by B. N. Kasner
With Noah's luck lately, he'd be the one getting attacked by Jeremy. Maybe that could be a backup plan, though. If things started to go south, Noah could unleash a crazy, feral wolf on them. Convince Jeremy that someone was going to hurt his stupid, little bitch and he'd lose it. Goddess be damned. I'm a genius.
While the shifters cleaned up after Jeremy, Noah would be making his way east. Those idiots would be none the wiser. He'd already set his next plan in motion, and his next ally was waiting for him along the coast. For a moment he considered his revenge being completed after stealing Mason's child. A small laugh escaped him. As if. He wanted to hurt each member of the council individually, along with that damn inner circle.
“Shut up, you old bat. Or are your ear's so full of hair that you can't hear anymore?” The young pup smirked at him. He had so much to learn but would more than likely be dead before he figured that out. Noah wasn't torn up over that fact. It was no surprise they hated each other. Both of them were just using the other.
He was sure if Jeremy didn't need him anymore he'd wake up with a knife buried in his back. He was losing patience with the pup. His constant need to follow the blonde bimbo was grating on Noah's nerves. All of his taunting with the pictures and notes wasn't part of Noah's plan. He wanted to stay under the radar, not broadcast to the town he was back.
As long as everything went according to Noah's plan, they'd both be able to walk away unharmed and in control. However, if things didn't work out? He'd cut his losses and throw Jeremy to the bears. Literally.
****
"Oh, it's beautiful. Don't cha think?" Lani was amazed at the craftsmanship of the crib in front of her. Lani was out of the house since she and Ella were shopping for nursery furniture. It wasn't because being in the same house as Gene was suffocating her. Fighting and sleeping alone in bed, when she was used to being cherished and pampered.
"Very, Mason said Carter was carving a set for me, though." Lani gave her a "what the hell" look. There was no love lost between Ella and Carter. For some reason, he held a grudge against Ella. Lani thought it was that he lost his best friend to a woman. It wouldn't be a big deal when Carter mated, then he'd understand the pull to bond.
"I know what you're thinking because I thought the same thing. Carter doing something nice for me?" She paused and widened her eyes dramatically. "I guess it's a peace offering. He's tired of getting salt in his coffee."
“You don't?” Lani laughed, fingering a silky baby blanket.
“Of course I do, and last week I changed out his pepper with cinnamon.” She doubled over with laughter, holding her growing belly.
“You're never going to get rid of that trick, are you?”
“Heck no.” Ella sighed, wiping tears from the corner of her eyes. “Anyway, I just thought he'd make you a set since your Grace's sister-in-law.”
“Maybe if Gene didn't tear his head off every time he even looks at Grace.”
"Good point." Ella conceded, picking up a tiny onesie with a wolf on it. "I'm surprised Gene even let you out of his sight." Lani picked up a small dress with flowers on it.
“I've got a chaperon. You're brother.” Lani pointed out the window to Isaiah's SUV. “He was happy to get me out of the house.”
“Yeah right. I don't buy that for a second.” Ella grabbed both the onesie and the dress from Lani's hands and put them in her cart.
“Hey, I saw that first.”
“And you can have it after you tell me what's going on. I don't need enhanced senses to know your anxious, jumpy, and depressed.” Next bottles went into the cart. Obviously, Ella was going to keep shopping. And here I thought this was going to be relaxing.
“After everyone left the other night, Gene let me know he expects to be mated before the baby comes.” Ella was silent as she browsed the toy section.
“And?” Ella asked confused.
“And what?”
“That's what has your fur in a ruffle? Really?” She made it sound like Lani was overreacting. She wasn't. Right? Besides, Gene had only brought up mating after they'd found the note from Jeremy. Lani knew he wanted to be mated, either way, she could feel it in her bones. Maybe it was her own doubts holding her back.
"I just got him. I can't lose him already." Once the words were out of her mouth, Lani knew she was scared. What would she do without Gene? He'd come to be the center of her world. He and her child were all that mattered to Lani.
