by K. S. Martin
I picked up my duffle and took the stairs two at a time. My room had been left untouched except for regular cleanings. That must be the new mate because dad wouldn’t have bothered. Not a speck of dust anywhere, the carpet freshly vacuumed and the bed smelled like dryer sheets. I put my bag down on the end of the bed and crossed the hall to her door. Ours were the only rooms up here. Hers used to be my mother’s sewing room. It had sat empty for a few years and it was where I went when I missed her. Now this angry little girl that would bear my pups one day occupied it. I opened her door. She had her back to me and was pulling on a tee shirt. I could have that bra undone and on the floor in less than two seconds.
“So you’re Janie.” I said. She startled, yanking her clothes down, she whirled on me. “Nice to meet you.” The girl had fire in her eyes. She was pissed. I closed the door after giving her another cocky grin.
I wondered if she knew then what I knew. I lean over and kiss her forehead. So beautiful and mine. How am I going to make her understand? Janie’s body knows. I scent what it knows. You can’t hide arousal from a wolf. I see the way she trembles sometimes. I smell the wetness between her legs but still she always puts me off. She won’t admit it. I am going to have to convince her that it’s not only real but that it’s okay. I’ll work on real first. I have to get her to go back with me.
She moves closer to me now until her nose is pressed to my chest. Her wolf knows, I think her wolf always knew but Janie would rather pretend she was more human that wolf. My cell vibrates in my pocket and I pull it out. The office. I’ve been wrapping up things as quickly as I could for the past week so that I wouldn’t be bothered but sometimes it can’t be helped. Since I’d lost my assistant a month ago, there was no one to run interference. I answer it.
“Yes.” I say it quietly because I don’t want to wake her.
“Mr. Williams? This is Scott in PR. We have a problem with the Adams project and the roll out will have to be delayed.”
“Send it to me and a description of the problem.”
“Yes sir. Right away.”
“Anything else?” I’m still quiet and watching her.
“No sir.” I disconnect. She stirs in her sleep when the phone beeps off and her stomach grumbles. Dad says she hasn’t eaten much in a week. ‘She’s only picking.’ He’d said. I saw her earlier. I’d stood behind her for almost four minutes before she sensed me. That’s dangerous for our kind. She’d stood there stirring soup lost in her own world. It was selfish of me to make her wait a week for the funeral but I knew what else I would do here. I am going to claim her.
I’m worried. She seems so lost but I am going to put that light back in her eyes. I have plans for Janie. She doesn’t know any of them but she will soon. Her lashes flutter. Fifteen minutes. She’s not sleeping and she’s not eating. “Fuck.” She hisses. “Why are you still here?” She’s glaring at me and I can’t help that I only feel compassion.
“I was waiting for you to wake up. I want to take you somewhere.” I decide in an instant what needs to happen. My mate needs to eat and sleep.
“Where?” She asks.
“You’ll see. Get up unless you are going to sleep more.” Janie sat up and swung her feet over the side. I grabbed the bowl of lukewarm soup and saw her nose crinkle. “Not in the mood for soup?” She shook her head. “That’s okay.” I follow her out of the room and down the stairs. I put the bowl in the kitchen sink and grab my keys from the hook. Her jacket is on the back of a chair and I pick it up. I resist the urge to hold it to my face because she’s watching. I don’t want to freak her out. “Come on.” I toss her the jacket and go out the front door.
“Typical.” She says going to the car. I lift a brow. “You riding around in this red fiberglass penis. I thought she’d like it when I bought it. Now she’s making fun. I’ll sell it as soon as we’re back in the city.
“Get in.” I slide behind the steering wheel and start it. The engine rumbles under me and I know she feels it. I quirk half a smile and back out of the driveway. I take the turns with ease and push the pedal down when we hit a straightaway. I’m going to feed her. She is going to eat if I have to force it down her throat. I pull into the hamburger joint. This was always her favorite. It’s a mom and pop joint where the girls still come to your car with a tray. They have old fashioned milkshakes and huge cheeseburgers. The fries are hand cut and limp but have a unique flavor that will keep you coming back. It’s always crowded and today is no different. The blonde teenager runs over to me. She looks disappointed when she sees Janie but asks for my order anyway.
