The Final Chase (Final Love Book 2) (8 page)

Chapter Thirteen

Without bringing attention to myself, I moved with haste up the stairs and stepped into the house. My phone was up on the nightstand, so I quickly ran up the stairs and swiped it to life.

I had a few texts from my salon; everything was good. Mary loved me. They were surviving.

I called Rayne as soon as I finished sending back the salon a thumbs up.

She answered quickly.

“Helloo there!”

“Rayne. Jake is pulling an Arson. I repeat— Jake is pulling an Arson. What do I do?”  It was like déjà vu all over again. 

“I knew it. What is he saying?
I’m what you deserve, baby? You’re not ready yet? I want to see you pregnant and getting round with my child inside you?”
She lowered her voice at the last bit, mocking her lover.

“Gah! He already pulled the first one with
I’m your alpha; I know what you need
speech. Now he just pulled the
you’re not ready yet
part. What the hell am I gonna do? I don’t want this life. I came here and I think a small part of me knew we would have fun, but that’s what you thought with Arson and he was in love with you and wanted you to be his forever. Rayneeee.”  I had officially gone from mildly annoyed and horny to freaking out.

“Why don’t you want that life?” she asked honestly. I rolled my eyes.

“Come on. I am not the type of girl that likes to get dirty. I mean, what they do here is really awesome. I saw all the animals today, and there is the cutest baby tiger that I’m going to mother the rest of the week. But it’s just like a weird vacation. I’m all make-up, hair, and my salon. Jake is really hot, and he is realllly good with his tongue. But I don’t think we could be around each other for any real length of time.” Even as the words came out of my mouth, my mind was screaming it was a lie.

“I don’t know, Cammy. Things and wants change. I wanted a guy, but I didn’t think I would get a real alpha man like Arson. I also didn’t really know if I wanted kids and here I am, knocked up, eating Fruit Loops because that’s all this kid has been craving today. Maybe it’s worth a shot.”  I mulled over her words. I hadn’t told her yet that I wanted a family.  She probably still thought I was living the single life, screwing with a bunch of hot guys. Maybe it was a stupid thought, but I didn’t want her to think I was trying to take away her thunder. I hated to think that.

“Ok, I’ve got to go, but tell Cammy Jr. I love her!”

“Run all you want, but take it from me—love will catch you and knock you on your ass. Talk to you later.”

We parted with those sweet words of hers.

Love. Pshhh.  That was definitely not happening.  I sat on the bed and looked around the room. I was a straight shooter, usually. But here I was, freaking out over something that could be nothing. I wasn’t ready to open up to anyone yet about my new want of a family, so that was my secret for now. I stood up, feeling like Xenia on the verge of kicking some ass. If Jake thought he was going to lead me around, then he had another think coming.

I was Cammy Freaking Jennings; I once switched my bestie’s toothpaste with lube. I was a force to be reckoned with.

I marched myself right back out to the backyard, where pretty much everyone had cleared out and gone back to their work. Only Derek, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb aka Autumn and Helen, and Jake, were chatting.

“Ok, get. Scoot, skiddaddle!” I shoo’d them away.

“Excuse us; we were just talking about something important,” Autumn foolishly opened her mouth. Poor child, I know she didn’t understand the predicament she was in. I mean, I know I looked like a sweet, redheaded cupcake on the outside, but I was a cherry bomb on the inside. Deciding to nip this whole thing in the bud, I walked right up to Jake and laid claim to his lips right in their faces.

Yep. Cammy Jennings was metaphorically peeing on Jake Wild.

I gripped his shirt, keeping him right in my grasp. I could practically hear the rolling of their eyes, but as long as I was getting the point across, I didn’t care.

Jake had a grin on his face as I blew his mind, obviously enjoying my cavewoman maneuvers. When I pulled back, I looked at the girls with a little headshake and raised brow. My attitude pretty much said,
what? You wanna roll now? Bring it, bitches!
  Both girls rolled their eyes but walked away. I turned to Derek to see him silently cracking up.  His hands raised in a surrender position when he met my glare.

“I’ll see you two around. Good luck, Jake.” He laughed and walked away backwards, afraid to put his back to me. Yeah, I was a bad ass. I turned back to Jake, who had the biggest grin on his face. I felt like such a hurricane to the other people, but seeing his grin made me feel like a thunderstorm—soothing to some people on a warm summer day.

“Okay, listen here, Mr. Alpha Animal Man.  You don’t know me that well, so I’m going to impart some wisdom on you.” I pointed my finger for emphasis.  Which he unfortunately gripped, and pulled me up against his body.

I was a flailer when I got hyped up like this.

But this close to him, I couldn’t flail. I felt like a cat in the bathtub. My inner cherry bomb was being doused, which fizzled my whole spiel.