She'd relied on Gene. Why did Jeremy have to enter back into her life and ruin it? Couldn't he just leave her be and go find his own mate?
"You can't let Jeremy ruin your life. The only thing tearing you and Gene apart is you." It hurt to hear her best friend's reaction, but it was the truth. It was her fault her mate wouldn't stay in the same room with her. Sure that first night, he'd slept on the floor, but the past two nights? Gene had spent those in the soon to be nursery.
"It's alright to be scared, but you can't let fear rule your life." Ella pulled her into a hug, which was hard to do, due to their bellies. "Mason almost lost me because he was afraid. Don't tell him I know he get's scared, though, it'll ruin his tough guy image." She winked at Lani before a whole shelf of toys went in the cart.
“Ella, we don't need that many toys.”
“These are all for my baby bear. You're not getting these.”
“You're totally serious.”
"Hell yes, I am. We never got this many toys and my young will have it all." Lani was glad she didn't laugh when she realized Ella had been serious. Ella grew up in a different environment than Lani. She'd had everything while her best friend had to fight for scarps of attention.
Then when the focus became a bad thing, Ella had had to blend into the shadows and run away. It was no wonder that she wanted her child to have anything it's little heart could ever desire.
“How'd you know you were ready for mating?”
"My wolf. You know me, I've always been impulsive." Ella laughed at Lani's, "I've heard this before," look. "Well, she told me to bite him and I did. Seduced him and everything. Definitely channeled my inner Lani.”
"You little slut. I'm proud of you. Maybe I should do the same thing. Just take the biting plunge." Ella's cheeks turned a light shade of red.
“I may have sprung it on Mason with absolutely no talking about it at all.”
“You're kidding me?”
"Nope." Now her cheeks, neck, and chest were a dark red color.
“Look at you, putting on your big girl lacy panties.”
"Are you going to wear lacy panties?" Ella whispered the words lacy panties like they were a bad word. Lani was tempted to talk louder when an older woman looked at them from across the store.
“No panties will work better with my mate.” Sure enough, the woman across the store threw the diapers in her hand down on the shelf before walking off.
“Lani Maybell!” Ella shirked. “You did that on purpose.” She bumped Lani with her shoulder, almost knocking her into the stacked bathtubs. Do babies really need all this stuff? She suddenly wished she was doing this with Gene. He seemed to know everything about babies and what they needed.
"Isn't being reunited with me fun?"
“Hell yeah. Now all we need is Alex to come walking in so you can gawk at him.”
"That was a long time ago, and I have Gene. No offense to your brother but... he doesn't hold a candle to my mate." Lani had had a crush on Alex until she was seventeen. She'd grown out of her childhood fantasies and realized Alex wasn't her mate. Not to mention he'd only ever seen her as a little sister. Especially after Ella ran off.
"Maybe you should bite him then." Lani knew she could seduce Gene, it was a relatively simple process, but was she strong enough not to be scared?
“Maybe I will, nosey.” Lani picked out a bedding set with forest animals on it. “By the way, do you know what you're having? Should I be getting boy or girl clothes?”
“We're not finding out, so get some of both.” Ella had that gleam in her eyes. Th
e one where she was playing out a joke no one but her knew anything about. “You getting that set for you? It's adorable.” Lani looked down at the little animals playing around a tree.
The wolf stood out at her of course, but there wasn't a bear. She could sew like nobody's business, and putting a bear on it wouldn't be that hard. If Lani thought about it lately, she'd been sewing the pieces of her life back together. She hadn't actually lived since high school, to terrified about some unknown consequences. It was time for her to put her fears to rest and get her mate into bed.
“Yeah I'm getting it.” And a mate when I go home.
