Shelly broke out one of her opaque “water” bottles and took a swig.
Ick.
“Are you betraying the Family, or bringing her in?” At least Vampire Barbie didn’t beat around the bush. I could respect that. Too bad I wanted to hate her so badly.
Jake tensed beside me. “I will not put her in danger.”
“She is in danger no matter your decision. I am just wondering if I can attempt to help without committing an act of treason. I owe you my life Jacob, but if you leave us, I will have no choice.”
Jake nodded. “I will need time.”
“The Family will be informed that you are taking a blood holiday for strength. With the time you’ve already been missing, it gives you another twenty-four hours. It’s what I can do.”
“Thank you, Shelly.”
She took another swig and headed for the door, hopping over a piece of lamp and an end table leg we missed on her way to the entry. “You might as well fill her in, Jacob. She should know where her options fall. There aren’t many. And giving her as much time to come to grips with that as possible…well, that would be to your advantage.”
A few minutes later, Doc made his excuses and booked it to yet another Council I was missing. Now I wanted cookies. I started scrounging the cupboards in search of some.
“Are you going to keep looking through the cabinets, or are you going to listen while I speak?”
Man he was proper with this stuff. I found my stash of Tim Tams. Only one package. This wouldn’t last long. Too bad getting them over from Australia took so long. Maybe we could move there while running for our lives. At least then we would have tasty chocolate cookies.
“I figure that we are about to go into something involving horrible circumstances, our poorly timed mating and overall demise. Times like this are why they invented cookies.” I popped two in my mouth and moaned. Seriously. Anyone who hasn’t tried these cookies has only lived a half-life.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?” I licked my fingers and pulled them out of my mouth slowly. Like I said. This was going to be bad. I had to have a little bit of fun before the earth fell out from beneath me.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. With the amount of earth shaking we did last night, the ground was bound to crumble. In my experience, anything good usually preceded the bad. And last night had been amazing. The fallout was gonna be a doozy.
While I sat cross-legged on the counter and demolished my sleeve of cookies, Jake filled me in. He knew everything about his Family. He knew when they were moving and their plans for adjusting. Their past, their present and their future were all tied up in his brain. He didn’t keep notes. As the Protector, his memory was enhanced through the magical miasma of his Family. Leaving the Family meant the miasma would be taken from him.
This isn’t like returning an overdue library book. When the miasma finds the host, it bonds. Permanently. Or at least for a lifetime. Not to mention the fact that since it is tied to the memory—a.k.a. the brain—the only way to remove it is, you guessed it, full-on lobotomy. Might be hard to stay bonded with my mate when his brain was separated from the rest of him. Just because we were supernatural, didn’t mean we could operate without a brain. We leave that to politicians.
“So first of all, eewie.” I licked my fingers again. I liked the chocolate, but I liked the way Jake’s eyes flashed at me even more. “Second, does this mean we are going to go full-on Fugitive style? I don’t want to jump off a waterfall.”
“I can’t leave. But you could join my Family.”
“Yeah. There’s the problem. We don’t know if I can be turned into a vampire since I have already undergone one change.”
“If a similar ritual has been performed, it is not in my knowledge base.”
Since he had the entire history of his Family in his brain, his answer was a pretty good indication that it was rare.
“So my options are…” I ticked up a finger with each point. “Run and live our lives in fear of you having your thinker ripped from your neck, making you dead. Try and turn me, which we don’t know is possible, and risk a supernatural supernova of bad magic banging around my body, making me dead.”
“Not how I would put it, but yes. Assuming you still claim me as your mate.”
Well crap
. I had been so worried about all the other stuff, I had completely ignored the possibility of not being with Jake. But I looked at the first piece of vulnerability he had really shown, and any doubt about our mating fled my mind.
Anyone hearing about this would think I was crazy. Hell, anybody who knew me already thought that. This was the first time in my life that I could ever remember seeing something so clearly. I might not know what his favorite cereal was yet, or what size shoes he wore, other than big—and those rumors about big feet are totally true—but my wolf knew his. The human in me was screaming that this was nuts, but my wolf laid it out in black and white.
