Claiming Clara (4 page)

Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Duke moved, twisting with her still in his arms. Clara felt herself falling as he took her down and lay across her. She could hear him yelling to his twin brothers out in the shop, but the ringing in her ears was too loud. She couldn’t hear a word he said. Then she caught the scent: blood.

Dear Lord, someone was bleeding. She needed to help them. She tried to push Duke off her, but the man wouldn’t move.
Oh no, was he hurt?
Clara started to run her hands over him wherever she could reach, looking for damage. With every move, the burning in her shoulder intensified.
What was that?

The door to the office flew open. Wayne and John entered, both in a low crouch.

“What the hell?” John growled. Clara saw his eyes go wide as he looked down at her under his brother.

“Get your mind out of the gutter, Johnny. It’s not what it looks like,” she joked, trying to calm the other man down.

“No? From here it looks like you have been shot, little girl,” John told her.

Clara frowned. She’d been shot? The pain started to burn hotter, and the world started to go black.

Oh great, now Wall was definitely going to kill her.

It was her last thought before the blackness finally claimed her.

* * * *

Clara became aware of a low growl when she started to come around. The noise annoyed her pounding head but was, at the same time, strangely comforting. She wanted to know whom the growl belonged to even though she had no idea where she was or why she was in bed.

As she pried her eyes open, she was glad to see she was in her own room and someone had closed the curtains. She didn’t think she’d be able to deal with the sun right away. Her brain was trying to force its way out of her skull.

Heath paced quietly back and forth at the end of her bed, growling low. She cast a glance around the room and spotted Laney sitting in the chair reading a book. Clara would have been pissed at her lack of concern if the other woman didn’t have a switchblade in her hand, flicking it open and closed, a look of controlled rage on her face. Apparently Laney was royally pissed and doing her best to control the fact.

Clara glanced in the other direction. Her gaze clashed with glowing amber eyes, and her heart stopped.

Wall sat in a low crouch, his back against the wall behind him. His hands hung loosely between his knees as he watched her with an unblinking gaze.

He didn’t move a muscle, simply raised an eyebrow at her. Clara gave him a shy smile. With that one move, he had asked so much of her. She smiled to reassure him. She watched as some of the tension left his body, but he never broke eye contact with her. With slow movements, he stood tall and walked over to her. Placing a hand on either side of her head, he leaned down and spoke softly into her ear.

“Welcome back, my own,” he said before he kissed her with such tenderness and care Clara felt her own wolf call out to him as her heart skipped a beat.

He pulled back just far enough to look into her eyes. She could see the anger raging there, but what hurt her most was the fear. She could tell he’d been terrified that she’d die.

She started to raise her arm to stroke his face and calm him, but the move pulled on her wound, forcing a whine from her as pain shot through her body.

The rage she saw in Wall’s face before he moved back to allow Laney close worried her.

“How you feeling, Miss?” Laney asked as she sat next to her on the bed.

“It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“Yeah, well, the doc came by, said as you were shifter you should heal within a day, but you should take it easy. Your brother,” Laney nodded toward Heath who stood at the bottom of the bed glaring at Clara, “wants to know why you kept the note from him and who he has to kill to solve this problem. I assured him you would tell him everything when you were healed.” Laney winked.

“She will tell me now.” Heath growled.

“She will tell you when she is
healed
!” Laney yelled at her mate.

The two of them glared each other down. Clara rolled her eyes at the pair and lifted her gaze at Wall, who continued to watch her every move.

He raised his hand slowly with his fist closed and put up a finger as if he was counting them.

One,
he mouthed at her,
you hid the note from me.

Clara’s breath caught.
Oh, shit!

Two, you dumped my ass.

Clara wanted to ignore him and look away, but she knew what he was doing. No matter how hurt her body was, it still reacted to him with such a strong need she wanted to crawl out of the bed and over to him.

Three, you ran from me.

Four, you ran to St. Clair.

Clara looked at his hand with only his thumb tucked in and waited.

Five, you got shot and scared the hell out of me.

