CHAPTER FOUR
The Room Where It Happened
Jolene ended up getting a lot of work done in the long week that followed, but she was not happy about it. She missed having Luke around. She hadn’t heard anything from him ever since his sudden departure, which made her firmly believe that she had said or done something to upset him. She didn’t have his phone number; only the number for his electrician company and she was not about to call him there in an attempt to track him down. That would be decidedly uncool.
So, instead of making any attempt to get in touch with him, she threw herself into her work. She was pleasing her clients at least. The change of atmosphere and the complete freedom to write copy while in her underwear made the move completely worth it. Add to that a certain sexy electric man and Jolene was pretty much set.
There were several messages on her phone from her ex, but the last thing she wanted to do was open that can of worms—especially when she was vulnerable from feeling lonely.
One of the hardest things for her was something that she had for so long envisioned would be the easiest, most freeing thing. She was having a hard time going to sleep in her room. It was the room where it happened. The room where she had had a crazy, fast love affair with Luke. She hadn’t even claimed it as her own before they had claimed it together, and the bed felt so besmirched without him.
Luckily, just as Jolene was starting to really feel down in the dumps, she got a call on her cell phone from someone who so thankfully was not Kenny.
His name was like a magical incantation.
“Hello?” she asked brightly, feeling silly for answering in such a bland, unexciting way.
“Hey,” Luke replied. God, his voice was sexy over the phone. The time away from him had evidentially turned her into even more of a middle school girl.
He chuckled into the phone. Oh god, he could hear it too. She was really going to need to work on upping her coolness factor. She had always thought she was the smoothest woman ever, but apparently not. Not at all.
It was telling that Vermont was making this Bostonian feel lame.
“What’s up?” she asked, doing her best to remain calm and casual. Luke had a life outside of her and she had a life outside of him. Sure, most of her life outside of him consisted of staring at screens for hours on end, but it was a life anyway. She did not particularly enjoy long walks in the wilderness in the hot summer… especially not alone.
“Not much, you?” Luke replied. The short responses were kind of making her mental. Not that she was expecting a loving sonnet from him or anything, but she had hoped that he would sound a bit more… excited to hear her voice? Because she sure as shit was excited to hear his.
She decided to amp it up a little to make it more obvious. “I was beginning to wonder if you had lost interest in me.”
There was that deep chuckle of his again. “No, no,” he said. “I’ve just been busy with work. You know how summer can be, with the heat knocking out power and stuff. At least there weren’t any storms.”
Aww, she did not want to talk about the weather with Luke. “Oh, I guess I can’t blame you for that, then. I’ve been busy too, though my job’s nowhere near as exciting as yours…”
Talking about work was not any better.
“Heh,” he said. “So listen. I was thinking that, since it’s my day off again, you might want to come out with me to Vermonster again.”
Jolene chuckled a bit. “Do you live there?”
He laughed back. “Pretty much… So what do you say? Are you in?”
She would honestly go anywhere with him. The bar had been pretty cool, though Jolene could not remember every detail of their first time there… Their first night together. “Sounds good,” she said. “I’m going to end up addicted to those—what were they called?—Vermillion something or others.”
“I could tell you liked them,” Luke teased. “Every time I blinked, I had to get you a new one.”
“That is not true!” she laughed. “You did not have to keep getting them for me.”
“Yeah, sure.”
She could almost imagine his face, the way he was smiling. She knew that he was smiling. It was so evident in his wonderful, growly voice. Luke sounded like he had smoked for years but then quit fairly recently. Jolene did not feel like she needed to worry about his health; the effects of past mistakes lingered but were benign.
“I’ll pick you up in about an hour?” he offered then. “I hope you’re stocked up on Pop-Tarts.”
Jolene was all set to answer with a clever retort, but he ended the call before she could say anything. She stared at her phone, attempting to memorize his number by keeping her eyes on it, and then she swiftly saved it in his contacts.
Luke.
She put him in her phone as Luke. No last name needed. No explanation.
