Chapter 8
After cleaning Jack up and helping him back into his clothes, we walk next door to Chelsey’s, me wrapped in Jack’s flannel.
“I think every time I watch you come, I’m going to come now, too,” he says, reflecting on watching me fuck myself with his Rabbit. His urges are getting stronger as he and I become more connected emotionally, and when I came, he did too, immediately shifting back into Jack, naked and sticky.
I’ll admit. I judged Jack Hopper at first. But that was days ago. I’ve fallen in love since then, because just like I learned in Milky, love doesn’t adhere to calendars or dictionary definitions. Sometimes it happens hot and fast, and lasts until the end of days.
I nod my head. “I think so too.” I let out a long sigh as we take the steps to Chelsey’s porch. We agreed we have to tell her about us and about Jack too, so she can help protect us. “I can’t wait until Easter, until I can be yours and you can finally let yourself be free.”
Jack frowns. “Yeah, me too.” He swipes a hand through his hair. “I’ll be over the moon to have you as mine, but I know you love it here. And I just wish we could stay here.” Chelsey opens the door, smiling. “And see? We would be near your family, too.”
We walk inside Chelsey’s to find candied carrots on the stove, a fresh carrot cake on the counter iced with cream cheese frosting, carrot juice in a pitcher, and deviled eggs on an egg-shaped porcelain platter. “We could live here,” I argue, unsure of why Jack feels like we can’t.
Chelsey’s head ping pongs between us as we continue the talk.
“We can’t. As long as Goodall is mayor, I’m sure that—” Jack stops, and faces my sister, realizing that we haven’t officially told her anything, but instead let our private conversation roll over into her place. He cuts me a serious glance then looks back to my sister. “Chelsey, we need to talk.”
Chelsey’s grin is ear to ear. I’m talking The Joker levels of grin. I put my hand on her shoulder. “We need to talk to you about something but…” I take in her widespread grin. “Are you okay, sis?”
She clasps her hands together, driving her knuckles into the underside of her chin. “I’m so good. Please, sit. Let’s talk. I can’t wait.” Her grin is eerily wide.
Jack pulls out two chairs, and my sister and I each take a seat, while he remains standing. “Chelsey, I have something to tell you.”
She bobs her head, bouncing her legs off kilter, tapping her toes as she nearly bursts. “Tell me, tell me.”
He frowns. “I’m afraid you’re thinking this first bit of news is… good.”
Chelsey rolls her eyes. “Spit it out, Hopper.”
Jack looks to me for reassurance, then spills his carrot guts. “I’m a were-bunny. I come from a long line of were-bunnies. And Easter is my mating season,” he nods his head. “Are you following so far?”
She nods, but I can’t get a read on her expression for the first time in my life. “I’m following,” she says, burying a giggle in her hands.
“Okay well, I–”
“I knew,” she says, bursting to her feet.
“I saw you shift once in the moonlight, when I went out back to take out the trash a few months ago. I saw you eating carrots and all of the sudden, you started to get hairy and–” she just shakes her head, eyes wide.
“I knew, and it took me a while to believe what I saw, but then I watched you for a while. And I saw you shift a few more times.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask my sister, shocked that she was able to keep a secret.
She shakes her head. “We’ll get to that. But first, Jack, finish what you were going to say.”
Jack runs a hand up the back of his head, cheeks flushed. “I can’t believe you knew. I’ve been hiding out, trying my best to keep myself a secret.” He pushes out a breath. “If you know, who else knows?”
Silence fills the space between all three of us, because Chelsey and I can’t possibly know what Jack is facing. What it will mean for him if Carrot Creek knows he’s not just a handyman.
He looks between us. “Wait, each time you saw me shift–”
She nods vehemently. “Keep going, you’re getting warmer.”
Now I’m confused. “What is going on, Chelsey?”
She paces between us, the medical wrap on her foot coming undone, piling on the floor. She kicks it away. “My foot isn’t hurt. That was a lie to get you to come here,” she admits to me, then turns to Jack. “The first time you shifted, I was outside taking out the trash, like I said.”
We both nod. “Yeah, and?” Jack asks, curiosity vibrating in his voice.
“And I was wearing the gift that you sent me, Esther. I was wearing the sweater, you know, the one you sent for my birthday?”
I think about the cream fuzzy sweater with the bunny ears on the front, and how soft it felt against my cheek when I found it in the boutique that day. I nod. “I remember. The one with the cute bunny ears.”
