Releasing the Wolf (The Rossi Pack Book 1)

by Aimie Jennison

  Without a word of argument, he sits. I guess he was right about the order giving and obeying, or he was just too weak to argue.

  Putting the steaks on a griddle pan, I ask him how he'd like his steak.

  “Still running around in a field, but just cook it until the bacon is done,” he says, without a hint of humour.

  I quickly glance at him to see if he's as serious as he sounds. “You don’t eat my cows do you?” I can’t hold back the question thinking of the times I'd noticed dry blood around Tony’s snout. I place the bacon in the pan with the steak and silently berate myself for asking such a stupid question. The guys would have told me if my cows had been getting killed.

  “No, but I do eat the occasional fox that goes after your chickens,” he says with a laugh.

  “Oh, well… thanks.” I look at the bowl of scrambled eggs trying to see whether they seem to be the right colour. It does. I hold it up to my nose and sniff.

  “They’re good. I’d be the first to smell them if they weren’t,” he informs me, tapping his nose with a finger. “Just like I can smell that you and Carter had sex last night.”

  WHOA, that’s out of left field. I feel myself blush at his words. “What?” I sniff myself and blush even more. Idiot. He has no right to make that comment. I shake my head and tell him as much. “It’s none of your bloody business what Carter and I get up to.” Turning my back on him, I pour the eggs in to a frying pan before flipping the bacon and steak over.

  “Actually I’m his Alpha and I ordered him not to sleep with you, so Carter going against a direct order is very much my business,” he says with a growl. A quick glance behind me makes it clear he isn't joking. The tension in his shoulders and the fists his hands have formed show his anger.

  I stack the bacon and steak on a plate, add the eggs, and slide the plate across to Jesse. “I’d offer you some toast but it looks like the guys have eaten all the bread.”

  “This will be more than enough, thanks,” Jesse replies, placing three rashers of bacon and a scoop of egg onto the plates he’d set out at the seat opposite him. “Eat,” he orders, nodding toward the plate. I open my mouth to argue but he carries on talking before a word escapes. “Don’t tell me you have already eaten today because you haven’t. You never have breakfast unless it’s cooked for you.” He cuts a chunk of extremely rare steak — what is it they call it in a restaurant? Blue? — and places it in to his mouth.

  I glance up, dumbfounded. How does he know that?

  He swallows his steak and laughs. “I have been listening to your stomach grumble more and more this last month. It’s no coincidence your Nonna isn’t here to force you to eat.” He pierces me with a dark look. “You’re looking thinner every time I see you, too.”

  Oh my God. He’s Tony. How could I have forgotten that? The things I’ve told him thinking he’s a dog. I feel myself blush as I take a seat opposite him, remembering the time I told him about my first kiss. “It was so gross and sloppy, I would’ve been better off kissing you.” I was only thirteen.

  Jesse looks at me with a quirked brow.

  There’s no way I’m going to remind him about all the embarrassing memories floating through my head. Hopefully he has forgotten. I quickly fill my mouth with a forkful of egg as not to answer his questioning look.

  A smile plays across Jesse’s face and I know he’s on the right path. “You’re remembering all the embarrassing things you’ve told me over the years,” he guesses.

  Dammit! Am I that easy to read? I quickly change the subject, asking him one of the many questions I have going through my head. “Why did you order Carter not to sleep with me?”

  He chews his last mouthful of bacon and places his knife and fork neatly on the empty plate. “Let me start with your father. Things will make more sense that way.”

  Chapter Six

  Frankie

  I walk to the fridge for a bottle of water as I frown, unable to see how anything about my father can connect to Carter. “Fine, start with my father,” I agree whilst pouring us both a glass of water.

  Jesse reaches for his glass. “Thanks,” he states before taking a mouthful. “Your father, Ant, was my Alpha.”

  Having heard him mention that he was Carter’s Alpha not long ago, I jump to the assumption that it’s a werewolf thing and interrupt him. “My father was a werewolf?”

  “Yes.” He gives me a challenging look but doesn’t give me chance to argue before carrying on. “It was back when I was barely old enough to be fighting in World War I. My—”

  “Wait! Are you telling me you fought in World War I… that will make you…” I say trailing off, trying to work out the maths in my head.

