Samuel's Pride: Hawk Part 8

Chapter 10.

Awnia watched the big lion sleep. He was going to hurt when he woke, but he would wake. She looked over at his mate as she slept by his side. Awnia wondered if she knew how badly her mate had wanted her dead.

"Will you heal?" Awnia looked at Summer, who had come in to bring her some lunch. Hawk was sleeping on the floor at her feet. "He hurt you pretty badly. Will you heal soon?"

"I'll have to have Vinnie do it." She didn't ask, so Awnia didn't explain. But she did look at the wound.

Samuel had caught her when he'd been able to free himself. Hawk had tried to catch his hand, but he'd caught him as well, across the face. The wound in her leg was much worse. It stretched from her thigh to her ankle, and each of the four marks were at least two and sometimes three inches wide, and to the bone in several places. But she could no more heal herself than anyone of her kind. She almost envied Hawk and his ability to s.h.i.+ft and become whole again.

"He's going to feel just horrible about that. Samuel would never willingly hurt another person, especially one that is helping him, for any amount of money or fame." Awnia nodded at Summer. "I wish that there was something I could do to help you."

"I'll be fine." Vinnie had told her he'd return soon. That had been over two hours ago. He'd contacted her twice since then and told her that he'd been delayed by something, but he a.s.sured her that he'd be back.

"May I ask you something?" She nodded at the older woman. "Your mother, she's the cause of this, I get that. But why? I mean, why does she want you dead?"

"I can answer that." Her dad came into the room then and kissed her on the forehead. "I've never realized the extent of her hatred toward you until now. And for that I am truly sorry, my child."

"How could anyone hate their own child so much?" Awnia had no idea, but she had the feeling it was more than the fact that Temptress didn't like her father either. She waited for him to answer Summer. "She's such a lovely girl, and so nice to everyone. I'd be proud to have her as a daughter."

"I've been doing some research on her. And there is a bit you should know firsthand. It's about us, Temptress and me." Her dad looked at her. 'I'm so sorry, my love. Had I really known what she was about...or even that you were still alive...I would have done a great many things differently. Like first of all, I would have come for you."

Nodding, she let him tell Summer and Kennedy, who was awake now, what had happened to bring them together. As she sat there, she looked around the room and wondered if her life with Hawk would end any better.

I love you. Awnia looked down at Hawk when he spoke in her mind. I love you with all my heart, and will forever.

I've fallen in love with you as well. He put his hand on her injured leg, and she felt the warmth of him. When Vinnie heals me, you'll be there, won't you? It won't be so bad, but it will look horrible.

I've been talking to him. He's got some problems with some of the faerie in his realm. He's explained to me that you'll have to heat up again and he'll cool you off. But he said it won't be like before. You'll just be hot enough to heal. She nodded. Will I be able to do what you can someday? Heat up like you do, maybe enough to heal you myself?

I don't know. I really don't. I do believe you're my mate now, but I'm terrified to have you see. The bonding process is not pretty, and from my one experience with it, it's extremely dangerous. He asked her if it was more dangerous than what she'd done for Samuel. Yes, but in a different way. This will involve you, and I can't stand the thought of you being hurt like Vinnie was.

What does that entail? She shook her head, not wanting to tell him in the event that he tried it. But he must have read it in her mind because he smiled at her before speaking. I won't. I promise you that. Not until you and I are both ready. I don't want to lose you any more than you do me.

You have to absorb the part of me that no one else has touched. It's what the medallion holds. The witch gave it to me when I was ill. She told me that no one but my true mate would be able to take it into him. Awnia looked away when she thought of that time. I think Temptress poisoned me. I'm not sure, and it has only just...when I was helping Samuel, I could feel her there. And while her mind was working elsewhere, I looked.

How? How indeed. How could she have done that to her, and how had she gotten away with it? She looked at Hawk when he sat up and put his head on her lap, careful of the injury. How did she do it?

