Earth Shattering

by L. P. Maxa

  Instead of feeling like he’d gotten hit upside the head with a two-by-four, with nails in it, he felt at peace, calm. The only part about all this that was going to suck major dick was telling Blake. Unlike Madden, Pen, and Axie, Blake knew absolutely nothing about shifters. She didn’t know they existed. And she sure as fuck didn’t know they mated for life. Her world was about to be thrown into another orbit.

  Riley needed to talk to Dom and Keller, since their mates went through the same thing. Corey and Molly were human, completely and wholly unaware magic was real and was part of the men they loved.

  “I’m freezing. I’m going to go track down Riley and make sure he didn’t murder Jasper.” Blake picked up her empty beer bottles, trudging through the snow to stoop and pet his head.

  “Check the basement. I think Riley was going to get a workout in,” Jace said, his gaze meeting Riley’s wolf’s.

  “Thanks.” Blake dipped down, placing a sweet kiss on his muzzle before whispering, “I’ll sneak you into the house tonight. You can sleep with me.” Riley leaned into her, resting his head against hers. Leave it to Blake to try to make a wild wolf an inside pet.

  Riley got to his feet and trotted over to Jace and Axie.

  “She’s gone, shift back and we’ll shove your ass through the basement window.” Jace stepped to the house, pushing the long, low window open. “It’s a bit of a fall, but maybe it’ll knock some fucking sense into your stupid red head.”

  Riley shifted, stretching his back and cracking his neck. He was covering his junk with his hands, knowing Jace would not be happy about Axie getting an eyeful. “Sense? What the hell else was I supposed to do? She was on that mountain alone with Jasper.” Riley knelt down and put his legs through the open window. “What I was afraid of happening was actually happening. He licked her.”

  “Your dumb ass needs to grab your fucking jackoff of a bestie and meet me in my office.” Jace shoved him through the small space, not caring whether he landed on the floor in a heap. “Now.”

  Riley didn’t have time to turn and flip him the bird, he could hear Blake calling his name down the hallway. He glanced around the finished basement, thankful when he found a neatly folded stack of sweats on a shelf. He jumped across the room, grabbing a pair of pants and pulling them on moments before Blake came around the corner.

  “There you are.” She stopped, and her eyebrows pulled down into an adorable frown. “You work out barefoot? That can’t be safe.”

  “I showered.” He stepped forward and put his hands on her shoulders. “I was coming to look for you. Jasper told me what happened. Are you all right?”

  “I’m okay.” She leaned down and rested her forehead against his bare chest. “Is Jasper okay? You didn’t murder him and hide his body in a closet, did you?”

  Riley rubbed her back, loving the feel of her in his arms. “No.” He smirked to himself. “I punched him though. I couldn’t help it.”

  She pulled back, her bottom lip between her teeth. “It was so weird, the whole thing. Like, we were fine and we were having fun. We had a good talk. Then all of a sudden I started to feel so flushed. He was worried about me, then he turned on a dime and got all creepy. Then he sniffed me and licked me.” She sighed. “You’d think after the other stuff I let him do to me, a simple lic—”

  “Nope.” Riley placed his fingers over her mouth, stopping her from saying anything more. He couldn’t hear her talk about Jasper like that. He couldn’t know she thought about the way Jasper touched her at the cabin. “Tell me more about how you were feeling? Flushed?”

  She nipped at his pinkie before he could remove it all the way. “I got hot, like blood-boiling hot. It came out of nowhere basically.”

  “Basically?”

  She smirked, her eyes dancing, letting Riley know that she was about to say something entirely Blake. “We were coming down the mountain and I was having these flashbacks of us that night—”

  “Nope.” Riley put his hand over her mouth again, and growled, “I can’t hear about you and Jasper.”

  She swallowed, pulling back her head. “Not Jasper, you. I was remembering you from that night. The way everything went down, and the way you made me feel. Then boom. It was like I walked into an incinerator.”

  Riley couldn’t help his grin. His girl, his mate, was thrown into a frenzy by the memory of his touch.

  Blake rolled her eyes. “Okay, how smug can one dude look?” She pushed at his chest. “I feel better now though. Oh, and I met a dog?”

