Dreams of Wolf [Half-breed Shifter Series Book 2] (6 page)

Jaycee was
having none of it. “What’s going on? What did they mean, you could smell the
wolf? The wolf from yesterday in the yard?”

Slowly, Riley
swiveled to face her. “Children,” she said with a nervous laugh and a wave of
her hand. “They were fascinated all night long, demanding I tell them wolf
stories. I got so tired of repeating the same one, I finally made some up. One
was about Jack and the Beanstalk, but I made him a wolf, so the giant said ‘fie
fie fo fum, I smell the blood of a wolf in the room.’ I can only guess that’s
what they’re talking about.”

Squinting her
eyes, Jaycee stared at Riley a second longer, pretty sure she could read a lie
in the depths of the beautiful golden-brown eyes that gazed back, trying and
failing to look innocent. “So why did you stare at me before that?”

Riley shrugged
and sent her an airy smile. “No reason. You just look…different today.”

Jaycee pulled
back, patting her cheeks with a frown. “Really? How strange. Shaw said the same
thing.”

Face blooming
with adoration at the mention of her husband, Riley gave a soft smile. “Did he?
I always knew he was too intuitive for his own good.”

Utterly
confused now, Jaycee opened her mouth to ask more questions, but Riley cut her
off. “So, how’ve you been lately? We haven’t really chatted woman to woman in
quite a while. After talking some with you yesterday, I realized how much I
missed our bond.” Reaching out a warm hand, she clasped Jaycee’s arm. “Have you
met anyone new since Donald?”

Snorting, Jaycee
rolled her eyes. “Not unless you count the hunk I dreamed about last night.”
Then she blushed from simply thinking about him and everything they’d done
together.

Riley leaned
closer, frank interest lighting her eyes. “Really? A dream man, huh? Tell me all.”

She led Jaycee
toward the couch where the two women sat. They had grown close over the years.
Despite the fact Riley was supermodel gorgeous and Jaycee envied pretty much
everything about her from her successful job to her perfect house, children and
husband, she was too likeable to hate. So they’d become best friends instead.
Still, Jaycee’s cheeks heated with embarrassment as she repeated her dream to
Riley. Before she knew it, every delicious detail spilled from her mouth.

The triplets’
mother listened with rapt interest—more interest, in fact, than Jaycee could
remember Riley displaying about one of Jaycee’s dreams before. By the time
Jaycee finished, Riley sat back on the couch, smoothing her fingers over her
mouth with a look of deep concentration.

“Did he say
anything to you before he left? Tell you whether he’d be back or not?”

“Uh…” Mouth
hanging open in blank shock, Jaycee blinked at her boss. “No, he didn’t. He,
uh, well, I don’t remember him leaving at all. We sort of just…passed out, arms
and legs all twisted together. Why? Do you think there was some kind of
symbolism there?”

She’d never
known Riley was a dream interpreter before. Hmm. Strange.

“Well, dreams
about a…a…
werewolf
usually indicate something in your life isn’t what it
seems. Like a repressed feeling. Anger. Fear.”

“Lust,” Jaycee
answered. “A bunch of repressed lust.” Throwing up her hands, she said, “That’s
it. I’m horny and can’t hide it. I’m even dreaming about it in symbols.”

Riley’s smile
was tense yet amused. “That must be it,” she murmured.

*
* * * *

Knox spent most
of the afternoon winding his way back to Jaycee’s house. He waited until he was
close enough to smell her before he shifted from his buck back into his natural
state: wolf. His wolf could smell better, smell inside her house, cooking some
kind of garlicky supper. He licked his lips, already anxious to taste leftovers
off her tongue later tonight.

So absorbed in
watching for signs of her moving past her window, he missed another approaching
him from behind almost until it was too late. Spinning around with a snarl, he
faced the female striding toward him, wearing slacks and a prim button-up
blouse. The jaguar mother.

“Put your claws
away, mutt,” she said, not even faltering as she approached. “I’m not here to
kill you. Yet.”

Shifting into
his human form, Knox leaned against a tree and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Then why are you here?”

Finally, the
jaguar paused, her gaze skimming with detached precision down his naked body.
The stare of a female had never left him so cold. In fact, it was possible his
cock shrivel just a bit more, tucking in as close to his body as it would go.