She had someone feed it to me. And then when I lay dying, she killed her as well. Loose ends, she called it. And the reason that everyone thought me dead was she simply made them believe it. That I'd been buried as well. He took her hand into his. She tossed me over the wall, as she had all the babes, but I somehow survived. Bringing the medallion with me.

He stood up then and leaned down and picked her up as well. She hadn't realized how tired she was until she laid her head on his shoulder. Her leg throbbed, but having him hold her made it not seem so bad. As he took her to their bedroom, she noticed all the faeries in the hall. Yve landed on her hand as he carried her.

"We have a thought, my lady." Awnia yawned and smiled. "You are very tired, so I will make this quick. The fae and I, all the faeries, can heal you."

"No. I'm too hot for you." Yve nodded, then looked at the hand she was resting on. "Normally I'm too hot. With me being injured, I can still hurt you, but not as quickly. But I do thank you for-"

"We would still like to try. You have given us Master Samuel back in good health, and it would please us greatly if you would but let us try. We will start small at first to see if it will work." Awnia's mind was so tired she let her head fall forward twice as she was put on the bed. She thought she heard Yve say something like "thanks," but for the life of her, she couldn't think what she was thanking her for.

The bed moved, and she knew that Hawk lay beside her. When his arm curled around her waist, she put her hand over his and held him as she let sleep take her deeper. It rolled over her like a cloud on a lovely spring day.

The limo pulled into the drive at just after six. Hawk and Kaleb were sitting on the front deck, and Vinnie was in the yard with Stephen. The women were in the house making something for dinner, or at least thinking of something to order for dinner. Hawk stood up when the driver got out of the car to open the back doors. His mother practically leapt from the opening.

"That's far enough." She stopped moving and looked around at all the men that had seemed to suddenly appear from nowhere. He could count at least a dozen more than had been there before they'd pulled up. "I'm not sure what you're doing here, but I think that you've made your stance on our relations.h.i.+p pretty clear."

"Son? Why are you...do you think we could do this privately? Perhaps in the house?" She laughed a little fake laugh, and looked at him with a more fake smile. "I wasn't aware we'd be having company. I thought it would just be your father and I with you. And, of course, our cook and butler. How naughty of you to bring them here. We'll have to see about taking them back when we-"

"Since you weren't invited here at all, these men aren't here to be your company, but mine. They're mine and my wife's to be clear." His father got out of the limo then and came to stand beside his mother. "Father? You came too? That must have been pretty horrible for you, to come to see someone you abhor. What did she promise you if you came along? Or is it that you had no choice in the matter? That's it, isn't it? You're broke, and came to see what you could try and work out of me."

"She's my wife, and I go where she goes. And what's this I heard about a wife? You aren't seriously thinking of...Christ, you're not going to...does she know what you are?" Vinnie moved to stand beside him, as did Stephen. "These men, they look like well-bred men. What do they think of the kind of person you are? Do they have any idea what sort of monster is beneath that skin you have?"

"Frederick, please. You're not helping at all. I can handle this on my own." His mother looked at him when his father said nothing more. "We wanted to talk to you privately about this thing with the house and the money. You can't just turn us out like we're nothing to you. We're your parents. And I demand that you do this where we don't have to stand in the yard like common people."

"Common? No, you'd never think of yourself as something so mundane as common, would you, Mother? As for the house and money? I can and I did. Turn you out, I mean. Parents? You should look that word up before you go saying it like you have a clue. You haven't been my parents since you had that man Pruitt take me to that building and try to have the s.h.i.+fter in me taken out. By any means, you told him."

His mother paled and his father stood up a little straighter. "It might have worked had you not been so stubborn. One would think you enjoy being a monster." This time when his mother told his father to shut up, he told her to be quiet for once. "I'm not going to stand here and pretend that you're anything but a creature. A thing that has no business at all being able to live much like...you can't think you're going to have a child with a woman, do you? I mean, what if it turns out like you? Christ, the implications of that are just too f.u.c.king scary to think of."

