Chapter 2

Elijah - Chapter 2

"I don't suppose you can tell me much about her." Elijah had come into his brother's office to see a woman falling apart. He supposed that they had it under control, but when she looked at him and screamed, it was all he could do to hold onto his wolf. Then he grabbed her before she fell to the floor. Trent didn't answer him, so he looked at his dad. "Dad? What was she doing here today?"

"Won the Power Ball and came in to see you about getting it cashed in. I guess the fates have a way of working things out for us." Elijah wasn't so sure about that. He looked at her again as she lay on his couch in his office. "You wanna tell me again how you don't think she's your mate?"

"Dad." Trent looked at him when his dad laughed. "Why don't you go and see what the progress is on the ticket? And see what Joe has to say about this girl. The fact that Noah and Joe know her makes me think that there might be more to this story than she even knows. This stepfather of hers, we need to find out as much as we can about him as well. We don't need him coming around trying to stir up trouble for her or us."

His dad was still laughing when he left them. Elijah didn't want to talk to Trent…he just wanted to sit there and think. Right now there wasn't much going through his mind but the fact that she was his. But he needed to think about what he was supposed to do with her now.

"You want to know the story?" He said that he wasn't sure. "All right. I'll tell you what I know for sure. As you know, she won the Power Ball a few months ago. And since she only had six months to claim it, she came here to have you work on how to make it happen. All she wants out of this is…well, other than to be safe, she wants a house with a yard."

"I think she can afford it. But I have a house for us." When Trent didn't say anything, he looked at him. "What? I do. You know that I bought one a few years ago. I don't live in it but occasionally. I have one that we can live in together."

"I'm not sure you get it yet. She wants her own home, with her own things with her own yard. I think this is a dream of hers." Elijah said he was right; he didn't get it. "Would you like to know what her address is?"

"What does that have to do...? Yes, where does she live?" Instead of answering him, Trent handed him a sheet of paper. It was a form that they had new clients fill out to put contact information on. "No phone, no cell. And this address is...Christ."

"Yeah, I thought that would ring a bell. The place has been set for demolition for about six months now. But she is using it as her home. At least her address. She might only be telling us that so we can't find her." They both looked at the couch. Then Elijah looked at the rest of the form.

"She works. It says here she makes pizza for the local pub downtown. That's not far from where the building is. Have you sent someone to look to see if she resides there?" He said that he'd sent Scott. "And what did he find out? Anything?"

"Don't know. He said that he was taking pictures and that he'd be in shortly. I have no idea why, but that's what he said." Elijah nodded and wondered if she was living in one of the apartments there. "He made it sound as if she's not the only one that uses it as a home place."

"So she's basically homeless." Trent said it would seem that way, or she was off the grid. "Because of this family that she has. Do you think that Noah knows who they are? That he might have some information on what happened to her?"

"You could just ask me." Elijah stood up when she spoke. When she sat up, she swayed a little, and he moved to help her. He'd never seen anyone dizzy while sitting before, and worried that she might not be eating well. "I'm all right, thank you."

Elijah sat on the couch with her. He knew that she was nervous—hell, so was he—but his wolf was happier if he was closer to her. When she glared at him, he smiled. He kind of liked her show of temper.

"I live in the building you were talking about, and I pay rent. I'm not sure why you'd think I was homeless." Elijah looked at Trent and then back at Noelle. "What is it now?"

"We own that building. Well, I do. But I don't have any tenants in it that I'm aware of." She nodded. "No. I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm not renting it out. We've had it in the works for a few months now to tear it down and build some much needed condos in its place."

"But I pay rent to a company by the name of Windshield. They said that all the utilities were included and that trash pickup was also there. There are times when that's late, but we get it in our rent." She looked at her hands and frowned. "There are seven of us living there. I did wonder why no one else had moved in. But we're all paying nine hundred a month to stay there."

"I'll have Joe look into it. She can find out things faster than anyone I know." Trent got up to leave then and paused at the door. "You're not going to get to go back there, I'm afraid. Whoever is collecting rent from you is going to go to jail."

After he left, Elijah watched her. She was beautiful, he thought, her skin as pale as porcelain. Her dark hair was freshly cut…he could see small hairs on her shoulder and her neck. The thought of licking her there had him thinking of other places he wanted to taste her. He realized that she was saying something and asked her to repeat it.

