Claws and code

Does that bother you?

IF you are reading this on anything other than Wattpad, IT HAS BEEN STOLEN! This is my work, please respect the effort I have made to write this and report it if it isn't on Wattpad.
Thank you,
XG

He dashed out and I smiled, patting Jack on the leg. "He's as subtle as a bull in a china shop. Grab the food would ya?"

He placed the food on the other side of my leg and refused to look at me. So, I addressed the elephant in the room. "Your beast is under the impression I am his mate. Are you alright with this?"

He finally looked up, heartbroken. "I am." He simply stated. He didn't look it and a part of my heart broke.

"Have you had a mate before? Did you lose her?"

"No and no."

"Have you given up on finding your true mate?" It was the most important question I could think of and my heart shattered when he replied.

"I don't have to go find her; I know where she is." He didn't elaborate any further. I never heard of mates being rejected but in the human romance novels it happened, so maybe it was based on truth.

I changed the subject. "Are you hungry?" He finally looked up. He looked so sad, I couldn't handle it. His beast had chosen me over his true mate, he was right to be sad if he was hoping to reunite with her. I was only a physical attraction for the human in him. I dropped myself sideways, knowing he had the reflexes to catch me and I hugged him when he did. Without wanting to let my feelings show I still ended up silently crying on the beautiful man who had lost the chance of getting his true mate. I cried and he held me like I was made of glass.
Brushing my hair back like I meant the world to him and whispering he would never leave me like he meant it. I realised he probably did because his animal side wouldn't accept anyone else now. And the magic of the animal was what made the connection between the souls of mates. His soul would never be able to get tied with his true mate if she changed her mind, because of me. She was probably human too, they were the only ones who would be able to deny a soulmate. The irony didn't escape me.

"Why me?" I finally sobbed into his chest. His arms tightened and he whispered softly. "Because you are the only one that matters, from the moment I met you, until the day we die. You were made for me."

By the time David returned at least a half hour must have passed. I suspected that he'd been listening for me to stop crying and then some. While Jack and I were eating, David bounded back in holding two cables. Not even in the link did he ask if I was alright. He stole a few grapes from my plate and grinned when Jack snarled at him, before giving me twice as many from his plate. Then David started telling me about what he'd found since they arrived here.

It seemed that the first thing they found was the last thing I'd hacked and that was information about a planned fire bombing of a vampire coven. That day. The strike team had no contact details so they had rushed to the address, hence the scary stranger. It seemed I'd inadvertently saved a large vampire coven. "Go us!" I replied blandly when he told me.

"Go us indeed. In his honour code, you and me saved him and his people. They are in our debt. That has just given us some very powerful allies. Actually, the fact that our pack led the mission and both technicians that extracted the data were us. Our pack now has numerous people in our debt. It is the Lycan way, a life for a life. But with the vampires it is even more serious, they call it a blood debt. It's like they make you honorary family. He wanted to see you, so he knew who else they were adopting. The strike force was only a weapon, in his mind we were the ones that fired the shot that saved them. Out of respect for the pack hierarchy, he thanked dad too but the pack only gets one future favour, no debt for them."

"Right, well... I don't think I like him. Peter seems like an entitled sort of fellow and the way he spoke about Mowgli wasn't very nice."

"Dad convinced everyone that Mowgli is in a bunker to protect him. One of our general techs has legally had his middle name changed to Mowgli and is hidden down in our bunker with his mate. They're newly mated so they don't mind one little bit. Nobody is lying when they speak of the man named Mowgli. He is also working on the encryption but we all know that we won't get in without the evil genius who created the self destruct encryption code."

Jack finally spoke up. "May I assume that I am indeed beside the evil genius who created the code that has everyone stumped?"

David and I grinned wickedly at Jack and David replied. "You may indeed. That code has made us a lot of money. It is one of the products that Books Security has sold to numerous supernatural and a select few human enterprises. Nobody knows we own that company by the way, let's keep it that way, shall we?"

I smiled at Jack. "I created it and it has a backdoor that only I can get into. Nobody will find it, no matter how good they are. The reason we don't let people know we can enter it is because than it becomes useless to everyone who bought it. Books Security would be ruined and we've spent years making it a legal business with a brilliant reputation for high end, serious buyers."

"She created the encryption and I created the mail chimp, completely anonymous communication if anything gets intercepted by a line that doesn't belong to the business who buys it. Even governments buy our products. We have a few other products but that is our main income stream. We don't need anything else. We rich bitches." David joked.

Jack growled lowly and when his head came up it was clear that the fluffy bastard was at the wheel. "Run security for pack. Have good den. Can provide for mate."

David immediately backed off and stepped away from the bed. Jack was looking at the Alpha born like he was prey. I moved too fast and hissed in pain, the attention immediately shot to me. His eyes cleared and he looked sad again. "I'm sorry. I'm on edge. I normally have much better control, we normally work as one, he doesn't normally take over like this. I_"

I cut him off with my hand over his mouth. To the animal side I was his mate. I could calm them because of this. "I know you are of a respected beta line. I know you are the man that runs the pack security even if your brother is older. You are a warrior, and a strategist, and you protected me very well."

He pulled my hand away and frowned. "You got hurt."

"You and Mark were outnumbered and up against a fresh vampire. They had weapons too. We all survived."

"You aren't healing at all. Your bruises aren't even clearing. Your wolf is gone."

"No wolf. Does it upset you that I have no wolf?" I asked apprehensively.

"It upsets me you aren't healing at all. It upsets me that we couldn't slaughter everyone who hurt you before they did it and it angers me that I can't kill them a few more times. It annoys me that that vampire came into your room to get your scent. It upsets me that you must think me a pup with no control or discipline. It's embarrassing that I _"

He only stopped due to my hand on his mouth again. David was grinning broadly and had linked to me. 'He's worried that you think less of him because you got hurt.'

I kissed Jack then, before he could say anything else. I kissed him hard and held his hair tightly in my grip. He lifted me like I didn't weigh a thing. He managed without hurting me or breaking our lips apart. He had me on his lap and kissed me until I could barely breath. I could hardly remember why I had stopped him. "You are freaking perfect, both this extraordinarily strong, frail side and the big fluffy bastard I woke up with. You are certainly not a pup in my eyes. I'm just sorry I'm only frail."

David grinned from the sideline and sat back down on the bed. I was starting to wonder how Jack hadn't figured out I was human but it amused my friend.