Timber Wolf (Virtue Shifters Book 1) Read online

  Mabs thought about Jake, and his very large sharp teeth, and decided it would be wrong, wrong, wrong to call him out here and have him show Brent his teeth. Tempting, but wrong. She bet he'd love to do it, though, and a little grin started pulling at her mouth.

  Brent saw it and flushed with anger. "What, you think I'm not taking my son's safety seriously?"

  "I think you've never visited, paid child support, or shown any interest in him, so, yeah, I kinda think you're not taking it very seriously. Brent, just...go home."

  "I'll sue for custody, Mabs." Brent's voice dropped dangerously, but the threat was so ridiculous that she just frowned in disbelief.

  At some point in the past, Mabs knew she would have felt threatened by the idea, but...things were different now. She had a safe home, one that she wouldn't lose to a landlord. She had a community of friends, a reliable paycheck, and classes toward the job she'd always wanted.

  She had Jake Rowly.

  She had Jake, and the fact that he was inside, protecting her son, letting her fight her own battles, trusting her.... She hadn't realized how badly she needed to trust herself, how badly, maybe, she needed someone else to trust her, to help her regain her belief in herself. She'd been confident, when she was younger. At some point—while she was with Brent—that had disappeared.

  Mabs did not, for a minute, believe that Jake Rowly had made her confident again. He'd just looked at her, and treated her, like she was amazing, all the time, until she'd started believing it again herself.

  Somehow, somehow, a little smile appeared on her face. "Okay, Brent. You go ahead and try that. Just...yeah. You go do that. Sue for custody. That'll be fun."

  His face darkened. "Don't think I won't!"

  "I think you will." Mabs took a deep, soothing breath, and exhaled it as a cloud of steam. "I'm just not too worried about it."

  He pointed a finger at her, almost shaking with rage. "You're gonna regret this, Mabs."

  "I guess we'll see." Mabs lifted her chin, pointing toward his car with it. "You can see yourself off my property now. I'd hate to bother the sheriff on the holiday weekend."

  "You wouldn't."

  Mabs, with a sigh, pulled her phone out of her hip pocket, and Brent, swearing, bolted for his car. "This place is a fire hazard, Mabs! I'm gonna get custody and then you'll be sorry!"

  "You should grow a mustache so you can twirl it!" Mabs held her ground until he'd driven away, then staggered back to the porch to collapse into its swing for a minute.

  Or three. Or five. She was just gathering herself to get up when Jake opened the door and peeked out, his expression cautiously concerned. "You okay?"

  "I am. I...yeah. I think I am."

  Jake slipped out, closing the door behind him, and offered a guilty look. "I gave Noah my phone."

  Mabs laughed, a little ratta-tat-tat sound that turned into a bigger laugh. "Surefire way to distract him. Straight out of Parenting 101. Thank you." She sat up and reached for Jake's hand as he approached. "I couldn't wrangle Noah and deal with Brent at the same time."

  "Any time." He ran his thumb over her knuckles and sat beside her on the swing, searching her gaze. "You're sure you're all right? He was being a dick."

  "I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure." His hand was so warm around Mabs's that she looked down to see if somehow they'd caught fire. They hadn't, of course, but she liked the look of her hand in his. "Look, I, um, since Noah's distracted anyway I should probably say something about, um, what I said in there. Before I came outside."

  "You don't have to." He spoke quietly, expression kind. "People do say that kind of thing when they're relieved at getting unexpected help."

  "I guess so, but I meant it." Mabs bit her lower lip and nerved herself up to meet Jake's blue eyes. "And I know you're not looking for a relationship, that you came back to Virtue because there weren't any possibilities here, so I just—I want you to know if you think you might ever be interested...I could wait a while. I'd like to wa—"

  Jake's free hand came up to cup her cheek and he kissed her. Just enough to stop her words, at first, and then he loosened his other hand to cup the other side of her face, his warm touch melting her as his lips brushed hers again, then again, deepening. She was breathless when he backed away just enough to rest his forehead against hers and whispered, "I don't want to wait. I love you too."

  "Oh—oh! Really?" Mabs bit her lip, a smile so big it brought on tears threatening to overwhelm her. "Really?"

  "Since the minute I saw you," Jake admitted quietly. "I've been denying it to myself because you—well, you have a lot going on, and some random guy showing up and being moon-eyed didn't seem...good."

