An American Werewolf in Hoboken (23 page)

So she ran. Ran toward the glowing eyes, limping, scrapping her way to the top of the hill until she recognized Derrick’s face. He ran toward her, his image becoming a blur, and then he was standing directly in front of her.

His jaw was tight. His handsome face grave, his words clipped. “Get on my back, JC. Do it now. I’ll piggyback you to Max, but we damn well have to hurry. Hang on tight. Don’t be afraid.”

She jumped onto his back, throwing her arms around his neck. “Just get me to him, Derrick.
Please
,” she whispered, her voice catching.

Derrick took off at a gallop, moving so swiftly she had to close her eyes from the speed.

She wouldn’t bother to question how or why he was capable of such strength and speed. She was just grateful.

Derrick slowed as Max’s house came into view, where hordes of people had gathered and nothing but silence prevailed.

She jumped off Derrick’s back, tripping up the stairs to Max’s house, pushing her way past the crowd of people on the steps and banging on the door. “Max! Max, open this door right now!”

Faith popped it open, her eyes red and puffy. Just beyond her, Avery and Natalie sat on Max’s couch, huddled together under a blanket while other people she didn’t know stood by, their faces grim.

“Max? Where is he?” she shouted, her stomach roiling, her fingers icy and cramped from clenching them into fists.

And then he was there, in the doorway of his bedroom. Big, beautiful, his eyes bloodshot, his skin papery white.

JC flew to him, wrapping her arms around his waist, resting her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat, closing her eyes in relief.

Max tipped her chin up, running gentle fingers over her scratches and examining her face. “J, what happened to you? Are you okay?”

She shook her head against his broad chest. “I’m fine. Forget me. I know,” she whispered, tears streaming down her face. “I know everything.”

He gripped her shoulders. “Who told you?”

“Viv, and I’ll explain all that later. Right now we have bigger, much more important things to do.”

Max stiffened. “I can’t let you do this, J,” he said, his voice so thin it hurt her soul. “Don’t do this, because if you do there’s no turning back. It’s life or nothing.”

A Max so pale and anything other than a mountain of hearty vitality scared JC to her marrow. Lifting her head, she looked at him, running her hand over his jaw, touching him to prove to herself he was still here—here with her. “Who’d make me tuna noodle casserole if you go and die because of your stupid pride? You haven’t even given me the recipe for it yet.”

A ripple of laughter twittered through Max’s house as Derrick and Faith herded the people lingering in Max’s living room out amidst hushed whispers.

Max smiled down at her, that gorgeous smile that made her toes curl and her stomach dance like a ballerina. “You do realize this is mercy sex, right?”

“Very different than angry sex, I’ve heard.”

“Like night and day, honey.”

Clamping her hand under his jaw, JC looked him directly in the eye. “You listen to me, Adams. I don’t want to turn back. Ever. I want you, and Cedar Glen, and Jerry, and your mother and sisters, all of it.
I want all of it
. I love you, Max, and I don’t care about any of the other stuff. I just want you.”

Max leaned down and dropped a kiss to the tip of her nose. “Are you angry that I didn’t tell you about the curse?”

“Are you crazy? Of course I’m angry. You’d rather die than mate with me was the general gist. Do you know what kind of mixed-up message that sends, pal?” she teased, standing on tiptoes to kiss his jaw, run her palms over his chest, reassure herself of his existence.

Max chuckled, then coughed. “I said no such thing.”

JC caught his lips with hers. “I don’t care what you said. We’re doing this.”

“Wait. No music? No candles? No foreplay? How can I feel properly wooed if we don’t at least have some foreplay?”

“Because the only music you’re going to hear is the funeral march?”

“Right. The whole dying thing.”

“Really puts a damper on foreplay.”

Max’s door opened, letting a gust of wind breeze through. “Hey, lovebirds!” Derrick yelled. “Enough with the kissy-face witty banter. You have exactly five minutes to make some magic. Stop leaving us all out here hanging on the edges of our seats and get ’er done!” He slammed the door with a huff of exasperation.

JC took Max’s hand in hers, gazing up at him. “So you ready to do this?”

His face went solemn again, just like when he was Fluffy. “It’s forever, J.
For-ev-er
.”

