Claiming Kristen

by Jenny Penn

  “Something there, dude?”

  “It’s a woman.”

  Jakob pointedly took another look before shaking his head at Cal and whispering back. “No. It’s not.”

  “She’s there.” Cal’s growl heated, growing louder. Trust me.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Oh, don’t look at me like that,” Cal complained, his temper getting the better of him as his hand shot out to indignantly point at absolutely nothing. “She’s there. Right there.”

  “Sure, man.” Jakob agreed in the way that one was supposed to when dealing with the mentally insane. “Whatever you say.”

  “I’m not fucking around here, Jakob,” Cal insisted, showing more emotion than he almost ever did. “She’s here.”

  “Look, I—”

  “I think she’s a ghost.” Cal’s spontaneous confession brought a halt to Jakob’s slow backward procession. “But whatever she is, she’s not a delusion or hallucination. Tex can see her, too.”

  “A ghost?” The hands Jakob had been holding up in surrender as he’d backed out of Cal’s room dropped down to his side as he paced curiously forward. “Can she move things or affect anything?”

  “No. Thank God,” Cal muttered. “She just floats around all annoyingly shaking her hands and yelling at us.”

  “What’s she say?”

  “I don’t know.” Cal’s attention got caught for a second, like he was watching his apparition before he snapped back to the moment. “I can’t hear her, thank God. I’m betting, though, she sounds like a shrew...like a bitchy, naggy, ugly-ass shrew!”

  Seeming to completely forget about Jakob, Cal turned away to snarl at the empty room. He froze, growing stiffer as he appeared to listen to a ghost Cal had just said he couldn’t hear. Jakob watched him straighten up with the kind of building fury that made it a good thing the woman didn’t have a body. Obviously, whatever the ghost did it triggered some very primitive urges in Cal. The kind that a flesh-andblood woman would probably hesitate to antagonize.

  “Go on and have yourself a laugh,” Cal barked. “And I’ll go find myself an exorcist.”

  “She sounds pleasant,” Jakob commented into the pointed silence that followed that threat.

  Cal snorted. “She’s not, but if you think so, why don’t you take over haunting duty.”

  “Because I can’t see her?” Jakob guessed the obvious answer, definitely not wanting to swap places with Cal. He already had one woman driving him nuts, Jakob didn’t need two.

  “Lucky you,” Cal muttered, unsympathetic to the fact that Jakob felt like he had it worse. “Is there something you wanted?”

  “Actually, yes.” Jakob straightened up, remembering what had brought him to Cal’s room in the first place. “JD, Caleb, and Samantha are doing the dinner-in-bed thing tonight, and I was hoping you and Tex would do the dinner out thing.”

  “Is that right?” Cal smirked. “You hoping for a little alone time with the missus?”

  “Something like that.”

  Actually, Jakob had plans that, if everything went well, would earn him all the alone time he ever wanted with Kristen. Tonight, he planned to convince his stubborn mate to finally call an end to her revenge and agree to settle down, move into his house, and start acting like a good mate should.

  “Something like that?” Cal snorted. “Tell me, when you going to get tired of being led around by your balls?”

  “I’m not—”

  “You’re letting your woman set the rules, and you’re playing her game.”

  “At least I’m not arguing with a ghost,” Jakob shot back, unable to argue Cal’s point. “Now you going to do me a favor and get lost for the night?”

  “Yeah, sure,” Cal agreed with ill-grace. “I’ll assist the cause even if it is doomed to failure.”

  “Thanks.” Jakob shot Cal a fake smile. “And about your ghost?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You need to talk to JD.” Jakob pinned Cal with a hard look. “He’s going to want to know if something is haunting his house.”

  “More like he’ll laugh at me and then kick me the hell out,” Cal retorted. “JD isn’t going to believe me.”

  “Actually, he might, and he sure as shit won’t laugh about it.” Jakob knew like the rest of the pack how JD felt about ghosts. Their Alpha had made his feelings known a while back, though Cal probably didn’t know about the incident.

