by Lisa Ladew
Jaggar started the truck and maneuvered it onto the farm road alongside the farmhouse. Leilani rolled down her window, letting the familiar smells of the Midwest calm her and ground her. Maybe she couldn’t see anymore, but the world was still the same, wasn’t it? She knew her way around this world, she’d learned already, and what she didn’t know, Jaggar would help her with. She would be ok. She would. Deep down inside, she knew she would.
So she let it go. Blind. So what? No, not so what… now what. Jaggar had mentioned human eye-disease specialists to her and she’d agreed to try it, but mostly for him. No-one could pry that clock out of her mind. It was part of her. So, if she was permanently blind, she had to ask again. Now what?
Now her mate was taking her to buy clothes and then on some fancy date. She smiled at the wind on her face, then raised Jaggar’s hand to her lips and kissed the back of it, the promise of the day, the promise of the rest of her life, coming clear for the first time.
Except for that one thing… She let his hand drop back to the seat, her fingers still entwined with his. He refused to claim her.
Jaggar turned left. A patch of sun came through her open window, falling almost directly on her face, warming it, some of the light even penetrating through the sunglasses and the silver. The warmth of the sunlight brought clarity.
She couldn’t push him. He might never claim her, and she had to be ok with that. She wouldn’t miss what she’d never known, right? She let her thoughts drift back to all the sex they’d enjoyed together. He was so gentle with her. She loved every second of it. She might like… not-gentle, too, but that didn’t mean she needed to be claimed in order to be happy. She was happy.
And in love?
Leilani turned her face into the sun and considered.
***
Leilani couldn’t hurry. They’d had lunch. At a restaurant. Like normal people. She’d eaten everything on her plate and sampled everything on Jaggar’s. He’d fed her like a baby, rewarding her with kisses every time she tried another dessert. She was officially stuffed and should never have to eat again in her life. And now she was supposed to try on dresses?
Jaggar was leading her into a store. People were around them, cars, normalcy. “You won’t attack anyone?” she whispered to him, seating her thick sunglasses back on her nose. They kept sliding down.
He patted her hands. “I won’t attack humans.”
Huh. That wasn’t quite the same thing as he wouldn’t attack anyone, was it? She heard men’s voices, a deep laugh from the parking lot behind her, but her mate was relaxed next to her. She relaxed, too. It was going to be ok.
She’d forgotten the name of the store, and she didn’t want to ask. He led her inside, where soft music played and it smelled faintly of perfume.
A saleswoman spoke a few words with Jaggar and then said, “Follow me, please” and, within a few moments, they were sitting down.
“I’ll be right back,” the woman said. Her skirt swished as she walked, and so Leilani could track her progress out.
“We’re in a sitting room,” Jaggar told her, after the woman had left. “She’s going to get dresses.”
“Formal dresses?” she asked. He’d already bought her pants, shirts, skirts, and everything else she needed on a daily basis. “What for?”
“For tonight,” he told her, his voice low and deep, his body curving toward hers, coming onto her chair a bit, crowding her in the best way. “First I’m going to romance you, and then I’m going to take you home, and then I’m going to make you cum until you cry.”
Leilani sucked in a deep breath. She liked the sound of that. “Shh,” she told him, laughing softly, joy spreading through her. She imagined this was a totally normal thing for a normal couple to do; whisper about sex in public.
“No one can hear us,” he rumbled into her ear, pushing her hair off her shoulders. Then he kissed her once on the cheek and pulled back onto his own chair. “Shh.”
Leilani smiled uncontrollably. The woman was back. Leilani heard the clatter of hangers and the whisper of fabrics.
“What’s your favorite color, Lele?” Jaggar asked her.
“Anything but silver,” she said too quickly.
Jaggar didn’t miss a beat. “That wine colored one, and that black one.”
“Good choices, would you like me to wait?”
Jaggar must have shaken his head ‘no,’ because the woman left.
“Come on,” Jaggar said, standing. She followed him into another space. He maneuvered her through a door. A dressing room. He locked the door and positioned her somewhere in the center of the room. He leaned in close to her ear. “I’m going to undress you,” he told her, his voice indecent. She nodded and swallowed hard, her heart pounding too quickly. The area was quiet, silent really, the only noise coming from out in the store itself.
