Bonded and Bred Ch. 09-10

Chapter Nine

Iris knew that her sister was worried about something, the moment she strolled into her bedroom.

At first she thought it might have been because of the nights events; that Laurie might have been worried about Iris. But it soon became evident that that was not the cause for the furrow in Laurie's brow, or the shadow in her dark blue eyes.

"What?" she asked softly.

Laurie sighed as she sat down on the edge of Iris's bed.

"I think that there might be something wrong with dad."

Iris fought down the instant queasiness in her stomach and strove for a calm strong tone of voice. "I'm almost certain that if it was that serious, then he would have said something to us by now." Although she was painfully aware of the veiled hints that he had been dropping lately.

She realised that it had worked though, when she saw the sag in her sister's tense shoulders, and Laurie gave a little smile of relief, that Iris did not seem to be panicking.

"You think that maybe I am overreacting," she said hopefully, but then her brow furrowed again. "But, Iris, you didn't see him last night... he looked like a ghost!"

"Well, let's try not to fall to pieces just yet, not until we know for sure, that it's something serious."

Iris remembered how weak she had felt last night, by the time that they had reached home, and she had been curled up in the back of the jeep, whereas their father had had to rush back and drive the jeep out to them, then drive them all home again.

"I can certainly understand why he might have felt so tired last night - I know that I did!"

"Yes, maybe you are right," Laurie still sounded doubtful and worried, and so Iris looped her arm through her sister's arm and gave her a bright encouraging smile.

"Let's go and talk to dad, and find out for sure... I'm confident that it's not too serious though?"

*

Their father was sitting at the kitchen table and slowly eating at another high fat and high protein breakfast.

But Iris could not help but notice how slowly he ate, how wearily he lifted up his fork to his mouth.

He looked up and caught her worried gaze, and his tired eyes narrowed for a moment almost as though it pained him to see that look on her face, before falling away again.

"You girls should eat something," he mumbled. "After last night's events, we all need some nourishment."

*

"It's nothing!" he snapped impatiently. "I'm not a young man anymore - as the doctor was telling me the other day, but other than that I am in good health."

"The doctor?" Iris leapt on the admission with a speed that he should have expected, but which still threw him off balance.

He blinked his eyes as he sipped at the fresh coffee, which Laurie had brewed, while Iris had washed the dishes.

He sighed, and put his mug back down on the table.

"I'd been suffering a few headaches recently, and so I thought that I would go and get a check up..."

"And?"

"Doctor Glenn gave me a thorough going over, and he said that for a man of my age, I am in remarkable health... aside from my blood pressure."

"But it's nothing to be too worried about?"

He hesitated again. "High blood pressure is always something to worry over, especially in our race, since we don't usually suffer these things, but he thinks that with suitable medication and supervision... a little less stress in my life, and I should be fine."

"Stress?" Iris sat forward, and her brow creased with worry. "What stress?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "You know the sort of things that are playing on my mind right now. You know that I worry for you girls - if anything were to happen to me."

"And this is making you ill!" the tears welled up in Laurie's deep blue eyes, and the guilt was written all over her lovely expressive face.

Greg felt a twinge of shame, which he shrugged of determinedly. This would be for their own good - eventually.

"I just want you girls to be safe, I need to know that in the event of my death you will be protected; and we need another male in the family for that!"

**

They were both silent as they rode the train back to London later that day. This should have been an exciting time for them both, with Laurie starting her first job tomorrow, and Iris settling in to what she thought would be a super new job... if she could keep her hands off her boss.

But now concern for their father, was uppermost in their minds, and made them silent and subdued for almost the entire journey.

They were about five minutes away from the station, when Laurie suddenly sighed deeply. "What do you think we should do?" she asked softly.

Iris shrugged her shoulders as she stared out at the slowing landscape. "I'm not sure, Laurie. I don't know what to think at the moment... although I do understand dad's concerns - I just don't know what we can do about it."

"Dad said we need another male..."

The image of James flittered through her mind, and her pulse skipped its beat along with her heart.

"Have you got anyone in mind?" Iris smiled stiffly.

Laurie hesitated for a fraction of a second, but to Iris it felt like an hour, where the responsibility for their future safety, settled heavily onto her shoulders. "No, not really," her little sister sighed again.

*

The taxi from the train station dropped Laurie off first.

"I'll be round tomorrow night for about seven o'clock," Iris grinned through the open window. "And you can tell me all about your first day at work, while we eat dinner... my treat!"

"Okay, see you tomorrow night," Laurie smiled.

"Good luck, but remember to enjoy it - don't let the fear of the unknown spoil it for you."

"I won't, I promise."

Iris waited as Laurie walked through the main door and past the door man, and only when she was safely inside the building, did she tell the taxi driver that he could go.

Her own apartment felt cold and lonely when she first entered it, and she gave a tired little shiver, as she walked around, switching on lamps, and drawing the blinds. She could hear the tick ticking of the heating as it slowly warmed the place up.

Iris kicked of her shoes, and padded through to her kitchen to put the kettle to boil.

She made herself a nice cup of hot chocolate, and carried it through to her bedroom, where she left it on the side whilst she quickly had a shower.

