Kayleb and Vanessa (5th in werewolf series)

Chapter Nine

Vanessa lay awake in her bed, with all the lights turned on. She could not sleep. She kept looking out the window at the darkness outside and wondering if those cold, violet eyes were watching her right now. Charles, Jake and Lane had not been able to find anything about Vincent but Jake had said he would contact another old vampire they knew named Frances and see if he knew anything about him.

Vanessa shivered as she remembered the way he had looked at her in the motel parking lot. Like she belonged to him and he was simply playing with her the way a cat plays with a mouse before sinking in its teeth. She blew out a long breath and stood from the bed. She pulled on a robe that was hanging on the closet door, over the pajama pants and tank top that Kaylee had given her to wear to bed.

She felt her heart begin to race as she looked at the closed closet door and her imagination roared to life with images of what could be waiting inside to jump out and get her. She looked over at Scout who was sleeping in the corner and cursed herself for being a coward. She grabbed the closet door knob and jerked it open, only to scream and jump back when something large tumbled out on top her.

***

Kayleb was pathetic. He knew he was pathetic but that didn't cause him to try to fix his patheticness as he sat in the hallway and leaned against the wall outside of Vanessa's room. After his shower he had gone to his bed and laid there wide awake staring at the ceiling as the wolf in him had gone crazy wanting to be close to his mate. So here he was. Sitting outside her bedroom door like some crazy stalker. He could see the light shining from under the crack in the door and he knew she wasn't sleeping.

He wanted to comfort her. To let her know that she didn't need to be afraid. He knew that Faith was safe in the nursery on the second floor with Gwen, Brent and Charlie. He also knew that Jake, Charles and Hunter were taking turns patrolling the yard to watch out for any vamps. Kayleb sniffed the air and smelled nothing other than the aroma of apples but Jake had told him that some vampires knew how to hide their scent.

He sighed and leaned his head against the wall, hoping to get some sleep but then he heard Vanessa scream. Instantly he changed, becoming a large, muscular auburn colored wolf. He snarled and burst through the door, breaking the knob and landing on all fours in the center of the room. Vanessa screamed again from beneath the pile of quilts that were covering her and kicked her foot out at him. He looked around the room and saw nothing that posed a threat. Scout was currently hiding under the bed and staring out a him and he couldn't figure out what would have made her scream.

Vanessa stood up, stepping out of the mound of blankets that had fallen on her when she had opened the closet door and looked at the giant wolf in the room with her. She figured this must be a member of the family, though she had no way of knowing which one.

"I'm sorry I scared you." Vanessa said, feeling slightly awkward speaking to a wolf. "The blankets attacked me." she added pointing at the pile on the floor. The wolf looked up at her face and its chocolate brown eyes locked with hers and suddenly she knew who this was. Before she could say anything else Kayleb turned and left the room.

(Is everything okay in there?) Jake's voice came to Kayleb.

(Yeah. She got attacked by blankets.) Kayleb replied. There was a long moment of silence before Jake simply said,

(Okay.)

Vanessa ran over and shut the door once he was gone, though she couldn't latch it because he had broken the knob when he'd burst into the room. Had he been sitting out there all night? He had jumped in here ready to protect her and that was something she was not used to. She had been looking out for herself for so long she had forgotten what it was like to have someone want to look out for her.