Jessie’s heart was pounding and she clapped a hand to her mouth. There could be one person they’d be bringing to her and she both hoped it was him and hoped it wasn’t.
But when she saw Cody’s face as they dragged him to the cell, she released a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding.
At least she wasn’t alone.
The guards threw open the cell door and shoved Cody inside with her as Jessie jumped to her feet. He was a little beaten up, an ugly bruise starting to purple his cheeks and one eye too red and swollen. His hair was disheveled and his shirt was torn, revealing an ugly scratch along his shoulder.
But he was beautiful. He smiled slightly even as the guards locked the barred door behind them.
“Jessie, oh God... ” Cody threw his arms around her and she let herself be enfolded, slumping against him and squeezing him tight. “Nathan didn’t find you, I guess?”
“No?” She shrugged and summoned a resigned smile. “I was just working and these guys appeared out of nowhere and hauled me off.”
“He was probably looking for you at the same time,” Cody said, sighing. “Goddammit. I really didn’t want to find you here. I wanted you to be safe with my brothers.” He spoke softly and caressed her cheek, absently stroking her cool skin with his thumb. She let her eyelids shut and rested her forehead against his, taking some of his strength for herself. Or at least that was how she felt.
“The cubs,” Jessie whispered. She didn’t want to cry again. She wanted to be strong for him and herself. She swallowed the lump in her throat and it was painful.
“I know,” Cody said. He kissed her cheek and the tip of her nose and her forehead. “Whatever happens, I swear to you, we will not rest until we get them back. I don’t care what the elders said and I don’t give a shit. I don’t give a shit if the cubs belonged to the sleuth, they belong with us now. Not those monsters. We’ll get them back, Jesse. I swear. My brothers have my back. They always have. I need you to trust them as much as you trust me. Do you trust me?”
“Always,” Jessie murmured.
There was more to be said. She wanted to know how the sleuth had found her and him and if he had any idea where the cubs were but just for this moment, she was dizzy with want and love for him. She clung to him and he kissed him, their lips sliding together as they drew strength equally from each other.
“It’s okay, my love,” Cody whispered. She felt like they were both a little dazed from how surreal things felt. But it loosened their tongues. There was no use pretending how they felt anymore. They could only be honest now. “It’s okay, my mate.”
“Yes,” Jessie said. “I am. Always.”
They couldn’t hear the guards anymore. They might as well have been miles away. So Cody kissed her deeply as the two of them sank slowly to the floor.
19
Jessie
Cody and Jessie might as well have been in Cody’s big bed back in his luxurious suite for all that either of them cared about their surroundings. The cell was dingy and dim and it smelled like rust and dust. But none of that mattered when Cody was holding her. All they could feel were each other; the sensation of skin on skin as their bodies melded into each other and they writhed on the hard cold floor.
Jessie let Cody plunder her mouth with his tongue. He was unapologetic in his passion, his hand sliding up her leg from her ankle and up the curve of her calf to the cool softness of her thigh. She was still wearing her maid’s uniform and he pushed up the skirt slowly, crouching over her.
Jessie yanked at Cody’s shirt. He tended to wear sleek black button-ups that he probably bought at the shops in the lodge’s promenade for too much money instead of going anywhere else. The shirt likely cost more than half of Jessie’s wardrobe, but she wasn’t gentle as she yanked out of his waistband as their breath mingled. His musky scent was overpowering and by now it was all tied up in her desire for him. All she needed was to smell him, especially when he was turned on, and that was enough to get her wet. She was wet now, wantonly parting her legs for Cody as he shoved her skirt up over her thighs, shoving the tight fabric all the way over the curve of her hips.
Jessie arched up off the floor, urging Cody on, and fumbled with his buttons until he sat up and stripped off his shirt, tossing it aside. He didn’t grin in that assured slightly wolfish way he had. His mouth was a grimace of steady concentration, his gaze intense, as if he were doing something important. Jessie almost had a feeling that if they got close enough or loved each other enough or managed somehow to merge themselves into each other, perhaps they’d gain the sympathy of the fates who would step down and help them and save the cubs and the family they had only just discovered together.
