by Lauren Dane
Most of all, she really wished she could talk to someone about it, learn how to harness it.
She hopped on the T and headed across the river to an occult/magic-type bookshop in Cambridge. She’d only passed by a few times on her way to a movie theater where she and Galen caught arthouse flicks, but she’d always wanted to stop in. Why not then? Maybe they could help her there, refer her to someone. Her men were off doing werewolf and lawyer stuff, her cart was closed on weekends and she had the time and the curiosity.
But at the end of the block, four doors down and the street jam-packed with students, she stopped, a cold sweat breaking over her. She was not supposed to be there. Why, she didn’t know, until a man stepped out of the bookshop. She didn’t even see him clearly. What she knew was that she didn’t want him to see her, though not how she knew it.
Quickly turning on her heel, she mixed in the crowd and headed away, back toward the T.
The further she got from that street, the better she felt, but she wasn’t going to stop until she got on the other side of the river.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket as she slid into a seat and tried not to be obvious about checking to see if she’d been followed.
“What’s happening? Where are you?” Jack demanded when she answered.
As the train pulled away from the stop, she saw him, saw the man from the shop standing on a nearby corner, looking around. She ducked, hoping he hadn’t seen her.
“Nothing,” she whispered, not sitting up again until she was sure they’d moved on and weren’t going to stop and let anyone else board.
“Bullshit. I can feel you. I can feel your fear. Where are you?”
Her call waiting buzzed and she sighed. That would most likely be Galen. She bet this mate thing between the three of them had made him all sneaky Pete into her head like Jack apparently was.
“Galen is on the other line. I have to get it or he’ll worry. I’ll call you when I get home.” She broke the connection over his growled curse and order not to hang up.
“Hello?”
“What took you so long to answer? Where are you?”
“Hey, handsome. I’m fine. On my way across the river back toward home.”
“Why are you scared? What’s happening?”
“I got spooked. It was stupid. I’m on a crowded train in broad daylight and I’ll be home in ten minutes. Really, go back to work. I’m all right. Let’s have pizza for dinner. I’ll handle the details. I love you.” She hung up and ignored the phone when it buzzed again. She needed to hold her shit together and talking to them wouldn’t help that just then.
Of course when the train stopped and she made to get off, she saw Jack right away. Galen stood next to him.
Instead of being mad, she simply went to them and let them hug her, even as they chided her for not answering the phone.
It felt so good to be cared about, to be fussed over; stupidly, she couldn’t hold back tears and it only made them worry more about her.
Jack looked around the outside of the house and went in first, giving Galen the all-clear signal before they allowed her inside. Galen ushered her to the couch and they bookended her.
“I’m going crazy here, sweetheart. What the hell has you so spooked?” The tension rolled off Jack in waves. Even normally laid-back Galen had been replaced by hard-core protector Galen.
She told them everything, from the way she’d headed to the shop as if by rote and then the way she got sick and sweaty and just knew the man she saw would bring her harm if she didn’t get away from him immediately.
“Did he see you on the T today?” Galen asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. But he was following me, looking for me. I know it.”
“Why do you think he was following you? Did you speak to him? Know him from before?” Jack held her hand as he spoke.
“I’ve never seen him before. I’d have remembered. I was walking down the street toward the shop and I began to feel sick. It was wrong, the air. I can’t explain it, but I just knew I shouldn’t be there and when he came out onto the sidewalk I had to not let him see me.” She shrugged. “I know it sounds stupid, but I just felt it. He was, there was something about him. I think he had magic. But not like mine. It looked, or felt different. I don’t know! I don’t know how I know, I just do.”
Galen kissed her temple. “Babe, it’s okay. We believe you. You practically glow with your magic now. Before I could sense it, taste it even. But last night, something happened. My cat, Jack’s wolf...it was a full moon and we all connected, unlocked things within us all.”
“You think maybe he saw it too? Like she’s a front porch light and he’s a bug? Great. Just great. Even better that we’re responsible for making her less safe.” Jack frowned.
She took his hand. “Oh for goodness’ sake. You can’t be responsible for everything.”
Then of course, they began to speak as if she weren’t even there. Being annoyed at them was better than being scared, she supposed.
Jack leaned forward, around her body to address Galen. “I don’t like that at all. What would he want with her?”
“Nothing good.” Galen’s eyes shone with violence.
Jack turned his gaze back her way. “You aren’t to go around by yourself for the time being. Got me? One of us will take you to work, one of us will escort you home. Until we figure out who this guy is and what he wants, you’re at risk.”
She counted to ten. She knew shifters were this way in general about mates, but in the face of a threat, they got even worse.
“I appreciate the protection and concern, I really do. But this is silly. You’re not going to treat me like I’m five. I’m a grown woman. I walk around alone all the time.”
“You did. And now you won’t. This isn’t about you being five, Renee, and you know it. This is a dangerous situation, we don’t know enough right now. Until we know more, this is how it will be.” Galen’s mouth had set, that spelled trouble for her because she knew he wasn’t going to give in when he had that face.