Her bedroom was a wreck. She had been in such a funk that she hadn’t done laundry yet, and therefore she had to wear a long-sleeved black and white striped sweater and some dark jeans. The jeans were very tight on her, a fact that did not help Jolene feel better about this new date. She was nervous and excited, and when she got nervous and excited she sometimes felt like just staying in bed was a better option…
The sweater looked nice on her, at least. She rolled up the sleeves so she would not die of heat stroke. At least Vermont was not volcanically hot.
It didn’t take Luke long to come to her cottage. Jolene heard the familiar purr of his motorcycle in her driveway and rushed to open the front door before he was even off of his bike. He even still had his black helmet on.
She swiftly locked her front door, threw her bag over her shoulder and went out to him. She threw her arms around his shoulders in greeting. Luke grinned a devilishly handsome grin at her, obviously glad to see that she was so pleased to see him. He was always willing to have his ego stroked.
“Hey, you,” he said. “Hop on and let’s go somewhere.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay a minute?” she asked him, placing her hand into his pocket and feeling around for the edge of his cock, which she rubbed up against as soon as she could find it.
“Whoa!” he said with a laugh. “Well, I can’t exactly turn that down.”
Luke got off his bike and secured his helmet in the storage space before following Jolene back up to the house. She unlocked the door, which made him laugh. “Why did you even lock the door if you wanted to come back in?”
She smiled at him. “I wasn’t sure you’d say yes.”
Once the door was open, they rushed inside, holding hands. They threw off each other’s clothes on the way to her bedroom, leaving a trail of clothing in their wake. By the time they reached her bed, they were naked. He took charge however and moved her to the closet instead. He closed the door of it and held her up against it, taking her from behind.
Jolene let out a yelp when he entered her, stretching her and not even pausing before thrusting fast and hard against her. She loved it so fucking much. “H’ahhh,” she shouted, clutching the doorframe as best as she could. She brought a hand to the doorknob and turned it to and fro. She rocked and gyrated against him, feeling like she would lose her footing.
Luke grabbed her by the waist and carried her that way to the bed. He threw her down against the mattress, and then proceeded to take her that way, holding her down by her wrists as he plowed into her. “Yeah, take that,” he growled at her. “Take that, you little slut.”
Jolene groaned and squirmed against him. “Mmm, yeah. Yeah, I like that. Ohh, Luuuke.”
It was not long before, in their frantic, lustful fucking, they came together, unleashing their fluids into and onto each other.
There was nothing for it; Jolene was going to need to do laundry that night.
Mutually pleased and grinning, they went into the bathroom and cleaned each other up with some toilet paper. She could see that his big cock was still throbbing and it made her pleased as punch.
A quickie was a good way to start the evening. They put their clothes back on and went out again to actually climb aboard the motorcycle and go somewhere. Luke seemed supremely amused as he watched her lock the door again.
He climbed onto the bike and snapped on his helmet while he waited for her. She noticed that the smile had not left his face since he had arrived. Jolene took a great deal of pride in making him so happy. She didn’t know how the hell she did it, but she would take it as the best compliment.
She put on her helmet and got onto the motorcycle behind Luke, carefully wrapping her arms around his middle so she wouldn’t fall off. She was a lot more confident about riding that thing ever since they had ridden it while drunk during a storm. She could not believe herself sometimes. That was totally not a thing to proud of, and yet she was.
Neither of them had gotten hurt, so…
Luke drove the bike back to Vermonster. She was starting to think that he owned shares in it or something. Maybe his electrician business was just so he could help fund the club.
“Okay,” Jolene said with a sly smirk as she got off the bike. “Cut me off after five Vermillion Vipers, okay?”
He laughed. “Five? That’s ambitious.”
“I don’t come here to not get at least a little tipsy,” she said. “Do you think I’m a lightweight?”
“No never,” Luke replied, chuckling and shaking his head a little as he followed her into the club. They went up to the bar together to order their drinks this time. She hadn’t realized before that everyone in the place was dressed like they were part of a motorcycle club as well. Were they members of the Lone Wolves?
“Is it just me or does your motorcycle club have like a million members?” she asked him as she examined everyone else in the bar.
