“Stay for dinner?” Grace wiped Henri’s face and began to clear away the remnants of his meal. “Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, asparagus, salad, bread and macaroni and cheese.”
“Awesome!” Becca looked up at Jack as he put her down, her face expectant. “Will you stay?”
He knew without a doubt that he was welcome. He was family, as they were to him. “Sounds good. I’ll even set the table.”
“Typical. Show up after I do it.” Cade said. “Grab an extra bottle of wine from the rack behind you.”
“I’m off duty, boss man.” Jack snorted and waited to see if Cade would rise to the bait.
Cade just raised one of his eyebrows. “Must be why you’re here, mooching dinner.”
“Pfft, I’m here to look at your women. All lovely ladies you don’t deserve.”
Becca giggled and patted his hand before reaching to take her dad’s.
“Fine, fine. For meatloaf, I can get the wine.” He looked down at Becca. “And some milk for these sprouts.”
He and Cade spoke about nothing in particular as Cade put Annabelle into her toddler seat. Grace returned with Henri, who happily sat in his high chair now that he had been topped off. Becca put some crackers on his tray and he grinned before shoving two of them into his mouth.
Dave, Cade’s cousin and Grace’s personal guard, strolled into the room and put the potatoes down on the table. “Yo. Akio says to check your voice mail. He had to make a shift change and wanted you to know about it in advance.”
Jack laughed as he poured milk for the kids and wine for the adults. “Akio’s been one of my top lieutenants for ten years; I’m sure whatever choices he made were appropriate. You people would have outsiders think I’m an ogre.”
“You are. Other things I can’t say in front of the children too.” Dave sat across the large table from Jack. “He appreciates your respect. You do a good job with your people. Don’t repeat that, I have a reputation to uphold and all.”
“Secret’s safe with me.” It pleased him that people thought he was good at his job. He worked hard at it, had spent his entire adult life protecting the National Alpha pair and the Pack itself. Protecting wolves nationwide because they were his too. He knew he was feared, but being respected had to go hand in glove with that or he’d have gone too far.
No one spoke for several minutes as food was dished up and people started eating. Slowly, folks began to talk and laugh; Becca talked about school and Jack relaxed happily. This was his life and even before he’d met Renee, it was good. But now that the ache, the longing for Grace was dulled by his attraction to Renee, it felt even better. The what ifs were all things he could have instead of those things he never would.
He had a future. Filled with possibility. It washed over him, bringing a satisfied smile to his face.
Grace finally sent an amused look Jack’s way. “Are you going to tell us or what? You’ve been a terrible tease to hold it back this long.”
“As it happens, I do have something exciting. I met my mate today.”
Everyone began speaking at once and Jack continued eating until things calmed down.
Finally, true to his nature, Cade whistled and told everyone to quiet down. He turned to Jack, a grin on his face. “What’s the story? Where is she? Why are you here without her instead of Claiming her?”
Of course Cade would ask these things. Because Renee was Jack’s mate, she’d also be one of Cade’s Pack, wolf or not. Cade took care of people, he had been born and bred to be an Alpha and Jack was his right hand. They’d been through a lot together, had forged a family of wolves there in Boston and all across the country with Cade at the helm. He was proud to be part of the new future they’d all forged when they’d taken Warren Pellini out five years prior.
“She doesn’t know. About being my mate. It’s complicated. No, don’t get that look, it is.” Jack shrugged. “She’s human, well, more than human, she was dripping magic. I’m pretty sure she knew I wasn’t human, though. She was attracted to me, we had amazing chemistry, but she’s with someone.” He sighed. “So I had to let her walk away. For today anyway. As for where she is, at her house, I’d wager. Hardest thing I’ve ever done, watching her turn a corner, knowing she was going to someone else. Yeah, that part.” He sped ahead, cutting off the question he knew Grace would ask.
“It wasn’t a man she smelled of. She had cat on her skin, in her hair. She lives with this dude, I can tell that much. I don’t know why though, cats aren’t one for casually living with partners.”
“Well what did she say exactly?” Grace’s frown was brief, but Jack caught it anyway. He wasn’t sure if it was that he’d found someone or if she worried about him getting hurt or a combo of all those things.
“I asked her out, she told me she was with someone and said no. But I know, my nose knows, she was interested.” He didn’t go into any more detail with kids at the table but her body had warmed to him; he scented her arousal, it wound around him, tying him to her, needing more of that scent. “She’s mine, but I’m going to have to show some creativity with this woman. I have to approach the situation carefully and be strategic.”
Grace exhaled, her impatience clear. Despite her size and how quiet she usually was, she was just as much an Alpha as Cade. Jack hid his smile behind his steepled fingers. “Can it be that she’s mated to this cat? Well, no it can’t. Of course it can’t or he wouldn’t have connected with her that way.” She put more potatoes on Cade’s plate and added some more meatloaf to Dave’s. “Too bad for the cat then. No one else can have her. She’s Jack’s mate and that’s that.” She decreed it, so it must be true. He loved that about her.