She narrowed her eyes. “This is ridiculous.”
He shrugged, so gallingly casual. “Suck it up.”
She slumped, knowing she couldn’t get out of it and not really wanting to. She was still spooked and they made her feel safe.
“Don’t you both have work to do?”
“Nice try. I finished my work and was on my way out when this all went down. I’m home for the day.” Galen tossed his feet up on the coffee table and she resisted the urge to shove his feet off the wood.
She sent him what she hoped was a snotty smile, but he pretended not to notice. “Well then good, you can go to your Saturday rowing thing with your crazy-assed siblings.” The de La Vegas liked to row on the Charles every Saturday until the river began to freeze at the shore. Because they were all insane. In any case, it was nice to be able to get out of that because they all had superhuman energy and she, alas, was just a human. Ha.
“Not today. There’s some thing for Beth and another woman who’s pregnant too. My dad is off with Max to get wood for some construction project he’ll fuck up and we’ll have to call in a contractor. They’re all busy and I’d rather be with you anyway.”
Jack smoothed a hand down her back and she leaned on him a moment. “I spoke with Cade before I left. I have a few days off, but they’d like to meet you. They asked us all to dinner on Monday to officially welcome you into the Pack.” He looked to Galen. “Both of you. There’s an official ceremony, but we can do that whenever we’re ready.”
“I have no idea what to tell my father and Susan. Things are already really tense between us lately. I don’t know what happened but in the last six months or so, she’s way more condescending. Makes more comments about my mom and her family. We end up in a fight of some sort at least once a week. My d
ad has become more distant with me during this time too. I’m not ashamed of it, I just, I honestly don’t know if they care or what.”
“You didn’t tell me it had gotten so bad.” Galen sighed, still holding her hand. “Why don’t you just take me up on the offer to lease the space in the lobby of our building? It’s the perfect size for you. Easier to deal with than the cart. And it’s not dependent on them. And, it’s protected by my people. No one could get to you. I’d feel a lot better on a few levels if you moved.”
“Because I can’t afford to do that yet.”
“How much do you need? Whatever I’ve got is yours.” Jack squeezed in tighter and she found herself surrounded by them. Damn, that was just, wow, hard to think when all that gorgeous man was up on her.
Galen’s voice cut through her tingles. “That’s not the issue. I’ve offered to do the same. And she can afford it, but she has this notion that she has to put the exact same amount into the household as I do.”
“I don’t put the exact same as you do into the household! You put in a lot more money than I possibly could. I do all I can. You put a certain percentage of your wages into things. Into the savings and utilities and the mortgage. All that stuff, vacations, whatever. I do the same. The increase in a lease or rental for my space is not in my budget. Right now, my schedule is my own. I don’t have to work on weekends or at night. I have a leisurely life because of how much more you put into the budget than I do.” His sister already thought Renee was a gold digger and basically dumb and shallow. Renee didn’t care to deal with the fallout of letting Galen pay for that lease. He thought she was just being stubborn and because she didn’t want to put him in the middle, she just let him think it.
“But I’ll be living here too.” Jack kicked his shoes off, propping his feet on the coffee table too. “So that helps, right? You should have enough to do it yourself in that case.”
“The building is owned by my jamboree. All the business floors are anyway. We lease out the rights to the retail space in the lobby and one atrium floor to another company. That company requires the first year’s lease fees paid in advance. I could, of course, intervene and ask them to make an exception for my wife. If my wife would allow me to do so. Which she does not. I could pay the first year’s fees for her and she could pay me back monthly, if she felt the stupid need to pay me back in the first place. She also refuses that.”
“Not that Galen’s bitter about it or anything.” Renee tried to get up, but both men held her fast. “I’m done with this conversation now. I’m not going to just let you give me tens of thousands of dollars! And I’m not going to use your family connections to get me a special deal that others don’t get. I know I’m not a lawyer or second in command of a werewolf pack. But I have my own business. It makes me happy and it pays my bills. It means something to me that I do it on my own.”
Galen hugged her. “I know, babe. I’m sorry. I just want to help you. I want to take care of you. I respect what you do, but can’t we find a way, a middle way, where we can protect you and you can still manage your own business too?”
“Sweetheart, if you’re in Galen’s building, you’d be way safer. Let us help you with this. I know we’d both feel a lot better if we knew you were more protected. If you won’t just take the money, you can pay us back, in installments or whatever you need.”
“I appreciate your concern, I respect that you want to protect me and I appreciate that. I do feel safer knowing you two look out for me. But I’m done talking about it and we’re going to move on to another topic.” She totally sounded like a self-help book, she knew she did. But she wanted them to know she appreciated their concern and still wasn’t going to let them take over her entire life.
She pushed hard enough that they finally let go and she stood, needing to be away from them right then. It was so easy to give in to all that love and protection. To let them take care of her instead of her taking care of them and herself. But she didn’t want that, didn’t want to be a freaking dependent. How could she respect herself if she just let them take over that way? How could they respect her in that case?