Maybe it was just her, but leather attire and metal-spiked collars and wristbands indicated ‘motorcycle rider’ to her.
Luke laughed again. “There’s not a million of us, but yeah. There are a lot of members. Why? Do you wanna join?”
The idea of Jolene being in a motorcycle club was laughable. “Uh, well, I don’t have a bike. But I’m in marketing? I could be your club’s marketing advisor?”
They laughed together and took their drinks from the gruff bartender. Luke led them over to a high table with stools. They sat down. Jolene’s stool was slightly wobbly which was like an omen. She was in for another fun night.
After their several glasses of highly-alcoholic drinks, Luke took Jolene by the hand and brought her out to the dancefloor. She felt like she was experiencing déjà-vu but that was not necessarily a bad thing. It was a memory of a good time. When they hit the floor, she brought her arms up around Luke’s neck and swayed with him.
Suddenly, she saw someone across the room who looked just like Luke.
“Now I know I’ve had too much to drink,” she said jokingly. She nodded her head towards the tall, dark, and handsome man across the way.
Luke looked over and smiled at little. She could not help but notice that it was not exactly a happy smile… “Oh, yeah. I suppose I should introduce you.” He took Jolene by the hand and led her over to the stranger. “Jolene McNulty, this is my twin brother Zebe. Zebe, this is Jolene.”
A flash of recognition came over Zebe’s eyes. Jolene had a funny feeling that she had seen him before. Well, obviously. She was dating his twin brother. Although…
She giggled a little, imagining a Prince and the Pauper type situation was going on. She had read too many books and drunk too many Vipers. That was all.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said to Zebe, giving him a smile.
He tilted his head a bit after and she got a sense that he wanted to say something but was holding back. “It’s good to see you.”
“You should come sit at our table,” Jolene invited.
Luke appeared less than enthused, but he didn’t say anything. The three of them sat back down at the tall table. Zebe pulled a stool over so he could join them. He sat beside his brother, looking across the table at Jolene with a strange, contemplative sort of expression on his face. She could not figure him out. Maybe if she weren’t so buzzed, she would have been able to understand why he was looking at her so strangely.
Suddenly, Zebe scratched at his neck and she noticed a crescent moon shaped birthmark on it. It was near the back of his ear and it looked a bit like a brand. She realized that she had seen that exact mark on Luke the other day!
Weird. Did twins usually have the same birthmark? Jolene didn’t know much about twins except that they could be identical or fraternal. These two were clearly identical.
She narrowed her eyes a bit, trying to find the birthmark on Luke’s neck. Leaning forward, she kissed him on the mouth, moving towards his neck to kiss him there too. She was subtle, making sure Luke wouldn’t know she was searching for the birthmark on him.
It wasn’t there. He didn’t have it. She sat back in her chair.
That could only mean one thing…
She fixed a stare on Zebe, and his eyes flashed. The corners of his mouth lifted up into a shy smile.
The man who had brought the casserole… The man she had pounced on and had passionate sex with…
That man had not been Luke. That man had been his twin brother, Zebe!
Jolene felt sick to her stomach. She excused herself from the table, not knowing what to do, and went to the bathroom to throw up. The alcohol was finally getting to her. Well, that along with the realization that she had had sex with a complete stranger while dating his brother… without knowing! God, she felt horrible. So that was why he’d run away when she called him Luke! Zebe probably thought she was insane. She had been so brazen, so openly affectionate, and the guy had not known what was going on.
To be fair, Zebe hadn’t exactly resisted. He had sex with her of his own free will. Jolene felt like she should be angry at him. He could have spoken up! How could she trust him now?
But she remembered the way he had held her. He had been so gentle with her, so warm and loving… Luke was a rough, hot lover but Zebe was so tender with her… That should have been her first clue that something was up.
Jolene sighed, walking back to the table. She couldn’t be mad at Zebe. It had been an honest mistake. A stupid, shitfaced mistake, but a mistake nonetheless.
