by Hazel Gower
“Demons, there are demons?”
Brandon tilted her head and brushed his lips over hers. “Yes, there are demons. And I feel they are misjudged. I would call a demon a sin-eater. They take away your sins. They also have mates like us. They even come to our aid.” He rubbed his hands up and down her back.
“You keep saying I’m protected because I’m a mate. What is this mate thing?”
“It is this.” He took possession of her lips, pulling her closer to his hard naked body. Jezebel didn’t resist. She moaned and melted into him. Jezebel’s arms came around his neck, and she held him to her. Feeling he’d made his point and knowing if he continued he’d never finish telling her everything, he broke his mouth from hers.
“That, what just happened, is the mate bond. Mates are irresistible to each other. They are the other half of their souls. They make shifters stronger. Mates are the one person whom the animal and human can love. That they can have children with. The only person who can tame the savage beast. Who can make both the human and animal happy. The one person in the whole universe who is made for them and the shifter for the mate. They are special.” Brandon cupped Jezebel’s face. “Jezebel, you are my mate. I knew from the moment I laid eyes on you.” He took a deep breath in. “You smell divine. Like a jasmine.” Brandon trailed his fingers down to rest over his mate mark. “I should have waited and wooed you, but I couldn’t hold back. When I made love to you I bit you, mate-marking you.” Brandon stroked her neck, and she shivered at his soft touch on his mark. “You were—are—so beautiful. I didn’t want to be pushy like Savron is with Sasha, but when I’m around you all my possessive instincts come out, and jealousy flares. You are mine. You will always be mine. The mate bond is more than marriage. There is no such thing as divorce. You are stuck with me. In the shifter world you are now Jezebel Pride.” Brandon licked her lips and nibbled on her lip.
Jezebel gasped and pushed at his chest. “What do you mean you mated me? That I am Jezebel Pride?” She touched her neck. “Will I become a shifter now? Oh God, what have you done to me?” She scrambled off his lap.
Fuck, this wasn’t going how he imagined, not that anything since meeting Jezebel had. “I mated you. It makes you in shifter eyes … you would call it a wife.”
Jezebel’s mouth opened then closed and opened again. Jezebel stared at him for a moment like he’d sprouted another head. Then all of a sudden she started laughing. “Oh this is so funny. Here I have been telling myself to get everything I can from you because not only are you a gorgeous Pride, but you’re way out of my league. I thought you’d get sick of me and I’d be nursing a broken heart in a couple of weeks, but it would all be worth it because I’d have been with a Pride man. I messaged you to tell you I was going to spend the whole weekend with my friends because I was already getting way too attached to you.” She giggled. “Do you know how many woman wish they were in the position I’m in right now? I bet it is a lot. My God, I have dreamed of being with one of you since I started being a teenager.” Jezebel’s shoulders slumped. “What am I going to do now? I haven’t even finished school? What about college? I was only going to go to the local one, but do I still go? Or do I stay at home and be this mate you say I am? I always thought I would get married one day. You know, have the white dress and the whole big charade. I won’t have that now. I won’t even get to know if you like me just because of the mate thing. I would like to have been on dates and known that someone could fall in love with me, for me. I wanted it all.”
Brandon felt like a douche. His heart broke as Jezebel sobbed and wiped tears from her cheek.
“Will I turn into a shifter?”
Brandon gathered Jezebel to him. He felt terrible. He could say he loved her, but right now he knew she wouldn’t believe him. He wanted to say it when he was sure and he knew it would mean something to her. “The mating doesn’t turn you into a shifter. It does give you some gifts, like you will be stronger, heal quicker, never get sick or catch diseases, and you’ll live longer.”
Jezebel nodded. “Is that it?”
He debated if he should tell her he wanted, no, needed, her to move in with him. “I would like you to move in here with me. I want you to give this a chance. I will show you that being mated is a good thing.”
Jezebel sighed. “Give me some time.” She closed her eyes. “I need sleep. I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep, but I need it. Let me sleep.”
“Okay. Sleep.” He moved them down the bed and into the covers. Jezebel moved out of his hold and lay as far from him as possible.
“Goodnight. Morning,” she mumbled.
Brandon lay there watching her until he knew sleep had finally claimed her. He turned toward her and closed his eyes letting himself sleep. He hoped the morning would be better.
Chapter Nine
Jess’s body ached all over, and it wasn’t the good ache she was starting to get used to from being with Brandon. No, this ache was painful. Her body felt battered and bruised. She lay with her head resting on Brandon’s chest and her leg thrown over him. Her body rested against the warmth of his side. One of his hands rested on her butt, and the other rested between her thighs over her pussy. Jess looked up to see his eyes closed and his breathing even. Brandon looked different in sleep. Strands of his blond hair fell over his face, and Jess stared at his perfect face. He really was handsome, with strong manly features. Brushing the strands from his closed eyes, she knew what she wanted. Jess just had to tell him.
