She lifted her nose and took a whiff of him. He had a spicy scent, a fresh woods smell—as if he’d just been outside and brought in another load of firewood. Even though it had been five months since she was turned, she wasn’t used to everyone using their sense of smell to know she was around. She kept thinking they had psychic abilities like she did, although Lelandi assured her they didn’t. Except for Lelandi’s strange ability to feel her brother Leidolf’s strong emotions.
Leidolf. He was now a red pack leader in Portland, Oregon, and totally intriguing. He had been single and very available but not interested in a newly turned red. Nope, he was a royal. That meant his lineage could be traced close to the first lupus garou, and very few humans had tainted his family’s line. She would have tainted it big time if he’d ever thought of mating her. But only a couple of days ago, Lelandi had sprung the news on them: it looked like her brother had finally met his match.
Jake scooped some eggs onto a plate, rousing her from her thoughts about Lelandi’s brother. Jake was an interesting character. He was tough, hiding his emotions, and dark and brooding like his older brother, Darien. But unlike Darien, Jake wore a beard, and his eyes were nearly black. Whenever he had the time, Jake headed into the wilderness, not to hunt or fish or be a macho man, but to take pictures of wildflowers. And he played down the fact he did.
“Eggs, bacon?” he asked.
No longer did she crave fruit for breakfast. Eggs and bacon were much more her style now. She let out her breath in a heavy sigh, hating all the changes she’d experienced.
Jake cast a small smile at her over his shoulder. “Don’t tell me you used to be a vegetarian and have been keeping it secret from us these past few months.”
“No.” She didn’t even bother to hide the annoyance in her voice.
He chuckled. She’d heard him arguing with Darien, that she needed a mate and in a hurry. But Jake wasn’t offering himself. And as sweet as their youngest brother, Tom, was, he didn’t seem interested, either.
So what did that leave her? A mess of males of various ages, all bachelors, who were dying to locate a female for a mate because females were so rare, or so she’d been told. Sam the bartender was a hunk, but Silva and he were a match, although they were still in the courtship phase of their relationship. Lupus garous did not have casual sex, so that meant the courtship would probably end soon, as hot and heavy as the petting was getting between them.
“It’ll get better.” His tone more serious, Jake set the plate piled with eggs and bacon in front of her. “You’ll adjust.”
“Right.” She didn’t believe she ever would.
“Darien says you’re fighting the change. Five months.” Jake’s gaze pinned her with the accusation. “Can’t put it off forever, and if you keep trying, it’s bound to get you in trouble.”
“I’ve heard the lecture before, Jake.”
“Yeah, but you should heed the warning.” He finished his coffee and went back for more. “If you don’t change, you’ll force Darien’s hand to ban you from working at the hospital.”
She stifled a gasp. Darien couldn’t take that away from her. Could he?
Jake cast a sympathetic look at her. “You won’t have any control over the change pretty soon. All of a sudden, you’ll be ripping off your clothes and turning wolf anywhere at any time. Wouldn’t bother the rest of us, but what would human patients think? We can’t let them know what we are. And you’re a big risk right now.”
She couldn’t allow the shift. She’d felt the urge growing as the full moon approached, but from what Lelandi said, any time the moon was out, even half moon or crescent, lupus garous could change. And they had to at least once during the cycle. Lelandi didn’t have to, being a royal. She could change anytime or not at all. Except for one time: when Lelandi had feared for her brother in his fight to the death with Larissa’s murderer, she hadn’t been able to shift back right away.
Carol thought that was part of the reason she herself feared if she shifted, she’d be a wolf forever. But the vision she’d had worried her even more. The red doctor from Lelandi’s former pack, Dr. Weber, would shift and then be unable to shift back. At least she thought that was the case.
Certain Darien and the rest would all shake their heads at her in disbelief, she hadn’t voiced her concern to anyone yet. But she had to. Lelandi was like a sister to her now, and if anyone would believe her, Lelandi would. Or at least Carol hoped she would.
Sitting across from Carol, Jake smiled. A gleam of mischievousness sparkled in his eyes as he paused, his fork carrying a scoop of eggs to his mouth. “Ready for your coming out?”
She ignored him and poked at her eggs.
“Darien won’t wait much longer. Not when ten of the men in our pack are insisting he make you available to court.”
Her lips parted for a second, and she couldn’t disguise her surprise quickly enough. Darien hadn’t allowed the men to get close to her? To an extent, she was relieved to think the bachelors hadn’t just been avoiding her because she was such an oddity. And that Darien was concerned enough about her well-being to wait until she was more ready for this.
But she was incensed that she would be treated like a heroine in some historical romance. Available to court. Right.
“Oh, come on, Jake. It sounds like medieval times instead of the twenty-first century!”
She wrinkled her nose in annoyance at the disagreeable thought. Even though she loved reading romances like that, she didn’t want to be treated like one of those women. Although, in the fictional versions, they always eventually ended up living happily ever after.
“Hey, when a shortage of women existed in the Old West, women were prized. You should feel honored. Besides, we’ve told you we base a lot of what we do on age-old traditions. When a good thing works…” He shrugged.
“Honored? Ha! All a man wanted then was a woman to darn his socks, cook his meals, and warm his bed.”
Jake smiled. “No need to darn socks or cook meals here. Warming beds…” He raised a brow, his smile still lingering. “…that’s another story.”
She gave him an annoyed look. “I feel pushed into making a decision I don’t want to even consider right now.”
He shook his head, his tone an attempt to be reassuring. “You’re not going to be made to do anything right away.”
She didn’t believe that for a minute. And “not right away” meant what? She had days? Weeks? A few months to make a decision? She understood their concern—that she had to be watched constantly, that a wrong move on her part could put them all in jeopardy, and that having a mate would help her adjust more easily to her new role. Still—
His chestnut hair lighter than Jake’s and his eyes more amber, Tom sauntered into the kitchen and cleared his throat. “Give it a rest, Jake.”
Tom was always her knight when she needed one, but even he had kept his distance as far as any kind of emotional attachment since the Thanksgiving feast. She’d wondered if Jake and Tom had only stuck close to her then because Darien had told them to watch her, to keep the other males away from her until he said the timing was right.
She harrumphed under her breath, and Jake raised his brows. “Got something you want to share?”
She cast him an irritated look and chomped down on another piece of bacon.
“Mervin’s real interested,” Jake said.
She didn’t care that Jake was teasing. She was tired of the conversation.
“Jake.” Tom slanted him a warning look. Being the baby of the triplets, even only by five minutes, Tom couldn’t help that the pecking order was well established. Jake wasn’t about to listen to his younger brother.