Jericho (The Strong Pack)

by Crystal Dawn

  I saw her look in his direction but she didn’t seem happy. It surprised me because he never had a hard time attracting females. He had to beat them off with a stick. I didn’t realize how right he was when he said he was up shit creek. Jer just sat next to me staring at her enthralled. She didn’t seem to have the same problem. She was working, joking around with customers, and rarely spared a glance in our direction. It amazed me that she could be immune to his charm. She’d spent a night with him, but hadn’t come begging for more like most women did. She even seemed put out that he had invaded her territory. If she wasn’t his mate, I would think it was funny. But she was his mate so he needed her. Since he needed her, my pack needed her. Why couldn’t anything Jer did be simple?

  We hung around a couple hours before he got up the nerve to approach her. When he sat at the bar the look she sent his way was cold as ice. I could see this was going to take some time. Sandy was pack. No matter how much she cared about her friend, pack would come first. I knew we could count on her to help. My devious mind came up with a way to profit from Jer’s misery. I would get Sandy to spend time with me using Jer’s mate problem as an excuse. I was brilliant even if I had to say so myself. I called Sandy over to me. “Hey, Sandy. I need to see you after work tonight. I think Jer is going to need all of us to help him secure his mate.”

  “Who all is gonna be there?”

  “Just you and me. We are the two who can help the most. Once we figure out what to do, I’ll inform the others.”

  “Alright. We close at two and I’ll be done thirty minutes later.” I knew she wouldn’t say no. I felt pretty good about my chances now. I was still worried about Jer’s chances though.

  *****

  Jericho

  Fucking kill me, she’s gorgeous. It’s all I could think about when I entered the bar with my friends. I couldn’t look away from those lips that were still swollen from my kisses. I wanted to kiss them some more. She didn’t look as wore out or tired as I felt. She looked like she could work all night, take me on, and still get up to cook breakfast. My confidence had never taken such a hard hit before. Okay. It had never taken any kind of hit before. My ego was deflated so I was unsure of how to handle her. I seemed to want her like my next breath, while she didn’t seem to care if I lived or died. Scenes from last night ran through my head making my cock ache. I wanted to jump the bar, throw her to the floor, and fuck her till she couldn’t run away again.

  I suppose many of the woman in my past would say I deserved this. I had met a woman who had a similar view toward men that I had toward women. Now I wasn’t enjoying the other side of the view. She was my mate, shouldn’t she feel it too? I had always heard that those who were destined to mate weres felt the pull as well. What if that wasn’t true? I know she felt desire. I saw that last night. It was a place to start. I needed to seduce her then teach her to love me. We had been here for hours now so I decided it was time to approach her. I went to the bar to order a drink. She would have to acknowledge me now. She looked at me to ask me what I wanted to order. I considered saying you, but I knew that would cause nothing but trouble. I asked her to suggest a drink for me. She looked deep into my eyes and suggested a sloe screw. She said she always enjoyed one. Was she flirting with me or suggesting I screw off? She fixed it for me so I could pay. Once I had, her look dismissed me. I never had a woman do that to me before. I didn’t like it at all. This wasn’t going the way I had hoped. A new plan was in order. I finished my drink, called my crew together, and we left. Tomorrow was a new day.

  I woke up feeling a little depressed. I wondered where a feeling like that was coming from. It just wasn’t like me to have problems. Things usually went my way in life. My mind cleared and I remembered my huge problem. Damn, that was depressing. Why couldn’t that damn female just be like all the others and fall for my natural charisma? It was like a huge cosmic joke that I could have any female I wanted, but the one that I wanted. Now that I was playing for keeps I seemed to be losing the game. I decided to get up, make a plan, and follow it. I headed downstairs to breakfast. I lived in the main pack house. It was a huge, old building. I had been raised here since it was where the pack alpha lived. We were an old pack which meant that we were well established. Our pack covered nearly a third of the state of Arkansas and ran into Texas and Louisiana a little. Our main pack immigrated from England hundreds of years ago. My grandfather was born there but moved here with his pack. His father and mother were the alpha pair of the pack. They had settled around New York, but didn’t stay there long because more wolves coming in from Europe pushed them farther inland. Wolves were territorial, even more so back then since we hadn’t yet learned to play well with others. My pack had eventually settled here in the fourteen hundreds. The pack at that time only had around a hundred members.

  Some of the Native Americans had been wolves. They didn’t have their own packs because they lived among the Indian tribes who accepted them as brothers. Some joined our pack, most didn’t. Our pack grew over the years through births, changes, and the lone wolves as well as the outcasts that were sometimes accepted into our ranks. We have several thousand members now and we are the largest pack in this region both in members and land. We have a lot of contacts with other packs and law enforcement. Things tend to run pretty smooth on every level until now. The second most important position in the pack is the alpha’s mate. It should be a happy occasion for the whole pack when the future pack alpha finds his mate, but instead it’s a disaster. I walked in the door of the kitchen and Kaleb was eating breakfast. “Mornin’ Jer. Come to any decisions yet?”

  “Not really. Any suggestions?”