  Mabs thought her heart would actually soar from her chest with joy. "Technically you're right but oh my God, Jake, you walked into my life like a...not like a hurricane."

  "You already have one of those."

  She laughed, tears spilling over. "Yeah. Yeah, I do. Honestly, though, you were just the most gorgeous guy, and you...wanted to help, and...you mean I've been nursing a crush all these months when we could've been sleeping together instead?" She sat up, still smiling like an idiot, and knocked her shoulder against his. "What a waste of time!"

  "Nah." He chased her with a kiss, his mouth hungry on hers as his hands found her waist. He lifted her into his lap with ease, nuzzled her throat, and murmured, "I think this is perfect timing. There's something I should tell you, though."

  "It can't possibly beat 'I'm a wolf.'" Mabs tipped her chin so she could kiss his hair as she slid her fingers through it, and smiled when he met her eyes.

  "No, but it's related to it."

  "We'll have a litter if we decide to have kids someday? No, you're an only child, that's probably not it." She laughed at Jake's eyes widened, and kissed him, softly at first, then with increasing intensity that made it clear the only thing keeping her from getting laid on the porch swing was the distinct possibility of Noah losing interest in the phone and coming to see what the grown-ups were doing. "Sorry," she mumbled eventually, not at all apologetically. "What did you want to say?"

  Jake took a moment to shake off what looked like a glaze of pleasure, obviously trying to remember what he'd meant to ask. "Oh. Do you believe in fate?"

  "Oh." Happy as she was where she was, Mabs tilted her chin back to look up at the house, then around at the front yard. "Oh, I don't know, a year ago I'd have said absolutely not. But this place...I don't know. Maybe it's changed me. It feels like home. It feels like it was meant to be. You feel like you were meant to be."

  He closed his eyes, sighing like she'd somehow given him a gift, and nodded. "I think we were. My wolf thinks so too. You're...my fate, Mabs."

  "That sounds amazing." Whispered words, as she ducked her head to hide her face against his neck before a little wave of uncertainty hit her. "Really? Kid and all?"

  "Kid and all." Jake gathered her in his arms, hugging her so gently, so tightly. "I'm all in for the package deal, Mabs."

  She sat up, not even embarrassed to push tears off her cheeks, and first smiled, then grinned, then laughed, the last sound verging on frustration. "This would be an excellent time to go to bed together."

  Jake gave a wonderful, funny grimace and buried his face in her neck in turn. "It really would be," he mumbled. "I don't suppose we can convince Noah to go to bed early."

  "It's four in the afternoon."

  Jake laughed. "Yeah, okay, I didn't think so. What if I made a really big dinner and filled him up so much he fell asleep?"

  "You're welcome to try." Mabs suddenly squirmed, a wiggle of smug delight that ground her groin into Jake's and completely, completely distracted her from what she'd been going to say. He was so solid, in every imaginable way, and his hands clenched on her waist with sudden urgency.

  A couple of gasping minutes later, Jake wheezed, "Damn, woman, I'm not gonna be able to walk to the kitchen if you do that again."

  "Maybe I should..." Mabs fumbled her phone out of her hip pocket and fo
und the name she wanted to call, then locked her gaze on Jake's as she spoke into the phone. "Sarah? Hey, um, yeah, hi, this is Ma...yeah, I know you know that. I was, uh, I was wondering if you could, like, emergency babysit Noah tonight?"

  "Oh my God." Sarah's concern filled the line. "Of course I can. Is everything okay? Are you all right?"

  "Oh, I'm good." Mabs thought her voice sounded hoarse, but she couldn't drag it back to normal.

  All the worry drained out of Sarah's voice into delighted suspicion. "How good are you?"

  Mabs swallowed, still looking into Jake's eyes. "So good."

  Sarah actually cackled and Mabs thought she could hear her kicking her feet. "Yes! Yes! Yes! You're finally hooking up with Jake, aren't you? Whatever you're doing, keep doing it, I'll be there in twenty minutes and be out of there like a flash."

  She hung up. Mabs put the phone away, biting her lower lip with nervous hope, and said, "Think we can entertain ourselves for twenty minutes?"

  Jake's voice dropped into a rumble. "I'm sure of it."

