The Amulet (26 page)

I will speak privately with you as soon as you are ready. I have not told Jessie that you are her sister. I thought it best to leave that to you.

She nodded silently before turning to face the sister who had always been a friend to her, wondering how to explain the truth to her gently. Jessie looked at ease for the first time since their mother had bitten her, and it was a shame to disturb what little peace she may have found. It could wait, she decided. There was no need to put her through any more stress right now.

Zukko seemed to finally notice her arrival and came charging up to her with his tail wagging furiously. She bent down and stroked his soft fur while he licked her hand. "I've missed you, too, my handsome man."

"I thought that was my title," Xander called to her.

"Sorry, it's already been taken. You'll have to pick another one," she responded playfully. She picked Zukko up in her arms and he leaned his head into her petting. She smelled the scent of wildflowers and wet grass clinging to his fur.

Xander approached her with a sly smirk hanging at the corner of his lips. In his thoughts, it was the wolf curled in her embrace instead of Zukko. A faint memory flashed in his mind briefly before he hid it, but she had caught it. His smirk vanished and his eyes looked worried.

Zukko whimpered at her because she had stopped her petting, but she did not resume at his request. She had seen what she had not remembered, what the wolf had not wanted her to remember. She saw now that the wolf had won long before she had conceded defeat. She had been joined with Xander as a wolf before she had slept with Nevar.

"Alyssa," Xander started, but he didn't finish aloud. She knew he had not known at the time that the wolf in her had taken over. When he found that she did not remember, he had been ashamed of himself. That was why he had left her in the woods with Nevar. That was why he ran off and left them unprotected when Katarina showed up.

She felt the emotions in him as if they were her own, saw every detail of his memory. She knew the pain he had felt when he learned that their joining was animal passion and not something more intimate. He wanted her forgiveness, even welcomed her wrath, but she was blank.

She did not blame him. She blamed the beast inside her, but what confused her most was the small voice that rejoiced in her. In truth, she was only upset that she had no memory of it. She showed him green waves of forgiveness. There was nothing really to forgive. The wolf wants what it wants, and there is little room for argument. She understood that now.

She saw the tension in his muscles release as if he'd been holding his breath, and perhaps he had been. Relief showed on his features. There was a softness in his eyes that betrayed the animal inside him. His wolf was clawing to get free but he held it still while making it look easy. She looked from him to Jessie and back. He understood without needing her unspoken message.

She needed to speak with her sister. The word seemed to reverberate through her head. She really had a sister, and Jessie was the one person she would have picked had she been given the choice. She wanted to run up and hug her, but that would draw suspicion from Jessie and probably a lecture about personal space. Instead, she walked to her side and placed a hand gently on her shoulder. It was anticlimactic, but Jessie turned to her with a smile on her face.

"Despite all the weirdness," she said softly, "this place is as close to paradise as it gets."

"I can't imagine going back to my old life, Jess. It would seem so boring next to this."

"Boring is nice every now and then. I couldn't stand living on edge all the time."

"We've got plenty of years to find boring, but I don't see it just yet."

She sighed heavily and turned into Alyssa's arms. "Oh, 'Lyss, what are we going to do now?"

Alyssa held her sister close. It was unusual for her to show affection or weakness. The stress was certainly weighing on her. "Now, we should get some sleep if we can. Then, we need to find my mother. She has some explaining to do, and perhaps, she can even lend us a hand with Gabriel. She owes both of us a great deal."

She released Alyssa from their embrace and clenched her fist tightly, ready to aim at some unfortunate nose. "She better have a good answer for turning me into a freak!" Jessie blurted out. "Oh! So sorry! I don't mean any offense by it. I guess I'm just a little peeved."

"It's okay, Jess," Xander piped in. "You have every right to be angry."

"But that doesn't give you an excuse to hold onto it for five hundred years," Alyssa mentioned, looking at Nevar when she said it. "I could blame Nevar for turning me, but it wouldn't do me any good. What's done is done. We play the cards we've been dealt."

Xander pulled her into his arms and she could feel the wolf in him just below the surface. He was fighting the beast, but he would lose if he didn't satisfy its hunger soon. "I've never been good at cards," he said, his voice thick and husky.

"We need to go inside. The sun is about to rise," Nevar interrupted before she could respond, which was good because she had not been prepared to answer. Nevar led them into the manor, politely opening the door for Jessie.

Xander hesitated for a moment before he disengaged and led her inside with one arm tucked possessively around her waist. The wolf was claiming what it wanted, and there was no arguing with a Were male.

Jessie noticed there was a quietness about Nevar. He was brooding over something, and from the way he avoided looking at Xander and Alyssa, she thought she knew why. Alyssa had always had that effect on the men around her. Jessie had watched countless times as helpless men swooned over her only to have their heart broken.

She wanted to tell him it was okay, but she could not convince her voice to work in his presence.
I'm sorry, Nevar,
she thought to herself.
She doesn't realize what she's doing.

He looked up at her with a glimmer of light in his eyes. She was uncomfortable under the intensity of his gaze. He was looking at her differently now. It was as if he was seeing some hidden quality that he had not seen before.
I know she doesn't, Jessie. It is part of who she is. There is more to you than you know as well.

She had forgotten he could hear her thoughts. "What do you mean?" she asked curiously.

You have much in common with Alyssa, and it is only a matter of time before the wolf brings out those qualities in you.

He was being coy with her, and her patience was wearing thin. "Look, I have been through a lot since I got here, and I'm getting tired of the cryptic answers! Would somebody just be upfront and answer me?"

"Jess, are you okay? What's the matter?" It was Alyssa. She and Xander had finally caught up with them.

