Melissa's Acceptance (4 page)

“There’s a reason why you are as attracted to us as we are to you, baby. Also why you like our scents so much.” Damien felt like he was about to jump into a bottomless pit. He’d never felt so out of control or uncertain before and he didn’t like the feeling at all, but there was nothing for it. There was no way to soften what he was about to say so he dove in headfirst.

“We are werewolves and you are our mate.”

“W–What d–did you s–say?”

“We are werewolves and you are our mate.”

Damian didn’t know what to think when she just continued to look at him without any expression. The longer she sat staring at him, the more concerned he became. Then all of a sudden her expression changed from stoic and she started to smile. Her lips tilted up and then her mouth opened and a big smile crossed her face.

She was absolutely magnificent. Her emerald eyes sparkled and little crinkles formed at the corners of her slightly slanted eyes. Her whole face lit up and it looked like she was glowing from within. But then she burst out laughing and once she started, it didn’t look like she was going to stop anytime soon. She doubled over and clutched her stomach. The sound of her sweet feminine voice pealing with humor kicked in him the guts with lust and he found it hard to breathe.

Finally, her humor waned until she only chuckled occasionally and she sat up and wiped the moisture from her cheeks. The smile died from her face when she looked at his serious expression and then glanced over to see the same look on Luke’s face.

“Are you crazy?” Her question was whispered, and if it hadn’t been for his wolf’s hearing he may not have heard her.

“No.” Damian decided the only way she was going to believe him was if he showed her, so he stood up and ripped his shirt up over his head and then dropped it onto the sofa. He undid his jeans while pushing his shoes off with his toes, and then lowered his zipper. As he pushed his jeans and underwear over his hips and down his legs, he kept his eyes on her.

Red tinged her cheeks as he stripped off, but her eyes perused his whole body from the top of his head down to his toes and then back up again. He stood still and straight, allowing her to look her fill, and when she reached his crotch, her mouth gaped open. She must have realized where she was staring because she glanced away and her teeth clicked together with an audible snap when she closed her mouth.

“Look at me, Melissa.”

“You’re naked. Why are you naked?”

“I’m going to show you that what I said is real,” Damian replied, and then he glanced at Luke. He didn’t have to say anything, just gave his brother a nod.

Luke walked over to Melissa and scooped her up off the sofa and then sat down with her on his lap and in his arms. She shifted on Luke’s thighs, then clutched at his forearms in a tight grip. Damian inhaled, worried that she was scared of him, but was pleased when his wolf only scented her nervousness. With one last glance at his brother, he called to his wolf.

He knew what Melissa was seeing, as he’d seen all of his pack members and his brother change forms countless times. His muscles began to shift beneath his skin and his bones began to shorten and lengthen as the change took hold. Cracking and popping permeated the air as he pushed his human side back and let his animal come forth. Fur erupted on his body and he went to his knees as he began to reform his shape. His heightened senses let him hear his mate panting and her rapid heartbeat.

Damian kept his gaze on Melissa and saw her eying him warily, and then with disbelief, but he figured she couldn’t continue to disbelieve what was right in front of her eyes. She licked her lips nervously and when the transformation was complete, he took a step toward her. She exhaled and then whimpered as she tried to push herself back away from him, and he was glad that Luke was holding her, offering her comfort and support.

“Shh, honey. Don’t be scared. Damian and I would never hurt you.”

“What…”

“It’s okay, Melissa. We only want to show you that we weren’t lying. Damian and I will always keep you safe, honey.”

“Oh. My. God,” Melissa whispered. “How can this be real?”

Damian took a slow step toward her and when she didn’t try to get away from him this time, a little of the tension he hadn’t been aware he was feeling dissipated. He took another step closer and then another, until he was close enough for her to touch him and whined softly.

“Don’t you want to pet him, honey? Don’t you want to know what Damian’s fur feels like?”

Melissa glanced over her shoulder at Luke and then looked back at him again. “Can I?”

