Knocked Up by His Werewolf Dom [Lone Wolf Pack 2] (10 page)

Just like that, something clicked in Jessie's mind. His world blurred and he shot forward with a no-longer human growl. Distantly, he thought he should have been surprised by the fact that, when he landed on one of the men, his hands had turned into paws. But he couldn't have cared less.

Following Andreas's example, he clawed at his target's neck and back. He wasn't half as experienced at fighting as Andreas, so the man attempted to shake him off. "Shit!" the assassin screamed. "Get him off me. Get him off me."

With the corner of his eye, Jessie caught sight of one of the assassins retrieving a knife and tossing it straight at him. Through some sort of instinct he hadn't even known he had, Jessie managed to turn his body, avoiding the thrown weapon. The knife ended up hitting Andreas's chosen victim, while Jessie jumped onto the bathroom floor, ready to take on his next opponent.

Maybe he and Andreas might have managed to escape, but there were far too many assassins coming in now. And then, the unlikeliest person stepped into the bathroom—a man Jessie knew all too well.

It was Jake, looking just like Jessie remembered him. He hadn't even bothered to wear a mask like his cronies, or maybe he had taken it off for the exact purpose of facing Jessie. Unlike the last time Jessie had seen him, though, he had a large scar on the right side of his face, from his forehead to the corner of his mouth. Taking into account the eye patch he wore, the source of the scar must have blinded him as well.

Jake grinned down at Jessie. "Hello there, Jess. It looks like I finally found you."

Jessie didn't understand how the man had tracked him down, especially after all this time. Most importantly, he had no idea how he could have known about Jessie's nature when he himself didn't understand it. He recalled now that Andreas had mentioned him not being human, but with everything that had happened, they hadn't even gotten the chance to discuss that.

Instinctively, Jessie backed away from Jake. He could remember the last time they'd seen each other, and it hadn't gone over too well. Judging by the way Jake was glaring at him, Jake hadn't forgotten either.

The other man picked up his rifle and aimed for Jessie. Jessie had no idea where to go, where to hide. He couldn't say he wished he'd have left Andreas, but there had to be some sort of solution, a way to fix this.

Even as he thought this, the world blurred and he found himself kneeling on the cold floor, now human once again. "Jake… What are you doing?" he asked.

Jake hesitated, staring down at Jessie like he couldn't believe his eyes. He blinked, and Jessie had a moment in which he hoped his former Dom might have some sort of human emotion inside him left that would keep him from harming them.

He should have known better. Jake started to laugh, his guffaws echoing against the bathroom tiles, mocking Jessie. "Damn, Jessie," he said. "You haven't changed a bit." His laughter stopped as abruptly as it had begun and he fixed Jessie with an unblinking one-eyed glare. "You ask me what I'm doing. It's quite easy. I'm taking what you took from me, with interest." His hold on his rifle tightened. "You stole my eyesight and you made everyone around me believe I was crazy. For five years I was trapped in a loony bin, listening to other people scream. And then, finally, these people agreed I could be useful to them. How ironic, huh? I ended up working for monsters just like you. But you know what, my pet? I don't give a fuck. Now, I'll finally have what I've been waiting for. Revenge."

Jessie told himself to move, to get out of there, to do anything that would save his life. But where could he go? He was surrounded by assassins, all of them armed with the same weapons that had taken Andreas out. Andreas… Oh, God, Andreas. They'd had so little time together. How foolish Jessie had been to believe that he could change the unavoidable.

He couldn't even close his eyes, but he did avert them, looking at Andreas where he still lay on the floor. Jake gripped his chin and forced their gazes to meet. "Come on now," he said with a smirk. "Don't tell me you're afraid."

"He has nothing to be afraid of," Andreas suddenly said. "If anyone is going to die, it's you."

Jake didn't even get the chance to say anything. He turned, presumably to face Andreas. Jessie caught sight of his lover, now in human form, attacking Jake. He moved so quickly that even the rest of the assassins were taken aback. By the time they even realized what was going on, Andreas had already landed on top of Jake. He didn't waste time with fancy maneuvers. He was still bleeding badly—Jessie realized—but that didn't stop him from burying his claws into Jake's throat.

