Junior looked positively adorable in the hottest way possible wrapped up in the Star Trek super-sized bath sheet. He’d made me see Jesus Hesus Christ four more times during our morning shower and I repaid the favor with so much enthusiasm that I hoped it made up for lack of skill. My new mate certainly didn’t seem to have any complaints.
Both of our necks were bruised from the bites and sensitive to the touch, but I’d never seen anything hotter in all my years. I was mated. I was mated to the boy who’d haunted my dreams. I was mated to the love of my life. My mom and dad were going to be so excited. Forget that…I was so excited it was almost embarrassing.
“We need to tell everyone, my mate,” Junior announced as he finished up shaving and ran his hands through his wet hair. “I was thinking about an ad in the Shifter Gazette and possibly letting Jim-Bob Adams have a go at it.”
“Jim-Bob Adams?” I asked.
I knew exactly who Jim-Bob was — a menace to society. However, I was unclear on why Junior wanted him to have anything to do with announcing our mating to the world. Jim-Bob was a Panther Shifter with a penchant for death defying hobbies. He’d logged more broken bones and ruptured internal organs that any other Shifter I knew, yet somehow came out of every disaster alive.
“Dang fool bought himself a bi-plane and is trying to start a sky writing business. I figure I could kill two birds with one stone. We let the world know we’re mated and I give Jim-Bob a paying job before he crashes the plane and ends up in the hospital for six months.”
“Umm…how about we skip that one. I’d feel horrible if we were the cause of his death.”
“Good point, but I swear that sumbitch has nine lives,” Junior told me as he tossed me his toothbrush and kissed the top of my head.
“I’m not gonna use your toothbrush. That’s yucky,” I said, waving it at him like a mini-sword.
“Sandy, we had our tongues down each other’s throats for the better part of ten hours. How is using my toothbrush gross?” he asked, truly mystified.
He did have a valid point. What the hell. I shoved it in my mouth and started brushing.
“Fine. Can you call Essie and Hank and have them meet us at the diner for lunch?”
“Don’t have to,” he said, pulling the Spock towel from my damp body and placing his big hands over my perky girls.
I giggled at my new hand bra and shrugged out of his grip. We needed to get some stuff done and if he kept man handling my 36Cs we were going to end right back up in bed. Not that I’d complain too much.
“Yes you have to if you want to tell them in person,” I argued as I tapped him on the nose with the toothbrush.
“Don’t have to cause gang’s already here.”
“I’m sorry. What?” I choked out, mentally calculating how long ago I was screaming in ecstasy in the shower. “How long have they been here?”
“I sensed them about an hour ago,” he replied easily as if it was no big deal.
“And you didn’t tell me?” I demanded, mortified as I pulled on one of Junior’s t-shirts. “And who exactly is here?”
The shirt was long enough and looked like an ill-fitting mini dress, but would have to do. My boob tube was somewhere in the living room and my thong and mini skirt were in shreds on the floor of Junior’s bedroom. Clearly, we’d gotten a little carried away with the fangs…
“Essie, Hank and my dad,” he replied, copping a quick feel on my ass before he grabbed my hand and pulled me toward our visitors, who’d clearly been present for the audio version of the Junior & Sandy Porno Show.
It was all kinds of embarrassing to know that Junior’s dad and brother had heard me screaming and Junior shouting in great detail everything he wanted to do to my naked body. It would take centuries to live this one down.
I didn’t mind Essie overhearing. She’d be proud of me for letting it rip, but…
Wait one minute.
Shitshitshitballs. I had a much bigger problem than starring in a porno with my mate. Essie, Hank and Jack Wilson weren’t here to celebrate our mating. They were here for another reason altogether.
“Junior,” I said, grabbing his hand and yanking him to a stop. “You know I love you. Right?”
“I do,” he said with a smile. “And I love you.”
“And you know if I did something a teeny tiny bit annoying, it would be because I love you. Right?”
“Like slap my nuts around?” he inquired with a laugh as he humored my mini-freakout.
