“Fall for me,” he said. “But you don’t lose respect points for that one. Sweet or savory?”
“You have to ask?” she said. “Sweet. I’m a baker, remember?”
“You can bake savory thingies,” he said. “Like, I don’t know. Cheese puffs?”
“Maybe,” she conceded. “I’ve mostly done cookies and cakes and pastries so far. I took classes at a culinary institute in Nashville.” Her voice grew dry. “It was one of the few things Nash thought was appropriate for a woman of my background and breeding.”
“Controlling bastard, isn’t he?” Jesse muttered.
“You have no idea,” Sophia said.
But she didn’t want to think about that. Instead she started telling Jesse about the classes. Once she started, she just kept talking. It felt so good to think about something other than terror and darkness and abuse, even for a few minutes.
“It’s so fascinating!” she said. “Not just the recipes and techniques, but the science of food. How the ingredients mix, and what happens to them when you cook them in different ways. Did you know that baking soda and baking powder work completely differently? And now I’m experimenting with pastries and muffins. I always thought it would be exciting to have my own business. I heard an interview on the radio by a woman who has her own muffin business. Gift baskets—she ships right out of her house. It’s small, but wouldn’t that be fun?”
She realized she was babbling, and stopped. “Sorry, sugar,” she said. “I am runnin’ on and on, aren’t I?”
Jesse’s hands stilled on her arms. “Don’t do that,” he said quietly.
“What?” she asked. She had no idea what he was talking about.
“Whenever you call me sugar and your accent gets really thick, I know you’ve put your walls up. You’ve turned into Nash Jenkins’ perfect little prize. That’s not you.”
She went silent, stunned.
He went on, “I like that you have something you’re passionate about. When you come to Silverlake, you can talk to Jace about setting up your own business.”
She squirmed around to face him, shocked. “I could do that?”
“Sure,” he said. “We’re not a wealthy pack like yours. Most of us have jobs. You might as well have one you enjoy.”
Sophia turned around and sat back against him. A business of her own. That would be—she didn’t even know how to feel about that. It had always been an impossible dream, like a true mate. Or falling in love.
And it still probably wouldn’t happen. They were still stuck in this cell, at the mercy of a maniac bent on revenge.
And Jesse still hadn’t told her everything about his conversation with Alexander Grant.
“Hey,” Jesse said. “What are you thinking about?”
“Wondering if we’re ever going to get out of here,” she said.
“We will.”
She added quietly, “And wondering, if Alexander isn’t going to ransom me to Nash, what he’s planning on doing with me.”
Jesse went very still. She turned to face him, pulling out of his embrace. “He told you his plans, didn’t he.” It wasn’t a question.
“Soph—”
“Don’t, Jesse,” she said. “I know I freaked out about the taser, and I’m sorry. But don’t think from that that I’m a delicate little flower that you have to protect from everything. I can’t even try to pull my weight if I don’t know what we’re up against.”
Jesse pulled in a deep breath, and let it out with a whoosh.
She still thought for a moment he wasn’t going to tell her, but finally he said, very low, “He’s going to…” he stopped. “Apparently, there’s a black market for live shifters, especially females. Collectors keep them as…pets.”
Horror raced through Sophia, and she went cold. “He’s going to sell me?”
Her tiger roared to the surface. Orange fur rippled across her arms, and she felt her claws come out.
No! She couldn’t change. Not to tiger. She couldn’t control the tiger…
“Sophia,” Jesse said, penetrating her fear. He was holding her rippling paws, and she felt her claws sink into his hand.
He didn’t flinch. “You’re okay,” he said calmly. “Just listen to the sound of my voice. You’re fine. Nothing’s going to happen to you.”
The firm, certain tone of his voice was soothing. The tiger stopped roaring to come out, but she was still there, just under the surface. Sophia sat with her eyes closed, just breathing. In, out. Try not to lose it. Breathe in, breathe out. If she lost control and went full tiger, she’d kill Jesse. She couldn’t let that happen.
