He traced the length of her spine. “If the bond had formed sooner—”
“You realized what was blocking the bond, Jesse. I didn’t. I didn’t even suspect that that was what it was. You did.”
He kissed her, licking over her bottom lip. “Our scents have mixed.” Now everybody would know she was taken. “I like it. I like feeling what you’re feeling.”
“I wonder if a bond formed through imprinting is any different from one that’s formed between true mates.”
Jesse shrugged. “I’ve no idea.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Whatever you want.”
“How does it feel to recognize your true mate? I’m not mourning that I won’t experience it,” she rushed to reassure him. “I’m just curious.”
Able to feel her honesty through their bond, he wasn’t worried by the question. “Torrie was four the first time I saw her. I looked at her . . . and I just knew. There was no big revelation or rush of feelings or anything, but maybe that’s because we were just kids. I looked at her and knew as well as I knew my own name that she was mine. I told her that. She just said, ‘Okay.’ It felt right. Steadying. But it has to be different from what adults feel.”
Harley nodded, thinking just how uncomplicated it could be for a child to sense the bond. Their emotions were often less complex.
“So, that’s how it feels to recognize your true mate. Here’s what it’s like for a broken teenager to look at a person and know that, one day, she’s going to be his.” He maneuvered her so that they were on their sides, facing each other. “If I hadn’t heard the words you said to Mia that brought me back to myself, maybe it wouldn’t have happened. Maybe it would have. But one look at you . . . and I wanted. You have to understand it was a long time since I’d really felt a longing for anything, so it was a big fucking deal to me.”
She blinked. “Just one look?”
“Just one look. The possessiveness was a true shock. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be capable of that emotion. Not after losing my true mate. I wasn’t good at accepting the feeling, but I didn’t want to get rid of it either. It was, I don’t know, uplifting to know that I could feel it. It was uplifting to feel anything at all.”
Harley had assumed he’d grown to feel possessive. She hadn’t thought it had been an instant thing for him.
“The more I was around you, the more intense that emotion became. After a while, I stopped thinking I wanted you to be mine and started thinking of you as already belonging to me. I knew I’d one day have you. Knew I’d do what it took to make it happen. But I still wasn’t ready to accept that.” He slid his hand into her hair. “So I kept it to myself. I didn’t let you see it. I didn’t ask you to stay when Tess came for you, even though I didn’t want you to go. And even though I knew it was best for you to be away from your pride, I still didn’t want you away from me. So I kept watch over you, always knowing that one day I’d claim you. And I did.”
Harley melted into him as he kissed her, licking into her mouth. So many emotions flickered down the bond. Adoration. Possessiveness. Need. Respect. Protectiveness. All of it was wrapped up in what he felt for her. She moaned appreciatively as he rolled her onto her back and ground his cock against her clit. Then she moaned in complaint as her cell rang.
He sucked on her claiming mark. “Don’t answer it.”
Oh, she had no intention of doing so. But it just kept on ringing. Harley ignored it, arching into Jesse as his hand closed over her breast. Finally, her phone stopped ringing. She sighed, happy. And then his cell phone began to ring. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.” But he ignored it and began sucking hard on her nipple, grazing it with his teeth. He was just making his way to her other nipple when his phone finally shut the fuck up. And then her damn cell began to ring again.
Growling, Jesse grabbed it from the beside cabinet and gave it to her. “Answer it or they’ll harass us all night.”
Seeing that the caller was Shaya, she lost some of her anger. The female had been through a lot tonight. Harley answered in a monotone voice. “You have reached the Federal Bureau of Investigation tip line; this call will be recorded.”
Shaya gave a soft snort of amusement. “Your cousins are here.”
Harley sighed. “We’ll be there soon.” Ending the call, she asked, “Did you hear that?”
Jesse put her phone back on the cabinet. “I did.” He sucked her nipple into his mouth and gave it a sharp nip. “But we’re not leaving this bed until I’m done with you.” Jesse tilted her hips and drove deep inside her.
