Alphas of Red Moon Ranch - Complete Series (21 page)

Cassidy walked Holly all the way to her house and stayed with her. She insisted on making tea and Holly didn’t have the energy to send her away. Holly sank into the plush sofa and stared at a coffee ring on the center table.

Cassidy set the herbal tea down in front of her, interrupting her vision. She smelled the sharply sweet scent of berries and honey.

“Blackberry tea,” Cassidy announced proudly, as she settled in beside Holly. Her hand rested on the small of Holly’s back. “It makes everything better. And it’s good on the bun in the oven.”

“Thanks,” Holly said. Numbly, she wrapped her fingers around the mug and stared at that instead. “I shouldn’t have told him like that,” she added after a moment.

“It was a little on the dramatic side,” Cassidy agreed, “But that’s our God-given right as women. We get to be dramatic.”

“It’s just…I wanted to be celebrating this,” Holly said. “And now…I don’t know how I feel.”

The rattling door startled both women and their heads jerked up. Jacob stepped in, his boots dragging across the hardwood floor, and Holly thought he looked wet, even though it wasn’t raining—soggy,
droopy
. His eyes were deep when they caught hers—a dark well—and he gave a small shrug of heavy shoulders and said plainly, “Can we talk?”

Holly felt small, suddenly, so small,
tiny
in the face of this great, prideful man’s vulnerability. She felt her gaze drop with her chin, head wilting. She felt Cassidy squeeze her shoulder. “Do you want me to stay, love?” Cassidy asked.

Holly just barely shook her head. “No. Thank you.”

Cassidy pressed a soft kiss to Holly’s forehead and then stood up off the couch. Her shoes scuffed softly across the rug.

“You be good to her, y’hear me?” Cassidy barked.

“Yeah,” Holly heard Jacob reply dismissively.

The door shuddered closed once more. Now Holly was left with nothing but Jacob’s thunderous silence.

His boots thunked on the ground and she noticed a stain on the couch she hadn’t seen before. Had it always been there? Or had that been a sloppy spill on the night of conception? She should try to wash it out or, at very least, put a throw pillow over it—

“Holly.” His voice, low and vibrant, impossible to ignore. He had physically lowered himself, on his knees in front of her so he could be eye level with her. His hands rested on her thighs to hold her attention and when she looked into his eyes, they looked like they might break. “Is it true?”

She felt like she was the size of a mouse as she wanted to find a hole in the couch to hide in. “You think I would lie about something like that?” she said sharply. A rodent snapping at a cat, barely disturbing his whiskers.

He didn’t respond to that. He only asked, voice firm, “How long have you known?”

“Not long,” she said, pushing the words out maybe too quickly. As though she were rushing to her own defense. As though she had
anything
to hide…
he
should be the one on the defensive, not her. The thought made her irate, and her jaw tightened. “Just…this morning. I took a test. It came out positive.”

He let out a strange sound—somewhere between a groan of relief and a sigh. Jacob’s head dropped into her lap and his fingers gripped her legs. He pressed a kiss to her thigh, and then one to her stomach, and murmured, “God…thank you…”

The genuine, raw
joy
from him almost broke her. Almost. She felt a tear roll down her cheek and she sniffed, brushed it away, and tried to stay strong. She
wanted
to be happy. This was more how she had imagined it—
celebratory
. Celebrating this new life, this
precious
baby. Wellsprings of happiness she’d kept forcibly caged—
just in case
his reaction was sour—threatened to unleash. But there was a cold, hard casing around her heart now, and now, more than ever, she felt trapped. Now, when she
wanted
to be happy, to enjoy this with him, but the logical part of her, the sensible part,
knew better.
“That doesn’t change what happened,” she said, though her voice shook.

Jacob looked up at her, soft eyes meeting hers—he looked like a
puppy dog
now, not a strong, intimidating bear Alpha—and his lips pressed in a thin, guilty line. “I know,” he said heavily. “If I’d known—”

“It doesn’t matter,” Holly broke in. “It
shouldn’t
. We’re
supposed
to be building a life together, we’re supposed to be working towards…something. And when you do things like that…” She lifted her hand in a vague gesture and, frustrated with her inability to find the right words, let her arm drop heavily back to her side. “It makes me feel like you
want
to give into the Beast. Like you would rather be that animal than be here. With me.”

Oceans. His eyes could have carried oceans; they were that dark and deep.
Stunned
. His lips were parted, but not a sound came out.

“Is that what I should do, Jacob?” Holly held her gaze, though her voice fell nearly to a whisper. “Should I prepare for you to leave me?”