Cody unbuttoned his slacks and she helped him unzip until he shoved his boxer-briefs down, his cock springing free. It was half hard and Jessie breathed some incoherent plea as she pulled him down on top of her. She reached between them and stroked the length of him, his shaft firming up at her touch alone.
“Jessie,” Cody whispered in her ear. “Jessie, my mate, my love... ”
The last time they’d shared this together, they’d both talked so dirty. She had loved that. It felt like something a little bit forbidden and they’d revealed themselves to each other that way, making themselves vulnerable to each other. But this felt entirely different. This was love and even if it was heated and impulsive and taken and shared on the cold, damp stone floor of a ghost town jail cell, it was theirs and it felt like the most precious in the world.
“Yes, Cody,” Jessie said. He yanked her panties down and she gripped him with her thighs, urging him to enter her. She felt like if she had to wait too long she’d begin to crumple into herself. It was all passion and heat. She knew that. But it didn’t make it feel any less real and the tears she’d managed to hold back came brimming up into her eyes again as she trembled with anticipation.
“Don’t cry, my love,” Cody whispered. “It’s okay... It’s okay, I have you. I won’t let you go. I’ll never let you go, baby.”
“I’m... ” Jessie tried to speak, but could only sight as Cody pressed up against her, the firm length of him teasing. “I’m just crying because... because I can feel... I can feel how much I love you.” She wept for love of him and smiled despite everything, pushing back the dark hair falling into his eyes so she could look at them, those brilliant and fiery dark eyes that reminded her of her own. “I love you so much, Cody, please... ”
“I love you too,” Cody murmured. He kissed her once, deeply, and guided himself inside her and accepted him with a sigh, throwing her head back. “I love you so much, I could die of it.”
The floor was icy cold and so hard against her ass and the back of her thighs, yet that bit of discomfort made Jessie feel all the better as he thrust inside her, slowly yet firmly, swelling yet more as she clenched around him as if she would trap him there forever.
“Please, oh please, Cody more, more, always more, oh God... ” She was rambling, breathless and incoherent. The cell was a blur around her as his heat and scent seemed to surround her. She felt herself merging with the bear within her that called out to his. Their most primal animal selves cried out to each other as he plunged inside her, faster and harder, as if searching for some impossible satisfaction that would never quite be met. There would always be more bliss and more love to find and as that struck Jessie, she shook, clutching him, delirious with the epiphany of sensation and faith in the two of them together like this; becoming one person and also becoming the most like their animal selves they could be and still be human.
“Yes, baby, I’m right here... ”
Cody snapped his hips and hit just the right spot and all at once the world went white and hot all around Jessie as she wrapped her arms around him, holding him still, keeping in that perfect place of bliss. She felt him pulsing, spilling inside her, and she tasted her own tears even as he kissed her, moaning into her mouth, their pleasure mingling and tangled up together.
When they ha
d finally come down from their mutual euphoria, Cody doted over her. He was softly growling under his breath. If she closed her eyes, she pictured him as a bear, his growl was so deep and restless as he gently smoothed down her skirt and helped her pull up her panties before enfolding her in his arms there on the floor.
She could still feel him inside her as she fell asleep and heard him whispering in her ear: “My love... my mate... ”
20
Cody
A full day passed in the cell. They clocked the time by the movement of the light through the window as morning turned to afternoon and evening again. Cody did the best he could to comfort Jessie, racking his brains for how they might get out of this. He had to think they would try for an escape eventually, but he and Jessie opted to bide their time. If the guards were still keeping them there, that had to mean that the rest of the sleuth was still in Black Bear Lake. Or at least that’s what Cody hoped. That would mean the cubs were nearby. If so, it would be better to let the guards get complacent and then strike, on faith that his brothers were free to have his back as they no doubt would.