Jaggar traced her shoulders to her elbows, barely grazing her breasts with his thumbs, then his hands slid to her belly. He tugged up, then pulled her shirt off slowly, reverently. The cool air in the dressing room made Leilani’s nipples peak instantly. Jaggar made a snarly noise, and he bent his head and kissed one nipple, then the other. Leilani gasped at the sensation and covered her mouth.
A woman entered the area they were in, the dressing room hallway, humming. Leilani heard a door close and open and heard the woman drop her packages, and then the whisper of fabric as the woman took off a shirt or skirt, Leilani didn’t know.
Jaggar ignored the woman and leaned in close to Leilani, barely breathing a few words into her ear. “I couldn’t resist. Now to see these dresses on you.”
He hooked his thumbs in her pants, drawing down all her clothing, panties and all. She stood before him naked and vulnerable, trusting him completely.
He pulled a dress over her head and she raised her arms and shimmied into it. As soon as it dropped over her head, the… noise started. She didn’t want to call it a purr, but it could have been a purr in another world, where all the cats had saw blades in their throats.
The woman in the other dressing room stopped moving, stopped humming. “Is there a cat in here?” she said out loud, in that questioning way people have when they don’t know if anyone is listening to them or not.
The noise cut off. Jaggar whispered into her ear again, his voice so soft only she could hear. “I’ve got my eyes shut, Lele. But that dress makes me want to… do things to you.”
Leilani swallowed hard. She cleared her throat and spoke to the woman. “No cat, it’s just my phone.” Then she whispered to Jaggar, “What kind of things?”
The broken blade purring started again and Leilani tried to cover his mouth with her hands. “Shh,” she said as quietly as possible, trying desperately not to laugh.
The woman was still quiet. “Hm,” she sniffed, and then Leilani heard the sound of her dressing room door opening and the woman leaving. Thank goodness.
Jaggar took her by the waist and sat her down on a soft bench, bunching the front of the dress at her belly. He leaned her back against the wall and encouraged her to open to him. She did, breathing hard.
“Something like this,” he murmured, and then his mouth was on her.
“Oh,” she breathed, then crammed her own hand against her mouth to keep from crying out.
She’d never known anything could feel quite so good.
42 – Prom
Eventine counted vehicles in the parking lot of the event house, which looked like a rustic barn on the inside, but which would be done up like an Enchanted Forest on the inside. She’d paid the Serenity High School Pep Club fifty dollars each, to get it done on short notice. “Whose truck is that?” she said about a red extra-cab parked at the end of the line of trucks.
“Conri’s,” Harlan told her.
“What’s he doing here?”
“Not sure,” Harlan said, “Maybe prom-as-an-adult sounds like fun to bears.”
“He’s not mated,” Eventine said under her breath. “Him being here could be a very bad idea.”
; Harlan turned a disbelieving eye on her. “Don’t tell me Jaggar didn’t claim her yet.”
Eventine shook her head. “I’m not sure he’s going to.”
“Can you talk to him? Or maybe you can, you know, order him to?” Harlan said, his voice tight. “It ain’t no joke to be fucked up by the beast,” he said, rubbing his ribs.
Eventine didn’t scoff. “I’d try anything. Would he respond to that?”
Harlan thought for a long time. He finally shook his head. “No way. Nobody is going to talk Jaggar into doing something he’s decided not to, not even you. But why? It makes no sense to me. The claiming is the fun part.”
“Not when you’re Jaggar,” Eventine said patting her mate on his upper thigh, earning a rough look from him. She smiled. “Maybe we’re worried about nothing. Maybe he did it this morning.”
“I hope so,” Harlan said, “for all our sakes.” He pulled into a stall. “Speak of the devil,” he said, watching Jaggar’s truck as it pulled into the parking lot. Jaggar locked eyes with Eventine as they went past and he shook his head.
“He didn’t do it,” Eventine said quietly.
