by Sky Winters
“It’s not a competition,” Luke said. “Except that it is.”
He pushed off from the couch and stood up, pacing the room with a scowl on his face. Zebe watched him pace, annoyed that his brother was being so hot-headed towards him and annoyed at himself for letting Jolene entice him. He didn’t blame her—he thought she was beautiful and sexy and sweet—but she had jumped on him enthusiastically and made him feel things that it turned out that he should not have felt.
Because he was not his brother.
Jolene turned over in the bed and opened her eyes. She could hear faint music downstairs. She tried to remember where she was, but all she knew was that her head hurt. Slowly, she got out of bed. When she looked down at herself, she nearly fainted again.
Her belly was swollen like she had eaten an entire Thanksgiving meal in one sitting. She rubbed her hands over it, remembering the mysterious woman who had leaned over her and felt her stomach.
Twins. That’s what the woman had said. She was pregnant with twins. She was going to need to ask for more explanations about that.
Blearily, Jolene left the bedroom. She found the bathroom and threw up, feeling oddly better by doing so. After flushing, she washed her hands and face in the sink with cool water, then looked at her reflection. Her long red hair was a scraggly mess and she looked like she hadn’t slept at all; like no amount of sleep would ever be enough. It felt as though she had used a pile of rocks as a pillow.
She followed the soft piano music down the stairs of the house. The place was much larger than she could have guessed. She still did not entirely know where she was, but at least it was a comfortable place and not a cave or something. Jolene had yet to really let herself think about the fact that she was pregnant. Such a thing was far too heavy for her right now.
What she needed was Luke. She needed answers from him specifically. Was this twin of his someone she could trust? And also… Oh god…
What if Zebe was the father?
Jolene stumbled a little on the stairs, but luckily for her it was near the bottom. Both Luke and Zebe leapt up from their places on the couch to try and help her, but she waved them off.
“Are you all right?” Zebe asked her.
She could recognize him by the birthmark, or possibly scar, on his neck. Originally, she had thought it was a birthmark, but now that she had seen the way that the two brothers fought she had reason to think it could be a scar given to him by Luke. Cuts could leave interesting marks behind.
Other than that, though, Zebe could be recognized by his kind eyes. He had the same hazel eyes as Luke of course, but there was something about them that seemed to be almost wise. Though Jolene had gone into this relationship with Luke in search of a bad boy who offered her thrills and no strings attached, she now found herself needing stability and she wasn’t sure if Luke was the one who could give her that. And maybe neither of them could.
“I’ve been better,” Jolene said, smiling a small but appreciative smile at Zebe. She took both of their hands as she stepped down off of the last step, wanting them both to feel as though they had helped her in some way.
“Now that you’ve had some rest, come sit and chat with us,” Luke said, gesturing over to the couch. “This is our sister Anjelica.”
Jolene went over with them and sat down. Her head was spinning, so it was a good idea for her to sit down as soon as possible. She offered the familiar woman a smile. “We’ve met. But hello.”
Anjelica had a serious face, and hair that was darker than her brothers’, but the same hazel eyes. Jolene wondered if she was their older sister, but then determined that it really did not matter. “Let’s get some food in her,” Anjelica said. “She looks peckish.”
“Oh, I’m not so sure that I’ll be able to keep it down,” Jolene said awkwardly. Her stomach was doing flops, especially now that she was sitting there surrounded by three honest-to-god werewolves. Luke had a scent to him that she had not noticed before, but it smelled like blood. It was not the smell that a pregnant lady wanted or needed to smell.
However, despite her polite protestations, Anjelica got off the couch and went into the home’s kitchen. Jolene was at least grateful to be left alone with the two men. Now she could try and get to the bottom of things.
“So,” she said, not really knowing where to start with this. “You’re werewolves.”
Zebe smiled at her and nodded a little. “Yes.”
“We normally try to keep it on the down low,” Luke explained.
Jolene raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t Vermonster a club for werewolves?”
The brothers looked at each other and chuckled. Zebe seemed to understand her point, but Luke was quick to defend the club that he so obviously loved. “It is an exclusive club,” he pointed out. “The only way anyone would know that it’s a club for werewolves is if they somehow got invited in… Like you were.”
The locale of Burlington, Vermont was starting to make sense to Jolene. It was a small enough place, not the focus of large news stories, so it made the perfect hiding place for people like Luke, Zebe, and Anjelica. She sure wished that she had been able to find that out by reading through a guidebook or something, though.
Not by getting knocked up by one of the werewolves.
Jolene brought a hand to her face, squeezing the bridge of her nose between forefinger and thumb. It would have been nice if one of these guys had had the decency to let her know what she was getting into. Instead of just letting it be all Pop Tarts and casseroles.
“I need a drink,” she muttered.
Zebe quickly went to the kitchen and poured her a tall glass of ice water. He came back and carefully handed it to her. She could smell something that smelled vaguely meat-like coming from the kitchen. “Thank you,” she said to Zebe.
He sat beside her and Jolene felt pretty strange, sitting there between two men that she had fucked not knowing that they were not in fact the same person. She knew that they were going to have to get into that, but right now she was too exhausted and achy to be able to articulate things the best way.
