“Of course. Thanks.”
“No problem. You’re the one who’s gonna have to deal with Liza. She won’t be happy about you circumventing her.” He sounded entirely too happy about that circumstance.
“Right,” Jonas answered drily before flipping the phone closed on Zach’s laughter.
Dane waited silently on the porch, a big duffel slung over one shoulder. He looked mutinous, but he obeyed when Jonas gestured him forward. Jonas and Harris dropped back, but neither spoke until they were on Main Street and almost to the truck.
“Care to explain what the hell is going on?” Harris asked.
“My mate’s younger brother.”
“Mate?”
“Harper. You’ve met her.”
“So all the activity in town was looking for her?”
“Probably. And we don’t want anyone finding her.”
“Got it. I’ll call if anyone else shows up.”
“Thanks.” He shook Harris’s hand and shoved the kid in the truck before recalling the other matter he needed to deal with.
“Anything else you need?” Harris asked.
As a matter of fact there was. Crossing his arms over his chest, Jonas turned back to face Harris.
“Yeah, one thing. About Gabby and Ethan. But first,” he added in a lazy drawl, “nice of you to step up and help when Dane tried to use his magic against me.”
Harris grinned, cocky and assured and arrogant. “He’s a puppy. You didn’t need my help.”
True, but… “This is our town, Harris. We welcomed you. You belong. We need to be certain where your loyalties lie.”
“You don’t have to worry about that.”
Jonas nodded. “Good. So about Gabby and Ethan.”
Harris’s expression turned wary. “What about them?”
“Don’t you think it’s time y’all all made up and made nice?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” His tone had turned flinty.
“Sure you don’t. You know how to find me if you want advice on straightening that out.”
Harris snorted. “Right. ’Cause you’re an expert on relationships.”
Jonas grinned. “I’m learning at least.”
Harris shook his head, shooting him a dirty look before turning and going back inside the police station.
Jonas got in the truck and turned toward home. His phone rang on the drive, and he might have winced a little when Liza’s name showed up on the screen.
“Yeah?”
She jumped straight to the point. “You know, you could have asked me.”
“I thought you’d say no.”
“I would have. At first. We don’t need to create an interspecies incident. There was almost a war when my parents mated.”
The reminder made him go cold. “I can take Harper and Dane somewhere away from the pack. Mick will come with us, of course.”
“Oh, give me a break. That is not what I’m suggesting. You’re Redhawke. And so is Harper. And now her brother too, I guess.” Liza sighed. “We just need to be prepared.”
“What do you want to do?” Liza was paladin. He’d defer to her on this.
“For today, you take care of Harper and her brother. I’ll talk to Ethan and Gabby about increasing patrols and my mom about magical defenses. I’ll see you in my office in the morning.”
“Fine. See you then.”
He ended the call just as he drove through the gate. The question was where to put his new charge? Harper and Mick both lived in small cottages with one bedroom. His house had four. No-brainer, right? Except the part where he convinced everyone to move in with him.
He drove to his place. He figured he could tell Harper there was no way he was letting Dane out of his sight, and she’d hustle her cute little butt on over. Mick wasn’t so easy. Jonas might have to grovel.
Chapter Eleven
Harper was waiting for him. She’d gone to Mick like she had been told. Like a good little girl. It made her spitting mad to be out from under her father’s thumb and following the orders of a different man. So she’d hung around a few minutes until Mick’s bright gaze finally focused back onto his work, and then she’d sneaked out.
Which was surprisingly harder than it sounded. She liked watching him. Jonas had farmed her off to Mick a few times, so she’d had time to observe him with his patients. Some he was kind and gentle with, his voice soft and soothing. Others he was just as obnoxious an alpha as Jonas, bullying soldiers until they allowed treatment or examination.
She went to her place, knowing eventually Jonas would come looking for her. If she weren’t careful, he’d order her around, and because against her better judgment she felt safe with him, she’d follow. She’d do it blindly, with no explanations from him, and she knew that was just wrong. He wasn’t supposed to be keeping her in the dark. She couldn’t explain how she knew that, but she did.
