Running In Fear: Coming Home (14 page)

* * * *

Jaycee stretched and patted the space beside her. She wasn't on the plane anymore. Her eyes popped open and she scanned her surroundings. Laughing, she hugged her pillow. She was home, in their new home. Glancing at the clock on the nightstand, she frowned. It was nine the next morning.

Remi, Dane, Mark, are you okay?
She got up and stretched, walking into her new bathroom. Sure enough, the garden-sized tub called to her. She turned the water on. Remi, Dane and Mark slipped into the room and stripped out of their clothes.

“You should have woken me up. I wanted to see your faces when we got here.” She pouted and slipped into the water.

They all laughed at her and stepped around her, Remi getting in behind her. “You were tired and needed the rest. Everyone is settled in, and we have the perimeters all set. No one will step foot on our land without us knowing.” He kissed her neck and lifted her up on to his cock. He slowly worked his cock into her ass from behind as Mark moved in between her legs. He lifted her legs, putting them on his, as he slid his cock into her pussy.

She moaned and laid her head back onto Remi's chest. “I thought we were going to have our bonding ceremony last night?” She whispered, as they moved in and out of her.

Mark sucked her breast into his mouth and nibbled her nipple while Remi wrapped his hand around Mark's cock, stroking it as he pushed in and out of her.

“Tonight. You were too tired last night, and it was too late. By the way, we love the house. It's just like the old one. Thank you, Jaycee.” He mumbled this as he sucked on her neck.

Jaycee couldn't concentrate. “No more talking, more fucking, please.” She moaned as Remi slapped her clit.

“Behave Jaycee. Let us take care of you,” Remi ordered.

She grinned and glanced at Dane. He sat at the other end of the tub, watching every move she made. He didn't smile or anything. He just watched. “Are you okay Dane?”

“Shhh, Jaycee, just feel right now. Dane is fine,” Remi cooed and pushed into her, tapping her clit. Closing her eyes, Jaycee tried to reach out to Dane, but he was blocking his thoughts from her. She frowned and glanced back at him.

“Did I do something wrong?” she whispered.

“Jaycee, enough. Please. Concentrate on us, baby. He'll join you when we're finished.” Mark grabbed her head in between his hands. “You did nothing wrong. Right now, it's just us two. Just feel us, what you're doing to us.”

Both Remi's and Mark's emotions poured into her, sending her flying. When Mark pushed into her, she could actually feel his cock being sucked on from her pussy, while Remi's cock swelled inside her ass. That's when she felt Mark's and Remi's connection. Remi loved Mark. Their connection was different from hers, but just as strong. They pulled her into their connection, twining their love for each other around her, connecting them all.

“Come for us, baby,” Mark demanded, and bit down on her nipple.

Jaycee grabbed onto his shoulders, scratching them as the tidal wave of emotions and feelings swirled inside her. They connected for all time. Remi howled at the same time Mark did, and they released their seed simultaneously into her body.

Both of them petted and stroked her body as she came down from the heavens. All the while, Dane sat there, doing nothing. Mark slipped out of her and stood. He smiled at her and cupped her cheek. “We'll meet you in the living room when you're done.” He nodded to Dane.

Remi carefully lifted her and put her back into the water. “We love you, Jaycee.” He leaned down and kissed her gently.

Her stomach knotted and she turned to Dane as Remi closed the bathroom door. Never had she been so nervous with him, not even the first time they were together. “Dane?” she questioned.

He opened his arms and she crawled into him. “You know we would give you anything you wanted, if we could, right?” he stroked her arms and gazed into her face.

She nodded and knew what was coming.

“I'm sorry, Jaycee, but with the threat of war and the danger to your life, we can't risk a wedding this Christmas. The three of us talked to the Council and Marsha. They also agreed that it would just be asking for our enemies to strike, but that doesn't mean we won't have one. We will, when things settle down.” He hugged her and sighed.

“I so wanted to give you that wedding, Jaycee, to see you all dressed up in that wedding dress, but it just can't happen now. So, as a compromise, we're going to have an early celebration while our enemy is regrouping. Our bonding ceremony will also be our Christmas. Do you know what the bonding ceremony entails?”

Jaycee glanced down and frowned. “I know it has something to do with the animal side in us. That we are connecting our animals in us, like we did our human side.” She glanced up into his gaze.

Dane nodded and kissed her nose. “With three of us, it's a little more difficult. Remi is your alpha in all respects, but when it comes to the bonding of our animal sides, we've decided it would be best for me to be the alpha. This way, it will balance us. If something happens to one of us, we will still have the other to help pull us all out. Do you understand?”

She nodded. “But I'll be bonding with them too, won't I?”

“Yes, but in our bonding ceremony, we take each other in our animal forms after the words are said by our fathers. Everyone will shift to their animal form and watch the alpha take his mate. In other words, I'll be taking you first, then Remi, and then Mark.”

