by Leela Ash
“Welcome home, Jack. I’m sure your family will be glad.” The words were unspoken that she wasn’t.
He clutched her hands, “Please don’t forsake me, Megan. I need you. I can’t live without you. I realized that as soon as I left town but I needed to tell you that in person. I hurried home as soon as I could and all the while I hoped I wasn’t too late; I prayed your pain had not hardened into hatred.”
Megan looked down at him, feeling her defenses shattering. “I love you,” he repeated.
“I love you too,” she whispered.
He rose to his feet and caught her up in a warm embrace that soon turned hot as passion flared. His lips slanted over hers and her toes curled in remembered reaction. He was the love of her life, she thought with all the love in the world shining from her eyes.
Jack growled, deepening the kiss.
Jeanine cleared her throat and Megan gurgled with laughter as Jack lifted his head in exasperation. “She always interrupts us,” he complained.
Megan carried his hand to her stomach and a different kind of fire kindled in his eyes as he looked from her stomach up to her.
Megan’s heart rejoiced as she read the promise in his eyes. He would keep her and their baby safe for all times because he was her very own protector.
The End
Her Second Chance Wolf
Damaged Pack Shifters 4
Leela Ash & Pamela Avery
Copyright ©2020 by Leela Ash and Pamela Avery. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
1.
Marissa Stanley worried at her lower lip with her teeth as she drove along the highway leading to the part of town in Weirna where more shifters dwelled in packs.
She had studiously avoided going to Joshua Cox’s ever since his Damaged Pack boys got back into town but now there was no help for it. Her best friend in the entire world, Jeanine, lived there now after her marriage to Bo, one of Joshua’s adopted sons. Unfortunately poor Jeanine had just lost her grandma Nana Lourdes, thanks to that horrible Nabradia, Queen of the Salem witches.
She had to go there now because Jeanine needed her. For that matter she needed some comfort herself, because she had loved Nana as though the old woman were her grandma and she was still in shock. She still couldn’t believe she would never hear Nana’s dry jokes again or watch her perform those simple magic tricks she’d always used to delight her. She couldn’t believe Nana wasn’t around anymore to run to for advice.
And she couldn’t believe that after studiously avoiding Joshua and his boys for months, she had to go to their home today.
Would he be there? she worried.
There was no point in clarifying who he was; there was only one he in the entire world that made her heart skip a beat and her palms dampen every time the thought of him crossed her mind. She didn’t like the effect he produced in her, but there it was.
Luke Summers was one of the Damaged Pack shifters and the last person she wanted to see in a million years… but some things couldn’t be helped, she supposed. He had been back in town for close to three months and in all that time the Fates had contrived to keep him out of sight if, unfortunately, not out of mind.
Her phone rang just then and she picked it up the moment she saw the Caller ID. It was her daughter Caily’s teacher and she felt a pang of worry.
“Yes, Mrs. Hudson? Marissa Stanley, speaking.”
“Ms. Stanley, your daughter has been up to some more mischief today,” Mrs. Hudson began in a dire tone that said she had ‘had it’ up to here. “Do you want to know what she did today?”
Marissa bit back a groan. Not really, she thought. She didn’t want to know what new mischief Caily had gotten up to. Lately it seemed that every time she turned around her daughter was doing something naughty.
“What has she gone and done now?” Marissa asked in a suitably shame-filled tone as she pulled over to the shoulder of the road. This was going to be a long discussion if Mrs. Hudson’s tone was anything to go by.
“She convinced Tyler Talbot that his lunch had a spider in it and the little fool threw his food away. Next, she got Angela Mason to pick a boogie out of her nose and flick it right in the face of their History teacher. The climax was when she got Sheriff Anderson’s nephew, Pete Anderson, to climb the tallest tree in the school on a dare. The poor kid got stuck up there and kept bawling his head off until the Sheriff and an entire crew of firefighters hustled over to come rescue him. It’s been absolute pandemonium, let me tell you, and Sheriff Anderson has been beside himself. And yes, he’s taken your name in vain so many times today, I have a feeling you might be getting a visit from him tonight.”