In the meantime, there was just waiting and worrying. They listened for the guard’s voice, always trying to track how many bears were around at any given time. Usually, there were only two and Cody thought it worth trying to go up against two if it came down to it. They were bigger than him and they probably fought dirtier. But he also knew that he and Jessie had something that anyone from sleuth didn’t have in a fight, and that was the fierceness and strength that came from the love of cubs and of mates. Jessie was a mama bear and that was no small thing. Mama shifter bears could be terrifying if their cubs were threatened. He had to think that Jessie possessed a strength that even she might not know about, but it was like having a secret weapon in their collective back pocket. They would wield it when they needed to.
It was late one night when they heard new voices with the guards at the jail, and then Cody sniffed out Nathan and Eric, their scents unmistakable. He was sitting up in the corner with his arms around Jessie and she frowned when she saw his confident grin just as the guards started dragging in their new prisoners.
“What kinda accommodations you got for us?” Nathan sounded like he was being taken to an amusement park as their voices neared. Eric said something that Cody couldn’t make out and Nathan laughed just as the two of them and the three guards with them came into view. “You’re tellin’ me!” Nathan said to Eric.
Cody watched Nathan whip his head around. His wrists were shacked and so were Eric’s. Nathan caught Cody’s eye and winked and Cody tried not to give the game away.
The guards were fumbling for keys. They didn’t have a key to the other cell and then apparently they didn’t have the key to Cody and Jessie’s cell either.
Hmm...
“Cody,” Jessie whispered. “What’s going on?”
“Just sit tight,” Cody whispered back. They scooted apart and Cody tensed, ready for anything.
The three guards seemed pissed. Somebody had stolen their keys.
The only question on Cody’s mind and the one that made him fight a smile was: Where was Connor?
His question was answered with screams from the front of the jail. Whatever guards were out there keeping watch seemed to be having a terrible time of it. Cody looked to Eric who mouthed “Connor.” Cody heard the roars of one or two other bears who were just as quickly silenced and just as the guards were about out to see what the fuss was, Connor’s massive bear who was as familiar to Cody as his own face came barrelling down the hall. Eric and Nathan jumped away and Connor moved so fast the guards were too startled to so much as shift but merely stood there, dazed, for the second it took for Connor to reach them.
Connor dispensed with the three guards quickly. One was just knocked out, another’s leg was so shredded he could only lie on the floor and bleed, and the third was likely dead. Cody grimaced at the sight of the corpse and there was likely another at the front of the jail. Connor didn’t like to kill, he never had. But he did it without hesitation if his loved ones were under threat.
It had only taken a couple minutes but all the guards were now dispensed with and Cody and Jessie gave each other knowing looks and staggered to their feet.
“Where are the keys then?” Cody said.
Connor was a giant dark brown bear with an amber star shape under his chin, a breed that in terms of normal non-shifter animals had never existed, as were all the Strausses. He ducked his great head, his jaws dripping blood, and in a flash he was Connor in human form. His nice white shirt was now covered in blood and he had a shallow gash along his throat and scratches along his back, but he was otherwise unharmed.
Connor wiped his bloody mouth on his arm and reached into his pants pocket with his other hand, taking out two keys, one of which he tossed at Cody. He searched the guards’ pockets and came up with the keys to Nathan and Eric’s shackles and soon enough, they were all free.
“Your brothers are amazing!” Jessie was actually smiling for maybe the second time since Cody had arrived at the jail and it warmed Cody’s heart.
He kissed her on the cheek. “Of course, they are. We are. And so are you. We’re Strausses.”
Everyone took a minute to look each other over and make sure nobody was too injured but Connor obviously had the worst of it and he seemed fine, if a little riled up on the adrenaline rush, his eyes wide as he led them out through the small jail and outside.
