by Lauren Dane
“Good afternoon, Renee.” He approached and she saw the similarities between him and Galen right off. Both had that predatory walk. They appeared laid-back on the surface, but the eyes took in everything, the muscles coiled just so, enough to spring into action when and if needed.
She fought her blush at the not so very idle thought of what those muscles would look like naked.
“Afternoon, Jack. Your smoothie is coming right up. How about apple, mango, banana today?”
“Do I have to? How about some coffee instead?”
“You are such a baby. Fine, get scurvy. See if I care when your teeth fall out and your muscles won’t work. You won’t be nearly as pretty that way.”
He laughed, surprised. “Pretty huh? You noticed.” His look was smug and she rolled her eyes as she scooped the fruit into the blender.
“You sell coffee, how can you be anti-coffee?”
“I’m not anti-coffee. I love coffee, have it every day in fact. But I’m looking at you and I bet you’ve been up since before dawn and I also bet you’ve had at least three cups by now. So I’m saying have some fruit.” She poured the smoothie into a cup and pushed it his way.
He sipped so cautiously she wanted to laugh. “You’re a werewolf, how can you be afraid of fruit?” She kept her voice low.
“You never did tell me how you knew that.”
“I saw your other self.” She shrugged, noticing Phoenix watching from the other end of the store.
“It’d be a lot easier if you’d come out to lunch with me so we could speak privately.”
“That’s not going to happen. I told you. I’m taken.”
“I have so much to say to you. So much I need to explain.” He leaned in, earnest look on his face. “But you’ve got observers. Your boss keeps watching.”
“That’s not my boss,” she said, annoyed. “That’s my father’s wife. She owns the shop, but not me or this cart.”
His hand tightened on the counter’s edge. “Are you not welcome here?”
In the light, his wolf shimmered briefly and she drew a deep breath. Not from fear, but from fascination. He was beautiful. And fearsome.
“It’s family, family is always complicated.”
He moved his hand, just barely touching hers with a fingertip before drawing away. “I don’t like to think about anyone harming you or making you sad.”
She swallowed, hard. “Why?” Her whisper held her angst at how much it meant to her that he’d say it, her confusion and no small amount of fear. Not of him, but of what he might mean to her.
And then something else, something warm and soft, rushed through her system. She looked to the door and saw Galen standing there, looking so handsome and slightly angry, she wanted to fan herself.
Instead she watched, unable not to, as he stalked over, his eyes never leaving hers.
Galen let out most of his tension when he saw her, when he took in how she responded to his entrance. This was not a guilty face, this was the woman who loved him, who made him blueberry pancakes with that flax crap she didn’t think he knew she added. The woman whose body welcomed him anytime he wanted or needed it. This was his woman.
But the man standing at her cart, that was another story altogether. That man looked at Renee with not just hungry eyes, but with eyes that said mate. That simply would not do.
He stalked right behind her counter and pulled her into his arms where she willingly went, her body fitting to his, just as it had that morning, just as it always had. Her head tilted back to look into his face, her expression pleased but surprised.
He kissed her and she hugged him tight.
“Hi there, to what do I owe this visit?” She smiled, the dimple just below the apple of her cheek standing out, drawing his finger to slide through the dent.
“Got a call, said I needed to come by because you had a visitor.” He cut his gaze to the wolf, who met his look with one of his own. Well now, an alpha werewolf too.
Renee looked around him to Phoenix, who had been the one to call, telling Galen a man had been coming in the shop to flirt with Renee. Phoenix had made it sound like something far more had been going on. He knew that part had been a lie, Renee was too honest to do anything behind his back. But still, something was going on. The energy crackled between them, all the magic they held buffeting, sliding, caressing and arcing.
“Did you now?” Renee’s voice had gone down an octave and a wave of her power spread outward. He reminded himself to get on her again about seeking out training to use her magic. She had so much more power than she realized and one of these days she’d end up hurting herself or someone else if she didn’t learn to channel it correctly.
“Babe, chill. I’m here.” He spoke softly, drawing his fingertips down her neck to the spot where he’d marked her earlier that day. Her breath hitched and he smiled. “She’s a busybody, but you have to admit, this wolf right here didn’t drop by just for a smoothie.”
“I’m Jack Meyers. I think we should all talk.”
The man was good looking if you went for that tall, blond, blue-eyed surfer thing. Which he did. Who wouldn’t? He also clearly had a thing for Renee, which brought Galen’s cat very close to the skin.
“About what, wolf? She’s taken and I’ll rip you to shreds if you try to change that.”
Wolf bled into the other man’s eyes as Galen’s cat showed right back. Renee slapped a hand down on the counter just hard enough to make both men jump, breaking the spell.
“Enough. This is my place of work. I have a customer on his way back here right now so hold it together.” Renee smiled over Jack’s shoulder to an elderly man Galen recognized from the neighborhood.
“Busy today, sweetheart?” the man asked, his hat in his hands as he smiled.
Renee laughed. “Never too busy for you, Mr. Sherman. The usual?”
“Yes please. You know me so well. Today, can you add a little something?”
