Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 451(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 451(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
I felt a shiver go through me at his words, though I didn’t really understand them.
“What…what are you talking about?” I asked, wishing my voice sounded steadier.
For a moment Jake just stared at me, his pale golden eyes glowing in the moonlight. Then he shook his head and turned away.
“Never mind. Come on—we need to get home.”
This time I went with him without protest. I don’t know why—maybe I felt like I had pushed things too close to the edge. What “things” and what “edge,” I didn’t know exactly. But I had the feeling of someone who suddenly finds herself teetering on a very high ledge, looking down into a chasm below…and then is somehow able to take that crucial step back towards safety.
Wordlessly, I followed Jake to the pearly white Tesla and climbed into the passenger side.
Maybe I could get him to talk more on the ride home.
FIVE
“Tell me about the Followers—I mean the Worshipers of the Moon,” I said, after he had started the car and maneuvered it out of the parking lot. “What do they want with me? With us?” Because Sorenson had been going on and on about me being the “Innocent Maiden” and Jake being the “Heir to the Absent Alpha” so clearly his cult was focused on both of us, not just me.
“What do you think they want?” Jake growled. “They want for us to carry on the Royal Line of the First Wolf.”
Great—more crazy talk.
“Okay,” I said, taking a deep breath. “I’m going to be honest and say that sounds completely batshit insane to me. But I’m also going to go along with it, because otherwise I’ll never find out what the hell that man—and his cult—want with me.”
“Didn’t he tell you?” Jake demanded and the bitterness was back in his voice. “They want me to breed you, Ani. They want me to get you pregnant with my baby—a Royal heir of the Royal Line of the First Wolf—that’s what they want.”
I felt a surge go through my body like…well, I don’t know what it was like. I only know my nipples got tight and I had to squeeze my thighs together hard. These were parts of me that normally never felt anything, so it was beyond strange that Jake’s words should stir me.
“But…but that’s—” I began.
“Incest? Yes, it is,” Jake cut me off. “Especially after the Blood-Mingling Adoption ceremony my father made us both go through. You couldn’t be more my little sister if we’d been born to the same parents.”
“But we weren’t though,” I pointed out. “I’m not really your sister, Jake—I mean, not by blood.”
I wasn’t sure why I was arguing this point. It wasn’t like I wanted to do that with Jake. I had never done it with anyone—which was my dirty little secret that nobody, not even Madison or Ashley, knew. And I certainly didn’t want my stepbrother to be my first. Still, he was acting like we were blood-related siblings and we weren’t.
But apparently, that wasn’t how Jake saw things.
“You’re my little sister,” he said firmly, staring straight ahead at the road as he spoke. “And I’m your big brother. Not your stepbrother—your actual big brother. That’s how you’re seen in the eyes of the Were law, Ani, and that’s how I see you, too.”
“If it’s Were law, then why don’t the Worshipers of the Moon see it that way?” I demanded.
“They don’t know about the Blood-Mingling ceremony,” Jake said stiffly. “Though I doubt they’d care, even if they did know. Fucking crazy assholes,” he added in a growl.
“He—Sorenson—kept saying he wanted you to…to ‘knot’ me,” I said in a low voice. “What does that mean? I mean, I understand, uh, the ‘breeding’ part, but what’s ‘knotting?’”
Jake shook his head.
“Look, I don’t have time to explain male Were anatomy to you. The main thing you need to understand is that the Worshipers of the Moon are fucking crazy. They’re so damn convinced that ancient prophecy is going to come true—so sure all Weres will ‘fade from the Earth’ if the line of the First Wolf is allowed to end—that as long as they’re anywhere around, you’re not safe.”
“So…they think they’re fighting for their very existence,” I said slowly. “They think if we don’t…if you don’t—”
“If I don’t breed my own little sister and get her pregnant,” Jake supplied, still looking straight ahead. The muscle on the side of his jaw was clenched.
“Uh, right.” I had that wave of sensation again that made my nipples ache and I had to press my thighs together tightly. Outside the car, the moon was clearly visible, shining down from above the treetops like a giant, accusing eye, looking at us. “Anyway,” I continued. “These crazy people think if we don’t do that together, they’re all going to die—right?”
“Essentially, yes.” Jake’s deep voice was terse.