  “A dog?” Riley had internally cringed every time Blake had called him a dog while he was in wolf form. He didn’t love Jace calling him a pussy either. “In the woods?”

  “Yeah. He came out of nowhere, putting himself between me and Jasper.” She was more animated, talking with her hands. “He was huge and this pretty rust color. He saved me, then helped me back down the mountain. He’s super into me.” She smiled. Her eyes full of light once again.

  “I’m sure he is.” Riley couldn’t help but mirror her grin, even though he knew he shouldn’t encourage her when it came to keeping his wolf secret.

  “He’s out back with Jace and Axie. They said he could stay in the backyard. I told him I’d sneak him into the house later and he can sleep with us. You want to come meet him?”

  “I’m allergic to dogs.” Riley threw that out there, hoping it would fix the issue of him and the dog being in the same place at the same time. When had his life turned into a sitcom episode?

  “You are? I didn’t know that.” Blake stuck out her bottom lip, like his admission bummed her out.

  “He’s a wolf, not a dog, so he’s probably already back hanging in the woods.”

  Her forehead wrinkled. “How did you know that? How does everyone in this house know the difference between a giant-ass dog and a wolf?”

  “The woods around here are full of them.” Riley gestured behind him to the window Jace had shoved him through.

  “Well, I’m going to put some water out for him anyway, in case he decides to stick around.” She spun on her heel, pausing on her way out the door. “You want to watch a movie or something? I need to shower Jasper’s spit off my neck, but after?”

  Riley ground his molars, his hands fisting behind his back where she wouldn’t notice. The mere mention of Jasper’s tongue on her, and he was thrown back into his jealousy, and his anger spiked.

  Jasper had touched her. He’d tried to mark her. If Riley hadn’t gotten there in time, Blake would have been hurt, no doubt about it. It was easy to smile while she was standing in front of him safe and happy. If Axie hadn’t dragged him to Pen’s house, if she hadn’t shed light on what was happening between him and Blake… The afternoon would have ended differently. Riley tried to shove those thoughts away. He didn’t want to wonder if Jasper would’ve stopped, he didn’t want to picture Blake having to fight him off.

  “Yeah, doll face, of course.” He joined her at the door, putting his arm around her shoulders and kissing the top of her head. “I need to talk to Jace first, and then I’ll come find you.” They parted ways at the end of the hallway, and Riley waited until Blake was upstairs before he stomped into the living room.

  He reached out and popped Jasper on the back of the head. “Come on, jackoff, your twin wants to see us in his office.”

  Silently, Jasper followed Riley down the hallway. Jace was already waiting for them, standing behind his glass desk. As soon as they stepped into the room and the door was closed, Riley threw a punch right into Jasper’s face. His head whipped to the side, but he didn’t go down, which was a testament to how Riley was taking it easy on him.

  “Yeah, I deserved that.”

  “You sure fucking did.” Riley glanced down at his fist, making sure he hadn’t broken his skin on Jasper’s stupid, smug mouth. “I told Blake I punched you when you told me what happened. So now there’s proof.”

  “I’m so fucking sorry, man. Obviously I had no fucking clue what was going to happen when I took her
on that hike. You have to see that.” Jasper wiped at his lips, using the edge of his shirt to stop the bleeding.

  Riley was pissed they’d been alone together in the first place and was irritated neither one of them thought to tell him where they were headed. It was suspish, and made him feel like they were going behind his back. His wolf fucking hated it. “Why in the hell were you taking her on a hike up the mountain by yourself anyway? What was that even about?”

  “It was about you.” Jasper plopped down into one of the two leather chairs in front of Jace’s desk. “We’re all going to be in Greenly together. We both refuse to give you up. We needed to find our footing. We needed to learn how to be friends.”

  Riley softened, marginally, at the honesty in Jasper’s tone. He believed his intentions were in the right place, he did. That didn’t make any of this okay.

  “I knew some shit was going to happen, this is why I didn’t want to share—”

  “You knew she was yours, really?” Jasper interrupted him, his eyebrows rising with his volume. “Then why in the fuck did you agree to share her with me?”

