“I think so too. For us, fate is strong. You’re meant to be with this woman. Until then, well I know what it’s like not to have your mate. I know what it feels like to have such strong feelings about my anchor. I’ve noticed the difference in you. You’re relaxed, satisfied. It’s good to see.”
“It’s good to be. I know it’s partly the mate connection, but she’s exceptional. I’ve never met anyone like her.”
“I remember the moment Grace walked into the room when I saw her the first time. Before I got close enough to scent her, I wanted her. I was fascinated by her. I still am. The truth is, Jack, no one else is like her. No one can be. And while she’s not the only female on the planet you’d have a potential mate connection with, she’s the one you met first. You’re meant for each other and she is unlike anyone else you’ve met or ever will.”
He totally got it. Jack had heard the mated males talk about this stuff and it seemed natural enough, but he couldn’t have understood. Couldn’t have known the immensity of what it meant to man and wolf to find home in another person. Until Renee. Now he did.
“Yeah.”
Cade put his cup of coffee down and looked to Jack with a raised brow. Jack sat back and waited for it. “My grandmother called a few minutes ago while you were out.”
He only barely resisted the urge to lean forward. “Look at you with that casual taunt.”
“All those years living in the same house as Nina honed my skills.” He grinned and Jack didn’t doubt it. Nina Warden, Cade’s sister-in-law and anchor bond, was a sharp—tongued woman, no doubt. And gorgeous. Lex Warden was a brave and lucky man.
“Okay, consider yourself successful. I’m curious, what did she say?”
“She said you should call her at one our time since she was going to an early yoga class and then to breakfast with my mom. Now I have the image of my grandmother in Lycra in my head, so you should know how much I’m doing for you to facilitate this. She did tell me to relate to you that it was possible for you to mate with Renee, even if she was already imprinted by this cat. She said some other stuff but it was like five in the morning there so she’ll fill you in more when you talk to her.”
Jack breathed a sigh of relief. It was possible. The next hurdle would be whether it was probable. It was no small thing if she’d imprinted with this other male.
So he’d wait to talk with Lia and then he’d go see Renee.
Galen woke up, his arms around Renee, the need for her, as always, thrumming through his veins. Her scent, sleepwarm, sexy and his, rose to his nose and he buried his face in the softness of her curls.
She stirred, and he didn’t push, just waited for her to wake up on her own. While Renee was one of the sweetest women he’d ever met, giving and compassionate, she was not a morning person. He’d learned that the hard way. She was a sexual being, but if he pushed her to wake up too fast, she’d pop him one. Something he admired, something that made her an awful lot like the female shifters he knew.
Though he didn’t share that fact with her. He knew there were problems with some of the females in his jamboree. His sister, Beth, was one of the females who reacted most strongly. Luckily his mother adored Renee, as did many others. But there was jealousy and no matter how kind Renee had been, they just didn’t want to be won over.
He’d warned them all off and it reminded him he needed to talk with his parents about Beth and what she’d done earlier in the week to Renee.
“You’re all bunchy,” she mumbled, not moving her face from where she’d buried it in the pillow.
“Bunchy?” He smiled. “Here?” He rolled his hips, grinding his cock into her thigh.
“Mmmpf. Not.” She rolled to face him, slowly opening her eyes. God she was beautiful, even when she frowned and looked slightly dangerous. “Look at you. It’s ridiculous for anyone to look as good as you do in the morning. Makes me grumpy.”
He risked life and limb to steal a quick kiss and laughed at her expression. “Babe, you’re gorgeous. Every morning I want to eat you up.”
“Hmmm. Don’t move.” She got up and headed into their bathroom. He heard the water run and the sound of teeth being brushed.
The sun was beginning to pinken the sky as she came back to him, sliding under the blankets and into his arms.
“Better?”
“As better as it can be at this hour. You never told me what was making you bunchy.” Very perceptive eyes took him in.
“You never defined bunchy for me, babe. When you use Renee-speak, I need a dictionary sometimes.”
“You’re tense. Not so much now that you think you’re getting some morning sex, but earlier. Your muscles were bunched up.”
“Am I?”
“Bunched up?”
Leaning in, he drew a deep breath, his lips just touching her throat. His system went into overdrive. “Getting morning sex.”
“You’re going to get your junk punched if you don’t tell me what had you all stressed out.”
“God you’re sexy when you’re like this.”
She pinched his side, not to hurt, but to get his attention. He tried to not laugh, he really did, but she was a tiny scrap of a woman who wouldn’t even let him kill a bug in the house if he found one. Fierce, yes, but did he worry about her ever harming him on purpose? Not so much.
“Let’s fuck. That’s much nicer. I was just thinking about family and work. Nothing earth shattering.”
“Why do men think they can do that and get away with it?” She threw the blankets back and got out of bed again. Damn, this was not the way he planned to spend his morning.
But before he could say anything else, she spun and glared his way. The beast within sighted its mate, a female that despite being physically small, was not small in her ferocity or her ability to bring the pain should she need to.
The moment stretched and the anger left her stance. “How do you do this to me?” she murmured, moving back to him, taking his hand and letting him draw her into bed once again.
