Chapter 1 - Heat
John Reese unlocked the door and stepped into the apartment he shared with his mate, Jocelyn Carter and her son Taylor. He was tired, he had not slept in over thirty six hours, but he'd wrapped up the latest number in satisfactory style. Another bad guy was in the hospital with a bullet in his knee and another "irrelevant" was saved.
Now tired but content, all he wanted to do was to hug his beloved mate and go to sleep. It had been a long week, several numbers had come in very close together and there had been no time for John to return home to see his family. He'd spoken with Joss a couple of times, but that was just get to information he needed for his cases; there had been no time for personal talk.
Since they were both Wolf, John had constant contact with Joss via their mating bond, which was like having a ghost of her following him around, but that was no substitute for her warm, soft, flesh and blood body. At the thought of finally be able to touch and hold her after several days away, his tired body began to awaken and he felt the familiar ache of desire for his mate.
Wolves are very sensual creatures and the intimacy of the mating bond gave the connection between a bonded pair of Wolves an extra dimension that a non-bonded pair simply could not achieve. When John had been younger and his friends and comrades who'd been part of a bonded mating had tried to describe the feeling to him, he had listened with some amusement and then cynically dismissed their grand descriptions of what it was like to be mated as poetic flights of fancy by the newly bonded. After all, John had had some intense relationships with Jessica, Kara and his other intimate partners, Wolf and non-Wolf alike, so could it really be all that different?
Then he had bonded with Jocelyn Carter and he suddenly understood. Intimacy with a bonded mate was a whole new experience for him and it had both surprised and humbled him. Before mating, he didn't even really believe in the concept of a soul, now he truly believed that his soul had merged with hers to become one that they shared.
He raised his nose, closed his eyes, and sniffed the air; Joss was obviously home and cooking dinner, he could smell the roast cooking and his stomach rumbled. He hadn't eaten all day. He sighed happily; dinner with his mate and then bed sounded like the perfect end to a satisfying week. It would be even better if he could coax Joss into bed with him right after dinner. He smiled at the thought and his cock swelled a bit at the thought of touching her again.
He walked into the kitchen where Joss was chopping vegetables. She paused and smiled at him, "You look tired. Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Taylor is over at Dante's having an all-night video gaming fest, so we can have a nice quiet evening."
As soon as John saw and smelled her, something awakened in him. Her scent was very familiar to him, but it seemed to be downright intoxicating tonight. It surrounded him and filled him with a deep burning desire. John stared at his mate and was struck by how beautiful she was. Her skin looked smoother and softer than ever, her hair was glossier than normal, and her eyes were large and luminous. She was positively glowing. He blinked rapidly, but the glow remained. He stared at her for a minute wondering how he'd gotten this ethereal creature to mate with the likes of him.
He did know that he wanted her, he wanted her right here and now. If he didn't have her now he was going to explode. He was reacting to her on a very primal level and he wasn't sure why, but the way his body was urging him on, he wasn't going to waste time analyzing it. Now was the time to act.
Joss, perhaps sensing his arousal, stopped and looked up at him, startled. Whatever was driving John, she felt it too, and she could feel her body responding to him.
Joss had no idea why she felt like this. All she knew was her mate was staring down at her with such desire in those gorgeous eyes of his that her breath was literally taken away. There was a rush of heat between her legs and her nipples instantly hardened. Her breath came in quick panting gasps. She wanted him; she wanted him buried in her while she screamed his name.
"John," she gasped breathlessly as she had to steady herself by gripping the counter.
"Joss," the growl came from deep in his chest.
They stood there for several seconds just staring into each other's eyes. With another growl John took the knife out of her hand and pulled her to him, kissing her hard and passionately, his hunger and exhaustion completely forgotten.
To his surprise, Joss didn't protest but returned his passion with a fervor that matched his own. John looked down at her; her eyes were dilated and dark with desire. He felt his cock go rock-hard instantly. He had no idea why they were so aroused, but he did know he couldn't fight it, he didn't want to. He wanted her now.
She didn't resist; she wanted this every bit as bad as he did. She couldn't explain this sudden overwhelming need and, frankly, she was too caught up in the moment to care. Her mind was on only one thing: pleasuring her Alpha Wolf.
His mouth crashed down on hers while his hand slid under her tank top and played with her breasts. He was vaguely aware that she was ripping his shirt open and her hands were sliding under his undershirt. Without breaking their deep kiss, he pulled his jacket and destroyed dress shirt off, letting them drop carelessly to the floor.
He finally had to break the kiss to yank her top over her head and she removed his undershirt. Their pants soon followed their shirts in the discard pile, while their mouths greedily devoured each other. Their hands roamed over each other's bodies, touching and feeling.
