Sharon’s Wolves(21)

“Nope.” The burning need on her face as she watched him strip was incongruent with the tone of her word, as if she were unaffected by his nudity. She fidgeted in her seat, lifting and adjusting her ass several times.

Cooper tipped his head back and inhaled her scent, her arousal filling the room now more than ever. “Woman…” He forced himself to turn back to a very shocked Jackson. “Only gonna do this once tonight, so watch carefully. There’ll be a quiz after,” he teased.

The effect was lost on Jackson, however. The man sat very still, his mouth hanging open as if to speak, but nothing came out.

Cooper lowered to all fours and closed his eyes, letting the change take over. He listened to his own bones popping and elongating, felt the hair lengthen on his body, and altered his thinking until he was fully shifted into wolf form. He lifted his gaze toward Jackson and didn’t move.

“Holy fuck.” Jackson scooted his entire chair backward and then stood abruptly, reached out, and grabbed Sharon out of her chair to haul her away from Cooper.

She barely got her legs under her, but it didn’t matter because Jackson didn’t let her feet hit the ground. He was strong. And he had adrenaline on his side. He whisked her away from perceived harm so fast, she didn’t need her feet.

When he tucked her behind him, setting her on the ground, she finally regained control of her limbs. “Jackson, it’s okay.” She wrapped her arms around his middle and squeezed while she eased to his side so her head rested on his chest. “It’s okay,” she repeated. “Soak it in. I know it’s a shock.” She tipped her head back and set her chin on his pec to face him. Her small hand found its way to the other side of his chest and flattened against him.

The jealously Cooper felt was unnerving, but he remained still. This was necessary. He needed to give Jackson a moment to internalize what he was seeing. His world, the one he’d believed to know everything about for over thirty years, had just crumbled to sand around him.

It took time to break those barriers and build a new reality. Cooper was going to have to dig deep to gather up a huge amount of patience. It was one thing when a wolf found out he was mated to a human female, but a human male? He didn’t know anyone who had found themselves in this predicament.

As he cocked his head to one side, he realized most of the work of convincing Jackson was going to fall on Sharon’s shoulders. After all, Jackson would be rock hard with the need to claim her at all hours of the day and night. He wouldn’t understand the terminology shifters used for mating and claiming yet, but that wouldn’t lessen the driving need.

When he calmed down enough to accept this new reality, he would realize he and Cooper were partners for life in this adventure, and a certain level of respect, admiration, and protectiveness would come with it. But the man would never feel the same level of drive toward Cooper as he would feel toward Sharon.

It was Sharon and the pheromones she put off that would send Jackson into a sexual frenzy. So it would be Sharon burdened with the majority of the work in getting Jackson to see reason.

“You can do that too?” Jackson asked.

“Uh-huh.”

Jackson’s knuckles were white where he gripped her around the shoulders.

Sharon twisted her head to nod at Cooper. “You can shift back now.”

Cooper took a deep breath, thinking at least in wolf form he wasn’t required to join in the explanations, but he also knew Sharon would be pissed if he didn’t help. So he concentrated on his human half and let his body return to its other form.

“Jesus,” Jackson muttered when Cooper once again stood before him naked.

Cooper reached for his jeans and hauled them on, tugging up the zipper, but not bothering with the button or any of the rest of his clothes.

Sharon inched forward, taking Jackson with her. She lined him up with the kitchen chair he’d been sitting in and pushed on his chest. “Sit. Please.”

He lowered himself into the chair, but his gaze remained on Cooper. “You feel the same thing toward her that I do,” he stated.

“Yes.”

Jackson bent his head forward and stared at the floor. He set his elbows on his knees. “I can’t wrap my mind around this. Any of it.”

Sharon smoothed her hand over his shoulder and then higher to cup the back of his head. “I know it’s a lot. And there are people who will help you understand, including…” she hesitated.

Cooper didn’t know where she was going with this, but he waited.

“Including who?” Jackson asked without moving a muscle.

“Your sister.”

“What?” He jerked his head up to face her. “Jazmine? She knows?”