The Author's Challenge Page 2

What? Rob took a step closer.

  He wasn’t hallucinating or imagining things. It might be faint and difficult to see under his chest hair, and the layer of dust on the mirror, but there was a thin red scar on his chest.

  In the shape of a heart.

  It hadn’t been there when he’d showered that morning. In fact, he’d never seen anything like it before, except…He swallowed heavily as he remembered just where he’d seen and felt it previously.

  When he’d dreamed of a red-nailed claw.

  Chapter Two

  “What have you been up to?” Jacob stared at his sister. He leaned back on the marble work surface of her kitchen, legs crossed at the ankles, with a deceptively innocent expression on his face. “‘Fess up.”

  Jenissa almost wriggled under that steady look. Jacob had a way of knowing everything at all times. It was bad enough, him being her twin and understanding how her mind worked, but he was also Alpha of the pack, with all the extra special senses that entailed. The Kinfoyle pack was unusual in their senses and abilities—shifting was only one small part of them—and Jacob had them all in spades.

  Added to which, Jenissa knew she was supposed to bow to his authority—luckily only his authority as her Alpha, nothing else. She sneezed.

  “Bless you.”

  “Thank you. Bloody summer colds suck.” She blew her nose and thought she might as well go on the offensive, not the defensive. “‘Fess up as in, what?”

  Jacob snorted. “As in, what have you been up to? As in, why is Ari saying Rob is interrogating her about local legends and looks like he’s got something on his mind? Or should that be someone in his mind?”

  Jenissa shrugged. “Dunno.” Shit, how immature do I sound? Given half a chance, she’d stick out her tongue and tell him to butt out. “Look, Jacob. You concentrate on your life and let me concentrate on mine. I’m a big girl now, and if I can’t sort my own life out, then it deserves to be fucked up. Yes, okay.” She held her hands up. “Sorry, I know foul language shows a lack of imagination, et cetera. Blame it on my busy life or something. And my occupation. I can’t swear in school, so I need to make up for it elsewhere.”

  Jacob didn’t answer, and Jenissa found herself on the defensive once more. She hated that feeling. It was demeaning and exasperating. “Leave me be. Go home and practice how to make babies with Ari, or something.”

  He grinned. Such a wolfish smile.

  “We don’t need to practice. It’s all just for fun for the next seven months. Then I have a feeling it’ll be a fond memory for a year or so.” He didn’t sound one bit bothered.

  “You don’t…” Jenissa hardly believed the pang of envy that slammed into her like an express train running a signal. “Ari’s pregnant?”

  Jacob grinned even more, if it was possible, and bowed his head in acknowledgement.

  “Babies? As in, more than one?”

  “Twins. After all, they do run in the family.”

  “She didn’t say.” Jenissa winced at the tone she used. That hurt. They told each other everything. Well, Jenissa allowed, maybe not everything, not anymore.

  “I asked her not to.” Jacob couldn’t hide his pride and pleasure from his voice.

  After all, Jenissa reasoned, why should he? He was going to be a daddy. It was just one more indication of how all their lives were changing.

  “I wanted to tell you,” Jacob said, “because not only will you be Aunty Jenissa, I want you to be designated pack buddy as well.”

  Jenissa was speechless. That was such an honor, and it meant Jacob had accepted that she was a responsible grownup at last. She swallowed several times and cleared her throat to try and dislodge the lump in it.

  “Thank you. Yes.” She realized if she said anything else, she’d start blubbering like a baby. She flung her arms around her twin and kissed his cheek. “Oh, Jacob, it’s fab news. A new little Wolfe and wolf to run around, eh? I’m assuming you’ve bitten Ari?”

  He rolled his eyes. “You were there, for the ceremonial one. Did you honestly think I wasn’t going to follow up?”

  Put like that, of course she didn’t. Her part in the ceremony had been to sponsor Ari, as Jacob took the final bite and thus enabled Ari to shift as his partner. The Kinfoyle pack was unusual like that. Others had likened them to vampires, an allusion Jacob did nothing to dispel. They weren’t, but they could all understand other shifters’ reasoning. It wasn’t the general norm, but it was theirs, and worked for them perfectly.

