Wolf-Bound: Unfamiliar Territory, page 19
The trip back to the house took a lot longer than the trip out. Jenny wrapped her arms around Jake’s neck and clung. The higher temperature of his weyr blood took the edge off the cold, but she was still shivering by the time the greenhouse and stables were in sight.
“Take her to the birthing stable.” Damien grunted. “We have extra clothes stashed in there.”
Jake nodded.
It was the same stable he had occupied only a few months before, what now seemed like a lifetime ago. The padlocks and shackles were gone, of course. He carried her inside, out of the wind, and waited while Devlin pulled clothes from a canvas bag on one of the shelves. Sweatshirt and a pair of sweatpants. Damien leaned against the wall for support while Jake and Devlin dressed her. Dev rolled up the overlong legs, but she tucked her freezing fingers inside the long sleeves, each into its opposite, using them like muffs to warm her hands.
She waited as the others pulled on sweatpants ‑‑ more to cover their naked bodies than for the warmth.
Jake studied her anxiously. “Are you feeling better?”
She nodded. “Just tired.” Her body shivered. “And cold.”
He glanced at her bare feet. “Let’s get you inside.”
He went to pick her up again, but she pushed him away. “I can walk. You take care of Damien. I’ll be waiting.”
She walked cautiously on legs like rubber. At the steps up to the back porch, she struggled, weak knees threatening to buckle as she dragged herself up by the handrail. At the door, she remembered throwing the key into the brush. “Damn.” She knocked softly, hoping Tara would answer. Maybe there was a chance she could keep Marshall from seeing them in this condition.
But Marshall opened the door. He reached out, cupping her elbow with his hand, guiding her inside and shutting the door behind her.
“Ummm…” She frantically racked her brain for a remotely plausible explanation for her appearance.
“Tara explained, Jen.”
“She…explained?”
He held up a hand at her shocked expression. “Don’t worry. I’ve always thought there was something different about the Blakes. The truth was not quite what I was expecting, I’ll admit, but ‑‑”
“She told you everything?” The last word came out as a squeak.
He nodded. “Don’t worry. My grandfather told me that this mountain would never die as long as the Blakes were around. He didn’t know what they were, but he knew the family did everything in its power to protect this land, the town, and its people. That’s the way it’s always been, he said. I’m willing to offer that same loyalty. Your secret’s safe with me.
“Besides,” he said, putting an arm around her in a friendly hug. “Tara and I are getting married, and since she considers you the sister she never had, we’ll practically be related. I’d never betray family.”
“Married?” It was too much. She couldn’t grasp it all.
He grinned. “I asked her tonight. Right after she told me what was going on.”
Jenny shook her head in confusion. “Whatever possessed you ‑‑ it seems like an odd time for a proposal.”
“What better time than the moment I realized she trusted me enough to share that kind of secret? Or the second it dawned on me that she was right to do so. That I would never betray that trust, because I love her.”
“I guess congratulations ‑‑” She put a hand to her head, swaying on her feet.
“Whoa.” He tightened his arm around her and half-supported, half-carried her into the living room. A blaze crackled merrily in the fireplace. He deposited her in the recliner closest to the hearth. “Sit here. I’ll let Tara know you’re back.”
“Tara knows.” Her best friend stepped into the room. “I heard your voices from the babies’ room.” She walked over and knelt by Jenny’s chair. “Is everything okay? What happened?”
Jen pushed her tangled hair back from her face. “I still don’t know exactly why they’re after Jake, but it won’t happen again. Not here. Not on Blake land.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.” She reached out and squeezed Tara’s shoulder. “The babies are safe. Safer now than they’ve ever been, I think.”
“So they’ve given up?”
Jen remembered her brief glimpse of the ringleader’s face, his last words. Until we meet again. She shivered. “I’m not sure.” She remembered Gaia. “This will sound strange, but I think I’ll know more tomorrow.”
Tara nodded just as Damien, Devlin, and Jake stepped into the room and froze.
“Um, uhh ‑‑” the three of them stammered, obviously searching for words.
Jenny waved a hand. “They both know. Don’t question it; just trust me.”
