by Sayde Grace
“Not all of them, babe. Just some. There were moments in high school though where I almost attacked you.”
“Then why didn’t you?” Her voice rasped harsher than she’d intended.
“Because I knew I needed more. I had to find out about the wolf within me. Where I came from and what I had to offer you.”
Offer her? He had everything to offer her, but mostly his love. “So what did you find out?”
She sat down at the table. Her face burned with embarrassment. She wanted that damn blanket around her bad. But he would just snatch it away. When Jasper said something, he meant it. Normally she would balk, but secretly she wanted to be easily accessible for him in case the mood struck.
“It strikes every time I think about you.” He kissed the top of her head as he sat a plate of freshly cooked meat onto the table.
She looked down at the thin strips of sizzled meat. The smell was mouth watering, but she still wondered exactly what it had been.
“Rabbit. I wanted deer, but couldn’t see killing such a large animal for breakfast. Maybe if we stay overnight I will. A fresh deer steak sounds good, doesn’t it?” He licked his lips.
She laughed at his excitement. He and Cole had hunted the woods during deer season, killing enough deer to keep food in both their freezers and her mom’s for years.
“You did good. But we have to go back tonight. I’m already a few weeks behind in going to the specialist and getting my shot.” She hated to admit her health weakness, but without her shots she’d be dead. The debilitating headaches, stomach pains, and irregular heartbeat would overtax her system. If she went without having her medication any longer, she ran the risk of sending her system into failure. Already the headaches and pains in her body were becoming too much to deal with.
She picked up a piece of the small cuts of meat. The thin strip sizzled in her fingers. She brought it to her mouth. She’d had rabbit before, but it wasn’t her favorite. However, Jasper happened to be a hell of a cook. Anything he cooked turned out terrific.
Biting down, the meat flavor exploded on her taste buds. The faint taste of Cajun seasoning made the fresh game spicy.
“It’s good. Real good. Now, sit down, eat, and tell me what else happened over the last six months. You know, the months you stopped talking to me.” She glared at him from across the table.
“Ah, the first dig, huh? Well, dig all you want. You’re mine, and I will never let go again.”
She didn’t know what to say. He really couldn’t promise her things like that, but for the moment, she’d be blissfully happy anyway.
Jasper grinned. She knew he was in her head but couldn’t figure out how to stop it. “My pack had left Romania in search of a fresh start. They wanted to live with the humans. They set up their own governing laws and towns according to what the humans were doing here. But because my pack has the power to relax others, to make them feel peace, and being one of the oldest packs, we gained control. Our pack, the Blue Moon Pack, produces blue moon betas. They calm wolf and human alike.”
She swallowed hard, struggling to remember what he’d said about the Blue Moon Pack .
“The other Romanian Pack, Red Moon, showed up. Ever since then, the two packs have fought. After the Pack Wars, the remaining wolfs united under one Alpha, my great-grandfather, and our Blue Moon pack. The title passed from each Alpha in my family until my father. I’m next in line.”
Her eyes went huge in disbelief. Sidda had always known Jasper was strong, moral, and fair, three things that make a great leader, but she’d never thought for one second he was actually the Luna Nation’s Alpha, or any Alpha for that matter. Her mind still couldn’t wrap around the fact that he wasn’t the lone wolf she had come to love. He was an abandoned wolf she and Cole had found alone in the woods. No family, no roots. How could he all of a sudden be the true leader of the North American Luna’s?
“What about your family? The ones who disappeared, leaving you alone? What about them?” Her anger flared.
The harsh tone in her voice made her grimace. Damn, she had to get control over her emotions. One minute she was crying with love, the next she was ready to rip someone’s head off.
“They were taken. I didn’t understand why hunters would come into the forest here to hunt wolf. According to an elderly pack female, Velham wanted all the Blue Moons. He wanted to use us as breeding stock so he took the strongest of our pack.”
Sidda stared in disbelief. He’d found out a shitload of information while he’d been there. The information sent shivers of fear through her. He was an Alpha, and the only Alpha she’d ever seen happened to be the man who took Jasper’s family, his childhood, and tried to destroy him.
