“Neither do you.”
If it was possible, her blush got hotter. She turned and tugged at the top of her turtleneck. She knew those marks were hidden, so why did she feel like everyone she’d come into contact with this morning had seen them? She considered bluffing, but what would be the point? Besides, maybe Liza would explain a few things.
She walked to the porch swing, sat, and faced her cousin, who leaned against a railing. “Why the lessons? You obviously don’t need them.”
Liza arched an eyebrow. “Really? That’s where you want to start?”
It got very annoying dealing with people who always seemed to read her mind. Although in Liza’s case, that might be reality. She didn’t know her cousin well, didn’t know what secret talents she might be hiding.
“It’s a place to begin,” she pointed out, proud of herself for not backing down.
Liza’s lips turned up in a half smile of approval, and she nodded. “I think you’ll do.” She sat in a rocking chair a couple of feet away, and Harper pushed her foot against the floor, set the swing into a gentle motion. “For the pack, of course. Your being around me and Caleb and Zach so much shows that we’ve accepted you.”
“And that’s important?” She felt a little light-headed and was glad she was already sitting down. It was so much more important today than yesterday.
“Isn’t it?” Liza asked, her voice kind and gentle. “Aren’t Mick and Jonas important to you?”
“How do you know about them?”
“I can’t shift, but I do have all the normal abilities of a werewolf in human form.”
Her confusion must have shown.
“Your scent. It’s covered in theirs.”
She couldn’t have hid her horrified embarrassment if she’d tried. Liza moved much faster than a woman that pregnant should have been able to and sat next to Harper on the swing.
Liza took her hand. “Hey, it’s okay. This is normal for us.”
Her laugh sounded a little manic. “Normal? Everyone knows?” Liza nodded. “What happens when they get tired of me? When they decide they’ve made a mistake?”
When Jonas decided that, she wanted to say. When her heart lay broken and bleeding at her feet. Liza’s look was one of confusion that morphed into exasperation.
“Didn’t explain anything, did he?”
“Who?”
“Jonas.”
She opened her mouth to defend him, then snapped it shut. What the hell? He turned her on, and okay, he definitely delivered, but she didn’t even like the man. Right?
Liza took pity on her. “They won’t decide that. We wouldn’t scent them on you if you weren’t their mate. And your scent is on them. There’s no breaking a mate bond, Harper. You’ve been here long enough to pick that up.”
She knew the werewolves took their mate thing seriously, she just hadn’t realized how seriously. Or maybe, if she were honest with herself, she’d simply chosen not to see it was a bit more permanent than marriage.
“Jonas won’t like that,” she whispered. “He doesn’t like me much.”
Liza tilted her head to one side and studied her. Harper felt like a science specimen. “Likes you well enough to get naked and mark you.”
The blush came back in a furious rush. “Gods.” She groaned. “Please tell me not everyone knows that.”
“Sorry.” Liza shrugged with a teasing grin.
Harper put her face in her hands and mumbled. “That is so embarrassing. I can’t believe I had sex. With both of them. Everyone else has to know it too?”
“It’s normal for us. A strong sexual appetite is part of a werewolf’s nature.”
“I’m not a werewolf.”
Liza smiled. “But you belong to one. Well, two.”
A door opened at the other end of the porch, interrupting them. Caleb poked his head out, grinned, and was in front of them in seconds, but he didn’t even notice Harper. He pulled Liza up and kissed her. Harper jerked away from the naked passion, and her gaze clashed with Jonas’s who was standing at the door Caleb had exited from.
He strolled forward, smiling a little the closer he got, probably at the appreciation she couldn’t hide. She ordered her eyes to move away, close, something other than drink him in, but they didn’t obey. By the time he stopped in front her, she’d completely forgotten they weren’t alone.
