Jamie's Cherub

An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

www.ellorascave.com

Jamie’s Cherub ISBN # 1-4199-0306-3 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Jamie’s Cherub Copyright© 2005 Gail Faulkner Edited by: Mary Moran. Cover art by Willo. Electronic book Publication: November 2005

This book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 443103502. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

Warning: The following material contains graphic sexual content meant for mature readers. Jamie’s Cherub has been rated E–rotic by a minimum of three independent reviewers. Ellora’s Cave Publishing offers three levels of Romantica™ reading entertainment: S (S-ensuous), E (Erotic), and X (X-treme). S-ensuous love scenes are explicit and leave nothing to the imagination. E-rotic love scenes are explicit, leave nothing to the imagination, and are high in volume per the overall word count. In addition, some E-rated titles might contain fantasy material that some readers find objectionable, such as bondage, submission, same sex encounters, forced seductions, and so forth. E-rated titles are the most graphic titles we carry; it is common, for instance, for an author to use words such as “fucking”, “cock”, “pussy”, and such within their work of literature. X-treme titles differ from E-rated titles only in plot premise and storyline execution. Unlike E-rated titles, stories designated with the letter X tend to contain controversial subject matter not for the faint of heart.

JAMIE’S CHERUB Gail Faulkner

Dedication Sinclair, Char, Patti, Spence, Bonnie and especially John. All of you have added to my life in a special way through your assistance with this manuscript.

Trademarks Acknowledgement The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction: Cadillac Escalade: General Motors Corporation Cinderella: Disney Enterprises, Inc. Kevlar: E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company Mack Truck: Mack Trucks, Inc. Merry Maids: ServiceMaster Company

Jamie’s Cherub

Chapter One Jamie MacKelvin ambled into the lovely old colonial church and glanced around. It was the right address, but there was only one live body visible and she was dangerously perched atop a tall ladder at the front. The ceiling wasn’t vaulted as high as some of the more modern structures but, still, it was too high for the little human up there with no one holding her ladder. As he silently moved down the aisle, his appreciation grew for the enticing cherub industriously hanging filmy stuff up above the altar. There was a heavy scent of lemon wood soap wafting off the rows of pews, blinding his sense of smell for a few seconds before he neared her. She was ridiculously high to be leaning over like that. He would have frowned if the position hadn’t given him a look at the sweetest ass he’d ever seen. It was plump and round and, well, something about it required he squeeze it. Then she twisted to grab another do-dad from the tray on top of the ladder and he froze. As much from fear any distraction would startle her as from the heart-stopping view she now gave him. In that bent and twisted position, her waist disappeared and she was all tits and ass. Saints preserve us! Her breasts were all the ass was and more. Much more. The heavy, round globes strained her tank top and threatened to spill out as she grabbed her item and swung back around. Didn’t the little daredevil realize how dangerous it was to swing that much weight around up there? The ladder shifted and he used his inherent speed to silently race up the aisle to grab it. She leaned over toward the wall once more and continued her task. In the dash to the ladder the beast within inhaled deeply and knowledge exploded through his body. Mate! His unbelieving eyes widened in shock as he dragged in more air. Her passionflower scent was a full-bodied aroma that wrapped its heady fragrance around him with mouth-watering temptation. It kicked him in the groin as it unfolded into the long-searched-for promise. His hands closed over the ladder rails and he felt every molecule of his body expand. The urge to howl was barely bitten back as he looked up at the only female who could complete him. Searching for her had taken almost four human lifetimes. Finding her here unexpectedly rocked him to the pit of the dark wolf he was. The astonishing fact that she was endangering her life atop this ladder enraged him. She was the most precious female on Earth! Didn’t she know she had no business taking her luscious self up on such a dangerous thing as a tall ladder? From below, the visual she presented was lush curves and an indistinct face. However, her scent was all the identification he needed, the woman was his in every way that mattered. A priceless gift he’d treasure until he died. There atop that ladder stood every wish and hopeless daydream a lone wolf could ever have.

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Containing the whirlwind of emotion she ignited in him, he cleared his throat to get her attention in the most civilized way he could manage right now. She jerked as he’d expected and would have tipped the whole thing over if he’d not been holding it. “Oh!” Her breath whooshed out as she looked down at him and clutched the top of the ladder for balance. The tall man below her with shoulder-length, rippling black hair should have looked effeminate with his deep blue eyes and perfectly sculpted features. Long black lashes could be seen even from a distance as he gazed up at her. Emma almost felt dizzy as she gazed into the clear blue eyes those lashes framed. The stunning eyes were part of a face whose strong features were stamped with rugged male beauty. His square chin was tilted up, showing her the corded neck and a tuft of black hair curling out of his casual shirt. From her angle, all she could see was his face and impossibly wide shoulders. But it was enough to send a little shiver of appreciation through her loins. “What in the name of—” he was forced to pause as her beautiful face registered for the first time “—ah, what are you doing up there?” he demanded, muscles flexing to control impending catastrophe. It wasn’t really a strain for him, the power thundering through his body at that moment could have lifted a Mack Truck. Mate! His body surged with heat, need and overwhelming strength. She triggered every one of his primal instincts, producing a dizzying rush of adrenaline. Pressed against his belt buckle was the part of him that insisted it needed her most. He’d not been this hard in public since he was a pup. “Hello,” she beamed at him with a radiant smile. “I’m just finishing up here. You must be looking for Jack MacKelvin.” Cheerful green eyes twinkled in an angel’s face. Framing her expression was a mass of sable hair held back in a haphazard ponytail. Loose curls escaped the confines of her hair band, surrounding slightly flushed cheeks. A pert little nose sat above the most edible set of lips he’d ever seen. ‘Course it didn’t really matter what she looked like to a wolf. It was simply another thing to drive him insane at this point. “All the guys are already out back. The groom’s dinner is going to be a bar-b-que so they’re doing the pit. Just through there—” she pointed to the left “—and out the back door.” He stared at her blankly, absorbing her into his world. The wild rush of possessive anger he’d felt over his mate being perched atop a wobbly ladder seemed to fall out the back of his brain as he looked up at the adorable goddess. Her figure was full and the most hedonistic, sexy thing he’d ever seen. There wasn’t an inch of her that wouldn’t be a pleasure to squeeze, lick or pet. She’d melt into a male like thick cream flows over hard chocolate. Oh, Jesus, thinking about her and cream was a mistake. His body clenched even tighter as he floundered through that thought. “How’d you know who I was looking for?” he asked dumbly, mostly to keep her talking while he absorbed her scent and analyzed it. She was human, fully human. That

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was a shock, but immediately dismissed as unimportant next to the fact he’d found his mate. Nothing mattered when weighed against that. “You’re big, beautiful and male. You’ve got to be one of the groom’s men. As I said, they are all right through there.” She pointed again, her fingers flicking to move him in the right direction. Emma could appreciate all of the beautiful male below her, but he seemed a bit dense. What did she expect when he was a poster child for the “Mr. Wet My Panties” club? She had far too much to do to worry about Lost and Handsome’s inability to figure out direction. “Yes, ma’am. I won’t be going through there until you’re off this ladder.” He responded to her shooing motion. Tightening his grip on the ladder, he braced his legs as she turned again to pick up another pretty piece to attach to the arrangement over the altar. “Don’t mind me,” she called down as she worked swiftly. “This is almost done. Go on and have some fun.” Yep, dense, she mused to herself. “Certainly. As soon as you’re done,” Jamie responded, recognizing she wasn’t about to come down. Little angel had no idea he’d never be leaving her again. Intellectually he knew she didn’t have the ability to know him immediately as he recognized her. She chuckled and suddenly leaned back, rocking the whole thing dangerously again. “Suit yourself, young man. I’ll be a few minutes more though.” She felt amused, not threatened by the big, lovely lug holding her ladder. That was a huge step for her and Emma was proud of herself. It had been a long road to be able to appreciate a stunningly good-looking man and not feel the instant rush of terror at the sight of him. Jamie frowned as he realized her statement had that dismissive tone one used on someone much younger. His eyes tracked over her round bottom again and he rejected the urge to shake his head. She might think she was a few years older than he, but not so much that it mattered. Her figure was certainly lush as only a mature woman’s can be, but there was nothing old or tired about it. The beast within started pacing, a wolf looking up at treed prey. Her fascinating scent had changed as soon as she saw him and he knew she’d been honest when she called him beautiful. That was how she saw him. Her little rush of excitement confirmed it, but then she’d dismissed him somehow. Genetically, a Lykosapien could not dismiss attraction such as this, and it irritated him that her scent was normal again, as if he wasn’t even there. Not the response his body screamed for from its mate. Lykosapiens as a species had been present on the planet as long as humans. True shape shifters, they were a blend of wolf and Homo sapiens in every way. With the advent of Christianity and the ensuing hunts for devils, witches and all manner of evil, the species had blended into the human world for safety. Which didn’t mean one bit of their natural, instinctive responses had been blunted. The danger of being exposed had

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sharpened the animal side over the generations. Where once they’d been predatory, they were now fiercely dangerous if discovered. Survival of the pack depended on it. Methods of concealing species differences from humans had become many and detailed. Packs no longer lived in obvious pack formations, but moved around their vast territories in fifty to eighty year increments. That way they were always their own heirs, finally coming to claim the property of their ancestors. Since wolves could easily travel long distances fast, the members spread out over a hundred-mile radius when they moved. Never arriving in the vicinity at the same time, but always aware of every member’s location. No whisper of their existence was allowed to remain in human records. Save one, the one legend they hadn’t been able to control. It was so far from the truth it didn’t really matter. The human story of the werewolf was the result of a single wolf—a sick, deranged soul who’d been disposed of long ago. “I’m Jamie MacKelvin,” he stated, mostly to get her attention. “You are?” At the mention of his name, her head jerked down to look at him. That was much better, his ego crooned, except her scent changed again. Fear. Jamie frowned as he looked up at her now pale face. “Hey, don’t be afraid. I’d never hurt you.” He immediately tried to soothe her. The wolf within froze, eyes locked on what it wanted, aware that any move might spook the woman he could not afford to lose. She smiled tightly. “Sorry, can’t hide an instinctive reaction from your family, can I? You must be related to Jack?” Emma berated herself for not recognizing that immediately. It didn’t matter how dense studly might be, he was a wolf. She’d known she’d be meeting a lot of wolves at this event—it needed to stop being a betraying shock. The sniffy bastards knew too much about a person’s thoughts. She was well aware of how to cover her scent but hadn’t thought to use it today, expecting the day to be full of ordinary errands and mostly humans until tonight. “Yeah, cousin.” Jamie confirmed. “You obviously know Jack well. Why the fear?” “Emma Claybourne, mother of the bride,” she said, and turned back to her task. It was surprisingly difficult not to keep glancing down at him. He wasn’t helping her with the irritating questions, which were none of his business. Jamie watched her work, inhaling deeply to make sure he was right. The fear had lessened, but it remained a subtle spice to her natural passionflower self. “Emma?” his deep voice rumbled. “Does that work on your people?” “What?” she asked absently. “Ignoring the question. Do they let you do that?” He smiled as she glanced down. “Yes. It is called not prying into things that are none of your business.” Suddenly she shifted again and pulled back from her arrangement. “There, all done.” She surveyed her work critically a moment then started backing down the ladder.

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Jamie gripped the rails tightly as she moved down. With her back to him, his nose traveled up the back of her legs to nirvana. She didn’t pause, but he knew she heard him drag in a deep breath as her ass passed in front of his face. He actually felt dizzy as her concentrated scent invaded his body. It was pure female as he’d never smelled before. His mouth opened to breathe it in across his tongue. Oh, God. There wasn’t a scrap of male marker on her. She was single and had been for a long time. Relieved there wasn’t someone else on his territory, he closed his eyes and wallowed in her. His arms imprisoned her in front of him facing the ladder, he didn’t even realize what he was doing when his head bent to lick his tongue lightly across the soft spot where neck met shoulder. Her taste rocked him as much as her scent. His mouth instinctively opened wide over tender flesh to clamp down in a mate hold. “No,” a whispered moan stopped him cold. Fear permeated her scent and taste, wrenching him out of the feral reaction he’d been unable to control. It shocked him to find himself pressed to her back, rubbing his erection into that scintillating, luscious bottom. A deep growl escaped his chest as he fought the drugged condition his mate sent him into. Jamie released the ladder and jumped back. It was the only way to contain the beast rippling beneath his skin in protest to physical separation from her. She went to his head like the kick of aged whisky. Damn it to hell. She was shaking as she pressed into the ladder and clutched it desperately. He just knew her eyes were squeezed shut as she waited for pain. “I’m sorry, damn it, Emma, I’m so sorry,” he apologized quickly. “I didn’t mean to trap you. You affect me more than any female ever has, it was an instinctive reaction.” He tried to explain as she remained rigid with her back to him. Emma straightened slightly away from the ladder and squared her shoulders. Almost visibly inserting an iron bar down her spine as she grabbed the flannel shirt from the bottom rung and shrugged it on, clutching it closed over her breasts as she turned to face him. She felt almost sick with terror as she looked up at him. Knowing he knew it added to it. Damn! She cursed herself—wolves always take down the weak one. Be afraid and you will be given a reason to fear. That phrase repeated over and over in her brain. “Fine. You’ve had your sniff and taste. Now leave me alone, please.” She looked him in the eye as her body radiated controlled terror. The trembling, determined stance melted his heart as he saw in her face what she feared with courage and dignity. “Look, that was a one-time reaction,” Jamie assured her. “I wasn’t prepared for the smell and taste of you. It’ll never happen again, don’t let it frighten you.” “As you know very well, it does frighten me. So would you please just leave?” she calmly asked again. “You’re part of the wedding party, I assume, since you are Jack’s family. We have a long weekend to get through and I’d like to at least appear civil for Laura’s sake. She’ll know if I’m afraid every time you step in the room and it’ll upset her. So stop giving me a reason to be afraid and leave me alone.” She might be terrified

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of him, but he still seemed a bit dense. This was the very reason she’d stayed away from his kind. Almost all of them were just too used to women falling all over them. Spelling it out slowly for him, she waited for a response. Jamie frowned as that little speech unfolded in his mind. “Your daughter is one of us?” he asked just to confirm the puzzling facts. “Obviously, only half,” Emma snapped. “But she seems to have all the gifts. So back off and stay away.” Oh, he was a prize. Just went to show looks couldn’t buy brains, she thought in disgust. “You were mated?” he asked in amazement. Jamie hadn’t smelled even a hint of another wolf on her. The mate bond would have changed her scent to reflect her mate forever. Even if her mate died, his scent should have remained on her, marking her as his. There were no second chances for his species. Each only had one mate to procreate with. If a wolf was unlucky enough for his mate to be from a different species who didn’t mate for life or wouldn’t mate him, well, he was done. A Lykosapien never took chances with the mate urge when he felt it. Every one of them understood it was a male’s responsibility to secure the female. She was the only one who would ever enable him to father children. If he messed up and lost her, he could fuck the planet, but he’d never breed. “No,” Emma stated flatly, and clamped her lips shut as she looked up at the confused wolf. What more did the idiot need? She was certain as soon as he grasped the facts he’d lose interest. It might prick his ego when he finally understood that every human female on the planet wasn’t frothing and ready to lay down for him, but he’d get over it and move on. Her chubby self wasn’t of any real interest. His eager reaction was probably the same with every woman he managed to get close to. He was a very good reminder for her of what happened when you became careless. She knew she should have used the scent suppressor today, it was foolish not to. Spending the majority of her time with Jack and his family had lulled her into a false sense of security. “That’s impossible!” Jamie scowled. She scrambled his brains with her enthralling scent and taste. She purported to have had a baby by a wolf who wasn’t her mate. He suspected she was telling the truth, or what she believed to be the truth. There was no hint of lie or deception drifting around her. It was getting tough to keep up and he’d only known her a few minutes. “Apparently not.” Emma frowned and edged around him. “Are you going to cooperate this weekend?” she demanded as she gathered up her things. Jamie shook his head in an effort to clear it. He needed his attention on one astounding fact right then and to ignore the impossibilities surrounding it. This was his mate and she feared him. He didn’t have time to figure out how this might have occurred—except for the part that made her shake with terror when he touched her. That part he needed clarified quickly. Getting the information and soothing her at the

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same time was a combination he’d yet to figure out. Fuck! Elation, frustration and impatience seethed through him. Jamie grabbed the ladder and waited with the huge thing tucked under his arm. Holding the weight easily as she glanced at him and raised her brows. “Does that work with wolves?” Emma asked calmly, and picked up her basket of materials. Turning on her heel, she started across the podium. “What?” Jamie questioned, puzzled as he followed. “Ignoring the question. Do they let you get away with it?” Emma smiled as she mimicked him and her scent lost some of its bite. This was worse than she’d first thought. He obviously was a “special” wolf. His inability to follow the conversation actually made her feel sorry for him. Jamie grinned sheepishly to show her he got it. “Ah, no. I wasn’t ignoring you. I had several other things on my mind and forgot the question. Sorry.” He cleared his throat past the sudden constriction. Finding a mate was a monumental moment in a wolf’s life. He wasn’t sure what to do next. Being Prime Alpha made him demanding and dictatorial. A tactic that was exactly wrong in this situation. He’d never needed to work at attracting female attention. They usually paraded past him with tails in the air—if they had tails. If they didn’t, well, they tried real hard. Mate to Prime Alpha was about as high as a female could go. Bitches came from Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and, well, every continent, just to see if they were the one. Here she was, a prickly little human who would rather see him drop off the planet than let him touch her again. “Are you going to cooperate?” she gently asked again. “Ah, exactly what do you mean by ‘cooperate’?” he wanted to know as they exited the sanctuary through the side door. Coming to a closet, she opened it and deposited her basket there, grabbed her purse and motioned for him to store the ladder, then turned to face him. The reason he was the Prime Alpha was a combination of size and heritage. Heritage hadn’t secured him the position—strength and cunning had. His heavily muscled body towered over her five-foot-seven-inch person. He attempted to put a gentle smile on his features for her, but wasn’t sure he’d succeeded. She didn’t smile back as she had when he’d come in. “Promise me you’ll stay away from me. I don’t want Laura to get wind of how you affect me. This is her weekend and I will not let anything get in the way of that.” Emma continued. “If you say you will, I’ll relax. I know your family and they’ve never lied to me. I’m going to extend that trust to you, Mr. MacKelvin, just for this weekend.” Repeating herself slowly and using what she thought were simple words she tried to reach him again. He was a huge, muscle-bound problem. He didn’t seem able to control his wolf, which she understood now. It took the ability to reason to do that, so he became a hormone with no one home in the lighthouse. 11

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“Emma, I can’t stay away from you.” Jamie frowned as her fear spiked again. “Damn it, woman, I am not threatening you. I am telling you that I’ll be around wherever you are. I will not interfere with the wedding. “I’ll just help you as much as I can. You couldn’t have lugged that ladder back here. I’m a handy guy to have around.” It seemed wise not to explain why he couldn’t leave her. Perhaps she’d missed that part and would not make him explain it. “See! As soon as you said that you knew I panicked,” she said. “What do you think will happen when there is a crowd of your type around? They will demand to know what’s happening.” Emma blinked back tears as she stared up into the chiseled features of the most beautiful idiot she’d ever seen. “Mr. MacKelvin, I am begging you, don’t ruin my daughter’s wedding.” Once again she was becoming truly afraid. His simple mind was fixating on her. Jamie stared into those watery eyes and discovered the one thing that could destroy him, tears in the eyes of his mate. Physical pain shot through his chest—there was nothing he wouldn’t do to take the tears away. Swiftly Jamie dropped to his knees in front of her, gently grasping her trembling little hands, he held them tightly. Emma’s mouth sagged open at this shocking behavior. Even on his knees, he barely had to look up at her. She snapped her mouth shut and tried to back up. “Emma, look at me and listen very carefully.” His warm eyes gazed up at her with burning intensity. “I’m betting you know enough about Lykosapiens to know what I’m doing. Right?” “Ah,” she mumbled. “I’m not sure.” That was all right because the fear had eased out of her scent. She was puzzled, curious, but not afraid. Exactly what he’d hoped his desperate gesture would accomplish. He needed her willing to spend time with him, submitting was the most powerful thing an alpha could do. If she only understood a little of his culture, she would still grasp the significance of his posture. “Emma, I’m submitting. I’ll do anything you like this weekend except stay away. I’ll fetch, carry and even sit when you tell me to. The only thing I can’t do is leave. Use me. I know you probably have a million things to get done yet. From what I’ve seen of the human wedding, the mother of the bride is in charge. Right?” Emma nodded. “Then let me help. I’m at your service,” his deep voice trailed off as he held her hands and waited for acceptance. Now this development worried her. It was a total about-face and exactly the thing required to calm her. His assessment of the situation and pinpointing the action necessary to get what he wanted was the ability to reason on a high level. The confidence to behave in a manner contrary to his instinctive nature was a show of complete control of the wolf. It pointed to a lot more intelligence than she’d first attributed to him. Looking into surprisingly intelligent eyes at close range forced her to adjust her thoughts to a disturbing new possibility. Suddenly she recognized the

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suffocating air of power and control rolling off him in frightening waves. No, no, no, he couldn’t be! “Jamie, are you an alpha?” Emma asked cautiously, her use of his first name told him the extent of her surprise. “Yes,” he said flatly. “Isn’t it unusual for an alpha to, ah, submit?” she pressed. “Yes.” He remained on his knees staring up at her. “What does it mean? I know every physical gesture has a meaning in your culture. What are you really doing?” Emma asked suspiciously. “If you and I show up and everyone sees me ordering you about, what will they assume?” “That you’re my mate,” he answered quietly. Honesty was the only thing he could respond with as her beautiful green eyes studied him. Kneeling brought him that much closer to the origin of her alluring scent and he was having a hard time focusing. What he really wanted to do was lunge forward and bury his face in her crotch. Damn she smelled good, and she wasn’t even excited. She gasped and tried to pull away, his hands tightened marginally. Careful of delicate bones, he held her before him. Her head started shaking to negate the statement as her mouth dropped open again. “Emma, just listen to me a second. I’m an unmated alpha,” he forged on sincerely. “The second strongest drive in my DNA is to breed a family. Finding my mate ranks right up there with the need to breathe. There is nothing I will not do to ensure her happiness. I’m not asking for anything but the right to, ah…well…help you, be near you. I’m aware you’re not comfortable with the fact I’m a Lykosapien. Can you meet me halfway? Give us a chance to understand each other?” “No,” she stated firmly. “There is nowhere to meet halfway. I am not your mate, I am not going to be your mate.” Suddenly something else he said swam to the surface of her stunned mind. “What’s the strongest drive?” her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “To dominate,” he answered. “Look, we can settle that after the wedding, Emma. For right now, we need to agree to get through this. That’s all I’m asking. I can feel how important this is to you and I’m trying to comply.” “So what happens after the wedding?” she wanted to know. “Do you start dominating then? The last time a wolf came sniffing around me I ended up spending a month in the hospital and gave birth six months later. It wasn’t pleasant. I’m not about to go through that again. I’m not interested in that kind of abuse and I can’t imagine getting interested.” Even as she said it, she realized she didn’t believe he’d behave like that. Something in her actually trusted him. Perhaps it was the fact he was a MacKelvin. Her initial physical attraction was becoming irritatingly insistent now that she’d discovered he wasn’t a candidate for the padded-room institute. “After the wedding we work things out,” Jamie murmured in his most soothing tone. “What happened to you in the past is a mystery I am eager to unravel. But it is not as important to me as ensuring your happiness and security now.” 13

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For a breathless moment Emma considered that. Looking down at the male perfection promising to do whatever she wanted was a temptation of the worst kind. She’d never actually felt this level of attraction before. She was nearing forty and gaining weight in the mysterious ways of the over-thirty woman, this opportunity wouldn’t come too often again. At least one time she’d like to know what it felt like, what it was to be swept away in the passion of the moment. Jack’s family were the only Lykosapiens she had observed at anything resembling close range and she knew all the males were shockingly sexual beasts. She also knew Jack’s brothers seemed to exchange females for new models twice daily. That was barely an exaggeration—all the departing women appeared to have a dazed, satisfied expression on their faces as they allowed those rakes to move them out the door. That was a look she’d never worn—not even once. Yet, this was a stranger—a MacKelvin— but still a stranger. “How do I know you will keep your word?” Emma questioned softly. “What in the world would make me agree to this arrangement?” She was asking him to provide her with an excuse to trust him. Jamie knew this was the thin ice he’d been aiming for, but a wrong answer could be a fatal mistake. The only thing currently available to him was her apparent trust in his cousins. The wolf society demanded family support from each other much more than humans did, but still it was a tiny prick of irritation that she felt this way about others. “You said you’d be willing to extend the trust my family has earned to me. That’s all I am asking. I am not a stranger to you, Emma, not in the wolf sense. You know me a little through knowing them,” he stated calmly. Emma considered that. She knew it was true in the wolf society family was everything and every action of a wolf reflected on the family. “So you’re saying that all you want to do is fetch and carry for me?” Emma questioned. “No, I’m saying I’ll control the chemistry happening between us until the wedding is over and we have a chance to explore it together in private,” Jamie corrected. “Emma, I can feel your interest in me. We can’t pretend there is no connection between us.” “You mean you can smell it.” Emma blushed as she faced facts squarely. Jamie grinned a totally charming, sheepish grin that both apologized and acknowledged the truth of her statement. “Yeah, but hey, it’s not like you haven’t had just as clear a view of my interest in you, Emma. We are attracted to each other.” Oh, yeah, that was the biggest, freaking understatement he’d ever made. Mate heat was burning him up in ways that were physically painful, but she needed time. If he could be patient, everything he’d ever wanted would be his. Or he’d die trying, but no need to mention that little bit of wolf physiology. Emma couldn’t help smiling at his sincere face. He was so damn beautiful. So temptingly charming. Knowing his family was a safeguard in a way. But, heck, who wanted to be safe when First Class Beefcake was begging for a chance to seduce? She

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knew the heat between her legs was holding up a biological welcome sign, there was no hiding that reaction. “We’d date? Get to know each other? After the wedding I mean,” she clarified. “Emma, we will do all those things and when you’re ready, we will do the other things too. The order we do them in may shift some, honey, but I promise we will spend time getting to know each other. Nothing will happen that you don’t want to happen,” he assured her. “I give you my word as a MacKelvin.” Emma chuckled. “I’m not an idiot, Jamie. I know what you’ll be working on first in that little list. You are sure you can promise me that if I say ‘stop’ you will, no matter what?” He leaned closer to her and his smile became sensual as he murmured in an intimate bass tone, “I promise to stop, no matter what, if you say so but, Emma, I also promise you will never want me to.” Emma’s sexual tension skyrocketed. The carnal confidence of this wicked wolf floated around them in a smoky haze of desire that was melting her from the inside out. The fact he knew she’d just responded with a rush of liquid agreement was embarrassing and empowering. He’d inhaled deeply, and his eyes gazing up at her were fully dilated. He was actually panting over her. The power to affect him this deeply without doing or saying a thing was completely gratifying. “If I agree, I’ll hold you to that promise,” she whispered back, teasing on the same level he was by not clarifying which promise. Emma glanced up as they heard the outer door being yanked open and loud, laughing voices spilling into the back hallway. “Jamie! Get up!” she hissed as the voices moved toward them. “No. Not until you agree,” he said calmly. Her scent changed again, it was now a combination of shock and frustration. So she did understand what would happen if the other wolves saw this. “Yes, yes! Get up, damn you!” She actually stomped her foot in urgency. Making that concession in the panic of the moment made it so much easier, she discovered. A low chuckle reached her ears as he sprang to his feet and stepped back, his hand casually on the doorknob of the closet, it appeared he’d been shutting the door when his cousins strode into the room. Unable to control the instinctive move, Jamie stepped in front of Emma, placing his body between her and the other males. His face beamed at his younger cousins, but his family affection didn’t even come close to negating the need to protect and shield. Especially since she was so much weaker than his kind. The beast within snarled a warning he barely kept silent. “Jamie!” Jack exclaimed in pleasure as he strode forward with his hand outstretched and the other raised in the act of moving in for a manly hug. Jamie’s affable young cousin was a tall, lanky wolf who carried his strength in his massive chest and thighs like all of them did. Jack’s face seemed permanently painted with a grin that 15

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showed off the deep dimples in lean cheeks. His brown eyes were warm and welcoming as he strode forward to greet his cousin the Prime Alpha. Jamie moved to meet him. He supposed he would have anyway, but down in his soul Jamie knew it was to stop the other wolf’s forward motion into the vicinity of his mate. Damn, this unfamiliar need to shield and guard was complicated. The hug between them was brief but heartfelt with the required back pounding. “I wasn’t sure you’d make it.” Jack beamed at Jamie as his younger twin brothers Sam and Cable greeted Prime in the same fashion. Touching the Prime Alpha this way was the polite, human equivalent of acknowledging and showing submission. Jamie greeted each one warmly to show his acceptance and genuine family affection for the three pups. During the greeting, Jack stepped over beside Emma and swung an arm around her shoulders. “I see you’ve met Emma.” He grinned at Jamie who turned to face him just then. The smile was wiped from Jack’s face as Jamie stiffened. The two other wolves froze as shockwaves of intense aggression washed over Jamie and a low growl curled his lip back. His head lowered and eyes glowed in warning. “Hands off my woman, NOW!” The words were barely intelligible around the menacing sounds emanating from Jamie. His massive body tensed as his hands curled slowly into fists at his sides. The action told every wolf present that he was controlling the beast with effort. Jack dropped his arm and stepped back swiftly, shock and anger flashing across his face as he glared at Prime Alpha. “Your woman? What the fuck are you talking about? This is Emma, my mother-in-law!” Jamie pulled back instantly, the rumbling stopped and his hands relaxed. Breathing in deep and hard, Jamie looked down at Emma’s pale little face and grimaced. Fear was flowing off her in suffocating waves. Immediately recovering from the shock and easily overcoming his instinctive need to yield to the Prime, Jack glided back to Emma, placing his body slightly in front of her. The family right to protect her overrode every other instinct as Jack faced the panting Prime. Her fear would drive Jack to act instinctively if Jamie didn’t find a way to diffuse the situation his own damn animal nature had created. Jamie’s eyes darted back to Jack whose lip was beginning to curl in an aggressive snarl. “Calm down, pup. Emma is my mate. You don’t want to challenge me over her,” Jamie stated reasonably, his calm tone doing nothing to belie the underlying threat those words embodied. Mate challenge was a serious threat. Though Jamie desperately didn’t want to ignite the situation, he allowed the young wolf to feel his willingness to take it to the only conclusion available if Jack didn’t back down. Jack’s face cleared and he looked down at Emma in gentle surprise. “Emma?” he asked softly, understanding and concern in his eyes.

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She shook her head no, but her gaze remained focused on Jamie. It was the weary look one uses when waiting for the deadly poisonous snake to strike, a horrified fascination with impending doom. The other two wolves in the room both felt the need to clear their throats and started to shuffle. Amusement at the Prime Alpha was a dangerous thing. Cable turned away in a coughing fit that Jamie didn’t much appreciate. Ignoring both of them and Jack now that the threat was past, Jamie focused on the one individual he needed more than the air he breathed. “Emma, I’m sorry,” Jamie cajoled softly. “I needed to explain to your son-in-law quickly. Our instincts, both of us, would require a fight to the death. You understand my wanting to avoid that, right?” Emma remained slightly behind Jack, which was beginning to wear on Jamie as she nodded jerkily. His woman would look to him for protection. Never mind it was himself she was afraid of right now. That flash of complete physical aggression on Jamie’s face had triggered a past she hadn’t believed could control her anymore. Damn it to hell, she wouldn’t allow it to control her. This was her life and the damn past had eaten up too much of it already. Emma realized that Jamie had immediately controlled both himself and Jack with lightning-fast mental agility. He was a dangerous wolf, they all were, but he was also able to rise above it. Before her unfortunate experience, she’d always been secretly fascinated with bad boys. Probably what had gotten her in trouble in the first place. In any case, Jamie presented the intoxicatingly sexual mix of dangerous predator ruled by reason. Not to mention mouth-watering hottie who appeared to want her. Jack actually put his arm back to keep her behind him as he look into the Prime’s eyes. “Perhaps there are some things you need to understand, Prime,” he started carefully. “My mate will tell me what I need to know,” Jamie snapped, moving forward and extending a hand to Emma. “Come, Emma, I’m sure there are several stops on that list of yours. Why don’t we talk in the SUV while we do them.” The command was a mistake. Jamie knew it as soon as it left his mouth. A wolf bitch would have leapt to her mate’s side if he used that tone with her. Humans were more likely to slap. What she did now could humiliate him in front of the other wolves. He didn’t want to prove dominance of her to them. However, if she forced his hand, he’d have no choice. And it would be his fault. He needed to start thinking clearly, stop letting the base hormones thundering through his veins control his actions. Emma understood that Jamie had to use all the mate talk to calm Jack down. It wasn’t wise to tell an aggressive wolf that one planned to have a fling with his motherin-law. She almost snorted at the thought. The chemistry zipping between her and Jamie wouldn’t be unnoticed by the other wolves, so the mate garbage was required. Both of them knew it was something else, she assured herself.

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Emma gently pressed Jack’s arm down and looked up at him imploringly. “We have agreed to get along this weekend, Jack,” she told him. “I don’t want Laura upset. You understand, don’t you?” Jamie knew understanding flashed between Jack and Emma. It wasn’t so much their faces as the sadness in both sets of eyes as they nodded to each other. He struggled not to react to the knowledge his mate trusted another wolf completely. The pup was marrying her daughter, not her. Still his hand closed over hers possessively. Damn grateful she’d moved to him, in spite of his oafish behavior, Jamie tried to move them toward the door. “Wait just a second,” Emma said and looked back at Jack. “You called him Prime? Isn’t he related to you?” Jack smiled. “Yeah, a distant cousin to my father. But he is also Prime, Emma. The king, sort of.” “What! The king of what?” she demanded. Jamie needed her attention on him. He knew it was ridiculous, but he hated her turning to the pup for answers. “I am Prime Alpha,” he stated firmly. “It’s what I do. Not who I am to you, Emma. I’ll explain it in the SUV. I assume you’re on a tight schedule?” he prodded, hoping to distract her and get away from the audience. He didn’t relish his young cousins witnessing him floundering in front of his mate. “Oh! What time is it? I have to be at the florist at eleven and it’s twenty minutes away,” she wailed and started dragging Jamie down the aisle. She probably would have rushed off without him, but he still had her hand. Grinning at the success of his plan, Jamie happily followed. “Hey! Wait a second!” Jack called, and followed them through to the sanctuary— they were in the front foyer when he caught up with them. “There is something I need to tell you two!” he insisted urgently. Emma stopped, so Jamie had to as well. They turned back to Jack who shut the sanctuary doors behind him. Jack focused on Emma. “I didn’t want to mention it, Emma. But the situation forces my hand,” he continued quietly, as if fearing someone would overhear them. “What are you talking about?” she demanded impatiently as her schedule finally made an appearance in her hormone-swamped brain. Jack turned to Jamie. “She’s a breeder, sir. My family has kept her a secret for over twenty years now.” “What!” both Jamie and Emma exclaimed in unison. Overwhelming instinct flashed up in Jamie again, he grabbed Emma and shoved her behind him. A slow smile crept across Jack’s face. “If I wanted her, I would have had her long ago, sir,” Jack drawled quietly. “Stop with all the shoving!” Emma demanded. “What are you talking about, Jack?” she questioned sharply as she tried to see around the massive beast holding her behind him protectively from the only wolf she actually trusted in the room. It sounded

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suspiciously like a really bad thing to be and both males seemed to have their ruffs up again. “Once in a very great while, a human woman appears who can breed any wolf,” Jack explained. “If the word gets out, her life is hell. Every desperate male across the globe tries to take her. You understand why we insisted you change your name, and put out the word you died from the beating?” Emma stared at Jack in complete disbelief. It was obviously not a good thing. Oh, hell. “Why wasn’t I told about her?” Jamie cut across Jack’s explanation. Jack looked down in submission as the Prime before him literally expanded with fury. “Because the reason she hates and fears wolves is your brother, sir.”