"I think I'd enjoy that." Awnia came out of the house then, followed by Kennedy and Summer. Hawk noticed that Margo and Deacon were not far behind them, and neither of them looked like they were going to take s.h.i.+t from his parents again. "I'm Awnia, his mate. I'd like to say it's a pleasure to meet you, but I'm afraid that I have no desire to lie to you. In fact, I'd just like to say right now, you're a couple of a.s.sholes that have no idea what you're talking about."

"Good Christ, you're one too." His dad pulled his mother to him as he looked around the yard. "Do you have any idea what could happen if the two of you had a monster too? A s.h.i.+fter, they called him. A thing that can s.h.i.+ft into anything it wants to. I just call him Monster. And if you have any sense whatsoever, you'll break ties with him now and get as far from him as you can. Well, before you get his sperm in you and have something as ugly as him."

"You mean like this?" Jimmy s.h.i.+fted, his big wolf taking him so quickly that from one heartbeat to the next it was over.

Next was Kaleb, who stood next to the snarling wolf. The big man grinned at Hawk's father as Kaleb pulled his s.h.i.+rt over his head. "I don't want to tear this. My lovely wife gave it to me for my birthday. She's breeding now, or she would be here too. And she'd no more take your s.h.i.+t than any of us. Meaner too, since she's carrying my monster."

As he stretched out, his big body covered in a dark fur before he was all claws and teeth.

The big black bear growled at Hawk's parents. As they screamed and ran to the car, Hawk noticed that their driver had also s.h.i.+fted, and stood as a great hulking panther in front of the door. They weren't going anywhere, it seemed.

"You think he's a monster, you should get a load of this." Vinnie let his dragon take him slowly. As he raised his arms to the sky, great wings spread from them as his body grew and expanded. His blue body took over his human one as his neck stretched out and teeth as big as the parents grew in his changing head. When he was complete, fully a great blue dragon, he snarled at Hawk's parents and blew a puff of hot air at them. Hawk laughed when his mother fainted.

His father dropped her on the ground as he came toward Hawk. "You think this is funny? That this is some joke? You bring these things here to what? Prove that you're not so freakish after all? Well, it won't work. I'm going to kill you myself." He looked at Stephen. "And you? What are you, pray tell? You can't possibly a.s.sociate with these things as a human." Stephen only stood there.

The gun came from his father's breast pocket as he stepped up onto the deck. Before he could take it from him, Awnia put her hand around the barrel and stood in front of him. His father looked like he was frozen in place when Awnia started to speak.

"You're just going to p.i.s.s me off if you shoot someone. And if you shoot me, you'll never live to see the end of the minute, much less the rest of your pathetic life." Hawk knew the moment that she'd started heating the gun when his dad whimpered. "That's right, I'm hurting you. And if you're very nice, I won't reach down and grab that tiny d.i.c.k of yours and burn it off. As much as I'd very much like for you to not have any more children, I think you've already taken care of that, haven't you? Had a vasectomy the moment you knew what he was."

His dad nodded before he whimpered, then spoke. "It's her fault that he was even born. I was never going to have s.e.x with her again, but she's very persuasive. He's her fault, I tell you. I have never had such a thing in my family line, ever."

Hawk felt his belly lurch up, but Awnia continued. "You think her the carrier of the gene that made Hawk? You're almost wrong. Nor did the hospital mess up the babies. You have the DNA that made him what he is, as does your wife. You both made him what he is. And do you want to know something else? His grandmother was a s.h.i.+fter as well. An elite, as he is."

"No." Awnia nodded and told him that he was very lucky to have him. "Lucky? You call it lucky to have such a thing as a child? Do you know how embarra.s.sing it was to know that he could...? We tried to have it taken from him, but he wouldn't allow it. It was all we ever asked him to do, to go for this procedure to cure him. As a child, should he not have wanted to please us?"

