by Bonnie Vanak
Robert was far more understanding.
The front door opened and Jake walked inside. Hands jammed into the pockets of his jeans, sweat dampening his navy baseball shirt, he looked so damn sexy. Heat built in her loins. Molly turned and hugged herself. Each time she saw him, she melted inside. But if she let desire rule her like last night, she’d never gain what she deserved. And after spending most of her life living to other’s expectations, it was about time she had expectations of her own. She wanted, and deserved, a mate to commit to her for the rest of their lives. Unbreakable bonds that would never shatter. She had to forge ahead, and if that meant a future without Jake…
Even the thought made her heart break.
Despite the air conditioning blowing through the vents, the air was heavy and thick, as if Florida’s humidity seeped through the windows and hovered in the trailer. Molly felt the tension, thick as the warmth, permeate into her skin. She picked up a checked dishtowel and twisted it in her hands, feeling the cotton rub hard against her damp palms.
“I thought you were with Robert and the others.”
“Your uncle is showing them around. I didn’t want you to be alone.” His expression shuttered. “Molls…”
“You got your pack back.”
“Never lost them.” His mouth twisted. “Just thought I had. I guess you can go home again. They want me back.”
“After this fight is over, whatever happens, what will you do?” She needed answers, needed a plan, needed a future.
And if it wasn’t with Jake, she’d deal with it. No emotions. Make it quick. It hurt less when the pain came fast, like when he’d taken her virginity. Not drawing it out.
“Talk to me, Jake. I deserve to know.”
No betrayal of her shaking hands, hidden by the dishtowel she kept wringing. She was proud of the steady tone of her voice.
“I’ve never been good at this.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “But I’ll try.”
She waited.
“I’m sorry, Molls. Sorry I strung you along. Didn’t mean that.”
So be it. She felt her stomach pitch and roll. He had his pack. His life.
The dishtowel fell from her hands to the floor. Molly stared at it, memorizing the cheerful checked pattern, like a picnic tablecloth. From now on when she went on a picnic and saw that pattern, she’d remember this time, these words uttered in his gravelly voice, and how her heart shattered like glass.
Molly forced out the words, “I see. It was a mistake.”
“I have a few regrets in my life. You might think one was leaving my pack, my brothers. But I don’t regret that because I needed to get my shit together, figure out my life. And if I hadn’t left, I’d never have met you.”
He crossed the distance between them. “Last night wasn’t a mistake. It was the best thing in my damn life. I don’t know what the future holds. Hell, I don’t even know what will happen when the two packs fight. But I know I want you in my future, if you’ll have me. And if you won’t accompany me to Aiden’s pack and need to remain here, I’ll ask Aiden to formally release me.”
As he rubbed a thumb against her wobbling lower lip, she didn’t dare breathe. Molly closed her eyes. Maybe this was a dream, and all his words were the ones in her mind.
“Molls.” Jake slid a hand around her neck, rubbing her nape.
She shivered in delight at each gentle stroke over her skin. Jake’s caress inflamed her blood, made her desire him all over again. More than that, it was the simple touch all Lupines craved. They needed to connect with each other. Opening her eyes, Molly stiffened and drew away. But right now, she needed more. She needed reassurance he’d stand by her, no matter what.
“Can we be together, Jake? Can you love me enough to make a real commitment and not run back here, alone, to this life that you made after leaving your pack?”
His hand stilled. “Are you saying I’m a coward?”
“You’re not a coward. You’re a Lupine who suffered one of the worst heartaches our kind can feel…the loss of a mate. Well, a future mate. I saw what it did to Uncle Rob, how it broke him. But I also saw how he did everything to hold the pack together, despite it. How he kept his responsibility to his people. I need to know you’ll be equally committed, not to me, but to us. No matter what, you’ll be there.”
Jake searched her face. “Have a little faith in me, Molly. I haven’t done much to inspire your trust, but I promise, when all this is resolved, I will.”
A car pulled up into the gravel driveway. For now, his words must suffice. She followed him outside as the Mercedes parked, and her spirits lifted.