Great sex. Strong and responsible man. Great sex. Level-headed despite the smack from the pheromones. Great sex. He was trying to give me support and options, when we had a severe shortage of either. And did I mention the GREAT SEX?
My wolf was horny.
“Do you know how to change a wolf?”
“That is part of being my Family’s Protector. I know of all past turnings in my Family. Changing a born-were has been done. And wolves and vampires have mated.”
“Obviously.”
“But I am not sure, at least not to my satisfaction, what would happen were I to try and change you.” He rubbed his hands together and began to pace.
“Does it feel different being a vampire than being a wolf?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“What do you mean?”
“I get the feeling that the shared skin experience is different for you. I feel like there is always a part of me fighting for dominance. My wolf and I share my body. Kind of like having a part of me that is more tangible than a personality trait. You are reacting like you’re just recognizing your wolf. Kind of like a kid coming of age, or someone just turned. It’s a strange sensation when you haven’t felt it before. So I am guessing the whole vampire thing is different?”
I was going over my options. I always tried to have all information available before jumping into the deep end. Nine times out of ten, even if the road was rocky, I’d go for what I wanted. I wanted Jake.
“Being a vampire is not just a dietary adjustment from humanity. We have a different makeup, but externally the only thing that changes on me is a little elongating of two teeth when I feed.”
“Enamel erections?”
His smile was fabulous.
“Yes. Something like that. I have always felt like I had something simmering beneath the surface. You just came near me, and I feel like a part of me woke up.”
“Do we have to make a decision tonight?”
“No. But by sundown tomorrow, we need to either present ourselves to my Family, after informing yours, or we have to run.”
According to Jake, Vampire Barbie was putting a lot on the line by lying to their father. Keeping your Protector’s whereabouts from the Family figurehead was a big no-no.
“One night?” I asked.
“One.”
I nodded. If I only had one night left, I knew exactly what I wanted to be doing.
I started to strip.
Chapter Nine
My clothes were long gone. I was naked. I was in the woods.
“This was not what I had in mind when you took your shirt off.” Jake did not seem pleased.
I cocked my head at him. I would have responded, but it’s not really possible in wolf form. I loved going furry. There was no room in my head for problems. I had control, but only of the most vital things. My wolf wanted to run. She wanted to play and she wanted to celebrate with her mate. I wanted to see Jake’s wolf. Could he fully change since he was a hybrid? I barked at him.
“Don’t do that. I can feel my skin crawl. Are you expecting me to change into a dog too, or do you want me to throw a stick for you?”
That totally deserved a growl. I walked up and nipped him on the leg for good measure. When he just pulled away, I did it harder.
The single drop of blood in my mouth created the most insane sensation. It was his smell times a thousand. I nearly shifted back to have him take me, but I needed this before I dealt with reality. I was about to be a captive in some form. I was either fleeing, or entering a new life I had no idea how to live. I needed to share with Jake something that was me. Something that was him, too.
Daddy always said that if I found a mate…well, he usually said “God help him”. In those rare moments when we weren’t sarcastic, Daddy said we would find the one who would bring out every side of us and love us more with each discovery. I wanted to pull out every part of Jake and love him more.
I bit him again, dragging his ankle with me.
“Gah! Knock it off. Damn it all.” He charged at me, and I jumped out of his grip. Lunging from side to side to keep him off balance, I took off. The cursing behind me turned from words to more guttural sounds. My head whipped toward the sound, and my tongue lolled from my mouth in a grin. He was shifting. A great black wolf ripped from his clothes.
Jake slipped and fell as his shoes didn’t completely fall away. It was like watching that scene in Bambi with him slipping and stumbling across the ice. Just like that cute little deer, the potential leader in Jake was working its way to the surface. He would master whatever he sought to.
My wolf recognized him as the Alpha male that he was. His wolf may have been new to him, but the power wasn’t. His power was completely under his control—and he pushed it toward me. He wanted me to stop. Strangely my wolf shared some of that power, too. It would take a lot more than a zap of power and a barked command. But then, it didn’t matter. His feet were under him, and he rode that power to propel his feet.