Renee paused as she steamed milk, looking him up and down. “Hmm. For you, I think today is a cinnamon day. What do you think?” She held up a cinnamon stick and a grater.
She chatted with him and Galen watched the old man fall under her spell. She knew about his life, the details of his family, asked after his daughter’s new baby, how his garden was doing. She cared about him and he saw that. When Galen looked up, he saw Jack understanding her too and something more than outrage spilled through him.
Phoenix began to hover as Renee blew a kiss at Mr. Sherman and he left, grinning.
“I see you came by.” Phoenix spoke around Renee, addressing Galen. He should have called Renee first, but he’d let himself get spooked and rushed over. Phoenix would see that as taking her side and for that, Galen felt badly.
Not one to be cowed, Renee sent her stepmother a look so frightening he took a step back, resting a hand on her hip.
“You and I will talk about this later.” Renee turned her back on the other woman, cutting her off before she could speak. Her look at them wasn’t much better. “And you two. If you start marking things with pee, I’m out of here. I’m pretty open-minded and stuff, but I do have limits. Jack, this is the husband I’ve been telling you about, Galen de La Vega. Galen, this is the wolf I’ve been trying to talk to you about.”
They looked each other up and down, Galen’s heart beating faster at the threat to his mate, to his life. But...also something else. It was hard to think there in the enclosed space, with Renee in between them, the scent of her magic on the air. It mixed with his, with Jack’s and Galen didn’t know what to think, how to deal with it.
Jack exhaled, hard, and Renee looked back and forth between them.
“We can’t talk here.” She took Galen’s hand, bringing it to her lips. “We don’t have to talk anywhere. It’s totally up to you.”
Jack gro
und his teeth together, impotent rage coursing through him. The other woman had made Renee angry, had upset her. It was simply unacceptable to see her treated so badly.
This other male, Jack sighed, he could see the connection the two of them had. Just as Lia had told him earlier that day. Galen had imprinted on Renee and she clearly accepted that bond, felt it, returned it. Jack knew she was drawn to him, he saw it, heard it in her voice, scented it in the way her body warmed when he came into the shop. There was no mistake, Renee was his mate. Too.
He’d argued with himself all day, wavering on whether to come to the shop again. Renee wouldn’t be the only female on the planet who he’d be able to share a mate connection with. It didn’t work that way. If there were only one person they could mate with, their race would die out. But none of that meant as much as the way she’d barreled into his life. There was no escaping the very real sense of fate at play, of his being meant to make these choices. Who was he to argue with fate?
Lia had explained that they could share Renee through a bond. The jaguar via his imprint on her and Jack through his mate bond. But did he want that? It wasn’t usual. Male wolves were exceptionally territorial and possessive about something as easily replaced as a jacket or a house; they were a thousand times worse when it came to their mates.
Still, as he’d paced and growled at anyone who came near him, he couldn’t stop thinking of her. Didn’t want to. He wanted her, wanted to wake up next to her every day. Wanted her scent on their sheets. Wanted to bury his face in that glorious hair.
All his life he’d settled. He’d lost his own family so he’d been fostered by Templeton Mancini and his wife within the National Pack. He’d accepted his lot in life and he’d been happy with it.
But he didn’t want to walk away and wait to see when he’d find another woman he could mate with. He’d found this one by total happenstance, he’d bumped into her without expecting it and that was how it was supposed to be.
He wanted her and he damned well would find a way to have her or at the end, he’d know he did his all-out best to make it happen and would walk away with no regrets. Jack Anderson Meyers was no fucking quitter and he wasn’t going to start now.
In truth, he wanted to rip the cat’s arm off, as craving for her intensified and he couldn’t touch. But there was something else. Something holding him back. He didn’t know why or what, but he had to talk to her alone, away from this place and that woman near the counter trying to overhear everything they said. His wolf approved of how the cat moved his body in between the women, shielding Renee.
And he liked, even as he wanted to howl, the way Renee reassured Galen. That sort of loyalty was rare. He knew she felt the same pull to him as he did to her, but she put her man first. Once he was her man, too, or instead of Galen, whatever, he knew she’d show the same kind of loyalty and constancy.
Constancy. What an old-fashioned word for something he considered more important than just about anything else on the planet.
Renee waited as the two men sized each other up and then looked back to her. Galen brushed a kiss over her lips again before looking back at Jack.
“Are you free tonight? Perhaps you can come to our house for drinks. Nine?”
Jack nodded once and his eyes found hers, warming. She smiled in response, feeling that pull again. But nothing could happen here, nothing could be said here, especially with Phoenix hovering. Any minute now, she expected her father to show up, Renee was sure he’d been summoned.
Galen wrote their address down and Jack took it with a nod. “I’ll see you both tonight.”
Before he turned, he took her hand, kissing her wrist where he had before. Her heart sped. Galen still had an arm around her waist, his body pressed to her side, his muscles tightened and something without words happened when they all three touched. Everything inside her surged and broke over both men. A warm flow of magic came from her gut, surrounding them. She heard nothing but three heartbeats, smelled nothing but Galen and Jack. The taste of honey, the scent of amber, of sunshine and forest all mixing on her tongue as they remained locked for long moments.
