Hot for the Holidays (3 page)

“Don’t make me ignore a direct order, Wolfe,” Hawke suggested, feeling the animal he was inside rising to the surface. “We’ll all regret it.”

He’d followed medical as well as security advice for a year now. He’d stayed away from his mate while she was confined, did nothing to risk the mating heat that would have demanded her release. He gave the pack a chance to secure itself, to determine the extent of damage that had been caused by her treason. When it was discovered that she had been drugged, he had heeded medical advice and kept his distance even after her release to ensure that all the drug was out of her system before the mating heat began.

He had taken all measures to protect his mate. He himself had stood at her door countless days and nights to make certain that her security wasn’t compromised. To make sure that she was safe. He had listened to her cry, listened to her whisper his name; he had listened to her pray to God for answers when she couldn’t figure out why she had betrayed the people she had sworn to protect.

He had ached with her. His eyes had grown damp with her tears; rage had eaten him alive through those months. And now, to think his alpha would suggest he stay away from her longer, when a threat to her life was clear, caused the wolf he was created from to snarl in fury.

“I would never suggest you refrain from giving her the truth that will protect her now, Hawke.” Wolfe surprised him with the statement. “I was merely going to say that perhaps a mistake has been made in keeping the information from her this long. She’s clearly in danger, just as we’ve suspected. Arm her with the truth and perhaps we can regain the loyalty we lost in her when we had her confined.”

Hawke’s lips thinned at the continuance. It was the Tribunal’s belief that they had lost Jessica’s loyalty because of their need to confine her, to lock her away from the Breeds as well as from her own people. Hawke didn’t believe that. Not once had Jessica tried to escape in the months that she had been free. She had sought solitude. She had sought moments when eyes weren’t watching her. But she had never indicated a need to escape, or indicated anger with the Breeds in general. It was more an anger directed toward Hawke.

“I’m pulling in a team from the Coyote base,” Aiden informed him. “It will be done quietly, and they’ll be placed on protective covert detail around her. We know Haven is being watched. This way, whoever is watching will believe we’ve become lax about her safety.” Aiden leaned forward intently. “We need to capture her would-be assassin, Hawke. There were men we didn’t catch earlier this year with the pure blood society we disbanded. We need the information they have, as well as the resources they’re using. She’s our only link to them.”

“Her safety will not be compromised in this quest of yours, Aiden,” Hawke growled, the animalistic rumble of his voice burring his words. “I’ve held back the mating heat, but nothing will change the fact that she is my mate.”

Aiden nodded at the statement as he turned back to Wolfe.

“I’m claiming my mate.” Hawke stared his alpha down then. “I’ve given you the time you needed, Wolfe. Jessica Raines is my mate. I’ll go without her no longer.”

Wolfe shared a look with his second-in-command before turning back to Hawke with a short nod. “I appreciate your trust in me, Hawke. You’ve denied yourself when others wouldn’t have, and given us the time we needed to find answers rather than giving her her freedom based on law. It tells me more than words can say about the loyalty you give to the Breeds.”

“My loyalty was to her,” Hawke snapped. “My mate was no traitor. There was only one way to prove it. It’s been proven. Now, I’ll have what’s mine.”

FOUR

S
he should have known Hawke wouldn’t stay away long. The bodyguard he had left outside the house was male. She had noticed both during and after her release that it was a very rare occurrence for a male of either Breed or human persuasion to come around her.

She had female bodyguards. Her doctor was female. Her visitors, namely the alpha’s mate, Hope, or his second-in-command’s wife, Faith. Occasionally, Charity Chance visited, but since the birth of her and Aiden’s son, she hadn’t been by.

She watched the Range Rover pull into the small grav eled driveway in front of the cabin she had been given, and Hawke stepped out. As arrogant as any man could be, as handsome as sin, he stood beneath the falling snow like a force of nature daring the elements to come after him.

Daring anyone to come after him or to oppose him.