“Because I’m awesome?”
She rolled her eyes, but didn’t make any move to leave again.
“Because you know I adore you and your strength? Because I know you and I love every part of you?”
“Yeah, that might be it.” She leaned forward and laid a kiss over his heart. “Beating for me?”
“Since the first moment I laid eyes on you.”
“How much time do we have before you have to rush back to work?”
“You do realize,” he began as he looked at the clock on her side of the bed, “how difficult it is for me to not give my sexy smile of triumph.”
“No limit to your classiness.”
He didn’t feel classy when her hand found his cock, squeezing just the way he liked. He rolled, pinning her with his body, and she wrapped her legs around his waist.
Hot and wet. He closed his eyes against the rush of pleasure as his cock brushed against her pussy. So damned good. A groan rumbled through his body, echoing through his bones.
“I love when you make that sound,” she whispered, a sly smile on her mouth. “Your cat knows me.”
He laughed, a sound swallowed in another groan of delight as he sank into her body, surrounded. “My cat does. You’re mine, babe. Cat and man, just one heart and you own it.”
“God you’re good at the words.” Rolling her hips, she took him deeper. “And this too. I don’t deserve you, Galen.”
He kissed her to silence the doubts he knew she bore about him. More from the place of seeing her involvement with him as keeping him away from what he was supposed to be doing. As if anyone in his jamboree, anyone but her, could see him the way she did.
The soft spaces of her body, the cadence of her breathing, the silky stroke of a stray curl as it brushed against his skin while he moved ove
r and within, all wove together, told a story he yearned to hear over and over.
Their early morning coupling wasn’t about sensuality. It wasn’t a slow seduction. It was hard and fast, bodies meeting, sliding in a slick of sweat, the ache of desire, the spice of their attraction hanging around them. Her nails dug into his sides as she came, her body clasping his with such heated ferocity he had no choice but to give in and climax.
When he walked out from their shared bathroom, she was ready to go, holding a travel mug of coffee and a breakfast burrito. “You don’t eat enough calories when you’re in court all day. I’ll know if you don’t eat it all so don’t try it.”
He took them from her after slinging his messenger bag over a shoulder. “I’m eating this before I get anywhere near the courthouse or I’d have to fight off those assholes I share parents with.” The coffee was dark and sweet, no milk. Just how he liked it. It was the perfect complement to the breakfast burrito with extra eggs and a bit of jalapeno. He indicated the food with a tip of his chin. “Spicy. Just like the woman who made it.”
“You already had sex, stop with the flattery. And not all of those assholes would care to have anything to do with me or my burrito, despite how delicious my burritos are.” She winked and grabbed her keys as they headed out the door.
He took another bite and groaned. “Babe, my family loves you. The ones who count anyway. I hate that this makes you so upset.”
“Get over it, Galen. Two of your siblings hate me along with about a third of your jamboree. I’m a cat-stealing human bitch, remember?” She shrugged, but he wasn’t fooled by her nonchalance.
Some days he really hated the politics he had to deal with. “You know that’s bullshit. It doesn’t matter what any of them think. I love you. I’m with you. That won’t change.” He looked at the spot on her shoulder he’d bitten less than an hour before. It lay beneath the soft sweater she wore, but they both knew it was there. He’d marked the other shoulder the last time and it was still there, fading but clear. After he marked her that way, she’d draw her fingertips over it, as if reliving the moment he’d given it to her. That simple gesture was more than if she’d tattooed his name on her forehead.
“That’s all that matters to me.” And she meant it. The weight lifted and he brushed a kiss over her mouth.
“Good.”
It wasn’t until they parted at their front stoop, her going one way and he another, that he remembered her call from the night before.
“Renee!”
She turned around, smiling, glowing with magic and love.
“You wanted to talk to me about the wolf? I’m sorry I forgot to ask you about it earlier.”
She skipped back to him, kissing his mouth. “You were kind of busy fucking me instead. Which, given how much you know I like that, is A-okay with me. I’ll talk to you about it tonight. We still on for date night?”
“You sure? I’m sorry I forgot. I came in so late and then this morning, well you distracted me with all that naked skin.” Need for her hit again and he pushed it away, focused on whatever she’d wanted to talk about. “I want to hear it.”
“I know you do.” Her smile softened to one he saw rarely, tinged with sentiment he knew was genuine. “I know you do,” she repeated. “But right now I’ve got to get to work and so do you. It’s not urgent. I just wanted to bounce a few things off your super brain.”
He hugged her. “I’ll be home by six or so. We can talk while I’m making dinner.”
“Good. And then you can tell me what the hell is going on with your family that you wake up tense. Since it has to do with me and all.”
He knew she’d be back to that at some point. She was a bulldog about that stuff. “I’ll see you tonight. Be safe today.”
“I make coffee and smoothies, what could possibly happen?”
“I don’t know. Darlin’, you know I love you, but trouble finds you wherever you are. I just want to be sure to be there or have you surrounded by people when and if it happens.”