  “One hundred and sixteen, to be exact,” he states like it’s nothing unusual. “The werewolf gene extends our lives somewhat,” he adds with a shrug, no doubt for my benefit.

  “Huh…” I grunt, lost for words. He doesn’t look a day older than thirty; I can’t get my mind around him being over a hundred.

  Getting a distant look in his eyes, he fills the silence as he carries on from where he’d left off. “My regiment was based in the Pacific Islands and one day we were attacked by what I thought at the time was a wild animal, it slaughtered us all. I lay there with laboured breathing thinking I was sure to die soon. Hoping with everything I had left that I would die before the Germans found me, I didn’t want to become a prisoner of war. I must have fallen asleep because I awoke to find a man,” he comes out of his trance to glance at the picture of my father on the kitchen wall. “Ant.” He smiles upon saying his name. “Your father. I thought he was going to kill me, he held a knife to my throat but when his hand brushed my skin I felt something at the time I could only describe it as a jolt of energy.”

  Taking his eyes off the picture he smiles across the table at me. “It was what you felt when we shook hands yesterday. A wolf recognising an Alpha.” I open my mouth to deny it. I’m not a werewolf. But he shakes his head before I can interrupt him. “No you’re not wolf yet, but you have one in you, it will arise sooner or later.” He waves his hand in dismissal having seen I’ve once again opened my mouth to throw questions at him.

  A wolf inside me? No way.

  “Anyway. Where was I?” he asks himself out loud. “Ah, yes… The jolt of energy. Once I felt that, a smile crossed his face and he whispered, ‘Well, I’ll be…’ as he slid his knife back into its sheath on his belt. He picked me up in his arms and carried me away.”

  “Having fallen asleep again, I woke in a building with a small group of injured men, they all seemed to have a feel to them. It was like static electricity making the hairs on your arms stand up. I didn’t know at the time but they were all werewolves; that’s what I could feel. Werewolf energy.”

  I rub at my arms where the hairs were doing what he’d just said. I berate myself once again. I’m not a werewolf. It’s just the story making my hairs stand up.

  Unaware of my internal denial Jesse keeps talking. “Ant had been walking the battle fields hunting a rogue werewolf who was slaughtering everyone, and saving all who’d been attacked, caring for them while they healed and bringing them into his pack. Those, who survived anyway. Only seven, out of over twenty, made it through the change.” Jesse’s voice breaks and he clears his throat before talking again. “Ant got us on a boat and had us transported back here. God only knows how he managed that during a war but he did. His parents and his mate, Maria, were awaiting our arrival in a huge house that became the pack house. It still is.”

  “Do you still live there?” I ask, thinking how there is something that was part of my family still here and I had no idea about it.

  He nods. “You’re welcome anytime, if you’d like to see it,” he says evidently guessing my train of thought.

  “I’d love to, thank you,” I say with a grateful smile.

  He smiles. “In the beginning there was a lot of fighting between the new wolves and those that were here with Maria. Dominance fights to find out wher
e everyone stood in the pack. It wasn’t long until I became Ant’s Beta and we became the closest of mates. Brothers.”

  “Once you were born we could all sense what you were, an Omega. Omegas are rare, a special kind of wolf that quite often don’t live long lives. In terms of dominance they sit at the bottom of the pack and often become the scapegoat. That’s dangerous in itself, but add their ability to soothe and calm an alpha to the mix and you’ve had it. Alphas will either deem you a threat or a weapon to use against other Alphas. We thought we could protect you but word got out, and one night Ant found an Alpha in your nursery. He went ballistic tearing the Alpha to shreds right there beside your cot. Your mother was not happy; it was the last straw. The very next day he signed the house over to me on the condition that it stayed the pack house, which was fine by me. I didn’t want a big house all to myself. I’d bought this little three-bedroom farm and found that too big and lonely. We’re pack animals, we like company.” I nod in agreement, knowing exactly how it feels to find a three-bedroom house lonely when one person is rattling around in it.