What would it take, though? To throw him off balance enough he opened up? To shake him enough he took her seriously? Sighing, she walked to her room. Found her backpack and tossed it on the bed. She couldn’t think of a thing. He was just so…Jonas. An immovable force of nature.
How the hell did Mick handle him? She scowled as she moved to the closet and started pulling her few belongings off hangers. She left the things Liza and other women in the pack had given her. When it was all out, she moved to the dresser and did the same.
Then she realized Mick didn’t have much more of a handle on Jonas than she did. How many times had she seen him and Jonas interact and nothing but frustration and sadness in Mick’s eyes when Jonas turned away? Sucking in a deep breath, she stopped packing and sat on the bed, struck by new knowledge. She wasn’t the problem. Mick wasn’t the problem.
Jonas, on the other hand… She appreciated that he was a dominant male. Hell, she liked it. But even a dominant male had to let loose with the people he loved, right? Caleb and Zach didn’t seem to have that problem with Liza.
She shoved the rest of her things into the pack and opened the back door. Okay, Liza didn’t have the same problem with her mates, but that didn’t mean it had always been that way, right? Dropping the pack just inside the kitchen door, she stepped out, tipped her head back to enjoy the afternoon sun before setting off. She needed advice, and she couldn’t imagine anyone better than her cousin to seek it from.
When she walked up the stairs of the alpha’s house, she didn’t sense Liza inside. She hesitated but knocked anyway. She’d turned, giving up on any answer when it was pulled open with an abrupt “yes?”
“Zach. Is Liza around?” Why did she ask? She already knew the answer.
“Sorry, little one. It’s just me.” He gave her a teasing smile and opened the door wide. “Come in. Want a beer? It’s five o’clock somewhere, right?”
She laughed. “Yes, it is. And yes, I’ll take one.”
She followed him to the kitchen and sat at the long table when he motioned. A second later he handed her a cold Coors Light.
“What brings you here?”
She shrugged. He was male and huge and outranked Jonas. He scared her as much as he comforted her. His hand covered hers.
“Harper?”
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” she confessed in a soft whisper. “I thought it was just me, but I think he might be just as bad with Mick.”
She clapped a hand over her mouth. This was their beta. She shouldn’t be talking to him about their private relationships.
With a small smile, he pulled his hand away.
“You aren’t betraying anyone, Harper,” he said gently. “Jonas is hard to handle.”
She bristled. Okay, fine. He was an obnoxious jerk, but he was her obnoxious jerk, damn it. But Zach was just trying to help. She took a deep breath.
“I don’t know what to do. Part of me just wants to say all or nothing. Pick.”
Zach laughed. “Might be the best way.”
“An ultimatum? Even if he gave in, he’d never forgive me.”
“This kind of ultimatum?” She swiveled to see Jonas standing in the doorway, her backpack held up in his hand. “Going somewhere, darlin’?”
Jonas watched her swallow, the motion as exaggerated as her fear. Good. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been this fucking pissed. Bad enough she’d packed to leave him, but to find her with another man? Even knowing Zach was totally committed to Liza didn’t soothe the sting of that betrayal. She’d gone to another person, another man for advice? He felt fur under his flesh. Claws poking through his skin.
She stood and faced him, gingerly took one step forward. He clenched his fists and felt skin break. She should be running like hell. He was losing control. But she kept coming closer. Her hand lifted to rest on the side of his face.
“I’m not afraid of you,” she whispered.
“You should be.”
She trembled and nodded her head. “Yeah. Probably.”
He wrapped an arm around her back and pulled her close, glaring at Zach over her head. “Interfering again?”
Zach gave him a hard look. “I’m taking care of a member of the pack. You’d do the same.”
That got through to him as nothing else would have. Protecting, caring for the needs of others was in his makeup. It was the emotional shit he had problems with. Not being able to deal with that was going to cost him both Mick and Harper if he weren’t careful. The only reason it hadn’t cost him Mick yet was the man was stubborn as hell. But it wasn’t fair to either of them, and Jonas knew it.