She got the feeling that Luke would not see it that way. They weren’t officially monogamous or anything, but she knew that he was gruff and possessive just based on the way he acted about her. There was no way he would take this news lightly. Jolene wondered if she should even tell him.
She sat back down at the table and Zebe continued to make eyes at her, giving her little lingering smiles and being awkwardly quiet.
“Jolene hasn’t been in town too long, but we’ve already been here together, what, twice? Three times?” Luke looked over at her for confirmation and caught her looking at Zebe.
“Uh, yeah,” she said, focusing back on Luke. “You’ve really helped to keep me from staying in my cottage all day.” She smiled appreciatively at Luke. She truly was appreciative. Except… now she didn’t know which of them had done what.
“We’ve met,” Zebe revealed then. “I brought over a casserole for her, to welcome her to town.”
Jolene blushed, wondering how Luke was going to take this news. She was worried that Zebe was going to anger him just by mentioning that.
Sure enough, Luke suddenly caught wind of what was going on, what had happened between his brother and Jolene. He growled—literally growled—at Zebe.
“You and me,” he said darkly. “Outside. Now.”
Jolene attempted to place her hand on his arm and calm him down, but Luke was not having it. He rushed outside with Zebe who, for some reason, was going along with it. Compelled to go watch them, as if she would be able to stop them from fighting, Jolene followed them and wondered whose side she was on. Logic said that she should side with Luke, since he was the one she thought she was with the whole time.
However, her heart told her something different…
She got to the doorway and then let out a scream when she saw the twin brothers turn into wolves! That couldn’t have happened. That did not make any sense. How much had she had to drink? She couldn’t remember if she’d had one drink or two, and now she was starting to feel scared. What she thought she was seeing could not be real… Could it? The more she thought about it, trying to rationalize it even though it seemed remarkably irrational, she realized that this could explain a few of the random things that had happened. This whole time, Luke had been gruff and snarly because he was a werewolf! He was far more than just a run of the mill bad boy. He was a fucking werewolf. That was why they were called the Lone Wolves. And because they were twins, Zebe was one, too.
“Jesus…” she said, watching the wolves bite and snap at each other. “Oh god!” She knew that she should have been running. But something about the two men that she had growing passion for meant that she stayed there in that doorway, watching them a little longer than she should have. Not only was she terrified of what she was seeing, but she also had this strange feeling that she had to know who would win.
CHAPTER FIVE
The Werewolf Twins
As she watched the werewolf twins fight each other, she brought her hands up to the sides of her face, yelling even though they were not listening to her. Luke appeared to be the more dominant one, the Alpha, which did not surprise her at all. He bit into the flesh of his brother and threw him down onto the ground. Despite being the more submissive one, Zebe held his own and fought back each time, unafraid to go for the throat in order to get free.
Jolene could not take it anymore. This was all too much for her. She’d wanted a bad boy rebound, but this was way more than she had been anticipating. Reason took over and snapped her back to sobriety. She started running from the club, not really knowing where she was going apart from away. Even if this was some kind of dream or illusion, she could not be there anymore.
Suddenly, someone stopped her, tackling her to the ground. Dazed, Jolene looked up at the person who was on top of her, keeping her down and preventing her from running. It was a woman, dressed in leather with metal studs. Clearly someone from the bar and the club that Luke loved so much.
“Stay down,” this woman said. She had blond hair cut into a spiky pixie cut. Her ears were covered with earrings of various shapes and sizes. As she looked down at Jolene, her eyes appeared more gold than anything. Was she one of them?
“What is going on?” Jolene asked her. She was not going to attempt to fight this stranger. The woman was clearly stronger than her, though shorter. “Who are you?”
The strange woman looked from her to the fighting wolves nearby. Jolene tilted her head just enough to be able to watch them as well. Luke and Zebe were really attacking each other, unafraid to go for blood. Jolene could not believe it. Weren’t twins supposed to be extremely close? She supposed that, since they were wolves, the normal rules did not apply.
“You weren’t supposed to see this,” the woman said. “My name is Anjelica, but that isn’t important.” She moved her hands over Jolene’s belly, making Jolene blush out of embarrassment and surprise that yet another stranger from this club was feeling her up.
