Jail 'Em (Jailbreak Book 3) Read online

  “We need to pack the books up and take them with us,” I said, and the guys nodded. They’d heard, they knew. I hadn’t known, before, what Nan had left me, but I did now. Janey and the dogs sat there numbly as we moved around the house, piling the journals and the books into crates, then ferrying them out to the trailer attached to our car.

  I hadn’t wanted to come here, and I still wished I hadn’t. I wished I’d never been captured, that someone had looked after the dogs for me when I was. I wished Janey had been safe, not a fucking lure, then collateral damage. Mostly, I wished to hell my grandmother had told me what the fuck was going on when she was still alive. My hand went to my stomach, feeling the slightest of curves there, hearing Janey’s words but not letting my brain touch them, not yet, not until we were safe back in Outpost.

  “I love you,” I said to no one in particular when I was ready to leave. “When the door closes, another opens for you. Live your life, be happy, and never be a victim again.”

  Then I walked out, hoping that was true.

  Chapter 3

  There’d been a grumble from the pilot as we pulled all the books out of the trailer, loading them onto the waiting plane, but with my guys and Mongrel and his men, it didn’t take long.

  “Herbalism and tarot cards?” Mongrel said, plucking one out and flicking through it once we were all done. He snickered when I snatched the book from his hands, making me think any reaction was a good one for him.

  “Are you right? They’re my grandmother’s journals.”

  “And you packed them all up for sentimental reasons?” he asked, flopping down in one of the plane seats.

  “No, none of your business, and don’t you need to get off the plane? It’s going to take off soon.”

  “I know. I’m coming with you.”

  “What?”

  He didn’t answer, just sat smirking as Jacko and Macca, his boys, walked onto the plan toting duffel bags.

  “Here’s yours, ya slacker,” Macca said, throwing the bag at him, only for it to be caught by the wolf shifter with ease. Mongrel stowed it as the other two took their seats.

  “I always go where the action is,” Mongrel explained belatedly. “And right now, that’s you. Hot little power pack with abilities no one’s ever seen?” He grinned, his teeth bright against his tanned skin. “How are the Yanks gonna take that, not being the biggest dog in the pack?” His grin didn’t fade when Jai came to sit down beside me, buckling himself in, then me when I just sat there, staring at the other man.

  “You OK?” Zane asked, sitting down next to me. When I looked at him, I felt like I needed to ask him the same question.

  He was thinking about Janey’s words, he had to be. Was he imagining a little boy with his dad’s dark eyes and thick black hair, gazing up at us with some kind of unearthly gleam in his eye, radiating a power that no child should—?

  “You’re worried about what she said?” I asked him in a low voice.

  “Of course I am. Everyone is, if they’re honest. What she said—”

  “Not here. Not until we’re back at Outpost, where we’re safe,” I replied.

  A squeeze to my hand brought my attention back to Jai, who watched us quietly, intensely. I didn’t doubt for a second that all of the guys would treasure the kids when they came, step up and be amazing dads, but Zane and Jai? I guessed being potential sperm donors added another element to it.

  “What did you get from Janey?” Jai asked. “You helped her, soothed her like you used to do with animals.”

  “I took it.” My eyes dropped to the ground as I stared at the smooth floor of the plane and heard the motors starting to wind up. “They raped her in that room, over and over. I took that, being captured, Hollingsworth. I took what they did to her. As far as she’s concerned, we thought about taking a job up on the ridge and then said no. You and I got together and decided to take off to the States, away from pack bullshit. I took the confusion and the abandonment from the dogs, when they approached people hoping for a feed and got chased off, being beeped at when they were running on the roads.” I looked up again but didn’t really see either of them. “I took everything that shouldn’t have happened and let them get on with the lives they should’ve.”

  “And what she read in your Nan’s books?” Jai prompted.

  “It’s sitting here, like a big lump in my stomach. I have to let it out to absorb what she read, what she saw.” I met those golden eyes, just frowning for a second at the weird sensation of doing that, of seeing Jai in the flesh. “I’m not letting it out, not letting anything out until we’re back at Outpost.”