  “I saw Sandy after she got off from work and she knows a lot about T.J.. Do you know that she’s considered a member of the pack in Missouri that her cousin is in?”

  “Shit. I didn’t know. Humans aren’t usually considered pack members unless they are close family. Cousins don’t usually count.”

  “It seems that her whole family is considered part of the pack. I think Sandy knows something she’s not sharing. It may not bode well for you. She did say that karaoke night might be a good time to approach T.J.. She even suggested a song for you.”

  “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. You know I don’t want to sing.”

  “It may be your only hope. Seduce her with song. You’re a lucky bastard. If I could sing and have woman mob me like you do, I’d never miss an opportunity to do it.”

  “You get all the woman you can handle as it is. Why have more than that?”

  “You can never have too much luck, money, or women. Anyhoo, Sandy and I came up with a plan. Today you’re gonna send her flowers, but you’ll stay away from her. Tomorrow you send her a big stuffed wolf with a message of undying love. Finally, the next night you sing to her and carry her away for some hot sex. Remind her of how good you can make her feel. This time make sure she’s still there in the morning and talk to her about being mates. If you mess this up, you may not get another chance. Sandy thinks she’ll take off and stay with her cousin. You may never see her again if she gets away.”

  “Alright, I’ll give your plan a try.” What choice did I have anyway?

  Kaleb and I drove to the flower shop. Kristin, the girl at the shop, was one of our pack mates. Kaleb told her to send roses and lilies. He pulled a card out of the holder on the counter and handed it to me. I wrote Sweetheart, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. Please see me again. Jericho. Kaleb read it and smirked. I thought about wiping that look from his face, but he was helping me. Considering everything, he hadn’t really been too bad. We spent the rest of the day handling pack business and building furniture in the pack owned shop. Our pack owned and ran several businesses in town. It supported the pack and insured that all pack members could find a job. The flower shop, the furniture store, and the local diner were all pack operated but those weren’t all our businesses. We worked late so that when we finally called it a day, I dragged my ass to the shower
then fell into bed. I fell into the exhausted sleep that only hard work can bring.

  The next day, Kaleb and I ate breakfast and met up with Sandy at her house. There was a four foot high stuffed animal sitting on her couch. He was a wolf, stood upright, and was smiling. He had a T shirt on that said ‘I’m hungry for you baby’. I raised my eyebrow at that, but Sandy just smiled. Kaleb said, “You need to have someone deliver it to T.J.. I suggest Sam.” Sam was one of the pack’s cubs. He was eight years old and could charm anyone. The wolf would be bigger than he was. Kaleb said that would get her attention. Sandy said she would take care of everything until tomorrow. That was when I would be on my own. Kaleb and I went back home. We worked hard and went to sleep exhausted. I woke up with a sense of determination. Today I would claim what was mine.

  *****

  Aristotle

  I loved that boy more than he would ever know. He was spoiled, stubborn, and had a huge ego. That ego had been taken down a few sizes lately. I thought it was probably a good thing. It was never good when you were too full of yourself. He looked a lot like me, but I could see his mother in him too. The hard lines of my face were softened a little on his. His hair and eyes were just like mine as was his build. When he smiled, it was his mother’s dimples that peeked out at me. I never missed her more than when I saw him smile. I worried about him especially when I discovered that his future mate, who was human, was considered a member of another pack. It was unusual to say the least so I decided to have her investigated.

  My pack had a hunter and a judge. Not all packs had that especially in modern times. A hunter found, followed, or investigated whoever his alpha told him to. In our pack, because of its size, it was a fulltime job. The judge determined discipline or decided outcome except in extreme cases when he and I might decide together. The two along with anyone else that might work with or for them, were like the justice system of the pack. We also had a slayer. Not many packs had one of those. These positions in the pack were usually not made, they were born into. Most came from a long line that held the position. First born learned from his father to pass it to his own first born and so on. That was the way it had been in our pack for hundreds of years. All three had beta positions and the judge was my second. His adopted son, Kaleb, would some day be second for my son, Jericho. Pack hierarchy was a complicated thing. My hunter was on the job now. He would soon know all there was to know about T.J.. Forewarned was forearmed and I hoped the tingly feeling I had at the base of my neck since I had heard of my son’s mate, wasn’t a forbearer of ill tidings but a predictor of good ones.

  Two days had passed before I heard from my hunter. I sat in my office looking at him with my mouth hanging open. Whatever I had expected, it wasn’t this. “You’re certain?” He nodded solemnly. “They know she’s here?” Again he nodded. “Are they going to interfere?”

  “Maybe.” He answered. The fact that he was a quiet man usually made me happy. Today, however, I wanted all the information I could get.

  “Let me summarize what you’ve told me. She’s a member of Blake’s pack because she’s a white wolf and the whole family was assigned to Blake unless they mate outside his pack. The council has to approve her mate and there’s an obsessed alpha trying to hunt her down to force her to mate him against council wishes. Does that pretty much cover it?”

  “That and they now know she is on your radar but not why.”

  “Muddlefuck!” Jasper, my hunter, nodded.

