The Heir (19 page)

"And why do you smell like her sheets?"

"Because I slept in them." He answered her
silkily and experienced immense joy when her nostrils flared in
anger.

"Who is she!?" Kate demanded her hands still
on her hips. "Does she know that you are taken?"

Nick crossed his arms and looked down his
nose at her. "Yeah, she does know actually."

"And she still slept with you?" Kate curled
her lips in disgust and continued contemptuously. "What a
slut."

"Don't, don't call her that." He bit out
through clenched teeth.

"Really Nicky." Kate realized she'd
overstepped her bounds and tried tact. "What am I supposed to call
her, your mistress?"

Call her my mate, he thought but knew that
now wasn't the time to drop his bomb. For the first time since he
woke up in Jessica's bed he found a reason to be thankful that
their mating was yet to be completed. He could hide the new mark
that had appeared on his shoulder the moment he marked Jessica but
he couldn't hide his scent. When wolves completed a mating, their
scents morphed; two halves became one.

"I'll just let you know right now" She
continued over his thoughts. "That I will not tolerate infidelity
when we are mated."

Nick looked at her, jaw hanging open and not
bothering to hide the horror in his eyes that he felt from the
thought of being her mate. He opened his mouth then snapped it shut
again. He was tired of telling her that even if they were the last
wolves on earth...he would pick extinction over her.

Instead, with fingers on his chin, adopting a
thoughtful look, he asked her. "What are your favorite
flowers?"

At first she looked startled by the question;
she'd been expecting his usual rejection, but then smiled coyly and
answered him. "Orchids, white." She clarified and looked at him
dubiously, "why?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "No reason,"

Kate smiled excitedly and clapped her hands
once. "Tell me!"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes!"

Nick curled his finger, asking her to come
closer, she did so eagerly. Head bent close together he whispered.
"I want to send..." He paused for effect and she held her breath.
"HER some flowers."

"What?"

"Yeah, I'm taking her out on a date and
wanted to surprise her with some flowers but didn't know what kind
to get her." He slapped her back as if she was his best friend.
"Thanks for the help, I'm sure she'll love some white orchids."

Kate glared at him. "You wouldn't!"

Nick just smiled and nodded. Slowly a new
scent began to envelope him, letting him know he'd achieved his
goal. He loved the smell of burnt peppers, make up and perfume
before lunch, he thought sarcastically.

A combination of scents that was sure to keep
his stomach turning for hours and hours. He looked around the
living room, the house needed a new air system, but he would wait
until Jessica moved in. His home was a bachelor pad and he was sure
there were a lot of things she would want changed.

He smiled wryly to himself; before, the
thought of a female disrupting his cave would have caused him to
break out in a cold sweat but not anymore. Now he was looking
forward to it.

"You called for me?" Matt asked from the
doorway, snapping him from his introspection.

Nick barely managed a nod when Sarah rushed
in face flushed and snapped. "Let’s go Kate."

Nick raised an inquiring eyebrow in Matt’s
direction and was ignored; his best friend just kept looking at his
sister. A stranger would have said he was mad, but Nick wasn't a
stranger. Sarah gave him a good bye hug without making eye contact
and as she walked past Matt, she took great care to avoid
contact.

Kate followed his sister out and the door was
banged close. The silence was deafening.

"I don't want to talk about it." Matt told
him in a low tone.

Nick thought about that for a second and
nodded. "Fine." He made his way past him and headed towards his
office, "tell me about all my new wolves."

Matt was thankful for the reprieve and
immersed himself in detailing all of the new arrivals. Nick was
attentive and made all the right questions; that's why he was such
a great Alpha, because he cared about his pack and tried his best
to get to know them. To that end, Nick called a run for later that
night, so he could meet all the new wolves and officially accept
them as members if they swore their fealty.

Throughout the last couple of months they'd
kept in regular contact and Nick was well informed on all other
pack issues. The only reason he didn't know about the new wolves
was because they feared discovery and such information had to be
passed on personally.