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Chapter Two “No! Nels is dead! I killed him myself,” Jamie growled. “Oh!” Emma moaned in horror as she jumped back from Jamie. His brother? The bastard who’d raped her was Jamie’s brother? She’d just agreed to sex with a close fucking family member of her rapist? Oh, my, God!! What was she? A magnet for this type? Oh, yeah, Jack had just told her she was, in fact, a “breeder”. Her brain could only process that as one thing right now. Victim. Jamie turned to her and held out his hands, palms up in a pleading motion. “Honey, listen to me. He was insane. He was a brilliant doctor once, but he thought he could change things that should not be meddled with. He injected himself with a serum that was supposed to make him bigger, stronger. As the oldest brother, he could not live with being smaller than I. It twisted his mind even before he took the serum.” Damn it, just when he’d made some progress with her. Now the pup went and ruined everything. He was already furious that he hadn’t been told about her long ago. He would have been there, discovered her, protected her and had all those lost years with his mate. “Nels is not dead, sir,” Jack insisted behind him. “I scented him on her myself when we found her. He had left her for dead. I agree he’s insane. He beat her, raped her and then abandoned her. He didn’t know why he’d wanted her. No wolf in his right mind would have done that.” What beating? Damn it to hell!! Rape? A killing rage threatening to overwhelm Jamie as her painful past was laid out for him, but it was her fear that calmed him. Nothing was as important as her current situation and the emotions she experienced right now. “Jack,” Emma murmured quietly, fear was making her body tremble as she stared at the big man holding out his hands to her. Jamie hadn’t moved, his eyes locked on her were flickering in a scary sort of way. “If this is his brother, how do we know he is not insane as well? And why do you believe him when he claims to be my mate?” Jack sighed and shifted, looking down briefly. “Emma, Jamie MacKelvin is Prime Alpha. He is judge, leader, champion and ruler. His mental capacity has been tested many times by the challenges our race faces. He has never led us down the wrong path. I trust him implicitly. Not just as a family member, but as a wolf. Only you can know for sure if he is your mate. There is a way you can tell. But you have to be calm. As a human, strong emotions such as fear get in the way.” Emma glanced up at Jack and frowned. He was basically telling her she could trust Jamie MacKelvin. Singing his praises.

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Jamie took in a deep breath and dropped one of his hands. The information was coming at him hard and fast. Jack fully believed what he said. A wolf could not lie to another wolf—the scent of deception gave them away every time. So that meant the serum had had a few more “side effects” he’d foolishly not suspected. Jamie cursed as he realized the damage done because he hadn’t had the strength to pull Nels’ heart from his body and destroy it. His weakness, his inability to completely give up his love for his brother, resulted in the horror Emma had endured, the price she was paying even now. The soul-deep terror she radiated ripped at his heart. He took full responsibility for it now, and all she’d suffered in the past. Her pain and fear drove Jamie—he dropped to one knee before her. Jack stepped back and sucked in a breath as he tried to contain his shock. “Emma,” Jamie started softly, “it’s my fault this happened to you, baby. I’m so sorry. Had I been stronger, been able to remove my brother’s heart from his body and destroy it after our battle, your attack would never have occurred. I was a fool, totally consumed with my own pain at being forced to kill my brother. He was a brilliant doctor, a research scientist a hundred years ahead of his time. It never occurred to me that he’d survive somehow. That what he’d injected into himself might have side effects I knew nothing about at the time. We didn’t know about DNA testing back then. Only he knew about it.” “Oh, my God,” Emma gasped, her hand came out instinctively to the one he was holding up. “Of course, you couldn’t mutilate your brother’s body. No one could do that.” The compassion in her gentle heart swelled as her hand was enfolded in his. It was then that she felt it. Warmth seemed to glow within their joined hands. It zipped up her arm and engulfed her. “Oh!” she breathed as tingling pleasure crept through her. “What are you doing to me?” “I’m holding your hand, kneeling before you. Nothing else. What you feel is mate heat.” Jamie smiled at her. “No, don’t pull away. It can’t hurt you. I can’t hurt you. Don’t you see? I’d rather remove a limb than harm a hair on your body.” Her eyes darted to Jack who had turned away politely to gaze at the foyer wall. “Jack? Is that right? Is this what it feels like to find a mate?” “Ask the one who holds your hand, Emma,” Jack murmured, and looked down with a smile. Emma’s big eyes swung back to the big man before her. “Tell me,” she demanded shakily. “Yes, baby. If you feel overwhelmed, hot, out of control. Yes.” Jamie smiled up into his adorable Luna Wolf’s shocked face. Damn she was cute. She stood there staring down at him for a long moment, a little frown marring her features. He knew the emotions whipping through her were changing and turning as she processed the connection moving between them. Her scent told him how she wanted, denied, realized she still wanted. She was processing.

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Then she stunned him. Emma stepped closer to Jamie, placing herself on the inside of the leg that was up, her other trembling hand grazed his cheek as she gazed into glowing eyes. “Will you help me deal with it?” she asked seriously. “I’ve never wanted a man…ah…a wolf…um…oh, hell, I’ve never wanted before. I’m not sure what to do or how to handle it, but whatever this is, it’s not going away, is it?” The physical need of a full-grown woman is what this was, she decided. She’d been sixteen and an idiot when her life changed irrevocably. This time she was neither. This time she’d take what was offered and enjoy it. She knew fighting it would trigger aggression in the massive wolf before her, so why give him that? She wanted him, he wanted her—it could be simple and the ride of her life. So, okay, he was mainly attracted to her because she had some weird set of hormones. She could accept that for what it was. Wolves acted on scent more than sight, unlike human males. Studly here wasn’t going to care that she could stand to lose a few pounds if it was her hormones driving him. Why should she allow the past to destroy this opportunity to see what all the sighing and moaning was about when women talked about sex with one of these guys? “It will not go away, no.” Jamie’s other hand captured the one on his cheek and moved it to bury his nose in her palm. “I’ll be careful, Emma. But I will not go away. Nor will I allow anything to harm you. Sometimes that might get in the way of what you want to do. I need you to understand my motivation is not to restrict but to protect.” “Look, guys, perhaps you should have this conversation in private. There is something else I’ve got to tell you.” Jack turned back to them. Jamie rose to face Jack, Emma once again behind him. It was a reaction he’d eventually have to control with his cousin, but not yet. “Nels is back,” Jack stated. “I think he knows Laura is his daughter. After the few incidents in New England twenty years ago, we haven’t heard from or about him. Now suddenly there was a report of a werewolf two weeks ago about twenty miles from here. It was a full moon. He can’t control it then. We have to assume it was him.” Jamie looked down and spit out a vile curse, his head snapped back up as Emma clutched his arm from behind and leaned around him. “Jack! Where is Laura? You don’t think he’d…” Emma trailed off. “She is right where she is supposed to be, Emma. With my mother and Kendra, as well as several other wolves. She is perfectly safe. She is doing the last minute bride things like normal. She is never left alone. The guys and I are headed over there now. I was going to stay with you this afternoon—” Jack grinned “—but I think my protection would be unwelcome now.” “But…but what are we going to do?” Emma sputtered. Panic edged into her scent as she clutched Jamie’s arm and blindly leaned into him.

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Gently Jamie disengaged her fingers and swung his arm around her, gathering her trembling body flush against his. He held her shaking hands and nuzzled the top of her head as she shuddered and buried her face against his chest for the first time. She was turning to him, surrendering her worries and fears to his keeping and she didn’t even realize it. “We are going to have a wedding, love,” he murmured. “You have twenty of the most powerful Lykosapiens on the planet present. Nothing is going to happen.” Jamie looked up at Jack over her head, his eyes narrowed on the younger wolf. “You, your father and I are going to have a discussion later. I expect everyone knows what’s important here?” Jack shoved his hands in his pockets and grinned unabashed. “Oh, I expect we do,” he drawled. “You’re the one who’s late at this party.” “I’m the one who is going to have some questions, pup,” Jamie growled. “But for now, I expect my niece to be completely protected.” Jack’s smile turned into what could only be called a show of teeth. “I’ll take care of my mate. You have no concern there. Sure you don’t need another wolf with you this afternoon, old one?” The respectful term lost some of its normal luster as the younger wolf grinned. Jamie laughed softly and shook his head. Since he had yet to meet Laura, he’d forgotten this was her mate. His overwhelming discovery of his own mate drove the reason for being there from his mind. Knowledge of the threat to Emma, her daughter and the planet made him forget, and once again disrespect the young wolf. “I thank you for the offer, Jack. I think we can manage. You’re free of your responsibility to Emma and I thank you for her protection. Please, see to Laura. Greet the U.S. Alpha and his mate for me when you see your folks. Emma and I will finish up her appointments and see you at the party.” The slightly formal response soothed the ruff on the younger pup and told him his Prime saw him as the capable wolf he was. Jamie held out a hand to Jack. They shook and a real smile slid across Jack’s face. He slapped Jamie’s shoulder. “By the way, congratulations to both of you! This is awesome. Laura’s gonna be so crazy to meet you, Jamie, when she hears.” Emma straightened and smiled at Jack, she was still tucked into Jamie’s side protectively, but she was facing the world once more. “Please, Jack, let Jamie and I tell her. Do you think you can do that?” Jack laughed. “Sorry, Em. You know I can’t keep anything from her. No way she’d not know something big was up. You and Jamie are huge.” Emma blushed and looked down. “All right, I guess there is nothing we can do about that.” “Is that all, Jack?” Jamie questioned sharply. “If you have any other surprises, I want them now.” “Nope, that’s all, man,” Jack laughed. “See you two tonight.”

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“Good! Think I’ve had enough for one day.” Jamie grinned as he turned and moved Emma out the church door. “This way, love,” he murmured, indicating a large, black Cadillac Escalade. “What about my car?” she wanted to know as she allowed him to usher her to the large vehicle. “I’ll have someone deliver it to your house. For right now I want something I can fit in,” Jamie replied. “I’m betting you drive a compact.” Emma scowled as he lifted her into the passenger seat and leaned across her to snap her seat belt on. “How did you know?” Jamie loped around the front and swung up into the driver’s seat, immediately starting the vehicle. “Because you’re little and cute. You obviously drive something that fits you. Now where to first?” he asked with a grin. “I should be driving, you have no idea how to get around this city, do you?” she demanded, a bit exasperated with the highhanded way he’d taken over everything. She knew it might be unreasonable, but whatever it was she’d felt zipping between them was real. His willingness to submit in front of a witness was shocking but drove home his sincerity. She was tacking her overwhelmed emotions on anything she could find to be mad about. The last thirty minutes were almost too much to think about and it was all rushing up at her. Jamie smiled. “Are we starting all ready? Is this a problem?” “No, just drive, ya big bossy Alpha. I’ll tell you when to turn,” she answered in disgust. “Second street, on your right.” Emma turned to him belligerently. “If I’m your mate, how come you’re not all growling and furry? The first time Laura went into heat, Jack locked himself in a safe room for a week.” Jamie grinned as they came to the turn—in the turn he leaned over and took a quick lick at her neck just below her ear. It was done so fast she didn’t have time to react, except to gasp. “For one thing, you’re not in heat,” he stated calmly, once again sitting squarely behind the wheel. “Though you will be tomorrow if my guess is right. That will make it damn difficult for me to remain all polite and urbane to your guests. Second, I’m good at controlling the beast who wants to taste you in every nasty way possible.” Emma’s eyes widened to stare at him. “You can tell from a lick how close I am to ovulating?” “Nope, the lick was for the beast, he needs your taste in his mouth and that was the politest compromise we could come up with at this point. It’s your scent that tells me you are moving into heat. Been changing since I met you. On a physical level, your body knows who I am and what we are. It’s a common reaction for the female to go into heat soon after meeting her mate, a way to capture him irrevocably. Tell me how far we need to go down this street, honey,” Jamie asked serenely.

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“Ah…oh…Calabash Florist, right down there.” Emma point to the sign absently. Her head felt foggy as she assimilated his calmly imparted pronouncements. Yes, she felt inexplicably safe with him. There was definitely a part of her that accepted and reached for him in a way she’d never experienced before. The big wolf handling parallel parking with ease made her feel completely protected, a feeling she’d not experienced since her ignorant view of the world and its inhabitants had been ripped away from her. She realized it was this underlying feeling of trust in him that enabled her to believe what both Jamie and Jack had said about this situation. Blindly she opened her door and slid out of the Escalade, totally absorbed in shifting through her own puzzling reactions. Immediately he was at her side. He took her shoulders, forced her to stop and look up at him. “Emma, this is very important, listen to me.” His deep voice and burning gaze pinned her. “Please don’t get out of the SUV or leave a building until I take you out. I know you’re used to doing whatever you want, honey. I’m asking this because I need to check the surroundings. I have to know we’re secure. Can you do that for me? It’ll look natural to people when you wait for me to open the door, but it will give me that little bit of time to scent and scan.” Emma nodded dumbly. Jamie’s head swooped down, instead of the hard kiss she expected, his tongue glided softly across her lips, and then he was standing there smiling at her. “So get a move on, woman, aren’t we late already?” he chuckled into her blank face. “Yes, of course. Oh, my,” she breathed as they strode into the store. He was overwhelming her. His intense attention to her every move coupled with the unbelievable gentleness stirred her like nothing she’d ever imagined. Her body seemed to tighten and gush as he wrapped an arm around her. She’d actually started trembling by the time they made it to the front desk. It was like being a teenager dazed with her first boyfriend, Emma thought in disgust. The little florist greeted them brightly, her eyes eating the huge male with undeniable interest. Emma felt an unexpected surge of possessive jealousy, the arm around her tightened in a gentle squeeze and his lips were at her ear in what appeared to be a kiss. “Only you,” he whispered so quietly she almost didn’t hear it. She finished her business quickly and they were back in the SUV headed to the caterer. Emma had grabbed her cell phone and called ahead when she felt him grasp her other hand. As she talked on the phone, he brought her free hand to his lips and ran his tongue down her palm to her wrist. Pausing there, firm lips sucked gently and he lathed the quickening pulse with slow, wet licks. “What are you doing?” Emma gasped, as she flicked the phone shut. “Resisting the urge to lick what I really want,” he mumbled around the flesh cradled to his mouth, driving with one hand. Dark blue eyes fringed with those ridiculously long lashes glanced at her and he grinned. “Compromise, baby. I get to taste, you get to keep your panties on.”

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“You promised to wait to discuss this,” she said firmly, frowning at him. “How much do you know about a wolf mating, Emma?” Jamie asked as casually as he could. “Well, not much really. I’ve stayed away from the Lykosapien community. Wren insisted on it and I agreed wholeheartedly,” Emma confessed, referring to the American Alpha Wren MacKelvin, Jack’s father. “He and Jack found me after the…ah…after. They took me to the hospital. Now I know the reason they found me was because they were tracking the wolf who attacked me. Then I had no idea. “When I recovered enough to leave the hospital, it was Margaret and Kendra who picked me up. I knew Margaret was Wren’s wife and Kendra his daughter. They took me in. But always kept me separate from the pack. I don’t know what I would have done without their kindness. I didn’t understand until just before I delivered that my baby would be what her father was. “I would have gone crazy if it wasn’t for the MacKelvin family,” Emma confessed quietly, and then seemed to realize how far she’d digressed from the original question. “Anyway, as Laura grew, they made sure she learned her heritage and how to handle her gifts. Calling her gifted is an understatement. Even Wren and Margaret agree her accelerated development is unusual. She just finished med school and we’ve been lying about her age since she was fourteen. I don’t know what I would have done without them. She is a genius and there was no way I could have handled that when I was still a child myself. “But I still didn’t mix with the other wolves. I suspect what Jack just told us at the church was the reason. So I’ve never really seen a mating, or even asked about it beyond what my daughter has experienced. “Jack knew she was his mate early on. He has been her constant companion and nothing but sweet and gentle as far as I can tell. I do know it’s not always like that. Laura laughs at me sometimes and seems way beyond her twenty years when I comment on a scratch or bruise she has. I’ve figured not to ask. I know the wedding is for me, they are already married under pack law.” “That’s correct,” he murmured. “Do I turn here?” “Yes, then another three miles,” Emma answered. “Are we married according to pack law?” If the unbelievable possibility existed that the mate issue was real between them, she needed to know where they stood. Jamie chuckled and shifted in his seat. He held her hand pressed to his thigh under his large paw. “No, we aren’t considered married until you accept me. It has to be done publicly.” “Ah, okay. Then everything is all right and we can deal with what we want to do after this weekend is over.” Emma sighed with relief. Jamie scowled out the windshield as they pulled up in front of the caterer. Lord, this was tough. The new information Jack had given him pushed the situation in a direction he’d not anticipated. It was clear she didn’t fully grasp the significance of 26

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being a breeder. He was grateful for that, a clear understanding would have meant unimaginable pain for her. Her perceptions were about to be shattered, and he had to do it before the wedding rehearsal and groom’s dinner tonight. She was frazzled with the arrangements and what he needed to tell her would probably freak her into complete denial. However, not telling her what to expect would make it worse. Stepping out of the vehicle, he was relieved to see she stayed put and waited for him to saunter around to her door. Sharp canine eyes scanned the surroundings as usual, his mouth opened as he scented with both nose and tongue. Every sound was noted and cataloged as he strolled to her door. All seemed as it should be. “How many more stops?” Jamie asked as he lifted her out of the high SUV and tucked her under his arm. “Um, just pick up my dress from the drycleaners after this. Then we’re done.” She smiled up at him. His tendons ached as he looked down into that lovely smile. They ached because his whole body tightened in response. She had no idea that her body was rushing into heat at an unbelievable rate. Her hormones were demanding he take her hard and fast. They screamed at him to fuck now! The gentle smile with which she meant to convey his torture of accompanying her on her errands was almost over was the polar opposite of what her willing body was telling him. Jamie managed a tight smile and ushered her into the building. The caterer was male, maybe in his fifties and definitely interested in the woman who was stepping up to his counter. The man had both hands extended as he reached for her hand. “Emma, darling!” the beaming man exclaimed as if he hadn’t seen her in ages. Jamie physically restrained himself from lunging across the counter and removing the man’s larynx. Emma slipped out from under Jamie’s arm and extended both her hands. Her scent stopped Jamie’s instinctive growl. She didn’t like this guy. In fact, he almost laughed, she detested touching him. A smug smile shadowed Jamie’s face as the caterer ignored him and talked exclusively to Emma. Emma didn’t notice because she was so involved in finishing her business as fast as possible. As they got back in the SUV, Jamie asked, “How late can you pick up the dress, Emma? Can we talk for a bit right now?” “The shop is open until six, but the rehearsal starts at six. I need to dress—” Jamie grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips, dragging his tongue over her wrist. The almost familiar heat invaded her body again at his touch. It wrapped around her consciousness and she forgot the rest of the sentence. The connection seemed to be growing stronger with each minute they were together and now she could barely breathe as his clever tongue lapped over sensitive skin. He hadn’t turned the ignition— he just cradled her hand to his mouth and watched her over it. A deep blush started at her toes and insidiously swarmed up her nerve endings as she fell into glowing eyes.

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His lids were heavy as he looked at her—his beautiful, chiseled face almost softened somehow. Half turned in his seat, his wide shoulders seemed to stretch from seat to dashboard. Tight and hard is how he looked to her. A male in superb shape who was eating her with his eyes and driving reason from her brain with each gentle swipe of his tongue on her pulse. “What? How can you look at me that way?” Emma gasped defensively. “I am thirty-six, not a size four and not even wearing makeup. You could have any woman you want. What makes you want me? What makes me feel like this when you look at me? I never feel like this!” “Feel like what?” he murmured. “Tell me, baby. How do you feel when you look at me?” His lips moved over the back of her hand now, nibbling the knuckles, licking between them. Emma blew out a breath and glanced out the windshield. “You know how I feel. You can smell it. I’m sure it is the exact same thing you smell on every female who looks at you. I’m surprised there isn’t a line running down the street after you. Besides, I asked a question.” “Yes, I can smell how you feel, Emma.” Jamie put her hand on his thigh and straightened to the wheel. “Is there a park or something nearby?” He changed the subject unexpectedly. “Ah, yes. Just down the block there and to the left. Why?” Emma asked, confused as he started the truck. She didn’t withdraw her hand though. The rock-hard thigh under it was flexing as he pulled out and she had every intention of enjoying this while she could. Whatever was happening, he seemed as helpless to combat it as she was. She wasn’t sure what she really believed, but hard, hot and handsome couldn’t stay away from her. Her fear was not of him. Apparently she’d let go of it sometime between the church and the florist. “Because I need to tell you exactly what I see when I look at you. We have to be outside, sweetheart,” his deep voice rumbled. “Being outside gives me a chance to control my responses to you, for you. Here in the SUV or in a room, your scent goes straight to my instincts and I can’t guarantee being able to resist them.” His hand settled over hers on his thigh again, pressing down as if to somehow get her hand past the denim on his leg. “I don’t want to resist them. I sure as hell will not manage it if I stay in a closed space with you.” “Oh,” she mumbled and shuddered. Did she want him to resist them? Hell, no! her body yelled. Big, beautiful and sexy wants to fuck us. We know he won’t hurt us. Not thinking of why we know that. Just know it. He is the First Class, VIP ride. Take it! Take it!!!! But her brain scoffed at the rest of her. Oh, sure. Like you know what the hell you’re talking about! We don’t know the first thing about what an experienced lover wants. Jamie pulled into the park and did a quick scan. It was a relatively small area, right on the waterfront of Lake Erie. He handed Emma out of the SUV and walked her past the swings and play equipment bristling with laughing children. Mostly grandmas

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were sitting about watching the children, but even those women watched the large man stride by. He took Emma to a bench overlooking the water. There at the edge of the park was a perimeter walkway with a sturdy metal fence on the lakeside. The lovely wrought iron fence didn’t obscure the view from the benches on the park side of the walkway, rather it gave it an old-time feel. Behind the fence was a sharp cliff down to the Lake Erie shoreline. The little park enjoyed a brisk breeze off the water that day, which was relatively free of obnoxious odors. In the distance there were several freighters making the slow passage to the next set of locks and the next lake. Erie had been classified a dead lake many years ago and was still in the process of intense conservation work. Looking at it now was soothing though. He sat Emma down and stepped to the fence across the walk from her. The breeze off the lake took her scent away from him. Not that anything could actually do that— he’d know her location within a mile radius now, but the fresh air was a relief as he battled his desire and her body’s natural call. Leaning against the fence, he faced her. “What I see when I look at you is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. It’s not just the fact you’re my mate, hon. No, let me finish,” he insisted as she started to shake her head. “Before I inhaled in the church, I looked at your body and wanted it. Then I breathed in your scent and almost lost my mind. Yes, that was the mate reaction. Baby, your body is luscious, squeezable in all the right places, beautiful. There is not a thing about you I want to change, not an inch of you I don’t look forward to licking.” “But,” she interrupted, “isn’t that mostly just the breeder thing Jack told us about?” Jamie looked up and laughed. “No, well, maybe in a way. You are a breeder for me. The only woman who could have my babies.” His hands tightened on the rail behind him. There would be deep grooves in the iron where his fingers gripped it. “Babies? I am thirty-six, Jamie,” Emma exclaimed. “My daughter is twenty. I’m past the having babies stage.” “From the wolf point of view, you are a baby,” he countered. “Do you know how old Jack is?” “Yes, around eighty. But I am not a wolf. I will not live that long!” Emma insisted. “When we mate, you’ll change, Emma. You’ll take my DNA and it will alter yours,” Jamie explained. “It didn’t the other time. I remained the same even though my daughter is a wolf,” she said firmly. “He wasn’t your mate. Your body did not accept him like it will mine.” Jamie continued. “Mating is different. It’s more. You’ll live as long as I do, honey.” “What? Mating a wolf is the fountain of youth for humans?” she gasped. “If that was true, you’d be overrun with human women trying to climb your body. Well, more overrun than you are now.”

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“It doesn’t work unless it’s a real mating. We don’t tell either.” He grinned at her. “We’ve got several secrets we’ve managed to keep from the humans over the centuries.” “Are you saying I’ll change into a wolf?” Emma wanted to know. “No. You will be different though, not exactly human. Perhaps enhanced is a good word for it. The longer we’re together, the more you’ll gain from me. But that’s not what I need to talk to you about, Emma,” Jamie said as his face turned deadly serious. “What I need to make you understand is that I am the only wolf who thinks the air you breathe is precious. As your mate, I am not happy unless you’re happy. Do you understand what that means? There is nothing I will not do to please you. The effort of simply remaining over here and just talking to you from a distance requires me to deny every instinct and need I’ve ever had. I do it because you might be afraid of the male who wants to cradle you in his lap, licking and kissing your sweet face as I explain this.” Every subtle change in her body chemistry screamed at him. Little girl liked that thought. Good. Impressing on her the intensity of what she was to him was a critical task. “I gave you my word we’d get through this weekend and then handle the mate issue, Emma. You can hold me to that. But I need to explain what will happen tonight. When I made that promise, I had no idea you’re a breeder, and I didn’t realize you were so close to heat. I thought we had a day or two before it kicked in.” Jamie smiled gently into her slightly dazed eyes. “Baby, you are almost fully in heat right now. By six tonight you will be. When we walk into a room full of wolves, every one of them will know it. I know you think you can mask it, but this is mate heat. There is no covering it. They will look at you, look at Laura and know I am not her father, and that I haven’t or can’t mark you. They will know you’re a breeder. There is no way to keep it quiet.” Emma frowned and shrank back on the bench. “What do you mean they will know I am a breeder? Wouldn’t they have known it anyway? I mean, none of us knew you’d be my mate, did they? Wren must have known it would get out from the fact that my daughter is a wolf and I am not.” Jamie chuckled. “I am guessing that Margaret supplies you with the masking agent. I bet she gave you a new one to use this weekend?” “Ah, yeah, she did,” Emma confirmed. “The answer is there. It was altered to reflect the scent of a dead wolf. I am sure they wouldn’t let you into this situation without a safeguard,” Jamie assured her. “But now that I am here and we have found each other, the mask will no longer work. Your body has moved past normal into overdrive. We’ve changed everything, Emma. “You’ll be safe enough tonight. You’re family to the U.S. Alpha and I’ll be at your side. As Prime Alpha, no one will challenge, but word will spread. As early as tomorrow there could be several unmated older males present. Alone, they’ll not try to 30

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take you—it would be a fight to the death. But if I don’t mate you, they will eventually get desperate. At some point, several will band together. They’ll come at us when there are no others around. Again the fight will be to the death, four or five against one. When they’ve killed me, they’ll be high on battle adrenaline and their instincts will be in total control. You understand what that means, right?” Emma’s pale face shook no. Jamie couldn’t resist her stricken look and came over to sit beside her. Taking one of her trembling hands, he gently soothed it in both of his. There was no way to say this nicely. He didn’t want to be nice about it. He wanted her to understand the horror of it, but her pale face and trembling body ripped at him. Protecting her from ever feeling this level of fear was as important to him as getting her under him. “Even in humans, the need to fuck after battle is basic. In wolves, it’s not questioned. They will fuck you, each one of them, right there beside my dead body. It’s a wolf characteristic—the point is, they’ll not care what you want or need. They won’t even care which one of them you give a pup to first. They will keep you and fuck you until you give each of them a pup. If you’re not dead by then, they will probably give you to others. “Wren and Jack will hunt them down, but it is not a crime to fight to the death over an unmated female. The Pack will not fight with them because of my death. If the two of them manage to find you, again it will be a fight to the death to rescue you. They probably will not survive and you will still be owned, used to breed and have your children taken from you as soon as they’re weaned.” A trembling hand covered her mouth at she stared at him. The horrified look was an expression he never wanted to see on her face again, but it was necessary. She needed to understand her options clearly. It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t fair. For her, there were no choices if word got out about what she was. There was no question he would die defending her—Wren and Jack would do the same and possibly Cable and Sam as well. None of them had alternatives in this situation. The family structure of a wolf pack was not really voluntary. There would be no denying the need and instincts for any of them. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Emma whispered in horror. “How could they not tell me?” “Hon, think about it. You said Wren kept you separate from the pack,” Jamie soothed her in gentle tones. “Did you ever meet a wolf outside Wren’s immediate family?” “No,” she said softly. “You also said Jack knew very early that Laura was his mate,” Jamie continued. “You were young and terrified of wolves, right?” Emma nodded. “I bet telling you then would have driven you around the bend. Right?” he asked softly.

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Again she nodded. His gentle logic was making sense. If she could just get past the horrible picture he’d painted, it would probably all fall into place. Staring at his strong features as he mentally herded her down this path, she felt the world spinning away from under her feet. It was becoming clear Wren or Jack had probably provided the safe world she’d thought she’d built for herself and her daughter, at no small risk to themselves. “Why? Why would they do this for so long?” she asked him dumbly. “They could have told me at some point.” “What would that have done, Emma?” Jamie asked softly. “Could you change it? All telling would have accomplished is you’d live in fear every day of your life. Don’t you think they thought of that?” Emma snorted bitterly. “Well, I get to start that now, don’t I?” “No. If we are mated, it would be an immediate death sentence for another male to touch you in a way you didn’t like. The entire pack, worldwide, would hunt that wolf or wolves, and kill them. There are few rules more strictly enforced.” He smiled at her gently. “Little love, you have the most powerful wolf on the planet at your feet ready to worship them. Is that really so bad?” “Oh, my God! It doesn’t matter what I think, does it?” Emma stammered as the enormity of what he’d just told her overwhelmed her. “It matters more than anything else to me, Emma. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. What happens to you is more important than my life. Do you understand? I will die defending you, whether you agree to mate me or not. I have no control of that. You must clearly understand what will happen then. That’s what I want you to consider,” he stated quietly while brushing a lock of sable hair behind her ear. His gentle touch cherished her as she absorbed his statement. Large, rough fingers grazed the back of her ear and trailed down the side of her neck. He couldn’t pull them back. Even though he was holding her hand, he still needed to pet her. Her shock and confusion brought his protective instincts to full alert. As if he needed another primal urge where she was concerned. The needs to mate, take, protect and pamper battled for supremacy. Emma turned to stare out at the lake. He watched her wade through the dark knowledge he’d just given her. Letting her process it without gathering her to him was a minute-by-minute battle. He didn’t know what he’d do if she made a choice he couldn’t live with. It was the most important moment of his life and the most helpless. Everything he was or would ever be was wrapped up in this little woman who saw him as a stranger. As she looked out at the water, Emma let the fear drain out of her body. He was right—there was nothing she could do to change it. Being a breeder, if she truly was one, was not something she could escape. As she thought back on her life, interesting little things suddenly clicked into place. Things that she’d thought were simply strange

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wolf behavior. Bitter certainty folded over her as she recalled the countless times the MacKelvin family had probably been shielding her and she’d scoffed at them. Well, that was over. Obviously, she could cancel the wedding since they were primarily doing it for her benefit, reject Jamie and go on with her life, sort of. Right, that plan sucked. It involved years of lonely terror. There was no way she’d be responsible for the death of her daughter’s husband, not to mention that she loved the MacKelvins like family. They were, in fact, her only family—it meant she had to be willing and able to kill herself if she was ever discovered. No, being forced to daily assess her ability to kill herself was not how she wanted to live the rest of her life. They both jumped when Emma’s cell phone dinged into the tense silence between them. She grabbed it nervously out of her breast pocket and flipped it open. “Hello? Yes. Yes.” Her answers were clipped and cool. Jamie frowned at her as she straightened. “Uh-huh. Do it. Yes. Dunnum Park. See ya. Thanks.” “Who was that?” he demanded as she flipped the phone shut. Emma turned to him and smiled. She sat straight on the bench, just out of his reach. She wasn’t trembling—her scent was still intoxicating with female heat, but there was something different. No fear. No shock. Something new.

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Chapter Three “That was Laura. We had a few mother-daughter things to discuss,” Emma replied. “Oh, yeah? That was short,” Jamie commented, eyeing her suspiciously. “We communicate very well sometimes.” Emma’s smile broadened as she reached for his hand. He let her take it, slightly startled since it was the first time she’d touched him voluntarily. She took his hand and slipped it inside the flannel shirt to flatten it over her heart to his growing amazement. “Jamie MacKelvin, will you marry me tomorrow?” she asked. Jamie’s mouth dropped open, the blood drained from his face and he didn’t blink. He just stared at her. “Perhaps I didn’t do that right,” Emma mused, and slid off the bench to kneel between his legs, his hand still held at her heart, she looked up at him. “Jamie, will you marry me?” “Ohmyfuckinggod!” Jamie breathed as he looked down at her. Now he knew what was different about her scent. It was…well…it was acceptance? Something like that. His large hands reached down and he hauled her up into his lap, her legs straddled his hips to dangle out the back of the bench. Hard male lips met hers with a violent hunger barely contained beneath shuddering gentleness that required he guard her, even from his own raging needs. Low growls resonated in his chest as he licked and ate at her mouth delicately. Thrusting his tongue into her shallowly, he carefully kissed his way into her. When she’d grasped the magnitude of the price to be paid by those who chose to protect her, there’d been no reason to resist. It had become clear that Wren, Jack and their entire family had been risking a horrifically dangerous situation every moment since they’d found her. They’d done it selflessly, not once allowing her to see what the cost to them might be. True, Laura was Jack’s mate, but that had only escalated the danger they’d shouldered. One event in the past could not color her perception of the nobility of this family, this race forever. She would not allow it to take away her chance at happiness. His arms bulged with restrained force that refused to crush her to him as he wrapped around her. He radiated heat and power, yet every touch, lick, caress, painfully tender. His hands came up to frame her face as he pulled away to look down at the woman flattened to his chest. Her slender arms wound fiercely around his neck. Her eyes were closed as she waited for another kiss. “Emma, look at me, love,” he begged. Her eyes opened slightly to regard him with smoldering green slits. “You mean it? You’ll marry me tomorrow in front of everyone?”

