Darkest Before Dawn (A Guardian's Diary Book 1)(16)

I turned to Jaeden and nodded. “Let’s find the sick pieces of shit,” I said and watched his face clear of all emotions.

“Come again?” he asked with a serious look on his face.

“I’m finding who did this, with or without your help,” I bit out crisply as I did a check of the ammunition I had on me. He seemed to consider it briefly before making up his mind.

“These were wolves, Emma, very dangerous ones at that.”

“Yeah because we all know wolves are in to fucking humans, and raping them? Since when did wolves become able to unbutton pants? Someone put them back together. Wolves don’t do that, not even rabid ones.” I watched as his eyes narrowed at my quiet sarcasm.

“Good point,” he said, but I got the feeling he was either hiding something or covering it up. I also had a feeling he wasn’t used to being questioned.

“What is it you aren’t telling me?”

“Nothing,” he said as he stepped closer, and I stepped back. “Don’t do that, Emma.”

“Do what?” I snapped.

“Don’t pedal backwards with me. I don’t regret what we did, and neither should you.”

“Shouldn’t I? I was with you when I should have been with them! I could have helped them!” I was ashamed of what I’d done. I’d been so close to having sex! I’d let my guard down, and they had paid for it. I was so sick of this shit! Too many people were being killed, and while I hadn’t been a huge fan of either of the girls, I wouldn’t wish this kind of death on anyone.

Life kept throwing curve balls at my head, and the only thing it was doing was improving my skill in dodging them. I was tired of dodging, I needed a friggin’ bat. It was time to knock a few home runs out of the park, and after all, I had home field advantage. This was my town. I knew it like the back of my hand, and had lived here for my entire twenty-one years of life.



“You should go home,” Jaeden said with a tinge of anger lacing his tone. “Try to think of it as this; if you’d been with them, you’d be lying beside them in pieces right now. What we did? It saved your life.”

“You don’t know that,” I said as I met his soul-piercing eyes. “I’m a fighter, Jaeden. I know everything there is to know about this town, and for all you know, I could have stopped this from happening.”

He smiled but it was cold. “You need to face reality, little lady. You’re small, and while I’ve seen you fight, you wouldn’t win this one. This was a pack of rogue wolves. They are deadly, unlike any other animal you’ve ever met.”

“Well since I haven’t met many wolves before, that tells me absolutely nothing. Wolves are wolves, and I have never heard of any kind of wolves doing anything like this before.”

“Emma, go home. I’ll let you know if I find the animals that did this,” he snapped.

“Those are my girls on the ground, Jaeden! I’m either coming with you to help kill the monsters that did this, or I’ll go out by myself. You can’t stop me!” I seethed. Who the hell did he think he was?

“Bjorn?” he said as he focused his attention on his handgun and checked the magazine.

“Yeah?” An extremely tall man with jet black hair and cold, blue eyes stepped up.

“Secure Emma, and protect her with your life. Lock her in my bedroom if you have to, but don’t let her out of your sight.”

I snorted. Right! Not gonna happen—I was captured in a bear hug before I’d even noticed him move. He tightened his hold on me even as I kicked his legs and screamed. “You’re an asshole! You have no right! You can’t do this to me!”

Jaeden smiled as he slipped his handgun into the back waistband of his pants. His eyes lifted to mine, and he strolled over to where I was thrashing in the giant’s arms. “Cease struggling, sweet Emma, before you hurt yourself,” he replied. His hand came up to touch my cheek before his thumb traced the fullness of my bottom lip. “I’ll see you when I get home from hunting, honey.”





Chapter 9





I was shown to a massive bedroom and none too gently reminded to stay put. Jaeden and his group had taken over the old manor house which had been built for one of the owners of one of the biggest logging companies that helped our town establish its footprint in Pend Oreille County. This meant the house was ancient. Ancient, but beautifully crafted. Much of the place had been falling down, which made many of the kids in Newport believe it had been haunted; they only went in it on a dare. Just before the flu wiped out the town, the mayor had led a renovation project on the estate that would be managed eventually by Pend Oreille County Historical Society as an extension of their museum complex.

