by Wood, Vivian
“Your source is totally wrong. We eat just like everyone else,” he said, not bothering to keep the harshness out of his voice.
But come on. Raw meat?
“Oh. Well that’s good,” she said, blushing as she hurried to finish Jace’s sandwich and hand it over on a plate.
Jace noticed she’d made the sandwich a triple-decker. It was positively giant, and he approved of her methods. Shifters needed a lot more calories every day than the average human, so picky eaters and dieters didn’t go over well.
“You can’t believe everything you hear about us,” he said.
“I’m starting to see that,” Tessa replied.
Tessa finished making her own sandwich, and Jace led them back to the front room. They made themselves at home on the folding chairs and card table.
Jace frowned when he saw that Tessa’s own sandwich was about half the size of his. She was definitely on the thin side, as if she’d been sick recently. Strange, because Ascendants didn’t get sick any more than Shifters did. Their amazing immune system was part of the reason they burned so many calories. If Tessa was going to make it as a wolf, she was going to have to learn burned so many calories. If Tessa was going to make it as a wolf, she was going to have to learn
to eat. Jace let it go for the moment, more interested in her so-called source and the information she had on Shifters.
“What else did your source tell you about us?”
Tessa took a dainty bite of her sandwich and chewed thoughtfully. Setting it down, she ticked off her bits of knowledge on her fingers as she talked.
“Well. Let’s see. It’s a curse of some kind. You guys are hard to kill, practically immortal. You’re bound by the moon, of course,” Tessa said.
“What else? Oh, yes. The males fight over rights to mate, and the one who wins takes his chosen female by force. Very National Geographic,” Tessa finished.
Jace choked on his food and coughed hard a couple of times. Setting his sandwich down, he gave Tessa a hard look.
“I think your source is misinformed.”
“I guess I can’t say that’s altogether surprising. My source is a little sketchy on the details of it all.”
“I’m willing to bet your source isn’t actually a Shifter,” Jace said sourly.
Tessa bit her lip and shrugged, looking down at her sandwich. When she didn’t say anything more, Jace sighed.
“We’re not werewolves, Tessa. We aren’t bound by lunar cycles, or burned by silver, or any of that crap. And we’re not cursed.”
She looked up at him, then down at the table. Another shrug.
“I mean it. There is nothing bad about being a Shifter. We’re not immortal, although we do have a longer lifespan than the average human. And we heal from injuries very quickly.”
“Are there any big downsides?” Tessa asked, dark grey eyes drifting up to meet his.
“The secrecy can be difficult. We hardly make friends or date outside our own kind because most humans can’t be trusted with our secret. That way there’s less chance of accidental exposure. We even run several companies so each pack member can have a job. It’s all pretty self-contained.”
Jace paused to let her absorb that before he continued.
“The other side of that coin is that your pack mates and family are incredibly close. You all know each other inside and out, and there’s no need to hide. When I’m at the Den, I can be completely myself and not worry about humans interfering.”
“And what about… the other thing? The mating thing?” Tessa asked.
“You’ll see for yourself. The males huff and puff but the females pull all the strings and make all the choices in the pack. The only females being taken by force are the ones who like that sort of thing,” Jace said.
Tessa blushed again and half-shot to her feet, gathering up both their plates and carrying them to the kitchen.
Jace watched her stiff-spined retreat, thinking that the girl was awfully prudish. Jace didn’t keep women around for long, but the ones he did go out with were party girls who knew what to expect from a guy like Jace. He especially liked models, because aside from their obvious attractiveness they traveled too often to keep tabs on him. Here tonight, gone before sunrise. Certainly none of them ever blushed so easily.
Lonely, but efficient.
It was better that way, though. Jace had nothing to offer a female; he didn’t own much outside his little house, and he didn’t really care about anyone outside the pack. Add his nutso outside his little house, and he didn’t really care about anyone outside the pack. Add his nutso
sister on top of that, plus his demanding job… he was not exactly a catch.
And that was before you added his past.
All things considered, Jace liked the freedom his bachelor status afforded him. He went
where he wanted, when he wanted, and he didn’t check in with anyone other than Shaw Geaudreaux, his pack’s Alpha.
Quiet and easy.
He smirked a little to himself as Tessa banged around in the kitchen, washing their plates
from lunch. This situation was the opposite of quiet and easy. Maybe Jace could call one of his pack mates to come watch the Ascendant. Someone more compatible than him. Jace found his fists clenching at the idea of basically throwing her into the bed of another male, even if he was worthy of the girl. He might be an unfeeling ass, but he wasn’t some kind of Shifter dating service. Let the other males find their own Ascendants to worry about.
Before he could plan any further, Tessa came back in the room. “What now?” she asked, interrupting his train of thought.
“Do you need entertainment as well as protection, human?” he asked, irritated.
She frowned, her nose wrinkling. He noticed she did that whenever she was offended or displeased.
“I was just going to ask if you wanted to play chess. I found a set in the kitchen cupboard,” she said, waving a red and black cardboard box at him. The girl seemed to be somewhat immune to his displays of temper, which put Jace off.