Even as he ravaged Jake, Andreas shifted into his wolf form. Although he seemed to be completely focused on his enemy now, Jessie saw the tension in him, the tremor he was barely keeping in check. He saw the slight sluggishness that shouldn't have been there, and he knew he had to do something before one bullet wound cost him his mate.

On instinct, Jessie shot forward toward the other assassins, keeping them from targeting Andreas. He moved faster than he himself had ever thought he could, managing to disarm three of his opponents before the fourth caught his arm and tossed him against the wall.

Before Jessie could even try to free himself from the assassin's hold, the man trailed the cool metal of a knife against Jessie's belly. Jessie froze. Had the man guessed Jessie was pregnant? It couldn't be—Jessie himself wasn't sure. Likely, it was just Jessie being unlucky as ever. Either way, it meant he couldn't move, lest he risk the one thing that could be as important to him as Andreas.

"Not so willing to resist now," the man said. He breathed heavily in Jessie's ear, his voice now down to a whisper. "I wonder... What would you be willing to do to save your lover?"

It didn't take a genius to figure out what the guy meant. Jessie shivered in disgust, and the assassin interpreted the gesture in the way that suited him. Laughing, he added, "You like the thought, don't you, whore? I can't wait to give you what you want."

Over his shoulder, Jessie spotted the other assassins finally removing Andreas off Jake. Jake's body was motionless, a pool of blood now forming underneath him, but Andreas wasn't much better off. He didn't resist his captors in the slightest, not even whimpering when they kicked him and trailed their knives over his back and his now blood-covered fur.

Jessie's eyes filled with tears. "Please," he said. "Please stop. I'll do whatever you want. Just stop it."

It was unlikely that anything he offered would be enough to persuade these men to leave Andreas alone, but he couldn't give up. His heart wouldn't allow him to believe Andreas was dead.

Suddenly, the assassin that had been keeping Jessie captive went rigid. Jessie's senses cleared of his panic and he finally smelled a not-quite-familiar scent. Another figure stepped into Jessie's line of sight. "I think you should stop right there, gentlemen," a cool voice said. "Let him go, now. That is, if you want to live."

A tall dark-haired man had a clawed hand on the assassin's shoulder, which he then trailed over his throat. His gray eyes reminded him an awful lot of Saul, and he knew the man must be Finn, Saul's brother.

"Apologies for the delay," Finn said, looking at Jessie. "I think we can take it from here."

One of the assassins who'd been focusing on Andreas sneered, pointing his weapon at Finn. "You and what army?"

As if in answer to his question, several more wolves entered the bathroom, all of them snarling at the assassins. Judging by the sounds Jessie could hear outside, there were more of Finn's not-quite-men in Jessie's now wrecked living room. More of them would have probably burst into the bathroom had the place not already been filled to capacity.

Now backed up by impressive forces, Finn smirked. "Would you like to rephrase that?" he asked. "I don't like to be questioned, and I don't like silencers."

To point out his words, he disarmed the assassin in a few efficient motions. Jessie couldn't even tell how he did it. The knife against Jessie's belly simply disappeared, as if through a magic trick, and seconds later, so did the body pinning him to the wall. Finn lifted the silencer up into the air, squeezing his throat until the guy started to turn blue.

"Isn't so fun now, is it?" he asked, barely concealed anger in his voice. "I don't appreciate mercenaries thinking they can waltz into our territory and kill people we've taken under our protection."

In Finn's hold, the assassin trembled, probably seconds away from pissing himself. But Jessie didn't care about him anymore. Now that he was free, he rushed to Andreas's side and dropped to his knees next to his lover—no, his mate. "Andreas... Oh, God. Can you hear me?"

When Jessie touched him, Andreas twitched slightly, struggling to open his eyes. He never did. "Please," Jessie called out, "somebody help me. He's badly hurt."

Having apparently lost interest in the assassin, Finn joined Jessie next to Andreas's prone form. "I take it he's your mate?" he guessed. When Jessie nodded, Finn added, "We don't have the necessary medical equipment to treat him here. We'll have to go to the Alpha mansion."

"Can he survive if we move him?" Jessie asked, unable to keep his voice from trembling.

Finn squeezed his shoulder, the striking familiarity somehow comforting Jessie. "He'll make it. Werewolves are more resilient than you think, especially when they have something to live for."

