Obsession (2 page)

Raphael opened one swollen eyelid. “Who…are you?”

“Name’s J.J. Was in the area, checking out land sales and I saw the For Sale sign.”

“There’s no For Sale sign on this property,” he whispered.

“Well, there is one now. Would have missed it if I hadn’t have gotten that flat tire. Damn lucky for you I did.” The stranger uncapped his canteen and held it to Raphael’s lips. He gulped it down.

“Easy,” the Lupine said soothingly. “Buddy, you’re in bad shape. But I suspect the ones you killed are worse.”

Leaving Raphael the canteen, J.J. went into the shed. When he came out, his expression grim, Raphael felt a faint satisfaction.

“I’ll ask you what the hell those things are later. Right now, you need to heal. I’m staying at a place down the road.”

J.J. went to the Jeep, returned with a blanket, placing it gently around Raphael’s shoulders. He helped him to the vehicle, but Raphael managed to climb in by himself.

Inside the Jeep, as J.J. drove down the road, every bump sending fresh pain through his battered body, Raphael closed his eyes and willed himself to heal. To live.

He’d find a way to get the bastard, The Monster.

One day.

No matter what, or whom, stood in his way…

Chapter 1

“Do not fight me any longer, Elizabeth. Give in to your passion.”

She opened her mouth to protest when he advanced again, his lips claiming hers once more.

Jessica Tyrell snuggled into a chair in the bedroom she shared with her younger sister. A cup of tea was on the scratched table beside her, along with a plate of chocolate chip cookies. Finally, she had peace and quiet. Home from her day job and time to herself. No boss nagging her to finish typing data into spreadsheets. No foster monster screaming at her to wash the dishes. No squabble of noisy siblings begging her to shift into wolf so they could dress her in silly dog costumes.

Finally, time to indulge in her favorite guilty pleasure—historical romance novels. She nibbled on a cookie, sipped tea and continued to read.

His tongue expertly traced the lower curve of her lip. His touch was fire and sun and sent raging sensations of need pulsing through her. Never had a man touched her this way before, made her skin feel so ultrasensitive. He kissed and licked his way down her neck. She whimpered at the feel of his mouth claiming that sensitive place, the delightful softness of his tongue brushing against her bare skin.

“The time has come to make you mine,” he whispered against her ear, then he…

“THREW UP!!!”

Jessica cringed and tried to continue reading. Just one more paragraph, just one more…

“JESSICA!!! RUSS THREW UP. I NEED YOUR HELP!! NOW!!!”

Damn.

She set down the paperback copy of
The Falcon & the Dove
by Bonnie Vanak. Ever since she’d moved back home after college, she had no time for herself.

“JESSICA!! COME HERE!!!!!!!!”

If she didn’t answer the call, Arleen would yell louder, and later, add a load of extra chores as icing on the cake.

“Jessica! I can’t handle this by myself!”

She cast a longing glance at the abandoned book. Now she’d probably never find out if Elizabeth lost her virginity to Jabari.

Sounds of water splashing, Russ crying, came from the main bathroom. Jessica shifted into her wolf form and nosed open the door, which stood ajar. In wolf form, she usually could cheer Russ, who was always in one scrape or another.

The stench of fresh vomit hung in the air, stinging her sensitive nostrils. Russ, the second-youngest member of the Tyrell family sat on the lip of the porcelain bathtub, looking green and miserable. Arlene turned, a wet washcloth in hand, and scowled.

“Very funny. Change back, now. I need your help.”

Jessica bared her fangs in a big wolfish grin and wagged her tail.

Clutching his stomach, Russ looked up and saw her. He smiled.

“Jessica! I need to talk to you!”

So talk. I can communicate
. Jessica threw back her head and howled. Russ clapped his hands.

“Change back, now!” Arleen snapped.

She shifted back into human form and clothed herself by magick. Arleen thrust the wet washcloth at her.

