“Well, there it is,” Aurora raised her voice. “Let’s talk about it. Enough with this awkward delay. We have to talk about what has happened.”
Rainer flipped an egg. “Eggs are still cooking, Mom. No misery until after they’re done.”
She huffed, and I imagined I could see steam coming right out of her ears. Jarret met my gaze and mouthed the words thank you to me. I gave him the slightest nod. I didn’t like how she’d talked about him, and I might not have known all the details, but I was always going to have his back when it came to, well… anything.
Finally, the eggs were done, and Rainer passed them out. I really couldn’t fathom eating again so soon, but I managed to chew and swallow just the same. It tasted wonderful. Aurora eventually set down her fork.
“Now, I am going to speak my mind.”
I didn’t suppose Rainer could put her off any further. The woman had something to say, and she was going to get to it.
She looked between all of us. “You think we don’t understand, but we do. I certainly remember what it was when I met your fathers. They were suddenly all just there. In our case they were strangers, not already family, but it was instant. It felt like the whole world had opened up. But I have to beg you to please do not continue down this road.”
Preston’s scent changed to utter fury. I placed my hand on his. “We aren’t giving up Mac because it screws up some plan you had.”
She held up her hand. “I don’t blame you nor would I ask you to do that. Would I have preferred that all of you, including Mac, as you call her, met humans? Yes.”
Rainer shook his head. “I don’t call her Mac. Only Pres does that. Please don’t call her that. She has a full name. Let’s use it. MacKenzie.”
“Her friends call her Kenzie,” Jarret supplied. “But I guess you’re not going to be that.”
She ignored their quips and continued. “Stop shifting. Live like we do. You can all be together. Pick one to make it official and just get on with it. Don’t separate.”
“That’s not going to happen.” Rainer practically growled. “We’re not going back to living like that. We have our mate. She is an Omega. We are going to live like shifters. We will keep her safe. End of story. I don’t care if you like it or not.”
“It’s not a question as to whether I like it,” Aurora officially shouted now. “You signed an Accord. After you went crazy and hurt people. You agreed.”
I had to interrupt. “You don’t understand. He can’t have ever been a Loup. That’s a lie. Once they turn, they never turn back without help. He’s a werewolf. A normal, healthy, happy werewolf.”
Rainer winked at me. “Well, happy now. Wasn’t so happy last week but now? Yes.”
Aurora sighed loudly. This was not going well. I still wished I had my shoes on.
Chapter 11
“You agreed not to shift. One or two slip-ups the Council will forgive. This? They’re going to punish you,” Aurora pleaded with Rainer.
“They’ve already punished him. Weren’t you listening, Mom?” Preston shook his head. “He was never a Loup. He went to jail for something he didn’t do.”
Brian answered. “That is… I mean, how can that be?”
“It just is. They destroyed our family because we wouldn’t comply. I’m not playing anymore. Our not shifting is not an option.”
Rainer nodded. “I’ll go deal with the Council if they find out. Otherwise, I say what they don’t know can’t hurt them.”
Kevin laughed. “Do you think you can hide an Omega? From what you told Gus, they’re coming for her with no advertising her at all. I assure you that Loups turning back into wolves is going to get their attention. They will come for you, son. They will be angry you didn’t come to them.”
Rainer winced. I think we could all smell the truth in his words. My oldest mate spoke through gritted teeth. “I’ll go.”
“You can’t go without me,” I added. “I’ll have to go present myself, too. But not until my family is found. I’m not dealing with any bureaucracy until then.”
Gus smiled, a wolfish grin. “I like you so much.”
Aurora must have had enough. Her scent changed all of a sudden to such sadness my Omega powers pulsed. My hands burned.
“You have to stop shifting.” She covered her ears with her hands as though she couldn’t tolerate the sound of her own voice. “You don’t know what it is. You had three Hunters. We had… more than we could count. And they came, and they took my baby, and they broke him.” She shouted now. “You can all judge and talk about half lives, but we weren’t the only family. And now they have MacKenzie’s. You don’t know how they’ll come back. They broke my baby.”