Jesse’s good, she told her tiger. He’s our friend.
Slowly, slowly, she fought it back. Jesse took her hand and put it on his chest, so she could feel him breathing. She forced herself to breathe slowly, in sync with him. She inhaled his scent, masculine and wolfy and comforting. Exciting, too—sexy—but it made her feel safe. Protected.
After a few minutes she sat back, pulling her hand away. She could smell the blood from the puncture wounds on his hand.
“I hurt you,” she whispered.
“It’s fine,” he said. “They’re just scratches.”
But it wasn’t fine. He was probably disgusted with her. A shifter who couldn’t control his or her animal was a rogue, no more than a beast in human form. They were a danger both to humans, and to the whole shifter community. Any shifter who couldn’t hide what they were risked outing the whole species to humans. Rogues were hunted down, and if they couldn’t be rehabilitated or taught control, they were put to death.
By the Council’s Enforcers. Enforcers like the Silverlake pack.
And now Jesse knew the truth about her.
Slowly, she raised her head to meet Jesse’s eyes. They glittered in the dark; his wolf was closer to the surface than he’d let her see. She wondered what she looked like to him right now.
Was the tiger looking out of her eyes?
“Today wasn’t the first time you shifted to tiger, was it,” he said.
Sophia bit her lips. Her secret had been locked inside her for so long, and Nash had told her so many times what would happen to her if anyone ever found out.
That was the real cage he kept her in. The dark shadow that followed her around.
She wanted Jesse to know—she wanted so desperately to break Nash’s hold over her. To trust her secret to someone with a good heart.
Someone who would protect her.
But the years of silence were like a wall of glass. She knew that light and freedom were on the other side, but the thought of stepping through paralyzed her. Here, on this side, she knew what she faced. She’d nearly made her peace with it.
The other side was a terrifying expanse of the unknown.
Jesse reached forward, very slowly, and wound a tendril of her hair around his fingers. “Don’t be afraid, Athena,” he said. “You can come out. I see you.”
I see you.
He was the only person who had ever really seen her. Who’d never believed the layers of veneer she’d built up and pretended were a real person.
He had treated her like she mattered. And now, he was sitting there, patiently waiting, for her to step into the light.
She took a deep breath, and shattered the wall.
“No,” she said softly. “It wasn’t the first time. My tiger has been manifesting since I was six.”
His hand stilled, and she could feel the shock radiating through his body.
“Since you were six?” he said. He was silent a minute. “Then Nash knows,” he said. “He has to know. But he told us you’d never changed to tiger.”
“We couldn’t tell anyone,” she whispered. “When I’m too emotional, I can’t control it, Jesse. That wasn’t my only panic change, today. The tiger is always a panic change.”
Jesse stayed still for a minute, and then moved up next to her, putting his arm around her. “Oh, babe,” he said. “What a thing to have to live with. No wonder you’
re so strong.”
Tears welled up in Sophia’s eyes. “I’m not,” she said. “I’m horrible. I have this horrible monster in me.”
“Come here,” Jesse said. He moved back against the wall and pulled her between his legs again, surrounding her with protective warmth. “How often does it happen?” he asked.
“Not very often,” she said. “Usually I can keep her in check, if I stay calm. It’s only when I’m really, really terrified—or really, really enraged—that she comes out. When I know my wolf can’t protect me. But the worst part is, I can’t change back on my own. Sometimes Nash could get me to change back, as my alpha. But sometimes…”
She broke off. She couldn’t talk about all the things that Nash had done to her, all the things he’d made her do. Maybe sometime, but not right now.
“What?” Jesse prompted.
Maybe part of the truth would be enough. For now.
“They’d have to put me in a cage until I calmed down. Until the tiger went away.”
“Holy fuck,” Jesse said. “They caged you?”
“They had to,” Sophia said in a small voice. “You’ve seen my tiger. She can take out just about any wolf. What if I killed someone when I was out of my mind?”
