Jesse leaned forward and rested his forehead against Sam’s, amazed by the sense of completeness he felt. Even his beast seemed sated.
“So.” Sam grinned up at him. “Maybe mornings aren’t so bad.”
Jesse chuckled. “Glad you think so.”
“I could get used to it.”
Jesse’s heart suddenly hammered inside his chest. Was Sam saying what he thought he was saying, or was it just the heat of the moment?
“Yeah?” he whispered in trepidation.
“I’d be willing to consider it.”
Jesse realized that he still had his cock buried deep inside Sam’s ass. Regretfully, he pulled free and dropped to his side on the bed. He couldn’t help but grin when Sam snuggled right up to him, the man’s head coming to rest on his shoulder.
Sam was a cuddler.
Good to know
.
“Sam, the wolf part of me will never go away.” Jesse would rather cut off his hand than give Sam a reason to leave him, but he had to be truthful with his mate. If Sam thought he could stay and never see the beast, he was wrong. “I will always be Lycan.”
“I know,” Sam whispered as his fingers drew lazy circles on Jesse’s sweat-slickened chest. “I just…I think I need some time to work this all out in my head, Jesse.”
Jesse nodded. Time to think, and possibly decide against him, was the last thing he wanted to give Sam, but it was a simple enough request. And one Jesse found he couldn’t deny his mate.
“Take all of the time you need, Sam. Just don’t shut me out. If something scares you, even if it’s me, or if you have questions, I’m here.” Jesse brushed a stray curl back from Sam’s face. “I’ll always be here for you.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you for giving me a chance.”
“I’m not sure I have a choice. I’ve had a crush on you since I was sixteen years old.” Sam laughed as he leaned back. “Now, I finally have you where I’ve been dreaming about for years, and I’m going to enjoy it until I figure all this other shit out.”
Well, that was good.
Wasn’t it?
Jesse was so confused he didn’t know which way was up. And it was too much for him to think about on an empty stomach. He needed some time himself to think about things. There were still things that Sam didn’t know, and seeing his reaction to everything else, Jesse wasn’t sure how to tell him.
Maybe letting Sam get used to everything else before dumping another bomb in the man’s lap was the best thing that he could do. He didn’t want to lose Sam, but he couldn’t deny his Lycan either.
“Let’s get cleaned up and get downstairs. I’m sure your mother has breakfast just about done by now. If we’re late, we’ll miss out. My brothers are pigs.”
Jesse planted a small kiss on Sam’s lips then rolled to the side of the bed, reaching back to help Sam up. It hadn’t escaped his notice that they still hadn’t talked about how Sam had come to be injured, or who had injured him. They would need to talk about that soon.
Jesse had someone to kill.
“Do your brothers know about me?” Sam asked as they walked into the bathroom.
“Sam, everyone knows about you.” Jesse laughed when he looked into the mirror and saw Sam’s flushed face. He turned to glance down at the man. “What? You didn’t think they heard us?”
“Jesse!”
“If they didn’t know before, they know now.” Jesse tapped the end of Sam’s nose with his fingertip. “You, my sweet, are not a quiet lover. I’m pretty sure the ranch hands in the bunkhouse heard you.”
Sam groaned and buried his face in his hands. Jesse rubbed his hand down Sam’s back, but he couldn’t feel sorry that his mate was a screamer. Jesse loved every sound Sam made. Besides, if people hadn’t heard Sam, they would certainly smell him.
Sam’s sweet honeysuckle scent was now mingled with Jesse’s earthier one. At the moment, their combined scents also smelled of hot, sweaty sex, a perfect combination in Jesse’s estimation. Any Lycan that sniffed Sam would know what they were doing, and that excited Jesse as much as it brought out the possessive streak in him.
Now that Sam had been claimed, Jesse’s distinctive Lycan genetics would seep into Sam’s very cells and mark him as claimed. Any Lycan would smell it. Knowing that Sam’s natural scent would blend with his the more time they spent together just reinforced Jesse’s possessiveness.
