Taming Jax (First Wave Book 5) (25 page)

The energy sparked and snapped around them as Reven fell to the bed and pulled her into his arms. It felt so natural when she curled close to his side and put a leg and arm over him. Reven couldn’t help but hug her and kiss the top of her head.

He had hoped that Jax would now be a little more open to creating a real family with him and the girls. Those hopes were crushed moments later when Jax gasped and sat up to grab her arm.

“What the fuck?” She hissed between her teeth as little prickles ran up her arm. It didn’t hurt at all; it just felt really strange, and she didn’t like it.

Reven reached over and turned on the bedside lamp, looking at his own arm. He knew what it was and couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming happiness, but he knew that was not how Jax would think of it.

Jax looked blankly at her left arm for a moment before screaming inside her head. Oh my God! She thought as she stared at the intricate and detailed swirls and designs that now decorated the upper part of her left arm from elbow to shoulder.

“It’s the Ator-Ma.” Reven said unnecessarily, unable to stop the smile from spreading across his face as he looked at his matching marks on his arm and shoulder.

Jax looked at him with a blank stare, her mouth hanging open slightly as if in shock. She ran her hand over it, to see how it felt and was surprised when there were no raised bumps or any pain. It was as if it just erupted under her skin. She couldn’t deny it was beautiful. However, it wasn’t the aesthetics that bothered her.

The fog of energy and passion that surrounded them earlier dissipated in an instant as awareness hit her hard. “Oh God!” Jax said almost breathless.

“Jax…” Reven began, reaching out for her.

Jax jerked away from him. “Don’t! Just don’t!” She said as she looked around the bed frantically for her clothes.

Reven spotted her robe, not even remembering taking it off of her earlier. He handed it to her and felt a little sad when she yanked it out of his hand and turned her back to him to put it on.

He fought the need to comfort her, to ease her mind and watched her slide off of the bed. Giving him a wide berth, she skirted around the bed to the door and bolted out before he could say anything else.

Reven sighed and sat heavily on the side of the bed. He could feel the bonding strands weaving tighter between them and smiled. His mate was feeling a little overwhelmed right now. He could feel it throbbing through the stronger bonds forming between them.

He felt nothing but happiness and excitement. If he was feeling the bonds this strongly, then he knew that it was affecting her as well. Reven hadn’t thought past the mating, assuming that if it happened that things would change between them. That she would be more open to him.

It may not be happening as magically as he had assumed it would, but he could feel how much she cared for him, how confused she was, and he knew that she just needed a little time. He had over a thousand years to fantasize and wonder about finding his mate. Jax, on the other hand, never wanted one.

Reven turned his light out and laid down on his bed. He smiled when he could still smell her scent all around him. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the energy strands binding them and inspected every part.

Between his superior senses and the new energy binding them, he could almost see her in his mind as she walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle from the cabinet. He watched and heard her pad down the hallway and close her bedroom door silently behind her.

He expected it to bother him that she would try to diminish her feelings in alcohol, but instead it excited him and gave him hope. If she was feeling so strongly for him that she felt the need to dull it, then he knew that it was only a matter of time before she finally gave in. He just needed to help push her to do it soon. Already his body craved her beside him.

He smiled as he sensed her flop on her bed and relax back before sending a gentle wave of love and comfort to her. Reven could feel her easy acceptance of it and knew that she had no idea that it had come from him. Yet. He hoped that she would come around before she realized just how easily it was to manipulate the binding strands between them.

Determined to make her see her true feelings for him; he plotted how to keep her off balance. How to keep her from fighting the inevitable and accept their destiny. Together. As a complete family.

His beautiful and passionate mate was stubborn, but he had hundreds of years to hone his patience and determination, and he wasn’t about to lose her now. Not after he had finally tasted forever in her arms. A forever he never thought to have.

With more hope than he’d felt in a long time, Reven smiled as he put his arms behind his head and plotted the emotional seduction of his now bonded mate.

*****

Jax sat on the side of her bed and sighed when she realized she forgot to get a glass to go with the bottle. Looking at it, she grunted in frustration when she realized that she also grabbed the wrong bottle. She hated the peppermint flavored crap and only got it because a few of her team members loved the stuff, so she kept it on hand for them.

Fuck it, Jax thought as she cracked open the cap and took a long swallow, straight from the bottle. She winced as she swallowed it, the nasty, chemical flavor of the faux peppermint making her gag for a second.

There was no way in hell she was going back out there to get a different bottle. She wasn’t about to take the chance that Reven would confront her. Jax took another swig as she realized that she wasn’t sure what she would do if he did.

