A woman in her late twenties opened the door, hugging a blue teddy bear to her chest. Her dark auburn hair was pulled up in a ponytail and part of it had fallen out to hang down one side of her face, partially cloaking sleepy, deep green eyes, full lips, and delicate features. Trey was right about one thing. She was sweet.
“Excuse me, are you Rebecca Miller?”
She stared up at him. He could tell she was deciding if she should slam the door on him or scream. It wasn’t his looks, he was well aware of his good looks. He was also aware that at six feet three inches and two hundred and twenty pounds, he could intimidate people.
“Yes, I am. Who are you?” Shifting her weight, she dropped the hand holding the bear to one round hip and managed to look as if he didn’t intimidate her at all.
“You don’t know me but I’m Jake McCallan.”
Her eyes grew wide and then narrowed. Instead of speaking, she stood in the doorway as still as a statue.
“My brother is Trey.” Her steady stare made him self-conscious. Jake looked down at his work boots, frowned, and then looked into her eyes. Deep woods, cool shade and cold, clear streams spun in his mind’s eye.
“What do you want?” She angled herself in the doorway in a useless attempt to block access. Jake was capable of kicking down any door.
“I’m here about the baby. Can I speak to you about this? Inside?”
Her heated gaze traveled up and down the length of his body. He gave her his most innocent smile, the lop-sided one he always used on his mom when he was a kid. It must still be working, because she stepped back and let him in.
“Thank you, Ms. Miller.”
“Call me Rebecca.” She walked over to a gliding chair and sat, indicating he should sit on the couch. The blue bear found a seat in her lap.
Lucky bear.
In the closed room, her scent hit him full on. Female musk blended with another scent, making the hair on the back of his neck stand up and take notice. Milk. She must be lactating. Christ, the combination was heady. His nostrils flared as he drank her in like a fine wine, swallowed hard, and then brought himself under control.
“Rebecca, my brother Trey is many things, most of them no good,” he said. “I can’t begin to tell you how upset I am about this.”
“Look, if you think I’m going to file a lawsuit or ask for child support, forget it. I don’t want anything to do with Trey, you, or your family, Mr. McCallan.” Her hands rested on the arms of the chair as she glided back and forth. She looked regal, despite the t-shirt and the soft jersey sweat pants she wore. He could have sworn the bear smirked at him.
“I understand. I know the pain and embarrassment he’s caused you.”
“Oh, you do? When did men start having babies? You try squeezing a ten-pound watermelon out your ass, and then talk to me about pain.” Clearly, she had a wicked sense of humor. “As for embarrassment, I hardly think you have any concept of the depths one can reach.”
“I assure you that—”
“Do you know how many times you have to answer the question married or unmarried when you fill out medical forms? I’ve lost count. Furthermore, I doubt everyone you or your brother has met over the last nine months knows that…” She held up a finger. “One, you slept with a man. Two, he knocked you up. Three, he deserted you.” The three fingers curled down to join the others in a tight fist. She stood and the bear fell to the floor. Turning her back to him, she looked out of the window. “And I doubt you had to stand in front of your parents and tell them you got knocked up during a drunken one-night stand.”
What could he say to that? Jake stared at the bear on the floor. Something tried to surface to the front of this brain, but it slipped away.
“I only found out about this yesterday, Rebecca.”
“Trey just told you? Odd.” She turned to look at him.
“What?” Jake sat forward.
“I told him I was pregnant three months before I had the baby. Haven’t heard from him since.”
Swiping his hand through his hair, Jake muttered under his breath. “That bastard.”
“Are you talking about your brother or my baby?” Her green eyes blazed.
“My brother.” He swore, brother or not, if he ever saw Trey again, he’d kill him.
“Just what do you want?” She folded her arms underneath her full breasts.
He couldn’t help but notice her narrow waist and round hips. His animal back brain told him with her lovely hips and those full breasts she could have many pups. Christ, what was he thinking? It had to be her scent. It filled the room, muddled his thinking, stirring long dormant desires. Driving him crazy. He had to leave before it was too late.