Needing the bathroom she groaned as she eased off the warm bed. Her legs felt like jelly, and every muscle protested. She did her morning business, and as she washed her hands she stared horrified at her reflection. Purple bruises were around her neck, and her left cheek had a nice purple bruise while her right had a gash down it. Jezebel had a look down at the rest of her body. She looked like one big purple and blue bruise. Her parents were going to freak. Jezebel had no idea what she was going to tell them or what she could tell them. Sighing she hobbled back to bed snuggling into Brandon.
Brandon’s arms wrapped around her. “Morning, sweetheart. How are you feeling?”
“Sore. I just looked in the mirror and down at myself. I have no idea what I’m going to say to my parents. I’m one giant walking bruise.”
“What do you want to tell your parents?”
Jess sat up, and he followed. “I want them to know the truth. If you expect me to move in and other things, they need things explained as why I’m leaving when I haven’t been with you for long. I’m their youngest child and only daughter.”
“We can tell them if you’re willing to take me as your mate.”
She nodded and hugged her legs to herself. “I’ll move in and be your mate, but you have to give me what I deserve first. You have made me realize that I deserve to be wooed. I want more than to be mated in just your people’s eyes. I want a fiancé and a big wedding. I’m not saying I want it all now, but I do want it.” She let go of her legs and knelt over him. “I deserve to have the big princess dress and have my father walk me down the aisle to my waiting man. Again, I’m their only daughter.”
Brandon nodded. “I can give you that.”
“I won’t give up my best friends either. I can’t. I could never just desert them. They have been my closest friends for as long as I can remember. It wouldn’t be right for me to get a boyfriend, mate, whatever, and then stop being friends with them. I promise no more sleepovers, though.” She sighed. Brandon deserved that. She could still be friends with Travis and Zeck and have no sleepovers. “I still want to go to college. I want it all. I deserve it all.” She stroked his cheek as he stared at her. “I don’t want it all this moment. I just want to know you’ll give it to me eventually. I started this relationship telling myself to enjoy it and take what I could. That when you got rid of me like I thought you would to tell myself I at least got to have you and enjoy my time with you. I should be lucky a Pride was willing to be with me in the first place. The more I’ve been with
you the more you’ve shown me I’m worth more than what I thought of myself. That’s why I’m saying I’ll move in with you after Christmas if you woo me. We have only been together for a week. It has been the best week of my life. Give me time to at least to get used to the idea of everything you have told me and what I saw last night. Christmas is Wednesday, and if what you’ve told me is all true then we have a long time to be together. Please.”
He groaned. “Will you see me every day?”
Jess straddled him and wrapped her arms around him. “Every day, I promise.”
His forehead rested against hers. “You’re right. You do deserve everything. I had wanted to give that to you. Jezebel, I don’t ever want you to think you have to settle and just take what you can get and be grateful for anything. You deserve to be wooed, and have your big wedding, and I want you to go to college. I’ll even pay for it myself. I want you happy. When you’re happy I am.”
****
Brandon had gotten the okay to tell Jezebel’s family. His parents had vouched to the council they would help keep watch and make sure they caused no problems. His family was coming to support him as he told them, and Jezebel showed them the condition she was in thanks to the boogiemen.
He got out of the car as his parents and brothers pulled up behind him. Brandon walked around and helped Jezebel out of the car. She grimaced as she put weight on her feet. “My brothers are home. They weren’t happy I didn’t come home last night to see them.” Jezebel winced again, and he picked her up. “You have to put me down. It will freak them out more when they see me and you carrying me. If I’m walking I won’t look as bad.”
Brandon shook his head. “Sweetheart, trust me when I say you walking looks worse. I’m surprised with your ankle and knee you walked out of the club last night. The adrenaline pumping through you and your shock were the only reason you did.”
“Do I really look that bad?”
“To me you always look beautiful, but, yes, you do look like a truck ran over you.”
Her mother came running to her as she opened the door. “Honey, what happened?”
Brandon picked up his speed and entered the house not willing to draw more attention to them.
“Hey, Brat, where you be—what the hell happened to you?” Jezebel’s brother took a step towards her, then glared at him with his fist clenched. “What did you do to her?”
“Joel, Brandon didn’t do this to me. Where are Dad and Samuel?”
“In the family room watching football.”
Jezebel’s mother hovered around him.
“Let’s go there. It will be the best place to show them and tell them. Did you bring girlfriends this year?” Jezebel sounded tired. Brandon had called her brothers early in the week before they left to come home. He’d gotten the numbers off his brothers. He’d had a talk to Jezebel’s brothers, told them what selfish bastards they were being to their sister bringing home women who were nasty to her and staying with people like that.
Joel didn’t look at his sister. “I thought this year it might be better if we have you eat something at dinner. Or have you around for a couple of hours so you don’t hide. I’m sorry I’ve been selfish, both Samuel and I.”
Brandon heard a sob leave her. “You did that for me. You came alone?”