Dane Velham was a cold, cruel bastard, and it frightened her to think one day Jasper would have to face him. She’d seen Jasper fight on more than one occasion, and where she wouldn’t have shown mercy, he did. It would make him a great Alpha, but it would also make him an easy target for Velham.
Chapter Five
They finished eating breakfast in silence. Sidda was lost in her own thoughts, hoping Jasper wouldn’t peek into her head, which hurt. She had scheduled her bi-yearly doctor appointment with a specialist in Atlanta two months ago. But with finals and graduation, she’d skipped it. Now her head throbbed, her bones ached, and nausea lingered.
She startled when Jasper stood by her chair. “You’re sick?” He looked down at her. His brown eyes widened with concern.
“A little. I really shouldn’t have skipped my last appointment. I’ll be okay a little longer though.” She glanced up at him.
He shook his head. “My little she-wolf, come here.” He pulled her out of her chair.
“I’m not a wolf. And wouldn’t calling me a she-wolf be just another word for bitch?” She leaned into his heat.
“Hmmm, are you denying that you are?” His cocky little grin made lust swirl within her.
“The bitch part, or being a she-wolf?”
He shrugged.
“I’m a bitch, no way around that one, but wolf I’m not.”
“Well, right now you smell, sound, and act a lot like a she-wolf.”
Jealousy cracked her harsh whip. “And you know a lot of she-wolves?” Sidda’s tone rose with anger.
“I’ve met a few,” he said absently. His eyes studied her.
Sidda’s head throbbed harder. The pain made her want to close her eyes, to hold her head in her hands and press the throbbing away. The bones in her knees popped. Pain shot up her legs. She bit her bottom lip between her teeth to keep from grunting in pain.
Jasper eased her back to look down at her through worry-filled eyes. “We should go. Call the doctor on the way there. Tell him it’s an emergency. You’re sick. I can feel it inside me.” He grabbed a blanket to wrap around her before making her sit down on the couch. “Hang on. I’ll get your things, and we’ll go.”
Sidda didn’t want to leave. Leaving meant they’d be thrust back into the real world, and she wasn’t ready. A pair of her pants landed next to her feet, followed by a bra. She glanced at Jasper. He pulled clothes from her small overnight bag. A pair of pants from years before were in the dresser. He pulled them up over his taut ass before he grabbed a white tee shirt.
“You need help?” His tone dipped to a commanding tone as he turned. “’Cause I meant it when I said to get dressed. You’re in pain. I won’t allow that.”
“I’m not in pain. Well, not pain enough to leave here. And since when did you think you could allow something?” She raised her eyebrows but pulled on her shirt anyway. Hell, if he was dressed, she wasn’t going to sit bare-assed.
“When it comes to you, I’ve always thought it.” His hands circled her wrists, and with no more than a slight tug, she was lifted into his arms. “Now, do I have to call the doctor myself or what?”
“I’ll call, but you’ve forgotten one thing, pup. No truck.”
“Called Cole first thing this morning. He was eating dinner at the new di
ner and said he’d bring it up. Thank goodness for small towns. He said he’d leave the truck half a mile down the trail. Now call the doctor.”
He handed her the phone, but the jostling from his hard steps on the soft ground distracted her. She couldn’t recall ever being carried. The feel of his warm hard body holding hers made her stomach do weird little twists. Her mind raced with thoughts of straddling him, letting him push her against a tree and fuck. Yes, fuck, because that is just what it would be.
She shook her head, wondering where that thought had come from. Her brain was definitely lust fried. Her breath came faster, shallow. Jasper’s arms tightened around her, his breath just as hard and shallow.
“Out of my head, pup.”
“You opened your mind, and with the mark, it’s easy for you to send me stuff. I didn’t do anything, but if you don’t stop thinking like that, I will fuck you right here, right now against a tree.”
“Promises, promises.” She told him in a sing-song voice. He shifted her some so that he could take one hand and pop her rear.“Ow! You gotta stop doing that.”
