Chapter Thirteen
She dreamed of Jerimiah pressing a gun into Eneko’s chest and pulling the trigger. She tasted his blood on her tongue and woke with a cry. Eneko’s arms banded around her. His scent filled her nostrils.
“Whoa,” he whispered. “It’s okay. You were just having a nightmare.”
Jasmine sunk back. Her heart pounded and she rolled over, pressing her hands into his chest to ensure he was there. Her throat felt like sandpaper.
“I need to go get a glass of water.”
His fingers tightened briefly before he nodded and released her. He settled back into the bed and Jasmine slipped away. The house seemed big and dark. When she got to the kitchen, the oven light was already on. Lori sat at the table, stirring a candy cane into a cup of chamomile tea. There was hot water still on the table, so Jasmine rooted around in the cupboards to find herself a glass and filled it with water.
“Where did you even find a candy cane?” she asked her sister once her throat wasn’t so parched.
“In the back of the freezer. Decided that if it’s frozen it must still be good. What about you? Having wild sex, I hope.”
Jasmine frowned at her.
“Better than having visions of your only family murdered,” Lori muttered defensively. She sipped at her tea. “There is something really to be said for bears and their rippling muscles. They’re like the body builders of the shifter kingdom… God, Jazz.”
“What? What did I do?”
“Nothing. It’s them.”
Jasmine’s brow knit. “The bears?”
“No. Not them. The crazy people. I never realized how hard it was for you. For any shifters. I thought I had a crappy childhood and that I had a hard time in life. But nobody has ever said they wanted to kill me.”
Jasmine laid a hand on her sister’s shoulder. “People don’t realize how hard it is. They say, oh, you’ve got rights to own land now. You can have public rallies. What more do you want?”
“How about not this?” Lori shivered.
“They don’t understand the constant battles. The people who are disgusted with us merely for existing. Fearing that the friend you just made will end up running away once you tell them.” Jasmine sighed. “Or that it’s legal to fire a shifter for no reason other than they’re a shifter. Or when you have people protesting shifter’s basic rights, debating about whether shifters deserve to exist in public spaces in the government.”
Lori’s expression darkened. She shook her head. “I don’t know how I could live like that.”
Jasmine touched her chest, where her jaguar lay curled up. “I’ve spent most of my life repressing who I am. Hiding. Being ashamed. But I’m not going to do that anymore.”
Her mind drifted back to everything that had happened in the last few months. She’d lost her jobs, she’d been attacked, she’d seen shifter children wishing that they weren’t shifters anymore. It made her so angry. What made her even angrier were there were people who would be using these events as reasons to oppress shifters.
She gulped down the rest of her water and tried to put it from her mind. Those sorts of thoughts weren’t going to help her sleep. And it was so late, and there was no point in getting mad at vague people without faces.
“And what can we do? I mean us as non-shifters.” Lori stared into her mug. “I’ve always been focused on myself. I used to always be jealous of you, because you were the one who was able to escape Mom. But… but everything is different from what I thought.”
That was perhaps the most responsible thing she had ever heard her sister say before. Jasmine wasn’t going to say that though. It was far too bitchy, especially when they were finally connecting on an equal level. Instead, she put an arm around her sister and leaned her forehead to Lori’s.
“It’s not your fault. You did have a screwed-up childhood.”
“Yeah, but at least people weren’t saying they wanted to get rid of me because of how I was born.”
Jasmine kissed her sister’s forehead. “Yeah. Well, the foster system screwed both of us over. They took me away from Mom but kept me bouncing around so much that if it wasn’t for the farm, I never would have made it as an adult. And you… they left you with Mom and her abuse. But we’re more than our past, right? And we’re more than our mother. You and I are going to rock this world.”
Lori smiled at that. “Yeah, we are.”
Jasmine glanced at the clock. “But for now, we should go to bed. We need sleep.”
“My tea is still hot. You go ahead, I’ll just watch some Netflix for a while.”
Jasmine hesitated but nodded as she went back to the bedroom. There, Eneko sat in bed, a book on his knees with the lamp on. He gave her a tense smile, but she could see that he was about as ready to sleep as she was. Slipping into bed, she curled up next to him and slid a hand through the buttons on his pajama top.
“Listen,” she started, then stopped.
“Yeah?”
Jasmine shrugged. “I’m not sure if this is the right time…”
Eneko kissed the top of her head. “Now’s the best time.”
Well, maybe he was right about that. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” His voice was soft and tender. He set the book aside and smiled at her while he stroked her hair.
“I’m… I’m not sure about the whole mate thing. I know that it’s supposed to be a big part of shifter culture, but I guess I’ve never really understood it. So, I don’t know if I can ever call you my ‘mate’ in that sense. But you are the best thing to happen to me in a long time, and I want to be with you every second of the day.”
Eneko chuckled. “I feel the same way.”