She tugged his hand and pulled him into the bedroom. “Yeahhhh. I know. Just you wait and see what forever means with me, Adams. Morning breath, stubble on my legs, sometimes I even clip my toenails at the kitchen table.”

He stalled, giving her a look of mock horror. “Whoa now. Hold up, Jensen. There must be another way. Maybe something I missed about the curse?”

She giggled, shutting the door behind her and backing up to it, pulling him close and smiling. “Oh no, don’t try to weasel out of your forever now, buddy. You and me? We’re in up to our eyeballs, toenail clippings and all.”

Max grinned at her, running his thumb over her mouth. “Fine. See my stiff upper lip take one for the team.”

JC wrapped her arms around his neck and let a happy sigh escape. “That’s the spirit. Go Team Adams,” she said with a giggle. “Now let’s go find that forever, huh?”

Max brushed her lips with hers, pulling her toward his bed. “Well, when you ask so nicely, forever it is, milady.”

JC pulled him down on the bed beside her, loving the feel of his big body so close to hers. “Here’s to forever, life mate,” she whispered before pressing her lips to his.

Chapter Twenty

Max nibbled at her neck, arousing her from a deep, satisfying sleep. “Is that you, life mate?”

His warm palm skimmed her hip, pulling her leg over his thigh and slipping a finger between her legs. “Mmmm-hmm,” he moaned in her ear, his hard shaft sizzling-hot against her ass.

“So…
phew
, huh? We did it.” JC burrowed against Max, loving the hard ripple of his chest against her back.

He slid his arm under her and cupped her breast, turning the place between her thighs wet with excruciating anticipation. “We rallied. Go Team Adams.”

Tears stung her eyes much as they had last night. She gripped his wrist, her hand, trembling. “I was so afraid I’d lose you last night. I’m sorry I ran away, but if there’s ever something as important as your life involved again, you’d better spit it out a whole lot sooner than five days before your expiration date. Got that?” She shivered, not just from the amazing feel of his hands, but from what could have happened if Viv hadn’t known about the curse.

Lifting her leg high over his hip, he slipped inside her, groaning his pleasure against the back of her neck. “I promise to tell you all things curse-ish.”

JC stretched her arms up to hook around his neck, gritting her teeth when Max thrust into her. “That’s so nice,” she murmured, arching her back, her nipples tight.

Max splayed his hand over her abdomen, keeping her body tight to his, rolling his hips exactly the way she liked it.

It didn’t take long for her to find release. Last night, their lovemaking had been tentative. She’d been afraid he’d break in two and disappear completely. This morning, everything about him felt so right, there was no holding back.

Heat washed over her first, making her grind against him, cling to him as she came, whispering his name.

Max tensed, the muscles in his body flexing against her back as he found release, too. Pulling her close, he buried his face in her neck, skimming his mouth along her flesh, trailing soft kisses until she melted into him.

“So, good morning, life mate,” he growled, husky and rich.

She grinned. “Who’s making breakfast? You or me?”

“I dunno. Who cares about breakfast when there’s this?” he asked, rolling her to face him so he could run his fingers over her nipples.

“I realized something late last night.”

“That you’d just had mercy sex with a dying man?”

JC giggled. “Aside from that. We don’t know each other very well. I mean, what side of the bed do you like to sleep on? Are you a planner or spontaneous? Do you like ketchup on your fries or do you prefer them naked? What about pickles? Do you like them on your hamburgers? What’s your favorite color? What size shoe are you? Who does the cooking—?”

Max quieted her with a kiss. “Tell you what, life mate. I promise, now that you’ve made the ultimate sacrifice, you can cook for me every night.”

“Hah, funny man! But I’m being very serious, Max. There are a million things we may never know about each other, but we don’t even know many of the basics yet. How can we expect to just live together in harmony before we know if we’re harmonious?”

Pushing the hair from her eyes, Max smiled. “I know. And I promise we’ll learn all those things about each other. We’ll keep right on dating just like we were, except you’ll be here in my bed every night. I’ll take some time off work and we’ll really dig deep. But you have some things to do, too. Like the salon, for instance. I know you love it. If you want to keep it, I’d never ask you to give it up. We’ll work out a commute of some kind—or something.”

