A Love Worth Biting For (8 page)

I was grateful for the pillar behind me, as my brain went to goo when he started to stroke, again. He wasn’t even aware he had begun to give the power back over to me. He wasn’t the one running the show anymore. But I would let him think whatever the hell he wanted as long as he let me touch him. He adjusted his stance and hooked a finger under his balls. The strokes intensified. Fluid leaked from his shaft only to be stolen by his hands.

“Rub your clit for me.”

I obeyed. Not because he was my mate, but because I wanted his hand to keep moving. I wanted him to go harder. The more I thought about it, the more my pussy contracted in anticipation.

I was in a haze of hot, when a voice about twenty feet away poured a bucket of ice water on my libido. “Don’t make me kill you before we’re introduced.”

Jake rushed to stand in front of me, blocking me from view of the voice. Even though I wasn’t about to continue cavorting with my mate, I had gotten used to nudity once I was changed. This man’s presence while I was recovering from a shift was nothing new.

“Hi Daddy.”

“You’re mated.” He sent a whole lot of emotional baggage my way with those two words.

My mom had been killed during our turning. Daddy didn’t ever think there would be another for him. He had a Pack to lead now. I was the last bit of his human life that remained.

To say I was conflicted about leaving the nest was an understatement. Daddy needed me like no one else had. Because I was older when I was changed, we leaned on each other like friends. Sadness, anger, frustration and fear formed a muddled cloud on his face. His eyebrows twitched. He was trying to keep his emotions in check, but they always leaked out through his eyebrows.

“You know how they always say it happens. I got knocked upside the head by a two-by-four. Daddy, this is Jake Meyers, the lumber. When he’s not growly and possessive, he’s really a pretty good guy. He’s even got a really important job as it turns out. How about that, Daddy? I’m mated to a career man.”

Daddy snorted. Then he twitched. His eyebrows started going again. “Why does he smell like…like…”

“A vampire?”

“Yes.”

Jake had covered his privates. Guess the vampires weren’t as good with nudity as wolves. Or he just didn’t want his erection poking his father-in-law when they shook hands for the first time. Probably didn’t help that Daddy was fully dressed.

“I am going to get a complex with everyone talking about my smell.” Jake turned toward me and his eyes gave me a caress that I would have much rather had from his hands before turning to address Daddy. “I smell like a vampire because it is half of my heritage, sir.”

“You’re a hybrid?”

“Yes.”

“Wait, Meyers? As in the local Meyers Family?”

I watched as both of the men in my life tensed. More crap I didn’t know about, apparently.

“Yes, sir. And I know that as Amber’s father, that would make you Richard Paulson, Alpha of the Paulson Pack.”

Daddy’s eyes found mine. His eyebrows flickered, but it was Jake who got his words. “You know of the treaty. I have a Pack to think about and my leadership in it. I don’t want to put us in the middle of a war, but I am having serious regrets right now about my decision all those years ago.”

“I just shifted for the first time, sir. My control might not be the best, yet. Just a warning. Yes, we are mated. As for the treaty, I am not sure how far into the gray we are dancing.”

Daddy came closer and reached over Jake’s shoulder to brush my hair aside and look at my matemark. “Do you know what you are getting into, Amber? Do you have any idea the mess you are about to encounter?”

“I’m learning more every day. But Daddy, he’s my mate. This,” I touched Jake’s shoulder. “This is it for me.”

Daddy nodded once and walked toward the trees. In a few steps he grabbed a duffle he must have dropped when he saw his daughter about to get busy in the woods. He tossed it, and it landed at Jake’s feet.

“Get dressed, please. Jake, there are clothes that will fit you as well, I assume. Doc handed me the duffle and gave me directions. I have no doubt that he would have packed for everyone here.” The man who raised me then turned and grumbled like a disgruntled teen under his breath. “A guy can’t even get a heads up about his kid getting mated. I need a new Beta.”

“Daddy…”

“I’ll meet you back at the cabin. I deserve a chance to, if nothing else, say good-bye to my daughter.”

