A quick glance toward the dining room showed Sam that Jake was busy talking to his mother. That meant the man wasn’t watching him. Sam used the opportunity to open the front door and slip out.
He knew his little escape had been noticed when he saw Jesse’s posture stiffen. What surprised Sam was when Jesse’s three brothers closed around him, putting him in a bubble of protection. As massive as the men were, Sam was barely able to see between the men standing around him.
Once he got a look at Desmond’s face, Sam wasn’t so sure that coming outside was one of his more brilliant ideas, but leaving Jesse out here to deal with Sam’s problem wasn’t an option either. He had just gotten back to town and look at what chaos he had brought to the ranch he loved.
“Samuel, come down here right now!” Desmond snapped the order loudly, making every man standing beside Sam growl. Desmond didn’t seem fazed by this one little bit. Neither did the two men standing with him. Desmond was too busy glowering at Sam, or what he could see of Sam. And the two strangers were just puffing out their chests as if that made them seem bigger.
It did, but Sam wasn’t going to admit that.
“Talk to him like that again, and I’ll rip your throat out where you stand.” Jesse’s tone was cold, solid, and brooked no argument. Sam was even afraid now. He’d never heard Jesse speak like that before. Not even when the man was pissed at him.
“Samuel is mine. Your alpha status holds no weight with me. I had him first, and it is my right to retrieve him.”
Alpha status?
Right to retrieve him?
Sam was so lost that he felt like he was going to scream. He knew he didn’t want to know anything about Lycan until he could sort out what he already knew in his head, but it seemed every time he turned around he was learning something new.
“The only thing you will be retrieving is your balls from the ground. I am only asking you
once
to get off of my land,” Jesse ground the threat out. “If you don’t leave willingly…”
Sam got the gist of what was being said as Jesse’s words hung in the air, and he felt his stomach start to roll. This was a pissing contest of epic proportions, and he felt helpless to say or do anything. He feared both men and didn’t want to step between them.
“I’ll get off of your property, Jesse McCaffrey, but my claim still holds. Samuel is mine, and I will be back for him.”
Jesse growled as he stepped off of the last step, his nose mere inches from Desmond’s. “He has already been claimed. If you come near him, I will kill you, something I should do anyway for putting my mate in the hospital.”
Mate?
Mate, not boyfriend. Why? Sam’s damn head was once again spinning. He wasn’t sure what the word meant, but he knew he wasn’t going to like it. He was pretty sure that simple word was going to have a huge impact on his life.
“You bastard!” Desmond howled as claws shot out from his hands.
Sam’s jaw dropped as Desmond tried to push past Jesse, but Jesse wouldn’t budge. When Desmond couldn’t get past him, he turned on Jesse, swiping at him with his claws. Jesse easily deflected the blow, raising his arm up to block Desmond’s. Jesse used the other hand to swipe at Desmond in the same manner.
Shane watched in horror as blood spurted across Desmond’s pristine white shirt when Jesse’s sharp claws slashed at him. Desmond was snarling and growling, snapping his huge sharp teeth at Jesse.
Fuck!
Desmond was a Lycan just like Jesse. How had he not known? How long had he had his head buried in the sand? Why had he never seen any of this? He’d lived on the ranch for years, dated Desmond for months, and not once did he remember seeing any of this.
How deep did his denial go?
When the other two men started to jump into the fight, Cort and Nate, Jesse’s other brothers, leapt forward and engaged them. Gabe stayed with Sam on the porch, hovering over him like a watchdog protecting a litter of pups.
“Stop!” Sam shouted as he stood there helplessly watching the man he loved fight the man that had beat him to a pulp and put him in the hospital. As much as he wanted Desmond dead, he didn’t want Jesse hurt even more. “Leave him alone!”
Desmond leapt back from one particular vicious swipe by Jesse then turned to glare up at Sam. He chuckled as his claws disappeared right before Sam’s eyes. The laugh wasn’t a happy one, more like a promise of retribution.
