Tank (6 page)

“A
t first, I
didn’t think you were a woods kind of guy. I thought more motorcycles and leather.” Here Jess squeezed his arm, biting down on her lip as a small blush stained her cheeks. “But seeing you here, I get how this fits you. More than the others, in a way.”

Tank tucked her closer to him, his arm over her shoulder and her fingers entwined with his. With every spare moment being spent with her, it had been too long since he had gotten to the woods. It wasn’t quite the same as being able to shift and run free, but having Jess in his arms as they made a lazy path was close enough to soothe him, for now.

He leaned down and nuzzled her hair, bringing in her scent. That’s all it took, to make his world right. The scent of her and feel of her in his arms.

Tank didn’t do fear. He didn’t do terror. He wasn’t scared. He faced down everything in his life clear-eyed, with his emotions controlled and wound tight.

Until Jess. Now, he knew terror. The thought of losing her had him breaking out in a sweat, had him waking up from nightmares with her name on his lips.

He wasn’t a philosopher. He didn’t think too hard on true mates and how they were created. He didn’t wonder if he loved Jess as much as he did because she was his true mate.

All he knew was she had become everything to him. He couldn’t imagine his life without her. Didn’t want to imagine what it would do to him if she left.

She had to feel something, didn’t she? Even if she wasn’t a wolf, the true mate bond had some sort of pull on the women – Bella had told him that. She couldn’t be with him only because she got to explore with him, got to try everything that had been denied her for so long, both in and out of bed. It couldn’t be only that.

And then all thoughts stopped as the scent of rogues washed over him.

How the
hell
did they get this far into pack territory? But now wasn’t the time. Now he had to get Jess to safety, get word to Steel what was happening.

Tank pulled away, took Jess’s shoulders into his hands. “Listen to me. I need you to go back to Iron’s bar. Tell Iron there are rogues in territory and direct him here. Iron will know what to do from there.”

Jess’s face was a study in confusion. “I don’t understand what’s going on.”

“Please Jess, just do this for me. I swear I’ll explain everything to you later, but I need you to go now and do as I ask.”

Jess was staring at him blankly, and there was no time, no time.

He understood now, what Beth had been asking of him that first night. He understood what drove Steel, why he hadn’t forced the bite on Regan. It was insignificant next to how much he loved her.

As Jess’s blue eyes glowed bright under the moonlight, it all came clear to Tank. He loved this woman, everything about her, and nothing was more important than her, alive and well and happy. If she never took his bite, it was nothing. If she couldn’t handle living with the wolves, he’d let her go to have the life she needed. The rest of the things he’d been worrying about where nothing compared to her truth of that.

With that in mind, he began taking off his clothes. She might not understand, but he needed now to protect her above everything. “Jess, go do as I
said
.”

“You’re
scaring
me, and I–”

The wolf lifted his head and growled. There were five of them, different directions, and he needed to lead them away from his mate. It bounded through the woods, toward the river. The water might be able to throw them off his scent while keeping them chasing him instead of going towards his bitch.

The wolf’s strong legs carried him over the uneven ground, over rock and tree and soil. It howled, daring the others
come, come
.

Jess was running
back to Iron’s, her mind trying to get to denial but failing. No matter what she tried, she could not convince herself she had not seen that, seen Tank turning into a huge grey wolf which had bounded off through the forest. Had not heard several howls, howls which sounded exactly like those the night she had met Tank, where she and Beth had run through the streets, terrified and alone.

A growl, and one of those things were coming closer to her. It jumped before her, fangs bared, and this was not Tank. She knew that to the core of her, not how it snapped and snarled.

Those fangs seemed huge, too big to survive ever being attacked by, and the wolf’s eyes were fixed on her with pure evil and menace.

Another wolf jumped from the trees on top of the wolf in her path, and this one was Tank. She bet her life on it. That wolf didn’t go to her but kept attacking the one who had stopped her originally.

Tank had told her to get to the bar, and that’s where she was going. Without looking at the battle between the two creatures she kept forging ahead, not stopping no matter how much her chest hurt, until she had thrown herself through Iron’s door.

Iron had been laughing as he stood behind the bar, but one glance at her had him rising, had his face grow cold and stern. He moved over to her. “Where?”

“North. Ten, fifteen minutes.”

He looked over, to Razor and Brick and House, and they all rose to follow him out the door.

Jess moved to get behind them, only to have Beth grab her arm. “Jess, you did good. Now it’s time to stay here.”

Beth’s face was grave, resigned. “Oh God. You
knew
.”

“Let me get you a drink.”

Bella had come
to the bar, as had Regan. Aaliyah had been here earlier, and the women now waited.

That wasn’t quite right. The women had battened down the bar like a fort, bringing out weapons and medical supplies and some liquor. Then they sat down to wait, though Regan sat guard, her attention on what was going on outside and not within.

Aaliyah was saying to Bella, “Iron’s going to spank you for coming out here,” while another voice, this time from a woman Jess didn’t know, said, “Jacobson’s getting bold,” and all the while Beth mixed a margarita to set in front of Jess.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jess asked, stirring but not drinking the alcoholic beverage.

“Not an easy thing to talk about,” Beth replied. “It’s kind of hard to start a conversation with
So did you know werewolves are real?
”

“How long have you known about them?”

Beth’s face scrunched up in distaste. “My whole life. Mine and Regan’s story is a bit different. We were raised to kill werewolves. It took Steel to make us see that not all of them are evil. But some are.” Beth grimaced, taking a sip of her own drink. “Some definitely are, and they are trying to gain control here.”