Their growls and moans were the only sounds in the apartment as their desire completely overrode everything else and they went at each other like animals. The primitive part of their brains was in complete control, and both of them willingly gave into it.
John was growling deep in his chest again and it was driving Joss insane with need. The sounds they made were barely human as they touched and stroked each other, each driving the other into an absolute mating frenzy.
They couldn't even make it to the bedroom; they stumbled to the living room because they simply couldn't wait any longer. John took Joss on the floor right in front of the fireplace. They tumbled to the floor, and he climbed on top of her with a guttural growl. Joss moaned as John trailed kisses down her throat to her clavicle. Joss ran her nails down his back causing him to arch his back and hiss.
John poised his cock at her entrance and gazed down for brief moment at his beloved mate. Her eyes were dilated so wide there was almost no iris left, and her chest was heaving. "Please, take me," she moaned and with one swift, sure motion John powered himself inside her. He barely heard her gasp as he plowed into her and buried himself as deeply as he could possibly go.
Joss reached down and grabbed his ass, digging her fingernails into his tight flesh, trying to pull him further into her. He was more than happy to oblige, thrusting himself as deep as he could with each stroke and grinding for more.
He felt her walls grip him tightly and he knew she was building to a very intense orgasm. He was nearly there himself and continued to pound her with everything he had while her moans and cries of pleasure urged him on. He bit into her shoulder just where it joined her neck. "John!" she cried out; it was the most erotic thing he had ever heard and he tried to ram himself deeper into her. Her body gripped him in a near stranglehold as she climaxed and he joined her only a couple of thrusts later.
He emptied his seed into her and then collapsed on top of her panting and spent. His face buried in her neck while he came down off his high. Finally he lifted his head and looked down at his mate. She was lying there with a beautiful, sated smile on her face. Gently, she kissed him.
"Wow, that was..incredible," she breathed softly. "We've had some nights to remember, but that…. Where did that come from? "
John kissed her forehead. "I don't know," he answered honestly. "You were… glowing and I wanted you so badly."
"I know, I wanted you too. Bad. Like, I could die if I don't have my mate in me NOW, bad."
John rolled off her and stood up stiffly. He was going to feel the effects of that desperate physical lovemaking for the next couple of days, but he didn't care. He helped Joss to her feet and held her against his body, pressing a kiss on top of her head. "I love you, Joss."
His mate held him just as tightly and nuzzled his neck. "I love you too."
A couple of weeks it became apparent what that was, when the stick showed a plus sign. Joss showed John the test, "Look what you DID!" she snarled.
"I don't recall you complaining at the time!" He protested. And then John had a revelation, "The other night, you were in heat, that's why we…um…were so eager."
"But HOW?! I'm on the pill! I couldn't have been in heat!" Joss was bordering on panic. John just shook his head as he didn't know the answer to that himself.
It took a visit to Dr. Mike Cho at the Wolf Clinic to clear the "How" part up.
Dr. Cho pulled her medical records up on the screen, "It says here you took some antibiotics for a sinus infection last month."
Joss nodded, "Yeah, Dr. Cauley saw me since you weren't in and he prescribed them."
The cheerful little doctor closed the file. "Well, there's your answer. Those antibiotics rendered your BCPs ineffective. What I don't understand is why the pharmacy computer didn't pick up on the drug interaction and warn us when you picked up the prescription. I know it's caught that particular interaction before." Dr. Cho shook his head, "I'm baffled."
Both Carter and Reese had a pretty good idea why the pharmacy computer had remained silent. Joss shot the security camera on the street outside a dirty look as they left the building. John gave the camera thumbs up behind her back and the red light on the camera blinked once in what John correctly interpreted as a wink.
Joss didn't say a word the entire way home. She stared out the window, but John could feel her swirling emotions through their mating bond: the fear, the confusion, the worry, and buried deep in there, the little sliver of happiness and hope.
John was trying not to scream and run around in circles in pure joy (As a matter of fact, the next Pack Night would find him running around in circles with his tongue hanging out, howling in joy while Joss rolled her eyes.) He loved children; he'd always wanted to have some of his own, but circumstances and certain career choices had closed that door to him….. or so he'd thought. He had Taylor now, but Taylor had been a teenager when he and Joss had mated. He never saw Taylor's first smile or his first steps, never experienced Taylor's first day at school or hid a couple of dollars under his pillow from the tooth fairy.
John looked over at his mate. A badly as he wanted this baby, he did understand how she felt. Taylor would be going off to college soon; she thought she was done raising kids. She was over 40, well past prime child bearing age. They both had dangerous jobs with odd hours. In other words, Joss had a lot of very good reasons to be upset right now.
