Claiming Kristen

by Jenny Penn

“Jakob?”

  “Look,” he growled, unable to last much longer with her so temptingly close, “if you’re going to stay there, then I’m going to musk you because it is just too damn hard to control the beast.”

  There, he’d said it, been as blunt as he could about the problem. Now Kristen could go off on him before leaving him alone to find some kind of peace. She should have gone off on him, should have been as frustrated and high-strung as Jakob, but for some reason her laugh sounded genuine and relaxed.

  “It’s okay. Samantha told me about how JD got upset over the cologne.” Kristen dug around in her pocket, pulling a small tin from it. “She also gave me this.”

  “What’s that?” Jakob eyed the metal canister, his nose wrinkling when she popped it open, releasing a strong medicinal scent into the air.

  “It’s something you put under your nose, like this.” Kristen smeared a small amount of the waxy substance over her upper lip. “And it helps open your nasal passages or something like that. It doesn’t really matter. Now all I can smell is this, so musk away, big boy.”

  Risking a look at her, Jakob couldn’t make sense of the easy smile gracing her lips. She relaxed back into her seat with a sigh, her legs stretching out until her ankles rested on the railing, letting her tip her chair back so she gazed up at the night sky.

  “Why are you in such an agreeable mood tonight?” Jakob didn’t know what he was suspicious of, but felt certain he should be.

  “I don’t know.” Kristen shrugged and shot him a curious look. “You’d rather I be a bitch?”

  “No,” Jakob grunted.

  Even though it was easier to look at her when he didn’t have to fight the attraction, there were still limits on Jakob’s willpower. Staring at Kristen too long tested them. Forcing his attention back to the marsh, he took a deep breath, inhaling the sharp scent of her medicinal rub. That jarred him enough to start thinking again.

  “I’m just curious,” Jakob grouched, settling deeper into his seat. “You were all ‘get the hell away from me,’ and now you’re suddenly asking me about my day. That kind of shift tends to make a man paranoid.”

  “Well, I had a really bad day yesterday and today, a pretty good one.” Kristen paused before tacking on, “Thank you very much for asking.”

  “Yeah?” Jakob smirked at the reprimand, thankful she didn’t seem to have a clue as to the kind of thoughts keeping him preoccupied and forgetting his manners. “What? You win a big case or something?”

  “Or something,” Kristen agreed. “Then again just working makes me happy.”

  It wasn’t hard to read too far into that quiet qualifier. Then again, Jakob didn’t really understand how Kristen’s mind worked at all. So he could be completely wrong. The only way to know was to ask. “Is that a subtle hint that you think I’m going to try and stop you from working?”

  “Husbands, babies, they tend to disrupt a woman’s life.” Kristen shrugged, as if stating a fact that couldn’t be argued with.

  “Or you could say they enhance it.”

  “They need to be taken care of.”

  “I don’t need you take care of me,” Jakob warned, feeling highly insulted to be compared to a helpless infant. “I’ve managed fine on my own and can continue to do so.”

  “If you don’t need me then why am I here?” Kristen asked, neatly backing Jakob into a corner that had him bristling.

  “Would it be that easy for you to pack up and go away?” Jakob decided to change his angle of attack and neatly avoid her question. “You really think you could go on to have a perfectly happy life?”

  “Nobody’s life is perfectly happy, Jakob,” Kristen shot back in exasperation. “I won’t be that with or without you, but without you I have my career, my house, my family, and the only pack I’ve ever known. With you, I got Kort shadowing my every move and have to sit through dinners listening to two ferals make lewd jokes at everybody else’s expense.”

  “That’s all your fault.” Jakob wouldn’t take the blame for their current predicament, at least not full blame. “We could be at home, sweaty and exhausted in bed, but you’re the one who insists that we go through this farce—”

  “Farce?” Kristen interrupted, straightening up in her seat with full indignation. “You think giving me time to adjust to this situation is pointless?”

  “Oh, for Christ’s sake, Kristen. This isn’t a situation,” Jakob snapped. “It’s a mating, and you had to have known at some point you’d have one. Why you want to act like it’s all new to you is beyond me.”

