Bound to the Billionaire

Chapter Five: Attack!

 I bent at the edge of the cot. There was nothing particularly intimate about the man being naked, and nothing particularly intimate about giving him a blowjob. I gripped him—firm, well-proportioned. Like the rest of him, he had a sense of weight and definition. His hips flexed and he wriggled in my grasp. 

“Dimitri.” I loved the way he said my name, how harshly he hissed out the ‘d’, how the ‘m’ lingered like a purr, how the ‘i’ trembled in the air, soft and silky as a music note. “I know what you said back in the van, but if you don’t want to—”

I blinked up at him. “Do you think I’d do this s**t if I didn’t want to?”

A second of hesitation. “No.”

And the rest, as they say, is 'history.'

***

Nico was already awake when the knocks came on the door, dark jeans pulled up to his waist and hair finger-combed back behind his ears, slick like an animal’s. I was sore all over, rolling over into a column of light, aching in the neck, hips, chest. But I was loose, and the pain was welcome. It held all my parts together and kept me from sagging over onto the floor. It was that edging tease of pain that kept me from crawling back into Nico’s arms.

The man pulled his shirt over the flat planes of chest. I was sad to see the muscles go. “I’ll get it,” he said, musing my hair. His touch brought a hint of a smile to my face. I instinctively cringed away from the man who was destined to become my ball and chain. “You get dressed to talk to your clients. I’ll keep them entertained.”

I took a tentative sniff. The air felt heavy on me and the shadow of a woodsy scent brought a creeping chill to my skin. “Those aren’t clients, Nico.”

He leaned back on his elbows. “Hmm. Werewolves,” he said, after taking a drag of the thick air that must’ve fell as heavily upon him as it did upon me. “Must be your pack.”

“Shit.” I shook my head, squinting up at the window. “Let’s get out of—”

“Dimitri!” a low voice sang. I heard a crash and winced two rooms away. The door. I’d locked it after Nico barged back into my life, but I doubted a puny lock could keep out a pack of bored werewolves.

“—here.” My shoulders folded in. Nico raised an eyebrow at me, his face a picture of confusion. I pulled up my sweats and wiggled into a tee that had its tags on the outside. The beat of my pulse ratcheted into a frantic rhythm. As if on autopilot, I reached under the cot for my bat. A two-foot long Louisville slugger with teeth marks in the base, carved from an ancient oak at the base of Ohio, said so on the back. It was a deadly beaut, and just what I needed. Nico frowned.

“Out, out, out!” I kicked open the door with the bat slung over my shoulders. If I could slit open my brains and show you what I was thinking in those moments, what I heard, the internal cussing, the surge of adrenaline, how I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood. If I could show you what was in my brain, you'd be scared.

“You’re no fun,” pouted the boy in my foyer. Man. Older than me, probably, though he looked younger. Slim and tall, honey brown curls hanging to his shoulders. He had such sweet baby blue eyes, so bright they looked frosted over. I’d forgotten his name. Chris? Clark? Two other pack members lounged in my doorway. I gripped the bat like a good luck charm.

“Cole, right?” His eyes lit up. I raised the bat. “Great, great. Off my property!”

Behind me, Nico laughed that soft mocking sound. It made me want to hurt him, and not like kissing hurt him, hurt him hurt him. I was being split, something so primal growling to fight and protect what was mine, but something calmer, colder, reminding me to stay human. I could not indulge my wolf. I was supposed to stay a person, not a creature.

Jenna, my beta, lifted her head. “Didn’t see you today,” she said, smoothing the wrinkles in her oversized hoodie. Her eyes were ringed with dark circles. “Thought we’d check up on you.”

“I’m fine.” I steeled my voice.

“What do you even do here?” the third man asked. I knew nothing about this one. Age, rank, nothing. All I’d ever cobbled out of him was that people shouldn’t have yellow eyes and that he looked like he’d been pressed out of a mozzarella stick, all pale and stringy. Even his hair was a dull mix of yellow and white, cropped short on either side of the head so it hung in hid eyes. He stepped across the room and ran his hands across the tarped counter. “What’s this?”

“Don’t touch that.” I stepped to him and pushed his hand off my counter. He whipped around and snarled, an all too wolfy sound for his human form. His eyes seared into mine, his chin lifted, his white teeth glistening.

It wasn’t a fear of him that drove me flat against the counter, clenching that bat and searching for Nico who stood at the edge of the room. At least, I don’t think it was. It was a fear of something deeper, of what he could make me become. I was the same creature he was. He could force me to embody that thing. He sniffed the air and smiled. “Oh, never mind. I know exactly what you do here. Fitting.”

