Harley groaned inwardly. “Tess . . .”
“He doesn’t mind being objectified for just a minute.” Stepping back, Tess urged them inside. “Lunch is almost ready. And no, Harley, I did not make it. How about a tour, Jesse?”
Interested to see the inside of what had once been his mate’s home, he nodded. Following Tess around the ground floor, he was unsurprised to see that the interior was as grand as the exterior. White walls, luxurious carpeting, stylish furnishings, and expensive paintings ran throughout the entire space. There wasn’t a single thing out of place, and everything seemed to glimmer.
Taking them up a grand staircase, Tess showed him the one room he’d been eager to see—Harley’s old room. His wolf was just as curious. “I left it exactly as it was,” Tess told him.
Considering his mate had lived there until she’d left for college, he’d expected a space that was typical of a teenager. But there were no posters or girly things or even any personal touches. It didn’t shout “Harley” at all. He got it. To fit in with her human friends—friends who would have spent time here—she’d had to be human. To do that, she’d had to hide her cat, but being a shifter meant having a dualism to the soul; the human and animal were fused together. In hiding her cat, she’d hidden her true self. He doubted many people knew the real Harley Vincent.
When the tour was over and they were making their way to the dining room, he slowed to study a cluster of photographs on the wall. They were all of Harley at different ages, even from when she was just a cub and still part of her pride. She was smiling in each photo, but the smiles in the earlier pictures didn’t quite reach her eyes. The photos of her as a teenager when she’d come to live with Tess were different; Harley was clearly happier and healthier.
In the dining room, Tess spent a few minutes fussing over them as she set out the food and poured drinks. The moment her ass hit the seat, she turned to Harley. “I’m very upset with you for not telling me about the hate mail sooner.”
Harley sighed. “I told you why I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did, but . . .” Tess forked some pasta onto her plate before adding, “I don’t think it was just about protecting me.” She looked at Jesse. “Harley was a model child—never gave me a cross word, never broke a single rule, never neglected her chores, and never got into any trouble in school. Seriously, I never had to ground her even once. That’s just not natural, is it? I talked to her principal and school counselor about it.”
Jesse blinked. “You had a meeting with her principal and counselor about her behavior . . . because it was perfect?”
“It concerned me. Then one day, I realized what it was—like someone had whispered the answer into my ear. She was determined not to give me a reason to give her up.” Tess turned to Harley with a soft smile. “You didn’t want to go back to Lily, so you did everything possible to please me. That still breaks my heart. Lily will never forgive me for keeping you.”
Jesse frowned, cutting into his steak. “I thought Clive agreed to you having custody of Harley.”
“He did, but Lily wasn’t happy about it. She’d relied on Harley for a lot of things—cleaning, laundering, and grocery shopping. Lily turned up every so often, claiming to have turned her life around, said she’d changed and wanted Harley back. She’d rob us blind before she left. Harley used to put ‘Stop being a bum’ notes in her purse for Lily to find, but Lily could never complain about it or she’d have to admit she tried to steal from her own daughter.” Tess exchanged a conspiratorial smile with Harley.
As they ate, Tess regaled Jesse with tales of a teenage Harley and recited all her accomplishments, clearly proud. He resisted telling Tess he already knew of all her achievements, having kept watch over her.
It was when they were finished with lunch that she took in Jesse with a speculative gaze that made his wolf lift his chin. “So . . . you claimed my niece.”
“I did.”
“And you want her to do the same to you?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Even though there are dozens of reasons why this might not be a good idea?”
“Even though.”
Tess considered that for a minute, then nodded. “Good enough.”
Harley rolled her eyes. “Great interrogation skills, Tess.”
“Actions speak louder than words. I’ve been watching him with you. He stays close, like a sentry, placing himself in the way of you and any potential danger. He touches you a lot, but not in a creepy way; they’re subtle, affectionate, reassuring touches that let you know he’s there and provide him with the comfort that he has you with him. He watches you closely, taking in every emotion and enjoying the view. I know for a fact that if I showed myself to be a threat to you, he’d go for my throat,” she added with delight.