“Yes. I mean no,” I said, feeling a bit ill. “If I did something because I loved you, you’d be okay with it right?”
“As long as you don’t whack my balls, we’re good,” he said.
I heaved a sigh of relief and hugged him hard. “Your balls are safe. Don’t you think you should put on something other than Dr. McCoy?” I asked, still feeling wonky about what was about to go down. But Junior said he loved me, we’d get through this.
“Hell to the no,” Junior replied with a sly grin. “I plan to make them so uncomfortable they leave and we can get back down to naked business.”
“God you’re smart,” I told him as I tingled at the thought of more orgasms.
“Mensa, baby. One hundred percent Mensa.”
“Repeat,” Junior said as he eyes narrowed to slits upon hearing the unwelcome news.
“Giles Giles has challenged you, son,” Jack, Hank and Junior’s dad said, pacing the living room.
Essie gave me an eyebrow waggle and pointed to the royal blue boob tube that somehow ended up on the coffee table displayed for all to see. I gave her a weak thumbs up and waited for the other ball to drop. Junior was far too brilliant not to piece it all together.
“On what grounds?” he demanded.
“He says since you were unfit to step up years ago, you forfeited your right as Alpha of Georgia,” Jack said grimly. “I called bullshit, but he registered the challenge yesterday. It stands.”
“And the Council? They approved it?” Junior continued, sounding nothing like the happy, horny man from only minutes ago.
“They’re on sabbatical—again. But Giles says he got approval,” Essie told him. “I tend to doubt that since they’ve been trying to get rid of the violent bastard for decades.”
“Fine,” Junior ground out. “Let him bring it. I’ll solve the Council’s problem by killing him dead.”
The silence was weighted and Junior glanced around the room in frustration. “What? Spit it out. What else are do you have to say? Need the info to make a plan.”
“You’re mated, Son?” Jack asked flatly.
“I am,” Junior answered warily. “What the hell does that have to do…”
He stopped mid sentence and gaped at me. The jig was up. The anger and pain on his face made me want to hide, but I grew up yesterday. I was the Alpha’s mate. I wasn’t broken sexually. I’d had, umm…a buttload of orgasms. Junior could be mad, but he loved me. He had to let me love him back.
“You knew about this?” Junior asked me so quietly I got chills.
“I did.”
“Did you know the goddang ramifications of your actions last night?” he asked, growing angrier by the second.
“Did you just say ramifications of my actions in reference to our mating?” I shot back just as angrily.
“I did.”
“You’re a dick. A royal, massive, dick,” I snapped.
Junior paced the room like a caged tiger. The towel dropped from his waist and he prowled the room in helpless fury. He was naked, strikingly beautiful and scary. His fangs had dropped and his jaw worked a mile a minute as he tried to hold on to his composure.
“Sandy, what was the one thing I said would kill me?” he growled at me clearly forgetting anyone else was present. “Losing you,” he shouted, answering his own question. “Gina Giles is a cold blooded killer—much more dangerous than that sumbitch, Giles Giles. Did you stop to consider that you stand a very slim chance against her?”
“You have that little fai
th in me?” I asked quietly, knowing his wolf was dangerously close to the surface.
I needed to him to stay with me. If he shifted I knew he would leave.
“Goddammit,” he bellowed. “This should be the second happiest day of my life and it’s turning into the worst. I’m supposed to protect you. You’re supposed to let me protect you.”
“And you’re supposed to let me do the same,” I countered, putting my hands on his chest and willing him to calm down. “I love you.”
“I love you so much I wanna to kill you right now,” he said, roughly disengaging himself from me. “But I don’t have to do that because Gina Giles is going to do it for me.”
“You’re forgetting my expertise with knives,” I shot back. “I can knife both of them with my eyes shut. You pick the internal organ and I’ll nail it. Boom. Done.”
“With all due respect to your deadly blade ability, challenges are fought hand to hand,” Jack said with a grimace that matched Junior’s.
Shit. I was a goner.
“I can fight,” I said, in a voice I hoped didn’t sound shaky. “I have six brothers. I can fight.”
