Emerald: Rare Gems Series - Billionaire Wolf Shapeshifter Romance (13 page)

“Fuck me.” He nodded at her demand, and when she sat up and took him into her mouth, Jul threw back his head and felt his eyes roll to the back of his head. His balls were tight to his body, his cock so stretched that he knew that if he got any harder he was going to hurt. But when she lay back, her body spread out like a feast for him, he moved over her, guiding his cock into her. When he was seated as far as he could go, he paused to look down at her.

“I love you.” She grinned at him and wrapped her legs over his. “Christ, do you have any idea how delicious you taste to us? How much the thought of running with you in the woods is making us crazy?”

“Yes.” He laughed and moved out of her slowly, then back into her. “I need you to fuck me. Take me hard and fill me with your seed.”

His cock seemed to leap hard into her, and she cried out, not from pain but from pleasure. As he began to pound into her, taking her as hard as he could, she dug her nails into his back and held him to her. Jul felt her tongue make a wet, hot path down his throat, and when she came, her body tightening around his, she sank her teeth into his shoulder and brought him over the edge. Jul bit into her as well, tearing into her flesh until he tasted her hot, spicy blood filling his mouth. Jul’s world began to shift beneath him, his vision darkened, and he felt himself slipping away as his mate, his true love, screamed out his name again and again.

When he woke again, Em was curled around him. There was a blanket over the two of them too. Stretching just enough to feel his body but not enough to wake her, he thought about what had happened to him.

A wolf. He was a wolf. Smiling, he wondered what other wonderful and amazing things he could do now, and thought about the conversation he’d had with Quentin just a few days ago. The man knew a lot about what he would be feeling.

“Don’t take things too quickly.” That was Quentin’s first bit of advice, and when Em moved her hand over his cock, Jul knew that one had fallen by the wayside. His second pearl of wisdom had been to make sure that he ate a lot of meat. It would give him the strength he’d need to handle all the changes in his body. Jul made a mental note to tell Curtis to have more red meat in the meals for a while. The next thing was to make sure that he formed a connection to the other members of the family. He’d already figured out that Allen and he had a connection, and wondered who else. Reaching for Quentin, he was surprised to feel the man connect so quickly.

It’s doubtful that you’re going to do anything by small measures, are you
? He asked him what he meant.
Usually the new wolf waits for a week or so before showing. You might have a little trouble controlling him, but you seemed to have gotten the hang of that. Then there was your conversion. We all thought you were dead, buddy
.

Dead
? Quentin told him how close it had been.
But she saved me. Em converted me and saved my life
.

That she did. Nearly had to kill Blair to keep him from bringing Sloan in too
. Quentin laughed again.
You have yourself one hell of a mate there. And I’m proud to call you my brother
.

I am as well
. When the connection was closed, he thought about Em. She’d done it. No matter what the odds had been against them, she’d done it. Pulling her closer to his body, he saw her look up at him and smile.

“Hello.” He kissed her gently on the mouth and told her he loved her. “And I love you as well. You are doing really well now. How do you feel?”

“Like I’m the biggest, baddest wolf around, and have the most gorgeous mate a man would ever want.” She giggled, and he smiled. “When can we go home? I know this is Blair’s house, but I want us to be alone in our own home.”

“Noelle will be coming tomorrow.” She looked nervous, and he kissed her again. “Are you sure about this? I mean, I want her to be ours, but are you sure?”

“Yes. We’ll have a daughter to raise, and someday, children of our own.” She nodded and smiled up at him. “You do want children, don’t you?”

“Yes. I want all you can give me.” He rolled her to her back and slid deep inside of her. “I thought you wanted to go home.”

“I do. But I need to take you again.” He moved slowly, feeling each tightening of her sheath as he moved in and out of her. “You’re so tight around me. Milking my cock like you did with your mouth.”

“I need to come.” He nodded, but continued to move slowly. “Jul, please. Finish me so I can scream out your name.”

“I will.” He was feeling the burn to do what she wanted. His balls, full again, needed relief. When she moaned, Jul felt it with his entire being. And when she rolled her hips up to meet his, he knew he wasn’t going to last much longer. “Come for me, love. Come now.”

She threw back her head and held him as her climax rolled out of her. Watching her, mesmerized by her, his own climax took his breath away when it took him. Holding her tightly as he emptied into her, all Jul could think about was filling her with his child. He dropped onto her and felt sleep take him again.

Over an hour later, he was holding her to him. Then he asked her when they could start on a child. Her grin made him want to throw her back to the bed and take her again and again. But she got up and started to pull on clothes before she answered.