"Procedure? Is that what you called it when someone chained him down and tried to take all his blood from his body while filling it with someone else's? Is a procedure when you drill into a person's head and try to see what abnormality is there so it can be removed? There was nothing they could have done to have 'cured' him. He is what he is because he's very special. To me and a great many other beings." Awnia looked back at Hawk, then at his father again. "I'm very glad he didn't cooperate with you on this. Because without him, I'd never be whole. Never have been this happy. You see, it's as much a part of him as my power is me. Would you like to know what mine is?"

"No." She laughed at him and let go of the gun. It was melted and sagging in his hand and his father dropped it. "I want to leave here now. I'll...we'll never come back here either. I don't want...I never want to see any of you again."

"I'm afraid it's not that easy. You see, I can read your mind, Mr. Hawkmen, and you have a great plan for your son. Your wife too, don't you? And I'm sorry, but I just can't let you do that." His father backed up when Awnia moved toward him. "I'm not going to kill you, but I am going to make you think every time you look into a mirror. I want you to know the pain and suffering you gave your son all these years."

"Don't."

Awnia nodded and blew at Frederick. Her breath, Hawk knew, was hot, hotter than a human might be able to stand. As his father dropped to the ground, Hawk came up beside her and held her while his father sat there.

"Tell your wife, convince her that bothering us again will be horrific for you both. And trust me when I tell you that you can't imagine what I can do to you if you p.i.s.s me off."

Hawk's father looked at him. There was pain in his eyes, but also so much hatred that Hawk was startled by it.

"You monster. You f.u.c.king monster." Frederick stood up, his face so red it looked as if someone had painted it. "I'm going to tell everyone I know what you are. Tell them that a bunch of monsters live here and that you breed and have more monsters. I'm going to come back here with a hundred men with a hundred guns, and we're going to rid this earth of all of you."

His father picked up his mother, and Hawk watched them start to get into the limo. The driver was standing next to Kaleb and Jimmy. Hawk wondered if his father even knew how to drive. Then suddenly Stephen was there, lifting Frederick off the ground, his eyes blood-filled as he stared into Frederick's.

"When you think of this day, it will be a blur. Your scars will be a chilling reminder that will never reveal how you got them, the story too terrifying for your mind to comprehend. When you think of your child, your son, you will wet yourself in fear. Sleep will be disturbed. You'll sit in a corner so terrified that you'll beg for the light of day to end it. But it will never end. For each time he is mentioned, every time you read about him, you'll remember the fear over and over. You'll never tell a soul, do you hear me? You and your wife will leave here and never return. You'll do this or I'll hunt you down and drain you." Stephen let his beast go and shook Hawk's father. "Had I had my way, I would have taken you as high as I could into the sky and dropped you into the ocean. But I fear that the waters are polluted enough without you mucking it up more."

He dropped him then, stepped over his form, and looked at Hawk. With a nod, he left. Stephen would need to feed, his anger and the light of day taking a great deal out of him. The driver s.h.i.+fted back and pulled on his clothing. As he helped them into the car, he looked at Hawk.

"I should like to return. I've a need for a good leap, and this is a good one." He told him he'd have to talk to Samuel. "I'll take them to a hotel and set them up. I'm sorry, sir, but I have an idea that they're broke."

He gave the man all he had on him, then the others helped out as well. When David Harris left, he had enough money to cover his tab and to put Hawk's parents in a hotel for three days. He promised he'd be back. Hawk told him he was looking forward to it.

Samuel had missed it all. They were all in his room now telling him what had happened. He'd been taken to his own home, and telling him how much fun it had been to take care of Hawk's parents was funny, but a little disappointing. Samuel kept looking at Awnia. She'd not said a word since they came in.

"I'd like a word with you, if you don't mind." The rest of them were leaving, his mom running them off when he asked her to. Kennedy was still beside him, and he knew from her telling him everything that had happened when he'd been hurt that Awnia had also been injured badly.

