the bruise into a bite as her orgasm melted into his, everything shared across their bond—and doubled because of it.
He cradled her, panting against her damp skin. Finally, she sighed softly and dropped her head to his shoulder. “Good stamina,” she mumbled, sounding sleepily dazed.
Too fast to burn all the way through her first full moon. Once she’d slept a bit, she’d wake up restless again, ready to run.
And Jay was ready to run beside her.
Chapter Twelve
“Got more pancakes ready?”
Shane slid a few stacks onto the serving plate in Jay’s outstretched hand. “We need a bigger griddle, especially for the morning after the full moon.”
Jay shrugged and set the plate in the middle of the table. “Add it to the list.”
“My dad might have some ideas.” Eden snatched a pancake off the top of the stack with a grin. “He said this kitchen hasn’t been updated in half a century, so if we’re going to do it, we might as well think a little less farmhouse and a little more industrial.”
“Which sounds expensive,” Jay pointed out. Lord knew they’d have enough to worry about just keeping the place running until some of the business investments they’d planned started to pay off.
“Not necessarily.” Lorelei poured herself another cup of coffee. “If Austin has some good contacts, you can get plenty of commercial equipment secondhand. You boys are good enough with your hands to handle most of the basic renovations, which just leaves tricky stuff like electrical and plumbing. Easy to subcontract out.”
“I know someone,” Eden said. “I had to have the wiring on my house redone a few years ago. He’s friends with my father and he’ll cut us a deal. Dad feeds him enough free—”
“Shit.” Colin turned away from the window, his face grim. “Car coming up the drive. Fast.”
For all his warnings to Eden the night before, it didn’t seem like the Memphis alphas’ style, a head-on attack in broad daylight. Jay would have expected something sneakier. Deadlier. “There could be more coming through the back. Fletcher, go take a look—howl if there’s anything going on beyond the barn. Shane, go wake Stella.”
The wolves at the breakfast table scattered as if they’d practiced for this moment a hundred times, synchronized in a way they hadn’t been before the full moon. Colin fell in on Jay’s left as he headed for the front door. Eden followed them as far as the stairs, blocking the only way up to where Kaley and Mae still slept.
The car screeched to a stop, the engine still rumbling, but the wolves in it weren’t enforcers. A woman with dark circles under her eyes pulled a little boy from the back seat and clutched him to her chest as three more people spilled out of the car, some beaten. Bloody.
Jay’s first thought was of a trap, and he steeled himself against their terrified expressions as he stepped off the porch. “This is private property.”
“Sanctuary,” the woman whispered, fingers tightening on the boy. “They said this was sanctuary.”
Oh, shit. “You came from Memphis?”
Lorelei folded her arms across her midsection. “That’s Tammy. One of Christian’s women.”
Agony twisted the woman’s features. “We do what we have to when there’s no hope. You know that as well as anyone, Lorelei.”
“I never gave him anyone else,” Lorelei whispered fiercely. “I never set anyone up. I didn’t do what you did to Zack!”
The boy made a frightened noise. Tammy slid a protective hand to the back of his head, hiding his face against her neck. “You don’t have a son.”
Pain flashed across Lorelei’s face, harsh and gone in an instant. “How the hell would you know?”
Jay laid a hand on her arm. “Go inside. Ask Eden if she’ll get the extra rooms ready.”
He could tell she wanted to argue. She even opened her mouth to give voice to the protest sparking in her eyes, but in the end Lorelei turned and walked back into the house.
Jay rubbed his face. “I won’t have any trouble here. That’s the first and last rule, the only important one. This is a safe place, but only if we keep it that way.”
“We couldn’t have stopped them.” Lorelei’s challenge had given the woman spine, but without it she seemed lost. Exhausted. Tears filled her eyes, and she lowered her gaze to Jay’s feet. “Everything Christian did to their pack, he did it to us first. By the time they came for Zack’s people, most of us just wanted to keep breathing. We don’t want trouble. We just