I walked toward her, taking her hands off her ears. I wanted her to hear me. “Listen to me. Anton is not broken. It’s important you understand that. There isn’t a thing about him I would change. He’s brilliant, and kind, and… perfect just as he is. Do you want to know how I know he doesn’t need fixing? My powers. They fix what is broken. And never, not once, have they reacted to him. I wouldn’t care if they did. I’d gladly give all I have to all four of them. But he doesn’t need it. Not yet, anyway. Right now, the only person broken here is you. When they came and took Anton, they broke the rest of you but never him.”
I didn’t need to look at Anton to feel his reaction to my words. I could smell his love like a warm bath of lavender. Right then what I needed to do was give this woman a hug. She was stiff in my embrace and annoyance permeated her scent, but still I hung on, sending her all of my healing energy.
She closed her eyes. “Oh, MacKenzie.” Her voice shook. “I’m so sorry about your family.”
I sucked in my own tears. “They’re going to be okay.” Maybe if I kept saying it, I’d believe it.
She nodded. “Gus and Cristian are going out to join everyone else looking. He found you. He finds everyone. And with Cristian, they can’t lose. We’ve been lucky. Except for when they hurt my baby and killed Joe.”
There it was. I could practically feel her wolf pressing against mine. Nothing was going to get better if she didn’t let that wolf out. There would be nothing but pain and the idea that she deserved it because of what happened in the past. I’d only had my four mates for days and I couldn’t imagine losing one.
I let go of her. She was going to have to deal with this herself. I couldn’t fix this for her. The heat in my palms cooled. I blinked. This was the first time I’d had any control over how and what they did, ever.
“You could shift.” I stepped away. “I think this way we’re all living, it isn’t going to fix anything. You need that half of you.”
She sighed. “Not until it’s safe. Maybe you being the Omega is a sign that things will get better.” I didn’t particularly believe in signs, but I left it alone. That wouldn’t help anything at all. “But until I can be sure, I won’t do it. We delayed following what the Council wanted. And look what happened? Anton lost his voice. Rainer went to jail. Preston stays away from all of us, and Jarret is lost.”
Sometimes people needed to have things repeated several times before they heard it. “Or… Anton is stronger than he’d ever have been and makes himself understood just fine. Rainer was framed, and yet he came out whole. Preston created a huge business all on his own. And Jarret is looking for his path, and he’s so smart he has many options, most of which people never get.”
She nodded and headed for the door. “We need to leave. I’m not helping anything here. I’m sorry, boys, once again, your mother is making things worse.”
“Mom.” It was surprisingly Preston who spoke. “You don’t make things worse.”
She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. “Well, you know us Lejeunes. We do things in big ways.”
Rainer took the next kiss. “Hate to tell you this, but we’re not Lejeunes anymore. You know what happens when we mate. It’s the female’s last name. We’re Harpers now.”
I gasped. I hadn’t even thought about that. Thinking I
was going to have a human life had made me think about last names differently. But he was right. In the werewolf world, the males took the last name of their mate.
Kevin whistled through his teeth. “That’s right. They’re not Lejeunes anymore. I left my last name and took yours. We all did. Still plenty of time to try for that girl, honey.”
She groaned and stormed away. We could have babies a lot longer than humans could as we lived about fifty years longer. That was one of the reasons we’d had to avoid humans in the past. I shook my head. I didn’t know a single werewolf who had successfully dated and married a human. It just wasn’t going to work. But if it had been that hard to get through to my mother-in-law, then it was going to be twice as hard to make anyone else listen.
Each of the dads patted the boys on the back and nodded to me, even Gus, who winked at me when he left. It was Kevin who held back.
He stared at Rainer when he spoke. “Two things.” He held up that many fingers. “If I recall correctly, the last time I checked, the furniture we left in the other swamp house is still there. You guys need to put some in here. If you don’t want to drive out and buy some because you’re keeping MacKenzie hidden, then go get some of that. It’s nice to be able to sit down.”
