JAYDEN

by Becca Fanning

  Leila frowned at them. “I don’t understand. Why are you here then?”

  “People didn’t know why Jay and Kon had been sent off on a mission. They thought it was nepotism because they’re kids of a Council leader… delicate situations aren’t usually handled by cubs, after all. But you were young, and I figured the two of them could be discreet at times. They’ve been raised well. I knew, even if you had been on a spending spree, they wouldn’t hurt you. When we learned the whole truth about your sick grandmother, I knew they would treat you with care.

  “Look, I want to say that the Council knew, and as a result, save for Mundo because he’s the boys’ father, we have been avoiding you. Sure, we understand and commiserate with your reasons for the theft, but until you proved yourself, we wouldn’t actively engage with you.”

  Her frown deepened with more confusion. He was speaking but somehow not giving her answers. “Okay. What do I have to do to prove myself?”

  He smiled. “You’ve done it.”

  “I have?”

  “Ava told me last night that you’d cracked a database that was nearly impossible to breach. As a result, the program is nearly ready to enter testing.” This time, it was Mars who spoke. “You’ve more than proven yourself. You’ve helped my daughter, who is impossible to help because she’s always helping everyone else…. for that alone, I’m grateful. I feel like we have another member on our team who can pull of the impossible. The MC needs that, but more, the Clan does.”

  “I’m just glad to help.”

  “I know. We both do,” Kiko informed her. “This is your official welcome.”

  Her eyes widened. “It is?”

  “Yes,” Mars confirmed. “From now on, the Council will engage with you. Of course, there might be no reason to; our generation is different to yours. But we will not actively avoid you is my point. You have a place in the Clan anyway because of your situation with the twins, but I believe you have a place regardless. I would like you and Ava to work together on a permanent setting. There’s more to what she does than just hacking. I know we originally hired you to work on accounts. I’d like you to help Ava with that. She does too much. And now she’s mated, it’s imperative that she has more freedom.”

  “Do you really mean that?” Leila whispered, hand flying to her throat to cup it in surprise. “I-I can’t be trusted,” she informed them. “Not with such delicate information. I-I’m a thief.”

  Kiko’s smile was generous. Gentle. “No. You were hard pressed. Desperate. You were in an untenable situation, Leila. You chose family over everything else, and that, to this Clan, means more than the world.” His tone turned rueful.

  “In the future, we just ask that if anyone else becomes ill in your family, you don’t embezzle from the accounts but come to us and ask for help. Everyone knows they can do that. Even the humans on staff who aren’t aware of our real natures. You were new, and that information is only extended to people who are trusted workers, so you didn’t know that. But we would have helped you regardless… I can understand why you wouldn’t think that was the case though.”

  “Family really means so much to you?” she asked, astonished by his words.

  “Family is everything,” Mars said simply. Then, he stopped hovering by the door and strode toward her. Five minutes ago, she’d have tensed up, tried to back off. Instead, now, with their words ringing in her ears, she stood her ground, waiting for him to make the first move.

  When he held out his hand, she stared at his fingers and frowned. When she realized he wanted to shake on it, her own hand shot out to grasp hold of his with embarrassing speed as she processed that was his intention like a dull wit.

  “Welcome, Leila. It’s a pleasure to have you in the Clan and I can only hope that you trust yourself as you have shown us how trustworthy you can be, and actually do join our team, and work with Ava.”

  “Even if she is a pain in the ass.”

  Leila’s lips twitched at Kiko’s comment as she shook Mars’s hand. The Prez grimaced. “Sadly, my VP is right. Ava isn’t the easiest person to handle. I’m hoping that you will find her easier to work with because you seem to be…” With his free hand, he wafted it at the many computer screens Ava had on her desk. “Well, you seem to share similar interests.”

  For the first time since they’d shown up, Leila could relax enough to grin. “Ava and I speak the same language, sir, you’re right.”

  Kiko snorted. “Nobody’s speaks that girl’s language.”