After a few more minutes, Anjelica came back with a tray of little sandwiches, cut into finger food style triangles. She placed the tray on the coffee table directly in front of Jolene. “There’s not a whole lot in the kitchen right now, because these two being men, they don’t go to the store much.” She rolled her eyes.
“I hope that, being werewolves, these sandwiches aren’t made of rat or something.”
Anjelica looked at her, offended.
Luke laughed. “This is why I like her. She could have said ‘human’ or something, but she went with rat.” He winked at Jolene.
She felt her stomach turn. “That means no rat… and no human, right?”
He shook his head, still laughing.
“It’s ham and cheese,” Anjelica said defensively. “We may be werewolves, but we’re still people.”
Jolene felt embarrassed, but she thought she had a right to know what sort of thing she was about to eat. “I’m sorry,” she said sincerely. “I’m new to all of this.”
Anjelica gave her a look that was hard to read. “Well, now that I know you are all right, I guess I should head home.” She looked at her brothers. “You be good to her,” she told them warningly. “This kind of thing doesn’t exactly happen all the time.”
“We know,” Luke said.
“Thank you for your help,” Zebe said.
Shifting her eyes from one twin to the other, she looked at Jolene one more time. “You’re going to notice a lot of changes right away,” she explained to the overwhelmed woman. “Werewolf offspring develop much faster than human babies, so your gestation period is going to possibly even be cut in half. After all, they are twins. And they’ll be competitive, even inside you.” She gave a slight smirk at that as though it was supposed to be amusing and then left the house.
Jolene watched her leave, hoping that the twins inside her belly would not be quite as violent towards each other as Luke
and Zebe were. She picked up one of the finger sandwiches—thankfully not made of actual finger—and took a bite. It may not have been anything exciting, but it hit the spot. She let out a little moan, enjoying the food.
She still didn’t know precisely where she was, and she didn’t exactly feel as safe as she would have liked, but she was starting to feel better and that was what mattered to her at this point.
CHAPTER SIX
Who To Trust
Little by little, Jolene began to feel better about the whole situation. It became clear to her that the house she was in belonged to the Weir twins. It was a two-bedroom, two-story house, larger than Jolene’s cottage by the water, but still quite quaint. It was, after all, still in Burlington.
The two men did their best to take care of her, offering continual glasses of water and frequently asking if she was hungry. Luke seemed quite concerned about her, to an aggressive degree. He was always glaring at Zebe when he didn’t get the chance to do something for her. Zebe, on the other hand, was always the first to offer something.
Luke must have been the alpha; Zebe the beta. If werewolves followed that sort of hierarchy like regular wolves and dogs did. Jolene was unsure whether or not she should or even if she was allowed to choose one of them.
“Where do we go from here?” she asked them while they sat around after dinner, their stomachs satisfied with the take-out Chinese that Anjelica would have frowned upon but the brothers clearly loved. “I mean, I know that I am going to have babies. Sooner than I should be having them—which, can I say totally sucks? I don’t want to have fifty symptoms at once.”
Zebe hung his head. “Sorry,” he said. “Werewolves have shorter gestation periods.”
“Which is another reason you should have told me you were werewolves… And that there are two of you!”
Jolene looked at Zebe and Luke indignantly. She would never dream of leaving them, of course. What would she do without them? She had a feeling that shorter gestation was not the only abnormality in a werewolf pregnancy. Still, she had every right to be annoyed at them!
“We have time enough for you to get to know us better,” Luke said. “And though he tricked you into sleeping with him—”
“I did no such thing!” Zebe shouted. “She pounced on me, and I did not want to say no and upset her.”
Jolene sighed a little. She felt like such a slut for doing that. Even if it had been Luke, she had thrown herself at him when he was still basically a stranger. She could not be mad at them for what had happened. She had been at much to blame as either of them.
“You could have said something,” she said to Zebe. “But I don’t blame you… I don’t blame either of you. I’m just so confused now.”
Luke wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. He gently ran one big hand over her belly, feeling the babies as best as he could. She really felt like she was growing—or rather they were growing—by the hour, but she figured that was mostly in her mind.
“The Lone Wolves and the whole community are going to be so excited for us,” he said.
Zebe gave him a look of resentment. “The three of us.”
“Right,” Luke said, waving a dismissive hand. “Well, it doesn’t matter who the father is. The fact of the matter is that Jolene thought she was with me the whole time.”
“Now wait a minute,” Jolene said. She moved away from Luke, no longer appreciating his arm around her. She did not want him to speak for her. Or anyone else for that matter. “I admit that I find you very attractive, but I am still getting to know you and Zebe. Don’t presume to know whom I’d prefer to be with… As a matter of fact, don’t presume to know that I want to be with either of you.”
With that, she got up off the couch and proceeded to shakily make her way back up the stairs. She wished that they weren’t hardwood; that seemed like an accident waiting to happen.
Only when she got to the top did she realize that she didn’t know which room she should be sleeping in. Maybe the couch was a better choice, but then she would have to go back down the stairs!
She did what any hormonal, heavily pregnant woman would do in that situation.