Joel glanced at him, and he shook his head. He didn’t want her to know he’d talked to her brothers. Jezebel’s mother saw the exchange, and she nodded and mouthed “thank you”.
“Of course we did it for you.” He shrugged. “You may be a brat, but I love ya.”
They walked into the family room as Jezebel’s father yelled at the big screen. When he saw Jezebel in Brandon’s arms he jumped up and stormed to him. “What have you done to my baby? Give her to me now.”
“Dad, he didn’t do this. Sit down. All of you.” They must have heard something in her voice because they all sat.
“Jezebel, why are all the Prides in my house?” Jezebel’s father glared at Brandon.
She sat with Brandon on the recliner. “They are here for support. They are here because we have something to tell you and show you. You have to promise you’ll all listen and not freak out or anything.”
“No, Jezebel, I’m not promising a—”
“Darrell, you can do this for your daughter. Look at her.”
Jezebel’s parents stared at each other until her father nodded.
Tyler stood forward. “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Dibson. I think it best if we show you first.” Tyler started taking his clothes off, and Brandon felt Jezebel turn.
Not wanting Jess to see his brother naked he groaned. “Stop, Tyler. She’s my mate. I’ll do it. Stay with Jezebel.”
Tyler chuckled but nodded. Brandon eased Jezebel off him and stood. He winked at Jezebel as he started taking off his clothes. He slipped off his shoes and threw his shirt over his head.
When he unzipped his pants Jezebel’s father stood. “Really, I don’t think this is appropriate. Jezebel, honey, turn your head.”
Jezebel giggled, and Brandon smiled her way before he pulled his pants off and let the change come over him.
“Holy fucking shit,” Samuel said.
“Oh my God,” Jezebel’s mother gasped out.
“No friggin’ way,” Joel muttered.
Jezebel’s father didn’t say anything. He backed up, looking at Brandon, obviously horrified.
Strolling to Jezebel he sat by her chair. “Isn’t he amazing?” Jezebel said as she reached out and casually stroked him. When he started purring she giggled and used both hands.
“He is something,” Samuel whispered.
Brandon watched his mother step forward. “He showed you this so you will believe what we have to tell you. I will tell you and let my son stay in this form as a reminder.”
His mother explained everything. Brandon settled in and relaxed against his mate. When the explaining of what being a mate meant and that Jezebel was his, Jezebel’s father and brothers didn’t stay quiet. They yelled their no.
Brandon’s father, who’d stayed quiet the whole time, stepped forward and snarled. “I understand your concern, but speak to my mate the way you have been again and I will show you what we can do. Got it?” His father’s eyes flashed gold, and the men nodded.
Brandon’s mother smiled down at him and then looked to Jezebel’s mother. “I know what we have told you and shown you is a lot to take in. You daughter is very lucky to be alive. Last night she was at a club with Travis and Zeck, who are still in critical condition. The club was a boogieman nest. Your daughter cannot be controlled, or have her life drained from her, thanks to her being mated, but she still went in without protection. The condition she is in is because she fought to save herself and her friends before help could come. We shifters don’t go anywhere by ourselves. We know the dangers.” He mother sighed. “I know Jezebel is your baby, but she is eighteen. Now we could have not told you anything and just helped Jezebel when she was ready to move out and so on, but Jezebel wanted you to be told. She wants to do what’s right and not leave you in the dark.” His mother smiled at Jezebel. “You have a wonderful daughter and should be proud. Now I think I have covered everything. You may now ask questions one at a time.”
“Brandon, could you please change back?” Jezebel’s mother said.
Standing, he nodded his lion head. Then he stretched letting the change take a hold of him. Brandon stood before them naked. His mother passed him clothes, and he slipped into them. He then picked Jezebel up and set her on his lap nuzzling her neck as she eased herself back on him and wiggled to get comfortable. “How you doing, beautiful?”
“Good. I needed to hear it all a second time.”
“The mate thing explains a lot,” Jezebel’s mother said. Brandon turned to look at her. “All you have to do is look at my daughter and your son when they are in a room. They are like magnets. I’ve never seen my daughter like this with anyone else, even when she had a crush on your brothers.” Jezebel groaned and buried
her face into his chest. “Jezebel, how do you feel about all this?”
Brandon really liked Jezebel’s mother. She was the first to ask about Jezebel.
“I like knowing I’m special. That I’m everything to someone. He makes me feel like no one is more beautiful, sexy, and cared for. No one has ever been interested in me before, but he makes me feel like everyone thinks I’m gorgeous. I never thought I’d have that.”
“Oh honey, why would you think that?”
“Look at the people around us. I see people with perfect genetic makeup every day. I go to school with them. We live close to them. Not all of them are nice like the Prides. I’m not athletic like my brothers. I’m not popular, and before a couple of months ago I didn’t really have any female friends. I was okay with that before him, but he’s shown me I want more. I deserve more.”