Stalking the Pharmacist (9 page)

He let a loud growl rumble
through his body as he bounded down the back step and ran off into the fragrant
woods. It had been so long since he’d run like this, experiencing the world
through these eyes. He’d forgotten how beautiful it was.

For safety and space, all of
his family lived near the base of the mountain. He and his brother were no
exception. On instinct he began running toward his brother’s home, not quite a
mile from his own house. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very
wrong with Jack.

Scott reached the property
quickly, his heart lighter and happier from being in his animal form. He was
free and healthy. There was a lot to be thankful for.

He rounded his brother’s
small weatherboard home and stopped short, his paws sliding in the dirt.

His heart began to pound hard
in his chest. Jack wasn’t home. His truck wasn’t parked in the driveway where
it was every morning. Yes it was almost lunch time, but it was a Saturday. Jack
didn’t go anywhere on a football day.

Scott supposed Jack could
have slept over with one of his lovers, but that was highly unlikely. Jack
didn’t really do that. He preferred to sleep in his own bed.

He turned and headed back
home, his brain churning over all the possibilities. Could he have been hurt?
No. It’d be something simple. Maybe he’d gone somewhere with the kids?

He pranced up onto his back
patio and shook his fur to rid himself of the excess dirt. His belly was jumpy
and churning, the unease he’d been feeling all morning settling in
like
a permanent scar.

Scott purred as his mind
focused, his humanity returning to help his brain realize the obvious as he
returned to human form.

Jack’s with her.

That was the answer.
“Ash.”

His stomach clenched at the
sound of her name and he ran inside, panting and pacing his sleek kitchen. He
hated that he couldn’t do anything at the moment.

Scott quickly dressed and
threw himself into his work, doing some online research and reading the latest
journals.

He ate lunch and paced some
more when the need to get up and move became impossible to ignore.
Jack, Jack, fucking Jack!
His gut still
wasn’t right and it was his bloody brother’s fault!

Scott snatched up his mobile
phone and scowled down at the screen. He could not be with Ash, he couldn’t.

“Of course he bloody can.
Bloody man whore…”

His heart kicked out with
such a sickening thud that his knees weakened and he staggered to his brand new
couch, falling onto the soft leather with a groan.

That was unfair. Ash was
their mate, and Jack was the one who had the balls to go after her.

No!

“
Fuuucckk
!”
He looked up and screamed at the ceiling, punching in
his twin’s number and letting the anger inside him grow.

He went through twenty years
of hell with a woman. He wasn’t being stupid enough to trust another one, and
his brother was an idiot for thinking it would be better this time.

He blew air out his nose as
the call connected, not caring that in the mood he was in, he was going to rip
Jack’s head off, no matter where he was.

“Scott?” A
groggy
sounding Jack answered the phone, his tone filled with both shock and
confusion.

“Where are you?”

“Don’t scream at me, Scott. I
can hear you just fine at a lower decibel level. I’m with Ash, where else would
I be?”

Hot, angry waves flowed over
Scott like a never-ending ocean of feeling. It was too much, pulling him under
and drowning him in pain. He took a quick, sharp breath and clenched his jaw,
responding the only way he could at that moment.

“You fucked her already? God,
Jack, you don’t waste any time, do you?”

Silence descended after a
distinctively feminine gasp sounded over the line.

“I’ll call you later,” was
all his
twin said before he promptly hung up on him.

The background noise stopped
and Scott began to shake. He pushed up to his feet and rushed toward the
kitchen, making it just in time to feel the burn of his stomach acid clearing
his throat and spilling into the sink.

He dry retched several times,
salty hot tears stinging his eyes while he took deep breaths in through his
nose in an attempt to calm the fuck down.

Sweat broke out all over his
body as alternating waves of hot and cold flowed over him, making him feel
terribly sick.

When his stomach had stopped
clenching with painful contractions, he splashed some water onto his face and
swirled it around his mouth, then sank to the floor, the cold tiles jolting him
as his palms came into contact with them.

He coughed, his lungs seizing
for a moment before resuming their wheezing of air.

Scott’s head slumped forward
and he concentrated solely on breathing.

So, his twin was with their
mate, a woman they both had decided didn’t exist. He wanted to believe it, and
a small part of him did. The other, larger part was fucking terrified. The
scientist in him was baffled and critical of the alleged bond, despite him
feeling the connection between them as though it were a physical thing.

He had to get up.

Scott forced himself to his
feet, his legs like lead beneath him. He dragged his feet along the corridor
and threw himself into the shower, blasting his sluggish body with cold water.

“Fuck! Shit!” he screamed as
he jumped from foot to foot, the freezing water like needles against his skin,
knocking any lingering lethargy from his body.

After he’d washed, he stepped
out of the cubicle and began
toweling
himself dry.

Ash and Jack had
fucked—mated—whatever the hell their kind did with the woman meant for them. He
had to get used to that fact.

Jack had taken the
opportunity to pursue her, to bond with her, and if she was as smart as she
seemed, she’d jump at the chance to be with his fun, good-looking, kind-hearted
brother. But where did that leave him?

“Between a rock and a hard
place, that’s where.”

He began to dress, his head
swimming from a lack of food and too much stress. Sadly, it wasn’t an unusual
event for him with the way his life had gone.

