Nita's Redemption, page 4
Abe controlled his urge to show Nita he was superb at bossy. But he didn’t think she’d appreciate it if he jerked her onto his lap while he ordered her around. Instead, he did as she’d asked, keeping his hands and, fuck it, his nose to himself. Her sweet honeysuckle and berry scent filled his senses to the brim already.
By the time the site of the huge metal gates that guarded the trailer park came into view, he and the others had done a good job of pretending to relax into a comfortable silence. The Ravens had driven around the area a couple times, probably ensuring there was nobody following them. When the perimeter gates had first gone up, surrounding the entire property, he and the others had bemoaned the lack of freedom. Now the protection was welcome, and nobody questioned the enormous image of a howling wolf on one side of the gate or the gorgeous raven in flight on the other. When the gates were closed, the two images came together as if they were back to back. There was probably an iron designer who could’ve done the work, but they had the power of Zeus who blinked the entire thing into existence, sort of like he’d done with the trailers, expanding them into large homes that would look good in Better Homes and Gardens. Not that he or the others were complaining.
The SUV was mere feet from the beautiful gates when they began opening silently.
“Nita, those females... they were here for you,” Dimitri said, breaking into the relative silence as he eased between the gates.
Their female gave a slight nod. “I figured that out. It’s why I cloaked myself and the three of them. Sorry, Bailey, I wasn’t prepared to run into a shifter when we entered the restaurant. By the time I realized you worked there, the females were already entering.” Nita reached forward, rubbing the younger female’s arm.
“It’s no problem. I’ve encountered a lot of others while working in town. However, I do think it’s getting a little risky, but Selena said her dad would give me a cloak of some sort that would block other kinds from noticing me but wouldn’t affect any of my abilities. When I get home, I’ll have Jaklyn reach out to her.” Bailey patted Nita’s hand.
“No need, we already put in the request for all members of the pack. Zeus will have it taken care of in no time, Bailey. It’s something we should’ve taken care of a long time ago.” Dimitri shook his head, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the steering wheel.
“Hey, why are you stopping at Jaklyn’s place?” Link asked.
“We’d like to talk to the four of you. We’ll take Bailey home then come back. Look there’s Jaklyn waving at y’all.” Vasilis shook his head.
Sure as shit, their best female friend stood out on her huge wrap around deck waving like a damn loon. Abe sighed, figuring there was no way they’d get out of this shitshow. Her males got on their very last nerve, which made the three of them do all they could to freak the ancient Ravens the fuck out even more.
“Behave. The last thing I need to deal with tonight is a dogfight between you three, and those two.” Nita pushed up from the seat, her fine ass filling Abe’s vision.
“Hey, we always behave. It’s those two Neanderthals who have no manners,” he protested.
“I know I didn’t hear some fool pup calling us names from the interior of a rectangle on wheels.”
Abe didn’t have to look to know Gray was now beside Jaklyn, or that it was he who had spoken. The male was always speaking in weird ways to piss him off, like it was his life’s lone enjoyment or something.
“Get over yourself, pup. I have a lot of other things I enjoy. Fucking with you is just a simple pastime. Now come on before I get cranky since you’re messing with our nooky time,” Gray boomed out.
“Gray, I will so beat your ass if you continue to announce to all and sundry what we get down to in the privacy of our bedroom.” Jaklyn slapped the male on the chest. Her words were muttered between clenched teeth.
“So can I talk about what we get down to in all the other places?”
Abe ignored them all as he followed his female out of the rig. Envy hitting him at their easy banter, and then he realized the fuckers were reading their minds. “Stay out of my fucking head, or I’ll start projecting shit you won’t ever get rid of. Not even with Zeus and his amazing powers will you be able to get rid of the images I show your creepy asses.”
Jaklyn let out a laugh, her knowledge of just what he and the others could think of not lost on her. “Trust me guys, you don’t want to know what length my besties can and will go to just to fuck with you. And no, you do not have the right to give me angry glares, either of you.”
