“I know. It took everything in me not to change right there in the office and deal with him.”
She rose and came around the table. Placing her hand on his shoulder, she gave it a firm squeeze. “It will all work out, Jake. Now, tell me all about my first grandson!”
“What?” Jake’s head jerked up. His mother grinned from ear to ear as her eyes sparkled.
“My grandson, of course. Did you see him? Did you see the baby? Are they coming to visit?”
It was so like his mother to accept the child and his mother, sight unseen.
“Uh, no, I guess I forgot to ask to see the baby. I met his mother.”
“And?” Caroline crossed her arms, her eyes demanding answers.
“She’s beautiful. Brave. Determined to raise him alone. She practically threw me out, thinking I was trying to buy her silence or pay her off for the baby.” He tried to hide the admiration in his voice, from showing in his eyes.
“Did she, now?” One eyebrow rose just a tad and the corner of her mouth curled up.
“Yeah. Mom, she didn’t give it the McCallan name. Said she didn’t want anyone to know who the father was. No evidence, is what she said.” He frowned and stared at his work boots.
“Does that bother you?”
“Yeah. Like our name isn’t good enough.”
“Or maybe, like your name isn’t good enough?” A smile played on her lips.
“What do you mean?” Jake growled, hunching his head down between his shoulders.
“Nothing. You’ll just have to convince her otherwise, I suppose. Call her, or go see her again. In fact, invite her to dinner after church on Sunday.” She walked to the door and turned back, pinning him with her eyes. “I want to see my grandson, Jake.” Then, she left.
Orders received, Jake gave her a loose salute. He may be pack leader, but she was still his mother. The idea of seeing Rebecca again made his heart race, not to mention the blood pound in his loins. Could he risk another reaction like before?
What if she was the one? His lifemate. And she hated him just for being Trey’s brother. Well, if she was his lifemate, then he was hers. That’s the way it worked. The female was just as attracted as the male, just as enthralled with the scent of her mate, his taste, and his touch.
He’d touched her lips with his thumb, her face with his hand, but she’d shown no sign of desire for him, just puzzlement for his behavior. At least she hadn’t jerked away at his touch. That was good. Wasn’t it?
The power had almost exploded out of him at her house and now, like the erection he’d had in her living room, had waned, but was still lurking. If he thought about her much more, he’d be right back to hard and wanting.
What he really needed was to change and run the woods. Afterwards, dinner and a good night’s sleep. He’d think about Rebecca tomorrow.
Jake headed to the French doors leading from the study onto the patio outside. Opening the door, he inhaled the scents that wafted in, calling him home. There was no need to undress, whatever he wore before shifting would return when he regained human form.
Closing his eyes, he called his power.
Hair stood up on his skin and the first vibrations signaling the change shot through his body. The power flowed up from his center. The burning roiled outward, encompassing his entire body. He reached flash point, the magic ignited and he began the physical change. For an instant, his face contorted with unbearable pain, then, mercifully it lessened as he took the familiar shape of his other being. His change complete, the pain merely a memory.
The wolf slipped through the open door, trotted across the patio, down the stairs, and headed straight for the woods.
* * * *
Sensing he was alone, the large grey wolf trotted down the narrow path. He’d trod this path both as a boy and as a wolf for as long as he could remember. Following it was as natural to him as breathing. The color of his coat, deep grey with black feet and ears, fading to light grey on his belly, blended into the woods, the perfect camouflage.
He stopped. Sniffing the trunk of a large pine, he smelled the sharp odor, faint, but still there. The wolf gave a small grunt and positioned himself. Lifting his leg, he marked his territory. Even knowing there were no other wolves around, marking was what he’d been trained to do, and out of habit and respect for his father, the wolf trotted down the path to the next marker.
After he’d made his marks, he circled around behind the great house and sat down under a bush. His amber eyes watched as his mother came out, walked to the edge of the patio, put her hand up to block the setting sun, and called for him.
