Jessica's Wolves(22)

"Anyway, when I spotted them, and realized they were wolves, I decided to approach them for a ride."

"How did you know where they were headed?" Jessica leaned forward to  better hear Alyssa, who practically mumbled her story. As Jess got  closer, she realized Alyssa was barely more than a girl. She was trying  to portray herself as a woman, but she was very young.

"I didn't. I  …  didn't care where they were going. Anywhere but there was good."

"Is someone after you?" Lindsey asked.

"I  …  don't know." She lifted her head higher and glanced at all of them.  "I'm so sorry to put you all in this predicament. I was only thinking  of myself. It was rude of me, but I just wanted to  …  escape  …  any way  possible. Reese and Charles seemed so nice, so I tried to act all mature  and flirted mercilessly with them to entice them to take me.

"It was a diner. No more than a truck stop. People at those places are  traveling through. I knew my chances were good they weren't planning to  stay." She sucked in a lungful of air and continued. "They were polite,  but they didn't fall for my wiles. They treated me more like a younger  sister, which infuriated me, by the way." Her cheeks turned red.

"Instead of taking the bait I offered, they asked me to join them and  questioned why a sweet girl like me was hanging around a truck stop in  the middle of the night.

"I told them my boyfriend was abusive and he was looking for me and  begged them to take me with them. I-I told them I would do anything they  wanted if they would just let me ride away with them." She turned her  head lower, hung in shame at her announcement. "I was spouting anything I  could think of. They were sexy enough. I promised them I would even  mate with them if they would just pretend I belonged to them and get me  the hell out of there. I guess they felt sorry for me, so they played  along."

Silence. Jessica cleared her throat. "What were you really running  from?" She was afraid of the answer. Her body held stiff, rigid. She  clutched the leather sofa with both fists. In the back of her mind  something prodded her, but she wasn't sure what.

"My pack."

"Do you even have a boyfriend?" Lindsey asked.

Alyssa shook her head vigorously and chuckled, a devious laugh that was  off. "Are you kidding? They'd have killed me if I so much as looked at a  male wolf where I come from."

Kara gasped. "Why?"

"Our pack is  …  different  …  apparently, from others." She looked up,  animated now. "Your family is so loving, kind, helpful  …  happy. In my  pack, we don't  …  smile. Women are not seen as equal."

Fear niggled the back of Jessica's neck. Her ears burned.

"Girls are mated against their will at eighteen to whomever the alpha  declares." She shook, looking even younger than when she'd come into the  room. Her eyes were wide. Tears glistening in the corners. "I turned  eighteen last week."

Jessica couldn't speak. Memories assaulted her from every direction in  her brain, her synapses firing so fast she couldn't keep up. The room  spun, and she clutched the couch fiercely to keep from falling on her  face.

Kara frowned. "And they were going to force you to mate with some guy against your will?"

Alyssa chuckled low and deep. "Noo …  Not some guy. That would have been a  blessing. They arranged for me to mate with a sixty-five-year-old wolf  who already has three docile wives. He's the brother of our alpha."                       
       
           



       

"Alyssa?" Jessica murmured, barely audible even to her own ears. Her  entire past dashed through her mind like snapshots in a photo album.  "Alyssa Franklin?"

Every head turned her way, and Jessica slumped backward onto the couch to avoid fainting. Her head spun.

"How … " Alyssa's voice squeaked out. "Oh. My. God. Jessica? Jessica  Murphy?" The girl jumped from her chair and flung herself at Jessica.  "It is you, isn't it?" She hugged Jess so firmly her ribs hurt. And Jess  could barely even lift her arms to embrace Alyssa in return.

Alyssa rambled on. "I can't believe it. Jessica's a common enough name. I  never thought …  But  …  they said you were dead. You  …  you aren't dead."

"Nope." Jess shook her head in amazement. "But not for lack of effort."

"Your parents?"

"They are dead. Two men shot them in wolf form when I was ten. The neighbor ran them off before they could get to me."

"God. That must have been horrible." Alyssa's terror-filled gaze alighted on Jessica.

Kara and Lindsey moved in closer. Kara reached for Jess' arm. "You know each other?"

Alyssa turned toward her but didn't let go of Jess. "We're cousins,  actually. Jess' mother was my mother's sister." She turned back to  Jessica. "All these years …  I overheard my parents discussing what your  parents did. They took you away. Ran so you wouldn't be mated to a man  you didn't love."

Jessica startled. That was the reason they'd left?

"You didn't know." Alyssa tucked her upper lip into her mouth and then  released it. "God. You were so young. Did you grow up here with the  Masters then?"

"No." Not even close. "I grew up with humans in foster care. Until  yesterday, I've been fairly ignorant of even the most basic of wolf  ways."

"My parents weren't as brave as yours. I knew they hated thinking about  my fate, but they wanted me to continue the ways of the pack. Not rock  the boat. I …  I just couldn't go through with it. So I ran. I ran all day  until I came to that diner. And, well, you know the rest."

Alyssa let go of Jessica and sat back, still gripping her hand but not  squeezing the breath out of her. "I wanted to come over here and tell  you at least some of that truth so you wouldn't think I was after your  men. They've been so nice to me, and even let their family believe we  were a couple  …  or whatever you call it  …  to protect me. But when I  realized you were their mate, I couldn't get in the way of that, so I  came clean."

"Why did you need to lie? The Masters would never put you in harm's  way." Jessica gazed into the sky-blue eyes belonging to her fair-skinned  cousin.

"I was scared, in the beginning. I would have given my virginity to your  mates to keep from letting that old crotchety guy fuck me." Tears  sprung anew. Alyssa choked on a sob. The word fuck came out on a squeak.  Her cheeks reddened. The members of the Oklahoma pack didn't  customarily cuss, but Alyssa was certainly passionate about this  situation. And rightfully so.

"I'm so sorry. I begged Reese and Charles not to tell anyone the truth  that we weren't sleeping together. They never laid a hand on me. Perfect  gentlemen who just wanted to help and even risked your wrath to uphold  their promise."

"How much do they know?" Jessica questioned.

"Most of it now. I told the family all together this morning when Reese and Charles got home."

"And no one tossed you out into the snow, did they?" Kara pulled Alyssa  off Jessica and hugged her. "These are the nicest people, well, wolves,  I've ever met. They will do anything to protect a life, even one that is  not their own. Trust me, I know."

"Thank you." Alyssa glanced at Jess and then at both Lindsey and Kara.  "You don't know how much I appreciate your understanding. It means the  world to me."

Jess was still confused. "I don't really get why Reese and Charles  didn't just bring you home with them and help you out. They aren't the  type who would say no to anyone."

"I know. They aren't. You're right. I know that now. But at the time I  wasn't thinking rationally. At that diner I told them so little and  apparently scared the shit out of them. When I told my story this  morning, they said they had realized I was lying, but whatever had  happened to me must have been horrific to have put that look on my face  and cause me to be willing to prostitute myself to get away; their  words, not mine."

Jessica smiled. It all made more sense now.

"I begged them to lie, not to tell anyone a thing. I was scared for my  life, and I needed distance from Oklahoma any way I could get it. I  feared if they knew the truth they might send me back home, not wanting  to get involved. Honestly"-Alyssa looked around at each woman-"I didn't  know until a few days ago every pack didn't do the same thing."

Kara gasped. "Marry off their young girls into polygamy against their will?"

Alyssa nodded. "I didn't know any different. I just knew it was wrong  deep inside me. Or at least wrong for me. It made my stomach hurt to  think of sleeping with that sleazeball every time I considered it."