  “So we swapped houses, he moved in here and I moved in the pack house.”

  “This…” I wave my arms around gesturing to the room, “was your farm?” I ask, surprised by the thought.

  “It sure is, O’K Cattle Farm. O’K for O’Keefe. I thought if I found a mate, we could settle down have a nice little family if we were lucky enough to have kids.”

  I give him a questioning look.

  “Chances of miscarriage are high for werewolves. If the embryo is more werewolf than human, the mother can’t always carry to term. Human mothers aren’t always strong enough. If the mother is a werewolf she has to be careful not to change during her pregnancy because that will automatically miscarry the baby. She can take energy from the pack to fight the call of the moon but that’s not the only time we change. As you’ve seen tonight.”

  Needing to stretch my legs and get out from under his knowing gaze, I take both our plates to the sink and start filling it with hot, soapy water.

  “Have you heard enough for tonight, or do you want me to finish?” he asks from beside me. I jump; I hadn’t even heard him move. He smiles at me and waves a tea towel in the air. “You wash, I’ll dry.”

  I snatch the tea towel out of his hands, and point back at his chair. “You sit back down and tell me the rest, while I wash and dry.” He watches me and for a moment I think he’s going to snatch the tea towel back, but he takes a deep breath and does as I asked.

  “Being South African, Maria, had some knowledge of Voodoo. Dark stuff. She had always insisted on it being the devil’s magic, but while your father was moving the furniture in she took you out for the day and when you came back there was no trace of your wolf. We all knew only something dark could have buried your wolf, she must have taken you to someone who dealt with Voodoo, but no one ever asked her about it. Not even your father. I think like me, he was probably worried about the price a spell like that would have cost? And I’m not talking money.”

  “If she buried my wolf, why couldn’t we all stay at the other house?” I question as I dry the clean plates.

  “Because not only did she bury your wolf, that next day after you’d all moved in, as each of the pack members woke up, you were wiped from their memories. As far as they were concerned Maria and Ant had never had a child. They believed Ant and Maria wanted privacy and that’s why we swapped houses. As your father’s Beta, I was the only one that knew about it.”

  Placing the plates in the cupboard I turn and face Jesse. “Would that have been the price?”

  “It might have been part of it. Your mother never did fall pregnant again, I think that may have been the sacrifice.” He reaches out to stroke my forearm in a comforting gesture as I drop into the empty seat beside him. My mother sacrificed future children for me. The thought tears at my heart.

  “Please. Tell me the rest,” I plead, wanting to know as much about my parents as I can, no matter how painful it may be.

  Taking me at my word, Jesse starts talking. “The night before your family were killed I met your father in the field near the cemetery fence. He told me he’d been invited on a full moon hunt in another Alpha’s territory. Rick’s territory. He said ‘Rick knew about you and wanted to talk.’” Jesse shakes his head sadly. “I told your father it wasn’t a good idea, Rick wasn’t trustable, if he knew about you he’d have his sights on using you as a weapon.” He gently squeezes my hand with his and I glance down surprised to see our hands connected on the table. “He took Guisseppe because he was a hell of a good fighter and Maria insisted on going as well. I begged him to let me go, but he needed me to stay here and watch over you and Not, He knew if anything happened to him, I’d become Alpha and he didn’t want the pack to lose two good Alphas in one night. I hated the plan, but Ant was Alpha and I couldn’t go against his order. I promised I’d look after you no matter what, and that’s what I did.”

  I feel a finger under my chin as he lifts my head slightly so we make eye contact and I watch as his eyes follow a tear down my cheek, before he wipes it away. “I saw how sad you were, at the funeral, and decided you needed a friend. What is better then a dog? Man’s best friend.” He shrugs slightly. “It seemed to be working out fine, until some of your friends left for university across the country and you hid away; it was as though I was the only friend you needed. As good as that is for a guy’s ego, it wasn’t healthy, so I sent Joey to work on the farm and hoped he would make friends with you. With a gentle push from Nonna, it worked. Unfortunately I found some werewolves from out of town, sniffing around at Nonna’s funeral. It had me worried, knowing I can’t watch you 24/7. I ordered Carter to watch you and unfortunately Carter’s definition of watching you is slightly different to mine. He decided to become your boyfriend.” He sighs. “Outside the diner yesterday, I ordered him not to sleep with you. I didn’t want him to use you as another notch on his bedpost. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that, I don’t know.” He shakes his head and looks at me with regret. “I was just trying to protect you.”