  “You feel safe there,” he said in wonder.

  “I…” My eyes slid to Zane, to Kaz and Nero sitting across the aisle, to Caleb sitting with Gaden behind us. “It’s where I found my pack, and now it's complete, now no one is hunting us, hurting us, or caging us, we can work out a way to work together as one.”

  He nodded as Zane slung his arm around my shoulders, the plane starting to move forward.

  “Right now, that sounds like heaven.”

  The reality, of course, wasn’t quite so idyllic.

  We emerged, travel worn and tired as hell, which made sense as we’d just been through it. Wallace was there to meet us when we landed, Jai rousing himself enough to peer out the windows when we did, taking in the strange landscape, as did Gaden. As soon as we were off the plane, he headed to his spot at the back of the compound, but he stopped himself from walking off entirely. He tracked back, eyeing Zane and Jai until they moved away, then swooped in to place a gentle kiss on my cheek.

  “There’s a lot going on,” Gaden said.

  “There always is.”

  “Come and find me afterwards, when you can. I need to be in fur—really need it.”

  “Go.” I reached up, twisted a single lock of all that silky black hair for a moment before pulling away. “I’ll find you.”

  “Jai Heller, I believe,” Wallace said, taking Jai’s hand and clapping it with his. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  “Shit, now I’m fucked,” he replied, shooting me a cheeky grin. “I’m not that big of a bastard, honest.”

  Zane wrapped me up in his arms and steered me inside as I started to shiver. I’d been hanging back to make sure all the journals came.

  “You’re obviously exhausted and are due the honours of any victorious leader,” Wallace said to me quietly as we walked, “but the people of Outpost are curious, at best, about your stone. For now, rest and enjoy your pack, because tomorrow, we’ll need to start talking about exactly what it does.” He paused for a second, regarding me with his warm brown eyes, before saying, “I’m hesitant to mention it, seeing what you’ve been through, but testing and getting an idea of how this works is in your future if you choose to stay here.”

  “Wallace…” Caleb growled, coming over.

  “Powerful paranormal of unknown ability with some kind of artefact that supplements her power? You know we need to explore that further. I owe the people of Outpost that,” he replied, looking almost apologetic.

  “It’s OK,” I said, patting his massive arm. “I need to know too. That’s what all the books are for. It seems my nan kept records for just that purpose, and it looks like there’s a lot of reading to be done in our future.”

  “Jim and his team are ready to help if needed,” Wallace said, and I just nodded slowly in return. I liked the guys I’d worked with in the IT section, but trusting them with my nan’s books?

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Getting out from the cold wind and inside the warmth of Outpost was welcome. Zane went to pull back, but I held him close, which made him chuckle, nosing at my hair.

  “You needing, cariño?”

  He meant it all cute and flirty, but my response wasn’t. I couldn’t right now. My fingers tightened around his arm, holding him closer. “I need you guys.” I’d said the words quietly, but the attention of every one of my pack went to me. “All of you.”

  Nero nodded, shouldering forward, looking Jai square in the eye. “We’re going to a room we all shared. It’ll have been cleaned, but we…we came together in there.”

  “It's where she made you her mates,” Jai said, hands shoved into his pockets. “I felt it, back in Australia. The link between us got harder, brighter. I didn’t get the exact details, but yeah, I felt the connection…” He looked across the group. “To all of you, in different ways.” He shrugged. “This isn’t what I dreamed of when I worked out Shan was mine. If you’d have asked me, when we were captured, if this is what I wanted, I’d have said definitely not.”

  Zane’s arms tightened around me, almost sheltering me with his body.

  “My wolf, he just wants her. Shan, Shan, Shan…” Jai’s hand slid under his shirt, going to his heart, beating out a tattoo of my name. “He’s snarly and edgy around you mob. He doesn’t know you, doesn’t know how you’ll treat her, treat our kids, but me?”

