Authors: Becca Jameson
She simply nodded and squeezed the woman’s hand in thanks.
“Come on out when you’re ready, dear. I’ll go dispel the rumors with some sort of tale of PMS, okay?”
Again, bless her.
* * * *
Damn
. Charles had barely moved since Jessica had entered the house. Rooted to the spot in the living room, he still couldn’t control his beating heart. And Reese was right there next to him, suffering from the same ailment.
Alyssa stood several feet away, by most accounts looking out at the newly falling snow. But Charles could see her peripheral vision glaring at him, daring him to fuck things up any more than he already had.
Lucky for him, he glanced across the room just in time to notice his little brother angling toward Alyssa. Thank God she’d made friends with Michael. At least it would distract her from the craziness going on in the room. He’d have to thank Michael later for his unintended help. The little bugger was surely oblivious to his part in the situation. He was probably just glad there was someone unmated around to talk to among all his older siblings.
Charles jerked his gaze back to the front door. How the hell had no one managed to tell him Jessica was coming today? Including his sexy mate herself.
The woman had breezed into the house, her scent filling the huge space, leaving no ounce of breathable air. He’d nearly come in his pants when she’d removed her coat to reveal her skintight sweater and form-fitting jeans. When she shook her head to shake off the flakes of snow, her glorious brown hair with just a hint of curl at the ends danced around her face to frame it as though she were posing for a fashion shoot.
The scene had appeared to be in slow motion, and he recalled it with great detail as if it had actually frozen in that space of time for an hour.
And then all hell had broken loose. Tears? Why?
“What the hell is going on? And why didn’t anyone mention she was coming over today?”
Charles tossed those rhetorical questions at Reese, who merely shrugged.
The glare from his mother told him to stay where he was and keep his hands to himself under penalty of death.
That made two days in a row Charles had felt reprimanded by a parent as though he were five years old again.
His mother hadn’t spoken a word, but the woman didn’t have to. A look alone from her spoke volumes and had always put her children in their place.
When his mother slipped out of the bathroom, noticeably alone, everyone scampered to resume normal activity. He wasn’t the only one desperately pretending all was well with the world.
Reese nudged him from behind.
“What the fuck?”
Charles just stood there. He didn’t know one bit more than Reese.
But he couldn’t stand to see his mate cry, for any reason. It tore him up and almost trumped the allure of her sexy ass as she’d left the room.
When Jessica finally emerged from the restroom, she went straight to the kitchen and pasted on the fakest smile he’d ever seen in his life as she approached her human friends.
The women surrounded her and hugged her, muttering some insanity about it being her time of the month.
Even from the distance of several yards, Charles could hear their soothing words. His eyebrows rose at the angle of the conversation. That woman, his mate and Reese’s, was no more experiencing her “time of the month” than he was. In fact, quite the opposite. She was so fucking fertile today he nearly cussed out loud. Her body called to him and Reese like no other day of the month, begging them to take her, claim her, let her milk them dry with her pussy until they passed out from the exertion.
It was truly an unfortunate stroke of coincidence today of all days they were forced to endure this afternoon of faking like they’d barely met and didn’t care for each other any more than as passing acquaintances.
Though Charles doubted he could pull that wool over his mother’s eyes, considering the knowing look she’d given him in passing.
Obviously that was Jessica’s intention, to keep the entire family in the dark. Considering the broken glass Charles was tiptoeing over with bare feet, he wasn’t about to be the one to dump that information out for the entire family. He hoped to hell she’d come around in time … time being a relative word right now since Charles thought he might explode with need at any moment.
Charles turned to face Reese.
“Ideas?”
He pleaded with his gaze for his friend to come up with a plan that involved getting the two of them the hell out of here before they embarrassed themselves, Jessica, and the family.
Oh, and let’s not forget Alyssa
.
Reese merely shrugged and shook his head back and forth so minutely there was no way anyone else in the room was the wiser.
