Chapter 39: Chapter Thirty-Nine - Jessica

In my entire life, I’d never felt anything like this. The pain in my stomach was excruciating. It felt like a mixture of period cramps and what I assumed contractions felt like.

It twisted and turned my insides with a viselike grip. Then the hunger…I couldn’t explain it.

I felt so hungry. You know that expression, I could eat a horse? I literally, could have eaten a horse. I scooted my chair underneath the dining room table with the rest of the pack.

Dad sat across from me, his steady gaze on my face like I might break at any moment. I didn’t blame him. I was his only family. His child. His child whom he didn’t know could turn into a wolf.

Jacob slapped a juicy steak onto my plate and my mouth watered. I’d never been a carnivore before but now, I felt like I could have competed in an eating contest with a T-rex.

“There. A steak,” Jacob said with a smug smile.

I grabbed my steak knife and took a giant bite. The taste soothed a part of me that I didn’t know existed. “Gosh, this is so good,” I moaned.

Mason stiffened beside me, and I realized the entire table was staring at me. “What?” I asked. “Don’t start staring at me again. I don’t like it.”

“Your eyes,” Aaron said, pointing toward his own. “They changed colors.”

I blinked. “What color did they turn?”

“Gold,” Mason said. “They changed outside earlier too. You were overwhelmed and I didn’t want to tell you.”

I glanced at Mason’s face as he ate and then looked around the table. “I can’t tell anyone’s feelings about this right now. Besides the obvious anger and hunger, I’m confused. I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing. Everyone is treating me like I’m fragile.”

Jacob cleared his throat. “You’re not fragile, Jessica. You’re dangerous. A new wolf is relentless. It’s untamed and doesn’t know you. Once you become one with your wolf, then you’ll be able to control her. Now, you’re a loose cannon. She could attempt to come out at any time. We can’t let the townspeople see something like that. They already know the lycans are running around.”

I didn’t feel dangerous.

I looked at myself in the reflection of my spoon. I didn’t look dangerous. “What are you doing?” Liam asked with a mouth full of potato.

“Nothing,” I mumbled. “Does this mean if I get pregnant it’ll be a wolf, for sure?”

Dad choked on his drink across the table which made Mason shift uncomfortably. “We don’t need to get ahead of ourselves, Jessica,” he said, wiping the side of his mouth. “We don’t know anything right now.”

“Okay. So, I just wait around for this wolf to push out?”

Aaron laughed under his breath, but I didn’t look at him. I glanced up at Mason’s expression because I felt the most connected to him. “Yes,” he said.

“Ok. I’m going to eat now and stop asking questions.”

Because I felt stupid. This was stupid. I wasn’t even one hundred percent sure that I believed them. They could be wrong, but something told me they weren’t.

The night moved closer while the boys got ready to go out on their hunt. I felt anxious about the night away from Mason. I was staying with Liam because he had an upcoming test, while part of me wanted to go.

It was stupid. It wasn’t me. Personally, the thought of being outside with one of those things frightened me. Then again, I didn’t think it was me wanting to go out there.

It was her.

It felt stupid to say it but who else could it be?

The boys walked into the living room right after the sun went down. I turned to look at them over the back of the couch. Jacob seemed serious which I had learned was the alpha in him.

Seth didn’t look concerned. Aaron looked exhausted.

But Mason and Dad looked worried.

Jacob looked over. “We’ll meet you all outside.”

Dad stepped over and cupped my cheek. “I’ll be okay. I want you to stay inside no matter what. If you hear something…don’t come outside.”

Liam lifted his book from the opposite side of the couch. “Don’t worry, Mr. Stan. I’ve got this. I’m studying. I won’t let her go run into the night.”

Dad smiled and kissed my cheek. “We’ll be back.”

Mason waited until my dad left to bend down and kiss me. It was rushed but feverish and made my body hot. An unknown feeling rushed me, and I tangled my fingers into his hair.

Mason opened his mouth, and I slipped my tongue inside.

His chuckle surged through me. “Jessica,” he said into our kiss. “I have to go they are waiting for me.”

“One more minute.”

“Now, please. No more minutes,” Liam said from the couch. “I don’t need that vision in my head forever.”

I groaned in irritation. That need for him made my body warm. When he pulled back, I watched his muscles tense and his jaw clench. “I’ll be back soon. Stay

inside. Liam,” he said, causing Liam to look over. “Do not leave this house…”

Liam groaned and slammed his book shut. “I’m not stupid, Mason. I understand my mission of staying inside with Jessica tonight. I will let you all know if

something goes amiss. Lock the front door and I’ll make sure that every window and door is locked.”

Mason gave him one solid nod. “Be back soon.”

He stalked out of the room swiftly, shutting the door behind him and leaving a longing in my chest. The silence he left felt deafening. Angry tears built in the

corners of my eyes.

I couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason, but I knew they came from anger.

Liam cleared his throat awkwardly. “So, you want to watch a movie or something?”

I chuckled and wiped my eyes. “Sure. I’ll pick something out while you check the windows.”

Liam groaned as he got up and stretched. “Ok. Don’t pick anything sappy. I’m not in the mood to cry.”

I flipped through the channels, listening to the distant sound of cicadas in the woods. A need to go outside filled me. The thought of humid air against my…fur.

Oh, my gosh.

I stopped scrolling. “Are you there?” I asked into the silence.

No one greeted me. “I won’t bite,” I said.

Nothing. Either she was not there or had a great sense of humor and enjoyed me talking to myself.

Liam’s footsteps thundered down the hallway and he jumped over the back of the couch. “Who are you talking to? Who won’t you bite?”

“Nothing,” I said. “I am talking to my potential wolf. She’s putting thoughts into my head, but I don’t hear her.”

Liam propped his feet onto the ottoman across from us. “She’ll come when she’s ready.”

“She wants me to go outside.”

Liam gave me a look. “Don’t you dare go outside. I will drag you back and chain you up in the basement. I’m not in the mood to chase you through the woods.”

“I’m not going outside,” I said, stopping on a crime thriller. “Is this, okay?”

Liam shrugged. “Sure, I need a break from studying. My eyes were beginning to cross.”

I clicked on the show and curled my feet underneath me. The heavy feeling of sleep lingered in the corner of the room. Part of me wanted to stay up and wait for them to come home, but it wouldn’t be until the morning, most likely.

“What will happen if we both fall asleep?” I asked, my voice soft from sleepiness.

“My wolf is on high alert even when I sleep. Yours will be too one day. Just relax. I doubt the lycans would be stupid enough to come into the pack house. Our

scents are everywhere and they don’t know who is here and who isn’t.”

I nodded and placed the couch pillow underneath my head. Liam’s reassurance didn’t reassure me. I had a gut feeling that the lycans would do whatever they wanted.

They were monsters. I was pretty sure monsters did whatever the hell they wanted, because there were only a handful of people willing to stop them.