  If you have a partner.

  “Okay, sorry, and yeah, I am happy for you, honestly.” She was, even if it was hard to show it. “It was just a bit of a shock. Although…” She giggled as she remembered accidently stumbling over Jacob and Ari going at it like, rabbits, or wolves over the kitchen table. She’d never called on them unannounced since. The sight of…she blanked it all out. Were all men hung like that? “It shouldn’t be.”

  To her amazement, Jacob went a delicate shade of pink. “Yes, well…Anyway, I called in to ask you to come to dinner tonight. Ari’s over her intimate acquaintance with the toilet bowl, and is desperate to see you. I have no idea how she coped these last two months with only seeing you in the afternoons. I guess the fact you were so busy helped. Luckily her morning, evening and any-other-time sickness only lasted a couple of weeks. So.” He pushed off the work surface with his hands. “Come around about seven? Tell Ari she’s blooming in the proper way, and we’ll eat around eight. Yes?” He cupped Jenissa’s face in his hands. “Yes? You’re okay with it?”

  The fact that Jacob thought he had to ask shook Jenissa and gave her a nasty taste in her mouth. She was pleased for them, and would go and celebrate.

  “Of course I am. Do I bring grape juice instead of wine?”

  Jacob laughed. “Luckily, Ari is happy for me to still have a glass of wine, and she has enough non-alcoholic stuff ready to drink, whichever takes her fancy, that she could open a dry pub. Right, I’m off.” He sketched a wave and left Jenissa standing in the middle of her kitchen.

  “Hold on.” She’d had a thought. “Does Rob know?”

  “Right about now, he does. Ari was going to tell him whilst I told you.”

  No wonder she’d had his thoughts teasing her mind. His disquieting thoughts. Rob was very protective of Ari, and he didn’t even know the half of it. As much as they’d known Rob for years, the shifter part of their lives had never been shown or hinted at. The Kinfoyle pack valued their privacy and security. Only they knew all their members. Except several years previously, Ari had found out about Jenissa by tending to her when she was in her wolf persona and hurt. Rob, though…that was another matter.

  It was something she needed to think through, this invasion of his mind into hers. She could only hope it meant something positive. Of course, she could ask Jacob what it was all about, but she wasn’t ready to come out over her hopes and intentions. Not yet. Jacob would meddle.

  It was only when she heard the sound of a car starting up that Jenissa remembered she meant to ask him if it was only going to be the three of them at dinner.

  * * * *

  Not only because she was mindful of the law regarding drinking and driving did Jenissa chose to walk to her twin’s house. She never drove if she was going to have anything alcoholic to drink anyway. Luckily, she enjoyed walking—or loping, depending on what she was at the time—and if she thought about it, it was probably as quick to walk as drive. Walking, she used the path across the estate. Driving, she had to go out onto the road and use the public bridge across the river because the one on Jacob’s land was in the middle of being repaired. Walking helped her to clear her mind, and right then, it sure needed clearing. It was a mixed-up mess of jumbled ideas and thoughts.

  As she was lucky, the midges didn’t seem to bother her, even when they were out and about in their thousands. She would be fine on her way home as well. This far north, in the height of summer, even if the weather was wet, and what the locals called dreich, it hardly got dark. Plus, if
it did, as a wolf shifter her night vision was excellent, sometimes too good. Jenissa reckoned she could probably blackmail half of the village, if she was so inclined, with the things she’d seen that they thought no one could observe.

  As she went past the old barn on the edge of the woods, she smiled reminiscently. It had played a large part in Jacob and Ari getting together. Of course, she’d done her bit in that as well. However, she devoutly hoped Jacob never discovered just how much. Nevertheless, the barn held special memories, and for her friend and her brother’s sake, she was really pleased.

  Pity it can’t work wonders for me as well. Jenissa despaired of ever getting her own love life on track. Self-help was all well and good, but it was a bit like having the ice cream with no chocolate sauce on top, or curry without any chili in it. Satisfying, but somewhat bland. You needed a hint of spice with it—food and life.