“Two cheeseburgers, fries and chocolate shakes.”
“Sure thing, coming up.” She walks toward the building scribbling on her pad.
“I’m not hungry.” Jane says staring out the window.
“Yes you are.” I shift in my seat to give her my full attention. “Your stomach was growling while you slept and it’s why you aren’t sleeping. You need to eat sweetheart.” Her eyes snap up to mine. I’ve never called her that but when I think of her it’s what I call her. “We need to talk Jane. Not right now but we need to talk.”
“About what?” She is so angry and I’m not sure she even knows why. I know why though. That’s the wolf. She feels like mine. Incomplete and lost. Her wolf is desperate for her mate, so is mine.
“Us.” She makes a face.
“What about us?” Jane’s forehead is creased over her nose. She doesn’t understand. It’s unfathomable to her.
“Later.” I hear the blonde coming. She’s cracking her gum. I hate that noise. Bubbles are so much sexier.
“Okay, two shakes, chocolate, two fries, and two cheeseburgers. Anything else?" I hand her a twenty. “Be right back.” She says grinning, giving me a chance to be her hero. I bite but not to be her hero, more to get her away from us.
“Keep it.” I tell her and take the food off the tray so she can take that with her. She tucks it under her arm and walks away swinging her little girl hips. I turn to Janie. She’s stuffing fries in her mouth so I keep my thoughts to myself. I bite into the cheeseburger. Heaven. Nothing’s changed. I hear her little moan as she eats. My heart speeds and the wolf pushes again. I push it back. Janie takes a huge bite of her burger and I know she’s going to be okay. I keep eating and I watch the people stirring around on the other side of the windshield.
~2~
I don’t know what he keeps trying to say. All I know is that right now, this cheeseburger is the best thing I’ve ever eaten. He was right, I was hungry. Leave it to Mr. Fabulous. I suck the shake up through the straw. The chocolate hits my brain like heroin hits an addict. I shiver it’s so good. I see him look away. My wolf is jumpy. I need to run but now with all of this cholesterol flowing through my blood I’m getting sleepy. He was right about that too. Sometimes I hate that he knows everything.
I finish my food and settle back in the seat while he gets rid of the trash. I see the blonde talking to him. She’s petting his arm and brushing her boob up against him. “You don’t have to try that hard honey, just offer and he’ll nail you behind the building.” He turns and looks right at me. The window is still down. I stifle my giggle. He heard me. I put my hand over my mouth and look across the parking lot out of my window. I don’t care. What I said was true. He would nail her because he would nail anything with a pussy. I can’t count how many women I’ve heard scream his name. Some of them still echo through my nightmares. He settles in the seat beside me and starts the car.
“No, I wouldn’t. She’s too blonde. I like brunettes.” He said and drove out of the parking lot heading for home. I feel my eyes getting heavy and let them close. I’m exhausted and there is no reason not to catch ten minutes on the way home.
When I wake, I’m in my bed. It is morning and I hear birds. God they’re noisy. I left the window open again. I could get another hour if the windows were down. I feel his hand on my hip then. Why has he suddenly become a fixture in my bed? “It’s only six. Go back to sleep.” He
says against my ear.
“Can’t. Noisy birds.” I manage to say. He rolls away from me and gets up to close the window. He’s in boxer briefs, only boxer briefs. “Why are you in here Jake, go sleep in your bed.” I pull the sheet higher on my shoulder and it dawns on me that I am only wearing the tank top that I sleep in and my panties. He’s undressed me. He took my clothes off and redressed me while I slept. I don’t remember doing this myself. He’s done this. Oh my God! I scream it inside my head. Jake has seen me naked! Then my mind settles around that. He saw me naked and I don’t feel like I’ve had sex. So staying away from my naked body wasn’t hard for him. I almost cry. Plain pudgy Jane, what did I expect?