  “I mean, no, I didn’t know she was mine. Not then. I just knew it was a bad fucking idea.” Riley would’ve tried to kill Jasper on the spot if he’d thought for even a moment Blake was his forever. “I didn’t realize she was mine until after Axie made me talk to Pen this morning. My anger, my jealousy, it’s directed at you, and it has been since we got back to the compound. I was fine the morning after the cabin, but then having her here, knowing you’d touched her. Fuck, man. It was taking everything I had not to beat your ass.”

  Jasper’s tone quieted, his position relaxing out of defense mode. “What did Pen say?”

  “At UNC, I’m more human than wolf. I don’t run there, I don’t shift. My instincts to claim Blake, to recognize what she was to me, were weak. Diluted.” Riley sat down in the other chair, the anger leaking out of his body. “Once we got home, and started shifting, I was around my pack—”

  Jace spoke up from his spot behind his desk. “Your wolf perked up and started going crazy.”

  Riley nodded. “I swear, I didn’t know.”

  “Like I didn’t know her body was going to completely spaz the fuck out,” Jasper added.

  “Look. What’s done is done.” Jace stepped around his desk, his arms crossing over his chest. “No one knew you two fucknuts were going to defile my safe house with your antics. No one knew Blake was meant to be Riley’s. No one knew that she was going to follow your ass up that mountain and have her first bonding hot flash and set off your horndog ass.” Riley glanced at Jasper and caught him wincing at Jace’s words. “But now we do, so we need to figure out where the hell to go from here.”

  Jace pointed a finger in his direction. “Riley, I know you never wanted to tell Blake about this part of your life. I know that was your plan. That plan is bullshit now, so you need to figure out how to tell your mate what the rest of her life is going to look like.” He shifted his focus to his twin. “Jasper, you need to stay the fuck away from her because we all know that you won’t be able to handle yourself the next time her body reacts like that. I’m not about to have you and Riley going at it and breaking everything in my house.”

  Tell your mate what the rest of her life is going to look like? Easier fucking said than done, that was for sure. How did he even begin that conversation? He also felt bad for Jasper, who was basically going to be sentenced to his room until Riley could complete the bond with Blake. Everything was so monumentally fucked up.

  Jace cleared his throat, bringing Riley out of his thoughts. “Constantine’s still close. He’s still watching. He’s been on to us for months, and we had no idea. More pictures come every day.” He sighed, the sound betraying his exhaustion. “We’re stuck in this house for a while longer. I’m not letting anyone leave until I know for sure the threat has been eliminated.” Jace stood, his spine straightening and his chin lifting, beta mode activated. “Riley, figure your shit out, talk to Blake. Jasper, stay the hell away from her.” He pointed to the door, letting them know that he wanted both orders carried out immediately.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Riley

  Riley fell back onto the bed in his room, the same room he’d stayed in every time he was at Jace and Axie’s compound. It had an attached bathroom, skylights that let him watch the snowfall, and a closet he could never fill in a million years. His meeting with their pack beta and Jasper had left a pit in his stomach. There wasn’t much time between realizing Blake was his forever and him shifting on a dime to go rescue her from his packmate on that mountain. Since he shifted back though? Things had begun to move faster. Riley understood the powder-keg situation an unbonded pair was, but he was not ready to implode Blake’s happy little world. She lived for parties and 90s movie sleepovers. The only stress she liked was over where to order takeout from. She was carefree and quick to laugh. Jace expected Riley to walk into her room and tell her magic was real, shifters existed, and she was meant to be bound to him for the rest of her life.

  Whether Riley was ready didn’t matter. Blake’s body was responding to the bond. It was only a matter of time before the hot flashes got someone hurt, or even worse, her symptoms escalated to the pain Molly and Keller experienced. Baze and Pen, too.

  He threw his arm over his eyes, trying to organize all his racing thoughts, and took a deep breath, thinking about Blake and how he felt about her. She made him smile. She made him live and have fun. He enjoyed every second he was with her. He loved how much she liked to wear his clothes and eat greasy hamburgers. She was kind, and she never met a stranger. If he was to be tied to one female for the rest of forever, he couldn’t do better than Blake, that was for fucking sure. As annoying as having his choices taken away from him were, he had to concede the universe knew what it was doing.