Chapter Thirteen
Gene was ready to apologize. Not to mention his back was hurting from sleeping on the floor. That had been the worst part, being away from his mate overnight. He wasn't sure how he'd slept apart from her for twenty-six years, but Gene knew he couldn't do it another night. He'd barely slept, just rolled around on the floor of the nursery, reaching out trying to find Lani's soft body. Except all he'd found was the floor.
Besides, it wasn't a big deal that Lani wanted to wait. The only thing that mattered was that she was safe and happy. Being stressed out wasn't good for the baby. Lani had been trying to hide the fact that her morning sickness was back with a vengeance. Whenever she was anxious, Lani got sick. For the first time, Gene was willing to put his own wants aside for someone else.
He wasn't even prepared to do that for Grace, although he'd be willing to try. Only because Lani would want him too. He'd decided that at the first available opportunity, or whenever Gene could corner Carter, he'd interrogate, er... question, him on his intentions with Grace. At least the plan involved staying calm and not beating him to a pulp. For now. The plan can change depending on what the jackass says regarding Grace.
The only okay part about staying in the baby's room was Gene was able to start renovating it. He'd known he wanted to finish the room in time for it to be Lani's Christmas present. One of them. The rest he had stashed in the back of the garage. Originally, he'd been going to ask Carter to make all the furniture for his young's room.
However, after all the tension between Carter, Grace and himself, it didn't sound like a good idea. Which sucked balls because Carter could carve beautiful, handmade pieces of custom furniture from scratch. Until he had the furnishings nailed down, he was going to work on everything else.
Since they didn't know the gender yet, Gene painted the walls a pale shade of yellow. They could always repaint it later. Fuck, he'd repaint the walls a thousand times if that's what Lani wanted. For now, she wanted to wait on the mating. So he'd begrudgingly wait. His cell phone brought him out of his thinking.
He practically ran down the stairs to get into the kitchen. Maybe it's Lani, and I can make the past couple days up to her. Gene didn't make it to the phone. A picture taped to his patio door caught his attention. Motherfucker. It couldn't be. There was no way that fucking coward was able to get onto his back porch and Gene not know about it.
And yet, there it was. Another picture of Lani. This time of her half dressed in their bedroom. Again there was a note crudely written on the back of it.
I'm getting closer to my mate.
Next time I see her, she'll be completely bared to me.
Gene roared so loud the windows in his house shook.
“How the fuck is this happening?!” He screamed into his empty home. Gene was a second from tearing up the picture when something caught his eye. The photos were being developed by a shop in New Westward. Interesting. It was the only thing keeping him from shredding the photo into a million little pieces.
Had Noah honestly been this informed of their patrols? Or was someone else inside helping him? They'd caught the guard who'd been bribed by Noah to let him free, almost four months ago. Said guard had immediately confessed and told them he hadn't heard from Noah since. Hell, the poor cub had only helped Noah in the first place because he was confused about an elder being contained.
But now? How the hell had Jeremy been so close to his house and Gene or Lani never knew about it. Gene felt his bear pushing at his skin, wanting out to hunt the wolf targeting their mate. He didn't have the willpower in him to refuse. Hunt him down to the ends of the earth. One moment Gene was opening the patio door, and the next his bear was roaring.
Letting his prey know the hunt was on. In his bear form, Gene didn't have much control. It was usually a problem but, it was for the best in the current fucked up situation. Bear could be savage on a good day and half feral on a bad one. Today is a very fucking bad day. It didn't help that he'd been deprived of his mate the past couple nights, making already bad conditions, worse. After sniffing around for what felt like forever, the bear finally got the scent of something.
It was shifter, but it smelled sick, which was not a good sign. If this was Jeremy's scent, the wolf was going feral. Fast. He needed to be found and put down as soon as possible, and with the addition of the latest note added on top of everything else? Gene felt like he was going to lose his mind. All thoughts of letting Lani wait to be mated flew out of his head.