“I’d like to have one soon, but I’m not in heat right now.” He remembered someone telling him about that. “But before we have a baby, we have to get some things straight. I’m not going to quit my job to be a stay-at-home mom. I want to work too.”

“All right.” She turned to look at him. “I have no problem being a stay-at-home dad. In fact, with the building underway right now, by the time we do have a baby, I should have things well under control everywhere, and can be here more than at a job site.”

“You don’t mind?” He shook his head and wondered what else was on her mind. “I would like to…there are several children that I’d like to consider taking into our home as well. Most of them are…not all of them are wolf. One is a cat.”

“Adoption, you mean?” She nodded. “I’m not opposed to that either. We have the means to give a child all we can. And if we don’t, then we’ll help find them somewhere safe. I want you to be happy, and if this does it, then—”

“We’d be parents of other people’s children. Raised by us. They’d need both of us.” Jul watched her. There was something wrong here, and he couldn’t figure it out. Then it hit him.

“You’re worried about another child coming to you, aren’t you? You’re afraid that another child will be hurt, and there will be nothing you can do about it.” She nodded, and he got up to hold her. “We’ll do everything we can, love. I promise you that. No matter if I end up in jail, we’ll not let another child be hurt that way.”

“I can’t fail again.” He held her while she cried and thought about finding where Sloan had taken those parents and digging them up to kill them again. “He needed me and I failed him.”

“You didn’t fail anyone. His parents did. And now that we can do something to help other children, we will.” He lifted her chin up so he could see her eyes. “I promise you. So long as we’re alive, no child we know will suffer like that again. Okay?”

At her nod, he pulled her back into his arms. He would do everything within his power to make sure that he kept his promise to her too. Even if, like he said, he had to go to jail.

Chapter 13

Three years later

“I’m not going to throw up.” Allen looked at his future son and growled at him again. “I swear to you, if you tell me once again to calm down, I’m going to show you calm. I’m calm, damn it.”

“Of course you are.” Jul jumped back when he swiped at him. “If you shift now, Mom is going to be really pissed at you. She said that this is the last time this is going to happen.”

“That wasn’t my fault.” Allen knew it wasn’t, and he was pretty sure that everyone else did too. It wasn’t his fault that his wolf had gotten the better of him when he’d been in his other tux. And damn it, that had been six months ago. Couldn’t a man have a minute of peace when he messed up? When Blair walked into the little room, Allen thought he had an ally and glared at Jul.

“Celeste said to tell you if you tear this tux, she’s moving back to DC and never speaking to you again.” So much for his own son helping him out. “She also looks like an angel.”

“Of course she does.” Allen got up to pace and calm his stupid wolf. Who knew that at his age he’d be getting married again? And to someone like Celeste Whitney? She wasn’t his mate, no, but he loved her with all his heart. “How much longer we gonna be cooped up in this oven?”

“Ten minutes. The girls are still working on getting dressed. You should also know that when this is over, Sapphire and I are going to leave.” Allen glared at his son and asked him why. “She’s in labor.”

“Hot damn, another grandbaby.” He nearly told him to take her now, but he knew as surely as he was sitting there neither of them would be leaving him. Allen loved Sapphire as much, if not sometimes more than, he did his own flesh and blood. “She doing okay today?”

Blair nodded. All of them missed Annabelle. She’d been gone nearly a year now, and sometimes the pain of it hit him hard. He wasn’t sure how those girls of hers did it every day, knowing that she was lost to them too.

She’d been out in the garden with Allen. They’d been picking green beans, the last of them of the season, when she’d told him she needed to sit down. It had scared him something terrible, because she never sat down unless all the work was done. When she seemed to have collapsed where she stood, he sat down beside her, knowing somehow that this was the end.

“Them girls can be right here.” She shook her head and smiled at him. He could see her pain then, and wanted to pick her up and carry her to the house.

“No, please don’t. This is where I want to be. And with you.” He nodded as the tears started to flow from his eyes. “You’re my best friend, did you know that? No one in this world has come to mean more to me as a friend than you have.”

“I love you too. You old bat, are you gonna die on me?” She nodded and closed her eyes, but her smile was right there. “Don’t you do it. I need them girls here so you can tell them your goodbyes.”

“You tell them for me.” Her voice was weaker, but she’d looked at him. “I need to tell you a few things before I go to be with my mate. It’s about them girls. You tell them that I loved them like my own children, and raising them up was a pleasure, never a hardship.”