  “Because it is,” Kristen snarled. “Because as a Narin, I was always supposed to be able to pick out my mate, not get stuck with one like you Covenanters do.”

  “Stuck?” Jakob repeated, repulsed and amazed at the same time. “You consider yourself stuck with us?”

  “Well, aren’t I?”

  “Okay, let’s try it this way,” Jakob suggested before she pushed his temper too far with that attitude. “Tell me one thing you think is bad about taking a Covenanter as a mate.”

  “Babies,” Kristen answered instantly and without hesitation.

  “Babies?” Now she had him, because Jakob wanted kids. “You don’t like babies?”

  “No, I like babies,” Kristen retorted with clear frustration. “But this isn’t like we’re talking two kids over the next ten years. I know how much you Covenanter bastards like to breed.”

  “Well it is a lot of fun to try.” Jakob couldn’t help but to smile at the very idea, earning him a dour look from Kristen.

  “Of course, you guys always go for the twofer event. Twins and twins only, right?”

  “And male.” Jakob nodded.

  “Yeah, great,” Kristen sighed, leaning back into her seat. “A house full of males, I’ll add that to my list.”

  “I bet you will.” Jakob snorted. “And you should also make a note of the fact that Covenanters don’t tend to have many offspring. As much as I might wish to pack our house with twelve sets of little hellions, the most any mate in recent history has given birth to is three sets.”

  “So that’s what? Six kids?”

  “You make that sound like a lot.”

  “Says the man who doesn’t have to give birth or give up his job.”

  Jakob might be annoyed, but he wasn’t dense. He’d noticed the theme running through all her answers. “And for the second time, nobody said anything about you having to give up your job.”

  “What the hell you think is going to happen?” Kristen shot back. “Kort and you are going to stay home to raise the young? Because as their mother, that’s not reassuring.”

  “Have you ever heard of daycare, lady?” Silently, Jakob prayed for patience, because that snotty tone of hers had roused the beast.

  The wolf might not understand words, but it got tone and didn’t like its mate talking down to him. Females were to be submissive, and if this one didn’t understand, the wolf would be glad to show her. Jakob just might let it if Kristen didn’t stop smarting off to him. “You can’t put pups in daycare,” Kristen retorted in that know-itall manner that had Jakob sizing her up. Just one more smart-ass comment and he’d have her bent over that railing before she could gasp for breath.

  “We have a den mother that runs the local daycare. Trust me, most mates dump their pups there even if they stay at home. Young Covenanters can have endless energy. It’s best to let them work it out on each other. It also begins the pack bonding.”

  Jakob paused, waiting for Kristen to belittle his explanation and give him every reason to stop being nice. Damn woman didn’t, though. Instead of mouthing off, she hesitated, studying him in return before she settled on a response.

  “She runs the local daycare?”

  “Along with two other female mates.” Jakob shrugged, disappointed that she’d failed to tempt him. “So you can see you don’t have anything to worry about.”So said the man who wanted her to have six kids. It was too much. Kristen had only started to adjust to the idea
that she might be stuck with Kort and Jakob, now he informed her that he planned on filling their house with constant noise and commotion?

  That right there had her reconsidering whether she could screw over Richard Payne. No, she really couldn’t, which left her stuck with nothing to do but sigh over her fate. Kristen consoled herself with the grim reminder that just because she knew she’d lose the war didn’t mean she couldn’t win some battles.

  “Okay,” she spoke aloud as she came to her decision. “But I’m not having babies one year after the next. We’re waiting at least three years between each set.”

  Kristen sensed Jakob’s head snapping in her direction, but kept her focus fixed on the sky, silently battling the wave of musk that rolled over her. Talking about children really seemed to arouse him. The second the subject came up he started smelling so good not even the bracing odor of eucalyptus could stop her from starting to melt in all the wrong ways.

  “All right.” Jakob’s agreement had her blinking, trying to think back to what the hell she’d said. “We’ll wait three years, but we’re starting right off the bat on the first one.”

