“You sounded fine with the whole thing earlier.” Jace seemed to be inhaling the scent of my shampoo with every breath.
“Well, I don’t think a baby’s ever bad news, but it’s certainly something we’ll have to get used to. Quickly.” I let him go and sank onto the edge of the bed, briefly wondering how many women had been there before me. But then the answer came unbidden. None. He’d only brought a few of his women home, and they’d never spent the night, because our lifestyle would be incredibly difficult to explain to anyone who couldn’t know about shifters or the werecat social structure. Which was the vast majority of humans.
“Abby?”
“Your sister just asked me to be her maid of honor. Then she offered to return the favor. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that technically, she’d be a matron of honor.”
Jace snorted. Then he sat next to me and took my hands. “Hey, I need you to understand something.”
I nodded, unexpectedly nervous.
“What happened between us last night—what I’d like to continue to happen between us—has nothing to do with your father, or your birth Pride, or me losing my position here. This is about nothing and no one but the two of us.” He slid one hand into my hair, cradling the back of my jaw in a gesture that made me want to crawl all over him. “I want you to know, especially after what happened with Brian, that I’m not using you. I’m not going to pressure you into any kind of commitment, and I have no intention of taking over your father’s territory.”
“You don’t?” My chest ached, and I wasn’t sure why. He was trying to reassure me, yet for some reason, I felt almost rejected. “Do you not want the East Coast Pride?”
He shook his head, but not in answer to my question. “That’s not what I’m saying—I’ve never even really thought about it. What I’m saying is that I’ve known all along that I’d be losing my position here, and I’m not counting on you or your father to give me somewhere to go. I’ve worked very hard to make sure I’m not dependent upon anyone for that.”
“You have?” I felt like I was missing something. “What’s your plan, Jace?”
Instead of answering, he held my gaze for a moment, waiting for me to puzzle it out on my own.
“Oh, shit…” I covered my mouth with both hands, then spoke through them. “You’re going to the Lion’s Den!”
And just like that, I understood his involvement in the wildcat resolution. Jace wasn’t just backing the motion in the Council; he and Faythe were the ones who’d proposed it, and the idea had probably been his originally. His intent hadn’t just been to establish a good relationship between Pride cats and strays—he’d actually been creating a future home for himself.
As an Alpha who’d already been leading a Pride for years, Jace couldn’t possibly serve beneath another tom in another territory. Even if one of the other Alphas wanted him—and none would; they would all subconsciously recognize him as a threat—his own instincts would keep him from peacefully submitting to another tom’s will.
Faythe and Marc’s connection to the project was obvious. Genetically, Marc was a stray. What I hadn’t realized was that Jace thought of himself as a stray too, because that’s practically what he would become when Melody claimed her territory. With Isaac.
But Jace knew that if strays were allowed to form their own officially recognized Prides, he would still have a legitimate role to play when he had to leave the Appalachian Territory. His plan was altruistic, and radical, and brilliant.
His plan was breaking my heart.
“You’re going to leave.” We’d just connected. He couldn’t leave.
He exhaled deeply. “I don’t really have a choice.”
“You could—” I said, but Jace cut me off with a gentle squeeze of my hand.
“Abby, your dad’s not ready to retire. He was expecting you to wind up with an inexperienced potential Alpha. Someone he could spend the next few years training to take over. That’s not me. I can’t serve under him, and he’s not ready to step down.”
“You don’t know that.”
He took my hand. “I do. Think about the big picture. If your father steps down, the council will have to elect a new chair. Your dad wouldn’t just be prematurely losing control of his own Pride; he’d be handing leadership of the council over to someone else, and that could very well put the—”
“Okay, but Isaac’s not ready to step up yet. I think he does have Alpha potential—”
“That much is crystal clear,” Jace agreed.
“—but he won’t be ready for years.”
“At least a couple, probably. But Melody doesn’t want me here. And if I could learn on the job, so can Isaac.”
“He could, but why should he, when you could train him? He’s about to get married. And he’s going to have a baby soon. That’s a lot for any man to take on at once, and you know damn well that the Pride will be better off if you stay on, at least until he’s truly ready to take over.”
Jace shrugged. “Well, I guess that’s up to Melody.”
“And Isaac,” I insisted. “If he’s going to be the new Alpha, he should get a vote, and I know he’ll want to do what’s best for the Pride.”
Jace nodded. “Like I said, I suspect I have at least two years left here.”
“And I’ll be here with you.” We could figure out the rest then. Assuming we were still together, and I couldn’t imagine that not being the case. I knew enough about what didn’t feel right to recognize what did feel right with Jace.
Though there were still things I couldn’t tell him.
“Abby…”
“No. I’ve made up my mind.” I crossed my arms over my chest, shutting down whatever argument he’d been about to make. “As long as you’re here, I will be too. We’ll have plenty of time to sort out the rest. This is just the beginning, Jace.” I took his hand, and his fingers wove between mine. “We don’t have to figure it all out right this second.”
“Speaking of beginnings, since Melody knows about us, there’s a good chance every other shifter in the country will know in a couple of hours. Especially since making it sound like I broke up you and Brian will take some of the focus off of her premarital pregnancy. Don’t you think your parents should hear about us from you first?”