He had to make a choice.

Either
watch
Jack be with Ash and be happy for them, or get over his fear and join them, and
that was if she’d forgive him for what he’d said to Jack while she listened.

He couldn’t lose his
brother’s love due to envy. The three of them being together was how it was
supposed to be. He’d looked at Brandon and Tyler during their wedding and knew
it to be true. But he was too broken to ever be a real part of a relationship,
especially one as perfect as a truly mated perfect pair should be. Wasn’t he?

Head heavy and heart aching,
Scott loped back to his pristine kitchen.
Alone.

Chapter Seven

Jack called himself three
types of a fool as anger rolled in his gut. He should never have picked up the
phone. What on earth had possessed him?

He rolled onto his side and
smiled at his lover as well as he could with the weight of dread on his chest.
“I’m sorry about that.”

Ash’s blue eyes glowed with
hurt as she turned away from him, her breathing rate increasing with her
obvious distress.

He stifled his groan of
frustration and snuggled up behind her, feeling the heat of her back against
his chest and hissing in pleasure as she huffed out a sigh and wiggled closer.

Thank God for that.

“He sounded angry.” Ash’s
voice was small in the room as she began running her fingernails up and down
the arm he’d slung over her belly.

He shivered as the hairs on
his arm stuck up on end and a wave of pleasure pulsed through him.

“God, I love your touch.”

She didn’t say anything but
she seemed to relax more against him. He kissed the whorl of her ear, his cock
throbbing against her soft bottom.

“I told you he wouldn’t react
well. His heart’s taken a real beating in the past.”

Ash made
a
hmphing
noise and rolled onto her back, staring up at
him with wide, clear eyes.

“Is that really all I am to
you, Jack?
A fuck?”

Jack groaned and tried not to
roll his eyes.

“You know that’s not what you
are to me. Even Scott does. That’s why he was being such a prick.”

Ash flicked his chest with
her thumb and middle finger.

“I’m not stupid, you know.
Did you really just make up all that crap about us being together?
Spinning me a pretty tale to beat your brother to the punch.”

Her mouth was turned down and
her eyes glistened with tears.

Wow, she was hurt, or angry,
or both. His gut churned at the idea that he’d upset her in any way. He’d
always been a bit clueless with women, and honesty was always the best policy.

“Sweetheart, stop. I promise
you I won’t lie to you. It won’t happen. Everything I have said is true, and my
idiot brother is so jealous at the moment he can’t see straight.”

Ash stared off into the
distance and began digging her nails rhythmically into his forearm.

“Then why would he say such a
thing?”

Jack used his hand to gently
grab Ash’s chin and tilt her face back up to his.

“Because
he’s damaged, beautiful.
He wants your love so much he can taste it, but he’s terrified
too. He lashed out because he’s being ridden by the green-eyed monster, and
that’s not pretty.”

Ash stopped her agitated
movements and began to stroke his skin again.

Jack held his breath,
watching as emotions he couldn’t name flickered across her face.

Finally, she heaved a sigh
and stared up at him.

“So what are we going to do,
then?”

Jack laughed and kissed her
cute, button nose. This was why Ash was the one for them. She was all heart,
but with a fire that they both needed.

“So you want to try to get
him to join us, too, huh?”

She looked down, her
expression shuttered as her eyebrows lowered. He watched her and waited,
counting his heartbeats. She bit her lower lip, worrying the flesh with her
teeth.

Please don’t say no, beautiful.

When she finally glanced up,
her eyes had darkened and there was a smile flirting with the edge of her full
lips.

“I think I do. If you guys
come as a set, it would be silly to only collect one.”

Jack burst out laughing and drew
her against him for a kiss, tasting the sweetness of her mouth with his tongue.

When he felt the mood shift
into something hotter, he reluctantly pulled away and slowly extricated himself
from her clinging arms.

“Well, sweetheart, if that’s
what you truly want, then I better go home and get dressed for our dinner date.
Shall I invite my brother to join us?”

Looking nervous, Ash held on
tight to the blanket that covered her naked body and nodded her head.

“Yes.”

Relief pulsed through him
like a cold rain. He stood taller, his shoulders relaxed and his spine straight
and strong.

“So I’ll call that idiot
brother of mine and set up our date?”

Ash laughed and nodded again,
pleasure written all over her face.

A soft growl surfaced as Jack
surveyed the picture in front of him. She was like the goddess Aphrodite.
All luscious curves and womanly beauty hidden by a thin sheet.

“Shit! I want to just climb
back into that bed and have my way with you.”

Ash giggled and pushed the
blanket down to her waist and came up on her elbows, her bountiful and soft
breasts now fully on display.

“Oh you
vixen.”

He fell back onto the bed and
grabbed both breasts with his hands, suckling on one, then the other, his body
hardening in response to the mewling sounds Ash was making.

You
know you won’t be able to stop this time.

Fuck!

Breathing hard, his balls aching and his
cock hard, Jack slowly crawled back off the bed and with jerky movements
grabbed for his clothes.

“I already want you too bad, Ash. If we’re
going to do this right, then we better wait a bit longer.
Yeah?”

Ash nodded her understanding, her face
flushed with their shared passion.

If Scott didn’t get his act together
super fast
, he’d take her for himself without hesitation.