“I think the only way this can work is if we take turns with her.” Jack suggested. He hated even thinking it, but how else were they supposed to do this?
“Oh, and how do you think that will work? I guess you think you will take her home with you for what, a year or two?” Miles growled. He wasn’t about to share his mate.
Gabi heard them growling at each other and knew they were about to fight again. She yelled. “Stop!”
She walked back over and stood between them. They would have to go through her to get to each other. She put her hand on each of them. “If you keep this up, I will not be going anywhere with either of you. Sit down.”
Why was this happening to her? Why did trouble always seem to find her? This was just crazy shit happening to her. Could she get away from them if she tried? She looked around to see both packs ready to give chase should she make a move. No, she couldn’t get away if she tried. If her life depended on her running away, she was doomed.
“All I can think to do is I spend a month with one of you then a month with the other one of you. I don’t know if that will work or not.”
“It won’t. If he marks you, then I will kill him. I imagine he feels the same way.” Miles made it clear.
“I do.” Jack agreed.
“Let me make it clear, I am not saying I will be sleeping with either of you. I am simply saying I will spend a month getting to know each of you. I have no plans to jump in bed with you at this point. If I should sleep with either of you, do you agree not to mark me whatever that means?”
“Love, we mark our mate by biting her. Just so he can’t talk you into letting him mark you without you knowing what he is doing.” Miles explained to her.
“You would bite me?” She shivered. It sounded painful. Primal even.
“Yes, Gabi it is how we mark our mate, but it isn’t like you’re thinking. See when we make love to our mate, we bite her to heighten her experience. It makes things ten times better for her. She feels things like no human has ever felt them before.” Jack didn’t want her to think it would hurt.
“It also turns her into one of us if she is human. Somehow, I get the feeling that you Gabi are not all human. There is something about you that is special. I just can’t put my paw on it yet.” Miles wanted her to know the facts.
“So if I let one of you bite me I would go all wolfy and grow fur. Just freaking great. I would become a mutt. That sounds lovely. Not!” She didn’t want to be a dog.
“We are not dogs Gabi. Wolves are majestic creatures. Very smart, majestic creatures.” Maybe if she lived with them for a while, she would see they weren’t so bad. “Gabi how will we decide who you will stay with first?” Miles asks her.
Jack jumped in. “She has been with you for the past month therefor she should come home with me.”
“Jack don’t you think it should be my choice?” Gabi asks him. The smile fell from his face. He was sure she was about to say she was staying with Miles.
“I guess so.”
“Miles, Jack has a point I have been here for a while. However, we have not been together. I mean, I have not been around you. I have gotten to know some of your pack. I assume the ones I have been working with at the casino were pack members. Then the ones out at the farm I assume were some of your pack. Still, I have missed my house. I had just had my house restored. I want to go back to my house. I don’t want to stay in either of your houses right now. Jack you know where I will be. Miles, I will give you directions to my house so you too will know where to find me. I suspect you already do seeing how Jack’s wolves kept telling me another wolf pack had been coming around my house all the time.”
Gabi watched as Jack sniffed the air. He hadn’t thought about it till she mentioned it. She was right some of Mile’s pack had been the ones they had scented in her woods.
“It was your pack in her woods.” Jack growled. He was ready to attack Miles.
Gabbi stopped Jack. “That doesn’t matter now. Miles I am going home. Can I please have my car and my clothes back?”
“I guess so. May I follow you home so that I know you made it there?”
“Will you promise to leave once you know I have made it home safely?” She watched as he thought about it.
“I promise to leave you be for a month. No longer!” He pulled her into his arms. “Gabi, I know you don’t understand how hard it is for one of our kind to find his mate, then walk away from her, but it is going to kill me till I have you in my arms again. Please don’t let him mark you. If you do, I will have to kill him.” Miles warned her as much as he was warning Jack.
“I will not let him, or you mark me. We have a lot to work on. I don’t know that I will ever let either of you mark me. I don’t think I understand anyone letting a wolf bite them.”
“Will you ride back to the house with me to get your things?”
“Yes, I will give you this time. Jack, will you be going on to the house or waiting for us?”
“I am not going anywhere without you. I will wait on the road outside his gates. My pack and I will follow you home.”
“Then it’s settled.”
Gabi couldn’t believe she was agreeing to this. At least she would get to see her house again.
Chapter 21
It didn’t take long to get Gabi’s things gathered. Miles had made her sit by him on the ride back to his place. Once she had her things packed into her car, he had kissed her before letting her get in her car. At least he had gotten one kiss from her. One very passionate long kiss. Now his wolf was growling because she wasn’t beside him.
The drive back to her house was only a couple of hours. The packs lived closer than they realized. If one cuts through the woods in a straight line, it wouldn’t take near as long as driving down the curvy roads.
Once at Gabi’s place Miles insisted, he go in and look her place over to make sure she had everything she needed. Mostly to make sure she was safe.