Caily had achieved all that in one day? Busy girl, Marissa thought with a wayward streak of admiration. Her daughter was pure fire. She shouldn’t have been named something pretty and girly like Caily, she should have had a fiery, troublemaker name tacked onto her eight-year-old ass. Her name should probably have been something truly unappealing like Gwamp; that would warn everyone straight off to stay clear.
But no, the little termagant had to have a beautiful name like Caily topped off by ash-blonde hair and wide, pale grey eyes that made her a spitting image of Marissa and made her appear almost angelic.
“Ms. Stanley, are you there?” Mrs. Hudson’s voice came stridently over the line.
Marissa rubbed her forefinger and thumb over her tired eyes. She had just ended a twelve-hour shift at the hospital, she was still in her scrubs due to the fact that she had gotten Bo’s message about Nana’s death just as her shift was ending and she had been so upset she hadn’t bothered changing before hightailing it out of the hospital. She was frankly beat.
“I’m here ma’am. How long does she have to be in detention?” she asked, glancing at her wristwatch and mentally calculating how long she had to dash over to Jeanine’s before going over to the school to eat humble pie once more on behalf of her kid.
“Did you hear a word I said?” Mrs. Hudson demanded, her voice appalled that Marissa hadn’t even had the good taste to proffer so much as an apology without being prompted.
“I heard every word. And yes, I am sorry you had to deal with all that. I’ll talk to Caily. I think something has indeed been going on with her lately. I’ll get to the bottom of it,” Marissa assured, with a confidence she was far from feeling.
Something was indeed up with Caily. All kids got up to some mischief but this was a whole different level and she’d been noticing that behavior for some months.
“Come pick her up at four,” Mrs. Hudson directed in a sore tone before she hung up.
Marissa sighed as she pulled back onto the road and resumed her journey. Well the one good thing to come out of Caily’s latest antics was that now she had to worry about her daughter, which meant Luke wouldn’t even be a blip on her radar. So even if she ran smack-dab into him at Joshua Cox’s, she would be unaffected, serene, cool as a cucumber and distant as the moon, she thought determinedly.
Five minutes later, that theory was put to the test.
Jack Sivan opened the door for her as soon as she knocked and Marissa grinned up at the tall handsome man, “Hey Jack.”
He burst into delighted laughter, “That you, Babe?”
Babe was the nickname the entire Pack had been calling her ever since they were all kids and she’d started tagging along whenever they went on one of their adventurous pursuits. She had hated the name, but being boys, the more she’d resisted the name, the more it had stuck, until she’d given in and accepted the nickname with ill grace.
She wrinkled her nose at him, “No, it’s my evil twin.”
He caught her up in a tight bear hug, squashing her against his huge frame and alternately peppering her neck with a thousand pecks. His loud voice rumbled as he laughed an
d called for the others. Then he swung around in a tight circle with Marissa still clutched in his arms.
Someone cleared their throat delicately and Marissa looked over his shoulder at a pretty blonde with Barbie-doll looks and classic blue eyes standing with her arms folded and one eyebrow cocked.
Jack’s reaction was amusing to watch. He unceremoniously dumped Marissa back onto her feet and sped to clutch the blonde in his arms for an even tighter, faintly reassuring bear hug. He dragged her towards the door, his voice already booming with the introductions.
“Megan? This is Marissa, an old childhood friend of ours.”
Marissa rolled her eyes, “Was the emphasis necessary? You old goat, your girlfriend knows a classy chick like me would never be panting after you anyway, don’t you Megan?”
Megan looked uncertainly from one to the other and too late Marissa realized how her statement about classy chicks not falling for Jack might be interpreted. She winced. She hadn’t thought that one through. Marissa waited to see if Megan would be offended, then breathed a sigh of relief when a dawning smile, filled with mischief, spread across the other woman’s pretty face. She was even more relieved when Megan started forward with a grin and both hands outstretched in an unaffected gesture.
