Wild Love [Werewolves of Forever, Texas 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 5

  From a young child Jackson had been groomed to assume the position of alpha-alpha not only to his brothers and family but to the other werewolves in Forever. Since helping to found the town, a Carr male had always taken the lead in civic and social duties and, although their leadership could be challenged by any werewolf at any time, no one had ever tried.

  Jacob grinned and nodded. “Yes to all your questions. She’s a little thing, but she’s got spunk. She has long brown hair with golden strands in it. I wanted to tunnel my fingers through it and hold on for dear life. Her face is sweet looking with a cute little nose. But her eyes? Damn, when she looked at me all hot and bothered, I thought she’d melt my junk with her heat.”

  Jackson and Jayden exchanged a telling look. Irritation flared in Jackson.

  “What do you mean all hot and bothered? What the hell did you do, man?” Jackson glowered. “You were just supposed to show her around the cabin and get a feel for her.”

  “Oh, I got a feel for her, all right.”

  “What’s up with that?” Jayden shoved back his chair and stood, ready to take Jacob on. Fangs broke through his gums and claws sprang from his fingertips.

  Jacob did the same, his eyes morphing to amber, his fangs dripping saliva. He started to go around the table, ready for a fight. “Get over yourself, little brother. If you’d had the chance, you’d have done the same thing.”

  Jackson moved fast and got between them. “Knock it off, you two. We have more important things to do than have you hounds knock each others’ heads off.”

  As their alpha-alpha and the leader of their pack, whenever Jackson laid down the law, they listened even though they were his brothers and alphas, too. The rest of the werewolves of Forever had always looked up to Jackson even when he was a boy.

  Grumbling and still snarling, the brothers took their seats again, reversing to full human form.

  “What was the impression in town about her?” Jackson didn’t really care what other people thought, but he had to bring the tension down in the room. Distracting his brothers with questions almost always worked.

  “Milly liked her, and the other pack members in the diner thought she was okay. They said she seemed a bit down. Like she was tired. But they sensed there was more to it than just being worn out from driving here.”

  Most of Forever, Texas, was made up of the descendants of werewolves who had settled the town along with members of the Carr Pack. Although never officially naming the Carr family as the ruling shifters, deference was given to them because of their ancestors’ leadership in founding the town. The current Carr brothers, as well as cousins and other family members, continued that tradition by taking roles of leadership in their society.

  But the town didn’t restrict their citizenship to only werewolves. A few locals, like Deacon Slater the pharmacist and Robert Virton, were different supernatural beings. Vampires like Deacon were few and far between, preferring a life of solitude, and faeries like Robert were a rarity in any town. Werecats and werebears lived alongside werewolves, and as long as all inhabitants respected each other’s customs and traditions, everyone lived in peaceful cohabitation.

  “They’re right.” Jacob frowned and sat back in his chair. “I sensed something was off. At first, I thought it was nerves or being sad about the breakup she just went through, but now I’m not so sure. The darkness inside her ran deeper, stronger than simple emotion. Like it’s a physical thing.”

  Finding out as much as they could about her had been easy. The rental agreement and the information Martin had provided from others living in the apartment complex had given them enough information to start. With a little more digging and a few calls to a couple of her concerned friends, they’d found out about her breakup with her boyfriend. Why they’d broken up, however, remained a mystery even to her closest friends.

  Jacob ran a hand through his hair. “I told her we’d help her, but she clammed up. She didn’t say anything, but I still got the impression that it’s a major problem. Maybe you can get a better read, Jackson.”

  Jackson nodded. He’d always been able to sense things about people, from aches and pains to emotional issues. At times, he wished he didn’t have the sixth sense, but at other times it came in handy. “I’ll give it a try when I meet her.”

  Jayden pushed his plate to the middle of the table. “Well, there’s no time like the present. How about we go on over there and introduce ourselves? Then you can get a feel”—he paused to glare at the smirking Jacob—“for what’s going on with her.”