Returning her
inspection to his face, she let out a disinterested sniff. “You visited my
nanny last night.”

Knox lifted one
shoulder, neither confirming or denying, though they both knew he had.

“I want you to
leave her alone.” Her tone of voice and the arch of her eyebrow demanded she be
obeyed.

Knox wouldn’t
have been intimidated even if he had wanted to leave Jaycee alone. “Why?”

Crossing her
own arms over her chest, the female narrowed her gaze. “Because the whole idea
of you visiting her at night under the guise of a dream is deceitful. I don’t
approve.”

He sketched a
brow. “You don’t approve, hmm? Well, I don’t give a damn whether some
human-wannabe jaguar approves or not.”

The female’s
anger rose with a torrent of aroma, filling the air around them. “She doesn’t
know what you are,” she growled from between clenched teeth, a part of her
jaguar snarling through the words.

Kitty had a
temper. Knox didn’t particularly care about that either.

“How does that
matter? I’ll wager she doesn’t know what you are either, jaguar. Or your
precious cubs.”

“But my
children and I aren’t fucking her without her knowledge.” The jaguar’s jaw went
hard as she glared at him. “Humans call that rape.”

Knox shrugged
once more. “Never heard of it.”

“Well, I have.
And I will not let you take one of my closest friends without her consent.”

His smile was
smug and arrogant. “Trust me, sweetheart. She consented.”

“Under the
guise of a dream, yes. If she knew anything that happened was real, I guarantee
you she wouldn’t have been so willing so quickly. And I bet you didn’t even use
protection. Human females cycle monthly, unlike shifters. What if you got her
pregnant? She’d have no idea when the child was conceived. Or who the father
was, much less
what
he was.”

A rush of
warmth spread through Knox. Pregnant. The idea of a pup growing inside Jaycee
made his chest feel tight. He imagined a dark-headed babe suckling at her
breasts, and the sensation swelled even bigger. Dear Lord, was this…joy
blooming inside him?

But—

“Human and
shifters can’t procreate.” He glared at the jaguar for even putting such a
dream in his head.

She snorted and
rolled her eyes. “I take it she’s your first human, bonehead?”

Advancing on
her with a snarl, he demanded, “What do you mean by that?”

The female
stood her ground. “Think about it, wolf. My husband—my mate—is fully human.
What do you think my children are? They’re half-breeds.”

Stumbling to a
stop, Knox pressed at the sudden ache in his chest. “Motherfucker,” he
murmured. He’d yet to encounter the cubs’ father. He’d had no idea the male was
human. “You mean, she could…she could be…”

No, she wasn’t
pregnant. He’d have known if she’d been going through her fertile time, would
have smelled it. But the mere idea…

Dear Lord.

“My husband was
a shifter hunter before I met him,” the jaguar kept talking, not that he paid
her much attention. Realizing he could well and truly mate to Jaycee in every
sense of the word had his mind whirling.

“...now that
he’s…retired from that life, he still has acquaintances—other hunters—who stop
by occasionally. It’s safer to trust no one. When Jaycee first came to us, we
didn’t know her. Later, however, by the time we grew to love her and she felt
the same about us, she’d already started to date Donald—”

“Donald?” Knox
snarled the word.

The female
nodded. “He met her at our house, actually. He’s a hunter too. After Jaycee
moved in with him, it was better for both her and us to keep the truth covered.
We didn’t want her to have to lie to her own boyfriend…scumbag that he was.”

“You should’ve
killed the filthy hunter the first moment you met him.”

Smiling, the
jaguar gave a nod of approval. “I wish I would have. That man hurt her very
deeply, something I won’t let happen to her again.” Her intense stare ground
into him.

Knox lifted his
hands as if to show her he was unarmed. “How can I hurt her? All I am is a
dream.”

“Just make sure
you keep it that way. You’ll traumatize her if she ever learns what she’s been
doing…what you have been doing to her without telling her everything she needs
to know. The best thing you could do now is just move on, wolf.”

Everything
inside him rebelled at the idea. Though he’d been telling himself that very
thing all day, it rankled to hear the same demand spoken from this female’s
lips. Besides, learning they could be together without nature standing in the
way changed everything.

