You should die quickly.
She wanted to scream at all the voices in her head, but all she could think of was Mia. In her desire to save her daughter’s life she killed her. It didn’t matter how long she lived that would haunt her even in death.
It was standing over her saliva dripping onto her face. She could see the jaws open from the side of her eye and she said goodbye to everyone she loved. Goodbye Mia, goodbye Cole. She shed a tear for them, but she didn’t cry for herself. She always thought the stupid girl in the horror movie deserved to die. She just didn’t know she was that girl.
There was a growl that made her paralyzed body try to tense up. It was followed by the sound of flesh meeting flesh. She could feel the earth move underneath her as she heard roars and growls. There was the sound of flesh being rendered and teeth crunching.
Had someone come to save her? Was it Cole? No, why would he come? He was better off without her. The sounds of the fight died down and soon all she could make out was the sound of one monster breathing. Who had won?
Please, she whispered to herself, let Cole be alive. She could protest all she wanted to, but if someone came to fight for her, it was Cole. There was movement coming toward them, and then a figure stood over her. Who was it? She couldn’t move to find out.
He bent over and picked her up. Her head was looking straight up into Cole’s eyes. He was still the monster she ran away from. All she could see was the sadness reflected in his gaze. Mia called out to him and managed to wiggle out of her embrace. He helped her climb up his body until she was sitting around his neck holding onto his hair.
The next tear that fell was for her. If only she could have trusted like her daughter, they would be eating dinner right now. Instead, she would die and leave Mia alone. Take care of her for me Cole, I’m sorry. Then her eyes closed.
*~*~*~*
“Why isn’t she waking up?” Jessie had been out for three days. They had neutralized the poison in her system immediately and told him that all she needed was a little sleep.
“There’s nothing else we can do.” Cait was their expert on humans.
“I ran tests, and Cait ran tests. Whatever is keeping her asleep there is nothing we can do about it.”
He gave Tristan a quick nod. They were doing everything in their power, but it just wasn’t enough.
“We’ll be back later.” Cait gave him a sad smile before they left.
Mia was lying on the bed next to her mother. She wouldn’t leave her side.
“Mama.” Her little hand was petting Jessie’s face asking her to wake up.
“Jessie, wake up trasire. We need you, Mia needs you. I know you're scared of me, but your daughter needs you. I need you.”
He reached over to pick up Mia, but she clung to her mother.
“We’ll come back after we get you something to eat.” She started to cry breaking his heart.
“Don’t cry sweetie, Cole is going to take care of you. Mama has to go away, so you’ll never be hurt again.”
“Mama?”
“I’m not really here. Go with Cole. Please take care of her.”
“Where are you going, Jessie?”
“I have to go. I can’t let her be hurt again. You told me not to go in there but I let fear cloud my judgment, and she almost died. How can I stay? How can I be her mother? I worked it all out. If I die, I know you’ll take care of her, she will be safe and grow up loved and cared for.”
“It doesn’t work like that. If you leave her, she’ll mourn you. There will be sadness in her life. There will always be a space in her heart missing you.”
“I can’t stay.”
“Is that you Jessie? Is that what you really want or is fear trying to keep its hold on your life? Fear can be a good thing when it keeps us out of wild animal preserves, but when it takes over, then it has too much power. You can take the power back anytime you want to. I’m going to go cook you’re both hungry.”
Mia climbed into her arms. “Baby I missed you.”
She could leave while he was gone. Give up the right to her life and her child. Things would be so much easier. Mia’s eyes were blazing as she looked at her.
“Mia I would do anything for you. You’re my life, but I almost sacrificed both of us because of fear.”
You’re not brave.
She wasn’t brave, but that didn’t stop her from running with her child to keep her safe. It didn’t stop her from standing up to the detective. It didn’t stop her from running with Mia when she erroneously thought their lives were in danger.
She wasn’t brave, but she had more will to live than she realized.
He’s still an animal. It takes an animal to fight one.
She looked at fear and grabbed it. I have a nice place for you, and she opened the small cage in her mind and threw her in it. You can come out when you learn your place.
She sat up and kissed Mia. “Baby girl someone needs a bath.” She sniffed her again.
“How about you take a shower with me?”
“Shower.”
“You and me.” They took a shower together. She washed Mia first and wrapped her in a towel.
This was a new path. The voices in her head didn’t know how she should feel or what she should be doing. She was leaving the old Jessie behind, and it felt weird like she was out of touch with her body but in touch with reality for the first time.
She took Mia to her room to get her dressed then they walked into the kitchen.
“Hi.” Her voice was soft, unsure.
“Hi, Jessie.”
She put Mia in her highchair then turned to face him.
“Cole, I need to tell you something. I need to apologize.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Please let me say it while I have the courage.”
He nodded and sat.