Every run through in her mind ended up with her on her back, and Reven buried deep inside of her again. Damn if the thought didn’t make her want to hang out in the hallway until he gave her an excuse to give in.

Jax gulped down another large mouthful to try to douse the heat that filled her at the thought of being with Reven again. Damn the man! She thought angrily, trying not to scream her frustration. Why did he have to be so damn sexy? So wonderful with the kids and little Wolfen? Not to mention the way he could excite her so easily.

As if he had found all of her weaknesses and exploited each one. It had been incredible she thought with a sigh. And she wanted more. Already.

Getting up to pace beside her bed, she took another large swig, the horrible taste barely registering now. Jax pulled down her robe and stared at the beautiful, tattoo like design that covered her upper arm and shoulder.

Well, tank tops are out of the question now; she thought. There was no way in hell she wanted to deal with the crap the others would shovel at her over it. Granted, they would find out sooner or later but she damn sure wasn’t going to willingly display it to everyone like a badge of honor or something.

She winced at how horrible that sounded, even in her head. Great, now the damn man was making her feel guilty for her thoughts! Jax growled and took another swig from the bottle.

Ok, she conceded to herself; he wasn’t as bad as she thought he was. He still had moments of assholiness, but he really did make up for them in other ways. Hell, she could barely think of the last time he was an asshole. The only things that flashed in her mind were images of his naked body entwined with hers or his compassion and affection for the children and an orphan dog.

Jax slumped on the bed. Things would be so much easier if he had stayed an asshole. She had never had a problem dredging up anger at him before now, and she didn’t like that all she could muster was slight irritation and tons of affection along with a healthy dose of need just to really fuck with her day.

She didn’t even bother to try to convince herself that it was just lust, and the fact that she hadn’t had sex in a long time. The lie was too much for even her to take seriously and there was no doubt that she felt more drawn to him than ever before.

Jax took another swallow of the now half-empty bottle and leaned back against the wall as she wondered why this had to happen now. She had just gotten comfortable with her life. With herself and her abilities. Then that damn man came along and turned her life upside down.

Now look at her. She was hiding in her bedroom, chugging some nasty shit to dull the emotional overload that was overwhelming her. In the room right next to hers, were two beautiful but damaged children who needed her and the damn man who was driving her insane on the other side of them. Not including the distraught puppy in the bathroom who wanted nothing to do with her.

Yeah, she was a long way from the confident and stable warrior she had become before that damn man stormed into her life. The part that bothered her the most was, that even if she could, she wouldn’t go back to a world without him or the kids in it. Even little Wolfen.  

It was like they had buried themselves into her heart so quickly that she wouldn’t survive if they left and took those pieces with them. She couldn’t even think about it without feeling like she was being torn apart.

How the hell, can she salvage this; she wondered. Jax knew she couldn’t just give in. It wasn’t in her to do that, so it wasn’t an option. However, she also knew she couldn’t fight it. Even now her body ached with the need to touch him, to cuddle beside him.

She needed boundaries, for herself and for him. Whether he liked it or not. She needed time to adjust, to get used to this new situation and figure out how to make it work. For all of them.

Kids or no kids, she wouldn’t give up the fight. Ever. This was what she was meant to do, who she was meant to be, and she couldn’t see herself fitting in anywhere else. She wasn’t the type to be a soccer mom, housewife, baker or anything other than a warrior. Nor was she willing to just surrender to the damn man.

He’d take it as an excuse to chain her to the house until he killed her spirit and made her miserable. No man, no matter how sexy was going to make her feel trapped like that. She needed the stimulation, the excitement and camaraderie of the teams and their missions.

Besides, Jax thought, mothers all over the world balanced dangerous jobs with families all the time. She could easily do the same. Granted, being a mom was a bit more than she expected, but it was doable with some effort, scheduling and planning. And Reven’s help.

Feeling better now that she felt more in control over her fate, Jax set the bottle on the table and turned off the light before crawling under her covers. Her last thought was of that damn man before she drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Fifteen

Jax turned over on her side and groaned at the light streaming through the curtains. She must have out drank her metabolism because her head was killing her. Burying her head under the covers to block out the light, she tried to ignore the pounding inside her head.

She struggled to remember if she had anywhere to be this morning and shot up as she remembered the children. And Reven. Ignoring the pain in her head, Jax threw on a pair of black sweat pants and a long-sleeve black shirt to cover her Ator-Ma.

Wincing at the sound of the door handle rattling when she tried to open it quietly, Jax threw open the door and headed down the hallway. She glanced in the girl’s room as she passed even though she knew they weren’t in there.

Following the whispers and giggles into the kitchen she stopped at the doorway and watched Reven, noting he had also chosen a long-sleeve shirt today. Ugh, she thought, not wanting to think about the conversation they really needed to have.