Her sigh was a happy one, but she shook her head. “You can’t tell me people here don’t need haircuts. I’ve seen you in, um…shift, is it?”

“Look at you, already workin’ the were lingo. So proud.”

She grinned at him. “You’re a hairy bunch. And I love the salon, Max, but I also love you. So as long as you’re not opposed to me opening one here, I’ll either sell my share to my partner, or hire someone to manage it for the time being.”

“You’d give that up for me? Wow. It must be love,” he teased.

“I really love what I’ve seen of Cedar Glen so far. And I’m not in love with raising children in an apartment in Hoboken. Not when your family’s here, and you have this amazing house with plenty of room for children.”

“So, about Cedar Glen…”

JC stiffened, her hesitation clear. “Alarm bells going off, Adams,” she warned.

“Nothing to be alarmed about, but Cedar Glen has its quirks.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Define, please.”

As Max explained to her how Cedar Glen had come to be, she fell in love with him just a little more. To find a man who was so perfect for her and filled with so much compassion, made her heart nearly burst.

“Wait—there are vampires here? Shut the front door.”

“There are all sorts of the paranormal here—people who needed somewhere to go when their clans or packs or whatever deemed them unworthy. Vampires, even a were-bear or three.”

“My parents…” she muttered, still absorbing the existence of vampires and were-bears.

“One step at a time, okay? I promise we’ll figure it out—together.”

“Thankfully, I don’t have to tell Viv—” She sat upright. “Viv! Oh God, how could I forget Viv? I have to check on her, Max! She was hurt last night.” She began to untangle herself from the sheets, her thoughts racing as she remembered Viv mentioning something about self-healing, but Max pulled her back into his embrace.

“She’s fine, honey. Jerry made sure she got to my mother’s. He sent me a text and she’s sleeping in today, the word according to Avery. I still can’t believe I didn’t smell her. I think I was too caught up in you.”

She took a deep breath, relaxing again. “I’m not even going to pretend I understand smelling each other or any of the other things she told me. But if not for her, I don’t know if I would have come back in time to save you, Max. Seeing her shift changed everything for me—it helped me to trust what you’d told me because I trust
her
. We’ve known each other all our lives and never once did I even have a hint she was a cat.
A. Cat
. I can’t believe this is now normal conversation in my world.”

Max chuckled. “We hide because we have to, J, but she doesn’t have to hide here.”

“Then that’s something I hope she’ll give some serious thought to, because I’d love to have her nearby. Until then,” she murmured, “I can think of about a million things we could be doing to get to know one another better.”

Max growled, rolling on top of her. “Like?”

“Max! Hate to break up the mercy mate, but I could use a little advice here,” Derrick’s voice echoed from the living room.

Max jumped out of bed, wrapping the sheet around himself and throwing JC his bathrobe. She scrambled into it, rolling up the overly long sleeves and following Max out of the bedroom, bumping into his back when he stopped short.

“What the hell, bro?”

Derrick paced the hardwood floor, wrinkling the big rug in the middle. “We didn’t want to tell you, because you were having a shitty go of it this last week—but you missed chicken noodle soup night on Thursday.”

Oh boy.

Max covered his mouth with his hand, trying to muffle his laughter. When he was composed, he said, “So Aunt Eva strikes again, huh?”

Derrick’s hard face, so like Max’s, hardened even more, if that were at all possible. “Oh, you bet. She said I had to find the blue container in the land of packaged treats and hungry cars.”

Max frowned. “I don’t get it.”

JC agreed. “I don’t either.”

Derrick’s face was shrouded in disgust. “It’s a puzzle. What she meant was, look for the blue container at the 7-Eleven. You know, packaged cupcakes and
gas
for hungry cars.”

Max held his fist out for Derrick to bump. “Nice problem-solving skills, brother.”

Derrick waved him off, his jaw clenched. “Funny.”

JC held up a finger. “I don’t get the blue container. What does that have to do with the 7-Eleven and your life mate? That’s what the chicken noodle soup is—a prophecy, right?”

Derrick stalked to the front door, throwing it open and grabbing a carrier from the front porch before stomping back across the floor. He held it under their noses, his eyes blistering with anger. “
This
is the blue container.”