Page 21 of Bullied Pregnant Mate

At that moment, I’m reminded that she’s the luna, and this marriage is not entirely about me or the coven. Jenks is a wolf. By marrying him, I’ve also become a part of his pack.

Does that mean I’m supposed to bow or something?

“Come on,” Gina says, smiling at me. “We’ll help you take down the decorations from yesterday, and you can tell us how it’s going.”

My nervousness returns. I haven’t really dealt directly with the pack before. Knowing Jenks is at an official meeting makes me even more jumpy.

What if he fails? If he turns on his old party-boy personality and can’t do what’s been asked of him, what happens to us?

We take some snacks and iced tea with us out to the deck, where we unwind streamers from the edge of the roof. Then, we take down the flower wreaths hanging around the edges of the pool and barbecue area. With the three of us all helping, the job doesn’t take long, and soon we’re stretched out on deck chairs, enjoying the biscuits and tea.

“It’s so nice and warm out here right now,” Gina says, tilting her head up to the sun. “This house has always gotten amazing light.”

“It’s pretty fancy,” I say. “Who built it?”

“Our great-great-grandfather would have put up the foundations. Back then, it was a decent-sized cabin. I think the end of the west wing still has the original frames. The rest of it is fairly new.”

“Who liked to party?” Lucy asks, tilting her glass to finish off her iced tea.

“Our great-grandma,” Gina smiles. “She started small renovations when she was young, and then in her mid-twenties, she hit some kind of wealth—I’m not sure how, but my mom might know—and then she renovated it up to what you see now. The house is to be passed down to each generation and never sold. It was a condition in her will.”

“How did Jenks end up living here by himself?” I ask. “It’s such a huge place. Isn’t there any other family to share it with him?”

Gina looks troubled, a frown darkening her eyes. “Jenks’s mom, Minette—my mom’s sister—never told anyone who his father was. She inherited the house when she was very young, and she lived out here with Grandma before she had to move closer to town for doctor’s appointments and things like that. Minette was mostly alone out here, but she did have girlfriends who stayed frequently. The place got a reputation for pack parties when my grandma was still in her younger years, and even though Minette kept up traditions, the place felt incredibly empty all the time.”

I’m so focused on Gina’s story, my glass slips out of my hand when she stops talking. Lucy sits up and points at it, and just after the glass hits the deck and shatters, it reforms itself and rolls over to my feet.

“Stop showing off,” Amanda chides.

“This from the woman who charmed the roof streamers into snakes so they’d come down to us?” Lucy points out.

“You didn’t want to climb up there, did you?”

“Point taken.”

“Go on, Gina, please,” I press, wanting to hear more about her and Jenks’s childhood. She sits up and takes off her sunglasses, looking at me with her beautiful, dark blue eyes.

A lot like Jenks’s… I wonder if they are the same as their grandmother’s.

“I don’t know all the details. My mom was upset with her sister a lot. Minette didn’t seem to have loyalty to the pack, and her behavior was erratic. She started staying away for weeks at a time. Nobody even knew she was pregnant until she was almost due.”

“Who is his father?” I ask, trying to hide my shock.

Of all the things I imagined about Jenks, I never guessed any of this.

“No one knows,” Gina answers, shrugging. “Minette never told anyone. After she had Jenks, she kept him isolated up here. When he first started school, he was an incredibly shy, quiet kid. So socially awkward that he could barely function. Then one day, instead of hiding from the taunts and laughter, he started laughing, too. From that moment on, he was the class clown.”

This information strikes me right in the heart. I can clearly imagine the skinny little kid standing in the classroom, getting laughed at by everyone in the room and learning his only defense was to purposefully become the joke.

I wasn’t at the same school until a few years later. By then, he was already party-boy Jenks.

“My mom tried to intervene,” Gina says, sighing. “As she always does. She took him in after school and invited him over on weekends, trying to give him a normal life. But Minette wentabsolutely nuts over this. She demanded Jenks stay with her and not interact with the pack.”

“Jesus,” I mutter. “What the hell was wrong with her?”

Gina shakes her head. “I don’t know. Maybe my mom does. The only thing we know for sure is that the second Jenks turned twenty-one, Minette signed the house over to him and left town.”

Deep in my chest, a fierce, sharp ache throbs, almost making me cry. I’m taken back to moments in my memory when I felt so much love for Jenks, even when he was bullying me. I was confused about it then, but maybe I could sense this pain in him.

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