“Sure you can, honey.” Luke eased her hold on him, slid his hands down her arms and then guided her hands to the back of Damian’s head. She giggled nervously, whether because his coat was tickling her hands or because of just a nervous reaction, Damian wasn’t sure, but he loved the way her hands felt on his wolf body and hoped she would continue petting him.

He chuffed when her fingers dug deeper into his fur and quivered when her fingernails and the tips of her fingers scraped along his skin. The more she patted him, touched him, the more she seemed to relax, until she was leaning forward, her body curved over the top of his wolf.

“I can’t believe how soft your fur is,” she whispered. “This is amazing. I can’t believe that this is really happening.”

“Believe it, sweetheart. Our whole family are werewolves,” Luke said.

She looked over her shoulder at Luke. “What do you mean, your whole family?”

Damian wanted to be involved in this conversation so he moved away from her and embraced his human side, pushing his wolf back. When he was once again looking at her through his own eyes and not his wolf’s, he was pleased to see that she was having trouble keeping her gaze from his naked body. Without hurrying, he reached for his clothes and began to get dressed again. The whole time he put his clothes back on Melissa never removed her eyes from his body. That was, until he was fully dressed again, and then she looked up and met his stare. He walked over to the sofa, sat down beside her and Luke and took one of her hands in his.

“We live in a cabin on a large property. There are lots of other cabins on this land, but there is also a large house in the center of the other houses. Our Alpha and Betas live in that house with their mate.”

“What’s an Alpha?” Melissa asked and then put her hand up when Damian was about to answer. “Wait! Is that like the leader of the pack?”

“That’s exactly what an Alpha is. Our Alpha is Lucien Woolf. He is the Alpha of the Sugar Creek Pack and his brothers, Gabriel and Raphael, are his Betas,” Luke explained.

“What’s a Beta?”

Damian squeezed Melissa’s hand to get her attention. “A Beta is second to the Alpha. There are only two Betas in our pack, and the rest of us are Omegas, myself and Luke included. We handle the security and business side of the family. The younger werewolves, or what you would call teenagers, are Sigmas. Most of the Sugar Creek Pack are family, and we all work and live together.”

“Wow.” Melissa sighed the word. “It must be really nice to spend so much time with your family. How many people are in your family and how many live here?”

“There are over fifty that live here alone,” Luke answered. “Most of the older werewolves move on when they retire, but they come back now and again to visit. And it won’t be long before our pack starts expanding.”

“What do you mean?”

“Our Alpha and his brothers met their mate not that long ago and she’s already carrying a pup in her belly,” Damian said.

“A pup?” Melissa sounded horrified, and when she covered her mouth with her hand, Damian knew she had taken his term for a baby literally.

“We don’t give birth to puppies.” He gave her a gentle smile and drew her hand away from her mouth. “A werewolf doesn’t change forms until they reach puberty.”

Melissa exhaled as if with relief. “How is it that you are werewolves?”

“We had werewolf parents, sweetheart,” Luke explained. “The Lycan gene has been in our family for generations. No one knows where it originated from and to be honest, we don’t really care. We love being able to change into wolves and run through the forest in our animal forms. It is so freeing to be one with nature.”

“Yes, I imagine it would be.” She looked at Luke, then back to Damian again. “What do you mean when you say that I am your mate?”

Damian cleared his throat nervously.

“You are the one woman that is the other half of our souls, Melissa. A werewolf, or in this case, werewolves, have one special person that is meant to be theirs.” Damian knew he was making a muck of explaining things and glanced at Luke.

Luke resumed the explanation. “What Damian is trying to say is that you are meant to be our wife, but what a werewolf feels for a mate is so much more than what a human man and woman experience when they marry. You are our destiny, Melissa. Once a werewolf is mated, it’s for life. There is no separating or divorce. A werewolf never wants to be away from its mate for very long once the mating is complete.”

Melissa pulled her hands out of Damian’s and pushed to her feet. She began pacing and twisting her hands together with either nervousness or agitation, or maybe both. “This is so much to take in. I still can’t get my head around…I can’t believe that any of this is real.”