Jaycee jumped suddenly, and looked at him. “Wait a minute. You mean, we're having Christmas now! I haven't wrapped all those gifts or stuffed the stockings. We need to cook turkeys and …”

Dane laughed. “Hush. All that has been taken care of. All of our mothers have been working nonstop to make this evening special for you. All you have to do is enjoy. Now hop out of the tub, before we turn to prunes.” Dane pushed her up and stood behind her, kissing her neck.

She gazed up at him. “Aren't we going to make love?”

Dane laughed and slapped her ass. “No. Because of the bonding ceremony, since I'm the alpha, we have to wait till tonight. I'm sure you can wait until tonight.” He kissed her neck.

Jaycee frowned. “We've never had sex in our animal form.” She stepped out of the tub as he grabbed a towel and dried her.

“It's very intense and emotional. When we mate in the wolf form, the male will dominate you in every sense, Jaycee.” He turned her towards him. “It's more than what we do here, guiding and mastering you. Animals have a natural basic need to survive, to dominate. Only the strongest survive.” He grabbed a dress and slipped it over her head.

“Now, go watch Remi and Mark trying to string up the Christmas lights outside. When they're done, we'll all go and get a tree.”

Jaycee's stomach knotted. She'd never had a Christmas with lights, and she'd only had a tree at her Nana's home. She ran almost smack into the door when Dane pulled her back in time. “Easy, Jaycee. We have plenty of time before tonight.” He laughed.

Jaycee and Dane walked out into the living room. Marsha, Ben, Shelly, Bo, Mark, and Remi had sorted out all the Christmas decorations. The men worked on the lights while the women set about pulling out the decorations for the house.

“Where did all the decorations come from?” she asked.

Dane guided her towards the boxes on the floor. “Some are from my parents, some are from Remi's, and various members of the pack donated the others. They all knew we didn't have anything, so they sent over what they had.”

“Yeah, and I bet they did this on purpose. Half of these lights don't work. Do you know how tedious it is to go through every strand of lights to find one burned out light?” Remi growled. “I'd rather fight a bear than this.” He glanced up at her and smiled. “But for you, Jaycee, I'll do it.”

Tears rolled down her face, her stomach knotted, and her heart swelled with love. “Thank you, Remi. This means more than anything to me.” She knelt down next to him, careful of the lights, and kissed his cheek. “I'm finally home, surrounded by those I love.”

“You've always been home, Jaycee. Just look inside and you'll see. Home is where the heart is, and you have three hearts that beat only for you,” Remi whispered in her ear.

Her lip quivered and she glanced around the room to see everyone smiling. “You're right, Remi, but it's still fun to see you struggling to do something so simple.” She jumped up away from him, as he growled and tried to reach for her.

Someone knocked on the front door. Jaycee reached for the door, but Mark was there, pushing her back. “We might have a respite now, Jaycee, but we must still be vigilant. Let me get this. You go help Marsha. She's baking up a storm in the kitchen. Oh, and by the way, I love gingerbread man cookies,” he hinted, and pushed her towards the kitchen.

Jaycee shook her head and headed towards the smell of sugar cookies. The smell of fresh brewed coffee added to the vanilla and flour smells, as she stepped into the kitchen. “Umm, I love that smell. So, we have an order for gingerbread cookies. Can I help?”

Cookie dough, flour, colored sprinkles, and Christmas shaped cutters all filled the kitchen table, as Marsha glanced up and smiled. “Pull up a chair and start rolling. We'll make the gingerbread cookies next. I also have an order for peanut butter cookies, but whoever heard of having peanut butter cookies for Christmas?” She laughed.

Jaycee sipped a cup of decaf coffee and sat at the table, grabbing the roller. “Let me guess, Remi?” She laughed as Marsha nodded. “Well, if we had time, I'd make some fruit cake. For some reason, that just sounds so good.” She rubbed her stomach.

Marsha laughed and nodded to the counter on the other side. “Well, take your pick. It seems many of your clan love it too, but make sure you pick one with no alcohol in it. I think I spotted three of them over there.”

She got up and sorted through all the food, pumpkin rolls, fruitcake, apple-cranberry bread, banana bread, and fudge. “Oh my, are we going to get fat. Jeez, I'm going to have to jog twice a day, if I sample all this.”

“Oh no, you're not. Remember you're carrying triplets and you'll need all that energy.” Remi slipped in behind her, wrapping his arms around her. “Why don't you cut me a piece of that fruit cake? I wanted to let you know we have two boxes of poinsettias, Christmas cacti, and a holly in the living room that need to be taken out of the boxes.”

“Jaycee, you go do that since my hands are already covered in dough. Remi, your peanut butter cookies will come last since they are the easiest to make. Oh, and I have already put the turkey in the oven. From what Remi's mom said, we cooked twenty turkeys and twenty hams for tonight, so we should have plenty for everyone.”