She wrapped her dressing gown around her, and then sipping her chocolate she went back into her living room, where she curled up on her sofa, and reached for the remote control to her television set.

The first image to flicker onto the screen was of a woman looking terrified.

Iris's lip curled as she immediately recognised the old black and white movie.

It was one that she and her family had watched several times with amusement over the years.

The scene cut to the full moon, as the clouds parted dramatically to reveal the glowing orb, and then to the man as he slowly blurred and transformed.

Her mobile phone began to hum and vibrate and she dropped the remote and picked up her phone.

"Hello?" she murmured absently as she kept her gaze fixed on the werewolf as it chased the woman through the forest.

"Iris?" the husky male voice was instantly familiar to her, and for a moment her breath caught in her throat, leaving her speechless.

"Yes," she finally managed to gasp.

"It's James, here," he needlessly identified himself.

"Hello, James - Mr Atherton, "she corrected herself.

"James - please," he grunted a little impatiently.

"What can I do for you... James?"

He gave a little sigh at her stiff formal tone.

"I... I just wanted to make sure that you were okay... I came around to your father's house earlier, but you had already left. Had you hung on I would have offered you a lift back into London," he silently rebuked her as though he thought that she had deliberately run off back to London in order to avoid him.

"Laurie and I had already purchased our rail tickets... but thank you for the thought, though." He sighed again down the phone and Iris frowned. "Is there something wrong, James?"

"No... Yes, I mean I don't know. I really do not want us to be working together if it is going to be this stiffly, formal... bullshit!" he cursed in frustration.

The colour drained from Iris's face. "You're sacking me!" she whispered in devastation.

"What? No! Of course not!" she heard him clicking his tongue impatiently. "That's not the first time that you have accused me of that!" she could hear the cold anger now and a tear formed in the corner of her eye, and slowly trickled down her cheek.

"Look," he snapped suddenly. "I really don't want this awkwardness between us to continue, and so I think that I should call round tonight and we should talk things out."

She gave a little sniff as his tone became warm and reassuring once more.

"Okay," she nodded. "Do you need my address? When will you come?"

He laughed down the phone and she shivered in response.

"I already have your address, and I will be with you in just a moment, since I am already here."

"What?" she lurched to her feet, as the phone went dead, and a second later the buzzer to her apartment rang loud and piercing to her ears.

She ran across the room, and pressed the little intercom button. "Yes?" she whispered hopefully.

She heard a disjointed laugh. "Well are you going to let me in - or not?" he asked huskily.

Iris could not believe how sexy he sounded. Even from that echoing metallic, hissing panel.

"Yes, of course... sorry." She pressed the button which would unlock the front door. "Push the door and come up to the top floor; I'll meet you when you get up here."

She opened her front door, and stood waiting anxiously as the elevator carried her boss up to her.

It was just as the doors opened that Iris realised that she was still wrapped in a very thin, and figure hugging robe, which did very little to conceal her person from the appreciative gaze of James, as he stepped out and saw her for the first time.

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Chapter Ten

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"Can I get you something to drink?" she asked awkwardly as she tied the belt of her robe a little more securely.

He sat down on her sofa, without looking at her again, and nodded. "Yes, a coffee would be nice, thank you."

James used the time that she took to make the drink, to regain his composure, after seeing her 'dressed' like that.

What had she been thinking? Greeting him in that tiny, sheer robe which just managed to accentuate her glorious figure, rather than conceal anything!

He was sure that she would use the excuse of making a drink, to go and change, but when she walked in with two steaming mugs, and still wearing that robe, he could not help but feel pleased.

It told him that she felt comfortable around him, enough for her to be so casually 'dressed'... so temptingly 'dressed'.

"Thank you," he murmured huskily as she placed the mug in front of him on the table, and then retreated to the far side of the room, to curl up into the comfortable looking armchair.

"This is a nice place, that you've got," James said as he looked around the bright and airy room, with its pale lilac walls - painted with simple glossy type paint, by the looks of them.

The carpet was a thick woollen affair, a deep maroon in colour, which matched the curtains almost perfectly, and the cream coloured sofa and chairs kept the room light and airy.

"Thank you... my aunt is the owner; she gives me good rates, and likes to take care of me."

He could hear the fond smile in her voice, as her tone warmed, and the stiffness left, and he smiled in return.

"You are all close, your family?" he asked almost wistfully, and Iris blinked in surprise.

"Yes... after mum died... well dad fell to pieces for a little while, and Aunt Trudy stepped in to take care of us for a bit... she helped dad to get back on his feet, and made sure that Laurie and I were okay whilst he couldn't."

Her voice had thickened with tears, and she put a hand to her cheek quickly as though to brush them away.

"How old were you; when your mum died?" he tried to keep his tone casually interested, tried not to let too much sympathy shade his voice, because he suddenly had a feeling that if he was too sympathetic, then she might just fall to pieces on him.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I was eight and Laurie was five, I think."

"I was thirteen, when my mother died, and like your father, my father seemed to just give up on everything else."

She looked across at him in surprise, and their eyes locked.