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“Not if you don’t start acting like the big bad wolf and kiss me properly,” she hissed. “I’ve waited thirty-six years for you to come along. I don’t intend to wait any longer. I want passion, fire and heat, Jamie.” Her body shifted and pressed down on the hard cock straining against his zipper. “I want that,” she whispered with a sly smile. Jamie groaned in pain as his mouth met hers firmly, his tongue surging into her open mouth with all the hard passion she demanded. His hold tightened while her body undulated against him in blatant invitation. This was a bitch in heat and she wasn’t holding anything back. He drank her like the starving wolf he was, drowning in the heady scent of the dew between her legs. It soaked her panties and began to seep through her jeans. Everything faded away except the need to taste more of her, feel more of her and get to more of her. His lips left hers and she growled until she realized they were nipping their way down her neck. Moaning, Emma arched her back. The tank top once again pulled down, revealing plunging cleavage that he couldn’t get to fast enough. He needed to lick every inch of skin on the way down and he desperately needed to suck that soft creamy flesh into his mouth. His nose just made it to heaven, his face burrowing down between warm, sweet-scented breasts, when a loud voice intruded. “MacKelvin, get your face out of her chest and come on!” Instinctively Jamie lunged to his feet and shoved Emma behind him in one smooth move. Crouched in defense, he stared blankly at Jack for a moment. “What the hell are you doing here?” Jamie demanded angrily, and then he noticed the tall woman beside Jack who could only be a beaming Laura. Her eyes were exactly the same shade as his, her dark hair streaming down her back in ripples that curled at the ends. The graceful length of her clothed in casual jeans and a T-shirt was all a mature female wolf should be. She looked at him with the face of his family and his heart expanded. The long, empty years without a den vanished. These two beautiful women gave him everything his starving, lonely soul had been missing so desperately. From behind him, Emma peeked around and grinned at her daughter and son-inlaw. “Jamie, I forgot to tell you, we’re going to pick a dress for me. Laura insisted on it. We have half an hour.” Jamie looked down at her a bit dazed. “Dress?” “Come on, Prime,” Jack laughed. “Try to keep up. You’re getting married tomorrow—the little woman needs a dress. You and I get guard duty while they choose one.” Jamie blinked then threw back his head and laughed. Reaching behind him, he gathered Emma with one arm and swung her up to his chest in a move that shocked the imp right off her face. “Oh, hell, yeah.” He chuckled and kissed her lips hard. Looking up at Laura, he grinned. Holding Emma tightly against his chest, he stepped over to Laura and leaned down to kiss her cheek. “Hello, little niece,” he greeted her, knowing she’d scent his love and welcome much more clearly than any words could convey.

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Laura laughed and kissed his cheek back. “We have waited a long time to meet you, Uncle Jamie. Now hurry up and follow us to the store.” Laura returned his joy in wolf fashion, letting him read it in the air around her. The laughter in her eyes reached to her heart as she glanced back and forth between her mother cradled in his arms and the large Alpha who held her. “Gonna put me down?” Emma asked as everyone turned to the parking lot. “No, you’re short and will slow us down,” Jamie teased Emma as he dropped another kiss on her nose. It was true, the wolves moved with a long-limbed grace that amazed her. Even when simply getting across the park to the vehicles, they did it with a powerful ground-eating stride reminiscent of their loose-limbed lope in wolf form. Laura and Jack climbed into Jack’s pickup as Jamie headed for the driver’s door on the Escalade. He shifted Emma so she was attached to his chest facing him and slid into the driver’s seat. Carefully he folded her legs on either side of his hips. “Arms around my neck, little one,” he instructed as he reached for the ignition. “What, you can’t drive like this!” Emma laughed, and moved to get in the other seat. His hands immediately restrained her and his mouth swooped down to capture hers. Kissing her hard and deep, he pressed her hips into his, grinding up at her pussy mercilessly and sending her into a lust, heat-induced fog. “Sure I can,” his deep voice assured her when the pickup in front of them blew the horn loudly and two laughing faces peered back at them. “Now put your head on my shoulder and don’t distract me too much. I can’t put you down, help me out and deal with it,” he pleaded in laughing tones. Thick muscles under her cheek flexed as he put the vehicle in gear and pulled into traffic behind the pickup. Emma blinked and realized she was indeed draped over his chest and lap like a rug. The SUV was an automatic, so one arm remained anchored around her as he drove. “You’ll get a ticket if a cop sees this,” Emma mumbled, mildly concerned but unable to focus on it right then. “I’ll pay the fine.” Jamie kissed her forehead, his eyes never leaving the road. “But I’ve waited one hell of a long time to find you, woman. No damn way I am letting go if I don’t have to.” Emma giggled. “What? You’re not letting me out of physical contact again?” She knew she was basically drunk on whatever it was that passed between them. When she’d made the decision to accept him as her best option, something in her stopped resisting. A wave of intense, burning need had flowed over her. She wasn’t sure if it was hers or his, but she’d had her entire adult life to want what was offered to her now. He’d waited even longer. “Not if I don’t fucking have to,” he growled then chuckled as his hand gave her a gentle squeeze. “Now would be a good time to let me in on the entire plan you and Laura worked out.”

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“Mmmm.” Emma’s tongue licked out and tasted his neck. The urge to lick his flesh was suddenly irresistible. “You taste good, Jamie. Do all wolves taste good?” “NO! They taste like shit, baby.” He laughed. “But you can keep checking my taste as long as you want.” His hips jerked in response, grinding his raging erection into damp denim as she did it again. “Or maybe not. I think that just became distracting the driver. Now tell me what you two cooked up in that phone conversation.” “Getting dress, double wedding tomorrow. That’s it. You said I had to accept you publicly, is that public enough?” Emma responded. “It’ll do. Times are changing, I suppose,” he mused. “What do you mean by that?” she asked. “Used to be a public mating, darlin.” He chuckled at her gasp. “You’re kidding! You expect to fuck me in front of everyone?” Her head came off his shoulder and she scowled up at him. “No way I agree to that!” He grinned as only a wolf can. “I told you the wedding will do. Calm down, little cat, and take your claws out of me. We’re here.” Emma realized her nails had indeed dug into his shoulders in her shock. Well, served him right. Public mating, I think not! He swung the door open and managed to get out with her still wrapped around both his hips and his neck. “You have to put me down,” she insisted. “I’m not going in that place attached to you like a barnacle.” Jack and Laura turned to them and burst out laughing. “Damn, Mom,” Laura teased, “you’re worse than a teenager. Now get off him and act like a lady.” “I would if I could, honey,” Emma responded primly. “The beast is not putting me down.” Laura leaned into Jack’s arm and grinned, their two hands were joined as always. “Don’t ya just love it?” Emma blushed and hissed at Jamie, “Put me down. Act like an adult.” Jamie let her slide down his body and was rewarded with another wave of her scent as she enjoyed the motion. “Sure, baby,” he purred, grinning like a loon. In the store, Laura and Emma disappeared in the back with the saleswoman. Jack looked over at Jamie who was frowning at the door they’d stepped through. “You know exactly where she is, Prime,” Jack chuckled. “Relax.” Jamie snorted and started pacing. “Heard anymore news?” he shot at Jack. “No, everything is quiet. Well, except for the storm of information floating around about you and Emma. That is ripping across the country like wildfire.” Jack grinned up at Jamie as he settled his long, lanky form into a little chair provided for waiting men. Jamie raised a brow. “The news that I’ve mated her?” he questioned. “I mentioned it to my mother after Laura’s call to Emma,” Jack confessed.

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Jamie grinned and slapped Jack on the back. “Good thinking, pup. Head off trouble before it comes sniffing around.” “Yeah, we’re damn happy about it. Shielding a breeder is a pain in the ass when she doesn’t know you’re doing it,” Jack said tiredly, and ran a hand through his hair. “Why the hell didn’t your father call me years ago?” Jamie demanded in remembered irritation. “They are my family, even if Emma wasn’t my mate, they are still my den to protect.” “Yeah, that was gonna work out, man,” Jack responded with a dry grin as he watched Prime pace. “She was full-on petrified of wolves, Jamie, totally traumatized and ready to run. What would have happened if she’d gotten it in her head to run? I would have found them, of course, but what would forcing her to return have done? Emma needed to trust us for this to work. Protecting her and Laura was too important, I couldn’t take that chance. As soon as Laura was born, I knew she was mine. They have been my family for a long time now. I’d no idea you were Emma’s mate,” Jack explained. Jamie considered the young wolf silently a moment. He could understand Jack’s complete commitment to watching over his mate while she grew up. Accepting her mother as part of his family was natural for a wolf. Jamie even suspected Emma had no idea how much she’d been looked after. “I’m not happy, Jack,” Jamie stated grimly. “But I understand it. This is the last thing you don’t tell me about, right?” Jack laughed, his affable personality moved quickly through the disapproval. “Only damn thing bigger than hiding a breeder would be finding your mate, Prime. You’ve done that. Nope, not another thing you don’t know about.” Jamie snorted and grimaced. “Better be right, pup. Guarding my mate for all the years I didn’t know about her isn’t actually earning you points. I should have known and done it myself.” Jack’s face became serious. “It wouldn’t have worked. I was no kid when we found her so don’t think my perceptions were off or fuzzy. She didn’t recover well and we couldn’t send her to a human shrink to help her get over being raped by a wolf. It took years for her to tolerate being in the same room with Wren or myself. It’s only in the last ten years that she’s been able to be natural with us. She seems to have accepted you pretty damn quick, though. I don’t know what you told her, but I suspect it’s the truth about what will happen if she’s not mated.” “It’s no longer your business what I told her, cub. She is my mate in every way. You have no way of knowing if it would have helped, our bond might have healed her. You made a decision that affected all of us in ways we can’t know anymore.” Jamie felt his lip curl as he thought of the wasted years. “For her, I’ll let it go. You understand me, Jack?” Hard eyes looked straight and long into Jack’s eyes until the young one bent his head in submission. Jamie blew out a breath. “We will not discuss this again.”

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The women breezed through the door. Laura carried a long garment bag, which she handed to Jack who’d risen from the chair as soon as the women appeared. Emma came straight to Jamie as though she’d been doing it for years. Her face glowed as she laughed up at him. Just by entering the room she dispelled the heavy atmosphere developing between the two males. Laura faltered and glanced back and forth, inhaling deeply, but Emma was unaware of the scents as yet. “All done. Aren’t you proud of me? Wedding dress picked out in under forty-five minutes,” Emma crowed, and went on tiptoes to touch her lips to his. It was as natural as breathing to slide his tongue across her luscious lips and laugh into her beautiful face. His arm settled around her, tucking her into his side. “Okay, where do I sign—” he grinned at her “—and how much is it gonna cost me?” “What? Nothing. It’s my dress. I took care of it.” Emma smiled up at him. It was the sweet smile he’d seen when he’d entered the church this morning. He hadn’t known he’d been waiting for it, looking for it. Needing it to tell him she was going to be okay. “No, baby.” His fingers caressed her cheek. “It is most definitely something I intend to pay for. My woman, I buy her clothes. Let’s not argue in front of the children,” he hushed her and effectively ended the discussion with that knowing bit of psychology. “Well, hurry then. We still have to pick up my dress for tonight from the dry cleaners,” Emma said. “We are in a dress store, Emma. Pick one out and let’s get out of here,” Jamie replied, glancing around. “These are way too expensive. Come on. We can still make it,” Emma insisted as she tugged him towards the counter. Jamie reached over and snagged a little black sheath off the rack. It had a tight bodice with a short, flared skirt. He glanced at the size and grabbed the next one behind it, grunted and continued to the counter. “What are you doing?” Emma questioned with a frown. “We’ll take this one too,” he told the clerk calmly, and slapped down a gold card. “I am getting you a dress,” Jamie replied. “But I have a dress, one that actually fits. That little piece of fabric will leave most of me out instead of in,” Emma insisted. Jamie grinned. “Yeah, I know.” He signed and grabbed the garment bag. “Come on, little one. Time to go.” The four of them exited into the growing twilight. “Oh, drat, what time is it?” Emma exclaimed. “Five-thirty. Stop worrying. They will start rehearsal when we get there. All the people required to do it are here.” Jamie laughed down at her stricken face. “Jack, call whoever needs to be called and push it back an hour.”

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“Right. See you guys there,” Jack called after them as he and Laura settled into the pickup. Jamie put Emma in her seat, stowed the garment bag and slid into the driver’s seat. By this time the pickup was long gone. “Which way to your place, Emma?” he asked softly. His hand reached over, instead of taking hers, it went straight between her legs. Long fingers curled around her intimately and he squeezed gently, the heel of his palm pressed down on her clit. Emma gasped and her body convulsed. The mate heat flowing between them suddenly became concentrated in his intimate touch—it burned through her jeans as if they weren’t even there. Her mouth gaped open as she absorbed the flames engulfing tender, swollen flesh. His hand rocked the pressure between ass and clit, and her thighs tightened around his thick wrist. “Tell me now, baby,” he growled. “Or I will strip those jeans off and eat you right here.” Dazedly she blurted out directions to her apartment. The SUV roared to life and headed back up the street. They squealed to a stop at the light and his jaw tightened while he inhaled deeply. His hand kept the steady milking clench and release between her legs. Emma let her head fall back on the headrest. It was too much. The single point of contact between her legs concentrated the mate heat to that spot. He was fucking her slowly without even removing her clothes. She couldn’t think, her eyes drifted down to slits of glazed, green hunger. Puffy lips remained parted as she panted through the spreading waves of desperation. He was driving her crazy, her hips lifted subtly into his hand, pressing her soft, slippery cunt up to meet his rhythm. Blindly seeking more as he pulled away from the light and sped around the next curve. Moaning in gasping gulps of air, she ground her hips into his burning palm. He rewarded her with a rumbling growl and pressed her back into her seat with the strength of his arm and grip of his large hand on her crotch. She had no idea how they got there, but suddenly they were pulling into the driveway of the exclusive condo community where she lived. Jamie stopped at the gatehouse and turned burning eyes on the young man leaning out the door. His hand never lifted from between Emma’s legs as he literally snarled, “Emma Claybourne.” The guard frowned at him, then his eyes widened as he looked across Jamie to the moaning woman with her eyes pressed shut and a large hand disappearing between her legs. Pulling back abruptly, the guard flushed and pressed the gate button. The flush turned into a grin as he glanced at Jamie while the gate opened. “B-2, back of the building, ground floor,” the guard supplied, and Jamie nodded. Revving the engine, he took the parking lot at thirty miles an hour, rounding the building and sliding into a parking spot with no apparent use of the brake.

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Turning off the ignition, his body lunged over the console between their seats and his lips fastened onto her moaning mouth. Her gushing scent filled the stopped vehicle with mind-numbing primal demand. Hard hands gathered her and lifted her over the console to his lap. Her muffled protest died in his mouth as her body slammed into the front of his and once again wrapped around him. One large hand spanned her ass as he opened the door to step out. Never breaking the kiss, he held her with the one arm while her legs clamped around his hips, the other arm reached into the back as he snagged the garment bag and her purse. Ground-eating strides flexed his cock against her sensitive crotch and she nipped his lip in excitement. Her body pumped at him as he opened the courtyard gate marked B-2. The complex was built in such a way that each courtyard was a private enclosure with an eight-foot fence and no way for the neighbors to see in. Jamie kicked the gate shut and dropped her purse and garment bag. Her patio furniture included a wrought iron table between two chairs. As the first flat surface he saw of acceptable height, he headed over to it. Still eating her mouth as his chest rumbled with a purring growl, he bent to gently lay her across the table. Her hands clutched him as if she feared he was putting her down to leave her. Her body continued undulating in the mate madness consuming her. He knew she didn’t know what she was doing. But that was okay. He knew damn well what he was doing and he was not stupid enough to pull back long enough to let her figure it out. The call of her heat could not be denied, even if she fought it, he’d take her now. Better she enjoyed it—he could give her that. Fighting back the instinctive urge to flip her over and take her in the way of his kind was all the concession he could make at this point. The shock of his teeth gripping her neck as he slammed into her might be enough to jolt her out of the sensual acceptance she was giving him now. He couldn’t risk it. There would be plenty of time later to indulge that particular need. He was damn sure she’d get a graphic reminder of their differences soon. Making love to her face to face in the human way wasn’t exactly a hardship. His fingers flicked open her jeans and slid the zipper down. In one wrenching move, he had panties and jeans to her ankles. Her shoes stopped them coming off completely. The cool metal beneath her ass shocked her momentarily but the hard hand that immediately cupped her cunt distracted her. His tongue plunged deep into her mouth as two fingers spread damp folds and a third finger pushed deep into her clenching vagina. Emma screamed and he swallowed the sound. The finger pumping into her felt thick and excruciatingly good as her small opening stretched around it. Her body bucked into his palm and he grunted his satisfaction with her response. Suddenly his other hand reached down to grip the crotch of her jeans—he lifted away from her mouth to yank her hobbled legs up. Pulling them up until her knees pressed into her chest. Unfocused green eyes widened and her suddenly free mouth opened to protest. Before a sound escaped her, his face swooped down to her widely 41

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spread flesh. His open mouth engulfed her entire pussy and he sucked in hard. Emma’s neck arched to breathe a silent scream at the shocking sensations rocking up her body— her hands gripped the edge of the table on either side in white-knuckled response. Her convulsing pussy gushed its essence into his mouth as his tongue lashed down plump folds to circle the opening to her core. One hand held her legs up by the pants imprisoning her ankles, the other gripped her hip as he plunged his tongue deep into the source of his obsession. His knees buckled at the concentrated taste exploding in his mouth and he knelt to worship her body. Frantic for more of the sweet nectar she gave him, he fucked his tongue deep into her tight hole. Fierce, possessive growls were muffled into her as his face shook back and forth in canine excitement. His tongue sawed in and out of her in a hard, masculine demand for her essence. Emma had long since lost all perception of time and space. There was only the searing need between her legs and the painful pleasure his touch gave her. Each increasingly intimate sensation driving her into a gasping flood of more relentless need. Her body writhed beneath his mouth. Her hips rose to jam her closer to the source of her pleasure, her painful need. More! She needed more! Her head thrashed on the table as darts of liquid fire shot through her body. Just as a wave of excruciating pleasure swept up her, his mouth left her. She screamed in protest, which became a wail of fathomless shock and gratification. She felt his cock, hard, hot and thick as he tunneled into her. It wasn’t a fast entry, it just kept pressing in and in and in. Her eyes opened wide and she looked up into eyes that were only dark blue slits as the wolf bending over her bared his teeth. It wasn’t a threat—she knew that immediately. It was a grimace of pain at the cost of restraint as he pressed into her slowly, letting her adjust to him, but not stopping as he tunneled his cock into the very center of her being. Her bent legs separated them as they looked at each other and his hips finally rested against her ass. He stopped then, his face still contorted in a fierce mask as he panted through clenched teeth. Intense eyes watched her carefully as he cautiously ground his hips against her, using the side-to-side motion to ease tightly stretched flesh around the root of his cock. Emma blinked back tears. Not of pain, but of overwhelming hunger. Her body gushed around him, giving him the answer he needed. Slowly his hips inched the thick cock out of her, watching her response as her brow furrowed. In this position she couldn’t move, couldn’t thrust at him or withdraw from him. She was totally open and pinned. The sound that emerged from her throat could only be called a whine as he pulled out so only the fat head of his cock rested in her damp opening. The pleading sound she made filled him with humming satisfaction. Pinned helplessly beneath him, she wanted his cock too much to care about the complete submission of her position. Pushing slowly back into her, he savored every drawn-out minute of her cunt expanding around his pulsing flesh. She was so soft and tight, so damn wet and needy. She fed him on every level with her sexual acceptance of his 42

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dominance. If he hadn’t loved her before, he would have now. Her beautiful face was flushed with bruised lips from the hard, biting kisses he’d been unable to control. Little pants escaped her lips as she took all of him again. Pressed in to the hilt, he paused as she frowned slightly. “Am I hurting you?” Jamie asked. “No!” Emma gasped. “You’re killing me. Fuck me, Jamie, don’t tease me.” “Yes, sweet baby. I am fucking you. I’m loving you too. I need to feel you, feel the reality of my mate stretched around my cock. I want you to feel me right to your bones, Emma.” Jamie panted and pulled out slowly again. “I want you to know I’m the only one who can do this for you, to you.” He shoved back in with a little more force, giving her a taste of what was to come. “I am the only wolf who will ever give you this pleasure, woman.” “Yes, yes, yes,” Emma wailed. “Now do it!” “Tell me, Emma. Tell me whose cunt I’m fucking? Tell me whose woman is pinned beneath me? Tell me who your mate is.” Jamie pressed deep and hard, holding her impaled and restrained, looking deep into her eyes and waiting for a response. Mate heat was driving him to the edge of reason, but nothing was more important than her acceptance. If he couldn’t get it this way, he’d get it another. At least she’d be marked now. Irrevocably his. But it wasn’t enough. She didn’t really understand fucking would change her, make her part of him forever. So it didn’t count as acceptance as it would with a wolf bitch. “Tell me, Emma, tell me now.” Jamie’s voice dropped as the beast roiled beneath his skin. It didn’t give a flying fuck about acceptance. Its one aim was to fill the tight cunt it was shoved into with his seed. Only his cum could mark her. Getting it in her as fast as possible was the only plan of action that made sense to the beast. He could smell her body’s response—feel silky vaginal walls milking his cock with a clenching desperation. He needed her mind too. Craved the mate bond of her conscious acknowledgement. His heart ached with needing her at every powerful beat. “Yours,” Emma gasped as she looked into his tightly drawn face. “Your mate, your cunt, your woman. Now you damn well better fuck me, you wolf bastard, before I decide killing you is easier.” The end of her demand bared her teeth as well. The fires ripping up her body were too damn painful to put up with all this talking. The big, shuddering wolf above her had started it, now he needed to finish it. “Oh, God, my woman!” Jamie bellowed as he pulled out and slammed back into her. No restraint remained. His hips jackhammered into her convulsing cunt with all the power of the beast. Driving into soft, yielding flesh with the express intent of marking his mate. Lifting up off her, he arched his back and pounded her with his whole body weight. He was large and long, and he fucked her to the hilt—pushing past her constricting muscles with primitive power. Emma arched into his pounding cock, threw her head back and howled in a high, long scream as the fire exploded into a consuming conflagration of pleasure that ripped 43

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her out of reality and into a burning, undulating lake of endless pleasure. He thrust into her cunt with renewed force. Demanding an animal response that she keep convulsing on the organ that took her. His face turned up to the dark sky and he howled his pleasure as his cock expanded, preparing to knot and lock his seed in his mate. Grinding it into her, pressing it into the back of her womb, the beast locked into his mate. Emma’s eyes flew open and her head came up off the table when the monster cock within her expanded, swelling into a hard, pulsing knot. His body jerked in short, jacking thrusts as hot seed gushed into her firmly sealed womb. She shuddered helplessly in renewed explosions of mind-bending sensations. Her entire body contracted in primal response and it felt like she couldn’t breathe. Gasping, choking on her own cries, she stared at the howling wolf above her in stunned disbelief.

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Chapter Four Unable to resist the instinctive response any longer, Jamie sank down on her. Shielding her from their differences was pointless now as his big body draped over her folded legs, his mouth reaching her where shoulder met neck. Opening wide, he sank his jaws over the tender spot and clamped down. Not hard enough to break the skin, just enough to hold her impaled beneath him as his cock released another quick jet of semen. Breathing hard through his nose, he held her. Her body contracted in response and shuddered. He didn’t move. Her dazed eyes looked down at the trembling wolf and she felt another hard thrust as he came again, bathing her interior with more cum. Exhausted, she panted through the seemingly compulsory little orgasm his release demanded. His cock remained thick and locked within her. She closed her eyes and waited, it came again, as did she. “How long?” Emma whispered. He didn’t answer. His mouth tightened on her and he thrust again, compelling another explosion in her cunt. Tears rolled down her face as she tried to relax. Another hard release rocked them. His mouth eased off her neck and his tongue gently licked the deep teeth marks. Lifting up, he looked into her flushed face. “Emma Claybourne—” his deep voice carried through the evening shadows “—I pledge my life, in this world and any that follow, to you and yours. I join my soul with yours in eternity and hold your well-being above my own in reverence. Mate bonded to you, I am forever yours.” The beautiful words seemed to surround them as she stared into his eyes. There could be no mistaking the ritual sound of his statement. “What did you just do?” Emma questioned. “Nothing that wasn’t already done, love.” He smiled into her eyes. “Actually, I’ve just done several things.” His cock jerked and released again, sending a moaning shudder through both of them. He bent and licked the tears off her cheeks as new ones seeped down. “I’ve claimed you,” he listed softly as he nuzzled her face. “I’ve made love to you, I’ve surrendered my soul to you.” “Oh.” Emma gasped as he lifted his head to gaze down into round green eyes. Wooing her body was the easy part. She’d responded to his demands in the heat of the moment, but a voluntary statement of her commitment was something he’d have to earn. Straightening marginally, his hold on her ankles lessened as he swiftly removed her shoes and slid her pants all the way off. Pulling her legs around him, he grinned at her again. “Hold on, love,” he said, and straightened, lifting her off the table.

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“Jamie! What are you doing?” Emma exclaimed as he carried her impaled body toward the gate. “Keys,” he grunted. “Your purse?” “Damn it! We’re outside!” Emma glanced around in shock. “Yeah, reason we need the keys,” he murmured. “Grab the back of my pants, hon, can’t walk if they’re around my knees.” Emma reached down and grabbed the back of his pants, which were clinging precariously to his lean hips. “For goodness sake. Put me down then!” “Can’t.” He bent over for the discarded purse and garment bag, his arm loosened so she hung in front of him, her body weight pulled at the cock in her. It didn’t budge and he chuckled as he straightened. “I don’t know about you humans, but we wolves need some cuddling after making love. It helps us feel secure.” Emma snorted and clutched him tightly as he straightened. “Here I am bare-assed to the world and you’re joking?” Striding to the door he handed her the purse, holding her securely as she rummaged in it for the keys. “Just trying to get you inside, baby. The world can’t see your bare ass. Besides, they all seemed to calm down when you quit screaming.” Emma grabbed her keys triumphantly and handed them to him. “Who calmed down? Someone heard us? Oh, my God! I am so embarrassed! I’ll never be able to walk out my gate again.” She hid her face in his neck as he opened the door and carried her inside. “Relax, I was teasing,” he assured her as he dropped the keys and purse he’d taken from her hands with the garment bag on the front table in her entryway and moved into the living room through an arched opening. Her condo was a homey place with a distinctly feminine feel. The only piece of furniture he was interested in at the moment was the couch where he carefully laid down with Emma sitting on top of him. Looking up into her face, he grinned. “Now take my mind off sex so we can get dressed.” Emma frowned down at him. “How the hell do I do that when we’re like this?” Jamie shrugged. “Don’t know, never had a mate. This only happens with a mate bond so I have no idea what to do next.” “Oh,” she fumed. “Great! Are we gonna be stuck like this every time? You are not coming near me again when we have to get somewhere. This is ridiculous.” Deep inside her, she felt the knot begin to shrink. Carefully, because it felt like his cock was so long it straightened her spine, she leaned forward to lie down on his chest. Despite her complaining, she needed the big wolf’s arms around her as his body disengaged from hers. It was sort of a sad feeling for some reason. His arms came around her automatically and he dropped a kiss on the top of her head, his face nuzzling her hair. “This is why it’s good to be Prime,” Jamie murmured quietly. “We can be late to anything, no one argues.”

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Emma chuckled. “Oh, so it was your chronic lateness that drove you to it?” “Yep,” he agreed. “Also my inability to take direction. It’s a sad story, I need a woman to get my ass straightened up.” Emma lifted her head and smiled at him tenderly. His beast was trying his best to make her comfortable. She knew he was using humor to take her mind off what they’d just done. It was monumental. He’d “marked” her. Of no less importance was the knowledge they’d not used any birth control and she was obviously fertile. His hands gently caressed up and down her back as he smiled up at her and waited. “I’ve got to shower and change, Jamie,” Emma said quietly. There was no time to deal with the big issues, and she didn’t want to gloss over them. Apparently, they’d have a long, long life together to hash everything out. “Oh, sure, the woman abandons me when I’m most vulnerable,” he teased her gently. “Just go off and have a nice hot shower. Make the wolf suffer out here on the couch alone.” “Mr. Big and Bad could go get that suit bag out of the SUV fast enough to join me in the shower, if he really wanted to,” Emma replied. Even though she was straddling his lean waist, basically sitting on him, he managed to slide out from under her and be out the door almost before she realized he’d moved. Emma shook her head. That was some speed and strength. He was back just as she straightened off the couch. “Geezzz! What? Do wolves move at the speed of light as well?” she asked in amazement. “Motivated ones do,” he agreed casually, and grabbed her hand to pull her into the hall toward her bedroom. “How do you know you’re headed for the bathroom?” she questioned as he opened the correct door with no hesitation. “I just followed your scent to where it’s concentrated in the house, your clothes, your bed. There is always a master bath attached in America. Anywhere else, I’d just follow the sent of your shampoo or soap.” He grinned down at her. They’d moved into the bathroom and he was reaching to turn on the shower. “I am a great scent hound, baby. Can’t get a thing past me.” They showered and dressed with a lot of petting, licking and touching. Jamie insisted this was how all wolves groomed and dressed each other. Emma snorted at that. The big Alpha couldn’t let her out of his sight, barely out of his touch range. She was sure all wolf couples were not this tangled up with each other. The condo wasn’t small. Its rooms lavishly spacious for the woman who lived there, but Jamie seemed to take up every available inch. He was always bumping, rubbing, nudging with a grin. The dress he’d picked for her was as small and revealing as she’d feared. The top was constructed like a corset with tiny little straps over her shoulders that served no purpose whatsoever. She couldn’t wear a bra, the dress supported her breasts simply because the bodice was so tight. Emma fussed and kept turning to check that it was actually doing the job in the mirror. Jamie growled and agreed a shawl was called for. 47

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The short, silk skirt whispered around her thighs like mist. It was lovely and sexy as hell, not at all what she would have picked. Somehow, she felt sexy and alluring instead of chubby and exposed as she normally would have. Through it all, Emma felt like a dazed teenager. The changes in this one day were overwhelming in the best of circumstances. She felt like she’d been thrown on some wonderfully bizarre speeding train. Here was this gorgeous, hard-bodied man who couldn’t seem to get enough of stroking her chubby thighs, patting her round ass, licking the gentle slope of her shoulder. She’d been a sane woman this morning. Tonight she was an adrenaline-overdosed ditz. He couldn’t let her out of his sight, so he saw it all. And still he found every excuse to touch her. She knew wolves mated for life. Something about having the right set of hormones could apparently reshape you in your mate’s eyes to the perfect body. It was insane, it was wonderful and it sure beat the alternative. If her choices were gang rape, a terrifying future of running, hiding and leaving her daughter forever, or life with tall, dark and sexy, they’d have to pry her cold, dead fingers off him to make her switch. She didn’t really believe in love at first sight, but after the full-body view for several hours, she could warm up to it. He was every woman’s fantasy. Beautiful, attentive, considerate and so sensual he really didn’t deserve to live. He made her feel like Cinderella, the Fairy Princess and rock star goddess all at the same time. He managed to be both worshipful and breathtakingly dominate. His body was ruggedly aggressive, his eyes so sinfully beguiling, his words tender and treasuring. It was impossible to deny him anything. Who could resist his wicked humor and relentless pursuit even though he’d already caught her? If she’d thought her sexual reaction to him was embarrassing before his unbelievably tender and yet dominate lovemaking, now it was mortifying. Now she knew the feel of his inquisitive tongue on her most sensitive flesh and, oh, he loved to lick. The man could not kiss her shoulder without lapping his tongue across it, or nuzzle her neck without a damp taste. Every time he did her womb contracted in remembered sensation. Of course, the beast knew it, he’d smile smugly and take a deep breath, even closing his eyes once as if he was savoring it. The mad dash to shower, do her hair, makeup and dress became a dance in which he found every opportunity to brush, lick, kiss, stroke or fondle. Her limited experience with men didn’t mean she thought this was normal. Laughing and almost crying in frustration, she gave up when sitting on the end of the bed trying to roll on her hose. He’d dropped to his knees between her legs, wearing only his suit pants, and insisted on helping her. She’d been pulling on thigh-high stockings—not her usual choice—but he’d seen them in the drawer and pulled them out when she’d reached for the pantyhose. After his big hands carefully smoothed first one then the other up her legs, he insisted on kissing the bit of skin between hose and panties. She’d fallen back on the bed, trembling helplessly as his low, rumbling growl of satisfaction surrounded them.