“Have you fought to the death?” Hank asked quietly.
“Umm…not yet,” I admitted.
“She’s not going to fight,” Junior snapped. “No one but the people in this room know we’re mated.”
“Your point?” Jack asked his son.
“My point is that the mating doesn’t apply to this challenge.” Junior growled daring anyone to oppose his plan.
“Kinda hard to hide a mating,” Hank said, carefully.
“It can be done,” Jack said as Junior nodded at him tersely. “Somewhat unethical though.”
“Challenge was made yesterday?” Junior asked.
“Yep,” Hank said.
“Morning?”
“Seven am,” Hank said, squinting his eyes as he tried to follow Junior’s logic.
“It’s dated? You saw it?” Junior demanded.
“We did,” Jack confirmed, starting to smile.
“Not unethical at all then,” Junior said. “The challenge was made before I was mated. Therefore, I was effectively challenged as a single Alpha.”
“He has a point,” Essie chimed in. “It’s a little murky, but it would stand. Your call, Junior. I’ll stand behind your decision with the Council.”
“As will I,” Jack said.
“I always have your back, brother,” Hank added. “Still gonna be hard to mask it.”
Junior was about to go ballistic. It tore at my heart that he would deny our mating. I felt angry, useless and ashamed—a horrible way to feel after the most amazing night of my life.
Maybe it was my fault we were screwed. If I’d been honest, we wouldn’t be in this position.
“Here’s how it’s going down. Sandy goes to her parents’ house and we stay away from each other until the challenge is over—hard but doable. No one but family can know about the mating for now. I’ll shift to remove her scent and then shift back before the match,” Junior plotted aloud. “Everyone thinks I’m a manwhore anyway. I’ll just make sure I have the scent of a few women on me before the fight.”
“You will do no such thing,” I hissed as my fangs dropped and my eyes burned with rage.
Knocking Hank and Jack out of the way I went toe-to-toe with Junior. Grabbing him by the chest hair, I got right in his face.
“You want to see me kill? That will make me kill. First I’ll kill who ever touches you and then I’ll kill you. And then I’ll live in the Hung pokey for the rest of my life. So just rethink that farked up scheme, Little Mister.”
Everyone in the room was shocked to silence. I was even a bit shocked, but I’d meant every word I’d said. And I’d make good on it.
“I’m gonna go out on a limb and say I think she has the killer instinct,” Essie offered up with an impressed grin. “If she pretends Gina Giles did her man, I’d say Sandy might just come out on top.”
“Well, actually,” Hank started until Junior gave him a death glare.
“Actually, what?” I asked in a tone so low all the men in the room took a cautious step back.
“Actually, nothing,” Junior said, giving Hank an I’ll deal with your ass later look.
No. Freakin’. Way.
“You popped Gina Giles?” I shouted. “You banged that hill rat skank?”
Where in the hell was a knife when I needed it?
“Jesus Christ on a bender, I was drunk which is not easy for a Werewolf to do,” Junior defended himself. “I don’t even remember it.”
Taking a deep breath in through my nose and blowing it out slowly through my mouth, I retracted my claws and tried to calm down. I silently thanked God I didn’t have a knife on me. I might have ended our sex life when it had just begun. Junior and I weren’t together when he nailed the cutthroat sleazebag. I had no claim on him then.
Let. It. Go.
“You certainly had some shitty taste in women before me,” I said through clenched teeth as I willed myself not to knee his balls up into his esophagus.
“Listen to me Sandy, I was a freakin’ mess without you,” Junior said.
“I can second that,” Hank added, unhelpfully.
“Shut your cakehole or I’ll shut it for you,” Junior threatened his brother. “Baby, now that you’re mine, I can’t lose you. You gotta understand me here. I won’t be able to fight or even focus if I know that she-hag is going for you. I’d lay down my dang life for you. However, I’d prefer that both of us stay alive.”
“I’d prefer the same thing,” I said, trying to hold back my tears—tears wouldn’t really serve me well at the moment. “I want to protect you. I love you.”
