The Heir (14 page)

Nick looked away and took a stumbling step
back, this was all too important to ruin with a quick fuck just to
satiate his thirst. The soft rustle of the sheets, snapped his
attention back to the bed and he made his way back to it quietly.
Looking down at her, his lips turned up on their own volition.

She looked so peaceful, curled up on her
side; a hand under her head-where his arm had been moments ago. Her
other hand reached for the spot where he had been and made small
noise of displeasure when all she encountered were the sheets.
Triumph filled his chest and his lips pulled up in a full blown
smile. Her subconscious missed him, and with their people, that
meant her wolf.

Her wolf missed him. Her wolf wanted him. And
he told himself to walk away. Told himself to gather his things and
go, that she wasn't ready for any of this. He had to go because he
knew that if he got back into bed with her, it would be a struggle
to keep his hands off of her.

Filled with resolve, he dragged himself away
from the bed. HT the door he reached for the doorknob but found
that he couldn't bring himself to twist it open. Growling his
frustration, he turned back to the bed; feeling like an invisible
thread kept pulling him back to her and too weak to break the
connection.

He returned to her bedside and in front of
her once again, he took a deep breath, pulling her scent into him.
His gut tightened with hunger but not for food. He was hungry for
her, his mate and he couldn't walk away from her. He wouldn’t claim
her tonight but he wasn't leaving.

And he refused to be uncomfortable.

Eyes trained on her, he pulled off his shirt
and threw it on the floor; his jeans were discarded just as quickly
but he kept his boxers on out of consideration for her. He crawled
back into bed as quietly as he'd left it and pulled Jessica back to
his side. Resting into the crook of his arm, he couldn't help but
notice that she fit his mold. She was a perfect fit for him.

She brought a hand up to rest on his chest
and he smiled before dropping a soft kiss on her head.

"Thanks for staying." She murmured
softly.

Her sleepy voice startled him and he looked
down to find her looking up at him. "You've been awake this whole
time?"

She gave a small nod, "I felt you get out of
bed. I thought you were going to leave." She admitted in a
whisper.

"I was. I wanted to, but I couldn't."

"I'm glad." She told him and proved it by
giving him a small kiss on the side of his neck before closing her
eyes and going back to sleep.

Nick felt the kiss all the way to his groin
and he swallowed back a groan of both pleasure and pain. It was
going to be a long time before he could do the same.

Chapter 10

The next morning Jessica woke up to the
realization that someone was laying on top of her. Not yet
completely awake, she squirmed and earned herself a growl that
vibrated all through her body. Shivers of pleasure trailed down her
spine until she felt a sudden sharp pain at the base of her neck
and her eyes flew open.

Instinctive reaction had her raising her
knee; connecting with male anatomy parts that seconds too late, she
realized belonged to Nick.

He released her neck and she felt the air
rush out of his lungs. Jessica shoved him off of her and he went
without a fight, groaning and holding himself. Curled up into the
fetal position, he closed his eyes and worked on regaining his
breath.

Taking advantage of his distraction she
jumped out of bed and reached for her trusty knives. They were kept
in her bedside drawer and she wished she hadn’t forgotten them
yesterday. In her mind, she had a picture of Shane eating his own
sausage and scrambled eggs and it almost made her laugh.

Then the pain on her neck reminded her that
the current situation was no laughing matter.

Trying not to panic, she took a deep breath
and took stock of her body. Aside from her neck, she had no other
aches and she released a sigh of relief. Then a groan came from her
bed.

It snapped her attention back to the present
and she switched her knives open as she looked at Nick. He looked
angry-furious-and Jessica took an involuntary step back.

"It was an automatic reaction." She told him
as way of an explanation.

Nick, who was now crouched on the bed, glared
at her and she raised her chin, stood up straight and glared
back.

"You were biting me!" She accused and tried
to rub the aching spot with her chin since her hands were
occupied.