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His tongue licked over the inside of her upper thighs in long strokes, his hands gently pressing her legs wide. “You’re tense,” he whispered into her panty-covered crotch. “Of course, I’m tense!” Emma moaned, “We’re late and now I’m so frustrated I could beat you.” “No, baby, my woman is never desperate for this,” he crooned, and pulled her panties aside to drag his tongue up her slit. Emma screamed as her hips bucked up to his mouth. Immediately his other hand slid under her ass to keep her there. Then he licked her, he didn’t enter her or suck her clit as before, he lapped her from her throbbing opening to the top of her slit over and over again. The shockingly tender, overwhelmingly possessive strokes brought her to a shattering climax in seconds. Only then did his tongue press into her as his rumbling growls intensified and he drank from her. Emma lay there dazed as he lapped up every scrap of her essence then straightened to grin down at her stunned face. “Better?” he asked softly as he carefully adjusted her panties back into place. “I don’t think I can move,” Emma confessed as he stood up, her eyes focused on the hard evidence of his own response straining his pants. “Relax a minute while I clean up. Then we’ll get you dressed,” he promised, and disappeared into the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth again. When he returned, she really hadn’t moved and he slipped an arm under her back, lifting her to a standing position tenderly, and proceeded to dress her. Sluggish and relaxed, she helped half-heartedly, no longer concerned over the time. “What about you?” she managed to ask as he smoothed the little dress over her body. She might never have had a lover before, but she was aware men needed release as much or more than a woman did. “You give me what I need, baby,” he responded, and kissed her shoulder as she glanced at the mirror and started fussing over the dress. He grinned indulgently at her attempts to tug more dress over breasts while at the same time trying to see if it covered her bottom. As they drove to the rehearsal, an hour and a half late, he again cradled her wrist to his mouth. Firm lips nibbled her pulse absently. It was the first time his attention had wandered since he met her. She decided he deserved a few minutes of his own and simply enjoyed the licking nips with no comment. Lit by the dashboard lights in their evening drive, his face seemed pensive to her. Jamie drove to the gathering reluctantly. It was about the last thing he wanted to do. Emma was driving him to the edge of sanity. Her scent wafted around them and thrust every hormone he possessed into frenzied demand. It was all he could do to keep from slamming on the SUV’s brakes and making what passed for tender love to his mate. If they weren’t already late, he’d give in to his basic urges. Leaving his window open to the warm night was a desperate attempt to make it to their destination without stopping and fucking her brains out first. He was damn sure she had no idea how 49

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compelling she was to him. How utterly fascinating every inch of her was to the beast starved for its mate. The complete absence of immediate family was a lonely way for a wolf to live. Her round figure flowed like hot wax under his hands. Gentle gasps and startled looks told him each time he touched her it was a surprise. As though she couldn’t comprehend that all he wanted to do was touch her. As a human, she’d have no true understanding of his complete devotion to her simply because she was his mate. No idea how very lonely it was to spend a life as long as his without the one woman who would be his own. How barren his future had been as it stretched in endless duty, a wasteland of empty day after empty day. The death of his brother had been the end of his immediate family. Wolves were made to live in a pack, but the family within that group was the most important. She represented everything he thought he’d never have, the closeness of family, a den full of cubs and laughter—her laughter. He’d given up searching for her. He hadn’t realized that until he found her and discovered the absolute earth-shattering gratitude within him that she existed at all. She certainly didn’t know she was unbelievably sexy, lickably luscious, a sweet, cuddly bundle of delicious woman. Finding her made him whole on the cellular level. It somehow lifted a dark shadow from his heart and healed that soul-deep pit of utter aloneness. Being with her, even if he couldn’t touch her, would be his first choice in any situation. The fact she’d accepted him tonight, accepted his mark and his mating, was like every gift and delight he’d ever known all rolled into her sweet body. Lykosapiens had no choice in wanting their mate. But sometimes, they did have a problem liking their mate. Her gentle spirit and sensual soul were the rarest gifts of all. Her ability to take what this day set before her and deal with it sanely, making the best of every situation, humbled him. She had every right to a screaming, raging fit. He’d given her no option but to mate him. Then he’d fucked her on her patio. Why she didn’t hate him was a mystery. All too soon they were pulling into the church parking lot. Jamie came around the SUV to lift Emma out. A faint ripple in the air made him halt briefly in unease. For less than an instant it bothered him. Pausing at her door, he scanned again. The evening around them was dark with no moon yet and a light mist curling across the ground. Whatever the disturbance was, there was no scent, no movement, no other indication of danger save the tiny energy shift he’d felt when stepping out his door. It didn’t really matter, he decided, it could have been anything. Jamie lifted Emma out and hurried her across the dimly lit parking lot into the church. In the shadows behind them, two male figures watched Jamie and Emma enter the church. Glancing down at what lay at their feet, the tall, dark one sighed and shot a narrow-eyed look at his companion. “The game is not done. Take it. You know what this can give us,” he instructed silently, directly into the other being’s mind. “You remain?” the large, blond figure inquired using the same form of communication. 50

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“Yes,” the dark one confirmed. “Watch the flank,” his blond companion cautioned. “They will not know I am here,” the dark one assured his companion as the other gathered up his burden and was gone. The dark figure faded from the physical world. There remained no trace of him or his companion’s presence in this place. Not a foot print, not a scent. Nothing. Creatures of the night, beings who became darkness, separate in this mortal world, neither part of it nor able to escape it. There was a pronounced commotion as Jamie and Emma entered the church. Emma blushed a lot as Jamie grinned and accepted the general congratulations. Finally, they were able to get through the wedding rehearsal amid a lot of ribbing and good-natured teasing. The Lykosapien community couldn’t be happier. A mated Prime was a happy Prime, something this generation hadn’t seen yet. Dinner around a bar-b-que pit was loud and festive, and started two hours late. The outside venue and bonfire suited the wolves perfectly. By midnight the last of the humans involved in the ceremony wandered off home, leaving the wolves to carry on loudly in true wolf fashion. Emma knew her mating to Jamie would “change” her. She’d meant to ask questions about how soon and in what way. Now she suspected she knew. Slowly during the evening she became aware of Jamie’s scent. It was a slightly wild woodland fragrance with a fascinating undertone she couldn’t name. She found it as attractive as the man himself. Leaning close to him at one point, she couldn’t help inhaling deeply. Jamie glanced down at her and grinned, his eyes twinkling with knowledge. His head dipped down to whisper, “I wouldn’t put up a fuss like some folks do if you want a taste too, little Luna Wolf.” Deep tones of a lusty chuckle accompanied his words as he squeezed her tightly to his side. “Luna Wolf?” she questioned mildly. “My mate is the Luna Wolf, baby. She is queen of the night, mistress of the shadows,” he clarified softly, bending down to drink from her mouth, showing her what he’d rather be doing. As the sliver moon rose over the trees, Emma became aware of it. The need to look at it was a gentle pull she’d never felt before. And then there was the night vision. With the humans gone, the bonfire was allowed to burn down, what little illumination there was came from the light over the church’s back door. Night vision wasn’t a problem for the wolves. The dimly lit gathering felt right, even comfortable. Emma was beginning to feel exhausted but wouldn’t mention it to Jamie. He was having a wonderful time with his cousins. He’d admitted he hadn’t actually seen Wren in close to a hundred years. Since the inventions of telephones and fax machines, Prime Alpha traveled a lot less. His ancestral home was a remote castle deep in the Scottish Highlands. Though he now traveled less than before, the highland brogue was barely noticeable in his speech. 51

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Wolves were skilled at adapting to their surroundings, now more than ever. The ability to blend in paramount to survival in a human dominated world, Jamie hardly had to make an effort to adopt the American accent and speech patterns. Never leaving her side, his arm either around her or holding her hand, he still managed to mingle. It was after one in the morning when Jack walked up to her and grabbed her other hand. “Mind if I steal your woman?” he teasingly asked Jamie. Jamie grinned and released her hand as he reminded himself to relax, Jack was her family. He needed to start giving the young pup the respect he deserved. “I’ve got to ask you something,” Jack said, just loudly enough for Jamie to hear it as he led Emma away. Emma assumed it was something about the wedding. Returning his smile as he glanced down at her, she went willingly. Jack stopped at the back door to the church to look down at Emma. Glancing up at him questioningly, Emma froze. His familiar face suddenly blurred and reformed itself into the leering face of evil. A deep chuckle gargled out from his now massive chest as she tried to back up in silent horror. “Oh, no, my dear. We need your scream to get everyone’s attention.” The now distorted creature sneered down at her in a guttural voice. Emma screamed as the hand holding hers turned into a talon-tipped paw. The beast before her was neither human nor wolf. Something in between with a stubby, jowly muzzle where his lower face should have been. Out of the loose lips protruded sharp incisors. The eyes were human-like, but instead of whites to his eyes, they were orange, making them glow. The sloping brow above his eyes had folds of mottled skin like a bloodhound’s. His entire head was lumpy and misshapen with bulging knobs on his wrinkled forehead as if horns were almost growing there. His ears were long and pointed and moved like a dog’s, though the edges seemed ragged. His big body expanding and lengthening in his transformation had simply ripped the clothes apart, revealing grotesque folds and bulges where none should be. His entire body was covered in a coarse, wild, hog-like hair, which she could see under the shredded remains of Jack’s clothes. A quick jerk of his wrist swung her body around to face the suddenly deathly quiet crowd. With her back pressed to his chest and one hand gripping her neck in a strangle hold, her wide eyes went straight to Jamie. The entire gathering stared back at them in stunned silence. Even the night creatures had stilled as menace permeated the air like suffocating dew. “Hello, little brother,” the beast growled as he looked up at Jamie. “Big brother’s return is a bit of a shock I imagine. That’s okay—you’ll get over it. I was quite surprised myself when you appeared on these shores. And how accommodating of you to choose a human mate, right here under my nose. I could hardly believe my luck. It makes this so much sweeter, don’t you think?”

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Jamie moved slowly through the crowd, stopping ten yards away, facing the grotesque monster and Emma. “Hello, Nels,” Jamie responded calmly. “Let her go. Whatever this is, it’s between you and me.” “Yes,” the monster hissed. “You and me. But I’m a generous guy. Now that you finally have a family again, I’ve decided to let you include them in your punishment. It’s only fair, a den that suffers together stays together.” Nels laughed in a gargling, hiccupping sound. “I’ve waited a long time for you to fill your den, little brother. The most important thing to you always was family. Saintly Jamie follows all the rules, but when he loves, he does it with all his being. Punishing you would be satisfying, doing it through your mate, delicious.” “Nels, let her go,” Jamie again stated firmly. Directly behind Jamie, Wren growled low in his throat. Every eye was trained on the scene under the feeble light. The fact that Jack had not really been Jack was as pressing an issue as the monster’s hold on Emma. Jamie held up a hand when the wolves began to shift behind him. He needed them calm and quiet. No sudden moves to trigger the impending disaster. “Where is Jack?” Jamie asked for the pack gathered behind him. The seething emotions were easily evident as the magnitude of the situation became clear to everyone. Whatever Nels intended to do to Emma would be delayed if he could distract the beast some way. “Why, Jack is right here, didn’t you see him? Smell him? Feel him?” Nels laughed again, the movement of his chest pressed to Emma’s back made her shudder. Emma remained frozen and silent. Her concentration focused solely on Jamie, the overwhelming horror held at bay by force of will. She knew with every particle of her body that he’d die protecting her. Whatever he planned to do, she needed to be ready to cooperate. She’d faint when she had time for it. “Now that’s enough to drive a wolf crazy, isn’t it?” Nels taunted. “You know it was Jack, your noses told you so, but chango, presto, it’s good old Nels. Makes a wolf wonder, don’t it?” “Nels, tell me where to find Jack,” Jamie demanded in his Prime Alpha voice. Perhaps natural instinct to obey the Prime wasn’t dead in Nels. It was at least worth a try, and it gave Jamie more time to figure out how to get Emma away from the monster that had once been his brother. “AAAAAARRRRRGGGGG,” the monster roared. “Don’t you address me like that, you sniveling pup!” he screamed. “I am here to show you and the fools behind you what an idiot you are. We should be masters of the planet. Not the tame dogs you’ve turned them into. Man’s best friend, instead of the gods we actually are. You and your narrow-minded ‘do good’ attitudes have made them—the true predator beasts—into the guardians of those who should worship them.” Nels drew back, yanking Emma up off her feet. “But not for long. I have a special gift for you and your mate. Your stink is all over her already, but not for long.

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“You will die trying to save her. You’ll not be strong enough to kill her before she becomes too strong to let you. She will go insane slowly and you’ll battle it all the way. In the end, this whore will crawl back to me over your dead body. I am the only one who will be able to master her, and she will crave that. She’ll kill for it. Together we will create a race to rule over the Lykosapiens and humans alike. I’ve already gotten one pup out of her, haven’t I?” Glowing eyes rested on Laura and his distorted face grinned. “Hello, daughter. Daddy is so happy to see you. They didn’t tell me about you. I would have been here sooner to train you for your rightful place.” “Got to fucking hell, you obscene bastard!” Laura spat at him. Her body trembled as she tried to constrain the beast within her. Information was pounding into her fast and Laura was barely holding onto the last shreds of her ability to remain human. First was the fact she was pretty sure her mate was dead. Second, if this repulsive beast was her father, all the things she knew were not normal to wolves were really his genetic gift to her. She was the child of unimaginable evil. Third, it had her mother. “That’s my girl,” Nels answered. “You feel it don’t you, baby. The monster within is waking up. Jack was mated to you, but we both know you were not mated to him. That’s Daddy’s little gift, sweetheart. You are more than the wolves around you. Above their stupid rules and codes. You will come to Daddy when you’re ready to know who you really are.” “Never! You disgusting freak!” Laura shrieked in panic and pain. Nels had referred to Jack in the past tense. She moved to rush toward him but Jamie caught her. His arm wrapped around her and his calm voice flowed into her mind. “No, Laura. He doesn’t control you. Don’t give him that. You have your mother and now you have me. We are your family. Let me get your mom and we will deal with this.” Laura’s body shuddered as she subsided behind Jamie. Wren squeezed her shoulder and stepped up beside Jamie. Nels laughed again. “Oh, two of you now? Do you think it makes a difference? Well, no matter. Now let me show you, little wolf, the special gift I have for your mate.” Nels held out his free hand and a syringe appeared in it. An ordinary thing seen in any hospital. It appearing to materialize out of thin air at the command of a monster made it an object of horror, even before the beast spoke again. Emma’s eyes fastened on it and she couldn’t look away. Oh, God! No! Her mind screamed. Panic and revulsion overwhelmed her and she started to struggle in blind desperation. “Yesssss, my lovely,” Nels chuckled. “Get that adrenaline pumping, darling. It makes the effect so much more dramatic.” She couldn’t escape the hand at her neck and was simply beating herself against his hard body. Gasping and sobbing, she finally realized what he was saying. Mostly it was Jamie’s booming voice that calmed her. “Emma!” Jamie didn’t exactly yell, but his deep voice was loud and commanding. “Emma, calm down.”

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“I know you’re wondering about the cocktail I’ve cooked up for you, darling,” Nels crooned into her ear, his eyes never leaving the wolves in front of him. He didn’t raise his voice as he said to Jamie, “Tell the young ones to come back around here, Jamie lad. Those two are not as sly as they think. Their attempt at attack will simply curtail my explanation of what the lovely Emma must face. You will go into this with even less knowledge than you could have.” Jamie’s eyes remained locked on Nels. “Camron, Timotee!” he called softly. “Stand down.” “Now then, brother of mine,” Nels continued, “you’ve never quite figured out what was in the serum I took, have you? No, you’re not much of a scientist. I see by your surprise at my appearance your knowledge is still limited. But perhaps you’re bright enough to guess what part of that original mixture kicked in after you murdered me, mmmm?” Jamie’s face didn’t move a muscle as he watched Nels. His mind worked desperately to find the way out of this for Emma. As long as Nels was focused on him, perhaps he’d shift his method of revenge to himself. Nels chuckled in his deep strangled tone. “December 17, 1903, my birthday as a Vampire Wolf. Had you been capable of looking around at the brother you’d just murdered, you would have seen my eyes watching you limp off. Jamie the hero, saving the world from the nasty, deranged wolf.” Nels laughed again. “Jamie the fool!” he spat out contemptibly. “Jamie who unleashed the greatest power imaginable on the world. I am more than wolf, more than Vampire.” The hulking beast holding Emma shifted and leaned forward as he bared his teeth at Jamie. His hand tightened instead of easing around her neck. She was jerked forward, held out and shaken like a rag doll under Jamie’s nose. “Look at her, lad. This is the last time you will see this woman,” Nels hissed. “The thing she is about to become is so far above you, she will be able to hold you out like this and shake you. You will never have a den, little brother. Never have a family. I doubt she will let you live through her transformation, but mostly I’m going to enjoy watching you try to save her from her future.” Nels threw his head back and laughed. The sound echoed through the dark night in chilling, manic shrills. Jamie saw his one opportunity and lunged forward. But Nels was quicker. The syringe plunged into Emma’s abdomen and was fully depressed. Everyone froze again, except Nels. He was still chuckling as he watched Jamie stare in horror at the syringe protruding from his mate’s soft belly.

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Chapter Five Emma looked down at the syringe, her face pale and stricken in shock. Her eyes rose to Jamie and he’d never seen such sad despair on a beloved face before. “No!” bellowed from him as he lunged forward again. There was nothing left to bargain for, nothing left to lose. He’d seen acceptance of death on the one face he could not bear it from. Unbelievably, Laura was quicker. Suddenly she was simply before the beast, her hand yanking the syringe from Emma’s body. The beast roared and grabbed for it but Laura had an arm around Emma and flashed out of reach before he could touch her. Laura’s body had grown and expanded just as Nels’ had, matching him in size and mass though not into a grotesque form that ripped her clothing. She was simply larger. She shoved her mother into Jamie’s arms, handing him the syringe as well then turned back to her father with blinding speed. “Now, Daddy dearest,” growled out of her in a tone that seemed to thunder and pierce at the same time. “It’s a bad idea to piss off baby girl.” Laura didn’t waste time talking—making use of the surprise her transformation caused, she was on him in an instant, a talon-like hand plunging into his chest while sharp incisors ripped into his neck. Just as her fingers closed around his heart, Nels dissolved into mist and shot off into the sky, a ghastly scream echoing after him as he streaked away. Laura looked down at her bloody hand and back up at the sky. “I’ve got to learn how to do that,” she whispered to herself, her eyes narrowed and glowing, her body heaving with battle adrenaline. Pandemonium broke out as the wolves were finally released. Instinctively they milled around, forming a protective circle around Jamie who sat on the ground holding Emma. Laura flashed to his side. Her body returned to its normal size. Her now clean hand on Jamie’s shoulder, she faced the wolves. Fear rippled through them. Fear in a wolf pack meant attack. “I’m different,” Laura stated quietly as her glowing eyes surveyed the crowd. “Jack knew the moment I was born,” she continued. “I had almost an adult understanding of my differences immediately. He was in my mind from that first moment. He guided me, taught me, showed me how to deal with it and shield all of you from the knowledge. I assure you I am not insane, nor am I a danger to you.” Her calm voice continued. “That was the gift he gave me. Now you know how dangerous I can be. We are going to leave and deal with this. You can help or you can get out of the way, but if you want the only creature who can protect you on your side, you’d better figure that out fast.”

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Wren stepped forward and kissed Laura on the cheek. He reached down and helped Jamie to his feet as Jamie cradled Emma. “What can we do to help?” he asked calmly. Laura smiled at him and tears sprang to her eyes. His acceptance mirrored his son’s ability to move on and do what needed to be done. He’d calmed the pack and made them a part of it again with that move. Laura turned to Jamie. In his arms, he cradled Emma who couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer. “She’s gonna need you. Are you up for this?” Laura asked quietly. “She is my mate. She needs both of us,” he replied. “Yes, but you are the one who will hold her to sanity,” Laura explained. “Your mind is the place she will hide when the demons threaten to break free. Your strength is what she will need to master them. She is as helpless as I was the moment I was born. I can tell you what Jack did for me. But you have to do it for her.” Jamie bared his teeth. “She is mine. Nothing will take her from me.” Laura nodded and turned to Wren. “Jack is no longer alive,” she stated, holding back the pain even saying those words caused. Even though Nels had apparently left, danger swirled around them all and the urgent need to act surged uppermost in everyone’s mind. “For the monster to wear Jack so completely he had to ingest his total blood supply. I suspect it happened when Jack went out to the parking lot alone before the rehearsal. You will find him somewhere there.” Tears streamed down Laura’s face unchecked as her strong, calm voice range through the night. Laura looked at the solemn faces surrounding them. “The monster has been alive a long time. He hasn’t made a move on us until now. Either he knows he can’t defeat us all, or he was biding his time for the perfect moment. I think he’s not as powerful as he wants you to believe. I know what my talents are, well some of them, I think being born with them makes me stronger than he is. It’s only a theory since I have never faced him before. But scientifically it’s born out in unrelated experiments. “I also think what he gave my mother is different than what he injected himself with. Advanced technology argues for a purer serum. We have the syringe and I can analyze it. What he doesn’t want you to know is how to kill him. He’s insane so he makes stupid mistakes. He told us how to kill him when he admitted to being a Vampire Wolf. Rip out his heart and burn it. If you don’t burn it, he’ll get it back. “You know he can mask his scent. What I don’t think he can mask is this.” Suddenly Laura’s scent disappeared. For the wolves it was like flipping a switch. However, when she did it, a barely perceptible energy rippled through them all. “Remember that feeling,” she warned them as her scent returned. Emma moaned in pain. “We have to get out of here,” Jamie growled, his glowing eyes flashed to Wren. Wren slipped an arm around Laura’s shoulders and squeezed lightly. “Cable, get Laura to the lab, call us when you have something,” he instructed his son. “And don’t leave her alone.” 57

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Wren turned to Jamie. “I’ll get you to a safe location.” Wren’s eyes traveled swiftly around the gathering. “Everyone stay in groups until we know more about what we are dealing with.” Wren was driving the SUV with Jamie holding Emma in the back. Thirty minutes down the road Emma started convulsing, her body twisting and clenching uncontrollably. Her eyes opened and she stared at Jamie helplessly as feral growls escaped her. Pain was written across her face. Wren grabbed the cell phone and dialed Laura. As soon as Laura answered, he barked out, “She’s convulsing. Any suggestions?” He paused and listened a moment. “Yeah, makes sense. Thanks.” Wren flicked the phone shut. “She said the new DNA is spreading, fighting for control. You need to get your DNA in her body fast, as much as you can. She needs to choose it, Jamie,” Wren told him in a calm statement. In the back seat, Emma’s eyes widened as Jamie’s lips thinned and his eyes hardened with determination. “Baby, you know what we need to do,” he crooned. “Just concentrate on me. We can fight it together. Only together, honey. I know you understand that.” His deep voice continued to calm her as his hand reached under her dress and pulled her panties down and off. As soon as his hand settled between her legs, Emma screamed. It wasn’t pain. Oh, no. Her hips bucked up into his hand and all the fire shooting through her body became concentrated on the tender flesh he stroked. She was hot and wet. His finger easily slid into her and her channel milked it desperately. A second digit eased in and he stroked in and out firmly. Her hips pressed back, driving him in deeper. A third finger stuffed her full and she moaned in pleasure. Her body welcomed the intimate touch with wrenching desperation. No longer convulsing uncontrollably, the driving hunger in her body became concentrated on his invading touch. The need for more was desperate and painful as she tried to spread her legs wider to allow more of him in her. “Yes, yes, yes. Harder. Please, please, harder,” she begged as he finger-fucked her. “Now! Jamie! I need you now!” she wailed. Jamie glanced at the front seat. Wren reached up and flipped the rearview mirror up. It wasn’t like the two of them minded. Wolves mated when the urge took them. Didn’t matter one damn bit who was or wasn’t in the room. Emma would mind eventually, but this was a fight for her life. There was nothing Jamie would not do in that effort. Jamie laid her writhing body down on the seat and slid between her legs. Emma’s hands frantically sought his pants, releasing him before he could do it himself. Her little hand reached in and wrapped around his cock, pumping it as her thumb skimmed over the liquid-pearled tip.

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“Easy, baby,” Jamie gasped, anxious to slow this down and make sure she enjoyed it. “No!” Emma demanded. “Now! Not easy. Don’t do me easy, Jamie,” she sobbed. “I need it hard. Please, please, Jamie. Hard!” She placed the thick head to her opening, bucking up to take him. Her damp thumb came up to her lips and she jammed it in, sucking his essence into her mouth. Jamie’s eyes narrowed as she tried to fuck herself on him. Something Nels said came back to him and he sucked in a breath. “…I am the only one who will be able to master her, and she will crave that. She’ll kill for it…” She was changing. Her scent was still mate to him but it was changing. Her aggressive need for sex was certainly different. If Nels had given away a tiny sliver of truth there, her new demand for a hard fuck was the only way she knew to convey what was actually clawing at her. She was begging him to master her. He may not be a scientist, but he knew enough about biology and mating to know new organisms within a body were considered intruders by that body. In a mate bond, the new DNA of the male only succeeded invading his mate because mentally she welcomed it. But if there were two sets of DNA struggling within her, they would both be viewed as an infection to be fought and repelled by the confused body. On some level, she knew what she wanted and was begging him for it. But it was up to him to convince her conscious mind. Jamie grabbed her hands and stretched them over her head, shackling both wrists with one hand. He reached down to rip open her bodice, allowing her breasts to spill out. Emma froze, her eyes wide. Jamie’s lips curled back and he growled at her as he would a wolf bitch to establish dominance. He filled his free hand with a plump breast and squeezed hard, kneading it roughly as his fingers found the pebbled nipple and pinched. Emma moaned, her eyes never leaving his as her back arched, offering him what he’d claimed. “Mine, Emma,” Jamie stated. “You are mine. I will fuck you, fondle you, have you, but on my terms, woman.” He left the head of his cock in her, but didn’t allow her to impale herself further. He wanted the drops of his pre-cum in her, yet he needed her to know she’d have to surrender to him to have more. Suddenly he released her hands and sat back. He took one of her legs and skimmed the thigh-high stocking off. Quickly leaning over her once more, he grasped her wrists again, tied them together with the silk and secured them over her head to the armrest on the vehicle door. “Oh, my God!” Emma’s head arched back to see what he’d done as he finished. “What the hell are you doing?” “Controlling my bitch,” Jamie stated with a snarl. He took her leg, which had been resting flat-footed on the floorboard, and wrapped it around his hip, exposing a plump ass cheek and promptly brought his hand up in a hard spank. Her eyes flew to him again as she yelped.

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“That’s right,” Jamie said. “Pay attention to me. You lose focus and punishment will be severe, Emma. That little tap was nothing. Now say ‘Yes, Sir’ so I know you understand.” “You want me to call you ‘Sir’?” Emma frowned in confusion and indignation. His eyes suddenly flashed an eerie red and a low growl warned of his limited patience as his lips curled back in a snarl. In one swift move Jamie pulled out of her and flipped her over so she was stretched across his lap, ass up. His hand landed heavily with a resounding slap. In quick succession, she received four stinging blows on her exposed backside. Emma bucked and kicked but was helpless to get away from him. “What the fuck are you doing?” she screamed in a guttural voice. “Wrong answer,” he stated calmly, and administered four more spanks. These were even harder. Her lily-white skin glowed red with his handprints in the dim light of the back seat. “Remember, I’m a wolf, Emma. I am not even using a quarter of my strength. We can do this until you’re ready to respond properly and I will love it. You’ve got a beautiful bottom. Perfect for spanking. And I can always amuse myself with this.” He sank two fingers into her dripping cunt from behind and she gasped again. Her ass lifted and pushed back on the nasty invasion as he allowed one finger to nudge her clit with each down stroke. “See how you like that?” Jamie said. “Now what do you say?” Emma shook her head no, tears streamed down her face as she looked around at him in shock. Her body clenched helplessly, seeking his invasion, needing it. She felt like there was a wild roaring in her mind. The desperate need to fuck consumed her, but then, somehow, reality would flash back and she’d become totally aware of her surroundings. In those moments, she was terrified. “I swear to God, Emma. You will know who your master is right now. If I have to use my belt on you, I will,” Jamie hissed as his fingers left her cunt and his hand crashed down on her tender ass four times more. Emma sobbed and pleaded. “No more, Jamie, please, no more.” “Say the words, Emma, and you’ll get the fucking you need,” Jamie demanded in harsh tones. “How can you humiliate me like this in front of Wren?” she gasped desperately through her tears. “What’s wrong with you? Why are you doing this?” “I will tie you up and punish you in front of the whole damn pack if that’s what it takes to get you to understand who your master is, woman,” Jamie grated as his hand landed on her yet again. “Wren is not your concern. I am. Now answer me!” Emma’s ass was on fire, her mind burned through with humiliation as Jamie once again rammed two fingers into her shamefully desperate cunt and fucked her hard with them. He met no resistance there and she sobbed with embarrassment as she acknowledged her need.

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“Yes, Sir,” whispered through the tears. “That’s not good enough anymore, Emma,” Jamie hissed. “Tell me what you want so I can hear it.” “Yes, Sir,” she yelled at him. “Please fuck me.” His hand landed on her ass again with an echoing smack. “Please fuck me, who?” he demanded. “Please fuck me, Sir,” she screamed, her body pumping up at him in desperation, needing his fingers that were fucking her so rudely, if he would give her nothing else. The fires burning up between her legs were eating at her will, his rough handling arousing her to a mind-bending level of writhing need. She truly didn’t understand what was happening to her. Jamie grunted in satisfaction then continued. “Here are the rules. You do as you’re told when you’re told. Your only response is ‘Thank you, Sir’. Do you understand?” Emma nodded as she sniffled and tried to spread her legs further and arch her cunt up at him. Jamie’s hand came out of her only to return with a hard, open-handed spank directly on her sensitive folds. Emma screamed as sensation exploded up her body. It was pain and pleasure in such measures she didn’t think she could handle it. His hand rested there on her hot pussy, cupping it as she came back to herself. He wasn’t moving it, simply holding her intimately. Jamie’s entire body trembled as he looked down at the glowing ass and shaking body of his mate. She didn’t understand. But her body did. It gushed and moved for him in ecstasy with his every stern move. Her legs remained spread for him without a command. Her ass had risen to meet every slap of his hand. And now he felt her contract in a small orgasm as he’d given her that last little slap. And it had been gentle—even though he was sure she didn’t know it. Her body was dying to surrender to him in every way. It was just her stubborn mind with its ingrained society views of right and wrong that resisted. He had to have her mind. Humans had a gift few other species possessed. Their minds were the key to survival from the most amazing injuries. Time after time he’d seen it. If they decided to live, they could. If they decided to die, nothing would stop them. “Now, sweet bitch,” Jamie gritted out, “what did I just tell you? What is your only response?” “Thank you, Sir,” Emma groaned in surrender. Her body was blazing from head to toe. Somehow, she had no control of it. He filled her mind and she wanted him to fill her body. He’d removed every other conscious thought and given her only his touch to replace them, his will to cling to. Gulping for air, she tried to regroup, but he didn’t give her time. “Elbows and knees. Now, Emma!” Jamie commanded as he slipped out from under her to the other end of the wide seat. Her body shifted obediently. Both her hands 61

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gripped her tether to the opposite door as she rested on her elbows. Her legs came up under her and she presented her upturned ass and cunt to him as he regarded her. “Good girl,” Jamie crooned, shifting around to cover her from behind. His cock rested at her entrance again as he leaned over her back. His mouth opened and clamped down on her shoulder, holding her in place. His hips flexed and he slammed into her in one powerful thrust. Emma screamed in relief, the hard shaft invading her felt like hot ecstasy tunneling into her needy cunt. It filled her to capacity and pushed her beyond reason. There was no cause for him to slow down or be gentle. She was wet and ready, humping back at him as he began a demanding rhythm. He intended to come in her as soon as possible and then do it again. She was accepting him any way he chose to take her and that’s what he needed as he pumped her full of the DNA her body must accept. The fast, brutal fuck was designed to dominate as it pleasured. That she was moaning and gushing around him told him how far the serum had altered her already. That thought triggered feral growls deep in his chest. This was his female—his bitch—and she would accept him as mate. The one thing he agreed with Nels on was that he’d die claiming her if he had to. The slap of their bodies and the tangy scent of sex filled the vehicle along with Emma’s moaning, crying voice begging him to fuck her harder. Jamie pulled up as he fucked her and his hand landed on her red ass again. “That was to get your attention,” he growled. “You do not come, woman, unless I tell you to. Do you understand me?” he asked as he shoved himself into her with increasing speed. To take her over and over as he needed to, he was going to have to keep her wanting. It took too much time to let her come every time he did. He wasn’t sure if his ejaculation would force orgasm on her as it had before. He wasn’t even sure he’d knot her in these circumstances. This was not a mating and her body was responding in a whole different way. He was damn sure he’d do whatever it took to save her. It was cruel, it was harsh and it might save her life. He’d be willing to pay for it later if it meant she’d be there to torment him with retribution. Dazed, Emma could hardly separate the sensations of his hard fucking and the excruciating fire in her well-spanked bottom. He’d asked her a question. Yes, no? It was a direction. No coming unless he said so. No, no, no. She was ready to come now. But there was only one response, only one answer. She knew that for a fact. It was about the only thing she knew at the moment besides the complete body-melting heat of his thick cock ramming into her. His will, his commands, his body drowned out the roaring. “Thank you, Sir,” Emma groaned, and bit her lip to hold back the building pleasure. Jamie reached under her and grabbed both her nipples, rolling the sensitive tips between thumb and forefinger. His jaw clamped over her shoulder again and he let himself fuck her mindlessly, ramming himself in ruthlessly, seeking his own release. Just as he felt his cock expand to knot her, he clamped down hard on her nipples, cruelly pulling them to arch her. She screamed and he slammed into her. His cock locked and seed shot into her plugged cunt. The hot jets splashing into her brought wave after wave of pleasure but no release as he held her breasts in his painful grip. 62

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His fingers finally loosened, but he continued pumping his cum into her. Suddenly her mind was clear. The pain that had engulfed her with the convulsions was completely gone. The roaring confusion somehow quieted, though still in the background. With each jet of semen, her body felt soothed and relieved. She hadn’t been allowed a release and her body burned for it, but what he was giving her seemed so much better. The grip of almost senseless animal heat lessened to the feeling she’d had the first time they’d made love. Her eyes opened in stunned wonder as she realized he was now cradling her breasts in gentle hands, rubbing away the pain and crooning to her softly. Telling her how much he needed her. How he’d do anything for her, anything at all. She turned her tear-streaked face to his lips. He licked up the damp tracks, kissing her gently as his body continued to release every couple of seconds. “Open your eyes, love,” he whispered as he hovered over her. “I need to see your soul.” Emma opened her eyes to look into his beautiful face that was nearly lying on the seat beside hers. His large body completely covered hers as his cock still jetted semen into her at regular intervals. His eyes searched hers worriedly. “Talk to me, baby. You’re feeling better, aren’t you? Tell me what’s going on. I need to know, in as much detail as possible, so we can fight this thing. I need to know what works and what helps.” He reached up and released her wrists then rolled them to the side so, though his cock was still locked in her, he wasn’t crushing her. Her back to his chest, his hands petted her exposed body gently. Emma glanced around. They were still in the back seat of the SUV moving through the night. Wren still sat in the front driving. Her body blushed as she looked at the back of his head. The rearview mirror was turned up, but that was nothing. There was no way Wren didn’t know exactly what had occurred not two feet behind him. Emma gulped in air and her body cringed in humiliation as that realization washed over her. “Emma!” Jamie barked. “Do I need to get your attention again? Concentrate on me, love. I am the only person you have to worry about.” Jamie’s hands gripped her breasts and his fingers unerringly found her nipples, he pinched down in warning. The little ripple of pain took her mind off the embarrassment. “Tell me how you’re feeling, how it felt when the convulsions started. What’s different now?” he demanded. “I-I don’t know.” She stumbled through her thoughts. “It’s hard to explain.” “Just try for me, love,” he encouraged in a gentle tone again. His hands were once more petting her body as they both felt his cock begin to unlock from her. Pulling out swiftly, he flipped them over again so she was lying on her back and he over her. He grabbed her legs and pressed her knees to her chest, tilting her hips up. His cock was normal again and slid back into her even deeper at this angle. It was softening rapidly, however, even in this state, he was long and thick.

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Her eyes were normal again. He didn’t know how long he had with her like this, but this was his Emma. Her precious face dazed and confused as she allowed him to arrange her body as he pleased. That was a good sign. She accepted his control without protest. His trembling fingers reached down to brush the hair from her face. “I love you so much, Emma,” he whispered. “You’ve got to trust that. Believe that. I need to know what happened in your body when the convulsions started. I don’t know how long we have while you’re able to tell me,” he confessed sadly. “If after you tell me what I need to know and we still have time, I’ll explain as much as I can about what’s happening. Okay?” “It was like a wild roaring in my head,” Emma explained. “Everything inside me seemed to be twisting. Then you touched me and everything stopped—I was listening or something, listening with my body. Suddenly the roaring got louder and I couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t figure out what to do. Then when you, ah, you started spanking me I could hear you again,” Emma explained in an embarrassed rush. “I don’t know how, but you kept making me hear you and I wanted to.” Tears started streaming down her face again as she confessed what she considered a shameful weakness. “I wanted you to make me listen, Jamie. I wanted everything you did. I was desperate for you to fuck me and when you did, it was heaven. When you came, almost right away the roaring stopped and I could think again. “Oh, God, I’m an animal, aren’t I?” she sobbed. “He’s made me into an animal. I didn’t care about anything but getting you in me. I couldn’t think of anything else.” “No, baby. You’re not an animal,” Jamie corrected her tenderly. “Your body is fighting. There are two foreign bodies invading it. Whatever was in that syringe and my DNA. Your body has to choose one and join with it, that’s the only way you’ll survive.” Jamie kissed her lovely face as she stared up at him in horror. “It’s like an infection. We have to get all of you to accept me. Your body still knows me as your mate. We have to reinforce that, baby. Do you understand? You have to trust me on a cellular level. Your mind must turn to me when the things he put in you start fighting for you again.” “Oh, my God!” Emma gasped. “The roaring,” was all she got out before her eyes changed. Not only did orange invade her eyes, but her pupils reshaped themselves into the slivers of cat’s eyes. “No! By God, you’re mine,” Jamie bellowed. Swiftly he moved up her body, presenting his dripping cock at her mouth while he pulled her legs up and tucked them under his arms. “Suck it!” he ordered harshly. “You will take my cum into your belly, bitch, without spilling a drop out of your cunt.” His hold kept her pelvis tilted up as the velvet tip of his cock rubbed her lips. Emma’s lips drew back revealing sharp incisors. Jamie’s face darkened into a fierce mask. “I feel those teeth of yours one time, little cat,” he growled, “and you’ll take it in the ass. You know I’ll do it. Now suck.”