“I don’t take
orders, kitten. No one tells me what to do.”

“Breathe on her
wrong and I’ll have a whole troop of hunters after you so fast, you won’t know
what hit you.”

“Try it and
I’ll tell them your little secret as well.”

Her mouth
curved with amusement. “You won’t have a chance. They’ll kill you before you
can even open your mouth.”

He snarled, his
wolf growl rumbling from deep within his chest. “No one threatens me and
lives.”

“Right back at
you, wolf. No one threatens my family and lives either. And Jaycee is very much
a part of my family.”

Her adamant
claim caught him short. The sense of family loyalty tugged at him. His wolf
howled for just that kind of connection. He was meant to be part of a crowd. He
never should’ve been a loner. If Mathis had never found out about his stag
side, if his mother had only kept her legs together, he’d still have his
parents, probably a mate and a whole litter of pups by now.

A longing ache
speared through his chest. He wanted to belong somewhere, like Jaycee belonged
with the Griffins. God, he wanted to belong to her.

“I would slay
anyone who thought to hurt her.” The words tumbled from his mouth before he
could catch them. To his further humiliation, his voice crackled with emotion.

The jaguar
blinked repeatedly and slipped a step back, putting space between them. “You’ve
bonded to her then?” she asked, tilting her head to the side with curiosity.

He masked the
way his own heart leapt at those words. Bond. To Jaycee. Shit, there went his
pulse again, pounding with excitement. But he kept his face blank and eyes
narrowed as he glowered at the nosey female. “That’s none of your business.”

“Just heed my
warnings, wolf. There are hunters nearby. If they learn of you, don’t lead them
to her doorstep and get her caught up in the middle of your mess.”

He nodded once.
“I won’t.”

Chapter Six

Jaycee went to
bed early that night. She wasn’t tired—in fact, she felt fairly restless—but
her dreams from the night before had her tucking herself in when it was barely
dark out, in the vain hope she’d have a repeat of her werewolf lover’s
appearance.

It took over an
hour for her to fall asleep; she kept opening her eyes and glancing toward the
entrance of her bedroom, but no wolf ever appeared. Finally, sleep won out and
she dropped off into la-la land. She woke some time later to movement beside
her. When she realized she wasn’t alone in bed, she gasped and jerked into a
sitting position.

Her dream lover
sat naked on top of her covers with his legs stretched out next to hers,
crossed at the ankles, his back propped against the headboard. Holding Bob, he
turned the rubber phallus back and forth, studying it with a slight scowl.

Pressing a hand
to her jumping heart, she gasped. “Dear God, you scared the shit out of me. I
thought I was awake and someone had crawled into my bed.”

He continued to
inspect Bob until he accidentally turned the vibrator on. Startled, he dropped
the dildo onto his washboard abs.

Jaycee burst
out laughing. “What’re you doing?”

“I’m trying to
figure out what this thing is. It was sitting on your dresser last night and
tonight both.”

“It’s Bob.”

He frowned,
glancing at her. “Bob?”

She quirked an
eyebrow. Was he serious? “Bob. A dildo. Vibrator. Fake penis.”

Confusion still
wrinkling his brow, he asked, “Why do you need a fake penis?”

“Uh… maybe
because I don’t have a real one to put inside me whenever I want sex.”

“Yes, you do.
You have me.”

She grinned.
“Yeah, but when I’m awake and alone, you’re not usually around.”

“So…you put
this into your cunt?” Suddenly interested in Bob again, he picked it up. “Does
it bring you to completion like I do?”

She grinned.
“Honey, no one brings me to completion like you do. But, yes, Bob has his
moments.”

Eyes
glittering, he lifted his gaze. “Show me.”

Jaycee’s belly
tightened, tingling a trail to her nipples and cunt. Dear God, the idea of
masturbating in front of him was hot.

Lips quirking
into a grin, she grabbed Bob off his sexy six-pack and gave the vibrator head,
slicking its rubber surface with saliva. Her gaze never left the
chocolate-brown eyes of the man watching her while he licked his teeth and
stared transfixed at the fake cock disappearing between her lips.