Her lips burned in the cold, and it occurred to her that her mouth was hanging open, letting the frigid air in and drying her lips and tongue. She swallowed as she faced off with both men, licking her lips as she glanced from one to the other. “I’m not interested in mating.”
“Ever? Or with us?” Charles asked.
Tucking her fingers into the pockets of her coat to warm them, she shivered. “Ever.” There was no mistaking her intention. She’d not minced words. Were they dense?
Charles cocked his head and narrowed his gaze again. “You do realize this is inevitable, right? What are you afraid of?”
Jessica gasped. He’d hit the nail on the head and come way too close to reading her. She didn’t want anyone to dig into her brain and find out her secrets. It was her life, and she intended to live it in celibacy. They didn’t have stores full of vibrators and dildos for nothing. Somebody had to shop there.
“Please,” she pleaded, hearing the squeak in her voice. “I just want to go home.” Back to the apartment where I’ve lived for four and a half years. The one where I live alone with my toys. The very one I was abducted from in the fall. Where I cry myself to sleep at night, praying I never meet with another group of crazy religious freaks or run into anyone resembling a mate—like you two.
With a tear sliding precariously close to the edge of her eye, Jessica plowed past both men, yanked her car open, and climbed inside out of the frigid air.
Her fingers shook on the steering wheel as she drove away. She didn’t want to discuss what she’d been through for the past twelve years with anyone… How her parents had been murdered right before her eyes at the age of ten… How she’d been yanked from her perfect home and placed in human foster care… How much she feared succumbing to the same fate as her parents if she ever let her lupine side come to the surface. No, Jessica had no intention of ever shifting and running free. It wasn’t safe, and she wanted to stay alive.
Chapter 4
“Son, may I have a word with you, please?” Those deep words accompanied the stern face and furrowed brows of Charles’ father, Richard Masters.
Charles hadn’t even climbed from the truck yet. The man had appeared before he’d gotten the keys out of the ignition and the door open.
“You too, Reese.” Without pausing, the tall patriarch spun on his heel and walked toward the barn.
“Shit.” Charles glanced at Reese. “He’s not happy.”
“Let’s go.” Reese jumped from his side and crunched into the snow, the noise grating on Charles’ nerves at the moment.
Like two little boys, the men dragged themselves, tail and all, to the barn. Charles hadn’t felt this kind of confusion since the time he’d been spanked, scolded, and grounded when he was about ten for a pile of offenses he’d not committed and his older brothers had never fessed up to.
What now?
The barn was warmer than the outside, but somehow Charles didn’t feel all cozy when he gazed into his father’s eyes.
“What the hell is going on around here? And don’t feed me some line of bullshit. I wasn’t born yesterday. Let’s just cut to the chase, what da ya say?”
Charles narrowed his gaze and thought back to the events of the past several hours. Reese shuffled in the dirt next to him, his own imagined chagrin just as palpable as Charles’.
“Dad, I… Well, what are you talking about?”
His father’s eyebrows rose toward the roof. “Does the name Alyssa ring a bell to anyone?” He didn’t give them a chance to speak, which was a blessing since Charles couldn’t have known what to say yet. Where the hell was he going with this interrogation? “You two came waltzing in here yesterday, after six months of playing around. You bring a woman with you, whom I had to assume you had honorable intentions toward. And then,” he was nearly shouting now, “you traipse off this morning and don’t return for hours. Does that about sum it up?”
Silence. “Oh, he’s pissed.”
“Do you blame him?” Reese returned without moving an inch.
“You’ve been gone six hours. Six. What the hell were you doing?”
“We had to pick up Miranda from school, and—”
“All day? That was this morning. Half an hour, tops.”
Reese stepped forward, but Charles stopped him by clearing his throat. “It’s complicated.”
“It’s complicated?” his father mocked. “What the dickens is that supposed to mean?”
What should he say? How could he possibly explain this situation?
