Chapter 22 Jack
Chapter twenty-two
Jack
A crow cawed, and I jerked up in bed. Blinking into the dim room, I surveyed the room. A glance down at myself had me jerking the blankets over my bare chest. The bed shifted beside me, then Tate’s lips pressed to my shoulder.
“Good morning,” he croaked, humming as his hands slid around my waist.
I shifted and winced, aching between my thighs. Then last night came pouring back into my head, making me flush. “I feel asleep.”
Tate chuckled. “Passed out, more like.”
“I’m so embarrassed,” I groaned and buried my face in his chest.
His hand smoothed up and down my bare back. “It’s alright. I’d like to say it was because of me, but you’re just not used to it yet.” He kissed my forehead and brushed my hair off my face. “But that’s alright,” he kissed my nose, “we’ve got plenty of time to practice.”
I moaned as his hand cupped my breast, pulling and twisting at my nipple, his hard length pressed against my side. Something cold and metal brushed my leg, and I jerked back.
“What’s that?”
Tate smirked. “Oh, yeah, you passed out before we got there.”
Lifting the cover, my eyes dropped to his cock, long and hard and decorated with six silver barbells up the bottom of the length of it. “Why would you —? What is…?”
His hand wrapped around his cock, stroking it once, twice. “Why do you think?”
Curiosity and a new surge of desire filtered through me. Suddenly, I didn’t care that I was sore, I wanted to know what that felt like from the inside.
Tate’s nostrils flared and, just when I thought we’d make it to the next step in our relationship, my phone went off. This ringtone was specifically for my dad, Antoine.
Every part of me screamed to ignore it, but you didn’t ignore Antoine. Ever.
I’d learned that the hard way when I ignored his call and then the next thing I knew I had a murder of crows following me down the street.
“Shit,” I deflated, rolling away from Tate to pick up the phone.
Tate pressed open-mouth kisses along my neck and shoulder. “Ignore it.”
“Can’t. My dad.” My eyes closed, leaning into his touch before hitting the answer button. “Yes, sir?”
“Sir?” Tate chuckled quietly in my ear. “Kinky.”
I rolled my eyes, pushing him off to stand.
“I’m going to pretend like I didn’t hear that,” Antoine’s stern cultured voice came over the line.
“It was just my friend.” I shot Tate a glare as I pulled on my pants. “What did you need?”
A few clacks of the keyboard told me Antoine was in his office. “I wanted to check in on your progress.”
I froze, eyes darting to Tate before grabbing my shirt off the floor. “Uh, school’s great, dad. Thanks for asking.” I waved a hand at Tate, indicating this would take a while.
Tate pouted, then pulled the blankets back to display him in all his glory.
I gaped at him, forgetting what I was doing for a second. Tate grinned and wagged his brows at me before hiding his monster of a cock under boxers.
“Jaquelynn!”
Ripping my eyes away from Tate’s tempting sight, I focused on my phone. “Yeah, I’m here. Sorry. I got distracted.”
“Uh-huh,” Antoine hummed.
“Hey Jacki-o!” Drake’s voice called out.
“Hey,” I muttered, turning my back on Tate. “I can’t really talk right now.”
Tate tapped me on the shoulder, fully dressed, pointing out the door. I smiled and nodded. Tate leaned down and smacked his lips against mine.
“Bye,” I mouthed.
“What was that?” Drake asked, alarm in his voice. “Did you just kiss someone?”
“What?” I scoffed, laughing. “No.”
“You’re lying,” Allister’s voice added to the conversation. “She always makes that little noise when she lies.”
Gritting my teeth, I growled into the phone. “Did you want something?”
“Yes,” Antoine answered, then spoke to the others. “If you wish to talk to our daughter, you can call yourself.”
There was some arguing in the background before a door slammed shut. Then beneath my palm, my phone buzzed, telling me several texts had come through, likely from my other dads.
“Now, that is taken care of.” Antoine sighed. “You were telling me about your progress?”
Sitting on the bed, I worked on putting my shoes on. “Are you calling as my dad or as the council?”
There was a pause.
“Both.”
I hesitated, shoestrings in hand then dropped them. “We haven’t found anything concrete. There’re whispers. My roommate told me about some vamps complaining, but I haven’t gotten my hands on any of them yet.” I winced as I realized how completely useless I’d been in this whole mission.
“And school?”
“It’s fine. It’s… school,” I finished, lacing my shoe. “Not sure when I’ll need Econ 101, though.”
Antoine chuckled. “It never hurts to have knowledge of the market; it might help later one when building your fortune.”
“Sure,” I snorted.
There was another long pause.
“Your mother is worried.”
“When is she not?” I sighed, holding one arm under the other. “Tell her to chill. Until I can wrap this up, I can’t really come home for a visit. I never know who’s watching.”
“Precisely,” Antoine answered, then there was more clacking on his keyboard. “Please just give her a call. Darren says hello, and he hopes you’re keeping your room clean.”
I rolled my eyes, smiling. “God, he would blow a gasket if he saw my roommate’s side.”
There was a distressed sound somewhere on Antoine’s side, followed by him blowing out a long breath. “Please don’t say things like that. You know how he gets.”
“My bad.” I chuckled. “Anyway, I’ve got this thing so unless there’s anything else…?”
“No, I won’t take up anymore of your time.” Then he hung up, which was Antoine code for I love you.
Glancing at my phone, I already had twenty unread messages. Fucking hell. People complain about mothers being overprotective. Well, those people never had seven dads. They were worse than a mother hen, especially when it came to their only daughter dating.