“No…” His hand cupped the side of her face, his brown eyes going suddenly soft and intense at the same time. “We’ll figure this out.”

Her hand drew over his and she entwined their fingers and then pressed a kiss to his palm. “I’m trying to help you. I’m trying so hard. And every time you do something like that…it feels like you’re spitting in my face.”

Jacob glanced up at her, eyebrows lifted.

Holly continued, “Which…you know. If it’s in the
bedroom
, that’s one thing. I like when you humiliate me there. Where it’s just us and it’s…safe. But outside…I need you to respect me. I need us to be a team. We can’t be a family unless we’re a team, and that scares me.”

His hand gave hers a single tight squeeze. “It’s been…just me. For so long. I had to take care of my siblings when I was just a kid myself. It left a mark. Makes it hard for me to accept someone else’s help.”

Holly pulled her hair back to bare her scar. “
You
left a mark. We’re even.”

He smiled. A small smile. Then it turned sad. “I’m sorry,” he said.

“Don’t tell me you’re sorry,” she said. “Show me.”

The crickets outside chirred noisily and the pages crinkled as Jacob turned them over. Holly had her research sprawled out on the table in front of him and Jacob sat there quietly, going through it bit by bit. Any other day, she’d have to fight him to sit down and go over this with her. Now, he was quiet, thoughtful, and he read through every word, his glasses perched on his nose. “That’s him?” he asked.

Holly nodded. “Robin Hoyte. Bonafide witch. Or…wizard. Is that the term?”

“Warlock,” Jacob said evenly. Holly found it strange that she—who had read the
Chronicles of Narnia
,
Harry Potter
, and
Wicked
countless times—couldn’t seem to spit the right words out, while these wild, fantastical words somehow sounded
natural
rolling off the mountain man’s tongue.

“He’s the one who put this spell on your clan. He cursed the Alphas with…moonlust. He’s gone, I think, but his power is still in that talisman. At least, that’s the theory,” Holly corrected herself.

Jacob stared at the picture for a moment and then took off his glasses and set them down on the table. Holly could hear the rough scratch of his beard as he rubbed his hand over it thoughtfully. “She had the talisman the whole time,” he said. His tone was deep, hardened. “Miranda knows what it’s capable of. And she’s just been sitting back and watching me suffer.”

Holly saw it. The golden shimmer around his irises. The violence in his voice. He was working himself into a rage. All night, he’d been trying to pick a fight. Holly slipped her hand down the back of his neck, petting the scruffy hair there, and said, “We’ll get it back—”

“It’s a
betrayal
,” he growled. That word, it had gotten under his skin and infected him. Ever since Brent. Everyone was out to betray him.

It scared her seeing him like this, all cold metal and sharp, jagged edges. It felt like she was losing him already. “Shhh,” Holly said and drew his face in close. She pressed a kiss to his mouth and said, “You’re getting yourself worked up, Jacob. She’s not worth it.”

But then his attention was on her, the big bad wolf peering through the cracks in the foliage, and Holly felt a shiver run down her spine. He grabbed her suddenly, ferociously, and kissed her hard enough to bruise her lips.

She’d asked for this, Holly reminded herself. She’d wanted him to give her his Beast. And it took her breath away when he got like this, all singular need and aggression. Kissing her like he meant to devour her, fucking her like he meant to split her in half. It made her skin burn, her nether lips swell, and she dug her nails into his shoulder, a quiet reminder (
it’s okay, I’m here).

Jacob didn’t stop there, though. His hand found her throat and he gripped hard—too hard. He didn’t know his own strength. She gasped, vision blurring briefly, and then a thought flashed through her head:
baby
.

“Jacob—wait, slow,” she rasped, and he stopped, releasing her.

The Beast hadn’t left, but worry locked in his eyes now. “Are you okay?”

She nodded, swallowed. “Yeah…just….take it slow. Please.”

But there was an untethered impatience lingering in his eyes. “You told me to give you the Beast,” he said firmly. And she heard the unspoken word in his tone:
betrayal
. Even though he’d never admit it, right now, she was just another person who let him down.

Holly nodded, then drew both hands over his face, fingers tangling in the curls of his beard. “I did,” she said evenly. “And I meant it. But I think there’s more to your bear than claws and fangs.”

His eyes watched her and she could see the inner cogs of his mind spinning. Then he took her in his arms and lifted her up, like she weighed nothing, despite all her curves. He was still forceful, but there was a deliberate gentleness in his touch now and she hooked her legs around his hips as he carried her through the room. “I need stars,” he said, snagging the quilt off the couch as he went.