“Are you like them?” Jolene asked nervously.
“Also unimportant,” Anjelica said. “But yes.” Her eyes widened. “Just as I suspected… Wait here!”
Suddenly, this Anjelica person—werewolf?—stood up and shouted to the men who were so viciously at each other’s throats.
“The bitch is pregnant!” she bellowed to them. “She’s pregnant with twins!”
Luke and Zebe looked over, ears perking up on top of their heads. They were locked in struggle but they quickly got off of each other, licking their wounds, and came over to investigate.
As they approached, Anjelica’s words sunk in for Jolene.
Pregnant. She was pregnant. And not just with one baby, but two! And not just two babies, but two werewolf babies?!
As Zebe and Luke got closer and closer, her vision became clouded over. This was too much for her. This was all too much for her. Before they could fully reach her side, Jolene fainted.
The first thing she noticed was voices. Jolene did not want to open her eyes. She had been having such a weird dream, and she was afraid that if she opened her eyes, it might confirm that none of it had actually been a dream and it was all true.
“Jolene?” the familiar voice of Zebe—or was it Luke—asked her.
She felt something warm and wet on her forehead. It must have been some kind of a cloth. Had she fallen down? She knew now that she had not imagined Luke—or Zebe?—at the very least.
“It must all have been a shock to her,” another voice said. This one was female and familiar as well… that young woman from Jolene’s dream.
Slowly, Jolene opened her eyes. Three people were staring down at her, two of them identical. Luke and Zebe Weir. What had happened? Was she still in the club?
“What happened?” she asked, slurring slightly in both her woozy and drunk state. She was regretting coming back to the club now. She had known that it would lead to trouble in the end.
“You fainted,” Luke informed her. Jolene identified him by the lack of birthmark. That damn birthmark! That had started everything.
“I’m sorry we were fighting over you,” Zebe said.
She knew that she should feel flattered by that for some reason, but instead she just felt confused and a little annoyed. “Why were you fighting over me? And who is this?” She looked pointedly at the young woman who was there with them, gently pressing a moistened washcloth to Jolene’s forehead.
Luke and Zebe looked at each other, and then they looked at the stranger woman. Jolene was starting to feel done with all of them, but she attributed a lot of that to the alcohol. Her head was killing her. Maybe she had hit the ground? Oh, that was right! This lady knocked her to the ground and then rubbed her stomach in a most unsettling way.
“Anjelica discovered that you’re pregnant,” Zebe said, trying to break the news to Jolene in the gentlest, least confusing way. “You are going to have shifter babies.”
“Two of them,” the lady known as Anjelica said, holding up two fingers. “Shifter twins! This is a big deal and you should be so excited!”
Jolene’s stomach did a belly flop. It was a big deal all right, but she disagreed that she should feel excited. More like terrified. And confused. Always confused. She wanted to ask more questions but her head hurt too much for that to really be a good idea. Thankfully, the three werewolves that sat around her kept blabbing away with each other. She closed her eyes, feeling sick and sore and tired.
She supposed that those three things were pregnancy symptoms. Why hadn’t she realized that something was going on before? Oh god, she had drunk so much, too. She wondered if werewolf babies could withstand alcohol in their systems, and then she realized that that was the sort of question she never in her wildest nightmares could have imagined she would ask herself.
“I need to rest,” Jolene told her trio of caregivers.
Zebe nodded decisively. She had literally known him for only an hour and already she could tell that he was on her side.
“Of course,” Luke said, eyeing his brother with an irritated expression on his face. Jolene knew that the fighting between those two was far from over.
She didn’t know where she was, but Jolene could not care less at this point. Her head was killing her and the only way she could think of to make herself feel better was to get some more rest. Fainting was not the same as sleeping.
The three who had been taking care of her left the room. Jolene got comfortable in the bed she had somehow ended up in. She closed her eyes and was instantly asleep.
