Black Mesa Wolves Complete Series Boxset Bks 1-7

by J. K Harper

  Mine, his wolf murmured.

  The appalled female voice snapping out her order was clearly upset, yet also collected. The little hellions attacking Jace's feet and legs didn't seem to hear her, however. A sharp set of tiny teeth pierced right through his jeans into his flesh. His focus on the alluring voice sharply broken, Jace hollered in pained startlement. A choice bad word roared out of his mouth.

  Then he looked down and finally saw what was attacking him. Oops. No, not at all a good word to be heard by two very young, apparently very ferocious little wolf pups.

  Silence descended on the entire group as the two little devils retreated from him in a tumble of fur and suddenly wide eyes at his crass language. Jace regarded them in sheer astonishment as they stared right back at him, their ears pricked up in shock and interest, although their cute little tails drooped behind them.

  Cute? Really?

  As they huddled together, he could immediately see that they were twins. One a boy, one a girl. The bright green eyes so common to pups until they hit puberty looked at him with fascination and still no little distrust.

  The female voice exclaimed again, now sounding beyond horrified. "The two of you! Did you bite him? You bit a member of this pack?"

  Jace dragged his eyes up from the suddenly cowering pups to take in the full sight of the furious, stunningly beautiful woman advancing on them, fire flashing out of her own naturally green eyes.

  Whoa.

  His wolf sat up even straighter, riveted on her and her beguiling scent. Everything else was abruptly forgotten, even the pain in his calf where the needle-sharp teeth had sunk in, as Jace watched the liquid movements of the she-wolf striding toward him and the miniature dire wolves at his feet. She was like a Valkyrie of legend, advancing on the pups that he guessed were her offspring. The utterly outraged expression on her porcelain face definitely boded no good for the two little buggers. By this point, though, Jace wasn't all that worried about the pups. Those ferocious beasties could probably take care of themselves.

  No, now he was concerned more about the fact that something seemed to be slapping his breath out of his chest, and it sure wasn't the fact that he'd just been slammed to the ground by two pint-sized baby wolves.

  This woman was the most gorgeous wolf shifter he'd ever seen in his life, and he'd seen a hell of a lot of gorgeous female wolves in his time. Humming with a weird assent, his wolf agreed with focused eagerness. Smells good, his wolf rumbled inside his head. Mine.

  Some wild feeling zinged around inside Jace. Something that felt oddly like—recognition. Like a knowing. One so deep and true he felt suddenly whole. But he'd never seen this wolf before in his life. He definitely would have remembered her. Swallowing, Jace kept silent as the raven-haired beauty swooped down on her pups to mete out their punishments.

  "Liam and Briana Rendall, the two of you will sit up straight and apologize to him immediately.” Her no-nonsense voice had her pups looking right at the ground, shaking from adorably fuzzy heads to little tails.

  Adorably? Really? Feeling flummoxed at his unusually corny thoughts, Jace just stared at the woman.

  “Your behavior was inexcusable. In front of the alpha, too." Now her husky voice became deeply chagrined as she turned toward the alpha. "Sir, I am so sorry. I have absolutely no idea what got into the two of them. They just woke up from a nap—"

  A sudden flurry of indignant barks and yelps protested their mother letting everyone know that they were so young they still had to take naps. In an elegant whirl, the gorgeous she-wolf rounded on her children with such a fierce look they both immediately sank to the ground, eyes cast back downward, quivering once more.

  Jace's estimation of the woman beyond her beauty and her indefinable pull on him ratcheted up a couple of notches. He knew perfectly well how strong of a mother it took to keep rambunctious shifter pups in line. Shifter mothers always had to be strong. Yet something about this one said she had an especially firm backbone. Something slightly haunted about her tickled at him, too. Inside, his wolf whined, edging forward on his stomach in Jace's mind. He stared out of Jace's eyes with intense fascination at the she-wolf as she reprimanded her pups in no uncertain terms as to the extent of their grievous mistake in assaulting a pack member, and in the presence of the esteemed alpha no less.