“Daddy…” But before we could say more, the man who raised me and stuck by my side as we both fought our way into a new world, shifted where he stood. His clothes ripped from his now furry form, and he took off toward the cabin, without any conversation.

Growing up, Daddy and I were never very talkative. Back in the days that we didn’t howl at the moon, fathers and daughters held little more than polite conversation. One positive thing that comes out of the change is how much you can learn about the people you love. We talked a lot more now.

The changes we went through together were experiences no one but us shared. He was my Alpha now, but my daddy always. I didn’t look forward to telling him I had to leave him. I looked forward to him seeing all the stuff I broke in the cabin even less. Daddy really liked that lamp.

Chapter Ten

The walk back to the cabin was remarkably slow considering we were both badass supernatural beings. It was sad that a hybrid and werewolf were terrified of Daddy. Granted Daddy was a badass Alpha, one of the only turned weres this side of the Mississippi with his own Pack, but still.

“I would prefer not to kill your father.”

And that was not something to say to a still unorgasmed woman when she was about to make a major life decision with no nookie to calm her nerves.

“And I would prefer not to de-ball my mate, so it’s a good thing neither of us is going to do anything we’re talking about, isn’t it?”

Jake and I were only a hundred feet or so from the cabin at that point, so if we raised our voices just a little bit more, Daddy was going to overhear our fight.
Great.

“I am just saying that I will defend myself. Should your father attack me, my control at the moment may not be the most trustworthy. If he tries to take what is mine from me, it will not go over well either. I may not know much about Pack life, but I know darn well that mate comes first. So if we go in there, are you going to give me the place at your side?”

“What do you mean
if
we go in there? We owe my daddy some explanation.”

“So
we
decided what
we’re
doing, huh?”

There was always a flaw in my plan. This was supposed to be our last carefree hurrah. I was supposed to run around all wolfy and then have some happy sexy-time with my mate. He was mine, but still so new to me that I wanted to start uncovering the mystery of my statuesque mate. I could learn a lot about a person when they were naked. Or at least forget about what I didn’t know.

Speaking of stuff I didn’t know, I realized Jake was so new to me that I didn’t even know his middle name.

“What’s your middle name? Or are you too old to have one?”

He ran his hands through his hair and gripped his scalp. He didn’t loosen his hold as he replied. It did awesome things for his abs that were visible through the thin tee Doc had packed for him, but I was just too nervous about what we had to decide to think about jumping his bones.
Much
.

“Eugene. What does my name have to do with
anything
?”

“Just realized if I was about to lose my life I should at least know the middle name of the man…er…wolf…uh…vampire…whatever that I’m losing it for.” I knew he was frustrated. Dammit, so was I. He stood with his hands gripping the back of his neck, now just waiting.

Any other Alpha wolf would have demanded action. A werewolf would have probably ignored me at that moment and just gone inside to deal with the situation himself. The hybrid in front of me stood strong and gave me, maybe not the lead, but at least an equal say. He was waiting to let us walk in together. This is what I wanted. I wanted a mate who could run with me, play with me and let me run through the obstacle courses my brain sometimes took me on.

“I’m in, Jake. All the way. We go to your Family tomorrow. Either you carry my dead body out, or I walk out as a hybrid the likes of which nobody has ever seen before.”

He moved toward me with that supernatural speed that had my heart beating in time with his steps. I was in his arms, and his mouth descended on mine. His tongue broke the barrier of my lips, and I opened on a sigh to his assault. My heart was still racing as we broke apart.

I would like to say that I calmed as we took those final steps up to the cabin, but I think all that heavy emotional work was taking its toll. I had the happiness of my mate and the excitement of his new wolf, right alongside the horrible realization that I was making the final walk to tell my daddy that I was leaving him.

The tears on my cheeks escaped my notice until Jake brushed them away with a slide of his thumb. He tilted my face up to meet his as we hit the front porch. “I am yours as much as you are mine. We belong. But that’s not why we will make this work. We will make this work because I am a stubborn son of a bitch and you are the first female I have met in the entirety of my life who has brought me to my knees with want. I would beg for you. And I beg for no one. But if you were to leave me, I would fight whoever stood in my way or die on the journey just to be able to have another chance.”