Holly hooked her arms around his neck and nodded. “Okay.” He carried her out the door, past the porch, and into the thick of the woods. It was a crisp summer night, and the breeze felt good on her skin. The woods were dark, thick with trees, and Holly could hear the sounds of owls and crickets over the crunch of Jacob’s boots. Normally, being in the woods at night like this would have scared her, but Jacob walked with such purpose that Holly felt at ease here.
He’s the king of the woods,
she thought to herself.
And I’m the queen. There’s nothing to fear here
.

They walked a little further until they got to a clearing. Holly could hear the bubble of a stream nearby though she couldn’t see it. She kept her head tucked against his shoulder and felt a strange peace seep into her bones, like she was in a dream and she just knew, somehow, that everything was going to be alright.

Jacob laid the quilt down on the grass and then eased Holly down on top of it. The trees broke here and she could see the sky clearly, dark above her. The moon was swollen—nearly full—and it hung heavy and bright in the sky, milky stars illuminating the shadows around them.

Jacob settled down on his back beside her and, for a moment, they both just watched the sky. Holly snuggled up with her head on his chest. She could hear his breath beside her, deep and easy, as though a lock around his lungs had finally unhinged.

“Shooting star,” she said after a moment. “Do you see it?”

“Make a wish,” he murmured.

They lapsed into silence again, though the trees seemed to talk enough for both of them—leaves whistling, nighttime animals humming and chirping.

“We’re going to be parents,” she said, like she couldn’t believe it.

He flashed her a grin. “You’re going to be a great mom.”

“You think so?”

“I know it.”

His lips covered hers then, in a soft, warm kiss. His eyes still shimmered with flecks of gold, but he felt less frantic against her now. More like marble, hard and smooth and dangerously beautiful.

Words caught in her throat and she nodded. When he kissed her again, his tongue swiped over hers and it felt as though he filled a void she hadn’t known was empty. She wanted to feel him everywhere, wanted him to fill all of her, and she made that apparent, wrapping her legs around his hips. Jacob didn’t need much more encouragement—he took off his clothes, then hers, peeling back each layer until they were naked underneath the blanket of moonlight. The quilt felt rough on her back, but Jacob was warm on top of her. She felt his wiry chest hair catch on her hard nipples, making them ache, and she felt completely intoxicated, drunk on this man on top of her and the nighttime that covered them both. It was like it had gotten inside her, somehow, and when Jacob’s calloused fingers pressed between her legs, opened her slit, and curled inside of her, it was warm moonlight that came pouring out.

Moonlust
. She understood the term suddenly, so clearly, and she wrapped around Jacob with both her arms and legs as he buried himself deep inside of her. He was hot and hard and she arched into his hips to take more of his velvet cock. Her fingers dug into his skin, grabbed handfuls of his thick hair, and clung to him tightly as he moved on top of her in rolling waves. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t find the words to describe how she was feeling, this peaceful euphoria and maddening pleasure, so she dissolved into gasps and whimpers and moans as he mounted her. He was forceful and, when she grabbed at him, she could feel his strong arms working, the lean muscles in his back coiling and flexing as his hips drove repeatedly between her legs.

Already, Holly could feel the intense pleasure building to a peak inside of her. Her pussy clutched his cock as it pummeled her mercilessly, until she whimpered through the first waves of her orgasm, fluttering around his hard organ. But he didn’t stop there; he continued to push against her, his breath pattering against her sweat-soaked skin. Holly felt her body suck his, and her legs trembled, helpless underneath him. Her powerful man. Her beast of a man.
Hers.
Heat rose between them, unrelenting. She felt him shudder over her, his breath caught on a grunt, and he broke his steady, pounding rhythm as he lost control and shot—hot, thick—inside of her. The sensation brought another sharp throb from Holly and she thrashed, suddenly feeling just as animal as he was, as cried out, loudly, into the empty night as she came with him.

She tried to catch her breath, his solid, smothering-warm weight on top of her. Her hand rubbed up and down his back just to touch skin and she felt indentations where she’d left long nail marks in him. She kissed his shoulder, sweetly, and he matched her kiss with his lips.

“Better?” she asked.

“Very,” he grinned.

He pulled out with her and lay down beside her now, hooking an arm around her. Holly tangled her limbs up with his and listened to his heartbeat.

“You wanna go inside?” he asked.

“No.”

“Me neither.”

It felt like minutes later that Holly fell asleep, tucked up against her wild-blooded husband with the moon watching over them.