“I’ll do that.” He thought about reaching for them then, but knew that if he did, not a one of them would have made it to her. And he also knew that he couldn’t have gone against her wishes.

“Do you love Celeste?” Allen nodded before he thought about what he was saying. “I knew you did. Marry her. Make her happy for me.”

“You gonna make all these demands? If so, then maybe I should go and get me some paper to write it down.” He held her hand when she put it in his. “Don’t leave me, Annabelle. I won’t know what to do without you.”

“You’ll flirt with every skirt you see and put the tomatoes too close together.” He smiled because he knew that he’d do just that. “I need to lay back now.”

He helped her to lay in the dirt she loved so well. The beans they’d pulled up, all the empty bushes, were haloed around her like a wreath. He sat beside her while her breathing slowed and her eyes closed for longer periods of time.

“Allen? Tell Sapphire that she’s to name her little girl for me. I’m an old woman and need to have that in my after life.” He nodded. “And tell Diamond to be what she wants. Go back to school and become the administrator of that hospital, and kick Josh to the curb. He has his own work to care for.”

“I’ll do that.” He wiped at the tears again. “I should call them girls, Annabelle. They should be here with you.”

“Jade will need the most loving after I’m gone. She’s strong, but she’s tender. Tell her I thought of her often.” Allen held her hand tightly when she stopped breathing for a few moments. His own heart had skipped a few beats as well. “Tell Opal to shine. She’ll know what to do.”

Annabelle laid there for several minutes after that. He’d held her hand as it grew colder and colder. When she opened her eyes and looked at him, Allen would have sworn that she wasn’t seeing him, but beyond him. Then she spoke of her last two granddaughters.

“I don’t have much time left. He’s coming for me.” Allen nodded. “Tell Ruby that the baby will be fine if she only lets her have her own feet. And the next girls will be no different, I think. That little one will run her ragged if she tries to hold her in much longer. And Emerald, my little beautiful Em. She will love those babies like they’re her own, won’t she?”

“Yes. She and Jul have helped so many little ones. She’s a wonderful mom.” There had been no children for the couple of their own. Em had never gone into heat once since she and Jul had become mates. Everyone worried, and there was a sadness around the poor girl that no one could help her with.

“She’s going to have a set of twins. Tell her that for me. Tell her that her twins will be with her soon.” Allen cried harder when his Annabelle let go of his hand. But still he’d held her, even when she didn’t speak to him again. It wasn’t until then that he’d called Blair to tell him.

“Dad?” Allen looked up at his son. “You okay? You sort of spaced out there for a moment.”

“I’m fine. Remembering a fine lady is all I was doing.” Blair nodded and smiled at him. “She would have been crowing to the world today, wouldn’t she?”

“She would at that. And how right she’d been about everything.” Allen nodded and stood up. “I have something for you. I wanted…Sapphire and the girls thought you’d like to have this today.”

When Blair walked away, Jul came to stand in front of him. The boy had turned out all right, and now that his little Em was going to have those twins soon, the boy was about to bust with happiness.

“She’s here with us, I think.” Allen nodded, knowing that he was right. “She was one very special lady.”

“I know.”

When Blair handed him a small box, he was almost afraid to open it. But when he did, he had to sit down again, the overwhelming grief and happiness taking his breath away.

“You and them made this for me?” Blair nodded his head as he pulled out the small pendant that Sapphire had had made. “Damn, but them girls are going to make me all soggy on my wedding day. See that they don’t.”

As Blair helped him pin it to his tux, Allen knew as surely as he was standing there that this thing would be the first thing he put on in the morning and the last thing he took off. When Blair stepped back, he walked to the mirror and looked at it.

The long green bean was perfect. At about three inches long and about as wide as his finger, it stuck out like a sore thumb. But it was just what he needed, everything he needed to give him the courage to go through this today.

“I loved her, you know. Not like I do my Celeste, but just about as close as a man could love a woman he thought of as his mom.” Blair told him they all knew that. “I miss her more than I do my own mother some days. She was a damn sight more loving than mine was.”

“Annabelle loved you too. And I think perhaps she’s looking down on us all today.” Allen was sure of it as he turned to his son. “Dad, I’m very proud of you and love you with all my heart. I can’t…don’t leave me. Okay? I don’t think I could stand it if you did.”

“I’m going to try my best, boy, but I got places I might want to go someday, and you can’t be coming along with me.” Blair nodded and pulled him in for a hard hug. “I love you, son. More than I tell you every day, I love you.”