"I said, what am I supposed to do now? I don't have anywhere to live." It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her that she could live with him, but he thought that he should take it a little slower on that score. "I have money, but not enough to buy me a house yet. And the money from the big ticket might take a little bit to get as well."

"Tell me about your parents and how you know Joe and Noah. And so you know, he's a friend of ours. And if Joe said that he's not mad at you, then I would take that as gospel. He's a good man." She nodded but didn't say anything. "I want to help you. I need to do this for you."

"You told your brother that I was your mate. I heard you say that when I was...before." He nodded and asked her if she knew what that meant. "Some. Not a lot. I know that you think I belong to you, but I can't. I'm not really the belonging to someone type."

He laughed. "And what sort of type would you say you are? And so you know, I think you're perfectly suited to belong to me." He watched her face redden, and he wanted to touch the skin to see if it was as hot as it looked. "Talk to me. If you don't, then I'm going to pull you into my lap and hold you."

"Don't do that, please. I have...I have some soreness." He asked her why, and she shook her head. "My stepfather worked for this company called Specktron. I'm not really sure what they do, but Howard, my stepfather, was one of the office men. Again, I'm not sure what he did there, but Noah Stark owned it. He told me that Noah had needed him there, that when he'd been fired it had been a big blow to his company, and that it was going to be years before they would be able to recoup the losses. I'm pretty sure he was full of shit, but Noah was angry that day."

"It's a company that goes to job sites, tells the person what it would cost from high end to low cost to do the job. Mostly it's buildings for big corporations. But they also look at land in different states and see what sort of tax breaks might come with building in certain areas." Elijah had just used them recently to see about a project he was going to look into helping out. "Noah owns several companies like that. Why do you think he's mad at you? If anyone, he was more than likely mad at your stepfather for whatever he'd done to you. I'm assuming that he was fired because of something that had happened and Noah knew about it."

"It was at his house that my...that Howard, Howard Merrill, decided to leave me." When she got up to pace, he let her. Not that he had it in his mind to stop her, but he wanted her to feel comfortable around him. "I knew they were going to do it. Not there, but that they were going to kick me out. I'd heard him talking to Gloria one night. But Noah had this party, a Christmas thing that he'd invited all his workers and their families to. I was sixteen then, and had never been to such a lavish place before. Noah had been making the rounds…Joe was with him. I think she was telling him who was who. He didn't come to the offices a lot…I guess because of what he is."

"Yes. Noah is a vampire." He tried to equate the man he knew now to one having a Christmas party. He was sort of a recluse, Elijah thought. "Had you ever been to one of his parties before?"

"No. But that doesn't mean anything. I mean, I didn't go a lot of places with the family after he married Gloria." Elijah was going to look into this as soon as he had enough facts. "Anyway, I was sent to the kitchen to see if Gloria could have something for her headache. I think I knew then that this was going to be it. And when I came back to where they'd been, they were gone. Even the van that we came in wasn't in the lot any longer."

"How did you involve Noah? I'm assuming that you did." She nodded and leaned against the wall. Elijah could see that she was still hurt by what had happened to her. And he didn't really blame her. "Noelle?"

"I went to find him. Him specifically. I think because he was really kind to me when we got there. He fussed over how...he said I was pretty. I'd not had anyone tell me that before." He started to tell her she was beautiful, but she spoke again. "I asked to use his phone. He unlocked his cell phone and handed it to me. But he didn't move away, just stood there as if he wanted to make sure that I didn't run off with it. When Howard answered the phone, he took the phone back and put it on speaker phone and nodded at me."

~*~

Noelle remembered the conversation like it was only a few minutes ago. Howard had barked in the phone, asking who was calling him. She'd told him it was her.

"What is it you want from me now, Noelle? I think, by leaving you behind, we've made it clear that we don't want you around us anymore. Hell, you're not of my blood or my wife's. The only reason we kept you this long is that we were afraid you'd die if we kicked you out, and someone would cut off that check of yours." She asked him what check. "The government pays us to care for your ass, believe it or not. And that money is going to go a lot further without you there sucking it dry. Not that you got much of anything anyway, but there was enough going in your belly that we had to give you. Now that you're older, we figured that you could fend for yourself or not. It really doesn't matter to us."

Noah had her ask if he was making enough at his job. "I don't understand. I thought you said you made good money working for Mr. Stark. You were even planning a long vacation with us."

