Chapter Five Jasper
Loretta nurses Ari while lying on her side on the bed, humming. Her short mini-dress made out of my shirt reveals the bottom of a cute, shapely rear and long legs, now bare, covered in bruises.
My wolf rages, and yet it settles and turns into something calm, a silent sentinel watching his pack, a peace in my heart I’ve never known.
Loretta and Ari are incredibly vulnerable, and I should give them privacy.
I tried, but Loretta’s hand shot out, and desperate, slender fingers with pronounced knuckles latched around my wrist like a cuff, and I knew I would give her every control over me, eternally.
A cuff, a collar, a leash... That thing about alpha wolves being all macho isn’t true.
Alpha means you protect your pack, and your mate—oh, your mate owns you, and it’s the best sensation ever.
Loretta grabbed me and branded me as her own, and she doesn’t even know it.
So I stand, cleaning up our large, mostly demolished meal, listening to Arianna slurping and gurgling milk, feeling so proud to protect the tiny little pup.
Human. But she’s a pup to me.
I turn to pick up a fallen napkin, and I realize that to nurse, Loretta has to pull up one side of my shirt.
She started with the side on the bed, and the rumpled comforter hid her skin.
Now, she slowly shifts and slides up the other side, the side that will be up, exposed.
She pulls the blanket over her, and I hide a relieved sigh.
I hurry out of the room, calling, “I’ll only be in the kitchen. ”
“I h-hate to ask it, but do you have a shirt that’s old with buttons? I mean, I guess I don’t need it. I just—”
“We’ll order some clothes tonight. They’ll be here in the morning. Whatever you need.”
“I— When I get a job, it’s going to have to pay for rent, and lawyers, and—”
“Please don’t worry about money or paying me back.
Not for a long, long time. What are a few outfits?
A couple hundred bucks? I’m a guy. I wear suits, the same suits, over and over.
I have some money to take care of my—my friends in need.
” My pack. My mate. My pups. All the things I’ve been dreaming of and don’t have.
“My mother can bring me some clothes.”
I keep talking through the door. “That’s good. But in the meantime—I mean, I can run to the mall in the morning.”
Loretta is silent, and then her muffled voice comes from under the covers and through the door. “I don’t know what to do. Matt took care of so many things. I took care of the house. The baby. But it was his money. His budget. I’m no good on my own.”
“You would be. And you’re not alone. You have Ari. You have me. You have your parents.”
“What if he gets custody of Ari? Because I—I don’t have a job. No health insurance. No home...”
Her soft sobs break my heart. Shatter it like a sledgehammer hitting porcelain.
“Well...” I look at the dishes, empty and stained, that I’m carrying.
“First of all—I know it’s hard to think of this, especially because you seem like a sweet and loving person.
A loyal person.” My wolf can tell. It knows how hard she tried to make things work, and she was probably in a fog of fear, exhaustion, and first-time motherhood. Maybe she didn’t even recognize it.
“Hm?” Her tearful voice is curious.
Where am I going with this?
To stupid places, possibly.
“I think you should file a report, a police report, and ask for an order of protection. I think if you do it here, in Pine Ridge, it’ll be fast-tracked. It’ll work. I’m not saying the police are crooked or anything, but they’ll believe you and take action. They help first, do paperwork second.”
“Still, even if they do keep him away from me, that doesn’t mean they won’t give him Ari, since he’ll have his job, and his family is in town, and his mother is there, waiting to babysit.
My parents still work. They’ll have to take off time to babysit me because of him.
Because I’m a coward,” her brittle voice breaks.
“That’s not true! What’s scarier than running from everything you know with nothing but your baby?
You were courageous! You escaped to safety.
You did what you had to. That’s bravery.
And... And if you wanted a job, you know, just temporarily, until you can move to Rochester, a job just so your husband can’t claim some advantage.
..” I swallow. I don’t know if I’m playing with fire or falling headlong into it. Either way, this is going to burn.
But I’d burn for the woman hiding behind me, making a little nest in my unused bed.
“You could be a housekeeper. You’re great at it. Room and board are included, so you could save pretty much everything you earn. It wouldn’t be a huge salary, but you could save on child care, right?”
