by Jade, Amelia
“Perhaps. But that doesn’t mean you have to sound as enthusiastic about it as you did. Or come home like that.” She jerked her head back in the direction of where she’d first encountered him before turning to give him the back of her head to look at once more. It was the only time he was going to be getting that particular view.
“Seriously? Think about things from my side here, Willow. I’m new to the pack. I have exactly one shot to make it work out, or else your father will attempt to kill me. Sounding uninterested in something that should be a huge amount of fun for any shifter in this pack is not the way to go about it. He’ll pick up on my reluctance, and then so will the others. That will lead to suspicion, and one way or another, I’ll be out.” He paused. “Try and tell me I’m wrong.”
She wanted to do just that. To scream at him and tell him how dumb he was being about it all. That his fears were those of a paranoiac, that nobody actually thought that way. But she couldn’t, because the truth was, Willow knew her father and his pack. And that’s exactly how they would react. They would kill him. Not try, like he seemed to assume, but they would definitely get the job done.
“Not to mention your father already told me to stay away from you.”
“What does that have to do with you going to the party?”
Aiden sighed and walked into the room and around her chair, leaning against a sturdy table, forcing her to look at him now.
“Why are you so upset that I went?”
She sneered at him. “That was bad enough. But you came home as part of the pack, Aiden. They were high-fiving you, giving you congratulations. For your actions at an unsanctioned and illegal drug orgy. Take a page from your own book and look at that from my side of things.”
Willow thought the exaggerated surprise “jaw-drop” was something that only happened in movies or books. But Aiden’s mouth fell open in an imperfect O shape that could rival some cartoon characters.
“Wait. That’s what this is all about?” He started to laugh.
“Laughing is not helping right now,” she snapped, feeling angry and embarrassed.
“Willow. Those high-fives were not about my sexual prowess, nor my ability to ingest drugs.”
“Bullshit.”
“Will you just listen ,” he said, his tone growing hard as she half-interrupted him.
Willow crossed her arms and glared at him some more, not responding.
“I didn’t sleep with anyone at the party. Hell, the only drugs I did were those that got into my system from the fumes of other people smoking them. The reason that they were all giving me praise is because while we were there, we were jumped by a Regional Response Team. They’d found out about the party, Willow, and they came after us. Because I used to be a member of one, I recognized their tactics. Because I was sober, I was able to get us out of there safely, without a single person getting captured or worse. Because I helped save the pack, I earned some of their praise.” He snorted.
“But—”
He cut her off with a sharp chop of his hand. Willow fell silent at the angry motion.
“Oh, I had the opportunity to sleep with plenty of women there. It’s not like it was hard. Your father brought in dozens of them and drugged them up with booze and other stuff to make them easily pliable. They were falling all over themselves to get to me.”
He was sneering now as he insulted her father. Willow wanted to say it wasn’t him, but deep down, she knew him well enough to know he’d do whatever was necessary for his pack. If that meant providing them with easy women to calm them down, then he would do it.
“But I didn’t do anything with them. Do you know why?”
“No, I don’t know why, Mister I’m-Too-Good-For-All-Women. Why don’t you enlighten me?” Willow hated how pathetic her comeback sounded.
Aiden rolled his eyes. “I didn’t do anything, because they were all plain. They didn’t interest me.”
She sniggered. “Oh, and why is that?”
“Because they weren’t you.”
She froze. What ? That wasn’t the answer she’d been expecting at all. Him saying he preferred respectable women, sure. Women who were more wholesome. Things that perhaps obliquely referred to her, that wouldn’t have surprised her. But for Aiden to come right out and say he didn’t want any of them because he wanted her instead? That was a stunner.
“You can’t expect me to believe that,” she said weakly.
Aiden just continued to gaze at her steadily. He never wavered while her eyes kept darting around the room, desperately looking for something, anything to fix upon that weren’t a pair of deep brown circles that drew her in like a bee to honey.
He was telling the truth. She couldn’t deny it any longer.
“An RRT jumped you?”
“Yes. They almost got us too. It was close there for a bit, but your father’s pack responded quickly. Quicker than I expected.”
Willow nodded. “Thank you for getting him out of there.”
She watched him smile weakly.
“Just him? Not the rest of them?”
“The rest of them are a bunch of useless assholes, Aiden. Don’t act like you don’t know that. I’ll take them or leave them.”
Aiden chuckled softly while looking over her shoulder as if to pretend one of them was there. She wasn’t falling for that though.
“So you really didn’t sleep with anyone?”
He shook his head.
Willow stood up, uncurling from the chair she’d been on, a sense of relief filling her body, leaving it all tingly and awake.
“I thought you’d been waiting all day for that party.”
Aiden pushed off the desk and stood up straight as well. “No, I was waiting for something else.”
“Really? For what?”
“This.”
He crossed the space between them in the blink of an eye. Willow wasn’t aware of them crossing the distance, but her shoulders hit the shelf of a bookcase and she gasped as he held her aloft, his lips nearly smothering her with the frenzied passion of their first kiss.