He was an integral part of Haven’s security team. He had been an advisor and security leader in the security and communications station where she had worked a little more than a year ago. He had been firm and honest, but he hadn’t always been easy to work with. He didn’t suffer fools easily, and he didn’t think twice about physically throwing out anyone not performing up to standards.

Did he still oversee security there? she wondered. She realized she had no idea what he did now. She saw him driving through the compound often, stopping, talking to the security teams, directing them to different areas or joking with them. Though she realized she hadn’t seen a smile on his face since she had been released.

He had often smiled at her when she worked security for the Breeds. Cautious little half smiles, as though he hadn’t known how to express his amusement with her shy jokes or at her attempts to flirt with him.

God, she had so fallen in love with him, she realized. Those months she had spent working with him, sharing the quiet lunches in the small garden behind the security center, she had fallen irrevocably in love.

He hadn’t kissed her. He hadn’t touched her. He had been courteous, chivalrous. Something she had never known with anyone else. He was larger than life, and the wound she had inflicted on the fragile relationship they had been building had gone deep. In both of them.

She had known, even then, about mating heat. It was hard not to know when working so closely with the Breeds. And she had known the signs of it. It had been building between them. It would have taken no more than a kiss, perhaps a touch, and it would have flamed to life like a wildfire out of control, as Faith had described it.

Faith, Hope and Charity had been brutally honest with her about the mating heat. Despite the fact that she had been called a traitor, they hadn’t held back when she had questioned them about it.

As Hawke walked to her front door, she folded her arms over the thick sweater that covered her breasts and wondered about that. Why had they been so honest with her when she was suspected to be a traitor?

Of course, if she had been convicted of her crimes, it wasn’t as though the world would have had a chance to hear her side of the story. There would have been no lawyers, and no defense. Breed Law was brutally clear. The papers she had signed in agreeing to it had laid it out in succinct layman’s terms. She had agreed to an execution if she ever betrayed the Breeds. And she had signed it, knowing she would never willingly betray them.

She had learned that there was that one little factor though. Unwillingness. The drug her father had slipped into her system had given her little choice.

The front door opened with an air of arrogance and purpose that personified the man that stepped inside.

He carried a bag under one arm. Shifting it in his grip, he turned to close and lock the door.

Jessica cocked her head to the side. More gifts? He had sent her clothes, shoes, boots and coats since her release. During her captivity he had sent her food from her favorite fast-food restaurant, and soft outfits that had kept her warm in the sterile cell in which she had been confined.

He was always sending gifts. This was the first time he had brought any with him.

“We need to talk.”

Her brows lifted as he turned and walked into the kitchen after making the brusque statement.

She followed him anyway, despite the arrogance that had her hackles rising.

Stepping into the kitchen, she watched as he sat the bag on the kitchen table and pulled the contents free. A bag of regular coffee, a six-pack of soda, her favorite chocolate cookies and a small clear bottle of what appeared to be capsules, a drug of some sort.

“What exactly do we need to talk about?” She was almost salivating for that coffee. It was her favorite brand.

“These.” He sat the bottle of pills prominently in front of the enticing caffeine and chocolate-laced goodies.

Her brows lifted again. “And they are?”

“Hormonal treatments for mating heat,” he stated, his expression hard, almost forbidding, as he stared back at her with those odd, yellowish brown eyes. “They’re for the more uncomfortable symptoms. You also need to decide if you want to take the additional treatment to prevent pregnancy.” He pulled another bottle from his shirt pocket and sat it beside the first.

Jessica felt her heart rate increase. Suddenly, it was pounding against her chest, blood racing through her system and need beginning to burn in areas that she normally tried to ignore.

Between her thighs her clit became swollen and her juices began to dampen the folds of her sex. She could feel lust pouring into her system and emotions she didn’t want to face tearing through her mind.

“Have it all figured out, don’t you?” she whispered as she stared back at him. “Whether I want this or not, it’s going to happen?”

He breathed in slowly, deeply. “You’re my mate, Jessica. We both know what that means. I’ve tried to stay away from you. I’ve tried to wait until the time was right to court you, to give you a chance to accept what it means.”