“Hello Marissa. I think I’ve seen you a time or two with Jeanine. I didn’t know you were friends with the guys, too.”
Joshua strode in just then, and beamed when he saw her. “Marissa! You’re just in time. Jeanine isn’t eating right; she hasn’t been since Nana died. Maybe you’ll succeed at coaxing her.”
“Where is she?” Marissa asked, her smile collapsing into a worried frown.
Jeanine was heavily pregnant. She needed her nutrients now more than ever.
“She’s upstairs,” Joshua said easily as he sank into his favorite sofa. “Bo’s room.”
“Excuse me, please,” Marissa smiled at Megan and Jack. Then she took the stairs two at a time and made a beeline for Bo’s bedroom. She had been in the house enough times to recognize everyone’s bedroom. But ever since the boys had returned to Weirna, she’d stayed away.
She knocked softly at the door and pushed it open without waiting for a response.
Jeanine was lying in a fetal position, facing away from the door. Her curly auburn curls were plastered around her head in artless disarray.
“Jeanine?” Marissa whispered as she approached the bed.
Jeanine lifted her head, saw her friend, and promptly burst into tears as she sat up on the bed.
“Shh, shh,” Marissa called rushing to the bed to gather Jeanine into her arms. Jeanine suddenly seemed so little, as though her grief had made her hollow in on herself.
“N-N-N-Nana d-died,” Jeanine sobbed, so consumed with grief that she stuttered over the words.
“I know, sweetheart. I know,” Marissa crooned, rocking Jeanine in consolation. As the two women wrapped their arms around each other, Marissa tried to imagine Nana with her vitality and upbeat personality reduced to a lifeless form trapped in a closed cave; everything in her revolted at the thought.
“Did you get to see Nana’s body?” she whispered when Jeanine’s tears had slowed to hiccups.
Jeanine shook her head. “I didn’t. Um, she died… in um, rather mysterious circumstances,” Jeanine finished uncomfortably, detaching herself from Marissa’s arms.
Marissa frowned. Suddenly Jeanine wasn’t meeting her eyes? What was going on?
“What are you hiding from me, Jeanine?” Marissa demanded, peering at her friend and trying to assess with her doctor’s eye what could be physically wrong. This was Jeanine’s first pregnancy and Marissa wasn’t taking any chances.
Jeanine shook her head, wiping off her tears with the back of one hand, “N-nothing. Nana had a weak heart so I guess her death was sudden. Mother had her cremated at once.”
Marissa stared. “Why would Aunt Dolly do that? You don’t cremate a witch.”
It was Jeanine’s turn to stare in utter confusion. “What!?”
And just like that it clicked for Marissa. She and Jeanine had become fast friends after they were paired together at last year’s Fourth of July celebration, but she had never gotten around to telling Jeanine the truth about herself. True, Jeanine had ended up marrying Bo who was himself a shifter bear, but Marissa had never come right out and told Jeanine that she was also a shifter. They had never even discussed shifters, so far all she knew Jeanine might think she was human and unaware of the shifter-side of the town. She had to set that right, she thought.
Before she could say a word, the door burst open and Beaufort Kent strode in bringing a blast of fresh air with him. Marissa started to call out a greeting to him but her gaze cut to the tall, handsome man entering the room just behind Bo and her mouth went dry: Luke Summers!
Marissa barely noticed Bo’s careless “Hey,” tossed in her direction as he strode over to the bed to pick up Jeanine and cuddle her against his large frame.
She couldn’t tear her gaze away from the tall man silhouetted in the open doorway. He stilled for a minute after seeing her and then he clenched his jaw and stepped into the room, shutting the door resolutely behind him.
Marissa hadn’t clapped eyes on Luke Summers in almost nine years and now her eyes roved hungrily down his lean form. He had changed with the years, firmed up, matured, gotten more devastatingly handsome. But he was still scum; he was still so low, in her opinion, that he was almost subterranean.