He told her not her, never her. "And yes, I make great money working for that man. But there is always room for more, don't you think?" She asked him what she was supposed to do now. "I really don't care. But you're to never darken our doorstep again. Never mention us as being your family, and if I find out that you did, then I will hunt you down and make you hurt worse than I did before we left today. If I were you, I'd leave that house now before Mr. Stark finds out what sort of person he has there. A homeless bitch that no one cares for."

When the line was disconnected, she'd stood there. It wasn't until Noah had touched her that she'd screamed. The belt marks on her back were still raw from the day before when Howard had beaten her because of Ron's grade card. Not that she was sure how that had been her fault, but it never seemed to matter to him if she'd been involved or not. But she hurt when he touched his hand to her back. Lashing out, something that she'd never done before, she hit Noah in the face and bloodied his nose.

"I ran after that. I don't know where I thought I was going to go, but I knew that he was a powerful vampire and that I'd just hurt him." She looked at Elijah, who had said nothing while she told him what had happened.

"Noah fired him after that." She said that she wasn't sure how long after, but Howard had blamed it on her. "I would have killed him had it been me."

"Noah?" He said no, her stepfather. "You don't even know if I'm telling you the truth. No one else believed me when I told them that he was hurting me. The police even told me I was lying."

"I believe you. And I'll take care of him. And the police for that matter. I have a few friends on the force, and I'll get to the bottom of that as well." She asked him why he'd even want to bother. "Because he hurt you."

"That's no reason." When he stood up, she stiffened. "Don't hurt me. Please? I'll leave, but please don't hurt me."

"I will never harm you." His fingers moved down her cheek to her throat, and she shivered from the gentleness of it. "You're so beautiful. I know that you understand what I am, what we are, but do you know what you are to me? That you're my mate?"

"I don't have to be. I can just...I've been alone for a very long time, and I can be again." She watched his face when he smiled. "You look beautiful when you do that. It makes me think that you're used to getting your own way when you smile like that."

"Usually. But I don't think my considerable charm will work on you, will it?" She shook her head and was surprised when he laughed. "Are you going to be like this our entire lives, Noelle? Not letting me win any arguments when I try to charm you?"

"You are very handsome and a flirt. But I'm not as easy as some of the women you know. I do think you get away with things you do because of that." He asked her why she thought that. "I don't know. But I bet you have women falling all over you to do whatever you want, no matter the bullshit you sling around."

"You wound me." She felt herself warming to him, relaxing enough that when he touched his hand to her shoulder, she didn't immediately try to run. "Where did he hurt you, love? When I touch you, I don't want to hurt you too."

"He beat me with his belt, so mostly my back. You'd think as a grown woman that I'd be able to get away, but he...my stepbrothers help him." She looked up at him, wondering why she'd just told him that. "You're making me tell you, aren't you?"

"No. I can't do that to you. Not that I'd even try, but since you're my mate, I can't force you to comply with my questions or compulsions. You wanted to tell me. And I want to know." He asked her to turn for him. "I want to see how badly I'm going to make him suffer when I find him."

She turned, again not sure why she was doing this. And when he lifted her blouse up over her back, she felt the pain of the wounds when she tried to move away from his touch. He told her not to move, but she wanted to. So to cover her embarrassment, Noelle started talking.

"I was coming out of my work when he caught me. Daniel, one of his sons, hit me with something and I was down before I could think I should run. The ropes were on my wrists, and Daniel held me against his body with my arms up over his head while Howard cut my shirt off." Noelle moaned when she felt Elijah touch his tongue to her back. "What are you doing?"

"Healing you. Mostly tasting you. Christ, do you have any idea how much I'd like to shift and kill those men?" She started to turn, to tell him not to, when he pressed her against the wall with his hips to hers. "I'm licking them to heal them. My saliva has healing powers in it that will make them feel better. Talk to me. Like you were, talk to me."

"Ron, another stepbrother, he kept asking me for my purse or wallet." Elijah was making it hard to think. And when he asked her if they took her money, she had to concentrate on what he was asking her. "Yes. They used to. I don't carry money on me anymore. Nor do I have it at my apartment where they can find it. I have.... What are you doing to me?"