She had friends, too.
Tugging at his hand, she raced down the steps as the visitors got out of the car. Molly dropped Jake’s hand, rushed at Alexa. Jessica joined them, the three of them squealing and hugging.
When they broke apart, she beamed at Jake. “This is Alexa and Jess. My best friends. And those guys,” she pointed to two men, “are Raphael, Jess’s mate, and J.J.”
His face covered by a well-trimmed black beard, Raphael stepped forward and stuck out a palm. Jake shook it.
J.J., clean-shaven but quietly assessing, did the same. The three men studied each other, sizing up the others in typical Lupine fashion.
Molly stepped forward. “I asked for help, too. Alexa and Jessica are my best friends. I’d do anything for them, and they’d do anything for me.”
“So we came,” J.J. told him.
“To fight.” Raphael flexed his shoulders.
Jessica’s mouth quirked as she went to her mate, put a hand on Raphael’s arm. “Whoa there, big guy. Before you get all cranked up about bloodying that pretty face of yours, why not give peace a chance?”
Raphael’s fierce expression softened as he slid an arm around her waist. “I’d rather make love, not war. But if it comes to it, we’ll fight.”
J.J. nodded as he rested his hand on Alexa’s shoulder. “Molly is family. Not blood, but family. And we’ll stand with her.”
“No matter what it takes,” Raphael said.
This was the kind of commitment she’d longed for, the kind she needed. Could Jake do the same make her his mate?
If not, she couldn’t see how they’d have a future together.
Chapter 13
Confined to Jake’s trailer late the next afternoon, Alexa, Molly and Jessica sat at the kitchen table. The males had set out for the assigned spot where the war would start and females were strictly forbidden.
It rankled her nerves, even as Jake had kissed her goodbye with a stern admonition not to worry. He promised Aiden would try his best to negotiate peace.
Molly drew a circle on the table with her finger. “I can’t stay here.”
Dark-haired Alexa raised her manicured brows. “Not much of a choice, sweetie. First sign of a female…”
“Or scent,” added Jess, a redhead like herself.
“You’ll be locked up for the night. The law says—”
“I don’t care what the law says,” she burst out. “These are my people and I’m worried about my dad and my uncle and Jake! Why are all the guys being so damn stubborn and thick-headed?!”
Alexa touched her hand. “They’re all cranked up. J.J. said as much when we came into the park. He and Rafe were all joking, and then got quiet. They both started feeling edgy.”
A hoarse scream, like the sound of a child in distress, cut through the air. Molly tensed and looked at her friends.
“What was that?” Jessica got up to peer out the window, but Molly raced to the back door, flung it open and went outside.
In the backyard, a partly transformed squirrel shifter lay on his side, his legs two blackened husks, his fingers curled into claws. He’d been badly burned. Molly’s pulse went thready. She recognized the shifter’s scent from the time when he’d come to Jake’s trailer during poker night.
“Rodney?” She gently touched his chest and the shifter moaned. “Who did this to you?”
“Don’
t touch. Hurts.” His thin breath wheezed out in a whistle. “Jake…walking into trap…they’ll all die… Tell him, tell him I was wrong about my lover. She’s poison.”
Then he mercifully collapsed into unconsciousness.
“He’d been dating someone new,” Molly whispered. “She was beautiful, so beautiful, and Rodney was so possessive of her, and crazed. Like the men have been. All fired up over nothing!”
Jake had said Rodney changed after seeing his mysterious lover. The squirrel shifter had gone from friendly to downright hostile. And everything fell into place.
A beautiful woman who lured shifters and then burned them…burned them just like the mysterious fire that nearly killed Molly, and Jake as well. Burned like fire ants.
She looked up at Jessica and Alexa, who’d hurried outside with ice packs and towels. “Take him inside and care for him. He’s been trying to shift to heal faster. Being around other shifters will help him.”
As she raced inside and began opening cabinets, tearing through them, Alexa followed. “Molly, what’s going on? Where are you going?”