  “He had a run-in with a ghost,” Jakob informed JD’s cousin. “He was helping out The Narin with something, and I guess his mate had a ghost that hung out with her.”

  “Hung out with her? You make that sound like they were friends.” Cal clearly couldn’t phantom that idea as being logical if his sour expression was anything to go by.

  “From what I gather, they were.” Jakob shrugged. “She even had a name. Kate, I think.”

  “Yeah?” Cal snorted. “I got a few names I like to call my own, but none of them are as bland or boring as Kate.”

  “Call her whatever you want,” Jakob shot back, over arguing with Cal. “Just make sure you tell JD.”

  “What?”

  Cal’s sudden roar had Jakob startling as he turned his back on him. Just as quick, he snapped back around to confront the other man before he realized Cal wasn’t yelling at him. In fact, he didn’t even look in Jakob’s direction, but stood there flailing his arms at nothing that Jakob could see.

  “Will you stop waving your fucking hands in my face?” Cal snapped. “I don’t give a shit if you have something to say. I can’t hear you!”

  The tension eased from Jakob’s muscles, leaving behind a snicker as he watched Cal argue with the ghost. He’d never actually known anybody who could get the better of Cal’s temper. Both Tex and he tended to be laid-back, too laid-back and unconcerned, which made them good at goading other people’s tempers. Whoever the ghost was, she’d evened those scales, and for that, Jakob already liked her.

  Leaving Cal to his argument, Jakob followed the luring scent of his mate as the sweet fragrance thickened with the sound of the front door being slammed open. Instantly, the living room below filled with the heated sounds of another argument as Kort roared in after her.

  “Don’t you walk away from me!”

  “Don’t you yell at me.” Kristen stormed into sight below the loft, not even bothering to look back at the man nearly stepping on her heels when she snapped at him. “I’m not talking to you when you’re like this.”

  “This?” Kort snarled, trailing her around the bend in the staircase as they started to stomp up in Jakob’s direction. “If you think this is bad, you just keep mouthing off, honey, and see how much that improves my mood.”

  The smile Jakob had grown at the first thought that Kristen was home faded with the reality of her entrance. This was not how he wanted to start the night. For two long weeks Jakob had, as Cal had so tactfully put it, been playing Kristen’s game. Night after night he indulged every one of Kristen’s wanton urges only to deny himself and then suffer the most excruciating pain he’d ever known.

  Tonight he’d planned to bring an end to all that. With the help of a romantic dinner, some mood music, and a little wine, Jakob had practiced all the lines he’d used to convince Kristen to bring this insanity to an end and let him have at least one release. He felt sure with Kort’s presence, she’d cave.

  Despite being caught up in the struggle to control his own desires, Jakob hadn’t missed how insatiable Kristen had grown. It didn’t matter how many climaxes he fed her, she always wanted something more. Jakob knew exactly what she needed, Kort and him riding hard and rough from either end until all three of them exploded with the mind-numbing rush of release.

  Kristen needed it, but Jakob couldn’t survive another night without it. The beast had had enough. Whether or not Kristen agreed, Jakob was going to end the night buried balls deep inside her tight cunt and pumping out every bit of frustration she’d made him endure for the past two weeks. The dinner and all the romance was just a
polite way of asking for what he intended to be taking.

  “Don’t touch me,” Kristen snarled, jerking free of Kort’s hand as she stormed past Jakob without so much as a glance. His brother’s palm slid from her waist to their mate’s lush behind, swatting it and making her jump through the door she’d just shoved open.

  “Damnit, Kort.” Kristen whirled on him, flushed with outrage and more than a little excited, if the wisps of feminine arousal thickening around her were any indication. “Don’t do that!”

  “That’s two,” Kort stated, darkly. “Now get your ass bent over your bed for the rest or I’ll bend you over the banister and handle the matter right here.”

  “If you so much as lay a hand on me, I’ll give Derek permission to rip it off the next time you see him.” Flushed and panting, Kristen looked more scared than menacing as she threatened Kort. “Now you stay the hell away from me until you learn to behave yourself.”