Upon her accusation, his eyes flew wide open,
and he grew still and he sniffed the air the way she'd seen Axel do
it the day before.

"Stop with the funny stuff!" She ordered,
throwing her hands up in exasperation. "Just my luck, I swear all
of you belong in the funny farm. My bodyguard thinks he is my
boyfriend and goes off his rocker when I remind him that he is
not." Nick growled at the mention of Shane but it only drew her ire
towards him. "And you! You show up out of nowhere, cause all these
problems then you send your friends to lock me up in my bathroom-
and you bit me!”

She pulled her shirt and showed him the
wound. Nick stared at it for a second before throwing himself back
on the bed and groaning.

Shaking her head she turned to go to her
restroom to clean up her neck when the next thing she heard was the
click of the door; Jessica turned back around to find she was alone
in her room. Closing her knives and stashing them in her back
pockets, she went after him. Opening the door she almost slammed
into a breathing wall.

It was Axel.

"Where is he?" she asked him.

"He went outside to take a breather." Jessica
didn't miss the laughter in his voice.

"How long have you been standing out
here?"

"All night."

"And you heard..."

He smiled and nodded, "Everything."

Jessica rolled her eyes and tried to step
around Axel. He moved and blocked her exit. She planted her hands
on her hips. "Now what is it?"

"Nick is having," he paused, looking for the
right word, "issues-"

She snorted, "Issues? You people need
medication!"

Axel ignored her, "There's too many of us
here-"

"Feel free to leave."

"-and this is all new to him, it would be
best for everyone if you waited in your room for him."

"And it would be best for your ass to move
out of the way. What did you do with Dani and Riley?" She stood on
her tip-toes to peek over his shoulder.

"We killed them." Christian told her and with
lightning speed her hands flew to her back pockets. "Just kidding,
just kidding."

Jessica glared at Christian who now stood
next to Axel but didn't drop her hands.

"I wonder how funny you'd find a bloody
nose."

Axel lips quirked up in a smile and Christian
tried his hardest not to glare at them.

"So what did you do with them?" She asked
again

Axel looked away and Christian looked over
her shoulder as he answered her. "We, uh, gave them some sleeping
pills."

"You did what!!?" She took a threatening step
towards him but Axel stepped in front of her.

"The whole issues thing again." He repeated
and shrugged in apology.

A shriek came from a couple of doors down and
it had their heads turning. Jessica tried to rush past them but
Axel held her back while Christian rushed off to Dani's door with a
smile on his face and Jessica looked at his retreating back with
that look. The one she used a little too often around them.

The-his candy machine has no gum
balls-look.

Jessica shook her head and tried again to get
around Axel when he froze and looked towards the stairs. The next
thing she knew, she was being picked up and dropped in her room,
watching the door close behind him. Jessica glared at the piece of
wood and stomped towards it.

She wanted her answers and she was tired of
waiting. Expecting a fight, she pulled the door open with more
force than necessary and almost bumped into Nick.

"Going somewhere?"

“How do you guys do it?!" she asked with
aw.

"Do what?"

"Never mind, can you please just get in here?
Tell me what's going on then get the hell out of my house."

She moved aside to let him pass and after
shutting the door she went to sit on the edge of her bed. Two
seconds later she stood back up, she had way too much energy to
just sit. Nick smiled at her and she glared back. He was leaning
against her vanity while she paced a hole a on her floor and
silently cursed his cool demeanor.

She had no idea just how hard he had to work
for his control. His wolf was demanding his mate and Nick wasn't
sure how much longer he could stay in control. He tried to leave,
but it had felt as if he was being torn in two. He couldn't leave
her side until he had claimed her completely.

"Well?!!" she snapped, tired of the
silence.

Nick looked at her, and she felt as if he was
looking into her, making her want to squirm, before confessing, "I
don't really know where to start."

She rolled her eyes. "How about you start at
the beginning?"

He looked at her again, with that deep stare
and she pressed her shoulders back and stood up straight. It must
have been the right move because after another second, he nodded
his approval.

