Jessica’s Wolves(38)

In any case, as she stared at her friends, arms crossed over her chest, she pasted a smug look on her face. She knew a secret. And, there was no time like the present and no better segue to out herself. “You too?”

She smiled at Lindsey, who froze in her spot, having only stepped a few yards into the room in her stocking feet. “What?” She glanced around her as though looking for some illusive reason for the strange question.

Jessica gazed at Lindsey’s midsection and nodded. “You’re pregnant.”

Lindsey’s eyes grew larger than saucers. “Of course not. What makes you say that?” She flattened her hands over her stomach, but the corners of her mouth tipped up.

“I can smell it on you. It’s faint. You’re not far along, but there’s no doubt.”

Both Kara and Lindsey stopped in their tracks.

“It’s time I told you a little bit more about myself.” Jessica took a deep breath and nodded toward the living section of the great room. “You might want to sit for this.” Without waiting, she wandered over to a large plush couch and took a seat.

For all the angst she’d suffered over the years, she was surprisingly calm, almost relieved to finally share her secrets with her best friends.

Why had she waited so long?

“What’s going on?” Kara sat across from Jessica, and Lindsey took the spot next to Kara.

“I’m lupine.” She gave them a moment to soak it in.

“But…” Lindsey couldn’t finish her thought. Her mouth hung open, her hands still stroking her belly.

“Congratulations, by the way,” Jessica began, “about the baby. I’m sure you aren’t too shocked. It happens when you have sex night and day for months with two men. Occupational hazard.” She chuckled.

“Are you sure?” Lindsey looked at her lap. “I mean, why didn’t I know? Why didn’t Alejandro or Ryan say anything?”

“They probably wanted to give you a bit more time,” Kara stated. “Justin and Trevor didn’t tell me right away either. Even though I’m sure they all knew the minute I conceived.”

“You’re a wolf?” Lindsey shook herself from her stupor and returned to the more pressing issue.

“Yes.”

“Why?” Kara asked.

“My parents were wolves. It’s genetic.” Jess laughed. That wasn’t what Kara meant, but still.

“No.” Kara shook her head, not cracking a smile. “I mean, why didn’t you tell us?”

“I never wanted anyone to know.” Jessica swallowed and took a deep breath. “You are the best and only real friends I’ve ever had, and I’m sorry I kept this from you for so long. I desperately wanted to be normal, whatever that is, and human. I’ve been fighting against my wolf half since I was ten years old.”

“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry.” Kara leaned forward over her huge belly and waited for Jess to continue.

“When I was about nine, my parents left our pack and brought me here to the northwest to live. I didn’t really realize why, but something bad had happened within the pack. My parents were bickering and arguing all the time before we left. I don’t think they disagreed with each other—they just didn’t know what to do, and it was a difficult decision to leave everyone we knew: family, friends, a lifetime of memories.

“We came here and lived as humans just outside of town in a nice little cabin surrounded by trees. About a year later, when I was ten, my parents had just started letting me stay home alone for short periods of time. They went for a quick run in the woods behind our house. I was staring out the window, watching for them to return, when two men pulled up in a beat-up pickup truck. I froze, sensing they were trouble before they even exited the car. I stood in the shadow behind the edge of the curtain and waited with my chest pounding.

“They didn’t approach the house, or even look my way. They simply waited, leaning against the bed of the truck as if they knew my parents would bound out from between the trees at any moment. Time stood still while I glanced back and forth between the woods and the men. Each man casually pulled a rifle from the truck bed. I’ll never forget that noise, the sound of a rifle cocking. I could hear it from inside the house. Two loud clicks as each man prepared their gun and aimed it at the forest.”

Tears streaked down Jessica’s face as she told the story for the first time in her life. She didn’t bother to wipe them away. She couldn’t move. Just sat there with her hands in her lap recounting everything in vivid detail as though it had happened only yesterday.

There wasn’t a sound in the house as she continued. “When my mom and dad leaped out of the woods, they never even saw it coming. Bang. Bang. Two shots rang out almost simultaneously and both my parents collapsed to the ground, still in wolf form. They were dead. They never even twitched as I stared in horror. I even wet my pants. But I didn’t move an inch. I was sure those two men were going to kill me next.”