With a nod at Zach, he led her outside, taking her hand as he urged her down the porch steps. “Where were you going to run to?”
She glanced over at him, but he couldn’t read her expression. “I wasn’t running exactly. I thought I’d take a few days in town. Think things over.”
Right. She was running. He couldn’t, wouldn’t let her do that. “Look. I know I’m hard to live with.”
His confession startled a laugh out of her. “Ya think?”
He scowled down at her. “I’m trying to be honest here in a way that is totally alien to me, okay?”
“Okay.”
She answered simply, calmly, not asking or pushing for more. Unfortunately, she sounded more resigned than anything, and that scared the hell out of him. He panicked. He couldn’t lose her now. And not just her. Mick would go with her. He would lose them both.
He waited until they were on the path, out of sight from the house, and pulled her to a stop. But he had no idea what to say. No idea how to make this better.
“What?” She lifted her hand to his face again, her expression softening a little.
He kept his arms at his sides. If he touched her, there would be no going back. “I can’t…” How did he bare his soul? “I can’t lose you. Or Mick.”
He thought he could see her heart in her eyes. Just for a second. Just long enough to pierce his soul before she shut down. “You’ll lose us both.”
She spoke nothing but the truth, and he knew it. “Give me time?”
Her nod was reluctant, but she fell into step beside him, quiet until they took a turn she didn’t expect. “Where are we going?”
“My house. It’s bigger than yours or Mick’s, and we have a guest.”
“Who?” She swung to a stop, and he heard the sudden pounding of her heart. The sudden surge of suspicion and fear.
“Your brother. Do I need to worry about that, Harper? Is he dangerous?” He didn’t think so, but her reaction was so extreme he had to ask.
She took a deep breath, her scent immediately changing to one of relief. She’d been afraid it was someone else, probably her father. He was disappointed. And insulted. But he couldn’t blame her, could he? She was used to betrayal from the one person who should have loved her more than anything else, and she hadn’t been with Redhawke long enough, with him and Mick long enough, to fully accept they were nothing like that. Simple logic that made sense, but it still hurt.
“There is no way I’d bring your father here or hand you over to him,” he said coldly.
She shrugged and started walking again. “I really want to believe that, Jonas. But you aren’t exactly forthcoming, you know.”
They continued in silence. She seemed calm, but he stewed. It was an odd reversal. He wasn’t used to feeling off balance, and he didn’t like it one bit. He reclaimed her hand, which calmed his wolf, so he refused to let her go when she tugged.
“You mean everything to me. You and Mick. The three of us — we’re meant to be together. You know it.”
There was a break in the trees, and he saw his backyard. She pulled him to a stop at the tree line.
“Maybe we are. I won’t pretend that I can handle this. But I’ll try. I want to try, Jonas, if you don’t cut me out. I can’t take that. Don’t treat me like I’m a kid who can’t handle reality.”
“And if I think you’ve dealt with enough evil in your life?”
She smiled. “I came through it, didn’t I? There isn’t any avoiding it.”
“Don’t ask me to pretend your life has been normal, Harper. I can’t do it.”
She sighed. “It’s not like I’m bitching and moaning and whining about it, you know? If I can move on from it, why are you dwelling on it?”
He pulled her to a stop at the picnic table, set her on the edge, and moved between her legs. She spread them to make a space for him, sliding her hands up his chest, and he felt his heart crack open a bit.
“Why?” He ruminated about it while he traced the freckles across her nose. “You’re mine. It pisses me off to know I couldn’t keep you safe.”
“You didn’t even know me,” she said softly, her voice soothing.
He shrugged. “Doesn’t really matter, darlin’. It’s how I feel.”
He couldn’t resist touching her anymore, and his hands slid up under that stupid turtleneck. Palms flat, fingers splayed as his hands slowly crept up. With each inch her eyes changed, growing hazy with lust. Her breath hitched when he finally reached her breasts and firmly palmed their weight.