Before the last syllable of that fantastic speech made it past his lips mine were over his. Maybe it was all the life or death talk, or maybe it was the fact that I was facing a transformation that neither of us knew was survivable. However you want to look at it, I took strength from him.

We entered the doors to find my daddy sitting in one of the dining-room chairs, much like I had seen Jake the other day. His head was down and his hands were draped between his knees. The tears in his eyes, even through they didn’t escape, said the goodbye before his words could even leave his mouth.

“I would have killed him to have you back, but no matter my actions, I’ve already lost you.”

Talk about shredding my internal organs with just a few words. I was mush inside.

“You could have tried.”

“Jake!”

My daddy just chuckled.
Men
—I swear.

“He’s all Alpha, Amber. Even if he were all wolf, or his position were different, you would still be leaving. He could never serve under another Alpha. All I hope is that I get a chance to see you again.”

“Of course you’ll see me, Daddy! Jake wouldn’t dream of keeping me from you. And even if he did, I would just beat that crazy notion from his head and come anyway. I don’t think we can live on Pack land, but it doesn’t mean we can’t visit.”

Daddy looked at Jake with a sharpness I wasn’t expecting. He wiped his eyes and stood to his full height. Daddy had put on a few pounds since his change. He’d always had the look of a mid-western lumberjack, but since his change, he looked like he had walked through some steroid sludge on his way through the transformation. Big and Tall shops had a hard time fitting him.

He was eye to eye with Jake. “Why haven’t you informed her of the Treaty?”

Jake turned his head and popped his neck. The sound bounced off the tension starting to build in the room. “With all due respect, I could ask the same of you. Sir.”

I was getting sick of the code everyone around me was speaking in, but maybe I could butt these two against each other and finally get some answers. “Would anyone like to inform me? Because, really, all this macho chest-pounding fun still didn’t tell me what I apparently needed to know.”

“You should sit.” Now Daddy was going to start treating me like a kid, too.

“I find it’s harder to beat people up from a sitting position should they deserve it. I am reserving judgment and punches until I get the information that
nobody
seems willing to share.”

Then I saw something I thought I’d never see. Daddy sat back to let another man do the talking. He was either showing respect for my mate, or hoping Jake hung himself with the rope he was given.

“I knew of your story before I ever met you. I knew because my entire Family knew you. We were warned of you.”

“Why? What’s so special about me? I’m not the strongest supernatural creature around. Hell, I can’t even hold my alcohol.”

Jake looked at me like I had grown a third head. There is something quite unsettling about a hybrid looking at you like you’re the one that’s weird.

“Okay, that’s something new to add to the miasma, but not what I meant. You
are
the treaty, Amber. Your protection is the reason we are all on such edge around you. Your safety was a key factor in ours. Your father insisted.”

I turned to Daddy. I thought there was nothing I didn’t know about this man and all of a sudden he had treaties with vampires?

“Amber, a long time ago, I found the wolf—the woman—who changed us and killed your mother and sister.”

“And you didn’t let me kill her?” Somehow I always thought it was a male. Apparently females can be murderous bastards too.

Jake took my arm and pulled my attention. “You need to listen right now.”

“I am listening to my father tell me that he let the woman who murdered my momma and sister go!”

Daddy laid it on me. This was the reason everyone was dancing around it.

“I did not let her go. I couldn’t. She took not only my humanity, but my family away. No one could guarantee that she wouldn’t do it again. Past behavior predicts future endeavors.” Always a saying of Daddy’s. I have a feeling it was once said by someone famous, but I didn’t pay attention in those classes.

“She’s dead? And what do you mean no one could vouch for her? Was she Pack? I thought only Packless weres acted like that.”

“My father tried to vouch for her.” Jake’s voice was not the one I was expecting to hear.

“What does your father have to do with the woman who killed my momma?” I didn’t want to listen to the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. The one that always let me know something bad was coming. Or perhaps it was that my subconscious or my wolf was putting things together faster than my frontal lobe. Whatever that feeling was, I found myself struggling to keep it quiet. Instinct was telling me that I did
not
want to know this.