He couldn’t. They’d made a promise to Alyssa, and they needed to keep it. If that was even possible now. Wasn’t there some sort of natural law demanding an actual mate trump a potential mate?
Charles’ father glared back and forth between them, probably wondering at such odd behavior from two grown men. “That’s it? Neither of you has a word to say for yourselves?” He paused and then whipped his hat off his head to slap it across his leg.
Charles flinched. Rarely in his life had his father lost his temper. And the man had raised six children, five of whom were wild boys.
“Look here. I can smell a rat from a mile away. I wasn’t born yesterday. Whatever the hell you two are keeping mum about better damn well be good. Your mother is beside herself in there entertaining your date the entire day. Even your brother Michael stepped in to entertain your date for a while.
“Now, I know damn good and well this sweet woman who came home with you, Alyssa, is not mated to you two. She isn’t even mated to one of you. But the woman does have feelings, and if you have intentions toward her that extend beyond some sort of romp in the hay, then you’d better improve your bizarre behavior. If not, then I’m not sure why on earth you brought her home with you. None of you have ever brought a woman here who wasn’t your mate.”
“Dad, I—”
“Let me finish. We have opened our home to you three.” He glared hard at both of them, making Charles take a step back from his father and the look of disappointment on his face. “We are not opposed to your lifestyle. You know that. Hell, both of your older brothers are in committed relationships of three. Don’t think you surprised me when the two of you went gallivanting off to Texas. I knew what was up. I’m your father.” He stared at Charles and then turned his gaze toward Reese. “And I might as well be yours too, son.”
Charles swallowed hard. He hated keeping anything from his dad. And even worse was disappointing the man. His stomach clenched, threatening to toss his lunch.
“Dad, plenty of our kind meet someone they really like and are attracted to whom they later mate as time goes by.”
“Of course they do. I’m not refuting that. And if that is your hope and desire here, your mother and I will stand by you. Alyssa’s a nice girl. If you are waiting and hoping everything will click into place and you’ll claim her, we don’t have anything against that. But, if not…” His pointed gaze was poking holes in Charles. By now he didn’t just feel twelve, or ten, or eight, but more like six years old. And it made his head pound to think of the mess he was in. He and Reese.
“I suggest you think about this, pull yourselves together, and make your way to the house ASAP. Whatever’s going on, figure it out and figure it out fast, capisce?”
“Yes, sir,” both Charles and Reese stated at once, standing to their full heights and nodding their contrite heads.
Richard Masters marched out of the barn, his head shaking back and forth, his chin ducked toward his chest. He didn’t look back.
*
Reese looked at Charles before Richard was even out of earshot. “Now what do we do?”
Charles said nothing. He paced the barn, incoherent babble the only sound.
“Hello?” Putting this off wasn’t helping matters at all. They had to go inside and talk to Alyssa.
Charles halted his quick stomping movements. “I don’t know,” he nearly shouted. He threw his hands in the air. “I barely even care. That’s what sucks.” He pointed at the house. �
�I don’t even want to go in there. All I can think about is getting back in the vicinity of Jessica as fast as possible. Even if the woman won’t touch us, I can’t stand her being somewhere else. What if she runs?”
Reese sucked in a breath. It was true. There was no guarantee she wouldn’t leave town. He, of all people, certainly knew that. And obviously he was going to have to be the voice of reason at this particular moment.
“Okay, let’s go inside, sweep Alyssa into the bedroom, and make nice for a bit. Somehow we will find a way to escape as quickly as possible and get over to Jessica’s apartment. Plan?”
Charles scrunched his face and narrowed his eyes. “Plan? What the hell kind of plan is that? You don’t even have one. I think you left out the entire center. You know? That part where we explain ourselves to Alyssa and she reacts? What part of your plan fills the Oreo cream center here?”
“You have a better idea?” Reese turned to head toward the house. The crunch of boots behind him indicated Charles was following.
