Sharon’s Wolves(45)

“I met them yesterday,” Sharon communicated silently with Jackson. “They work with Cooper.”

Jackson nodded. Made sense now.

The taller man spoke to Cooper. “There’s been a lot of activity at several of the seismic stations to the north of here. We split up into two groups to go check on the seismometers.”

Cooper nodded. “Good idea. I just got back from the fracking station near the epicenter myself.”

“Shit. Did you find anything else out?”

“No. Just spying.”

“Dude, have you slept at all? You need to rest for a while. We’ve got this part covered. We’ll call in a few hours when we get to the stations.”

“Sounds good. Keep me informed.” Cooper shut the left rear door while the other man shut the right.

Jackson stepped down from the SUV and opened the rear door for Sharon as the van drove away. “Everything okay? I don’t know a damn thing about earthquake research, but it sounded important.”

Cooper headed toward the building that held his temporary office while talking over his shoulder. “Standard stuff. Not shocking. We sometimes have to go check the seismic stations, especially when there’s a lot of activity. Make sure everything is still working properly.”

“I see.” Jackson followed Cooper, feeling waves of stress pouring off the man and wondering if it had to do with their mental connection, or if he would have felt the same general unease under the same circumstances yesterday.

He set a hand on Sharon’s back as they entered the building, but only after glancing around to make sure no one was looking. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he pondered the implications of sleeping with two people. By the time they stepped into Cooper’s giant work space, his hands were fisted at his sides in balls.

“What’s the matter?” Sharon asked.

He shook his head. “Nothing.” Trying to shake off the feeling of concern for the future, he didn’t make eye contact with Sharon or Cooper. Instead he feigned interest in the equipment lining the sides of the room and wandered down the row of machines and computers, seeing nothing.

“Jackson.” Cooper stated his name as if it were a command, a call to stop and turn around.

“What?”

“Your emotions are all over the place. What just happened?” He shut the door to the office space with a soft snick, leaving the three of them alone in the room on a Saturday afternoon when realistically Jackson knew very few people were milling about.

He shrugged. “Not a big deal.”

Sharon approached him and grabbed one of his hands, forcing him to acknowledge how his fingers curled tightly into his palms. She tipped her head back and pressed her chest against him until he met her gaze.

He knew he was frowning. He couldn’t stop it. “What?” The one word was defiant, and he almost cringed at the tone of his own voice.

“You tell me. I’m at a loss.”

He glanced at the closed door, suddenly self-conscious that anyone could walk in at any time. “How do you do it?”

“Do what?” Cooper asked, strolling across the room slowly.

“Face the public. I mean, I know we talked about this briefly. I get that both of your families are involved in similar relationships, but I’m not from this world. I’ve never slept with a woman and then pretended to be something less with her in public.”

She nodded. “I understand. And it’s not less weird for us, trust me. We’ve just seen it before is all. We’re more used to it than you are. So, if you’re asking how we handle things in public, we mostly don’t. We tend to avoid being demonstrative in crowds of humans. It’s not as awkward when we’re with shifters, but with humans we’re careful.

“There are a lot of people who are aware we live in threes, and many of them aren’t polite about it. But we’ll do the best we can. Just try to keep in mind that as soon as we’re in private, we can let loose and be who we are.”

She shrugged and then continued. “Try to think of it like other relationships. It’s not like you’d have sex with someone in public. And think of your sister. I’m sure Jazmine exudes no overt interest in Mary when they’re in public. It’s part of a game lots of people play, humans and shifters.

“There are so many reasons why people might fake less interest in public, especially in this area of the country. Hell, you’ll catch flak from humans and shifters for mixing with me because I’m white or Cooper because he’s mixed. That’s ridiculous too, but we cater to it anyway to keep the boat from rocking.”

He smiled while she gave him her little speech. “How did you get so smart?” He unfolded his hands and set them on her lower back.