“You play chess?” he asked, surprised.
“You don’t have to sound so shocked. I’m college educated, thank you very much,” she scolded. There was that face again, the wrinkled nose and puckered brow.
Jace gave her a scathing look. No one scolded him except his baby sister, and he liked it that way.
“I didn’t mean you were stupid. Most females just aren’t interested in that kind of thing.”
“Please. Stereotype. Anyway, I’m not most females,” she said pertly, seating herself across the table. Tessa flashed him a hard smile, almost challenging him out loud. Jace’s wolf growled, demanding that he do whatever it took to be on the receiving end of that smile again. His wolf always liked a challenge.
Tessa set the board down on the card table and settled in to begin unpacking and setting up the board.
“What did you study?” Jace asked, seeking to satisfy the itch of curiosity. He liked to know how people thought, what made them tick. It made them easier to control.
“I studied English, with a focus on journalism,” she said, focused on moving the chess pieces around.
Jace tensed up immediately, alarms going off in his head.
“You’re a journalist?” he spat, incredulous. Of all the women he could have scooped up off the street, he picked the one who could threaten his existence.
Tessa looked up, reading the change in his voice. Another nose wrinkle, this time coupled with a deep frown.
“I’m not a journalist, although I think I’m still offended by your tone. You make it sound as if I said I’d studied to be a Nazi or something.”
“You don’t work for a paper or anything like that?” Jace asked, incredibly relieved. A mistake like that would have been hard to undo without shedding innocent blood.
“No,” Tessa said hesitantly, “I guess… I don’t really have the heart for it. Journalism is about quick comprehension, and about reading people accurately. You have to
make a lot of snap judgments, and they have to be right. It turns out, that’s not my forte.”
The soft self-rebuke in her tone said there was more to the story. Jace watched her as she lined up all the pieces in perfect rows, trying to fit the puzzle pieces together. Again, he came up lacking.
“Good. It is extremely important not to involve humans in Shifter affairs. We don’t want to resort to violence to preserve our secrets, so we play human around them. We want to be boring and unmemorable to everyone we come across.”
“Yeah, I got that. Again, not stupid,” Tessa said, breezing past his lecture. Rolling his eyes, Jace moved on.
“So what do you do, then? As a job, I mean,” he asked.
“I do a lot of work for various charity committees in Boston. Most of the work is luncheons and rubbing elbows with the right people. Raising money for different things.”
Jace narrowed his eyes. He wouldn’t have pegged her for a society girl, not that he really knew anyone like that.
“That doesn’t sound very lucrative,” he commented.
“It’s not. Black or white?” she asked him, indicating the board.
“Black.”
“Of course,” she intoned, rotating the board so that the white pieces were on her side.
“What is that supposed to mean?” he growled.
“Nothing,” she said, all innocence.
“Save the commentary,” he ordered.
“Stop making my point for me,” she shot back.
Jace didn’t reply, merely crossing his arms over his chest and arching an eyebrow at Tessa. So the human had a little fire, at least. Perhaps she wouldn’t be completely trampled by a Shifter mate.
“Your move,” she said, gesturing to the board.
Jace’s attention fell to the game, and only a few minutes later the game was over. Tessa had swept the board in a subtle and effective pincer strategy, but Jace had come back at the last moment and put her in checkmate.
“That wasn’t a bad plan,” he said, pushing back from the table.
“It’s a warm-up strategy. I can do better,” she said, her tone a little defensive.
“What do you say we make this game more interesting?” Jace suggested, seeing an opportunity to ask more questions.
“What did you have in mind?” she asked suspiciously.
“For every piece I take, you answer a question for me. Anything I want to know, within reason.”
His eyes issued a challenge, just short of declaring his next victory in advance.
“And the same for me, then?” she asked.
“Fair is fair.”
“All right,” she said. The words were hardly out of her mouth before she’d moved her first pawn.
Apparently she had another strategy in mind. Curious, Jace moved his first piece and the game proceeded for a few minutes in silence before he took one of her pawns.
Rocking back in his chair, he picked up the white plastic pawn and rolled it between his fingers thoughtfully.
“How long have you known about Shifters?” he asked.
“Two months, maybe a little less.”
Tessa’s hand flicked over the board, but she didn’t take any of his pieces even though she could have. Jace’s response was to capture another of hers and fire off another question as he nudged the piece off the board.
“Who is this so-called source that told you about us?”
Tessa’s eyes narrowed, and she was quiet for a beat before responding.
“I don’t know that much about him. His name is James. I’m pretty sure he’s an Ascendant, too,” she said cautiously.
“How did you find him?”
“It’s not your turn,” she said, then made another move. Another few moves passed before Jace could take another of her pieces. With a self-satisfied smirk, he repeated himself.
“How did you find this James person?”
“I didn’t. He found me,” she said smoothly, then proceeded to take two of his pieces in one move.
“Damn,” he muttered. He hadn’t seen that one coming.
“So I get two questions.”
Jace nodded stonily.
“Okay. Ummmm… do you have any family?”