The door creaks fully open behind me, and I turn, still holding a pile of dishes.
Loretta looks up at me with narrowed eyes. “A job? And a place to stay?”
I nod.
“With you?”
Another nod.
“For how long?”
“For a week, a month, six months... Whatever.”
“You don’t need a maid.”
“But you need a job.” And I’ve offered it, and now.
.. Now, I can’t stay in my home when I’m most dangerous.
Now, she’s going to see the wolfsbane extract tonic in the kitchen and wonder what it is, and see the “rumpus” room in the basement that looks more like a padded cell.
She’s going to think I’m evil. Or just kinky.
“No pressure!” I blurt. I want her to say yes and no at the same time, and the confusion hurts my stomach.
“I, um... I shouldn’t have offered that.
I’m so sorry. I promise I’m trying to be chivalrous, but that was probably the worst thing to say.
Probably insulting. Or stupid. You’ll want to be with your parents, and you’ll want to get your own life situated without being in limbo, living in some stranger’s home. ”
The eyes slowly open to their full, beautiful blue-green depths, and there’s light in there.
“Stranger who turned out to be a friend, I think,” she whispers.
“I don’t know if I’ll need to take you up on that, but it was—it was a really nice offer.
” She frantically rubs at her eyes. “I’m so sorry.
I keep crying. You’re going to think I’m the whiniest, stupidest—”
I put the dishes down firmly, but I don’t let them crash. I can tell Loretta won’t like loud clattering. Anything loud, anymore. A woman’s home should be her safe haven, and her mate ruined it for her.
“I promise that I will only think good things about you, Loretta. I’m a reporter.
I have instincts.” I’m a wolf. I have senses that you can’t imagine.
“You have to know—not all men are like Matt. If I ever have a wife, and she wants her career to be staying home, raising our children, making this place feel like peace and happiness for everyone who sets foot here—then I will protect that peace with my life. And that woman and those kids will be protected, happy, and safe. Always safe. S-same for any guests in my house, even though I’m a pretty poor excuse for a domestic engineer,” I stammer out the last bit, before Loretta realizes what I’m saying, before she can see the truth of the words are meant for her.
Like, really meant for her. They’re meant for her, as the future queen of my castle, the mate I’ve been waiting for, the mother of my children.
I need to slow down. Need an icy shower.
Need to breathe, for one thing.
Loretta smiles at me. “I know men aren’t all like Matt. It kills me to even say words like that... Thank you, Jasper. For reminding me. And do you mind if I use that title? Domestic engineer?”
“I’d be delighted. I’m going to shower—right across the hall. You’ll be safe. I promise.”
She nods, and the tiniest little smile peeps out from her exhausted face. “I believe you.”
I TOOK TOO LONG IN the shower, because when I come back and peep my head through the door, she’s asleep, mouth open slightly, baby clutched to her chest, one hand on her diapered bottom. I hate to wake her, but the baby could roll off the bed.
Unless I watch. Watch over them. Does that make me creepy?
I do the next best thing and make a wall of pillows all around the side that Ari is on, then realize maybe she’ll somehow shift or squirm and end up on the other. By the time I’m done, Loretta and Ari are in a moat of pillows and couch cushions that I’ve dragged up.
Annnnd, of course, Loretta opens her eyes when I’m placing the last bulky cushion next to her torso.
The wild-eyed fear and the way she clutches Ari make my wolf roar inside, hungry for blood.
Someone. Hurt. Our. Pack.
I put my finger to my lips, backing away without speaking so that the growling doesn’t project into my voice.
Loretta slowly breathes again, as if recalling how to erase fear and flight-or-fight reactions, looking around at my handiwork.
“I didn’t want to wake you to put her in the crib. But I didn’t want her to roll off, either,” I whisper as softly as I can, once I think I can control my voice.
Loretta beams.
“Sweet dreams. I’m going to be out here, and no nightmare things can come in this house as long as I’m here.” My voice drops to a low snarl somewhere in the middle, and I beat a hasty retreat before she can register it.