He wanted to howl it to the world that Sam belonged to him. He knew he would have to settle with the human way of protecting what was his—punching anyone that got too close right in the face.
“Come on, Sam. It’s not that bad.” Jesse leaned in closer to Sam’s ear. “Think of it this way. My brothers have known for years that I wanted you. If they are going to be ribbing anyone about all of this, it’s going to be me from the shit-eating grin I’ll have on my face.”
Sam’s head whipped around to stare back at Jesse so fast that their faces almost smacked together. “Your brothers really know about me?”
“I told you, babe, everyone knows.”
Sam groaned low in his throat when every eye in the dining room turned toward him as he stepped into the room. He could feel Jesse’s hand in the small of his back, encouraging him, but it didn’t help him not feel like a bug under glass.
Everyone was staring.
Even his mother.
Sam could feel his face heating up. He wanted to scoot behind Jesse and hide, but the man’s hand in the middle of his back propelled him forward into the room.
“Hey, Sarah, could you pack two lunches today?” Jesse asked. “Sam’s going to join me out on the range today. He hasn’t been riding since he left, and I thought he’d enjoy it.”
“I’d be happy to, Jesse.” Sarah gave Sam a long, searching look then nodded her head as if she had found what she was searching for in Sam’s flushed face.
Sam followed behind Jesse when the man stepped past him and walked to the chair at the front of the table. Except for the chair next to Jesse’s, every other one in the room was occupied. It was like this exact chair had been saved for just him.
It was odd.
Jesse gestured to the vacant chair next to him and sat down. Sam glanced at everyone else as they all sat back down then walked over and sat down in the chair that Jesse had indicated. Almost immediately, a plate was placed in front of him.
The noise level in the dining room increased as everyone started talking again. Platters of food were passed around and plates were loaded. Sam’s eyes widened as he watched Jesse dump scoop after scoop of food onto his plate until it was almost overflowing.
“Jesse, I can’t eat all of this.”
Jesse paused with a ladle of eggs hovering over Sam’s plate. He lifted it out of the way a little and stared down at Sam’s plate. “It’s not that much, Sam. Besides, you could do with a healthy meal or two. I’d bet anything you haven’t been eating well since you left.”
Well, that was certainly true. No one cooked like his mother did.
“My stomach is just not that big, Jesse.”
“Just eat what you can, Son,” Sarah said from across the table. “I’m sure whatever you don’t eat, someone will.” She smiled as her gaze touched on each man sitting at the table. “There’s not enough food in this county to fill these boys up.”
Sam shrugged and dug in. He started to eat when he suddenly remembered the medications the doctor had prescribed for him in the hospital. He set his fork down and started to stand when he felt Jesse’s hand wrap around his wrist.
“You don’t really have to eat it, Sam.”
“Oh, no. I need to find my bags. I’m supposed to take my pills with food.”
Jesse’s face darkened and a small tic started in his clenched jaw. “What pills, Sam?”
“Just some pills that the doctor prescribed me at the hospital.”
“What sort of pills?”
Sam frowned. The room had gone silent again, everyone watching him. He didn’t know what the big deal was. It was just some medication for his broken wrist. “Some pain meds, muscle relaxants, and vitamin C and zinc supplements to help with the healing.”
“Do you need the pain meds?” Jesse asked. “Are you in pain?”
“No, but—”
“Then you shouldn’t take them.”
“The doctor told me not to wait until the pain was so bad that I needed something.”
Jesse dropped his hand, shaking his head. “You let me know when the pain starts up, and I’ll see that you get something for it. Otherwise, you shouldn’t take anything if you can help it. It’s not good for you.”
“Jesse—”
“Samuel,” Sarah said calmly, “listen to Jesse.”
Sam blinked at his mother and slowly sat back down in his chair. There was something going on here and once again, Sam felt like everyone knew a secret except him. He didn’t like it. Sam clenched his jaw and folded his hands together in his lap, staring down at them.