“When I was young I was scared of everything. That’s how I was raised. I had to be ultra-careful of everything I said and did and eventually fear that I would say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing took over my life. There were repercussions for making the wrong moves, and they were severe. There were times I thought my mom would kill me. So, fear and death eventually went hand in hand like lovers.
“Then I came here. This place almost seemed like wonderland to me. Everyone was too good to be true. There had to be a catch I was always walking around waiting for the other shoe to drop. When you became what looked like a monster to me, that was the other shoe dropping. At that moment, I was convinced you were like my mom softening me up to get what you wanted.
“Fear took over again. It told me we were about to die, and I listened if I couldn’t trust you then I couldn’t trust anyone. I was so scared that I went where you told me not to go. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe you I was just so scared I couldn’t think straight. I’m not proud of that. I’m not proud of my life. Mostly I’m not proud of how I treated you. You have been there for me, always have been since I started working in The Wolves Den. I’m sorry Cole I should have realized that your other side was exactly that another side of you.”
She sat in the chair next to his trying to figure what she should do next.
“There’s a structure in the third bedroom called a trifold. The closest I can get to the name in your language. It stands several hundred feet in the air. You need the claws on your feet as well as the ones on your hands to climb it. If things get tricky, you can use your fangs to hold on. I’m agile, and I’m fast that’s why I got the honor of climbing it. I was shot down once. We have a weapon that fires sound. The waves that come from it are deadly, and they make the area around you unsteady.
“I didn’t move fast enough and was caught up in a blast. I fell hundreds of feet through the air until I landed on the ground. I should have died, I still don’t understand how I survived. I knew I was dying because I kept seeing things that weren’t real. All I remember were the words ‘you have to live.’”
“We needed someone up there because we were losi
ng. Declyn came to check on me. When he realized I survived he told me that we were losing, which meant a lot of my friends, my family would die. He needed me to climb back up there. I did, but Jessie I was scared. It was the first time in my life I knew fear. I always thought I was born to die so what did it matter?
“When I climbed the swing set with Mia, that was the first time since I’ve come to this planet that I’ve been that high off the ground. When fear gets its grip into you, it’s hard to shake it.”
“Thank you.”
He reached over and pulled her chair closer to his.
Chapter Ten
“I want to kiss you, Jessie.”
“After everything I did?” She searched his gaze. The fire in his eyes no longer bothered her because that was who he was. He wanted to kiss her she could tell by the way his eyes lit up with more than flames.
“I want to kiss you, Cole.”
“Are you afraid?”
She looked within herself to see fear locked up in her cage, but she didn’t say anything. She wasn’t even screaming about her new home she just watched with big eyes.
“No. Nothing about you scares me.”
He reached out for her and helped her stand so she could take a seat on his lap.
“I like having you this close to me.”
“You’re an amazing male.” She placed her head on his neck and nuzzled him. The heat from his body enveloped her, comforting her like she was being welcomed home.
He leaned over and took her lips giving her a gentle kiss. She clutched his shirt and kissed him back opening her mouth. His tongue swept in once again giving her a taste of his wildness. She dueled with him feeling her body grow hot. Her nipples tightened, and she rubbed them against his chest.
It was the sound of little hands clapping that broke them apart. She was smiling at them her little teeth were perfectly smooth like any other little girl.
“Did they tell you what was going on with Mia?”
“They did are you sure you want to know?”
“I do. I hope you like pasta. It’s quick and easy, and Mia loves it.”
“I love it too.”
“Mia.” She gently prompted him.
“Remember when I told you I was genetically engineered?”
“I do.”
“One of the things I can do, we can all do is heal. We transfer enzymes through our touch. They are like your DNA but not exactly the same. When you brought Mia here, she was sick. I didn’t know that none of us knew it. We aren't used to being around human children. My enzymes transferred to her and began to heal her. They didn’t stop there. They rearranged her genetic code by wiping out the male DNA and replacing it with mine. She’s half Kur’ik. Cait thinks this happened due to her age and the fact that she has the ability to be my genetic match. She wouldn’t give me any more information she’s still studying the phenomena.”
She nodded her head waiting for it. Any minute now fear was going break out of her cage, and together they would run down the street screaming.
“You're taking this better than I thought.”
“I think you can only run away so many times before you have to stop and think.”
“What are you thinking?”
“Right now, I’m concentrating on dinner because cooking is soothing me. In the back of my mind, I am comparing how Mia is acting now to how she was acting before. She’s the child I always knew she was. I wish I knew what they thought was wrong with her that needed fixing. To me, she’s always been perfect. What does this mean for her life?”
“You won’t want to take her to a human physician, but other than that I think she can pass as human. There are a few things that she will have to learn to control like her teeth and her eyes.”
“Will she be able to turn into…”
“The closest thing you have on earth to describe us is werewolves.”
“Alien werewolves, who would have thought.”