“Geez,” Jesse said. “Why the hell didn’t Nash tell the Council when it first happened, and get you some help?”
Because he was an abusive bastard who only thought about the ways he could use people.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe he didn’t think I could be helped, at first. Or he was afraid they’d…you know.” Put her down.
“Yeah, but he had to know the longer it went on, the worse it would get.”
“The longer it went on, the more I was able to stop it,” she said. “And when he realized that…”
She could feel Jesse’s energy darken. “When he realized that, what?”
This was her second wall of silence. If she betrayed Nash, if she told Jesse what he really was, what he’d really planned, there would be no going back. Even if she and Jesse escaped, Nash would kill her, if he could. Nobody turned on Nash Jenkins and lived to tell the tale.
Sophia braced herself, and stepped once more into the light.
“He knew he could make me do anything he wanted. All he had to do was threaten to tell the Council I was rogue.”
Jesse’s whole body went still. “And what exactly did he try to make you do?”
“He wanted me to help him bring down the Silverlake pack,” she said. And as she told him what Nash had wanted her to do and all the things that he’d done to her to make sure she obeyed him, she could feel the shattered glass of silence, raining down on her soul.
Chapter 14
Sophia had thought she’d seen Jesse’s full anger before, when he’d learned that Nash would probably refuse to help Jace rescue them so his pack mates would die in the attempt.
But that was nothing to the way he’d reacted when he found out what Nash had done to her.
He’d been pacing the cell for the last fifteen minutes, growling. Finally, she heard his footsteps stop.
“When we get out of here, I’m going to kill that bastard.” His voice was still a feral growl, and his eyes were glittering gold in the darkness.
Sophia shook her head. “There’s no way,” she said. “Nash has never lost a challenge. He’s the most powerful alpha I’ve ever met. Even now that he’s older, he can put down any alpha with the sheer force of his dominance. Until he dies of old age or loses his edge, he’s pretty much invincible.”
“I’ll find a way,” Jesse said. “I may not be able to match Nash in dominance, but I swear to you, I will bring that man down if it’s the last thing I ever do.”
Sophia didn’t understand this torrent of emotion that was emanating from him. She knew he cared about her. He even seemed to believe she was something special. But she’d never imagined he could be like this.
“Why would you do that for me?” she whispered. “I’m not worth it. I tricked you—I lied to you. I’m not worth anything—not even to Nash. So why?”
He crossed the room in two steps, dropping to his knees in front of her. He said hoarsely, “Don’t you ever, ever let me hear you say you’re not worth anything.”
His hand wrapped around the back of her neck and his lips crashed into hers, as if he were starving and she was the only thing that could save him. His mouth devoured hers, his tongue probing, his lips demanding. He pulled her to her knees and crushed her body to his, and she could feel his erection between them, thick and hard and insistent.
Desire rushed through her, and she moaned and slid her hands down to his ass, pulling him against her, feeling his heat and hardness against her pussy.
He cupped her ass greedily, still plundering her mouth, demanding everything from her.
This was not the gentle, patient man from their night by the pool. This man was dominant, aggressive, and just as sexy. Sophia wanted to strip herself bare for him, let him ravish every secret corner of her being, let his strength bring her to new heights.
She ran her hands up and down his muscled back, dipping down into the waistband of his sweats. He pulled back just enough to rip down the zipper on her hoodie and shove it off her shoulders. Then he was devouring her neck and upper chest, biting and kissing, every touch setting her on fire.
He swung her up in his arms and laid her on the bed, pulling her sweatpants off and shucking his own.
Then he hovered over her, raised on his elbows, looking down into her face. “Tell me you want me,” he growled.
Part of her mind said this was crazy, doing this here, now, in a cell owned by Alexander Grant.
And yet, where else? What better time? If they were going to have to fight their way out of here, they needed this bond—the life-giving, life-affirming strength of love.
And what if they never got another chance?