Choking words of angry condemnation sprang to her throat but she bit them back down with a superhuman strength she didn’t know she possessed.
He was tall and whipcord slim, with midnight black hair, the widest pair of shoulders she had ever seen… long aristocratic nose, a firm jaw that seemed to have been carved out of granite, and pink lips positioned beneath a surprising moustache. Strength and vitality clung to him like a cloak with an indefinable air of sheer virility. One very intriguing little scar was also positioned just above his left eyebrow.
Luke’s eyes were a strange gold color that had never failed to enthrall her; every time she saw them she felt as though she were staring into the eyes of some dangerous predator like a wild lion. They had an almost mystical quality; they had a way of shimmering when he looked at her and it always felt as though he could see right through her.
Marissa opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. Typical, she thought with self-disgust; Luke only had to walk into a room and her vocal cords tapered out.
Luke walked forward, his gaze trained on her as though he couldn’t quite believe she was in the room. He wet his lower lip rapidly with his tongue and all her feminine hormones arose for a round of applause; or at least she imagined they did. If nothing else the instinctive tightening of her pussy and involuntary tightening of her nipples were sure indicators that her hormones hadn’t learned their lesson. Her traitorous body still appreciated the pure male specimen standing before her.
Great. What had happened to cool as a cucumber and distant as the moon?
“Marissa Stanley,” he rumbled, his voice coming from somewhere deep in his chest. Was it her imagination or did he look particularly displeased to see her? And how had he somehow managed to make her name sound like a curse and a prayer all at once?
Marissa offered him a wan, uncertain smile, “Luke Summers.”
He stared back at her in unsmiling silence, his gaze hooded and unreadable.
Marissa felt distinctly uncomfortable. Yep, it wasn’t her imagination; Luke didn’t look happy to see her. He didn’t even pretend to look happy. Had he found out her secret about Caily being his child, she wondered, her hands trembling. She clasped her hands behind her to still them. No he couldn’t have; God, no. She’d told no one, not a soul except her mother. He couldn’t know.
“I’ll, um, I’ll just be on my way now Bo, since you’re here with Jeanine.”
Bo looked up from where he was still cuddling his wife in his arms as though she were a child. “Don’t run off, Marissa. Yo
u haven’t been here since we got married and I know Curly has missed you.”
Curly? Oh, yes. That was the family’s nickname for his wife because of her curly ringlets.
Marissa forced a smile, her gaze straying to the mantel clock above the headboard of the king-sized bed. “I have an errand to run now. I’ll, um, I’ll come back later to check on Jeanine. She needs to rest though and eat properly.”
Bo nodded, “Dolly says only you can bully Jeanine into eating right. So please come back soon.”
Marissa’s smile was a bit more natural now at the mention of Dolly Lourdes, Jeanine’s mother. Most people thought the woman was a clumsy airhead; only few people, like Marissa and late Nana had been able to glean the astuteness in those faded blue eyes.
“Dolly’s right. But from what I’ve heard you hold up just fine too, Bo,” she added, dimpling at him.
He grinned absently, already absorbed in Jeanine’s gaze.
Marissa’s eyes flicked to the silent man still standing before her, “See you around, Luke.”
He nodded, the movement jerky, “See you.”
Marissa escaped, taking the stairs two at a time. She didn’t stop running until she reached her car.
She drove back into town driving as fast as she could without breaking the speed limit. In less than fifteen minutes, she came to a screeching halt in front of Caily’s school, trembling from head to toe like a frightened cat. School had let out, she saw at a glance, and only kids in detention were getting picked up by their parents now.
She spied Mrs. Mason marching her granddaughter, little Angela to her SUV, her face red and mottled with rage. The other woman’s expression hardened even more when she saw Marissa. Mrs. Mason tossed her hair, and rather than give a cursory wave, she gave Marissa the evil eye. Then she clambered into the driver’s seat of her car and sped off, spewing gravel.
Great, Marissa thought with a sigh, time to face the music with Caily’s teacher.