Mating Games

by Nikki Jefford

  Emerson lifted her chest and tossed her hair back. “Gina told me.”

  “What were you doing talking to that hothead?”

  Emerson snarled, startling Jordan.

  “What the hell, Emmy?” Had half the hollow gone mad? Emerson was supposed to be on Jordan’s side, not Gina’s.

  Emerson’s teeth were clenched together so tightly that it looked like it took effort to pry them apart. “I like her, okay? And when I say like I mean I want to win her over as my mate and spend the rest of my life making her happy.”

  Jordan’s eyes expanded in their sockets.

  Emerson’s chest expanded. “Just want to make myself clear.”

  “Yeah, you made yourself pretty damn clear. Wow, Emmy. I never realized.” Jordan squinted at her. “Have you always preferred females?”

  Emerson gave a shrug. “I never had a preference… until now.”

  “Okay, but mates? With Gina?” Jordan tried not to wrinkle her nose. It had nothing to do with her sister loving another female—she’d always support her—but weren’t there any other eligible she-wolves in the hollow? Lacy, perhaps? She was sweet, and none of her friends had tried to drown Jordan.

  “Yeah, mates,” Emerson said, voice roughening. “I don’t want anyone else, and I especially don’t want anyone taking my female.”

  Jordan choked back a laugh. “I suppose the heart wants what it wants. At least you’ll be a better influence on her than her friends.”

  “I wouldn’t change a thing about her.”

  This time, Jordan did laugh. “And you said I had it bad. I’ve never seen you like this before, Emmy. Do you think Dad and Jager would ever allow a claim between two females?”

  Emerson grinned. “Why do you think I wanted on council so badly?”

  Jordan thought it had been to get closer to Raider. Boy, had she been wrong. “I guess you had us all fooled.”

  She smirked. “Too bad Gina doesn’t like games. I’m so good at them. But that’s all in the past. I know I’m going to enjoy falling in love so much more.” Emerson sighed dreamily then blinked several times. “But enough about me and my scandalous love affair. What’s happening with Hudson?”

  Jordan groaned. “He’s just miffed I’m sleeping with Raider. He doesn’t really want me for a mate. He hasn’t even gotten over Rebecca.”

  “Maybe he has.” Emerson raised her brows.

  “It doesn’t matter. He’s a friend. That’s all. Am I supposed to claim him just to be nice? The whole thing makes me feel horrible.”

  Emerson pushed her fingers into her chin, concentrating on the path before them. “Do you love Raider?”

  Jordan’s mouth tightened as though it were a secret Emerson would have to pry from her lips, but her sister didn’t press, and the silence stretched on until Jordan finally nodded.

  Yes, she loved Raider. The big brute had captured her body, heart, and soul. She didn’t want him with anyone else—she knew how Emmy felt on that front—and, most telling of all, she didn’t want to be without him.

  “I know it couldn’t have been easy for you to hurt Hudson’s feelings, but you were being honest. That doesn’t make you horrible. But if you love Raider and don’t tell him, that’s much worse than brutal honesty. That’s being a coward.”

  Jordan flinched.

  Emerson nodded, understanding that while some bitchiness could be overlooked, cowardice was a disgrace to any self-respecting shifter.

  “How do I tell him?” Just thinking about it made Jordan’s heart bottom out.

  “Now listen carefully,” Emerson said, inching closer to Jordan. “You walk up to him and you say, ‘Raider, I need you. I want you. I love you.’” She erupted into laughter at the same time Jordan scowled.

  “Thanks, Em. Real helpful.”

  “Hey, it worked for me.” Emerson flipped her hair back. “Be grateful you discovered your true love from the small selection here in Wolf Hollow. Does it feel like one of Mom’s romance novels? Is he your sun and moon? Do you pine for him day and night? Does he make you weak in the knees?” Emerson batted her lashes.

  Jordan smacked her playfully on the shoulder and smiled wickedly. “He makes me orgasm like a fucking volcano.”

  Emerson’s hands flew to her mouth. She stopped in her tracks and whipped around, lowering her fingers slowly to reveal a smile curved with delight. “Naughty, naughty. I love it,” she said. “You’ll have to tell me more later.”

