by Becca Van
“Since you’ve just touched my hair, you should wash your hands.” Mel met Johnny’s and then Kris’s eyes. “In fact, that should always be the first thing you do when you’re about to prepare food. It’s important to have good hygiene so you don’t make yourself or others sick.”
“We’re werewolves, sweetheart. We don’t get sick,” Johnny said as he walked toward the counter and sat on the stool on the other side.
“Do you have any other…humans living here?”
“Only our Alpha female, Jenny, and she won’t suffer from any illness a human does anymore either,” Kris said as he removed the cooked pancakes and bacon from the grill, put them into a dish and then into the oven.
“But she suffers from morning sickness.” Mel paused to show Jules how much milk to add to the eggs and then sprinkled a little of the all-purpose seasoning into the mix before handing him the whisk.
“I guess hormones are one thing that never changes in a woman,” Jules said as he glanced up before concentrating on his whisking.
“Okay, the eggs are ready to go into the microwave.”
“You can make scrambled eggs in a microwave?” Johnny asked with a surprised look on his face.
“Yeah, you can make pretty much anything in a microwave as long as you have the correct dishes, but not everything comes out tasting so great. I’d never bake a cake in it, and I never cook meat in it. Vegetables and rice are great, but I prefer the more conventional style of cooking by using the stove and oven.”
“Why?” Kris asked.
“Because everything just seems to taste much better.”
By the time breakfast was cooked and people started to enter the dining room, Melanie felt a lot more comfortable around the three sexy werewolves. And they started taking the dishes full of food across to the sideboard so everyone could help themselves. Once the food was laid out, she expected them to sit down and eat with everyone else, but again, they surprised her. Johnny, Kris, and Jules loaded four plates up and then brought them back to the counter.
Mel had started tidying the kitchen up but stopped when Johnny came around the bench, clasped her wrist, and then tugged her toward one of the stools.
“Come and eat with us, sweetheart.”
She thought about protesting, but she didn’t want to be the one to put disappointment in any of their eyes, so she acquiesced willingly. Of course she couldn’t eat a third of what had been piled onto her plate, and by the time she’d eaten a pancake with some eggs and a piece of bacon, she was stuffed.
Kris, who was sitting on her left, nudged her arm to get her attention, and when she met his eyes, he asked, “Have you finished with that? Are you sure you don’t want anymore?”
“No, I’ve eaten more than enough.” She eyed his empty plate and was glad she’d more than doubled what she’d normally serve for the same amount of people. “Do want to finish it?”
“Only if you’re sure you don’t want it.”
Melanie pushed her plate toward him in answer. When she felt Johnny’s warm jean-covered thigh press against hers, she bit her tongue to hold back the moan of desire building in her chest and surreptitiously moved a little so she wouldn’t be touching him any longer. But a few moments later, his leg was once more plastered against hers.
Heat surged through her body, melting her from the inside, and her muscles softened as if she suddenly wanted to lie down. Her areolae tightened, and the nipples hardened and tingled as if begging to be touched.
She squeezed her legs together and shifted on her stool when her pussy became wet, but doing so didn’t relieve the growing ache between her thighs. In fact, by pressing her legs together, it only seemed to compound the throbbing of her clit and the clenching of her inner muscles.
She was so hot she began to pant rapidly and decided she needed some fresh air to help cool off. She had no idea why she was reacting the way she was, and although she wanted to ask the three men sitting at the counter with her, she was too embarrassed to do so.
Mel slid from the stool, making sure to keep her gaze lowered, and then moved it aside so she could move away from the counter. She wanted to slip away unobtrusively but knew that was impossible because Johnny, Kris, and Jules were watching her every move. Everywhere their eyes touched on her body she sparked like a livewire.
She walked to the sliding glass door, opened it enough to slip through the gap, and pulled it closed behind her. Mel breathed deeply of the fresh air as she headed toward the rail at the edge of the veranda and clutched the smooth wood tightly.
She had a feeling she was in deep shit, and no matter how hard she tried to climb out the hole she was falling down into, she wouldn’t be able to climb back out.
But what worried her was the fact that she wasn’t sure she wanted to.
Chapter Six
Jules bit the inside of his cheek when Melanie slid from the stool and hurried to the sliding glass door. The scent of her arousal was so damn sweet his wolf was pushing at him to pin her to the floor, strip her naked, and lap up all that honey. He gripped the edge of the bench until his knuckles turned white and began to ache, and he heard the stone creak as if it was about to break.
He exhaled slowly as he tried to get his wolf to back down so he wouldn’t go running outside to his mate, but all of his control went to hell in a hand basket when his brothers suddenly jumped to their feet and hurried to the door. Jules couldn’t do anything but follow them. There was no way he was missing out on talking to Melanie some more or denying himself the pleasure of her company.
Once a wolf met and smelled the scent of his mate, he—or she—would do anything and everything in his power to stay at her side, and although he knew it was going to be a struggle to keep his animal back so he didn’t scare her, he needed to be close to her.