And when in the hell had Desmond gotten claws?
“I see the little omega has grown a backbone,” Desmond said as he began to back away, the two men with him backing away as well. “You won’t need it once I have you back in my home, Samuel.”
Sam shivered at the threat. He had no doubt that Desmond would make good on his promise. He swallowed hard as he watched Desmond and the two men he came with climb back into their car and then drive back down the driveway.
His eyes shot to Jesse when the man spun around and began to come back up the steps. From the furious look on Jesse’s face, this wasn’t going to be good. Sam tried not to be afraid, but he was. He’d seen Jesse when the man was pissed, and he really didn’t want to be on the receiving end.
“You were told to stay inside, Sam.”
Sam’s mind blanked out as he stared at Jesse. The man’s words just bounced around in his head. Finally, he cocked his head a little. “Since when do you get to tell me what to do?”
“I am alpha!” Jesse snapped.
Sam’s curiosity overrode his common sense, and he stepped toward Jesse. “What exactly does that mean? What’s an alpha?” He knew Jesse had a strong dominant personality, but this seemed like something more intense. “And why did Desmond call me an omega?”
Sam didn’t know what to think when Jesse blew out a deep breath and pushed his hand through his hair as he turned to face away from him. “Jesse?”
Jesse’s hands slid down to rest on his hips. His head dropped down as if he was staring down at the ground. He seemed troubled, and that baffled Sam just as much as everything else did. He started to step forward, wanting to comfort Jesse, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. Sam glanced over to see Cort McCaffrey’s hand on his shoulder.
“Just give him a moment, Sam.”
Sam turned back to look at Jesse. “But—”
“I need a few minutes alone with Sam,” Jesse said without turning around. “Go on inside and get your breakfast. We’ll be inside soon.”
Sam turned and watched Jesse’s brothers—Cort, Nate, and Gabe—walk inside the house without question. Once the door shut behind them, he turned back toward Jesse. When Jesse didn’t say anything for several moments, Sam went down the steps until he could look up into the man’s face. The faint smile on Jesse’s lips held a touch of sadness, and it made Sam’s heart ache.
Sam felt sick with the struggle within him. His emotions seemed to be out of control. He was terrified of this new world he had suddenly found himself in, but the thought of walking away from Jesse was agonizing.
He reached over and closed his hand around Jesse’s, hoping the man understood that he was confused but willing to listen. Jesse’s smile grew a little as he squeezed Sam’s hand in return. Then the man stepped down off the steps and started walking, pulling Sam along with him.
“Let’s walk, Sam. What I have to say to you is for your ears alone.”
Sam followed alongside of Jesse, uneasy about what the man had to say to him, especially since he wanted to say it in private. Sam was really feeling like he wasn’t going to like what he was about to hear. He had kind of been feeling that way since he arrived back at the ranch, and the feeling was just getting stronger with each passing second.
“I’ve explained to you that I am Lycan, as is everyone in my family.”
“Yes,” Sam answered.
“In a family of Lycan, there is one person who all others defer to. In my family, that used to be my father. If he hadn’t gone insane, he would probably still be in charge. But he did, and I had to challenge him for leadership right after you left. That made me alpha, the one in charge of all of us.”
Sam could feel his pulse starting to pick up. Panic wasn’t too far away. “Did…did you kill him?” Even before Jesse shook his head, Sam remembered his mother telling him that Andrew McCaffrey had been banished, and not killed. He just had no idea what being banished meant.
“No.” Jesse sighed deeply and stopped at a fence, dropping Sam’s hand to lean on the fence with his arms. They had walked far enough down the driveway that they were out of sight of the main house. Jesse seemed a little less tense now that they were alone. “We fought, and it was close, but in the end I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. No matter what he did, he was still my father.”
“So, what happened then?”
“I banished him from the pack.”
“Pack? Like wolf pack?”
Jesse nodded. “Exactly like that.”