Marshall nodded. He stepped toward Jake and held out his hand. “I’ll never betray you. You have my word.”
Jake stared at his outstretched palm for a long moment, then reached out and shook.
Inside Jenny, something clicked into place, just as it had when she’d decided several months ago that they were meant to protect Jake. “That’s it,” she whispered.
“What?” Tara asked.
“Oh. Nothing.” Jen shook her head. “I know you’ve probably got a million questions, but can we fill you in tomorrow? I’m exhausted.”
“Of course.” Tara eyed her critically. “You look like death warmed over.” She winced. “And you’ve got a nasty bump on your temple. Let me get some ice.”
“I’ll be all right. Really. I just need some rest.”
Tara surveyed her skeptically, but nodded. “All right.” She stood and slipped her hand into the crook of Marshall’s elbow. “Goodnight, all.” At the arch into the hall, she glanced back. “The babies are fine, Jen. They slept through everything.”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
“And you guys can, you know, go ahead and spend the night where you normally do.” Her tone wasn’t suggestive, just supportive. “I know it’s probably important for you to be together right now.”
Jenny blinked back tears. “It is. Thank you.”
Their guests turned and disappeared down the hall. A moment later, their door clicked shut.
“That was interesting,” Jake said, raising his eyebrows.
“I’ll explain tomorrow. Can we please go to bed now?” Jen could barely keep her eyes open.
Jake nodded, gathering her in his arms and carrying her ‑‑ this was becoming a habit ‑‑ with her other husbands flanking him, to their room. She was vaguely aware of being undressed and held between them in a warm shower, her hurts being cleaned, and then being tucked into bed.
Unfinished Business
The bed bounced, and Jenny reluctantly opened her eyes to see sunshine streaming in the window and Devlin grinning down at her, blue gaze bright and mischievous as a child’s. “The weather broke. It’s sixty degrees and not a cloud in the sky.”
“Mm.” Jen rubbed her eyes. “What time is it?”
“Almost ten. We let you sleep in.” He looked awfully proud of himself.
Jen hated morning people. At least today she did. She touched a swollen breast and winced. No wonder she was so sore. “What about the babies?”
“They’re fine. We fed Collin and Cale their cereal. Theron had a bottle around seven-thirty, but he’s acting hungry again. That’s the only reason I woke you. I figured you might be getting a little uncomfortable.”
“Thanks, I am.” Sitting up, she pulled a couple of pillows over and stuffed them behind her back. “Will you bring him in?”
“Sure thing.”
Dev, Damien, and Jake trooped in, each carrying a baby. Damien handed over Theron, and they all three settled in to wait ‑‑ and watch. Her husbands liked watching her breastfeed. She didn’t mind; she wanted them to be as much a part of the boys’ lives as she was, and it only seemed natural to have them there while the boys fed. Also, it was incredibly erotic. Sometimes, after she had nursed the babies with the guys watching and then put the boys down to sleep, her husbands would nurse as well, two of them sucking her nipples while a third sucked her clit, not touching anything else, just sucking her nipples and clit until she came so hard she screamed.
Jen reluctantly pulled her mind away from such thoughts. She nursed Theron first from the breast that was most engorged. She smoothed his tousled hair, dark brown with bright strands of auburn that caught the sun’s light scattered throughout. All three of the boys had hair unusually thick for babies, Collin’s and Cale’s straight and golden as cornsilk, while Theron’s tended to stick out every which way, just like his father’s.
Theron gulped eagerly for a while, then settled down to a slow, contented rhythm. She had switched him to the other breast and was just deciding he’d had enough when he suddenly clamped his gums down. “Ow!” She winced, then pressed a finger in between his lips and tugged her nipple free. He grinned up at her as she ran her pinky over his upper gums. “Oh, look! He’s getting a tooth.”
She and the baby cooed and giggled at each other while her husbands oohed and aahed over the tiny white pinpoint just peeking out of the gum, but then Jenny made a face. “I guess he won’t be breastfeeding much longer, either.”
Damien patted her shoulder. “Sorry, hon. Weyr and half-weyr develop physically faster than humans. But don’t worry; they’ll still be mama’s boys for a long time to come.”
