Unable to contain his need, he flipped her onto her back, and entered her, guiding his cock into her warm heat. She was tight, gripping his cock as he slid slowly forward, deeper, and deeper, until he was lost. It was almost too much. His control was slipping. In and out he moved, filling her completely, thrusting deep, before pulling back out.
Each lunge took him higher; the sensations coursing through him were primal. He was claiming his mate. She was his. She would always be his.
Jack suddenly became aware of his teeth elongating. This was part of the mating bond he hadn’t shared with her. The time wasn’t right, not with everything else they had to face. He hadn’t anticipated the incredible need to mark her as his, to turn her.
He lunged forward, needing release, but the urge to bite her neck, to make her his completely tortured him. Eva moved beneath him, her own climax close, and then she came, her inner walls gripping him. He cried out, filling her with his seed, with the essence of life. He wanted her to bear his children, he wanted her to be like him.
But he wanted her to be happy. To have a choice.
He gripped the pillow in his fist, clinging on, forcing himself to control the primal urge.
Collapsing down on top of Eva, utterly spent, he drew in deep long breaths, but the urge was still there. Jack pulled away, putting some distance between them.
“Are you OK?” Eva asked, the concern in her voice breaking his heart.
“Yes, I just need a minute,” Jack ground out.
“Sure.” The hitch in her voice nearly killed him.
He reached out, and took her hand, ducking his head to hide his face as he said, “That was intense.”
“A shifter thing?” she asked, hopefully.
“A shifter thing.” Jack nodded. He breathed in her scent and closed his eyes, willing himself to regain his control.
When at last he did, he crawled onto the bed next to her, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her cheek. “You know I love you.”
“Yeah. I do.”
“And not just because of the mating bond.”
“That part I wasn’t so sure of,” she said quietly.
“If I had to choose a woman, if you hadn’t been chosen for me, I’d still pick you.”
“And I would pick you, Jack,” Eva said, running her fingers through his hair.
“Pizza?” he asked when her stomach rumbled.
“Perfect.”
“You are perfect,” he said, nuzzling her neck.
She giggled. “That tickles.”
“I hear the way to a woman’s heart is to make her laugh,” he said.
“It’s one way.” Her face became serious. “I love you too, Jack.”
He took her hand and kissed it, then he kissed her lips. If only they could stay like this forever, if only life hadn’t thrown so much crap at them. But they would get through it—together.
Chapter Twenty-One – Evaine
The buzz of his cell phone woke her, making her heart beat faster and her head swim. Beside her, Jack slipped out of bed and grabbed his jeans, rummaging in the pockets for his phone. He glanced at it, muttering, “What does Kurt want at this time in the morning?”
Jack looked sleepy, but sexy as hell. Eva wanted to snatch the phone out of his hands and throw it away, until she saw the look on his face. Whatever Kurt was saying, it was serious.
“Gareth gave the Council the fake?” Jack asked, making Eva’s heart lurch.
She moved across the bed to sit beside Jack, resting her head on his shoulder so she could hear.
“After the ward was triggered, the Council wound their business up with the Supreme Council early. They returned early this morning.”
“How do you know?”
“Roman was there. He was up early, and saw the Council return. He went to see Master Donavon, to hand over his report about the failed attempt by a Night Hunter to get the Dragon’s Tear. What can I say, the guy likes to dot the i’s and cross the t’s.”
“Your point?” Jack asked abruptly.
“While Roman was there, Thaddeus stormed in and all hell broke loose. Roman got thrown out, but he heard them say it was a fake Dragon’s Tear. He called me to let me know the Night Hunter had the real Dragon’s Tear.”
“Is that what they think? They believe Eva got away with the real thing?” Jack asked.
“Yes. From what Roman said. He’s fought with us, Jack. He’s one of us. I believe him.”
“OK. What else did he say? Does he know what the Council intends?” Jack asked, reaching for his T-shirt.