The open palm looked back at her. Her body started to ache in an entirely different way. It heated, knowing exactly what that hand meant.

“It’s not my fault,” she said aloud, drawing the attention of the other two who had still been glaring at each other.

“Of course it’s not, hon.” Laney smiled at her. “I blame my big-headed brother for not telling me sooner, and trust me when I say he will be taught a lesson.”

“Duke’s not to blame. He was helping me.”

Wall’s low growl caught their attention.

“He saved my life.”

“That’s the only reason he’s still alive.” Wall growled.

“Now, now, play nice,” Laney chided. “Clara needs her sleep, and you two clearly won’t let her do that with your growling and questioning, so get the hell out until she is fit to see you.”

Clara smiled at her sister-in-law. The woman took no prisoners. Even if both men were taller and stronger, she didn’t back down, and when she told someone what to do, dear God, they should start praying if they didn’t follow her instructions to the letter.

“Don’t snarl at me either. Now get out, and leave her to rest.”

Both men walked to the door.

“I will be back, little sister, and we will talk.” Heath warned as he pulled open the bedroom door.

“Do I need to tell you to move that ass out the door again?” Laney demanded as she all but pushed the man out of the room. “Rest tight, hon. We will be back later.” She smiled as she followed Heath.

Wall walked over to the door. He turned back to her while seeming to inspect his fingernails. “You know what five means,” he said casually.

“Laney said I had to rest,” Clara stated on a rushed breath. Such a simple statement had her body vibrating.

“You brought this on yourself, my own. My hands are tied.” He held his hand out palm up. “Rest up. I will be back later.” He pulled the door closed behind him.

Clara swallowed hard and pulled the blanket higher up her body. She had no doubt he would be back. If she hadn’t been hurt, he would already have her bent over, dishing out her punishment.

The minute she had first pressed her body to his all those months ago he had warned her what would happen, what type of wolf he was, and the type of she-wolf he was looking for as a mate. Clara had looked through her eyelashes at him and practically purred at the things he described before assuring him she could take anything he dished out.

He’d forewarned her that if she was disobedient in any way, there would be punishments, and if she ever got to five strikes, she would be punished severely. Clara had just smiled at him before throwing herself into his arms and asking him to do his worst.

It took barely a day before she had reached the all-imposing five strikes. He’d dragged her off to a quiet clearing far from the pack house and proceeded to spank her. Clara’s body still blazed with the memories of how soon she’d become wet for him, how quickly she started to beg him not to stop, to punish her more and then fuck her hard and fast.

Wall hadn’t let her reach the fifth strike too often once he realized how much she craved the punishment, not that she was a girl who liked pain, but with him it was different. It enhanced the pleasure only he could give her. She trusted him to know exactly what she wanted, and it was how Harvey reminded his “own” whom she belonged to and who would cherish her always.

Tears welled in her eyes when she remembered she had thrown that away to protect him. She smiled through tears now though because Wall promised to return later. And she knew without a doubt he was going to spank her. Oh Lord, her body hummed at the thought.

Clara got as comfortable as possible and closed her eyes. She needed her rest so her body could finish healing because tonight her man was coming to remind her just whom she belonged to.

She couldn’t wait!

*

Wall pulled the door to Clara’s room closed and let out the breath he had been holding. The second he’d learned what had happened, it had taken all his self-control to stop from ripping Duke’s throat out. It was only for the fact that the other man’s quick movements had saved Clara that Wall had left him alive.

He went to find his Alpha, but when he found him in his office already wrapped in a hug with his mate, Wall backed away not wanting to intrude on the other couple. If anyone knew how Wall felt when they returned to the St. Clair garage just after the attack to find Clara unconscious and bleeding, it was Heath.

Wall hadn’t left her side for a second, not at the shifter-friendly clinic they had taken her to first, nor had he moved when they brought her home and the doctor had checked her over. Laney hadn’t even been able to order him out. One look and she had wrapped her arms around him and led him to a chair. Wall shook his head. Damn it, he was not a man to be molly coddled; he was a wolf shifter, for crying out loud.