Jack was very nearly close to changing. He’d never felt so close to the edge before. The first jolt of her fear through their bond had doubled him over. He’d been in a meeting with Cade, on a teleconference with several other pack leaders at the time.
He’d lurched to his feet, intent on finding her. This wasn’t her being startled or nearly hit by a car or something fleeting. It hadn’t gone away. It stayed. She was being terrorized and he wasn’t there to protect her.
Grace had stopped him as he’d fumbled with his phone. She’d wanted to examine him but Cade forced her back, allowing Jack to call Renee’s phone. She didn’t answer right away and when she finally did she expected to just go on home and for him to stay at work?
And now this fuckall crazy idea of hers to not take the help they offered to get her out of what sounded like a very unpleasant situation and into a guarded building with more space?
“You can’t just walk away from this,” Galen said.
“I can’t? And how do you think that? Thank you both for the offer. I decline.” She continued on toward the hall opposite the bedrooms. A door slammed and KC and the Sunshine Band started up.
“I haven’t heard ‘Boogie Man’ in a good long time.” The ‘70s. Jack thought of that time when his life had been so chaotic. Absent any real connections to anchor him. He’d had a beer can novelty radio. He’d won it at some foster kid picnic and had listened to music long into the night, long after everyone else had gone to sleep.
“She’s got a darkroom back there. Another thing I’ve encouraged her to do more of is photography. She’s quite good at it. But she’s been raised to think anything artistic is bad. Raised to think she was wrong for her magic. So she runs her own business, does very well at it and still gets to be creative in her own way. But she hides her photography by saying it’s just a hobby. Stupid Susan, fuck! The woman owns a magic shop and she’s like the opposite of magic. It’s nonsensical.” Galen pushed himself from the couch and went into the kitchen. Jack followed.
“So I know more of the story with her family. What’s the story with yours? Have you told them yet?”
“I used to think things would mellow out, and over the last three years, things have gotten better for the most part. Jaguars are insular. We keep with our kind most often. When we imprint on a human, they almost always take the change. She doesn’t want to and I don’t need her to.”
“Your jamboree finds that insulting? A repudiation of what they are?”
“Some do, yes. More at the start. She’s really hard not to like. Most of them have seen how much I love her and how much she loves me. They know her decision about the change isn’t about them at all, but that she doesn’t want to be anything but what she is now. I’ve known her long enough to understand how very important it is to her to be that. To affirmatively choose to be who and what she is instead of trying to change for others.”
Galen began to rummage through the fridge.
Jack frowned. “But the ones who don’t? The ones who think she won’t change because she’s some sort of human supremacist?”
“I’ve got eight brothers and sisters. Two of them don’t like her. They feel like she’s getting in the way of my choosing a woman in our jamboree or one who’d change. They don’t want me to have children with her. My mother was that way until last year. I don’t know what happened, Renee won’t talk about it. But whatever it was, my mother has been very supportive of our relationship and of Renee ever since. I thought things were okay, but given the way she reacted today, I’m beginning to think she’s not telling me the extent of what’s going on.”
“So you haven’t told them about me? About this?” Jack wasn’t insulted, he just wanted to get all the details.
“I met with my father and
my older brother, Max, and told them. I’m a grown man, a full member of the jamboree and third in line to take over. I don’t need permission or a vote of support. I’ll make an announcement of it at the next meeting, two weeks from now. I expect most of the jaguars there will support me. Some won’t though. It’s an old argument and things are changing. It’s just slow.” Galen handed Jack a soda and moved to stand next to him, both of them leaning back against the counter, staring out the large windows over the neighboring houses, the trees and gardens and beyond, the barest slice of river.
“Let me know what I can do to help.” Jack cocked his head, looking at Galen, letting himself admire him.
Galen looked back. Neither of them spoke for long moments. Jack breathed in deep. That hit of recognition shocked through Jack’s body. Connection. Deep arousal, attraction, need to protect and defend.
He turned, as Galen had. Where Jack’s kiss with Renee had been sweet and sensual, this first kiss between Jack and Galen without Renee involved was hard, raw, a gnash of teeth and tongue. Hands pulling and yanking, hips pressing, cocks grinding through denim.
Galen’s taste ran through his system, wild and powerful. His wolf responded, growling with satisfaction and challenge. Galen kissed down his neck, pulling his shirt open, the soft tear of the cotton wasn’t louder than the sounds they made.
Mouth and teeth on neck and chest, over nipples, just this side of pain. Jack arched into Galen’s touch as he managed to get Galen’s belt undone and pants unzipped. His cock felt right in his hand, slick at the head.
Galen hissed, arching, pushing, thrusting his cock into Jack’s fist. And bit him.
Jack cried out as Galen’s teeth pressed into the flesh of his pectoral muscles, just above his nipple. So much pleasure rushed through him he nearly came from that bite.
Galen’s hand worked its way around Jack’s cock. “Give it to me, Jack,” Galen murmured as he thrust against Jack. They were standing close enough that knuckles touched, angled cock to rub against cock, slick and hard.