“I can’t let you have it when you’re holding me!”  I honestly felt like he just wrapped me in a calming blanket. No one could be angry when they were being held like this. Dammit!

Hearing my words, his damn smile just got bigger!

“I’m curious. I’ll let you do your thing.” He let me go, then went to sit on the wooden step, ready for what I was going to do.

“Well, you’ve ruined most of it. So you won’t get the full Cammy effect now.” I mean, honestly. I was deflated now. He messed with my mojo.

“Would it help if you pissed on my leg again?” A blush grew on my face, but I was starting to feel feisty again. His banter was working.

“Those children needed to be put in their place.” I did the little attitude head shake. I was getting back into my flow.

“I didn’t mind.” He relaxed back, his body stretched out on those steps. Why did he look so hot just sitting there?

“Cammy.” My attention that was roaming his body moved up to his face.

“Focus, you were about to lay it on me. Thick, I believe.”  Fuck, he was right. I needed to get it together.

“Damn straight. Wisdom. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed yet, but I am an interesting bird. I’m dramatic. I don’t take shit from people, and I am a blunt girl. So this whole
you’re not ready yet
thing isn’t going to work for me. You have something to say, you say it. I don’t have to like it, but I want the same thing from you. Give it to me straight.  Ain’t nobody got time to worry about what’s going on in your head.” That spiel was shorter than what I was thinking in my head.  No dramatic flair. He really did deflate me!

“One hour.” Huh?

“One hour what?” I was confused.

“I figured it would only take you one hour to come at me about that.” He pointed to the clock that was on the house by the door behind him.

“You knew I would say something?”  What was happening here? This was not going how I imagined. My arms crossed over my chest.

“I knew the moment we met that you were going to be a handful. I wouldn’t expect anything less.” Well, damn. That statement, in its own way, was kind of sweet.

“You’re okay with that? My brand of crazy?” I could occasionally be a little much for some people. I had to keep my freak flag folded up during some interactions with people. Rayne got it. That’s why she was my best friend. But the other men I’ve dated tried to rein me in. Impossible.

“It definitely keeps things interesting.”  He stood and wrapped his arms around me again. This time I didn’t put up a fight.

“I was trying to be nice and not rush you. But I want to be straight with you, so you’ll continue to be straight with me.” I looked into his eyes as he spoke.  This moment was going to be something. I just knew it.

“I knew you were more than a quick fuck. When the alpha in me saw the alpha in you, he saw his mate. The second half of his soul. His equal. Seeing you in my bed, in my home, around my animals, I’m not just fighting to keep your body. I’m fighting to win your heart. To prove that I am the man you need. Your forever.”

BOOM.HEADSHOT. There it was. There it fucking was.

Chapter Fourteen

“I’m not sure this life is what I need,” I admitted to him softly. It was honest. Jake seemed to be a great guy but I wasn’t sure he was THE guy for me. But the real question I needed to ask myself was, could I wait and see? Maybe he was, and all I had to do was give it a real chance.

“I’ve got a week. We’ll see what happens.” 

“Ok, I’ll give it a shot.” I should be open to the opportunity of something big. This felt like it had the makings for that. Something great.

“I think we should try that whole claiming thing over again. I need your scent on me more,” he teased and I started giggling. Crisis averted, for now.

“As long as you aren’t going to hold back the D from me.” I narrowed my eyes at him. Withholding the D was going to be a deal breaker for me.

“My sweetheart wants the D?”  he leaned down and purred against my lips.

“No, she needs it.” I kissed him and damn, did his sexy lips take over and demand I give into him. The kiss only lasted a few seconds but I sure as hell would be feeling his lips on me the rest of the day.

“Let’s get some lunch.  Then it’s time to get you to work.” He winked as he walked with me, hand-in-hand, to make some sandwiches in the kitchen.

Lunch was uneventful. I was actually pretty damn hungry, so we both mauled our food silently. After I went to the bathroom to freshen up my face and hair a little, we got back on the ATV and went to the kitchen. And by kitchen, he wasn’t talking about the kitchen at the house. He meant the kitchen where all the animals’ food was prepared.

“Oh good Lord, no.” I tried to walk right back out the door we’d just come in, but Jake just wheeled me back around.

“You seriously can’t expect me to touch anything in this room. Nope. I can’t.”  There was bloody meat everywhere.

Not really, but that’s what it felt like. The area was chilled and clean, with lots of counters everywhere. There was a person placing chicken legs into a bucket; we exchanged hellos, but then they went back to their work.   I also saw a chart with the words
whole rabbits
and
rats
written on it. I knew that some of the animals ate meat and they ate it raw, but I just preferred not to think of it. I loved to eat meat. But in my head, it just came naturally at the grocery store, packaged in foam trays and plastic wrap. Not slaughtered and cut up!