“Rod fed him raw meat. He overheard that Lupines need it to shift into wolf form and thought it would work. On a three-year-old.” Arleen sighed and pushed a hand through her dark brown hair as she juggled baby Ronald, the youngest Tyrell, on one hip. “I have to get Ronnie to bed. Russ has water in his sippy cup, so give him that. It’ll settle his stomach. Please, clean him up, bathe him and then put him in clean pajamas and to bed.”

There goes my free hour. And this book is due back to the library tomorrow.

Taking the washcloth, Jessica said nothing. Arlene sighed again. “Don’t look at me like that. You’re part of this family, like it or not, and that means pitching in. You can read your book tomorrow night.”

You said that last night.
She squatted on the floor and wiped Russ’s face as her foster monster left the bathroom.

Russ stared at her with woeful brown eyes. “I sick, Jessie.”

“I know, honey. Your tum tum will feel better soon.” She cleaned off the washcloth, wrung it out and held the sippy cup to his mouth. Pity filled her. Russ was such a sweetheart. She did love her adopted siblings. If only they were a little less needy and clingy…always nagging her, never a moment of privacy.

“Drink this water. It’ll help.”

Russ drank and handed her back the cup. “I luvs you, Jess.”

She hugged him tight, feeling the warmth of his body, smelling the innocent vanilla scent that always accompanied Lupine young. “I luvs you too, Russ.”

A lump clogged her throat. How she wished he were her real brother by blood instead of adoption.

All I ever wanted was a real family of my own blood. Bloodlines are so important to Lupines. All I’ve ever heard my whole life is how they keep a pack strong. Is it too much to ask to find my birth family?

But they had probably all died long ago.

She stared into the mirror. Red hair, the color of fire. Gray eyes. Jessica pulled at her shirt collar, displaying the star-shaped birthmark at the base of her neck. She hated the mark. It made her feel even more outcast.

If only she had someone else who looked like her, who shared her bloodlines. Someone she could connect with. But she did not.

Stricken with a sudden bout of grief, she hugged Russ again until he complained. Then she bathed him, dressed him in warm, clean PJ’s and carried him into the bedroom he shared with five-year-old Roger and eight-year-old Rod.

“Story!” he demanded.

She grinned and ruffled his brown hair. All the Tyrell children had dark brown hair, like their parents.

All of them except her, the one they’d adopted when she was five days old, never knowing the parents who’d abandoned her on the porch.

She picked
Goodnight Moon
and read aloud until Russ’ eyes closed. Then she set the book down, switched off the lamp and tiptoed to the door. At the door she turned and blew him kisses.

“Luvs you too, Russ,” she whispered again.

She fled to her room and picked up the romance novel. Jabari, the story’s hero, was sexy and dangerous, and he reminded her of someone…

Raphael Amador.

Setting down the book, Jessica shivered. She’d met the Lupine while visiting her best friend, Alexa. Tall and very handsome, he emitted an air of danger. Raphael was a male one did not want to mess with, though she’d kept taunting him as one would prod a tiger with a long stick. He’d made her feel alive and sensual and aware.

Raphael had a sultry mouth, black hair and burning, midnight eyes that had smoldered as he’d stared at her eating a peach, the juice spilling down her chin onto her chest.

He’d looked at her as if he wanted to lick every last droplet off her chest, and then trail his tongue across her…

“JESSICA! DENNIS IS HERE TO TALK WITH YOU!”

For the sake of Danu, did anyone in this house know how to communicate without yelling?

She went into the living room. Dennis Nelson stood by the brick fireplace. The gray-haired, slightly stooped alpha of the Nelson pack looked mild and unassuming, but he held onto his position through respect.

And by beating the crap out of every male who tried to Challenge him.

Dennis catered to Lupines who could trace back their bloodlines for generations. He liked keeping track of the pack’s offspring, much as a horse breeder kept charts of his studs. Jessica had long suspected Dennis didn’t like her because she was adopted. Unknown origins. Not fitting into his neat little family tree. No, she was more a stubby bush set apart from others.