  * * *

  Sarah, true to her word, got there in just over twenty minutes, and somehow got Noah and his stuff out of the house in less than five, almost without making it necessary for Mabs to get out of Jake's lap. Left to her own devices, in fact, Sarah probably would have made sure Mabs didn't get out of Jake's lap, but as hot and sexy as Jake was, as horny as Mabs was, she also wasn't actually going to let her kid go spend the night somewhere else without saying goodbye.

  Noah, by all appearances, didn't particularly care, planning, as he was, for pizza and "cheesy garlic bread without the cheese, Auntie Sarah." He hugged Mabs and promised to be good, then ran off to Sarah's truck with a teddy bear under his arm as Mabs stood on the porch and waved.

  "Oh, God, he hasn't spent the night somewhere else before, I'm gonna get all sentimental and cry," she croaked as they drove away.

  Jake stepped up behind her, sliding his arms around her and lowering his mouth to her shoulder to ask, "Should I distract you?"

  Through a sniffle, she said, "I dunno if I can be-e-e- oh, oh, uh, uhm, yeah, okay," as he slipped a big hand down her tummy to curl it against her crotch. Breathless, she said, "Yeah, okay, go for it," and she felt his grin against her shoulder as, permission granted, he unbuttoned her jeans right there on the porch and slipped his hand back down, inside her underwear.

  Mabs's knees buckled and he caught her with no effort at all, his fingers swirling in mind-numblingly pleasurable circles. Mabs said, "Oh my God," in a feeble voice, and reached up to clutch at the back of his neck, just trying to stay more or less upright. His breath came in short hot bursts against her throat, nonsense words of delight murmured there as she became increasingly incoherent.

  Finally—although it really wasn't that long at all—she whimpered and tugged at his hand, trying half-heartedly to stop him. "Don't—? I'm gonna—I want to with you...."

  "Yeah?"

  At her nod, Jake slid his hand out of her pants, making her groan with dismay even if she'd asked for just that, turned her, and picked her up wholesale to walk into the house with her legs wrapped around his hips. Mabs said, "Oh my God," again, this time with gasping anticipation. "You're so big."

  He walked her into the inside wall, pinning her, mumbled, "That's what she said," against her mouth, and laughed when she bit his lip, not very hard. "I deserved that."

  "You did." She swallowed. "But she wasn't wrong, though. Put me down, put me..." His eyebrows went up in surprise, but he did as she asked, and, released from the complication of trying to get clothes off while wrapped around somebody, she shoved her jeans down, then kicked them off while pulling at his belt.

  Jake drew a shuddering breath, catching her hands and stilling them for a moment. "Mabs, are you sure? This went from kind of zero to sixty pretty fast."

  She blinked up at him, then smiled and drew him down for a kiss, finally mumbling, "I'm so sure. Thank you for asking. Are you—are you sure?"

  "So sure," he echoed, then fumbled for his back pocket as Mabs decisively finished undoing his belt and fly. "Hang on, hang on, I gotta get a..."

  "Oh, oh yeah, good idea." Mabs tried to kiss him again, totally hindering his efforts to get a condom out of his wallet, then giggled against his mouth. "Wait, I just have to check, you haven't been carrying that around since high school, right?"

  Jake inched back enough to put on a wonderful expression of mock offense. "I have not." After exactly long enough to be funny, he added, "College, now..." and she burst out laughing while he paused to put the dang thing on. Half a second later he picked her up again, pinning her against the wall, and whispered, "Mabs," as he claimed her with a single glorious motion.

  She cried out in pleasure, curling her arms around him as he slid his hands under her ass, holding her firmly in place. He felt perfect inside her, and within a few thrusts she was back where she'd been on the porch, on the very edge, and gasped, "Jake, I'm gonna—"

  He whispered, "Yeah," against her mouth, and a few seconds later waves of orgasm rolled through her, body-wracking shudders that left her sobbing with release and joy. Jake rumbled a sound of pleasure, just pressing into her until the deepest trembles began to ease. Then with slow, generous patience, brought her up again until suddenly he said, "Mabs," and buried himself in her even more deeply, triggering her own release again as his rocked through him. She gasped again, and laughed, and clung to him, and a very, very long time later, she finally mumbled a sated, "Some of us can't sleep comfortably on the floor, wolf-man," and led him up to bed.