Rainer laughed. “Okay. Good point. Thank you, sir. Something else? Number Two?”
“The last Omega in our pack. Do you remember her name?” He lifted his eyebrows as he spoke.
Rainer scratched his head. “No, actually. She was just the Omega.”
Preston cut in. “Tyra Garretty.”
Rainer nodded. “Thanks. Why?”
“Ms. Tyra had three daughters. We all hoped they’d be Omegas, considering their mother was one. Not that there was ever a biological component about who got to be an Omega and who didn’t. It seemed random. Obviously, they weren’t. But maybe they could help. Maybe they remember what their mother did to protect herself, what her mates did to secure her. How she kept every Loup in existence from coming out to them every night. There were always Loups. Not like now. I could be wrong, but I don’t think they were bothered nightly. If it were me, I’d go find them. Just a suggestion.”
Rainer nodded fast. “That’s a great idea. Thanks. Did they move to New Orleans with everyone else?”
“No. I’m afraid we didn’t know them well. I don’t know where they are. But I think there is this amazing thing called the Internet.”
Preston threw his head back, laughing. “I’ll get on that.”
“You’ll have to come to New Orleans, whether you want to or not, maybe even before she’s secure. So bring her home to us in New Orleans. We can keep her safe while you handle your business. Even if I have to shift to do that. I would never let anything happen to your mate.”
Even if I couldn’t have smelled it, I’d have known that was love. I’d had it my whole life, too. Things weren’t perfect. Everyone suffered. But at the end of the day, we’d always been family.
* * *
I’d no sooner walked away from the door than Anton pushed me up against the wall again. He breathed hard, and I smiled at him before I rubbed my hand down the side of his face. “I meant every word. I just want you to know that. You’re not broken. And screw anyone who thinks so. Even if she’s your mother.”
Rainer walked past us. “I’m going to take Preston and Jarret and go check out that furniture. See you two later.”
My body burned in the places where Rainer and Preston had bitten me. I wanted Jarret’s. And right then I really wanted Anton to bite me with everything that came with it.
He didn’t even wait for the others to leave to kiss me, hard. Anton’s lips were soft, but his face wasn’t shaven. His whiskers burned me, and I loved the contrast. He was going to leave red marks on me. I rubbed my cheek against his. He jerked his hips, and I smiled.
Anton dropped his head, kissing me along my neck, stopping right on my collarbone. Goosebumps broke out on my body. I didn’t know that I had that spot, but apparently, I did. He touched me everywhere I had bare skin, running his finger down the slope of my nose. His eyes met my own, and for a second, I could barely breathe.
He looked around, and I blinked. Was he searching for the tablet?
I turned his chin so he’d look at me. “I don’t need it. I swear, Anton, it’s like I can hear you in my heart. From the first time you held me when I was still groggy and confused. I… I can hear what you want to say. If you want to find it, that’s fine. But I’m… hearing you just fine.”
He put his hand over my heart the way that he tended to do. I smiled at him while he took his own hand and placed it over mine.
I didn’t know why I whispered, we were alone, except that sometimes the things we said were so important they were only for the ears of the two people speaking them. Even the wind shouldn’t hear me. Only him. “I love you, too.”
He kissed down my chest, stopping where my shirt covered me. The wall pressed into my back. He pulled my shirt over my head. Anyone could show up just now. The door could fly open and I’d be naked from the waist up except for my bra. I didn’t even care. Sexy was a real feeling I’d recently discovered. Right then, I was bathed in that sense, as though it was a light inside of me.
