Not to anyone.
“Hey baby, you looking for a real man?”
“This one ain’t gonna treat you right. Come sit on my lap, sweet thing.”
The catcalls were accompanied by loud, smooching kisses and dirty laughter. Noelle’s scent turned annoyed with a thread of fear running through the middle.
Jensen wanted to tear the world apart.
Leather creaked with the slow footfalls of an asshole approaching. “Hoo-boy, I can see who wears the pants! She got you trained to sit and take a treat, wolf?”
Jensen whipped around, a snarl lifting his lip. Fuck. Fuck. She hadn’t known what he was, then. He didn’t need it advertised now. “Don’t make me take you for a walk, Jughead.”
Only, she didn’t run. Hell, she didn’t even smell surprised.
“I own this territory, traitor. I want you out of it by moon rise. Otherwise,” he smirked, “count on the missus and the pup getting a visit.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll treat ‘em real nice,” someone else added.
Dark laughs and mutters of hopeful agreement bounced through the Moonlight Slayers.
Fuck no. The growl that’d rattled in his wolf punched through his own lips in a possessive snarl. The room swam in red. He wanted to feel the warmth on his hands, taste it on his tongue. They’d never touch Noelle. Never.
Jensen took a step closer. The wolves with him slid from their stools at the bar. Eyes flashed all around the bar. Gold, silver, green. Fur scented the air, right underneath the aggression clogging his nostrils. He’d just wanted a drink and a rest from the road.
Now, he wanted to break some bones and taste blood on his fangs.
The first Slayer rushed him from the side. Jensen twisted his body into his path and sent the man flying off his hip check. His wolves joined the fray with roars and flying fists.
The door behind him swung closed with a soft sealing sound.
His wolf clawed through his head. Protect her. Save her. Find her. Fuck her. The course of events was clear to the beast.
Jensen didn’t have time to correct the animal. Jughead swung a meaty fist in his direction.
Duck, punch, duck, dive.
Jughead slid under his punch and slammed his shoulder into him, carrying him off the ground and landing on a nearby table. Jensen drove his elbow into the back of the man’s neck and shoved his way back to his feet. He grabbed hold of Jughead’s arm and slammed his face into the table. Blood spurted from the man’s nose, but the savage wrench of his arm forced a scream from his throat.
All around him, his wolves—rogues, now. Vagabonds no longer—punched and kicked and clawed the hell out of any Slayer they could find. Fuckers had been easy to beat when the pack was at full strength. The remnants were happy for the challenge.
Wyatt laughed wickedly, blood streaming from a cut on his temple. Bryce smirked down at someone trying vainly to shove him off balance.
Jensen’s wolf scratched at him for more. The beast wanted to smell sweetness instead of metal. Soft skin instead of rough knuckles.
Ellis dropped another Slayer and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
“Go,” Ellis nodded toward the door. “Follow them and keep them safe.”
* * *
The sound of a motorcycle chased Noelle all the way home. She thought she’d simply imagined it until she pulled into her driveway. She’d unbuckled Sienna from the backseat when the bike and the man she didn’t want to see pulled up behind her.
Noelle shot a panicked look down the street and hurried toward her front door. Were more of them coming? She didn’t want those jerks knowing where she lived.
She didn’t want Jensen knowing where she lived, but there he stood.
A bar fight. That was not what she wanted Sienna seeing. The girl already had enough of a problem with control. Seeing men tear into each other with impunity wasn’t the help she’d hoped for when she pulled into the parking lot of the bar.
Dumb. So dumb. She never should have gone to the Moonlight Saloon. She knew the reputation of the men there. Rough fighters. Bikers.
Shifters.
Idiot move, Noelle.
Too bad it felt like the only one left to her when everyone around her held closely to their secrets and wouldn’t give them up for a struggling mother.
“Noelle.”
Her name on his tongue stopped her in her tracks.
“You said we need to talk.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. She should turn him away.
Noelle spun around slowly. He stood at the foot of her front porch, hands spread wide.