His eyes gleamed with amusement. “Not a chance in hell. I owe you so many spankings, you’ll be lucky if you’re able to sit when I’m done with you.”
“Excuse me?” She narrowed my eyes at him. “I don’t know who you think you are, but that is not going to happen. Alpha or not, you are not spanking me.”
She pushed against his chest, struggling to get down. He was skirting a thin line with the spanking talk. Part of her said, Hell yeah, spank me hard and fuck me harder. While the other part screamed You touch me and I’ll rip your balls off and shove ’em up your ass.
His chest shook as he tightened his grip on her. “We’ll be going with the first.” He winked.
“Stay out….”
“I can’t help it. You’re mine, every inch of you including that brilliant mind of yours, and I won’t apologize for wanting to know everything about you.”
“Listen here, pup, my mind is private. I can’t poke around in yours, so leave mine alone.”
He stopped walking, and the jostling halted, letting her breathe in deep. Her body hurt, bones ached, and nausea rolled over her once again. She’d never been late on getting one of her shots and never would again. This just sucked.
“All you have to do is focus. Think about what you want and you should be able to feel, see, and hear my thoughts.” He kissed her mark, but instead of feeling the burning of lust or the raw need of his love, she only felt her stomach start to pitch.
She kicked out of his grasp. This time he didn’t fight it. Bile inched its way up from her stomach to her throat. Acid churned, and before she could fight the bile back, she was leaned over, eyes already watering, and heaving. The acid that had previously churned in her stomach scorched her throat. The chunks of rabbit she’d eaten earlier hit against the back of her throat on their way out to splash all over her shoes. A piece of the meat stuck against her tonsils, making her dry heave. The milk she’d drunk had curdled in her stomach and now lay in chunks of white all over her feet. Her ribs hurt, her eyes burned, and her throat was on fire.
* * * *
Jasper’s pissed voice rang in her ears. “No, I won’t hold. Tell the doctor that Siddalee Brighton is sick, and I’m taking her to the local hospital. If he wants to live another day, his ass will be there in an hour.” Jasper growled from her left. “I don’t give a damn what he has going on, she’s my mate, and if he can’t get here to help her, he won’t be alive tomorrow.”
Sidda wiped the vomit from her face with the back of her hand. Sweat beaded on her forehead. She cringed from the aching in her bones. Her hand throbbed. It stung, and the bones within creaked when she flexed it. Panic rose as the hair on her knuckles lengthened and turned deep red. Her nails extended, curving under. She shook her hand, hoping to shake whatever was happening away.
A voice inside screamed to let it happen, to relax. She laughed bitterly. There was no way in hell she could relax. Pain exploded in her head. She dropped to her knees, clutching her head. A distant scream rang in her ears, but from who or where it came from she couldn’t tell. Her mind hazed over in red. Distantly she saw Jasper in front of her, his hands on her shoulders, but there was no sound except the screaming.
She looked down at her hands, both covered in long, deep red hair, with the nails curved under. The bones snapped, pain shot up from her hands, and before she could recover, her mind went blank. She had paws.
She could vaguely make out voices around her. Instead she mainly heard a tiny whisper inside her head. The whisper grew louder, begging her to come to it. Sidda closed her eyes, trying to block out the sight of her hands, the sound of the whisper, and most of all the panic swelling in her.
Someone or something moved her, lifted her from the ground. She kept her eyes shut tight. The nausea returned, churning in her stomach. The voice whispered to will her body to keep changing. She shook her head. Human, all human, that’s what she was, not Luna. The voice pitched in a pissed scream, “Luna. Alpha Luna.”
Her brain filled with red haze, the color settling like a fog in her, spreading through, blocking all thoughts except to ease her pain. There was only one way to ease it—let go. She cringed in pain, but when she dropped her restraint, stopped fighting the shift she didn’t understand, the pain eased. The fog cleared, and her eyes snapped open.
Sounds, loud and clear, met her ears. Birds sang, bugs zoomed by, and trees swayed in the wind. The wind! She could hear the calling of the wind. It carried a musical, earthy tone, carrying the scents of earth, humans, and Jasper. Oh lord, Jasper. He smelled of oak, earth, and pure, strong Alpha Wolf. His scent filled her nose, urging the voice on inside her. It wanted him and wanted him bad.