Antoine’s call did make me feel guilty about not giving my classes my full attention. I grabbed my bag and my homework before heading to the cafeteria for some much-needed caffeine.
My phone buzzed again. I glanced at it and smiled, this time from Tate.
Tate: I can still taste you. ??
My face heated, even though no one else could see the text. I quickly typed out a text back, shooting it off as I stepped outside the dorm.
A crow cawed.
My head ripped up from my phone, searching the sky. My eyes narrowed on the black splotch of feathers sitting on the nearby fence. Fucking Antoine.
“Hey!” Tate jogged toward me two to-go cups in his hands. “Have a nice chat with your dad?” He handed me the cup, and I took a sip and sighed.
“If you keep giving me coffee and orgasms, I might just have to marry you.”
Tate grinned at me.
My head ducked down. “That’s not — I was kidding…”
“I know.” Tate wrapped an arm around my shoulder, kissing the side of my head. “I just like to see you flustered. You going to the library?”
I sent a sideways glance at the crow before answering. “Yeah, figured I wasn’t going to get anything done in our room.”
Tate chuckled. “Now you understand why I kept our kissing out of the bedroom.”
“Right. So, if you come to the library, are you going to study or distract me?” I eyed him with a wary look.
Tate hummed, thinking about it. “Well, I do have a paper to write on the best ways to prepare a new wolf for their first transformation.”
“Oh!” My eyes widened. “It’s a full moon tonight. Don’t you need to…” I waved a hand toward the woods. “Run with the pack?”
He lifted his cup to his lips and took a long drink. That’s when I realized the stupidity of my words.
“Right, the werewolves here hate you.” I leaned into him, trying to comfort him with my presence. “Does being bonded to a vampire change your need to change on a full moon?”
We brushed past several students who had the same idea as us, heading to the library for Sunday afternoon studying.
Shrugging his shoulders, Tate over-handed his empty to-go cup into the nearby trash can. “I have the urge, same as usual, but I don’t have to if I don’t want to.”
“But if you do, where do you go?”
“Kyren has a house in town. I just run around the yard there or the woods out in the back that he owns. No other wolves would dare cross over into his territory.”
Tate held the door open for me as we slipped inside the quiet of the library. We walked about three steps in before Xinyi jumped up from her seat, waving her arms at us. Iris pulled her back down with a shake of her head.
I gestured that we were going to sit somewhere else before leading Tate to our usual table.
We settled into our seats, me pulling out my textbook and Tate his computer. I stared at the words on the page, reading about how supply drives demand and that drove the price of it up or something like that. After a while, I leaned my head on my hand, and the words started to blur.
A loud noise jolted me in my seat. My head jerked up from my book, rubbing a hand over my mouth where I’d drooled a bit. I grimaced looking to see if Tate had noticed, except his spot was empty.
His computer was still there, but he wasn’t.
I glanced around the room, searching for his large frame. When I didn’t see it, I stood from the table, wandering into the shelves. Maybe he needed a book?
Trailing down the aisle, I listened for the sound of my… boyfriend? I supposed I could call him that. He had said I was his. So that meant he was… mine?
“Shhh, this is a library. We shouldn’t even be talking about this out here in the open.”
I froze against the bookshelf.
“Well, where else are we going to talk about it?” another voice growled back. “Everyone has freaking super hearing. Want to find a remote mountain and talk about it there?”
“Fine. When’s the meeting?”
I forced myself to hold my breath, despite my pulse wanting to jump at their words.
A third voice chimed in. “Third floor, the empty chemistry class. Wednesday. Four a.m..”
“Is this one open to new supporters?” the second voice said.
The first voice scoffed. “We’ve already tried to get others to come. If they’re going to join our cause against the council, they’d have shown interest already. It’s just us.”
My eyes widened. I quickly backed up before they caught me listening. I bumped into something hard, my nose filling with the familiar scent of lemons and pine. I tipped my head back, meeting Tate’s grinning face.
“Have a nice nap?”
I spun around and smacked his chest. “How could you let me fall asleep like that?”
Tate chuckled and grabbed my waist. “You were just so adorable. I couldn’t wake you. Besides,” his voice lowered with his head, his lips brushing mine, “you needed the sleep for tonight.”
I snorted, pushing him a step back. “You think so?”
“Oh, I know so.” He pinched my chin and nipped at my lips. “I’m going to have you so worn out, you can’t walk straight for a week.”
A hot surge of lust shot through me, then my phone buzzed again. That reminded me of my dads’ messages, which I still hadn’t responded to.
“How about dinner tonight?” I pushed a finger into his chest, giving myself some breathing room. “Until then, we should study separate.”
“Too distracting?” Tate arched a brow, his lips jerking up on one side.
I breathed him in. “Definitely.”
Tate backed up, holding his hands up. “Alright, alright. I understand. I’ll go hang out in Kyren’s room. You can have the library.”
At the mention of Kyren, a weird flutter started in my low region. Last night, I hadn’t imagined that Kyren was there in the woods with us. He hadn’t touched me himself, but I swore his shadows were helping Tate. Then his eyes… watching me, almost encouraging me to come apart.
“Fuck, Jack,” Tate growled, his eyes flashing yellow. “Keep smelling like that, and I don’t think I can wait until tonight.”
“Go for a run.” I laughed and shoved at his shoulder. “Blow off some steam before you wolf out in the middle of the library.”
With a final, lingering lust-filled look, Tate stalked out of the aisle, leaving me leaning against the bookshelf my heart and libido in deep confusion.
I couldn’t help but wonder if this was how my mom felt when my dads had started showing interest in her. I supposed I could ask her…
Nope. It’d be a cold day in hell.