"I want to know everything! Is that so hard? I feel I've been left out of the loop and I can't take all the secrecy anymore!"

It had finally happened. The stress had finally erupted inside Jessie. Alyssa looked from Xander to Nevar and back to Jessie. "Alright, Jess, we'll tell you anything you want to know."

"What are you hiding from me?"

Alyssa shot Nevar a stern look. This was not how she had wanted to break the news to Jessie. "In my defense, I just found out myself. I was hoping to get some sleep in before breaking the news to you. We're sisters, Jess. Katarina, the wolf that bit you, is our mother and unless I've missed my guess, our father is Matthias, the vampire who turned Nevar."

She saw it a split second before it happened. Jessie's face drained of color and her legs collapsed beneath her. Nevar reacted quickly and caught her before she hit the floor. He pressed his hand to her head and looked up at Alyssa. "She has only fainted. She needs to sleep anyway. Perhaps it would be best if we do not rouse her."

"You shouldn't have said anything to her! I thought you were going to leave it to me? She wasn't ready to hear that, but I wasn't going to lie to her if she asked me outright!" The wolf was raging within her and it was spilling out onto Nevar. She realized it too late. "Nevar, forgive my temper. I'm sorry. No, I think it best we let her sleep for now. We'll have hell to pay when she wakes up. You have somewhere she can rest?"

"Of course, Alyssa. I will see to her myself. You need to get some rest yourself, and, if you can manage, try not to walk the planes. You need your strength."

His tone was level, but his eyes never quite met hers as he spoke. She had wounded him with her words. It was becoming clear that the wolf was growing stronger and restless. She had to learn to control it or she would push everyone she cared about away.

"Nevar?" He didn't respond. "Nicholas?" Her tone was pleading as she said his name. His eyes met hers with a fierceness in them. "Please forgive me for lashing out at you. I know you did not do this purposely. I just didn't think before I spoke."

"There is nothing to forgive, Alyssa. I let a stray thought slip and she caught on. She is as quick and clever as you, and I should have accounted for that. If you will excuse me, I must put her in bed."

He vanished into mist without another word, taking Jessie along with him. Alyssa closed her eyes and pulled her shields up around her mind to be alone with her thoughts. The wolf was curled inside her as if asleep, but she knew better. It was only biding its time.

She felt a hand slide down her back and opened her eyes to see Xander's concerned expression. "Alyssa." His voice said everything when words couldn't. His tone was soft and assuring and there was an edge of the animal just below the surface. It was clear that he knew all too well how she struggled to keep the beast at bay. His eyes were as deep as pools and as blue as the ocean after a storm.

She let her shields back down. With Xander, she felt at ease letting her guard down. There was a fire burning in his thoughts that he was trying to quell, but without success. It was the kind of fire that would continue to grow and spread until it had burned itself out, and no amount of dousing was going to lessen its heat.

As the sun started to peek through the windows, Alyssa covered her eyes from the piercing light. "Ah, the sunlight!" It was blinding and her eyes felt as though they were on fire.

He picked her up and carried her from the room. "I've been wanting an excuse to carry you off to bed," he whispered in her ear.

She blushed about ten shades of red, but tried to hide it by burying her face in his chest. He smelled of musk and pheromones. Her fingers tangled themselves in the blond curls sprinkled across his chest. She heard him rumble his contentment, something between a moan and a growl.

He took her down the hall to the western half of the manor and entered yet another room she had not seen before. It resembled a hunting lodge with trophies and furs hanging on the walls. It was quite perfect for a werewolf, she thought. The animal stirred inside her, enticed by the scent of game. The wolf nearly broke free of its cage as she nipped playfully at his neck and her nails dragged across his bare chest.

That was all it took. His last thread of restraint snapped like a rubber band stretched too far. He devoured her mouth in his and felt the rush of blood to his groin. She was finally his and he had waited as patiently as he knew how. This time, he wanted to do this right, wanted her aware, wanted to take her as a man and not an animal.

He took her to the bed and laid her down on the soft fur pelt that covered it. There was a reason he had chosen this room. It was full of his trophies from his hunting prowess, but she was by far the crown jewel of his conquests. The wolf in her argued with him and the amber showed through in her eyes. She was as close to the edge as he was and her thoughts were ablaze with the blue flames of her passion.

The velvet robe she was wearing was soft against his skin, but he longed to feel her flesh against his. His fingers made quick work of the knot at her waist and his hands slipped under the fabric to find silk hidden beneath it. He pulled the velvet away and marveled at her sun-kissed body. It made him jealous of the sun to have touched her before he had.

The peaks of her breasts grew hard when exposed to the open air and seemed to beg him to warm them. His mouth closed over one of her pink hilltops and he felt her rise to meet him as she gasped beneath his touch. Her hands were wrapping themselves in his hair to urge him on. She slid her legs up around his waist and she used her strength to pull his body closer. The wolf needed little encouragement and already, Xander was fighting to hold onto himself.

He wanted to take his time, wanted to make her beg and scream his name for him to take her, but with the wolf so close to the surface, he risked losing himself if he didn't satisfy the beast soon. His hands explored the peaks and valleys of her body and she was every bit the fantasy he had imagined.

When he reached the thin patch of neatly manicured curls, she was already slick to the touch. He teased her clitoris and rejoiced in the arch of her back and the gentle moan that parted her lips. His finger slipped inside her slick folds and heard her inhale sharply. The white flames were starting to show in her thoughts and he knew she was ready.

He nearly ripped his shorts trying to remove them. This time, she didn't turn away from his nude form as she had before. He took pleasure in the way her pupils dilated and the bloom of color in her cheeks. His erection pulsed with need but he was enjoying this too much for it to end too quickly.