The Heir Read online

  The-his candy machine has no gum balls-look.

  Jessica shook her head and tried again to get around Axel when he froze and looked towards the stairs. The next thing she knew, she was being picked up and dropped in her room, watching the door close behind him. Jessica glared at the piece of wood and stomped towards it.

  She wanted her answers and she was tired of waiting. Expecting a fight, she pulled the door open with more force than necessary and almost bumped into Nick.

  "Going somewhere?"

  “How do you guys do it?!" she asked with aw.

  "Do what?"

  "Never mind, can you please just get in here? Tell me what's going on then get the hell out of my house."

  She moved aside to let him pass and after shutting the door she went to sit on the edge of her bed. Two seconds later she stood back up, she had way too much energy to just sit. Nick smiled at her and she glared back. He was leaning against her vanity while she paced a hole a on her floor and silently cursed his cool demeanor.

  She had no idea just how hard he had to work for his control. His wolf was demanding his mate and Nick wasn't sure how much longer he could stay in control. He tried to leave, but it had felt as if he was being torn in two. He couldn't leave her side until he had claimed her completely.

  "Well?!!" she snapped, tired of the silence.

  Nick looked at her, and she felt as if he was looking into her, making her want to squirm, before confessing, "I don't really know where to start."

  She rolled her eyes. "How about you start at the beginning?"

  He looked at her again, with that deep stare and she pressed her shoulders back and stood up straight. It must have been the right move because after another second, he nodded his approval.

  "I am a werewolf" He indicated to her then pointed at her door and she figured he was pointing at Axel. "WE are all werewolves."

  Jessica said nothing, she just raised an eyebrow.

  "Aren't you going to say something?" Nick asked after a couple of seconds, confused by her reaction. He'd been expecting hysterics, disbelief or shock but not her silence.

  "I knew that about me for a while and I figured it out about you psychos yesterday."

  Nick stood frozen with shock, he looked at her with way too many questions in his eyes and he didn't know which ones to ask first but Jessica saved him from trying to figure it out.

  "I let you stay here; I WANTED you to stay here last night because I wanted answers. Shane is strong, when he was holding me, not even with all of my strength could I break his hold." Filled with excitement she began to pace the room. "Axel grabbed him and held him as if he was holding a doll. Then when Christian was pushing me into the house I see your other guys running up the drive."

  Jessica stopped her pacing to look at him. "I run fast. These guys were running faster. Also, we are running up the stairs, Christian is carrying Riley and he didn't even get winded. So I figured ... if you aren't the ninja turtles...you have to be like me."

  Nick was shocked, speechless, and Jessica looked at him smugly. "My observation skills were honed at a young age." She informed him and crossed her arms across her chest. "Now I just want you to fill in the blanks. I want to know everything, why was I stashed in the bathroom and what's up with the biting. Because I'll tell you right now, I prefer my meet from a dead cow and cooked"

  Nick was still speechless; she'd blown his little speech to the shits in one second.

  "Well?" She demanded once again.

  "You are good" He admitted grudgingly, "How long have you known you are a wolf?"

  "I’ve known for a couple of months."

  "Do you know the wolves’ hierarchy?" Jessica nodded, "Well, I am the Alpha of my pack and you-" He took a deep breath "you are my mate."

  Jessica lost it, "I am your what?!"

  Her shout left his ears ringing and only one thought circling through his mind. He'd marked her. He'd marked her in his sleep. He had no idea how it happened and even though he didn't show it, Nick was as shocked as her.

  All he knew was that one minute he was dreaming about her and the next one his balls were meeting his eye balls. He cringed from the memory and his hands itched to hold himself and make sure everything was back to normal down south.

  Unfortunately his biggest problem was the 5'3 dynamite standing in front of him.

  "I'm your what?" Jessica asked again when she managed to calm herself down a bit.

  "You are my mate." He repeated and watched her switch one of her knives open and close.

  Jessica briefly wondered if he healed as quickly as her. Too bad now wasn't the time to find out. She needed answers not bloodstains on her carpet.

  "You’re lucky red doesn't look good with pink." She told him deadpan serious and put her knives back in her back pockets. "Being your mate, what does that mean? And how can we make it go away?" She asked him all business like.

  "It means marriage. Forever. No divorce. We can't make it go away."

  "What!?" Jessica wasn't the shrieking type but do to the circumstances; she was giving herself a "shriek to your heart’s content" day pass. One more surprise and she'd give herself a "fainting spell" day pass too.

  She'd been expecting something like this, her more rational side reminded her-and it was true.

  In the last couple of months she'd read as many werewolf stories as she could. Thinking there had to be some truth in those tales. The idea of mates wasn't a big surprise. It was the being mated forever part that was freaking her out. The whole soul-mate thing, that was one idea she'd shucked into the myth pile from all the stories she'd read.

  "Soul-mates don't exist." Nick told her.

  His statement made Jessica realize that she'd said the last part of her thought out loud.

  "I thought you said this was forever."

  "I did, wolf's mate for life. It has nothing to do with soul-mates."

