Authors: Becca Jameson
“Shit. You scared the crap out of me.” Reese turned toward her voice and found her sitting in the dark in the window seat where she’d apparently been staring out into the night. “We—”
Without waiting for excuses, she cut him off and continued. “Your parents and your brother Michael tiptoed around me, attempting to avoid eye contact so I couldn’t see how sorry they were for the weird behavior of their asshole of a son and his friend. I finally had to proclaim exhaustion and retreat to your room to escape the looks. And
then
I had to sit here in the dark and do nothing but wait for you to return so they’d think I was sleeping.”
Reese flinched. He really was an ass. No doubt about that.
“You’re gone most of the day, breeze through here for like one minute this afternoon, and then don’t show again until way after dark. People are suspicious, and I feel like a heel lying to everyone. Do you want me to go?”
“No. Sorry.” Charles spoke sheepishly and crossed the room to her side. “It was … unavoidable, and unexpected.”
“Whatever.” Alyssa glanced at both men in turn.
Reese himself felt like a heel now. “We—”
She held up a hand and stopped him again. “Why did you bring me here if you were just going to dump me and run? I thought… Well, I’d hoped…” She looked down and fidgeted with her fingers.
“God, what does she expect from us?”
At least now, Reese could communicate with Charles in front of Alyssa. There was a shining pot of gold.
Charles sat on the bed and turned in her direction. “Alyssa, you are so young. I’m sorry if you thought this would … whatever.” He swung a hand through the air, motioning indistinctly. “We want to help you. Truly we do, but you are going to have to give us a bit more information. Soon. Like yesterday.”
“She expected us to mate with her. She clearly wanted us also. Why? What woman would want to mate so quickly with two men she barely knew and wasn’t immediately bonded to? I don’t get it. What isn’t she telling us?”
Alyssa turned to face the window once again but not before Reese noticed the fear in her eyes. Deep sadness mixed with it, making the huge orbs glisten with unshed tears. And her lips were literally buttoned.
“She’s like a scared doe. And she has a pile of secrets tucked behind those eyes.”
Her face tugged at his heartstrings. Reese had no idea how to respond, nor did he have the inclination to even try at this moment. All he could think about was his hard-as-nails dick and the cold shower he needed to tame the fellow into submission. If that were even possible.
“Yeah, and she isn’t giving us much to go on. What the hell do we do now?”
Adjusting himself, Reese turned toward the bathroom.
“Damned if I know.”
“Sure, you go first. Don’t mind me. I’ll just soothe the little doe’s feelings and try to drag something out of her while you hide in the shower.”
The snarky tone of Charles’ voice made Reese smile, but it didn’t stop him from dashing from the room as fast as his legs could carry him.
Behind the closed door, he let the image of a very hurt Alyssa slip away while he stripped his clothes in record time, turned the shower on to a tepid temperature, and climbed in before it was even warm. Closing his eyes against reality, Reese thought of his mate sprawled out beneath him on the couch. The scent of her pussy, the feel of her warmth pressed against his palm, the sight of her mouth hanging open and her stomach rising and falling as she gasped for breath. All these things drove him to take his dick in his hand and pump himself. He leaned his forehead against the cool tile of the shower wall. It took about five strokes before his orgasm rushed through him, sending hot spurts of cum in juts that joined the water, rinsing the evidence down the drain.
* * * *
“What?” Fredrick Wells slammed the book he was enjoying on the coffee table and flipped his glasses off. “Tell me you are fucking kidding.” He was shouting, and he didn’t give a damn.
“No. I wish I was.” Carol Franklin muttered the words as demurely as humanly possible, her head ducked low.
Fredrick didn’t frankly give a fuck right now that the woman felt bad. Or even that tears streaked her face. What the hell was the matter with the woman? Couldn’t anyone in his pack do a goddamn thing right? Couldn’t he at least trust parents to keep track of their kids?
Shit
.
That’s all he needed today: a new headache.
“Well, where is she?”
“We don’t know … sir.” She swallowed before she continued in the same low voice, not making eye contact. “When we woke, she was gone.”