  They passed the den’s garden, teeming with vegetables, squash, tubers, and grains, which towered from tall, dry stalks. A herd of deer could have had a field day in the garden, but nothing could tempt them this far into the hollow and directly into the horde of hungry wolves who would rip out their jugulars before they managed to nibble on one lettuce leaf. The seeds to start the original garden had been found on a scavenging mission a group of elders had made into abandoned farm houses. Luckily, there was no longer a need to hunt down seeds. They were now able to save their own from the strongest-producing crops at the end of each season and store them in old glass jars in a cool, dark space beneath the floorboards of the medical shed.

  A rustle from behind the squash leaves drew Jordan’s attention to the garden. Peering through the jungle of red tomatoes, yellow squash, green runner beans, and rainbow chard, she saw that Kallie was seated on the ground, digging up potatoes. She’d gone very still, her lips forming a tight line that cut across her face like the sharp rim of a shovel. She glared through the foliage at Jordan, making any greeting dissolve inside Jordan’s throat.

  “Oh, hello there, Kallie,” Emerson called out cheerfully. “Looks like a hearty crop of potatoes.”

  If Kallie answered, it was inaudible. But if Jordan thought Kallie’s reaction was cold, it was a welcoming sunrise filled with birdsong compared to what awaited her in the den.

  Small cooking fires smoked in front of the various huts circling the den’s communal clearing. The area around them was practically deserted—no parents tended to their fires or gathered their children around the small rock pits to eat breakfast. Jordan caught glimpses of them inside their huts, sitting cross-legged on the ground and eating silently or talking in hushed voices. The families who lived in tree houses peered down at Jordan and Emerson while spooning porridge into their mouths.

  The tranquility stopped there. Most of the families were hidden and quiet, but the den certainly wasn’t silent.

  All too soon, Jordan caught the sound of sobbing, shrieking, and bawling from three separate sisters. The sobbing and bawling came from within Palmer and Francine’s small cabin. Sydney did the shrieking from outside, pulling at her hair while Palmer wrung his fingers and Francine shouted at Sydney, “Shut up! You’re upsetting the baby.”

  Trish burst out in the next instant and retched beside the fire pit.

  “Great. Just great.” Francine jabbed her hands on her hips. “Now look what you and your sister have done.”

  “France—” Palmer started to say, reaching for the hell-bitch rather than comfort the mate tossing up her guts over the ground.

  Francine slapped his hands away. “Don’t touch me. I’ve already got my hands full raising your baby and taking care of Trish without adding your grown daughters to my worries. Franny can’t sleep or feed with all this racket. Do you want your child to starve?”

  Palmer scrubbed his jaw.

  “Now I’m going to have to clean all this.” Francine flung a finger at Trish and wrinkled her nose.

  A moment of silence wedged itself in. Sydney seized the opportunity and screeched at the top of her lungs.

  With his jaw clenched, Palmer grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “Stop it right now,” he screamed into her face. “Do you want me to bend you over and spank you in front of every shifter in the den? Do you? Even the three-year-olds behave better than you.”

  Jordan
ground her teeth, outraged to witness Palmer shaking one of her grown sisters—even if she was misbehaving.

  Sydney’s screams were cut short, along with Camilla’s crying from inside the hut. Sydney gulped and hiccupped, staring at the ground miserably.

  Palmer’s shoulders straightened. “That’s more like it. Next one of you girls who makes a peep will feel the sting of my hand against your bottom.” He let go of Sydney and studied her face with a hardened expression that dared her to test him one more time.

  Sydney didn’t make a sound.

  Francine fanned her face with her hand and made a disturbing little noise in the back of her throat that came out like a throaty gasp that turned into a moan. The sound caught Palmer’s attention. His eyes turned hooded as he locked in on Francine. Not taking his eyes off his first mate, he began barking orders at everyone else.

