CHAPTER SIXTEEN
2341 Words
Cole was sure that he violated every single traffic rule in Sacramento on his way to check on Mia and his grandfather. His publicity secretary had called him ten minutes ago, bearing bad news. Grandfather and Mia had gone to a café in town today, and rather coincidentally, a stray shooter had been practicing on the building. He hoped to God that they were both okay and when he was sure they were, he was going to give Mia hell for scaring the s**t out of him. He'd specifically told her not to leave the house till everything had calmed down, but she'd refused to listen to him. Her stubborn ass was going to get some serious s******g.
He arrived the mansion in a squeal of tires and smell of burning rubber, ripping open the door to the Ferrari and barely remembering to close it in his rush to confirm that Grandpa and Mia were both okay. He ran past the lush garden with security guards all dressed in black standing within a feet of each other, past the drawing room and all the way to the suite of rooms upstairs, the house staffs probably wondering what had gotten the billionaire in such a dazed state.
He was about to check the rooms one by one for any signs of life when he heard voices from the third room down the vast hallway. He quickened his pace and yanked the door open to meet a wide eyed Mia talking to Marjorie,the conversation apparently important going by the serious look on both their faces. Cole felt relief rush through him like a geyser. She was okay. Grandpa was no where in sight though. His eyes narrowed,
"Where's Grand pa? Is he okay?"
Marjorie gave him a warm smile,
" Grand Pa's fine.Theyre both fine. Not even a single scratch."
Mia smiled, a small, nervous smile that no doubt still did amazing things to Cole's insides.
"I'll leave you both now. Gotta check if Grand pa needs me." Mia said,trying to escape.
Cole waited until she reached the door, then held up one solidly muscled forearm, blocking her hurried flight.
She shot him a look if surprise and he just said,
"We, young lady, have to talk."
"Cole, I can ex..."
" Save your explanations" he said, his voice tightening with anger.
He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards the direction of his suite. She let out a squeal of fear that stopped him dead on his tracks.
"Please let go of me, Cole. I promise I won't disobey your orders ever again."
Cole took in her glistening eyes and pinched face, wondering how many times she'd had to beg like this, for mercy. Since the thought just left his gut in knots he turned around and continued down the hallway till he got to his suite.
He pulled open the door and turned back to her,
"In" he commanded
She stared back at him, then shook her head, dark hair flying.
Cole took in a long suffering breath, then lifted her into his strong arms and strode into the room, kicking the door shut behind him. He deposited her on top of the bed and knelt between her legs,pushing her hair from her frightened face,
"You've got a death wish, woman?"
"Cole I can explain, you see Grandpa wanted some coffee, and I couldn't say no and..."
" Shut up, Mia" he growled
She apparently wasn't listening,
"...I swear if I knew anything was going to happen, I..."
Cole had heard enough. He moved swiftly to his feet, yanking her into his arms with a super natural speed that only Lycans and vampires possessed. Her feet wrapped reflexively around his lean hips and he stared at her for a heartbeat, before lowering his lips to her lush ones.
He kissed her like his life depended on it, his tongue delving into her her mouth again and again. Memories of how scared he was when he'd heard the news filled his mind. God, he did not recall ever being so scared in his entire life. He'd been scared shitless. He knew grandpa was Lycan so hurting him had to be difficult but Mia...she was just human. Her flesh was not thick enough to withstand the impact of gun wounds.
He shuddered and pulled her closer, wrapping his arms tightly around her middle. If anything had happened to her he could've very well killed himself after tracking down the gunman and making sure that he suffered a long, horrible death. He had no doubt that the gunman was no other person but Floyd, Jack Steve's puppet.
He tightened his eyes shut, allowing himself a few minutes to get lost in the wonderful woman that was currently holding him like he was her whole world. He pushed his fingers into her hair, holding her still as his tongue did incredible things to her mouth, tangling and licking and sucking till they could barely breathe. When they paused to gasp for air, he used the opportunity to back her towards the door and pin her against it.
"What is it with you and holding me against surfaces. Not strong enough to lift me yourself?" she smiled, waggling her brows at him.
" I can carry you around for ten hours straight and you know that. That's besides the point anyway." he said, his voice tightening in anger.
Her smiled dimmed, and her lips dropped.
"I told you that we've got a mad man on our hands, Mia. I told you to stay at home always. I know Grandpa can be a little overbearing at times but I trusted you to know better. I trusted you to look after him and you failed me. What if something had happened to him at that café." His voice broke,
" What If I'd lost you?"
**********************
Mia stared deeply into Cole's eyes. They were glistening a sharp silver now, probably caused by anger and anxiety. She brought down her lips to his and have him a slow, lingering kiss, holding both sides of his face in her small palm.
She could not be falling in love with Cole Anderson. It was too dangerous.
"Cole I'm fine, I'm right here. I wasn't hurt or anything. I feel perfectly fine." She lied.
Marjorie had tried her best to heal the gun wound completely but Mia was human and her healing abilities was by far slower than that of a wolf so the scars had still been very visible. Scared that Cole would find out, she told Marjorie to cover up the scar for her, however temporary, just so that she could face Cole when he came home.
Marjorie had conducted an invisibility spell on her right arm, hiding all traces of the scar. The wound still hurt so badly, she was even surprised that she'd come this far without screaming in pain and frustration, but the scar was gone...for now.