Jenny grinned and jounced her bare breast. “Aren’t you all?”
Dev gasped dramatically and held a hand over Cale’s eyes. “Jenny! Such behavior, and in front of the children!” He shook his head in mock disappointment.
“I agree. I think we’ll have to take you to task for that later.” Jake’s eyes were dark with the promise of a night in the toy room. Jenny shivered and felt an answering tremor in Damien’s hand on her back. My, but it was nice to have three gorgeous hunks salivating over her!
“Whatever you say, Jake,” she answered in a meek tone, looking at him through lowered lashes. She was rewarded by his intense, hungry gaze and the shifting of his hips as he subtly tried to make the erection now straining at his pants a little more comfortable. She grinned. “At any rate, I think Theron’s done for now.”
She relinquished him to his father. Jake swept his thumb mischievously across the tip of her sensitive nipple as he gathered Theron up. “Later,” he promised, and she nodded.
They trooped out. She dressed slowly, a bit stiff and sore from their ordeal the night before. She checked her shiner in the bathroom mirror ‑‑ not looking too bad, considering ‑‑ then joined everyone in the kitchen, where she finished off the pancakes Devlin had saved for her.
They spent the next couple of hours chatting with Tara and Marshall, giving them the rundown on what had happened the night before. Jenny explained to all of them exactly what she’d done, how she’d sealed the land against harmful influences.
For a human just introduced to the concept, Marshall took all the talk of weyrwolves, assassins bearing crossbows, animated tree roots, and time dilation quite well. When they were surprised by his acceptance, he mentioned again that his grandfather had been an old soul, full of stories about the mountain and odd things that had happened there. “Well, my parents said they were just stories, but Gramps always maintained they were real. We were close, really close, and deep down inside, I always halfway believed him. I don’t know…” He rubbed his neck, looking sheepish. “I guess I kind of wanted the stuff he talked about to be real.”
By two in the afternoon, the mountainside was riddled with streams of melting snow. Marshall and Tara decided to attempt going home. “The snow’s pretty much history, but the mud!” Jen protested.
“We’ve got our cell phones,” Tara assured them. “If we get stuck, believe me, I won’t hesitate to call.”
Marshall nodded. “And we’ve decided Tara’s going to go ahead and move in with me.” He looked at her and grinned. “You’ll have to pardon me if I seem anxious to get on with that.”
Tara blushed. “Marshall!”
After they’d said their goodbyes, Jen wandered into the boys’ bedroom. They’d gone down for their nap a half-hour earlier, and she smiled at their serene faces. She was tugging a blanket up over Cale’s shoulders when Jake’s arms slid around her waist. “They’re so beautiful,” she whispered.
“They are.” Jake pressed a kiss to her earlobe. “Jen, I ‑‑” Intense but quiet, his voice cracked, and she heard him swallow hard before he continued. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to express how much you mean to me. All of you.” She turned into his embrace, looking up into his dark brown eyes. “I thought I’d lost everything when Johnathan died. Now, I have you and Theron, and Damien and Devlin and the two boys… I have a family again.” His hand cupped her cheek. “It’s all because of you.”
Jenny shook her head. “It’s not just me, Jake. It’s all of us. We’re in this together, that’s what makes us strong.” She rubbed her cheek against his palm. “Something important happened last night, Jake.”
“You mean Damien taking that bolt for me? Goddess, when I saw that, it was…” He shuddered. “It was Johnathan all over again. If he had died, I ‑‑”
“Shhh.” She pressed a finger to his lips. “It’s over. I was talking about more than that. There’s…” She closed her eyes, remembering the presence she had sensed in the Dark Guard the night before. “There’s something out there, Jake. It’s hard to describe. Not necessarily evil, but greedy and destructive. It’s trying to find a way into our world. What we did last night ‑‑ not just Damien, but all of us, refusing to abandon each other, blending our powers ‑‑ we stopped it. The sealing of the land protects us, but that isn’t all. The four of us working together, combining our strength ‑‑ our love ‑‑ in that way, kept something bad from entering this world.”