"What happened?" she whispered.

It was his turn to shrug. "It was a hit and run, oh they caught the guy eventually, but not for five years, and for that time, it seemed to just eat my dad up, he could not get past the idea that somewhere out there, was his wife's killer."

"What happened to you while your dad was so... indisposed?"

He smiled bitterly. "Oh I was pretty much left to my own devices. We did not have any other family... no kind aunt to step in and take over," he shot her a pleading look, which told her not to take his mockery to heart, and she smiled in reassurance.

"However bad it seems... someone else always has it worse, I guess," she said a little ruefully.

"It was not so very bad. I was pretty much my own man, free to do as I pleased; I could and did run wild for a few years."

"What happened, to change that?" Iris asked curiously.

He smiled again. "My father met someone, a woman, good and kind, and understanding over his feelings, because she had lost her husband to a drunk driver, and had been left to raise her young daughter on her own."

"Were they human?" she did not know why, but Iris suddenly felt sure that his stepmother was not one of their kind. "The mother and daughter were they human or of our race... so what happened between them?" Iris asked as she pictured this tragic little family of lost souls.

She could see them clearly in her mind's eye; the angry young man, and the emotionally dead father, the sad woman and confused little girl.

"Oh they were human, through and through, but my father still married my stepmother." His eyes softened with affection, and love for this unknown woman. "But because her daughter was so very young - only eleven at the time, they decided not to put Claire - my stepmother, through the ritual of change."

"Really? That must have made things very... interesting when the full moons came around?"

He laughed. "It did not take us long to realise, that the best thing for all concerned was for dad and me to take a little... 'road trip', at these times. We would go to a nicely secluded cabin, that dad happened to own."

"Yes, nicely secluded places can be very useful to our kind!" Iris said with a laugh.

"They can be!" he smiled back, and once again their eyes met and locked on.

"I was surprised that you did not change into something a little more, covering?" James said suddenly when the silence seemed to want to stretch out.

He watched as the colour slowly came to her cheeks, and she looked away self consciously.

"I did consider it," she admitted stiltedly, "But then I remembered that you had already seen me stark naked, only yesterday, so my modesty was already, all to pot... and it is getting late in the evening, and I was comfortable."

He instantly regretted speaking, regretted making her feel awkward like that, as she rambled on trying to justify herself; he had not meant to speak his thoughts out loud like that.

"Well you certainly had nothing to be embarrassed about," he muttered, and watched in fascination as the colour in her cheeks deepened. "It was all I could do to keep my hands to myself yesterday..." he really wished that his mouth would just stop moving, stop revealing every single thought in his head!

Iris's jaw dropped open, and her pupils dilated as she listened in disbelief to her boss, who was affectively - propositioning her!

She sat back deeper into her chair, and curled her legs under her.

This could not be happening to her again! Mr Pranning and his behaviour had forced to her leave her previous employment, much to her regret.

But she did not want to leave James. She could not leave James - she loved him.

But if he thought that he could make use of her - just because they were the same, if he thought that he could come into her home, and...

"Not again!" she muttered.

"What?"

James sat forward his face a picture of puzzled curiosity.

"Not again - what?"

She shook her head and tried to sink deeper into the chair.

"Nothing... I... I am sure that I've got it wrong - but... well it felt like..." the colour flooded her cheeks and her look begged him to tell her she was mistaken.

James sighed as he brought his wayward emotions back into line.

"I am sorry Iris... you were not wrong, but - well blame it on the moon, if you will." He sighed again. "I guess the pull of the moon is still influencing me more than I realised."

He stood up abruptly but then paused long enough to give her a rueful little smile, which came out more of a grimace.

"I came here tonight with the sole intention of disposing of any awkwardness between us - before we start working together, again tomorrow... at least that was what I thought I was doing..."

He stepped closer to her, and slowly inhaled, taking in her scent.

"Don't!" she whispered in a panic. "Please don't!"

He stepped closer still. "I can't help it," he muttered between clenched teeth, and she could clearly see the change in his eyes.

He was losing himself to the instinct of the wolf, was losing his rational side as he breathed her in again.

Iris could feel her heartbeat racing, and she knew that her own eyes had changed.

"The time of the moon is over," she said urgently. "If we do this now, then we have no excuses."

He smiled slowly, as he bent to pull her to her feet, and into his arms.

"That is fine with me."

Iris sucked in a breath, and drew in his scent at the same time, and she could feel her senses swimming, washing away any rational thought process.

He nuzzled at her neck, tasting her and as he breathed in the scent of her hair, he groaned softly.

"Beautiful," he muttered, "so very lovely."

Iris closed her eyes and allowed her other senses to simply enjoy what he was doing to her.

His touches were light and restless, moving across her flesh in an almost fevered exploration.

His breath on her neck, the warmth of it, as he continued to nuzzle and taste and tease her. They were all parts of his seduction that was slowly taking over her senses.

He tugged lightly at her robe, and she gave a little helpless shrug, so that it slid from her shoulders, and fell to the ground.

"Oh god," she whimpered as her last conscious thoughts were, 'we are so going to regret this in the morning!'