  In the midst of her tirade, which although still cool and collected was decidedly furious, Jace thought he heard a muffled laugh or two from behind him. He figured the poor pups were getting enough of an earful to be even more humiliated by having all the adult wolves laughing at them. Instead, he folded his arms and glared down at the little creatures as they cowered on the ground, taking her mother's tongue lashing with what seemed to be proper contrition. The boy flicked his eyes up at Jace just once, hastily dropping them back down again as Jace perfected the glare meant to terrify young, errant pups.

  "Is that understood?" Even though she was disciplining them, the woman's voice was smooth, cultured, and cool in a sexy way, the kind of way that made little shivers goosebump their way across Jace's skin. Engaging in a mighty struggle to force his wolf down, who for some reason wanted to shift right then and there and go over to sniff the woman, or something equally insane, Jace inhaled quietly through his nose. He let his training take over. No one watching him, not even a shifter with senses as keen as his, would be able to tell how damned crazy interested he was in the stunning she-wolf standing about five feet from him.

  How much he was slowly, intensely realizing she was his...

  No.

  No, absolutely not. He couldn't have that. He wasn't ready for that. This was the worst possible time.

  His wolf whined inside in excitement, grasping onto Jace's trailing thought with an exultance that shot through Jace like lightning.

  Mate. His wolf thought the word with such conviction that it about rattled Jace's bones. Mate.

  2

  Jace gave himself a hard internal shake. No. She couldn't possibly be his...mate. She had pups. Another man's children. She had a mate already.

  My mate, his wolf insisted.

  Jace stared at her as his mind whirled with the implications. Forcing his expression to remain calm, he watched as she wound down her lecture.

  "Yes, ma'am," two wolfish whines piped up, easily understood by all the human ears in the group despite the fact that the pups still wore their furry little wolf selves.

  "Come, Liam, Briana. I need to hear your apology to him right this second." The sultry voice remained firm, although something that Jace was sure was constant rolled beneath her tone: the unwavering love of a mama wolf, no matter how badly behaved her pups might be in a given moment. He felt a sharp pang of loss at that, which he shoved away with practiced ease.

  With a marked lack of the small but mighty ferociousness of their earlier actions, the two pups haltingly sat upright and faced Jace. Their mother gently kneed each one in their little rears, urging them forward. Reluctantly, they took a few steps to reach just about the bottoms of Jace's shoes before they stopped. Though they weren't quite shaking in terror, he could tell they would rather be anywhere else than here.

  After another long silence, during which both pups snuck looks over their shoulders at their mother, who simply gazed back at them with an implacable expression, the two pups turned back toward each another, touched noses, and as one looked up at Jace with their sweet little faces. Speaking in unison, they said, "I'm so sorry, sir."

  The charmingly high-pitched whines of their voices did something alarming to Jace's chest. For crying out loud. He was never the kind of guy who went all googly over pups or babies. Definitely not his style.

  But if he was going to apparently break down and use a word like “cute,” he had to admit that these two pups were about the cutest things he'd ever seen.

  Well. With the distinct exception of their mother. She was damned cute. And gorgeous. And hot. And fascinating.

  Inside, his wolf rumbled an extremely approving agreement.

/>   Jace let the moment of silence between him and the seemingly contrite pups stretch out, vividly remembering his time spent in the office of the alpha who stood not twenty feet behind him. He'd often gotten this exact same treatment as a pup. He knew just how it felt. Remembered the long, tense silences, during which he pretty much envisioned every single horrible punishment he could imagine being meted down onto his shameful head. Well, maybe he had learned something back then after all. Then again, these pups were only about five or six years old. Couldn't stretch out the moment too long. Probably damage their fragile little psyches or something. Then mama wolf would be mad at him.

  For some reason, that thought was intriguing.

  Narrowing his eyes at each pup in turn, which caused their own eyes to widen slightly as they hunkered down a little closer to the ground again, Jace placed his hands on his hips and adopted an even sterner look. "You know, your teeth do work. They're very sharp. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have scars on my leg.”