  Not for the two of them at least. His people did believe in soul-mates, but if everyone waited around for that one special mate, their race would have gone extinct hundreds of years ago. Most wolves’ based their mating on companionship and keeping their line alive and not some fancy about true love.

  The idea that he may be robbing her of her one true love, gave him a twinge of remorse.

  He took a deep breath and did something that went against his being. He bowed his head to Jessica even though she didn't know what the gesture meant. "I'm sorry for-"

  "You’re sorry?" She interrupted, "You are basically telling me that you married me without my consent, and all I get is an apology? What kind of Alpha are you anyways? How can alpha pull this kind of stunt?"

  "I'm a good Alpha!" He snarled, after all the things he'd done to ensure the survival of his pack, he couldn't stand being questioned about his leadership.

  Especially by her, it was now her place to stand by him, not against him.

  He watched her take a couple of steps back-away from him, pull her knives out and flick them open, and he couldn't help the growl that rose from his chest.

  "Don't" He told her. "Don't run from me, I will never hurt you." She eyed him warily and he barely kept himself from closing the distance between them and proving his words with his lips.

  Instead he took a deep breath and ran his hands through his hair before speaking in a calmer voice. "You are my mate. I wish I'd done things differently but that mark on your shoulder is all the proof you need. It hurts now, soon it will heal, but it will never go away. Know this though; it was never my intention to claim you this way."

  "Claim me?" She asked in disbelief, "What do I look like a piece of land, you stake it and it's yours? Sorry buddy but no one claims me, I belong to no one. Especially not you."

  "When I marked you, I became yours too." He growled with exasperation.

  That brought Jessica up short. "What?"

  "We belong to each other now."

  Jessica dazedly made her way to her bed and sat on the edge. Looking down at the floor she thought about
what he'd just told her and after a couple of seconds she asked in a low voice, "How did this happen?"

  The question was met with silence and Jessica looked up to see Nick looking uncomfortable-and blushing! Jessica's eyes flew open upon that discovery, if things weren't so serious, she'd be laughing at him.

  "I was having a dream." He muttered, looking away, trying to hide his discomfort.

  She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms across her chest, enjoying herself at his expense. "What kind of dream?"

  Nick cursed and growled, “The kind where my wolf claims yours.”

  His eyes began to glow; his teeth seemed to get longer and Jessica was officially freaked out.

  She got up, stormed towards the door and flung it open. "I've changed my mind; I don't want your answers. Feel free to let the door hit your ass on the way out." The act lost its flair when she saw Axel standing in front of the doorway-unmoving.

  Nick followed her to the door but instead of walking out he slammed it shut, his patience was running thin.

  He wasn't proud of the way he'd claimed his mate but it was done and it was time to move forward. He had a thin hold on his self-control and her stance, her tone of voice-they were like an unspoken challenge. All he wanted was to complete the claiming process.

  Mark the rest of her body-inside and out-with his scent.

  "If I go, you go." he growled.

  She threw her head back and laughed. "You wish!

  "You're not safe alone; the serum is almost completely out of your system."

  Jessica looked at him with distrust. "How do you know about that?"

  Nick raised an eyebrow and smirked. "I thought you weren't interested in my answer." He opened the door and Jessica grabbed his arm to keep him from leaving.

  "I take it back." Jessica exclaimed.

  She surprised she hadn't chocked on the words and by the look on his face, Nick was too. He eyed her from head to toe before nodding and gesturing towards her bed. As she took a seat, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. It wasn't long before his call was answered.

  "She doesn't trust me." He told the person on the other side of the line. "Hold on." He said before handing the phone over to Jessica. He didn't know why he hadn't thought of doing this earlier.

  Confused she took it and put it against her ear. "Hello?"

  "Jessica?"

  "Mom?"

  "Yes Jessica, it's me."

  "Mom, where are you?"

  "It doesn't matter; I just want you to know that Nick is safe."

  "Safe? How do you know Nick? And how did-"

  Nick snatched the phone from her and raised it to his ear. "Hey, sorry but Jessica and I have a lot to talk about. Talk to you later." He hit the end button and dropped the phone into his pocket. Without taking his eyes off of her, he waited for her reaction.

  It wasn’t long in coming.

  She shot up off her bed and pointed a finger at him. "How do you know my mom? And where is she?"

  Nick went to look out the window. He braced his hands on the window sill and for the first time, Jessica realized how tense he seemed to be.

  It was never my intention to claim you this way. The words replayed in her mind and after thinking about it for a second, she believed him. If he'd wanted to, he could have pulled some tricky move and claimed her months ago.

  You and I will end up together, one way or another. He'd warned her, and she'd thought him crazy. Now here she was biting his head off even though it was all because of his dreams.

  Jessica sighed and ran a hand through her hair. She could be a real pain in the ass sometimes. And as far as mates went, she had to admit she could’ve done much worse.

  Jessica didn't know him well enough but she considered herself a good judge of character. She couldn't imagine a bad person dealing with his pack members the way she'd seen Nick deal with Christian last night and from the little that she'd seen, everyone seemed to respect him.

  And her mom, she couldn't dismiss what her mom had just told her.

  He was safe.