“Of course she is, beautiful.” Cade looked to his wife. “From what I understand about big cat shifters, they don’t mate. At least not like wolves do. They imprint on their partner, a sort of chosen mating rather than the genetic mating we have. Maybe that’s it, in which case, well, let’s not go there. It’s probably that they’re together, but not imprinted. Makes it easier, and yet harder for Jack, I’d wager.” Cade tipped his chin in Jack’s direction. “I’ll call my grandmother to see what she thinks.”
Lia Warden was an elder of the Cascadia Pack and had been the Alpha before Cade and then her other grandson, Lex, took over. After years of knowing the woman, Jack was convinced she also had some serious magic-type mojo. She knew a hell of a lot about shifters and their history so she’d most likely have some answers. Answers would be good, give him more tools to blow Renee’s house down.
“Thanks, Cade.”
“I’ll call after dinner. With the time difference she should be home from her afternoon volunteer gig at Gabby’s school by then.” Gabby was one of the Warden nieces, the daughter of Cade’s brother, Lex, and his mate, Nina. They also had two sons and a house that was chaos personified. Jack wasn’t sure how Lex handled his bossy but undeniably sexy wife and all those high-energy kids, but the Alpha of the Cascadia Pack seemed quite happy with his lot in life, and that was what Jack wanted. Needed.
* * *
Galen heard her key in the lock and put his book down, moving to meet her in the entry. He missed her, loved this time every day when they came together after work and relaxed.
His day had sucked. He’d been in and out of court, had a million phone calls and emails and an argument with his brother. Seeing Renee’s smile as she came through their doorway eased it all away. Soothed his cat while comforting the human on the outside too.
The setting sun came through the bank of windows on the far wall, highlighting her hair, bathing her with warm light. She never looked away, even as she dropped her bag on the table near the door.
“Something smells good.” She came into his arms where she belonged and nuzzled his neck. Gooseflesh broke over his skin and his cock strained against the zipper of his jeans. How perfectly she fit there, made fo
r him. “Mmm. That’s much better. Hi. You smell way better than anything else I’ve ever smelled. Why is that?”
He kissed the top of her head and tipped her chin. Every freckle, the sweep of her lashes, the curve of her cheeks, the dimple just to the left of her luscious mouth—all burned into his memory.
“Because I’m yours, right down to the bone.” He inhaled her, tasting her day. The sharp scent of wolf wafted from her ever so faintly. “Why do you smell like wolf?” He wrinkled his nose as his cat puffed up, affronted by the scent on its mate.
Her nose wrinkled for a moment as she thought. “Wolf? Um, I don’t know. I wasn’t near any animals but you today.” She grinned.
“Funny. No, a shifter, not a full wolf. It’s just a thread of scent. You probably brushed against something at the shop, not knowing. There’s a Pack here in Boston, the Pack, if I remember correctly. I’ve met the Alpha male, Cade Warden.”
“Werewolves? Awesome! I’m totally going to keep my eyes open from now on. What else is real? Mummies? Zombies? Vampires?”
He sent what he hoped was a quelling glance but given her smile, he doubted it. “You worry me sometimes. Vampires, yes. I don’t think so with mummies and zombies. Though technically, I suppose mummies exist in that there are bodies preserved after death that way. None of that matters though, Renee. Whatever exists will be something to approach carefully or not at all. Stay out of trouble.” For such a small and utterly competent person, she did manage to get caught up in stuff from time to time.
“I can’t tell you what it does for my ego that you seem to think I’m one of the Scooby gang.” She rolled her eyes. “I did totally plow into some dude as I left the shop today. Made him drop his groceries all over the place. That’ll teach him to get in my way. And yet, I still got it. He asked me to dinner.”
“Hmpf. You sure do.” Galen kissed her cheeks, the tip of her nose and then settled in, his mouth against hers, kissing her slowly but deeply. He swallowed her sigh, relished the way she molded her body to his. She smelled of him. Of their home and their bed, of her shampoo and of magic. She tended to deny that last bit, but someday she’d have to finally admit what she possessed was more than knowing when the phone would ring.
She also held the scent of outside. Of the store, a bit of coffee, sometimes the green vibrancy of wheatgrass or the bite of mango. He wanted to rub himself all over her body, knew she’d not only let him, but she’d love it.
“I know that smile.” She tossed her scarf on the peg near the door and followed with her sweater. “That smile means I’m going without dinner.” One of her eyebrows rose. “Not that I’m complaining.”
He laughed and took her hand. “One more reason to love you. Much as I’d love to strip you naked and have my way with you for a few hours, you should eat. I know you probably went all day without taking a break.” Knew too that many considered her flaky or flighty but she lived in her head a lot. Not because she wasn’t capable, she was. Not because she wasn’t intelligent, she was one of the smartest people he knew. But because Renee saw the world in ways most people never could. It made her more beautiful to him, but he knew she struggled to accept it in herself.
“Look at it this way, I’ll just have more energy for the sex afterward if I eat.” She pulled away to poke her head into the fridge, grabbing two cream sodas and some glasses with ice. “I had a smoothie and some yogurt for breakfast and heaven knows I’m not in any danger of wasting away.” She indicated her body, the body he adored and knew every dip, every fall and curve, knew her scent, knew her taste.