“My brother…” she let the thought trail off.
“Sent him off with a pack member. He’s getting the grand tour.” He nibbled her neck while pushing the top of her bra down to stroke her nipples. “Then dinner. We won’t see him for a while.”
He lifted her shirt and stared at the tantalizing flesh he’d left bared. Her skin pimpled in the cool air, her nipples growing into hard points that begged to be sucked. He leaned over and pulled one into his mouth, supporting her with one hand on her back.
He heard Mick approach, his scent heavy and aroused, his cock bulging in his jeans when Jonas looked down the length of the table to meet his gaze.
“We should take this inside,” Mick said.
“Mmmm.” He moaned before releasing her nipple with a pop. “Yes.”
He swung her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, smiling at her startled giggle. And then she grabbed his ass. The little minx.
“I can walk.”
Her voice was husky, teasing, and very satisfied. He didn’t let her down until he’d run up the stairs in the house and walked down the long hall to the bedroom. There he dropped her on the bed. Laughing, she crawled to the edge and hopped down, giving him the sultriest look he’d ever seen. Oh shit, I’m in trouble.
He stood stock-still, afraid to move as she circled him, trailing one hand on his chest as she walked around his body. When she stopped in front of him, she tugged the hem of his shirt and glared until he cooperated, pulled it off, and tossed it aside. Then she slid forward, her hands flat on his belly, and licked his nipple. Scraped her teeth over it. He lifted his hands to grab her, and she jumped back.
“No,” she said firmly. “It’s my turn.”
Sitting on the edge of the bed, she pulled off her boots and socks, followed by the shirt. Her jeans. Until she was left only in bra and underwear. He remained rooted in place, gaze clashing with Mick’s where he leaned lazily against the back wall.
Mick, who didn’t look at all surprised by the new brazenness of their mate. Had they planned this? The demand for that answer was on the tip of his tongue, but suddenly she was in front of him again. Touching him. Exploring. The look on her face was so rapt he was afraid to breathe.
“I’ve always wondered,” she said in a breathy wisp of air, kissing her way down his body, “what a man’s cock tastes like.”
She dropped to her knees. Then she unsnapped the button on his jeans and rested her fingers on his zipper. She looked up at him through thick eyelashes, gaze a little uncertain, but a lot turned on. Asking for permission. It was damned hard not to order her to unzip him, not to insist she take him in her mouth. It was the heat between them bringing her to this point. He couldn’t believe she was really ready for it. His claws pierced his palms, and he forced them to retract.
“You don’t have to, Harper,” he managed to croak out.
“But if I want to?” Her fingers gave a little tug. The zipper gave half an inch. “If I belong to you, then don’t you belong to me?”
She tugged the zipper a bit, exposing the swollen head of his cock. She leaned forward and gave it a long lick.
“Yes,” he hissed.
Instead of taking him in her mouth, she looked up again. “Yes, you want in my mouth? Or yes, you belong to me too?”
She was killing him. She wanted to talk about the nature of mating now?
“Both,” he ground out between clenched teeth. And if it wasn’t soon, he’d spank her for teasing him later.
But she gave him that sultry smile again, carefully unzipped him the rest of the way, and with her hands starting on his hip bones, slowly pushed his jeans down. They caught at his knees, and as much as he wanted to kick them free, there was no fucking way he was moving.
*
Okay, Harper. Now what?
She had no idea what had come over her, but she liked it. She liked it a lot. She especially liked looking up and seeing that bewildered, wild, and barely controlled look on Jonas’s face. Everything going according to plan.
She’d realized on the walk to his house that the problem with Jonas was control. He had too much of it, and he used it to hide his emotions. Control saved him from having to tell Mick how much he loved him. Saved him from telling her… She wasn’t sure what yet. The only way to really get through to Jonas was to make him lose control. She just hoped she could handle what she unleashed if she succeeded.
Spellbound Moon Page 15