He’s climbing back into my bed and snuggling up behind me now that the window is closed and the blinds are closed and down. The room is darker. “Your room is over there.” I point at the closet because beyond that is his room. I don’t want him here. He’s seen me naked and was unaffected.
“No.” He says and kisses the back of my head. What the hell? “I told you that we need to talk. I guess since you’re obviously wide awake, it’s time. I wanted to catch another hour of sleep and I wanted you to catch at least two but…” He sighs. “You’re my mate Jane.” I laugh. Not one of those elegant little lady chuckles either. One of those big from the gut guffaws. I roll over and stare into his face, I’m still grinning. He’s not. I swallow, hard. “Sorry to disappoint you but yeah.” I shake my head. He nods. “I’ve known since the first day I met you and I think deep down you do too.”
“If you’ve known since then why didn’t you say?” I narrow my eyes on him. If he is then why didn’t he wake me when he had my clothes off?
“You were so young and had so much in front of you. I wanted you to have that childhood.” He grips my chin with his finger and thumb to tip my face up so he can look directly in my eyes. “Your wolf knows. It’s why you’re so cranky.” I raise one eyebrow. Calling me cranky will not win him any points. “Anyway, your child hood is over. Your mom is gone and there is nothing holding you here. You will return to the city with me, we will mate and you know that rest.” He leans down and kisses my lips softly. “On Monday you will start your job as my assistant.” I jerk away.
“I didn’t go to college for four years to be your assistant.” He grins. It’s that sexy smile that always gets me wet and it occurs to me that maybe he’s right. Maybe I have always known. It doesn’t make it right though. I’ve spent the past four years around humans and if we went to his place in the city we would be surrounded by them.
One thing that I learned is the rules on incest are pretty clear. It’s a no-no. Humans would not like it that step siblings were now living together and screwing on a regular basis. The wolves will get it and none of them would raise an eyebrow. Mates are mates and that’s that. As far as they’re concerned our parents were mated but we are not related any further than pack. They expect us to produce pups if we are mates and to be productive members of the pack. It’s so much simpler with them. It wouldn’t even phase them if I took up with Dad. He’s now unmated and available. Any she-wolf is fair game for him, young or old.
“So you object to being an assistant not to being my mate. Good. I want you to be my assistant so that you can learn the business from my side. You will be privy to meetings, memos, hiring, firing, everything that I see, you will see. In a year we will marry for their benefit and you will become a full legal partner.” I nibble my lip. “Don’t do that.” He flicks my bottom lip away from my teeth with his thumb. “I want to mount you but not this morning. We have to get through the funeral first.”
“Does Dad know?” I ask. He nods. “And she knew?” He nods again. I think about a few conversations that we had, me and Mom. The last one, in the grocery store when I was checking out the cashier. ‘He’s not a good catch sweetheart. Jake is a good catch, that human is a waste of potential.’ I remember answering, ‘yes Jake is a good catch but Jake is my brother.’ She’d scowled at me then and got lost in thought. We’d had another conversation about that before too now that I thought about it. When I’d first gotten home from school. She said something about me finding a mate and I told her that nobody ‘did it’ for me and she’d chuckled and said ‘except Jake’. I remember saying ‘har har’ incest is best put your brother to the test. ‘He’s not your brother, I didn’t spit him out.’ She’d told me. I’d argued and said ‘well the world would see that differently.’ She knew. She really did know, all this time, she knew we were mates. She’d picked that fight on purpose. She’d sacrificed herself so I wouldn’t see him as my brother any more. Damn her. Why would she do that? She died for my future. A tear slid down my cheek.
“You’ve put two and two together.” He says quietly. I nod. “Come here.” He’s pulling me into his arms and wrapping me in them. It feels good and wrong all at once. “I know you’re having a hard time with this. She said that you were fighting it. That you were afraid of the world and what they would say when they found out what we were. That’s why you will assist for a year then we will announce our engagement. I have a whole PR department to handle it, they’ll announce it then spin it. It’ll be fine. Meanwhile, we carry out my plan.” Tonight when we get back to the city, I am going to claim you.” I swallow. I remember all those women.