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Emma’s mouth opened as he thrust into her. Both of them were vibrating with snarling threats, but she took him. “That’s it, take all of it.” Jamie grimaced as he reached the back of her mouth. “Relax, you can do it. You don’t do it, and I’ll put it where you will take all of it,” he threatened as she gagged. He needed to be sure all of his seed found its way into her body. It was a harsh way to learn how to deep-throat cock but he couldn’t be concerned with that. He thrust into her and she took it. Both of them trembled as he waited there, his groin pressed into her lips, his balls heavy on her chin. Tears streamed down Emma’s face again as she struggled to breathe, finally she found the muscle control to do it and Jamie grunted in satisfaction. Her hands on his waist bit into his flesh as he started fucking her face with shallow thrusts. Powerful thighs flexed and bunched with the restraint he required of his body. He didn’t dare pull back far enough to remove his cock from her throat. The visual of her tender lips sealed around the base of his cock drove Jamie hard. Even though he’d just come, this sight excited him more than he would have thought possible. His balls tightened swiftly as he ground into her face. Her cat eyes glared at him fiercely, flashing with animal challenge, and deep growls vibrated up the root of him. Damn, she was beautiful, wild and sexy. This forced submission was as intoxicating as it was dangerous. He could feel her aggression stronger than before. The explosion of his orgasm took him by surprise and he realized his body had not knotted in her mouth. That was a relief as he roared and pumped his seed into her belly. The growls subsided and her eyes slowly changed again. Jamie withdrew cautiously from her mouth. Her tongue swirled around his retreating shaft, licking off every drop. Sucking it down greedily. “Oh, damn, baby,” he breathed. “That was amazing. How do you feel?” The head of his cock emerged from her mouth and her red lips closed slowly as she regarded him seriously. “I feel like I’ve been fucked twice and haven’t come yet,” she hissed. It was a normal hiss though, not a cat. Jamie grinned wickedly. This was a frustrated woman, not a deranged animal. “I know. But we’re almost there. I think you can make it until we get inside,” he encouraged as he finally gathered her up in his arms and kissed her deeply. His own taste in her mouth was exciting and darkly addicting. He held her in his arms, her knees draped over a muscled forearm keeping her pelvis tilted up as he cradled her back with the other arm. The SUV came to a halt. “Wait a minute,” Wren directed as he stepped out of the vehicle. They watched Wren scan the area, scenting carefully, investigating the shifting shadows around the large cabin deep in the woods. He finally went up onto the porch and unlocked the front door, disappearing inside the darkened house. A few minutes later the lights switched on and he reemerged on the porch and nodded to them.

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Jamie had kicked off his pants some time ago. Emma’s dress was bunched around her waist. The two of them emerged from the SUV like that, both beyond caring what Wren saw at this point. Jamie carried her through the murky night into the house. Wren simply pointed and Jamie headed for the bedroom indicated. The cabin was decorated in simple hunting cabin style. The rough furniture was sturdy and comfortable. Scattered around the hardwood floor were large oval braid rugs that added country warmth to the interior. It was rustic but well appointed, with every modern convenience present under the guise of woodland charm. “Bathroom,” Emma mumbled into his chest. Jamie glanced down at her and the muscles in his jaw tightened. The disheveled woman in his arms was exhausted. She hadn’t slept in close to twenty-four hours. Her life had changed in ways neither of them could imagine. He carried her into the attached bathroom and simply sat her on the toilet. Jamie pulled the remains of her dress over her head as she closed her eyes and allowed her body to release. Kneeling beside her, he removed the other stocking. His eyes went to her cunt as his cum now dripped out of her. He grimaced and cursed himself. He’d brought her to this place. He was responsible for every damn horrendous thing she’d endured in her life. Her hand on his shoulder interrupted his self-castigation. “I need to sleep. I’m sorry,” she apologized weakly. “Please, Emma,” Jamie moaned, “don’t you ever apologize to me for one thing. Of course you need to sleep, baby. This time the change seems to have backed off.” He helped her stand and guided her unsteady feet into the bedroom and to the bed. “No,” she moaned at the bedside. “I need a shower, I’m filthy and the bed is clean.” Jamie chuckled. “Yes, you need a shower, honey. But don’t worry about the damn bed. We are going to mess it up a whole lot more.” He threw back the covers, lifted her onto it then covered her up. “Now rest. I’ll be right outside the door for a few minutes. If the roaring comes back, yell for me.” Emma nodded groggily and was asleep as her head subsided on the pillow. Jamie gazed down at her, noting the dark circles under her eyes, the uneven hitch to her breathing, the bruises on her neck where the monster had gripped her. Cursing in a steady stream of ancient Gaelic, he moved over to the chest of drawers and found some sweats to pull on. Just as he was tightening the drawstring, he heard voices in the outer room. His nose told him it was Laura. Frowning at that unbelievable possibility, he bounded out of the room to confront the intruder.

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Chapter Six Laura stood in the doorway with a crouched Wren blocking her path. “I know who you look like. That doesn’t mean shit anymore now, does it?” Wren snapped. “Yeah, how do I know it’s actually Wren?” Laura responded in a puzzled tone. “I know. What did I take when I was five? And what did you do about it?” Wren straightened and grinned. “You took pictures of Jack in the shower. I took your camera and smashed it.” Laura frowned and stepped into the cabin, shutting the door softly. “We need a password. I can’t come up with a personal experience on every wolf. But a password has its drawbacks as well.” She shook her head and turned to Jamie. “How is she?” “Sleeping,” Jamie responded, and questioned urgently. “What do you have for us?” “I’ve analyzed the serum and come up with several theories,” Laura said as she paced across the room to the kitchen. Both men followed. “When?” Wren demanded. “You had to be driving right behind us. We just arrived.” Laura opened the fridge and grabbed the orange juice. “No, I flashed up here,” she supplied as she tipped the carton of juice up and gulped all of it. “Ahh, that was good. Using that particular talent is draining, somehow. Makes me feel shaky. This stuff helps.” She tossed the empty carton in the trash. Both men raised their eyebrows at this new bit of information. “You flashed up here?” Wren questioned. “As in moved faster than the speed of light?” “I guess.” Laura shrugged. “Jack didn’t like me using it. Took too much energy and if you reappear in sight of a human, well, they find it upsetting. But this time it seemed the only way. We can’t discuss my findings over the cell. Too easy to listen in on and I wanted to see Mom.” Both men pulled out chairs at the kitchen table while Laura reopened the fridge and peered in again. She came out with a raw steak. Finding a plate, she slapped the steak on it, and then placed the plate in the microwave just long enough to thaw. Transferring it to the table along with a knife and fork, she proceeded to cut the steak into neat cubes. The cabin freezer was kept stocked by the last wolf who used it. It was a courtesy all observed, but because of the remote location, there were usually only canned goods and frozen foods. The place had been used last week and some of their leftovers were still in the fridge. “Laura?” Jamie prodded. She glanced at them. “Oh, yeah. Sorry. I get ravenously hungry when I do that too. It’s sorta not good for me to go hungry. I have way too many kill instincts to ignore 67

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hunger,” she supplied matter-of-factly. “It’s one of the first things Jack taught me. Prevention is easier than intervention. You’ll need to remember that, Jamie.” Laura knew her manner was often abrupt and disjointed to those around her. That was the effect of a mind moving faster than most. Without Jack’s influence, she was having a difficult time dialing back and behaving in a socially acceptable fashion. It occurred to her that she sounded flip for the urgency of the situation, but it was only her irritation at having to respond when she was still working on the information she’d already gathered. “Sounds reasonable,” Jamie agreed. “The serum is a beauty,” Laura continued as she chewed. “An absolute work of art in its blending. The creature is a genius as a scientist, I’ll give him that. The thing is, for him to come up with such a perfect blend, he’d have to experiment. I don’t mean once. I mean a lot.” Laura looked significantly at both wolves as they absorbed that statement with mirroring scowls. “Stick that in the pot and cook it a while. You come up with truly frightening possibilities,” Laura agreed with their unspoken fears. “Like, how many has he made? Where are they? What are they?” Wren pushed out of his chair and started pacing. “What did he give her?” Jamie pressed. The other information would need handling with. Sooner than later, if he wasn’t mistaken. But right now, his main concern was sleeping with an uncertain future. He needed answers. “It’s an elegant blend of Midwest mountain lion, coral snake and Vampire, which I think is his own DNA. I didn’t have the time to run the mathematics on it or do the complete DNA profile test. I think it’s designed to give her certain qualities of each creature. I can only guess which qualities he was looking for, but it seems reasonable to assume he wanted the stealth of the big cat, the extra gifts of the Vampire, the deadly venom of the coral. Each one of those creatures is a vicious, ruthless killer.” “Tell me what Jack did for you,” Jamie grated out. “Well, that will help you, but I don’t think it’s the complete answer,” Laura started. “No, let me finish.” She stopped Jamie from responding. “I was born this way. I hope to God I am the only one, but it was different for me because my biological father was already a Vampire Wolf. I was telepathic immediately. Have you established a telepathic link with Mom?” “No,” Jamie confirmed. “No,” Laura echoed, and shook her head. Both her hands ran through her hair and she looked at the ceiling. “I was afraid of that.” “Why?” Jamie demanded. “Because she has not been made a Vampire yet.” Laura sighed. “She has to die first.”

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Jamie’s face darkened into a fierce mask. “We are trying to prevent that, honey,” Jamie spat out. “No, we’re not,” Laura insisted. “Just listen to me. Without her Vampire gifts she will go insane. Nels knew that. He knew she’d not be able to control the other beasts, the need to kill. When she finally kills you and everyone around her, he comes in, kills her and raises a vicious Vampire who knows him as her ‘Master’. That is what a Vampire calls his maker, right?” Jamie nodded mutely, his eyes fastened on his niece in horror as the theory made sickening sense. “Nels also knows a hell of a lot about the making of a Vampire. I am putting things together here, but tell me if I am wrong. The battle where you killed Nels, it was long and grueling?” Jamie nodded again. “Remember he said, if you’d looked back, you would have seen his eyes watching the brother who had just murdered him limp off? His emergence as a Vampire was filled with pain, abandonment and hatred. The first thing to enter his head seems to have been the need for revenge. Put that together with what little we know of other Vampire births. The first face they see is always their ‘Master’, the one who made them. Sometimes they love them, mostly they hate them but they cannot harm them. Ever.” “Fuck!” Jamie breathed as this line of thought slashed into his brain. “I see you get where I’m going with this,” Laura murmured. Jamie pushed away from the table and started pacing the other side of the kitchen from Wren. Jamie stopped and glared at Laura. “How do you know all this?” he demanded. He was angry—he knew it was wrong to lash out at the messenger, but hell! The girl was only twenty years old. Her understanding seemed damn deep. Laura shrugged again in a motion that was already familiar to Jamie. “Daddy is an evil genius?” she snapped back at him. The painful reality of that statement bit into Laura as it fell out of her mouth. She’d been trying to avoid it with the frantic activity required to save her mother, but it was there. Jamie grunted and resumed pacing. “Is there more? You said several theories,” he reminded her in a gentler tone. “There is always more,” Laura confirmed in a tired voice, her defensive posture dropping as soon as Jamie’s tone changed. “I assume your DNA has given her some relief?” “Yeah. It seems to work better when I dominate her,” he supplied gruffly. He was profoundly uncomfortable discussing this with Emma’s daughter, but Laura was neither a child nor an innocent. She’d proved her maturity in this grueling ordeal with irrefutable effectiveness. The fact that she was full of little-known possibilities became less disturbing with each moment she displayed her staggering mental acuity. Her

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grasp of the dangerous, time-intensive situation in which it seemed she was a key player was both logical and proactive. She’d not broken down over the disappearance of her mate or the terror of her mother being attacked and assaulted. Even the discovery of the dark specter her father really was had not shaken her ability to focus on what needed to be done immediately. “Good,” Laura approved. “Every bit of the DNA, including yours, demands the male dominate the female physically. You know the difference in being dominant and being a Dom, right?” “Of course,” Jamie snapped then sighed. “Sorry,” he apologized quickly. “It’s not a comfortable subject to discuss with her daughter.” Laura rubbed her forehead and nodded. “She needs you as a Dom though, Jamie. Apparently, you already knew that. She is gonna need to trust you with her death.” “Shit! Laura!” Jamie exploded. “It’s only a theory!” Jamie swung around and put his fist through the wall, literally. He cursed some more as he pulled it out of the drywall and examined his bleeding knuckles. The explosive violence felt good. It would feel better if he could shift and hunt something to the ground, rip it to shreds and then do it again. “You have a better one?” Laura demanded. “I can help you, both of you, but you need the mental link for it to work. You need all her warring parts fully activated and fully mastered. Any ‘sleeper’ will unhinge her when it activates. And you sure as shit need to be the first thing she sees when she wakes up a Vampire. Your influence must be Master then.” Just then, they heard Emma moan from the bedroom. Jamie turned and ran. Laura beat him to the door. The woman sleeping fitfully on the bed barely resembled Emma. Her hair was completely white. It had been shoulder length, now it seemed to flow in much longer waves. Her face was altered into a leaner, cat-like elegance. The body under the covers seemed longer, changed in some way. Her arms visible above the covers showed smooth muscles where they had once been soft and round. Laura gasped and backed out of the room, dragging Jamie with her. “Now listen to me,” Laura whispered desperately. “Forget I’m twenty years old and remember I am Nels’ daughter.” Jamie nearly missed that comment. He’d only thought it, not said it, but Laura had heard it somehow. Laura continued in a hard, determined tone. “I am probably the only person who can grasp what he’s done and why. She is changing fast. What you see on the outside is the cat. What you can’t see is the coral snake. It stands to reason that part of her has been developing at the same rate. She is dangerous. The cat, the snake and the wolf are all natural enemies. They will be at war in her when she gains consciousness. Hence insanity. Only the Vampire can master all of them. The Vampire can be any beast, which is why that part of us rules all of them in harmony.

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“You need to get more of your DNA in her fast, Jamie,” Laura continued. “It will give her a few moments of clarity. You’ve got to tell her, make her understand that she needs the Vampire part of her nature released. She has to accept your doing it now. I thought we might have twenty-four hours. I was wrong.” Jamie cursed roughly. “Jamie, you have to tie her down before she wakes up, face down. Most likely the snake poison is released with her bite. You can’t chance it. She may not have control of the cat claws now either. You’ve no time to see one way or the other. It’s the only way. You are the one person who has a chance of saving her. Please do this,” Laura begged. “I need rope,” Jamie hissed. “Calm down, Laura. You don’t have to convince me. I’ll bring your mother out of that room, honey.” Wren appeared with a long length of rope and a hunting knife. Placing them in Jamie’s hands, he grimly nodded, turned to pick up his rifle and started cleaning it. Jamie’s lips turned down at that. He couldn’t really argue with Wren. If two sane individuals did not emerge from the bedroom, precautions had to be taken. Wren glanced up at Jamie as he reached for the door handle again. “Make sure the windows are sealed,” he commented quietly. Laura laughed bitterly. “If he doesn’t succeed, Wren, I’m your only protection,” Laura said quietly. “Nothing will hold her, certainly not glass windows.” Wren sadly smiled at Laura. “You’re feeling Jack’s loss more than I am, aren’t you?” he questioned quietly. “He never told me about you. I had no idea what he had done for you.” Laura glanced away from the knowledge in Wren’s eyes. “I know he didn’t. He thought the only way he could protect me completely was to keep it strictly between the two of us. My mother didn’t even know most if it. I’ll have several lifetimes to mourn Jack. I know I’ll probably have to kill my father, I don’t want to kill my mother first.” Wren set down his rifle carefully and moved over to Laura, wrapped an arm around her shoulders and looked at Jamie while he said softly, “Prime doesn’t fail, honey. He’ll bring your mother back.” Jamie stood at the bedroom door as he watched them. He had failed them both, he thought. He’d failed to kill Nels. It didn’t really matter that it was a failure of ignorance. In life, fair was simply an intangible concept dreamed up by man. Every other species knew better than to even look for it. Strength and cunning were the only things that ensured survival. Taking a deep breath, Jamie stepped into the room with the newest queen of the food chain. Swiftly and quietly he secured both wrists together above her head before he attempted to turn her over. Thanks to her complete exhaustion, he was able to turn her to her stomach without waking her. Pulling back the covers revealed a long, lithe body. Her very bones had grown. Where before her complexion had been pink and rosy, now it was pale cream. The sleek muscles under that skin were firm and sculpted. He’d loved her slightly plump body, 71

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but this body was gorgeous in ways that defied the male eye to condemn. Perfection that looked fast and dangerous. Jamie secured her ankles to either side of the bed, leaving enough play in the lines for the finishing touch. Taking both pillows, he carefully lifted the slender, muscled abdomen and slid them under it. Stepping back, he sucked in a breath. If he died tonight, it would almost be worth it. Spread before him was a beauty like he’d never seen. Her heady aroma called him even more compellingly now. It seemed her body changes had only enhanced it, made it deeper, stronger and sharper. He hoped like hell that was because she’d already mated him before Nels injected her. It was probably the first time Nels had encountered a wolf-mated woman. It might present a biological wild card Nels had no way of predicting. Jamie laid the hunting knife on the floor in easy reach but out of sight, and then he undressed swiftly. The last thing he did was fold his belt in half and place it beside her arm in plain view. He had no choice. If he made the wrong decision again, this was the last time he’d have with his mate. It was only a theory—a guess—but there weren’t any other options he could think of. Even though both his eyes and nose told him she was hot, wet and ready, he couldn’t stop himself from starting at the sole of her foot and lightly licking his way up. Her taste had changed as well. It compelled him, fascinated him and drove him to the back of her knee. As he licked across the creamy skin there, she moaned, but didn’t surface from sleep. Oh, God, she was delicious and he was only at mid-thigh. Her legs shifted and tightened under his mouth, but she didn’t seem to be trying to get away so he continued on. Licking up the underside of a round ass cheek, he slid his hand under her to comb what had once been sable curls. Now he touched downy white fur that lay in a neat triangle above plump, damp feminine folds. Drawing his fingers up slowly, he spread her open gently and lifted his head for a look at his prize. Like everything else about her, this part of her body had found a way to increase its appeal. Pale, soft fur did nothing to hide the swollen lips of her labia. As he held them open, he could see rosepetal inner folds flower open as her clit stood up in simple demand. Lowering his mouth reverently to the invitation she presented, he gently rested the flat of his tongue on her distended clit. A moan escaped her lips as he licked to her opening. Her hips flexed and pushed back at him. It was all the acceptance he needed. Greedily he pressed his tongue into her deeply, suckling at her as he consumed her essence. Emma awakened to a frightening kaleidoscope of colors and sounds. Her eyes couldn’t focus and what they did show her was a world turned inside out, like looking at a photo negative. That didn’t really matter because the screaming, hissing, roaring in her head would not let her worry about it.

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She needed to get away! It had to stop! Her body jerked but she couldn’t move! Panic swamped her and she yanked on the evil thing holding her. She would kill it. As soon as she got up, she would damn well rip it into shreds! Power rushed through her body and she welcomed it with vengeful delight. Nothing could hold her for long. Anger mounted as she jerked and twisted. A stinging pain exploded up her ass, her head jerked back and she roared her fury and pain, trying to fling her body away from the thing holding her. Another flash of pain on her ass and she froze, panting hard. Somewhere in the back of her mind a gentle voice was wailing, repeating over and over again, “Jamie’s here, Jamie’s here, Jamie’s here.” Behind her, a harsh voice demanded her attention. “I’ll use the damn belt next time,” it grated. Her head already thrown back, she glanced down at the dark object beside her arm. The visual flashed her back into livid anger as she stared at the arm she couldn’t move! Fresh fury ignited and she turned her head slowly as her lips drew back over extended fangs. Bastard lunch back there needed a good look at what was in store for him. “Think you’re all big and bad now that you have some little teeth, do you?” Jamie snarled to the hissing cat glaring at him over her shoulder with seething hate in her eyes. Though magnificent in her fury, he knew what he looked at was not Emma. It was the thing Nels had created, viciously beautiful and insanely deadly. The desire to kill undulated around her in seductive splendor, its base nakedness a sexual invitation. Jamie’s hips jackknifed up, his cock slamming deep into the gushing opening that tightened around him as he rammed into her and her eyes widened. The narrow slits of her pupils dilated as she gasped through the invasion. A purring moan followed as he pulled out and sliced into her again. The roaring hiss in her mind stilled at the new and delightful sensations. His cock pounded into her in precisely the manner she desired, it seemed. Oh, now that was exactly what bastard lunch needed to do if he wanted to live a little longer. The pleasure of his cock stroking into the unbearable fire between her legs broke through the aggression and her eyes closed to savor the sensations thundering up from her cunt. “Little she-beast likes that, doesn’t she?” he ground out as he brutally worked yielding flesh. Her body contracted and pushed back on him as her head turned forward, her neck arching as if offering the mate hold. “Yes, sweet bitch. You need a cock pounding into you, don’t you? Stretching you— owning this aching cunt.” Jamie’s guttural voice invaded her enjoyment. Her head snapped around again, snarling hisses through bared fangs warned him to damn well stop talking and fuck harder. Jamie’s lips curled back in a sneer. “Snarl all you want, you’ll take what I give you, when I give it to you.” He plunged in deep and stopped. Her head thrashed as she tried to fuck herself on him. The ropes were too tight to let her move. The cat screamed in fury.

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“Give me Emma,” Jamie demanded harshly. “You get the fuck you need only when you let Emma out. Got it?” Jamie’s hand reached up and closed over the end of the belt. “And if you don’t think you want to do that right now, my arrogant little cat cunt, I’ll be happy to convince you. We’ll start with the belt on your ass like a naughty kitten and move on to calling Wren in here to witness your spanking. Wouldn’t like that at all, would you?” The cat snarled and hissed, her body trembling beneath him. With his cock buried deep in her, he could feel every shudder. “That’s right, think about it,” he crooned. “Give me Emma and the fucking continues.” The cat’s head sank down between her extended arms. The face that lifted and looked around at Jamie with frightened eyes was Emma. Jamie pulled out and pushed back into her in gentle strokes as his hands skimmed up her sides. “Sweet baby girl,” he whispered as he felt tears threaten his own eyes. She was so lost and scared. “I’m here, honey. It will be all right. I promise. A little bit more and it’ll be all right.” “Jamie!” Emma sobbed. “What’s happening to me? I can’t see, I can’t move! Am I paralyzed and blind?” “No, baby, no,” he assured her. “Your body is just changing hard and fast. The human mind hasn’t learned how to interpret the new information. You’re not blind, just confused. Not paralyzed, you’re tied up.” “What? Why?” she gasped, then moaned. “Jesus, Jamie, that feels so good. How can it be better than before? What’s happening to me?” “Tied because the other two females in there with you do not mate for life, honey. They prefer to snack on anything that interests them.” Jamie laughed bitterly as he continued the firm but gentle fucking. “It feels different because you are using animal senses. It’s more intense. “Emma, this is important. You have to concentrate, sweetheart. We don’t have much time, and if I stop, your girlfriends will be back. Can you feel them in you?” he questioned. “Yes. What are they?” Emma moaned in horror. “They want to kill you.” “Yeah, we don’t get along,” Jamie agreed dryly. “They are part of what Nels gave you, mountain lion and coral snake. The one you don’t feel yet is the Vampire. Emma, the part of you that is mated to me is wolf. All of those are natural enemies. The battle in your mind between them will make you insane. The only one who can master all of them is the Vampire. We need her to be ours, yours and mine. I know that sounds confusing, but we can do it.” Jamie stopped talking to grit his teeth as his cock tunneled into tight, hot cunt. Newly strengthened muscles were gripping him in a milking motion. The insanity of having to explain his plan to kill her while making love to her ate into his soul like acid.

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He looked down at her in torment. Abruptly the ends of her fingers flashed into lethal claws. She managed to embed them into both sides of the rope. Razor claws were shredding it swiftly. Jamie’s body lunged forward, he grabbed the belt and brought it down across her ass with all the power of the wolf and a threatening roar. The fury in him matched the cat, he realized as he drew back. That was no way to fight her. But he needed Emma. Seeing the thing snatch her away from him so effortlessly destroyed his control. The cat screamed in pain. “Emma, now!” he demanded as he raised the belt again. “Jamie!” Emma cried desperately. “What happened?” “No time!” Jamie panted. “Emma, your Vampire is only released through death. We need her to control the others. Honey, trust me now, I must have your faith. The making of a Vampire shapes it, controls it. We are going to capture yours in our mate bond. She must be part of us. Do you understand? No, I know you don’t. Just believe this. I love you more than my life. I would not ask you to do this if I could do it for you or find any other way. “Oh, baby, please, trust me,” he begged shamelessly as the pace of his thrusts increased. “The moment we orgasm, I’m going to release your Vampire. She will be one with us, she will be you.” Jamie wasn’t aware of the tears streaming down his face. He couldn’t say the words, couldn’t tell her he was going to kill her. Instead he continued to tell her how much he loved her, how she was his soul, his only reason for existing. His body pounded into her, driven by desperation to convey the emotional depth of his commitment to her. Emma cried out beneath him, her gasps telling him she was close. Those precious eyes opened and looked at him as he leaned over her, his face dangerously close to her possibly vicious mouth. “Do it, Jamie. Take me with you,” she whispered. Her body constricted around him and his cock knotted. Jamie reared back and bellowed his release and his pain as his cum jetted into her. Reaching down, he grasped the long, wicked hunting knife. There behind her, on his knees with the knife clutched in both hands, he paused. He knew there was no time to hesitate, the only moment this could work was now, but doubt would not be crushed. What if he was wrong again? The wolf let out a mournful howl as the man plunged the blade down through her back into her heart. Her body jerked, the claws appeared at the ends of her fingers but her hands were both arched back from her bound wrists in shock and pain. The cat screamed in futile fury as Jamie fell forward, using his chest to drive the knife through her heart. In that moment he wished the handle, painfully pressed into his chest, was the blade. He covered her and held her pinned beneath his body as she shuddered convulsively, choking and gasping. Her form went rigid beneath him as the air left her lungs a final time. His face twisted in a mask of unutterable anguish as life hissed out of her.

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Jerking up, he yanked out the knife and flung it across the room. Then slowly lowered himself onto the limp body of his love. Wrenching howls filled the air as he tunneled his arms under her to place his hands over her heart. Gasping sobs racked him as he held death—the big wolf wept. Grief and pain ate him with jagged teeth. An inconsolable flood of utter loneliness drowned him, except he was unlucky enough to live through it. He knew there were fates worse than death—he just never dreamed his would be one of them. If this didn’t work, he would welcome death, seek it out to join her. Nothing would keep her from him now. If he had killed her in error because he could not figure out how to save her, he didn’t desire to live a moment longer than it took to know that. Having to rip the life out of his beloved brother had been a horror he’d almost died in. But there had been a reason, a greater good, he clutched to his broken heart. This situation held no such solace. He’d foolishly thought he’d paid his dues to the universe with that one act of family sacrifice. He’d been wrong. Wrong to think he’d done the fucking job, wrong in every damn way. So this was the price of being wrong then. Emma was paying the ultimate price for him. A death had been required and here she was giving it. Her death would mean less than nothing to this world as a whole. She’d done nothing to deserve it. It was his decision, his choice and his fault. He’d dragged her into his hell before she was even born. Because of his mistakes, her life had simply been a path to death. Long moments passed. Between his chest and her back, a sticky red rivulet of blood slithered down her pale side to the sheets. That was all. She’d died with the knife in her and the wound did not bleed after her heart had stopped beating. Jamie’s body jerked again and released his seed into her still form. Shaking, he cursed through the throbbing pleasure, his self-loathing of his animal nature that continued to mate with death knew no bounds. If the knife had been within reach at that moment, well… Suddenly a wave of pain and panic crashed into his brain like a storm. His head jerked up from her back. Mentally he surrounded the raging emotions, seeking a way to soothe them. There was panic, fear, horror and a host of others. They seemed to be thrashing about in every direction, ungoverned and blindly desperate. Instinctively, he started singing to her as one would to soothe an infant. An ancient Gaelic tune flowed out of his mouth in pure bass tones. The wolf sang to his mate with his soul dripping off every note. The haunting melody told of a man holding his beloved who’d been cut down by accident in a blood feud. He poured out his heart in the words of long ago love. The storm of emotions quieted, becoming a shifting lake of need. It soaked him up and he kept feeding it more of his strength, his spirit, his naked desire for the woman who was Emma. The song blended into another full of hope, dreams of a future filled with love.

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There was no other indication of life except for the endless well of emotional desperation reaching for him, to him, in him. He fed it every bit of himself, holding nothing back of the wolf or the man. It seemed to absorb his memories, emotions, his very thoughts. He poured his memories of Emma into her, showing her every facet of his bone-deep love, worship and reverence for his mate. He let her have his fierce, jealous possessiveness, the burning tenderness that took his breath away when he simply looked at her. If this was the making of a Vampire, he now understood how they were formed. All they were was emptiness, yearning to be filled, accepted and held. She was reaching to him from the void of death, searching for life. If what she encountered was twisted and vicious, that’s what would fill her. Her helpless drive to connect to the life force that made her was that of an infant seeking its mother even before opening its eyes. She soaked him in until there was pain. Blood trickled from his nose. He knew he could push her away at any time. Intimately locked inside her slowly chilling body, he rested his cheek on the back of her neck and continued to surrender all of his being to her need. Hazily he supposed it might kill him. This was why Vampires didn’t make others very often, he realized. He’d wondered about that in the past. It was an odd fleeting thought as the pain of her needs sucked the marrow from his soul. Abruptly her mouth opened and a great gasp of air rushed into her lungs. The heart pressed to his hands thundered to life with frantic beating and her eyes opened. The swirling cauldron of need he’d been singing to wrenched out of his mind with such a painful cut of separation, his body jerked in response. Jamie pulled out of her tiredly and collapsed to the side of her shuddering form, facing her. His watchful eyes looked into forest green eyes shot through with silver. She blinked sleepily and glanced up at her wrists, the rope fell away from them. Her legs shifted and he realized they too were free. Jamie didn’t move. Whatever happened next, he had no control over. She smiled at him and slid off the pillows, her body moved flush against his, chest to chest, hip to hip. One leg curled over his waist as her arms slowly circled his neck, one under, the other over. She was looking directly into his eyes as she whispered, “Trust me.” Her lips curled back over Vampire fangs and her mouth swooped down to his neck. Jamie tilted his head up, wrapped his arms around the miracle of her warm body and closed his eyes. If she wanted his life, it was hers. He’d not fight her. She purred as she drank from him and her body shifted restlessly, rubbing breasts and cunt against his maleness. He felt her mind then. It was hazy and erotic. She was reveling in the feel of him, the taste of him. He was surprised when her tongue licked across his neck, closing the wound. Her face nuzzled his chin then she pulled back to look at him. “Damn, Jamie, you’re a mess,” she murmured.

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His brows went up as he looked into those different eyes. “To whom am I speaking?” he asked quietly. “It’s me, I am Emma now,” she answered calmly. Jamie searched her face. Early morning sunlight slipped between the curtains as the new day rushed up on them. The woman’s face before him was Emma, and yet not, its new lines serene, the body he held relaxed. “Tell me, Emma, did I just receive a lethal dose of venom?” he questioned almost absently as he looked at her new face. Emma frowned slightly. “Not from me. I took a little blood, but I didn’t put a scratch on you,” she assured him worriedly. Then her face cleared. “Oh, you thought the poison would be in my bite.” She laughed. “A girl would never survive that way. No, it’s—” her hand came up before him, long talons appeared where her nails should have been. At the end of each talon quivered a drop of liquid. “It’s in the claws.” She laughed softly. “Makes them sort of redundant, don’t you think?” “So I see,” he murmured as the talons disappeared. “The next move is yours, Emma. What’s it gonna be?” She looked into his eyes and he felt it again, a gentle push at his mind, almost as if she was hesitantly knocking. Lykosapiens had always known they were not the only creatures on the planet besides humans. They’d long since developed natural mental barriers to thwart Vampires and other telepaths who might use the talent to rule them. Jamie released the barriers, letting them sink slowly into nothing and then there she was. Her whole self presented at the door to his mind. Hesitantly, holding herself at the edge of his consciousness, she opened her own mind to him completely. It was an invitation, surrender. The woman he found as he gently accepted her gift left him weak with relief. Her lips smiled at his reaction while their minds touched and explored cautiously. The new form of holding, touching, being together enthralled both of them as they indulged it. This woman was his mate Emma. Not the same Emma, but then, he’d never been in that Emma’s mind. At the core of her, he felt a strength that was the combination of her gifts. Neither cat nor wolf, not coral, it was not solely Vampire, but a new and different spirit who embodied all of them in a way that was uniquely Emma. He also found himself, held deep within was all that he’d given her as she searched for life. She knew all that he knew and was giving back to him all that she was now. The melding of their minds was the most intimate experience of his life. “We are a mess,” Emma whispered, “and the bed is wrecked.” “Yeah,” Jamie agreed, “you’re hard on the furniture, woman.” “Come on.” She got up and grabbed his hand. “Shower, then sleep. Seems I’ve worn the wolf out.” Her eyes laughed, as did her mind. The gentle teasing flowed through them as they moved into the bathroom. Jamie stopped. “We need to tell Laura and Wren.” “Laura knows. She’s told Wren,” Emma answered.

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“Oh? When?” Jamie wanted to know as he flicked on the shower. “You don’t really think she could stay out of the room when I was coming back? She was there the moment she felt me reemerge. She knew I needed to feed immediately. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without her. It was necessary.” Emma stepped under the water, letting it cascade down the tall, sleek body. “Someone could have warned me.” Jamie stood behind as his hands slid over her, sluicing the last of the blood from her back. There in the center remained a slender ridge. He studied it as his heart contracted on what it represented. “You had to. It was the only way.” Emma turned to look up at him, her hands cleaning his chest as he’d done her back. “It’s not something I’d want to repeat either, but we got through it together, Jamie. It worked.” The open link between their minds gave her his thoughts without interruption. Jamie dragged in a deep breath. He was exhausted. Wolves could run for days, barely stopping to eat, but the last twenty-four hours had been much more than that. It seemed impossible that it was almost exactly twenty-four hours now. Looking down at the woman before him almost hurt. Precious and rare, barely found and nearly lost, she seared him with her courage. The thoughts of what they’d been through brought him to the pressing dangers still stalking them. “No, no, no,” Emma murmured softly as they dried off. “Rest first.” She’d seen clearly exactly what Jamie had endured. The price he’d paid and his unfaltering determination to do whatever it took to save her. He’d even believed he’d surrendered his life to her when she’d fed earlier. There had been no hesitation, not even for an instant. She knew he blamed himself. She was also well aware of his memories of Nels from his childhood. Jamie did indeed love with his whole being. She knew he now believed he’d cheated the fates again—the death they’d required had not happened. He was determined to find Nels and do the job right this time. He believed death would be back to take one of his if he didn’t. “My little Luna Wolf giving orders already?” Jamie laughed. “Like you don’t need the rest,” Emma scoffed as they returned to the bedroom. The bed was clean and made. No trace of the horrendous events visible. Jamie stopped and looked around, his eyebrows rose as he looked at Emma. “Laura did a little house cleaning before she and Wren left.” Emma grinned at him. “Do I want to know how?” Jamie sighed. “Probably not. It seems she’s full of hidden abilities,” Emma admitted as she slipped between the sheets. “Come on.” “What do you mean they left?” Jamie questioned as he settled in, gathering the warm form of his mate close and wrapping around her from behind. They sank into the position naturally, his body almost entirely covering hers. It was an ancient hold from the days when a wolf protected his mate with his body, even when they slept.