“Is it a boy or girl?”
“A boy.”
Jake gave himself a mental slap to the side of his head. Of course, the blue bear. Blue is for boys.
“I named him Benjamin Wells Miller.” She tilted her chin up, defying him to say something, yet exposing the soft stretch of throat to him. He longed to run his tongue up it, taste her skin, feel the heat of her body, the beat of her heart beneath his lips.
“Not McCallan?” He wasn’t sure if his disappointment was because it was a boy or because the child didn’t carry his family name. The child was a McCallan.
“No. Don’t worry. There is no evidence who the father is.” She said it with such distaste it triggered a surge of possessiveness in him.
“There is nothing wrong with the McCallan name, just my brother,” he snapped. For a second, her gaze flickered, giving him a glimpse of her vulnerability and something deep inside him tugged hard. He softened his voice. “I don’t care about evidence, Rebecca. I just want to know if there is anything I can do to help you.”
She lowered herself into the chair, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Help? You mean buy me off, don’t you? I know you McCallans own half this town, half the land in the parish, and you probably run it, too. But you aren’t going to own me or my son.” Her eyes flashed at him, making her even more beautiful. He suppressed a groan of desire, but couldn’t do a damn thing about his erection. “And you won’t run me out of this town either.”
“It’s not like that. I don’t want—” He couldn’t finish. How could he explain? Just come right out and say “Your son is going to be a werewolf”? No, it was too soon.
Besides, would she even believe him or think he was insane? It was a hard story to swallow unless you saw it for yourself and he wasn’t ready to do that, not unless it was absolutely necessary.
Regardless of what she wanted, this child was going to be a werewolf and had to be prepared for it from the time he was six until puberty, just as the last four generations of McCallans had been. Without the training to help him change into his wolf form and back to human, the boy would probably die the very first time or be trapped forever as a wolf.
If she kept him from the pack, he’d grow up rogue, and a wolf without a pack to guide him, to teach him how and when to use his power, was a danger to everyone around him, including other wolves. For the common good, they were to be eliminated.
As Alpha, it was his duty to their pack to keep them safe.
Death now or death later? Dear God, how could he make that horrible decision?
“I just want to help you and Benjamin.” He wanted to pull her to him, keep her safe, protect her and her child.
“I think you’d better leave, Mr. McCallan.” She stood and so did Jake.
“Perhaps you’re right.” He headed towards the door, but each step he took farther from her only increased this need that burned like fire in his blood.
Too many thoughts bombarded his brain and he didn’t like any of them. Trey’s harsh words echoed. Kill them. Trey would throw the pack rules in his face, placing Jake between his duty to the pack and his morals as a man. Jake stomped the thought, grinding it into sawdust on the floor of his mind.
Next up in the path of his mental buzz saw was the overwhelming urge to mate with this woman. His
erection, an unwilling captive behind the zipper of his jeans, throbbed with his building hunger for her.
Jake fought his raging desire. He’d never wanted a woman this badly. The hackles on his neck had risen along with his cock and his body quivered as he inhaled her delicious scent. It called to him, reaching into somewhere deep and wild in his brain. He wanted to howl as he covered her with his body and mated with her.
He was truly crazy if he thought that was ever going to happen. His brother had drugged her and had sex with her. There was no way, seeing the look of hatred in her eyes when she spoke the McCallan name, she’d ever let him near her.
“Mr. McCallan?” Her voice triggered something in him, called to his wolf.
Fists clenched, he was almost to the door, but the urge to change ramped up, too damn strong. It coursed through his blood, pounding in his body. The air around him began to vibrate. He had to get out of there. Now.
“Mr. McCallan, is something wrong?”
Reaching for the doorknob, he closed his eyes tight as every muscle in his body strained to change and every bit of his mind ordered his body not to. A war raged between instinct and reason and he had no idea how to stop it or which would win. He’d never had such a fierce reaction to any circumstance or any woman and that was more frightening than the thought of changing in front of her.