He stopped close, not quite enough to touch, and reached out with one hand to grip the back of her head. He stared at her a second before hauling her forward and fusing his mouth over hers. His tongue dueled with hers; his teeth nipped. She was breathless and clinging to his shoulders for support when he pulled back.
“Glad to see you took care of that,” Caleb said drily.
She wanted to melt into the floor. Jonas pulled her under his arm, and she hid her face in his chest. His shielding her, protecting her seemed out of character, but she didn’t hesitate to take advantage of it.
“You ready?” Caleb asked.
“Whenever you are,” Jonas replied. She hadn’t been around long, but even she knew that cocky reply and tone were out of line. She turned her face enough to see, wondering if she needed to get the hell out of the way, but Caleb only laughed. He pulled Liza with him, and they disappeared into the house.
“Should you be talking to him like that?” She regretted it as soon as the words were out of her mouth. “Sorry. None of my business.”
His hand slid from the back of her head between her turtleneck and skin to rub over the spot where he’d bitten her the previous night.
“This gives you rights.”
His face remained calm, but his voice was moody, questioning. The skin-to-skin contact, despite the innocuous spot, was beginning to make her toes curl. She tilted her chin up and gave herself a pep talk. Damn it, she could have a conversation that did not devolve into sex or arguing. He’d done something, changed something between them, and she needed to know what. It took all her strength of will, but she managed to free herself from his embrace, ignoring a pang of disappointment when he let her go.
“What rights do I have?” She made her voice firm. She wanted to be clear on this.
His eyes glowed hot, but the moodiness, the edginess remained. “The same as any mate.”
She dug her fingernails dug into her palms while she fought the urge to punch him. She’d never struck another soul in her life, but right now it was damned tempting. “I’m not one of you. I didn’t grow up here like Liza. I don’t. Know. What. That. Means. Jonas!”
Okay, so she lost it. Her fist connected to his chest, though it didn’t faze him. He grabbed her elbow and yanked her close, a feral smile on his face.
“I like this side of you,” he growled softly, bending to nuzzle her neck.
It stunned her. First, that a male of her acquaintance hadn’t lashed out at her outburst. And second, that he had most definitely liked it. His erection ground against her stomach, and his teeth, nibbling her through her turtleneck, made her eyes roll to the back of her head. She was gasping when he gently set her away from him.
“The explanations will have to wait. I have a meeting with Liza and Caleb, and Mick is waiting for you at the clinic.”
“Why?”
“I think he misses you,” Jonas teased.
“No. Why the meeting?”
Who cared if she was being pushy? He said she had the same rights as any mate. Surely that included questions.
“Pack business. Boring stuff.”
Ouch. Guess having rights didn’t equate to being trusted. He leaned over to buss her cheek and turned her toward the stairs.
“Go find Mick, darlin’,” he ordered. With a slap on her ass he was gone, leaving her to fume through her wounded pride.
Chapter Ten
Zach waited just inside the door, leaning one shoulder against the wall with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He fell into step beside Jonas as he walked down the hall.
“She’s going to make you pay for that.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Your mate. Blowing her off. The ‘don’t worry your pretty little head about it’ response back there.”
He snorted. “Not your business how I deal with my mate, Beta.”
Zach grabbed his arm, stopping him before he could open the alpha’s office door. “Everything in this pack is my business, up to and including how you treat your mate. Caleb and Liza think you have it under control. I think that’s about as far from the truth as you can get.”
Jonas wrenched free, barely restraining a growl. Harper was his. He wasn’t going to tolerate any interference, not even from his beta.
“I seem to recall your relationship had some growing pains,” Jonas reminded him, fighting to contain his wolf.
Zach watched him and waited until he was back under control before he nodded. “That it did.”
Zach reached out to open the door but paused a moment first. He continued, “Harper is fragile, but you shouldn’t confuse that with broken. A woman doesn’t survive what we suspect she did without an iron will.”