“I guess.” I was assuming the fact that I hadn’t already heard from them meant that Brian hadn’t yet told his parents, who would definitely have called mine. “Any particular way you want me to spin this?”
Jace shook his head. “It’s your news. Tell them whatever you’re comfortable with. As long as it’s true.” He stood when I pulled my cell phone from my pocket. “I’ll give you some privacy.”
While he went downstairs to round everyone up for the mission, I autodialed my parents’ home number. But what Jace and I had both failed to realize was that if you call your parents before breakfast, they will assume someone has died.
“Abby?” my mother screeched into the phone, and for a moment, I regretted showing them how to set up caller ID. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Although I seriously considered selling Isaac out, just to take some of the pressure off my own news. “I broke up with Brian last night, and I just thought you guys should know.”
“Oh, honey, what happened?”
“She broke up with Brian,” my father snapped in his groggy voice. “If I can hear her, why can’t you?” He wasn’t gracious about having his sleep interrupted for anything less than death or dismemberment.
Springs groaned over the line as my mother got out of bed, making irritated clucking noises at my father. “I meant to ask why you broke up with Brian,” she said as her footsteps transitioned from carpet in the bedroom to the creaky floorboards in the second floor hall. “He’s a really nice young man.”
“Yes, he is, but I don’t love him. I don’t ache to see him, and I don’t want him to touch me, and—”
“Well, honey, that could take some time after…” Her voice trailed into nothing. She m
eant well, but she was never really able to talk about what happened to me in that cage.
“Mom it’s been some time, and that hasn’t changed.”
“Okay, but that doesn’t mean you can’t marry him. There’s more to a marriage than sex, and lots of women don’t really like it, so—”
“Mom, please listen to me.” I exhaled slowly, fighting for patience. “This isn’t about sex. I like sex. I just don’t like Brian.”
“Well, hon, who on earth did you have sex with?” She said it just like that. As if we were discussing my preference for one tomato sauce over the other, and I might be able to suggest a new recipe.
It was kind of weird.
“Um, I’m actually with Jace now.”
“You’re with…”
When a familiar door squealed open, I realized that she hadn’t moved far enough from their bedroom. And that my father had only been feigning disinterest. “Did she just say she’s with Jace?”
“She did say Jace, and she says she likes sex.”
“Oh, good Lord, Mom, tell Dad to go back to bed.” I could already feel my face flaming. “This conversation is awkward enough already.”
“I can’t go back to bed after that!” my father blustered, and I wanted to crawl into a hole and die.
“Okay, listen. All you two really need to know is that I gave Brian’s ring back, and I…I think I love Jace.”
“You what?” my father demanded.
My mother sighed. “Well, we’ll have to order a larger groom’s tux, but unless Jace has an aversion to chocolate cake or lilies, all the other wedding preparations should be fine. I’ll call the tux shop after breakfast.”
I had to fight the urge to pull out my own hair. “Before you do that, Mom, call Isaac. He has something to tell you.” I hung up my phone and threw it straight at Jace’s pillows.
ELEVEN
Jace
“I swear, Melody’s going to put me in an early grave.” With every word I spoke, my foot fell heavier on the gas pedal. Which was bad, because my Pathfinder was already chewing up the narrow backroad faster than the Tasmanian Devil on speed, in spite of the sun glaring in my eyes and the sharp, winding curves.
In the car behind us, Lucas was having trouble keeping up. I’d decided he should drive separately with Teo and Warner to give him time to adjust to my new relationship with his sister without having to see it up close and personal. After the uproar with Melody, I knew exactly what it felt like to discover that one of your friends has had his hands all over your sister.
Not that Isaac and Melody had anything in common with Abby and me. Ours was a much more mature and acceptable connection. In ways I couldn’t put into words when Abby had asked me to. Many, many indescribable ways.
“She’s just growing up, Jace.” Abby’s pulse raced as trees flew by on either side of the car, an irregular blur of dark green, casting shadows over the narrow road. She clutched the armrest. “Could you please slow down?”
I lifted my foot from the gas pedal, and the truck behind us swelled in the mirror until Lucas slowed to match our speed.
“Seriously, though,” she continued, “you can’t tell me that I’m old enough to make my own decisions, then deny her the same opportunity. She’s an adult. Just like I am.”
“You’ve never been as young as she is at this very moment.” Melody was not ready to make major life decisions, and Isaac was damn well old enough to know better. And they’d gone behind my back! In my own house!
Yet Abby seemed perfectly calm about the whole thing. “It’s not fair to compare me with your sister,” she insisted. “She and I have led entirely different lives. And even if she’s a little immature now, becoming a mother will change that.”
“I wanted life to change that.” I punched the steering wheel, and Abby winced as if her own fist hurt. “I wanted Melody to have a chance to grow up on her own before there was a baby.” I’d spent years trying to undo what Calvin had done to his only daughter—trying to show her that she had options. And she’d just thrown the whole thing away.