She started to cry.
Without fail, Jolene soon heard footsteps on the stairs. It was hard to see through her tears which Weir brother it was who came to her rescue, but whichever one it was took her into his arms and carried her into a bedroom.
He placed her on the bed and lay down beside her, facing her. She continued to cry but she was comforted by him being there with her. He had kind eyes and was caring enough to know that he should not try to talk her out of how she was feeling. Honestly, Jolene was not entirely sure that she even knew what she was feeling beyond sad, which was such a generic and broad term. Sad could mean so many things, and she thought that what she was feeling was at least eight of them.
“I’m… sorry,” she managed to sniffle out.
“Shh,” he said, shaking his head and calmly moving some stray hair out of her face. “You’re overwhelmed and that’s understandable. I was against bringing you here and taking you out of your comfort zone.”
Jolene snorted a little, sniffling even more as her tears slowly subsided. “My cottage is hardly my comfort zone. It’s empty and lonely.”
Resting his cheek against his hand, he continued to look into her eyes. She could tell by his whole demeanor that he was glad to simply relax here with her and he wasn’t going to judge her for feeling hormonal and sad. “What is your comfort zone?” he asked her.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I came to Burlington to get away from my troubles, but I ended up just creating more for myself. A lot more.” She gestured to her enlarged stomach.
“What is it that you were hoping to find out here?”
The more she gazed at him, the more she believed that the Weir brother who had come to her rescue was Zebe. Nothing at all against Luke, but so far Jolene had noticed an unmistakable sweetness to Zebe that Luke simply didn’t have. More than the crescent moon on his neck, Zebe’s calm gentleness made him stand out.
She realized that she was being quiet and thoughtful instead of answering his question. She shrugged. “I was hoping to find happiness. I guess that’s cheesy. My ex-husband cheated on me. Not only that, but he cheated on me after he had convinced me that he was the solid, dependable type that I had been searching for. I wanted to get away from him and everything I had known, or thought I had known.”
Jolene remembered finding the tall, dark, and handsome Luke as the answer to her wildest bad boy fantasies. To his credit, he hadn’t cheated on her or abandoned her. In fact, he continually made the effort to see her and include her in things… Although she had to concede that part of that time together had actually been with Zebe.
“Ugh, why does everything have to be so complicated?” she bemoaned. At least she was not crying anymore, but she still felt so stuck and disappointed in how things had gone.
He looked at her thoughtfully. She looked back at him, appreciating that he was not leaping to suggest things. She hated when people rushed to share their opinions about her life. He turned slightly and she saw the crescent shape below his earlobe on his neck. So it was Zebe. She knew it!
“How much of Burlington have you seen so far?” he asked her then. “I’m guessing my brother mostly showed you the bar scene.”
Jolene chuckled a little and nodded her head. “Yup. He claimed he was taking me on a tour of town, but he took me to Vermonster. Then we got caught in a rain shower, so he just brought me home.” Now that she thought about it, it was rather lame of her to not have gone out exploring on her own. Would she have become a shy homebody if it wasn’t for Luke and his electrical expertise?
Zebe was smiling at her now. “I could take you on an actual tour of Burlington if you want,” he said. “No motorcycle required either, because I don’t feel comfortable with you riding one while pregnant.”
She smiled back at him. “I think Anjelica would kill you if you put me
on your motorcycle.” The thought of touring around the town with the calmer, gentler Weir brother was a nice one. “Are you sure your brother won’t mind?”
“He probably will mind, but we are taking care of you together so he won’t stop us,” Zebe replied. “Besides, it’s not good to keep you cooped up inside all the time. You would hate us in the end.”
Oh, I don’t think I could ever hate you, she thought.
“Great,” she said, feeling better already now that she knew she was going to get to go on some adventures with Zebe. “I look forward to it. Now, as for where I’m supposed to sleep here…?”
Zebe furrowed his dark eyebrows at her. “Don’t be silly,” he said. “You’re sleeping right here on this bed. I’ll sleep on the couch. I don’t mind at all.”
Jolene felt a little surprised and guilty for taking up his bedroom, but she wanted Zebe to be able to feel like he had done right by her. She decided to let him be a gentleman instead of fighting it. After all, she was far too tired and, well, pregnant to move at that point. So instead of even arguing a little, she smiled and closed her eyes. “You are too good to me. Thank you.”
Smiling adoringly at her, he leaned forward and kissed her lips. It was a feather sort of kiss because he did not want to disturb her. He stayed until he was sure that she was asleep, and then he went into the hall to collect some blankets and make himself a bed on the couch.
Breakfast in the Weirs’ house was an interesting contrast from the breakfasts she had offered them at her cottage. Far from Pop Tarts, Jolene stepped into the kitchen to the delightful smell of waffles and sausage. She smiled when she caught sight of Zebe standing over the stove, spatula in hand, flipping the sausages.
Zebe was dressed in some red and black plaid pajama bottoms with a black band t-shirt. He looked happy and well-rested. She hoped that she looked the same; she had slept in her clothing that she picked out for her date at Vermonster. She was going to need to at least stop by her cottage to get some clothes.
