Jessica's Wolves (18 page)

Charles chuckled inside their heads.
“Nothing they haven’t all done too, Jess.”

“Still…”

“You hungry?” Charles asked.

Jessica glanced up. “How could I be hungry? We slept until about ten, and since then you’ve fed me twice. I’m good.”

“We’re just talking to my dad about Alyssa and the pack you came from.”

“I wish I could remember more. I was so young. At nine my parents hadn’t told me very much about what was going on. I never really realized why we left … until now. I’m piecing it together myself still.”

“I know, babe.” Charles squeezed her tighter. “We need you two to stay here, close to the house until we figure out what that pack is planning.”

“I have to go back to work January third.”

Reese inhaled on her other side. Charles could hear him suck in his breath and hold it.

Jess glanced from Charles to Reese and back. “What? No way.” She backed up, shaking herself from Charles’ grasp. “I’m not Kara or Lindsey. You can’t keep me out here on the farm under your watchful eye twenty-four-seven. I won’t. I have a job. And I intend to return after the holidays.” She backed up, her fists squeezing at her sides.

“Hon…” Reese reached for her, just out of his grasp.

“Don’t look at me like that. All apologetic but still insisting I bend to your bidding. We talked about this.” She glanced at Richard and then continued in private.
“Command my body all you want in the bedroom. Not out here. Not in my work life.”

“Jess…” Charles started to speak but decided now wasn’t the time. “Can we discuss this later?” He hated that look on her face. Firm. Her eyes wide. Pissed off at what she perceived was a broken agreement. Sure, he understood, but there was no way in hell he would let anything happen to her. And if that meant keeping her tied to his bed to avoid danger, then…

Reese cleared his throat. “Later,” he commanded. Then he softened. “Let’s see what we can find out in the next week. We may be creating all this worry for no reason.”

Jess looked away.
“Fuck you.”

Reese chuckled, but he stood and went to her. “Come sit down.” He gently ushered her back to the table and pulled out a chair. “Please.”

Charles was glad Reese had thought to add that one little word that made all the difference between a request and a command. Man, this woman was going to kill them with her need to be treated as their equal. It wasn’t really his style.

Not that he was highhanded or demanding. He considered himself a respectful, gentlemanly-type guy, but it boiled his blood to think about his woman in harm’s way.

“Can you think of anything else that might help?” Richard brought them back to the subject.

“No.” She shook her head, her brow furrowed in frustration.

“I’m going to send a few people to Oklahoma to check the situation out. Let’s see what they find and go from there. I agree with your mates here on this one, though, Jessica. I think you should stay close by. At least for now. If they show up here and find you too, Lord knows what those crazy wolves might attempt.”

Jessica nodded. “I’ll talk to Alyssa. See if she can shed any more light. Spend some time with her. She’s my cousin, after all. I haven’t seen a family member since I was nine.” A tear trickled from one eye, and she reached to wipe it.

Part of Charles’ heart ripped when she did. His chest grew tight. She was his mate, his life, and it pained him to know the secrets she’d kept for all these years.

* * * *

“Do you think about running free with the Masters, Jess?” Alyssa’s tiny voice rang in the morning air.

Jessica leaned against the fence, staring out across the pasture. She didn’t glance at the girl she’d grown so fond of in the past few days. She didn’t have to. “I’m not ready.”

“Is it that simple?” Alyssa really wanted to know. She wasn’t asking to prod Jessica like everyone else did. She simply spoke out of curiosity. So pure.

“No.” Jessica sighed and turned her gaze to Alyssa. “It’s not. You’re very insightful. Now that I’ve mated with Charles and Reese, my body wants to shift so bad I can barely control the need. And when they go for a run, my skin crawls, itching to join them.”

Alyssa bit her lip in the same way Jessica imagined she herself was habitually doing. “Why don’t you?”

“Fear.”

“But you’re safe now.” She tipped her head. “Your mates would never let anyone harm you.”

“Neither would my parents.”

The statement hung in the air. Neither spoke again for several minutes.

“Do you think they’ll find me?”

