A throat cleared from just outside the kitchen area to Jessica’s right, and she turned to see Michael with his arms wrapped around his fake intended, her back pressed against his front. “Alyssa is my mate. She will not be returning with you to your pack. Tell her parents she is safe and sound and happy.” Michael’s performance was so perfect Jessica could have been fooled herself as to his intentions where they concerned Alyssa. In fact, after he spoke, he tipped his head down and kissed her. Jessica was certainly convinced. They looked exactly like two people very much in love.
The short man spoke. “You have not claimed her yet.”
“No. She’s very young. I’d like to give her some time to acclimate to the idea first. Common courtesy when the woman in question is just barely an adult.” His jibe didn’t go unnoticed by anyone. “When the time is right, I will be claiming Alyssa. Not beforehand. I won’t force her to speed through her youth just because we are mates.”
Lost in the litany, Jessica even forgot this was all a hoax. Wasn’t it?
The two hired killers stood at the door with their mouths hanging open, unsure what to do. Seemingly at once, their gazes landed on Jessica, and they gasped. “You,” they said in unison.
Jessica cringed under the scrutiny and then remembered her new resolve. She narrowed her gaze. Her fists clenched at her sides, and her wolf hovered beneath the surface unexpectedly.
“That’s right.” Charles inched forward, his threatening frame taking up the door and entering into the personal space of her childhood pack members. “And I bet you two were in a heap of trouble when you returned to the pack without Jessica. She was just a child. You told them you’d killed her. You lied.” He let each statement hang in the air for several seconds before he spoke the next. “Bet you never expected to see her again, did you?”
The fat man lurched forward before he could stop himself, one foot inside the house. He narrowed his gaze on Jessica and bared his teeth.
Jessica backed up, stepping behind Reese. She needed to get control of her wolf. A few steps more and she was in the hallway. If she didn’t remove herself from the bastards’ line of sight, she’d lose it. Her senses were so heightened she could hear everyone speaking as though she were standing right among them in the foyer. Her pulse rate soared, and she leaned against the wall to cool her forehead.
“Both of those women belong to our pack.” The deep voice sounded firmer as the fat man regained control.
“Not any more they don’t,” Charles challenged.
Jessica took deep breaths. What’s happening to me? Suddenly her clothes felt too tight. Her skin crawled. For the first time in her life, she craved the shift. Somehow the air around her had changed. All eyes and everyone’s attention focused on the predators at the door. No one looked in her direction. Even Reese and Charles were concentrating so hard on the front of the house they didn’t notice her disappearance. She stood alone in the hall.
“Might I make a suggestion?” Charles continued. “Unless you want to further embarrass yourselves, I think now would be a good time to turn tail and get the fuck out of here. If we ever see you again, or hear even a peep you’ve been in our territory, we will hunt your asses and tell your pack leader about your lies twelve years ago. Your choice. You could make a scene, but you are severely outnumbered here. I’m betting if your leader finds out about your lie, he’ll kill you himself. Am I right?”
She needed this—for herself and her new pack. She needed to shift to wolf form and assert herself. Show those bastards they couldn’t control her any more. No more jumping at shadows.
“How about, instead, you turn Jessica and Alyssa over to us, and we take our women back home where they belong?” The fat bastard sounded as though he were overconfident in his request.
What made him think, in a standoff of two against a dozen, he would leave here with two women?
Hell, just the sound of her name crossing his lips again pushed her over the edge. Jessica stripped out of her clothes in record time and closed her eyes, pausing naked in the hallway while she concentrated.
An animalistic hiss from someone in the Masters family rang in her ear.
Moments later Jessica fell to all fours as her bones popped and twisted, reforming and contorting. Hair poked out all over her body, and her face elongated. It was over in seconds, and then she growled, deep and long and menacingly.
All heads turned as she bounded out of the hallway, leaped over paper, gifts, and furniture, and jumped onto all fours in front of the two men standing at the door.
Teeth bared, Jessica lifted her head and howled.