  “But I’m not finished with dinner.” Jacob grabbed another piece of bread as he chewed another chunk of meat.

  Jackson stood then walked around and grabbed Jacob by the collar. “You can finish later.”

  “Are we running over there?” Jayden bounced on his feet, eager as always to change and travel on four paws. “We haven’t had a good run since last week.”

  “And what? Show up naked on her front step?” Jacob punched his brother playfully in the arm. “Seriously, man, use your head.”

  “Tell you what. We can run afterwards then swing back to the truck and drive home.” Jackson snatched the keys off the rack. “Let’s go meet our mate.”

  Ten minutes later they sat in their truck outside the rental house, their eyes on Emma as she stood near the front window and sorted through a box. Her movements were graceful, her body’s curves backlit from the light of the living room’s lamp.

  “Damn.” Jackson couldn’t take his eyes off her. She was everything Jacob had described and more. Even from a distance, he felt the pull on his cock, his balls drawing up in anticipation.

  “See what I mean?” Jacob wiggled his eyebrows. “Do you blame me for fooling around with her? Hell, you’re both lucky I didn’t take her right then and there.”

  “What are we waiting for?” Jayden opened the passenger door and hopped out. “I’m itching to touch her.”

  Jacob followed his younger brother while Jackson got out on the driver’s side. The three brothers came together at the front of the vehicle, their attention on Emma.

  “Take it easy, Jayden. We don’t want to scare her off.”

  “How am I going to frighten her? By knocking on her door?”

  “Your big ugly face could give her a heart attack.” Jacob dodged Jayden’s swipe.

  “Settle down, the both of you.” Jackson held his hand up, a sign to his brothers to calm down, but he kept his attention focused on the beautiful woman.

  “Fine. I’m calm now.” Jayden blew out a breath. “But let’s go, okay?”

  Jayden was halfway down the walkway when Jackson and Jacob caught up with him. They strode toward the house, Jackson taking the lead and asserting his leadership role. All at once, Emma froze, letting the towel she held fall into the box. The men stopped in sync.

  “Shit. Did she see us?” Jacob murmured just loud enough for a werewolf to hear, but no human could have heard the sound.

  “I don’t think so.” Jackson frowned. What the hell was she doing?

  Emma placed both palms on her forehead and closed her eyes. She stood still for several moments, and then, without warning, she crumpled to the floor.

  Jackson took off running for the front door a second before his brothers did. He hunkered down, ready to break down the door.

  “Hold up, Jackson. I’ve got the other key.”

  Jackson’s heart pounded as Jacob fumbled with the lock. At last, he pushed the door open and the men burst into the living room. Jayden fell to his knees beside the unconscious woman, with his brothers doing the same. Jackson gently lifted her head and cradled it in his lap.

  “Are you getting anything from her?” Jacob took her hand as he squatted next to her.

  “Give me time.” Jackson stroked her silky hair and studied her oval face that looked so innocent and frail. He slid his gaze along her womanly yet petite body and a surge of desire ripped into him, calling to his inner wolf. But now was not the time to quench his des
ire. Comforting her with soft words, he closed his eyes.

  He let his mind wander, opening to the world around them then into the shadowy world beyond. Searching, he shifted just enough to bring forth his wolf’s special power, the one only an alpha-alpha could ever possess. He drew strength from deep inside his body, releasing the instincts of the animal inside him. Taking care, he eased into her mind, his tendrils of thought spiraling outward to probe her, careful to be as gentle as he could.

  Her thoughts, although jumbled, as most humans’ were, came to him in a rush of images and emotion. He sucked in a breath, ready for whatever she would reveal to him.

  Impressions of her life with her mother and father flowed outward, capturing his attention. A memory of a bicycle she treasured dissolved into that of the bike lying in the road, crushed and broken. The bicycle transformed, morphing into two cars. One car’s hood was bent and shoved into the windshield. A young man stumbled from the vehicle, a whiskey bottle clutched in his hand.

