Chapter 13
Jasmine watched the door close and walked over to lock it. Disturbed, she went over everything the boys had told her. Someone raped the woman, and she gave birth to twins. After tidying the kitchen, she picked up her phone and placed a call.
On the second ring a voice answered. “Mom?”
“Jasmine, honey, it’s good to hear your voice.”
She bit down on her lip before responding. “How are you and Mark?”
“We’re good. The boys?” her mom asked with hesitation.
“Rone’s in therapy from his accident and Rese is here helping him. They’re both doing okay.” She paused, choked back the dread threatening to overwhelm her and pushed forward. “Mom didn’t you tell me I had a twin, but she died at birth?”
There was a discernible pause. “Yeah, little Janay. She had heart problems and didn’t make it, why?”
“I was just curious. The boys were telling me about this woman who was raped, she'd had twin girls but something happened to one of the girls. Somebody took her they said.”
Her mom gasped. “Raped?”
“Yeah, he raped her and passed on a virus, I’m not sure about everything, but I was curious.” She said just enough to get her mom thinking. If she was lucky the woman would open up and tell her more about their past. To date, her mom never discussed anything before meeting her husband. The fact he wasn’t their biological dad slipped out one day in the heat of an argument. Her mom denied ever saying it, but she and Renee had never forgotten.
“Curious about what?” her mom snapped.
“Everything and nothing. How long you guys going to be in Miami?” She changed the subject knowing her mom wouldn’t let it rest.
“Another week. What kind of virus?”
“Huh?”
“You said something about a virus during the rape. What kind? Did the boys say?”
“Something about it slowing down aging, helped the person heal fast, gave 'em lots of energy, oh yeah and it makes you real fertile. Crazy huh?”
For a moment her mom didn’t speak. “No, not really. Stranger things have happened.”
Jasmine closed her eyes as she squeezed the phone tight. “Yeah? Like what?” She got out through a tight throat.
“Hold on a minute, let me close the door.”
****
The house was dark. There was a light tap on the front door. Jasmine heard it, but after the bombshell her mom dropped on her a while ago, she didn’t want to see or talk to anyone. Not even her sons.
The knock came again, harder this time.
Jasmine rolled over, covering her head with the pillow, expecting to hear feet leaving, not walking inside her home.
She shot up straight. Her heart slammed in her chest as she grabbed her throat.
“Jasmine.”
Her lids lowered in relief and then snapped open in anger. “Silas. I don’t feel like company. That’s why I didn’t answer the door.”
He walked into her bedroom, smelling like outdoors and looking outright male. Her nipples tingled in recognition as he leaned against the opening.
“The twins went out with the pack and I told them I’d check on you. They called, but no one answered.” He stepped into the dim room.
Her heart raced as a sliver of light from outside hit the planes of his face. He looked big, menacing and well, damn good. “I’m fine, thanks,” she said in a dismissive tone, hoping he’d take the hint and leave.
He sat on the edge of the bed and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “What happened?”
“Huh?”
“You’re upset. What happened?” His demanding tone irritated her.
“Nothing I want to discuss.” She pulled her legs up out of the way.
“You prefer to be fucked?”
She shook her head at the change in topic. “No. I prefer to be alone.”
“Talk or fuck, it’s up to you.”
He stood, toed off his shoes and unbuttoned his shirt. A deep throb started low in her belly. Tingles of anticipation ran amok inside her. She closed her eyes to gain control and swallowed hard.
“Stop Silas.” She ground her teeth in frustration. “I found out something a little while ago from my mom and I’m trying to process it. I don’t want to have sex and I don’t want to talk.”
“We’ll ignore the lie about sex, but if this has something to do with your ability to breed wolves, I’d like to know what you discovered.” He returned to the side of the bed in just his pants.
She frowned and sat back against the headboard. “Does it matter that I don’t want to be bothered with you?”
“Sometimes, just not this time.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “You know… I don’t have to tell you anything. I’m not a wolf or a member of your pack or your organization or whatever you call it. I have a life of my own and I’d like to get back to living it again. When will I be able to leave? Or am I a prisoner here?”
They stared at one another for a moment. “You’re right. You’re not a wolf, although I suspect you have a lot of our traits. You understand pack protocol, so I know you’re just being ornery right now. Tyrese told me they shared what we found in Mexico, so you are aware there are other human females who breed. And I’ll release you after your next cycle.”
Her head snapped back. “What? Why wait?”
His brow raised a notch. “Pups. We’ll know by then if you’re breeding or not.”
Her stomach twisted, and she sank further down the bed. She was almost certain she was pregnant, but didn’t want to take a test and seal her fate. There were so many things she wanted to explore in her life before raising more kids.
“What happened, Jasmine?” He lay across the bed, trapping her legs. He leaned up on his elbow and stared at her. His eyes, more blue than green, tempted her to give into him.
She looked up at the ceiling. It didn’t offer a reprieve or make the news any better. “A man raped my mom,” she whispered. Answering the question she’d put to Tyrone earlier. Arianna was not a relative.
He tensed but didn’t move.
“I had a twin, but she died from a severe birth defect. Mom was still tore up about it as she told me. My twin’s organs, they were all wrong, they didn’t work or something.” He rubbed her arm while she got her breathing under control.