“Then please go with the plan. Losing you isn’t an option,” Junior begged. “It humbles me and makes me love you to the point of unhealthy that you want to fight next to me, but this isn’t the one to cut your teeth on.”
Feelings of incompetence swallowed me whole. The worst part was knowing he was right. I wasn’t deadly in hand-to-hand combat—at least not yet. That would be my new obsession. Next time this sort of clusterfuck presented itself, I’d be ready.
“What women are you going to sleep with?” I whispered, dying a little inside.
“What? What in the livin’ hell made you think I was going to bump uglies with someone other than you?” he questioned, completely mystified. “Archimedes goes near no woman except you. Ever. I value my nuts and am not real fond of dull butter knives.”
“Mine’s not ugly,” I said as a little smile pulled at my lips.
“Accurate,” Junior concurred with a wink and a sexy grin.
“Who’s Archimedes?” Hank asked, only to be shushed by a laughing Essie.
“But you said you’d get the scent of other women on you so it would appear that you’re unmated,” I continued, confused.
“Yep, I did say that,” Junior agreed with a nod. “However, that doesn’t mean I’m gonna to do anything that will break our vows. In fact you can pick the women who will hug me and kiss me on the cheek so their scent clings.”
“Just hug and a cheek kiss?” I asked, hopefully.
“Just a hug and a peck on the cheek,” he assured me, taking me into his arms and holding me tight.
“Okay,” I said resting my head against his broad chest. “I pick Granny, Essie and Dima.”
“Works for me,” Hank said.
“Nobody asked you,” Jack told his younger son as he popped him in the back of the head.
“You’ll have to take a second since you’re not mated,” Hank reminded his brother.
Junior paused and his brow wrinkled in thought. “Jim-Bob Adams. That crazy sumbitch will be downright excited about this.”
“Truer words have never been said,” Essie commented with a shake of her head. “That boy is nuts. Sandy, I’ll take you over to your mom’s.”
“In a minute,” Junior said as he continued to hold me and kiss me as if no one was watchin
g.
“You have an audience,” Hank said, clearing his throat and laughing.
“Your problem, not mine,” Junior shot back. “Although you’re right. I need to stay away from Sandy for…”
“Two days,” Jack said with a grim expression. “The challenge is in two days. Shall I accept for you since you’re going to shift?”
“Nope,” Junior replied as he flicked on a massive computer monitor and adjusted the camera so it captured his entire body. “I’ll just Skype in and let the mother humper know myself.”
“Umm…you gonna put some clothes on for this unpleasant session? Accepting naked is pretty disrespectful,” Hank said with a raised brow.
“Your point?” Junior asked.
“No point at all.” Hank laughed and gave Junior a thumbs up. “You got balls, boy.”
“And they’re gonna see ̓em.”
Chapter Ten
Hank and his father stood on either side of Junior as the call was made. Essie and I stayed out of the camera’s vision, but could see the monitor clearly. It took everything I had not to stand next to my man, but I would respect his wish.
“Hill rat,” Junior bellowed as Giles Giles and Gina Giles came on the screen. “Shee-ot, I meant Giles. My bad.”
The vicious duo stared in shock at a buck naked Junior flanked by his dad and brother. They were an impressive trio—especially with Junior in his birthday suit. I pressed my hand to my mouth to hide my laughter. It would not do to let them hear me.
“Seems you might have forgotten something, Jacob,” Giles growled as he noticed his big haired wife leering at Junior’s impressive dangly bits.
They were every kind of awful and their mean came right through the screen.
Giles had a mullet and beady little eyes filled with hatred. Gina could have been pretty, but she was grossly over made up. Her hair looked like a blonde rat’s nest that had been sprayed into rigid immobility. Giles sported a torn wife-beater and Gina had on a shirt cut so low, she may as well not have had one on. Lovely.
“Nope,” Junior corrected him. “And only my momma calls me Jacob, assmonkey.”
Giles’ beady eyes narrowed to even angrier slits as his mate cackled at the insult hurled at her husband. “Shut your damn mouth,” he snapped at her.
Were Me Out Page 7