“How hard was it to track the extremists?” Jesse asked the margays later on. It turned out that they had arrived to assure Harley that the local group was now very much dead. They hadn’t been happy to hear she’d been caught up in a battle with harpy eagles and, in fact, seemed disappointed to have missed the opportunity to join in. Jesse had always thought Harley was quirky, but her cousins took it to a whole new level.
“Very difficult,” replied Indie, chewing gum. “They went underground.”
Eli arched a brow. “You’re sure they’re dead?”
“Unless they’re capable of reattaching their severed heads and digging their way out of a shallow grave, they’re quite dead,” said Indie with all the emotion of an answering machine.
Eli inclined his head. “Fair enough.”
“That should repulse me,” Shaya said to Harley. “I’m not sure why it doesn’t.”
Chin resting on his hand, Bracken leaned close to the quiet female, Shiloh, who seemed to be one of those people who spent most of their time focused on their phone. “Did you sever any heads?”
Shiloh looked at him, seeming surprised that he’d spoken to her. “Why?” Her flat tone matched her indifferent vibe. Jesse had never met anyone who had such a detached air about her . . . as if she simply had no interest whatsoever in the world around her.
Bracken shrugged. “Just curious.”
“Why?”
“Why not?”
“Curiosity can get you killed.”
“I’m not a cat. I’m a wolf.”
“We can’t all be special.” She went back to her phone, dismissing him. The enforcer actually smiled. Then again, he wasn’t a guy who was easily offended.
Shaya spoke to Piper, who was tapping her long, red-painted nails on the table. “Did Harley tell you she’s going to buy the club she was working at?”
“You are? Good.” Piper flicked back her dark, blue-highlighted hair. “It’s smart to branch out.”
Shaya smirked at Nick. “See, told ya.” He just grunted.
“How are your plans coming along for the club?” Derren asked Harley.
“Fine,” Harley replied. Just thinking about the club made her smile. She was excited to go back there and get everything ready. “Ally’s been a big help.”
Indie leaned back in her seat, arms folded. “Will it need refurbishing?”
“Nothing major,” replied Harley. “I like it as it is; there are just a few things that need fixing or altering, which I can—”
“You’re not stepping a foot into the club until all the security measures are in place,” Jesse firmly stated. Her brow slid up, but he said, “I’m serious, Harley. It’s true that a lot of premises belonging to packs don’t have much trouble with the extremists now that The Movement hunts them. But I’m not taking risks with your safety.” The. End.
Harley frowned at him. “Dude, I’m not Kim—your forcefulness does not turn me on.” Not all the time anyway. “It just makes me want to hit you. Hard.”
Shaya chuckled. “I can imagine how hard it must be for you to be with Jesse. I mean, I’m submissive and Nick is extremely dominant. But it works for us because he’s not designed to deal with dominant females. Jesse’s not cut out for it either, but I honestly don’t think a submissive female could handle him without feeling crushed.”
“I agree,” said Ally. She spoke to Harley, “You deal with him the way Jesse has to be dealt with.
”
Roni nodded. “Firmly, brusquely, but not coldly.”
Jesse sighed. “I’m right here.”
Shaya waved a dismissive hand his way, which made him snort.
Watching Jazz play with a Rubik’s Cube, Ally said, “Wow, she’s good at that.”
Harley nodded. “Jazz is a mechanic. She likes to take things apart, especially when she’s bored, so she has to be closely watched. Boredom makes her crazy.”
“Crazy?” repeated Roni. “Really?”
Harley understood her disbelief. Jazz was cute and tiny and looked like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. No one ever saw Jazz’s temper coming.
Indie pointed from Harley to Jesse. “So you two are fully imprinted now?”
“Yep,” said Harley.
“And he makes you happy?” said Piper. There was a “he’d better make you happy” note in her tone.
Harley smiled. “When he’s not making me want to remove his spleen with my bare hands, sure.” Of course, if he’d just develop some caution lights . . .
“You guys have to have a ceremony and a party,” said Marcus.
“A party?” echoed Nick.
Marcus frowned at him. “You don’t have to say it like it’s a dirty word. They’re fully mated now. They have the right to celebrate that.”