It was so hot. Willow wrapped her legs around him, forgetting that moments earlier she’d been furious with him. Her desire for the odd werewolf burned brightly, with the intensity of a laser. Her breasts swelled under her clothing as his hands held her hips tightly, preventing her from falling.
Aiden’s mouth, hungry and tender, was everywhere. Her lips, her jaw. Down her neck where he nibbled on the sensitive skin, drawing soft moans and even a hiss of delight when he bit down a little harder. Then along her collarbone, that so oft-neglected erogenous area that made her turn red, the blush flowing from her cheeks all the way down across her upper chest and through her breasts as well. She hated it, and that just spurred her on, making the flush deeper.
“Oh my,” Aiden remarked, pulling back to admire it, his voice throaty and full of testosterone.
“Stop it.”
He shook his head. Willow was dying from embarrassment, but he had the perfect cure. She tilted her head back and she let him kiss her some more as he held her there, his body pressed firmly against her, pinning Willow to the bookcase.
Holy fuck this is hot.
“So you’ve been waiting all day for that?” she gasped several minutes later, breathing heavily.
“Okay, maybe all week,” he confessed.
Willow giggled, leaning in to press her lips tenderly against his once more. Then she wiggled free of his arms, placing a hand against his chest.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, concerned he’d done something wrong.
“I just don’t want my father to catch us. We need to be more discreet in the future, that’s all.”
Aiden nodded. “Right. Good point. I just sort of acted on impulse there, sorry.”
She lifted a finger to his lips. “Don’t be. That was…worth it,” she finished softly, her mind drifting back to the way he’d just taken control of everything, including her.
“Am I forgiven?” he asked,
whispering the words into her ear before gently tugging on her lobe with his teeth.
Willow hissed. “I suppose. But if I find out you’re lying, it won’t end well for you.”
Aiden smiled. “I would be worried, if I weren’t telling the truth. But I promise to always do that for you.”
“You’d better,” she said, letting her fingers drag down his chest, stopping below his belt, but above anything else.
Aiden inhaled sharply, but she went no further. Instead she just tossed him a wink and walked out of the study. Oh, he was forgiven, she supposed. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t above a bit of petty payback, like leaving him all riled up like that.
Besides, they couldn’t do anything further that night. Not with the pack home. Things would have to happen at another time. She could wait.
Maybe.
Eleven
Aiden
He awoke the next morning with a tightness in his groin, despite having spent some time in the shower alone after Willow had left him high and dry the night before.
It didn’t help that he’d dreamt all night about her soft porcelain skin, and just what he was going to do if he got his hands on her without the others anywhere nearby.
“This just won’t do,” he muttered to himself.
Another trip to the shower was in order it would seem. He heaved himself to his feet and proceeded to do his best to relax himself so that he could make it through the day.
It didn’t help.
By the time the end of the day rolled around and he got back home, Aiden wondered if he was going to be able to wait. His body was coming to life in a way he’d never known before. With the floodgates opened between him and Willow, he was now having a hard time shutting them. It had never been such a struggle to contain himself around a woman before.
Did this mean that she was his mate?
He wished things were clearer to him. Instead it was like trying to look into a muddy puddle while trying to see the bottom. It was impossible. Aiden knew that the odds of him actually finding a mate were near mythical. To find the one woman in the world that fit perfectly with his half-man, half-wolf person was astounding enough. That she might be found in the same city as him was extraordinary, and highly unlikely.
Which, he knew, is why most werewolves didn’t end up mated. They would have several women over the course of their lifetime, but never that one . Aiden knew precisely three werewolves who had found their mates. Mack was one of them. The presence of his mate was what had enabled him to rise up, become a pack Alpha, and eventually the regional Alpha as well. The man had an unrelenting drive, and he said he owed it all to Maggie.
Aiden didn’t want to get his hopes up. Just because she wasn’t his mate, however, didn’t mean that he couldn’t care for her deeply. Aiden was positive he already did, and after the previous evening he thought she felt the same. A bond had been forged between them in the short time he’d been a member of Stephen’s pack. The way he saw it, they were the only two sane ones in the entire house. The rest were a pack of wild animals barely held in check.
The van that hauled the entire pack to and from the shipping facility finally came back to the pack house. Aiden wanted to sigh with relief as the aging vehicle shuddered to a halt and the engine finally cut off. With the way his mind and body were all wound tighter than a spring over Willow, the vibrations of the ride hadn’t been helping keep himself calm.
“Okay, get some food and then rest up for tonight,” Stephen said before the group went their separate ways.
This wasn’t all that unusual of a command. Aiden had heard it two other times before. Neither time had it included him, and he doubted this time would be any different. So he hopped out and started heading over to the house, wondering just how he might be able to finagle a random run-in with Willow.
Or perhaps everyone will leave tonight, and we can have a bit of time to ourselves…
He desperately hoped that would be the case. Anything to help him get closer to her. He’d barely been able to exchange ten words with her all day, and even that had been a challenge.