Harlan threw it into park and opened his door, halfway to the ground before the engine shut off. “I never thought I would say this about Jaggar, but that is one stupid male. Damage control time.”
They jumped out, stopping halfway between the barn and the cars, trying not to act like they were hovering. “Should I run in and clear all the unmated males out?” Harlan whispered to her.
“Maybe the mated ones, too,” Eventine whispered back. Judging by the vehicles she saw, all the mated couples were there but Heather and Graeme. Even Trevor and Ella had come, leaving Track and Treena with Burton and Blake. Burton had been very excited about the babysitting gig.
Eventine needed to measure Jaggar’s temperament before he got inside that building. She watched Jaggar get out of his truck, his back bent so he could continue to hold onto Leilani while she scooched over to come out his door. She jumped down to his side, and they froze in silhouette for a moment. Him tall and big and looking down at her, her short and slim and looking up at him, both of them holding on to the other with a desperation evident in every line in their body. It was enough to make Evie’s heart hurt. They had each other, but they needed each other so much, it was almost hard to watch.
She studied them, looking for clues to Jaggar’s temperament. He looked good, dressed in a light suit. Leilani was in a flowing, floor-length, wine-colored formal dress, her hair twisted in an up-do, her feet in dainty silver heels. The wraparound sunglasses were the only thing that ruined the look, but at least Eventine couldn’t see any silver through the lenses. They could go out in public.
Eventine waved at them and headed that way, pulling the ring box out of her pocket, holding it silently out to Jaggar, no words spoken. She should have known all of those uneven requests added up to him somehow not claiming his mate. Jaggar thought he could control his way through any situation with enough planning and thought. He was trying to outthink his nature.
Jaggar took the box from her silently, his face hard. He nodded once and curled his mate into his body.
“Where are we?” Leilani asked him, her face shining.
“It’s a surprise,” Jaggar said, bending to her, kissing her on the temple. “I’ll tell you as soon as we’re inside.”
He faltered, though, and stared at the box Eventine had handed him, his face distraught. Leilani waited patiently for him to take her where they were going. Eventine held her breath. Jaggar looked at her, eyes wide. He held up the box. What was I thinking? he mouthed to her. I’m so fucking stupid. This is stupid.
Eventine shook her head hard. Not stupid. Sweet. She’ll love it, she mouthed back. It was sweet. If she was Leilani, she would be thoroughly charmed by what Jaggar had orchestrated. An actual prom, a real dance like Leilani had never been to, one with a theme and all. He planned to get down on one knee in the middle of it all and propose to her in front of everyone. They would throw a party bigger than the one Trevor and Ella had, because this joining didn’t represent new beginnings, but rather, reinventions, and that was something just as worth celebrating. Ella had been flown in on a helicopter? Leilani would come in on the back of the beast.
Eventine cleared her throat. “Hi, Leilani,” she said.
“Hi, Evie,” she said, her expression dreamy as she clung to her mate.
He dropped the ring box into his pocket, then looked around possessively, his expression tightening.
“I’ll see you two inside,” Eventine said, then she ran for it. Harlan had been right. The night was going to be all about damage control.
***
Eventine shushed all the males hiding in the broom closet, then shut the door quickly. They were in a front alcove, a kind of entryway into the ceremony hall. There were private rooms in the back, but that would put Jaggar between the males and the exit, so Harlan had pushed them all in the closet until Jaggar went into the main room with Leilani.
The couple passed, and the door to the main room closed behind them. Eventine opened the broom closet door and let all the big males out. First was Trevor, then Conri, Crew, Beckett, Mac, Wade, and Harlan last. They all thronged around the door that led to the dance area, peeking through the glass.
Eventine stood on a chair so she could see over their heads. Rogue was drinking punch with Ella. Lorna, Dahlia, and Cerise were crowded around Leilani, talking to her all at once. She looked happy. And beautiful. Jaggar stood behind her, his hands on her shoulders, his eyes locked on all the males looking through the window at him. His lip sneered and he snarled, the sound coming through the door to them. Leilani patted his hand. The other females ignored him.
