by Mandy Harbin
“Look, big guy. It was just sex.”
“You have no fucking idea, Lilly.”
“My name is Lillian. Not Lilly.”
He stopped and looked straight at her. “You have bigger things to worry about than what I call you, Lillian.”
She gasped. “How did you do that?”
He threw his head back and roared so loudly that the hair on the back of her neck prickled. It didn’t seem possible for a man to sound so animalistic. She edged toward her headboard and pulled the covers closer to her in a pitiful attempt at protection.
“Just great! First, I attack Ariel, and then I claim you. What the hell is wrong with me? My fucking family is going to disown me. And by God, they should!” He was still pacing, and Lillian didn’t think he was actually talking to her but rather venting some nonsense.
“Who’s Ariel?”
He stopped and stared at her as if he wasn’t aware he’d said anything. “You’ll find out soon enough. Fuck!” He fisted his hands and screamed toward the ceiling.
“Um, okay. Then what’s this business about your family disowning you? Because you slept with me?” She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “This isn’t some Romeo and Juliet crap. Our families aren’t feuding, Jackson.”
Jack rubbed his hands on his face and pushed them through his hair to grab fistfuls of it. He shook his head while his eyes held her.
“I did something last night. I don’t know how we are still alive.” He chuckled sadistically. She didn’t find his attitude very funny.
“Well, if you remember what happened, then spill it.”
“I bit you.”
She frowned at him and started to open her mouth, but he shook his head.
“I wanted to bite you. I asked, and you said I could.”
“How—” She cut herself off. This was nuts! If she could think clearly, she knew she’d bark a million questions at him. With her lips together, she thought to herself, “How are we able to read each other’s minds? Do your little fellas have some superhuman abilities that you infected me with when you came in my pussy?”
“No, not my sperm. At least I don’t think so.”
She gasped. “But we can really hear each other’s thoughts?” She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing because it meant she wasn’t losing her mind . . . or a bad thing because it if it were true, she might rather be crazy because people would think it anyway.
“Among other things.” He sighed. “Where’s your father?”
“What in God’s name does my dad have to do with this freak show?” She stood up and wrapped the sheet around herself. Jack might feel comfortable walking around naked, but she didn’t.
“Just answer me, Lillian.”
“He’s at my grandma’s, Jackson.”
“Good grief, woman. When is he coming back?” Jack stalked over to her, and she held the sheet tightly to her chest.
“Couple weeks, I think. He didn’t specifically say.”
Jack nodded, stepped away from her, and reached for his jeans. “Get dressed. We need to go.”
“What makes you think I’m going anywhere with you, huh? First you’re all lovey-dovey, then you freak out on me. I think I’ll stay home today.”
“You fucking work for me, Lillian. Get your pretty little butt dressed.” Jack had managed to get almost completely dressed, and she was still wrapped in a sheet.
“I think I’ve done enough for you. Go to hell!”
He reached over and scooped her up. “What are you doing?” she yelled as he threw her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry.
“We have to go. Right now. I have to get you someplace safe before you decide you wanna attack me.”
“Oh, I’m not gonna kick your ass. I’m gonna kill you, Jack!”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” he mumbled as he carried her out of her bedroom. At least he’d left the sheet around her.
* * * *
Jack pounded on Josh’s door. He was in some deep, deep trouble. Within the last twenty-four hours, he’d gone from just accepting a drink invitation with Lillian to mating with her.
And he wasn’t dead.
Yet.
He remembered most of last night. It was quickly coming back to him. He’d gotten drunk while munching on chili. That crazy game she’d suggested as an icebreaker had set the stage for them to fuck like animals.
And he’d bit her.
“Josh!” He pounded on the door again.
It swung open, and Josh stood there looking disheveled. “What?”
“We need to talk. Now.”
“Too bad. I came by your place after breakfast, but you were gone. I’ve already worked several hours this morning, and Mikaela kept me up all night with her tossing and turning. She doesn’t sleep. I don’t sleep. I need a nap, dammit.”
“It’ll have to wait.”
Jack grabbed his brother’s arm and pulled him outside. Jack pulled the door shut just before he was yanked away from the house.
“Jesus, Jack. I need that arm.”
Jack let go of him and kept on walking toward the trees.
“This is far enough, bro. Now what was able to wait last night but can’t wait this morning?”
Jack turned around to face him, but stumbled back the last few steps so his body could collapse against the nearest tree.
“Not the same thing. That can wait. I fucked up, man. I fucked up big.”
Josh’s scowl eased away and was replaced with a look of concern. “Did something happen with Lillian?”
“You could say that.”
“I did say that, Jack. What happened?”
“We got drunk.” Smashed was more like it. “And had sex.”
“Oookay. I take it that wasn’t a good thing by how you’re acting.”
“Oh, the sex was off the charts from what I remember.” Jack leaned over, resting his elbows above his knees.
“Then what’s the problem? Do you think she didn’t want to do it?”
“Oh, she wanted it. I’m beginning to think fucking me was her idea for the night anyway.”