The red-haired female turned and led the way into her home, knowing her males would follow as would he and his crew. Abe held out a hand for Nita, waiting for her to take it before he started forward. Tank took hold of her other hand while Link followed behind. Again, he thought of the four of them, working in perfect unison.
Chapter Three
LINK WATCHED THE THREE most important people in his life walk ahead of him. He followed at a much slower pace, taking in their surroundings, testing the air for unfamiliar scents. They had all kept up the pretense that the women back in town hadn’t freaked them out, but that wasn’t true. Anything that was a threat to their female would be a worry to them until the threat was eliminated or... no longer a threat by any means.
“Yo, Link, you gonna continue your snail’s pace or what?”
Gray stood at the top of the stairs looking down at Link, an irritating smirk on his face. Link took a deep breath, and then he was up and over the Raven, landing in the doorway behind the other male.
“I guess it’s or what,” Link said, opening the screen door while looking over his shoulder. “You coming in or gonna stand out here and look stupid?”
He scurried inside before Gray could say a word or try to hit him. Either was a possibility, and the last thing he wanted to do was walk into his best friend’s home while fighting with her mate. Gray made a growling snort sound which had Link grinning.
“Link Adams, do not rattle my mate for your own entertainment. I promise, you won’t like it if I retaliate,” Jaklyn warned, her own growl just as low as her mate’s.
To Link and the others surprise, Nita appeared between him and Jaklyn. She didn’t growl, not like a normal shifter. Hell, Link wouldn’t have been able to put what his female did into words if he’d been given a million dollars or had Zeus’s lightning bolt to his head. The sound was a cross between a growl, hiss, rattle, and booming thunder. Fuck, his dick was hard as nails, and he was sure everyone in the large room knew it.
“Easy, Nita. Jaklyn wouldn’t actually hurt me.” Link hoped his tone didn’t convey the lie since the other female had never done much harm to any of them in the past, even when she’d been pissed as all get out.
Nita turned her head to stare at him over her shoulder. Link licked his lips, not thinking of the reality she’d nearly done a hundred and eighty degree turn of her beautiful noggin without moving an inch of the rest of her body. Nope, that was not freaky at all. His dick obviously didn’t think so either since the thing gave a happy little jump beneath the zipper.
“You are a strange male, Link,” Nita said. Her tone was husky and sweet, sending a shiver down his spine.
“So says the female with her head turned around backward. For the love of my sanity, turn it back now before I piss my goddamn pants,” Dimitri muttered from inside the front door.
“Shut it, Raven. It’s sexy, and you’re a jealous prick because you can’t do it.” Link looked over his own shoulder, glaring at Dimitri, and eyeing the big male to see if he could find a weakness. He was actually hoping the idiot would get the message and not say another foolish word, because his female and Jaklyn didn’t need to see them fucking shit up.
“You’re right. Everyone wants a female who can literally spin her head around. P.S. Y’all are so fucked because your female will track you with not only scent but her eyes.” Dimitri clapped his hands, then rubbed them together like he was excited.
“Dimi, I really think you should flash your ass outta here before you get in trouble,” Gray warned.
Nita let out a sigh. “Y’all are so weird.”
There were a few snorts, but nobody mentioned her head thing, thank fuck.
“Jaklyn, can I ask you a question?” Nita blurted.
“Absolutely, that’s why I asked the Ravens to drop you off here. Come in and sit. You thirsty?” Jaklyn asked, taking a seat on the huge charcoal sectional. She patted the space next to her, growling at her two mates as they attempted to sit beside her. “Nita and I are going to have some girl chat. We need some Jesus Juice to wet our whistles. Can one of you be a love and get us a bottle of the good stuff?”
Colt leaned down, kissing Jaklyn soundly before standing to his full height. “You want that sweet shit with bubbles?”
“I thought you wanted to interrogate them or something. Pretty sure we were told they had to come here, not that it was a suggestion,” Dimitri said with a grin.
Jaklyn narrowed her eyes at the male, flipping her hair off her shoulder as she ignored him.