“Renee’s older and from the man I thought was my father. My twin and I were from the rape. Since then, my mom has had at least ten abortions. The last one a year ago. She refuses to have any more children after my twin’s deformity.” Tears filled her eyes. They hadn’t asked for any of this. Now, she and her mother might outlive her sister. Her sixty-year-old mother still looked half her age and dated men much younger.
“I don’t want this,” she said, her voice cracking as she looked at him.
He scooted forward and held her beneath the shelter of his arm as tears filled her eyes. “I know, Jasmine. But in life we have to deal with the hand we’re dealt. You’re strong and there’s a reason you carry this burden. We don’t know why, but you have to trust that things will work out.” He rubbed her back, soothing her.
“How old is your mom?”
“She just turned sixty last year, why?” She leaned into him, filling her nostrils with his woodsy scent.
“Arianna’s rape happened when she was in her early twenties. So was your mom. So we know whoever is doing this has a thing for younger women, but not children, at least as far as we know he hasn’t raped women under the age of twenty. Plus he was still doing this thirty five years ago. That’s a serious block of time from Arianna to your mom.”
She nodded as understanding dawned. “Did he rape a woman a year, every other year or every decade? It’s no telling how many women are infected.” She looked up at him. “What does this mean? What are you going to do?”
Their eyes met. His had darkened to green. “Right now or later?” he asked in a slow sexy drawl that had her libido doing flips.
Her tongue swept across her dry lips. His eyes followed the movement. And then he crushed her to his side.
“Are you feeling better?” he growled.
“No, not really,” she said to see what he’d do next.
He whistled a long sigh above her head. “What else troubles you?”
“I’m worried about my sons and what all this means. You call them half-breeds or hybrids. Just how different are they? And does their difference matter? Are they in danger or do you consider them a threat?”
She felt the groan through his chest as she settled back against the headboard.
“I’m not sure what this means. Apparently, someone has been upsetting the balance for years and we’re just finding out. There’s no telling how many hybrid wolves are out there or how many human breeders. Rone and Rese are exceptional wolves. They run as fast and are as strong as my trained Alphas.”
“But the Mexican hybrids weren’t. Not even close. Even those who had training. So I can’t tell you what matters or not yet, because I don’t know. More research has to be done. Is it their diet that made them different? Or their childhood? Or maybe how they were taught?” He shook his head.
“There are so many unanswered questions that I can’t say right now. But I can tell you this, right now I don’t see your sons as a threat. And I don’t think they are in any added danger. We’re a social community. They’re learning what it means to have a pack behind them and that’s a good thing.” He stroked her shoulder.
She looked up at him, curious at the wistful tone in his voice. His hand reached beneath the sheet, touching her thigh and setting off sparks of banked longing.
“We need interaction with others. A simple touch.” His fingertips trailed along her thigh. Goosebumps exploded over her skin.
“That is the dilemma of the lone wolf. He too finds himself in need at times. Times when it’s damn inconvenient.”
“In need?” Her brow arched as the pads of his fingers tapped across her panty-clad mound. “Am I throwing off the mating scent again?”
He stared down at her, capturing her gaze. There was something in his eyes. Something indefinable. He blinked, and it disappeared.
“No. There’s no mating scent, not this time.” He paused and looked at her. “Jasmine, there’s something you need to understand. I’m an older wolf who leads the nation of wolves, that’s my first priority. I’ve seen a lot of things and done more than I have time to discuss. I don’t have a mate, although I do have a servant who sees to my needs when I am in residence.”
She frowned. “Huh?”
He shook his head. “That’s not important unless you’re breeding. Jacques will be the one to see to your care and then help with their upbringing.”
“What?” She tried to lean forward, but he held her tight.
“Stop getting so riled. You’re a little hellcat at times.”
She cocked her brow at him. “You’ve lost your mind if you think anyone other than me is going to raise my kids. Don’t even think I’d give them up to you or anybody else.”
He shook her a few times. “I didn’t say… didn’t mean you’d be giving up the pups. I have servants in my home and one in particular whom I’d trust to deal with my litter. He has been with me for a hundred years and runs my home.”
“So why’d you mention him? Are you lovers or something?” She eyed him.
He grinned, but it was far from innocent. She shivered as his eyes slid over her from top to bottom.
“I say he’s my servant, you ask if he’s my lover? That’s a jump even for you. Where is your mind?” He flicked the hard bud of her nipple.
Her hand flew up and covered her chest. “Stop that. Go back to being an old fart, I mean wolf. I mean an old wolf.” She smiled at his glower.
His face changed as he stared at her. A green starburst filled his eyes. Her breath caught, but she didn’t look away. Heat filled her belly. Small tingles pricked her skin, not pleasurable, but not painful either.
Her breath hitched as she watched his eyes change to a mixture of green and blue. The seconds ticked without either of them speaking. Her fingertips itched to touch his face, not in a sexual way. Even in the quiet of the room she sensed his leashed power, the warmth of it pulsed through the room. The idea of a quiet storm summed up the intensity of his eyes. Dark strands of her hair lifted beneath the wind of his glowing eyes.
“Why are you doing this?" she whispered, her eyelids heavy.
“I needed to see you. Your aura… it’s unique.” He placed a kiss on her forehead and inhaled her scent. Holding her tight against his chest, she wanted to ask him what he’d wanted to tell her, but the heaviness in her limbs lulled her asleep.