“So, you and your brothers and my mother are all part of a wolf pack?”
“We are a small pack, Sam. It’s just me and my brothers, your mother, and a couple of the ranch hands. There are probably more wolf packs in other parts of the world, but we don’t associate with them. We never have.”
This was the part of all of this that intrigued Sam so much. “Why not?”
“My father was somewhat of an isolationist. He brought us out here when I was just a baby, long before my brothers were born. Lycan tend to be pretty territorial, so I think it was a safety thing for him. He wanted to keep his family safe.” Jesse shrugged. “Or maybe he was banished from his previous pack like I banished him from this one. Who knows? What I do know is that it’s just us out here.”
Sam stepped closer to the fence to rest his arms on it just like Jesse. He turned his head to look at Jesse and laid it down on his arms. “Have you ever thought of trying to contact any of the other packs?”
“I wouldn’t know the first place to look for them, Sam. I’ve met a few other Lycan here and there, and we’ve even had a couple join this pack since you left, but other than that, I’ve never heard of any other packs around here.”
“But if you did know of them, would you try and contact them?”
“I can’t honestly say, Sam. You saw how it was when Desmond was here. I was ready to rip his throat out just because he was threatening what was mine. I can’t honestly say I wouldn’t go after anyone that threatens you if it happened again. That doesn’t make it easy for me to make friends.”
“Yeah, about that…” Sam turned to look out over the pasture, unable to look at Jesse as he asked the one question that had been plaguing him since he had heard Jesse talk about it. “Why did you refer to me as your mate?”
Jesse chuckled. “You would pick that one word out of the entire conversation, wouldn’t you?”
“Jesse.”
Jesse heaved a deep sigh as his laughter faded. “You’re my mate, Sam. You have been since you were twenty-one.”
Sam was quiet as he ingested Jesse’s words. He didn’t know what to ask first. What mate meant or why Jesse hadn’t claimed him five years ago. In a bid for self-preservation because he was afraid of Jesse’s explanation about five years ago, Sam went the other way.
“What does mate mean?”
“Mate means you are it for me, Sam.”
“You’re talking in circles again, Jesse.”
He was, but Jesse didn’t quite know how to explain it to Sam. “Have you ever watched the nature channel?”
Sam frowned. “Yeah.”
“You know how wolves seem to know their mate on sight and they mate and spend the rest of their lives together?”
The confusion on Sam’s face only deepened. “Yeah.”
“We’re nothing like that.” Jesse chuckled when Sam’s eyebrows shot up. “Okay, we’re somewhat like that, but only in the fact that once we claim a mate, we never stray.”
Jesse hoped Sam understood what that meant. No matter what happened between them, Jesse had claimed Sam. They were mates. If Sam decided to leave, Jesse wouldn’t be taking another mate.
“So, you don’t know your mate on sight then?”
“If we did, I certainly wouldn’t have waited so long to start courting you.”
“Why did you wait so long?”
“Well, like I told you before, until that day when I saw you laugh, I didn’t even see you like that. You were just my little brother’s friend. Once I did see you as a potential mate, I started courting you, spending more time with you to find out if we were compatible.” Jesse didn’t know what to think of the sweet little smile that came over Sam’s face.
“Oh yeah, I remember. You were suddenly including me in everything, taking me places, and giving me your undivided attention.” Sam’s face colored as he chuckled. “I thought I had died and gone to heaven.”
“I’m sorry you had to wait for me to see it, Sam, but maybe my Lycan was waiting for you to be old enough for us.”
“Us?” Sam asked as he glanced over at him. “You talk as if you have two separate personalities.”
“I guess in a way I do. I can feel the beast inside of me. I feel his emotions, his wants and needs. But they are a lot more basic and simple than my human side. The beast wants to hunt, to eat, to protect what is his.” Jesse turned his head just enough that he could catch Sam’s reaction before continuing. “And he wants to fuck…a lot.”