“They are calling us in,” Kurt said. “They want a full explanation. He said Gareth swears he swapped it with the one the Night Hunter retrieved.” He paused. “And Helena visiting Gareth’s house was mentioned.”
“Damn it,” Jack cursed. “Damn Lucas. He should have swapped them over.”
“What do we do?” Kurt asked.
“OK.” Jack rubbed his hand over his face. “Here’s what happens. Stay put. Unless they come for you. If they do, go peacefully, but say nothing. Tell them as squad leader they need to talk to me. They won’t be happy, but it will buy us some time.”
“What are you going to do?” Kurt asked.
“I’m going to kick a certain druid’s arse from here to John O’Groats. If the Council has the fake, then Lucas must have the real one.”
“Unless Gareth and his father swapped it,” Eva whispered in his ear.
“Shit!” Jack cursed. “You’re right. Gareth isn’t bright enough, but I bet his father would love to wield the power of the Dragon’s Tear.”
“So…?” Kurt asked.
“Hide the wolf, we don’t need him dragged into this yet. Stick to the plan. If they come for you, go quietly. I’m going to go over to see Lucas. If I get the Dragon’s Tear, I’ll head over to the Council and hand it over. Say we didn’t trust it with Gareth when he has that degetty in the house. I’ll say I was the one who switched them.”
“And if Lucas doesn’t have it?” Kurt asked quietly.
“Then we go to plan B.”
“Which is?”
“Nothing. We haven’t done anything wrong. We know nothing other than what Gareth told us.”
“And Eva?” Liam reminded him, shouting down Kurt’s phone.
“We go with she came to us because the Templars reneged on the deal and kept her mom. We went to the warehouse, but the Templars were gone. We can throw them off them off with information about the werewolves.” The Council wouldn’t like that they helped a Night Hunter without permission, but it sounded plausible. “Are we agreed?”
“We are,” his brothers chorused down the phone.
“I’ll see you later. Good luck.” Jack ended the call and put his head in his hands. “Damn it. I am going to ring Lucas’s scrawny neck.”
“Do you think he even tried to swap the Dragon’s Tear?” Eva asked, pulling the sheet around her. Her clothes had gone in the washer last night.
“I don’t know. I’d like to hope that if he couldn’t swap it, he would have called. Not just hung us out to dry.” Jack’s voice showed his anger, but he got dressed and went to the kitchen, where he calmly made coffee.
“I’ll dress and come with you to Lucas’s,” Eva said, getting her clothes and heading back to the bedroom to dress quickly.
Jack followed her. “No, you should stay here, stay out of sight.”
“I am not hiding,” Eva said. “If I hide now, I’m going to spend the rest of my life hiding.”
Jack rubbed his face. “I don’t want you to get caught in the middle of this.”
“I already am in the middle of it. In fact, I started it.” She buttoned up her shirt, and said, “Let me finish it.”
Jack came to her, and helped with her buttons. “We stand together.”
“We stand together,” she said, and kissed him. “Always together.”
“Sounds good.”
They drank coffee and he made toast, which they stood and ate in silen
ce. Once finished, they left the house, Eva made sure her sword was still in her car, where she had hidden it in the trunk the day before. She didn’t let Jack see it.
Because you might have to use it on the Others, the voice in her head said.
“Fuck.” She shut the trunk, and at the same time shut down her sixth sense. When this was over, she was going to have to find a way to deal with it permanently. She wanted their wisdom, and she desperately wanted to speak to her dad, but not at the price of her privacy, or sanity.
She didn’t run, her dad’s voice cut in suddenly. I don’t have long, but I wanted you to know.
What do you mean? Eva asked, her hand resting on the car as she tried to focus on her dad’s voice, and keep all the rest silent.
She wouldn’t run, he assured her.
She did a fine job looking like it, Eva returned. And it’s not as if she hasn’t done it before.
I swear to you, she would not leave you, unless it was to keep you safe, her father said. Or unless the Templars have a hold on her.