“Aiden, Flint, stay behind please.”
His footsteps halted immediately. Stephen wanted him to stick around? For what?”
Flint spoke up before he had the chance. “What’s up, boss?”
“I want you to take the new guy with you on your delivery tonight.”
Aiden watched as Stephen held up a hand to forestall Flint’s complaints. “I know your feelings on the matter. But he did good for us last night, and he deserves a chance to become a part of us. He’s in our pack, whether you or I like it. We may as well make sure we’re all in it together.”
There was something about the way Stephen was speaking that made Aiden suspect he wasn’t doing this completely out of the niceness of his heart. There was definitely something else going on, some other reason he wanted Aiden to go along and help out. His speech wasn’t about unity.
Then he got it. It was the “all in this together” line that finally clued him in. Stephen wanted to ensure that Aiden’s hands were as dirty as the rest of them. This wasn’t about giving him a shot, but about having proof that he was involved with whatever was going on, just like everyone else was. That way Aiden would be less likely to report things, because in his state, if Stephen’s pack went down Aiden would go down with them. He had no other chances, no way out.
It was a neat trap, and there was nothing Aiden could do about it except stick it out and hope that he could find a way to ensure that Mack was the one who brought the whole operation down, and not someone else. Nobody else was likely to believe his situation.
“What are we doing?” he asked, trying to act like he was happy for the chance to be of more use to the pack.
“A delivery,” Flint growled. “Don’t fuck it up.”
Aiden glared at the pack Second. He fucking hated Flint. When the time came, he was going to enjoy handing the arrogant prick his ass on a platter. “I won’t fuck it up if you tell me what’s going on, so that I can do a good job. If you don’t give me the information I need, then it’s all on you whether this goes smoothly or not.”
Stephen stepped between the two of them as Flint snarled and squared off against Aiden.
“Enough,” he snapped. “Work together, get this done. Understood?” He turned his glare on Flint.
For a moment Aiden thought the two were going to fight, but eventually Flint submitted and nodded.
“Good.” Stephen spun, hitting Aiden in the chest with a finger. “Don’t provoke him. Do as you’re told, nothing more.” Then he addressed Flint again. “The better he does on this, the more I can trust him, which means he won’t have to run with you again. Keep that in mind. Now go get it done.”
The Alpha turned and walked away before either of them could say anything else.
Flint glared. “Come on.” He didn’t wait for Aiden to respond before he headed to the garage where the other vehicles were housed. Aiden hadn’t been there before, since he didn’t own a vehicle. He saw pickup trucks coming and going infrequently, but that was all.
The two hopped in a white pickup and headed back to the facility where Flint directed him to one of the company’s cargo vans. This one didn’t have any windows on the rear, and the hole between the front seats had been covered over with plywood, preventing him from seeing what was in the back.
"Should I be doing anything?” he asked while Flint guided the truck out of the lot. Judging by the feel of the way it handled, Aiden decided it was already loaded up. With what, he couldn’t tell, but obviously this had been prearranged. All they were doing now was the final step.
He still didn’t know what that was, but something told him this was going to be a turning point in his investigation of Stephen’s pack. Tonight he was going to learn more about what was going on, and then start to formulate a plan to bring it all crashing down. He could feel it. Things were starting to move faster. Now all he had to do was keep up.
> “Keep your eyes open for anything suspicious.”
Aiden contemplated asking just what classified as “suspicious.” The way that dog across the street looked at him while it squatted to do its business? That was certainly odd. Or the streetlight that flickered on as they drove underneath it. Could that be a warning signal to a black-costumed night vigilante, telling him that their van was up to no good? Would the spotlight in the sky come on to notify him? Or maybe the static fuzz on the radio station meant it was actually a recording by aliens. All of the above were “suspicious” in the right mindset.
He doubted Flint would see the humor in any of that though. The guy was so tightly wound the slightest bit of humor would probably cause him to go insane. Probably not a good thing while he was behind the wheel. So Aiden simply sat back into the chair and scanned the surroundings until Flint pulled them into a parking lot that bordered on a woodlot.
“Take the woods. Keep an eye out for uninvited guests. Make sure you aren’t seen.”
Aiden nodded, understanding exactly what Flint meant by that. He wanted him out in his wolf form, prowling for anyone who might be waiting to ambush them. The only other vehicle was a black pickup truck. It had one of those old-school hardtops on it that were the same height as the cab, allowing it to store a good amount of stuff.
The doors opened and two men got out. Flint nodded in recognition to them both. Once he saw that, Aiden padded off into the forest, finding a small clearing where he could strip before changing. He really didn’t feel like riding naked all the way back with Flint. Things were awkward enough between the two of them that he didn’t need that, despite his normal proclivity to poke at the pack Second.
Just before he shifted, Aiden sent another text, asking for an update on his earlier quest for information. He put his phone on silent, stashed the clothes under a pile of brush, and then shivered his way into wolf form. Testing the air to ensure nobody was imminently close, he then took off into the forest to explore the area, keeping his nose open as the wind constantly swept through.