“I’ll get that bubbly shit.” Colt turned toward the wine fridge.
The female gasped, her hands went to her chest like she was wounded. “How dare you say such negative things about the bestest alcohol ever made? If I don’t bitch about your drink of choice, which is nasty as fuck, then you can’t say such outlandish things about Moscato, which is, as I said, Jesus Juice. Now go on and get us a couple bottles to drink. I have the fancy straws in the drawer next to the wine fridge.”
Link was pretty sure he was gonna need to breathe soon, but dammit, if he let the air out of his mouth, the laughter would get him in trouble.
“Go on, I know it’s hurting you,” Jaklyn said, waving her hand in his direction.
At the same time he expelled the air from his lungs, the guffaw burst free from his two closest friends, one of which was his twin, the other Tank. The three of them had grown up with Jaklyn and her crazy.
“Um, why do you call it Jesus Juice?” Nita asked, accepting her own bottle of sweet wine with a long pink straw coming out of it while Jaklyn was handed her own matching bottle with a purple sparkly straw.
Jaklyn took a long pull, swallowing several times, her wine bottle appearing to go down several ounces. She let out a loud sigh before she answered. “Well you see, Jesus did this water into wine thing right? So, all wine in my mind is Jesus Juice.” Jaklyn brought her straw back to her mouth and took another long pull as if she didn’t need to explain any further.
Nita blinked and looked at her own bottle. She took a sip followed by another. Link watched her perfect bow-shaped lips surround the pink straw each time, wishing he was a fucking piece of plastic. When she went down for the third time, he had a hard time keeping the growl from escaping, especially when she sucked that fucker like a starving woman. Her eyes flicked up to him, the bright blue shining with... excitement. Damn woman knew what she was doing to him.
He couldn’t tear his eyes off of her until she stopped sucking from the straw and gave a very unladylike burp. If he hadn’t already been head over ass in love with her, he’d have fallen right then and there. His brother coughed from somewhere to his right making him jerk his head toward him. It was no surprise to find him every bit as enthralled as he’d been with Nita’s little display. A quick look at Tank showed he too had been staring at Nita. The three of them were going to need to go for a long run and probably fight one another to work some steam off before the night was through. Fuck.
“So, what was it you wanted to ask me. I’m an open book. I mean we’re like sisters right?” Jaklyn set her half empty bottle on the wooden tray that set on top the large square ottoman in front of her.
Nita licked her lips. “I know that we have the same blood in our veins thanks to us having the same sperm doner, but you and the others welcomed me even though I was raised by such a monster. However, anyone looking at us would never guess we were related at all. You are everything I’m not. You’re beautiful with red hair, green eyes, and light skin. I used to wish I looked like you even though that would make me more like him.” She held one hand up and took a sip of wine. “I was a kid who thought things were skin deep until I learned better. Besides, it was you and your males who said you wanted to talk to us.”
Jaklyn patted Nita’s hand but didn’t say a word for a long moment. “It’s true that I wanted to see the four of you together and speak with you, but it wasn’t meant to be an order.” She looked at her two males with a raised brow.
Link wanted to lift Nita into his arms and settle back onto the sofa with her on his lap. He held back, not wanting to betray her or himself, staying silent like the other males.
“How about I tell you some things that you don’t know about me?” Nita began, stopping to take another sip of her drink. “You all know what I suffered as a child I’m sure. I will always be grateful Akra, and the other demoness females realized I was damaged. When they decided to take me to Olympus, I breathed easier for the first time. That decision wasn’t made lightly by any of them, but they realized it was truly the only place I would’ve been able to heal. Here on Earth, it would’ve taken me years to accomplish the miracle they performed. Actually, even if I’d stayed on Earth, I don’t think I’d have survived with my mind intact. While many of my scars weren’t physically seen thanks to my shifter blood, my mind was a total mess. I guess Seamus learned physically hurting a female child did nothing but bring shame upon him, even by those deplorable beings he created. So he got smarter.” Nita looked down at the bottle.