My face flushed, not with embarrassment but with the type of anger that starts in your belly and combusts all over your body. The man paced before me. If I hadn’t been pressed flat, he would’ve circled me. That was the kind of person he was. “Get out of here. Do whatever it is you do somewhere else, on your own property. Didn’t my father give you a house?”

Mozzarella Stick winked. “What we need is an alpha, not a rogue.”

Nico placed a hand on my shoulder, and I flinched He was quiet like that. When he moved, the tread of his shoes didn’t make so much as a squeak, swift and graceful as his strides were. “You’re an alpha?”

I lowered the bat, suddenly too drained to hold it. I didn’t want to hurt my pack, and I didn’t want to look at Nico either. As Nico ran his fingers over my shoulder, I clenched my jaw so hard my teeth ached.

“And who are you?” Mozzarella Stick raised his eyes.

“Dimitri’s mate.” The words made me cringe against him, but Nico said them smoothly, shoulders rolled back and head held high. Like he was proud of me. Something inside me ached at the thought. Who the hell would be proud of me?

The man with the yellow eyes laughed. “Good luck. He’s more mortal now than werewolf.”

“That isn’t true,” Nico said. His mouth curled into a snarl, and it looked stunning on that square jaw. The storm in his eyes made them look even darker. And yeah, It was touching and all that he rushed to defend my honor, but the man’s accusation made me queasy. He was right. I wanted him to be right, and how he said it, like it was such a sick thing to want, and how Nico had to agree with him. I found my strength to pick up that bat.

“He’s ashamed. What basket case is ashamed of his wolf? Won’t even stick up for his pack.”

“I’m not your alpha!” The words flew. I’d held so much pent up for so long, and I was sick of taking anyone’s bull when I was about to start a fresh chapter of my life. I had enough problems with my bakery. Hell, I had enough problems with Nico. This couldn’t stand. “Dad was a fool to let you leech off him. What did you do to deserve what he did for you? You expect me to stick up for you and take care of you? What have you done except make my life a living hell? Jenna’s your beta. Why don’t you crown her your alpha or whatever, and—leave—me—alone!”

Jenna screwed up her face and looked out my window. I quivered with rage.

“Oh, wait.” I propped a hand on my hip and crooked the bat over my shoulder. “It’s too much responsibility, isn’t it? You’re all freeloaders.”

Nico gave me a warning squeeze. “Dimitri.”

My packmate snarled. His face stretched to form a wolf’s muzzle, skin pulling back, morphing. He was so pissed he didn’t even bother to strip, so his clothes tore in about a hundred different places and left indie band and denim patterned shreds across my tarp. His eyes matched him now, molten gold in a wolf’s face of cream fur and russet patches.

“Look,” I said, hefting the bat from one hand to the other, “I don’t have time for this s**t. Now, if you’ll excuse me—”

“Dimitri!” Nico moved to shield me, but the angry little wolf darted between his legs. I had about a second to plan what to do. I could’ve beaten him off with my bat, but I couldn’t crack it over the wolf’s shoulders even once, because I couldn’t hurt a packmate. I just stood there, bracing for his teeth in my flesh, the useless bat held over my head like the stem of a parisol.

And when they sunk into my arm, I crashed down on my knees without so much as a whimper. Nico pried the wolf off my skin, but he wasn’t enough. At the scent of blood, at the sight of my challenge, the other pack mates charged me. Even my beta. Black fur and white fur, bristling and flattened, lunging. I was silent, gripping fistfuls of tarp, more irritated than afraid. Why couldn’t I have nice things? Frankly, I didn’t remember signing up for this s**t. 

 Nico kicked my beta across the room, easing the slashing and biting. I curled in a ball, holding my wounds to keep blood from ruining my tarps. I didn’t mind the pain all that much, either. Wasn’t like this was the first time they’d try to make me shift. I’d be strong. Compared to their teasing, compared to living with that whole spiel caught inside me, I didn’t mind. A tear in my thigh, a bite in my arm. That could be fixed with a bandaid and ointment.

Nico braced me in his arms. His hard, strong hands cupped the back of my head and waist. I was hungry and woozy against him. “It’s okay,” I muttered into my knees.

“No, it’s not.” He pressed me to his chest, sighing into the blood-tinged air. “You’ve had your fun. Go home or I will shred you for hurting your alpha.” I should’ve added something. It was my pack, after all, and it was my body being torn apart. It was my battle. But I was achy and bleeding and he was warm and held the promise of saving me. Sometimes, I wanted someone to save me. I was worse, I figured, I was more screwed in the head than I first thought.

The door flew open. I pressed my head against his pulse, the comforting beat beat beat of him to keep me breathing through the panic. Icy air seared through my skin and stung my eyes. With every step I was jarred into Nico. I only peeked up once at the drive ahead, shivering in his heated embrace. “Sorry,” I said into his neck. “Didn’t mean for you to see that.”

"I should've killed them."