“Yes,” she beams, “that one.” She looks at Jack. “The second time I saw you shift, I was getting mail from the box. You were going to town on carrots in the garden and out of nowhere, you turned into your bunny form.”
“I shifted,” Jack corrects.
“Yes, you did.” She looks between us, giddy as ever. “And I was wearing your perfume, Esther. The one you gave me when you moved out.”
I’m still not following, but when I peer over at Jack, his eyes are wide, like he is following. “What does any of this mean?” I ask, getting to my feet so I’m not the only one sitting.
Chelsey rushes off to the guest room, where I’m staying, and returns with an armful of books.
She dumps them onto the table, shiny covers of women in the arms of wolf men staring back at us.
“I went to the only source I could trust.” She nods at the spread of romance novels covering the table. “Romance books.”
I let out a sigh, relieved she went to the pro’s. “And?”
She snatches a book off the table, tapping the man on the cover who reminds me a lot of Beast from Beauty and the Beast. “I made a list of all of the things I noticed on the nights I saw you shift. Everything seemed the same at first. The moon wasn’t full.
The air was cold but not rainy. Nothing weird happened.
But I realized that I was wearing something from my sister, and then I thought…
Maybe my sister is your scent match.” She licks her lips, excited as ever. “Your mate.”
I shake my head. “That’s crazy.”
She nods. “That was what I thought, too. But then I reread all these, and it didn’t seem so crazy anymore. And I thought, if I could just get you out here, get you near Jack, then we’d see if I was wrong.”
“And what if you had been?” Jack asks, as a rush of warmth hits me in the chest, hearing how easily he accepts me as his mate.
She smiles. “Then I would get some time with my sister, and she’d get to be part of my favorite thing ever—the Easter Eggstravaganza.
No harm, no foul.” She cuts a loving glance between us, and her voice is quieter when she speaks again.
“But I wasn’t wrong. You two are fated mates.
But I knew you both had to see it on your own, so I faked my bum foot. ”
Jack whistles. “Mastermind.”
I smile at my sister, forgiving her immediately because Jack is my mate, and I’d never have this wild romance without her big heart. Wrapping my arms around her, I stack my chin on her shoulder and rub her back, thanking her. “You’re my personal cupid.”
She beams, but when our hug breaks, Jack faces Chelsey, standing tall, his strong shoulders making my pussy clench. “Are you okay with me marrying your sister? Mating her mine?”
Chelsey nods. “Of course, and I heard you two on the way over by the way. You can’t leave. You have to stay here. Jack, this is the only place for you, and Esther, I know you feel the same way.”
Jack shakes his head. “I don’t want to leave.
I love it here, and I found my love here,” he says, dipping down to kiss my cheek.
His nose turns pink and Chelsey squeals, but it turns back into Jack’s nose as he steps away from me.
“See? I can’t stay. They’ll find out. It’s getting harder and harder to not shift around her. ”
Chelsey flips through the book in her hands. “After you mate, though, won’t your sporadic, hormonal shifting subside?”
Jack scratches the back of his head. “Yeah, once she’s mated to me, I’ll have full control over shifting.”
Chelsey taps her foot. “So why can’t you stay?”
Jack looks between us. “I guess that’s true. But the Eggstravaganza is on Easter. There’s no way I can be there to support you two and the event without shifting. That’s too much Esther. I’ll be Hopper half the time, and naked, sticky Jack the other half! There’s just no way.”
The three of us ponder quietly for a moment before Chelsey snaps her fingers, and scurries down the hall, returning with a black garment bag. “Wear this, and if you shift, no one will know.”
Slowly, she tugs the zipper down on the bag, revealing an adorable purple bunny suit. “Then you can even be part of it, and not hide in the carrot fields, watching sadly from afar.”
“You noticed me last year?” he asks.
Chelsey places the suit on the couch and braces her hands on Jack’s shoulders.
“You’re going to be my bunny-in-law, so I’m gonna shoot you straight.
I’ve seen you lingering in the fields for years, and I always thought you were just too sad about your family not being here.
But now I know it’s because Easter makes you horny, and you were waiting for my sister to complete you. ”
He places his hands on hers, smiling. “Thank you.” He reaches for the suit, adding, “I should try it on, make sure it fits since it is the only thing allowing me to be part of the big Eggstravaganza.”
I nibble my bottom lip a moment, my stomach tightening. “Maybe we should try it on at your place.”
Chelsey waves us off. “Go on, go hump like bunnies.”
“My urges are getting so strong,” Jack says, slipping out of his shoes back at his Burrow.