The whistle sounded shrill in the late afternoon air. His ears twitched.
It took him back to when Trey and he were younger and they would play in the forest behind their house, safe in thousands of acres of tall pines. If they could talk him into it, Dad would chase rabbits with them. They’d learned early to leave the skunks alone and never to underestimate raccoons.
The wolf lay down and cleaned his front paws with his long, black tongue, and tasted the musty remnants of the forest trapped in his fur.
Would he and Trey ever run these woods together again? He was filled with a longing he hadn’t felt since his Dad died. It was so easy to imagine a future with Trey, he, and their pups, running the woods and teaching them what they needed to know to be wolves and men.
Those were his dreams, he realized. He’d never asked Trey what his dreams had been. Obviously, they weren’t the same. Now he wondered if he’d ever know.
She called to him a second time.
Lowering his head to rest on large black paws, the wolf thought of not going back. What he really wanted was to hunt down a rabbit, kill it, and eat it. Burn off some of the energy firing his blood in that mad, wild, scrambling chase. He wanted, no needed, to mate. Maybe Trey was right, it had been too long since he’d had a woman, but he knew his heat wouldn’t be quenched unless it was his mate.
His mom had made meatloaf, one of his favorites. He ran his tongue around his mouth. The wolf rose to all fours and trotted across the lawn to the patio. Pausing at the edge, he placed one large paw on the sun-warmed stone. A nap curled up in the late afternoon sun would be nice but he couldn’t risk being seen, not even here. Anyone could pull around back and see him and wolves aren’t supposed to exist in Louisiana, unless you count the rougarou down in the bayous and everyone knew that was just a legend.
“Are you coming in or not?” She stood in the doorway, folded her arms, and looked down at him with an amused and loving smile.
He stepped onto the patio and followed her into the house.
“Did you leave any bunnies alive in the forest?”
He called the power and his body vibrated as the flame burned inside him. Flash point. Pain. At last, release.
“Don’t worry, Mom, Thumper and Bugs are safe. For tonight, anyway.” Jake laughed as he slid into his chair and joined his mother at the kitchen table.
* * * *
“I don’t know what to do, Vicki.” Rebecca took another sip of the latte and grimaced. Too much milk. What she needed was more caffeine. It’d been two days since she’d opened the door to Jake McCallan, and when she wasn’t dealing with Ben, she was thinking of Jake. It was eating into her sleep, and she needed sleep a lot more than mooning over some man she’d met once, no matter how he made her feel.
“Did he offer you any money or suggest you leave town?” Her best friend, Vicki, stirred sugar into her black coffee. They were sitting outside the local Starbucks, just a few blocks from Rebecca’s house.
“No, nothing like that. In fact, all he said was he wanted to help me.” She shrugged. “I shouldn’t trust him, Vicki. Not a McCallan.”
“Well, if he’s anything like his brother, he’s bad news. Stay away from him.”
“That’s just it. He’s nothing like his brother. Similar in looks, but bigger. More solid muscle, with these incredible chocolate brown eyes and a deep voice that rumbles.”
/> “Sounds yummy. Wipe up the drool, Becca, and I don’t mean on the baby.” She laughed and pointed down at Benjamin, sleeping in his stroller parked at the side of the table, his pacifier moving with his soft sucking.
“There is no drool. None.” Rebecca stuck out her chin to prove it.
“Admit it, you’re attracted to him.”
“Even if I was, and I’m not saying I am, it could never work. His brother is the father of my baby. God,” she groaned. “It sounds like some white trash soap opera, “My Baby’s Daddy’s Brother.”
“Look, when you decided to have Ben and keep him, you knew this was a small town. People talk. You were bound to run across the father sometime and knew it might get messy.” Vicki gave her friend’s hand a quick squeeze.
“Messy? That’s an understatement.”
“Do you think you’ll see him again?”