Jonas wasn’t sure he agreed, but he nodded anyway and followed Zach inside. Everyone else was already there. Caleb and Liza — alpha and paladin. Plus Gabby and Ethan, two of the other lieutenants, the highest-ranking soldiers in the pack. The six of them met at least once a week.
Caleb was behind his desk, and Zach sat in an armchair off to the side. Liza went to take her usual perch on the front corner of the desk, but Zach grabbed her before she could and pulled her into his lap. Everyone pretended not to notice the way she blushed.
There was another chair in front of the desk and a sofa tucked under the window. Normally, the chair was his, but when he signaled Gabby to haul her ass out of it, she gave him a mutinous look. Ethan didn’t look much happier on the sofa. Jonas sighed. He was going to have to do something about that. Like he didn’t have enough going on? He sat next to the younger werewolf and let his mind wander as they went over training reports and other mundane tasks involved in running a pack the size of Redhawke.
“Something odd in town,” Ethan said when Liza asked if there was anything else. “There seem to be a lot of new people coming and going, but none of my people have been able to get any specifics.”
“For how long?” Jonas asked.
“A few days. Maybe a week.”
He looked at Liza and saw his suspicions mirrored in her eyes. “Harper’s —” He cut off people. She wasn’t theirs anymore. “Family?” Though he objected to calling them family also.
Liza nodded agreement. “Go check it out.”
“Anything else?”
He stood and looked around the room. When everyone either shook their head or said no, he stalked out, digging his cell phone from his pocket as he hurried to his house and his truck. He put the call through, and it was answered on the first ring.
“Yeah?”
“Mick. You got Harper?”
“She just walked in.”
“Keep her close.”
“What’s wrong?” Mick snarled, low and mean. Sometimes Jonas forgot he had that side.
“People snooping around town. I’m going to check it out.”
“Watch your back.” It was as close as Mick would come to telling him to be careful.
“Always.”
Jonas got his truck, drove out the main gate, and hung a left on the dirt track to head for the closest town, which was twenty miles away. Redemption, Florida, wasn’t much more than a hole-in-the-wall. Redhawke had spent generations encouraging that. Half of the town’s five hundred residents were pack members, either werewolves or humans who had mated in. The other half knew exactly who owned the land they bordered, and most were the descendants of the original founders. A handful were refugees from the magical world.
Redhawke had a good relationship with the town. They depended upon each other for survival. Thirty minutes later Jonas turned onto Main Street. It was a scenic little town, mostly turn-of-the-century buildings and bungalows. He pulled into a parking spot in front of the tiny police department and strolled inside to find the man who ran the operation.
He was sitting behind a desk, leaning back in his chair with his feet propped on the edge while he juggled tennis balls in the air without using his hands. He grinned when Jonas walked in. He was one of the few people Jonas called friend, a wizard in werewolf territory, who’d earned respect and trust over many years.
“What brings Redhawke calling?” Harris asked.
“Heard there’ve been some strangers around.”
“Ah, good.” Harris’s feet thumped to the floor. “Ethan found you.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“Tried yesterday. You didn’t answer.”
There was a question in that statement, but Jonas didn’t respond to it. He’d been focused on Mick because of the full moon, and later Harper.
“Fill me in now.”
Harris shrugged, standing as he grabbed his hat and gestured for the door. “There were five or six snooping around. I got wind of it yesterday morning, but a couple of the locals remember seeing them as early as a week ago. Though, looks like they’ve all cleared out. ’Cept for one.”
“Describe him.” The wolf was in his voice. Harris gestured him to follow.
“Let’s go visit. He’s staying at the McCaller place.”
The last McCaller had died before Jonas was born, and left his house to the town. The town used it as an inn. Redemption was wolf territory, but they’d established it as a neutral meeting ground decades ago. Whoever the stranger was, he wasn’t hiding. Jonas would lay odds on Harper’s father. He was arrogant and brazen. Neutrality or not, that particular wizard had no business there.
