Jordan"s Misunderstanding
Book 8 Denver Pack Series
By Jana Leigh
Editing: Kerri Good
Published by JLK
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This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents either are the product of the author"s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
© Copyright 2012 Jana Leigh. All rights reserved.
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[email protected] Prologue
Jordan, of course, knew about shifters. Her family was wolves. She had been so jealous when she was younger and her brothers had been able to shift because she had to sit and watch. Her parents explained to her that she was their daughter no matter what, but they were not her natural parents. She would have known anyway, she looked nothing like anyone in the family. They all had light colored hair, blonde or brown, she had red hair. It was thick and long, she sometimes wished she could cut it, but she would never do that. Her mother said it would be a crime, it was wavy and lustrous, and fit her to a tee. Her temper was volatile. She knew the rest of her attributes were not exactly picture perfect. She was short and was raised by shifters who could eat anything without gaining weight. She struggled. Her voluptuous form was attractive to some shifters, but to humans she was overweight.
She had gone through a rebellious stage when she thought that she had no family. No one had wanted her; she was abandoned at a construction site for God sakes. She thought if she were changed over to a shifter, that then she would belong. Her parents argued with her for days about it. They finally decided that when she turned twenty one if she still wanted to become wolf, they would change her.
She finally settled down and made sure that they thought she was responsible enough to handle such a burden. For days before her birthday, she planned what she would do first. Her mother sat her down and explained the process. She asked that her mother change her.
Her parents were Alphas of the Northwestern Pack. They claimed the territory years ago when her father and mother went on their honeymoon in Europe. While there, something triggered in them and they found themselves turning. Even dormant, their wolves had found their mate. Thank goodness, her mother told her, she would have hated to be mated to anyone other than her mate. That was years ago. When they returned from their vacation, a member of the European Council contacted them and sent someone to help them with their transition. They were declared Alphas and so they started their Pack with the European Council"s permission.
They were the most powerful wolves in the North. Her father took over his father"s construction business. He built it into a huge money making venture. He was happy when his sons decided to follow in his footsteps. But her mother longed for a daughter.
She had four sons and finally gave up. She admitted that her life was full and happy, but she felt like something was missing. That something was her; at least that is what her mother said.
When her father found her on his construction site one cold morning and brought her home, her mother said it was like she had found the missing piece of herself. She had been thrilled. She knew that Jordan was human and would have to be told about their nature, but she told her father she did not care.
They had to get permission from the authorities to be able to keep her. Jordan was happy that they did. She would not trade anything in this world for her parents and brothers. Even if they were a pain in the ass sometimes.
On the day she turned twenty one, she had gotten up early. She had been so excited.
Through breakfast, she babbled incessantly about being changed. Her mother and father had looked at her with amusement. When the time finally came, her mother explained once again what was going to happen. Jordan had been so excited. They went to her room and her mother had helped her get comfortable on the bed.
Jordan only thought about the night she would be able to run with her family. She nodded to her mother who bit her on the shoulder. It had hurt, and Jordan had cried out, but her mother had said that it would fade when the shifter"s enzyme took over.
They waited for hours and nothing happened. Her mother had been so upset; she had caused her daughter pain and had for some reason not changed her.
Next, her father had tried, still nothing. They had called and talked to several other Alphas and none of them had heard of not being able to change a human. Jordan had been forlorn. She had refused to come out of her room for a week. It took her brothers promising to try to figure something out to get her from her room. But after all that time, still nothing. Jordan had pulled back from her family, they had not been happy about it, especially her mother.
Jordan felt alone once again in her life. She went through a depression until finally her parents had confronted her about her mood. She cried and explained to them the way she was feeling, her mother had taken her in her arms and assured her no matter what she would always be their daughter.
Jordan went to college to become a business manager. She now negotiated deals with some of the largest companies in the world. Her mother told her she was too wrapped up in her job, but that didn"t matter. She wanted to feel like she was a part of the family.
She had taken over the main office so her father could take time off.
When her brothers were asked to go to Denver and help build the New Council compound, she had been jealous and very happy. When her brother Sid called to say he had found his mates and they were both one of the Chosen, she had been in shock. She wanted to go right away and meet them, but her parents kept thinking of reasons for her not to go.
She talked to her brothers almost daily, and recently something was going on. They had been very worried about her. All they asked is what she was doing after work and who she was hanging out with. Like she had a personal life, she laughed to herself. Since going to college and getting her degree, she had solely focused on making her place in the family. Her father was proud of her, she knew that, but she felt like she had to do better than anyone did in order to hold her place.