“Eva, we have to go.” Jack’s voice brought her back to the present and she shut down the place in her head where the voices came from. She didn’t need the distraction.
“Coming.” She slid into the front seat, and asked, “I’m going to need directions.”
“Out of here, then turn right. Follow the road around to the left.” He pointed and she began to drive, her mind closed to the voices, including her father.
They drove the short distance to Lucas’s house, and got out of the car. Together they walked up to the front door, Jack knocked, checking his temper so as not to beat the door down. There was no answer, no movement from inside.
“Do you think he’s run off with it?” Eva asked.
Jack turned to look at her, opening his mouth to speak, and then closing it, before looking back at the door. “I want to say, no. But I don’t know. I don’t know Lucas. He could have been waiting for a chance to betray us all.”
“And the Dragon’s Tear is worth a lot of money to the right person,” Eva finished.
“Yes.” Jack looked down at the ground, and then took a deep breath, and knocked harder. “If no one answers, I’ll break it down.”
“They might have just gone to the store,” Eva offered.
“They might.” He took a quick step back. “Someone is coming.”
“Who is it?” Eva hissed.
Jack cocked his head on one side. “It’s not Lucas. His mom.”
The door opened, and there stood Lucas’s mom, dressed in pajamas. “What do you want?”
“Sorry, did we wake you?” Jack asked.
“Yes, I work at a bar in Lymington three nights a week, I didn’t get in until three this morning.” She brushed her hair back from her face. “So?”
“We need to speak to Lucas,” Jack said. “It’s important.”
“Why?” she asked.
“That’s between him and me. I don’t want to be rude, Mrs. DeVine, but if you don’t let me in, I will break the door down,” Jack said politely.
“Come in, I’ll go wake him,” she said, opening the door wider to let them in.
“I can go and wake him if you want,” Jack said. “I just have one question for him, he doesn’t even have to get out of bed.”
“And I’ll help you make coffee,” Eva said, putting herself between Mrs. DeVine and the stairs.
“Top of the stairs, second door on the left?” Jack asked, already in the hallway and heading for the stairs. He ran up them two at a time, taking them easily in his stride. He was surprisingly light-footed for a man his size.
“Yes,” Mrs. DeVine nodded, not looking as worried about a shifter going up to see her son with a face like thunder as she should be. Was she even clued in as to what was going on around here?
“Coffee,” Eva said brightly, happy to keep up the pretense if that was what worked for Mrs. DeVine. Being taken in by the Council might be enough for her to turn a blind eye to everything else that went on, such as degetty and shifters.
“Yes. Coffee. I don’t usually stay in bed this late even when I work. But since the Council was away, the Chambers have stayed clean. So I thought I would spoil myself.”
“I don’t blame you,” Eva said, deciding not to tell her that the Council had returned early. Eva didn’t want her interrupting Jack’s chat with Lucas. “What are they like?”
“The Council?”
“Yes. I’m Eva, by the way.”
“Sophia.” Lucas’s mom filled the coffee pot, stalling to give herself time before she answered.
“I won’t tell. Whatever you say, I won’t tell,” Eva assured her.
“There is nothing to tell. They are a bunch of stuffy old men, who like to hang out in the ornate Chamber and think they are doing important work.”
“And you don’t think their work is important?” Eva asked.
Sophia sat down at the breakfast table, but Eva stayed on her feet. Just in case she needed a quick exit. “They think the world exists in books. It’s been years since they have gone out and seen the real world. They don’t see how it’s changing. Instead they send their shifters. Men like your Jack, or witches like Helena. They don’t like getting their hands dirty, anymore.”
“Anymore?” Eva asked. So Sophia DeVine did know about everything. “You know more about them than they realize.”
Sophia smiled. “My father was a Council member.”
“I didn’t know that. Jack said the Council found Lucas a couple of years ago, and brought you both here so that he could learn.”