  She peered around the Prez. “I do. We’re definitely similar, even if she has a more imaginative phrasebook.”

  Mars grimaced. “Should have whooped her more as a kid when she sassed me.”

  “Knowing Ava, she’d have whooped you back,” Kiko retorted, his tone commiserative.

  “There is that,” Mars confided, then grinned back at Leila. “I noticed Ava had done a disappearing act earlier, so I gathered Kiko here and decided that since you’d done so well yesterday, today ought to be the day we welcomed you.”

  Kiko strode forward as she got to her feet. He held out his hand too. She grasped it, and as they shook on it, he murmured, “Consider yourself welcomed.”

  Mars laughed a little. “Few years down the line, you’ll know us well enough to hug, Leila. We’re family now.”

  “But you’re not related to Kon or Jay,” she asked, her brow puckering.

  “We’re all family here. If I let you in the Clan, you’re family.”

  The stout tone, so resolute, had warmth unfurling through her. She’d lost her family. Not by choice, well, not a choice she’d had fun making. After all, being told you were the reason a man tried to rape you and that you either apologized to him for slurring his name or would be cast out… it wasn’t exactly the best decision to have to make.

  But these two men had welcomed her into an extended family. She was already making a place for herself here between Jay and Kon, but now, she was a member in her own right. Off her own back. Well, fingers and brain.

  She blinked at both men, then did something she wouldn’t have dreamed of doing a few weeks ago. Threw herself at Mars and hugged the living daylights out of him.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Can’t a boy come and visit his momma?” Jay eyed his mother’s white coat with distaste. He hated her surgery, always had. Shifters, thankfully, rarely developed cavities, but when he was eighteen, a wisdom tooth had blighted him, and his mom had had the pleasant task of removing it.

  He’d hated this place ever since. Even though she’d gone out of her way to pretty the place up and make it fancy smancy with its leather club chairs in the reception and expensive pot plants to calm nervous patients, it wasn’t enough.

  No amount of glass desks, pretty staff, and pleasant art would make this anything other than what it was… a dungeon of torture.

  “A boy can gladly come and see his momma at any given time, but when said momma knows the boy hates this surgery with a passion, she gets suspicious.” She shot him an admittedly suspicious look. “What’s going on?”

  “Pop asked me to come get you.”

  At his confession, Christie’s brows rose. “What? Why? I have the car here.”

  “He’s stuck trying to fix a truck we need for a delivery over to Dallas tonight or he’d have come himself.”

  “But why? Like I said, I have the car. He never picks me up.”

  “He would have today. Your car’s being serviced.”

  Christie folded her arms across his chair. “Why didn’t he tell me?”

  “Because he knows how you get.”

  She pursed her lips. “I’ll whoop his ass. He knows I hate it when he has the damn thing valeted.”

  Jay shook his head, amused by his mother’s irritation at what was essentially a kind act from her mate. His dad was, after all, making sure her car was safe, while also making sure the interior refrained from looking like a bomb had struck… something that only happened once a year when his d
ad sneaked her car away for a service.

  His mom had been gifted a super nose by the goddesses upon being claimed by his father. It meant she was sensitive to smells. As a result, she’d taken to wearing a nose guard. It helped her work and stopped her from puking up every time a strong smell came her way. It meant she couldn’t smell the rotting apple that had fallen down the back of the car seat, or, like the one year she’d been skunked but simply hadn’t realized it.

  “You boys always overexaggerate about my car. Everything is in its proper place.”

  “What about last year’s mouldy pizza?”

  “That was a mistake,” she disregarded, wafting a hand.

  Jay grinned at her. She was full of bullshit. He mimicked, “Organized chaos.”

  “Exactly. You took the words from my mouth.”

  He eyed her, then eyed her office. It was insane how, professionally, the woman could be so presentable. But outside of the house of nine to five, be capable of making such a mess.

