by J. K Harper
Karak cursed and pulled at his hair. “Don’t fucking lie.”
Argram growled at the man.
“She bears my mark. She comes with me,” Karak stupidly insisted.
“Do you know who your mate is, Violet?” the Alpha asked, not bothering to respond to Karak.
“I do,” she whispered and looked over at Joss. At that moment, Joss knew where this was heading. Violet didn’t smile, but her eyes shone a little brighter. She knew it, too.
“Are you willing to give him your bite? Mark him, and claim him as your own for all the pack to see?”
Violet kept looking at him as she shook her head. “No, Alpha. I don’t need to do that.” A sharp gasp rushed through the crowd, and the Alpha’s gaze shot to her.
Joss’s heart swelled as she faced the Alpha and Karak. “I’ve already claimed him as my own. There is no need to bite him again.”
Argram’s eyes rounded, but his lips turned up the tiniest bit. “Joss, will you prove to the pack and to Karak that you are indeed claimed and have taken Violet as your mate?”
Joss tugged at his arms, releasing himself from Khet and Baron’s grasps. He didn’t say a word, didn’t think he could with the wolf so close to the surface. Instead, he grasped his shirt and whipped it off, tossing it aside, revealing the gorgeous bite mark sitting right above his heart.
Argram came close, scenting Violet’s mark and smiled. “That is Violet’s mate mark. She’s bitten Joss, claiming him as her own.”
Karak growled. “She bears my mark. She’s mine,” he said through gritted teeth.
Argram stepped to the side, giving him a clear shot of Karak, but Joss held back. He waited for it. The challenge was coming, and he welcomed it.
“It doesn’t matter that you’ve bitten her. It only matters that she has bitten Joss. She’s made her choice,” Argram said, his voice more menacing than it had been.
Karak’s chest rose and fell in quick, harsh breaths. Hatred flashed in his eyes as he looked at Violet. “You fucking whore,” he spat, then lunged at her, shifting as he did.
Material tore. His? Karak’s? It didn’t matter. Joss heard Violet’s scream, but it was too late. Karak issued his challenge the moment he’d made a move toward her, and Joss accepted. The bastard wasn’t getting away.
Chapter 19
Violet didn’t want to watch, but she couldn’t tear her gaze away. Blood covered Joss’s gorgeous pelt. He leaped onto Karak, tearing into him with teeth and claws, but Karak was fast. He struck Joss’s underbelly, slicing deep gouges into his flesh. Argram stood on one side of her, Wesken on the other, protecting her, yet not standing in her way.
The fine layer of sticky snow on the ground turned pink as blood spattered onto it, melting it with its warmth. Violet wanted to scream and make them stop, but a wolf challenge ended in one way. Death. The victor was the survivor. Period.
Karak managed to get his teeth into Joss’s side, and Violet felt the pain inside her. Joss didn’t stop, didn’t slow down. For every bite and scratch Karak landed, Joss managed two. Karak scooted out of reach, panting heavily, then lunged again.
A hard tightening in her stomach made pain rip through her. She doubled over, clutching her belly. It’s too soon.
Wesken’s eyes didn’t miss a thing. With a look at Khet, he sent the man scurrying.
The growls and snarls became louder as the battle drew closer. Argram stepped a little in front of her as Delana came rushing over. “What’s going on?” she asked, ignoring the challenge altogether. The pack didn’t have a doctor, but Delana was their healer. If nothing else, she’d have an idea of what to do.
“It’s the baby, something is wrong,” she gasped as the muscles tightened and twisted in her stomach.
The clearing grew silent but for Karak’s snarling. Had she yelled it out? Joss looked at her, and that was all the opportunity Karak needed to jump him. In an instant, he had Joss pinned to the ground, his neck between his teeth.
“No,” she screamed. Before she knew what she was doing, she took off running toward the fighting wolves, clutching at her belly. Argram was on her before she made it more than a few steps. She looked on in horror as Karak stared right at her. He shook his head—hard. Joss’s head whipped from one side to the other.
