Chapter 3 #4
Jack had researched Willow’s family, but there was nothing concrete about her Nohkom or father being blooded Enchanteresses. It was possible she was a first-generation enchantress, but he’d only know if he asked her directly, and he wasn’t interested in opening that conversation.
“Maybe it’s weak,” said Jack. “She’s only a quarter.”
“Pfft. Didn’t feel weak at all to me. Felt like if she wanted to cast or conjure, it’d be just as sealing as any other full-blooded Enchanteresse.
But I could be wrong. Humans aren’t my strongest point.
I guess you’d know better.” Julien shrugged.
“She’s cute too. I’d bed her, you know, if I wasn’t looking for Lela.
Then again, things go south with an Enchanteresse?
Bam! You’re suddenly a field mouse or a—”
“Don’t even think about it.”
“Huh?” Julien looked up, surprised, then smirked. “Why not? What do you care? She’s not your mate. She’s Métis. I could scratch her itch, and she could scratch mine.”
Jack leaned forward, sitting on the edge of the couch. “I’m asking you to leave her alone.”
Julien shook his head, annoyed. “Save your growls. I’m not getting tangled up with an Enchanteresse. I don’t have a death wish. Besides, I intend to bind myself to Lela as soon as she gets here.”
“You sure about that?”
“Yeah, I am. Been sure of it forever. Felt it before I bound to Natalia and just about the second that binding was broken. Lela can’t feel it because she’s been fixed on you, but yeah. She’s the one.”
“She’s a handful of trouble, Julien.”
“Oh, she’s two handfuls of trouble, Jacques. But I’ve got two hands. She’s mine.”
Jack heard the warning in his brother’s voice. He understood better than anyone that sometimes you were pulled to someone for reasons you couldn’t nail down. Your entire being cried out to them, and there was nothing you could do about it but answer the call.
“Speaking of my dear little sister, did you catch a scent yet? At all?”
“Nothing. She hasn’t been here.”
“Yet,” said Jack, sitting back. “What’s the plan?”
“I’ll patrol around your place and Darcy’s house every few hours until I pick up her scent. Once I find it, we wait here. She’ll come looking for Darcy.”
“And then?”
“You’ll have to restrain her so I can spark to her, Jacques.”
“Restrain her?” Jack scowled at his little brother. “Shifted? You’re going to try a Shifted Binding?”
Shifted Bindings were not impossible, but incredibly intense. Because every body part was on high alert, it could turn into a very passionate, very explosive, very immediate mating in full Roug form.
“If I have to. She’ll still probably try to knock my teeth out, so you better hold her tight. But as soon as we’re bound, she won’t hate Darcy anymore. She’ll barely remember why she came here in the first place.”
“Julien, I can’t overpower her unless I’m shifted.”
“That’s right.”
“But Darcy’s here.”
Julien nodded, then gave Jack a look and shrugged. “Might want to show her first.”
Jack took a deep breath. He hadn’t considered that in keeping Darcy safe, he might need to shift in her presence.
He’d decided long ago to never risk losing her by shifting in front of her.
Hell, she had freaked out just seeing his claws retract.
How would she react to seeing him in full shifted form?
Julien smiled. “The little Enchanteresse took it well.”
“Stop calling her that. Willow.”
“Oui, Jacques! Saule, la belle Enchanteresse.”
Saule meant willow tree in French, and Julien looked very pleased with himself. He grinned and continued, “Gave me ideas, seeing her eyes go all soft and shocked and wide, watching me shift. It was pretty hot, Jack.”
“You’re an idiot.”
“Says the one of us bound to the human who’s never even seen him in full-blooded form.” Julien rolled his eyes, standing up. He pulled his shirt over his head and shucked off his pants. “Enough about la belle Saule. Time to go sniff out my mate.”
“Not here!” exclaimed Jack. “What if Darcy’s looking out the window? Go shift in the woods. Where she can’t see!”
Julien shook his head. “I’m not ashamed of who I am, Jacques. You should try it.”
“In the woods!”
It was too late. Julien’s eyes burned gold, and Jack watched as his claws started protracting by his side, inch by inch.
Watching the prickly fur emerge from Julien’s skin made Jack itch.
Julien’s fangs dropped, and his feet splayed larger, thick calluses forming on the pads and sides.
His body grew in height and width, the muscles in his chest and thighs expanding to thrice their human size until he stood fully formed, a tall, broad, burning-eyed, fanged, clawed, fur-covered creature.
He turned to the window, throwing back his head and howling at the moon before speeding down the stairs, out of sight, lightning fast.
Jack heard one more howl about thirty seconds later, about half a mile away.
He bit his thumbnail, annoyed.
I’m not ashamed of who I am.
Yeah, you are.
I’m not.
But was he? Was he ashamed of being a Roux-ga-roux?
Would he give it up if he had the chance?
He had a quick, clean flashback to that night he first kissed Darcy.
He’d forgotten after all these years, but yes, he had wished he wasn’t Roug.
He had admitted how much he hated the killing side of who he was, how much he wished he could just be a full-blooded human so that he could be with Darcy. So that he could have her.
He hung his head between his legs in dismay.
Fate had only gotten part of the order right that night.
Sure, he could have her, but only as a full-blooded Roug.
And having her, of course, wasn’t exactly working out since she despised him and wished he’d never come near her in the first place.
And just when things didn’t look bleak enough, Jack’s hopeless thoughts were compounded by another.
Julien was right.
With Lela coming and a possible confrontation, it was likely that Darcy would see him in his shifted form in order for him to protect her. He thought of the way she seemed to soften toward him as he acted more human tonight.
All of that hard work for nothing.