  Everyone went still, real still. “I felt it—how she feels about you. She loves you in that fucking intense way she does everything, throwing herself headfirst into it, which should hurt like hell because I wanted that just for me.” His eyes slid down and met mine, some of that golden boy smile back, but it was still shaky. “But she feels that for me too. That’s what brings me to my knees. After everything…” He shook his head. “I’m done being a thorn in your side, a pain in your heart. You need me, you need them, so that’s the way it’s gonna be.”

  “Well, all right,” Nero said with a nod. “Come this way.”

  Chapter 4

  Jai whistled as he walked around the room. He opened drawers, saw some of the BDSM gear hanging from the ceiling, then took a deep breath. “So this is what juiced you up before you came fo
r me.”

  As was often the case, the boy I grew up with came and went, only to be replaced by this Jai. Eyes shining silver, he paced with the slow grace of a predator. “I asked you before how this works, but you only gave me half the story.”

  Jai and I had slept together, but were too tired, too hurt, to do anything else. He was right, though. He’d asked me how things worked, initially, to gauge where we slept. Well, that massive bed in the room, along with the smaller ones, made clear what our options were, which led to a deeper, more expansive interpretation of the question. He stepped in close to me, the lack of proper sleep showing in the lines of his face, but that didn’t seem like it was in the forefront of his mind as he tipped up my chin, forcing my eyes to meet his.

  “You’ve got a harem now, love. I need to know how that works.”

  “I…I don’t know exactly. Things have only just happened recently with Nero and Kaz. They—”

  He shook his head slowly, steadily, eyes boring into mine.

  “How does it work, Shan?”

  His voice was low, dark, and smooth, his alpha whip turning into a silken scarf that wound its way around me, pulling the words from my lips. He nodded as he saw me suck in a breath, ready to let out what I knew to be true.

  “We talk, we negotiate, we fuck.” He smiled at that last word. “Is that what you wanted to know? Nero and Kaz were already mates. They have a relationship that’s separate, and also a part of this. They may have sex on their own, they may include me in things.” I turned to look at the two of them. “We may engage in things one on one. We haven’t had a chance to explore that yet.”

  “But no one else,” Nero said firmly. Kaz made a grumbling noise, but he rubbed his chin on his mate’s shoulder, claiming him as his. “We share with Shannon only.”

  “That’s it. That’s what I need. Wolves like hierarchies, clear rules, boundaries.” A finger trailed along the neckline of my T-shirt. “In a vacuum, they’ll move in, create the boundaries where there aren’t any. What about you, Zane?”

  “I stepped up when you were caged.” He moved in close, slung his arm around me, and kissed my temple. “She was aching, her heart crying out for you, and she needed me—someone,” he corrected himself. “She needed someone, and I was her only mate.” I heard his thready purr, but wondered if Zane was soothing me or himself. “When I bit her, I felt all of it inside me. Everything that was holding tight to anger or frustration just fucking vaporised, and there was only her.” For a second, there was just the thrum of tension in Zane’s body. “But you know this already. You feel this.”

  “I do,” Jai said with a nod. “But it’s different between Nero and Kazimir and her. Not less, just…different. You feel like I feel—everything’s focussed down on her. You’re always reaching for her, your bodies are always turned towards each other. You’re tied tight, really tight.” Jai’s lips thinned down, and something sad coloured his eyes. “You’re what I was always supposed to be.” His head tilted slightly as he regarded the other man. “You’ve got no limits. You hold nothing back.”

  “I can’t!”

  I buried my head in Zane’s chest at the sound of his distress, not really understanding where it came from but needing to soothe him as he always did me. I tipped my head back, pressed my lips to his jaw, then to his mouth when he looked down at me.

  “You’re in me so fucking deep,” Zane told me. “Má told me it’d be like this, but I had no idea. I really need to apologise to her the next time I talk to her on the phone.”

