Sharon's Wolves (Wolf Masters Book 10) (22 page)

She wanted to taste him, swallow him, devour him, but she knew better than to suggest anything of the sort. It would only prolong her agony. So she watched his movements instead, mesmerized by the show.

Cooper’s fingers reached between her legs to gather her wetness. He drew them up to circle her clit and flick several times over the tip. And then he traveled back through the slit between her lips and coated his fingers with her arousal.

It shouldn’t have shocked her for him to trail down lower between her legs and tap the tighter bud between her cheeks. Both men had taken her there. But it was unexpected when just one man was fucking her senseless.

Cooper made his intentions clear, thrusting two fingers into her tighter hole several times. When he was satisfied, he pulled his fingers out of her and lined his cock up with her rear hole.

She kept her gaze on Jackson, noticing he handed Cooper the discarded towel while he continued to stroke himself.

And then Cooper pressed into her, slowly at first and then finishing with a final thrust that left her gasping. He held himself above her with one hand and the strength of his legs. With his free hand, he reached between them and plunged three fingers into her pussy. His thumb landed on her clit and pressed firmly.

Sharon blinked several times, fighting to keep her gaze on her other mate. She wanted to close her eyes and concentrate on the sensations assaulting her through both orifices, but she wouldn’t dare risk having him stop.

Jackson leaned forward. He stroked her hair off her forehead and kissed her temple. “You’re doing so good, love. It’s amazing watching you come unhinged under Cooper’s touch.”

Cooper grunted louder as he fucked her harder, his fingers thrusting in and out of her pussy in rhythm with his cock in her ass. The pressure was unbelievable. Delicious. So perfect.

As she got closer to the edge, her mouth fell open farther.

“That’s it, love. Show me how good it is. Come for me.”

At Jackson’s words, she shattered, her entire body convulsing with the orgasm. She would have screamed out if her vocal cords had been functioning, but that wasn’t the case. No sound escaped her lips.

While she was still trembling from the many tremors inside her, like the aftershocks of an earthquake, Cooper held himself deep inside her, his own orgasm filling her.

She kept her gaze locked on Jackson’s, not wavering, even when he came against the sheets, shooting his orgasm inches from her face, his eyes closing as he tipped his head back and moaned.

That small victory made her grin through the haze of her vision, her sated body melting into the bed.

Cooper kissed her lips gently and reached above her head to release her hands. “Jesus, Sharon. You’re so fucking sexy. I’m the luckiest bastard alive.”

“I beg to differ,” Jackson panted out beside them. “Second luckiest.”

Melinda jerked awake. Something had startled her. She blinked her eyes several times until she realized she was at the hospital and she’d fallen asleep sitting in a chair with her face resting on Mimi’s bed. She held Mimi’s hand clutched in hers.

But the thin fingers were no longer lying limp; they were squeezing Melinda’s back gently.

Melinda lifted her gaze to find Mimi looking at her. She stood abruptly to lean over her grandmother’s frail body.

Thank goodness. Mimi had been lying there for over twenty-four hours. It was late afternoon on Monday. Her inability to regain consciousness had begun to scare Melinda to death.

Mimi was the most important person in Melinda’s life, outside of her mates. The woman had raised her and her brother alone. After her mother, Joyce, had been banished from tribal land and the pack when Melinda and Miles were only three, Mimi had taken care of them.

Even though Joyce and Laurie had grown into their abilities over the last months, neither of them were as strong a shaman as Melinda, who had learned everything from her grandmother and honed her skills over her entire life.

Mimi licked her lips and opened them as if to speak.

Melinda brushed the thin strands of Mimi’s hair from her face. “It’s okay, Mimi. You’re okay. You’re in the hospital.”

Mimi blinked and glanced around.

“You had a stroke. But we got you here as fast as possible. It will take time for you to get your strength back.” The truth was no one knew how much Mimi would be affected by the stroke.

The doctor was a shifter, which helped. But there were too many unknowns. Normally, a wolf shifter would simply change forms in order to speed the healing process. But occasionally that wasn’t possible, especially if the injured or sick was unconscious or too weak to make the shift.