  At that moment, Nick turned around to look at her. “Alright, whatever you want to know, just ask, I'll try my best to enlighten you."

  "How do you know my mom and where is she?" She shot off straight away.

  "The council sent me on a mission... Long story short, I found her, she was in danger, I told her who I was, and she did a background check. Satisfied that I was trustworthy" He placed extra emphasis on the last word. "She let me help her out."

  The finality in his words let Jessica know that that was all she was getting on the subject, and she was satisfied with it-for now. "Where is she?"

  "Somewhere safe, it's not a good idea to bring her here."

  "Why not?"

  "To bring her here would be to bring trouble." He eyed her up and down. "And trust me I have plenty of that at the moment."

  Jessica rolled her eyes. "Who is The Council?" She asked, refusing to be side tracked.

  Nick scrubbed his face with his hands. This was the part he'd been dreading. He motioned for her to take a seat while he tried to figure out the best way to explain things to her-and just how much to tell her.

  "The Council’s main responsibility is to keep the peace between packs. There are six Council members. Each member used to be an Enforcer before the Council was formed."

  He explained to her that after the murder of their last ruler, the Council was created to keep war from breaking out between packs. Many Alphas wanted the power afforded to the ruler of all the packs in America and they would be willing to declare war to one another to achieve the ultimate status.

  With the advancement of technology, it was feared that so many deaths could lead to the discovery of their people. So the most powerful packs made an agreement, their enforcers would enforce the law.

  "We Alpha's can be very prideful." He told her wryly. "And we don’t like taking orders from others.”

  "But isn't that what you used to do, you used to take orders from the last ruler?" Jessica cut in.

  And this is going to be the tricky part, he thought.

  "Alpha Lykaon was the exception to the rule. He was the most powerful of our kind. Through his veins ran the blood of the first werewolf, the Arcadian King Lykaon. There were very few who could resist his power."

  "Lykaon, as in the Greek myth?"

  Nick flung his arms out and indicated himself. "Not a myth, although most of the truth has been deluded through time, we are definitely not a myth. The belief that being bitten by a werewolf will make you one, that's a myth. We are born, not created or infected." He pointed out. "Only one person has the power to create a werewolf, the Lykaon heir. It is a gift- a power- passed down from generation to generation."

  "How come this Lykaon person has all that power? And how can you know that his blood is the same as the ancient kings. I mean, can a lineage be traced back that far?"

  Nick approached her and looked into her eyes, looked for the mark he knew he would find. Still sitting on her bed, she leaned back, away from him. After confirming the mark, he straightened up and took a step back.

  "We have our ways," He assured her cryptically. "But mostly it's the fact that, no matter who the Lykaon mates with, be it human or shifter, the Lykaons first child is always one hundred percent werewolf. When I say that they carry the blood of the Arcadian King, I mean that it’s an exact copy of his blood. Male or female, the Lykaons child is the Heir to one of, if not, the oldest royal dynasty in the world."

  "So where is this Heir? Did the last ruler die without kids?"

  Nick hesitated for a second then shook his head slowly. "He had one child." He told her. "But the council doesn't know where the Lykaon Heir is."

  Jessica made a sympathetic sound. "That sucks."

  "So when do you think you will be ready to move out?" He asked her, trying to change the subject. Doubting that now was the time to dump such a large load on her lap. She'd taken everything in stride so far but he feared that
any more heavy confessions and she might explode.

  "Move out?" Her eyebrows came together in a frown and his words ping ponged through her brain not making any sense.

  "You are my mate now, mates live together." The words were spoken slowly and he moved his hands around in circles as if personally turning the wheels in her brain. Helping her realize the obvious.

  Her eyes widened with every word, and when it all finally sank in, she leapt off her bed and shouted, "What?!"

  "As my mate and the female Alpha, your place is by my side."

  Nick knew she was going to object, it wasn't in her nature to go without a fight and he had to admit that he enjoyed sparing with her. She challenged him in a way that no else could and he was looking forward to this next match. He was curious to know what kind of objection she would find.

  "Actually about that..." She bit her bottom lip and it gave his lower body a jolt, he couldn't take his eyes off of her lips, he kept imagining them wrapped around him, until her words made it through the haze in his mind. "I was thinking we could keep all of this in name only. You know live separate lives? No one has to know-"

  He shook his head slowly and in a tone that brooked now argument said, "No."

  "No, no, don’t shoot it down so quickly," Jessica stepped close to him and placed a hand on his arm.

  While she spoke about separate lives all he could think about was joining their bodies and taking that last step to complete their mating.

  "Think about it" She was saying, "you can go your way and I go my way. I mean I'm sure there's some other girl that would be better for you and the same, a guy, for me.

  He shook his head again, she tried to remove her hand from his arm but he trapped it there with his own. "There is no other girl for me."

  "What do you mean?"

  "We are mates." He repeated for what felt to him was the hundredth time.

  "So?" She tugged on her arm and when he wouldn't release her she slammed her foot on his toe, it didn't hurt but it surprised him enough to relax his hold and before he could help it she pulled free. He growled and she rushed to put her bed between them. She raised her hands to ward him off and tried to reason with him. "See? We can't even last an hour in the same room."