“You said that you’ve known since the moment you saw me.”
“Yes.” He pulls back and looks into my eyes.
“If you’ve known since the first moment why did you screw all those women? I had to listen to that, sometimes more than once and sometimes to different ones in the same day Jake.” My brows furrow. “Are you going to continue that kind of behavior? I don’t think I can be with someone who would cheat.” I try to free myself and he tightens his arms.
“Do you have any idea how hard it was to not mount you the first day? I was a wolf with raging hormones. I wanted you so bad that I was a walking hard on all the time. I couldn’t get you out of my head, or out of my nose. I scented you constantly and you tested my will to the extreme Janie. I’m surprised I’ve been able to wait this long.” I stare at him. “Every girl I took in there, every girl I’ve ever taken was just a warm body, just a replacement for you. You were always in the front of my brain when I fucked them. I can’t get off if I’m not thinking about you and for your information I haven’t been with anyone in a very long time.”
“Bull shit.” I glare at him. “I saw you on the front page of the Times with a slinky woman wrapped around you. She look very satisfied, like she’d just finished in the car.”
“She had.” I roll my eyes. “She hiked her dress up and used her hand. I never touched her. She thought to tempt me like that. It didn’t work. I watched, I’m not a prude but I had nothing to do with her look. She wanted to make me hers and thought that was how to do it. When the evening came to an end, I dropped her at her door and I left her alone. I can’t think about anyone but you anymore. I told your mom a couple of weeks ago that I couldn’t wait that I was going to claim you. She agreed it was time.”
“You talked to Mom?”
“Often. Your mom was cool. She got it. She understood. Dad didn’t like it though. He always thought that you should have a shot at other men. So, to satisfy everyone, I waited. He wants me to give you a choice. So I will. I’ve told you what I want and what I have planned. If you strongly disagree, you should say so now.” His eyes flashed at me. He felt strongly about this, about making me his mate.
“You’ve had years to think about this, I’ve had two minutes.”
“Either you find me completely disgusting and offensive or you don’t Jane. It’s not a difficult decision.” A short laugh barked out of me. “Not really Jane. Me, my wolf and your wolf are in agreement. It’s only you holding this up. I purse my lips and one corner of his mouth lifts. I breathe deeply. Why is this so hard? He’s right, of course he’s right, and when has he not been right? God it’s annoying. All those women screaming his name and he was thinking of me. No women because he
can’t do it without me. Huh. I didn’t see this coming, that’s for sure. I know my body reacts to him but I’ve never known if it’s because my body wants sex or if it’s because it wants him.
“Kiss me.” I demand and he moves closer. I want to see what the wolf inside me does. He takes my hands and pins them over my head moving closer. My nipples go hard and all my lady muscles clench. Nothing from her though. Jake leans over me and his weight covers me. I watch him and finally his lips meet mine.
He kisses me, really kisses me. His tongue moves against my lips and I open them for him. It moves against mine, brushing erotically and sending throbbing blood to my center. That’s when I feel her push. She wants him, wants to submit, and wants to be claimed. That controlling bitch! All this time she never let me feel even Luke-warm toward anyone until right now. No, not true, she’s always made me feel things around him. He’s right. Mr. Fabulous is right. I’m his mate. I don’t want to wait. I want him to claim me right now. One of his legs is between mine and I hook my free leg around his hip. He thrusts against me and groans, my heart jumps. I want this. He breaks the kiss.
“Later. We have to get ready.” His lips touch mine as he talks and I still haven’t opened my eyes. I lift my head and kiss him again. I want more. He rolls away and gets up. I open my eyes and see it tenting his boxers. He’s huge. We’ll never fit. I know my eyes have gone wide when he runs his hand up the length. “All for you Janie, but later.” I swallow the new lump in my throat. “Go shower and get ready. The funeral is soon and you still need to eat.” Shit he’s right. We’ve been talking a long time and now I have to go bury her. The woman who sacrificed her life so I could let myself be happy.