Hearing him say that made her chest feel lighter. It was like she started to glow from the inside out as a soothing warmth flowed through her. Like drinking tea, but without the actual tea.
“I used to think that Maite and Luken’s mother was my mate. I thought I’d lost my chance with her. And I did love her. But I never felt this connection with her. I never dreamt about spending the rest of my life with her. I never could imagine us both grey-haired with grandchildren playing around us.” Eneko’s fingers combed through her hair.
Jasmine shook her head. “Mates. I’m not sure that we really understand what that’s supposed to mean. So often it seems as though mates between shifters is supposed to be this big, sudden event. You meet a person and angels sing and you know instantly.”
“Having a mate isn’t one event,” Eneko whispered. “It’s sharing your life with someone… forever. It’s loving them with everything and knowing that you’d do anything for them.”
The warmth spread to her fingertips. Jasmine closed her eyes and breathed in his clean, sweet fragrance. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“I want to be with you forever.” Jasmine looked up at him. “I want to grow old together. I want our grandchildren to be spread around us in our final days. I want to leave this world with your hand in mine. I never want to be parted from you. Maybe I don’t know about all that mate stuff… but I think you’re mine.”
Eneko smiled at her. “I know you’re mine.”
There were actual tears in his eye as he kissed her. It started sweet, chaste, just their lips. Then as she shifted to be closer, the kiss deepened. Her jaguar made a purr-like noise in contentment and urged her forward. Jasmine grinned as she straddled him. Their pajamas–or rather, his since they were both wearing his clothing–shifted around their bodies as she began to grind against him.
She felt the effects she had on him almost instantly. Eneko moaned in her mouth, his hands moving to grip her hips tightly. Jasmine’s arms wrapped around his neck as she continued to kiss him. He broke away from her mouth to move to her neck. Tingles of pleasure rushed down her spine. Heat pooled in her center. She leaned her head back, giving him better access to her throat as his lips caressed her skin. Sparks floated just under the surface everywhere he touched.
His legs moved beneath her, raising up and lowering with her tempo, encouraging her to go just a little faster. So, she did. Her reward was a tightening of his hands and a quick nip on her collarbone. Jasmine gasped and jerked hard against him. Her fingers wound in his hair and she panted as something inside of her tightened.
Eneko suddenly released her. Both of his hands moved to the top she wore and with a quick jerk, he tore it in half. Jasmine jerked in surprise, then giggled. His mouth dropped to one full breast. The tightness inside increased, a zing traveling from her breast to her core. Fire burned under her skin as his teeth gently gripped one of her nipples and his tongue flicked over it.
“Oh!” she gasped, arching her back to push her breasts into his face. “Oh, I like that.”
Eneko chuckled. “I know. You told me last time we made love.”
“Did I?”
He moved to the other breast. “Many times.”
Jasmine closed her eyes and let the sensations overwhelm her. At some point she got Eneko’s shirt off him. Her hands caressed the smooth contours of his muscled chest. He rolled over, pinning her onto the bed beneath him, and flicked his tongue over her throat.
When he sat back and removed her pants, she just smiled at him. There were no words needed as he slid a hand between her legs. With one hand he pulled down his own pants. His touch was deft, gentle. The fire already inside roared to new heights and the tightness felt like it was about to snap her in half. Eneko pushed her knees to her chest and she held them there. Her fingers dug into her own flesh, desperately holding onto the pain as her nails cut skin. It was the only thing anchoring her to this world. She didn’t want to miss a second of this glorious connection.
And then her lover knelt over her, his hands on her hips. He eased himself in and everything else flooded away. Her legs pressed up against his big chest, her ankles around his ears, as he began to move. His meaty hands clasped over her hips and waist, keeping her in place as he thrust, gently at first but with an increasing pace until she was all but bouncing on the bed. The pleasure sweeping through her was too much and she cried out with every thrust.
Eneko panted, his breath coming in grunts and growls. Their eyes stayed glued on one another. At some point Jasmine found his hand and clung to it.
The first wave hit and she held her breath, waiting for the explosive pleasure that she knew was going to come. The wave washed over her then eased as Eneko slowed. He paused a moment, panting, then grinned. She knew that grin and opened her mouth. To do what? Beg for mercy? Tell him she loved him? Beg him to never stop?
He started to jackhammer into her and everything exploded. The wave that had retreated came back like a tidal wave. It grasped at her mind and dragged it away as bolts of fire shot up her legs, the tightness seeping out its warm pleasure as it snapped. Every inch of her was drowned in it. She might have been screaming. She wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
It didn’t end until Eneko was lying beside her, his arms wrapped around her, his lips gently brushing against her neck. Jasmine was utterly spent, but wouldn’t have traded a second. Somehow now, with her mate in her arms, she knew that this was possible. Somehow, they were going to make it through this. And they’d be together. No matter what.