Rebecca looked at Ben, so peaceful, so angelic, and so small. What would it be like to have a man who loved her? Would another man ever truly accept and love her son as his own? She’d heard all the time about stepfathers hurting the kids they were supposed to care for.
It might not be like that.
Then again, could she risk herself and Ben?
Standing up, she threw her cup in the bin and then unlocked the brakes on the stroller with her foot. “Let’s go. Ben will wake up soon, and I’ll have to feed him. I’d rather do it in private. I’m not that free and easy yet.”
“I understand. I don’t know how some women can just whip out a breast and start nursing right out in front of God and everyone.” Vicki gulped down the last of her coffee and tossed her cup away.
When they reached Rebecca’s house, Vicki got in her car and left. Rebecca backed the stroller up the steps, unlocked the door, and went inside.
Benjamin woke, looked around, and spied her. With a wiggle of his solid little body, a wave of his tiny fist, and a soft coo, he melted her heart. After picking him up, she went to the glider and sat.
“Is my little man hungry?” She unbuttoned her shirt, unhooked her nursing bra, and offered her breast to the baby. After a swipe or two of her nipple on his tiny bow shaped lips, he opened wide. She pulled him in close and he latched on.
With a contented sigh, Rebecca closed her eyes and leaned back, her legs pushing the glider in a steady motion.
Jake McCallan’s face floated in her mind. Smiling, she replayed again the way Jake’s thumb had brushed her lip.
* * * *
“Now, what’s got you so shook up?” Barker looked across the table at his best friend and took a bite of a ketchup-laden French fry.
“It’s Trey.” Jake let out a huge sigh.
“What else is new?” Barker rolled his eyes. “Look, I know you have all these hopes of him straightening up and joining you in that big-ass house of yours, wives and pups everywhere, but you’re going to have to face reality. He’s no good.” Barker knew his words were harsh and he knew Jake’s hopes, but damn it, he knew Trey, too. It would take a miracle for that man to face the right direction much less do the right thing.
“This time, he’s done it. I put him out. Told him never to come back.” Jake looked like the time in sixth grade when they’d found his dog dead by the side of the highway. Jake had sucked in his cheeks hard to keep from bawling like a baby.
“It’s about time. What did he do?” Another French fry disappeared.
“He got a woman pregnant.”
Barker sat back and whistled. “Damn. He knows better than to do that.”
“It’s worse. He used some drug on her,” Jake lowered his voice to a whisper.
“I haven’t seen an arrest warrant on him. Has she filed charges?” Barker slipped into cop mode. In his crisp black and tan uniform, being a cop was as natural as breathing for Barker.
“No. She thought she was drunk and I think she feels responsible. She’s gone through this all alone. She’s had the baby, a boy, and she’s determined to make it on her own, without McCallan help.” There was such open admiration in Jake’s voice that Barker began to think.
“What are you going to do?” Barker swirled a fry through a mound of ketchup.
“What do you mean? I just told you she won’t accept my help.”
Barker looked at his best friend. “That’s not what I’m talking about, boss.” He pointed to Jake with the French fry. “First, you have to tell her what really happened to her that night. Second, encourage her to file charges and take some control back.”
“Right. Good idea.” Jake nodded, leaning forward to take in his friend’s instructions.
“Third, you have to tell her how you feel about her.” Barker popped the fry in his mouth, stretched his arm over the back of the booth, and grinned.
“Feel about her? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jake growled.
“You’ve got to be kidding. Don’t pull that innocent crap with me, Jake. I’ve known you too damn long. I can hear it in your voice when you talk about her and you have that goofy look, like the time in high school when you got hit with a football right between the eyes.” He chuckled. “I also know it’s about time for you to find her.” He leaned closer and lowered his voice. “Your lifemate. You may be trying to deny it, but when was the last time you and I hit the Roadhouse for some action?”
Jake shrugged and took a bite of his burger, making a big show of chewing, but that wasn’t going to stop Barker.