“We can get our Alpha’s mate to talk to you if you want to, baby.” Damian stood up and walked toward Melissa. His heart filled with hope when she didn’t pull away from him when he placed his hands on her shoulders. He gently pulled her into his arms and inhaled her natural delicious perfume. She smelled so sweet, but underlying the scent of the body wash and shampoo she’d used was the perfume of her arousal. His wolf was pushing at him to pick her up, carry her back to bed, strip her naked and make love to her for hours on end, and claim her, but he ruthlessly pushed his wolf back down.

“How do you claim a mate?” she asked.

“A werewolf makes love to his mate and then bites into the crook of her neck and shoulder, breaking the skin.”

Melissa tightened up in his arms and withdrew slightly. “Wouldn’t that hurt?”

Luke came up behind her and pressed his front to her back. “From what we’ve heard, the bite only hurts for a second or two but marking a mate also makes their woman orgasm harder.”

She stepped out from between him and Luke and then looked toward the door. Damian’s gut sunk and filled with dread, and he hoped that she wouldn’t want to leave yet. He and Luke wanted to spend as much time with their mate as possible. They wanted to get to know her better, and try and convince her that what they felt for her was real. It was nearly impossible for a werewolf not to fall in love with his mate from first sight, but he knew that Melissa would laugh if he even voiced the fact that he had feelings for her.

But what were he and Luke going to do if she wanted to go home?

Melissa was having trouble accepting any concept of what Luke and Damian had told her, and yet she felt as if every word they had spoken had been sincere. But she did believe what they had said. How could she refute what she’d seen with her own eyes?

“Talk to us, sweetheart,” Luke said, drawing her gaze. He looked worried and concerned and that made her feel a little more for him. What surprised Melissa more was the fact that she had any feelings at all for these two men. She’d only met them the previous evening and the time she’d spent with them was hazy. Physical attraction was one thing, but to feel what she did already was astounding.

She knew she should leave and go home, but the thought of doing so made her chest ache. Maybe it was because she was their mate and meant to be with them but, how could she accept being with them and caring for them after knowing them for such a short period of time?

Melissa reached up and explored the knot on the back of her head and wondered if she was, in fact, dreaming up everything. For all she knew she could be lying in a hospital bed hooked up to various machines and in a coma. God, what would Sara say if she told her what was going on? Would her sister look at her like she should be in a padded room, or would she laugh at her and tell her she should write a book?

Maybe she should call Sara and talk to her. If she was able to do that then surely she wasn’t dreaming all of this.

“I’m going to see if Tessa can come over,” Damian said as he frowned at Melissa.

She took no notice of him. She was too caught up in her own thoughts to even think of responding. If she wasn’t attracted to these men because of the mating musk—that is if any of this was even real—would she have given either Luke or Damian a second glance? And would they have looked at her at all, if it wasn’t for the way their wolves liked the way she smelled? The door closing didn’t bring her from her introspection and Melissa decided that she needed to talk to her sister.

Without giving Luke another thought, she looked around for her purse and then remembered the last time she had seen it was when she was in the kitchen. She hurried from the room and found her purse on a stool near the counter. Melissa dug around for her cell phone and then stared at the blank screen. After taking a deep breath, she activated her phone and saw that she had several messages from Sara already.

Where the hell are you? Why aren’t you answering your phone? Please call me as soon as you get this message, Mel.

Melissa hit speed dial one and Sara immediately answered. “Mel? Thank God. Where the hell have you been?”

“Calm down, Sara, I’m fine.”

“Do you know how worried I’ve been about you? Don’t you dare tell me you’re fine when I’ve been worried sick about your well-being!”

“Sara.” Melissa sighed. “I’m sorry you were worried, but there was no need.”

“Of course there was. I tried calling you first thing this morning and when you didn’t answer, I went around to your place. I had all these images in my head of you being in a car accident or being kidnapped or something.”

Melissa felt bad that she had worried her sister. She’d been like a mother to her since she was a teenager, so of course she would be concerned for her. “Listen, Sara. I’m fine. I had a little accident and couldn’t drive last night.”