  “There you are, sourpuss.” Blake came bouncing into his room, leaping into the air and landing beside him on the bed. “Ready for that movie?” She started ticking off titles on her fingers. “Speed, Broken Arrow, Congo—”

  “Congo?” Riley snorted out a laugh. “The one about the giant man-eating gorillas? Is that really considered an action flick?”

  “We’re running out of nineties action. We might have to mosey on over to killer animals and natural disasters.” She rolled to her side, facing him with a wide grin on her beautiful, makeup-free face. Riley loved this version of Blake. Comfy clothes and bare skin. The way she looked at the end of the day, ready to cuddle up next to him. “The nineties have tons of those. Volcano, Dante’s Peak, Twister, Deep Blue Sea, Jurassic Park, The River Wild, which isn’t necessarily a natural disaster but there’s a raging river and—”

  “Speaking of natural disasters.” Riley cut off her deflecting movie rant. “We need to talk about what happened with Jasper on that mountain, and what happened to you.” The connection between them wasn’t a disaster, but Blake’s reaction to the things he needed to tell her might very well be.

  She wrinkled her nose. “Do we have to?” She reached over his head, grabbing the remote from his nightstand and flooding his nose with her sweet scent. “I was thinking instead we’d watch movies and you’d let me completely avoid the whole thing.” She queued up the movie app, logging in with Riley’s password. “It’s over. Jasper apologized. A dog helped me back down the mountain. We all survived.”

  “First of all, it was a wolf.” Riley would never be okay with the dog downgrade. “Second, Jasper touched you when you didn’t want him to.” He knew Jasper would never intentionally hurt Blake, but what he did was still a violation. Typically, she avoided heavy conversations at all costs, but Riley couldn’t let her blow this off. Not when it was only going to keep happening, and not when there was so much she didn’t know. “Not to mention, the way you felt.”

  “I was dehydrated. Altitude sickness.” Blake selected Congo. “Now, let’s watch this epically ridiculous movie about gorillas and the geodes they protect.”

  Ri
ley sighed, wrapping his arm around her when she settled against his chest. It’d been a long-as-hell day for both of them. One movie wouldn’t hurt. Ninety minutes of complete avoidance sounded really fucking fantastic, actually. Hell, he was about to commandeer the rest of her life, he could give her one movie where everything was right in her world.

  ***

  Riley woke alone. The movie was as 90s as he remembered, and he could barely keep his eyes open. At one point he’d seen Blake start to nod off as well, so he thought it’d been safe to close his eyes for a minute. He didn’t think she’d leave the room. He sat up, trying to shake off the sleep, which still had hold of his mind. He knew he needed to go find her, needed to lock her in here with him and make her listen. It wasn’t safe for her to be wandering around the house with Jasper being here. Riley got to his feet and made it to the door before he heard the sound of shattering glass and Jace yelling his name.

  He bolted down the stairs, whipping around the landing and darting toward the open patio doors. Jace had Jasper pinned to the deck and Blake was holding snow in her hands against her cheeks. Fuck. Jace glared daggers at him as he stepped out into the chaos. “Something you forgot to do, dickhead?”

  Jasper wasn’t struggling, and Riley couldn’t determine whether Blake’s episode was over or Jace was being super beta. Either way, he was in deep shit. He’d told Jace he’d talk to Blake, that he wouldn’t let things reach an explosive level. Yet, there was glass all over the deck and Jasper had blood dripping down his closed fist.

  “I didn’t know she left.”

  “No.” Jace pointed an accusing finger in his direction. “You were supposed to find her and tell her.”

  “Tell me what?” Blake pulled her hands away from her face, her expression confused. “Why is Jasper bleeding?” She got to her feet, dusting the snow off her leggings and not really cleaning them off. “Why am I out here?” She looked across the patio to Riley. “Am I losing my mind? Do I have split personalities or something? I need to be committed, don’t I? That’s it, I’ve gone crazy and no one wants to tell me. I need to go to one of those uber-creepy mental institutions and—”