  TWENTY-ONE

  Jake woke to the scent of Mabs's lilac hair and a greater sense of contentment than he could ever remember. His wolf, unbearably smug, gave him a toothy grin, and he chuckled, drawing Mabs closer. She made a happy little sound and snuggled against him, then chuckled sleepily and slid her hand back, over his hip. "Somebody's awake."

  "I already have a wolf living in my head," Jake murmured against her shoulder. "I don't need a personified penis, too. We can go with some thing, there."

  Mabs laughed and rolled over to face him, hooking her leg over his hip instead. "Now that you've actually said that out loud, it seems like a much better choice. Hi."

  "Hi." He slid his hand to the small of her back, pulling her closer yet, and bumped his nose against hers, dropping his voice. Not that they'd been talking loudly to begin with, but still. "How are you?"

  She gave him a lazy smile. "Oh, I'm good."

  Jake couldn't help smiling in return. "You are. Very good. But I mean...how are you?"

  "Oh." Her smile, which was pretty soft to begin with, softened further, and she rolled back a bit, chin tipped up as she consulted the backs of her eyelids. Her throat, all long and lovely and stretched, wanted kisses, but Jake held off a moment, needing her answer first.

  After a moment she tipped her head back down, meeting his eyes. "I'm good," she said again, this time more seriously, although the smile hadn't left her face. "I know it's maybe awkward to say so, maybe, but I do kind of want to jump up and text Sarah and see if she and Noah both survived the night. But I'm good. I'm really good. I'm happy." Her eyebrows rose. "I bet I'm also gonna be too sore to walk. It's been a long time."

  Jake laughed and pulled her into a hug. "I'll carry you around all day if I have to."

  "Oh, God, wouldn't Sarah just love that. No, I'll manage." Mabs buried her nose against his neck, sighing happily before she mumbled, "Thanks for asking. How, um, how are you?"

  He grinned against her hair. "Really good. Probably not gonna be sore."

  "How totally unfair. I guess that's what I get for slinging diner hash while you're lifting roof timbers. I need more ab workouts."

  "I'm happy to provide them." Jake smiled again as she laughed, then nudged her a little. "Go text Sarah. I'll still be here. Or maybe in the kitchen cooking you some breakfast."

  Mabs, sitting up, paused to stare at him in mild dismay. "Now how am I supposed to choose between those two op
tions? Oh, God, my tummy." She put a hand over her stomach and laughed. "Sore. Sore sore sore. Ow. Okay. Going to find my phone now. Ow ow ow." She crawled out of bed, pulling on a light silky robe that was almost as tantalizing as naked skin, and slid slippers on before she left the room.

  Jake, having watched her every step of the way, admiring the view the whole time, fell back onto the bed and grinned like a fool at the ceiling.

  Toldja, said his wolf, smugly.

  "Yeah," Jake said aloud, if softly. "Yeah, you did. Thanks." Then, still smiling, he got up and went to make Mabs some breakfast.

  * * *

  According to Mabs, neither Sarah nor Noah was dead, and she wasn't going to bring him home for several hours yet, for which Jake was eternally grateful. In the meantime, he and Mabs had breakfast, and then some more of what she euphemistically referred to as 'alone time,' and a shower which turned in to some more of that amazing 'alone time,' and they were both actually dressed and working on the house by the time Sarah showed up with Noah, sometime after noon.

  It was snowing again by then, less hard than a few days before, but enough to suggest that winter had really truly arrived, weeks early. Noah was full of stories about spending the night at Sarah's, most of which Sarah corroborated. The little boy was clingier than usual, too, so Jake stepped back a bit, and, with Sarah's assistance, focused on getting plywood on the roof and letting Mabs and her son have their time.

  When Noah had had enough Mommy Time and taken Wolf out to play in the snow, Jake came down from the roof to find Mabs in the kitchen. "We're off the roof and Sarah's having a snowball fight with Noah in the back yard. I'm sorry I can't do better by the roof right now. I'll get it sealed up enough to be warm, but I think we'd better take everything out of the attic, at least. And maybe out of the parlor-side bedrooms."

  To his surprise, Mabs got up from peeling carrots and curled herself into his arms for a hard hug. "Thank you."

  "You're welcome. Um, for what?"