Her phone rang and she sighed when she looked at the clock. It was one of her brothers calling again to check in. Her mother had asked her to come to the house this weekend for dinner. Not unusual, but weird because she actually called to make sure she was going to be there. Jordan did not have a good feeling about what was going on. She was wondering if one of her brothers was coming home and taking her job. Maybe that was why they were all acting so weird.
“Hello. Jordan Monsey.” She said into the phone just in case it was someone else.
“Hey, girl.” Her brother Sid said into the phone.
She rolled her eyes and smiled. “Sid, I"m fine. Just finished up my work and going to be heading home. No, I will not stop anywhere and no, I"m not meeting anyone. Just me and the cat at home!” She said into the phone and stood up to get her bag together.
Sid chuckled in her ear and then said, “How did you know I was calling to check up on you? Maybe I need something for the building sites.” He teased. “And you don"t have a cat. Mom and dad would freak
if they thought you did.”
“I know you don"t need anything cause you would never have called me. It would have been Sam. As for the cat, maybe I will get one. After all, I think that"s what I"m turning into, the neighborhood cat lady. The woman across the hall assured me that cat food is on sale at the store. Maybe I should take her up on the kitten she wants to give me.” Jordan teased.
“Old Lady Morgan? Don"t you dare, she has so many cats that they would probably all escape to your house if you got food.” Sid laughed and said, “You going to mom and dad"s for dinner this weekend?”
“Why is everyone asking me that? Have I ever missed dinner at the folk"s house? I swear, you are all turning into worry warts. Yes, I will be there with bells on.” Jordan said grumpily into the phone.
She heard her brother sigh, he didn"t laugh which made her frown a little. Sid was never this serious. “What"s going on? Are mom and dad okay? Are they sick? Is that what they want to tell me?” She said hurriedly into the phone.
“No, Jordan, our parents are fine.” Sid said softly.
“Then what? Don"t leave me hanging, bro.” She said into the phone and then sat back down at her desk.
“Nothing, I was just making sure you were going. Do me a favor and call me when you are done. Okay?” Sid said quietly.
“Fine, if you don"t want to tell me I don"t care. I will call like always on Sunday night.
Make sure Casey is there so I can complain about you weirdoes. She understands that you should not tease your sister.” She said and then hung up the phone after saying goodbye.
Something was going on; she would have to wait until the weekend to talk to her parents. Maybe they finally found a way to change her. After all, her brother was on the New Council; maybe the new witch on their Council knew what was wrong with her.
Jordan kept up on all the things that were happening at the New Council compound. A few weeks ago, she had been unable to contact them for a few weeks and she had become worried. Her parents had too and then they received a call from a witch.
Jordan had been excited. Witches tended to stay away from shifter business. She did not even know there was a coven around.
When she was young, before the incident, that"s what they called their attempt to change her, she researched all the shifters and magical beings that were around. She had been surprised. There were a lot. The history was amazing. She wanted to study history when she went to college but it would have not helped her in the family business. So she had to be happy with a minor in history. Her teachers never understood her fascination with magical beings. They would tell her concrete history is about things that happened.
One of them had gone so far as to tell her to change her degree to paranormal activity.
Jordan had been offended, but she stopped writing her papers about things that were not strictly in the history books. Instead, she would sit at home and research them on her own. That"s what took up most of her nights. She had stacks and stacks of journals at her house that were filled with the things she had found.
She was going to take them to the New Council when her parents finally allowed her to go. She would show them everything they had missed in their past. It was very interesting. She had found a lot of it on the computer. Created chat rooms for shifters to come into and talk to her.
Jordan smiled when she thought of the two black panthers that she had been speaking to over the last few weeks. They were very interesting and knew a lot of the history behind most of the clans. They were history buffs too; they had talked into the wee hours of the morning on more than one occasion.
It was strange to have feelings for someone she had never met. Both of them knew each other, it sounded like maybe they were in a relationship. She was afraid to ask if they were gay. It would ruin her dreams. She had thought of nothing else since she found out that her brother had two mates. It would be wonderful and amazing if she did also.
But that would never happen, she was not a member of any shifting clan, she was only a lowly human. They did not get mates like shifters did. She teased about being a cat woman to her brother, but that was what she was turning into. Although not normal cats, black panthers would be her pet of choice.
Jordan picked up her things and left her office. She had stayed too late day dreaming, the guys were going to meet her in the chat room in just over an hour. She did not want to be late. She wondered if they would be willing to set up a video conference. Wow, to actually see them would be amazing, and then she would have a face to fantasize about.
