Sharon’s Wolves(40)
Sharon shrugged. “Varies. Not too long. A week maybe.”
“And then what? And then we go on with our merry lives?”
“That’s the plan,” Cooper said.
“Why can’t it be simple? From what Cooper was telling me earlier, you saw the spirit thingie again in the middle of the night.” He lifted a finger to point at both of them. “And let me just reiterate how insane that was, while at the same time I’m glad to know you were both awake and running around naked in the woods while I was pacing in my apartment adjusting my stiff cock.”
Cooper chuckled. “Hey, man, that was your fault. You could have stayed last night, and we could have spent our time doing much more satisfying things together. And just for the record, when we run in the woods, we do have our fur on. I would hardly call it naked.”
Jackson shrugged. “Semantics. Anyway, why can’t it be simple? You’ve got earthquakes shaking us all day and night around here, some dumbasses doing too much fracking on a fault line, and a perfectly good black smoky aura to point out the danger. Seems cut and dry. Stop the fracking, the earthquakes stop, the aura goes away. We all live happily ever after.” He clapped his hands together. “Done.”
Cooper rolled his eyes. “I wish.”
“Why?” Jackson pushed off the island and resumed filling the dishwasher with pans and cups and utensils. “Who’s to say it isn’t just that this time?”
A knock sounded at the door.
“Probably whoever that is,” Sharon joked.
Cooper stood and winked at Sharon. “I have two sisters, a mother, and a grandmother who all have abilities as shaman none of us will ever understand. I’d bet anything, all or some of them are standing outside the front door.”
He strode across the room and didn’t even bother checking the peephole. Seconds later, he was proven correct. All four of the women in his family burst into the condo.
His sisters, Laurie and Melinda, had huge smiles on their faces and beelined for Sharon to undoubtedly pry her for information about her mating. His mother was calmer. She hugged him on the way by and softly expressed her happiness for him.
His grandmother, Mimi Bartel, had a furrowed brow and a stiff gait. She was all business. “Good,” she began, “at least I don’t have to start lecturing the three of you about the importance of not denying your fate.”
Cooper smiled as he shut the door, shaking his head behind his grandmother’s back. The woman was persistent in all things. She was convinced that each spirit sighting was extremely important. The tales of her interfering with each of her grandchildren’s matings were comical at best.
Sharon made her rounds, ending with Joyce and then Mimi. She reached back and snagged Jackson by the arm. “Mimi, Joyce, this is Jackson Wolf.”
Joyce smiled warmly at Jackson. “So nice to officially meet you.”
Mimi eyed him from top to bottom while Cooper fought to control his need to smile behind her. Finally, she spoke. “You live on the reservation.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Jackson rocked on his feet, clearly thrown by Mimi’s scrutiny.
“Good,” she stated dramatically. “Welcome to the family. I take it they’ve been catching you up?”
“I’ve learned more in the last eighteen hours than the previous eighteen years, yes.” He smiled.
Laurie rolled her eyes. “Grandma, cut Jackson some slack. He’s here, isn’t he?”
“Yes.” She spun around to face Cooper. “How many spirits have you seen?”
“Three so far. Two last night here in the condo and one in the middle of the night near a fracking site.”
“Fracking site?”
“Yes. North of here. It’s on top of a fault line. I believe it’s causing the earthquakes.”
Mimi shook her head. “There’s more to it than that.”
Cooper was well aware. “I know. We’re trying to figure it out.”
Mimi started pacing. “You need to go back.”
“Back where?” Sharon asked.
“Wherever you went in the night. The fracking site.”
Cooper stared at his grandmother. He didn’t know her as well as his brothers and sisters did. And that was his own fault. His oldest siblings, Melinda and Miles, were half-siblings born after a rape. When they were three, his mother met her true mate, a Caucasian shifter, and she was essentially banished from the reservation. With no other choice, she left with Cooper’s father, Gene, and lived a few hours away for twenty-seven years before they were able to return.
Since that time, Cooper had only spent a few brief days with his newfound family out of some misplaced desire to buck the system and deny his fate. Now that he was finally where he belonged, all his efforts seemed absurd.