Her heart stuttered, but then Joss gave a huge push with his paws, sending Karak back. The flesh of his neck gave, sending more blood splattering onto the snow, but at least he wasn’t pinned down anymore.
In an instant, Joss was on him. He clamped his teeth around Karak’s throat. Rather than pin him and break the wolf’s neck, Joss stared into her eyes as he clamped his jaw tighter and tighter around Karak’s windpipe. Karak fought against him, struggling to get out of his grasp, but Joss was too strong. Karak’s movements became jerky, and his eyes bulged as he tried to gasp for breath, but there was no way.
Another spasm in her stomach, stronger than the others, had her doubling over again. The fiery pain tightened her muscles, and she couldn’t catch her breath. She tried to look at Joss, needing his reassuring presence even if he couldn’t come to her, but the world darkened around her until all went black.
* * *
Joss paced outside his bedroom door. Miga and Delana had gone in to check on Violet what felt like hours ago.
“Come sit, or you’ll reopen your wounds.” Khet tried to get him to calm down for the tenth time in half as many minutes.
“What the hell is taking so long?” he asked no one in particular.
“They just went in there. Give Delana and Miga time.”
“It’s been,” he glanced at his watch, “eight minutes? That can’t be right. My watch is wrong.”
“If you don’t sit down, I’m going to make you. Violet’s going to be pissed if you’re hurt more than you already are when you go and see her. I’m not going to be responsible for angering your new mate.”
“Fuck you,” he said with a growl. Of course, he didn’t mean it, but cursing out his friend—and brother-in-law—was preferable to wearing a groove on the floor, or worse, bursting in there and demanding answers they couldn’t yet provide.
As soon as he’d heard her frightened words about something being wrong with the baby, he’d known the battle had to end. Too bad the distraction had cost him in flesh and blood. He’d wanted to make Karak’s death slow and painful, and Violet to know that the bastard would never be able to hurt her again, but when her face had paled, and she’d stumbled, his heart had stopped. With one huge shake of his head, Karak’s neck had snapped. He’d dropped him to the ground, but he couldn’t make it to her before she fell.
Argram had scooped her up as she had crumbled. “Come,” Argram had ordered as he turned and carried her back to their home. Somehow, in all the commotion, Miga had been summoned to their house, as well. Being the Alpha female, she dealt with more delicate issues with the female wolves. The fact that she was a mother and might have additional insight helped, too.
Lanie came out, closing the door quietly behind her. She gave him a small smile. “Why don’t you sit so I can tell you what’s going on.”
Fuck no. Joss didn’t need to sit. He needed to be with Violet. No matter what they faced, they’d do it together. His chest hurt, and he clutched the spot where she’d bitten him. She has to be okay.
“Jesus, I said we could talk, I didn’t deliver bad news,” she said as she came over. “You’re not going to pass out, are you? You lost a lot of blood out there.”
“Fucking tell me,” he demanded, not caring that he sounded like an asshole.
“She’s okay—for now. The baby seems to have decided that it wanted to make an early appearance.”
“He,” Joss said. “Or she. Violet doesn’t like for the baby to be called an it.”
“Well, he or she wants out. I’ve given her some herbs to try to stop it, but it’s not working. I think we’re going to have to deliver the baby.”
“It’s too soon.”
Lanie shook her head. “Aft
er checking her out and talking to her, I think she’s closer to eight months than seven. She’s small, but then she was undernourished for a lot of her pregnancy. I think the baby will be okay,” she said.
“And what about Violet? How is she doing?” He hadn’t had much time to adjust to the idea of being a father, but he had, and he wanted that baby as much as he would if he or she were his own. But if something happened to Violet, he didn’t think he’d survive.
“She’s okay, but she’s scared. She’s asking for you.”
Before the last word was out of her mouth, Joss was down the hall and opening the door. He needed to see with his own eyes that she was okay.
As soon as she laid her eyes on him, they filled with tears. “They said the baby is coming.”
