Chapter 35: Chapter Thirty-Five - Jessica

“So, you already have a boyfriend?” he asked.

I cringed as I poured him a cup of coffee and handed it to him. “Well, it just happened. I know its sudden, but I can’t explain it.”

Dad leaned against the kitchen sink and nodded. “Okay. So, it just happened, quickly. He seems nice. Really took me down. A surprise but I’m glad you’re down here with someone that can protect you.”

“I can’t protect myself?” I teased.

He gave me a look. “Not against animal attacks.”

I mumbled over my coffee mug. “Mason didn’t leave anything out, did he?”

I stared into my dark coffee and when I looked up, Dad was staring at my neck. The look was shock. Sure, I didn’t look like a person who would get a wolf tattooed on my neck.

That’s because I wasn’t.

“He didn’t mention that,” he said, his gaze heavy as he took another sip. “A tattoo.”

I shrugged. “It was a spur-of-the-moment thing.”

There was a ghost of a smile on my lips when Dad lifted his eyebrow. “That seems to be a common theme since you moved here, doesn’t it?” His gaze shifted

toward the kitchen window and I briefly wondered if Mason had shifted in the yard.

I doubted it. He knew better than to shift with my dad here. “I’ll be right back,” he said, putting his coffee mug down in the sink.

Panicking, I reached out and touched his forearm. “Where are you going? You just got here?”

He gave me a look. “Did you miss me that much already? I need to get something out of my truck. I’ll be right back.”

Dad left the kitchen and I anxiously watched out of the kitchen window, tapping my fingertips against the mug. What could he possibly get out of his truck?

He stopped at the hood of his truck, turned toward the woods and he seemed to be speaking to someone. Oh, my goodness. Mason.

I sat down with my mug, running toward the door when I felt someone’s hand on my shoulder. I shrieked, finding Jacob standing behind me. He had a hardened look on his face. One that I didn’t see too often from him.

“What are you doing up? I thought you were sleeping…”

“Is that Uncle Stan out there?” he asked, his voice low from sleep.

“Yeah,” I said. “I think he’s out there with Mason. I was going to check on him.”

“Stay here,” he said, moving me out of the way. He didn’t even bother putting on a T-shirt.

Irritation flooded me when he shut the door in my face. The audacity. I ran back to the kitchen window, seeing Mason standing by the truck in new clothes.

They were having a heated conversation that I didn’t want to miss out on. Instead of being the damsel my dad clearly thought me to be, I stalked toward the front door and walked toward them.

“…how did we not know that?” Jacob asked. “Grandpa never told me about your side of the family being wolves.”

I stopped and gasped, covering my mouth with my palm.

They all looked over at me. Dad looked the most shocked. “Jessica, there is a lot we need to talk about.”

“You’re a wolf, Dad?”

Dad ran his fingers into his salt-n-pepper hair. He’d never shown any sign of that before. Not that I was looking for it before I came here. He turned to face me and sighed heavily. “When your mother died, I was heartbroken. She was my mate, Jessica.”

I thought back to any tattoos on my mother’s neck, and I was certain she had none. “What about the…” I pointed to my neck, and he smiled.

“It wasn’t there. We hid it because it was a different time, and we didn’t want anyone else in Slade Springs to know.”

Mason leaned against the hood of the truck. “So, Jessica has wolf blood on both sides?”

He nodded. “Yeah, she does.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.

Dad sighed heavily. “There are a lot of things being a wolf brings into your life and danger is one of them. When your mother passed, I decided to leave it behind. I didn’t want to bring you up here in Slade Springs. It’s dangerous. These boys have a hectic life. I didn’t want you to come here because I didn’t want you to be in the middle of everything, which is exactly where you are now.”

Mason cleared his throat. “I’m keeping her safe.”

To my surprise, Dad smiled. “Yeah, I know. I know that feeling of true bonded love. It’s overpowering. You’d do anything for her, but that doesn’t mean you’ll always be able to save her. This lycan that’s terrorizing the town, do you have any idea who it is?”

Jacob interlaced his fingers on the back of his neck. “No. We think it’s a woman. We followed the scent to a pair of women’s clothes. Whoever it is seems very interested in Jessica and the estate.”

Dad’s eyes hardened. “When I fought the lycan…”

“You were the wolf from the other night?” I asked. “You were the wolf at the courthouse?”

Dad nodded. “I came down the day you left. I beat you here with all of your layovers. I’m the wolf you saw the first day.”

My mouth opened in shock. Dad was huge. “Why did you come?”

“Because I don’t trust this place,” he said. “There are secrets in this town. These families,” he said, gesturing toward the pack house. “They have kept so much from the public’s eye.”

“Why weren’t you part of it?” Jacob asked. “I’ve never heard of another family line.”

“That’s because I wasn’t born a werewolf.”

Jacob’s stare turned hard, and he glared at Dad. I stepped over and angled my head to look at everyone at once. “What does that mean? You weren’t born a werewolf?”

Mason looked down at me. “That means someone turned him into a werewolf. Someone bit him.”

“You bit me…” I shouted.

“It doesn’t work with mates,” Jacob mumbled. “Who bit you?”

“A rogue,” Dad said. “I was seventeen years old, wandering the woods with nothing better to do. A rogue bit me and turned me. I watched your grandfathers chase him out of town. When they came back, they told me what was going to happen to me. It did. It was the most terrible pain I’d ever experienced. Not long after, I smelled your mother. Our connection was unbreakable. After she died, I vowed to get out of the town because I was so afraid something would happen to you. I still am. Any chance you’ll come home to Denver?”

Mason growled and Dad put his palms up in surrender. “I didn’t think so.”

I blinked, trying to understand all of this information at once. “Why did you come down?”

“To watch after you,” he said softly, touching my cheek. “You’re my daughter. You’re all I have left. Now this lycan is hunting you. We have to stop it. I’ll help if you’ll have me.”

Jacob patted Dad’s shoulder. “Of course, come on inside and we’ll talk about what we know.”

Dad followed Jacob inside, leaving Mason and I together. “Wow, what a sucker punch,” I mumbled.

Mason nodded. “Now we have an extra wolf to help us. We know he can fight, at least. He saved our lives.”

“I can’t believe this.”

Mason offered me his hand and I interlaced my fingers with his. “How about some pancakes?” he asked. “I’ll cook while we inform your dad of what’s going on.”

I nodded, absently walking inside with the oddest feeling in the pit of my stomach. “We have to protect my dad,” I said. “Besides Slade Springs, he’s the only family I have.”

Mason stopped on the front porch and lifted my chin upward. “I’ll make sure that your dad is safe if you promise to keep yourself safe while I’m not here. I

have a feeling there is a lot about Slade Springs that we’re going to figure out soon and I don’t know how the town is going to handle it. Who already knows and who doesn’t? I want you to do what I ask of you. Can you do that?”

“I promise to do the best I can. No lycan hunting…”

“I mean it. You don’t have to hunt the lycan because it’s hunting you. I don’t want you to get bit and turn…I just want to keep you safe, just as much as your dad.”

The seriousness on his face startled me. I knew this was a serious situation but to see how much he was worried, worried me.

Almost as much as my dad turning into a giant wolf and I never knew about it.