She turned to face him, her bones splintering with each move. Instead of pain, adrenaline pulsed through her. Her vision blurred. She blinked to clear her eyes. She looked around her, amazed at her new sight. Wearing binoculars didn’t even compare to this. Her eyes focused in on Jasper. His normal, calm expression had disappeared. Eyes wide, mouth open, and face pale, he stared at her. His body trembled. She sniffed the air around him and smelled sulfur. The voice laughed. He was angry. At her?
“Jasper? What the hell? Did you turn me into a wolf?” she whispered.
“Jesus, we gotta get you to a hospital. Babe, I hate to do this, but I can’t let you shift. I need some answers first.” He inched closer to her. His face contorted.
“Jasper, what…”
His hand reached her neck. She tried to pull back, but his other hand grasped her, holding her still. Then with a flick of his finger on the mark, her world went black.
Chapter Six
“I don’t know what the hell happened. One minute we were playing around on our way to the truck, then the next, she was bent over throwing up. Next thing I know her scent changed, her hands turned to paws, and her mind seemed to split. It was like she was there, but so was something else.”
Sidda listened to the voices around her. Machines swirled, beeps chirped, filling her head with questions. The scent of alcohol and strong disinfectant burned in her nose. A hand stroked her face, a callused hand. Jasper. Feelings of warmth, safety, and love, wisped around her.
“Where the hell is her doctor?” He growled.
A crashing of metal made her inwardly cringe. She wanted to open her eyes to see what was happening, but she couldn’t. They were too heavy, and her mind still held a hint of red haze.
“Easy, Jasper. They’ll escort you out, man. She needs you to stay calm. We’ll figure out was going on,” Cole said in a soothing voice.
The anxious, angry emotion seeping from Jasper to her ebbed some. The bed sank to one side, and Jasper’s hand squeezed hers.“All right, but I swear if he’s not here in the next ten minutes, someone is going to pay.” He sighed. “I panicked. I didn’t know what to do besides make her pass out. Maybe I shouldn’t have.” His voice broke.
“Nah, man. I think you did
the right thing. What would have happened if she would have shifted and run off? You did the right thing.” Cole’s voice was full of conviction.
“Where the fuck is Ms. Angela? Her daughter is in the hospital. She has been for hours, and Ms. Angela’s ass isn’t here.” Rage boiled in Jasper’s voice.
“I don’t know, but we’re here.” Cole’s voice held so much conviction. “That’s all that matters. Sidda is ok, and we’re here to make sure she stays that way.”
Metal clicked, and cold air rushed into the room. A piney earth scent wafted to her. “I’m Doctor Thomas, Siddalee’s doctor.”
Jasper’s weight left the bed. Sulfur singed her noise.
“You’re her specialist? You’re a Luna doctor. What the fuck is going on?” Jasper snarled.
The man’s scent moved to her left, away from Jasper’s.
“That’s confidential. I can’t explain my patients’ con—”
Air crackled around her. A loud crash banged on the ground, followed by a thump as something hit the wall. “She is my mate. I will snap your fucking neck if you don’t explain to me right now what in the hell is happening.”
The man gulped in air, his scent growing thick like sour lemon. “I…I…”
Sidda blinked and, this time, her eyes opened. Her vision was blurry, but she could see Jasper to her left holding a small middle aged man off the ground by his throat. Cole stood beside them with his hands on Jasper’s, trying to pull them free from the frightened man. She blinked again. Dr. Thomas had an intricate tattoo of wolves running with an orange crescent moon above them on his arm. She’d never seen it before.
She looked to Jasper. On his left arm, there was a bright blue moon with a wolf under it, his head up in the air facing the moon. To the wolf’s side stood another wolf, then intricate scrolls wrapped around his arm.
Damn, he’d gotten one hell of a tattoo while she’d been out. It was gorgeous, but still. That was a huge tat for such a few hours out, but then maybe she had been passed out for longer.