“I don’t know, but if they do, you’ll be safe here.” Jessica spoke the words for Alyssa’s sake, though she barely believed them herself.
What if they do find Alyssa? What would that mean for me?
Would they recognize her? Kidnap her too? Jess shivered, and not from the cool crisp air.

“You girls okay?”
The question came from Charles and made Jessica flinch since he was so far away. He’d gone into town that morning, refusing to take anyone with him but Reese. It was the first time they’d both left the Masters’ home at the same time, entrusting Jess to the care of the multitude of people milling around. And everyone took their job seriously. Alyssa and Jessica hadn’t spent a single moment without one brother or another wandering past them as if they had some urgent task that needed immediate attention in their vicinity.

If Jessica hadn’t been so on edge, she’d have found the scene rather comical.

“For the millionth time, we are fine.”
Too bad her mates couldn’t see her eyes rolling from town.

“My love,”
Reese added in the sappiest tone imaginable for telepathic communication,
“we don’t have to be near you to sense an eye roll.”

Jessica sighed. Figured. But, seriously, it was the first time she’d been separated from them, and she found she missed them being close. Though she was loathe to admit it. Their heads were so large as it was it was a wonder they didn’t topple over from the added weight.

She wasn’t ovulating anymore, and she’d manage to escape getting pregnant in the last few days also. Without the added stress and worry of conception, she was free to enjoy herself. And she wanted them all the time. Now being no exception.
“Just get back soon, okay?”
She didn’t want to give them the impression she couldn’t be away from them, but in truth, she could barely tolerate the separation and hoped they were suffering too.

Kara and Lindsey had coached her. It was ironic since Jessica was the actual wolf of the three. But her best friends knew far more than she did about the days and weeks immediately following a mating. They’d just been through it and were extremely sympathetic to her plight. They didn’t hesitate to chuckle at her predicament, but they knew the intense cravings she was experiencing all too well.

“Jess?” Alyssa set a hand on Jessica’s coat sleeve.

Jess looked over to find a confused expression.

“You were a million miles away. You okay?”

“Uh, yes. Charles and Reese were checking on us. I don’t quite have the knack for communicating in my head while still pretending to be in the moment.”

Alyssa laughed. “That’s so cool. I can’t wait to experience it.”

“Oh, hon, you’re so young. Believe me. Give it a few years. Enjoy yourself now because, after you’re claimed, you’ll feel a bit like you’re having the life squished out of you.”

The girl gasped. “That bad? You look so happy.”

“Don’t get me wrong. I’ve never been happier, but it’s life altering … and permanent. I’ll never be the carefree woman I was last week again.”

“That makes sense.” She giggled again. “Don’t think we have to worry about that. Mating is the furthest thing from my mind right now, and it seems the Masters are going to be so kind as to let me be a pseudo-member of their family. As long as I stay here at the farm, I’ll be safe from meeting a mate.”

Alyssa seemed so sure of herself. She had it all worked out. Too bad fate had a way of changing course on a person sometimes. Who knew though? Maybe she could escape that fate for at least a little while if she stayed here on the farm and took some correspondence classes online. For her sake, Jessica hoped so.

Alyssa was so young and innocent. She couldn’t even imagine her being married off against her will to an older man with several wives. It made Jessica cringe when she allowed herself to consider she’d have been in those exact same shoes if her parents hadn’t fled with her all those years ago. Perhaps she wouldn’t have fared as well as Alyssa.

It was a shame they’d had to die to save their daughter, but she had a new appreciation for the sacrifice they’d made and the resulting woman she’d become.

“Wanna go back inside? It’s cold out here.” Alyssa nodded toward the house. “And we’re making the entire family and their employees freakishly nervous by hanging around outside.” Alyssa giggled again and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Although, I secretly enjoy watching dozens of people flock around us on pins and needles. I’ve never felt so … loved.”

That last word stabbed Jess in the chest. How did a girl live eighteen years without feeling loved? That was a crime. Didn’t her parents love her? Even though they were misguided, Jessica hoped the couple had nurtured and cared for their daughter for the last eighteen years. The opposite was unimaginable. At least Jess had ten fantastic years with her own parents before they’d been murdered.