She glanced over her shoulder when he and his brothers emerged, but other than that, she kept her back to them. Johnny and Kris glanced at each other as they paused their forward momentum, but Jules couldn’t stop. His wolf was demanding he breathe in his mate, and although he wrestled with his animal, it won the battle.
Jules made sure not to touch Melanie because she was so tense he heard her teeth grinding together, but he moved close enough to satisfy his wolf. At least for now. His nostrils flared as he drew in her musky feminine arousal, and he felt the heat emanating from her body, and although his beast was chanting “fuck, mate, claim” and pushing at him to move closer, he was able to resist his animal’s call. Just.
“Are you all right, Melanie?” Jules asked but then cursed under his breath when his voice came out deeper than usual and also a little garbled. He drew another deep breath, and when he licked his dry lips, he felt the tip of an elongated canine.
“What?” Melanie asked and met his gaze before her eyes shifted down to his mouth.
Jules tensed, expecting her to scream or run in the opposite direction when she saw his lengthened teeth, but she surprised him when she did neither and kept staring at his mouth.
“Does that hurt?”
“No,” Johnny replied before Jules could, and he also moved up behind Melanie, but his brother was wise enough to keep a few feet between him and their mate so she wouldn’t feel crowded.
Kris slowly stepped forward until he stood beside Johnny, and then Melanie turned around to face all of them as she leaned back against the rail.
The tension escalated once more, and when Jules felt his body begin to heat and his cock harden even more—if that were even possible because he was harder than a rock—he knew he was in trouble. This time when he inhaled he smelled the pheromones seeping from his brothers’ pores and knew they were all starting to go into the mating heat.
When he heard Melanie sniff the air and a low moan left her parted lips as her eyes slid closed, he knew that she was just as affected.
“What are you doing to me?” she asked in a quiet, breathy voice.
Her lids lifted again, but they didn’t open fully since they were weighted with
desire. When she licked her lips, Jules’s reason flew right out the window, so to speak.
He took the small step that brought him right up against her small, sexy body, and he groaned when her hard nipples brushed against the soft cotton of his T-shirt and his chest. Without even thinking about what he was doing, he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her more snuggly against him. Her stomach collided with his hard, throbbing dick, and as he leaned down, he drew in a deep breath.
Her eyes widened slightly, and although he gave her plenty of time to protest, or pull or push him away, she did neither. In fact, her eyelids fluttered closed, and her head tipped up toward him. The moment his lips touched hers he was a goner. Her scent surrounded him, and his heart flipped over with excitement. He brushed his flesh against hers, once, twice, thrice, and with a whimper of need, she melted against him and parted her lips.
Jules took immediate advantage, pressing his tongue in to stroke along and dance with hers, and he groaned as her sweet flavour ingrained into his taste buds and her very essence seemed to burrow right into his heart.
Elation speared through him when he felt her small, delicate hands land on his chest before smoothing their way up to his shoulders until she was clutching him so hard her short nails dug into his skin. His wolf howled at the fact that his mate was leaving marks on his skin, but the man was disappointed because he knew those marks of passion would be gone within moments of her releasing him.
If she hadn’t turned her head away from him to gasp in deep gulps of air, Jules may have just gone on kissing her until they both passed out from lack of oxygen. Her face was so fucking gorgeous but now even more so because her cheeks were tinted pink and her lips were fuller and redder than they had been before he kissed her. And now that the scent of her arousal was even stronger and he still had the first taste of her sweetness lingering on his lips and tongue, his wolf was clawing at his gut, pushing to get out.
Claws emerged from the tips of his fingers, and fur raced over his body in sporadic patches as he and his animal fought for supremacy. As the battle of wills continued between him and his wolf, he was only half aware of what he was doing. If Johnny hadn’t shoved him to the side away from Melanie, he might just have fucked up his and his brothers’ chances with their mate for all time.
Low growls built in his chest and erupted from his mouth, and although he felt his lips curl up as he bared his teeth at Johnny with ire for shoving him away from his true-bond mate, he was also thankful for his oldest brother’s intervention.
Melanie gasped, drawing his gaze, and when he saw the fear in her eyes and how she covered her mouth with horror at his display of temper, he was able to curtail his wolf’s aggression and shove his animal back down. He inhaled deeply, calming his rapid breathing and racing heart and nodded his thanks to Johnny before he held his hands out in a placating gesture. He took a step toward his mate, about to apologize for his antagonistic behaviour, but froze when the hand covering her mouth flew into the air, palm toward him in the “stop” position.
“Don’t come near me.” The fear dissipated from Melanie’s eyes, and although he could still see the lingering desire in their depths, that fear changed to anger.
Guilt wracked him for how he’d scared his mate, but he was glad to see that the fear had disappeared and belligerence had taken its place. His hard dick jerked against his pants at the fire in her eyes, and he hoped one day soon she would forgive him for scaring her and direct that passion toward him and his brothers.
He opened his mouth to apologize, but when she shook her head, he snapped it closed again. She stomped forward, and when Kris shifted as if to stop her, she shoved his brother hard enough to knock him back a step and then raced back inside.
