Dreams of Wolf [Half-breed Shifter Series Book 2] (9 page)

Jaycee stroked
his black hair, frowning over the sadness behind his words. “What happened
twenty years ago?”

He sighed out a
mournful sound, as if simply remembering his history hurt. When he pulled back
to meet her gaze, she saw a haunted past in his eyes. “I’m an anomaly, Jaycee.
A freak. Not just because I’m a shifter. I’m an outsider to them too.”

Her lips
parted. “I don’t see a freak. How are you a freak?”

He sighed
again. “I’m three-fourths wolf shifter and…and one-fourth stag shifter.”

“Stag,” she
repeated the word, suddenly realizing where his big chocolate-brown eyes came
from. “You mean, a deer. You’re a deer as well as a wolf.”

He nodded.

When she pushed
against his chest, his eyes flared with surprise, but he pulled back, allowing
her to sit up.

She tentatively
touched his chest, awed. “Show me.”

His brows
crinkled with confusion, but he nodded and shifted. It happened instantly. One
moment he was a man, and the next a deer stood beside her bed.

She gasped. “Oh
my God. That’s just plain cool.” She reached out, her fingers hesitant. The
deer—Knox—tilted his head down, letting her touch his antlers. Her hand
trembled slightly as she caressed the boney protrusion. The ivory tines were
warmer than she thought they’d be, a living extension of the man inside. She petted
his pelt next, charmed by the coarse fur and the feel of his muscles bunching
and moving underneath.

Sitting back,
she winked up at him. “You probably get this a lot, but…nice rack.”

The deer
flashed back into a man who tackled her onto her pillows with a wolfy growl.
“Always gotta be the smartass, don’t you?”

His lips spread
and eyes twinkled as he spoke, so Jaycee figured she’d said the right thing.
Puckering her lips with a fake pout, she sniffed. “But I thought you liked my
ass just as it is.”

“I do. Oh, I
do.” Without much struggle from her, he flipped her onto her stomach and began
to nibble on her fleshy cheeks.

The lovemaking
that followed totally rocked her world.

Afterward, she
wrapped around Knox like a second skin, loathe to fall asleep because no matter
what he’d told her earlier, she knew he’d be gone when she opened her eyes.

Stroking his
sleek, tanned skin, she asked the question again, “What happened to you twenty
years ago?”

He didn’t
answer immediately; she wondered if he’d already fallen asleep. Just when she
was sure he was out, he murmured, “Half-wolf, half-stag shifters are rare in my
world…like unheard of. To a wolf, deer is lunch. Not a life partner. But my
grandparents mated anyway, and created my mother. After she became an orphan,
she stumbled across my father’s wolf pack, and he took her as his. No one ever
knew about her other half. After I was born, she had to keep my stag side
hidden as well. I was raised always knowing I needed to keep it hidden but
never understanding the importance behind it.”

Jaycee
swallowed, bracing herself for a bad turn in his story that was sure to come.
“So what happened?”

“My mother
became a whore,” he sneered the word. “Her lover was the only other person who
knew our secret. He kept quiet while they were together. She wanted to leave me
and my father and run away with him, but he didn’t want a commitment from her,
just a couple fucks. He soon grew tired of the sex and her pleading, and told
my father what she was, essentially revealing what I was too. My dad broke her
neck immediately and then turned to me as if to slay me next.”

Gasping, Jaycee
clapped her hands over her mouth. “Omigod. What did you do?”

He shook his
head. “I ran. I was so scared, and only eight years old. My mother had just been
murdered by my father. I had no idea where to go. But that didn’t matter. I had
to escape. I knew they could follow my scent, so I shifted into my stag. I
guess they didn’t think to sniff out a fawn, because they never found me.

“Years later, I
came across a young shifter from my father’s pack, someone who’d been born
after I was already gone. I asked about my father, and the wolf told me he was
dead. He and my mother’s lover killed each other right after her murder and my
escape. The story had become legend in the pack. And the little stag-boy who’d
gotten away was only a myth. Even the wolf telling me the story didn’t think I
existed.” Knock turned to Jaycee with a penetrating stare. “But I do exist.”
Taking her hand, he set it over his chest, where she felt a steady, rhythmic
thump. “Remember that when you open your eyes, my love. The man whose heart you
hold is still here inside this chest, whether he’s a wolf, deer or human. And
he needs your acceptance.”