Harley blinked. “And that makes you happy?”
“It’s what any good aunt wants for her niece.” She moved her smile to Jesse. “Tell me about your pack, Jesse.”
Thinking that Tess was extremely astute, he said, “There are sixteen shifters in total, all wolves except for Harley.” Without revealing anything that would be considered pack business, Jesse told her about the territory and each of the members.
“They sound like wonderful people. I’ll bet you fit right in from the start, Harley.” Tess noticed Harley tense, and she was right on it. “What? What’s wrong? His pack doesn’t like you?” Tess turned to him. “I can talk to them. I’d be happy to come forward as a character witness.”
He stifled a smile. “It’s not easy to settle into a pack, especially if you’ve been living among humans for a long time, but Harley’s found her place.”
“Good. But if you ever need me to talk to them, just say so.”
An hour later, as they were getting ready to leave, Tess shook his hand. “Well, it was really lovely to meet you, Jesse. Now take care of my niece. Oh, and be sure to give this to the little pup who saved Harley.” She put a stuffed bear in his hand.
“I will. It was good to meet you, Tess.”
“You don’t mind if I have a quick moment alone with my niece, do you?”
Harley almost smiled at the way his mouth flattened. He totally did mind. “I’ll just be a sec.” With an unhappy grunt, he headed to the rental car. Harley waited until he was inside the vehicle before she turned back to Tess. “What’s up?”
“Nothing. I approve of your choice, and he certainly cares for you. I worried when you told me his true mate died. It reminded me of Matt and Sandra.”
Matt, Tess’s cousin, lost his fiancée in a boating accident. Four years later he married Sandra, a sweet woman who he truly loved, but he was never able to let his deceased fiancée rest. Harley remembered Darla well. She’d been nice enough, but she’d also been curt and self-centered; the couple had argued often. Matt seemed to have forgotten the bad stuff. He built up Darla and put her on a pedestal, making Sandra feel inadequate and second best.
Harley remembered Sandra once crying to Tess about how painful it was to be with a guy who regarded his past partner as his soul mate. In Harley’s case, the female who Jesse lost literally was his soul mate. It was little wonder that Tess worried.
“Matt still speaks of Darla as if she was saintly,” said Tess. “I can understand why a person might want to forget all the bad things when they lose someone, but Matt takes it to the extreme. How does Jesse speak of the girl he lost?”
“He doesn’t. He only really spoke of Torrie once, but he did reassure me that I wasn’t second best. I brought her up in conversation a couple of times since then . . . I guess I’m just curious about her, and I don’t want him to think he can’t ever speak of her to protect my feelings. But he just changes the subject.”
“He strikes me as the type of person who doesn’t easily share.”
“He doesn’t, and I can accept that. Especially because he’s been pretty open with me about other things. And everyone’s entitled to their emotional privacy. I’m pretty guarded myself. It’s just . .
. I need to know he can open up all the way before I put all my faith in this relationship and tie my soul to his.”
“Which is not only perfectly reasonable, but smart. It protects both of you.” Tess rubbed her arm. “He can’t know it hurts you that he doesn’t share things about Torrie unless you tell him. Talk to him about it. Don’t put any pressure on him, just let him know what you’ve told me. It’s all about communicating.”
Harley smiled at her. “My own personal agony aunt.”
She chuckled and held out her arms. “Hug.” She gave Harley another tight squeeze. “Don’t wait so long to come visit me.”
“I won’t,” Harley said as she walked to the car. “Promise.”
When Harley slid into the passenger seat, Jesse switched on the ignition and asked, “What was that about?”
“Girl stuff. So, what do you think of Tess?”
“I like her. She’s very different from Lily.”