  After another moment of horrified silence, during which not even another strangled giggle from the Guardians behind him could be heard, Briana abruptly narrowed her little eyes back at Jace. "All you have to do is shift. Sir," she hastily added at a sharp nudge from her brother. "As soon as you shift, you'll heal, and you won't have a scar. Sir."

  Jace almost laughed at her audacity. He wondered if she got that fire from her mother. "Is that so?" he said, pinning the young pup with his glare still in place. Yes, he was having a bit of fun with this.

  "Yes, sir," Liam bravely said, nodding his head so vigorously his entire body shook. "It's something all wolf shifters can do. It's just part of being a shifter." The earnest little voice seemed so thrilled to be teaching something to an older wolf that Jace's heart did that bizarre little extra thump again. “That's why if you ever see one with a scar, you know they didn't shift back because they wanted to look bada—"

  “Liam Padraig Rendall." Mama wolf's voice snapped out across the grounds in a well-practiced ring. "You are spending entirely too much time with the older pups at home. I won't have you picking up bad language."

  She suddenly flicked her eyes at Jace, and only the slight tremble of her full, beautiful lips gave away the fact that she was holding in a grin. Oh, yeah. She'd heard the bad word he'd launched when one of her little hellion children sunk needly teeth into Jace's leg. He suspected her pups already had heard a lot of bad words in their lives. Then again, he'd pretty much had a full swearing lexicon by the time he was six. Life in a close-knit pack full of playfully brawling wolves did that. Not, of course, that pups ever should be swearing around the adults. They should be keeping their knowledge of bad words to themselves if they had any sense of self-preservation.

  "And what was the reason for your outrageous behavior?" Although less fire snapped out of her eyes, the tone of the mystery woman's voice brought another distinct recollection to Jace of being tongue-lashed just the same way when he was about the same age. Oh, man. While this she-wolf had her work cut out for her with these two pups, it seemed she was more than up to the challenge.

  Two fuzzy little wolf bodies stayed completely still on the ground, touching one another along their sides for comfort, both dead silent as they now gazed with sudden fascination at the bare ground under their noses. They seemed to be not even breathing.

  "I'm waiting." Pure ice.

  Oh, yeah. There was definitely no mistaking who was in charge here. They might be hellions, but she was ferocious mama wolf. Jace had no doubt that while she would protect her pups with her own life if necessary, she was also the kind of mom who would pretty much strip the hide off of them if the situation warranted it.

  The girl wolf looked up at Jace, her face so ridiculously darling that he had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling, training or no. Then again, one of the little stinkers had assaulted him with pretty sharp teeth. Jace would damn well sit here and frown at them all day until they did indeed apologize and tell him what they'd done it for. He sharpened his gaze at the little wolf. Swallowing, she bravely began to speak.

  "Liam said—"

  "Hey! We both agreed!" Liam's howl of outrage was high-pitched.

  Briana lifted her lip in a little snarl at her brother. "Let me finish, dumb-dumb."

  "Your brother is not a dumb-dumb," her mother said in a stern tone. Jace looked at her again, catching her lips in a sudden twitch. Yeah, they were cute little stinkers, all right.

  Cute again. Huh. His wolf watched the pups and the woman through Jace's eyes, seeming utterly absorbed by all three.

  Briana heaved a dramatic little sigh. This time, Jace definitely caught a muffled snort from behind him, then a slight yelp. Hmm. Someone must've gotten his foot stomped on again.

  "Liam said someone was trying to attack Aunt Lily and Uncle Kieran," Briana said, giving her brother a look that conveyed in no uncertain terms that she still thought he was a dumb-dumb, no matter what their mother might say. "So we ran out to protect them. You always say family has to stick up for one another, mama. Isn't that what you always say?"

  Two suddenly cherubic little faces looked up at their mother. Imploring, lovable, and of course not in the least bit manipulative.

  Hmph, his wolf snorted quietly at that. Despite his reckoning that the little cherubs were indeed patently manipulative, there was another note in there that almost made Jace stagger again.