Since it wasn’t far, they walked down Main Street and then turned left to follow a lane to its end. The big house sat on a corner, porches wrapping the exterior upstairs and down. Their guest was waiting in a rocking chair when Jonas walked up the steps. It wasn’t who he had been expecting, but he shouldn’t have been surprised.
“Dane.”
“Took you long enough,” he grumbled.
Jonas cocked an eyebrow. “If you wanted to speak to me, you could have done it yesterday.”
Dane rolled his eyes. Jonas supposed the kid was now technically family, his brother-in-law, and maybe he shouldn’t give the juvenile a lesson in manners. He was pretty damned tempted, though.
“Harper’s been through enough. I did give her a phone. I figured you’d use it.”
“I was busy,” he said defensively, and that just pissed him off. He was not explaining his actions to a damned kid. “Why are you still here?” he growled.
Dane’s spine stiffened until he stood at his full height, and he narrowed his eyes. Jonas studied him. The kid was tall and lanky. He hadn’t filled out yet, but there was promise there, especially in the hard, determined look on his face.
“I hope I didn’t make a mistake sending my sister here. You’re supposed to take care of her.”
“Says who?”
The kid did the shutting-down thing Harper was so good at. His expression went blank, even his eyes. He held himself calm and loose, no sign of distress in his body language. It didn’t just fuel Jonas’s anger. It made him sad. No kid should have to learn that kind of coping mechanism.
“Your father must be one real piece of work,” he muttered.
“You don’t know that half of it.” Dane’s smile was cold and humorless. “If you can’t or are unwilling to protect my sister, bring her to me. I’ll take her somewhere safe. Somewhere he can’t reach us.”
Jonas didn’t care how the fuck important the kid was to Harper. Dane wasn’t taking her anywhere. In one long stride, he had the boy’s shirt twisted in his hand, yanking him close.
“No one takes what is mine, and she is mine, you understand?” He felt magical power building in the air and shook him. “Don’t even think about it, kid.”
Dane ignored him and used his magic to add to his stre
ngth enough to shove Jonas away. “If you think my father has given up, you’re gonna get her killed. He won’t hold back out of concern for her feelings.”
Jonas bristled at the unspoken threat. “And you are?” Dane just nodded once, curtly. But there was something in the kid’s eyes. Something…uncertain.
“Are you strong enough to fight your father?”
“Yes. Probably.” Dane shrugged. “He’s older and a hell of a lot more experienced.”
Jonas made a split-second decision he was sure he would regret later. “Go pack. You’re coming back with me.” He opened his mouth to protest, and Jonas speared him with the look that made every juvenile in the pack obey him. “Do it. Now.”
He sprinted off, and Jonas pulled out his phone to scroll through numbers. He should call Liza first. She’d welcomed Harper into the pack, but he got the feeling she’d draw the line at Dane. Caleb would back her up. Zach, on the other hand, had left four brothers behind in his pack when he’d joined Redhawke. He might be more sympathetic. Plus he understood better than Caleb the struggle Jonas was experiencing. He found the number, hit send, and stepped off the porch to get some privacy.
“Jonas. What’s going on in Redemption?”
“Harper’s brother is here.”
There was a long silence. “And?”
“I’m bringing him in. He’s definitely not a threat to Harper, and I don’t think he is to us either.”
“What else?”
“He thinks their father hasn’t given up. That he’ll be back. Zach, this is her kid brother. I can’t leave him out here unprotected.”
Zach sighed. “You didn’t call Liza, did you?”
“No.”
Another long silence.
“Liza is an only child. So is Caleb.” Jonas didn’t add that he was too.
“Sneaky, Jonas. I’m not sure whether I should congratulate you or beat you into the ground.”
“You can try,” Jonas growled before thinking better of it.
Zach chuckled. The bastard knew how much that irritated Jonas. “Bring the kid. But he’s your responsibility.”
Spellbound Moon Page 14