  His daddy swore that when he first met her, she’d been as neat as a pin, and it was only when they’d come along, two twins—double the trouble—she’d gotten used to the chaos of shit everywhere. Ever since, she’d been a nightmare to clean up around.

  And considering he wasn’t the neatest, with no room to judge on anyone’s levels of cleanliness, that was an understatement.

  “Are we going to stand here whining all night or are you coming home?” Rolling his eyes at her when her lower lip popped out, he folded his arms across his chest and asked, “Well?”

  She pouted harder. “I want to stop off at the mall before we hit home.”

  He frowned. “Why?”

  “Because I’m going to pay your father back, that’s why.”

  “Jesus, Mom, he’s watching out for you. Bankrupting him ain’t gonna do neither of you any good.”

  She sniffed. “That’s for me to decide.” She began to tug off her white coat, and as she went to hang it on the back of the door, shot him a look. “How are things with you, Kon, and Leila?”

  He scowled at her. “Why do you want to know?”

  “I’m your mom, Jay.” She glared at him. “Why wouldn’t I want to know every finicky detail?”

  “Look, things are just up in the air at the moment. That’s all.”

  “She’s a good girl,” Christie said with a sheepish twist to her mouth. “Usually what every mother-in-law wants, and in this case, exactly what we don’t need. It must be hard for her… getting used to all this.”

  “You don’t have to tell me. I think she’s doing great though.”

  “Oh sure, of course she is. But it’s not fast enough, is it?”

  He grimaced. “It’s as fast as it needs to be. I’m not going to rush her into anything she’s not ready for.”

  “That’s because I raised good boys too,” she told him brightly, then, she shot him a glance. “How’s Kon handling this?”

  “Why don’t you ask him?”

  “Because if it’s like trying to get blood out of a stone from you, it’s like trying to release Excalibur getting Kon to say a damn word about anything.” She rolled her eyes. “And don’t make out you don’t know exactly what I’m talking about.”

  He hunched his shoulders. “I talk.”

  “Yeah. About BS,” Christie scoffed as she leaned over her desk to shut down her computer. Then, as she made to walk to the office door, stated, “Getting you to answer questions can be very difficult sometimes, and I’m really concerned about the both of you. I know your father is too, but Mundo would never admit to that.” She huffed. “Exactly why I’m about to spend a small fortune at the jewelers.”

  He snorted. “Don’t you have enough jewelry?”

  “Sugar, a woman never has enough jewelry.”

  This was another habit she’d picked up. This time, from Jessie’s birth. When she’d been born, his dad had given Christie a small fortune in emeralds in a necklace he’d bought for her. Ever since, their momma had gotten accustomed to the glimmer of gold.

  Like some kind of freakin’ magpie.

  Except, magpies were happy with aluminum foil. Not his momma.

  “Maybe that’s what you should do. Buy her something when we stop off at the store.”

  “I wouldn’t buy anything without Kon. We’d both need to be there if we were going to choose something for Leila.”

  She shook her head. “You’ll both have individual relationships with her, Jay. He can buy her something, too. Treating this like you’re both the same entity is only going to make this harder for her.

  “Look, I’m not an idiot. I was around when Justiss and Graver were trying to convince Toni a triad was the only way they could be together. I know it’s tough, but for her, it’s going to be tougher. I wouldn’t expect to have something like they do.”

  He frowned at her. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, you’ll both be her mates, but not in a sexy way.”

  His nose crinkled at his mother’s topic of conversation. “I really don’t want to talk about this.”

  She patted his cheek. “A mother knows best, love. In this, you need to get Kon on board,” she advised. “Because the truth is, Leila’s background is going to impede the bond. Maybe that’s why it’s taken her so long to accept you both. I know I was going crazy within the first ten days. Why isn’t she? Because her fear, her anxiety is clamoring at her and getting in the way.