  “Trish, go clean yourself off at the river. Sydney, go with her. Camilla, get out here and find somewhere away from the clearing to talk to Jordan. Emerson, take the baby.” He stepped into his cabin and returned holding Franny out with both hands for Emerson to take. The baby’s eyes pinched tight as she cried.

  “There, there, baby sis,” Emerson cooed, gathering the infant against her chest.

  “I need some alone time with my mate, so all of you clear out and don’t come back until this door reopens.” Palmer took Francine’s hand and pulled her inside the cabin before smacking the door shut behind them.

  “I think I’m going to be sick,” Jordan said.

  “Just be sure to clean it up,” Emerson returned with a sardonic smile. She was the first to walk away in sweeping steps across the clearing. She found a spot beneath a tree and plopped down with Franny, bouncing the baby on her knees. Giving in to Emerson’s smiles and encouraging tone, Franny stopped crying and giggled. Jordan had never paid much attention to Franny before, but seeing her face light up and squeal in delight as Emmy bounced her higher tugged at Jordan’s heart in a way that was foreign but pleasant.

  Camilla sniffled. Her face was red, but thankfully she no longer cried. Now, she glared at Jordan with open hostility.

  “How could you take Raider from me?” she demanded.

  Jordan straightened her spine. “He was never with you to begin with.”

  Camilla’s jaw clenched. Something worse than anger filled her eyes—betrayal. It burned into Jordan’s retinas with blistering scorn. “But you knew I wanted to be with him. I thought you were different, but you’re just as bad as Emmy and Sydney.”

  Jordan’s eyes narrowed. It was difficult to feel bad when Raider had never shown the slightest interest in her younger sisters. If anything, he’d looked more like a man fleeing from an incessant mosquito every time Camilla flew at him.

  “Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about you at all. It just happened. We’re attracted to one another. If you have to blame someone, blame nature.” Jordan wasn’t trying to be cruel. Camilla just needed to get her head out from between her legs and accept the fact that Raider would never choose her—even if she’d been an only child or the only female in all of Wolf Hollow.

  Camilla scowled. “You’re attracted to a lot of shifters. Hudson and Chase, and before them, Alec, and before Alec, Heath. You could have stayed with any one of them, but that’s not what you do. You just had to go and sleep with Raider, too. He’s just a quick hump to you, but I love him.”

  “You don’t love him.” Jordan snarled, enraged that her sister could say the words out loud that she could not.

  Camilla lifted her chest. “I do love him. He’s the only shifter I’ve ever loved. I love him. I love Raider.”

  “Shut up!” Jordan’s fingers curled into her palms.

  “I love him!” Camilla screamed back. “I’m going to have his babies and grow old with him, so stop fucking my future mate.”

  Thick black smoke billowed over Jordan’s head. Her nails turned into claws that slashed through her tender skin and drew blood from her palms. A growl ripped up her throat. “He’s mine,” Jordan snarled.

  Camilla’s eyes widened. She blinked once then went back to glaring. “You’re not a one-shifter kind of woman, Jordan. Everyone knows it. Even you know it. So, fine. Be a royal bitch and fuck my man while you can, but don’t expect to be welcomed to our fireside after we claim one another.” She turned on her heels and stormed out of the den, practically running for the woods and the glade beyond them.

  Jordan gritted her teeth and glared after her. She better run. Jordan’s wolf was struggling to get out and bite the bitch for threatening to take Raider from her.

  Speaking of Raider, she should join him. There was no reason to stand around the den being stared at or waiting around for Palmer and Francine to finish up. Jordan’s nose wrinkled. Her family had made enough of a spectacle for one morning, and she was ready to return to the tranquility of patrol duty.

  As Jordan neared her big sister on the other side of the clearing, Emmy smiled brightly. “That went well.”

  Jordan rolled her eyes.

  Emerson lifted Franny as high as her arms could stretch. “Want to hold little Fran?”

  “Not now,” Jordan grumbled.

  Emerson lowered the baby and kissed her on the nose. “Don’t take it personally, baby sis. Jordan hasn’t gotten much sleep lately or had any breakfast yet. I’m sure you can sympathize.”