But the Tyrells, who had been childless at the time, had insisted on bringing her into their family, so the alpha had relented, as long as she did not mate with any males in their pack.

For as long as she remembered, Dennis had treated her like a fungus. He knew she was there, hard to get rid of, so he ignored her.

Dennis turned and smiled, but his dark gaze did not meet hers.

Uh oh. Bad news.

“The ten-year gathering of the Midwestern Lupine Heritage Festival is being held at our lodge hall next week. I’m asking everyone in our pack to attend.”

Ok, that didn’t sound threatening. It might even be fun. It had been too long since she’d been to a party. “What’s the festival?”

“It’s a gathering of the Midwest Lupine packs, a chance for single Lupines to mix, mingle, get to know one another, and perhaps meet their future mates. There’ll be a picnic and later, a formal dance.”

Jessica smiled and stuffed her hands into her jeans. “Sounds like a blast. I’ll let everyone know. What day and time?”

Dennis looked away, his nose twitching like a nervous rabbit’s. “Next Saturday, starting at 9 in the morning. I came here to ask you to babysit the young who will be there so their parents can attend the dance. You’re so good with them…”

“I’m not permitted to attend?”

Silence draped between them. She waited, refusing to let him off the hook. Finally Dennis spoke up in a low voice.

“It’s not a good idea. Sorry, Jess.”

Jessica’s smile slipped. Don’t let him see how upset you are. Pretend. Joke. Don’t let him see…

“But you’ll technically be there if you babysit.”

“I’m busy. I believe I’ll have a lot of chores to do.”

“I could order you to attend. I need your help.”

So I’m good enough to use as cheap labor. Could you be more stupid or inconsiderate? Just go, please, just go.

“Sure. Order me to attend like you have in the past. You could use my help, as long as I don’t mingle socially. Say it, Dennis. Be honest and stop dancing around the truth.”

The alpha gave her a cold, hard stare. “You want the truth? Fine. It’s your bloodlines, Jessica. You can’t trace your genealogy and then there’s the fact that you’re not a full-blooded Lupine. You don’t heal as fast as the rest of us, and you lack the strength and power of most Lupines.”

“And that’s why I’m not permitted to attend this festival as a guest? Because of your opinion. You’re the one forbidding me from attending, right?”

Dennis sighed. “I actually did argue for you to attend. I know you don’t get out much. But I was overruled. The other alphas requested that you stay home. They don’t want you there. They don’t want their males meeting you, and perhaps choosing you as a mate. The alphas fear what kind of offspring you’d produce.”

She’d asked for brutal honesty and he’d given it to her. Jessica’s stomach clenched. “So I’m good enough to babysit other Lupines’ young, but not good enough to produce babies of my own?”

He squeezed her shoulder. “Someday you’ll find a solid, good male who will make you his mate. Just not in any of the Midwestern packs. Try to understand, Jessica. It’s for the best. We have to keep the bloodlines pure. Tell the Tyrells to be there at 9 next Saturday.”

The door banged shut behind him.

“Sure. I always understand. I understand no one will fully accept me into the pack because I’m not anyone’s blood. I’m that great big unknown factor,” she whispered.

She’d never find a mate because male Lupines wanted to know what your past was, who your parents were. And Jessica had been dumped on a doorstep. No papers. Not even a lousy note.

She fisted her hands and ran up the stairs. Always displaced and on the fringes of the pack. No matter how much she’d tried, she’d never fit in. Her red hair was a constant reminder.
You are different.

Jessica flopped onto her stomach on her narrow twin bed and buried her face into the pillow.

College had given her a respite from the constant chores and being an outsider. In college, she’d worked hard and her reward had been good grades. She had become best friends with Alexa and Molly, two other female Lupines who didn’t care about her DNA. And she’d even dated Skins, the Lupine term for humans. Jessica had evaded them when they wanted to do more than a few kisses.