In Mimi’s case, she was growing older, and strokes had the ability to cause permanent damage that wasn’t reparable. Shifters weren’t immortal. In fact, their lifespans often weren’t longer than a regular human’s. They simply didn’t spend their lives in casts and stitches. Bones and cuts healed quickly. Cancers might be slower growing in their bodies, but they could kill. And strokes could be damaging to the brain in a way that wouldn’t respond to human medicines or shifting.

In any case, Mimi was in no condition to shift. She was too weak.

Joyce and Laurie hurried into the room. Melinda didn’t have to turn around to know they were there. It had been months since the four of them stumbled upon and then honed the ability to communicate with each other in human form.

While most shifters could only speak telepathically in wolf form, the female descendants of Mimi had recently come into the ability to converse between each other in human form also. And their senses were so sharp, they rarely needed to reach out telepathically to know when one of the others was in distress, awake, or any other strong emotional state.

Mimi glanced beyond Melinda toward her daughter and her other granddaughter. It was a good sign. But then she squeezed Melinda’s hand tighter and tugged her closer. “Go.” The one word came out so softly it was almost inaudible.

Melinda furrowed her brow. “Go where, Mimi? I’m staying here with you. We need to help you get your strength back.”

Mimi swallowed and shook her head slightly. “Go.”

Laurie took her other hand. “Mimi? It’s Laurie. How are you feeling?” Laurie tried to distract their grandmother from her distress.

Mimi didn’t break her gaze from Melinda’s. “Land… Go… Meet…”

Melinda attempted to piece her urgent message together. “I know the land is disturbed. It has been for years. This time is no different. We’ll figure it out.”

Mimi shook her head. Her eyes grew wider. “No… Go…”

“To the meeting? At the high school?”

Mimi nodded, her body relaxing into the bed. Her chest rose and fell heavily, but she slowed her breathing.

“You want me to go to the meeting?” Melinda repeated. She had no desire to leave Mimi’s side. She’d done so yesterday for several hours and didn’t care to repeat the stress it caused her.

“Now…” The older woman squeezed Melinda’s hand with more force, far more force than Melinda could have believed possible.

She nodded. What else could she do? If her grandmother thought it was important for her to be at the meeting, there was a reason.

Joyce spoke from behind Melinda. “It’s okay, honey. Laurie and I will be here. You need to be at the meeting. I can feel the same urgency in my bones.”

A man behind them cleared his throat as he entered the room. “Oh, great. Ms. Bartel. You’re back with us.” The voice belonged to the doctor. Melinda didn’t need to turn around to see him, either. He was a shifter. And a godsend when one of them needed hospitalization.

He stood at the foot of the bed and leaned forward, holding himself up with his hands on either side of Mimi’s legs. He spoke in a hushed tone. “As soon as we can get her to shift, we’ll do so and let her body do what it needs to recover. In the meantime, we’ll use modern human medicine to keep her stabilized.”

Melinda still held Mimi’s gaze. The woman’s focused stare was all she needed. It was more important that she be at the meeting of the citizens of both towns in the high school auditorium. Reluctantly, she accepted this news and straightened her spine. She lifted Mimi’s hand to her lips and kissed her knuckles. “Get better. I love you.” As she turned around, she nodded at both her half-sister and her mother and then left the room. It would take her over forty minutes to get to Cambridge. She needed to concentrate. If Mimi thought she was needed at the meeting, Melinda would have to take her word for it.

»»•««

“Mimi’s awake,” Sharon informed her mates as she set her cell phone on the table.

Cooper turned from the sink to face her. “Thank God. How is she?”

“She had a stroke, as they suspected. But the good news is she’s alert and seems to understand and recognize Joyce, Melinda, and Laurie.”

“That’s good.” Jackson wrapped his arms around her from behind, pressing her into the island.

She came to life under his touch. No matter how many times either man touched her, she still felt a tingle rush through her body. “Melinda’s on her way here. And word has spread. There should be a crowd at tonight’s meeting at the high school.”

Dozens of volunteers had come to the junior college yesterday to cold call the long list of citizens living in both Sojourn and Cambridge. Joyce had also spoken with the women in her support group. Laurie’s friend Mary and her partner Jazmine had informed all the families whose kids went to their preschools. Sharon’s parents had contacted everyone they could think of.