She stepped off the elevator and ran into a solid chest. Jordan, not being very big, just kinda bounced off whoever had been waiting for the elevator.
“Oh, my dear, I am so sorry.” She heard a smooth voice say.
She instantly felt uncomfortable around him. It was her creeper feelers going off, she thought and looked up and smiled. “I"m okay, don"t worry.”
“No, no, no. It was totally my fault; I was not watching where I was going. Please forgive me. Can I buy you a cup of coffee?” The man said.
She finally stood up and looked at the man"s face. He was handsome, and slick. Thick black hair and blue eyes, she should be drooling over him, but all she wanted to do was get away from him. He was not someone she wanted to be alone with, she thought and smiled politely. “Oh no, that"s okay, I have a date. I"m sorry.”
“Of course, it would be too much to hope for, a beauty like you not having a boyfriend.” The man said smoothly.
Jordan smiled and blushed then bent her head and walked away, calling she was sorry once again over her shoulder. She could feel the man staring at her. He had not entered the elevator that she had exited from. Instead, he allowed it to close and she saw him move to the door behind her out of the corner of her eye when she exited the building and turned. Not wanting to wait and see where the hell he was going, Jordan quickly went to the parking lot and got into her old car. It was her baby.
It was also the one thing her father and she shared that her brothers did not, a love for cars. She smoothed her hand over the classic mustang and smiled. Her father had bought it from a junk yard and for months they worked in the garage together restoring it. She would tell him what she found out about the history of wolves while they changed filters and worked on brakes. It was one of the best times of her life. Then the day she had been unable to change had taken all of it away from her.
Shaking the bad thought off, she started her car and pulled out of her space. She was unaware of the man standing, watching her as she pulled out. If she had been, she would not have gone home that night. She would have gone straight to her parent"s house.
Chapter 1
Larkin and Romy sat at their computers, waiting for the woman they had come to fantasize about come on line. They had chatted with her for the last few months. Each day the need to finally meet her was driving them crazy. Today they were going to ask her to dinner.
Larkin sighed and looked at his friend, lover, and mate. He knew that they agreed.
There was something about this woman that they were drawn to. Three years ago, they met each other by chance.
In the downtown library, Larkin had reserved a copy of a history book. When he went to get it, Romy had stood there arguing with the librarian about the fact that he was supposed to be next in line for the book. One sniff of the man had told him all he needed to know, they were mates.
Although both of them were bisexual, they had been happy to see that they had finally found their mate. Neither had been surprised that it was a person from the same sex.
Larkin had walked up to Romy and quietly took the book out of his hand and checked it out. The stunned man had followed and from there on out they had been together.
Living together and working together at their book store they opened a year later.
They were happy. Then one night, Romy had been surfing the net looking for a specific history book when he came along a chat room asking about the history of shifter families. Rom
y joined the chat and soon he was calling Larkin over to read what the woman was asking. They thought it was funny at the time that a human would be asking about shifters, not many knew of them.
As they chatted more and she told them about her story, they had opened up about their Pride. As cat shifters, they belonged to one of the largest Prides in the north. Most of the cats around them were cougars, but Larkin and Romy were both black panthers. It made them unusual, but not uncommon. Their parents had been happy when they found one another. Black panthers were scarce in the north. They both thought they would have to visit the southern pride to find their mates.
The longer they talked with Jordan, the more they were convinced that she may be someone important to them. They had never heard of more than one mate until recently when the New Council announced that they had returned. Of course, they had heard all the stories when they were growing up. It had been one of the things that had drawn them both to history. They loved to read about the way things were so many generations ago.
It was almost time. They sat at their computers and smiled at each other. Even if she was not their other mate, she was their best friend, they decided. She understood their need to read and rummage through old things.
Romy leaned over and kissed Larkin when they heard the beep on their computers.
Someone had logged on to the chat room. Looking back at his screen quickly he frowned when he saw another name on the screen.
“Who the hell is The Master?” Larkin said.
“Don"t know, probably some jerk who is trolling the chats. Jordan will take care of them when she gets on. She doesn"t put up with men trying to pick her up when she"s chatting.” Romy said and smiled.
They had seen many instances when she kicked and banned people from her chat room.
She did not want a guy who was looking for a date in her room. If they came in with information that she wanted, it was fine, but just to try to talk to her was not. Romy and Larkin were the only ones who she chatted privately with. She told them that weeks ago when they wondered if she was feeling the same way they were.