Finally. She grabbed the container of salt. Salt that could show evil in its true form.
“I have to warn Jake and the others. That’s my pack, my people. My man.”
The man I love.
“I’m coming with you,” Alexa and Jessica chimed in.
She studied her best friends, and smiled, knowing their secret. “No way in hell. J.J. and Raphael would kill me if I led you near danger.” Molly bit her lip, her emotions taking over. “You and your babies.”
Alexa sputtered and Jessica’s mouth dropped open. “How did you know? I’m barely six weeks, and my scent hasn’t changed yet,” Jessica told her.
“And I’m only a little further along than Jess,” Alexa added.
She went to them and hugged them both tight. “I’m your best friend. I’ve known everything about you guys and you’re both glowing, so happy, and the way Rafe and J.J. keep hovering over you…”
Crying, they all embraced. Alexa stepped back and wiped away her tears. “Go, Molly, but be safe. Please!”
“Yeah.” Jessica reached for a paper napkin and blew her nose. “You have to be godmother to both our bambinos. We wouldn’t be the same without you.”
“I’ll be fine,” she promised.
Molly raced outside with the salt. Gideon, the Crimson Wizard, said salt would come in handy. She only prayed she’d be in time to save the one she loved.
In a clearing far away from Skins, existed a circular patch of ground that served as a ceremonial site for both Molly’s and Luke’s packs when each individual pack wanted to run with the moon.
Now it would serve as a battleground.
The two rival packs and Aiden’s men gathered on the site, facing each other. The site held a cypress swamp, with a trail leading to the pine flatwoods. Stately pine and cypress trees towered over them, guarding the sandy soil. Knobby cypress knees grew at the water’s edge. It was so quiet, but for the breathing of the assembled males and the wind sweeping through the branches.
The dank smell of water and rotting vegetation permeated the air. Jake noticed signs of wild hogs near the water. Their scent riled his wolf even further.
The sun hovered above the horizon, streaking the blue sky with pinkish light. He loved this time of day, when most tourists settled down, far from this serene place. Now, all he cared about was drawing blood.
Jake hung back, restless and itching for action. The hell with Aiden’s advice to make peace. He wanted to smash his fist into Luke Silvern’s smug, ugly face. He didn’t know why he felt so cranked up. Maybe it was because of what Luke did to Molly. Or the fact he was surrounded by dozens of other aggressive males.
Aiden held out his palms in the Lupine gesture for disarmament. “I’m Aiden Mitchell, alpha of the Mitchell pack.”
“You fighting for Robert?” William Silvern asked, his tone hostile.
Aiden wasn’t baited, though his expression darkened. He drew in a deep breath, as if wrestling for control. “I’m here as a mediator. Jake is my people. Let’s talk. I’m sure all this can be resolved with discussion, not fists.”
William bristled. “There is nothing to say. The time for words is past.”
“Whoa. Calm down. Let’s be reasonable—”
A redheaded male wearing a baseball shirt scoffed. “Reasonable? Molly dishonored our alpha’s son by stalling on his request to mate with him. She should be honored he chose her!”
Ignoring him, Aiden addressed Silvern and Robert. “Alpha to alpha, this has to stop. A war won’t solve anything.”
But like William, Robert had enough. The alpha male leader of the Keynes group growled deep. “Fuck this. That bastard is going to pay for declaring war on my pack. No one threatens my people.”
“Wait a minute—” Aiden started.
“No.” William gave Robert a contemptuous look then he glanced at Aiden. “You’re an alpha. Your males mated?”
Aiden drew back. “None of your business.”
“Make you a deal. You fight for me, I’ll give you and your men all the available, single females you want as mates. Lupines need mates, need to breed. Deal?”
Jake expected Aiden to laugh. Instead, the alpha looked thoughtful. The men behind him, including Garth, growled low.
“Females,” Garth muttered. “Mates for us after all this time.”
The other Mitchell males muttered in agreement.
Aiden seemed to consider. “Mates. Just what my pack needs.”
“For all your single males,” William added.