“Mr. McCallan? Jake!” Rebecca’s voice cut through his thoughts as her hand touched his arm. He tried to jerk away, afraid her skin would sear his, but instead of igniting the fire, her touch soothed him, doused the inferno, and brought him under control.
Amazed, he turned to her and opened his eyes.
She looked up at him, green eyes wide, as her hand rested on his forearm. Through the soft t-shirt, the curve of her full breasts, nipples like hard points, tempted him. She bit her bottom lip and held her breath, waiting, as if captured by the same fire as he.
Jake cupped her face with his hand. She didn’t jerk away. His thumb eased her bottom lip from her teeth’s bite and then brushed against it in the lightest caress. She trembled.
“I have to go now,” was all Jake could manage to say.
Nodding, her eyebrows furrowed downward and her gaze searched his. He caressed the softness of her cheek with his fingertips, then opened the door and left.
Jake strode down the walk and got into the truck. He stared out through the windshield, his hands clutching the wheel, as he collected his thoughts and his control. Christ, she must be thinking he was out of his mind or he’d had some sort of fit. Well, that was better than the truth, wasn’t it?
The truth? That was for another day.
Chapter 2
Shutting the door, Rebecca leaned against it and let out the breath she’d been holding.
What the hell had just happened?
Walking to the couch, she sat and replayed the events. At first, everything was normal. Well, almost normal. Okay, not normal at all. Frightening, really.
When she’d opened the door and saw the man standing there, every erogenous zone on her body caught fire. Keeping her mind focused on their conversation and her eyes off his body had been difficult.
How could a man look so delicious in blue jeans? She’d never felt such a strong pull towards any man, much less a complete stranger and she knew that if he’d taken her into his arms she would have gone without question.
And boy, did that scare her.
But not as much as when McCallan began to leave. Something happened. There had been a vibration in the air that set off some sort of harmonic resonance in her body as if someone had turned on a vibrator and held it to her most private place.
She’d been exhilarated. Aroused.
Jake McCallan. She couldn’t deny her body’s reaction to him. Jake had taken her breath away, pure and simple, on the very first look. Dark brown wavy hair, worn just a tad too long, fell carelessly over his forehead. Eyes the color of milk chocolate and full lips set in a rugged square jaw with a have-mercy, honest-to-God cleft in his chin.
Then he’d told her who he was and she’d deflated as the air in her lungs escaped in a long, slow, silent hiss.
This was Trey’s brother? They had the same look about them, even the cleft, but Trey was shorter, slighter in build and had blue eyes.
She remembered him from that night at the Roadhouse. It was a honky-tonk kind of place, but her best friend Vicki had insisted it was where she’d wanted to celebrate her birthday. There’d been a pitcher of beer on the table, and Rebecca would have sworn she had no more than two glasses.
Trey had strutted over to the table, introduced himself, and then waited for their reaction, as if they were going to throw themselves at his feet. She couldn’t deny he was good looking, but she just didn’t like his cocky attitude. And, for her, he certainly didn’t set off any bells, whistles, or vibrations. In fact, she’d felt nothing, not even a glimmer of attraction towards him.
Yet, two hours later, she’d left the bar with him. She remembered unlocking the door to her house and letting him inside. The next morning, she’d woken up alone in bed with no memory of what had happened. Eight weeks later, she’d huddled on the floor of her bathroom with Vicki as they waited for the stick to turn pink.
One McCallan had changed her life, but she couldn’t in all honesty say he’d destroyed it. Not when she looked at her sleeping son, so tiny, so beautiful. Was Trey even aware of the gift he’d given her or what he’d so readily abandoned?
Now another McCallan had walked into her life. She couldn’t help but wonder what effect this brother would have on her. If she were smart, she’d run in the other direction.