A cold wind blew across the short field between the buildings, lifting the soft, loose flakes of snow comprising the top layer that had fallen in the night. The effect was to make it appear to be snowing from the ground up. He squeezed his jacket tighter around him. How appropriate. Every detail of his life right now was upside down; why not the snow too?
* * * *
“Hello?” Jessica breathlessly grabbed her cell phone when she finally found the damn thing upside down on the bed. How long had it been ringing all muffled there from the quilt while she’d been stuffing clothes and toiletries into her suitcase?
She’d seen the caller ID before hitting Accept.
“Jessica? It’s Kara.” Jessica smiled for the first time since she’d blown into the apartment. No shit. They’d been friends for more than four years. Obviously Kara was at the top of her caller ID list, right up with her other former roommate Lindsey.
“Hey, hon. What’s going on? How are you feeling?”
“Huge.” Kara chuckled. “And overprotected. You’d think no one in the world had ever given birth before. And I still have several weeks.”
“Hey, what did you expect with two fierce, dominant men for partners.” Jessica knew they were mates. In fact, she knew more about Kara’s situation, and Lindsey’s too for that matter, than either of them did. Kara and Lindsey were both human. Jessica hadn’t ever wanted anyone to know she was a shifter. And now…
“True.” Her giggle lightened the load Jessica had been carrying since this morning. Kara was the sweetest person she knew. How the woman had managed to fall into a wolf ménage was beyond her. What were the chances? And then Lindsey too? It was ludicrous. As though fate were grabbing Jessica by the neck and shaking some sense into her.
Or cut off her oxygen supply.
“I was just calling to make sure you were still coming over tomorrow. Two o’clock.”
Fuck. “Umm…”
“Jessica Murphy, you promised. Don’t even think of flaking out on me now. It’s Christmas break, remember? There is no way I’m letting you stay home alone in that apartment and stare at the television. We are having a holiday gathering tomorrow, and you are coming.” She didn’t even pause. Kara was a talker. She wouldn’t stop to breathe until she’d made her point. “Everyone will be here. Lindsey and Ryan and Alejandro. Justin and Ryan’s parents, Richard and Nancy. You’ve met them, right? Their younger brother, Michael. Their sister, Tessa, and her family. Hell, even Charles is in town. You’ve not met him. He’s been away for half the year.”
Jessica sucked in a breath and held it. No fucking way could she go over there tomorrow. “Jess, I—”
“If you aren’t here at two, I’ll send Trevor and Justin after you.” Her voice had risen. Her mates were formidable if nothing else. “Don’t weasel out of this, Jess. You’re family. You’re like a sister to me. Don’t give me some crap about being a fourth wheel. Heck, with all those people, there is no way you could even feel left out. Christmas is in a few days, and I’m not leaving you holed up in that apartment alone during this break.”
If she flat-out refused, there would be a scene to rival all scenes right now. If she left town this evening for the holidays, she could at least straighten her head out at a hotel for a few weeks and wallow in self-pity before facing the wrath of her friends.
Right now she couldn’t even think, so arguing was out of the question. With the sweetest, most sincere voice she could muster, she muttered her reply. “You know I wouldn’t miss it, Kara. I’ll be there. Two o’clock sharp.”
Chapter 5
The pounding on the door was insistent. Jessica stuffed the last of her things into the suitcase and moaned. Five minutes. She’d only needed five more minutes and she would have been gone. She had no illusions about who was most likely at the door.
Shuffling her feet, she meandered down the hall and then peeked out the curtain.
Yep. There they were. Charles and Reese. And they were staring right at her when she glanced between the curtain and the glass pane.
Not that it mattered. Who was she kidding? She could smell them from the other side of the door. Obviously her scent wasn’t hidden from them either.
Jess leaned her forehead against the door, panting. Her stomach knotted. All the blood in her body raced to her center, stirring sensations she’d avoided her entire life. Feelings she’d never wanted to experience. A soft moan escaped her lips before she could stop it.