The room I was in was gigantic, and must have been part of the finished wing, since it had a huge, black four poster bed that had a billowing canopy of white silk and gauzy panes that draped to the floor at each corner. The room was masculine, yet looked as if it had a woman’s touch to it. The bed had a gray silken duvet with black trim and matching silk sheets, with an insane amount of pillows of the same material scattered against the headboard. The walls were painted in a darker shade of gray, with black crown molding around the ceiling.

There was a huge settee at the end of the bed, which was silver in color, and had a white fur throw placed over it. I ran my fingers over it and smiled. “PETA would have a field day here…” My eyes landed on the massive tub that took up a corner of the room, already filled with water. I walked over to it and stuck the tips of my fingers into the blissfully seductive depths. It was warm…

I smiled. A bath. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d taken a bath. We only had showers at the shelter. It was ideal for the amount of people we had there, but I missed bathing. Did I dare? I did, but first things first. I walked to the door and tapped on it.

Bjorn was just on the other side of it, so I knew he’d hear me splashing if I indulged, and I didn’t wish to have him walk in on me. “What?” he asked gruffly.

“The bath in the room, may I use it?”

“If you wish to use it, I can abide giving you privacy,” he said with a stern look. “Do not make a mess for Jaeden to return to.”

“Okay, are there towels? Do you know how long he will be gone?” I asked as an afterthought. No way in hell was I going to chance having him return to find me all naked in his tub.

“Step aside,” he ordered, and I quickly obliged. He was either a soldier by nature, or had served his country, based on his stance. He was aware of where I stood and what I did, even as he moved around the room to a locked armoire and pulled out some items for me. “Is there anything else you need?’

“No,” I replied looking at everything he’d brought out. There was a tray, and on it, an iPod, washcloths, a towel, and several bars of sweet scented soap as well as an assortment of bath salts. Based on where Bjorn pulled these items from, either Jaeden had found these items here, or he’d planned on entertaining women here.

“Do you require sustenance?” he continued.

“You mean food?” I asked, wondering who the hell referred to food as sustenance in this day and age. Hell, maybe Jaeden had found Bjorn here with the house and resurrected him or found him in a dusty old home in his old country. Bjorn had the same odd accent Jaeden did.

“I’ll bring you food when you finish bathing, mistress.”

Mistress?

I waited for him to shut the door, and then smiled. A friggin’ bath! I did a happy dance around the room with a grin from ear to ear covering my face. I was dancing around when I caught sight of the huge stones beneath the black clawfoot tub, and paused. No way. I walked over and yes, I got on my stomach to look at the huge boulders. It was friggin’ genius! I reached out to run my finger over one of the round stones and cried out. “Ouch!” It was hot!



Okay, so obviously it was genius, and I was an idiot. There was no faucet, but there was a cold bucket of water that was close enough to the stones beside the tub that the water wouldn’t be ice cold. I looked around the room as if I expected Jaeden to jump out at any second.

He’d gone hunting, which meant I had time to enjoy the tub. I felt bad for not mourning the girls, but they’d screwed up, and even though it hurt to know they’d died as they had, I couldn’t change it. I was still pissed that Jaeden had detained me as if he owned me, but more than an hour had passed since our confrontation and with the distance and time, the anger had dissipated.

I finally scrounged up the courage to undress, but not before I’d sprinkled bath salts into the water. I placed the tray at the end of the tub and slipped into the water with a groan of absolute pleasure. My pussy still ached from his touch, which was where my hands wanted to go. I shoved away the urge to finish what he started, but barely.

I wasn’t a prude, and I knew what sex was. I just hadn’t wanted to be used and discarded like some play toy. I’d made myself explore every curve of my body, and knew the difference now between how his hands felt, and my own. His made my body go into a state of emergency, while mine just did what was necessary for relief.

I closed my eyes, but the idea of music and a bath was seductive. I hadn’t charged my iPod in ages and wondered how many generators they were using to keep the electricity going in this place. I reached for the headphones, and slipped them on over my head. After I’d looked through the playlists and had found one labeled ‘slow submission’, I smiled. On it was a ton of hard rock, but there were also other songs which both relaxed and seduced my senses.