No one could know that Cade's pack members
were slowly coming out of hiding. If they did they would wonder why
they chose this particular pack and soon they would come sniffing
around.

"What are you thinking?" asked Nick as they
both took a seat.

"That I'm glad your back." He smiled
ruefully. "Your absence helped to remind me why I don't ever want
to be an Alpha."

Nick rocked back on his chair and laughed.
"Not easy?"

He shook his head. "Not easy at all. He could
have killed her," Matt added, self-disgust dripping from every
word. "Shane could have killed her whenever he wanted and I allowed
him near her." He raised tortured eyes to him. "I never again want
that kind of responsibility. I don't know how you deal with
it."

"Cold hearted remember?"

Matt didn't know how to respond to that. As
his best friend he'd always known that Nick wasn't that. He'd
always known that Nick just exercised a tight control to his
emotions. He'd always thought that he understood what it meant to
be an Alpha but only when he experienced it firsthand did he really
understand. As the leader, every decision, good or bad, rested on
his shoulders and he had to live with the consequences for the rest
of his life.

"Did you find out anything about him?" Nick
asked

Matt shook his head. "We think he was a rogue
that probably slipped past us."

"Never again" Nick vowed and Matt could say
nothing, knowing that it shouldn't have happened in the first
place. "So what happened with you and my sister?" Nick asked,
trying to distract him, seeing how much he was beating himself up
over Shane.

"Nothing." Matt answered him in a clipped
tone. He didn't want to talk about it. He didn't want to talk about
the way his heart broke every time he saw her and could do nothing
to convince her that they belonged together.

"I don’t know why you don't just claim
her."

"Because she doesn't want me to."

"So?" Nick asked with the arrogance of an
Alpha who went after-and always got-what he wanted.

"If Jessica was your true mate you would know
what I mean. All I want is for Sarah to be happy and if it’s not
with me ...then so be it."

"If you two are an example of what I can
expect from soul mates; no thank you!"

"You have no idea what you're missing." Matt
warned.

"Then tell me, what am I missing?" Nick sat
up in his chair.

"Love like no other." Matt simply proclaimed.
"And even though we aren't together I am thankful to have found my
true mate."

"True mate!" Nick scoffed "How do you know
that? How do you know that it's not just some sick obsession?"

"Didn't anyone ever talk to you about it?
Explain to you the signs, what to expect?"

"No, why would they fill my head with
fantasies?" He asked. "Father always wanted me to marry Kate and
never allowed anyone to talk to me about true mates." Matt already
knew that, in the Pacific Pack, everyone had been threatened with
exile or worse, death, if they spoke about true mates. The idea
that soul mates existed threatened the pureblood. "So tell me, how
you know that Sarah isn't just some sick infatuation." Nick asked
him.

"I can't stand any other females touch." Matt
told him and scrubbed his face in agitation "I don’t know how to
explain it."

Nick told him to give it a try.

"Fine, when a girl wants you, you can smell
her desire right?" Nick nodded, "That scent, if directed towards
me, makes me sick to my stomach. If she touches me, my skin begins
to crawl. I can only stand Sarah’s touch, that's when I figured it
out. I told her but she denies it. "

Nick could hear the bitterness in his voice
and wished there was something he could do about it. Wished he knew
how to help his best friend. Unfortunately it was hard for him to
believe in true mates, his father grilled it into him that they
didn't exist from a young age.

"Other than that, your heart, it tells you
when she is the one. You know," Matt eyed him thoughtfully, "the
way you act with Jessica, one would think that she was your soul
mate."

Nick scoffed in rejection of his idea. The
only female that made his stomach hurt was Kate but that was
nothing new. Kate seemed to have that effect on everyone. "Sorry to
disenchant you, but she is not my soul mate." He waited a couple of
seconds before adding, "But she is my mate."

Matt shot up off his seat. "What?!"

Nick smiled triumphantly. "I'm a marked man."
he turned to the side and lifted his shirt.