Meanwhile in the living room Anjelica, Luke and Zebe convened to discuss what was to be done about Jolene now that she was pregnant. “I was certainly not planning this when we got together,” Luke said, seeming to be both amazed and proud of himself. “Although I’m not naïve enough to pretend like I didn’t know it could happen.”
“Just one problem,” Zebe said. It was the first time he had gotten growly with his brother since Luke attacked him at the bar. “Why are you assuming they’re yours?”
The two brothers growled and glared at each other. Anjelica rolled her eyes, feeling glad that she was sitting between them so she could prevent any more fighting but also feeling frustrated that they couldn’t keep their testosterone in check for more than eight seconds.
“The thing that matters is that she is pregnant with twins,” Anjelica pointed out, trying to make them see reason. “This is a special rarity and one of you is the father. Please. You’re brothers. You’re family. I know you have a lot of masculinity to show off, but you are not going to help her if you kill each other.”
Luke and Zebe looked down, ashamed of themselves. They got along well enough with each other to be able to live together in this house, so they could get along well enough to take care of Jolene. It was clear that they both loved her. The question was going to be whether or not she loved them…
“It’s not a competition,” Luke said. “Except that it is.”
He pushed off from the couch and stood up, pacing the room with a scowl on his face. Zebe watched him pace, annoyed that his brother was being so hot-headed towards him and annoyed at himself for letting Jolene entice him. He didn’t blame her—he thought she was beautiful and sexy and sweet—but she had jumped on him enthusiastically and made him feel things that it turned out that he should not have felt.
Because he was not his brother.
Jolene turned over in the bed and opened her eyes. She could hear faint music downstairs. She tried to remember where she was, but all she knew was that her head hurt. Slowly, she got out of bed. When she looked down at herself, she nearly fainted again.
Her belly was swollen like she had eaten an entire Thanksgiving meal in one sitting. She rubbed her hands over it, remembering the mysterious woman who had leaned over her and felt her stomach.
Twins. That’s what the woman had said. She was pregnant with twins. She was going to need to ask for more explanations about that.
Blearily, Jolene left the bedroom. She found the bathroom and threw up, feeling oddly better by doing so. After flushing, she washed her hands and face in the sink with cool water, then looked at her reflection. Her long red hair was a scraggly mess and she looked like she hadn’t slept at all; like no amount of sleep would ever be enough. It felt as though she had used a pile of rocks as a pillow.
She followed the soft piano music down the stairs of the house. The place was much larger than she could have guessed. She still did not entirely know where she was, but at least it was a comfortable place and not a cave or something. Jolene had yet to really let herself think about the fact that she was pregnant. Such a thing was far too heavy for her right now.
What she needed was Luke. She needed answers from him specifically. Was this twin of his someone she could trust? And also… Oh god…
What if Zebe was the father?
Jolene stumbled a little on the stairs, but luckily for her it was near the bottom. Both Luke and Zebe leapt up from their places on the couch to try and help her, but she waved them off.
“Are you all right?” Zebe asked her.
She could recognize him by the birthmark, or possibly scar, on his neck. Originally, she had thought it was a birthmark, but now that she had seen the way that the two brothers fought she had reason to think it could be a scar given to him by Luke. Cuts could leave interesting marks behind.
Other than that, though, Zebe could be recognized by his kind eyes. He had the same hazel eyes as Luke of course, but there was something about them that seemed to be almost wise. Though Jolene had gone into this relationship with Luke in search of a bad boy who offered her thrills and no strings attached, she now found herself needing stability and she wasn’t sure if Luke was the one who could give her that. And maybe neither of them could.
“I’ve been better,” Jolene said, smiling a small but appreciative smile at Zebe. She took both of their hands as she stepped down off of the last step, wanting them both to feel as though they had helped her in some way.
“Now that you’ve had some rest, come sit and chat with us,” Luke said, gesturing over to the couch. “This is our sister Anjelica.”
Jolene went over with them and sat down. Her head was spinning, so it was a good idea for her to sit down as soon as possible. She offered the familiar woman a smile. “We’ve met. But hello.”
Anjelica had a serious face, and hair that was darker than her brothers’, but the same hazel eyes. Jolene wondered if she was their older sister, but then determined that it really did not matter. “Let’s get some food in her,” Anjelica said. “She looks peckish.”
