“Wolfe, Hope, Jacob, Faith.” He nodded to the four as he drew Jessica closer. “May I present my mate and soon-to-be wife, Jessica Raines.”
Jessica almost froze in shock as everyone around them became quiet. Dread began to fill her as Wolfe’s black gaze flickered over her. He was imposing, showing little emotion, no acceptance or rejection. His nostril’s flared and he drew in her scent.
She knew he could smell the combination of her scent and Hawke’s as it merged in the mating heat. He would also smell her fear. But would he know her regret, her pain, and the wish that she had known what her parents were doing, how they had wanted to destroy the Breeds? Did all that come across in a scent? She highly doubted it.
“You’ve chosen well, Hawke Esteban.” Wolfe’s arm moved from his mate’s shoulder so he could clasp Hawke’s hand. “A beautiful and loyal mate, and one I’m pleased to accept into our pack.”
Jessica blinked. He couldn’t have been speaking of her, could he?
“Jessica, had we not doubted that you could betray us, then you would have died before Hawke had time to declare you as his mate,” Wolfe told her softly as she stared back at him. “Questions needed answers, and your loyalty had to be proven rather than simply believed in despite the evidence. We thank you for your patience, and above all, for the grace you showed during your confinement to give us the time to prove your innocence, as well as your bond to your mate.”
She shook her head slowly. “What grace, Alpha Gunnar?” she whispered in disbelief.
A smile tugged at his lips. “You didn’t throw anything at us, despite months upon months of questioning. You never threatened to call in a representative, though you could have. And not once did you demand rights that were due you. The right of Tribunal rather than confinement during your interrogation. That was grace.”
She shook her head again. “It was guilt,” she whispered back. “How could I deny what I had done, even though I couldn’t explain why I had done it, or stop the actions even as they happened?”
“You saved my mate, as well as Jacob’s, despite the drug that enforced your will,” he said gently. “That was courage, and it was strength. We need that strength to survive our future. You’re part of Hawke’s future, and therefore, part of our own. Welcome to our pack.”
He nodded with a slow dip of his head, a respectful air of acceptance. He wouldn’t hug her, nor shake her hand. No Breed alive would dare to even brush against her during mating heat, especially that first, strongest phase that she was in now.
She had been accepted though. By his words and his actions, Wolfe had given her mating to Hawke his blessing, and therefore, the pack’s blessing.
“Dance with me now.” Hawke drew her into his arms even though she was still reeling from Wolfe’s proclamation.
She was part of the pack, a family. The pack was like an extended family, drawing together both Wolf and Coyote Breeds, extending an umbrella over each member, an acceptance they could find nowhere else.
The sound of a slow ballad filled the huge room as Hawke led her to the dance floor. Instantly, heat, sizzling energy and a sense of warmth began to invade her. With her head against his chest, his hands settled low at her back, moving her against him, Jessica let the acceptance she had been given sink inside her.
She had found a home; she had found a family. She had people who had believed in her even when it had appeared she had betrayed them.
“I love you, Jessica Raines.”
She almost froze in his arms as Hawke whispered the words at her ear.
Jessica lifted her head and stared up at him, her lips parting, tears filling her eyes. “I’ve always loved you, Hawke Esteban,” she answered, her voice soft, trembling. “Since the moment I met you, I loved you.”
He was her future, he was her heart.
Lowering his head, he brushed his lips against hers, a sizzling caress that almost caused a moan to break from her throat. She could taste a hint of the spicy essence of his kiss. A taste of lust, need, desire and hunger. A taste that would only fuel her own.
“Soon,” he promised, turning his head until he could brush his lips against her ear. “Soon, mate.”
Soon. Tonight. When they stepped back into their home, when they stepped back into the heat waiting to flare between them.
Soon. Until then, she had this. His touch, this dance and the incredible realization that she did indeed have a future.
NINE
It was a night made for lovers. Even amid the party, Christmas cheer, exchange of gifts and laughter, there was an air of warmth and intimacy that bound her to Hawke.
Quiet smiles, the touch of his hand, the knowledge that the sexual need was building inside both of them. When her skin was prickling with awareness and sensitivity, he took her hand and drew her back to Wolfe and Hope where they made their farewells.
Anyone watching them would have known why they were leaving, what would be happening that night. Besides the fact that they were Breeds and they could smell the mating heat, Jessica knew that each touch, each look they stole at each other gave them away.
The drive back to their home was made in silence. The short distance was filled with magic though. The twinkling of lights, the heated warmth spearing between them. When they pulled into the driveway, Hawke stepped around the vehicle, opened the door and then lifted her into his arms.
She couldn’t speak. Her throat felt closed with emotion when he pushed the door open and, rather than moving upstairs, moved to the living room instead.
Where once the room had been empty, there was now a Christmas tree and a lush silk-covered mattress awaiting them.
The lights on the tree lit up as they stepped into the room. Blue and gold. The entire tree was lit with blue and gold. There were only lights, no ornaments, but at the base of a tree was a small, gaily wrapped box.
“What is this?” she whispered as he carried her to the mattress and eased her to the thick silk comforter that covered it.
“It’s our first Christmas.”
awke stared into Jessica’s shining eyes. There were tears there. She stared at the tree as though she had never seen one before, much as he had stared at the first Christmas tree Wolfe and Hope had decorated for Haven’s first Christmas several years before.
There, amid the colors he had chosen for their family—her blue eyes, his golden ones—he watched as she reached out, her fingers trembling, to touch the point of one tiny light. A golden one. His color.
“Hawke.” She whispered his name again, her voice throbbing, as she turned back to him, staring at him as though he had just given her the most precious gift in the world.
He swallowed tightly, his throat nearly closed with emotion. Hell, this was the hardest part to get used to, he thought. So much emotion, when before he had felt so very little. The labs had bred emotion out of the Breeds. The scientists and soldiers beat it out of them, froze it out of them, and in some cases, had killed to be rid of Breeds that couldn’t hide emotion.
Hawke had survived. He had hidden all emotion, often even from himself. He had cared for nothing but the survival of the Breeds as a whole, and once he escaped, he had made certain that the survival of their race was all that mattered to him.
Until Jessica.
Now, staring into the velvety depths of her eyes, he knew that he would die, kill, forsake even his race, for this one woman.
“This is my first present to you.” He lifted the small box from beneath the tree and handed it to her.
The brush of her fingers against his was like fire. He could feel the tremble just beneath her flesh, smell the arousal and the hint of need that filled her. He could also sense the love that poured from her. He had never smelled love before, not in relation to himself.