  Jordan rolled her eyes. “It must be nice having a sister who can’t talk back to you. Enjoy it while it lasts.”

  Emerson laughed, and Jordan smiled, nearly joining her.

  “Hey, careful what you eat,” Emerson said darkly. “Camilla got a head start to the glade.”

  Jordan frowned. “You don’t still doubt her, do you?”

  Emerson cradled Franny against her chest and rocked her gently. “I haven’t come up with any other suspects yet—and I’ve done a lot of digging.”

  Jordan raised a brow. “I don’t know about Camilla, but is there any chance you can get your girlfriend to admit her friend tried to drown me?”

  Emerson lifted a hand and swatted the question away as though it were a spiderweb that had floated in front of her face. “She wasn’t there, and Taryn hasn’t confessed anything. Now that you and Raider are together, I’d worry more about Camilla.”

  “She’s all bark,” Jordan said, not concerned in the least.

  “Sure about that?”

  “She thinks my interest in Raider is purely sexual.”

  Emerson snorted. “Guess she’s in for a rude awakening.”

  Jordan sighed and made her way past the den’s garden. Luckily, Kallie had left. Jordan could do without another set of scowling eyes. She was halfway to the glade when she heard heavy breathing behind her. She whipped around with enough speed to take her pursuer—Sydney—off guard. Her little sister gave a soft squeal and jumped in place.

  “What is it, Sydney?” Jordan demanded. She was in no mood to listen to Sydney mimic Camilla’s performance and accuse her of stealing the love of her life.

  Sydney’s entire body shook. Her eyes darted every which way, searching the woods around them as she pulled at her fingers.

  Jordan folded her arms over her chest and tapped her foot over the trail.

  Sydney’s eyes found hers and burrowed in. “I know where they took David!” The words burst out of her mouth like they’d been held underwater and she’d been fighting to get them up to the surface.

  This wasn’t what Jordan had been expecting at all. She lowered her arms limply at her sides. “What do you mean?”

  Sydney looked around again before settling on Jordan’s eyes. Tears glistened over Sydney’s deep brown irises. “I should have said something before, but I didn’t want to get in trouble.”

  She stopped talking, waiting for something. Encouragement? A gentle prod. If so, she should have spoken to Emmy. Jordan had never been good at h
iding her irritation. She sighed instead. “What did you do, Sydney?”

  Her sister’s lower lip quivered. She bit down on it then released it to answer. “David wanted to see the city—just a quick look. Neither of us had seen it before.”

  “Because you’re both too young,” Jordan interjected.

  Sydney’s eyes narrowed. She glowered at Jordan several seconds before continuing. “I told him it was too dangerous—that we weren’t allowed—but he told me to stop being a little baby. He called me a scaredy-cat and said that if I wouldn’t go with him, then he’d go by himself.”

  An exasperated groan rose up Jordan’s throat. He’d probably wanted to impress Hudson and Chase with the tale. “Foolish boy.” Her teeth snapped together, and she shook her head.

  “He said this was our best chance to see the city, since it was the first time we’d been assigned to patrol near the hollow’s southern border. He said we wouldn’t actually go into the city, we’d just go up the mountain and take a look. We’d be far out of range. He said there was nothing to worry about.”

  Jordan refolded her arms. “Let me guess. Once you got up the mountain, he said that as long as you were there, you might as well go all the way to the city.”

  She thought David would have had more sense than that. He seemed sweet and slightly timid—not the type to cause trouble. Jordan was sorry he’d been taken and angry at the same time. He could have gotten her sister hurt, captured, or killed. At least Sydney had better sense than David. She must have turned around at some point despite David’s taunts.

  “We didn’t go into the city,” Sydney said, her nostrils flaring. She glowered at Jordan as though incensed by some sort of false accusation. “We went up the mountain.” Her voice lifted as though it were soaring up from the past to crest that peak. “Partners are supposed to stick together.”

  Goose bumps prickled over Jordan’s arms. “Syd, what happened?”

  “We got to the top of the mountain, and we saw the city with all its rooftops and long streets and motionless cars. It was interesting to finally see it, but I told David we needed to go back.”