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“Laura needs to look for Jack, so does Wren.” Emma sighed and adjusted her cheek on the thick forearm under it. His other hand slid down her belly to cup between her legs. The possessive hold was normal for Lykosapien sleep, she realized. The wolf in her adjusted her legs over him and drifted off to sleep.

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Chapter Seven The moon was just rising above the trees when Emma felt the hand between her legs stir. The gentle clench of long, hard fingers sent an unbelievable fire shooting up her body as if she’d been touched with a lit match. Gasping into reality, her eyes opened to see the world from a cat’s perspective. Her body arched into the hand with a guttural growl and her arms swung up and back to grab the male. Her wrists were caught in an iron grip and the heavy body behind hers shifted, rolling her to her stomach as her arms were held over her head. Above her, Jamie’s bass voice chuckled, “Whoa, there, little cat. Careful with those claws.” “Oh,” Emma gasped as his thighs pushed between hers, spreading her legs to accommodate his body. “Sorry, I didn’t realize they were out.” The talons disappeared as she absorbed the weight of him, the delicious feel of his erection pressing into her bottom. Her body shifted and pushed back at him, seeking more, needing more. Heat and need rippled up her, waves of almost violent erotic hunger. “Jamie!” she said in alarm. “Jamie, help me. What’s happening?” But he was already in her mind, feeling what she felt, feeding her his answering need. “Ah, love,” he answered as his body moved over hers, his thick cock finding her aching opening, “this is sex how we animals feel it. Hot, wicked, primal. You’ll get used to it.” With that, his cock slammed into her exactly how she desperately wanted it. His jaw clamped down on her shoulder and he fucked his mate. Swirling between them was the incredible spiral of passion and pleasure. Sweeping her with him as she felt what he felt, he knew what she needed. It was basic and rough, every touch driven to an extreme of tactile gratification. Her knees came up and her back arched, every move putting him deeper and harder into her. Each thrust of his thick cock seemed to scream through her body with razor-sharp intensity. It wasn’t enough. More, she needed more! He knew before she hissed it. He tunneled his hands under her, one to her breast, the other between her legs. Hard fingers clamped onto clit and nipple, pulling, twisting, pinching. Lightning fireballs shot through her, tightening every tendon to the point of pain. Crashing waves of pleasure washed over her. The orgasm took her by surprise as it jolted her body in rolling wave after wave. Jamie’s cock knotted, shooting her back into intense release as he pumped his seed deep into her. She could feel each jet of semen as it bathed her in heat and pleasure. His jaw tightened on her shoulder as she sank to the pillow again, and even that felt good. Shuddering under him while he came again and again, she felt each burst and answered it with a contraction of her entire body. Pleasure seemed never-ending as 81

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they lay there slowly returning to reality. His jaw unlocked from her shoulder and her mew of regret turned to a purr of pleasure when he licked the indentations his teeth left. Dragging his tongue up her neck to her earlobe and nibbling it softly, he growled his joy and pleasure into her ear. He gradually returned to normal within her, his hands now gentle and soothing as he petted her sides, her ass, her legs. Licking the back of her neck, her spine. Emma hissed low in her chest when he pulled out of her completely. Both of them rolled over to face each other. Slitted cat eyes smiled into glowing wolf eyes and they laughed softly. “You’re telling me it’ll be like that every time?” Emma asked in wonder. She’d felt every touch on a completely erotic level. Her whole body had seemed sensitized to an extreme. Instead of the feeling of exhaustion she’d felt back on the patio to her condo, she now reveled in the long release of her mate, each jet of semen triggering a welcome explosion within her womb. “No, but the need will rise like that most of the time.” Jamie grinned at her. “We are elemental beings, Emma. Sex is primitive, necessary. When you get used to it, you’ll be able to handle it better, but it will never be less.” “Well, it’s a good thing you’re healthy, Jamie MacKelvin, because you’re gonna need to do that again soon,” Emma declared as her new body stretched in satisfaction but not sated yet. Jamie tipped back his head and laughed. It was a laugh of joy, relief and absolute freedom. His lovely mate was alive and well. She matched him in every way, taking the man, needing the wolf. Everything about her sang through him in melodic tones, she brought harmony and balance, meeting his needs and exceeding his dreams. Strange though it was, he owed a debt of gratitude to Nels. She would have been precious to him without the changes to her DNA, but with them, she was a fantasy in the flesh. Now she was as much a beast as he and more than a feminine mystery, all things elemental and strong, yet female. How her being evolved would probably surprise them both, but for now they had defeated this first assault on the unit they made. “Food, woman!” Jamie laughed. “You may have had a snack, but I’m starved.” Getting out of bed, Emma looked down at herself in wonder. The changes to her body suddenly enthralled her as she gazed at the long, lean legs, gently rounded hips and flat, tight abdomen. Standing up, she went to the dresser mirror and turned slowly, studying her reflection. Jamie paused to watch her. He tried to suppress the tension he felt as she discovered the new person she’d become. He took full responsibility for everything that had happened to her and if she hated her new body, he would consider it his fault. Personally, he could hardly look away from it, but it was her feelings that mattered. Emma looked at the creature in the mirror and marveled. So this is what it felt like to be cat woman, she mused in her mind, knowing he was monitoring her every

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thought. Glancing at him over her shoulder with twinkling eyes, she smoothed a hand down her firm, heart-shaped ass. “I’ve always wanted one of these,” she teased him. Turning to face him, her hands glided up to cup perfect breasts and squeeze them gently as he watched. “What do you think?” Emma purred with a little smile. “You like this chick better than the little frump you first latched onto?” “Damn, Emma!” Jamie snarled. “There isn’t any part of you that I don’t want, and there never has been, woman. You were mine then and you’re mine now.” He stalked over to her and wrapped a rough arm around her waist, pulling her against him. The other hand he sank into her hair, roughly pulling her head back for the invasion of his kiss. He met her lips on a snarl, plunging into her deeply. Kissing her with all the recurring desperation of a male claiming his mate who he’d almost lost. It was an elemental need to impress upon her that he’d never give her up, never stop wanting her, needing her on a level that went beyond logic. It didn’t matter what body she inhabited, she was his mate. He knew she’d been teasing, attempting to lighten his mood and dispel his worry. He just hadn’t been able to be casual about it yet. She melted into him, giving the wolf submission that responded to his every touch. The rough handling started an ache in her that was his to soothe. Flowing through the forceful embrace was the remains of the fight to the death they’d both endured. Not even forces that strong could take her from him. It was his promise to forever be the one who found her, came for her, even if the journey took them to the gates of hell, he’d be there. Emma gasped softly as he slowly pulled back from her mouth. Smiling up at him as he regarded her with fierce possessiveness, she framed his face with her hands. “I know,” she whispered softly. “I know.” Grimacing at the strength of the emotions burning through him, he responded. “It’s never going to be over, Emma. I will never stop, never go away, this life or whatever comes next, expect to see me there.” “Mmm,” she purred. “But you might die of starvation along the way, darling.” A real smile crossed his face. “You distract me, woman. Now, let go of me and put something on so I can think with my other head for a bit.” He teased as if she was the one holding him. Chuckling, Emma snagged his shirt from the floor and slid it on. Jamie found his borrowed sweats and they wandered out to the kitchen. Neither of them required the lights, and they hadn’t bothered with them until they’d reached the kitchen. There was no need to take a long time preparing the food. Emma wouldn’t allow it anyway. If Jamie hadn’t seen Laura inhale her meal earlier, he’d have been shocked. They simply hauled out everything they could find and consumed it. It wasn’t like she did it mindlessly. No, each bite seemed an entirely new experience in pleasure for her.

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Every taste sharper, every scent more pronounced. She indulged her new abilities with abandon. Just as they finished emptying the fridge, Emma sat back and groaned. “I don’t think I’ve eaten that much in a two-week period, much less one meal. I’m gonna be a tubby cat soon.” Regardless of how freaking painful the process of getting her new body had been, she rather liked the feeling of being sleek and graceful. The changes were every woman’s dream makeover, it required a passage through hell to get them but, hey, they’d survived, time to enjoy. Jamie laughed. “Faster metabolism. I don’t know about the vamp part, but the cat, wolf and coral need more protein than a human.” Emma’s mouth rounded into an “O”. “I can eat whatever I want now? I won’t gain weight?” “Probably not.” Jamie grinned at her. “I’ll be…” Emma stopped mid-sentence, they both smelled a light whiff of muskysweet cigar smoke creeping in under the door from the front room. Chairs kicked back as they surged up to stand looking at the door. Suddenly Jamie relaxed and started cursing in a strangely familiar language. Emma’s eyebrows rose. She knew he was cursing because his thoughts were clear on that. “What language is that?” she questioned as he moved to the door, with her close on his heels. “Latin. I want the bastard to understand every word,” Jamie spat out as he opened the door to the living room. As they stepped into the room, the only light was the tip of a cigar held by a being seated in the wingback chair. His long legs were crossed at the knee, charcoal summer wool slacks draped over them to the fine Italian leather loafers on feet that somehow looked as aristocratic as the rest of him. Smiling lazily, he looked at them through halfclosed lids, his black eyes appeared to flash. Emma gasped, it was like looking at Errol Flynn on steroids. All elegance and culture wrapped around indolent menace. In the darkened room, he was darkness in the flesh. Black hair pulled back tightly over his skull to a ponytail in back. Around sculpted lips a devilish goatee seemed to emphasize his mouth, the rest of his pale features were sharp and refined, somehow perfect and fearsome in that perfection. The body under the expensive suit lounged in the big chair, dwarfing it with his size. “Nic, are ya lost, lad?” Jamie snarled, his lip curling back as he stopped, Emma bumping into his back. “Oh, come now, MacKelvin, at least acknowledge me by name, my boy,” the visitor responded in cultured tones. “I’ll not be calling you master in any language, even a dead one,” Jamie sneered. “We all know you made it up. Depends which swamp you slithered out of, but I’m certain your mama did not speak Latin, nor did she call you Dominus.”

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“That may be the case. So long ago, who can remember?” Dominus chuckled. “It might be a title bestowed upon me by the Ungrateful Dead who abhor me.” “To what do we owe the distaste of your visit, Nic?” Jamie asked casually. Emma was pressed to his back, and even if she hadn’t been a shadow in his mind, she would have known Jamie hadn’t relaxed a muscle. He was poised for a fight. In his mind, Emma found the whispered word—Nosferatu, Vampire. “Thought I’d come around and meet the lovely set of legs huddled up behind you, MacKelvin,” Dominus drawled with a slow smile. “It seems she is one of mine.” Jamie’s hand reached back to grip Emma’s waist and hold her behind him. “No, not yours,” Jamie replied quietly. “Quite right. She is not. But she is, as well. That leads us to the pressing quandary, MacKelvin. My kind finds her and all those your dear brother has created to be abominations, though I see they can be lovely abominations.” Dominus chuckled darkly. “Unfortunately, they all must go.” Jamie cocked his head as he asked, “Is this a warning or a declaration, Nic? I don’t take threats well—you came for more than that. Our types talk over the bodies, not before the battle.” Everyone knew talking to a Vampire was a study in deciphering what he wasn’t saying. They were masters at deception, misdirection and basic lying. They could do it because they could also remove their scent from the room. For a wolf, it was a disturbing experience, like being half-blind when one talked to them. Probably why a wolf’s first instinct was to attack when confronted with a Vampire. “True,” Dominus shrugged. “However, this is something more. You know I don’t bother with my Faithless Horde very often, narcissistic idiots don’t see the potential in what has occurred. They are determined to destroy the abominations. However, as nothing has piqued my interest for quite some time, I thought I’d have a look at what has them frothing at the mouth and gnawing the walls.” “Did you now?” Jamie murmured. “It has nothing to do with the fact that Created Ones can eat food, walk in daylight and possibly breed? All that is of virtually no interest to the oldest dead thing on the planet?” “Oh, you flatter me, my boy. I’m not the oldest dead thing on the planet. I’m entirely certain I have made things much older than myself quite dead. But then, I also ensured they remained dead.” Dominus chuckled again. “What do you want?” Jamie asked bluntly. Wolves were deceptive hunters, masters of the battleground, but in negotiations they liked to get to the point. The ability to sniff out a lie or deception on every other creature except Vampires gave them the ability to cut to the heart of the matter with a minimum of fuss. Dominus shifted in his chair, bringing the cigar up for a long drag. The tip glowed bright red, lighting his face with an eerie cast of flickering embers. Pale wisps of smoke drifted around him in curling tails, making fascinating patterns. Emma watched them, enthralled, until suddenly the snake hissed a warning within her. That’s when she saw 85

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the hypnotic design, felt the gentle push into her mind. Walls slammed up around the invasion and Jamie jerked as he felt what she felt. “Oh, my,” Emma murmured. “The Prince of Darkness is on a fishing expedition. Rather overdressed, aren’t you?” Dominus chuckled. “So, the pretty abomination does have a voice to go with the lovely legs. Tell me, what does it feel like to be a beast, my dear?” Emma tilted her head to the side as if listening then smiled as she stepped back from Jamie. He glanced back at her to see her form blur for an instant as if molecules were swirling around her then suddenly settled. Tall and superbly muscled, she stood there in a black jumpsuit that molded her body faithfully. On her feet were softly glowing black boots that reached to her knees. She looked like the dangerous animal she was. “Damn, baby. Did you have to do cat woman for your first trick?” Jamie breathed as she stepped beside him. “Oh, yes, actually I did,” Emma murmured back. “Did you notice we have no sense of him save for the cigar?” Looking at Dominus, she smiled. “And have you wondered why he is here? I mean, why, if my kind fascinates him and his followers so much, why is he here sniffing around the newest one? Is he hoping it is the weak one? The one he can actually catch?” Emma chuckled in a sound that matched Dominus’ for dark amusement. “The only one he knew he could find because I am wherever you are, Jamie. What the Dark Prince does not want us to know is, for all his threats about abominations, he and the Deranged Dead can’t get themselves one to study. Bad boy over there realized he’s fallen down the food chain a notch and he’s not happy about it. “What’s the matter, Dominus? Can’t figure out how to bag you a beast?” Emma taunted softly. “All the others tell you to go fuck yourself and not even waste the energy to kill you?” “Careful, infant,” Dominus responded. “Don’t get above yourself. You may be able to manipulate a few elements, dear, but don’t mistake that for strength. The ability to kill is something else entirely. My motives for this visit surprise even myself, however—” Dominus took another puff of the cigar as he regarded the wolf and his mate. Lazy eyes flashed as he chuckled again. “I am here because you are his mate, Miss Emma. As such, he’d take it personally if my demented followers killed you. A war between our kinds would not go unnoticed in this day and age.” Dominus glanced at Jamie and continued. “Even the death of the little one you call daughter, Miss Emma, though an attractive target, might stir up the wolves enough for this to get out of hand.” “You can count on it,” Jamie agreed. “So, I am here to make a deal,” Dominus continued. “I’ve noticed Miss Emma and the little one appear sane. Do you happen to know if the rest of your kind is?”

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“We’ve only just learned of them ourselves,” Emma responded cautiously. “However, it is quite possible they are, otherwise, they’d have made a nuisance of themselves already.” “I see. Well. Have you any interest in discovering that for a certainty? Because if you don’t, we might just as well let my overeager flock dispatch them. You and the little one can probably hide yourselves away until it’s over and everyone is happy.” Dominus studied his cigar with every appearance of disinterest in the conversation. “Of course, the two of you will be in constant danger the rest of your lives. A chance meeting with a stray Vampire would start the hunt all over.” “You seem to know a lot about my den, Nic,” Jamie murmured. “Been getting lonely and hanging around the wolves?” “I didn’t get an invitation to the blessed event, MacKelvin.” Dominus grinned as he looked up again. “I was being politely invisible, however, it turned into an entertaining evening.” “The blessed event wasn’t scheduled ‘til the next day, Nic. What were you doing there the night before?” Jamie asked suspiciously. “What is the deal you mentioned?” Emma interrupted them. Dominus turned his attention to Emma, avoiding answering Jamie. “Ah, straight to the point. You could live a very long time, Miss Emma. You really should learn to appreciate the nuances of conversation. It’s the little things that will color your life, my dear,” Dominus responded lazily. “Oh, believe me, I am enjoying watching you avoid the point.” Emma laughed softly. “The longer it takes, the more important the subject? Am I getting the nuances thing right?” Dominus looked at Jamie and grinned. “I see you are going to be quite busy, my boy. She is nothing if not interesting.” “The lady makes a good point, Nic. Let’s hear it,” Jamie countered. “As you wish. I want the formula. I could reconstruct most of it with a blood sample, but there is always the chance of getting it wrong. From what I heard and saw last night, the little one has her daddy’s talent. That’s the trade. I get the formula and it works, my followers will leave the abominations to you,” Dominus stated. “And if it doesn’t work?” Jamie asked silkily. “Then we will have a mess on our hands.” Dominus smiled. “Wait, you want Laura to reproduce this serum in a way that Vampires can take it? Even if she agrees to attempt that, what the hell, the first time will be a guess. In case you haven’t noticed, he uses it on humans or wolves. Do you know of it ever being used on a Vampire?” Emma asked incredulously. “No. But I do know she was able to analyze what you were given in an amazingly short period of time and properly diagnose exactly what was required to save you. That tells me she understands the process and with a bit of work can alter it to give my kind

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some freedoms we’d very much like to have,” Dominus replied as he brought the cigar up for another drag. Again the red glow bathed his face in eerie light. Emma felt her differences clearly in the presence of this dark Vampire. The cat and the wolf were both restlessly aggressive. They wanted to kill him with an instinctive need. The snake was watchful but placid, accepting of the one before it with almost familial tolerance. The Vampire was totally relaxed. On guard in a way that was not a conscious effort. “Why would we do that?” Jamie asked in the same casual tone his guest used. “What in the name of bloody hell would induce us to give the world day-walking Vampires? Sure, Nels is a problem and his creations a potential problem, but the fact that you’re here tells me they’ve eluded you and yours so far. Making deals to save them is not my problem.” “No? So you are not interested?” Dominus asked with a casually arched brow. “Above all, we cannot speak for Laura. It would have to be her choice to aid you,” Emma stated firmly. Dominus slowly stood. His tall frame seemed to create a shadow even though there was no real light source from which to cast one. “I was hoping you’d go for the first offer. I would have liked to make a present to the little one of the second offer. No matter.” Dominus sighed as he regarded them, doing a very good impression of looking down his aristocratic nose in pained disapproval. “Tell the little one I have something Nels discarded last night. He now rests within my keeping. What condition he remains in, is entirely up to her.” With that, Dominus simply dissolved into a cool breeze and was gone. “Ah, did he just say he has Jack?” Emma questioned in stunned surprise. Jamie sat down on the sofa that made up the seating group with the two wingbacked chairs and sighed. “Yeah. That’s exactly what he told us.” Emma walked over to the chair Dominus had sat in and laid her hand on the seat. It was cool. Looking up at Jamie, she frowned. “What does that mean? Is Jack dead or not?” she asked as she attempted to use unfamiliar senses to gather information. She knew it was something she could do, but right now she had no idea how to do it. “Probably not entirely dead, he’s using Jack as a bargaining chip. But, the possibility exists. It could be a bluff.” Jamie ran a hand down his face. The threat to his family had just taken a giant leap. Now he didn’t just have Nels and any possible creations of his to worry about, but the entire Vampire population as well. Frustrated with her inability to access talents that instinct told her were there, Emma moved over to the window. Wrapping her arms around herself, she stood staring out into the night. Her stance, though entirely feminine, was one of a pensive predator. Jamie eyed her appreciatively as he flipped open his cell phone. Her perfect body encased in the cat woman outfit was tempting from any angle. He knew her thoughts

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were frustrated as she tried to reach out with abilities that were new and confusing. Into her mind he whispered calmly, “We’ll use the old-fashioned way right now, love.” Jamie’s cell connected with Wren. “Wren, we have a situation.” “No shit!” Wren snapped back. “The status has changed. We’ll be there shortly.” “Something new on your end?” Jamie frowned. “Yes. You as well?” Wren asked. “Yes. Bring Laura and don’t let her flash, we need her at full-strength,” Jamie directed. “Yeah, we’ll be there in twenty minutes,” Wren confirmed. “Make it half an hour and stop at a grocery store, the ladies will need food,” Jamie directed grimly. “Shit,” Wren spat out. “High protein?” “Nothing but,” Jamie confirmed. Jamie snapped his cell phone shut. “They’ll be here—” “In thirty minutes,” Emma finished for him. “I heard. Actually, I can hear the bird breathing outside in the maple tree. I can hear the rabbit crunching on grass at the edge of the lawn. I can hear everything.” Feeling almost sick to her stomach with the wealth of information her new senses fed her, she reached out to Jamie mentally. Running to the calm of his mind, even before he came over to her. “Turn down the things you don’t need,” Jamie murmured as he came up behind her. His arms slipped around her and he pulled her back onto his chest. Entering her mind, he showed her how to do it. The animal senses were overwhelming her with information. Showing her the world with all the clarity of a predator’s receptiveness. The sheer multitude of information was frightening and intense. Within her was the instinct to investigate each one without the experience to know which ones to choose or how to order them. Emma’s body trembled in his arms as he showed her how to calm the chaos. How to be aware of the natural elements around her so she could use them to alert her of a disturbance, but not let them crowd out her own thoughts. He showed her how to sift the information swiftly then let it run in the background. Leaning down, he dragged his tongue up her neck as she soaked up his knowledge with amazing skill. Her mind moved forward as soon as it found its footing. Accepting his instructions without hesitation. They had just turned away from the window when both felt the ripple of unease through the wild creatures outside. “They are coming,” Emma smiled at Jamie, unique silver-green eyes flashing with humor now. “Yes. Think you might do the changing trick?” Jamie asked as he eyed her. “Cat woman is nice for me, but not sure I want the world seeing her.”

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Emma laughed. “What? Don’t like my taste in clothes, darling?” she teased, fully aware of his current reaction to looking at the picture she made encased in black with silver-white hair flowing down her back. The streamlined elegance of her features thrown in stunning relief by the dark clothing and dim lighting, coupled with her new appetite for sex and the scent of it, was driving him to satisfy her desires. “I like it way too much, kitten,” Jamie growled, and adjusted his crotch just to be sure she got it. “Oh, you are nasty, Jamie MacKelvin,” Emma purred, and flashed a picture of them both into Jamie’s mind. She was only wearing the boots and a laced-up vest that ended right below her breasts. As she bent forward slightly, Jamie was behind her again, his hands holding her breasts while he pumped into her. “Damn it, woman! Stop that or do it,” Jamie demanded. But she’d already stepped away from him and the air around her whirled, settling back around her to clothe her in jeans and a black T-shirt. It didn’t matter, Jamie discovered. She still looked hot and dangerous. He inhaled deeply just as the SUV pulled up to the front walk. “How do we know it’s really them?” Emma murmured to Jamie as the figures of Laura and Wren came up the walk, each carrying several bulging grocery bags. “Scent,” Jamie answered succinctly. “You realized Dominus had no scent. When Nels did Jack, the scent was pure as the driven snow. I wasn’t paying attention or I would have noticed that. No deception, no hunger, no anger, no irritation, no tiredness, none of the things we all are to a degree all the time. Vampires are deceivers, they take all the clues out. The lack of information can tell you clearly who it is.” The front door opened unaided for Laura whose hands were full, Wren stepped in closely behind her. Both of them stopped and inhaled. “I see you’ve figured out the scent markers,” Jamie grinned at them. Wren nodded and kicked the door shut. Laura’s head suddenly whipped around to stare at the chair where Dominus had been sitting. She dropped the grocery bags in blind unconcern and strode over to the chair. Stopping behind it, she ran her hand down the inside seatback and gasped. Everyone in the room watched her as soon as she’d registered shock and recognition. It flowed off her in waves she made no attempt to hide in this company. Slowly Laura moved around the chair, her hand never leaving it until she could sink her whole body down into it. Looking up at Emma and Jamie, her face turned hard and cold. “Who sat here? Something about them calls me but I can’t exactly touch what it is. It doesn’t feel right.” Jamie sighed and glanced at Emma before he responded. “We had a visit from a guy called Dominus.” Wren sucked in a breath but didn’t interrupt. “He is the oldest existing Vampire and as such their leader. He implied he has Jack. I think that is what you feel lingering in the chair.” Laura shot out of the chair. “Has Jack? What do you mean? Where? How?” she demanded in a rush as Wren dropped his bags of groceries too. 90

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“Yeah, go first with the information, Jamie,” Wren agreed. “It sounds like what we have ties in with yours.” “He wants to make a deal with you, Laura,” Jamie continued. “He wants the formula that will make him a day-walker. He seems to think you can do it with your father’s research to guide you. He offered Jack as incentive. Said he came across something Nels discarded the other night. We weren’t absolutely positive until we saw your reaction. Now I am certain he got to Jack before it was too late. “There was a lot more to it, something about the Vampires destroying all the Created Ones and a possible conflict between the species. The fact that it would not go unnoticed by the humans in this age. I’m sure the wily bastard still didn’t tell us the real reason he slithered in here. His kind is always working another plan entirely different than the one that comes out of their mouths.” “Damn it to hell!” Wren turned to Laura with a father’s desperate eyes. “Can you feel Jack? Is that what you’re getting? Can you tell if the scum finished him off or saved him?” “I don’t know!” Laura turned back to the chair and sat down, pressing herself into it and closing her eyes. “He exchanged blood with Jack, took some of him into himself. I don’t know what that means though. I thought a Vampire couldn’t drink Lykosapien blood—it’s like acid to them. Is he powerful enough to do it? Revive a drained wolf?” Laura asked the room as she frowned in concentration, trying desperately to reach out with everything she was. “If anyone could do it, it’d be Dominus,” Jamie answered her gently. Emma stepped closer to Jamie as they both watched the tortured hope bloom on the faces of the other two. Jamie slipped an arm around her. “If there is any chance at all, we have to find Dominus,” Wren bit out. “And do it before the others get to him.” “What others?” Jamie questioned. Wren grimaced. “We came across two Vampires this evening. Their hearts had been ripped out, but instead of burning them, whoever did it had tied the hearts together and hung them from a tree limb too high for the severely wounded Vampires to reach. Leaving the bastards to wait for dawn, looking up at their still-beating hearts. Sickest thing I ever saw. Laura took a little trip through their minds before she destroyed the hearts and put them out of their misery. She found several disturbing plans there.” “Apparently the Vampire houses are uniting to get rid of Dominus. We didn’t understand why there was such a strong drive to attempt something that risky. It was garbled with words like purists and a fanatical belief that Vampires remain nightwalkers. After destroying Dominus and his house, they then plan to go after the ‘abominations’. Those two were already half insane with pain and whatever else a Vampire feels in that situation, but it was very clear the next step was to remove all Lykosapiens so the ‘abominations’ would never rise again. We are talking a total bloodbath extermination plan.”

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“All the houses? All ten of them?” Jamie questioned. Laura stood up but couldn’t seem to move away from the chair. “No, but it did seem to be the majority of nine houses. There is some opposition, but not enough to matter to the ones planning this. The two Vampires we found expected ‘it’ to start tomorrow night, which would be tonight. Do you think this Dominus knows about it? Dead and Deader believed it was a complete secret. If the plan succeeds, shit, we’ll never find Jack.” “Fuck!” Jamie cursed. “Can you reach him, Laura? Can you reach out to Jack and find Dominus that way?” “Maybe, but what if I do reach him? What do I say? Hey, give me my mate because everyone of your kind is trying to kill you?” Laura’s hands massaged her scalp as she frowned at them. Jamie laughed bitterly. “There is a war coming. Nels and his creations have tipped the balance of power. Dominus was here checking which side we’re going to fall on. He probably would like the serum, but that was not the main reason he was here at all. Dominus may be a superior pain in the ass, but he is the one who has guaranteed the four organized species maintain a balance of power. He’s done his best to cover it up with time, but he is the oldest creature and the originator of the peace we now enjoy. We all know the legends of the Before Time are true—complete anarchy as each race battled for superiority.” Emma glanced around in surprise. “Four organized species? I count three—human, Lykosapien and vampire. There is a fourth or more?” Jamie chuckled. “Most of the planet is covered with water, hon, you don’t really think it’s empty, do you?” “Well, I did,” Emma declared indignantly. “Surprise, surprise. It’s not,” Laura commented dryly. “And if you think Vampires are difficult, you’ve seen nothing yet. Think about it. At the same time the Lykosapiens and the Vampires faded from human reality, relegated to folk tales and children’s stories, so did the Merpeople. There are some others, but they are not strictly tied to this realm, therefore not really interested in owning the planet.” “Oh, my,” Emma murmured, absorbing the new information as the conversation flowed around her. “Dominus was delivering a warning and issuing an invitation in his elaborate Vampire way,” Jamie stated. “It’s his responsibility to control his kind. He wanted to know if we consider Nels and his creations our kind. Jack was simply an ace in the hole for him. He wants us on his side too much to simply ask. Damn, he can be stupid for being such a bright guy.” Jamie turned to Laura. “Think you can reach him, Laura?” Before Laura could answer Emma spoke up. “I can. He opened a path to my mind when he tried to look in it. I can reach him anytime now. I’m guessing he didn’t think I’d figure that out yet.” Emma shrugged under Jamie’s arm.

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Jamie looked down at his precious mate and frowned. “Can he get in your head anytime, love?” “Only if I let him. He can sorta knock.” Emma glanced over at Laura for confirmation. “Yes, being able to reach out does not leave your mind open. It is sending,” Laura explained to the wolves who didn’t have natural telepathy. “It’s nothing like the mental mate touch you have with Mom.” “So you can send him a message?” Jamie pressed. “Yes, a short one,” Emma answered. “Send exactly what I tell you, okay?” Jamie looked into her eyes. Emma nodded. “The answer would have been ‘yes’, bastard,” he dictated to her. A second later Emma smiled up at Jamie. “He says, ‘Of course, it was. I ensured that.’” Jamie sighed and shook his head. “Ask him if he needs anything and when he’s handing over Jack.” Wren and Laura both stepped closer as Emma frowned now. “He simply said, ‘No time, look to your own backyard.’” Jamie and Wren both cursed. “What?” Laura demanded. “It’s almost dawn and our own backyard could only mean Nels or his creatures,” Jamie stated. There was silence as each of them reached out with senses to scan. Nothing but the dawn greeted them. “We are not going to find Dominus if he doesn’t want to be found. The rest of the Detestable Dead will not be making a move until the sun goes down. We’re left without a lead and some hazy warning that could mean anything,” Jamie spat out in disgust. He was an action-oriented mammal and it was slightly frustrating to be faced with a full day of anticipation and no clear course of action.

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Chapter Eight Laura sank into the chair. Her long body stretched as she laid her head back on it and closed her eyes. “There is nothing we can do besides warn everyone and be ready,” she stated the obvious as her body relaxed into whatever it was she found there. The mother in Emma surged up. “Honey, when was the last time you slept?” she asked quietly as she walked over to her daughter and smoothed the sable hair off her brow. “You left here and searched for Jack all day, didn’t you?” “I don’t need much sleep, you know that, Mom,” Laura responded tiredly. Jamie turned and gathered up the bags of groceries. “Both of you need some rest,” he declared as he strode into the kitchen. Wren followed him and they put away the food. “We’ll make a few calls then Emma and I will patrol,” Jamie told Wren. “You two grab some sleep. Emma and I will sleep this afternoon.” Wren nodded and flipped open his cell phone, Jamie followed suit. A few clipped conversations later and both of them relaxed. Emma came through the kitchen door, her fluid stride radiating more energy than it should have to get in there. “Laura is sleeping. She wouldn’t leave the chair so anywhere else you want is yours, Wren.” Emma turned to Jamie. “Something is wrong with me. I feel like I could jump out of my skin. I need to move!” Jamie grinned and came over to her, rubbing his hands up and down her arms as he gazed into her eyes. “You’ve never been a full-grown predator before, baby. You’re feeling the energy of the animal and its need for speed. We’ll take a run. You’ll like it.” Her ever-changing scent was full of power and passion. His little Luna Wolf needed more than a run and he intended to show her exactly what she wanted. Into her mind he flashed the image of two wolves running through the surrounding forest, letting her feel the freedom and power pounding through their bodies. Then the image of what happens when those two wolves find a secluded meadow. Emma’s eyes rounded as she drank in the picture. Her breathing sped up and her heart thundered in answering acceptance. “We’ll see to the perimeter check now,” she stated to Wren and grabbed Jamie’s hand to drag him through the cabin and out the front door. “How?” she demanded when they reached the front porch. “How do I change?” Jamie chuckled and started removing his clothes. “Wolves don’t wear clothes, baby,” he answered.