When Charles glanced again at Jessica, he found her clutching her stomach. For a moment he almost smiled at her ability to play this out so thoroughly. And then in a stroke of awareness, he realized she wasn’t faking. She was truly in pain. Mates, especially those not yet claimed, could not endure this proximity while ovulating without a great deal of discomfort. Her womb knew that, even if her brain hadn’t registered yet.
He watched in some fascination as Jessica shifted her weight from one foot to the other, crossed her legs, and squeezed her thighs tight around her pussy.
She was so wet, so needy. Sweat had even formed around her hairline. And it was not that warm in here.
“Are we the only ones who can smell her lust?”
“I certainly hope so.”
Charles felt actual sorrow for Jessica’s situation and discomfort, but his own was a close second, and Reese was in just as much pain by the squirming shuffling he was doing alongside Charles.
“Let’s go outside for a few minutes. Maybe cool off.”
Charles needed to escape. Now.
“It’s a plan.”
Reese headed for the back door, pushed it open, and burst into the frigid weather as if his life depended on it.
Charles didn’t miss the glare from Alyssa, who still sat by the window, offering peripheral reprimands, even though she was now engaged in a game of cards with Tessa’s daughter. The child was still not feeling well, but it was Christmas break, and no one had the heart to force her to stay in bed.
“Fuck.” Charles nearly shouted the word the second he shut the door. Without more than a passing glance at the sky, he paced on the back porch of Justin, Trevor, and Kara’s home, not caring one tiny bit the snow was picking up pace and mixing with sleet.
The weather and its idiosyncrasies were the least of his problems.
“That’s what
I
was going to say. How did we not know about this?”
Charles turned to face him. “How? Because why would anyone bother to tell us some woman we’ve presumably only met in passing for the first time yesterday and assuredly have no connection to whatsoever was coming over to visit her girlfriends in this crowded house.” He was practically reprimanding Reese, and he hadn’t meant to. They were both on edge. Lowering his voice, he continued. “What I want to know is why Jessica didn’t tell us herself last night. And … what the hell do we do now?”
It was a rhetorical question, and Reese treated it as such.
Both men heaved deep breaths and looked around in vain as if the answers to their problems were between the snowflakes.
“It’s fucking cold out here.”
Charles didn’t respond. Sure, it was cold, but it beat the alternative. “What should we do?”
“I think we need to talk to her.”
“How are we going to do that? Here? In my brother’s living room?”
“No, we’ll have to wait until tonight. She agreed to meet with us later at her apartment. I hope she still sticks to that promise.”
“Her pheromones are going to make me come in my pants. She’s fucking ovulating of all days.”
“Ya think I didn’t notice?” Reese glared.
“Sorry.”
“I know.”
Charles jerked his gaze to his friend. “And what the fuck should we do about Alyssa? She’s pissed.”
“Ain’t that the truth?”
“Can we leave that one off for another day also?”
“I don’t think so. What if we tell her the truth? I mean, it isn’t like we planned this. It just happened.” Reese held his hands in the air in defeat.
“Have you met Alyssa?” Charles laughed. It wasn’t funny at all, but he was losing it.
The woman was hell on wheels when she wanted to be. And there was little doubt that wouldn’t hold up in this instance.
Chapter 7
“I’m sorry I’m such poor company,” Jessica mumbled under her breath.
Kara smiled. “Honey, I totally understand. Granted, it’s been a few months since I’ve experienced the cruel fate of PMS, but it’s still fresh in my mind.”
Lindsey entwined her fingers with Jessica’s. “Why don’t you go lie down for a while? Take some ibuprofen. I bet you’ll feel 100 percent better in a few hours with a good nap.” She turned to Kara. “Is the guest room okay?”
“Of course.” Kara scrambled back from the kitchen island and tugged on Jess’ arm. “Not sure why I didn’t think of that. The weather sucks out there anyway. You might as well plan on spending the night.”
Jessica sucked in a breath.
If I have to stay here one more hour than absolutely necessary, I will surely die.