“Did she take anything? Is anything missing from the house? Money? Credit cards?”
“No … sir.” It pissed him off that she hesitated for so long before she addressed him appropriately.
“Where’s your husband?”
“Marvin is looking for her, sir. He’s been going door to door, asking all her friends what they know for two days now.”
“Two days? She’s been gone two days, and this is the first I’ve heard of it?”
The mousy woman flinched and stepped back.
“We thought she was just at a friend’s house, sir. We assumed we’d find her.”
“And? Do any of her friends know anything?”
“No, sir. At least not so far.” She took another step back.
Fredrick wanted to grab the woman by the arm and yank her into the room before she slipped out the door.
Damn it
.
“Tell Marvin I want to see him as soon as possible.
Fuck
.” He stood and stomped across the room toward the window. His ire was at an all-time high. Damn women.
He needed that girl found. Now.
Chapter 6
A rap at the window of Jessica’s Civic startled her. She whipped her head to the side and stared into Justin’s smiling face. How long had she been sitting there, staring at the house, pondering how she would survive the day? Coming up with a series of excuses that would get her out of this mess?
A deep breath told her it’d been a while, because her exhale came out in a plume of vapor, visible in the freezing temperature of the inside of her car.
Justin chuckled and opened the door for her. “Wanna come in? Or just sit there all day staring at the house?” His smile was warm.
“Shit. Sorry. I…”
You what?
Jess scrambled to exit the car, only to be brought up short and strangled by the seat belt as it snapped her back into the seat.
“Let me help you with that.” Justin didn’t tease. He didn’t even give any indication he was amused by her slapstick.
“Is everyone—?”
“No one saw you. I just happened to glance outside and notice your car. Your secret hesitance is safe with me.” He took her arm and helped her stand.
Jessica’s legs were stiff. How long
had
she sat there?
“What time is it?”
“About three thirty. Kara was growing anxious. She was afraid you’d chickened out.” Justin stared at her, concern etched on his face. “What
are
you doing out here?”
“Avoiding the truth?” She was avoiding more truths than Justin could possibly imagine.
He chuckled and helped her toward the front of the house, not releasing his grip on her arm. Thank God, because the ground was slippery and hard as a rock, covered with ice from the mixture of sleet that had fallen steadily the entire day.
“I’m not going to harp on you, but I do think you’d feel much better if you just told them.”
Jessica jerked in his arm and turned her face toward his, her mouth hanging open as she sucked cold air into her lungs, making them burn. It took her a full two seconds before she realized he was talking about Kara and Lindsey, not the truths she was keeping from Charles and Reese. Justin knew nothing about her connection to his brother yet. His quizzical expression affirmed it.
She shook the thought from her head and wiped the shock off her face. Lordy, she was losing her mind. It seemed to be seeping out of her ears when she slept or something.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t mean
today
. Just sometime. Sooner than later would be better. Don’t panic.” Thank goodness he’d misinterpreted her startled reaction.
Oh, if he only knew the shit that was surely going to hit the fan.
As they reached the steps, the front door flew open, and a visibly huge Kara waddled out onto the porch. Justin grabbed her, trying in vain to hold both women at once. “Hon, please.” His brow furrowed. “I told you how slippery it is out here. You’re going to break your neck.”
Luckily, as he helped his mate back into the house once again, Jessica got her shaky self inside without incident.
And then the wolves descended. Literally.
There were so many of them in the house. A glance around the room showed Nancy, mother to the majority of the people in the room, coming toward her with outstretched arms. “Jessica, darling, so glad you came. It wouldn’t be the same without you.” The warm, friendly woman hugged her tight, knowingly.
After all, everyone in the house was keeping the enormous secret of her identity to themselves, sparing her from having to out herself to her girlfriends, who remained completely oblivious thus far.
The elephant climbing around, squishing into the tightest imaginable corners of the room, was palpable.
No one had ever come right out and confronted her; well, except for Justin at the baby shower. But the air was thick when she was around. Thick with concern for her and unanswered questions.