No way was he letting some sick, feral wolf take his mate. The only for sure way he'd be able to find her was if they were mated. For a non-mated pair, they already had a strong bond. A bond that wasn't supposed to be there at all. Gene was confident that when they fully bonded he'd be able to tell which direction her presence was coming from. At least he hoped with all his heart he'd be able to. Mason could tell which direction Ella was in at any time unless she was over one hundred miles away.
Bear followed the trail until he reached a stream. The scent stopped, and he couldn't find it leading away. Lumbering back to his house Gene felt helpless and desperate. He'd be calling Isaiah to check on Lani and then Mason to update him. It was time to come up with a plan to stop these psychos in their territory. He just hoped they could stop Jeremy and Noah before anything happened. Perhaps all the females should be on lock down.
Mason's dad, Goddess rest his soul, hadn't taken the human anti-shifter group seriously. Micheal had thought the group wasn't in his town and thus Gene's mother had died. It had taken most of his teenage years to stop blaming Mason for his dad's mistake, but he wasn't about to be as naive. Hell, Gene still felt responsible for his mom's death as well.
If he hadn't been out trying to find honey in the dark, his mom would've never been outside. She would've been making dinner like she did every night. Laughing and joking at the cute faces Grace used to make. Giving his dad shit about not taking out the trash, making him grumble before caving. But no, she'd been out looking for him.
Gene couldn't go through that again, losing someone he loved and not being able to do anything about it. I can't lose her. I won't make it if I do. If all he could do to protect Lani was mate with her, then that's what he was going to do. No matter how hard he had to push her to see, it was the only way. As long as it kept his mate safe, he'd do anything, including putting her wishes on the back burner.
****
Lani knew the moment she stepped out of Gene's truck something was off. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. She turned quickly and stared into the woods. Jeremy was out there watching her. Lani shivered, how was he staying hidden? She hefted her shopping bags onto her shoulder.
There was no way she was making two trips. It worried her that Gene hadn't come storming out the front door yet. He never let her carry bags anymore. Her mate had been treating her like a porcelain doll since the first photo of her surfaced. That included not touching her. Well, he was still loving and caring, but there hadn't been anything sexual.
Lani was being deprived of her mate in the most basic way. That ends tonight. Her wolf was in agreement but also amped up over something.
“Big guy, I'm home.” She hollered in case Gene wasn't on the first floor. Dropping her bags, Lani dead-bolted the front door. No one's getting inside my house. The house had quickly become her sanctuary. It was her happy place, holding all her hopes and dreams for t
he future.
“Lani!” Her mate moved so fast around the corner he actually blurred in her vision. “Let me look at you.” Gene grasped her upper arms, looking her over frantically.
"What's wrong?" She tried to calm him by stroking his jaw, but he trembled even more with her hands on him. Something had worked her mate into a frenzy, and not a good one. This was not what she'd been expecting to find. "Talk to me," Lani whispered, feeling tears gather behind her eyes. She didn't like seeing her stable mate so worked up.
His touching was still frantic and all over her body, however, it had also turned tender and loving. She leaned into his touch, seeking comfort in his warmth. Suddenly his lips were on hers in a desperate and hard kiss. Lani didn't know how he'd done it, but she bumped against an end table in another room. The fire crackling gave her, her exact location since Lani wasn't letting the moment pass to double check her surroundings.
“Tell me your mine.” His lips moved to her neck, nibbling the soft skin there.
“I'm yours.” She didn't hesitate. Firstly, there was no reason too and secondly, because it would've only pushed Gene closer to whatever edge he was hovering around.
“Again.”
“I'm yours, and only yours.” Her clothes were rapidly making a pile on the floor, but that was alright with her. This wasn't how she'd wanted to get sexual attention from her mate, but they both needed it. Hell, maybe the lack of sex was what had brought this whole thing about?
Gene stepped back, his eyes shining that golden color that melted her insides. It wasn't fair that she was now naked and he was still fully clothed. Time to fix that. She pounced on him, pushing him down onto the couch and ripping his clothes off. Lani sank to her knees to tug off his pants and boxers.