Aiden gave a nonchalant shrug, so atypical of the normally decisive male. “Okay.”
What the hell?! Claws emerged from his fingertips as Jake growled, “You came here to fight for me, for Molly’s pack, you son of a bitch traitor!”
“I changed my mind.” Another casual shrug.
“What the hell happened to loyalty?” Jake demanded.
“Fuck loyalty,” the alpha spat out.
In the back of his rational mind, Jake knew this wasn’t Aiden. What had gotten into him? His alpha had always been loyal to all his pack.
Robert snarled and raked a claw over a nearby tree trunk. “What the hell?”
Growls followed. Then J.J., Aiden’s best friend, stepped forward. “You’re a rat bastard for switching sides, Mitchell.”
“And you’re a hotheaded ass,” Aiden snarled.
Aiden slugged J.J., the male who had bailed him out when the pack faced financial ruin. His best friend. Jake barely had time to register his shock when someone punched him in the jaw.
William leapt on Robert, who snarled and punched him. As the other males engaged each other, Jake eyed Luke. He was a good fighter, had trained hard and long with Aiden himself. He could detect an opponent’s tell by watching the man’s eyes. But all the training, and all the discipline vanished into thin air as Jake remembered the bruise on Molly caused by Luke’s fists. Primal rage surged, and his blood grew thick with it.
He rushed Luke, bloodlust searing his brain. He could only think of beating the son of a bitch into a pulp. But Luke was ready. The Lupine growled and hit Jake hard on the chin.
Jake barely felt the pain. All he wanted was blood, and more blood, and death.
They fought, snarling, mindless of anything except the kill.
Molly knew where the packs would fight.
Jake had cleared the area of all Skins, warding the area with magick to dissuade noisy hikers. The site was inland, far from any camping areas, and a good hike from the main road.
She took Jake’s ATV from his yard and drove to the main road, and then accessed the hiking trail. Halfway, she abandoned the ATV where the trail narrowed.
Grabbing the salt, she raced through the forest, following the hidden trail only Lupines could see, the trail the pack always used to access these grounds.
The smell of blood, sweat and testosterone filled the air as she finally came to the site
. Flesh smacking against flesh, heavy male grunts and groans.
The war was on, and she was too late.
They were all mindless machines, fighting each other and if she dared to try to break them up, she’d get seriously hurt. Horrified, she watched the Lupines fight, their fury growing like a tsunami. One punched a Silvern male, who reeled backward and fell to the ground. Blood gushed from his broken nose. And then the strangest thing happened.
As the blood pooled onto the sand, it vanished, not into the earth, but sideways, as if siphoned by an invisible vacuum cleaner. Her gaze tracked the little rivulets of blood to the water of the cypress swamp.
Molly noticed a dark shadow, hard to distinguish in the murky water. A faint, foul scent drifted from the swamp, making her eyes tear.
No one else noticed. The men were all busy beating the hell out of each other. Even Aiden was roaring, slamming his fists into another male.
Panic and a sense of unreality coursed through her. Aiden was fighting J.J. The Mitchell alpha snarled as he and Alexa’s mate punched each other. They were good friends, and now they fought. It was as if they were driven by the same frenzy possessing her pack and the Silverns.
Then she noticed Raphael beating and kicking two males, and laughing as he did so. His laughter was cruel and violent. And then she realized it was not a pack war, but an all-out brawl. Men from the same side were fighting each other.
I’m the only sane one here. What’s going on?
Frantic, she searched the melee for Jake. And saw him.
Her lover was slamming his fists over and over into a wolf she knew was Luke Silvern. Shifting was forbidden during a Skin fight, but Luke never heeded the rules. And it made little difference, because Jake was winning.
Even as Luke whined pitifully, Jake continued to hit him, his fists bloodied.
Two Silvern males jumped Jake, and snarling, he fought them off.
She must stop this.
She must drag out this hidden menace. But how could she expose it?
She picked up a rock and threw it into the water, but the rock only tumbled to the bottom. The shadow remained hidden as more blood trickled into the pond, faster and faster.