Nick snorted. “The only reason you’re pushing for a party is that there’ll be a buffet.”
Marcus raised a brow. “Um, hello, we have three really good cooks in our pack. Having all their cooking combined into one buffet is a luxury we should indulge in as often as we can. How can you not see that?”
Nick stared at him. Then he waved an impatient hand. “I can’t deal with you. I really don’t know how Roni does.”
With an expression of mock hurt, Marcus put a hand over his heart. “Is that any way to treat your brother-in-law?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care.”
“Hey,” complained Roni playfully. “Leave my mate alone.”
“Then find some way to control him,” said Nick.
Roni arched a brow. “What, like you control your mate? The same mate who goes patrolling the border with her shotgun?”
Shaya gaped at the female enforcer. “How do you know about that?”
Nick glared at his mate. “You patrol the border? Dammit, Shay, you’re not an enforcer.”
“No, but I’m Alpha female, and if I want to guard my territory I damn well will.”
“Do I have to confiscate the shotgun?” Nick growled.
“Only if you want to be stabbed in your sleep.”
Jazz turned to Harley and quietly said, “Your Alpha’s a little crazy, isn’t she?”
Harley snorted. “And you’re not?”
“Only when I’m bored. That doesn’t count.”
And Harley could see that her cousin genuinely believed that. Whatever.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Two months later
Harley’s breath caught in her throat as ice-cold water drenched her; she felt the shock and chill all the way to her bones. “You bastard!”
“It’s just a little water.” Jesse chuckled, his water gun still trained on her.
“I’m a margay shifter; we hate cold water!” Her cat’s lips pulled back in a snarl.
“Stop whining. It’s scorching hot out here; you’ll be dry in no time.” Jesse jerked as water soaked the back of his shirt and jeans. “Hey!” he growled, spinning to face a laughing Eli, who was holding his own water blaster. “That’s cold!”
“That’s karma,” corrected Harley. Giving her a playful scowl, Jesse whipped off his wet T-shirt, so she said, “Maybe I should take off my own shirt—”
Jesse growled, unwilling to let anyone else see those luscious breasts that belonged to him. He pulled her flush against him. “You do that and I’ll spank your ass.”
“Then I’d have to smack the shit out of you. Would you like that?”
“You wouldn’t hurt me.” He rubbed his jaw against hers; there was no stubble, since she’d shaved him that morning. It had become their regular thing, and he liked it. “You adore me too much.”
Harley snorted. “Whatever.”
Wrapping his arms around her, he lifted her slightly off her feet. “My kitty’s all cranky.”
“Because you got me wet,” she clipped.
“Come on.” He settled them both on a double sun lounger. “You’ll be dry in minutes.” It was such a hot day that most of the pack had placed deck chairs and loungers near the play area to soak up the sun.
Derren and Ally were sleeping, the enforcers were placing bets on whether or not Bracken could eat his cake faster than Marcus could eat his, Caleb and Kent were each pushing a pup on the swings, and Kathy was lecturing Eli about his wolf’s habit of destroying her flowers. Nick and Shaya were disputing the benefits of following Shaya’s idea and opening some businesses on the neighboring land they now owned. After Hector’s death, his board of directors had voted to sell the territory to Nick. Jesse figured they’d done it because they would rather have Nick as an ally than an enemy.
Nick was still completely opposed to building any businesses on it, but Shaya didn’t appear to be backing down. Jesse had initially thought that the Alpha female wasn’t serious about her business idea. Maybe she hadn’t been initially. In any case, she was set on it now. It made sense for the pack to make use of all that land and to contribute to the community. Granted, they would probably need to hire outsiders, but that didn’t have to be a bad thing.
“Think about it,” Shaya said to Nick. “If we had a motel set up, both Ally and Harley could have stayed there instead of the guest lodges when they first arrived. Not that I’m complaining that they’re here. My point is that you moan about having outsiders on our territory. If we needed to provide anyone somewhere to stay in the future, a motel would be a good place for them to go. They would have our protection and be on our territory, but they wouldn’t be so close to the main lodge and the pups.”