Joss crossed the room and sat next to her, taking her hand in his. “That’s what Delana said. I can’t wait to meet him or her,” he told her.
“You think everything’s going to be okay?”
He leaned down and kissed her forehead, then her nose, and finally her lips. “It’s going to be fine, love. We’ll have to buy a bassinette for the room until we move and then get a proper crib, but that’s not a problem.” He knew she wasn’t asking about their living arrangements, but if she suspected the worry inside him, she’d never relax enough to deliver the baby safely.
Her eyes widened. “You’re right. We have nowhere for the baby to sleep.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll ask someone to get one for us. I promise.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then opened them again. “Karak?”
Joss wouldn’t give the man more than a passing thought. He didn’t belong in their new life. “He’s dead. We don’t need to think of him ever again.”
She nodded and placed a hand on her belly. “Are you really okay with this? I mean, I—”
Nope. He wasn’t letting her finish that sentence. “I already love our baby more than life itself, and his—or her—momma, too.”
Her gaze flashed to his, and a slow smile came to her lips. “We’re going to be okay?”
He grinned right back at her. “We are.”
“I love you, too, Joss.”
He took her cheeks between his palms and gave her a long, tender kiss.
“As much as I want more of that, I think it’s going to have to wait.” Her voice rose with the last of her words. “The cramps are coming back.”
Chapter 20
Violet sat in the chair humming as she nursed Veda, rocking her back and forth. Joss sat on the bed, a huge grin on his face as he pulled the tape in place on Finn’s diaper. They’d be moving into their new house later, and she couldn’t wait. As much as she loved having the babies rooming with her and Joss, it did tend to put a damper on certain intimacies she was anxious to get to again now that the twins were old enough to be in their rooms.
No one had been more shocked than her when not one, but two babies had arrived. She’d been small for even a single pregnancy, never mind twins, but sure enough, as soon as Veda had made her appearance, the contractions had started again, and Finn had come wailing out.
The two months since their arrival had flown by, but she was ready to get reacquainted with her mate’s body. Oh, they’d found time here and there to be with one another, thanks to Aunt Lanie, who came to steal the babies from time to time, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Not for her anyway. And by the hungry looks he kept casting her way, it wasn’t for Joss, either.
“As soon as she’s done eating, we’ll bundle them up and go to the new house. I’ll have the men come for our belongings afterward,” he told her as though they hadn’t already had that discussion five times. She couldn’t help but smile. He was so eager for the move, which in turn, had her excited, too. She couldn’t wait to move in and make it theirs. The interior of the house had been finished for a few days, but Joss had wanted to be sure no paint fumes remained for the babies to breathe in. If he wasn’t the postcard for the overprotective father, she didn’t know who was.
Veda finally released her nipple. It took all of two seconds for Joss to place Finn gently in the bassinette and rush over. “Here let me do that. You can go get ready,” he said as he scooped Veda up, holding the baby to his shoulder as he started patting her back, coaxing the little burp from her body.
Violet stood, then reaching up onto tiptoes, she gave him a chaste kiss. “I love you, Joss.”
He gave her a playful growl and leaned down to capture her lips, claiming her mouth. “I love you, too,” he said when he finally released her. “Now go get ready.”
She took a quick shower and dried her hair. During warmer months, she’d have let it dry on its own, but the cold winter air and the thick layer of snow covering the ground meant she had to spend a few extra minutes. But Joss never seemed to mind. He looked up at her with a smile on his face when she entered the room dressed and ready to go.
“Okay, let’s get them over there before they decide they’re hungry again,” he said. He already had both snowsuits lined up on the bed. He placed Veda in the pink one and started bundling her up as Violet did the same for Finn in his blue suit. Their tiny hats, mittens, and booties had been gifts from Miga, who had knit them herself, and always kept their little fingers and toes warm.
As soon as she had her coat, hat, mitts, and boots on, Joss helped her with the leather carrier Wesken had made for the babies, then gently placed Veda into it, securing her against her chest. Soon Finn was strapped to Joss, and they were heading out the door.