Harley waved at her as they drove down the path. “I know. All three of the sisters are different. I never spent much time with Marlene because she’s always in her lab. The woman has an IQ higher than mine and yours combined.” Neither of them spoke for a while, but it wasn’t a comfortable silence. “If you’re worried that living with that kind of luxury means I won’t be content in a lodge, you’re wrong. I’m not a materialistic person. I shop at thrift stores, stay at simple hotels, and drive a rickety car—or I did until the whole bomb situation.”
Shame slithered over Jesse. “I did have a moment when I wondered if Nat and Kim’s concerns were warranted, but it was a small moment. To be fair, that mansion is five times the size of our lodge.”
She liked the sound of “our” lodge. “My grandparents’ place is even bigger.”
“It’s hard to believe that Lily turned her back on it all. She’s self-centered enough to prefer that lifestyle over being with Clive, whether he’s her true mate or not.”
“I think she did it as a ‘fuck you’ to my grandparents. April and George aren’t very loving. April thinks of Marlene as ‘the smart one,’ Tess as ‘the musical one,’ and Lily as ‘the pretty one.’ But April doesn’t place much importance on ‘pretty.’ She has high standards and is very strict and critical. Lily bore the brunt of that because she didn’t fit the mold.”
“You think that’s where her undying need for attention comes from?”
“Yes.” She couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for her mother. “I think that when she failed to get it from April, she rebelled in every way possible. Then along came a shifter—a guy her family would never approve of—wanting to claim her. Going with him was the ultimate form of rebellion. It probably also made her feel special to have a true mate; she’d never been special to anyone before. That would have been more important to her than money.”
“Lily’s family disowned her for mating with Clive?”
“Everyone except for Tess. Before I met them, I thought they were prejudiced against shifters. It’s not that. They’re just intolerant of everyone and everything outside of their little world.” It was pathetic really.
“After everything you told me about your grandmother, I’m surprised she acknowledged you as part of her family.”
“She came to see me the day after I moved in with Tess. We sort of just stared at each other in silence for a minute. You can imagine how horrified she was by my skull earrings and pentagon medallion, can’t you? She asked me straight out if I worshipped Satan.” And she’d been totally serious.
His mouth curved. “You said yes, didn’t you?”
“Of course. Then she laughed. I think she probably accepted me just to piss off Lily.”
“Or maybe she respected that you couldn’t be intimidated.”
Harley shrugged. “April’s an enigma. Anyway, I quickly learned that being acknowledged by April and being approved of by her were two different things. But the only approval I sought was that of Tess, and I told April that. Still, when I started to do well at school and learned to play the violin, April formally accepted me into the family. They were all nice enough. Of course, I was treated as human and expected to behave as one.”
“And you did,” he said, without judgment.
“Sort of. I mean, I accepted my cat and I enjoyed shifting and exploring Tess’s land. But I didn’t share any shifter-related things with anyone other than Tess because I didn’t want their bullshit to touch my cat.”
He nodded, totally understanding that. It was yet another example of her protecting her true self by hiding it. They stopped at a red light, and he said, “Promise me something.”
“No.”
His mouth curved. “Promise me you won’t ever do with me what you did with Tess; you won’t try to be falsely perfect out of an understandable fear of being rejected.”
“I won’t. It was tiring. And I found being mature extremely boring.”
A few hours later, they were back at Mercury Pack territory. Most of the pack was in the living area of the main lodge, where the pups were bouncing on the sofa. “I don’t know where they get all their energy from, but I want some of whatever they’re having,” said Harley.
Jesse held out the bear. “Cassidy, this is—”
With a beaming smile, Cassidy took the stuffed bear. “I love it! Tell Tess I said thanks!”
Seeing Harley frown, Ally smiled and said, “You get used to it. Cassidy has a lot of small visions that are more like ‘knowings.’ Mine always seem to be bad. I’m still bummed that I didn’t foresee that your car was rigged.”
Derren put a hand on Ally’s back. “Seers don’t ‘see’ everything.”
“Yeah, well,” said Ally.
“Yeah, well, what?” asked Derren.