“Tristan and Cait aren’t sure what she will be able to do. They’re hoping you decide to stay here so they can watch her. Jessie, we have other camps all over the world. You can go to any of them, and they will take you in.”
“You would let us leave?”
She started plating the pasta and placing it on the table. She sat and looked at him after making sure Mia was eating.
He waited until her eyes were on him. “I want you to stay, but I won’t force you, and I won’t try to take Mia from you.”
It was decision time once again. This had to be about what was best for Mia but also what was best for her.
“In the spirit of being honest because I can’t accept any more secrets. I’m attracted to you. I was attracted to you even when you turned into an alien werewolf, that was part of the problem. How could I be attracted to something that was obviously not human? So, I just wanted you to know how I feel.”
He covered her hand with his. The heat of him settling her nervousness.
“The minute you walked into the club you had my attention. The months that passed found me focused on you. I wanted to kiss you, hug you, make love to you. I think this is what you human’s call a mutual attraction.”
The heat from his hand shot through her body making a pit stop in her stomach before it traveled to her drenched pussy reminding her of everything she was missing.
She gave him a smile because she was feeling good like her life had a shot at being better. They ate silently looking at each other under lowered eyelids while taking care of Mia until she decided she was full.
“She eats more now.”
“Her eating habits always bothered me. I felt guilty like it was all my fault. Now I look at her and she thriving and I feel joy.”
“Remember you rescued your daughter. You brought her here, and even when you were scared, you knew I really wasn’t the threat.”
They cleaned the kitchen together then she took Mia to clean her up and put on her pajama’s.
Cole was sitting on the couch when they came out.
“I thought we could read her a book.” He held it up in his hand.
“I think that’s too old for her. It says fourth and fifth-grade reader.”
“Believe me she can comprehend at a higher level.”
She sat down beside him still a little stiff. He moved her and placed a leg on the couch behind her, and the helped her to lay against his chest while Mia laid on her.
The story was about a little boy who got separated from his parents and his fight to get home. Mia was caught up in the way Cole was reading it. She listened with one ear while the rest of her tried to understand what was happening.
One day she was running down the street scared of everything. Now, she was laying between Cole’s legs listening to him read her daughter…their daughter a story. This felt like waking up and running into the man you would marry as you tried to catch a bus. Love at first sight, but only if you believed in things like that, which she didn’t.
The voices in her head were silent as she worked out what was happening. Would he expect more tonight? Did she want him to expect more? When she got with Jessie’s human father, she made him wait months. She thought he was the right man and that they would run off together.
The fact that he was willing to wait for her proved it or so she thought. That’s when the reality that she was an adult and the world didn’t play by her rules sunk in. He was willing to wait to get the one thing he wanted. At first, she thought it was sex. Later she realized his end game was to get her pregnant when he did he left.
Where did that leave her with Cole, because time didn’t necessarily mean a thing? If it was all about time she worked with him for four months, and he never made a move on her or forced her to do anything she didn’t want to do. He did turn his house into a family home. She should have seen that earlier but fear and denial kept her in her own special world.
His hand rubbed her shoulder. “You’re thinking too hard and not enjoying the tale of this wonderfully creative small chi
ld.”
Her lips tilted up. He was a tough alien werewolf with a heart of gold and a touch so silken she wanted to bare her body and plead for him to take her.
What’s next? One minute at a time.
“Mia, what part of the story did you like?” They were only half way through, but it was her bedtime, and they would read the rest of the story tomorrow night.
“He climbed the tree and swung from the branches like a monkey.” She jumped up and started pretending to swing from tree branches.
Jessie turned to give Cole a frown fighting to keep the smile off her face. The little boy did swing from trees. She could be wrong, but she thought Cole took a little poetic license with the authors work.
“I just spiced it up for my daughter.” He whispered in her ear as she got up.
His daughter, she might pass out. She heard every word he said when he explained it, but none of it made sense since it wasn’t something that could be done on earth. How many times had she wished that he was the father? Now he was. They were a family, something she never thought to have. She would always be fine with being mother and daughter, but adding a father into the picture gave her all the things she used to dream about as a child.”
“Dada.” Cole picked her up tossing her in the air while she laughed.
She hung back not wanting to crowd them. He had been taking care of her while she laid in the bed somewhere between life and death. She followed them but didn’t get too close. He made sure she went to the bathroom before taking her to the bedroom.
It was the bathroom scene that played over in her mind. It was so matter of fact. There was none of what she knew could happen. He was a father taking care of his child, and he never made her feel uncomfortable.
She was kneeling beside her bed when Jessie peeped in, and Cole was kneeling beside her.
“Now I lay me down…” Cole repeated the words as she led him through the prayer that Jessie said to her every night. She stood and kissed him before she climbed into bed, and he tucked her in. In her arms was the alien Cole, her eyes closed and he gave her one more kiss before he left the room.
Cole (The Wolves Den Book 2) Page 7