That thought filled Sophia with desperation. She didn’t want to think about what would happen to them tomorrow, or if they’d ever get free. All she wanted was to feel Jesse touching her, inside her and all around her, making her his.
“I want you,” she panted. “Give yourself to me.” And she pulled him toward her.
Pressing their skin together was ecstasy. She felt Jesse suck in his breath when her bare breasts crushed against his chest. He slid his hands underneath her shoulders, kissing her harder, then moving his mouth down her neck to her collarbone. He ran his tongue along it, then to the hollow between her breasts. Sophia whimpered.
Jesse cupped one breast in his hand and closed his mouth on the nipple, sucking hard. Sophia felt a rush of wetness between her legs. He moved between one taut, pebbled nipple and the other, licking and sucking greedily, and she spread her legs, feeling his hard thigh against her wet pussy.
He reached down and slid his fingers into her. There was no taking his time, no teasing, no coaxing. He stroked her relentlessly, flicking her clit with his thumb each time, still sucking hard on her breast.
Sophia felt like she was having an out-of-body experience. She came hard and suddenly, and Jesse muffled her cries with his mouth, kissing her deeply. Without even giving her time to recover, he thrust his cock into her in one firm motion, burying himself to the hilt.
Sophia moaned into their kiss, and bucked her hips. He thrust into her with controlled aggression, filling her relentlessly over and over, so hard and deep that there was nowhere to hide, no part of her that he didn’t touch.
She could almost feel him in her mind, begging her to let him in, let him claim every part of her and love it, even the darkness. And she opened to him fully, accepting him inside her, until they spiraled upward together, waves of release crashing over them.
They lay there, exhausted, for a long time. Jesse pressed soft kisses on her neck, her collarbone, her jaw. Sophia ran her hands over the long muscles in his back, down to his firm ass and back up, lacing her fingers in his hair, and then letting go to touch him all over again. His kisses slowed
but didn’t stop, feathering over her skin. Finally he came to rest, his head buried in the crook of her shoulder.
Chapter 15
Jesse lay in the dark for a long time, listening to Sophia breathing. Having her in his arms made him feel complete, like a whole man and a whole wolf, comfortable in his skin for the first time.
They lay tangled together, her gorgeous hair spread over his chest like a river of silken fire. Even though he couldn’t see the color in the dark, it was clear in his mind’s eye. Fire and sunlight.
He couldn’t let her beauty be snuffed out in this dank hole at the hands of Alexander Grant.
He knew, deep in his soul, that she was the one he had been waiting for. That he had finally found what Jace had with Emma, and Rafe with Terin.
This was the woman he could spend the rest of his life with. That he needed to spend the rest of his life with. She made him strong. He’d never felt so protective of anyone. He felt like he could battle a whole rival pack of wolves for her.
But there was no one to fight. They were caged in this underground prison that was pressing on Jesse’s lungs, making it hard to breathe.
A trap, agreed his wolf. Can’t fight. We must be clever. Cunning.
A vision went through his mind of a pack of wild wolves, working together to herd prey and bring it down.
Smart wolves defeat strong wolves, his wolf told him. And we’re the smartest.
Jesse almost snorted. Smug little bastard.
We are the smartest, his wolf insisted. We don’t fight. But we always win.
Jesse thought about that—about all the contracts he’d negotiated, the battles he’d avoided for his pack and others, the apps he’d written that had brought in money to buy Silverlake.
Everyone always said he was the brains of the operation. He’d thought they were just kidding, but fuck. His wolf was right.
They were the smartest damn wolves west of the Rockies. It was time he started acting like it. If he couldn’t get himself and Sophia out of here using force, he’d use what he had. Brains, wiliness, and mad tech skills.
Jesse stroked Sophia’s hair, holding his mate close to his heart. He thought about everything he’d learned about Grant and this prison, and all the resources he had at his disposal or could possibly get his paws on.
Tiger Mate (Silverlake Shifters Book 3) Page 9