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Emma’s hand moved and the clothes he was pulling from his body disappeared. Glancing up, he found her nude as well. “Hey! Where the hell are my clothes?” he demanded indignantly. “You said naked, we’re naked. Now what?” Emma replied impatiently. “Yeah, but I like being in charge of my clothes, ya little show-off. What did you do with them?” Jamie wanted to know. “Like I know?” Emma raised her brows, her luscious body shifting restlessly. “All I know is I can get them back. Where the hell they go doesn’t concern me considering the number of things I’ve had to worry about in the last two days. Focus, big boy, the mission is to run. I’ve never wanted to run in my life, but right now I’m going to explode if you don’t show me how to do this.” “First of all you don’t get naked until you’ve scanned.” Jamie faced her, slightly frustrated, resting large hands his on sleek, male hips. “I’ve scanned, you’ve scanned and they’ve scanned.” Emma indicated the two in the house with a wave of her arm. “The area has been fucking scanned! We need to run.” The utter amazement at standing on the porch, naked in the early morning sun was shoved to the background as her body literally trembled with energy. The scent of the world waking up was intoxicating. It mingled fresh morning dew with opening flowers and shifting aromas of the forest bursting with new life and old leaves. The rush of information drew her, seduced her with the need to investigate, explore, roll in the pleasing smells and fill her body with the life it embodied. Jamie shook his head. “I’m never going to get used to it,” he mused as he regarded the magnificent woman Emma made and smiled ruefully. “Warn me next time you do the clothes thing.” Emma laughed. “Oh, afraid your bare ass is going to show up unexpectedly?” she teased. Her eyes, her body, her soul sparkled at him as she laughed and he drank it in. A part of him would always marvel at her now. He’d come so close to losing all that she was. “Hold the image of the wolf in your mind,” he instructed. “Don’t look at me, find your own wolf. She is you.” Suddenly a perfect, light gray wolf appeared where Emma had been standing. There was no flash or contorting flesh, she simply was the wolf. She bounded off the porch and tore around the cabin in the abandoned run of a puppy. Graceful and strong, even in her unrestrained joy, blinding speed brought her back to the porch steps to prance impatiently as she grinned up at him. Jamie chuckled and triggered his own change. It wasn’t as fast as hers, but it was also a simple melting of body mass into another shape. He stood there on the top step of the porch, a massive dark gray ghost of the forest. He was the color of deep shadows and mysterious voids in the night. Around his muzzle and eyes, he wore the black mask of the dangerous hunter. 95

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Her coat of silver gray glowed like the morning mist with a tuft of white right over her heart. Jamie sighed, he’d have to use his body as cover for her. But that was as it should be, he supposed, she shone with everything good and beautiful, and he’d protect her with everything that was dark and dangerous in him. Off the porch in a single bound, he cut out to the woods with her hot on his heels. He could feel her delight in the game of chase. He could also feel the power surging through her body. There was no need to temper his speed so she could keep up. Her extra talents gave her all she needed to match him and they streaked through the forest in silent flight. Being in each other’s minds meant they moved in perfect unison, around trees, over fallen logs, eating up the ground in effortless strides that filled them both with elemental joy. He taught her how to remain alert as they moved, always aware of her surroundings for as far as her senses could reach. They circled the cabin in a wide arc that covered miles in every direction. Up to the north, they came upon a pond made by a beaver dam in a small stream. Not a natural pool, it was closely surrounded by the forest. Conveniently, they didn’t have to give up cover to crouch down and have a drink. He led her to it and they both drank deeply. Nuzzling her muzzle, he took her to a newly formed grotto created by underbrush and the hillside falling away to the water. Squeezing their bodies through the prickly walls of thorns, inside was an expanse of soft grass totally encased in a domed covering of tangled briars. She turned around in delight as she realized how lovely and private the green room was. Facing him again, instead of the big wolf that had laid down, she found a long, naked Jamie stretched out on the grass grinning at her. The thought to join him was only half formed when his hand flashed up. “Don’t do it until you sit down, love.” His eyes twinkled as he glanced up at the low ceiling of prickly branches. Abruptly she sat and returned to her two-legged body. “Oh, you are full of yourself, Mr. Big Bad and Growly,” Emma huffed as her eyes wandered down the long length of him. And length was the correct word for the cock lying on his belly, fully erect. He was thick and heavy there, her eyes didn’t seem to want to move on. The corresponding clench low in her belly was almost painful as she smelled her own perfume waft across their enclosure. “That’s it, my sweet bitch,” he growled. “Come taste your mate like I know you want to.” His legs slowly spread wide as his arms rose to stack his hands behind his head. Emma’s brows went up. “Are you inviting or commanding?” she asked softly as she leaned forward and ran her tongue up the inside of his exposed elbow, over the bulging muscles on the underside of his arm toward the sensitive skin of his armpit. Jamie sucked in a breath of surprise as she nipped gently and pulled away from him. The underside of his arm was a fucking pre-cum-inducing erogenous zone? Who knew? Jamie swiftly softened his smile and dropped his voice down to a smoky, seductive bass

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for his sex goddess mate who could apparently make him come by breathing on him. “An invitation, darling.” Emma laughed quietly and moved around to crawl up between his legs, as she knew he’d intended. She also blew softly on his balls, over his cock and up his abdomen to show him she’d read every one of his thoughts. Jamie moaned while his ball sac drew up tight to his body, his cock throbbed and his abdomen clenched as her warm breath washed over them. Her little teeth finally nipped at his earlobe and she snickered. “You’ll pay for that, my sweet witch,” he promised her when he could talk again. Her tongue was now lapping down his neck. “And next time the ties will not simply fall off. I know a little something about binding Vampires,” Jamie warned darkly. Just then, her mouth reached the golden male disk around his nipple. She nuzzled and lapped around it, teasing him by withholding the touch he wanted. Lifting her mouth to blow across the sensitized pebble, she chuckled again and moved across the dark hair of his chest to the other golden disk, giving it the same gentle treatment without actually touching his nipple. She was on hands and knees over him, her tantalizing breasts grazing his abdomen. “Emma,” Jamie growled as she gave his clenched lower chest a lapping taste test. She simply turned her face to the side to drag her soft cheek over the hard ridges of his stomach. “Mmmm,” she hummed to him as her face lay on his hip facing the source of her fascination. He could feel her breath on his cock as she studied it. A little hand glided up the inside of his thigh ‘til just her fingertips feathered over his tight ball sac, manipulating it gently and driving him to the edge of sanity as she simply breathed on the quivering shaft of his erection. The head grew swollen and red as she watched, pearl drops of pre-cum dripped down onto his ridged abdomen. Her tongue snaked out to lap it up off the soft hairs just below his navel. Jamie gasped and struggled to remain motionless while his pretty mate investigated him. He could feel everything about her—her thoughts, her emotions, her desire, her wonder, even her eyelashes fluttering on the sensitive skin beneath her cheek. He shuddered beneath the wonder of this woman. Her brave heart humbled him as she took him to mate in the face of all that had happened to her. Mating him fearlessly despite a future filled with demons and uncertainty. Emma inhaled deeply, dragging in the intimate scent of his private flesh, letting it sink into her bones. She wanted more. Her head lifted and she nuzzled him with her nose, down his shaft to the heavy balls. There she buried her nose in him until her tongue flicked out and tasted the underside of his balls. She lapped him up—reveling in the taste and smell of him, sucking his tight sac into her mouth and swirling her tongue around it. Licking up over it to the thick base of his erection. Opening her mouth and tilting her head sideways, she sucked the underside of his cock all the way up to the dimple where its fat head swelled red and engorged. The tip of her tongue rimmed the indentation and meandered over it to the opening where he gifted her with his essence. 97

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The lazy oral investigation made Jamie grip his hair behind his head to keep from grabbing her. He gritted his teeth but couldn’t keep the growls from escaping his chest. They weren’t threatening, simply irrepressible responses to her torturous little mouth and its seemingly endless curiosity. Just when he thought there’d be no hope of resisting the need to dominate her, she opened her mouth and sucked him in. Sinking over him, she allowed his thick erection to press her mouth open, tunneling into that hot, wet cavity as he would her pussy. It was too much, his head arched back and he howled, long and low. He felt her chuckle around him and the howl ended with a yelp as she came off him fast and repeated the invasion. Her mane of white silky hair flowed over his hips and thighs as her head moved up and down on him. His body jerked and thrust into her in primal need and demand. Heat licked up his legs and exploded in his groin. She was killing him, destroying his ability to control the need for release and he knew she was right there in his mind, feeling his pleasure. The little witch sucked, licked and pumped him to the edge of ecstasy and suddenly her hand clamped around the base of his cock and her mouth froze as she denied him release. Jamie’s head jerked back and the wolf bellowed his rage at the denial. Then she was gone. Immediately her scent reappeared outside the grotto and the graceful silver wolf was streaking away from him at top speed. Lilting laugher echoed in his mind as the dark gray wolf plunged through the briars to run down his mate. Oh, she was going to pay for this. Free of the underbrush, the huge wolf laid his ears back and flattened his body into a blur of motion as he perused the scent of her arousal through the sun-dappled forest. His powerful body stretched out into blinding speed as she did the same. He knew she was limiting herself to using the gifts of the wolf and that ticked him off a bit. Her game of chase became serious business when he realized that even as a wolf she could probably outrun ninety percent of his kind, but not him. Bigger, stronger, faster, those were the things that made a Prime. He gained on her steadily as they streaked across the ground. It was on a steep, uphill slope that the large beast came close enough to lunge forward and clamp his jaws onto the nape of the smaller silver wolf’s neck. He took her down hard and she screamed in indignation as they rolled a few yards back down the slope. Breathing hard but not loosening his grip, he made sure they stopped with him covering her. Holding her down in submission, he issued one sharp warning snarl for her to lift her tail. Totally immersed in the instincts she’d triggered, he had no other option but to fuck the bitch he’d just run to ground. She didn’t respond immediately and his jaws tightened to give her a sharp shake. Her tail lifted to the side and he slammed into her. Nothing mattered but this, his animal instincts held her pinned as he fucked her with all the power of his beast. Her thick coat of silver fur gave way to his sawing jaws holding her beneath him while his hips drove him into her over and over again. The bitter copper taste of her blood blinded his every sense and he fucked her furiously as she howled and yelped. His cock

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knotted within her and he still kept thrusting until the shuddering explosion of his release wiped out every other thing from his world. For long, quivering moments he held her there and shot his seed into her again and again. Slowly reality crept back into his brain and he realized his mouth was full of her blood. Very carefully he opened his jaws and pulled his incisors from her. Licking her wound, his wolf whined in disbelief and sorrow. She lay beneath him, still and silent as his tongue told her how sorry he was. Very quietly she whispered into his mind, “Someone is here. Don’t stop what you’re doing, don’t act like you know. They are like me. They will know if you reach out to scan. Trust me, Jamie. When I ask, roll off me and change. I’ll clothe both of us.” Jamie slowly withdrew from her body, nuzzling her neck with his muzzle, he let his eyes drift up. There was no one in sight. “Now,” she mentally whispered, and he rolled off her, changing as he went. Both of them were standing fully clothed a second later facing a small, dark-skinned woman who stood at the top of the hill. “How the hell did she get there without me knowing?” Jamie hissed as he regarded the woman on the hilltop. “She flashed. Not your fault. If she’d wanted to kill us, we’d be dead,” Emma responded calmly, and started walking up the hill towards the woman who watched them. As they moved cautiously up the hill, Jamie glanced worriedly at his mate. She was clothed in jeans and the black T-shirt again, her long silver hair streaming down her back. There was no sign of blood or the wound he’d inflicted in the fierce fuck they’d shared. “I’m sorry, Emma,” he murmured into her mind. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, baby. Are you okay?” He was answered with a satisfied female chuckle. “The big bad wolf that I teased mercilessly and then did everything in my power to trigger the animal reaction is sorry? Sorry he gave me exactly what I wanted?” Emma entered his mind with hers. In it, she showed him her physical satisfaction in getting the fierce lovemaking her nature demanded. “Bitch,” he hissed at her in rueful amusement, as he acknowledged her manipulation. “Yes,” she purred back boldly. At the top of the hill, they faced the diminutive visitor. She appeared to be a fineboned, small woman with flawless chocolate-cream skin. Large, wide-spaced eyes in her solemn face were hazel and captivating. They dominated a lovely collection of features with a pert nose, full lips and high cheekbones. Her short black hair curled in a loose spiral riot around her head. “Good afternoon, sister.” The stranger greeted Emma, not even looking at Jamie. “Hello,” Emma responded formally, and held out her hand. “I am Emma Claybourne…ah…MacKelvin,” she corrected herself as she glanced at Jamie. “This is my mate, Jamie MacKelvin.” 99

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Jamie nodded but didn’t extend his hand as the two women shook. She might appear small, but just knowing she was a Created One made her one of the most dangerous creatures on the planet at present. “I am Fraja. I have come to respectfully request a meeting,” the little woman stated in her curiously musical voice. “The Old One guarantees safe passage for you and your family if you will but spare him a few moments of your time. After today, there will be no opportunity, as you know. I beg you to consider this invitation.” Her low, gentle voice was free of compulsion—simple, pure and sincere. “And what Old One would that be?” Emma questioned. “The one who knows the answers you seek,” Fraja replied. “Nels? Nels thinks we will come for tea?” Emma asked casually. “He is not the one you met.” Fraja shook her head. “He is the holder of the key, the last and only who knows where we all are.” “Someone who knows where all the Created Ones are?” Emma questioned sharply. “Does he control them? Is there a society of us?” “I can tell you no more. These are questions for him. I was sent to do whatever it takes to get him an audience with you and your family,” Fraja answered calmly. Emma tilted her head and narrowed her eyes at the shorter woman. “Is that a threat, little sister?” she questioned softly. Fraja chuckled, her face lighting up in amusement. “It is a statement of fact, Lady Emma. No one will be harmed, but he needs to see you.” “And what assurance do we have of the ‘no harm’ statement?” Emma wanted to know. Fraja sighed. “None, I suppose. We don’t know each other, but do I appear an insane killer to you? Can you not see that others like yourself might be sane, rational beings? We all know the world might change tonight. What happens tomorrow might make this meeting impossible—we have this one window of opportunity. Please consider the invitation.” Emma looked up at Jamie. “I want to go,” she stated in his mind. “With both Laura and myself there, plus you and Wren, how much danger is there that we can’t handle?” Jamie sighed in resignation. They would go. Foolish, stupid, idiot move chock-full of danger and risk, but, what the hell, answers were being offered and no one would forgive him if he forbade the opportunity. He’d just like to know which set of questions they were dealing with. Was that asking too much, he thought to himself, exasperated with the knowledge he’d do exactly what she wanted. Emma read it in his mind and smiled at Fraja. “We will be there. Tell me where you will meet us and what time?” Emma requested politely. “Thank you, Lady Emma.” Fraja inclined her head. “There is an abandoned factory at the end of Stiffler Street on the edge of Coleville. I shall be waiting there. I

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recommend a snack before you flash there.” Fraja grinned and glanced at Jamie. “You have need of the energy, I believe.” Instead of the embarrassment Jamie expected from his mate, he felt her glow in satisfaction as she moved a step closer to him and settled herself under his arm to grin at the other woman. “Oh, don’t worry, little sister, I get all the energy I need,” Emma purred with a smile. “You are indeed lucky, Lady Emma,” Fraja said, no longer teasing. “A mate is more than the rest of us can hope for. Our animals crave it, but who could match us?” That sad reality hadn’t occurred to Emma. Indeed, the search for mates could well be a hopeless one for those who had been created before finding their match. She had already been mated to Jamie before her transformation. Their only real hope was the mating of Laura and Jack. However, Laura was a second generation, her mating was not exactly the same thing as a Created One. But still, it showed it was possible. “An hour, please,” Fraja continued. “Time is shorter than you know.” With that, Fraja disappeared in the manner of her kind. Emma looked up at Jamie. “Let’s go eat and get the others.” “Sure.” He smiled into her eyes—she wanted to test flashing both of them before they did it to get to the location. Holding her tightly, he waited for the test. If she couldn’t do it, they’d both suffer whatever happened. He wasn’t about to let her experiment without him. They arrived at the edge of the yard to the cabin. The sensation of flashing was like a surge of electricity through the entire body, slightly uncomfortable but manageable. Jamie grinned down at his now ravenously hungry mate. She was a precious wonder crammed full of new talents. “I guess this makes the need for vehicles obsolete,” he teased as they moved across the lawn to the front porch. Emma laughed, proud of herself. “Yeah, but the food bill is gonna shoot way up, MacKelvin,” she warned. “What happened?” Laura surged up from the chair and demanded as they entered the house. “We had a visit from one of the others, like us,” Emma told her without pausing on her way to the kitchen. Wren appeared from the back of the house and followed everyone into the kitchen. While Emma and Laura ate, Jamie explained the visit and the meeting request. “Damn,” Wren grumbled. “I don’t like it. It could be a trap.” “Then post your boys around the area,” Emma stated reasonably between bites. “We know the address. She wouldn’t expect us to show up unguarded.” “Besides, that location is a bit away,” Wren added. 101

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“Not a problem” Laura answered. “We can flash there.” Wren raised his brows. “All of us?” Laura nodded. “Why do you think I’m trying to eat twice my weight in protein? Lugging your big butt around is gonna be a killer,” she teased her father-in-law with sarcastic amusement. Wren looked over at Jamie. “That’s how you two returned with no warning?” “Yep. Talented little ladies have the travel covered,” Jamie confirmed. The meal soon over and the reinforcements Wren had directed to the target area moving into position, everyone stepped out onto the cabin porch. Laura took Wren’s hand and Jamie slipped an arm around Emma. Wren shifted uncomfortably. “Does it hurt?” he questioned with a frown directed at Jamie. “Yep,” Jamie said with a convincing grimace, “like losing a limb.” Emma flashed them to keep her snicker from reaching Wren’s ears. They arrived at the empty parking lot outside a looming, old brick factory of some sort. Laura and Wren appeared beside them immediately. “Very funny, Prime,” Wren snarled as he immediately joined the others scanning. There was only Fraja standing in the doorway to the building and one frail life form within. Cautiously they entered the building behind Fraja as she turned and led the way into the bowels of the obviously condemned structure. Exposed pipes and loose wiring hung everywhere. The layer of dust on carcasses of forgotten machinery was at least fifty years old. Reaching a central structure, Fraja paused at the door and glanced back at them. Her face was expressionless, yet deep sadness flowed around her. She opened the door and stepped in. After Fraja, Jamie entered the room first, every sense scanning for danger. Behind him filed in Emma, Laura and finally Wren. All the scans found only the woman and the old man. The room was dark except for the feeble glow from a single lamp. The place had a strange scent, not exactly mildew—it was the smell of age. Something incredibly old resided here. At the center of the room, a sturdy cast iron bed was bolted to the floor with huge nuts and screws. The thin mattress atop it was hard to see under thick, Kevlar-enforced bands, which snaked up from the metal frame to secure its occupant. They strapped down his head, his arms, his chest, his thighs and his calves. Under all this was a frail old man the likes of which none of them had ever seen. Fraja glided over to the far side of the bed and bent over the old man’s head. Gently her palm caressed his forehead. “They are here,” she murmured softly. Sunken eyelids lifted slowly and stared up at her intently. “All of them?” the ancient voice croaked.

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Fraja nodded and straightened. “Please, come to his side so he can see you,” she requested. “As you can see, he can do you no harm.” Wren remained by the door as Jamie, Emma and Laura moved to the bed to look at the withered remains of a being. Milky pale eyes traveled over each of them as they silently stood above him. “Don’t know me, little brother?” the garbled, wheezing old voice was barely intelligible. “No, I am him now. Not even the scent of old Nels remains.” “Nels?” Jamie questioned in disbelief. “No, you’re right, not Nels. What you see before you is the other.” The old man cackled a chocking laugh. “This is how he should look, the pretty peacock. I wear his age when I am him, but even a wolf cannot live as long as that fanged bastard.” “What are you?” Laura questioned sharply. “Why do you waste our time, old man?” Her brow furrowed in a frown as the carcass before her drew something deep inside her. He was revolting with his shrunken features and gnarled limbs, and yet, there was something that spoke to Laura in a way she felt profoundly uncomfortable with. It was not the same sensation she had gotten from the chair at the cabin, but similar. Emma reached out and squeezed Laura’s arm. “Let him speak, he doesn’t have much time.” The absolute certainty of that fact overwhelmed her. This creature was sitting in the lap of death and there was nothing anyone could do about it. The possibility of him being her rapist and the grotesque monster who’d sent her to hell and back was disturbing, but muted next to her inexplicable knowledge of his condition. The old eyes moved to Emma. “The cat, listen to the cat, child, they are seers. Elegant sentinels of the ages. I gave her to you to protect you.” The old man coughed again in a wheezing rattle, spittle ran out the corner of his withered, drawn lips. Fraja gently wiped it up as the old man’s eyes closed in seeming exhaustion over the effort to cough. “No, do not think you can escape into frailty,” Jamie stated firmly. “You will tell us right now what this play-acting is about or we leave.” The ancient eyes opened to glare up at Jamie as the creature began to speak. “He chose you. I didn’t figure it out for years, let him whisper his riddles in my ear. We were going to make things right. It was for him. The serum. He was supposed to take it. But I thought I could outsmart him.” Cackling laughter again as the old one seemed lost in his rambling and disjointed sentences. “He knew I’d take it, yes, yes, he knew. He has watched us too long. He knows too much. Perhaps he created us too. I don’t know anymore, but he knew I’d do it. He counted on it. I was always the expendable one. He knew what it would do, the twisted schemer. He knew.” “What the fuck?” Jamie exploded. “Are you saying you are Nels and someone made you take the damn serum? I should kill you right now! No one made you give it to Emma. Is this what you gave her? Is this what happens?” 103

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Emma again reached out, this time to Jamie. “There is no time, he must tell us now,” she insisted urgently. Knowledge was creeping into her soul. This one would be gone before they left, what he was or knew would die with him. “She is not him,” the old one denied. “Your mate is not what I am. Humans are the blank templates. They become all of us.” His eyes turn to Laura. “The little one is what he always wanted. The child of us all. He knew my predator would drive me to find a breeder. Unleashed and ungoverned, the animal will always find what it needs. I leashed it for years. Hiding in the colonies, locking myself away for the bad times. But I didn’t do it in time. No, not in time.” The old eyes closed as his shallow breathing became labored. “In the journals. It’s all there. Years and years of work. The child can read them.” The words were barely a whisper anymore and everyone leaned in. “Good scientist. I was a good scientist. The journals tell you everything. I told you where to find them in the cat’s DNA. Where he can’t reach them.” Breath sighed out of the old one and it took too long for him to take another gasp of air. Laura’s hands clutched together and a fist slammed down on the old chest, his eyes shot open as his body stuttered back to life. “What fucking journals?” she demanded into his glazed eyes. “Who is the other?” “I was wrong about him. Wrong,” the old one gasped. “He knew. The journals are wrong. Your other father, the one whose blood is now my blood, the deceiver of darkness. He knew the child would be the best of all of us. You are what he sought. Not a predator, a protector ruled by reason.” The eyes staring up at Laura dimmed then became fixed. Laura once again slammed her fists down on his chest, but there was only the empty husk there. Emma grabbed her and pulled her back. Knowledge washed through Emma and it wasn’t good. Basic cellular changes were occurring in the lifeless form in front of them. Impending danger was screaming in her and Emma urged them all to step back. The body before them abruptly shrank. It seemed to suck into itself and wither, swiftly disintegrating into dust before their eyes. Fraja’s head snapped up, tears streamed down her face as she looked at them. “You must leave! Now!” she stated firmly. “The others have felt his passing. They come, not all of them have gained control of the beast.” Looking directly at Laura, Fraja continued. “If ever you have need, call me. My allegiance is now yours, as he knew it would be. The others will feel it as well. Time permitting, you will know what you are.” At that moment four males flashed into the room. Laura sent a single thought to her mother, “Meet at Wren’s den,” and flashed back to Wren, grabbing his arm they left. Emma took Jamie.

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Chapter Nine The four of them reappeared in the large country kitchen of Wren’s home and simply stared at each other for a moment in shock. Margaret and Kendra rushed into the room and broke the frozen moment. “What happened?” Margaret demanded. A tall woman, deceptively slender and youthful in appearance for her actual age, her pretty face was drawn with tension. Wren strode over to his mate and gathered her into his arms, kissing her long and hard. It wasn’t natural for a wolf to be away from his mate as long as he’d been these last couple days. Jamie flipped open his cell phone and started calling the sentinels who’d been posted around the factory, making sure they pulled back and got out of there. Emma smiled tiredly at Kendra and turned her own worried face to watch Laura who was now pacing in quick, long strides as she ran her fingers through her hair in agitation. “What happened?” Kendra repeated the question softly. “I’ll tell you what happened,” Laura spat out then paused to curse in a long stream of foul language, every word she could think of. “Laura,” Emma admonished softly, as any mother would. “Oh, yes, Mom, every one of those words and all the ones I don’t know!” Laura responded. “We were just told how those two bastards used you as a fucking incubator for their own little Frankenstein experiment. Too damn bad the offspring turned out to be a girl. Bet that bummed them out.” Laura laughed bitterly and continued. “You know who the ‘other one’ is, right? The fucking monster mind behind this whole damn mess.” Emma sighed and glanced around at Jamie who immediately came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her back against him. His head dipping down a moment to her neck for a tender lap of her taste with his tongue. Flowing into her mind, his love and strength comforted her as Emma turned back to Laura. “It’s obvious that Dominus has been manipulating all of us for a very long time,” Emma agreed softly, trying to inject calm into the conversation for Laura. “Manipulating!” Laura exploded. “He has played fucking God! He used Nels’ weakness and brilliance to get him to make then take the serum. Dominus knew it would drive the wolf insane. That’s how he ensured the wolf would find a human breeder, using pure animal instincts with no reasoning attached. Dominus didn’t give a damn what happened to that breeder as long as she gave him a child that was the mix of everything he’d put in that fucking serum. Nels apparently screwed him by resisting for a hundred years and hiding over here.

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“You can bet for damn sure that Daddy Number Two didn’t plan on Nels continuing his research and creating a race of beings stronger than the Vampires. Nels being bright enough to use all the talents given to him in Dominus’ blood was not part of the sleazy lizard’s program either. Dominus expected the aging factor to kick in much sooner, I am sure. “Last Friday night was not a full moon. Nels was not insane when he gave you the serum. He knew he was dying. He was actually trying to even the playing field by giving Jamie and me you. For once, I think he knew Dominus would be there. Nels was playing Dominus as much as Dominus had played him. What is that fucking Vampire’s one weakness? I’ll tell you, his scheming. Nels knew Dominus could not resist taking Jack as a trump card. He handed him Jack as a distraction and proof of his insanity so he could complete the rest of his one chance to fuck Dominus.” “Shit!” Jamie cursed as his arms tightened around Emma. “Nels counted on you figuring out the serum and telling me how to save her,” Jamie breathed in shock. Laura nodded as she continued pacing. Jamie felt an unbelievable wave of relief wash over him. His brother, his beloved big brother had not actually been the deranged, vengeful beast he’d let Jamie think he was. There was no way Jamie would have agreed to letting him inject Emma with the serum voluntarily. So Nels had simply found another way to do it. Nels had used every weapon at his command to ensure Jamie possessed all the advantages in this dark game of manipulation. Did Nels know about the war bearing down on them? Had he given Jamie another race of beings to tip the balance of power in the wolves’ favor? It now seemed that he had. “Calm down, Laura,” Emma quietly instructed in her mother tone. “We have to deal with what is occurring now. The past is set, darling. The future is the only thing we have any chance of affecting.” Being in Jamie’s mind, Emma knew he was reeling from the stunning thought that his brother had been on his side all this time. That Nels had actually known, in his lucid moments, that Jamie had been forced to kill him. He’d obviously forgiven his little brother long ago and had spent the remainder of his life finding a way to turn his horrible mistake of listening to Dominus into Jamie’s advantage. His ultimate plan had been very Vampire in its complexity and dependent on known species reactions to events. It had been a study in cause and effect. Each of them had played their parts exactly as expected, faithful little marionettes to the manipulations of these two masterminds. “Oh, no!” Laura hissed. “I will not calm down. I’ve just discovered that I’m the diabolical result of fucking genetic engineering done by Hitler’s dream team. I’ve never even met the bastard and I hate his ass more than life.” “You have now.” A deep, calm voice stated from the doorway. There stood the tall, elegant form of Dominus. He crossed his arms and leaned up against the door jam. “Hello, sweet daughter mine,” he drawled in supreme confidence.

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“Oh, my God,” Laura hissed. “You have the nerve to show up here?” There was no doubt who stood in the doorway, deep in the den of some of the most powerful wolves on the planet. Laura glanced out the window at the evening gloom, confirming the sun had set. She faced him, hands on hips, placing her body between Dominus and the rest of the room. “Don’t you have a rebellion to deal with, Daddy?” she taunted bitterly. “I hear there is a long line of folks who want to see you dead tonight. Why present yourself to the ones who can actually do it?” Dominus chuckled. “Oh, don’t worry your little head about it, darling. My second will take care of that minor disturbance. It seems I had a family matter to turn my attention to, the first natural-born Vampire in four thousand years. Nels was very good at hiding you.” Laura’s lip curled back. “Oh, well. Surprise, surprise,” she sneered. “Every damn thing didn’t go as planned, did it? Now what are you going to do? There is no reason for us to let you out of here alive.” Dominus smiled. “Oh, I think I’m reasonably safe, sweetie. I still have Jack. Which wolf in the room doesn’t want him back? You are correct, though. I had planned to raise you in the proper manner but—” he shrugged “—we can always start now. You will eventually come to know your rightful place, I have no doubt of that. Until that time, I’ll just have to keep reminding you that Jack’s life depends on your compliance.” Dominus straightened to his full height and held out his hand. “Now come with me, child, and let us start. Your first task will be the serum. We will move onto your other talents after that. I know you’re not aware of all of them. What can I say, you were raised by wolves.” “Oh, I so don’t think so,” Emma stated firmly as she took one of Jamie’s hands and moved them both up so she stood beside Laura with Jamie right behind her. “This is where your little scheme really falls off the rails, Dominus,” she continued smoothly. “Look at what is facing you.” Wren had moved up behind Laura as Emma spoke, with him stood Margaret and Kendra. Sam and Cable had slipped quietly into the kitchen from the garage, their senses alerting them to the tension and visitor in the room as they returned from the factory. Now both of the tall, young wolves stood behind the gathering. “You will not be taking my daughter anywhere,” Emma stated calmly. Dominus considered them with hard eyes. “So you have no interest in the return of your precious Jack?” he raised an eyebrow as he asked. Emma’s lip curled back in a sneer. “Oh, Jack will walk through that door by five tomorrow morning or you will have a hell of a lot more on your hands than a little Vampire disturbance, idiot. Jack is not your trump card, he is your Achilles heel. His return, alive and well, is all that stands between you and both the Lykosapiens and the truly scary ones for you, the Created Ones. Do not think for one minute we can’t do it.”

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Emma chuckled darkly. “Her other daddy ensured his creations are genetically programmed to recognize Laura as their leader. He might have left it out of my little cocktail because I am the Lykosapien Prime Alpha’s mate. However, that does make me queen of the wolves and mother to the undisputed leader to the newest bad boys atop the predator pyramid. In contrast to being your disposable breeder whore, I like this position much better. So you see—” Emma’s eyes narrowed as she leaned forward “— your only little hope of remaining alive is to deliver Jack as ordered. If he doesn’t show up, we bring it to your door in ways you never dreamed possible.” Dominus hissed in fury, his face contorting into a mask of uncharacteristic anger. “I have warned you before not to get above yourself, Miss Emma.” Dominus visibly controlled himself as he regarded them. Emma smiled in a show of teeth. “Go ahead, make me prove it,” she taunted in a low challenge. A shocking urge to make use of a skill she’d not even realized she possessed overwhelmed Emma as Dominus stood there and attempted to take away her baby. It was an instant knowledge that she could manipulate the natural elements around her to create a burst of energy so pure it became—fire? Yes, the same resources she’d used instinctively to create clothing could be adjusted to gather and distill energy down to a directed beam of incredible destructiveness. Jamie’s reaction in her mind was soothing calm. “Not yet, baby. We still need him.” His gentle but firm direction helped Emma control the urge and she was grateful. It’d been an involuntary action of the mother protecting her young. It shook Emma to realize she possessed the power to kill instantly. Not only that she had it, but had almost used it. A fine tremor racked her body as she resisted the urge. “Not worth my time,” Dominus responded as his being dissolved and disappeared. Laura turned to gape at her mother. “Damn, Mom! I thought you were gonna pull out the thumb screws there in a minute. When did you become the Awesome Bitch Queen?” she asked in wonder. Emma laughed and leaned back on Jamie, sending Jamie her gratitude for his control as she looked at her daughter. There was no time to analyze as she responded to Laura. “Right after someone threatened to take away my baby.” Laura reached out to her mother and Emma stepped up to hold her beloved daughter in her arms. They hugged hard. Jamie put an arm around both of them and kissed the top of each head. Looking up at the others in the room, he grinned. “Now that the girls have brought the most powerful known being on the planet to his knees and then kicked him to the curb,” Jamie stated cheerfully, “we’d better feed them. They eat like horses you know.” “Hey!” both women exclaimed in indignation at the teasing as their heads came up. The tension was broken as everyone chuckled and relaxed. Margaret and Kendra both reached to hug Emma and Laura. The four women had been companions a long time, the distressing events of the weekend had separated them. Margaret and Kendra

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both felt the wolf need to touch. This event bound them together even tighter as complete mother-daughter understanding passed between them. Jamie and Wren glanced at each other and grinned proudly. The united front of female power was an awesome thing. Both Alphas knew exactly where they stood and ruefully loved it as they watched the most important beings in their world reestablish the family ties. “Someone had better start from the beginning and explain what just happened,” Cable stated in his usual calm way. The twins were not as tall as Wren and Jack who both topped six foot three inches by a bit, but they were unusually thickly muscled for wolves and closely resembled a brick wall when they stood side by side, which was typically how they were found. They were only sixty, not quite pups anymore, but considering a wolf lived to an average six hundred years, still young. Their grave faces gave them a sternness that was not in truth their personalities. Deep-set dark eyes, pronounced noses, square jaws and thickly muscled necks made them look serious most of the time. They were naturally calm for young wolves, but seldom serious. “Sure they will,” Margaret stated firmly and she headed for the stove. “As soon as you two bring in as many steaks as you can carry from the freezer in the garage,” she directed efficiently as she set about the task at hand. “Mom, we can carry in the freezer. How many do you want?” Sam asked with a grin. “Oh, pooh, you know what I mean,” Margaret shooed them out, laughing. Over the course of the ensuing huge meal, the events leading up to that moment were explained. “Do you really think he’ll just hand Jack over?” Cable asked seriously as everyone sat back. Jamie laughed softly. “Oh, I know he will. No one lives over four thousand years without really wanting to.” Jamie assured them. “The threat to him and his house is very real. Whatever Nels meant when he said he was wrong about Dominus means that Nels had discovered another plan under all the layers of subterfuge. I would bet we still don’t know what the real game is. Dominus is not done, therefore, he will not allow us to destroy him and his house yet.” Emma leaned over and laid her head on Jamie’s shoulder. The two of them hadn’t gotten a rest that afternoon, and though she wasn’t actually tired, she knew Jamie was. Her new DNA apparently didn’t have to sleep for days at a time, but she was more than willing to act as tired as Jamie felt to give him an excuse to take them to bed. It worked like a charm. Everyone started getting up and clearing the table. Margaret firmly told Jamie and Emma to go use the guest wing of the house. Laura was too keyed up to sleep and everyone knew it. Energy flowed off her in waves as anticipation of the return of her mate mounted. Cable and Sam suggested she and Kendra come out and do a security run with them. Wren was in physical contact 109

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with his mate almost constantly. It was obvious he wanted some time alone with her, as well, after being apart so long. The American Alpha’s house was an ingeniously deceptive structure. It appeared to be five separate houses situated around the base of a medium-sized hill. The averagelooking exteriors were simply other doorways out of the massive den under the hill. It was beautifully decorated and luxuriously comfortable. Each separate house could be securely closed off from the main area and there were several routes out of the structure that were not marked with a house above them. Emma knew exactly where to lead Jamie, as this house had always been open to her. They entered the guest wing, which came with its own sitting room, kitchen and large eating area, media room and four bedrooms, not including the master bedroom with its adjacent master bath. Guests in the pack were usually large family units—this guest wing was made to accommodate that type of visitor. As soon as the door closed behind them, Jamie scooped Emma up in his arms to hold her high on his chest and kissed her hard. Lifting his head, he laughed into her eyes. “You little faker. I know you’re not tired. You just wanted to get me off and have your wicked way with me, woman.” Emma’s arms were wrapped around his neck and her lips were immediately back on his mouth, nibbling at his lips. “Yeah, so?” she mumbled between nibbles. “A girl does what she has to.” “I am not that type of guy you know,” he teased mildly as he let her lick and kiss his face and neck while he carried her though the huge suite of rooms. “I expect a woman to marry me. I mean, why buy the dog if the fuck is free?” Emma giggled into his neck. “I believe I have requested your hand, Sir. What more assurance do you need of my intentions?” Jamie found the master bedroom with natural ease and threw himself down backwards on the bed, bouncing her across his chest. “Hey!” Emma squealed at the rough fall. “What was that for?” “Well, you asked, but I sure as hell haven’t seen you in the white dress yet,” he complained loudly. “I’ve been busy!” Emma defended herself as she moved around to lay her body on top of his lengthwise. Her hands tunneled into his hair on either side of his head and her lips feathered across his. “I know I bought a wedding dress. Just can’t find the time to put the damn thing on.” “Mmmm,” he murmured as his mouth followed hers trying to capture the kiss he wanted. Now she avoided him and nibbled around to his ear. “Do you have a suggestion?” she whispered into it. “We could do it the old-fashioned way,” he responded.