He’d aged well in the years since she’d spent the night with him. Strong as ever. Sexy as ever. Broad shoulders and tapered waist, and she already knew what he packed under his tight shirt and jeans. Long lines of muscles and an even longer—
Ahem.
In her silence, his lips hitched up on one side to complete that wolfishly handsome look. Then his nostrils flared and his eyes churned brightly with gold.
She’d been an idiot not to understand he was different even back then. Those growls and snarls all seemed so obvious now. He’d rocked her world for one brief night, and she held the souvenir of that vacation from life in her arms.
She should turn him away.
She couldn’t.
He was Sienna’s father. Seeing him again kicked her in the gut. He was the hypothetical missing piece from her puzzle—the father and shifter Sienna needed.
Stupid. Utterly stupid. She didn’t know the man. The little she saw then and now didn’t exactly make him out to be father of the year.
That was the second kick to the gut. She wanted a picture perfect family, and she was increasingly aware that dream wouldn’t be her reality. Not with a little girl who couldn’t control her inner animal.
At the very least, Jensen deserved to know about Sienna. She couldn’t deny him knowledge of his daughter.
“Mommy, who is that?” Sienna asked.
“That’s an old friend of mine, sweetie.” Noelle pressed a protective hand to the girl’s head and bounced her higher on her hip. Sheesh, she was getting too heavy. “We’ve been needing to talk for a long while.”
Jensen flashed her a tight smile and trailed up the steps at a safe distance.
Noelle dropped Sienna to her feet as soon as they were inside the door. The girl scampered off into the house, leaving her alone with a man who filled the doorway. He looked out of place in his boots and leather jacket, head swiveling as he took in the pictures on the wall.
What the heck was she doing?
Jensen locked his attention back on her. Hazel eyes, just like Sienna’s, flickered with spots of green and gold. That gaze lit a fire in her belly and sent her tumbling into thoughts of their night together. Goose bumps lifted up and down her arms.
Jensen opened his mouth, but Noelle held up her hand to stop him. “Wait. Let me get her started on dinner, then we’ll talk.”
“Noelle.” He glanced at a picture of Sienna on the wall. “Can I at least know her name?”
“Sienna.”
Noelle spun on her heel and zipped into the kitchen before he could change his mind. Sienna’s favorite unicorn plastic plate smiled accusations at her as she dumped out leftovers and heated them in the microwave. Her hands shook the bottle of apple juice so hard she made a mess on the counter.
What the heck was she doing?
She was looking for help. Sienna needed more than she could provide.
Noelle jumped at the ding of the microwave. She opened her mouth to call Sienna to the table, but stopped herself when she spotted the little girl spying on the living room from around the kitchen corner. Her heart dipped into her stomach at the stuffed wolf dangling from her hand.
“Let’s eat, cubby.”
“I’m not a cubby! I’m a puppy!” Sienna laughed, then held up her stuffed wolf. Her voice dropped conspiratorially. “Do you think he wants to meet Mr. Wolf?”
Noelle matc
hed her volume. “How about we ask after dinner?”
The plan received Sienna’s approval. She tossed Mr. Wolf onto the table top and set in to eat without any protest.
Which left Noelle with no other duties except the one that waited in her living room.
She found Jensen seated in the center of her couch, arms thrown across the back and knees spread wide. He looked too relaxed for it to be true.
He rose to his feet as soon as she stepped into the room. The easy posture slipped into a scowl. “What the hell were you doing in a place like that?”
Noelle whipped a glance back into the kitchen. Sienna still sat in her chair, kicking her legs as she talked to Mr. Wolf between bites. “Don’t curse in front of her,” she hissed. “The first words out of your mouth and you’re questioning me?” The audacity of the man!
“A bar, woman. A bar full of bikers who’d just as easily chew you up for fun than listen to whatever you had to say.”
“Well, excuse me for not knowing what to do with a,” she lowered her voice again, “wolf pup.”
Jensen watched Sienna over her shoulder, and said nothing.