  “Now, not only is that sad as hell because those first days with your father were some of the most liberating I’ve ever experienced, but also, it’s a concern. I don’t want either of you to suffer. Trouble is, I know both of you too well. I know what you’ve done in the past; gossip spreads in the Clan. I can understand why you’d want that, after all, I’m no prude. But, you’re going to have to think differently where she’s concerned, Jay. If you want her to commit to you wholly, you need to take her fear away.

  “She can love both of you from the top of your head to your toes, but if she’s scared of the sex, then you’ll never get her to open up to you.”

  “When did you get so wise?” he complained gruffly, his jaw working as his mother’s home truths started to resonate with some thoughts he’d been having himself recently.

  She winked. “I was born this way.”

  His lips twitched as they walked out of her surgery, but he was anything but happy. This was going to hit Kon hard, he knew. Hell, him too.

  Sharing a woman, both of them being inside her at the same time, was a particular kind of heaven they’d experienced rarely in their life. Having Leila, he knew Kon had been on the same page as him—they’d been elated at the prospect of having that in their life on a permanent basis.

  But, the truth was, he’d give that up if it meant having Leila as his woman. Even if it was something he desperately wanted.

  His mom was right. Leila could love them with all of her being, but if she was scared, that love would never be able to flourish to its maximum capacity—physically. How could it?

  Fear had no place with love.

  It was time he and his brother discussed this, and put certain hopes and dreams aside because, the truth was, the reality was so much better anyway.

  Kon stood in the shower, letting the water pelt over him. It pummeled the back of his neck as he stared down at the drain. His gaze wasn’t focused on the swirling torrents sinking down into the ether. He was staring blindly, because in his mind’s eye, he could see Leila coming apart under his and Jay’s hands.

  He shuddered, tightening his fist around his cock as he began to jack off in earnest now. He grabbed his balls with his other hand and began to gently massage them, rolling them around in his fist as he let pre-cum slicken his grip. Need writhed inside him. His Bear was close to the edge on this one. They both felt the pull of their mate, knew the bond was calling them in a way Leila simply wasn’t ready for her.

  The notion had his dick deflating a bit, but not for long. The sounds she’d made, the way
she’d flown… it was all proof that she was coming to trust them. Was feeling more at ease around them. That boded well, and well was all he could handle at the moment because he needed to know that they were stepping closer to the mate bond being cemented into place rather than further away from it.

  So deep was his concentration, he didn’t hear the door open. But he heard the gasp. Heard it, and he jolted up to stare at the unexpected visitor who was watching him jack off. Not that he was concerned. His brother knew to fuck off and wouldn’t have gasped, so that meant it had to be Leila. Considering she was the star of his current fantasy, it was even better to see her in the flesh.

  She stood there, hand on the doorknob, mouth gaping in a way that added to his fantasies like she was glued in place.

  “You okay, sugar?” he asked, his hand still moving as he spoke.

  If anything, her eyes widened all the more. Her bottom lip began to tremble, then her mouth worked like she was trying to figure out how to speak. When she did figure it out, all that came out was a squeak.

  “Didn’t you hear the shower running?” he asked, frowning at her in bewilderment.

  “I-I didn’t expect you to be showering and I was singing when I came into the room.”

  He blinked. “Singing?”

  She nodded, shakily. “Mars and Kiko welcomed me to the Clan and they offered me a position here. They want me to help Ava.”

  “That’s great, Leila,” he told her, meaning it. “But you know you were already a part of the Clan, don’t you?”

  She bit her lip, her eyes still trained on his cock. “S-Sure, but it’s different now. This is on my own merit. They know they can trust me because I proved myself.” Before he could say a word, she stepped forward, a move that surprised him when he’d expected her to do anything but come closer. He’d fully believed she’d be walking away rather than nearer to him and his erection. “I-I’m ready, Kon,” she informed him in a soft voice.

  He frowned. “Jay’s out on an errand.” That was a round of ‘rock, paper, scissors’, he was relieved to have won. His mom was the sweetest thing this side of Houston, but when it came to her car, she turned into a rattlesnake.