  “Not until I get my schedule cleared,” Kristen corrected him instantly, picking the first battle she intended to win. “If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it an organized manner.”

  “It’s sex, Kristen.” Jakob snorted, reminding her so much of Kort in that moment. “We’re not planning the invasion of Normandy.”

  “I’m not getting off my birth control until I have my schedule cleared,” Kristen repeated, choosing not to respond to his obnoxious retort.

  “You’re on birth control?” Jakob sounded pissed again, which only served to aggravate Kristen’s mood.

  “Of course.”

  “Then Kort was right, you were sleeping with somebody. Who?” Jakob didn’t sound pissed, he sounded deadly. His soft snarl held a dark menace that assured Kristen he intended to do violence against whoever she named.

  “Nobody.” That might have been a direct lie, but it was also prudent. She was protecting a life. Given that she didn’t intend on carrying on with Peter, it didn’t seem fair to let Jakob kill him.

  “Then why the hell are you on any kind of control?”

  “To help regulate my period, if you must know, Mr. Pushy.” Kristen shot that answer at him with enough indignation to assure that he’d believe it.

  “Oh.” Like almost every man would, Jakob folded on that answer, obviously not interested in discussing menstruation with her. “Well, all right then.”

  Kristen almost laughed at the stiff, uncomfortable way he retreated, but didn’t want to prod his temper again. Instead she turned her attention back to a conversation where she had more moral right to be outraged than him.

  “And I’m not quitting my job. Six months and I’m back at work.”

  “We’re talking about babies again?” Now that sounded hopeful and brought that heady, intoxicating scent wrapping around her.

  “We’re talking about me continuing to work,” Kristen corrected without any bite in her tone.

  She didn’t feel like getting worked up again, not with that alluring odor easing the tension from her muscles. Even as the stiffness drained from her limbs, it pooled into a frustrating ache in her pussy. Overindulged by the past two days, her greedy cunt started whispering all sorts of wicked ideas through her head.

  “And how many times do I have to say that nobody intends to make you quit your job?” Jakob asked, clearly exasperated with her.

  The man might be annoyed, but he was still musking. A glance down at his groin confirmed that his interest was a good foot long now and probably causing him all sorts of pain. It could hurt more, though. Kort knew how bad, and Kristen had to wonder if he’d done the nice thing and warned his brother. Given his nature, probably not.

  “I guess you’re just going to have to keep repeating yourself until I believe you,” Kristen answered after a moment, more focused on how to get him into the position she wanted.

  “And how long do you think that’s going to take?”

  “I guess until I trust you,” Kristen retorted, enjoying provoking him.

  “Seeing as stubborn as you are, that could take forever,” Jakob muttered. Shooting her a cross look, he asked a question he clearly expected to get him nowhere. “Isn’t there something we could do to speed things up?”

  Kristen could have smiled over the gift he handed her, but that would have raised his suspicions. Instead she scowled and answered with a predictable rejection. “What? You want me to tell you how to make me trust you?”

  “You want me to prove it any damn way,” Jakob snapped. “Might be quicker if you just told me how.”

  “Well, I can tell you how not,” Kristen shot back with just as much heat. “Don’t musk me after you said you promised not to!”

  “I told you when you came out here that I couldn’t control it,” Jakob roared, jerking upright in his seat. “And you said it was all right.”

  Kristen glared him down, pretending to be cornered before giving in ungraciously. “Fine, you can’t control it, but at least prove you can control yourself.”

  “I am,” Jakob growled, jerking his chin toward the railing. “You ain’t bent over naked and being tortured into begging for my cock.”

  “And what if I was?” Kristen whispered, boldly daring him with her words. “What if I begged you to fuck me? Would you be able to stop, to hold back, knowing it wasn’t what I really wanted?”

  Jakob was quicker than Kort. He didn’t even need to be led all the way to the water’s edge before he perked up. Unlike his twin, Jakob didn’t fall over himself volunteering to give her everything she wanted and take nothing for himself. Instead the dark flush crossing his hardening features assured Kristen that Jakob was building up to blow his top good and hard at any second.