Jack knew he wasn’t making much sense, but he was freaking out. And hungover. A bad combination for trying to think and speak clearly.
Josh shook his head. “What are you not telling me?”
Jack looked at his older brother. He couldn’t say it. Not out loud. “I mated with her.”
“How?” Josh growled.
“I bit her while we were fucking, Josh. How do you think? Was it different for you and Mikaela, because that’s the only way I know how to do it.”
“Holy shit, Jack. How did you manage to get away from her?”
Jack laughed humorlessly as he stood up. “We were hammered. I’m surprised I was able to even get it up much less fight after. The details are sketchy, but I was still half buried in her when I woke up early this morning. I was still either too drunk or too hungover to register much more than that, so I pulled out, snuggled against her, and went right back to sleep. Based on that, I think we passed out right after.”
Josh nodded. “Okay. So how did she take the news? Apparently not too bad. You’re still walking.”
“She doesn’t know.”
“Hooo! That’s rich.” Josh chuckled. “You can’t keep something like this from her. She’s your mate.”
“That’s a fucking technicality!”
“One you have to live with, I’m afraid. Assuming she doesn’t attack your ass as soon as you tell her.”
“I can’t think about that right now.” Jack shook his head as he kicked at the leaves on the ground. This was a clusterfuck of epic proportions.
“You have to, you know. You have to tell her. She can’t go back home until she understands, and she can’t live here and be surrounded by secrets. She has to know the truth. She’s a part of this life now whether you like it or not.”
“I know. I know. God, I know. I just can’t believe I did something so fucking careless. Why didn’t Ariel�
�s meds stop me from claiming her?”
Josh shrugged. “You didn’t attack her. Maybe the alcohol limited the effects of the medication or you were both too inebriated to be responsible about anything. You’re a walking PSA, my man.”
“Shut up,” Jack said through gritted teeth.
Josh’s chuckle died as he stepped closer to Jack. He clapped his brother on his shoulder. “Why you were able to claim her doesn’t matter now. You need to focus on making this right. However you can.”
Jack sighed. “I have to go talk to her.”
“Where is she?”
“My cabin. I couldn’t leave her at her dad’s place. Not until she understands what’s going on.”
“You should get back to her, then, before she decides she doesn’t want to stick around.”
She’d made that decision before he’d even forced her to come over, but he wasn’t telling Josh that. Once Jack had convinced her to take a nice long shower and relax, he’d locked her in. She wasn’t going anywhere, and he couldn’t allow her to leave until she accepted things. Shit, he didn’t even know if he could accept things.
“Yeah, I know. At least her father is out of town right now. She won’t be missed.”
“Good. Then I think I should go tell the family what’s going on. I suspect you’ll have your hands full with her for a while, and they need to be prepared for anything she might do.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Josh chuckled as he stepped away from Jack. “Don’t thank me yet, bro. Save that for when I’m blocking her attacks against you.”
Jack paled. His brother was right. He’d be lucky to survive the night.
I’m in such deep shit.
Chapter Four
Was the man part mosquito? Her neck looked as though he’d fed from her for hours and hours.
She’d stared at it for a long time after her shower. The tee Jack had given her came down to her knees, but her neck was still exposed. She palpated it, watched the bruised skin turn white under her touch before the color rushed back into it, turning it an angry purple.
Or was he a vampire? He had bitten her neck. Maybe that was why they could read each other’s thoughts. Could he turn into a bat, too? Eww! Surely he didn’t turn into a flying rodent.
She was being crazy. There were no such things as life-size mosquitoes or vampires of any kind.
Maybe he knew some sort of mind voodoo that enabled him to read her thoughts.
Oh, maybe he was a witch! Hmm . . . warlock? Were male witches called witches, or was that the female term? She’d have to Google that later. She left the bathroom and looked around the small cabin.
Not much was here. Maybe he didn’t need many amenities to survive. She opened the fridge to find nothing in there either.
What if Jack and his family were bloodsucking aliens? Did people food make him sick? Had he eaten her chili last night? She couldn’t remember. If they were aliens, did they need to buy her family’s land for room to build a new mother ship to fly back home?
No. No. No. They’d lived there for as long as she could remember.
But maybe time was different for aliens.
She huffed as she stomped over to the bed to sit. She wasn’t getting anywhere. Her thoughts were so jumbled that nothing made sense.
The door rattled, and her heart raced.
She could hear little Caroline whisper, They’re here, in the back of her head. But this wasn’t the movie Poltergeist.
Hmm . . . could they be some kind of ghosts? She hadn’t considered that one yet. Ghosts that lived in corporeal form. Maybe they were tree ghosts that cohabitated—
“Hey, I’m back,” Jack said, cutting off her wayward thoughts.
“Oh, goodie.”
He walked up to her and sighed. “I’m sorry I took you out of your house and left you here. There are some things we need to discuss.”
“I gathered that.”
He sat down beside her, and she jumped up, taking several steps back. “Hold up there. You have some splainin’ to do, Lucy, and I’d prefer you stay ten feet from me until you do just that.”
“That’s probably not a bad idea,” he mumbled.