“He could not have done anything stupider than try to get us all to come to a dance,” Mac said grumpily, pushing everyone away from the glass of the door. Eventine jumped down, still peering into the other room. Rogue shook her head, said something to Ella, and the pair headed toward the entryway.
“I don’t think that’s it,” Eventine said, her thoughts working. She watched Jaggar closely through the glass, around Rogue and Ella who had pushed through the door and approached the knot of males. “I think Jaggar’s testing himself. Either that, or he’s trying to force himself to claim her.” She looked around, her eyes wide, understanding uncoiling from her heart.
Harlan was the one who nodded at her. He held up his hand, then snapped his fingers and pointed at the others in the room. “We have to make him claim her! Someone needs to ask her to dance.”
“Good plan,” Mac said. He looked around. “Raise your hand if you want to die tonight.” He stared hard at Harlan. “No volunteers? What a surprise.”
“I’ll do it,” Harlan said.
“It will be better from an unmated male,” Rogue said. She held up Conri’s hand. “And a bear.”
Everyone looked at Conri “No way,” Conri said, yanking his hand away, taking three steps back. “This is clearly a wolf issue and bears should not be involved.”
Mac looked at the entrance so suddenly, Eventine couldn’t help but follow his gaze. “Oh shit, is that a human?” Mac whispered.
Troy came through the door with a woman on his arm. She was almost as tall as him, curvy, and wearing the same wraparound sunglasses as Leilani had on. Just like the extra pair Eventine had left on the front seat of Harlan’s truck.
Wade pulled his keys out of his pocket. “I’m out of here. You know who’s in charge.” He opened the door to the other room, ignoring Jaggar’s growl, and yelled for Lorna. They were out the front door too quickly.
Trevor gave Ella a look. She nodded and went to him right away. “It’s been fun,” Trevor said, “but Burton says the pups need us.”
Mac glowered at him. “Your phone didn’t ring.”
Trevor beamed and clapped Mac on the shoulder. “Who needs phones? Good luck with Troy.” He and Ella disappeared out the door.
Mac growled, but softly, as he sta
red at Troy. He’d pulled the human to a chair in the corner and was kissing her ear. He actually looked pretty good, Eventine thought. His outfit was a little Hawaiian-style, but it was pressed and showed off his broad chest. His light-brown hair had been cut and styled, if left too long, and his masculine face had been recently shaved.
“Troy,” Mac called. “A word?”
Troy lifted a hand to him, then kissed the woman on her cheek one more time. He bounded over. The group opened up slightly and let him in. Conri had returned and had his best wolf face on, directing it at Troy.
Mac shook his head at Troy, then took a deep breath. Mac spoke in ruhi, making Rogue snarl. The others who couldn’t speak ruhi were used to it. Is that a human?
Don’t worry, she’s blind.
Really? Mac asked, clearly not believing it. Is she deaf, too?
Deaf? No.
Mac rolled his eyes heavenward. You can’t take her in there. You can’t bring humans around events like this. Don’t you know that?
“T-ster?” the woman called.
Troy turned around and flashed her a thumbs-up. Look at her, though, she’s so cute, right?
Like a button, now get her the fuck out of here.
“Wait,” Eventine said, catching Troy by the arm. “Can you do one thing for us first?”
What?
“Ask Leilani to dance.”
Troy winked at Eventine, earning a growl from Harlan.
We fucking with Jaggar? Totally. Point me to her and tell my babe I’ll be right back.
Eventine cocked her head and pitched her voice low. “He hasn’t claimed her yet.”
Troy’s face went worried. Ah, shit, he said, peering at Jaggar through the closed door. This is gonna hurt.
Crew held up a hand. “Wait, Troy, have you…?” He pointed a look over Troy’s shoulder, then leaned into the middle of the group and whispered, “Have you shifted back into a wolf yet?”
Troy shook his head slowly.
Harlan scoffed. “Fuck this,” he said, heading that way, hitting the door with the heel of his hand. Eventine hurried in behind him, motioning at Cerise and Dahlia in big arm waves to clear out, find their mates and get away. Troy, get her out, now, she sent to Troy.