The jail was an old fashioned sheriff's station in a little ghost town about thirty miles outside of Black Bear Lake. It was occasionally visited by exceptionally curious tourists and sometimes considered as a spot for development for up and coming real estate moguls but was otherwise ignored; the perfect spot for the shenanigans of shifter folk.
“I thought Alanna was gonna kick my ass,” Nathan said, as they climbed into the van that Connor had appropriated for their use from the sleuth’s guards. “But she just told me to kick ass. The fates really picked me out the perfect mate.” He tossed Jessie a wink that made Cody smile. “Look like they picked a good one for you too.”
“One thing I don’t understand,” Jessie said, as Cody stretched an around her shoulders in the van’s backseat. “How’d you guys get the cell key? I assume that was a diversion to give Connor time to attack. It was clever,” she said, nodding at Nathan and Eric in the row of seats in front of them, “to bring those two in as a sort of Trojan horse. But you must have stolen the keys beforehand?”
“Exactamundo!” Nathan said, and Eric cackled beside him. “Good eye. Eric, how did we steal the keys?”
Eric turned around in his seat, looking very proud. “One of the guards came back to the lodge. My mate Lydia heard him talking about keeping you guys prisoner. She saw the keys hanging off his belt, lifted em’ no problem. Just as she walked by! She batted her eyes at him and he didn’t even notice they were gone.”
“Woooow.” Cody nodded. “Fantastic.”
“It was easy to tell which ones were for those old fashioned cells,” Connor said, as he started up the van. “We came up with the rest of the plan around it. Nathan and Eric started a fight, made a big fuss about defending your and Jessie’s honor and made sure to get taken in and Alanna drove me out here and dropped me off far enough away so I could keep an eye and catch their arrival. Timing worked out perfectly.”
Jessie cleared her throat and Cody squeezed her shoulder. Now that all that was explained, he could practically feel her anxiety over the cubs as if it were his own and he was already plenty anxious himself. “What about the cubs? Has the sleuth taken them away? Do we know where they are?”
“We do... ” Connor didn’t sound quite as upbeat about revealing that. He was facing front, his eyes on the road and his big hands clutching the steering wheel. “A couple of the elders turned out to be on our side. They think the cubs were mistreated and the sleuth shouldn’t have custody of the children. Obviously, it’s all shifter law which doesn’t really exist unless th
e elders decide it does. So if we win, whatever that turns out to mean, they’re yours. It’s not like there’s paperwork.”
“The two elders who came around came and found me,” Eric said. “Not long after they took you in, Cody. They told us where the sleuth was going to take the cubs. Just for the next couple of days before they decide what to do with the rest of us. That gives us a window of attack. We just have to hurry before the sleuth figures out we’ve all escaped. Anyway, they’re being held at a house way outside town on the other side of the mountain. That’s where we’re heading now. Just hoping we get a chance to do some recon before we have to go full throttle. I texted the two elders on our side to see if they can come help but I don’t think we should wait for them.”
“I’m fighting with you,” Jessie said. Cody was about to argue, until he saw the look in her eyes, and he nodded, reaching over to squeeze her hand as Connor sped down the road.
21
Cody
The last time Cody had been in a serious fight, he’d nearly died. He couldn’t help but think of it now as the van barrelled down the highway and then up and around twisty neighborhood to make the long drive to the house where the sleuth was holding the cubs. He didn’t necessarily fear death. Or at least, he’d never feared it before. Now he feared it, not because of what might or might not come after but because of what he’d be leaving behind. He fought alongside his brothers to protect Eric just months ago when his ex-girlfriend, who had turned out to be a sort of con-artist murderer had attacked them all with powerful magic. It was come and go for a while there for Cody. He could still remember the feeling of drifting away from life, and even in those moments when he was sure his jig was up, he had thought: This is not so bad. His brothers would be devastated and he’d know that. But he’d felt a sort of peace about it.
Cody (Strauss Bear Shifter Brothers 0f Colorado Book 3) Page 11