looked from Xun to him. “You don’t look convinced.”
“The only time I’ve been around supernaturals, they’ve been trying to kill us,” I explained.
“See your worry,” Dad muttered.
“We’ll be safe, Lilah,” Abel said, and I turned my head to catch his eyes. “Promise, bao bei. We’ll take every precaution we can.”
“We need to take Lilah out, teach her to shoot, if she doesn’t already know,” Chen announced and all eyes turned to him. “Teach her self-defense moves.” He lifted his hand and shook it in a way that it was obvious someone was preparing to negate him. “I know a bullet doesn’t stop vamp or wolf, but it might slow them down. And not much she can do without proper training, which would take years. But something is better than nothing.”
I totally agreed with that.
And, luckily, my father had taught me to shoot.
Before I could share that, Dad did.
“You think I didn’t teach my little girl her way around a firearm?” he asked with mild affront.
Chen might have responded, but I didn’t hear him because, all of a sudden, I felt Abel’s entire body tense.
Then, in a flash, he was out of his seat, me with him, his arms squeezing me so close it was like he wanted to absorb me. His head was turned sharply, ear to the back wall, beyond which was the front door.
He was sniffing.
“Wolf,” he whispered.
The room went wired at the same time it filled with activity, everyone heading toward the door.
“Stop,” Abel growled. Everyone stopped and turned to him. “It’s the female.”
“What?” I asked.
“Warn Jian-Li,” Abel ordered, and Wei shot out of the room.
Abel sniffed the air again.
“Okay, crap, okay, crap!” I wasn’t proud, but I started panicking. I mean, a wolf was descending! “Abel, are there more?”
“Only her,” he murmured, then pushed me toward Dad. “Hold tight. I’m gonna check.”
“What?” I asked. “No!” I cried when he was gone in a blur.
Dad grabbed hold of me.
“Cool it, little girl,” he warned.
I stared at the door.
Thirty seconds later (I counted), we saw a blur, then we saw Abel, his eyes to my father.
I leaned against Dad in relief.
“No more. Just her,” he declared. “You want different scenery for lunch?”
“Sit down with a female werewolf?” Dad asked, brows high, eyes dancing with the promise of adventure, the crazy biker. “Number one on my bucket list.”
“I’m going,” I stated.
Abel looked to Snake, Jabber, Moose, and Poncho. “She’s in here with you. Xun will be at the door.”
“What?” I snapped, and Abel looked to me. “I’m going.”
“No, you’re not,” he returned.
“You said she wasn’t a threat,” I pointed out.
“Doesn’t mean one isn’t at her back,” Abel retorted.
“You didn’t smell him,” I reminded him.
I could sense him digging in as he started, “Lilah—”
I sought compromise.
“Bring them back here. The men can stay. We won’t hurt them, and if they want to establish trust, they’ll accept that, sit, and break bread with us. They’ve come here for a reason, but this is our turf. We make the rules. They eat in the war room with you, with me, and with our family.”
Abel narrowed his eyes. “Fuck, you’re like a biker bitch guru.”
I raised my brows.
Abel shook his head, giving me another new look, this one saying my-woman-is-adorable-but-also-a-pain-in-the-ass-and-a-big-one-at-that.
I didn’t like it as much as the other, but I still liked it.
Then he looked to the door where Chen was standing and ordered, “Bring them in here.”
Chen took off.
We all waited, and when they showed at the door, I was super glad I did the shower and primping thing.
The first one through was a classy, beautiful blonde with gorgeous blue eyes. The one who came after was a lush, sophisticated brunette with lovely green eyes. The blonde was in jeans, but the kind of jeans (with all the rest—fabulous blouse, kickass spike-heeled designer pumps, etc.) that they’d put in the pages of Cosmopolitan. The brunette also was in jeans and had on kickass high-heeled boots, but her thin sweater would be on the pages of Cosmopolitan for the Outdoorsy Woman (if they had that, which they didn’t, but looking at her I was thinking they should).
“Yay, we’re having a party,” the blonde stated as her eyes fell on the table groaning with Jian-Li’s food.
This was a surprising opener and I looked to Abel.
“Where should we sit?” the brunette asked like they were indeed at a party and had assigned seating.
“Show them their seats, Chen,” Abel ordered, and Chen moved, showing the women the seats that Jian-Li and I never took.