He walked out onto the front porch of the pack house and growled low. He had forgotten the St. Clair boys were sitting out there waiting for news on Clara.

“How is she?” Mary asked. John’s wife was such a sweetheart. He reined in his wolf.

“She woke up long enough to let us know she was fine, and then she went back to sleep,” he assured the other woman.

“Good, good. That is good, right? For a shifter, I mean?” she asked, flustered.

“Yeah.” Wall couldn’t help but smile down at her. Mary nodded as she took hold of John’s hand again.

“Can I speak to her?”

Wall spun around, pinning Duke up against the side of the building for the second time in twenty-four hours.

“You even look at her again, and I will end you,” Wall snarled through gritted teeth.

Duke raised his hand, stopping his brothers from interfering.

“If you are not man enough to protect your woman, maybe you should step aside, let someone who knows how to handle her do what you can’t,” Duke taunted.

Wall pulled the other man away from the side of the house, reached back, and smashed his fist into Duke’s face. To the other man’s credit, he took the blow, recovering quickly and landing a hit of his own in Wall’s gut. The men tumbled off the porch kicking and hitting each other.

“You even think about Clara again, I will rip your head from your body.” Wall growled as he pinned Duke down.

Rolling, the other man switched places on him.

“She needs a real man, not some little puppy dog.” Duke growled back.

Neither man noticed that Laney came around the side of the house until she let loose on them with the hose, dousing them with cold water.

“What the hell!” Duke yelled as he pushed away from Wall.

Wall turned away from the other man, growling low at Laney before he realized what he was doing.

Laney held the hose, pointing it away from them as Wall moved toward her. She tapped it with one hand.

“Don’t make me cool you down again, Wall,” she warned.

He glanced at his Alpha who had followed her out of the house.

Heath simply looked back at him with a stare that said Laney wouldn’t get a chance to douse him again. If he took another step, he was dead.

Wall lowered his head in submission to his Alpha before another wave of water hit him full in the face, knocking him to the ground again.

Laney stepped closer and bent down to look him directly in the eye. “I understand you are angry and upset, Wall, I do, and I even understand that my brother probably deserved the beat down.”

As she smiled down at him, Wall realized he was still lying on the ground and was suddenly just a little nervous. Laney St. Clair was too much like her mother. He’d heard stories about the woman who could make hardened soldiers cry.

“But,” Laney continued, “You show me your fangs, growl, or just look at me with a pissed-off expression again, I will wax you clean, coat you with honey, and leave you out for the bears. Do we understand each other?” She spoke with such a sweet, singsong voice that Wall became even more uneasy.

He risked a glance at Heath who stood with a soaking wet Duke. Both men grinned at him like idiots.

“Yes, ma’am.” Wall nodded at her.

“Good, now go get cleaned up. Clara will never forgive me if you catch your death.”

He nodded slowly and started to get to his feet.

“They were grinning like idiots, weren’t they?” she asked him so softly he wasn’t sure she had spoken until he caught her slow wink. With a downward cast of his eyes, he nodded at her, barely moving his head at all.

“Walk in front of me,” she instructed.

Wall didn’t ask questions. If his beta had a plan, he was all for getting in on it. He took a step forward so she was behind him.

“On my mark, Wall.” She breathed. He heard her move the hose as he moved closer to Heath.

“Drop.” It was the only word she said before he acted, hitting the ground. Laney let loose with the hose, dousing both Heath and Duke.

Wall rolled to the side and protected Laney from the men who rushed her trying to get the hose away from her.

“That’s three, my beta!” Heath yelled, ducking another full-facial assault.

Laney squealed, shocking Wall that such a hard and scary woman could squeal like a fifteen-year-old girl at a boy band concert.

Laney dropped the hose and ran with Heath close on her tail.

Wall watched them go with a smile. He and Clara would have that one day, once he made her see sense, and of course, he spanked her good for scaring the life out of him!