Anton bit down on my lower lip before he kissed down my face. He quickly unhooked my bra and threw it aside. I watched him, transfixed. He stopped above my breast, lifting his head to replace his hand with his mouth. He squeezed my nipple, and I jerked, hitting the wall behind me. He lifted an eyebrow, this time dipping his head to do it again. He quickly pulled off and lifted my whole body instead so that I wrapped my legs around his waist. I sucked in a long breath, and his mouth came down on my nipple again. Pleasure zoomed through my body, stealing my thoughts. I had to hold onto Anton so that I didn’t fall, which limited how much I could touch him.
I kissed the top of his head. “Let’s move someplace else.”
He nodded but didn’t put me down, instead, he shifted me slightly into his arms so that we were more face-to-face as he carried me upstairs. I grinned. So he wanted to make love against a wall in the living room but now he wanted upstairs. Whatever, all of it worked for me however it happened.
Anton brought me into his own room. I was immediately struck by the smell of soap from his bathroom. He smelled like the woods back home and some of it had to be coming from that aroma. Not all of it. I breathed him in which he must have liked because he hardened against me before he set me down on the bed.
He came over me, staring into my eyes.
“I want your shirt off.” I tugged on it. “Skin-to-skin. That’s what I want.”
He nodded and took it off. I ran my hands over his muscles. Anton was thin but built, with defined muscles that twitched under my fingers as I stroked my hand over him. He shuddered before he went back to kissing my nipple. I arched against him.
That was hot but I wanted more. I squirmed until I could unzip his pants. We twisted against each other, undressing the rest of the way. His cock was warm, and I ran my hand over him, from his balls to his tip. He winced, but I didn’t see pain on his face as heat consumed his gaze. I did it again, and he tilted his head to the side, giving me a sideways grin.
“Close?” I asked him, and he nodded.
I was plenty turned on, and I had a feeling I would be that way every second of my life when I was around him. We weren’t going to have trouble in that regard.
“I guess the question is, do you want to come here in my hand, which would be hot, or do you want to come inside of me, which would be equally as hot?”
He smiled, pointing at me.
“Inside of me.”
He pressed a finger in my core, which I hadn’t expected. I gasped while he found my clit. He swirled his thumb over it, and I bit down on my lip. “Yes. Right there.”
He continued what he was doing. “That rhythm. Just like that. Yes.”
It didn’t seem like he needed the direction. This was our first time together, but he was reading me
like he understood my body already. I held onto his shoulders. I breathed hard, pleasure coming but not quite there yet.
I shook my head. I loved this, but it wasn’t enough, not nearly. It wasn’t what I wanted. “Inside of me. I’m not going to come otherwise.”
He tilted his head to the side, and I laughed. “I’m not kidding. I need you in me. I need you completely.”
Anton smiled and nodded. He pressed inside of me, and I sighed. Yes, that was what I needed more than anything—this connection. “Stay just like this for a few moments. I just want to remember this forever.”
He met my gaze, both of us remaining still. Anton flexed a muscle in his neck. It wasn’t lost on me. This was hard on him. I rubbed the back of his neck. “Okay. Please, Anton. Make me come.”
He pushed himself deeper, and I wrapped my legs around him, drawing him closer. I shifted my hips so his thrusts pressed against my clit. I was already swollen and ready, and I cried out. He pressed his nose into the spot on my neck that was already his. I held onto his shoulders. We moved together like we danced in a rhythm that was just our own.
The pleasure I’d chased earlier overtook me. I came slowly, on a sigh that was so sweet it brought tears to my eyes. He thrust once, twice, a third time, until he emptied inside of me. My gums burned, and I knew what that meant. I didn’t rush for the bite. It would come any second, and we’d never get a first time together again. He bit down, right in his spot that seemed like it had been his from the second we’d laid eyes on each other.
I cried out again as I found the same spot on him, I tasted his blood, loving the copper as it touched my tongue. The wolf and I both loved this completely unbroken man.
* * *
Anton moved the oars through the swamp with an ease that surprised me. We’d had the idea to meet everyone at the house, but it had been his idea to travel there in the canoe. It had seemed sort of romantic. Now, of course, I couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility that I would have no idea how to handle the canoe if something happened to him.
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