She rolled her eyes and flipped him the middle finger as she blew him a kiss with her other hand and sauntered away. “I love you too. Don’t look at my ass, pervert.”
Chapter Five
“Running late this morning?” Susan/Phoenix asked as Renee came in through the back door. She was actually half an hour early, but that wasn’t the point at all.
Instead of the retort burning her tongue, she ignored her stepmother and began to set up. Which of course wasn’t what Phoenix wanted so she came over.
“You can’t just come and go as you please, you know. Just because you’re my daughter you can’t get away with this sort of thing.”
Renee looked up after she’d set the first carafes of coffee to brew. “Why are you trying to pick a fight? In the first place, I can just come and go as I please. I don’t work for you, I rent space from you. In the second place, I’m not late, I’m half an hour early, something you’d know if you showed up here before eleven every once in a while. Lastly, you are not my mother. Now, kindly get the fuck out of my face.”
Phoenix paled a bit, not used to Renee defending herself, especially not via the F word. “I’ve told your father we were too permissive with you. You don’t show any respect for all I’ve done for you. Your mother didn’t raise you, I did!”
“What do you want from me? I am grateful. I appreciate all you’ve done. But that doesn’t give you a license to attack me when you get bored. I’ve never done anything to you. I always behaved. I got good grades. Nothing ever seemed to make you happy.”
“You didn’t always behave, did you?” The menace in Susan/Phoenix’s voice shook her, gripped her somewhere deep and she felt lost for a few moments. Until the anger rushed in to replace the fear.
Renee tried to calm the storm of emotion riding her system, especially when the books on a nearby shelf began to shake and the window to her right began to rattle. Times like these, she realized she was more than just a woman who knew the phone would ring. And times like these, she hated that she didn’t understand it, wanted to be normal, to have a normal life.
“Get yourself under control. The devil has you, Renee. You get it from her people, I know. Resist it.”
That was all Renee needed to hear to come back to herself. She sighed and looked back to her stepmother. “Go away. Oh my God! I don’t want to deal with you. You got what you wanted, I’m upset. Happy? Go away! I’m going to have customers soon and I need to get things prepared.”
Her stepmother huffed a breath to let Renee know just how abused she’d been, and stomped off. Probably to call Renee’s father, who wouldn’t stand up for Renee. She knew he cared about her, knew he did what he honestly thought was best in getting a woman to take the place of her dead mother. But it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t the same as a mother who loved her. Susan hadn’t even really been a very good babysitter, though Renee didn’t want to believe the woman hated her or wished her ill. But to Susan, Renee was just in the way.
Rather than wallow, she just got on with things and moved beyond those people and events she couldn’t change. She didn’t remember a whole lot about her mother, but what she did, she cherished, held onto in her heart. That’s what counted.
She had Galen. She had Galen and his parents, both of whom were so very good to her. Loving and kind and made it clear they knew she was good for their son. The rest of his family and the other cats in the jamboree fell all over the place. Some hated her, some loved her, most didn’t care one way or the other.
It was enough, though. It was enough that she was loved and cherished.
And yet, there was an empty space inside her.
Luckily, the day was busier than most, leaving very little time to obsess on her stepmother’s outward aggression. As she worked, Renee figured she had that month’s expenses now taken care of, which always ga
ve her a sense of accomplishment. It seemed to please Phoenix to make cracks about Renee being a kept woman. And while Galen’s salary made hers look like pocket change, she paid her own damned way in the world.
She wondered, idly, while she sliced bananas for a smoothie, where Jack might be that day. And then felt guilty that she’d been thinking of him. She loved Galen, so why was she even thinking about anyone else? It wasn’t as if she planned to do anything, wasn’t even as if she wanted to do anything. It was a crush maybe. Something riding the line between like and crush. That was it.
She really wished she’d had the chance to run all this by Galen. Certainly, his way of spending their time before they both had to rush off to work was far more enjoyable than a discussion would have been. She smiled as a shiver worked up her spine at the memory of his teeth on her shoulder, marking her.
She touched that spot, the first place he’d ever marked her two years before. Each time he did it, it lasted longer. Now that they’d imprinted, the mark would last at least a month before beginning to fade. The mark wasn’t a casual-sex thing, he did it the same way all male jaguar shifters did. He did it to claim her, to imbue her with his scent, the tattoo of his bite. When they were with his family, she wore sleeveless dresses or shirts, to show it off, to let them all know who she was to him.
What she felt when he marked her that way wasn’t something she could easily put into words. It was a wedding ring, a declaration of his connection and commitment, it was sexy and caveman all at once, wrapped up in caring. It made her feel cherished and cosseted. Possessed but not owned.
She could think about the deliciousness that was Jack Meyers all she wanted, but she knew that’s all it would ever be. Flirting and thinking. Never doing. Never, because she had everything she wanted and would not jeopardize it. Even if she had the very strong feeling he was connected to something bigger. What or why, she didn’t know.
As if her thoughts had conjured him, she looked up and caught the light glinting off the blond hair. Their gazes met and he smiled, sending heat to her toes and a fresh wave of guilt rolling through her.