The moment Charles entered the room Jessica froze. She’d been pulling her arm from the sleeve of her jacket, simultaneously trying to extricate herself and hand the bulky coat to Charles’ dad, Richard.
The thick air grew even denser at Charles’ presence, and then Reese’s also, behind her. They’d also planted themselves in the spot where they’d first noticed her. A fact she knew without looking, as her sensitive nose had already aligned itself with their particular brand of sexy and could somehow differentiate every other person in the room, and even erase them from her brain as if no one else stood between her and the men who so desperately wanted to mate with her.
Hmm. No one had mentioned to them she was coming. Either that, or they just couldn’t contain the shock of her arrival even with the knowledge. As she turned back toward the room, she found them both standing rooted to their spots, staring openmouthed in her direction with no discretion whatsoever.
Great. Why the hell had she failed to mention this visit last night?
Because there was no blood flow to your brain, smarty pants
.
For a moment, everyone froze, a second of silence. Then everyone spoke at once, greeting her and welcoming her into the fold of the family. Apropos, but uncomfortable.
Nancy, as astute as ever, glanced from Jessica to Charles and then back. If she were the only one in the room to realize there was something fishy, Jessica would count herself lucky. Bless the woman. She immediately took Jess by the arm and led her from the room, angling for the kitchen. “You must be thirsty, dear.”
Jessica wanted to cry. Tears welled in her eyes, not from the discomfort of having Charles and Reese staring down her back as she progressed through the room, but from the sensitivity of the gracious woman who’d raised half these people and still cared so much she could bundle Jessica into her embrace and soothe her as if she were her own daughter. Jess hadn’t been mothered like this since she was ten years old.
Memories of her own mother smiling at her in this same way flooded her with feelings she’d stuffed deep inside—feelings she’d not experienced for so many years she couldn’t even count them. All this blubbery craziness rose to the surface, threatening to overwhelm her in her obviously hormonal state of distress.
I can’t do this. I have to get out of here
.
As they entered the kitchen, bodies spread apart and disappeared. Jess glanced at the kind mother figure at her side in time to see the look she’d given the lot of them.
Get out, now
.
When the crowd had dispersed, Nancy whispered, “You okay, Jessica?”
A deep breath in. But she couldn’t exhale. She just held it and stared into Nancy’s eyes.
No. Not even close
. Tears spilled over, and still Jessica just stood there, letting them fall.
“Let’s go someplace else.” Rather than turn Jessica toward the crowd, Nancy pulled her farther into the room, through the kitchen and down the hall on the other side toward the guest bathroom.
As soon as the door closed behind her, Jessica released her breath and sat on the toilet, stuffing her head between her knees.
Nancy busied herself locating a washcloth, running cold water over it, and squeezing out the excess before she held it before Jess’ trembling hands.
Bless the woman again. She didn’t badger Jessica for details. She just soothed her, running a palm over her back. The longer hairstyle Jess had been sporting lately afforded the ability to hide her face between the curtain of the bob on either side.
“Can I get you anything?”
Jessica simply shook her head. Tears fell. A flood of them. Nancy just held her ground and patted Jessica like the mother she was.
There wasn’t any real need for words. Sure, there was no way Nancy had correctly interpreted quite everything going on in Jessica’s mind, but she had the basics. She knew Jessica was a wolf. She knew for whatever reason Jessica hadn’t shared this information with her human friends. And, God almighty, she knew there was something going on between Jessica and Charles.
What more did she need right now?
It was enough to send any woman into an emotional overload.
After several minutes of silence, Jessica finally pulled herself together and lifted her head. Her cheeks were flushed, as evidenced by her reflection in the mirror.
“You are a sweet, dear young lady, and I’m so glad to have you in our lives. I’ve come to think of you as my own child, even though I’ve only spent a short amount of time with you. You are always welcome in my home and with my family. If there is anything I can do for you, I’m here. I’m a good listener, and I’ve been around the block a few times.” Nancy smiled so broadly and genuinely Jessica’s tears threatened to begin anew.