He charged for me. The forest floor, not tamed here, was just paths worn by heavy paws. The majority—from what I could smell—were my Pack. Shrubs we passed were still in the growing season, and the young sprouts snagged and snapped as I beat the bits of debris further into the ground beneath me. The infamous cement pillar whizzed past. If a wolf could chuckle, I would have. We needed some better memories of that watch post.
I brought us around the pole a few times. I dodged through the trees and was able to lose him for a bit as he stumbled. He was learning quickly. I wouldn’t be able to out-maneuver him for long. Before he caught me, I shifted. I leaned against the pillar naked. The cool rock scraped against my skin, still sensitive from the change.
Jake caught up with me. Then he stopped. I had never seen a wolf so still. He barely breathed. Guess he kept a vampire trait or two while in wolf form. He stared at me like that for a while. I couldn’t hold still like he could and started to fidget.
“I’m naked. Care to take a wolfy break? I love running through the woods and all, but there are other things I enjoy doing without clothing. You seemed receptive before we shifted.” I sent out my best coy look. Jake still didn’t move.
Well fine
.
“We can still run. I know when you first change, it’s almost like you can’t imagine changing back.” I stepped away from the pillar, and he growled at me, taking a step toward me. My back flattened again. “Or I can stay here.”
I watched his body ripple and shift. It took him a couple of tries, but when he stood before me naked and shining with a glimmer of sweat from the effort, I didn’t think I’d ever seen anything more beautiful. His cock was jutting toward me. He sniffed the air, and that heavenly beast between his thighs jumped and bobbed. I was hypnotized.
“I can smell you.”
I bet he could. It took me a few breaths to remember he had eyes. They were shifting back and forth, from that delicious feral gold to his sharp silvery grey. I couldn’t decide which I liked more.
“I want more.” He growled toward me.
Yum.
“I want more of your scent. Spread your legs.” My ankles nearly buckled in their quick obedience to his command. He was my mate, and he would be my Alpha. Were situations different, this man—this power—would lead a Pack to be reckoned with. It was a shame he wasn’t interested in leading one.
My mind didn’t travel far along that track, before Jake yanked my attention back.
“Touch yourself for me. I want to watch you come apart before I don’t have the control to see your beauty. Show me how stunning you are when you take pleasure.”
My fingers slipped into my mouth for a little moisture. Turns out, I didn’t need it. I was practically dripping down my legs at the way his eyes ate me alive. But as I hollowed my cheeks and extracted my fingers, that growl of his caused delicious ripples of pleasure across my skin.
My hands trailed across my nipples, and I couldn’t resist a twist and pinch to relieve some of the pressure his gaze was building in me. I watched as his hands lowered to mirror mine. As I spread my lips, he gripped that beautiful cock with one hand and squeezed his balls with the other. I wanted to be the one touching him. My hands struggled with the rhythm. Forget masturbation. I wanted more. Too bad my mate was into torture.
He dropped his cock. Well it didn’t really drop. His shaft bobbed up and down and then began to point directly at me again. A drop of precome that had been used to ease his strokes shone on his finger as he wagged it at me. I much preferred what he had been wagging at me earlier. “You stop, and I stop. I told you what I wanted. Are you going to deny your mate?”
“I am trying to do the opposite of deny you right now, and you seem to be the one putting a kibosh on the action.”
“Touch your pussy for me, Amber. An orgasm should help ease your temper.”
Bastard.
If he wasn’t going to touch me, then I was going to drive him crazy first. And I’ll be damned if I was going to go unsatisfied in the process. I took the finger that had been against my clit and placed it against the side of my nose. I inhaled.
“I smell really good, don’t I, Jake?” I wound my finger around my mouth before the digit popped inside my pursed lips. His eyes didn’t leave my mouth as I pulled the finger out oh so slowly. His cock jumped when I pressed a kiss against the fingertip.