  I looked at the clock and saw that it was about six. Jer and Kaleb would be done for the day. I picked up the phone to tell my personal assistant Delores I needed to talk to them.

  “They’ve already left. They are going out to that bar in town tonight.”

  “Thank you, Delores. I’ll talk to them tomorrow.”

  “Alpha, maybe it’s best if you don’t tell him. If he crosses the line we can say he didn’t know. The drive to mate once you meet is overwhelming. I am sure he feels it harder than most since she is human.”

  This time I nodded. I waved my hand in dismissal. I had a lot to think about.

  *****

  T.J.

  Sandy was being bossy again. Why did she have to push me when I felt so bad already? I know she was just trying to help, but I didn’t want to be sociable. If I wanted to sit around at home crying in my beer, that was my business. If she hadn’t meddled by setting me up with Jericho in the first place, I wouldn’t be so miserable to begin with. It was time for her to leave things be. Damn that wolf anyway. Why couldn’t he just go away? He had sent me the loveliest flower arrangement I had ever seen. I loved flowers. He also sent me the cutest and largest stuffed wolf I had ever seen. It was like he just knew what I liked and had picked the items with a great deal of thought. What woman wouldn’t respond to that?

  Now we were at Tabby’s on karaoke night. It was a popular night so the place was full. Normally I’d be working but I was sick of people so I took off tonight. What was the point of owning the place if you couldn’t take off when you wanted to? I didn’t want to see anyone because I was too miserable over Jericho. He had been a good distraction, but now he just wouldn’t go away. I had to admit he was handsome and an unbelievable lover. I felt like if I got to know him I would like him. The worst part was I was beginning to wonder what it would be like if he stayed.

  How the hell did Sandy convince me to come here? Maybe it was her constant begging. I took off to avoid people not surround myself with them. I couldn’t even remember agreeing to this. We sat in the front row too. I always sat in the back so I wouldn’t be noticed. This simply wasn’t going to work and I needed to tell Sandy so. There wasn’t anyone on the stage yet, but the song started playing. It was one of my favorites done by Aerosmith, ‘I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing’. It had to be one of the most romantic songs in the world. I heard the words and looked up to see who was singing. Imagine my shock when it was Jericho. I had to admit the asshole could sing like an angel. He walked slowly toward me as he sang. It was so beautiful, so romantic, and he looked so taken with me that I was frozen to the spot. I felt like he had cast a love spell on me or something like that. He was directly in front of me as he took my hand. He actually got down on one knee. I knew that had to be hard for an alpha like him to do in front of others. I knew Sandy would say that proved how much he cared and how desperate he was to get me to listen to him.

  Sandy was on his side this time and not mine. My best friend had switched allegiance as far as I could tell. Her excuse was she was trying to stop me from making the worst mistake of my life. Sandy even knew my history, she knew what I had been through and why I didn’t want to mate a wolf but still she took his side. Here I was, melting in his heated gaze. I could see our most hardened barfly, Sally G, crying because of how romantic Jericho was and I knew I had lost the support of all my friends. I had to admit that my resistance to him was pretty low right now. The song was almost done and I was lost in the promise in his eyes. I may have decided against love, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want it. Every girl wanted that knight in shining armor and the happy ever after he could give them. I had just learned early that not everyone could have it. I knew we were mates, I just resisted giving in.

  The song was over so he handed the mike off to someone standing by him. He picked me up in his arms and carried me away. I knew he was going to my room upstairs. I should protest or tell him to put me down but I didn’t. Right now I wanted one more night with him. His deep black eyes glowed with need. His curly shoulder length black silky hair begged to be touched. I couldn’t resist him and I suppose he had earned it anyway. I was on fire. I couldn’t deny that my body wanted him more than ever. One more night, but it would be the last. Really, I meant it. He took me to my room. He set me down then closed the door. He turned back to me so he could pull me into a deep soul shattering kiss. I wondered why I reacted to him the way I did. The chemistry between us was amazing. I felt his heat down to my core. His slightest touch made me tremble. I was so screwed!
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  I felt cool air hit me and realized he undressed me from the waist up. He was completely naked. I let my gaze run down the length of his incredible physique as I tried not to drool. I kicked off my shoes, no point in acting coy. We both knew what was about to happen. He had my jeans undone and sliding them with my panties down my legs in no time. Wolves were fast like that. He placed me on the bed sliding in next to me. He pressed heated kisses on my lips then worked his way down my body. He stopped at my breasts sucking one then the other until my nipples were painfully hard. He continue down to my belly button which he pressed his lips against following with his tongue. He swirled around it, dipped his tongue into it and moved down to the juncture of my thighs. My breath caught as I felt him blow heated air onto my bare pussy. He followed up with little licks from his tongue. He took his tongue and slid it along my entry from clit to passageway then sank it in fucking me hard with his tongue. I gasp, finally able to resume breathing. He moved his tongue back up to my clit and started finger fucking me with one digit then two, while he savaged my clit aggressively with his talented tongue. I went off like a rocket screaming his name.