Noelle fidgeted in the silence until she couldn’t take it anymore. “I was there because I’m struggling, Jensen. She’s shifting all the time and I don’t know what she needs. I can’t control her. I can’t relate to that part of her. She nearly bit me this morning. I know enough to know that’s trouble waiting to happen.” She sucked down a shuddering breath. “We were coming back from the park and I passed the bar. I thought, what the heck, might as well go back to where it all started and see if I can knock loose some advice.”
“Don’t go back there.”
Noelle bristled at the easy way he gave the order, even if it made sense. “Like I said, I was just looking for help. I didn’t know where else to go.”
“You don’t have a man to care for you?”
She straightened her shoulders and glared. “Care for me? Because I’m incapable of doing that for myself? And no, there’s no man here to care for me. I’ve been utterly focused on raising our—Sienna.”
Jensen stepped closer and looked down his nose at her. “Why won’t you say it?”
She met him stare for stare. “Because I don’t know you from Adam. Because you could be gone in the morning, and I won’t have her heart broken. If you want that title, you earn it.”
He paced away from her and she let go of her held breath. Holy mackerel, he had her heart racing just as much as the first time she caught sight of him. The air felt heavy around him. Hard to breathe. Her skin crackled like lightning struck right next to her.
“This is insane.” Jensen rubbed a hand over the back of his head. Still agitated, he scrubbed that hand down his face. “I can’t be a father. I’m not made for being locked in an office all damn day or staying in one place.”
Noelle edged closer and pressed a hand to his arm. Heat whipped through her, flaring through her palm and curving down her spine. “I know this is a lot to take in—”
“A lot? Try fucking life-altering!” Jensen jerked away and paced the living room again.
“Don’t curse!” Noelle scolded. “I can’t have her repeating those words to all her classmates.”
He stopped and turned to her, bewilderment drawing his eyebrows together. “She’s in school?”
She pointed to one of the pictures hanging above the television. Sienna grinned with a backpack at her feet. “First day of kindergarten. She really likes arts and crafts. I think making something helps keep her focused and calm. Recess is where she tends to have some problems. I have to keep her inside most days so she doesn’t scare the other kids when her eyes go gold.”
“She needs to run. Works out the energy,” Jensen murmured as he studied Sienna’s picture. He rolled his shoulders. “That doesn’t ever change.”
But he didn’t turn away. In fact, he bounced his focus from photo to photo.
Noelle softened. He had to be in shock. Heck, she felt struck dumb by his sudden appearance. She had years with the growing girl under her belt, while he had mere minutes.
“I’m sorry this got sprung on you. I didn’t know how to get in touch with you. You disappeared, and that’s fine. I didn’t go into that bar that night looking for the love of my life. I just wanted to forget about a bad breakup.” She smiled painfully and shrugged a shoulder. “Only, a month later, everything changed. And a few months after she was born, everything changed again. I’ve been doing this on my own, raising a shifter child before shifters were known to exist. I can’t do this alone anymore.”
“I don’t know what you expect from me,” he said in a dead, monotone voice.
“Anything! Help controlling her shifting, learning what sets her off from sweet girl to growling beast. I can’t get her to change back sometimes.” Cautiously, Noelle reached for him again and turned him toward her. Heat flared under her palm where their skin touched, soothing and riling all at once. “She almost bit me. What happens if she bites someone else? Will the Supernatural Enforcement Agency lock her in a cage?”
“I’m not a father figure, Noelle. You’d be better off finding someone else. Maybe in the enclaves. Not the SEA. They’re death waiting to happen. Someone better has to be out there for her, because it ain’t me,” he growled, long and low, but something uncertain flickered in his eyes. “That trouble at the bar is me. You shouldn’t want your pup around that.”
Her heart dipping to her stomach. Not in a good, toe-curling kiss way, either. No, it was the sucker punch sinking feeling. The feeling of being at the bottom of a pit with no way to the top. The sense of lifelong failure for her child.
Noelle stepped back and shook her head to clear it of disappointment. “Why did you even want to talk if you were planning on walking away?”
“What the fuck do you want from me? I’m no good for a child. I can’t teach her anything useful.”