The escape afforded by the fake PMS was welcomed, however. Niggling in the back of her mind, she wondered if the only two beings fooled by this farce were Kara and Lindsey. Since she wasn’t technically mated to the men who’d weaseled out the back door, she didn’t know if everyone in the room could smell her lie or not. It wasn’t the sort of thing her mother would have explained to her before she was ten.
As soon as her friends had graciously seen she had everything she could possibly need, they left her alone to rest on the guest bed, a bottle of water, two yellow pills, and a heating pad for the fake cramps.
Jessica immediately swallowed the ibuprofen, figuring it couldn’t hurt and might even provide some sort of relief for the
actual
pain in her belly. What the hell was that about anyway? She was nowhere near that time of the month. Worse, it had something to do with the men angling to claim her and their proximity, but it was nothing like her reaction yesterday. Today, she was experiencing actual pain on occasion, as though her insides were revolting against her clear denial of that which mother nature had deemed necessary—that she mate soon, fast, and often with two men, against her wishes.
She nestled on top of the bed, not bothering to pull back the soft comforter. Curled in a ball, she closed her eyes and tried to calm her nerves.
Think
.
For the first time in her life, Jessica was rather pissed at her naïveté where it pertained to wolves. She’d been so young when her parents died she’d missed a lot of details. Details she’d cared nothing about until yesterday. Details that would come in handy as she dealt with this situation.
Breathing in short, shallow breaths, she considered what she
did
know.
First, she was completely unable to control or deny Reese and Charles were her mates. Even after they’d left last night, she’d been unable to sleep. Every time she drifted restlessly into dreamland, she’d suffered from assaulting images of the three of them engaged in sexual acts, the likes of which she’d never even conjured in her mind to get herself off with her vibrator.
Jessica squirmed against the bed, trying to get more comfortable. Oh, who was she kidding? She was rubbing her aching clit against the mattress. She should get up and lock the door, but she had no desire to move.
Second, a few people might have noticed something was amiss, especially Nancy, but the men must need to actually claim her before all the world would be privy to the information. On second thought, it was possible everyone was choosing to just pretend not to be aware of her plight, just like they were all zipped tight about the fact she was a wolf.
Damn. She could scratch that one off the list of things of which she was certain.
So, back to two. Something about today was significantly different from yesterday. She was needier today. Her pussy ached with the need to be filled. Even standing in the kitchen she’d had to bite her tongue to keep from moaning, and her damn hands had itched to rub herself to completion. There was a dull pain in her womb that demanded fulfilling.
What the fuck was that all about?
Jessica squinted her eyes shut and concentrated. It was hard with the scent of Charles and Reese seeping under the door. She’d even known the moment they’d come back inside.
She squeezed her hands between her tucked legs and held still. The last thing she needed was to be caught masturbating in Kara’s guest room. She felt like she had a fever. Her brow was sweating even now that she’d left the main rooms.
She was shivering like a sick person. And there was another thing she knew for sure. She wasn’t sick. She was … in heat? No, that would imply she was having her period, right?
Whatever.
Jessica froze, held rigid with another fact she’d been avoiding. There was another woman out there in the living room she’d never seen before. And that woman had been glaring at Reese and Charles as though she wanted to strangle them. Interesting. Were they involved with her? Or had been in the past? If they truly believed Jessica was their intended mate, why the hell did they have another woman with them today? Anger made her ears ring.
And why the hell did that raise the heat level of Jessica’s face until she shook with jealousy? She was so fucked.
* * * *
The scrawny teenager shuffled into the home office and faced Fredrick on wobbly legs. “You wanted to see me, sir?”
“I did, Leslie.” Fredrick took a deep breath and sat at his desk. “Please, have a seat.” He motioned toward the chair opposite. It would do no good to start shouting. In the last twenty-four hours, Fredrick had calmed … marginally. He’d get much more out of Leslie if he remained calm.
“Tell me what you know about Alyssa, son.” He held his voice calm.
The kid squirmed in his seat and sat on his hands. He didn’t make eye contact.