“Yeah, let’s go in the house and put them out of their misery.” Jess wrapped her arm around Alyssa’s and headed for the front door.

Chapter 15

“Good morning, baby. Merry Christmas.” Charles nibbled on her ear, shocking her with his words.

“Shit.” Jess wiggled in between her men, hoping to enjoy a few more minutes before they had to get up. “I completely forgot.” It was Christmas day. She’d been so busy worrying about mating and her cousin she’d not realized the date.

Reese chuckled and wrapped an arm around her middle. “Figured.”

“I didn’t get anybody anything.”

“How could you? We’ve monopolized every second of your life since last week.” Charles kissed a path now from her ear to her lips and then claimed a long, delicious kiss.

“Stop that.”

“Stop what?” His innocent tone was so fake she had to laugh.

“You know damn well what I’m talking about.” She pushed at his rock-hard abs to encourage him to back off before they ended up staying in bed for half the morning … again.

“I’ve told you before, love,” Reese interjected, “nobody expects to see much of us for a few weeks. It’s natural.”

“It’s embarrassing is what it is. Every time we leave this room I feel like everyone is smirking at me.” Jess wiggled against both men, but that only made things worse. Two cocks pushed against her, one between her rear cheeks and one across her stomach.

“They aren’t smirking exactly. More like … remembering,” Charles said.

“Semantics. It doesn’t change the outcome. What time is it?” Jessica peeked out from her location burrowed under the covers. It was still early. The light was dim.

“Seven.” Reese tugged on her again, pulling her ass into his cock. “Plenty of time.”

She couldn’t resist that man. Every time he splayed his hand over her belly she got butterflies that flew around not just in her stomach but also all through her insides. The act was so possessive for some reason. His arm wrapped around her, pulling her against him and covering so much of her skin with just his palm.

Jessica moaned.
Shit
. She was done for … again.

“That’s it, baby. Let it happen. We need you.” Charles pushed the covers down over her torso and leaned in to take a nipple into his mouth.

“You
always
need me,” she muttered, her eyes rolling back into her head. They made her synapses fire all wrong. She couldn’t think when they attacked her from both sides like this.

“True.” Reese held steady, his fingers swirling around her belly button, his grip around her driving her arousal to a rapid peak.

She’d never slept naked before last week, and since then, she’d never slept with a single stitch of clothing. These mates of hers hated clothes apparently and flat-out forbid it. It wasn’t really a dominance thing. More that they whined about it so much she gave in.

Charles lifted his head to face her, his fingers taking over where his mouth left off, twisting and pinching her hardened nipples as he spoke. “Are you still worried about sleeping naked?” His mouth curved up on one side.

“It’s foreign to me, jerk,” she teased.

“Jess…” Reese groaned from behind her, drawing out her name as though she were a recalcitrant child. When she twisted her neck to see his face, he continued. “Get over it. No way are we going to let you curl between us in some body-covering flannels.”

She giggled. “Nobody said anything about flannel pjs. I’m just talking about a T-shirt and some panties.”

“No.” Charles didn’t elaborate. He simply dipped his head and sucked her breast into his mouth until she moaned and forgot what they’d been discussing.

When Charles finally pulled back with a
pop
, she regained at least a portion of her senses and pushed against his chest again. “We have to get up. It’s Christmas. The family is probably gathering and waiting on us to help with breakfast.”

“Reese?” Charles reached behind him to grab something she couldn’t see. “Please do something about this woman’s hands, would ya? They’re in my way.”

“Sure.” Reese grabbed whatever Charles flung his way, tugged Jess’ arms away from Charles’ fine, chiseled chest, and climbed up her body to pull her hands over her head.

Jessica squirmed. She bit her lip. Why the hell did their dominance have to have such an effect on her that she wanted them even more instead of less?

She closed her eyes and tried to recover the location of at least one brain cell.

Reese delicately wrapped her wrists with a length of something soft and secured her arms above her head. And her damn pussy flooded.

When he wiggled back down behind her to splay his hand across her belly once again, she didn’t protest. It was too late now. They owned her body.