  As if she thought that would be the final word on the subject, Kristen provoked Kort by showing him her back again. Jakob felt the same growl grumbling out of his twin starting to vibrate in his own chest. He didn’t have a clue what had gone wrong between his mate and his brother, but instinctively, Jakob’s hardening determination mirrored Kort’s response to Kristen’s attitude.

  He caught the door she tried to slam in Kort’s face, drawing Kristen’s startled notice for the first time. Before she could turn her indignant wrath loose on him, Kort ducked under Jakob’s arm and sent Kristen stumbling backward in an attempt to avoid being run over.

  “Damnit! This is my room, and you, neither of you,” Kristen’s glare swept over to include Jakob in her reprimand, “have any right to barge in whenever you feel like it.”

  Jakob responded to that by slamming the door closed and leaning against it, a silent statement that he didn’t intend to go anywhere. Not until he knew what the hell had Kort going after Kristen. Even then, Jakob didn’t think it mattered too much anymore.

  All that really mattered was that Kristen was alarmed, aroused, and cornered. Three things that made the beast inside him howl the call to battle. It was time, past time, to put their mate in her place.

  “Don’t even bother trying to play like you have any right to be indignant, honey.” Kort crossed his arms over his chest and glared down at their woman. “You’re going to answer my questions, and then you’re going to strip down and crawl up on that bed to await your punishment.”

  “I will do no such kind of thing,” Kristen spat, dancing further and further away from Kort. “You will be the one to—”

  “—tie you to that bed and pack both your ass and your cunt with some fake cock.” Kort paced forward, crowding Kristen back against the edge of the desk. “Then I’m going to get out the butterfly and clip your clit and run a chain up from that little bud to a couple of clamps I plan on using on them tits. Then, honey, I’m going to turn the butterfly on, pop me a can of beer, and sit back while you writhe for however long it takes you to start answering my questions.”

  “Fine,” Kristen caved, smelling wet and nervous, a delicious combination. “I’ll answer your damn questions, but don’t you be threatening me.”

  “I wasn’t threatening. I was promising,” Kort vowed. Kristen must have believed him because he’d no sooner growled than she darted around him, escaping back into the middle of the room.

  “I grant you have some reason to be upset that I didn’t explain about Peter, but there will be no punishing of any kind,” Kristen instructed. “You do not have a right to control every aspect of my life.”

  “Actually, I do,” Kort disagreed. “I’m your mate, something you seem to like to forget.”

  “Peter?” Jakob tasted that name, remembering why he hated it. In that moment he wondered if he wouldn’t have to kill the man. It all depended on Kristen’s answer. “Peter who?”

  Kristen had whirled around at the sound of his question, irritating Jakob again as she appeared shock to find him there. He really didn’t appreciate being ignored and forgotten. Nor did he like the way she simply gazed at him in uncertain dismay, instead of actually answering his question.

  Before he could repeat it, though, and add on a threat to make her take him as seriously as she did Kort, his brother answered. “Peter Hann, her partner in the law firm and lover.”

  “My business partner and former lover,” Kristen corrected instantly, her face flushing with the return of her agitation. “Not even lovers, more like friends with benefits. I’m not sure a slut-ball like you can understand the concept since we all know you only care about the benefits part.”

  “Don’t,” Jakob warned her, his patience shredded by her confession. “Don’t even think you’re talking your way out of this one, darling.”Kristen crossed her arms and glared back at her two mates, mocking their attempt to intimidate her. She might be a little nervous and very excited, but Kristen was not weak. It didn’t matter that she knew she couldn’t win this battle. That didn’t mean she would roll over and concede defeat at the first scowl they sent her way. If Kort and Jakob wanted to claim any victories tonight, they’d have to earn them.

  “You are not working with this Peter.” The words barely sounded human. Kristen could see the canines giving Jakob so much trouble. They’d lengthened in clear warning that to defy his order would risk losing Jakob’s control over his beast.

  “You said I wouldn’t have to quit my job,” Kristen boldly reminded him.

  She wished she was half as indifferent to the threat he presented as she sounded. No matter how cool and calm she might appear, inside her heart raced so fast she felt flushed with heat, almost overwhelmed by it. Each of her breaths grew shorter, tightening into pants, as her blood rolled thick and heavy in her veins.