As she sat on the couch, Rebecca realized her panties were ridiculously wet. All Jake had done was touch her face with his hand, stroke her lip with his calloused thumb and her knees had almost buckled. Then he was out the door, leaving her aching for his touch and wondering about the taste of his mouth.
“Snap out of it, Becca! That is so not going to happen.” She spoke so loud she cringed. Tilting her head to the side, she listened, but there was only the silence of the house. Rebecca puffed her breath upward, ruffling a thick lock of hair that had fallen over her face and then she curled up on her side.
Being smart was the right thing to do.
She would never see Jake McCallan ever again.
* * * *
Jake drove all the way to his house without really being aware of the road. On auto-pilot, he swung the Explorer off the highway and had driven through the iron gates before he noticed where he was.
Damn. She had him so muddled.
He drove down the long driveway towards the large mansion Caleb McCallan, his great-grandfather, built just before the turn of the century, when he made his fortune on the dense pine timber forests of Central and North Louisiana.
The three-story red brick house had a central building and two wings projecting off from either side. It always reminded Jake of a large schoolhouse. Now only he and his mother lived there, she in the west wing, first floor and he in the east wing, second floor. Trey, when he came home from LSU, had the west wing, second floor. The entire third floor was empty.
Empty. That summed up the house now. Once built to hold three generations of McCallan werewolf families. It had been a pack united under Jake’s grandfather, then his father, and now, him. Trey was right. There was no pack, no family bounding with pups, seated around their large dining table, sharing food, laughter, and love.
Days long gone. Jake despaired of ever seeing those days return. He drove around the back and parked in the detached garage next to his mother’s Cadillac. Carrying his laptop in a backpack, he went up the steps of the large raised bluestone patio to the back door.
Entering the kitchen, he closed the door behind him, inhaled deeply, and savored the aroma. Dinner was cooking in the oven and two places were set at the kitchen table.
“Mom!”
“In the study, Jake.” Her voice carried from the other room.
Jake carr
ied the backpack into the study and laid it on a chair. Caroline McCallan sat at the desk nearly hidden behind the flat screen of a computer. She looked over the rim of her teacup as he turned to face her. As she took in the scowl on his face, her smile faded.
“What’s going on?”
“We need to talk.”
“Business?” She sat back in the large chair and cocked her head as her sharp blue eyes took in her oldest child.
“No. Trey.” Jake fell into a chair on the other side of the desk and ran his hand through his hair. His fists caught up locks of his dark hair, tugged on them, and then let them go.
“What now?” She didn’t hide the irritation in her voice.
Jake leaned forward and clasped his hands together. “First let me say, Trey told me about this today, but it seems he’s known about it for over three months.” Taking a deep breath, he continued, “Trey got a local girl pregnant.” His mother’s eyebrows shot up and she opened her mouth to speak, but he held up his hand to stop her. “She’s had the baby. It’s a boy.”
“Go on, there’s more, isn’t there?” Caroline’s voice held steady, but he could see her hand trembled as she brought the cup of tea to her lips and sipped.
“Yes. He drugged her. Put something in her drink. She has no idea what Trey is, other than an utter bastard, or what the baby will be.”
He watched as his mother’s eyes closed and her mouth puckered as if she’d sucked on the lemon sitting on the cup’s saucer.
“He told you about this today?” She placed the cup down with such care even his wolf’s ears barely heard the clink of china.
“Yeah. He’s flying to Europe, running away from his responsibilities, as usual. This was the last straw, Mom. I told him not to come back. I don’t want him in my territory, ever.” Jake raised his eyebrows to his mother and waited, unsure of her reaction.
She sat back and folded her arms. “You’re pack leader, Jake, it’s your decision. For my part, I stand with you. This is the worst thing Trey’s ever done. How could he do this to that poor girl?” Sadness and tears filled her soft blue eyes, but she blinked them away. “Thank God, your father isn’t alive. He’d do much worse than kick Trey out.”
McCallan's Blood Page 2