“Used to be, you and I would go out, drink a few beers, shoot pool and pick up girls. Ever since you turned thirty, I’ve had to listen to all the lame excuses why you can’t go. Admit it. You’ve been hiding, afraid you’ll find her.”
Jake sat up and frowned. “What if I have? So what! It didn’t do much good. In fact, it couldn’t be any worse. She’s had Trey’s son, not mine, and because of him and his carelessness, she doesn’t want anything to do with the McCallans.” His fists clenched and his burger was crushed in the grip. He dropped it on the plate and began snatching paper napkins from the dispenser to clean off his fingers.
Barker laughed. “Oh, boss, you’ve got it bad. It’s her, right?”
“It’s her. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced. Dad always told us it would be strong, but I never realized how strong, how fast, or the depth of the feelings.” Jake looked as if he were treading water in the river, going down for the third time, and Barker was on the bank with a rope. “Now, she’s all I think about.”
“Damn, Jake. It’s that bad?”
“You have no idea of the intensity.”
“Well, I don’t know. I’ve had some pretty intense sex.” Barker laid his other arm on the back of the bench and flashed his own wolfish smile.
“Not like this. I touched her once, that’s all.” He let out a great sigh filled with want and need and despair. “Did you ever want to claim a woman as yours from the first moment you saw her?”
“No.” Barker snorted and shook his head.
“And all you think about is making babies with this woman, making a home?”
“Hell no!” Barker twisted his face as if he’d stepped in something dark and lumpy. “You know me better than that. Under the dictionary for non-commitment is my picture.”
“Then you don’t understand. When and if you ever have those feelings about a woman, grab her, marry her, and never let her go.”
“I can’t just fuck her and be done with it?” His mouth curved in a cocky smile.
Jake shook his head. “You can try, but it won’t work, you’ll be lost.”
“Is that how you feel about this woman?”
Jake nodded and groaned. “And I haven’t even kissed her.”
“Must be one hell of a hard-on.” Barker smirked.
“Yeah, I can’t begin to tell you how many times—” The squawk of Barker’s radio interrupted Jake. Barker held up a hand as he listened to the receiver clipped to the shoulder of his uniform.
“Got to go. Duty calls.” He stood, tossed some bills on the tab
le, and began to leave. Stopping, he turned back. “Hey, what’s her name?”
“Rebecca Miller.”
“If she wants to press charges, and I think she should, have her come down to the station and I’ll handle it for her. Give her some privacy.”
“Thanks, Barker. You’re the best. Thanks for listening to an old dog.” Jake held out his hand. They shook and Barker headed for his patrol car parked outside the diner.
*
Jake looked at the mangled remains of his burger and pushed the plate away.
Now all he had to figure out was how to tell Rebecca about the drug Trey had used on her. And the truth about her son. And that he was her lifemate.
Where should he start?
Whenever his dad had caught him and Trey in trouble, he’d told them “Always start with the truth, no matter how awful.”
Christ, this was awful.
Chapter 3
“Hazel, get me Rebecca Miller on the phone.”
Jake sat back and chewed the end of his pen as he waited for the call to go through. He’d put it off too long. This morning, his mother had reminded him to invite Rebecca and the baby to supper on Sunday.
He still hadn’t made up his mind when to tell her about her son and what he’d inherited from the McCallan gene pool, but he knew he needed to tell her about Trey as soon as possible. However, if he told her before Sunday, she might never let his mother see the baby. If he told her after Sunday, she’d know he held off telling her in order to see the baby.
Rock, meet hard place.
“Jake, she’s on the line,” Hazel’s voice came over the intercom.
He snatched up the phone. “Hello. This is Jake McCallan. We met the other day.”
“I remember you, Mr. McCallan. What’s this about?” Wariness edged her warm alto voice.
“We need to talk, Rebecca.” I need to see you.
“I have nothing to say to you, McCallan. I told you that last time.”
McCallan's Blood Page 3