Jaycee turned to look up at Remi. “How many will be at the ceremony tonight?” She gulped the thought of that many people watching her.

Remi cuddled up next to her. “You love the thought of them watching you as we take you, admit it.” He bit her neck. “So far, the count is over five hundred people in attendance. That's not including Bo's pack, but we're expecting them, so add another two hundred. Of course the elderly and the children won't be at the bonding. They will be at the celebration afterwards at the pack house.”

Turning in his arms, she frowned. “Remi, Bo and his pack had to come here at the last minute. We don't have gifts for them. What about the children? We can't hand out gifts to the others without them having gifts. No child should be without gifts on Christmas, even if we're celebrating it early.” She remembered the times she had gone without gifts.

He held her tight. “No child will go without, baby. We'll make sure. Between our two clans, we've all pulled together to make sure every child has something. The adults from our two clans want to donate their gifts to Bo's since they have nothing. It will be our way of saying welcome.” Remi licked her nose. “So don't worry. It will all turn out right.”

“Remi, get out here! You're not getting out of helping put up these lights,” Dane yelled, coming into the kitchen. “I should have known. Jaycee, quit distracting him.” He laughed and pulled her into the living room. “You have work to do.” He pushed her to the boxes of plants.

Shelly stood there with her hands on her hips. “Hey, this is her day. Quit pushing her around.”

Jaycee hugged her, and opened the first box of fresh poinsettias. “We need Christmas music.” Remi nodded.

From across the room, the stereo turned on, playing Christmas music. “Now that is more like it.” She sang the words to “Jingle Bells” as she opened the first box of plants.

Shelly and Jaycee worked putting up the mistletoe and Christmas cactus throughout the house. They laughed when they heard Mark, Remi, and Dane grumbling outside with the lights.

“Damn it, Jaycee. Come see if this is what you want?” Dane yelled from the doorway.

“Can't you three decide? We still have two boxes to unload and I want to help Marsha,” she yelled, going for the next box.

“Oh good, the plants came. I was afraid they wouldn't make it in time.” Dane's mom said, coming inside and laughing as she pointed outside. “You should you see them. Mark has one strand tangled around his leg while Remi is on the ladder cussing up a storm.” She kissed Jaycee on the cheek and patted her belly.

“That's funny. I only ordered two boxes of plants.” She grabbed Jaycee's arm and stopped her. “Hey, Dane, you guys better come in here. Don't touch anything else. Jaycee, something isn't right.”

Mark, Dane and Remi entered the room, frowning. “What's up mom? We're kind of busy here.”

She nodded to the boxes. “I only ordered two boxes of plants, but then maybe Remi's mother did too.”

“I didn't order anything except the extra turkeys,” she yelled, coming in the house with an armload of presents.

Jaycee laughed and pulled some out of her arms. “You should have had Ralph or one of the other boys bring these over.”

“Oh posh, I wanted to see my daughter. Plus, I enjoyed the walk. It's so nice out. So what did they do? Send an extra box? We can use it up at the pack house.”

Remi and Dane surrounded the boxes. “They're all the same boxes and they are all sealed the same way.” Dane nodded to Remi.

“For Pete's sake, they were probably to go to someone else's house. Open them already.” Jaycee tapped her foot to the music.

“Jaycee, you know we have to be careful.” Remi kissed her nose and carefully opened one of the boxes. He shook it and pulled out a couple of the plants. “Well, this one is fine. Dane, how's that one?”

Dane grabbed the box and moved outside with it. She frowned and tried to follow, but Mark held her back. “Stay here, Jaycee.”

“What's wrong?”
Please not today, please!

Remi laughed outside as Dane grumbled and brought the box back inside. “It has to be for you. I swear I'm going to kill Dad.” He handed her the box. Button, the dog, stared up at her, growling.

“Oh poor, Button. Did Dane scare you?” She picked him up and hugged him. “I'm so sorry we left you, baby. I missed you.” She sat down on the sofa as he wiggled and licked her face.

“The little thing bit me.” Dane grumbled.

“Well I'd bite you too, if you shook me.” Shelly laughed and sat down next to her.

“Yeah, but I'm the alpha here, so he should know better.” He pouted and held up his hand. Sure enough, little teeth marks were imprinted on his hand.

Jaycee glanced at Dane's mom and they busted out laughing. “Aww, poor baby. Did he hurt your ego? Do you need Momma to kiss it all better?” She teased, laughing. “I'll give you a kiss.” He growled and went to attack her when Button turned and growled at him.

He stopped and frowned at the dog. “Okay, now that is just not right.” He shifted to his wolf form and growled back.

Button whined and hid in her arms, shaking. “Damn it, Dane. He's just a pup. You just had to go and scare him.” She frowned, cooing at the dog, as he shifted back.