Reven stood at the stove, Bayla in her high chair and Melina standing next to him. Jax could tell by the nauseating smells that they were cooking breakfast. Again. She was starting to feel bad about leaving him stuck doing it, but she had no desire to take over. Not this morning anyway. Maybe tomorrow.

She shuffled over to the cabinet and grabbed two pain relievers. As she turned toward the sink for a glass, Reven was there with a beautiful smile on his face and a glass of water in his hand.

Jax grunted as she took the glass from him and gratefully downed the pills, hoping they’d kick in quick. It’d been a long time since she’d out drank her metabolism and wasn’t in the mood for a refresher on how miserable it felt.

“Should I call Amun?” Reven asked with concern as, he noticed Jax’s slightly green tinted skin.

Jax shook her head slowly, unwilling to instigate more pain. “I’ll be fine when the pills kick in. How many bottles did we drink?”

Reven stifled a chuckle, not wanting to cause her more pain with the sound. She looked a little nauseated, and he felt bad for her. “We had two… basically a full bottle each since we went drink for drink. I do not know how much you consumed… later."  

Honestly, Reven didn’t expect to see her for a few more hours. He was much larger than she was and even he had felt a little buzzing in his head last night from all the alcohol they had drunk in such a short period of time. He’d felt perfectly fine when he woke up a few hours ago though.  

Wolfen’s cries had woken him, and he’d run into the bathroom to get the puppy before he woke up the girls or Jax. The kids were already awake though and sitting on Melina’s bed, playing quietly. Since Melina already changed Bayla’s diaper and clothes, Reven let them go outside with him to walk Wolfen in the yard.

He’d never had a pet, so he didn’t know if the dog was brilliant or if Bayla was helping the puppy to learn. But the puppy hadn’t made any messes in the house and had gotten into the habit of whining when he needed to go outside to use the bathroom.

Reven thought that was a little too smart for the very young dog and Melina confirmed for him that Bayla and Jax had been helping the puppy to learn. They even reminded him to cry when he needed to go out.

He hadn’t realized how much fun it would be to have a pet until Bayla and Melina had started playing with the puppy while they were in the yard. The playful and happy animal had pounced and barked and chased Melina around the yard until he had laughed so hard he had tears in his eyes.

He was still getting used to the Sibiox having sentience and unique personalities. Seeing the puppy display the same kind of intelligence, and personality surprised him. He’d never really paid much attention to animals before.

As Ivint’s Military Commander, he’d never had the time to pay much attention to anything but protecting the Valendran people. Now he wished that he’d taken the time to learn. He could see now, what it was that Jax loved so much about the animals she cared for and coddled.

Unlike people, animals were honest in emotions. They didn’t lie or betray you. They were always happy to see you, even on a bad day. And the uninhibited love they showed was humbling, Reven thought as he leaned down to give Wolfen a piece of ham and a pet. He couldn’t help but smile as the puppy took it from him gently and wagged his tail so hard his whole body swayed back and forth with the motion.

“How about I feed the girls and Wolfen while you get a shower and let the medicine kick in?” Reven suggested as Jax headed to the coffee pot.

Jax grunted in response as she filled her cup as close to the brim as possible without spilling it. Taking a large gulp she sighed as the steaming, strong goodness already started to make her feel better.

She refilled her cup, pulled a chair out and sat down at the table to watch Reven and Melina cook, while Bayla laughed and cooed at them. She had to give him credit; he was a really good cook. Even his coffee was the best coffee she’d ever had outside of an actual coffee shop. Her curiosity got the best of her, and she had to ask him.  

“So how did you get so good at cooking?” Jax couldn’t imagine that the second in command to the High Councilor of an entire planet, had been forced to cook for himself. She was surprised when Reven laughed.

“Lots of trial and error. You’d be surprised at what you will try to learn on your own when you are hungry enough.” Reven said as he flipped the pancakes in the air expertly, causing the girls to gasp and then clap.

He may have tried to distract her with his little food flipping, but Jax picked up on the sadness in his voice and energy as he said it. There was a lot more to that than he was telling her, and she really hoped her friend was getting her some information on him that would give her a clue.

She wouldn’t delve more deeply with the girls here right now though. Especially since she was terrified it would lead to a talk about what happened last night, and she just wasn’t ready for that. Not yet. Not wanting to instigate that conversation, she kept her tone light.

“Well, you must have a natural inclination for it. I’ve been making coffee for most of my life and still can’t make it this good.” Jax admitted as she stood to refill her cup again.

Reven beat her to it and already had the pot in his hand. He refilled both of their cups, put the pot back and went back to cooking breakfast. She was surprised when he laughed.