"I promise, I didn't mean to worry you or anything. It just happened, the day looked so warm and bright, I didn't think anything could go go wrong."
" That's why you were hurt, Mia"
" Wh...what?"
The arms holding her tensed for a second, then he released her and turned away, towards the large floor to ceiling windows. She immediately missed his delicious heat.
"You underestimate people alot, you act way too naïve for someone that has passed through what you have. You're supposed to be on high alert knowing we've got a killer on our hands but instead you go out to a crowded café to drink coffee all because you thought the day was looking too good for anything to go wrong?"
His voice tightened with anger,
" What if something had happened to you, huh? How would I explain to Maria. You obviously think that you can play around with my emotions because of the feelings I've got for you?"
Mia had heard enough,
" Cole, I sense that you're talking about something way deeper than what happened today."
He turned to her, his eyes sparking a brilliant blue,
" You damn well know I am! You refuse to tell me what happened to you all those years ago. How am I supposed to protect you if I dunno the full story. You heard Marjorie, Jack Steve is working in collaboration with a werewolf pack, and from his sinister movements,they're obviously a rouge pack. But yet, you refuse to let me help you. Do you f*****g know how that feels?"
He rubbed his hands over his face and Mia's heart tightened, she'd hurt him and he was not taking it so well. But then, she was overwhelmed with the need to protect her secrets...to protect him and his family. Cole might be too hardheaded to see that she kept her past guarded for his safety but she was not going to put more lives in danger because of her murky past.
"I don't want to talk about this right now, I never want to talk about it." She said in a voice as cold as a slap.
From her position by the wall, she felt his control slipping, anger slowly working it's way through his veins. She felt the heat that blasted from him, his face tightened and his eyes turned a dark shade of red. Mia tried not to whimper in fear. He walked towards her and grabbed her arm,
"Do you really think that I care about you? That I would care if you'd gotten shot today? Do you even think that I'd care if the gunman had left you for dead? The answer's no, I don't. I only care about my Grand pa, my blood and you deliberately put him in danger today. If something had happened to him, I would've..."
" You would've done what exactly?"
The voice came from the door. Maria was standing there, holding a key. She must've gotten a spare key from the utility room.
"Mia? Are you okay? You're crying."
Mia's hands immediately flew to get face and her fingers came away wet from tears. She'd not realised that Cole's words had hurt her that much.
Maria stomped into the room and pulled her away from Cole, then gave him a hard, anger fueled shove against his chest. He did not even flinch.
"How dare you? How dare you hurt her. What exactly gives you the right to make my sister cry? I will make you pay for this, billionaire or not."
Cole folded his massive forearms and looked down at Maria, the power coming from him making her aware that he could kill them both with a little touch. He slowly raised his eyes from Maria and looked at her, his eyes had gone back to normal and he narrowed them at her, as if trying to figure something out. Then he stepped around Maria and began walking towards her
Maria was not having it. She quickly stepped in front of her, stopping Cole dead in his tracks.
"Stay away from my sister Mr. Anderson, I mean it. You've already hurt her as it is."
With that, Maria pulled her out of the room and slammed the heavy oak door shut.
**************************
Cole felt like the worst kind of jerk for hurting Mia's feelings. His anger had gotten in the way so much that he'd not scented her fear, her hurt and most importantly, her tears. His arms tightened and he have the punching bag a few more shots, the pain radiating up his arm coming no where close to the pain he felt from making his woman cry.
She was his woman, his mate, his forever and he'd hurt her. Stupid! He punched the bag a little more, the sounds wafting through the sound proof gym. The door opened and Cole looked up to find his brothers and Grand father coming into the gym. Zach looked furious and his brothers looked...well furious too.
"If you're here to make me apologise to Mia then I'm sorry, it's not going to happen."
Grand pa Zach looked at him with narrowed eyes,
"When did you become such a jerk, son?"
"Grand pa, I've always been a jerk."
Callaway looked up from his position in the treadmill and smiled,
"Naw, after Eli, you're the softie around here, ain't that right twin brother?"
" Shut up, Cal."
" You know, Cole", Eli spoke up in a quiet voice,
" We tend to hurt the people we love the most, but Mia, she's your mate man, you could've practiced a little control over your emotions."
" We understand that with everything that's going on you're frustrated,we all are but if Mia chooses to keep her past a secret then we've got no right to pressure her. Mate or not."
Cole looked up,
" No Jack, you're wrong. I've got every right to know. She's my mate, my woman, mine. I have the responsibility of protecting her, keeping her safe and happy for the rest of her life and she's already been through so much pain. But I can't do that if she refuses to talk to me. Hell it hurts so bad that she dosen't trust me with her secrets. I'm also feeling pain."
Cole paused for a while and took a swig of water from his water bottle.
"I swear when I finally get my hands on the idiots that hurt her, they're going to pay for it, ever single last one of them."
" We certainly agree with you on that one man" Jack quipped.
" Any luck on the gun man situation?" Cole asked, looking at Eli.
"Nope, nada, not a thing. It's like he just disappeared without a trace, leaving no clues behind. The whole case is a f*****g dead end."
" We still have reason to believe..."
Callaway never got to finish his sentence, a startled scream from outside the house pierced the air. Cole's heart froze, someone was in danger and he and his wolf prayed to God that it wasn't their woman.
- Writer