There on his shoulder was a light blemish
that would darken upon the completion of his claiming. The Agape,
meaning true love, looked like a birthmark to the untrained eye and
was meant to be a reminder to every one of the true love that the
mates felt for each other.

"How did you get her to agree?" Matt asked in
awe and walked around the desk to take a closer look at the mark.
He couldn't help the twinge of envy that he felt upon seeing his
best friends mark; he would give anything to be able to claim
Sarah.

"I didn't," Nick admitted, they took their
seats again and he proceeded to explain everything that happened
from the moment he stepped into Jessica's bathroom to him
confronting Kate a couple of minutes earlier. They had a good
chuckle as he described the look on Kate’s face when he told her
that he was taking a girl out and sending her orchids. Nick would
never dream of sending Jessica the kind of flowers Kate liked, he
wasn’t so crass but it still made them laugh.

When he was finished, Matt got up and headed
towards the liquor cabinet that Nick kept in his office for such
special occasions. "This calls for a celebration." He told Nick and
began to pour two shots of whiskey from a decanter.

"Not just yet." He picked up his office phone
and hit the speed dial. "Where are you?" He asked when his call was
answered. "All right thanks." He hung up the phone and asked Matt.
"Do you have the address of the store where she works at?"

Matt dug out a business card from his wallet
and handed it to him. Nick dialed another number and waited
patiently for it to be picked up.

"Yes, do you deliver?"

Chapter 13

"Jessica, how do you do it?"

Jessica looked at Dasha innocently "Do
what?"

"How do you get all of these hot guys to
chase you around?!"

"Oh my god!" Laura exclaimed as she dashed in
from the street. "Did you see those bikes outside and the riders?
Two of them are outside! Oh damn I can see me riding him!" She
pointed at Axel and Jessica had to hold back a laugh.

Before any more words could be said the
doorbell chimed and all three girls stood in awe as Axel opened the
door for a guy caring an arrangement of flowers. Long stemmed red
roses and lilies. Axel led the way towards her while Christian
followed behind.

Now she understood why they'd decided to go
stand outside.

"Jessica?" The delivery guy asked and Jessica
nodded mutely. She'd never gotten flowers delivered to her before
and she was speechless.

Smiling, the guy handed her the flowers and
turned to receive a tip from Axel. Laura and Dasha shrieked but she
was deaf to the sound. She was too busy running her cheek over the
rose’s soft petals and inhaling their sweet fragrance.

"There should be a note in there somewhere."
Christian told her.

Jessica glared at them. "You guys knew about
this."

They shrugged and smiled and Laura
gasped.

"You know them?!" She shrieked.

Jessica ignored her. "So much for the
loyalty." She grumbled with mock annoyance as she walked to the
checkout counter. She placed the flowers on the counter and looked
for the card. She was about to open it when Laura came to stand
next to her.

"You need to introduce me to the serious
one!" She demanded in a whisper. "He's the one!"

Jessica looked over her shoulder at Axel.
Christian’s shoulders were shaking and Axel looked a bit
uncomfortable. Laura didn't know that even though she was
whispering, they could still hear her. "Axel?" She had to fight
down her laughter, "You think he is hot."

"Hot with capital letters! Introduce us
please!?"

Jessica looked over her shoulder again.

"Hey Axel," He raised an eyebrow and tried to
act unaffected like he didn't already know what was coming. "Meet
my friend Laura."

Christian couldn't hold back anymore, he
doubled over with laughter. Jessica chuckled, but Axel being the
gentleman that he was walked up to Laura and offered her his hand.
"It's nice to meet you Laura."

Laura cheeks flushed, looked at Axel under
her lashes and shook his hand.

"What does the note say?" Dasha asked.

They were all standing around her waiting for
her to read the note. Taking her time she flipped open the card and
read the four words.

Have Dinner with me?

"So?!" The girls asked impatiently.

Jessica looked at them, "He asked me out to
dinner."

"He? who is he?"

"Nick."

"Oh hell yes!"

"What are you going to say?"