“They assumed his father was a druid.” Sophia stood up and poured the coffee. “It never entered their heads that his power comes from me.”
“So you are a druid too?” Eva asked. At the same time, there was a crash above their heads.
Sophia started to leave the room, but Eva got to the door first. “I’ll go check that everything is OK.”
“Wait.” Sophia was by Eva’s side, her hand on Eva’s arm. “This stays between us. The Council doesn’t need to know about me.”
“Why would I tell them?” Eva asked.
“Because they know how to get information out of people. They know how to leverage people’s fears, people’s needs.”
“I owe them nothing,” Eva said.
“Swear to me,” Sophia said, her grip on Eva’s arm tightening.
“Sophia…” Eva said, trying to pull away.
“Swear to me, and I will tell you something that might make you change your mind about staying here.”
“What do you mean, staying here?” Eva asked, as another crash rocked the house.
“With your shifter.”
“Jack?” Eva asked.
“Yes.”
“What about Jack?”
“Swear.”
“I swear,” Eva whispered.
The voices in her head exploded. Don’t trust a druid. Don’t give your word to a druid.
Too late, she replied, forcefully expelling them from her brain.
“Tell me,” Eva ground out.
“He promises he will always be there for you.”
“Yes,” Eva said.
“He won’t. He will leave you.”
“He won’t.” Eva shook her head. “I’m his mate. He’ll never leave me. He promised.”
“Believe it or not. That is your choice. But I have seen it. I have seen him walk out of your life, and leave you with a brood of bears.”
“Our children? You have seen our children.”
“I have,” Sophia said.
Eva pushed Sophia’s hand off her arm. “That is enough for me to stay.”
Sophia laughed. “We all think our children will be enough to fill a lonely heart.”
“Would you have made a different choice? If you knew how your life would be, cleaning the Council chambers and working in a bar.”
“No,” Sophia said. “But then, I know this is only temporary.”
“What do you mean?�
� Eva asked.
“You will see. One day, you will see.” Sophia looked halfway to crazy, the conviction in her voice complete.
“How do you know these things?” Eva asked.
“My father didn’t claim me, didn’t even give me his name. He pretended I wasn’t his. All I was good for was cleaning. The kitchen, the bedrooms, his study. Just like my mom. Clean and keep his secrets.”
“But you read his books?” Eva asked. It all began to add up: Sophia DeVine was the illegitimate child of a druid.
“No, he locked those up. But he had a scrying bowl, and so I used it. I saw my future, and my son’s future.”
“And my future?”
“Why would I see your future?” Sophia asked.
“That’s what you said…”
She shook her head. “Only how it is connected to Lucas, like a puzzle piece.”
“So Jack leaving has to do with Lucas?”
“Lucas. When my son is the head of the Council, everything will be connected to him.” Her eyes narrowed, as if this piece of information was important.
“You have seen Lucas become the leader?” Eva asked.
“My son, the poor boy, the stupid boy. You know that’s what the other druid children call him?” Sophia asked.
“No. No, I didn’t,” Eva said.
Another crash rocked the house, and Sophia looked up to the ceiling. “It’s time we went and sorted this mess out.”
“You know about the Dragon’s Tear?” Eva asked. “You know Lucas kept it.”
“Of course I know. I’m the one who told him not to swap it.”
“Why?” Eva asked.
“Leverage,” Sophia answered.
“Leverage?” Eva asked. “For what?”
“You’ll see.” Sophia walked past Eva, through the hallway, and climbed the stairs. It was a moment before Eva could move, there was so much in Sophia’s words that she needed to process. If they were true.
“Jack will never leave,” she assured herself. But Sophia was convinced that all she had seen would come true. And that scared Eva. But for the sake of their unborn children, she would take a risk on being the mate of a shifter. One to whom she had already lost her heart.
Chapter Twenty-Two – Jack
Bear my Fate (Hero Mine Book 1) Page 15