“It’s a beautiful day,” she exclaimed as she walked out. The sun shone through the trees, making the fresh snow that had fallen the day before sparkle. Her breath puffed out in a white cloud in front of her face.
“Yes, it is.” He took her hand as they started walking.
Violet looked around and giggled. “We’re going in the wrong direction,” she told him about halfway down the block.
He grinned at her. “We have to stop at Delana’s first. Is that okay?” he asked, a devilish glint in his eyes.
“What are you up to, Joss?”
He kissed her nose and tugged on her hand. “You’ll see.”
Whatever it was, she was sure she’d love it. Joss surprised her with gifts and his brand of sweetness all the time. And she’d never tire of it.
As soon as they came walking up the step to Khet and Delana’s house, the front door swung open. Delana stood there with a huge smile on her face. “It’s about time you two showed up,” she huffed good-naturedly.
“Hi Delana,” Violet said as she climbed the steps.
“What, you’re not going to say hello to your sister?” Zeyde stood in the doorway, a huge smile on her face. “What are you waiting for? I haven’t seen my niece and nephew in close to a month. Lanie says we have babysitting duties tonight.”
Violet looked over her shoulder at Joss, who smiled and walked up behind her.
“Babysitting duties?” she asked as she gave her sister as tight a hug as she could manage with a baby strapped to her chest.
“Oh, that’s right. That was a secret, wasn’t it? Oops. Sorry, Joss.”
Delana laughed and ushered them all inside. “Okay, I have all the milk I’ll need in the fridge. We have diapers, little bitty baby clothes, and the bassinettes should get here soon. Time for you guys to leave,” she said without hesitation.
Violet opened her mouth to protest, but Zeyde was already unbuckling the carrier from around her. Delana was doing the same, taking Finn from Joss.
“Have fun guys,” Zeyde said in a singsong voice, but she then gave an exaggerated sigh. “Okay, kiss them good-bye first if you must, but then it’s time to go.”
Already Delana had Finn out of his gear and was making cooing noises at him. “Say bye DaDa. Bye Bye, Momma.” Finn blew a spit bubble at his aunt, totally uninterested in his parents’ departure.
In a manner of minutes, Violet found herself outside again, two babies shy of a full family, and swept off her feet. Jos
s spun her around and around, laughing at her high pitched squeal. When they finally stopped, he captured her mouth with his, devouring her as though he’d never had a taste before and never would again.
“We can come back for them before nightfall if you can’t stand being away from them for so long,” he said when he finally released her lips.
She gave him a playful nip, then kissed him again. “Let’s go home, Joss,” she said. She had no idea if she’d last all night without the babies close by, but she’d take advantage of every moment alone with her mate until then.
Grasping Joss’s hand, she ran down the sidewalk, passing Khet and Rennan along the way. They each carried a bassinette. “Thank you,” Joss called out as he followed. They’d stop and talk another time. Right then, they had more important things to do.
Chapter 21
Joss opened the door, then stepped back for Violet to walk into their new home. The light scent of melted wax drifted out. He’d been tempted to fill the whole house with candles, but he wasn’t sure how long the smell would last or if it was good for the babies, so he’d settled for a few in the master bedroom. He’d open the windows before they left to collect Veda and Finn to make sure the room aired out.
Violet gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. Her eyes shone brightly as she took in the pine tree he’d chopped down and had Delana decorate for them in the foyer. Of course, there’d be another in the family room, one they could decorate as a family next week before the holiday, but he’d wanted to surprise her with this one.
Violet shook her head and smiled at him before going into the family room to the right. Joss held his breath. If there was anything she didn’t like, they’d change it. He’d have to figure out how to do it with them living there. Already plans were in effect to remodel his old house to accommodate two of the women displaced from the Mahehkan pack, and work was scheduled to begin tomorrow.
“It’s even better than I imagined it would be,” Violet exclaimed before she threw herself into his arms.