Jace was surprised. He wasn’t sure what he’d thought she was going to ask, but that wasn’t it. Of course, that would be something a female would want to know. They seemed to like judging men by their family relations. The very thought made Jace queasy.
“Just my sister Maddie.”
Tessa nodded sagely before choosing her second question.
“How pissed is your girlfriend going to be when she finds out you’ve been locked in here with me for days on end?”
Jace blinked, again taken aback. She thought he was mated? He had a heart of stone, zero patience, and not a spare ounce of kindness. What crazy woman would have him?
“I’m not… seeing anyone,” Jace finished awkwardly.
She nodded again, and then gestured to the board.
Jace moved his knight in preparation to put her in check, and just as swiftly she took his knight down with a pawn that had been lurking nearby. She’d lose the pawn for sure, but it was a very good move.
“Why aren’t you taken?” she was quick to ask. Her eyes swept over him, as if searching for a physical flaw to explain it.
“Not interested. Besides, all the females in our pack think I’m an asshole.”
Leaving her to chew on that, he struck hard with his queen, taking one of her bishops.
“Are you sure you want to do that?” she asked, a smile teasing her lips.
Jace scanned the board for the briefest moment.
“Very,” he said, trying to smirk again as he set the bishop to the side.
“Now. Why did you come to New Orleans?” he demanded.
Tessa bit her lip.
“I can’t tell you that.”
“You agreed to answer my questions,” he rumbled, tensing.
“Within reason. Ask me something else.”
“I don’t like secrets, Tessa.”
“No one said you have to like it, but I won’t answer that. What are you going to do about it? Ask me something else,” she insisted.
Jace leaned back in his chair, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
“How old are you?” he asked finally.
“Twenty six. I won’t ask your age, I’m afraid you’ll tell me you’re two hundred or something,” she said wryly.
Leaning forward, Tessa studied the board for a long minute. She advanced her bishop to take one of Jace’s knights, and then sat back again.
“Where is your Den?” she asked, moving the fallen horseman to the side of the board.
“The entrance is located in Arcady, less than an hour north of New Orleans.”
“But not the exit?” Tessa asked, frowning as if certain she were being tricked.
Jace repressed a chuckle at her persistence. She was clever, for a human.
“I’ve never thought to look. I’m not even sure there is a second portal,” he said, watching her reaction.
“Portal? What are you talking about, a portal? I know it’s not my turn but I’m about to win anyway,” she said with a dismissive wave at the chess board.
“The Den is sort of… between places,” Jace started.
“Between Arcady and somewhere else? Like it’s in the woods or something?” Tessa asked, her brow furrowing.
“Not between cities. It’s between two… realms, dimensions, worlds, whatever you want to call it,” he said, holding up a hand when she started to interrupt, “The portal can be accessed only through one physical point, and you can only enter if you’ve been invited to do so.”
Tessa looked completely mystified. Standing up, she planted her fists on her hips and gave Jace a searching look before she spoke again.
“You’re making this up,” she said, “This stuff about two worlds. What would those be, Earth and Venus? No. You’re mocking me,” she accused, her voice rising in anger.
Her face was flushed, her body language attempting to threaten him.
Jace couldn’t say why, but he liked it on her. One minute she was playing the prudish feminist, the next she was practically radiating heat towards him. Raising his hands as a white flag, he shook his head at her statement.
“I’m not. The Den sits between Earth and Faerie, which is why we’re so well-protected. And there’s more than one Den; there are probably sixty in the United States alone. One for each pack,” he explained slowly.
“No!” Tessa said, advancing on Jace with a pointed finger, “You’re lying. That isn’t real. It isn’t possible,” she said, her frustration boiling over.
“You’ve seen me turn into a wolf. Is that possible?” he asked sardonically, as if the passion in her voice were annoying rather than enticing.
“You! You-“ she cried, flinging herself at him a flutter of hand slaps that Jace guessed were supposed to scare him into agreement. He bit his lip to keep from laughing outright as he caught her up, working to restrain her furious hands.
Seeing her all worked up and flushed was pretty damn hot, but holding her close brought him right back to the state of arousal he’d been resisting this morning.
Jace hadn’t even realized he’d moved until Tessa’s breath caught in a gasp as he caught her up against the living room wall. In a blink he was towering over her, heat exuding from every pore. Tessa’s jaw lifted defiantly, and she met his gaze directly.
“What is this, your signature move or something? Trap the girl against the wall? No wonder you’re single, buddy.”
Tessa struggled in his grasp as she spoke, reinforcing her words. The girl was clearly insane, standing up to someone so much larger and stronger than herself.
For some reason, Jace’s wolf really liked that about the girl. Feisty was an understatement for Tessa. The wolf in him also liked that they were close enough to feel her breath against his face. The wolf wanted to taste, to touch.
Jace growled, both at Tessa for resisting and for his wolf for being so unhelpful. Tessa bit her lip again, but kept her eyes locked on his. Their silver was flashing in warning, challenging Jace to back down.
No way in hell.
“Just take it back,” she said, her persistence dropping to a breathy whisper as she stared right up into Jace’s eyes.