“Don’t curse!”
Jensen turned to her, eyes flaring gold. “Fuck,” he emphasized with another growl.
“No!” Sienna yelled from the doorway into the kitchen.
Her little shape shimmered and twisted until a black wolf pup shook out of the clothes the little girl had been wearing. She charged into the living room, bit down on Jensen’s jeans, and tugged. Her ears pinned back to her skull and her tail pointed right down to the floor.
Jensen shook his leg with a sharp snarl.
Sienna let go with a high-pitched whine and tumbled over backward in her haste to get away. Paws scrabbled at the floor underneath her until she found her footing and ran, knocking against the leg of the table. Her cup wobbled before falling over.
The steady drip, drip, drip of juice hitting the floor was the only noise for a long second.
Monster. Probably a murderer. Definitely a rough, bar brawling, whiskey shot slinging, ass.
His life wasn’t compatible with hers. His temper wasn’t suitable for children.
Noelle didn’t know what she’d expected. Something better than the last jerk she dated. She’d sworn off men who talked down to her and made her feel small and, because of him, found herself in Jensen’s arms for the night. She wouldn’t let Jensen make her or Sienna feel small, either.
“Look at what you’ve done! Get out. Get out, now!” Noelle yelled in a whisper. She shot him a dirty look over her shoulder and rushed after the little pup. “Sienna, sweetie, it’s okay. He didn’t hurt me. He won’t hurt you. I promise. He’s leaving now.”
She expected the door to slam shut behind her. The footsteps that followed her instead were both surprising and unwelcome.
“Let me try,” Jensen said in a soft voice.
Steel wrapped in cloth, Noelle thought.
He squeezed past her and went to his knees beside the bed. The whine of fright from underneath tore at Noelle’s heart. She took a step into the room and crossed her arms over her chest. One shot. That was all he got before she booted him out the door.
“Sienna,” he said in
his soft tone. “I didn’t mean to scare you. Will you come out?”
The bed shook from the pup moving underneath.
Jensen made a noise. Growl, Noelle thought at first. She pressed her lips together and prepared to tell the man to get the heck out of her home and stop harassing her child. Then she listened. Really listened. The rumble was quiet and soothing, almost like a purr.
“That’s it, little pup. Come on out. You know I won’t hurt you,” he rumbled.
Noelle’s mouth dropped open in shock as Sienna’s black snout poked out from under the bed skirt. Gold eyes reflected in the room’s light, then faded away to her human hazel.
“Time to put your fur away, little pup,” Jensen coaxed.
The pup belly-crawled out from under the bed. Her tail wagged at the very tip before her entire shape shimmered and shifted back to a little girl.
Then she did something that took Noelle by surprise. She flung herself at Jensen and wrapped her arms around his neck.
He froze for a long moment, then slowly wrapped his arms around the girl. He met Noelle’s gaze over Sienna’s head. “I can’t make you any promises. I’m probably going to be sh—terrible at this. But I’ll try to help get her shifts under control.”
Noelle nodded and tried not to melt. As much as he protested and worked to lower expectations, she couldn’t help but love the matching eyes that watched her.
She also noticed that he didn’t curse.
Chapter 5
“Close your eyes, Sienna,” Jensen reminded. “Listen, don’t look.”
They sat in Noelle’s backyard, like they’d done for two afternoons. The trees lining the fence gave the space some sense of privacy, which put his wolf at ease. A lifetime of keeping himself hidden didn’t disappear overnight. He didn’t want nosy neighbors spotting his wolf.
Or his pup.
He tried to remember all the lessons from his childhood. Noelle said Sienna had issues with control and not wanting to listen. He’d been the same at her age. Well beyond, too, but that rebellion was chosen.
His folks had sat him down every day and worked on figuring out his inner wolf. Scenting the air. Listening to the world around him. He’d needed to exercise that other part of his mind instead of letting it run wild with him. He hoped the remembered lessons would help Sienna, too.
Whiskey and Wolves: Book One: Shifters and Sins Page 3