“Yeah,” said Nick, rubbing his nape, “but . . .”
“But what?”
“But I don’t want a motel!”
“You’re being unreasonable!”
Stifling a laugh, Jesse pulled Harley closer to him and watched as the pups ran around, squealing, while Bruce playfully chased them. At least Nick had grown to accept the wisdom behind branching out, because there was no way Harley would have given up the club. She was due to open it under a new name in a week’s time. Most of the pack had played some part in getting it ready, treating it as their own.
“Keep doing that,” Harley purred.
Jesse smiled, increasing the pressure as he massaged her scalp. It reminded him of the night of their mating ceremony when she’d done the exact same thing as they sat on the porch swing. The day had been special for him but absolute torture for Nick, since so many outsiders had been on his territory: the Phoenix wolves, some shifters from the shelter, Harley’s cousins, Shaya’s father, Cain, Tess, Ally’s uncles, Lily and Shawn—who had actually been pretty well behaved—and, to Jesse’s extreme surprise, his parents.
Unfortunately, Jesse couldn’t go so far as to say that his parents warmly accepted Harley, but they had passed on their congratulations. She hadn’t cared about their lack of warmth as long as they accepted that he didn’t need to answer to them. It was only then he’d learned that she had paid a visit to his old pack with Ally and Roni. Not only had his mate confronted his parents, she’d given Kim a verbal smackdown just before delivering the news that the female was permanently banned from their territory.
He hadn’t been pleased to hear she’d done all that without telling him, but he’d been too happy that day to care. He’d silently laughed his way through the ceremony, amused by how she’d kept glancing at the nearest tree, looking so very tempted to escape. Neither he nor his wolf had been offended, well aware that she simply disliked being the center of attention.
The party had been . . . interesting, since All
y’s uncle, Dan, had taken a single look at Tess and declared that she was his mate. The human had been a little befuddled, but she hadn’t panicked. A month later the couple was happily mated and Tess had joined the guy’s pack. Harley was ecstatic that her aunt was no longer alone. To Tess’s shock, her parents hadn’t disowned her the way they had Lily. Harley suspected it was for the simple reason that Dan was loaded—something the snobs could respect.
“You bitch.”
Pulled out of his thoughts, Jesse looked to see Eli stomping toward Roni and Marcus, who were now snuggling on one of the loungers.
“Shush, she’s sleeping,” Marcus said to him.
“She’s also the embodiment of evil,” groused Eli. “I know you’re awake, Roni.”
With a long-suffering sigh, Roni opened her eyes. “Something wrong?”
Eli settled fisted hands on his hips. “How the hell do you keep cracking all my passwords?”
Roni scowled, affronted. “Don’t insult me.”
“What did she do?” Marcus asked Eli, smiling.
“She hacked my Facebook account again,” said Eli. “This time she posted a five-star review of a vibrating anal plug!”
Kathy gasped. “Roni!”
“I’ve got all kinds of people asking me if it’s best to start with small plugs and work their way up. How the hell should I fucking know?” Eli pointed at Roni. “I will get you back for this, heifer.”
“Stop swearing,” hissed Shaya, gesturing at the kids. Cassidy was cartwheeling her way to them with a skipping Willow behind her.
Eli sighed at Shaya. “I can’t help it; she drives me mad.”
“We all go a little mad sometimes,” said Willow.
Shaya’s smile froze on her face. She turned to Roni. “Tell me my child did not just quote Norman Bates!”
Jesse noticed Bracken looking suspiciously innocent. Rather than rat out his friend, Jesse whispered to Harley, still massaging her scalp, “Speaking of anal plugs—”
“The sooner we get this thing out of my ass, the better,” she hissed quietly.
He stifled a smile. “You should have known better than to think you could beat me at pool . . . although I did enjoy the rematch earlier.” The victor again won the right to be in control during the sex that followed. Jesse, however, hadn’t fucked her. He’d declared that he was postponing the session for a few hours . . . and that she’d be wearing an anal plug in the meantime. She’d acted pissed, but he knew it was exactly that—an act. Being the curious cat that she was, the whole thing intrigued her.