“I’m going to vomit.” I hacked a little but I wasn’t really going to blow chunks everywhere.

“What if I offer you an incentive plan this week? For each thing you do that is gross, I will owe you an earth-shattering orgasm. Deal?” I looked at him in disgust. How could he tease me with orgasms like this? Do dirty and gross things receive an orgasm. Was I a big enough slut that I could be bought with orgasms?

“Deal.”

Yes, yes I was.

Despite him probably wanting to laugh hysterically, Jake just gave me a sexy smile and walked over to a large deep freezer to open it. He pulled out a bag with a dead rabbit inside.

“Nothing less than earth-shattering orgasms, or I feed you to a tiger, capisce?”

“Understood.” He nodded me over. Gross. I walked over to where he was and looked in the freezer. Dead woodland creatures, and a shit-ton of meat. Thankfully, it looked like it came from the grocery store and not road kill.

“Twice a week the cats get whole prey. Don’t make that face. They were humanely killed and we get them from a very reputable supplier.”  Still gross.

“Koda, the bear, gets fish, fruits, nuts, mice, and some berries. In the fridge is a ton of veggies and fruits along with milk creations for the babies, like Casey. And the meat mixtures for the cats, depending on the size. Every day there are interns, and employees go on their assigned routes and tend to the animals in the morning. Some animals get fed a couple times a day. For the wolves we stick to twenty pounds of meat per wolf.” Goodness, this was a lot of information. I felt like I should be writing this down or something.

“We won’t be feeding anything today. I have something else in mind to pop your rescue cherry.”

Famous last words before I rubbed him in hand lotion and fed him to the wallaby.

There lies Jake, the man that died at the hands of his creatures, after making his very beautiful redheaded-lover scoop shit.

After we spent time in the kitchen we walked over to the habitats to clean.

I was currently cleaning shit.

I was going to need at least five orgasms to make up for what he was making me do.

Cleaning the cat cages. He was at home doing this dirty work. Raking, cleaning out their habitat, scooping up some poo to toss in a bag that was in a bucket. But I, on the other hand, hated cleaning my own apartment, let alone this. Alas, I was no quitter, so I ventured on. It was interesting to learn that each habitat fence had a few guillotine doors, one led to an indoor and outdoor feeding and sleeping area, the other was a part of a maze that led to different play areas depending on the animal.  The bigger animals had big concrete enclosures that they call home sometimes as well.

My arms were getting kind of tired from the work we had been doing for a few hours, and I might have gotten a little sunburned.  I wasn’t sure what I expected, but being tired, sweaty, and dirty was what I should have thought would happen to me.  We did manual labor until dinnertime—mostly cleaning, and preparing enrichment toys for tomorrow.

I was somewhat excited to watch the animals play with my little creations. At least I had something to look forward to tomorrow.  Jake made us hamburgers and fries for dinner and I was so hungry I felt like one of the damn beasts outside. I made a mental note to shove a snack bar in my pants every couple of hours.

“I’ve got to go take care of a few more things. Go take a shower and relax. I’ll be back soon.” Jake leaned in and kissed my forehead. It was such an intimate gesture that I felt deep inside my chest. It was strange having someone show their feelings to you while you resisted soaking it in. I wasn’t willing to give into any emotions right now. Sexual stuff I could do. But emotions? I wasn’t ready for that.

“Okay. I’m pretty beat. I haven’t worked this hard since Rayne made me go to one of her aerial yoga classes.”  That was something I would never do again. God, the woman did it pregnant, for Christ’s sake, and I was like a bug tangled in a web.

“You did yoga?” His eyebrow went up, questioning me. I shrugged.

“I know it’s good for you, but I just wanted to breathe and get a smoothie afterwards. Not sweat! It’s hard! If I wanted to sweat that much, I’d go have sex.”  Except, I hadn’t been with many guys that have made me sweat like that. Which brought me back to thinking about sex with Jake.

“Can we fuck like wild monkeys tonight?” What? It was a fair question.

“You look pretty beat; we will see when I get back.” He opened the door and smiled at me. Jerk.

“Maybe I’ll just love myself a little, then go to bed. How do you like them apples?” I did my head shake with attitude.

“That’s my girl. Warm her up for me a little.” He winked and walked out the door. I scoffed. I didn’t need to warm my vagina up. She was already a freaking sauna down there.  Deciding a shower sounded amazing, I walked up the stairs, discarded my dirty clothes and hopped in. It was pure heaven. God, I ached. He needed to get a massage therapist on staff here. I bet everyone would appreciate that.

After my shower, I grabbed one of his T-shirts and put on a pair of cute, light blue shorts, then went back downstairs to rest on the couch.