“I know,” he said. “I felt it. The Dark Guard…” He shook his head. “We have to sit down one day, so I can tell you what they are. But not today.” His arms tightened around her. “Was he right? Are you a witch?”
Jen shrugged. “To be honest, I’m not quite sure what I am anymore. I’m tied to the land in more than one way now, not just through the bond with Damien and Devlin and now you. I’ve spoken to the one we call Goddess, the feminine entity that inhabits these mountains. I’m sure you’ve sensed her. Weyr always do.” Jake nodded. “She says I’m like her. She’s a…caretaker. A nurturer. You, Damien, and Devlin protect the land and the people associated with it from without. She and I, we foster and nourish, cultivate and guide. We strengthen the land from within. According to her, the magic that is Earth is in all of us, but in most it’s lost its potential. In all weyr, that ember remains and has been fashioned into the Way and the bond. In me, it’s something more ‑‑ a flame, not just a coal. If that’s where a witch’s abilities come from, then maybe so.” She did not mention that she was destined to join Gaia, long after their lives were done. It didn’t seem necessary for them to know at this point.
“The seal…that means it’s really over, for now. They can’t hurt us.”
Jen nodded. “Not here. Not on any of the land under our influence.” She frowned, gripping his shoulders. “But that doesn’t mean they won’t find other ways to get to us. We still have to be careful, but I have this feeling we’re going to be all right. At least for a while.”
“I sense it, too. My head’s having a hard time buying it, but…” He tapped his chest. “I feel it in here. So do Damien and Devlin. We talked about it this morning, while you were sleeping. Even Tara and Marshall sense it. Tara said the earth just seemed like a brighter place all of the sudden. Marshall agreed. He said it felt like the world was full of possibilities that hadn’t been there before.”
“I think that ember still glows in them, too.” She tilted her head, studying him. Though all three of her husbands had the enhanced weyr senses, Jake seemed so much more perceptive to the currents and undercurrents than they did, possibly because he’d lived such a dangerous life compared to them. He’d had to be more alert. “You do know they’re part of our pack now, right? Tara and Marshall?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I know. I felt it, too, when Marshall and I shook hands. Our pack’s complete, isn’t it?”
“I think so.”
Jake nodded again. “I’m glad. I can’t think of any other people I’d rather share my life with. Or my son’s life. And…” Tears glimmered in his eyes, but he blinked them back. “I know Johnathan would approve.”
Jenny fought back tears of her own, hugging Jake tight. So strong, and yet so vulnerable. Wasn’t it strange that more than anything, all she wanted was to be able to protect the protectors?
Speaking of which… She sighed and nuzzled Jake’s chest. He loosened his hold, and she looked up. “I need to go into the woods for a while.”
He frowned, but then comprehension dawned. “The Goddess. You need to talk.”
“She calls herself Gaia.” Jen snorted. “Actually, she calls all the caretakers Gaia, but that’s as good a name as any to use when we speak of her.”
“All right. I guess I’ll stay here and keep an eye on the boys while Damien and Devlin head out to check for storm damage.”
“Thanks.” She glanced at the baby, assuring herself that their quiet conversation hadn’t awakened him, then headed for the door. She shut it quietly behind them and gave Jake a quick hug. “I’ll be back shortly.”
She walked the woods, letting her path meander aimlessly. At first, she hiked in her blue jeans, a thick turtleneck, and sturdy boots, but despite the chill of the last few days and the cold of the melting snow, the warmer air coupled with the exertion soon had her sweating. She shucked the turtleneck, tying it around her waist, knowing that this deep into the trees she was safe from the prying eyes that might wonder why she was haunting the woods in her bra. She held out her hands for a moment, catching the melted snow drops like rain in her palms.
Struck by the urge to feel the earth between her toes, she knelt and tugged at her laces, kicking off the heavy boots to bury her feet in wet leaves. A shiver ran through her from toe to head as the now familiar sense of becoming one with the earth enveloped her. Suddenly, even her jeans and bra were too much to bear. She untied the turtleneck from around her waist and tugged off her jeans and the cumbersome nursing bra, hanging all three on a sturdy branch.