His body pressed against her, his cock at her ass, and she wanted to beg him to stop it, yet was afraid that he would. As his hands moved from her waist to her belly, then up to her breasts, Noelle wasn't sure that her heart was beating any longer. Her mind had certainly shut down. When he cupped her breasts under her bra, she leaned back against him and let him hold her up.

"I want to take you right here." She nodded, her body agreeing to things and her mind right along with it. "If I turn you around, I'm going to kiss you, strip you down, and then make love to you."

"You don't want to?" He laughed, and she felt her temper rise up. "I never asked you to do this for me, so if you're finished, I'd like for you to let me go."

"Never." As soon as she was turned, he took her mouth. It wasn't a kiss, only in the sense that their mouths were touching and his tongue was dueling with hers. But it was more, so much more, and she had to hold onto his shoulders or fall. When he cupped her bottom and lifted her, she cried out when his cock rocked into her pussy. "I need you."

"Yes." She wasn't sure that need was a strong enough word for what she wanted from this man.

"Christ. We have company."

"Company?" He nodded and continued to rock into her pussy while he held her to him. "I can't think when you do that."

"I can't think either. Except for the way that I'm going to kill the man on the other side of the door as soon as I can move." That's when she heard someone pounding on the door. There was laughter there, too…faint, but she could hear it. "It's Noah. Don't freak out, okay?"

"He'll hurt me." Elijah told her that unless he had a death warrant, he wasn't going to even try. Noelle looked up at him and could see his wolf racing over his skin. "You're going to shift?"

"No. He wants to mark you and isn't happy with the vampire that is keeping him from it."

She looked at the door when Noah said Elijah's name. "The sooner I let him in, the sooner I can get rid of him. I hate to put you down, but if I don't, I'm going to take you right here and to hell with him."

"Elijah, I would prefer that you waited on that. And I've not come to harm either of you. Could you please open the door for me?" Elijah growled and Noelle laughed. "Pretty please?"

It was really funny to see such a big man be so frustrated about something. When he kissed her again, she was set back on her feet, and he started to leave her. But he came back, kissed her again, and then went to the door. When he opened it, Noelle looked at the man standing there, Noah Stark.

"Hello, Noelle. My goodness, you are more lovely than I remembered." She looked behind her and he laughed. "You, my dear. You have grown into a very lovely young woman. And I'm so happy to see that you have met your mate. Elijah is a good man. I could not have picked a better one for you myself."

"He's helping me." She felt her face heat up when she'd remember how he'd been helping her with her wounds. "His firm is going to help me with some things."

"Yes. I'm to understand that you've come into some money. Good for you. But as you know, that father of yours, he must be taken care of first. The little shit has been a pain in my ass for a very long time. We also have another matter to take care of as well. Nothing to do with you, but with your new family." She asked him what. "Helenia has opened her lab up, and I think I know now why she's set on getting a wolf in her clutches."

"I don't know who that is." She looked at Elijah when he only stared at Noah. "Is she working with Howard? Have they found out about the money too?"

"No. She's after my brother, Sterling." She asked Elijah how many brothers he had. "There are six of us, plus Joe and my parents, living around here. My grandparents are supposed to come.... Too much information, but I'm worried about this woman coming here. What about a lab? I don't think Sterl mentioned that before."

"Why does she want Sterling?" Before she got an answer, if she was going to get one, the room filled with people coming in. Noelle moved back to the corner of the room, as far from the group of them as she could get. But Elijah came to her and pulled her to him as he made his way to his desk. She thought for sure that he was going to help her out of the room, but he stopped and turned her to see all of the men and women.

"Everyone, before we get started, I'd like to introduce you to someone. This is my mate, Noelle Calhoun. We have a few things to work out yet, mostly me killing her family, but I'd like to introduce you to her." She nodded as each of them said their name to her, and was surprised by all the good wishes that were being given to them. "She's going to need us to watch out for her, as well as dealing with Helenia. Her stepparents are hurting her."

"I'm going to be okay." No one said anything, and she looked at Elijah. "I should go. You have a family thing going on and I should just go."

"You can't go back. Not to the place you were staying. Besides that, you are family now. I'm sorry, Noelle." She'd forgotten about that and looked at Trent when he continued. "I might suggest that you stay with one of us. Anyone volunteering to offer up a bed for her?"

The low growl from Elijah had her turning to him. It didn't frighten her, but seemed to make her feel warm all over. And when he pulled her body to his, all she could think about was how safe she felt. For the first time in a very long time.