“Your body, mmmm.” He hugged her again before drawing her to the table. “You are rich and warm. You’re cookies from the oven, brownies with nuts. You are succulent and delicious. If that’s because you like to have two pieces of pizza instead of one, I’m just fine with that. I love your body so get eating.”
They sat side by side at their kitchen table, spooning up pasta salad and sharing the sandwiches. They’d bought the loft three years before and had spent a lot of time making it their own. The pictures on the walls, the art, the couch so heavy and cumbersome to move he’d toss it out the fucking window before he’d move it again—these things were a tangible marker in their history.
He reached toward her, twirling a curl around his finger. “How was your day other than mowing down an unsuspecting dude?”
“Hey, he was way bigger. I totally took his apples to the pavement.” She sniffed and took a sip of her soda. “The usual. Phoenix—” she paused at the ridiculous fake name her stepmother had adopted, “—was all agitated about some letter she got. Dad came in and took her shopping and to lunch or something because she was calmer when she returned. Calmer than her normal state of up my assery, anyway.”
“Maybe he bent her over something. Always works to get you to relax.”
Her nose scrunched up. “Ew. Galen! If you’re still keeping sex on the menu for later, the comments about my dad and stepmom having sex need to stop.”
“We all got here somehow, babe. We all got here somehow.” He winked, knowing she’d get all ruffled up about it.
“Don’t make me stick my fingers in my ears and start singing. How was your day? Did you kick ass?”
“I always kick ass. Work was work. Hit my hours target for the year so that’s a load off.”
“Kinda stupid to have a billable hours requirement when the damned firm is all family.” She stole a pickle from his plate, but he’d put an extra out there specifically for that reason so he let it pass.
“Still have to pay bills. Even with family.”
“Things improve with Max?”
He sighed and she put her head on his shoulder briefly. Galen was very close to his older brother. The two of them were a lot alike, which was the reason they fought all the time. Max also filled the spot of Renee’s biggest fan within the jamboree; he defended her, sang her praises and generally adored her. In that, they were in total agreement. But they were still brothers and they acted that way. “After I punched him and broke his nose I know I felt better. Don’t know about him though.”
She tsked. “Galen. You two have to stop maiming each other. It’s very hard to get blood out of your shirts for one thing. For another thing, you’re not supposed to act that way with your own brother. He’s single, it’ll be harder for him to land himself a woman if he’s bruised up and battered all the time. If I had a sibling I would not waste time by punching him or her in the face.”
“You do know that when you get all judgy on me it only turns me on, right? All that moral indignation is hot. You’re like a schoolteacher I want to rumple and seduce into doing naughty things.”
She blushed, even as she laughed. “You know I’m right.”
“Babe, I know anyone else in the jamboree will definitely think twice before challenging me, Max or my father because they know we will kick their asses if they try. They’ve seen me fight. They’ve seen Max and my dad fight. This is shifter stuff, you know human rules don’t always apply to us.” He shrugged. They were not humans, they didn’t solve family issues the same way and he wasn’t going to apologize for it.
“You guys really need to call yourselves something tougher than jamboree,” she teased. “A gang. Oh! A cabal!”
He rolled his eyes at the familiar joke. “We don’t need a tough name. I can rip someone’s throat out before they can draw a breath. We could be sparkly unicorns and still eat your face off.”
“I still say if you call yourselves the Hell’s Jaguars or something you’d be even scarier. Better PR. As for eating? I like my face, Galen. But you can eat other parts of me.” She blinked her eyes, smiling innocently. Part of her allure, the naughty girl down just a few layers.
“But you do taste so very good.” He looked her up and down again. “Are you wearing a bra?” he asked, distracted by everything about her. She called to him, he
r magic, the way she sounded, the corkscrew curls she hated but wore better than any woman ever could. The combination was like catnip.
Her eyes darkened. Her eyes were the first thing he’d noticed about her back when he’d met her four years ago. Amber with flecks of gold and brown. In some light they looked hazel. Her combination of features, if they’d been separate on other people’s faces, would have been odd. But on her it worked. There was no one like her in the world.
Faster than he could put his glass down and move to her, she was in his lap, straddling his body, and those delicious breasts were at eye level.
“Now you can see for yourself.” She arched into him, her hands braced on either side of his shoulders.
“Like a present to be opened up.” Taking his time, he slid his hands up her torso, over the curves he loved.
She was his. That knowledge filled him, gave him purpose and satisfied him down to the bone.
He licked over the upper curve of her right breast. A breast high and proud, and as he’d thought, totally unrestrained by a bra. Crossing her arms, she reached down and grabbed the hem of her shirt, pulling it up and over her head, tossing it to the side.
The way she moved on him, grinding herself against his cock over and over as her fingers wove through his hair, drove him crazy. Magic bled from her, washed over him, inciting his senses.
Without pause, he stood and began walking to their bedroom. While he wasn’t opposed to fast and hard on the dining room table, he wanted to take his time that night. He wanted to lay her out and love her from head to toe and back again.
“I love you, Renee.” He put her down and she finished pulling the rest of her clothes off, her eyes never leaving his body.
“I love you too.” She held a hand out and he took it, following her body down to the mattress.