As they got their things together and waited for someone to tell him it was time, Allen looked at the two men he would call his sons. Neither of them knew the depth of his love for them, and both men were in his heart deeper than anyone he knew. Even Jul, a son that was not his blood, was the world to him. His favorite boy of all the gems.

“Ready?” He nodded when Blair told him it was time. “You’re going to make her very happy, Dad. I know it.”

“Hell, boy, she’s already made me the happiest man in this here world. Her saying she’d be my wife was the best thing that could happen to me.” Allen moved up to the dais and looked around at his family. All of them. “Yes, sir, I’m the happiest man in the world right now.”

~~~

Blair held his daughter while Sapphire moved around the room making sure that everyone had everything they needed. He was pretty sure she knew that they could get everything on their own, but he loved watching her. When his daughter stirred in his arms, he looked at Carter, who was sitting next to him.

“Dad, she gonna cry again?” Blair told him he didn’t know. “She sure is loud when she don’t get her way. Is she always going to be that way?”

“I would say that’s a good bet.” Carter rolled his eyes. “What if I told you that you were the same way when you were her age? What do you think of that?”

“I was not, and if I was, you should have thrown me to the alligators.” He glanced up at Jade when his son grinned at him. “Aunt Jade said that that’s what you did to all the other kids that you and Mom had that were bad.”

“Daddy’s going to beat your Aunt Jade’s butt when we get alone.” Carter laughed, and Jade turned to look at them. Her smile made him think she knew they were talking about her. “She’s only kidding; you know that, don’t you, son?”

“Yeah, I know it.” He watched his sister as she settled back down. “Dad, do you think I could have a brother? I know we have to keep this one, but can you please put in an order for me a brother?”

“I’ll talk to your mother.” He switched arms and held Annabelle while Carter squirmed around. “Would you hold her for me for a minute? I’d like to get me a drink of water.”

Carter looked at him as if he was waiting for the punchline. Instead, Blair moved the baby around so that he could cradle her in Carter’s arms. Annabelle was almost six months old and just about the most precious thing in the world to him, but Carter didn’t care much for her, and Blair thought maybe if he held her, he might change his mind.

When he had her in his arms and Blair had given him a few pointers, like not to drop her and please don’t squeeze her too tightly, he got up. Walking away from his children was the hardest thing he’d ever done so far as a parent. When Sapphire looked at him, then at the kids, he watched her turn her back on them as well. Damn, but he loved his wife.

Blair took his time getting a bottle of water. He never really looked back, just a few glances to let him know that they were still in one piece, but he did have a couple of people he was talking to look for him. After ten minutes he made his way back to them. Carter was talking to his now awake sister.

“She’s all right. The one you have to watch out for is Aunt Jade. She’s a pistol. You’ll really like Aunt Opal. She makes all kinds of stuff to make Momma happy. That thing in your hair too. She made that.” Carter touched it with his fingers. “It’s real girly, but it looks okay on you.”

“You giving her the scoop?” He nodded, and Blair sat down. Annabelle never took her eyes off her brother as he continued. Blair had to look away. He’d never felt such pride for someone before.

“And Aunt Em? Man, she is the coolest. You don’t know it yet, but she takes in kids that nobody wants. And next month she and Uncle Jul are going to have two of their own. I can’t wait.” Annabelle jabbered something at him, and Carter nodded. “You said it. Twins. I love all the kids. Some of them are older than me, like Noelle, but she’s had a hard life, Aunt Em told me. But she’s really smart, and sometimes she tells me she talks to her brother.”

Blair started to ask him what he’d said, but Annabelle started talking again. And this time he was sure that Carter understood her. When she finished, Blair turned to his son and asked him about it.

“Yeah, sure. If you listen to her. I hear her all the time and go into her room to read to her when she can’t sleep.” Blair looked for Sapphire, and when she looked at him, he told her to come here. “Sometimes Great Grams is there too.”

“You talk to Annabelle, Mom’s grandmother?” He nodded as if that was the most natural thing in the world. He told Sapphire what he’d said, and she smiled.

“Is she doing okay?” Blair wanted to tell his mate not to encourage such behavior, but Carter answered her before he could.

“She’s doing great. I’m supposed to tell you that Aunt Em isn’t the only one that is having twins. What does that mean?” Blair looked at Sapphire’s flat belly, then at his son. They were expecting, and no one knew it as yet. They were holding it to their own hearts until later. “Am I gonna have some more sisters? I’d really like to have a brother or two. Anna is great, but…sheesh, are you crying again?”