  However, tonight wasn’t about her. She gave herself a mental talking-to for being maudlin and shoved her depressing thoughts into a tiny mental cupboard and locked it firmly. That evening, she had every intention of enjoying herself and sharing in Ari and Jacob’s happiness. After all, she was going to be an aunty and a pack buddy. What more could she want?

  A lover? A real flesh-and-blood fuck buddy? Well, she could dream.

  Half an hour later, she got her answer. What she wanted was to be as loved up as her twin and her best friend. They didn’t need to touch each other to show how they felt. It was in every movement and every look. Jenissa honestly wondered if they would notice if she left.

  “Yes we would, and sorry we’re rude.” Jacob flicked his sister’s nose in the annoying way brothers had.

  “Stop wriggling into my mind.”

  He grinned. “Ha, I don’t need to wriggle. Your mind is an open book.”

  She wished someone else’s was.

  “It’s just scary, you know?” Jacob said ruminatively. “For ages, you only have yourself to worry about. Then you have a partner you want to worry about. Now there’s going to be our children, and we’ll worry whether we want to do so or not.”

  “He’ll have them grounded ‘til they’re thirty, I reckon.” Ari looked up from the worktop where she was chopping vegetables at a speed that made Jenissa dizzy and fear for Ari’s fingers. “One of the penalties of his own misspent youth, d’you reckon?”

  Jenissa laughed. She’d go for that. She knew only too well what a hellion Jacob had been before he took over the mantle of Alpha.

  “Character assassination,” Jacob said. “I was as good as gold.”

  “In your dreams, mate,” Jenissa said and waggled her finger at him. “Remember, I was there.”

  “Not all the time. Not when…ah…” He blushed and shook his head.

  The doorbell jangled.

  “Saved by the bell,” Jenissa said, “before you fibbed even more and your nose hit the wall.”

  “Where’s all my Alpha due respect, you two?” Jacob was obviously doing his best to sound the injured party and failing miserably. “You’re supposed to look up to me and all that. Go onto your knees and beg for my attention.”

  Jenissa snorted. “Can you see any flying pigs?”

  Ari shook her head and put the veg into a pan on top of the Aga. “You two, you never change. Stop baiting each other, and Jen, go answer the bell for us, please? Jacob, I need you to lift the big pan off the shelf.” Her tone dared either of them to complain.

  Sufficient to say, they didn’t. Jenissa grinned to herself as she left the kitchen. If nothing else, it was fun to see her bossy brother meekly complying and doing whatever his wife asked. He was so much the Dom in every other aspect of his life. Except, Ari had admitted, when Ari cooked. Then, she’d said she was always the one in charge.

  “I don’t know if it’s the way I wield the knife or the thought that if he argues, he’ll have to cook instead,” Ari had said with a chuckle. “But I enjoy it whilst I can.”

  It must be nice to know there’s an area of your life where you sit back and do someone else’s bidding. Jenissa knew, understood, and in fact loved who and what she was—an out-and-out Domme. Sometimes though, she thought it might be nice to decide she wanted to be told how things would be, and not have to make all the decisions. Scrub that, tell someone to tell her how things should be. Once a Domme, always a Domme, it seemed.

  Although, there’s one thing I’d love to change permanently.

  Jenissa knew herself, and it would take a lot for her to be able achieve that or be dictated to. The first was nigh on impossible, and school and the pack had given her enough of the latter over the years. She was hard pressed to let someone open a door for her.

  She reached the door just as the bell went again. Impatient or what?

  “Keep your hair on, give me a chance.” Jenissa pulled the door open and stared at the tall, dark-haired man with the granite-grey eyes that appeared all too often in her dreams. Today, his hair was shorter than it had been for weeks, even though it still brushed his collar. He wore a soft, short-sleeved shirt the color of his eyes, with well-worn denims faded at the seams—and a scowl. Even the scowl turned her on. If it wasn’t so unseemly, she’d drool.

  “Took you long enough, woman. Too busy putting the world to rights, were you?”

  It was just as well she wasn’t a witch who could cast spells. If she was, he’d be a toad by now.

  “Hello, Rob. Happy as ever, I see.”

  Chapter Three

  Shit. As ever, Rob cursed his ever-ready verbal diarrhea. Why, each time he met Jenissa, did he either put his foot in his mouth or revert to being an arsy teenager?