Chapter Nine

Jaycee’s dreams
merged with reality as the sun rose and shifted beams of light through her
window blinds, nudging her awake. Her dream lover’s heartfelt words echoed
through her head as she stirred.

You’re mine
now
.

I’ve
searched for a place to belong. And finally, here in your arms, I feel as if
I’ve come home
.

The man
whose heart you hold is still here inside this chest, whether he’s a wolf, deer
or human. And he needs your acceptance
.

She came to in
a face full of fur. Sputtering to spit the hairball out of her mouth, she jerked
back on the mattress, zipping open her eyes. The massive lump of black, gray,
and white fur didn’t take the shape of a wolf at first. It was simply there,
invading her space, until finally, she distinguished legs, a body and head
tucked down next to its front knees, its eyes closed and body slowly rising and
falling with each breath it drew.

Oh my God,
there was a wolf on her bed. Sleeping.

Jaycee
screamed.

The wolf jerked
awake, springing onto all fours with a vicious growl that had Jaycee lurching
backward and falling off the mattress. Taking the sheets with her, she plopped
onto the floor with a pained oomph.

“Jaycee?”
Knox’s harried voice asked before his face—the very face from her
dreams—appeared above her as he leaned over the side of the bed. “Are you
okay?”

A hand—
his
hand—reached for her, but she yelped and scurried backward away from it. “Oh my
God. Don’t touch me!”

She pushed to
her feet, wrapping the sheets protectively around her. Gaping at him, she
demanded, “What—who—where did you come from? What the fuck is going on?”

Stark naked, he
stared at her with pleading eyes. “I’m not a dream,” he rasped. “I was never a
dream. I’m real, Jaycee. Feel me.”

He lifted his
arm toward her, but she scrambled back. His brows puckering with
disappointment, he dropped his hand.

“But you—there
was a…a…”

“A wolf in bed
with you? Yeah.” He sighed and scrubbed at his face. “Shifters revert to their
natural state when in distress…or sleeping. Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to
scare you.”

She shook her
head. Scare. He hadn’t scared her. He’d petrified her. “No, no, no,” she said
aloud. “Shapeshifters don’t exist. They’re in movies, and books, and dreams
obviously, but—”

“I’m real,” he
growled, looking suddenly irritated. “Damn it, look.” Before her very eyes, he
flashed into a wolf. The man she’d dreamed about was no more, and a deadly,
feral-looking beast with—dear Lord—Knox’s brown eyes stared at her.

She screamed
again and whirled away, dashing for the door. She was out the front exit a
moment later, sprinting barefoot across her yard. She didn’t look back to see
if he followed, too afraid to even peek. But she imagined hot wolf breath on
her nape and a deadly growl reverberating through her bones.

Eight blocks
separated her from the Griffins’ house. She swore she made them in thirty
seconds. The sun had yet to lift fully above the horizon as she pounded on the
front door, screaming for Riley and Shaw. Finally, she managed a fearful look
behind but gratefully didn’t see a wolf in sight. Or a deer. Or Knox, for that
matter.

As soon as the
lock unbolted and the door began to slide open, Jaycee tumbled inside her
employers’ home, babbling and crying as she fell into Shaw’s surprised arms and
clutched him for dear life.

“He’s a
wolf…but a man. Oh my God, I thought it was a dream.” Clutching her head, she
finally managed to pull away from Shaw and stare at him and Riley, who both
looked rattled as if they’d been woken by an insane woman, which they had. “I’m
delusional,” she gasped. “I need help. Oh my God. What’s going on?”

Eyes filling
with sympathy, Riley reached for her. “Oh, Jaycee—”

But her husband
caught her arm and sent her a telling look. “Maybe I should handle this one.”

Riley looked
reluctant, but she nodded and gave Jaycee an encouraging smile before saying,
“I’ll find you some clothes.”

As she turned
away and started for the stairs, Jaycee caught sight of the triplets, piled on
the steps, looking at her through the slats of the banister with huge, worried
eyes.