"Kennedy tells me that the faeries were able to repair the damage that I did to your leg." She told him it was fine. "It's not fine. I hurt you. And badly too."

"Yes you did. But you were only hurt because of me, and I think that makes us about even. So if you don't mind, I'd rather not f.u.c.king talk about it." He nearly laughed at her. She'd never shown much in the way of temper before, and he loved it. "What the h.e.l.l are you smiling about?"

"Do you have any idea how much I'd like to hug you?" She backed away. "I know you're not going to allow it, but I'm going to do it as soon as I'm up and about." He was weak...not as much as he'd been when he woke, but he was still weak. "Hawk said you took more of a risk helping me than you'd told us. Can you tell me if the faeries helped you with that too? I didn't know that they could do that."

"I didn't tell you anything, so how the heck would you know?" He nodded. "It was worth it. You're fine now, and things will be back to normal now. The faeries? Yve...I knew that they were capable of helping someone, but I'd never thought of it on the scale that they did it. Each of them gave...did you know that tear drops of a faerie are very powerful? I didn't. They had each saved a single tear from their happiness when you were saved. They put them on the wounds and they healed."

"I wasn't aware of it, no. But I'm glad they were able to help you. I understand that it was a very large wound." She shrugged. "You sure are very helpful when I ask you something, aren't you? Anyway. As for us getting back to normal, I'm not sure that's ever going to be possible in this pride. You saved my life. At a great risk to yourself. I can't thank you enough for that."

"Yes you can. I need for you to do something for me." He nodded. He'd do just about anything for her. "Hawk and I...we would like your permission to be as one. I won't let him try to be my mate...it's too dangerous for him. But if you could let us be together, things between us will be better."

"Better how?" She started pacing, and he looked at Kennedy. She was as confused as he was if the look on her face was any indication. "Awnia, how will things be better for the two of you?"

"My father believes that Hawk is my mate. I don't...you have no idea what would happen to him if he tried and failed to go through the process. I've seen it fail before, and I can't let that happen to him. But if you give us your blessing, so to speak, I can give him a part of me...not the mating part, but a part of me that will keep him safe should Temptress come. When she comes." Samuel waited for her to continue. And when she didn't, he did.

"And this other part of you, the part of you that is his mate, what is it? How is it different than the part of you that you're willing to share with him?" She continued to pace, and he looked at Kennedy again. She's afraid of this?

Yes. I think that she's more afraid of sharing with Hawk than she is her mother coming here. And she is coming. Yve told me just a little while ago. She won't be able to hurt you again either, she told me. That was news to him, and he was going to find out more later. Help them.

"It's my power. I have a great deal of it. Not just my heat, but...I can do things that will make our lives much better. All of our lives." He wanted to tell her his life was just fine the way it was, but she cut his thinking off. "You're never going to die, Samuel. Not ever. Neither will your wife or your children. Just after I helped you, I helped them as well."

"Never is a long time." She nodded. "Why would you do this without my permission? What gives you the right to-?"

"You did. I told you before I began that I'd have to share myself with you." Samuel wanted to be p.i.s.sed, but she had saved his life. "I beg for you to allow me to give it to Hawk as well."

Samuel nodded. He wasn't thrilled with her doing this to him, but he wouldn't begrudge her giving it to Hawk. They deserved a long and happy life together.

After she thanked him and left, Kennedy stretched out beside him.

"Forever." He nodded. "We can have s.e.x forever. And I'm thinking, we might need to have another wee one or two as well." He put his hand over her belly that was already swollen with their child. "You up for it, big boy? We're gonna need a lot of practice, I'm thinking."

He rolled her to her back and took her mouth. "A great deal of practice, I'm thinking." He cupped her breast in his hand and nibbled on the tip. She purred for him, and Samuel thought this living forever stuff might not be half bad.

Chapter 11.