  The heady sensation pooled in her womb, swelling her pussy lips and making them drip cream. Worse, Kristen knew Jakob and Kort could smell her body’s instinctive reaction to their domination. A fact she couldn’t hope they’d ignore and could only pray that they acted on.

  “I meant your career,” Jakob snarled, still arguing and forcing her mind to try and think about the lust fogging it.

  “I didn’t.”

  Short, simple, Kristen couldn’t have expanded on that answer if she tried. Not that she needed to. Being curt with Jakob had a devastating effect on his temper. His gaze narrowed, his eyes darkening as every muscle in his body flexed. The thick scent of unrestrained aggression began twining through the musk rolling off of him in waves, a silent warning that she had only seconds left.

  “You didn’t explain a lot of things, Kristen.”

  Kort’s heated growl breathed over her neck, making her jerk around to find he’d taken advantage of her argument with Jakob to sulk closer. Instinctively, she edged away from him, but could only widen the gap a foot for fear of getting in grabbing range of Jakob, who looked ready to lunge at her. Kort paced forward, sizing her up as he gave her one last opportunity to tell the truth.

  “You got any other sins you want to confess to before we get to your punishment?”

  Two answers popped instantly into her mind. Both would probably carry a heavy sentence individually. Though the sum total would probably be lesser if they had to discipline for all three transgressions at once. It was a hard call to make, but Kristen came down on the side of moderation.

  Meeting Kort’s waiting gaze, she offered him a sweet smile. “I’ve been screwing your brother every single night.”

  Kristen didn’t add that she hadn’t let Jakob come either, but let Kort stew over the implication that she had. Leaving him shocked and mute, she turned her saccharine grin on Jakob and offered him the same misleading confession.

  “And I’ve been fucking your brother through every single lunch break.”

  “You son of a bitch.” Jakob jumped immediately on the bait, turning all his building rage on his twin. “I knew there was a reason you weren’t walking around with a twelve-inch boner anymore.”

  “Me?” Kort gaspe
d, stepping around Kristen to confront his brother’s accusation face-to-face. “What about you? Fucking all night long? All I got was an hour!”

  Kristen quickly scurried out of the way, aiming for the bedroom door. Intent on escaping before either one of them figured out the truth, she almost made it. Kort caught her at the top step of the stairs. Snatching her up by the arm, he whirled her back into the hall and away from any possible getaway.

  “And where the hell do you think you’re going?”

  Someplace safe, like her brother’s, but Kristen kept that bit of honesty to herself. Not that she got to answer. Jakob saved her from having to come up with a lie when he stormed up behind Kort and latched on to his brother’s shoulder. He had the advantage of surprise on his side and managed to whip Kort back so fast he stumbled and went crashing down onto his ass.

  Before Kristen’s startled eyes, Jakob trembled and grew an honest inch taller, wider, thicker in every direction. She could scent the wolf trying to force his way into the world and could see the effort it cost Jakob to hold the beast back. Heaving with panted breath, his fingers clenched into tight, white-knuckled fists, he towered over Kort.

  “She’s going to bed with me, you asshole. Kristen’s got some things to make up for, and you,” Jakob paused to slam a punch into Kort’s raising jaw, sending his brother sprawling back onto the floor, “you can stay the hell out of my way.”

  From one blink to the next, Kort’s head went from tilted to the side to roaring out a challenge as he lunged to his feet. Planting an arm around Jakob’s waist, he rushed them both past Kristen so fast a breeze brushed over her cheeks. With a grunt, they crashed into the railing, which responded instantly with a rippling wave of cracks that popped loud in the suddenly silent air.

  Jakob’s arms windmilled for a split second before he disappeared over the edge with a whoosh. A second later a loud, heavy thump echoed through the house so strong it vibrated the floor beneath her feet. Kristen blinked and stared at the gaping hole in the railing, unable to believe Jakob had actually gone through the thing. They were fifteen feet up in the air. He could have broken his back.