  Possessiveness. His wolf felt possessive of these pups. And of their mother.

  Mine, came the whisper again. It was beginning to sound somewhat impatient with him.

  Jace managed to keep himself composed.

  The pups kept their adoring little faces turned up to their mother, eyes bright and hopeful. Even though Jace was about the most manly guy's guy he'd ever met in his life, that bizarre something squeezed in his heart yet again as he looked at them.

  Their mother took a deep breath, making Jace's glance snap back toward her. What? Hell, no. He wasn't looking at her chest when she took that deep breath that made her breasts swell temptingly beneath her shirt. Of course not. He wasn't a caveman.

  Wolf, his wolf harrumphed at him. Not caveman. Caveman, he muttered again, clearly disgusted with his human.

  Whatever, Jace thought from behind what suddenly seemed like a foggy curtain that smothered his intelligent thought. I was looking at her eyes.

  Her eyes really were as stunning as the rest of her. Crystalline green, they still brimmed with temper and a razor-sharp intelligence, along with a slight wariness. As if she held herself back slightly. A light smattering of freckles across her fair nose and cheeks simply accentuated her cheekbones and full, beautiful lips. A fall of dark, silky hair slid over one eye. Coupled with an arched eyebrow as she still gazed with severe serenity down at her children, she was the picture of a wolf mama in charge.

  The sexiest wolf mama Jace had ever seen. The most intriguing wolf mama he had ever seen. The most indefinably—something wolf mama he had ever seen.

  Mine, his wolf murmured firmly.

  Jace let the shock of that growing truth whip through him again without betraying any of it in either his expression or his scent. His world, however, was beginning to tilt. Hard.

  After another long pause, the woman answered her daughter in a grave tone. "Yes, Briana. You're right. Family should always stand by one another and protect one another. So you're telling me that you truly thought this wolf," she gestured at Jace, her eyes flitting over to his for a split second, lingering perhaps a little bit longer than was strictly necessary, "was going to hurt your Aunt Lily and your Uncle Kieran, is that right?"

  Jace finally put two and two together with all the dexterity of a, uh, caveman. His wolf grumbled in his head, but it was muted because he was just as fascinated with the woman as was his human. The relationship was obvious now that Jace thought about it. She did look like Kieran, although her eyes were clear green compared to her brother's black-brown depths. He wondered if she still lived in her home pack, the
Silver Mountain pack in northern Colorado. More likely she lived wherever her mate was. Unless, of course, her mate was also a Silver Mountain wolf.

  Jace's wolf rumbled in sudden fury at the thought of the woman having a mate. Firmly shoving his wolf down again, Jace kept quiet as she waited for her children's response.

  Two little wolf heads nodded vigorously, kicking up clouds of dust beneath their chins. It had been a drier winter than usual, leaving the ground thirsty. The spring rains had not yet started.

  "Really." Mama wolf looked down at her pups, this time her expression skeptical. With a sudden twist of her lips, she gracefully sank to her heels to kneel beside her pups, getting more on their level. Jace and every wolf there could see them instantly relax a bit, although they still didn't move from their prone positions. Gently, mama wolf tipped her head toward Jace and said, "You really think he was attacking them? That's not what I saw. What I saw was four against one. Actually," and she gave Jace a teasing look over the pups' heads, "he probably could've used your help rather than your teeth sinking into his shin, Liam." The way she said her son's name made it clear she knew perfectly well which one of them had bitten him.

  Liam's little ears flattened in submission as he tried to shove his body even deeper into the earth. His sister pressed hard against him in support.

  Jace knew an opportunity when he saw one. Quickly, he managed to ease himself into the conversation. "Hey, now." He utilized a mock injured tone, throwing his hands up in the air. "I had things perfectly under control. Didn't you notice how I managed to take down not one, not two, but three Guardians all by myself?"

  Every eye suddenly turned to Jace. He even felt the wolves behind him staring holes into his back, although he was pretty sure he also still heard the occasional muffled snort of laughter.