“I’d really like it if just once, someone gave me a straight answer,” he said. “You are all keeping secrets from me again, and we all know how well that worked out the last time.”
“Sam, we’re not trying to keep secrets from you, I promise,” Jesse said. “But you’ve made it very clear that you didn’t want to hear anything about the Lycan side of our lives. We are just respecting your wishes.”
Sam’s shoulders slumped as he sighed. “Fine, tell me.”
“Do you remember me biting you the night you got home?”
Sam reached back and touched the tender skin at the nape of his neck. “Yes.”
“When I bit you, I shared some of my Lycan DNA with you. Because of that, your body will heal faster. If you have human drugs in your body, it will slow down the healing.”
Sam’s heart suddenly felt like it was going to pound right out of his chest. He glanced over at Jesse, a little shocked at his no-nonsense words. “Am I going to turn into a Lycan now?”
“No.” Jesse shook his head as he cut a piece of sausage on his plate. He was talking as if this was an everyday conversation and not a totally strange, weird, and mind-boggling one. “That was a claiming bite, not a transforming bite.”
Jesse speared the sausage with his fork and brought it up in front of his mouth. Right before he bit into it, he winked over at Sam. “But I can bite you again if you want to be a Lycan.”
Sam started to laugh until he realized that no one was laughing with him. His jaw dropped as he stared at Jesse. “You’re serious.”
“Perfectly.”
“Jesse, I don’t know if—”
When the front door slammed open and someone came inside, Sam jumped to his feet and stepped over to the arm Jesse held out to him. He didn’t know why he knew that was what Jesse wanted. He just did. And he felt much better that he had when he saw the worried look on the stranger’s face as he hurried into the room.
“Jesse, there’s a guy outside demanding to see Sam.”
Jesse stood up and stepped around Sam. “Jake, stay here with Sarah and Sam.”
Jake nodded.
“Baby, I know you don’t understand,” Jesse said as he turned toward Sam. “But, I really need you to stay here with Jake.”
“Why?” Sam frowned as he watched the other brothers get up and start toward the front of the house, all except Jake, the youngest McCaffrey brother. He stood but stayed in the room. Sam could tell the man was on guard by the way his shoulders tensed. “What’s going on, Jesse?”
“We don’t know who is here to see you, and—”
“Jesse, I didn’t tell anyone I was coming to the ranch. I cleaned out my apartment, my bank account, bought a car, and just started driving. I didn’t even wait for my checkup with the doctor. I just left. No one knows I am here.”
“Someone does, and that’s why I want you to stay inside.”
“But—”
“Please, Sam.”
Sam didn’t like it, but he nodded his agreement anyway. He had the impression that Jesse was just going to do what he wanted regardless. Besides, Jesse had said
please
. Of course, that didn’t mean Sam wasn’t going to watch what was going on. The fear of letting Jesse out of his sight made it almost too hard to breathe.
Sam waited about two second after Jesse walked out of the room before he followed him. He wasn’t planning on going outside necessarily, but he wanted to know who was there to see him. He had a sinking suspicion he already knew.
Desmond Kent.
Sam watched Jesse walk out the front door and shut it behind him, and then hurried over to peek out one of the front windows.
Damn
. He had really been hoping he was wrong. He wasn’t. Sam’s ex-boyfriend and two men stood at the bottom of the steps arguing with Jesse. Sam recognized the men but didn’t know their names. They hung out around Desmond.
And Desmond was really pissed. Sam only remembered one other time he had seen that level of anger on Desmond’s face, and it was the night the man beat him so bad he had to go to the hospital. Sam had been terrified then, but it was nothing compared to the fear he was feeling now that Desmond’s anger was aimed at Jesse.
He couldn’t let Jesse be hurt, not because of him, and he wasn’t stupid enough to believe that Desmond wasn’t here for him. There was no other reason on Earth for the man to travel to the wilds of Montana.