“He still wasn’t a smart male.” Jaklyn picked her wine back up and drank deeply, sucking until the bottle was empty.
“You know when I was young, like three or four, he liked to show me in great detail what he’d done to you?” Nita looked over at Jaklyn after she spoke.
Link wanted to howl, and then he wanted to go into Hell and destroy Seamus, again. The male was truly a sick bastard who deserved to die the most painful death, repeatedly, for all of eternity.
“I’m sure he did. Of course, he probably exaggerated what he did in order to harm you more.” Jaklyn shrugged her eyes bright with anger.
“Dammit, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have told you.” Nita attempted to get to her feet, but Jaklyn put her hand on Nita’s arm.
“You said you wanted to ask me something. Do you want to know about what really happened to me, or is there something else? I promise, you can ask me anything, or if you want, I’ll let you look into my mind and see for yourself. I’m pretty sure there is nothing you’ll see that will scar you any worse than what you went through. Well I mean, I’ll put walls around my sexy times with my males.” Jaklyn winked at Nita, easing the moment.
“That’s gonna be a whole lotta walls you need to erect.” Colt said. Both he and Gray moved behind where Jaklyn sat as if they couldn’t stand to be too far from where she was.
Nita shook her head, turning to look around the room. Her eyes found his, then moved on as if she was searching for the three of them. Once she had located all of them she turned her focus back to Jaklyn. Link moved closer to where she sat, grinning when the other two did the same thing. Between the two Ravens who called Jaklyn theirs, him, Abe, and Tank, they made a pretty intimidating wall of muscle.
Nita took a deep breath then turned slightly, lifting one leg up onto the cushion and rested her left arm on the back. “You had a lot of scars that your shifter healing didn’t heal. Why did you decide to get the tattoo of a butterfly to cover them?”
SHE WAITED FOR JAKLYN to tell her to fuck off or to mind her own business. Time ticked by in slow motion. Shoot, she was sure she could count dust motes as they floated by like time had stopped.
“I’m sorry, I have no right to ask such a personal question.”
“No, it’s okay. I hadn’t thought of the why in a long time. To be honest, my back is healed thanks to my two males. They even offered to get rid of the ink but... well, it’s part of me and my journey. You see, the butterfly is proof that I can get through anything, even darkness and the greatest evil and still become beautiful. That’s what butterflies represent to me and why I had it inked on my back, covering up the scars that I hated.” Jaklyn lifted her right hand, reaching over to her left shoulder and rubbed at her back or as much of her back as she could reach.
“That’s really beautiful. How do you find beauty for scars on the inside though?” Nita asked, ducking her head, and wishing she could call the words back.
“Are you having problems with your past? I thought the demonesses took care of that?” Jaklyn looked over her shoulder toward her males then back at Nita.
“It’s nothing like that. I just have a lot of questions and a lot of shit to figure out. Everyone assumed my mama was a witchy woman or something. That’s what I got from the wolves in the pack. Bakra gave me access to the old trailer park where Seamus was holding me and the others after I returned from Olympus.” Nita moved, needing to walk while she navigated her way through her confession.
“She did what?” Vasilis asked in a deadly tone.
Nita waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t get that angry look on your face. Bakra and the other females are my friends. If not for them, I’d probably be in a small padded six by six room, rocking back and forth mumbling some bullshit while the doctors keep me drugged up twenty-four hours a day.”
“That’s a crock of shit, Nita. The demoness didn’t have any right to take you to Olympus, much less fill your head with nonsense. Nor should they have allowed you access to shit that’s better left buried.” Dimitri stepped in front of her, his amber eyes glowed bright.
Link and Abe growled a warning as she stepped away from the male.
“Stop it. I am not interested in the Ravens or vice versa. And with me getting to really see into the depths of the trailer park where my mother had lived, well, that was my choice. Bakra and the others were with me every step of the way, and if they felt I was in too deep, trust me, they’d have pulled me the fuck out.” She flashed around Dimitri with ease, an ability she could thank the demonesses for.