The moment the door closed behind her, Kris and Johnny turned their glowing, angry wolf eyes onto him. Normally he would never show his brothers any submission since they were all equals in the pack, but he lowered his head in submission for the first time in years when their angry growls filled his ears.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” Kris snarled and shoved him hard enough to nearly send him toppling back over the rail. If he hadn’t been a wolf, he would have fallen right over the top of it and landed on the hard ground below. Usually he would never allow his brothers to push him around, but he stood loosely, knowing he deserved any and every punishment they were willing to dish out.
“I wasn’t,” Jules answered truthfully. “I lost it totally.”
“No fucking shit.” Johnny sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.
Kris got so close to him their noses were nearly touching and stared at him with ice-cold fury. “You nearly fucking claimed her. Don’t ever do that shit again. You could have ruined everything.”
“I know.” Jules nodded. “I was going to apologise, but she didn’t give me the chance.”
Johnny shoved Kris aside. “I suggest you go inside and do that right now. You scared the hell out of her when you lost control. I thought she was going to have a heart attack. Her heart was beating that fast.”
Jules glanced around Johnny and saw that the dining room was now empty, but he saw Melanie working on the clean-up and knew that there wasn't going to be too many opportunities to talk to her when others weren’t around. He took a step toward the glass door but stopped when Johnny grabbed his arm.
“Does she taste as good as you imagined?”
“No.” Jules shook his head as his body shuddered with heat. “She tasted so much better.”
“You’re a lucky fucking bastard.” Kris punched him in the arm, and Jules knew that he was forgiven for his loss of control. At least for now. But he also knew if he didn’t get inside and get back into Melanie’s good graces, and if she didn’t want to have a bar of them any longer, that his brothers would never forgive him. However, if that happened, he would never be able to forgive himself either. And now that he’d met his true-bond mate, if she rejected them because of him, he wasn’t so sure he would be able to go on.
Jules drew a deep breath and tried to ease the tension in his body, but that was nearly a damned impossibility since he was beginning the mating heat, but from now on, he was going to keep his animal down deep because he knew there was no way he would be able to suffer the consequences if he didn’t.
* * * *
Melanie had just put the last dish into the dishwasher and turned it on. There was only the griddle left to wash, and she needed to wipe down the counter and table. Then she would need to start on the preparations for cooking lunch. To keep the midday meal simple, Jenny had suggested setting out ingredients so that anyone stopping by to eat could make their own sandwiches, and she had thankfully agreed. A delivery of approximately thirty loaves of bread had been made just after six o’clock that morning, and the loaves were now stacked up on a large shelf in the walk-in pantry. The simplicity of such a lunch would make it easier for her to organise the roasts she was planning to have for dinner.
She’d just filled the massive sink with water and was washing the griddle when the sliding glass door swished open. She glanced from the corner of her eye to see which of the three brothers had entered the room, and when she spied Jules heading toward her, she stiffened. She had been a little scared when he’d started snapping and snarling at Johnny earlier, but when she’d seen fur sprouting along his arms and his aggressive stance, she’d gotten downright petrified, and then she’d become angry because of her fear. Melanie had never been more relieved to escape those three men in her life, but as she’d worked to clean up after breakfast, she remembered seeing fiery passion in Jules’s eyes. His reaction had mirrored her own except for the assertive part, and she wondered if she would come out of this unscathed.
Mel was beginning to think that she was going a little crazy but not in a bad way. Each time she saw one or all of the men claiming to be her mates, the more she craved their touch and the more she wanted to say to hell with it.
“Melanie?” Jules’s voice was so soft s
he almost didn’t hear him, and even though she really wanted to make him pay for frightening her earlier, she wasn’t really a vindictive person, so she ignored the urge to give him the silent treatment and turned to face him.
She didn’t speak but raised an eyebrow in query and began to wipe the counter down. And that was when she realised she could be as vindictive as the next person. She sighed with contrition because she hadn’t been brought up to do such a thing.
Her mother, God rest her soul, had been the epitome of kind and loving and had told Mel she should always talk about her annoyances rather than letting them fester until molehills became mountains that eventually erupted with a vengeance.
“What’s up, Jules?” she asked in a calm voice.
He cleared his throat, but when she met his gaze again, he held it, even though he looked as if he wanted to glance away.
“I’m sorry I scared you. I didn’t mean to lose control of my animal.”
“Then why did you?” she asked curiously.
“Can I sit?”
Mel nodded and waited until he was sitting on a stool across the counter from her.
“Okay. It’s really hard to explain our instincts when they are second nature to us, but if you’ll bear with me, I’ll try.”
Mel nodded again and leaned her hip into the counter. She had to bury the urge to cross her arms over her chest when she felt her nipples begin to harden and throb.
“As we’ve told you, you’re our mate. Since we’re werewolves and our senses are so much better than a human’s, and a dog’s for that matter, we can smell so much. I, we, can smell your desire, and the scent is driving my wolf crazy. My animal is pushing at me to mark and claim you all the time, and sometimes he just gets away from me. Like before. And then there’s the mating heat.”
“What?” Mel frowned.
“Has no one told you about that?” Before she could answer, Jules continued on. “Shit. I’m so sorry. We seem to botching this badly. Kris, Johnny, you better come inside.”