John had to admit he lived with death every day and he had already lived longer than he had expected to. While John did not actively seek death, he had gone into his current job with Finch and the numbers expecting it to eventually catch up with him. He accepted it as part of the package deal for helping people and he'd had several very close brushes with death since then. Joss had already raised one child by herself, there was the very real possibility that if they decided to go ahead and have this baby, she could wind up raising this one alone too. He looked over at her as she stared morosely out of the car window and he wondered if he even had the right to ask her to do this.
He found a parking spot not too far from the front door of the apartment building where they lived. They trudged up the stairs in silence to their floor and entered their apartment in a subdued mood.
John guided Joss to the couch and made her sit next to him. He pulled her into a tight embrace.
"We don't have to have this baby," he said, stroking her hair.
She looked up at him with tears in her eyes, "I thought you wanted the baby?"
John tenderly touched her forehead with his and looked into her eyes. "I do, believe me there is almost nothing I want more... except one thing and that's you. You're not happy about this pregnancy."
Joss fiercely swiped at the tears rolling down her cheeks. "John, I would love to give you a child; I know how bad you want one. But with our jobs, not to mention I'm too old to be having a baby, I don't see how we can do this!"
John held her tight; he really did understand. Joss was a worrier and planner. It had helped her survive while being a single mom to Taylor for nearly ten years. Just patting her on the hand and saying "It will all work out" wasn't going to cut it with her. But John wasn't sure how he was going to convince her it was going to work out, because quite frankly, he had no idea how it would work out.
He held her for several minutes while they both tried to figure things out. They were not making much progress when suddenly the door flew open and Finch, Fusco and Taylor all trooped into the apartment. Finch and Fusco were each toting several shopping bags, while Taylor was pushing a bassinet.
"Put the bassinet in the master bedroom, it will have to do until we get your family a larger apartment. Then help me find cabinet space for these bottles," Finch ordered Taylor briskly.
"Roger, Finch," and the teen cheerfully pushed the bassinet into John and Joss's bedroom.
Fusco headed for the kitchen, "I'll put these groceries away. Don't get up Joss, just relax. Finch and I will cook tonight." And he vanished into the next room.
Finch set his overflowing shopping bag down on the armchair and started taking off his coat before he noticed the startled deer-in-the-headlights expressions on the faces of the parents-to-be. He gave them a self-conscious grin and shuffled his feet, "Sorry, I may have gone a bit overboard when the Machine informed me that you were pregnant but I just couldn't help myself."
"Wait, the Machine told you I was pregnant? And you already told Lionel and my son?" Joss yelped at the computer genius in shock and dismay.
John didn't think he had ever seen Finch blush before. Finch looked shamefaced, "Yes. Once again, I am sorry, it seems I let my enthusiasm get away from me."
John tensed, waiting for Joss's reaction. He was fully prepared for her to be frothing-at-the-mouth furious with the Machine for telling Finch and at Finch for telling Fusco and Taylor. He was not prepared for what came next.
Joss's face split into one of the biggest smiles he had ever seen and she started to laugh. She leaped up from the couch and threw her arms around the startled billionaire and delivered a rib-cracking hug and a big kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you," She told him. "For reminding me that we're not alone."
Finch, bless his heart, looked puzzled, "Of course you're not. You haven't been alone for a very long time. Now let's talk about getting you into a larger apartment, two bedrooms are not enough for your growing family. I own several properties that I think will do quite nicely…"
John just sat on the couch and grinned like an idiot. He was going to be a father!
Later that night, after a large celebratory dinner, John and Joss lay snuggled in bed together. John was still grinning like a fool, he had not stopped all night, and now Joss was too.
"So I take it you're OK with having this baby?" John asked her as he gently nibbled on her bare shoulder.
Joss's smile got bigger and she snuggled with her mate. "Yeah, more than OK actually. I just needed to be reminded that we're not alone, that it's not like when I lost Robert and had to raise Taylor by myself with only my mom for help. This baby is going to get the best of both of us, Taylor, Finch and Fusco, maybe even Shaw."
John rolled over on top of her pinning her underneath him, but careful not rest any weight on her belly, while she laughed. "Do you have any idea what this means to me?" He was suddenly very serious and the loving look in his loving blue eyes made Joss's heart leap.
Joss reached up and kissed him. "I think I have a pretty good idea."
"Joss, I'm serious. I was stuck in the dark for so long…" John was starting to get a bit agitated as he desperately wanted her to understand.
Joss gently placed a finger to his lips. "And I was alone for so long. But you're not the dark, not anymore, and I'm not alone."
Reassured that she did indeed understand what he had been trying to say, he smiled down at her with predatory gleam in his eye, "There is nothing sexier than a woman who is having your baby."
Joss's smile and the gleam in her eyes matched John's. "Unless it's the father of your baby. Come here, daddy."
Neither one got any sleep that night.
Next Chapter: The murders begin.