  I smile at him, hoping to ease his regret. “It’s okay. Thank you.” He had done so much for me and I had no idea about any of it. “For everything,” I add. He looks tired and barely smiles back. He’s been looking after me all these years, it’s time I repay the favour and look after him, even if it’s only for an hour or two. “Come on. Bed,” I say getting up and pointing the way to the stairs.

  He smiles, before standing. “Whatever you say Doc,” he says as he follows my order.

  I watch his movements as we walk up the stairs and I’m relieved to see that he seems to be moving better than he was before he ate. When we reach the top of the stairs I glance at Nonna’s door knowing the room is bigger and would be much better for him, but decide against it knowing I’ve had enough pain for today. I grab some clean sheets out of the closet as we pass before opening my bedroom door. I’m suddenly hit with a musty smell, which isn’t surprising since no-one has been in here for a month. My room doesn’t look any different; it has the same wooden sleigh bed and bedside tables taking up most of the room and a wicker chair in the corner beside the window. I walk over to the window and crack it open to let some fresh air in before stripping the bed. Throwing the dusty sheets on the floor I spot Jesse sat in the chair. He must feel worse than he’s letting on, having sat down without me ordering him to. Once I get the fresh sheets on the bed Jesse pulls off the home made sarong and climbs on the bed, pulling the sheet up to his waist to cover himself. Looking at his abs and chest makes me wish he’d pulled it up to his neck. Not that the sheet really matters, my mind can clearly conjure up what he’s hiding under the sheet, since I was at eye level with it earlier. I have a boyfriend, I should not be perving on him I remind myself as I force my eyes up to his. He gives me a knowing grin and I feel my cheeks flame. I quickly turn to pull the curtains closed.

  “You know, werewolves can see perfectly well in the dark.” He laughs.
>
  I grab the bundle of sheets off the floor and turn to the door not wanting to cause him to laugh at me any more. “I’m going to put the sheets in the wash and tidy up the kitchen while you rest.”

  “Wait! Can you just lie next to me for a while? An injured wolf likes to feel pack nearby.” His pleading tone causes me to pause in the doorway.

  I look at him over the mountain of sheets. “I’m not pack. I’m just... Me.”

  “You have a wolf in you, my wolf recognised it the other day. Remember the jolt of energy?” he reminds me.

  I sigh and in that moment I make the decision to trust him. I’ve trusted Tony for as long as I remember, that shouldn’t change just because I know he’s not an ordinary wolf. I drop the sheets to the floor and climb on to the bed, lying down beside him with my back on top of the sheet. I stare at the ceiling thinking of everything Jesse had just told me about himself, my father, and even me. Things I had no idea about. My life has been turned upside down, yet I feel like I should believe every word he’s told me, no matter how far fetched some of it sounds. After all I’ve seen some pretty unexplainable things with my own eyes today.

  My arm brushes against Jesse’s and I feel him physically relax at my touch. Who am I to take that away from him? I leave our arms touching and, if I’m honest with myself, the touch is a comfort for me too.

  My mind becomes alert before my eyes and I snuggle into the bed. My body suddenly stiffens as I realise it doesn’t feel like my sofa bed. Feeling Carter’s arm tighten around my waist causes me to pause my uncertainty. I haven’t shared my bed with anyone like this for a while, that’s probably what’s making it feel wrong.

  I open my eyes and see that my uncertainty had nothing to do with the arm around my waist. I’m not facing the kitchen like I would be if I was at my apartment, instead I’m looking at a familiar painting of the beach, the one that’s hung on my bedroom wall at the farm. The thought of the farm invokes memories to flood back… The gunshots. Tony. Jesse who’s lying next to me… naked! I slip out from under his arm and cover him up with the sheet.