“That’s it. That’s all I got.”
Derren just snorted, sliding an arm around her shoulders.
Lifting her head out of a magazine, Nat said to Jesse, “Well, do you have her aunt’s approval?”
Jesse took Harley’s hand. “I do.”
“Good. Family approval is important.” Nat went back to her magazine. Harley couldn’t decide if the woman was happy for Jesse or was reminding them that Harley would never have his family’s approval. She’d stopped making sly remarks to Harley, as if satisfied that she’d made her point and didn’t see the need to harp on about it.
The front door swung open and Kim marched inside, cheeks red and mottled, wearing an ugly scowl. Halting in front of Jesse, she held up a shredded white T-shirt. “Did you see what she did?”
Harley stifled a smile. Earlier, she’d been exploring in her cat form. The margay had wanted to do some surveillance of Kim’s temporary territory. Seeing Kim’s clothes hung up on a washing line had been a temptation too much to resist. “I’d say, ‘It wasn’t me, it was my cat,’ but I did egg her on. A lot.”
Kim’s nostrils flared. “You dared to come near my lodge—”
“Just like you dared to come near mine this morning,” said Harley, watching as Kim’s eyes flickered. “I know you were there; I scented you.”
“Kim,” Nat admonished, sounding exasperated.
Jesse growled. “You’ve been warned about coming to my lodge.”
Eyes wide, Kim insisted, “She’s lying! I turned up that one time, yes, but you made it clear I couldn’t go there again unless you invited me. I wouldn’t disrespect your wishes.”
“Yet you’re hovering around my lodge.” Which, to Jesse, indicated that she was full of shit.
“I’m telling you, she’s lying! She probably wants me gone, so she came up with this little plot, hoping you’ll throw me out.”
With a huff, Nat got to her feet. “Harley doesn’t care enough about your existence to concoct such a plan, Kim.” She was right, of course. Nat turned to Jesse and Harley. “It will not happen again.” Grabbing her daughter’s arm, Nat hauled her out of the room, saying, “You and I need to talk.”
Hands on her hips, Shaya turned to Bracken. “I don’t suppose you have any idea why Kim c
an’t just let this go, do you? I mean, he’s mated now. He’s partially imprinted on someone else.”
Bracken sighed. “She’s just intent on having everything Ashley has, and Kim just will not believe that there was never anything between him and Ashley. And she’s never been good at letting things go. She was one of those high-demand kids that wanted everything ‘now’ and constantly moaned ‘it’s not fair.’ You could tell her no, but she would hound you, cry, complain, and do her best to wear you down. Mom would stay firm, but Dad found it hard to say no to her. Now she’s someone who believes she should always have what she wants, someone who’s never deterred by the word ‘no’ because, in the past, she always got what she wanted in the end.”
Done talking about that pain in the ass, Jesse turned to his mate. “Let’s go home.” He leaned into her, speaking low. “I want time alone with you. We can have a lazy day. Eat, binge watch TV, and have sex. Lots and lots of sex.”
She smiled. “Only if I can choose what we watch.”
Since he planned on making out while they watched TV . . . “Done.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Carrying his mate on his back, Jesse trudged up the stairs. “Just think about it. There’s no harm in that.”
“I just don’t think there’s any point,” said Harley.
In the bathroom, he let her slide off his back and then turned to face her. “And why not?”
Squirting toothpaste onto her toothbrush, she pointed out the obvious. “Because it wouldn’t work.” Punctuating that, she shoved her toothbrush in her mouth and went to work on her teeth.
“Now you’re talking stupid.” He brushed his own teeth, enjoying the spark of irritation in her eyes.
Spitting out the toothpaste, she said, “Are you honestly telling me that if I stripped naked, you wouldn’t touch me?”
Once finished with his own teeth, he replied, “I didn’t say I wouldn’t touch you, but I’d hold back from fucking you until we’d finished the game. The loser would have to do whatever the winner wanted,” he added as he followed her into the bedroom.