They followed Chen like they hadn’t a care in the world.
The other men drifted to their own seats, doing this cautious and alert.
Abel went to his and pulled me back in his lap.
The women watched this, and the minute my ass was settled, the brunette, smiling enormously, looked across the table at the blonde and declared, “Told you wolf traits would win out.”
The blonde shrugged, grinning. “It seems you’re right. Lucien will be disappointed.”
“Perhaps you’ll tell us who you are, then you can explain what the fuck you’re talkin’ about,” Abel growled.
They looked to him, appearing not offended in the slightest by his less than stellar hosting skills. The blonde spoke first. “Sorry. Very rude. I’m Leah, Lucien’s wife. He’s a vampire. Like a superhero one.”
“And I’m Sonia,” the dark-haired one stated before I could process the idea of a superhero vampire. “Queen Sonia, but no one calls me that unless Callum is feeling kingly, which is a lot since he is king. That being King of the Werewolves.” Her shoulders straightened and her eyes locked to Abel as she stated, “And I’m a she-wolf.”
Holy shitoly, female werewolves were hot.
Leah followed this with a quiet request. “Are you going to tell us who you are?”
Abel apparently wasn’t because next he demanded, “Explain what you meant about wolf traits winning out.”
“The lap thing,” Sonia shared, tipping her head to me. “Wolves hold their mates close in every way. To their hearts. In their minds. And when something like this is going down, even if it’s just lunch, they hold them on their laps.”
Wow.
Well, that explained that.
I looked to Abel, who I was surprised to see was looking at me and doing it like he didn’t even know I was in his lap.
This I took as him putting me there but not really paying attention to the fact he did. He just did it.
Out of instinct.
“You’ve been raised as human,” Sonia said softly, and both Abel and I looked to her.
“I have,” Abel shared.
“I was too. It’s a lot to take in when it all starts coming at you,” she replied.
“You were raised as a human?” I asked.
She nodded, then shook her head, then lifted her hand and waved it in the air before dropping it and saying, “I was, but by vampires. Though, I didn’t know they were vampires because I didn’t know there were vampires, or werewolves for that matter. It was all quite a shock when I found out and I didn’t handle it very well. But now it’s all good.”
Wild.
“Can you please give us your names?” Leah asked quietly, and Abel’s hand at my hip tightened.
“I’m Abel and this is my mate, Delilah.”
Both women smiled, but only Leah m
urmured, “Abel and Delilah.”
Abel looked to Sonia. “Are there many like us?”
“You mean here in Serpentine Bay, or generally, throughout the world?” she queried.
“Both,” Abel grunted.
“No to the first,” she answered. “Callum, Lucien, Gregor, and Yuri have been going out to see if they can sense any, but none since the night you were, well…attacked.”
“We’re very sorry about that, by the way,” Leah stated, leaning into the table, her head turned toward Abel and me. “It isn’t very vampire unless, of course, it’s provoked, and we know you didn’t do the provoking.”
“It isn’t very wolf either,” Sonia put in. “Unless someone is drunk or in a very foul mood or it’s Christmas.”
“Christmas?” I asked.
“That’s just the she-wolves,” she replied.
I stared.
“What we’re saying is,” Leah cut in, “this was an unprovoked attack. The King of the Werewolves and The Vampire Dominion know this, they condemn it, and they’re very sorry it happened to you.”
“We all are,” Sonia added.
“And supernaturals throughout the world?” Abel prompted without indicating he accepted their apology, though he didn’t throw it in their face.
“Thousands,” Leah said.
“Tens of thousands,” Sonia countered.
“Loads,” Leah stressed.
I felt Abel’s body, already tense, grow even tighter.
“You’ve never seen one,” Sonia guessed.
“No,” he grunted.
“I was raised by them but was having my wolf traits suppressed.” My head jerked at this bizarreness, Abel’s body grew even tighter, and she shook her head sharply as if physically pushing herself to get to the point. “Long story. That’s all good now too. But what I’m saying is, I didn’t know my kind even existed. You do. Can’t you smell the difference?”
“I can. I just never smelled one other than those who attacked Delilah and me,” Abel replied.
“Not in your life?” Sonia asked.
“No,” Abel answered.
“Interesting,” Sonia murmured.
“Why?” Abel rapped out.
This could go on for a while and the women were our guests.
Not to mention, I’d barely had a bite to eat and I was starved.