“You have to show them who's boss right from the beginning. Then there won't be problems later on.” He grinned.

“Really, you have to show them who's boss?” She glanced down at Button and said a few words when Button jumped in her arms and barked at the kitten on the floor. “What do you think Button, want some pussy cat?”

Shelly rolled on the floor laughing, and Dane's and Remi's moms smirked. Marsha came into the room, flour all over her, and laughed. “You do know he's going to get even, right?” She clapped her hands and Dane transformed back.

“Then he shouldn't scare my puppy.” She snapped at him, but hid the smile that was inside. “I believe you have lights to finish, so we can go get our tree.”

Dane narrowed his gaze on her. “You know that's twice you've turned me into something. I think it's about time to teach you a few things.” He growled and grabbed her, picking her up, without getting bitten from Button. “I'll be back in a minute, Remi, to help you with the lights.

He swung her up over his shoulder and swatted her ass. “Dane, put me down. We have too much to do.” She laughed as Button followed behind them. “He's going to bite you.” She giggled.

“If he bites me, I'm going to bite you, so you better tell him to back off.” He tried to snarl, but she heard the laugh as he moved up the stairs to their bedroom. He plopped her down on the bed and straddled her, pinning her arms above her head.

“Now about this turning me into things. I think I need to teach my mate some manners.” He grinned and started tickling her stomach.

She laughed, trying to get loose but his hand held her down. “Dane, stop. I'm going to pee myself,” she cried and tried to shake him of off her, but nothing. That's when Button jumped on the bed and started pulling Dane's shirt, trying to tug him off. Jaycee busted out laughing again as Dane tried to push the puppy away, to no avail.

“Well, I can see who this thing belongs to.” He scooped up the pup, releasing her arms and hugged him. “Easy boy, I'm not hurting her.” Button licked his face, squirming in his arms. He laughed. “We'd better get moving if we're going to get our tree up before the ceremony, but don't forget I owe you one and I plan to collect tonight, baby.” Dane leaned down and kissed her nose.

For the next hour, Jaycee laughed and watched as Mark, Remi, and Dane put up the Christmas lights to their new home. People from their clans stopped by, dropping off gifts and offering suggestions on how to hang the lights, only to be growled at by all three of her mates.

Remi pulled her back and glanced at the house. “Well, I'm afraid that's the best it's going to get this Christmas.” He nipped at her neck. “Next year, we'll do better, I promise. Go get your boots on and we'll go get this Christmas tree. We can decorate it when we get back. Ike dropped off all the decorations you bought earlier.” He pushed her towards the house. “Hey, Dane, where's the saw and ax?” Remi went around the side of the house towards Dane.

She stood on the porch and waited. Sure enough she heard all three of them say. “No way!” Jaycee laughed, knowing they had just found their Christmas presents: three Ski-Doo Summit X 163 snowmobiles. Thank God for father-in-laws! Both Remi's and Dane's dads had picked them up last night and brought them home for them.

“I take it they found their Christmas presents?” Dane's mom asked, standing in the doorway and smiling, as she stepped aside for Jaycee.

“Yep, they sure did. It took me a while to figure out which ones were the best, but I think I got the right ones.” She grabbed her boots and sat down on the couch.

Remi, Dane, and Mark stepped into the house and kneeled down in front of her. They were grinning like little children as they faced her. “How did you know?” Dane asked, kissing her hand.

Jaycee grinned. “Well, while you guys were mad at me, all you did was read that magazine. I mean, come on! Anyone with sense knew you all three of you wanted one. I even heard you and Remi talking about them two days ago. It wasn't hard to figure out. Finding the right ones was the difficult part.” She slipped on her boots. “If you want a different kind, you can exchange them. Your dad has all the receipts for them.”

“Are you nuts? There is no way I'm giving mine up,” Mark shouted, standing and pulling her into his arms. “Thank you so much. I can't wait to try it out.”

“Uggh, Mark. Not so tight.” She giggled and slapped his chest. “You three can ride them when I get my tree, and then help me put the lights on the tree.” She teased running for the door.

Remi growled and took after her. “I told you, no more lights.” He tackled her and picked her up in his arms. He nuzzled her neck. “You totally shocked us. Thank you.”

Remi walked outside with her in his arms. “Let's go get our tree and, Jaycee, we're going to help you do the whole tree. We want to do everything with you this Christmas. We can ride our toys tomorrow. Today and tonight is just for us.”

* * * *

Remi couldn't believe how lucky they were. Their mate never ceased to amaze them. Even after all the threats against her life, she had managed to surprise them with the best Christmas present they could have asked for.

Jaycee walked next to them as they searched for their tree. “So, what kind of tree are we looking for? Short needle, long needle, tall, fat?” Mark walked ahead of them, pointing out trees to her.