  I snorted at that, even as the tears formed in my eyes, and he did the same. Part of me wondered what this was doing to Jai, that we were smacking him in the face with our bond right when he’d just escaped hell, but when I dared to look sideways, there was something gentle and soft in my mate’s face. He reached over and brushed a tear from my eye, then stroked my hair.

  “You’re all at different stages,” he said. “You went deep with her.” He nodded to Zane. “You’re being more careful,” he said to Nero.

  “We are at different stages,” the lion shifter replied, “but she’s my mate—mine.” A low growl came with that word, something that had Nero pausing for a second. “But I had other considerations to take into account as well.”

  Jai snorted and shook his head. “That won’t last. I get what you’re trying to do—keep your head, be sensible. It’s not gonna work.” His grin was sharp. “She’s under your skin, gonna tear down all those carefully laid boundaries… Why do you think I’m asking all these questions?” His eyes flicked to Kaz. “What about you, tiger?”

  “You need boundaries? I need none. My heart is open to everyone, something my Nero thinks he needs to fix, but as you say, he will learn. That’s not how bonds work, not how it works for me. I would welcome any and all in my arms, in my bed, in my heart. To me, that is our essential nature as shifters. To have the reasoning abilities of humans, but the hearts of animals that can devote themselves entirely to those they bond with. I hold nothing back except what is asked of me. If you do not want my touch, my affection, I can save it for those that do.” His smile was slow and sweet. “It always sounds childish, but I just want everyone to be happy. What is more important than that?”

  Jai just nodded, returning the other man’s smile for a moment before turning to Caleb.

  The other wolf shifter hung back, not getting too close, and I hated the extra distance. His khaki shirt was stretched tight over his chest, his arms were crossed, and he stood leaning against the wall near the door, as if about to leave.

  “I wondered if we’d get to me,” he said, pushing himself away from it. “We’re not mated.”

  “I know,” Jai said.

  “I wanted to wait, see if we can work together. The fact we’re in the same room is promising.”

  Jai didn’t move to dislodge Zane, but he moved in close to cover my free side.

  “She needs you,” he replied. “I can feel that.”

  “But…?” Caleb smirked, though it was entirely mirthless.

  “But I can’t think about that when my body screams for her. We haven’t done anything other than hold each other since I got out. Everything hurt too much.” Jai’s head lifted as he regarded the room. “She healed me. I’m not hurting anymore.”

  “You need her,” Zane said, pulling away, something that had my fingers grabbing for him, but he just shook his head. “You’ve been without her for all this time. I don’t think I would’ve shown that kind of restraint.”

  Jai pulled me back hard against him, making sure I felt exactly how his body was responding to me right now.

  “I do.” This was said into the nape of my neck, sending shivers through me. “I always need her, but now?” His growl reverberated throughout my whole body. “Tell me if you’re too tired, not feeling well. Tell me if it’s too soon, if you need time. Tell me what you need from them, love. Clue me in, help me find my way with you, because I am fucking burning.”

  I turned in his arms, seeing some of my old Jai back for the first time. He wasn’t worn down or hunched over in pain. No, now he was strong, vital, hot. I ran my fingers across the gap created by the collar of his shirt, just feeling that bronzed skin under my fingertips. Zane was right—everything in me had cried out for Jai when we left him behind. I’d dealt with that by putting it to one side, finding my way in another country with other mates, but right now, I didn’t need to do that.

  I didn’t need to pine for him, long for him, dream about him, because he was here. He’d walked away from everything he’d known to follow me to Outpost. I went up on tiptoes, brushing his lips with mine, but he stopped me from pulling away. His hands went to my jaw, holding me up, straining towards him as he took every damn thing he wanted from my lips.

  “I need everyone, always,” I said when I finally pulled back, looking over my shoulder to the rest of my pack. “But right now, I need you, Jai.”

  Zane moved first, pressing a kiss to my forehead before pulling back. “I’m gonna ring Má, then get a start on those books. I’ll be back when you’re done, and we’ll snuggle down in this bed, because jet lag is fucking me up.”