“Well, that’s not your choice to make, and she’s made hers,” Abby said, as a road sign sped by. “The best thing you can do is support her. She knows what she wants, which is more than a lot of girls her age can claim. Besides, having a baby doesn’t mean she can’t still do other things. Look at Faythe. She’s on baby number two, and she’s running a whole Pride.”
“Melody isn’t Faythe.”
Abby rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. She’s hardheaded and she knows exactly what she wants. Sounds like Faythe to me.”
A growl rumbled up from my throat. “You’re manipulating the facts.”
“And you’re manipulating her. You’re giving your sister all the choices in the world except the one she wants. That’s you trying to run her life for her, which is no better than what Cal was doing.” I growled again, but she spoke over me. “If you could set aside your own ego for a second, you’d see that I’m right.”
“My…” I glared at her through narrow eyes.
“Yes, your ego. By the way, I’m officially off the clock until we get there, so you can’t play the boss card to shut me up.”
But that had never really worked, anyway. The best way to stop Abby from talking was to kiss her, and since I was willing to rip the face off any other bastard who tried that, the rest of the world was just going to have to listen when she decided to talk.
Abby studied the map Warner had given her. She squinted at a gravel road up ahead, only barely illuminated by the morning sun. “I think that’s it.”
Her pulse was racing over what she assumed would be her first live takedown. Not that I had any intention of letting her get her hands bloody—that was the only thing Lucas and I could agree on without addressing the larger issue. Untrained enforcers don’t see action.
I slowed as we approached the gravel path, then pulled as far onto the side of the road as I could. I got out and closed my door as Lucas rolled to a stop behind me, blinding me until he turned off his lights.
“It’s about a mile through the trees to the north,” Warner said on his way to the Pathfinder.
Abby slid out of the passenger’s seat to the ground, shivering. She zipped up her borrowed jacket and shoved her hands into the pockets, and for the hundredth time, I wished I had gloves that would fit her. I could see clouds of my own breath with every exhalation, and according to the forecast, midday wouldn’t bring much warmth.
She was going to freeze, and I wanted nothing more than to warm her with my own body heat.
“Okay.” I clicked the button to lock my car. “If we were after shifters, we’d have to move quietly, but since we’re after humans, I think we can emphasize speed over stealth for the moment. We need to be there before the sun’s high enough to make us easy to spot. Fortunately, we don’t have far to go.” Even so, we’d have to hurry. The sky to the east was rapidly brightening over the treetops.
We took off into the woods, and after a few minutes of quietly crunching through the underbrush, I spotted a break in the trees. Just beyond the clearing stood the lake cottage.
At my silent signal, everyone stopped while I scanned the empty yard. On my right, Abby breathed into her cupped hands to warm them. She smelled like her roommate and like cedar, thanks to the borrowed jacket and every branch she’d brushed against during our short hike.
Lucas slid one huge arm around his sister and she snuggled close to him for warmth. As badly as I wanted to be the one she was snuggling with, I understood the gesture for what it was—a signal that he was no longer mad at her for failing to give him a heads up about her relationship with his Alpha.
I had yet to receive a similar signal from him, and that was fine, as long as his irritation at me didn’t affect his job performance.
Teo and Warner stood to my left, silently studying the back of the small cottage. The top of the roof was brightly lit by the rising sun, but everything else was still deeply shadowed by the woods. Be
yond the building, I spotted the edge of the pond and the thin, dark sheet of ice that had formed on top.
Warner nodded at an old blue Chevy freckled with rust spots. “That’s Hargrove’s truck.” The whispered words puffed from his mouth in white clouds. “The license plate matches the one on file at the DMV. He has to be here.” If not for Warner and his computer skills, we’d probably still be looking for Hargrove and Darren under rocks and piles of underbrush.
Lucas shrugged. “Or he left his truck here and went somewhere with Darren. There’s only one vehicle.”
“We’ll know for sure in a minute. Luke, you and Teo make your way around front. When you hear us make our move, make yours.” I turned and met Abby’s gaze, her eyes shining a brilliant green, now that they’d shifted. “Abby, you’re with me and Warner.”
Abby nodded, but she looked distracted. And scared. Her pulse was whooshing too fast, her heart beating too hard. I wanted to reassure her that she would be in no danger, with Warner and me at her side, but if I did, she’d only insist that she could take care of herself.
Teo and Lucas headed around the side of the cottage, sticking to the woods as much as possible, while Warner, Abby and I watched for any movement or light from the house. When the others rounded the front corner, I took Abby’s hand and squeezed it. “Stay behind me and keep your eyes open. Don’t touch anything you don’t have to touch.” I met her gaze and held it. “I’m serious, Abby.”
She nodded, and that time, I thought maybe she meant it.
Warner and I headed straight across the cottage’s backyard, with Abby on our heels. I climbed the back steps silently and laid one ear against the door. The flimsy hollow-core door told me Hargrove and Darren weren’t expecting a break-in—they didn’t think the rogue stray would find their lake cabin, and they had no clue we were even looking for them.
When I heard only silence from inside the cabin, I gestured for Warner and Abby to give me some room. I shifted my balance onto my left foot and kicked the door, right next to the knob. Wood splintered as the frame broke. The door swung open to smack the kitchen counter, revealing a small table and a grimy linoleum floor.
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