“Come with me,”
Shaw murmured, gently slipping his arm over her shoulder and leading her to the
back of their house and into his office. He sat her on the love seat, tucked
her blankets back around her to hide the essentials, and then pulled his desk
chair around to plant himself in front of her. “Now,” he said with a patient
smile. “If I understood you correctly, you said you woke up in bed with a
shapeshifter. Right?”

Jaycee’s mouth
dropped open. Why was he acting so blasé about this? Shouldn’t he be contacting
a psych ward right about now? “Why aren’t you calling me crazy?”

He shrugged.
“Because I know you’re not. Shapeshifters
do
exist.”

Jaycee shook
her head because, well, she had to deny such an insane claim. Right? “I don’t
understand.”

An amused smile
lighting his face, Shaw explained. “I didn’t believe in them either, until four
wolves broke into my house when I was fifteen and killed my entire family.”

Pressing her
hand to her chest, Jaycee croaked, “Excuse me?”

“I told the
police they were just wild dogs that had found a way inside and attacked us. I
couldn’t tell them I’d seen one of the wolves as a human, that he actually
spoke to me. I didn’t want anyone to think I was crazy. But a group of hunters
read about my family’s murder in the paper and contacted me. They weren’t
regular hunters, but shifter hunters. I joined them when I was sixteen. About
ten years ago, Donald joined the organization, and that’s how I met him.”

“Holy mother of
God,” Jaycee uttered, cupping her face in her hands. “I don’t think I can
digest this fast enough.” Her eyes lifted to his. “So, you…you kill
people—things—like Knox?” She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Okay, waking
to a wolf in her bed had scared the ever-loving shit out of her, but if that
shapeshifter was anything like the man she’d come to know in her dreams, then
she most certainly didn’t want him murdered.

“I used to,”
Shaw murmured, sounding regretful. “Then about, oh, seven years ago, I took on
a stint, setting up shifter traps deep in the woods. I liked the solitude,
living by myself, but I never caught a shifter until one time…”

His face
softened, and his eyes lit with the memory. “I caught a female jaguar.” The
breath that left his lungs was full of longing. “When I first saw her, she was
in human form, and…she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.”

Eyebrows
pinching together, Jaycee scowled. She didn’t like Shaw thinking of any woman
besides Riley as beautiful. It felt…unfaithful.

“You couldn’t
kill her, could you?”

He shook his
head. “No.” With a shrug, he added, “So I married her instead.”

Jaycee opened
her mouth, but no words came out. “Wait. What?”

“I hope you
understand. We couldn’t tell you when you first came to us, Jaycee. We didn’t
know you well enough to trust you, and by the time you became like a member of
the family to us, Donald was in your life. He’s still very much involved with
the hunters. We couldn’t risk our secret getting out, plus we didn’t want you
to have to keep any secrets from him.”

“Wait,” she
said again, lifting her hand to stop him. “Are you saying—”

“Riley, Dane,
Rhea, and Brynn? Yeah. They’re all part shapeshifter.”

“Oh my God.”
She surged to her feet, pulled her sheet tighter around her and began to pace.
“Oh my God.”

“The children
wouldn’t make it in the shifter world. With Riley’s father being fully human
and me being human, their shifter side is diluted enough that they’d be
considered weak compared to other shifters. It was safer to raise them in the
human world. All they have to do to fit in here is hide what they are.”

A spark of pity
filled her. She remembered Knox from the night before, telling her he didn’t
fit in anywhere either. “But
you’re
human?”

His grin was rueful.
“One hundred percent.”

“Yet your wife
and children are…” She plopped back onto the love seat. “I just need to catch
my breath.”

Shaw bit his
lip. “Jaycee, you’re the best nanny Riley and I could ever find. The triplets
love you like a second mother. But if you don’t think you can handle knowing
what they are—”

Surging to her
feet, she glared at her boss. “Are you firing me?”

“No!” He popped
up from his chair as well, eyes wide. “God, no. But I know what a shock this is
for you. And I don’t want you scared of the children or—”

“Scared?” she
repeated, insulted. “I helped raise those babies from infancy. If they were my
own flesh and blood, I couldn’t love them any more than I do now. It doesn’t
matter to me if they turn hairy when they fall asleep.” She frowned as she
spoke that part. She’d put the triplets down for naps numerous times over the
years; why hadn’t they—