“But you let me get close to Tank without telling me.”

Beth pushed away the liquor, a myriad of emotions rushing over her face as she ran her fingers through her hair. “I don’t know if I’m sorry. Maybe I should be, but this is second nature to me. Their differences aren’t something I think about. To me, it’s a simple fact of life. All I knew was Tank was a good man, and he fell for you.”

“Beth…this is fucked up. A
werewolf
, and a
war
, and I’m surrounded by women who have armed themselves and have the medical kits ready.”

“Does any of it matter if you love him?”

Then speaking stopped, because the men were back. More wolves must have joined later, because now several came in that she didn’t recognize from earlier. No one seemed severely hurt, but Bella and Aaliyah were indeed busy bandaging people. Iron was threatening to spank Bella for being there, and she was ignoring him. Several of the women were caught up in hugs, though Aaliyah allowed Razor only a moment before she shooed him away so she could finish with a bandage.

Tank was there. Bruises and blood littered his body, but he seemed fine, or at least, no worse than when he fought in the ring, and Jess exhaled a sigh, her heart giving thanks she didn’t know it had been holding at the ready.

And then Jess turned and walked out the bar door.

‡

I
t was the
most boring date in the history of blind dates.

Jess counted herself lucky that he wasn’t a jerk, but that’s all the guy had going for him. His voice was a monotone, his hobby was collecting stamps, and his idea of excitement was binge watching Netflix.

If the universe was poking her into considering what she had given up, it was doing a bang-up job.

Thoughts of Tank were constant in her mind, and of the secret she now carried within her.

She kind of wanted to tell. Just stand up and yell to the world, “Hey, werewolves are real!” She never would, of course, but it was the biggest juiciest piece of gossip that could ever possibly exist. Jess figured she wouldn’t be human if she didn’t have even an inkling of a desire to tell.

The thing about it though, was as the secret sat with her, it became less weird. She could now see where Beth was coming from. Sure, every now again she’d tilt her head and remind herself that werewolves
existed
, that she actually had sex with one, but the feeling of different passed rather quickly, and instead what she was left with was how it felt when Tank was moving inside her, his breath hot on her ear, his voice demanding and his fingers deft as they both brought her to orgasm over and over and over…

What was her date talking about again? Did it matter?

No.

No, it didn’t, did it?

What she had with Tank was the best thing that had ever happened to her. With him she felt
real
, felt respect and desired for who she really was, not a beat down, greyed out version of herself. Tank was the one who had brought that out of her, and was she going to turn her back on it, go back to that greyness?

The heavens might not have parted, but this was an absolute truth. She loved Tank. Her best friend was Beth. And all the other pack members had become dear to her in the short amount of time she knew them. The thought of spending her days, creating her family in the heart of that community – there was nothing to be fearful of there. Instead, that would be something to celebrate.

She rose, causing her date to stop mid-sentence. “I have to go. This really is me. I am still in love with my ex, and I just realized I was stupid to want him to become my ex. I need to go and apologize to him.”

And bless her date, because the man nodded his head, with no malice or indignation. “I’m glad you figured it out. Good luck, and remember that blow jobs are always the best way to say sorry.”

“Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Tank had to
be hallucinating. He also might be drooling a bit, but hell if he could keep the blood in his head long enough to be able to form a command to wipe it away.

Jess was standing in the doorway of his office at the gym, wearing a red sweater that had small sleeves and leaving ample cleavage on display. Her skirt was black and figure hugging, and she was wearing sheer black stockings.

Please God, let those be stockings.

Her hair looked like she’d just come from their bed, and her lips were a deep red with a hint of gloss. Maybe she was trying to look apologetic, but all he could see was she looked naughty. Very,
very
naughty.

As if she could read his mind she dug the tip of her shoe into the floor, rotating her leg a few degrees to either side. Not only was she wearing stockings – stockings with a seam running the length of her leg – but she was wearing black spiked shoes.

It didn’t matter he’d gone through a week of hell. She was forgiven. Immediately and totally.

“Tank–”

“You’re forgiven.”

That brought her up short, her red lips screwing into a pout, and he needed them around his dick now. “I haven’t said what I needed to.”

“Are you coming back to me?”

“Yes.”

“Are you ever leaving again?”

“No.”

“Do you want to be mine alone? Be my mate? Take my bite and become a werewolf and have babies and make us a family forever?”

Her forehead furrowed for only a moment before it straightened, and she smiled the most beautiful smile in existence, one that accepted everything about him and about the life they were going to have. “Absolutely.”

“Then come here.”

She was looking at him like she was waiting for the other shoe to drop, but screw that. Life was too short. Of course she needed to think it through, and it only took a week to come back. Steel had it worse.

All in all, his path was pretty smooth.

One thing about Jess was she took things in stride. She was already smiling as she stepped into the room. “I was informed that blow jobs are the best way of saying sorry.”

“Come here.”

She walked towards him, those hips swinging in mesmerizing rhythm. She stopped in front of him. “Yes, Tank?”

He reached up to rub thumb along that bottom lip. “Considering what you were told, I think you need to use this mouth to apologize to me… and do it without words.”

She kneeled between his spread legs, unzipping him and freeing his cock from the denim confines. Jess ran her finger down the length then grabbed him and slowly,
slowly
, stroked him a few times. She leaned over and touched the tip with her tongue, a quick flick before she pulled back to stroke it yet a few more times. “I love your cock, Tank. Are you sure this is a good punishment, considering how much I like sucking you?”