  “And will that prove it to you? That you can trust me?”

  Even knowing she was fueling the fire that chipped those words out, Kristen didn’t try to control her smile. “Actually you’ll have to prove it quite a bit. Wouldn’t want you to get by on just a few lucky strokes, would we?”

  “You made this offer to Kort?”

  “Please.” Kristen snorted, rolling her eyes. “Like I’d tempt that Neanderthal. He has the patience of a gnat. And you’re going to prove that you’re trustworthy by making sure he doesn’t find out because I don’t want to be pestered by him. He’s already lewd enough.”

  She could tell by the way Jakob’s eyes narrowed that he didn’t like that condition. What Kristen couldn’t figure out was whether he objected over some sense of brotherly loyalty or because he sensed the lie in her words. Marshaling her defenses, she stared down his dark look.

  “You got a problem with that?”

  “I got a problem with the whole damn thing,” Jakob snarled. “My hand is itching to tan your hide right about now, and since your ass isn’t on fire, I think you should consider that proof.”

  “I’ll consider it a threat,” Kristen shot back, thinking it wise to take her leave before Jakob really did go off. “And that only means you’ll have to work extra hard to prove that you won’t ever hurt me.”

  That got Jakob to his feet, but Kristen had already made it to the back door. She’d considered it prudent to talk and walk at the same time. Before he could try anything, she slipped back into the kitchen and fled for her bedroom, half wondering if he’d follow and for just what reasons. Of course when she made it to her own room safely, Kristen couldn’t help but be disappointed that Jakob hadn’t come up with any reasons.

  Chapter 18Kristen trotted off toward her bathroom, telling herself she only cared because Jakob had denied her revenge. If he didn’t play, she couldn’t make him suffer. Kristen wanted him to suffer, to be brought to his knees by the same lust that shattered her very willpower to resist it. It only seemed fair that Jakob be at the mercy of the same relentless need she was.

  He’d forced her into this mating with th
e claim that he couldn’t help himself. Where was that motivation now? Maybe he didn’t want to want her. That startling revelation instantly angered Kristen. They sure as hell better like her because she wouldn’t turn her life upside down for two men who didn’t.

  Actually, given she’d been the one to sacrifice her home and her pack, they owed her nothing short of a declaration of love delivered on bent knees. That probably would never happen, Kristen conceded as she slipped into her nightshirt. Still, some kind of show of affection would be nice.

  Be a hell of a lot better than being ignored, Kristen grumbled to herself. Now she had nobody and nothing to do, but maybe work. As much as Kristen loved her job, she didn’t exactly feel in the mood to focus on anything too complicated right then. Pulling on her robe, Kristen shuffled out of the bathroom intent on plopping her ass down in front of the boob tube and vegetating.

  “Let’s get one thing straight, cupcake,” Jakob growled, appearing from behind the door she’d just shoved open. “I don’t like being toyed with.”

  Before Kristen could comprehend his sudden appearance or the anger sharpening his words, Jakob latched on to the collar of her robe and jerked it free, sending her crashing onto the bed.

  “Now you tell me I get to play,” he snarled, rubbing a possessive hand over her ass. “But with no fucking. Now do you really think that’s going to go well for you?”

  It seemed to be going pretty damn good already by Kristen’s estimation. Deciding not to give Jakob the fight he appeared to want, she tried to unman him instead by tempting him with more than she knew he could take. Planting her elbows in the comforter, Kristen arched her spine, raising her ass and sending her nightshirt rolling down her back. She could feel the cool night air caressing the heated folds of her pussy and slid her legs wider to make sure he could see every intimate detail of her offered flesh.

  “I never meant to imply you couldn’t fuck me.” Kristen cast a smile over her shoulder to go along with that purr. “You just can’t come.”

  Their gazes locked, clashing in a silent battle that tipped in Kristen’s favor as the heady scent of Jakob’s musk began to overwhelm her inhibitions. His hesitation would normally have left Kristen feeling like a fool, but with that intoxicating aroma drugging every one of her concerns, Kristen found the boldness to reach down and give ease to her own aching flesh.