Temptress hated the body she was in. First of all, he was weak, and secondly...well, he was a male. As soon as they were back at the hotel, she lay on the bed and willed her body from his. Vega looked like he wasn't going to make it much longer. They'd taken a great deal from him.

"What did you do?" She moved to the mirror and looked at her hair. It was a mess again, and she wished she'd thought to bring someone with her to dress it. Rysdan was simply too- "I asked you what you did. Tell me."

"Tell you? I don't listen to demands from humans. But if you must know, I did nothing. You were the one that helped me get to him so that I could control him. Thank you for that." Vega struggled to sit up and she turned from him. His body was worse than they'd thought. He would be lucky to make it to the end of the day. "I merely told you how to do it."

"Control who? What is it you made me do, Temptress? Will I go to prison for this?" She looked at him in the mirror and showed him what he'd done. When he lay back on the bed, she smiled and turned.

The connection to the big animal was going to get her so much. First of all, she was going to have him kill for her. Then there was the added fact that with her in his mind, she could finally get rid of that d.a.m.ned daughter of hers before it was too late. He was hers.... Vega whined again.

"Oh, don't be such a big baby. You were going to kill him anyway. This way we both get what we want. You have him out of your hair and all hope of the daughter having a mate is gone as well. Think of it as a win-win for both of us." He said something, but she didn't hear it. What did she care about his whiney a.s.s? "Tomorrow, if you're still alive, I'll take you back to my world and have someone fix you up, and you'll live happily ever after."

"Did you hear me? I said that wasn't her mate." He sat up when she turned again. "Hawkmen doesn't use a cat as his animal. He uses a hawk. Thus the name. I would have thought that someone that is supposed to be as smart as you would have figured that one out."

"What do you mean, you got me to the wrong person?" Vega lay back down and put his arm over his eyes. "I asked you a question. If we didn't get the mate, then who did we get?"

"I have no idea. Some other s.h.i.+fter, I would imagine. And we didn't get anyone...you did. I was merely there." Vega looked at her. "So does this mean that the daughter is still going to have a mate? It would serve you right for what you've done to me."

"Done to you? I've made your miserable life a good deal better than it was. You can at least have s.e.x now." He looked down at his stiff member. It was in poor shape as well. She and Rysdan had been using him for days now, even without his permission. But they'd been stuck here for days without any s.e.xual relief.

"Yeah, that's worked out so well for me. How about for your next help to me, you cut off my b.a.l.l.s. They're not much use to me right now anyway, as you never let me empty them. Or I have it. How about you just f.u.c.king let me go?" He started breathing heavily, as if he was having some difficulties. She watched him struggle, wondering what the h.e.l.l she was supposed to do with him now. "You f.u.c.king c.u.n.t, I'm dying because you decided to use my body as a...as a vessel, and now, because you didn't take into account that I might not be able to handle it, I'm f.u.c.ked. And do you want to know what else? I'm not going to live long enough to even enjoy half the s.h.i.+t you promised me."

"Nope, you're not."

He glared at her and lay back on the bed. Stupid man. Did they all think that everything was about them? More than likely. And he had been a sorry excuse for a vessel. She had thought, as Rysdan had, that with his black magic he'd be able to handle it. But she'd burned him up. From the inside out, as soon as she'd entered him from her pit to this realm. Getting her body out of his had been frightening at first. Then she'd noticed his c.o.c.k was as hard as stone and leapt on him. Christ, it was the best f.u.c.k she'd had in a very long time. But now...now he was a sh.e.l.l of the man she'd used, and she was sick of his whining as well.

She left him then. There were things she had to do. Rysdan was in the other realm gathering supplies for them, as she couldn't return right now. Something about Halmar blocking her from entering. Temptress would take care of that as soon as she came into her power.

The daughter had to die. Temptress had had only three more children after she'd been born, and one after she'd dropped her into the hole. Temptress was terrified that the curse was coming to pa.s.s. And if it did, and the daughter came into her power, Temptress would lose it all.