Why was he agreeing with her? Was this some kind of trick?
“Do you remember when I said I wanted to bite you while we were fuu—er, having sex?”
Really? She had the serpent’s bite mark to prove it. She rolled her eyes and nodded.
“Well, I shouldn’t have done that. Biting you bound you to me for all eternity since you are unmated.”
“Er, come again? Please define the words bound and eternity.”
He stood and started unbuttoning his shirt. “I’ll just have to show you.”
“Freeze, Batman. You aren’t showing me a damn thing. I saw plenty last night.”
He frowned, but dropped his hands. “Fine. When I bit you, I took you as my mate. It was an accident, I assure you. But the damage is done. We are a family of mountain lion shifters. We have a feral need to mate with any available female, and the consequences for taking an unwilling woman are dire, deadly. But last night I claimed you.”
She laughed. Hysterically. Tears streamed down her face. “Oh, that’s good, Count Dracula. You didn’t claim a damn thing last night. And if you did and it was sooo deadly, then why are you still breathing?”
“Ariel had developed a drug to help with the lethal aggression. The need is still always there, but the drugs were supposed to help suppress it enough to avoid taking a woman unwillingly. If I hadn’t been taking the medication, I wouldn’t have been able to be around you at all.”
“But you just said you took me last night? So you’re not making any sense whatsoever. But nice try, space boy. Time for someone to beam you up and out of here.”
He roared, and the blood drained from her face. That was a totally animalistic sound.
“Fuck it. I’ll just ruin my clothes.”
In the next instant, sounds of ripping material rent the air, and Lillian was staring at a cougar right where Jack had been standing. She’d watched as he literally morphed before her eyes.
“No,” she breathed, her brain refusing to work.
“Yes, Lilly.”
“Lillian.”
He growled. “You are so fucking stubborn. Here I am telling you about my life—about your life—and you’re seriously bitching at me about your name?”
“Guess this explains the whole mind-reading trick.”
“It’s speaking telepathically. My family and I can all do it. Mikaela and Krista can, too, since they are mated to my brothers.”
“And you think I can do this because you and I are mated?” “Well, you’re doing it, aren’t you?”
The little prick had a point.
He shifted back into all his naked glory. “I have to admit, you’re taking this better than I expected.”
“So you’re a freak of nature. Not my fucking problem. Have a nice life, kitty. Oh, and I quit.”
She turned. She was getting the heck out of Dodge while the getting was good. From what she remembered of last night, the sex had rocked her, but if she had to face the unexplainable, then she’d rather be with someone like David.
“Whoever the fuck David is, you can forget it,” Jack barked behind her.
She gasped and whirled. “Stay out of my head, Houdini.”
“You’re practically screaming it at me, Lillian.”
“So what, Jackson? This doesn’t have anything to do with me. Go back to your catnip and mouse toys, and I’ll pretend this never happened.”
He growled and headed toward her. She started shaking. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to antagonize the beast. She needed to just make nice and get away.
“Sweet, sweet, Lilly. You seem to misunderstand. This is your life, too. Once I bit you, I made you a part of it. Welcome home, honey.”
“Oh, hell to the no. You don’t own me. It was just sex!” Okay, so making nice wasn’t her forte.
“Only it wasn
’t, darlin’. Remember the noise you made when I snuggled up against you this morning?”
He took her wrist into his hand and put her palm against his face. Under his ministrations, she stroked his cheek, and that odd gurgling sound bubbled up from somewhere deep within him. It was similar to what she’d done this morning, but much deeper.
“What are you doing?” She barely breathed out the words because she had a sinking feeling she knew. She just couldn’t say it.
“I think you know.” He shut his eyes as he leaned into her hand, rubbing his cheek against her. The noise got louder.
If she wasn’t so freaked out, she might actually get turned on by being this close to him, but her brain could barely process what this meant to her, much less anything else.
He lifted his head and looked into her eyes. His blue eyes held a sense of sympathy and something else. Resolve?
“I was purring. Just like you did this morning.”
“No! I’m not like you.” She tried to back away from him, but Jack grabbed her hips and held her.
“You are now. You are mine. I will try to make this as easy for you as I can, but you need to start accepting it. We have no other choice.”
She felt an odd sense of rage build within her. Anger, hurt, betrayal. Her senses were swimming in a sea of red. Her body hummed with an instinct to protect herself from this male, this man, who’d changed her. No! This man who was spilling lies to her.
She threw her head back and roared.
Jack jumped back, arms spread out in a defensive maneuver. As if that’d stop her from tearing him apart, the fool.
The tingles in her body got stronger, as though electrical currents were zinging all around her. Then her point of view changed. She’d had her head tilted up to stare into Jack’s eyes, but now she was looking at his thighs. What the hell? A hiss fell from her mouth, and she choked it back. She looked down and saw tan-covered paws.
“No, no, no, no, no, no. This can’t be happening.”
“It is, Lilly. Let me help you. Please stay calm. We will get you through this,” Jack’s voice whispered through her mind. He took several steps back toward the fridge in the open space.