“Jessica?” The voice on the other side of the door, just two inches from her and separated only by the wood, was gentle and concerned. It was also Reese’s. “Can we come in?”
No.
How could she do this? If she let them in, would she have the strength to put them off? Convince them she wasn’t a flight risk, so to speak, and buy herself another night?
Hell, if she didn’t let them in, would they leave?
“We aren’t leaving, babe.” Charles’ voice was almost as calm as Reese’s. The average person would have dismissed it as so. But he’d spoken through gritted teeth. “Just talk to us. Please?”
Would they beg? She almost grinned. Imagine that. Sweet, innocent, unassuming Jessica with two wolves at the door begging for her attention. Not something she’d ever expected to experience, or wanted.
Reese spoke again. “You can’t stay in there forever. We can wait you out. But, why?”
Fine. She just wanted to get this over with. It was bad enough she was about to let down the two women who were both her best friends and her former roommates, practically sisters, by not showing up at their party tomorrow. Now, she was going to destroy the natural tendencies of two men who’d done nothing to deserve this, save fall for a woman as broken and emotionally unavailable as Jess.
With a slow squeak, Jessica gradually pulled the door open. She didn’t look them in the eye, but she stood back to allow them entrance.
Along with a giant gust of chilly air, Reese and Charles filled the entrance and pushed the door shut behind them.
“We have to talk, Jess.” Reese’s gentle voice and the use of her familiar nickname tugged at her heart. Kara and Lindsey must have spoken of her as “Jess” in front of them.
She flinched, wondering if they’d told anyone about this unfortunate situation yet.
These men hadn’t done anything wrong. They were just slaves to the way of the lupines, same as herself.
Charles reached one hand toward her face and raised her chin so he could meet her gaze. No swift movements that would scare her. His hand came in front of her in full view. But nothing, absolutely nothing, could have prepared her for his touch against her cheek and chin, caressing the skin and sending goose bumps down her entire body.
“We must talk, love.” Those barely audible words wafted into her ear from Reese’s mouth, along with his breath. Minty fresh as though he’d brushed his teeth in the car before approaching her door. How considerate. And presumptuous.
“I can’t do this. I told you … e
arlier.”
“Why?” Charles let go of her chin, but the damage had been done. He’d caused her pussy to weep.
“That’s my business. I don’t want to talk about it.” Because I’m scared. Because I’ve seen things no human, or wolf, should see. Because if I never love, I never have to hurt again.
“With all due respect, Jess,” Reese began, “I think whatever happens to you is actually our business too.”
She gasped and stepped back. Hardly.
She knew enough to realize how these relationships went. Besides the multitude of problems at the top of her list—having to shift into wolf form, losing herself to the pull of her first heat, flipping the world she’d so calculatedly created upside down—there was also the issue of dominance so prominent in the lupine culture. In a heartbeat, against her good intentions, these two men could have her beneath them at their beck and call, begging for their attention.
Shit. Who was she kidding? They’d practically already accomplished that.
“Well, that’s where you’re wrong.” She rose to her full height, at least average for a woman, but paling in comparison to these brutes crowding her apartment with their damn pheromones. “I didn’t work so hard for the last twelve years to get out of school, earn my teaching degree, and find a good steady job, just to toss it all away the first time a pretty face—or two—shows up at the door.”
Both men flinched. In a dance that reminded her of a wrestling match, the three gradually circled each other—two of them waiting for just the right opportunity to pounce and go in for the pin.
Charles spoke. “Is that what you think? That we’d strip away your identity?”
“Wouldn’t you?”
“Of course not, love.” That was the second time Reese had called her by that endearment, and the second time the tingling sensation ran down her spine when he did. It rolled off his tongue so fluidly, as though he’d called her that for years. And it pissed her off her body reacted so positively, affirming his claim, instead of rejecting his overture.
Jessica's Wolves (Wolf Masters, Book 3) Page 3