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Emma’s head jerked up and she frowned down into his face. “No damn way I am making love in front of an audience, MacKelvin. Just get that thought out of your head.” “Well, I was about to suggest that we could consider it done already, sweetie.” Jamie’s hands came up to smooth the white-gold hair away from her face. “Oh,” Emma’s face flushed red and she sank down to bury it in Jamie’s chest. “Wren is considered the whole pack?” was her muffled question. “Close enough for me. How about you?” Jamie chuckled down at her bent head. Emma nodded, not lifting her face. “Good,” Jamie declared as he flipped them both over and landed on top of her. Laughing into her startled eyes, he demanded, “Now, make the clothes disappear.” His mouth swooped down for a sucking hard kiss and he let his beast out to make love to his mate. Their clothes melted away and he was grinding his heavy erection into a very wet pussy as their bodies exploded into pure sensation. Emma felt the dominant beast in him and met it with the writhing animal within herself who simply reveled in his sexual control of her. The cheeky bitch that took great pleasure in driving him out of his mind and into feral masculine demand. Oh, damn, she loved it when he stretched her arms over her head and held them there. Yet she needed more. Emma started struggling beneath him, letting him see her intention of getting away and laughing when he couldn’t catch her. Jamie lifted his head and raised an eyebrow as he held her beneath him. “Oh, I wouldn’t go there, sweet mate,” he crooned. “You are my mate, my submissive and my Vampire.” He laughed low and growly. “I get to do any damn thing I want and you get to thank me for it. Right?” he warned her. “That how you think it works, studly?” Emma sneered. “That is exactly how it works, lover,” he agreed, and kept his mind closed to her as he watched her reaction. Suddenly she flashed out from under him and was standing across the room. Jamie sat up on the side of the bed and smiled at her with way too much smug self-confidence as he regarded her. Emma felt a little wave of unease. She’d wanted to push this to the intense animal level, but the Alpha before her was not in any way out of control. In fact, he seemed superbly in control. “Emma, come here now,” he commanded in a tone she didn’t remember hearing before. It was low and compelling. Amazingly her feet seemed to work on their own and brought her to stand in front of him. “You may kneel down and worship the cock that will fuck you soon, my naughty little wench.” His commanding tone again gave her no option but to drop to her knees, her puzzled eyes looking up at him as her mouth opened to lick up and down his long

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erection. She lovingly dragged her tongue over the fat head of it and down to his balls, lapping around them with abandon. His hand petted her hair as he watched her. “I imagine you’re wondering what just happened,” Jamie commented calmly, his mind still closed to her. “You are my wolf mate, little love. Above that instinctive response to me, you are also an inherent submissive who was captured in our making of the Vampire. You cannot refuse me as a Vampire, because a Vampire cannot refuse her master. You cannot refuse me as a submissive, because a submissive will not refuse her Dominate. You cannot refuse me as a wolf-bitch, because she would never dream of refusing her mate.” Her eyes rounded as she listened to him while her mouth was busy on his cock. Not sucking him in, he hadn’t told her to do that—he’d said worship. “Little she-beast hadn’t thought of all that?” He chuckled again darkly as her intense excitement was communicated clearly to him through her scent, intensifying with each realization. “Have no doubt, your complete submission is not only required by me, but that I have the power to take it. Your genetic engineering demanded a dominant mate, my darling. You don’t have to drive me to instinctive dominance and then hold back your own strength to give us both this pleasure. The changes have enhanced my ability to give you exactly what you need. My little bitch is in heat—I will take her,” he murmured into her round eyes as he smiled down at her. “Now get up here and bend over my knee. There is always punishment for defiance. After you’ve taken your spanking, we shall see if you can earn your fuck,” he continued in his commanding tone that drove right past her mind to the elemental needs burning throughout her body. Her breathing became short and choppy as she gracefully straightened up and bent over his lap, presenting a quivering, perfect ass for his required punishment. Heat washed over her and she knew he could smell her extreme excitement as creamy fluid gushed between her legs. His hand petted over her ass in a gentle caress instead of the sharp slap she was expecting. “Now seems like a good time to establish some guidelines.” His deep voice purred as he stroked her hungry flesh. “My little bitch can always depend on me to give her what she needs. If it’s discipline, love, support or backup. I am the one she will turn to first. That is the first, last and only rule. Do you understand me?” he asked with harsh command. “Yes, Sir,” Emma responded instinctively. “Good girl,” he approved. “Now let’s get this over with so you know you can trust me always.” His hand crashed down on pale cream cheeks in four quick spanks, sending waves of adrenaline-laced pleasure shooting up her soul to bloom in her mind in shattering surrender. The sobbing wasn’t really a pain reaction. It was the complete relief of surrendering all of her into his keeping. The concrete knowledge that he could and would always handle her, take care of her, be her Alpha with no holding back. No matter what physical changes had occurred in her body, there was still the woman who’d lived many long years in fear and pain. That woman was finally safe in her lover’s keeping. The screaming, writhing beasts within her surrendered in satisfaction to the male who 112

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had mastered them. Their demand for dominance from the one who claimed them, satisfied. Jamie pulled Emma up to wrap his arms around her, crooning to her softly he laid them both down on their sides facing each other and cradled her to him. Her mind had been totally open to him and he knew exactly what this moment had been for her. When her sobs subsided, he smiled into her watery eyes. “I love you more than my life, Emma. That will never change. I will always be exactly what you need, precious love,” he promised her as his lips moved over her face reverently. The urgency of their sexual needs could not be ignored and he lifted her leg over his hip. Facing each other, he entered her slowly, pushing into the dripping, hot depths of her with deliberate tenderness as he licked her beautiful face. He pulled back to gaze into the lovely silver-green eyes when his cock finally rested fully inside her. “We are tender lovemaking, Emma. We are the fire of animal desperation. We are all those things and more, baby. Don’t ever doubt it.” Her hand caressed his cheek as she smiled shakily into his eyes. He pulled out and gently thrust back into her as they simply drowned in the tender touching and feeling, both of them opening their minds to sink into each other that way as well. His pace never increased, the gentle loving after the mind-altering spanking brought home to her the complete certainty that he took her trust and gave back to her his entire being. All his power and control was focused so solely on her, there would never be a doubt in her mind that his actions were born in love, washed through the fire of his possession—a protective beast who would allow nothing, not even himself, to harm her. The explosion of their release was a quiet scream of two souls climbing the ladder to heaven together. They rocked in each other’s arms, treasuring each successive jet of pleasure as he knotted her and continued to come. Returning slowly to reality, there were tender kisses and gentle murmurs as they cuddled. Jamie rolled onto his back, taking her with him to drape her still impaled body over his chest. Arms around her, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. Emma smiled sleepily as she felt him relax in sleep and slowly slide out of her body. Sprawled across the big wolf, she marveled at the spirit of her amazing mate. It came to her like a warm blanket unfolding in her heart. It invaded every inch of her body and soul with a strength each one of her predator instincts accepted with purring certainty. “I love you,” whispered from her lips. His arms tightened for a second causing her to glance up at his face. His eyes didn’t open but a smile played at his lips. “I know,” he whispered back. Superior and confident, that response was just right from her mate, her master, her heart and soul. The need to prove he returned that sentiment had long since passed. Then she too shut her eyes, sinking into sleep, secure in the arms of the one creature who’d never let her down.

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Chapter Ten Emma awoke to Laura’s voice in her mind. “Mother, it’s three-thirty. I need you.” “I’m coming, honey,” Emma responded, letting Jamie hear the conversation in her head. They both groaned as Emma rolled off him and looked over into his sleepy eyes. “This is it. Let’s go see if Dominus has figured a new way to screw the deal.” Jamie chuckled. “I know this isn’t going to be as easy as it should be.” “Mmm,” Emma grunted as she sat up. “That bastard does not like to lose. We both know there’s going to be something else. I didn’t attach a long list of freaking conditions to the ultimatum. I wasn’t careful with it,” she confessed. Jamie reached over and ruffled her hair. “She-beast Mama was defending her baby. You were ready to make a smoldering fillet of him. I doubt he knows what a little firestarter you are. By the way, when did you discover that interesting gift?” Emma shrugged. “It just came to me in the heat of the moment. Bastard should be thanking you for being in my mind and controlling it.” Jamie stood up and stretched. “I’m guessing this is how it was for Jack and Laura, surprising new talents popping up at the most interesting times. No wonder she insisted we needed the mental link to get through this. “I don’t suppose you can do cleaning before the clothes appear?” he asked hopefully. “Sure, if you want the grime burned off your body,” Emma grumbled as she headed for the bathroom. “Otherwise, you’re just gonna have to shower like everyone else. Laura is the one who has the Merry Maid gift, not me.” “Right. Shower it is.” Jamie followed her in. Twenty minutes later, they both entered the kitchen. Everyone was there again. The twins sitting at the table, Margaret and Wren across from them, Kendra was making coffee and Laura was pacing. “Mom.” Laura gave Emma a brief hug and kissed Jamie on the cheek. “Thanks, I don’t think I want to face this without you.” “Of course not, dear. Thanks for waking us.” Emma pecked Laura’s cheek and then watched her resume pacing. “Tell me, Laura, can you do this?” Emma asked as she pointed across the room at the cozy kitchen fireplace. Out of her finger a laser shot of flame blasted across the space and only dissipated when it hit the brick in back of the fireplace.

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Everyone but Wren and Jamie jumped. “Yeah, she can,” Wren answered calmly. “Handy Vampire killer you girls have there. Simply burn the heart in the chest, no more blood sucker.” Laura laughed. “Jack had to help me control it at first,” she confessed. “It’s a difficult one not to use.” Emma nodded. “You really have to list these things for me, Laura. It’s disquieting to have the strong urge to do something like that when you didn’t even know you could the second before.” “I suppose I should. Jack has me so programmed to keep them to myself, it’s hard to remember you’re like me now. Can you imagine if the Vampires had gotten wind of that talent? It’s like being a walking death machine for them. They’d have been all over us long ago.” Laura sighed. “Jack was very careful to make sure none of them ever came in contact with me. He didn’t actually trust my temper, I think.” Laura chuckled. “I can see his point, Laura,” Jamie agreed. “But that time is over. As of right now we want them to know exactly how truly dangerous you ladies are to them. A clear picture of what they cannot fight might stop a war before it starts. Sort of like parading the nuclear weapons around so everyone knows to stay the fuck away.” Wren nodded. “Prevention beats intervention.” Laura looked at Wren and blinked back the tears. “I know. Jack said that all the time.” “Aw, Laura. Don’t cry.” Kendra moved over to her side and put an arm around her. Kendra was tall and slender like her mother. She had the same dark eyes as her brothers, but her hair was an interesting burnt gold. Not red and not blonde, a flaming gold that flowed around her shoulders in thick abandon. “No, not crying.” Laura sniffed. “I’ve just never been away from him this long. Even if he wasn’t right beside me, he was always in my mind if I needed him.” Cable glanced at the clock. Four-fifteen. “Any minute now, Laura,” he assured calmly, as he leaned back and stretched out his legs under the table. Thick arms crossed over his chest and once again both men were sitting in exactly the same position. They didn’t do it consciously, but the twins seemed to be mirror images most of the time. At least they never dressed alike, Laura mused. Even their scents were very similar. Not for her, of course, but the average wolf would have to look twice. Laura resumed pacing as the minutes ticked by. “Oh, he is gonna drag this out to the last second just for torture purposes,” she spat out. “He is a prince, dear,” Emma soothed from the cradle of Jamie’s arms. Jamie was again standing behind her, taking her body weight on his chest. “They make very bad losers.” “Who said I’d lost anything?” Dominus inquired casually from the doorway. Laura spun around to glare at him. “The deadly wrong thing about this picture, Dominus, is you are alone,” Laura stated in a cold voice.

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“I thought we’d chat a moment while the boy gets himself together, as it were.” Dominus leaned against the doorframe, again crossing his arms over his chest and hooking an ankle in front of the other. He looked like an advertisement for a men’s magazine, the caption could have read something like, “When you are deadly serious about style”. He smiled urbanely at them in confident control. “I have a little something to show you, Diabolical,” Laura purposely called him that name in a purring tone. Then she pointed at the flagstone floor directly in front of Dominus and etched out the word “Jack” in tall black letters using the flame from her finger. Jamie raised his brows and had to bite back a snicker. The weapons were on parade. Emma shushed him in his mind. But couldn’t resist adding, “It’s not nice to laugh at the less fortunate.” And almost lost composure herself. Dominus didn’t move a muscle as he watched Laura do it. Glancing up, he smiled indulgently. “I suppose no one ever taught you it’s impolite to show off? We just keep bumping into that ugly issue of being raised by wolves, pumpkin.” Laura swung around to face everyone else in the room and threw up her hands. “I’m gonna kill him! Swear to God, I’m gonna kill him. You deal with him, Mother. I’ll do something truly evil and it’s not fair to play with the unarmed like this,” Laura stated in disgust as she stalked across the room away from Dominus, leaving her back to him the entire way. The insult of her demeaning words was effectively flung at Dominus with the fearless show of her back to the enemy. Dominus couldn’t actually pale at the complete confidence with which she’d dismissed him, but his eyes did narrow for a fraction of a second as he watched her walk away. Jamie tensed behind Emma, but her gentle pressure on his forearm stilled him. In his mind she whispered, “No, she wants him to make a move. She is looking for a reason to show him what she is capable of.” “Don’t presume too much, little one,” Dominus cautioned quietly. “I have come as a favor to you. I wished to prepare you so Jack’s appearance wouldn’t be such a shock. He is a Vampire now. My possession. You will have to make the serum to save him from that. If you don’t, I will be among you every moment he is. I don’t know how else you expected me to save him, but there it is,” Dominus shrugged. “As soon as he ceases to be mine, I will know I can get the secret from his blood. Nothing will keep me from it.” Spinning around to face him, she asked contemptuously, “Then there’s no reason why I should not kill you right now?” “You may try, little one.” Dominus straightened from the door jam. “But if I die, so does he. I have linked our life forces.” Dominus allowed himself a dark smile of satisfaction as Laura’s mouth dropped open. “What the hell does that mean?” Laura demanded, but just at that moment Jack appeared in the doorway with Dominus. He was pale and drawn, his handsome features sunken in on themselves. He immediately faltered and would have fallen to the

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floor had Laura not streaked to his side and caught him. Jack raised tortured eyes to Laura’s face. “Kill me now,” he whispered to her. Dominus disappeared, leaving behind an echoing chuckle. “Jack!” Laura moaned as she supported him. “What did they do to you?” “Laura, you must kill me!” Jack insisted in a sandpaper-rough voice. “I am his eyes and ears. As long as I live, he is here in the room with you. He hasn’t broken into the place I hold you in my mind, but he will. He will know everything I know about you. Kill me now!” Everyone in the room remained frozen in place as Laura stared into his eyes in horror. “NO!” Jamie almost yelled into the silence. “Every damn thing out of that bastard Nic’s mouth is a lie. Start from that perspective and add to it the information that Nels was not really insane the night he did this—there has to be another answer! First, if he was a Vampire he’d be strong. Look at him, he’s starving,” Jamie stated emphatically. “I refused their blood,” Jack rasped out, barely able to lift his head and look up at Jamie. His tall form was hunched over and entirely supported by Laura. Dark circles surrounded eyes that seemed to have sunk further back into his skull. His normally lean cheeks were now hollowed out and his skin seemed too tightly drawn across each feature, and yet, new lines of age drew deep grooves bracketing his mouth and across his forehead. The once dark hair on his head was liberally streaked with gray. Especially at his temples where it was almost entirely white. Wolves did not typically show age before five hundred years. Jack was currently eighty-six. Jamie threw back his head and laughed. “Then you are not a Vampire, boy. If Nic owned you, you could refuse him nothing. No matter what illusion he put in your head, it’s obvious you are not a Vampire. Get him something to eat.” Everyone moved quickly—soon there was a bowl of soup in front of Jack who was now sitting at the table, leaning heavily on Laura. Margaret sat on the other side of him and brought the spoon to his mouth. Jack opened and the soup went down to a collective sigh of relief. Vampires could not eat food, sometimes they projected the illusion they did, but the food never passed their mouths. As Jack ate hungrily, Jamie and Wren looked at each other. Both the Alphas grimaced and tried to hide the expression by turning away. “What?” Cable asked softly, his sharp eyes catching the exchange. Jamie shrugged and nodded to Wren, letting him explain to his family what the two of them knew. “That was too easy,” Wren stated calmly. “We have Dominus in a corner, but the return of Jack was too easy. There is something else. The illusion implanted in Jack’s head was nothing—his belief that he was a Vampire, though agonizing for him, was too simple to unravel.

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“Dominus has some other plan in motion. This was a blind of some sort.” Wren looked at his eldest son with a father’s love in his eyes. “We will know what it is sooner or later, I’m sure. Jack may not even be the instrument to put the plan in motion, but the decoy. If Dominus is actually after acquiring Laura, Jack is a logical key. Which almost certainly rules him out as the method Dominus would use.” Jack’s drawn face regarded them as he sat back, the soup was gone and he didn’t appear as pale. He smiled weakly. “I feel different,” Jack stated calmly. “The food helped, but I have no strength. I can barely hold myself up. There is intense pain from the base of my head down my spine. I thought it was because the dawn is so close.” His eyes scanned around the room to rest on Emma. “I don’t trust my perceptions but, Emma, are you exactly like Laura now?” Emma laughed softly. “Well, not exactly. A lot has happened since we last saw you, Jack.” “Mother,” Laura interrupted. “Nels called you a seer. He said he gave us the cat to protect us…” Laura’s hopeful eyes pleaded with Emma as the sentence trailed off. “Oh, Laura. I have no idea how to access that talent yet. The one time I had a tiny taste of it, it was simply the certainty that Nels was dying within minutes. Hell, anyone could see that. I might not even have whatever being a seer is,” Emma explained. “No, Mom,” Laura calmly explained. “Nels knew he had no time. You have to assume he was picking words to convey the most meaning. A seer is defined as a clairvoyant or a prophet. Those words can mean many things. Only one of them is to literally see the future. A prophet is often a healer. He said he gave us you to protect us.” “Oh, no!” Emma breathed, and shrank back into Jamie whose arms were still around her. “That can’t be something you give someone genetically.” “He didn’t have to,” Jamie continued with Laura’s train of thought. “You have it already. Being a breeder is healing the inability to father children. You are taking into your body seed that would normally be dead and it is alive for you. What would you call that?” Emma looked up at him with worried eyes. “But I’ve never healed anyone.” Jamie smiled down at her. “You healed me,” he murmured, and dropped a kiss on her lips. Lifting his head, he continued. “The serum Nels gave you enhanced you in every way. Why would this part of you be any different?” “What are you saying? You think I can touch Jack and fix whatever it was they did to him? Shouldn’t Laura take a sample of his blood and figure it out that way? We know he is not going to die. Dominus wants him as eyes and ears,” Emma reasoned. “Just try, Mom,” Laura pleaded. “If I fix whatever it is medically, Dominus will know there is a biological answer for the Vampires. If he really is listening through Jack, he’ll see we have not even attempted that solution. There is nothing for him to steal.” “But we know Jack is not a Vampire. How could healing him biologically help them?” Emma asked. 118

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“Mom, you can feel Dominus in him, as can I. There is something foreign here and we both know it. Whatever was placed in Jack might be the key to what Dominus wants. Its removal or correction is the element needed. Your being able to heal that one element will not translate into being able to turn a complete Vampire into something else. It will simply be removing an infection from a wolf.” Margaret stood up and came over to stand in front of Emma, taking one of Emma’s hands in hers, a mother’s worried eyes searched Emma’s face. Margaret turned Emma’s hand over and simply kissed the palm. Looking down into Emma’s eyes she whispered, “Please.” Emma surged out of Jamie’s arms to hug Margaret close with a sobbing moan. “Margaret, I don’t even know what to do!” Emma cried with her dearest friend in her arms. This was the woman who had unselfishly taken Emma into her home and her life when Emma was a lost teenager with no idea where to go or what to do. She’d been mother and mentor, then friend and companion. The tall, graceful spirit who’d never once begrudged the danger Emma had only just discovered she’d represented to Margaret’s family. Wren came over to stand behind his mate, his hands resting on her shoulders. “Just try, Emma,” he asked quietly. “That’s all we ask.” Emma glanced across the kitchen at the other three members of this family who had been hers for so long. Kendra stood between the twins, each of the boys had an arm around their sister and all were looking at Emma hopefully. “Okay,” Emma stated firmly. “I’ll give it a try. Now take him to a bed and let’s have a look at his spine.” Sam strode around the table and scooped Jack up like a baby cradled to his chest. They all followed him into the nearest bedroom where Jack lay on his stomach. Laura waved her hand and the shirt was gone. None of the members of the family who’d never seen that talent even flinched. They were here to see something much more amazing than that. It was already clear that Laura and Emma were beings with significant abilities that had yet to be revealed or discovered. Emma leaned over Jack. Closing her eyes and gathering her energy, she tried to stop directing it and let it do whatever it did naturally. That’s how she’d discovered the fire-starter within her. A gentle, soft stirring within started. It wasn’t the Vampire, cat, coral or wolf, it was the human Emma who gathered strength from the others, yet pushed them aside. It was her compassion and empathy that rose hesitantly to the surface. The woman who’d been so damaged and yet survived, that woman emerged. Her life force reached out to the member of her family lying before her with love and compassion. Tentatively a gentle healer emerged. Emma placed her hand on the back of Jack’s head in an uncertain effort to connect with him. Opening herself cautiously to his physical form in much the same way she let Jamie into her mind. Immediately she felt

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the dark disturbance gathered around the cerebral cortex and knew it was a foreign body huddled in him. His pain entered her as she sank into him right at that spot. She could see it now—feel its debilitating effect. It reached out to her, trying to envelop her in its darkness. Emma pulled back out of its reach and it protested, sending burning shards of pain down Jack’s spine. Both of them moaned in agony. Suddenly Jamie was there with her, his huge strength feeding into her as he shared her mental vision. He somehow took the pain she was sharing with Jack into himself, freeing her completely from it. “Use the talons,” he whispered insistently. “Use the weapons you have. It is governed by Dominus’s thoughts, possibly only as physically real as we believe it to be. A Vampire cannot exist on wolf flesh and blood. It is a powerful illusion. If we believe the talons are real here and the poison can kill it, then it must believe it as well.” “But I might hurt Jack,” Emma insisted, afraid to cause damage in this delicate, unfamiliar terrain. She’d never studied anatomy, but everyone knew an injury to the brain stem was serious. “No, Emma. You must believe within yourself to do this,” Jamie stated calmly. “You are the healer, you will not cause damage. Only remove what should not be there. This is the life force Dominus said he’d joined with Jack. It is a battle in a dimension that is purely energy but must be fought with who and what we are. Use the others within you as a doctor would use instruments and drugs. Use their instincts, cunning and knowledge. That is Dominus. You know you can defeat him. It’s child’s play for you and the girls who make you. You’ve come this far by trusting your instincts, let the natural healer do her job. Let the natural predators do theirs.” “Well, since you put it that way,” Emma purred as she reached for the waiting predators in her soul. They surged to her call. Her energy struck out at the dark mass with lightning speed, changing direction at the last millisecond when the dark mass threw up a shield. She easily flowed into the unguarded underside between Jack and the mass. Her talons closed over it from behind and under, wrenching it loose effortlessly as it had already surged up to block her. Gripping it tightly as it writhed between poison-injecting talons, she shot out of Jack’s body to find herself back in her own, her arms extended, both hands with talons digging into a piece of grotesque flesh that jerked and sprayed blood with each movement. Emma flung it across the room in horror. Laura grinned maliciously as she pointed at it, burning it into dust in midair. A disembodied, agonized roar filled the room and then complete silence. “I hope that fucking hurt like hell, bastard!” Laura yelled into the silence. Emma stared down at her hands in stunned disbelief. They were still extended before her and dripping congealed globs of blood onto the sheets. Jack’s eyes were open, gazing up at her as he lay there, but he hadn’t moved. He seemed frozen. “Laura! Clean my hands quick!” Emma urgently directed as she looked down at Jack. “Get rid of the blood spatters, every scrap of the Dominus flesh!”

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Jamie had been holding Emma up physically, still merged with her mind. He knew how weak she was from the struggle with the physical piece of Dominus that had been inserted over Jack’s brain stem. The fact that it was possible for Dominus to physically insert his own flesh, and it lived, showed them both that the master Vampire was more powerful than they’d ever suspected. He knew she was rushing to reenter Jack whose entire nervous system had just shut down. Every bodily function controlled by the brain stem had stopped. She needed more energy and she needed it fast. More than he could supply mentally. “Feed!” Jamie commanded her in a tone she could not refuse. Emma turned to him with a fierce frown and he knew she didn’t feel there was time. Her fangs lengthened and she allowed her irritation to show as she struck him hard and deep, drawing his blood in as fast as possible. “What’s happening?” Margaret moaned as she glanced from her motionless son to the Vampire Emma attached to Jamie’s neck. “She has to go back into Jack and restart his body,” Laura explained tightly. “She needs a lot of energy to do it. Jamie is forcing her to take his blood so she has it. She could probably kill herself if she expends all of her own energy on Jack. We can normally support our needs with regular food, but for tasks that require this much of our life force, we need the pure energy supply of blood. We don’t crave blood—it’s more like we know when we need it.” Cable and Sam both stepped up behind Jamie. “Does she need more?” Sam asked. “She might, depends on what is required,” Laura said quietly. She and Margaret were sitting on the opposite side of the bed out of Emma’s way, both touching Jack with tender hands. Emma extracted her fangs from Jamie and glanced behind him at Sam. “Get him a pint of orange juice and make him drink it. He will be mentally inside Jack with me, but he can still physically drink it if you hold it to his mouth.” Her instructions were the terse, clipped tones of a doctor moving the staff around to assist in an operation. The healer in her was now in full control and Emma welcomed her. She knew what to do, there were no doubts, simply the issue of whether she could complete the task in time. Emma frowned up at Jamie who simply smiled at her and they both turned back to Jack. The ability to flow into Jack’s body came much more easily this time and she entered him to find absolutely no movement whatever. Acting purely on instinct, she rushed to his heart and injected every cell with the energy to start the electrons spinning around each nucleus again. Dominus had not only killed Jack, he’d somehow leached the life force out of his cells. Starting Jack’s heart again didn’t revive him, as it normally would have. The daunting magnitude of having to re-ignite every single cell in his body overwhelmed Emma for less than a second. Steely determination welled up in her. Dominus would not win. She went to the brain stem, repeating the same process. Moving on quickly to his brain, she worked furiously. It required draining her own life force to do it, but she couldn’t stop. 121

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Jamie saw what she was doing and pulled back to monitor her body. The juice was poured down his mouth and he drank, never losing his grip on Emma’s interior energy levels, which were falling fast. She needed more. If he could drink and continue what he was doing, he reasoned she could as well. Ruthlessly shoving aside his jealous, protective beast, he focused all his being on keeping this incredible woman from harming herself as she gave everything she could as a gift to the one who needed it. “Sam,” Jamie murmured in a quiet tone. “Sit down in front of Emma on the bed. That’s it,” he approved as Sam slid in front of Emma with a leg on either side of her. “Head up and back,” Jamie instructed. No real need for that, Sam and everyone else in the room knew what Emma needed now as she hovered over Jack’s still form. Jamie’s hand gently bent Emma’s head to Sam’s neck. “Feed,” he commanded her mentally. Incisors dropped down in her mouth and Emma sank them into the flesh before her. Sucking in great gulps of energy-infused blood, she continued going through every cell and blood corpuscle in Jack’s body, carefully igniting each one with life. It was painstaking work she had to accomplish with lightning speed before damage could set in. She paid no attention to the actions of her own physical body as Jamie made her close the wound on Sam’s neck. Jamie was there, he would take care of everything. She’d simply surrendered herself into his keeping as she worked in another. A few minutes later Cable sat before her and she fed as she moved down Jack’s limbs. Jamie carefully controlled how much blood she took and had her close the wound again. It seemed to go on forever when in actuality it’d only been ten minutes since Jack had laid down. Emma finally pulled out of a living, breathing Jack who moaned and rolled over to gaze up at them. Emma assured herself he was functioning normally with one last scan and finally allowed herself to collapse. She crumpled back into Jamie’s arms and gave up consciousness. He scooped her up, a little unsteady himself. “Oh, my God!” Laura breathed, her wide eyes going from her mate to her mother. “Is she okay, Jamie? Is she hurt? Is Jack okay?” Jamie glanced around the room and grinned a tired smile. Margaret was running frantic hands over a protesting Jack, Sam and Cable were sitting on the floor, Kendra and Wren feeding them juice. “She is exhausted and has allowed her body to pass out,” Jamie answered Laura. “You will have to let us know if Jack is okay.” Jamie chuckled. “He has been away from his mate for days. I would wager he is not okay.” With that, Jamie staggered across the house to the guest wing. Kicking the door shut behind him, he barely made it to the bed with his precious burden. Collapsing down beside her, he turned her on her side, wrapped around her and fell into exhausted sleep with her. They woke again just as the sun was setting in the west. Both of them moaned in pain as they rolled onto their backs, side by side. Emma glanced over at Jamie. “What hurts on you?” she asked quietly.

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“Everything. You?” he asked back. “Everything,” she confirmed. “Think we can get up?” Emma asked, mildly concerned, but not really worried. She supposed this was what it felt like to run a marathon or something. She’d used every scrap of energy she could dig up and then everything Jamie could give her mentally. Healing was apparently a full-body exercise. She had a dim memory of physically feeding while she worked on Jack, but she wasn’t sure if that was just a fantasy her body dreamed up to keep her going or not. “I hope you remember this next time you have a bright idea, MacKelvin,” Emma murmured. “Next time you want to test a theory, do it on your own damn self,” she finished petulantly. Jamie chuckled. “Like I could have kept you from doing that,” he scoffed. “I’ll wager I’ll have to ban you from healing every lame animal we see now, much less the people.” He knew her tender, compassionate heart. The future stretching before them was going to be interesting. Keeping her out of hospitals would probably require physical restraints. He didn’t even want to think about the choices she’d have to make over keeping her talent a silent gift. He knew she’d kill herself in her effort to help others. Not purposely, just by extending her energy until there was nothing left for herself. His job became hauntingly clear. She was an angel of mercy to the planet. Her stunning talents would make her hunted or worshiped by a world that couldn’t hope to understand her. Either one of those options would rob her of freedom. The very ones who needed her help most would be at the forefront of the drive to capture her for their own gain. In chilling clarity he saw the outcome if the world ever learned of the woman who could heal anything. Understanding of the burden Jack had carried dawned on him. Laura’s talents were just as monumental. They were secrets that even the community of Others could not know. There was no question in his mind that Jack had done the right thing. It was what he’d spend the rest of his life doing, as would the entire MacKelvin family. Jamie grimaced as he realized the maturity and far-reaching intelligence behind Jack’s choices from the beginning. Emma was his mate, but she was also his cherub in every way. The task of guarding the purity of her spirit would be his joy and his sorrow. The weight of that responsibility settled into his soul. He had been a dark, dangerous beast before, protecting his race with ruthless decisiveness. That was nothing compared to what he became now. The amazing depth of her abilities showed him something else. Whoever the “Created Ones” were, what they had to offer the world would be as unique to each of them as Emma and Laura were. The two women shared some of the same abilities, but certainly not all. He couldn’t even imagine what elements of the physical laws of nature the others might hold the keys to. The fact that whoever they

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were, they’d managed to keep their existence quiet gave Jamie some small measure of relief. Apparently, they knew the importance of that posture. Looming over all of this was Laura and the birthright she’d inherited. Her place in this new reality was unclear but he suspected it would be more than any of them wanted. She was the successor to Nels, the daughter of Dominus. She was the herald of what a second generation could be. Dominus and Nels had indeed given the world a gift in these amazing creatures. All the power of the fiercest predators on the planet, coupled with unique talents to make a difference in a world on the brink of chaos. They were the ultimate…protectors. Protectors who would spend their lives hiding from the very ones they guarded.

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Epilogue Deep in the Carpathian Mountains stood an ancient castle hidden behind hundreds of miles of dark forests and forbidding mountain passes. Not even an old trail remained leading up to it, perhaps because human eyes had never been able to see it. At the center of the structure, Dominus sat alone in a large, high-back chair. He lazily watched the fire snap and jump in a mammoth fireplace. Surrounding him were relics from an age so far in the past that not even a whisper of it remained in this time. The comfort of the room was scaled to beings that topped ten feet tall in their natural form. Dominus Serillieus stretched out lengthy legs, crossing them at the ankles, and sighed with satisfaction in the comfort of adopting his natural form. Clasped in his fingers he held a large snifter of brandy. Taking occasional sips, he allowed a dark smile to cross his lips as he gave himself these few hours of satisfaction before the dawn. The ultimate master plan was now completed. He’d almost had to kill Jack to get them to realize where to look for the gifts locked inside them. In the end, this time, each of the players had risen to the best within themselves. Warmth spread across a soul that had been cold for ages and he chuckled. Yes, promises had finally been kept. The mistakes of his ancestors were ultimately corrected and he’d done it without breaking one of the sacred trusts. The world once again held beings that could master it. It was time. Taking another sip of brandy, he actually grinned at the pleasure of it. Being the last of his kind had been an endless, lonely existence. Masking his true self was something he’d become so accustomed to it was almost an effort to let the other slide away, but the burden of his responsibilities was now lifted. His time to rest had come. “So, just gonna lay down your toys and hit the road?” A light, musical voice intruded on his thoughts. A voice he’d never heard before. Dominus jerked in startled shock. Dark eyes blazed as he studied the voice in his head. How could any being invade his privacy unnoticed? The voice was female, young and impertinent. Dominus shook his head in disgust. The damn plan had worked too well if they could track him down already. The time to go was definitely here. Laughter lilted in melodic notes, fascinating in its musical quality. “Oh, dear,” she crooned in mocking horror. “Whatever shall we do now?” “Learn, little one,” he answered in dry amusement at her fearless manner with him. Whoever she was, she certainly knew he was not what he had seemed. And yet, she dared to intrude on his thoughts. Cheeky little wench. “Well, it seems like a completely cowardly thing to do, just up and leave,” she stated with dismissive derision. 125

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Dominus bristled in irritation at her meddling and then paused in surprise. Just like that she’d pushed him to a real emotion. He hadn’t felt true irritation for centuries, if ever. Oh, this did deserve a closer look, he decided as he felt his interest stirring in ways he couldn’t remember feeling before. Perhaps there was one more task to complete.

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About the Author Hello everyone. If you’re reading this, I hope it means you’ve enjoyed reading one of my books. If you have some other opinion of them, feel free to lie to me anyway. I hereby absolve you from all possible guilt and consequences for flagrant, adjective, saturated lying to the author. I’m a chronic fantasizer. Every good romance novel ended too soon. After a while, I started making up stories when I had a few minutes to while away. So now, instead of sitting around with a blank look on my face, I’ve taken to writing them down. Because of my father’s job, we moved every three years in my early life. My first memories are of Bermuda, and then we were in several African countries. It was a wonderful childhood. I gained a rich cultural background in the world community, but never learned to spell. As an adult, I avoided writing at all costs, embarrassed over my limitations. But the writer will not stay silent forever. She broke out, and insisted on learning the mystical world of grammar and spelling. Haven’t mastered all of it yet, but they let me write for you anyway. Bless every editor on the planet. They give dreamers a place to send fantasies and save us the embarrassment of owning our shortcomings. Gail welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

Also by Gail Faulkner Full Ride Romeo Slip Knot

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