Heat Race - Tanya Chris Page 0,30

senses still on high alert, but it was only Elias in a stodgy sedan with Saul sitting next to him. Jack Henry greeted them while Jasper turned his nose up, going into a partial shift to heighten his senses. A wandering breeze carried the scent he’d been unconsciously searching for. Lon.

Jasper growled. More of his wolf came out as Saul sprang to his side and Elias shoved Jack Henry into the car.

“What the—?” Jack Henry protested through the car window.

“Something wrong?” Saul asked.

“Lon. I can smell him.”

“He lives here,” Jack Henry said in an exasperated tone. “That’s his house.” He climbed back out of the car and pointed at a yellow cottage farther down the block. “But he’s not home. My mom says he’s still in the hospital.”

Jasper took another sniff. It was true that Lon’s scent was dispersed—distant and old. It only lingered enough for him to not like it.

“Are you guys going to act like that a lot?” Jack Henry asked. “Because I don’t want to get pushed around every time you smell something fishy.”

“Sorry.” He hooked his arm over Jack Henry’s shoulders in apology. His wolf wasn’t always completely under his control. His human side thought he should work on learning to control it better, but his wolf was pleased with how he and Elias and Saul had reacted as a unit, taking battle stances and protecting their omega. The four of them hadn’t been a pack long, but they were already functioning like a team.

JACK HENRY

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jack Henry had no idea what the protocol was for presenting not just one mate but three mates to your parents, but he led his alphas into the living room where his parents were sitting on the couch and got everyone lined up in front of them. He introduced Jasper first, because that seemed right, then Saul, in case his parents hadn’t ever put a face to the name before, then finished with a pathetic, “And you know Elias.”

“Of course we know Elias,” his father said. “I was rooting for him.”

If that was supposed to be a joke, it was an awful one.

“I was Team Saul,” his mother said, for some reason choosing to make a bad joke worse. “So I guess we both won.” She high-fived his father while Jack Henry wished he could sink right through the faded pink and burgundy rug.

“They’re joking,” Jasper said with a nudge.

Jack Henry knew they were joking. That was what made it so awful.

Jasper stepped forward with an extended hand. “I’m Jasper, the one who made it possible for both of you to win. In fact, we’re all winners here.”

Now Jasper was being as corny as his parents, but his tone hit the right note with them. They’d been acting like they might not let him leave, but one bad joke later and everything was fine. Jack Henry could tell his mother liked Jasper a lot. Maybe in a sex way. And his dad figured nothing bad could happen to him with Elias around, which was true.

The way Elias had pushed him into the car a few minutes ago….

That’d been a different sort of Elias, one who’d responded to Jasper’s unspoken command as if he were a trained guard. Jack Henry didn’t want any guards—trained or otherwise—but the maneuver had been as hot as it’d been annoying. He was horny now and itchy to get on the road so they could settle in somewhere that was theirs. His inner omega liked to be settled. It reacted to uncertainty by demanding alpha attention.

Jasper hooked a hand around the back of his neck, as if sensing his omega rising. Just like the coordinated save-Jack-Henry routine, the gesture was both hot and annoying. And also exactly what he needed. He allowed himself to savor the closeness of his alpha while his parents spiraled into a long ritual of sad farewells and demands for reassurance. Surprisingly, it was his father who was the most rattled by their strange arrangement.

“It’s not like we don’t have any experience with this,” his mother said in an attempt to reassure him.

“We have experience with this?” Jack Henry asked.

“Not in living memory, but not so far back. My grandfather always bragged about being the descendant of a founding family. He was disappointed when I was born a girl. He thought I was his last chance for continuing the line. I wish he’d lived to see you present.”

“But I only presented as an omega.”

“An omega at the center of a new pack,” Jasper