“I don’t like it. You’re too far from anyone. You’re not safe here. I should leave some guards with you.” Miles told her.
“She is perfectly safe here. My pack and I will be right here with her. I won’t let any harm come to my mate. Now it’s time for you to go.” Jack told Miles.
“Jack, can you give us a minute.” Gabi asks him as she pushed him out the door.
“Miles I’m fine here. This is my home. I like it here. I assure you I’m perfectly safe here. You can’t leave any guards here Jack’s pack will be here. Now I agreed to see you in one month. You can call me if you like. I know you have my phone number.”
“Will you answer if I call?” He stared into her eyes to see if she told him the truth.
“I promise to answer. Now you had better go before Jack comes storming in here and the two of you tear my house apart.”
Miles pulled her into his arms, then kissed her for a good long time. When he finally did let her up for air, she couldn’t breathe.
Miles liked that he could make her breathless. He still didn’t want to let go of her. He had her walk him out to the truck. His pack waited on the road for him. Her driveway wasn’t big enough for his pack and Jack’s pack to all park in.
“I am going to miss you. I like being able to see you. I don’t know how I am going to be able to focus on work when I don’t know how you are doing. Gabi, I know I don’t know you that well yet, but I already have a lot of feelings for you.”
“I hear you say that and wonder how it can be true. Yet somehow, I feel like you’re telling me the truth. I know when you kiss me or touch me there is something there. I just don’t understand any of this. A month will go by in a hurry, you will see.”
“No, it won’t. Not for me anyway. Gabi I can’t leave you. I can’t do this. My wolf wants to stay with you. Needs to stay with you.” Miles was nearly begging her to let him stay.
“Miles, I can’t handle fighting with you and Jack at the same time. I can’t handle the two of you killing one another. Please for me go home.”
/>
He pulls her in for one more long kiss. He rushes to get in the truck then takes off. He has to force himself to drive away.
Gabi stands there for a long time after he has gone staring after him. She feels like a part of her is missing. Jack tries to give her time. He can’t stand watching her stare after Miles. He has to go over and wrap his arms around her. He pulls her back into him.
“You miss him already don’t you?”
“I don’t know what it is. It feels funny. How can I miss someone I don’t even know?” She turns in Jack’s arms to look at him.
“It is part of being a mate. We feel like a part of us is missing when we are not together. You have no idea how hard it was for me when you disappeared. It hurt something awful. I don’t know how he is feeling, but I do know it will be worse when I have to let you go again in a month.”
She started walking toward the house. Jack took her hand in his and they walked into the house together. He didn’t want to let go of her for one minute. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her once they were inside.
“I missed you so bad. Tell me my mate, what shall we do now that your home?”
“I was thinking maybe we could cook out on my new grill. As I recall, I never got to break it in. I got patio furniture, and everything then left. I would like to go to town and buy some meat to grill.”
“That sounds good to me. Do you want to get anything else while we are out?”
“I don’t know. Why, did you have something in mind?”
“I wasn’t sure if you wanted to get a movie or something else to do tonight.”
“Oh, right. It would be nice if we had a big screen for outside. I mean like a movie screen. You know, like we were at an outdoor theater.”
“I think they call them drive ins.”
“Yeah, like that. Maybe we could fix it up over by the fireplace outside and watch a movie out on the patio while we eat. Will the pack be joining us?”
“If you like. They will be watching over us, one way or another. If you don’t want them to eat with us, they can’t stand back and watch for trouble in the trees.”
“No, they can join us. I might as well get used to them being around too. Isn’t that how packs work, they do everything together?”
“Most of the time. However, mates do get time to be alone.” He smiled at her mischievously. He had other things on his mind.
“I think you have bad thoughts on your mind. Be a good boy. Let me walk through the kitchen and see what I need to cook out. I better make a list. Maybe Wanda should bring the grill you guys have and the folding tables too. That way we can cook twice as much at one time and have more tables to put stuff on. Then we can sit on my furniture. Well, some of us can. We probably need your chairs to. Better get the ice chest as well, so we have plenty of ice. Since I have been gone there wasn’t anyone to make ice.” Gabi kept trying to think of things she would need as well since she was going to be home. She made a long list, then they headed into town.
Jack had the pack get a six-foot movie screen and set it up on her patio. They set up the grill and stuff like she had suggested and had it all ready when they got back from town. That night the pack cooked out and watched movies till nearly morning.
Jack and Gabi curled up together in a lounge chair. Jack thought everything was right with the world. He had his mate in his arms where she belonged. Life was good.
Miles and his pack hadn’t gone home. They were watching Gabi from a distance. Miles growled as Jack held his mate in his arms.
“I can’t stand this. She is my mate. It should be me holding her. I have to find a way to get rid of that mutt. I can’t share her. I can’t! My wolf and I won’t let him live.”
“But sir, if you kill him you will hurt her. You know if he is her mate to, she is connected to him the same as she is connected to you.” Irwin told his father.