“Good thing you weren’t around when I tried to fry dry spaghetti noodles or when I bought head cheese thinking that I had to pick out each item and cook it separately.” Reven laughed at Jax’s over exaggerated shudder when he mentioned head cheese.

“Yeah, that is some seriously nasty stuff that I will never purchase again. I can’t believe I thought that was how they created ‘bulk’ items.” Reven admitted with a slight blush to his cheeks.

Jax laughed so hard there were tears in her eyes as she tried to envision him picking out all the nasty bits in that clear jelly substance. And he thought that was what they meant by bulk packaging? She laughed even harder.

Reven was happy to see Jax laugh, even if it was at his expense. She had a beautiful laugh that sent shivers up and down his body. He could feel her nervousness and knew she wasn’t ready to talk about last night. Yet. With no desire to get her wound up, he kept up with the light chatter.

“I was buying so much stuff, trying to figure out how to make something edible, that David took pity on me and showed me where to find cookbooks on your Internet. He had a really good laugh when he realized that I didn’t know the directions were on some of the packages. If I had only bothered to look…” Reven said dramatically as he shook his head. He was rewarded with another hearty laugh from Jax and Melina.

“So there was something you weren’t good at, but you fixed that.” Jax said through a grin, having no doubt that there were few things that the man wasn’t good at or hadn’t figured out already.

“There are a lot of things I am not good at, but if I can learn something, then I don’t mind learning all I can. You never know when some strange thing you learned in the past can come in handy. Or even save your life.” Reven said almost distractedly, peaking Jax’s curiosity. He recovered quickly though and Jax could almost see his defenses go back up.

Not wanting to ruin the peaceful moment, Jax let it go and just enjoyed the pain receding in her head as she sipped her coffee and watched the sexy man flip pancakes. By the time he was serving the food on the plates for the girls, Jax’s appetite had kicked in, and she realized she was starving.

“Do you still have enough for me?” Jax asked, feeling bad that she’d waited until he was done cooking to ask.

Reven laughed. “I assumed your head would be a little better by the time it was done.” Reven said as he placed a plate in front of her, piled high with fluffy eggs, pancakes and ham.

She was going to help him with the girls, but he had already handed a plate to Melina and had placed cut up pancakes and eggs on the high-chair tray in front of Bayla.

Jax waited until he sat down beside her with his own plate before digging in. The first bite of fluffy pancakes had her moaning. They were so light and airy that they tasted like a cross between a crepe and a pancake.  

“These are so good!” Jax said as she forked another bite into her mouth. She would have been a little embarrassed by her reaction if Melina hadn’t agreed with her.

“Oh my gosh!” Melina said before she shoveled a bigger bite into her mouth and moaned as she closed her eyes, savoring the food.

Reven chuckled. “I take it pancakes are going to be well received for breakfast?”

“Breakfast hell! When I was growing up, we would have breakfast foods for dinner sometimes. I certainly wouldn’t complain about having these for dinner either. Don’t you think so too Melina?” Jax asked as she finished off her two pancakes, her eggs and ham still untouched.

Melina just shook her head, her mouth full with her own pancakes. Jax couldn’t help but laugh at the girls, both of their mouths stuffed full of pancakes. Not that she could blame them, she was wishing that Reven had made more. Even Bayla was saying ‘mmmm’ and smacking her lips as she ignored the eggs and stuffed more pancakes in her mouth. Reven laughed at the girls.

“I admit to having breakfast foods for dinner quite often when I was first learning to cook Earth food. Other than the first time when I broke eggs into boiling water thinking that was how they were made; I was able to figure out how to cook them pretty easily.”

“I thought I was really doing great when I figured out I could make a whole meal out of them by throwing in just about anything. I found that there isn’t much that doesn’t taste good in an omelet.” Reven said with a grin.

“Is that a ‘yes’ that you’ll make them for dinner sometime?” Jax asked as she pushed her eggs around her plate, wishing they were pancakes.

Reven watched as Melina and Jax pushed their eggs and ham around on their plates while trying not to stare at the two pancakes he had on his own plate. With a grin and a sigh, Reven gave a pancake to each of them.

“Oh, I don’t want to take yours!” Jax protested unconvincingly while Melina looked up at Reven with gratitude and started tearing off a few pieces of the new pancake for Bayla.

“Eat it, but give me your eggs if you aren’t going to eat them.” Reven said and within seconds, Melina and Jax had both dumped their uneaten eggs on his plate. Even Bayla threw a piece of her eggs towards his plate, causing everyone to laugh before Wolfen sucked it off the floor like a vacuum along with anything else that the baby dropped.