That might have been true, but Andreas was in a really bad condition. He'd lost a lot of blood already, and in spite of his fur, Jessie could see his wounds were swollen and seeping blackened blood. Even if the Alpha mansion had the facilities needed to help Andreas, they might never get there in time, especially since, from what comments Saul had made, Jessie had gathered the place wasn't even in the city. He suspected Finn knew all this as well, but he was trying to encourage Jessie.

Jessie didn't know what prompted him to do what he did next. Like a man in a dream, he took hold of Andreas's paw and bent over Andreas's body. Suddenly, he seemed to have fangs—which given what had happened earlier, wasn't all that surprising. With as much gentleness as he could muster, he bit down on Andreas's flesh.

It wasn't a sensual moment. It couldn't have been, not with Jessie's strong awareness of what he risked, of the fact that he might lose Andreas before they'd even gotten the chance to truly be together. All the accusations and the distrust had ruined their meeting, Jessie's past polluting the beautiful hours they'd shared. Jessie simply couldn't allow their story to end here.

Jessie willed Andreas to return to him, placing all the hope and need inside him into that lone desire. Something inside him snapped, much like it had when he'd first seen his lover being attacked. Even as he tasted Andreas's blood, a strange power seemed to flow out of him and into Andreas.

Somewhere at the back of his mind, images and emotions began to crystallize. It was slow at first, and Jessie couldn't be sure what was happening. But then, out of the blue, pain rushed over him, an agony not his own, but freed from Andreas's body. Jessie held on, a strange instinct telling him that everything depended on this moment, on his ability to endure what he needed to for his mate, for them both. A golden thread of emotion wrapped around him, his new mate bond with Andreas. Deep inside him, he felt an energy not his own, supporting him, giving him courage, strengthening his resolve. God, he really was pregnant.

It was just that knowledge that kept him from giving everything he could, everything he was, to Andreas. He pulled away with great reluctance, hoping that his efforts had been enough.

When his vision focused, Jessie realized with relief that Andreas's eyes were open. He still hadn't shifted into his human form—which Jessie guessed would have taken strength he didn't have—but the worst of his injuries had disappeared. Jessie smiled down at his mate and pet Andreas's large head. "See? I'm stronger than you think. I told you I believed in us."

The werewolf licked his hand in response, struggling to get up, but failing. Jessie quickly pushed him down, keeping him from straining himself too much. "Don't move, Andreas. You're still not well."

He was distracted from his scrutiny of Andreas by a soft curse. When he looked up, he saw Finn staring at him in shock. "Holy shit. How did that happen?"

In that moment, Jessie realized he had no idea exactly what he'd done to help his mate. He'd just followed his heart and his instinct, and he'd ended up with that. "I don't know," he admitted. "I never had that kind of power before. It doesn't matter. I'll figure it out later. I think Andreas still needs some help."

Finn didn't make any further inquiries. He just nodded and picked Andreas's still form without too much trouble. Jessie got up too and followed Saul's brother out of the bathroom. By now, Finn's companions had immobilized the rest of the silencers and had even removed Jake's body. Jessie realized that he was completely naked. As much as he wanted to hasten things along, he couldn't just go see Saul's father in the buff. As he pulled a pair of pants and a shirt on, it occurred to him that the neighbors should have noticed the attack on him.

As if guessing his thoughts, Finn said, "I'll have to stay behind to do some damage control, but you'll be perfectly safe with my men." He grimaced. "Usually, silencers are more discreet, but now, they wanted everyone to find out about it. It's why it took me so long to get to you in the first place. They had reinforcements trying to attack me. They're likely planning a pack war."

A pack war. Just like Andreas had told him. Judging by the destruction caused by this one small conflict, such a thing could be disastrous. But Jessie couldn't worry about the bigger picture now. His mate was still in a delicate condition, and he himself felt a little woozy.

"Are you all right?" Finn asked, obviously noticing his predicament. "You went ashen."

"A bit...weak," Jessie replied. "I'll be fine."

Finn didn't seem convinced. He gestured one of his men—wolves—close. The man shifted into his human form and Finn handed Andreas to him. "Argent, make sure they get home safe."