Over the next week Gabi and Jack spent a lot of time together just walking around her property talking and getting to know one another.
“Where did you move from Jack? I know you bought the Cabins. Where did you live before that?”
“We moved here from Wyoming. It was nice there, but I was missing something. Now I realize it was you I was looking for. I needed my mate and I was pulled here to find you.”
“Was your place there as large as the one here?”
“Yes and no. We didn’t own as much land, but our land backed up to the mountains that went on forever and ever. No one lived anywhere near us. It was beautiful. We could hunt without worrying about being seen. We were free to be ourselves. Here we are free but have to be careful. We have come across people on the land we own. We have run humans off several times since we bought the land. It seems they think the lake is public land. We have posted it and are in the process of fencing it. I have gates up now to stop traffic from driving down the road. That doesn’t seem to deter people”
“I guess people around here are so used to the Lewis’s letting them swim for free they just assume they still can.”
“Only that isn’t what they are doing. Humans come to the lake to party and they bring guns. They have been shooting up things. I think they call it target practice. We call it destroying our property. The showers buy the lake have been shot to pieces. Then the ranger station on the side of the mountain, someone tried to burn it. It is a wonder they didn’t set the entire mountain on fire.”
“Oh my gosh. They could have done some real damage. Maybe you should report that to the police station. I bet it is some kids doing it.”
“Sooner or later we will catch them. When we do, they will disappear for good.”
“Jack, you can’t kill them. If you do, people will start searching for them. Then you will have people crawling all over the place. Jack, look at me.” She lifted his chin to force him to look at her. “If you kill humans it only brings more humans. People go missing all the time and others hunt for them. It would cause you more problems than you realize. There has to be a better way to get rid of them than killing them.”
“I don’t think so. Why don’t you let me worry about it?”
“Because I don’t want you to get in trouble. Believe me, I get in enough trouble for the both of us.” She was thinking about being in jail for a couple of nights while waiting for her trial after the car bomb.
“I saw you on TV. I heard you blew up a car.” He was laughing. “They said you blew up Miles BMW.” Again, he was laughing. “That must have been something to see.” He was nearly rolling on the floor laughing so hard.
“It’s not funny. How was I supposed to know someone planted a damn bomb under his car?” She wasn’t laughing.
The pack was. Gabi turned to see them all snickering at her. “Oh, shut up.” She yelled.”
“I wish I could have seen your face when that car exploded. Oh, and to see his face when he found out it was his car.” Jack just kept laughing.
Miles wished he could attack the stupid alpha for laughing about his car being blown up. Then he wished he could go to Gabi and hold her. He could see she was mad and hurt. How could anyone think she would do such a thing?
“Can we please talk about something else. Tell me more about being a werewolf.”
“What do you want to know?”
“I don’t know. How about how long do werewolves live? How are werewolves born? Are they human when they’re born then become wolf later? How does it work?”
“We can live to be hundreds of years old. I think the oldest one I have heard of was three hundred and fifty-seven. We are born werewolf. We look human Gabi but carry the wolf in our blood. Any pups you have will be wolf.”
“That brings up another question. If you and Miles are both my mates how will that work. Will I have babies with both of you? How will we know who the father is?”
“You will have our pups. We will be able to tell who the father is by the smell of the pup. We each have a different scent our pups will too. Once you have mated with us you will be able to
tell the difference as well. Once you have started shifting, you’re going to be able to sense things in a whole new way. You will be able to see farther, hear better, smell more. You will be amazed at how strong you’re going to be. You will be able to run for hours at a time without getting winded. You will be able to make love all night long and then some. There is so much more to being a werewolf than just shifting into an animal.”
“How do other animals react around you? Will I still be able to have horses?”
“Well, not likely. Other animals see us as predators. A horse will most likely shy away from you. A stallion might attack you to protect his mares.”
“What about dogs, do they run from you or attack you?” Great I always wanted a pet now I will be an animal and can’t have one.
“I know some wolves who have made friends with dogs. Also, other wolves like Timber wolves tend to want to be with us. I guess they think of us as one of them.”
“Great so I finally grow up and can afford to have pets yet now I will be an animal and they will hate me because of it. I had a fucking barn built so I could have a horse and all along you knew that wasn’t going to be possible. Why didn’t you say something?”
“You wouldn’t have believed me. You didn’t believe me when I told you what I was. I tell you what if you want a pet maybe I can find you a wolf pup. Would you like that?”
“A timber wolf for a pet? I guess it’s better than nothing. I suppose cats are out to then.”
“Uh, yeah. We don’t like cats to well.”
“No chickens either?”
“Well...”
“Right you would eat them. Damn, I hate this. Jack what happens to my place if I mate with one of you?”
“I guess you do what you want with it. You won’t be living here if that is what you’re asking. Whoever you take as your mate will expect you to live with him and his pack. Your mate will want you to live with the pack so he can be sure you are protected.”
The Trouble With Two Alpha's Page 18