It was only the ringing of the chimes over the front door that broke the spell. Her father stood there, shocked and then pained.
“What the blazes is going on?” He didn’t even sound like himself. His voice was a stranger’s voice, a man totally untouched by emotion.
Jack turned, shielding her with his back. Galen put a hand on Jack’s shoulder, uniting the three again with that touch.
Things began to tumble out of control and her head swam. “Jack, we’ll see you tonight. Galen, I’m going home now. I’m done here for today. I want to go home.”
Galen looked to her. “I’ll deal with him. Clean up and I’ll get you home. Jack, go on now or this will explode and the one hurt the most will be Renee,” he said in an undertone.
Jack nodded and left, sending a narrowed glance at Phoenix as he did.
Galen had a hushed, but firm conversation with her father and Phoenix as Renee cleaned up quickly, putting everything away and locking the cart up. She’d done it so many times it was simply routine at this point.
When she walked out, it was without a single word toward her father or Phoenix, Galen’s arm around her, anchoring her to his side, to the world, in every way that counted and she needed.
Chapter Six
She remained silent until he’d locked the door and she’d hung up her things. “Galen, do you think I was doing something wrong with Jack? That I was hiding something from you?”
She looked so sad, it pulled at his heart. He hugged her first and then kissed her temple. “No. I didn’t come to the shop because I thought Phoenix was telling the truth. But I admit it, I got jealous that anyone would be there trying to take you from me. Stupid and immature, I know. But it wasn’t about you.” He tipped her chin up. “I love you. I trust you.”
“I would never, ever betray you. I need you to understand that.” She took both his hands in hers. “I’m yours.”
He closed his eyes a moment before speaking. “I do understand that. If I didn’t I wouldn’t be standing here right now. Babe, you wear my mark on your skin, you smell of me, you’re my mate and as far as I’m concerned, my wife. This thing with the wolf, it’s big, I can feel it too. But I know you didn’t try to hide anything, that’s not who you are.”
She nodded. “Good. I’m so glad. When I saw you come in I was worried that you believed her.” She took a deep breath, pressing her lips to his neck, over his pulse. The scrape of her teeth across the skin there brought gooseflesh and a ragged moan.
“I believe you. I believe in you.” His breath caught as she bit, just hard enough to make her point. He tipped his head back a bit, submitting. Her hands, sliding up his sides, trembled.
“You’re the only person in the world who understands me. That’s... I can’t tell you how much that means to me. It’s precious.” She stepped back and began to peel off her clothing. Rooted to the spot, he watched the unveiling as need pounded through his veins.
“You’re a gift, Renee. Do you understand that? Before you, there were just a whole bunch of days and experiences, some really good ones, but none of them half as special as what you do for me.”
Naked, the pale sunlight washing over her skin, she stepped close again, reaching to ease his tie off and unbutton his shirt. “I love that you’re like this behind closed doors when out there you’re snarly and hard.” Her smile held secrets only he knew. “Do you need to go back to work?” She kissed his chest, tiptoeing up to reach his collarbone and the sensitive skin at the hollow of his throat.
He had a shit-ton of work to do, but none more important than this. Than her. His own need echoed from hers. His possessive urge calmed by her touch, by the way she’d deferred to him with the Jack situation.
The Jack situation. What
a fucking ball of complications that was. But she was here. With him and she wanted him to know that. Not just standing there, but there, in their hallway, with her hands on him, taking care of him. She made clear with everything she was that he was her choice. No matter what Jack meant to them, the relationship between Renee and Galen was safe and solid and nothing would change that.
That reassurance was exactly what he needed. She hadn’t done it to be calculating, he knew. She simply understood what he needed and provided it. That she seemed to have no idea of how important that was, when she did it for him every day, sent him reeling. His beautiful witch.
“No. I’m where I need to be right now. I love you so much.” He groaned when she got to her knees, undoing his belt and trousers, easing them off after he’d gotten rid of his shoes and socks.
Like a cat, she rubbed her cheek along his thighs and over his cock, licking his belly, the seam where thigh met body and finally his cock. Just a quick kiss and she was gone again.
She gave herself to him so openly, so freely and with so much joy, he always found himself utterly destroyed and remade every time they were together.
“Wait,” he managed to gasp. “The floor is hard here, come back to the bedroom where you can lie down or at least use a pillow under your knees.”
Her eyes rolled up, her gaze meeting his as she took his cock into her mouth, as far back as she could.
“Christ.”
She let go, licking across the head and crown before saying, “Sometimes a girl likes it hard.”
Well, he was a goner now.
Renee loved this, loved being on her knees, loved pleasing him. He tasted just right. She dragged her nails up the backs of his legs, up hardened calves and powerful thighs, up to gentle and then cup the spectacular ass, pulling him closer and deeper.
The floor beneath her knees was hard, yes, but on some level she sort of liked it, liked that she needed his cock inside her in some way so badly that she couldn’t wait, didn’t want to wait to get to somewhere softer. And like she said, sometimes a girl liked it hard.