"I am a werewolf" He indicated to her then
pointed at her door and she figured he was pointing at Axel. "WE
are all werewolves."

Jessica said nothing, she just raised an
eyebrow.

"Aren't you going to say something?" Nick
asked after a couple of seconds, confused by her reaction. He'd
been expecting hysterics, disbelief or shock but not her
silence.

"I knew that about me for a while and I
figured it out about you psychos yesterday."

Nick stood frozen with shock, he looked at
her with way too many questions in his eyes and he didn't know
which ones to ask first but Jessica saved him from trying to figure
it out.

"I let you stay here; I WANTED you to stay
here last night because I wanted answers. Shane is strong, when he
was holding me, not even with all of my strength could I break his
hold." Filled with excitement she began to pace the room. "Axel
grabbed him and held him as if he was holding a doll. Then when
Christian was pushing me into the house I see your other guys
running up the drive."

Jessica stopped her pacing to look at him. "I
run fast. These guys were running faster. Also, we are running up
the stairs, Christian is carrying Riley and he didn't even get
winded. So I figured ... if you aren't the ninja turtles...you have
to be like me."

Nick was shocked, speechless, and Jessica
looked at him smugly. "My observation skills were honed at a young
age." She informed him and crossed her arms across her chest. "Now
I just want you to fill in the blanks. I want to know everything,
why was I stashed in the bathroom and what's up with the biting.
Because I'll tell you right now, I prefer my meet from a dead cow
and cooked"

Nick was still speechless; she'd blown his
little speech to the shits in one second.

"Well?" She demanded once again.

"You are good" He admitted grudgingly, "How
long have you known you are a wolf?"

"I’ve known for a couple of months."

"Do you know the wolves’ hierarchy?" Jessica
nodded, "Well, I am the Alpha of my pack and you-" He took a deep
breath "you are my mate."

Jessica lost it, "I am your what?!"

Her shout left his ears ringing and only one
thought circling through his mind. He'd marked her. He'd marked her
in his sleep. He had no idea how it happened and even though he
didn't show it, Nick was as shocked as her.

All he knew was that one minute he was
dreaming about her and the next one his balls were meeting his eye
balls. He cringed from the memory and his hands itched to hold
himself and make sure everything was back to normal down south.

Unfortunately his biggest problem was the 5'3
dynamite standing in front of him.

"I'm your what?" Jessica asked again when she
managed to calm herself down a bit.

"You are my mate." He repeated and watched
her switch one of her knives open and close.

Jessica briefly wondered if he healed as
quickly as her. Too bad now wasn't the time to find out. She needed
answers not bloodstains on her carpet.

"You’re lucky red doesn't look good with
pink." She told him deadpan serious and put her knives back in her
back pockets. "Being your mate, what does that mean? And how can we
make it go away?" She asked him all business like.

"It means marriage. Forever. No divorce. We
can't make it go away."

"What!?" Jessica wasn't the shrieking type
but do to the circumstances; she was giving herself a "shriek to
your heart’s content" day pass. One more surprise and she'd give
herself a "fainting spell" day pass too.

She'd been expecting something like this, her
more rational side reminded her-and it was true.

In the last couple of months she'd read as
many werewolf stories as she could. Thinking there had to be some
truth in those tales. The idea of mates wasn't a big surprise. It
was the being mated forever part that was freaking her out. The
whole soul-mate thing, that was one idea she'd shucked into the
myth pile from all the stories she'd read.

"Soul-mates don't exist." Nick told her.

His statement made Jessica realize that she'd
said the last part of her thought out loud.

"I thought you said this was forever."

"I did, wolf's mate for life. It has nothing
to do with soul-mates."

Not for the two of them at least. His people
did believe in soul-mates, but if everyone waited around for that
one special mate, their race would have gone extinct hundreds of
years ago. Most wolves’ based their mating on companionship and
keeping their line alive and not some fancy about true love.