  The other car had gone off the road and into a ditch. The left side of the car was bent and contorted. Black smoke poured from under the hood, and shattered glass lay everywhere. Two people, a man and a woman who looked like an older version of Emma, were in the car, their bloody bodies twisted at strange angles, their lifeless eyes staring straight ahead.

  Jackson groaned as the vision changed. A teenager with Emma’s hair and eyes sat crying in the front pew, her bloodshot eyes locked on the two caskets in front of her. Her weeping tore through him.

  Jackson pushed past the distant memories, striving to find the trouble he knew was hidden from him. The flash of a memory of a man with short brown hair and cold eyes assaulted him. Hurtful words echoed in Jackson’s head as the man turned away from Emma. Anger boiled up in Jackson, and he wanted nothing more than to hurt the man as he’d hurt her. No. More than he’d hurt her. He wanted to destroy the man emotionally and physically. Jackson could feel her anger, her agony, her disbelief at the man’s betrayal, and he wanted to slash at the man with his claws.

  Shoving his feelings aside, he discarded the image and quelled his anger, knowing he had to stay focused on finding the problem. He called to her, daring to let her hear him.

  Show me, Emma. Show me what’s wrong.

  He stroked her face with the back of his hand and urged her to let him go deeper inside her mind. And yet, he wasn’t prepared when she did.

  The truth of her condition slammed into him, and his body shook as her pain tore at his gut. As though he were in her body and reliving the day, an image of the doctor telling her about her condition seared through him. He felt her shock, her denial, and finally, her acceptance.

  “I’m sorry, Emma. I wish I had better news.”

  She nodded, numb yet filled with a horrible ache. “Can you operate?”

  The doctor shook his head. “No. We can’t reach the tumor either by scalpel or by laser. If we tried…” He shrugged and let out a ragged breath. “The odds aren’t in your favor. Plus, you’d suffer irreversible brain damage. I’m afraid there’s nothing anyone can do.”

  Again, she nodded. “I understand. So…how long?”

  “No one can say for sure. We can try radiation, chemo, maybe even experimental avenues of treatment.”

  “Would any of it do any good?” Her heart pounded in her chest, her stomach twisted into knots.

  “It might buy you a few more months. Maybe even a year.” The doctor leaned forward, his eyes soft with compassion.

  “But I’d be sick and suffering for those few months, right? Most likely I’d go through all that without getting cured. And in the end, I’d die.” She looked down at her hands folded in her lap.

  “I think that’s a fair assessment. But there’s always hope.”

  She lifted her gaze and smiled. “Right. And Santa Claus is real and married to Tinkerbell. No thanks, Doctor. I’d rather spend the rest of my life living and not waiting to die.”

  Jackson inhaled, his pain for his mate adding to the agony he’d received from linking with her. She was dying. He wanted to know more but didn’t think he could stand the heartache. Not yet. He pushed his mind away from hers and severed the connection.

  “Jackson, are you okay? What’d you find out?”

  “I’ll tell you in a minute.” He sat, holding her for a few more moments, as much to give him time to recuperate as to comfort her.

  Scooping her up as though she weighed nothing, Jackson carried her into the bedroom. He waited as Jacob pulled down the cover. Placing her gently on top of the bed, he smoothed her hair away from her face then sat next to her.

  “Shit, man, you’re scaring us. Give us the facts. What’s wrong with her?” Jayden’s strained tone matched the worried expression on Jacob’s face.

  “She’s very ill.” Jackson paused, letting the information sink in. “Deathly ill. She has a brain tumor. I’m guessing that’s why she held her head right before she passed out. She must be having headaches.”

  “No.” Jacob moaned. “Cancer? At her age? She has to be going through hell.”

  “If only we’d found her earlier. I can’t believe she’s dealing with this by herself. What about her family? Her friends?” Jacob’s agony for her was voiced in his struggle to speak.

  Jackson shook his head, the pain of finding out her secret twisting his gut. “Judging from the memories I saw, she doesn’t have any close family. As for friends? From how they acted when we called and pretended to ask for references, I don’t think they know.”