  “I’m…” he hesitated. I’m what? Drooling? Horny and want to fuck you? Not the words to start the evening off on a pleasant note.

  “A pain in the ass? That’s a given. Oh no, I know.” She held one finger up. “You can say you’re thinking about the latest book.” Jenissa nodded as she stood back to let him pass. “The author in contemplative mode.”

  Her long, tawny hair swung around her face and she pushed it behind her shoulders in the swift, impatient gesture he associated with her. The movement drew his gaze to her face, and as he watched her, her amber eyes flashed with golden sparks. Rob swallowed heavily. Amber? Before he had a chance to comment—and no doubt put his foot in it again—Jenissa spoke.

  “That’s always a good excuse. The great novelist at work.” She put her hand on her forehead and the blood-red varnish on her nails shone brightly and drew his gaze like a magnet. The sleeves of her long floaty top slid up her arms in a sea of blues and golds, and shimmered in the early evening sun. “I’m soooo involved with writing at the moment.”

  “Dammit, Jen.” Rob knew he’d reddened. He had used that excuse in the past.

  “Oh, now, that’s novel. Haha, novel, get it? And then, dammit, Jen. My name is Jenissa.” She leaned forward, took hold of his collar to pull him even closer and whispered in his ear. “Or Mistress. Take your pick.”

  Mistress? What the…Really? Rob stared at her and wondered if he’d heard right. Why did the way she said that word make his mouth dry and his cock hard?

  “Mistress?” He had to pick on that work. It conjured up such interesting and scary pictures in his mind, thoughts he daren’t dwell on or dissect. “And do you always wear that color stuff on your nails?”

  She stared at him. “Oh, you say that so nicely—not.”

  He glared back, but persisted. “What’s with the Mistress stuff?”

  She shook her head. “Forget it. So not your thing.”

  “Jenissa,” he said in as firm a tone as he could manage. It was harder than he thought. With one word, one word of eight letters, she’d tilted his world in its axis and he had no idea how to straighten it. Or if he wanted to.

  “Mistress?” He shook his head to clear the thoughts that were filling his mind with hot, erotic pictures. Of him naked on his knees in front of her. Of her holding a flogger and stroking him with it before…No, for fuck’s sake, no. Not n
ow. “As in? Ah, no, never mind. Red cla—nails. Forget that as well. Er, should we go in before they think we’re up to something.”

  “Coward.” She smiled, and it wasn’t joyful or happy. It tore at Rob’s heart. Why did she look as if he’d given her a death threat? For that matter, why did she seem different?

  “Jen…Jenissa, what on earth is wrong?” He put his arms around her and was surprised at the pulsing heat that radiated out of her body and onto his skin. “Do you have a fever?”

  “Yeah, I guess you could call it that.” She ducked under his arms. “I’m fine. I’m fed up, and if possible, I want to talk to you.”

  “We are talking.” Nevertheless, the way she looked at him—considering, thoughtful and a little as if she could read his mind—made him wonder if his jeans could contain his prick without it breaking out and waving hello. He wished he could do a little adjustment without her noticing, but knew it wasn’t possible. Rob was resigned to having zipper marks up the length. “What’s up?” Apart from my dick.

  “Nothing of interest.” She stared at his cock and, then to his amazement and discomfort, ran her fingers up its length over his jeans. Her nails dug in, just enough for him to feel the pressure through the denim. It reminded him of the feel of that claw on his chest. A hot, cum-inducing sensation. It almost made him come there and then. That instant reaction was unusual.

  “But I maybe could be persuaded.”

  Before he had a chance to dissect her statement and reply, Ari appeared. “Are you two coming in, or shall I pass your dinner to you here?” She looked from one to the other and obviously picked up on the tension. “Ah, er, do you want to come for dinner tomorrow instead?”

  They sprang apart and Ari chuckled. “Too late was the cry. But now that you’re not held together by an invisible string, do you think you can come in and reassure Jacob you’ve not killed each other, or worse?”

  “Worse?” Rob asked.

  “You’ll see,” Ari said cryptically. “Now come on in and do all the godparent-y, relatives-to-be-and-such stuff.”