“Oh, I’m not so sure that I’ll be able to keep it down,” Jolene said awkwardly. Her stomach was doing flops, especially now that she was sitting there surrounded by three honest-to-god werewolves. Luke had a scent to him that she had not noticed before, but it smelled like blood. It was not the smell that a pregnant lady wanted or needed to smell.
However, despite her polite protestations, Anjelica got off the couch and went into the home’s kitchen. Jolene was at least grateful to be left alone with the two men. Now she could try and get to the bottom of things.
“So,” she said, not really knowing where to start with this. “You’re werewolves.”
Zebe smiled at her and nodded a little. “Yes.”
“We normally try to keep it on the down low,” Luke explained.
Jolene raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t Vermonster a club for werewolves?”
The brothers looked at each other and chuckled. Zebe seemed to understand her point, but Luke was quick to defend the club that he so obviously loved. “It is an exclusive club,” he pointed out. “The only way anyone would know that it’s a club for werewolves is if they somehow got invited in… Like you were.”
The locale of Burlington, Vermont was starting to make sense to Jolene. It was a small enough place, not the focus of large news stories, so it made the perfect hiding place for people like Luke, Zebe, and Anjelica. She sure wished that she had been able to find that out by reading through a guidebook or something, though.
Not by getting knocked up by one of the werewolves.
Jolene brought a hand to her face, squeezing the bridge of her nose between forefinger and thumb. It would have been nice if one of these guys had had the decency to let her know what she was getting into. Instead of just letting it be all Pop Tarts and casseroles.
“I need a drink,” she muttered.
Zebe quickly went to the kitchen and poured her a tall glass of ice water. He came back and carefully handed it to her. She could smell something that smelled vaguely meat-like coming from the kitchen. “Thank you,” she said to Zebe.
He sat beside her and Jolene felt pretty strange, sitting there between two men that she had fucked not knowing that they were not in fact the same person. She knew that they were going to have to get into that, but right now she was too exhausted and achy to be able to articulate things the best way.
After a few more minutes, Anjelica came back with a tray of little sandwiches, cut into finger food style triangles. She placed the tray on the coffee table directly in front of Jolene. “There’s not a whole lot in the kitchen right now, because these two being men, they don’t go to the store much.” She rolled her eyes.
“I hope that, being werewolves, these sandwiches aren’t made of rat or something.”
Anjelica looked at her, offended.
Luke laughed. “This is why I like her. She could have said ‘human’ or something, but she went with rat.” He winked at Jolene.
She felt her stomach turn. “That means no rat… and no human, right?”
He shook his head, still laughing.
“It’s ham and cheese,” Anjelica said defensively. “We may be werewolves, but we’re still people.”
Jolene felt embarrassed, but she thought she had a right to know what sort of thing she was about to eat. “I’m sorry,” she said sincerely. “I’m new to all of this.”
Anjelica gave her a look that was hard to read. “Well, now that I know you are all right, I guess I should head home.” She looked at her brothers. “You be good to her,” she told them warningly. “This kind of thing doesn’t exactly happen all the time.”
“We know,” Luke said.
“Thank you for your help,” Zebe said.
Shifting her eyes from one twin to the other, she looked at Jolene one more time. “You’re going to notice a lot of changes right away,” she explained to the overwhelmed woman. “Werewolf offspring develop much faster than human babies, so your gestation period is going to possibly even be cut in half. After all, they are twins. And they’ll be competitive, even inside you.” She gave a slight smirk at that as though it was supposed to be amusing and then left the house.
Jolene watched her leave, hoping that the twins inside her belly would not be quite as violent towards each other as Luke and Zebe were. She picked up one of the finger sandwiches—thankfully not made of actual finger—and took a bite. It may not have been anything exciting, but it hit the spot. She let out a little moan, enjoying the food.
She still didn’t know precisely where she was, and she didn’t exactly feel as safe as she would have liked, but she was starting to feel better and that was what mattered to her at this point.