What they needed was a huge turnout to demand the fracking stop immediately.

Jackson set his chin on Sharon’s head. “Any headway with the fracking site?”

Cooper shook his head as he leaned against the counter next to the sink. “No. They’re stubborn. They insist they aren’t the cause of the series of small quakes. Even though one of their drills blew out of the mine and collapsed, injuring several men and creating a plume of water and a gas leak, they’re sticking to the story that it was an isolated incident. They believe the smaller earthquakes preceding the accident caused the drill to dislodge.”

Sharon cringed. “That’s so crazy.”

“It’s common,” Cooper added. “Happens all over the country. They stand to lose a lot of money if they stop drilling, and God forbid they ever admit how dangerous fracking is.”

“The unknown scares the hell out of me,” Sharon said. Her entire body had been on alert since Friday night, and it was only getting worse. Even though she wasn’t the one with sensitivities, she felt the unease. She wouldn’t want to be in Melinda’s shoes, or any of the other women in her family.

With Mimi in the hospital, her daughter and granddaughters had been with her nearly every moment. They had to be out of their minds between worrying about Mimi and concern for the intentions of the spirits.

“It does me too. And until three days ago, I had no idea half of this craziness was even a thing.” Jackson squeezed her tighter around the middle.

She twisted in his arms until she faced him, tipping her head back to look into his eyes. Her hands wrapped around his middle. “I can’t imagine how insane this is for you. Thanks for not wigging out and running for the hills.”

He chuckled. “I’ll leave the running in the hills to the two of you. I’m not equipped for it apparently.”

She smiled. “Have I mentioned how much I appreciate your wit and flexibility?”

“A few times. But I’ll take all the praise you want to dish out.”

A phone rang behind her, Cooper’s this time. It seemed every few minutes someone called.

“Stuart.” Cooper’s voice was deep and serious as he answered his boss.

Sharon spun to the side to watch him on the phone. She had begun to read his emotions by his stance and the expression on his face.

“The mayor? Okay. Good… We’re expecting hundreds of people at the meeting…” Cooper’s face scrunched up, and he inhaled sharply. “How many? Shit… Yeah, I know. I’ll stay in touch.” He ended the call and set the cell on the island.

“What is it?” Jackson asked before Sharon could force the question out herself.

“Lots of tremors. The seismometers are picking them up all over the area. Many are too small to detect from the surface. My boss has called the US Geological Survey, and a volcanologist is on the way here.”

“Seriously? He thinks we might be in danger of a volcano in Montana?” Sharon asked.

Cooper shrugged. “It’s hard to say, but I need to get back to the office and then head to the epicenter. I’ll take half my staff with me and send the other two to the high school.” He dashed past them and grabbed his shoes. As he sat on the edge of the couch tugging them onto his feet, Sharon went toward him.

“I’m worried.”

He finished before he looked up at her and stood. He took her face in his hands and held her gaze. “I know. Trust me. I’m pretty concerned myself. But all we can do is follow the signs and our guts and make sure we’re not missing anything.”

“That’s just it,” she added, “we
are
missing something.”

Cooper nodded. His face was more serious than she’d ever seen it. “I know.”

She stared deep into his eyes. “You suspected a volcano, didn’t you?”

He pursed his lips before responding. “Not gonna lie. The idea has been floating around in my mind. I’m sure my boss has had his own suspicions also. It’s a tough call. The signs would indicate a high probability of volcanic activity. However,” he lifted up his pointer, “this is not an area of the country under any volcanic suspicion. We can’t cry wolf until we have the data to prove it.”

She smiled at his use of the word
wolf
. “Is this why no one has called for a state of emergency? Simply because the likelihood is not there?”

He nodded. “Exactly. Neither I nor my boss—nor anyone else for that matter—can go to the governor and tell him to evacuate an area based on a hunch or a feeling or a cluster of small quakes.

“Clusters of tremors happen all over the world every day. They don’t lead to anything larger. Does my gut tell me something enormous is about to occur? Hell, yes. My best guess is a larger quake the likes of which this state has never experienced, or a volcano, as insane as that sounds.”