  Anger hardened Jayden’s features. “Could that be why she broke up with her boyfriend? She gets sick and he dumps her.” Jayden growled and fisted his hand against the bedpost.

  “We have to do something.” Jacob ran his hand through his hair.

  Jackson studied the dark circles under her eyes. “Help me get her into bed. And take it easy. Her body and her mind are worn out.”

  Together the men laid her gently on the bed. They paused, staring down at her, each trying to come to terms with the fact that their mate could die.

  Jackson swallowed, his mouth suddenly gone dry. She was beautiful. His gaze strolled over her, from the tip of her head, over the swell of her breasts, then down her long legs. His breath hitched in his throat as he thought about the torture she had to be enduring, facing a fatal illness alone. Even in sickness, her skin glowed, giving her an ethereal look. He reached out to glide a fingertip along her arm and inhaled, stunned at the softness of her skin.

  The animal inside him howled, wanting to get free to take his mate. The wolf flexed its claws to rake at him. The beast’s snarl wanted to come to his lips. Drawing in a deep breath, Jackson let it out with a sigh. “She smells like roses and—”

  “Sex.” Jacob glanced at him then back at Emma. “She smells like roses and sex.”

  Each of them inhaled, bringing in their mate’s scent. For a moment, the men basked in the fragrance of their newfound love.

  “We’re going to save her.” Jayden ran his tongue over his lips. “We have to.”

  Jacob and Jackson nodded their agreement. They’d waited too long to lose her now that she’d finally come into their lives.

  Jackson tugged the quilt over her then tucked the edges under her sides.

  “She’s going to be all right.”

  Jackson nodded at Jayden. “She will be once she accepts us as her mates. The transformation will heal her.”

  “What if she refuses?”

  “She won’t refuse, Jacob. Why would she? She’s already shown she’s attracted to you. We’ll tell her about us and show her what it means to be our mate. It’ll take time, but once we bite her, she’ll heal. Until then we take care of her.” Jackson hoped she wouldn’t take too long to agree to mate with them.

  “But what if she doesn’t? Or what if she takes too long to accept? This tumor could kill her before that.” Jayden walked to the other side of the room then turned back. “This is so wrong. Our mate finally comes to us, and she’s dying. I
can’t stand to think of her suffering.”

  “We won’t let her die.” Jackson gritted his teeth. He couldn’t lose her. He wouldn’t lose her.

  “Why don’t we just do it?” Jacob’s gaze fixed on her. “Why not bite her now before she has a chance to refuse? She’ll heal and thank us for it later.”

  Jackson’s wolf roared to life and rose to the surface. He was on his feet, his hand around Jacob’s throat before the younger shifter knew what was happening. Jackson drove Jacob backward and rammed him against the wall. “Since when does any werewolf in our pack take a mate without her full knowledge and consent?”

  Jacob struggled to croak out a few words. “Let me go, man.”

  “Come on, Jackson. Turn him loose.”

  Jackson glared at his youngest brother. “Is that what you’d do, too? Would you take her before she gave her consent?”

  Jayden held up his hands and backed away. “No, and I’m sure Jacob wouldn’t either once he took the time to think about it.”

  Jacob tried to nod, but he couldn’t move. “I’m only suggesting it because of her condition.”

  Jackson turned his brother free then pivoted to look at Emma. Could he change her without her agreeing if it meant saving her life?

  “Think about it, Jackson. If we turn her now, she’ll get well almost at once. Who wouldn’t want to get rid of cancer? But if we don’t change her soon, what will we do if the worst happens? Can you live knowing we could’ve saved her and didn’t?”

  “He’s right.” Jayden took her hand in his. “I don’t want to lose her now that we’ve found her. Besides, we can’t let her suffer.”

  A stabbing pain struck Jackson in the chest, making it difficult to breathe. He’d known only one werewolf who had lost his mate while young, and that poor shifter had wasted away to nothing from the heartache. He’d become a broken man everyone in Forever pitied. Most believed losing a mate early on was worse than never finding her.