“Time?” She gave a hard, bitter laugh. “I was jailed, Hawke. You didn’t even visit. I’ve rarely seen you since my release. Perhaps you need to figure out exactly what it means to court a woman before you decide to do it.”

His jaw tightened, the muscle bunching almost violently as she watched him clench his teeth.

“I would have given us more time.” He seemed to push the words past his throat. “Before I began to court you, I wanted to ensure your protection, your safety. And your freedom.” He bit the last word out almost angrily. “I wanted you to
choose
me. I didn’t want to force the heat.”

“And that’s changed. Why?” She almost softened at the words, at the need she could see in his eyes and the fact that, unlike the circumstances of other mates, hers had tried to give her a choice, a chance to turn her back on it if it wasn’t what she wanted.

“Because I can’t find the man that’s been shadowing you since your release,” he revealed.

Jessica froze at the statement.

“What do you mean, shadowing me? How can anyone but a Breed shadow me, Hawke? Especially here in Haven?”

He glanced away for a long second, his lips tightening, before turning his gaze back to her. “Certain factions of the pure blood societies have found a drug that can disguise individual scent for a short period of time. Since your release, we’ve seen signs of a stalker. We can scent his weapons, the fact that he’s male, and his intent to kill. He’s managing to slip inside Haven and get past our security using this drug. And he’s after you.”

Fear knotted in her stomach. Turning away from him, she pushed her fingers through her unbound hair before pacing to the window and staring out into the snow that seemed to fall harder now, faster.

“To kill me,” she stated softly. “Because I was able to save the mates that they would have killed during that attack.”

The attack for which she had given vital information that aided in it’s coordination.

“That’s what we’ve learned,” he said softly. “Your father had given the orders before his death that once you were released, you were to be killed.”

“I betrayed him.” She smiled bitterly as she turned back to him. “Father never looked kindly on someone who turned his back on what he wanted.”

“There are still several key members who weren’t identified before your release. Most of the members of that group were at the party where the Breeds were attacked, but certain players weren’t there. We’ve been trying to learn their identities, but so far we haven’t managed to do so.”

Jessica nodded slowly. The Breeds had brought pictures to her just before her release, asking her to identify men that she knew her father associated with. She had been asked to name anyone who hadn’t been in those pictures. The Breeds had been thorough. She recognized all of her father’s friends in those pictures, as well as a few that she hadn’t known.

“What does all this have to do with mating heat?” She glanced at the bottles of pills again.

“You’re my mate.” His voice was suddenly guttural, a primal growl that had every nerve ending in her body suddenly violently sensitive and aware of the man standing in front of her. “I’ve waited fifteen months, Jessica. I wanted to court you. I wanted this to be your choice, to be what you needed, not just what I ached for. But the danger is escalating now, and I refuse to take chances with your life.” His fists clenched at his sides as his eyes seemed to glow with hunger. “I won’t let you die. I won’t let you be harmed.” He moved to her, a slow, steady, stalking movement that made her mouth dry and her lips part in anticipation.

Hard male hands clasped her upper arms as she stared up at him, mesmerized by the man and the intensity of his gaze.

“I protect what’s mine.” His eyes moved over her face, paused at her lips, before moving up and locking with her gaze. “You’re mine, Jessica. You’ve been mine since the day I saw you. I can’t help the animal inside me that claims you. I can’t stop the need to protect you. And I would give my life to ensure that you had the time and the freedom to make this choice on your own. But I’ll be with you now, day in and day out. I will protect you. And holding back the hunger that will draw us closer will be impossible.”

Which was why he had brought her the hormones as well as the goodies. The new hormonal treatments had given the female mates the freedom to enjoy their treats without the adverse affects that came with them. Caffeine and chocolate were known to make the symptoms of mating heat worse. The arousal, the need to mate, to touch, kiss and stroke, were nearly impossible to deny as it was. It could become painful. Jessica knew that the need for sex could become agonizing if a female was parted from her mate, unable to feel his touch, take his sex, or know his body.